Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 460

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim looks back on the career of "Superstar" Bill Dundee! Plus Jim reviews WWE Sunday Night's Main Event, and Raw & Smackdown highlights! Also, Jim plays Guess The Program, and talks about Ric Flair's lawsuit against his digital rights management team, the passing of The Butcher, Catfish, much more! Thanks to our episode sponsors: RIDGE: One thing to pack, five ways to power! Get 10% Off @Ridge with code JCE at https://www.Ridge.com/JCE #Ridgepod HELIX SLEEP:  Get 27% off during Helix's Labor Day Sale exclusive to our listeners at helixsleep.com/JCE. FACTOR MEALS:  Head to factormeals.com/jce50off and use code jce50off to get 50% off and 1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year, while supplies last. 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.

Sweating to... I don't know. That was all over. Hey! I don't know what you're saying. You're going to hear a lot of noises. Hello again, friends. You're going to hear a lot of noises today. And you are our friends. Welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornedge Drive-Thru. Right here on another one of those days. I feel like my voice is starting to go.

Jim's already complaining about how he feels. I'm your host of the Great Brunswick. Ryan last, and here with me, the star of the show, he's already got me laughing, Mr. Jim Cornett. They've already got you laughing. I'm about to cut my wrists over here with the way you've already set the expectations so low. Well, yeah, he's miserable and I feel like shit. And here we go.

Listen to us for four hours, people. I think you're just trying to claim illness so that you can, have you recently had a couple of fingers amputated the way you played that this time? It wasn't even in the normal range. of horrible. It was a, it was sort of a, it was like, it was like as someone

trying to imitate you, doing you, but they didn't have all of the, maybe at some of the keys on your organ have been disconnected. Possibly your wife is sneaking in there late at night and trying to disable it a little at a time so you don't notice.

It's amazing that you would sit here in the studio, listening to my music week after week, and yet it's like you never have heard any of it and you still don't understand it or get it. I would think via osmosis at this point, you would just find yourself walking from the day, humming these tunes to yourself in your head and saying, you know what, we've got something cooking here.

You're saying you would think that by now it would have leached into my skin like dangerous toxic chemicals out of plastics in the water is what you're saying. Sort of like that process. That's exactly what I'm saying. Well, at least you admit it. Nevertheless, I'm feeling just fine.

I'm a little sinusy. I'm a little snotty. You know, we haven't had rain now in about three weeks. It rained for like five minutes the other day. And now it's a drought coming back. Oh, the pollens through the roof. Everything's, and it's still hot. We had our first 100-degree day.

and September of the year, all the way to September, and then here comes the oven. So I'm just, I'm a little stir, but I'm capable of doing this program. I don't know what your excuse is. I had a good time on Sunday, I'll tell you that. Not watching the rasslin.

I'm not talking about that. It was Stacey's stepfather's birthday, and I took them over to Martin's Barbecue. and we just had a feast. Because I haven't been eating out a lot lately. We've been taking care of the pups. Buddy and Alfie, they're so cute. Have I told you how cute?

I'll do it another time. But this brings something up, Brian, because I believe that I have thought of a food that I have never asked you your opinion on in all of our debates and heated discussions of food and the proper way to eat and what to eat. I have thought of something

that I have never asked you about. And the reason I've thought of this is because her mother and stepfather both and Stacy as well, but I didn't never ask them about it until just now, whereas I've known about Stace, they will have refused to eat catfish. How do you feel about catfish? I feel like it's something I've never had and never will have.

You have never, you have. It sounds like the most unappealing food of all time, and that's good enough for me. You are in your 40s. That's right. And you have never had catfish. Why? When in my life would I have chosen that? And if we're going to the part of my life where my meals were prepared and brought to me by my parents,

at no point was brought to you by your, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait, hold on. We may have to take a side street here. Your parents prepared and brought to you your meat. not like you fucking had to go to the table to eat them? Where were you on your throne? The food is, you sit at the table,

a plate's put in front of you, you eat it. What the hell's wrong with you? What are you talking about? How did you eat? Did you go to the kitchen and were you part of the wait staff? What did you do? No, and you said my parents prepared my food and brought it to me. It sounded like they had the fucking towel over their arm

and will there be anything else, sir? But no, can't fit. I know you're from up north there where they don't really know how to cook a lot and everything. But I discovered the problem because Stace just always, I don't like catfish. I ain't going to eat catfish. And it's disgusting.

It feeds off the bottom of the lake or whatever. You're doing a great sales job here. Well, no, but I've like, because if you go down south, if you go to Louisiana, Mississippi, parts of Florida, places in the Carolina, you will find catfish. The catfish shack. You'll find catfish restaurants. Everybody eats catfish.

But here's the fucking thing. Her mother told me, oh, I don't know. I've seen that catfish. Well, they hauled out of the... Apparently, they knew somebody that was fishing out in whatever water they got there out in the Bay Area of San Francisco, pulling catfish out of them kind of waters. And I'm like, I don't know about that there.

But if you go down, either down... south or to a plate like Martin's Barbecue, which is, it has their heart in West Tennessee. And you find good catfish that has been not, we're not talking gas station catfish here now, but good catfish, people know how to fix it and fry it up just fine. Well, that's your tongue will slap your brains out. That's the best thing you've ever put in your mouth. I can't believe that you as a man of the world, Brian last, have not been interrogated. get dip either in some tartar sauce or over at martens they got comeback sauce how do you feel about

the comeback sauce i don't know what the hell that is that sounds awful too what's comeback sauce that's a sauce it's so good it makes you want to come back makes it come back up out of your mouth into the fucking toilet no it's it's it's like it's a it's a cross between tartar sauce and a and a tangy kind of good thousand island dressing or uh you all kind of mixed together and Oh, God. Oh, boy, I'll tell you what. And they got the best hush for hire you. Are you a hush puppy eater, at least, when you go to a fish place?

Even if you don't eat the catfish, you're eating the hush puppy. I don't think I've ever had a hush puppy. Oh, come on now. Maybe they call it something different in the Northeast. I don't know, but I've never had that. No, if you go to red lobster, you can get a fucking hush puppy. No, we have real seafood places here in the northeast, not red lobster. I'm just saying it's widely available.

People know what hush puppies are. if somebody held a 357 caliber magnum to your head right now and said, tell me what's in a hush puppy or how you make a hush puppy, you just say, shoot, is what you're saying. I would say, it sounds like maybe there's a potato involved. I don't know. No? No, some onions.

Must be onions. You're correct there. Of course, that's an easy one to guess. Some onions, probably based on what you've described so far, some disgusting sauce or gravy or something. Well, no, you can dip it in anything you want, but there's no gravy or sauce involved in the actual hush puppy. I don't know.

Puppie, is there meat involved? Tell me what a hush puppy is. It's fried cornbread. It's some cornmeal with it. You stick a nice old piece of onion in there for the sake of it. And other people might juice it up with a pepper or a jalapeno or whatever if they want to get fancy, but it's a ball. of cornmeal, that you drop it and you fry it,

and then you dip it in the comeback sauce or in whatever. They got the best hush puppies over there at Martin. So a disgusting twinkie. That's why you're having your fish fry, you would drop them in the friar and throw them to the dogs to keep them quiet, hush puppy. That's the way you do it. Again, for a world traveler like yourself,

an international yacht broker from Toulon, France, Why am I not hanging out of red lobster? Yeah, I don't know. You don't have to hang out of red when you're a child. You never after you went fishing, did you have to scale or were you in charge with actually cutting a head off? First of all, I'm not a big fan of fishing. But every now and then, like someone would have like a chartered thing and you get on a boat, like the Captain Lou 2 or something. And you go out like Reynolds Channel or whatever and you fish for whatever dirty little fish there are off Long Island.

and then they would like bash him in the head and skin them and everything and give it this little fucking clear bag of guts. I don't know why anyone would want this. I never ate any of it. So if any of it was catfish, I don't know. I'm glad you didn't eat any of the fish guts, but whatever it is. They saw you coming. What kind of tourist trap fishing trip are you going on?

When I was a kid, when my dad was gone alive. For anyone from Long Island, point look out Long Island. That's the guilty of town. When my dad was still alive and even had my mom like to go, she wouldn't drive. the boat but she loved to go we used to go to dale hollow lake down there it's on the kentucky tennessee state line to this fishing camp that these friends of his owned and get a cabin and he'd get to daggum the the boat with a fucking motor a motorboat an outboard motor or you could row you had that option there was the oars there and you could row if you didn't want to make a lot of noise

and scare the fish away. And we would zip out through the Dale Hollow Lake and go to a sandbarred fish and put them in the cooler and come back. And I could scale. They let me scale, but I couldn't have the knife at that young age to cut the heads off. And then you fry everything for heaven's sake.

Just fry everything. That's a safe thing to do with anything you're going to eat. Just fry it. It'll be fine. Hey, hold on. Let's get back to where we started. because you never finished, I don't think. What did Stacey and her family think of the catfish? Oh, well, that's the thing. Both, Stace still refused.

She refuses on principle. She's smart. But her mother and stepfather both loved the catfish. They said, well, that tastes just like white fish. I see, that's, yes. They're obviously having issues. They've taken the whiskers off of it. But now they were looking at shit that was coming out of a muddy lake

it on the California coast somewhere. I don't know what that might look like. And in terms of nicknames, where do you rank catfish hunter? Well, see, right there. That should tell you that catfish was part of everyone's diet back in the day. They even

named basketball players after it. That wasn't why they named him after it. It was Charlie Finley. Was he doing that deal where he was getting on the internet and lying about who he was to get people to fuck him or send him money? Do you know anything about Charlie Finley? the old baseball, he owned the A's.

Johnny Carson used to joke about him on the Tonight Show. Entertaining guy to read about, also entertaining to read how much he frustrated every single person he dealt with. He wanted to really market his team as kind of being the other team. He wanted guys to grow their hair. He wanted guys to have facial hair. And then he wanted to give them nicknames. So he concocted... As strange as it may seem, they give these ballplayers, weird names these days. You've got who's on first. What's on? Go ahead.

Well, so he had Jim Hunter, who he had in the minors. He wanted him to become catfish hunter, and they concocted this whole story about like when he was young, he ran away to catch catfish. But it never happened. There was just some bullshit story because he liked the name. And for the rest of his life,

he was catfish hunter. Vida Blue, which is already like a crazy name, Vita Blue, came up and was like immediately the best pitcher. And Charlie Finley at him got into a big fight because he wanted him to change his name to true, true blue. Get rid of Vita and legally change his name to true blue.

Now on the mound pitching for the A's, true blue. Yeah, quite a character. Eventually ran off a lot of players and trying to sell a lot of his players. Did Jim Hurd ever work for Charlie O. Finley? I don't think so. I don't think so. Charlie Finley had success. Listen, it's goofy and everything, and eventually, like I said,

he tried to sell all of his players because he hated free agency. But he won World Series. You know what I mean? Like Oakland moved from Oakland now, but back then they actually drew people, and they won World Series, and these were the best players. So I don't think it's a fair comparison to Jim Hurt. Well, but at the same time, they didn't have the opportunity to buy the Turner Classic Movies Library

or whatever and have Spartacus on a team. And you were happy with the catfish? The catfish is lovely. The catfish is divine, if I do say so myself. Meow. This has been ocean talk. This has been where you have again revealed yourself to be just a food, a food snood of just a stick in the mud when it comes to the,

the finer parts of southern cooking and living. Do you like escargo? Well, now, see, now you're just being silly. Oh, no, come on. I'm talking about something that's loved. It's a delicacy, people. That's another name for snails, and I ain't eating no goddamn snails. Oh, you got to give it a shot.

You put some of the special sauce on it, and it's wonderful. You've got to give me a try. I am not eating what I see crawling across my driveway after a heavy rain, even if you put comeback sauce on it. You put it on the barbecue, you turn it over a few times, you bash it. Yeah, I'll turn the barbecue over. Exactly. See, now you're just being silly.

I'm talking to you about a fresh, deep-fried delicacy from the lakes of the deep-south, and you're talking about some kind of goddamn prehistoric fucking sucker fish. Pretty historic. I'm talking about a snail that just spent the last day moving three-quarters. of an inch closer to your belly. You know what? That's what we used to do when we were kids.

We'd take those fucking box turtles. It took them all day to go 15 feet and we'd pick them up and set them back 15 feet to the opposite directions. That's horrible. Where did they have to be? Where were they going? They have some sort of goal.

They're trying to get you do something. As all a box turtle does, just walk for a while and then fucking curl up and sleep and then walk for a while and curl up and sleep. He didn't really have any deadlines. All right. I take it back. You never have turtle soup?

My cousin Larry used to go to the lake and back of us here. Well, I don't know if it's still there. I don't want to be wandering through people's backyards of the subdivision. But when it was a giant farm, that big lake we would fish in,

he went back there and that turtle traps and came out with a snapping turtle one day. It almost took his fucking hand off at the wrist. But it was as big around as I could reach now. So what's at a three foot circumference on that fucking thing? He got a wild hair up his ass after being down in Dale Holla at the restaurant there where the guy made turtle soup that he wanted to make turtle soup. And Meganette's soup almost killed him.

I think the soup turned out okay. but it was hell on him getting that turtle out of that fucking lake. You could add that to the list of things I'll never have. Turtle soup. It's not bad, but you've got to know how to make it. You know, in Indiana Jones, in the Temple of Dunn, there were people that really enjoyed eating from the monkey skulls, and there were other people that were like,

oh, my God, this is fucking disgusting. Well, no, there's meat on it. You're not eating the goddamn shell or the brains of the thing. and it's not, you know, it's it's not like it's a little bitty fucking, what do they call those things? Cornish game hen. A little miniature chicken

that wouldn't feed a goddamn mouse. There's a lot of meat on a snapping turtle. You know, I think this food discussion today has turned the tide. I think we're going to see more people on the side of the French toast chateau in the weeks ahead. I think you've, this is your big heel turn, I think.

We'll see. All righty, this is your show. I'm just disappointed in you. You got to open and expand your horizons. Well, Jim, there are lots of horizons that will be open. That makes no sense, but you all know what I mean at Cornett's collectibles, Jim Cornett.com, new horizons. Well, we'll be open for business. We are now, as a matter of fact, jump in whenever you want to. But starting Saturday, October 3rd is the big holiday sale where you're going to get new stuff and save money. and so just jump in then because not only have we announced the portfolios of my photography that are going to be on sale, the Memphis Wrestling Legends,

and unfortunately, I've looked at more pictures of Bill Dundee in the last month than I have in the last 25 years, and we're going to talk about Bill later on on this program, probably at the end where we got time to sit in and think about everything. But the Memphis wrestling legends and great wrestling champions, portfolios 11 digitally reproduced

color 8 by 10s from the original negatives of my photography along with a certificate of authenticity and also I announced we're going to have a limited 500 copies of Hooker, the autobiography of Luthes, the reissue by

Scott Teal that includes not only the original book but also multiple newer interviews that he had done with Lou and 200 pictures and just tons of various new material. We're going to have 500 of those. And, Brian, this is an announcement.

If you buy a copy of heroes and friends on the holiday sale this year, as a stocking stuffer, you can get a copy of the graphic novel behind the curtain for $10. Because I know behind the curtain has been popular with the fans but we're down to less than 500 and I just want to clear the shelves off so even if you've gotten it now you can get it for a friend we went through the 1,500 of the hard covers and the last 500 here will be 5,000 of the soft cover behind the curtains so that has been popular with the folks and as a matter of fact we're probably on the last 600 heroes of

and friends and that'll be 5,000. So this holiday season could be the end of both of those. If you want them, get them now. And you can look at everything we're doing and there's going to be more. You're going to be able to save more money and get more new things.

On Saturday, September 19th, there'll be banners and listing information so you can see exactly what's on sale, what the prices are, and get a look at all these pictures and the various things into portfolio, Jim Cornett.com. That's right, Jimcornett.

Yes.com. Jim, a lot to get to here today. Let's start with some sad news that happened over the last few days. And like you said before, we'll talk about Bill Dundee later in the show. But some very sad news over the weekend, Jim, the butcher of the butcher in the blade,

AEW fame for fans of his music, he's the guitar player for every time I die, passed away following a match for enjoy wrestling, I believe just outside Pittsburgh, I want to say. Have you been following this story? Because it all kind of happened late at night or later in the day slash night and developed into the next day. Yeah, well, I can't say I have been following it because I heard about it. about it after the fact what did it happen.

And, you know, I guess he was in his late 40s, not an old man. I don't know whether there was, you know, any history of heart issues or whatever that he had. But that's scary, you know, when, and I, unfortunately, I never met the guy. And we used to joke about the butcher and the baker and, you know, the candlestick maker on AEW back in the old days. But I didn't know the guy and had never met him. It certainly wouldn't wish anything like this on him. So as you said, it's still, you know, the story was still being uncovered,

so we don't know exactly what it was, but one would think from the sound of it, something like that, he probably had some type of heart attack. And that was kind of what have a spot the moon dog. Most people would know him as. But Larry Latham, one of the blonde bombers that Danny Davis managed, his real name was Larry Booker. The same thing happened to him in a match in Memphis. One of those, the legend shows in the, I guess, early 2000s.

I can't remember what year at the Coliseum. and he just slump right down in the corner and I think he may have been dead before they even got him out. But, you know, I guess his tag team partner, the blade recognizes something was wrong. And, you know, they tried to get medical attention to him as quickly as they could.

But, you know, things happened, but I, I hate to think it was something just completely out of the blue, but I'm wondering if he had any medical history. I don't know. There have been various articles that have come out since this happened. I guess he hit his head at some point, and that's where I have a little bit of confusion because I saw, I have an article here from Entertainment Weekly,

that says he hit his head on the floor, but it also says he hit his head on a ring post. and you don't know if those have anything to do with anything. And then again, he's in having a match where he's working, right? So is somebody there confusing, something he did as part of the match with, oh, it may have done this or that.

You don't know is what I'm trying to say. Because he's, everything that he probably did in that match, if it was real, would have contributed to some medical issue. So when people are watching it and they're trying to speculate, without knowing for sure, you don't know what's going on, and we don't know. Unfortunately, that's, you know, it doesn't happen often, but like I said, it's a scary thing when it does. Like the referee in OVW was, well, they knew what caused that,

but nobody knew what to fucking do, everybody froze, etc. I have here something that was put out as things were transpiring or news was getting around from Enjoy Wrestling, which was the promotion he was working for on Twitter. Andy collapsed at the end of his match this evening, and I don't know if we said it already,

his real name was Andy Williams, the butcher. Our doctors on staff tended to him immediately, administering CPR until the ambulance arrived. We sent everyone home and are at the hospital now waiting for more information, thanks to everyone who helped and has reached out. So the company immediately canceled the show that was in progress, which was absolutely the right thing to do.

