Jim Cornette Experience - Episode 626: Remembering Dennis Condrey

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

This week on the Experience, Jim pays tribute to Midnight Express founding member Dennis Condrey! Also, Jim reviews AEW Dynamite, and talks about Dave Meltzer's AEW Revolution star ratings, Tony Khan trying to buy WWE, The Young Bucks as drawing cards, Greg the office boy, and much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SUNDAYS FOR DOGS: Go right now to sundaysfordogs.com/JCE50 and get 50% off your first order! SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/jce POCKET HOSE:  Text JCE to 64000 to get a FREE pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of ANY size Copper Head hose. Message and data rates may apply. Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, friends, the great Brian last here, you there. I just want to make a quick announcement here at the start of the show. We were in the midst of recording the show when the news came out that Dennis Condry, founding member of the Midnight Express had passed away. So what you're about to hear is the first half of the show that we recorded, and then in the second half, Jim's memories of Dennis Conjory. We will now begin the Jim Cornett experience. Hello again, everybody, and welcome to another exciting.

episode of the Jim Cornynett experience today for the first time ever. I don't know what to say about the wrestling business. So we're going to talk about that. And more in joining me, Hawaiian Brian the podcasting line, the king of the Arcadian Vanguard podcast network, Mr. Co-host to you, he's never at a loss for words but occasionally run short. Be great. Brian last, everybody.

Aloha, Jim. A pleasure to be here once again, another action-packed week of wrestling talk. And I'm going to try to talk. I didn't tell you this. We've been speaking just momentarily before we went on the air. But right before, you know, I wanted to be minty fresh for you here, Brian. I brushed my teeth on to, you know, to do the podcast. And I took the big swig of the mouthwash.

And I swear to God, you know, have you ever done this? Have you ever accidentally inhaled like a small bubble of liquid? when you're taking a swig of something. Say that again? When you're taking a drink of something, for whatever reason, you inhale just a little down the windpipe, down the other way,

the wrong way, as Mama Cornett would say, goes a little bit of the liquid, a little drava of the liquid, and you get choked, right? Okay, yeah, I think so. Well, I did that with mouthwash. And that fucking, that's just, that's not good.

and I was hacking and fucking and try to get the the mintiness out of my goddamn oxygen passageways here. So maybe it might have improved my voice. Let me sing something for you. Moon higher than I...

Did it get anybody or did it damage my usually impeccable singing voice? The audio peaked higher. It's sad when someone could say buddy landell did it better well he he was in a hold so it was being forced out of him all right i got i got one happy thing to say before we move on uh the university of louville cardinals won their first round game in the ncdbara tournament brian did you hear about this big news i wasn't paying attention no well it was it's all over town and that might not seem like much because as our

older listeners may recall, the University of Louisville Cardinals used to be one of the franchises in college basketball. And it was just a titter, what, 12, 13, 14 years ago, however long it was, then we were the NCAA champions. And then came the goofy coaches with their sex scandals and their recruiting scandals and just the scandals of they couldn't win a fucking game and all the good players left and none of the good players wanted to come here. And finally, over the last couple seasons, we got, we got this Pat Kelsey here. He reminds me of Brian Hildebrand.

He just, he says a little shit, but boy, he knows his basketball, very personable. And now I'll have you know that just as of this win in the opening round of 64 teams of the NCAA tournament, the University of Loew, it used to be every year when the NCAA tournament came around, we'd be, well, where do we go after the Sweet 16, or do you think that we'll meet the Wildcats in the final four? It wasn't like, oh, we're going to win the first, that was a foregone conclusion.

This is the first NCAA tournament game that the University of Louisville has won in 3,289 days. nine years how do you think they'll do in the next round no this is pretty much going to be it because the next round is michigan state and our our top player is out with a back injury and uh so no we're we'll be home soon you know don't uh don't worry about that but at least it's something right it's a it's a something that we're returning to the bygone days of your. Anyhow, before we get too high, jinky and all silly and everything, I got an email from Benny from the United Kingdom. And I remember, I remember him, and I'll explain why when I start reading this. Hi, Jim, in 2022, you did a load of cameos for Valentine's Day. And I purchased a

cameo for my wife because she can't stand your voice and I'm just an antagonistic kind of guy that does that thing or that kind of thing. And when I sent you the details for the cameo, I also mentioned my son Samuel. He was about a year old at the time, already had multiple open heart surgeries and an emergency gastro surgery. You included Sam and your cameo to my wife and the words you chose were perfect. And he says some other nice things about what I said. It's not pertinent to the point of this. And he says, you also made a commitment to be my son's manager in about 18 to 20 years,

even if you had to use a cane. And we did like a hundred cameos in two days or whatever at that point. But I remember saying that, right? But Benny goes on to say, Sam passed away. in January at the age of four. And I've been going through my phone looking at old photos and videos, and that's how I came across your cameo again. And it was after re-watching that that I decided to send you a message of gratitude.

And Benny, that you think that you need to thank me is, I don't know what it is, but it's not necessary. and I just can't tell you how sorry we already hear about this. And I'll be answering your email personally, but I wanted to recognize you on the air. And he says he's not the listener that he used to be, Brian avidly, because he's obviously had a lot on his plate, but he's going to try to get back into it, you know,

because he wants to get something, you know, to distract him. but Benny, we're all thinking about you and we're all thinking about Sam. That's right. And I just wanted to mention that. And also before we go too far in the show, so that we can have the hijinks that we're noted for, but this, again, you know, we appreciate that we're a part in some way of a lot of people's lives when they need somebody, you know, or something to do or whatever or to,

distract them, things like that. Would you like to distract yourself with some silliness, Brian, that I just got from another listener and then the cult of Cordette who is apparently is a, at least an amateur researcher. If he didn't do it himself, he asked AI.

Would you like to hear about this? Yes, I think the show could use some silliness right now. Let's hear what this is. Brian, this email is from Brad, Brad say where Brad's from. Some of his couple pages. Brad from Ontario, Canada, not California.

You know, there's been this talk from primarily Uncle Dave and then all of the hand puppets that follow him around. And it's gotten to the point of ridiculousness that the young bucks, the Jackson boys are the greatest tag team of all time, the greatest of all time. and we know that they are the highest paid of all time because of the billionaire boychild. But even though that they're the highest paid of all time and they're the greatest of all time in terms of accumulated star ratings of Uncle Dave's matches that he has loved so much,

are they actually the greatest of all time or where do they stand or are they even on the list of the tag teams who have actually drawn big crowds to see them wrestle? You see the approach we're going to take here? Yeah, now, while we know that young bucks have been on shows that were big crowds, whether they drew the crowd or not, I guess would be the issue here. You can't count them for any of the Tokyo Dome crowds they were on.

It would be about shows that they were in the main event for and legitimately it could be argued that they drew, correct? The featured match. The match. So old Brad here, not wanting to fucking do too much work. No, he says, he also said, I believe that I could take at least one of them by myself, meaning the Jackson's, and I'm three weeks younger than Jim and a cancer survivor. So he said he used AI to find out the answer to this question.

AI list the actual sold tickets, not attendance totals, parenthetically. We'll get to that for each live wrestling event where wrestlers, the Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson, were the headliners competing in the biggest match on the Knights card, include all companies. right so here is the results on that list right now are you ready bro number one the biggest crowd that they have ever drawn by being in the main event of show in their entire careers to take a guess again i'm i don't remember uh all the a w pay-per-view event names so i can't specify which one i'm sure they must have been in the main event well you don't have to you don't have to nail the goddamn name of the

pay-per-view, but do you remember the match? There's probably one of their landmark achievements. Was it them against Page and Omega? No, it was not. It was not. Them and FTR, I don't think we were ever in the main event. Stadium Stampede.

No. No. No. You? No. You ain't going to get it because you go in the wrong way. Stings' retirement. Oh, shit. You know, I didn't. remember exactly

Greensboro North Carolina the Coliseum March 3rd 2024 tickets sold 15,837 okay although again they were in the main event but I would argue they had

nothing to do with the ticket sales for that fairly I think you could argue that because it was all about it was Stings retirement in Greensboro but never though but let's give them that because let's not, let's not kick, you know, kick cripples when they're crutchless here, because you're going to find out we're not going to need to punish them really any unnecessarily. Let's give them that one.

So 15,837 people, stings, retirement in Greensboro, him and Darby against the young Buckers. Would you like to think back to what number two would be, the second biggest crowd? I have a guess, but let me just say there's one, I'll save it for the end, there's one that may have an argument for being on the list that's not, which is, I'm guessing it's not, which is the MSG show, but number two would be all. They weren't in the main event. They weren't in the main event, but you've heard people say for years,

and you know, you can argue it both ways, that when tickets went on sale, people fully expected to see Omega, Cody, the Young Bucks, and they got none of that. but again we can't oh yeah well i'm not denying that they expected to see a group of people but if they're expected to see everybody nevertheless we might even give them that what was that how many people was that 17 000 18 000 what they do somewhere in there i'm not exactly sure okay let's let's put that one over to the side put that one over to the side we'll keep that one on on standby the original all in you are correct sir

won 2018 10,123 tickets in the Sears Center. And the match was the young buckaroos and Cota Ibushi versus Ray Phoenix, Bandito and Ray Mysterio. That's right. That was an odd combination of people that would, what? I don't remember. And obviously, I think there's a valid argument to be made that the bucks drew maybe, whatever they drew on that show,

their opponents almost didn't matter because that was the ultimate crowdfunding event that was indie fans from around the country wanted to show their support. But my argument, or my question was going to be, was that the main event? Even if it went on last, was that the build main event?

Because I don't remember that. Well... It was Cody and all this on that show, right? Well, Google the card there because this is what AI said, what does a wrestling site say was the order or whatever, where would we go for this information? And Brad used AI because he's lazy.

But point being, I hear you anxiously tip-tapping on the keys now. If you Google all in now, it's an AEW event, but originally it wasn't billed as an AEW event, although Tony Khan was already a player behind the scenes. The card... was where the hell is it on this stupid page it's a lot of Wikipedia on this stupid show you know what here's this thing you can tell in professional wrestling

the bigger a star you are the shorter your Wikipedia is and the smaller a star you are the longer your Wikipedia is because you get your fucking friends to goddamn old pitch in and write your profile apparently this is pretty wild reading this back. Real quickly, here's the card for... What's the card? All in. Two pre-show matches. SoCal uncensored, Kazarian and Scorpio Sky, defeated the Brisco brothers. Twelve minutes, 33 seconds. And El Hijo del Chico, aka Flip Gordon, won a battle royal by eliminating bully Ray.

Here's a match I didn't remember. Matt Cross defeated Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Christopher Daniels defeated Stephen Amel, the actor Oh Lord Tessa Blanchard defeated Dr. Britt Baker I remember that. There was a wrestling dentist years ago. I forgot all about her. Chelsea Green and Madison Rain.

And then this is the match I remember more than anything. Cody with Brandy, Diamond Dallas Page, Glacier, and Tommy Dreamer defeated Nick Aldous with Jeff Jarrett, Samuel Shaw, Sean Davari and Tim Storm to win the NWA world title 22 minutes one second that's the match I remember more than anything

Hangman Page defeated Jelly Nettella with Penelope Ford in a Chicago street fight Jay Lethal You just can't get Penelope off those streets in Chicago Jay Lethal with Lanny Pafo defeated Flip Gordon with Brandy Rhodes Kenny Omega defeated Penta LZero See, I remember that because that was when Jericho showed up at the end.

Kazushka Okada defeated Marty Skirl, and the main event, or at least the last match, match 11, the golden elite of Abushi and the Bucks defeated Bandito, Ray Phoenix, and Ray Mysterio, 11 minutes, 48 seconds. How could they, Jesus Christ, they keep it to 11 minutes and a six-man tag then, but they, on their biggest show ever? They ran long. Do you remember? I think they ran long. Do you remember the matches earlier, all went longer than they were supposed to and they had to cut the main event. Of course they did.

But why did they have to cut anything? They never cut anything now. It wasn't a pay-per-view. Was it a pay-per-view? It was on paper view, yeah. Was it on paper? Ring of honor. Help facilitate it, remember?

That's right. And then they fuck them. But they don't cut anything now. They go for six fucking hour. All right. Nevertheless, back to the point of what we're trying to do here. bucks crowds number one 15,000 people at Greensboro, number two, 10,000 people in Chicago, MSG is off over there in limbo right now.

You know what number three is? Jeff Jarrett's Global Force Wrestling at some ball field in Tennessee. No, no, that was equally ill attended. Oh, a Northeast Wrestling, one of those Northeast wrestling shows that draw with them in the Hardee's or something. But here's the thing. There's an asterisk next to this because it's at Daly's place in Jacksonville, Tony's building that they own. When they did a fight for the fallen July 2019,

which was before they had gone on, remember they did a show as a benefit for the troops or whatever, before they actually went on the air on television. And the Daily's place reports, apparently a wrestling setup would be 3,459 people. AEW reported sold out at 5,000, so somewhere between 5,000 and 3,459 people. But apparently that was the first show they ever had in Daly's Place. So that is the top three, 15,000, 10,000, and 5,000, and 5,000,000.

maybe over a period of the last eight years, and you can put the asterisk next to the Madison Square Garden, there's 18,000 people, but they weren't even ever on the card, and they were included in a group of people that the people wanted to see on the card. I don't know what to tell you. In legitimate mathematical business terms, this is for this is pathetic. I'm not, I have, I'm not even trying to do the comparison with the Midnight Express of which I have extensive and legitimate records. If I went back and counted, which I don't have time to do, we beat this in a fucking weekend three or four dozen times. But for any top tag team of the era before fucking everything fell to, a shit, you know, of this modern era,

that would have been one hot program in a territory between two guys or with two guys that were thrown together as a team. Right? This is not, this is, there's no record here of actually producing fucking numbers in featured matches. We beat this in Oklahoma one day. Well, that's why a lot of the argument that people make when they say, the Bucks are the greatest tag team of all time. It's based around how many times they won the Observer

Tag Team of the year. It's not based around all these major shows they drew. The argument was always, look at what they did for Ring of Honor. They boosted Ring of Honor's crowds, and the crowds went away as soon as they left. But it wasn't like they boosted

Ring of Honor to 10,000... Other than All In, when did they draw a big house with Ring of Honor? Well, and besides that, yeah, of course. imagine that. They gave Ring of Honor a big boost, but when they left, business went down because they and like six or eight

of their fucking friends left at the same time. When's the last time you ever heard of any promotion losing multiple featured guys all at the same time, basically, and business goes up? To go work for the guy that would buy the company? Yes, to go work for the guy that would buy the thing after he, you know,

post all of the, their fucking talent and marked out on national television. It was a is, is this like a wrestling equivalent of a Ponzi scheme? I do you know more Wall Street

than I do. What, who would be the name of this financial scheme that they worked to fucking you know, make this smoke and mirrors of their massive overness somehow pay off despite

never actually producing tangible results at anything. Meltzer made off. There you go. Meltzer made off with our money. Because, I mean, it sounds crazy, but the ground swell of support around the bucks, a lot of that legitimately developed around Dave Meltzer's coverage of them to people who had been reading The Observer for years,

all of a sudden, it was a level of fauning we had never seen before. I'm not even trying to make a joke. I'm being very serious. No, I know that's a perfect friend. That's why I laughed. That's the perfect word. It was a level of fawning so far unseen. Yeah, we didn't see that for Rick Flair.

And Dave would rave about Rick Flair. We never saw anything like it. And then every one of their matches, so many of which are remarkably similar with the other ones, many of which weren't the big match on the show or even the best match on the show, Dave would give them better star ratings than anyone else. And in the general scheme of things,

shouldn't matter. It's Dave's opinion. Dave loves their matches. But it was that, that kind of, they started using that at the same time they started using, well, Jim Cornett doesn't like us because we're killing the business. So they started using all the things happening to try to make a groundswell of support and it worked to an extent. I still argue people buying bullet club shirts at the mall weren't buying them because of the bucks. Because we heard about people buying them because they thought it was a gun shirt. Yes, that's a thing. Not only were there no names on the shirt, there was no wrestlers on a shirt. It was just bullet club. Yeah, fuck, I'm going to shoot somebody type of people at

a fucking hot topic. But I think it was one of the things that really divided the observer readers, even more than Omega, who Dave fawned about more than any singles wrestler ever. It was the fact that Dave was going to bat so much for the Bucks. And then you'd see pictures of him in the Bucks and it looked like Dave couldn't contain himself. He was so happy to be around them. And then Dave starts dyeing his hair and we're dressing in younger clothes. But I mean, the point is,

he's using Knicks die. Dave, almost similar to John Landau with Bruce Springsteen. Dave championed the bucks and was determined to make the bucks happen. And Tony Khan came across at the right time to make the Bucks and Dave Meltzer's dreams come true. But if they weren't an AEW,

would it hurt AEW? For anyone going, oh yeah, they mean so much backstage and so many of their friends are they? No, bullshit. What if they done back? Cody was the only one of the bunch of them that did anything backstage. Kenny said, I don't want to be a fucking VP.

Yeah, and the guy's wife fucked up everyone's merch. So, I mean, there's no real argument there, but they have been in AEW a long time, they don't mean anything. And you get people saying they're the best tag team of all time, more than the Road Warriors, more than the Midnight Express, more than the Crusher and the Bruiser,

more than... Bach Winkle and Stevens. Any great working tag team or any great drawing tag team, and it just seems silly. When you have this mid-card at best, lower mid-card more than likely, they can give you a really crazy action-pack tornado match

early in the show, and then you can get to the main stuff that matters. It's like saying, Mike Jackson is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. And maybe that's a bit of an extreme example, but it's like just taking someone who shouldn't be in the main event, saying that they should,

and then because you say it, it happens, but it doesn't help business. And again, we've heard from people who have seen the quarter hours, who are afraid to send them over, but are more than happy to read them to us with, you know, information. At least a few weeks ago,

the bucks killed the house. the bucks drove away a couple hundred thousand viewers we heard on dynamite so I don't even know if you finished your list I just went off here a little bit well no that that was pretty much the list that was the top three after that when you get down to 3,500 what the what the fuck is the point of counting we used to do that in Gaffney South Carolina but point being as far as them producing something no they as you so eloquently encapsulated in just a couple of minutes earlier,

so I'm not going to repeat everything, how they smoke and mirrored their indie shows into this buzz, as the kids say. And they, unfortunately, for all of us and the business, they ran into some marks that went to indie shows and thought, oh, well, this is, again, so swell. It's the same thing. With Ring of Honor,

When I saw that in what, 2009 or whatever it was, they had a passionate audience. And if you allowed yourself, you would be caught up thinking that, oh, well, geez, this will be a slam dunk because these people are going crazy. And that was part of the appeal. But I knew that it was not as a product that existed at that point in time, something that unchanged could get over on a main. stream basis. But when you try to make changes, the little private club they've built up

gets fucking pissed about it, but at the same time, Carrie Silgan was losing money hand over fist, that's why it needed to be changed. And you're never going to reconcile these people, but unfortunately

people that are whole hog in that direction rather than recognizing we have strengths here and we can build upon that for a more mainstream product that everybody will watch and enjoy and we can make money on instead of a toy chest of live action figures, sometimes it just don't compute. The crowd that tries to tell you that the bucks are the biggest or the greatest of all time, are the same crowd that 10 years ago were telling you how important Col Cabana was. Same crowd.

