Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 398

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews John Cena's pipe bomb, & reads letters he received from Eddie Gilbert! Plus From The Files: Paul Heyman, Night Of Champions preview, and Dynamite Grand Slam Mexico ratings! Also, Jim answers YOUR questions about Kerry Von Erich, Ranger Ross, Martin Kove, bad TV time slots for wrestling, manager ejections, happy feet, songs, and much more!  Thanks to our episode sponsors: CORNBREAD HEMP:  Save 30% on your first order and free shipping on orders over $75! Just head to cornbreadhemp.com/jce and use code JCE at checkout. RIDGE:  Upgrade your wallet today! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code JCE at https://ridge.com/JCE! #Ridgepod Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ 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.

drop paper. All right. Hello again, friends. And you are our friends. Another happy edition. Summertime edition. It's summertime and the living is easy. Welcome to Jim Cornett's drive-through. I'm your host of the great Brian last. We have a lot to get through today. Let's see how we do as we are recording. It is the hottest day of the year. And it's only about to get hotter with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornette, Mr. Hothead himself, Jim Cornett. Hop-she-bop summertime. Yeah, what's your due point? There, fella.

What is your due point? I'll match you. I'll match you. Son of a gun, you're right up there. What's your air temperature? 96 maybe. I don't have, you let me check the dew point. They didn't even check the real temperature.

Jesus, craye. Okay, it is officially hotter. in New Jersey than it is down. And where you live with all the forests around you and the big feats and everything, it's even cooler out there. It's hotter in New Jersey than it is down in Kentucky. It's 93 here with a due point of around the metropolitan area

that's being reported anywhere from ones I saw 70 to 74. So you got us. But we all got the heat index where you can't walk outside. inside the refrigerated cocoons that we have built for ourselves, you and I, where it's, it's, the living is easy. As long as you don't venture out into the world where it slaps you in the face. Fucking, I know there are people that listen to this show around the world. I understand 3% of them in our Australia.

I don't know what the weather's like down there right now. But imagine that you go into your bathroom, you turn the shower on full hot blast, close leave, close the door and let it run for 30 minutes and it walked back into it. Is that what it feels like to you there Brian last? It's bad and it was bad early in the morning when I went outside

of the Wakswami at like 7 a.m. I'm like, oh, it's already hot and bomby. This is not a good start to the day. Oh, no, the lows are not going below like the high 77, 78 with humidity for the night. So the first thing when you walk out, it's and

then you're struggling to breathe with the air quiet. You're right next to New York. So imagine all of that rat shit and bum vomit on the streets of New York City that is baking in that heat and wafting in your general direction. I know. New York City's really hot. When I used to work there and I'd get off the Long Island Railroad, I had two options. Take the subway, which is go underground on the hottest day there is and sweat more.

Or I could just walk. and that's what I would do. I would get a good work out. Now, here's a question. Here's a question that I've never thought of before. The subway is not air condition? Is there air conditioning in... In the subway itself.

I've never been in the subway. The subway station, oh no, oh no. The subway itself, yeah, there may be probably is. Draw a... For those of us like me who have always lived in civilized places our entire lives and didn't have to scurry about and tubes underground like rodents in a fucking science display.

How does that work? I've seen the entrances. We've walked past them. Remember you and I probably walked past one where I said, I would never go down and that son of a bitch. You go in there and I've seen the movies. Pelham 1, 2, 3.

That's the example. That's the example of the subway? The one with Walter Mathau now, not the fucking remake where they fucked it all up. But that's, I've seen the subway. It's, it's a, there's a platform and the, the, everything, that's not, there's no air down there. there's no air flowing around where you're standing around.

No. And usually those are the days where the subway's late. So you're just standing there and they heat while some lunatics like taking off his clothes and another person's playing music and. Are, are they, are they working together as the person taking their clothes off to the beat of the music? Seriously, I've seen some amazing musicians. the subway. And all I'm thinking is they're sweating all day while they're making this great

music. I'll give them $8 for the CD. But what about the strippers? Have you seen amazing strippers in the subway? No, amazing strippers. That's a great name. Well, amazing strippers. How sweet their tits. Tonight on Amazing Strippers. She has four tits. amazing that the extra nipple thing could probably make you a tip but anyway but you think the weather is bad here Brian have you heard about what happened

in the news it's just a brief news bulletin update what happened this weekend in Florida no actually weather related no I do not know anything about the weather in Florida currently between I don't know the exact number but between four and five people got hit by lightning in Florida this past weekend. And you always hear,

oh, you got as much chance of being hit by lightning. Apparently it's quite common in Florida. Four people this weekend. That's four or five. That's apparently three in one clump. What county? They didn't mention the county.

I mean, it's a big state where they all in like the same area? Was it just all over the state? Well, no, it was been brand. The three were in the same place, and they all got hit together, and then the other one, or ones or whatever, but it's just a bunch of people got hit by lightning.

You see, you're trying to pick this apart to the point of the thing. If you get hit by lightning in Jacksonville, and another guy gets hit by lightning at Key West, it's kind of like being in two different places, not the same state, even though it is. Well, you know what? We're going to argue this point about how far things are from things here a little bit later on into program,

but nevertheless, there's a buttload of people who got hit by, fucking lightning in Florida. The three women said they were, the storm came up and they were bundled under a teaky hut. And bam, apparently, even though the lightning did not hit the teaky hut in question, it apparently traveled through the ground.

And they said, they were near enough to them. They said the next thing that they knew, they woke up disoriented, I think was the quay. And I can identify with that as a former lightning, strikey kids if you haven't heard

the story I'm sure it's on YouTube you look up lightning striking cornet or whatever the fuck not the ones that people wish on me but the actual stories that I've told of that before but anyhow I just thought that was odd

that strange things keep happening do you think this is where's Nanny remember Nanny and the professor I don't know what the hell's going on over there. I do not know nanny and the professor. What's that? Oh, that was the...

No, with Juliet Mills and Richard Long, the 60s situation comedy, where the professor got a nanny for the kids, and she was a... Well, I hate to say the word witch. That sounds derogatory, but she was supernatural of Phoebe Figuillil. There's a silly name,

and so many silly things keep happening. Has this ever been in reruns? I've never seen this. What is that magic thing they call? old nanny. Oh, well, I saw it first run. You know, that's a show that ought to be rerun more often. How many episodes were there?

Probably not enough. But she made magic with the things she did. And I believe she either levitated or flew about. And this was the same time as Bewitch? Well, goddamn, just Google it then now, because I don't have my reference material where I can reach with my headphones on Nanny and the Professor. They were on ABC.

Oh, here it is. Nanny and the Professor, early 70s. It aired from January 21st, 1970 to December 27th, 1971. There you go, concurrent with Bewitch, because Bewitch ran till 72. And there's two seasons, three seasons, excuse me, so they should have enough episode, well, 15 months.

No, were they a mid-season replacement? did they get canceled in the mid-season? Only 54 episodes were completed. Yeah. And for early 70s network, a full season at that point was still, what, 30 episodes? Because it was 39 in the old days. The series first aired as a mid-season replacement on January 21st, 1970 on ABC, with the final episode broadcast December 27, 71.

The series enjoyed initial success due to its Friday. night time slot when it was scheduled between the Brady Bunch and the Partridge family. Well, it murderers row. Which were shows aimed at similar demographics. Ratings suffered in the third season when ABC moved the series to Monday night opposite Gunsmoke and Rowan and Martin's laughing. Oh, the death slot! After the series was canceled, it was seen for a few years in syndication. It was also one of the first shows rerun on the FX network in 1994. The show was added to the Get TV's lineup in May 2016 for a short time and briefly appeared on Nick at Night.

Well, there you go. Oh, Ray Bulger. Ray Bulger played Uncle Horace. That's right. That is correct. He wasn't a horse. His name was Horace. Because that was a whole other show with a different gimmick.

All right, this is your show. No, it's not, but I've got to take you a somebody is taking you to task, and I've got to let you know about this. Make you aware of this, there's been somewhat of a sanction sent down. We've gotten a letter from the people. We've heard from them a time or two before, but the people at Nags, you remember Nags and find esteemed organization that they are, Brian? I have no idea what Nags is, no.

The North American gerbling society. Oh, Jesus Christ, this? No, we've heard. of them before. We've heard what we've heard from them on a matter or two before,

but a dear Jim, it has come to our attention here at Nags, the North American gerbling society, that Brian Last has violated his oath and the bylaws of our beloved society.

On a recent episode of the drive-through, Brian Last denied that there were any creatures or pets frolicking across and therefore tickling the avories of

his organ. Because remember I accused you on one of these solos you played, like, you know, fucking Richie Blackmore on bad assid or whatever. I said, you've got just random critters, squirrels, rodents, marmosets, whatever they may be. Running across your keyboard is making that sound and you denied that. And they go on to say, in fact, it was a gerbil. producing those notes, and it's a gerbil that tickles more than one organ belonging to Brian Last. Brian will deny this when confronted, which is simply susceptible. Yeah, of course. It will break his heart, but henceforth, Brian Last is disfellowshipped.

And forfeits any rights and pleasures previously afforded to him by Nags, North American Gerbling Society. It's signed by Vince R. and the vice president. Vince R. Yeah, Vince R. Okay. Vince R and Kenny O, they're a tag team vice and president. Well, you know what they are.

Oh, yeah. But that came to my attention. There's people with a lot of time. Well, no. People, they take this quite seriously. Oh, there he goes. Oh, yeah, see? That was the piano, not the organ.

Come back, George. Would you like to hear from a, this is a, this didn't go through the official channels for the drive-through, but it follows up on something that we talked about here a week or two ago, however long it's been, kind of one of the subjects that we were talking about, we now have a, this was emailed directly to me because I don't know whether they considered your email possibly, trusted enough, maybe the fucking foreign menaces have hacked into it or whatever. This was sent to me by back channel. Hello, hello back channel.

Well, no, we, when I, I'm telling you right now that my channel will remain in the back. We have, we have, your gerbils remain too, your back channel. We have now, stop it talking about them. They're innocent animals. We have eyewitness testimony from a normal human being. that has gone to the garbage wrestling show that has ventured out into that subculture or underculture or lack of culture

or whatever they call it and has gone to one of the garbage shows to report back to us here in the main world of logic and reason. Would you like to hear some of the observations, Brian? I don't know where you're going, so this will be interesting. All of a sudden you're getting these firsthand reports

from people about these things. I don't know. Well, it's it, you know, I'm telling you most of the time, you know, you are filtering out the drek for me and sending me the interesting stuff. But every once in a while, somebody sends it to me via my own email. Good day to you, gentlemen. I committed a sin against the wrestling business and I wanted to confess this folly to none other than the leader of the cult of Cornette at COC himself and his trustee co-host. Last night, June 20th, I attended a garbage championship wrestling show in Little Rock. They're running Little Rock now.

One of the, you would think one of the more traditionally minded markets in the country, not exceptive to such tomfoolery, right? But he says, I've never watched a GCW show before and had no idea the event was taking place until they announced the return of Elena Black, F-K-A Cora-Jade of WWE fame. So she's one of the young ladies that they recently released that we then has gone back to using her, I guess, her regular real or older assumed name.

Does that pass the name test for you, Elena Black? It ain't bad. I can't see nothing wrong right now. I'm just on the surface of it with Elena Black. But wait. Uh-oh. There is more. So apparently we'll get back to the email.

He's Elena Black, formerly Corridged. I saw an opportunity to support a wrestler that I'm a big fan of. Wrestlers have to make a living somehow. So I shelled out 70 smackaroos for a front row twit. I shelled out 70 smackaroos for a front row ticket quicker than Dick the Boozer blades himself. Plus, it's only a two-hour drive from Memphis, so I figured why not.

He must be supporting her. $70 for a ticket to an independent, using that term politely, wrestling show and driving two hours each way. I also subscribe to her only fans, and I know what her birthday is. This sounds a little creepy. But no, no, he's actually,

you know, you'll see he has somewhat of a level head to him despite this, it might work out in the end is what I'm saying to you. He continues, the apprehension that stood inside of my gut over this decision only intensified when they announced that Elena would be facing jelly fucking Nutella. He's wrestling women in Little Rock now. If there's any parole officers that need to know any kind of information. So this email writer says When I left an unfavorable comment on a Facebook post

in regards to the skinny fat fuck Joey himself saw my remark and responded with Sell your ticket, we don't want you there. And he enclosed, he attached a screenshot of him saying this. Bubba Smith is his name, by the way. And he's attached to screenshot of him. saying I bought a front row ticket for this as soon as they announced her

and I've been nervous about attending Garbage Championship wrestling ever since and seeing her booked versus Jellin Nattella. I love Elena, but man, I don't know what this last line means, but it might mean. I hope the Twin Peaks in Little Rock is good because I'm fearful of this show.

Is that a diner or a local establishment? TV show didn't take place in Little Rock. I have no idea. Well, anyway, Joey Janella responds. That might, there you go. That sounds like it. The Twin Peaks, yeah. But he responded, sell your ticket.

We don't want you there to the random fans that are buying a ticket for seven dollars. By the way, where is he supposed to sell it? Oh, there's a big secondary market in tickets to Twin Peaks. Oh, I was the wrestling show. Yeah, that might not be so easy. especially if if he could buy a front row ticket to the show as soon as they announced her

was she the first fucking thing they announced hey that fan you were going at it with on social media is outside how do you know there's a guy out there scalping tickets he's one ticket from his all the fans are bringing back tickets from last show for a refund anyway back to the email it was at this moment that I decided to wear my cornet face shirt to the

show so that everyone would know that I wasn't there to enjoy their tomfoolery waiting in line for the doors to open in that oppressive Arkansas humidity had us all sweating as Chris Candido would say like Marilyn Manson at a Baptist revival which only amplified the smell from the lack of those around me applying proper personal care products I felt as though I was the only one in attendance who had not partaken in a mild altering substance of some description. Once doors were open and a man with no pinky finger on his left hand, waved me through with his metal detecting wand. Is that the first time that those English words have ever been put together in an order

before? Yeah, I mean, maybe the guy had an accident. I don't want to laugh. We don't know who this pinkyless man is. Well, maybe he just didn't deliver the package properly. If you have no pinky, do you think your nickname is Pinky? No, I think your nickname is, don't do it again, motherfucker. We'll take the whole hand.

But anyway, so Bubba here grabbed a beer and stood in a bemused state of what I'd gotten into. That was until a fine gentleman approached and recited the official Kakwu greeting. No. Remember the cult of Cornette wrestling integrity watchers. Cockoo! to which we then interlocked our middle fingers and said, fuck them. It was nice to see at least one other level-headed human being

and that bunch of nuts. I can't believe that. Come on. Well, no, they know the, you know, because he had the shirt. You haven't even addressed that stupid, whatever, cock woo, over a year. Well, it's an underground thing that people know about that are in the know. Bell time came upon us and the ring announcer hyped everyone up

by screaming fuck multiple times, in between other words that I didn't care to listen to. This is a long email, so I will skip through some things, but there was a fat guy with a fat jitsu gimmick, but he couldn't work, and he whiffed his shit. And then apparently Louisville's own Billy Starks

took on Adam Priest. And apparently, They do much of the interspecies type wrestling here with the men and the women. Gender, not species. Well, whichever. But anyway, the baby face got an upset win over the dick heel. So the girls beat the guys here too. Match number three was for the tag team championship when the team of Buck Nasty,

consisting of Buck Skinner, S-K-Y-N-Y-R. You read that right, there's no D to be had here. And a guy named Rob Schitt came out, slapped hands with fans, jumped the two grimacing pipsqueak champions, ringside brawling, furniture in the ring, all four were doing what they wanted for several minutes until suddenly two of the participants were on the apron getting tagged in. This didn't last long as all four were soon back in the ring doing shit to each other until the Pipsqueaks won.

Then they had Blake Christian versus a Japanese wrestling girl whose name escapes me. So there's another, oh, when Blake dove outside the ring and the Japanese girl held up a door that Blake landed into, he sent the door hurtling towards a woman two seats down from me, knocking her in the face. 877-50 Steve. Stone Cold hit the barricaded mania, Nick Con was there to immediately check on the woman who was selling like Sean Michaels did against Hogan.

Yet the woman next to me got hit in the face by a door just to be quickly asked, are you okay by some fat Yutz wearing a t-shirt that he forgot to take out of the dryer? Skipping ahead, Elena Black. I'm fond of her in the way that Brian is fond of Anna J. Who I'm also fond of as well. Athleticism?

He doesn't, he just, he leaves it there. Nevertheless, Jelly Nutella brought this down for me. They had a garbage match. So now they've got intergender species garbage matches after they've already had the regular intergender species matches on the show. It pained me to see a woman of Elena's caliber have to resort to this. Jelly threw a chair at Elena's head, then did the Sabu pose, which made me hang my head in shame. He really does think he's some badass wrestler who's doing this wonderfully.

They used chairs and fought on the floor until Jelly won. This left me feeling like a balloon three weeks after the party. So he beats the girl and the ex-WWE star that might have drawn to draw one guy. And he beats a girl. And then... Hey, listen, I think he may dominate the women's division if he keeps us up. But wait a minute. He then got on the microphone to thank Elena and tell us that they put on a show for us.