Yeah. Additional information from the promoter, his name is Kurt Hackemer. I called for an ambulance. At this time, he was conscious, but unresponsive. His condition worsened quickly and his pulse faded. He added that doctors administered CPR and used an automated external defibrillator until the ambulance arrived. Before he was transported to the hospital, on-site medics indicated his symptoms were consistent with a cardiac event. So that's all we really know.

And, you know, like you said, we didn't really see too much of him. You know, with someone we had fun with the early appearances of. but when you really think about their arrival in AEW, hate to say missed opportunity, but it was like a big moment that kind of wasn't truly capitalized on. I could be wrong, but it was the early days of dynamite, right? Where all of a sudden the butcher came up through the floor of the ring

to attack Cody Rhodes? Was it Cody Rhodes or someone else? Oh, good Lord, that's been so long now. I can't remember, to be honest with you. And I don't want to quote shit. I can't remember. You know, I just remember he stood out because, and looking now, he was already 41 or so, he looked like a fully formed wrestler, you know, which, I didn't know who he was.

I didn't recognize him. So it was really interesting, just the idea that this guy popped up. You would think that's a great way to get a push, but, you know, they were kind of, I don't know, not to say they were made comedy figures, but they had that one match with the Young Bucks where they were cutting up meat and stuff because, obviously. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, because it's. butcher, you know, so they had, but, but yeah, that's, apparently he did start late,

and I guess the, the band, I can tell from the name of the band is probably not, you know, my normal musical taste, but the band apparently has been popular in that genre for some time, and he has done that longer than he did wrestling. but it would seem like they could have done more cross-promotion maybe than what they did if they've got a following. It says here in this Entertainment Weekly article that Andy Williams trained at the Renegade Wrestling Association in Ontario to become a pro wrestler before sustaining a knee injury. And it was during his recovery that he learned how to play guitar. I didn't know that. That's very interesting. Well, again, very sad news.

Very sorry to see this. Everyone I know who has worked with him or talked about him has always talked about him as being a really, really nice guy. So Andy Williams, the butcher, 48 years old. Jim, another passing I would like to ask you about. A wrestler whose name I know more than his work. Although I've seen a little bit here and there. But the passing of Jerry Oates. Well, and I get you're probably not alone because if you said Jerry Oates, Ted Oates, the Oates brothers, chances are most people go, eh?

But in the, God, did they start in the 60s? It would have been very late, but maybe the early 70s, mid-70s, really into the late 70s, and then at least one of them, I can't remember whether it's Ted or Jerry, did a little bit of work in some of those early 80s days in Georgia when things were in flux. They were from Columbus, Georgia, a brother tag team. And when they were young and first got in the business, especially Fred Ward, who was the promoter in Columbus

and good old Ralph Freed, his son-in-law, rooster. they were a big feature baby face team in that part of the territory because they were from Columbus and hometown guys and I'm going to say that they God I don't know what's happened to either one of them well I know what's happened to one of them now but you know what I'm saying what they've been doing the last 20 years or whatever but the Oates brothers at one point or another one or both either worked in the Georgia territory. I think they had some runs in Kansas City, but also they worked in the promotion on and off for Fred Ward when it was still a thing

until that whole thing collapsed with the Georgia sale in the 80s and trained guys. So if you're a Southern wrestling fan, especially from Georgia of that time period, you would remember the Oats brother. Marty Janetti, because he was from Columbus, Georgia, I think the first name, one of the first names, if not the first,

that he was going to use when he started wrestling or did for a while, was Marty Oates. Yeah, they showed up in Mid-South towards the end of 83 for maybe a taping or two, but maybe just one.

And they were Jerry and Marty Oates. There you go, because he trained with, if not, Jerry and Ted, at least Jerry, and then he got him started. So that was the reason why that Jerry was on the Mid-South TV was because he could call Bill and say, hey, I got this new kid, I'll come down and get him started for you, and say he's my cousin.

And Bill's like, okay. But, you know, that's the way you did things in those days. So they were names and did have, you know, positions either in the office or his local promoters, referees, trainers, whatever, on and off for quite a long time. Yeah, I guess the last thing of note was in 84, him and Rod Garvin and Georgia beat the road warriors. That was kind of the changing of the guard, I guess, in a lot of ways for Atlanta wrestling. And maybe Garvin was on the fucking team just to make sure that they did. didn't change it in the middle.

Well, very sad to hear about the passing in Jerry Oates. We send our sympathies to his friends and fans. Jim, as we move on here with the show, we have some reviews. Let me pull this up. An article, Breaking News, as we are recording.

Jim, this is from the independent, the UK newspaper, their website at least, exclusive. WWE legend Rick Flair Oh no claims influencer talent agency duped him into handing over his digital life

according to a lawsuit The Nature Boy is not finished according to court filings obtained by the independent The case has just begun Those are quotes apparently from the lawsuit Oh wait a minute Is he saying that somebody else has been tweeting all this all this time instead of him

and now he's finally suing about it? Well, let's find out. This is again just happening. This article just came out as we are recording. What is his digital life? Legendary pro wrestler Rick Nature Boy Flair is suing a digital talent agency. He claims duped him into signing away the rights to his own image and likeness while promising him

a six-figure monthly revenue stream that allegedly never materialized. Oh, boy. The 77-year-old Flair, whose real name is Richard Morgan Fleer, spent four decades, quote, building something through his body, his blood, his pain, his persona, his craft, and his commitment to excellence at a level that only 16 world championships can describe. And that's according to a $10 million lawsuit obtained by the Independent,

And it sounds like maybe Rick wrote the lawsuit. Okay, but what did he think they were going to do and what did they do? Is that enumerated therein? But Flair's complaint says, FAM networks, that's FAMM, FAM networks, A, and this is a quote, cutting edge talent first management agency and media company representing some of the most unique and impactful influencers in the world, uh-oh, pounced on an opportunity to rook the elderly performer

out of what was rightfully his. Oh, boy. So they're dealing with influencers, which I have now understood and learned is the term they've given to a bunch of unemployed jack-offs, fucking taking a camera around, shooting whatever the fuck they do

and putting it on YouTube. Well, here's a quote from the lawsuit. What FAM did was simple. It waited until he needed help managing the digital legacy of everything he had built, presented him with a document he was not equipped to understand, told him he had lawyers when he did not, gave him 14 minutes to read it, and walked away with a perpetual license to his identity.

The complaint contends, adding that the pending legal action is only, quote, the beginning. The nature, boy. is not finished, the complaint states. The case has just begun. Reached by phone at his home in Hillsborough County, Florida. Fleer, who last wrestled in 2022,

told the Independent that he, quote, wants to bury the people of fam networks. And said he lost out on at least 250,000 in revenue so far. messages sent to five different departments at fam networks were all returned as undeliverable. A contact form on the company's website was inoperable on Tuesday. Jesus Christ. It does not have a publicly listed phone number. But you can get discounts on aluminum siding.

As Rick Flair, Richard Fleer electrified arenas around the world, his complaint explains, calling him one of the most celebrated, decorated, and recognizable professional athletes in the history of his sport. His career transcended the ring and became an indelible part of American pop culture. It goes on. A name, a likeness, and an identity that carries commercial value precisely because generations of fans have given it meaning through their devotion. The complaint states that identity the product of a lifetime of work

sacrifice and sacrifice again is what FAM Network's LLC came for all right let's stop for a moment here because there's more to go and there's already a lot there but I when you read the part

it gave him 14 minutes to sign or what yeah or what for you got 14 minutes to sign that or we're going to plug fucking Ashley. What? He's Wendy Richter at the garden. Yeah. The Rick Flair that I knew, again,

had the best attorneys in North Carolina and Georgia. And even though he was sometimes impetuous on making his decisions and things, you can't, he is not and shouldn't be. be treated like and shouldn't accept treatment like Joe Lewis was an illiterate sharecropper who they screwed out of countless millions of dollars or whatever back in the day. But no, how would Flair not have an independent attorney review the whatever this contract was

that they said they were going to do? and why would these conditions have happened that it was signed under to begin with? And what are these people? And why would he entertain this fucking conversation with these people that have obviously been in business for 15 minutes and sounds like they're working out of a panel van?

I don't know, but it just always seems like he's in business with shady fucking people. But let's get back to this. Again, I don't know who these people are. FAM, which maintains offices in New York City and Los Angeles. But apparently not working telephones or email addresses. Proportedly defrauded Fleer by quietly taking control of his social media accounts, recategorizing them to make recovery near impossible,

and milked his persona for profits he never saw. At 5.57 p.m. on December 5th, 2025, Fleer opened an email from FAM, which came with a contract attached, according to the complaint, which was filed September 5th in Manhattan Supreme Court. I have a quote here from the lawsuit, Jim. At 6.11 p.m., 14 minutes later, he signed it. In those 14 minutes, without the benefit of legal counsel, without a single attorney reviewing a single word on his behalf, and in direct contradiction of a contractual recital, FAMM itself drafted, declaring that the agreement had been negotiated with counsel, Mr. Fleer surrendered, an irrevocable, perpetual, sub-licensable, license over his name,

likeness, voice, accounts, and commercial identity throughout the universe, without restriction, in all languages, formats, and media, now known, or later developed. Holy shit, Jesus! Including translations in Klingon! What the fuck, in 14 minutes, and I haven't even started drinking yet.

Fam knew he had no lawyer. The complaint alleges, Pham wrote the clause saying he did anyway. And then in parentheses it says, Fleer has trouble discerning AI-generated content from reality and often gets confused about things he sees online, according to his daughter, Charlotte. Let's stop there for a second,

because just trying to go based on what we're reading so far. He's alleging that they only gave him 14 minutes. It just says here that he signed it 14 minutes later. not that there was a time limit or anything on it. Yeah. They haven't said anything yet that stated that he decided not, or he couldn't give it to a lawyer. I guess the biggest thing would be that they're claiming.

He bought this used car with the sawdust in the radiator or whatever, and now, and he was happy to accept delivery until he found out that it wouldn't run. And now he's trying to get out of the deal, which it sounds like that they have, breached, but in the meantime, he signed all this shit over thinking that they were going to do some miraculous thing. And what, how much judgment did he give it before he did that is my comment. And here's what they were promising apparently. The company, which promotes online influencers and pairs them up with corporate deals, offered Fleer a full slate of speaking

engagements and appearances with 90% of the proceeds going to him, the complete states. It says FAMM pledged 50% to FLEAR for, quote, collaborative projects, and 10% for, quote, passive content. Pham would also restore Flair's hacked, demonetized Facebook page, which it claimed would throw off six figures on a monthly basis. These were not aspirations, the complaint argues. They were contractual obligations. All right, let's stop there. So they would give him 90% of the money earned

from speaking engagements, whatever whatever those would be at this point. Yes. 50% for collaborative projects. That's not terrible if it's something where you're putting up your end. 10% for passive content, which would mean they get 90% for passive content. What is passive content?

What is that passive content? Therein lies the tale is that were they just selling his image or intending to sell his image in some kind of way that he was not involved in or is that passive

and then give him 10% of it? and that's what they were going to concentrate on. But I can't, I mean, it's not out of the realm of believability that Rick Flair would be asked to speak here and there at this event or that event or a function like that or whatever. But I don't see him going on a really high-grossing nationwide tour, no matter who's promoting it. Oh, go ahead.

I was just going to say, but the point is, Whether it's 80%, 90%, 50%, or nothing from nothing leaves nothing, these are percentages, was anything ever guaranteed. A percentage of nothing is nothing. And contractually, I'm not talking about who's right or wrong in this, I'm saying contractually, if he's saying it was guaranteed, well, the percentage was, but no amount was so far. but tell me more.

The complaint alleges that, quote, FAM delivered none of them. It sourced not one speaking engagement, not one in-person appearance, not one personal project at the 90% royalty tier. It reposted existing content. At the same time, FAM enriched itself by as much as $20,000 a month,

by monetizing Fleer's Facebook page while paying him, quote, next to nothing, according to the complaint. Which, that's right in the same zip code on the same street, almost the same number. It's right next to nothing. It then transferred Fleer's Facebook page to itself,

effectively locking Fleer's existing team out and blowing a potential advertising deal they already had in the works. The complaint states, by taking operational control of Fleer's digital life, Pham was able to, quote, enrich itself in a position from which it could demand a ransom from his own property's return. For his own property's return, excuse me. When he signed the contract with Fam,

the company was already embroiled in an almost identical case involving UFOologist Stephen Greer, according to the complaint. Yet Fam disclosed none of this to Mr. Fleer before he signed. Wait a minute, you mean to tell me, Your Honor, that these crooks here did not tell this other sucker that they were crooks before they fucking cond him? Disclosure would have ended the transaction, the complaint added. the complaint contends that the contract that fam convinced Flair to sign was later weaponized, should be declared null and void. It describes the agreement as not a contract, but rather a trap,

giving Fam the right to act in Fleer's name without his involvement and erecting practically insurmountable barriers, preventing him from extracting himself from the deal. So again, let's stop here. It sounds like Rick Flair signed a really bad deal. Yeah. And probably regrets it and probably should. And quite frankly, if they were promising you hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from social media,

you probably should have questioned that a little more. And I'm sorry, I mean, even if you don't have a lawyer, if I put papers in front of you right now that said you were signing away in purpose for the entire universe for all formats now or in the future. All rights. You wouldn't go, hey, wait a minute, I can't sign this. I mean, that's, right? I mean, that's spotable.

Yeah. That's spotable. This is, and is this the same principle, but on a much bigger scale as these people go door to door and sell senior citizens, goddamn various services that they don't need, and might never notice that they don't get. But at the same time,

I just, I can't believe that Flair is doing all of these type of deals himself rather than having some management personnel that would do something of that nature. Last year, Flair sued a cannabis company. He was involved with, promoting. I forgot about that.

Along with iconic prize fighter Mike Tyson for 50. By the way, I told you that I swear to Christ to you that Rick Flair never spoke to goddamn miniscule of what's the, an amoeba's

weight worth of weed the entire time he was NWA champion all the years I knew him and suddenly he's on fucking Twitter when he's 75 with Snoop Dog. I of what the fuck is happening here. There was a...

What the fuck is happening here? When they first did ask, he was doing a marijuana label, I don't know what you would call it. There was a video like on... It was just like... It was like phone footage. It was like it was vertical, not horizontal.

And it was like him on a street. I got on a sidewalk. I want to say it was like him and Mike Tyson and it's just people around them filming them and Flares like dancing to no music. Because, you know, that's what we do when we smoke weed. We just start dancing to know. No abuse.

But let me go back to this. He's suing them for $50 million, alleging fraud, self-dealing, and civil RICO conspiracy. He's now asking a judge to rescind the agreement with FAM to order the control of his Facebook page returned to him, a declaratory judgment stating that

FAM has no right to his name, image, or likeness, and for a complete accounting, of revenues generated in his name. Why couldn't they have taken his Twitter account away? But by the way, the Facebook account, I believe, just sends out the same thing the Twitter account sends out. So it's not like there's a rogue Rick Flair page that's like, you know, saying all sorts of crazy shit.

It's just repeating what is on his other social media. I don't look at these various things. I don't know how Facebook works. He is also demanding compensatory damages, among other things of at least $5 million for breach of contract, compensatory and punitive damages of at least $5 million for fraudulent inducement, compensatory damages to be determined at trial for violations of New York's civil rights law, compensatory and punitive damages for torture, for torties of it.

Wait, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, these people haven't got a goddamn pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Apparently, if they haven't got a way to take a phone caller at ease. and he wants $15 million or whatever? Plus lawyers' fees and court costs, and the trial date has not yet been set. But we've talked so much about Rick Flair's social media, and no one's saying it's not him.

You know, Charlotte just did an interview with Stephanie where she talked about how much she cringes because of Rick Flair's social media activity and asks him to stop and doesn't understand what he's doing and maybe questioned if he understands what he's doing. But she didn't say, like, it's not him, it's a road.

company. Just wish he had the right people around. You know, just things could have been different. Things didn't. He doesn't. What is he doing? I'm just babbling. Why?

What is he doing? Why? You just, you just uttered 16 portions of different sentences there, and it all means the same thing. What the fuck? What in the actual fuck? What in the wide, wide world of fuck?

It was just so nice when it was like, he wrestled. and he owned gyms. Like when it was just that, it was like, okay, that's a good balance. In 1988 or 89, he wanted to buy Plum Crazy. In Charlotte, that was the night. Well, I don't know if it was for sale. He just wanted to. No, I think they didn't try to sell it.

I don't know. He didn't pursue it, but there was talk of it. It was a nightclub in Charlotte, and it was like up on this hill behind these restaurants out because I used to go to the Chili's, right? There was near whatever, but it was a big purple fucking building, plum crazy, P-O-U-M, a big purple building,

and there were things shaped like plums, and the boys used to go there, and all I could think of is that would be a money pit for Rick Flair, because he already spends enough going in there for himself and, you know, just doing what he's, does, but if he owned the thing, I don't know if they'd ever charge. Again, again, especially if you were female, but nevertheless. Jim, real quick, before we wrap up the Rick Flair portion of the show,

did you see the video going around at him singing Happy Birthday to the woman at the bar? Yes, and I was hoping until at the end of it, that that was like a member of his party there, because he seemed like he was sitting in between a couple of guys. I thought he was singing to somebody that maybe came with them and they're all friends. But the look on this woman's face, she's just kind of just sitting there, wasn't she? Well, we have some audio we could play.

Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, maybe it's your birthday. And maybe you want some celebratory drinks and maybe you go with, I don't know who, your friends, your partner, whatever it may be, a nice night out. And at the bar, because he's always at the bar, at the bar. And I was about to sit nice night out. I remember seeing daylight.

