Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 402

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, it's history & fun! Jim looks at his 1993 WCW deal with Bill Watts, and answers YOUR questions about Tony Khan being double crossed, Sting's 1990 injury, The Road Warriors as heels, Bobby Eaton, Toni Storm, booking tournaments, Jim's favorite year, steak, and much more! Plus Jim plays Guess The Program! Thanks to our episode sponsor: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/cornette 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.

again, friends, whenever you hear this, and you are our friends, and welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-thru right here on another day. It is indeed a day in the summer, and we are indeed here for you, no reviews, but questions, wrestling history, and the usual chaos. I'm your host of Great Brian Last. Oh, Jesus. And here he is the leader of the cult of Cornett, Mr. Jim Cornett. I thought because we were time traveling and we had got stuck in the machine there

and it was just going around and around like if you were a kid and you went to the fair and they put you in the thing where you stand in the thing and you're against the wall and it spins around in a circle and everything and then some people vomit out

into the middle of the thing. I thought we were stuck in that. That's the theme to the grid Ryan last. What are you talking about? No, it was just going on and all the theme keeps getting lost. It's like the the fucking various TV show themes

that you go back and look remember the first season of Maud it was like three minutes long and then by the end of the season six they'd cut it down to 15 seconds and then there's Maud it's supposed to go that way not increase exponentially

all right well just like the theme song you opened the door right there and we need to fill up a lot of time here today what are the best TV theme songs of all time what are the best TV? I drop my pen. What are the best TV theme songs

of all time in your eyes? Well, grab your pin. And it has to have lyrics. Nothing instrumental. Okay, now hold on here. I'm going to attack these things individually. First of all, we don't have to say we have to fill up a lot of time here today.

Like, you know, we're contractually obligated to just drone on even if we have nothing to say. We'll tell the people in a minute that we're pre-taping this program because of circumstances beyond your control. but as far as instrumentals don't count, well, then that takes up

half of the great TV show themes, Mission Impossible. Lalo Schifrin just died, by the way, I saw on the interweb. RIP, but Mission Impossible, Hawaii 50, the honeymooners. I mean, it goes on.

It's a separate cat. It's interesting, you put the honeymoon. No one ever really listened to them with those other ones. I'm being facetious. I'm being, I was naming one thing that was not like the others for your, and it went right over your goddamn dome there. Because as you're saying it, I could hear the song in my head.

I'm like, yeah, it is a memorable theme song now that I think about it. Well, it was by Jackie Gleason. That's right. Who conducted the orchestra, and he popped the corn too. But no, it was a great TV show themes. The Green Hornet!

That's an instrumental. I've actually never seen an episode of The Green Hornet. Oh, God damn you. Just what, and I love Bruce Lee, but it's, my presence. It's not available anywhere. How do you get it? Where does it air? How do you get?

Well, I saw it on network first run, to be honest with you, but then it has been, it's been on, I want to say, me TV, I'm willing to be corrected in recent years. Oh, I've never seen it. And also, I think it's been on handy TV. Still sounds like a masturbatory aid, but it's heroes. And icons, handy is handy, Heroes and I got it. I think it was on there.

And I've got the, you know, the DVD set for heaven's sake. But it's the green, it's, it's Bruce Lee, but it's also, they did the Batman episode crossover. Right, of course. Batman! Well, that, that's kind of an instrumental.

There's lyrics. Batman, Batman, Batman. Dan, da, da, da, da, da. Again, lyrics. real hefty. But again, what are the best TV theme songs with lyrics? Gilligan's Island.

Is that one of them or you just, that's your one? I don't know, you've just hit me with it. I don't know what to think. The correct answer is different strokes. Oh, you've done this to me before and you said the same thing. It's the greatest theme song. It's just an excuse for you to talk about this different strokes.

It hits hard. it's good. Well, then tell them to lighten up their strokes. All right, well, this is your show. No, it's not. But fortunately, what I was going to say to you is that we should explain to the people at the top of the program why one of the things we're going to explain is why I'm explained to you, Lucy,

is why I'm just such a cranky bastard all the time. Because, you know what I've been wanting to do here. It's a big episode. We're going to finally explain that. Well, it's going to be a multi-emnibus. But no, and here's the thing. I've been cranky for the last week and a half or more because it hasn't rained here. It's been 90-something degrees, but instead of it raining constantly like it did earlier and flooding and everything earlier in the year, now it doesn't rain and it's 90 and everything's dry.

And the rain that has been popping up has been missing us where it'd be raining three miles away. ain't nothing here. Well, yesterday in the middle of the afternoon, boom, we got the big thunder. We got an inch of rain in like an hour and a half, three miles away, they got nothing. And then overnight, the thunderstorms jacked everybody up out of their slumbers

at like 4 o'clock in a morning, and it wasn't severe or anything, but we got deluged with, I haven't heard what the reading was of that rain, but that was going on forever. And so now we got some rain, but then it heats back up to 90 degrees, and now the dew point is like 75.

And every time you walk outside a door of a dwelling, it slaps you in the face. And I've been trying to get the chance to just go out and brine and take my limb lopper and my pole saw and trim the, I'm looking at them. I can see them. And walk out of random dwellings?

It's like a serial killer. No. No, I'm saying I've been wanting to go out in a yard and do some yard work or I got weeding that I need to do and things. But it's so goddamn miserable that if I was to go out and try to undergo any physical activity, a person of my age, I'd have a stroke in an hour and a half. I'd be in bed the rest of the fucking day. So I have things I can't just.

go out and physically punish myself to do two hours of yard work and be in bed instead of operating this, the goddamn empire, the global media conglomeration that I am, the magnitude of me, I have to be, you know, boom, boom, boom, here taking this call and that memo and signing off on things and future endeavoring people. can't just be laying out of the yard with an oxygen tank strapped to me. So I haven't been able to enjoy that is what I'm saying to you. And apparently for the next week, it's going to be 92 degrees every day and 77 every night with a 70-something do-point and pop-up thunder showers

to make everything even steamier and stigier. It's like we live in Guatemala. So since I can't have any type of enjoyment in that respect, I'm actually taking a trip. And we are going to report on my trip. Aruba, it's Aruba, just look around Aruba. Or Jamaica. And we're going to report on my trip on the next week's experience, but we are recording this drive-through ahead of time because I'm going to be gone when people are,

hearing that or when we would have normally have recorded this for the people to hear it or you know what I mean. He's going to be at the Tupleau Wrestling Hall of Fame ladies and gentlemen. Anyone thinking about going this weekend, he'll be there. No, but I'll give you a hint. If you do stop by the Herb Welch-Welch-Resselplex

in Dyersburg, Tennessee this weekend, you'll probably be really surprised. That it's still there? I'm not going to narrow it down any, but anybody that shows up just because I said that's going to be really surprised. All right.

So anyway, that's what we're doing here. We're doing a program where we're just having discussion and questions and fun and frivolity and leaving the picking apart the weaknesses and the frivolities of modern wrestling to another day. That is indeed correct. But we do want to tell everyone that in the meantime and in between time, there's still merch. Oh, lots of things that. please buy. Jimcornet.com,

Cornett's collectibles. There, well, there's always merch. Merch will go on. And folks at Jimcornett.com, you can get the highest quality merch for the most affordable prices, including action figures,

autographed memorabilia, magazines, books, DVDs, certificates, and so much more. And praise Hotchka's Feather Bottom for his quick and speedy service at Jim Cornett.com and the show t-shirts. You can get to Cornett face shirt over at jc.com.

That's still the same place, but the brand new plethora of show shirts is just right at your fingertips. That's right, a plethora of show shirts with more show shirts to come. At arcadianvangard.com or on the shop app, just look for Jim Cornett or Arcadian Vanguard, or of course, every single video on the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel. Your sister Sue, so's the show shirts. That's right.

Well, Jim, obviously, as the listeners can tell, it's going to be a long road this week to get to wherever it is that we are going. I was looking for something that someone just sent in to play you, and now I can't find it as soon as I wanted to actually get it. But Jim, I have something somebody sent in if you need to stall for time. Yeah, what do you have? Well, this is, actually, I don't know whether they sent it into you or me or both of us or what, but this is following up on something that we talked about a long time ago here on a program.

And the question was just preposterous to us that was asked, and we just, we had fun with it, but, you know, it was more than a kind of, what kind of moron would have believed this, right? And do you remember when a guy said, hey, did y'all ever hear, I guess, when Dusty Rhodes got out of wrestling, that he worked on a tugboat because a friend of mine, so-and-so worked with Dusty Roads on a tugboat?

And we just called this guy just every kind of liar and charlatan, carpet bagger in the world, just a ridiculous, preposterous thing, and come to find out, Brian, do you know that guy's friend or whoever it was was working with Dusty Rhodes on a tugboat? Are you interested in hearing more?

I was going to let you tell the listeners because I think I know where you're going because I received a few emails about this. Okay, well, apparently, he was working with Dusty Roads on a tugboat. It just wasn't the wrestler Dusty Roads. it was the former baseball player, Dusty Rhodes,

that Dusty Rhodes was nicknamed after. And this was brought to my attention from Thomas Latrale Latrale Latril. Latril. Latrilli?

L-A-T-R-A-I-L-L-L-L-E. would that be lateral? Is he French? He's from Washington State. I was going to ask you if he had a location. Washington State it wouldn't be French unless he moved there. Well, they let French people in... I don't know if they allowed him in Washington State.

I don't know. I don't know how well. So Thomas said a little while back if American Dream Dusty Rhodes worked on the tugboats, blah, blah, blah. He sent along a New York Times article from the early 1980s, the World Series winning ball ball ball ball. player from the 1950s after a lifetime of hard living and even harder drinking ended up working

on the tugboats and he also he was mugged in the subway and relieved of his championship ring he says in the story oh that's awful so but at least it wasn't dusty he only worked on the the tugboat gimmick not the actual tugboat and they had footage on the news the other day of flooding and the just water pouring down and the water was up to like the door opening and then pouring into the subway. And then they had like the guy from like the official guy from the city being interviewed. He's like, yeah, the infrastructure we have was built for a different climate. Everything's changed. And basically everything in New York is what it would have been 500 miles south.

And we're not prepared for this. And then they cut to like a different thing. And I'm like, hold on, stop. Just keep focusing on what he just said. He just said it's all coming. do an end. I don't know what besty roads in the subway made me think of that, but

for any of our listeners now, by the way, that would have ride to subway in New York, if you go, if you start down the stairs into one of those holes in the ground and you look next to you and there's a guy that looks like Ernest Borg9, get the fuck out of there.

Yeah, I've seen that disaster movie. What the fuck? It somehow became the dirtiest flume that you've ever seen in your life. The flume! It's the flume! All right, did you flume into what you were looking for there? I just wanted to bring that up to today.

Yeah, I did. I have something here, and it's some outside audio, but I had not heard it because there was so much wrestling this past Saturday as we are recording that I didn't even try with Tony Con at the media scrum. So here's Tony Storm. Time was Tony Storm. giving a speech. And I wanted to get your thoughts on this.

This was put in the Colticoorna Facebook group by... Now, this is she's giving a speech at the scrum? At the scrum. Okay. This was posted by member Christopher Heinz. Let's go to this. Scrum speech. I prepared a list for each.

Mercedes money. Thank you for making me a better wrestler and a better woman. And for keeping your lips clean, all four of them. You taste great. When we meet again, as I know we will, I might not be so kind. Tony Chabani, go fuck yourself. I know it was you in that bathroom stall. And to the fans, thank you.

I don't know why you support me like you do, but if we all have good taste, none of us would be here. To Athena, go fuck yourself and each one of your minions, but also congratulations. Tony Kahn, no comment. Luther, thank you for being reliably an idiot. I always know you'll never be there for me when I need you. And to Wendy Richter, go fuck yourself.

Whether it's this lifetime or the next one, I will put you in a headscissor and never let go. And to Montel von Tavius Porter, thank you. It wasn't cheap, but that was the right strain for my various psychological disorders. And to the Rizzler, thank you. It wasn't cheap, but that was the right cheese for. my various psychological disorders.

And to my mother, go fuck yourself. If it wasn't for your imbalanced love and parenting, I would not have become inexplicably successful in this weekly coliseum of gay violence.

I'll now be taking questions to, you know, continue your content farming. Well, there it is, the Tony Storm. Time was Tony Storm's speech. Whatever you want to say about the gimmick on the wrestling show at everything? I mean, that's some good shit there. I mean, I wish.

And I got to be honest with you, if if she was the nut in the company, if everything else moved along at a logical, normal, reasonable, human pace and level of comprehension and she was the fucking nut, I could actually, I could buy it.

It's good shit. pal uh i maybe it's just because i've become so used to she's just another nut and a giant fucking bowl of planters fucking cashews

but it's it's better than everybody else is yeah i mean she gets away with saying some shit tony shivani go fuck yourself i know it was you in that bathroom stall Whoever's writing her stuff if it isn't her. I think it'd do pretty good with it. But it may be her. It may be her.

Last time she was asking Stan Hanson, they hit her with the lariat and not in the ring. I'd like to think that that's her stuff because it is, it suits what she's doing. I'll say that for it. All right. Well, Jim, do you have anything that you have gone through in your files, any papers. It's become a popular segment on the shows.

You know I do, brother. No, I told you I did this, had this, found this, asked you if you had ever heard this specifically. As you know, I've been in the process trying to clean some, not clean stuff out, but just sort some things and looking for stuff. And the folks have, like the agent reports and or the talent evaluations or the various memos or stuff, from my files over here and I asked you if I had ever read you this and you said no.

This was the deal that Bill Watts had I made for WCW Super Brawl in 1993. So that was Super Brawl 3 for the Rock and Roll Express and Heavenly Bodies as you'll recall to do the Smoky Mountain Wrestling crossover on TV leading up to the promotion of that pay-per-view, right? If the younger listeners want to Google it or whatever, WCW Super Brawl 3, and you'll see details on what happened, I guess.

February 93. Yes. Yes. But the reason why that I have his confidential memorandum on the WCW letterhead, the reason why I have this, the deal had already been in place for probably at that point well over a month.

But that's when I've told a story before in, you know, a couple of shoot interviews, as the kids say, what's called me in Tennessee, because I was operating Smoggy Mountain Wrestling, obviously, and said, well, they're fucking me around. I'm not going to be here by Super Brawl, so I'm going to put your deal in writing so they can't fuck you. Okay, God damn it, what the fuck?

Yeah, what are you thinking when you actually hear those words? I was thinking, here we go again. Because I had agreed to finally work with WCW again after, when Watts and I started talking, it was late 1992. So after two years, Hurd is gone. Watts comes in as not just the Booker, because I, you know, talked to Dusty at 91 when he was the Booker. I can't be around Heard.

You don't, you're not running the show. And within Heard's gone. And Watts actually is the vice president of wrestling operations or whatever the fuck their title was then where he reports only to TBS, but the problem was he reported to TBS. And so this has just been, we haven't even actually. executed the first pay-per-view match yet, but this was going to be the start of, again, as I've talked about before, kind of an early developmental thing without really developing from

scratch, but when they had young guys that needed more experience that we could take them and work them 15 days a month, and we would have access to major names, which we already had, Bobby Eaton. He had given us Bobby for 12 weeks to freshen him up. And we got a couple dates on Arne to go along with it. This, you know, the whole deal hadn't even really got kicked off yet. And we've barely done the first TVs. And already he's like, I ain't got to be here.