Yes, yes. or was writing into us anonymously, I think possibly in similar-looking handwriting about how the Super Smash brothers were the best tag team in wrestling and he booked immediately. Yeah. Anyhow,

speaking of those days real quick and we'll move back to Tony and old high pockets, as he used to call Henry Marcus in South Carolina, the promoter down there, old high pockets, because he wore his pants up so fucking far up on his chest that they said he had to reach

over his shoulder to get in his back pocket. But old deep pockets, Tony Kahn, we're going to get back to him. But speaking of Ring of Honor from years and years ago, Brian, you just alerted me to something that I feel like at least it needs to be acknowledged. Somebody would be remembered for all of their service they did

and trying to fuck shit up and give people goddamn stress-induced heart attack. You told me, oh, Greg Gilliland, Greg the office boy from Sinclair Broadcasting's Ring of Honor Days is no longer with Sinclair as a company. Is this what you've heard? Yes, this was sent over to me last night by a television executive who must know or be aware of Mr. Gilliland. And here's the statement he issued on social media from Cockiesville, Maryland. And that's, I got to say that there is, that's the suburb of Baltimore, Maryland that their office is actually in. And in some cases, there's a like a better sounding name of a town that it's like right on the line and they try to use that.

But when they have an official address, it has to be Cockysville. Go ahead. Left job. Today, Sinclair Inc. Cockiesville, Maryland. After 16 years with Sinclair, my time with the company has come to an end. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities I've had to build,

lead, and innovate, and for the many amazing people I've met along the way. I'm excited to tackle new challenges, meet new people, and create new moments through the same passion and drive that got me here. And that's the end of his statement

no period, which is a bedrock. No period, just a pregnant pause. But nevertheless, see what I did there. That was good. You notice that he didn't say, well, after 16 years, I've left St. Clair, and I'm excited to be going to work for spacely sprockets, where I'm going to do all these innovating and creating and motivating things. He basically came out and said,

yep, they finally had enough of me. saw through me and I'm out, I don't know what the fuck I'm going to do next. But 16 years, that means the son of a bitch had only been there a year before we had to interact with him. So not only was he a 27-year-old know-it-all, a 27-year-old know-it-all,

but he'd only been working for the company for a year. And it was like he was the goddamn acted like he was the son of the fucking owner. And Joe Koff, did indeed, you know, have a fondness for his young protege or whatever. But good Lord, that is the one thing, Brian, when you think back on it. That's the one thing you had the old Ring of Honor executive, you know, office consisting of Ross, the merchandise weasel and Sid and Shane Hagadorn. And you had the indie-minded folks like the stains and the genericos,

but you also had me and the television production crew and staff and most of the other boys and the ring crew, everybody, no matter what side they were on, nobody liked this motherfucker except Joe Koff. That was a one universal reference point in the whole company that we could all rally around, even if we were fucking Pee, even when that fucking Ross fucked Adam Pierce over from the commentary job, we could,

I could still speak to Ross as long as we were cussing about fucking Greg. But everyone you hate is out of work now. Two, three, two and a half years, apparently after he started working for the company, they found out that he was flying out to Michigan

on company money to fuck that rat. Jesus Christ. His profile picture here is him and his family. Well, it's been time enough that he got a fucking new family because I heard that his fucking wife found out and that was 14 years ago or 13 or whatever. So he's had time to farm a whole new family since then. How old do these children look?

Well, once again, he's looking to tackle new challenges and meet new people and create new moments. And impregnate new fucking arena of rats? I don't know what I'm saying. Are these like 18-year-old children? No, they appear to be young children. Or these these are small children. Yeah.

Maybe he's seen the error of his fucking ways. He would have seen the air of his ways if Charlie Hossett had knocked him out that time. I talked him out of it. Can he still be considered Greg the office boy if he doesn't have an office? No, now he's just Greg the boy. Greg the boy. Boy, boy. Boy, Greg.

Well, all of him. our best to boy Greg and his future endeavors. So here's the main event before we get to anything else. This is what the news now has come out. This is official. This is not hearsay or malarkey, but this is actually something that's fucking happened. Tony Kahn did try to buy the WWE.

During the sale process, they submitted it I mean I guess it was an actual bit was an official bid even though they weren't invited to the to the final round where all the wheeling and dealing took place but as we know part of that was at least a major part of that was a work to begin with

but Tony actually talked dad into putting in a six billion bid for the WWE when they were going through the sale of TKO ended up with. This is official, right? This is official. It was reported by Brandon Thurston, who's been doing a great job reporting on a lot of the things behind the WWE bidding process and the sale that eventually ended up with Endeavor, buying it to merge it with UFC to create TKO.

And Base 10, which as it says here, is a company backed by AEW owner, Con put up a bid for WWE in 2023 when it was up for sale. Important to note, this is a year after Tony bought Ring of Honor. And of course, Endeavor won the bidding and that whole process right now is what's being investigated. Well, yeah, because the lawsuit is basically kind of shot themselves into foot in that, yes,

the people that have, that ended up with WWE, it was a fucking work. We've talked about that. There's been the emails, whatever. They were going to, the deal was done, right? But it's turned out that they've all made a goddamn fortune. So the stockholders lawsuit that they didn't have a fair sale process, kind of shoots itself in the foot,

when they've all made, they haven't lost money. They've made money, lots of money. But nevertheless, their bid was number four. Apparently the two other people that we talked about that Endeavor beat out actually made higher bids and they were led into the final discovery process or whatever they call it.

And obviously it ended up like it ended up. And that was Liberty Media, who I always suspected would be a big player in this, and KKR, which is a private equity firm. And who knows where or whose money is involved there? But again, we researched Shad's worth, right, $12 billion, and this was $6.8 billion they were bidding or $6.9 or whatever. Would you, even if you love your children, Brian,

would you agree to a purchase of something that would require you to extend over 50% of your net worth or engage in fucking practices that would get credit that you would owe money all over the goddamn place. Because it's not like Shadjus, oh, call the bank and have $6.9 billion ready. I'll pick it up. He wouldn't just buy it. There would be these massive loans that took out for UFC and for all these other fucking who shot John Faca purchases.

Pardon me while I get upset about all this, but these people are out of their minds. why would you do something like that? It's not that they're a giant ongoing fucking entity like all these major corporations that are swallowing shit up it's fucking Shad and his car part business and Tony and his craziness and all of their football teams.

It's what the fuck. This may sound crazy to you. And again, I'm not justifying the price or Shad Khan as a father just giving Tony an unlimited budget to do whatever he wants with no supervision. But Flexing Gate, according to what I just looked up, their annual revenue is somewhere between $8.3 and $9.3 billion. I would argue their money, their future revenue, is safer than a lot of the other companies, because it's not relying on content. It's a patent that you can't get around if you want to get a truck.

You know what I mean? They're going to make money until the patent goes away, until cars go away. They're going to have billions of dollars every single year coming in, on top of owning the NFL team, the soccer team, any other investments,

an AEW. It's, you know, if he has $12 billion in the bank, again, I'm just playing with whatever numbers are reported, we really don't know. And his company that he owned, is making $8 billion a year? Why not?

I'm still going to, even if I got no investors, I'll still have billions in the bank knowing I'm going to make billions a year. Aren't there hungry, homeless people? Are there kids in need of something? We could probably get them all on Shad's super yacht. That would be taken care of.

Well, and when I say kids in need of something, besides your own. Can you imagine what would have happened if he'd just said, we'll just pay him $15 billion and they were never going to sell it to him anyway

because for the same way they're all making a fortune right now and that was the gold. They didn't want just, oh, here's my money and I'll be on my way. They're like, oh, now we're going to make fucking 10 more mince with this. But can you imagine

if they had sold it to him. Instead of these Hollywood agents and attorneys and high, muckety-muck business fucking corporate CEOs and etc.

They would be walking in the room with Tony hugging people. Automatically, I would think you would there's a certain element of the goddamn WWE roster who either has experienced Tony or would not want to.

Brock Lester's got not going to do what the fuck that guy said instead of Vince McMahon or these, you know, you'd think Triple H is going to say, yes, sir, Tony. And Brock is gone and Punk is obviously gone. And I'm not talking about they're quitting and, oh my God, what am I going to do? They're just retire. They've got all the money they need. He'd lose Roman reins. He'd fucking laugh his ass off and say,

fuck it, I'm going to Hollywood or whatever. And then you would have literally two camps of how to do the same thing in terms of the AEW roster, many of them

and the WW roster many of them. There would be some cross-pollination and there would be some Randy Orton would I would think his goddamn brain. would explode if he had to sit in a room full of these guys and list them, put their match together.

So that Texas death match. I mean, if a match like that happened on a WWE event. Well, no, because and then, yeah, that's the thing. The sponsors, no, people would be flipping out. And if you'd get the letters from the mothers and the parents, because then you would have reached a mainstream audience with whatever the fuck. But maybe before they did that. somebody would have told Tony, we can't do that.

We'll lose all this. And then he would have gone to the fucking guy. Well, they tell us we can't do that. And then they'd be going into business for themselves, his guys, or the other guys would be going, well, what the fuck do you think? It would be two worlds colliding. And again, you can't overlook the reason why that Vince and or now, the administrators of the WWE have got this big for so long and done this,

not only because of Vince's balls at his vision, but because they have expanded more than any other wrestling promotion into a mainstream business with all these boring-ass fucks in the suits and ties working in the office. And they're all good at shun. shit, rather than being somebody's wife doing the merchandise. Now, I hate it when they try to get involved in creative and they've never belonged there. But in marketing and television, syndication, and networking and fucking commercials and movie

shoots and all that other stuff, yeah, you need those fucking idiots. So you would have had this, it's still a mom and pop thing and a, because they just, we've seen Tony and his inner circle type of thing. And they would, they would be in charge of a monolith that they had no idea how to fucking operate. You know, a lot of people thought for years the death of the wrestling businesses, the idea of a monopoly, specifically a Vince McMahon monopoly. If Tony Kahn owned everything, and at that point, and he would own AEW Ring of Honor and WWE if it had happened.

I don't see how that would not be a negative for the wrestling business, and the disorganization would sweep every company in the business. And I just don't know how many of those executives would want to stay around for that, unless they got paid super money. You know, Tony is a kid whose dad threw a lot of money at him, and because of that, he became an executive. as opposed to you become an executive because you start working somewhere and you gain knowledge and experience and people notice you and say, let's give him a shot.

He never had that. He was an executive from day one. The idea of him running the wrestling industry, which is what it would be, is scary. He would just start ghosting people. I mean, we've heard of him doing that to people. And I'm not saying WWE's creative is great right now or that we don't have a lot of of problems with WWE, but the idea of Tony Con, after this past week of that pay-per-view and this dynamite, if he, on top of all that, was running Raw and Smackdown, and you know

he would want to run it hands-on. He'd be doing Dynamite, Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and collision every single week. And he'd be looking for a Nick Con, because Nick Con will be the first one out the door. But here's something else. When you think about it. it. The reason why that so many people said, well, it's good for AEW to exist alongside WW because competition drives the prices, drives these salaries

up of the wrestlers. It's better for the boys, right? Because there can't be a monopoly. Well, if there was a monopoly under Tony, it actually would be better for the boys, but it would completely kill the

entire wrestling business outside of Tony's particular little umbrella because Tony would still pay the guys more than he had to. He would still overpay the guys and he would still sign them to contracts that just

for more money than they'd ever seen. Like he has been for now six, seven years. And he would never fire anybody except in extreme cases. He'd just send them to the cornfield. And so

they'd all be making a fucking fortune. But it would kill the business everywhere else because every, every wrestler worth any goddamn thing would be working for Tony and just either be sitting at home or on one of these TV shows. And he never says no, and how's he going to turn anybody down? So no other promotion would have a shot at anybody worth anything. And then there, and then the whole business is in the toilet because can you imagine the WWE fans if they, saw suddenly these if suddenly dynamite and collision started airing in place of Raw and Smackdown

can you imagine the classic what the fuck that would it be emitted from everybody watching can you imagine what would happen in 2023 of Tony Conn purchased WWE and knowing that he is maybe the premier disciple of Dave Meltzer right now

and they did an inter-promotion thing, he would have had AEW crushed WWE probably, the opposite of what they've ever done in the past because why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he have Moxley and Omega and the Bucks go over all the top guys there? It's his company.

So we averted that. But never underestimate the amount of capital Tony Khan has access to at any time because his father has shown there are no signs of pulling back. There are no signs of you've gone too far, you're cut off. No, it's

More! Here's more! There's more! I'll just say, one more thing about these inter-promotional rivalries or whatever. They always, when it could ever be done correctly, it's incredible, right? But there's always a fucking problem. At one point, it was Vince when he brought anybody in from WCW. He didn't want anybody to look competitive. He wanted to remake them. and or when finally he ended up with the whole thing,

he didn't want to pay the big salaries for the major stars to come in so they could do it right. Any type of interpromotional issue, which we've been talking about lately with the Smoky Mountain, WCW thing and the bodies in a rock and roll, has to be presented where the rosters or the participants or the promotions even, not in the Smoky Mountain WCW case,

but in a WCWWF, E rivalry case, they have to be presented as somewhat equal. And when the home promotion wins and brings them all together, they've got to sacrifice some of their guys to get the other guys over to their audience. because if all the other guys were already over to their audience, those other guys company would have won, blah, blah, blah. So it always needs to be somewhat competitive until you get to a,

and that's what nobody ever gets. And the problem is, again in 2023 versus now, except for when did punk cross over the, river sticks but point is the rosters would be so heavily WWE and most people's minds that the AEW roster wouldn't compare yes they can do a bunch of moves but they're

you know it wouldn't have been the only way they could have been competitive was having moves and matches in the ring but as far as star power overness legendary status whatever Blah. C. Munk returned to W.W.E. November

2023. So the same year Tony Con tried to buy the company. Oh, boy. He would have just fucking said, well, fuck it. I'm just going back home to Chicago. That would have been what a real... And by the way, technically, if he had purchased it or won the bidding, it would have been a different company than owns AEW.

AEW is a different LLC in Delaware that has obviously Warner Brothers discovery as a partial owner of 9%. Well, I said, what was this? Hang 10, gear 10. Base 10. Base 10.

I think that's been used in some other kind of some. There was some report that that company has been used in some other kind of con family dealings or what? Who knows what the, how many fucking companies do you need to have to just do random shit? and bellow and there's there's there's hippie beatnik beatnik i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm hippie there's beatnik beatnik limited and fucking base 10 what the fuck sounds like a goddamn mail order scheme to me

maybe they could emerge with freemantle and be free base oh you're gonna go somewhere jim i heard you uh you are gonna go somewhere jim i heard you uh You are out of the way somewhere right there. I was going somewhere. That's a mouthwash came back. We go from that to, you know what? What we need to do is just somebody needs to turn a hose on Tony Kahn. Just calm him down.

That's what they used to do back in the country. They don't recommend it now, but they used to do it back in the country when you'd find two dogs fucking on the side of the road. Just turn the hose on them. But folks, you don't need to waste your hose on dogs on the side of the road because you can put it in your yard where it belongs

as long as you have a hose that comes from our new friends over at pocket hose because I'll tell you what I figured out the other day, Brian, and I'm an idiot. Did I tell you about this how I'm an idiot and I figured it out? Oh, I didn't? You did not? I was on mute.

Did I tell you how I was an idiot who muted himself? No, you did not tell me. Well, I'll tell you how is it, idiot? Because remember when I got all those trees and bushes planted a couple summers ago when I was telling the people on every podcast, I was dragging those heavy, stiff hoses 200, 300 feet all around a property, trying to water those things in the midst of a heat wave, and it is about giving me a stroke and a heart attack every morning, I could have had pocket hose because pocket hose is the world's number one,

expandable hose. If you've ever wanted your hose to get bigger, well, just feed them better. But also Brian, as soon as I got this thing, I don't know if you've tried yours yet, but I've plugged mine up immediately. And it

turns, it's got the super duper brass chrome, whatever the fuck that shiny shit is that tightens right on the spigot so my spigot don't drip. Because you know, I've had problems with my dripage. my spigot got old brian and it started dripping but not with this thing clamped on to it

and the copperhead's pocket pivot swivels 360 degrees so you can get full water flow you can go one way and in the other way and the best part about it is the hose which is just like a little tiny little thing weighs mere ounces like a little garden snake so when you turn the water on then it expands into a giant anaconda. It's just massive from the Amazonian rainforests and you can spray that dagum water all over. I'm watering flowers. I'm watering trees.

I'm watering weeds now because it's so much fun. Now there's things you can't do with this hose, Brian. You probably shouldn't water the weeds, but go ahead. Well, I'm having fun. Now, I thought, you know, if you're a person with a creek on their property, and you're walking by and you're seeing a fish has jumped out and he's flopping around because he can't breathe because he ain't in the water.

Do not try to stick the nozzle in his mouth and give him a big drink and turn the nozzle on. Oh, shit goes everywhere. Okay, this is a suggestion. I don't even think we have to give because I don't think anyone will make that mistake. Well, I made that mistake, and that's why I'm trying to warn the pit.

And I'll tell you, a guy down the street from me, they had a problem with their great-grandmother Bula, 97 years old, unfortunately passed away sitting on a front porch. The worst part is family was on vacation for a couple weeks. So when they came back, they've been trying to find something to wash that front porch off. And don't do that with the hose either.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's, why don't we focus on the agricultural uses for the hose and the course, Jim, I told them when I spoke to them. Yes. If there's anyone who loves working on their property or at least directing people to work on his property,

yes. No one loves that more than Jim, Hornet, so I can't think of anyone who would love the pocket hose more than you. I have used the pocket hose and also the Monroe Boys have used the pocket hose all in the last week or so. And folks, again, super light, ultra durable pocket hose copperhead backed with a 10-year warranty, shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and tidy storage, while at the same time it's rust-proof and anti-burst. And if you want to squirt, boy, You can just take this all around and get several of them and just attach them one to the other

because they have those cool connectors on them. And you can just make a train it. You can go down the street in somebody's subdivision and just water everybody's fucking yard. Whether they want it or not, they need it. Again, let's just focus on everyone's personal needs. Well, do it after dark, do it after dark when it's not so obvious. You can probably get away with it. Why don't we stay in the light, Jim, go to the light, and let them.

the listeners know we have a great deal for them. Again, it's about to be springtime or it is or it's, it's all happening, ladies and gentlemen. It's happened. It's happened. Spring is here. The plants need water. The trees need water. The mulch. And there's so many things happening. You need the right mechanism to deliver the water. You need a hose clamped onto the side of your house by the spigot there that will just spray water all around your property in a various way. And now. Now here's something. We ain't got a website here. This is a text offer. And Brian, you know how to text, but my listeners and yours, it says right here, can get a free pocket pivot. That's so, you know, when you ejaculate the water, it can go both ways. And they're 10 pattern

sprayer. And boy, it's got all kids, it's got the hard spray and it's got this light mist and it's got the poop, poop, poop, and it's all kinds of in-betweens on the hose nozzle there. You can get the free pocket pivot and the tin pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size copperhead hose if you text JCE to 64,000. That's JCE to 64,000. You're going to get a free pocket pivot and a 10 pattern sprayer with the of any size copperhead hose. So, Brian, you know how to text.

We're going to text JCE to 64,000, and then somebody copies it out on a piece of paper and send somebody a note and they put a stamp on something and mail. How does that work from there? Again, they handle things on their end, their way, but it's a great deal. Stokely Hathaway gets no hose, but you can get the pocket hose today. Take care of your lawn. Take care of all the things that need water on your property. Simply text JCE to 6400,000 and get a free pocket pivot and the Ted Patterns Sprayer with the purchase of any copperhead hose.