Well, yeah. It's early. It looks like it's early. It's very early. For this many people to be at a fucking bar. But go ahead. Well, the Nature Boy is at the bar sitting at the bar. And of course, he cannot let it go by when he hears that it's someone's birthday,

let alone a lady's birthday. So here's his version of happy birthday. But thankfully, it was filmed by the person next to this woman who has no idea what's happening here. Happy birthday Happy birthday Happy birthday To you

Happy birthday To you Before the evening's over May you and I You and I Do you agree That I make love to you Happy birthday

Thank you Thank you, baby There you go Thank you Let me top the, Hey, Rick, can you give me a cameo to celebrate my wedding? Don't do it! Don't do it, no.

It's a trap. Well, that, thank you, may top, he's back. Look, I'm a bad judge of age, but that young lady was probably, was she 30, 30-ish? And then they're, that's like your, your grandfather talking about having carnal relations with you. Well, we will stay on top of the Rick Flair beat going forward. And of course, Jim.

I tell you what, when I go out in public, I don't talk about actually having any kind of fornicating or sodomization with any woman under 40 anymore. I've got to give them 25 years, right? So now those 41-year-olds, I'm saying some horrible. shit to them. But I'm trying to keep it classic. All right. Well, this has ended on an unclassy note, but Jim, whether it's

ludely singing happy birthday to civilians at the bar or suing your social media managers, whatever the hell else is happening here. What's going on? You may need a good night's sleep. I think that's one that we recommend for everyone at least eight hours. Let me recommend that for the nature boy. At least eight hours, a good night's sleep, but we can all use it, Jim, and of course, in my house, and I know in your house, we have mattresses that we love

from our good friends at Helix Sleep. Well, that's right. And now that I know where you're going, I know how to get there, because, folks, the last thing you need to do is walk around without sleep. Without sleep, you make poor decisions. It ruins your health. You can't think. You can't concentrate.

You're just a walking zombie. You're walking her down the street. You're like a zombie. Occasionally, you'll reach out and you'll grab somebody's brain. brains. That's what happens if you don't sleep. And you may think you're sleeping on a proper surface. Nothing could be further from the truth, ladies and gentlemen, unless you have a Helix sleep mattress from helixleep.com on your bed frame or in your house or on your floor or on your deck or, you don't like in the old movies if you don't have air conditioning and you live up

there in the city, put one of these bad boys out on the fire escape. and sleep out there. Even if you do have air conditioning, put one of these bad boys out on a fire escape and sleep out there and your wife will be happier and probably so will you. But that's what you need. You need the proper surface, Brian.

You can't just sleep on any old slab because that's the thing about the helix mattresses. Let's say you're in the morgue. You're a corpse. You're decomposing. Why are we saying this? Why is this the example you chose to use? Well, you're a corpse and you're decomples.

They put you on a hard slab because they know that you're dead and you won't complain. So why, if you're still living, should you be sleeping on old hard plain shit? You shouldn't. There's a lot of people trying to get in the morgue just to sleep on that slab. Because, you know, the old saying, ah, slept the sleep of the dead. Well, they think that's a good thing. but folks i'll tell you what you would rather sleep on a helix sleep mattress

than on a slab at the morgue i think have i said something that everyone can agree on brian when i say that yeah i think that's a fair statement to make we would all love the sleep on helix mattresses even if the other option wasn't death just any other option doesn't matter we love our hearing of that point is everybody knows that i'm telling the truth would i tell the truth and make a declarative statement like that that's why i can tell you that the Helix sleep mattress is better than sleeping on a slab at the morgue. And it's got free shipping and seamless delivery. I can tell you that for a fact. And

the 120-night sleep trial, where you get to sleep on it for 120-9, and do know, who knows what else on it, they started putting cameras in the mattresses to make sure the people weren't doing naughty things on them and then sending them back. But then the damn government stepped in, the cameras out. Anyway, the 120-night sleep trial and limited lifetime warranty, the happy with Helix guarantee for seamless returns at exchanges. And the best thing is, it's better than sleeping on a slab at the morgue. That is a hundred percent fact, not hyperbole whatsoever. So whether it's a firm mattress or a soft mattress or a child's mattress, or, you know, they should branch out into urns. where you could get cremated, and then they could pour you into a helix sleep urn,

where you could rest comfortably even if you were just a pile of cinders. Maybe that's something I'll get a percentage of. One of the, maybe Flares people can negotiate me a percentage on that, Brian. I think Flair is Flares people when it comes to the negotiation based on what we just heard. But once again, Jim, to circle back around and tuck you in a great mattress. That's right, a great mattress. One we love here. One we think you will love.

You can find the right mattress for you, our good, long-time friends at Heelix Sleep. Long-time, close, personal friends. As a matter of fact, every time I see them, we lay down on the same mattress. We're that close. They've got a whole, up there at the offices, they've got a whole row of mattresses.

You go up and you just take a nap with whoever that you're doing the business with. This is not how our negotiations have worked. I don't know where. going, but Jim, I understand it's a great deal and a promo that you could tell everyone about right now. A big deal because Labor Day is gone, but not the Labor Day sale.

That ends September 13th. You've still got time. Go to helixleep.com slash JCE, and you're going to get 27% off sitewide. That's Helixleep. Dot com slash JCE. 27% off anything on the site there at good old Helix Sleep.

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Helix! Oh, big drama. Here we are. we'll continue on with the show here. It's time for the WWE portion where we get all the WWE out in one portion. Just get it all out in the open

where we can take a big whiff of it. WWE Smackdown this past week, Jim, we weren't decided on if we were going to watch it or not when we recorded the experience, but there was at least one overriding storyline of the night that people were curious what you thought about. Well, we said, if anything,

was of interest, we would come back and there was not that much of interest, but the main event and the, I don't I don't understand. They've got the thing going on with Gunther and Sammy and Punk and Owens and that's just swell.

But they booked in the middle of all this with everybody wanting the fucking title match with Punk. Punk goes to all this and has an idea and goes to Johnny Gargano, good old Johnny same face, and offers him a title shot. And they've been doing the thing,

and I don't know why. And I'm not going to pretend to know why for any people as well. If you knew why, if you watch this and you knew why, then you'd understand, there's no reason on earth short of someone shot him with curare that I would be interested in

as to why that Mr. Same Face has been in a coma laying backstage face down in a unresponsive limbo position for weeks and weeks of weeks on the show because he's depressed or because once again somebody shot him with a poison dart, I don't know what the fuck's going on. But that perked him up,

that he'd get a fucking world title match. I don't know whether Pump just likes this guy personally. I don't know the explanation for this guy to why he and his little indie wife are employed. And I'm not savaging her as a person, but as a pro wrestler for the WWE, look at the rest of the women's roster. and look at her

and look at the rest of the men's roster and look at him and explain to me why these two non-descript people that you would see noodling on the wireless at Starbucks are featured on a goddamn

the biggest wrestling promotions program in the world. Brian, can you, has it come out that he's got the envelope that Baby Doll had one time with pictures of somebody? What's the explanation? Why, this guy? Why? The pictures are Paul Vec in a compromising

position. Listen, um, Gargano was an indie sweetheart. If he had come along a few years later, he would have been an AEW probably. He should go there now. He's perfect. WWE was signing up every indie guy they could to try to make NXT their indie promotion. and he got over in NXT with those fans doing the kind of match where, you know, all moves are not devastating, you can kick out of everything. In terms of kickout wrestlers,

he was a very popular kickout wrestler. And Paul of that clearly likes him. Because other than that, I agree with your assessment. I think it's more egregious with him than Candice. Candy Larue. Is it Luray or I can't remember now what her name is? Candy Larue.

Oh, Candy. She doesn't stand out too badly from the rest of the women's division. He stands out. She has no facial expression at all. She always looks like she's just puzzled. If she met someone who didn't know who she was and said, I'm a women's professional wrestler, I don't think they would think it was outrageous.

If Johnny Gargano met someone and said, I'm a professional wrestler, they would think I could be a professional wrestler. This is ludicrous. If she didn't have purple hair, they still think it was ludicrous if she looked normal instead of but nevertheless.

It's surprising that he has been kept around this long. It's surprising that it's been like a year of him being flown to TV to be around. They let the new day go, but not the guy that needs a new face. Well, this was the big, the big, uh, the big, uh, sleeping beauty moment. He finally awoke from his slumber.

Yes, and so old Rip Van Winkle, Sammy gave him a pep talk. He stood staring dumbfounded while Sammy was talking to him. The same thing. So it's like Mussolini against a job guy. It's the cult of outlaw mud show midgets. Now with candy. I mean, if it was going to be a good quick win, it might not be so bad for punk, but it's going to be,

I wrote it's going to be competitive, and it was. Cleveland was not happy with punk because the garden gnome is from Cleveland. So punk got to play with being a heel. And he clearly enjoys the opportunities to be able to, you know,

fucking whiz people off for a minute. And they had a match. And, you know, I just, at the last, level that punk is at, I accuse or a cost, AEW of doing the same thing. If he even gets this much offense from old Johnny, what the fuck might Roman Raines do to him?

But nevertheless, punk called for the go to sleep and got some booze. And then Sammy came to the ring and drew the referee so candy could hurricane Ron a Punk. And again, I'm thinking, my God, when Roman Raines gets hold. of him. And then Gargano did the dive and the DDT. He got the two counts. And then Owens came out and jumped on Sammy. And then Gunther came out.

And kicked fucking Owens and choked Sammy. And Finn came out. Leveled Goethe. Fin's in there. And somebody said the other day on the social Twitter machine, why does Jim hate Finn? Why is he so? I'm not, I don't hate Finn.

it's just Finn again. I'm tired of Finn. Finn has been there for so long. Finn was one of the stooges in the judgment day. And then by attrition, he became like the veteran in the judgment day. And yes, he's been a world champion. And that was 10 years ago. And he's the perfect example of how can we miss you if you won't go away

just to create some demand to see him again. So it's not, I don't hate Finn, it's just Finn again. And he leveled Gunther and then Sammy hit Finn and Guthr with the belt and then Owens and then Punk hit the go to sleep on Gargano and covered him. But Candy had the referee. So Sammy came in with the belt and nailed Punk.

and then Gargano covered him. We got a two count. And then Sammy got kicked out of ringside and punk hit to go to sleep one, two, three. And then punk got to microphone and said, I still love you, Cleveland. Yay! All is forgiven. And Sammy's got the title shot next week in Mexico,

which will be this week, in Mexico City, where they're loading it up. They're loading up the card. and have a Smackdown. What'd you think of this whole fiasco? Not a big fan of Smackdown lately. Not a big fan of the segments where one person comes out,

then another person, then another person. It ends up the same way every time. It's like the same build to the same show, the same match every time. You know, I don't like the idea that punk, you know, again, I know it's the guy's hometown. But Punk's doing a long competitive match with a guy who should not be in long competitive matches

with heavyweight world champions. I'm sorry, I don't care how good he is at wrestling that style, his style. And somebody's going to say, well, punk's, punk's not that heavy, but it's perception. Perception is reality, as they say. Yeah, punk shouldn't be having competitive matches with him. The same way I would say, like, you know,

Will Osprey shouldn't have a competitive match with Daniel Garcia. Even if you're a fan of the guy, I might say Daniel Garcia, Shouldn't have a competitive match against Sammy Gavara. I'm saying he shouldn't against the world champion. Put Gargano in a competitive match against Carmelo Hayes. Okay, sure. But the world champion, no way.

No way. In that case, we agree on that. Should they release him now? They brought him out of the coma. They gave him the world title shot in his hometown. Is now the time to release him? Yeah, come out and say, look, you've fucking been sleeping on a job for three months. We give you one big chance and you fucking lose, so you're out of here.

Well, speaking of out of here, that was Smackdown. And Jim, this was a week where we had a big Sunday night event, the traditional time for pay-per-views back in the day, Sunday nights. But this time it was almost a pay-per-view. Sunday night's main event on Peacock. I think I may have had to pay for this too. Because here's the thing. I told you, Sunday.

night we went out to eat by stepfather's birthday or my step my back stacey's stepfather my father in law stacey's stepfather all these various relations the whole family all 12 of us bra i like that you did belal go see in the middle of it yeah we went out sunday night and so monday i had one of the monroe brother's over doing some work and the yard people were here and I got some things done and I'm looking forward to that evening. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to watch Sunday night's main event on Monday. And right as I go to Peacock as I always do, I say, oh, there's the Sunday nights made event. And I got the one in English, right? Or at least I tried to because as soon as I hit it, like I always do, it's must upgrade to watch this. I'm like, what the fuck? That's a new.

would must upgrade. Stacey has just gotten in the fucking bath. And she's the one who gets these streaming things connected anyway. So by the time she comes downstairs, it's an hour later, I say, can you figure out how to upgrade this thing? Well, she can't figure it out because she, well, we have this.

We have the peacock or whatever. And if there's no button like upgrade now, they show one of those screwy codes on the screen. And she had to fiddle with it for 15 minutes and said, okay, I don't know whether I paid something or not. I upgraded in some fashion to be able to watch this. And by then it was too late. I said, fuck, I'm not going to goddamn ruin my whole day here.

It's 9.30 at night. So I got up today and watched it at 8 o'clock in the morning. Do you pay extra for any part of Peacom? No, it's included now with my cable package. Well, that's what Stacey said. We get it. We get Peacock or some part of Peacock. She tried to explain it.

Didn't make any sense. I may have paid for this. I think you may... If I get my money back... I think you may have just upgraded the app, in which case you're not paying for anything. Well, how the hell was I supposed to know how to upgrade the fucking app? if it didn't have a button saying click here to upgrade the app.

I thought you said it upgraded. After she fiddled with it and did some shit, she got on her phone. I don't know what, I left the room. It makes me nervous. I don't know how this shit works. All right. Well, the point is the shit happened in Atlanta. Finally happened in Atlanta.

And they started the show off with another unknown rapper with a rotten song and a shopping cart full of money. performing in quotation marks. And I'm thinking, this is already a weak sister of a show. They're filling their contractual commitments. They got nothing else on Peacock anymore. Nobody gives a shit about Saturday night's main event or Sunday.

And then they put this guy on trying to run people off, right at the top of the program. Did you see the guy with the shopping cart full of money? I did TKO loves their crossovers What was he crossing over from? He certainly didn't cross over

across the street with all that money somebody would have fucking tackled him It sounded like somebody trying to pretend to be a rapper Was that good by the children's standards? It wasn't good by my standards. All right. Well, speaking of

rappers. Then we little Yachty in the five-minute match with Baron Von Corbyn. And we talked about the backwards aspect of what, no, you want to beat the heel to get five minutes with the

heel manager, not sacrifice the fucking baby-faced manager, blah, blah, blah. And I almost felt sorry for Corbin because you know why they ease the shits. We've established that, right? Right? We've established you absolutely think he's the shits, yes.

Yes, yes. But he's not the shits as a worker. He's just a boring, non-personality, no gimmick, rotten name, odd-looking mug, right? But he can work. But this was like him trying to work with a bag of grass seed. Yaddi doesn't know what fuck he's doing, right? He's trying. But this is not something you just instantly.

oh, I'll do that unless you're Kurt Angle I do like that though I hate the fact that we do have celebrities who get in there and all of a sudden it's like okay he's been training to wrestle as opposed to someone getting in there and you're like okay this celebrity

it's like Jimmy Hart when he was a manager this guy's gonna get it. No, no I'm not talking about that I'm talking about Yadi can't work at all not Yadi should be doing frog splashes when you grab Yadi and try to throw him into the ropes it's a 50% chance he might bounce back kind of not can't work.

That's what I'm talking about. That's what you're in there trying to work with a goddamn, a wet fucking mattress. So Corbyn beat him up and then he got a white Kendo stick and hit Corbyn several times. And then Corbyn would stop him. And they had an entourage for a little yachtie where Corby could give them some big moves and have some excitement and some wrestling moves in it because he couldn't do all that shit to Yaddy

because number one Yaddy would be able to get back up and number two Yaddy probably hurt himself taking it. But then they would always have some kind of reason to give Yaddy another hope spot where he was lasting this time as the time is ticking down. And at one point is he gave the entourage company couple bumps, Yaddy had climbed up and I want to, I guess I'll call it a cross body so people will know what it was supposed to look like, crossbody off the top, but he tried.

See, that's the point. If he had hit it and it looked perfect, it's too perfect. You know what I mean? It has to look like that where it's like, oh, my God, he's going to get him with his thigh. You know, it just had to look sloppy. Oh, no, I'm all in favor of maybe Yadi not really going to the top and do it a crossbody at all rather because it also could have potentially fucking either

he could have broke his neck up there or fucking landed on somebody to hurt them. But nevertheless, I never did a crossbody off the top in all of my days. Brian, are you aware of that? You could probably a guess that.

Did you ever go off the top rope ever? I was slammed off the top. But not actually of my own volition. No, no, because that would have been a little goofy. And also I would miss shit off the second rope, but on the top rope I didn't trust myself standing up there. I'm like, well, if I break my fucking leg,

we're all cooked, especially if I'm running the company, so I'll just not do that. Nevertheless, so then this is what I'm talking about, Barron Corby, he hit the end of days and then some fake punches. And then another end of days where he could have just won, but he left the ring and pulled out a table.

And now there's 30 seconds left while he's setting up the table. So I don't understand. But nevertheless, Corbyn put Yopin. on top and went for a superplex to go superplex him through the table or whatever. But Yaddy nutshot at him and the time ran out. So then he chokeslamd Yadi through the table.

But Trick already got his match. So then they introduced Trick and now we have to watch Trick work with Corp. I've seen by that point all I want to see a Corbyn. Now we've got to watch a whole other Corbyn match. It's going to go twice as long. At least this guy's a star. but nevertheless, before we go any further with Trick, your thoughts on Yadi? I liked it.

I actually really liked it. I like Yadi. And I thought he was kind of perfect in the way he had to be here. He didn't act like he was a wrestler like, you know, jelly roll. All of a sudden is like, you know, doing wrestling moves or Jay Leno. Like we've seen it from so many different people. I thought it was good. And the fans were really into it.

The fans were super into it. That's the thing. And especially in Atlanta, Trick is from South Carolina, right? So right next door. That's where he was just, they were just at his hometown. Wasn't it, South Carolina?

Possibly. Possibly. Possibly so. Or one of the other 48 states. Nevertheless, this trick hits hot and boom, boom, boom, and they have a match and it's Baron Corbyn. And I've said before, I don't know why they beat Trick to begin with.

