Episode 397

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Hello again, friends.

Can't tell if I sound good or not today.

And you are our friends.

Welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornetch Drive-Thru.

You're screaming, am i i'm trying not to scream but we got a frightful edition today

so obviously screaming i'm your host the great brian last we have so many things to talk about and we're planning on having fun and let's see how this goes and here he is the star of the drive-thru the leader of the cult of cornet the man who'll be answering your questions and more mr jim cornet

So you're saying fun is the plan?

That's what you're

communicating here.

We're going to try to have fun.

Does that mean we don't have to talk about wrestling or people?

You said fun is the plan.

It makes me wonder.

Have you ever used the phrase, that's the plan, Stan, when traveling with Stanley?

Well, only when singing along to Paul Simon.

I don't think that was one of the lyrics.

That's the plan, Stan.

Well, Stan was in there.

So now, wait a minute.

I didn't use Stanley Plan.

Make a new plan, Stan.

Yeah, make a new plan.

Don't need to be coy, Roy.

Just listen to me.

Hop on the bus, Gus.

We don't need to discuss much.

Just drop off the key leaf.

Think of how many names in that song stopped being used after that song.

There was never a kid named Gus ever again.

There weren't a lot of impressive Guses before that.

Gus was always, when you had lowered expectations.

Yeah, the kid he looks like a Gus.

Well,

there's no trouble.

What does this show look like?

This show is the drive-thru, and we have questions, we have topics.

You'll never guess what's going on right now outside here in Louisville, Brian.

In Louisville or on your property?

Well, just here in the greater area.

I can't guess.

It's raining.

What would you think it would be doing?

It's raining again.

This time, the dew points are in the 70s and yeah you walk outside and you get wet whether it's raining or not the mugginess the swampiness no severe weather that happens tomorrow

another band of storms coming in

and then the 100 degree heat index comes because we're not going to lose the the humidity the dew point we're going to lose the rain And then it's going to be

feeling like 100 degrees of a wet sponge in your face every day.

Yesterday, I'll have you know, it didn't rain here very much right here, but guess what it did down in E-Town?

Elizabethtown, for you people not

versed in Kentucky geography, 45 miles from us, they just got a rain shower over the top of them.

And the radar indicated, I don't know what the final measurement was, but radar indicated right over the top of E-Town, it's a little town on I-65 on the way to Nashville.

They got like seven inches of rain in two hours.

E-Town town.

And then boost, they had flash flood warnings.

Over here, it was drier than a,

I can't say that word on broadcast anymore.

A nun's coochie.

A holy minge.

The holy mining.

You know what you did, Brian?

I'll tell the people.

I hate to know.

You hate to find out about the things that you did.

Well, what you did was you demanded that we delay the start of this recording 15 minutes earlier before we started recording.

You demanded it or you wouldn't go on.

I said, all right, I acquiesced to your demand.

So while

I had the 15 minutes sit here and twiddle my thumbs, I opened one of these file cabinets that I have yet to have the time

to fully go.

I mean, I got a lot of file drawers up here.

And a lot of the old 30-year-old, 40-year-old paperwork is not filed as

nicely and neatly as possibly my, you know, federal income tax returns, although both of these things, all these things can come back to haunt you.

But I just stuck a hand in.

and pulled a few things out that I thought that I might

present to you and the listeners and the cult of Cornet, the people out there,

and they may like to hear some of these.

So, would you like to hear what these things are?

Yeah, considering we have no context whatsoever for what it could be, let's find out what it is.

Well, that's because I didn't know what it was going to be until about 20 minutes ago, and I stuck my hand in there and started pulling shit out.

I found a postcard.

This postcard was written

postmarked

August 18th, 1986

from Scarsdale, New York.

And it is a

motherfucker.

It's a picture of

the punk rock folks

with the spiky hair and the spiky pink hair and like the Lady Maxine type of outfits.

And they're wearing the Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten type of stuff.

And it says scenic sights of New York City.

Right.

And it it says, Jim, thanks for the best time I've had in a very long while.

No way.

Wait a minute.

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

There'll be some context in the next sentence.

Now the pictures make sense.

Y'all shut up.

Yeah.

Thanks for the best time I've had in a very long while.

By the way, do you think they'll ever let us back into Sabatinos?

Hmm, I wonder, your friend Paul Heyman.

And

I found this and I looked back in the Midnight Express scrapbook.

Of course, obviously Sabatinos is in Baltimore.

Paul was living, as we know, in the greater New York metropolitan area at that time.

But we hadn't been to Baltimore since July 19th.

That was was the, during the Great American Bashes that year, I looked in the scrapbook.

It was us against the Road Warriors.

House was $106,000, by the way.

But

I seem to remember that I know that he was doing the, you know, photography and doing, I think, at that time, editing his own magazine and he at Wrestling Eye for a period of time.

And I know he had come to the Meadowlands and et cetera, but I remember now, I think him possibly coming down to Baltimore because we went to Sabatinos every month.

But I don't remember.

What was the date?

Well, this was postmarked in August 86, but the previous time we'd been in Baltimore was a month before in July.

And I don't remember being in any kind of incident

in Sabatinos with Paul where they wouldn't let us back unless

we

ordered too much food or he had some issue.

I don't know what, but

yeah, I wonder if he has the same post office box.

Post office box, bleep, Scarsdale, New York, 10583.

Well, I reacted before because, yes, and we'll just do this now.

Let's start on a fun note.

I told you, let's go from the files today, or go to the segment from the files, and it wouldn't be a comprehensive one because the file's too big.

It'll be a 50-parter.

I'm going to get the Paul Heyman file.

I didn't know that you had already done this.

So, yet, I completely independently.

It explains yours.

This is one of the things I had, yeah, and pulled out.

This is such a gigantic file because it has everything he ever sent in, including all the programs he was doing.

Well, and I guess for the people who may have just staggered across the program in a drunken stupor, Brian is the owner and curator and preserver of the files of the wrestling news, Ring Wrestling, and a whole bunch of other publications that was

at the time under the curatorship of this era with Paul Heyman and Norman Keitzer at Pro Wrestling Illustrated over Pro Wrestling Enterprises, I'm sorry, over in Minnesota.

And he, like Jack Pfeffer, saved every piece of paper he ever...

came across his desk.

So we've been finding some very interesting things from all kinds of different people in the wrestling business.

You know, one of the problems is Heyman sent a lot of stuff in.

Heyman is not someone who put dates on things.

No.

So Norm Keitzer, everything is dated.

I'm looking at all this Heyman stuff.

Nothing has a date on it because I'm trying to find if he sent anything in around that weekend in 86.

Lots of photos, but let's, I'll pick an interesting one here from, whoa, it's a gigantic file.

Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Last is secretly a hoarder and one of his stacks just fell over on top of him and just smothered him.

Here's a letter from Paul Heyman to Norman Keitzer.

Dear Norman, the April 19th show at the Meadowlands was the host for what could become a major problem.

Including myself, there were 16 photographers at Ringside.

A situation which made it difficult for the regular photographers.

Not to mention the wrestlers, to do their jobs properly.

Let's stop there, because 16 was all in caps here.

Have you ever heard of that many photographers at Ringside?

No, that's ridiculous.

And hold on

because

one of the, I have pictures that Paul took of us in the Meadowlands.

I think that was the February show.

I'm looking in my book.

You can continue reading if you want, but I'm looking up that time period to see if we were on that April show.

I don't think this would be you because I think this is April 85.

Oh, that's 85.

Well, in that case, then

fuck that.

Out of those 16, three were representing your publication.

Exclamation point.

I was there, as usual, and two other gentlemen, partners, I believe, named Bob Epstein, and I can't remember his partner's name, were there with authorization to cover for the wrestling news.

Gary Juster told me you okayed them.

He gave them up right away.

This creates a potentially dangerous situation.

One of the reasons Vince McMahon Jr.

threw the press out in February 1983 was because he was tired of the shenanigans that went on each month involving who represents whom.

Bill Apter would have two guys at ringside.

This guy would complain.

This paper wanted to get in.

This guy's credentials were questionable, etc.

And although Jr.'s primary motive was his magazine, the fact remains that he was not lying when he told us that the press situation was ridiculous.

So let's stop there because obviously you've seen footage.

You never shot Ringside at the garden.

There were regulars on top of any special guests like local media for the newspapers or whatever.

At what point as a promoter or a booker do you not want?

I mean, you want some kind of action, I guess, maybe at ringside, someone shooting pictures.

It makes it look like a big deal, especially when you had flash.

But when they're bumping into each other and fighting for the shot, what do you do?

Well,

and there is a happy medium, and there has to be a limit.

And all of these things can be true at the same time.

At the garden, for the people who have seen,

God, not only the stuff that's out there from the 70s because of the WWE

collection and the stuff they've got in the vault and everything, but even the pictures back in the 60s,

the garden was always a close area

around ringside, close, not roomy, not spacious is what I'm trying to say.

The seats were pretty close to the ring.

And

there were the press tables.

Bill Aptor, even into the 70s, because it was, it was in the, up through the 60s, it was set up like boxing at the garden for wrestling, even down to, you've seen the pictures, they had four ropes.

They had a boxing ring.

There were four ropes on the Madison Square Garden wrestling ring through the 60s.

And

Apter used to talk about having to

stand up because of the height of the garden ring, but lean over the narrow press table they had that ran down one whole side of the ring and stick his head under the bottom rope to try to get a good picture.

It's like he got scoliosis.

So they didn't do or encourage until really the Vince Jr.

era

guys fighting outside the ring in the garden because of the riot in 57 and all that other stuff.

And so that's why, since they hadn't done a variety of stuff like that for so long, when they started doing it, it was, you know, they had to give you some more room.

But still, people were, it was tight around there.

So to the photographers, yes, you always had your

main guys,

Bill Apter, obviously, George Napolitano for his section of the

of the wrestling magazine universe,

the photographer, the Frank Amatos of the world, and all of the guys that you shot at the garden that were regulars,

you had to

allow access because the magazine publicity was still,

you know,

very important in those days, but

you couldn't go down the line to everybody that wanted to get in.

That's how, remember, Paul admitted himself

that he called up and bullshitted Vince Sr.

and said he promised to give him a press pass, but he never had to shoot pictures.

That made him the fourth or fifth photographer at Madison Square Garden right there.

But, you know, so you had to draw a line, and

usually,

usually, because of the

closed nature of the business, in one, you know, any particular market, if they had somebody shooting picture, me in Louisville, Mike Shields was doing Memphis, Scott Teal was in Nashville,

this other, you know, you had one or two

photographers in a territory that did everything needed to be done.

It's just because the garden was such a big deal.

Everybody wanted wanted to get in on that.

But

again, and modern-day TV tapings, also.

Before when they were still trying to use old-fashioned

ring setups with not a lot of room around ringside, now with guys with TV cameras and cable pullers and still photographers and ramps, and it was a goddamn pain in the ass.

Anyway, I'm sorry I'm droning on.

Well, no, back to this letter here, again, about the situation and Vince McMahon Jr.'s response to it.

I see the the same thing happening here.

If enough wrestlers complain to Vern Gagne and/or Gary Juster, the press may start finding it more and more difficult to have their cooperation in future months.

Already, the press has been banned from their most recent TV tapings in Wayne, New Jersey, and the only way to prevent this from expanding into a bad situation is to limit the number of photographers at Ringside.

If possible, from now on, please be extra careful about about giving additional authorizations out for Pro Wrestling USA Northeastern matches.

Except for me, we would like not to have anybody else around.

One photographer per magazine is adequate, and it keeps the situation around the ring under control.

I would hate to see Vern get mad one night and start throwing press members out arbitrarily.

Thank you, Paul Heyman.

P.S.

The Meadowlands material and early material for next month's programs will be on their way in two days.

Because he was already helping with those programs.

And well, and that makes sense, 85, because that's when Vern and the Pro Wrestling USA guys were in charge, hence Gary Jester.

And by

February the next year, the first time we went up, Crockett had,

they were still working with Vern, but Crockett was the primary

person flowing forward for that.

For all the reasons Pro Wrestling USA as a concept didn't work.

Yeah.

I have Norm Kaiser's response, April 26, 1985.

Paul Heyman,

per your letter, I understand the situation about too many photographers.

Oh, Paul Heyman.

Paul Heyman.

I understand the situation about too many photographers being not good.

That's a bit of a fuss.

I am well satisfied with your stuff and want to explain what happened.

The only person I vouched for was Mr.

Bob Dorer, D-O-E-R-R-E-R.

I've never heard of any of these people.

A correspondent I've had for over five years.

He wrote me and asked if he and his friend could get press passes for the matches, and he said he would send me some photos.

He and Norman Blake.

They are the ones who have sent me some photos from Madison Square Garden.

I relayed his request to Gary Juster.

I can't find anyone in my correspondent's file named Epstein.

Although, when you've been publishing wrestling magazines for over 25 years, I'm not sure if at some point or another someone by that name did do work for me or one of the magazines I've taken over.

There was this one kid named Juan.

I think, though, that Bob Dorer must be the person at the Meadowlands.

I didn't realize there was a problem with too many photographers, but realize how that could happen, and I won't okay anyone but you for the Meadowlands in the future.

Basically, I just ask Gary and he can say yes or no to anyone.

But I did ask about Bob Dorr.

I'm sorry if this contributed to the overcrowding, and from now on, I'll just tell anyone who asks that you are sending us the photos we need.

The other side was at the time

this came up, excuse me, at the time this came up, I didn't have any photos yet of everyone, specifically the Tonga kid, that Gary wanted in the program.

I have a photo of him from you now.

I guess being in the situation where I am at the present, I look for help from anyone that I can, since without new stand distribution, basically, I have a very small budget to work with and can't afford to buy material, so I accept help from anyone I can.

But you are doing more than adequate.

Excuse me.

But you are doing more than adequate job, oh, that is the way it's written, of supplying me with excellent material from your area.

Well, it's always nice when

a guy that's almost bankrupt tells you you're more than adequate.

I'm just happy to have your help and that you are willing to give it in return for free copies of the magazines.

I think I've explained some or all of this in the letters to you before, but if not, I will hear.

If this letter seems a bit disjointed, I'm writing it late Friday at the end of a long work week.

I apologize for the errors.

Anyway, by way of explanation, my setup is as follows.

You know what?

Even though he's tired and he's had a long work week, brevity was never Norm Keitzer's ace in the hole.

As far as wrestling is concerned, my basic business is the wrestling news.

I purchased the subscription and editorial files of Ring Wrestling and the Wrestling Review from Ring Corp.

And then, Jim, it goes into detail here.

It's a little, the carbon copy is a little messy about his deal with Ring Corp.

Previously, they owe him a substantial amount from when they did something, his percentage, but he agreed.

But I agreed to take my payment from their profits of future issues.

That leaves me with subscriptions and area sales, also the program business.

The programs I give the promotions at cost basically for two reasons.

One is as part of the deal, I have a subscription ad for the magazine in each one, and the other is I gain material for the magazines.

If they have good lord, but but hold on now so he wasn't

making a profit on the actual he was having programs in 85

in 85 he was but he was having programs printed for a variety of the territory still uh was that he at still at that point was doing stuff for mid-south for watts uh yeah 85 he was doing stuff for watts he was still

finishing up with vern because vern was going to start doing other things But he wasn't even making a profit on selling them their programs that they were turning around and selling for a profit.

And see, that was just so you know,

when I started doing the championship wrestling magazine for the Memphis Territory here, remember it was a 16-page thing.

We just wanted something extra to sell at the matches.

And I was,

goddamn.

If we sold them for $2,

I was selling them to Teeny for like a dollar, and I was getting them from him for like 65 or 70 cents, let's say, whatever.

But

he was then the reason why he offered me, wait a minute, it was all 16 pages of my stuff.

He said, I'm not getting my ads for the wrestling news magazine in this.

And they're out selling the wrestling news.

So he gave me for the same price,

like a full-size magazine, the same size magazine as you would buy on the newsstand.

What was it?

68 pages or no, it was 50 something, whatever.

If he could put his ads in and I got more content

for the same fucking price so he could get his ads in.

That really was the way he was making all of his money was just with the fucking ads.

Let's go back to the end of this.

There were quite a few correspondents who helped me by giving me material in return for copies of the magazine, although no one has given me as much as you have of late.

I just wanted you to know that I really do appreciate all your help.

I'll follow your suggestion about photographers for the USA and the Northeast.

I should have thought of that earlier.

I thank you again, and I'll close for now.

But it's like nothing you can write to him that he won't write back a kind of pleasant.

Yes, he was a very pleasant fellow.

Here's an example of what Paul Heyman would be writing up for indie promotions to hype them up 40 years ago, 1985.

Independent Championship Wrestling, the ICW, is headed by Bob Raskin of Raskin Sports Productions and holds cards in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

This promotion is shaping up to be the biggest and best independent promotion on the East Coast.

And promoter Raskin has announced that he will soon be holding a tournament to decide heavyweight and tag team champions.

Certainly among the favorites to win the tournament is Private Rocky Jones, the muscular youngster who is the latest protege of Sergeant Slaughters.

Never heard of Private Rocky Jones.

Never heard, barely never even made corporal.

Always a good wrestler, Jones has shown remarkable improvement since his training under The Sarge.

Another favorite, though not of the fans,

is the former Rikers Island Corrections Officer Smokin' Steve Sandor,

who recently had a run-in with Jones in Porchester, New York.

The 6-foot two, 355-pound.

We're at the at the mall.

The six-foot rule.

Over at Dairy Queen?

Where did they have this running?

I've never heard of any of these names.

The 6-foot two, 315-pound rulebreaker has vowed to become the first ICW heavyweight champion.

Dominic DiNucci has also announced his intentions of winning the tournament.

Good lord.

A seasoned veteran.

No kidding, seasoned.

He's positively cured and pickled.

By that 1985, what would DeNucci have been 65?

Dominic is more popular now than ever.

Many people think the best bet for the tag team title is the team known as the Executioners.

These two well-built grapplers have done very well of late and have announced they will indeed enter the tournament.

They may, however, be upset by the exciting new tag team of Larry Winters and the Leopard Mask.

Winters is one of the best scientific wrestlers in the Independence today.

And Leopard Mask, with his back flips, flying head scissors, double flips, and dropkicks from the top rope, that has to be Ted Petty, may very well be the finest high flyer on the Independence circuit.

Yeah,

that's got to be Ted Petty from Guatemala, Tiger Mask, before he became the cheetah kid, wherever the cheetahs are from.

I can't be Tiger Mask.

What should I be?

He was the Cheetah Kid.

Before that, he was Leopard Mask.

I didn't know that.

These two make a dynamite team.

Other wrestlers who have appeared on recent ICW shows include The Terminator, Davey O'Hannon, Damian Kane, Crystal Monroe,

Nature Girl, and Pete Sanchez.

In a late-breaking development, promoter Raskin has announced that he has reached an agreement with Pro Wrestling USA as America's heavyweight champion, Larry Zabisco, who will be defending his belt on several upcoming shows.

They will be on May 10th, 85, in Heightstown, New Jersey.

For the America's Heavyweight Championship, Larry Zabisco versus Private Rocky Jones.

Special attraction, smoking Steve Sandor versus an opponent to be named.

Tag Team Attraction, the Executioners versus Larry Winters and Leopard Mask, plus a ladies' attraction, and a special midgets match, plus an appearance by the Basher.

The Basher!

There's a Paul Heyman indie press write-up from there.

40 years.

What a difference 40 years makes.

What is this?

Oh, wow.

Look at this.

And this is signed too.

This is two Norman Keites are May 1st, 84, from Jim Crockett Promotions.

It's signed by James A.

Crockett Jr., president.

Carbon copy, Paul Heyman, P.O.

Box.

Same one you got.

This is on the letterhead with the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling logo, the Charlotte Orioles, and Worldwide Wrestling, or as it says here, Wide World Wrestling.

Dear Mr.

Keitzer, regarding press privileges for Paul Heyman,

thank you for your correspondence of April 24th, 1984, wherein you requested press privileges from Mr.

Paul Heyman at the upcoming event to be held at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

Mr.

Heyman should direct his request to Michael Rowe at the Meadowlands.

Sincerely, Jim Crockett, Jim Crockett Promotions Incorporated.

Which is another way of saying, leave me alone.

I don't give a shit.

Leave me alone.

I don't know who any of these people are, and I don't care.

I'm fighting Vince.

Why the hell are you calling me?

I don't care if they fucking have the police photographer there to draw chalk outlines on the floor.

Oh, here it is, too.

This is April 24th, 1984.