Geez, Jelly, thanks for telling me. I thought you were doing this bullshit for the flies fucking in the restroom. their championship Effie, the champion, defended against action Mike Jackson. The Mike Jackson, he's 70, what is it, six? I've known Mike Jackson for,

I watched Mike Jackson on TV when I was a kid. Really, seriously. He's amazing, but they were in Arkansas. I thought Alabama, but no, Arkansas, but nevertheless, back to the email after 50 years in the business. Actually, it's 55.

I wonder of being in the ring with a man wearing fish nets and acting like a less gay Orlando Jordan was the lowest point of Mike's career. Fee won, and I realized that's where he got his name because I asked myself, why the F is he in the wrestling business? Effie then got on the bike and said he's been doing this for 11 years and hopes his career is bountiful is as bountiful as the 70-year-old man's is

who just lost to a man wearing fishnets. He didn't say that verbatim, but I was thinking it. Well, it seems like good sportsmanship, at least after these matches. Everyone gets on the mic and thanks to our opponent. Yes, and I appreciate the opportunity to whip this 70-year-old man here today or this 120-pound girl.

Finally, time for the main thing. event, Shotsie Blackheart versus some hot topic-looking motherfucker. I'm not sure. Is that a guy or a girl? I don't know. But let's read the description. We'll try to figure if it, this was exactly what I knew it would be. They fought in places I couldn't even see, did some sloppy shit, jabbed skewers into

their head. And the match ended when Shotsie was slammed through glass. Oh, wait. No, it didn't. The glass was a two count. The hot topic reject fuck. Then picked Shotsie up and gave her an inverted DDT. Instead of your standard DDT, this move sees person A grab person B like they're about to do a running bulldog.

But instead person A just falls belly first to the mat, driving B head first along with them. wouldn't that mean that you're doing a face plant to yourself as well? Hello? I guess so. Well, then how the fuck is that supposed to? Here, let's both commit suicide? What is that? How are you going to beat somebody with something when it knocks you the fuck out?

Nevertheless, and I grabbed a piece of the glass to examine, and I've attached a picture of it for you to see also. they asked me if it was sugar glassed, I told them I hadn't tasted it to check. I couldn't really tell anything by the picture. But yeah, and also they have doors under the ring for the guys and girls to set up on chairs and put themselves through.

Instead of tables, he said, I thought if only there were already in existence, some sort of contraption made a particle board with folding legs that could be used instead of erecting this dumb shit. I've seen that before. There was a, this, it has to be years ago now

because I was actually at a wrestling show. But they say, oh, they don't make the right kind of tables anymore. We're having a hard time finding right kind of tables. So they were just getting like the light wood grade door with no knob or hinge or anything in it from Home Depot.

And I said, well, what sense does it make to have a fucking bear? empty goddamn unfarnished, unfinished fucking door stacked up. Even the table could be used for something. But what, well, we can't get the tables. It don't have the fucking tables. All right. That's just me.

What was the name of this guy that sent them this email? Bubba. Bubba Smith. Thank you, Bubba. Never send anything in again. But thank you. What? I thought it was a good.

He's a bore. He doesn't know how to write an interesting. dissertation of what the average person has to put up with. The average person? When they go to one of these things. Okay, okay. All right.

One more thing I found because, you know, we've been talking about my files and I've been going through stuff that I'd been stacked in the drawer, etc. And it's all over the place. But some of this stuff I realized, because I've moved a number of times, these two things right here may never have left this house for 20 years until we had everything

remodeled. But it ties into what some of the things that we've been talking about in our discussions this season about the Eddie Gilbert dark side of the ring, the Eddie Gilbert wrestling news file, the different ways that Eddie, you know, was preparing for getting in the business, et cetera. And I found two letters from him from 1982. Would you like to hear a couple of excerpts? Yeah. Or excerpts real quick.

No, the previous episodes were really good. So I want to hear those excerpts. I'll tell you what. 82. So 81, him and Ricky Morton were teaming up in Memphis, 83 or the end of 82, he goes to the WWF. Was he in Puerto Rico or is he already in WWF? Well, hold on.

because remember did I tell the story when we talked about the dark side of the ring episode with Evan Husty or we talked about it afterwards when it aired but remember the Christmas time that Eddie and Tommy at the end of 1981 because Reagan Morton had already left territory Eddie and Tommy Gilbert were teaming at the end of 81 and they got in the Christmas punch at the Louisville Gardens

Oh, that's right. You remember me telling you that story. Christine Jarrett flipping out because the Gilbert's got into the punch. The Gilbert's got in the spiked punch, right? Well, I found this and I looked at it and I said, my God, I don't even remember this ever existed. But this is a letter from Eddie, January 15th, 1982. And he always dated his letters, thank goodness. Then it's a letter. It's not an email that didn't exist. It's on notebook paper.

And he wrote to give me his new address. That's when they went to Kansas City, or at least he did. Tommy may have gone somewhere else, but Eddie went to Kansas City for a brief time. And he gave me his new address because he's, I need some more black and white 8 by 10s. Like he gave me before, I was still the photographer, right? So, and Eddie's always won pictures for publicity. but he said, I really hated what happened in Louisville that night, but I just had to let my feelings out. When I saw this, it's like, oh, my God.

Oh, wow. I forgot. He said, if you just knew how they treated my dad all the time, he wrestled there and then started on me, I think you would have to blow your top also. I talked to your mother about it one night right before I left. I hope you or her don't hold nothing against me and my dad for all of that. Whoa.

So this is interesting because all those stories about Eddie and the office having issues in Memphis, you started hearing him from like 88 on. This is him before he ever booked or did anything. He flipped out. What happened? What do you remember? Well, I'm no, remember? I said originally it started with, as I recall, being the ringside photographer,

one of the ringside fans, hecklin fucking Eddie for being the young baby-faced little kid. it looked like he was 12 years old with time and Tommy got mad and as remember as I said the manager of the Louisville Gardens what was her goddamn name that not germane to the story now or maybe it was Alantee one of the administrators of the Louisville gardens had brought punch and a little Christmas because it was right before the holidays set up in the back and somebody had spiked the punch and Tommy and Eddie had gotten a punch and Tommy was picking his the ringside fan and it ended up and they're the baby faces. Tommy and Eddie both jumped down and went into ringside.

There was shoving and the cops got them back and then they went in the back and there was some yelling and hoopla going on. But at that time, I couldn't go down to locker rooms. I didn't know the full effect of it, but that's when teeny afterwards it said, oh, they pitched a fit and, you know, but apparently Eddie had a policy. to my mom at the show. I can't remember that. It's just 45 years ago.

Well, that's interesting, too. I mean, you know, Eddie is a little different than other wrestlers because he was your contemporary and you knew him before he was a wrestler and you guys both went to the WFIA and everything. But did other guys know your mom? The fact that he apologized to your mom and spoke to your mom about all this is interesting.

Well, yeah, only because she was there constantly. If we were at Evansville, I was at ringside taking pictures, she was selling the pictures at the merchandise stand. The same thing in Louisville. We were out in and out the back door carrying the stuff. They interacted, Constit, Lexington. I think I'm not going to rule out that Eddie might not have taken a couple trips with us. Because my mom, as I've told you, like me, I don't ride in a car with anybody else driving.

My mom didn't ride in a car with anybody else driving. So if I went and she went, she was driving. So, no, there was all kinds of interaction. Oh, and the, but hold on, there's something else, but the P.S. on this letter is, tell Loller, I said, hello. Yeah. See, that's fucking funny. Oh, my God.

Yeah, right, but my new phone number is 816, blah, blah, blah. Your friend Eddie Gilbert, PS, tell Loller, I said hello. The way that was phrased about how the office is. How did he say how the office is treated his dad? What was the exact thing he said there? If you just knew how they treated my dad all the time he wrestled there and then started on me. But what do you think that is? I mean, is that basically a kid hearing his dad come home and vent about the office and then?

I'm wondering, did Tommy have some of the, is it, was it paranoia or conspiracy theory or whatever that Eddie was talked about having in Darkside, did he pass it on? Because Tommy was a huge baby face here for years. And I don't know that there was ever a problem with him and Jared because he worked in Jarrett's territory as much after the split as he had worked for Goulas beforehand. Eddie Marlin and Tommy Gilbert had been tag team part of.

were the top baby face tag team and Eddie was in the office by that point in time being Jared's father-in-law of I you know I don't I wasn't involved behind the scenes early enough to see how Tommy had been treated to quote unquote ever since he'd wrestled there which had been 15 years at that point on and off and then the way Eddie said started in on me what does he mean is he I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. He got a push right away in 79.

He got a push in 81. But they didn't push him past Lawler. I mean, could that be the issue? Well, no, no. At this point in time, no, this is January 1980. Eddie's a month older than I am. So he was at this point 20 years old. But no, that would, but I don't know.

But I got another one here. hold on here. Listen to the other fucking side of the coin. September 7th, 1988. Because we talked about the, the, he had a history of being down

about stuff, but then being up about stuff, right? He said, first, thank you again for getting the photos done for me. I appreciate it. Blah, blah, blah. But now listen to this. Now listen to this. Two hours, it had forgotten. I'd got this also. Two hours.

after I got off the phone with you, George Napolitano called me and told me that I was to call Vince McMahon. Oh, wow. At the Holiday Inn, the same place Barnett and the alliance meeting was held. So, of course, I called his room. The first thing he, and this is senior, by the way, because this is September of 82. The first thing he told me was he had an assignment for me to go to Japan to work with Tiger Mask and remember that happened did it not or did they had a match in the garden

no it wasn't the garden I don't think I think it may have been Philadelphia they wrestled when Tiger Mask came on a tour of the WWF in 1983 wrestled against Eddie I don't remember Eddie going to Japan though did he go to so it was when Tiger Mask came here but I thought they did that in the garden

maybe maybe it runs but I don't remember that match in the garden i could be wrong though never though they had the match somewhere but he says then he asked me if i would be interested in coming to work in new york boy was i in shock he said he was impressed with me at the meeting did he go to the nwa meeting yeah i had heard that before i don't know if it was uh that year or the year before it must have been that year although it was that year yeah because george napolitano said call him in his room at the holiday inn yes well then that's why he said

same place, Barnett, an alliance meeting was held. And he went to the alliance meeting. And that's the year before Barnett and Vince Senior and Vince Jr. resigned because that was September 83, right? Yes. So there you go. But he told me to call him back this week to set something up. Now, I've still got to call Barnett back.

So apparently he was going to go, I have probably two of the biggest offers in my life. I've still got to call Barnett back so I don't know what to do. And we know what he did do. But so apparently Barnett wanted him to come to Atlanta at the same time. What was the date? September 7, 1982. Well, because on page two, at any rate, thanks again for sending the photos to Atlanta for me. So that.

Think about a three months later, Barnett got pushed out by Oli. Because if Eddie had gone there, who knows what, who knows if Eddie Gilbert and Oli Anderson at that point would have coexisted well together? Yeah. But the other way it was, they ended up together in the end because Barnett went north. I thought you meant in 1990. They all ended up working together.

Okay, and also, and here's the last bit, but also congratulations on your future manager duties. I'd just done my first two weeks of TV, right? Keep in mind what we were talking about if I get back any time in the future. I don't remember what we were talking about. But again, this was 43 years ago. Would he have ever talked to you about managing him back then?

That may have been a thing. I don't know. Anyway, take care and tell your mom. Hello, also Lawler, Miss Christine, and Randy Hales, if you see. There you go. Wow. I had not even remembered that these two letters existed. That first letter, again, I hate to go back to it, but I'm fascinated by the idea that, you know, all the paranoia that Eddie had and people attributed it to different things from drug use.

and I don't think it was just that to his height in the business, to his injury. But you never really hear a lot about, you know, was that just him? You know, was it Tommy? Was it Tommy in the way Tommy talked about the business in the car and talked about people? Well, remember the, and again, I didn't know in 1979, let's say, that I was going to be needing to be dissecting people's intentions in this fashion, front of worldwide consumption, you know, 50 fucking years later or whatever. But Tini always said, the Gilbert's are moody.

And that, in her polite southern way, the Gilberts are moody. But Tommy was used very well and was always, I mean, at the end, I can't remember what year Tommy was born, but in, like what I managed him, when he was the masked ace of spades in 1983, when he was shortly to go to Louisiana and become a referee. It was the end of his career. No, they didn't put him on top then,

but he'd been a fucking main event guy on and off for the Goulis, Welch, and Jarrett companies for ages and eons. And I don't know if he was going to get that kind of push anywhere else, to be honest. No, and he... He did, he was an excellent worker that in the 70s in some of the territories, he went to West Texas, worked for the Funks. And I think he had a run in Florida at one point where he could hang in the ring,

but he didn't, he didn't have the promo to be a top baby face unless the hometown native of Lexington, Tennessee, helped him in the Tennessee territory. And then because he was just like one of them, their fucking brother-in-law or whatever the fuck. And what a baby face. But he could be a heck of a fucking heel. And I think in another territory, he probably got a heck of a lot of heat just from the shit that he did in the ring.

But that was his primary baby face in Tennessee was his primary calling. I drove him a couple of times when they worked for Dennis for those. Eddie Gilbert Memorial shows and we're all staying. What, crazy? No, very funny. I like Tommy. He was a very nice guy. I got to see if it wasn't his last match,

it must have been one of them, him against Dory Funk Jr. Well, and the Gilberts and the Funk's, you know, got along, and the Gilberts all looked up to and respected the Funk family. But it's your show.

Were those all your Eddie letters? I mean, not to ask you to go through more of them right now, but did he keep sending you letters through the years? Well, no, there's a few other things that I glanced at that didn't appear to be, to earth shaking either, you know, here's my new address. There's my new address in Puerto Rico, but not in 1995 in fucking 1988 or whatever it was, too.

And thanks for the figure. I've got to know when Riggie Morton and Ken Lucas went to, God damn it, was it, Alabama or Oklahoma, they kept getting their pictures for me because poor Lil Al Vavasor had been run out of the business by then. and I've just, I kept notes that, you know, for like Ricky, you would say, thanks for the pictures, Jimmy, here's your check. P.S. Stiggett in your ear. You know, just shit like that.

I'll assemble in a book one day. Would the people like to see a book of just my ephemera? Just the shit that I have collected over, just reproduced over the course of 50 years. If done well, if done nicely, if presented in the proper context, yes. Well, what about if just shoved into your hand on a, a street corner in Las Vegas and with the other handout saying, give me a quarter. That sounds like a lot of the authors in professional wrestling nowadays.

No, I don't know. I think people would love to see that kind of stuff. I think people love especially correspondence to just see one way or, in some cases, two-way back and forth communication. It's cool. And here's an example. It kind of opens a door in terms of how history happened. It's not a major part of history, but Eddie Gilbert writing to you to say that George

Napolitano put him in touch with Vince McMahon, and that's what led him to go into the WWF, that's news. Well, not news, but that's history. So I think it's really cool. Well, and also the thing is, I've seen that as generations go by, back in the old days, you have more of the shit that people sent to you and not a lot of the shit that you sent to them. But recently, it's because you've either typed, you've made a carbon copier, then faxed it,

or then emailed it, you've got the shit you sent to other people, but you might not have the shit they sent to you. So, I'm trying to sort this out in the deck. I've only got what six decades to work with. So

I'm trying to kind of narrow it down and get it filed there. Jim, why don't we right now pick up from where we left off on the experience because when we ended the program, we did not have AEW ratings for a grand slam in Mexico City at a arena, Mexico, and we now have them.

We, we, we, we now have that. And to be honest, you know, by the time that the holiday intermingled itself and everything, it's kind of a, we had the total, but we didn't have the breakdown. So it's kind of anticlimactic, but I, I have to see, and I want your suppositions and theories on how the fuck they managed to wangle. was an extra 100,000 people with more wrestlers on the show that have never been heard of before unless, is this the 100,000 disconnected fans of Lucha

that have moved to the United States that haven't been able to follow these guys? Or was this 100,000 American citizens tuning in to see what the fuck was with these guys. Was this the end of the basketball season? We don't know. And another question is if this is a successful formula. I don't think any of these luchadors play basketball. If this is a successful formula,

why not just have random wrestlers just run out all night every week? It doesn't even have to be the same people. Let's see if the theory works. Jim, AW Dynamite Wednesday, June 18th, 2025. On average, watched by 736,000 viewers. and up what a hundred thousand from last week again looking at the trend line it's well above the 90 day trend last week was 597

oh geez 140 four week average 616 so obviously this is well above everything they've been doing lately let's go to the quarter hour breakdowns these were compiled by wrestlenomics quarter one hangman adam pages promo in spanish Stokely Hathaway's ramp promo and the entrances for the first match, 777,000 viewers. So not only is that an intriguing number, 77,000, but they're going to keep a fairly solid number of these people through most of the program because that's almost their average. Well, we go to quarter 2, 815, 8.30 p.m. Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Templario, Bandito, Adam Cole, Brody King, and Daniel Garcia, versus Volador Jr., Dax Harwood, Hatchero, and the Don Callis family with picture and picture,

750,000 viewers. And there you get, 27,000. They've never, lose the minor amount of 27,000 from quarter one to two. This is amazing. Well, we go to quarter three, 830 to 845 p.m. The continuation of that gigantic match, a recap, an ad break, and the start of Mark Briscoe versus Kuzhka Okada,

77,000 viewers. And they go back to quarter one for the first time in history is that the that's that's the first time ever well we're going out of quarter four eight forty five to nine p.m. Continuation of briscoe versus Okada with picture and picture post match with don callus and an ad break 771,000 viewers.