And apparently they just wanted to, I don't know, fill up four weeks of TV or give Corbyn a little something and then take it back. But they rectified their mistake here. Corbin went to get the title belt and Yaddy was back to grab the other end of it and had a little tug of war. And Trick kicked Corbin, got a two count. But then while the referee was trying to get Yaddi, out. Corbyn

hit Trick with the belt and I'm thinking not again. Cover two count so I'm not sure about their goddamn finishes otherwise than it's like anything you can do I can do better but then Trick hit the leaping knee

and one two three and won the belt so he got the belt back and what do they call Corbin the nomad now hopefully he won't get mad he won't go away mad he'll just go away He'll be the gonad. But, but, yeah, so they just put the belt back on him is what they did.

Yeah, I mean, it seems like a weird diversion, a side street that didn't need to be taken when the parkway is right there. Yeah, we'll see, everything's right. Everything's right again in the universe. Baron Corbyn has the title. Yaddy's alive. Or no, your, Trick Williams has a title. Oh, Chuck Williams, excuse me, Baron Corbyn, we'll see what happens with him now. Hopefully he could let this go and move on.

Yes, hopefully everybody can just put these ill feelings aside and move on. All righty then. Paul E. served as the guest ring announcer for the match between Obafemi and Braun Breaker. And I don't know why. I know he's been involved, but if they were going to do this, then I wish he'd had done, I wish he'd almost done a thing like in,

what was the goddamn name of the movie, a knight's tale. Remember the guy that did the big introductions for when they were doing the jousting in a knight's tale? He just kind of introduced both guys. Don't you think they needed to do more to establish that, you know, why he's so sympathetic to, that he's sympathetic to Obafemi,

why he's sympathetic to Obafemi, why he's, like nothing, other than like Brock lost and turned around and celebrated Obafemi. Yeah. Like, Haman hasn't done anything, and it became this whole, like, storyline

that you think he's better than me, I'm the future. And then Haman does the ring introduction here to play into the whole thing. I don't know, it just seems like it's a, there's a gaping hole in the middle of the idea here. That's what,

that's what I would, rather than doing the ring introduction, I would have had him come out and stand ringside and be asked, well, whose corner is he in? Well, he's not really at any corner. He's in a neutral corner. Well, who's he going to help? Well, we don't know. And then when the people that ran in that ran in, everybody'd still be looking at Paul. Is he going to commit and he could just kind of smirk and turn around. What's he going to do anyway? But that would have created some kind of tension there because, as it was, this match needed

a little more tension. I like it. By the way, my papers are crinkly because Buddy chewed one of these pages. So it's got a little slobber on it. It's dried now, but that makes it crinklier. They're two big power guys, especially Oba, but I, like both guys. Both guys are doing a great job in a spot they're in. They're both talented. The match didn't get me here. I think they went a little long for Oba selling. He tries and

he does it okay, but he needs to stay more active underneath. And I don't think he needs to sell that long. I think he's also one of those guys, regardless what they teach in WWE, training these days, don't put a fucking hold on him. Because him being held down immobile for any significant period of time, it just takes something away. I think he's the guy that you really heal. You put him over the ropes and you fucking lean on him. You goddamn keep kicking him.

You get to referee in between. You stay on him with heat, not just doing high spot after high spot, but you don't hold him in a hole. the fans were not going ape shit is the point it was it was it some they didn't want to in Atlanta Georgia they didn't want to boo a Steiner at the same time they were very happy with oba and they did all the oba stuff but it just the match didn't

it didn't like to fuse it was a good it was a good setup for the angle they did rather than a good match does that make any sense Brian That's exactly what I think. The match to me wasn't that special. And maybe it's almost impossible that it could have been right now. But the angle was the important thing, and I like the angle better than the match. Well, they took a little Bill Watts action there with the carnage and the chaos, but basically,

Braun had sent Oba out to the floor and went for the big spear, but Oba leveled him. And then suddenly there's theory. And Bo, Bo, Bo, Bo, but he puts theory through the fucking announced desk. And then Braun Speared Oba. And got him in a ring and speared him and two count. But then out comes Logan Paul with the brass knucks. They ought to install traffic lights around the ring. There's a lot of traffic these days.

Logan Paul comes out with the Nucks and the referee's trying to kick him out. But as he does, old model girl, she's got a spot now in the vision. with theory, she gave nucks to Braun, who swung but missed and Oba tossed him. But there's Bronson Reed. And boy, he looked fucking great. He's lost weight. He's really trained. But he came in and whacked Oba with a chair like five times, went to the top and splashed him, and then hugged Braun. And then they held Oba and Bronz. speared him. And then another splash and a third splash.

And the agents and the referees are out there. And there's chaos and another spear and another splash. And Obo is just dismantled there. And they all fucking celebrate. So it's a great angle. And so they needed the match to set the angle up. So it's Saturday night's main event. It ain't WrestleMania.

So it's not that big of a deal. but I think it should have been a little bit shorter, a little bit more of Oba at the beginning, a little bit more aggressive heat from Braun for a shorter period of time and then do the same thing they did at the end. What do you think of Bronson Reed coming back in the best shape we've ever seen him in,

considering his gimmick, you know, was being kind of the bigger guy doing the tsunami and everything? And obviously he did it here, it didn't stop him. He looked great doing it too. but do you lose anything with a guy like that I hate to say with a guy like that

taking care of his health and getting in the shape do you lose anything? I don't think that he did because he's still big the splash looks great and I love the way

he does the movement with the arm and he just he comes down in a everybody else tries to do the frog splash as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero and most of them

don't do it as well but it's graceful but this fucking flying tank, he looks like he's landing on you with some weight. Before he was more of the, I think it maybe helps him be a top guy, even better. He was in the Crusher Blackwell category of, God, that guy's a freak of nature,

to that weight, that body size, moving around like that, doing those things. But we talked about, and he had a couple of injuries, but so did all the guys, that have been that big, the Bam Bam Bigelows, Crusher Blackwells, short careers broken down early. And at the same time, you know, to be honest,

especially in today's environment, the big, fat, freaky guy that can do all that stuff is kind of seen by the fans as the sidekick to the better looking guy, whether it's Braun or Seth or whatever, that's more focused on in the group. Reed now still, he was wearing street clothes. I don't know, but was he still 275 pounds? He's fucking thick anyway.

But he looks more like a fucking guy. Hey. So, you know, I think it may help him. He didn't go down to, like, become a vegetarian and come back at 195. And what do you think of Logan Paul going through his buddy Roberts 86 hair period? No, but seriously, Obafemi, just one last thing about all this. The booking of Obafemi, any issues at all? He gets all these tsunamis gets laid out of me.

We could talk about later on what happened the next night. But, you know, he's gotten the monster push. He's also lost matches. He's gotten the monster push and he also gets attacked. Any issues at all? No, and remember, I could. I couldn't understand why, because I forgot about even considering really a DQ, because they do so seldom these days on the big shows or whatever.

But I said there's no reason for Braun to lose this time, but Oba can't lose. And they use the Saturday night's main event. It's not really the A show anymore to set up an angle that's probably going to go to some pay-per-view resolution, which we will, or premium live event, which we will find out about in the future. But no, this is four guy, Oba is the top baby face. And he was handling Bronbreaker all by himself

and all these other heels come in. And you've got not only Logan Paul, but Bronbreaker and fucking Bronson Reed coming back and Austin Theory four on one to get him to get him, down and do all those moves to him, that's the way you get heat. It's not making

Oba weak that four top guys were able to fucking do all this shit to him, but he still can't be invulnerable. You've got to always be able to get heat on the baby face in some fashion. So this wasn't one guy that did it straight up.

This was four guys in conjunction coming in from behind, whatever. that's perfect kind of heat and Oba can sell that and now he's got something he's got to come back and get even for with multiple people so this I had no problem with that and nobody lost

nobody got beat so that's the way you do a TV angle well Jim Oba may be getting the monster push but maybe he's having a little bit of a power issue right now he keeps getting powered down and taken out this time by a gang of people last time by Brock Lesnar.

But we don't want that to happen to him nor anyone else. And of course, if you need power, we know someone who could supply you with power on the go. Oh, not only on the go, but if you just want to sit on your big fat ass and plug shit in, it'll work that way too. Because, folks, I'll tell you what, if I had had one of these when I was six years old, I would have been the happiest young child on earth. and I'm talking about the incredible travel power bank from Ridge. It's five and one, you know.

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Because remember, that robot was a fearsome son of a bitch, but then if you snuck up behind him while he was distracted, you pulled the power pack off. His arms would just flop down and his lights would go off and his little domed head would just lean over. And you wouldn't hear Bob May's incredible voice coming out of that thing anymore. It would not be able to save Will Robinson. Or say, danger, danger, alien approaching.

Danger, danger, Will Robinson. Dr. Smith is creeping up behind you. Dr. Smith has unzipped his fly. It couldn't alert. Oh, dear. Oh, the pain. Oh, wait a pain. He didn't.

know my back was a disaster area. William, can you massage me? Nevertheless, you don't want to go without power because then you ain't got no robot to alert you about aliens or predators or Dr. Smith coming up. But the Ridge Travel Power Bank can take care of that because it's got 20 watts of power. It charges your phone as fast as phone could possibly be charged. It's got a capacity of 10,000 millie amp hours. So that's three full phone charges. And it's also, you can plug in the Apple Watch charger and the lightning charger and the USBC charger and all these other cables to all these other charger things.

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Once that continuum fabric is ripped, you can't sew that shit back up. But these things look badass also. They're available in Matt Olive, Basecamp, orange, and Matt Black. I don't know who Matt is and why he gets two colors. But nevertheless, there's the LED charge status indicator. It's got your charge levels and your battery levels.

The integrated kickstand. So if you want to, you could put this on the side of the motorcycle. And then you could just lean over on your power bank. And folks, it's got the RFID blocking. That means if one of the sex pests in Central Park tries to come up behind you and stick his hand down your pants, it'll block it. I was going to say, isn't it the name of Eric Bishop's new promotion, RFID or something like that? No, that's the other promotion that got blocked.

R-F-A-R. But, yes. But anyway, real, real fingering inside the dick is being blocked. What? Yeah, RFID blocking. Okay, let's move on and let's get back to a realistic example that all the listeners can relate to. Well, you're not going to have five cords tangled up in your bag or your backpack or your pocket or sticking out of your ass or wherever they may be.

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But we will. Of course, we're the ones that broke that fucking crab's leg to begin with, but then we propped him back up. Let's save 10%. Save 10%. Yes. Not on crab, but on a ridge travel power bank, a five and one.

Boy, howdy, all those five plugs in that same thing. looks like a German video. Once again, I don't know what any of this is supposed to mean or who it's supposed to appeal to, but we know what appeals to you, ladies and gentlemen, is power the way you want it on the go, or, as Jim put it, sitting on your tukas. Ladies and gentlemen, once again,

ridge.com slash JCE, a great deal, 10% off, promo code JCE. Took us? Ridge. Took us? That's what we say. That's what us Jewish people say. It's Yiddish. You know how far that ass took us? How far?

I don't, I don't, back to Saturday nights or Sunday nights. Sunday night. Sunday night. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Sunday. Well, they had a girl's six-man tag. Did you watch that? They had a girl's six-man tag. I watched a little bit. That was with Jade and her crew. I kind of, I had it on mute. Yeah, they won. They won. they want so everything's good and then we got to our main event and it was Cody Rhodes Cody Rhodes Cody Rhodes

Cody Roads Cody Roads and Randy Orton in the main event in Atlanta Cody's hometown the Rhodes Legacy Dynasty whatever and he came out first and Cody's popular with the people, but I don't know.

They just like Randy. But... This is Cody's hometown. I know. As Cody was in the ring waiting on Randy, Randy came in from behind and started to slide in the ring and Cody turned around and caught him. Aha!

I see you. And they got in a fight. And boom, boom, boom, chicken boom, boom. They fought in the crowd past Brandi and Cody's mother, Mama Michelle was sitting in the front row but they fought out into the arena and they found the metal garbage cans again when is the last time Brian

was it 30 years ago you went into any kind of major arena in the United States and saw a metal garbage can the kind that makes the good noise when you hit people over the head with it but otherwise has been completely shown from use in American society Oh and you brought it up last time And this time I saw it, too, the idea that it's filled up with clean garbage. Clean paper.

Yeah, paper and paper plates. Everything clean. Clean garbage. So I take the piss out of AEW. When they do it, I got to do it here. We've seen it. It used to be a big deal. You know, when people would, oh, I've got to get a videotape of the Mid-South show where they fought out in the arena.

I've never seen such a thing. It's better look and work. Their punches look better. They look like they're serious, but still, it's the best behaved crowd ever. These two madmen are just fighting through the arena, and nobody's even getting out of a straight line. And they've got like a security guard every 20 feet, like holding their arms out like, here's the imaginary line.

Jesus Christ, we had fucking cops with goddamn bulletproof vests and fucking riot helmets in mid-south that no son of you couldn't. give them a two-foot gap they'd get in it. So they fought through the best behaved crowd in the history of wrestling with the fucking cleanest garbage ever. And then go back to the ring and get in the ring, and they ring the bell to start to match. They've been fighting for five minutes.

And then pretty early on, Orton started getting the heat because Cody likes to fight from underneath and, you know, get the sympathetic position. and they did a spot in the middle of the match where Orden went out and menaced Brandy again and she threw the drink at his face and that way Cody could make his comeback. But then Orton, he had to get his trademark shit in.

So in the middle of the heel kind of made a mini little baby face come back in the middle. And then Orton started milking the RKO and the people were up. They're going to like Orton no matter what he does. that he's, the personality that he's cultivated for 25 years is that he's a goddamn evil, crazy son of a bitch.

Cody foiled the RKO and hit a crossroads, got a two count, and then they squashed the referee in the corner. Poor old Charles Robinson. And Orton hit an RKO on Cody and then he started thinking, and he thought, and he thought, and he thought for a while. and then he went for the punt. But as he went for the punt, Cody slipped out and hit the crossroads.

And when Orton rolled out to the floor, Cody did a dive on him, and they blasted poor Charles Robinson again. But now the point is, the referee's about to be down for close to 10 minutes. There's people of fucking Civil War veterans had surgery on the battlefield with no anesthetic. And they were ambulatory at less time.

and Charles Robinson was down from... So Cody looked at fucking Orton, and he thought about it. And then, no, I'm sorry, I've jumped ahead of paragraph. Because first he posted Orton three times, and then fought on the desk, and then hit him with the stairs. And Orton got colored. I'm not sure whether he...

It didn't look like it was intentional from where it was situated, but that may have been part of the place. landsmothers. But nevertheless, now Orton's bleeding like a stuck hog, and Cody hit the supercutter and a crossroads and another crossroads, and there was still no referee. And that's when Cody thought about it and went for the punt.

But as he's going to kick him, Orton drops down and throws his hand up and like, no, and he's begging and pleading, no, no. And Cody stops, and now Cody's conflicted. And remember what we always think about baby faces that are conflicted when they get the chance to give the heel what the heel did to them. And we always say the same thing. You fucking pussy. Moron. Embesile.

Shackass. Knitwit. Fucking fool. Speaking of which, by this point, here came referee number two. I'm like now they had time to call Referees are us 1,800 referee

and order the referee to be delivered The referee number two checks on Orton To see if he can continue And Orton gives Cody a nutshot And the referee's behind him But the nutshots Cody and the referee too And then Orton hits an arcade

and at that point, here comes Charles Robinson. It's been 10 fucking minutes. He just now gets up 1, 2, 3 after the RKO. So I wasn't a fan of the, I was a fan of certain parts of the finish, but not the entire finish as it unfolded before us, especially because the whole thing with these referees, The bumping of the referee, for one thing, everybody groans now.

They were groaning on the referee bumps in the 90s. They grown sometimes in the 80s. But it was never done as much or as egregiously or for as long. Anytime we had referee bumps in our finishes or anything I called, I always told the guys, as soon as the referee goes down, the clock is ticking. Because for it to be a believable situation, the heel has to do whatever he's going to do

that the referee shouldn't see in the amount of time that it would take for either the referee to get back up or someone in the back to believably realistically grab another fucking referee and say, run out there and take over. So depending on the size of the building,

the layout, the fucking things about, you're talking 30 seconds, 45 seconds. You're not talking minutes. And if anybody thinks I'm full of shit, go back anywhere at a Smoky Mountain OVW match, Midnight Express match, and find me where the referee was down for more than 60 seconds

unless he was going to be down to rest of the fucking night. But nevertheless, your thoughts, young man. Yeah, I wasn't really crazy about it. I was hoping this would be another thing that would end and we could all move on. Sorry, I don't too much more to add. You kind of...

You mean the show or the program or the program between Orton and Cody? I don't know. Feels like Cody's just treading water. And there's more that can be done right now. now. But I guess we'll get more of this. And that was Sunday night's main event.

And it's your show. That was Sunday nights main events. It's my show, but we're going to finish up all the WWE stuff. Last night, Raw, did you watch it? Boy, howdy. I got a couple of observations, and that's pretty much it. First of all, they were in Birmingham, not far from Atlanta. Boymigham, Boymingham, one of our better towns.

They started off with the vision. They've got Bronson Reed, Logan Paul, Braunbreaker, Austin Theory, and model girl all back together. And the only one still heard is Logan Paul. Hopefully he's coming along. What do you think of the visual of all of them together? I think the visual is great because they're all good-looking,

professional athletes in different ways of their own right. I swear to God, they need the Haman. They need the Haman. There is no clear leader here, which that's okay because they're top guys in their own right, but like in the horsemen, Flair was the leader by default. Who's going to be over Flair, right? but in this case they were originally

Seth Rollins was envisioned as the leader he was the veteran so you knew that he was a top main event guy and that meant that the other guys were by process of being involved in the group they're of the same stature here you've got even though Logan Paul's been used well he still knew

Reed is not completely broken through to that level. They're trying to push Braun now. The theory's there to fucking take the bumps. But there's no evil genius, for lack of a better word, behind it. I'm thinking they're going to get there. But they need the Heyman visual. They just all spoke in turn one after another. and Logan Paul has the most heat because they know he's a dick

and otherwise they're still saying their shit. Braun's got a little oomfit his delivery, but nobody's there to just take charge of this thing and be the guy. And then I swear to God, Tazawa interrupted, and I started to fast forward. And then because theory was calling him, coming a ring will beat you up. Oh, wow, fuck.