Dear Mr.

Crockett, I am writing this letter to request press privileges for Mr.

Paul Heyman at the upcoming card that you are promoting at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.

Mr.

Heyman regularly contributes material to our wrestling publications, and any courtesy you would extend would be appreciated.

I ask that you grant us press privileges for this wrestling card.

Sincerely, Norm Keitzer, Paul Heyman, carbon copied on this.

This is a little bit after that.

Studio 54, one night only, in person, Ric Flair.

You are invited to join NWA World's Heavyweight Champion, Nature Boy Ric Flair, as he accepts the first annual Wrestling Press International Man of the Year Award.

I have that around here.

He sent me one at the time.

I have that around here somewhere.

Friday night, August 23rd at New York City's famous Studio 54.

Doors open at 9 p.m.

This flyer entitles you and a guest to complimentary admission until 10 p.m.

Come early, stay late, bring this flyer with you, and you are entitled to a special discount after 10 p.m., $12 per person for you and a guest anytime after 10 p.m.

For more information, call the Studio 54 hotline 24 hours a day.

And now some people have to go, what, what the fuck?

And Paul was doing publicity for Studio 54 or had them convinced he was doing some kind of publicity so he could get pictures of himself with

celebrities.

And meanwhile,

he was getting

the getting into wrestling by getting the wrestling people into studio 54 so when they told flair oh come to studio 54 and get an award he's like oh and it was you know woo

these these things actually happen i think he got dusty and magnum there too either around a philly show or a metal land show it may have been philly actually but he got them there too and then that's where bam bambigelo debuted yeah i was about to say was the studio 54 was that not the site of bam bambigelo's debut match in pro wrestling?

See, there's a ton of like early Bam Bam Bigelow stuff in here.

There's a ton of like early everyone that Paul Heyman encountered.

Does he have pictures of the manager pictures of him on the stool with the Motor City madmen?

I got the

mid-condition, one of those.

Who is this from?

December 2nd, 85,

front page of the Torrington Register Citizen.

Dr.

D.

Schultz and fan charged after scuffle at wrestling match.

And here's a picture of David Schultz walking out of the police station.

Was the police station on fire at the time, or does everything look peaceful?

Professional wrestler Dr.

D.

David Schultz, already the target of a lawsuit after striking television reporter John Stossel, got into another scuffle after a wrestling match Sunday night.

According to 22-year-old Leonard Rinaldi, A fan in the audience at the Torrington High School Gymnasium, Schultz, 35, attacked him and struck him on the head with his boot as the wrestler was leaving the ring for the dressing room.

All I did was touch him.

Wait a minute, with his boot in his hand?

Yeah, I don't know.

I guess did he kick him?

I don't know what exactly that's supposed to mean, but let me go back to this.

All I did, this is Rinaldi, all I did was touch him.

And the next thing I know, there was a size 13 boot coming down on my head, Rinaldi said at the Torrington police station after the incident.

Both Schultz and Rinaldi were charged with breach of peace.

Police would not comment further on the incident Sunday night.

Schultz, who lives in Woodbridge, was released on written promise to appear in court December 16th.

Rinaldi, and has his home address here, who lives in Torrington, received a court date of December 6th.

Rinaldi, who said he had touched other wrestlers at the event

and shook hands with a female wrestler, said Schultz shouted, Don't touch me, you punk, during the scuffle.

A slight man weighing about 150 pounds, Rinaldi, clearly shaken by the incident,

says he covered his face when he hit the floor and later complained of a throbbing head and pain in his upper body.

William Montableau, a fan sitting near Rinaldi,

Montembau.

It's...

Montembla, Montembl, mighty blue.

It's a mighty name.

A fan sitting near Rinaldi said wrestler Jim Brady pulled Schultz away from Rinaldi.

Police later arrived at the scene and brought the burly wrestler to police headquarters.

Brady and other wrestlers followed him.

At police headquarters, Brady and other wrestlers expressed considerable anger.

at Schultz's situation.

After Schultz and Rinaldi left headquarters, Brady invited the fans to his next scheduled bout in Washington, D.C.,

which happens to be with Schultz.

Montemblow, Montembout, whatever this guy's name is, Matty Blow, who earlier vowed never to watch pro wrestling again, said he and Rinaldi would attend the fight in Washington.

We have to, the 19-year-old said.

It's a grudge.

Schultz is being sued by ABC TV consumer reporter Jon Stossel after an incident in a taped interview for 2020, and it goes into that.

American Legion Post 28 sponsored the wrestling event at the high school, attended by more than 500 people.

Schultz made his wrestling debut in Winstead in October at a Trans World Wrestling match sponsored by the police union.

Well, there it is.

Heyman sending in all sorts of reports that...

Oh, he's a stooge, too, we found out.

Wants to make sure that Schultz's misfortune makes the paper.

Well, it made the front page, it made the front page of the papers.

Heyman just sent in a copy of the paper.

How many fights?

You know, we always hear about wrestlers who did this and that.

How many are there that we just have never heard of, like from this era?

Like, you think you hear everything, and then

Schultz needed.

And no, you haven't even heard all of mine.

And I've been telling them for 30 years.

No, that was.

You can go back through any

city's newspapers that had regular wrestling and you will find the

you know i've got some from the 70s at the louisville gardens where the fan was arrested disorderly conduct or assault or a fan suing

you can do the same thing for every town in america that had a newspaper you'll find them every so often or or the fan had a heart attack fucking at the matches you'll find those in every city through the 20th century that had fucking wrestling periodically.

And, you know, and nobody knows about them today.

And many of them were not reported.

A lot of shit that scuffles that I either saw or was in just in the 80s was never reported in the paper or

a public topic of discussion.

Bam, bam.

I hit that fucking guy that hit me or kicked me.

I hit him.

Whatever.

That happened constantly.

Well, I'll tell you what, let's end this edition of From the Files with real quickly two cards for programs that were done by Wrestling Press International publisher and editor Paul Heyman.

This one, a night of professional wrestling, Tottenville High School, Staten Island, New York, November 19th, 1985.

Johnny Rods versus Kurt von Hess.

Jesus Christ.

Good lord.

What?

Can that be the original Kurt von Hess?

Hold on.

Certainly not.

It does not say

Steve Sandor versus Larry Winters, Special Girls Attraction, Lady Adonis versus Jodi Shields,

the Road Warriors versus Larry Sharp and Michael Lua,

and the main event, Sergeant Slaughter versus Boris Zukov.

And then a couple days later, November 23rd.

And again, obviously for people going, what?

He had

arranged through probably Gary Juster to get four guys from Vern, Road Warriors and Zukov and Slaughter, Zabisco,

Slaughter.

Yeah, and it's a night of professional wrestling featuring Sergeant Slaughter and the Road Warriors on the cover.

A couple days later, the 23rd, Carteret, New Jersey, the high school

publisher and editor Paul Heyman's NAWF consultant Chuck Richards.

That's Chris Candido's grandfather.

Yes.

Yeah, does it say anything else about him in here?

It doesn't say,

doesn't say, but

oh, he is the, and he's the promoter, actually.

It says consultant.

He is the promoter, as it turns out.

Midgets, midgets, midgets.

It just says the word midgets over and over about 10 times.

Tiger Jackson versus Poncho Boy.

Larry Winters.

Tiger Jackson, by the way, later on would be one of the doinks, wouldn't he?

Well, he was dink.

He was dinks.

Well, one of the doinks.

One of the dinks.

He was dink.

A dink, a dink, a dink, a dude.

After that big feud with Lil Louie that he had for a while.

Larry Winters versus Jim Londis.

What?

Obviously, there was a second Jim, third Jim Londis.

There were a few Jim Londises, I guess.

Tom Rice versus Jeff Gripley.

Bonus match.

Bam, Bam, Bigelow, B-I-G-O-L-O-W

versus Sailor Eddie Shore.

A special challenge match.

Pretty boy Larry Sharp versus the Cheetah Kid, spelt C-H-I-T-A.

The Cheetah Kid.

Because Cheetah Rivera was booked.

And the main event, a super special tag team attraction.

The Masked Russians versus the Tonga Kid.

And Samoan number three in parentheses, Samu.

So there we go.

A look at part one of a multi-part that we may do other ones in between of from the files paul heyman any closing thoughts here paul heyman's got so many parts we could go into now oh here's a oh this is a nice business card an original monster factory business card got color on it and everything here's paul heyman with a healthy head of hair

precious argues with reporter paul heyman as the interview comes to an abrupt end

And then it's Heyman and Jimmy Garvin and Precious and she.

He was shooting angles with himself when he was a fucking reporter.

That's right.

All right.

Well, that was from the files, Paul Heyman getting us off on a good note.

Let me put this giant file down.

I'm glad I was able to kick that off with the postcard from my dear friend.

It's funny almost.

It almost got me banned from Sabatinos for whatever.

What were you about to say?

I was about to say, it's funny how that worked out.

It worked out.

The only other time that happened recently was when we both ended up doing something about Pat Malone independent of each other and came in from the files, too, actually.

Now that I think about it, yes.

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All right, well, that was the latest from the files.

Paul Heyman, again, we'll have more about that.

Anything else before we go?

Well, I pulled another document, another document out of the drawer.

And I had forgotten until I see that.

I know I did it because it's in my handwriting.

And so now that I see it, I remember doing it.

And I don't have a date on it, but I'm assuming it is somewhere in and around 1997.

And I want to see if you can help me narrow it down by some of the comments I'm making.

But they asked me as part of the,

what was I part of at this point in time?

The establishment, the producers, former member of the creative team, whatever the fuck I may have been on at the time,

opinions on some of the talent in the WWF at the time.

And for the people who think that I have just, in my old age, become cranky and negative, I wanted to

throw some of this out there.

This is 97.

I think you were on the creative team that whole whole year, weren't you?

Well,

yeah, I guess so.

I was thinking I was off creative, but no, I was on creative until the end of 97.

So, yes, as a member of the creative team and a producer and potentially at the time, an on-camera talent and announcer and whatever the fuck else I was doing.

And this is not,

I don't remember what

the impetus for

me commenting on these people was because it's specifically these people and not the whole talent roster.

So I'm assuming that these were the people, and you'll, when you hear some of the names, you'll probably figure it out that they were bobbling on the fence about and wanted to get multiple opinions on

or had no direction for, or

what do we do with this guy, or whatever.

And this is why these people were being commented on.

But would you like to hear some of this?

Yeah, I'd love to hear this.

Oh, yeah.

You just want to hear all kinds of dirt on people.

No, it just seems like that some people

think that I just put on airs, Brian, on the show these days when I

give people my opinions, and that certainly to God, he really wasn't always like this.

So I just want to see if I sound any different when I'm opining on people

from almost 30 years ago.

And number one, Tiger Ali Singh.

Oh, my God.

And bear in mind, this is going to Vince McMahon and also the creative establishment and the upper echelon of producers and whatever the fuck.

And they've asked, what do you think?

Now, this ain't going out as a goddamn newsletter to the company.

So I'm supposed to tell them what I really think.

This guy is a heat-seeking missile.

I'm not talking about the fucking performer.

I'm talking about the individual.

His work is not horrible.

He can certainly get better, but only if he is made to realize he has a long way to go.

He has convinced the whole crew he thinks he's a star.

And I think he needs to be told in no uncertain terms, he is not and may never be unless his attitude improves.

I don't know that he's being a jerk on purpose.

But he has that reputation.

A lot of people saying it.

His father needs to be made to realize his son has a lot.

That's in capitals to learn,

as that may be where part of the problem lies.

Oh, stop right there.

Stop right there.

Like, someone's going to call up Tiger Gene's singing and say, Hey, Tiger, we got a problem with your kid, and it's your fault.

Well, I just, you know, they said, What do you think of these people?

It's easy to say this when he's not near you with his saber, isn't it?

Hey, when fucking Terry Taylor told me

Jim starts sending in critiques of the TV show in TNA in 2009.

I said, you want me to be honest or you want me to say what, you know, somebody wants to hear who's the audience?

No, we want to hear what you really think.

And they fired me six weeks later.

Where's that?

Where's that document?

Oh, I think I've got those.

I don't have them printed out.

I've got those still on my computer, I think.

I'll have to print some of those out sometime.

Because I got the computer that in March of that year, I think, for the nevertheless, back to Tiger Ali.

Get rid of the iron chic at ringside.

As it tells people, Tiger is a goof and a comedy figure.

Dump the Canadian flag.

Remember when he was from Toronto?

They were having him wave the Canadian flag?

I mean, this is a long document.

So I'm not going to read every word of all of these, but teach him to sell like a heel because nobody is going to buy this guy as a tough guy with all the physical specimens we've got around here.

The rest is up to him.

Okay, to tell me

by the way, that all bared out being, I mean, I don't know about the father being the root of the problem, although you're not the only person to say that, but everything you said was true.

Okay, well, Rick Bogner, remember?

Oh, he was fake.

Oh, yeah, yeah, big Titan.

They had signed him and done that, And that apparently was on the downhill slide because I'm calling him Rick Bogner.

And the first time I'd ever fucking heard of the whole thing was when he became fake raiser.

But Rick Bogner, he's not horrible.

He's not as good as 10 guys I can name immediately that are not working here.

He's done some dumb things, but so have a lot of people.

I can't remember what the dumb things were that they were mad at him for doing.

If his contract is just about up, I see no reason to renew.

Okay, here's another time narrower.

You know, I hate to say it, you don't want anyone to lose their job, but you weren't wrong when it came to Rick Bogner.

Other than the stuff he did in Japan, teaming with Mike Awesome and then Fake Razor, what did he, did he ever do anything ever again?

I don't.

He was,

he lived in Canada for a while.

I know that.

He's got that going for him.

Here's another time narrower, Darren Drozdov.

No comment as yet.

He's not never had a match in front of people.

So I'd seen his workouts and everybody knew he was, you know, a great physical specimen, but as far as it was too early.

Flash Funk.

You remember Fly?

Does everybody know that Flash Funk was Too Cold Scorpio when

Rick James and Sly Stone had a baby,

they signed to Cold Scorpio away from, not away from, after he was there, WCW, whatever it was.

And Vince tells us, yeah, he's going to be Flash Funk.

And I thought he was kind of kidding.

And then I was like, what is he going to be a member of the Funk family with Dory and Terry?

And Flash Funk ended up being, Brian, as you'll recall,

Rick James with the funkettes, you know, with, because Vince, I don't know what the fuck.

And, you know, that's one of the times I learned

not to see, joke to Vince sometimes because he wouldn't, he would like the joke for real.

And

they actually did call and find out if fucking,

what was her goddamn name?

Ann Esther on Sanford and Sun.

She was going to do a fucking day.

Because I said, who would you have Ann Esther from Sanford and Son do whatever the fuck on the pay-per-view?

And they actually called her agent.

Are you serious?

I never heard that.

I'm serious as a fucking heart attack.

And by that time, she was

too ill to, she wasn't doing these things or anything.

I don't know.

But I was like, what the fuck is Vince Popped for it?

So anyway, here's what I said about Flash Funk.

He's got a ton of talent.

He didn't carry the ball with this gimmick very well, but we didn't give him a lot of help trying to soft pedal Vince's ideas.

Suggested he be encouraged to drop a few pounds because

they were thinking he was a little bit portly.

But how about

do an angle with one of the nation members, ripping his funky clothes and stomping his feathered hat and call him names and then have him come out and thank them and they were right and that was stupid and i'm too cold scorpio to kick your fucking ass

yeah i would have liked that they didn't do that see that's the problem i i was a big fan of two cold scorpio at least until he stopped wearing pants when he came out when he came out of trucks it didn't work as well but no Two Cold Scorpio was awesome in WCW and he was gone pretty quickly.

He was gone by 94.

For Vince to bring him in and give him just a goofy,

you know, that's along the lines.

I know it's a little bit after, it's along the lines of the TL hopper and that kind of stuff, just an unnecessary gimmick.

And it was so hammy.

You know, the idea that this guy we've been seeing on TV, WCW had a lot of viewers.

This guy we were seeing on TV is all of a sudden out there in this outfit.

It was ridiculous.

I can only assume that this footage, because I, it's, it burned in my memory, but it would be a, it would have been a meme over the past few years.

But Flash Funk's first night at a TV table, he was doing a dark match, but they didn't have any music for him yet.

And Rebend, the music they had, oh, God, almighty, that they ended up using for him.

That wasn't any favors either.

But I said, I got some music for him.

I went out in the car and got my fucking actually Rick James cassette.

And they played

Love Gun.

for him to come to the ring.

And here comes Vince is going to ringside as they hit this.

He doesn't realize he walks out right as they hit the fucking music.

And so the footage, what we got for the first part of the entrance before Flash came out was Vince in his own discombobulated way trying to dance to the funk of Rick James all the way down the aisle to the ring.

It looked like a disconnected bucket of body parts.

It was like a male Elaine Bennis.

Yes.

It was, but anyway, but that's the, that's the only night that Flash Funk ever had good music.

Anyway,

hold on.

Eric Watts.

He's a fine young man, and I wish him all the best in finding another career to pursue.

God damn.

That was.

You know, what was he doing in 97?

Because Techno Team 2000 was,

was it a year and a half earlier?

Was it 95?

Well, see, see, remember, these are people that may have been on contract, whether whatever was happening with them.

They were on contract.

So

these contracts maybe have been coming up.

What do we do?

We need ideas or opinions.

Poor Brackas.

You remember Brackas?

Occam Albrecht, great guy, that physique.

It was amazing.

He just, he was so green and he couldn't,

he couldn't loosen up.

I'm not going to bury him.

Justin Bradshaw.

Remember at this point, he had been made one of the new blackjacks with Barry Wyndham and they had bleached their, not bleached their,

dyed their hair jet black, looked like Bill Dundee after a trip to the hairdresser.

Yeah, I guess that was it.

I was about to say, did they already do that by then?

Because he was Justin Hawk Bradshaw, but 97, yeah, I guess he would have already done that.

Well, yes, because they're right here and I refer to it.

So I know they've already done this at this point, but

yeah, they were the

because

I don't know if I've told everybody in a while, but

Smokey Mountain Wrestling, John Layfield, Justin Hawk Bradshaw had been writing and sending me pictures and videotapes for about a year.

And finally, I see, you know what?

I think we need a new babyface.

This, okay.

and i'd said okay i'm gonna book you starting christmas week and we closed up after thanksgiving

so he was all almost booked there but i liked his gimmick that he was doing at the time he was just a wild ass he was more stan hansen than he was one of the blackjacks or anything but he was he was himself right that's kind of he had been wrestling for the gwf so it was on espn still and no one watched it but he was kind of like a there's no other comparison a modern Stan Hansen, even though not to the level of Stan Hanson.

Yeah, so Justin Bradshaw, I see him as a wild, screaming, goofy, raw bone Texan, which is what he is.

Do an angle with a top heel where he kicks the shit out of Bradshaw and have Bradshaw come back and beat him

and then give him a bunch of interviews that he'll be a big baby face.

And, you know, the name,

he keep the black leather, but let his hair go back natural, bring back his beard

and lose his partner, dot, dot, dot, which comes to the next guy.

But point being, they ended up,

except his hair was still jet black or whatever.

That's kind of like the APA, right?

With him and Simmons.

You know,

I can't get past lose the partner, considering who the partner is.

I can't wait to hear that.

Well, but hold on.

But that was the thing is that they weren't giving him a chance to be himself and that fucking, you know, just the goofy outfit, the whole nine yards.

Barry Wyndham.

That's it.

Unfortunately, it seems time or whatever have somewhat eroded PW's skills.

Does his style not work these days?

He was

not one of the best, the best, but

potentially could he be hospitalized by the heel that we might turn bradshaw with i mean basically is this

couple of sentences that i'm making uh or that i'm

writing here in that it just it doesn't seem barry wasn't by that point it wasn't going to happen he couldn't

he couldn't do in that

crowded field in 1997 with a lot of top athletes what he could do in 1987 when he was better than than most all of them.

But anyway,

but I had to be,

I liked him, but had to be honest.

Well, that's the problem.

After 94,

it's almost impossible to name a good Barry Wyndham match.

Or when I say good, just a match that's memorable, a match that you're like, wow, Barry Wyndham's awesome.

And 94 is even a stretch.

That was his comeback at like Slamboree, but his knees were already messed up by that point.

The Stalker, the Blackjacks,

He was there and you remember him being there, but can you remember like one moment or one match?

No,

apparently not.

Anyway, moving on real quickly, Fatu.

Fatu.

And let's remember, this is before

Rikishi.

But this was after.