I'm going, fuck. The fuck is the matter with these people. So, and there wasn't anybody else that I was going to be negotiating, with, doing business with trusting or whatever that had any kind of the concept of what we were planning to do if they had any interest or not and so I was like, okay, well, we're in and we're out. Obviously, you wouldn't know how things were going to play out,

but had you ever in any way met Eric Bischoff before this point in time? No. I mean, besides working for Vern and then, you know, coming to work there and seeing him on their television until we, and I don't, I don't remember us having any interaction at the TVs

up until the pay-per-view, where I accused him of being one of the people at, because again, somebody told me that he was in the studio hanging around when the topic was, or concern was raised. And by that point, he was in charge. charge, right? No. No. He wasn't in charge, but he was lobbying for charge, but he wasn't specifically, but the problem was at that point, nobody was in charge. Right, and, you know, I'll let you

go back to this without interruption in a second, but this all led to also Jim Ross being ousted, and he was doing more than just commentary, and, you know, within a few months, he was at WrestleMania. And, well, and J.R. was, you know, in the fallout as being one of Watts's guys, but it also didn't hurt that. J.R. and say, yeah, bring it. Eric kid in, you know, a good kid or whatever. And then the guy's there.

But no, that's what I'm saying is nobody was in charge at that point. Everybody was jockeying. And I'll tell Tony Chivani was another person who was buried to me along with. Eric Bischoff as being somebody who was like, no, we got to edit that shit out of the TV, out of the audio, and et cetera, when we did the television angle with Watts. Because they were, he was happy when Jim Ross left. And they were all trying to either get a job, get a better job,

keep the job they had, or get the people out of the way they didn't like. So nevertheless, I actually found the, it not even a contract here is just a memo because Watts and I had made the deal and it was a verbal, verbal deal and a handshake. That's all I needed as long as he was around. But as he knew, they'd try to fuck us out of our money as soon as he was gone. Can I ask a question before you, I'm sorry to interrupt again. Before Bill Watts came back to WCW in early 92, had you kept in time? had you kept in touch with him at all after the closure of the UWF or after the sale of the UWF in 1987?

Had you talked to him at all? And was he, when he started talking to you, was he at all aware of your feelings about WCW and Turner Management? No. Well, I would have, from the time, what was it, 87 or 88 by the time that? 87. They got to 87 by the time they got the whole thing wrapped up. probably for four and a half years. No, he was out of the business, really didn't, you know,

I didn't particularly want to call him up and say, hey, Bill, you're talking about the wrestling business that, you know, you didn't get your money on or whatever. And I was busy. But then when he showed back up in, I don't say, showed back up, when they hired him in WCW, I was like, okay, at least maybe he can do something with this thing. And he had actually, as I've said before, reached out to me because he wanted to see how Paul Orndorf was doing.

Because, you know, he had used Orndorf early on in Mid-South when Paul was before Paul ever went to the WWF and was a huge Orndorff fan. But Paul had had the nerve damage in his arm. And since he'd been working for me, Bill wanted to see, you know, how he thought that or how I thought that, Paul was doing, could he do that again on national TV, et cetera, et cetera. And I said, yes, he still looks fucking phenomenal and he's doing a great job, right? And that's a thing. He was also saying, by the way, I'm going to be booking Paul away from you, basically is the presentation.

It was the old, hey, Vince Sr. calls up and says, I want Waldo von Eric, but I'll give you a week on Andre. so that we started talking about, well, what can we do here? And just because he could tell me, and I would understand when he's telling me some of the problems that were surmounting down there with how they'd structured the thing already

that he was trying to fucking solve so they wouldn't lose their ass. It wasn't that he wanted the boys to fucking starve and work for 60 bucks a night, but they hired him to not love. lose at that point, $10 million, I think it was, or was it 12, somewhere between the $8 million a year window. Before they'd ever made any money.

So anyway, and we started talking. And of course, I said, of course, you know, I'll finish Orndorf up and et cetera, but that's where the genesis of the idea for the Superbrawl crossover came from. because I had, I can't remember what was on the phone or when I went down there and spoke to him. Here's when I went down there and spoke to him in person. I said, you remember when they were doing, Brian, the mini movies to promote the pay-per-views where they'd put the guys if it was bashing the beach. Wasn't that when they had a midget with a bomb to blow up the boat or something?

By the time you're talking about, they would have done either one or two because the first one was for Halloween and have, spin the wheel, make the deal with Jake Roberts and cheat him, the midget, Medusa and Sting. And then they did the White Castle of Fear for Super Brawl, the cards you're talking about. And then the beach blast one was later that summer. They'd done the first mini movie.

And everybody just remembers the midget blowing up the boat, but they did several of these things. And I said to, because it was going around the, you know, internet and or, I wouldn't know it any internet newsletter and or locker room. rumor both had it that they spent like 50, $60,000 on this thing, right?

To shoot this and have the guys and the crew and edited and all it, it just preposterousous. And I told him, because that was Turner Home Entertainment trying to make their contribution. But the problem was, is that as he acknowledged, they at that point, when he came in, they didn't have angles going that anybody cared about. they'd had upheavals in talent.

Yeah, the boys were not exactly fond of management because of heard for all that time. And they had no fucking, just no difference direction to go in than being the kind of discount WWF. And it was show busy the people didn't believe in it, the WCW fans they had at that time. I said, Bill, for half of what you, see, I always started with that for half of what, you foolishly wasted five times as much money on something as it's worth. For half of what you spent on the mini movie, I will provide the talent, the angle, the footage to back it up from our side,

and the execution of an attraction for your pay-per-view that even if it doesn't, goddamn set the world on fire, it will sell you more paper views than the goddamn mini-movie did. And he said, okay, what is it? And I pitched the thing to him. I said, we've got, for the past seven years on TBS, the most popular tag team in that period of time has been to Rock and Roll Express. These are undisputed facts, correct, correct.

at houses and ratings they were part of the biggest rating that the Turner Broadcasting had gotten for one of their regularly weekly television programs since they'd owned a fucking company for almost four years, the Rock and Roll Express. I said, I got the most popular team in the network's history. Now I've got the heavenly body, Stan Lane and Tom Pritchard, you've got Bobby E. and you're loaning him to be, but together we've got the Midnut Express and the heavily bodies

with Jim Cornett who opposed them for so fucking long and drew the record gates at the blah, blah, blah. We've got another promotion with a television program and the ability to make it look like

an outsider deal. And I will come up with the angle in the way that we execute it and blah, blah, blah, and we'll come and put them over on the pay-per-view, which is emanating from Asheville, North Carolina,

the heart of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling where the Rock and Roll Express were fucking gods. And I'm not talking about 30 years ago. I'm talking about three and a half years ago. And he said, okay, so we got $25,000 for Smoky Mountain Wrestling for basically me to administrate this whole goddamn thing. And each of the guys got an extra $1,000 for making in the pay-per-view match, which was about two weeks worth of what they were making in Smoky Mountain Wrestling,

and this was 30 years ago. So we're talking about around three grand apiece or whatever for today, plus 250 bucks a piece for getting booked twice, I believe, on TBS and once on the national syndicated show that they did. and we executed the thing as we were supposed to even though Watts wasn't there but then that was the end of that and I had this on paper so because Olli had called me because they put Oly in charge of the booking while they found a new vice president which I think was who the fuck succeeded Watts as vice president was um I'm forgetting the name now. I know who it is, too. Jesus Christ.

Well, nevertheless, Bill Shaw, Bob Doe, either one of those. Either one of those, did they ever, there was a bridge guy? Well, nevertheless, Olli had called me and said, well, I guess you got this deal on paper, huh? Yes, I do, Oly. We were awaiting the check.

But anyway, this is what he wrote. I'll open the Florida questions. It's just, it's confidential memorandum, January 26, 1993 to Brian Mitchell's. He was the, what are they, the comptroller, the guy that paid people and kept track of these things. From Bill Watts, re Smoggy Mountain Wrestling Compensation for WCW Saturday TV and Super Brawl 3. Number one, we'll pay each person involved in WCW Saturday on January 25th, and February 9th, $250 each.

Two, we will pay $5,000 for their bout on Super Rawl 3. Three, we will pay as Smoggy Mountain Wrestling, $25,000 for Super Brawl 3. WCW will receive the necessary tapes and footage plus the spontaneity of SMW's involvement on our TV and this pay-per-view. It creates an outside element

that has fan appeal by, former big stars with WCW. It should add greatly to the overall appeal of Super Brawl 3 and Bob Doe approved this business deal. We will remit these payments in the normal course as we pay for participation on each of these events, meaning when the talent money goes out, their regular talent.

And he itemized that on January 25th, following talent from SMW appeared for WCW at center stage per number one above. Riggie Morton, Robert Gibson, Bobby Eaton, Stan Lane, Tommy Pritchard. He still knew time from when he was Tommy. Tommy Pritchard and Jim Cornett. And he carbon copied Bill Shaw, Bob Dew, and Duffy Rhodes.

So, because that's the first fucking thing that Oly had called up when they realized it was on paper. And says, you got it on favor, I kid. And all he was done with them by the end of the year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was out by the end of the year. Well, what year was that? That was 1990. Yeah, he was. A lot of people didn't stay around long.

But that was, again, you know, it was an early attempt at a sort of a participation. with we did and spoken about wrestling we didn't want to be a national promotion that was not the design of the thing but it was a great regional territory at a place for people to learn and if you had a relationship with somebody had understood the wrestling business that you could trust they also understood that it was valuable for them in a way because they are not only going to be able to send people maybe that they don't have room for but they'd like a future for but they're going to be able to have the first shot at getting somebody that oh I might find pick up develop uncover

whatever which turned out to be dozens and dozens of fucking people but they were too fucking had their heads too far up their ass with who's going to run a thing and as a result nobody was ever running it it was pretty cool as a kid to watch WCW Saturday night and see Smoky Mountain footage. It was right around the time that I saw the first couple articles in the aftermags that had pictures. And, you know, you and Stan Middine Express had been such a big part of that show. And then you were just gone. And for like a year and a half, two years, it was, you know, whatever, you know, again, I was a kid.

I was just a kid watching wrestling. Oh, there he is in a magazine. Oh, there he is on Global. at 4 o'clock in the afternoon one day. I'm like, oh my God, they're still doing something. So when I saw Smoky Mountain, especially the clips, it looks so cool. It got me hooked on.

I need to get as much footage of this as I can. Well, and here's the thing with WCW at the time, and I've told a story, I think, 93 or 4, whatever it was. On a couple of occasions, we drew more people in the Knoxville Civic Coliseum than they drew in the fuck. an Omni in Atlanta. And what we were trying to do was establish that we have the ability to give people a leg up and a wrestling business and maybe have a little big brother over here that we can work

with, get some notoriety off of, but not to look like a goddamn flunky or whatever. but the idea of a cross-promotion thing, the one thing that people were starting to realize, especially when the WCW was down to the base audience that it was, was that to promotions hated each other. And that's why we came up with the idea for us to storm out in a shoot. And for the younger listeners, I will explain briefly, they showed footage on WCW Saturday night of the Rock and Roll Express.

who had been signed their first time back in, you know, almost three years or however long it's been, they're going to be in a feature match on Super Brawl, and here's some footage of what they're doing now. And it was like two minutes of them beating the shit out of me into heavily bodies. And so. With Bob Cottle, with Bob Cottle, too. There's another thing. I heard his voice in a few years. With Bob Caudill, who had been all over the shows that people had been watching just a few years before.

And so it, they're like, okay, yeah, remember this shit. Big crowds, you know, whatever the fuck. And then next the following week, when they're having a match involving, I don't know, Tits McGee and his friend Joe, whatever it was, me and Stan Lane and Tom Pritchard and Bobby Eaton had been hiding in a goddamn janitor's closet at center stage, even away from. the boys. The only people that knew that we were there was a couple of the WCW agent type whatever the fuck. We got there way early. And we walked out the side and came in the front door and walked down the stairs and let the people see, you know, oh shit, that is them. And the boys are dressed as street clothes, but I've got a tennis racket and wearing my shit. So they kind of figured it out.

And we cut the promo that we don't appreciate what you showed last week, that edited footage that you showed, a reggie board of Robert Gibson, a rock and roll express who have never been able to whip us or any of my teams ever in the history of their lives. And you edit that footage together, making us look like a bunch of flunkies and them beating our butts.

I couldn't say ass on TV. But what I did get bleeped for was that was, though this was the whole point. I said, we left here because we were being disrespectful and unappreciated and we hated Jim Hurd and were not fond of current management and they bleeped out that I hated Jim Hurd. They didn't want slander to him or whatever. And then lied to Watts and saw the microphone didn't pick it up.

I think they could hear me out on Peach Street Street. And I cut a fucking promo of what I would have said to the goddamn WCW as a company without the fuckings of what we thought we're not we're not going to let this go by and oh get that fucking hog-headed Bill Watts out here fuck you you're not showing shit of them beating us up

well they're back there they can come out here and beat you up if you want to right now okay goddamn and they all had a match in their fucking street clothes and the people were going go back and watch it the people were going bad shit through the whole thing

because it just livened the program up they didn't expect to see any of that and that's what they needed was a little fucking spark you know it was also I know this is probably not the way anyone really looks at it

it also ended up being on air Bill Watts's finest moment in WCW because he had started getting booed by the fans because the product wasn't exactly getting a lot better. He was pushing Eric Watts really super hard, or Dusty was because he was the Booker. One or the other, Eric Watts was being pushed really hard. Well, one knew what the other wanted.

Right. And, you know, Watts hadn't really broken away from just being, you know, the cowboy. You know, it wasn't like they even talked about his history or showed UWF footage. It was just one day he was there. and he was just in charge like, you know, a cowboy Jack Toney but your thing was the first time we really got to see any energy. Well, yeah, he had nothing to play off of,

as they say in show business. And that was the thing is if you had not only a believable scenario but also something that people didn't expect involving people that they knew who the fuck they were, it was kind of more energetic than what they'd been doing in WCW for the previous couple of years. And that, you know, that woke people up. And it also gave people with the, by the time I got finished with it, he got out there.

I think they would have voted for fucking Mussolini, you know, to tell me off. But that was part of it. But it gave him something to do that he was good at, which was being the. stand-up baby face, settle it in a ring, fucking kind of boss, owner, commissioner, whatever the fuck he was.

And then we brought Bob Armstrong from Smoky Mountain. And again, if I was a Mark Booker, I would have had Bob come in and start cussing at Watts. No,

because Bob was a baby face too. And we were the heels, not the fucking company. And so Bob was the one as the Smoky Mountain Commissioner that we made an appearance on WCW television, was also able to handle what was going on on Smoky Mountain TV, and they worked together to get us into a position where we had to put up or shut up or whatever.

And that's another reason. Because Bob Armstrongson people in fucking Atlanta and Watson booked Atlanta in 74, used Bob on top, he knew he could cut a fuck of promo, and they could work together believably again, not in a match. I'm saying, work together to give some credence to this thing that both of the

and also for Smoky Mountain that both of the commissioners of these various groups who are kind of being treated equally are at agreement that this thing needs to take place on pay-per-view, that type of thing. But it was, and, and to be honest, we did the we did a couple of the tbs TVs but we did the i think gainsville georgia wcw syndicated show back when that was a thing that's where we had the match it was the stan lane tom pritchard the bodies

and steve austin of brian pillman and an eight-man tag against the rocket roll express with shane douglas and ricky steamboat and douglas were their tag team champions and the people spent the whole match chanting for the Rocket Roll Express. And that didn't go. There was a lot of people in the locker room hot because we came in for like two tapings, got a lot of fucking attention, do the pay-per-view match, which they liked in Asheville. And it boom, we're never seen again.

