Ep 395: WCW's Clash of the Champions 23 (Part 1)

<v Speaker 1>It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn
<v Speaker 1>s e O and JP Sorrow.
<v Speaker 2>He's a lapsed fan and all my years and wrestling.
<v Speaker 3>I never seen anything.
<v Speaker 2>And it's the laps fan man by the one in
<v Speaker 2>the ring.
<v Speaker 4>Forget about Sado.
<v Speaker 5>He the real king of swing. When the bell.
<v Speaker 4>Goes in the kick like me throwing in the corner,
<v Speaker 4>but gets rash like stick.
<v Speaker 6>Even Jerry King gets take off the crowd nodded in.
<v Speaker 7>His head like it.
<v Speaker 6>Steve low Brown would get low down.
<v Speaker 4>We go even high up, flipp you on your head.
<v Speaker 3>But you know cool driver, you speak more, dragon spits fire,
<v Speaker 3>give you more shock than when he treats higher drop
<v Speaker 3>a more truth than the con of sniper unless you
<v Speaker 3>with a coconut.
<v Speaker 4>Roddy Pipper Jack a JP, he like j.
<v Speaker 8>H D drop the cupcakes and gold the brain Bob
<v Speaker 8>means the best podcast Frost start the close cloud if
<v Speaker 8>you are we've been alas.
<v Speaker 3>We spent a lot of time talking about Stone Cold
<v Speaker 3>Steve Austin in the ten year annals of TLF. Yes
<v Speaker 3>we have, we haven't really talked as much as I
<v Speaker 3>think this show allows us to about the Hollywood blondes.
<v Speaker 3>I'm trying to think of a time where we've actually
<v Speaker 3>covered a Hollywood blonde match. They were such a short
<v Speaker 3>lived tag team that there aren't many options. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>I think we did one of the Shane Steamboat matches.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe, if not the one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we did Slambery ninety three and that's when they
<v Speaker 3>wrestle Steamboat and who they think is Shane under the
<v Speaker 3>mask but turns out to Tom Zinc Yep, yep, because
<v Speaker 3>Shane had been injured and then couldn't we negotiate to
<v Speaker 3>come back? But I mean, nineteen ninety three WCW is
<v Speaker 3>a daunting task enough, but WSW Clash of the Champions
<v Speaker 3>twenty three from the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia and June
<v Speaker 3>of nineteen ninety three lays bare a whole lot of things,
<v Speaker 3>and it's a very watchable show. But I regret to
<v Speaker 3>report to you, Boss, despite how enticing Rick Flair and
<v Speaker 3>Arn Anderson versus Steve Austin and Brian Pillman and a
<v Speaker 3>tag team main event would seem, this is the lowest
<v Speaker 3>rated Clash of the Champions ever.
<v Speaker 4>Get out of town?
<v Speaker 3>Can you handle that?
<v Speaker 4>Can you question? I cannot? I cannot. I mean especially
<v Speaker 4>given beyond that main event, it's pretty it's a pretty
<v Speaker 4>stacked lineup. Not necessarily we're talking great stuff, but the
<v Speaker 4>top two matches loads of star power. You'd think that
<v Speaker 4>it would be I mean, the undercard is is, leaves
<v Speaker 4>a lot to be desired, but you know that, I
<v Speaker 4>would imagine the two main events would be enough to
<v Speaker 4>carry this whole this whole show. I'm disappointed.
<v Speaker 3>What did you think of it?
<v Speaker 4>I thought it was good. I thought it was good.
<v Speaker 4>I enjoyed it. I thought it was h for the
<v Speaker 4>most part of me. It's funny, it's good. There's enough
<v Speaker 4>in there that is absurd. Ah, shut up, Siri, brother, brother, Siri,
<v Speaker 4>roll me up, dude.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry, you were praising a WCW show before the arrival
<v Speaker 3>of Hulk Cogan in July nineteen ninety four.
<v Speaker 4>I am indeed, I'm not ashamed to admit it. And
<v Speaker 4>that main event was spectacular. It was just great, just
<v Speaker 4>great shit.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, so many workers that understand how to flat
<v Speaker 3>back off a knife edge, right, yep. Workers who get
<v Speaker 3>in there and when they bump, they bump, they bump
<v Speaker 3>like they've been shot in the shoulder. Yes, And they
<v Speaker 3>chop and they chop and they and they says press
<v Speaker 3>and they throw downtown right hands, and they take backdrops
<v Speaker 3>and they lift their chin up and then they tuck
<v Speaker 3>it at the last second before they come down, like
<v Speaker 3>a certain Texas rattlesnake I could mention. And they fake
<v Speaker 3>rights and DDT and they spine bust and they give
<v Speaker 3>us in between the four posts. What keeps us wrestling fans,
<v Speaker 3>not necessarily what makes us wrestling fans, but what keeps
<v Speaker 3>us wrestling fans. Matches like this we can sink our
<v Speaker 3>teeth into Because you got four people in there who
<v Speaker 3>don't give a fuck what you think about wrestling, You're
<v Speaker 3>going to enjoy their match.
<v Speaker 4>Yep, that's right.
<v Speaker 3>And what an opportunity for young Austin and Pillman, who
<v Speaker 3>were just beginning in so many ways, to come into
<v Speaker 3>their own as characters. You can see both stone Cold
<v Speaker 3>and the Loose Cannon in their eyes, though not necessarily
<v Speaker 3>in their look yet. Oh yeah, yeah, stunning Steve, he
<v Speaker 3>talked about him. I mean, where were you at on
<v Speaker 3>Steve on Steve Austin before he became Stone Cold.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I was a fan. I was a fan. I
<v Speaker 4>enjoyed him, he was a he you know he had
<v Speaker 4>enough as a as a heel. I mean, I'm ninety three,
<v Speaker 4>ninety four, Steve Austin I thought was fantastic. I I
<v Speaker 4>I enjoyed stunning Steve as a heel, like really hating
<v Speaker 4>on him. And I hated him because of that hair.
<v Speaker 4>Oh that guy Fad in the part that weird yeah,
<v Speaker 4>and that weird part where like literally the hairs are
<v Speaker 4>uneven just for the part, right, you know, I hated
<v Speaker 4>him for that. I'd great have that haird of a
<v Speaker 4>bully in the Sandlot movie in the fifties. So true,
<v Speaker 4>it's so true.
<v Speaker 3>But I worked for him and there and of course
<v Speaker 3>you know the Sun Kun Kun Kung Kan Kun Kun
<v Speaker 3>Kun Kun Kun Can Peng Pang Peng Peng Tang Sing
<v Speaker 3>tank and they're doing the twist like.
<v Speaker 4>The old school can yep, that's great ship cameras.
<v Speaker 3>So they found themselves in a position where there's this
<v Speaker 3>clash special coming up on TBS, which of course we're live,
<v Speaker 3>and they need a main event at a time of
<v Speaker 3>great flux in WCW is of course we'll talk about
<v Speaker 3>is there ever not a time of great flux in WCW.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I would imagine that flux is is kind of
<v Speaker 4>the I imagine that flux just never leaves. There is
<v Speaker 4>just a flux. Indeed, I would imagine there's a great
<v Speaker 4>capacity for flux.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like, yeah, well, we'll plug these guys in
<v Speaker 3>like they're fresh heels for for a baby face flare
<v Speaker 3>who just come back from WWF of course, and aren't
<v Speaker 3>Underson At a time when they were sort of flirting
<v Speaker 3>on the idea of the horseman as baby faces, this
<v Speaker 3>is the roma horseman talk about short lived.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, I am not I'm okay with a roma horsemen.
<v Speaker 4>I know I'm one of the few, but I think
<v Speaker 4>it's okay. I think it could have worked. Yep, I
<v Speaker 4>think it could have worked.
<v Speaker 3>Is he not fit the demographic?
<v Speaker 4>Oh?
<v Speaker 3>Reck, he doesn't. What are you talking about? What demographic?
<v Speaker 3>You guys don't want to be like him?
<v Speaker 4>He kind of a little you need a little bit
<v Speaker 4>of a workhorse type in the in there. At that time,
<v Speaker 4>I think it would have been okay.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm not.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't say that to cast dispersions on Paul Rome.
<v Speaker 3>I said that just to call out a similar check
<v Speaker 3>the adjective Kevin Nash moment or a pay your wages
<v Speaker 3>very easy out of the debiographic like, no, actually he doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>That's the whole reason, that's the all reason people were
<v Speaker 3>so shocked that he was a horseman. But that that's
<v Speaker 3>on flair for the gold, which we'll get to talking
<v Speaker 3>about as well in this episode. The talk show that
<v Speaker 3>they built him around Rick upon his WCW returned. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>the Hollywood blondes Brian and Steve were congealing as a
<v Speaker 3>team that was reluctantly put together. As we'll get into,
<v Speaker 3>they had their own respective singles career ambitions. Steve Austin
<v Speaker 3>got a very strong push, not only under Jim Hurd,
<v Speaker 3>but even more so under Bill Watts, who had just
<v Speaker 3>departed w February of nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 4>Wait, so who can oh? Bill Wats came after whack
<v Speaker 4>you dude, what's the name Jim heard?
<v Speaker 1>Not?
<v Speaker 3>Jim heard Kip Fry, Kip Fry. Yes, it was heard
<v Speaker 3>Fry Watts. That's right, that's right, it was heard with
<v Speaker 3>a side of fries.
<v Speaker 9>And then.
<v Speaker 3>Bill watermelon. So all kinds of you know, attempt attempts
<v Speaker 3>to make WCW matter and respectable and our different regimes
<v Speaker 3>are now over and to hear at Bischoff talent. Bill Shaw,
<v Speaker 3>who's sort of like the Turner exec in charge of
<v Speaker 3>the wrestling division, was ready to throw in the towel
<v Speaker 3>on the whole idea in terms of like supporting it
<v Speaker 3>up to change and whether Ted Turner was having reservations
<v Speaker 3>or not. I suppose that's the subject of debate. But
<v Speaker 3>this is where Bischoff rises to power in this vacuum
<v Speaker 3>of like, all right, we've tried all this stuff. We've
<v Speaker 3>tried a non wrestling guy. We've tried the purest wrestling
<v Speaker 3>guy we could find in the Cowboy. Nothing's working. What
<v Speaker 3>do we do next? We need a need a fresh
<v Speaker 3>set of eyes on this. We need somebody that has
<v Speaker 3>a television mindset instill instead of a wrestling mind which
<v Speaker 3>always cracked me up. Like what you talk about, like
<v Speaker 3>they had old wrestling guys running it forever. It's like
<v Speaker 3>you mean, besides Bill Watts, who exactly like Kip Fry,
<v Speaker 3>could not have been further from a wrestling guy. Jim
<v Speaker 3>Herber was not a wrestling guy. Jim Crockett, even though
<v Speaker 3>he promoted for wrestling his whole life, he wasn't a wrestler,
<v Speaker 3>you know, now, I guess Olie was always popping around
<v Speaker 3>trying to start fights and shit and trying to position
<v Speaker 3>himself locally. Dusty had the book, if that's what you mean.
<v Speaker 3>Jodi Hamilton was around as well, but you know, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>non as far as like the boss of WCW. They
<v Speaker 3>were only gave a wrestler that job once. I'm not
<v Speaker 3>saying it was successful, but it's just always he uses me.
<v Speaker 4>It's true. Actually, yeah, you really, that's really true.
<v Speaker 3>So there were support for Steve as US champion in WCW,
<v Speaker 3>and they were gonna pair him with Harley Race and
<v Speaker 3>he was gonna have a run. And so when he
<v Speaker 3>got word of the Hollywood Blonds being the next step
<v Speaker 3>for him, that seemed like a demotion because he was
<v Speaker 3>looking forward to this US title campaign and being paired with,
<v Speaker 3>you know, the the hottest heel manager WW had at
<v Speaker 3>the time. But you know, they figured it out. You know,
<v Speaker 3>it's like we're gonna put you together, and all of
<v Speaker 3>a sudden they found at Pilman and Austin that is
<v Speaker 3>that they got along really well, and it's i.
<v Speaker 4>Mean, that's what makes it, That's what makes such a
<v Speaker 4>great really, that's what makes Steve Austin one of the
<v Speaker 4>greatest of all time. It's not just because of his
<v Speaker 4>stone cold run the top. It's also because here's a
<v Speaker 4>guy who is always able to find ways to get
<v Speaker 4>over no matter what they throw at him.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, think about you know, his lot in life
<v Speaker 3>when they started with him in WWF.
<v Speaker 4>Like exactly, And that's what's so that's that's what makes
<v Speaker 4>him one of the best as well. Like, not necessarily
<v Speaker 4>that's that's not the headline of it, that's not the
<v Speaker 4>main reason. But as you're going down the list, it's
<v Speaker 4>definitely up there the fact this guy was able to
<v Speaker 4>just transition and figure out, Okay, here's the ship that
<v Speaker 4>I'm in, how can I make this you know work
<v Speaker 4>for me? Right?
<v Speaker 3>Can I How can I show a glimmer of more
<v Speaker 3>than my position would indicate, you know, capable of at
<v Speaker 3>the moment. I always find a way to get that
<v Speaker 3>through just a little bit, you know. And he wasn't desperate,
<v Speaker 3>he wasn't thirsty about it, but god damn it, like
<v Speaker 3>if you let if you gave him an inch, yep,
<v Speaker 3>pretty soon, all of a sudden you saw him in
<v Speaker 3>a different light in terms of what because the card
<v Speaker 3>exactly yeah, yeah, and that is a gift because you know,
<v Speaker 3>some many guys get their confidence broken down based on
<v Speaker 3>like some arbitrary slotting of where they are in the
<v Speaker 3>card and would never be able to show that spark
<v Speaker 3>even if presented with the serendipitous opportunity like Steve Boston
<v Speaker 3>has been and here, yeah, here's another example.
<v Speaker 4>And you know, let's not and let's not take away
<v Speaker 4>that he's main eventing a Clash of the Champions, which
<v Speaker 4>there are only thirty five matches that main event a
<v Speaker 4>class of champions. You know, it's not a lot of people,
<v Speaker 4>not a lot of main events when you really think
<v Speaker 4>about it.
<v Speaker 3>And I'm sitting here struggling to think of what a
<v Speaker 3>tag team main event before this one would have been.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure there was one, but in terms of like
<v Speaker 3>a pure team like the Blonds as supposed to just
<v Speaker 3>pairing together two sile.
<v Speaker 4>Stars, right, or like this, uh you know how they
<v Speaker 4>do yeah, like the or like the the like the
<v Speaker 4>match before the the three of them, the six man
<v Speaker 4>tag it's.
<v Speaker 3>Pretty wide of the w CW that had. But by
<v Speaker 3>the way, I'd like to introduce you here to like
<v Speaker 3>basically the roster w W F used to turn things around, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>as far as like not to turn things around, but
<v Speaker 3>as far as like guys that were around when the
<v Speaker 3>ship turned, like like a Vader, a Davy boy at
<v Speaker 3>Barry Wyndham, Steve Austin too.
<v Speaker 4>Cold was there, Ron Simmons was there. Regal was there, yeap,
<v Speaker 4>Regal was exactly. He was a real man's man.
<v Speaker 3>So they took all these guys at WCW got rid
<v Speaker 3>of and made them centerpieces of the Attitude era. Not centerpieces,
<v Speaker 3>but important cogs in the machine. Certainly not people that
<v Speaker 3>Vince considered dispensable when he was at his hottest period.
<v Speaker 3>No bulldog, you know, Jean's bulldog. Come on totally about
<v Speaker 3>Jeans fucking Heart Foundation bulldog.
<v Speaker 4>That's true.
<v Speaker 3>Too Cold Dust is here, Uh huh yep, even have
<v Speaker 3>Tennessee Lee good call and DX insurance policy.
<v Speaker 4>Rick Rude, that's right, and uh and the a fat
<v Speaker 4>piece of shit Vader?
<v Speaker 3>Right, So what a what a fucking six man Vader
<v Speaker 3>sid and Rick Rude versus Dustin Rhodes Sting and Davy
<v Speaker 3>boy Smith and w CW at nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 4>That's wild. That's a that's a that's a beast of
<v Speaker 4>a of a tag team lineup there, so.
<v Speaker 3>Easy to forget about Sid's nineteen ninety three run because
<v Speaker 3>it's like, not me.
<v Speaker 4>I remember every fucking time, because I remember he was
<v Speaker 4>supposed to be peuting with the Warrior the year before,
<v Speaker 4>and so then I see him here and it just
<v Speaker 4>it always rips my heart out. Well, how'd you feel
<v Speaker 4>about Davy boy here for the first time? Uh, you know,
<v Speaker 4>I didn't. I didn't for some reason, I didn't mind
<v Speaker 4>that as much like I don't know, I mean, I
<v Speaker 4>liked Bulldog, but he didn't. He wasn't. Sid was more
<v Speaker 4>important to me as a heel because he never got
<v Speaker 4>his you know, from the turning on Hogan in ninety
<v Speaker 4>two and not actually jobbing to Hogan it WrestleMania there
<v Speaker 4>was to me that was a bigger deal was the
<v Speaker 4>fact that he didn't and in fact, he never got
<v Speaker 4>his come up with a lot of the feuds like
<v Speaker 4>you know that he never really got come up in
<v Speaker 4>with Sean Michaels as well. Yeah, you know, I mean
<v Speaker 4>they did later well, but he was a baby face
<v Speaker 4>like during the actual heel runs. He never really you know,
<v Speaker 4>he never he never really got his.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, for a young baby maniac such as we were
<v Speaker 3>in nineteen ninety two. Yeah, it sticks in your mind
<v Speaker 3>that there's this menace that the Hulkster failed to put
<v Speaker 3>down once and for all, still exactly lurking somewhere.
<v Speaker 4>And then I'm waiting for Warrior to do it, and
<v Speaker 4>then he's gone and we get Papa Shanko was gone
<v Speaker 4>before all that too. Well's what I'm saying is that
<v Speaker 4>I'm saying. What I'm saying is that was gone. We
<v Speaker 4>got Papa versus Warrior instead of Warrior versus SID, and
<v Speaker 4>like that was let me tell you, Warrior versus SID.
<v Speaker 4>Despite the fact that it never really happened or how
<v Speaker 4>on a very limited basis, that was a major, a
<v Speaker 4>major program that I would go back to when I
<v Speaker 4>during my in my Hasbro Universe, Warrior SID was always
<v Speaker 4>a money match hip.
<v Speaker 3>I remember needing that, yep, needing to see Warriors splash him,
<v Speaker 3>you know, yeah, and like go, you know, kick out
<v Speaker 3>of the flower momb and shake the ropes.
<v Speaker 4>Yep, press slam, shoulder block, the whole.
<v Speaker 3>Thing about the press slam. But he could try, Hey,
<v Speaker 3>he could do it. I mean Sid, Sid goes out
<v Speaker 3>of his way to kip up in this match as
<v Speaker 3>he used to do, which I think is hilarious. Kip
<v Speaker 3>fry up, Hip fry up, Yeah, Kip fry down. Sid
<v Speaker 3>comes in and saw that works.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, it was a very short lived grunt.