The head shrinkers or the and I can't remember.

Were they the Samoan SWAT team there at one point, but they were the head shrinkers?

He was the sultan.

Did he already do the thing?

He was like, whatever it was.

Like, you know, he's coming back from the streets to help kids, whatever that was.

No, he hadn't done that one yet.

No, he, I think he's the sultan.

He's the sultan here now.

Because anyway, listen, because,

and again,

later on as a different person, it was fine.

But right at this point, I said, the people are just plain sick and tired of looking at this fucking guy.

Enough is enough.

He has the same match over and over.

Multiple gimmicks.

Use the investment made in him to get some of the babyface roster over.

And for God's sake, please get rid of the iron sheet.

Jesus.

Well, it's just that's you're not wrong.

You're not wrong.

It's just something hearing these evaluations all these years later.

Um,

Doug Furness and Phil Lafon, bless them.

I can't.

I'm saying bring them back.

So that means they were out.

Was that was this after that car wreck they were in with Sid?

Depends on what time in 97 it was.

I'm not sure.

Sid, they were riding a car with Sid and Sid tried

while going apparently 100 miles an hour in proximity of, more or less, wanted to adjust the fucking

moon roof.

And after they flipped a few times, everybody was fucked up in the ditch.

But remember,

Vince McMahon had not had

a previous knowledge of Doug Furness and Phil Lafon, nor any

attachment to them whatsoever.

And they were a little too wrestling-like for his taste just because at the time they were one of the best in-ring tag teams in the world.

Furness was the fucking freak athlete.

LaFon had had injuries and was not his,

was not a sparkling

example of charisma, but Doug was a beast.

And I don't know why Vince didn't gravitate to him because of the body and the athleticism.

But nevertheless, they're trying to be ready.

And part of it was because Shitstain,

the other V-word.

It couldn't stand these guys because they were athletes and he didn't know what to fucking do with them.

So he was, you know, constantly pecking at him.

But this was at a point in time.

When did Roode leave?

Rick Roode?

That would have been after the Bret Hart thing.

So that would have been the very end, December.

Would it have been December or the end of November?

Okay, then this was, he was still there because they were wanting

to

make him the some the figurehead of some type of group.

I don't know if they were going to call him manager or whatever the fuck, but for the brief period of time, there was some creative there.

uh so i said bring them back as rick rude's thugs

hired muscle for his insurance agency i can't remember lloyds of london

well that's i mean some of these jokes went around the lloyds of london

but uh i said are these his collection men if people don't pay the premiums that may have been an idea that was being floated

uh I wrote, Furnace is years better than LaFon.

Have Roode do their promos and dress them in clothes and make them look menacing.

They were wearing some kind of odd gear to the ring.

And I said, And again,

Furnace is more long-term.

And

I don't know if they did come back ever.

Anyway, a couple more here.

Hold on.

Mark Merrow, would you like to hear this?

Yeah, did you always hate him?

Let's find out.

Well, hold on.

First thing in capital letters, because remember, this is handwritten.

I turn these things in if the

kind ladies in the office wanted to type them.

It was up to them.

Get him away from Sable exclamation point.

She's a bigger reason why he's not over than his own lack of psychology.

No one notices he's there.

No one understands why babyface is coming out with a woman.

They weren't heels who switched like Goldust and Marlena.

Marlena

fits the package

because they understand why she's there.

Have Merrow say that he took oh, this is while he's injured.

Say he took stock while injured and decided to concentrate on his career instead of his woman.

Expand on the new tough guy boxer image if possible.

So that's when they started making him a boxer.

It, you know, but uh

anyway, uh,

just, yeah, I said,

keep,

keep an intense attitude and have him do soft-spoken, but intense interviews to detract or hide his high-pitched voice.

I mean, what the, you know.

Dusty Rhodes is a fucking genius, and his idea was, let's make him into Little Richard.

Well, yes, and that's the only thing he could ever fucking do

because he was little Richard.

Oh, hush, Jim.

well shut your mouth because i got i got equal time now you want to hear sable

oh i didn't know i had to answer that everyone wants to hear what you said about sable yes well yes so i did i wouldn't go to well i just won't do it now if you didn't really jump on that nobody's interested

everyone wants to hear i think brock's listening right now here is the quote T-shirt model, ring girl, sell her t-shirts and posters just as long as she is never allowed to speak in that high school drama class dropout monotone again.

So, who would have been most upset about you writing that?

Would it have been Vince or Kevin Dunn or Russo?

Like, who was most invested in Sable at that point?

Well,

I don't think Vince would have been upset, truthfully and honestly,

except if I really skewered one of his pet ideas and just took the piss out of it page after page.

Vince wouldn't have been upset if I'd have written about his own family, so-and-so's shits on TV because he looked at all of it dispassionately.

But fucking Russo

was

in multiple eras and multiple companies, despised when they would ask me anything about my opinion.

And that's why he immediately tried to discredit it as soon as he showed up anywhere because he knew what it was going to fucking be.

Because as you can tell, it doesn't often change over the decades.

And Kevin Dunn hated anything that I said because it was me, you know, like me and him.

But Vince McMahon, you know, you could say any goddamn thing.

He didn't give a shit from a getting mad point of view when you're doing this, right?

He's cold as, he was as cold as ice

about that stuff.

Okay, Rockabilly and Jesse James, we're going to close it out here.

Oh, is this the end of it, or that's where you're closing it out?

Yeah, well, no, that's that's the end of, well,

honky talk man.

And I said, honky talk is a huge name.

I don't think people are seriously buying the gimmick anymore as anything but

garnish.

I thought it said garish for a second there.

I could have had anything, but it was always Garish, you know, Garnish.

Can he make a good Colin?

A good Colin commentator.

Can he make a good Colin that much?

No, a good colon commentator.

See,

it's the end of the thing in my writing is, can he make a good color commentator if he talked about himself a little less?

But it's a hell of a commute from Phoenix, right?

But do on sale, ticket appearances, PR appearances.

Because people could rate.

That's when they were trying to shoehorn him in as a manager, still doing his old, whole, old deal.

And

he was the manager of Rockabilly, who was Billy Gunn.

This is pre-Degeneration X.

Okay.

As you'll see by my comments, this is when Billy Gunn was Rockabilly

and Road Dog, Brian Armstrong, was Jesse James.

And the joke was that

when we booked them against each other in the opening match on the card, who does the job?

Because they can't beat anybody, either one of them, right?

They were completely buried them.

So,

and I was real happy with that because I've always been a fan of the Armstrong family.

But nevertheless, Rockabilly and Jesse James.

I say, keep these guys off TV completely for three to four months to get the bad taste out of people's mouths.

Then reintroduce them as an old-fashioned bumping heel tag team with a new age look and push them.

They need to beat people to get credibility and do angles to get heat.

Both are excellent promos.

Get them matching tights or jackets or something

because

you remember at first what Rockabilly looked like, especially when he was with Honky Tonk.

But they have a real cocky attitude, especially Billy.

Have Midnight Express style tag team work, take big bumps on a babyface's comeback,

but at the same time

be more moderate.

JJ, Jesse James, has used the name New Age Outlaw on his 900-number promos.

Maybe that's a team name.

I forgot I'd written this.

Wow.

Until I'm looking at this today.

they should have a team name, but definitely keep their individual names: Billy Gunn and

Road Dog, Jesse J.

Road Dog had been

poor Jesse James had been the roadie for Jeff Jarrett,

which worked.

By the way, that was that worked and they did worked also.

They actually did a good job of building up to wanting to see the roadie get

finally get his hands on Jeff Jarrett for the way he was treated.

And then they both left.

And they both left all at the same time.

But nevertheless, individual names with a tag team name is what I was.

And also it finally keep them away from Sean Michaels and his attitude poisoning ways and let them stand on their own

because they were starting to hang around in that group.

Nothing about Triple H or The Rock because they were still on the way up.

97.

Well, no, because there wasn't any question about whether or not they were going to keep them or what they wanted to do with them.

This is these were the guys that was on the fence here.

You can tell.

There was no point in time where Triple H or The Rock or whatever, oh, we're going to fire them.

But anyway, and Road Dog and Billy, these guys may be a year away from it, but they could be tag team champions and draw money if we dedicate ourselves to rebuilding.

That's fascinating.

That specific one, the fact that you dropped New Age early on, you pointed out.

Well, but it wasn't mine because Brian Armstrong had been saying that they did that bogus ass 900 number

where you had to

do some type of programming.

The talent, I did some segments for a while, blah, blah, blah.

And he was starting to call himself, I'm the new age outlaw.

And Brian's always had personality.

So I was just referencing

what he was already doing, but nobody was paying attention to what he was fucking doing.

But it seemed catchy.

Well, it's interesting hearing that.

So, I guess of those people,

how Tiger Awi Singh ended up staying like another year, right?

Was he there through 98?

Well, see, I can't remember exactly because they sent him to Puerto Rico, remember?

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

Which was under the guise of

Well, we're working with the Puerto Rican promotion and you're in developmental, so we'll send you down here to get experience.

But really, it's like, just get, go away, go away.

We got to fulfill our thing, but go away.

It's just so interesting, that one, and your notes about it, considering, you know, Tiger Jeet Singh was a big star.

Huge, but only.

In Toronto and Japan.

Toronto, Japan, and Detroit.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

And Detroit, because he was like the

antithesis of the chic.

So they could have the matter-antimatter fucking confrontation.

Now, let me ask you, I'll ask you the question I asked about Barry Wyndham from 97 to 90, or from 95 to 97.

I'll ask the same thing about Tiger Jeet Singh forever.

Can you name one good Dr.

Jeet Singh match?

No, no, he was fucking rotten.

Fucking rotten, as Rip Rogers would say.

So Tiger Ali Singh grows up watching his dad, that's his idol, thinking that's the way a wrestler wrestles.

And Tiger Jeet Singh is thinking, This is my son.

Of course he's going to be a star.

Well, but Tiger Ali Singh wasn't even trying to to do because he understood enough to know that you couldn't do the

Tiger Jeet Singh version of the Sheikh's gimmick, just wild all over the building with a fucking sword and everything in the WWF.

But he fancied himself a tremendous athlete and premier worker and personality also.

Tiger Jeet Singh is on that list for me of guys that when I saw their pictures and magazines, they looked incredible.

Like, oh oh my god, chaos everywhere around this guy.

And then, when I actually saw him wrestle, like him in a Noki, it was terrible.

It was the worst shit ever.

And the thing is, he legitimately became a successful and rich businessman and multi-millionaire and lived in a mansion in Ontario, wherever it was outside Toronto.

Was there a school named after him?

Yes,

he gave money to.

I'm not trying to be facetious.

I don't know what his particular religious delineation or denomination is but it's some type of is it the sikhs potentially possibly i'm not sure either so i can't say well and but but nevertheless and there are a lot of his like-minded religious folk brethren of whatever denomination it is i'm told in ontario and in that province And he became a big deal in Toronto.

And the reason why also in Japan because

you know you had a different style of the sheik the sheik had gotten over but there wasn't only one sheik to go around here came tiger jeet singh

instead of a pencil he's got a sword and it's a takeoff but it's still the same thing

and he was for inoki while shei was for baba

And then at the same time, Tiger Jeet Singh drew money in Detroit because of his like.

The style was like the Sheiks, so it fit in the territory, and then they could clash also.

But what I'm trying to say is, besides that,

besides overseas in Japan, in Ontario for years, and

the Sheiks Detroit,

where did Tiger Jeet Singh ever even wrestle in the United States, much less be on top?

That's a great question.

Have I missed it completely?

He worked.

He worked Toronto, but he never went to mid-Atlantic and worked any shows that I could think of.

Didn't work Florida.

I can't think of never in Georgia, never in Texas, never California.

He became some kind of wealthy fucking entrepreneur

from being over in goddamn three places in the world.

Somebody's got to study that.

Move over, Johnny Powers.

Yeah.

Well, fuck Cleveland.

Well, there was also Buffalo.

But anyway,

this is my show, and this has been a fine first edition.

Would you like to, can I read one more thing here, real quick?

We don't even, this is just something, this is off topic.

This was in my files also, because I said it's,

they're not orchestrated very well, but there's what this is a letter that I wrote to someone

that I would just like to read to you because again, people think that I'm putting on some kind of goddamn charade

when I'm on these broadcasts.

And I want to let people know that I'm consistent in my viewpoints.

It's a letter from me that I just kept a copy of.

I don't actually know who it went to.

And I had typed it out, so I know I was pissed.

To whom it may concern.

Recently, you sent me a bill for $131.89.

I paid this bill with a check for

$131.88

and mailed it to you.

Yes, I accidentally wrote the check for one penny less than the amount of the bill.

Instead of cashing this check and calling it even since there was only one penny difference,

or even cashing the check, applying the amount to the bill owed and sending me another bill for one penny.

Someone in your office sent everything back to me.

Check, bill, even the envelope I mailed it in with a letter requesting I send a replacement check as soon as possible.

Quote unquote.

You spent 38 cents on your postage meter to ask me for one penny, which is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

And you expect me to void the original check, rebalance my checkbook, write another check, and spend another 44 cents on a stamp to mail it back to you for one penny.

So here's how we're going to handle it.

I have enclosed a new check for the amount of the original bill, $131.89,

minus the $0.44 I had to spend on the second stamp because of this foolishness, or a total of $131.45.

You can do do one of two things.

You can cash this check and call it even before it goes any further, or you can refer this account to a collection agency over 44 cents

because I guarantee you this is the last payment you're going to get from me.

I advise you to take this money because we have already spent way too much time on this.

No wonder you rape people on the prices of any medical procedure if this is the stupid way you people spend money and do business,

signed me.

That's a classic.

Never heard another word.

So apparently they chose option A.

That is ridiculous.

I mean, good for you, because I don't think most people would point that out to them.

I mean, at the time, for no attention, it wasn't like you did this and put it on social media.

That's ridiculous.

And did they, you know,

I got a whole bunch of letters I've written to people over the years.

Letters to pests is the file somewhere i remember that file

it's in there in a stack

but it's your show it is my show and again the first of many installments of jim's letters and jim's talent evaluations but jim

on the topic of talent evaluations sometimes you got to give a talent a good kick in the ass Sometimes it's to get them out of your office or out of your company.

Sometimes, well, let's just focus focus on those times because those are more reasonable.

And sometimes you just want to go outside and kick the dirt.

And sometimes you got to work in the dirt.

It's a dirty business, ladies and gentlemen.

It's a dirty business working in dirt.

Dirty business and business that is yours requires the right footwear.

A secure.

footwear and gym how about a how about a lifeline jim

oh that's not even what i thought it was i was on the wrong thing let's uh oh can i have a lifeline i phone a friend yes if you i'll just take the tag here tag folks i'll tell you what brian's trying to say is if you want to slop around in the mud like the kentucky derby winner did this year it kept poor journalism out of finishing first then you need some work boots from brunt and our new friends at Brunt that have made the greatest footwear that has ever encased your little Tootsies.

If your dogs are barking after a day on a job, after a day out working outside in the great wild beyond, and you need to put them in the tub of water and the cartoon steam comes up and the toes are going whopp, whop, whop, and all that other stuff.

Well, the folks at Brunt,

Bruntworkwear.com, who are our new friends, as I said, are going to take care of you because me and Brian both, and I don't know how much work you do, Brian, but I do know that you give people motivational kicks in the ass and if you're going to kick somebody in the ass folks you need either the marin or the omen work boots they each have their individual functions and strong points from brunt we got the marins and i'll tell you what it's it will protect your toes brian if you've got to kick somebody in the ass You don't want to do that unprotected because not only do you not might know where that ass has been, but also you might break your toe.

And you ain't going to do that in these boots because they are not only sturdy, but lightweight, waterproof, slip and oil resistant, heat resistant.

They're electrical hazard rated.

Although

I don't want to really stick my finger to Light Socket and find out for sure.

I'm going to take their word for it on that, but I'll tell you what, they are slip resistant, Brian.

You can back climb up a wall on these things, straight upside, and not slip.

Did you climb your walls yet?

You've been climbing the walls up there for a while now since you moved into the new house and all the kids i don't climb the walls but i have to say these are the finest work boots i've ever had and uh i plan to put them to good use

you yeah going around watching all the all the gardeners you've got do the work i'm the one outside i'm mucking through the creek As a matter of fact, I wish it would quit raining where I could put these boots on that I just got and go out there and enjoy them.

And then now they're waterproof.

They'd be just fine, but I don't want to stand out in in the fucking rain.

But if you're working in mud, these things ain't going to slip.

You can keep your footing about you.

They're water resistant for the creek and they feel

like you are slipping your feet into

pillows and just wrapping your feet with bubble wrap.

It's amazingly comfortable.

They don't wear, especially on my bunion.

My bunion sticks out.

So I get a sore spot on that.

But anyway, folks, whether it's rain, mud, or standing water, your feet are going to stay dry.

As a matter of fact, get a couple pairs and stick one of these some bitches over your head.

That way your head can stay dry.

You know, they smell good, too.

It doesn't work like that.

But for your feet.

For your feet.

You know, they've got built-in odor eaters.

Some people are going to disappear completely.

I don't know that, and you don't know that.

And that's not the way it is.

But these are great work boots.

They are.

Great.

I don't know what else.

I love them.

Well,

and they add a few inches to your height.

If you're feeling insecure, no matter how short you are.

That's another thing.

Now, if you go outside and you find somebody digging a hole in your front yard, then if you're wearing these, you've automatically got an extra inch on them.

So you look more intimidating.

And if they try to get out of that hole before you're ready for them, you can kick them right up under the jaw and bam.

Well, let's focus on that.

Well, that'll adjust their opinion.

Let's focus on activities that don't

hurt or cause.

I'm just telling you, if you plan to kick somebody up under the chin, these are the best boots to wear.

But it's not just about work boots at Brunts

or at Brunt or the Brunts, the people of Ed Brunt, at Brunts, plural, possessive.

They offer a full range of high performance gear, heavy-duty work pants, weather resistant jackets, all kinds of stuff that you can try, any of their products on the job, and they are guaranteed and they carry.

100% satisfaction guarantee there, for heaven's sake, because they carry the names of real workers in the the trades who test and inspire them.

That's why you have them named after like Marin and Omen, not like,

I don't know, asshole and dick.

Clubfoot.

Clubfoot is not one of them.

No, but it should be.

It should be because, you know, the people who have a foot shorter than the other or a leg shorter than the other, they ought to be able to get these built special for them.

Maybe there's a place you can go at bruntworkwear.com and determine whether you can get a loaded wrestling wrestling boot out of that.

Let's focus on what they have.

And what they have are great boots and other great items for your working experience.

They have hats.

Yes.

They sent me a nice hat.

I'm a big fan.

Boy, you can tell you've done a lot of hard work.

If you're out there, if you're changing the oil, you're on the workshop floor.

If you're out there in the muddy farm field, if you're mucking in the creek, if you got to wade into the cow shit area.

in order to get juniors football out of the thing, whatever the case, if you're out in the country, folks, if you're a real

a real mid-america heartland type of guy that's going to have a boot that's got a bunch of shit all over it these boots look better with cow shit on them than any other boots out there

i think that's uh pretty obvious

once again a great boot and that boot is brunt They've reinvented comfort.

Jim, let's let the listeners know a lot of people are out there working.

Where can they get boots that they can use?

Can they save money?

That's why they're working because they need to make money.

Well, goddamn it, we can save you money so you don't have to work as hard.

But if you didn't need to work as hard, you wouldn't need the goddamn boots.

It's a catch-22.

So, right now, while you're working, get $10 off at Brunt by using the code JCE at checkout, Brunt, B-R-U-N-T,

because they bear the brunt of the punishment, bruntworkwear.com.

Use the promo code JCE.

I'm being silly, but they are.

They're just lovely boots.

I can't wait to wear these boots.

And it won't stop raining so I can go out and do some yard work while wearing the boots.

Put on the hat.

It's still not going to stay.

It's what the hat doesn't put an instant goddamn cone around me to where I will not be soaked by the rain.

It'll keep the rain out of your eyes, out of the glasses.

No, it wouldn't.

If the wind is blowing, it'd be safe.

You don't wear a baseball cap to goddamn keep the rain out of your face on a fucking stormy day.

Is it windy?

Is it really windy?

Well, it's gonna be when it's raining.

All right.

Well, no hypotheticals needed here.

You need a good boot.

So, basically, what I'm trying to tell you without further ado is if you want to kick somebody up under the chin until their eyeballs roll around in their head like chiclets, you put on your brunt work boots and you save $10 at the same time going to bruntworkwear.com and using the promo code JCE, and that way you won't slip, you won't get wet, you won't get hurt, and they feel so good.