Is this one of those deals where the fucking button gets stuck and is just spamming. Is that what they call it? Go ahead. Well, we're going out of quarter five, the big nine o'clock hour, 9 to 9.15 p.m. Mystico versus MJF with picture and picture

801,000 viewers. You lie! And that is the high point of the night. That is, that has to be the first time. ever that they've done a bigger number on the top of the first hour or the top of the second hour than they've done at the beginning of the show again i've been on for almost six years i don't know if it's the only time but i can't remember another one i double fucking i can't double dog dear yet doesn't apply i bet you something how about your double dog no you leave my double dog alone.

Mama don't take my double dog. Mama don't take my double dog away. I'll bet you an unspecified sum if anybody proves me right and you wrong. We're going out of quarter 6, 915, and 9.30 p.m. The continuation of Mystico v. MJF, the post match with the Hurt Syndicate,

Bandito, Templario, Titan, jet, speed, and then ad break speed, meth, crank. Followed by entrances for the next match. 794,000 viewers. Good Lord, they can't run them off with a stick.

That, wait a minute, hold on here, let me look at this. This is, they have not varied more than 51,000 from bottom to top on the entire program. Again, this has never happened. Move to Mexico. Move the whole wang doodle to goddamn Mexico.

You guys will be goddamn kings of the world. This is amazing. Well, we go now to quarter 7, 9.30 to 9.45 p.m. Moscaro Dorada versus Leo Rush

versus hologram versus ricochet. Oh, here's a test. We're picture and picture. 703. thousand viewers. Ooh, okay. There it is. And when the crash

came and the dust fell. You know what that is? That's after MJF and Mystico. You know, MJF is MJF and the Hurt syndicate or the Hurt Syndicate they've been established on this show. If there was anyone in CMLL that you would think possibly

could lend to the viewership, it would be mystical, I think. So who knows? but I mean it's still at this late in the show to not be just now hitting 700,000 is amazing for them well we go now to quarter what is this quarter eight I remind you we have one to three quarters of overrun after this oh boy 945 to 10 p.m. the continuation of the aforementioned four man match in the previous segment an ad break and the start of Mercedes Monet versus Zeusus or Zuxis, however that's pronounced,

with picture and picture. If you knew Zusi like I knew Zussi. 733,000 viewers. Good God, they gained this late. Again, this is, what type of witchcraft is this? We go now to the big 10 o'clock hour, quarter 9, 10 to 10.15 p.m. the continuation of Monet versus Zuxis,

the post match with Tony Storm, an ad break, and the beginning of entrances for the main event, 677,000 viewers. Okay, everybody's got a price, and everybody's got a breaking point. I think we're starting to hit these people's. Well, now the big main event, Jim,

quarter 10, 1015 to 10.30 p.m. I remind you, we have a seven-minute overrun after this. The Death Riders, the Young Bucks, and the Beast Mortos versus Will Osprey, swerve Strickland, and the ops with picture and picture, 652,000 viewers, 7-minute overrun, including the post-match with Hangman Adam Page, 589,000 viewers. Gosh, well, they're, I mean, they've got to the ridiculous point at that time. But 652 in quarter 10 when they started with 777 is amazing. And with the boar horsemen being starred in a role and the Buccarus. Do they need to move to Mexico? So whose curiosity was this?

Was this, as I said, the, expatriates from Mexico that haven't seen their favorite luchadors in a while or want to see what the fuss is about? Or was this the Americans that wanted to see what the fuss was about? Because it didn't appear to be any one segment or match that, you know, was responsible for a great deal of anything. So was it just curious. And then now that they've seen it, are they confused as to who's who's, or do they have a new favorite? It'll be interesting to see.

Once again, the Death Riders and the Young Bucks, people don't stay around or come back for that stuff. For anyone who wants to say, John Moxley moves the ratings, we cover this every week. He moves in the runway. Yeah. But MJF and Mystico, there's a clear line to that, and then it drops off.

And, you know, the build to it wasn't perfect. But at least it was building to like a one-on-one. You kind of understood who's on-one. what side, and they had the match. If you watched it, had heat, some sloppiness or mystigo, but it had heat. But not everything has a clear line of what they're building, and sometimes

you just need to do simple stuff. And we'll see what happens this week. Back in America. But that was AEW Dynamite ratings. Of course, Jim, Mexico City, maybe a scary place for some. There are lots of places and the big world of ours that are scary.

You may not want to walk around with a giant wallet. It may get taken. But maybe you need something compact, something that you can use, something just for you. And Jim, we have new friends to tell the listeners about

our friends with Ridge. Ridge Wallet. Yes, we certainly do the Ridge Wallet, but it sounds uncomfortable, the term Ridge. It's not really. What it is is indestructible. And like you said,

we talked about on the program the other day, if you've had one of the big, fat wallets, stuff full probably not with cash but with receipts and fucking various drek alongside the stuff you really need and you stuff at your back pocket you walk around not only does it throw your hip out of joint not only do you look deformed like you've got a growth coming out of your nether regions but you're a target i mean somebody can sneak up behind you and knock you on ahead and take that thing and they wouldn't know that it's filled with nothing but receipts from former blockbuster video rentals, they'd think something was good in it. But now with the Ridge, not only can you keep your stuff safe, but you can slip it right into anything. You could you could slip this up amongst your balls if you wanted to if you were in a sketchy neighborhood. I don't think that's needed. Of course, you can put it in your wallet. It won't stand out. And for those people, put in your wallet. It is your wallet. Put it in your pocket.

Pockets are where it goes. Pockets in your pants. Ridge is there to escort you in your pants with all your stuff. Pockets in your pants and ridge for your stuff because this is, it's a unique, slim, and modern design. It's like the same size as a credit card, but it holds up to 12 credit cards plus cash. One of those credit cards could easily be a driver's license as well. You know the drill.

We're talking cards here. And they make these things out of aluminum and carbon fiber and titanium. 50 colors and styles to choose from. they've got a lifetime warranty these things are indestructible and and again you can keep all that you need right nothing's going to fuck i'll tell you what this is a black box for a human being now let's say you're in a fiery airplane crash they're not going to need the the dental records to identify you they're going to be able to pull this thing out of your pocket unharmed

and they're just going to flip through and look at your driver's license go well there's poor fucking Sal, he didn't make it. He's burnt to a crispy critter right now, but goddamn don't his driver's license is in such good of shape. If we can find somebody that looks like him, they can use it. That's, if you have

a Ridge wallet, ladies and gentlemen, and you're in a fiery plane crash or a bus accident or potentially you know, a nuclear explosion, this is leave a note in this son of a bitch and it'll be fine. And you're never going to lose it.

Let's hope. of these situations happen, and of course, let's not make any statements about the survivability of a nuclear bast, nuclear basque, a nuclear bash or a blast of the Ridgewall. Well, if you, you know, if you don't believe me, folks, right now as I'm speaking to you, go to Ridge, RIDGE.com. Ridge.com. That's even a simpleton. Could remember ridge.com just over the ridge.com. And you can use the code J-C-E if you're just going to order one. anyway, but you can see exactly what it looks like in the way that it operates. Got this sturdy strap on it for your cash underneath there.

And I still say you could also use this as some kind of Oriental fighting star, flinging it at somebody like you're trying to skip a rock on a lake. If they were to try to take you down on the dark alley and see, that's the thing. Ridge also makes the key, the key tag, the key case that you can fold your keys up at a nice, neat little bundle instead of your pockets jam. If your pockets are jangling like a rodeo clown, then you won't be able to carefully sneak up behind somebody without them knowing you're there. And then if they've got a bulge in their pocket from the old-fashioned wallet,

you'll know whether to hit them on the head or just go about your business. But if they hear your keys jangling, there's no way you're going to creep up on them. So you need to dress your credit cards and your keys up and find containers from our friend at Ridge, and right now, you can get 10% off of whichever you want, or both, or just whatever the fuck you'd like to do.

If you use the code JCE at ridge.com, 10% off right now on these, and again, they will survive time. They've got a lifetime guarantee. None of you, son of a bitches out there right now are going to live long enough to see time or gravity or anything diffuse this situation.

And they've got suitcases. They've got all kinds of stuff over at ridge.com. Everyday carry essentials. If you're looking for something to carry something in, ridge.com promo code JCE and tell them that you heard about them from us over here while you're over there. Because then they'll be nicer to us over here, over there.

They are very nice people. We don't have to worry about them being nicer, but of course. Well, it never hurts to butter some son of a bitch up. Well, you want to butter up your credit cards. They will fit right into the rich wallet. It's a great. Boy, no lube. Not a bit of lube needs to be used with this wallet.

No, ditty, but this wallet is for you. Except if you're planning to sneak it into jail. Then it's unfortunately, it's unfortunately shaped for that. Again, that won't be happening. and let's not focus on that. Segment of the audience here, but Jim, why don't we let the listeners know, once again, how they can get this great wallet?

Ridge.com, R-I-D-G-E. Ridge.com used the promo code J-C-E, 10% off the wallet, the key case, the various premium everyday carrying essentials. If you have enough of these things all about your body, you'll almost have a bulletproof outfit on. This stuff's indestructible. And get 10% off and tell them,

that we told you to do it. So they'll know who's telling you what to do. That's right. Ridge! Yes. All right, Jim, you know what that means, of course? It's time to... Does the sponsor have to pay any extra for you to give them these cute little advertising jingles?

When they don't pay extra, they get the piano. And you pay extra? You get the organ. How much do we have to pay to not get? either. What kind of budget you got? Moving on. All right.

Well, moving on. And I guess, Jim, we should preview. There's a pay-per-view. Well, it's not even a pay-per-view. There was an event. A premium live event. There hasn't been an event. There's going to be an event.

Maybe there's going to be an event. Maybe there's going to be an event. Because there's been events. That's right. There's been some events here. Can I jump in? I've been doing it anyway. Fuck.

Sorry about that. It's your show. But, no, it's not, but we'll pretend it is for a minute. Because you've made the point several times, you know, people send, have you seen this? Have you seen this? Well, yes, if you've seen it, we've seen it. I was inundated on the tweeter machine here just a day or two ago.

But for one of the more innocuous things that I have ever said or published or tweeted out, I tripped some kind of bot thing, I believe. allow me to explain. Somebody tweeted out a map of the part of the world that contains Saudi Arabia that also contains Israel, it also contains Iran, and their proximity and location to each other in the world, and had the places circled. Then the WWE premium blood money event is,

circled. It's in the middle and down south in between Israel and Iran who last as we are recording this, we're shooting bombs at each other, right? Have we got an update on that, Brian? Have they quit in the last couple of hours? I don't know if you say shooting bombs, shooting missiles, dropping bombs, but not shooting bombs. Well, missiles, bombs, there's some shit getting blown up, right? and so I retweeted that and with the tagline Stanford we have a problem because I would think that

it would be self-evident that there would be some discussion about this in the WWE offices and suddenly I'm hearing from because it got what is it 10,000 of the little hearts does that mean people like it and two million of the view things or whatever but usually when I tweet something about

Schittler and his band of criminal henchmen that will trigger whatever the bots are that they program to defend you know the indefensible and the maggots come out all the patriots and whatever but in this case I don't really know who's

beside these people are on otherwise than is it a Republican thing to act like there's nothing to see here, there's nothing wrong, everything's fine, everything's under control, because people started that I don't follow me, that I've never heard of before, and saying basically the same things like the bots do with the Republican talking points. You just don't know geography. Why, it's a thousand miles to here to there. yeah, I don't give a fuck if goddamn South Carolina gets the goddamn war with Wisconsin. If they're shooting bombs over Kentucky, I'm not going to be goddamn happy about it, right? What alone taking the disguise?

Well, exactly, and flying around, but more on this in a minute. That's what of the, there are a thousand miles apart. Or you don't think that Iran would be stupid enough to fuck with Saudi Arabia, do you? like these people are fucking textbook examples of level-headedness themselves. You don't think that goddamn

as much money as the Saudis are paying for the show that they're not going to have all kinds of money for security for the wrestlers. Well, you got to, they've assassinated presidents in the fucking motherfucker. Shit can happen. If you could keep anybody

absolutely 100% safe all the fucking time, well, it would throw the world into chaos. Because everybody would be trying to be that person. But nevertheless, I digress. He's too far apart. They don't have the balls to fuck with Saudi Arabia. You're just trying to make a big deal out of it. Well, they're going to keep them safe. I would think it would be self-evident. What side do they are? I don't understand what the... I don't know. I don't know. They're just arguing? A pro-Saudi Arabia? Is that what it is? A pro-traveling to Saudi Arabia?

And by that, there's State Department advisories on various countries over there right now. They're just at a level two in Saudi Arabia, except level four is do not travel and kiss your ass goodbye for like 20 or 30 miles of Saudi Arabia next to the border of something, something. But again, the point is that they're arguing like this is going to be a Caribbean vacation. I've never said that the goddamn head, the president of Iran was going to say, we got to bomb those American wrestlers, that'll show them. But at the same point, Brian, as you raised a good point, you've got to get in and out of there. Accidents happen in crowded, they're restricting airspace.

They're redirecting people around certain things. or you mean to tell me that just because the Saudi Arabian prince spends a bunch of money to bring the Americans over, every Saudi Arabian loves the Americans. Or there's no Iranians living in Saudi Arabia that don't like anybody. Who the fuck is on whose side over there? Do they have their own homegrown unabomber? Certainly in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran and points of that direction, and they wouldn't have any nut cases living in those countries

that might just want to blow some shit up on their own. What the, do you would... Somebody actually said, if do you cancel a show in South Carolina if there's a forest fire in North Carolina? Only if it's caused by fucking nuclear fallout, you dumb shits. And again,

The point that I was trying to make is regardless of whose sides you're on or what you think. And oh, and another point they were making was, well, you know, they don't care at the WWE. They're going to go through with it no matter what. Fine. Does that mean to goddamn and all the fucking minions have to go through with it too? Because again, they're issuing reports on Americans in that entire region of the world. to travel with caution, people don't like you over there. So now here comes a giant group of some of the most visible American celebrities on television

around the world to have this big wing ding and they got to get there and they got to get bad and they got to go to the hotel. And they apparently have to eat food of some descriptions. They've got to be somewhere in the public eye. Jesus, we got people in this country running people over in the streets we've got damn minivans. You know, it's a good week to hold up the office.

Boy, howdy. A good week to hold up the, it's a good week to say, fuck you to the office. I've had that's, but at any capacity, do you want to go there and be, much less be on the crew, do you want to be part of the fucking show?

Like, I was nervous enough when I was in the cage hung in Barton Coliseum in Little Rock with a potential guy I'm going to shoot debiase out there with a gun, much less they might want to fucking blow up the whole goddamn city

I'm in? And again, what's it really all about? It's really all about tourism. It's about boosting tourism, the Saudi Arabia and getting Saudi Arabia more recognized on the global stage. Well, they are. They're recognized on a global stage right now. They're right in the middle of a

fucking shit sandwich. I keep seeing commercials. Saudi Arabia for Dubai, for Qatar, like anyone, why would anyone travel there now? What the fuck? But yeah,

if I was a wrestler, I'd hold up the office this week. Listen, because it's reasonable. There's no way I'm fucking flying over there. Unless you give me a bunch of money. I lost my mind. That's, again,

that's a thing. Accidents happen and shit takes place and the skies are crowded. And oops. and then again on the ground with whatever domestic issues they have over there. I think we've seen that actually over the last decade a few times I want to say it was Russia, where Russia shot down planes like in the middle of nowhere because their systems thought it was something else or from another country.

They fucked up, shot down a plane full of civilians because they thought it was, you know, something from Ukraine. It wasn't even Ukraine. I think it was another country, but accidents not. You know, regardless, again, of who side your honor, what you think, I thought it was ridiculous for people. Calm down. It'll be fine. You know, it's so far.