Once again, text JCE to 64,000 message and data rates may apply. And just don't try to spray off the remains of Great Grandma Bula. Pocket hose! All right, Brian, well, we put it off, but now let's get it over with. We have to recognize a few of the things that happened on AEW Dynamite for March 18th. What was that? Was the subtitle of the program, Tony Kahn's Dreams of a Rare Bit Fiend? Possibly the Windsor McKay reference may have gone over some heads of the audience.

How about let's pick up a turd from the clean end and talk about dynamite. How about that? I have a two-volume set of those here in the office. Of course, I have all the little neat ones. The turns with the clean ends or the Windsor McKay are? I have everything Windsor McKay ever published in various forms. Well, and he's wondering where it is, too, he'd like it back. Well, let's talk about Dynamite.

I have to say, regardless of what you think of AEW lately, they've been super serving their fans. And to me, coming off a pay-per-view in the same state, right? I think they were still in California that they've been doing all these things at the hot crowds, it's the deadest crowd they've had in a long time and it was the worst book show. Not that, you know,

Tony Conzetti Graham, but the booking's been better than whatever this show was, I don't know why it was. Well, this was an opportunity for several of his, you know, golden boys to, you know, live out their fantasies of, you know, Darby wants to make movies and

it's just, And the crowd, even for some of the people that would normally be the people that these crowds would like, were like, what the fuck is going on here? But again, we ain't going to go through every bell and whistle, but I can't believe that they started off with a match with Will Osprey. And not only a match with Will Osprey, but against Blake Christian, who... I thought it was going to be a squash match because I didn't see who... was in the ring and, you know, they've used him on the show where he's lost matches,

but I thought it would be a quick win for Will Osbury. Okay. Interesting thing. It wasn't that. It wasn't that either. I was gobsmacked that they do it at all, but especially with a guy that it looks like a barista on meth. He's got just a weird, odd, I don't know what the fuck is going on, but the top baby face, Will Osprey, that everybody can agree, at least at this point, he's a baby face before they fuck him up any worse. We don't know most of the other baby faces also are either unlikable or they've burnt people's houses down or whatever's going on. But the top baby face has been out with an injury for six months

and his first matchback where apparently he can do everything he needs to do just as well as he ever has. It's three days after the pay-per-view against an an anonymous dip shit on free television and a meaningless match with no pre-advertising. Well, beyond that, again, it wasn't a squash match. This guy was getting all this shit in on Will Osprey for a while. Oh, yes, but I ain't even got there yet. Let's not put the fucking bullshit before the fucking cart that's going to carry it.

The fact that they would do this, I'm like, what the fuck? Lawler was out for a year with a broken leg in Memphis. They advertised his fucking return finally after all that time, and they sold out every building into territory. Fugging, Flair came back from the injury of the pile driver with Funk in the summer of 89, blah, blah, blah. It was the biggest pay-per-view they ever did for the first six or seven years under the goddamn Turner administration.

I could go chapter and verse. on countless times where a major baby face has been out due to an injury of some kind of they were told at least. And in this case, it may have been true that he may be done. And he makes a triumphant return. It's not that he runs out on pay-per-view and goddamn kicks the shit out of somebody unless you're building to the next pay-per-view where we actually get to see him wrestle. but he comes out and kicks the shit out of somebody for 30 seconds on the pay-per-view

and then three days later he's having a 15-minute long fucking match or whatever with a job guy he's back what the fuck and even if they were going to do just give his return away in something meaningless like he's not doing the promo I've goddamn waited for the moment that I'm going to step back in the ring and risk it all to get even with you, whatever the fuck. Then as you said, now, three minutes into this, it should have been, okay, I can still do all my shit, let him thumb me in the eye and stop me for a minute, boom,

beat him with the boom, shackalaca. Three minutes into this, they were fighting on the railing in the front row, and this pale little dip shit was kicking the bejesus out of Osprey. Yeah. that shocked me I couldn't believe that they were letting them take over on Osprey and like you said it went 15 minutes

and then why would Osprey think it's a good idea to do all this shit on his big return with nobody McGee and I'd even wrote taking notes on this right about halfway through

as finally he's making his comeback holy shit the guy took back over and then he gave Osprey a DDT on the floor, a $450 splash. He was getting two and seven eights counts.

These people are insane. And he milked, giving Osprey, his own finish. But Osprey jumped up and elbowed him and then again backed up and gave him the fucking elbow to the back of the head, which of course he completely, and the camera shot was perfect. He bumps the guy with his fucking upper body and the elbow goes,

completely over the fucking head. He does 117 things in the ring that are more impressive and more impactful and more athletic. And that's his finish is that stupid fucking elbow to the back of the head. So he did that.

And then do you want to talk about the promo or did you have any observations on the match that we haven't expressed? I was surprised they had a Will Osprey match. They started the show with it. Okay, maybe they want to be. they want to do something I thought it would be a quick squash and a promo. And instead he did everything against the guy who almost beat him for 15 minutes.

And this guy's, again, Blake Christian, if he's been on this show, it's been like in a tag match or something, losing. I don't understand. Look at the fucking state of him. I don't understand the point of that. If it was an Osprey win in two minutes, three minutes, he does a couple big things, but not too much. You're still wondering what he can and can't do cuts to point. promo? To me, that's stronger. Doesn't fill up as much time, but it's stronger. It makes a statement. And speaking of a statement, the one good thing about it is, but the time

he got to the promo, he was so blown up, he speaks slowly enough where you can understand what he's fucking saying. And he didn't drone on endlessly. He got the basic comments out, said fucking and got bleeped, but directed it at Moxley. Of course, Moxley's music plays immediately. And as Moxley's wandering through the crowd in the back of the arena, Osprey jumps out of the rig and runs back there and starts beating him up and beats up Yuta

and gets Moxley in the ring about right where he wants him. And Pat jumps in and jumps on Osprey and puts some of the stretch fucking ding back. on Osprey. It is just cranking him in half and the security and the referees. So now we've got

after Osprey's triumphant return, which was given away with no advance notice in a meaningless match that it was way too competitive. Then the fucking heels have jumped even and the mid-card heel is kicking a shit out of the top baby face.

And then they drag them out there while Osprey's selling in the music plays, and Ace Austin and Juice Robinson and one of the gun boys, or whoever the fuck, start making their entrance while the referees are yelling at Pack to get out of there. But Osprey gets back up and runs and jumps on Pack in the back of the arena, and they all just fight off. And you never see Osprey again. and the gang bang gang gang gang gang gang gang gang the gang gang lady all those fellas continue going to the ring what the fucking hell is happening and again even if you wanted osprey to make his own comeback after all that needless bullshit imagine if it was a stone cold steve austin coming back or a sean michaels or a goddamn cody roads or a

you would see him standing in the ring ready to go at the end of that. And then Moxley and Utuk jump on the gangbangers, and they started a tag team match. Brian, your thoughts? I'll save my tag team match thoughts for whatever you're going to say about that. No, I'm just talking about what we've just fucking seen here. I reaffirm everything I said before about Yuda and the usage of him here. here, if the idea is wrestlers going past guerrilla triggers the person to play the music,

who played Moxley's music? Because he was the other direction. How did they know he was about to come out? Who gives the signal? Yeah, I was surprised that they ended this with Osprey getting his ass kicked. To me, that kind of defeated a lot of what this should have been, which was Osprey wins a quick squash match, does a promo, you can't wait to see what's next. If what's next is him and PAC, I don't know.

I'm sure it'll be a lot of high flying, but I don't know. That's the thing. They're not booking for what the big main event match would be. They're booking for, oh, it'll be cool to see Will versus Pack. What the fuck? And then again, immediately we've got Moxley and Utah. And Yuda, they got nothing out of shaving the head. He didn't wear a wig or a mask, something they could pull off.

And we go, oh, my God, you're seeing me. He looks less like a wrestler now. Because without the hair, it's just the skinny build. He hasn't put on any size. The hair at least make them look like a, you know, just some crazy kid you'll want to punch or something. They got nothing out of that. Like they got nothing out of the, well, we'll talk about the wheelchair in a second. But anyway, it's Juice and Ace.

Poor Juice. He could have been a contender. I had no interest in watching any of this. The immediate four-way, bleh, right? So that's all I've got to say about that. Did I miss anything? No, I'll just say. Yeah, remember, can you?

Like you, no, I watched it. I mean, it's what you expect. I guess the big thing to me is just, Juice Robinson somehow went from having a really marketable look and personality to just having a bad haircut and losing matches. Yeah. I can't explain how any of that happened. He was so, he looked so marketable and he was so interesting.

Intertaining. Yeah. Everything, just the gear, the haircut, just everything, it became unappealing. I don't know. There's just something missing now. Well, and another thing that's missing is the fresh, of it because now he's just been around where they're like oh yeah there he is again coming and

going all right let's get to the fiasco of this program because even the people in the building just collectively farted all over this i had it's been a long time since i've seen any aew to you crowd with with Darby Allen or someone of his magnitude on the card level on the fucking popularity scheme that I've seen people just stand there and go what what the fuck is going on we are not remotely involved in this and it's just so stupid because they were supposedly, I don't know, I'm trying to figure out how to go into it. Am I burying the lead or am I giving it away? Would I just say they were in a fucking major car accident and then went and had a coffin match?

Well, they were outside in the middle of the day, sun out. It looked like a very nice day if you wanted to get a tan or something. These guys are both pale white. But they were out there and then the action took place first out there. There was the car crash and there was the brawl before the, car crash and then there was the post-car crash car crash car crash it's all right so what happened folks there's supposed to be a coffin match between Gabe kid and Darby

Allen and they had a handmade pine box with rope handles at ringside so it did have that grungy indie look and it also looked grungy and indie for national TV but Gabe Kidd had said he's going to meet Darby in a parking lot so he's outside and screeching in that that accent and that voice that you have come to know and love. That's right. Fuck you.

Fuck this. And fuck everyone. Fuck you. Should have seen him at the scrub. Everything was and that little voice. Just fuck this and fuck that. It's like the fucking mayor of Munchkin land is threatening you with profanity. But here comes

he's out there to park a lot, that's game, and Darby pulls up in a fucking beat-up old car and jumps out of it, and they have one of the sloppy, staged fights that all the young kids do where they have to make as much noise and as many fake grunts and noises and sound effects as possible,

and they say shit that, I mean, if you're having an easy enough fight that you're really talking in sentences besides motherfucker then it's fake already anyway but they're not convincing in the pro wrestling realm of having a

fight and yelling at each other and then Dorby Dorby Dorby poured something on a cloth out of a fucking like a was it cleaning fluid

does he buy his chloroform by the gallon and parsons it out? What the fuck was that supposed to be? It was not like a jar of medical anything. And it wasn't like the old ether gimmick, which is

I'll tell you folks, is engine starting fluid, which is ether based. And when you spray it on the rag, you smell ether a mile away. Get it at Home Depot or at fucking all the auto parts places. And if you put it on somebody's face, they'll goddamn pass out eventually.

and they'll probably vomit before then, but this was just a jar, not a jar, but like a plastic giant squeeze bottle of shit. He pours it on the cloth. He puts it in Gabe Kidd's face, and it must have been some good shit because Gabe went out pretty quick.

And then Darby opens the trunk of the car, puts Gabe Kidd in the trunk, slam boom. When he opened the trunk was your first thought, how's he going to lift Gabe Kidd? How's Darby going to lift him? him. Well, Gabe was, he was still was, you know, he was unconscious, conscious. He was still enabled enough to roll in there. You know, he just was disoriented. It's one of those

Russo drugs he gave Dr. Stevie Richards. And he puts him in a trunk and then he gets in the car, backs up, and then honks his horn and pulls out. And as he drives across the camera that pans by, he drives into a pile of shit that they're just at somewhere in the parking lot there just happened to be a pile of shit in this building parking lot old junk shit and he flipped the car well i say he the car flips over on purpose and lands on its roof and then derby crawls out a window and then a shot of the trunk lid falls open and Gabe kid falls out and the crowd laughs from the inside. That was the one reaction you heard from the inside.

And of course, in what has all been done here, there were edits where you could clearly see if you wanted to that they'd all gotten out of the car and that whatever the fuck was going. It was bullshit. But that's, and then, after Gabe's fallen out of the trunk of the car that he's been in the trunk of while it was crashed

and flipped over allegedly, trademark then Darby puts him on an equipment case with wheels on it so he can roll him off and before we go any further Brian your comments on

kids who want to make movies being funded by billionaire idiots Darby Allen's greatest day was the day he met Tony Con and it was the relationship his entire life has been waiting for this guy will pay me

to do my wrestling thing, and then also allow me to do all this other crazy shit that I'm dying to do. I just saw some video the other day, and again, I get it. Wrestlers sometimes bungee jump. But if it wasn't the Grand Canyon,

it was something that looked like the fucking Grand Canyon, and it was him with the biggest budgey court you've ever seen jumping off, but he flipped, so he's just flipping him like nonstop as he goes down. Even the person who saw him going, holy shit. And that's just this week,

stunt. Not even counting the car crash, he organized on EW dynamite. And here's the thing, Darby may have been in the car when it went over. He may have been driving it, although I don't think so, because I think they would have left that to an actual professional, but who knows with these people? Gabe Kidd wasn't in a fucking trunk. And it's just, it's silliness. It's silliness.

I'm sorry, I cut you off. No, I'm just, I'm happy everyone's okay. Well, they were okay enough, then now they go on in the building to have their match because they go back to the announcers. Well, oh, geez, holy mackerel. And Darby is wheeling Gabe Kidd into the arena on the equipment case and wheels him down to the ring and starts getting all of his gimmicks out.

He's got a skateboard. He needs a chair. He's got a straight jacket. And this was the fans were just. staring at this shit. And then Darby puts the chair out, sets it up, and sits Gabe Kidd in the chair

and is putting the straight jacket on him. Like this fucking guy is incapable of resisting from the chloroform that he's undergone. And then right as he's got him at a straight jacket and in the chair,

he goes to hit him over there with a skateboard and Gabe Kidd kicks him into balls. And now somehow Gabe Kidd busted Darby Allen open and he's bleeding all over his head. And I wrote, what is this? This is the worst shit I've ever seen. And they went to a break. They went to a fucking break.

And they came back. Three minutes later, Darby is up power bombing Gabe Kidd off the top rope. And Gabe Kidd is still wearing the fucking straight jacket. After he's been beaten Darby up for three minutes. and did you hear the chant from the fans, Brian, which was, I've never heard this at an AEW show before. What they say?

You didn't hear it then. I don't listen. I had it on mute for a lot of the match. Well, there you go. We want tables. No, we don't. I swear to if it wasn't a full-throated we want tables. It was like if let's say it was a seven,

or 60% we want tables and a 30 or 35% no we don't we want tables no we don't that's that's so I hit fast forward because it was still going for three or four more minutes with his skateboard idiocy and the bleeding and the fucking chairing and finally Darby did a big dive and body blocked old Gabe kid and Gabe kid fell in the box and put us all out of our misery. And then Darby gets the microphone and just says, I'm going to keep on the throttle until I see God or win the world title. And MJF, I'm looking at you or whatever the fan. everybody nobody popped nobody did you hear that part i did because the promos i took it off mute i took it off mute a few times during the match too because there was no reaction there was no

reaction to the straight jacket which i don't think i've seen used in wrestling in quite a while no reaction to that no reaction not just this match to a lot of things on this show again they've had hot california crowds lately this was the exact opposite. And Darby, they didn't seem to care or they didn't want it. I don't know. And well, I think part of the thing with the straight jacket, it takes so long. It takes so long.

And all this took so long. But also with the car wreck that they watched on the screen coming first and then them coming out here and doing all this stupid shit that took so. long to set up. I think people's horseshit detector just finally went off. Like this is just fucking ridiculous. You see, I don't know when that point was, though, because

I was listening when Darby rolled them into the building. And there was like, no, I expected there to be some kind of pop once they saw Darby come out from the back wheeling. No, that's what I'm saying. At that point, it was so preposterous. It was so preposterous that they were literally coming in on that wheelie box, 30 seconds after they'd just seen a car wreck, then it was just like,

oh, come on. They didn't even try to do it good on this one and fake it right type of thing. And again, it was just, blah. And I think this killed a lot of the, I mean, they weren't screaming at the start, but this killed, they liked Osprey. They were screaming there,

but it went down, I think this killed it for the rest of the night. Yeah, they were screaming. They were happy to see Osprey come back, and then he immediately got his ass kicked. Oh, yeah. That didn't help either. Yeah, yeah.

Damn it. The big major return of the top baby face after six months. He gets his shit kicked out of him. Then they have to watch a fucking car wreck. Oh, I forgot. And then a death rider's match. That's even worse. That's right.

Then a fucking car wreck on a screen, and then the two guys come in and have a, can't say have a match do stunts with gimmicks. Oh, boy. No wonder they were pissed. You know what? This show, Brian, this whole fucking show, I would say it was for the dogs,

but that would insult the dogs. You couldn't make good dog food out of this show here that they've presented. No, you couldn't. I will. No, you couldn't. I reaffirmed that statement. You cannot make good dog food out of this show. out of this. Just so I could take a breath. I was hoping you'd reaffirm that. Well, I'll tell you what,

folks, when it comes to dog food, you don't want to feed your dog's AEW wrestling. That's no, no, no. And it seems like these days you've got to make a choice. You can either have nice, fresh, healthy food, or you could have food that's easy to store it, easy to serve. But never the Twain meets until now. You don't have to make the choice anymore between giving your beloved fur baby. you're a member of the family complete dreck just because it happens to be easy in your hurry, scurry life, or catering to them and having a private chef come in three times a day and fixing them up all the things with caviar. Now, you're somewhere in the middle, and that's where Sundaysforogs.com comes in.

That's right. Because Sundays for Dogs is created to maximize your dog's quality of life. It's fresh dog food that usually means taking up freezer space or time to thaw and prep or a lot of mess. But you can get the good without the hassle with Sundays because it was founded by a veterinarian and a mother. I'm not sure whether she became one or the other first, but hopefully the mother part first, who got tired of seeing so-called premium dog food full of fillers and synthetics. and this is air-dried real food made in a human-grade kitchen using the same ingredients and care that you would use to cook

for yourself and your family. Brian, you have tasted Sundays for dogs and I understand the children are big fans. Once again, every bite of Sundays is sweet and made from real meat, fruits, and vegetables with no kibbles. So again, a whole class of kindergartners could go apeshit over this stuff. Once again for dogs, and let's stress it's for dogs, and my dog, Swami is a big fan of Sundays for dogs. We actually have to make a reorder pretty soon.

He loves when I go to that box. It's a cereal box filled with delicious dog treats. Nope. And every, every. It's food, delicious. Filled with delicious dog food. It's a dog, it's a food that is a treat for your dog. And he enjoys it.

Because once again, Sundays, compared to the Kim, or the other brands out there invests 50 times more at its ingredients to ensure premium quality, food made with care. But again, you scoop and serve, no freezer, no thawing or prep, no mess, nutrient-rich, clean food that fuels their happiest, healthiest days. And Brian, once again, you know, if the kids wanted to come in and just grab a handful as a snack just to graze, it's human-grade food.

And really, if times are tight, folks, for the whole thing. family, you could stretch this with noodles. You know, just in those problems. You have the in-between points in your life where you just can't make those ends meet. Or let's say a grandma that her Social Security got, you know, delayed or whatever because of the government uncertainty. She might need a little bit of this in a bowl with some milk. Again, no. No, no.

