Ep. 416: WWF Germany European Rampage Again (4.14.1992) Part 1

<v Speaker 1>It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
<v Speaker 1>S e O and JP sorrows He's a lapsed fan.
<v Speaker 1>In all my years and wrestling, I've never seen anything like.
<v Speaker 2>Rop kicking.
<v Speaker 3>It's the laps Fan man number one in the ring
<v Speaker 3>begin about.
<v Speaker 2>Osada, a real king of swing when the bell.
<v Speaker 3>Goes hang and a kick like me throming in the
<v Speaker 3>corner with its rash like stick. Even Jerry King can
<v Speaker 3>say off the crown nodded in his head like Steve
<v Speaker 3>low Brown?
<v Speaker 2>Would you get low down for me? Go even high up?
<v Speaker 2>Trip you on your head? But you no cool drivel?
<v Speaker 3>You speaking monology and dragon slits fire if you more
<v Speaker 3>shot than the edge retires dropping more truth than the
<v Speaker 3>conn of sniper, unless you would a coconut Roddy Piper out,
<v Speaker 3>Jack and JP. You a j wat d drop a
<v Speaker 3>cupcakes and got the brain Bob Beans The best podcast
<v Speaker 3>from start the close file of your Benefits Fassiket polls.
<v Speaker 4>You know there's lapsed fans and then there's lapsed fans.
<v Speaker 4>That's what I've been told all corners of the globe
<v Speaker 4>Decade of destruction. We've been relentlessly casting. We've been relentlessly
<v Speaker 4>telling you what you need and leaving.
<v Speaker 2>It at that. No further debate necessary. There never is.
<v Speaker 4>But there are some folks out there who take it
<v Speaker 4>a step further. There are some folks who get into
<v Speaker 4>the kitchen themselves.
<v Speaker 2>And cook up hot dishes for your.
<v Speaker 4>Co chairs of hot dish because no matter how hard
<v Speaker 4>we dig, we're English speakers at the end of the day,
<v Speaker 4>and that's right. It's hard for us to give the
<v Speaker 4>lapse treatment to wrestling that might not have been presented
<v Speaker 4>originally in English.
<v Speaker 2>For that, you know, we're only human.
<v Speaker 4>After all, we're only human, and we acknowledge that. And
<v Speaker 4>Ben decided, okay, Ben in Germany decided that he was.
<v Speaker 2>Going to take up the cause that he was going
<v Speaker 2>to give, not just take from this. That's a left monstress,
<v Speaker 2>that's what that's what real men do.
<v Speaker 4>I would agree with that. And what's he going to
<v Speaker 4>give not a pain in the ass. He's going to
<v Speaker 4>give a shot in the ass. Because as much as
<v Speaker 4>we reflect upon nineteen ninety two WWF or nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 4>one has bro era WWF klubra wcw yes as containing
<v Speaker 4>kind of that that perfect synergy, that perfect alchemy of
<v Speaker 4>what wrestling can be even if it wasn't their peak
<v Speaker 4>business years from a presentation and a fan psychology standpoint,
<v Speaker 4>and a merchandising standpoint, all the things that give you
<v Speaker 4>warm memories about pro wrestling.
<v Speaker 2>It's there.
<v Speaker 4>But it wasn't just exclusive to the United States or
<v Speaker 4>Canada or English speaking markets. Ben remembers a nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 4>two WWF event that was catered specifically to his nation
<v Speaker 4>of Germany. When he thinks back to the time period
<v Speaker 4>of when it used to be better Boss, he thinks
<v Speaker 4>about WWF European Rampa again. Absolutely, what you know about it, well,
<v Speaker 4>unless you speak German. Well we do know a little
<v Speaker 4>bit about it because we did do a show from
<v Speaker 4>Sheffield from this tour. From the tour, yes, not from Germany.
<v Speaker 4>We're talking about what do you know about what it
<v Speaker 4>meant to be a German WWF fan? Nothing, the Golden
<v Speaker 4>a nothing.
<v Speaker 2>You want to know something funny too, So so I
<v Speaker 2>actually even went back into the book, the book, the
<v Speaker 2>ww Wrestling Official Book, and they list a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>different countries. They never mentioned Germany.
<v Speaker 4>Wow, and this was a huge event. Oh yeah, this
<v Speaker 4>is basically what a week after Wrestlmingia aid at the
<v Speaker 4>Hoosher Dome. Yep, this is Randy Savage versus Shawn Michaels
<v Speaker 4>for the WWF Championship.
<v Speaker 2>Do you want to respond to that money?
<v Speaker 4>Versus the thirteen thousand strong in Munich? This is the
<v Speaker 4>WWFS made in big time voyage to Germany. They had
<v Speaker 4>done a show as we'll get into a day or
<v Speaker 4>two before this, but this is the one that if
<v Speaker 4>you were a ww fan in Germany in nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 4>this was almost live on German television, unbelievable. And this
<v Speaker 4>is where it all happens. As far as Germany having
<v Speaker 4>a love affair with Brett Hart to some extent the
<v Speaker 4>British bulldog, this is where everything that was brought up
<v Speaker 4>when they did Bash in Berlin.
<v Speaker 2>Definitely a love affair with Brett Hart for sure.
<v Speaker 4>As we'll get into, perhaps not as much as would
<v Speaker 4>meet the eye, but more than didn't meet the eye,
<v Speaker 4>perhaps as we'll get into. But Ben decided, you know what,
<v Speaker 4>I'm I'm a German. I have resources. Yes, the co
<v Speaker 4>chairs have litay and I have desire. The co chairs
<v Speaker 4>have lit the way in terms of how to overturn
<v Speaker 4>stones of truth that heretofore nobody had the inclination or
<v Speaker 4>or the skills to turn over. How about I apply
<v Speaker 4>all tlf IS taught me to a show that they
<v Speaker 4>could never appreciate as no matter how hard they worked
<v Speaker 4>as I could, as a young German speaking ww fan
<v Speaker 4>in nineteen ninety two.
<v Speaker 2>Appreciate or even see.
<v Speaker 4>We've got to be couldn't even see it. So we
<v Speaker 4>got a sense that he was, you know, doing a
<v Speaker 4>little bit of work for us. We've done, you know before,
<v Speaker 4>we've reached out to members of the solars so speak
<v Speaker 4>different languages and deeply value their contributions to understanding things
<v Speaker 4>like what the announcers are saying. We had so much
<v Speaker 4>fun with the Italian announcers. Yes, indeed name again it
<v Speaker 4>was a It wasn't even it wasn't even Italian. It
<v Speaker 4>was like it was like from Indiana, right right, I
<v Speaker 4>believe I already forgot his name.
<v Speaker 2>But you know he's he's got one of our favorites
<v Speaker 2>of all time. And why didn't that play other?
<v Speaker 1>What?
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Here we go.
<v Speaker 4>There and yeah, there's going to be uh, there's going
<v Speaker 4>to be no small uh. I don't know how to
<v Speaker 4>put it. There's going to be no small series of
<v Speaker 4>allegories to that in the country of Germany. Oh yes,
<v Speaker 4>no small series of German versions of those exclamations and
<v Speaker 4>so many, so much more, Because we're here to tell
<v Speaker 4>you that not only did Ben the Homie delivered to
<v Speaker 4>your co chairs a faithful translation of the key things
<v Speaker 4>uttered by the likes of Austin and Chef and Uli
<v Speaker 4>Fessela on commentary here back on German television in nineteen
<v Speaker 4>ninety two. Oh, we're going to get a so much
<v Speaker 4>more than a dose, so much more than a dose.
<v Speaker 4>He decided, you know what, I'm going into the rabbit hole.
<v Speaker 4>I'm going to research everything that's ever happened as it
<v Speaker 4>regards the WWF and Germany. I'm going to deliver to
<v Speaker 4>the co chairs a fully packaged gift wrapped complete research
<v Speaker 4>agenda of each and everything where their training has told
<v Speaker 4>me to look. And I'm going to use my German
<v Speaker 4>YEP to make sure it surfaces and sees the light
<v Speaker 4>of day. This is a service not only to your
<v Speaker 4>co chairs, this is a service to the lapsed fan
<v Speaker 4>solar system and any fan of pro wrestling history that
<v Speaker 4>wants to understand what we have so desperately wanted to
<v Speaker 4>understand all this time, what were these guys doing, Yes,
<v Speaker 4>back in those years when it mattered most, but they
<v Speaker 4>weren't on US television. What was happening in Japan, What
<v Speaker 4>was happening in Italy? What was happening in England? What
<v Speaker 4>boss was happening in Germany?
<v Speaker 2>Yep?
<v Speaker 4>And what do you think having having taken in the event,
<v Speaker 4>what do I think of what was the match?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's it was fine. It was great. It
<v Speaker 2>was a good show. You know, it was fine, It
<v Speaker 2>was enjoyable. I definitely enjoy watching certain matches that I
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you one thing. See, this was huge for
<v Speaker 2>me actually because this featured a match.
<v Speaker 1>That I.
<v Speaker 2>Haven't seen since nineteen ninety two. But I remember it
<v Speaker 2>very clearly, but it's almost to the point where I've
<v Speaker 2>never seen anywhere else. I realize that that, like, I
<v Speaker 2>didn't realize where it came from, and I almost it
<v Speaker 2>almost became a point where I'm like, this is maybe
<v Speaker 2>it's not real, Maybe it isn't real, even though I
<v Speaker 2>have this vivid memory. And was the opening match of
<v Speaker 2>Brett Hart versus tin Obra Antal champion Brettet. Because they
<v Speaker 2>aired this match on All American wrestling. They did. They did,
<v Speaker 2>and I saw it.
<v Speaker 4>I watched you it was just a match between these two.
<v Speaker 4>Or did they make it clear it was happening in Germany?
<v Speaker 2>They did, well, you know, they probably made it. They
<v Speaker 2>they made it clear on the commentary, but I didn't
<v Speaker 2>really pay attention to that, right, I didn't pay attention
<v Speaker 2>at the time. I uh, I uh, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>just saw this match, and I'll tell you that what
<v Speaker 2>was alarming to me was number one. Now, this is
<v Speaker 2>April ninety two, so or I don't know, Maybe it
<v Speaker 2>was like May ninety two when they aired it on
<v Speaker 2>on All American, But what I don't By this point
<v Speaker 2>i'd seen even though it was early, you know, still
<v Speaker 2>spring into ninety two, and I'd only been watching regularly
<v Speaker 2>for six seven months. I'd seen enough tape that I
<v Speaker 2>knew who Dino Bravo was. And I was appalled at
<v Speaker 2>his hair. I was appalled at his hair, his black hair,
<v Speaker 2>his black hair, and that he was wearing red, that
<v Speaker 2>he wasn't wearing the traditional you know, blue tie. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>quebe quah. So this was huge when I when I
<v Speaker 2>came on my screen and I was like, this is
<v Speaker 2>that fucking match.
<v Speaker 4>About that after ten years, there are still brain worms
<v Speaker 4>that we don't realize are there. Yep, until someone like
<v Speaker 4>Ben puts a match like this in front of us
<v Speaker 4>and it comes all rushing back it. We're still making
<v Speaker 4>those connections, still snapping puzzled pieces into place after all
<v Speaker 4>these years. And did you know that that was a
<v Speaker 4>huge point of contention, Dino Bravo dyeing his hair blonde
<v Speaker 4>when he came to WWF.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think. I feel like maybe you told me
<v Speaker 2>that one time, but I don't retally remember it.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it was a black haired Italian super baby face
<v Speaker 4>in International Grand Prix, one of the bigger outfits in
<v Speaker 4>Montreal that would go up against the Rougeau's operation in
<v Speaker 4>that city, one of the great wrestling cities in the world.
<v Speaker 4>And yeah, he was you know, he was like Brunoso
<v Speaker 4>Martinoz as far as his appeal. It imagine, you know,
<v Speaker 4>Bruno coming into another company and then asking him to
<v Speaker 4>die his hair blonde. You know, it really is really
<v Speaker 4>his equipment and he didn't want it. But at the time,
<v Speaker 4>you know, Vince's whole thing was bringing in people that
<v Speaker 4>had made a huge impact in the other territories and
<v Speaker 4>just remaking them and just an image there was, like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>even Dusty Rhodes wasn't wasn't safe, Ricky Steamboat wasn't safe everybody.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, he made Tony Atlas Saba Simba for Christ's sake,
<v Speaker 4>So even people that got over in his own territory
<v Speaker 4>had to had to go through the the fucking cartoon
<v Speaker 4>car wash before they could come out the other side.
<v Speaker 4>And yeah, that was a huge point of contention. And
<v Speaker 4>I had no idea that in the tail end of
<v Speaker 4>his run, I had no recollection at least, but they
<v Speaker 4>actually let him go back black on ww F Roster.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I mean defying. I mean, he's as far
<v Speaker 2>as I know, he was pretty much done. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>he hadn't been seen on no, not since at least
<v Speaker 2>i'll tell you what, on pay per view, not since
<v Speaker 2>Prestromania seven.
<v Speaker 4>It was a deal where he left and came back
<v Speaker 4>just for a few shots because they needed they needed
<v Speaker 4>to fill out a spot on the card. I think
<v Speaker 4>it had something to do with an injury too. We'll
<v Speaker 4>get we'll get into it as we go, because I
<v Speaker 4>do have a notation around early speculation that Brett's opponent
<v Speaker 4>for the show might not have always been Nino Bravo,
<v Speaker 4>but we'll get there. It's just a fascinating show, especially
<v Speaker 4>fascinating because I mean, what show is more right there
<v Speaker 4>as far as what we exist to revisit and relive.
<v Speaker 2>The WrestleMania eight absolutely please more and more and more
<v Speaker 2>and more and more.
<v Speaker 4>I want to see every second of all television they
<v Speaker 4>did in and around WrestleMania eight because that's where it's at.
<v Speaker 4>And here they are in Germany, thirteen thousand people screaming,
<v Speaker 4>hanging on every last thing every baby Face does, a
<v Speaker 4>crowd full of Germans in nineteen ninety two channing USA
<v Speaker 4>at Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
<v Speaker 2>That's probably one of the most bizarre things I've ever
<v Speaker 2>seen in my life, like to the fact that they're
<v Speaker 2>channing USA. Just I was flabbergasted by that.
<v Speaker 4>Is that any sense of hesitation or irony? And you
<v Speaker 4>wonder what it is we long for when we talk
<v Speaker 4>about these days that's above and beyond the pro wrestling
<v Speaker 4>of the time.
<v Speaker 2>It's a little bit of unity. Maybe, just maybe.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe maybe people weren't so wrapped up in themselves that
<v Speaker 4>they actually occasionally gave themselves over to a larger harmony.
<v Speaker 2>Can you imagine?
<v Speaker 4>And so here's Taxageom Duggan leading a crowd full of
<v Speaker 4>screaming German children in chance of USA. They are waving
<v Speaker 4>the American flag in this audience. I don't see a
<v Speaker 4>single German flag. I know they're all about Sergeant Slaughter.
<v Speaker 2>Looked like they could have lived on Long Island too,
<v Speaker 2>for that matter, Little Island, Long Islands. It's very good. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>love Long Island.
<v Speaker 4>I did appreciate having watched I think my first ever
<v Speaker 4>front to back German language wrestling broadcast in preparation for
<v Speaker 4>this episode that it comes down to two sounds. And
<v Speaker 4>these may be words, but it comes down to two
<v Speaker 4>sounds that just are quintessentially German. Yes you went, I
<v Speaker 4>heard that a million times and then schlogan. I don't
<v Speaker 4>want to ruin it and look up what that meant,
<v Speaker 4>but I have my true North says it regards German
<v Speaker 4>phraseology in slogan.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yes, I'm listening all about that, and I'm about
<v Speaker 2>I'm all about a little bit of Vita Vita or
<v Speaker 2>some Schnell. Schnell works to tremendous. So Ben did it man.
<v Speaker 4>I could not believe the research package that he delivered
<v Speaker 4>to us. And it's so funny because he did it
<v Speaker 4>like he did it fearing that we were going to
<v Speaker 4>ring the bell and say, all right, you're up, Ben,
<v Speaker 4>This this this idea that you tease that you could
<v Speaker 4>go h and give us, you know, the translation of
<v Speaker 4>what's being said on a European language, European broadcast, your
<v Speaker 4>time is down. He'd be afraid that he didn't have
<v Speaker 4>enough time to answer the bell, that that he wouldn't
<v Speaker 4>be properly prepared. So we just launched. He just launched
<v Speaker 4>into things against a racing against a clock that he
<v Speaker 4>conceptualized in his own head, and he delivered the following
<v Speaker 4>I mean this is there is no other podcast that's
<v Speaker 4>going to do this. Yeah, I agree, because even if
<v Speaker 4>other podcasts tried to do it, they don't have the
<v Speaker 4>fan base that shares the passion.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and and also the you know, the we we've
<v Speaker 2>definitely I'll say this, we have expressed, if nothing, our
<v Speaker 2>obsession with finding lost shows essentially and having access to
<v Speaker 2>this and and and and you know that happened. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know when. I mean, I know to me that
<v Speaker 2>all began when when I found the first essentially Collis
<v Speaker 2>in collection tape that we did, yes, which was the
<v Speaker 2>Battle Royal at Albert Hall. I didn't talk about that, right,
<v Speaker 2>And he fucking says it like fifteen times, goddamn, let's
<v Speaker 2>fucking get at you. Oh, oh my god, how many times?
<v Speaker 2>Like dude, it was six months ago. Calm down, oh
<v Speaker 2>my god. And and but that show, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>didn't know it actually existed. I thought it was just
<v Speaker 2>an event. I didn't know it was tape of it.
<v Speaker 2>And then it just kind of like, you know, then
<v Speaker 2>you find out there's more and more and more and
<v Speaker 2>more and more, and there's so many of these out
<v Speaker 2>there that not only that there's tape of it, but
<v Speaker 2>that was a lot television spectacular and right, it wasn't
<v Speaker 2>just a house show. It was a thing.
<v Speaker 4>It was a core memory maker for young fans who
<v Speaker 4>were like, oh my god, I'm going to get live
<v Speaker 4>WWF television from my home country. The novelty cannot be
<v Speaker 4>you know, as much as we talk about eighty four,
<v Speaker 4>eighty five, eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight is like
<v Speaker 4>explosive years had heady growth for the WWF in terms
<v Speaker 4>of American television exposure and penetration. It all happened on
<v Speaker 4>a lag in countries like England and Italy and Germany,
<v Speaker 4>it happened three years after, and here in nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 4>two in Munich. This is a crowd that, as far
<v Speaker 4>as they know, as far as they care, they're in
<v Speaker 4>the same position that fans were in the United States
<v Speaker 4>in nineteen eighty five VISAVWWF. They're coming here, they're getting
<v Speaker 4>to see the stars live and in person, and they're
<v Speaker 4>going completely insane. I bet not a single person complained
<v Speaker 4>that Hogan Warrior undertaker Flair Jake weren't there. They were
<v Speaker 4>ready to receive. They were ready to receive the WWF product.
<v Speaker 4>And this is probably the beginning in some ways of
<v Speaker 4>WWF thinking, you know, if we just bring their show
<v Speaker 4>to town without relying on a particular draw, we can
<v Speaker 4>be fine in these international markets. They've just started. This
<v Speaker 4>was now, of course the tradition, the post WrestleMania European tour,
<v Speaker 4>but they hadn't done Germany yet. They kind of started
<v Speaker 4>it in nineteen eighty nine, as we talked about when
<v Speaker 4>we did the Italian WWF Rampaid Show, the European rampaid show.
<v Speaker 4>But this is just them when they're cold in the
<v Speaker 4>States and facing kind of an existential crisis without Hulk Hogan.
<v Speaker 4>Now because of the steroid scandal and Hogan leaning into
<v Speaker 4>an acting career, they have to go places where they're
<v Speaker 4>still received as gods. And it's not necessarily major US
<v Speaker 4>cities anymore. Of course, Yeah, that are beaten down the
<v Speaker 4>doors to see these guys do their thing live. But
<v Speaker 4>they can turn back the clock and go back in
<v Speaker 4>time by going over the Atlantic to Germany. Ben rights
<v Speaker 4>to US deer co chairman. I did it, Yes, he did.
<v Speaker 4>After you guys hinted at maybe giving the Munich Show
<v Speaker 4>a fast track treatment, I went into research. I wanted
<v Speaker 4>to impede a situation in which you contact me because
<v Speaker 4>you want to give the show a deep dive. Responded
<v Speaker 4>my offer to be your German confidant and all things
<v Speaker 4>Munich show, and I have no time to deliver. I
<v Speaker 4>was of the mindset that I watched the TV and
<v Speaker 4>the VHS version of the show. Write down the differences,
<v Speaker 4>translate the funniest moments, and you're good. Then I thought
<v Speaker 4>we should know more about that specific VHS release. Mm hmmm,
<v Speaker 4>do is this start to sound familiar? Boss Ott'll just
<v Speaker 4>just a little bit, never just a tip with your
<v Speaker 4>co chairs. At first I was proud, he writes of
<v Speaker 4>having found the VHS cover. Then I wanted more. Now
<v Speaker 4>I look back at hours and hours and hours of research,
<v Speaker 4>dead ends, forum, bullshit translations, podcast, interview hearing, and rabbit holes.
<v Speaker 4>Once I found out that Uli and Carston, the announcers
<v Speaker 4>on the show, hated each other, Yes castin Caustin, I
<v Speaker 4>went down a rap.
<v Speaker 2>Did you fuck Aly? Oh? Come on, get in there?
<v Speaker 2>Did you do it? Is that what they're ten?
<v Speaker 4>He would never let anybody fuck him. I went down
<v Speaker 4>a rabbit hole that cost me weeks.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, welcome to the club.
<v Speaker 4>Then I asked myself what you would do researching such
<v Speaker 4>an event. Then I went full lapsed researcher. And you
<v Speaker 4>see how much bullshit came up. And I thought that
<v Speaker 4>it's bullshit that so many variants of the show are
<v Speaker 4>floating around. You guys need the ultimate cut, so you
<v Speaker 4>better believed down and slapped together the VHS and live
<v Speaker 4>television broadcast versions spectacular. But I will not whine, he says,
<v Speaker 4>this is key. I will not whine. It was a pleasure,
<v Speaker 4>And during research I learned a lot And when I
<v Speaker 4>stopped counting the hours I spent when I crossed the
<v Speaker 4>one hundred hour mark a few weeks ago. I did
<v Speaker 4>not regret anything.
<v Speaker 2>You never do.
<v Speaker 4>I just hope that you don't get the package and think,
<v Speaker 4>oh boy, that German ass with that bullshit show again
<v Speaker 4>and put all of this in the garbage. Then quite
<v Speaker 4>the fucking opposite. I tried my best. You write, structure
<v Speaker 4>it in a way that you can find your way around.
<v Speaker 4>Can't wait to hear what you make of all this.
<v Speaker 4>I won't repeat myself as I told you about my
<v Speaker 4>wrestling beginnings. I loved wrestling before I saw the first
<v Speaker 4>non Rocky three moving frame of it. WrestleMania nine was
<v Speaker 4>the greatest thing I ever witnessed and the real start
<v Speaker 4>of my fandom. Most people around me were in it
<v Speaker 4>since nineteen ninety two, and one of my friends gave
<v Speaker 4>me a VHS with his TV recording of WrestleMania eight
<v Speaker 4>to enjoy in nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 2>What a fucking treat that is. I wish I had
<v Speaker 2>that when I was that, when I was like dying
<v Speaker 2>to know what happened.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, the tape delivered a nice surprises after WrestleMania eight
<v Speaker 4>a recorded German house show graced the tape. Since I
<v Speaker 4>was just starting, this was the most normal thing to me.
<v Speaker 4>Of course, they do shows in Germany that get broadcast,
<v Speaker 4>what else would they do.
<v Speaker 2>I forgot about it over the.
<v Speaker 4>Years until I stumbled over the Munich show again years ago,
<v Speaker 4>and asking my brain for any memory about the German
<v Speaker 4>show on the tape I saw in nineteen ninety three,
<v Speaker 4>sit Justice in a ring with naked blue apron comes up.
<v Speaker 4>I guess it's just a mix up of one of
<v Speaker 4>the last things I saw at Wrestlmany eight, with the
<v Speaker 4>strange looking ring of the house show. He saw this
<v Speaker 4>being the house show, this Germany event. Remember that I
<v Speaker 4>only had seen Mania's up to that point in nineteen
<v Speaker 4>ninety three, and a blue apron was somehow cheap looking
<v Speaker 4>for my eyes. I did not think it was something
<v Speaker 4>special back in nineteen ninety three, and today it's not
<v Speaker 4>special anymore thanks to the Bash and Berlin pl E. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>they came back and did a live what you consider
<v Speaker 4>ple e and made it like less important. But god
<v Speaker 4>damn it, it was special. I learned that in the
<v Speaker 4>past few months, and I even got nostalgic for vintage
<v Speaker 4>Carston Schaeffer commentary doing all this. He and Gunterzop were
<v Speaker 4>the WWF voices when I started. They were still there
<v Speaker 4>when I returned to wrestling in two thousand and three
<v Speaker 4>after skipping the bigger part of the Attitude era.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know.
<v Speaker 4>When I first got pay per views with English commentary
<v Speaker 4>over twenty years ago. I slowly moved away from watching
<v Speaker 4>shows in German and later on watching a new School
<v Speaker 4>WWE event with Carston Schaeffer's voice felt like watching a
<v Speaker 4>new Simpsons episode in which Bart has a smartphone mm
<v Speaker 4>and Homer is somehow born in the nineties. Now mmm,
<v Speaker 4>it just does not feel right. But I watched old
<v Speaker 4>clips on YouTube during research and got the warm and
<v Speaker 4>fuzzies for awesome Jobber matches from nineteen ninety three. But
<v Speaker 4>I did not watch those as a wrestling mark but
<v Speaker 4>with nostalgic glasses, I hope you know what I mean. Plus,
<v Speaker 4>watching wrestling in German makes it. I guess it's one
<v Speaker 4>hundred trillion times more cheesy and cringe. Somehow, you Americans
<v Speaker 4>will never understand that the work I put in my
<v Speaker 4>research did not not go unnoticed by the people around me.
<v Speaker 4>He writes my girlfriend started stated rather weeks ago, yep,
<v Speaker 4>that those lapsed fans, those lapsed fans, yes, take up
<v Speaker 4>too much space in our life at the moment.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Yeah, we do. We do take up a
<v Speaker 2>lot of headspace. I'm okay with that.
<v Speaker 4>Then I told her verbatim that you guys also take
<v Speaker 4>up space in my ass.
<v Speaker 2>Left her puzzle. There's no way he's to do her
<v Speaker 2>still together. When I explained, you imagine, I just imagine
<v Speaker 2>the blank expression like just staring, a just emotionless blank
<v Speaker 2>expression of just like what and you listen about it,
<v Speaker 2>and you listen about it, yeah, he does, and you
<v Speaker 2>put the thing up your ass when you tell me
<v Speaker 2>you put these men up your ass. It's fine, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>he responds.
<v Speaker 4>When I explained to her the joke, she found it
<v Speaker 4>at least a little funny, and I told her that
<v Speaker 4>I might give her a lapsed wife shirt when it's
<v Speaker 4>all over.
<v Speaker 2>Please do. Yeah, it's it depends what it's all over.
<v Speaker 2>A lot of a lot of meanings to that phrase.
<v Speaker 4>A few weeks ago, I was talking with my best
<v Speaker 4>friend about the current to dos in our lives in
<v Speaker 4>general stress. I told him that I spent on godly
<v Speaker 4>hours in research for a podcast that I'm listening to
<v Speaker 4>for a decade. Now what podcast? I told him it's
<v Speaker 4>about wrestling. Silence, Yes, yes. After a few moments, he
<v Speaker 4>asked me how much I get paid. Oh, I said
<v Speaker 4>that I'm doing it for free.
<v Speaker 2>Silence.
<v Speaker 4>I told him that I also sent you guys unwrapping
<v Speaker 4>and so on. The most silence ever hit me, the
<v Speaker 4>most silent silence.
<v Speaker 2>Yes. I had to change the subject to get the
<v Speaker 2>conversation going again and again. I imagined just staring, just
<v Speaker 2>looking at him, like waiting, waiting for something to like
<v Speaker 2>signal that this isn't true.
<v Speaker 4>By the time this episode's over, Ben, this will have
<v Speaker 4>been a very clear payoff. Okay, do I need to add?
<v Speaker 4>He writes that he does not like wrestling. When we
<v Speaker 4>went to Las Vegas last year, and I thought this
<v Speaker 4>is his friend, and I forced him to go with
<v Speaker 4>me to a Randicator MMA event at Fremont Street. He
<v Speaker 4>was extremely relieved when he realized that MMA was not
<v Speaker 4>WW and they hit themselves for real themselves. He did
<v Speaker 4>not make it much. He did not make a difference before.
<v Speaker 2>Anyways. I hope you can work with all the stuff
<v Speaker 2>I've put together. Oh, you have no idea.
<v Speaker 4>Oh boy, I've put yeah these files, and most of
<v Speaker 4>the folders structured them. If I wrote something strange somewhere,
<v Speaker 4>forgive me. I was often burning midnight oil when doing
<v Speaker 4>this shit, and maybe some of the rabbit holes I
<v Speaker 4>opened you find not necessary, but I wanted to make
<v Speaker 4>sure that you have everything you need. If a side
<v Speaker 4>character pops up, go to the folder and you may
<v Speaker 4>find infoll on them. You want to know how the
<v Speaker 4>show really was called No Problem? You want to know
<v Speaker 4>how the building looks that house the company that created
<v Speaker 4>the VHS, Yes, I do. He sent pictures of the
<v Speaker 4>building where the company that used to distribute ww F
<v Speaker 4>VHS tapes in Germany was, and then of course no
<v Speaker 4>longer is located.
<v Speaker 2>You're saying this like as if I should be appalled
<v Speaker 2>or something. A full dossier and less. We're not afraid
<v Speaker 2>to use these resources, folks. Never I have you covered.
<v Speaker 4>You need to know which your VHS title, that's where
<v Speaker 4>you lost my brother. If I ever see Hogan, I'm
<v Speaker 4>going to find a way to say I got you covered, dude.
<v Speaker 4>See see what he said? Yeah, puppy dag Look, Oh man,
<v Speaker 4>it's getting sad over there again.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, man, it's you know what I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you know, total NonStop Hogan. Indeed, when when I saw.
<v Speaker 5>The the.
<v Speaker 2>When I saw that the thing that that Linda put up,
<v Speaker 2>I mean she looks like the old dead woman in
<v Speaker 2>the shining from the bathtub. Yeah. Like it's horrifying and
<v Speaker 2>I feel awful, not too awful, but I feel awful enough.
<v Speaker 2>Oh what a sad state of affairs that family. It's
<v Speaker 2>like it just continues, it just continues to get worse.
<v Speaker 4>Well, maybe Brook shouldn't have gone on Instagram and ruined
<v Speaker 4>the Kfe Bubba wedding. Maybe she hadn't done that, he
<v Speaker 4>wouldn't be here today. You need to know which VHS
<v Speaker 4>titles came out in Germany in June of nineteen ninety two.
<v Speaker 4>Here you goes. You need hilarious hit pieces unwrestling in German,
<v Speaker 4>I've got something for you. Yes, even as research pros,
<v Speaker 4>you would have hit a language barrier with this one.
<v Speaker 4>So I'm glad I can help you with that. Any
<v Speaker 4>questions hit me up anytime. I've got nothing to sell
<v Speaker 4>or advertise, he says, I need no promotion. I'm glad
<v Speaker 4>if you guys create an awesome show about this strange event. Well,
<v Speaker 4>let's try doing that, boss, What do you say we can?
<v Speaker 4>World Wrestling Federation, Meltzer wrote, returns to Action this coming
<v Speaker 4>weekend in the United States after its most successful overseas
<v Speaker 4>tour ever in Europe. The tour, which had two shows
<v Speaker 4>running per night every night this past week, sold out
<v Speaker 4>the majority of performances. How good must that have felt
<v Speaker 4>in nineteen ninety two when they, yeah were struggling and
<v Speaker 4>gates were plumbing. The houses ranged from seventy thousand dollars
<v Speaker 4>in Rotterdam and the Netherlands, Netherlands and the Netherlands. Two
<v Speaker 4>consecutive shows drawing well on excess of three hundred thousand
<v Speaker 4>dollars at Wembley Arena and London on Monday and Tuesday night.
<v Speaker 4>And I believe all and.
<v Speaker 2>That's that is that the wait ninety three is the
<v Speaker 2>Wembley one that Hogan has the thing at song where
<v Speaker 2>it comes up with the song the.
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah yeah, yeah right, and he pretends it was SummerSlam, right.
<v Speaker 4>I believe all but three cards were total sellouts, and
<v Speaker 4>one of them in Milan, Italy. Melts Her Rights still
<v Speaker 4>drew an excess of ten thousand fans, but perhaps The
<v Speaker 4>most enthusiastic crowd was in Munich, Germany, for what I
<v Speaker 4>believe was the first WWF show ever in the building
<v Speaker 4>which it was, which drew a sellout of twelve three
<v Speaker 4>hundred and forty five fans two hundred and sixty thousand
<v Speaker 4>dollars US currency gate, but also set a record doing
<v Speaker 4>reportedly an excess of two hundred thousand dollars in souvenirs.
<v Speaker 4>There are wonderful clips during this broadcast boss of fans
<v Speaker 4>rushing the merchandise. Fans yes, twelve thirteen, twenty five deep
<v Speaker 4>trying to get their hands on Golden era merchandise.
<v Speaker 2>And I want to be with them.
<v Speaker 4>They had tour shorts with tour shirts with undertable on
<v Speaker 4>the front and all the dates for the European tour
<v Speaker 4>in the back. Just spectacular foam fingers everywhere, Happy children everywhere,
<v Speaker 4>happy people everywhere, Adults on their feet, screaming at the heels,
<v Speaker 4>rejoicing with the baby faces and thinking about that instead
<v Speaker 4>of themselves the whole time.
<v Speaker 2>But it's way better now. It's way better now when
<v Speaker 2>fans knew how to be fans. Fuck yeah, that's the truth.
<v Speaker 4>This would be the all time per person souvenir record
<v Speaker 4>for the WWF, he writes, and all merchandise was sold
<v Speaker 4>out at the show and a conquered jet had to
<v Speaker 4>be sent from the United States to get souvenirs to
<v Speaker 4>the show the next night in Frankfurt. Wow, the nightly
<v Speaker 4>souvenir income was, I'm told, a lot more impressive than
<v Speaker 4>the houses, to the point that the tour reportedly made
<v Speaker 4>more money than WrestleMania, more money than WrestleMania.
<v Speaker 2>Bonkers.
<v Speaker 4>Any of the overseas promoters want to run a regular
<v Speaker 4>European circuit, but I'd be so. They were talking about
<v Speaker 4>that all the way back then, remember NXT Europe.
<v Speaker 2>And yet of course they want to They want the circuit,
<v Speaker 2>That's what they really want when it comes down to
<v Speaker 2>But they just want the circuit.
<v Speaker 4>But I'd be surprised for that to happen, Meltzer writes,
<v Speaker 4>because it's the novelty that's drawing, and a regular circuit
<v Speaker 4>woil turned out to be a c team deal that
<v Speaker 4>the fans would burn out on. These crowds were drawn
<v Speaker 4>largely without the WWF's biggest drawing cards on the show.
<v Speaker 4>Hulk Hogan, of course, was never booked, being on a
<v Speaker 4>hiatus until late August. Ric Flair only worked the early
<v Speaker 4>dates before leaving for Japan. Jake Roberts and The Ultimate
<v Speaker 4>Warrior advertised as headliners on the tour, although neither appeared,
<v Speaker 4>which meant that largely one show was headlined by Undertaker
<v Speaker 4>versus Justice that was obviously prior to this, and the
<v Speaker 4>other by Randy Savage defending the title against either the
<v Speaker 4>Mounte or Seawan Michaels. So, I guess he elsewhere on
<v Speaker 4>the tour or Randy defended against the MOUNTI.
<v Speaker 2>Now why we saw in Sheffield, we saw him do
<v Speaker 2>Shawn Michaels Ah got it. So this is our second
<v Speaker 2>time watching Randy versus Sean, I guess so? Yeah, see,
<v Speaker 2>I feel like this is the first time I ever
<v Speaker 2>saw the match. Oh well, yes, it wasn't so memorable.
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you what though. I like this finish better.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, well, I mean he comes in hobbled. This
<v Speaker 2>guy is it's taking the time to sell. He's selling
<v Speaker 2>his fucking WrestleMania hate injury. In Germany, no one would
<v Speaker 2>know the fucking difference. He fucking and not only Matt.
<v Speaker 2>It's like a week it's a week and a half later,
<v Speaker 2>he's selling the fucking me because Savage, he's doing this.
<v Speaker 2>Why is he doing it to? Why fucking do it?
<v Speaker 2>Because it's what I do. I do what I get
<v Speaker 2>it done. I go out there, I do the one
<v Speaker 2>two three. I say, hey, Germany, you're watching WrestleMania. You're
<v Speaker 2>watching me and Elizabeth getting the thing done. I go
<v Speaker 2>out there in Germany and I say, you know what,
<v Speaker 2>Seohn Michaels, You're gonna go out there, You're gonna try
<v Speaker 2>to take my w w A championship. And I say,
<v Speaker 2>no way, no way, you're gonna fucking take it away
<v Speaker 2>from the mucho man. And I'm gonna remind you and
<v Speaker 2>remind the fans cause the little sympathy thing going on
<v Speaker 2>because Rick Flair, Rick Fleer, Rick Fleir took out my leg,
<v Speaker 2>and I see, no way, no way is that gonna
<v Speaker 2>stop me from doing the thing and getting it done
<v Speaker 2>and going up, going down, and going every which way,
<v Speaker 2>if you know what I'm talking about.