Is it a real deal, folks?

Jim wouldn't say he liked them if he didn't.

Brunt, one more time, Jim.

What's that?

Apparently, from everything I've been saying so far today, that's been established.

That I'm not going to just tell you what you want to hear, but bruntworkwear.com, use the promo code jce 10 bucks off and save your footsies your tootsies deserve it the mercedes-benz dream days are back with offers on vehicles like the 2025 e-class cleop c-class and eqe sedan hurry in now through july 31st visit your local authorized dealer or learn more at mbusa.com slash dream

All right.

Footsies and Tootsies.

And I found something else as I'm sitting here within reach while we were discussing.

Just a couple of things I would have.

My files need to be refiled because I should have found this for the dark side of the ring.

I found a Christmas card from Eddie Gilbert.

Oh, wow.

Well, I'm not sure we're going to narrow that down, but the thing is, it's not a Christmas card from Eddie Gilbert, the wrestler.

It's not an actual greeting card format.

It's the old deal where they would take,

like at the drugstore drugstore when you got your film developed, they'd take your picture and they'd put like a little Merry Christmas greeting at the bottom.

So it's a three and a half by five picture of Eddie as a ringside photographer posing in front of the ring in Memphis with the red, white, and blue ropes.

And it at the bottom is a little Santa Claus thing.

It says Merry Christmas, and then he signed it.

But David Schultz is on the other side of the ring.

So I'm saying this has got to be taken.

And And from Eddie's appearance,

I say 76 or 77, one of the two of those.

But

I never sent out pictures of me for Christmas to people.

I never liked people that much to give them a gift of that kind of import.

Well, remember, when we went through the files of Eddie Gilbert from the Wrestling News Archive, there were just tons of 8x10 promotional photos of him as a teenager with braces, like, you know, not as a wrestler, but he was doing well.

well.

I took some of them.

He had better,

he had better PR as a teenage photographer than his dad did as a wrestler.

But he was practicing.

He was practicing posing and he was getting publicity and he was getting his name out.

And he was just, he knew

he, you know, as the dark side episode talked about, he knew he wanted to do all those things.

And he was just trying to hurry it up as quick as he could.

You know, it's interesting when you think about how he was as a teenager, you know, forgetting about his future as a wrestler and all the problems that later emerged.

But it makes sense when you hear that he also had a big interest in politics, that, you know, he wanted to be a politician.

I mean, he took that to wrestling eventually.

But in terms of just the schmoozing and the ability to,

even when he didn't want to smile and talk to someone, smile and talk to someone.

Yeah.

You know, you could see why he likes.

Sincerity is the key.

When you can fake that, you got it made.

And also, he was such a pleasant young man.

He had no bad habits whatsoever.

He was

somebody you would have, you know,

let babysit your children when he was a teenager.

It was, you know, there was no, it wasn't like, I'm going to be one of these wild ass wrestlers.

So.

Anyway.

Was it wrestling or was it wrestling in 1983 for the WWF?

You think that?

I mean, obviously the accident caused a lot of things that would last throughout the rest of his life in terms of things he would try to do to feel okay.

He had a really, I mean, his accident was really, really bad.

But in terms of who.

The question you're trying to beat around and ask is, would he have fallen into the trap that so many of the other guys do

if he hadn't already had

a significant fucking hill to climb to get past the accident to pain, et cetera, et cetera?

From the Eddie that I knew as a teenager, I don't think so.

And

I mean,

I think the

other

problem that he had

with

wanting it too quick and not having the patience.

And, you know, because I think I said when we talked about the dark side episode, I would blow up at the the boss too if I was a booker or, you know, that type of thing, but it would take me so much longer.

And I would try to figure out another way around it first.

Whereas Eddie's came quicker.

Was that problem exacerbated if he was

doing substances, or was it just something that he always had the impatience?

I don't know, but that's the only problem he would have had in wrestling, not

you know, going out and being a crazy person.

Like, if you think about the places he was already, Memphis, Jerry Lauer, top star,

you know, no drinking, no drugs, cheeseburgers, you know, like no drinking, no drugs.

He gets to WWF in 83.

Bob Backlund, more so than Lawler.

No drinking, no drugs.

But then you also have Snooka.

You have, you know, Domorocco and Fuji.

It was a wild group of guys there, and they were having wild times in a hotel.

Do you think that influenced him at all, or do you think it's just the accident?

No.

Okay.

No, because I really don't.

It may have made it easier for him to get the shit that he needed once that he got his fucking neck caved in by the truck, but I don't think that he was a person at that point that was, oh, I need to fucking jump in with these guys.

He wasn't that kind of guy.

Who was the first person from wrestling to send you a Christmas card?

Oh, good Lord.

He'd be up there or down there or back there wherever early on.

potentially teeny may have said her first one by that point uh

depending on whether it's 77 or 78 something like that i got a couple from lawler actually

one it he actually drew the

which which i hate to say this which wife was it but he drew them in front of their fireplace and everything one of his pieces of art that had a Christmas card made.

I got that around here somewhere.

But I'm just, I'm a saver.

I got one more thing here, though, and then I'll turn your show back over to you.

Because you mentioned Lawler.

You know, he ran for mayor of Memphis a couple of times, right?

And didn't do bad the first time around.

Right.

Came in fairly highly.

Do you know this?

I'm going to say, I got this from

one of my friends down in Memphis, the girls that used to send me the newspaper ads, the clippings for the matches and everything.

This has to be, I don't know what year the Memphis mayor's race was,

but this is late 70s at some point.

I got the flyer for when Prince Mongo ran for mayor of Memphis, Brian.

Who's Prince Mongo?

Prince Mongo

was,

as they used to say back when the world was a simpler time,

Prince Mongo was a local character in Memphis, and he was from the planet Zambodia.

And he

at various points attracted attention for doing things.

I think you could probably look him up.

Prince Mongo from Memphis.

But for one year, and I don't know who he had behind him, it says the treasurer of his campaign was named Spirit Vincent.

But it was the Mongo for Mayor campaign from the planet Zambodia to Earth.

Your vote will make your dream a reality October 6th.

How did he do?

I don't think he won.

And there's a picture of him on the front.

He's probably in his 30s.

He's wearing, he's got no shirt on, but he has a necklace with, I believe, a couple of bats dangling from some beads.

He has a miniature skull on his thumb of his left hand, and he's wearing a skirt

either made from it's a black and white photo, either made from fur or feathers.

And the brochure says, We're going to go Mongo for mayor, your Zambodian candidate.

And it gives his, I think he had somebody help him with some of these

the platform.

It's Prince Mongo Promises.

But he was going to donate his salary to all the charities of Memphis.

He was going to remove the city council, eliminate personal property taxes.

you can bet on paramutual betting on dog horse racing lottery and bingo

he wants to build more for the senior citizens and he and increase the economic aid for the poor and the handicapped no wonder he's from another planet his ideas sound good

uh he said the only jokes are the ones you have elected to political office

So,

you know, one of these candidates comes along every so often, just doesn't get the publicity, and then a chance is lost.

Look where Memphis could be today.

Yeah, it's a shame.

They didn't give it a shot.

Well, anyway,

what are you taking a shot at this week?

Well, Jim, let's go from that story.

Let's now talk about the Prince Mongo of wrestling.

Jon Moxley's in the news.

I don't know if you've been following this story or how much you've heard about it.

It got a lot of attention yesterday as the story broke.

I have an article here, Jim, from Sports Illustrated or The Takedown on SI.com,

whatever any of this means.

The article by John Alba,

AEW and John Moxley sued for negligence, civil assault, and battery by production crew member, exclusive, Christopher Dispensa.

is seeking compensation following an incident on AEW Dynamite in 2023.

Jim, have you been following this?

I've been following a bit of it.

I haven't read through the minutiae as I believe we're about to examine.

But at first, I told you right before we went on the air, I thought I might recognize this name.

And I went back and was able to find old emails that it was another Chris with an Italian sounding name that I was thinking of.

So it's not that I don't know this fellow,

but I've seen the footage and have formulated some hypothesi,

depending on on

exactly who or who may not be full of shit here but we'll discuss this go ahead and like you said it's from a cage match that was on dynamite 2023 kenny omega versus jon moxley

and before we even talk about this or anything else i didn't remember the incident did you

well

my god did anyone

Did anyone know?

Because there's much more violent chaos chaos than this going on every week.

That's why you can't remember

things like this.

But

from the clip,

again,

it's nothing out of the ordinary that people would have remembered based on the things that AEW do

as a work and as part of the program.

The only way that it would be memorable is if you had known at the time that

depending on who you want to believe,

the camera guy or the crew guy, cable puller, whatever function he was serving, was not ready for it and didn't know it was going to happen.

That's the only reason it's newsworthy.

Otherwise, it looks like

they attack people, crew members, security people, power bomb people off stages.

This didn't look like anything noteworthy at the time.

Well, again, back to this article from SI.com.

A production crew member who has worked with all Elite Wrestling since 2019 has filed a civil lawsuit against the company and AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Jonathan Good.

In it, he alleges various degrees of negligence by AEW and Moxley, alongside civil assault and battery against Moxley concerning an incident on AEW Dynamite in 2023.

The lawsuit was filed against the parties on May 30th in the Wayne County Circuit Court by Christopher Dispensa, a longtime wrestling and entertainment production crew member who started doing contract work with AEW in 2019,

which is, by the way, the year that AEW started up on Team Team.

Yeah, it would have been hard to start before that.

Dispensa is not a direct employee of AEW and provided services to Broadcast Service Group, which supplies crew for AEW.

His legal team.

Can I jump in and just give some type of clarity for people before we gloss over it?

All of the camera people and the sound people and all of the technical crew that work on the weekly

wrestling shows, even for many for the WWE and for AEW or whatever, they don't.

They're not physically employees of the company, and that's what they do with their life all the time.

There are some, especially the WWE has some people that are full-time.

AEW may have the same thing in major positions, but in a lot of cases, the producer of the television program will contract

for

extra audio people, cable pullers, you know, depending on the situation, camera people.

You usually want to have your camera people as regulars because that's a specialized technique in wrestling.

But nevertheless, there's a lot of guys and women on the various crews doing something for the television that are just contracted from that local area by whoever the producer is going through.

So

this guy could have still done a variety of television tapings for him, but he was not technically an employee of the company, whatever.

Well, back to this.

His legal team, Rate Law PLLC, told the takedown on si that he has not done work with aew since december 5th 2024 and was demoted by broadcast service group to the role of carpenter without explanation

but if he were a carpenter instead of a cable puller

as of monday morning how do you demote wait a minute how do you demote somebody to be a carpenter unless they already know how to carpent right unless you've already done woodwork

yeah i mean what he was out in the ring with the fucking cables and the goddamn camera.

Now go build something out of wood.

It would have been a good gimmick.

Like, oh my God, Kenny Omega's tripped over a board.

What is going on here?

As of Monday morning, SI had not yet received a response to the filing from AEW.

Dispensa claims he suffered severe neck and shoulder injuries.

as a result of being shoved to the ground unexpectedly by Moxley during a match with Kenny Omega.

Dispensa alleges in the lawsuit that the incident resulted in him requiring cervical fusion surgery,

shoulder surgery, and treatment for other unspecified injuries.

That's the dick.

Let's go.

Jesus Christ.

No, let's go to the next thing here.

Dispensa said the injuries occurred on the May 10th, 2023 edition of AEW Dynamite in Detroit.

There,

Moxley faced Omega in a cage match, which ended up spilling spilling to the outside.

Moxley went to grab a screwdriver to use on Omega, and in doing so, shoved Dispensa to the ground.

The lawsuit claims Moxley was supposed to only grab the screwdriver, and Dispensa took an unplanned fall as a result of being shoved.

His legal team alleges this is an example of civil assault and battery, claiming that in allegedly deviating from the script, Moxley either showed intent to harm Dispensa or, quote, at a minimum, a complete disregard for whether harm was a result.

Disregard, negligence, indifference, however you want to phrase it.

Can we stop here for a second?

Because this is the whole goddamn deal.

They wanted to be cute.

And

this was when they were using the screwdriver.

Remember when the screwdriver was all the rage before the golden scissors and the goddamn, you know, then the enema bag became a thing.

I don't know what the fuck.

But they trying to be cute with how does Moxley

suddenly produce a screwdriver?

Well, there's a crew guy at Ringside and he's got a screwdriver in his pocket.

And Moxley, you see on the clip, goes up and snatches the screwdriver out of his pocket or his belt or whatever it was hanging off of.

You see that on the video.

But then you also see Moxley snatch this guy and bring him in a little bit and give him a shove.

Yes, Moxley is trying to, again, to portray this

alleged badass image he's got and he's dangerous and he's whatever.

But what he did was he got carried away, went into business for himself because apparently

from what this suit alleges, and I can believe,

and I'll tell you why I can believe in a minute, the guy didn't know he's going to get fucking shoved or thrown or pushed or whatever.

And he's not a professional bump taker.

And that's why I think if the guy had known, hey,

Moxley's going to grab you and fling you,

unless they can find some documentation that he wrote down on paper, oh, I'm okay with taking a bump and him throwing me signed

crew guy,

then why would they do?

Why would they not get some indie fuck to be the cable puller puller or whatever, just so he could stand there holding a screwdriver and take a bump?

It was Moxley going into business for himself, and the guy didn't know it was coming.

Now, again,

when you looked at the

video,

it's not the most horrible bump anybody's ever taken.

And that's why everybody was

on Twitter that everybody that wanted to defend AEW was like, this guy is trying to soak a billionaire.

He ain't hurt.

That wouldn't have hurt anybody.

and everybody who likes uh or doesn't like aew is going yeah cornette said this all along

i said one of the fans was going to sue him for being stupid and getting hurt

you know and then him them hurting him i didn't say they were going to sue him for the crew being stupid with the crew but that's a whole new level of stupid

But

if the guy has been a cameraman,

I don't know what he was.

Again, he didn't have a TV camera in his hand, but maybe they stuck him out there to have the screwdriver.

He couldn't have the camera.

He was pulling cable, whatever he's doing.

But a lot of camera people,

if they're sitting there with a fucking

however many pound camera on their right shoulder, holding it

for hours at a time, they develop shoulder and neck issues.

And then, if he guys gets shoved down on that

as we saw on raw with liv morgan

we'll talk about but

i mean people splash their mattress in bed harder than liv morgan went down but she separated her shoulder for a shoot because it was just time

what if he separated his shoulder because it was just time

He had a bad when he was going to go.

He didn't know he was going to get shoved by some fucking goof.

Whatever the fuck.

The point is,

if Moxley went into business for himself by grabbing the crew guy and shoving him around,

or even if Moxley said, Hey, I'll grab it and I'll shove you away.

Okay, he was thinking, He'll shove me, not I will fling you to the fucking floor.

Whatever.

It didn't need to be done.

And you can start reading because there's more to it because they strung the guy along apparently for a while.

But I mean, yet

there can be ulterior motives to any lawsuit,

but they're also leaving themselves.

If the guy is trying to get money for nothing and his chicks for free,

they left themselves open to it by just doing stupid things.

Go ahead.

Hey, listen, though, in the history of AEW.

Who has done more things that were self-centered, that didn't help the company and got away with it more than Jon Moxley?

From cursing on the air

to

obviously this to bleeding on people or to just the unprofessionalism of constantly slicing his head open on camera we talked about you know you always brought up the fact that you know stephen pinu

you know it's just some fan is going to get hit and it's going to cause a problem we saw the thing with cena was it cena no steve austin at wrestlemania when he drove into the barricade yes and the woman took that fall but aew we've talked about it for a while because you actually see feet go into the stands and hit fans or come closer.

Yeah.

This is not that.

This is not an accidental thing that could cause a real lawsuit.

This is a direct

Moxley decided to do something.

This guy got hurt, according to him.

He could sue.

We never thought of this angle of it.

We always thought it'd be some fan who accidentally got hurt, not some production crew member.

Again, yeah, not beating up part of the fucking crew.

Guys, I have to get cervical fusion.

I'm really in a lot of pain.

All right, we're going to make you a carpenter now.

Go get your hands.

No, you know what?

There are people.

The guy that I ran over with my car when I was trying to kill Terry Landell 20 years ago in Knoxville,

he actually had gotten elective surgery is what they were saying because he was a pill doctor shopper fellow thing.

So Pete, but that does seem for the average person, and chances are against you want to get cervical fusion surgery just to try to win a lawsuit.

Well, back to this, the lawsuit alleges that Moxley, here's a quote, had a history of disciplinary issues before the incident involving other people while under AEW's employee, agency, and or contractual relationship.

It also says that these past disciplinary offenses by Moxley included a documented history of unpredictability.

That's why Johnny Rodds was blackballed from the business.

That's right, we can't have that unpredictability-ness.

As well as a lack of control by defendant AEW,

all of which were known or should have been known to defendant AEW

at the time of this assault.

And I mean, that could be, to be honest, I don't think we've missed any goddamn felonious assaults on other people in

the locker room that may have been covered up.

But that can also be

this guy continues to be reckless.

He flings furniture around.

When he's out in the crowd or he's coming through these entrances, he just goes wherever the fuck and,

you know, causes an issue.

It could be simple as, you know, these type of complaints.

It just goes to show he does whatever the fuck he's going to do.

However, multiple high-level AEW sources with knowledge of Moxley's working history with the company and not speaking in an official capacity on AEW's behalf, told the takedown on SI that they were unaware of any history of disciplinary issues with Moxley, noting he is respected within the promotion by talent and management.

One referred to him as a locker room leader

and disputed the characterization of Moxley given in the lawsuit.

So let's stop there.

Again, not an official AEW

statement, but AEW sources, which could be everything.

Well, I mean, what are they going to say?

My God, he's like Manson.

We've got to please help me send police.

They're not going to say that.

They're being sued.

And again,

whether the boys all like him or not doesn't necessarily mean that he's been easy to work with for the production crew with the aforementioned flinging things around, running over people.

Whatever the case, we don't know what complaints have been lodged from that quarter.

And again, I don't hear anything that makes it out like he's randomly wandering around, goozling people around the neck.

You know, that does tend to get some attention in that company.

But I think they're just said he's

got a tendency of going right whenever he's supposed to go left, and we don't know what the fuck he's going to do.

And then he grabs me and shoves me down and jams my shoulder, and my neck hurts.

And

here we go.

The filing also claims: Moxley and AEW are responsible for exhibiting gross negligence, suggesting, here's a quote, by going off script and violently shoving plaintiff, who was only a crew member to the ground, Moxley demonstrated a substantial lack of concern for whether a severe injury would result to a production crew member at the event.

It adds, in taking no precautions, or preventative measures to protect production staff, defendant AEW's actions likewise show a reckless disregard for the safety of production staff, which goes beyond simple inadvertence.

You know, I got a question for you because I don't know the answer to this.

So, these companies, because you have experience with them, that like this guy works for, that are the production company for hire for an AEW,

when they're not doing AEW dynamite and AEW collision and AEW pay-per-views, what are they doing?

Other TV shows, or or other shoots or music video, whatever requires

the television crews,

they're comprised of people that have individual specialties, whether it be working in audio or working in video or working in a position in a truck or rigging shit or whatever the case.

So they do that for other productions.

Sometimes it's shit that

concerts and whatever.

There's a lot of crossover between

crews that do live events like concerts and/or sports events and do wrestling or television work video, whatever.

So,

you know,

that's the thing is you can,

these people don't know, they know that it's a fucking big bunch of phony bullshit,

but that doesn't mean that you can fling them around, you know, as part of the thing.

It's not like the in the territories, whoever was running the camera was probably a promoter's brother-in-law.

You knew you weren't going to get sued if you kicked him into nuts,

but now

you can't do that.

Well, scrolling down a little bit, Dispense's legal representation tells us that he claims AEW's upper management was aware of the incident, but says he never discussed it with them.

He alleges to have met with Tony Kahn and AEW general counsel Chris Peck.

about potential full-time employment opportunities in the months after the incident, but acknowledged there there was never a prior conversation about the injuries he says he sustained.

Let's stop there for a moment.

Hold on here a second.

Did he say, did he also say later on that he was treated at some point by the

AEW

medical staff?

Well, it says here, his attorney also noted Dispensa said he never filed an official incident report that night because he had another job on tour that he had to get back to.

But he claimed he spoke with three individuals that evening about getting hurt.

His legal team said Dispenser relayed his alleged injuries to ringside physician Dr.

Michael Sampson, director of performance psychology, Chris Manzione.