It's a thousand miles away when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, from what I understand, it made people in Missouri nervous too. And, you know, again, you got to get there and you got to do this show and you got to get out. We're going to S.A. via Omaha. What? I don't want to be anywhere in that part of the fucking. world. Remember that was one of the two things that made me and the Middard Express give our notice in Dallas, our Texas Stadium payoff, and they were talking about, let's go to Israel. Let's go to a fucking North Carolina. I'm sorry, go ahead. Perhaps all these things happening

could be fixed if Kevin Von Aric would make a trip over there right now. Jim, speaking of Saudi Arabia, and events still scheduled to transpire as we are recording, Night of Champions, I have the card here, Hopefully it will, instead of expire, it will transpire. WWE Night of Champions. Saturday, June 28th, 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Great way to ruin your afternoon. But let's go to this card here, Jim. Sammy Zane, who will be like a pig and shit

versus carrying cross. Who will just be? He will provide the shit. Who, I guess the big story here is the, fact this match is happening, it came off something that just happened on Raw where Sammy hit Carrying Cross, but I think it's really about the ground swell behind Carrying Cross from the fans. They are starting to use him better, and when he appeared on the screen last night, the fans popped. So something's starting to work.

I don't know, I might have to pay a little more attention because I haven't actually had as much of a ground swell as just a swelling in general over him. But I will say that I have liked the interaction that they've led up with Sammy Zane and punk and Cody and I'm sorry not punk but Zane and Orton and Cody and Uso sounds like a goddamn 60s romantic fucking comedy because even though their baby faces they've been true to their

individual selves they've all talked about finishing their story they've all got a point nobody yet has gone off the beam. They did a wonderful promo the other night. I like what they've done there. I think it's a step back for Sammy Zane with Carrying Cross. We'll see what happens. Again, I just, I haven't seen what the fuck the fuck the deal was with Cross here lately,

but maybe I've just tuned him out because he was so bad for so long. Like I said, the fans are reacting, so that's usually a good sign. Well, sometimes they begin by setting things on fire, but, you know. In a street fight, Ria Ripley versus Raquel Rodriguez. I'm interested in this. Our girl, Rochelle, Rochelle, they've changed her gimmick and her look a number of times over the year. She's battled illness and injury, but Ria is of, tremendous worker.

We've said that enough times that I'm sure it's registered on everybody. I think Ria's great. This will be an equivalent in size. I don't think that Rakel's work is on the level of Rias, but I think Ria, if they concentrate on things that Rakel is strong at, it can get a wonderful match out of this

and hopefully elevate Rekyll if she's, you know, if they're trying to give her a renewed the oomph behind her somehow as a single. She's been in groups and stooges, both as a baby face and a heel. Well, I think Rhea doesn't need to lose anymore, but also, like you said, they are trying to reestablish Raquel.

They did a thing on Raw where, you know, Liv Morgan out of action. Now, Raquel and Roxanne Perez are kind of starting to get along. So there's something out. And, you know, I don't know that, and again, I didn't even address the finish. under normal circumstances, I would not want Ria to lose to Raquel, but if they're going to give Raquel a push and this is a start of something that will continue

with Ria, then I think, you know, she might have to, she might have to win one to get some credibility, but let's see where they're going. For the United States Championship, the champion Jacob Fattu versus Solo Sacoa. you know again this came out of nowhere didn't it where he just jerked him down off the ladder and said fuck it boom i didn't i don't mean came out of nowhere they've obviously teased it but it's it seems like we missed a step or two between angry words exchanged and i'm just beating the fuck out of you and i hate you solo this has to be jacob winning I'm just trying to figure out any other way they might.

And with J.C. Mateo around, he might interfere, but I don't think Jacob needs to say again. Hicolayo. They just trademarked, what is it, Talatonga? Oh, that's, I forgot. I thought that was a 60s Hawaiian Beach Party comedy. Hicolayo. I think Jacob needs to get a win, then they get some heat afterwards. if they're going to continue the thing.

But then again, you know, it just Jacob seems like on a different level than the other guys. Jim, in the final of the Queen of the Ring tournament, Aska versus Jake Cargill. Oh, I wonder who we should bet on there, Brian. Is there any way to call this one? Should we just flip a coin? Good Lord. a match over who will be wearing the most clothes on the card.

Oscar versus Jade Cargill. They'll probably just put both of them in hazmat outfits. Jade has to win this, does she not? Oscar just returned. Well, but God damn, are they going to beat Jade Cargill in a single match on a big high-profile event with somebody who she hasn't even been programmed with with all these other things that have gone on. It's the finals of the tournament.

What happens in Saudi Arabia kind of stays there for the most. I mean, Gunther lost to Cody there and everyone forgot about it the next day. Well, some things are happening over there in Saudi Arabia that are leaving Saudi Arabia. I think they ain't going to beat. I think also because I don't know

if Jade is a good enough worker yet to get beat in a high profile single match like that. All right, Jim, well, speaking of tournament finals, the King of the Ring Final, Cody Rhodes versus Randy Orton. Cody Rhodes, Cody Rhodes. You know, the way that, again, that I said before, the way that they have done this with top baby faces,

and maybe was it to show them in AEW how to do it, where instead of each guy comes up with his own dramatic reading that has nothing to do with anything else, they've all kind of stuck to themselves on this, that they've been true to who they would be and nobody has been a backstabber and but everybody's made their opinions known. But at some point, I'm wondering, we don't know what's going on with Sina because now we'll get to it a minute with his pipe bomb business. More people are cheering him now that he's a heel than we're cheering him when he used to be a baby face,

this goddamn psychology that goes on these days with these people. But I think at some point, unless Cody is going to come back fairly quickly and conquer Sina and then Sina switches baby face before the end. end of the year. If that's case, and Cody needs to get after Sina sooner than later at this point,

but is Orton finally going to snap and stab Cody in the back and deprive him of that opportunity? So the Cody wins it back from Sina later, but Orton is ready standing by to be the fucking money match. What's happening here? Does Cody have to win it back from Sina in your? eyes. Boy, it would help.

I don't, how does he? I mean, how does he ever get even? And even if something was to happen where somebody came and kidnapped his family and he switched baby face and the hunt to get him back, does he just go up to Cody and say, I apologize. Now let's go find my kids.

I mean, yeah, we're running at a time for the baby face turn you expect. And I think it's already happened. it just ain't going to really be official and he's just going to ride off in the sunset as whatever the fuck it is he's been doing all year so i think that then they might need to stretch it out till the end of the year but at some point i think cody needs to get the belt back from sina or elsewise it damages cody but if orton beats cody before cody beats cody

then Orden would be ready for Cody right afterwards, along with a bunch of these other baby faces that are in various stages of flux and or the heels they got. Because punk wouldn't have a problem turning around and wrestling Cody again. I'm not talking about the person I'm talking about in gimmick. They could easily manufacture something of that nature.

So, but anyway, the point being for this match, I think Orden might fucking fuck with him some kind of way. If they're going to do that, and if not, then Cody needs to win. And finally, Jim, the main event for the undisputed WWE championship, John Cena versus CM Punk. This match, let's predict this match, and then we'll back up and talk about the promo. Boy, how do it's going to be, it's going to be a test because punk is a professional and he can make some devastating shit look devastating, but it actually doesn't hurt you or physically incapacitate you or whatever.

But the way the people have been handling Sina like he's goddamn on the verge of being one of those fucking cheap toys and plastic that just breaks apart. they're barely touching him. And he's not on offense. John is not setting the world on fire. He's psychologically in the match to build it, to make it make sense, to, you know, register things, gets most out of things.

It's refreshing to see, but I guess what I'm trying to say is, you know, can punk? Have a goddamn match of his standards with John's matches of his standards these days. What do you think? Again, Saudi Arabia, we'll see what kind of energy the crowd has. It's not the same as working in Chicago as I brought up in the past. Or really any major show here. I have not liked Sina's work in the ring, so I don't have any high expectations for this.

I think punk needs the right opponent. I don't expect much from this match, and hopefully that means I'll really like it because it won't meet my low expectations. But I mean, the night even, put it, John's matches, it's just, it's, there's no contact there. People, and I'm not talking about being dangerous or reckless

or putting people through multiple furniture. I'm talking about the old Mid-South wrestling smack of the meat in the flesh, when you kind of get into the, thing, a fight, you know, I don't think we're going to see punk and Drew McIntyre here. Obviously, if punk wins the belt, that would screw up a lot of shit, so I don't think that's going to happen. And, you know, like you said, depending on, well, the atmosphere in Saudi Arabia, because

Sina is a huge star and has been for so long, maybe they're going to be pro him and punk can heal and have some fun. or maybe they're just going to kind of be blasé because it ain't Chicago and the matches and then it's going to be a struggle. We don't know how they're going to react or what that equation is going to be like, but I'm thinking it's going to be an okay match at best and seen as you know is going to win and I just hope that it doesn't damage punk anymore than that fucking promo the other night on television did already.

but I don't see any shocking I mean I don't see any shocking happening here as far as the result somebody could run out or somebody could attack somebody that could be a shock but we're not going to see it upset well we will find out night of champions coming up this weekend in the afternoon

coming up this this weekend in the afternoon but do you want to talk for a second about the pipe bomb that everybody was in love with From WW Smackdown, the end of the show was the segment that everyone was talking about. And when I first got on Twitter the next morning or whatever, and I, oh, Waitel, Cornett, hears this, sees this, talks about this, or just everybody was the pipe bomb. He did a pipe bomb. And I thought, okay, I've got something to be, you know, halfway look forward to about this show.

And now that, you know, that gives me a feeling of hope for the weekend. weekend, which were dashed on the rocks, all those hopes when I saw the thing. And I couldn't. It was like watching a world-renowned opera singer, singing the best aria of their life, standing in the middle of a fucking field of shit. And all I could think of, instead of listening to the music, was why are they standing in that field full of shit? it

seen as promo was incredible and again he had more life as a heel and that's why I turned him baby face he was more enjoyable

he didn't drone on too much but he had great material he did stuff for the inside fans he had a great delivery and after he'd had a match even though he was sitting

on the turnbuckles the promo itself was incredible but Brian do you know why I hated it how that was laid out the visual what the fuck were they thinking see on punk laying there for 10 minutes it was ridiculous they the the way that it was set up was that the punk ran out boom boom boom they have a fight scene ends up putting him through a table and then he lays there while seen against the microphone sits on turnbuckles and does that promo for 10 minutes.

And the camera shot is punk laying there alternately grimacing to the left, then grimacing to the right, immobile, in the table for 10 fucking minutes. And again, not only could you not unsee it, you couldn't stop thinking about it,

but they wouldn't stop showing it to you. And the thought that anybody would have is my God, either if he can't get up, then somebody needs to call a goddamn ambulance, don't that one way or another. If a guy's been thrown through a piece of furniture and he's laying there and he's not moving, somebody's got to check on him. You can't just talk for 10 minutes. And if he ain't up by then, here's another problem, the sins that have been committed against the business.

people see children child-sized adults thrown through tables every week on every show and get up to win the fucking match here is one of the five biggest stars and the biggest wrestling promotion in the world he goes through a table and he lays there for ten minutes and this is the guy that's challenging for the fucking title at the big show i don't know whose stupid idea that was or how they talked punk into it. Of all, could they have put some propofal in his fucking water tank? You don't think it was his idea? I don't think, what? I don't think so. I don't know what,

but I don't know how that got passed more than one person. Because all they had to do, he puts him through the table, boom, he's not getting up. Everybody runs to check on him. They carry him out. Sina gets the microphone.

I've got something to say to it. Well, if I can't say it to him, I'll say it to him on tape. And he can watch it when he wakes up and do the same goddamn promo. It created an interesting dynamic, almost like the person in a coma, like in the hospital room while people were having a conversation about them and they can't move. Punk's laying there. And it was so long that even if you thought he may have been hurt, after a while, you're like, he's just laying there.

That's the only thought you can have. And Ced is doing the all-time promo against. him. Yes. And he can't sell it. He can't move. He just doesn't speak. He can't, he can't even shake his head like, oh, no, that's not true.

He just has to take it. He just lay there. That's what, it devalued their main event. It devalued one of their talents. It was a preposterous visual and disappointing for, you know, the fucking cataclysmic confrontation of Titans and the main event that it's supposed to be. And I don't know what ignorance. head up his ass son of a bitch

could have approved it unless was was seen as supposed to talk for 45 seconds instead of 10 minutes and maybe we could have another conversation It was the pipe bomb The fact that he would think The fact that it was what it was

There's no way you do that And it doesn't go a little while I said maybe that was the pipe bomb part He was only supposed to say Hey kiss my ass see you Saturday and boom And gone but he did 10 minutes And he had to lay there Yeah be funny if punked

didn't know he was going to do that. And Puck's laying there and he just started doing the pipe bomb promo. And then six minutes later, my God, how do I get out of here? Guys in the old days, I mean, there are contracts and attorneys and reasons now

why one might think twice, there's not a motherfucker in wrestling business before 1985 that wouldn't have stood up about two minutes in and started trying to make a comeback. I'm just telling you. So like I said, it was, again, it's the pipe bomb. It's a playoff, the famous promo punk did, you know, 10 plus years ago. But the fact that it happened, the fact that the fans turned with Sina and the fact that he pointed out every single thing you could about punk being an asshole, whatever you want to say.

Yeah. I mean, it was effective maybe in all the wrong ways. I don't know. What do you think? Well, I mean, again, it was a choice of things to say. it was again very heavily inside but those are the people that we that them's the ones that remain now but at the same time he didn't he said it in an obnoxious and helish manner but there was an element of credibility to the things he was saying and the people started getting more with it

and by the time that it was over with he even acknowledged it when he said as you see some of these attitudes are beginning to change. It was, it was almost like that was, I'm going to, I'm going to be a baby face again. I'll just trash this fucking beloved guy that you like. So it was just, it was odd

that, you know, again, that anybody would have approved of that all the way through without raising the flag. Well, number one, even if we, if we don't care they're going to cheer John or boo John or whatever, they want to do, they're all paying.

The element of just having the challenger lay there and have to be browbeaten like that while allegedly unconscious when there's literally people of them hit by cars on fucking video on ring and gotten up and scurried away in quicker time than this happened. It just, it was very odd.

And then punk's not going to win at the pay-per-view or at the night of champions? Well, no. Not unless he's the one that doesn't, show up then he'll be the winner but if he goes he ain't winning that would just throw a wrench into everything that would logically proceed from there so you didn't like it but it wasn't because or it was only partly because of what cina was saying it was more because of the presentation the way yeah it wasn't even again i thought it was a brilliant piece of cunning linguistism

very verbal masterpiece even if it did get to people to cheer him he's a fucking superstar blah blah blah and punk can handle himself verbally I wasn't upset about that the promo was fantastic and he had more oomph than he has since he's

become a heel it was just the ridiculous visual of punk it made punk look bad it made the angle look bad it distracted from Sena's promo because the more you're thinking he's got to get up sooner or later because it was so preposterously long.

So I thought it devalued one of the guys in the match. It devalued the match and it just did. It looked stupid on television. If they'd had punk out of there, go to it. Eat him up. But they're probably really happy with the reaction off television. Everyone on social media, the clip going around, how many people viewed it? I mean, that's really what you want if you're WWE.

right now. But there it is. I wonder how happy punk was it when he was when he watched it back. He's like, oh, there I twitched my left eye. When I brought up that someone should hold up the office this week, I meant him. I meant him. Yeah, exactly. But that was Smackdown.

And Jim, any, did you watch any raw? Did you see any raw? I know I referenced it a few times. I have, you know what? It's Stacy's mother's birthday today, and we've had a few plans. to make. So I have not, if there's, if anybody was incapacitated somehow, I'll report it on the next program. Well, the one thing I want you to check out, because it goes along with this whole idea of the heels, all of a sudden, you get in baby face reactions. Coonther's promo about Goldberg.

That may be something. You mentioned that to me, and that's the last time that I've thought about it, is when you mentioned it to me first, but I'll check that out. Jim, let's move on here with the show. we have a lot of show to get to as we move on here. Let's go to the real world news before we get back to wrestling. Jim, did you see that Diddy is not going to testify at his own trial? Wait a minute. First of all, we got to go back to Diddy. And secondly, you mean to tell me that a daddy is outspoken as Diddy,

who has been accused of diddying and dallying, is not going to now do his duty to come out and testify in his own defense. Diddy won't defend his own diddling. That's right. I think he's getting bad advice. I think him on the stand would clear up this whole mess

pretty quick. I don't know. The only thing that would make him make them faster is if he plays music to the jury. We'll stay on top of the Diddy trial. I know people have been following along with us here on the show. Yeah.

You've been following it a lot more than everybody else had. It is fascinating. You just want that fucking lube and astroglide at half price in the bankruptcy auction. I believe Astroglide would be lube. Well, there's also generic lube. It just says lube. Oh, I don't know. See, but the astroglide, that was reserved for the good stuff.

Well, Jim, while we're talking about things in the news, I have something here related to you. One of your friends is in the news. Oh, boy. This is from the New York Post, although apparently it's going viral now. Cobra Kai star Alicia Hannah Kim accuses Martin Cove of assaulting and biting her at fan convention. Now, of course, Martin Cove, better known as Al Haft, to wrestling fans, I guess you can say. Yes, yes, the Queen of the Ring movie here this year that was, that escaped all over the land.

and he played quite an integral part, as did I, and we sat next each other for a lot of filming. Very, very nice, friendly old gentleman. Fantasy played Sensee John Crease in the Karate Kid films and Kobri-Ki. Looks like Martin Cove may have taken his character, John Crease's motto, a little too far. The Cobrecai actor, 78. What?