<v Speaker 4>Not really Randy, but I mean he sell Okay, ready,
<v Speaker 4>Savage is the best seller in the history of the
<v Speaker 4>wrestling business, no question, no question, come to him illution before.
<v Speaker 4>But this is just another proof.
<v Speaker 2>Point he's fucking I can't.
<v Speaker 4>Ah, I actually believed all the years I've been watching wrestling,
<v Speaker 4>knowing that he's selling his wrestling knee injury. I believed
<v Speaker 4>for a split second that he might have had a
<v Speaker 4>tweak knee and is building this match around the knee
<v Speaker 4>because his knee is actually injured.
<v Speaker 2>That's how good he is, because.
<v Speaker 4>There's no little moment where it's like, I'll see he wouldn't.
<v Speaker 4>He wouldn't be able to accelerate or plant on the
<v Speaker 4>foot quite like that if he wasn't. No, he's mindful
<v Speaker 4>of the whole time, in fact, to the detriment of
<v Speaker 4>the match.
<v Speaker 2>See, that's the.
<v Speaker 4>Difference with the contemporary mentality, Like he's willing to sell
<v Speaker 4>an injury and bring the match down a star and
<v Speaker 4>a half because he can't do the things on a
<v Speaker 4>bet wheel that he should be.
<v Speaker 2>Ironically brings it up a star and a half as well.
<v Speaker 4>You know what I'm saying, There has to be an
<v Speaker 4>allowance for that. I feel like, and I'm not saying
<v Speaker 4>there isn't in everybody's subjective methodologies. But these cats today, man,
<v Speaker 4>they don't know the first thing about sacrificing thirty percent
<v Speaker 4>of their move set to get an injury over in
<v Speaker 4>the body of a match. Yeah, and I'm not talking
<v Speaker 4>about lifting a guy in your shoulder and then dropping
<v Speaker 4>him because your knee gave out for a second, and
<v Speaker 4>then fourteen seconds later doing it.
<v Speaker 2>The whole match is based around the bad wheel of
<v Speaker 2>Randy Savage and he's got to find a way to
<v Speaker 2>get out. And it's brilliant because it's like one of
<v Speaker 2>the only times you'll ever see Sean Michaels as a
<v Speaker 2>menacing heel. Yes, exactly, especially like that's Sewan Michaels. He
<v Speaker 2>looks like a fucking killer by the time is over.
<v Speaker 2>He does Savage makes him look like a million bucks,
<v Speaker 2>it appears now. Meltzer writes that the plan is for
<v Speaker 2>the WWF to tour Europe on a three times per
<v Speaker 2>year basis. You can say that again. Wow.
<v Speaker 4>Then took to YouTube, where a lot of German fans
<v Speaker 4>were recollecting what it was like to watch the show
<v Speaker 4>and what they remembered about it, which, of course we
<v Speaker 4>would have been blind to or at least subjectors very
<v Speaker 4>generic translation. He writes, here's what some fans posted. One
<v Speaker 4>fans had I asked people that comment under Munich videos
<v Speaker 4>on YouTube that they were there to share their experience.
<v Speaker 4>He went, he went that extra extra step. One said,
<v Speaker 4>that was exactly one week before my ninth birthday in
<v Speaker 4>an early gift. At that time, it was pretty much
<v Speaker 4>peak of the wrestling craze in Germany, and the atmosphere
<v Speaker 4>in the arena was different, magical, somehow surreal and incomparable to,
<v Speaker 4>for example, the atmosphere and football stadiums at that time.
<v Speaker 4>And when your childhood hero suddenly appear in real life
<v Speaker 4>right in front of you, you realize you'll never forget that.
<v Speaker 2>Think about that.
<v Speaker 4>We can't emphasize that enough when talking about that golden period.
<v Speaker 4>If it wasn't wrestlers, we were into comic book characters
<v Speaker 4>and video game characters. I would never materialize in front
<v Speaker 4>of our eyes ever. Kids in Germany just probably thought
<v Speaker 4>of WWF wrestlers as as distant and as unreal as
<v Speaker 4>Spider Man totally. But yet here they come in the flesh.
<v Speaker 4>Never thought you'd see him, And there is kind of that,
<v Speaker 4>There is kind of that heightened atmosphere. You can sense
<v Speaker 4>it watching this show. You can sense the fans are
<v Speaker 4>on a different wavelength than even a typical hot pro
<v Speaker 4>wrestling crowd would be taking in what they're seeing. They're
<v Speaker 4>not there to see a performance, They're there to drink
<v Speaker 4>in the fact that it's happening. It no matter what happens.
<v Speaker 4>Almost it's just the fact that it's happening. It's magical
<v Speaker 4>enough and those that atmosphere is extremely hard to achieve
<v Speaker 4>in pro wrestling, and when it is achieved, you know
<v Speaker 4>what you feel it. Another fan wrote retrospectively, speaking Bash
<v Speaker 4>and Berlin as part of German wrestling history, and so
<v Speaker 4>is European Rampage again and Munich. Although telefive that's tel
<v Speaker 4>e five that was the television network in Germany the
<v Speaker 4>broadcast show, their TV broadcast of it has been forgotten,
<v Speaker 4>with only the veterans of the time still philosophizing about
<v Speaker 4>the event considering the qual of the output. Though it
<v Speaker 4>didn't meet my expectations and I walked away slightly disappointed.
<v Speaker 4>This fan rights simply disrespectful to paying customers. In my opinion,
<v Speaker 4>the two title matches you could hardly complain, But in
<v Speaker 4>between the events stumbled and additionally kicked the fan in
<v Speaker 4>the shin, which is how you could describe nearly fifteen
<v Speaker 4>minutes of repo Man versus Argent Slaughter. Look, I agree
<v Speaker 4>that that's a dog shit match to give people, But
<v Speaker 4>did I just watch the Best Repoman match?
<v Speaker 2>I think I did. It's possible for sure, But why
<v Speaker 2>did they give them fifteen minutes? I know, I know.
<v Speaker 2>If you could have given Savage in Michael's ten extra minutes,
<v Speaker 2>oh he was on a bad wheel.
<v Speaker 4>That matter would better the threat and the main event
<v Speaker 4>in the form of a Battle Royal. Yeah, they still
<v Speaker 4>can't get past the when we're overseas. We got to
<v Speaker 4>give the people a Battle Royal. That's all I'll accept.
<v Speaker 2>I know.
<v Speaker 4>So everyone comes back out even though they wrestled earlier
<v Speaker 4>on the show, except for Randy Savage because he's selling
<v Speaker 4>the post match beat down. Fortunately this fan rights. The
<v Speaker 4>opening match offered one of the two title matches. First,
<v Speaker 4>the match wasn't outstanding, mostly consisting of Denalvo's chokeholds, and
<v Speaker 4>it was otherwise rare basic with the audience making the difference. However,
<v Speaker 4>you could still feel the disconnect due to the match structure.
<v Speaker 4>See I don't remember there being in disconnect. I do
<v Speaker 4>remember being kind of like abruptly surprised that Brett won
<v Speaker 4>with a middle rope elbow win with that.
<v Speaker 2>Never I've never seen him win. That was one of
<v Speaker 2>the most just what moments I've witnessed.
<v Speaker 4>The ref hits three and you feel like someone fucks
<v Speaker 4>something up, right, you go back and Brett took an
<v Speaker 4>extra five seconds on that middle rope and played to
<v Speaker 4>the crowd like he you could tell he was milking it,
<v Speaker 4>trying to make it a finish. In contrast Randy Savage
<v Speaker 4>and Sewn Michaels, he writes in the second title match
<v Speaker 4>later in the evening, I saw a rising trend was
<v Speaker 4>by far my highlight of the local event, despite the
<v Speaker 4>cafe leg injury of the champion. It was charmingly presented,
<v Speaker 4>and after all the craziness around it, it was nice
<v Speaker 4>to watch with sensational Sherry fitting beautifully into Michael's current persona, A.
<v Speaker 2>Fucking amazing thing. Tell me what sensational Sherry. I just
<v Speaker 2>just back to back shows where she like completely blows
<v Speaker 2>us away. She's just I mean, she's the fucking ben.
<v Speaker 2>She's just spectacular, like she I I don't I don't
<v Speaker 2>know what I missed. I mean, obviously I didn't have
<v Speaker 2>you know, the the years when I was a kid,
<v Speaker 2>but like I don't, I could. I never appreciated what
<v Speaker 2>she was able to do, just just the the involvement
<v Speaker 2>that she has and the balls that she has, And like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, she's not she's not shying away like anybody,
<v Speaker 2>and she's not sneaky like say Woman was, you know,
<v Speaker 2>like woman was sneaky, getting her getting shit in on
<v Speaker 2>on on on the baby faces. No, no, no, no, no.
<v Speaker 2>Sherry is like, you're getting my fucking tits, my pussy,
<v Speaker 2>the whole fucking thing, right, hot mess, all right, You're
<v Speaker 2>just getting every fucking thing that I have, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>gonna give it to you ten times over.
<v Speaker 4>Seawan is goddamn lucky, seriously that she linked up with him.
<v Speaker 4>This gimmick would not have been a scintilla of what
<v Speaker 4>it was. No, I mean, he wouldn't have been us
<v Speaker 4>until of the baby single Star. He was in the beginning,
<v Speaker 4>right out of the gate thanks to her.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, and that's the thing. You know, you wonder
<v Speaker 2>how long he would have lasted after that, Yeah, he
<v Speaker 2>would have. I'm sure he would have had a wonderful career.
<v Speaker 2>You don't know, I mean maybe maybe by maybe if
<v Speaker 2>he doesn't have someone like that in his corner. Maybe
<v Speaker 2>he he doesn't get a chance to really showcase and
<v Speaker 2>he fizzles out by the end of the year, you know,
<v Speaker 2>and not main event against the fucking Brett hard Itch
<v Speaker 2>th Rivers series. But just you know, the history between
<v Speaker 2>Ready Savage and Cherry plays into this match. Does he
<v Speaker 2>even brings it up?
<v Speaker 4>They had to make allowances for the why Elizabeth wasn't there.
<v Speaker 4>They said she wasn't feeling well.
<v Speaker 2>Uh huh. And she's signing divorce papers. Yeah, she was
<v Speaker 2>a full sided with nature boy. That's right.
<v Speaker 4>She was actually right right around this time, the divorce.
<v Speaker 4>It's right, yeah, yeah. And this is like Randy Post,
<v Speaker 4>I'm gonna get off Royds to have kids wearing a
<v Speaker 4>baggy T shirt.
<v Speaker 2>I know, he's such a fucking mess. He's such a mess,
<v Speaker 2>like just just a shit show.
<v Speaker 4>I like the way this is the tren of it,
<v Speaker 4>but I like it. He says that Sherry added the
<v Speaker 4>missing percentage of malice to Sean Wings.
<v Speaker 1>Like that.
<v Speaker 2>A lot in between was a wasteland. Doug and Verus.
<v Speaker 4>Mustafa was mostly just running tackles and tns, Bulldog and
<v Speaker 4>Legion Doom versus Mounty and Nasty Boys was a slight
<v Speaker 4>improvement could face Heald dynamic and a bit more offensive
<v Speaker 4>match structure, and al Mattador ra Shchanko is relatively hard
<v Speaker 4>hitting for no apparent reason. Simply put, grotesque were repo
<v Speaker 4>Vers Slaughter and Davy Boys triumph in the Battle Royal
<v Speaker 4>main event, or at best for the Battle Royal. Repoman
<v Speaker 4>and Sergeant Slaughter had an overly long singles match structured
<v Speaker 4>around rest holds, and that over fourteen minutes, was exhausting
<v Speaker 4>to watch. The final segment of the Battle Royal felt
<v Speaker 4>like it lasted just as long, with the rest of
<v Speaker 4>the participants being eliminated other too early or inconsequentially. Another
<v Speaker 4>fan writes, I watched.
<v Speaker 2>The show that Battle Royal. By the way, I never
<v Speaker 2>thought I could give a shit about the fucking Mountie
<v Speaker 2>before you gave a shit about the Mounting and that
<v Speaker 2>Battle Royal. Absolutely, Why he's sneaking up after everybody? Fucking
<v Speaker 2>are you eliminated to the most people match? Wow? He
<v Speaker 2>was a threat. He was a threat. I've never cared
<v Speaker 2>about him as much as I did in that match.
<v Speaker 2>In fact, I spend most of my time not caring
<v Speaker 2>about him. It's fucking great. I mean that's the best.
<v Speaker 2>That's the best Mountie Jacques Rougeau performance I've ever seen.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it was spectacular. I don't know, I mean
<v Speaker 2>I did didn't jump out to me to that degree,
<v Speaker 2>but I guess. I mean, that's just good because he
<v Speaker 2>pulled the same fucking move over. I mean, that's the thing.
<v Speaker 2>He was so sneaky about it. He just kept pulling
<v Speaker 2>the same thing over and over again, where he's just
<v Speaker 2>eliminating everybody. There's no the MOUNTI is no business eliminating people.
<v Speaker 2>But he did it in such a great way that
<v Speaker 2>it made you fucking hate him. He was a great
<v Speaker 2>heal he was, it was a great heal ian career.
<v Speaker 2>He was Rujeau was. I don't know by the mounting,
<v Speaker 2>but I hated the mounting. I couldn't. I mean, I
<v Speaker 2>told us what the whole point was. But like I
<v Speaker 2>hated the Mountie in a way that it wasn't good.
<v Speaker 2>Like I didn't want to see him get his I
<v Speaker 2>just wanted him off by television.
<v Speaker 4>There was something I don't remember. I heard this, but
<v Speaker 4>it was a good point. Like in front in Quebecua,
<v Speaker 4>Canada and French speaking French Canada, they don't really care
<v Speaker 4>about the Mounties like they don't. That's not like a
<v Speaker 4>French Canadian thing, right, And of course it's like a
<v Speaker 4>non French Canadian thing, right. But but there he is just, uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, getting on the mic at Germany and saying
<v Speaker 4>I am the Mounte and people hate it. They hate
<v Speaker 4>the fact that he's the Mountie. That's the problem. You're
<v Speaker 4>the Mounty. I just shared with you another comment from
<v Speaker 4>another fan. Let's take that one down. You share that one.
<v Speaker 2>Written by Fountain of Misinformation. It's correct, it's brilliant. I
<v Speaker 2>watched the show back then on Tally five, and now
<v Speaker 2>after more than eighteen years, followed to rewatch the tape.
<v Speaker 2>Here we go is the opening match is perfectly fine,
<v Speaker 2>classic good hitman action. Haksov visibly enjoys his job and
<v Speaker 2>Mustafa that's great transl. I love it. Mustafa, at over
<v Speaker 2>fifty years old, really shouldn't have been in the ring anymore.
<v Speaker 2>They can hardly move or do anything. Sage versus Reportman
<v Speaker 2>felt longer and was too sluggish for me. So Slaughter
<v Speaker 2>took a cool bump off the top rope, then SAIDs
<v Speaker 2>the fibo in Fibo, the fibo in essen bungee jumping
<v Speaker 2>in lex Luga was briefly introduced as part of the WBF.
<v Speaker 4>We'll get a little more into it. Yes, they WBF
<v Speaker 4>is still trying to be a thing at this point.
<v Speaker 6>Of course.
<v Speaker 2>They had the championship coming up in the summertime and
<v Speaker 2>go over there. They link up with a huge bodybuilding show,
<v Speaker 2>the biggest in Europe called Fibo Fibo, which is taking
<v Speaker 2>place in s in Germany. Understand, is this wbe thing
<v Speaker 2>you're promoting? But is this well, well, you know what
<v Speaker 2>we are. We are the World Bodybuilding Entertainment. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>what is that? I don't I've never heard of this bullshit? No, no, no,
<v Speaker 2>it's not bullshit. It's bodybuilding, that's bullshit. Is the wrestling
<v Speaker 2>that's tomorrow? Yeah, the bullshit is in the ring, in
<v Speaker 2>the in the the the Olympia Holley because Barry, because
<v Speaker 2>I will admit Paw, I will admit pal. These are
<v Speaker 2>exhibition matches. We know where we are and you know
<v Speaker 2>what in this thing, you know we we understand that
<v Speaker 2>we are promoting promoting exhibition matches in the ring at
<v Speaker 2>the Olympia Halle tomorrow and today. We are presenting exhibitions
<v Speaker 2>of bodybuilding talent which is real talent. I'm like, real talent,
<v Speaker 2>just like you said at NAPTI in nineteen eighty six,
<v Speaker 2>the last time we were with you. He was like,
<v Speaker 2>what do you say. No, two shows ago he said, well,
<v Speaker 2>this is more of an exhibition nature than a natural competition,
<v Speaker 2>an actual competitive imbalance. Can you tell me the difference, Vince?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, because it looks like Tony Gara is doing all
<v Speaker 4>the same shit he does when there's ten thousand people
<v Speaker 4>in the building.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's not I don't vunte you here in my fireball.
<v Speaker 2>You get the fuck Get the fuck off my fireball.
<v Speaker 2>I both sounds like an electronic toy dollard again for
<v Speaker 2>Christmas something in like Rocky four. But no, there he is,
<v Speaker 2>fucking uh. Gary Stridam is there, and the rest of
<v Speaker 2>the crew, all those guys from Instant Body Stars with
<v Speaker 2>cameo of course of course on location.
<v Speaker 4>And Lex Lucre is there still the WBF star not
<v Speaker 4>yet the w w F Wrestling Star.
<v Speaker 2>For another uh not for another seven months? No, yes,
<v Speaker 2>they show eight nine months.
<v Speaker 4>They show a clip of Vince McMahon in fucking zoo
<v Speaker 4>baz a bungee jump in s in Germany.
<v Speaker 2>Are you in a bungee huh, And you can hear
<v Speaker 2>him say something like ah yeah, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>he's hanging upside. He's such a loser. What a fucking
<v Speaker 2>phony he is, Like I imagine that, you know, you know,
<v Speaker 2>he's got so many fears that he doesn't allow himself
<v Speaker 2>to actually display to anybody, even the people who are
<v Speaker 2>who were closest to him, so like no fears are
<v Speaker 2>ever displayed. I imagine he being horrified of doing that
<v Speaker 2>bunding up, but there's no way he's not going to
<v Speaker 2>do it. So it's going to act like he's gonna
<v Speaker 2>act like he fucking absolutely, but deep down he's petrified
<v Speaker 2>because he's a little child.
<v Speaker 4>Well this is around that time too where he did
<v Speaker 4>that infamous nightclub appearance where the Legion to Doom hit
<v Speaker 4>a doomsday device on him and the Heart Foundation did
<v Speaker 4>a heart attack in his strip club because he was
<v Speaker 4>about to ban marijuana and the boys, like he felt
<v Speaker 4>like he needs to go out and party with the boys,
<v Speaker 4>you know, so that they could like seem as one
<v Speaker 4>of the guys and they'll go back to the hotel
<v Speaker 4>room and just.
<v Speaker 2>Sort of saying, fortunately, guys were a great nights Night,
<v Speaker 2>but there's no smoking blot anymore. Say tomorrow just.
<v Speaker 4>Ruined everyone's life. It's the only way you can make
<v Speaker 4>these towns is if you're high, exactly. And they all
<v Speaker 4>like the pain killers either. But I need you to
<v Speaker 4>work eighteen matches tomorrow right each, no steroids, but I
<v Speaker 4>need you to look like ultimate warrior and warlord.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you.
<v Speaker 4>But that's all happening. I mean, you're gonna tell me,
<v Speaker 4>let's not forget this Brett Hart that you see come
<v Speaker 4>out with the icy strap to wrestle Diino Bravo and
<v Speaker 4>get this huge reaction in Germany. He's WWF champion by
<v Speaker 4>the end of this year. You're gonna tell me that
<v Speaker 4>the reaction he gets in a market like this six
<v Speaker 4>months doesn't play a huge role. That they're not thinking,
<v Speaker 4>all right, well who do we go with? And it's like,
<v Speaker 4>how about the guy that like two x what he
<v Speaker 4>had any right to get in terms of crowd reaction
<v Speaker 4>when he went to Germany YEP, at a time when
<v Speaker 4>they're seeing significant strength at the gate in countries over there,
<v Speaker 4>while while domestic markets are weakening. Of course Brett makes
<v Speaker 4>that's the final to me, that's the final check in
<v Speaker 4>Brettheart's column. Whoever else they were considering to put the
<v Speaker 4>strap on a nine ninety two.
<v Speaker 2>That's this that settles it. It's like, yeah, you know,
<v Speaker 2>we're already struggling domestically. Yeah, they thinking they can make
<v Speaker 2>money overseas with somebody else, right, and no one's going
<v Speaker 2>to bat an eye with him coming out as the
<v Speaker 2>top guy. So it's it's it's fascinating to connect the two.
<v Speaker 2>I just I love watching stuff where Brett's coming off
<v Speaker 2>the WrestleMania eight class yes, yes, you know, and they're
<v Speaker 2>talking about him as having triumphed over Roddy Piper. And
<v Speaker 2>it's just a part of Brett's career that gets lost
<v Speaker 2>because you always jump from that to the right title wins, right, well,
<v Speaker 2>right exactly. I mean it goes you know, well you
<v Speaker 2>go from WrestleMania to Summer Slam and then right to
<v Speaker 2>the to the title went after the Summer Slam, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you know, and it's like it's just it's it is
<v Speaker 2>a very and it's funny because that's that's in a
<v Speaker 2>weird way, what the most so much of Brett Hart
<v Speaker 2>is in those months that I remember, you know, that's
<v Speaker 2>when the feud with Sean Michaels all started. That's when
<v Speaker 2>he was he was facing Michael's all summer long, you know,
<v Speaker 2>and it was like I I I remember all that
<v Speaker 2>Brett Hart stuff, dealing with the Mounie, all that shit.
<v Speaker 2>Those those feuds, those feuds and that very very small
<v Speaker 2>amount of time, just like Savage and Roberts. Yes, those
<v Speaker 2>are lifelong feuds to me, those are feuds that are
<v Speaker 2>of their you know, people will talk about obviously Savage
<v Speaker 2>and Hogan or Savage and Flair. Flair also was one
<v Speaker 2>of them, but my key one always was Savage and Roberts.
<v Speaker 2>That was the That's that's where the blood money is.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's where you fucking go when when when you
<v Speaker 2>need something crazy hot to happen in in my mind,
<v Speaker 2>is you go Savage Roberts. As you continue to be
<v Speaker 2>vindicated on your John Cena call. By the way, I
<v Speaker 2>I I it's just a disappointing, disappointing still dressed like
<v Speaker 2>a eighth grader. It's a disappointing thing. It's it's like
<v Speaker 2>it's it's it's so stupid, it's so stupid. And someone
<v Speaker 2>said something about the suit about the suit being I
<v Speaker 2>read about about being Cody's thing. Fuck, that can be
<v Speaker 2>anybody's thing. Isn't the only suit? I mean actually in
<v Speaker 2>a great way, that'd be great, Like let them both
<v Speaker 2>have suits, let them come out together and and have
<v Speaker 2>you know if if if Cody's wearing a five thousand
<v Speaker 2>dollars suit, seems weren't a ten thousand dollars suit, and
<v Speaker 2>he calls it.
<v Speaker 4>Out got more money than Cody exactly, like that's that's it,
<v Speaker 4>like and and he looks. But the first thing he
<v Speaker 4>says when he comes out is I'm not going to
<v Speaker 4>give you the satisfaction of new music.
<v Speaker 2>Knew. Look, Yeah, the moment, the moment I heard the
<v Speaker 2>moment I heard the music, I just said, oh, this
<v Speaker 2>is going to suck. Now that does I mean, I
<v Speaker 2>don't know, I don't know what the point is in
<v Speaker 2>keeping him that way. I don't know what that is
<v Speaker 2>all about. To me, it's it's like it's a complete
<v Speaker 2>it's it's such bullshit. It's like.
<v Speaker 4>You had a look that he had just been like
<v Speaker 4>possessed at the end of elimination Chamber. Right, that was
<v Speaker 4>the look we needed to lean into. Right, he needed
<v Speaker 4>to have a psychic break.
<v Speaker 1>I was not.
<v Speaker 2>I was not thrilled with it. I mean, I appreciated
<v Speaker 2>the the the angst. I did watch. I watched the
<v Speaker 2>promos all I watched, and I appreciated the the the
<v Speaker 2>you know, the idea. But I'm like, but it's also like,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, dude, you should have done that, like fucking
<v Speaker 2>fifteen years ago. This is what you should have been
<v Speaker 2>complaining about fifteen years ago. Yeah, it's kind of now.
<v Speaker 2>It's a weird thing to complain about now. The gripes
<v Speaker 2>he has that all got overcome. Like people are already
<v Speaker 2>past hating scene the fright reason, and I get resenting,
<v Speaker 2>resenting them still for doing that to you back then.
<v Speaker 2>But the fact is all of those people came later
<v Speaker 2>to cheer you, right, And I get and I do
<v Speaker 2>get the idea of him. It's it's fine. It just
<v Speaker 2>could have been better. It could have been way better. Again,
<v Speaker 2>I think if he didn't talk, if he didn't about,
<v Speaker 2>if he didn't show up until again, that's what I think.
<v Speaker 2>I think that would have been the best to tell me.
<v Speaker 4>As much time as you know, buzz as these promos
<v Speaker 4>have gotten that he's been doing that, if he had,
<v Speaker 4>if we still haven't seen him yet that people wouldn't
<v Speaker 4>be losing their shit going crazy.
<v Speaker 2>And again, if they tease it, that would have been amazing.
<v Speaker 2>Tease it. And if you need to have him show up,
<v Speaker 2>have him do a fucking dark match in the European markets,
<v Speaker 2>go ahead, go ahead, so that we don't fucking know
<v Speaker 2>about it, or that it's not on TV, so it's
<v Speaker 2>not real.
<v Speaker 4>Dwayne is conspicuous by his complete absence. Yeah right, I
<v Speaker 4>haven't heard a word about him. Very interesting, folks.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, it's just it's not it could have been.
<v Speaker 2>It could have been way better.
<v Speaker 4>And you know, the funny thing's the first thing I
<v Speaker 4>said when you laid that scenario out. Remember the first
<v Speaker 4>thing I said was all right, well it's ruin now,
<v Speaker 4>because once you see that in your head, everything else
<v Speaker 4>is gonna pale in comparison.
<v Speaker 2>You know what's funny too, is that I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe this was happening before I said it, but I'd
<v Speaker 2>never noticed it until I didn't notice this at all
<v Speaker 2>until after I said it. Uh was now people are
<v Speaker 2>all everyone is fucking posting bald scene of photos. Oh
<v Speaker 2>my god, here we go. Everyone's posting it. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>no one's posting with a beard. But I said to
<v Speaker 2>a photo of what I photoshopped that an image of him,
<v Speaker 2>Yes you did, yes, And I was like, this guy,
<v Speaker 2>fucking my I was actually, we should post I should
<v Speaker 2>post that on the on Twitter, oh yeah, or actually
<v Speaker 2>whatever the fuck it is and say this is what
<v Speaker 2>it should have been, because it is. I mean, they
<v Speaker 2>would have amazing if he came out like that. Come on, now, folks,
<v Speaker 2>he get on in that with some fucking dark music
<v Speaker 2>or whatever or no, I'm not going to give you
<v Speaker 2>the satisfaction.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, Yeah, well I'm used to not being satisfied by
<v Speaker 4>WW so that's right, that's nothing new.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what he's
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>I I just I really I really lost interest after
<v Speaker 4>that first. I think we're gonna find a lot of
<v Speaker 4>people did. Honestly, I think we're to find a lot
<v Speaker 4>of people that leaned into that hot angle were like, yeah, no,
<v Speaker 4>we don't need to hear him expostulate like this.
<v Speaker 2>That's not no.
<v Speaker 4>We thought he went nuts. We thought he went fucking right.
<v Speaker 2>And I and I think, and I exactly, I don't
<v Speaker 2>and weird, I know, you don't want to hear him
<v Speaker 2>talk like you want to hear someone talk for him.
<v Speaker 2>You want to think he should have been given the
<v Speaker 2>Rock Lesnar treatment and getting a mouthpiece, and and that
<v Speaker 2>person speaks for him, and he's just silent. Imagine if
<v Speaker 2>he was silent. Imagine he goes in there. He's a
<v Speaker 2>fucking psychotic machine. He goes in there and he and
<v Speaker 2>he and he and he beats Cody and the the
<v Speaker 2>whole thing is like, you know, and Rock is his
<v Speaker 2>mouthpiece for like six months. That'd be great, It would
<v Speaker 2>be great.
<v Speaker 4>I think there's some some glitch in the matrix around Rock.
<v Speaker 4>I think a lot of the stuff that the scenario
<v Speaker 4>planning with Rock involved is like something happened, and even
<v Speaker 4>if they wanted to do what they couldn't.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I don't know.
<v Speaker 4>Anyway, back to uh fan recollections of European Rampage again,
<v Speaker 4>that was.
<v Speaker 2>All from Fibo. The six Mountain tag match off his
<v Speaker 2>decent action which the audience enjoys. Papa Shango versus Ala
<v Speaker 2>Matador was really okay, and Shango even kicked out of
<v Speaker 2>the Alpaso de la Morete and then the cool flying clotheslined.
<v Speaker 2>The second time, I finally understood to Mike mcgok's German
<v Speaker 2>in the following match that she says, this match is
<v Speaker 2>almost certainly Sean Michael's first w w Evil title match
<v Speaker 2>and probably the first time he faced Savage in a
<v Speaker 2>TV match. I don't know when I think the Sheffield me, no, sorry,
<v Speaker 2>the Sheffield match happened first. I think maybe it was
<v Speaker 2>after this. I've got them listly coming up, all right,
<v Speaker 2>stay tuned, all right? Right. For some of his Savage match,
<v Speaker 2>British Bulldog all only spoils it in an interview by
<v Speaker 2>talking about a fifteen man battle Royal instead of sixteen
<v Speaker 2>Why does it spoil I don't know. I saw that
<v Speaker 2>comment a lot.
<v Speaker 4>I guess one of the advertising as sixteen man because
<v Speaker 4>Savage was to be involved, and then with Bulldogs saying
<v Speaker 4>it was going to be fifteen man before Savage got hurt,
<v Speaker 4>it gave a way that they were gonna pull someone
<v Speaker 4>else about away.
<v Speaker 2>It's funny when people pick up on that shit, because
<v Speaker 2>I always think I just fucking misspoke. Right with Bulldog,
<v Speaker 2>you can definitely believe it. I mean I never, I
<v Speaker 2>mean I never ever saw into shit like that. I
<v Speaker 2>always just considered to be a mistake because they're thinking
<v Speaker 2>in my mind they're alive. Yeah, you know, the wrestlers
<v Speaker 2>can be mistaken, right, Well, there's nothing right. There's nothing
<v Speaker 2>wrong about a wrestler thinking it's a six fifteen man
<v Speaker 2>Battle Royal when it's sixteen. There's nothing that's strange credulity,
<v Speaker 2>I mean because I mean you're also thinking about it too,
<v Speaker 2>because you have fifteen opponents right by fifteen opponents in
<v Speaker 2>a bow Royal in Munich, Germany. And I'm gonna do
<v Speaker 2>it just like I did. And the raw Abbot Hall
<v Speaker 2>christ Al Mighty Davy shut up. Hey, oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>the Battle Royal's fine. Overall show, I enjoyed watching again.
<v Speaker 2>I honestly had a great time. And those he goes overall,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I show I enjoyed watching again, and honestly
<v Speaker 2>I had a great time. I enjoyed it. But I
<v Speaker 2>had a great time. And this a little nostalgia bonus.
<v Speaker 2>I give it eight points. Also very suitable as a
<v Speaker 2>WrestleMania eight night read. Oh my godess it ever, I'll say.
<v Speaker 1>He's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack n Seo
<v Speaker 1>JP Soro. It's a lapsed fan wrestling podcast.
<v Speaker 4>Another fan rights I wasn't there live but only watched
<v Speaker 4>it on tape. The atmosphere was excellent, but aside from
<v Speaker 4>the six man tag in the world title match, nothing
<v Speaker 4>that could be called good. Another fan rights sold out arena,
<v Speaker 4>amazing atmosphere, great flow, good booking, and great matches. The
<v Speaker 4>first and only WWF TV live event was really great.
<v Speaker 4>Especially noteworthy was the WWF World Heavyweight title match in
<v Speaker 4>the following and for the time truly brutal beatdown of
<v Speaker 4>Macho Man I must see for any fan of classic
<v Speaker 4>WF gimmick stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Just my mean thoughts.
<v Speaker 4>Another fan, that was the first wrestling event I ever saw. Therefore,
<v Speaker 4>I gladly overlook the quality of the matches and give
<v Speaker 4>it a ten for personal cult status. Sure, another fan,
<v Speaker 4>my first live show back then, I had the last
<v Speaker 4>standing ticket at the back wow and could barely see anything,
<v Speaker 4>but I was still thrilled. Today with the same matches,
<v Speaker 4>I probably wouldn't feel the same way, but I was
<v Speaker 4>young and needed the money.
<v Speaker 2>I was young and needed the money. I don't quite
<v Speaker 2>think that translation came through. I don't know I would
<v Speaker 2>see this lineup today. I'd definitely see this lineup today.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's not like it's like, you know, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>you know, we're still talking some good talent. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>get the you know, leading a doom and and Papa
<v Speaker 2>Shango main event, you know, Savage Michaels Austin, I'd be
<v Speaker 2>I'll be all about that.
<v Speaker 4>Truly truly great stuff. And the YouTube comments as well
<v Speaker 4>kind of illustrate how special it was. I do invite
<v Speaker 4>you to consider, you know, a world where you're a
<v Speaker 4>young kid growing up and walking into the video store
<v Speaker 4>whatever the case may be, and you know, instead of
<v Speaker 4>the usual tapes that we were accustomed to seeing, you
<v Speaker 4>were able to see you know, the Rampage ninety two
<v Speaker 4>tour following, you know, and just to realize that this
<v Speaker 4>was access to an event that took place in your.
<v Speaker 2>It really sucks that we didn't have Like it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of I don't understand why, Like why wouldn't I would
<v Speaker 2>have watched that as a kid. I would have gotten that.
<v Speaker 2>I would have rented that tape. I absolutely would have
<v Speaker 2>rented that tape. So are you kidding me? It's it's
<v Speaker 2>a it's a weird thing to me that they would
<v Speaker 2>only have these tapes released in a certain market, like
<v Speaker 2>as if I wouldn't want to watch it, Like what
<v Speaker 2>wrestling your fan wouldn't want to watch it? A show
<v Speaker 2>that a show that you you you normally could not see,
<v Speaker 2>but you never even heard about. I would fucking watch
<v Speaker 2>that absolutely, and I don't think it's one that you
<v Speaker 2>could get anywhere but Germany. Just take a look at
<v Speaker 2>that video jacket. Tell me that's not a beautiful thing. Oh,
<v Speaker 2>super video. It says super video. Animal, looks you had
<v Speaker 2>that beautiful thing. This was w W deutsch landtorn nineteen
<v Speaker 2>ninety two. My god, look, I think Elizabeth as if
<v Speaker 2>she's fucking there with Savage, she's just too busy signing papers.
<v Speaker 2>Come on.
<v Speaker 4>Just a picture of hawking Animal with their red and
<v Speaker 4>black shoulder spikes against a blue backdrop, and it just
<v Speaker 4>says super video underneath them. European Rampage ww F Deutschland
<v Speaker 4>Tour ninety two, tremendous. This was the tape for the
<v Speaker 4>German kids, the German Hasbro era kids.
<v Speaker 2>This was it. And I wonder how many times I
<v Speaker 2>wonder how many times it was like, you know, you
<v Speaker 2>go to the video store, you and it's gone because
<v Speaker 2>they're on't as many WWE tapes in Germany. You know, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>true that there was a distribution, but it was on
<v Speaker 2>a lag and it took months weeks rather for you
<v Speaker 2>to see the legs television. It would take you weeks
<v Speaker 2>to see the first run television. You know, you'd be
<v Speaker 2>weeks behind in Germany before you could see what was happening.
<v Speaker 2>So this event takes place at Olympia Hall, and that
<v Speaker 2>wasn't an arena within Munich's Olympic Park because of Munich
<v Speaker 2>had hosted the Olympic Games in nineteen seventy two and
<v Speaker 2>those games were tragedy games by the tragic tragedy. Indeed,
<v Speaker 2>what's what's what's your highest recommendation in terms of a
<v Speaker 2>film that dramatizes that. Oh, I mean, I think Munich
<v Speaker 2>is great. I think Munich is is fantastic. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>doesn't weally it dramatizes it, but it's really more about
<v Speaker 2>the aftermath. It is about the actual the actual event.
<v Speaker 2>But still I think it's I mean just the I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, Spielberg makes a does a great job at
<v Speaker 2>at at staging there the death of the of the athletes,
<v Speaker 2>and it's it's it's tragic, tragic. My The one part
<v Speaker 2>that I find to be like it actually is like
<v Speaker 2>makes me a little I mean, it's just very actually
<v Speaker 2>not a little bit. It makes me cringe, and it
<v Speaker 2>did when I first saw him, was like, that's kind
<v Speaker 2>of weird. Is have you seen it.
<v Speaker 1>It now?
<v Speaker 2>I mean there's a moment where the lead guy is
<v Speaker 2>having sex with his wife, Okay, but while he's having
<v Speaker 2>sex with her, he's having like these flashback images even
<v Speaker 2>though he wasn't there of the Munich massacre, and he
<v Speaker 2>climaxes as the killings happen, and it's like just fucking weird.
<v Speaker 2>It's like it's like he's like, you know, he's like ah,
<v Speaker 2>like he's like screaming in pain as he's coming in
<v Speaker 2>his wife, and it's like it's just it's just like
<v Speaker 2>I I was like, I don't know, man, Steve, that
<v Speaker 2>was a little much for me, pal like for me.