But then Tazawa mumbled that you're not fighting me, you're fighting him. And Otis came out. And I wrote, these guys are supposed to be main eventers, and it's this, still this. And yes, I know model girl was involved with Otis and Tazawa and the thing with that, whatever the fuck. But they had theory at Otis. and that doesn't do them any good to me in trying to make these guys a big top group when they're interacting with the fucking preliminary comedy figures

whether they have a history or not. But nevertheless, finally, they all beat up Otis and Tazawa and got heat on them and Oba showed up in the back of the building and came out and he beat up Braun and Bronson and Theory got the chair, but Oba no sold it and tossed theory and then Braun got back on him and they got more heat and a splash and again and Oba got back up and then Braun speared him and in Bronson Reed splashed him again. So again it's this is this group against Oba and so that this is a way that you can have Oba sell and it doesn't hurt him. But at the same time, I didn't think they did any favors to the heel group,

just to why Tazawa and Otis get just some decent-looking athletes that people might take seriously, you do same thing with them. Beat them and beat them up. But that was 30 minutes of the show, by the way, that whole thing. I agree with you about the promo. I kind of hate, and AEW is guilty of this with the death rodders. It's your turn to talk. Everyone's just ready to jump in.

In this case, just grab the microphone. Oh, no, it's my turn, and now I'll say this. It's too much. Visually, it looks great. It would be a lot better if there was mean gene or someone standing in the middle of all of them, interviewing them, talking to them, but we don't have that. Yeah, and, you know, they continue the Oba stuff, and you just said it kind of perfectly, I think. One person can't stop Oba. You need a group.

You know, now what's it going to be? Is it going to be him taking them down one by one, or what do you do? well and that's probably a good place to start at a couple of the first ones are TV matches and then you get you've prolonged him and Bronn we've still not had a finish so that then with some type of stipulation or added importance or now with more story behind it becomes part of a more premium live event atmosphere type of thing and then Braun wasn't done because he came back out and beat up everybody after Ms. and what you call it that's with Ms.

beat up a comedian from Alabama. I doubt, I don't know what the fuck is happening with this shit. I guess if you've just got a goddamn lemonade stand on a busy street, you can do angles on WWF television now. Yes, I think that's probably about right. TKO likes them celebrities, gives them ringside tickets, and lets them push around wrestlers. Or get beat up by them.

Jim, the vision wasn't the only group, having some issues on Raw. A lot of fans agree with what you say, and a lot of fans think you have not given enough credit to the modern bloodline feud of the Uso's against Solo, against the Royce Keys faction, and they really up the ante this week.

why don't we talk about what happened? Well, this, I couldn't figure out what they were going to do because they waited until the rest of the show was just caca. There was the money in the bank qualifiers, men and women, and J.D. McDonough and Joe Hendry, whatever. But then by the end of the main event with Stephanie and Liv, they got eight minutes on the air. And the Usoes are in the back with Jacob,

and they've got a baseball bat and a lead pipe, and they've decided they're going to run their play. Now this is the big thing. We're going to run our play. You're going to run the play? Now I'm going to run my play. You run your play, and I'll run the other play. And so the play that they're going to run

is to go out to the ring and call these other some bitches out, old hoist and his gang and take care of this once and for all. So again, they enter the arena. Jacob is just humoring them all this. With the lead pipe and the bat, they're going to the ring, they go to another break with six and a half minutes left on the air. I'm saying, what the fuck? And it's a two and a half minute break.

They come back. There's four minutes. The Uso's and Fatu are in the ring. They're calling out Hoyce and his gang. nobody comes. And Fatu stand there just shaking his head like these two dumb fucks. And then there's hoists on the screen in the parking lot and they're standing over the what was that was a deluxe type of SUV that they would use like for a limousine service,

what they pulled up in, wasn't it? An escalade. An escalade. Well, they escalated the war with the escalade because they took bats or sticks or whatever, it broke the windows, and then poured what was allegedly gasoline into the SUV and then hoist flipped his lighter and casually tossed it in like they do in the movies.

And just like they do in the low-budget movies, the special effects fire came up in the inside of the vehicle without ever reaching the gas tank to explode. And they stood there menacingly as they burned the Uso's limousine as the Uso's were in the ring going, ah, this didn't work. But I've never seen a vehicle set on fake fire before. I guess now they have to do that because they're a publicly traded company.

Vince used to just really blow shit up. you don't think there was a real fire in the car no it was a real fire in a car but it was a special effects fire it wasn't a fire from them pouring back in the day there were points that we did we did this in a lot of different promotions where you would just get an idea and you'd really do it Vince really poured concrete in a corvette and all that other shit

this was not gasoline that they poured and then set it they set the special effects fire in the vehicle, poured fake liquid of some description and then threw the lighter in and queued the special effects fire. If they'd have poured gasoline and that son of a bitch like that out of a bucket and thrown a lighter in, not only would it have flamed up within a millisecond, but by the time that they were still looking at it, it would have goddamn blown sky high. Well, this certainly takes things up a nod. I'm not a fan of this all so far.

He burned a car, but they already burned a house over on the other station. So what the fuck? Now we're following a shooting with a stabbing. I know there are fans really into all this stuff right now. I'm not digging the main event stuff on Raw, really at all. There are some fans who think that Royce Keys, it's going to turn out that him and his group are working for Roman. Who knows what's going on, but this is all kind of.

Any other Raw thoughts? Yeah, I'd like them to cook it next time. All right, well that was WWRWA. Let's see what they laid on fire next week, and with that, Jim, we'll be right back after this short commercial timeout. All right, you know what that means? We are here. The final portion of the show. Jim, before we talk about Bill Dundee,

I thought it would be a good week to get some programs in. Let's play some guests the program. All righty then. This, of course, is where I go through programs in my collection. And Jim, after hearing the card, will tell us the location, the date, the temperature, the ringside physician, and whatever other information he has. I got a variety of cards here. Nope, that's the wrong folder

There we go, this folder here Do I want to do this one? This has been sprung on me I've got to make sure I got a pin that works All righty, here we go. Jim, the opening contest, Louis Martinez versus Assassin number one. Match two,

I'm going to leave out because it's too much of a giveaway. Okay. Match two, using our rule, every now and then we'll be left out. Match three, Wilbur Snyder versus Smasher Riker. Match four, Blackjack Lanza versus Pat O'Connor.

Semi-final special event. Half Beast Man, Pamparo Furpo versus Edward Carpontier. And finally, for titles I will not name, no disqualification, Dick the bruiser and the crusher, but it says in parentheses the judge. The judge, the crusher.

Here come to judge. He was wearing during this period of time a long black robe, but I think he had a sledgehammer. Versus the psycho chain gang. Chain gang. Unbelievable Jack and Frank Dillinger. Boy, howdy. All righty then. Ariba Luis Martinez was a Hispanic star with the widest chest and upper body in the history of wrestling.

And he was big for Bruiser and Sheik in Detroit and various places in the Midwest. Wilbur Snyder, obviously, Bruiser's partner in the Indiana promotion. I have no idea who Riker was assassin number one. could have been anybody this time frame was after who were the assassins that it was Guy Mitchell and Joe Tomaso that were the tag champs for Bruiser in 65, 66, that period of time. That's the first team Bobby Heenan managed. Blackjack Lanzah against Pat O'Connor,

this was pre-Blackjack Mulligan, Lanzah being on the card underneath indicates they were probably building him at this point. And Pat O'Connor was based in St. Louis, but was still making shots for Bruiser in Indiana, because that's where we are, I'm pretty sure. Furpo and Carpontier, Carpontier actually worked a lot for Bruiser in the 60s because he also worked Chicago, and Bruiser had an interest in that along with Vern Gagne.

it. And then Bruiser and Crusher on top against the chain gang. This was before Frank got shot by the Hells Angels and Jack, Don Fargo, got another partner. And this was the WWA tag team title, I'm pretty sure. And I don't know what match number two would have been unless it was Sam Minnaker doing something. and all that was before Minnaker came. Possibly it was Bob Shirk in an escape match, local DJ and escape artist.

Anyway, I'm vamping around because this is Indianapolis. It could have been the Coliseum or might have been the Northside Tendal Armory. And the question I'm asking myself is whether it was 1968 or 1969, and I'll go with 69. The date gym Saturday, March 1st, 1969. Chicago. What?

The international amphitheater. They put this card in the amphitheater? The second match that you miss, Yukon Sholak versus Jack Daniels. I couldn't give you. If as soon as I said Moose Cholak, you would know where it was. No, I wouldn't have.

Because Cholak was still working Indianapolis for Bruiser all until 76. so it would have fit anyway. Actually, no, he worked later than that. Cholak was still working when he was part-time. Bruiser would bring him over. I bet you he was still there till 1980, now that I think about it.

Well, there's some upcoming dates coming up in Hammond, Indiana. Also, a once-in-a-lifetime, Vernagna toured a sunny Spain in Portugal. April 23rd to May 7th. Two fun weeks. Picture of Vern, it says, come on along. Right for this tour is an address to Dickman Hotel, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Were they selling tickets?

It sounds like they were selling either a cruise or some sort of Vern got in a vacation package. Like he's Mario Parillo. That's what I bet you. Vern got a free vacation from some entity for advertising it. Come on along. Hey, he could have been the Mario Parillo of a science. Spain and Portugal. Three nights a week, the bone crushers.

Now on Thursday nights, W-C-I-U-T-V, Channel 26, 11 to noon Sunday, Monday and Thursday, 9 to 10 p.m. The bone crushers. All right. That was the wrestling show. Three nights a week? Three nights a week. That's pretty good.

Yeah. No, in Chicago, are you kidding? It was huge. Bob Luce was writing that publicity. All right, Jim, our next card here. Mitsu Hamanaka versus Joe Pirelli. Al LaFoon

Oh, come on. Versus Howard Cottonwine. Canton Wine. Excuse me, Harold Canton Wine. Howard Canton Wine. I apologize there. Is it Howard or Harold? It's Howard. It's Howard here. Now you've got to be questioning everything. It's Howard.

It was Harold in rehearsal. Pat Fraley versus Chris Zaharius Del Cuncle versus Frank Cutler Oh, you son of a bitch Jim, there's more There better be

Lord Albert Mills versus Cy Williams One fall 20 minute time limit Is that Cy CY? CY Yeah, CY Stonewall Stewart versus George Zaharius

Chief Little Wolf versus Sandar Zaybo or as he was pronounced by the announcer of Minneapolis Zobo or no I got it backwards Either way you know who I'm talking about Yeah, yeah I always thought it was Zobo And Jim finally

Three Falls to a finish Gus Sonnenberg versus El Popo El Popo? P-U-L-P-O, L-P-O-L-P-O. Okay, I've heard a few of these names Howard Canton Wine, Pat Fraley,

George and Chris Zaharius, obviously, were the Zaharius brothers, and George Zaharius was married to Babe Diedrickson. Chris, we've gone, through this before. I don't know whether Chris was actually related or not, possibly a cousin,

but they were names. Lord Al Mills, I believe, was partners at one time with his brother, Tiny Mills. Cy Williams, I've seen the name. Chief Little Wolf was somewhat of a name, and Sandor

Zabo was a former world champion and a top guy, and Gus Sonnenberg in the main event was one of the revolutionary first working world champions that popularized the flying tackle. He was a college football star. He wasn't a legitimate shooter.

And I think, what did he? He won the title in what, 1929? This, El Pulpo, I have no idea. This can't be past the early 4th. And even if that, I'm saying maybe this is the World War II years, and that's why that there's so many no names on the card, a lot of guys were in the service, I would have not one clue where to start with this thing as far as location, except let's just because the Zaharius, Sonnenberg, is it the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles? Angeles in 1942. Jim, it's the Olympic

Auditorium in Los Angeles. Are you fucking shitting me? Grand Avenue at 18th. Jack Darrow, he presents wrestling on Wednesday, November 24th, 1937. Ah, okay, even farther back. But, gee, ha!

Well, all right, I was just taking a fucking leap. There's an ad here to buy radios, little radios, and it says your sports on the air wrestling Monday 940 p.m. KFWB so there was some

sort of wrestling programming on the air in Los Angeles on the radio in 1937. Does it say anything about El Polpo? He was beaten to an El Popo. Here's between headlocks by Frank Roche. Gus Sonnenberg

one of the last of the golden era of sports which produced such greats as Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Earl Sandy, and of course the immortal Jack Dempsey, is out to prove tonight that there is still some dynamite in his system. Gus is going to turn on the heat, so to speak, and give El Polpo, the Mexican thin man, the acid test. Gus insists he is on the way back. He blames recent setbacks in wrestling to ban. had tonsils, which had to be removed. Gus says he feels like a new man these days

and will be firing away with flying tackles like in the old days. Jack Darrow points out that Sonnenberg still holds the record here in the Olympic for drawing the biggest houses. Gus the goat drew 10 sell-out houses in a row at one time. Sonnenberg is sudden death on young Reyes. wrestlers, and that is the reason that some El Polpo's handlers were afraid of the match.

El Popo, however, wanted the shot. He said Sonnenberg won't touch him with a flying tackle. Well, sir, we shall see. What do you think of that? What the heck in Spanish does El Popo mean? Polpo! Translation. Octopus.

The octopus? Or the Mexican thin man, as he was also referred to here. Joe Savaldi is back in the country again. Jumping Joe is in New York and promoter Daro is making an effort to get him here. A Savaldi-Sanenberg match some years back would have rated as an outdoor event. Joe has been in Australia and New Zealand for some time. He is said to be in great shape and a much better wrestler than when he left here.

Jimmy Landis, back from London, may appear in Los Angeles soon. Londis knows this is the greatest wrestling center in the country, and if he wants to stay in the limelight, he must show here. Jack Darrow has several outstanding opponents ready for the gorgeous Greek.

There we go. That's what's happening in L.A. and 37. Jim, our next program here. All right, I got to get this one. I've got to get the date on this. You're doing all right. You're doing all right. I'm doing good. The opening match, Sergeant Labouf,

versus Mr. Wonderful, Rock Riddle. One fall 15 minute time limit. One fall 15 minute time limit as well for Alberto Madrille versus the invader. Special attraction, one fall 30 minute time limit, tag team match, Earl Maynard, Mr. Universe, and Raul Mata. Versus the Royal Kangaroos.

Oh. Jim, the first main event. Pedro Morales versus Mr. Saito. The second main event. One hour, two out of three falls for a championship I won't name. The champions, Paterson and Tony Guerrilla,

versus Don Morocco and the Invader. There'll be an intermission, followed by the third main event. one hour, two out of three falls for a championship I will not name. The champion, the great Fuji versus Rocky Johnson. Okay. Now I've got it.

Soldier Leboof was Don Fargo's replacement as Jacques Goulet's partner in the Legionnaires back in, what was that, 76 or so in Indiana. He worked as the Russian stomper for Goulos and the sum for Jared, right at the switch there, 76, 77. He was a French-Canadian fellow. I can't remember his real name. Rock Riddle was the fan club president of Rip Hawk and Sweet Hanson in the Carolinas in the 60s and got his.

in the business. It's like an early Paul Heyman. Alberto Madrid, Hispanic star, two invaders on the card. I'm not sure whether the same one was doing double duty or whether it was one and two.

Earl Maynard and Raul Mata against the royal kangaroos, I was thinking, what the fuck are we in Portland with the royal kangaroos? But then Morales against Saito Patterson and Garia against Morocco and the invader and Mr. Fuji, who was the great Fuji at this time there at that place, against Rocky Johnson, we formed the territory.

It's Roy Shire, Northern California, probably the Cow Palace. And the question is, the timing, Earl Maynard being accurate. and the Royal Kangaroos still being together, to me puts that at no later than, and also Rocky Johnson was out there. Would he come directly from there to Memphis? I'm going back and forth between 1975 and 1976. And I'm going to say 1975, San Francisco Cal Palace.

Promoter Roy Shire presents Big Time Wrestling San Francisco at the Cow Palace Saturday, June 12th, 1976. Die! Interesting you bring up Rocky Johnson here because the next Cal Palace show after this,

June 25th, 1976, information elsewhere. That was Ali and Onoki. Yeah. On Friday, June 25th, 25th, 1976, there will be a tremendous closed circuit mixed match that you will want to be sure to see. Beginning at 7 p.m., 7.5, 424-pound Andre the Giant will meet a famous boxer. 6-5, 230-pound Chuck Weppner.

Then, via satellite from Tokyo, Japan, Antonio Anoki, a tremendous Japanese wrestler, will take on Muhammad Ali and bore everyone to death. There will be an intermission, then a U.S. heavyweight championship match will take place from the Cal Palace in San Francisco. There may be another exciting match.

Advanced reserve tickets priced at $10, and $15 are now available. It all may be seen at the following places. San Francisco Cal Palace, as it says it here, San Frabsisco, all these misspelled their own town. The Oakland Auditorium,

arena and theater. Richmond Auditorium. San Jose at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds. And finally, Sacramento, the exhibition building. You know, we always think about the closed circuit event. You may think about the Shea Stadium show. They had a big show for the AWA.

Memphis and there's a lot that ties in with the Memphis did not have a show we got the Atlanta Omni undercard with Dory Jr. and Briscoe going 30 minutes to a draw right the Omni there and Memphis though this was what started this event was what triggered Rocky Johnson getting the push that he did when he came in right and apparently he went he came directly from San Francisco

because right after the Ali Inoki fight, that's when Jarrett brought Rocky Johnson in, who had never been in the territory, as an actual pro boxer, not a pro wrestler at all. And we've talked about it. They did the news reports on Channel 5 and around town Lawler's facing a pro boxer. Nobody fucking knew he'd been wrestling for 10 years.

And it sold out to Coliseum. it drew better than Ali and Anoki did. And when was that? How far after this show? Well, hold on here one second. And I'll tell you, because I've got the Memphis book in front of me to talk about Bill. But that was, hold on. Let's go back to July.

Yeah, July 12th, Boxer versus Wrestler, 15 rounds. Jerry Lawler versus Rocky Johnson. And actually, I hold on. No, no, wait a minute. They did it again. Hold on and say the first one was June 21st. So it was the week after the card or the month after the card you, or two, no, a week after the card you just gave me.

Are you still listening to me? Yes, I am. So what was the date of the card you just gave me? The date of the card I just gave you, June 12th, 19, 7th. Okay, on June 21st, he was in the Coliseum in a boxing match, 15 rounds against Lawler. They drew 11,188. Then the next week, June 28th, Lawler was at a southern title match against Bob Armstrong, drew 962626. Then the next week, Lawler was in a southern title match against Gorgeous George Jr., drew 9,068.

and then July 12th they brought it back 15 rounds boxer versus wrestler Jerry Lawler Rocky Johnson and Johnson knocked him out in front of 10,138. So that one month period they sold 40,000 tickets and Lawler and Rocky sold it out once and came close the next week or the next time.

