Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 453

Episode Date: July 26, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim reviews WWE Saturday Night's Main Event! Plus Jim previews AEW Redemption, and talks about Jackie Fargo, the "It's Still Real To Me" viral clip, Dave Meltzer not rating Mercedes Moné's match, the lineal SMW champion, Vince & Janel going to arbitration, and much more! Also, Jim begins his look at 1994's Top 20 Wrestlers in their 20s! Thanks to our episode sponsors: HEXCLAD:  Find your forever cookware @hexclad and get 10% off at hexclad.com/JCE! #hexcladpartner RIDGE:  Upgrade your wallet today! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code JCE at https://www.Ridge.com/JCE 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.

Oh, boy. It's... Oh. That sounded like a car wreck. It felt like one. Hello again, friends, and you are our friends. We can do better, and we will. And welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-thru right here.

And another one of those days, it's nasty and raining and humid here. I'm your host of great Brian last. Let's go from here to there with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornett, Mr. Jim Cornett. It's not bad weather here yet, Brian, but they're calling for it.

Sometime, maybe during the time that we're going to be recording this, we're going to have the severe storms passing over, so I've got Stacey on alert downstairs. She's watching Nature Boy Buddy at Alfred Puddonsworth and keeping an eye on any weather alerts so that I can talk to, the people here. The boys, by the way,

have now grown enough and got enough spring in their step that they can jump up on the couch by themselves. And it's just a couple of steps to standing out on the end tables like circus performers, and we got to keep an eye on that. But when they get tired of playing, they just curl up on the couch with you and just use you as a pillow and just gently lick your hand or rub their fur on your arm and they're just so adorable. And then they go crazy and they start chewing on everything in sight.

Speaking of chewing, Brian, I've just had a big mid-morning snack. I'm feeling good, little sustenance to keep me going, make me healthy. I ate a big bag of Taylor Farms lettuce. How's your lettuce intake? Well, first of all, I know that's a lie because you won't eat a vegetable if I had a gun under your head. Second of all, I'm not eating Taylor lettuce at the moment or bagged lettuce of any sort. No, you haven't heard?

You haven't heard that they got the all clear. Apparently, the old, the CDC or whoever it was that tested this. And for our international listeners, we talked about it on the previous program, the experience a few days ago, that they had tracked down the source of the explosive out, outbreak of diarrhea, explosive diary outbreak that lasts for weeks, if not a month, and you just, you want to die every day of your life. They traced it back to Taco Bell and then to the lettuce that Taco Bell got from a place called Taylor Farms, which is obviously Terry Taylor, when he got out of the business,

he had to have something to do. And now they're so, well, wait a bit, it was a false positive on Taylor. after Taylor Farms has recalled like 200,000 bags of fucking lettuce that they're sitting on now. They, if you got a rabbit, right to Taylor Farms, they can help you out. What do you think about this now? I think we don't know anything. At what point do we start looking at the meat? At what point do we just not go to Taco Bell?

That's my original point was, but you can't trust anything. People are pooping on the food, I guess, everywhere. because they know this thing comes from poop they just don't know who the poopies are and who's become the pooper that they're distributing this stuff it's too bad it doesn't take on the magical qualities

of like mushrooms or something if it's pooped on I don't want to eat anything that's been pooped on whether it has magical lyrical sensible whatever the fuck qualities If it's got poop on it, I'm going to pass. I'm passing on to poop. Magic mushrooms are grown in shit.

That's what they always used to say. Well, and it ought to be magic because you get somebody to eat them after they've grown in shit. That's the definition of a turd blossom. Do you want to eat a turd blossom, young man? I don't know. Is it good shit? It's good shit. I'll tell you know what people do want to eat?

Let's leave diarrhea alone. now. Let's just, let's blow on out of diarrhea. This, actually, this was a story on the news a week or two ago that I saw and I forgot to bring it up, and if you haven't heard about it, then it's news to you, because this is kind of an evergreen thing. Did you hear about that they did a piece on the World Cup fans, which thankfully that thing is finally over? So I can goddamn watch my afternoon news unmolested these days. But they did a story. on all of the international fans, all the foreigners coming in here from different places around

the world to see the World Cup. And that's the thing about the United States. If you got a lot of money and you want to come here for a short period of time and spend it all and have fun and then go the fuck home, that's us, baby. The United States is the world's whorehouse. come with a lot of money have a lot of fun spend it all get the fuck out but if you want to come and you don't have any money

you just want to move here and get a job and provide for your family and eat and shit like that and oh fuck you we need some more laws that's the United States but the ones with money that did come and blew it all did you hear what they were most impressed

by about the United States. If you saw the same stuff I did, I believe it was ranch dressing. Ranch dressing and air conditioning. Oh, that's right. There were several articles in the paper about what it's like in Europe right now with this weather. That's right. But ranch dressing and air conditioning, two things that pretty much are goddamn staples

of daily life. How do you get along without either one? and these poor downtrodden, send us your poor, your downtrodden, your soccer and football fans, and we'll grease them up with ranch dressing and cool them off. I knew about the air conditioning kind of because, having gone over there, you know, I'm a seasoned traveler to the United Kingdom. And I've talked about the issues with trying to find fucking ice,

just to get some ice in a drink, and you would think that there'd be more ice around over there because they don't have any fucking air conditioning. But it's the same, you know why they call New England, New England, don't you? Because they do some of the same screwy shit they do over in the old England. And I've told you that story,

how we went to Boston for WrestleMania 98, and they put us in this big name brand fucking hotel right downtown Boston. at the end of March, it was a heat wave. It was 80-something degrees outside. It's fucking big hotel had no air conditioning. It's that you only get air or heat, not both. So they hadn't turned the air on yet.

They didn't do that till April. So I was going to fuck you. I went across the street for $50 more a night. But the air conditioning is of the, I mean, it's, you know, it's a thing that they don't have over there. Bless them. It's an old country. They didn't have it when they built.

a lot of these things. But ranch dressing, how can you not just get a bottle of ranch dressing? I didn't even come to think of it, you know, between the kebab places they have over there, which I think, who was it? Alex Shane said it tasted like diarrhea in a dirty diaper. But they don't have a lot of food choices that we Americans would make, but they've still got French fries, chips. What do you dip those in? Ranch dressing. What do you gargle with in the morning? Ranch dressing.

What do you put in your washer to soften your laundry? Ranch dressing. How can they not have ranch dressing? Forgive me, I wasn't listening. I was over here setting up my business of excellent. exporting ranch dressing to you know. Why is that not the new industry taking off? Well, they did because Hidden Valley or whoever the corporate overlord is that owns them now,

they came out with goddamn little, like, bottles that are under the size that you can take on the plane because the people were trying to take ranch dressing on the plane back home with them. And that's like the mouthwash and the whatever, it's all explosive. liquid to the TSA, so they made the little bottles like on a keychain or whatever. We're coming to you live from John F. Kennedy Airport here in New York, where the duty free shop are clearing out the shelves of rum to fill with ranch dressing here today. But anyway, I'm glad that we were able to make a good impression as a country on somebody these days for something. If you had the guess, if you were told a large amount of people

from multiple countries are coming to America and there's one food that they would discover that would blow their mind. I mean, ranch isn't really a food. It's a condiment, but same concept. An edible thing. Yeah.

I mean, you know, I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what all these countries don't necessarily have, but I would think that would someone have been, wow, the Nashville hot chicken or wow the St. Louis-style pizza. But that is a good pick.

I mean, that is a good pick, because it's unique to people who don't like pizza. I mean, it's... Oh, come on now, you bigot. What? You're a bigot. Oh, come on now. Again, St. Louis-style pizza and Provelle cheese.

You're a pizza-ist. I liked how he... He knew his wrestling, he knew his comedy, he didn't know a goddamn thing about pizza. All right, but, or barbecue in the various places, whether it's Memphis barbecue, whether it's Carolina barbecue, I don't know where all these games were being played,

but something American in kind of flavor, no pun intended, one would think that maybe, I found a barbecue place in England. When we were walking around and I said, oh, I told Stace, let's eat here. She's like, oh, there's a Pakistani play.

I'm like, it says barbecue. Barbecue. It was, it was okay for government barbecue, but it wasn't Memphis barbecue. So I'm thinking if they actually got, you know, some real dose of something like that over there, they would, they'd go nuts. Okay.

Where were the other teams? I'm being English-centric here in the United Kingdom. there were teams from all over the place. All over. I don't know what they eat in these various locations or what they would be impressed by over here, but it would have to be some kind of, you know, good old-fashioned soul food,

legitimate American shit. All right, this has been health and eating news. Yes, hey, let me get back to my lettuce now. What do you got? Well, what we've got is a warehouse full of one. Wonderful items from Cornets collectibles ready to be shipped out to wonderful customers all around the world. Oh, I forgot. We're doing those type of plugs today. Yes, as a matter of fact, Hotchkes Feather Bottom just picked up everything that was ordered through,

what was it, like July 16 or 17, just a day or a few days ago, and everything is moving along. It's like it was greased with that explosive diarrhea we've been hearing about. It's just shooting out to the customers. So I don't have bags of lettuce or any kind of vegetables that have been pooped on, but if you want T-shirts and action figures and autographed photos at some of the lowest prices in the industry, because we make it up in volume, folks, Jimcornette.com, Cornett's collectibles. And I am working, Brian, on an announcement that's going to be made sure, hopefully in the month of August about what our fine Christmas season is going to look like.

We got some dandy things we're going to be putting up, putting up on the board there at Jimcornet.com for Christmas this year. More on that very soon. And there was the big giveaway, dandy, lots of dandy Jack Donovan items coming to the store. I'll break the story here first. Hey, I have the one of Tojo's wooden shoes that they bashed over his head at the TV station that day when they, you know, I was thinking about,

I was thinking about the other day. Jackie Fargo really was a fucking thug. He really was a. It's so many ways. Great professional wrestling. Just a thug. Did you see? Well, was it Alan Cheap Shot that tweeted,

if somebody had tweeted the article from the paper the other day, where Fargo and Galento, Mario Galento went to court? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I saw that. Because Fargo had called him up, don't know if he's going to kill him. And that was all interconnected. And you get part of the,

like there's part of the story, Lawler told on Memphis Heat and people have got, I'll bring that up how somebody's got that twisted, the wrong person involved here in a minute. And, you know, the dark side of the ring tales from the territories, he told the story and it's been, but basically what happened was the suspicion was on Roy Welch, who was getting Alzheimer's at that point. He would be dead like four years later, but he was kind of, I never met him, unfortunately, but from what I've heard, he was kind of losing track of some things. And somebody had convinced him that Jerry Jarrett was trying to steal the territory.

And this was before the thing where Jerry tried to buy in the territory and then Nick screwed him around, and then he decided to break off. And that happened the year, 1977, the year that Roy Welch died, but he'd already been out of the active business for a little while. So Mario Galento had been around Memphis forever and had worked there in the previous years under Roy, and he was old and he was crazy, and they wouldn't book him.

And if they did book him, they'd just put him in the opening match in Jonesboro or whatever. So that's apparently how he came into it. that either, depending on how you want to look at it, he was looking to get booked again and get a job, or he was just being paid to come in and do what he said was an angle, but he was really trying to kick the shit out of Jerry Jarrett on live television when he ran in the ring on Memphis TV and interrupted a match. So since Roy Welch had Alzheimer's,

Mario Galento was fucking lunatic. he wasn't really smart to the business Galento the many years he'd been in it and all this other stuff was going on nobody was able to prove exactly what the reasoning was but Galento hits the ring on live Memphis TV during a match with Jerry Jarrett

and Jerry Lawler and I'm good Sam Bass was out there and I don't know if anybody else was out there at the time or if they all hit the ring. But never then. Obviously, this tape does not exist. Well, not only, it kind of exposed

to business for a second because when he jumped Jerry Jarrett, Lawler started helping Jarrett. But he was later to explain that, hey, I don't know who this fucking Mario Galento thinks he is, but nobody's going to kick the shit out of Jerry Jared but me.

And Galento, as the story goes, went for Jerry Jarrett's eye first because a lot of people, the fans today may not know or care, but Jared Jared had already been blind in one eye from an early age and he only had one good eye. That's why they did the angle with it. When they got Jeff into business,

the buddy Landell and Bill Dundee were going for Jerry Jarrett's good eye. You know, you had just mentioned this and we had received several questions about it. I was going to ask one today, so I'll just ask real quick right here. What exactly happened? Do you know how he lost sight in the eye? I did it one time, and I can't remember now. So if you remind me, I'll do the research. But it wasn't wrestling related from what I understand,

or from what I remember. But anyway, so they all pile on fucking Galento, and I then Tojo ended up out there. I don't know if Fargo may have been there at the time, whatever. But it was a big schmazade that got him out of there, and Galento got his head busted open, and that's where Jerry Jarrett told the story that he pulled Galento's eye out. Well, you know, I hate to speak ill of Jerry, his memory, whatever, but I don't think he pulled

his eye out. I think Galento was going for Jared's eye. Nevertheless. So then after that, and all the consternation about that, that's when Galento showed up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and I, maybe he was just bad at this point, but he tried to hit the ring on Jerry Lawler. And because Lawler had been involved. Well, Lawler took off because Galento had a fucking straight razor.

So Lawler takes off to the fucking dressing room and the old building in Jonesboro. It wasn't far. And this is where some people have gotten the story wrong from the Tales from the Territories episode, the way that it was edited, they had been talking about Jimmy Valiant. and they obviously Lawler was telling a story and he mentioned his partner at the time was Jim White.

That's when he was teamed with 73 Lawler and White were the tag team champions. Jim White is the guy in the locker room that went in his bag and got his gun so that if Galento came back with the straight razor, he would be somewhat outgunned as they say. It wasn't Jimmy, Jimmy Vagget never pulled a gun on anybody that I know of. but anyway, so that was, and then to the point of our story, that's when Fargo called Galento up on a phone, said, you're fucking with my boy. If you fuck with my boy, get him, I'm going to fucking kill you. Because Lawler was Fargo's boy.

And that's when Galento called the cops and had it taken to court for Fargo threatening his life and blah, blah, blah. So yeah, there was there was all kinds of fun going on. And none of it really exposed the business in Memphis because it was, even though Galento would talk about I was told to do this, told to do that, it sounded like to the average person like that he was trying to get out of something because it wasn't like the Knoxville expose where he won't give me the boat back. Even though he won the tournament, he was supposed to this and that

and they just exposed everything. This was, these motherfuckers are calling each other up, trying to kill each other, and hitting the ring on live TV, and got fucking knives and razors. So it didn't really make the wrestling business look fake. No.

That's what we, we need Mario Galento today. Yes, yes, we do. And his wife, Smokey. That's right, she was the real show there. She was the one carrying a gun and pulling it on the heels in Georgia. Yeah, well,

See, that's the thing. She had it in her purse. And she would sit front row at Mario's matches, and Mario didn't smart and smoky up. And whether he was a baby face or a heel, wherever he was, you had to fucking look out for his wife if you were doing anything to get any heat on old Mario. But back to Fargo.

Yes. You know, I hate that you reference that. Tales from the Territory Show, because that show has been just discredited left and right. They had so much bullshit on that show, specifically about Hawaii, but every episode. Well, but I thought you meant the Memphis one. There was an element of fucking bowel movement on the Memphis show walls, but it came from the talent. It's a history, a completely inaccurate historical bullshit expose, I guess you could say. But Fargo, we started talking a dandy jack donovan so here's the galento thing yeah dandy jack donovan his career is ended his

nose is almost ripped off his face him and tojo again to a fight at the louville gardens apparently he went for tojo's eye because something happened right hold on back up because again it's subject to you know wrestler's interpretation as to who was the offender they had a match at the Louisville Gardens this was also 1973 and I'm trying to

Donovan's reasoning was why am I doing a job here because they were going to switch him baby face or they were going to do something to some angle with him or whatever and you know he had already barked about doing a job for Tojo

apparently and it's not like that you know Tojo didn't beat everybody in the territory. But at the same time, then when they had the match, it was up to either guy's story as to who got uncooperative first. And that's when Tojo had claimed that Jack Donovan went for his eye, which again, back in those days, that's kind of what you did. That's why it's a common that referred to. Whether you did or not in real life, it ends up in the story. and they were not,

they had a fucking skirmish and maybe one of the other guys came out or whatever, but they didn't do it in front of the people and they didn't do it that night in the locker room. There was a lot of yelling and cussing, but no fighting. But the next day, they had to be in Nashville at the TV station

to do local promos for the whole territory. And Fargo, or Tojo had already told Fargo and Jared what was going on. And see, there were two camps at that point in the promotion because Nick Goulis and Roy Welch, the corporate entity, but Goulis, particularly personally at this point, was in charge of Nashville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, and his Booker and longtime top baby face,

was Lynn Rossi. Lynn Rossi and Jackie Fargo never liked each other. And Jerry Jarrett, who's opened the Memphis end, Memphis, Louisville, Evansville, you know, et cetera, Fargo's his top star,

and he's his own booker. And Tojo was more at that point loyal to and working for Fargo and Jerry. Jared and Loyal to Fargo than Goulos, although they had been all together so long. So point being, Lynn Rossi's wrangling everybody for promos

on the set in the studio, and Fargo and Jarrett and Tojo have planned to greet Mr. Donovan when he comes in in one of the bathrooms. And whoever was watching the door, they got Jack Donovan in the bathroom, and with the wooden shoes and what and i believe somebody claimed that fargo hit him with a pistol but tojo had the wooden shoes and they beat the bejesus out of jack donovan and then he's staggered

and imagine this is oh my god scott teal would know is it was it channel two or channel five then in nashville but can you imagine this bleach blonde fucking wrestler comes out with fucking head bleeding everywhere been beat up by a fucking five and a half foot tall japanese guy with a wooden shoe and two other bleach blonde guys. And as they said, Len Rossi had a fucking baby calf and Jack Donovan left the territory. You know, you bring up Scott Teal.