<v Speaker 4>Of course.
<v Speaker 3>He was supposed to face Vader at nineteen ninety three Starcade,
<v Speaker 3>but ended up having the drug test tissue. And that's
<v Speaker 3>where flair plug.
<v Speaker 4>Doesn't he stab arm two with scissors?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but that wasn't why I got fired. That's how
<v Speaker 3>we got fired. That's funny, And that wasn't the final straw.
<v Speaker 3>Let's say, prehaps that's part of it. That's that's hilariou
<v Speaker 3>it's yours.
<v Speaker 4>Well all right, you listen. You punished them, Okay, all right,
<v Speaker 4>we'll give you another change. Drugs. Fuck it, get out.
<v Speaker 3>You just need to figure this out.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, get out.
<v Speaker 3>God, this is fucking ninety three man, I mean, Vince
<v Speaker 3>just got indicted. For Christ's sakes, like in November. People
<v Speaker 3>aren't fucking around. We like, take the time to do
<v Speaker 3>these drug tests, even if it's a k fab deal
<v Speaker 3>to cover our ass.
<v Speaker 4>What if they went after Ted Turner and vincick Man
<v Speaker 4>and they and they had to like do a joint
<v Speaker 4>defense or something.
<v Speaker 3>It is uproariously funny that like WCW got no scrutiny
<v Speaker 3>despite having even absurd butt bodies.
<v Speaker 4>It's ridiculous. I mean, fucking Marcus Bagwell please.
<v Speaker 3>People would ask, you know, like the sheets would ask
<v Speaker 3>the WCW executives, and they'd pay lip service to it,
<v Speaker 3>and they implemented some testing programs as evidence there. But
<v Speaker 3>it was never a thing where like why are you
<v Speaker 3>only pushing muscular guys? You know, that was always the
<v Speaker 3>thing with Vince, Like you could lay it on Vince's doorstep,
<v Speaker 3>because anyone's trying to make it in the business looked
<v Speaker 3>at who Vince pushed and felt that pressure ww thing.
<v Speaker 3>Yet you know they weren't tasked with switching up the
<v Speaker 3>top of their card, you know, or pushing a you know,
<v Speaker 3>a junior heavyweight in a world title match or something
<v Speaker 3>like that.
<v Speaker 4>Well, I mean they didn't. I mean, how many people
<v Speaker 4>did they really push? Who was of that massive frame? Well,
<v Speaker 4>I would say Sid but he didn't get a world
<v Speaker 4>title run at this time.
<v Speaker 3>If they could have, he would have. He probably would
<v Speaker 3>have beaten Vader, and they came pretty close at ninety,
<v Speaker 3>but he skipped down. Yeah, he's left before they couut
<v Speaker 3>the belt on Jim and Hurt was in love with
<v Speaker 3>the fucking guy and would say as much. He was
<v Speaker 3>also in love with the Steiners for the same reason,
<v Speaker 3>and they're one of those two in particular, was a
<v Speaker 3>Neon sign for this issue, The Great Total Package Lex Luger.
<v Speaker 3>I mean it's not here, Yeah, I mean I'm sure,
<v Speaker 3>but think about who actually had the runs as champion
<v Speaker 3>was either Stinger, Vader or again guy right, guys that
<v Speaker 3>were not really guys that weren't Hulk Hogan bloated. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it is a special case. I mean, well, already in
<v Speaker 3>the business that looked like him.
<v Speaker 4>Anyway, even Warlord bloated. How about that?
<v Speaker 3>Well that yeah, or the Warlord came from there from Crockett.
<v Speaker 3>I mean World Warriors were there, sure, but not here
<v Speaker 3>and not his world champions. No, no, that is true.
<v Speaker 4>The only one would have been Luger Lugar World Champion
<v Speaker 4>in ninety one ninety two. But that's it. I mean
<v Speaker 4>maybe Ron Ron Simmons kind of bloated. Was he on
<v Speaker 4>the juice?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? I mentioned him, Yeah, I mean I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to accuse people. But the point is
<v Speaker 3>like no one was no one seemed to be making
<v Speaker 3>as fervent a case. It was sort of like when,
<v Speaker 3>oh god, I'm trying to remember what the thing was
<v Speaker 3>like Back in the early twenty tens, the the Culinary
<v Speaker 3>Union in Las Vegas that was trying to unionize some
<v Speaker 3>of the UFC owners hotels because the Ftida family used
<v Speaker 3>own hotels out there and still do I think Station
<v Speaker 3>Casinos was the name of it. And and so what
<v Speaker 3>the union was doing was putting pressure on UFC and
<v Speaker 3>doing like these publicity campaigns, trying to like make make
<v Speaker 3>a big deal publicly whenever a UFC fighter got arrested
<v Speaker 3>or whenever someone said something politically incorrect or offensive. So
<v Speaker 3>they were like, you know, they had like their their
<v Speaker 3>opposition research guys going on UFCU, and they I forget
<v Speaker 3>what it was, honestly, and I feel badly. Rampage Jackson
<v Speaker 3>is a famous fighter. You know, we saw him TNA
<v Speaker 3>and stuff. He sure he had done something, he had
<v Speaker 3>done something that the union was like really pushing, like, see, okay,
<v Speaker 3>look who Dana White, Like, you know, like look who
<v Speaker 3>these who these people allow to make millions of dollars
<v Speaker 3>without repercussions. Look what this person did in their personal life.
<v Speaker 3>I think he had like a crazy incident in traffic
<v Speaker 3>or something. I can't believe. I'm foggy on those details
<v Speaker 3>because it's a huge story at the time. Anyway, they
<v Speaker 3>were hammering, they were hammering, they were hammering, and then
<v Speaker 3>Rampage jumped to Belator the other MMA promotion and they
<v Speaker 3>didn't go a fuck about that all of a sudden. Wow,
<v Speaker 3>all of a sudden, this menace to society getting paid
<v Speaker 3>big bucks to fight and be a superstars and a
<v Speaker 3>problem more because it's not happening in under the enemy umbrella,
<v Speaker 3>right course. So I mean, yeah, that that's that's life,
<v Speaker 3>I suppose, but it reminds me kind of this thing. Anyway,
<v Speaker 3>that was a diversion. All of this is to say
<v Speaker 3>that it's a WCW with just a wild combination of guys.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, Davy boys here for reasons so I know
<v Speaker 3>about serendipity. This is the run that happens because of
<v Speaker 3>what we talked about when we covered the November nineteen
<v Speaker 3>eighty two Saturday Night's main event. Yep, yep, he gets
<v Speaker 3>indeed let go by Vince for ship shipments of growth
<v Speaker 3>hormone from Europe being intercepted by the US Postal Service,
<v Speaker 3>and then WW is more than happy to sign him up.
<v Speaker 3>And the run means basically nothing at a hot match
<v Speaker 3>or two with Vader, but other than that, nothing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he main evented a couple a couple of Vaders
<v Speaker 4>Vader slots there. He did the tag match with Staying
<v Speaker 4>at Beach Blast and it went, it went to here,
<v Speaker 4>and then when he was gone, he's gone by Uh right,
<v Speaker 4>he's gone by by Sara Stark. Yeah, because he's supposed
<v Speaker 4>to face Rude and he doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>He doesn't, and he apologizes because I was supposed to
<v Speaker 3>be a returning of the Favor's supposed to lose to Rude.
<v Speaker 3>And he also had that thing where he fought a
<v Speaker 3>guy in a nightclub and got charged some guy that
<v Speaker 3>you thought was hitting on Diana.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, we'll talk about that.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure we will. So nineteen ninety three w CW.
<v Speaker 3>Need I say more?
<v Speaker 4>No, but I we're not going to stay above the
<v Speaker 4>mat all the time today.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Bulldog is on the card. You know what you
<v Speaker 3>already know what it is. I'm almost positive this will
<v Speaker 3>be retreaded ground because I know I've read.
<v Speaker 4>These passages before. Absolutely listen, listen, we retread because they're
<v Speaker 4>they're every every every little space in Diana's book needs
<v Speaker 4>to be just dissected at all times possible.
<v Speaker 3>What a gift from on High that one is. Huh oh,
<v Speaker 3>it really is. So glad she took the time to
<v Speaker 3>put pen to paper and faithfully recount the many things
<v Speaker 3>that have happened in her life. Yes, yes, and just
<v Speaker 3>really really make me understand the true power of orange
<v Speaker 3>juice so well. I don't think anyone's appreciated the power
<v Speaker 3>of oding that much since Nicole Brown Simpson, to be
<v Speaker 3>honest with youingh so yeah, like I said ninety three WCW.
<v Speaker 3>Need I say more? No, but I will. Let's turn
<v Speaker 3>to Eric Bischoff, who won his Publer guest about this
<v Speaker 3>Clash of the Champions, which was his first and really
<v Speaker 3>probably only the second or third major events first live
<v Speaker 3>that he had produced since taking the executive producer chair
<v Speaker 3>in February of nineteen ninety three, has to say about
<v Speaker 3>all the different interests and all the different you know,
<v Speaker 3>political forces at play in which this Hollywood blondze aborted
<v Speaker 3>push takes place.
<v Speaker 1>I was looking for all of the things, because ninety
<v Speaker 1>three was a fucked up year. I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about the middle of the year here in June.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, to put what I'm sure is going
<v Speaker 1>to be a grilling in context, you know, I think
<v Speaker 1>you we all of us, if we're going to talk
<v Speaker 1>about this, you kind of have to go back and
<v Speaker 1>look at all of the things that led up to
<v Speaker 1>this particular pay per view, And it was a bad year.
<v Speaker 1>Ninety three was a tough year. It was a good
<v Speaker 1>year for me because I got you know, I got
<v Speaker 1>a great promotion and a couple extra bucks, But it
<v Speaker 1>was a tough year for WCW. We were coming off
<v Speaker 1>the Watts debacle, you know, all of the things that
<v Speaker 1>he did prior to you know, the comments that he
<v Speaker 1>made that got him fired, you know, pulling the mats
<v Speaker 1>away from the rings and barring all the moves off
<v Speaker 1>the top rope, and all of the throwback shit that
<v Speaker 1>he thought was going to be you know, turn was
<v Speaker 1>going to turn the company around. The horrible morale not
<v Speaker 1>only within WCW, but all around Turner with regard to
<v Speaker 1>w CW, and the politics were still rampant, probably even
<v Speaker 1>more so after I got the nod. I think people
<v Speaker 1>were probably shell shocked, you know, over the Bill Watts thing,
<v Speaker 1>and probably me getting the nod as executive producer was
<v Speaker 1>a double whammy.
<v Speaker 4>And there was still a lot of politics going on.
<v Speaker 1>Ole Anderson was politicking his ass off, you know, trying
<v Speaker 1>to get as much control as he was. Dusty Rhodes
<v Speaker 1>was in the middle of it all.
<v Speaker 10>You know.
<v Speaker 4>It was a mess.
<v Speaker 3>I love oly politicking hiss off. Yes, in nineteen ninety three,
<v Speaker 3>like who's gonna listen to this fucking guy? And that
<v Speaker 3>turned out to be a great frustration and sort of
<v Speaker 3>like he's got to he's got to make peace with
<v Speaker 3>the fact that all this talent was there when he
<v Speaker 3>was kind of like the booker in nineteen ninety three,
<v Speaker 3>and he didn't push any of them. Oh shit with
<v Speaker 3>any of them. We thought they all sucked. He thought
<v Speaker 3>they all were the shits. Oh well, we'll even here
<v Speaker 3>in a little while what he thought about Steve Austin
<v Speaker 3>around this particular point in time. Oh beautiful, But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>so that's Eric's right there, but it is, well, we
<v Speaker 3>know what happened with Bill Watts. I mean, he had
<v Speaker 3>done an interview with the pro wrestling Torch where he
<v Speaker 3>made in sensitive comments about the segregated South and the
<v Speaker 3>rights of people to not allow blacks to come to
<v Speaker 3>their stores or whatever it was. And this was like
<v Speaker 3>a year. A year after he did the interview, w
<v Speaker 3>CW brought Hank Aaron. Turner brought Hank Aaron to Starkate.
<v Speaker 3>Remember that he showed up I do I do? And
<v Speaker 3>of course, you know Hank Aaron a civil rights champion
<v Speaker 3>and a just a revolutionary black athlete in so many ways.
<v Speaker 3>And Mark Madden, a future w CW broadcasting fame, interestingly enough,
<v Speaker 3>was like, oh really, like, well, if you're gonna bring
<v Speaker 3>Hank Aaron down here, you might want to see what
<v Speaker 3>Bill Wats once said on the record an interview to
<v Speaker 3>a wrestling newsletter and fact sit over there and then
<v Speaker 3>they were like, uh, I mean.
<v Speaker 4>That's like uh uh I mean, look, I mean, but
<v Speaker 4>that's hilarious because that's really that's like almost the first
<v Speaker 4>uh that's like an early instance of internet trolling in
<v Speaker 4>the way.
<v Speaker 3>Oh totally. You know, he was canceled, but he's canceled
<v Speaker 3>something he said like way, like no one cared when
<v Speaker 3>he first said it, you know, yeah, but when it
<v Speaker 3>was brought to Hank Aaron's attention because I think what
<v Speaker 3>I could be foggy about this, but I think Matt
<v Speaker 3>and actually brought to the attention of Hank Aaron himself,
<v Speaker 3>not not to just the attention of.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, that's even, that's even. I mean, that's that's that's
<v Speaker 4>that's that's cruel in a great.
<v Speaker 3>Way, and it's it's definitely going to prompt more action
<v Speaker 3>when Hank Aaron calls screaming, you know, than absolutely you know,
<v Speaker 3>then taking some preemptive action in case Hank gets offended. Anyway,
<v Speaker 3>Bill Watts is out. It wasn't a great run anyway.
<v Speaker 3>The things Bischoff mentioned he had, you know, there were
<v Speaker 3>some solid things he did with w c W. The
<v Speaker 3>Vader push staying was really strong and strengthened considerably under
<v Speaker 3>his under his pen the rise of like Cactus and stuff,
<v Speaker 3>and a lot of the guys that would go on
<v Speaker 3>to be big money players in WWF blossomed under him.
<v Speaker 3>But he did have a lot of other things that
<v Speaker 3>held back, you know, the development of light heavyweight division.
<v Speaker 3>He basically killed that dead essentially. Yeah, he congealed the
<v Speaker 3>nw A title again. The big gold starts like becoming
<v Speaker 3>like a belt that like chono was wearing and nothing,
<v Speaker 3>but it was very confused messaging like yeah, one cares
<v Speaker 3>about Japan, dude, Like as far as like, what's going
<v Speaker 3>to turn WCW around at the time, right right, A
<v Speaker 3>Moodover's chono match in w CW. Is not it at
<v Speaker 3>that particular point in time?
<v Speaker 4>No, not at all.
<v Speaker 3>So a lot of that stuff's happening.
<v Speaker 5>You know.
<v Speaker 3>Of course, he's spitting tobacco juice on the floor in
<v Speaker 3>the offices, and you know, he wants you to know
<v Speaker 3>he's a cowboy or whatever the fuck, and that he
<v Speaker 3>used to be a shooter, blah blah blah.
<v Speaker 4>Fucking he likes taking his cowboy boots off and and
<v Speaker 4>and and like jamming the spurs into into turner executives heads.
<v Speaker 3>Well, it's it's true as well. And he may just
<v Speaker 3>have a he might just be part of a multi
<v Speaker 3>level marketing scheme where if you buy this fucking protein
<v Speaker 3>powder from him, you'll get ten boxes for your garage too,
<v Speaker 3>and if you're for a friend, you might get a
<v Speaker 3>cash payout. But that's the thing, you know, and the
<v Speaker 3>carny cowboy and if you kill a guy who who cheats.
<v Speaker 3>Who cheats Bill Watts, you get a one hundred thousand
<v Speaker 3>dollars that's called a bounty. That's called basically, you know,
<v Speaker 3>ahead paid execution. Thankfully, that's not illegal in this fine country.
<v Speaker 3>That's at least one bastion of freedom has been protected there.
<v Speaker 3>We go by our courts, and that's the ability to
<v Speaker 3>have someone fucking murdered so for a price, right, So yeah, Bill,
<v Speaker 3>Bill's gone. Another great thing he did was bring back Flair.
<v Speaker 3>We can't give the credit to Bischoff, even though by
<v Speaker 3>the time Flair came in, Bischoff was in control for
<v Speaker 3>Rick Flair's return. It was it was Bill Watts who
<v Speaker 3>stayed on Flair, who was in Flair's ear as he
<v Speaker 3>was kind of cooling on being with WWF, and as
<v Speaker 3>Flair has always said, Vince gave him the signal that
<v Speaker 3>you know, from here on, we're just going to define
<v Speaker 3>you down a bit. We're going to use you more
<v Speaker 3>in the mid card, work with the younger guys to
<v Speaker 3>establish them. I understand that's not the sort of pretense
<v Speaker 3>of the deal that we struck when you came in,
<v Speaker 3>and I always said, if you were everyone happy more
<v Speaker 3>than glad to give you your release, and Vince followed
<v Speaker 3>three threw on that when Flair was like, yeah, I'm
<v Speaker 3>not really not really into that. You know this after
<v Speaker 3>getting fucked up against Warrior and that ill fated a
<v Speaker 3>late nineteen ninety two title reign that he had ye
<v Speaker 3>and then doing this series with Scott Hall, and so
<v Speaker 3>that that became clear to Rick at least that it
<v Speaker 3>was time to go. But it was the fact that
<v Speaker 3>that that Bill Watts was in constant communication with him
<v Speaker 3>and that you know, Watts had credibility with Rick that
<v Speaker 3>Rick felt, you know, the glide path was clear that
<v Speaker 3>I can go and go straight to w W, which
<v Speaker 3>he did. So he loses to Kurt Hennig on that
<v Speaker 3>January nine ninety three raw in the retirement match, and
<v Speaker 3>then he's here starting to doing promos. Are on February,
<v Speaker 3>which is when Bischoff gets the job, and one of
<v Speaker 3>the things that happens is that Bischoff basically sees Jim
<v Speaker 3>Ross out because Jim Ross was of course Bill Watts's
<v Speaker 3>deputy forever right going back to Mid South, and so
<v Speaker 3>it was a very awkward fit when the guy that
<v Speaker 3>Jim who basically was like a boss at WCW because
<v Speaker 3>of the power of being proximate to Bill wattson getting
<v Speaker 3>you know, assignments from Bill Watts. It was kind of
<v Speaker 3>awkward that suddenly, like now Bischoff is the boss of
<v Speaker 3>the guy who he was just the boss of, right
<v Speaker 3>m you know, because Jim kind of handled all the
<v Speaker 3>announcing talent. Bischoff famously was you know, a sea level
<v Speaker 3>stickholder backstage and did some of the very very minor shows,
<v Speaker 3>and all is sudden, he's your boss. Like Bischoffs, I
<v Speaker 3>thought that wasn't going to work. He also didn't give
<v Speaker 3>it a chant. I didn't want to give it a
<v Speaker 3>chance to work, you know how he thinks. And so
<v Speaker 3>it's like, instead of firing him, let's give him a
<v Speaker 3>job that we know. Let let's propose he take a
<v Speaker 3>job that's off air that's an indignity to him, which
<v Speaker 3>is like syndicated television or something. And so he quits
<v Speaker 3>and it goes to WWF and he does so on
<v Speaker 3>huff and he starts a radio show about wrestling in
<v Speaker 3>Atlanta that he's in control of, but the w CW
<v Speaker 3>had finance and get off the ground, and he uses
<v Speaker 3>those airwaves to bring Vince McMahon on to announce that
<v Speaker 3>he assigned with WWF get the fuck out of here
<v Speaker 3>and promote wrestle MAINI on a radio show that was
<v Speaker 3>in Atlanta. The WCW basically played no small part in founding.