This is for dogs, ladies and gentlemen, this food, this delicious dog food is delicious dog food is delicious only to dogs. because it's for dogs, and it's not just food for dogs, it's human quality food for dogs, not suggesting humans eat it. We're suggesting it be passed along. You want to pass it along to your furry friend,

and they will love it and enjoy it and eat it, and you'll have nothing to worry about, and we have a great deal for the listeners. And, of course, Jim Cornett likes his comedy, and he likes his humor, but he is very serious about making sure that your dog has the right food. Jim, let's keep on this wavelength.

and let the listeners know. Yes, your dog needs the right food, the Sundays for dogs food. And once again, nothing bad would happen, but make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to Sundays for dogs.com slash JCE50, and you're going to get 50% off your first order. And you can use the code JCE50 at checkout. So just remember JCE50. and if you go to Sundays for Dogs.com, one way or another,

cram that sucker in there, put it in a box where it belongs, and you're going to get 50% off your first order, and that way you can feed Fido for half the price, and once again, it's there in the cabinet if times get tough. Sundays for Dogs.com. Yeah. J-C-E-50, 50, 50% off.

J-C-E-50 for Sundays for Dogs. We're big fans here. That last manner, check it out today for your dog. Sundays for Dogs.com. That's right. Don't let Grandma eat cat food. JCE50. Will you leave the rest of the family out of it? Let's get back to the rest of the family, the dynamite family, A.E.W. Dynamite. Yes. It was 9 o'clock, Brian, who was a dark and stormy night at 9 p.m. Eastern,

and Prince Nonna was in the ring to introduce Swerve Strickland. And remember what I said a couple years ago, why don't they let Nana speak? Why don't they let Nana do you? He does everything backwards. You'll be in the company for fucking two years and suddenly you get a chance to talk. They're trying a new presentation with Swerve,

but he's in the ring. He does the in-ring intro like I used to do the Midnight Express or whatever. He's Mr. Dangerous. and he's got the new music where he remember he used to swerve when he drove because he couldn't fucking drive 55 or whatever that whole goddamn deal was now it's I'm dangerous

I'm dangerous or whatever there was no reaction people made no noise here he's coming down in the lights and the fucking entranceway and they're standing up they're looking but I'm looking at

the responses that even that Osprey got earlier in the show but that the Cody Rhodes is and the C.M. Punks and the fucking major stars on the other channel the major baby faces get when you come, ah! And no, he walked out.

Did Darby kill the whole show? Did the booking kill Swerve? Did they kill it, as you said, beforehand before Darby got to... So, Kenny has challenged Swerve to a match with it all on the line for the number one contender spot.

Somehow that means it's all on the line. But do you think that Swerve has his own writer, doesn't he? Didn't he get one of the writer clauses like old Mercedes Mone got? Well, I wouldn't say he has his own writer. His cousin was hired and his cousin specifically works on Swerve's creative and that is or isn't

a problem depending on who you talk to within that company. and I only say that because there must be someone who says it isn't the problem. There must be somewhere. I've heard the other side for people that work in the company, except that. Well, cousin crazy or whoever's writing this stuff, this was Swerve Strickland's Broadway audition for a one-man show. Nana backs out,

Swerve, give Swerve a chair, sets it up, and backs out, Swerve sits in the chair, they have an intimate spotlight on him in the ring, and he delivers a rehearsed monologue like one would at a one-man show at a small, intimate off-Broadway theater. He was really trying. He was going through emotions, and he was making faces and trying to put inflection in it.

I didn't hear anybody give two shits about it. I heard a slight smattering of what's at one point in time. And it was so dramatic. The theme was power. Power. He wants the people with power, the ones that, you know, get ahead. And he wants the power. So they actually built this.

They built this whole thing up. Or this guy who is drunken blood and I forget. No, his house got burned down. His house got burned down. He invaded Adam Page's cribs. That's right. Not his crib, but his baby. Well, you know what I'm saying.

The horrible things that this guy has done. And he's the most dangerous man in AEW. And he just fought it with Brody King or who's the most dangerous, do the most dangerous man in A.E.W. EW is, but now he wants the rematch with Kenny only if Kenny's EVP spot is on the line. We've gone back to this. Besides the fact that Kenny has already made public statements that we reviewed, what a couple of years back, if not longer, that I never really wanted to be an EVP,

and I don't really do anything to exert my power. and the whole EVP thing with the Bucks and Tony Kahn and that power strove, that fell flat and was all forgotten about. And Cody was the EVP, obviously he's gone. Kenny was the EVP that never used any EVP power and it was never accused of him. The Bucks have already done a program where the EVP power was being abused and people, people farted at it. And now Swerve wants to challenge Kenny

so that he'll be the EVP if he beats Kenny. And then he'll have the power. What the fuck are they thinking? Well, again, Swirv's creative typically is awful. And he's gotten by because people have seemingly gotten behind the personality. And maybe that's run out of steam too. he did a one-man show

most one-man shows are in small theaters I guarantee you any of those theaters or one person in the crowd would have made more noise than they made here yeah they didn't care about that they don't want the EVP thing to be an issue and you know if you look at Raw on Smackdown

you never hear really from any fan saying you know it's great but I think they need to go back to having heal general managers or heal executives in charge. No one misses that. And I'm not saying that's what this would be, but there's no excitement for the idea that we could potentially get a swerve Strickland making decisions on behalf of the show.

That's like a passei kind of wrestling trope. And his promos are bad. Now, you can argue that all of a sense. sudden this switch to being about power in this well-rehearsed promo is a step up from what this feud originally was, which is I'm the most dangerous man in AEW

and how dare you say someone else is more dangerous than me? That's right, that's why he put him in a hospital to begin with. And he said somebody else is dangerous. Now that's shifted, now it's about this. So yeah, now Swarves creative typically is pretty awful. and you can tell that they made this up after Kenny's already come back he's like oh shit we ought to say this

that'd be good it wasn't like this was the plan for you know all the time that since he's been away after his injury so he could go to Japan and do whatever the fuck they got to have swerve go to Japan and beat up a bushy don't they I think they ought to just have swerve go to Japan to just beat up random people on the street how about sweeps goes

Kenny could defend the entire country of Japan. I think Swarfs should go to Japan with a bunch of weed. That may get the result. All righty then. You know, of course, that we're going to focus heavily on Mark Davis versus Hong Kong Fui. Hey, you know, Davis is getting into better shape. I don't know if you've noticed, but...

I didn't notice a NIST because... It doesn't matter. I mean, what's next bringing out people's grandchildren for him to lay down for? He gets beat by this minute little fucking amoeba. He's not even a tough amoeba. But Tony is determined, I'm not even to spend any time on him. Besides I just said, Tony is determined, just like he was with the last joke that he thought was funny for five years, to have this guy just beat everybody, regardless of,

how ridiculous he looks or how ridiculous it is. And it's, this is another reason why they can't get out of their own way for this indie-minded bullshit. There may be a hundred people at a, rexit or somewhere that'll think that fucking spitball, oh, look at he's, oh, he's cute. And then as well, we will not go into detail on another match

except to cite the episode's near fatal collision, they had a no-holds-barred match with Marina Schaefer and Mina Melons. Because Tony Storm is injured somehow. Did we talk about this earlier? Was it on the air, off the air? I may have been off the air. Tony Storm is now somehow injured after they just did the deal where Rhonda Rousey appeared and distracted Tony Storm

and then Marina Schaefer knocked her out well now Tony Storm has been injured somehow possibly from I don't want to work with that bitchitis I don't know it could be the move to Technicolor there you go you know just like no just like when sound

came in and some of the actors and the big stars just couldn't hang Tony is a lot better looking in black and white than she is in color. But Mina now is in this thing. And again, this is a girls match between Marina Schaefer. Let's charitably describe her as inexperienced at best, right? And Mina is a rib.

And they put them in a garbage match. I think a bosom may be more appropriate. All right. right now. I could go tit for tat with you all day long, but I won't. For heaven's sake, we'll just make a clean breast of it and move on.

So the point is, pocket hose. And they start to match. Mina comes down to the ring with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. And then they have to do the awkward deal where it looks like she's trying to act like she's swinging at Marina, but she

isn't hitting her, and then Marina traps it and hits her just takes it away and then they kicked each other and they dropped it and it was gone. And then they started the garbage match. And I'm saying, do these people snort their own farts before every

time they get in the ring? It's just it's ridiculous that even if you wanted anybody to go out and do fake shit with a barb wire baseball bat, why would it be these two girls instead of your goddamn main event guys where you could actually make some, well, you can't make any money out of it anymore because

they've all seen it. But then at some point in this fiasco, they thought it was going to be a good idea again. And these girls are going to kill themselves one of these days. They have to break the furniture like the guys do. They thought it would be a good idea for. or who's he what's he to give Mina basically a belly to back suplex, a fucking Luthez, Greco-Roman backdrop,

off the apron of the ring through a fucking table on the floor. But in doing so, Marina picked her up and went off just fine, and Marina went right through the table. But because Mina was over

on the side. She went right past the table. And basically it was a Greco-Roman backdrop off the apron onto the floor. The table broke Marina's fall and nothing broke Mina's

fall. And then they got her up and got her back in the ring and then she won the match. Like within 30 seconds. So what the fuck in the world? How

It I'm surprised I can't want to see Mena versus Ronda Rousey That should be great Oh A Battle of the Shooters to rival the Gracie fucking feuds from years ago

Even if they Went home quickly Because oh my God We just shook her up For the sake of the goddamn match You just picked this woman up And gave her this devastating move It looked like it killed

killed her. So now let's roll her back in the ring so she can win real quick and get out of here. How stupid did that fucking look? Pretty stupid. But again, the focus, everything was about the backdrop. The shoot backdrop to the floor. That didn't look good. And we've seen it now a few times where people with limited or no experience going through

tables are sent out there to go through tables backwards. Remember Stokely? Yes. A few months back, went flying past the table at first. Remember that's what put him in a wheelchair? Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. Yeah, that's right. Well, you know your AEW, sir. Well, thank you. I just know my fucking wasted angles that we'll get to here at a minute

because later on when Stokely comes out, he's walking. He's walking again. He got up for that meaningless bullshed. shit at the pay-per-view. Eddie, he's walking again. All right, but nevertheless, were you done there? So I don't want to run off and leave you. I am done. You can run off. Like the wrestlers should have.

Yeah. Well, the main event, which we won't talk about, but the aftermath we will, was the buckaroos and jungle jackoff against Rocky Romero and O. Boring and Trent. What the, they have a clause in their contract.

Maddie and Nikki that they only have to play with their friends to the point that they brought Trent back? We've seen him in like three years? I believe he joined the Callas family early on with Rocky Romero and then he's one of the Cowellus family members that's only there like one out of every five or six appearances. Good God. So they had that match and it is what you would imagine it would be.

and then when the baby faces win then old jungle jack takes off and the hardly boys did the insincere promo about oh we let our families down we lost FTR and they were all down hard and you can't you can't believe anything they say there's phony on their face of it as a getwell card from an undertaker

and suddenly then age and Christian's music plays and out they come and Edge. We know how you guys feel. Because I haven't been able to look at Beth in the eye for six months until they found it now she's in the clear, but we didn't know if she might have needed spinal fusion. I swear to God this thing.

They attacked his wife and hurt her so badly that she may have needed spinal fusion. And he hadn't been able to look her in the eye for six months. and that's why he waited six months to fucking come back and get even with the guys that did it. It was longer than six months, wasn't it? Wherever the fuck. That's what he was saying. Hey, that's the timeline he was given. But to point, everybody's moved on.

Maybe Beth has moved on. Maybe she don't want to look you in the eye. If they ever think about that, you might fucking see, you know, you can't hide your lying eyes. And your smile is thin disguise. I should, see there, what you're doing, Brian? It's proven. So they can get even.

Edge and Christian can with FTR by taking the tag team titles from FTR at the very next pay-per-view, which I guess is the week before WrestleMania. So we got to suffer through another one of these town killing extravaganzas right before the big show. and they just wanted to let the bucks know that that's what they were going to do because, well, just, you know, I guess out of courtesy.

And then Christ also said, I want the tag team title to make lots of extra money. And we'll also prove that we're the best tag team of all time. And that's when they play FTR's music. And again, FTR comes out. Stokely is limping now. They got nothing out of the wheelchair thing. nobody ever took it seriously he never got any heat with it just like the useless and his shaved head they never did anything with it and now he's just limping around like a fucking limping guy that

don't get no hose and when fTR gets he sends ftr to the ring dax gets in the ring and edge spears him he's done cash gets in the ring and edge spears him he's done cash gets in the ring and fucking Christian kicks him in a balls. He's done. And then they drop their belts and they roll back out. And then the Buccaroos and Edge and Christian both pick up one end of each belt and have a brief little, not tug of war, but just an awkward moment. And then the Buccaroos let Edge and Christian have the belts and get out of the ring.

and so FTR they were 0 for two in executing any move they both took one bump but got to fuck out of there left their belts their manager is goddamn useless

and they're already building Edge and Christian and the bucks before they've even had the goddamn grudge match from six months ago where the heels hospitalized the baby face his wife Brian I'm about to have have an aneurism.

When do you think we're going to get the three-way match? When do you think we'll get the three-way ladder match? What kind of timeline you think we're looking at? I don't know. I would have to put pen to paper and try to sketch that out for you. But, and again, Edge and Christian and the Buckerer, the Bucks just turned baby face. And Edge Christian, our baby face is Christian by virtue of being with Edge as a baby.

But it's the same thing as earlier. Now Moxley and his ilk are on the wrong side of goddamn, what, who are they? The fucking Calus family, so that Moxley's been to baby faces, but Moxley is being targeted by goddamn dipshit. Who's he mad at? What the fuck is happening here? Will Osprey remember attacked? He didn't attack. Osprey came out after Moxley wrestled Tekechto,

who's the baby face member of the heel stable, although he doesn't have the guts to break away just yet. Yes. The dynamics are all of. The dynamics are- Osprey was cutting the promo on Moxley, and Moxley's guys are heels against him, but they're baby faces against the Callis family,

or were Juice and Ace? I don't know what they were. Probably just late on car payments. That's why they had to come to work. Well, yeah. You know, I think for anyone excited about anything out of the pay-per-view, any of their fans, this dynamite was a big miss. They didn't seem to go with that and make it better.

It's almost like a step backwards. I know they had a taped MJF promo, no Adam Page, taped Kenny Omega promo. but it just seemed like coming out of that pay-per-view where you had a lot of returns, Ronda Rousey's debut, or first appearance in AEW, not Ring of Honor, and it just seemed like one of the worst dinamites maybe ever.

Well, at least there's nowhere to go but up. All right. That was so profound. It took you a minute to think about it, didn't it? That's right. Exit stage up. All right. Before we exit stage right to the next segment and talk about something else besides AEW,

I understand that Uncle Dave has weighed in, Brian, on the star ratings for that cataclysmic pay-per-view that they just did with that freak show torture porn main event and the endless parade of terror that preceded it that went nearly six hours into the stratosphere. Dave has basically said it may have been the greatest pay-per-view ever held in the history of paperweens. Well, Dave liked it. That actually is, that's actually what he said. I don't know that exact quote.

He may have, but I have the star ratings. No, he said one of the things he prefaced everything with was, this may have been the greatest pay-per-view of all time. Wow. Well, no, it wasn't. But we can go to the star ratings here. Let me just make that comment here. It was not one of the greatest pay-per-views.

of all time. But Jim the pre-show, Big Boom A.J. And Q.T. Marshall defeated Sean Dean and Charlie Bravo, the infantry. Seven minutes, 41 seconds. Two and a half stars.

Well, you got to start somewhere. And he didn't want to be unkind to the opening match. And you know what? It's a fine opening match to get the building into the mood. You don't have people. booing that the match is taking place. So it's just fun. Well, but also except the thing is now, see, without having seen it, with Dave,

the way he gives out four and five stars, if it's only two and a half stars, that might mean that one of them had explosive diarrhea in midway through the fucking heat. I like the way Dave described the end of the batch too here. The finished saw AJ pickup Bravo and a power bomb. Marshall came off the top rope with a blockbuster, AJ Penn Bravo. The closing scene

was Wayne Brady Aaron Solo who was at ringside for some reason had no involvement in the match Marshall, A.J. Rizzler and Justice celebrating. Yeah, why was Aaron Solo there?

I know he used to be a QT stable but that was a long time ago. Jim Willow Nightingale retained the TBS title over Alina Cross. 10 minutes, 56 seconds. Two and three quarter stars. Well, we're picking up now, ramping it up, baby.

By the time we get to Showtime, we're going to be in more stars than there are in the heavens. Which makes you wonder what will happen when the next match, because it touched both ends, starting on the pre-show, ending in the paper view. Wait a minute. So now, how did you say, was this just an accident that you said a match involving RICOchet would touch both ends? Well, Jim, a battle royal for the national title held by RICOchet in 22. minutes and 38 seconds, won by Jack Perry, three and three-quarter stars. Well, we saw the last 90 seconds or whatever, and that was enough for me.

I can't imagine what the previous 20 minutes looked like. The first official match of the pay-per-view, FTR defeated the Young Bucks to retain the AEW tag team titles, 19 minutes 42 seconds, five and a half stars. Five and a half You said as FTR matches Or as Bucks matches go

I said as Bucks matches go It was better than normal you said as the FTR and Bucks matches go It was Probably the better one Yes But is it ridiculous at this point To keep giving this

Stratospheric rating to A couple of guys who just because there is friends and they have neighboring hometowns. They don't matter. Nobody cares. They're getting older and they're doing the same shit. Nothing is different. Nothing has changed.

They have no different. Not even the referee. Abilities, no different. Even the referee, yes, but they have no different abilities. Look, fucking gimmick, outlook on the, why their reason for being in the industry,

a new angle, a fresh program. It's the same old shit all of fucking time with these guys. Well, Dave Meltzer wrote, this was the best of their series of matches, and that's saying a lot, and among the best tag team matches ever in the United States.

In the United States. It's been many more in Swaziland. Jim, time was Todi Storm defeated Marina Shafir 9 minutes 48 seconds four star match. Oh, again at this point, I mean, why do I even bother to point out that that's the level of a flare and steamboat match or an angle and fucking Samoa Joe match or whatever, and you're giving it to, you're giving it to green and greener. I'm sorry. Jim, John Moxley defeated Konosuke Takesta to retain the Continental title in a no-time-limat match with everyone barred from ringside.

23 minutes, 32 seconds. Five star match. Oh, Christ. Again, is this American Idol, but you're only giving points for if they can sing really loud between Moxley's horrible work as a see-through phoniness of it

and Takeshda's lack of emotion in many places and complete floundering of booking and the total non-reason for him to have that match over another one of the endless belts, and that's five stars? I don't, what is he looking at? They can't, again, Takesha,

he's a good athlete and has decent basics and could be led, but he can't cut a promo. He's never going to be a single main event guy as a baby face, which is what they're apparently trying to make him as a heel with a manager to talk for him, they could have got mileage out of him, but that time is gone because he's been hanging around so long. And Moxley is just insulting

to anyone who ever took any pride in the craft of pro wrestling because of the phony shit that he does over and over again, whether it looks phony or it's obviously phony because the bleach didn't poison anybody or whatever.