<v Speaker 2>And if I'm saying that, I'm like, its kind of
<v Speaker 2>just took me out of it a little bit.
<v Speaker 4>Like Steve did the classic film The Record Things Fantasy
<v Speaker 4>actually the Guy the Guys of Art.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean you know, listen, I appre it's it's
<v Speaker 2>I get it sometimes, but like that was just fucking weird. Like,
<v Speaker 2>I was like, Uh, that's just awkward. I'll be watching it.
<v Speaker 2>Does does this qualify it f under the cinemat because
<v Speaker 2>it's of Munich. I don't know if I've not done
<v Speaker 2>stadiums yet, but maybe we'll see there was once a
<v Speaker 2>wrestling show here. Yes it was once. You know, they
<v Speaker 2>don't even go into the arena at all, but maybe,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I don't know, maybe we'll see what else
<v Speaker 2>was on German video shelves. The week this came out
<v Speaker 2>in ninety two was about three months or so. I
<v Speaker 2>think maybe in the summertime it came out, this event
<v Speaker 2>being in April. Curly sue, Oh my god, double impact shots.
<v Speaker 2>Problem child to double Impact is that like a four
<v Speaker 2>hour impact show. Now, all you talk about dialing, he's
<v Speaker 2>still dialing it in. That guy. Let me tell you,
<v Speaker 2>the dial must be huge because he keeps dialing it in.
<v Speaker 2>He has entered the chat. Oh my god.
<v Speaker 4>So this was the second WWF event ever held in Germany.
<v Speaker 4>The first two days earlier at Asta Hall in Kiel,
<v Speaker 4>and that was the undertaker said vicious double count out. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>they had a money inch against the Bushwhackers as well. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>so this was two days later, and of course it
<v Speaker 4>being a television spectacular made it such a bigger deal.
<v Speaker 4>Of course this event took place on Tuesday. It was
<v Speaker 4>a Tuesday as well.
<v Speaker 2>Give me that I love it, April fourte make me
<v Speaker 2>need weekday wrestling live shows like non televised. Well, I
<v Speaker 2>mean this was televised, but still like, come on, I
<v Speaker 2>need it, I need it.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, can you imagine the German school children who
<v Speaker 4>went to the show in class that Tuesday morning, the anticipation, all.
<v Speaker 2>They're doing, they're talking about it, They're like making their
<v Speaker 2>friends jealous who couldn't go. Come on, So what it's
<v Speaker 2>all about.
<v Speaker 4>Now something that's kind of the subject of I wouldn't
<v Speaker 4>say dispute, but it's unclear and Ben did about as
<v Speaker 4>much work as anyone could do to run this down.
<v Speaker 4>Is how live was it? As far as the television broadcast,
<v Speaker 4>it clearly wasn't all the way live because during the
<v Speaker 4>course of the show you can see a clock, you know,
<v Speaker 4>like they have the clocks up in the scoreboard. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>and it doesn't line up with when it would have
<v Speaker 4>been live on telephone.
<v Speaker 2>Okay.
<v Speaker 4>So it did air on a very slight delay, but
<v Speaker 4>not enough of a delay that Carson Schaeffer doesn't have
<v Speaker 4>to live literally run from the announced position with minutes
<v Speaker 4>left in the match to get to the back so
<v Speaker 4>he can be in position to interview a wrestler.
<v Speaker 2>Can you imagine the kind of sweat he was, you know,
<v Speaker 2>just how fucking miserable he must have been.
<v Speaker 4>And you don't realize this if you don't speak German.
<v Speaker 4>But we we got the translations in we'll share them
<v Speaker 4>with you. Of course, as we do the deep dive,
<v Speaker 4>Carson excuses himself from the booth because he's got to
<v Speaker 4>get a position, which Ben points out, Yeah, Carson has
<v Speaker 4>left the building along with Sean Michaels. But as Ben
<v Speaker 4>brilliantly points out, like, what is it fake? Like, how
<v Speaker 4>does Carson know the match.
<v Speaker 2>Is about to end? Yeah? Right exactly.
<v Speaker 4>But perhaps there's some something lost in translation there about
<v Speaker 4>how he protected the business on that front. But yes,
<v Speaker 4>this did air the same day in Germany, But as
<v Speaker 4>far as whether it was all the way live, I
<v Speaker 4>don't necessarily think it was. This is this is televive?
<v Speaker 2>Okay?
<v Speaker 4>That was this television station that aired this thing, and
<v Speaker 4>they would only air WWF Wrestling, and they only would
<v Speaker 4>exist in that form for another eight months or so.
<v Speaker 4>They would close at the end of nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 4>and then WCW would become the primary American pro wrestling
<v Speaker 4>on German television. Really, yeah, we'll get to the history
<v Speaker 4>of it, but Germany is one of those markets where
<v Speaker 4>they have equal affinity for WCW of the time period
<v Speaker 4>as they do WWF, for no other reason than because
<v Speaker 4>German television penetration for WCW was on par, if not superior,
<v Speaker 4>to WWF's at the time.
<v Speaker 2>Wow.
<v Speaker 4>They came first with a show called Wrestling Catch Up,
<v Speaker 4>a ton of a ton of NWA nineteen eighty nine stuff,
<v Speaker 4>but they also would splice in some CWA, the Auto
<v Speaker 4>Vans promotion and some other wrestling. They even had Lucha
<v Speaker 4>Libre and New Japan on German television for a period
<v Speaker 4>of time they show Wow. Yeah, it really was a
<v Speaker 4>kind of a rich market to be taking things in
<v Speaker 4>and this wrestling catch up show it wouldn't be called
<v Speaker 4>as we know, as we've joked about for years, pro
<v Speaker 4>wrestling Germany has referred to as catch catch Catchen and
<v Speaker 4>over the years, as you know that sized catching catch cat. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>he just catch can as well. But I mean to
<v Speaker 4>think of like a Bobby Eaton match being called catch
<v Speaker 4>so funny.
<v Speaker 2>It's amazing that that.
<v Speaker 4>Was the first American pro wrestling on German television, not WWF.
<v Speaker 2>They came second.
<v Speaker 4>And I do love thinking about how they were actually,
<v Speaker 4>you know, kind of playing catch up on this international thing,
<v Speaker 4>like oh, they were actually like, oh my god, we
<v Speaker 4>need to do this, like someone else is doing this.
<v Speaker 4>We need It's always there's always a little thing like
<v Speaker 4>that where someone else did it first, and then they
<v Speaker 4>get all the credit for doing it first, but they
<v Speaker 4>were on the air there, and then WWF follows on
<v Speaker 4>with this Televive alliance as we have here. For almost
<v Speaker 4>four years, wrestling has been part of telefiv's programming. In
<v Speaker 4>the summer of eighty eight, this is from the This
<v Speaker 4>is the text as it read inside of the tour program. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>so if you went to the show, they had a
<v Speaker 4>little bit of a snippet as far as WWF history
<v Speaker 4>on the TELEVIV station, and Televive is the network that
<v Speaker 4>brought Carston Schaeffer for decades decades still twenty twenty. As
<v Speaker 4>a matter of fact, the German voice of WWF no
<v Speaker 4>killing into the fold because he was working for them.
<v Speaker 2>We see him. What show was it that that he
<v Speaker 2>does commentary for? Yes, I know, we saw it. It's
<v Speaker 2>a long time ago. They started flying them in as
<v Speaker 2>they started flying in the international announced teams when they
<v Speaker 2>went to the network, because no, this was this was
<v Speaker 2>this was an older show that we actually covered. Oh
<v Speaker 2>he was the ring announcer at one night only that's right, Yep,
<v Speaker 2>that's right. Didn't do commentary, but he was in. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's right, it was it. Yeah, yep, and yeah, they
<v Speaker 2>would fly him out and you know they remember that.
<v Speaker 2>They would pan to the different countries announced teams. Oh yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I remember.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it would always show him. But I know he
<v Speaker 4>was working at tell A five. When they picked up WWF,
<v Speaker 4>They're like, does anybody.
<v Speaker 2>Want to do this? And he ended up getting that's amazing.
<v Speaker 4>This is what it says again on the tour program.
<v Speaker 4>For almost four years, wrestling has been part of Televive's programming.
<v Speaker 4>In the summer of nineteen eighty eight, program director Chin
<v Speaker 4>Crone acquired the WWF rights for the channel. However, in
<v Speaker 4>its early days, wrestling let a Wallflower existence. Okay, so
<v Speaker 4>this is a little this is a this is interesting,
<v Speaker 4>so this counteracts the Wrestling Catchup was the first like
<v Speaker 4>full bodied wrestling show in German television, but this came
<v Speaker 4>slightly before. And what they're saying in this booklet is
<v Speaker 4>like you could catch snippets of American wrestling on German television.
<v Speaker 4>It wasn't like an hour block, but they would present
<v Speaker 4>it in kind of like highlight form.
<v Speaker 2>Okay.
<v Speaker 4>Program director Joachin Croney acquired the WWF rights for the channel. However,
<v Speaker 4>in its early days Wrestling Let a Wallflower existence. Only
<v Speaker 4>two to three minute sequences were broadcast as part of
<v Speaker 4>the daily sports report at the time or used as
<v Speaker 4>fillers and other programs. When Christian Brondel took over the
<v Speaker 4>sports editorial department in the fall of nineteen eighty eight,
<v Speaker 4>the first full hour episodes were produced. The wrestling program
<v Speaker 4>was initially aired at late night hours, but despite the
<v Speaker 4>unfavorable time slot, the show quickly became a hidden gem
<v Speaker 4>for wrestling fans. Surprisingly, strong ratings were reason enough for
<v Speaker 4>chief editor Hans dtir Zohler to look for a better
<v Speaker 4>time slot for wrestling by the end of nineteen eighty nine.
<v Speaker 4>This is where it picks up. It finally happened. The
<v Speaker 4>World Wrestling Federation had its own program with all the
<v Speaker 4>bells and whistles Ring Fry. Did you see that while
<v Speaker 4>watching this?
<v Speaker 7>No?
<v Speaker 2>I think I missed that one.
<v Speaker 4>Now flash of graphic ring fry f r E I, which,
<v Speaker 4>what the fuck is that?
<v Speaker 2>Now? I like, I like onion rings fried as well.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you exactly right.
<v Speaker 4>Uh So, if you're seeing that and you're wondering, uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, like what the hell that was? That was
<v Speaker 4>basically the name of the television show they gave to
<v Speaker 4>WWF Wrestling, but it was kind of like, you know,
<v Speaker 4>removed from being just exclusively WWF. It wasn't called WWF.
<v Speaker 4>It was called ring Fry, which is basically funniest. I
<v Speaker 4>don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, ring Frey. Perhaps
<v Speaker 4>I prefer fry translated In this context, it's kind of
<v Speaker 4>like let the fight begin, or the ring is ready
<v Speaker 4>or something like that, these guys are ready to fight
<v Speaker 4>or that was kind of the the connotation of the show.
<v Speaker 4>So you'll see if you watch this show that they
<v Speaker 4>occasionally flash ring Fry is like the kind of like
<v Speaker 4>the wrap around title of the show. It does say
<v Speaker 4>European rampage again, but I don't think it said that.
<v Speaker 4>I think it only said that on the VHS. I
<v Speaker 4>don't think it said that on the TELEVIIV broadcast. I
<v Speaker 4>think that was just you know, Ring Fry was always
<v Speaker 4>like a pre tape WWF television show on a three
<v Speaker 4>week four delay. But this was a very special episode
<v Speaker 4>where we're alive in Germany, so that that was kind
<v Speaker 4>of the setup for it. Initially alternating the booklet reads
<v Speaker 4>with boxing and summa wrestling.
<v Speaker 2>That's right.
<v Speaker 4>Ring Fray also would have boxing, isches and sumo. That's
<v Speaker 4>why it was ring right, I see. It soon became
<v Speaker 4>clear that wrestling was what truly interested viewers. The ratings
<v Speaker 4>spoke for themselves. Once the organizational issues were resolved, the
<v Speaker 4>Ring Fry became a pure WWF wrestling magazine. Finding a
<v Speaker 4>host was relatively easy for the Munich based private channel.
<v Speaker 4>Marcel Abua, who's the first person we see here in European.
<v Speaker 2>Rampage suggest the green screen.
<v Speaker 4>Yes he is, who was previously active in the GDR
<v Speaker 4>on the youth show ELF ninety nine, apparently had something
<v Speaker 4>to do with the television show called ELF ninety nine.
<v Speaker 4>I was looking for new work after Ten's House ended
<v Speaker 4>on tele Avive. That must have been another show Ton's
<v Speaker 4>house with his background as a decathlete. This man was
<v Speaker 4>a decathlete, of course it was. It was clear he
<v Speaker 4>was the right man to host Ring Frye. He agreed
<v Speaker 4>to the channel, and the channel and the show suited him,
<v Speaker 4>and that was that. Finding commentators wasn't difficult either, as
<v Speaker 4>they were already there. Uli Fresseler, who had spent a
<v Speaker 4>long time in the US. That's right, she is great English.
<v Speaker 4>She actually lived in Minnesota as a young girl. And wow,
<v Speaker 4>I think only one of her parents were German and
<v Speaker 4>she had dual citizenship and stuff. But she spent a
<v Speaker 4>lot of years in America in her formative years and
<v Speaker 4>watched wrestling. She remembers, as we'll talk about Kurt Hennick
<v Speaker 4>wrestling in Awa.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, amazing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, no language barriers didn't want to miss out in
<v Speaker 4>the spectacle. Carston, who actually is authoring this, writes I
<v Speaker 4>was also there from the beginning, having worked with Uli
<v Speaker 4>on other projects, and thus the trio of Uli, Marcel
<v Speaker 4>and Carston was formed. It has remained that way ever since,
<v Speaker 4>and any changes the show is under gone have only
<v Speaker 4>increased the enthusiasm Carson later put on his Facebook page
<v Speaker 4>that he officially started on March eleventh, nineteen eighty nine,
<v Speaker 4>and he recollects it this way. I was given a
<v Speaker 4>shelf in the hallway with about twenty existing WWF broadcast tapes,
<v Speaker 4>a monitor, a tape machine, a chair, and a pair
<v Speaker 4>of headphones. They told me we needed the first episode
<v Speaker 4>by next week. So I spent late nights at the
<v Speaker 4>station listening to the broadcasts and then compiled matches in
<v Speaker 4>a logical order, took them to the studio where an
<v Speaker 4>editor cut them together and wrote the entire commentary. During
<v Speaker 4>this time, I'd go into the sound studio with a
<v Speaker 4>one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty page script,
<v Speaker 4>holy shit, giving my colleague cues on when to speak.
<v Speaker 4>That's how they would do it. Here's all this footage,
<v Speaker 4>you fucking make a TV show out of it. Just
<v Speaker 4>get our stuff on there. And they would not do
<v Speaker 4>like a live to tape thing. They would lay it
<v Speaker 4>down and lay down the track with time codes of
<v Speaker 4>what they were saying in German over the English. And
<v Speaker 4>that takes a lot of work to like go through
<v Speaker 4>the whole show. And note before computers are really sophisticated
<v Speaker 4>to do this for you and automate this to like,
<v Speaker 4>you know, make faithful notations of what everybody's saying in
<v Speaker 4>English so that you can get the key points across
<v Speaker 4>in German and then lay it down in German in
<v Speaker 4>an exact time period, in an exact time frame that
<v Speaker 4>it fits the broadcast, because you couldn't keep speaking German
<v Speaker 4>after they cut away from what it was you were
<v Speaker 4>trying to describe, so you had to be it was
<v Speaker 4>basically like these broadcasts are. They had no choice but
<v Speaker 4>to read directly off scripts.
<v Speaker 2>That's what you were.
<v Speaker 4>You weren't really watching calls of the matches you were
<v Speaker 4>you were you were watching people read scripts and trying
<v Speaker 4>to hit time codes because that was the way to
<v Speaker 4>do it back then. Yeah, that's a lot of a
<v Speaker 4>lot of dedication that I'd never appreciated till then brought
<v Speaker 4>all this material to us in English, that these international
<v Speaker 4>markets had to do a lot of duct taping together
<v Speaker 4>of stuff when it came to making a television show
<v Speaker 4>for the German network. H German Fan, But how is
<v Speaker 4>a ring Fry episode actually created?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>First, this is from the booklet. First, the incoming material
<v Speaker 4>is reviewed each week, Which matches are of interest, which
<v Speaker 4>are current? Are many superstars involved? What do the viewers
<v Speaker 4>actually want to see?
<v Speaker 2>Exactly?
<v Speaker 4>Similar questions are carefully considered in selecting the matches. Then
<v Speaker 4>come step two editing. The editor carrying a heavy load,
<v Speaker 4>heads to the so called ed room with editors who
<v Speaker 4>are just as passionate about wrestling as I am. Graphics
<v Speaker 4>are inserted, music has added, effects are selected, and everything
<v Speaker 4>is put on the right light. The next day the
<v Speaker 4>audio was recorded. Background information which should never be forgotten,
<v Speaker 4>is woven into the commentary.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we'll get to this.
<v Speaker 4>But Carson used to on his own do like research
<v Speaker 4>on these wrestlers, including looking at the observer, having no idea,
<v Speaker 4>I don't think of, like how much of a faux
<v Speaker 4>pad that would be back in And there would be
<v Speaker 4>these graphics on the WWF German broadcasts that would show
<v Speaker 4>like background sketches, and they would put the wrestler's real
<v Speaker 4>names on the television screen. What thinking there was nothing
<v Speaker 4>untoward about that.
<v Speaker 2>It's called the Terry be Brother, whoa whoa house Brother?
<v Speaker 2>I'm Hulhogen on the German, on the German Tizzle Brother
<v Speaker 2>there just to put my real name out there, dude,
<v Speaker 2>we're talking telefizzle. Brother, Now we're talking about dude, Telefizzle. Telefizzle.
<v Speaker 4>You could convince me that's the name of a German network.
<v Speaker 4>Uli and I, he writes, Always strive for a relaxed
<v Speaker 4>tone because Ring Frye is not a political magazine, but
<v Speaker 4>a mix of sports, entertainment, action and fun. After long,
<v Speaker 4>another long editing process, the final version is ready. The
<v Speaker 4>proud editor brings the finish tape to the broadcast control room,
<v Speaker 4>from where it finds its way to home television screens.
<v Speaker 4>This has been the routine for nearly three years, and
<v Speaker 4>hopefully it will continue for much longer. As Marcel would say,
<v Speaker 4>a dynamic event from Carston Schaeffer. All right, every Friday
<v Speaker 4>night you can catch Ring fry on televive. So that
<v Speaker 4>was you're a German fan in eighty nine ninety any
<v Speaker 4>one too, You locked in Friday Night's baby, that's when
<v Speaker 4>you got to see your WWF.
<v Speaker 2>That's spectacular.
<v Speaker 4>So we turned the page to nineteen ninety. Starting on
<v Speaker 4>January twelfth of that year, for telefive, viewers could watch
<v Speaker 4>WWF every other Friday. It was every other Friday evening.
<v Speaker 4>It was listed under the term catchin and TV Guide
<v Speaker 4>was sometimes with the subtilest fixed broadcast slot and a
<v Speaker 4>repeat aired weekly from Saturday to Sunday night, commentated by
<v Speaker 4>Uli Fessler and Carston Schaeffer again covered not only WWF
<v Speaker 4>but also n W A A W A, US W
<v Speaker 4>A P n W S A W, Japanese, Mexican Lucca,
<v Speaker 4>European promotions like the CWA. It was all being talked
<v Speaker 4>about on German television back then, and it featured informational
<v Speaker 4>graphics like we mentioned, top ten rankings that they would
<v Speaker 4>come up with. They talk about, you know, legends like
<v Speaker 4>Auto Vans and German legends that.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sorry, you can't talk about that auto German auto Auto?
<v Speaker 2>What now?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>No, you can't talk about people who I didn't create.
<v Speaker 2>Wait did I create Auto Vans, Patterson? Did I create
<v Speaker 2>Auto Vans?
<v Speaker 5>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, boss, you did? All right, you can talk about
<v Speaker 2>them then, only my creations. I don't remember creating them.
<v Speaker 2>But it's fine. I don't always remember my creations, not
<v Speaker 2>all of them. What my creations always remember me? However,
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you what. All my creations remember their father,
<v Speaker 2>but I'm then from there children All my creations remember
<v Speaker 2>their father. But they're not all my children. And then
<v Speaker 2>from there and then from there we promote.
<v Speaker 4>So Ring Fry was Marcella Bua, the guy who presents
<v Speaker 4>this broadcast to us on the opening and closing segments,
<v Speaker 4>wrapping around not only WWF wrestling, but boxing and sumo
<v Speaker 4>was mentioned. Ran for approximately ninety minutes if you include commercials,
<v Speaker 4>and Ring fryared weekly on Fridays, usually between ten pm
<v Speaker 4>and midnight. But in nineteen ninety two, that was the
<v Speaker 4>Pidol year, the start of the real boom in Germany,
<v Speaker 4>as the wwfking to Germany for the first time and
<v Speaker 4>the official German language WWF magazine was released Wow German
<v Speaker 4>specific magazines for the market that Carston Shaffer played a
<v Speaker 4>big role and putting together and getting out there, it
<v Speaker 4>all truly started. You know, that's interesting that that booklet
<v Speaker 4>mentions eighty eight that that sounds to be like, we
<v Speaker 4>know it actually started in eighty nine, but we're gonna
<v Speaker 4>try to find some edit course kind of on television
<v Speaker 4>before that, because that's not our show we're talking about.
<v Speaker 4>But in eighty nine, catch Up was the show that
<v Speaker 4>had WA matches and c WA matches. That was the
<v Speaker 4>first German wrestling TV show catch Up and what about mayonnaise?
<v Speaker 4>You know what, that's one that never occurred to me
<v Speaker 4>after all these hours of prep that catch up of.
<v Speaker 2>Course, thinking about the first time, it's fucking ketchup. You've
<v Speaker 2>watched a catch, you've watched the catch, you've catch, and
<v Speaker 2>you've watched it go up, So catch up. Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 2>very good.
<v Speaker 4>Ketchup has a German Jesse then tore a rip off
<v Speaker 4>called Der best Raffer horsed der bust Raffer or the
<v Speaker 4>Punisher Rock. He had a yellow bandon on and like
<v Speaker 4>a frilly shirt and he thought he was.
<v Speaker 2>In Hey, you know what, that's not fair. I have
<v Speaker 2>you know, I have a license over my Look, you
<v Speaker 2>can't steal it over there, even if you're in Germany.
<v Speaker 2>Come on, I'm going to shoe.
<v Speaker 4>Aren't there aren't there several international intellectual property courts located?
<v Speaker 2>You know what, I'll tell you what has everyone been haguing?
<v Speaker 2>Come on, hey, you know here's the thing. I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to go over there and I'm going to tell you what.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to establish international IPO law. I want you
<v Speaker 2>to not.
<v Speaker 4>Loose sight of the fact you just said and this
<v Speaker 4>somehow came organically. It's an organic phenomenon here I will
<v Speaker 4>jump into us, says he has everyone been haging, which
<v Speaker 4>by which he means filing process in European courts. No, Jesse,
<v Speaker 4>we haven't been, have you?
<v Speaker 2>Have you been haguing? Absolutely? Hey? You know, if I'll
<v Speaker 2>tell you what I make it actually a very important thing.
<v Speaker 2>Every every year I do hagging at least one week
<v Speaker 2>a year. I hague. That's how you say hag in Minnesotan.
<v Speaker 2>You old hague. Catch up? Okay? The first Chairman Wrestling
<v Speaker 2>TV show followed by Relish, you just see C A
<v Speaker 2>T C h up and all caps, and then you
<v Speaker 2>see relish and all caps right underneath it. It's a
<v Speaker 2>resting job. But then all of a sudden you just
<v Speaker 2>see a splatter of condiments. What's on an eleven thirty
<v Speaker 2>garlic powder? What the hell is that? Worcestershire sauce? What
<v Speaker 2>a fuck Worcester shero. Isn't that a style of a
<v Speaker 2>lawn wrestling? And that's what the television should have been
<v Speaker 2>for the fucking rest when they what are they toss
<v Speaker 2>guys on the lawn and that when there's something like
<v Speaker 2>that the Worcestershire style delicious, uh oh my god, catch
<v Speaker 2>mashed potatoes. It's also known as Catching or catches. Catch
<v Speaker 2>Can focused entirely on rest. That show aired from nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty nine to nineteen ninety one on RTL ninety eight
<v Speaker 2>episodes produced. It didn't just focus on wrestling, but also
<v Speaker 2>gave you insights and excerpts from matches of the major
<v Speaker 2>US wrestling leagues such as the NWA, and you got
<v Speaker 2>to see Vader and Flair and Sting and build on
<v Speaker 2>German television Jesus and at the time there really were
<v Speaker 2>no glimpses into the WWF available on German television for
<v Speaker 2>that period of time, not in that kind of one
<v Speaker 2>hour block format. But telefive eventually got Ringfry and that
<v Speaker 2>had WWF sumo boxing, and later it was transformed as
<v Speaker 2>mentioned entirely into a WWF show and telefive bought a network.
<v Speaker 2>Telfive was bought at the end of nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 2>is mentioned and changed to a station called DSF one,
<v Speaker 2>and when that happened, the WWF left telefive and went
<v Speaker 2>to RTL two. You'll see a lot of German television
<v Speaker 2>clips of WWF on YouTube that have RTL two watermark
<v Speaker 2>in the corner, and that was after the run on
<v Speaker 2>the network they were on at the time of this
<v Speaker 2>European rampage show tell Aviv.
<v Speaker 4>Apparently even after that when they went to RTL two,
<v Speaker 4>that's when they really had a boom. People talk about
<v Speaker 4>it seems like, well, this was a huge landmark thing
<v Speaker 4>that they had this live broadcast. It was the station
<v Speaker 4>they landed on in nineteen ninety three where they really became.
<v Speaker 4>RTL two really became basically like a WWF Sunday afternoon institution. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>there's this fascinating history of the German wrestling where for
<v Speaker 4>some reason, broadcasting regulators just hated the violence and hated
<v Speaker 4>having it anywhere but in the middle of the night. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>the WWF was haunted by this, not just during the
<v Speaker 4>Attitude era, but in the earliest days of WWF. They
<v Speaker 4>just had to be on the evenings because the regulators
<v Speaker 4>they were not having this Saturday morning wrestling tradition like
<v Speaker 4>we hell, no, degenerate American kids were used to receiving.
<v Speaker 4>They just thought it was too violenting and so they
<v Speaker 4>were always you know, and at the time they were
<v Speaker 4>putting forward the most kid friendly presentation they'd ever done,
<v Speaker 4>you know. I mean, WWF was designed for kids, I'm
<v Speaker 4>not afraid to say that in the early nineties. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>so if you're doing that, but you've got to be
<v Speaker 4>on at fucking twelve thirty at night, it kind of
<v Speaker 4>defeats the pur ruin is the whole fucking thing, absolutely,
<v Speaker 4>So that was kind of the trajectory that the WF
<v Speaker 4>was following with ring Fry and Ben kind of did
<v Speaker 4>some rundowns as to whether the show was live, and
<v Speaker 4>in fact, it is called live. It's talked about live
<v Speaker 4>both on the broadcast and whenever people write about it.
<v Speaker 4>But he disagrees for one part because the ticket says
<v Speaker 4>six thirty pm entry time, seven thirty pm start time,
<v Speaker 4>but the TV guide list is the show starting at
<v Speaker 4>nine ten pm.
<v Speaker 2>Ooh shit, he says.
<v Speaker 4>April fourthineteen ninety two is a Tuesday, and there are
<v Speaker 4>very many children in the audience. But in Bavaria and
<v Speaker 4>all other German federal states that I checked, the Easter
<v Speaker 4>holidays were in full swing that way.
<v Speaker 2>Oh fuck that We're not doing this shit on either
<v Speaker 2>or no or no.
<v Speaker 4>Who would write that ridiculous suggestion? He says, the unique
<v Speaker 4>architecture of the Olympia Hall lets the dying daylight in
<v Speaker 4>when the event starts. Sunset for April fourteenth, and Munich
<v Speaker 4>is predicted for eighth three pm, so seven thirty pm
<v Speaker 4>start time is more likely than nine ten. Yeah, you
<v Speaker 4>wouldn't be able to see that daylight if this was
<v Speaker 4>a fact live.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, exactly.
<v Speaker 4>He also notes that when Hitman and Diino Bravo collide
<v Speaker 4>at nine minutes and seven seconds on the video file,
<v Speaker 4>you see the Olympia Hall clock in the background, which
<v Speaker 4>says almost eight pm.
<v Speaker 8>Wow.
<v Speaker 4>If indeed aired at nine ten pm, as listings indicate,
<v Speaker 4>this was not truly live. There are several visible breaks
<v Speaker 4>during the show, but we were missing no action. That's
<v Speaker 4>a great point. The live event could be matched up
<v Speaker 4>with the commercial break, sure, but when taking all the
<v Speaker 4>other factors into consideration, I guess the show was aired
<v Speaker 4>on a delay of over an hour. So yeah, there
<v Speaker 4>really aren't like there really isn't a point where you're like, Okay,
<v Speaker 4>they went to commercial and now we're coming back, right,
<v Speaker 4>there's been five minutes of wrestling that we've missed. You
<v Speaker 4>don't ever get a moment like that, So that tells
<v Speaker 4>you it was on delay. As well, the evening of
<v Speaker 4>April fourteenth, nineteen ninety two in German television. I think
<v Speaker 4>this is important to establish Ben Wright, since I finally
<v Speaker 4>found out that the Munich show aired with a little
<v Speaker 4>delay on the day that it took place, and not
<v Speaker 4>the Saturday after or whatever. Yeah, there's also some some
<v Speaker 4>things you'll find online that indicate the show aired on
<v Speaker 4>a week delay, which is not true. I was interested
<v Speaker 4>what else was on that legendary evening. I don't think
<v Speaker 4>that the other TV stations were scared of WF Wrestling
<v Speaker 4>and ran strong counter programming, but let's imagine they gave
<v Speaker 4>a shit and were in full crisis mode. Well, at
<v Speaker 4>seven nineteen pm, ten year old me was one hundred percent,
<v Speaker 4>as he recalls, because I remember that made it clear
<v Speaker 4>he saw the show after the fact when he was
<v Speaker 4>given a tape not live. That night, at seven nineteen pm,
<v Speaker 4>ten year old Me was one hundred percent sitting in
<v Speaker 4>front of the TV watching night Rider, damn fucking right,
<v Speaker 4>season four, episode fourteen on RTL.
<v Speaker 2>Wow.
<v Speaker 4>I'm almost certain that We's family stayed on RTL after
<v Speaker 4>that and watched Colombo, and that it was straight to
<v Speaker 4>bed for me. We had no telefive. I won't lecture
<v Speaker 4>you about German TV and tennis stuff from nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 4>and I did not know that the show was happening.
<v Speaker 4>Imagine he did not know that WWF was essentially live
<v Speaker 4>that night. I mean this is like, you know, watching
<v Speaker 4>Saturday Nights made event when we were kids. Yeah, exactly,
<v Speaker 4>and like not knowing about it or like not sure
<v Speaker 4>if it's on now, and the thrill of you know,
<v Speaker 4>trying to line up somehow. Yeah, the possibility that you
<v Speaker 4>could see it. Yeah, my mom would rather, he writes.
<v Speaker 4>My mom would rather put me in an orphanage. We
<v Speaker 4>watched wrestling in nineteen ninety two. It's fake and brutal.
<v Speaker 2>We can't have that. Listen, We're not going to have
<v Speaker 2>fake brutality. Which which is it fake or you got
<v Speaker 2>to make up your mind? Mom, Oh my god, he says.
<v Speaker 2>Was it a coincidence that another channel aired a wrestling
<v Speaker 2>themed Magnum PI episode at midnight? Well, never know, he writes,
<v Speaker 2>but we know the text and the TV guide reads
<v Speaker 2>a catcher helps Magnum in a fight. Soon after, Magnum
<v Speaker 2>will get the opportunity to return the favor over on
<v Speaker 2>another German station called ZDF. They were airing an episode
<v Speaker 2>of Lily loto Fee, which translates to which translates apparently
<v Speaker 2>to Lily Lottery Faery. Never heard of it, but it
<v Speaker 2>sounds sowhat intriguing that. I mean, so there's a show
<v Speaker 2>of a ferry who controls the lottery.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, but the episode description is Lily gets
<v Speaker 4>sought in half and gets married.
<v Speaker 2>Brother, what do you mean gets married?
<v Speaker 4>But I mean, boss, you know, we know by now
<v Speaker 4>that just because a television station sees ratings and putting
<v Speaker 4>WWF wrestling on television doesn't mean that station thinks wrestling
<v Speaker 4>is real or okay.
<v Speaker 2>Most often it feels like it's as it should. A detriment, a.
<v Speaker 4>Detriment, definitely something that while we'll put it on the
<v Speaker 4>air and we understand some people like it, some proletariat
<v Speaker 4>people might like it, we know as a sophisticated television presenter,
<v Speaker 4>we know, as a sophisticated television station that this is
<v Speaker 4>not real and we do not think it's real, and
<v Speaker 4>that is not okay, and that it's not okay. Sixteen
<v Speaker 4>months before this WWF European Rampage again show this Ring
<v Speaker 4>Fry presentation aired on televive the same station did a
<v Speaker 4>a takedown, a hit piece of the business. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 4>it's it's it's something, it's something to see. Fortunately for us,
<v Speaker 4>Ben is able to provide critical translation to I guess
<v Speaker 4>the LAPS editor are taking a flight to Hamburg, and
<v Speaker 4>I think that's how we can interpret this one. Apparently
<v Speaker 4>it's from this November December of nineteen ninety and as
<v Speaker 4>he reports Ben, it was put in casually between a
<v Speaker 4>Saturday Night's main event Hogan interview and Roma versus Jannetti.
<v Speaker 4>They actually aired this during the WWF time slot on telephone.
<v Speaker 4>What they inserted a news piece about how it's all fake,
<v Speaker 4>but it does the piece kind of leans more into
<v Speaker 4>mocking and making fun of Otto VONSU at the time
<v Speaker 4>would be considered I get a local opposition.
<v Speaker 2>Hey I hey, somebody tell me? Do we have an
<v Speaker 2>international flight budget.
<v Speaker 4>Called a couple of dollars to by the boss? It
<v Speaker 4>depends what you have to.
<v Speaker 2>Let me tell you. Let me tell you something right now,
<v Speaker 2>I get it what you just calm down. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>get somewhere. I'm I don't fucking talk to me. I'm
<v Speaker 2>telling you, what's fucking happening. There's a fucking have you noticed?
<v Speaker 2>Have you fucking noticed that all of a sudden, you
<v Speaker 2>know that this fucking fucking wrestling bullshit, all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>it's just coming quiet. After the big fucking show that eight,
<v Speaker 2>that eight thing they did, thousands of people the who
<v Speaker 2>you know, and now we don't heard about it. These
<v Speaker 2>guys know where to be found, what I'm saying, And
<v Speaker 2>then they're fucking gone. I know where they are. Where
<v Speaker 2>are they, boss? They're in fucking Europe. They are going
<v Speaker 2>over to fucking Europe and they are fucking they're making
<v Speaker 2>fools out of our fucking brothers and sisters over in Europe. Fools.
<v Speaker 7>I'm going to you right now, don't fucking talk me
<v Speaker 7>out of this ceather. You sit the fucking ass down.
<v Speaker 7>I'm gonna go over there. I'm gonna fucking swim over
<v Speaker 7>whatever I have to. I'm gonna rip these motherfuckers the shreds.
<v Speaker 7>There is no way, no fucking way that they go global.
<v Speaker 2>To tell me something. How is my German? Let me
<v Speaker 2>do what? Nine? Huh? Is that good?
<v Speaker 1>Right?
<v Speaker 2>They say? Guden dog right? Right, come on right right,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I'm finally fuck here it is mmm.
<v Speaker 4>The voiceover pressured by the laps editor is Ben Wright's
<v Speaker 4>pressure looking over their shoulder. In the past, they were
<v Speaker 4>active as ringers or amateur wrestlers. Baseball players are boxers.
<v Speaker 4>They're showing wrestling clips during this, you know, like small
<v Speaker 4>time guys getting on in years. They earn their living
<v Speaker 4>by catching for the amusement of the spectators. They present
<v Speaker 4>themselves like the cabinet of curiosities of Doctor Frankenstein. The
<v Speaker 4>audience decides who's good and who's evil. Outside of the arena,
<v Speaker 4>there is not much left of the Glimmer on tour
<v Speaker 4>for three years. They live in campra vans and they
<v Speaker 4>show a parking lot, oh my god, looking like the bigger, faster,
<v Speaker 4>stronger bodybuilder guys who live in the parking lot of
<v Speaker 4>the Golds gym and trailers. It's just loaded with these guys,
<v Speaker 4>fucking caravan of gypsy existences.
<v Speaker 2>Now you fucking read what I fucking write right for you?
<v Speaker 2>You understand me. I'm got a gun at your fucking head,
<v Speaker 2>all right, and if you don't read this, I will
<v Speaker 2>blow your fucking head off on fucking light television. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not afraid to do it. It's not real. You know
<v Speaker 2>it's not real. Your fucking people, your city, they living,
<v Speaker 2>they living like gypsies, and you're putting them on television.
<v Speaker 2>You're putting on television. You're paying them money, You're paying
<v Speaker 2>them fucking money. I will pull this fucking trigger so fast.
<v Speaker 2>You know it's not real. You told me you know
<v Speaker 2>it's not real. You know it's not real. I heard
<v Speaker 2>it out of your fucking German mouth. Do they not real?
<v Speaker 2>Do they not have froud laws in this country? Come on,
<v Speaker 2>come on, he says, all the all the Froud lines.
<v Speaker 2>Huh huh, come on? Is why are froud no crime here?