That's how I first found out about it in the 90s, whatever happened to, Scott's amazing newsletter, which didn't just interview guys that weren't being interviewed anywhere, but they talked about things because they respected Scott. It also told you how to get in touch with them. If you wanted to call them up send them a letter. And I did that.

And Scott, Jack Donovan did a long interview, and I wish I had it in front of me because I didn't know we were going to talk about this, but to quote it all verbatim. And I believe the interview is reprinted in one of Scott's books. Crowbarpress.com. Yeah, crowbarpress.com. But Jack Donovan did the interview, and it's a pretty harrowing story. And then I forget who denied it. Jerry Jarrett later, you know, had his own version of things, including a denial.

But Joey Rossi wrote a letter in, the son of Len Rossi, backing up everything Dandy Jack Donovan said. Now, again, you do have to consider there were a lot of feelings involved beyond the Dandy Jack Donovan incident. Yeah. The Jarrick camp. And I don't know if you want to say the Gulles camp, but really the Len Rossi. Len Rossi wasn't a Jarrett guy. It wasn't even about Len Rossi and Jack. It was a Birmingham crew and the Memphis crew.

that was the feelings. And when the Memphis crew started doing better than the Birmingham crew, it was the beginning of the end. And then, of course, whatever happened on I have the newspaper article somewhere, Jackie Fargo, did he pistol whip his wife?

No. Because she came home late from a hayride. No, they were on the hayride. In front of all of her friends? They were on the hayride together. And then he may have hit her, but he didn't pistol whip her. I think it was, he was at home and she like pulled up with all of her friends after the hayride.

Like, hey, we had a great time. And right in front of everyone, he like, kicked the shit out of her. Just a thug. He was a bookie. Like, he really was just like a thug. No, no, no, no. Now, hold on now. No, he referred to it.

He referred to it as my place of business. See, that's what, Fargo. And I got a, you know what? I went and took all those notes at the Pfeffer, uh, museum at South Bend last year. And then we never did that segment, but I've got some of Fargo's payoffs and the money that he was making, the money that he was sent into Jack Feffer. But by the mid-60s, he was, we've talked about the Memphis situation in the early, late

50s, early mid-60s where there was like five or six live events per week that they ran around the Memphis area, Blytheville, Jonesboro, Clarksdale, Mississippi, these small towns. And Fargo was also partners with Eddie Bond, who was a country music star and I say star, maybe loosely, but he was a country music musician.

And he had a radio station, and Fargo did, that's how he and Lawler ended up kind of meeting. So Fargo had not only a radio game, and he was writing to Feffer about this. I mean, he was making the equivalent of a couple of grand a week doing this radio thing in today's money. Plus, he was working mostly the Memphis territory.

Every once in a while he'd go overwork some of Nick's other towns. Didn't he have a bar? But he had an interest in a bar in one point. So he did, but he didn't, after 1965, when Feffer stopped booking him in out places, like he was the world champion in Boston in 1964. Jaggy Fargo and Chicago whatever. The reason why he never went anywhere else and stayed in the Memphis Territory was because

he had branched out with those businesses and it was doing okay. But then when Jerry Jarrett got power and the book in Memphis from Roy Welch, Jared remembered the Fargoes as the biggest attraction in the territory's history from his youth and recreated Jackie Fargo as the icon and started pushing him again. And that led to the early 70s run where he had the first Memphis Coliseum sellout with Al Green. And he was the top guy that passed the torch to Jerry Lawler in 74 and drew those mega houses because Jarrett revamped him. At that point, he was so over.

The point I'm making is he never went anywhere else. He never worked any other territory after the mid-60s. He didn't have to. And then when he semi-retired, he moved back to China Grove, North Carolina, which is outside of Charlotte. That's where he was born, that part of North Carolina. And he opened up his place of business, which, as I understand, you could obtain a cocktail. But if you knew the right information and you were allowed inside the circle of trust, then you could go in the back and you could bet on any goddamn sporting event or anything in the world.

And if we tried to get him, like for the Louisville Garden shows, the last dance or any kind of personal appearance in Memphis at one of Randy Hales big shows or whatever, it was harder when it was like football season and it was the finals or whatever. He didn't want to leave to go make money in wrestling because he was making too much money at his place of business.

but a lot of people that, Jackie Fargo is like, well, where else did he work? He didn't have to. For 15 years until the Memphis territory folded up, they would bring him back every once in a while as a special attraction and pay more money than anybody else on a card made just to be there.

Andy was running his business in China Grove. Makes you wonder what Buddy Rogers would think he walked in there and heard him like, who the fuck's this guy calling everybody Pally? Who's this guy? Exactly. Jackie and Don Fargo were a tag team version of Nature Boy Buddy Rogers because not only were they managed and hand a spoon fed for all that time by Jack Feffer, who, as we now know, kind of created a lot of the Nature Boy stuff, they've gotten a business at the time where he

was on top. it was like people imitating Flair or Michaels or whoever they imitate today for better or worse. And so you had a, that's why they were so hot. And they worked as World Tag Team champions everywhere south of Indiana for like three or four years because they were twin nature boys with the strut, the hair, the heel work, the bumps, the whole nine yards. You know, it's interesting. I never thought about it before, but it would be a cool study of someone looked at the rise of the bleach blonde in wrestling.

Because obviously it is gorgeous George. Buddy Rogers is wrestling at the same time, although he wasn't gorgeous George in terms of fame. In terms of influence on other wrestlers, he could be argued. But all of a sudden, you know, look at the 60s. You have Ray Stevens, you have Buddy Austin, just all these people with blonde hair. Well, it multiplied as kind of, you know, exponentially. Gorgeous George was what he was. And there was, there were people that obviously imitated that gimmick.

It even took the name Gorgeous George. But bleach blonde was only part of that. Whereas the bleach blonde of Buddy Rogers, created then the imitators that not only wanted to cash in on what was working of what was drawing, but everybody in the business, they didn't look up to Buddy Rogers maybe as a person always, but he was the fucking guy in the ring. He was Sean Michaels without a drug problem. So then you got the Fargoes and the Grams that were the, everywhere Rogers, went, they would try to replicate that success.

So Rogers was big in the Northeast. Well, the Grams, there's a tag team or the Fargoes, there's a tag team. They're Bleach Blonde. Ray Stevens, who Idle, came from Ohio and was influenced and trained by Rogers and Al Haft and etc. That was his tribute to Rogers. And then he became the guy in the 60s. That Flair, even though Flair loved, you know, Dusty's personality and this guy and that guy, the ring was Ray Stevens.

The upside down bump, the begging off, the fucking, just the whole thing. So Rogers, and he may not have even been to first, but he was the guy that everybody afterwards, well, if I do this, I'm going to be like Rogers was. And that's, you still see that today with different people. Well, this has been our talk about if Jackie Fargo was a thug And Jim, from there, what a beautiful time to transition to

WWE. Let's go to this which we recorded earlier our review of W.W.E. Saturday night's main event. All right. The fun continues. Yeah. With another Saturday night's main event, one thing you could say about this Saturday night's main event

from Madison Square Garden. we gave Peacock slightly more than they did last time, although I don't know. I'm not sure about how they ended this thing, and I'm not sure if I like wrestling, actually, the more I think about it. Well, yeah, it's, and they're doing the Tony Khan thing. They added to the stipulation the night before on Smackdown.

We should preface the Saturday night's main event by saying that they shot a deal on Smackdown the night before, to make it where, well, if Gunther and Sammy win, then it's going to be a four-way match at SummerSlam. Because I think they realized there was no intrigue, really, going into this thing. So they try to do that. They're doing Cody and Punk a rush job

because it's only, you know, less than two weeks away now. So it's just, it's sudden, it's abrupt, and they're cutting us. SummerSlam ticket prices and they still haven't got half a house. And I think maybe this has something to do with it. Do you think that it's sudden and abrupt and they're making shit up as they go along? And I think it's a valid argument right now without knowing anything, have you thought to yourself, you know, I feel like they're booking for their unreal show.

That seems like it makes more sense than I think like they're booking to sell tickets. to a stadium show. Well, it's unreal the amount of people that they're going to have at a big event like this if they don't, you know, I mean, there's always papering, but that'll get out, won't it? One would think.

It has to. That people would hear about it. I mean, there's no way to paper the amount of tickets they'd have to paper and not have that become a big story. And that's not the kind of story they want. They'd rather sell those tickets for $5. and say they sold them.

I did something nice for families, then have word get out that TKO can't sell tickets to their major. For some reason, two nights. That was a thing for a while. Things were hot. Two nights worked. Four matches on a show. Wow, that's hot.

It works. Now it just feels like you're overpaying for less, less of everything, and more advertising on everything, and it could be one night. The first Wembley Stadium worked. the first David Von Erick Memorial Show worked. A lot of firsts worked. It doesn't mean they're going to work all the time.

But as I said on SmackDown, they did a deal with Cody and Gunther. Pierce was there filling in for Nick Aldous, who Gunther had attacked and throttled the other day. And Gunther came out bitching, and then Pierce came out and made that stipulation for the tag match. And then Cody came out and got a fight with Gunther, and they said, okay, that's our main event tonight. Gunther and Cody, okay, it's better than what else we usually get on Smackdown,

so I'll look for that. And then the rest of the show, my God, was Finn Baller against the Big Tongan and the girls' matches that are leading up to crowning a interim champion and a five-way ladder match at SummerSlam because Ria Ripley's knee is bad. What the f... In the past, in the past, for the major men's world title, they have not created an interim champion. So where did this come from?

You know, give the little guy some credit. For everything we hate about Tony Kahn's booking, he is influential. And obviously, WWE has just accepted a lot of the norms of AEW. I don't know. I mean, obviously, UFC did it, most notably, and then AEW started doing it. And in The Simpsons did it. Well, it didn't seem like there's a reason at times. Like, just crown a new champion.

And then have the other champion come back and say, I'm still the champion. I never lost. I don't know why you need an interim champion. Yeah. I also don't know why I'm supposed to. care about some of this stuff. And then we saw the Vikings against Axiom and that Frazier fellow. And then we get to the meat of the matter.

And Smackdown's only two hours now. That means they've shortened up the main event match. So punk was trying to talk Cody out of doing the match because why fuck up their match at SummerSlam potentially make it a four way. But Cody wanted to get even with Gunther. so punk said, well, I'll be out there watching your back. And Cody said, yes, sit right down here at the monitor and watch the match. Now, I'll be out there.

I'll see you out there. So Punk and Cody are doing a good job of what I said. Somebody needed to do last week, I think it was, is say or do something in all good faith that shouldn't be an inflammatory thing, but it doesn't. work out that way and the other guy gets a little pissed. So at least we got a little heat going into the end of the match. And that's kind of what they started doing here with the verbal. And then here's the problem with Cody and Goethe. There is a great match, what we saw of it. Cody jumped him in the aisleway and it had urgency and aggression and it was called for here.

It's a grudge match. And they went around ringside and into the ring and boom, boom, boom. they were to break in 90 seconds. When they came back, they only had nine minutes left on the air. Gunther got some heat. Cody made a little comeback, hit a cutter, went for a crossroads, Gunther foiled it,

started working on Cody's leg, and punk's music play, for him to come out and goddamn just watch and cheerily. And then we went to break again. after four more minutes by the time we got back there was three minutes left on the air and cody made a come back again got a figure four on gunther sammy appeared and jumped punk on the floor knocked him over the desk cody dove on sammy sammy posted cody got a disqualification and then punk saved cody from being power bombed on the desk and they had a big four-way pull apart.

And that was it for Smackdown. But we got that. Now we go to Saturday Night's main event. They said, Brian, that they had 15,000 fans there. Did they not have 90-something hundred tickets sold like a couple days before? It was around 10,000, I think, somewhere in there. So I don't know exactly. I didn't check the final number from Russell Ticks.

I'll see what we have. but Madison Square Garden, Saturday night's main event, should be a big deal. You would think they should be able to sell some tickets. Well, for the weakest lineup, somebody else was saying this, not just in Saturday night main event history, but in the history of Madison Square Garden,

is this the weakest lineup ever with what they advertised? It was a two-hour show with the folder all. And even back in my day, the garden show would go as a house show would go three hours. So what... And by the way, I have the Russellticks final numbers here. Tickets distributed, according to Russellticks, 15,369. They announced 15,361, so it's discrepancy of eight.

And the last time they were there, for Raw, March 30th, they did 17,9606. but we don't know how many of the 15,000 were sold. Because what did it, does it say what they did in the final week? I do not have that here. I do not have that here. Sponsors maybe a little paper. They're used to that up there, but they even did a cold hope, cold, cold, cold, they were hoping a cold open a cold open with MSG,

history and Bruno and et cetera. And that's where you could see eight matches and all the stars in the company for $6. And they did the video of the Madison Square Garden being the most famous arena in the world with all the sports history, Ali and everything. And at the same time, they've got Danhausen on a card and a featured match. They were trying to polish a turd or pick it up by the clean end, whichever one you've rather have. It's a show in Madison Square Garden,

but there's nothing to the fucking show. So they're trying to make the location a big deal. Yeah, you know, it's the same building. It's the garden, the home of WWE, as they said, but it's not the same in so many ways. I just saw a clip the other day. It goes around every few years. It's so awesome.

It's from a show when Billy Graham was champion at the garden, shows that sold out every month. Yeah. And in the contemporary match rating sense, I don't know if any match was three stars, you know? But those fans had the greatest time and were so into everything. And it's Ivan Putzky and Billy Graham running into each other. Yeah. And Putsky doesn't budge and the place pops each time.

And then he hits him with a Polish hammer. And Billy Graham takes this bump head over heels into the ropes. and the place explodes. I mean, people are jumping, people are punching the air. There's a buzz, and that was the garden. It was a working class wrestling audience that loved wrestling. It's a different crowd. It's a different product.

It's a different building. I mean, it's the same building, but it's a different building. It's like when they rebuilt Yankee Stadium. It's the same surroundings, but the whole inside is different at this point. Yeah. Yeah, this was a... a unique show. I went to a lot of shows at the garden where eight matches, like you said, eight matches, at least seven, eight matches, and

a lot of guys, and these fans are getting trained to accept a whole lot less. Well, speaking of a lot less, Joe Tessitori and Stephanie McMahon were up in the crow's nest, because Jesse's, you know, persona non-grat anymore. When Stephanie's not a heel, she's not any good. she's not a straight announcer, she's not overly likable on camera in any way. And the only reason she's there is because of her last name. She's a horrible voice.

She's a horrible, horrible voice when she's trying to pitch stuff or get the crowd to react to things, like the way she will be like, almost like her dad, and that's where she gets it from. And that's why her voice is falling apart. Yes. But the heel, as a heel it works. everything about her is annoying

anyhow so they got her perched up there but they got Cole and Barrett on commentary did you watch Fatal Influence versus Bree Bella and Paige because somehow I turned around and when I turned back it was gone

I did I did watch this match I figured there'll be a title change so I wanted to see it it wasn't very good the one member of fatal influence that looks like Anna Jay I think she's the one Henley because obviously someone there's a big Eagles fan

she ain't bad I just I don't like the whole from the moment they come out there just the over the top fakery of the ghastly one J.C. Jane in the middle like she's the center of attention and I don't I don't buy any of this I don't like any of this the crowd doesn't really seem to care at times

and you don't like any of it except for the people who look like Anna J. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that looks right. No, I mean, just it wasn't, you're only going to have so much of a match, no matter who you are. I don't know what Rick Flair could have done with Bree Bella and, and what's her name, Soraya Page, you know,

and it was a skippable match to start the show. Well, let's get to the good stuff. Because Dan Housen was on the show, Dan Housin got to wrestle in Madison Square Garden, there are fans that used to keep lists of famous wrestlers that never appeared in Madison Square Garden. And it used to be something you would shoot for and you dream of or whatever.