And again, right after that angle, Bill Watts never seen again. Jim Ross, never seen in WCW again. He had been the voice of WCW. So it was a real changing, right there, your brief appearance was kind of the signal of the changing of WCW from, you know, Watts was the end of the previous period, Bishopoff was the beginning of the next one. Well, but history of show, because that was February 1993, history has shown for the next, what, two or three years, they did some stinky fucking business. Did you keep in touch with Watts at all or much between that and 95 when he showed up in the WWF? again that was only a couple years that I was going insane I didn't think he wanted to hear see that's the thing I don't think Watts has ever really wanted to hear about anybody else's

fucking wrestling when he was out of it I don't think he's he's never been one to unfortunately he would he would exchange various business and financial opportunities more than he would exchange on the phone ideas about any kind of wrestling that he wasn't involved did. Oh, the other day I was going through the Watts file and the Kiteser Wrestling News archive and I laughed because, you know, I got one too when I was a teenager and I got to know Bill Watts at the Dennis Carluso thing. It was like, you know, hey Norman, great to hear from you. Here's, you know, the new gummies that I'm selling and here's the new vitamins that I have. I had a box of vitamins and supplements at one point that I think weighed 40 pounds that I gave

to goodwill that I think if I'd have taken all of them, I'd either be a goddamn physical marvel and a behemoth right now or been dead for 15 years. Imagine if he had had the internet. You know, cowboy bill watts.com, get my vitamins. I'll sign every 40 pound jug of vitamins. Oh my God. That was the thing you talked to him.

You can't leave the conversation until you are fully sold and investing money and whatever the fuck he's doing. I think I had an air filter or two. But anyway, we loved the cowboy, but he saved our ass on that. And we got paid because Smoky Mountain at that point, we needed to buy something. I can't remember what it was, but something in the range of some kind of equipment that would help keep us on television. What was the date of bluegrass brawl? April.

April, the 1993 was April 2nd or 3rd? third. So did the paper protect you? I mean, did you have any worries about them pulling Arn or Bobby? Uh, no, actually, I was hoping they let me keep Bobby. I'd, you know, I, I, I didn't think, but what did you think they were going to do? Well, no, that's, for a while, I thought they might let me keep me because it was like, Watts had been the champion of him coming there to freshen up so that he could bring him back, whatever they had done to. Whatever they had done to, him. It wasn't attractive in the booking, so Watts was going to bring him back somehow with something

better. And so I'm thinking since it was Watts's idea, maybe they're not going to renew him, I might have him. But no, they still, well, I'd not begrudging them, but they still renewed him and brought him back. Because all the agents and anybody involved in the wrestling booking always voted for him. And with Arne, you know, I had again, I had paperwork. And it had already been announced

and they kind of couldn't get it. Like they didn't really want us to not come either because they had already announced this thing was going to happen on Superbrawl. And then all of a sudden, if it just vanished, that would have been awkward. You know, again, it's always interesting, too, that within six months you would be on WWF TV,

which the only thing was like... This is a goddamn match. Man of Stanford. who had to think, what the fuck? Stan retired like May 15th, and we started with the WWF at the end of July. Well, he started as a commentator right after that, too, so it ended up working out somewhat for him too.

But that would happen, and then Arne and Bobby would continue their feud in ECW. So it was the rare program that went to three different territories, if you want to look at it that way, within a couple of years. But yeah, what could have been? I guess that's the big question of, Watts stayed, which it's very hard to see any scenarios where he would have, just based on everything at that time.

But if he had, you guys would have been a development? Or what? Eric Watts would have been sent there. Someone rehabbing would have been sent there. Someone who needed a new gimmick would have been sent there. Well, and also, let's see, because I'm about to bring Candido in. So Candido would have been directed South instead of, but this is all if Watson stayed.

I mean, and that's just so far-fetched, but let's say he did. A lot of the guys, the heavily bodies, ended up going to the WWF for a run, but a lot of the guys that we found and or fostered would have been directed. And it's to say Paul Orndorff got Brian Adams, Brian Adams, try that again.

Brian Clark, Nightstalker was Brian Clark, Brian Adams was crushed, but Brian Clark, the Nightstalker, was the kid that was driving Paul Orndorf to the Smoggy Mountain shows. So we were able to give him a place to work so that Nightstocker then went to WCW.

But that was just the very tip of the iceberg there and then all of a sudden we started sending people the other way because we did. But it also, I had thoughts of, to be honest, I was going to get Charleston, Huntington, West Virginia, out of Watts for it was over with. Because we couldn't get TV out of there, and we had that market.

That was one more fucking market. We could make money. We were making in Knoxville, and we'd be fine. We'd be just swell. One more. And they had TV on the Strong station, and Watts said, look, we will not run live events against you. Knoxville and Johnson City. And the rest of the towns we ran

were too small for them at the time to run anyway. And I said, Bill, give me Charles to West Virginia. One more I know I could make that fun, because they run up there twice a year. I can make that thing a monthly town and boom, it will have it and it's all

drivable from Atlanta for everybody. And he was thinking about it, Newman. Do you think you would have been able to draw better and limited programs with Smokey Mountain talent with WCW wrestlers than they were drawing at that time in the South? Well, I mean, it depends on, you know, I wouldn't thinking that we were going to just suddenly be flooding our cards with all of the guys that they didn't want to use down there.

It would be, and see what's understood, the economics of a goddamn territory. We've got 12 guys on the spot shows, but we've got 16 or 18 on our monthly towns except for Knoxville with managers. we got 20, 22, but we can take two or three and work them in. And he understood, so it wouldn't be like just a goddamn developmental territory. But if somebody had the potential that needed the time that you thought, well, I could do something with him if he was six months or a year better, then that's where you start working together.

And then with some of their name guys, if you brought in as a, challenger to a heel champion that you didn't have a baby face that was fucking ready for right then just see if he's going to get his ass kicked or a mystery partner special partner or something yes i probably could have drawn a bigger house in knoxville with half the guys they had on the roster at that in 1993 in wcw that they were because it would have been made special Probably a silly question, but did you ask him at all about Brad Armstrong? Well, obviously, that, I mean, I can't, I can't truthfully remember where Brad was at in the, in the injury and or activity equation at the time.

But that was the thing that I'd been trying to figure out some way to do since the start of the thing. there had never been a point where Bob, Brad, Scott, Steve, and Brian were all available to be on a show at the same time. So, and when did, I'm trying to think, when did Rodie start with Jeff in the WWF? That was not long after this thing, because we had just used him a time or two. I think it would have been 94.

It would have been that late. okay, we started using Brian in like what late 92 is the Dark Secret. Which was the Arachnaman costume that Brad Warren spoke area in WCW turned inside out. That was one of the first matches in Smoky Mountain. I saw Dark Secret versus Dixie Dynamite. Yeah, Brian Armstrong versus Scott Armstrong. Hey, one other question about all this Superbrall 3 in Asheville. It was also the return of Rick Flair.

He didn't wrestle, but it was his first WCW appearance since, 91, since Jim heard. He had just lost the match to Mr. Perfect on Raw, the third episode of Raw, I believe. Did you get to see Flair that night? You had a lot going on and you didn't leave in a good mood. But did you get to talk to Flair or see him that night? Well, yes.

I mean, I wasn't dominating his time for old Home Week while he was, you know, doing his big deal. But, yes, see, I got to see everybody. And I enjoyed everybody except for, you know, certain people that we've already talked about like Eric Bischoff and whoever the office stooges were at the point that's where and who was it god damn it somebody when i was walk his where at the Asheville civic center and you've never been in there but you go right for the small baby face locker room side left for the small heel locker room side and i was in the side there and who it was it one of the

It was maybe Nick Patrick, maybe Nick Patrick, the referee, said, it's good to see you back, but somebody says, it's good to see you back. I said, well, fucking look quick. And he looked at that look on his face. And I said, as Dennis Condry would say, don't pull up no chairs because we can't stay. And he said, I said, no, Watts is gone. We ain't, you know, whatever the fuck, right? And so then we'll go ahead.

No, no, no, you go ahead. I think you were going to say what I was going to ask you. Well, that's what Dusty called me in a little while later on. I heard Dusty wants to talk to you. Okay. Because Dusty was now the Booker, I believe again. He may have always been the Booker. Yeah, I think he did book throughout Watts's run.

He was always the Booker, but Watts was the Vice President because they never let the Booker do what he wanted to do. And I went in and said, do we have Heat Kid? I said, do we have a heat? Somebody told me, you say, you won't be around long. I said, no, I'm talking about Watts being gone, does he? I said, I love you. If you were running this place, I would still be here.

But apparently, even Watts was supposed to be running this place. And he's not anymore. So nobody's running this place. I don't trust any of these motherfuckers that came back for six weeks and here we are. But I love you. It's basically the gist of our meeting. And I just wanted to make sure a kid. But it was like, geez, it's just, you know, it's like a fucking Agatha Christie novel.

Every time you deal with that company, you turn around all the plans you made or any arrangements or deals, handshakes, whatever, contracts. It's just fucking chaos. You don't know whether somebody that has a half-ass idea of what they're doing or not is going to be in charge of anything. And it would continue to be that way until they blundered into their, what, 83 weeks of success and then crashed and burned like a fucking meteor in the New Mexico desert. And one last thing on all this, then we move on. I don't remember it exactly, but it's your story. Maybe you will. It's your story.

Wasn't there some kind of incident on the way out where you had a, you almost went at it with someone from the production crew? Oh, yes, yes. Yes. What was the guy's name? He was on the credits in early 90s WCW as like the security guy or whatever. His nickname was Bear or something. But he had come along after I'd been gone from the company, so I'd never seen this fucking guy, right?

Well, the thing was because of the date that the pay-per-view was in Asheville, we actually, me and the bodies, had a match in Johnson City at Freedom Hall at 1 o'clock that afternoon because I couldn't leave the bodies and the rock and roll off Smoky Mountain Show. We had a match with the Studs Table, Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden,

and then we got in a car and drove the 60 miles down to Asheville. And when we get there, everybody's already fucking parked. So as we pull in, I see David Crockett, David, Bergena Park.

He said, just pull up there. Whatever the fuck, we're pointing around. David Crockett has authorized this. So I pull up there. We go in. We don't think anything more about it. Who was in a car with me? It was me.

Actually, I think Tom Pritchard went with somebody else. I think it was me, Jimmy Del Rey. No, Jimmy Del Rey wasn't there then. It was me and Brian Hildebrand and Tom Pritchard. That's who it was. but Brian Hildebrand was in the car with. So anyway, after the show, well, not after the show, but after our contributions show,

we're going to try to get out of there because there's been a long day. So I'm waiting on Dr. Tom, and Brian's already gone to the car, and I'm kind of halfway. And Brian comes running up and says, hey, you're going to tow your car. I said, what? he's guy says you've got to tow your car

and this is when I had that that Ford tourist that you've seen on Smoky Mountain TV where Bobby Fulton bashed the back window in with a lead pipe while we were driving it but it had glass in it then though and I come out there and there's this guy walking up the ramp behind us I said buddy we're coming we're just saying well you need to get the car I'm on the top of the car

I said we're we're coming we got one more guys bringing his bag and we'll be right there well we're going to tell this guys he was just very vehement now meanwhile it's ashville north carolina on sunday night at 10 o'clock there is barely another goddamn creature moving not only in the back of the fucking asheville civic center but as far as i can see or here almost anywhere else in fucking town it 30 years ago it It wasn't a hip place it is today, right? And I go, what is your goddamn deal? I'm telling you, I have the keys here in my hand,

and I'm walking to the car to move it, and there's another guy coming and we're going to leave. Well, see that you do. I said, who the fuck are you? He's, well, who the fuck are you, civilian? He said, I'm the motherfucker. It's fixing to beat your ass if you don't shut your smart mouth. It just had to be a thing where I said just go go back in the building leave me the fuck alone

motherfucker and I'm going to do what you want me to do and it was one of those things where every time I would say that and try to turn away at Hildenbrand stand there going oh motherfucker this was a last word guy as soon as I said I'm doing it now see that you do just to just to say it and what if I don't it's and that that that type of thing. So finally, I started walking back up the hill. I said, motherfucker, I don't know what your fucking problem is or who you are, but David Crockett told me I could park here to begin with. I'm fixed to move it, but if you don't get out of here and say one more word to me, I want to kick you in a fucking balls. And you know what he, he pulled a knife out on me.

And I said, you son of a minute, I threw my bag down and I think, what did I go? grab. I don't even know. Was it the racket? I don't even think I had a racket. I think I grabbed a stick off the ground. Some kind of stick of wood. And Hildebrand has grabbed me around in a waistlock holding me from trying to fucking swing his stick of wood at this fucking guy who's got one of these butterfly knives as he's backing up talking into his fucking walkie-talkie deal on his.

Call Doug Dillinger and Asheville PD. He called Doug Dillinger and Asheville PD. I'm screaming, yeah, call Doug Dillinger, motherfucker, and tell him Jim Cornett's about to stick this stick up your ass. I don't know, Doug Dillinger with 10 fucking years. And he'll believe it. And I swear to the guy within, he's backing up with the knife with the walkie-talkie,

and Brian is wearing on me, even though he only weighed 140 pounds, I'm blowing up. And I still got the stick. And here comes finally at about 15, 20 seconds. Doug Dillinger and a bunch of fucking cops around the corner and Doug's running and looks up and sees me with that stick and this fucking guy and started laughing. And he said, God damn it.

What the fuck? His guy said, Doug? His fucking guy pulled a knife on me because I was telling him, he didn't shut up, leave me alone. I was going to kick his ass. And he turned it, he said, because that's how I knew it was he, Bear, go back in the building. and I said what the fuck is taking over around here is everybody out of their minds I said this guy was gonna

fucking pull a knife on me and run me into the goddamn jail because I didn't want to move my fucking car I said don't you don't have to worry about seeing my car around here any fucking more but then Tom Bridger comes out like what the fuck is going on out of here wasn't a story too that like Eric Watts was watching all this happen but he didn't like intervene because he was enjoying it well you Yeah, I come to think of it. He was out there, wasn't he? Because, yeah, well, I mean, what's, what's he going to do?

If this guy is, is this clueless, I've just been on their show. It's not like I'm a goddamn household name, but I've literally just been on their show that they're producing 100 yards to our fucking left. So if he ain't going to take my word for, is he going to let Eric Watts talk him out of this goddamn parking lot Nazism he's going through? to fuck well we discussed jim's last days in t and a last time this was jim's last days in wcw

fiery to the last second well i mean what the fuck he's like jesus christ dude i mean what i said who's what am i blocking here there's nothing the show is still going on there's nothing happening nobody's trying to leave nowhere nobody's coming in i love that he hit you with a civilian Yeah, and I'm trying to, because he didn't really have, he obviously wasn't in a police uniform, but he just, he looked like a goddamn dumpy fucking production crew guy to me. I'm like, what the fuck is your issue?

Don't belabor this. I'm not in a good mood anyway. Well, what started as Jim may have something turned into a quite memorable segment. What a great segment that was. And of course, Jim. Maybe Bill Watts. And by the way, Doug Dillinger, that son of a bitch, you know,

I found this too. I'll read this, I can't reach the file now, but I'll read it sometime. Doug Dillinger was the ringleader of the effort that they lodged to fake arrest me that night for assault on a police officer after I'd

accidentally kicked one of the cops in Charlotte when they tackled the fucking mark that had fucking jumped on me from behind. And Doug Dilliger was one of the people that facilitated because they didn't book me into midnight at the next Charlotte show where they were going to do it. So Doug got the fucking Spartanburg cops involved so that they could serve me with the arrest warrant

in Spartanburg at the TV taping at following time we were there, whatever. And I still have the warrant that signed at the bottom. him big daddy Jimmy Crockett. That was the night that you went off on Baby Doll. I went off on Baby because she knew it was a rib and she started laughing. And I don't even want to embarrass the poor old soul now. What I said to her face, maybe that's why she knocked me out in Raleigh later on that summer.

Come to think of it. I guess I deserve that fucking punch to the fucking, not temple, but cranium. whatever it is back there. Yeah, her fucking face turned from laughter to sadness and a heartbeat. That's one of my favorite things about that. They're all doing this on you and you just immediately turned it by going off on her.