<v Speaker 4>Oh that is tremendous. I had no idea about that.
<v Speaker 3>Jim is this. Jim is a smart motherfucker man.
<v Speaker 4>Oh and he and as we know too, he is
<v Speaker 4>he always keeps the barrel loaded.
<v Speaker 3>I think that's accurate, right, He keeps the bottle sauced
<v Speaker 3>as well. So he goes over there wrestling NY nine.
<v Speaker 3>You know how that goes with Jim. But this is
<v Speaker 3>just sort of, like, you know, exhibit A of some
<v Speaker 3>of the changes that are starting to happen under Eric Bischoff.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, Jim had been there since the Crockett purchase,
<v Speaker 3>you know, so, or the purchase from Crockett by Ted Turner,
<v Speaker 3>and it had a significant role. He was he was
<v Speaker 3>a close He seemed to be pretty close with Jim Hurd.
<v Speaker 3>You know, they seemed to be if drinking buddies is
<v Speaker 3>an appropriate way to put it. But they didn't hate
<v Speaker 3>each other, and they associated with each other outside of
<v Speaker 3>the four walls of w w's offices and arenas and
<v Speaker 3>so all of a sudden he's out. So yeah, there's
<v Speaker 3>a lot of disorientation. Dusty's back after, you know, kind
<v Speaker 3>of seeing his power reduced under Watts. I mean, Watts
<v Speaker 3>gave him responsibilities, but it was kind of like, h
<v Speaker 3>it was really the king here. And Olie starts sniffing
<v Speaker 3>around again. Oli and Sid were close, so Oli the
<v Speaker 3>Sid comes in again, that's all he's doing. And then
<v Speaker 3>Sid brings in Harlem Heat. Remember that from Art of
<v Speaker 3>War Games.
<v Speaker 4>Uh huh?
<v Speaker 3>Ninety three is the rival of Harlem Heat.
<v Speaker 4>That's crazy.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yep.
<v Speaker 4>So it's kind of crazy because you don't only think
<v Speaker 4>about it happening, you know, it's wacky. That are all
<v Speaker 4>kind of when you when you put them into perspective,
<v Speaker 4>how how so much happens And it's it's still I
<v Speaker 4>don't know how to describe it per se, but it's
<v Speaker 4>it's it's weird how any year can have these important.
<v Speaker 3>Like debuts. Yeah, yeah, you look back, you're like the
<v Speaker 3>Harlem Heat was always in WCW. Yeah, it's like they
<v Speaker 3>wonn W until Bill Watts was gone. They weren't w W.
<v Speaker 3>To Jake Roberts was gone for WCW. It's like, yep,
<v Speaker 3>now there's a beginning for these guys that you kind
<v Speaker 3>of don't don't always remember in a crystal clear way.
<v Speaker 3>So the way it was structured was Bishoff as executive producer.
<v Speaker 3>Now that was the promotion he got. Is now responsible
<v Speaker 3>for supervising all of the television functions of w CW,
<v Speaker 3>you know, shooting the shows, directing the production staff, how
<v Speaker 3>it's going to be lit, how it's going to sound
<v Speaker 3>and look on television graphics in arena design, and strategies
<v Speaker 3>around where and how to shoot television, which of course
<v Speaker 3>led to his idea of shooting thirteen shows at a
<v Speaker 3>time at Disney Worldwide, at Worldwide at Disney MGM Institute. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>so he's got that responsibility, he's got that remit, but
<v Speaker 3>he doesn't have any responsibilities for booking. He's really just
<v Speaker 3>taking what Dusty Rhodes is coming up with and only
<v Speaker 3>Innerson in sort of an interchangeable way, it seems like,
<v Speaker 3>depending on what the program was, and just implementing that.
<v Speaker 3>So it's not like he's saying, push this guy, I
<v Speaker 3>think this guy deserves a shot. Give this guy this gimmick.
<v Speaker 3>He's just taking whatever Dusty delivers his direction and tries
<v Speaker 3>to make it look good on television. And a big
<v Speaker 3>part of what he considered his command was to make
<v Speaker 3>ww look like something national advertisers would want to advertise against,
<v Speaker 3>which in his mind, you know, means a you don't
<v Speaker 3>turn the house life down on the audience like Bill
<v Speaker 3>Watts used to do to hide semi empty arenas. I'm
<v Speaker 3>sure Bill would say he did it because that's how
<v Speaker 3>wrestling was lit his.
<v Speaker 4>Whole life, exactly exactly.
<v Speaker 3>It also has the the funny strang fringe benefit of
<v Speaker 3>hiding the fact that no one's coming to your shows,
<v Speaker 3>which was an issue for him. So Bischoff wants to
<v Speaker 3>light the house, but he wants to like the house.
<v Speaker 3>They're trying to be anybody there that's going to be,
<v Speaker 3>you know, a shitty experience, but nobody's gonna want to
<v Speaker 3>advertise in his mind, against a show that looks like this.
<v Speaker 3>So that's where it comes up with the idea of
<v Speaker 3>you know, Disney, because you got all the part goers
<v Speaker 3>coming in for free and they're animated. They could give
<v Speaker 3>a shit less about pro wrestling, but at least you know,
<v Speaker 3>they're there and the building's full, right, so he starts yep,
<v Speaker 3>so he starts producing this to you know, we always
<v Speaker 3>say like Bischoff's all about like the TV touches and
<v Speaker 3>the TV and he's all he's obsessed with the announcers
<v Speaker 3>and everything. It's because those are the people he had responsibility,
<v Speaker 3>he had any ability to influence. You know what happened.
<v Speaker 3>He couldn't really hire wrestlers because he didn't get There's
<v Speaker 3>two promotions for Bischoff. The second one he becomes executive
<v Speaker 3>vice president and executive producer. When he gets both jobs,
<v Speaker 3>that's when he starts getting hiring and firing responsibility. Hmm,
<v Speaker 3>beyond just who's working in production. So but he does have,
<v Speaker 3>you know, by virtue of being being in control of
<v Speaker 3>how the TV looks and flows, he does have influence
<v Speaker 3>over the announcers. So that's why Jim is shipped at all,
<v Speaker 3>and he likes Jesse. Venturist keeps him around. Jesse's in
<v Speaker 3>rare for him in this episode.
<v Speaker 4>But say im right, I am. Hey, you know, I'm
<v Speaker 4>not a third party. I'm not a third party commentator.
<v Speaker 4>I'm the front runner. Oh absolutely, he's the front runner.
<v Speaker 4>He just came he just showed up at raw Did
<v Speaker 4>you see that? I did, I did see that. Oh
<v Speaker 4>I didn't see what happened. I just saw I've seen
<v Speaker 4>the It's I don't know what's he supposed to be there.
<v Speaker 3>For, and it's it's unfolding as we're talking. But as
<v Speaker 3>I put on X, I think he's really trying to
<v Speaker 3>just influence his chances in the tlf X games.
<v Speaker 4>I you know what, I wouldn't I wouldn't put it
<v Speaker 4>past him.
<v Speaker 3>So Jesse's still here. This is before Jess see curiously
<v Speaker 3>starts falling asleep at the desk, just as Hogan's coming in.
<v Speaker 3>Those two things are completely unrelated. Shirley Hogan had no,
<v Speaker 3>no strong suggestion that Jesse needs to be gone for
<v Speaker 3>him to come in. Those two things are coincidental. But
<v Speaker 3>Jesse's there, Tony.
<v Speaker 4>I have no hard feelings towards Hull Cogan.
<v Speaker 3>What's that?
<v Speaker 4>Because you know I have no hard feelings towards Hull
<v Speaker 4>Cogan because you know what, I got my union?
<v Speaker 3>Oh, I guess Jesse went back to WW by the
<v Speaker 3>way I went back, is Vince out of the picture, Paul.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, you know what, I don't want to be associated
<v Speaker 4>with men who denied my union.
<v Speaker 3>My union suggestions, Jess would be happy to support your union.
<v Speaker 3>Say what now, says Rock from the back of it,
<v Speaker 3>or says our Emmanuel.
<v Speaker 6>Whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa.
<v Speaker 3>Ari, He's like, did you just fucking agrief to a
<v Speaker 3>union here? No, I just wanted Jesse to show up.
<v Speaker 3>It'll be another It'll be another jewel in my crown
<v Speaker 3>that I can bring back like brutal and these guys
<v Speaker 3>events can go along with It's all.
<v Speaker 4>It's all about the jewel in the crown.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, Wrestling Operations is the unit that they call it.
<v Speaker 3>You see that in the credit role at the NWW
<v Speaker 3>shows Wrestling Operations assistant to mister Runnels. You know Janie
<v Speaker 3>Engel and Jody Hamilton and Dusty Rhodes and Oly Anderson.
<v Speaker 3>Those are the bookers. Those are the people that are
<v Speaker 3>involved in deciding who does what in the wrestling ring.
<v Speaker 3>Eric does make the move to hire script writers for
<v Speaker 3>the first time at WCW. Really yeah, and what the
<v Speaker 3>script writers chiefly are responsible for, to hear him tell it,
<v Speaker 3>is not to script out what the wrestlers are going
<v Speaker 3>to say in their promos or add certain flavor to
<v Speaker 3>the promos, but more to help Dusty be able to
<v Speaker 3>format thirteen weeks of television at a time, Oh my god,
<v Speaker 3>because Dusty would famously just you know, write things on
<v Speaker 3>napkins or whatever, legal pads and just shorthand he wasn't
<v Speaker 3>much for formatting things in a way that everybody could
<v Speaker 3>pick up a sheet of paper and know what they
<v Speaker 3>were doing, right as far as the cameraman and the
<v Speaker 3>truck and the talent, yep never great about putting it
<v Speaker 3>down on paper. Always needed someone to do that for him.
<v Speaker 3>So that was an initiative that the Bishoff undertook, was
<v Speaker 3>to doutfit WCW with people that could take everything that
<v Speaker 3>Dusty planned on and envisioned and put it on paper.
<v Speaker 3>The production could actually coalesce around and announcers too, because
<v Speaker 3>they needed more direction than they were getting. All too
<v Speaker 3>often it was like chaotic at the last minute, like
<v Speaker 3>you put a match out there with no no ability
<v Speaker 3>to communicate, you know, like here's going to be a
<v Speaker 3>big spot. You want to catch this, you know, because
<v Speaker 3>in wrestling, if you don't tell the cameraman, like if
<v Speaker 3>they don't get that beat, you know, they'll miss all
<v Speaker 3>the big spots, It'll easily happen. They'll be focused on
<v Speaker 3>something he has nothing to do with what's coming next,
<v Speaker 3>and then a dive happens and you don't even see it.
<v Speaker 3>Aww where while they did have some in house cameramen
<v Speaker 3>that worked for them specifically, they often would have a
<v Speaker 3>crew of Turner cameramen who worked for Turner Sports and
<v Speaker 3>who would do you know, the fucking what do you
<v Speaker 3>call them? The Goodwill Games one week and then right
<v Speaker 3>the Clash of the Champions the next week. These guys
<v Speaker 3>don't know how to shoot wrestling. They don't know the
<v Speaker 3>spots the wrestlers are setting up and where they need
<v Speaker 3>to be and all that. So that became an important
<v Speaker 3>thing that Bischoff tried to correct for. And yeah, he
<v Speaker 3>just felt WW had two bunch of a regional feel
<v Speaker 3>to appeal to national advertisers and also felt that in
<v Speaker 3>addition to it not having a healthy dynamic with him
<v Speaker 3>and JR, Bischoff also had a problem that, in his words,
<v Speaker 3>JR had a bad attitude and it was miserable all
<v Speaker 3>the time, which I just I'd love to hear that,
<v Speaker 3>you know, I love it him. Come on, I can't,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if I believe that at all. Jim
<v Speaker 3>just so pissed off when it comes to the office. Well,
<v Speaker 3>you know, I mean, I'll be doing good if it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't for you know, he'd say things like that in
<v Speaker 3>the elevator. You know, yep, Jim, how are you doing
<v Speaker 3>this morning?
<v Speaker 9>Oh?
<v Speaker 3>You know, I'll be doing a lot better if that,
<v Speaker 3>you know, if there wasn't a uh, you know, a
<v Speaker 3>sixteen stop loop on on the on the House show
<v Speaker 3>tour this week, and if I did, if my if
<v Speaker 3>my ex wasn't breathing down my neck about child support
<v Speaker 3>and Jim, Jim, I have to Jim, I gotta go.
<v Speaker 4>I'm telling you what's going on.
<v Speaker 3>I'm cutting Catherine o hairstyle. Yeah, but well I'm sorry
<v Speaker 3>I did.
<v Speaker 9>So.
<v Speaker 4>Come on, god damn it, fuck fuck.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's not the office culture Bushoff is looking to build.
<v Speaker 3>Come on, god damn it.
<v Speaker 4>Fuck fuck. Hey I like that sound. Come on, goddamn
<v Speaker 4>it fuck fuck, yes, yes.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, hate me in the middle. So it's this is
<v Speaker 3>all to say, it's very hard to get our bearings
<v Speaker 3>in this time in WCW because every month there's a
<v Speaker 3>new regime, you know, Yeah, such a chore. Even Bischoff
<v Speaker 3>on the podcast was like, I don't remember when I
<v Speaker 3>got the job, Like he doesn't remember what month it
<v Speaker 3>was in nineteen ninety three. So what's great about a book?
<v Speaker 3>I would highly recommend anybody who's interested in Brian Pillman,
<v Speaker 3>Crazy Like a Fox. The definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman
<v Speaker 3>by Liam O'Rourke is that he masterfully went through like
<v Speaker 3>all these little iterations at WCW and yeah, didn't fail
<v Speaker 3>to note like, don't forget well, this is what happened
<v Speaker 3>with Brian Pillman on television. Here's the context at the
<v Speaker 3>backstage at the time. And Pillman happened to be like
<v Speaker 3>a lightning rod because he was one of those contracts
<v Speaker 3>that Bill Watts came in that that Kept Fry had
<v Speaker 3>signed and took a look at and s like, Nope, you're.
<v Speaker 4>Making way too much money.
<v Speaker 3>No way, wow, So we're gonna take a pay cut,
<v Speaker 3>and you know, no, I'll be the high Pillman famously
<v Speaker 3>told Bill Watts, I'll be the highest paid job or
<v Speaker 3>in the business. I'm fine with that, but I'm not
<v Speaker 3>right taking less money. My guarantee contract says I would
<v Speaker 3>Because they had big plans of building around him as
<v Speaker 3>like you know, junior heavweight superstar and the face of
<v Speaker 3>the whole division and everything with that athletic pedigree and
<v Speaker 3>the blonde hair and all that flying Brian so so
<v Speaker 3>that that causes a showdown with Bill, and so it
<v Speaker 3>makes sense that we don't really see anything of consequence
<v Speaker 3>from Pillman in WCW until Bill's gone and suddenly the
<v Speaker 3>Hollywood Blondes is on the rails. But uh, in this book,
<v Speaker 3>O'Rourke takes us through each little step that gets us
<v Speaker 3>to Austin and Pilman in the ring mainnoventing a Clash
<v Speaker 3>of the Champions in June of nineteen ninety three, Feeling
<v Speaker 3>that Pillman was too small to get a heat on
<v Speaker 3>his own, Wats had the idea to put Brian in
<v Speaker 3>a tag team. The person originally marked to be his
<v Speaker 3>partner was take a guest, Boss, you have three guests.
<v Speaker 4>Be Pillman's part Let's see here, zenk.
<v Speaker 3>Nope, nopem.
<v Speaker 4>What what what is this? Ninety two ninety three? Two? Okay,
<v Speaker 4>justin Rhodes Nope.
<v Speaker 3>Think of the nature of the tag team that he
<v Speaker 3>had in Stampede Bad Company with he Bruce, is he
<v Speaker 3>gonna have Bruce Hart, No, it take you to Stampede.
<v Speaker 3>The person originally irmarked to be his partner was Chris
<v Speaker 3>Benwah Wow, think.
<v Speaker 4>About that team. That would have been pretty intense who had.
<v Speaker 3>Won a number of people over. Rourke notes back at
<v Speaker 3>Clash of the Champions nineteen, ben Wa was actually on
<v Speaker 3>a clash and was getting rave reviews for his work
<v Speaker 3>everywhere he went. Ben Wa was schttled to come into
<v Speaker 3>the end of September, but his debut was pushed back
<v Speaker 3>due to his new Japan commitments. As a potential solution,
<v Speaker 3>an idea was kicked around for Pilman to form a
<v Speaker 3>team with Stunning Steve Austin under the management of poly Dangerously.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, the team was put together under Watts. It
<v Speaker 3>wasn't his first choice and second of all, it wasn't
<v Speaker 3>I don't think pushed anywhere. I don't think it was
<v Speaker 3>on track to go where it went. Maybe I'm wrong,
<v Speaker 3>but I don't think it was on track to go
<v Speaker 3>to a clash made event. It was like just slapped
<v Speaker 3>together because he didn't know what to do with Pilm,
<v Speaker 3>because he didn't want to push Pilman as a single Basically,
<v Speaker 3>Austin would come to w W nineteen ninety one. Was
<v Speaker 3>a sensational talent with an incredible engine between the ropes
<v Speaker 3>after the demise of the Dangerous Alliance. Remember this is
<v Speaker 3>a Steve Austin who's kind of like a man without
<v Speaker 3>a home post Dangerous Alliance. Yep, yep, because I mean
<v Speaker 3>we've talked about it. Art of War Games ninet ninety two,
<v Speaker 3>Wrestle War Wargames match. How did you see Steve in
<v Speaker 3>the Dangerous Alliance? Was he showing Was it a role
<v Speaker 3>that allowed him to show that spark or when you
<v Speaker 3>think it's dunning Steve, it's non Dangerous Alliance stuff.
<v Speaker 4>I think so. I think that's where it started. I
<v Speaker 4>think whenever he got his haircut, when you know, after
<v Speaker 4>it was so long and just gross, and then he
<v Speaker 4>got his haircut, I mean ninety two, late ninety one,
<v Speaker 4>early ninety two, Steve Austin is when he kind of
<v Speaker 4>really mattered, started to matter.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, absolutely so this era, for sure, Austin was at
<v Speaker 3>a c crossroads of his own, but his potential upside
<v Speaker 3>was obvious, having not been sacrificed in a way many
<v Speaker 3>of his counterparts had been by negligent booking. The option
<v Speaker 3>to elevate him was very much available. Talk started to
<v Speaker 3>circulate that Austin would be paired with Harley Race, who
<v Speaker 3>was also managing Top Heel Big Van Vader at the time,
<v Speaker 3>be given a run of the United States title and
<v Speaker 3>groomed to be the next top heel Top Heel.