I'm not knocking Dan Housen as a person, but my God, my God. And here's the thing with AEW and WW, WWE now. It's like if the only two movie studios in the world were a porn company and Walt Disney Productions, you

get fake hardcore shit and bad taste or fake silliness to make everybody laugh. But nothing in between. And I mean, this was as embarrassing as

anything Tony's done. Danhausen's over, but we give leeway for that, but at some point there's only so much leeway you can give when they've got this level of just bullshit, just bullshit. The car and the blimp and I mean, J.D. looks like Luger next to Danhausen. And he beat him up through most of the match, but then they're doing a bit with a Knicks jersey. and Dan Housen hoped up and Dominic came in because now did they announce it was no DQ ahead of time or did they just figure, oh, fuck, we got to do something?

I did not because, I don't know. Well, Dominic came in and that's when he announced, oh, it's no disqualification. And then they're beating him up two on one. And the fans are kind of sitting there puzzled because they like to laugh at the silly shit, but they don't really care when Danhausen's getting beaten up. And it's not like poor JD is the hottest heel in the company. But then when the heels went to get the table from under the ring, Danhausen crawled out and left.

And the many Danhausen showed up. And then they beat up the heels and then the heels beat them up. But while this is going on, Danhausen has put a fucking cat, the fake cat in the cloning machine. And as the heels are going to put the mini through the table, the cloning box opens. And I'm writing this in real time. I said, it's a big black guy.

Because who the fuck is this? And then the announcer say, well, that's so-and-so from the New York Knicks. Who was it? It was Carl Anthony Towns from the world champion New York Knicks. Okay, well, is he known on site by every citizen in America? No, he's probably known on site by a lot of people in New York, especially people at the garden. There, yes.

The rest of America, that was a question I was asking myself as well. He's not Dennis Rodman or Carl Malone level in terms of fame. And I barely knew who the fuck they were at that time, 30 years ago or whatever. And he chokeslam both the heels. And then Danhausen hit his finish on JD123. This made AEW look like it was booked by Roy Shire. I've got to be fair.

We said at the start of this thing in short spurts and little skits and whatever, you know, and he's selling merch and he's just a nice fellow. But God damn it, this few matches on. on the show, two of them girls' matches to begin with, and you give this to Madison Square Garden on a worldwide televised special. He sells a lot

of merch, but I've been getting worried. The last few segments, I've seen him in on Smackdown, where he had the Miz and the other guy hooked up to some sort of machine where they were being electrocated in the you know, Abdulah the butcher style, electrocution in the fucking hall of having that. Just...

Old Sparky! Yeah, bullshit electrocution, so they say... It's bad comedy. It's bad comedy, and WWE has a history of that, and I like Danhausen. But in the middle of the wrestling show, that's what it is. And I would be okay with that stuff. And this match, and everything in this match,

being on a special weekly half-hour show, Danhausen wrestles, all about this crazy character, kind of like when Herman Munster wrestled. No, that one time. Or House of Danhausen. And he could wrestle and do other things also. on the little show. Whatever.

But the women's tag match I personally don't give a shit about. And then it's this and this was a comedy match. I mean, this was, you know, other than the budget and the stars, this is the kind of match you'd see

on a fucking carnival show or something. But in 15 minutes, there weren't that many laughs. It just went on and on. They felt like they had to turn it into, I hate to say this, a real match. One of the other thing is, to me at least,

and I'm a Knicks fan, but it felt like it was for the local crowd appealing to the local crowd a whole lot more than it would a national crowd in terms of getting the Knicks who are all over this fucking show. Multiple members of the starting roster were on this show.

But, yeah, I don't like this stuff. And then people, you know, say, like, oh, you guys just don't like to laugh. I do. And Dan Housen may be funny in another context, in another place on another show. show, but this is a wrestling show at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden.

I mean, at least he didn't light fireworks up his ass this time, but there's a cloning machine. And there's a dwarfs running around just like Dan Howell, just the whole thing, what the fuck? There is no justification, like you said. Very nice guy, very happy for what he is, but this is Orange Cassidy Unleashed. Yeah. When I worked with the Ninja Turtle, it was an obvious human.

being, which was Brian Hildebrand, he was to be quite honest, a better worker than Dan hausen. And I did it at the Talley Ward Rec Center in Morristown for the summer spectacular in front of 500 people. This was broadcast around the world. Those fans knew it wasn't a real Ninja Turtles. There's no way Donatello's coming to Morristown. That's true.

We couldn't afford him. So anyhow, then, what did you think of Bailey and Lyric? Because I turned my head and when I turned back, they were gone. It was hard hitting. There's a couple of people. The women's matches. It probably was hard watching too. No, two different women's matches.

A girl got busted open in the mouth. It looks like Lyra got hit in the nose, I think. Bailey just, there's a shot. You could go back and see it. Maybe someone will send you that clip. If they just knocked her in the nose, it looked pretty stiff. It was okay. I'm not into Lyra of Alchuria.

and yeah yeah i mean there's a lot of stuff that doesn't feel like main event not it doesn't have to be main event just main interest kind of stuff i think this is three matches give us something to like all righty then well let's get to our big main event which apparently was not the main event in their eyes because it wasn't the last thing let's put it that way but the tag match, punk and Cody, teaming up before SummerSlam where they got to put the title on the line

and against Sammy and Gunther and all these guys can work and everybody's over in their various position and if you were going to watch this show, you would watch it for this. So again, as I said before, they're trying to do little things to for Cody and Punk to wear on each other's nerves.

And then when they did the interview, they're there together, Cody's saying they're going to coexist. Was it awkward that nobody, apparently you're shot on sight if you glance at the camera. Did you notice this? There's an interviewer and two guys backstage with no live audience around them and they're on television

and they cannot look at the camera. I hate that. Haven't they thrown that out with Vince? No, they've been doing it more and more on this show. On WW show, not just Saturday Night's main event, but they've been doing it more and more AEW. Has AEW ever done it more than they are right now? The backstage stuff with Osprey and Omega and Moxley?

No one pays attention to the cameraman. We're, I guess, just not supposed to wonder how this is being filmed. If you go back to any vintage video and you see a promo that really struck you that like, wow, this guy's cooking, he's great. He's looking at the fucking camera. He's looking to people in the eye. He's looking at his opponent in the eye.

He's telling people directly what he's going to fucking do. This is some phony jibber-jabber, wishy-washy bullshit that they need to get rid of. it was a Vince thing along with bad fart jokes and all the other Vince things and it's stupid anyway they were they basically asked the question who goes out first and punk said hey i said i go out with you but the champ goes second you know it's the little things so Cody went out first and got the big woe and etc and then Like a musselaity in MSG, he comes walking down to me. I don't know. And he got a big, it's clobbering time. I think they still like to sing for Cody and they're chanting for Cody, blah, blah, blah.

But especially like with a New York audience, you can tell punk is kind of favorite. and then Gunther and Sammy. Gunther's a straight heel. Sammy, they like to, whoa, and all that stuff. But he's been kind of prickly, but he and Gunther don't like each other. So we got a match. And I like this match. And they must have realized, my God, the rest of this show just sucks.

It's just goddamn wrestling equivalent of Xanax. and they didn't stop and settle down. They kept it moving. And the work looked good, the action was good. Somebody busted punk's nose open, so apparently the fucking shit was getting laid in. They got to heat on punk first and then gave Cody the tag.

And it got to heat on Cody and gave Punk a tag. But the thing is, the way that they were moving, moving so quickly and the tags weren't particularly set up to be red hot. So it just, it kind of kept going. So the pace was nice, but you didn't really get the boom on the big comebacks until finally they did a deal where Sammy hit his kink on punk. Sammy hit his kick on punk or possibly later on he hit him with a kink. hit his kink on punk, you started tickling his ass.

Yes, the flying tank tickle. Sammy hit his kick on punk and then Cody hit the crossroads on Sammy, but Gunther closed line Cody, but punk hit the go to sleep on Gunther and everybody was down. And that's when the fans went. This is awesome. And bear in mind, again, no furniture, not on the floor for minutes.

There's no thumbtacks in. involved. They're at least trying to give the people a goddamn wrestling match, the only main one of the night for their money. And then finally, when they were all four down, Gunther went for the tag, but Cody was not there when Punk went for the tag. Or Gunther got the tag there. He was up on the apron ready for the tag from Sammy, but Cody wasn't there yet. And Punk just, Cody, Cody! Cody! And as Cody's running up there, Gunther ran punk into Cody and got to sleeper on Punk. But Cody jumped back up and tagged in.

Boom, boom, boom. Cody hits a finish on Gunther and gets a two count, but Sammy saves by just pushing everybody over and they landed on the referee. And here's where they lost me. because it was a good finish except for this part. The referee got flattened by guys falling on him as they're making a say. Why did he roll out 15 feet out of a 15 feet from where he was to roll out of the rig and on the floor? That's a good question. And then lay there for the next two to three minutes.

That's where they lost. Because they couldn't come up with a better way to do it. Well, somebody should have goddamn hit the guy with an IED. They could have got it from Darby Allen, and then he could have been down for three minutes. But anyway, when the referee rolled out, Sammy got on Punk and then Cody, but Punk hit the go to sleep on Sammy,

and Sammy went to the floor. And then Cody and Punk were double team in Gunther. And Punk held Gunther for the big Cody Cutter, but Gunther moved out of the way, and Cody blasted. Puck and laid him out. And then Gunther got the title belt and knocked Cody out and tossed the belt out, power bombed Cody and covered him.

Here comes referee number two. The people are thinking, well, we're getting fucked here. One, two, Nick Aldous pulls the referee out on the floor, breaks up the count. And as Gunther is yelling at him about, he grabs a title belt, waxed Gunther in the head. and then punk gave punk punk punk gave goetheur i get so excited punk gave go to sleep and put cody on top

and aldous threw referee number one in one two three it was a good match and it was a nice finish except for referee number one getting minorly squished and then rolling 15 feet and laying there for five minutes but nevertheless. So they replayed everything and then they come back to the ring and Cody hands the belt to punk

and they hug and they put their hands up and then as they're standing next to each other punk goes to toss the belt over his shoulder like folks do and the flap hit Cody in the fucking face. It was perfect. I've never seen that happen before.

That was great. And that, the timing on that is not the easiest thing in the world because it just, it didn't hit him where he would like go down or say. It hit him right in the cheek and the eye with the little flap of it where he's like holding his eye like motherfucker. And punk didn't notice and just walked out. So that, again, the little things, little heat. But that was the main event.

And I thought, my God, they've got 25, 30 minutes left in this fucking show. What in the world? And then I realized, but before we get to that, your comments on the tag match. I thought the tag match was really good. You know, I get a little worried when you have a match like this. I was worried because I desperately did not want this to become a four-way. That was my worst nightmare a few weeks ago, the idea they would do a four-way main event at SummerSlam. But you've seen the ultimate warrior team up with Hogan. Like, we've seen like, you know, the two baby faces team up where they can't get along or

They just are bumping into each other. Yeah. They did it here, but they didn't overdo it. It was kind of the right amount. If it had gone a little more, it would have been silly. But they did it here. The belt thing at the end was a great touch. That was a great.

Cody's reaction to that was a great touch. Yeah. Nick Aldous. What do you think they're going to do at Nick Aldus post-Summer Slam? Because, you know, it's interesting. The way they're using him right now. now with Gunther, who's a main eventer, who's one of the top guys in the company, world champion.

What do you think about what they're doing? And is it, do you, do you think still that it's just he's going to go right back to being a GM? I hope so. Because here's the thing, that's kind of a longer term gig for him at this point. He's 39, same age as Jack Benny. He's still obviously in great shape. But I don't know if they're going to just.

suddenly, now that we know he can wrestle, like we haven't been able to figure that out from the look of him, that, okay, now he's on the roster. I don't, I think it's, a lot of people are pissed. What are they doing to Gunther? He retired all these people and now he's working with, this is a personal issue, ladies gentlemen, and personal issues draw money.

and I want to see Gunther and Nick Aldus after that angle they shot more than I want to see Gunther wrestle somebody else that he's either already wrestled or could wrestle every week. This is the definition of a special event. The fucking former wrestler is pushed to the breaking point, comes back and has a fight with a guy that fucking stabbed him in the back or whatever. and if they make an exemption for him to do that and he has the fight

and they do a package before the match at SummerSlam that indicates the level that Aldus has been on previously in his earlier years and his wrestling career and they do 10 or 12 minutes but Gunther finally beats him because he's just a younger, stronger, more current competitor, but all this goes out like a man and it might lead to something with some other baby face

but it's a personal issue it's a grudge match there's more to that than there is to just Gunther against another fucking guy we see that all the time I don't know what everybody's pissed about I'm surprised I didn't know too many people were pissed this is the first I'm hearing that there's been that kind of reaction

I just haven't seen that well I mean I see on Twitter that everybody well, why wouldn't they put him against somebody this or that? Or he's been in the world title picture. And now he's just wrestling the GM? Yeah. Because it's more interesting, because it's different. And also, they're going to be serious about it.

Because Aldus wasn't exactly a jolly joker in the ring. And Gunther is, as we've mentioned, probably now, the world's most perfect wrestler. So I'd rather see that. Do you think they should do something? I don't know where they would get footage. Maybe TNA and WA. I don't know if they have a working relationship with WWE,

but should they get some Aldous footage together? Yes. Because they have never, have we ever seen any footage of him wrestling ever on WWE TV? No. And that's why it will be different. And that's also why if they, if he's wrestled Walter in the past,

they might come up with something like that. But I don't care what kind of relationship they have with the NWA, you think if on a major fucking pay-per-view that's got a budget that they can afford to get a little footage and Billy Corgan is going to turn down the opportunity to say, well, this guy used to be my world champion. Now, look, he's a big time star on Smackdown

and here's how good he was. I think it could be worked out for fuck's sake. Well, we'll see what happens at SummerSlam, but Jim, that main event was a heck of a main event. one thing missing from it is the same thing you'd never want missing from your kitchen or your grill. And that, of course, is a good pan. But whether you're indoors in your kitchen or outdoors at your grill, there are great products abound from our good friends at Hexclad.

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All right, Jim, well, let's get out of the frying pan and back into the boredom. WW Saturday night's main event. There was still one more thing, I guess technically, the main event of the evening. Yeah, and boy, talk about out of the frying pan, not into the fire. there was no heat in the garden.

They didn't have to worry about rushing Koloff or Stajak out before they started a riot in this one. So we still had all that time in a show. And I, after the last match, I'd forgotten that there was supposed to be something else. But there's an acknowledgement ceremony. Roman Raines and the other guy, who's a Jalen Brunson? That's right. Had to check the notes. That's right.

So after the last tag match, they did the SummerSlam plugs, they did Fanatics Fest, they did the commercial break, they blah, blah, blah. Then they had another video narrated, according to the graphics, by Eli Manning. He's a football player up there, right? Yeah, was. Is, was, will be whatever the point is. He's talking about all the great New York City sports heroes. Ali and Frazier and the fucking Knicks and the Mets and the Yankees and all the things.

I like history. That's very cool to see Babe Ruth and all the clips and everything, but I don't know pretty much anything about football, baseball, or hockey, and very little about basketball. And I'm watching a fucking wrestling show where there's been very little wrestling. And the video was to put this Jalen Brunson over. Come on, Brian, even if he's a star in New York right now, is he equivalent to Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, the other people that you saw in these videos.

I've never heard his name before. He's a contemporary New York sports icon, potentially, you know, future legend, based on him getting the Knicks to the championship for the first time in years. He's a big star in New York. Again, I don't know how that translates. Well, you think the people in Cleveland and Denver and Seattle think? If they're basketball fans, I don't know if it makes them, I mean, it was a weird dynamic because it made Roman Raines just a massive baby face here too, but that's a whole other thing.

He's not necessarily the most charismatic guy. He's a big wrestling fan, so he gets to do this, and he's played ball with them before. quite literally, like on his podcast too. I was about to say, you're not talking about basketball, you're talking about playing ball. Yeah, but this again seemed like a nice enough thing for a local New York crowd. It seemed like something where if I was a wrestling fan anywhere else,

even if I was into sports, even if I was into basketball, I would say why this is getting a lot of time and doesn't really seem to be going anywhere and why are they doing this? Well, speaking of time, after the video, they introduced him and he got up in the locker room. At least they've redone the locker rooms because I could recognize Madison Square Garden locker rooms

miles away and they've actually put a coat of paint on and brought some new furnishings in, it looks like. But he walked out from the locker room and they're showing highlights of him playing basketball while he's doing the long walk. And I wrote, is everybody, not from New York City done with this show. And he walks through the back for three minutes

until he sees Roman Raines. And then they start out to the ring, stopping to pose for Pyro, the fingers up. It took them four minutes from there to get to the ring. And then another minute after the music came down for the milking and the singing and chanting. And in Roman, eight minutes after this guy's stood up and started coming to the ring, Roman finally spoke.

What are we doing here right now? That's what I'd like to know. This is where greatness acknowledges greatness. And he was a complete baby face. New York's the home to the WWE and you make me feel at home here too. And 53 years was way too long to wait for the NBA title or whatever, but there's only one tribal chief. and there's only one

MVP of the finals that he put Jalen Brunson over and they started chanting shit that I couldn't figure out because it's New York and they do these things there. I think they were training MVP. Well, no, he don't work there anymore.