It's phony and stupid. and distasteful. He's no better than a fucking Nick Gage, which is the lowest form of functional life on the wrestling totem pole. That's five stars. Dave Meltzer wrote

this was match of the year level and it wasn't even match of the show. Jim Megan Bain and Lena Cross won the AEW women's tag titles from Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron. Five minutes. Two-star match. Oh, okay, there basically they got through five minutes without anybody breaking a bone. That's what he grades that.

Swerve Strickland, defeated Brody King, 14 minutes, 19 seconds. Wow. Four and a quarter stars. Fuck, what was the matter with that? According to Dave, it must have sucked. Yeah, I don't remember being that good or that bad, I guess, in some way. ways. Tecla Jim retained the AEW

women's title defeating Chris Statlander in two out of three falls, 17 minutes, eight seconds, three and a quarter stars. Boy, howdy, and again, going that long, that late and that show

was just death. I mean, again, if even if the people there in the building were the most motivated of all and wanted to see all this stuff, there's a lot more people watching the broadcast. It's like, my God, will they ever get to the point? And this was, obviously, we didn't watch this, so I'm sure it was well.

I did. It was all right. I thought it was pretty good. Three and a half stars. That seems about fair, I think. Not crazy, not crazy. Jim Mystico and Speedball Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight won the AWTRIOS TRIOS title. from Mark Davis,

Kyle Fletcher, and Kazushka Okada, I bet you can guess who got pinned in that match, four and three-quarter stars. Oh, good Lord. 17 minutes, 22 seconds. This random six-man tag team match was better than almost every match

ever held before five years ago. That's, that according to what I'm hearing, that's a, that would be a truthful statement. If that's a five and a half star match or whatever the fuck you just said, then that would be in Dave's eyes better than almost every match that ever happened up until about, what, five or six, seven years ago. Based on his star ratings, that's right. Okay.

Well, Jim, match 11. Andrade. Oh, geez, I forgot that keeps going. Defeated Bandito. Hell, fire, and damn nation, as Mama Cornett would say. 20 minutes, 56 seconds. Five-star match. Oh, come on!

This was really a match of the year caliber bout. Both were outstanding. If you would look at the work of Andromy over the past month, it has really been something, and this was his best match of the bunch. I thought it was really good. I don't know about five stars, but I thought it was really good. But just look at it this way. That would mean that if you took either one of these guys out and put Kurt Angle in,

it would have decreased the fucking rating of the match. But wait, there's more. Jim Darby Allen and Orange Cassidy and Roger Strong. I forgot about this too. How many of these matches are there? Defeated Gabe Kid, David Finley, and Clark Connors in a tornado match. 12 minutes, 23 seconds. Three and three quarter stars.

Boy, he must have got mad at one of the guys in that match to just jack them around like that. Well, maybe because it only went 12 minutes instead of 30. He wanted more of whatever the fuck it was they were doing that I've already forgotten about in that match. And finally, Jim, in a Texas death match, MJF retained the AEW title over Hangman Adam Page, 46 minutes, 17 seconds, four and three-quarter stars. Just narrowly being beat out by three or four other matches on the card. And now did he do his normal qualifier of, well, now, I hated it. I hated it, but it was one of the greatest things that was ever produced by the genre of wrestling.

But I hated it. Was there that caveat in there, or has he just gone full garbage and he'll be rolling around, on the broken glass on his street in Campbell. I'm looking to see if he wrote anything like that. He's just describing move for move or syringe by syringe, whatever you want to call it. MJ have covered in blood. We want fire.

That was a weird moment where that paid jail for a lighter and then nothing happened. You know why you're looking through that? I will make the comment that people wrote and tweeted me that apparently now you can't take a. lighter into an arena these days, they will find it and they will make you throw it away or take it away or what did not enter with it. And I'm like, what the, are they going through people's pockets and frisking them and patting

them down now and all that other shit? How in the world? No, it sounds effective. I'm sure that will stop the terrorists. But Jim, here's what Dave wrote here. For what they were attempting to do, this was a good. this was a great performance by both. Dramatic, violent, and compelling,

and the stip added to the drama. Many will love this, and many will hate it. They went 46-17, and the crowd was into... You left out a word here, and the crowd was into big the entire way after a card that had so much good wrestling. So much good, you know, that's... another thing that he loves to say, well, there's so many great matches. No, there's almost no great matches from either company, which is why we really appreciate them when we have

them. But he's, he's confusing great with cluttered, high speed, and dangerous. You can argue that this was pay-per-view and it aired after midnight, and that when you buy an AEW Texas death match, you should know it's going to be like this. I did expect MJF to win, but thought long-term this match finish was not the long-term best for business, because no matter how it's handled, Paige lost with no excuse in his own match. Nobody cost him the match, so there's no heat on anyone. He's right. So there's no heat on anyone, or a direction where Page can blame someone for costing him the high stakes.

so he didn't even say his personal opinion. But also Uncle Dave is of the opinion that Adam Page is a great baby face and a really main event guy. He's one of those type of people. But by the way, compelling. He's the moron. He's the moron who took at a dog collar, put it on his opponent, and then put it on himself and then lost because of it. Yes. Yes, that's what he is.

But compelling. Dave's a compelling, compelling, right? You know, the meaning of compelling, urgently requiring attention, drivingly forceful. How was this compelling? Yeah, I don't know about that. Oh, we've got to see more. We can't look away. The whole match was made to make you want to look away.

Look away. Look away. I'm hideous. So, but I mean, it is what it is. And we know what it is. But it just, he's, Dave is at this point, just so, unfortunately. unfortunately see-through, and it's just gotten so old that people are on it now, and he won't, he won't come clean, he won't back off of it. He's just got to double down, as the kids say.

The only double down I ever liked was the one they had from KFC, where there was a chicken sandwich, but the pieces of chicken were the bread and there was bacon and cheese in the middle. You remember those? No. They were fucking good. The KFC doubled down. Well, those were Dave Meltzers doubling down on the AEW Star ratings for Revolution, a pay-per-view for the ages. But you know, Brian, no matter what age you are,

no matter what age you are or what ages you're trying to place your product in, you got to sell the stuff. That's what you got to do. And have you ever wondered why that Shopify has the 10% of all the E-E-Qaeda? commerce in the United States and is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, it's because of that purple shop pay button, Brian. You know it well. You've seen it many times. As a matter of fact, obviously, I order nothing off of the internet because I'm a Luddite, but I've seen Stacey many times trying to go for the dagum, the product here or the service

there or the thing she's trying to buy on her phone. And she, oh, they got the, I need the credit card. I need some kind of information. If you see the shop pay button, boom, you can just hit it. You don't need to go any further. Do you know why they made it purple, Brian? Do I know why they made the shop? Do I know why they made the Shopify button purple? No.

That kid needs to go to fucking reform school. It's because what do you get when you mix black and blue? You get purple. And the button was originally black and blue because people were beating on it all the time. They're hitting it every day all over the world. and the thing got bruised and cauliflowered and it became purple but it's still there folks and that's the thing Shopify's your commerce expert around the world with a marketing team your own design studio easy to run email and social media campaigns they can take your business to the next level and they can

sell your product and it's all because they have this giant organization behind them and it's all signified by that purple button. So if you'd like to have people beating your button black and blue every day until it turns purple, what we can do right now is make you a deal you can't refuse. You can sign up for a $1 a month trial period today at Shopify.com slash J-C-E. And for a dollar a month,

they're going to be able to show you what they can do for you. At the end of the month, you might have enough money, you just say, fuck it, I'm retired. Then they'll probably be mad at you and they'll come to find you because you've wasted their time. But otherwise, you're going to see what Shopify can do to bring your business to the next level, all with that bruised and beleaguered button and that little kid on that bicycle with a dream. That's him. Shopify.com slash jay, he just got hit by a truck.

Shopify.com... He did not. He still has a dream, and if you have a dream and a business behind that dream, just like we do, you can trust Shopify. One more time, Jim, I know you were ready to give everyone that information. Well, I'm just trying to take down the license number of that truck. Shopify.com slash JCE $1 a month trial period right now today. We shall return after this short commercial timeout.

All right, folks. we are back on the program back and actually if you're listening to this as a standalone clip on YouTube, what I'm about to say for the next little bit might not make any sense to you, but stick with us. But if you're listening to this podcast in its entirety, we've already recorded a couple of hours and what we were going to do, because we recorded what you've just heard on Friday, March the 20th, And since it was Smackdown night, we left the show unfinished because we were going to come back Saturday morning and just tell everybody what happened on Smackdown.

It'd be swell. And at the same time as we finished recording on Friday afternoon, I didn't know until later, but something else was going on. And so we've come back a little bit later than we intended. to because I needed to second, but everybody has heard the news on the everywhere. It was amazing. It's been everywhere from TMZ to Sports Illustrated to the New York Post or whatever the case. Dennis Connery passed away Friday afternoon, evening from an accident in his house. And what had happened was normal day.

And his wife, Teresa, she's in nursing. She was at work. She had to go in and train some people that day. And he always picks her up. And so she texted him right as she was about to get off four o'clock. And he didn't answer her back, and that was unusual. And as she looked out in the parking lot, he wasn't there. Then she knew something was wrong.

So she called the neighbors and their country people, People told a neighbor where the key was hid so that he could go in and see what was wrong. And Dennis had fallen in their hallway and not like downstairs or any, like off of anything, whether he had tripped, which is possible, or whether as I think about it, may have been more something that he had some kind of dizzy spell where he couldn't catch himself on the way down. And in the way he fell, he broke his neck and severely damaged his spinal court. And he was still in the floor when the neighbor found him and was able to turn him over, he was cognizant of what was happening. But by the time the ambulance,

got there they got him to the hospital a number of things happened to point being he was paralyzed at that point from the chest down and with the injuries that he had sustained and again with his

neck because people are going to be so what the fuck right because I said what the fuck Dennis Condry that took fucking bumps for 50 years fucking he trips in the hall and breaks his neck, but you've got to think not only the years of bumps, but also four cancer battles and multiple surgeries

that took his voice box out, the cancer started in his neck, spread to his throat, chemotherapy and or all of the procedures, who knows what kind of shape his neck was in to take any kind of a blow at this point. point being 75 years old. So they didn't really have to make a decision. He was on a respirator, but that wasn't going to last.

So his wife, Teresa, was not put in that position, although she knew what he would have wanted. But the suckage for a number of reasons, when a guy, beats cancer multiple times has been clean clear for ages

had the artificial voice box but has been more cheerful that he's ever been in his life and to have this freak thing happen

and also he had been bugging Teresa about retiring because she's only 67 but now that's her full Social Security retirement age.

So he had been bugging her about retiring so they could spend some more time together. And they had some plans. And the last day she was going to be at work was the end of this month, nine days away. So I'm not meaning to tell, you know, everybody's personal business here with exactly what happened. but I know that the details at least as we sit here have not been out yet. And who knows with this business, I want to make sure everybody knew that he wasn't like, you know, partying on the top of the roof or some ridiculous shit.

Because that's the one thing about Dennis is he was quite feisty in his younger years. But he has been, and especially since he's two things, not only getting a second chance at life almost 10 years ago now or whatever, but also just seeing the fan fest and the thing that he, he spent a long time thinking that, you know, a wrestling business, nobody remembers me.

And see the, you know, that's why he's been going to some of these things. And it's not like he's been in high demand and flying back and forth all across the country on a regular basis, but just to do the ones he's done has meant something to see the way the people still remember him. Now more than ever, it's, Teresa was shocked at least that it was on TMZ, Sports Illustrated, this and that. and I mean everybody internationally. Internationally. And we'll get to it in a minute. But what is it the kids say your favorite so-and-so's favorite so-and-so?

Yeah. Everybody is coming out and saying, Jesus, it's not just me now. When Rick Flair or Arne Anderson and the Hardys, Nick Aldous, these people say, Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condry, the best Heel tag team in the business and we learned from them. They're not just making that up.

And Dennis hit that point right where the pay-per-view era had just started when his time was really just about ending and the videos that exist of him are not as numerous, but everybody, it will talk about it, that was ever in the ring with him. So this is, you know, this is one of the greatest talents in the business. But like I started to say, and I'll take a breath here for a second, he was somewhat feisty in his younger days, but he has also been a regular person except for the fan fest excursions for a long time now. And the biggest reason is that Teresa is tougher than Rhonda Rousey.

because she tamed Dennis Condry. But anyway, I wanted to make sure that everybody knew, as I said, that without going into everybody's family personal details, that's the basic issue that happened. And it's just such a freak thing, but nothing could have been done. There's no way to predict it. And like you said, we've seen an outpouring of support and messages about Dennis Conjury

and a lot of people thinking of his wife, Teresa, Dax Harwood of FTR, set up at GoFundMe. Anyone interested in go search for GoFundMe, Dennis Condry, it'll come right up. And a lot of people from Tony Kahn to the Young Bucks to Chris Jericho to Cody Rhodes contributed to help Teresa however they can. Going forward, obviously you just laid out what her situation is. And, you know, it is one of those things where, you know,

for a lot of years, and you understand why, You kind of just laid it out in a way I haven't heard anyone else say about the eras. You know, he left right before the pay-per-view error really began. For so many who, like me, who love Stan and Bobby, it was almost like after the fact there was a reevaluation process. And thankfully, there are all of these matches on tape, whether it's the Mid-South House shows or the Houston matches, with or without commentary.

You have so much footage to see. And I think as time went on, it started blowing people away. You know, you hear people say how smooth Dennis was. That's not even good enough a term. You know, people say like a Lance Storm or someone is smooth. And sometimes it almost looks, not theatrical, but smooth at a point where you could tell it's smooth. Dennis was smooth so that it felt natural. Dennis was seamless.

It was seamless in terms of it wasn't smooth It was rough sometimes It looked rough But at the same time it was seamless Because you couldn't figure out where it was put together Where the fucking Where did they make this magic He pulled it off

He could We'll talk more about this as we go And I want to go back to something else you said But he could He always knew where he was to the point where if he's feeding the baby face and a comeback, and as he's starting toward the baby face, the baby face decides to go another direction and do something else,

he could just somehow stagger and change directions or drop to a knee or made it look like he meant to take four extra seconds and to then take whatever. It is amazing. I watched him sometimes with green baby faces. Bobby and Dennis had a thing where if Bobby took a hip toss in a high spot, Dennis knew to feed in, take same thing or vice versa, and they'd take a couple hip tosses, slide out, baby face, rah, raw.

The one baby he hip tossed Bobby, and here comes Dennis to feed him. He didn't realize it, and Dennis hip tossed himself off the fucking guy, grabbing the guy's arm on the way by to make it look like he threw him. You couldn't, just everything was precise. If it was a mistake, he could figure out a way where he'd, it didn't look like it. I don't know how else to explain it. You'd have to just sit and look at the films

like the Zabruder films. But before we go there, you said something about to go fund me. And I had mentioned that when we did the Midnight Express figures, that one of the things that Dennis was concerned about was that he said, boy, this will really help us get our house paid off so that, you know,

if something happens to me again. This was after his cancer issues. You know, I don't have to worry about that with Teresa. And I was, and we made a heck of a dent. And I thank everybody for that because he's been every, every month when he gets a check, you know, he calls as soon as it comes in the mail because that's, you know, it's been a big deal for him.

But we hadn't done it all yet. And the GoFundMe, sometimes I plug GoFundMees and sometimes I give to them and other times, you know, again, today's world. Because you even asked me, when we first heard about it, we're still trying to figure out, you know, exactly who was doing what? You said, oh, is this legit? I say, yes, because I, Dax Harwood set it up. He asked Teresa if he could have the honor to do so. Because Dennis never, he would have not have done it, probably. But at the same point, since he knows it's for Teresa, he probably would have said okay.

But Dax set it up. He said, let me have the honor of doing this to at least try to show you and not only help you, but show you what Dennis meant to other people. I'm wording that horribly, but it's a place where people, if it's $10, if you can't, but you can't just show that he entertains you or he meant something. and obviously now that's the thing Teresa was right about to retire she's 67 Dennis the money that he made in red again this is not a case of the millionaire buying fucking Lamborghinis he I've always said Dennis kept his bank account in his driveway

in the 80s he had nice cars but then when he moved to Colorado and met Teresa Got out of the wrestling business. He had a stable business, not a, not like a steady business, but horses, horses, horse stable is what I'm trying to say. And he was a real fucking person, right? And he had that until even after he moved back to Alabama. But then almost 20 years ago when the fucking economy went south again, people started leaving their horses instead of fucking. getting paid to keep him. He was paying to feed him.

And he's fucking got out of that. And again, the midnight reunions were great and the fan fest and et cetera. But the big money that Dennis made in wrestling was 35 years ago. And it's not like this has all been, you know, the way you make a million dollars. They have been very happy with their regular lives.

but at this point, you know, in this country, when a guy's 70-something and has had multiple health issues and, you know, whatever, it's not easy. So point is the GoFundMe is legitimate. And if anybody would like to send something, that's basically what Teresa's going to stay in the house. It's not a situation where it's like, oh, too many memories. She's happy there.

and all of their stuff is there. It's a, you know, nice place. But they're not, they don't have goddamn six-car garages and shit. So it's not like one of these celebrity go-fund me. I just want to make that point. And I guess I've beaten that point into the ground. But as far as, that's the thing is, you mentioned how smooth Dennis was or seamless or whatever we described it,

His, it was just natural with him. Heyman said it best, I think, when he tweeted. One thing he said was, he's eternally grateful to Dennis for the patients Dennis hadn't dealing with him. You imagine Paul Lee in 1989 was not fucking easy. But he said it was like Ray Stevens. He just got it. And that's another thing is that people remember the midnight.

night run and, you know, the stuff in the 80s, maybe even the Midnight Express and Continental, but Dennis had been a main event guy since like two years after he got into business. And he always looked older than he was because he always had the beard, the facial hair, because if he didn't, he had a baby face, a round baby face, right? He didn't look mean. So when he was in the we've talked about when we did the 30s in their 30s or whatever the fuck we did in 1984. In 1984 when people first saw him, you know, on a wider basis in the Middite Express, he was what, 33, 34 years old. That was also the best shape he was ever in 83, early 84.

You see pictures of him in 83 that you, you know, actually you wouldn't have taken him, but you see pictures of him in 83 and he's short. Well, that's because, again, he grew into the business like he grew into his look, and especially because we're working to Memphis and the Alabama territories for a couple years there and getting motivated. The trips weren't long. He had time to get in the gym, and he really looked good at it just came. It was perfect. Bill Watts may have not liked 1977, Dennis Condry.

because of the physique. And, you know, Bobby Eaton in 1979 was still, was fabulous, but not what he was in 1983. They were both just then ready, right, for a bigger stage, for more responsibility to be put on them. But Dennis had at the same time in tag teams been a main event guy since 1975. And the reason why that most people had not seen him, even in the territory days, is because he and Phil Hickerson, when they put them together in 75, they got over in Tennessee so well they spent the next like almost four years.

They would work the Memphis end for Jerry Jarrett, Memphis, Louisville, Evansville, Spot shows there. Then they'd go six months or whatever. they'd work for Nick, Goulis in Nashville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, all those spot shows. Then they would go to Knoxville, the other end of the state for Southeastern, work for Ron Fuller, Knoxville, Johnson City, Kingsport. And they would just bounce back and forth because they were so good. They were perfect at the Tennessee style, and they got over. So they never went anywhere else because at that point, you could live in Nashville. Tennessee and worked three fucking territories.