Wow. Was reportedly kicked out of the Washington State fan convention after being accused of assaulting his co-star Alicia Hannah Kim over the weekend. Well, now, first of all, if he's 78 years old and he was getting around in a fine fashion, and he's got 15 years on me, that surprises me right there. At least I've got hope to be able to be ambulatory at that point. But how would he assault this poor young lady? He's a fine gentleman that wears an ascot. Hannah Kim told an officer working in the fan event that Kove allegedly bit her arm, and when she yelled out in pain, he began kissing the area.

According to an informational police report, obtained by people, Hannah Kim claimed the alleged attack happened when she tapped Cove on the shoulder to greet him at their cast booth. Oh, well, she must have snuck up behind him with one of these ridge key things, where he couldn't hear her jingle, and when he was startled, he thought he was being attacked, and he went into his cobra Kai fucking self-defense techniques and he bit the fucking offender

and the attacker on the arm. I don't know about that. Here's a quote. Martin Cove suddenly grabbed her arm and bit her upper arm so hard it nearly drew blood and she yelled out in pain. Once Martin Cove finished biting her arm,

he grabbed her arm again and began kissing it where he had bit her. It says here she was... Well, see, he was trying to make up for it. She was in season five and six. of the Netflix series, Cobra Kai, she claimed her husband. Sebastian Roche, if that's how you pronounce that, was there and witnessed the alleged attack.

When the pair confronted the actor, he reportedly exploded on them. That's a quote. That's a quote. Did you bite me? No. He came on them with God's. wrath. Well, again, let me go back to the sentence. When the pair confronted the actor,

he reportedly, and as a quote, exploded on them, while insisting he did not do anything wrong. She found an on-site officer who noted that she had very noticeable bite marks on her arm that were already turning blue and bruising. The law enforcement officer also stated that when he questioned the actor about the incident, Kove admitted to biting her, but claimed, here's a quote, he did it out of jest. He thought he was being funny, the report stated,

and they play fight all the time on the set of Coburkeye, and he did not think it was a big deal. When the officer informed Cove that his alleged assault was illegal and would not be tolerated in the future, the actor responded that he was just messing around and did not mean for it to be perceived as illegal. Despite the ordeal, she decided not to press... He doesn't know the strength of his own jaws.

She declined the press charges, but she requested the report be taken in case this continues. Martin Cove was then escorted out of SummerCon. Aw! The post has reached out to his reps for comment. Is that the first time that any guest has ever been taken out for biting? No one expects that. Like when you tap someone on the shoulder, hey, it's me. Oh, it says here, he's been training with Ace Steel.

Now, hey! But, no, he seemed like such a nice, kindly gentleman. There was no biting on the set of Queen of the Ring. He didn't want to eat you. Well, he didn't say he was chewing and swallowing, just biting. So he wasn't eating. It's not a high-calorie. fucking offense, but

she's with her husband. Hey, look, there's Marty. Let's go say hello. Did you bite my wife? I was just, I was doing it out of jest. That's not how just works. The jesting of a thing. He was ingesting.

He was, I was doing it ingest. I was trying to ingest her. Well, we'll see what happens. This may affect obviously casting of Queen of the Ring 2, but we'll stay on top of this story. Coming to a fucking slide show at an elementary school near you. Usually it's like a fan incident.

It's like a fan was pushing the boundaries and the star had enough and just punched him or pushed them or through their camera. It's never like your co-star says hello, so you bite them. And again, I've been to a lot of comic cons and various things.

I've never seen any hustle and bustle. Oh, they're taking him out for biting. He's 78. Did he like lean in? I mean, he said upper arms. So, I mean, did he like bow a little bit and like, like, did she have time to be like, what does he do it? Well, no, no, but now if he's at a convention, he's 78 also, he's probably seated.

She came up from behind him like a thief in a night. She bit down and tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around and there's an arm right next to him and he just goes to tap. I just a chomping and a chewing. A chewing and a chomping. I'd do the same thing if somebody tried to attack me from behind, put me in a rear naked show. They didn't say she tried to attack him.

They said that they were co-stars that she went over to say hello. So you bitter. Well, you can't be too careful. So you bitter. What the fuck? Whatever person gets behind you, the next thing you know,

you've been choked out, you wake up at a fucking ravine somewhere with no clothes and animals chewing on your ankle. Well, I don't know about all that. And then you're in a hell of a pickle. We will stay on. top of this pickle, the Martin Coe. And ran your kidney. Your kidney

had be gone, one of them at least. You'd be packed in ice. Once again, we will stay on top of all this Diddy News and the Martin Cove story. A lot of things breaking all around us. At least, you know, at least Diddy never bit anybody, Diddy? Did he? I can't say for sure. But we haven't seen pictures of bite marks. I guess that's the big thing.

You know, they can identify people by their teeth marks if they, somebody take a plaster cast of that woman's arm. All right, well, Jim, let's go from Cynthia Plastercaster. That's actually not who we're talking about at all, but let's go from that segment. Yes. All the way over to this segment.

To Saudi Arabia. No, it's not. By Omaha. Why don't we, let me pick this up. Why don't we do a little from the files, part two of something we talked about last week. Paul Heyman. I have the giant file here from the rest of the News Archive, this is a compilation of everything that was a part of pro wrestling enterprises, and Paul Heyman, for a few years, was a big part of it. You said it was the fattest file. It is gigantic.

You know, the other interesting thing... The other interesting thing here, too, is, in a lot of ways, it's a document of what was happening on the indie scene in the Northeast in 84, 85, 86, 87. There's stuff here that Paul Heyman sent in himself, although he would say, credit this person. Yes. Like when he was working for like Windy City Wrestling. Or even when he was.

That big staff at what was it, wrestling press international? Wrestling Press International. I just found the actual invitation for the Bam Bam Bigelow debut match. A professionally done invitation from Studio 54. But I have here a letter.

But the problem was when they licked the envelopes for to send them out, everybody die. This is from, and there's not a date on it. Paul Heyman did not date these, but this is from the end of 83. Dear Mr. Kitzer,

and close please find several photographs and an article pertaining to the recent death of the Grand Wizard. I was a very close personal friend of his for many years, and as a matter of fact, it was he who broke me into the business, hooking me up with Vince McMahon Sr. and Jr. I ran a bulletin for four years, wrestling time, later renamed him. named The Wrestling Times, and also ran fan clubs for Ivan Putzky, Louis Albano, and Freddie Blassie. Besides this, I also ran, at his request, the Wizards fan club for the last two years of his life. Ernie himself asked me to run it as a personal favor to him.

I recently spoke with a man, with whom I believe you are familiar, Frank Amato, who told me me that your publication usually doesn't print long obituaries. Thinking that letting a man like the wizard die without proper tributes, I decided to enclose the aforementioned article. Please look it over and get back to me at your convenience. If necessary, you can call me collect. At 914, and there's a phone number here, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Very truly yours, Paul Heyman. P.S. proper postage and a large envelope is enclosed in case you cannot use the material. So let's stop there for a second because we're going to now the origin story of Paul Heyman. Well, yeah, also, it's funny because when he says, Amato said you don't print that.

Norman would print most things that if people would write them and send him, he would print them. I mean, it's not like if Bruno Samertino had died, he wouldn't have printed a big story on him or whatever. But yes, Paul was, he was closer to the wizard than he was anybody else and, you know, was kind of felt that he was a disciple of his. But I loved the many years they, Paul was, what is this, 1980? What was that?

The end of 83. End of 83. Paul's 19. Many years. I've been, many when I was three. Well, the other thing, too, was Paul always had a deep, not necessarily, deep, but he didn't always sound like a kid. He sounded like someone older and he knew how to project his voice.

So if you got him on the phone, he didn't actually know, you know he's a kid. I mean, he's putting out a whole act here about wrestling press international and all this. And he had some gravitas the way he worded things also in letters. But yes, that is true. You know, that was

because he was a New York kid, so he loved the New York manager, Albano Blassie Wizard, especially Wizards. That was who he, you know, grew up watching, like we all did in our various places. I have the article here, but here's Norm Kiteser's response, December 2nd, 1983. Dear Paul, I received your article on the Grand Wizard, and thank you so much for sending it and thinking of us. It would be the type of article I might publish, and you indicated that Frank Amato had suggested you send it to me. I don't know if Frankie told you this,

but the situation here is that we have gone through quite a reorganization. He's starting to let him down easy about getting any money whatsoever, right? And I don't at present have any money in the budget to purchase outside material from. The only outside material we are using in our magazine at this time is that which we get in trade in return for free advertisements and free copies of our publications. and since you didn't indicate that was the basis in which you were submitting this or what you would want in return,

what I'm going to do is hold on to this, making sure you are aware of our situation here and then when you can get back to me and tell me either to return the material to you or we can make some arrangement to use it on that basis if you are interested. Thank you again for thinking of us, hope to hear from you again soon.

Sincerely yours, Norman Kiteser. Like you said, lowering the boom right there. What we could actually do, we can send you some beans and corn from our garden. The Grand Wizard passes away at age 57 by Paul Heyman. The Grand Wizard, known the world over as the manager of champions, passed away in his sleep on October 13th.

The cause of death was listed as, heart failure. Born Irwin J., and then in parentheses Ernie, Roth, on August 30th, 1926 in Campton, Ohio, he attended Brown University, graduating at the top of his class. Getting involved in radio, he worked as a disc jockey all over Ohio and Michigan. One of his fans was the controversial grappler Buddy Rogers, who introduced him to pro wrestling. His first job was as a ring announcer, but he quickly went on to become a blow-by-blow commentator on television. First, let me stop there. I didn't know that. Did Buddy Rogers discover the Grand Wizard? I never knew that. It would have been, I mean, it's entirely possible. I have not read any biography on him to either confirm or deny it.

But Ernie Roth started, again, as not only a DJ, but also he was an announcer. And he was a television. and he was a television commentator. And this was the Al Haft era late 50s. So, you know, it's entirely possible that it was Rogers that may have done a radio spot and said, oh, you got to, you know, you got to come over here and meet the boys or whatever the case. But for several years before he became the first incarnation of a manager was what, the first thing he did was Mr. Clean, right? with the bald head and...

Well, let me go back to this and it comes up here. Well, and it probably will because this is his life. But yeah, that was the way he started. In 1957, Ray Stevens, who had been impressed by Ernie's knowledge of the sport, asked him to become his manager, accepting Stevens' offer, but wanting to protect his private life, he took the name Jay Wellington Radcliffe. That's right. that was the first one.

Once Stevens had moved on, the now successful manager went south under the alias Armstrong K. It was during this time. And that's when he was, had the long cigarette holder and he was wearing the capri pants like Laura Petri on. That's right.

Like a big bad diet. Like Laura Petri. That's right. And the thing is, I guess people, everybody knows now, I'm not, you know, say anything out of school, but Ernie Roth was gay. And at a period when that was frowned on in a variety of places, in and out of wrestling,

but he got by with some of these early gimmicks, the Armstrong K's and things of that nature. Gay and Jewish. I mean, that couldn't have been an easy combination in various places. Let me go back to this. It was during this time that he met Johnny Berend and magnificent Maurice. The three of them went to Indiana, with the manager using the name Mr. Clean

and the tag team won the title in record time. While in Indiana, he was sought out by the Sheik, who was looking for a manager and was aware that Roth was multilingual. The Sheik asked him to handle his career, accepting the new role he took on the name Abdullah Farouk, and soon rose to national prominence as Sheik won titles from coast to coast. his eight-year tenure with the Sheik came to an end and Abdul Faruq reappeared in New York

as the Grand Wizard That's crazy just how many different I didn't realize how many different names he had just by that point Yeah and the reason why he didn't stay as Abdullah Farooke in New York is because Abdullah Faruq was created specifically to be with the Sheik and he may have had interaction with some other heels

over that eight-year run or whatever, but he was really just known as the Sheiks guy. And the pictures of him together were in all the magazines and et cetera. They didn't necessarily want an Arab Beheel manager in New York, but with the turban, they just made it more generic. The Grand Wizard, he had a giant sequined turban. But he also had those glasses.

Like, there was something like wizardly about him. I don't know what to say. Like, there was like something. It wasn't just like he's, an Arab manager, it was there something you know, mystical almost about this weird guy. And the other thing is, other than the clan, did anyone use the term like Grand Wizard?

Was that a thing in society beyond the KKK? Well, yes, because of various, the moose lodge. I mean, I don't know specifically, there's Elks, there's mooses, there's meases, whatever the fuck, there's all these, you know, in the fucking, Honeymooters, Grand Pubov, the Moose Lodge, or whatever. There's some type of grand wizard of these organizations, but the Klan pretty much doomed it.

I don't know if they do that now, but that was done in the past. They didn't just make that up, I don't think. After proving himself in the WWF to be an astute manager by handling such notorious rule breakers as Blackjack Mulligan and Beautiful Bobby, he pulled off the managerial coup of 1972 by convincing young Jimmy Valiant to double-crossed Chief Jay Strongbow. This touched off a feud between the Indian and the Wizard

which lasted 13 years. And it felt like every bit of it to the fans in the Northeast. On December 1st, 1973, the Wizard led Stan Stasiak to the WWF World Heavyweight Championship when the Master of the Heart Punch defeated Pedro Morales in Philadelphia. The rain was short, as Bruno San Martino defeated Stasiak only nine days later at Madison Square Garden.

For three and a half years, the wizard looked for someone to overthrow the living legend. His dream was fulfilled. On April 30, 1977, when superstar Billy Graham defeated Bruno in a controversial match in Baltimore, Maryland. The validity of Graham's claim to the title was questioned because his feet were on the top rope when he pinned San Martino. The colorful duo was the toast of the East Coast as Graham tore through all opposition for 10 months until Bob Baklin won the belt in February 1978. Well, they really did give him, I mean, I never thought about the timeline. He gets to New York. Right away, he's managing top people.

They give him Stasiak. Albano had Cole off a few years earlier. Blassie was just about to become a manager, I guess. Yeah, Blassie didn't start till 7. because that's when he had to leave California, he couldn't get licensed after the age of 55. Since the day the title left his stable, the wizard brought in an amazing array of talent to the WWF. Although he never saw Backland defeated, he did lead Paterson,

Ken Patera, and the magnificent Morocco to the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. At the time of his death, Sergeant Slaughter and the mass superstar were both under his management, and no replacement has been named as of yet. Though he was roundly booed and jeered, the wizard was without a doubt the most respected manager in the history of professional wrestling. His wit, eloquence, and showmanship will be remembered fondly by the wrestling community. for many years to come.

And there's obviously a very personal write-up of the Grand Wizard by Paul Heyman, who, you know, so Paul does have a sentimental side. You know, we always talk about Heyman being around the garden, Albano and Lassie were there, but Wizard really, for a lot of people, not even just Heyman, Wizard, Ernie Roth was someone who opened doors and got people involved somehow. Yeah, well, he was, again, he was more of a guy that wasn't one of the boys per se, much as the manager, the announcer, an office type of guy who was apparently level-headed and been around for a while, had experience with a variety of talent.

So, you know, he had, he had people's ear because he had been around so long at a high level and communicated with people. All right. I can't speak to the validity of this. Uh-oh. Because I have here, there's a few different things. Is this another one of those contracts that Paul signed in Disappearing Inc? Well, no, I have a picture here, a couple pictures, and let me pull this up here.

I have what claims to be a transcript of an interview that Paul Heyman conducted with Richard Belser, 1985 wrestling press international. But again, I just don't know. It wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't be like anyone would be surprised if I said, Heyman may have made something up. Could this be like one of those Mike Lano interviews? Now, there's a picture here of Richard Belser apparently reading the, wrestling news, you could barely see what magazine it is.

It's almost like someone like snuck a camera and it got a photo without Richard Belser knowing about it. But there's a couple of things here. It was either the wrestling news or porn. Let me go to this. I have the letter, Dear Mr. Kitzer, in close, please find two color slides that could be used as cover shots or color supplements or for whatever purpose you may find them. The first slide shows Hulk Hogan and Mr. T with Richard Belser

on Belzer's cable talk show Hot Properties, which is shown on the Lifetime Network. I'm sure you're aware of the incident that occurred involving Hogan and Belser. The second slide is an exclusive of Richard Belser reading the wrestling news. I recently conducted an exclusive interview with Belser and we'll be sending you a story and some black and white photos

that goes along with these slides tomorrow, I wanted to rush these slides to you in case you can use them. We'll speak to you soon, Paul Heyman. And here's the guy... I got to hear the interview. I got to... Let's see if we can smell the good, strong smell of bullshit.

First question from Paul Heyman. First of all, you did ask Colchogan to put you in a hold. why would you do such a thing? The answer? Why did I do it? Because I had no idea that he would hurt me. I thought he would just demonstrate the hold in a non-violent way. It's an entertainment show,

and I thought it would be fun for him to show it to me and not execute any injuries upon me. I just did it in a very gracious, naive, host-like way. The next question, what happened? He put me in a chin lock, a front chin lock. It's not a sleeper hold.