That wasn't bad business. That wasn't bad business and that wasn't a bad showing from you. We'll have more guest to program very soon, but that was guest the program, and of course, Jim, after a wrestling trivia contest like that, you may need a good meal, you may need to say something, you may need to do something, you may just need to fill yourself up with the right food crafted by a chef for you and for me, help me. Jim Cordette, ladies and gentlemen. crafted by a chef for you and for me

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slash JCE 50 off. And you don't have to go to Bryans to eat them either. can love them in your own house. You don't have to go over to his place and eat him and love them there. Factor! And Jim, as we begin to wind things down, we should talk about the big news over the last few days, and a lot of people, of course, thought of you. The passing of superstar Bill Dundee, an all-time, all-time great of Southern wrestling, a great booking mind, and someone who had a big impact on your career, someone who you got to see from ringside as a fan, and someone who you got to work with. Let's talk about Bill Dundee. I think if you made a list, Brian, of the five most

important people to my career, Dundee might be in the top three. He'd definitely be in the five. Bill Dundee, Jerry Jarrett, Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes. You know, he was the first booker I worked for well i told you when we were talking about the portfolios that i have been working on my negatives the first picture i ever took that i sold professionally at the gimmick table at the matches was a bill dundee and the reason for that and we'll go into some of it i want to try to i don't know dispel notions or just try to explain to most people listening to us now unless you were a fan of Memphis wrestling in the 70s, even if you've seen some YouTube stuff, you don't get it. And I don't blame you. Because as a wrestler, the first time anybody

outside the Tennessee territory ever saw Bill Dundee, he was already past 40. And he didn't have the benefit of the build that he had in Tennessee to explain why he was over. and to get the appeal. And it was the perfect place of context. And the reason why that he didn't ever leave the territory was because he was so important to it. And kind of like Lawler, and also because at various points, he was also booking behind the scenes.

But the people, they know that Dundee was the booker in the record year that they had in Mid-South, and 84 of we were all there. But they don't know at what periods of time that he was booking stuff that was incredibly successful in the Tennessee territory too. And again, most people who saw Dundee as a wrestler, you know, a little bit in the 80s for Crockett,

as I said, he was already past 40. And then he was presented as a manager in WCW when he worked with William Regal, but he was also at the same time on a lot of these booking committees. He was there for more than just to be the manager of the English guy because he had an accent.

So I think that a lot of people don't understand the impact that he had behind the scenes when they were just seeing him on national television, the reason why that when he was working for Crockett, Dusty sent him to Kansas City was not because, well, Dundee can't make the main roster. I'll send him to Kansas City. It's because we've just bought this territory and I need somebody to book it.

So I send Dundee out there and he can work on top two and try to teach these young green guys something. It was that type of thing. So I think because a lot of people, especially in recent years, have gone, I don't get it. And when I was talking about the amount of picture sales in the Tennessee territory, and I'd said a couple weeks ago, I said, Jared remade the territory. When he took over in 77, he had been booking Memphis, but Gula still had a lot of the pull as to talent that was brought into the entire territory.

But when Jared had complete control, he remade the roster and he youthed it. these youths. He made it all younger. And all these guys, Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, the Rock and Roll Express, the fabulous ones, Terry Taylor, they were good-looking young guys with bodies, and the women went fucking crazy. And Bill Dundee,

even though Lawler was still the biggest draw in Memphis of all time, Dundee, by the longevity and by the spot that he had, he was always a main event guy from the time that he really came in. He was not only second in terms of box office appeal for that glory period run, but he was the God damn. He was the Beatles. He was all four Beatles rolled into one. He was Davy Jones of the Monkeys.

He was a fucking sex symbol. I personally witnessed. He would come back from the matches in some of the towns where they could get close stuff to you with scratch marks all over his neck where the girls had grabbed him and tried to hug him and kiss him and tear his t-shirt off and keep it as a souvenir. And those thousands of girls every week would buy those $1, 3.5 by 5 color pictures and put them up on the walls in their bedroom like he was goddamn Sean Cassidy. and they would get in cars and follow chase the guys

from the matches down the road. Some of them would drive all away from Jonesboro to Memphis chasing the fucking car with Dundee in it. It was insane. And it was a different time and a different atmosphere, but people today think we're bullshitting, but no, Bill Dundee, five, six or five, depending on how fluffy his hair was.

And he had a big upper body so you could introduce him at 228 and people would believe it and he was strong as a bull. But he was a goddamn sex symbol. And he didn't even come to the United States until he was 31 years old. But he looked so much younger that anyway, they just went apeshit for him.

But I'm rambling here. As far as my career, I'll just say this, you ask a question. I learned multiple things from him, not only about wrestling, and I actually not only managed against him, wrestled him a bunch of times. I learned how to take a bump out of the ring after that first time he threw me out, 18 stitches in my face later. But I learned booking and psychology and putting cards together

and doing finishes. He was the best finish guy I ever worked for. Go ahead, jump in here. There's so many questions coming out of all that. What was it like when you first saw he and Barnes when they first got here?

Well, that was, as I've been thinking about it the past couple of days, it was kind of like when the Midnight Express showed up in Louisiana. Because Barnes and Dundee, George Barnes was his partner,

and they had, had been working in Australia for Jim Barnett, but like underneath when they could get booked, because Barnett wouldn't use the local guys. He brought the biggest names from the states in, and it was a big money territory, and they couldn't get a break. But Bobby Shane was over there, and as we've talked about, Shane, if he hadn't been in that plane crash, literally the same month that Dundee and Barnes debuted in the United States, Shane was dead. We just went past what I think would have been his 81st birthday. Yes.

And Shane was going to be a booker. Already was getting involved with offices and giving guys advice. Bobby Shane in Atlanta gave Lawler the crown because Bobby Shane had been the king of wrestling. Bobby Shane had the tights with the one strap over the shoulder. he was advising and talking to different people and he was well thought of in the business, a tremendous worker.

He told Dundee and Barnes, you need to go to the states, go to Tennessee. They use smaller guys, but don't go to work for Nick Goulis, go to work for Jerry Jarrett. Go to work for the little man. That's what they called Jared. Dundee, for 20 years, called Jared Little Man.

because when he started calling shots in Memphis, he was 26 or whatever, and he was the little guy. And it was derogatory at first, and then when he got to be the boss, the little man was the boss, and he didn't mind it. But Shane told him, go to work for Jerry Jarrett, he can get you over.

So they, on Shane's say so, they got booked. And when they debuted, they had just been an underneath tag team. and, you know, had never made any money and never been featured, all of a sudden there in the United States, the Goulos Welch office was a big territory at that time. And they're being brought in as the Australasian tag team champions, which was a real title, but they'd never held it, right, over there.

And the way they were introduced is they came in doing that. Barnes was a better promo than Dundee. But Barnes had the service. early pro by you bloody stinking inbred yanks you don't know what real men are around here and the accents and the fact that they were from somewhere else got them some heat to begin with and when they put the belts on them like their second third weekend they were southern tag team champions they beat tojo yamamoto at eddie marlin the old guard right and the previous heel team that had been working with for the southern tag titles with

tojo and eddie marlin had been phil hickerson and tank patent two guys were 270 pounds apiece goulis especially loved big heel teams and they had done business in the territory for 20 years don and al green or the curtain carl von brauner or the infernos or the interns with Ramey or the mighty Yankees, just big, ugly or masked heels to beat up the baby faces. But Jarrett, a couple of years earlier, had brought in Jerry Lawler and Jim White as a team and set records into Coliseum. That's where he got the idea. He had something with Lawler and he was going to groom him.

Well, that was 72 and 73. January of 75, Barnes and Dundee come in. same thing. Two younger guys, smaller guys that took bumps. And just like Lawler had been, Dundee and Barnes are working like their lives depend on it. They've got a chance to get over. It's the same thing Bobby and Dennis did when we went to Louisiana. It's a, instead of the big plodding surly heels, here's these younger, smaller, but more action-packed guys that get heat with double teaming and with all these different moves and fucking, they would bring the belts to the ring, they'd drag them behind them,

and they would throw them over the top rope into the ring before they even got there to show that these belts are just trash to us. We don't like anything from America. And as soon as they shot an angle with Tojo and Eddie Marlin where it was a grudge, the baby faces would hit the ring, Dundee and Barnes. still have their jackets on. Boom, boom, boom. They shoot Barnes off one way,

and he takes a bump over the top rope and to the ground, and he doesn't stop rolling until he's three rows back and ringside. And then they shoot Dundee off. And he, because he was so short, he took weird over the top rope bumps, but it was goddamn more dangerous.

He would go into the turnbuckle, catch it with his stomach, bend over, do a handstand with both, hands on the apron of the ring and take a backdrop out over the top rope. Or they would take big backdrops or just whatever. Barnes, when the baby face made a comeback and hit him with a broad arm in the chest, he'd take a bump where he'd land on his shoulders in the back of his head with his legs already over his head so he would just flop on his stomach.

It looked like they knocked him a backflip. And they did double team moves and they cheated and they were just heels like crazy and they got over and this was the period of time where Jared had got mad at lawler for now I want to make the little towns and get to big head and he sent him to Georgia and Ron Fuller was the southern champion and with Barnes and Dundee and he was making doing double duty from Knoxville so he wasn't in the entire territory every week he wouldn't make Louisville. So Barnes and Dundee as the tag team champions carried a lot of the rest of the

territory besides Memphis and did well in Memphis as well. And they just got over and had heat and they turned Phil Hickerson baby face to work with them. They did a thing with even though Ron Fuller was a heel, they brought Ron and Robert in to work with them because they'd done something to buddy. their father. And it was just, it was an incredible run. And these guys were just so fucking exciting to watch.

And then Barnes got homesick and wanted to go back to Australia. And I could only imagine what those conversations were like in a car. And first week of June, he went back home. So they were only here six months. But they made such an impact that people remembered them years later. and Lance would still mention when talking about baby face Bill Dundee, but everybody remembers him and George Barnes. And they would think back, oh, shit, yeah, that was fucking something.

One of the best, most exciting heel tag teams that I've ever seen. And there's a few Tennessee films that still exist, but not really anything where you would get the full picture of, just how much they got over. When do you think Bill Dundee became good behind the mic? Because I've seen interviews where he kind of, not floundered, but it was almost like he didn't know what to say or how to say it. And then I saw him kick it into high gear,

and he was one of the great heels on the mic, but even a good baby face on the mic. When did he become good on the mic? After he got over, believe it or not, he was, as a baby face, he was over like God and still the promos. He could be mad good. He wasn't comfortable speaking as a baby face.

And if a baby face could get mad, then he was okay, but otherwise it was a little eh. When they finally switched him heel, in 83, that's when he really turned it on. But as a baby face, he got a little better as he started getting more practice and as he was featured more.

So it was the late 70s, and it could still be questionable, but he got better. That was the one drawback in his game is that when he was a heel, it was fucking great. Because Dundee was a little prickly. He was a little heelish to you.

That was the title of his book. If you don't want the answer, don't ask the question. Because he'd just tell you, no, that fucking sucks. Fuck you. But yeah, the promos were on and off, but that's another with lawler.

There was respect and legitimate animosity. And they each could turn it on when dealing with each other because it was real while at the same time they were working and knew they could draw money. But, you know, that was the issue. Dundee just always kind of came off better as a heel talking. But that was the thing. When Barnes left,

now they've got this single heel, and he's always been a tag team guy. And he kind of did a few other things, but that's when Taney got in Jerry's ear. Because Taney was always said, Jerry, look how cute he is. The girls would just love him. No, seriously.

She said, he's a baby face. And Jerry started looking to see, you know, you're right. And so they did a deal within, I don't know, a month or two after Barnes had left, where Dundee came out and helped Eddie Marlin, Jerry's father-in-law, against the end, one of the most beloved baby faces of the Tennessee history, helped him against the interns in Ken Ramey and that he was a baby face. but then he was a tag team baby face

and he was still as you said real green on promos so the fall of 75 that was when that happened and that's when Lawler came back to the territory they had the first matches between the two of them because Lawler came back as a baby face

he had left as a baby face but then they did a kind of a round Robin deal for the Southern title and it was Lawler and Dundee was involved. So was Bob Armstrong. And Lawler switched back heel. But he and Dundee had a few matches and you could see the chemistry.

But nobody took Dundee seriously. I know that again this sounds crazy. But the fans who weren't smart to the business could still pigeonhole the guys in those days based on how they were presented. And so Lawler had been a Southern heavyweight champion. He'd beaten Rocky Johnson. He'd beaten Jackie Fargo.

He'd beaten the Mongolian stomper. But Dundee had been in tag teams and main events, but it was a different animal. You understand what I'm trying to say, Brian. I wonder, do the people anymore? The fans didn't think Dundee could whip Lawler because Dundee was a tag team guy and Loller was the heavyweight champion. Does that make sense? It makes sense.

And again, tag team wrestling was seen differently then than it certainly is today where it's almost worthless. But that makes a lot of sense. And the chemistry with him and Lawler, I don't know how to examine that, but obviously there's whatever personal respect and animosity, as you put, it was there. But in the ring, when there's a team,

but especially the footage of them going at it. the stuff in the late 70s, it's like one of those examples you look at when you want to see like punches that look good, but also the selling for the punch is perfect. Because it looks like him and Law

were kicking the shit out of each other. They did one take movie fight scenes that lasted 20 minutes into Coliseum with 10,000 people on every side of. And it was just, you know, they had a wonderful chemistry together because Lawler was a master ring general, as we've said, everybody said,

Bachwinkle said, Dundee could work so many different styles. He could do the world of sport kind of stuff. He could do the mat wrestling, but he could also fight. He could also, for the time, do the flying. You know, you shoot him into the corner. He'd jump up and come off the buckles with a crossbody.

That was a big deal in those days. But that was, you know, they just, they clicked. when they got together and start in 1976, Jarrett brought, well, first of all, Lawler, the summer of 76 is when Sam Bass got killed. And Sam had been Lawler's manager, but we've talked about this, that Lawler didn't really need a manager to talk for him. The manager was part of the gimmick.

He was a stooge. He was the guy to interfere to pass the foreign object. Well, when Dundee first, Dundee's first program with Lawler was in a tag team situation because Dundee and Big Bad John, Big John, the Bicentennial baby, if what February, March, April of 76, they were the tag team champions as baby faces. And Lawler still had Sam Bassie brought in Plowboy Frasier.

And now you got Frasier at 450 and Big Bad John at 3.30. You got the big guys. And then Lawler and Dundee can do the, action. Big Bad John can cut the promo. That's who named Dundee Bill Superstar Dundee. Just ought to promo one day because

superstar Billy Graham was a big name in the AWA by that point. He was getting over. And Big Bad John just said, and me, the Bicentennial baby, and he realized Dundee didn't have a nickname. So he just said, and Billy superstar Dundee.

Me and the superstar. And it stuck. So they worked a program with Dundee and Big John against Lawler and Plowboy. And then when Big John left, as he always did, sooner than they'd planned, they teamed Dundee up with Tommy Rich. Because Tommy Rich had just been in the business about a year and a half. Now you've got two young baby faces. They're the Southern tag team champions.

But then later on in the year, Sam Baskets killed. Lawler always needed stooges and always needed a manager for the reasons I mentioned that made him the center of attention. He could talk for everybody, get everybody over, and they fed him. So Lawler started the King's

Army, and he had private Buddy Diamond, just an underneath guy, but he also, like Gorgeous George Jr. was in the Army until he turned on Lawler and then they had a program. And pork shop cash at one time was in it until he turned on Lala, whatever.

At that point, Dundee and Tommy Rich had been the Southern tag team champions, but along around the first part of the springtime of 77-ish, that's when Jared had split off now. They really lost some talent. Fargo left and Tojo, they stayed with Nick, and Jerry's bringing new faces into the territory to see what works. because 76 had been a mammoth year for Memphis. I just read some of the attendances.

They were almost to the 74 level. They'd probably sold almost 400,000 tickets in 76. So in 77, when Jarrett split off, Memphis was on a run. I'm just looking here. On February 15th, they'd done 9,000, people, February 20th, they did 10,526. March 1st was Harley Race and Rocky Johnson for the world title, 11,257.

Then everything gets screwed up with the split. And Jared has to leave the Coliseum and go to the Cook Convention Center and the TV switches. And he's looking for things. So the springtime, the springtime, they were still doing six, seven thousand people, five thousand whatever,

but it was a new promotion with new names, even though everything was going to come together. So going into the summertime, which was traditionally the big money period in Memphis, in the territory, they peaked all their big stuff, hopefully for the summertime. Dundee was still partners with Tommy Rich,

and they were not only the Southern Tag Team champions a lot of the time, but they would go back and do. forth to Knoxville and they won the southeastern tag title over there. Lawler had been working with Paul Orndorff and Rocky Johnson for the southern title in the main events. It was Orndorff's first run in any territory at his first title. But now they need something for the summertime.

So I don't know what the impetus was, whether Jared just figured, you know, it's time to do this, but he got Dundee over as a single in one of the most unique ways that I've ever seen it done, but when you look back at it, it made perfect sense. That's why, Brian, I know I'm droning here. That's why I mentioned that nobody took Dundee serious as a single, even though he was one of the tag team champions and one of the most popular baby faces. And Jared realized that. So he, again, as I said, kind of went in this unique little way to get Dundee over,

but do you have any questions up till now, or would you like me to start into this little program here? When did he first wear a jumpsuit, Elvis style? See, that's another thing. Lawler went for the crown being the king of Memphis, but everybody, Elvis the king, right, Memphis. But Lawler went for the crown and that style. And he started, he tried to pull off a jumpsuit around in the late 70s when he put his first album out, right, when he recorded those songs. But Lawler couldn't pull a jumpsuit off. I didn't think.

Dundee, because of the black, jet black hair he had, in 76, he was wearing like a t-shirt with one of those jeweled bejeweled medallions and one of those floppy kind of velvet hats like Dusty used to wear. wear sometime, just kind of trying to be stylish. But then I think one of the fans made him a jumpsuit because once he started wearing him, God damn, this woman in Evansville, she not only made him jumpsuit, she made her son matching jumpsuit so he could go to the ring and get jackets in the jumpsuit. I think I've said this before, but you might not remember it, but I wish I was lying, but I'm not. The kid got run over killed by a car at a park one day on a family outing. Oh, no.