If you applied yourself to East Tennessee, you didn't even have to change apartments. So point being, that was a good part of his early time, but he didn't start until 73, and I know a lot of people have mentioned this, but

people have not explained who Joe Turner was completely. So if the wrestling nerds want to look it up on the internet, but Dennis Condry's brother-in-law was already a wrestler named Joe Turner, but he had worked with another guy named Bill Bowman.

They had a cowboy tag team gimmick, Joe and Bill Sky. And they worked on top in a number of the southern territories, and at least in good places for a few years, late 60s. But when Joe Turner was working the Carolina, China's in 72 or whatever. That's when Dennis was just there visiting him and they were doing a deal.

Was it Roop then? Shit, this is my story and I'm trying to. I think it was Bob Rube. But the point is, it was the old days of the Crockett territory and the Andersons were, you know, the top heels and Weaver and Becker and that kind of thing. But they had brought Bob Rup in because he was a hot shot amateur.

They were doing a shoot wrestling challenge thing on TV or whatever. And Joe got Dennis to be one of the guys that Dennis had wrestled a little in high school. It's not like he was going to beat Bob Rup, but he was smart enough to know that. But also it was one of those deals where you better not fucking beat him, but he could make it look good, right? And then the Anderson's basically Gene worked out with him. but that was in the days where they didn't have a wrestling school

and they really, unless they went to an arena early and then you wouldn't let the arena people, the janitors and everything see what was going on. They didn't have a ring. They'd go down to the YMCA or wherever the guys were working at and Nelson Royal would be there and they'd get on the mat and teach them just how to wrestle.

And then if they put a fucking hold on you, and does this hurt? Yes, yes. Okay, and then they'd ease up where it didn't hurt. And then they'd show you where not to fucking slip off the pressure point, so you're dislocating something. And that's how they showed them out of work. Remember, Stan Lane, Flair trained him at his backyard.

It's not like they were taking backdrops. And that's the thing is that then once they knew, they basically made sure they were serious, taught them how to wrestle, then smartened them up, taught them how to ease up on the shit. And then the opening match was developmental. In Greenville, North Carolina,

Dennis Condry versus Joe Turner, or wherever the fuck it was. And in the Carolina's in the early 70s, the opening match didn't go outside the ring, didn't fucking get on the microphone, obviously didn't use any foreign objects. There was no blood. You just wrestled.

And that's where you first took body slams and backdrops, and they showed you, hey, here, kid, this is how. Bam! So at that point, am I droning on here, Brian? Not at all. At that point, that's when Joe Turner could still get booked in some places. they went to work for Leroy McGurk as Mephisto and Dante, the masked heel team. And the original Mephisto and Dante had been a hot heel team in the south of Frankie

Kane and Bobby Hart. But this was Joe Turner and fucking his brother-in-law, right? And Leroy McGirk booked him and sent him to Louisiana because that's when Louisiana was the dead end of the territory and nobody wanted to work there. and under hoods Dennis is 22 or whatever and okay here we go and then he worked Anniston Alabama and that terrible the Montgomery territory remember we've gone back and looked at the old Jerry Lawler cards in 1970 that's where they sent him they Dennis ended up there working with Jimmy Golden and those guys in 73 early 74

or whatever. And by the time that he could get booked by Nick Gullis, he came in end of 74 doing jobs, and by the summer of 75, they teamed him up with Hickerson, and he was in main events. You know, one of the earliest matches of his, I remember seeing maybe the earliest, was one you had on Smoky Mountain TV at the end of 1992

and building up the Mongolian stomper coming in to avenge Brian Lee. Yes. It was Dennis Condry versus the Mongolian stomper, at the Mid-South Coliseum, which looked so bright in that video. But, you know, that was the big takeaway. It wasn't even about they bring it to the Bargoli and Stomper

when I first saw it. I was like, that's Dennis Conjury? I don't believe it, because it was so young. And also, the Stomper, it was a one-sided squash where he beat him in less than two minutes. And I'll tell you, that was the way they brought the Stomper in

was they booked him in two matches, his first appearance, in every town, and had him squash, two guys in a fucking row. And one of them was Dennis. But the thing is, if you notice, that was like, was it April, May of 75? Like I said, by the end of the summer,

he's in main events teamed up with Hickerson because look at the job that he did for the Stomper. A stompter shot him off and kicked him in the gut. He doubled up in the air, fucking went over sideways, took a bump, his fucking, everything he did was so good by that point. two years after Gene stretching him on the mat at the YMCA, that Jared saw it and said,

Jesus Christ. And Hickerson was from Jackson, Tennessee, and they had just started him like a year before, even though he was a little bit older at that point to start wrestling. But he was that big raw bone fucker that they broke in in West Tennessee, he was one of the welches. And he had teamed with Al Green. And Al Green was about ready to retire.

He'd been in business 20 years. So they each had had kind of a mentor, but at the same time, they were freakishly good at what they were doing at an early point. And so when they put them together, boom, and that's why I've always mentioned, I said they had a good match of George Goulis. Scott Teal, who was the photographer in Nashville's for so many years, said the high. hottest thing that he ever covered was the Hickerson and Condry angle with Jackie Fargo, which was late 75 early where they brought in Rough House and did all that shit and drew big houses everywhere. So that's the thing is until really what 1980, when Dennis went to Georgia for a while, he was a Georgia heavyweight champion. They loved his work as a single.

Team with Stan Lane? Well, that was just for, I think, two weeks. and the tape still exists, which is why it's such a curiosity. But he really had stayed in Tennessee because he was constantly in demand in one territory or another, and it wasn't until Phil got hurt and had to quit to business for like,

I think he quit for like five or six years, came back a couple years in Memphis. That's when he had a couple of new partners and did a single thing. and, you know, but was trying to figure out exactly what to do at that point. But that's when he started working out and also getting in better shape. But he and David Schultz, as a fucking tag team, were heels that you would sit in your chair and boo from a respectful fucking distance.

Because at that way, that's a thing, Dennis, you had to work really hard to get in a fight with Bobby Eaton. You basically just had to physically attack him. him and he'd knocked a fuck out of you right but i was always if it was really bad i was looking to see where dennis was because dennis and fuck a motherfucker up just to to get out of the way and he was so him and shultz together people didn't fuck with him but they were great in the ring but that you know shultz would wear on anybody after a while but remember that's when they went to nova scotia in 77 shultz is the one that saved them the one time that

Phil Higgerson and Dennis Condry left the Tennessee territory. They and Ricky and Robert Gibson and Schultz got booked from Tennessee to go up to do the summer run in Halifax for who was it, Al Zank at that point. And like the second week they were there, they got in a goddamn riot and the cops were on the people's side. And here came Schultz with that fucking hockey stick like a helicopter blade and got them out of the ring and back to the locker room and they just drove to the fucking airport and fug it and came back but he and shultz were a good team and then that's when

again an offshoot of the tennessee territories was what ron fuller was running southeastern but by the early 80s he's running continental in alabama and there while the the territory of the big tvs were in birmingham and everybody always called at the Mobile territory, everybody got to live in Pensacola. So Dennis went down there, got together with Randy Rose and Norville Austin, and it was living on the beach in an offshoot of the Tennessee territory, and they were the main event tag team there. And they were the Midnight Express.

Exactly. Did Dennis ever tell you, I mean, I'm sure you would know, the origin of him deciding on that name or how that name was applied to them for the first time? Who saw the movie? well obviously it may have been subconsciously influenced by the movie because the movie was only two years beforehand but they were ribbing amongst them i don't know who actually blurted it out first randy rose i think they even did a deal where he was dennis's cousin when they introduced him because they looked alike and they liked corvettes and they and then norval austin it didn't

particularly look like Dennis or Randy's cousin, but he had some kind of fancy car, and it was the mobile territory, so they were always home at fucking 1130 and in the bars at midnight. So they're wearing black

shit. They're driving a couple of black corvettes and they're out at midnight. We're the Midnight Express. And they did the they were the first team really, weren't they to after the freebirds to do use the free bird rule where there was three members of the team but

that 82 could compete and they could win the belts and blah blah blah and that's why would they not only did they work pensacola a longer period of time but they did have a run in the memphis territory in oh god was that late 81 early 82 i've got the color pictures of them that you've seen out there somewhere on Twitter here lately. A lot of those are ones I took when they came back here. They did a feature in a Japanese magazine with your photos. Yes. And that was a period of like almost two years right there,

right before that Watts came up and did the deal with Jarrett. And the only, Randy Rose, they had been the three-man team in, in Continental. Then they came here to Memphis. Then I believe they went back to Continental. And when Dennis and Norvelle came back to Memphis, Randy Rose did not come that time. Not sure what was going on there.

But Dennis and Norville didn't really even use the Midnight Express name on that run. They just came in kind of together. And then they were doing different things sometimes. And that's, as we've mentioned, there was just too much talent in Memphis. and Bob Eaton's underneath. And I'm, you know, booked in fucking Water Valley, Mississippi. And the Rocker Roll Express are, you know, underneath the Fab's thumb.

So there was just too much. Edward Watts came and picked everybody out and gave all the rest of those guys the chance to shine. Like I said, with Bobby and Dennis, not only was the timing great, but in the timing in their lives and careers. Bobby's 20 fucking six, Dennis is 33, and they're both in great shape. And they've had all this experience, but they haven't had an opportunity to use it

in a meaningful way because by that point, everybody where they were wrestling, all the fans were used to them. They were used to them, and that's where they were. Oh, and that's, yeah, there's Dennis, there's Bobby. If you take them where nobody's ever seen, seen them and now they see them like that, that's why they sold out everywhere. Well, you're a big part of the equation as well. It was an amazing package.

Well, but I could have had the goddamn fat Brazilian headhunters and trying to talk them over it. No. You're not that good. You're not. Exactly. Exactly. Because I'd only been there 16 months. And they're like, okay, you're the fucking top manager here. Sell out to Superdome. What? Was Dennis the leader in terms of you guys driving around in Mid-South? Yes. I mean, he wouldn't have, but if he'd have said, okay, Jim, you pump the gas and Bobby, I'll sit here and you go get all of our drinks.

We would have done that because he was the smartest one to the business, the inside of the business at that point. If you'd have sent me down with Dennis, I could have chapter and verse recited like we do on guess the program where everybody in the business had ever wrestled. I had absolutely no idea of what it was from the inside looking out at the top in the main event. What are we supposed to do? Watch out.

This is what Watts likes. This is how we're going to do these things. So that was, and Bobby, again, except for a brief period of time, that he'd gone to Georgia in like 80, 81. He had worked either for Nick Goulis or Jerry Jarrett his entire career. So now we're in the big leagues getting our turn at bat. And we need somebody to tell us what the fuck we're doing here. And that was Dennis. Because he had, by that point, he had 10 years.

So the decision to go to Mid-South, obviously that happens when Bill Watts puts you guys together, Dennis pulls you. I think you said Dennis gets you at the Mid-South Coliseum and says, no, no, it wasn't a Mid-South Coliseum. That's why, it's another reason I thought it was a rib. It was like three days later and dip shit Tennessee in a fucking elementary school gym. We're in a goddamn janitor's closet.

He pulled me aside like it's a big secret, which it was, but I didn't know that. Why was it a big secret? Well, it was just a big secret because it. the other boys obviously not to the fans well yeah yes to the other boy about to the fans they didn't know or care what the fuck but to the other boys it was like all of a sudden you know there was 40 guys in a territory even though Memphis was running two towns night business was good and all that stuff the payoffs on the bottom 50 percentile of the fucking card was not anything right home about and

then that you know we don't want anybody know about this we're going to try to get out of you Like we see a lifeboat. We don't want other people trying to dive in and weighing the thing down, that kind of thought process. And I was just gobsmacked at the whole concept that anybody would want me. And that's how you guys ended up in Mid-South, when the decision was made, even though it didn't happen right away, that we're going to go to the Carolinas.

What was that decision like? Well, because you made that decision, in 84 is just you didn't get there. You had to go to Texas first, Dallas. Well, now, hold on. We didn't actually make the, it wasn't like, okay, we're going to go to the Carolinas next. It was while we were getting over in Louisiana or as we had gotten over, when Flair and Dusty came in and we're like, yes, okay, that's as soon as we had, yes,

that we would be invited, then that's what Dennis always wanted to do because having been there, all those years ago, at least seeing the layout of the way the towns were and the buildings and now it's all the George Scott and actually the what was the goddamn son of the Ringley era had been George Scott and Johnny Valentine and Wahoo McDaniel and all that had happened and he knew people there and he knew that Rick Flair and Greg Valentine were riding and limousines to the fucking shows making $150,000 a year. And he's like,

guys, if we get over here, that's where we got to figure out a way to go. And then to paraphrase O'Leanderson, we didn't have to beg Flair and Dusty, they begged us to come to the Carolina. So that was, you know,

as soon as we got that invitation, we're like, yes, yes, please. And then the whole Texas this thing came up and got us curfluffled, but Dennis was right all along. That's where we needed to be. How unhappy was he in Dallas?

He was not happy about the detour, but at the same point, for the first month or so, we were thinking, okay, well, we can probably do something here. And then he was the first one that was beginning to grumble as it was obvious that we had no control over our fate over there. But at the same time, it wasn't like, oh, we still were working with the fantastic. So going to work and actually at work was not a pain in the ass. It's just some of the

way we were being used and paid. You should have seen his fucking face. When he got that $63 payoff, that was, oh my God. I think I remember the story. Was it $50 for one match and 13 for the other? Yes, because we, yeah, you had to have a captain's match on the spot shows it was a tag team main event at midnight express versus fantastics then a von eric versus a heel then a von eric friend versus another heel and then two guys out of the tag match and a single match and the guys that worked twice and by and bobby and dennis and bobby and tommy would just alternate but to guys that worked twice were supposed to get extra money and one night it was on his pay sheet here

fucking Calville, Texas, $63. And it's a $50 guarantee. And we got $50 because there was a shit house and a shit building. But the point is, he said, look at this. It's like they shaved it down to the fucking nub. We can't possibly give it even $65.

We have to give him $63. Motherfuckers. And that's, and Dennis could, Dennis was not a person who said funny things. Well, he was a person who said funny things, but it was more the way he said things funny. He could deliver a goddamn dressing down of some idiot or dipshit or activity like a $63 payoff

to where you wouldn't be able to fucking breathe. And he said, well, I'll be damn. $63. So at any rate, you said it was a couple months before, you know, started grumbling, was it the point where you realized you guys were not going to be booked with the Von Erics? It was going to be no program, no feud coming out of that big 84 and mid-south?

Well, not only that, but just the way that things were going to, again, besides wrestling Bobby and Tommy, the booking was abysmal. Remember we went in and first we won the belts and then they held the belts up and then they held the belts up again. The belts were held up for two months.

It just, it was, and then we had the fucking giant. And then six months later, The very last match we had, the first match we had in the company was against the Fantastics, and the very last match we had in a company six months later was against Fantastics.

Just, it just, there was no upside to, between seeing the payoffs, the booking. Yes, we were on a nationally syndicated television, but the people that wanted us to be in Charlotte had TBS now. Has another, when Crockett debuted, on TBS, that may have also been very close to the time that we finally gave our notice.

Of course, you would go. You, Dennis and Bobby, would go to work for Jim Crockett, although the main office was in the Carolina's that's not where you guys would go first. And I apologize if I've told, because we've told all these stories before on some of these programs, but for the kids, it's been a while. But when Crockett absorbed Atlanta, you know, the Georgia Territory. he had got the TBS slot. You know, he was centering a crew in Atlanta

to do, fulfill their obligations in the various house shows in Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, et cetera, as well as Georgia. And then he had his own crew and then they were going to, whatever. We all get apartments in Atlanta. And three months later, he's decided to close

the whole goddamn thing because none of the Georgia towns would draw. But that's where we had to, for a couple months there, you know we're going to the northern tours in west virginia and ohio and working with buzz and brett sawyer and that whole fiasco that went on but at the same time and also because the rock and roll were centered in charlotte and dusty wanted to try as best he could to keep us apart at the start so that because the rock and roll had come in and beaten the Russians

for the world tag title or first night in, that was July in the same thing. We're just debuting in the territory. We can't work with them because they now have to get over. They have to work this program with the Russians to come out of that and we have to fucking get over. So Dusty thought, well, I got the midnight base in Georgia and the rock and roll in the Caroling the Carolinas.

then they can still switch back and forth. And then there was no switching back and forth. So that's why we ended up working with bless them. And I love handsome Jimmy Vaget. He was my mother was the godfather of, or the godfam. My mother was the godfather. My mother was handsome.

My mother was handsome Jimmy Jr.'s godmother when he was born while they were here in Tennessee territory and he was my idol as a teenager, handsome Jimmy. But it was rough working with him. superstar Graham when poor superstar was falling apart also. But anyway, so that's why that they didn't pull the trigger on the rock and roll in the midnight until January of 86, but we had the little teases. And also, I tell you what, I still get goosebumps. The first, we'd moved to Georgia and we're making the Georgia tour towns and we're doing

the TBS tapings, but they booked us, I think it was like just a month later or whatever. In Charlotte, just a mid-card match for us to go out and beat somebody. I don't have the Midnight Express book in front of me right now, but it was like a Don Cronotle and whoever, whatever. And when we got in a Charlotte Coliseum, and at that point, we had heard business was down and there was still 7,000 people in the Coliseum to say, yeah, business is okay. here it's down a lot of the building i'm like fuck this is how it is now we haven't even we we haven't even touched our food yet and we go out and work this middle card match and the people

were watching the tv they'd we'd been on syndicated tv also we'd been on tbs they knew who we were the reaction we got from the mid card match with whoever that's when we were like oh yeah here we go This is going to be fucking great. And six months later, we had four sellouts in a goddamn row in a 12-week period or whatever it was. Where was I going with that? Well, we're in Crockett Promotions, beginning of 86, and that's really, you know, Mid-South had rock and roll at midnight. But this was a whole other run of it. And, of course, this one led to major business in the Carolinas.

At the same time, you had Flair and Dusty and all these other things. Well, now, but remember this. and that's something else that we were goddamn, I'm going to crow about Bobby and Dennis again. February 2nd, 1986 was the first sellout of the Charlotte Coliseum, complete sellout for wrestling since Blackjack Mulligan against Rick Flair in 1978.

And the main event was the Rocker Roll Express and the Midnight Express, and Flair and Dusty, nor the Road Warriors, were on the card. And they never let that happen again. And that's what does it came back and nobody sold out Charlotte without the dream baby. And then we came back and sold out again two weeks later.

And it came back and only had 7,500 people a following week on a Sunday afternoon. It was like eight days later. And then came back three weeks later with the blow off with me in the fucking cage. And not only sold out again 12,000 people, $103,000, but that's the one they actually closed-circuited to the park center, the old building down the road and to Spartanburg at the Memorial Auditorium so they could see it. So we ended up with the closed circuit at a building capacity of 12,000. We had like 14,000 people watching the thing.

You know, some of the teams you guys worked with, he worked with a lot. So Dennis worked a lot with Ricky, Robert, Bobby and Tommy. Who were his, did he have a personal favorite guy to work with on that same wavelength? Did he have a least favorite person, not like a job guy or anything, but like a... guy that he had to regularly work with. Oh, well, I mean, least favorite doesn't necessarily connotate that he hated the person,

but working with you could love J.Y.D. And at the same time, oh, God, you could dread the match. You see what I'm saying? Right. You could love the person and not want to, and, and I mean, anybody, obviously Ricky and Robert, Bobby and Tommy, Dennis could work with anybody that could move in some fashion.