It's a different hold from what I found out. As soon as he put me in the hold, it cut off my oxygen. And I was hurt. I was in severe pain. I couldn't breathe. I passed out. And then, from looking at the footage,

I see that after I passed out, he just took his arms away and let me fall, and I hit the back of my head on the studio floor, and got eight stitches in the back of my head. Next question? When you hit the floor, were you out? I was unconscious when I fell, and then this is all in bold, in caps, and underlined. I fainted in his arms, and then he dropped me.

So let me stop here for a second. That is clearly what the attorney has told him to emphasize. It doesn't seem like, I mean, it could be a fake, but it kind of works out so far. It could be something to you. Yeah, I mean, it's, it sounds. It sounds legitimate and again, you know, if you know something about wrestling, you could concoct that, but it doesn't sound like that he's making anything up. Your eyes start to open and Hogan helps you up. What's going through your mind? The question from Paul Heyman. well, at that point I was in shock

and when I came to I knew that I couldn't continue I knew that something was wrong I didn't know I was bleeding so I figured we better go to commercial and then I went backstage and was taken to the hospital here's a question right before Hulk put you in the hold he said to Mr. T

and Richard Belser cuts him off let me know when you think he's had enough and then Paul Heyman's question continues he mentioned squealing. At that point, did you think he was kidding? From Belzer, I'll tell you, I met Hulk before the show and he was very nice to me. He had seen my film and said he was a fan of mine.

So I, of course, thought he was kidding. The farthest thing from my mind was that he would hurt me. I wouldn't have been out there if I thought he would hurt me. I think this is legitimate. it. And what do you think today? Asked Paul Heyman of Wrestling Press International. I think he knew what he was doing.

And I'm kind of sickened and shocked by that. But by studying the tapes and his remarks before he did it and his remarks afterwards and the whole climate around this thing, it appears to me that it wasn't a case of him not knowing his own strength or of it being an accident. He fully intended to do it. what he did. Again, bold, underlined, in taps. So he hurt you on purpose? The answer? Yeah, I think so. In my opinion, he did. Do you have any idea why he would do this? The answer? I think it's because

him and Mr. Teague got caught up in their macho posturing, you know? They say they don't know their own strength. I think they don't know their own mental strength is what it is. I think there might be something wrong with these guys. Again, bold, underlying caps. I think, I don't know. I mean, I'm not a psychiatrist or a doctor, but I think these are disturbed people. And they have to visit violence upon to prove that they're a man. Let me stop there for a little bit. What do you think of the quotes here from Belzer? Well, I'm believing this interview more and more because this actually, when you think about it, he obviously either knew he was going to file suit or was in the process of doing so. And so this is a great defense. This is a firsthand account of everything that you would say in a deposition on the side of a lawsuit. So he was probably given these interviews everywhere he could. I don't know where else he gave these interviews. How didn't Hayman get this interview? That's the big question. But let's go back to this. Well, but think about this.

Was this an official interview, or did Paul find him hanging around Studio 54 or the fucking China club or whatever these goddamn clubs are? And this was bullshit that, you know, they were bullshitting back and forth. Oh, it says here, interview conducted in a bathroom stall at La Barbat. There you go. No, but let me go back to this. There you go. The question, Paul Heyman pointing to an article which states,

at no time did Hogan or Mr. T offer apologies? Hulk Hogan has offered no apologies? And then Richard Belzer says, uh, he, he apologized right after on the air, but if you see the tape, I mean,

it's, it's, I don't know, I didn't take the apology seriously. Here's Haman, and in today's paper, Mr. T called you a jerk. Belzer says,

well, I'm flattered by that. And that Hayman says, why is that? And Belzer says, well, because someone who has, so little intelligence perceives me as a jerk, that I must be doing something to make them think

and evoke feelings from them. So I'm not disturbed by him. Once again, bold caps underlying. That was kind of an unwieldy comeback, but... I'm disturbed that he's a hero to children. That he has an effect on an impressionable people. That's what I'm disturbed by. You see, no one can say anything to hurt me. That's the point. But just that I would was hurt physically. That's why I'm so insulted by this. Here's a question. You say you're disturbed that Mr. T is a hero to children. Do you think he's a bad example for children?

The answer? Yes, very much so. Because he's a cheerleader for violence. He celebrates violence. He talks about inflicting pain on people. Once again, this is underlined in caps and bold. He wraps himself in crippled children. and God, and he thinks that by mentioning those things, he can go out and be uncivilized and beat people up or intimidate people. Wow.

I think, you know, not only is it wrong, it's not even American to be like that. If he's a hero in this country, we should look at ourselves. It's the wrong kind of hero in my point of view. So, of course, the follow question from Heyman, he's a bad example? Yeah, I think he's a very bad example Anybody who celebrates violence and who is looked up to by children

is a bad example by definition In my opinion Question, what was your opinion of wrestling before all this happened? Answer? Well, I'll tell you, when I was a kid, I used to go see Dr. Jerry Graham, Ricky Star, Antonino Raucca,

Haystacks Calhoun, all these people. Jesus, he knew everybody. And I have very fond memorand of wrestling from when I was a kid. Me and my friends used to go to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when wrestling was on Channel 5. And my mother would say,

at least I knew where you were tonight, because I saw you in the audience on wrestling. So wrestling was a very wholesome, fun form of entertainment. There were real heroes and real villains then, and was clearly defined. And the resurgence of wrestling, to me, has kind of a mean-spirited side to it. This incident with John Stossel and now me?

And as far as the controversy over whether it's fake or real, I don't care if it's fake or real. I just care that the guys, some of the guys, in it are so insecure about whether it's fake or real that they have to go out and beat people up because they're working out their own mental insecurities. I mean, if people get enjoyment out of it, that's fine. But when the real violence spills out into the real world,

then it's not the wrestling I knew as a kid. There's a different mentality here, and it's very intimidating. And it's not entertaining to me that the threat of violence is in the air. I think that wrestling should be controlled. There should be warnings with it when a kid watches it on TV, that these men are experts at what they do. And I don't think there's enough safeguards around wrestling the way it is now. Because if the people in it are taking it so seriously,

and then kids will think it's real. See? The adults know it's a put on. I know you're not supposed to say that, but the wrestlers know it, and any intelligent person or semi-intelligent person knows that these guys are great athletes. He's starting to lose me again. And they know how to throw each other around. And it's predetermined who wins and who doesn't, which is fine. But if children think it's real, and they see people like vice presidential candidate Geraldine

Ferraro at the wrestling matches and Gloria Steinem and Cindy Lauper, and impressional people look up to these people, and they'll say, well, I wasn't sure about wrestling, but if they're there, I guess it's okay. Then we have to be careful and qualify it, because it's contributing to a trend of violence in this country that's not healthy. I really think there should be some controls on wrestling. Let's stop there. What are your thoughts now? Well, my thought is, I bet Norm Kitzer didn't publish this whole thing in its entirety, did he? I don't know if this got published. I have to double check that. Because that's, I don't remember Norm Kiteser ever publishing anything directly admitting it wrestling was a work.

You mentioned John Stossel and the incident with David Schultz on 2020. Stossel is suing Schultz. Are you planning a lawsuit against Hogan? Uh-huh. We don't know. My attorneys are talking about that now, so I can't really talk about it. We're definitely considering it. How many stitches did you get?

Eight. How come they didn't cut your hair off? I didn't let them. I begged the hospital not to. Well, they cut it, but they wanted to shave it. And I said, no. Bellzer adds to a previously asked question. You see, I think wrestling has lost its innocence.

Either there was some Bolivian marching power in that powder in that bathroom stall, or elsewise, Polly may have embellished some of that. Do you think he rattled that stump speech off top of his head in the bathroom at the bar of the bats? There's a letter here. That's a little weird. It says, what is the public reaction to all this been? And Belzer says, actually, I've been very moved by it. I can read you a typical letter if you want, and then it has the letter printed here.

But again, that Haman, I guess if he had a taper piece, quarter going, he would, uh... Dear Richard, my husband and I are both fans of yours, and until last night fans of Hulk Hogan and wrestling. We were aware that wrestling was staged, an act, staged strictly for entertainment, and never took that so-called

violence seriously. We were outraged at the horrible incident that occurred on 2020, we were so disgusted that we decided to boycott wrestling. About a week after 2020, we decided that one barbarian like

David Schultz, I believe that was the wrestler's name, didn't make everyone associated with wrestling a barbarian, we started watching it again, enjoying the ridiculous antics of the wrestlers. We liked Hulk Hogan, WrestleMania, the Rock and Wrestling Connection, Cindy Lopper, Lou Albano, etc. But after what happened last night, we are never watching wrestling again. Never! We are just sick that such a thing could happen. Mr. T was rude to you during the whole show, which was bad enough,

and which we tried to excuse as an act, but for you to be injured by Mr. Hogan is just inexcusable, and then Belzer says, anyway, that's pretty much the tone of every letter I've gotten. Well, what are they going to do? They're going to write it. Yeah, you got what you deserved,

you son of a bitch. I wish you to broke your fucking neck. I honestly lived through that in real time, as the kids say. And I remember the kerfuffle about the whole thing. And obviously the incident itself, and it was reported on news reports everywhere. And then the resulting lawsuit that did happen and didn't,

was it him or Stossel that named a house they bought after their lawsuit that year? That was Stossel. No, it was Belzer. There was a villa in the south of France called Shea Hogan. There you go. And it's Dostle of one that said that his lifelong hearing problem cleared up a lot better once that he got his judgment. But I don't remember there being a groundswell of fan sympathy for poor Richard Belser that

not a lot of people knew how bad he was hurt. Unless you were the wrestling nerd that delved into it. when he got the Hogan cranked up on the front face lock then let him go. Bells are slipped like a wet rag to the floor, cracked his head on the floor, got right back up and pitched, we'll be right back because he didn't know where he was at, and turned around and you could barely see the blood dripping down his jacket at that point. So most people thought it was some stunt that happened.

Then the wrestling community focused in, on it when it became a thing and you know people heard about it otherwise in the gossip column in the newspaper or whatever but i don't think they were they didn't start a charity go fund me for richard belles hospital bills people weren't trying to you know set up sniping locations at hogan for that that would come later on in years to come when we go back to the uh we're getting to the end here here's a question from paul haman you must be bitter. The answer? Well, um, you know, I'm starting to get all my senses back after this. I was in shock for a few days. But the thing that really, frankly, disturbs me, of course I'm

angry and upset, and I feel violated. I feel raped. I mean, the guy came on my show, and this is all in caps again, and underlined and bold, as a guest, and smacked my fucking head again. And I'm against the floor. So I am pissed off. But I'm more concerned about children looking up to these guys. Yes. I mean that makes me focus on it even more. I've been focused all night.

The fact that I was injured and these guys are heroes. I mean, that's very unsettling. So my jury, my personal jury, is still out as to what to do about that. but I'm concerned about that. I've been concerned for three days now. Do you have a warning for children? asked Paul Heyman. Yes, I do.

Yeah, I have a warning for parents, not children. I think it's the obligation of the parents. If they're into wrestling and their kids are into Mr. T and the Hulk and all that stuff, then I guess it's up to the parents. Because obviously, the wrestling community is not taking the responsibility. So it's up to the parents to really set kids straight. it's like the three stooges. You know, it's cartoon violence.

In other words, it's not real, and the children should be told to be very careful and not emulate these guys. It's weird how, like, his focus is like this. It's not even about him. He's kind of making it a, you know, look at the bird over here, look over here.

It's not about this. It's about the children. Richard Bells are all about helping the children. I think the bird of paradise has flown up his nose. But even more so than that, it's the attitude of Mr. T and the Hulk about hurting people and inflicting pain and the way they openly talk about it and advocate it.

That to me is sickening. You know, Mr. T says I like to hurt people. I mean, who likes to hurt people? Psychopaths like to hurt people. It's okay if they're talking about wrestling in general, but it's another idea saying you're going around the streets and beating people up. Mr. T was noted for that in those days. One night he's on network television on the A team, the next day is out of the street beating people up.

And that everyone's a wimp if they don't weigh 300 pounds. I mean, what is that? That's really mindless thug behavior. So I don't know. It's sickening. I never was for the glorification of violence. Now it's being endorsed by celebrities. Which makes it even scarier.

I think these people should wake up. celebrities that are kissing wrestler's asses. It's not good. Anyway, what else? What else? Is there anything you'd like to add? I don't know. Just that this is a trend in our country.

Then America better wake up. Control wrestling. And put it in its place. And make sure the children are protected from the indiscriminate use of violence outside the ring. The children. I mean, I think that if wrestling has, any inner kind of intelligence, they should get their act together and organize and not be

controlled by one personality. But they should have a board and have insurance for the wrestlers and protect the public against this. Good Lord. He's all over the place. It seems like it's a trend that all of a sudden exploded on the scene. And people are very impressionable and they see celebrities involved in it. You know, I think wrestling is a chance to really clean up its act and be safe and be a helpful form of entertainment, but it seems they are going in another direction, and it's scary to me, frankly. Richard, thank you very much.

Okay, thank you. And then it says here, after the interview... That'll be $100 for that last eight ball. After the interview Richard requested that an unofficial poll be taken as to whether or not Hulk Hogan was at fault and what people really feel about this incident. and the situation that has arisen with Stossel and now Belzer's own harrowing experience. Please send all comments to the Wrestling Press International,

Scarstale, New York. Interview and comments, quotes, copyright 1985 by Paul Heyman and the Wrestling Press International. Interview conducted in the Lifetime Cable Studios, New York City. So there we go. I thought it was in a bathroom at a bar. There we go. Paul Heyman, Enterprise. I mean, that's the thing I guess when you live,

look back at all the early stuff with Heyman and everything now. He's an enterprising guy. He's a bullshitter, but he uses his bullshit to get in the door and, you know, eventually he had his own thing, but just always networking, always presenting, always performing. And I got him here, so I mean, obviously he must be happy with how it worked out, but these early years are pretty interesting. And that transcript validates what I've always thought about the front face lock incident. Because remember, I've always said, when Hogan, I believe Hogan cranked up on it to let Richard Belser know, al-alaha, you know, hey, type of thing, but it was three seconds at most, and then Belser flopped like a goddamn circus seal. The only way that a hold like that can put

you out that instantly is if your heart's beaten a million miles an hour. And I have a feeling, Richard's Belzer's heart spent a lot of time at that time period of the 80s, beating 100 million miles an hour. That, you know, kind of gives me more evidence. Well, there it is. Do you think it's a real interview? Would you talk to some 20-year-old fucking wrestling press numb nuts for that long if you weren't just in having a talkative day? And again, the photo I have of Richard Belzer reading the wrestling news,

if we're going to assume that Paul Heyman took that photo there that day. Again, how do you get in? If this guy's talking to the Times, the Post, the Daily News, Newsday, all of a sudden, the wrestling news? He said it was conducted at the Lifetime Cable Station. It was somewhere or another. Polly got in there and convinced him that he was somebody to do with something and got an interview with him.

That's just while he's waiting to shoot some kind of cable show. Well, there it is. from the files, Paul Heyman, I guess part two of the Paul Heyman files. I think next week we need to read the Rockford files. What if instead of, hypothetically, Bolivian marching powder? Yes. Richard Belzer before the show, or maybe after the show when he was really feeling it, decided to kick back and enjoy a blueberry breeze.

Get on a completely different wavelength, if you understand what I'm saying, from our friends at cornbread hemp. Well, in that case, if that had it had, that Richard Belser and Hulk Hogan would have still been best friends. They'd be changing Christmas cards every year, and they'd be flying off to South Sea Islands together for vacations, because there would have been no violence, Brian. The violence would have been calmed down and curbed,

because folks, if you're looking for a better way to socialize and sip, then you've got to try cornbread hemp's brand new THC Seltzers, because they're your ticket to. hangouts without the hangover. Because there's no alcohol. It's just pure, clean THC, because relaxation shouldn't come with consequences. And there's consequences. Now, let's say that you're sitting out in the backyard this summer and you're hanging out with your friends and you drink four beers and somebody's going to say, well, hey, Cletus, if you climbed up on the roof and jumped off onto that

umbrella, I bet you could pole vault all the way to Doris's house. And you're going to do it. And then you're going to fracture yourself and you're going to be paralyzed. You're going to be in a hospital in traction and an iron lung. But if you were to drink four blueberry breezes from cornbread hemp, you not only wouldn't be able to get up on that roof, but you wouldn't even remember where you put the ladder. Let's not say that.

So you would be just fine and you would be, free from any kind of injuries? We agree with that. You will be just fine. And, of course, consume what they suggest. Don't go Buck Wild, but enjoy a great... Well, no, that's not one of the flavors. Buck Wild didn't make it out of the marketing fucking test.

They went with blueberry breeze, peach ice tea, raspberry lime-aid, and salted watermelon. Buck Wild didn't make it. But it's incredible flavors and no alcohol, no guilt, no regrets. You drink a couple of these. You commit any heinous act you will not regret. No, you can't.