What are you laughing at you? Well, Jim, just imagine how different history would be of Bill Watts when selling his vitamins and his supplements and his gummies. or WCW in the early 90s when trying to sell tickets and pay-per-views. What if they had had the wonder, the joy, the pleasantry, the friendship

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The fun continues. Get it with a hammer. I'm not going to do that. It would destroy the keyboard. Well, there you go, but that would be more forceful. Oh, come on now. Well, Jim, as we are recording here today, again, in advance of a lot of things, this is the ultimate time travel episode, if there ever was.

one. Some Tony con news is breaking. It's coming out of an interview he did. I do not know who this is with. Q101. So it's either a radio station or something else. I know a Q102, but I don't know the Q101.

New York used to be Q104. Q102's in Dallas. Well, here's Tony Khan talking about his relationship with CMLL, but the big thing that people were talking about is the relationship he had with AAA, and Dragon Lee, who you may remember was appearing on AEW TV, abruptly announced he was signing with WWE, if you remember, right when they

beat FTR for the AAA tag titles. Yeah, he won the match, won the belts, and said, see, I'm starting for the WVE. Well, here's Tony Kahn talking about this. This goes for a couple minutes. We could stop it along the way and talk about it, but this is pretty interesting. We spoke, it was announced that WWE had purchased AAA. I am just curious in terms of your business relationship with CMLL, how that might affect things. It's great.

It's great thing. We started working with CMLL in 2023, and things have really, really looked up for us. I have a great, great relationship with Salvador. And I can't keep up. He just did great, great. So that's too. Yeah, I know. I can't keep up.

Let's just, I'm sorry. I had not, frankly, that's not unexpected to me. I'd kind of been expecting that ever since the way the Dragon Lee signing was announced on December 30th of 2022. From then on, I'd said, okay, then I think it's highly likely that's the way this thing's going, because that was certainly a big surprise to me. It's not like, you know, FTR were there and they saw the WW cameras and it's like, okay, something's up. I had not agreed to that, actually. Take me through that situation.

Again, let's stop it for a second before they go a little first. We saw cameras from the WWE and said, hmm, something may be afoot. Something, some, WWE cameras are here. Should we drop the belts? And of course, that is what happened. They dropped the belts and then Dragon Lee immediately announced he's going to WWE right after he beat FTR.

But let's go back to this. We had agreed that FTR would go down and wrestle Rooshen Dr. at least it go. And then something happened during the day where Dragon Lee was in there. I was up doing a show in Denver that day. And I remember I was with Samoa Joe. Samoa Joe had a match that night. It was December 30th in 2022.

And I talked to FTR and they said there's some kind of strange stuff going on here. And then right after Dynamite ended, that match went off. And they announced that Dragon Lee was signing with WWE and he still had FTR's name on the plate. So it was really a double cross. And that would never happen now. That's one of those things that would never happen now. It would never happen now because of the politics of Mexico or because of the way that... Salvador and I are brothers.

Like, you know, I have a very close relationship with him. I don't... Let me stop for a second there. Oh, boy. Well, I'll never get fooled again because this guy really likes me. Just because you get high with someone doesn't mean your brothers. That's what I always say. Oh, is he going to follow this up with saying because we have contracts in place?

or specific written documents or some framework of a deal here? Or just because this guy likes me more than the other guys liked me? There's a little bit left. Let's hear what he says. Believe he would ever betray me like that, and I would never betray him like that. And, you know, if we wanted to do something on a show, we would talk to each other. We wouldn't be making subs or changing stuff out or switching allegiances mid-show. Very much so.

I don't think I've ever said that. But here, you know, I think it's a good story for you. and your audience and I like you. That's greatly appreciated. Well, there it is. I don't know who he's talking about. And I like you and you'd never betray me. And I would never betray you either.

So I'll just tell you how that this other guy betrayed me because I thought he liked me too. Well, again, I'd like to give credit to whoever this is. I don't know who this is. It says Q101 in the corner here. Are you sure he wants the credit? What do you think of what Tony's saying here? You know, we've talked a lot about WWE messing with him. You know, just this past weekend in terms of, oh, you got your big show?

We're going to run as many shows as we can with as many stars as we can, trying to hit as many audiences as we can. This is a different animal. Who, if anyone, did something wrong here in your eyes? Obviously, Tony thought he had to deal with AAA. Again, if it's not on paper, of all companies, I don't know why you would trust AAA. But Tony seemed to think. everything was happening. FTR smelled something in the air. It smelled like rain.

WWE cameras were there. I mean, that's like a 1983 Vince move. Why Steve Taylor running around giving everyone to business cars? What the hell is that? That Paterson up in the stands and that baseball cap? What do you think of this story? Well, first of all, that's when I was talking earlier about being able to work with Bill Watts, WCW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling. You have to know I had a handshake deal. I'm scoffing at this guy, but one of the things is you have to know who you can have those kind of deals with.

And once you cross country borders, the possibilities go drastically down unless you're dealing with the reanimated corpse of Giant Baba as to whether, you know, you need something in writing, but you've tried to work with like, minded people and promoters when you're sharing talent so that everybody's on the same page.

And again, it's hard enough to enforce if he's sending his talent out, it's hard enough to enforce it when you get some guy wants to go to business for himself or do something shady and Poughkeepsie, much less in Mexico or Japan or somewhere you've got no recourse with, except to tell your talent, if anything changes or, you're not. goes sideways is not what we agreed on, just fucking leave. And hopefully they're at a place where they can leave, but sometimes that's not, doesn't look like a good idea for their health and well-being.

Now, this wasn't his tag championships. This was AAA's, even though it was his wrestlers holding it. Should he have done that? Should FTR have done anything differently? What do you think about all that? Well, you know, and again, what good did it do FTR to have their belts otherwise and they got books a few times in Mexico?

For AEW business, they never completed that thing. The only reason it ever meant anything is if they got the AEW belts. And remember that's when the Hardly boys had them. So FTR had almost all the belts, but not the belts of the company that they're on the show up. So it was just nonsense. it didn't come to fruition to begin with. But I think, honestly, you know, if FTR had their belts,

they should drop them before they sever any relationship. But at the same time, if they're important AEW talent and they see WW cameras, and they've got a substitution of the scheduled opponents they had where now they're putting this other guy in this thing. I don't know whether maybe one of the other of them might have tore a hamstring warming up in a locker room and shit. We just, oh, he's in pain. He's in the, we'll come back next month and drop it.

I'll do a single. What do you want to do? Just to fuck with them a little bit. What do they get? I say what are they going to do? Hopefully, in this day, and age nothing, but as long as they weren't going to get goddamn taken for a ride somewhere out under a bridge,

they might have pulled that fucking deal. Is Tony right to be peaved about it? And I love it. That's the thing is you can buy Tony being peeped. If you say Tony's mad, that's almost sounds silly. But peeved, he could be peeved. Yeah, again, the whole thing is they get into these deals with all of these other companies because Tony's a internet newsletter mark that wants to work with everybody in the world.

And sometimes it just, it ain't really that important that you work with everybody in the world when everybody in the world ain't really working with you. Well, Jim, what's got a question here on the show? This one was sent via the cult of Cornet Facebook group by Michael Jericho. if Sting had beaten Flair at Russell War 90, does anything really change? Jim Ross has said Sting lost all the momentum with the injury. Did Sting ever become as big as he could have

before the Monday Night Wars? I mean, he was definitely popular in the matches with Vader, and the thing is, that's a loaded question because did sting ever become as big until the Monday night wars part of that much of that was because of the company he was working for I mean you know and them the second coming of George Hackenschmidt couldn't have been big in some of those dark times but I think it definitely did kill the momentum because the people were ready for it. And you see the

the way the people were reacting to him in January and February. The way the people reacted to the turn of the horsemen on him. You know, that's the whole thing Flair had been built into. And Lugar saved the day

in terms of a pay-per-view main event that people wouldn't shit on and filling the spot as the top baby face temporarily but Flair didn't want to put the belt on him because he had promised it to Sting and he knew if Lugar beat him and then he won it back and he put it on Sting,

well, that's just bullshit. And to be quite honest, if Lugar had won it then, I think it would have buried Sting worse because it would have given the people a happy ending that they wanted to see, but now all the attention would have been on Lugar. and win his goddamn, you know, by the time Sting gets back, you know, it just, it was an awkward situation all around, but I think it definitely did derail some of Sting's momentum, but by the time that he did, he was able to come back, get in position, and win it, the whole company sucked. How much did you guys have booked out?

I mean, obviously he got hurt. Was it a month? Was it three weeks before the pay-per-view? I forget exactly how long it was. It may have been two weeks, but it was the first week of February. Hold on. I can... Wait a minute.

In terms of ideas for Sting's first title reign, or the first feud, or the first few weeks, like, what was the plan? Wait a minute. I'm coming back to the mic because I'm going to give you exact dates here. The clash of champions in Corpus Christi. Texas shootout.

Where he had Texas shoot? Yeah. Where he unfortunately got injured. One of my favorite Jim Cornett lines on commentary that night. Cactus shock is dead. Little do we know by the end of the night the company is dead.

Now Corpus Christi was February 6th, and Russell War in Greensboro was February 25th, so 19 days. Wow. And again, you know, the houses were not doing well in most places in the country. The TV ratings had come back. June 1989, WCW Saturday night

did a 1.9. and main event on Sunday to 1.1. And the Clash of Champions did a 3.8 in June 1989. That was all after George Scott and the booking committee stuff, right? Flair got Saturday night from the 1.9 to a 4.0, Flair v. Pillman. We got a main event from a 1.1 to a 4.4, which was Flair and Arne against a Rock and Roll Express from Beaumont, Texas. In February, by the way, 1990,

right in the middle of this run, the pay-per-view buy rates and the ratings had come back and we were trying to get the fucking house shows back. And part of that was the crummy local promoters and the stupid scheduling and et cetera. But there was a little life being shown. And then, boom, there goes staying, and that fucking deal is screwed up.

and then that's by the way I've told you I've got Flair's resignation letter as Booker because I wrote that for him. Flair quit his Booker in around about this time February-ish or early March of 1990. But I also found Flair's resignation letter that a ghost wrote for him in 1991 when he quit completely and went to the WWF. I didn't know you wrote that one. I was I ghost wrote a fucking

I found one he was having a problem with one of the gold's gems he was buying or whatever and I wrote this guy a nasty letter under his name he would call me and give me the promo on the phone

and I'd fucking type it up but anyway so all that was happening right at that point in February and you know then it all just his sting was hurt Flair wasn't Booker anymore

I quit the committee a couple weeks later it all went to shit from there. So Sting had won the title of wrestle war. Like had you already heard... That was the question. Had you already heard on the booking committee? We're doing a new pay-per-view in Washington, D.C.

Have you already heard that they can have Robocop? Like, how far out were you guys thinking with Sting in terms of... Well, I was definitely on the creative team long enough to hear the Robocop fucking pitch because also... See, remember then the next pay-per-view after February was May, was Robocop. So we started talking about it immediately at that point because they were only doing four a year. And Robocop was in the manager cage that I was in at Ringasad. That's why I couldn't rattle the gimmick bars too hard or they'd fall apart.

That's one of the last things that I had to endure on the creative team. But as far as a first month's rain or whatever for Sting, oh, look at the, see, that's a thing, these goddamn individual angles were not planned weeks and months in advance. Flair was booking like they booked the Carolinas. You had, like Dusty booked Crockett, you had major names that could all be in line for world title matches and world title programs with Sting.

Flair's still there. He's going to have rematches. Arne Anderson. We had tried to have Tully, but that got fucking squashed. But it was not like that there were a bunch of angles where, okay, this is the week where he's going to get him on TV and rub his face into the fucking concrete.

And then he'll come back and blah, blah, blah. You filled that in. As you were going along, when you were writing the TV for the next few weeks, hey here's leading up to the blah blah blah or there's the house show in charlotte or the meadowlands it's going to draw money let's put a special stipulation in there we can plug that on the national tv that type of thing but you've got and lugar remember lugar was still a heel so and here come that was his best heel work ever well yeah he was that was the best lex lugar was ever in the

ring i think period of siren was going by here So you had Flair rematches. You had Arne Anderson as a secondary program and opponent for Sting trying to fucking help his friend and fellow horsemen get back. And then you've got the big thing, which was what TBS wanted to go to. And at the time, rightfully so, eventually they want Sting and Lugar to be the new Dusty and Flair. But, you know, then Lugher. Lugar, without Sting, Flair's still the champion.

And if he doesn't put it on Lugar for the reasons I mentioned that that would be odd, then Lugar doesn't really have a lot to do because now he's a heel out with another heel champion. So Lugar filling the spot salvaged all the main events that Sting had already been booked in against Flair or in special tag team matches or whatever, was somebody of that. caliber that the fans would see as that level of a name on the cards. Just like he did when Magnum had the accident,

you don't immediately bring in Barry Windham immediately would have been seen as, oh, they're trying to give us another Magnum. Who'd he put in the Magnum spot, Nikita Koloff, top single heel? You know, I was going to ask you about Barry Windham because, and forgive me my timelines off off top of my head, I think he came back to the NWA

right after you left the booking. committee, but you can correct me if I'm wrong there. But if he had been in 91, right? In 90, in 90. In or in, well, right. Yeah. Well, he was, no. He came in. Didn't he come back right as we were leaving, period, I thought.

But somewhere, yeah, in 1990, because he was the fake staying at Halloween Avenue. Yeah, but he returned months. He returned months earlier. I think I want to say maybe May or June. But my question was going to be, if he had been available in February, do you think you and Flair and Kevin make the same decision to go with Lugar and switch him babyface suddenly, or would you try to do something else? No, not what? Well, see, again, that's Barry at that point had it been what since he was late 88, early 89, he was figured in.

and then he was off again, I don't think he was a guy you could just drop in to make an impact that quick. If we had had more time to build it up, that would have been one thing, but just to shock everybody and say, it was more shocking to, oh, my God, Luger and Flair right out of the bat

than, oh, my God, Barry Windham's back. It wouldn't have set to seats on fire. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. because at least Lugar was there and he was he was hot in some respect well Jim our next question sent to the Coulter Cornette Facebook group this is from Ryan Murphy why did the WWF never try the road warriors as heels

specifically when they were being refreshed at WrestleMania 14 but even prior to that had the idea ever come up oh god um it's an interesting question because everywhere they went where they got over as massive baby faces, they went in as heels. They never came in as a baby face. WWE, they did. Well, I think when you say everywhere they went, they didn't went that many places when you think about it. Because they started in Georgia on TBS in 83 and were heels, even though they got a baby face-ish response, as you said.

But really, they didn't go any place. they started making shots in other territories. They were in Memphis working with Lawler and Idol in 84. They were heels, but they were, you know, they got a pop. They were impressive. AWA, there were heels, even though they were getting pops and they were starting to get popular. But that's what I was going to say. They really, they made the move to the AWA.

They were still heels. And then gradually as they just kind of turned all the way, the thing with the Russians, which spanned AWA and NWA, they were booking them both. they never really went anywhere else except the WWF after that. Think about it. Even Japan though, they were booked as like strong heels and they got over, you know, running through the crowds like, you know, barreling over. Well, yes, but I mean, I don't count that because my guy is the bruiser,

Brody, Stan Hanson, Funk brothers, Abdulah the butcher, the sheik, that wasn't novel. They weren't really heels as much as more crazy foreigners. But point being, yeah, they had. They had to start out as heels, but once they had been seen on national television, which Crockett gave them, they couldn't really be heels anymore in this country. And when they tried with, they stuck a spike in Dusty's eye for God's sake. And the people were like, yeah, get his other one. Nobody ever wanted to see him as heels again.