<v Speaker 2>They went? Just just fucking say it's really. What is
<v Speaker 2>it that you want that I want? You say it's real, real, real,
<v Speaker 2>it's real. I'm gonna blow your fucking mouth off. It's real,
<v Speaker 2>all right? You say it's real. Oh you say it's real.
<v Speaker 2>You're fucking dead. You could have said that before you
<v Speaker 2>you pressured me to say it was real. You say
<v Speaker 2>it's fake, and maybe you see, maybe you get to
<v Speaker 2>fucking wake up tomorrow morning. It's I don't believe any
<v Speaker 2>of it. It's all phony, maloney, So fucking see it
<v Speaker 2>on your line television or I'm gonna fucking kill.
<v Speaker 4>You, so say it, so say it on your live television. Tremendous.
<v Speaker 4>This guy, this guy is the revolutionary who took over
<v Speaker 4>the country on the air. The revolution has been televised.
<v Speaker 4>You let him in the country with firearm anyway, because
<v Speaker 4>he's gonna protect the German public.
<v Speaker 2>Now, this one man.
<v Speaker 4>On twelve for three years. They live in Camp Evans and,
<v Speaker 4>like man gypsies, often moved from town to town with
<v Speaker 4>their families every time a camera is nearby. The narrator says,
<v Speaker 4>they are careful to play the show perfectly. However, the
<v Speaker 4>musclemen deny that what they do is just a show.
<v Speaker 4>They show a wrestler named Eddie Steinblock. Now and as
<v Speaker 4>Ben notes, this wrestler Eddie Steinblock, this German wrestler that's
<v Speaker 4>featured in this piece, adds to under the cinemat he
<v Speaker 4>died two days before retirement against gangrel more.
<v Speaker 2>Really okay.
<v Speaker 4>When the bell starts, this guy says, the show is
<v Speaker 4>over for us. Show is when someone I for example,
<v Speaker 4>I have long hair, someone is bald, someone is a
<v Speaker 4>little bit tattooed. In terms of outfit, someone wears long pants,
<v Speaker 4>somewhar short.
<v Speaker 2>Fans talking about that belongs to the show. But everything else,
<v Speaker 2>the actual fight, he says, is one percent serious and
<v Speaker 2>has nothing at all to do with show except big show,
<v Speaker 2>who's definitely having some schnitzel, trying to say in German
<v Speaker 2>they are that. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>All of course, all the over the top costumes and
<v Speaker 4>the wild hairdos and the gimmicks and stuff are for show,
<v Speaker 4>but the fights themselves are real. So k fab alive
<v Speaker 4>and well in Germany, and I'm fascinated. Here's the next
<v Speaker 4>voice over, pressured by lapsed editor muscles, if, even if
<v Speaker 4>only for show, want to be trained like with any
<v Speaker 4>honest sportsmen, honest sportsmen, The tone tells you these are
<v Speaker 4>not honest sportsmen. The training in the weight room belongs
<v Speaker 4>to the everyday routine of the catchers. The catchers, what
<v Speaker 4>about the shortstops exactly?
<v Speaker 2>What about the pictures?
<v Speaker 4>For that matter, Catchers prefer to call themselves professional ringers, brother,
<v Speaker 4>although what does the professional ringer sound like? Something like that,
<v Speaker 4>although it remains to be asked whether the wrestlers in
<v Speaker 4>the classical discipline Greco Roman or freestyle would like to
<v Speaker 4>be put on the same level with catchers. The real
<v Speaker 4>wrestlers want to convince through performance. The others, the catchers,
<v Speaker 4>often provoke through their appearance. The show no longer seems
<v Speaker 4>to be in keeping, but the times is fewer and
<v Speaker 4>fewer spectators want to pay up to thirty five deutsch
<v Speaker 4>marks per show. Of this slapstick those who come, those
<v Speaker 4>who come, except with approval that only the show is
<v Speaker 4>raging in the ring.
<v Speaker 2>Here's a fan, the atmosphere here in the ring. I
<v Speaker 2>know for sure that it is a show fight. There
<v Speaker 2>is a show fight is a hilarious term for wrestling.
<v Speaker 2>That shit, that's awesome. Can you get an little T
<v Speaker 2>shirt action? Then? Yes, there are no real blows on
<v Speaker 2>the back, there are no real blows fight, no real blows.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, no real blow, Oh my god, I
<v Speaker 2>write that one down shirts that's the shirt show fight.
<v Speaker 2>And then just no real blows like no holds barred
<v Speaker 2>in the same typeface, no real blows. That's so true.
<v Speaker 4>Lest anybody accuse you of not knowing what you're paying
<v Speaker 4>for when you walk into a wrestling show, that's actually
<v Speaker 4>the good thing about it. The fan says, people have fun.
<v Speaker 4>There are no fights. I guess he means in the
<v Speaker 4>audience and that's what I find good about this. And
<v Speaker 4>here's a woman fan the beautiful man. What else asked
<v Speaker 4>you know? Obviously when she comes to the show, the
<v Speaker 4>athletic figures. Of course, it's clear. It's a bit of
<v Speaker 4>excitement and fun. The interviewer says, not brutal, and she says, no,
<v Speaker 4>actually not. We are already coming here every year, so
<v Speaker 4>we know that normally it is not that brutal voiceover
<v Speaker 4>pressured by labst editor. Despite all the success, Auto Han's
<v Speaker 4>has recognized the signs of the times. He's changing camp
<v Speaker 4>from the bringing to the box office. In the future,
<v Speaker 4>he will only be promoter. Whether auto who always tries
<v Speaker 4>to give this circus? Apparently the work used in German
<v Speaker 4>is tingletangle, which benlis is a derogatory term for a
<v Speaker 4>traveling cabaret performance. So we're going to see the Tingletango
<v Speaker 4>at the Elks Lodge this weekend. The appearance of integ.
<v Speaker 2>The say it, so we're going to say it, say it,
<v Speaker 2>say it, whether Otto who always tries to give this circus,
<v Speaker 2>The appearance of integrity is just interestinging. It's so hard
<v Speaker 2>in German. They don't give a fuck. They're going in,
<v Speaker 2>They're going in is happy about the admission of children
<v Speaker 2>under fourteen to the brutal looking fighting scenes. The statements
<v Speaker 2>about youth work can't be meant entirely seriously, not clear
<v Speaker 2>what that means. Who can tell the difference between good
<v Speaker 2>and evil? The announcer says the narrator, between those who
<v Speaker 2>look each other in the eyes and punch each other
<v Speaker 2>in the nose. Here's another guy from the audience at
<v Speaker 2>the American Catchen. Children are everywhere too, So why shouldn't
<v Speaker 2>you do that here American Ketchen? Oh fuck h yes,
<v Speaker 2>it's American Catchen. Another fan.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, there are these videos and things like that
<v Speaker 4>for ages sixteen and up that also include violent scenes,
<v Speaker 4>but under sixteen I would strictly say no voiceover. The
<v Speaker 4>newest perversion in the Confrontation of the Mountains of Flesh
<v Speaker 4>comes from the USA Chain Fight, and they have a
<v Speaker 4>match where they're using a chain. It's a chame fight,
<v Speaker 4>of course it is. It's really surprising that the Professional
<v Speaker 4>Wrestling Association Okay, which is a thing called the verbond
<v Speaker 4>der Burve Stringer, an association of all catchers, approved such
<v Speaker 4>a spectacle. Fortunately, not all decencies stayed on the ring.
<v Speaker 2>If they if they had, I'll tell you what if
<v Speaker 2>they had, If they have a baseball league in Germany,
<v Speaker 2>then everything is fucking confusing. Now yeahs all over the place.
<v Speaker 4>No, they're really gonna have a tough time. Couldn't be
<v Speaker 4>elected dog catcher Sylvester Ritter's name in Germany would have
<v Speaker 4>been dog chatter. An association of all catchers approved such
<v Speaker 4>a spectacle. Fortunately, not all decency stayed in the ring.
<v Speaker 4>Floor miners are not allowed to attend the chain fight.
<v Speaker 4>Here's the fan. One thing should be said about the
<v Speaker 4>report you've just seen. Oh no, no, this is back. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>this is great. Remember I told you this piece aired
<v Speaker 4>during Ringfry, Yes, during the WWF wrestling show in German television.
<v Speaker 4>So here is what is said when they come back
<v Speaker 4>to ring Fry from that piece that just.
<v Speaker 2>Ripped the whole business to destruction. Okay, this is a.
<v Speaker 4>This is Carson Schaeffer. One thing should be said about
<v Speaker 4>the report you've just seen. The chain fight that was
<v Speaker 4>shown in hints is not allowed in the WWF, and
<v Speaker 4>a very personal comment on that. I think that's a
<v Speaker 4>very good thing. Thereby, wrestling remains what it is, a
<v Speaker 4>sport in which the sport dominates.
<v Speaker 2>Mmm.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know about that, pal that they would that
<v Speaker 4>they found themselves having to counteract or report from their
<v Speaker 4>own network and the body of their own show about
<v Speaker 4>the integrity of without they're watching. Maybe it was a
<v Speaker 4>response to the sensors who were trying to lump what
<v Speaker 4>WWF did in with some of the more violent stuff
<v Speaker 4>happening at local German wrestling shows. And this piece is
<v Speaker 4>supposed to differentiate. But the WWF is from what sensors
<v Speaker 4>we're seeking to, you know, not allow children to see.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, but it's so funny that like that
<v Speaker 4>attitude migrated across the Atlantic to Germany, just so tremendous.
<v Speaker 4>As Ben notes, However, after over three decades, as we sit,
<v Speaker 4>German mainstream media is not bound to destroy wrestling anymore.
<v Speaker 4>It seems those who like it like it, those who
<v Speaker 4>don't don't. There are media outlets that care about it,
<v Speaker 4>others don't. It's not shocking to see a ww documentary
<v Speaker 4>or an episode of W's Most Wanted Treasures or TV
<v Speaker 4>on in today's media landscape, but wrestling does not have
<v Speaker 4>the This is a new brutal USA thing that is
<v Speaker 4>also fake and we must hate Aura from back then.
<v Speaker 4>It's established. You might say, yeah, that was another thing too,
<v Speaker 4>is American filth?
<v Speaker 1>You know?
<v Speaker 2>Of course that made it so much worse well, which
<v Speaker 2>is kind of why I found it to be so
<v Speaker 2>funny that they're channing USA right and American filth, and.
<v Speaker 4>The fans don't give a fuck. They just think it's fun.
<v Speaker 4>They just think it's They want to just do what
<v Speaker 4>they see on television from the American arenas. They're happy
<v Speaker 4>to see Jim Duggan and to cheer them on. They
<v Speaker 4>don't they don't consider themselves betraying their country by channing
<v Speaker 4>Jim Duggin's slogan. The hell if Jim Duggin stands for America,
<v Speaker 4>we love Jim Duggan, then fine, We're all about USA.
<v Speaker 2>Works for me.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know why wrestling has to always be the
<v Speaker 4>other way around, Why it has to be, you know,
<v Speaker 4>a business that knows how to rally fans against certain
<v Speaker 4>nationalities and ethnicity in certain flags, Why it can't get
<v Speaker 4>people to find common cause like that? Was the most
<v Speaker 4>brilliant thing about Nikita Coleoff at the end of the
<v Speaker 4>day was when he went babyface and joined up with
<v Speaker 4>Dusty in the Superpowers during the Cold War, during the
<v Speaker 4>height of Russophobia. I'm not talking about nineteen ninety nine.
<v Speaker 4>You had, you know, the most like hardcore down South
<v Speaker 4>American wrestling fans cheering at the top of their lungs
<v Speaker 4>for a Russian dominator because he was using his powers
<v Speaker 4>for good. Yep, that's pretty cool. That was only happening
<v Speaker 4>in wrestling. But people only talk about how they you know,
<v Speaker 4>cheered the foreign how they bowed and wanted to lynch
<v Speaker 4>the foreign menace all the time, and how easily they
<v Speaker 4>were corralled to, you know, bring their passions to bear
<v Speaker 4>in opposition to certain wrestlers. But sometimes you could get
<v Speaker 4>unlikely people cheered in the same way with the same
<v Speaker 4>psychological tricks.
<v Speaker 2>So pretty cool.
<v Speaker 4>Brett Hart, oh boy, red Heart in Germany. Mm hm,
<v Speaker 4>red Heart in germans.
<v Speaker 2>Many.
<v Speaker 4>Now watching the show, tell me if you agree? Well,
<v Speaker 4>Brett is incredibly over.
<v Speaker 2>Yes? Is bulldog moreover? I think so? Yes? They go
<v Speaker 2>nuts when he went to the battle Roy Yes, fucking
<v Speaker 2>insane yep. Okay, So.
<v Speaker 4>The push is very much on for the British Bulldog
<v Speaker 4>to be the face of the WWF in Europe, not
<v Speaker 4>just in the UK. But across Europe they're accepting him
<v Speaker 4>as kind of like the pre eminent WWF European superstar,
<v Speaker 4>and he was in a lot of ways. His Summer
<v Speaker 4>Slam nineteen ninety two illustrates. But the point is, even
<v Speaker 4>beyond that market, even beyond that country, he was incredibly over. Now,
<v Speaker 4>who's to save Hulkgan or Ultimate Warrior walk through the
<v Speaker 4>curtain on this show? If we would have a much
<v Speaker 4>different idea of who is most over to German fans,
<v Speaker 4>But we have what we have, and the referendum is
<v Speaker 4>on kind of like these B tier babyfaces like Bulldog
<v Speaker 4>and Brett and and Randy, who wasn't a B tier
<v Speaker 4>baby face, but we at the measure of where he
<v Speaker 4>stood as well. This is hardly his prime however. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>but you know, Brett, you look at the program for
<v Speaker 4>somebody that wants you to think he was over, like
<v Speaker 4>like nobody's business before he even walked through the door.
<v Speaker 4>He's buried deep in the program.
<v Speaker 2>He's not.
<v Speaker 4>He doesn't have the double truck across two pages, photos
<v Speaker 4>spread like like a Jake Roberts does, or Hulk Hogan
<v Speaker 4>and many others. You know, it's kind of it's kind
<v Speaker 4>of a happy surprise that that he's as warmly received
<v Speaker 4>as he is when he comes out on this thing.
<v Speaker 4>As far as you know, Bravo goes his opponent on
<v Speaker 4>the show. Bravo had wrestled the retirement match on a
<v Speaker 4>WF card in Montreal on January twentieth of nineteen ninety two. Really,
<v Speaker 4>I didn't know that they still run a lot of
<v Speaker 4>non televised shows in Montreal, but then and he was
<v Speaker 4>brought out of retirement by the WWF for it's European
<v Speaker 4>tour when the roster turnover forced it to adjust some
<v Speaker 4>of its cards. So they were losing a lot of guys,
<v Speaker 4>you know, Piper leaves, Jake leaves, I mean have to
<v Speaker 4>wrestle Many eight, and they're losing all the beefy guys too. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>Physical Lord Sid wants out. Yeah, So I'm seeing reporting
<v Speaker 4>here that the match on the show was supposed to
<v Speaker 4>be bretteart for Shawn Michaels in Germany. Really, but Michael's
<v Speaker 4>had to be moved into the main events. Rick Flair,
<v Speaker 4>of course, not able to make the full suite of
<v Speaker 4>shows in Europe for this tour. Apparently he had some
<v Speaker 4>pre existing Japanese obligations that he had to tend to
<v Speaker 4>halfway through things. And so that's why we end up
<v Speaker 4>with the Shawn Michaels Randy Savage match on this show.
<v Speaker 4>As far as Brett Hart goes, we've talked about it,
<v Speaker 4>and he's written about it. He sure has in his book.
<v Speaker 4>And if we're going to go to Germany and if
<v Speaker 4>we're going to see Brett Hart shine and we're gonna
<v Speaker 4>see the people lose their minds at Brett heart, yep,
<v Speaker 4>this is the time to reckon with what Brett meant
<v Speaker 4>to Germany and what Brett did in Germany. Start now, boss,
<v Speaker 4>if you could regale us with Brett Hart, my real
<v Speaker 4>life in the cartoon world of.
<v Speaker 2>Wrestling Man's life of Shadows.
<v Speaker 4>Now, let me make clear. Here's Brett talk about his
<v Speaker 4>first exposure to Germany. This is before he came to
<v Speaker 4>the WWF and the early eighties he would do European
<v Speaker 4>tours across several circuits as well as Owen would do
<v Speaker 4>Germany as well. And so here's him describing kind of
<v Speaker 4>breaking into the business with Dynamite Kid and kind of
<v Speaker 4>like a precocious young kind of junior heavyweight style wrestler.
<v Speaker 4>What his experiences were like in Germany.
<v Speaker 2>I like Germany, the people, the food, the open mindedness.
<v Speaker 2>Jockom or is it jokum join joachin. Yes. Arranged for
<v Speaker 2>Jim and me to have the use of a cheap car.
<v Speaker 2>So every day we went to the co ed sport
<v Speaker 2>Fitness Zentrum, where we sweated out the previous night's alcohol.
<v Speaker 2>When we showered, hard bodied fraud lines with unshaven armpits
<v Speaker 2>would eagerly soap our backs. So there, yes, they're in.
<v Speaker 2>It's a it's a co ed bathroom shower as well,
<v Speaker 2>it would appear that way. How do how does he
<v Speaker 2>spell that word fro fraeuleine. It's f r a with
<v Speaker 2>the two dots. You it's women, got it? Yeah? I
<v Speaker 2>do know that. One I was writing it, thoes thousand
<v Speaker 2>francs came up. So oh, fuck fraud line. Sometimes if
<v Speaker 2>you say it sounds like freudline, we'd return right, okay.
<v Speaker 2>When we showered, hard bodied fraud lines with unshaven armpits
<v Speaker 2>would eagerly soap our backs, we'd return the favor, laughing
<v Speaker 2>and giggling like little kids. I want you to picture
<v Speaker 2>Jim knightheart laughing and giggling like a little kid. After
<v Speaker 2>a few days, it didn't seem unusual to us anymore.
<v Speaker 2>Every night after the show, jacquemuh took Jim and me
<v Speaker 2>to sex clubs. Let's fucking go lesbian? Why would go
<v Speaker 2>over for a fucking lesbian bar? Well, that no one's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be into you there.
<v Speaker 4>It probably means the women were making out with each other.
<v Speaker 2>But I get your point. Yeah, I mean, it's like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I don't know. I don't Maybe you know
<v Speaker 2>lesbian bars and brothels, lesbian brothels, or just brothels in general.
<v Speaker 2>Where he conducted undercover police work.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, this guy that used to shepherd them around Germany
<v Speaker 4>was a cop.
<v Speaker 2>That's fucking a wild cop. That's fucking wild. I imagine
<v Speaker 2>myself as some sort of a shadowy player in the
<v Speaker 2>world of international intrigue, which served, of course, you did,
<v Speaker 2>Brett anything besides being a wrestler. That's what you call
<v Speaker 2>imagine yourself to be, which served to distract me from
<v Speaker 2>my bruised ego? Was the bruced ego? What's what's wrong
<v Speaker 2>with that? What's up with that?
<v Speaker 4>I don't remember it's it's earlier in the book let
<v Speaker 4>me ask you is before you continue. Yes, we do
<v Speaker 4>see Brettheart do an interview with a German television present
<v Speaker 4>or a female German television presenter at the tail end
<v Speaker 4>of this broadcast, and of course we'll cover it in
<v Speaker 4>the deep dive. Is she looking to taste the hit Man?
<v Speaker 5>Is that?
<v Speaker 2>Is that what's going on there? Yes? Okay, listen, it
<v Speaker 2>seems prety obvious to me. She is. She has a
<v Speaker 2>certain desire for his excellence of execution.
<v Speaker 4>I mean she asked a hundred questions about women and
<v Speaker 4>his wife and his girlfriend.
<v Speaker 2>She also has a certain need of Randy Savage's slim
<v Speaker 2>gym as well. Right, Yeah, she didn't do him first.
<v Speaker 2>She's just all about it and good for her.
<v Speaker 4>But this woman was as we'll get to like the
<v Speaker 4>morning TV show presenter on Televive, like your Good Morning
<v Speaker 4>America type.
<v Speaker 2>And I'll tell you she was ready to present. Absolutely
<v Speaker 2>she was.
<v Speaker 4>And Brad is taking these questions like I knew this
<v Speaker 4>was coming, like I know she's into me. And let's
<v Speaker 4>just say now, let's just say now that we did
<v Speaker 4>reach out to the Hitman on cameo. We did, as
<v Speaker 4>we have many times before in the history of this show. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>and asked him what was up with that interviewer who
<v Speaker 4>was all over you? Like, did you feel that she
<v Speaker 4>was coming on to you?
<v Speaker 2>What was that about?
<v Speaker 4>Because we know how over you were over you were
<v Speaker 4>in Germany? How about the female side of it? It
<v Speaker 4>request denied that first time.
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't It wasn't even like the time limit expired.
<v Speaker 2>All right, that's happened before, where you know we we
<v Speaker 2>requested a cameo and the time expires and they don't
<v Speaker 2>have time to do it. Help. That happens to us
<v Speaker 2>a lot of the time, but this one was specifically denied, denied,
<v Speaker 2>He wasn't going there? Yeah, well why I plopped down
<v Speaker 2>on a stool with a beer in front of me.
<v Speaker 2>Always the best and always compliments from the of the owners,
<v Speaker 2>busy talking to of many on many of these outings,
<v Speaker 2>Jim seemed lost in thought, having learned that Ellie was
<v Speaker 2>pregnant again. Yeah, realizing he probably can't do what he
<v Speaker 2>wants to do on this trip. Huh Is that what
<v Speaker 2>it is? Is that what you're saying about Ellie? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that Jim can't do what he wants on this trip
<v Speaker 2>because he's got another one. You know, probably what Natty
<v Speaker 2>on the way. Probably eventually Jokum would give us a
<v Speaker 2>nod time to move on to another club. By three am,
<v Speaker 2>I was drinking apple schnapps in the best brothel in Hanover,
<v Speaker 2>New Hampshire. Yeah right, why, yes, yes, debating the differences
<v Speaker 2>between American and German culture with the owner. Oh that's
<v Speaker 2>what you were doing, okay, Brett's debating culture different to
<v Speaker 2>a cafe for that Yeah right, Yeah, you go to
<v Speaker 2>a brothel to fuck, You go to a brothel to
<v Speaker 2>get your dick wet. That's right. You want you go
<v Speaker 2>to a brothel to get that stank on that cock?
<v Speaker 2>What did you go to a brothel? Brett? It's doing
<v Speaker 2>crack in ninety two? Why do you do? Why is
<v Speaker 2>he smoking crack? Like? Why is no? No, I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to answer this question. That's These are the important questions.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, you know, it's like the kind of gloss
<v Speaker 2>over the headline there. I couldn't get over the fact
<v Speaker 2>that prostitution was legal in Germany. I guess not. Yeah, seriously.
<v Speaker 2>Then the proprietor offered Jim and me the girls of
<v Speaker 2>our choice compliments of the house. Jim declined with the
<v Speaker 2>sheepish look saying I'm married's sisters.
<v Speaker 4>What he said, that's it's funny. Brett couldn't get over
<v Speaker 4>the fact that prostitution was legal in Germany. Jim couldn't get.
<v Speaker 2>Over everywhere, including Germany, and funk about you, the owner
<v Speaker 2>smiled at me. I said, my girlfriend is here. Girlfriends
<v Speaker 2>they do not count, not in Germany. In Germany, I
<v Speaker 2>wonder she asked him a hundred questions about girlfriends. Exactly
<v Speaker 2>before I knew it, I was being led through six
<v Speaker 2>floors of hallways, trying to choose among at least three
<v Speaker 2>hundred good looking girls wearing everything from lingerie to leather.
<v Speaker 2>I kept reminding myself that I wasn't married, and a
<v Speaker 2>chance like this wasn't likely to come again. Besides, who
<v Speaker 2>would know every infidelity comes back up? And yeah, he
<v Speaker 2>has a story for every one of them. So crazy,
<v Speaker 2>And then I thought of Julie. Perhaps it was the booze,
<v Speaker 2>or the fact that I couldn't begin to picture just
<v Speaker 2>one girl. Maybe some older time, I said, time is
<v Speaker 2>what he would have said, maybe smaller time. Do we
<v Speaker 2>think that's what he said? Maybe? Maybe? Maybe maybe the
<v Speaker 2>mean that's what he said, And maybe an hour later
<v Speaker 2>he came back and fucking did what he needed to do.
<v Speaker 2>I resigned myself to my role as a jobber and
<v Speaker 2>had actually had some good matches. Actually, I resigned myself
<v Speaker 2>to my role back at the hotel. Yeah, exactly as
<v Speaker 2>jobbing to then to the woman on top of me
<v Speaker 2>as a special treat. One night I rode in an
<v Speaker 2>unmarked police cruiser with Jochim while he worked. We worked.
<v Speaker 2>What was he doing? What work? What wor? Can you
<v Speaker 2>and me? Where was he coming after?
<v Speaker 8>Now?
<v Speaker 2>He's outside right now. I didn't say he was outside
<v Speaker 2>a cruiser, but he's a cruiser. But he's working a cruiser?
<v Speaker 2>Is he a cruiser? Weight? What?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>We what's the lowdown? Brother? Tell me? Brett, my brizzle
<v Speaker 2>brother was going on family. Brother. Look, I wanted to
<v Speaker 2>ask you a question back in the Germany days, who
<v Speaker 2>is this joey about this? You know you comment, you know,
<v Speaker 2>but I don't want to say.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 2>I love your book, brother, really fantastic, dude. Quick read dude,
<v Speaker 2>love the story center. I read it one night, dude,
<v Speaker 2>easy pasy brother, loving dude. I love the stories, brother,
<v Speaker 2>You know, I totally relate. I wish I could have
<v Speaker 2>shared a cew my stories, you know, but I was
<v Speaker 2>still married to Linda at the time. Brothers was kind
<v Speaker 2>of like a little in allow. You know, I can't
<v Speaker 2>I don't know about brother. You know, the doll out
<v Speaker 2>back and you know what I'm talking about, dude, But
<v Speaker 2>you know, Brother, and I was reading along, Dude, I
<v Speaker 2>was like, you know, one thing really kind of caught
<v Speaker 2>my eye. Here we go, the whole attitude to shift,
<v Speaker 2>the whole mood, to shift toward an accusatory tone, conspiratorial.
<v Speaker 2>I was really you know, you kept talking about your
<v Speaker 2>friend Jochum Brother, and you know you said that he
<v Speaker 2>was you know, one point brother, you know, when you
<v Speaker 2>were talking about one of those German stories. Dude, you
<v Speaker 2>know you said you said, you know, he was in
<v Speaker 2>an unmarked police crewier cruiser you and he were both
<v Speaker 2>in his ard was just really fucking I'm talking about
<v Speaker 2>the picture you know, did the the way you write brother,
<v Speaker 2>It's like so crystal clear. I can picture my mind,
<v Speaker 2>you know, But You're in this unmarked police cruiser with
<v Speaker 2>this guy and you're saying that joke worked as he worked,
<v Speaker 2>right as he you were in this car while joke
<v Speaker 2>him worked, and I have worked what work two worked me.
<v Speaker 5>Was I there.
<v Speaker 2>Is he here now?
<v Speaker 1>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Can I ask him the question?
<v Speaker 4>I don't have a you're trying to convince, I mean,
<v Speaker 4>Paul Hogan that you don't have this guy's number.
<v Speaker 2>Brother. Brother, you tell me you don't talk to this
<v Speaker 2>guy every day. I know you talk to this guy
<v Speaker 2>every day.
<v Speaker 3>Brother.
<v Speaker 2>I've seen phone records. Okay, so he set this one up.
<v Speaker 2>I see your little subleminal messages. Man, dude, if you
<v Speaker 2>if you want, brother, I have him with me right now.
<v Speaker 2>Do I see the list? I have all your phone records, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>over the last five years, all right, do you want
<v Speaker 2>to don't know how many times you're talking to this
<v Speaker 2>Jokum character, brother and talked about his working brother and
<v Speaker 2>what he was working on and who he was working. Brother.
<v Speaker 2>I've got at least two phone calls the last five years. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>you're talking to this guy all the time. Who is
<v Speaker 2>he working? I just, dude, I just want to kind
<v Speaker 2>of cutch the chase.
<v Speaker 1>Brother.
<v Speaker 2>It's kind of like lay out all our cards on
<v Speaker 2>the table. Man. I know you and I've had some
<v Speaker 2>you know, cont touching ghost. Brother. I was gone along, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>is this Jokum guy at my house right now? What's
<v Speaker 2>the deal schlogging? Dude? What's the is he schnitzling around
<v Speaker 2>my house? Dude? Huh? But you've been really quiet, dude
<v Speaker 2>to make me really fucking nervous. Brother were really quiet too,
<v Speaker 2>smood because he just had enough fun.
<v Speaker 1>He's lap Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and JP Sorro
<v Speaker 1>Wrestling Podcast.
<v Speaker 2>What else from joke Okay's workout on CAC worked all
<v Speaker 2>came in over the radio that shots had been fired,
<v Speaker 2>and I lunched down in the car wall joke. Him
<v Speaker 2>and his partner chased a killer who he eventually caught
<v Speaker 2>hiding in a tree. Yeah, that's the best part about
<v Speaker 2>this story. It definitely happened like all Like all fucking
<v Speaker 2>pro wrestling stories. I returned to the apartment drunk with
<v Speaker 2>visions of and Violin spinning in my head. I crawled
<v Speaker 2>quietly into the little bed that Jokum had provided, one
<v Speaker 2>for me and one for Julie, when she suddenly slammed
<v Speaker 2>her fist hard into my face. In whispered shouts, she
<v Speaker 2>tore into me. I could smell perfume on you a
<v Speaker 2>mile away. It's just some soap on a robe that
<v Speaker 2>had barred from the Spanish wrestler. I mean I would
<v Speaker 2>joke them all night chasing killers nice one, Brett definitely work.
<v Speaker 2>It occurred to me, even as I said, as excuses go,
<v Speaker 2>it was a pretty strange line, even stranger because it
<v Speaker 2>was true Julie gave me the cold shoulder for several days.
<v Speaker 2>As the weeks went by, it really began to bother
<v Speaker 2>me that Julie kept accusing me of something I didn't
<v Speaker 2>do yet that's not in there, but I added it
<v Speaker 2>yet someone I did do right to the point that
<v Speaker 2>sometimes I wished I had. Of course, it never occurred
<v Speaker 2>to me to go home to her right after the matches.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, a little culpability there, Brad, But he swears he
<v Speaker 4>never did. And the benefit of the doubt, all right,
<v Speaker 4>it sounds like his wife has a book.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, come on, Julens, what do we got? Soon after,
<v Speaker 2>Brett asked me to join him on trip overseas. I
<v Speaker 2>think he'd noticed that I was feeling depressed about our
<v Speaker 2>decision and what it was the decision. I needn't know
<v Speaker 2>these things. I think he wanted to cheer me up, huh.
<v Speaker 2>I think it was the decision to go on the
<v Speaker 2>road I couldn't refuse. Brett was a great person to
<v Speaker 2>travel with. It really brought out his sense of adventure.
<v Speaker 2>We started in Germany, where he and Jim Knightdhart had
<v Speaker 2>a wrestling gig. Wrestling was different in Germany. It was
<v Speaker 2>more gimmicky and very crooked. Referees would find the wrestlers,
<v Speaker 2>who would then appeal to the fans for money to
<v Speaker 2>pay them. I felt sorry for the pool or on
<v Speaker 2>assuming fans who would pay the fine, not realizing that
<v Speaker 2>the referees and wrestlers split the money at the end
<v Speaker 2>of the night. Did you ever hear that scam of wore?
<v Speaker 3>No?
<v Speaker 2>So the deal was I guess this was like something
<v Speaker 2>that would happen across the European circuits, but in Germany
<v Speaker 2>in particular. What you would do is you would have
<v Speaker 2>the babyface in a position to really take it to
<v Speaker 2>the heel, and like a referee would basically threaten or
<v Speaker 2>the announcer somehow you would get the word to the
<v Speaker 2>audience that if this guy does this to this heel,
<v Speaker 2>he's going to be fined a hefty amount. He's going
<v Speaker 2>to be fined a lot of money if he takes
<v Speaker 2>it this far. Really and so the Babyface would turn
<v Speaker 2>to the crowd and say, you guys gonna pay the
<v Speaker 2>fine because if you put the money in my hand
<v Speaker 2>right now, I can do it to this guy. Wow
<v Speaker 2>would they would clean up. People would hand cash to
<v Speaker 2>the Babyface, hand cash and they pocket it. And that
<v Speaker 2>was part of the hustle that night, is you would
<v Speaker 2>get the fans to pay your fine so you could
<v Speaker 2>attack the heel. Fucking believable. They're always about it. That's
<v Speaker 2>wrestling right there. That's wrestling in a fucking nutshell. Get
<v Speaker 2>in the arena and the hustle has just started. Yep, yep, yep.
<v Speaker 2>Buying buying the tickets is just the very beginning. What
<v Speaker 2>a business. It's the very beginning of how much money
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna lose here? I felt sorry for the part
<v Speaker 2>of One of the most outrageous wrestlers was Adrian Street.
<v Speaker 2>His gimmick was to act like a flamboyant gay man,
<v Speaker 2>and the fans loved it. Every night he received flowers,
<v Speaker 2>women's shoes, and money from men. I had a bit
<v Speaker 2>of a crush on one of the referees, a dark
<v Speaker 2>Frenchman named Dedi, who looked like a film star from
<v Speaker 2>the thirties. I was often more interested in watching him
<v Speaker 2>than the wrestling. We were staying with Brett's friend Jokim
<v Speaker 2>and his wife Heidi, whom whom I became fast friends with.
<v Speaker 2>For the first few nights there, I hung out with
<v Speaker 2>Heidi while Joakim took Brett and Jim out on the town.
<v Speaker 2>Jokin was a cop, so he knew the ins and
<v Speaker 2>outs of all the seediest places in the city. They
<v Speaker 2>would come home with the craziest stories and it made
<v Speaker 2>me want to go out too, So on their next
<v Speaker 2>line out, I tagged along. Their stories weren't exaggerations. We
<v Speaker 2>went to brothels and live sex shows, which shocked me
<v Speaker 2>even though I had known what to expect. One of
<v Speaker 2>the brothels had baby tigers and lions and torture rooms.
<v Speaker 2>I was given a mask and a whip by the madam,
<v Speaker 2>and Brett was put on a stretching table like home.
<v Speaker 2>It's like home, right, And is that what Stu did
<v Speaker 2>out of the basement to get stretched a stretch your bitch? Here?
<v Speaker 4>Everyone was thinking the shouts from the dungeon basement were
<v Speaker 4>the wrestlers. All these years, Brett like soupine, you know.
<v Speaker 2>Rock hard come on, and so Stude watches him. Fuck
<v Speaker 2>is what it is and get it inside. Yeah, Brett
<v Speaker 2>on the table. Okay, Brett on the table. Jim even
<v Speaker 2>got a turn whipping Brett the trip, brother, that's where
<v Speaker 2>he put it down for the night. Yeah, that's where
<v Speaker 2>he pulled the lamp cord. About this book, dude, I
<v Speaker 2>don't about this. I don't know about this Julie Hart character. Brother.
<v Speaker 2>The trip wasn't all fun and games, though. One night,
<v Speaker 2>one of Jokim's friends had too much drink and started
<v Speaker 2>hitting on Brett right in front of me. She put
<v Speaker 2>her hand on his leg and started rubbing it, so
<v Speaker 2>I grabbed her hand and threw it off. I got
<v Speaker 2>in her face about it, and Brett just sat there laughing.
<v Speaker 2>He thought the whole situation was amusing, but I found
<v Speaker 2>their behavior to be plain disrespectful. I was furious and
<v Speaker 2>said I wanted to leave. Joking. Drove us back to
<v Speaker 2>his place, and as we approached the house, I suddenly
<v Speaker 2>started mouthing off to Brett. Suddenly he body slammed me
<v Speaker 2>into a flower bed. He body slammed me into a
<v Speaker 2>flower bed. He knocked the wind out of me so badly.
<v Speaker 2>I couldn't get up. He offered me a hand, but
<v Speaker 2>I told him to fuck off. It just lay in
<v Speaker 2>the flowers as he walked away. I was still angry
<v Speaker 2>about that night when a few days later Brett came
<v Speaker 2>home from a night out smelling like perfume. See he
<v Speaker 2>skipped on that pre embo. Yeah right, I snapped, I
<v Speaker 2>grabbed him by the head. Well, probably wasn't in his
<v Speaker 2>notes in his notebook. I snapped. I grabbed him by
<v Speaker 2>the head and dug my fingernails into his face and
<v Speaker 2>his eyes. Brett has always said he never saw me
<v Speaker 2>in the same way after that, or anything else for
<v Speaker 2>that matter. Yeah, rightly damaged his vision. I still got
<v Speaker 2>a fingernail stick it out of his eye. That's all
<v Speaker 2>I have in Germany. Bret in Germany, Breton Germany. Holy shit.
<v Speaker 4>So this is a return to the scene of the crime.
<v Speaker 4>This is what's in the back of his mind. Undoubtedly
<v Speaker 4>he makes his way for the w W two. Well,
<v Speaker 4>this is him now picking up later in his book
<v Speaker 4>about this actual nineteen ninety two tour. I gotcha, remember
<v Speaker 4>that that is the the scar tissue memory he has
<v Speaker 4>of coming to Germany to wrestle the not too distant past,
<v Speaker 4>and now he's coming as the w w F Intercontinental Champion.
<v Speaker 2>All right. After wrestling he ate came three long days
<v Speaker 2>of TVs. My match with Piper not only stole the show.