Performance psychology, you're interesting,

and a member of the athletic training.

As opposed to Chuck Mangioni, who feels so good.

And a member of the athletic training staff.

Dispenser claims Sampson was upset over the situation, saying that all stunts or interactions outside the ring must be approved by Samson beforehand.

Samson was near Dispensa.

Was that during that

two-week period of time where Tony made that announcement, and then they just went back to fucking mayhem?

Samson was near Dispensa when the incident occurred.

He said Samson asked him to go see the training staff.

He was eventually told he would not be treated any longer by AEW's athletic training staff and that the incident was never acknowledged again, according to his attorneys, Dispensa.

It also said De Spensa and Moxley never discussed the incident beyond briefly after the segment.

He's looking to obtain compensation for injuries suffered to the actions of the wrestler and the company he worked for, and the filing says the amount in controversy exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars.

He incurred damages, including but not limited to, medical expenses, disability, permanent and serious disfigurement, wage loss and lost earnings capacity, pain and suffering, and damages for mental and emotional anxiety, humiliation, and/or indignity,

diminution to business.

Wait a minute, can we get money out of indignity these days?

Also, his business reputation and opportunities,

other economic and non-economic damages not yet known,

and all other damages available under Michigan law.

Michigan.

The chic is lucky he's no longer around.

What about

you know, Roy Massey over in West Virginia sued Stan Lane because he could no longer enjoy the public consort, not public consort, but the personal consort of his wife.

I never realized they were swinger.

I never realized it was a public playbook.

I couldn't.

You can't fuck her to diner anymore.

What the

People are not going to nearly enjoy Biscuit World as much now.

But where I was going with that, let's pick up a couple of things.

First of all, in excess of $25,000, people have picked up on that like, well, Tony could just pay that with me.

No, that's that's not what they're asking for.

That's a legal

amount, a bar you have to clear that this is in this type of suit because we're asking for at least this much.

I think the

locale, the amount may vary, whatever, but

they could be awarded millions of dollars and there's still that amount is in the initial filing.

Secondly,

like he said, he had a tour he had to get back to.

He was probably doing something with some crew.

on some type of concert tour or whatever the fuck.

And he didn't want to goddamn give that up.

And of course, he probably got sore later later on, but he told them he took a bump.

And they saw him take the bump.

And then later on, he said that he didn't talk to, he didn't file an official complaint.

But if he hadn't filed any kind of complaint or there wasn't any kind of issue, then why would Tony Kahn and

what's the fellow's name?

Is Lawyer Pecker?

Why would Tony Kahn and his Pecker...

No, Chris Peck.

Well, yeah, Tony Khan and his peck.

Why would they have been talking to him about it?

And full-time employment, does that sound to you like

every time

that somebody

remotely has a problem, Tony Khan has run to them and offered them shit?

Or they're

remember the legal team?

What was it today?

Megan, when she was on the legal team?

Mega Parique.

Well, B.J.

Whitmer's ex-fiancé or whatever, she had run to her and offered this, that, and the other thing.

They sometimes they over-promise shit when they think that people are actively mad at them.

Oh, we'll do this, Ned.

My God, you could, you could move in with Shad, my dad.

I mean, anything.

And then,

but then when it's not immediate, they just fucking slack off and forget about it.

But then did they think this guy was malingering because he was wanting an adjustment every time he showed up at TV?

And how

would

this directly have led, like I said, this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back to previous injury and damage or whatever, but

how were they not dealing with this in any more timely fashion when it led to him having some type of cervical fusion?

There's still a lot of a lot of questions from both sides on this.

Well, one of the big questions for me, according to this, and we're going based on his filing here,

if he was hurt in December and he didn't talk to AEW about it beyond Doc Sampson, like he wasn't, you know, and people who he talked to that night who he works with, but he wasn't running like the HR or anything.

And then out of nowhere, a few months later, Tony Khan, the head of the company and the chief legal officers, I think Mega may have been gone by that point, just back to the Jaguars.

They sit down and talk to him.

about a potential full-time employment.

It's never brought up.

You know, we're just thinking out loud here.

He says it's never explicitly said, but why else?

Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying: is that they tend to overpromise at the start when they, when they say, oh, shit, somebody's mad at us or we got a problem.

Oh, we'll make them happy.

That's Vince McMahon.

That's what Vince used to do.

Yeah, but he would at least follow through on some shit.

Some shit.

Sometimes.

Some shit.

But they just, you know, again, how did it get this far that this guy's filed a public lawsuit that they couldn't figure this out between twixt then and now?

Yeah.

And again,

not knowing how their independent contractors on the production side are treated or what agreements they have to sign, if anything,

if this guy doesn't have one of those AEW arbitration things and he could actually go forward with this.

Oh, no, no, fuck no.

There would be no.

Yeah, they're in trouble.

There would be no reason in the world for a crew member to have any type of

honestly, I don't know why they'd have a written agreement with AEW of any kind, much less arbitration and anything.

Crew members, most of the time, like that, and again, there's always exceptions.

I'm happy to be corrected.

But the average crew member would be an independent contractor in the audio field that has been being hired by what was the name of the company, Broadcast Services.

Sounds like a

fake company.

Well, no, I mean, they could, you know, they got out of that phone booth and into a fucking bodega now for their office.

But they would be an independent contractor being says, show up a Tuesday at fucking noon and fill out this form for us

with where we're your, you know, what's your address, your social security number, we're going to pay you.

And they would probably,

they'd probably be paid through the production group rather than AEW directly.

But point being,

there's nothing

short of an actual wrestling contract that you could sign

that would indemnify AEW from one of the wrestlers grabbing you and flinging you about.

So it doesn't matter what kind of paperwork the crew member had,

it's not covered.

You can't do that.

It's like, who do you think of the fucking guy, Kroger, right?

The fucking manager of the bread aisle at Kroger gets pissed off at the fucking cashier and just goes over and chucks her over the goddamn counter.

Okay, even

they both work for Kroger.

They're not having to go to arbitration about that.

Is this a whole nother fucking ball of wax here?

Did you see Ricochet's since deleted tweet?

Oh, yes.

He's always got to jump in with his dick liquor and fucking put it in where it ain't belong and then delete it later.

What did he?

What did he tweet that he had to delete?

The world is full of such pussies.

Oh, well, he retweeted the article and wrote, we live in a world of pussies.

Yeah.

And, well, pussies take their tweets down.

Is that a step up from saying he's looking for attention?

The cervical fusion.

I don't know.

We'll see.

Now,

if this fucking, if Chris Dispenza comes down with skin cancer, we're really going to have a problem here now.

And he's really looking for attention.

Yeah, I mean, we'll see what happens here.

But, you know, obviously a lot of the listeners want to hear what you have to say because you've talked in the past so much about potential lawsuits, again, with fans.

What does this say to you, if anything, about the state of AEW?

Again, this happened a couple of years ago, but they drew it out for a while for whatever reason.

But the state of AEW and specifically Moxley and Moxley

seemingly being able to get away with anything he wants in that company.

Well,

this was needless.

And,

you know, Moxley's probably going to say, at least in private, he's, well, the guy told me I could shove him or whatever.

But nevertheless, just it,

if you try to do shit with people that don't know how to work, it's going to look like shit anyway, which this kind of did, but it didn't add anything to the proceedings.

And it just causes,

you know, problems behind the scenes.

But

to the point of the matter,

They've left themselves open for lawsuits.

This guy

being there to work instead of being there because he was a fan, they've actually done shit that should have got him sued more than this that we've talked about, but because the fans

that were there that may have been the ones that had the case, the ones to be infringed on, they wanted to be there.

They didn't want to sue them.

They like AEW or they like wrestling or they like the wrestler that landed on them or whatever.

So that's why you don't

hear of anything like that.

But this guy was just being paid to be there to do a job and he don't give a shit.

And now, whatever's happened,

that's the other,

we need to hear more

from the other side to find out what's the matter with this guy that why this happened that long ago.

And there's these other conversations that have gone on, and how we went from a shove down to a cervical fusion.

But it's not like that he was predisposed in any way not to want to sue

this billionaire and his big company if they were indeed

culpable for responsible for something

so that's you know i've the old day in the old days the fans didn't give a shit if you knocked junior's teeth out right somebody's gonna pay for this damn it it's not like oh but it was goddamn ricochet i love him

But this guy don't give a shit.

He's not a fan.

So that, you know, that may be why this is the department that is sued first, but they need to just be careful what the fuck they're doing and pay attention to their shit.

And in Moxley's case, not believe his own bullshit hype.

We live in a world of pussies, says the guy who last I saw on social media was arguing that he's better than EO Sky.

Then a girl.

Yeah.

Better

fire than EO.

He could do what E.O.

Skye does, I think was his argument.

Yeah, well,

and you know what?

The more I see of him, the more I think that he does a lot of things I bet EO Sky does.

We'll just leave it at that.

We will stay on top of the legal beat.

By the way, deleter, pussies delete their tweets.

Eh?

All right, Jim.

Well, we will stay on top of this.

The legal department will find out more.

But, you know, perhaps Mr.

Dispensa, after the fact, or Moxley, at any point before or after,

could just use a good night's sleep.

Maybe that would have solved everything, caused less mishap,

less

problems, a good night's sleep.

And of course, for a good night's sleep, you need a good bed.

I think if Moxley had a night's sleep, but the night was in, he was on Pluto, so the nights are hundreds of years long, possibly put him in suspended animation.

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Jim, this is my show.

We've talked about a lot of things.

I don't want to do too much about this, but there are things we need to discuss.

Recent WWE-TV.

I saw a bit of it.

You apparently watched a whole lot of it again.

You can't stop yourself.

You seem to have a well.

I wouldn't say a whole lot.

I wouldn't describe it as a whole lot, but we have to keep up on the major happenings.

And I have

some notage here because one of them was right down the road from me.

Lexington,

Kentucky was the home of SmackDown on June 13th.

Rup Arena.

11,900 people, so half a house.

Yeah, it's not fair because it's Lex.

Rep Arena is a ginormous facility to have in a place the size of Lexington.

But they had 12,000 people, but that's actually legitimately right at 50% of capacity.

When's King of the Ring going to be over with?

When do we get rid of that thing?

When is that?

What date does that happen?

WWE has now embraced a lot of the things that I hate in AEW: non-stop tournaments, non-stop multi-man matches, non-stop four-way matches.

Smackdown was four

four-way matches.

Two men's matches, two women's matches, with the winners then going to the

semifinals and the

whatever, the king of the ring.

But how original?

Christ on a cracker.

We know you have to fill programming time.

But Jesus, can you

just regular matches, just have

four guys go fucking 10 minutes apiece in two singles matches instead of four guys in a four-way going half an hour?

Like, give me some fucking variety, anything.

But it's every promotion.

We're going to lead to a tournament by having a multiple man match.

And then sometimes the tournament is full of multiple person matches.

So

we're going to hit the high points of what the stars did on SmackDown last week, just to keep you up on it, because it's already been a while and I don't care.

Except

they've got the thing going with Cody and Cena.

Cena came out.

They do the dueling chance.

Again,

he's a great promo.

He has great delivery.

He knocks everybody.

He's very well spoken.

Everything takes for fucking ever.

And then Cody comes out and gets a big pop.

pop and

and then they stand there and look at each other for a while and the people love it you know they're looking at each other oh my god he looked sideways at him oh my god i'm coming

and i wrote they're all alone why didn't cody just beat him up

because here's the thing about it brian when we used to watch wrestling when wrestling television

regardless of what company was producing it when when the announcer was interviewing the talent and it was presented as a sports presentation instead of theater in the round,

even though the announcer might be just a little guy or an old guy or whatever,

the sight of him conducting the interview with the guys that were arguing with each other

led you to believe there was still some element of control.

And therefore, that's why

my hero, the babyface, didn't just haul off and punch his prick in the face.

Subliminal, but it was there.

Do you feel me?

I mean, I think a problem in wrestling for a while has been the babyface never does things to make it actually want to get behind him.

Remember?

I mean, again, it's not Cena and Cody, but Daniel Garcia coming to the ring with a crowbar to confront FTR.

And the first words out of his mouth, they're like, I wish I could do something to you guys.

You have a crowbar, asshole.

Do something.

Babyfaces hit the ring.

For people,

he should be livid at Cena.

He should hate Cena.

Instead, they just want to give each other speeches.

It doesn't make any sense.

But

again, the 20-minute speeches are

bad.

And then just the, there's elements that they could have visually that made it seem, makes it seem more legitimate and like there's some control.

And that when things break loose, that's.

It's against the norm.

It's taboo.

It's shit that shouldn't be happening rather than just anybody can come out anytime, say and fight anything, and we're only going to send people to break it up if we feel like it.

And so they talked to each other.

And then Orton's music played.

And he told Cena off and said he doesn't care who he has to go through, including Cody.

And then LA Knights' music played, and he wants the title too, and he's going to win the King of the Ring.

And then Cena got

fed up with goddamn, you know, listening to everybody.

So he started walking out and Ron Killings jumped on him and security got on top of him.

And we were 25 minutes into the program for everybody telling each other off.

And then Killings got 15 seconds of physicality.

And that's

as long as an episode of Seinfeld.

Yeah, I'm sick of John Cena.

I hate to say it, but I'm completely sick of John Cena.

And

whether, I don't know, I'm not saying it's all him, but I said it before, that incident with The Rock, Cena's return, ever since that period of time,

for me at least, my sensibilities,

everything's kind of off base.

And the shows have become real slogs more than

any time since Vince.

And I'm not enjoying it at all.

And that's the thing.

I'm not even as, I'm not as down on

Cena as you are, but I'm just down on the, god damn it, it takes literally 30 minutes for all these people to end up coming out, telling each other off, and somebody gets punched the face three times

for a half.

That's a

full episode of a half-hour situation comedy, and these people ain't that fucking funny.

And then

they had the first of the men's four-ways with Carmelo against Orton, against L.A.

Knight, against Malachi Black.

And

another element that I don't like came up.

We can just talk about that.

I didn't watch the match, don't care.

But in the finish,

Bronson Reed comes out and jerks L.A.

Knight off the top rope.

And then Braun Breaker comes in and spears L.A.

Knight in front of the referee.

And then

Carmelo just in front of the referee, just because it's no DQ.

And then outside of the referee, can't do anything but stand there and look like a fucking idiot.

And then Carmelo comes off the top like he's going to dive on L.A.

Knight, but Orton catches him with the RKO and RKOs him on top of our L.A.

Knight.

And then pins L.A.

Knight one, two.

So everybody beat up L.A.

Knight.

Nice way to give him an out, but

the point is,

again,

if the heels can just interfere in front of the referee, because every match that you present on every fucking show

is no disqualification,

then it just becomes a groaner and a cheap way out and lazy booking.

And

you could at least try to figure out something else

than just doing that right in front of the goddamn referee.

Teach your talent how to perform complicated finishes

with

Swiss watch timing.

A diversion here, a distraction there, a shot over there, whatever the fuck.

Don't just have, you know, everybody just come out and do whatever the fuck they need to do because you can't figure out any way around it.

That's my thought.

And then we were at nine o'clock, Brian.

How'd you enjoy this thing?

I think I was already done by this point.

I'm really,

they're training me.

I don't have to watch these shows.

I can just watch the pay-per-view.

They'll catch me up on everything that took four hours to do.

And whenever I watch these shows, I ended up getting mad.

I watched a bit of Raw we'll talk about.

And then once I got to that point in the show where I'm like, there's no more for me, I turned off.

But SmackDown

has been really bad.

Ever since, really, I mean, you know, another thing we probably don't talk enough about, if you think about it, since since the end of the bloodline, how much of that show was eaten up by the bloodline arriving, the bloodline having drama in the back in their locker room, Heyman teasing something with someone, the bloodline getting seafood, and then the bloodline come out at the end of the show.

There's nothing to hold the show together right now.

It's just, hey, let's put a bunch of stuff out there.

Everyone has a four-way.

You get a four-way, and you get a four-way.

It's not a good show.

And Cena, like I said,

I like the way he screams and gets angry, but then he goes for 10 minutes and nothing leaves you wanting more.

You feel like you've seen it all.

And then he comes out and does another promo.

It's like, yeah, this is kind of the same complaints he had last time.

Well, now he's coming back out here in a minute.

I know.

He can't stop.

They can't stop.

Because people weren't sick enough of the first segment.

Let's get more Cena.

But I mean, even the that's the thing is we're going to see from this.

And again, it ain't going to take too long to see it.

And then Raw, it's promos and multiple person matches.

And that's what you got for a total of almost six hours between the two days.

They were already to the nine o'clock hour.

Jacob Fatu,

he's over.

He's a star.

The people love him.

He's amazing.

He comes out.

He gets a few words to say.

Just because we come from the same bloodline doesn't mean you can snake me from behind and take all my credit.

And then Solo appears on the screen from their hideout.

And he says, You were nothing until I brought you here and made you a star.

And next week, I'm going to be ready to take you back.

But I need to hear, I love you, Solo,

because otherwise, I brought you in and I'll take you out.

And then Fatu just leaves.

And then we get a girls' four-way.

And now it's 9:30.

And then we get a girls' promo.

And

Naomi and Tiffy in the fridge.

And everybody had a fake fight.

And the Motor City machine guns against the Wyatt shits.

Honestly.

Let me stop you.

Everything you've said since I told you I stopped watching the show, is there anything you could justify that would have been worth my time?

No, that's what I'm telling you.

The machine guns against the Wyatts,

the machine guns are fine.

The Wyatts are horrible.

They went 100 miles an hour to complete silence.

And they were so bad.

And I mean, not just the gimmick is bad, but they were botching shit up these guys.

They made the guns look bad.

And then they fucked up the finish and then beat the guns.

But I mean, it was God, nobody, they were falling all over themselves.

And then we were at 10 o'clock.

And again, that's two hours already.

What the fuck?

That's a long time to go to get there.

With just that is what I'm trying to say.

So.

Then we got to the last thing we need to talk about.

At 10 o'clock,

Cena goes back to the ring and he's cussing.

He says, Truth has crossed the line.

He's disrespected me too.

He's gone too far.

And the people are chanting, we want truth.

And Cena calls truth out there.

And then,

like Mussolini,

the fans go crazy

singing the songy

cause it's a cult of, thank god they finally sent somebody out here i might want to listen to

so there comes punk and cena's dumbfounded

and this got the biggest reaction to the show it must be where were they when they were in lexington by god is punk country

and

and they did a good promo again that both these guys can talk

And Cena took the chance to knock basketball and horse racing.

And then Punk tells him off in a very verbose and creative way.

Eddie got to plug Terry Funk and Harley Race and Bret Hart and Eddie Guerrero.

But he said, you can't see me.

I see through you and I always have.

And that's the truth.

And then Punk leaves.

And truth jumps Cena again and puts the STF on him.

And Punk says, the truth hurts.

And there's security pulling truth off of Cena.

But again, we said it's just 20 minutes through the promo, well done as it was.

And then,

boom, 20 seconds of action.

And then we got a girls' tag and another men's four-way.

And that was three hours.

All right.

So that's why we're not going into a lot of detail on SmackDown these days.

Well, that was SmackDown for the 13th.

A wonderful build to this wonderful nightmare show in Saudi Arabia.

When is.

So the King of the Ring is going to be on the Saudi Arabia

Super Show or whatever.

What?

Well, they have a kingdom.

Hold on.

Let me look up.

When is King of the Ring?

King.

Are they going to have the Sheikh of the Ring?

Put your camel to bed.

King of the Ring.

King of the Ring.

Where the fuck is that?

King of the Ring.

this is the history of King of the Ring, not this year's.

Here we go.

King of the Ring will be in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

on May 25th.

Wait, what?

No, that was last year.

Doesn't have this year's history.

What are you looking at?

Wikipedia, hold on.

Well, look at wwe.com.

Wouldn't they be telling us where their goddamn?

Let's see.

Knight of champions.

This will be

There's no date here either.

Hold on.

How can no one have a date listed?

WWE.com does not have a date listed either.

It just has the brackets.

And this one looks like shit.

Hold on.

One more place.

I'll check.

How about this?

When is

King of the Ring?

King of the Ring, Saturday, June 28th.

In Saudi Arabia.

So

we got that to look at.

It's going to suck.

It's the Saudi Arabian show energy, which is always weird to watch during a day.

It's a fucking tournament.

Tournaments are fucking done.

See, now you're so negative.

And it's not a big thing.

It's the same people.

It's the same people that it always is.

It's Sam.

You ought to be like me and try to find the good in everything and try to look at things on a positive side of things.