What the hell are you saying there? No, you can't create any. No. Don't commit or create. Don't commit or create any guilt or regrets. That's what it says. No guilt. Well, you're not going to feel bad

because you got drunk and messed up somebody's wedding or something because you were falling all over yourself and then you put your hand in the cake when you leaned on the table by mistake, you're not going to do that. You're just going to be sleeping over in the corner after you've, you know, idly had impure thoughts about the bride, all to yourself, alone in the corner.

You will be there enjoying the day just as you normally would, except you'll be having that little blueberry breeze kick or whatever flavor you enjoy. Jim, you'll be enjoying it even more than you would normally enjoy it, except if you enjoy it. And no, only 30 calories. calories, five grams of sugar, so you're not going to get fat, you're just going to get buzzy. You're not going to be couch-locked or paranoid because each can only has five

milligrams of THC, and everybody knows that the standards now with the USDA, you have to have 32 milligrams of THC before you grow into the couch like part of the fabric. Folks, I'm telling you right now, the cornbread hemp, celtzers are perfect for unwinding, kicking back, kicking in the front also, drink three or four of these, you'll kick a son ambition to balls be gets in your way. But you'll enjoy the moment without alcohol or a hangover. And again, perfect for spring and summer. It's refreshing, relaxing. You can have a new way to have a great time with friends. Now get the goddamn friends and you'll have something. Seltzer's with friends. It's like, it's social.

Folks, right now, you can save 30% off of your first order and free shipping on orders over $75, of which you've already saved 30% on. If you head over to cornbread hemp, if you can spell corn and bread and hemp, put all those things together, cornbreadhimp.com slash jCE, 30% off your first order and free shipping on orders over 75. get just you know the thing to do in a summertime Brian getting one of the kiddie pools and fill it up with blueberry breezes and then just dive in head first and with your mouth open and boy you'll be sunshine lollipops and rainbows waterfalls just one of the small kids pools though you don't have to go too far not advisable but what is advisable is to take up this great deal Now we're good friends at cornbread hemp in Louisville. Jim, one more time. How can the listeners check out these fine seltzers from cornbread hemp?

And all the other fine products they have, the gummies, and they also have hemp if you're wanting to make ropes to climb out of towers. Cornbreadhimp.com. I just threw that in there for you. Cornbreadhemp.com slash JCE 30% off your first order. Free shipping on orders over $75 and raw materials to, make ropes with which to escape and climb mountains. Once again, our friends, cornbread hemp.

All right, some sloppy sounds to get us to the final go around here on the show. We got a bunch of questions and doesn't look like anything crazy is happening at the moment so we can get the questions. Jim, this was sent in via the Coltokornaut Facebook group by Edward Whitkey. How true was it that Kerry Von Erick was going to replace St. for Russell War 90 since Jim was on the booking committee. What? Now, back up? When Sting got hurt leading up to Russell War 90, the match would flare that Lex Lugar took his place.

He's saying, how true is it that Kerry von Eric was going to replace Sting? That's news to me. Where was Carrie then? Was Carrie still in Texas? Was Kerry? Yeah. Was he out of commission? Did he have, when did he have his wreck?

I don't know. Point is, all I can tell you is that we were in Corpus Christi the night it happened. That they had set the whole thing up, the horsemen had become baby face, Sting was a part of the group so that they could do the deal that they did. O'Eley could tell him off, they could turn on Sting. And that was going to set up the February paper view, February 25th was it? That date sticks out in my mind, 1990. it was going to be Sting and Flair

and Flair was going to put the belt on Sting. And the show closing deal when the horsemen were getting the heat in the cage on and I think it was other heels. It was Gary Hart's guys because they had just turned a heel earlier that night. So the horsemen were beating up the other heels and Sting came down, tried to climb in a cage

and they wanted, Sting was going to try to climb in a cage and get the horsemen and then everybody else is trying to pull Sting down, don't go in there, and it's going to be mass chaos. Well, Doug Dillinger, had never been, never been trained as a worker reverted back to his goddamn police training

and pulled Sting down off the cage for a shoot. And when he landed, that's when he tore his ACL. And so we didn't automatically know that it was torn, but since he was hobbling around in the back, we knew something was up. And I had originally, where the fuck were we the next day? Somewhere in Texas.

Well, I'll just grab my Midnight Express book and figure out where we were, because that was February 1990, correct? We were in Corpus Christi for the Clash of Champions, and that was February the 6th. and the next day we were in Beaumont, Texas. So point being, I had been going to drive to Beaumont that night, but Flair said, ah, we've got to figure out something.

Everybody just said, let's stay here because he was going to fly anyway the next morning and we'll meet at the airport in the morning and we'll figure out what we're going to do because the pay-per-view is the 25th and it was in Greensboro. I've just seen in my book. And so I'm thinking to what the fuck, blah, blah, blah. And get there the next morning, thinking we're going to have this meeting and, you know, concoct all these potential ideas. And Flair just said, we're going to switch Lugar, put him in there.

And then we just flew to fucking Beaumont. And I, I mean, did he call Carrie that night from the Holiday Inn in Corpus Christi and ask him, then because the next day he told the rest of his creative team that we were going to switch Lugar so and I'm looking here because we were at yes Beaumont we did three TV tapes and that was and Lugar began his baby face turn because we were doing TV there was no way from one night to the next day to bring anybody new in, right? So that, no, I don't believe there was anything to that. The rumor had always been that later in the year they wanted Kerry Von

Eric to come in and he decided not to. And that's when he went to the WWF and had that run where he beat Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam. And was a thought maybe that's for a little while. That is more credible because later on in the year of, depending on what time it was, you know, I was not on the creative team. I heard bubbles of, oh, but, you know, you would think they would talk to Carrie if Carrie wasn't signing anywhere else and was back, you know, ambulatory after his accident,

blah, blah, blah. But he was never brought up to you and your time on the booking committee as someone to bring in or anything. I mean, if it, in passing, it would have been to the point where I didn't really remember it. You know, at that point, and that was from what Octoberish of. of September, October of 89 through February of 90. All right, well, let's get another one here, Jim. This one is from the Cult of Cornett Facebook group.

This was sent in by Tony Osio. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, in the 70s and 80s. It was part of the Central States territory, aka Poverty Row. Monogram Pictures. The TV time slot in our market for the studio show was midnight on Saturdays on the weakest station in the market at the time, NBC.

It was the last show before the color bars. And there were times that the Central State Studio show would air right after Saturday night's main event. My question is this. What are some of the other terrible time slots you remember for studio wrestling shows in the 70s and 80s? Oh, my God.

I mean, there were rotten time slots in every territory at one point in time in some town. Smoggy Mountain Wrestling when we got on the air in Chattanooga. It was Friday night at 1 o'clock or Saturday morning at 1 o'clock, however way you wanted to phrase it. But no, that's the thing, especially in the smaller markets in the territory days. you were, you had good points. You were a popular program. Wrestling except the most low rent, you know, weak station, small market, bad territory,

whatever wrestling always did as good or better ratings than most local programs or even syndicated programs in a lot of cases anywhere in the markets. But at the same time, if you found a, station manager that either didn't like wrestling or they were doing just fine because there was only three stations in the market they were all network affiliates then you know if you want to be on tv you might need to be at two o'clock in a morning and that's especially in new york what was the big time slot in new york on w r for years they had various ones i think it may have

been midnight i think it was midnight and they still did numbers in the Bruno days with that where they bragged at like X hundred thousand homes watching Saturdays at midnight for worldwide wrestling or whatever it was. The Bruiser's show for years,

Brewers TV was on on either Channel 4 or Channel 6, the independent was 4 out of Bloomington, and 6 was the I'm going to say NBC affiliate in Indianapolis itself in a daytime slot, but it would rerun Saturday night after the late movie at 1 o'clock in the morning or whatever it was. That's how I first found wrestling because I couldn't get the Indianapolis stations in the daytime when Channel 3 and Louis was on the air.

But I mean, it just, you know, you couldn't draw houses with a horrible time slot in the middle of the night. but you could try to build a fan base where you could at least run spot shows or whatever and try to get upgraded to a better time slot. But no, even in the territory days, you had to have something in between 9 o'clock in the morning and midnight and on a station that somebody watched, you know, for you to be able to run that market consistently for house shows. But the shows ended up all over the fucking place.

You know, after all the buzz from my just tape traders, all of a sudden ECW got on New York TV, but it was the MSG network on cable at 2 in the morning. Yeah. And I think it was actually a time buy. And they were lucky to get it because, you know, it's New York. And it was crowded. And then still there was more people watching television in New York. And I'm not talking about sports channel or some of the cable channels, but just if you could get on broadcast TV,

In New York, in the 70s, there was more people watching TV in New York, Saturday morning at 2 o'clock than there was in Des Moines on Tuesday night at 8 o'clock. All right, Jim, our next question via the Colta Cornette Facebook group was sent in by Jacob PICA. Why Haku wasn't pushed to main event status or upper, or event, upper midcard? Let me put this in English. Jim, why was Haku never pushed as a main inventor or even upper midcard? Well, I mean, again, he was in the territory days in some of the spots he had as an upper level heel. And Haku himself, go ahead. Not real.

I mean, Montreal, he was pushed. As King Tonga, he was kind of big in Montreal at the end of Montreal. but then he was in the WWF from 86 on. Also didn't, well, now maybe am I thinking of the wrong Samoan island fellow? Didn't he ever run before he became Haku in Florida also and or? I don't know. But the point I was going to make is, you know, he was a better top guy for a heel group with a manager in a territory type of spot than a guy that you could push as a main event star

on his own because there was a drawback because of the promos. And yes, he is a bad son of a gun. But if you didn't, if you didn't put him with a really top manager that had heat and credibility and then give him a real concerted push as a guy who didn't do a lot of talking but just killed people. And they just, he wasn't that. upper echelon, and he worked great, you know, in a tag team situation, but he wasn't that upper echelon singles guy that really connected on his own,

saying that as diplomatically as I can because he could still kill me. But we like each other. All right. Well, there's a very diplomatic answer to the ha-ku question. Jim, we have another question here. This one was sent via the Culta-Corpsorne of Facebook group by Benjamin. Erie E-Y-R-I-E-Y-E-Y

Now wait, what is this a name? Is this a town? Is this a spelling bee? What are you saying here? Benjamin sent in a question. Jim, who is the best wrestler you had in OV-W that either dropped out or never made it in the business? Uh-huh.

There's some competition there and then again it depends on never made it, It depends on the level of never made it, never made it to TV at all or never, you know, made what the way they should have made it. I always mentioned Johnny Jeter. I just thought he was tremendous. And X. a good looking kid. And the girls liked him and great shape and great attitude.

And his work was tremendous in just a few years. And they ran him completely off and back home to San Diego. you know the basham's for the potential they had the talent they had versus what they had to put up with when they got there and they got buried from the start we've talked about Mark Magnus Muhammad Hassan he made it but you know yeah see that's the question what is made I mean technically to some to the person who never gets to the big show the show I guess we should say because there's a big show the bash has made it it may not have been the way it could have been the way it could have been the way it was, but just being there made it. Is there anyone who didn't even get there?

You know, and I'm going to be, again, probably chastened or, you know, shamed because I've missed the obvious name. And we had a lot of great potential prospects. I'm trying to think of somebody that never actually made it to WWWEF television, because even though it's... Most of them made it and they ruined them there. Says Skyfire. And a kid named Matt Johnson, they were painfully thin and small,

but they had fire and enthusiasm to them. They were a good tag team, but they never looked at them at all. They were about 190 pounds apiece, maybe, or whatever, and that was just ridiculous in that day and age. Most of our guys made some type of television so that they could be basically video. visually slandered on a fucking national basis and then run off. All right, on that upbeat note, let's go to our next question here, Jim.

This was sent via the cult of coordinate Facebook group by Todd in Larwill, Indiana. Oh, Todd! No, Todd! What does Todd want? In the territory days, what did someone actually get when purchasing a territory? Were there any physical assets? Or were you just getting the rights to promote the table? towns. Also, does being, and is a quote, figured in, have anything to do with the ownership of

a territory? Thank you for all you do. Well, yes, it can. Second question, first. Being figured in into anything, that can be applied to anything. Hey, we're going out to eat tonight to the Brazilian steak place after the show. Figure me in. Means I'm coming. But in the term or in the usage that you described it, yes, if you're figured in in a territory, if you're figured into the office, that means you're, you either own part of it or you have an office job where you have some type of power pull and control. If you're figured into a territory as a wrestler, that means you're figured in, you're in a top position, other people are going to come and go, but you're going to stay there and they're going to do something with you regardless because you're figured

in. But now, the first part of the question, was if you buy a territory, what do you get? A little of column A and column B. Yes, you get wrestling rings, which you can have built, but you get them. Or, you know, office supplies or furniture or whatever. But it's not just the rights to promote in that territory. The existing promoter run an existing territory has contracts with the buildings.

They've got dates set out months in advance. and regular dealings with them. So you get all the buildings in the territory are still working with championship wrestling from Florida, but now the owner is Jim instead of Brian. Same thing with the TV stations. You've got contracts with championship wrestling from Oshkosh. Well, it's just got a new owner.

And hopefully if you've spent money for that territory, the other owner is in good standing with the buildings and the TV stations and the state athletic commission if there is one in the state where they run. And they're not mad at, you know, those people are not mad at the old promoter so he can kind of get you in to, here's who you talk to.

So, and then when a territory is sold, think about this, Brian, and in all the times in history, when somebody has bought a territory from somebody else, all the wrestlers don't just pack up and fucking leave. Sometimes the Booker stays for a while, but you've got to keep running. So you're buying the existing infrastructure that's in place

and the current talent roster that, you know, has been booked by Booker and do you want to replace the Booker, then he'll probably replace the talent. But nobody's just, it's not just going to be, 20 new guys next week. So you buy all that you, you just take over the thing is what you're buying, the thing that's running.

You're buying it, you get to keep running it hopefully as well as it's been running or elsewise you wouldn't want to buy it if it was in the shits. Does that make sense? It does. And again, not a lot of physical assets. And certainly over the years there were many people from the Welch Fuller family or even Al Carrey.

in Hawaii, who tried to sell territories just knowing they would be able to buy it back cheaper than they sold it for. Yeah, that's part of it too. All right, Jim, let's get another question here. This one was sent via the Cult of Cornette Facebook group by Matt Weinan's. Is there a certain characteristic that makes a wrestler a good tag team wrestler? people like Bobby Eaton, Arne Anderson, and Ricky Morton had good single success, but is there a certain trait or ability that makes them such outstanding tag team wrestlers?

You know, there are guys who are better tag team wrestlers than singles. Some of it has to do with, well, you're not like a, you know, an outstanding singles personality on your own, but you blend well with somebody else's team. That's from a personality, from a gimmick or standpoint or whatever. But some guys just understand tag team wrestling better than other. They just get it better. But there's no real one characteristic you can point to otherwise than that guy gets it better.

It's like, how can you point to a better singer or a better painter? Well, that guy just, he sees what he wants to do and he replicates it. and from his mind to his talent. And a lot of guys just, you know, get the tag team thing better and they flow with it. You know, you can't want to be the big dog on a tag team. You have to share the spotlight. So you can't be too much of an egotist

unless your partner is too and you're being egotistical together. But a lot of guys, as you mentioned, Bobby Eaton, you know, he was a great worker, but he wasn't a main event singles guy on his own, even with a manager to talk. But as part of a team was someone, you know, close to as good as he was, nobody was as good, and close to the same size and can meld together with the teamwork,

then they, you know, you wouldn't necessarily buy Bobby Eaton against Animal in a single match, but you bought the Midnight Express against the Road Warriors because we were sneaky and tricky. So just sometimes it works out that way. The guys are better in teams. What would it happen to you? What would your career be like today?

If when Watts and 83 came and started picking talent, if he said, I want that guy to manage Dennis Condry and Carl Fergie. Oh, Jesus. Hopefully, and I love, Carl Fergie, cousin Carl, but I think he would agree he probably wasn't going to be a main event wrestler. I think hopefully me and Dennis would have emerged unscathed somewhere else. Are there guys that are good at calling tag team matches, but for whatever reason,

they can't get it down for a singles match? Probably just because the guys that were really good at calling tag team matches, that was their primary experience and they had less of it in a featured single. position, so it may be true, but I don't know which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Because we talked about the other day just real quick. A guy that had the opposite problem in that he'd been in a tag, well, that that problem, not opposite, but the same thing, he'd been in a tag team. Hernandez and Homicide.

All of his, all of his major league career, and then they just threw him out in singles matches. And he didn't know how to put it together because it was a different thing. Jim, a few more questions. We'll get the hell out of here. This one was sent to corny drive-thru at gmail.com from Stephen Kelly. What's the history of referees ejecting the manager from ringside and wrestling? I don't remember seeing it much in the 80s and 90s matches because the manager was often integral to the finish. Was Jim ejected often and sent to the back?