But there was sometimes you just rolled your eyes either at a particularly immobile, you know, somebody or, you know. How did you like working with Dusty? Because you guys work with Dusty and Magnum. Well, he loved working with Dusty because if you worked with Dusty, you got the biggest payoff on the fucking card. and also Dusty loved the Midnight Express and he would sell for them and he would get juice for the and he would bring people to the goddamn ring.

Who were we wrestling when the guy jumped me in Charlotte and the fucking whole thing began where I just told the story. They ribbed me later on tried to arrest me for assault on a police officer when I kicked the fucking cop trying to kick the guy. We were working with Dusty and he was selling. He would fucking get down on his knees

and put his hands out like Jesus and just let Bobby and Dennis wail away on him. He'd go down like he'd been poleaxed for the racket. So no, and that's the thing is it was hard sometimes. Like I've been, maybe the, I don't know that the match with Miss Atlanta lively and handsome Jimmy at Starcade, the street fight was our all-time favorite. But nevertheless, he could get something out of anybody. And when you go back and you look at now a lot of these compilations that people are tweeting

and retweeting of here's two minutes of Dennis Condry. Everything looks like he's hitting you as hard as he can. He never touches you. I mean, the only, you would, when he gave you bumps, like if you took a backdrop off of him, yeah, that's a bump, you'd feel it, but you never felt anything that he struck you with. and if he gave you a bump unless you were

every once in a while before the job guys that turned in mashed potatoes on TV it wasn't our fault there was one double goozle where we just told all you have to do is stand up straight and look at Bobby

he stood up, bent over and looked at the ground so So he got potatoed, but it did us pick you up, he'd put you down flat. That fucking power slam that nobody has ever done like that before where he would over the shoulder, he would step into it, get both of them up in the air. I've got a picture where both of the guys are like four or five feet in the air and with

him, with his hands stretched out over the guy's chest and they would go down like he would splash the guy off of a power slam. And he was already in a cross cover position. Boom. And the way he could bounce up off shit to emphasize the impact is something that a lot of the kids ought to study the young wrestlers. And the body language as far as the, you could tell, he was like Lawler. You could tell what the expression on his face was if you were.

were in the top row of the bleachers in a big building and he was facing away from you. Because the rest of the body indicated that expression, whether it was shock with a start or whether it was frustration with a momentary put the hands on the hips and turn and almost kicked the ground like he's a fucking baseball player. Or any emotion that he had to convey, he could do it with his whole fucking box and body so that you would like I said again see either fear on the comeback or shock

on the kickout or frustration on the fucking we can't beat this guy or heal mannerisms mocking somebody or fucking with the people and he just looked surly when he did it but in again when I say he never touched you

and they would say the same thing about Bobby Eaton working with him was like a night off yeah you could you would feel bobby when his leg when he landed on you but it wasn't it was in a safe place you would feel the things they did when they were giving you a bump or landing on you in a splash or whatever but everything was in i even remember retweeting one time one of the elbow drop clips with bobby and it was a slow mo replay from the tb show where if you if you watched close and knew what you were watching for as he was coming down with one elbow across the guy's chest in a safe position.

The other hand came down and cupped the guy's chin so that his head wouldn't pop up and get in the way and get potatoed when the mat fucking absorbed their impact and bounced them. It's like just that for one second. I'll just protect your face. Boom. They always knew what to fucking. they were doing and where they were.

And out of all those hundreds and hundreds of matches we've talked about, where I've gone over our nightly schedule and these are, you know, 15, 20 minute matches and house shows and multiple TVs where they're doing all these big moves. They never, not only never knocked anybody out, we were talking about that the other day when the referee had a seizure. they never knocked anybody out where they were unresponsive. I don't remember either Bobby or Dennis ever getting accidental juice busting anybody open. I don't remember anything more than a fat lip.

And maybe a boy, you ding me on the side of the head there from a Bobby Fulton. But no, there was no injuries. Because they did this shit over and over night after night and knew how to do. it and didn't do shit, they didn't know how to do, baby. They just knew how to do more shit than most people. But again, that was the, we're talking all about the moves and shit. And I've said that was the point is you got over on television and during the period of time where you get your build and your push, that's where you get over.

So that then they have to pay to come to the house show to see you. have a great match that they've paid to see with a finish that makes someone to come back and see it again. It's not about doing every goddamn thing that you've ever know how to do every time they see you or what fucking good is that. And that's what Dennis would call the fucking match. The heels call the match in those days, and obviously with the rock and roll and the fantastics or

whatever, you could call that match and sign language. They'd done it so many times, but with anybody in the first three years of the Midnight Express, whether we were working with guys on TV, whether we were going to Kansas City to work

with the batons, whether we were working with people we'd never, working with the road warriors. He had to, Bobby contributed, and we all worked overtime on putting those together, but the road warriors fucking loved them. That's why they always wanted to work with us. but Dennis would call the fucking matches and Dennis would captain what Bobby was doing.

And then Bobby while he was in there would call his shit, but Dennis was the conductor. And that is why the baby faces have to fucking get over. They have to in the match. They have to look good at the start. You shine the baby face and make sure that people are excited. that they're getting their money's worth and they're getting they're happy and the baby faces are finally going to beat these fucking guys, right? And then as Dennis used to say, we made them laugh

and now we're going to make them mad because we made them quit laughing. And you would take it out from under the fucking baby faces and you would start kicking a shit out of Riggy Morton or Bobby Fulton or fucking even Hawk the Road Warrior. whoever it was you would do every goddamn dirty thing you would gouge eyes and choke and interfere from the manager and you would beat these motherfuckers and you would tag team them to death and you would give them hope spots so the people wouldn't lose fucking faith

but they couldn't quite get to tag and they couldn't quite get to the tag and then by some goddamn miraculous fucking happening or a fuck up by the heels the baby face gets the tag to the fresh man and oh shit and then you fly like you're a ping pong ball and when you get to people up as far as you can probably at that point if you're going to it's a good idea to go over there and bump cornet well then everybody's coming their pants and the babies are being thrown in the air so now we're either going to fucking get beat or we're going to beat them or we're going to do a DQ or whatever but we're going to get the fuck out of there before he gets too old.

And then either, boom, the baby faces win and get the fuck out of the goddamn ring and let us have the chance to do our shit and make people mad at us again for the next minute or so before we leave. Or we fuck the baby faces and we get the fuck out of there as quick as possible because people are going to be trying to beat the shit

out of us on the way back. Or it's some kind of wild DQ and we still need to get the fuck out of there because people are still going to try to beat the fuck out of the son way back. And that's, it's not that fucking hard. You brought up before about how Dennis, back in those days, it wasn't hard to get him into a fight or for him to start one or be in one. But with that said, the stories you've always told about,

especially Mid-South, more than even the Carolinas, the riots, and fighting your way back, quite literally, to the locker room after every match. What did he think of that? because he's had heat going back to 75, 76. No, well, he wasn't, he knew it was because we had heat is why that that was happening. And he wasn't surprised. And he's the one that smarting me and Bobby up to what it was and what was going to happen and what we needed to fucking watch out for because working in the Tennessee territory

when they were selling out buildings in Birmingham, Chattanooga, Huntsville, Memphis, Louisville. The cops in the Louisville Gardens, the actual city police that worked the security at the Louisville Gardens, eight of them every Tuesday night wore their riot helmets

while they were working security at ringside until I think 1981. By the time that Bobby was on top for Nick Goulos in the late 70s, early 80s, Nick's business was kind of blah.

But Dennis had seen the heat from, and eastern Kentucky when he worked in southeastern and all Alabama and the goddamn reason why he got cut that one time with the guy with the knife was he saw the guy with the knife, but another guy

hit him from behind and knocked him into the guy with the knife. But he, no, he was the one telling us what to watch out for and I got some inspirations from him in terms of loading the racket and how the fuck he used to go in front. Didn't he carry the racket sometimes?

No, it was Bobby at first. Dennis would go in front and he said just hang on my goddamn back of my trunks or whatever that I gave Bobby the racket at first because he could bring up the back. But after Bobby hit that first guy and I think Baton Rouge and thought he'd killed him.

he's a cornout who would carry that thing anymore. I said, good, give it to me. My fucking pepper spray didn't work. But, yeah. But Dennis knew. So that's why with the baby doll thing, you know, he knew we were going to, he knew when we were going to get threats and he knew what, that's the time in Georgia when the cops didn't seem interested

and do anything about, you know, their local constituents when they were, the guys were starting to cause trouble at that. little spot show. He's the one that just said, one of the baby faces that chased me back to the locker room, I think. I can't remember who we were even working with now. Because he had calling, he said, so-and-so will chase you back, get in my bag, and stand by the door and keep an eye out just until we come back. So I've got his fucking gun out of his bag standing at the fucking door because we were going to get no help from the cops. And they were going to, they were trying to fuck with me. They were going to get a. They were going to get a

deal with me going to where the Bobby and Dennis would have to get in on it and we were outnumbered. Wasn't there an incident with Dennis in Mid-South where he was at a convenience store and some fans tried to attack him? Oh, Jesus. It wasn't some fans. It was some fucking guy. Dennis had, again, when we rode separately, because we were come back from Shreveport TV and I'd always had to been up there for interviews.

That's generally when something happened, right? I think Bobby was with Dundee. So Dennis is driving his two-seater Corvette. He stops a convenience store, gets some gas, he's getting some beer. The fucking some guy comes in. What was it the guy said something about, what was it that you used to, no, that was the other time. That was the cops.

The guys just said something like, fuck you in the Rock and Roll Express of what you did to him or whatever. And Dennis said, fuck you back. And the guy would hold off and nail Dennis. And Dennis fucking goddamn came out and backhanded him over the fucking can peas and put the boots to his fucking head. And he said he had a gold bracelet. He backhanded the guy. His gold bracelet broke and flew off.

I don't think he got that back. And the guy had gone over this giant display and shit broke everywhere. He pulled a $100 bill out and threw it on the goddamn counter and walked out with the fucking beer he wanted. And so the guy wouldn't call the cops and have him change. What was the incident with the cops? They said there was a separate one with the cops? Yes, that's when they were. The cops were mad in Cushetta, Louisiana,

which is on the highway in between Shreveport and Alexandria, where we had to come back from TV, and I was ahead in my car, and they were behind me, Bobby and Dennis were in Dennis' van. The cops pull them over for speeding. And then they realize who it is. And they're going to run the whole deal, right? Well, we need to see your registration.

Dennis, that's the van he had bought from Stan Lane before we left Nashville, right? His registration had been in shit that was stolen out of his hotel room when we had first moved down there and he was living in a hotel before he got a fucking, I think he lived at hotel like three months before he got a place. But he didn't have a copy of the registration on him. So they impounded the van

because they knew it was the Midnight Express. Right? And they drive them back to the courthouse. This is Wednesday night at going on midnight in Cushetta, Louisiana in 1984. They take them into the courthouse where there's the sheriff and the deputies or whatever. They've impounded the van. They say you'll get that back when you produce the registration, which will take a couple of weeks, right? And those are the mail from Nashville. And they weren't arresting Bobby and Dennis, but. they weren't offering to get them anywhere. And finally, they said, can you radio ahead to stop our manager? And so it's a story in a minute, but they radioed ahead to the cops down the road who pulled me over for not speeding,

and I was shitting myself because I didn't want them to know who I was. And they said, are you Jim Cornett? I said, oh, goddamn, they're going to fucking... I say, yes. They said, well, you got a couple of wrestlers up to courthouse in Cachetta. What?

So anyway, back to Cachetta, the sheriff or whatever they call them down there at the parish, his ass and Bobby and Dennis said, so what was it you used on them boys to win them belts last week on TV? And I automatically, Bobby is going, he told me his story after he's like, oh, shit. Dennis said, ether. It was ether. It's just like the ether, like that, right? And the cop said, well, you know, we got a guy down in one of the cells. He thinks he's a wrestler.

He's in for murder. Dennis said, we can wrestle him right here right now. If you don't to, he's hot, right? And Bobby's like, please, I just want to go home. I got the baby. And so they, I went back and found the courthouse in Cachetta, Louisiana. And there was Bobby and Dennis with their back. sitting on the fucking front steps because there's literally there was no hotel in this town

there was no open business in this town there was no way to rent a car i don't end up in broad daylight i can't imagine you could have rented a car in this town so if they hadn't a caught me they would have sat there until sometime but but then it was not amused and he wasn't going to put that fucking cop over either. What was he used to beat them boys for him belts? Aether. Motherfucker. Yeah.

So he wrote to Nashville and got a copy of the goddamn thing and went up there a couple weeks later and got his van back. What did you guys do for two weeks to run in your car? Yeah, we just switched up, you know, the other car, because one of the Midnight Express vehicles was out of service,

but that often happened in those days. We're doing 3,000, 4,000 miles a week. You know, we talk about you managing Bobby Eaton and Dennis Conjury, but for years, I feel like we never heard you actually say those names. It was beautiful Bobby and lover boy, Dennis. Who came up at lover boy as his nickname? He had a robe that had lover boy on the back. So that's him and Hickerson, and if everybody, if anybody was to go back and look at like old pictures from the 70s of the Valiant Brothers. handsome Jimmy and Luscious Johnny or Ernie Ladd had on the

written on the back of his jackets or vest like promises promises or you know I am right who was George Cannons but handsome Jimmy and Luscious Johnny would do big lips and shit and fucking strange words on the backs of their jackets

so Phil and Dennis started doing that where they had one set of tights where the ass of their trunks were just big lips and the dollar signs down the fucking. And like when Ferris and Latham, the blonde bombers, one was 714 and one was B-52, but just bullshit on the tights. And Dennis had a robe that said lover boy.

And Bobby had already been beautiful Bobby Eaton. So it just, and that's a thing is when Dennis was when we first made the deal with Watts. Dennis was really the spokesperson at that point. There's Watts had asked him, said, well, if you guys have a tag team, you got a good tag team name. Dennis said, Middite Express, okay. And Dennis said later on, how do you all like that? Just fine.

We'll be goddamn shitstorm and Keefeover. I don't care at this point. So a lot of this was Dennis's. Weird question, but 84, you're working midsouth and Norville comes in. Does he ever say anything like, hey, hey, you know, that was my name. I was Middell Express. And see, Norville was from Memphis or the Memphis area of Ridge.

He'd lived there, you know, long, a long period of his life. And so when he'd come back to Memphis, he's basically coming home, and he worked there a lot more for the next few years until he quit as well as doing a thing. But the thing with Coco, the PYTs, actually, was a better spot for him than the Midnight Express had been when he was in it because he and Cocoa worked Dallas, Louisiana, Memphis. They had a nice little run for a little while there. Florida.

And whereas the Midnight Express had just been a thing that Norville did, really, in Alabama and Tennessee for a year and a half or so. Because Norville had been, he'd been in the business since. before all of them. He broke in in, what was it, 70, 71, and he had been partners with Sputnik Monroe and done a variety of things before Dennis or Randy came along.

So that wasn't his whole deal. No, when we saw, he was like, he was making more money wrestling against the Midnight Express than he was when he was a member of it. So he didn't mind. So going back to where we were before, 86, it's a great year for you guys, Great year for Crockett Promotions.

You guys in the rock and roll, you guys in Dusty and Magnum, you and Baby Doll, eventually you and the Road Warriors. It's also when you guys get asked by Ernie Ladd if you'll come to the Northeast and meet with Vince McMahon. What was Dennis's reaction to all that? Because was it a surprise that they wanted to talk to you? And again, this is a time where everyone's getting action figures and they're on NBC. What was Dennis's reaction to all that? Well, he was like we all were. Ernie Ladd called me one day out of the blue at my apartment in Charlotte

and hadn't spoken to him since we'd left Louisiana because he hadn't seen him. And he said, I'm doing some talent scouting for Vince McMahon. Up here, the WWF guys are going to make more money than they've ever dreamed of in their life. Have I ever lied to you, Quani? Have I ever lied to you? No, you haven't, Ernie. But anyway, Dennis was like, holy shit. because we didn't know in May or April or 1986

or whatever period of time. We didn't know how this all was going to turn out. But we saw these guys are up there making, you know, obviously a lot of money, big houses and all of the merchandising that Vince is starting to do. And we're currently, we're the World Tag Team Champions for Crockett, which is the biggest company that Vince doesn't have. and we made, what was it,

and we would go on to make almost $200,000 that year, but that January, February, March, April period of time was big because that was the start of the rock and roll angle. So we were making already three grand, four grand a week. But now, you know, here's Ernie's. And Ernie dangled a signing bonus of 25 grand, which was still serious money, back then. And he mentioned that. I didn't dream it. That's the thing. When we got to the meeting with

Vince, that never came up. No dollar figure at all ever came up. But Dennis was all for it. So let's go have the meeting. And, you know, he was the same as when we got out of there, he felt the same way as the rest of us is that he didn't really tell us any goddamn thing. He didn't tell us who we were going to work with, whether we were going to have a run with the belt, what a minimum amount might be we would get per week, what kind of money per year. Things that we had been told in at least, if not vague, somewhat tenuous terms by Crockett or Dusty, whatever, but he was big on the marketing, the action figures. He probably had just come in hindsight from a big meeting about the action figures, Vince, and he was all.

hopped up about it. But that was the, but I mean, there was, it just, he didn't, he talked about the opportunities and et cetera. And when we looked at it,

we said, eh, we got all these teams to work with here that we're just started with the rocker roll and they can't, you know, they're pushing us as hard as they can push us. And we're going to go up there and do that. We don't know what the fuck.

No. So we didn't. And see, some people have, one of the things that Dennis said, at one point, try to get people to leave him alone about why he left in 87. Was it, well, and, you know,

I wanted to go to the WWF or Jim and Bobby didn't want to go, whatever. Well, that was April or May of 1986 to March of 1987, and it didn't have anything do with it. But it was just easier to get people to shut the fuck up. But no, we were not, we were impressed by Vince and his fancy fucking car, but we were not

impressed by anything he told us as wrestlers, as, you know, and again, it was also, why would we think that people would be buying our action figures when people are trying to stab us currently? We are the heels.

Our thing didn't work that wouldn't have worked there. We had to make those people so goddamn mad that they literally wanted to see the road warriors throw us off scaffold and kill us. And it wasn't working that way up there at that point with Vince.

And that was what came next, because StarK886 and the build to it, that would be the end of 1986 for you guys. And again, I keep asking about Dennis's reactions, because we've heard about yours for so many years, when Dusty decides you guys should do more scaffold matches after doing them at the end of your Mid-South run in 84, what was Dennis's reaction? I mean, again, he understood because he was smart to the business. It wasn't like it. I've said before the matches stink so bad.

You can't, so it's not like we can go out there and perform our craft at the highest. But he also knew they were going to fucking draw because he'd spend enough time in Memphis. He got the principal and then we did it in Louisiana and that's where Dusty stole it from. but this one was as I've said was big not only wider but taller and it was just a whole bigger thing but at the same time as I said he was smart to the business in that we are the feature match at the biggest show that our company does of the year and all the focus and attention and promotion is all on it and everything and we're going to man that was at that point the most money that we'd ever made him one day to do anything.

And there weren't a lot of fucking $10,000 payoffs in a wrestling business back then. So he under, but at the same point, after, I think it was the one on the eye. And it's Starcade. It was the first one. They've thrown the powder up there to blind the road warriors

and they're fighting on their knees, but he's looking down at the ring and looking out at the goddamn people and I'm glad they weren't miced as well as they are today because he was screaming, we're dumb! We're dumb motherfuckers! We are stupid!