Oh, look on the sunny side of life.

It's a Saturday afternoon.

Hopefully, by the time it's over, the Met game will start.

That's the positive side of things.

Maybe there's a 4 p.m.

start on that day.

But that was SmackDown.

Of course, a few days after the torture of SmackDown every week is WWE Raw.

Jim, let's talk about what you watched on Raw, which aired last night as we are recording.

Well, I'll tell you what it was.

Hold on here.

I've got to find the proper page.

They were in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And I.

I think every time they build an arena, it's next door to Lambeau Field because when I was there 30 years ago, we were doing TV at the old building next to Lambeau Field.

And again,

there's one, two news-making things, one in a

negative fashion, unfortunately, from this, one in more positive.

But otherwise, I mean, I just, it's three hours.

We got the Dominic and

Liv Morgan promo, and then E.O.

Skye beat both of them up.

And then we got another girl's King of the Ring four-way.

And then we were 45 minutes into the show already.

But then here comes Gunther.

Gunther.

And he does a promo, and

they're booing him, booing over him as he tries to speak like they were doing with Dom.

But I think they

like booing Gunther a little bit more on his promos rather than

just working with, you know, Dom sometimes as they did because he was so

annoying.

But he promoed, you know, hey, Jay was better at WrestleMania, but every other night I'm untouchable.

And I've heard rumors about what's next for me.

And the fans started chanting Goldberg because they couldn't even keep this secret.

One would have thought they could have put some kind of lid on this just for a couple of weeks, but it's been out.

But he said, no, not that guy, Seth Rollins.

He's got the money in the bank contract and I've got what he wants.

And Seth said I was a target.

So I'm right here, Seth Rollins.

You want to fight?

Here we go.

And then they played Goldberg music.

And the people blew because they, even though they had heard the

scoop, they didn't know he was going to be right there, right then.

And it got a big pop.

And

Brian, is it possible for a guy to look great from the waist up?

What do you say?

Did you notice that?

No, what do you mean?

He looks great from the waist up, but he's walking crooked.

There's some way or another that he's walking that you can tell that it reveals that he's a

older gentleman with a history of injuries.

I don't know what to say.

You want the time to roll back and

upper body looked good, and he's got the face, but he was walking a little crooked.

I'm wondering

how good a shape he's going to be in for this thing.

Well, again, an athlete got into wrestling, he's had a lot of injuries.

I just thought he looked like he blew up

coming to the ring, yeah.

I don't know.

I think he can throw the fucking martial arts blows and the kick and everything without.

I think he's, I think he's feeling the effects of age, but

he's got oomph.

He got when the ring, when he got in the ring and did the promo, he's got some oomph to him.

And it was quick, which it needs to be,

usually both in terms of matches and promos for Goldberg.

But a few months ago in Atlanta, you started something with me and my family, and I'm going to finish it in Atlanta.

July 12th, that's Saturday night's main event.

You're mine because you're next.

Yay!

Here's the thing.

I mean, as a, and then Gunther just looked at him, you know, because what are you going to do?

This is probably better as a network television attraction than it would be a pay-per-view match because

do you think the pay-per-view audience, which is the most the premium live event, which is the most current, the most devoted,

I don't know they want to see this because i think they probably like gunther maybe better than goldberg

but on network television

gunther's or not gunther but goldberg's you know

maybe got an older fan base i think that's a huge attraction for nbc to be able to advertise that name i think so too i actually think it's perfect for that they got to hype it up you know part of it's on them they got to get him on the today's show and they got to really hype up that goldberg's going to be doing this.

But he's a big name.

And I think because WWE won the war and Goldberg pretty quickly went away to come back every now and then,

people forget just how big a star he really was.

And,

you know, WCW fucked that up.

And some of the veterans behind the scenes really fucked that up.

And then WWF fucked it up the first time because of Vince.

But now Vince is gone, so they can actually get something out of it.

Yeah, well, they got something out of him when he came back and he beat Brock.

That was actually one of my favorite short matches that was a surprise and the audience went crazy.

And, you know, I'm in the unique position where I like Bret Hart and I like Goldberg.

You know,

I'm not influenced by either one of their problems with each other.

I like them both.

And I think if done right, it could be good.

Now he's working with a very physical guy in Gunther.

That's another thing that's,

you know, again, I think they could pull it off because I think Gunther is smart, but it seems to be a bit of a style clash.

Well, actually,

I don't think there is really, bear me out for a second, because remember, we were hearing at one point that they may have been before all of the Vince McMahon stuff blew up, the news, whatever, they may have been looking to Gunther and Brock Lesnar.

And

I wanted to see that so bad.

And I think based on what they've done since then, they probably would have put Gunther over.

And that would have been a tremendous thing

to get Gunther over is to beat Brock Lesnar.

This is the same kind of thing.

Goldberg is not going to tell Gunther, don't chop me hard.

He's not going to fuck, oh, no, no, don't hurt me.

Gunther is brilliant.

He's a master at

laying out a match that's perfect for him, but that also

takes into account his opponent and what they do or don't do or whatever.

Right.

I've said he's, he's usually his matches make such great sense.

It's going to be probably short, intense,

hard-hitting.

That's what people are going to expect.

That's what both guys got over with.

And I think that Gunther will be encouraged by Goldberg to do his shit because Goldberg doesn't want to come off as a pussy

because he can't go 30 minutes at a high rate of speed at his age and

whatever doesn't mean he's going to say, Don't

chop me or don't slam me or whatever the fuck.

So, I think they can really, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Goldberg wants to, this is his retirement match that he's talked about.

Apparently,

he wants his kids to seem

he don't want to look like shit.

Gunther's the perfect guy to fucking have a match with Gunther.

They're not going to be doing fucking leapfrogs and goddamn moonsaults.

so

i like the idea of the match and i think

therein lies the only question i've got it shouldn't go long and it shouldn't be a back and forth technical wrestling masterpiece and they need to hit each other hard for a short period of time but what's the finish

because gunther's the champion and

there was

comments put out, and I think Uncle Dave was behind it originally.

I don't know.

So that's why I don't take it as as gospel.

That that's why they put the belt back on Gunther because they wanted him to be the champion to face Goldberg.

That doesn't really make a lot of sense because I don't think they're going to make this for the belt.

I don't know why they would.

But at the same time,

one would almost think that the fans would be happier at seeing Goldberg triumph in his hometown of Atlanta.

And therefore, it especially would not make sense for the title to be on the line because if the belt is on the line, Gunther has to win.

If it's a non-title match,

I would think Goldberg would win, but I would think that

there would be some out for Gunther.

I'm rambling now.

Yeah, I mean, the other thing is we were told that his retirement match was coming.

Is this the match?

Because he was wearing a shirt that said like last ride or whatever, but they didn't say it.

And I haven't seen anything billed as the retirement match or final match.

Well, here's the thing.

They're already doing a retirement tour.

And I think we need to see Goldberg one more time in some type of blaze of glory.

I don't think it needs to be repeated viewing.

This doesn't need to be a multi-part mini-series.

This should be the last time.

Maybe the last time.

Oh, I know.

It's got to be.

You don't have a warm-up match against goddamn one of the world champions before your retirement match

well we'll see what happens i actually i'm not expecting a five-star classic but i do want to see that match a star from the past coming back to wrestle one of the biggest stars they have today

i'm intrigued by it if if gunther can be johnny valentine and fucking goldberg can be wahoo for about seven or eight minutes well that well that is an important question you say seven or eight minutes should it go that long?

Well, I mean,

you don't want to, on either guy's part, you don't want to just fucking let people down that they didn't see hardly anything.

But I think that you can create chaos in

under 10 minutes that still everybody would be able to keep up with on a cardiovascular basis.

We've received a few emails about it recently, so I'll just sum them up for a question for you about this because it kind of relates.

Do you think WWE is setting up Gunther for a babyface run?

I don't know necessarily that they're setting him up for a babyface run, except that they're allowing him to fill a kind of a spot that

isn't filled and doesn't normally,

there's not a lot of guys usually that are good at it.

In that he's the old kind of world champion where he's most of the time an obnoxious prick.

But he has some kind of honor to him that he won't go as far as some of the heels.

And and it fits him it's his gimmick that he wants to physically intimidate and dominate and be better than people

and sometimes he doesn't necessarily want to cheat to do that just because he wants to prove something to himself

the people admire his talent because he is tough and boy that chop lands and

you know goddamn he's in great matches

So he's not going to ever work like a chicken shit heel.

He's not going to work like

Alex Luger, the narcissist, where he's the bodybuilder that, you know,

he's gorgeous.

He's a fucking foreign German-Austrian prick,

but you can respect his talent.

And it's hard to find somebody that fits that spot.

Well, you really can't find somebody put it in on purpose.

It just has to kind of evolve that way and they've recognized it and they're going with it.

So

he could easily be the lesser of two evils against a really mealy-mouthed, obnoxious, chicken shit heel like Dominic Mysterio.

Because at least at least Gunther's a man, he's not like that fucking, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Or, you know, whatever.

You can find heels that have

worse characteristics.

He can be the babyface, but then he can

try to goddamn disembowel Jey Uso in front of his children.

And you're like, well, that motherfucker.

It's very special to find a guy like that.

So do you think he should be a babyface?

At some point, not right now, but like within a year, should they make him a babyface?

I don't think they really,

the people will make him a babyface based on who they book him with.

I don't know that anybody ought to ever actually

just beat the fucking shit out of Gunther and have him sell like Reggie Morton, make him a babyface.

I don't think that would be the way to go.

I think you just start booking Gunther the way that, you know,

he could help somebody that he has

respect for, that he's earned respect for, save them from a horrible beating.

Or you could just start booking him with a

hotter heel that people dislike more and

give the people the reason to let him be the sympathetic figure.

But I don't think you need to get juice on him and ruin his Austrian key key of the city.

That kind of baby face.

All right.

Well, we will see what happens with Gunther

and Goldberg.

But, Jim, there was at least one other thing of note on Raw.

I don't know what happened after this point because I stopped watching, but there was an interview.

I know

you've announced you stopped watching.

I'll let the people know: Bailey and Becky did about a 15-minute promo.

And there was another four-man

male king of the ring match where the heels came out and just took over the match in full view of the referee where there was no disqualification.

And 18 people came out and fought.

And

again, I think

that's the way you make people mad at the promotion when it's just over and over.

No DQ.

So that means the heel.

Then why didn't the heels just come out?

30 seconds into the show with a goddamn bazooka

if they can do it right in front of the referee anytime they want.

But

as you mentioned, there was one other thing, and this

illustrates when we talked about the lawsuit against AEW

and

the crew member that was thrown to the ground by Jon Moxley or shoved to the ground and is suing because he had a serious injury.

And people are looking at the video and they're going, that looks like bullshit.

Just because these goofy ass wrestlers take all these insane bumps through furniture every week on television doesn't mean you can't just get hurt just

fucking up right remember rhea ripley separated her shoulder

being run into the wall but actually running into the wall on her own in a working way from

might have been becky lynch a while back i can't remember who it was

Well, in this case, this was the,

and this is the point where people were asking if this was was a work.

Like, oh, did they just write her out because she's going to, no, this,

this would have been the most horrible work in the history of works, and nobody would have cleared this idea to get out of the goddamn finish room to do it this way.

Liv Morgan has a match with Carrie Sane,

and they ring the bell and literally,

literally, in the proper usage of that term, which everybody uses that word, but literally, this is literally the way the word should be used.

Literally, the first movement of the match.

Liv goes for a thing, and Carrie Sane ducks under it.

And as Liv turns around, she goes for kind of a drop toe hold on Liv Morgan, where Liv will go

face first, chest first, belly first, whatever, face down to the mat.

And Carrie Sane was going to have the legs.

And as soon as Liv went down and caught herself on the belly flop,

she grabbed her arm and she winced in pain and she rolled out of the leg lock and rolled to the floor.

And you saw her go down

and be, you know, leaned up against the barricade and holding her arm.

And then they go back shooting the ring.

And then I think you might have seen one more quick shot of her, but then they go back to the ring and Carrie Sane now is like,

what do I do?

She's running, hitting the ropes and firing the people up or whatever.

Doc, well, not Doc Sampson.

He

bailed out.

He left the ship and went to the other company, but

whoever they're talking about.

There you go.

And he never has been the same Samson

since he cut his hair.

But anyway,

whoever the doctor is, they went over to check on her off camera.

They wouldn't shoot it.

And then they just went to a break out of

the announcer saying, oh, Liv is being checked by the doctor.

And then they just went to break.

And when they came back, the match was already over.

They announced that she had been taken out.

They showed a replay of them helping her out with her, holding her arm.

And then the announcers had to kill time for a while because the only match left was.

their main event four-way and they weren't supposed to go this early.

And then they got the word that it sounded like she had had a separated shoulder.

And it's believable because you never know it can be a freak thing.

And that's why we've always said so often, why are these guys taking all these ridiculous

risks when it's already a risky profession?

And now, having said, again, this didn't look like anything to write home about, that you would take a bump like this in any normal normal match, but it's just the right way that it happens.

You know, especially on something that you're not,

if you're not thinking that you need to brace for something or that something is so simple, or I've done this so often, or this is not the part where I'm going to hurt myself, that that's sometimes when it happens.

And the guy who had Adam Cole jumped off that ramp to just jump down to the floor that he'd probably done a hundred times and broke his ankle or whatever the fuck.

Yeah, punk jumping into the crowd, hit his foot on the guardrail, remember?

Yes.

I mean, you know, it's the shit

that sometimes you're not prepared for, but things happen.

But so if that's her shoulder, which they say it is,

then that's going to be several months, I would think, just because it takes a while to get the mobility and the

and the strength and everything back.

But, you know, again, it can happen at any point.

So we're going back to the crew guy.

He got shoved down on the floor.

He wasn't even taking a bump in a ring that he was prepared for.

You know, sometimes innocuous things,

oh, that's what killed him?

You never know.

But this was neither person's fault.

This was just something that happened.

Because I don't see how you could have

guarded against this.

It was, I've never seen it happen that way before.

Yeah, we talk so much about stupid shit and stupid injuries that happen because of stupid shit.

This is legitimately like one of those injuries that happens because you're a professional wrestler, period.

No one did anything wrong.

She landed on the mat.

The commentators are right away trying to say like her elbow, but it was clear to me that it was her shoulder.

And then she immediately rolled that and held it.

They went to break.

Well, I think when they were talking about the elbow.

It could have been a hyperextension.

It wasn't like she hit the elbow, but see, when you go to with your hand, what probably popped her shoulder out was when she hit the mat just at the angle she was going and put her hands down and braced.

Remember when Randy Orton, who had a history of shoulder

issues and separations, he was doing his pound the mat thing and he used to do it with his fists down rather than his forearm.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

And there was a match.

He's doing that, getting ready to jump up and do his thing.

And he pounded his fist on the mat and fucking dislocated his own shoulder.

And so

the thing is, you can do the same thing

athletically 100 times.

And on 101, your ankle, knee,

shoulder, elbow, wrist, joint, something may give out.

And in this case, it was probably the angle that

instead of hyperextending the elbow, it jarred the shoulder out of socket at

the joint up there.

But that,

again, you know,

yes, I just talked about Randy Orton being able to do it, but this girl is 125 pounds.

So let's say you run into

an oak tree with a Volkswagen.

Volkswagen's probably going to come out the worse of it.

But if you run into a

fucking eight-foot Christmas tree with a Volkswagen, it's going to run over it.

That's why I talk about the girls with the furniture and off the balcony and everything.

You still have less muscle mass to protect you, less body weight, less thickness.

And, you know, so

what did they say about Bruno San Martino when Hansen lost him on a slam?

If he hadn't had a neck that thick, it might have paralyzed him.

So anyway, we wish Liv Morgan the best.

And then he trimmed down after that, actually.

If you look at him, you know, after that point.

But yeah, I guess that's the sense.

Yes, well, and a lot of times after injuries, in some cases, you have to trim down or as you age athletes, they have to get lighter to carry less weight to put less stress on the joints.

But in some cases, it's a help, in some, it's a hindrance.

But like you said, get well soon.

Liv Morgan, she's been one of the highlights of this show.

Whether she's in a match or whether she's just causing chaos at ringside, she has been, in many cases, single-handedly, the reason these Judgment Day segments work in the back.

I guess she'll still be involved in the show.

She just won't be wrestling, but she's been one of the very best on this show.

So you hate to see this.

But that's, again, you know, it can happen anytime.

Do not ask for whom the bump tolls.

It tolls for thee.

You know, I know you didn't watch it.

The four-way women's match, the return of Asuka.

Stephanie Vacare

is really fucking good.

And again, I don't blame you.

I can't watch these four-way matches either for the most part.

I've told you I've enjoyed the women in WWE a lot more than the men recently.

Tell you what, the next time Stephanie's in a single match and it doesn't go a half an hour, I'll watch it just for you.

I don't know if there'll be a case of that because every match is a match is a four-way or a three-way match.

When was the last time any of these people had one-on-one matches?

I don't know.

But we'll stay on top of that.

Any other raw thoughts?

Well, only that, again, the main event is just, it's going to be Jay and Cody in the semifinals of the King of Rings.

That'll be somewhat interesting just to see what they do.

But it's just Heyman's guys come out and in full view of the referee,

fuck shit up.

And then other people come out and interfere in the match in full view of the referee.

And then Jay ended up winning it after a couple of splashes.

So it's not even a heel fuck, but it just makes the referee look incredibly ignorant when in 80% of the matches, he just has to stand there and watch people do whatever the fuck.

And they wonder why they can't get heat on the heels anymore.

What do you think of the growing criticism of Paula Vec's booking?

I don't know that it's rotten.

I think it's very slow.

I mean, again, all of the personalities are over, and most everybody is being used to the best of their abilities.

We have, I would love to see Gable a little more serious without the mask and blah, blah, blah.

But

the talent seems to be in the right place.

And their stars and the people like them, they're over.

It's just very little is happening these days.

And for the long shows, I'm talking about,

I don't mind having an interview with the top stars.

Why is it, does it have to be as long as the average episode of I Love Lucy?

Etc.

You know, Vince may have hated tag teams, but Paul Leveck hasn't figured out how to book an exciting tag team division because you've got some talent.

I'm not going to say the Motor City machine guns aren't talented,

but by and large, the tag team matches

more than the women's matches.

They've replaced, they've changed roles.

The tag team matches are the quietest matches of the night.

The fans just sit there.

They're not invested in any of the teams.

They're not invested in anyone needing the belts.

You know, again, he doesn't hate it like Vince hated tag team wrestling, but he doesn't know how to book a tag team division either.

Well, you can't have a tag team division that means anything unless some of the main event stars are in some of the tag teams.

So that's the problem there.

Again, you know, guns are a great team,

but they've been presented as the same as all these other dip shits.

in the middle and four ways and three ways and what and everybody's sniping amongst each other and they're in their own little

you know a quarantined world where they don't interact with CM Punk or Drew McIntyre or whatever the fuck, right?

So that's why people don't care.

Well, Jim, that was Raw, and that's what's going on with WWE.

And we'll stay on top of all this.

But of course, someone who watched Raw and expected action, expected main eventers and main event matches, expected anything to happen over three hours besides unexpected injuries, you may want to sue.

Well, I'll tell you what,

you know what you should have done out there, fellow?

What's his name, Chris

Dispensary?

Chris Dispensary.

That's where he has to go now because of all the injuries he suffered.

He shouldn't have been stoned on the job, but also, Chris Dispensary, if you wanted to sue a wrestling company, you should have gone to somebody with experience at it, like this man right here.

Steve and P.

News,

Timews, to be news, to be news, to be news to the

if you need to

see

news, to be news, to the news, to be news, to be new, to be new, sticky news, and outlaw much show for Tuesdays

of the rest.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Stephen P.

New at newlawoffice.com, 87750.

Steve has experience suing that very selfsame wrestling company and others of the same ilk and people of a variety of ilks all over the country.

So if you've got some ilk that you'd like to be sued, then you can go to Stephen P.

New and he will get even for you in a court of law.

Or if it necessitates it, he'll go out in the back parking lot.

And I've seen Steven P.

New pull a slapjack out and just wear it.

Don't have his gourd out.

It will be in the courtroom with no slapjacks or blackjacks or anything.

I'm telling you, he's going to take a slapjack to your gourd and he's going to wear that thing out to your gourd.

Is a slapjack the same as a blackjack?

A slapjack is a blackjack, except all slapjacks don't have to be black, but a blackjack would have to be black.