<v Speaker 2>I guess, did it steal it? Yeah? I guess it's
<v Speaker 2>still a show. I would say it did. I always
<v Speaker 2>think of the other I think of Piper and I
<v Speaker 2>mean Flair and Savage also stealing the show. Two of
<v Speaker 2>them also stole the show. But okay, yeah, but many
<v Speaker 2>felt that saved the pay per view altogether. It's a
<v Speaker 2>great fucking pay per view, isn't it. It's a fucking
<v Speaker 2>rate pay per view. There's nothing bad about it. Even
<v Speaker 2>fucking Owen versus Skinner is great. I'll watch it all day, absolutely, Yeah, Seriously,
<v Speaker 2>it's so golden. That's what I think of it. I
<v Speaker 2>think of gold It's so great and so began. It's
<v Speaker 2>it's like one of the first real I mean, at
<v Speaker 2>least since I don't know. For me, it felt so
<v Speaker 2>epic in a different way than any other wrestlmating that
<v Speaker 2>I've watched on tape had yes, and probably because it
<v Speaker 2>was my first that I you know, kind of really witnessed,
<v Speaker 2>you know, happened, even though I didn't watch alive, and
<v Speaker 2>so began my second reign as Intercontinental Champion. Four days later,
<v Speaker 2>I was in Munich. I loved being back in Germany.
<v Speaker 2>As I rode on the bus down cobbled streets, I
<v Speaker 2>listened to my walkman, thinking about how in nineteen thirty six,
<v Speaker 2>Hitler watched and discussed as the black American runner Jesse
<v Speaker 2>Owen sprinted to win the gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. Okay, oh,
<v Speaker 2>you thought about Brett. That's it's a weird thought. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>it's a random thought. Let's thinking about what Hitler was
<v Speaker 2>thinking at the time. Okay, you want to go there, Brett.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, that's just I thought back to ninety one
<v Speaker 2>and my old handover days with the gym, when I
<v Speaker 2>was the biggest loser of the tournament. Yep, well, axl dita,
<v Speaker 2>you old pimp, take a look at me now. Fans
<v Speaker 2>were pounding on the side of the bus for blocks
<v Speaker 2>before we finally pulled up to the to the back
<v Speaker 2>of the arena, weren't even bigger crowd excitedly waited for us.
<v Speaker 2>Owen had told me I was really big in Germany
<v Speaker 2>and judging my health, i'd fucking owen. No, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know this secret. He worked the circuit, he was all right,
<v Speaker 2>he was in Germany before he came to WB. But
<v Speaker 2>how did he know that Brett was big in Germany.
<v Speaker 2>That's a weird thing about him. He's saying, oh, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you know my brother Brett, My brother Brett. Best began
<v Speaker 2>the uh phycomony exactly happened back then, and judging by
<v Speaker 2>all the signs being held up, it appeared to be true.
<v Speaker 2>When I stepped off the bus, girls screamed and cried uncontrollably,
<v Speaker 2>some even fainting. All right, right, calm down, right, but
<v Speaker 2>no one's fucking fainting. Okay, I'm sorry, not for a
<v Speaker 2>fucking fake athlete. In the dressing room, Chief told me
<v Speaker 2>I was in the opening match. I argued that I
<v Speaker 2>was the Intercontinental champion, and that, as I understood it,
<v Speaker 2>I was very popular in Germany, so it was therefore
<v Speaker 2>crazy for me to be in the to be the
<v Speaker 2>to be the in the first match. But Chief had
<v Speaker 2>his orders, so I did go out first. I think
<v Speaker 2>I made my point though. As soon as I came out,
<v Speaker 2>my music blaring the sellout crowd exploded. Teenaged girls. Teenaged
<v Speaker 2>teenaged girls overran barricades and leapt past security guards who
<v Speaker 2>are helpless to stop them.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, this is this is the problem with the
<v Speaker 4>show being on tape. Yeah, you watch it and that
<v Speaker 4>didn't happen.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they go crazy for you, but nobody is
<v Speaker 2>running over the fucking you know, you're you're in a
<v Speaker 2>fucking beetle.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, Pal, There's like a split second where he a
<v Speaker 4>fan grabs him and kind of breaks his stride just
<v Speaker 4>a little bit as he's slapping hands. But absolutely there's
<v Speaker 4>no women grab There's no girls grabbing for him or
<v Speaker 4>anything like that, and you don't see.
<v Speaker 2>Anything like that, right, Yeah, he's got to calm down.
<v Speaker 4>He's trying to get the that scene where remember the
<v Speaker 4>the the barricade actually fell down on Sean and what
<v Speaker 4>was it a ground zero ground zero mind games? I
<v Speaker 4>think it was where he's coming to the ring and
<v Speaker 4>these girls are so excitedly reaching for him that the
<v Speaker 4>railing falls over, right, Yeah, that's what he's thinking of.
<v Speaker 2>That happened to you, Brett. Sorry, Pal, I mean it
<v Speaker 2>did happen on some show, but not this one. I'm sorry.
<v Speaker 2>We watched it. It's not there. Yeah, where was I
<v Speaker 2>who are helpless to stop them? They literally knocked me down,
<v Speaker 2>hugging and kissing me. Yeah. I'd never seen or heard
<v Speaker 2>any thing like it, not even for Hogan at the
<v Speaker 2>height of his all of his I didn't see anything
<v Speaker 2>like it either, because brother happened. What do you brother? Uh?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah about? I was happy for your brother, was like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, it was like, you know, a whole more gentleman.
<v Speaker 2>I was really happy to you, and all of a
<v Speaker 2>sudden you kind of like kind turned your tune a
<v Speaker 2>little bit, brother, kind of like you know, I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>you know, not like a whttle bit of where you know,
<v Speaker 2>hide the ball?
<v Speaker 5>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>You know what what's going on? Dude? Mm hmmid the ball?
<v Speaker 2>Where's your ball? Right? You got and go home? What
<v Speaker 2>yeh are you? Why do you have to call me
<v Speaker 2>out in the middle of this thought? Like? What does
<v Speaker 2>this have to do with allan? Did I write your book? Dude?
<v Speaker 2>Is that what you tell me? Brother? I mean, I
<v Speaker 2>didn't know I wrote your book. Brother. On level with me, dude,
<v Speaker 2>you want to kind of get on the same page brother,
<v Speaker 2>because I'm trying to figure out what's going on here.
<v Speaker 4>Dude, you want to he wants Brett to level with
<v Speaker 4>him about whether he wrote breath book.
<v Speaker 2>Like you did it? Why do you need dread to
<v Speaker 2>say anything? I think I'm gonna give this thing back
<v Speaker 2>on track. I'm just saying, dude, because how your brother?
<v Speaker 2>You know this second time already within your book, You're
<v Speaker 2>making me really fucking nervous. I want what is the
<v Speaker 2>point of this book? Dude?
<v Speaker 4>Every time Germany comes up, brother, somehow they're shots and
<v Speaker 4>retarding to hull Hoak.
<v Speaker 2>You know, this whole German thing, Like, what is this dude?
<v Speaker 2>You know he's Brett hard German. Is that we're trying
<v Speaker 2>to tell me? Brother? Nervous? You know, I'm not trying
<v Speaker 2>to figure out, brother, why I was always an attack
<v Speaker 2>on Hulk Coagan. You're talking about a guy that I've
<v Speaker 2>never met my life. You're talking about him working brother
<v Speaker 2>and working me. Dude. And I was at my house
<v Speaker 2>and then you come at me, which I was willing
<v Speaker 2>to better for the doubt, brother or someone that to
<v Speaker 2>respects you so much. You came back and be like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I didn't put your name in there. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>he wasn't working you. Your name is and I said, Oh,
<v Speaker 2>you know what, that's fair. Brother.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe I was reading too much between the lines. If
<v Speaker 4>you pages four, Brother, we're back in Germany and there's
<v Speaker 4>a shot right a wholehiga tell me.
<v Speaker 2>Dude, all a sudden, Brother, you tell me that hul
<v Speaker 2>Cogan ever gonna name pussy? Dude? What's that for? Why? Brother?
<v Speaker 2>I got pussy? Dude?
<v Speaker 4>Are you going to Germany to try to plow a
<v Speaker 4>push against me?
<v Speaker 5>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Dude? I mean, wait a minute, I also got a
<v Speaker 2>lot of pushy too, Dude you're getting Are you getting
<v Speaker 2>a pushy? Brother? What's a pushy darien? Brother? I mean
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna yeah. I'll tell you what, Brother, there's a
<v Speaker 2>lot of ship that I can't stand, dude, but I
<v Speaker 2>cannot stand lying. Brother. You know exactly what a fucking
<v Speaker 2>pushy is. Dude. All right, you may have a reflemining
<v Speaker 2>this year? Due?
<v Speaker 7>Is that?
<v Speaker 2>What's going on? Brother? You want the title? Dude? It's
<v Speaker 2>putting you over in Vegas? Brother, what's going on? That's
<v Speaker 2>the only thing that adds up to Hull. That's the
<v Speaker 2>only thing to kind of connect these individual pieces. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>what's the diz Dude? I just want put all our
<v Speaker 2>fucking cars at the table, dude. You can want to
<v Speaker 2>we can go to the fucking gym. Brother, I'll go
<v Speaker 2>to the back, dude, I'll get a six pack. We
<v Speaker 2>can talk the ship over. Brother. You don't I have
<v Speaker 2>a right to know. I'll tell you what done for
<v Speaker 2>this place. I know, dude, I know exactly what's going on. Brother.
<v Speaker 2>I just want you to fucking say it in a minute.
<v Speaker 1>I know.
<v Speaker 2>I know if you're lying, dude, it's putting you over brother.
<v Speaker 2>Good strap put the strap? What what's you going to
<v Speaker 2>mania with the strap?
<v Speaker 1>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>What should.
<v Speaker 1>What?
<v Speaker 2>They don't have? You said that you won the rumble?
<v Speaker 2>Brother one mhm, they're gonna kind of you know, red
<v Speaker 2>calm the world rumble this year? Dude, what's going on? Dude?
<v Speaker 2>Love comma what's going on? I love that he's got
<v Speaker 2>kind of retcon the rumble? Is you?
<v Speaker 1>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>What's going on? But he's playing it cool. It's like
<v Speaker 2>playing it cool. It's like but it's like, dude, it's like,
<v Speaker 2>and what here's doing? He says, he's just like he's
<v Speaker 2>just throwing questions on the fucking wall and seeing if
<v Speaker 2>one will trigger a reaction and get a response. You know,
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't matter what it is, like, he's just fucking
<v Speaker 2>like going through this this rolodex of questions. Then as
<v Speaker 2>soon as he gets an answer, he knows exactly where
<v Speaker 2>to go. Oh suddenly something to say. Dude, I get it, brother, Okay, dude,
<v Speaker 2>I see where I see where we're at now, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>I will say, you know, Brett, I respect you, man,
<v Speaker 2>I totally respect you. Well, I don't like dude, is
<v Speaker 2>you talking mohammed back right? And then written in your book?
<v Speaker 3>Like?
<v Speaker 2>Brother, dude, what's that look for? Did you blink your
<v Speaker 2>eyes twice? To what's going on? What's the deal brother?
<v Speaker 2>With the blinker of the eyes? Dude? You fucking with me?
<v Speaker 2>Brodr Are you fucking with me right now? Dude? Because
<v Speaker 2>I swear who's that is that joke? Is that guy here? Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Is he working me from behind cover? Cop? I'm Mark
<v Speaker 2>Carr Brother? Why not on marked? Dude? Where's I mocked?
<v Speaker 2>My car? Brother? My car is always marked, dude? Why
<v Speaker 2>is it unmarked? Is it any coincidence?
<v Speaker 1>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>That are you called me and Mark brothers?
<v Speaker 1>That?
<v Speaker 2>What is an unmarked car? Unmarked cars? You got to see?
<v Speaker 1>Do you know?
<v Speaker 2>Mar Release C was released in the JFK files. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>this isn't all coincidence, dude. I'm no double dude, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>I get what's going on. Brother. You're trying to set
<v Speaker 2>me up for JFK. Dude, I'm a fucking patsy brother.
<v Speaker 2>I wasn't in Dallas, dude. Yeah, that is one territory.
<v Speaker 2>It never worked. I never worked Dallas. Brother, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>all right, bro? What else didn't happen in Germany? Hogan?
<v Speaker 2>Hogan didn't get over in Germany. Hok uh Comania was fine,
<v Speaker 2>but the reaction I got was more uh not even
<v Speaker 2>Hogan at the height of his glory. Uh ho Comania
<v Speaker 2>was a phenomenon, but the reaction I got was more
<v Speaker 2>like Beatlemania. It wasn't just teenaged girls, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>love teenaged teenage aged. There were older, older women too,
<v Speaker 2>and even men and boys reached out to me. Flowers
<v Speaker 2>flew at me from everyone. What is this fantasy? It's
<v Speaker 2>probably an amalgamation of like, yeah, thirty different little things
<v Speaker 2>that happened, yeah, right, in like fucking thirty different years
<v Speaker 2>too for them anyway. Yeah, flowers slew me from everywhere,
<v Speaker 2>and boxes of chocolate wrapped gifts and lots and lots
<v Speaker 2>of Teddy Bears. I gently pulled myself up, smeared with lipstick,
<v Speaker 2>and made my way through the crowd to the ring.
<v Speaker 2>I did my strut to all four sides, and the
<v Speaker 2>crowd exploded each time. When I dropped down to give
<v Speaker 2>my shades to a little girl, thousands of people's side.
<v Speaker 5>Uh.
<v Speaker 2>As I got As I got set to take on
<v Speaker 2>Dino Bravo, he said, you're over brother really good. Ex
<v Speaker 2>was not expecting that at all. Oh, you know, only
<v Speaker 2>there's only one fucking thing that I remember. Okay, it's
<v Speaker 2>Rumble ninety one. He's coming down. He's coming down entrance,
<v Speaker 2>his number two and he comes on. I'm through all
<v Speaker 2>twenty of them, he says, all thirty of them, and
<v Speaker 2>there's twenty nine. He's gonna go. He's gonna go through
<v Speaker 2>himself as well. Dino Bravo, idiot, fucking moron. There's no
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you watch the video closely, there's no
<v Speaker 2>moment where Dino says you're over brothers. No, that is Dino. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean there's no fucking way. I mean, Dino's already
<v Speaker 2>He's such an idiot, Brett. Uh. They cheered for every
<v Speaker 2>move as I sold. They chanted my name so louly
<v Speaker 2>that I could barely hear myself think. When I beat Bravo,
<v Speaker 2>the place came totally unglued. Leaving the building was another
<v Speaker 2>frenetic scene. An astounded chief met me at the top
<v Speaker 2>of the ramp. You're right, Stu. They called him Stu.
<v Speaker 2>They call him his dad. Yeah, he would, he would
<v Speaker 2>call him by his dad's name. Right, your right, Stu.
<v Speaker 2>They love you. I never even I never seen anything
<v Speaker 2>like that. Ever. The night that night, the hotel was
<v Speaker 2>overrun with Hitman fans, and just then I was leaving
<v Speaker 2>the building, I heard in the corner of my ear
<v Speaker 2>pre yeah right, Brett, go get him Champ. That night
<v Speaker 2>the hotel was overrun with Hitman, many of whom had
<v Speaker 2>camped out in the lobby in Dortmund. It was worse,
<v Speaker 2>if that's any way to say it. I loved it.
<v Speaker 2>The only other wrestler who could to get a huge
<v Speaker 2>response was the Undertaker, who was greeted everywhere we went by.
<v Speaker 2>Hundreds of kids dressed in black with rings under their eyes.
<v Speaker 2>Well that's kind of horrifying. Had nothing to do with Undertaker, right, yeah, right, exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Then we stormed the UK and London Birmingham, Sheffield and Glasgow.
<v Speaker 2>The reaction was as incredible as as in Germany. As
<v Speaker 2>oh as I predicted, as I'd predicted, Vincent stumbled onto
<v Speaker 2>a gold mine. American wrestling was huge in Europe, and
<v Speaker 2>all the ww wrestlers were household names.
<v Speaker 4>That's Brett, that's Brett. So why is Brett so over
<v Speaker 4>in Germany? Ben As, a German himself, did a little investigation,
<v Speaker 4>a little anthropology here, and I think he got it,
<v Speaker 4>he writes, over thirty years ago. I just accepted that
<v Speaker 4>bread is just over in my motherland. I had not
<v Speaker 4>watched one moving frame of wrestling, but was already deep
<v Speaker 4>into their trading cards, the nineteen ninety one ones you
<v Speaker 4>own now, at least in part. And when one of
<v Speaker 4>my classmates showed me a card of a pink wearing
<v Speaker 4>guy with long, greasy hair, I was appalled. He was
<v Speaker 4>som he was no match for the Holster or Sid.
<v Speaker 4>But my classmate ensured me that Brett was the best
<v Speaker 4>wrestler ever. All right, Yeah, I guess he was not
<v Speaker 4>alone in that opinion.
<v Speaker 2>Over here. I never got it.
<v Speaker 4>Not that I hated Brett, but the level of overness
<v Speaker 4>in Germany was unjustified in my eyes, I liked Brett
<v Speaker 4>the most as nineteen ninety seven heel the rest of
<v Speaker 4>Germany always loved him, and I accepted it. Later in life,
<v Speaker 4>I came to the conclusion that in a world where
<v Speaker 4>US wrestling is only widely available since nineteen eighty nine
<v Speaker 4>and really starts to boom in nineteen ninety two, it's
<v Speaker 4>not that strange that Brett was over first real and
<v Speaker 4>not segmented into weekly shows pay per views shown on
<v Speaker 4>German TV. WrestleMania eight where Brett beats Piper for the
<v Speaker 4>IC title. So that was like the first ww of
<v Speaker 4>pay per view Germany ever saw. Wow, and he's a
<v Speaker 4>huge hero of that show.
<v Speaker 2>YEP.
<v Speaker 4>A few days later, he is one of only two
<v Speaker 4>champions at the first Germany Tour.
<v Speaker 2>Think about that, the three champions right to begin with, right,
<v Speaker 2>So it's only that you know they see Wrestlmania eight. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they know it's a special thing.
<v Speaker 4>And then he comes to Germany well not being moreover
<v Speaker 4>than the ld Bulldog or Hacksaw, he says, that's his opinion.
<v Speaker 4>Then he has the Banger Bulldog match at SummerSlam while
<v Speaker 4>Carson Schaefer and Uli Fessler cried on commentary, how about
<v Speaker 4>that Wow team cried during the Then he returns to
<v Speaker 4>Germany in the fall of nineteen eighty two and frequently
<v Speaker 4>battles Rick Flair for the World Championship. But the WBA
<v Speaker 4>returns to Germany in Februar of nineteen ninety three, Brett
<v Speaker 4>is their champion. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
<v Speaker 4>The calendar makes a lot of sense.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he loses to Yoko, but wins the King of
<v Speaker 4>the Ring and has already cemented as the man for
<v Speaker 4>everybody that started watching in nineteen ninety two. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>every other big name has left right before the German
<v Speaker 4>boom or not long after, so it makes a little
<v Speaker 4>more sense. But during my research on that Munich show,
<v Speaker 4>I also realized and almost every single baby face was
<v Speaker 4>massively over to the crowd, and Brett was a good
<v Speaker 4>transition from German catchen to US pro wrestling. He was
<v Speaker 4>no garbage man or clown or was he. His gimmick
<v Speaker 4>was that he was the hitman, paired with his excellent
<v Speaker 4>ring skills. Brett did not come as a culture shock
<v Speaker 4>to a country that was used to a less gimmicky
<v Speaker 4>way of the sport. And what I also noticed German
<v Speaker 4>women having the hats for wrestlers, especially Brett was a
<v Speaker 4>thing that was pushed often by the media over there.
<v Speaker 1>MMMM.
<v Speaker 4>To make long story short, the stars aligned perfectly for
<v Speaker 4>the Hitman, and at a certain point the whole thing
<v Speaker 4>took on a life of its own in Germany. But
<v Speaker 4>it's easy to forget that The Undertaker seems to have
<v Speaker 4>an egally legendary status with Germans. Whenever I get outed
<v Speaker 4>as a fan to normal people, awesome, or you were
<v Speaker 4>traveling to XXX, what are your plans? Well, we have
<v Speaker 4>tickets for a wrestling show. Oh, I remember Brett Hart
<v Speaker 4>and the Undertaker? Are they still alive?
<v Speaker 1>Wow?
<v Speaker 4>Yes, the Undertaker comes up every single time. If you
<v Speaker 4>ask one thousand German pedestrians to name one wrestler, over
<v Speaker 4>nine hundred of them would name Marcus Alexander McCool.
<v Speaker 2>It's pretty funny to call him undertake a market Marcus
<v Speaker 2>really that that that that really takes him down another notch.
<v Speaker 2>I like that. That makes him sound that much more
<v Speaker 2>of a fucking idiot.
<v Speaker 4>But he takes that like a man and does not
<v Speaker 4>need to tell everybody that he has Hasselhoff status.
<v Speaker 2>In Germany. Every five minutes. Yes, something that Brett. It
<v Speaker 2>doesn't take long for Brett to tell you all about
<v Speaker 2>how over he is in Germany. But it's true, and
<v Speaker 2>it's it's fascinating to think about. I love that that
<v Speaker 2>notion that he is, like he's a very safe choice
<v Speaker 2>for a German wrestling fan that was used to a
<v Speaker 2>much more straightforward baby face, although Otto Vaughan's was this
<v Speaker 2>incredibly fat, like fright spectacle, big fucker, and I.
<v Speaker 4>Think the primary kind of thrust of the German wrestling
<v Speaker 4>baby face was just that a guy who you know,
<v Speaker 4>went out there and one on account of his skills
<v Speaker 4>and his finesse and his uh, you know, quickness, classic stuff. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>Brett fit that mold in it in every conceivable way.
<v Speaker 4>It wasn't a country that was really hung up on
<v Speaker 4>physiques as much. They weren't just sitting there with their
<v Speaker 4>arms folded until somebody looked like a fucking, you know,
<v Speaker 4>Masters of the Universe character. So there's Brett, there's Germany,
<v Speaker 4>and if there was a show to get into it,
<v Speaker 4>that was it. I don't I didn't think we were
<v Speaker 4>going to get him on the stretching table as part
<v Speaker 4>of this y.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's something fascinating. The stretching table, fucking getting whipped
<v Speaker 2>by Jim Knightheart.
<v Speaker 4>Jesus fucking brawls with Julie unbelieved Ratt poor Savage versus Sean,
<v Speaker 4>Savage versus Sean you know the Rumble Lady nine. They
<v Speaker 4>were in the match together, the Rumble ninety They are
<v Speaker 4>matched together. There's matches in Tokyo where they were on
<v Speaker 4>the other side of tag team matches. There were six
<v Speaker 4>man's and battle royals all over the place. But the
<v Speaker 4>first ever Randy Savage were Shawn Michael's match that I
<v Speaker 4>can find, and that wrestling data lists when you sort
<v Speaker 4>by opponent matchup is actually in the bo No shit.
<v Speaker 4>March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety two. Wow, get this cage.
<v Speaker 4>They were back in the fucking garden in March.
<v Speaker 2>You missed it. I missed it. I only didn't. Not
<v Speaker 2>only did I miss it, but I didn't fucking know
<v Speaker 2>about it. Savage Michael's cage match. Holy shit.
<v Speaker 4>And then to Munich for this match. So as far
<v Speaker 4>as I can tell, and I think you were saying
<v Speaker 4>there was one before this. Sheffield is the night after, okay?
<v Speaker 2>All right?
<v Speaker 4>Or yeah, the week after. I have Munich is April fourteenth.
<v Speaker 4>I have Sheffield as April nineteenth. And that was in
<v Speaker 4>fact WWF on Sky Movies Plus, which was the television
<v Speaker 4>station in the UK that they first got cleared on.
<v Speaker 2>When was the When was the the match? The Boston match?
<v Speaker 2>Boston match was March twenty ninth, twenty ninth, that's wild,
<v Speaker 2>pre WrestleMania eight, in fact, before Savage won the title.
<v Speaker 2>I have a uh twenty eighth, actually March twenty eighth,
<v Speaker 2>Is that what I said? Yeah, twenty ninth, I said, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean that must have been ass. Was that ass?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I don't know, I mean doesn't say that.
<v Speaker 2>I mean usually usually the wrestling history has when it
<v Speaker 2>was had stopped by then televised, and you know, my god,
<v Speaker 2>the fact that we could have sat I mean he
<v Speaker 2>subbed for for Jake Roberts. I mean the fact that
<v Speaker 2>I fucking there was a house show a month after
<v Speaker 2>the one that I went to and I had no
<v Speaker 2>fucking idea. That's poor promotion. I don't remember that. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>and listen, I was watching. I was watching, so like
<v Speaker 2>I'm very I'm I'm dumbfounder that they did. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>it's a month afterwards, because the one I went to
<v Speaker 2>was February twenty ninth. Yeah, it was February twenty ninth.
<v Speaker 2>And man, that's wild.
<v Speaker 4>So continue to click things into place, even after talking
<v Speaker 4>about this time period for ten straight years, yep. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>still things to discover like this. So it was in
<v Speaker 4>fact before the Sheffield match. And then they came back
<v Speaker 4>later that summer at Hamilton, Ontario at the television taping
<v Speaker 4>on June first, and Savage Russell Shawn Michaels to the
<v Speaker 4>title match. They had a tag match with Randy Teeming
<v Speaker 4>with Brett against Flair and Sewn Michaels and Niagara Falls.
<v Speaker 4>In July, they went to Warwick, Rhode Island, where you
<v Speaker 4>could wow Savage verse Michaels for the title in July.
<v Speaker 4>On July nineteenth of nineteen ninety two, there's a tag
<v Speaker 4>match in Worcester. There was a tag match in Stamford.
<v Speaker 2>I saw. I saw the tag match in Worcester, did you. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>that's the one that's the big Worcester taping that I
<v Speaker 2>that I went to. I remember there Claire and Michaels. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>fucking I mean, think about that, think about that for
<v Speaker 2>a moment that was a match you'd play in No Mercy, Yeah, exactly.
<v Speaker 2>And I remember that was the one that was that
<v Speaker 2>was listed as the main event, but it didn't main event.
<v Speaker 2>What did it was the other tag match that was highlighted.
<v Speaker 2>It was a Warrior and Undertaker versus Berserker and Shango. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>that was that that ended up main eventing. I was
<v Speaker 2>in July, I believe of ninety two time. Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that was fucking again. Not knowing that it was a
<v Speaker 2>TV taping. That was the fucking greatest fucking thing. My
<v Speaker 2>dad was so miserable, was he, Yeah, because it's four
<v Speaker 2>hours of this ship and he had no idea, Like
<v Speaker 2>do you know they don't They don't, I mean, at
<v Speaker 2>least not that I know of. They don't announce that
<v Speaker 2>it's a taping. You know, Yeah, that's true. It's like
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know it was a tape. I just knew
<v Speaker 2>it was a live show, and then all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>it's like, yeah, it's four four hours. And also you know,
<v Speaker 2>it's like we're now watching like three of the same
<v Speaker 2>guys come out over the rest over and over again,
<v Speaker 2>watching that weird you know that that that I talked
<v Speaker 2>about in living let die during the Bond Journey. The
<v Speaker 2>idea that that that that the Brett, the Brett and
<v Speaker 2>Papa Shango thing happened was taped backwards, right, it was
<v Speaker 2>taped backwards. And then although it's saying here that I
<v Speaker 2>don't know, it's saying it's not as I'm reading the
<v Speaker 2>the breakdown here, it's like it's saying things happen differently
<v Speaker 2>than I remember. Oh well, I could be right, I could.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I don't know. No in terms of like
<v Speaker 2>like the tag match that they're saying that the the
<v Speaker 2>Warrior tag match. Oh yeah, that's right, But no, wait
<v Speaker 2>a minute, maybe it happened backwards. Maybe maybe the Warrior
<v Speaker 2>one was being totaled as the main event and then
<v Speaker 2>the other one happened later on in the night, right,
<v Speaker 2>But anyway, it was as a wild fucking show. Oh man.
<v Speaker 4>That's when I really wish I was dialed in to
<v Speaker 4>get to you know, if you could get to Worcester
<v Speaker 4>between Christmas and New Year's in ninety two, you could
<v Speaker 4>have seen Savage versus Michaels for the Intercontinental Wow huh wow,
<v Speaker 4>as well as Nasau Coliseum that week. And then when
<v Speaker 4>we switched over to nineteen ninety three. They did TV
<v Speaker 4>taping in Beaumont, Texas on January the fourth, or Savage
<v Speaker 4>wrestled Michael's. They went to Providence where Savage wrestled Michaels.
<v Speaker 4>In January thirtieth, they went to Toronto for the match,
<v Speaker 4>and they did a match in February at Rosemont Horizon
<v Speaker 4>for the intern Continental and for the final time, Shawn
<v Speaker 4>Michaels wrestled Randy Macho Man. Savage had a television taping
<v Speaker 4>in Wilsbury, Pennsylvania on July sixth, nineteen ninety three. July sixth,
<v Speaker 4>nineteen ninety three. Wow, so it's it's rarefied air indeed
<v Speaker 4>to see the Macho Man and the Heartbreak Kid collide
<v Speaker 4>as we do here on European Rampage again. And Shawn
<v Speaker 4>Michaels wrote in his book recalling a time when the
<v Speaker 4>Rouge were in the Tag Team division as well as
<v Speaker 4>he in the Tag Team Division with Marty Jeannetti, his
<v Speaker 4>first interactions with much of Man Ready Savage. The general
<v Speaker 4>line on the Rageau's Sean writes, was that they could
<v Speaker 4>do anything, but were a little lazy. We were working
<v Speaker 4>something like two hundred and fifty days a year, and
<v Speaker 4>they decided they were not going to kill themselves every
<v Speaker 4>night and risk their careers. I believe their mindset was,
<v Speaker 4>we'll work hard at the pay per views in the
<v Speaker 4>major towns, but we are not going to kill ourselves
<v Speaker 4>in Molly in Illinois. You could call them lazy, but
<v Speaker 4>that was fine with them. The Rageaus thought they were
<v Speaker 4>being smart businessmen. Now I see their point. Then I
<v Speaker 4>was so gung ho on tearing down the house every night.
<v Speaker 4>I considered them to be lazy. I was working with
<v Speaker 4>Randy Savage a few years later and he was telling
<v Speaker 4>me that I couldn't go all out every night.
<v Speaker 2>That's right. Got to pick your spots. Yeah, broll, we
<v Speaker 2>could do. I want to tell you some Shawn Michael's
<v Speaker 2>a good a little bit of advice. Like what I see,
<v Speaker 2>ye like what you're doing, all right, I see it.
<v Speaker 2>I get it.
<v Speaker 1>I like it.
<v Speaker 2>I like executy where you're going, you go up, you
<v Speaker 2>do a big thing, I get it. I get it.
<v Speaker 2>Understand I do big things as well. But here's the thing.
<v Speaker 2>What you gotta do is you gotta dial that back in.
<v Speaker 2>If you know what I'm talking about, you gotta dial
<v Speaker 2>it in because if you don't. You know, then you're
<v Speaker 2>kind gonna save things for the big time. You gotta
<v Speaker 2>worry about the big time. Now. I'm not trying to
<v Speaker 2>tell you, because you have to do your job. You
<v Speaker 2>do your job the way you gotta do your job.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just giving you a little bit of friendly advice.
<v Speaker 2>Give you a little bit of friendly advice from a
<v Speaker 2>guy who's done it all in the WWE all right,
<v Speaker 2>and I think you have the potential to get there,
<v Speaker 2>but you're kind of just gonna kind of dial it
<v Speaker 2>in a little bit, you know what, Like me and
<v Speaker 2>Elizabeth talking about different things. All right, we gotta dial
<v Speaker 2>that thing in now. I'm just saying about you, Sean Michaels,
<v Speaker 2>not trying to get in your way. I don't want
<v Speaker 2>to become that guy. What I am saying is, I
<v Speaker 2>think what you're gonna do is you gotta take things
<v Speaker 2>a little bit slowly before you amp it up a
<v Speaker 2>little bit. Right now, you're looking at me in a
<v Speaker 2>funny way, and I'm not digging that. I'm not digging
<v Speaker 2>the way that you're looking at me. You're making me
<v Speaker 2>feel a little all of a sudden, and I don't
<v Speaker 2>know about that. Now, you gotta Sean Michaels, what you
<v Speaker 2>gotta do right now is you gotta turn around. You
<v Speaker 2>gotta turn the fuck around and gotta face the other direction,
<v Speaker 2>because right now that you look at me in the eye,
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna know that I'm getting a little upset, And
<v Speaker 2>you know, if I get a little upset, then all
<v Speaker 2>of a sudden, I'm gonna get a little bit insane
<v Speaker 2>and I might just break your face over the fucking wall.
<v Speaker 2>Turn around, Sean Michaels, because I'm not gonna fuck with
<v Speaker 2>you anymore. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>So that was a good heart to heart. A lot
<v Speaker 4>of lessons imparted. You've got to pick your spots, he said, Brandy,
<v Speaker 4>I'm Superman. I don't have to, Sean replied, he just
<v Speaker 4>looked at me and said, I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>You might be. Maybe you were, Maybe you know where
<v Speaker 2>to fly. I don't know. Maybe you're from a different planet. Now,
<v Speaker 2>different guys come from different places. I know, people come
<v Speaker 2>from different countries. Maybe you come from a different planet.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe you've flown all the way from outer space came
<v Speaker 2>down to Earth and you said, hey, you know what,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonaquit him The Superman. I've read The Superman comics.
<v Speaker 2>I've seen where he's from. I understand I identify with him.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe that's exactly what you said on the day you
<v Speaker 2>came from outer space, you flew down. You said, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>you know what, there's a guy. Yeah, there's a guy
<v Speaker 2>that I'm reading about, a guy that's in a comic book,
<v Speaker 2>a guy who flies war's a red cape and understands
<v Speaker 2>how to get to get it all done. And maybe
<v Speaker 2>ah man guy, maybe Sean Michaels, the Man of the Hour,
<v Speaker 2>number one heartbreak kid. Maybe he is the superman, and
<v Speaker 2>maybe he's not. Maybe he's the super son of a bitch.
<v Speaker 2>Nobody knows, nobody wants to know, and nobody's gonna find out. Man,
<v Speaker 2>I just have to tell you.
<v Speaker 4>Reddy Savage is on cameo. It's called the Lapsed Fans came.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean my god.
<v Speaker 4>Later on, Schandrad recall some of the other lessons imparted
<v Speaker 4>to him by the macho man. Randy said Savage. He
<v Speaker 4>remembers him saying, even when you blow up at management,
<v Speaker 4>never say I'm out of here. Reddy Savage, you taught
<v Speaker 4>me that the minute you leave it's over. You have
<v Speaker 4>no chance for advancement. If you are still here, You
<v Speaker 4>still have a chance. Listen to this one, folks, if
<v Speaker 4>you're within the sound of my voice.
<v Speaker 2>Don't take yourself out of the game, Savage said, don't
<v Speaker 2>take yourself out of the game. That had nearly taken us.
<v Speaker 2>Marty rather not Matt Marty had nearly taken us out
<v Speaker 2>of the game.
<v Speaker 5>Oh.
<v Speaker 4>Reflections from the Heartbreak Kid on the influence that Randy
<v Speaker 4>Savage had in his career despite their limited interactions, There
<v Speaker 4>could have been so much more there. And did you
<v Speaker 4>know that Randy Savage had grand designs for a Shawn
<v Speaker 4>Michael's program?
<v Speaker 2>And really I did not know that.
<v Speaker 4>Did you know that if things broke a certain way,
<v Speaker 4>it wouldn't have been Randy Savage versus Crush at WrestleMania ten. Oh,
<v Speaker 4>here's Lanny the late Landy Poffo all right, the podcast
<v Speaker 4>that he did in his final years talking about where
<v Speaker 4>Randy Savage's head was these av Shawn Michaels right before
<v Speaker 4>departing the WWF WCW in nineteen ninety four.
<v Speaker 8>What could have been the match was steamboat ruined his
<v Speaker 8>life because he's OCD okay and obsessive compulsive disorder about
<v Speaker 8>having a great match. That's actually a good thing if
<v Speaker 8>you're a wrestling fan. He cares so much about the
<v Speaker 8>fans that he wants to have the best match he can,
<v Speaker 8>and it always hurt his feelings that he couldn't have
<v Speaker 8>a match as good or better than the one he
<v Speaker 8>had with Ricky Steamboat. Well, I've got a good reason.
<v Speaker 8>Fifty percent of the greatness of that match came from
<v Speaker 8>Ricky Steamboat, and you know, maybe he was just better
<v Speaker 8>than everything. It certainly does. And then he's he's relegated
<v Speaker 8>to being the announcer, and he's getting bored, and he's
<v Speaker 8>noticing that Seawn Michaels is emerging as not just a
<v Speaker 8>tag team wrestler, but the greatest talent in the business
<v Speaker 8>at the time. And I remember he calls me up
<v Speaker 8>at two of the morning because he knew I had
<v Speaker 8>a computer, and he says, can you find some breakaway
<v Speaker 8>champagne bottles? So I said, yeah, I think I can
<v Speaker 8>do that, and I found a company that made breakaway
<v Speaker 8>champagne bottles that I can break it over your head
<v Speaker 8>and not hurt you. Because his plan was to drink
<v Speaker 8>to Sean Michael's career, pour my glass. They would drink,
<v Speaker 8>they would toast and then they would drink, and then
<v Speaker 8>Randy would smash the bottle over Seawn Michael's head, starting
<v Speaker 8>a two year feud like the Hatfields and the McCoy's
<v Speaker 8>ending in WrestleMania where Sewn Michaels loses his hair if
<v Speaker 8>he loses, and Randy retires to the nal seeing table
<v Speaker 8>if he loses. So it's the hair versus the career,
<v Speaker 8>and then they would have the greatest match ever in
<v Speaker 8>the history of wrestling, and Randy retires to the announcer's table.