It just didn't, it didn't compute. So I think with and with the WWW by WrestleMania 2014 or 2014, WrestleMania 14 which was what 1998, the phenomenon was over as much as I liked both guys, especially Hawks, you know, issues. But it just, it, it was 15 years later, they needed to be the, the 83 through, 86 road warriors were the most fucking dangerous to work with not because they were careless

but because they were excited but to people could see that and then after that it was it just it lost the luster I remember as a kid and I was a big road warriors fan and then they went and became the Legion of Doom

even though they had already been using that name as like their secondary name but it was even like going from all black with maybe red letters to a mostly red-based outfit with some black mixed in. And I know that sounds like a minor superficial thing,

but as a kid, it was like, they're not as bad as they used to be. It was a Vince thing. Give them some color, you know, and that's, yeah, it made them look more like a kind of a toy and less like these fucking post-apocalyptic motherfuckers that'll eat you. But it makes you wonder how a heel run would have worked for them at any point in the 90s.

Could they have done it? could, I mean, promo-wise, they could have done it. But how would the fans have reacted? That's the thing. The end ring by 97, 98, with the competition on the roster was not, it just didn't seem like it was working. And plus, they didn't have anybody as we've gone over that knew how to book them to their strengths without exposing some of the things that they,

but then some of their weak points. So it's kind of what they did 15 years beforehand, a bruiser or crusher. Jim, our next question via the Culta Cornet Facebook group was sent in by Fred Esposito. Is there anybody that didn't like Bobby Eaton or had heat with him? Well, there are people he did not like.

I don't know which, sometimes when the kids say had heat with or whatever, you don't know which direction it's going. there were people that he would, you know, tell, talk about in the car as we all would. Is that no good sorry son of bitch was a stooge or stab somebody in a back or here's what he did or whatever? So he didn't approve of everybody in the world. But I don't know of anybody that actively disliked Bobby Eaton for being Bobby Eaton. Or you know what I'm saying. They could never say, well, he fucked so.

and so around or stab so and so in the back or whatever. So while Bobby was not completely blind and didn't trust everybody in the world because he knew there was some, oh my God, George Scott's son, that fucking Byron Scott, God, almighty, he would live, that stooge,

he'd mutter, Bobby would mutter. Every time he looked up, that stooge. And he would say, he will walk sideways at you. He would do the thing where he'd be walking down the hall and then Bobby would lean sideways at his waist where he's sticking his ear to your conversation. He'll walk sideways down to hall 50 feet to stooge on you.

So he recognized something, but nobody disliked Bobby. Well, that's what I was going to say. What about the other way? Is you ever hear like, hey, you know, this person's actually kind of pissed at Bobby or this person doesn't like Bobby? No. If they were, they probably wouldn't admit it because somebody would think there was something wrong with them or have a problem with them.

what about I mean I wish I had more what Stan being mad at Bobby no did anyone ever get mad at Stan oh a lot of well it depends versus you know with Stan and Steve were together

they were somewhat abrasive to some of the heels that had to suffer the indignities at their hands and let's put it this way some guys were a little bit peaved at Stan without coming out and confront him about it, that he didn't take quite as many bumps as Bobby did.

It all came down to everybody, Bobby does all the work. Even with that, that was an exaggeration. Bobby did a lot of the work, but look at Bobby. Bobby always did a lot of the work. But Stan would get residual heat.

He couldn't keep up bumping with Bobby because he's making Bobby do all the work. So even if Stan did have some heat, it was generally as a result of how much people like Bobby. For as gruff and tough as Dennis was, was there anyone that had a problem with Dennis? No. And at the same time, Dennis, what Dennis was funny as fuck to sit in a locker room with. He could be gruff and if the need called for it. But no, everybody loved to work with Dennis because Aaron Anderson has said,

out of all of the Midnight Express and he and Bobby were, you know, best friends, but Dennis may have been the best worker, worker of the bunch of them. in the ring easy night off never any problem mistake whatever so what did bobby think of dennis's work what did he ever say about it he loved it because dennis had already bobby had been a main event guy working for nick and bobby had been featured for jared but he wasn't like one of the legends of memphis wrestling at that point but dennis had worked not only in main event programs him and Phil Hickerson as a team, but he and Don Carson, he and David Schultz, they'd worked on top in not only the Knoxville territory,

but the Nashville end, and then the Jarrett Memphis end. They'd been to Georgia, various places. Dennis had more experience, and he knew how to speak for himself more, stand up for him to. He knew more about the responsibilities of when you're being put in a money position, and he knew more about tag team wrestling instead of just again. I mean, Bobby had been partners with Coco. Bobby had been partners with George Goulos.

Like, you know, that would train you for a career at a high level. But he'd never been partners with a guy that had worked with big talent or in a main event spot ongoing programs that had drawn money. and Dennis had. Dennis and Phil had drawn three years of straight money without even leaving Tennessee in three different territories. So Dennis was able to teach Bobby a lot about tag team wrestling, not as far as what moves to do, but like give it advice on how Watts wanted things done.

He liked a more wrestling style presentation than the punching and kicking and chaos in Memphis. We would get to that, but we would be a wrestling. wrestling heel team up until that point and work if you've got 25 minutes with wrestling two and Magnum TA, work goddamn hammerlock and keep it interesting and keep them up and down in the middle with spots with the manager or trying to milk the tag, whatever. The timing of putting something together where all the money that's being drawn on the cards is our responsibility because we're in the main event rather than Bobby and Coco be in this week's opponents for Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee.

It was a step up. So Bobby loved Dennis's fucking work. Jim, our next question via the cult of Cornette Facebook group was sent in by Jonathan Meisner. Why didn't Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden ever get a run with the Smoky Mountain tag titles? Oh, honestly, no other reason than it didn't come up before I had to finish him up. Because from what fall 1992 until summer of 93, the tag team program, originally the Fantastics Bobby and Jackie Fulton were the first baby face opponents of the heavenly bodies. And then once we had run with them for the first several months, we were on the air,

then Ricky Morton had become available already had Robert Gibson I was able to reunite the rock and roll express and what I did was whereas as I remember it the Fantastics had worked with Fuller and Golden to kind of get ready for the heavenly bodies but meanwhile when I got the rock and roll together I gave them the opportunity to get a win over Fuller and Golden to get them ready for the bodies but Then we added Dutch Mantel to the Fuller and Golden Stud stable. And we established by the end of the year that the stud stable was kind of its own because Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golder were just funny as fucked together as heels and just intertellers. Fuller's promos. And then Dutch adding to it is kind of like play. He was still wrestling a bit at that time.

But he could be the manager also. and you know, Fuller and Golden, they were old Tennessee wrestling old fashioned as fuck, but it worked in that atmosphere, but also I gave him the black crows hard to handle

the fucking, it was Otis Redding, right? The fucking remake. And here they come out with that big smile on their fucking faces. They're both six foot six and Robert's dick is six feet long and they know how to work and they get to people involved

and everything. So I had the Rock and Roll Express who were straight baby faces, the heavenly bodies, and then added Bobby Eaton for that time, we were just talking about, three months period there, where we're straight heels and three members of the stud stable that could do, you know,

either way. And we did the rage in the cage where they were against us and then they flipped on the other baby faces and gave us the keys and left and all that shit. So the only reason they didn't end up with the tag belts was right about the time that I was finishing up the program between the rock and roll and heavily bodies and Stan decided to retire.

And I was bringing Jimmy Del Rey in to replace him was when they called first, I think, for Robert Fuller. They called him and wanted him to go to WCW as Robert Parker, the Colonel Robert Parker, the manager. Did that surprise you? Yeah, believe it or not, yes. I mean, in a business where a very little surprise, Robert Fuller had never been a manager before ever.

And, I mean, he had been wrestling since Continental had closed up a few years before he wrestled some independent shows down south, but wasn't really, I didn't think, on a now. promotional promotions radar. And somebody had had... Remember, he, I think he took over for Booker after George Scott, didn't he? That's right. That's right. And he had had the stud stable, but he was still, you know, wrestling, doing whatever.

But I didn't think WCW was all of a sudden going to bring in Robert Fuller, and especially to be a the world's only six-foot, seven-inch manager or whatever. But he was hilarious doing it. And he called, let me know. I said, well, Robert, I can't pay you what they're going to pay you. so good luck. And then, of course, as soon as you get, you know, one, their Jimmy Golden becomes Bunkhouse Buck.

And I think Jimmy Golden, again, was not on the radar to be booked by any of the national television promotions in 1993, but it happened. So that's the timing was the only thing. I love the fucking gimmick. And what is the greatest line I've ever heard. when we did our first Smoky Mountain Wrestling taping, because I got Jimmy, first thing,

he lived there in town. Robert was still working for Ron part-time at his hockey team. Which town did Jimmy live in? Well, a suburb of Knoxville. Whereas Robert was working, because Ron still owned the hockey team in Cincinnati, and Robert was working for him part-time. So he was back and forward.

But Jimmy, we had on the very first TV point being, we're sitting in a locker room. I can't remember who the job guy was, but I said, Jimmy, what do you want to do for a finish? He just said, I throw a pretty good drop kick. Okay, there's your finish. Hit him with a drop kick when it's time, right? God damn, he hit him with a drop kick.

I didn't think he was going to fucking wake up. The guy would he knocked him into a next area code. I said, that's your goddamn finish from now on. And if you're not fucking somebody, you're beating him with a fucking drop kick. Because he was 50 years old at that point of, I think. Well, no, I'm telling a lie because everybody was older than me at that time, even still. But in 1990, he was born in 1950. Okay, he was 42 years old.

He jumped up with those long legs, hit this fucking kid, knocked him ass over tea kettle. I said, that's the most believable finish we had here tonight. But Jim, our next question sent via the call to Cornette Facebook group. This was sent by Brett McKee. What does Jim remember about booking tournaments during his career? I remember not doing too many of them. You know, there's certain times when it's necessary. And the first big show in Knoxville for Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a tournament to crown

the first ever Smoky Mountain Champion. When you're starting from scratch, yes. And we did the tag team tournament on television, except for the finals, which we did that night also. If you're starting from a championship or even a promotion, more importantly, from scratch, great for a tournament. If you want something on TV for ratings that you can do once a year that will help your goddamn programs that you're trying to,

trying to continually work between the talent at the same time get the programming out of it. But I think in this day and age, the tournaments have been done like Battle Royals were at one point. Tournaments drew, even a kind of a bullshit tournament. You could, ah, we're going to have a tournament. A bunch of matches. That just novelty would draw. But now it's been so overdone unless it's for something important or to begin you've got to have your beginning.

In the beginning, we created the tournament for the title. If somebody, a major star goes down to injury, and maybe you want to put the top four guys, okay, two semifinals and a final on pay-per-view, I can see where you could sell interest in that as a money-drawing thing. But I mean, you can maybe make it entertaining, but I don't see any way you can make a tournament,

draw more money or more interest or more ratings in this day and age than personal issues between individual halfway recognized stars. Do you disagree with that, Brian? I think a tournament at the right time for the right reasons could be a big deal, but I think just having tournaments because it's that time of year, so it's time for the annual this tournament, which will be followed by the annual this tournament. It takes away a lot of the importance,

and I think the best case scenario, it's self-gratifying booking for the Booker. And also a lot of times, it's harder to book than a card of matches with individuals with personal issues because you've got to, okay, if you want eight guys, because there's four first round,

two second round in the final, and if he's talking about what I've booked in the past, besides, you know, throwing in ideas and stuff on WW or whatever, if it was Smoky Mountain Wrestling or OVW, we'd have goddamn 50 people to put in a fucking tournament. But you've got to, most of the time, match up heels and baby faces because it fucks the matches up if you don't.

but then if it's every time people see through it but usually you have to do it that way it every once while you can throw a little swerve in or whatever if you so if you do too many of them it's unpredictable but if you throw a lot of baby face confrontations in then you've you've shot yourself in the foot because you've got one of your main event baby faces beating another one of your main event baby face is clean he don't want that if you can help it and maybe he's got an injury going in and something gives out on him

that's not the other guy's fault yes you could but you can't do that over and over so many freak things that can happen so many freak times before it gets old heels and heels are easier to get out of because somebody can either fucking fuck up trying to cheat or somebody

can succeed cheating and nothing has been lost in the way of the guys are us. So it just, it's, and you can't advertise anything but the first round matches ahead of time. So you're not going to have Stone Cold Steve Austin versus the rock in the first round with a semifinal and a final left to go. So you're going to have to trust it's people believe that the final is going to be Stone Cold

and the Rock. Or you could just book it that. way and advertise it and be sure, and they'll draw the money. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. WrestleMania 4, the tournament that Randy Savage beat DiBiasey in the finals to win the world title, it looked like they were getting set up for, in the second round, Savage versus Steamboat.

Steamboat had been gone a while, the year before they have that classic match, returns for the tournament, loses in the first round that Greg Valentine. Comes out there with Bonnie and the baby loses. but the Crockett Cup tag team tournaments. That was a pain in the ass for Dusty. And to be honest, I don't agree with a few of the things that he did. And with, we were always figured in the tournament where we lost to the team

that was eventually going to the finals and or win, right? Usually the road warriors, that was our thing. But remember the one, The one year, it was, was it, Magnum T.A. and Ronnie Garvin were the baby face team that went to the finals with the Road Warriors. 86 and the Superdome. Yeah. And what the people didn't want to see either team. I mean, they wanted to see the Road Warriors win, but they didn't want to see either team really lose.

And we would have loved to have been the foils because I think. thought we could have done a better job at it because they wanted to see us get shit kicked out of us already. So I wasn't trying to lobby for us to win the thing, but in trying to strike that balance between just having straight baby face heel stuff and trying to swerve them up a little bit. And plus he wanted Magnum to figure into a final some way, but it just got odd a time or two with all and those were what that was 24 teams right or more at least 24 i mean 86 was an afternoon and an evening 87 was two nights and i mean there were a lot of 80s was two nights they were

random teams i mean it was giant baba well yeah 86 at least there was territory teams left by 88 there was he was fucking pulling goddamn full body suits out of the drawer and tell george south to get dressed three times. It was bad. Well, Jim, our next question via the call to Cornett Facebook group was sent by John Trowow. What is Jim's favorite

face versus face and heel versus heel match? Call me crazy. But the best most enjoyable, most logical, sensible, made sense

a bull whatever the fucking phrase I'm looking for baby face program that I ever saw was the one that Dutch Mantel and Jerry Lawler did in 1982 where they were both the two top single baby faces in Memphis and managed to get in a program over the Southern title cut scathing promos on each other for several weeks have a goddamn

I think they may have been in three weeks in a row in maybe four, don't have the book in front of me, in Memphis and sold somewhere around, you know, 30,000 tickets for that series just in that building alone at a time when business was not doing so well and neither one of them switched heel. And the people bought it and they actually picked sides

and Lawler had Memphis probably 60, 40 or 70, 30, and they were 50, 50, 50 in Louisville, and Dutch had Nashville 70 to 30. Because they didn't like Lawler because he didn't show up a lot anyway. They knew he didn't want to come up here on Saturday nights. It just, it fit, and neither guy did anything that the other person, or let me say this again properly, neither guy did anything that they would not have done if they were. who they were presented to be when they were on television.

And they both had been heels in the past so the people could remember that they had that little streak in them. But it was brilliant. And like I said, it picked business up when Dutch was the Southern champion, didn't really have anybody to defend against. And Lawler was in between programs with his out-of-town, you know, a talent that he would bring in. and they did better than bringing in big talent because the people bought it

and they wanted to see what would happen. And within a couple weeks after it was over with because of what Jimmy Hart did, they were both back teaming together to fight the common enemy and everybody made perfect sense. That's my favorite heel or baby face program. That's a baby face.

Well, that was a program, and I guess match too, but this was about matches. Well, it matches too. What about heel versus heel? do the midnight account against Tully and Arne? Because for a while until we became these sympathetic baby faces, that counts. We were, well, goddamn, I made more money off of that for the six weeks.

It lasted or whatever than I did work in almost anybody except the Rock and Roll Express and actually a little bit more in some cases than the payoffs for them. And it drew for all those six weeks. And I thought they did a great job with their matches because there was four tag team experts. So that would have been my favorite heel program. Is there any more footage of the matches that you know of that isn't out there already in circulation in terms of fan footage or whatever?