Well, no, for Jalen Brunson, he was the championship MVP. Okay, I thought they just piped it in from the last time that MVP worked there. Anyway, he gave a belt custom-made bell to Jalen Brunson and the fans chanted,

you deserve it. And I wrote, this is killing me. And in Roman Rain says, so now, acknowledge us. 13 minutes to get to acknowledge us. And in Seth's music plays,

but it's not Seth. It's, and I swear, I've heard this guy's name and I'll tell you why in a minute I remember it. Tyrese Halliburton. He's a heel apparently in New York because he's with Indiana, right? That's what they said.

He's with the Pacers. Every time I hear Tyrese Halliburton, it tickles me because the Halliburton suitcase, those big metal, durable, indestructible fucking suitcases were what the standard of status was or whatever in the 80s. If you got into business, if you were carrying around. one of those Halliburton's, that was like a goddamn big deal. You spent some money, you're a star, right? I've never seen this guy play basketball,

but that didn't stop him with Jalen Brunson. So he comes out to Seth's music carrying a chair, and I'm like, what is going on? And the fucking announcers have to say, oh, well, when he played for Indiana, he did this and they don't like him here, whatever. because again, even if you're in New York, if you're in Madison Square Garden

and Tyrese Halliburton comes out to Seth Rollins' music and he's dressed in street clothes, do you know who this motherfucker is on site? If you're a Knicks fan, yes. Well, anyway, so while that was going on, Seth came into the ring from behind on Roman and leveled him and got to chair from Tyrese

and yelled at Brunson and super kicked Roman and I'm thinking, well, they're burying this fucking Jalen Brunson because he's standing there with his phony fucking belt watching his friend that just put him over gets shit kicked out of him and just glaring. And then as Seth goes back for the stomp, Brunson just walks over in front of him without there was no emoting to this. There was no, how dare you, don't dare you do that.

There was just, he's just standing there. Am I exaggerating? No, not at all. And I know that they've got some kind of clause that the NBA players can't get physical because they did, they do it with the NFL players. That was the thing with T&A with that. fucking goof they brought in that they couldn't even have a match with him. But it doesn't mean you can't yell and point your finger.

So as Brunson just stands there, he's waiting for a bus in front of Roman, so Roman can't be stopped, Seth argues with him, and Roman comes from behind the basketball guy with a Superman punch and then Spears Seth. And Seth and Tyrese roll out and get to fuck out. while Tyrese is laughing. So apparently he wasn't too

insulted by Seth getting the shit kicked out of him. And Roman Reigns and Jalen Brunson are standing there. And this thing took 20 fucking minutes. And I'm sure that the TKO bigwigs think it's a big deal and they got their ESPN moment and associated with more superstars,

but if you're a goddamn wrestling fan, I don't know if in the days of the Kentucky colonels, if the wrestling crowd on Tuesday night at the gardens would have wanted to see 20 minutes of artist Gilmore just coming in as fucking standing there. But that's just me. Well, another exciting WWE night of action was one match.

It was a one match show, and all you had to watch was that one match and you got everything you needed. Nothing else really led to anything. that matters. I guess we have new women's tag champions that could lead to them wrestling someone else.

Danhausen's thing didn't matter. It was just a silly segment for the home crowd. Bailey and Lyra, I don't care. It's a tag match. Main eventers on SummerSlam, the Nick Aldous angle, that mattered. And then this Roman brunts a thing.

Roman is so... When Roman's on and it's a summer, something that's hitting, he's good, and when it's not, he is the fakesest speaker in wrestling. You don't believe a... Other than Michael Cole, who was atrocious on this entire fucking show. But when it's not working, you can kind of tell that, you know, he's just doing that, whereas when it's working, everybody's caught up in it. Well, that was Saturday night's main event, another big, another big wonderful show from

W. Jim, before we move completely on and travel through time and all that stuff, how about a quick preview of this weekend as we are recordings, AEW pay-per-view, AEW redemption. Oh, good Lord. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the Bell Center.

Big card, big night of action. I forgot about that. Yeah. Well, reminder time. Let's see what you think of this card. For the AEWTBA. championship, the champion Hikaru Shita versus Maya World.

And welcome to her. I'm just telling you right now, there's not a goddamn chance in hell. I'd watch this at gunpoint. Just tell them, just tell them to shoot me. I don't blame you, Shita sucks. Jim, any prediction? You ever prediction for the match? Yeah, I predict.

I ain't going to watch it. Well, who do you predict will win? Oh, Shida will win. All right, I'm going to go with Maya World. It's her time. Jim, the Death Riders. Time this month or time in general? Jim, the Death Riders, John Moxley and Will Osprey

versus the Young Bucks, Matt and Nick Jackson. Are you ribbon? That's a pretty big match for AEW. Yes, but it's so fucking goofy. Why are you putting your fucking big hero baby face? in a tag match with a goddamn heel that it's not going to be the match at SummerSlam like Cody and punk or whatever.

And this whole thing has been wasted and Osprey looks like a goddamn little jackoff following behind a drunk plumber. So... Any prediction? I mean, you know, you can't beat Osprey. Moxley don't like that.

to get beat, so you think, is this one where the buckaroos are going to lay down for one of their friends, because they get millions and don't care, they don't have to draw? And we're kind of led to believe that the bucks will be getting a tag title shot maybe at Wembley, so if they were, why would they lose this? A lot of questions, hard to predict this match. But speaking of tag team matches and tag team championships, the champions, Cage and Cope versus the Death Riders, Claudio Castignoli and Pac.

Well, it'll be a better match than Edge and Christian against the dogs, the puppies, whatever. I don't think Edge and Christian should lose here, but that's just, you know, that's just me. I'm not a big Death Riders fan, but I'm not going to complain because I'm happy that Tony did not put Wheeler, Yuta, or Daniel Garcia in one of these matches. Jim for the international championship, the champion Kyle Fletcher versus Bandito. Oh, good Lord. Let's see how many different ways that Kyle can fucking assume the butt-fuck position,

been over, holding on to the middle rope, standing stock still, waiting for this goof to fucking flip over his back and suplexing. That is the stupidest move I've ever seen. Jim, serious question, and it's a hard one to actually come up on an answer, but serious question, serious answer. In the final four minutes of the match, how many kickouts do you think they'll be? Oh, good.

Do we know numbers that high? I'm going to say, I'm going to say 32. 32. Is that a serious number? I was going to say plus or minus eight. Oh, geez, cry. It's going to be at least 12 or 14, realistic. Let's see. This could be a fun future game for these, where we predict how many kickouts there will be.

There's no kicking out of this next one, Jim. No holds barred. As opposed to every other fucking match. No viewer spared. The pain maker, Chris Jericho versus Tomaso Champa. We didn't talk about that to return to the pain maker. Yes. The paintmaker, because he paints his face.

If Jericho was 10 years younger, I think Tomaso was a great talent. I would actually be looking forward to the match. But it's going to be Jericho's goofiness, the painted face. Poor Tomaso, if he was going to mean something, he would have at the start when they brought him in and put the title on him or a title on him, until they fucked that up and took it off of him. And now he's just there and probably Jericho's working with him because he's one of the most accomplished guys in the ring,

and Jericho figures he's not going to hurt him. Has the Jericho feud helped Tomaso Champa, or hurt Tomaso Champa? With these people who can tell, I was excited to see their match on television until I realized it was going to be a garbage match a couple weeks ago. But no holes barred, they just had one. What holes were barred in that fucking TV match they had all of a sudden?

you know, did they take out the crotch-locked leg strangler? Whatever, I don't know. Jericho's on a tour where he's trying to show the youngans that he's going to help him out, so I bet you he puts Tomaso. All right, we'll see what happens there. Of course, that last match was Jericho. This one's the pain maker.

You smear on some makeup and put on a hat. You're a different person. Oh, I forgot, well, he can't have the paintmaker fucking lose. he'll probably beat Port Tomaso. Jim, a few more matches here. For the AEW National Championship, the champion Mark Davis versus Andrade El Edelow.

Good Lord. We know one thing. We're not going to understand many of the fucking interviews. I mean, I don't see what anybody sees in Andre. So, poor Davis, you know, is he trying, he's trying to lose his fucking ass, too. I don't mean that, like in Las Vegas, I mean, I think he's dropping weight. Oh, I thought he meant he's going to fire Don Callis.

No, no, no, I think he's dropping weight. So let's go with Davis. I'm going to go with Andrade winning the championship here. For the women's championship, and if I could ask you to watch one women's match this week, this may be it. Well, that was a big if. The champion, Tecla, versus Willow Nightingale. You know, that might not suck, because Tecla seems to be fun, and Willow is probably the least unprofessional and most appealing girl they got on the roster.

Okay, I'll check that out. Tecla probably is going to win, wouldn't you think? She's newer. Well, we'll see. You would think that she shouldn't lose. Also, Willow's making a big comeback, and I don't know. I would not take the belt off Teclo right now. She's been really good, but we'll see what Tony Connell do. Finally, Jim, the main event for the AEW World Championship, the champion Kenny Omega versus Kevin Knight,

who I believe is the TNT champion. And as we mentioned, this was apparently where they were going to originally have the MJF and Kenny match, where Kenny could win in his home country and the title was redemption. and then they said, oh, fuck it, we're going to do it on TV. So now they've got this for the world title. No, Kevin Knight's not winning the fucking world title.

But having said that, they're going to do it. Talk about a kickout count. They're going to do every false finish and every goddamn move they know, and it's going to go forever. Because Kenny thinks in that manner, that's going to get Kevin Knight over. And he'll be a big money player

because he went 35 minutes with twinkle toes. So, yeah, that's what's going to happen. 35 minutes and Kenny retains. And again, I'd love to do, let's pay attention to how many kickouts are on the last five minutes of the match, but, you know, I wouldn't do this match if I was Tony for one specific reason.

I don't want Kenny Omega wrestling before Wembley. I don't want him getting hurt. I don't want anything going wrong. It's a highly physical kind of style. against Kevin Knight? You know, they're not going to fucking work the mat. You know, those two. So I would not do any kind of high-impact match with him

before the one that matters where you would have to think Osprey's going to win the title. You would have to think Osprey may kick out of the one-winged angel. If there was ever a time to do all these things, that's the time. But again, Tony does his own thing. Who knows? But I wouldn't do this match for that reason. Well, if he does get hurt,

then they can, they can just have Osprey beat fucking Moxley. Because why not? Well, that's where we're going eventually. That's the other big thing is finally when Osprey says he has to overcome Moxley, the man who actually injured him and then retrained them. And there's the Rocky 3, Apollo and Rocky at the very end, right when the camera cuts off.

But, Jim, that's AEW redemption. And we will redeem ourselves right after this short commercial timeout. Okay. Back to the present. Here we are. Nothing says the present like the silent cinema organ. Jim? I wish it was silent.

Hey. I meant the organ played while things are being played, not. Well, whatever organ you play with in the movies as your own business and none of my affair. Jim, we typically review WW RAW on this show. We're not going to do it this week because... No. They produce what some may call a dog shit show.

I mean, if you're interested in watching the Judgment Day, chase Danhausen around the building for a couple hours, and the bloodline drama play out with none of the main eventers and solos a baby... I don't know who's a heel and who's a baby face and why. But no raw review. I thought it was a wonderful show for me to poop on. There you go.

Actually, I was trying to get Buddy and Alfie. I was holding them up and see if they would fucking just poop on the screen while it was happening. But they couldn't get the idea of that the physics don't work that way. Well, Jim, we will now. They poop on everything else. You can tell Jim's in a good mood. He's now quoting Triumph, the Insult. comic dogs

here on the show first. He's in puppy heaven. Jim, an interesting thing that a couple people sent over a few weeks ago

and we never got a chance to look at it. It's from Reddit, which of course is known for balanced,

well-thought-out takes and serious minds. It's an article... Now, Ari, wait a minute, are you impuguing

the discourse that one will encounter and be able to engage with on the website Reddit, sir? It's certainly the looniest of the public forums, I will say that. But that's... No, no, no, no. Why'd you stop? Why'd you stop?

We had a whole thing going. So what did these loony tunes over on Reddit have to say? And they don't even know if it's a play on... I read it. They don't even know how to spell red. Well, I don't know if that's what they're going for here, but this is a, the headline here is,

who is the lineial Smoky Mountain Wrestling Heavyweight Champion? Or in other words, what could be Jim Cornett's worst nightmare? That's the headline. So, have you ever followed the idea of a lineal champion? Do you know what that is? No. Well, yes.

I understand that if somebody actually never lost a championship, but then they went on to do a job for somebody else who did a job who chased a cat that ate the rat and people have fun with that. And I don't have any idea what is contained in this piece, because I haven't seen it, that you're referring to it, you're probably going to let us know, but I'm going to tell you right now that I'm going to take the fucking piss out of it and they don't know how. soon as you fit no as soon as you finish reading it i got a piece of information that they don't fucking know as ronnie van zant once said there's something going on you don't know well of course you don't need the belt to defend the championship right with these rules jerry lawler right right i'm not even talking about i'm talking about the belt but i'm talking about something else too go ahead jerry lawler was the final smoky mountain wrestling heavyweight champion he defeated brad Armstrong for the title in the USWA, December 27th, 1995, and he never defended it.

So we're going to start, according to this, from his first loss after winning it. Tex Slassenger defeated Jerry Lawler on the first... Hold on, these are British dates. Oh, you got to, yeah, you got to read them backwards. On January 3rd, 1996, Jerry Lawler then defeated Texas. Schlesinger. Doug Gilbert defeated Jerry Lawler. And then an interesting change here. And you actually at that show, Doug Gilbert defeated Jerry Lawler, NWA Eddie Gilbert Memorial Brawl in 96. That's Cherry Hill. Yes, but none, just to remind, none of these were

billed as for the Smoggy Mountain Championship. Tarzan Goto defeated Freddie Kruger, who was Doug Gilbert, IWA, Japan, Get the Glory Tour, Grab the Glory Day 3. That's a mouthful. So now we're an IWA Japan, a notorious wrestling company, if there ever was one. Tenru defeated Tarzan Goto

the fifth anniversary war or tenth anniversary of Tenru Revolution event. They gave me the option to pick which thing you wanted to celebrate there. And that was followed by the late great Shinya Hashshu. Tomoto defeating Tenru, New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Climax, 1998, Day 2. We're now in 1998.

Any thoughts on this? And do you accept... Would you accept a legend like Tenru in the Smoky Mountain Wrestling Championship lineage? Well, well, sure, sure. I'm fine, I'm fine so far, because I know it's bound to get ridiculous as we go. Well, of course, Tenru won the belt back from Hashimoto before losing it to Kijimudo. At New Japan Pro Wrestling Strong Energy 99,

he lost it to Tatsumi Fujunami, who lost it to Yuji Nagata, who lost it back to Mudo, who lost it to Manubu Nakanishi, who lost it back to Mudo, who lost it back to Tenru, also won the IWGP title that night, so a big double title match.

Japan. Kansuki Sasaki defeated Tenru. Maso Chono defeated Kansuki Sasaki. Shiro Koshinaka, defeated Masahiro Chono, Juna Janihita, Juna defeated Koshinaka, Chono defeated Harada. Nakanish, Nakanishi, I can't even say it. Nakanishi defeated Shono. Kansuki Sasaki, defeated Nakanishi. Toshiyaki Kawada. Defeated Kensuki Sasaki. Tenru defeated Kawata. Kowada defeated Tenru. Steve Doctor Death Williams.

Defeated Kawada. We are now All Japan Champion Carnival 2001. We've only got three years with that. Kijimudo defeated Steve Williams. Masochono defeated Kijimudo. Satoshi Kojima. Defeated Masahirochono. Osamu Nishimura.

Defeated Kojima. Tenzan. defeated Nishimura, Kijimudo defeated Tenzan, Yuji Nagata defeated Kijimudo, Kensukee Sasaki defeated Yuji Nagata, Rick Steiner, defeated Kensuki Sasaki,

New Japan Pro Wrestling Fighting Spirit 2002, Day One. Let me take a breath for a moment. Any thoughts on this list so far? I'm hanging on every word that you've mispronounced. Yuji Nagata defeated Rick Steiner Yasuda defeated Nagata Nagata defeated Yasuda

Chono defeated Nagata Nagata negata defeated Chono Nakanishi defeated Nagata Nishimura Nishimura Takayama defeated Nishamora Chono defeated Takayama Kenta Kobashi

or Kabashi as we used to call him defeated Masahiro Chono this is New Japan Pro Wrestling Ultimate Crush in 2003. Somebody took, we're only in 2000, somebody took the time to go through just for this piss poor excuse of a fucking mission here to find out, all right, keep going. Well, Jim, picking up where we left off, Takeshi Riccio defeated Kenta Kabashi, Akira Taui defeated Rikio, Junakiyama defeated Tawi, Marafuchi defeated Yunakiyama, Misawa defeated, I mean, give him his full name, Mitsuhara Misawa, defeated Marifugi,

Morishima defeated Misawa, Kensuki Sasaki defeated Morishima, Akitoshi Saito, defeated Kensukee-Saito, defeated Katsuki Sasaki, Morishima defeated Saaito, Saeto defeated Moro-Shieto, defeated Moro-Shiahe Shihanna. Go Shiazaki defeated Saito. Takeshi, Takashi, Takashi, Sigori. Tagashi, fuck, Takashi Sigura, defeated Goshazaki. Yunakiyama defeated Akayama, defeated Akayama. Sigura defeated Takayama. Shazaki defeated Sagura. We're over here now. I'm about to admit defeat. You've defeated me. Well, I'm trying to get anywhere here. We're now in 2011.