Does it take heat off the manager to eject them from the match? Thank you. Okay, it didn't happen a lot in the old days, and it happens quite often in the new days, and the reason is because, same as with everything else, it gets a pop, and the kids doing it don't really know how it started to begin with. If a manager in the old days interfered in any way,

if the referee even caught him in the ring while the match was going on without him touching anyone. Just turn around. There, guys in the ring, disqualification. Or if the manager was caught hand in a gimmick, or if the manager was caught interfering, or whatever the case. But every once in a while,

it's one of those creative spots that if you did it, very sparingly, it gets a pop and it leads into something, you'd do a spot where the referee had reason to believe that the fucking manager had done something, but goddamn, he didn't see it, but the people are screaming, he did, and the fucking manager's denying it,

and he's asking the people, the referee, and he's, and finally, you know, you're out of here, like a baseball game. And right at that point, while the people are up, maybe something happens behind the referee's back while he's trying to do something to make things even for the baby face,

and it's a fuck finish, or maybe that's the reason that the heel has an out when the baby face slips up behind him then and blah, blah, blah. But it just, but now you see it all the time where the referee will, he'll catch somebody interfering. And that's the reason that he kicks him out. No, that's the reason you disqualify him. But it, so again, something sparing that made some kind of sense

that got a pop that led to something in the finish has now become something that people cheer for and they don't know how to set it up. Does that answer the question? Jim, our next question via the call to Cornet Facebook group was sent in by Don Stanley Howell Brooks III. Oh, for Christ's sake. Our hometown wrestling hero was Ranger Ross.

Could he have had a successful career if he had not had his issues. Oh, good golly. First of all, Ranger Ross, I still heard was fixated on. Well, they dropped him into Guatemala. Where was it? Where did they drop him into? He was a paratrooper.

Was it Nicaragua? I don't know. Nicaragua. Was it Nicaragua? No. It was somewhere else. See if you can Google where Ranger Ross was dropped into. Out of a helicopter.

but I thought Ranger Ross was a talented upper middle card baby face kind of guy. He didn't have an impressive physique, but he was a good athlete in good shape. He was a nice looking guy. He wasn't abnormally large, but he seemed to take to the in ring, you know, more than just your average slub. And what was that in 1989 during that period of time? Yeah. WCW was looking for new talent.

He was from, if he wasn't from Georgia, he's from Florida, but I think he was from Georgia. Atworth, Georgia. There you get right outside Atlanta. And, you know, and they worked at,

you know, in their early training program before it even became a power plant. But, you know, he wasn't going to be a main event guy. Even in WCW at that time, much less like for Crockett a few years earlier.

He just, I don't think he was ever going to get that good, but he was a good performer, had a service record, and to use him where they did mostly, which was middle of the card, I didn't think it was, he wasn't that out of place. But issues are not, as in, I can't remember what all the goddamn issues were. Was he the one that robbed the bank? Yeah, he was the motorcycle bandit. Yes. Those were the issues.

But even without that, he wasn't, we didn't lose a pay-per-view main event, but he was a nice fellow that I, you know, when I interacted with him. And then later on, he became the motorcycle bandit. I liked him as a kid because that's when I first started watching the NWA and he kind of looked like stalker from G.I. Joe. And he did the combat kick. And the combat kick was, it looked cool, but also it was just a cool name, the combat kick. And it seemed like he was getting a little push. for a minute they did something with him in the Iron Sheik and then before you know it he was like teaming up with Randy Rose

and just like nothing he never won anything ever again but I liked them yeah well I think that was that was either a late George Scott or an early booking committee push and you know Flair didn't didn't dislike him but at the same time I think by the time Flair was booking he just it was a middle card thing he was dealing with the ding-dongs and he had worked with Norman the lunatic. It wasn't like you could say, my God, we need to put

Ranger Ross and the horseman. Jim, our next question sent via the call to Cornet Facebook group by David Melendez. I've heard Brian mention a few times the idea of starting an all women's promotion to see how it would do.

If you were to start an all woman's promotion and could have access to the talents in both WWE and AEW, who would be your top baby face? and who would be your top heel? Also, who would be your world champion and tag team champions and would promoting in all women's... Oh, Jesus Christ now!

And would promoting an all women's wrestling company be any different than promoting regular wrestling? Yeah. You know, we did the AEW women's roster. Hold on, can I reach... Hey! I got my notes. We haven't done the WW women's roster. yet, and we hadn't forgot about it, folks.

We're going to get back to these things. But out of the AEW women's roster, I'm going to mention names that I believe should be in main events. Tony Storm, well, Camille ain't there anymore. Maria May ain't there anymore. Well, technically Camille is there. She's under contract still, isn't she?

Well, but we don't get to see her, so, you know, know. That's AEW. The point is, yeah. So, you know, Ria Ripley's going to be the champion. I mean, this is not like it's a goddamn surprise. The whole thing's going to be built around Ria Ripley. As a baby face?

As whatever the fuck she wants to be, because she's a goddamn movie star. And I'd have to look at the WWWRoster, but I mean, there's a few there. We're going to keep hanging around, but I can't go, deep enough into tag teams and intercontinental champions and my entire plans, yes, it would be very different.

You would have to, I mean, it's still doing a television show and promoting a live event, but you would, I would think, construct it differently. And also, you know, again, I wouldn't be doing it to begin with. So we're in the land of supposition all the way up to our elbows to begin with. If Ria was your top baby face for your top heel, do you need someone big? You know, because Ria is one of the bigger women there, like a Raquel, or can you have like a sneaky Liv Morgan kind of heel is the top heel? I think it depends on the individual, but I'm not saying that they all need to be, she doesn't

need to be going for the fucking female equivalent of giant Gonzalez. Liv Morgan has been a personality. out of maybe Liv Morgan as part of my heel tag team champions because there then size is not as big of a commodity when

you're as part of a team. Maybe Bianca is a heel. That's because at skipping and hair twirling gets heat with me but she and Maria could handle the in ring aspect of that.

So there's there's people there but there ain't a lot of them Jim our next question from the culticrinna Facebook group was sent in by Blair Reganwetter oh now come on now there's been a few times where Jim has criticized a wrestler for having happy feet is there a particular match you can point to that best represents this

oh god I mean that you mostly see it in tryout matches or seminars or, you know, matches that are taped for training purposes or sometimes dark matches, I can't point one out from Raw or Smackdown recently, except maybe there may have been, you know, one of the celebrities they've had the past few years on one of the big companies may have had a little happy feet.

but what happy feet are is when you when you have a guy and you shoot him off and he takes too many steps across the rig or to come back or you're doing some kind of spot and instead of just a line of motion straight ahead with even strides the guys side to side and all over the place looking like he's doing some kind of football drill. Those are happy feet. And you can even, if you're in a headlock and the guy's Craig, but the guy's got his stance perfect, but your feet are moving around instead of putting yourself in the right place, you got happy feet. I think Tom Pritchard, I think is one per. He uses the phrase all the time, but also I believe he's one of the people that would point out. And I've

had it pointed out by a few other people. If a guy's hitting the ropes, if you're just doing a crisscross, right? If a guy knows how to hit the ropes and with a WWE size ring, not only is it three steps and turn, but you will not see the guy's head bob up and down. If a guy knows what he's doing,

hitting the ropes, his head is level all the way across, all the way back, all the way across, all the way back, three steps and turn, three steps and turn, three steps and turn. It's a rhythm. And happy feet is just guys that are green and uncomfortable and are just nervous.

And their feet get in the way of you trying to do your shit too. All right, Jim, our final question here today. This was sent via the cult of Cornette Facebook group by Sarah Petricelli, how does one become a wrestling historian? Well, that was a short question. Study and learn. Right?

You got to study and then you'll learn. Well, no, I don't think Dave's saying that's about being historian. That's about knowing now. You have to study and learn to know now. Well, no, you just have to study and learn to figure out what he's talking about. But, no, how do you become a historian? seek out the history, study it, flesh it out, put things together. You know, like we just as an example, we had the letter from Eddie Gilbert earlier

when he had the decision to go to Atlanta or the WWF. Well, that's a little anecdote, amusing antidote, as they say of history. Maybe somebody will jot that down and it'll be incorporated. But how do you be a historical? of anything, you get familiar with the subject, you start to want to learn more about the people involved or the things that happened and then read the books and start, you know,

looking for old programs or going into the newspapers or whatever the fuck you need to do. I mean, is there a course in historianing where you can learn how to be a historian or do you just have to kind of pick up and run with it? it. You've got to know your stuff about something. You've got to have some sort of knowledge about something, whether it's an institutional knowledge or just learn knowledge or a combination. You have to be able to talk chapter and verse about a subject and be able to just stop and

think about it and get other thoughts about it. And you get that by studying past history stuff. Wrestling's a little tough. I mean, now there's, there's not a thousand different wrestling books right now. It has to be close to it. Oh, there's more than that. And see, that's the thing is the last 20, even 20 years ago, before all the newspapers.com, you had to actually go to the fucking library, even less than 20 years ago. I went to the library with John Cosper, but you had to go to a library in a town and research that shit, or he had to find old phone books or whatever. So there were no, you know, even the books and notes and things that I had were by no

means complete. You had to commit a lot of that to memory and no dates or know where people went or what they did. And because wrestling was everywhere for so long with so many people involved, there was always surprises. And you're always like, oh, shit, I never do. That happened. Now with the comprehensive online shit you can do, it's easier than ever to to figure out like the letters we've read from people doing research on the first TV broadcasts. It's easier than ever to do the research

on what happened, but you've still got to have the knowledge of the people involved, the wrestling business in general, to put the pieces together as far as why it happened or what caused it. And that's where you need to know the subject.

Yeah, you have to also be able to, you know, if you're researching, things and you bump into things, you have to be able to recognize what something is and what it could be. Sometimes you look at old programs. It's one of the reasons I love old programs. You'll see what seems like an innocent line in there, but if you kind of know who they're alluding to without saying the person's name, you realize, oh, they're taking a shot at the opposition, or this is right after this happened. So, you know, just one thing builds upon another, and luckily, wrestling, there have been a lot of really great historians who have gotten a lot of

stuff out there. And there's a lot of research that still isn't out there. But if you're interested in researching it, you should. There's convention. The conventional wisdom would be that the fabulous Fargoes, when they hit Tennessee in 1957, became the, you know, blazing hot tag team at every market. They worked like six weeks in Memphis. And Jackie and Don weren't the team in Memphis that was the Fargoes for like three years. Because they were taken to the other end of the territory, because Memphis had just been taken over by Goulos and Welch, and Birmingham was a bigger, more successful town.

And then Don went wherever Don went Jackie and Joe Fargo. Joe, the forgotten Fargo brother, I think it was Louis Tillett with bleached blonde hair. They made Memphis before Jackie, and then Jackie and Sonny before he was Ruff House. And then they brought Don in a few years later. And you would never think that that had happened that way, but it was, if you uncover the lineage, it was odd.

So Memphis was the last town in the Tennessee territory that the Fargo brothers appeared regularly and got over in. Jackie was already a baby face. And that's interesting to seven people. My favorite heel nickname for a baby face is calling Roughhouse Fargo, Nut House Fargo. Yeah. And there was the deal.

They'd say Jackie Fargo Springs had no good brother of his out of that mental institution down there in North Carolina. And Jackie would say he doesn't live in that place. He just sweeps up there. AKA he's just a referee there. Yes, AKA he's working for Jim Crockett. But every summer, Ruff House would take about three weeks off between 67 and probably 73 or four,

he would take four or five, six weeks maybe off in the summertime and come to Tennessee and they'd draw sellouts. And then he'd go back and be a fucking referee in the first match for $50 or whatever. This may be a silly question, but obviously there's not a lot of studio footage that I've seen from that era, if there's any that survives. Was Ruff House on TV often when he was there? Or was it you had to come to the arena to Zoom?

earlier on by the last time that he would have been on TV would have been the 73 and 74 runs where he was in and out more often because they were doing huge business because it was Lawler and Jim White as a team against Jackie and Roughhouse were the ones that set the Coliseum attendance record in 72 and then beat it by 10 people the following week and at that point they were bringing Roughhouse in more they even won the Southern Tag Team title for a while. So he would every once in a while do a studio thing and just do his

crazy shit, but in a smaller area for a shorter period of time. Well, there it is, and that's our final question here today, but let's get a song or two before we get out of here. They're popular with the listeners. Jim, you're ready for a song or two?

I'm ready. Play that funky music. This first one was sent in by Lukeland and this is a song based on something you recently talked about let's go to this and one of these son of a bitches

has ridden in on my shirt or whatever the fuck and let out it sounded like a smoke detector god damn it jumped up off the fucking couch and turned around almost because I had to piss anyway because I'd taken my morning pill and almost pissed myself

And I'll turn around and there's you. I'm a cicada. When you went outside, who knew you'd see me later? I'm on your couch now. I'm making loud sounds. Bring me some girl bugs. I'll take them to pound town. But then I see a cycle fills me for dread.

Handful of tissues. Fuck now, I'm dead. All right. Well, there's a ending. Oh, that's great. Ending with deaths. That is the greatest thing ever. Well, thank you.

A brand new person. I don't think he submitted a song in the past. He was just born last week. He's brand new. Thank you, Luke Land. Send it more as you have it. But let's get one more. That was relatively short.

Very good, though. This one was sent in. Now, we've had songs from him in the past. Stefan and Auburn, Maine. I think we played this one. I don't know about this one. Let's give this a shot. Let me stop it for a moment. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't understood a word he has said.

I haven't, no, I haven't got a word yet, but it's a very interesting tonal quality. Again, stop it. Have you gotten any? I have no idea what this is about or anything. I think we need to call some type of ambulance. He may be having a stroke. It is. Just keep tones it comes. All right. There's another one. What was the name of that song?

The name of that song is tiptoe to the tissues. I thought I heard the tissue. I heard that's the one word I did hear, actually. I'll give him credit. I did hear that one word. All right, well, we can't end on that. But thank you. Once again, Stefan, you never let us down.

Finally, let's go to this. We never expect anything. This one was sent in to Courtney Drive-Thru at gmail.com by Seth Rock. I've sent this two other times since December. I hope this one makes it. Longtime fan, musician. Apparently this is based on my song. Let's go to this.

Hello again, friends. And you are our friends. With your host. Hello, friends. And you are our friends, except for all the cosplay wrestling fans that like to pretend. Because to see somebody's children

as an intimidating figure like Mama Cornett would say you like three sheets to the win. Now, we ain't into the phony. I said we call it. like we see it never win in the pony. Now sometimes the truth would be pissing people off that's better than pissing a bottle like some freaking gibron.

Shout out to Brian, ask, yeah, toast to you for showing the rest how a real co-host should do. Hawaiian Brian, the podcasting lion. Mr. Co-host to you. Oh, I'm sorry, Jim, Mr. Cornette, that we ain't get the type of wrestling that we're wishing for you. I'm sick of triple threat matches. That's just lazy booking.

Give me a triple burger. You want amazing cooking. It's Jim Cornett's drive through. Pull on up. Take a scene and relax. Pull on up. This Jim Cornett's drive through. Your feelings don't need shit to the facts.

Pull on up. It's Jim Cornett's drive through. Pull on up. And grab a spicy row. Pull on up. It's Jim Cornett's drive through. The lady who makes more money by staying home. Let me row.

Well, there it is. Seth Rock has sent that in. Very good job. Very nice. Very guy. I give you a round of a. applause, Seth, Franklin Rockins. Well, there it is. And with that, there it is. With that, the drive-through is closed. Very dramatic.

We'll be back in a few days on the Jim Cornett Experience. I know we promised it today, but we had a bunch of stuff. Cast media update on the experience. We're going to look at their monthly operating report and talk about the numbers in there. And much, much more, the Jim Cornett experience. And next week back here on the drive-thru. Go through the archive, patreon.com, slash cornet. $5 a month, get you access

to the early days of the show going back to 2013 Patreon.com slash cornet. Of course, the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel,

just go there and search for Jim Cornett full episodes, Clips to the episodes, Omnibus Collections, Travis Heckel artwork, George,

our great guest artist, his artwork to check it out today. And of course, you can check on any video for official drive-through T-shirts.

Just go to YouTube or go to Arcadian Vanguard or look for us in the shop app, wherever you find your favorite apps, get your favorite t-shirts. I'm saying something. The gym at Cornett's Collectibles at Jimcornet.com.

Save me. The gym at Cornett. Well, Cornett's Collectibles is back in action again. As I mentioned last week, Hachka's Featherbottom appreciates and his whole family. Appreciate it the condolences and the well-wishes from everybody. He's back in action. Everything ordered through June 20th.

I believe was the date has been signed and handed off to him, and by the time you hear this, we'll be in the mail to the customers. Order with impunity now. We're back in action at Jim Cornett.com. That's right, at Jimcornett.com. The drive-thru is brought to you by the Law Office of Stephen Pneau. 8775-Oh, oh, Steve. Get even with Stephen.

More about him on the experience this week. Newlawoffice.com. And that's it. Catch up with the wrestling news each and every day from the wrestling news. news, but otherwise, until the experience in a few days, and next week back here on the drive-thru. For Jim Cornett, I'm the great Brian last. Tally-ho! Ho!