I don't think so. The title change is out there because the one guy in Philly in the stands. and I think we did one match. It was either a dark match or it didn't even start on television. We did a dark match at a TV taping. They might have taped it. And otherwise it was all house shows. Jim, our next question sent via the Colts of Cornett Facebook group.

This was sent by John Wilson. I just saw an interview with James Storm. what are your thoughts on him and other TNA Global Force talent from, well, we've talked a lot about TNA talent. What are your thoughts on Cowboy James Storm? I loved him.

I thought he was fucking great. He was an entertaining guy. He could cut a promo, he could work. He got silly, and I told him so at the time when he was doing a thing where he was riding the customized beer cooler to the ring and all that shit.

That was more of, you know, Russo's contributions to things. But he and, he and rude to me were the, they were the next generation of the guys that should have been on top there that were kind of, you know, even with Jeff being held down, but again, because Rousseau was such a mark and so was Dixie for the guys with WWF names.

But I thought Storr was excellent. He could, he knew old, fashioned fucking southern wrestling, how to sell as a baby face without dying and make a comeback with some fire. He had a look to him. He had a man's voice when he cut a promo and was pissed off about something.

And yes, there was while he'd get into the ha-ha, but some of the ha-ha, for a good old country boy, sorry about your damn luck, that'll work. It just has to be the judicious, ha-ha. But I don't even know what happened when he eventually separated with TNA. I was not paying attention at that point in time, but I understand it's been several years.

Where did he last wrestle? I think he's doing the acting thing now, isn't he? I actually don't know. I have no idea. He was in, I saw headshots on the internet. And they didn't have a fucking height scale behind him. and he wasn't wearing orange. But no, he's tried to do some acting in Nashville

and get some, I think has done some parts or whatever. Possibly T and A, you know, ran him completely out of the wrestling business. But I don't know how old he would be right now. So I'm not suggesting that he needs to be out amongst the kids, but he could fucking go. You know, it's crazy to think about, but a lot of these guys from that era, even though he was there a long time,

but speaking specifically to when you were there, guys we talked about Hernandez and him, you know, for example, they're not kids anymore. Even if they were active, they'd be, you would think towards the end of their active full-time career, if everything had worked out well. Yeah, and I would,

a storm could have easily been a star in the WWE as far as his talent in the ring, whether that they got it and or wanted to turn him loose, let him cut his promos and do his shit, I don't know, but, Maybe Vince might not have seen it. This current administration, if he was still 30 years old, might. Well, Jim, our next question sent via the CultaCornet Facebook group was sent in by Brian Jeffrey Gein.

What was Jim's... What now? G-U-Y-N-N-N. Gunn? Gine. Gine? Gine. Well, here's Brian-G-G-E-N.

Well, here's Brian-G-G-G-E-N-W-R-G-E. What was Jim's favorite year in the business? Oh, geez. I mean, it's hard to beat 1984 because without that, I wouldn't have had any of the other years.

Although we were almost we were physically assaulted and came close to being fucking you know, the shit kicked out of us time after time and various highway incidents and working ourselves to death,

but we made a ton of money and got a reputation and were the top guys in a major territory. 86 was incredible, but the run with the World Tag Team titles and record business in, you know, even bigger territory. As far as favorite year, see, it doesn't have to all be big business.

1993 Smoky Mountain Wrestling as much as it you know, again, contributed to all the gray hairs and various nervous breakdowns I've had. The early success we had and opening up some of those markets, Pikeville, Kentucky, finally cracking something in Knoxville that August, the success on the spot shows, the TV shows were good. What was your favorite year? As it happened, I mean, you're looking back on these amazing years. you had.

And you said... Well, no, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying at the time that we were, I was going through it. Those were great times. I was starting to think, you know, the more modern shit, I didn't really enjoy a lot of that shit

as it was going on like I did then. But did you enjoy 86 more than 84 just because, you know, circumstances were different. It was now another territory. Less violence. Yes. I enjoyed 86 more.

Maybe the balance might have almost been even, but, you know, it was just, it was even bigger, and the crowds were even bigger, and we had gotten better at what we were doing, and more people were seeing us do it. So probably 86. And then I had some fun with Smoky Mountain until I just, you know, got so frazzled.

And then, and OVW, besides, I mean, I had no fun and fucking, the WWF was. was either I was there to finance Smoggy Mountain or I was there for three years in Connecticut, but I don't think I was, I had fun doing certain things, but it was not an overall enjoyable experience. And in OVW was very enjoyable, even though I had a number of nervous breakdowns. And a little bit of Ring of Honor was enjoyable until that got frustrating. But the enjoyment of level has gone down in modern times.

Not counting your first year as a fan, because I think that's special for every wrestling fan if you discover it as a kid. Not counting that. What was your favorite year as a fan? My favorite year as a fan that I was I'm fascinated by to this day and I saw the stuff,

but I didn't get to, it didn't still exist. I can't go back and watch a lot of it and I didn't commit it to memory like I would have as an older person. My favorite year was 74, but my favorite year where I was a fan and seeing everything and understanding more of what I was seeing

would have been 81. Because 81 was that incredible run that Lawler had in Memphis. And I was going to Memphis at least once a month to see Terry Funk while I'm in Louisville four times a month, while I'm in Evansville four times a month. I'm in Lexington once a month,

a couple more spot shows. The talent that was in a month, and out was incredible. Bakweakle, Crusher, Blackwell, Hulk Hogan that year, both the Funks, Austin Idol. Chick Donovan. Chick Donovan.

I mean, Harden the First Family. The, you know, the Gibson brothers were a baby-faced tag team underneath, you know, Dundee and Dutch and all the fucking, it was just, it was incredible, 81. 81 Memphis TV is such a fun year to watch. and the Jimmy Hart First Family stuff is just out of control all year. It's so good. Him and Chick Donovan's saying, we are family.

Yes. I mean, there's so many of great moments. That summer, that summer was where Jared came up with the dream match deal. It's certainly not like the dream match as Tony Kahn does. That angle, it was almost near sellout on the fifth Monday of June, June 29. they had 10,129 people, five Mondays that month and he comes up with his cockamamie thing,

books a card with 14 fucking guys, and boom. And then they repeated it around the 10th. That was the summer. It was just everything was good that year. Was 77 a good year to be a fan, the year of the breakup, the year Jared started on his own?

Was that a good year to be a fan? Yes. There were a lot of, a lot of different talent. And of course, 77, you had Harley Race coming in to work with Rocky Johnson. You had Lawler and Jack Briscoe in Memphis, the first Jarrett card, Lawler and Dundee that summer. But I guess that's a time.

While 77, you primarily, if you were a fan of any kind of the Tennessee wrestling territories, 1977, you remember the summer, Lawler, and Dundee. but there wasn't and there was a lot of talent that came in and out but by 81 everybody was more over and the funks were in so much and there was a relationship with the Florida office that's where we got Steve Kern and we got Stan Lane for the first time then and it was just a level up and down the card was everybody was over stronger in 81 but 77 that's what a Lawler and Dundee again between what was it May and the first week of September, they headlined like nine out of 12 weeks

and sold almost 100,000 tickets for just their matches in Memphis alone. And they were doing it all over the fucking territory every night. I don't know how they lived through it, because they were beating a shit out of each other. But that was, if you think about it, Jarrett's promotion technically was six months old, and this fucking match on top in Louisville and Evansville and Memphis and and spot shows is selling fucking 20,000 tickets a week.

I was also you that brought Bugsie McGraw into the first family, an interesting new for Memphis wrestling, an interesting fit for Memphis wrestling. And a dream machine. Oh, yeah, yeah. The dream machine. Hallioop. A gym.

Eighty-one, baby. What was your favorite? favorite year in OVW? I believe either 2000, 2003 or 2004. And maybe you might do a fiscal year there instead of a calendar year and maybe go 2002 to 2003

and 2003 to 2004, but thereabouts because we had moved to the new arena, the TV show looked incredible. we didn't have, you know, the people that the fans think of around the world when they think of the OVW clad. John Sita was gone and Batista was gone or Brock or whatever. But up and down the card again, there was 25 or 30 guys that could go. And the bashums were on top, first as a team and then against each other,

having the best matches that we probably had in development. except when you know Jericho came in to work with Jeter Densmore worked with Benoit at the gardens there was always a WWF talent figured into

what you would consider like a really main event level match in OVW except when Doug and Danny wrestled each other and then you said well they could have had that on fucking raw anyway and just the music the guys were using just the

way we were shooting the TV, the commentary, the booking, somewhere around 2002 to 2004. The last year, I was goddamn punching a lot of walls and pissed off a lot and couldn't devote my full attention to what I was supposed to be doing because I was too busy, you know, dreaming of ways to murder John Laurenitis. But for that 2002 to 4 spot, we had hit our fucking. groove here. Jim, our next question sent via the Colt of Cornett Facebook group was sent by

Simon Bohm, a food-related question. What is Jim's favorite cut of steak? How does he like it cooked? And what is his favorite side? Well, when I was a little bit of baby boy, Mama Cornette always got me the New York

Strip. And that, I think, because that may have been my dad's favorite. And so she just, whenever, I mean, obviously she was shopping at the store. She didn't consult me. Jimmy, would you like the rabbi? No, she would get to bring the New York strip home. Or if I was little and we would go to such a place to serve that kind of thing,

I would just kind of get that because that's the kind of stakes that we ate. As I have gotten older, I have gotten more of a fondness for that. Now, still a good New York strip is hard to beat. but sometimes there's not the good New York strips that are thick enough and wide enough instead of these little bitty things you see these days. I have more appreciation for the rib-eye, but in addition to a rib-eye being a little bit easier to do at home and get all the juice and everything in it,

if you're going to eat a steak these days with everything costing an arm and a leg and a shank and a jowl and a fucking udder and everything else, just get the goddamn filet mignon because go oh boy and don't you dare don't you ever dare have that thing any lighter than medium pink inside if you go to the light pink or the goddamn done on a filet mignon fire upon you you should be penalized and imprisoned what's worse that or just putting ketchup all over your steak well you don't use ketchup on a goddamn steak to begin i agree you don't but i've seen people do it Well, I've seen people commit acts of various vehicular homicide and mayhem that ought to be brought to justice also. You see videos all the time of people out committing crimes. Well, we ought to do something about the steak eaters with the ketchup. Put up some signs for them. Create a television show to track them down.

But yeah, so I'm going to go with a fillet if I really just pressed and just want to just eat a wonderful steak, just a wonderful, wonderful steak. And what would be your favorite side with the filet? Well, regardless of what you can't eat a steak without a baked potato. But now if the place has a wonderful loaded baked potato, then that's the way you got to go. What about spinach? Oh, for heaven's sake. Who am I, Popeye?

What are you talking about? Spinach goes with steak. Well, if you can only pick one side, I'm not picking spinach. Now, if that's your logic, then that means that. that the mushrooms or the grilled onions that you would put on the steak, that's a side too, because that's just spinach. That's just some goddamn weeds for dressing. Oh, stop it.

Spinach can be delicious. Your substantial side is a big old baked potato, cracked open, leather and all kind of butter with cheese sprinkled all over it and bacon bits and then salt that bad boy down real good. How about corn? Now you don't put corn on your baked potato No, with steak, corn with steak. Oh, there's nothing wrong.

I like corn. There's nothing wrong with corn, but you can't pick corn over a baked potato with a steak. That's why they call a steak and potato. That's why Mama Coronet. What about steak fries? Whenever I would get out of hand and out of line, Mama Cornette would say to me,

you're going to have to eat a lot more steak and potatoes to be able to push me around there, Jimmy Boy. What about steak fries against a baked potato? Well, now, if they're good steak fries, because steak fries are more of the wedges that are crispy on the outside yet succulent on the inside, not these fast food type of old pansy ass fries you get these days. And then you can dip those in the ketchup, but the ketchup should not come in contact with the steak. Or you can have the steak like the filet Oscar, where they put the crab meat and the various sauce on it. never that's a wonderful addendum to a steak, but that's not really a side, that's an accoutrema.

An accoutremaal. All right. Well, that was the food question, and of course, Jim. A little bernet sauce, maybe, on a steak, we can go for that, but that's not a side. You may be someone who loves steak and have a problem with this segment. You may be someone saying, hey, didn't they say

they were about to go to guest the program? Where is it? I guess my point is, Jim, some of the listeners, they may want to sue. Oh, you're talking about false representation where we said we were going to do something and we lied to you. Well, we know who will take a case like that, this man. All Stephen P. News and outlaw mud show for two. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Stephen P. New will take all kinds of cases, including if you happen to be full of shit

and think that you can threaten somebody to get them to go away because they're telling the truth about you and or somebody that you've been dealing with, well, think again there, bear man. Terrible Ted. Terrible Ted, Ginger the wrestling bear and Victor the bear altogether

couldn't pull me off the carcass of the son of a bitch that you are trying to defend and Stephen P. New is the man that'll tell you that in more detail at new law office.com 87750, Steve, he'll be glad to tell you exactly what you need to do to make things right. I'm talking about the Royal U out there. He'll be glad to tell anybody out there how they need to make things right for his clients. And if they do, then they'll be fine.

And if they don't, they're going to not hear the end of him for. a long, long time. Stephen P. New Law Office.com 87750, Steve. You know what that means, Jim? It's time to start getting ready for the end of the show, but before we get there, as promised, so guess the program for the listeners.

I get the opportunity here to prove my knowledge by you blindly, blindly reading me a card and me being able to tell you the year and the location of self-same aforesaid card without ever having known the knowledge in advance. That is correct. These are programs from my personal collection. Before I file them away, I have them here in a folder, and I wait until we do guess the program, and then I hit you with some of them at least.

And then you try to make me look bad, but me with my borderline mystical way will divine this answer. See, there are some that are on the face of it, you would think that's pretty easy, but I guess when you try to narrow it down to time, it could be more difficult. For this next one, Jim, I'm going to give you, I don't expect you have a problem with the location, but let's see if you can figure out when. The opening contest, is that the opening contest or the main event?

Oh, opening contest, beat the television champion, Iceman King Parsons versus Johnny Tatum. Okay. A midget match. Cowboy Lane versus Pepper Gonzalez. That should be Lang, by the way. Cowboy Lang. The next contest?

Oh, Battle of the Northeast. Jim Powers 240 out of New York versus Jack Victory 260 out of New Jersey. The next contest, Mike Reed, from Dallas, versus Killer Tim Brooks. And the main event, Kerry Von Erick and the Great Kabuki versus one man gang and maniac Mark Lewin. Good Lord.

Well, this is world-class wrestling, the Von Erick area. And seeing King Parsons, but I guess he was, basically what I'm beating around the bush and saying is one would think this was the early 80s, but with some of the names involved, but this, I'm believing, is one of the attempted, not rehashes, but revivals, perhaps, of world class or Dallas

or Texas, Rassland, or whatever, and it would be at the Sportatorium, but did they bring these guys back in, like 88, 89? Because it just doesn't, like I said, there's some early 80s names here that would have worked world class, but not on the same card with some of these other guys. And I don't know who the fuck Mike Reed is. Is this some sportatorium card from 1988?

the Will Rogers Coliseum. Okay, Fort Worth. August 5th, 1985. 85? You just left like a week ago. Well, what the fuck? Okay. When we left, we left, what date is this?

August 5th, 1985, Will Rogers Coliseum. Okay, we left July. My last show was July. the 4th, the midnight left July the 1st. So a month later, King Parsons wasn't in the territory. John Tatum wasn't in the territory.

Jim Powers wasn't in the territory. Killer Brooks wasn't in the territory. Wait, I spent King Parsons. Wasn't in the territory while you were there? I don't think he was still there. Maybe I'm wrong. Kabuki had just come back.