When he was like 13 years old or something, they buried him in the jumpsuit. I don't think you ever told me that. I don't know that story. They buried that young kid in the jumpsuit. He had a nice little kid, but he took shit from the fans at Evansville because he's a 12-year-old boy wearing Bill Dundee's jumpsuits. And if there was a segment of the population of Dundee was not popular with, it was the males from 15 to 35 because all their women wanted to fuck Dundee and they hated it.

But point being, it was his mother, the kid's mother was in love with Bill Duda, everybody. And the mother was fucking in her 40s. But there was grandmothers that would bake him cakes for his goddamn birthday. But the other jumpsuits came in probably about the time of maybe a little bit after this program that he was the first one he did with Lawler. And that was another source of tension because in a way they were both doing the Elvis offshoot, but Dundee went with the jumpsuits and Lawler went with the crown and the king thing. But there was, they were neck and neck, boy.

It was a fucking struggle. When did he get into the office or involved with the creative end, the booking with Jerry Jared? Well, that's another thing is that the differences between Lawler and Dundee. Lawler was a natural, natural wrestler, natural artist, natural performer, natural talker.

He didn't have to try at anything. He just did it. Dundee was the wrestling equivalent of a workaholic. He would goddamn on his own, but if he wasn't the Booker, he would make the towns and he would come in

Nashville at home at 2 o'clock in the morning and he'd be at 9 or 10 o'clock, the next day at Jerry Jarrett's house to talk about wrestling and talk about booking, even if it wasn't his job. And it wasn't like he was trying to politic and, you know, just me, me, me.

He wanted to learn everything. And he did. And it was by, I'm trying to think, probably by 79 was the first time he booked. And then Jared and Lawler would split like six months each approximately and they'd switch off so they didn't get stale and then dundee got added into the into the rotation there and the only time they really deviated from that from 77 till 84 85 was when they brought robert fuller in that time for that little run and that bit him in the

ass but dundee was a workaholic he wanted the whole card to get over he wanted everything to be good He wanted, he did the paperwork. Rivera said, when Lawler was the Booker, you'd come in to Memphis TV, go live on the air at 11 o'clock. You'd get there at 10 o'clock. Jerry's just sat down in the bathroom to start right now to fucking format. Dundee'd been working on it for fucking days. It was just, they both were successful, but it was the two different ways. Dundee worked harder than anybody.

Lawler never worked at all. Well, back to him and Lawler, because you were about to set up that feud when I, Well, the one of the stooges that Lawler had at this point in time was bad, bad Lee, Roy Brown. When he'd first got the gimmick, they brought him in, played the music. That's the answer to that trivia question. This was two years before the freebirds. And he was just a big crazy guy that couldn't do his promos. And some way or another, I can't remember how, but Lawler had Mickey Poole as his manager at this time.

Remember we've talked about Mickey a few weeks ago. He was the guy that knew Elvis's father. And Lawler thought, if I get him in Reslin, he'll set this fucking matchup. And Lawler also was talking with and loosely affiliated with Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. So the fucking deal was Dundee was trying to, you know, he wanted to get involved in the Southern title business or whatever. And Leroy Brown had come out and fucking hammered him. And basically he got in a match with Lee, Brown first.

And on June 12th, 1977 at the Mid-South Coliseum, the main events were Jerry Lawler against Dusty Roads and Paul Orndorf defending the Southern heavyweight title against Mike Stark, who was a local pro football player

that had briefly got in a business at that point in time. He was the first humongous, by the way. But the next match down was Bill Dundee against Leroy Brown. And some way or another, he beat him. So the following week, it was rematches of the two men. It was a rematch of the main event.

It was a lumberjack match with Lawler and Dusty. And it was Southern title match, Paul Orndorff against Plowboy Frazier, but it was a return match with Leroy Brown against Bill Dundee. A $1,000 challenge match, Leroy Brown has to beat Dundee twice in 15 minutes.

And that's where Lawler had stepped in and go, You little shrimp, and they made fun of Dundee's size. Instead of trying to hide it, they got sympathy for Bill because they made fun of it. There's Lawler calling a little pipsqueak, you little runt, you little sawed-off shortcake. He said, this guy could, I'll put up $1,000, he'll beat you twice in 15 minutes. So what happens? Actually, the way I remember it in Louisville, Leroy Brown won. the first fall, but he didn't beat him twice.

Dundee ran the timeout. And there went Lawler's money. So the next week, they bring it back. This time it's Lawler against Rocky Johnson and Paul Lorndorf against Radamias for the Southern title. But now it's Dundee against Leroy Brown in a cage, another $1,000. And Leroy has got to pit him twice in 15 minutes. And this time, I believe, is where that Dundee beat.

Lee Roy Brown, 100 pounds bigger and a foot taller. And that's what the fuck. So the main event the following week, July the 4th, is Bill Dundee against Jerry Lawler $4,000 at stake. Lawler's got to beat Dundee twice in 15 minutes. And the 2,000 that Leroy has had or that Lawler had put in and 2000 at Dundee had put in previous weeks, it's all up. And you can imagine the promos because Lawler's running this show,

and Lawler is the goddamn catalyst for all of this, and he's cutting these promos for 10 minutes every week on Memphis TV, explaining all these stipulations and belittle in Dundee. And there's no way that that little shrimp's going to get away with doing this. And at the same time, all the attention is going on Dundee. D. he's exceeding where this wise, wise ass fucking asshole loller is shooting his mouth off. And Dundee's smart enough he's taking advantage of him. Little by little every week, it starts getting better.

So on the 4th of July, they had 5,371. By the way, the previous three weeks, the crowds had been 6784, 71, 62, 67, 31. The first main event between Lawler and Dundee on July 4th, 5371. Then July 11th, they come back, a cage match, Jerry Lawler versus Bill Dundee. Lawler's got to beat Dundee in 15 minutes, but Dundee's putting up the four grand that he won the week before against Lawler's Cadillac that will be parked at ringside. It's like a goddamn one of these movies where they keep betting.

Oh Goddie, you may have got my money. I'll bet my Cadillac. So that time, the crowd was up to 8,04. And Dundee won. Now he's got the money and the Cadillac. So the next week, July 18th, they're back. This time, Lawler is in the main event against Paul. Paul Orndorff for the Southern title.

And Dundee's at a grudge match against Plowboy Frazier, who is always known as one of Lawler's Stooges. They had to get the belt back on Lawler. So Lawler beats Orndorff to get the belt back in front of 8783. And they added Lawler and Dundee in a match that wasn't advertised in a newspaper that came up on... the live TV show that morning. So Lawler basically wrestled twice and so did Dundee.

But they added that match again in the main event to get the fucking, so they got the belt back on Lawler and had another Lawler Dundee match. Now Lawler and Dundee have main evented three weeks in a row before 5371, then 8,04, then 8783. Then they come back. Now Dundee's got the Cadillac, right? Lawler's got the title. July 25th, Southern heavyweight title,

Lawler versus Dundee, Lawler's belt against Dundee's Cadillac. And Dundee won that in front of 76,81. You just know Lawler's got to do something about that. August 1st, they come back, Southern title. Dundee's title and the Cadillac against Lawler's, hair. 11,300 people. They sold it out.

Lawler wins the belt and the car. You just know that Dundee's got to do something about that. August 8th, this is when, by the way, Jarrett started another trick because he couldn't get enough heels over that meant something. So he started booking Lawler twice. the same night. So on August 8th, they came back

and Lawler had another match, a defense of the Southern title against Orndorf, and then came back in the main event against Dundee with the car on the line. Fuck the belt, fuck the money. I want my fucking car. And he beat Paul Orndorf, but he lost to Dundee 11,103 people.

So in two weeks, they've sold 22,500 tickets. then they come back on August 15th and there's still some video of this one God damn it's incredible Southern title Lawler's the champion Dundee's the Challenger Dundee's putting the Cadillac at stake

Lawler's putting the title at stake and Mickey Poole's hair and that's when Lawler beats him and retains this Southern title in front of 8397 but the follow week, August 22nd, they come back with a return match where Dundee puts his hair up against Lawler's title and Cadillac and Mickey Poole's hair. And that's where they shaved Mickey Poole's head.

Dundee won the belt back, 71.43. It was an off night. Then they come back on August 29th in a Texas death match. Dundee put the title and the Cadillac up against Lawler's hair again. 7,420. And it all built up in what Jarrett's mind was going to be the blowoff. Labor Day, Monday, September the 5th. It's the end of summer. Everything usually goes down at that point. They try to tie things up.

Lawler versus Dundee, Hair versus hair, guaranteed that one must go. Mickey Pool in a cage at ringside. on Labor Day, they drew 10,129, and that's when Dundee got his head shaped. But during that match, Jared was in the back watching it and watching the reaction

and said, my God, we've cut this off too early. There's more in this. These people still want to see these two. And when they got back to the locker room, Jared talked to both of them and talked to Dundee specifically. Jared had given Dundee $3,000 for his hair. That's 1977. What is that about 15 grand today?

I think it's about 5 to 1, or is it more by this time now? It's 50 years ago. Point being, there's a pretty healthy fucking payoff. Maybe one of the biggest payoffs that had ever been given to that time in Memphis wrestling. Jared told Dundee, you think Beverly'd be interested in making another three grand? And that's when they did the angle on the following Saturday mornings TV where Lawler was laughing and crowing about what he's doing to Dundee.

And that old hag, he keeps up in Nashville. How do you think he's going to explain this to her? And she came out and started slapping the shit out of fucking Lawler. so they brought Beverly back and had no time limit, no disqualification, Lawler's hair against Dundee's wife's hair. And they shaved her head. And that drew 9,000 people. So within between, hold on here, between June 12th,

when the thing with Leroy Brown started and September 13th, Lawler and Dundee main evented almost every single one of those shows. I think I counted once as a dozen times in 13 weeks and sold somewhere around 100,000 tickets just in the one building. And they were doing it in Louisville too. And they didn't do it as long or as much. Memphis got the big cards and sometimes Lawler wasn't available in Louisville. but they went June 21st.

They had the match with Leroy Brown and Bill Dundee. And then June 28th came back with Brown must pinningman twice and 15 minutes. And then the cage match on July 5th twice and 15 minutes. And then Lawler versus Dundee for the first time on July 12th, Lawler's got a pinningman 15 minutes with four grand up. And then the next week was the Cadillac versus four grand up. grand. And the next week was the lights out bull rope match. And then the next week was the belt against the Cadillac. And the next week was the belt and Cadillac against Lawler's hair with Eddie Marlin's

referee. And the next week was Lawler and Dundee with Cadillac at stake. And the next week was the title versus the Cadillac. And then they finished it up on August 30th in Louisville with the Cadillac in the title against Dundee's hair. And then, of course, they couldn't shave Dundee's head twice. So because Memphis TV was a week behind in Louisville, the week after Dundee got his head shaved, he was here on the card defending the Southern title, which he still held because of the time delay.

So they put a wig on him. He wore his fucking cap. And the heel rushed him. from behind and he ducked and schoolboyed him in seven seconds and won to match. And that way nobody, he didn't show up bald until the next week when the TV played. So nobody fucking knew. But point being, they are the ones who put Jerry Jarrett's company, new company on the map. When you've got, see, we all know Jerry Lawler now is the king of Memphis and he's 50 years,

you know, he's been on raw, blah, blah, blah. he was the 26-year-old, 27-year-old top star of a brand-new promotion in a market that wasn't a top-10 market, and he's selling out the 11,000-seat arena. And who's his opponent? Bill Dundee? Who the fuck is Bill Dundee? He said the entire wrestling world, because he had only wrestled in one territory since he came to this country. And then people are all around the business are here, and wait a bit of him. minute, they're drawing 11,000 people in Memphis,

are drawing 5,000 people in Louisville. These guys are working every week for three months, and people are still coming? What the fuck is going on here? And that made Bill Dundee forever more. In the Memphis territory, everybody that saw those matches, remembers them, wants to say,

and they went back to it. They went back to after, after this program, it's when Lawler retired so he could come back as a baby face. Elvis had just died and they got the fucking idea. And then Lawler and Dundee became the super team where they would team up with each other against the ultimate defense against the heels. And even then they would talk sometimes about how they didn't really like each other. And then they worked a program again in 79 when Lawler switched back heel.

and then he broke his leg so Dundee had to kind of be the top baby face to hold everything down with help from Jimmy Valiant and those guys. And then when Lawler came back from the leg, they coexisted for a couple of years. Then they switched Dundee heel. When we've talked about that, when Lawler pulled the power play and took the book back and Jared got Dundee the spot booking for Oly, Dundee and Dundee, Loller again, lose or leave town, 11,300 people on June 6, 1988 is one of the best matches I ever saw live. And they did it every night in the entire, they did Memphis, Louisville, Evansville, Lexington at Rupp Arena. And they did record houses or sellouts in all of them.

And then when Dundee went to book Mid-South and came back in 85, he came back and they did the same goddamn thing. They did another fucking program, and Dundee lost a, no, Lawler lost a loser leave town that time, so he could go freshen up

for a little while, and then became the Bill and Buddy show. And then the way they got Lawler back was when Bill and Buddy Landell tried to blind Jerry Jarrett and crippled his son, and Eddie Marlin, the promoter said, I'm calling Lawler.

And everybody was fine with it. Fans didn't bother or didn't mind. But that was the thing, it was just it was a magic combination and their matches were incredible. And even in that 1983 match, Dundee was 40 at that point and he pulled out bumps that I hadn't seen him do

since the George Barnes days. He did the deal where the Huluva kick. He was going to run across the ring and kick Lawler in the face. Lawler moves and Dundee's right foot goes over the top turnbuckle. He straddles the top buckle, keeps going head first and takes a backdrop

over the turnbuckle, buckles, vaults off the ring post, and lands on the floor with no pads. How the fuck did he do that? How long was he out after the Randy Savage incident? Oh, God. That, Atini was mad, too, because Dundee, when Lawler wasn't in Louisville every week, Dundee was the draw. I think it was like six weeks, eight weeks, something like that.

He had to have his jaw wired shut. See, that's the thing. here's another thing about Dundee. And I know he tore his bicep once because he would flex and show it to you. He took all those bumps, did all that had a weird style that nobody else could replicate

and nobody else ever worked like him. But a full-time schedule in Tennessee was 28 days a month. You had two or three Sundays a month off, but you worked twice on Saturdays because of TV. He worked at, schedule from 1975 through the mid-80s

and the only time I remember him being off for any appreciable time with any kind of injury was when Savage had fucking broke his jaw that time. Nothing in the ring. Either that or he just worked through it. What did you think the first time you saw Bill Dundee

wearing trunks that said macho man? Well, in all honesty, it wasn't it was a bigger deal to Randy Savage than it was to anybody else because that was his gimmick and Savage was high strung and he was it took it very personally but that was the same year that macho man came to the village people everybody was talking about macho man singing macho man it wasn't really like Dundee was trying to steal Randy Savage's gimmick I think maybe some of the fans may have made him those trunks. If not,

you know Dundee, by God, he was driving around until a year or so ago with a goddamn car that was wrapped with a picture of him from the 80s

with superstar Bill Dundee written across it, like a flower delivery truck. He wanted to call attention to himself. So he was just, macho man. It was stuff that everybody was doing at that time,

1979 time frame, 80, 81, whatever. But Savage, he festered about that. When Lawler demanded the book in 83, why did Dundee have to go? Could they not have coexisted if Dundee wasn't booking at that specific point in time?

Or what was the reason? He didn't have to go, but all those things happened at the same time. Because Dundee was still a draw in the territory. But he had been booking. And as I mentioned, you know, even though Lawler did his own program, even when Dundee or Jared were the book was the booker.

Dundee was booking. He booked the record house in Nashville. It was me and Adrian and Linda against him. And we out drew, that's right when they'd raised the ticket prices, but we outdrew anything that Lawler had done there. The other towns were, Dundee was better for the whole territory.

Lawler was concerned with Memphis. And so at the same time as Dundee's now has been, It's like a general being demoted. And now he's got to do what other people tell him to do. It wasn't a voluntary step down or it's time we're rotating or whatever. It's no, we're doing this. And that's when Oli was talking to Jared independently about, I need somebody to, I need a crew for my Georgia towns because they're dying and we're making our money up north.

And Jared figured, well, I'll send Bill down there to book the thing. see if he can get it up, and that reduces some tension here at home. And also even without Dundee and all of us, remember that summer Dundee or Loller had brought 40 guys in to be on the card. Yeah, that's right. So then the awkward thing was when Georgia folded, we all could come back even though we were on the buttermilk run, but Dundee, the biggest star of the bunch of us,

he's the one that lost the loser leave town so he could only work the spot shows. He couldn't work Memphis, Louisville, Evansville, Lexington. He had a Somerville, Tennessee and fucking Oseo to Arkansas. And that lasted a couple months until they worked him back into the main roster. But at that point in time, again, there was tension and Jared had another opportunity. Because Watts called, because Watts was like, I need talent. And Jared's like, good, come take some of mine. because I got too much.

Because Lawler couldn't say no as a booker. So there were 40 guys on the card making 50 bucks a piece instead of 20 making 100. You see where I'm going. So Jared knew that Dundee could book the shit out of Mid-South with me and Bobby and Dennis and the rock and roll and Terry Taylor. And holy shit. So he put that deal together.

And that way, you know, he got savage because Savage wasn't going to come, as we've talked about before, while Dundee was there and Dundee wasn't going to let him. But with Dundee down in Louisiana, instead of going to Louisiana, Savage came back to Tennessee, and they did the Lawler Savage matches they'd been promoting for five years. And meanwhile, Dundee financially had his biggest year ever in the wrestling business in 1984 without hardly wrestling.

I'm just, when you're the booker of a territory that size, in record business. I know he made more money than we did. I want to ask you about him as a Booker and just how different was he or what differences were there as a booker under Jarrett than under Bill Watts. But I guess tied to that, something that would become associated with you,

I just went through my photos the other day and I have all of your photos of the scaffold matches. Bill Dundee versus Bobby Eaton and Bill Dundee versus Cocoa wear sweet brown sugar. Of course, he would be the Booker when you would first encounter a scaffold. Talk about Bill Dundee and a scaffold. Well, you should have seen the one with Bill Dundee

against Jerry Brown of the Hollywood Blonds in 1977 in Louisville. They got two step ladders and put a legitimate fucking two-by-12 plank in between them. It was the most goddamn Mickey Mouse. Dundee loved the scaffold. Dundee couldn't wait to get on a scaffold. Everybody else hated it.