<v Speaker 8>So what happens, Pat says, well, Randy, we're having a
<v Speaker 8>youth movement and the best thing you can do is
<v Speaker 8>stay in the microphone. And that's when he went to
<v Speaker 8>the WCW. So that's my point.
<v Speaker 6>That was a loss to this fans at the time. Well,
<v Speaker 6>you're a you're a wrestling fan, don't you feel don't
<v Speaker 6>you feel gypped? Absolutely gypped. I mean, instead, we got
<v Speaker 6>this feud with Brian Adams crush. Now, not to knock
<v Speaker 6>it or Brian Adams as a performer, but Sean Michaels
<v Speaker 6>and Macho Man.
<v Speaker 5>That would have been money. Especially I think I'm one
<v Speaker 5>of the few New Generation era fans that are out
<v Speaker 5>there these days. But that alone would have definitely put something,
<v Speaker 5>you know, in the fans mind looking back on that era.
<v Speaker 5>It would have made it legitimate.
<v Speaker 8>Remember how Brett Hart left in a Montreal screw job finish.
<v Speaker 2>Right Survivor series.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, well, Randy had planned to pass the baton past
<v Speaker 8>the torch to Sean Michaels and lose right in the
<v Speaker 8>middle of the ring, as he did at WrestleMania three,
<v Speaker 8>Right in the middle of the ring. He was going
<v Speaker 8>to lose because he was not selfish. He wanted to
<v Speaker 8>do what was best for business, and they wouldn't let him.
<v Speaker 4>Savage smashing the champagne bottle of Shawn Michael's head, I.
<v Speaker 2>Mean, right off to the races or what. Just absolutely fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>That would have been amazing.
<v Speaker 4>Because you can picture him pulling it off so brilliant, Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>being so psychotic about it, yep, calling an audible and
<v Speaker 4>stabbing Sean with the shards of glass, and it's like,
<v Speaker 4>give me a sixty minute match. I need these two
<v Speaker 4>efforting I need these two story.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, can you just imagine? I mean, it just
<v Speaker 2>would have been unbelievable. What an exciting fucking program that
<v Speaker 2>would have been.
<v Speaker 4>And this is a Randy who's just dying nitching you
<v Speaker 4>get in that ring, and Vince doesn't want him in
<v Speaker 4>the ring, of course not, And that's what led to
<v Speaker 4>the departure, as well as you know, a lot of
<v Speaker 4>other deep seated animosities. But it's really remarkable that in
<v Speaker 4>a time when Vince was scrambling to figure out how
<v Speaker 4>to kind of rebound from the loss of the steroid
<v Speaker 4>bodies in Hulkgan, that he had Randy Savage right there
<v Speaker 4>with all the cachet from that era, someone who the
<v Speaker 4>fans were willing to accept at half the size from
<v Speaker 4>a physique standpoint, and he wouldn't go with him.
<v Speaker 2>He just so.
<v Speaker 4>Thoroughly committed to the idea that we had to move
<v Speaker 4>past anyone from that era that. I mean, think of
<v Speaker 4>what Randy went on to do in WCW. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>it's not like he had the best matches of his
<v Speaker 4>career there, but he was more than Kate, more than
<v Speaker 4>k exactly.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, he had tons of he he was able
<v Speaker 2>to matter for a long long time, right fucking shame
<v Speaker 2>Savage Sean Other memories from the tour Earl Heppner, who
<v Speaker 2>recently came out with the book, remembers this particular tour.
<v Speaker 2>At the time, not only was he refereeing with his
<v Speaker 2>brother Dave, but he was also kind of responsible as
<v Speaker 2>a road agent for some of these international tours. So
<v Speaker 2>he's got a hell of a story from what happened
<v Speaker 2>during the course of this European rampage. Johnt He writes
<v Speaker 2>it was April fourteenth, nineteen ninety two, with the WWF
<v Speaker 2>European Rampage tour of Munich, Germany. I was there with
<v Speaker 2>the crew for a special German live broadcast. Despite business
<v Speaker 2>being down in the US at the time, the WWF
<v Speaker 2>was still booming overseas, maybe even growing. These European tours
<v Speaker 2>were said to be extremely lucrative endeavors, and that they
<v Speaker 2>were my brother the money man, vouched for their success,
<v Speaker 2>as had become me he was. Dave was responsible for,
<v Speaker 2>you know, getting the gate and protecting the cash. H
<v Speaker 2>He was one of those guys, as had become tradition.
<v Speaker 2>The wwfed it up a crew of wrestlers and headed
<v Speaker 2>to the UK following the big yearly pay per view,
<v Speaker 2>this one being WrestleMania eight. We were putting on shows
<v Speaker 2>in front of packed rabbit audiences hungry for WWF action.
<v Speaker 2>All that working for hungry audience has made us thirsty.
<v Speaker 2>After the matches in Germany, some of us decided to
<v Speaker 2>posse up to possibly.
<v Speaker 4>Go on an adventure. Oh boy, where can we go
<v Speaker 4>to get some drinks? Jerry SAgs asked, the only German
<v Speaker 4>guy we could find who spokes in English. Well, the
<v Speaker 4>Hofbra House, of course, the best food around, the greasy
<v Speaker 4>German declared, of course, the Hoffer Bus. The other nasty boy,
<v Speaker 4>he asked, nastily, sounding as ignorant as he good.
<v Speaker 2>Is it any good picture? Knobs? Fucking idiot?
<v Speaker 4>God, it must be, the German promoter said, it's been
<v Speaker 4>there forever. It has been in business for almost four
<v Speaker 4>hundred years. You see, it was even the birst place
<v Speaker 4>of the Nazi Party. Hitler had made his speech right
<v Speaker 4>there inside that very beer hall.
<v Speaker 2>Brother, I know. The Hofbra House apparently was a famous
<v Speaker 2>bar in eatery that was still standing from the olden
<v Speaker 2>days of the country. Standing three stories, the red roof
<v Speaker 2>sloped upward to reveal a sign with a bright blue
<v Speaker 2>crown inscribed with the letters HB underneath the bottom floor
<v Speaker 2>windows were giant with arched tops, and the corner of
<v Speaker 2>the building bulged out in a rounded tower shape. We
<v Speaker 2>started our trek toward the brewery, only to find that
<v Speaker 2>we weren't the only ones looking for refuge there. The
<v Speaker 2>line stretched almost four blocks. If we went to that
<v Speaker 2>particular place that the owner of the venue recommended so much,
<v Speaker 2>he said he would never cover.
<v Speaker 4>He would cover rather our tabs. Knowing the main man
<v Speaker 4>wouldn't beer steer us wrong, and being wrestlers who were
<v Speaker 4>offered free beer, we had to go. We were willing
<v Speaker 4>to find the place at all costs free beer. He
<v Speaker 4>really does speak our language, after all, road Roary Animal laughed.
<v Speaker 4>Didn't take long telephone tell a wrestler right. With word
<v Speaker 4>of an open tab, our party grew and grew insant boy.
<v Speaker 4>What started with just the nasties and road warriors instantly
<v Speaker 4>grew into a faction that included Doug and Mounty Shiky
<v Speaker 4>baby in Repo man who in baby shieky baby as
<v Speaker 4>they called them on the road. Okay, Girdle, Mustafa and Ripo,
<v Speaker 4>who incidentally was ready to repossess some bruise.
<v Speaker 2>Where are we going?
<v Speaker 4>David snipped, joining the pack late and also inviting himself
<v Speaker 4>off to get some Nazi beer. I think I joked, Oh,
<v Speaker 4>none of my God, this is Earl Hebner's book Ladies
<v Speaker 4>and Gentlemen, Jesus Christ, the end of Kenny Casanova's pen
<v Speaker 4>available to available in audible form, with fucking AI calling
<v Speaker 4>him Hebener the whole time. I mean, at least pronounced
<v Speaker 4>the name of the author correctly.
<v Speaker 2>No need.
<v Speaker 4>With none of us knowing any German, we decided to
<v Speaker 4>take to the streets of Germany to get that good
<v Speaker 4>knock your ass out German beer. Any beer that's free
<v Speaker 4>was good beer to us, after all.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we get that.
<v Speaker 4>Wherever we were it was like New York City. There
<v Speaker 4>was definitely a night life, and we were immersing ourselves
<v Speaker 4>right in it. We traveled together, but spaced out a
<v Speaker 4>little to keep the heels away from the faces and
<v Speaker 4>keep ka feb where needed. As we were walking down
<v Speaker 4>the street to find the right watering hole, Brian Knobbs
<v Speaker 4>couldn't wait to start drinking. In Germany, you could actually
<v Speaker 4>buy beer from soda li vending machines. He stopped at
<v Speaker 4>one vending machine to get his pregame on. He'd probably
<v Speaker 4>already had a few drinks in him from back at
<v Speaker 4>the locker room, but that didn't matter. Can't you wait
<v Speaker 4>a second, Hawk, ass, no wonder you're so fat? What
<v Speaker 4>this heat coming from a drunk like you?
<v Speaker 2>Shots fired? He hit a nerve.
<v Speaker 4>I guess nasty boy Knobs had something to Road Warrior
<v Speaker 4>Hawk that he didn't like immediately. It was on a
<v Speaker 4>German street fight.
<v Speaker 2>Match broke out right before He's fucking clowns. Once you
<v Speaker 2>get man. Hawk had a fight with Scorpio and North Korea.
<v Speaker 2>He didn't give a fuck. Oh my god.
<v Speaker 4>The road Warrior started punching Knobs and anyone who tried
<v Speaker 4>to break it up was tossed to the side. You
<v Speaker 4>have to remember wrestlers can be physical to begin with,
<v Speaker 4>but put a few ten hour flights under their belts
<v Speaker 4>and sometimes it is a ticking time bomb situation just
<v Speaker 4>waiting to go off. Bang Knobs went off the road
<v Speaker 4>and write down.
<v Speaker 2>What do we do?
<v Speaker 4>I asked David, who replied more with a look than
<v Speaker 4>words that said, a real fight is above my pay grade.
<v Speaker 4>Eventually everybody in real fight. Eventually everybody had to jump
<v Speaker 4>on Hawk and pull him off. When Hawk got up,
<v Speaker 4>he walked away. We thought it was always good in
<v Speaker 4>the hood again until he went right back after Knobs
<v Speaker 4>slamming against a big metal door. While the beatdowns continued,
<v Speaker 4>I found a new meal to watch an old German
<v Speaker 4>couple walking down the sidewalk coming our way. They were hardcore.
<v Speaker 4>They saw the fight and turned their heads to it.
<v Speaker 4>They stepped off the curb and walked around us like
<v Speaker 4>it was nothing new for this area. Eventually the boys
<v Speaker 4>got it out of their systems. By the time we
<v Speaker 4>got to the bar, Knobs was a mess, but he
<v Speaker 4>apologized for being a prick and everything was squashed right away.
<v Speaker 4>It's funny how wrestlers can have squabbles like that and
<v Speaker 4>then only a few moments later be back together and
<v Speaker 4>drinking some really good German pints free and having a
<v Speaker 4>good old time. That's just how it went on Another
<v Speaker 4>German tourer. The announcer we were going to use was
<v Speaker 4>a German radio guy. I believe here he's talking about
<v Speaker 4>Carston Schaffer. He could also speak a little English, which
<v Speaker 4>was good so he would get the guy's names right
<v Speaker 4>and all. But of course w B wanted a real
<v Speaker 4>German speaker so that the audience would know what was
<v Speaker 4>what The problem was the radio guy knew less English
<v Speaker 4>than he probably previously led on. Therefore, when he went
<v Speaker 4>around to get the boys' names and waits together before
<v Speaker 4>the show, it was a big old mess. I won't
<v Speaker 4>repeat any names here, but one of the Click boys
<v Speaker 4>got hot out the language barrier. The announcer disappeared. We
<v Speaker 4>looked all over for the guy, and finally he turned
<v Speaker 4>up right before the show. They locked him in the
<v Speaker 4>bathroom for three hours. God, Welcome to John and it
<v Speaker 4>fucking you know wrestlers Animal Joe louri Niitis, the late
<v Speaker 4>Joe Lauri Nitis, who also wrote about this in his book. Later,
<v Speaker 4>when we divided into groups and it was time for
<v Speaker 4>the altar call, like I'd been a part of at
<v Speaker 4>Living World the year before, I got the surprise of
<v Speaker 4>my life when Hawk and Sean both got up, hugged
<v Speaker 4>and turned their lives over to Christ in front of
<v Speaker 4>the whole place. This is later in life when they
<v Speaker 4>found God again, and Hawk and Sean both went to
<v Speaker 4>the church. I think it was the one that. Was
<v Speaker 4>it Nikita Colos's church, or was it Superstar Graham's church? Whatever,
<v Speaker 4>they all found God in a similar of course, were
<v Speaker 4>a similar roof. It didn't stop there for them. The
<v Speaker 4>great thing about being a Christian is that it's not
<v Speaker 4>about going to church animal rights. It's about having a
<v Speaker 4>personal relationship with the Lord, and that is what changes people.
<v Speaker 4>Those guys were a great example. They used to hate
<v Speaker 4>each other. I had a quick flashback to a time
<v Speaker 4>in Germany during our first Wi You Have Run when Hawk,
<v Speaker 4>Sean and the Nasty Boys and I were going to
<v Speaker 4>this really high ass high class rather strip club could
<v Speaker 4>be high. I think Knobs was being too loud as.
<v Speaker 2>We were walking into the building.
<v Speaker 4>I hadn't even started down the stairs when Hawk and
<v Speaker 4>Knobs came barreling back up. Hawk had grabbed him and
<v Speaker 4>smacked the taste out of his mouth, and then turned
<v Speaker 4>to Sean, who was also mouthing off, and picked him
<v Speaker 4>up against a garbage garage door, and just before decking him,
<v Speaker 4>let go and walked away laughing it off. These fucking
<v Speaker 4>guys in Germany, they do.
<v Speaker 2>These fucking guys in general, Like what is wrong with them,
<v Speaker 2>like seriously, like behave like fucking human beings is to.
<v Speaker 4>Take a fence, like like I mean, they're they're just
<v Speaker 4>they're so on edge, right and like they want.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, it's like, honestly, it seems like they want
<v Speaker 2>to prove that they can actually fight, right, they're actually tough,
<v Speaker 2>and that they're not just phonies. And it's like, you
<v Speaker 2>know what, guys, you are. You're fucking phonies, all right?
<v Speaker 2>Accept it.
<v Speaker 4>Just because you can kick my ass doesn't mean you're
<v Speaker 4>not a phony, right, You're still Let's put the brakes
<v Speaker 4>on right now.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, this is so annoying.
<v Speaker 4>Later that night I found Sean passed out of the
<v Speaker 4>hotel lobby and holding up a wrapped up pillowcase filled
<v Speaker 4>with bottles, rocks, and all kinds of stuff. He had
<v Speaker 4>been waiting all night for Hawk to come back to
<v Speaker 4>do god knows what. And now ten years later, you
<v Speaker 4>should have seen those two crying in each other's arms
<v Speaker 4>like babies. It was one of the most touching and
<v Speaker 4>enduring moments between two human beings I've ever seen in
<v Speaker 4>my life. It was something I think was long overdue
<v Speaker 4>for Mike. I could see some of those heavy personal
<v Speaker 4>burdens lift right off his shoulders in that room. So
<v Speaker 4>reflections back on Germany from Joe Laurianidis. The tour started
<v Speaker 4>in Rotterdam, the Netherlands As mentioned, this was like the
<v Speaker 4>only event ever held in the Netherlands. The WWF is done,
<v Speaker 4>or at least at the time, certainly was Tiddy Byassi
<v Speaker 4>Naires against the Bushwhackers in the main event. Well, in
<v Speaker 4>the final matches Undertaker and Sid fought with double count out.
<v Speaker 4>Earlier also featured Owen versus Skinner, boss Man versus Berserker,
<v Speaker 4>Virgil versus Warlord Martell versus caryvon Erek who was subbing
<v Speaker 4>for Rowdy Roddy Piper according to History of WA and
<v Speaker 4>Tatanka pinning Cato a main event anywhere in the world.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that particular point in time. Indeed, they went back
<v Speaker 2>to Milan, Italy. There we go.
<v Speaker 4>They went back to Milan and April eleventh, nineteenety two
<v Speaker 4>did about ten thousand for Tito over Ripo Man Slaughter
<v Speaker 4>subbing for Crush over Colonel Mustafa leading a Doom subbing
<v Speaker 4>for the Bushwhackers beating the Nasty Boys, Davy Boys, Smith
<v Speaker 4>pinning Rick Flair. It was an interesting matchup, you mean,
<v Speaker 4>see Davian Flair Collie very often.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, not at all, no, sir, certain that sounds amazing.
<v Speaker 4>And a Milan you had Brat over Shawn Michaels for
<v Speaker 4>the INN Continental Championship. You had Jim Duggan and Aberdino Bravo.
<v Speaker 4>Apparently the match was supposed to be Kerry von Eric
<v Speaker 4>versus Barbarian, but you got Jim Duggan Versusino Bravo.
<v Speaker 2>And hey, well, hey you know what, there there you go,
<v Speaker 2>beautiful stuff there al.
<v Speaker 4>Tant savagees world Champion, being the Mounty in the main event,
<v Speaker 4>who was substituting for Jake the Snake Roberts. They moved
<v Speaker 4>down to Brussels, Belgium with much the same lineup, including
<v Speaker 4>Undertaker over Sid. They went to Keel, Germany, so this
<v Speaker 4>was the first one. The first ever German WWF event
<v Speaker 4>was April twelfth night, eeighteen ninety two. Seven thousand sold
<v Speaker 4>out at the Ulster Hall for Keen Germany and it
<v Speaker 4>was Undertaker and Sid and it was Money Inc. And
<v Speaker 4>the Bushwhackers. Then they went to Sussex, England at the
<v Speaker 4>Brighton Center and that had Savage over Mounty and Davy
<v Speaker 4>over Flair and Led over the Nasties. Then they went
<v Speaker 4>to London at Wembley did eleven thousand plus April thirteenth.
<v Speaker 4>This is Wembley Arena not stadium of course. This is
<v Speaker 4>Savage pinning Mounty with a pile driver and flying elbow.
<v Speaker 4>They had dug An over Bravo, Bret over Shawn Michael's
<v Speaker 4>count out, Davy Boy and Flair London again Wembley Arena.
<v Speaker 2>This is the next night.
<v Speaker 4>So they ran two straight knights and sold out both
<v Speaker 4>and Undertaker versus sid to a double count out was
<v Speaker 4>the finishing contest at the second night at Wembley and
<v Speaker 4>that's where they went from London to Munich. The show
<v Speaker 4>we're here to talk about this week and has mentioned
<v Speaker 4>they taped Brett Verstino. If you had to take a
<v Speaker 4>wild guess, if you don't have it in front of you,
<v Speaker 4>would you say the date would have been of that
<v Speaker 4>episode of Primetime Wrestling that you saw this matchup?
<v Speaker 2>Oh well it was on Prime I saw it. I
<v Speaker 2>remember on an All American, but it was it was
<v Speaker 2>a June first, that is correct. Now did you come
<v Speaker 2>off the top of that dome with that?
<v Speaker 7>No?
<v Speaker 2>I actually I have a lot of information about what
<v Speaker 2>was aired on America. Tremendous Savage over Michael's as well
<v Speaker 2>as mentioned and then the sixteen Men Battle Royal.
<v Speaker 4>Then they went to Frankfurt, Germany with Savage and mount
<v Speaker 4>and Brett v.
<v Speaker 2>Shaan.
<v Speaker 4>They went to Belfast in Northern Ireland where they had
<v Speaker 4>undertaker over Sid. Yeah, Flair has already left. They had
<v Speaker 4>Martelver's carry on Eric second from the top Dortmund. Back
<v Speaker 4>to Germany, they did a Savage versus Mounting and Brett v.
<v Speaker 2>Shawan.
<v Speaker 4>They then went to uh Some of the crew split
<v Speaker 4>off and was in Japan. This is where Ric Flair
<v Speaker 4>was going. He was going to team with the Natural
<v Speaker 4>Disasters to face Ashurahara, Juanitu, Tenriu and Takashi Ishikawa.
<v Speaker 2>Where are those where's the whe are those tapes?
<v Speaker 4>I know this is paying off the Pacific Man. This
<v Speaker 4>was a WWFSWS joint show.
<v Speaker 2>Did we do this one? No? This wasn't televised. I'm
<v Speaker 2>almost positive Flair was there. Was just crazy that a
<v Speaker 2>flare in ten room, Give me it, please give me
<v Speaker 2>that like ten days in a row. Beverly's were in action,
<v Speaker 2>Ultimore Dragon was on the card, Yoshaki Yatsu. So yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Any listeners of the Paint Off the Pacific Journey sorta
<v Speaker 2>ofly recall us doing deep dives into the wwff WS
<v Speaker 2>collaboration back in ninety two. I found it. Well, no,
<v Speaker 2>actually no, this is later and in the year sorry brother,
<v Speaker 2>Oh wait, nope, I found it. This is tape of
<v Speaker 2>sw flare Flare ten Room April eighteenth, ninety two April sixteenth,
<v Speaker 2>but that might be a couple days later. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I found the match on YouTube. Massive Yeah, brillianteenth was
<v Speaker 2>ten reverse flare two out of three falls. Wow, So
<v Speaker 2>should have done that. I'm gonna find this whole fucking show.
<v Speaker 2>Should have done that one man, I'm gonna find this
<v Speaker 2>whole show. It's gonna happen. I'm gonna find it. I
<v Speaker 2>want to. Even if they fucking piece it together, It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna fucking happen. Get it done. I need it. And
<v Speaker 2>when Boss Man needs something, what tends to happen gets done.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you, Dublin on April sixteen to do something. The
<v Speaker 2>crew that stayed behind Undertaker vers SID in Dublin. Then
<v Speaker 2>they went the crew in Japan worked Yokohama. They did
<v Speaker 2>a Glasgow, Scotland April seventeenth Undertaker and Sid. They did Birmingham,
<v Speaker 2>England l D versus Nasties so so much for this,
<v Speaker 2>Like SID left WWF and that's why he wasn't on
<v Speaker 2>the Germany show. He was fucking he was on the
<v Speaker 2>other European shows after that, right, right, because he's in Sheffield.
<v Speaker 2>I know that for a fact. It just split those
<v Speaker 2>song it was. Remember it was a weird that that's
<v Speaker 2>where we fucking it's that Sheffield show where he talks
<v Speaker 2>about the Jackal that whatever the fucking that book that
<v Speaker 2>he that he talks about or the Jackal? What is
<v Speaker 2>it called I Forget I Forget too? But it's weird
<v Speaker 2>fucking thing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, one of his inspired promos that he used to
<v Speaker 4>do where he had some kind of he just read something. Well,
<v Speaker 4>what show was that Sheffield?
<v Speaker 2>It was called UK Rampage ninety two. Okay, yeah, that's
<v Speaker 2>what it's called. But yeah, I don't remember what the
<v Speaker 2>fucking what the name of that fucking book was. It
<v Speaker 2>was something creepy.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not sure either, actually, okay, it was the Night
<v Speaker 4>of the Juggler of the Juggler, Right, he's a lapsed.
<v Speaker 1>Fan wrestling podcast with Jack and JP Sorro Wrestling podcast.
<v Speaker 4>Ye best selling novel by William McGivern, And we got
<v Speaker 4>into that when we covered the show all that time ago. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>Birmingham England Divers, Nasties, Shango over Duggan, Savage over Mounty.
<v Speaker 4>That was the April seventeenth show and they started wrapping
<v Speaker 4>up the tour here Glasgow on the eighteenth LD Verse Nasties,
<v Speaker 4>Savage over Mounty. Birmingham April eighteenth, Davy Boy over Repo
<v Speaker 4>Man it's a taker in Sid and then they did
<v Speaker 4>UK Rampage ninety two and Sheffield like we've been talking
<v Speaker 4>about April nineteenth, ninety two, Davy Boy pinning a Irs
<v Speaker 4>to close the night.
<v Speaker 2>I think, fucking yeah, just what everyone wants.
<v Speaker 4>Rat versus Martel, Savage Verse, Michaels has talked about reverse
<v Speaker 4>crossbody off the top rope, thank you very much, Sid Verse,
<v Speaker 4>Undertaker and much more so.
<v Speaker 2>That was that was the tour.
<v Speaker 4>That was this fateful tour where they hit all these
<v Speaker 4>a lot of those markets for the first time, including Germany,
<v Speaker 4>and thus began the rich tradition of WWF hitting Europe
<v Speaker 4>after the biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. So let's
<v Speaker 4>get more into the sights and sounds of being a
<v Speaker 4>German WWF fan at the time. Pase one, are the
<v Speaker 4>televison sound like? What was r T L two like
<v Speaker 4>the station where they really found a home after the
<v Speaker 4>tele five nineteen ninety five nineteen ninety two runs. It's
<v Speaker 4>just a little taste.
<v Speaker 9>We landed the type problem.
<v Speaker 10>The champions busses in their owner from Undertaker, d Man,
<v Speaker 10>King of the Ring, Flash Willming Skinner, He's on me
<v Speaker 10>unif to Official Wrestling Federation magazines, get Spantage Hint, club.
<v Speaker 2>Stour Stop. That's a clima.
<v Speaker 8>I'm flash Bath.
<v Speaker 10>Yes, yes of course, Oh supers Plasina.
<v Speaker 9>Yes, this album met him Hit Slam Jam Shot, break
<v Speaker 9>up music, Action music, Power, WrestleMania. That album the World
<v Speaker 9>Wrestling Federation of US on slack back.
<v Speaker 2>We get so many may have.
<v Speaker 10>Superstarn shirts post that girlfriend or is happy both for
<v Speaker 10>Ivy Senta to super videos The EIM We Are.
<v Speaker 8>The Girls House by Fornellion.
<v Speaker 9>Starting for segments for sets.
<v Speaker 10>And FOOTBA Gleague, Thankye Comes.
<v Speaker 1>Not by La.
<v Speaker 9>Da Fantastic Steel.
<v Speaker 10>City mc FL for trist and post park actif the
<v Speaker 10>Irons Ober Sniding.
<v Speaker 2>Don't sweat.
<v Speaker 8>Right, Yes that is fast fast.
<v Speaker 10>Fall I fast fast, rights fine fast fast.
<v Speaker 2>Is that German cool or what that's amazing German nineties cool?
<v Speaker 2>So a bunch of ads there the the one of
<v Speaker 2>the Metallica riffs, apparently, according to Ben, was played all
<v Speaker 2>the time during Ring Fry and the WWF television shows,
<v Speaker 2>and it was basically, you know, they would show a
<v Speaker 2>bunch of clips of you know, wrestling moves, Hogan's in it,
<v Speaker 2>and then they would show, you know, pieces of merchandise.
<v Speaker 2>They played this ad several times during the the actual
<v Speaker 2>Munich television show. Un Dundu wrote the name of the
<v Speaker 2>song later, well, it's you mean that the opening theme
<v Speaker 2>song there? Yes, yeah, it's uh, it's it's Search and Destroy.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's a fan for the common Man by Copeland,
<v Speaker 2>Aaron Copeland. It's a it's a weird it's a it's
<v Speaker 2>a bizarre pop rock cover of Aaron Copeland's fan favorite
<v Speaker 2>the common Man, right, which is Metallica version that that
<v Speaker 2>is it's it's ironic that yeah, because it starts off
<v Speaker 2>with that, and then well, I don't know, it's maybe
<v Speaker 2>there were a couple of songs that they played Busy
<v Speaker 2>definitely like there was there was there was this bizarre
<v Speaker 2>fanfare for the common Man cover that was like, it's
<v Speaker 2>kind of funny that they're playing that on a German
<v Speaker 2>show because It's like Copeland is about as American classical
<v Speaker 2>music as you can get, Is that right? Oh? God, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>he's fucking like, you know, one of the most prestige
<v Speaker 2>not prestigious, but one of the most kind of renowned
<v Speaker 2>American like classical American composers. I see, because there aren't many,
<v Speaker 2>you know, there aren't many of those.
<v Speaker 4>The version of the song that you hear riffed there
<v Speaker 4>and sampled as Metallica is the Struggle Within. So that's
<v Speaker 4>what they would play during these German WWF broadcasts. But
<v Speaker 4>that's one thing. You know, the TV themes are one thing,
<v Speaker 4>But how about what a treat this was the hasbroad
<v Speaker 4>in German. Oh you're talking ww figures. Ah yeah, but
<v Speaker 4>I invite you to not only listen to what the
<v Speaker 4>German has Bro television at sounded like, but listen to
<v Speaker 4>this German try to channel rowdy Roddy Piper as he
<v Speaker 4>does it.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, here comes Phoebe cat Shop.
<v Speaker 11>Here God you girls, how.
<v Speaker 2>You heard a little warrior at the end as well? God,
<v Speaker 2>can you imagine German kids buying hasbrosa wild that that
<v Speaker 2>era compatriots in Germany were collecting Hasbro. I love it
<v Speaker 2>so much.
<v Speaker 4>I love it so much so they promote the Royal
<v Speaker 4>Rumble on German w AF television, for instance.
<v Speaker 8>Because he said anything mister names.
<v Speaker 1>Miami, welcome every Wallasey, your very first w w I
<v Speaker 1>have Royal Rumbo report. It's Todd petting Gill and Bulks.
<v Speaker 2>Get this.
<v Speaker 9>We are on the horizon of.
<v Speaker 1>Another w WF spectacular. I'm talking about the Royal Rumbles
<v Speaker 1>scheduled in the state for Sunday night, January the twenty
<v Speaker 1>second totally live from the Sun Norman's Tampa floor.
<v Speaker 9>An ever found depends on his.
<v Speaker 2>Game Superstar Wrestlers One Goal indeed.
<v Speaker 4>So that's what they would do. They would give you
<v Speaker 4>a little sample of the English little yeah, yeah, Todd
<v Speaker 4>Pettingill in the native tongue, and then just have Carston
<v Speaker 4>Schaffer whoever, just totally voice over whatever it was that
<v Speaker 4>he was in the process of saying, and that is
<v Speaker 4>wild had just said. Now, when you have Hulk Cogan
<v Speaker 4>in studio, or at least when Carson Schaeffer is he
<v Speaker 4>would do every now and then go to America to
<v Speaker 4>do some actual interviews that they could here on German
<v Speaker 4>television and Hulk Hogan's out there promoting Suburban Commando. You
<v Speaker 4>better relieve the wholes for himself spent some time with Carston.
<v Speaker 4>It's not like the German viewer was able to get
<v Speaker 4>much of a feel for what the Holsterre's voice sounded like,
<v Speaker 4>because he is absolutely overwhelmed by the translation of what
<v Speaker 4>he's saying.
<v Speaker 10>By Gordon Ship, they were wrestling fans hot my kind
<v Speaker 10>of live action in ring, which spas in live action
<v Speaker 10>in studio. Then here is the absolutely superstar the World
<v Speaker 10>Wrestling Federation, hal Cogan.
<v Speaker 9>He's been for. That's the hearing Klina.
<v Speaker 10>Domanias Indeutsch laand based before the un Found without Halkimania.
<v Speaker 10>The gests only thousands from the Masters from their busin Championship.
<v Speaker 10>As to my nine film that asked Algazine, kinade, hubbish
<v Speaker 10>and want they helped make a fine I like it
<v Speaker 10>did an their sunstyle fine. I did like all stee
<v Speaker 10>down far Mike Master in Sunskogen. I ain't playoff in
<v Speaker 10>Calm though my playoff Domestic's nomino.
<v Speaker 9>As on spring stands.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, can you imagine that drama. That's the
<v Speaker 2>version of Holkogen. You get to know that voice, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>that's it. I'm all at Houlkomnia. I don't see the problem.
<v Speaker 2>I mean he's translating quite literally every single word that
<v Speaker 2>Hulk is saying. He's saying it.
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, nineteen ninety two, I'll write wrestling boom Ben
<v Speaker 4>tells us in the German speaking world, for the first time,
<v Speaker 4>the major event broadcast full and live, rather than being
<v Speaker 4>split across multiple episodes. WrestleMania eight aired on free TV
<v Speaker 4>in Germany April fifth, nineteen ninety two, starting at eleven.
<v Speaker 2>O'clock at night. Fine, I have no problem, better believe.
<v Speaker 4>Ahead of the event, mister Perfect, Curt Heading and Bobby
<v Speaker 4>the Brain Heenan, both consultants to the Nature Boy Brick
<v Speaker 4>Flair heading into WrestleMania eight, appeared in studio as special guests.
<v Speaker 10>Mister Perfect, the names this at all?
<v Speaker 8>It sure doesn't it does?
<v Speaker 10>Okay, Now the first mesmersons begin and wan and see
<v Speaker 10>mister Hein and Harmrickle and Dvbrat, Yes, missus Tilgig and
<v Speaker 10>matro Man Randy Savage for tidy and the chances the
<v Speaker 10>macho man Randy Savage, are you raising chances?
<v Speaker 2>Who chance?
<v Speaker 10>Chaps Clara that champion lest is a filant for her
<v Speaker 10>Champions Supply Mas and Not and A Champions Qualee Go Fly.
<v Speaker 9>Their champions said just like bet can't change hands, savage
<v Speaker 9>mostly in.
<v Speaker 10>Pain and after US two Dennis the most savage in pain.
<v Speaker 10>Savage motel was Presoners tiging by WrestleMania at the VV
<v Speaker 10>Champions title to become Field and the way I can
<v Speaker 10>ring best in their eyes, Alice wasman must I can reply,
<v Speaker 10>you know everything.
<v Speaker 8>There is to know about what he has to know,
<v Speaker 8>and but you don't have it.
<v Speaker 2>To be with Claire.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, no wonder German WWF fans remember Carston Schaeffer.
<v Speaker 4>So yeah, he was the voice of every single right
<v Speaker 4>promo on the show. Exactly he's he's I mean, I
<v Speaker 4>guess he could be equivalent to like Gene Oakland. Yeah
<v Speaker 4>he's all you hear is these great promos are expostulating.
<v Speaker 4>It's just his his translation. I guess that was the
<v Speaker 4>best way that they could do it. So WWF continued
<v Speaker 4>to air on telefive after this European Rampage Store event.
<v Speaker 4>They even aired SummerSlam ninety two on a two day delay.
<v Speaker 4>Somewhere I'm around like us, I think we got guess it.
<v Speaker 4>I think we got on a two day delay, that's true.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not sure if that's a reference to two days
<v Speaker 4>after the United States got it or two days after
<v Speaker 4>it happened, but yeah, you're right if it's If it's
<v Speaker 4>two days after it happened, then we were in the
<v Speaker 4>same position. Survivors Series ninety two, according to this history
<v Speaker 4>provided to us by Ben, aired on a delay that
<v Speaker 4>had stretched to twenty days. Wow, twenty days before he
<v Speaker 4>could see the nineteen ninety two Survivor series in Germany,
<v Speaker 4>and throughout the year, Ringfry continued to be broadcast every
<v Speaker 4>Friday evening.
<v Speaker 2>But due to youth protection regulation, is Ring Fry related
<v Speaker 2>to Kip Fry?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 4>No, okay no, I did try to confirm that, and
<v Speaker 4>it's no relation whatsoever. But yeah, As the youth protection
<v Speaker 4>regulations ramped up, reruns of Ring Fry were pushed to
<v Speaker 4>late night slots around three to four am from Saturday
<v Speaker 4>to Sunday. So by the end of nineteen ninety two,
<v Speaker 4>would seem to be such a healthy boom period for
<v Speaker 4>WWF on the back of this live event or somewhat
<v Speaker 4>live event was distantly faded and then that's the end
<v Speaker 4>of the televiv experiment the network is closed or it's
<v Speaker 4>acquired by a rival station that basically shutters it. And
<v Speaker 4>the DSF was the name of the other channel that
<v Speaker 4>started airing WCW and other wrestling in nineteen ninety three
<v Speaker 4>and took on Ulifesseler, Carsten Schaeffer's female color commentator for
<v Speaker 4>the European Rampage Show, took her on as the voice
<v Speaker 4>of wrestling on this new channel, DSF, and she did
<v Speaker 4>voiceover work for Glow Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, which was
<v Speaker 4>on US syndicated television at the time, of course, and
<v Speaker 4>found a home on German television. And she would talk
<v Speaker 4>actually about how Ooley would talk about how she would
<v Speaker 4>get kind of creative with the things that the words
<v Speaker 4>that she was putting into the mouth of.
<v Speaker 2>The Glow wrestlers that of course all kinds of like
<v Speaker 2>edgy political commentary, Oh my god. And she took pride
<v Speaker 2>in the fact that the German version of Penthouse Magazine
<v Speaker 2>actually wrote up Glow is like almost like a hip
<v Speaker 2>show because some of the things that she was saying
<v Speaker 2>to recontextualize what was happening on the show, because it
<v Speaker 2>was just so campy and Glow was just so often
<v Speaker 2>good for her that she'd have a ton of fun
<v Speaker 2>with it. So Marcel Oboa and Carston Schaeffer said goodbye
<v Speaker 2>to the German television audience at the end of December
<v Speaker 2>of nineteen ninety two, and there was a break for
<v Speaker 2>ww fans about two months straight where German fans had
<v Speaker 2>no WWF on television because of the closure of the stage.
<v Speaker 2>That's wild.
<v Speaker 4>They had WCW, but DSF would care that. But by
<v Speaker 4>March the RTL two network that you just heard the sound,
<v Speaker 4>the sites and sounds from they took on the WWF
<v Speaker 4>and there would be on there for many, many years
<v Speaker 4>to come. And I believe that means it's time at
<v Speaker 4>long last for us to get into the history of
<v Speaker 4>Carston Schaeffer. Oh my god, these two went at it
<v Speaker 4>hu and internet interviews, No, no, hardly in internet interviews
<v Speaker 4>and forum posts and Facebook posts and wrestling newsletter interviews,
<v Speaker 4>these two ended.