But, you know, the one they had in Cleveland, I didn't even see some of them since I was recovering from the surgery from the first one. But the one in Cleveland, they had to have the fucking union people set to scaffold up, and they didn't know how to, instead of Klondike Bill, they didn't know how to do it. and it was shaking and rattling. And they got a kind of a perfunctory scaffold match that night.

But that's the thing also is he's the only one at Dennis that didn't get hurt. I got hurt. Bobby twisted his knee, not his knee, but his ankle. And I think did something else on an elbow on another one. Dennis, he would drop, land on both feet, crouched down, and then take a flat back bump and shake his legs in such a manner that it looked like he'd fractured himself in half

and it was the safest scaffold bump you could take. Was Bubba at the ones that you didn't go to after you got hurt? Yes, he was there for some of them. But they didn't have him up on it on that run. It was the following year. But this is a period of time where you guys were as hot as you could be and then you go into the big angle with Ron Garvin and Barry Windham.

And, you know, the one promo line that everyone seems to remember from Dennis is talking about the cosmic fireball that hit Ron Garvin. It wasn't Jim Corvette. It was a cosmic fireball. But this is right around the period of time where everything changes. Well, I was in Hawaii because I was on my honeymoon when I got suspended for burning Ronnie Garvin. and that's when you know when the boys had to do their own interview

Dennis could talk again if you go back and you look at some of the YouTube stuff of the last thing he did in Continental right at 89 when they were going out of business or Dennis could talk and and was entertaining it just you know it had become a thing where you didn't hear him talk but yeah he says something to the effect of you know it wasn't Jim Corden didn't have anything to do it was a cosmic fireball that took out Ronnie Garvin. But he would be the one to mostly speak for the boys if I was on a rare occasions that I wasn't present.

And that's the thing, as you mentioned, we were going into an angle. It was really, we had been involved with Garvin and Wyndham. Now we had just burned Ronnie and caused Jimmy to switch from heel to baby face to reunite with his quote unquote. brother, and we're going to start working with the Garvin brothers there, and then also the Jim Crockett Senior Cup for 87 was fast approaching, and that's what it usually gets interesting, and that's when Dennis left. So let's talk about that, because what do you remember about the day before?

and at what point did you realize he's not coming back, I guess? And was it scary? I mean, were you at any point worried that something may have happened to him earlier? No, it was scary. I was worried something's been going to happen to us called unemployment. Because, I mean, here we have, it's, we're the greatest in the world at what we do. And suddenly it's, half of it ain't there. No, we came back from a spot show in North Carolina.

at some high school gym on a like a Wednesday night and the next morning we had to fly to Los Angeles and we rode with Dennis. Dennis dropped us off at our cars and said I'll see in the morning. We didn't see him again for a year and a half. And the next nothing at the airport and well, oh shit he's missed the I mean people miss flights and as I've mentioned in the past everywhere wherever we went there was like one time per year where Dennis for two days, you just, he'd just say, fuck it. And he'd be somewhere. But called his wife at the time,

which obviously was his previous wife, and she didn't know where he was. And but she didn't sound real convincing about not knowing anything about what might have happened. But she didn't know where he was. So we went to California and did the two or three day loop or whatever, and nobody's heard from him. And then we've talked to the story when we talked about trying to figure out who might take his place.

And this is all happening within like an eight or nine day, 10 day period. And I thought about Tom Pritchard, who was a single in Alabama. And we hadn't thought about Stan because he was in Florida with Steve Kern, but we didn't know Kern was thinking about retire, blah, blah, blah. And then Dusty had Stan come up and we said, okay, but the reason why is because, literally none of us heard from Dennis. Nobody nowhere, nohow. And they did a search on the plane ticket that they'd given him to go to California,

the travel agent that Word for Crockett did, and it had been changed to a plane ticket to Colorado. Okay, so we knew he went to Colorado. Did he have any connection to Colorado before that? Not particularly. I think we'd work there, I think, once, or maybe that was Albuquoiki. I'm not sure.

But it was a fur piece from Charlotte. So, and anyway, then, honestly, until he resurfaced doing the thing with Randy and Paul E. For the, for the AWA, for Vern. and the reason why that was he was living in Colorado and the AWAT TV tapings were in Vegas by that point, remember? And it actually was a thing that, you know, so it was convenient. And that's what I started seeing them.

In the back of my mind, I thought, we got to do something. And then we had the pickle where we were without. opponents after Tully and Arne left in the middle of our program in September of 88 and the midnight Bobby and Stan were kind of floundering because the people wanted to like us, but we actually hadn't really turned baby face. And at the same time, we had no fresh opponents because that was, Tully and Arne was supposed to run for months. So that's when I pitched the idea to Dusty to do the thing.

but I know a lot of people are going away. You didn't tell us why, and I'm not going to. And I've said this before. We didn't even know then. We just, when Dennis came back and we saw him again a year and a half later at the TV, where they came out and beat us up, we just all shook hands and hugged and said, okay, now we've got a fucking a chance.

The Midnight Express with me has a chance to get out of the, the pickle we're in of floundering in this company, and you guys have the biggest stage you're going to have to get your shit over. So let's do it. But we didn't go into details until when we re-reunioned, what, 15 years later at the goddamn fan fest. And that's what Dennis said, by then Teresa had tamed him down and he told us why it had nothing to do with either bobby or myself or the wrestling business in particular or any it didn't have anything do with drugs or a personal

problem that he had although it may not have aided in his decision making but it was something it was beyond most of all of our anybody else's control except he just needed to relocate And it worked out, I presume. And it worked out. So when you first see them before we even get to them coming in, what was your, I mean, was it right away just, oh, wow, there he is. I mean, when you see them come out as the original Midnight Express, and again with Polly Dangerously, who was a Dynamo,

very different than you, although somewhat similar, but very easily, if they had had a bad manager, none of it would have worked out. They had Heyman, although he had managed Austin Idol and Tommy Rich, was really what put him on the map. Well, yeah, and that was in Memphis, and most people didn't see that, where this was at least on cable,

even though, you know, it was the downhill days of the AWA, but they were one of the better, lighter lights of the show. But your initial thoughts, seeing him all of a sudden pop up as original Midnight Express on a rival promotion show. Well, I was like,

I wasn't appalled. Were you surprised he was teaming up with Randy? No, because there was no heat with Dennis and Randy. But Randy hadn't really done much in a few years. All of a sudden, for his old partner to pop up as his partner, it wasn't surprising at all? Well, because how else would you call yourself the original Midnight Express? That part wasn't a surprising part.

Well, he got Randy. It's not like Randy was sitting at home going, I hope nobody ever books me again. With Paul Lee, it was, again, I already knew Paul. But it, the thing is, it was at that point, a TEMU version of what most people considered to be the Midnight Express. It was in a lesser promotion that had a lesser talent roster and obviously by where the thing was being taped, smaller crowds. and most people that would be seeing it didn't really know that they actually were the original Midnight Express, Dennis and Randy,

before Bobby and Dennis, they just thought it was, oh, there's the guy that used to be in it, and he's kind of ripping it off. And nobody again had really ever seen Paul before. So while he was, you know, a refreshing promo for the boring-ass AWA television, it wasn't like he had a big name and was, oh shit they've got a hayman with them now nobody ever seen him before i didn't i wasn't offended by it and at least dennis was back into business but at the same point i knew that they weren't going to

affect our spot in any way or make us look bad but that the only way that they were ever going to draw any money was if we actually all did the thing and did the angle then it meant something but where they were wasn't going to want to say Vern. They weren't Merlin the magician. And when they show up at Techwood Drive, it was just, hey, how you doing? It's good to see you again? I mean, what happens when you and Bobby first see him? Dennis! Bobby!

Everybody just hugged and shook hands. Of course, well, I don't know if everybody was enthusiastically hugging Paul. I've tried to remember. I guess Stan had met Paul by then. probably is a photographer yeah well no think about this because paul left the northeast and went to memphis in what 87 or 88 it was early 87 when the idle law war feud was heating up so yeah okay well see all the pictures i have of paul taken of the midnight express was bobby and dennis right so i think paul quit photographing and started managing when stan joined the team and they'd never been in the same place before.

Nevertheless. No, there was no, I wouldn't, if we were going to be awkward and didn't want them to be there, I wouldn't have pitched a fucking idea. So, no, and Bobby was happy to see Dennis, and Dennis was happy to say, everybody's always happy to see Bobby.

So, no, there was no issue. We just, I've always thought, well, it's wrestling. What the fuck? I didn't even know there was a, when we heard the reason years later and accepted it and thought, no wonder, okay, now I get it, no worries. But at that point, it was still like, well, what the fuck? We're not going to, goddamn hate him forever.

We're the ones that prospered. And he's ended up, you know, his career suffered. So it wasn't like we were trying to rub anything in then. And of course, there were some real memorable moments in that feud, the big angle where they bloody you up and attack the express, the promo where you, you come out with the bloody suit, Heyman starts doing these fired up promos on TBS

that were very different than anyone else's promos, the Starcade match, and then, of course, the loser leaves town match, which by that point, Dennis was gone again. When did you find out Dennis had left that time, and what's the story behind that? Well, he wasn't,

by that time, it wasn't he was gone. He was gone specifically for that. Because again, I pitched everybody the angle. Dusty approved it. Dusty let us do it. This is how it was going to progress, et cetera. And then within weeks after we shoot the angle,

Dusty gets heat with TBS for getting juice when he was trying to turn the Road Warriors heel and blah, blah, blah, Dusty's out as Booker. And they named Jim Crockett as the interim Booker. And Jimmy Crockett even came to us. and said, you know, I'm not a booker. I'm going to be a maintenance type of booker, where I'm just going to keep everything going until, you know,

until we hire someone. And we're, okay. Well, then, was the only thing that the only major change he really made while they were recruiting George Scott and trying to convince him to leave his fucking coffin in Transylvania and come back to the business. Jimmy Crockett didn't like Randy Roses.

work. He liked Dennis. Dennis had worked for him, made him a lot of money. But he wanted to get Dennis a new and he liked Heyman. He wanted to get Dennis a new partner. And so suddenly, Dusty's gone for a few weeks. JJ is

taking care of it until Jimmy Crockett steps in. So JJ just has us going Broadway and the house shows. I'm like, what the fuck? And then at the start of the year in January, TBS announces that well we don't need to take the managers to house shows they're not necessary so they stopped booking me and Paul

to go on the road with the fucking Midnight Express match which was the guts of the whole thing we even offered to pay our own way and they and so after they rescinded that after what three weeks or whatever but some damage had been done there

and then the thing that Jimmy Crockett does is say, okay, at the February pay-per-view, we'll have a loser of the fall leaves WCW match, and they were going to beat Randy Rose, and he said, we can bring Dennis in a new partner. I said, that changes the whole goddamn deal. So Dennis already not particularly trusting wrestling promoters, he hears what we're going to do,

we start what we're going to do, then they start fucking everything up, and then they announced that his partner is going to be fired. So I think we went through the dates one time here on the show, Broadway, it had to have been several years, but he made all of the Midnight Express, Midnight Express match bookings, including some of the tank towns we were in, until what he was going to have to do was fly.

We had a day off, and then he was going to be to be expected to fly all the way to like dip shit South Carolina for a spot show and then have another day off and then go to the pay-per-view that weekend and he didn't make dipshit South Carolina and by the time the pay-per-view came about we knew I'm sure Paul knew I knew because he'd pulled that old Houdini before he wasn't coming back and so they put Jack Victory in the spot with Dennis and where it was me

that was the six-man tag it was me and Bobby and Stan against supposedly Dennis, Randy and Paul where you pay the thing off by getting the managers in the ring but fucking Crockett's idea was

beat Randy so instead we just didn't do that So they, Jack Victory, and then what did we do in the finish? I think they beat Randy anyway, but brought, no, they beat Jack. No, they didn't beat Randy. They beat Jack Victory and then Paul E brought Jack Victory back as his bodyguard in a suit. Secret Service, Jack Victory.

That's right. Yes, Secret Service Jack Victory. So they were, and that's the thing when George Scott came in right before this, because now George Scott's there. You know what he said? He said, well, fuck. He said, I would have kept the original Midnight Express and fired Eaton, Caw, Aiton, and Cornett and Lane. So by the time he's in charge of this pay-per-views,

do we beat the substitute or do we beat the guy that we were going to beat? And he would have changed the finish and beaten us if he'd have had his way. It was a goddamn cluster fuck. So Dennis said, adieu again, because he saw where that was going. and they didn't sign these guys to long-term lucrative contracts to come back. They had, I don't know if it's a per, probably as a per week. They had per week guarantees.

And what the fuck? He didn't come back to just be some, a single preliminary guy or some dipshit in a made-up tag team. He thought they were going to get a chance. And of course, he would go to Continental, post-Ron Fuller Continental, and that would be his last real run. It would be a main event run. He was really good there.

You would actually go to Continental briefly when you Stan and Bobby would leave before you came back in 19- But he wasn't there then. But that was before he was there, yeah. Yeah. And then after that, few and far between in terms of bookings and things he did. What did he do after Continental in 89? Well, again, when he moved to Colorado, he had that stable.

It was primary thing, but he and because Murdoch, Dick Murdoch was living in Colorado at that point. And he and Murdoch actually trained a handful of guys that they could have their opening matches. And then they promoted shows where it would be Dennis Condor versus Dick Murdoch in the main event with Joe, Tom, Larry, and Bill, your opening matches. that they trained enough to get by, same way that Gene Anderson trained him 20 years before that. And this is before the internet, and they weren't going to try to get in over their heads. They were smart to the business.

They were just, they were basically, if they promoted a fucking show that had any kind of house. And after they paid the expenses, they just split the house between them. It wasn't a bad fucking deal. But it was just, you know, it was a here and there thing. And then Dickie died in, what was it, 90, 95?

96. 96. You know, if they were still doing anything at that point, they, you know, it wasn't that much. But as far as wrestling went, no, he didn't really, he didn't go anywhere, do anything or talk to anybody for all those years. But that's kind of when he was coming into the second phase of his, life and settling down, believe it or not.

How did he meet Teresa? In Colorado. And I've heard the story of how they met and I have the barest grasp of the details and I'm not going to try to butcher it, but they just met, you know, not related to wrestling or anything like that. And they've been together now 33 years, I think, something like that. And when was the first time you guys got together at a convention or at a reunion? I remember a bunch of stuff in, I want to say, 2003, maybe, and Ring of Honor.

2004, Ring of Honor. But what was that like, the whole reunion of the Middendon Express? Well, again, I was here in Louisville and was in the middle of OVW. And Bobby had done the trainer thing for a while, but Bobby was back in Charlotte. and stands, you know, always in North Carolina somewhere or other. But we heard that Dennis made, just showed up at one of the Russell Birmingham shows, I think it was. They were doing it in Birmingham back then.

He had moved back to Huntsville. He decided to move back because he was originally from Florence, Alabama. Nobody knows that. He always used Charlotte because that's where he said. And then the Midnight Express was from the dark side. But he's born in Florence. and he moved back home to Huntsville and just went down to visit the guys and everybody went crazy. And I heard about it.

I said, can somebody get me his number? And I don't even remember who it was at that point, but we called and I called, I called, he called, whatever the fuck, we talked. And I said, we got to do some stuff because this is just when they were starting to do fan fest. on a regular basis in a variety of places and the Charlotte wrestling reunion. And I was doing stuff with Ring of Honor right about that time with Gabe Sapolsky. And Gabe had asked, hey, you can get these guys

for a reunion, for a shoot interview, blah, blah, blah. Sure, and that's kind of what kicked it off. And then from, I guess, September of 2004 for the next six or seven years, there was a lot of Midnight Express matches at various reunions and things. And even that dagam, Tony Hunter that was running Lenore, North Carolina,

did a Rock and Roll Express and Midnight Express program in Lenore, North Carolina, and had like three or four straight sellouts of like 1,500 people. In like 2006 or, whatever when that just wasn't done. And they, I remember they did

a big show against the Steiner's in Georgia drew like a $30,000 house. So the people were still interested. Even, you know, I had OVW going on and couldn't do a lot of them, but I'd do the big ones. And that's how

we were able to do like the 20th anniversary was really our reunion. 1984 to 2004, and then the 25th anniversary was the scrapbook and we did shit. And the 40th anniversary was the action figures. And of course, that, for a variety of reasons, that's the last anniversary that we said we were going to have anyway. But it's been, Dennis probably got more appreciation for the reunions and the fan and the stuff he's done over the last 20 years

than he did wrestling for 20 when people weren't as smart to how much he was having to do with making the whole thing work. Yeah, was that a weird thing for him at all? Going to conventions or fan get-togethers and the heat is gone. No one's looking to punch him or get to him. The fans are happy to meet him and see him.

And from what I know, a lot of the wrestlers were happy to meet him because they had been watching him. And if you're a wrestler and you watch Midnight Express matches, they stand out. Well, and again, that's the thing I said at the start of this is that, you know, your favorite so-and-so's favorite so-and-so. Look at the variety of people that have said from, as I said from, I saw Nick Aldous wrote something really nice. But, I mean, anybody from the Hardee's to FTR to Arne Anderson has always. said the best tag team he ever saw was Bob Eaton and Dennis Condry. To guys that worked with them, everybody knew that already. It's just not the first thing, you know, that you always

convey to people, you know, when they see you at a fan fest, hey, by the way, did I tell you, somebody else is the best guy I ever saw, you know, but they felt that. And, you know, that's sometimes why the, maybe the musicians that are most respected within the music, music industry as being great musicians are not necessarily the biggest names, or the best fighters, or the best actors, or whatever, the best is. But the other people that do that know and recognize who the best is or was. Well, of course, he was one of the best, Midnight Express to a lot of us, best tag team ever, but to other people, at a minimum, one of the top tag teams of all time.

And as you said, an outpouring of support and love that we've seen on social media and via email from listeners, wrestlers, coworkers alike. Everyone's thinking to Dennis Conjury. Well, and that's, again, I just want to mention it. If anybody can support the GoFundMe, it is going to Teresa, his wife, who, you know, again now, was thinking that she was retiring to spend, you know, some. time with and that's the thing Dennis loved her to death. I didn't think he could be that domesticated to that degree, but he just loved her and you know, she's dealing with a lot now with, you know, nobody else to really stand up and hold her up. So obviously her friends and we at all are going to do what we can do in a variety of ways to support. But

You know, she's got the rest of her life to think about now. So I hope everybody will do something with the GoFundMe, but also just if you can't or even if you do also do this, just remember how influential of a person he was, how good he was at what he did. Even if you didn't watch him himself, he gave you entertainment because of all the people that stole all the shit that they used to do

that still do it today and you don't know it. Including the Ms. The Ms. And his fucking full Nelson facebuster that can't hold a candle. But the things that they learned either by being in the ring with the guy

or by his intermittent stints of training or doing coaching at camps or just watching video, the wrestlers you like learned how to, to do something from this guy. And I wish that more of them would learn how to do more of those things because nobody works like Dennis Condry in the business these days and hasn't, hasn't ever, but especially for a long time. So anyway, that's the program, I guess, for now.

I'm sure I'll think of all the things that I forgot as soon as we stopped doing this, but we probably ought to stop doing this, I mean. Is this yours or mine, Brian? This is your show. We'll be back in a few days on the drive-thru. and of course next week here on the experience. Until then, thanks. Bye, bye, everybody.