<v Speaker 4>Wow Wow.
<v Speaker 3>Suddenly that plan was history and Steve was being put
<v Speaker 3>in a tag team. So again, you can't lose sight
<v Speaker 3>of the fact, and we'll talk more about Steve's perspective
<v Speaker 3>from his book and other sources here in a moment
<v Speaker 3>that this is not a welcome development for Steve Austin.
<v Speaker 4>This is emotion I do remember that being a thing
<v Speaker 4>where he was not happy about. Right about beam been
<v Speaker 4>a tag.
<v Speaker 3>Team relative to his expectations of where he was going.
<v Speaker 3>Austin went to Dusty and Watts to see what it changed.
<v Speaker 3>Dusty spoke of the need for a new heel tandem,
<v Speaker 3>which didn't appeal to Steve's singles aspirations in the slightest.
<v Speaker 3>Austin was forthcoming with his feelings that the move was
<v Speaker 3>undercutting his potential, that he was being screwed with and
<v Speaker 3>wasn't happy. Rhodes explained that at the very least, the
<v Speaker 3>duo would be needed as a short term fix. On
<v Speaker 3>that basis, Austin agreed to team with Pillman, but was
<v Speaker 3>unyielding in his objections to forming a regular combination, thinking
<v Speaker 3>it was a lateral move at best. The fallout of
<v Speaker 3>Brian's show down with Watts was fresh in everybody's mind,
<v Speaker 3>and being paired with Pillman could have meant bad things
<v Speaker 3>for Austin by association. Besides, Brian wasn't the only one
<v Speaker 3>in the proposed unit that was currently in the doghouse.
<v Speaker 3>Much like Pilman. Polly Dangerously There's some serendipity for you
<v Speaker 3>from last week's episode was immediately in the Cowboys crosshairs.
<v Speaker 3>Dude negotiating his own big money contract kept fry before
<v Speaker 3>Watts arrived. Yeah, kept fry as inconsequential as his regime was.
<v Speaker 3>He put his John Hancock on some big fucking contract.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, he definitely thought big contracts was part of
<v Speaker 3>what would fix WCW. Hayman had signed a two year
<v Speaker 3>contract approaching two hundred and fifty grand per year, registered
<v Speaker 3>as an employee rather than an independent contractor like the
<v Speaker 3>rest of the talent. In his first week's in the job.
<v Speaker 3>Whenever Watts would encounter Hayman, Bill would flippantly remark, you
<v Speaker 3>make too much money for a manager.
<v Speaker 4>Wow.
<v Speaker 3>And Eric Watts talked about when he came in ECW
<v Speaker 3>how unlikely people thought it was because everyone assumed there
<v Speaker 3>was heat between Hayman and Watts, and there was a
<v Speaker 3>story in the Observer about how Hayman, like Watts like
<v Speaker 3>drummed up this thing. I'm not saying it isn't true,
<v Speaker 3>but like he was like not not trying to fight
<v Speaker 3>at getting out. I think it's a safe assumption that
<v Speaker 3>Hayman was like gimmicking his expense receipts and collecting more
<v Speaker 3>than he should have on audio expenses. Yeah, it was
<v Speaker 3>a big scandal. And Hayman left in a huff on
<v Speaker 3>that whole deal too, And Watt said that, you know, Hayman,
<v Speaker 3>he said, I thought you were gonna be mad at
<v Speaker 3>me because I'm surprised you you wanted me here, because
<v Speaker 3>I thought you'd be mad at me because of the
<v Speaker 3>receipts thing with my dad and saying you know about that.
<v Speaker 3>Paul was later told he'd need to renegotiate the figure
<v Speaker 3>or face being completely phased down and eventually out. Like Pillman,
<v Speaker 3>Paul stuck to the deal that was already in paper
<v Speaker 3>wats kept his promise, breaking up the Dangerous Alliance, feuding
<v Speaker 3>him with Medusa, and taking him almost completely off television.
<v Speaker 3>Before long, he was gone from WCW. A loss. Working
<v Speaker 3>with Brian wasn't to be just yet. Austin and Pillman
<v Speaker 3>randomly appeared on television.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Also forget this is where Pillman's making the connections with
<v Speaker 3>these guys, so that Austin and Pillman ended up stopping
<v Speaker 3>at ECW before going to the FED. Austin and Pillman
<v Speaker 3>randomly appeared on television as a tandem challenged the WWTAG
<v Speaker 3>champions Dustin Roads and Berry Wyndham to a future match.
<v Speaker 3>Brian and Steve were merely bystanders to the story of
<v Speaker 3>a Wyndham heel turn with dust and accepting the challenge
<v Speaker 3>without consulting Wyndham first, creating on air tension between the two. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>if Berry's getting pushed, Dusty has the book. Yep, that's
<v Speaker 3>the fun thing. You always have to remember. Pillman went
<v Speaker 3>his own way for a singles match with Ricky Steamboat
<v Speaker 3>at Halloween Havoc, and what was easily the best match
<v Speaker 3>on the show. I think we've we did Halloween Havock
<v Speaker 3>ninety two. Yeah, yeah, way back. I remember Pilman and Steamboat.
<v Speaker 3>The event, while a surprising financial success due to the
<v Speaker 3>build up to a match putting Sting against Jake Roberts,
<v Speaker 3>was an artistic disaster, and to say Pilman and Steamboat
<v Speaker 3>stole the show would simply be petty theft at pest.
<v Speaker 3>The good bye rate for Halloweenaviock was clearly an anomaly
<v Speaker 3>as well. Business was so bad that when WW went
<v Speaker 3>back to the Cincinnati Gardens on October twenty third, they
<v Speaker 3>drew under nine hundred people in a ten thousand, five
<v Speaker 3>hundred seed arena.
<v Speaker 4>Oh Jesus, even.
<v Speaker 3>With large ads and local papers and sending Pilman to
<v Speaker 3>a couple of local radio interviews with the heel team
<v Speaker 3>badly needed, and with ben wa still uphammering out contract
<v Speaker 3>issues still held up. With those issues and visa issues
<v Speaker 3>as well, Shane Douglass turning down the spot and Austin
<v Speaker 3>so strongly rejecting the idea Pillman was paired with Wyndham
<v Speaker 3>for a short time. That's right, I forgot about that.
<v Speaker 3>Barry Wyndham and Brian Pillman for a short period of
<v Speaker 3>time to go opposite the new champions, Ricky Steamboat in
<v Speaker 3>Shane Douglas. Meanwhile, Austin was totally absent from the November
<v Speaker 3>Clash of the Champions in Starcade and was very audibly
<v Speaker 3>displeased with his position. How about that he doesn't have
<v Speaker 3>a spot on the clash like six months before this.
<v Speaker 3>That's ridiculous putting himself at a rescue. Even further, on
<v Speaker 3>a house show in Greensboro, North Carolina, on December thirteenth,
<v Speaker 3>Austin refused to lose to the son of the Cowboy,
<v Speaker 3>Eric Watts. Eric had received an outrageously strong push out
<v Speaker 3>of the gate, beating the likes of Bobby Eaton and
<v Speaker 3>Arn Anderson with his STF finisher, to the obvious displeasure
<v Speaker 3>of the diehard fans. Though nobody had anything bad to
<v Speaker 3>say about Eric from a personal perspective, the transparent nature
<v Speaker 3>of his success bred a growing resentment and wrestlers and
<v Speaker 3>viewers alike. Austin took a stand, hoping it would lead
<v Speaker 3>to Dusty and Build taking his concerns seriously.
<v Speaker 4>It worked to a degree.
<v Speaker 3>The following warning at the television tapings Austin met with
<v Speaker 3>Watson Rhodes to discuss what happened the night before into
<v Speaker 3>event about what he felt was a lack of interest
<v Speaker 3>in using him in a prominent way. The United States
<v Speaker 3>title push he was originally promised for nineteen ninety three
<v Speaker 3>was scrapped. Now, we remarked for Rhodes's son, Dustin. Mmmmm,
<v Speaker 3>I mean, come on, folks, well, I see I see
<v Speaker 3>things in Dustin, baby.
<v Speaker 4>You you I see a tag team and you Steve
<v Speaker 4>what I feed baby?
<v Speaker 3>Do you see a tag team in me?
<v Speaker 4>Son?
<v Speaker 3>Because I got one scrapped that your son's.
<v Speaker 4>But let me tell you that, daddy, what I see
<v Speaker 4>I feel. I feel it's just an incredible, unparalleled potential. Daddy.
<v Speaker 4>If I'm saying, Bebey Sleeve Austin, Daddy, what I'm saying,
<v Speaker 4>if you get down that baby with my boy Duftin,
<v Speaker 4>you show him, you rub off on each other, Daddy,
<v Speaker 4>you get it exactly what's going, baby, and you take
<v Speaker 4>care of business and then you eat fanwiches after it's
<v Speaker 4>all over and done with. You know what I'm saying, baby,
<v Speaker 4>if you.
<v Speaker 3>Get exactly what's going I think he said so, Yeah, clearly,
<v Speaker 3>Steve Austin's shift out of a US tigh run in
<v Speaker 3>a top heel spot with Harley as his manager to
<v Speaker 3>being in a fucking tag team had nothing to do
<v Speaker 3>with Dustin being next in line for the US strap.
<v Speaker 3>What with Austin turning down the pairing with Pilman, he'd
<v Speaker 3>effectively removed himself from the picture. Rhodes again began to
<v Speaker 3>sell the team with Brian to Austin, and, sensing that
<v Speaker 3>if nothing else, it would put him back in the
<v Speaker 3>game since there were no alternatives on the tag front,
<v Speaker 3>Austin agreed to it that night. Pilman and Austin tape
<v Speaker 3>matches to air in the new year to wrap up
<v Speaker 3>the team with Wyndham. Pillman tagged with him one last
<v Speaker 3>time against Steamboat in Douglas Hot match at Starcade at
<v Speaker 3>the end of nineteen ninety two mm HMM, with plans
<v Speaker 3>for Windham to move up the card. A backstage segment
<v Speaker 3>was taped for television where Barry introduced Pillman and Austin
<v Speaker 3>as a full time team. As the two men spoke
<v Speaker 3>in the segment about creating an unbeatable machine, it was
<v Speaker 3>easy to think that the new WW tandem would be
<v Speaker 3>the latest in ww's assembly line pairings, destined to be
<v Speaker 3>used and discarded to make way for the next one.
<v Speaker 3>Everything about the combination felt utterly make shift on first impression.
<v Speaker 3>It wouldn't take long for that to change. That's exactly
<v Speaker 3>what we were just talking about.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>He gets this opening and he's going to make it work.
<v Speaker 3>He can't not make it work exactly. That's what makes them,
<v Speaker 3>That's what makes them so incredible, really, is that he
<v Speaker 3>is just able to adapt and to see opportunities in
<v Speaker 3>dog shit, in things that he would obviously not volunteer
<v Speaker 3>to do, but is stuff doing right. With little depth
<v Speaker 3>in the tag ranks, the first major match was right
<v Speaker 3>around the corner, as Pilman and Austin squared off against
<v Speaker 3>the champions Steamboat in Douglas the Clash of the Champions
<v Speaker 3>on January thirteenth, nineteen ninety three. The pre taped matches
<v Speaker 3>spot lighting the new team were starting to air, and
<v Speaker 3>their respective work ethics and drive to succeed made the
<v Speaker 3>combination intriguing. It was the contest at the clash, however,
<v Speaker 3>that revealed that the Throne Together duo was more than
<v Speaker 3>just the sum of its parts and getting to work
<v Speaker 3>with the premier performer. Like Steamboat in Hungary, Shane Douglass
<v Speaker 3>was almost idyllic for the new tag team's inception, with
<v Speaker 3>little to no build. It's a stunning Stephen flying Bryan
<v Speaker 3>as contenders. The crowd was almost cold to the encounter.
<v Speaker 3>Early on, there were hard work of frenetic pace and
<v Speaker 3>some clever spots. The crowd got progressively louder and by
<v Speaker 3>the end we're biting hard on the final near fall,
<v Speaker 3>gasping as Douglas saved the titles with the last second
<v Speaker 3>kickout there it is there's Austin doing it again. Yep,
<v Speaker 3>taking them. You know you want to be indifferent to
<v Speaker 3>the guy, but he's not going to stand for that.
<v Speaker 3>With the design of the match being to begin the
<v Speaker 3>series rather than end it, it broke down in a disqualification,
<v Speaker 3>finished with Austin blasting Douglas with the title belt and
<v Speaker 3>busting him open. Pilman came off the second rope with
<v Speaker 3>another belt shot to the bleeding face of Douglas, later
<v Speaker 3>whipping Steamboat with it when he covered his Defensele's partner.
<v Speaker 3>The shots to the legendary Dragon earned Brian a tongue
<v Speaker 3>lashing backstage with steamboat, feeling Brian was more careless than
<v Speaker 3>he needed to be, Pilman apologizing he got caught up
<v Speaker 3>in the moment, and understandably so. The bout had offered
<v Speaker 3>a glimpse at the world of potential that a series
<v Speaker 3>between the two teams boasted, and Brian was excited at
<v Speaker 3>the possibilities here. Shane Douglas quoted in the book, the
<v Speaker 3>one thing that struck me with them would sit almost immediately.
<v Speaker 3>They had a chemistry that sometimes takes time to forge
<v Speaker 3>when you first get put together in a tag team,
<v Speaker 3>there's a learning curve for you each to learn each
<v Speaker 3>other's mannerisms and timing. With Brian and Steve, its a
<v Speaker 3>matter of days, maybe a week. You could tell very
<v Speaker 3>quickly with both guys that their chemistry was tight. For
<v Speaker 3>the next few weeks, Pilman and Austin wrote together to
<v Speaker 3>the shows, and their personal chemistry blossomed almost as quickly
<v Speaker 3>as the orderings synergy. Brian knew there was a spark
<v Speaker 3>and wanted to devote himself entirely to making the new
<v Speaker 3>project work. As soon as they were told that they
<v Speaker 3>were going to put together, Brian's mind was just tag team,
<v Speaker 3>tag team, all he was coming up with was ideas
<v Speaker 3>for the team recalls Steve Meltzer, who of course was
<v Speaker 3>in regular contact with Brian Pillman throughout his entire career.
<v Speaker 3>Sure he wanted to watch tapes of Pat Patterson and
<v Speaker 3>Ray Stevens. Unfortunately there were no tapes around, but he
<v Speaker 3>had heard about them and how good they were as
<v Speaker 3>the Blonde Bombers.
<v Speaker 4>Hmmmmmmmm.
<v Speaker 3>On the road, Brian and Austin talked incessantly. See this
<v Speaker 3>is this is the kind of stuff that makes the difference.
<v Speaker 3>These these are the moments, the in between.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>On the road, Brian and Austin talked incessantly about how
<v Speaker 3>to refine the act and what they could do to
<v Speaker 3>turn the provisional plan into a top level big money pairing.
<v Speaker 3>They honed their skills. Let's say we get I mean,
<v Speaker 3>like you're you're coming up with ideas, You're you're trading
<v Speaker 3>things back and forth, like you're you're not just sitting
<v Speaker 3>back and like waiting for for fucking you know, bookers
<v Speaker 3>to come and tell you, hand you something that sparks,
<v Speaker 3>exactly like they are are they are taking the ball
<v Speaker 3>and they are running the fuck with it. Yep, They're
<v Speaker 3>like fucking phenomenal. It's the way. It's the way wrestling
<v Speaker 3>always ends up being. No matter how good the booker is,
<v Speaker 3>no one's ever going to be more incentivized to find
<v Speaker 3>a way to get over than the talent themselves. Which
<v Speaker 3>is why, whatever possible, in my opinion, you should give
<v Speaker 3>the talent like ninety percent leeway in their creative It
<v Speaker 3>gets difficult when it comes time to you know, lose,
<v Speaker 3>but well.
<v Speaker 4>I mean at least like in terms of getting themselves
<v Speaker 4>set up the present. Let them figure it out, you know,
<v Speaker 4>and if it doesn't work, then you then you fucking
<v Speaker 4>fix it, you know. And that's what honestly, that's what
<v Speaker 4>NXT should be. I don't know if it is or not,
<v Speaker 4>but that's what NXT should be. Is you get you
<v Speaker 4>You basically you give them the freedom to come up
<v Speaker 4>with whatever they want, and then you go back and
<v Speaker 4>you tweak what works and what doesn't work.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that would be nice. I think it's more like,
<v Speaker 3>here's what we see for you, and right exactly, they
<v Speaker 3>pretend it came from your mind because they interviewed you
<v Speaker 3>about oh it used to be a skater, huh, like,
<v Speaker 3>or they latch onto some Coventry.
<v Speaker 4>So I understand that you like to Uh so, so
<v Speaker 4>you like to I understand you like to cook. Yes,
<v Speaker 4>all right, well then I think really what makes perfect
<v Speaker 4>sense is you should be uh the the the bombastic
<v Speaker 4>chef at your character.
<v Speaker 3>No, you don't like that. How about Ben the Baker,
<v Speaker 3>the bombastic chef.
<v Speaker 4>How about well all right, how about Bagel.
<v Speaker 3>God, damn bagel Man, any other Bill Watt's nicknames for
<v Speaker 3>Paula Hayman. There on your list, and.
<v Speaker 4>You can be managed by schmear Man.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, schmear Man, road warrior by Yeah that
<v Speaker 3>works too, mister schmer Bagelman. And I don't know why
<v Speaker 3>they didn't give us the book. Frankly, it's better than
<v Speaker 3>goddamn candy man Jim Hurd's idea. Oh fuck yes. So
<v Speaker 3>again they're on the road talking. They hone their skills
<v Speaker 3>at the live events throughout January and February. This is like,
<v Speaker 3>this gives you an idea of how compressed this timeframe is.
<v Speaker 3>This is the year they face Flare and arn. This
<v Speaker 3>stuff is just congealing and fucking the winter of that year.
<v Speaker 3>They're figuring this out. That's how quickly they put themselves
<v Speaker 3>in position if you think about it, opposing Steamboat in
<v Speaker 3>Douglas and almost every show both the enthusias and that's
<v Speaker 3>another thing, like there is no substitute for finding your
<v Speaker 3>groove and getting over than working veterans every night without
<v Speaker 3>the cameras there about every night. I don't literally mean
<v Speaker 3>every night, but every night there's there's a show. Sure, Sure,
<v Speaker 3>And you'ren't tell me that Austin bumping son of a
<v Speaker 3>bitch that he is didn't learn how to like really
<v Speaker 3>do that to perfection working with Steamboat for like three
<v Speaker 3>straight months every night, and that's what's missing.
<v Speaker 4>Now.
<v Speaker 3>They don't have that. These NXT kids don't get those
<v Speaker 3>reps against people that are that much better than them.