<v Speaker 2>Up hating each other. Wow.
<v Speaker 4>It adds a lot of texture when you watch this
<v Speaker 4>April nineteen ninety two German television broadcast to know just
<v Speaker 4>how much acrimony there ended up being between these two
<v Speaker 4>and the years that came and went. There was a
<v Speaker 4>lot of insinuations made, okay across the aisle with these two.
<v Speaker 4>Really some of the more sessive things they said, it's
<v Speaker 4>always not entirely clear that they're talking solely about the other,
<v Speaker 4>but they're sort of like, you know, concentric circles. Whenever
<v Speaker 4>they point fingers, they're always on opposite sides of the
<v Speaker 4>of the equation. So the way it all, the sense
<v Speaker 4>that there was something wrong goes back to an open
<v Speaker 4>letter apparently that Carson had written and was printed in
<v Speaker 4>a German language wrestling newsletter way back in the day.
<v Speaker 4>That seemed to be the first hint because there was
<v Speaker 4>some issue between the two. When he speaks to why
<v Speaker 4>his collaboration on television that you know, so many ww
<v Speaker 4>fans saw came to an end with with Uli Fesseler,
<v Speaker 4>and he describes some scenes you know, where she would
<v Speaker 4>say fuck off and to him and wow, they would
<v Speaker 4>sling mud at each other quite a bit. He doesn't
<v Speaker 4>remember exactly what triggered it, as he said, but he
<v Speaker 4>you know, first started answering questions about it. I guess
<v Speaker 4>the publication was called Wrestling Telegram. And let's get into
<v Speaker 4>how it came to that between these two Ulifessler. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>she did an interview, as many did, with what seems
<v Speaker 4>to be a pretty prominent German wrestling podcast called fever Talk.
<v Speaker 4>A lot of people wrestling as much as it is
<v Speaker 4>like German television, and it's head Carston on he's had
<v Speaker 4>only on and there's a lot of color that we
<v Speaker 4>get about the history of these two thanks not only
<v Speaker 4>to fever Talk the podcast, but Ben's translation. And they
<v Speaker 4>asked Ouli about how she started wrestling, what promotions she
<v Speaker 4>worked with in general, she recalls the mid eighties when
<v Speaker 4>telefive did productions for all sorts of things in English.
<v Speaker 4>They needed that translation service and that's how it started.
<v Speaker 4>She had been working in private television since the early eighties.
<v Speaker 2>Worstations's working?
<v Speaker 1>What?
<v Speaker 2>Brother? Can we talk about this? This was Uli, dude,
<v Speaker 2>like Uli Anderson brothers are one. What is the reason
<v Speaker 2>everybody's working in this country?
<v Speaker 5>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Well, I don't understand what my country. Only the wrestlers work.
<v Speaker 2>I don't understand exactly what is going to work. We
<v Speaker 2>the announced you know what's the diz in Germany?
<v Speaker 3>Brother?
<v Speaker 2>Why is everyone working? Brother?
<v Speaker 4>I like working as a word exclusive to me, like
<v Speaker 4>they're saying k fabe or something.
<v Speaker 2>What what do you why did you bring so saying?
<v Speaker 2>Kay fabe dude in Germany? K fob, k foub key
<v Speaker 2>fob what? Whoa? Whoa? Dude? Wholl brother, it's pretty I
<v Speaker 2>don't give my I didn't give my my key fob anybody, Dude,
<v Speaker 2>that's my key fob brother, k fabe the key fob,
<v Speaker 2>key fob, the k fabe. You know, dude, right now,
<v Speaker 2>I gotta say, dude, you're like, I don't even You're
<v Speaker 2>freaking me out right now, brother, Like you know a
<v Speaker 2>little bit too much fall school on hull COVID's life. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>ka the key fob, key fob, the k fae brother?
<v Speaker 1>Whoa?
<v Speaker 2>Where do you get off talking like that? It's kind
<v Speaker 2>of like, take that's all this thing back, hen, Brother.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know where you're going with that, dude, but
<v Speaker 2>I don't I don't like it. I don't like it, dude.
<v Speaker 2>And what I especially don't like, brother, is how people
<v Speaker 2>are working in Germany and nobody's tell him whul cogan
<v Speaker 2>about it, right, Like, dude, I have eyes and ears everywhere. Brother,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what's going on on all corners of
<v Speaker 2>the planet, dude, but somehow people are getting underneath Hull Covid,
<v Speaker 2>which what they should be, but they got on top
<v Speaker 2>of Hull Hogan and then we got a problem. Right now,
<v Speaker 2>I'm on Germany pinhold Covin. So I want to know
<v Speaker 2>who told you that Germany has pinnedhol Covin?
<v Speaker 4>The show was it where Hulk said Germany pinned him? Well,
<v Speaker 4>it must have been on a show that he wrestled on, right,
<v Speaker 4>he was a mile away from the card.
<v Speaker 2>At least it's a Germany show. Oh.
<v Speaker 4>So, Ulifessler is doing news, doing you know, English translations
<v Speaker 4>of American television shows that are airing on German television.
<v Speaker 4>She gets a call from someone by the name of
<v Speaker 4>Malcolm Thompson, who is a producer at Televive, and he
<v Speaker 4>offered her a job writing and translating and voicing scripts
<v Speaker 4>for US imported television. We're talking music, PGA, Golf Wide
<v Speaker 4>World of Sports, and then the station gets the contract
<v Speaker 4>for WWF as well as Glow and Sumo.
<v Speaker 2>At that point, this fuck this not doing fucking fake bullshit,
<v Speaker 2>fake bullshit.
<v Speaker 4>This This producer from telefive had already hired Carson Schaeffer
<v Speaker 4>to handle the daily workload of you know, doing the wrestling.
<v Speaker 2>He was the guy.
<v Speaker 4>Carson was the guy picked, and there's some dispute as
<v Speaker 4>to whether he put his hand up for the opportunity
<v Speaker 4>or not to handle German WWF when they got the
<v Speaker 4>contract and he split the shows for scriptwriting and voiceovers
<v Speaker 4>did Malcolm between Carson Schaeffer and Alufessler, so they had
<v Speaker 4>an equal division of duties. And while they worked together
<v Speaker 4>rather harmon harmoniously in the beginning, it seemed that wouldn't
<v Speaker 4>be long for the world, She says for her, it
<v Speaker 4>was the first time she remembers being involved in wrestling,
<v Speaker 4>way back with her grandfather. She remembers during a match
<v Speaker 4>she went to this handsome guy came out and he
<v Speaker 4>looked so good and he was always looking at me
<v Speaker 4>like that. I don't even know if it was true,
<v Speaker 4>but he looked at me and I thought, oh, he's
<v Speaker 4>probably looking at me to win. It was definitely something
<v Speaker 4>for me, mister perfect.
<v Speaker 2>Yes. Wow.
<v Speaker 4>He was a really nice guy, and my grandfather was
<v Speaker 4>there and it made sense to me. I had such
<v Speaker 4>a great time with it. She later would say in
<v Speaker 4>a wrestling an interview with Wrestling Fever Dot Dee that
<v Speaker 4>her grandfather was a wrestling fan who took her to
<v Speaker 4>the events and taught her to pay attention to the details,
<v Speaker 4>who in the ring was actually skilled and who wasn't,
<v Speaker 4>what really hurt and what didn't, what was serious and
<v Speaker 4>what was just for show, and his regards to the
<v Speaker 4>mister perfect story. She was a teenager back then and
<v Speaker 4>she was introduced to him, or he was introduced to me.
<v Speaker 4>A German name, blonde and so un German headache, of course,
<v Speaker 4>made the German name huge, at least one point nine
<v Speaker 4>zero meters giant. He was incredibly nice, polite, with a
<v Speaker 4>bright smile. I was completely taken in.
<v Speaker 10>Mm hmmm.
<v Speaker 4>I wonder if Kurt closed the deal. I don't remember
<v Speaker 4>exactly what connection he had with my grandfather, it's been
<v Speaker 4>too long. But from that moment on, every time he
<v Speaker 4>spotted me, he'd flashed me a big smile and wink.
<v Speaker 4>I was deeply impressed, and from that moment wrestling became personal.
<v Speaker 4>Uly Fessler says wrestling was a sport that fascinated her.
<v Speaker 4>As she put it, because the more you look into it,
<v Speaker 4>the more new doors of knowledge open up, and suddenly
<v Speaker 4>the whole thing becomes a secret, a craft, and it's
<v Speaker 4>not just about sports. For me, the number of the
<v Speaker 4>humor is what fascinates me. So apparently the things that
<v Speaker 4>Ulifessler would say on voiceovers, especially when she kind of
<v Speaker 4>got free reign to do WCW and Glow after the
<v Speaker 4>telefive wwfdal came to an end. We're really kind of
<v Speaker 4>funny and sightful and funky and silly. You know, It's
<v Speaker 4>kind of like you could enjoy it even if you
<v Speaker 4>were enjoying wrestling. She had a way of commenting on
<v Speaker 4>it that was kind of like Mystery Science Theater three thousand.
<v Speaker 4>That's the way I'm kind of king. That's the vibe
<v Speaker 4>I'm getting. And again she was able to do WCW
<v Speaker 4>as well. She took full responsibility. As a matter of fact,
<v Speaker 4>when the Kirch Group bought telefive. Kirch Group was the
<v Speaker 4>company that telefive to an end and renamed it a
<v Speaker 4>DSF and put her in production of the post production
<v Speaker 4>of WCW. And this is where the disharmony begins, because
<v Speaker 4>mister Carston Shaeffer, a handpicked by this Malcolm character at
<v Speaker 4>tell Afive to usher in WWF onto German television, is
<v Speaker 4>suddenly odd man out and the woman he shared the
<v Speaker 4>booth with Yuli Fessler is now the voice of wrestling
<v Speaker 4>German television on this DSF channel that came and basically
<v Speaker 4>did a hostile takeover of tele Afive because they were competitors.
<v Speaker 4>They were not friends, these two television companies. So you
<v Speaker 4>kind of get the vibe. I feel like it's just
<v Speaker 4>like WWFY WCW.
<v Speaker 2>Right, you know exactly there are problems. There are problems.
<v Speaker 4>She remembers being sent footage from Atlanta when she was
<v Speaker 4>doing WCW and the wrestlers did little bytes for her
<v Speaker 4>because she did like a news segment, not unlike what
<v Speaker 4>Missy Hyatt used to do, but it was exclusive to
<v Speaker 4>the German ww television shows, and of course because of
<v Speaker 4>that she had total free reign as far as what
<v Speaker 4>she would say. She would add these little news things
<v Speaker 4>on the broadcasts. She do some phone calls, get some information,
<v Speaker 4>and then kind of do like a whole thing about
<v Speaker 4>here's what the wrestler's personal lives are, like, here's the girlfriends,
<v Speaker 4>here's what they're into, all that shit, and so that
<v Speaker 4>apparently was a very well regarded part of the television
<v Speaker 4>show or a memorable part of the television show. She
<v Speaker 4>remembers shortly before the broadcast, sometimes just minutes before. I'd
<v Speaker 4>be on the phone gathering the latest news, even if
<v Speaker 4>it was just something trivial like a wrestler getting a
<v Speaker 4>new girlfriend or earning more money. I'd scribble it down
<v Speaker 4>quickly and then pick some music that fit the mood.
<v Speaker 4>That was incredibly fun, and the side effect was that
<v Speaker 4>our rating skyrocketed. Instead of pre produced generic segments, we
<v Speaker 4>had real time updates, which made it way more exciting.
<v Speaker 4>She wanted to develop a parallel storyline. As a matter
<v Speaker 4>of fact, she wanted to do When WCW first arrived,
<v Speaker 4>she says, nobody knew who they were. Everyone was still
<v Speaker 4>focused on WWF, and at that point WWF was already
<v Speaker 4>polished and perfected in so many ways, something WCW didn't
<v Speaker 4>yet have. So, she recalls in this interview, I suggested
<v Speaker 4>small changes, like covering empty seats with black fabric to
<v Speaker 4>make the audience look fuller. I still remember the early
<v Speaker 4>days the wrestler's costumes and WCW were embarrassing compared to WWF's. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>all of a sudden, she still fucking Arachna man and
<v Speaker 4>stuff to.
<v Speaker 2>Work right, fucking awes and shit.
<v Speaker 4>One of the attractions of wrestling is that you have
<v Speaker 4>good looking men.
<v Speaker 2>She says.
<v Speaker 4>Of course, good looking is relatives. Some people love it,
<v Speaker 4>some people hate it. But I still chucky chuckle when
<v Speaker 4>I think about how Dusty Rhoads. Let's not forget Dusty
<v Speaker 4>was in power at the time. Ww Dusty Roads fit
<v Speaker 4>into that, you'll laugh. But he had such a kind face,
<v Speaker 4>and because he was such a kind person, he was lovable.
<v Speaker 4>Of course, he wasn't a heart throb, but he had
<v Speaker 4>something special, she says, and his son has that same quality.
<v Speaker 4>We wanted to make sure that whoever this person was,
<v Speaker 4>they were dressed in a way that enhanced their appearance,
<v Speaker 4>because we wanted more female viewers. The audience grew when
<v Speaker 4>they saw something they liked. It's a simple fact. Just
<v Speaker 4>like men enjoy watching attractive women, it's the same the
<v Speaker 4>other way around.
<v Speaker 2>So she also didn't know that that's interesting.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, it's a big breakthrough there. So she also
<v Speaker 4>did glow. She said they actually didn't like it because
<v Speaker 4>when women box her kick it just doesn't suit our country.
<v Speaker 2>She says.
<v Speaker 4>You can't say no to them, or else you wouldn't
<v Speaker 4>get the job. So I took a look, and it
<v Speaker 4>turned out to be a show featuring women who weren't
<v Speaker 4>just a few untrained fighters, but many different types I
<v Speaker 4>don't know, various characters. Some are attractive, others quite intimidating,
<v Speaker 4>and they had different styles.
<v Speaker 2>During the show.
<v Speaker 4>There were the wrestling matches, which are partly genuine wrestling
<v Speaker 4>matches and partly horrible. But it wasn't without a certain comedy,
<v Speaker 4>she says. I mean, if something is so bad that
<v Speaker 4>it's funny, then it's actually good again, Lufessler, Ladies and gentlemen.
<v Speaker 2>You just have to pull that out. So I rewrote
<v Speaker 2>the scripts which had a bit of humor or dialogues
<v Speaker 2>that should have been funny but weren't. I reworked everything.
<v Speaker 2>So that's so when you see Glow German television, that's
<v Speaker 2>just know that she's having a ton of fun in
<v Speaker 2>what she's making. That's what matters. I liked the idea
<v Speaker 2>of voicing over at wrestling shows and just putting words
<v Speaker 2>in the wrestler's mouths. That's kind of fun. Oh, absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>that's hilarious.
<v Speaker 4>The ICP did that with their there whatever it was
<v Speaker 4>the death match tape they put out that we talked
<v Speaker 4>about during lapsed funk. There's like promos on there from Japan.
<v Speaker 4>They're just like, you know, coming up with shit that
<v Speaker 4>these guys are saying that they're definitely not saying. She
<v Speaker 4>has a Rick Flair story as well. Oh boy, we
<v Speaker 4>were at the Hotel Bear and well picture this, she says.
<v Speaker 4>There's a huge counter, lots of space around it, but
<v Speaker 4>it was completely packed with people. I don't know how many,
<v Speaker 4>five hundred, just a massive crowd. Everyone was standing shoulder
<v Speaker 4>to shoulder, crammed in tightly. Somehow I managed to stand
<v Speaker 4>at the bar. I don't even remember if I wanted
<v Speaker 4>to order something or not. And suddenly right next to me,
<v Speaker 4>there he was, draped in his magnificent robe, feather boa
<v Speaker 4>and all pink and white or whatever color it was, tanned, grinning,
<v Speaker 4>the absolute picture of perfection. Now you have to understand,
<v Speaker 4>after the matches, after the whole adrenaline rush of the show,
<v Speaker 4>there's this release, this euphoria. It's hard to describe. It's
<v Speaker 4>like a high, and the energy is still running through
<v Speaker 4>your body, not just for the wrestlers, but for everyone
<v Speaker 4>who was part of the show.
<v Speaker 2>I felt it too.
<v Speaker 4>I had followed everything so closely. I was still shaking
<v Speaker 4>from the excitement in the intensity. So there we were
<v Speaker 4>still buzzing, still processing everything, and then like a supernova,
<v Speaker 4>Rick Flare shines in the middle of it all. He
<v Speaker 4>was standing there, radiating confidence, looking absolutely spectacular in his robe.
<v Speaker 4>This man is in his robe.
<v Speaker 2>Oh the hotel room. I'm very nervous. I'm very nervous
<v Speaker 2>as to what's going to go on here.
<v Speaker 4>He could have walked down the street like that and
<v Speaker 4>still looked like a million bucks, she said. And of
<v Speaker 4>course he immediately saw this as an opportunity to show off.
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't even thinking about it that way. I never did.
<v Speaker 2>But at some point he turns to me with his
<v Speaker 2>mischievous grind says, you know, I'm not wearing anything underneath this.
<v Speaker 2>I laughed and said, oh, very funny flair, very funny,
<v Speaker 2>but he insisted, no, really, I've got nothing on. You
<v Speaker 2>don't believe me. You don't believe me. Want to see
<v Speaker 2>the baby's arm come out? Huh?
<v Speaker 4>And all of this wi this whole conversation was happening
<v Speaker 4>in the middle of a packed crowd. We're talking about
<v Speaker 4>a fully occupied hotel lobby, press, people, wrestlers, fans, everyone
<v Speaker 4>was there. Completely packed, people pushing up against each other
<v Speaker 4>behind us. The elevator is maybe twenty or twenty five
<v Speaker 4>meters away, but you could still see them over the crowd.
<v Speaker 4>So Flair keeps going with this, insisting that he's not
<v Speaker 4>wearing anything underneath. And at some point he says, well
<v Speaker 4>you want to see ah, I might that laugh sound?
<v Speaker 4>And I thought, all right, best defense is a good offense.
<v Speaker 4>When someone challenges you like that, you just call their bluff.
<v Speaker 4>It's like when someone says, should I walk down the
<v Speaker 4>street nakedly?
<v Speaker 2>Oly? It'santa you can't. You can't be awhly, and it's
<v Speaker 2>the opposite, right, yeah, And you reply, sure, go ahead,
<v Speaker 2>I'll wait. Most people will back down, most people, but
<v Speaker 2>not Ric Flair. Not Ric Flair. He says, all right.
<v Speaker 2>Then he looks over his shoulder and says, nobody's watching. Mind,
<v Speaker 2>you were in the middle of a crowd. Nobody's watching,
<v Speaker 2>he says. And then he opens his robe and he goes,
<v Speaker 2>tell me, have you ever seen something like this before?
<v Speaker 2>I gasped, took a deep breath, and he just stood there,
<v Speaker 2>completely unfazed. Well have you ever seen something like this before?
<v Speaker 2>And I just gave him the most unimpressed. Look possible
<v Speaker 2>and said eh. So then he asks, yeah, but I
<v Speaker 2>know how to use it? Ah shit, And I just thought, wow,
<v Speaker 2>what do you even say to that? And then he goes,
<v Speaker 2>all right, I'm leaving, but you stay right there. Count
<v Speaker 2>to twenty or whatever. I don't know anymore count to
<v Speaker 2>twenty than come to my room. My room number is
<v Speaker 2>blah blah blah blah blah. Okay, okay, I'm going now,
<v Speaker 2>and you count to twenty, then you follow. Yeah, not
<v Speaker 2>so obvious. And he looks at me with a conspiratorial glance,
<v Speaker 2>turns around, makes his way through the crowd, and disappears
<v Speaker 2>toward the elevators. I order a beer.
<v Speaker 4>I think it wasn't uncommon for someone to actually follow him.
<v Speaker 4>I can imagine that kind of thing working. But on
<v Speaker 4>that fateful night, Boss Uli Fesler did not follow the
<v Speaker 4>Nature Boy up to the WOW, but he was ready
<v Speaker 4>for no question, of course.
<v Speaker 2>Carston Schaeffer part of the German announced team for WW
<v Speaker 2>pay per views for years and years and years from
<v Speaker 2>this point in nineteen What it was it? When did
<v Speaker 2>it start? Eighty nine?
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, all the way to December twenty twenty. He was
<v Speaker 4>one of those rounds of COVID layoffs where it was like,
<v Speaker 4>what the fuck, this guy's been there for thirty years,
<v Speaker 4>why are you laying him off?
<v Speaker 2>And her and them? He was one of them. Thirty
<v Speaker 2>two years later he's talking about, you know, taking care
<v Speaker 2>of them. We have things, we have things that need
<v Speaker 2>to be handled, and you know, sometimes it requires the
<v Speaker 2>certain aptitude of structure that needs to be enforced. Attitude
<v Speaker 2>of structure, right and in that vein notwithstanding that, notwithstanding
<v Speaker 2>you know that you know and and and uh, you know,
<v Speaker 2>undoubtedly these are these are trying times of for all
<v Speaker 2>different types of humanity. We and unquestionably notwithstanding the fact
<v Speaker 2>that that that you know, employment is at a at
<v Speaker 2>a standstill for many organizations. It is important to emphasize
<v Speaker 2>the fact that we don't wish personal ill will on anybody.
<v Speaker 2>But at times of such you know, such uh uh
<v Speaker 2>promising uh negativity. Is that one way of saying, don't
<v Speaker 2>let a good crisis go to waste. At times of
<v Speaker 2>such promising negativity, it is is abundantly clear that we
<v Speaker 2>have a responsibility to the organization that creates, as opposed
<v Speaker 2>to the creative types who work for us. So if
<v Speaker 2>you're wondering, Carson, why you got pink slip there there?
<v Speaker 2>It is that the Carson, we apologize for any any
<v Speaker 2>issue that you may have with us, but it's not
<v Speaker 2>valid bends only an apology to me.
<v Speaker 4>So I'm trying to like grasp this, and Ben did
<v Speaker 4>a good job kind of trying to explain it. There's
<v Speaker 4>there's this this gripe you always hear from German fans,
<v Speaker 4>like when you read online about Carson Schaeffer, because what
<v Speaker 4>you do is he'd like literally translate some of these
<v Speaker 4>w w E slogans like money in the bank world
<v Speaker 4>Heavyweight Champion, and he'd like insist on using the actual
<v Speaker 4>German word for every word in the phrase. When we're
<v Speaker 4>the audience just wants to hear you say money in
<v Speaker 4>the bank. They just want to hear you say world
<v Speaker 4>heavyweight champion. I don't want it translated in German. They
<v Speaker 4>want to hear the americanized phrase when they're watching americanized wrestling.
<v Speaker 4>And you would think it's a small thing, but it's
<v Speaker 4>brought up so frequently whenever you read kind of translated
<v Speaker 4>commentary on this guy and the work he did. He
<v Speaker 4>tried to explain and he did an interview with Fever
<v Speaker 4>Talk Shots, which is a wrestling podcast in Germany, he
<v Speaker 4>says he just wanted to. He said wrestling was not
<v Speaker 4>taking seriously at that time. I lived through it, I
<v Speaker 4>did it, and I wanted wrestling to be taken a
<v Speaker 4>bit more seriously. And in all sports there are champs.
<v Speaker 4>This is the world heavyweight champion one. And in all
<v Speaker 4>sports there are champions or masters. In boxing you don't
<v Speaker 4>usually say master, you usually say champion, but in judo,
<v Speaker 4>for example, you say master, the German champion, the US
<v Speaker 4>champion or whatever. And I just wanted to use German
<v Speaker 4>terms to make wrestling, especially ww wrestling, a bit more
<v Speaker 4>accepted and respectable in the mainstream media, so people would
<v Speaker 4>say that's the world heavyweight champion. I was thinking of boxing.
<v Speaker 4>It's the reason I did it. Nobody really complained about
<v Speaker 4>it for a long time, until some people decided they
<v Speaker 4>had to complain about it. Of course, go, let's fucking go.
<v Speaker 4>But that's okay. Maybe I was, maybe it was wrong.
<v Speaker 4>That was my reason for doing it. So apparently he
<v Speaker 4>thought that if he like thought through what the German
<v Speaker 4>translation was for these words, that somehow the German audience
<v Speaker 4>would accept it. As more like the other sports they
<v Speaker 4>heard about and how champions in those sports were referred
<v Speaker 4>to than like this wacky American term for just a
<v Speaker 4>wrestling champion, you know, the terms that you would never
<v Speaker 4>use to describe champions in any other sport like judo
<v Speaker 4>and boxing. So that was his reasoning behind it, But
<v Speaker 4>people really did not like it because I guess it
<v Speaker 4>just sounds really strange to the ear to translate some
<v Speaker 4>of these things like money in the bank is a
<v Speaker 4>gelf auf der bunk lighter match.
<v Speaker 2>It sounds fun me and like I love a gulf
<v Speaker 2>alf lifer.
<v Speaker 4>He would call the big Boot the high kick because
<v Speaker 4>he would have to, like, you know, he couldn't just
<v Speaker 4>say big boot. I guess when he would translate straight
<v Speaker 4>edge Superstar for ceampunk, it would come come across as
<v Speaker 4>straightforward Superstar.
<v Speaker 2>Which is a good one. That's funny. Actually he'll take
<v Speaker 2>that one edge would be the non PG Superstar. Wow,
<v Speaker 2>oh my god, I love see that's great. I love
<v Speaker 2>that shit. You know, people take it too fucking seriously,
<v Speaker 2>like calm down, like enjoy the fact that he's saying
<v Speaker 2>stupid words about these guys. Yeah, I kind of like it.
<v Speaker 2>I love that shit.
<v Speaker 4>Here's someone saying he has no clue about wrestling and
<v Speaker 4>boosts WW a lot. Apparently that's another thing, like you know,
<v Speaker 4>as they want their announcers to be. He's very hyperbolic,
<v Speaker 4>like this was the greatest night ever, that was the
<v Speaker 4>greatest match ever, the greatest move ever, all the time,
<v Speaker 4>to the point people kind of roll their eyes at it.
<v Speaker 4>As this fan wrote one time on his commentary, the
<v Speaker 4>fact that he refuses to use any anglicisms that is
<v Speaker 4>the same americanized phrases. It's pretty stupid because when you
<v Speaker 4>watch wrestling, you want to get some of that American flair.
<v Speaker 4>Someone else says he just bombards viewers with ads for
<v Speaker 4>the tours WW kids stuff another nonsense. Well, the actual
<v Speaker 4>show seems to just run in the background to his babbling.
<v Speaker 4>It often feels like watching a shopping channel.
<v Speaker 2>That's interesting.
<v Speaker 4>He calls people like the USO, Kurt Hawkins and Zach
<v Speaker 4>Ryder writer incredibly good superstars. That's the stable name, right.
<v Speaker 2>Incredibly good superstars. That's tremendous. So he translates World Heavyweight
<v Speaker 2>Champion is forgive me here grodlinj Gizell Shoft. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>he only advertises tours, tickets, magazines, the official German Wuty website.
<v Speaker 2>He calls a shooting star press, a four to fifty splash,
<v Speaker 2>a jumping arm breaker, a pump handle slam. That's funny,
<v Speaker 2>And when he's not misnaming moves, he talks about his
<v Speaker 2>Christmas dinner. I listen so far, I see no problem,
<v Speaker 2>Like this is the kind of shit that I love.
<v Speaker 2>Like I want to know everything about his exactly. I
<v Speaker 2>want to know every little fucking detail about his Christmas dinners.
<v Speaker 2>A German Christmas dinner exactly. I imagine just a lot
<v Speaker 2>of different kind of brats, you know, just like a
<v Speaker 2>fucking a table full of brot. Let's see.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, you'll get the worst in meat cartoff slot sausages
<v Speaker 4>like brought Worst or bok Worst with potato salad.
<v Speaker 2>I love it.
<v Speaker 4>Neat a fish, fish dishes, smoke fish, bread, cheese and
<v Speaker 4>cold cuts before the big feast Christmas Day that's Christmas Eve,
<v Speaker 4>by the way. Christmas Day, you'll have the roast goose
<v Speaker 4>with apples, onions and herbs, or the duck the enton Broughton,
<v Speaker 4>which is an alternative to goose, roast, pork or beef,
<v Speaker 4>depending on the region you also get the sour Broughton,
<v Speaker 4>which is marinated pot roast with rich gravy, a little
<v Speaker 4>red cabbage on the sides, and potato potato dumplings. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>oh my fucking christ gravy, breastless breath stop it. And
<v Speaker 4>for dessert, how about some German gingerbread or something they
<v Speaker 4>made Christmas cookies.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, of course, this all makes sense, and this
<v Speaker 2>is what it should be like. What is like fucking
<v Speaker 2>Christ They know how to do it. Man, that's worse.
<v Speaker 4>The trees coming inside exactly, so it's Cintraclaus and all
<v Speaker 4>these exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Let's get it. Don't fucking don't act like they don't
<v Speaker 2>know what they're fucking doing about this shit, all right?
<v Speaker 4>And else, Carson Saper said one time, according to a translation,
<v Speaker 4>that Ben passed along.
<v Speaker 2>A very beautiful sight. Bastien Buger stuffs groceries in his
<v Speaker 2>mouth just to spit them out again. Maybe he has
<v Speaker 2>eaten so much that nothing more fits in, but he
<v Speaker 2>doesn't know it. Oh boy, he's a real odd ball. Listen,
<v Speaker 2>he's not wrong. This is great, all right. If you
<v Speaker 2>don't enjoy this, you're a fucking idiot. People hated it, man,
<v Speaker 2>there's so many people calling him out about it. Calm down, like, seriously,
<v Speaker 2>calm the fuck down. This guy knows what he's fucking doing,
<v Speaker 2>all right, and he and you know what the thing is,
<v Speaker 2>he knows better what you want than you do. So
<v Speaker 2>let him fucking tell you what you want, all right.
<v Speaker 2>Stop acting like you know, like, stop just saying oh no, listen,
<v Speaker 2>you don't want your wrestling to be real, okay, you
<v Speaker 2>want him to fucking talk exactly the way he's talking
<v Speaker 2>to remind you that you're wasting your time. That's phony
<v Speaker 2>this all right, you're wasting your time on phony Bologna.
<v Speaker 2>There's a joke to be in on here exactly. Let
<v Speaker 2>him tell you about his Christmas dinner.
<v Speaker 4>So Jake has to be Jakob de Schlunge Robbers.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I do believe he is Yakub de schlang exactly, and.
<v Speaker 4>They would say apparely, he'd always say, the WWF tour
<v Speaker 4>sold out, get your tickets now.
<v Speaker 2>Listen, he's the winner. Okay, that's it. Carson Schaeffer has
<v Speaker 2>won wrestling.
<v Speaker 4>On Fever Talk, he talked about how he was exposed
<v Speaker 4>to wrestling for the first time. He says he came
<v Speaker 4>into contact with wrestling the first time in August September
<v Speaker 4>of nineteen eighty one, when he was studying in England
<v Speaker 4>for a year as a teaching assistant. They only had
<v Speaker 4>four channels there, he recalled, we had three. I got
<v Speaker 4>hooked on World of Sport. It was on Saturdays, I
<v Speaker 4>think around eleven AM and I saw two guys walk
<v Speaker 4>into a ring. I thought, okay, boxing and maybe something else.
<v Speaker 4>Since it was in a ring, it had to be boxing.
<v Speaker 4>Then someone came out with a fur coat, huge with
<v Speaker 4>an es court, looking grim as he walked to the ring.
<v Speaker 4>Then others came older wearing white Spannex suits, bald, and
<v Speaker 4>that's when I got hooked on wrestling. This sounds like
<v Speaker 4>Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks too. Yeah right, yeah, In fact,
<v Speaker 4>here it is. It was Giant HAYSTACKX versus Big Daddy,
<v Speaker 4>and I was already a fan before they even started wrestling.
<v Speaker 4>I kept watching until I went back to Trier in
<v Speaker 4>July or August of eighty two. Then nothing came on anymore. Later,
<v Speaker 4>when tele A five announced we have this wrestling, who
<v Speaker 4>wants to do it? Everyone turned away, even some people
<v Speaker 4>who would later be involved in this sport. I said
<v Speaker 4>I'll do it because I thought it could work, and
<v Speaker 4>that was indeed in March eighty nine and till a five.
<v Speaker 4>But once he was released, after all those proud years
<v Speaker 4>of service a very servile years for the WWF, Carston
<v Speaker 4>had to take to Facebook, didn't he?
<v Speaker 2>Oh boy? He deleted this afterwards. But here's.
<v Speaker 4>Lately, I've been asked quite often whether I still commentate
<v Speaker 4>ww pay per views or shows. Unfortunately I have to
<v Speaker 4>say no. My time with ww has sadly come to
<v Speaker 4>an end this year, but that wasn't my decision. I
<v Speaker 4>want to keep this explanation as short as possible because you,
<v Speaker 4>as loyal fans and friends, deserve to know. When I
<v Speaker 4>started commentating for ww in March nineteen eighty nine, everything
<v Speaker 4>was great. I had a good relationship with WWE, the fans,
<v Speaker 4>the superstars, and I went on tours in Germany, Austria
<v Speaker 4>and Switzerland. This went on for nearly twenty five years.
<v Speaker 4>Of course, there were some minor issues. Maybe I'll share
<v Speaker 4>some more about that some other time. But about eight
<v Speaker 4>years ago the w set up its German office in Munich,
<v Speaker 4>and that man who read it was, without exaggeration, the
<v Speaker 4>worst person I have ever had to deal with. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>his first mission was to get rid of several people,
<v Speaker 4>including a good friend of mine who had done great
<v Speaker 4>pr work for WW for years, Bernhard Wolf, and me.
<v Speaker 4>The kind of bullying or bossing we experienced was unbearable
<v Speaker 4>and cost me years of my life emotionally. Getting rid
<v Speaker 4>of me took the longest, but Hackey and Boston were
<v Speaker 4>more than happy to side with the head of the
<v Speaker 4>WW office. Hack of with motion as commentators. Okay, Hackle
<v Speaker 4>and Botion, that sounds like a comedy team absolutely from
<v Speaker 4>the nineteen fifties makes fun of the guys. It's just
<v Speaker 4>because he once wrestled. He thought he deserved to be
<v Speaker 4>the number one commentator, but Carson says, well, you have
<v Speaker 4>to earn that.
<v Speaker 2>It's not just given to you.
<v Speaker 4>Then, unfortunately, he writes ww's contract with televiiv N and
<v Speaker 4>in a new deal with Pro seven Max was signed.
<v Speaker 4>According to W employees from the US, the head of
<v Speaker 4>the German WW office told the broadcaster that I was
<v Speaker 4>too old and no longer needed as a commentator.
<v Speaker 2>WOW.
<v Speaker 4>Since a broadcaster ultimately decides who they want as commentators,
<v Speaker 4>WW couldn't do anything about it. Despite wanting me to continue. Okay,
<v Speaker 4>that's they told you. But WW didn't let me go,
<v Speaker 4>and I continued commentating WW pay per views live on
<v Speaker 4>site with Tim Hobber and Calvin Knee, which was a
<v Speaker 4>lot of fun. However, after a few years, that too
<v Speaker 4>came to an end because it simply became too expensive
<v Speaker 4>for WW to fly me in every time Calvin and
<v Speaker 4>Tim were already on site. Yeah, so they hired German
<v Speaker 4>speaking guys who lived I think in New York to
<v Speaker 4>do jo. Yeah, and they would fly cars into the
<v Speaker 4>pay per views, but that they got sick of that,
<v Speaker 4>especially during COVID. In the spring of twenty twenty, w
<v Speaker 4>B offered me to commentate the four major pay per views,
<v Speaker 4>but that plan fell through due to COVID, and so
<v Speaker 4>with my time, W is now officially ended thanks to
<v Speaker 4>the head of the German WW office in Munich, so
<v Speaker 4>he know it's exactly who to point to. Are there
<v Speaker 4>other opportunity? But that's always with WWE. It's always that
<v Speaker 4>no one ever blames Vince for being fired. Everybody always
<v Speaker 4>as some other bogey man they point to.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't do anything. I don't listen. I believe everyone
<v Speaker 2>should be employed. I believe everybody should be employable, and
<v Speaker 2>I can't force my deputies to believe the same thing.
<v Speaker 2>But I can't always.
<v Speaker 8>You know, I have.
<v Speaker 2>Responsibilities in a different manner than most people and balance sheet.
<v Speaker 2>I have to balance things and possibilities and probabilities, and
<v Speaker 2>these are things that not everyone insists on feeling that
<v Speaker 2>it is important. I do believe in importance. I believe
<v Speaker 2>they're there are things that are important. I believe that
<v Speaker 2>we have a responsibility to project importance right And you
<v Speaker 2>know if and you know that, notwithstanding and undoubtedly there
<v Speaker 2>are disagreements in the possibilities of where we're going, and
<v Speaker 2>I'll leave it at then is a way of making
<v Speaker 2>feel so much better, doesn't he And I do believe
<v Speaker 2>I've made myself clear.
<v Speaker 4>And I angry you hurt, Yes, he writes about the
<v Speaker 4>way the German ww office and Huckle handled things, and yes,
<v Speaker 4>it also hurts to hear some of the completely uncritical
<v Speaker 4>things Zop has said. But hey, shit happens. Still, no
<v Speaker 4>one can take away these thirty two years with WWE.
<v Speaker 4>For the most part, they were amazing, except for the
<v Speaker 4>drawn out ending. And I found all of you out
<v Speaker 4>there and through Facebook and Instagram will stay connected now,
<v Speaker 4>you know, and I've gotten this off my chest yours Carston.