Morashima defeated Shazaki. Murdok, Trevor Murdoch, that is, defeated Morashima. So there's a name you know, Trevor Murdoch. Yes, and you pronounced it right. He lost the belt to Junaki Yama, who lost it to Morishima, who lost it to Shiazaki, who lost it to Mikey Nichols, who lost it to Kenta Miyayara, Miyahara, Miyahara is his name. and he's the man who lost it to Shane Haste, who lost it to Kenta.

He lost it in haste? He lost it to Nakajima, that's it. Who lost it to Sikimoto, who lost it to Shane Haste, who lost it to Moro Shimah, who lost it to Nagata, who lost it to Marifugi, who lost it to Kino,

whoever that is. You know, Japan really dropped off a cliff in terms of my end at some point. Marifugi defeated Kino, Minoru Suzuki defeated Marifuchi There's another name you know Minoru Suzuki, one of your favorites

Yes, yes, he's a lovely man He lost it to Marifugi Who lost it to Sigura? Who lost it to Shiazaki? Who lost it to Sagura? Who lost it to Nakajima? Who lost it to Toru Yano? Lance Archer beat Toru Yano

Then, back to Nakajima, Back to Suzuki, back to Nakajima. Eddie Edwards, we're in 2000. Eddie Edwards! It's just... 2017 now. Loud words and names. Kino defeated Eddie Edwards.

Sigura defeated Kino. Shiasaki defeated Sigura. Atushi Katoji defeated Shiazaki. Cody Hall defeated Katochi, or whatever this guy's name is, and that is the son of Scott Hall. Wow. He lost it to Higuchi.

Who lost it to Shiazaki? who lost it to Sasaki who lost it to Harashima who lost it to Shizaki who lost it to Kekeshda Kenosuke to Kestha

So we're already here now So we are now in DDT Pro Wrestling There's a note here Okay Nakamura defeated Takesha not the famous Nakamura A Chinkei, not Shinskei Chinke, who the hell is that?

Oh, good. Is that like Bruno San Martino and Hobo Brazil? Actually, it is. There's a note here. Yes, you've read that right. In what could only be described as a poetic justice, a guy cosplaying and parading Shinska Nakamura held the lineal Smoky Mountain Wrestling Heavyweight title. All right, so not even the real Nakamura. Chinske, who lost it to Kikutaro, who I believe is a comedy performer, who lost it to actually multiple people won it in a match including Yoshihiko

Machi Ito and Danshochi Dinot who lost it to a chair on June 12th, 2019. The chair lost the belt to gorgeous Matsuno who lost it to a beer can who lost it to the D.

Al Grand Prix Trophy So the trophy was the lineal Smoky Man Wrestling Henryweight champion at that point any thoughts on where we are here? Where are we? What year is this now? Is this real life? This is 2019.

Well, can we get to the grand reveal now that we've gone through the chair and the can and the bucket and the... I mean, this is really the prime stuff here. This is the last few years. During a short stint in Florida in 2020, the trophy, who was the champion, was held by Jelly Nutella

Dean Malenko Orange Cassidy Jungle Boy, Marco Stunt, Dr. Britt Baker and the Young Bucks A Cheba Coon stuffed animal then held the belt

followed by I'm not gonna ask the 100,000 subs of the DDT YouTube channel I guess were awarded the championship or so I don't know how any of this is working and Apple held the title

winning it from a celebrity named Lightning. A yellow iPhone held the title, followed by an IWGP Junior Heavyweight belt holding the Smoky Mountain Championship, followed by a Christmas tree, Stefan the Dinosaur, Maya Yuki-Hiki, Yuki,

Yuki, a grilled eel, a sauna towel, Minoro Suzuki's entrance towel, a pico-piko hammer. Are they doing match? would just inhabit eyes. I don't have any idea of what's going on here, really,

be honest with you. Are they, is it like they playing with action figures, but they're taking a hammer and hitting it with a beer can and covering the, pinning the beer can? Raku's pillow held it on September 20th, 2025,

final five, excuse me, followed by the buyer of Kiryu's Halloween portrait, followed by the International Princess title match contract, Shira's binder and a vitamin drink followed by Shohei Otani's graphic novel Ken Oka's white tank top held the belt

and now we are at the end of 2025 the DDT Ironman heavyweight champion thus the lineal Smoky Mountain Wrestling heavyweight champion TJPW's Rika Tatsumi So that's where we are Who did this list?

Someone on the line. What human being is in solitary confinement or an iron lung or would give a shit to go through this gibberish to try to figure that out? Is my question. But here's the actual lineage. And the thing that I can't remember, who you might know better than me? Because this is off the top of my head and I didn't prepare for this. When I closed Smoky Mountain in November of 1995, Thanksgiving weekend,

was Tommy Rich still the champion or had Brad Armstrong won it? I was going to say Brad, but now you got me questioning. Hold on, I'll find out. Because point being, Tommy Rich and Buddy Landell and the Rocker Roll Express and the Heavenly Bodies and Brad were also being booked at the same time.

time by Randy Hales in Memphis at the other end of the state because Memphis was usually on Mondays, Louisville on Tuesdays, Evansville on Wednesdays. My shows were usually on Fridays, Saturdays and some Sunday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, some Sunday. So we were working together. And Randy had asked me, hey, can I keep these things going with the, because we're using the Smoky Mountain Belt and the blah, blah, blah, and brand of these guys. Yes. just keep track of the belt for me because I'm in the process of packing up and moving to Connecticut

and I'm trying to get all this other shit done. I just keep track of my belt. And that's the last I thought of it for a while. Do you have that information yet? Yeah, here are the last few champions. October 20th, Terry Gordy, won the title. And then on November 23rd, Thanksgiving Thunder Tour, Brad Armstrong won the title in a Bad Street Death Match.

and then November 25th Johnson City Thanksgiving Thunder tour Tommy Rich defeated Brad Armstrong that's right before the end of Smokey Mountain and then November 27th two days later Brad Armstrong defends the Smoky Mountain title in the USWA Yes

because until I got to Cookville, Tennessee the day after Johnson City I had not completely decided that all was lost, and I was going to tell these guys were closing up. So I continued on the Friday and Saturday in Knoxville and Johnson City with doing what I had been going to do to lead to our Christmas show. So without boring everybody on details of that point is that's why the heel won the belt,

but because Randy was doing something different, and I didn't care. They just didn't tell anybody in Memphis that Bradd had won the belt, right? So technically, the last authorized Smoky Mountain title change in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and authorized by Commissioner Bob Armstrong

was Tommy Rich winning it that Saturday night and he was never defeated for it. until months later, I realized, because I had my tag belts, because Dr. Tom took care of those because the bodies had rights, but I remember where's my fucking belt? And I think, I can't remember. Did I call Randy or whatever? But he said, well, I sent it with whoever he said it with.

But basically, I found out later on. And I'll tell you how at a second. Well, through Dennis Coraluzzo, who was able to track it down and get it back for me for my goddamn birthday. And what was it, 1997 or eight? Were you there at the show? I don't think so. He gave me a birthday present. This big box, I opened it up, and there's my Smoggy Mountain Title Belt, two years later.

Tommy Rich was the last champion. He never lost it. And the fucking, according to this, Brad was still defending it. So there's the break. But then I found out when Randy was finished with the belt, whoever he said he sent it back with, buddy Landell and Tommy Rich ended up with it. Guess where they went?

Because the bad buddy was back because he'd already had his goddamn issue with the knee injury and couldn't be in the rumble and lost his WWF shot. Guess where they went, Brian, with the belt? Mouse's ear. No, you are incorrect. They went over to Classy Motors. Talked to Wayne.

Oh, no way. Terry Kenner, the owner of Classy Motors, who I've talked about before was one of our Smoky Mountain sponsors and a big mark, and he wouldn't answer the phone under his real name. You had to call up and ask for his Wayne there. They went to see him. because Tommy wanted, and Tommy has told this story that I owed him, like $1,000 or $1,200 or whatever he got out of Terry Kenner.

I'm sorry, but no, I didn't. I didn't owe Tommy any money. But basically, Tommy and Buddy went there, and whatever they had done, whatever kind of deal they'd made amongst themselves, Tommy wanted some money, but Buddy was going to get it. and Terry Kenner said no, because he wouldn't give Buddy the money for the fucking belt. And because Terry Kenner was legitimately a mark and said, no, buddy, I ain't giving you this money. Cause I know that Tommy Rich is the champion.

I swear to God, because he told the story when Dennis tracked a fucking belt down for me. He told him the story. Terry Kenner would not give Buddy Landell the money for the belt because he knew that Tommy Rich was really the champion because he'd seen him fucking win it with his own eyes there. So what happened was Tommy laid backwards on the hood of one of Terry Kenner's used cars and Buddy covered him and they counted three.

And then he got to fucking $1,200 or whatever it was. So the last lineal, Smoggy Mountain champion was Buddy Landell. Oh, and he won, and it's not even, that's not even as ridiculous as the story you just told, but he won it on the hood of a car and the parking lot of classy motors to sell it to a fucking Mark named Wayne.

So you're recognizing that title change because the title ended up back with you? I mean, you don't recognize the Brad Armstrong and Jerry Lawler runs in 95. No, because Tommy Rich won the Smoky Mountain title, and that, he's a Brad Armstrong. was defending it in Memphis. They were just using the belt.

Think about it. So Buddy Landell is the official last Smokey Man Wrestling heavyweight champion. Because he was the next guy with the belt on the line to pin Tommy Rich. And by the way, I love Buddy around this period of time, too, because I got to hang out with him a whole bunch at Dennis Caruso shows and in the hotel and stuff. And daytime good buddy was something to see.

Yeah. Like in his suit, hitting you with Bible verses. Yeah. And then I swear to God, the same night. I've told the story before, but I was hanging out with Mark Carluso and Donnie B. At the, uh, whatever it was, the holiday inn or whatever it wasn't Cherry Hill. Maybe it wasn't the holiday. I don't remember.

But we walked right in the front and a fucking pickup truck pulls up. In the pickup, I don't know who the driver was, but Buddy Landels in the passenger seat with Don Marie on his lap. And he turns and he's like, hey, Brian, you got any peck up? pain pills. You know, whatever it was. Buddy, I'm 17. I don't have any pain pills. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

That he was good, buddy, again, but he was having a wild night. Whatever was going on that night in a pickup truck in the middle of nowhere. Ah, I miss buddy. But is that now, is that not a more legitimate title lineage? In a sanctioned Smoggy Mountain wrestling event, Tommy Rich won the fucking title. and the next thing, the next person to defend that title is Brad Armstrong, who was not the champion. Well, you see, what you say. But Tommy Rich was pinned.

Yeah, see, that's the thing. The lineage I said to you goes with the idea that the title went with Brad Armstrong to Memphis. That's where it starts. So if that... Well, that's a, no, that's a broken line right there. Yeah. They were just using the belt. So in terms of the lineal champion,

do you consider the next person to a pin buddy would be the lineal Smoky Mountain champion? Well, no, because the belt was not involved. The belt was there in the parking lot of Classy Motors, and then it wasn't ever involved in anybody else's matches. But in terms of the Classy Motors, and by the way, what a case for Judge Otto Dealer, this would be. Well, you know, but the thing is, Wayne was paying Judge Auto Dealer.

so we would have got a fucking hometown decision it had been a kangaroo court. But why wouldn't Wayne be the champion then? In the same way that Ted DiBiase bought the belt from Andre who won it from Hogan? Because Jack Tunney ruled you can't buy the belt. So the belt stopped with Wayne. But DiBiase sent it.

But DiBiase he defended the belt. Didn't he wrestle the Boston Garden? Where was it? He wore the belt. He wrestled as the WWA champion. That was before there was a decision. Now there's been a decision. I just made it.

Again, you're not Judge Otto dealer and you're certainly no Jack Tunney, my friend. I don't know about this rulemaking. I knew Jack Tunney. I served with Jack Tunney. And I'm as honest as Jack Tunney. I'll tell you that. Oh, boy. We can all be as rich as Jack Tunney.

That's something we should all aspire to. Find the way to get a percentage of every show running Canada ever. Well, this has been Smokey Mountain Run. wrestling, uh, news? News, I guess. We broke some news here. Yes. News you can use. Well, Jim, as we move on here with the show, I do have to ask you your thoughts on something we had mentioned when we talked about Dave Meltzer's star ratings for, I believe,

forbidden door. It's become a little bit of a story, and a lot of people wanted to get your thoughts on it, not really focusing on whether or not you like or don't like Mercedes-Mone's matches, just the idea of what... This is. Dave Meltzer did not... What is this? Dave Meltzer did not issue a star rating for Mercedes-Monnais versus Maya World, which he watched live there in the room in San Jose.

A shocking, a shocking breach of his responsibility and duties to the public. Now, of course, there are lots of lunatic wrestling fan bases, but maybe the most lunatic of them all are the ones for the women wrestlers. Women's wrestlers. wrestlers who are women. There are many of them. See, I covered it multiple ways to make everyone happy. And they didn't like the fact that Dave Meltzer

reviews everything and reviewed everything on that show that he raved about, but he didn't review that match. And he gave an explanation, which, to paraphrase, was... I was about to say, please don't say it verbatim because nobody will understand it again. Tell us what he was trying to say.

He saw it in the room, but because, Because of the feedback he was getting from others, he would not give a star rating until he watched it back on TV. And it's been a few weeks now. So does this mean that he thought it was wonderful, but everybody else was saying, God damn, that sucked? Or was it vice versa, where he thought it sucked, but everybody was raving about it?

And how is this? What in the fuck? What difference would it make, number one, number two, how far off could they be with the same fucking match? And number three, why is anybody making a big deal about it? Well, you have to wonder if Dave knew this would be a big deal. If withholding this star rating from the Mercedes Monet lunatic fans would be an issue, you have to think Dave would know this would be an issue. He says he doesn't have time.

In fact, one of the tweets here I have, I did a 22-page issue in three working days and finished at 4 a.m. If you think I had any free time to devote to watching any match from another week when I didn't even watch Hashimoto versus Vini, or Veni, I don't know who, which I was told I had to see. He's my cousin. Well, Mercedes-Monei retweeted that and said, Tony Kahn, can you send the link to hypocrite Dave so he can we can,

watched a 25-minute match on the plane. Oh, so she's jumping on it. She's like, she's indignant. She didn't get stars. Dave was also introduced at Arena Mexico to the fans. Oh, good Lord. At the CMLL Friday Night Show, which is why he was out of the country. He fled the country instead of giving the fucking star rating.

Fled the country instead of watching a Mercedes Mone match. Now, I'll tell you what, you got to admire his fucking industriousness. is that a word he took it to the extreme I mean I've just grinned and bore it on a few occasions or just turned my head and close my eyes

but he actually fled to country to keep away from it again it's a weird kind of situation if he has time to fight everyone on Twitter nonstop and I know in the past he says it doesn't take any time you know it's in between writing well

I see how much he tweets and how detailed his tweets are it does take time, especially when you're replying to everyone. He doesn't have time. And the, and the, like, that's what I'm saying. I almost feel like he's purposely propelling the issue. He also, he said he did a 22-page issue and three working day. He doesn't sleep.

And it's obvious if you try to read what he's writing. It's like he's trailing off from a stroke. And it just, it's like, did he mean to say the same thing, three sentences in a row. Oh, he's been doing that lately, yeah. Yeah, it's the first sign. And then, you know, where's my car keys? And then you got to take the keys away from Pops.

So again, it's either he really loved the match and was told by people, you're wrong. Or he hated the match and was told by people, you're wrong, you have to see it. But his refusal. Even though you've already seen it. But his refusal to it is fighting with people about it on Twitter.

instead of just watching it, doesn't seem to you like it's a purposeful, like it's a thing to get attention? No, I think he's just hoping that they'll leave him alone and he doesn't have to go back and commit. Because it's obviously, he's either going to have to say something that was against his feelings

or he's going to have to give his feelings when he knows that those feelings are going to then get him more blowback from the Hoy-Polloy out there. So he's just trying to, I got time and hopefully they'll forget about it. He'll forget about it soon. That's what I think he's doing.