See,

but I'll tell you what, you taught me.

He will take it to your gourd.

And after he finishes, taking a slapjack to your gourd, he'll take it to your watermelon.

But folks, one way or another, he's going to beat the shit out of some fruit right in front of you until you come up with some money.

And then he's going to turn around, he's going to give it to his clients.

Stephen P.

New, newlawoffice.com, 877-50 Steve.

He can be heard.

In all of the deposition videos of Colin the Weasel Thompson on the Arcadian Vanguard YouTube channel that have been placed there and are continuing to be placed there.

He's cross-examining.

He's very cross on a cross-examination.

Many people are

in slack-jawed wonder at the incredible cross-examining that Stephen P.

New is doing of certain weasels in the legal system.

And you can hear it at Arcadian Vanguard and you can experience it for yourself if you need some sorry son of a bitch got even with in a court of law.

That's right.

From Slapjaw to Slapjack, Steven P.

New, 877-50-STEVE, get even with StephennewLawOffice.com.

Oh, Jim, you know what that tone means?

It means it's.

No, I don't.

Nobody else does either.

Oh, come on.

You know what that means.

It means it's time to move on here.

It sounded like the carousel ran out of fucking battery, is what it sounded like.

But it may not have been what i expected but it was still a tone

well speaking of not what you expected i have an update on something we were talking about earlier prince mongo

i didn't realize prince mongo is still around brian

this was 50 years ago i was talking i was hearing about prince mongo in memphis Apparently, not only is he still around, I've got an article online here from 2022

that not only is Prince Mongo still around, he has been on American Pickers.

He's been one of the characters on American Pickers, apparently.

And

he is still,

it says, and this is from 2022, he's been a fixture in many of the city's and Shelby County's mayoral campaigns for a good four decades.

His real name is Robert Hodges.

But as I mentioned earlier, he was a local.

He does not look the way I expected.

Yeah,

you've Googled him now.

He was a local character who claimed he was from the planet Zambodia, and he ran for mayor of Memphis in 1978.

Apparently,

at that election, he got 20,000 votes, a little under 10%

of the entire haul, which

may have turned the tide of the election in favor of the winner, Bill Morris.

And in 1991,

his candidacy may have helped Willie Harrington become the new mayor of Memphis in similar fashion.

And Harrington is one of the ones that Lawler was running against in a different year, I believe.

But

let's see, just real quick,

he once promised to give everyone an Uzi if he won the election.

He's been known to call for things like public hangings.

Jesus.

He has been known to claim that he is a 300,

he is a 333-year-old alien from the planet Zambodia and has insisted on this in both political campaigns and hearings with the Memphis Alcohol Commission.

He's telling it for, he's been telling this story for quite a while.

It can get elaborate.

He says, I'm here on a mission to save earthlings and I will in due time, he said in 2000.

The earth is self-destructing.

And when the time comes, I'll save a few people and take them with me people don't realize how much i've already saved them from i saved them from the earthquake tornadoes hurricanes i've used my energies to divert those things

uh but apparently he used to run controversial nightclubs in 1984 prince mongo's planet attracted young revelers and constant complaints from nearby residents Its lawsuit-riddled existence received a damning blow in 1992 when tragedy struck and two inebriated teens had a fatal motorcycle crash.

After this and the ensuing multi-million dollar lawsuit, the authorities paid close attention to the club, which folded in 1995, but

he acquired a castle-like structure

named Ashler Hall and turned it into a club known as the Castle.

But he was in seriously hot water with the authorities and neighbors for for underage drinking and various public disruptions, often of the nude variety.

And his neighbors apparently are upset at him.

Of course.

Because he has signature debris in his front yard,

including a bunch of clotheslines with a permanent underwear installation

and traffic cones.

Well, again, without knowing too much about him, he lived in a castle because there's a picture here of his castle from action five news prince mongo's castle yes not his to give away well that was ashler hole that's the nightclub that the second one that he closed down but he he had to turn it over to a businessman because it was in dire state and he didn't really own it and

uh but yeah the the the neighbors also he said

He was not upset that the neighbors were disturbed.

I don't care how they're disturbed.

I'm disturbed that they've ganged up against me.

And the neighbors say they are afraid to come out of their homes.

I have a, depending on what you want, I have some audio potentially.

Well, I, because I've never heard him speak.

So.

Well, I have two things here.

One of them appears to be some kind of television special.

The name of the video is A Visit with Prince Mongo.

Mongo interviewed in the early 1980s.

And then there's another one on Instagram here.

I have it.

That's a video.

The legend of Prince Mongo,

Memphis' most mysterious icon.

And it appears to be on some public access sketch comedy show where everyone's in an outfit, including him.

But I'm guessing with him, it's not like an outfit for the day.

It's just his Mongo outfit.

What do you want to hear?

Well,

either one, because I'm just looking at another description from the daily Memphian.

that this is from April this year.

He's 78 years old now.

He's sometimes been known to appear in court wearing green body paint, wearing goggles and a silver wig, sometimes with a bone or a rubber chicken around his neck.

Oh, they got to bring him in as the father of Mr.

Iguana.

No one alive today has ever seen him wearing shoes.

And so, yeah,

what the fuck?

Yes, no one alive today has ever seen him wearing shoes.

There isn't a man alive who has seen me.

Oh, and posters.

Posters advertising his mayoral races have become collectors' items in homes and pubs.

Oh, let's play some audio.

This is the early 80s television thing.

Let's see what this is.

Memphis, we weren't just told by him.

When Prince Mongo announced Skylab was going to fall in the city, the police believed him and cordoned off some of the streets.

When he ran for mayor, he came in fourth in a field of six.

Many of his fans and followers believe when he visits hospitals, he can heal the sick.

Now some people think Mongo is just a little bit spacey and he agrees.

He claims that he's from outer space, from a planet called Zambodia, which he still calls home.

Zambodian plants.

I just got back from the planet.

I was gone for about six weeks.

We live next door to Prince Mongo and have for the last three months.

Just always very nice.

He's always a gentleman to us.

We'd like to use his pool, but we're afraid that something from outer space might get us.

Prince Mongo's earthly home is located in a really nice section of Memphis.

While some of the neighbors have nice statues to help enhance their lawns and landscaping, the Prince's front yard looks like a permanent garage sale.

It is always piled up with a half a dozen or so old automobiles, one or two of which work.

Well, I think he's the biggest mess I ever was.

But the mess I saw on the outside was nothing compared to some of what I was going to see on the inside.

At the door, I was greeted by one of Prince Mongo's earthling followers, who ushered me in to meet the prince.

Prince Mongo.

Hi, Spirit.

How are you?

My name's John Barber.

Very pleased to meet you.

My pleasure, Spirit.

After greeting me, the prince introduced me to some of his Zambodian in-laws.

This is Funrovia, one of our hands.

He's pointing to literally like skeletons wearing wigs.

These are his in-laws.

Ancestors from the planet.

At the piano is Princess Bianca.

And over here is Genevia.

She likes ducks.

That spirit Nello.

Where's the rest of Nello?

Oh, well, that's the only thing.

She wanted to be here right now.

Breastover is in another place.

She just wanted to come here as a head.

That's all.

Mm-hmm.

Relatives were the only old people.

I want to hear more Mongo, so let me try this other thing real quick and see what this is.

Well, and I'm just getting an update on the castle apparently it was built in the 1800s as a legitimate real

mansion in memphis

yes uh but uh

but then apparently he somehow came by it and ended up having to quit claim it to someone else who's trying to figure out what to do to save the land and property But a contractor they hired pulled apart the roof, stole a significant amount of copper and much of the restaurant equipment from the building and skipped town.

So

apparently

the fire marshal had problems with him over the years.

The neighbors did, et cetera.

Also, the place was going into disrepair, but even Mongo wasn't able to save it by one of his traditional blessings, which apparently

one of the traditional blessings that he gives is that If you come in contact with him, he will toss white flour on you.

I hope hope it's flour.

Let's go to this.

I'm not sure he's going to speak on this thing.

First,

I want to recognize the fact that the greatest hit of all times took place with the thriller.

And if you listen to it closely, you'll hear me in the background.

Does that sound like you?

Success is all that I know.

As far as

the DJ or the oldest disc jockey or whatever he may be at the end of the table,

he may be the oldest, but he is by far the worst.

Let me stop it here for a moment.

He's from Memphis, so you never know.

He may have watched a lot of Sputnik Monroe in 1959.

But if he didn't,

is it impressive to you when people in the real world come up with their own gimmicks and they're not wrestling fans?

Well, and he sounds a little like Dr.

John, the night tripper, doesn't he?

He's like a little New Orleans vibe going on there.

He's got a whole gimmick.

And Zambodia, by the way, is nine light years from Earth, just if anybody's planning a trip.

He did not look the way, or he does not look the way I expected now or then.

In the 80s,

he just appeared like a drunk frat boy or something wearing like a costume.

Now he looks like a white George Clinton.

Yeah, he's got a weird thing going on.

And the neighborhood he lived in in this video, it was like Lawler's old neighborhood.

It's a nice neighborhood.

And then all of a sudden, and I know because they showed the house on videos for anyone wondering how I would know that.

But then they would go to his house and it's just a junkie.

All right, well, this has been the Prince Mongo section.

We'll see what more we can find out about a sudden fascination here on the show.

But, Jim, let's get some questions before we get out of here and get some songs.

Yes.

Let me find some questions.

Here are questions.

Questions.

These were sent to Corney Drive-Thru at gmail.com from a variety of folks.

Let's go to this.

This question was sent.

This is a, I guess this is a tragic one,

but I committed to it.

This was sent.

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Now, what is this?

A dead dog dedication from Casey Kasim?

This was sent to CorneyDrivethrough at gmail.com from Mike in Richmond, Virginia.

You have,

I see, I didn't think it was going to go in the direction it did.

I saw the first thing.

I said, oh, let's see what this is.

You have frequently commented how Eric Bischoff

had a striking resemblance to a television personality,

John Davidson.

Yes.

During the Monday Night Wars.

A tragic incident occurred at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate.

Jesus Christ, the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire.

How does that tie into

God?

A tragic incident occurred at the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, May 28th, 1977.

No shit.

There was a catastrophic fire that evening that killed 165 people, injured over 200.

What is interesting, the lead act that evening was indeed the aforementioned John Davidson.

My question for Jim, who is a proud Kentuckian, what are your memories of the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire?

Thank you for taking my question.

No,

as soon as you said the Beverly Hills Supper Club, I'm like, wait, what?

The Beverly hills supper club was this fancy

you know like dinner remember when it was all the rage and they still have one here in louisville in the in the area clarksville indiana derby dinner playhouse but like you see dinner and a play

and it's the you know bob crane was doing that kind of thing when he was murdered

he was doing a different thing on camera when he was murdered but yeah well when he was murdered yeah but but he was appearing in those type of things dinner theater and the Beverly Hills Supper Club, and it was a fancy swank place and people dressed up and it was expensive.

And it sit

on a side.

They just said, what was the suburb of Cincinnati?

What town is here?

Southgate, Kentucky.

Southgate, which is northern Kentucky is right across the river from Cincinnati.

And I've talked about Aunt Lola.

When I was a kid and my mom would take me up to visit Aunt Lola and Uncle Tommy, they liked to go fishing.

My mom liked fishing.

We would go fishing at a lake near there and we would drive past the Beverly Hills Supper Club.

I can see the sign

in my mind today.

And

as I said, you know, what you heard by the report, there were hundreds of people in this thing.

And it caught fire and burned and was horrible and led to

reformation of the fire laws and the public fire marshal statutes and this and just lawsuits out the yin yang

and i remember driving past the the goddamn place after it burned when it was just burned as

and i had no idea that john davidson was there that night i don't are we blaming him

For was, you know, was he in some way culpable in this?

That was somehow how this listener pulled the whole story.

I thought it was was a Bischoff question.

And then yeah, but

I actually saw the place before and after, before it burned and after it burned.

And it was huge news and a big deal.

And if you look it up today again, it was, I don't know how long it, how many years it took him to resolve all the

shit that went on and the lawsuits and everything.

All right.

Well, that was a.

Well, there was that, but at least Bischoff was nowhere around.

He wasn't even there.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with Eric Bischoff at all.

All right.

Well, that was the John Davidson question.

Jim, let's get another one here.

This one was sent to QuintyDriveThru at gmail.com from

no name attached.

WWF took over in the 1980s, arguably reusing their same program that they had for decades of the babyface champion.

and the revolving door of heels.

Hogan had the very best heels in the business to work with, and that had no small part in his success from Piper to Orndorf to Bossman to DiBiase to Savage.

However, the more I watch the older territories, the more I conclude that Jerry Lawler was arguably a better heel than any of them, which leads to my question.

How successful do you think it would have been if Jerry Lawler, and it says and Jimmy, I'm assuming he means Jimmy Hart, and Jimmy Hart showed up together as a new evil duo to destroy Hulkamania and the WWF in the 1980s?

Oh, good lord.

Would Jerry have gotten over as a genuine top heel?

Would he be more successful than either Piper or Savage in that role?

Do you think he would have failed?

Thank you for answering my questions.

I'm 25 and still learning the more extended extended history of the business.

The answer is there's a lot of things going on with that question.

Right off the bat, yes, Lawler was a better heel than a lot of those guys in terms of being

a ring general, calling a match.

Nick Bockwinkle said Jerry Lawler was the best ring general he'd ever worked with.

He was better as a promo,

getting you interested, making you believe, getting heat as a heel verbally, whatever.

But

no, it wouldn't have worked because

the style of the territory and the Hogan push, the heels had to be bigger, for one thing, than Lawler.

DiBiase was an exception.

His work was tremendous, but also he had,

you know, Virgil and et cetera, and a lot of things in the gimmick that Vince came up with personally.

But

without Lawler's

Genesis having come, the people in Memphis saw him

graduate from tag team heel to single heel to defeating Fargo and becoming the guy to drawing big houses for several years and facing NWA world champions.

You couldn't have just brought Lawler in 1984 into the WWF,

especially the way Vince did things, and just push him for two or three weeks and people would have bought him against Hogan or even two or three months.

It was a completely different style in the ring.

It was a completely different presentation.

That's what Hogan always wanted, and Vince always wanted for him, the Bundies

and the Bossmans.

and the giants and the,

you know, Savage, again, wasn't the biggest guy in the world, but look at that body and he was intense.

So it was just two completely different things by the same token that,

to be honest, Hogan wouldn't have worked in Memphis, even 1984 Hulk Hogan, on a steady basis because

it was too one-dimensional.

He didn't get the juice and do the wild angles and do the things you need to do to keep people coming back every fucking week in the same building.

It was seeing the superhero cartoon character in your big building once a month, if that.

Just

because of a variety of things, the presentations, the styles, and the

Lawler got over better

in the WWF in 1993, 94, working with Bret Hart.

Because then they were in the same size.

And with Lawler having had time to get over and get some heat as an announcer, people were more familiar with him, but he was just still

at that point in time.

Lawler was, what, 45?

So he was still able to do physically in the ring a lot of what he had done in his younger days.

But he could still, you know, he could work with a guy like Brett because they were

a similar build and size and et cetera.

Does that make enough sense, Brian, have I explained that in any way halfway near coherent fashion?

It's two different things in two different times, two different places, two different eras with different presentations.

Well, you know, that's the interesting thing.

When Lawler came in 92, 93, 93 is when he became a real performer other than hosting primetime.

The heel he was with Bret Hart was different than the heel he was for anything else he did in the company because he got really kind of goofy and embraced it.

You know, all the stuff with Doink and whatever else.

Yeah.

Kiss my foot match, all that shit.

But the Brett feud was really good, but that was still a more silly

cartoon version of the King Jerry Lawler.

Like there was like the King Jerry Lawler in Memphis, there was a real guy, Jerry Lawler.

Yeah.

And he's the King Jerry Lawler.

Here it was just the character.

Vince liked his one-liners on Brett or on Stu and Helen.

But if we're talking about just using Jimmy Hart, because his name was thrown in there, when Jimmy Hart came in right right before WrestleMania, so we're talking the spring or the end of winter, 1985,

Jerry Lawler at that point,

what would he have been there?

And again, it's a different kind of promo.

It's not a live studio setting.

Not that Lawler couldn't do it.

I'm just saying, in terms of getting yourself over as a newcomer, it's a different thing talking to Mean Gene or Ken Resnick or...

Eventually just standing there by yourself in front of an image of your logo.

It was so weird watching Terry Taylor like,

will do while standing in front of a giant thing that says the red rooster.

No one's holding a mic there.

It's just like, all right, I got something to say.

But anyway, Lawler then in 85.

Well, that, and that's, that's the thing also is that

at that time period,

if you had Lawler come in and try to start cutting the promos that he was capable of, it couldn't be really just that canned stuff that you mentioned,

but also

he would have had to have

the by the very nature of Lawler as a heel, he's got to

have the babyface off balance.

He's got to get heat on the fucking guy.

Hogan wasn't selling that big for anybody, except every great once in a while if Bundy splashed him.

If it had been Memphis and Lawler was the heel and Hogan was the babyface, Lawler would have been fucking on him every goddamn week.

Because you build the heat, you build the personal issue, and finally you make the people pay to see the babyface triumph.

Vince's whole from his father, his whole philosophy was the complete opposite of that.

You establish your babyface superhero and you rotate the heels through and nobody really ever gets one over on the babyface.

They get a little peck here and there, but he almost always wins until he really wins.

Whereas in Tennessee, the babyface didn't win until he goddamn really won.

I don't see Lawler out there doing angles where he's pile driving Hogan every fucking week.

It just, you know, no, it was completely different presentations.

And like you said,

the Lawler with Bret Hart was a little bit more like the Memphis Lawler, but as by that point, he's in his mid-40s.

He knows Lawler, Vince likes the

one-liners and everything.

He's going to do that.

He's not going to be

the 1979, 80, 81 lawler that's taking these ginormous bumps and bleeding and getting everybody fucking over.

All right.

Well, that answers that question.

Let's get another one here, Jim.

This one was sent to CourtneyDriveThru at gmail.com from Jack.

Big fan of the show.

With that being said, Jim, if you had to pick a favorite match or event from your time and ring of honor, what would it be?

Oh, um,

well, I mean, I would think a while for favorite event that may have been,

you know, of my time in Ring of Honor, may have been something that we did in New York while we were visiting.

I don't know, but

I would have to say my favorite Ring of Honor, I had two favorite Ring of Honor matches, and they both happened the same night.

We did that show in Toronto, and the same night that Davey Richards had a Ring of Honor World title match with Tyler Black.

The tag team title match underneath was the Briscoes versus Chris Hero and Claudio, the Kings of Wrestling, in a street fight rules match.

And

Davey and the future Seth Franklin Rollins had what I thought was the state-of-the-art,

modern indie wrestling style match where they just beat the piss out of each other, but in an athletic way.

And the Briscoes and the Kings had a

heck of a tag team street fight, even with a fire extinguisher spot and tying one of the baby faces by his neck to the ring post and all that other shit that I actually walked through with him before the

show and they did wonderfully.

And that was my favorite two matches, I think.

There was another one with the Briscoes and

Rhett Titus and that lion sack of shit, Kenny King, where it was one of the Briscoes in Atlanta at center stage.

One of the Briscoes and Rhett Titus were both bleeding and had a fucking hell of a one-two exchange, and the people were going crazy.

That one was a good match, despite Kenny King being in it.

And several of the New York title matches I thought were very good, also, but those are off the top of my head, some of my favorites.

Chairman Howard, next question, sent to Corney DriveThru at gmail.com from JC in in San Francisco

gimmick infringement just listened to the last drive-through segment where you mentioned you'd be a journalist if wrestling hadn't panned out knowing your interest in photography did you know longtime courier journal photographer bill luster

he recently passed away

got the chance to meet him at a workshop in the early 2000s he was a very nice man and a legend in the photojournalism world

also

speaking as a full-time journalist for the past 25 years, you made the right choice finding employment elsewhere.

I guess the second question here, but do you know who Bill Luster is?

Well, actually, no, I hate to hear that he died.

I didn't even know he was sick.

But no, honestly, because

see, the thing is, think about our various ages.

I assume I am a little bit older than

the writer here.

And I don't know who anybody is worked for the Courier Journal over the last several decades are, but when I was a kid, I used to know all the columnists by their names and knew some of them actually from meeting them when I was a child or whatever.

But I'm trying to remember

they had an aerial photographer for the Courier Journal in the 1950s, and it was not that gentleman.