Gang was there. But, yeah, Lou and Brooks, whoever the fuck Reed is, Powers, and Tatum, were all brand new guys in the previous four weeks. I would have never guessed that in a million years. Five matches, three referees, Bronco Lubbich, David Manning, and Rick Hazard. This Friday at the Sportatorium, Dallas, Mike versus Gino, Kevin versus Chris, World Six-Man Champs versus Kabuki, Casey, and Iceman. All right, that's one program.

Let's get our next one here. Who, a pack show. Jim, the first bout, 30-minute time limit. Ignacio Martinez out of Mexico versus Vic Brel at a Los Angeles. Senior Martinez has done a good job of late, protecting his title as the first Matt Caballero of all Mexico. It says it like that.

Mexico, M-A-Y-H-E-E-E-C-O. I wish he'd have done that good a job protecting the tapes when he was Pedro years later. Tonight, he meets a tough ombre from the football field in Mr. Borell. The second bout, 30-minute time limit, Rube Wright, out of Texas. versus Dick Raines out of Texas. He was a tough son of a gun, was Rube Wright,

but Dirty Dick Rains was more than able to take care of himself. I bet that one was a stem winder. You can bet all the T in China that a Texan will win this match, unless it ends in a draw, of course. Here are the two best grapplers developed in the Lone Star State. The third bout, 30-minute time limit, Terry McGinnis at a Texas, versus Carl Davis out of Texas.

Here's another sensational tussle featuring two former cowboys, Carl Davis and Terry McGinnis. The latter recently returned from a successful tour from Australia and is looking for new laurels here in the future. Strictly a toss-up match. The fourth bout? A team match. Jules Strongbow, Oklahoma.

and Rudy Laditsi at New York versus Vic Christie, California and Ed Payson, Ohio The undefeated dirty duo Strongbow and Laditsy seemed to be up against it tonight Christy and Payson

a couple of Frank Merriwells figure to give them plenty to think about provided they have something to think with Wow. The fifth bout, Three Falls, 45-minute time limit. Iron Mike Missouri

at a New York versus Lee Wyckoff at a Missouri. A fortunate break for Missouri occurred when Tallon the Titan ran out on his match with Wycoff. Talon is left for parts unknown

rather than tackle Wycoff on the match. rather than put up with more payoffs like he's been getting. Lee has been getting tough breaks in his recent bouts. None of the boys want to play with him. And finally, Jim, the sixth bout, three falls one-hour time limit. Everett Marshall, Colorado versus K.O. Coverley. California. Here's a match the fans have been asking for.

Coverley makes his first appearance since his recent suspension by the commission for a bit of rough stuff. Marshall is rated tops, both as a wrestler and a man. He has the warmest admirers of any grappler in the game. If Coverley tosses Marshall, he's in line for a bout with, in quotes, G-me, J-E-E-M-Y, Lottis. the Greek accent, Jim Lundas. And that was our main event. And at first, with the Texas representation,

one would have thought that that would have been down in the Lone Star State, but then we started branching out with names like Jewel Strongbow, Vic Christie, Mike Mazzurkey is a somewhat of a giveaway. And obviously, Ignatio Martinez would be Pedro Martinez, who would be the promoter of the NWF out of Buffalo and have a interest in Madison Square Garden in the 50s and that territory and his son Ron with the PM film and tape company is why we have a bunch of this stuff that still exists.

Rube Wright and Dirty Dick Raines were both old timers from Texas, as was Crippler Carl Davis, but Jules Strongbow would later on become the Booker matchmaker and the TV host for the Los Angeles television program. Vic Christie and his brother Ted were big in California for years. Mike Mazzurkey was a wrestler before he became the well-known television character actor. And by the early 1950s, he was almost exclusively doing television roles and maybe main events and a few major markets.

Everett Marshall, did, they as beat Marshall for one of his six NWA titles, didn't he? Or one of his six world titles. This has got to be the Olympic Auditorium. And it's in the 1940s. And my only thought is 19, I'm just going to pick something, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles,

1946. The date, October 23rd, 1940. The Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California price 10 cents. There's an article here.

Talon skips town. Biggest news event in wrestling circles this week is the unscheduled departure of Talon the Titan for parts unknown. To avoid a meeting with Lee Wyckoff tonight. The contract was signed

a week ago by Stanislaus' Zabisco, Talon's manager, and at the time, he expressed his delight at the prospect of letting Talon tackle Wycalf. The match was the result of a hot foot administered by Talon to Wycow

while the latter lay slumbering peacefully on the rubbing table in the dressing room. Let's stop there, because there's a pre- TV and pre-radio, well, this should say pre-radio, but pre-TV angle. Is it angle? A hot foot on the massage table. Well, yeah, and now the gas pierced, so he wants to fight.

It took the combined efforts of Nick Lutz and myself to keep Wyckoff from braining the Polish giant with a plumber's wrench. Lee was boiling mad, as you might understand. if you've ever been given a hot foot, either asleep or awake. The first notice I got of Talon's departure came yesterday in the form of a telegram from Mr. Stan Zabisco, informing me that he and Talon were en route to Omaha. Fortunately for all concerned... They left L.A. via Omaha.

Fortunately for all concerned, there was a first-rate substituted hand Iron Mike, Missouri, who electrified the fans two weeks ago by his sensational showing against Mr. Wycough in a handicap match. Iron Mike has been doing some brilliant work on the mat ever since his first match with Wycough,

he has been pleading for another crack at the Missouri Wizard. Tonight, he gets his chance. From a wrestling standpoint, the match figures to be more attractive than Wycough against Talon, for Missouri is more scientific than the Palish Samson. If Missouri tosses...

Didn't they say Palish? Palish. Not Polish. It's P-A-L-I-S-H. I think that's a misprint. Or they're trying to mess with the guy. I don't know. If Missouri tosses Wyckoff tonight, he moves up into the big leagues, becomes a steady main eventer hereabouts, and is in line for a match with Mr. Jim Landis for the world's heavyweight championship.

These are some of the things that make a wrestling promoter prematurely old that bring out the gray hairs on a man. But it wasn't my fault. It was something over which I had no control, and I beg that you, my friends, take the circumstances into consideration in your judgment of the situation. However, Lee Wycoff is going to get a square shake in this arena.

As long as I'm the promoter here, I'm going to see to it that he gets everything that's coming to him, even including a match with Mr. Jimmy Landoz himself for the title, a match that Wyckoff has long been entitled. Wow, and it's not signed, but who would have been promoting in 40? Was it Lou Darrow or was it someone else? I think it may have been Lou Dero. Old Carnation Lou. So what do you think of this?

you know, the promoter writing and editorial, for lack of a better term, in his own program to explain why someone who was going to be in the main event wasn't there. Well, and that's, and Talon, Ladislaw, Tallon, is who he worked as in a number of places, was, you know, the foreign menace with Zabisco in his corner. That would have been a big deal at that point in time in Los Angeles, because in 1940, Zabisco was still a big deal. But he's obviously the promoter

here trying to, you know, put to blame on them because they, it wasn't my fucking fault that I couldn't you know, provide this match for you because they left town. So this will be better anyway. Yeah, and it wasn't a phone call. Obviously, there are no cell phones or anything. A telegram. So by

the time you get the telegram, we're on our way to Omaha. There's no getting them at that point. Well, I don't even know if there was a telegram, to be honest. with you. They may have just heard, yeah, they left town, checked out of the hotel, said they were going to go work Omaha. Well, fuck it. We'll just,

you know, we'll make something up. All right, Jim, this next one here, there's actually a newspaper clipping attached, so we'll get to that afterwards. Time limit events, one fall. Sandar Kovacs versus Steve Stanley. Ace Freeman

versus Jean Dubuque. Tag team match. I think they left out two. It just says, out of three falls. Miguel Perez and Tony Martinelli versus Ludwig von Krupp and Paul Berger. Tag team match, two out of three falls. Marvin Mercer and Chief Bigheart.

Atomic Marvin Mercer. Versus John Tolus and Chris Tolus. And the final contest here, to a finish. Antonino Raucca versus Dr. Jerry Graham. By the way, it has the results written in here. It says who won each match. It says to a finish, and next to it, it says draw.

To a finish. That was the finish, the draw. Oh, my God. I got a... Sandor Kovacs was a wrestler before he was a promoter, and he was noted for promoting at least in the Pacific Northwest. Steve Stanley was the brother of Gene Stanley,

the Stanley brothers. They're the blonde tag team in the 50s. Ace Freeman, after he wrestled, was the promoter in Pittsburgh. Ludwig Krupp, would that have been killer Carl Krupe in a very early incarnation? I don't know just because of what this is. I don't know if he did wrestle that long,

I'd be surprised. Well, but I would be supposed, or is that didn't Malenko work early on as Otto Krupp? I think you. And what was Kroop's partner here? Who was Krupp's partner here? It was Ludwig von Krupp and Paul Berger. Yeah, we don't know who the fuck, Paul Berger is. Miguel Perez and Tony Martinelli makes me think that we're back in the Northeast, as does Chief

Bigheart. and the Tolos brothers at one point in time and Marvin Mercer would have also been working in the Northeast. But the biggest tip off is Raca and Jerry Graham. I think we're in another one of your goddamn New Jersey towns, possibly. But we're in the Northeast. And if it's Raca and Jerry Graham, if Eddie was on the card, that would narrow it down

of 58 through 60. But Jerry had a couple of ins and outs with Perez and Raqa being split up. That means it's a smaller market, even though they're still on the same card. This is either a small town in New Jersey or possibly Pennsylvania in 1960. What are you doing to me?

I'm sorry. I was going to say 1960 or 61, but now it sounds like it's going to be 1959. So tell me what the fuck. Very impressive. How you got? I didn't expect you to get the town, but you got close enough. The Patterson Armory, Patterson, New Jersey, which was a regular town for Willie Gilsenberg. And the hometown of Lou Costello. December 27th, 1957. Ah!

15 cents for the program. If you open it up. up, there's a big picture here of Tony Martinelli. And advertisements on the back for the next car, January 4th at Teaneck. Edward Carpontier versus Dr. Jerry Graham, two out of three falls, Tolus brothers, Miguel Perez, other stars you see on TV. And this was Jerry Graham when he was still a single before Eddie. And this is, what, a month after the Madison Square Garden Riot. So here's the article that's attached to it, written by the Annette.

Press, Patterson Police help wrestlers. The bloody wrestling feud of Antinino, Argentina, Raca, and Jerry Dr. Graham ended in no decision last night when police ejected the two bleeding fighters from the ring amidst rioting by fanatical fans. At least a score of policemen escorted Graham and Raca from the Patterson Armory after a 22-minute bout in which the two angry fighters refused to stop a slug fest. The regulation 11 p.m. curfew halted the contest. Police Sergeant Arthur Laro said the 2,000-person crowd, which he estimated as, quote,

about half Puerto Rican went wild when they saw the blood on rough belting blonde Jerry Graham. They surged into the ring while police slurgy. threw up a fast cordon and half carried the fighters from the armory. The frantic crowd ripped Laro's coat with a sharp instrument and jostled the grim face cop. Excuse me, cops, more than one. The bout had been sponsored by the patrolman's benevolent association. Differences between Graham and Raka, who canceled a long planned holiday, to sign for the bout

stemmed from a slug fest in Madison Square Garden a few weeks ago, the bout also ended in a riot. The two wrestlers were subsequently fined $1,000 each by the New York State Athletic Commission. The fight last night

was promoted by Willie Gilsenberg, Thomas J. Babe Coleman, both of Newark, and Charlie Hoffman of Union City, New Jersey. Jesus Christ. Jerry Graham loved that shit, didn't he?

Okay, yeah, let's start our riot. It's just so interesting because it's probably, not that there haven't been worse riots, but I would say it's probably the most famous riot, wouldn't you say? The Madison Square Garden Riot in 57? Yeah, from the newspaper coverage that got, that it got, and the number of people that were at it and the lasting repercussions that it had in a major state and a major market changing, you know, the rules of, nobody under 14 could go to a wrestling match

in Madison Square Garden for the next, what, 16 years. It was always said that Nick DeBrucer was banned, but I don't think he really was. No, he wasn't, he used that to help his image. I think there may be the truth that was in it was that he just didn't pay the fucking fine. So that's why he was banned. if there was any truth in it, it was that.

Because he was legitimately fine, but he's like, fuck this shit. Well, here we are a month after that riot. And they started up again, and it was the same thing I think you hear about the Madison Square Garden riot. You know, the fans were really into it. It's a hot crowd, a Puerto Rican crowd, they love Raca. They see blood. They go crazy.

Now, the story there was, it was, I think Dr. Jerry Graham made Raca bleed. Yes, which that was even worse. And also the story and there's somewhat credence to it is that Rocka didn't know he's going to bleed until Jerry Graham came up with it. And I'm sure that was even more of a natural reaction that flipped a people out. Well, the way they said it here was Jerry Graham just started bleeding. And then the fans like, get him. They just started searching the ring when he was bleeding. Well, a lot of times it would be like that in those days when they would be wanting to see the heel get it,

want to see the heel get it. Now he's bleeding. Yeah, we've got him. he's weak, he's vulnerable. Let's all join in. You know shit's hot when they're starting riots at the policeman show. It's not like I think we'll get away with this. Cops everywhere, getting stabbed by the fans.

Hey, at least it wasn't. Some places down south, the cops would be on the fucking people's side and turn on the boys. Oh, man. All right, Jim, let's get another program. That's when Schultz got Higgerson and Combs. out of that building in Nova Scotia. That's what had happened. They were just up there for the fucking season or whatever.

Here are these local cops. They put their hands on their guns, and they weren't going to let him get out of the fucking ring. Here came Schultz with the hockey stick. Jim, our next program here. The first bout, 20-minute time limit one fall. Warren Bockwinkle versus Stu Gibson. The second match, 20-minute time limit one fall.

Fred Davis. versus Frank Taylor the third match 30 minute time limit one fall Barney the chest Bernard versus Al Lovelock

I'm sorry to say that again I cut you off I just chest Bernard he had the big big chest he'd throw out there and Al Lovelock later to become the great Bolo and now we have a double main event one hour time limit

one fall, while Bill Longson versus Lord Athol Leighton. And the second of the two main events, a handicap tag match, one hour time limit, two out of three falls. Volodic Kowalski, if that is indeed how you pronounce it, Volodic. W-L-A-D-E-K, right? That's right. Versus Enrique Torres and Mike Mazzirke. and here are the conditions of the tag match.

I'll give you this. Kowalski agrees to pin Torres or Missouri twice within 60 minutes. Partners may change at their discretion, and one fall will not disqualify any participant, including Kowalski. If two falls, however, are charged against Kowalski, he loses the bout. Or if Rodick gains two falls against the Torres. Missouri team, the Polish giant wins.

So two out of three faults. All righty then. Warren Bachwinkle, the father of Nick Bockwinkle, Stu Gibson, by the way, did you know, is from Louisville, Kentucky. And he worked here during the, a lot especially during the early 50s and mid-50s, when there was still a local promotion here.

Fred Davis and Frank Taylor, we don't know. Chest Bernard, Al Lovelock, journeyman performers, Al Lovelock would later work under a mask as the great Bolo, Wild Bill Longson, we know, from being one of the biggest box office attractions in the history of the business, Lord Layton was the not only a wrestler, but then later on became the announcer

for the Sheiks heyday in Toronto. Kowalski, having a handicap match with Enrique, Tories, and Mike Mazzurkey, we just talked about Missouri, with Stu Gibson being from Louisville, with Warren Bockwinkle being from St. Louis, with Longson being on the card, and with Kowalski being in a handicapped match,

as they phrased it, and the way that St. Louis used to do handicap matches, one makes me think that this is a very obscure and old Keele Auditorium card from the late 1940s. And I'm just trying to remember what the earliest year was that Kowalski would have worked St. Louis. and I may be way off anyway and you've probably thrown a wringer in on me, but St. Louis Keel Auditorium 1947.