<v Speaker 10>You know.
<v Speaker 3>They sometimes will kind of cycle someone in, and that's
<v Speaker 3>good for everybody, but it's not anywhere near the same
<v Speaker 3>where you don't have the pressure of being on television
<v Speaker 3>and you can actually fuck up, and you can actually
<v Speaker 3>focus on learning instead of focus on not screwing up,
<v Speaker 3>you know what I mean?
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>Both the enthusiasm for the feud and pride in their
<v Speaker 3>craft is perhaps best exemplified in a story Rickey Steamboat
<v Speaker 3>told years later. A part of Friday night house show
<v Speaker 3>at high school in North Georgia. The Blonds are scheduled
<v Speaker 3>against steam Boat and Douglas in the final match of
<v Speaker 3>the sold out show. In the middle of the event,
<v Speaker 3>an unexpected blizzard hit the area, and by the time
<v Speaker 3>the premium event in animission came it was looking dangerously
<v Speaker 3>like everybody would be snowed in. WW hate the call
<v Speaker 3>to notify the fans about the ongoing storm during the break,
<v Speaker 3>but neglected to tell the wrestlers. As the two teams
<v Speaker 3>took the ring for the main event after intermission, they
<v Speaker 3>were floored to see less than twenty people sitting in
<v Speaker 3>the stands. The four men stood in total con fusion
<v Speaker 3>until the referee smartened them up, alerting them that the
<v Speaker 3>entire crowd had left afraid they'd have trouble getting home
<v Speaker 3>in the treacherous conditions, all except for the families that
<v Speaker 3>lived across the street who decided to stay regardless the two.
<v Speaker 3>By the way, Okay, if you've ever lived in a
<v Speaker 3>snowy climate, there are a few more joyous things then
<v Speaker 3>being in the fortunate position of, despite a snow that
<v Speaker 3>brings traffic and transportation to a halt, being able to
<v Speaker 3>walk to an amenity, being able to walk in the
<v Speaker 3>snow to a store, or to a restaurant or to
<v Speaker 3>a wrestling show. Yep, that's like fucking because you can
<v Speaker 3>actually not let the snow completely cripple your psychology of
<v Speaker 3>enjoying the day. Oh yeah, you actually have this little
<v Speaker 3>like oasis that suddenly is formed. Yes, so a high
<v Speaker 3>recommendation that if you do move to a snowy climate,
<v Speaker 3>try to to to the degree possible, locate within walking
<v Speaker 3>distance of some amenities, and suddenly you find yourself in
<v Speaker 3>welcoming the snow like you did when you were a kid. Again,
<v Speaker 3>that of dreading the fucking the fact that you can't
<v Speaker 3>get to groceries in under three hours, all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 3>all except for the families that lived across the street,
<v Speaker 3>you decided to stay. Regardless, the two teams still wrestled
<v Speaker 3>hard for forty minutes in front of the minuscule crowd,
<v Speaker 3>determined to post for a great show and enjoy themselves.
<v Speaker 4>That's right.
<v Speaker 3>A televised rematch to the clash encounter took place at
<v Speaker 3>the end of January eight. The storyline request of the champions,
<v Speaker 3>a non title encounter built as a grudge match. This
<v Speaker 3>time it was Austin and Pillman coming out on top
<v Speaker 3>and another exciting effort. Jesse Venturo was quickly becoming a
<v Speaker 3>vocal supporter of the team on commentary, something he'd only
<v Speaker 3>do when he personally enjoyed watching it. He'lacked flourish. That's important.
<v Speaker 4>You know.
<v Speaker 3>You got Jesse like singing the praises of Pilman and Austin.
<v Speaker 3>It's fantastic. Yeah, he has a way of making you
<v Speaker 3>feel like, Okay, these guys, these guys have passed a
<v Speaker 3>certain test, and Jesse isn't treating them dismissively.
<v Speaker 4>I'll tell you something, These guys are exactly right here.
<v Speaker 4>These are third party wrestlers. If you ask me, yeah, you.
<v Speaker 3>Got stolen cold. I saw a lot in this guy
<v Speaker 3>before anybody else did. In w S, I was their
<v Speaker 3>ringside when he was out there just developing who we
<v Speaker 3>had become.
<v Speaker 4>You know, he kept calling himself stunning Steve Austin, Well,
<v Speaker 4>he certainly stunned me night after night in the WCW.
<v Speaker 3>Thanks.
<v Speaker 5>Yes.
<v Speaker 3>The quality of the series was paying off, as the
<v Speaker 3>houses for cards headlined by the tag match were well
<v Speaker 3>above the monthly average for the company. We all followed
<v Speaker 3>Ricky's lead reflex. Shane Douglas when asked about the construction
<v Speaker 3>of the matches, the thing I loved about working with
<v Speaker 3>Ricky was that he wanted input from all three of us.
<v Speaker 3>We would all have ideas and typically Brian, Steve and
<v Speaker 3>I would talk. Ricky had the sort of ritual he did.
<v Speaker 4>I love this.
<v Speaker 3>He'd get a cup of coffee, then he'd sort of
<v Speaker 3>meander around the dressing room and walk around the hallways
<v Speaker 3>of the building. Then after twenty to thirty minutes, he'd
<v Speaker 3>come over and talk about him. Oh my god, what
<v Speaker 3>a fucking Ricky with a cup of coffee. His little
<v Speaker 3>routine like I'm an adult, I'm having a cup of coffee. First, guys,
<v Speaker 3>please sit out, sit out and talk about your phony match. Please.
<v Speaker 4>Why don't you fucking script out your match, you dumble
<v Speaker 4>fuck You.
<v Speaker 3>Gotta read the Wall Street Journal too?
<v Speaker 4>First? All right, Jesus Christ is what is the fucking
<v Speaker 4>coffee going to determine exactly how you how you wrestle
<v Speaker 4>that night in your fake fight, fucking bonehead.
<v Speaker 3>I love how we get mad about that. That was
<v Speaker 3>something I didn't have my coffee first? What's that I
<v Speaker 3>could have my coffee first. No, I can't talk about it. Oh, guys,
<v Speaker 3>just you know, I mean, it's just a thing I
<v Speaker 3>go through. It's part of my ritually I work. I
<v Speaker 3>work better when I have coffee on around, like making
<v Speaker 3>small talk with like those styrofoam white cups that have
<v Speaker 3>like the ridged outside. You know, it's for some reason,
<v Speaker 3>there's like a raised circle around the cup. It's steaming,
<v Speaker 3>but it's shitty coffee. Man, it is not good coffee. Hey,
<v Speaker 3>you guys doing Oh no, rick please, the condensation on
<v Speaker 3>his nose and lips.
<v Speaker 4>I think it was the crew members. You know, he's
<v Speaker 4>not even talking to wrestlers there. You know.
<v Speaker 3>You know I felt when w StEB closed where I
<v Speaker 3>really felt bad for those guys with families. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>they had been there, that was their job. They were
<v Speaker 3>there for twenty years. They were my friends. Guys doing
<v Speaker 3>tonight after the show, you guys hanging out, Well, I
<v Speaker 3>think we're going to go to Macaroni Grill again, Ricky,
<v Speaker 3>I'm digging that.
<v Speaker 4>I love about invitation.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, I'm digging that.
<v Speaker 4>M hmm. I don't know. I don't know what I'm
<v Speaker 4>gonna do.
<v Speaker 3>Probably have another Sanka. You know, Oh nobody asked you, Rick,
<v Speaker 3>trust me, I'm talking through you, not to you.
<v Speaker 4>We'll just go go back Burger.
<v Speaker 3>In the room, he's got his tights on, his boots,
<v Speaker 3>but a T shirt on. So he's like, I'm ready,
<v Speaker 3>but isn't taking the shirt off? Tucked into his tights.
<v Speaker 4>Fucking just a plain white T shirt too, It's like
<v Speaker 4>there's nothing on it, just a plain old white T shirt.
<v Speaker 4>And he's walking around with a cup of coffee and.
<v Speaker 3>He asks Jackie Crockett how his daughter is doing. I
<v Speaker 3>just couldn't you got any pictures? I got this one
<v Speaker 3>in my wallet. Rocky looking at her, is she is
<v Speaker 3>she varsity yet?
<v Speaker 4>Or she just working JV?
<v Speaker 3>I think, look, I think there's something there. I think
<v Speaker 3>there may be a T shirt of a silhouette of
<v Speaker 3>rookie with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand,
<v Speaker 3>and like like a like a a noir lighting, you
<v Speaker 3>know exactly. You see like the brick of a of
<v Speaker 3>a backstage arena.
<v Speaker 4>In this underneath? What's going on?
<v Speaker 3>What's going on after the show? Boys?
<v Speaker 4>Guys hanging out, best friends?
<v Speaker 3>Does this fan get good gas mileage?
<v Speaker 4>Hey, here's your car? Full drive? Bro, what.
<v Speaker 3>Eric Steamboat's got to go? Dude? He asked me if
<v Speaker 3>my car is four wheel drive today? And what the
<v Speaker 3>fuck is that? What kind of coded language is that?
<v Speaker 4>Dude? All well, all wheel drive? Brother? What why if
<v Speaker 4>you weren't asking questions?
<v Speaker 10>Brother?
<v Speaker 4>Exactly? And I'm not even in a company, dude, what's
<v Speaker 4>going on?
<v Speaker 10>Brother?
<v Speaker 4>What you ask me about my car?
<v Speaker 3>He can model?
<v Speaker 4>Dude?
<v Speaker 9>What what?
<v Speaker 3>I didn't say anything?
<v Speaker 4>Terry.
<v Speaker 3>When the three of us would fire out an idea,
<v Speaker 3>he didn't just automatically go with it. He would say, well,
<v Speaker 3>that won't work because this is Ricky. Of course, he's
<v Speaker 3>got to be in control exactly, and he'd explain the
<v Speaker 3>psychology and the reasoning. Then he'd say, what if we
<v Speaker 3>work that in here? Instead? You nailed it what it
<v Speaker 3>needs to be the one that authored what.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I don't think it's gonna work, because guys,
<v Speaker 4>I like what you're saying, but it's, you know, here's
<v Speaker 4>the problem. The idea is right, you know, but psychologically speaking,
<v Speaker 4>if you think about the beats of the match and
<v Speaker 4>and kind of where we're going in terms of the
<v Speaker 4>highs and the lows, and it's just I don't think
<v Speaker 4>it's gonna work. However, if we did it over here.
<v Speaker 3>It's a it's a hell of a Dale sign. That's
<v Speaker 3>a hell of an insight. I really appreciate your your
<v Speaker 3>tutelage and shit, yeah, no problem seeing Hey, look, I'm
<v Speaker 3>all about making us better. Oh my god. I mean
<v Speaker 3>every other podcast jokes about the wrestlers doing drugs and
<v Speaker 3>drinking alcohol. We're like almost more disturbed by the straight
<v Speaker 3>laced guy's drinking coffee. That's actually creasy. And it's more
<v Speaker 3>it's more absurd, right, it's more absurd.
<v Speaker 4>You know.
<v Speaker 3>One thing I didn't tuck into the Living Dangerously episode
<v Speaker 3>was like Danny Doring talking about when he came back
<v Speaker 3>to the w W ZCW on Sci Fi and he's
<v Speaker 3>in the lock group. He's like, what the fuck is this?
<v Speaker 3>Saboo's reading the Wall Street Journal, Oh my good. Sandman's like,
<v Speaker 3>you know, doing a cross puzzle. Anytime you saw these
<v Speaker 3>guys in E c W the needles hanging.
<v Speaker 4>Out of their arms, Saldmon's wearing he's also wearing a
<v Speaker 4>smoking jacket and he's got a cigarette holder. You know,
<v Speaker 4>he's like, fucking uh Ian fleming, Danny Dora, I'm picturing
<v Speaker 4>his face. That's getting on today.
<v Speaker 3>As I pointed out that cameo, there was a bat
<v Speaker 3>in the cave. If you're gonna do a cameo where
<v Speaker 3>you point the the fucking uh phone.
<v Speaker 4>If you do the wrestling pose, that is, that's how
<v Speaker 4>all wrestlers do it, you know, unreal.
<v Speaker 3>Well, the three of us have fired an idea. Okay, yes,
<v Speaker 3>I say, what if we work that in here instead?
<v Speaker 3>That's why all three of us like working with Rickey
<v Speaker 3>so much. He's a fountain of knowledge, of course, but
<v Speaker 3>he was also very accommodating to all three of us.
<v Speaker 3>It would have been very easy for Ricky to say, hey, guys,
<v Speaker 3>follow me. But Steamboat was the one, lone, top tier
<v Speaker 3>guy who was willing to have that openness with other
<v Speaker 3>guys to have input with momentum building. Pillman was desperate
<v Speaker 3>for the team to have a name and a look,
<v Speaker 3>recalling his prior experience co creating a bad company in Stampede.
<v Speaker 3>As Brian and Steve would spit ball different ideas for
<v Speaker 3>finishing moves, jackets, tights, and whatever else came to mind.
<v Speaker 3>Scotty Flamingo this is Raven who regularly rode with them,
<v Speaker 3>would offer a suggestion of his own. Austin, originally from Medna, Texas,
<v Speaker 3>was always built in ww's being from Hollywood, California, without
<v Speaker 3>ever committing all the way to a Tentaltown themed based theme.
<v Speaker 3>Stunning Steve would have sport a jacket the red lights
<v Speaker 3>camera action, and it was suggested to go further in
<v Speaker 3>that direction. I don't remember that he had a lights
<v Speaker 3>camera action jacket before the Blondes. I don't remember that either.
<v Speaker 3>Interesting Flamingo Rose the name the Hollywood Blonds used by
<v Speaker 3>Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts in nineteen seventy when they
<v Speaker 3>teamed up an NWA tri State managed by Sir Oliver Humperdink. Well,
<v Speaker 3>that's a way to Dusty's heart. Anything that had anything
<v Speaker 3>to do with Hump He's going to go for. I
<v Speaker 3>always liked that name, recalls Raven. I just thought that
<v Speaker 3>was a cool name, and they just ran with it.
<v Speaker 3>The mod fuck off. I'm sure Raven came up with it.
<v Speaker 4>I'm sure he did. Piece of shit.
<v Speaker 3>Moniker had been copied a couple of times after that,
<v Speaker 3>but never with the type of prominence or national stage
<v Speaker 3>that Pilman and Austin had to work on and Brian
<v Speaker 3>liked it. Steve and I literally built the Hollywood Blonde
<v Speaker 3>from scratch. Brian would later tell Powerslam magazine. We'd drive
<v Speaker 3>up and down the highways thinking of what the gimmick
<v Speaker 3>should be, what our interview should be. You know, we
<v Speaker 3>came up with everything, and that's why we were so
<v Speaker 3>proud of it. That's kind of a shame as I realized,
<v Speaker 3>like Pillman, he didn't survive long enough to do shoot interviews.
<v Speaker 3>I know, right and lean into that. He would have
<v Speaker 3>been masterful at those. Ah, he would have been so good.
<v Speaker 3>We've been like eight hours long. But it's good to
<v Speaker 3>know he got kind of an opportunity to talk about
<v Speaker 3>you know, WCW there in Power Slam, which was a
<v Speaker 3>cool magazine. I used to get it delivered. It was
<v Speaker 3>out of the UK and it was like a shoot
<v Speaker 3>style magazine before Wow came out. Okay, very cool. Though
<v Speaker 3>Looston was very smart and strong minded, especially for his
<v Speaker 3>level experience, it is fair to say that Brian was
<v Speaker 3>the leader of the team, to the point that Steve
<v Speaker 3>himself would later call Brian the guiding force of the unit.
<v Speaker 3>Pillman convinced the thrifty Austin to cough up for new boots,
<v Speaker 3>tights and jackets to give the combination of a distinct look,
<v Speaker 3>and proposed they both wear matching gold chains around their
<v Speaker 3>neck in interviews. Yeah, relative to like Brian me and
<v Speaker 3>the Guiding Force. I mean, it was it is not
<v Speaker 3>It is not insignificant that Steve Austin has only ever
<v Speaker 3>done Dark Side of the Ring once and that was
<v Speaker 3>for the Pilman episode MM where he actually, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the crew came to is the bar, you know that
<v Speaker 3>bar setup he has to shoot his own show. Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and had him out to the ranch, I suppose. And
<v Speaker 3>that's how much you know, you can talk Steve into
<v Speaker 3>kind of crossing enemy lines. But you know what I mean,
<v Speaker 3>he's he's all involved up to his knees and everything
<v Speaker 3>WW documentary, right and talk show and stuff. So that's
<v Speaker 3>really significant. The promos themselves went from standard heal antagonism
<v Speaker 3>to a more enjoyable sarcasm latent cockiness that really stood
<v Speaker 3>out on the otherwise sterile television show. Regularly referring to
<v Speaker 3>themselves as the Team of the nineties and the Big
<v Speaker 3>Blonde Machine, Steve and Brian organically bounced off each other. Yes,
<v Speaker 3>the Big Blonde machine came cane with a wig. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's a fucking blonde cane. I want you to picture
<v Speaker 3>his whole outfit. Yep, all the red, swap it out
<v Speaker 3>with yellow. Oh god, what a sight.
<v Speaker 4>Huhugh.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like one of those yellow apples, you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's like what am I looking at? At first, Austin
<v Speaker 3>would thoughtfully rub his jawn line or hold his head
<v Speaker 3>high as Pilman spouted off at the mouth. I can
<v Speaker 3>picture it. Yes, Austin would gain like almost intellectual in
<v Speaker 3>these promos, you know, yes, yes, looking off into this
<v Speaker 3>into the distance. Before long, their real life comedic senses
<v Speaker 3>bled over and they'd be increasingly ambitious behind the microphone.
<v Speaker 3>The thing that people don't remember is that Brian was
<v Speaker 3>the personality of that team at Steve Meltzer. Steve had
<v Speaker 3>not yet come to grips with his personality. Obviously later
<v Speaker 3>he did, but I think Brian from a personality standpoint,
<v Speaker 3>made the team as the unit was beginning to evolve.
<v Speaker 3>WCWS ent er going. Yet another change in leadership is
<v Speaker 3>Cowboy Bill Watts officially resigned from his position on Fevery tenth,
<v Speaker 3>nineteen ninety three. Big wig and all time baseball great
<v Speaker 3>Hank Aaron had made a cameo for WCW back at
<v Speaker 3>star Ka nineteen ninety two, prompting Mark Madden to fax
<v Speaker 3>Aaron some racially insensitive comments Watts had made in the
<v Speaker 3>Torch the prior year. The Cowboy had his fill at
<v Speaker 3>the Corporate Environment in TBS and was happy to go
<v Speaker 3>when asked to leave. To say, the office employees and
<v Speaker 3>wrestlers were glad to see the back of Wats.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I love that they're always happy to leave
<v Speaker 4>when they when they fucking get called out.
<v Speaker 9>You know what.
<v Speaker 4>Fine, I didn't want to be here in ay. I
<v Speaker 4>was tired of shit for you him. It's just not
<v Speaker 4>my sin. I was a week from Quinton, you know,
<v Speaker 4>I was right. I hour to put my notice in.