But I have a picture of Castle Cornette here,

right as construction was almost finished from about 1956 that my dad had taken from the photographer, the aerial photographer in the helicopter and blown up.

And we've had it on the wall, but I can't remember the daggum guy's name.

God dang it.

And he did a lot of famous photography in the 50s for the courier, but

can't remember his name.

Another question here from JC in San Francisco.

As for my wrestling question.

What happened to the Warlords push in 1986 Crockett?

I remember he got baby dolls as manager and was getting pushed in squash matches.

The last I saw of him was a match versus the Midnight Express, where he kind of manhandled both Dennis and Bobby before Bubba knocked him out with a roll of quarters.

Yes.

That was the last time I remember seeing him.

Did Dusty just lose interest in having yet another Road Warrior look alike?

Thanks as always.

No, it was actually the other way around.

He wanted to help him.

See, when Warlord came in in 1986, he was like six foot three and 325 pounds, solid granite.

I mean, you could not,

you could lay your hands on him like if you were in a match or whatever, and you couldn't feel any fat whatsoever anywhere.

And

so he was just, he was a beast.

But he was only 21 years old.

And he was another guy from Minnesota that they, you know, they had,

if I remember, Al Blake, Vladimir Pietrov, and T.

Joe Khan, came all the bodybuilders from Minnesota.

But the thing was, he was so green, and it wasn't his fault.

He had just started.

And

I had the thing going with Baby Doll.

I had Bubba when Warlord came in with her.

We had a deal one night in Greenville, South Carolina, where I was working a little five-minute match or whatever with Baby Doll.

And I rolled out of the ring.

And Warlord is supposed to pick me up and like roll me back in

he put his hands underneath my arms and just picked me up bodily off the ground with his hand arms straight out in front of him and i weighed 220 then at that point it was like just picking up a goddamn kitten

and

so it i can't remember exactly when a decision was made but didn't they not

send him to Kansas City when when Crockett bought Kansas City, I don't know for sure sure they sent him to Florida, but I'm almost positive

they sent him to Kansas City

because they wanted him to get more experience

outside of the spotlight of the main crew in Charlotte.

You've got the horsemen and the rock and roll and all the great workers.

So that was a place where he could get a little bit more experience.

And that's what he did with Bubba later on.

Also, Dusty was sent him to these places.

And then Warlord eventually was back with Barbarian as a team in the first part of 1988,

the powers of pain,

and they were being pushed until Destiny wanted them to have that scaffold match with the Road Warriors.

And they said, well, fuck.

It's worth 300 pounds apiece.

We're not dropping 25 feet off that scaffold.

And they gave notice and went to the WWF to work with.

Then they go up for demolition, right?

Which they left the Road Warriors one side and went to work with Demolition on the other side.

And it was a weird run because they brought him in as babyfaces and then eventually managed by a babyface Baron, Baron von Raschke, as a hoodie manager running out to the ring with them.

He had no history at the company.

All of a sudden, he was doing this.

And it didn't really work.

Like at times, they kind of got a pop, but it wasn't really clicking.

And then they did a double turn.

And Mr.

Fuji, the heel manager of Demolition at the Survivor Series in 88, turned on Demolition to embrace the powers of pain.

And then demolition began their babyface run.

And

there are very few tag teams as over as demolition were from like the beginning of 89 through WrestleMania 6.

And then they brought the Rogue Warriors in and turned Demolition heel too early.

Think about this with the, especially with the more

the bigger percentage of an audience, of the audience of WWF being kids rather than Crockett.

Were those Warlord and Barbarian sympathetic-looking baby faces that the kids would like?

Those two ugly fuckers.

The warlord is one of the more like

a wall people I've ever seen in Russia, just gigantic and thick.

You know, recently I saw some footage of him.

I guess it would have been 86 for Crockett with baby doll.

I think it was 86.

And I never thought this before, but now I guess because of how old I am, I was like, man, he was young.

Like, I never saw him as a young person.

When I was a kid, kid, I just saw like, he's this giant.

He looks like he's out of fucking Game of Thrones.

He doesn't look good.

No, he's younger than me.

When I was working with him in 86, I had just turned 25

or was just turning 25 and he was still 21 years old.

But look, he was just a mountain.

And that's another thing they said, well, he weighed 325 and was built like that when he was 21, 22 years old.

They said when he graduated high school, when he was 18, he weighed 185 pounds.

That's crazy.

Help me.

That's crazy.

Help me.

And he's still acting because every now and then you see photos of like him and the barbarian at a convention and they're just like, you know, dressed normally, but they have the face paint on.

Yeah.

They got that look.

No, and Terry, he's a great guy.

Barb too.

I love both those guys.

I saw him on a show right before I quit doing shows, and

they were just happy as clams.

See, Demolition may have been influenced by the Rode Warriors, but Powers of Pain were, in my eyes, clearly, clearly, hey, let's pretend we have the Road Warriors.

Because they look so much like the Road Warriors.

Even if you look at the gear, the gear was the same.

All right, well, let's get one more question, Jim.

That was the Warlord and Bill Luster.

And this show is losing its luster by the second.

Our final question will go off topic for this one.

This was sent.

to corney drivethrough at gmail.com.

Of course, I just dropped this.

I'm dropping all sorts of shit.

Fucking.

All right.

This question, Jim, was sent to CourtneyDriveThru at gmail.com.

Yes.

From Casey in Toronto.

Hello from Toronto.

And thank you for your wonderful weekly episodes.

We do two of them a week.

So which one of them don't you like?

My boyfriend John is a longtime fan of you and your work.

and recently got me hooked on your podcasts.

While we both work in sports, soccer, to be specific.

I don't know why that got.

While we both work in sports, soccer to be specific,

he'd attended wrestling shows since before I was even born in 1988, and even wrote a book.

Wait a minute, was he some kind of cradle robber here?

What the hell?

And even wrote a book called The Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time in 2002.

Dark Side of the Ring is basically date night.

And we also enjoy rewatches of the separate eras he and I would have been watching the most growing up.

Dark Side of the Ring is a date night, and we really enjoy watching cats be beheaded.

As mutual fans of Wendy's and their cheeseburgers, we were curious, which Frosty do you prefer?

Chocolate?

or vanilla.

John was shocked to learn that there was even a second option for the famous Frosty to go with burgers.

While my nearby Wendy's locations have advertised two plus seasonal flavors like strawberry and raspberry for quite some time, this got us curious about your Wendy's preferences beyond the burgers.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for reading, and I can't wait to hear your reaction.

Well, it ain't going to be that big.

No,

originally, they only had the chocolate frosty.

And I would have, if I was dining in at a Wendy's, I would often have a chocolate frosty.

But if you're taking it to go either to eat in a hotel room or to eat in a car, you can't do the frosty, especially if you're driving.

Because there's too much going on there.

It's going to get everywhere.

I've heard.

Use a straw.

What?

Use a straw.

What do you mean?

There's too much going on.

It's going to get everywhere.

You can't suck a frosty with a straw.

They're too thick.

You'll cave the top of your head in.

Give it a few minutes.

You don't have to go right away.

No, then, no, then, then, if you if you wait until the frosty melts, then it's really just fucking chocolate milk and it's weaker than cat's piss.

You need the, because it's not really a chocolate milkshake per se, it's a frosty.

So, it's either

just weak ass chocolate milk when it's melted, or it's too thick to suck through a straw.

So, you have to eat it with a spoon.

Hence, why is why you don't do it in the goddamn car?

so and and and honestly i've i've not even had a vanilla one because i've seen that they've had that option but since i haven't been doing as much fast food over the last several years that i normally did and

as we've mentioned so many times wendy's so disappointed me when they changed all their

menus and methods of preparation and things turned to shit

that uh that now it's nah yeah but i'll tell you what they they ought to bring back if they were going to bring something back is the hot apple turnover.

Where oh, where has the, they haven't had the hot apple turnover since the early 90s.

How about the grilled chicken sandwich?

Something for us who just want a grilled chicken sandwich.

That was delicious.

Well, if you want your fucking grilled chicken sandwich, then go to a goddamn place that grills chicken.

What the fuck?

That's like a low-fat Twinkie.

If you want a healthy option at Wendy's, you've gone to the wrong place to begin with.

Seriously?

I mean,

it's the healthiest of the options there.

I'm going to go and eat at Wendy's, but I want to be healthy.

The kids all want Wendy's.

What can I get?

Because I'm starving that isn't healthy.

A goddamn cheeseburger like a rolled chicken sandwich tastes good.

It tasted really good.

It had like arugula or some shit on it.

Arugula?

That's something on, I don't know.

It was good.

And then a sauce.

Wendy's really has gone to hell if they're stocking arugula in the thing.

Maybe it wasn't arugula, but they got rid of it either way.

Well,

either spicy or classic that's your choices but they're they're they're fried is what they are

and their chili is is again very thin and disappointing compared to what it should be but you know what isn't as thin as it used to be the burgers now they're those

completely square artificial looking things that are goddamn when you get a triple they don't smash them as many times as they used to see you get a triple you can't hardly open your mouth up to get around it but they're only half of the area size they used to be because they used to have irregular edges and little crispy bits when they were smashed on the grill.

But now it's just a goddamn prearranged patty set down there and heated in some mystery fashion.

I'm, I'm, and don't even get me started on when they change the pickles.

But also, the fries suck.

Fuck your fucking sea salt and your goddamn,

and some of the peel is still on them.

Yeah, that's a tastes like yeah it tastes like some of the dirt they were buried in is still on them too

all right we want we want the good big thick golden brown non-peeled nice and salty crispy fries you used to have 20

years ago

assholes i guess there's a reason they changed it i obviously and they took out the tiffany lamps out of the dining rooms they had in the 70s

the wendy's old-fashioned it tasted better when you were sitting at a table with old-fashioned newspaper covering the table and you had tiffany lamps you felt like you were you were a goddamn snazzy place you were it was it was society with tiffany lamps i never knew

i never knew that version of wendy's you're blowing my mind i didn't know they had oh no

they had uh they had the carpeting and they had the the the old-fashioned Tiffany lamps over the tables so that it looked like an old-fashioned kind of billiard parlor type of thing and brass rails.

And it was Wendy's old-fashioned hamburgers.

And you were stepping back in time to the Waldorf Area.

Now you're some goddamn holding cell in the hood when you walk in.

It's just, it's sterile and all clean and modern.

Well, I say it's clean and modern.

They don't clean the places anymore.

There's no decorations.

That's the way it's clean.

But there's a bunch of goddamn ketchup packets and fucking napkins laying everywhere on the floor because people are pigs these days.

You used to go into Wendy's and have a good goddamn dining experience.

And if you did take it out, well, when you took it down and you looked at the bottom of the bag, there was grease coming through the bottom of the bag.

So you knew you were in for good eating.

Now it's the dry, you got to eat it in the fucking rain.

Wendy should do that.

It would actually probably make money if they opened like a few select locations as the original store with the original location.

Go back and Google what they used to look like before they all went to shit.

Wendy's 1970s.

I'm telling you,

it was an event to go to a place like that.

See, we didn't get a Wendy's out by me in Long Beach until like the mid-90s.

Oh, good heavens.

Good heavens.

Okay,

yeah, yeah.

See there?

And the best Wendy's that existed in the United States of america was in middlesboro kentucky right on the

state line of tennessee as we would go up highway 23 on the way to our eastern kentucky shows that i look forward to it i starved myself to train for it every time i drove by that wendy's i was going to they even

they went against corporate

And at one time, they had those big, what do they call them?

The big buns?

The big fluffy buns like you have to get from a bakery.

There's a special term for those buns.

What is it?

How cross buns?

No, no, no.

But anyway, they were very, they were almost not a sourdough.

But they had extra juiced up special fluffy buns that they toasted carefully at that location that you didn't get at any other Wendy's.

And the order was always perfect.

And it was always hot and juicy.

And the fries were always fresh.

But nowhere else, Chicago couldn't do it.

Columbus, Ohio couldn't even do it.

But goddamn Middlesbrough, Kentucky could do it.

Apparently, according to this, the very first location, Columbus, Ohio, that's where the very first Wendy's was.

It closed there in 2007.

But

the flagship store is in Dublin, Ohio.

And if you go there, there is a museum.

A museum dining room, which looks like the classic dining room.

It's right next to the modern dining room.

You know, if Bobby Davis was still around, he would be ashamed at the way they've changed their menu and their preparation

MOs and everything.

You know, not that it's the same thing.

And again, McDonald's is McDonald's.

But my kids wanted me to take them to McDonald's, like sometime within the last year we went.

It must have been, it must have been like last summer because it was nice out, I remember.

And it was just, it was, you know, again, it's not Tiffany Lamps or anything, but it used to at least kind of be fun.

Again, I was a kid, but still just, it looks so sterile now.

It just

they have the playroom next to it, the playground and all that stuff.

And color and just characters.

And now it's just everything is bland.

It's like walking into bland.

All right.

Well, let's end with you guys.

Yeah.

Talking about frosties.

Bland.

Frosties.

What about your thoughts on vanilla milkshakes?

A vanilla milkshake.

I mean, you could drink it, but there needs to be some flavor.

I'm more of a strawberry person because chocolate gives me a little bit of the heartburn.

Hence, I said vanilla.

I like strawberry, but there's really nothing there to the vanilla and a shake.

I like vanilla ice cream, but I like to put a little Hershey syrup on top of it.

You got to balance these things out.

Why can't black and white live together peacefully?

Well, again,

they can.

Wendy's now has vanilla and chocolate, although you ran down every single other thing on their menu.

It's just a matter of time before you try one of those.

Jim, let's get out of here.

Let's hold on.

Actually, I do this after the songs.

Let's get a song or two.

And we've got some submissions.

Like we said, if you guys want songs, send in songs.

Make sure they're not AI.

Make sure they're about the show or something we talk about, not just like, hey, here's my song about how much I love the killer bees.

Like, that's not what this is.

CorneyDriveThru at gmail.com.

By the way, no one has ever sent in a song about how much they love the killer bees, but let's go to a song here from someone who has sent in a song before.

This is sent to corny drivethrough at gmail.com from Anthony Del Cello.

No, it's not wrong, but I must know

how can Corny and Brian

watch wrestling?

That's so bad.

Oh, you take the corn, you take the brand.

Get your feet up and eat a cheeseburger.

And don't watch dynamite.

Take out lots of old Memphis foods that love to you.

Stuff that you love and that loves you.

I gotta just stop this for a moment.

Is any of those words rhyming at all, or is it just the way he's pronouncing them?

Are you familiar at all with the Smiths?

Well, they used to live down the street, but they moved.

Do you know Morrissey?

Yeah, he was a cat that didn't like the chicken of the sea.

Or did he like it?

I can't remember.

You may be slightly not following along because if you don't know the Smiths or Morrissey, you don't know what he's doing.

This is Sheila take a bow and it's him doing a British accent

because that's not the way he sounded in his previous songs.

But

all right.

Jim couldn't understand any of the words, and even I was having a rough time.

Thank you, Anthony.

Please send in more.

You have wanted to send in good stuff.

Just keep doing it.

Yeah.

Sooner or later, you'll get it right.

No, he's gotten it right before.

Try your real accent.

Let's get this one.

This was sent to corny drivethrough at gmail.com from Matt Corlock,

Tampa, Florida.

I'm a recent graduate from the University of South Florida School of Music, and I'm about about to go get my master's degree in percussion performance.

That just means I'm a drummer at Florida State University.

Brian, your theme song consistently cracks me up and is the finest way to open the drive-thru that I could imagine.

I wanted to create a version that does some justice to your undeniable performance.

Oh, good lord.

While also highlighting some of your finest commentary.

on our favorite Winnipegian MAGA nut.

I hope you both enjoy it.

Jim, I hope the organ doesn't drive you to tears.

Thank you so much for everything you both do.

Let's go to this now.

Look at the confidence one gets from a special relationship with Mega and a contract guaranteed by Tony's dad.

You have star power, but a track record of the worst ideas, and taking care of only yourself.

And he knows that's the fucking truth.

Well, there it is.

That was it?

Oh, no.

Yes.

Hey, yeah,

that was it.

And this man went to music school, so give him some credit here.

That was Matt Korlock.

Thank you very much, Matt.

It's an honor to have my song,

have it covered by others.

I'll make sure that the publishers get in touch with you.

Jim, let's get one more song and get the hell out of here.

This one, let's move over here because we used it.

This one, we will do the same uh this one

all right this guy has a hit and miss track record let's go to this this is from stefan in auburn main

well now you've just buried him in front of all the people he's got a hit and miss record i could be wrong but i think he's the guy we've cut off songs the most have just been like what the is going on now

It's all come full circle with myself and dear Cody, another road traveled, another indifferent crowd, and hopefully another solid potential for a heel song.

All right, I don't know what's going on here.

He sent two songs: Dumb Dumb, the Better Song,

Mocking Roads Again.

Let's go to Dumb Dumb because he said that's the better song.

Let's go to this.

We played that before.

Let's go to this one.

And we cut that one off because that was him covering Weezer.

I remember that.

And then when they rang the bell, the longer it went, the more it became became

hoke hogan and the rock in toronto

mocking roads again

decide to lay in their mocking roads again

the wife they loathe to are in oblivion

it's not too late now mocking roads again

Mocking roads again

Though a face with title to defend

hear them sing his theme yet afterwards his meh i can't blame fans for mocking roads again

mocking roads back when

in the land of misfitors and own to cosplay

it was a bitter end

the fickle sickos turn cody's plans sideways

on better highways

they're mocking roads again

The universe has joined the unison.

The wife below, the two are in oblivion.

So join the frame, we'll all mock roads again.

Yeah, by the way, I'm going to disagree with you on Cody being the top babyface in the company.

Cody's a heel.

It's been subtle.

And you can tell they're teasing an eventual complete Cody turn.

But go watch the last several weeks.

Watch everything with Cody.

Cody's a heel, pretending to be a babyface for the time being.

Cody is a complete heel, in my eyes.

All right, well, then, at least, then if he turns, then we'll know one or the other.

Because right now, it's a fucking mystery, like everybody else in this company.

Who's a heel and who's a babyface?

They don't even know.

Mocking roads again

in the land of misfit toys and only cosplay

was a bitter end.

The fickle sickles turn Cordius plants sideways They're on the better highways

Yet they're mocking roads again

Slight delay and they're mocking roads again

The wife they loathe the two are in oblivion

It's not too late, we're mocking roads again

Because it's not too late, we're mocking roads again

Because it's not too late and we're mocking roads again.

It just

didn't get there, dog.

They should have had Brandyl and like spear Travis Scott.

That would have got the biggest pop of the night.

For real, I think she could take him.

Brandy?

She's tall.

She definitely can take him.

All right.

Well, there it is.

Well, there you go.

I like that last note he hit there on the singing there.

Yeah, it reminded me of you.

a little bit of jim cornette singing uh like mussolani there we can all aspire to that well there it is that was uh stefan in auburn main we got a note here from a willie nelson that says please stop but that was stefan in auburn main and with that ladies and gentlemen the drive-through is closed

All right.

Magically, we will return in a few days on the Jim Cornette Experience, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

One of these shows, and it was going to be today, but we did a lot of stuff.

We're going to start the WWE roster review, so stay tuned.

Of course, the Jim Cornette Experience of next week, right here on the drive-thru, go through the archive, patreon.com slash cornet, $5 a month.

Get you access to the archive going back to 2013, patreon.com slash cornet.

The official Jim Cornette YouTube channel, just go to YouTube, search for Jim Cornette.

It'll come right up.

Full episodes, episodes, clips of the episodes, omnibus collections, all with the very popular Travis Eckle artwork, the official Jim Cornette YouTube channel.

Cornettes Collectibles at JimCornet.com.

What's going on, Jim?

I just wanted to say thank you again to everybody who sent condolences for Hotchkiss Featherbottom and his family about his mother passing away.

It's now been about a week and a half, and he is coming back to work.

getting back in the swing of things.

And we're going to be starting to fill orders again on the weekend this coming weekend, what, the the 21st, 22nd, etc., at jimcornet.com.

So, start buying stuff again.

We're back in action.

That's right at jimcornet.com.

Of course, listen to the wrestling news each and every day, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

No clickbait, no paywall.

Get your wrestling news without opinion from the wrestling news, the wrestlingnews.com, wherever you find your favorite podcast.

The drive-thru is brought to you by the law office of Stephen P.

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Get even with Stephen at newlawoffice.com.

Listen to the experience for cast media updates.

More to come.

Again, 877-50 Steve.

But until the experience in a few days and next week, back here in a drive-through for Jim Cornette, I'm the great Brian Last.

Tally-ho!