He's just like either way, because I thought this and everybody else thought that, well, I got to watch it on TV. Like no other match has ever come up like this. He just doesn't want to get shit either way, I think. Yeah, right. Who gave him that advice that he had to watch it on TV? Because have they ever said that about another match?

and there must be plenty of other matches where it either sucks on TV or it looks better on TV than it was in the house. To be quite honest, it's easier to get caught up in any match live with people enjoying it around you, and you don't have the benefit of... Sometimes it's a benefit to hear the commentary, but in often cases these days, it's a detriment. but you don't also have the benefit of the up-close cameras to show you what missed and what fucking looked like shit

and where the guy was talking to the other guy. So it's easier live atmosphere for just enjoying a match unless you're the last row with a goddamn Superdome and can't see shit. It's easier to get caught up in that than it is watching it on TV and you can be distracted. although I've, I assume it's hard to distract Dave. He seems to be very single-minded. Well, we just had some thunder over here, so we may get some rain before you.

We'll see. Oh, it's really, hey, wait a minute. Is that, is that yours I'm here? I thought I was going to raise you some thunder because I have my, oh, shit, they're expanding these severe thunderstorm mornings in southern Indiana, and we're all pink now on the weather.

radar map. I'm not sure what the fuck the pink indicates. Is that a tornado watch? Well, back to, uh, well, back to Mercedes tornado or Vernado, whatever our name is, but Vernado tornado, but before I get blown over here, let's go back to Mercedes. Well, again, the idea that Dave has to watch it again to rate it. How is that fair too? Because he watches AEW with a group of people. He has a pay-per-view party. We've heard about his behavior at the pay-per-view parties. So if you're used to watch, watch, and rating these matches with a room full of people susceptible to reacting to every kickout and everything, every high spot, every copay suicida. Try saying that in English. Let's see how long

that last before they say, you can't say that anymore on the air. If he's just going to watch that match by himself staring at the screen, how could he fairly rate it in that context? But I don't know how, because I have to watch and take notes. Maybe we've discovered something. AEW especially is so convoluted that I have to take fucking notes on what's going on and who's running in and whatever if he's just watching it with a group of people that are making noise and hopping up and down

maybe that's why he doesn't see all the things that are wrong with it well we will see what else we can find out we'll see if this rating ever comes in but Jim as we move forward here a couple other things to note listeners want to get your reaction to the news that the Vince McMahon-Ginnell Grant lawsuit will be going away, and they will be going to arbitration, which certainly will cap how much Vince McMahon would have to pay

if everything went against him. What are your thoughts on this news? Is it surprising? And when do you think Vince will be back on TV? You keep asking that question. Didn't we at one point read something or here's some reporting to say that it looked like

it was headed that way to begin with. Help me out. I can't remember all the twists and turns. Yeah, I think the last thing we saw from Janelle Grant's team was them agreeing to the arbitration. So we expected this to happen. Yeah, some way or another, they were going to get to this point because nobody involved on,

certainly on Vince McMillard, man side, whether it's anybody involved in TKO, anybody that was involved in the WWE during this time. Nobody wanted to go to court, testify under oath, discovery, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know how many millions of dollars that will change hands over this, but it's not going to be public unless somebody makes it that way. And then there's probably going to be NDAs, and then here we go again. So we're not ever actually going to find out, I would think.

Brian, you're more of the legal expert than I am. But in private arbitration, both sides are going to be arbitrated and both sides are supposed to go away happy. In this case, I think Janelle Grant's side will go away financially happy and Vince's side will go away relieved. It wouldn't that be the best way to describe it? I don't know. We'll see. I wouldn't agree with your assessment that both parties go away happy from arbitration. Well, I mean, in some respect, they've got to come with a settlement of something. Yes, you're getting for I am. It's Vince. It's Vince. I don't mean happy necessarily, but both sides have to come out with something.

Oh, I got a tornado warning on TV. The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the following counties or areas. Morris County, New Jersey. Oh my God. Now, wait a minute. Three minutes ago. Is it a tornado warning or a tornado watch? Because a watch means conditions are right, but a warning means that they've seen one. It's a warning, effective until 3.25 p.m. For how, and in what proximity to you and in what direction, we might need to reconvene on this?

My county, my county. And I think, you know, this place is like a tank. I think I'll be okay. but uh oh boy you have just revealed yourself to be a fucking yankee i got a pretty sturdy house fuck the tornado but brother it'll strip the bark off the trees that it uproots and takes with it we need some landscaping work i mean that's the biggest problem in the world now you're trying to i'm looking at my severe thunderstorm warning's getting closer to me and then you're going to try to make me look like a pussy when I want to take cover up here on the top floor of the castle and you're goddamn blowing off a tornado warning.

But again, back to the other tornado. This is the thing that we do to serve the public. That's right. Somewhere at some point whenever this comes out. What do you think is next for Vince if he is finally done with this? Based on the correspondence we've seen in the past, I hate to say, but based on the fucking booking we've seen on TV now, at what point

is his influence going to grow again in WWE and at what point is TKO who will jump on anything going to try to do something with that? I still think that for the not even necessarily the bad

publicity, but just the ill will with the general fans who they've kind of seen are not necessarily on Vince's bandwagon combined with the fact that there's one thing now that for the first time ever Vince is on the other side of do you remember what Bill Watts said to him when he left Stanford he said Vince there's only room for one Titan and Titan sports well now Vince is not the Titan anymore there's another one there and as much as they liked him and

wanted to protect him and thought that they you know they needed him they've kind of figured out now that good or bad we don't need him we've done much better than he was doing without him and with the baggage and also they've had a couple of years to get comfortable without Vince telling him what to do and maybe they don't want to be told what to do and I'm not talking about Triple H, I'm talking about the cons and the manuals and the people that are actually fucking running this dog and pony show these days. Well, again, it'll be very interesting. I think the one thing we've seen from TKO leadership, not necessarily counting Nick Con, although Nick Con, I don't know, we haven't necessarily seen if he has a soul or he has a thought that goes one way or another versus where's the money.

but they don't really know wrestling or wrestling fans. They know that this thing makes a lot of money. They have tried to throw celebrities in the middle of matches. They've let the rock stuff play out. They've allegedly in the past interfered with the booking over the head of Triple H. At what point are they going to think we need Vince? We need the guy with the magic touch that we think has the magic touch because we don't know anything about wrestling.

And of course Vince McMahon would know what to do to fix this or get us back to where we want to be. Is that a crazy thought? Well, you've got me thinking that might not be the craziest thing that they've ever done. But I don't know whether they're going to put him out in front of the public. Bruce Pritchard is there in a prominent position. To me, that has always indicated that Vince McMahon knew everything that was happening, everything with the creative process. Those are his eyes and ears,

and those are not the only ones. And they know that. They know that. When Vince left, there was a reason someone like Bruce was kept on. So it's not like Vince doesn't have his tentacles out already. I just, I can't see him putting him before the public. And that doesn't mean that there couldn't be private consultation meetings.

They may need to sign some NDAs too, but we will see. But I don't see him coming back and, you know, doing the walk down the fucking aisle again. I'd be more worried about sitting in a chair of gorilla, quite frankly. I don't think it can be that public. It would be too easy to fucking find out. Well, stay tuned to season four of WWE Unreal. By the way, season three has just come out as we are recording.

we will be going through it, so stay tuned for that. Yeah, I've been talked into doing that. I'd rather watch the puppies, but I'll watch Unreal. Jim, a clip making the rounds again, to the point where we have about a dozen or so emails in the last few days about it. I'll play you some audio, although I know you know this clip. People said they knew it, they knew the meme,

they didn't realize you were involved. Here is some audio for you. Next question, Jeff, where are you? Right there. Yeah. I just want to thank each and everyone y'all for all you've done to your bodies. It's still real to me, damn it. I mean, thank you, man.

Thank you, y'all guys. You're awesome. Thank you so much, Mr. Funk, for saying what needed to be said. I don't want to see another one of these. Well, thank you. Next question, Jeff, where are you right? And that just replays itself, but there it is. And famous, it's still real to me, damn it, moment.

A lot of people just discovering it or not knowing the backstory, they've wanted to hear what you have to say. Well, it was a Q&A. It was me and Dennis Condrey. You heard Dennis Condry say something, but take it easy, man. Me and Dennis and Bobby was Stan there? You just saw the video. Was Stan on that one?

I don't see Stan, but Terry Funk is on the stage. Well, Terry Funk was there, obviously, because he was talking to Terry. And that was before that I had met David Wills, who was talking there, but he was one of the fans. This was before a legend show in the afternoon, or this was afternoon before legend show in the evening.

So they had the ropes down. That's why it looks so odd. We're just using the ring as a stage. And David Wills got emotional and lost his composure because Terry had been talking about, you know, all the things that he'd gone through. I can't remember the specifics, but whether it was, you know, hard schedule, injuries, you know, fighting to protect the business, whatever. David sat there and heard that and then got so overcome that he was trying to ask the question,

he burst it out with it's still real to me, damn it? And that clip made every television program. I think it was on Tosh 2.0 or whatever that Tosh.0, whatever that show was. And all over the internet at a bunch of different places, and he got to be known as the crying wrestling fan. And then later on we got to meet him, he's a great guy. He's from Georgia. And he loves wrestling and has for years.

He just got all choked up and emotional seeing Terry Funk there and everything. and then when he became a celebrity, he milked that for everything. He got booked as like the crying wrestling fan. David Wills will be here tonight, whatever. But yes, we were there and I knew that he was emotional,

but Dennis was, I think was looking around for something to pick up and fucking hit him over the head in case he got too goddamn out of hand. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. A lot of people are asking questions.

At one point you're like, oh my God, this guy is an emotion problem. This guy is completely out of control. Well, no, I can't, I can't vouch for later. He's perfectly, well, I can't say perfectly normal. He's completely sane. Well, I can't say completely sane.

He's not dangerous. He's not a dangerous person. Well, like you said, that is a clip and a meme that has been everywhere. And a lot of people realized that you were a part of it, that it was actually to you and the people on stage with you. Yeah. Was that in Sharpe? or was it in Spartanburg?

Oh, I don't know. Looks like Lenore to me. I don't know. It might have been Lenore, North Carolina. My old hometown. I can't remember where we were, but it was there that that happened. I'm over here now.

It's still fuzzy to him, damn it. Yes, it's still fuzzy to me, damn it. All right, Jim, we will continue on here. It has gotten dark. It was a dark and stormy night. Jim, this question was sent via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com from Kyle Vaughn, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I wonder if he knew Jim Thorpe's family. There's a new Jim Thorpe documentary out.

I've seen it. Oh, I haven't seen it yet. I have the book. It's very good. While on vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, I had a question come to mind about Smoky Mountain Wrestling. did Jim ever try running a show in Pigeon Forge? Oh, Jesus Christ. If so, was it a good town?

Did he ever try to take advantage of the peak tourist season to possibly get new eyes on the product? Well, number one, what good would that have done me if they lived in fucking Illinois, we weren't running there? So I don't care if they fucking liked us or not, they couldn't see us. And no, the tourist season down there pretty much is almost, all the time, but you didn't go to. Pigeon Forge is next to Gatlinburg, which is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, which is one of the largest national parks and one of the most beautiful

in the United States, hence Smoky Mountain Wrestling, it's only 30 miles or whatever it is from Knoxville. So, you know, it's not like that if you're going to pigeon forge, you're going to want to go see the fucking wrestling. But the reason why I said, oh, good Lord, is because since it is such a an area that even 30 years ago, I mean, I remember in the early 70s when I used to go to Gatlinburg

with, you know, an Uncle Harold would take us down there. There was like the holiday in with the swimming pool. That was the big fucking thing. And now it's a giant tourist area all the way from the time you leave the interstate through Severeville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, that type of thing. And it's every kind of tourist trap deal in the world. But nevertheless, there was a place in P... And that's where Daliwood is also, because that's where Dali Parton is from, is Severevill.

So there was a grand hotel and convention center in Pigeon Forge. And Pam Lawson, the young lady who Tim Horner, if I guess, oh, we got to hire this sales lady from the local radio station because she's going to sell us sponsorships and make us a fortune. Well, that's what one of the things that we did was we said her to pitch because it was her, oh, yeah, since our TV goes to all these stations around the region, then they ought to pay us to either, you know, you know, shoot our TV there, advertise them,

and that's our permanent TV location, blah, blah, blah. Tell everybody how great the hotel is. You've got to have your conventions there. Well, it sounds great. And she went down there for multiple meetings with this guy that ran the place. And the end result was that, number one, I think he was trying to just get her to come down and meet with him

because he thought there might be some other service. and remember this a pigeon forge because it's not like she was goddamn Dolly Parton, Pam Lawson. And secondly, they were kind enough to give us a goddamn discount on the rent. We could rent the building once a month to do our TV there for like five grand or some shit. And you, fuck you.

So that was some total of the involuntal, we had between us and the tourist attractions in Pigeon Forge, besides shooting the Landstorm and Chris Jericho video there, we had fun that day. But Severeville, the Severeville High School, everybody, look at your map,

it's all in the same general area, small town suburban Knoxville, Tennessee, is the where fucking, what was it name? of the Japanese fellow, Canamara. Oh, the Kevin Sullivan book.

Yeah. Yes, Kevin Sullivan said, yeah, Jimmy, book this Japanese kid. He and Victor and Miguel Perez and Crash the Terminator, Bill DeMont. They're on excursion. Book him and he'll get juice from the arm for my golden spike.

And that's how that was, this Japanese wrestler in tights and so, with blood with his arm laid open, showed up at the goddamn hospital in Severeble, Tennessee on a Monday night about 10.30, 11 o'clock. That was the most excitement. Victor went with him. No, Victor went with him.

Must have been quite a scene. It was definitely something that they didn't see every day down there. But, yeah, that's my severable story. But no, we couldn't crack the code to get into the, the multi-million dollar pigeon-forged tourism industry. Have you been to Dollywood? What do you think of Dollywood? I went to Dollywood in 1987, and I'd rather spend my time in the restaurants and the antique shops on the strip in Gatlinburg.

Let's put it that way. All right, not very kind to Ms. Parton. Well, she wasn't there. And otherwise, it's like a goddamn, you know, kind of an amusement park with no sugar. It's just kind of, you know, bland amusement park. Jim, our next question sent to corny drive-thru at gmail.com is from Rob Salford Pryors, England.

I've been a fan of yours since the 80s, and you're one of the few people whose opinions about wrestling I respect. Oh, boy. My question is... Here I'm going to have to take the piss out of some. something this guy says. What is your opinion on thigh slaps? Personally, I think thigh slaps are one of the goofiest things about modern wrestling.

And if I were in charge of wrestling, I would fire, I would fine, I would find anyone who does them. If I were the king of the protest. I mean, it's... It's like everything else. It's gotten ridiculous. And not just the sound effect in general has gotten ridiculous and see-through and for the same reasons that everything else does. Because there were there were guys that could do like Bobby Eaton. He threw the fucking right hand and he could do the slap with his left and it was so quick.

and you heard a smack, but you couldn't really see what the fuck. Or a Terry Taylor in the early 80s when he was being used as a top baby face. And his work was excellent. He just, he didn't have a lot of oomph. He always looked like he ought to be wearing a fucking tie in a sweater. But he had, he would throw the punch with his right and he would smack his left arm from the armpit. to the elbow into his side as his body motion followed through. So you could see his left hand.

It wasn't slapping anything. That hid it. And Lawler, being an artist, he had the hand-to-eye coordination, which is why his punches and his work was so good. He, for quite some time, perfected, and it took me at ringside taking pictures. weeks and weeks to fucking figure it out

when the heel would back him up in the corner and throw a punch at Lawler's face Lawler down at the heel's ribs would slap the heel at the same time the heels punch came and people be looking at the fist and they weren't looking at Lawler's right hand under the end and they heard a smack

and that were until one day when Cocoa Weir sold his fucking ribs oh shit and then he fucking kind of blew it there but there were different ways to get a little sound effect again bobby eating but this is you know not something exclusive to him a lot of guys would do the headlock punch and you throw the punch and you're the inside of your right arm smacks your ribs at the same time as your fist is in front of the guy's face you can do a Dick Murdoch used to do this. And I had some success with it where you can keep your fist loose.

And if a guy's got his neck tensed up, I don't know if you can hear this in the microphone, you get to hit him right there and make a smack and not hurt anybody. It's a little sleight of hand that's work. This is all common knowledge, well known. Anybody knows what fuck they're doing. But then everybody just started slapping the fuck out of their fucking leg. every time they throw one of these goofy kicks or do something else at some point

I mean. That's part of the problem. Everybody started throwing kicks. Well, and I'm expecting to hear a slap on a fucking headbutt at some point one of these days. And not only can you see a lot of these guys doing it, but that's the other thing. I always say nobody should do the same thing.

the same thing three or four times in a row unless it's something that you do exceptionally well because you're giving the people multiple chances right in a row to see through it. So vary your shit up. Punch, kick, slam, whatever the fuck instead of...

If you can throw a great punch, then make the fucking come back and throw them all day long. But with some guys, they're giving people not only more see-through shit, but everybody's given them multiple opportunities in every match to see and figure it out. And so therefore, yes, we have,

they've gone slap happy. So what the fucking problem is. It is certainly one of the problems with modern wrestling that it's overdone. And like I said, everyone throws kicks now. It used to be Chris Adams threw a super kick. And then Sean Michaels threw a super kick. Everyone does it now.