<v Speaker 2>What if they did find a way to erase all
<v Speaker 2>of his history he never heard his voicing it exactly. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that would be that would be a feat. That's not
<v Speaker 2>something they probably have the interest in doing. But like
<v Speaker 2>the guy that one of the guys who was complaining
<v Speaker 2>about I think left the company anyway, WWE and they
<v Speaker 2>had a new GM for w W Germany. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>apparently when they when they opened a German only w
<v Speaker 2>W office, the politics began in a way that disadvantage
<v Speaker 2>to Carston Schaeffer. Of course that's the way. That's the
<v Speaker 2>way he put it now.
<v Speaker 4>Of course, you know he puts this stuff out on
<v Speaker 4>social and when you get responses like quote, anyone who
<v Speaker 4>has spent decades bullying, harassing, threatening, betraying and treating colleagues
<v Speaker 4>like absolute garbage should not be bad mouthing others now,
<v Speaker 4>but rather hope that the countless colleagues continued to remain
<v Speaker 4>silent as they have so far. Uh oh, cars in
<v Speaker 4>what someone says, I have known Sebastian Hackel. I fully
<v Speaker 4>stand behind him. Bullying has never come from his side,
<v Speaker 4>or when someone writes a bitter man who has bullied
<v Speaker 4>more people in his life, including me than anyone else
<v Speaker 4>I know, was lashing out wildly here. Unfortunately, nothing new
<v Speaker 4>or surprising for those.
<v Speaker 2>Who had to work with him. Hashtag sad wow. So
<v Speaker 2>after deleting and he did this interview with Fever talk
<v Speaker 2>Shots did Carston Schaeffer, and he says, you know, some
<v Speaker 2>people said, oh, he backtracked and so on. No, but
<v Speaker 2>you have to be fair and the way I wrote
<v Speaker 2>worded into my initial anger, which really took over me.
<v Speaker 2>I have to admit, and you should never do anything
<v Speaker 2>in anger. Dear kids, take it from someone who did
<v Speaker 2>it and suffered because of it. Internally, personally, I formulated
<v Speaker 2>things where people told me that they came across a
<v Speaker 2>certain way. I said, no.
<v Speaker 4>I read it again and I realized that I formulated
<v Speaker 4>it in a way that could lead to that impression.
<v Speaker 4>And if that's wrong, then you just have to say, Okay, no,
<v Speaker 4>this doesn't work. So I formulated it in a misleading way.
<v Speaker 4>That was my mistake, and when you realize that, you
<v Speaker 4>apologize and retract it.
<v Speaker 2>That's what happened.
<v Speaker 4>At some point I was no longer involved in decision making.
<v Speaker 4>I continued commentating on the shows, and eventually I got
<v Speaker 4>the contract with Pro seven Max. Then I was told, no,
<v Speaker 4>you're no longer part of it. What I heard from
<v Speaker 4>some at WWE I can confirm definitively, because as I said,
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't there. Something was said about me that wasn't true.
<v Speaker 4>For example, he's too old, no one needs him or whatever,
<v Speaker 4>but it doesn't matter anyway. Then once again, Vince McMahon said,
<v Speaker 4>I'm not letting Carson go. I heard that from someone. YEA,
<v Speaker 4>I'm sure he did. Carson, I'm sure you did. There's
<v Speaker 4>always someone that I never heard that Vince actually liked me.
<v Speaker 2>I enjoy certain individualities he wanted.
<v Speaker 4>He actually wanted me on TV. But it did work out,
<v Speaker 4>Carson wrote, because it said because the network had the
<v Speaker 4>broadcasting right. So he's saying that the network that took
<v Speaker 4>over WWF broadcasting rights didn't want him as the face
<v Speaker 4>of wb WWE did, and that they were they were,
<v Speaker 4>you know, unable to make that decision. Car and Carson,
<v Speaker 4>Come on, pal, but they flew him the pay per views.
<v Speaker 4>That's proof that they wanted to keep them. Come on, Pal,
<v Speaker 4>you're not wanted and he said, no, I'm not letting
<v Speaker 4>him go this Vince. And that's how it was decided
<v Speaker 4>that I would comment on the live shows with Tim
<v Speaker 4>and Calvin. The interviewer says, yeah, it was pretty clear
<v Speaker 4>that it would end like it did Carston. Yeah, exactly,
<v Speaker 4>it was clear. The two of them live in New York.
<v Speaker 4>That's to say, the two German announcers they hired, they're
<v Speaker 4>about a forty five minute flight from Stanford to comment
<v Speaker 4>on things. They are domestic, you know, do the voiceover
<v Speaker 4>tracks there in Taittan towers. These are domestic flights. Or
<v Speaker 4>they can drive if it's Boston or New Haveman or whatever.
<v Speaker 4>But to always fly Carson for I don't know, fifteen
<v Speaker 4>hundred dollars or so, that's just too much. I knew
<v Speaker 4>that from the start, but what can you do.
<v Speaker 2>It was my job.
<v Speaker 4>How many more years, three or four I did that.
<v Speaker 4>It was very nice, a lot of fun. It was
<v Speaker 4>tough when it ended because I fell into nothing. M
<v Speaker 4>That wasn't the worst thing. I have more or less
<v Speaker 4>recovered from that now, found my alternatives and rebuilt my life.
<v Speaker 4>Now I'm actually very happy and content observing everything that
<v Speaker 4>has to do with wrestling from the outside. Hey, Uli,
<v Speaker 4>how did you get.
<v Speaker 2>Along with Carston? Ship? Yeah, back to one of the interviews.
<v Speaker 4>Tell me at first everything was great and fun, she said, Well,
<v Speaker 4>with success comes a bit of arrogance. Over time, Carson
<v Speaker 4>became the thing pointing dictator during his shows. He would
<v Speaker 4>always point his finger in the air in an authoritative way,
<v Speaker 4>and woe to anyone who breathed wrong or lowered their
<v Speaker 4>voice according to his preferences too much. After a while,
<v Speaker 4>the entire team had had enough, which is understandable. So
<v Speaker 4>back to martial arts, Malcolm took over. That is to say,
<v Speaker 4>Malcolm the producer at TELEFV and Carston worked with me
<v Speaker 4>on the revision regarding WWF wrestling. Carston initially refused to
<v Speaker 4>do it, she said. So Carston's origin story of being
<v Speaker 4>the only one to put his hand up when telefive
<v Speaker 4>got WWF rights and needed somebody to do wrestling, she
<v Speaker 4>says he initially refused to do it. So did you
<v Speaker 4>volunteer or did you refuse? It's one or the other.
<v Speaker 4>Somebody's lying here. He was of the opinion she said
<v Speaker 4>that he shouldn't tarnish his reputation with this proletarian sport.
<v Speaker 2>Wait what proletarian? Proletarian?
<v Speaker 4>Yes, that is to say middle class, you know, the
<v Speaker 4>dirty people that we were nice too, but we don't
<v Speaker 4>actually want anything to do with I was excited, of course,
<v Speaker 4>let's not, she says, let's not forget my encounter with
<v Speaker 4>Kurt Headache.
<v Speaker 2>I can tell that was. Oh yeah, bring that up
<v Speaker 2>a lot, and yeah, she's definitely wet. She's had some
<v Speaker 2>fun remembering that encounter and.
<v Speaker 4>When I was ready to trade my sumo for it.
<v Speaker 4>Remember she's doing sumo announcing on German television, maybe a
<v Speaker 4>bit too enthusiastically.
<v Speaker 2>Remember Orange wrestling suddenly became interesting to him. Okay, so
<v Speaker 2>she's saying he started to care about wrestling when she
<v Speaker 2>put her name in the hat to do WWF. Ah,
<v Speaker 2>there we go.
<v Speaker 4>So Kirsten did the WWF translation from the DHS master,
<v Speaker 4>typed the scripts, copied them, and then off to the studio.
<v Speaker 4>He didn't just watch the shows, he transcribed them, so
<v Speaker 4>he knew exactly when the entrances would happen, and of
<v Speaker 4>course that's when the Napoleon finger would.
<v Speaker 2>Go into action. That gets old after a while, she said.
<v Speaker 2>Eventually he invited people into the studio who then suddenly
<v Speaker 2>sat in the control room a professional.
<v Speaker 1>No.
<v Speaker 4>No, I wasn't asked or informed, and of course I
<v Speaker 4>was furious also because of the obvious respect. His finger
<v Speaker 4>pointed in the air even more arrogantly than usual as
<v Speaker 4>proof of his power. I remember being so angry at
<v Speaker 4>some point that I stopped the voiceover and went outside
<v Speaker 4>to get some air. From then on, things went down
<v Speaker 4>hell fast. But that's a whole other chapter. Said nobody
<v Speaker 4>ever gave me trouble, at least not from the network.
<v Speaker 4>She said they loved the high ratings. But one former
<v Speaker 4>colleague was pretty upset because he wasn't allowed to do
<v Speaker 4>the same. He stormed, who's this former colleague?
<v Speaker 2>You decide? He stormed into my studio one day and
<v Speaker 2>started yelling at me. Uh oh.
<v Speaker 4>This was in a studio in the basement of an
<v Speaker 4>old building that used to belong to Tell five. It
<v Speaker 4>wasn't actually part of the station, but we had everything
<v Speaker 4>set up there. I was in the control room and
<v Speaker 4>the door of the hallway was slightly open. I noticed
<v Speaker 4>a shadow standing there. You know that feeling when you
<v Speaker 4>just instinctively know who's there, So I said, the eavesdropper
<v Speaker 4>at the wall hears his own disgrace. That's probably a
<v Speaker 4>bad translation of a famous quote.
<v Speaker 2>Fantastic, I'll take it. It's a great one.
<v Speaker 4>And then he stormed in absolutely fury. He started yelling,
<v Speaker 4>his voice cracking, waving his arms around. I just sat
<v Speaker 4>there looking at him, thinking, wow, is this for real?
<v Speaker 4>And then he got way too close, like right in
<v Speaker 4>my face, and then he screamed at me, I'll sue
<v Speaker 4>the house out from under your asse.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 4>I told him to leave, but told people take no
<v Speaker 4>as an invitation. But some people take no as an invitation,
<v Speaker 4>she says. Every time I told him to go, he
<v Speaker 4>stepped closer. Eventually he was almost on my lap. So
<v Speaker 4>I stood up and well, let's just say I moved
<v Speaker 4>him out of the way. I'm not tall, but back
<v Speaker 4>then I did some strength training. I used to hold
<v Speaker 4>my horses myself when the ferrier came. So when he
<v Speaker 4>got too close, I just thought, oh, come on. And
<v Speaker 4>the funny thing was he was wearing glasses. I was
<v Speaker 4>already making a fist, and then I thought, damn, if
<v Speaker 4>I hit him now, I'll break his glasses and then
<v Speaker 4>it'll really be a mess. I grabbed his shoulders and
<v Speaker 4>pushed him back to my surprise, he actually went flying
<v Speaker 4>and crashed against the wall. Oh shit, and that was
<v Speaker 4>the end of it. He disappeared and never came back.
<v Speaker 4>I think he got the message that the Greek Carson
<v Speaker 4>Schaeffer's commented on this episode. He told Fever Talk, Well,
<v Speaker 4>a lot happened in that studio, I guess the other
<v Speaker 4>studio where we had to work back then. It was
<v Speaker 4>quite a disaster, I must say, there was a lot
<v Speaker 4>of them. How should I put it, manipulation. Ww was
<v Speaker 4>just pushed to the farthest corner, bad production times and
<v Speaker 4>so on, and we don't need to talk about that.
<v Speaker 4>It was a really terrible time and it was a
<v Speaker 4>really shitty time for me, and I never really liked
<v Speaker 4>the WCW product. So this is the WWF for WCW
<v Speaker 4>War before nitro Vers Raw was perhaps most pitched in
<v Speaker 4>the country of Germany.
<v Speaker 2>And that's absolutely fucking amazing.
<v Speaker 4>Where Carston is beside himself that the conquerors of Tel
<v Speaker 4>Aviv are putting Ulifessler as the voice of WCW, leaving
<v Speaker 4>him out in the cold with no WWF to call,
<v Speaker 4>at least for a few months, and taking over the
<v Speaker 4>studio and all the production facilities that apparently he was
<v Speaker 4>accustomed to having access to. And when he tries to
<v Speaker 4>elbow his way back in there and try to, you know,
<v Speaker 4>still stake a claim, she's pushing him around and they're
<v Speaker 4>swearing at each other and he doesn't like w CW.
<v Speaker 2>And this is so funny. This is like so hilarious.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's lying the WW flat right, It's just
<v Speaker 2>this is just wild that that that you're right like
<v Speaker 2>that that they have this this this battle, this this
<v Speaker 2>Uh who knew that the the the battle between w
<v Speaker 2>W and w CW started on foreign soil? Oh my god.
<v Speaker 4>So apparently part of the deal when they had laid
<v Speaker 4>down comment to her tracks for VHS releases that they
<v Speaker 4>had to say porn studio to do this this seven
<v Speaker 4>times research received. Yes, we're told in every single interview
<v Speaker 4>with the Shape listen.
<v Speaker 2>If there's anything that we have learned, it is that
<v Speaker 2>wrestling and porn go in hand, go hand in hand.
<v Speaker 2>They're doing their recording stuff in a porn studio. W
<v Speaker 2>uses a porn video distribution place to do their videos. Well,
<v Speaker 2>I'm a coliseum collection, right, That's what I'm saying. Look
<v Speaker 2>into a Varden enterprises like you said born sex, absolutely
<v Speaker 2>low rent, ye proletariat bullshit exactly as is noted here.
<v Speaker 2>In every single interview with Shaeffer, Fessler, Zop or whoever,
<v Speaker 2>one thing always gets mentioned. They had to redo the
<v Speaker 2>commentary for the VHS releases. Every single time they to
<v Speaker 2>redo the commentary. So they would lay down a track
<v Speaker 2>for the broadcast of these WWF shows, but for the
<v Speaker 2>shows that were released on VHS, they would have to
<v Speaker 2>do a second track for the Thank god he used
<v Speaker 2>the ones from TV. This note says there are a
<v Speaker 2>few old VHS releases in Germany on which Schaffer sounds
<v Speaker 2>like he's reading off a piece of paper. He's joined
<v Speaker 2>by a lady who sounds even worse. I started watching
<v Speaker 2>wrestling in the SHAEF's op days, so I always thought
<v Speaker 2>the Ulifessler sounds horrible when buying old VHS is in
<v Speaker 2>the flea market. But it turns out that that wasn't
<v Speaker 2>Uli Fessler and they read a script has the lady
<v Speaker 2>is now an ext girlfriend of Schaeffer. That was a
<v Speaker 2>rumor that he denied hard, but yeah there was.
<v Speaker 4>There's apparently a different who primarily consumed wrestling via VHS
<v Speaker 4>in Germany. H had a much different impression of what
<v Speaker 4>the German wrestling announcer sounded like than those who watched
<v Speaker 4>a non terrestrial television regular television, as they laid down
<v Speaker 4>those second tracks and were much more prescribed in what
<v Speaker 4>they were saying, and people assumed Uli Fessler was a
<v Speaker 4>female voice on some of these tapes and act in fact,
<v Speaker 4>wasn't her Whether it was Carston Shaffer's girlfriend or not,
<v Speaker 4>some have speculated. He says, absolutely, of course it was
<v Speaker 4>not Ooli is later asked and the aforementioned interview. Did
<v Speaker 4>things ever settled down between you two? She says, not really,
<v Speaker 4>but you know, that's just how it is. I've lived
<v Speaker 4>in the US for a long time and over there,
<v Speaker 4>when you draw a line, people respect it. If someone
<v Speaker 4>crosses that line, you handle it. She's asked, did you
<v Speaker 4>ever become close again or did you never settle your
<v Speaker 4>differences with that person? Ooly says, you can't really make
<v Speaker 4>peace with someone who tries to destroy you. Ah, economically,
<v Speaker 4>in career wise, if someone tries to undermine you and
<v Speaker 4>then later tries to come back and act friendly, that
<v Speaker 4>shows no backbone. I'm sorry, but there's a line you
<v Speaker 4>can't cross and Once it's crossed, there's no coming back.
<v Speaker 2>That's just how it is. I don't get it.
<v Speaker 4>It's not about this Christian term the other cheek thing.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sorry, that's just how it works. There is a
<v Speaker 4>forum post from what thirteen some odd years ago, we're told,
<v Speaker 4>where there's discussion of an episode okay that involves her
<v Speaker 4>and and it's it's like the transcription of an interview
<v Speaker 4>apparently an interview that she she made herself available for,
<v Speaker 4>or like you go back and forth with written answers
<v Speaker 4>that used to be a thing back in the day
<v Speaker 4>you'd interview.
<v Speaker 2>Someone be email.
<v Speaker 4>And they asked her, you might want to take some
<v Speaker 4>of this with a grain of salt. But it survives,
<v Speaker 4>and it's it's kind of it's on a form called
<v Speaker 4>moonsalt dot de and it's you know, over a decade
<v Speaker 4>old and stuff. But it seems it seems to track
<v Speaker 4>with kind of the broad strokes of a lot of
<v Speaker 4>the other more verifiable interviews that Olie Fessler had sound
<v Speaker 4>about her wrestling days, m H.
<v Speaker 2>And they asked her.
<v Speaker 4>About you know, the conflict and things, and she says,
<v Speaker 4>I remember when they hired me. I first did ads
<v Speaker 4>for a show about travel destinations. Then a few weeks later,
<v Speaker 4>there was a meeting with all the people involved in televiv.
<v Speaker 4>It was about telefive securing many rights for cartoons, series
<v Speaker 4>and wrestling. When they asked who would like to commentate wrestling,
<v Speaker 4>no one volunteered, accept a little frog named Carston shafe
<v Speaker 4>yes at that time, Well did he volunteer or not?
<v Speaker 4>Did he volunteer or not? You know before you said
<v Speaker 4>he didn't, that he thought he was above it and
<v Speaker 4>then wanted it when he found out you were involved anyway. Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>the interviewer says, I remember that Carson worked as a
<v Speaker 4>translator and so on. She says, yes, that's right. I
<v Speaker 4>thought wrestling was my thing because I had known it
<v Speaker 4>for so long, and also personally knew some wrestlers. So
<v Speaker 4>I volunteered too, and that's how I quickly became a
<v Speaker 4>WWF commentator.
<v Speaker 2>How was your.
<v Speaker 4>Collaboration with Carston shape, She's asked, H get me started
<v Speaker 4>just thinking about it. It makes me sick that bad.
<v Speaker 4>He acted like a little Napoleon and through tantrums if
<v Speaker 4>he didn't get his way, like a little spoiled brat.
<v Speaker 4>That's probably why no one wanted to commentate wrestling with
<v Speaker 4>him or later work out America's Funniest which apparently was
<v Speaker 4>another show on televive. Wasn't there anything positive about him?
<v Speaker 1>No?
<v Speaker 2>Nothing?
<v Speaker 4>Wait, actually there was one thing, and that is that
<v Speaker 4>he really put effort into it, but certainly no more
<v Speaker 4>than I did. Overall, he was an unpleasant little man
<v Speaker 4>physically and mentally. The interviewer asks was there no chance
<v Speaker 4>for a harmonious working relationship with him? With Carston, she says,
<v Speaker 4>it was always stressful and problematic. He couldn't stand that
<v Speaker 4>MY voice was so much deeper and fuller, and if
<v Speaker 4>I had one more word than him, he would speak
<v Speaker 4>twice as much. In the next Wow, really dumb and
<v Speaker 4>joy killing? You mentioned Krop Were there issues with him too?
<v Speaker 4>Another German wrestling answer. She says, they sent me death
<v Speaker 4>threats back then. Oh my god, I got a letter
<v Speaker 4>bomb in the mail ah. The police called me when
<v Speaker 4>I wasn't home. The other residents made a petition to
<v Speaker 4>have me evicted because I was a danger to the residence.
<v Speaker 4>Oh and they ask you know more about that? Why
<v Speaker 4>would they go that far? She says, simple, my friend,
<v Speaker 4>I was the only woman in the business, and I
<v Speaker 4>had the highest ratings always, no matter what. They tried
<v Speaker 4>to tear me down, but I kept coming back until
<v Speaker 4>the final blow when they fired me. All of this
<v Speaker 4>without morals, scruples or ethics. None of those big male
<v Speaker 4>has ever risked a penny of their own money. Everything,
<v Speaker 4>absolutely everything was paid for by the station. That's really
<v Speaker 4>tough when you think about it. The interviewer says, I
<v Speaker 4>wouldn't have expected that. She says Carston, I can smell
<v Speaker 4>him again just thinking about him. He always smelled like rabbit.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know what that means, but okay, like rabbit,
<v Speaker 4>the interviewer says, Yes, she said he had a cage
<v Speaker 4>in his house. Total chaos, really dirty in its stank.
<v Speaker 4>I remember being at the beginning when we started commentating,
<v Speaker 4>he invited me to his place. At his house, you
<v Speaker 4>could only sit on his It was really disgusting. But
<v Speaker 4>don't get me wrong, I don't want to bad mouth
<v Speaker 4>this man, but he did things to me that were
<v Speaker 4>simply not okay.
<v Speaker 2>You don't want a bad mouth, and you're doing a
<v Speaker 2>pretty poor job of that. And even today he still
<v Speaker 2>tries to drag my name through the dirt. But thank god,
<v Speaker 2>I have many irons in the fire and always plenty
<v Speaker 2>of ideas. No one can take me down that easily.
<v Speaker 2>Others in my situation might have turned to alcohol, drugs
<v Speaker 2>or suicide. That would have satisfied and pleased these guys,
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't give them that. You never physically attacked Carson, though,
<v Speaker 2>did you?
<v Speaker 1>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I did.
<v Speaker 4>After what was said in the Wrestling Telegraph, which was
<v Speaker 4>Germany's biggest wrestling newsletter before the Internet. Small note there
<v Speaker 4>from Schaeffer, I didn't just give him a little nudge
<v Speaker 4>which sent him flying a few meters into the wall.
<v Speaker 4>She said, Oh wow, The interviewer said, wow. Ouly the Amazon,
<v Speaker 4>She says, I am one point five to seven meters
<v Speaker 4>tall and weigh about one hundred pounds. Back then someone
<v Speaker 4>called me a pocket Amazon.
<v Speaker 2>Afterwards, Oh my god. So it got physical.
<v Speaker 4>It got physical, But for Ulifeeszler, it didn't end necessarily
<v Speaker 4>from a point of much pride. She ended up in
<v Speaker 4>a really tough situation. This is from twenty sixteen interviews
<v Speaker 4>she did with Wrestling Fever dot De where they reflect
<v Speaker 4>on twenty twelve where she had a serious accident. She
<v Speaker 4>says someone was playing a prank on me in the
<v Speaker 4>middle of a crowd. This person took advantage of the
<v Speaker 4>commotion and secretly slipped a drug in my drug cocktail
<v Speaker 4>and my drink. I woke up days later from a
<v Speaker 4>coma in the hospital with multiple fractures upper and lower, left,
<v Speaker 4>upper and lower jaw, left and right right jaw joint,
<v Speaker 4>shattered chin, nose, sinuses, right eye socket, right cheekbone, brain hemorrhage,
<v Speaker 4>et cetera, et cetera. For two months, my jaws were
<v Speaker 4>screwed shut. To the delight of some, and a dream
<v Speaker 4>came true. I could still talk, even though I couldn't
<v Speaker 4>eat it. First, liquid food is mostly sweet and noful.
<v Speaker 4>There's definitely a niche for producing tasty liquid food. I
<v Speaker 4>nearly choked on a tiny piece of parsley, so there's
<v Speaker 4>an art to get it right. But just a month
<v Speaker 4>later I was able to ride my motorcycle again.
<v Speaker 2>So what happened? She was drugged, according to her, and
<v Speaker 2>she got on her motorcycle and drove before it kicked
<v Speaker 2>in sufficient that she couldn't drive anymore, and she basically
<v Speaker 2>passed out from the drugs while behind the wheel of
<v Speaker 2>her motor seuss. She's a big biker apparently, and crashed
<v Speaker 2>and had this horrible series of injuries. So I was
<v Speaker 2>able to ride my motorcycle again. Looking up is still
<v Speaker 2>looking up is still impossible today, especially if my head
<v Speaker 2>isn't perfectly straight. I just lose my balance. Can you
<v Speaker 2>imagine that, looking up and almost falling over. It's awful.
<v Speaker 4>So I simply don't do it. We learn and adapt.
<v Speaker 4>I'm basically a cyborg now, all full of metal. No,
<v Speaker 4>there's no airport alarm. I tested and immediately titanium does
<v Speaker 4>not set it off.
<v Speaker 2>That's fun.
<v Speaker 1>So it.
<v Speaker 4>It definitely didn't end positively for her. But among the
<v Speaker 4>back and forth, I mean, the actual first genesis of
<v Speaker 4>it is kind of hard to pinpoint, but it's pretty
<v Speaker 4>much that transition from Tel Aviv to the conquering station
<v Speaker 4>and the hurt feelings from that. But there was also
<v Speaker 4>apparently something when they were at war. This was this
<v Speaker 4>is incredible. Fessler Ulifesler becomes the German language commentator for
<v Speaker 4>New Japan. They were showing New Japan matches on German
<v Speaker 4>television as well when she took over that station in
<v Speaker 4>ninety three. Guess the voice of wrestling, and she took
<v Speaker 4>it upon herself. According to things that have been said
<v Speaker 4>to spoil WWF results.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god. On the New Japan broadcast, she told
<v Speaker 2>people that Shawn Michaels had won the nineteen ninety five
<v Speaker 2>Royal Rumbles several weeks before it was due to air
<v Speaker 2>in Germany. Oh my god. She's a She's a fucking genius.
<v Speaker 4>So this is another exhibit in what we were saying,
<v Speaker 4>that the WWF's WCW War was all telegraphed in Germany
<v Speaker 4>before it ever happened in the United States. Unbelievable giving
<v Speaker 4>away results like that. Maybe Bischoff got the idea from
<v Speaker 4>her it was the same time period, but yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 1>It was.
<v Speaker 2>It was definitely war. It was definitely intense. She says,
<v Speaker 2>he's invented so much nonsense and around so many meannesses, foolishness, untruths, nastiness,
<v Speaker 2>crude jokes, childish nonsense. What more is there to say?
<v Speaker 2>They did what they wanted. He couldn't beat me with quality,
<v Speaker 2>creativity of ratings. I was way ahead of them every
<v Speaker 2>show I did, every station I worked for, and there
<v Speaker 2>were many. So he cheap and dishonored and cowardly pushed
<v Speaker 2>me out of the scene. That he's now telling stories
<v Speaker 2>that make him look good. Is understandable. He can't change
<v Speaker 2>his character, just like a reptile. Wasn't in and wasn't
<v Speaker 2>it in Antoine Saint Xpery's the Little Prince when the
<v Speaker 2>snake bit him and when he asked an astonishment, but
<v Speaker 2>you're my friend, the snake said, I am your friend,
<v Speaker 2>but I'm also a snake. Yes, think that just because
<v Speaker 2>someone pretends to be a friend, they defined friend in
<v Speaker 2>the same way one does. So that's about it. What
<v Speaker 2>should I say? And and just a bit more on
<v Speaker 2>their background there? Okay, and this is the just another
<v Speaker 2>version of the coming of age story in the wrestling business.
<v Speaker 2>And Carson talks on Fever talk Shots a little bit
<v Speaker 2>more about some of the things that have been said
<v Speaker 2>about him by his former colleagues. It says, did that
<v Speaker 2>affect me in the past? Back then there wasn't much.
<v Speaker 2>It affects me if it isn't true, and there were
<v Speaker 2>a lot of things that were not true.
<v Speaker 4>What's the point of discussing it? They say what they say,
<v Speaker 4>I say what I say, And ultimately.
<v Speaker 2>It's word against word and statement against statement?
<v Speaker 1>Is it?
<v Speaker 2>Everybody? Is it? Carson? Everybody should be able to form
<v Speaker 2>their own opinion. I got two or three people on
<v Speaker 2>my Facebook page. I could talk about the weather, about plants,
<v Speaker 2>about I don't know what about formula one, and they
<v Speaker 2>keep coming up with wrestling and how bad I was
<v Speaker 2>and so on. The only thing that annoys me is
<v Speaker 2>when people say, and sometimes people I've worked with, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not naming names, say I bully someone. I didn't
<v Speaker 2>bully anyone. I just and I'll say that again. That's
<v Speaker 2>the only important point. I had to take responsibility for
<v Speaker 2>everyone to comment properly and that there are no difficulties
<v Speaker 2>I asked, depended on it, and there were two or
<v Speaker 2>three situations in which it was tight.
<v Speaker 4>That's why when they say, okay, you have to comment
<v Speaker 4>like this or like that, or we don't want this
<v Speaker 4>or that, and you Carston are responsible for that. So
<v Speaker 4>it was not fun for me that I was responsible,
<v Speaker 4>but I had to do all of that. It was
<v Speaker 4>part of my job.
<v Speaker 2>And sometimes you have to step up and say now
<v Speaker 2>it has to be done like this, and if it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't work, you have to get a little bit more
<v Speaker 2>angry at some point. That's definitely possible. But bullying. I
<v Speaker 2>have never bullied anyone at all, and even if that
<v Speaker 2>is often said or interpreted. I hate it.
<v Speaker 4>I hate bullying like the plague, and that's why I
<v Speaker 4>would never do something like that. But there were certainly
<v Speaker 4>arguments that I was held accountable if others made mistakes,
<v Speaker 4>then I was the one who had dick responsibility. And
<v Speaker 4>as I said, I am happy to stand up for
<v Speaker 4>my own mistakes, but not those of others.
<v Speaker 2>Mmmm. So it is. It is a nasty situation. Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 2>What a bunch of fucking crazy people. Look the fucking
<v Speaker 2>commentary booth on this show. I want you to think
<v Speaker 2>about it. Oh, it's a whole different ballgame now, it
<v Speaker 2>means so much more. Now, it's one more. No fucking
<v Speaker 2>idea that it was this fucking crazy.
<v Speaker 4>Carston would go on to be a He would go
<v Speaker 4>on to a team with a Gunterzop who they were
<v Speaker 4>kind of like the iconic ww announcing duo in German
<v Speaker 4>for the most years, and he commentated with Carston from
<v Speaker 4>did Gunterzop from nineteen ninety three From nineteen ninety three
<v Speaker 4>on when as mentioned, WWF got really strong traction on
<v Speaker 4>this RTL two station.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Zop was a former football player and died in the
<v Speaker 4>summer of twenty twenty four US. And yes, here is
<v Speaker 4>an interview that Zop did that was provided to us.
<v Speaker 4>Translation provided to us. Carston was responsible, he says, for
<v Speaker 4>the German subtitles in the show, So that's how we started.
<v Speaker 4>He's a translator and interpreter. He always made a fuss
<v Speaker 4>about something, saying that wrong. He liked wrestling, so that
<v Speaker 4>was a good fit. The interviewer says, uh ulist about
<v Speaker 4>wrestling being quite foreign and strained to Shaeffer at first,
<v Speaker 4>and Zob responds he knew it from England as he
<v Speaker 4>worked there for a year. He came in contact with wrestling,
<v Speaker 4>of course, with a completely different style than WWE, so
<v Speaker 4>it was something new for him. And above all the
<v Speaker 4>control from above, because he's a person that listens to
<v Speaker 4>nobody but himself, as Ran says, and even then it
<v Speaker 4>becomes difficult. So naturally he had problems and he was
<v Speaker 4>given instructions. So at w TOBE he probably had to
<v Speaker 4>learn over the years to do what is asked of him.
<v Speaker 4>Although you should always work for and with your employer.
<v Speaker 4>He did that one hundred percent, or take make that
<v Speaker 4>one hundred and ten percent. That's why he stuck it
<v Speaker 4>out for so long. He was a stroke of luck
<v Speaker 4>for WWE. You won't find a more loyal employee. I
<v Speaker 4>stopped ww Coocher says, but that didn't last long. Then Sky,
<v Speaker 4>a premiere at the time, came and asked me to
<v Speaker 4>please do it again because they need someone to control
<v Speaker 4>Carston to say it clearly. So then Zop then worked
<v Speaker 4>for Premiere directly, but I had to switch back to
<v Speaker 4>WB after a while.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 4>He took a bit of a hiatus, but was called
<v Speaker 4>back to wrestling duty. So the interviewer then kind of
<v Speaker 4>implies that WABE is going younger and younger with their
<v Speaker 4>German commentators, and then he asks him what that would
<v Speaker 4>mean for Shaeffer, and Gunter says, that's a difficult question.
<v Speaker 4>He's been written off so often because he's a very
<v Speaker 4>very difficult person and can't.
<v Speaker 2>Work with that. Anyone look into his eyes on the broadcast.
<v Speaker 2>Mm hm, those coke bottle glasses, look at them, listen.
<v Speaker 2>He is a difficult person to work with, whether they're
<v Speaker 2>whether they're technicians, and Gunter says, station managers or first
<v Speaker 2>and foremost, they got to think by the way Gunter's office,
<v Speaker 2>where they got Gunther's name from but oh totally listen,
<v Speaker 2>that's exactly where they got. But I was thinking, I
<v Speaker 2>was like, no shit, who knew Gunther was a fucking
<v Speaker 2>back working back then for the company World Heavyweight Champion
<v Speaker 2>YEP or however Carson Schaeffer would have said it. Station
<v Speaker 2>managers are first and foremost the colleagues, the commentators with
<v Speaker 2>whom he works with every day. He was written off
<v Speaker 2>very often and many wanted to get rid of him,
<v Speaker 2>but he always had the backing from W TOB for whom,
<v Speaker 2>like I said before, he was always one hundred percent loyal,
<v Speaker 2>so there was never a problem. They didn't experience what
<v Speaker 2>he can be. He is still there today, so I
<v Speaker 2>can't really answer it. I think he doesn't really fitted anymore,
<v Speaker 2>and the signs are currently very much to the effect
<v Speaker 2>that it probably won't last much longer. I don't know
<v Speaker 2>if you have read the advert from w B who
<v Speaker 2>are looking for a German commentator, but if you asked
<v Speaker 2>me directly, I've experienced so much with Carston when I
<v Speaker 2>thought now he's gone, and even Premiere, which is a
<v Speaker 2>German PAYD television station, has already made it clear that
<v Speaker 2>they're going to go into negotiations with the tenor they'd
<v Speaker 2>like to continue with w TOB but only without Shaefer,
<v Speaker 2>and they failed too, and they failed to So let's
<v Speaker 2>wait and see. I'll follow that closely. So I went
<v Speaker 2>on to say that he did not like the WWF workload,
<v Speaker 2>how it got worse and worse, and wanted to switch
<v Speaker 2>to be an employee of the TV station again, which
<v Speaker 2>he had done before, to focus more on his NFL
<v Speaker 2>commentating because he was like Germany's preeminent American football expert.
<v Speaker 2>But that went south. He implies that the colleague was
<v Speaker 2>also reason for him to do less WWE. The colleague, yes,
<v Speaker 2>a Zab says, the beginning of his WV run with
<v Speaker 2>the Shaffer was awesome, but the last ten years were terrible.
<v Speaker 2>They were best mates and did things in their free
<v Speaker 2>time together and shared many interests. They're on air verbal
<v Speaker 2>battles were in good fun, he said. He talks about
<v Speaker 2>when Schaeffer and him were WrestleMania eleven and met a
<v Speaker 2>Triple H backstage. I doubt that must mean eleven. No,
<v Speaker 2>he wasn't there yet. That's wrong. Close but not yet.
<v Speaker 4>But of course Gunter passes away, and here's a comment
<v Speaker 4>under a video. Here's a comment under the video with
<v Speaker 4>several of the quotes from Gunter Zop that we just
<v Speaker 4>read to you. First of all, Rip Gunter, I remember
<v Speaker 4>a major event where Carston suddenly snapped at Gunter out
<v Speaker 4>of nowhere, saying something like you're getting on my nerves.
<v Speaker 4>Then there were two seconds of awkward silence, and one
<v Speaker 4>of them said, Okay, we'll sort this out.
<v Speaker 2>After the show.
<v Speaker 4>This is on the broadcast. Oh my god, I found
<v Speaker 4>that scene. This comment writes pretty intense back then because
<v Speaker 4>it happened live in front of tens of thousands, maybe
<v Speaker 4>even one hundred thousand people. Quite the legacy. Carson Schaeffer,
<v Speaker 4>Ulie Fessler, Gunter Zop, This boss is German.
<v Speaker 2>WF give it to me. I need it. This is
<v Speaker 2>like this has Ben. This is what it should be.
<v Speaker 4>This has Ben Ben, this has been TLF and all
<v Speaker 4>of that. You wouldn't have known a fucking thing about
<v Speaker 4>in the English speaking world if it wasn't not only
<v Speaker 4>for folks like Ben, but the foundation that we built
<v Speaker 4>to convey act as a exus the reality and surface
<v Speaker 4>it WWF European Rampage again. April nineteen ninety two, Munich, Germany, Boston.
<v Speaker 4>We have a death toll.
<v Speaker 2>We do have a death toll. We have eight Referee
<v Speaker 2>Joey Morella, Sure, Referee Tim White, soolutely, Dino Bravo, the
<v Speaker 2>British Bulldog, Hawk Animal, the sensational Sherry and the w Champion,
<v Speaker 2>Macho Man and Savage Wow. Big time resting peace there, absolutely.
<v Speaker 4>And so now it's time to take you through what
<v Speaker 4>these announcers are saying during the course of the actual
<v Speaker 4>wrestling match broadcast. As we go through Savage versus Michaels,
<v Speaker 4>As we go through Davy Boy winning the Battle Royal
<v Speaker 4>and teaming with the LD As we go through Brett
<v Speaker 4>Hart versus Diino Bravo, and so much more. Next time
<v Speaker 4>we're with you, it's the deep Dive into WWF European
<v Speaker 4>Rampage again. April fourteenth, nineteen ninety two, Munich, Germany, complete
<v Speaker 4>with translation on that fucking cast.
<v Speaker 1>He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast with Jack scarn Seo
<v Speaker 1>MJP Soro