<v Speaker 4>So fuck you.
<v Speaker 3>Eat fucking dick Cheese. Who's that See's not the accountant? No,
<v Speaker 3>I stick Cheatham. Sorry. Any enthusiasm for Bill leaving his
<v Speaker 3>post was tempered by the news that Ole Anderson would
<v Speaker 3>be his replacement. Even more out of leftfield was for
<v Speaker 3>Eric Bischoff, an unproven third string announcer at the time
<v Speaker 3>until land the new position of executive producer of WCW
<v Speaker 3>Television which would turn out to be the most prominent
<v Speaker 3>spot of all. At least, the new regime would reap
<v Speaker 3>the benefits of Watts's last big move but before his resignation,
<v Speaker 3>lowering Ric Flair back to the promotion. Setting aside the
<v Speaker 3>anarchy behind the scenes, WCW produced a fantastic pay per
<v Speaker 3>view a few days later, Super Bowl three on February
<v Speaker 3>twenty first following up in their progress as a duo,
<v Speaker 3>Pilman and Austin were given a win over Eric Watts,
<v Speaker 3>who was quickly moved down the card, and Marcus Bagwell
<v Speaker 3>to build them towards another match with the champions. But
<v Speaker 3>the matches pitting Brian and Steve against Douglas and Steamboat
<v Speaker 3>having let up house shows and the new Heel team
<v Speaker 3>having caught on, the decision was made to go all
<v Speaker 3>the way with them on worldwide. Pilman and Austin pleaded
<v Speaker 3>for one final match for the titles build as their
<v Speaker 3>last opportunity at the Belts. The match, taped on March third,
<v Speaker 3>was the best of all the televised encounters. After Douglas
<v Speaker 3>and Steamboat took the early advantage, the Heels turned the
<v Speaker 3>tables with a trick They developed with the house shows
<v Speaker 3>that had gotten some serious heat. As Austin kicked out
<v Speaker 3>of an O'Connor roll sending Sheen under the ropes. Brian
<v Speaker 3>was waiting with their new trademark, the Terrible Towel, which
<v Speaker 3>he wrapped around the throat of Douglas as the crowd
<v Speaker 3>came on glued After several close escapes, it brought the
<v Speaker 3>audience louder and louder. Douglas finally tagged in the Dragon,
<v Speaker 3>who delivered a classic comeback after his finishing crossbody block
<v Speaker 3>from the top rope on Pilmins. The Steamboat made the cover,
<v Speaker 3>moving out of the way the last second so that
<v Speaker 3>Austin's tarporo bildo meant for Pilman, meant for him hit Pilman.
<v Speaker 3>The crowd exploded as Brian kicked out on two. The
<v Speaker 3>action continued as the referee moved Douglas back into his corner,
<v Speaker 3>allowing Austin to hit Steamboat with one of the title belts.
<v Speaker 3>Pillhan made the cover and WCW Boss had new tag
<v Speaker 3>team champions Wow were on the board and that just
<v Speaker 3>reminds me like the pilmanizing of the ankle. Brian went
<v Speaker 3>on to help Steve become stone cold as well. Yep,
<v Speaker 3>that's right, he did so massive wearing the chain was
<v Speaker 3>Steve at the time MM that he started wearing with
<v Speaker 3>Brian Pillman on the Hollywood Blonds. It was a moral
<v Speaker 3>victory for Brian, who had been fighting to maintain prominence
<v Speaker 3>for almost two years through bad booking, neglect, and the
<v Speaker 3>encounter with Watts. The next day of the television tapings,
<v Speaker 3>the team was officially christened the Hollywood Blonds, finally after
<v Speaker 3>being given a half big idea as a tag team.
<v Speaker 3>The collective efforts of all four men had breathed new
<v Speaker 3>life into this and created a hot commodity that WCW
<v Speaker 3>could bank on for years to come. At this important
<v Speaker 3>point in Brian's career, his real life saw some drastic
<v Speaker 3>changes too, and typically theatrical fashion. Brian had seen a
<v Speaker 3>picture and Penthouse magazine of a stripper named Melanie Lawrence
<v Speaker 3>and vowed to irs that he was going to find her.
<v Speaker 3>No one called the cops, however, I'm going to find
<v Speaker 3>her exactly why sayest woman, She's mine. As fate would
<v Speaker 3>have it, Lawrence was no stranger to the wrestling business
<v Speaker 3>and had dalliance's with a few individuals in the industry already.
<v Speaker 3>Most notable among them who who did Melanie Pillman date
<v Speaker 3>in the business before Brian Pilman.
<v Speaker 4>I have no clue.
<v Speaker 3>Ultimate Warrior, of course, Jamie Helwig, who had lived with
<v Speaker 3>Melanie in nineteen ninety before the combustible relationship fell apart,
<v Speaker 3>and he gets into Melanie being introduced to Brian through
<v Speaker 3>a mutual friend who is dating another wrestler. Pilman, of course,
<v Speaker 3>unfortunately was married at the time to a woman named Rochelle.
<v Speaker 3>But as Linda Pillman doesn't matter. Pillman's aunt calls, Melanie
<v Speaker 3>was pushing her way in and the woman she was
<v Speaker 3>pushing her way wasn't the type to stand up to.
<v Speaker 4>Her, and so was so was Pilman apparently too.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah right, he was pushing his exactly right. So, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>she's shipped out of luck because Brian is going to
<v Speaker 3>get the penthouse girl, and yeah he would be.
<v Speaker 9>You know.
<v Speaker 3>He was well known for like calling people when he
<v Speaker 3>was having sex, like calling Dave Meltzer while he was
<v Speaker 3>in the throws. The boys loved it, they loved his stories.
<v Speaker 3>Raven says. He was a showman. He was so popular.
<v Speaker 3>He was loved people were jealous of him. They wanted
<v Speaker 3>to be like him. I'm telling you, he was a showman.
<v Speaker 3>He would have been a great Pet Barnum womanizing he was.
<v Speaker 4>He's a wrestler.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no, exactly. It wasn't too far away. By January,
<v Speaker 3>not long after they'd met, Melanie become pregnant with Brian's child,
<v Speaker 3>and they married in a private ceremony on March seventeenth,
<v Speaker 3>nineteen ninety three. So all those huge events are happening
<v Speaker 3>at Pillman's life. Just as the blondes are becoming a
<v Speaker 3>thing that's crazy. His ex wife is his soon to
<v Speaker 3>be ex's falling by the wayside, Melanie's coming into the picture.
<v Speaker 3>They're about to have Brian Junior, who's now in the business. Unbelievable.
<v Speaker 3>Dave says, they got either got engaged or married way
<v Speaker 3>too quick. Nothing against what happened. I just know what
<v Speaker 3>a It was a real quick thing. It was like
<v Speaker 3>he was with Rochelle, his ex wife, and then all
<v Speaker 3>of a sudden he's married to Melanie. He is just
<v Speaker 3>like whoa okay, Austin, Okay, like Brian the new missus.
<v Speaker 3>Pillman brought two children from previous relationships. Alexis and Jesse
<v Speaker 3>into the marriage, conscious that he would be responsible to
<v Speaker 3>four children, with the fifth on the way. Brian began
<v Speaker 3>reading finance books, went on the road for WCW, looking
<v Speaker 3>for ways to invest wisely. Austin would drive, I'd sit
<v Speaker 3>in the passenger seat, and Pillman would be in the
<v Speaker 3>backseat reading his power vocabulary books.
<v Speaker 4>Remembers of Raven. I can't fucking handle that he was
<v Speaker 4>a reader.
<v Speaker 3>He was so enamored of intelligence, improving his intelligence.
<v Speaker 4>He was.
<v Speaker 3>I was either always reading power vocabulary books to improve
<v Speaker 3>his vocabulary, which he had a masterful vocabulary, or he
<v Speaker 3>was reading tax books and how to save money. Hey shit,
<v Speaker 3>you know Pilman and I go way back. Yeah, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>just wait. The three riding partners had developed the bond
<v Speaker 3>with their similar sense of humor, to the point they
<v Speaker 3>nicknamed themselves the comedy Trio. Pilman already had a reputation
<v Speaker 3>for being the king of the locker room promo, breaking
<v Speaker 3>up the wrestlers with sensational diatribes. Let's say somebody did
<v Speaker 3>something stupid, begins Raven. He would cut three or four
<v Speaker 3>minute promos off the top of his head, obliterating whoever
<v Speaker 3>he was talking about but so funny and not necessarily mean.
<v Speaker 3>My favorite thing was he always dropped the F bomb,
<v Speaker 3>which he told me was his bridge, so it would
<v Speaker 3>be like you fucking, stupid, fucking and he put that
<v Speaker 3>in while he was compiling the promo in the back
<v Speaker 3>of his head. It's like when a wrestler goes, let
<v Speaker 3>me tell you something, that's them thinking of the next
<v Speaker 3>line they're going to say in a promo. But with Brian,
<v Speaker 3>it just made it funnier because it's such a funny word. Anyway,
<v Speaker 3>Austin and Pilman would go to watch movies together for
<v Speaker 3>looking for a bad joke, which was their cute to
<v Speaker 3>erupt and exaggerated uproarious laughter as everybody else in the
<v Speaker 3>theater sat in confused silence. Oh boy, don't you love
<v Speaker 3>those familiar That sounds a little familiar. As they took
<v Speaker 3>turns looking to one up each other, the laughter would
<v Speaker 3>grow so obnoxious and ludicrous that they would end up
<v Speaker 3>cracking for real. The appreciation for goofy humor saw the
<v Speaker 3>group to include uh, oh, Kevin Nash, Hey shit, you know, hey, hey, Brian,
<v Speaker 3>I heard you got some tax books back there.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I'm thinking about you know, kind of incorporate my uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, I'm thinking about, you know, incorporating and my
<v Speaker 4>business repertoire.
<v Speaker 3>I heard actually incorporate in Delaware. They have favorable tax
<v Speaker 3>treatment and favorable corporation regulation there. To include Kevin Nash,
<v Speaker 3>Tech Slazenger, Shanghai Peers, the Future Godwins again another part
<v Speaker 3>of the WWF machine, right, uh future machine, and we
<v Speaker 3>can't forget Mick Foley Hello and become a full blown
<v Speaker 3>comedy league. We would break down comedy to his essence.
<v Speaker 3>Sis Raymond just kept building and building. Then we decided
<v Speaker 3>we were going to have a heavyweight champion. We made
<v Speaker 3>Nash the champion, of course, but then we had to
<v Speaker 3>strip Himo the title because he didn't wait for us
<v Speaker 3>to go into the cobo arena or something. We had
<v Speaker 3>contenders for the title. It was just ridiculous. Anything occupy time, know.
<v Speaker 3>Stephen Bryan's Nason friendship led to the team becoming more
<v Speaker 3>creative on screen, Pilman again bringing a director's clapperboard to
<v Speaker 3>the bring, while Austin would sometimes wear a camera around
<v Speaker 3>his neck. Both with taunt opponents by moving their hands
<v Speaker 3>as if turning the handle on an old film camera.
<v Speaker 3>Pointing at their fallen foe. They routinely talked with giving
<v Speaker 3>their opponents a brush with greatness. That's funny.
<v Speaker 4>That was there a thing there? Yeah, that was there.
<v Speaker 4>That was the thing, right, that was a catchpraight.
<v Speaker 3>Rush with greatness yep ye, and stuck with using the
<v Speaker 3>towel as a gimmick in matches, to the point WCW
<v Speaker 3>even merchandised blonde towels to sell out the arenas. I've
<v Speaker 3>tried to find those. We'll be willing to pay a
<v Speaker 3>decent price for one of those if you have them.
<v Speaker 3>So impressive was their ability to feel like a complete
<v Speaker 3>act at the end of that At the end of
<v Speaker 3>the March, talk started to circulate that the tag Champs
<v Speaker 3>would soon be working with the returning Rick Flair and
<v Speaker 3>arn Anderson in a headline feud. We can't we can't
<v Speaker 3>miss this. We have to underline this. This is Rick's
<v Speaker 3>first match back in WCW. I don't think I ever
<v Speaker 3>realized that. Isn't that wild, It's insane. I mean, he's
<v Speaker 3>back in the sauce in like February, but the first
<v Speaker 3>time he wrestles after going events is this show against
<v Speaker 3>Steve Austin and Brian Pillman. This isn't to indicate that
<v Speaker 3>all was perfect in the world of Brian Pillman, or
<v Speaker 3>Rock writes, though the career was going as well as
<v Speaker 3>it had in some time, and he was enjoying married
<v Speaker 3>life with his new bride, Brian had a distressing scare
<v Speaker 3>in early nineteen ninety three. A trip to the doctor
<v Speaker 3>had flagged that Brian's fast lifestyle had love of partying
<v Speaker 3>was catching up to him in a major way. After
<v Speaker 3>full examination, the doctor diagnosed Brian as an alcoholic and
<v Speaker 3>warned that if he didn't stop drinking, he'd be dead
<v Speaker 3>within a few years. Hearing that with things going well elsewhere,
<v Speaker 3>Pilman went cold turkey on the booze, at least for
<v Speaker 3>a while. When he and Austin hung out at a bar,
<v Speaker 3>Steve would be the only one drinking. The matches with
<v Speaker 3>Douglas and Steamboat continued, with the two teams going to
<v Speaker 3>a forty five minute draw and the main event of
<v Speaker 3>the Lanna Omni in front of five thousand, two hundred
<v Speaker 3>that had to impress only put five thousand in the army.
<v Speaker 3>Oh you did, Oh shit, I can't use out against you.
<v Speaker 3>Oh fuck she'ld have done ten, I'd ha done ten.
<v Speaker 3>The rivalry still had legs, and the decision was made
<v Speaker 3>to prolong the series, this time with the baby Faces chasing.
<v Speaker 3>A new storyline was created, starting on an episode of
<v Speaker 3>Saturday Night, when Tony Shiavani conducted an interview with two
<v Speaker 3>suited men wearing Luca masks and sombreros. MM team was
<v Speaker 3>accompanied by an interpreter who explained that they were Los
<v Speaker 3>dos Ombres, who had come to America with only nineteen
<v Speaker 3>dollars in their pocket as opposed to seven, hoping to
<v Speaker 3>wrestle the Hollywood Blonds so that they could take a
<v Speaker 3>tape back to Mexico City and show they were worthy competitors.
<v Speaker 3>In the middle of the interview, Ricky stein But walked
<v Speaker 3>in and wished the new team the best of luck,
<v Speaker 3>but warned them not to trust the Blonds. Later, Pilman
<v Speaker 3>and Austin came out and took the microphone. It's a
<v Speaker 3>great day to be a Blonde, started Brian, who went
<v Speaker 3>on to announce the start of the Brush with Greatness
<v Speaker 3>tag team tournament. They vowed to take on unknown stars
<v Speaker 3>from the best federations around the world before Austin threw
<v Speaker 3>out a line foreshadowing upcoming events, saying someone once said
<v Speaker 3>to be the man, you have to beat the man,
<v Speaker 3>alluding to Rick Flair's famous phrase, Well, to be the team,
<v Speaker 3>you have to beat this team. So first shot fired,
<v Speaker 3>boss digging that, I'm digging that. Austin continued, giving some
<v Speaker 3>background in tonight's opponents. One of these wrestlers as a
<v Speaker 3>true moon salt off the top rope. That is crazy.
<v Speaker 3>He makes Jushin Liger look like he's moving in slow motion.
<v Speaker 3>The other, he said, was in demand all over Europe,
<v Speaker 3>in a big name of Japan. Then they introduced the
<v Speaker 3>illustrious duo Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker and Joe Cruz. Oh god,
<v Speaker 3>that's a funny gimmick, like to build up your partners
<v Speaker 3>as a big deal, and then these Jabbronis come out
<v Speaker 3>and everyone can see through you. After Pilman and Austin
<v Speaker 3>picked up the quick wind with their atomic Blonde finisher
<v Speaker 3>a double splash off the top rope, Tony Sievanni asked
<v Speaker 3>about dosambades and the challenge was accepted. By this point,
<v Speaker 3>the Blonds were eager to get in as much stick
<v Speaker 3>as they could with Brian saying, speaking of Mexico and Tijuana, Tony,
<v Speaker 3>I know you did a little recruiting of talent yourself
<v Speaker 3>down there, of the non wrestling variety, Tony of absolutely
<v Speaker 3>smashing in Tijuana absolutely as Shiavanni blushed and turned away
<v Speaker 3>Pilm and followed up with, Hey, don't sweat it. The
<v Speaker 3>charges were dropped. Weren't they tremendous? From a personality a
<v Speaker 3>personality perspective, Both men were really starting to come into
<v Speaker 3>their own I had never really found myself as an entertainer,
<v Speaker 3>Brian told Power Sland magazine. With the Blonds, I was
<v Speaker 3>finally able to do that. I really found myself as
<v Speaker 3>an entertainer, as a heel. Beyond that, the matches were
<v Speaker 3>red hot to boot. The same day, May eighth, were
<v Speaker 3>WCW Worldwide was headlined, but the Blonds wrestling too old.
<v Speaker 3>Scorpio and Marcus Alexander bagwell to a noteworthy time limit
<v Speaker 3>draw that tore down the municipal auditorium. The combination of
<v Speaker 3>old school cheating and dirty tactics with hot action sequences
<v Speaker 3>was paying dividends. The crowded a fever pitch as Scorpio
<v Speaker 3>tried to beat the Champions before the final bell, I
<v Speaker 3>thought the Hollywood Blondes, my god, they could have got
<v Speaker 3>over as a tag team in any territory, in any
<v Speaker 3>time periods. As Jim Cornett speaking to how well rounded
<v Speaker 3>the duo were, I was actually a fan of watching
<v Speaker 3>their shit. He even said in his podcast once that,
<v Speaker 3>like you know, after after he left WCW couldn't even
<v Speaker 3>watch the show. It just made him sick, but he
<v Speaker 3>would watch their stuff. He's running Smoky Mountain at the time.
<v Speaker 3>He would stop to watch the Blonds. The next day
<v Speaker 3>and made event. The champions squared off in a non
<v Speaker 3>title match with Dosumbrace clad in full body suits and
<v Speaker 3>doing a comedic hat dance. The new duo weren't taken
<v Speaker 3>too seriously as Pilman and Austin looked on, but bemused.
<v Speaker 3>The Blonds paid for their arrogance promptly losing every single exchange,
<v Speaker 3>growing more and more frustrated with their inability to get
<v Speaker 3>the advantage. After our slingshots splashed by the mass duo
<v Speaker 3>that looked remarkably familiar, Pillman rolled out of the rings
<v Speaker 3>screaming the obvious, that's Ricky steamboat in Shane Douglas Austin
<v Speaker 3>stood bewildered beside him, exclaiming that ain't no dose ombre.
<v Speaker 3>That's okay, that's a fucking shirt right there. That ain't
<v Speaker 3>no dose ombre.
<v Speaker 4>That ain't no dose ombre.