He loved it up there. He would fucking monkey bar underneath. He'd swing down under. He'd do the strut on top. You've seen the picture. The match he had with Bobby Eaton and Ruperine in Lexington, he gave Bobby a backdrop on a scaffold. And Coco was pretty athletic himself,

but he didn't want to be up there, but Dundee would do anything. He didn't give a shit. he'd worked in the circus before he got in wrestling. And somebody said he was a fucking a trapeze performer. He was not, but he did work for the circus. But he had great balance.

He could monkey bar his ass off and he didn't give a shit. He was fearless. And he learned about the scaffold matches from Jerry Jarrett in Memphis. So he had already been in him and he pitched it to Watts. What about if we had a tag team? scaffold match. But that was, the point is,

Dundee loved being up there. And the one he had with Coco on that big show in Louisville, it was the summer of 82. It almost sold out to gardens, drew close to 6,000 people. But as a booker, here's the thing, I've said Dundee

had a lot of different styles that he could work in the ring. and as a booker it was kind of like the same way he understood different he didn't just do the same thing over and over a lot of his shit was different and he had seen so much stuff and done so much stuff not only learning from jerry jarrott but doing it himself in memphis because it was a weekly territory so he constantly needed new shit but i mean he did classic old school wrestling personal issues draw money get your heat on your fucking heels on the TV make them pay to see the heel get their comeuppance in the house shows but don't give it to them every house show

you got to drag it out and the most important thing is is Jerry Jarrett's principle tell them the truth don't just bullshit them right off give them shit they know to be true and then they can't tell when you start working them and you can do outlandish shit

if the people believe in the personalities that are doing it things like that. Dundee was wonderful with finishes, not only the finish he would give you, which, and sometimes I'll be honest, when the old Bill Watts, Eddie Graham style of really complicated,

convoluted, you all got to hit your mark, they tried those in Mid-South. and even to midnight sometimes had a little trouble keeping up with them. And if you got guys that couldn't do it, blah. But Dundees were a little bit simpler in terms of number of stages, but everybody got their spotlight. And if you knew what you were doing and it was, okay, Bing, this is you guys. Boom, that's you.

People wouldn't step on each other. It wouldn't all happen at the same time. It would go Bing, boom, boom, spotlight, spotlight. And that's the way I tried to teach the guys in OVW because I learned not only finishes but giving them from Dundee. Dundee, he would act it out. When he's giving you a finish, you see he's grabbing a guy by the hair and jerking him down

and then he's throwing this punch and then he's pointing you. And then you, you come in and you, you, you, you're fucking pissed and you take the fucking chair. He's not only acting it out. He's telling you the emotions and or the expression you've got on your face. But in that verbal shorthand that he used, where you really needed to be quick to keep up with it. And Cornett, you come in and you jump on him,

but goddamn, I'll marry you off on Miss Linda, you've got the spray and blah, blah, blah. And you would blow up just watching him give this finish. But then when you went out there, it wasn't just something that you had heard recited, you know, like a quotation. you had kind of seen the way it should go and you could do it. And I remember in Nashville at the fairgrounds because the locker rooms were separate

and you couldn't get from one to the other without going through the building to the people. So baby faces and heels could never speak in Nashville. With Dundee's the Booker, he's got to send finishes. Well, sometimes it's simple. You know, 10 minutes, baby face over, sunset flip or whatever. But when there's a schmaz or an angle, he would write later on, I heard in years after I left, they actually started getting a tape recorder. And whoever the Booker was would give the finish on tape and the referee would carry it over

and play it. But in this case, you'd get a popcorn box that Dundee had torn in half and written on the inside where it was white. That's the finish. Remember I've said Adrian was confused? they didn't know what take a powder meant over in England. He's like, what, take like a headache powder? No, leave, get out, go.

And so he'd write to finish down, but Dundee's spelling was atrocious, and he had a kind of a shorthand where he'd skip over some words. So because I had been there so long, and he'd written things down for me pictures he wanted to order, right? I was the one who was able to read Dundee's writing. So in Nashville sometimes, I was pressed into service to help give other heels their finish based on, what's this fucking word, Cornette? Oh, he wants you to do the deal where you know that.

And then I would tell him the deal where you duck and he hits the other guy. Okay, okay, we got it. But just learning to give finishes and go through finishes with him. And again, the difference with Dundee, he was one of the hardest working guys in a ring. His cardio was off the charts. You couldn't blow him up. That's why when he and Billy Robinson had those 40-minute matches, I got a new respect for Robinson because Dundee was out of breath.

Now, I'm thinking, what the fuck this fucking guy? Robinson must be a beast. But he would have the match and the main event in the Coliseum who might be blood and knock down, drag out, and all these bumps and chairs and whatever. but he had a completely different spot show match, which was on the spot shows, you've got 1,500 people in Huntingberg, Indiana,

or Somerville, Tennessee, or Batesville, Mississippi. You don't need to bleed. You don't need to take bump after bump after bump. You're not trying to get heat and get to people in the ring, but you've got to give them their money's worth. So that's where I learned all that bullshit from the spot shows. the spots the Midnight Express used to do, the Tennessee tiptoe,

the crawl through, the arm pump. Dundee would be a Tasmanian devil of action, but making the people, he would bring the house down by making the people laugh at the heels. And Jimmy Hart was a perfect foil, but I've got the picture too

because I'd seen him do it for years. If I'm managing the fucking heel, they do a spot, the fucking Dundee dropped, kicks the heel, he comes through the ropes. I fucking grab him. I say, hey, I'm giving him the pep talk. I lean my left hand on the apron of the ring while I'm talking to my guy. Dundee flies over and stomps my hand. Oh, Jesus Christ, I sell that. I do the funny walk with it between my thighs. I come over to hug my heel who's trying to console me. He hugs me. Dundee reaches through,

grabs us by the head, bongs our heads together. Boom, the place blows. We're selling that. God damn, I'm mad at the referee. I jump up on the apron of the ring and call the referee over, and me and my guy are screaming, why are you letting him do that? And especially if it's a tag match where one of the other baby faces can keep my guy busy, then I see Dundee jump off the apron of the ring and go underneath the ring on the other side. So I'm still yelling at the referee, because I know what's going to happen. He's come underneath the ring as I finish yelling at the referee and jump down

and go to sit back in my manager chair. Dundee's in the chair and I sit on Dundee's lap. And then I realize it. And I reach over my shoulder and I feel ahead and I do the slowly I turned. And I do the cell when I see him. And he fucking chases me around and the people are going crazy and nobody's getting hurt. And at the end of the thing, everybody's drenched and sweat. We're all blown up, but it's a completely different kind of fucking match.

We've entertained the people without hurting our. ourselves and we've torn the house down in a completely different way. And it only works if the people really love the baby face and really want the heel to be embarrassed. That's why Tennessee wrestling booked toward personalities and personal issues. But there was never a time where Dundee tanked it at anything. He always worked his hardest, but he also worked smart. and then when the time came for a big main event match

in a big regular weekly town, then he, and he sold his ass off. That's one of these Lawler matches. Remember we talked about the Midnight and the Fantastics where they beat the midnight for the U.S. tag team title in Chattanooga, the finish was an homage to Lawler and Dundee. Lawler had busted Dundee open and he was bleeding.

And his hair of Dundee, Dundee's hair was up. That was one of the matches where his hair was on the line. And Lawler is just sticking him in the face. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And his Dundee slumped in the turnbuckles and his hands are at his sides and he can't defend himself. And the referee, Paul Morton finally pushes Lawler back and calls for the bell and stops it.

And the people are going bullshit. And Lawler's celebrating. And Dundee drops to his knees. He's covered with blood. He crawls over to the referee. and he grabs Paul Morton's pant leg and he jerks it and he as Paul looks down at him, Dundee's looking up, just shaking his head, no, no, don't stop it. And you hear the people, oh my God, he wants more.

And then Lawler's still trying to proclaim he won, but Paul Morton looks down to Guy Coffey, the representative of the Tennessee Athletic Commission. And Guy Coffey gets to restart it and they ring the bell again, the place blows and Lawler lights into fucking Dundee and looks like he's trying to beat him to death. And as he fucking finally has Dundee down on the mat, he goes to the ropes, he gives the big leap. Dundee fucking moves, Loller crash lands. Dundee pins him one, two, three with no comeback and the people hit their feet. That's, you know, they just built these things to where the people were emotionally invested in

everything that happened. And Dundee could go a variety of different ways with it, as I said. And that's why he sat at Jerry Jarrett's learning tree. He wanted to be a part of the business. He wanted to be a part of the office. And he, when Jerry Jarrett called me in the office at Channel 5 that day to ask me if I wanted to be a manager, he said, I can tell you the wrestling business is tough. and Dundee was the Booker then but we knew

yeah obviously Jarrett was the boss the wrestling business is a tough business but Bill Dundee here has become a wealthy man and I've made a fortune and that was the point I was going to make a little while ago with the down with the payoffs that Dundee got for his and Beverly's hair the $6,000

in 1977 that was his down pay on his first house in Nashville. And that's why they did it. And Jared said, I'll buy you a wonderful looking wig, Bev. But he came two years earlier as a fucking starving wrestler wanting to have a spot in the United States and found this guy, Jerry Jarrett, that believed in him and could figure out a way to make him a star. And two and a half years later, he's one of the.

the biggest box office attractions for a hot territory, and he's bought a brand new house in a new country, and didn't leave the first time for 10 years. You know, sadly, my first exposure to Bill Dundee wasn't really a flattering one because it was on like ESPN. And at that point, when he was working in Dallas, he had like a mullet and no tan and just long pants, and he looked older, and he was older.

But that was my first impression. He was 46 at that tab, 46, 47. And again, he was down there because he was one of the guys running it for Jerry Jarrett. Not only was he wrestling, but he was the guy on the bus and in the office with the finishes, booking, whatever. So it took me a while to discover the greatness, but you go back and you watch the matches and the promos. And one of the great, on multiple occasions, like turns into. a psycho heel. Not like an unbelievable psycho,

like he's blowing up houses or anything. But he behaves in a maniacal way that you believe. And 86, 85 into 86, him returning, turning heel on Lawler, and then him and Buddy Landell, him and Dutch,

and then him and Buddy Landell, that's some of the best stuff ever. That was the last legitimate sellout of the Coliseum in the territory days was Dutch and Lawler against Dundee and Buddy. And of course, him and Lawler would team again after that, then they would wrestle again after that,

and that's the thing that kind of went on and on. And he was a mainstay of the Memphis Wrestling Company, even when he would go to WCW to manage Stephen Riggle for a few years. Or was he the Booker and Continental when you went there in 89? Yes. Yeah, that's why we went, because Dundee was booking there. You know, that was the thing, is that by that period of time, by the time that everybody started seeing Bill, he was on the card or involved more because of what he was doing behind the scenes and what he was doing in the ring.

And he was in his mid-40s. And without this build that I just explained to you and without, you know, it was even though Dundee stayed in shape and could still do things, he was wrestling several years ago still. but there was a big difference in the end ring between Bill when he was 33 and Bill when he was 46. And that's what more people have seen. But I'm just telling you, holy shit, I saw the Lawler Dundee matches live in real time. And it was a step above anything that you saw. And then again, Dundee could work with almost anybody. The best technical wrestling matches, some of the best that I've seen were Billy

Robinson and Bill Dundee. And the best fights that I saw were Lawler and Dundee. And then all the tag team match. Dundee was in the Tupelo concession stand brawl, the first one. He, that the big Louisville Gardens multiple run-in thing that always praise where they started those eight-man tag team matches. I believe that was a Dundee special. He was booking at that point in time.

Is that the one? What was that? The first six-star match or? The first six-star match. Yeah, because they just tore the building up. And there's the joke about, a lot of people think Dundee couldn't work because the famous Ricky Morton line. President, Bill, the next time we work, can you just punch me in a face as hard as you can?

Why, punky? Because your working punches are killing me. He was stiff, but he wasn't dangerous. And he knew exactly what he was doing when he threw me out of the ring and busted my face open because he was trying to see whether I was going to fucking stick around her. or not at that point in time. But he wasn't, he wasn't dangerous, but you goddamn believe these fucking fights. What was it he said in the Memphis Heat documentary?

He said, hell, the fans believed it because we believed it. It was, you didn't know what the, there was no, we're going to sit down and talk about exactly what we're going to do and every move we're going to make for an hour before we go to the ring. I sometimes didn't know what the fuck he was going to do to me till he was in the process of doing it. But you just went with the shit. That's why it looked a little more unplanned, let's say.

But and then the, again, the pictures, the all-time undisputed picture selling champion, there must be, I don't know how many grandmothers still have some fucking Bill Dundee pictures tucked away in their photo. albums from 40 and 50 years ago. But I took a picture of him at his house one time on a frilly bed cover with a heart-shaped pillow covering his goods with nothing else on.

And I'm going to, we sold a thousand of them in the first two weeks. He was a fucking sex symbol as impossible as it is for everybody to believe. What do you think of the bad reputation music video? Him on his motorcycle driving around Garrett's property? I was there when they shot it because I have pictures of him, him with his pit bull that he had, him with the motorcycle. I got a picture of Eddie Marlin taking a piss

out in Jerry Jarrett's backyard that day too. That was perfect because when they switched him heel so that he worked with oh God, in the spring of 83, as soon as Lawler did that deal took the book back over. He switched heel. I think he worked with Coco. Then he worked with Dutch.

That's where they had the scaffold matches with the bull whip on the scaffold. and then they did the deal with Lawler. He was coming out to Joan Jett's bad reputation. I don't give a damn by my reputation. It fucking worked because it was a brand new song, right? All this was hot then. And it just, it all kind of worked.

Well, again, a great career, a Hall of Fame career, even though he predominantly wrestled for one territory. He was one of the best. Where do you rank him in terms of like the all-time, Memphis stars. There's always Fargo and Lawler to Toppa. Where's Dundee? Well, you've almost got to kind of pick eras

because it's not fair to compare maybe Dundee and the Fabs with the original Fargo brothers and Sputnik Monroe. But of the modern era, let's say since 1970, Dundee, because of his longevity as well as his popularity, Dundee would only be second to Lawler. It was always Lawler and Dundee when the fans would say it or when anybody would say it, Lawler and Dundee.

Jimmy Valiant got more popular as a baby face for shorter periods of time and had a completely different appeal to a completely different audience. Lawler during that 10-year really hot run did switch back heel a time and also was out with the broken leg. Dundee was consistent.

Nine years straight in a territory, almost all of them as a baby face, all of them figured in, always on top, people never got tired of them. So, again, Jimmy Valiant was up there, and Ruff House Fargo per capita, right, was the all-time biggest draw. But besides Jerry Lawler, nobody was as important to the business in the ring and at the bottom. box office in Memphis than Bill Dundee. Well, you've kind of said at all, or at least a whole lot today about it. And of course, in recent years, we've seen some images of Bill Dundee, and he had gotten older. And I think just the last week we saw there was a video of him, Jimmy Hart and Lawler,

together. Yes, because they had a special, oh gosh, what was it? There was something special that was happening in the greater Memphis area. And that's why Jimmy, because I talked to Jimmy Hart. here recently. He loves you too, Poo-Poo. Jimmy was at the cauliflower alley club and flew back with Lawler to do a appearance at a baseball game, but he had been down there because they did something where Dundee was at, and they all got together, you know, one more time, but I knew, I've heard that Dundee was having issues with the Alzheimer's or whatever it may be for the past

few years, but when I first saw him with gray hair, when he had quit dying his hair, I knew that he had either he had just decided, well, it's time or nobody would help him with it. I don't know, but that's the one that Dundee's hair was so black lightning bugs followed him around in the daytime. And it stayed that way until he was 70, at least, or in his 70s. It's, It's been longer than that. And I knew when I first saw him with gray hair, I said, well, something may be up. But I've raved on about how great he was in Memphis, and a lot of other people know some of the other appearances in WCW or whatever the case.

I didn't want to go too heavy on that because I think everybody ought to understand why this guy was this special in one place and not really any other place. and the reason was, as I just described, he came over here, he got over. There was no reason to believe that anybody in any other territories would treat him that well, that he'd do the whole thing all over again, and he didn't need to leave because nobody ever got tired of him. And when he really left in 84, he ended up booking the most successful year in history of Mid-South wrestling.

Yeah, and then came back and sold out the Coliseum again. and it would go back and forth. But also as far as again, as I'm concerned, the first picture I sold was a Bill Dundee. The most pictures I sold were a build undie. My first booker was Bill Dundee, the guy who taught me how to give finishes or understand finishes or just sit and listen to in the car or whatever. he i mean yes vince was important later on but i was already i don't mean to sound like this i was already a star when i went to work for vince mcman and i had proven that i could draw and do things and actually

it was kind of already a star when i went to work for dusty roads i could have proven i could draw and could do things but when dundee got me i was a goddamn well-meaning photographer in somewhat over my head and not sure what I was fucking doing. And he drew money with me, both in the ring and as the booker and taught me shit that I didn't know. And so that early in my career, that instrumental, I don't know that if I hadn't have been able to do what I did in Memphis with Bill, would I've gotten over in Mid-South with Bill?

because I was doing shit that he taught me the year before. So I really do owe him as well as just being one of those names that if you were a Memphis wrestling fan, that's, you know, who you thought of until 1975, if he asked somebody in matches or ask somebody in Memphis, Louisville, wherever, who's a wrestler, Jackie Fargo, Tojo Yamamoto, Jerry Jarrett. From 75 for the next 10 or 15 years, it would have been Jerry Lawler,

Bill Dundee, and Pickett. And he was very important to what I did in the business. I learned a lot. Well, there it is. Superstar Bill Dundee, one of the all-time legends of Memphis Wrestling, Southern Wrestling, and a brilliant wrestling mind.

And Jim, with that, we wrap things up here today. a normal-ish drive-thru returns next week. We have questions. We have to return to our list of 1994 wrestlers and so much more. The experience, you know where to find it. Next week back here on the drive-thru,

for Jim Coronet, I'm the great Brian last. Tally-ho!