Everyone's doing it all the time. But they're slapping. None of them work, though, so you might as well. All right, Jim, well, let's do something now. Let's begin our look at wrestlers in their 20s in 1994 in an attempt to put together a list of the top 20 wrestlers in their 20s for 1994. we did this for 1984 after a list of modern wrestling offended us so much. But this is an interesting year because you're not just a performer, like you were in 84, your breakout year. You're now a booker. You're now a promoter, so you're seeing things from a lot of different angles

and obviously seeing a lot of talent and having to look at them in a different way. Well, and also, unfortunately, this is the period of time, where the territories were now except for Memphis and was Portland still around in 94. But Memphis, Portland, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, that was it. And then you had, obviously, ECW was really just kind of taking off, or I don't even know if taking off maybe too grandiose a term,

but ECW was starting to be known, and yet WCW was mired in heartache. and the WWF was chugging right along. So there was, as I'm looking at this list, and we'll get into it, it's going to take us a while. This list of guys that were being booked and used regularly in 1994 somewhere is probably what, twice as long as the list of guys who were being booked and used regularly that you had in 1984,

even though there was 20 fucking territories in 84. Because now you're taking into account these massive, you know, super promotions with giant rosters that had more, you know, guys that you didn't see than most of the territories had period. And also the independence. And also a lot of guys that were on the 84 list had gotten out of the business. It seems like from my initial look, everybody that was on the 84 list had either become a highly paid icon or gotten a fuck out of the business or been run out of it by no place to work by 1994. So there's a lot of different names, whereas the 84 guys, even in their 20s, had been in the business, some of them for 10 years or more. the 94 guys there's a lot of new names

a lot of new names a different business than it was in 1984 a lot less names in their 40s which again is interesting compared to where we are now and where wrestling was in 1984 a lot of veterans still in the game in 84 in their 40s and that was the thing we observed that guys in their 20s were already being used in main event spots

and drawing money, and the guys in their 30s were probably the overall, the biggest money draws to biggest stars, but the guys in their 40s that were still active were the icons at that point in time and had been around and still on top after 20 years. Well, Jim, let's begin our list, and we did our best to get everyone that worked for a major company. We may have missed some people for Windy City Wrestling and other smaller companies. My apologies. turning 22 in July, the one, two, three kid.

Wow. And this, was this his year that he debuted, or was it 93? 93, W.W.E. Raw at the Manhattan Center. Yeah, so he's just burst onto the national consciousness, even though he was working in Minnesota for the local group up there, which is where he and Jerry Lynn kind of, got noticed first, but one, two, three kid would later on to be, obviously later on become Sean Waltman.

But this was a heck of a year for him because he was still fairly new in the business and he had gotten that spot in the WWF. He had a unique look. No one else in the business looked like him. And it worked. And he looked like a kid and he worked a style like that. He had the kick pads. No one else had that.

And he was over. It's the goofiest name for a wrestler that actually got over. Yeah. Really think about it. Well, and that's why they had to play with it so much later on because it, they named him one, two, three kid because he got the one, two, three over Razor Ramon. That was the most famous television upset of the modern era. But without that context, and when he left and went to WCW or just on his own,

it wore out its relevance. So for 1994 for a list, what are your thoughts on a one, two, three, kid? Good Lord. Well, there's a goddamn, I'm looking at fucking 80 names just in their 20s. You have to go based on the one person here. You can't go based on anything in front of us. I'm just, I'm just saying, my God, how do we even begin? I don't, I don't know.

I think we have to talk ourselves through some of these people. Let's start. There'll be some obvious nose. I'm trying to talk my way through one, two, three kid with you at this. very secret. Hey, Hey, Alvarez. Let me just, guess what? It's not my job!

I don't know if he goes on the list of the best 20 guys in their 20s or not yet. We've just, we've just started. And I'm getting a signal heavy, heavy rain soon, by the way. And, uh, oh, the northern part of the county,

it looks like maybe having a severe thunderstorm warning, but we will. All right. Oh, that's still over in Indiana. We'll persevere. All right. So we're going to. put him on the question mark list.

Question mark. Turning 21 in October. PJ Walker, I don't know if he was Aldo Montoya yet. I have him on the list here as Aldo Montoya, but PJ Walker. You know, PJ was the guy he was doing jobs for WWF TV and happened to mention he was

from Calgary and he's the one who I sent word for Lance Storm to fucking call me in Knoxville because I'd gotten the tape but then Storm and Jericho were both in Germany or wherever the fuck they may have gone. So this is 94 the year you brought the thrill seekers to Smoky Mountain. When would that have happened with you and PJ? Would that have been 93?

Well, about the same fucking time. When did they start in February? Maybe late 93 because they started early 94, somewhere around that point in time. But no, he wouldn't be on the list, bless him of the top 20 guys. because he was just green and just started himself, and they gave him that Aldo Montoya gimmick because I think Vince was convinced there was some kind of

goddamn large Portuguese audience that had yet to be tapped. I don't understand what that deal was all about. And certainly the way to tap that audience is put a weird mask on a guy and just claim he's Portuguese. Yeah, that's the best thing. Well, I think he is.

That's another, oh, wait a minute. Oh, I just got another. The map just got pinker here. No, I think he really is. That's one of those screwy things that you tell Vince that it sticks with him. Maybe he's really, I'm not saying he was born in Portugal, but is of Portuguese descent or something.

So that's what came out of that. Well, Jim, our next name on the list, turning 29 in December from the smoking guns, Bart Gunn. Oh, Bart and Billy were both at that point. They had started in what, early 90s in Florida? Yeah. And I think, yeah, Paterson had seen them and recognized, you know, they had

size and they were athletic and et cetera. And I remember that we worked with them, the heavenly bodies when we first went up there. And I'd watch some of the, you know, I always watched guys' matches. We're going to work with him, see what they do. And I told Jimmy D'Hare, I said, I think it was Bart. He said, he drops a great elbow, or not an elbow, but he drops a great knee. You ought to work out of spot, okay, so he's going to slam me, drop the fucking knee after

the match. He said, I know why the fucking new drop looks so good. Fucking dropped it right on his goddamn forehead. The guns were a good tag team that year. They just had again, it was so WWF that they're cowboys, but they're so clean. There's not a spot of dirt anywhere on their outfits. It's just, you know, it's just kind of like kids, cowboys, smoking guns, bang, bang. All right, but not on the list for 94.

I don't know if, yeah, individually, probably not. Jim turning 25 in February, the future gangrel. He would be a black heart, David Heath. Oh, Dave Heath was a heck of a worker. And the gangrel gimmick really fit him so well. He got the fangs, the whole nine yards. At this point, this was before he was being used. As you mentioned, he'd been one of the black hearts in Calgary,

but I don't know if he was at a particularly impressive spot. at this particular point in time. All right. Jim turning 36 in January. Bull Nacano. This was, where, was she working primarily in Japan, or was this when she came over and did some stuff in the United States also? This is her and a Lundra Blaze, yeah. That's right, that's right.

I mean, an anomaly on the list, you know, she had her positives and negatives, but I don't know if, are we opening this up? Because in 84, we were like, well, yeah, you know, Inoki, Baba, a few of the tippy top guys came over and worked the United States in positions of prominence. No, but she actually was a full-time WWF wrestler. Well, I was about, she was full-time, but for what a year?

And then there were two years and then went home. And I mean, you know, they were, they were lovely. Her and. A very talented, good wrestler that obviously. Very talented. You're not going to say anything good or bad, so we will not put her on the list. Here's an interesting one, not that he's necessarily listworthy, but just very interesting here. 28 in October, Chris Hemrick.

He was working ICW, good Lord, ECW at that point in time, right? No, that was years later. Well, then you've just, where did he get on the list here for? He was active. Why? I think he may have had that famous match with the one, two, three kid where he took that bump. Well, that's what I was going to say Is it, did he just get on the 94 list

for the bump? But I know Chris Habrick. He's a funny fucking guy. And if you don't know what we're talking about, folks, if you've seen the clip that comes up on Twitter every so often of him and one, two, three kid, and they're in a criss cross off the ropes.

And as Hamrick is running, Waltman's sidesteps him and legs sweeps him. And Hamrick goes feet first through the ropes without touching anything and straight to the floor. That's Chris Hamer. And he started, he's from North Carolina and started doing jobs down down there for Crockett's TV. And he could hit that fucking bump every time and walk afterwards. I don't know how it happened, but how he did it, but he could. And, but at this point in time,

yeah, he was just still kind of doing TV enhancement work, as they say. So, but yeah, but a heck of a fucking guy and later on got to get a spot in ECW. How do you discover the ability to take that bump? Like how does it start? You see it in your head. That's the thing. I mean, people

can try to imitate stuff they've seen other people do and you know, whatever, but in my experience for what that's worth, holy shit, well, we got some more fucking warnings popped up now. In my experience for what that's

worth, if you can't see yourself doing it in your head, you shouldn't probably fucking do it because it won't make sense to you and you'll fuck it up. But he could see himself doing that. And there it became. All right. And I think I misspoke before. Bull Nicano was 26, not 36. Chris Hammer, not on the list.

Jim. The makeup made her look. older. Turning 24 in January, Chris Canyon. And again, I'm trying to remember where Canyon was in his career at that point. Had he started with WCW yet? I think he may have started with WCW, you know, not as mortis, but, you know, just as Chris Canyon. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Well, and of course, he was from the Northeast, from Jersey originally, right? I thought he was from New York City. Actually, I thought, was he from New York? I thought he's, well, it's all the same to me.

So one or the other of those things. And he had worked some for Dennis Coraluzzo, had he not? I actually don't know. Am I confused that it with somebody else? But nevertheless, I liked Canyon for the early 2000s and mid-2000s when he was in the WWF. They sent him down to OVW. They weren't using him.

He had an injury, whatever their issues were. But he was so helpful because he was a great worker and he could really, he could see a lot of shit in his head and do it. And I think, you know, his lack of self-confidence, not the greatest public speaker in the world at the beginning. I remember he did jobs for me because he drove Jim Mitchell up when Mitchell was Darrell Van Horn for Smoky Mountain. That's how Canyon ended up on my TV in 93.

but it's just a great worker and he liked to help the young guys had matches with like Johnny Jeter and a variety of the young guys that really you know fucking helped him out and was interested in doing that and I kept telling him in the office if you ain't going to use him you know we'll be glad to have him and he wants to come I was trying to make him look as good as I could to him and they just they didn't see it all right but not on the list for 94 so far nobody is on the list for 94 we consider Sean Waltman at some point here

like I think we should. We got a question mark. Jim turning 26 in October, Duke the dumpster Drosie. Oh boy. I, when Duke Drosie came into the WWF, I had never seen him before or heard of him.

That's when again they were finding guys from the independence and giving them, you know, these gimmicks, and he was the garbage man, because I guess Vince thought, you know, he's a garbage man. He can't be making much money. He needs to moonlight as a wrestler. And he had the run, and then he's one of the, did he go anywhere else? I mean, I know he did Independence and he did appearances at Fan Fest or whatever,

but did he ever try to really, or did. did he try and fail to stay into business? I don't know. He's one of those weird guys that kind of just popped up out of nowhere in the WWE and then after that he went away. I know he had a scandal a few years ago, I want to say it was something with like underage kids. Yeah, I think he's still going to court or about to go to court over something like that.

Well, we'll see if the courts take out the trash. Jim turning 29 in October, Fat two. still a head shrinker yes was still teaming with samu and the head shrinkers right but would go on to become and sione rikishi and say again and head shrinker sione when the barbarian replaced oh that's right that's right i forgot about that well we had the the other shrinkers

that's why our heads were even smaller um i think fat too may be our first or at least a question mark, if not, because what he was starting the beginning of what would be a nice run, but it was going to be a while before he got there because remember he was the Sultan? Yeah, this is pre-sultant, pre-taking it to the streets. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I'll put up to the question mark. We'll come back to him. He was only going to get better. It couldn't get any worse. Well, the next one is one that I think everyone can figure out. what you're going to say turning 27 in July,

double J. Jeff Jarrett. But having said that, what was he, in 1994, was it, 95 was with my baby tonight, right? Was he there by 94? It was 94, my baby tonight. It was 95, and I actually would always argue, despite everything I've said always about, you know,

the realities of Jeff Jarrett and how he was booked, if there was ever a moment where it was going to happen, it was right there with him and the road dog and they were both gone right away that was the summer of 95 but it really started building in 94 Yeah so

I mean it's at least a question mark then but because that was a big fucking deal at the time but there he's he's 27 he'd been in the business for 86 he'd been to business for eight years

eight and a half years so he already had worked Memphis, had the experience, got his shit together, and then did that, and then, of course, it was, Bruce Pritchard loved to sing that song. He just thought it was so hilarious. And I was like, oh, my God,

but if it helps a member of the Armstrong family, that was going to be the big reveal, and then things went sideways. The big reveal should have been the real reveal, which was that it was Big Al Anderson singing the song, and he was formerly managed by Captain Lou Albano with NRBQ. A little interesting wrestling trivia there.

Jeff Jarrett will put on the question mark list. This may be one of those years, though, where he has a good argument. Jim, Jeff Jarrett, of course, dealt with a lot of money issues with TNA, getting the money, holding on to the money. It was a big operation. They could have been more lean.

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for the listeners. A great deal. We'll be right back after this. All right. You should have just used the soundtrack of the thunder. to let everybody know 45 minutes is passed, we got an inch of rain here easily in that time, and the really bad weather went rent right to the north of us and down south of us, and we escaped relatively unscathed except for loud booming and lightning and shit like that.

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All right. Well, Jim, let's get away from Thunder over Louisville. Let's get back to this list. We have some more to go. Obviously, this will be a multi-part. Look at the top wrestlers in their 20s in 1994. But picking up from where we left off, turning 28 in December, Jinzei Shenzaki,

aka Hakushi. Wow, he was a nice, humble, soft-spoken fellow. Brett Hart really liked him. That's why they had that good match that everybody remembers that kind of came out of nowhere.

You could say that about so many guys from that era, like John Pierre Lafitte. He had that one great match with Brett Hart that came out of nowhere. Yeah. Brett liked him and wanted to try to help him, but they had the

semblance, the beginnings of a gimmick there, but it didn't he couldn't, I don't know that he couldn't speak any English, but he couldn't cut his own promos and I can't remember who did they put him with or did they put him with anybody or did he just come out with all the fake tattoos all over

his body? Originally he came out with a kiosato who had his face painted white. Yeah. he was a well-known manager at that time, not to say anything bad about a Kyosato, but people are like, what the fuck? Because the WWF fans at that time didn't know what the fuck was going on here with this guy.

All right, so not making your list, I'm presuming, based on that. I mean, not because there's anything wrong with him, but just he was kind of there and then he was gone. 23 in February, one of those guys, you hear from fans every now and then why didn't Jim use him in Smoky Mountain Louis Spicoli I would have but he about that time he was here and then he was gone and he had problems I first met Louis Spicoli in 1989 in Continental when when we did those shots where we had left WCW

we just talked about this because of George Scott and we were gone a couple months Dundee was book and Continental. We went and worked a couple of shots there and he was in the locker room. And at the time he was just a, well, okay, in 1989

if he was born in 71, he was 18 for fuck's sake. And he looked like Bobby Eaton's little brother. And I told him, I said, one of these days, because I had in my mind, right, so I said, one of these days, I'm going to have a territory. I'm going to book you as Bob Eaton's little brother. And by the time I had a territory, what did Spicoli do right before they brought him up there?

Was he? Madonna's boyfriend. Yes, that's right. And he had gotten some level of notoriety down there. and then I don't know how he happened to make his way to the WWF because I wasn't the office at that point yet. But he was there and then, unfortunately, by then, and the reason why he didn't stay long is he had issues.

And it was to the point, I still Louis Spacoli was not, I'll say this and we'll move on. He was not a guy that fucking made front pages or was pulled over and arrested for large quantities of drugs or some of the other things that happened. But Vince just, I don't know what the fuck it was about poor Luis Piccoli because we were on our way in the car to Anaheim, it was the WrestleMania 96 weekend. And we were either on our way to Anaheim or on our way to the TV afterwards, wherever that

may have been. But Spicoli was from California and was living there at that time, and he was friends with Chris and Tammy, Candido, and Sonny. And he just came to visit. And Vince, J.R. Bruce and I in the car passed Candido and Tammy and Spacoli sitting there in the back seat. And I'll never forget, Vince looked over and said, well, what's that drug adult Louis Spacoli doing in the back seat. And I'm like Jesus fucking Christ. All the drug-addled motherfuckers that you've dealt with

and this poor kid is the one you're I don't know. But anyway, and then it didn't end well, obviously. So, but I would have, yes, I would have used him because I was going to already. But I couldn't pay him as much as he was making then.

Here's one of those ones, Jim, that I almost feel I have to double check the age. It seems incredible he would be this young. 23 in February, Mabel. Good God. Good God.

That's all I can say is good God. To get that size, that bit, 23 years, and look at him in the face. But I guess if he had normal hair and normal teeth and a normal weight, he would have looked like a young fella.