<v Speaker 3>Get a fucking uh sombrero on funny a sombrero with
<v Speaker 3>a skull on it.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>The preposterous story was played to the hilt as the
<v Speaker 3>match continued. Finally, after one Ombre did a pressed lamb
<v Speaker 3>and his partner dropping him on a Pilman, another trademark
<v Speaker 3>of the former champions, the Blondes bailed up the aisle,
<v Speaker 3>claiming the jig was up. Before they reached the curtain. However,
<v Speaker 3>Shane Douglas showed up casually dressed, setting the Blonds recoiling
<v Speaker 3>and disbelief. Austin and Pillman continued bumping for dose ombrees
<v Speaker 3>in the ring as the show ended, with Shivanni screaming
<v Speaker 3>that we were suddenly at a time it was a
<v Speaker 3>fun angle, with Steamboat and Brad Armstrong being the two
<v Speaker 3>men under the hoods. As it turned out, it wouldn't
<v Speaker 3>be the only time somebody would fill in for Douglas.
<v Speaker 3>It was later announced that the Blondes would wrestle Shane
<v Speaker 3>and Steamboats had a cage at Slammer before then, and
<v Speaker 3>this was so weird. All the television is pointing to
<v Speaker 3>Blonds versus Douglas and Steamboat in a continuation of the
<v Speaker 3>sapic tag feud, and the match with Flair and Anderson
<v Speaker 3>happens before Slamboree.
<v Speaker 4>Wow.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like this detour on the road to what
<v Speaker 3>they actually were involved in, but it's remembered way more
<v Speaker 3>than the actual program. In the pay per view program
<v Speaker 3>they were working at the time. Before then, Pilman and
<v Speaker 3>Austin would appear on Rick Flair's talk show called a
<v Speaker 3>Flair for the Gold the Gold yep. And this is
<v Speaker 3>where it starts. We know Flair for the Gold what
<v Speaker 3>it was.
<v Speaker 11>It was.
<v Speaker 3>It's a Dusty Rhodes vision where they built basically like
<v Speaker 3>a Johnny Carson esque talk show set for Rick Flair
<v Speaker 3>to hold court like he was a late night talk show. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>with arn Enderson and the Ed McMahon chair you know
<v Speaker 3>in the background there and Fifi the maid who would
<v Speaker 3>go on to be Rick's wife, Wendy Barlow kind of
<v Speaker 3>like for like, yeah, it was longer than most wives
<v Speaker 3>I think that could be wrong about that, but yeah,
<v Speaker 3>he's so Flair is just you know, he's a babyface.
<v Speaker 3>He's just having people on the show every week. Just
<v Speaker 3>because you sat with Flair and Flare for the gold
<v Speaker 3>didn't mean you were working a program or an angle
<v Speaker 3>with him. It was just a talk show segment like
<v Speaker 3>Piper's Pit and everything else. And it was a set
<v Speaker 3>that was kind of it's kind of yank because they
<v Speaker 3>needed a set that they could take on the road
<v Speaker 3>and like tear down and build back up because they
<v Speaker 3>would bring it to television tapings with them, exactly what
<v Speaker 3>Piper's Pit used to do. And so so it's not
<v Speaker 3>the best set, but memorable stuff happened. This is where
<v Speaker 3>Paul Roma right. This is the venue in which Paul
<v Speaker 3>Roma was wailed right, And this is also where shock
<v Speaker 3>Master happens on a flare for the gold that's right
<v Speaker 3>as he tries to burst through the wall. Oh my god,
<v Speaker 3>but here is the flare for the Golden question. This
<v Speaker 3>is the one where we realize that Steve Austin isn't
<v Speaker 3>just going to be making offhanded comments about the returning
<v Speaker 3>nature Boy, that they're actually headed on a collision course.
<v Speaker 3>These two tag teams and the full seed begins to
<v Speaker 3>sprout here on this flare for the gold.
<v Speaker 4>Has promised no.
<v Speaker 12>Team champions, flying run and stunning Steve Austin now Hollywood,
<v Speaker 12>fly to that wa all right, goodness.
<v Speaker 7>See you you.
<v Speaker 4>Good for all, good for your Unbella.
<v Speaker 6>I gotta do it.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, Hey, I can't tell you what thrill the death
<v Speaker 2>they have you on the show.
<v Speaker 4>You know, Brian, I'm knowing you five six years now. Brother,
<v Speaker 4>You're finally at the top of your game. Steve just
<v Speaker 4>caught you back in the last couple of months. But
<v Speaker 4>double A tells me you could be the man someday.
<v Speaker 8>Brother.
<v Speaker 4>You guys got the straps. Now you're the champs. Now
<v Speaker 4>you're on top.
<v Speaker 9>What do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Hunh that feels good to be on top, Rick.
<v Speaker 13>But before we get started, I just want to say
<v Speaker 13>that Brian and myself have been on sets.
<v Speaker 2>Everywhere and this is top nuts. This is the best
<v Speaker 2>I have seen you go. Well for yourself, old man.
<v Speaker 4>Here's a let's start.
<v Speaker 14>You've got at all what here's little stuff in You're like,
<v Speaker 14>I feel like I'm in a museum.
<v Speaker 2>You got some great antiques here, Rick, How much pay
<v Speaker 2>that O?
<v Speaker 15>State?
<v Speaker 2>You over there, Steve, that's Double A.
<v Speaker 14>Anyway, if you had a famous career, what was at
<v Speaker 14>six seven times world champion?
<v Speaker 3>Nine minutes?
<v Speaker 6>Uh yeah quick, Actus Jamian favorite.
<v Speaker 2>Can I get your autograph? Mind you, it's not for me.
<v Speaker 4>My great grandmother was a big fan of yours.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, man, you know, well for the thank you of
<v Speaker 9>a great grandmother and for the second people that grow old,
<v Speaker 9>you know, we all grow old.
<v Speaker 7>The great few of us get great.
<v Speaker 13>Right, hey, taking a great I was into history books
<v Speaker 13>this the other day, and I was looking back, way
<v Speaker 13>way back when you Rick and Double A.
<v Speaker 2>Were part of an elite organization. It was the Four
<v Speaker 2>Clovers though, the Four Horsebacks. Yeah, no, the four Horsemen.
<v Speaker 4>Oh you mean that famous backfield for me to day?
<v Speaker 9>Well, similar we did about the same thing for wrestling
<v Speaker 9>they did for Notre Dame. You know, we we blamed
<v Speaker 9>our own path right across the country. We dominated what.
<v Speaker 2>You dominated, Rick, But that was yesteryear. That's all in
<v Speaker 2>the past.
<v Speaker 13>The four point If the Four Horsemen were around today,
<v Speaker 13>they wouldn't stand a chair because the Hollywood Bronze are
<v Speaker 13>that team of the nineties.
<v Speaker 2>You're looking at it right here.
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, Well, let's you know what I can bring you
<v Speaker 9>out here to run you down or anything else I
<v Speaker 9>want to talk about. And I'm sure the folks out
<v Speaker 9>here want to talk about.
<v Speaker 4>Slambury ninety three.
<v Speaker 9>You got Shane Douglas, you got Ricky Steamboat, you got
<v Speaker 9>the steel case.
<v Speaker 4>You look at you guys, you ready for the match?
<v Speaker 14>Look correct, we've already given Steamboat in Douglas, who brush
<v Speaker 14>with greatness.
<v Speaker 2>Let's not lose sight of the fact.
<v Speaker 14>The real reason we're all a slamboury is thanks the
<v Speaker 14>generosity of Steve and myself, we're flying in all those
<v Speaker 14>has been washed up old timers.
<v Speaker 6>He's so called legends who were falling on hard times.
<v Speaker 6>And we're gonna bring a nice, hot, home cooked meal
<v Speaker 6>to him.
<v Speaker 14>And I get up believed your right here, man, Old
<v Speaker 14>double A might be first in line at that buffet
<v Speaker 14>because Tom says missed too many meals late.
<v Speaker 16>That's it.
<v Speaker 2>That's it, ay, brother.
<v Speaker 10>We wouldn't want to let this slide tonight.
<v Speaker 4>We've got a hot show going here.
<v Speaker 8>You guys.
<v Speaker 2>You know what, you got a number one thing.
<v Speaker 4>You're the guests on my shoulder.
<v Speaker 17>You're gonna stot say you're out of line and you're
<v Speaker 17>out of your league on this real pound neverthing work.
<v Speaker 2>This doesn't like Okay, you guys are the guests on
<v Speaker 2>my show. We're not gonna take this.
<v Speaker 6>You sit down, We'll forget the whole thing ever happened.
<v Speaker 2>Let's keep talking here. I gotta say hard, who are kidding?
<v Speaker 1>You?
<v Speaker 15>Guys are gonna be there too. You get together with
<v Speaker 15>the rest of your old kajers. Maybe after the mills
<v Speaker 15>to the lays and checkers. You have some raises make
<v Speaker 15>you sof the dentchers you guys can using.
<v Speaker 18>All the time?
<v Speaker 4>Is that right?
<v Speaker 2>Hut up? You got to come across pretty good man
<v Speaker 2>that we should talk about this the boy seriously, baby,
<v Speaker 2>I was you might have asked you real question, Rick.
<v Speaker 5>Maybe uh, before you blow that pastmaker, you tell her
<v Speaker 5>they are you ever gonna bring it out?
<v Speaker 19>Those with a more bottle trucks goose with the wool.
<v Speaker 3>On them and roll just.
<v Speaker 2>Man, know what I'm break him and get back in
<v Speaker 2>the RINGO. Can you cut the mustard?
<v Speaker 5>That right?
<v Speaker 7>Well?
<v Speaker 4>Maybe I can break your stuff out right now?
<v Speaker 6>Off get it what you're on toilet, come to top
<v Speaker 6>me begin.
<v Speaker 4>At the marshal.
<v Speaker 6>Jeez, I can't get this.
<v Speaker 3>I will take your invitation to go back to a
<v Speaker 3>time when we had music like that, I'll be fine
<v Speaker 3>with it. On the introest in the intros, how about
<v Speaker 3>that huh slowly getting out of the red skin. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>Rick trying to maintain like the posture of a gracious host.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, it's great to just kind of like how
<v Speaker 4>he uh, you know, it just slowly builds. It's it's
<v Speaker 4>really it's it's brilliantly done. It's really great that you know,
<v Speaker 4>they they're they're not going to back off, you know,
<v Speaker 4>right right. They just get their shots and they're gonna
<v Speaker 4>keep going until they get them hot. And then Arnt
<v Speaker 4>gets involved. And that's simple stuff. Man, Just call Rick
<v Speaker 4>Old over and over again. Yep, that's all you gotta do.
<v Speaker 3>And uh yeah, that was That was some of the
<v Speaker 3>strongest I think that's some of the strongest talk you'll
<v Speaker 3>see from Steve Boston before a stone cold I mean sure,
<v Speaker 3>if you don't count sort of some of the you know,
<v Speaker 3>the Dallas stuff with Chris Adams where he was allowed
<v Speaker 3>to go on and on, but that was really strong
<v Speaker 3>in terms of like you know, they were they were
<v Speaker 3>cutting promos, Erican promos for months in ww television before this,
<v Speaker 3>but to get in Rick Flair's face like that was
<v Speaker 3>really cool, so wild a rick return of the ring
<v Speaker 3>was impending, Oric writes in the Pilman Book, and the
<v Speaker 3>call was made for to take place against the Blondes,
<v Speaker 3>the Clash of the Champions, he writes, in July. It
<v Speaker 3>was in June. We'll forgive that following ratings for the
<v Speaker 3>TBS special worry concern and following ratings sort of the clash,
<v Speaker 3>he means. And it was felt that Rick Flair's first
<v Speaker 3>match in w W in two years with the hottest
<v Speaker 3>new heels in town no less was the answer. As
<v Speaker 3>the latest episode of the Hokey Talk Show began with
<v Speaker 3>arn Anderson and the Ed Mcmahonrollflair introduced the tag team
<v Speaker 3>and then he goes to everything we just heard and
<v Speaker 3>that was that. Watching the segment, Austin and Pillman felt
<v Speaker 3>like the future of the company, he writes, and held
<v Speaker 3>their own in an angle designed to move them towards
<v Speaker 3>the top of the promotion. Before the feud was to
<v Speaker 3>get underway, there was the issue of the cage match
<v Speaker 3>at Slamboree and a minor problem that had cropped up
<v Speaker 3>in the prior week or two, one of the participants
<v Speaker 3>was no longer going to be there. Shane Douglas suffered
<v Speaker 3>a shoulder injury in April, it had missed some dates.
<v Speaker 3>In a somewhat related issue, Douglas's contract was going through
<v Speaker 3>a negotiation. Douglas later said he was being paid three
<v Speaker 3>fifty per shot at the time, and after working with
<v Speaker 3>Austin Pillman and Steamboat and a successful old w W
<v Speaker 3>Standards House show series, Shane was looking for a better
<v Speaker 3>deal to move him to a touch closer to the
<v Speaker 3>level of the other three. Unfortunately for Shane, he was
<v Speaker 3>having these negotiations with Ole Anderson, who was more than
<v Speaker 3>happy to keep Douglas on the same money. Of course,
<v Speaker 3>Olie didn't see. Ollie never saw an under never in
<v Speaker 3>his life. All we never saw whether, well, it depends
<v Speaker 3>if you count the mill that's true. Whether the injury
<v Speaker 3>and upcoming slambery appearances were being used as part of
<v Speaker 3>the negotiations pends and perspective and opinion. Even if Shane
<v Speaker 3>didn't intend it, the ww office was convinced it was
<v Speaker 3>part of the game. Ultimately, Douglas would not be wrestling
<v Speaker 3>on the pay per view and ended up leaving the company.
<v Speaker 3>So one week before Slambrie Dosombres pinned the Blondes and
<v Speaker 3>a non title match on main event, and a postmatch interview,
<v Speaker 3>Steamboat took his mask off and said that he and
<v Speaker 3>Shane quote unquote, who didn't unmask for obvious reasons, would
<v Speaker 3>do it one more time in a cage. As it
<v Speaker 3>turned out, Steamboat and his partner came to the ring
<v Speaker 3>at the paper view dressed in their Dastombras outfits with
<v Speaker 3>the dragon, claiming he and Shane were wearing the costumes
<v Speaker 3>for good luck given their prior success. Of course, it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't Douglas under the mask. It was Tom zenc Tom
<v Speaker 3>Zank who was who'd make a quick appearance here in
<v Speaker 3>the clash, doesn't he?
<v Speaker 4>Yes, he would look like a goofball in.
<v Speaker 3>A similar fill in for an injured Johnny b bad
<v Speaker 3>position and basically be done with the promotion quite soon
<v Speaker 3>after this. The match itself is less heated than expected
<v Speaker 3>until a blistering final sequence were Steamboat and massed at
<v Speaker 3>the top of the steel structure off with the crossbody.
<v Speaker 3>The referee counted two, but the timekeeper rang the bell.
<v Speaker 3>The screw up added an energy that was largely missing
<v Speaker 3>from the show for the final minute before Austin pinned
<v Speaker 3>the masked Zinc. Elsewhere in the show, Rick Flair announced
<v Speaker 3>his return to the ring, rooting a match against Pilman
<v Speaker 3>and Austin in the three weeks at the Clash of
<v Speaker 3>the Champions, but little time to build A couple of
<v Speaker 3>the couple of the couple of quick angles were shot
<v Speaker 3>to heat things up, the highlight being when Brian and
<v Speaker 3>Steve were given a chance to unleash Okay, so they
<v Speaker 3>did Flair for the Gold, the angle before Slambury, and
<v Speaker 3>then they did Slambury and then they did the clash.
<v Speaker 3>I think I said Slambury came after the clash, which
<v Speaker 3>is wrong. It was there that one of the most
<v Speaker 3>memorable skits of the year took place, a blonde parody
<v Speaker 3>of Rick's talk show that they called Boss. Have you
<v Speaker 3>seen this? A Flair for the Old I know of it,
<v Speaker 3>I've never seen it. Now we're gonna play it. I
<v Speaker 3>do suggest you find the video because there was a
<v Speaker 3>lot of I'm not unit right now, but I'm saying
<v Speaker 3>in general, anyone listening to this, because it's key to
<v Speaker 3>see that Brian has like an old woman a gray
<v Speaker 3>wig on in old lady glasses and like a robe
<v Speaker 3>and a cane and a pearl necklace and his trailing.
<v Speaker 3>Really so that's yeah, that's that's.
<v Speaker 4>The Oh my god, that's tremendous.
<v Speaker 3>That's the look you need to picture. Here, as they
<v Speaker 3>deliver on an episode of w CB Television, a Flair.
<v Speaker 2>For the Old, the Hollywood Blonde step to Go.
<v Speaker 20>Ladies and Chileman. It's the world we know, no celebration
<v Speaker 20>of nostalgia Flowers for the Old, featuring the seven or
<v Speaker 20>raid or nighttime World Champion, the Nature Boy and featuring
<v Speaker 20>his maid parte and now the Nature Boy and tonight
<v Speaker 20>pass your guest.
<v Speaker 2>What heaf of the world Tag team champions Hollywood Gord.
<v Speaker 3>Dunny mc flair's valet is named Party. This is a
<v Speaker 3>party I love. It's Frank's part.
<v Speaker 17>Of course, a very Mussia, very h pleased to announce
<v Speaker 17>that every special chegment of a Flair for the Old.
<v Speaker 17>Here we are nursing home, uh paradise, live here on
<v Speaker 17>the bentaging to call her and uh, I know before
<v Speaker 17>we go in to father, I'd like.
<v Speaker 16>To uh give that moment every red blooded mail in America.
<v Speaker 16>Love and nuts that's right, take a tea breath. Let's
<v Speaker 16>bring her out, Patay the maid here, she is here,
<v Speaker 16>she is who ah your sex kidding you? So when
<v Speaker 16>I'll persia, he's your show.
<v Speaker 17>I'm very pleased to announce my special guest, one half
<v Speaker 17>of the world takes your champions studying Steve Austin.
<v Speaker 16>Let's bring him out. How are is Steve by? I'm
<v Speaker 16>told that you and your partner are.
<v Speaker 17>Doing some verya tremendous things. You and studying Steve are
<v Speaker 17>just a tremendous combination.
<v Speaker 4>I'm studying Steve.
<v Speaker 2>Who's that I'm studying today?
<v Speaker 4>You anyway?
<v Speaker 5>Steve?
<v Speaker 17>Okay, baby, tell the great fans out there some of
<v Speaker 17>the great things that the blondes are doing.
<v Speaker 16>We're just text him.
<v Speaker 4>Well.
<v Speaker 21>I feel like with a partner like Bly and Brian,
<v Speaker 21>the Hollywood Blondes can go. The Hollywood blust can go
<v Speaker 21>us wake job, the Hollywood Blondes can go as.
<v Speaker 2>Far as they want to. Intag Team Wrestley.
<v Speaker 17>Harm you, Steve. I believe it's time for my medication.
<v Speaker 17>You can hold only one minute. Police, please shard a
<v Speaker 17>microphone for me.
<v Speaker 4>Well, let me do that here, hop it up, it up.
<v Speaker 4>Thanks very much.