The card Friday night, March 14th, 1952. What? 8.30 p.m. at the Keel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri. God damn it. That late.

It's a fascinating card You know, there's a long, interesting history of handicapped matches in St. Louis, you know, a territory that didn't really have gimmick matches, didn't really have gimmicks. Even guys who had gimmicks when they came in, other than Dick the Bruiser, did the change what they were doing. But they had a lot of handicapped matches over. And I shouldn't say a lot, but, you know, when David von Erick first got over, it was in a handicap match. you know, it's not like a new thing. It was something that for 30 years they used as an interesting mechanism because no other territory really used it the same way.

But this, and this was actually different than what they did a lot of times because a lot of times the handicap match was Brian Last versus Jim Cornett and Mr. Met, the mascot. But I would have, basically you'd have to beat one and then the other within the hour time limit. It wasn't like two against one or tagging in and out. This is a little different. And because Kowowski at the time was the Andre the Giant kind of of wrestling, being

six foot seven and two 75 with an incredible physique back then, he was one of the biggest guys to business. So, but you're right, the handicap match in St. Louis was always used with main event guys involved. It wasn't like, okay, I'm going to fight this guy and his manager. And as you said, the way that Kevin got over, it was a handicapped match with the Harley, right, against Kevin and was it Kevin and Fritz? I was going to say, I thought it was David and Fritz, but. Or what it would, David, I'm sorry.

Yeah. But point being, Fritz never gotten a match. That's what, they were attuned to think, okay, the guy. the handicap will beat the first and the world champion will beat the first guy, but then he may lose to the second one. But in that case, the second one never even got in a ring because the first one won the handicap match. And that's the way they made him a star.

So anyway, I knew it was St. Louis. I didn't think it was that late because just some of those names, that doesn't seem like a card big enough for what St. Louis was doing at that period of time. And by the way, here are the ticket prices. Ringside rose 1 to 12 center $3. 5 to 12 off center, 225, rose 13 to 26 in Section C, a dollar 50, and 13 to 21 in Section A, the courtesy seats, 75 cents. Loeges.

Loge 9 through 22, the center, $2.25. Loge 1 to 3. and 23 to 32 off center, $1. Mezzanine, sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, $2.25. Sections 3, 4, 11, and 12, $1.50, 13, and $14 a dollar. Sections 1, 2, 15, and 16 in the courtesy seats, 75 cents. It was a big fucking building with a lot of different price levels in those days.

Front balcony, all sections, $1. General admission, 75 cents. it's going sell 7 o'clock the night of the show hold on here and by the way three dollars for ringside basically the the lead story of that there were a lot of places in the country still that we're only doing you know a dollar 50 or two dollar ringside at that point and three dollars in nineteen fifty two equals thirty two dollars and fifty eight says today so it was still only a $30 ring side and that was somewhat expensive. I think the garden was only up to four at that point, right?

You may be right. You may be right. They were doing sellouts of Madison Square Garden in the early 50s with a $50-something thousand dollar house. So there you go. This next one here, the opening contest, one fall 30 minute time limit, Jimmy Mitchell versus Sunny Curges, a special event, one fall or 30-minute time limit.

Dr. Lee Grable versus brother Frank Jarrah's. Jairs. Jairs. I always get that wrong. His son, too. Frank Jairs's son, Joe Jers, is the one that wrote whatever happened to Gorgeous George, the wrestling book in the early 70s

that was like the only book about the inside of the business existing for years and years. And then the finals of an elimination tournament. One fall 30 minute time limit or referees decision. The winners of these two matches will meet in the main event, which will have a 45 minute time limit, two out of three falls or referee's decision. And the two matches are Ray Eckert versus Jack Witzig

and Bobby Managoff versus Tiger Joe Marsh winner to meet Luthez. Did you get this from the Ray Eckert estate? I actually am not certain about this one because there's another giveaway here for just a collection I bought. So I may have or I may not have. Well, Ray Eckert, whoever administrated his things here not long ago, I got a bunch of stuff. He had from the collection of Memphis programs from the 50s and St. Louis in excellent condition and pictures and et cetera. A point being Jim Mitchell, the Black Panther, I, I, take it at this time frame that is correct although it says jimmy mitchell but he is jimmy mitchell

the black panther from louisville against whoever the fuck he was wrestling i don't know dr lee grable was a hypnotist and that's why he was a doctor and he hypnotized people to somewhat do his bidding brother frank jares was the he was a mormon from salt lank salt lank Lake City, brother Frank. Ray Eckerd, we just talked about, he was a baby face for, recognized baby face for years and years. Bobby Managoff was a former world champion of some recognition. Yeah, one in Houston.

Tiger Joe Marsh is another one of the California-based guys that you see in a lot of the 60s TV shows, along with Count Billy Vargas. and Gene LaBelle and those guys that were doing parts and TV and stunt work and stuff. So we're back in California. And I know because I have one of Jim Mitchell's booking books where he kept his records, we've talked about that, that he was in California a couple of times in the late 40s, the riot with Gorgeous George when he wrestled him in the Olympic Auditorium.

And I think he went, either that was his second run. there before or vice versa. But you're trying to fuck me around here. This is California again. I would think it's the Olympic Auditorium, but who knows? It could be Long Beach.

But picking a year, Frank Jers had a run in Tennessee and was Southern Junior Heavyweight Champion in the late 50s, but this has got to be before that. Olympic Auditorium 1949.

I don't know. I'm going to be off on the year. The date, August 1st, 1953. The Civic Auditorium Honolulu, Hawaii. Honolulu! Well, son of a bitch. Well, but they were getting talent from California. And I have the follow-up card here, August 9th, 53.

just to complete this, Tiger Joe Marsh versus Alwaga Mayava. Is that Nef Mayava? That would have been Nef Mayava, right? The first Samoan superstar. I believe that's exactly who it is, and that's in the opening match. One fall 20-minute time limit.

Special event, one fall 30-minute time limit. Jack Wittzig versus Sunny Kerges. Semi-final, one-fall 30-minute. Pacific Coast champ Ray Eckert. versus brother Frank Jair's main event, World's Heavyweight title two at a three falls to a finish, no time limit. Lou Thess versus Bobby Manigoff.

So it's the same guys as the previous week, except they brought Thess in to defend the title. Yeah. And they would have guys come over for several weeks or a couple months or whatever because they couldn't, especially 70 years ago, it wasn't convenient to fly back and forth. And Thess has talked about in his book that he would go over for like a working vacation.

If he defended the title once in the main event and got paid and got a trip over there, he would stay in Hawaii for fucking five days or whatever. And would that have been Al Karasik, the promoter at that point, or was that before him? That is correct. It's Al Karasik. So, yeah, that was a sweet deal for the champion in those days.

Yeah, the reason I don't know exactly where I got it is I've been buying up as many old, especially from the 50s, but really anything, old Hawaii programs, because, you know, I feel like there's still not a lot known. And, you know, you can always find little hidden tidbits in these programs about who's feuding with who in real life. What auto dealer pissed off the promoter. You can just find all sorts of weird shit in these programs.

But I also have one somewhere from the year before. It's one of my favorites. It's Lufez's first appearance in Hawaii, and it's the first World Heavyweight Championship match in Hawaii, and it has the ticket stub, too. So that one's cool. Let's go to this card here, Jim. On its face, it may seem easy, but I guess it's about date more than anything. Boy, today it is.

Opening contest, Svi Afi, or Siva Afi, versus Tony Bourne. The next contest, Joe Lightfoot versus Matt Bourne. Third contest, The Destroyer versus Terry Allen. A tag bout? Stan Stasiak and Tiny Anderson. versus Buzz Sawyer and Hacksaw Sawyer. The final preliminary bout? Or hack, as he was known to his friends.

Rip Oliver versus Steve Regal. And the main event, a double championship bout. I will not name the titles, although I don't think that's going to be a hard thing for you. Yeah. Jay Youngblood versus Playboy Buddy Rose. well obviously we are a Don Owen promotion potentially in the Portland sports arena

but let's just take a look at this for a second with Matt Bourne and Tony Boren Tony Boren was from the area and the last tied this would be one of his last matches I assume because he wouldn't have worked much longer and Matt at the same time

had not been working too long. Save the Joe Lightfoot, Siva Afi, Stan Stajak, the Sawyer brothers. They all spent time in Portland. Rip Oliver was there for years. Steve Regal went briefly, obviously during this time.

Jay Youngblood, Buddy Rose. The only thing that helps me narrow it down specifically is Terry Allen. And we know that Magnum was in Mid-South by late 1983, and he had already worked Florida at that point. But this was, I think, where he spent some time here right after he broke in, and then right before he went to Florida. and my God, it's either 81 or 82, it's got to be.

And I'm thinking because of where Steve Regal was in 82, he was here in the Memphis territory during the summer and was working for Bruiser also because in that fall, because I was on cards with him. So unless it's very early, 1982, I've got to say this is 1981. in the Portland Sports Arena. Uh-oh. Jim, Saturday, May 16th, 1981, the Portland Sports Arena. John Owen presents.

Jesus, finally. Your referee, Sandy Bar. Also, there's an ad here for bar printing, stationary posters and flyers, business cards as low as $15. Also, there's an ad here, Sandy Bar's flea market. Every Sunday at the Portland Sports Arena, tables are $5 each. I've got some of his flea market

promotional flyers also. All right, Jim, this next card, the opening event, Honeyboy Hannigan versus Frank Thompson. Okay. The semi-final, two out of three falls, one-hour time limit.

Tex Riley versus Blackjack Dylan. And the main event, two out of three falls, one-hour time limit. Chief Bigheart versus El Toro Good Lord Now you're just fucking with me right to end this thing

I don't have any idea who the first two guys are Tex Riley or calling him by his Christian name Alvin Tex Riley was one of the most popular baby faces in the

goulous Welch Tennessee territory in the 1940s and 50s. And he was one of Roy Welch's go-to guys, you know, Roy and Herb Welch, Pat Malone, Tex Riley, Wild Bill Canny, Charlie Kean, that crew, and he was killed before his time. Was he killed or did he have a heart attack? I'm trying to think, I think maybe he had a heart attack.

I actually don't know. Blackjack Dylan was not. not James J. Dillon. And Chief Bigheart was a famous, you know, Native American Indian gimmick wrestler, but he wrestled everywhere in El Toro. Jesus Christ. Birmingham, Alabama in 1951.

How about that? That is a guess. That is for sure. I don't fucking have any idea. Thursday, June 10th, 1954. Columbus, the arena. Son of a bitch. And by the way, coming soon, Jerry Graham, the hypnotist, and Freddie Blassie,

and many other well-known wrestlers in the nephew. And Jerry Graham was a hypnotist like Dr. Lee Grable, just Graham practiced in Ohio while Grable was practicing out in California or whatever. But Chief Bigheart, Bobby Fulton loved him some Chief Bigheart. And he was a big name for Al Haft and the whole Ohio territory. but Tex Riley, to me, is out of place on an Al-Haft card. So that's wild. All right, Jim, this will either be our last or one of the last, but maybe the last we'll see.

The opening contest, Gordon Nelson versus Skip Young. Tony Marino versus Bob Ellis. Steve Kern versus the Great Mephisto. For a tag championship I will not name Jack and Jerry Briscoe versus Ziggfried Stanky and Ox Baker For a championship I will not name

Paterson versus Mike Graham And a lights out match Ivan Koloff and Buddy Wolf versus Eddie Graham and Dusty Rhodes What a card! we are in championship wrestling from Florida.

As soon as you said Gordon Nelson and Skip Young, Gordon Nelson not only was a very accomplished shooter, but was a pro for years and worked and trained guys. And I think refereed later in Florida, Skip Young would later become the masked sweet brown sugar. Then you said Tony Marino and Bob Ellison. I was like, what the fuck? Maybe this is a Puerto Rico thing from the,

late 70s. But then I remember that Tony Marino did spend some time in Florida. And Bob Ellis, this was after 1977 where he had been to Tennessee and maybe around the same time he was working or about to work, Puerto Rico. Steve Kern and the great Mephisto, Mephisto was Frankie Cain. The Brisco brothers against Stanky and Ox Baker. Mike Graham, Paterson, Eddie and Dusty. I mean, it's Florida.

The question is the year. And I think with Eddie still in the ring, stanky and ox teamed up, Bob Ellis on the card, Buddy Wolf in the main event. It's, we're in Florida. I don't know whether it's,

it could be Miami. It could be Tampa. And it's 1978. All right, Jim. Tuesday, June 7th, 1977. Tampa, Florida.

So at least you got the right state. Tampa Florida, baby. I was six months off. Six months off. You know, one more. Let me see. I have a good one here. Maybe he's all over the place.

Maybe I don't. All right, let me go to this one. We'll end with this one. The one. one that's not good. Well, that way I can get this out of my file. I have a pretty fat file here. Get it out of your system.

Opening contest, Black Demon versus Tomas Marin. Plus, Juan Caruso versus Joe Krugnally. Good Lord. Plus Arnold Scholland versus Joe Turko. That's who I thought you were going to say Joe Schmidlap here. minute to go. Plus, Chuck O'Connor versus Mike Conrad. An extra added, Flying Fred Curry, a new favorite, versus L. Olympica, white-masked foe. A bonus attraction, Gorilla Monsoon, 401-pound Great, versus the spoiler, rough, vicious.

For the World Tag Team Championship, two falls out of three, Mr. Fuji and Professor Toru Tanaka, the Champions, versus Chief Jay Strongbow and Sunny King, X champions. And the main event, for a World Championship I will not name, Pedro Morales, the champion, versus George Steele, the animal. Good Lord, well, they. If it's not the garden, maybe it's the spectrum, or actually, were they in the spectrum that early in the 70s?

Maybe it was the Philadelphia Arena. Maybe it's the Boston Garden. Tomas Morin, I used to, when I first saw his name in writing, I thought, what's Tommy Marlin doing all the way up there? Arnold Scholland obviously tips off that it is the Northeast. And Joe Turco, long-time WWWF job guy. O'Connor would later on be Big John Stud, but because he's Chuck O'Connor here, this narrows it down to the 1973 to 1976 window because didn't he become, well, they did the thing with the masked captain

USA thing in Texas, but he became John Studd in Texas in 77, I think, didn't he? Wild Bull Curry on a major card. Go ahead. For the record, it was Flying Fred Curry. I'm sorry, Flying Fred Curry. I just wrote Curry. Flying Fred Curry and Elimico, again, we're looking at 73-ish time period, the monsoon and the spoiler.

Wasn't the spoiler Don Jardine on the same? in the territory at the same time that they let Mosqueras be the first masked wrestler but Jardine still had to wear an open-faced mask. It is correct that Mosquist was the first mass wrestler and the spoiler was not allowed to be masked. And that would have, Strongbow and Sonny King, the ex-champions, spoiler being their Morales and George the Animal Steel

for the title that you wouldn't name. I'm it's either 1972 or 1973 I'm going to go good Lord I've been fucking up the dates I'm going to say

this is the garden fuck it and I'm going to say it's 1973 well Jim it is the garden the Boston Garden Saturday night, August 12th, 1972. So I went against my better instincts

and was wrong on both cases after I'd already said both of the other correct answers. Well, on that note, the drive-thru is closed. That was guest to program. On that note, the drive-thru is closed. All right. Peaceful ending to a peaceful show. We'll be back.

At some point, I don't even know what day it is now. back very soon with the experience and of course the drive-through, wherever you find your normal podcast on the normal times and days or whatever the hell. Oh, we'll tell the people on this experience coming up where I went that we had to tape this. Oh, that's right. Jim goes to ClubMed, find out all the information. Is Club Med still a thing, actually? I don't even know. Yeah, now it's just it's a hospital you check into now. All right. Well, Jim goes to Club Getaway. Hear more about it on the experience.

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