Boy, howdy. I mean, talking about people to check for the list, they used him for the next couple of years. You can say that. I don't know if anybody that ever got in a ring with him would put him on a list of any best wrestlers of any age. But there's another, at least he tried. He came back or was viscera,

and they brought him back a couple of times, but did he ever really try to stay in the business to any degree without being in the WWF? Because Mo was from Tennessee and he worked Memphis and he later on he worked independents. He tried to run his own shows. But Mabel would just kind of he would pop up and then he'd be gone, wouldn't he? And for the record, that's next on the list at the age of 27 and April, Mo.

So both members of men on a mission there, I can't speak too much to Nelson Fraser's post-WWE career. Well. Well, Jim, next on the list here, turning 27 December, we mentioned him a little bit earlier, Quebecer Pierre. Wow. What a fucking tremendous worker. He really was.

And if I'm not mistaken, I think. he really was blind in one eye and that's why they did the eye patch. I could be wrong. That's what I always heard, yeah. But, you know, a great worker, of course, French Canadian and they teamed him up with Jacques. And so then, you know, trouble follows mentally for these guys because Jacques naturally had pumped him all up, didn't he? Jacques talked him out of doing a job for Hulk one time, didn't he? Who wasn't he talking about it doing a job for?

Some goddamn major fucking star, because it was in Montreal. It was Hogan, yeah. And it was Huck. And they also had somehow convinced Pierre, I'm not talking they, the office, I'm talking they, the boys, the French-Canadian contingent, whoever, had insisted, talked him into that the company was going to put the belt on him.

And he just had. had problems dealing with things from that point on because he had an inflated and distorted view on what was supposed to be happening. But what a fucking worker. And then he came back like a few years ago at whatever age he was and was like taking ridiculous bumps because he was a monster built in a laboratory, right? I believe so. At one time, something that would win worst promotional tactic,

or most disgusting promotional tactic, creating a monster. Well, that was in 82, or was it 81 with the Frankenstein monster in L.A. It's interesting. If that happened today, would it be considered the most disgusting promotional tactic

or just coin of the realm? I don't even think it'd be the worst thing in the segment. All right, let's get back to this list, Jim. Here's one that may finally break our long natural nightmare. Yeah, we'll get a name on this list. We'll see.

Turning 29 in Memphis. the rocket Owen Hart. There's your check, Mark. Do we need to tell anybody how great Owen was or what the fuck? But in 1994, he had the match with Brett at, wasn't it 94 in WrestleMania?

Had the match with Brett. It was one of the great WWF matches because they actually wrestled instead of doing shit Vince wanted everybody to do. It was the year that Owen turned heel. and got a big push. They gave him Jim Nidehart, Brett's old partner.

He was the King of Hearts, when he won the King of the Ring, and him and Brett had that cage match at SummerSlam. So it's a great way to cap. Owen Hart had a fantastic 20s in wrestling. I mean, just from the moment he debuted, this was kind of the cap to it, the heel turn when working with Brett.

And he had been the most talked about rookie of the year in 80, what was it, 85 or 86 in Calgary. 86. Everybody was fucking over the moon about Owen Hart. And as you said, what a great 94. And the promos came out, the whole nine yards. So there's your check mark.

All right, Jim, moving on here. Turning 25 in May, the roadie, Brian Armstrong. Wow. And again, he's a great guy. You can't, I don't think, put him on the top 20 list for this year for being the roadie for double J and he wrestled some, but he would obviously go on to prosper further in his own career. But Brian had already, let's see, it was the first time I used him on Smoky Mountain TV was 92. 92 Dark Secret. Yeah, so he would have been, he was 23 at that point. He had just gotten out of the service and was just starting to wrestle. And the dark secret was Brian, or not Brian, but Brad Armstrong's A Ractnaman costume turned inside out. Or was it the old Bad Street costume. It was the Bad Street costume when Brad was Bad Street.

But we just turned it inside out so it looked different because he didn't have a outfit because he wasn't working yet. And then he became Brian Armstrong as himself early on, you know, just because the Armstrong family was the heart of Smoky Mountain. But there's a bunch of tapes of him not only on TV, but in a few of the house show, spot shows, where he was working against Steve or working against Scott. So just to, you know, get some experience. but anyway, I don't put him on the list for 94 as a top 20 guy, but he'd get there eventually. Turning 24 in July, Scott Taylor, the future of Scotty Tootty. And again, what a great kid.

Scott Taylor was never a problem, always there on time, never fucked up, always very intelligent, good, dedicated worker. and they put him as a team with Brian Lawler, Brian Christopher, that it was, except for being a great worker, Brian Christopher was completely opposite in every way. So you didn't know what you were going to fucking see or get or have or do or whatever. And so I got to think they were the two oddest tag team partners of all time. But he got the worm over.

I guess what happened? But what happened to Scott to like this is a goddamn, you know, whatever happened to? But I think he got out of the business and became a normal person and had a nice professional career doing something, didn't he? I'm trying to think. Yeah. I knew this years ago. Was it a fireman or am I completely off?

You may be completely off, but I don't know. All right. So if Scott, if you're listening, write in and tell us how successful you've been doing other shit. Meg is jealous. Well, Jim, turning 29 in July, Sean Michaels. And who says that I don't give check marks to people that I don't fucking like? You can't not, really, for, you know, for not only 1994, but what was ahead of him, Sean Michaels, obviously, is going to be one of the top 20 in their 20s that year.

And again, this is before he pissed you off and acted like a dick. this is the year of the first ladder match with him and Razor at WrestleMania. Yeah. It was a great year. It was a great year for Sean Michaels. He was still kind of acting like a dick, but he wasn't really pissing everybody off yet

because he didn't have the cachet in the industry quite yet. Jim, speaking of people with cachet, someone with some Smoky Mountain Cashet. Let's see what you think of this. 28. In November, Brian Lee, the fake entertainer. Well, I mean, Brian Lee was Brian Lee for longer than he was the fake undertaker.

That didn't work out. I think Brian Lee, I finished Brian Lee up more times than any other wrestler. Because he was there at the start, and I've said this. I thought Brian Lee had the size, had a lot of the tools, he could move around for a guy that big. Wasn't the greatest promo in the world, but these things come with age and experience. I thought that might happen and he was an entertaining guy in person. But boy, they teased the gimmick on him and I'd finished him up and then he made such a variety of impressions.

They decided to fucking ick-nay it, not like it was going to goddamn be the greatest angle in history of the world to begin with. So after I'd finished him up and I think switched him baby face that I had to take him back and then I'm, the biggest thing was, and Vince, again, this is something else Vince told me, and this is a cautionary tale to all the young wrestlers out there. We were doing voiceovers at the studio one time. And this was before I worked in the office, but I was still doing commentary, whatever. But Vince came up to me and told me, well, Brian Lee came up to me, and this was when Brian

was still working in Smoky Mountain, but they were planning and doing the lead-up to the fake Undertaker thing, and it had debuted. He said, Brian Lee came up to me and said, well, if you need me quicker, I can just, I can be finished in Smoky Mountain. I'll just start for you, like, yeah, I'm a puppy dog, feed me.

And Vince came back and told me, which I respected him for this, promoter to promoter, because it was a teaching moment for me. he said i'm telling you this that he offered to leave you before it was time to come work for me because he knows he's going to make more money here but that tells me that if he'll do it to you he'll do it to me so i wanted you to know other way you can't argue with that and then it turned out then brian had to come back and jim and my booked on all the shows next month yep because you

ain't going to be in New York. So I'm guessing not on your list for 94. Well, no, because it, I mean, after that was DOA, it was him, the Harris boys, who they were half-brothers, stepbrothers, half-brothers, and Brian Adams, and then that was it. But that's years later, we're talking 94, 94, he was. Yeah, but, but I'm just saying, Brian, after, in between and after that, poor Brian just didn't, didn't catch on. anywhere.

And then there was the ECW. Well, did he even catch on an ECW? He had a scaffold match. I don't know if he caught on. Well, I hope they caught him. And then what didn't

help him, he was friends with Mark Undertaker. That's why they did the whole deal to begin with. And then the knucklehead when he got arrested in Nashville for I can't remember what, so I don't want to slander him by saying something wrong. but when they arrested him, he told him he was the Undertaker.

And then it got on the news in Nashville that the WWF's Undertaker was arrested for doing whatever the fuck he did. And that didn't get over. And as the end of that. Well, speaking of the dead man, turning 29 in March, the Undertaker. I think we've safely found another checkmark.

And that's 29 in 94. He debuted in what 91 in the WWF as Undertaker? That would have been- 90, November 90. 90. Okay, that he was 24, whatever he was at that point. That's just amazing to think of him that young. But I think that's a checkmark without any.

argument about it, right? Considering what he had already done and what he was about to do for the next how many years. I agree completely. Everyone's so far 29 years old. Owen, Sean and... And that was the one thing.

Do you know that the Undertaker once appeared on a Smoky Mountain Wrestling show in Albany, Kentucky? I think you told me that before. He didn't appear on the actual card, but he appeared at the show because he rode over there with fucking Brian Lee and they were still friends.

And Taker was living in Nashville at the time too. And he was off and home and just wanted to make a trip with Brian so they could bullshit in the car. But we're at this high school gym and there's 400 people there or whatever. And the back door opened up and in walked Brian Lee and the Undertaker.

And the people are, ah! And then he went in the fucking locker room and we never saw him again. and neither did they. And they were like, when the show was over, don't we get to see The Undertaker? Well, Jim, 28 in October, your charge, Yokozuna.

Wow. Ed, 28 years old. I was five years older than Yokozuna at that point. That's incredible. He's got to get a check mark. He was the fucking WWF champion. he'd have another couple of good years until the weight just got so far gone that they couldn't book him anymore. I would think he's a checkmark, is he not?

I think he has to be. I agree with everything you just said. Jim, a few more names here, and we'll wrap up for today. I know he said songs and retro figures. A lot of weather issues today. We'll return with those next time. turning 29 in March from Harlem Heat, Booker T. Oh, and I know somebody's going to say, well, he had an automatic checkmark, but in 1994,

where was Harlem Heat at in the pecking order? That was the year, or was it the year before they were with Miss Sherry? They came in in 93 with Robert Parker, or Colonel Rob Parker. And then in 94, they were not with Sherry yet. This is pre-Sherry. Sherry was with Rick Flair in 94. Potentially is Booker than a question mark, and we come back and evaluate because his best years are yet to come.

I agree. That's my thought on it. And also, boy, from what I heard, if they had fucking debuted the original goddamn idea for Colonel Robert Parker and Harlem Heat, we'd still be talking about it. And there would be a dark side of the ring season on that. It would have been a death of WCW if they had done that.

Well, yes, somebody would have done something. Whose idea was it? Do you remember? Because I wasn't there. I remember the idea, but I don't know if anybody ever took credit or blame. But they were going to bring, and at Colonel Robert Parker, Robert Fuller, for those of you who might not have seen him,

was dressed up like a southern colonel, like Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager, a string tie, cowboy hat, the old-fashioned, Colonel Sanders, yeah. And at the same time, he had that just hillbilly accent that Robert didn't need to accentuate at all. He just sounded like that. And he looked like he stepped off the plantation,

and they were going to bring Harlem heat out in convict outfits in chains. as the chain gang, right? As the, as I, I can't remember whether it was the chain gang or whether it was the convicts or what the fuck it might have been, but you imagine Hank Aaron would have had a field day with that one down there at the TBS board meeting also. I've been watching them on GWF on Global Wrestling, the Ebony Experience for a while. And, you know, it was such a dark, dim show.

It was hard to get into anyone. I post Eddie Gilbert Global. And when they got called up to WCW, it was like, okay, kind of cool, called up. When they got brought into WCW, it was kind of cool. And it took a while for Booker T to really break out. I don't think anyone, I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone really noticed at this point that,

man, Booker T's really got something. It was, they were a team. They were a team and a sea of teams. Yeah, because his brother was big and looked impressive, but didn't have the, didn't have the in-ring. Jim 25 in April the natural Dustin Rhodes Wow

is he he may be one of the only guys on this list is still working or hasn't given it up as of yet I'm thinking Dustin in 94 was in WCW and was starting to get moved into the thick of things right but he had started

he'd been working almost 10 years at that point He started late 80s in Florida. He worked Memphis for quite some time. He had been a variety of places, and then in WCW, they were starting to, or maybe the year before, had really started to feature him prominently. And, of course, Dusty was there at a lot of this time. But is he a question mark based on his, again, his best years are in front of him? Or what do you think?

I would put him on the list. Dustin Rhodes was great in the ring already. He had been established in WCW, and it worked. You know, we saw Eric Watts not work. Everyone knew he was Dusty's son. If you were a smart fan, you knew Dusty was booking. I don't feel like anyone held that against Dustin Rhodes. Oh, he was so good that you couldn't.

Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, early on 91, him and Steamboat win the tag belt. Him and Barry Windham as a team. That's right. It was that early. So I will give him a check mark now. Because I thought that this was the point where they were just start. Now, Dustin Rhodes, like, low-key for a while was pretty fucking awesome.

And then I think once he became Gold Dust and it was so outside the box. Yeah. And plus, part of, part of Dustin's great work was that he kind of emulated Barry Windham. And with his work and the way he did things and very well also, not like a cheap rip-off. He was a natural. But with Gold Dust, it was so much about the gimmick. He couldn't do those things. He made more money as Gold Dust,

but he was not the pro wrestler that Dustin Rhodes was. But a true talent, so I would put him on the list without question. Yeah, okay. And he had a good 94. He had a feud with a... He ended up in a feud with the Colonel Rob Parker family, actually. Him and Bunkhous Buck and different things. But Jim...

also turning 25 in July of 94, same age as Dustin Rhodes, but different experience level, Terra Rising, who would become John Paul Levec? Who would become the son-in-law? After Larry Zubiscoe claimed that honor. The guests that wouldn't leave. Yeah, this, for 1995, I made it's Triple H, and, Yeah, we don't need, but for 1994, he was Joe Nobody, really. At that point, he was Joe Nobody in 95 when he was Hunter Hurst-Helmsley.

So they took the Jean-Paul Levec gimmick and just changed the name to three more names. He was still a haughty, fluffy, fucking, you know, English nobleman type of character. but he wasn't doing nothing in 94 worth writing home about, was he? No, not really. He showed promise he had a big head of hair and that sometimes was all it took. Wow, he has blonde hair.

He looks like Rick Flair because he has hair. No, I mean, things were to come, obviously. Yeah. Jim, the final name we're going to hit today, turning 26 in May Lord Stephen Regal and for the children out there in the audience

he would become William Regal and become the beloved personality he is today and the only person yet to date who was able to escape the fucking AEW Madhouse without really getting any on him he knew when the getting was good didn't he The way he got out of there was just brilliant.

He knew when the getting was good. Steve Regal, just a great guy and just has so many experiences, so many great stories from his time starting in England. And then he really, Bobby Eaton thought a lot of him. He thought a lot of Bobby Eaton. When they were partners, Bobby was the veteran at that time.

And he was kind of helping Steve Regal. I know a lot of people are saying well guys Steve Regal's a technical wrestling master not with his technical wrestling but he was helping Americanize Steve Regal and smarting him up to kind of the ways of the office and who was who and what was what in this country

and you know he still his best years in the United States were ahead of him but I think he's got to kind of be a question mark because he was being used at least he was being used so well there in WCW during the period of time he was there. I personally would put him on the list,

and I would also argue that 1994 may be his peak in WCW, even though he'd be around a little longer and have great matches, but the Lord Stephen Regal character was awesome in 94, with William, Sir William, which was Bill Dundee. That's just William Dundee, I was about to call him, What Bill Dundee is Sir William, he came in as the blandest British baby face you've ever seen in 93.

Yeah, I remember that. It did not look promising and no one cared. And he turned heel and instantly, it was like another guy. Instantly, the facial expressions. They were already there. His mad ability was already there. He put it all together,

had a great run as TV champion. That was the year they brought Larry Zabisco out of her, retirement to get William Regal. It was the best stuff with Zabiss going forever. So I personally would put him on the list. Well, what the hell? Let's put him on the list. All right.

His lordship, Lord Regal. And Jim, that's it for today. We got seven people on the list and three or four question marks. And we're not even, Jesus Christ, there's a hundred more names. I got six people on the list. Who's your seven? We got Regal. We got Rose.

We got Taker. We got Michaels. We got... Oh, I put a check in the wrong place. I'm sorry. Yoko Zuna and Owen Hart. We put... We put Yoko and Owen.

Yes. Okay. We're on the same page. Question marks for 1, 2, 3 kid, Fatu, Jeff Jarrett, and Booker T. I feel as we've gone on,

the case for Jeff Jarrett and 1, 2, 3 kid has only grown. I would already put the 1, 2, 3 kid on, but we'll see where we end up. Jim, with that... Oh, there it is. We'll return next time, and the drive-thru has closed. Thank you to everyone who enjoys the wonderful music we share with everyone every week here on the show.

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