<v Speaker 6>Yes, so you're sports.
<v Speaker 16>You're wondering about that medication. Well, it's all legally prescribed,
<v Speaker 16>and uh, you.
<v Speaker 4>Know, little nitro for the all.
<v Speaker 16>I'm merging that I got some body of a knee
<v Speaker 16>in there too.
<v Speaker 18>Uh you know what they say, I'm strap the old
<v Speaker 18>pencil shout up. I don't know about bab and works yet,
<v Speaker 18>but what I do notice is that the set's the same.
<v Speaker 18>What's your best written, your best friend, your right hand stoods.
<v Speaker 18>There's mister stools right there.
<v Speaker 21>I've got a state double A. It's a shame that
<v Speaker 21>the Nats your boy has to suffer of old days
<v Speaker 21>like this. But I've got to say, looking at that body.
<v Speaker 21>The last time I saw body like that, it had
<v Speaker 21>an apple stuffed in its mouth and it was roasting.
<v Speaker 2>Over an open pot. Huh. Well, last see.
<v Speaker 16>Where they're going out of all and we expect.
<v Speaker 18>Where cere.
<v Speaker 1>That.
<v Speaker 3>It's weird.
<v Speaker 16>We're at a time.
<v Speaker 4>They were always out of time back then, even even
<v Speaker 4>even back then, even before nitro, they were out of times.
<v Speaker 3>So luthly they were. It's pretty good stuff, there's what
<v Speaker 3>it's great. That's fantast stuff people would forget. Remember, Pillman
<v Speaker 3>said keeps the old pencil sharp at one point, and
<v Speaker 3>talking about the medication he needs.
<v Speaker 4>That's really funny.
<v Speaker 3>They're going all the way here. The last time I
<v Speaker 3>saw a body like that, it had an apple in
<v Speaker 3>its mouth and it was roasting over an open flame.
<v Speaker 3>M hmm, Austin says, flame before flame broiled. There, that's right,
<v Speaker 3>so the problems. In the following week's O'Rourke, Wrights continued
<v Speaker 3>pushing the idea of the old versus the new, the
<v Speaker 3>eighties versus the nineties, the horsemen versus the Blondes. To
<v Speaker 3>spotlight the classic theme of Flair's comeback. It was announced
<v Speaker 3>that the match would be two out of three falls,
<v Speaker 3>meaning the bout would likely get considerable time in addition
<v Speaker 3>to its headline position. I wonder if that hurt the
<v Speaker 3>rating too. People knew like nothing matters till the third fall.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, probably not. I mean you'd think, I mean,
<v Speaker 4>I don't think so, probably not.
<v Speaker 3>While the segments weren't good in isolation, it bears repeating
<v Speaker 3>that it was taking place in a promotion that was struggling.
<v Speaker 3>More than ever, things were looking bleak for WCW, with
<v Speaker 3>howse show business bordering on disastrous. After April had drawn
<v Speaker 3>an average fifteen hundred twenty fans per show, May plummeted
<v Speaker 3>to only May plummeted to only May plummeted to only
<v Speaker 3>four hundred and ninety AH, an average a four hundred
<v Speaker 3>and ninety across all the house shows they did in
<v Speaker 3>May of nineteen ninety three.
<v Speaker 4>That is depressing.
<v Speaker 3>Shows in major cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore were doing
<v Speaker 3>the lowest attendance in company history. WW only managed to
<v Speaker 3>pull three hundred fans to the over six thousand seat
<v Speaker 3>Pepsi Coliseum in Indianapolis. That's wrong, and one show in
<v Speaker 3>Alabama drew less than one hundred people. It's fine, it's
<v Speaker 3>not like they're on national television. Shows in the first
<v Speaker 3>week of June were continuing the low trend. Television ratings
<v Speaker 3>the week before the All Important Clash were approaching record
<v Speaker 3>low levels, with the June twelfth WCW Saturday Night barely
<v Speaker 3>managing a miserable two point zero main event doing a
<v Speaker 3>one point seven and Power Hour doing a one point zero.
<v Speaker 3>The overall product and presentation of the company was highly
<v Speaker 3>flawed despite besides some of the talent on the roster
<v Speaker 3>or segments on the show, so it was as Clash
<v Speaker 3>of the Champions twenty three hit the air on June sixteenth,
<v Speaker 3>the Norfolk Scope housed a little over two thousand paying
<v Speaker 3>fans two thousand people in Norfolk, oh with four thousand
<v Speaker 3>more entering with free tickets. On the night, four thousand
<v Speaker 3>people got in free, two thousand paid. What's problems the
<v Speaker 3>event prepared to go on. W CW once again proved
<v Speaker 3>their inability to create drama or execute the simplest of touches.
<v Speaker 3>As Rick Flair entered the ring to a generic Horseman
<v Speaker 3>theme song.
<v Speaker 4>Al was pathetic. I don't know what the fuck that
<v Speaker 4>song was. I was embarrassed by it.
<v Speaker 3>It was a mistake, Bischoff said in his podcast. It
<v Speaker 3>was his mistake. I think it was more like, I
<v Speaker 3>know it would have been my responsibility. I can't play
<v Speaker 3>that card. He said he remembered putting the wrong song
<v Speaker 3>out there by mistake. But then he has this whole
<v Speaker 3>thing about how I didn't grow up with the Horseman.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I didn't have a real appreciation for what
<v Speaker 3>made them so special. And you know that's the while
<v Speaker 3>a no brainer to anybody that observed Ric Flair. You
<v Speaker 3>do have to wonder for an Eric Bischoff would pretty
<v Speaker 3>much worked there when Flair left. You know who got
<v Speaker 3>started when Flair was gone. If he even freaking knew
<v Speaker 3>that Rick Flair was associated with that song. But that's
<v Speaker 3>that's what we get. And it's a sad scene as
<v Speaker 3>he walks out to lay mass music. I mean, we
<v Speaker 3>just heard there on Flair for the old They play
<v Speaker 3>Flair's theme, yeah, to mock him, but they don't play
<v Speaker 3>it when it actually comes back for his return Max.
<v Speaker 3>They don't play it side by side with arn As
<v Speaker 3>opposed to drawing out the excitement of Flair's first match
<v Speaker 3>with his signature entrance. That's true too. He just marches
<v Speaker 3>down the ramp. We don't get a big, long procession.
<v Speaker 3>We don't get him spinning in the road by himself.
<v Speaker 4>Right, you know right, it's kind of just let's get
<v Speaker 4>to business.
<v Speaker 3>Between the ropes. The match was success, generating by far
<v Speaker 3>the most heat of anything on the show. The crowd
<v Speaker 3>seemed to want nothing but Flair all night long, and
<v Speaker 3>Rick was on fire, playing the crafty veterans schooling the
<v Speaker 3>young punk up starts to the light of the fans.
<v Speaker 3>I know this whole thing. Rick hat's being a babyface.
<v Speaker 3>It's not as like ideal position and his style doesn't
<v Speaker 3>look this is this is amazing stuff. Rick Flair baby
<v Speaker 3>Face nineteen ninety three was fucking incredible. He was everything face.
<v Speaker 3>He was the heel.
<v Speaker 4>Shut the fuck up with that. He's fantastic in this role. Unbelievable,
<v Speaker 4>really was he. You know, it's actually it's it kind
<v Speaker 4>of sucks that, you know. I think I think he
<v Speaker 4>was as because he wasn't like playing a baby face.
<v Speaker 4>He was just being Rick Flair, and fans were alloted
<v Speaker 4>to cheer him exactly. That's the difference.
<v Speaker 3>And he was going at.
<v Speaker 4>Right, he'll still cheat, he'll still do all the ship
<v Speaker 4>that he would do, but he's just not but people
<v Speaker 4>are allowed to cheer him, you know. And and that's
<v Speaker 4>and that's money. That's great. And he was great in
<v Speaker 4>this role. This was one of his I mean this
<v Speaker 4>and and and uh uh you know, late ninety six,
<v Speaker 4>I'll tell you there there his his his horseman run,
<v Speaker 4>His babyface horseman runs are fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>Fantastic everybody as good as his heel stuff. I think
<v Speaker 3>in terms of like, for sure, what are you gonna
<v Speaker 3>judge the guy on, you know, like he's doing everything
<v Speaker 3>exactly correct. What's your problem just because you happen to
<v Speaker 3>hear one time in an interview that Flair didn't like
<v Speaker 3>being a baby face.
<v Speaker 4>It's a shame that. It's a shame that that that
<v Speaker 4>in a way that Hogan came in when he did,
<v Speaker 4>because it would have been interesting to see how long
<v Speaker 4>Flair could go as a as a baby face.
<v Speaker 3>He could have made Steve the top heel in the company. Easy, yeah, Flo,
<v Speaker 3>I could see a Flair for Steve Austin head landing
<v Speaker 3>a pay per view in nineteen ninety four. Absolutely fucking
<v Speaker 3>hell you imagine. I mean, well, looking we'll get to
<v Speaker 3>whether Flair really when push came to shoff would have
<v Speaker 3>liked to see that happen. But that's uh, that's a
<v Speaker 3>tasty one. But yeah, that chop the chop For one thing,
<v Speaker 3>the chop is a baby face move. Wahoo Like the
<v Speaker 3>chop is a babyface thing to do? Yes, And in fact,
<v Speaker 3>what made rick if a move.
<v Speaker 4>If a move warrants a crowd to react yes in
<v Speaker 4>a in a way every in the same way, every
<v Speaker 4>single time, it's a baby face move.
<v Speaker 3>That's right, And what was most magical about Flair using
<v Speaker 3>the chops and his heel matches was when a steamboat
<v Speaker 3>or somebody would fire back with chops of their own.
<v Speaker 3>So it wasn't Ric Flair's chops that were money. And
<v Speaker 3>when he was working heel, it was the other guy
<v Speaker 3>returning fire and standing up to Flair's chops, Whereas when
<v Speaker 3>he's a babyface, he runs around chopping the shit out
<v Speaker 3>of people and it's great, so satisfying because the heels
<v Speaker 3>are actually getting hit hard. You know, they're actually getting
<v Speaker 3>a whooping as they would say, I suppose okay between
<v Speaker 3>the ropes. Yes, Rick was on fire, playing the crafty veteran.
<v Speaker 3>The Horseman took the first fall match, continued to Flare,
<v Speaker 3>putting the figure four leg alog on Austin. Just as
<v Speaker 3>the Belts look change hands, Burry Wyndham right in for
<v Speaker 3>the disqualification, given the match to the Horsemen to keeping
<v Speaker 3>the Belts with the Blondes on a technicality. Of course,
<v Speaker 3>they're building to Flair versus Wyndham for the big gold
<v Speaker 3>at Beach Blast that year, Flair getting back the strap
<v Speaker 3>that he absconded it to the WWF with. In nineteen
<v Speaker 3>ninety one, the show ended up with Flair and Windham
<v Speaker 3>brawling around ringside. Austin Pillman did a distellar job as
<v Speaker 3>stiff competition, with an aura of overmatched cowardice faded into
<v Speaker 3>the background. Notwithstanding the focus not being on them, The
<v Speaker 3>feeling when the show went to black was positive for
<v Speaker 3>the Blondes. The rating came in bearing bad news. Boss
<v Speaker 3>The Clash did a two point six rating, a four
<v Speaker 3>point seven share, and an audience of one million, five
<v Speaker 3>hundred and forty nine thousand homes, all figures that set
<v Speaker 3>the record for the all time low for Clash specials, and.
<v Speaker 4>That would go on that would never be beaten in
<v Speaker 4>terms of it got close viewership.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because the Hogan Flair one the next summer was
<v Speaker 3>fucking massive. I mean sure you're probably talking increase.
<v Speaker 4>I guess that's true. There really never was a an
<v Speaker 4>opportunity for it to, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Come off the Hogan bump, which always worked on Clashes.
<v Speaker 4>I feel like, because after that it was nWo and oh.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, they're off to the races.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>The show started a rook notes with an abysmal one
<v Speaker 3>point seven rating, indicating that interest in the product in
<v Speaker 3>general was at a rotten level, but grew throughout, peaking
<v Speaker 3>at three point six for the main event. So that's
<v Speaker 3>something to latch on too if you want to not
<v Speaker 3>blame Pilman in Austin. Still, even that came with the
<v Speaker 3>distinction of being the lowest rated headliner in Clash history.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure there was something else on television that night, Boss,
<v Speaker 3>you know, stiff competition from the the corn Hole finals.
<v Speaker 3>The two point six generated talk in the end.
<v Speaker 4>I heard, you know what I heard. I heard there
<v Speaker 4>was a I heard there was a bowling test. That
<v Speaker 4>what it was. Yeah, it was on some local access
<v Speaker 4>channel and it just drew everybody.
<v Speaker 3>The two point six generated talk in the office that
<v Speaker 3>the Clash concept may not be long for the world.
<v Speaker 3>While the numbers across the board were calamatists, tbsp's special
<v Speaker 3>attention to the Clash ratings, due to the more prominent
<v Speaker 3>spot on the schedule for Boss, Eric Bischoff, booker Dusty
<v Speaker 3>Roads and Operations VP Olee Anderson escapegoat was needed to
<v Speaker 3>justify why things had taken a drastic plunge. The truth
<v Speaker 3>is that the company was demonstrably colder than it had
<v Speaker 3>ever been a result of years of bad booking. Mind
<v Speaker 3>boggling office decisions, a sterile presentation, and general inability to
<v Speaker 3>provide what fans were looking for. Acting in their own
<v Speaker 3>best interests, that reality wouldn't be reported to the higher ups.
<v Speaker 3>The obvious person to blame would be Brick Flair, who
<v Speaker 3>had been out of the ring for months to build
<v Speaker 3>up a return from a show that failed. However, Flair
<v Speaker 3>was held in high regard by people that mattered and
<v Speaker 3>had a track record as the biggest ratings draw in
<v Speaker 3>the company from years past. From there, the outcome was
<v Speaker 3>obvious and the blame shifted to Brian and Steve. It
<v Speaker 3>stunned all of us, reflects Meltzer when asked about the
<v Speaker 3>initial reaction. It was a terrible ratings for a clash.
<v Speaker 3>Somehow they got the blame for which made no sense
<v Speaker 3>at all. It wasn't like Austin and Pillman were flopping
<v Speaker 3>as a team. They were doing about as well as
<v Speaker 3>you could do considering the state of that company. Clash
<v Speaker 3>twenty three was poorly promoted, and with business being what
<v Speaker 3>it was, it had the makings of an imperfect storm
<v Speaker 3>for Pilman and Austin. Going in with a fair analysis,
<v Speaker 3>one could argue that maybe the blondes on top hadn't
<v Speaker 3>been treated seriously enough for a long enough period. Yeah, it'sok,
<v Speaker 3>a three week build here. Basically, perhaps the team didn't
<v Speaker 3>have enough heat or credibility to be seen as a
<v Speaker 3>mainavent level threat. But clearly Flair's return meant nothing for
<v Speaker 3>ratings either. That's the real headline to me.
<v Speaker 4>Flair's return meant nothing. Hey, you know, maybe Bischoff was
<v Speaker 4>right in the fact that Flare wasn't really a draw. Well, hey,
<v Speaker 4>this is his first The only real draws were we
<v Speaker 4>were Hogan, Savage and Piper and draws.
<v Speaker 3>Yet this is his first chance to observe the fucking
<v Speaker 3>force of nature that was Rick Flair as boss. Right,
<v Speaker 3>as someone who was finding the ratings.
<v Speaker 4>I would imagine that this really uh, that this stuck
<v Speaker 4>pretty hard.
<v Speaker 3>Wow, and then all of a sudden, Hogan comes in
<v Speaker 3>and Wreck's a huge draw. What conclusion would you draw
<v Speaker 3>off your bishop? We had Flair's first Managine, ww in
<v Speaker 3>two years, no one will cared, No one gave a
<v Speaker 3>fuck from a ratings perspective, And that's my first clash
<v Speaker 3>and I have to deal with that. And the next
<v Speaker 3>year it's Flair again. But Hogan's in there with them
<v Speaker 3>and it's the highest rated clash ever. Yeap, where are
<v Speaker 3>you gonna put your chips in the face of excelling
<v Speaker 3>Throughout the year, the Blonds were victimized based on the
<v Speaker 3>one bad rating, and plans for them to continue working
<v Speaker 3>with Flair were dropped. Rick didn't exactly lobby against the decision.
<v Speaker 3>Dusty Rhodes made the determination to ice the team, the
<v Speaker 3>same guy who put him together in the first place,
<v Speaker 3>so Dustin could have the US title. They made the
<v Speaker 3>decision to ice the team, claiming that the number showed
<v Speaker 3>that while they were entertaining, they couldn't draw on only
<v Speaker 3>a week later, ww higher than Nasty Boys.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, oh myfe just out of curiosity, like when
<v Speaker 4>when did they really? How many tag teams in the
<v Speaker 4>past have been legit draws. Very few Rock and Rolls
<v Speaker 4>l O, d Uh, Stevens and Patterson, Rocca and Uh
<v Speaker 4>and Perez. Yeah Uh.
<v Speaker 3>There were a bunch of the Carolinics. That's a tag
<v Speaker 3>team territory for a long time. The Anderson's, Gene and
<v Speaker 3>Ollie you could say word.
<v Speaker 4>Draw, but like in terms of in terms of like
<v Speaker 4>real I'm not saying that they that what they're what
<v Speaker 4>you're saying is not But like, what about in terms
<v Speaker 4>of TV, in terms of ratings, yeah, ratings and like
<v Speaker 4>I mean I can't think of maybe the Road Warriors maybe.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well in the modern like ratings age, not really no,
<v Speaker 3>because tag teams were never the top act.
<v Speaker 4>So you know, so what are they expecting out of
<v Speaker 4>these guys?
<v Speaker 3>I think they're expecting that Rick Flair being in the
<v Speaker 3>ring for the first time in two years in w
<v Speaker 3>w IS is a number no matter whether it's structured
<v Speaker 3>as a tag match or not. I do wonder what
<v Speaker 3>it would have done if it was just Flair versus
<v Speaker 3>Austin and and Arn versus Pillman on the under card,
<v Speaker 3>you know, I do wonder that. I do wonder if
<v Speaker 3>people failed to feel like it was Flair's first match
<v Speaker 3>back because it was at tag I think you could
<v Speaker 3>have done a lot more than that. I would have
<v Speaker 3>done Barry versus Flair right here, got that belt right
<v Speaker 3>back on him, and you know, lean into that. That
<v Speaker 3>that that loose thread of Flair leaving with the championship. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>but it's interesting to think about.
<v Speaker 4>But that was that.
<v Speaker 3>But by the way, as we talked to Robert Gibson
<v Speaker 3>about it at the Wrestle con I remember that Dusty
<v Speaker 3>is not the guy you want to be doing well
<v Speaker 3>as a tag team on the same card with he.
<v Speaker 3>He felt very attacked by the Midnights and Rock and
<v Speaker 3>Rolls doing great gates for Crockett on cards he wasn't
<v Speaker 3>on as the suppose, It'd only baby face at the
<v Speaker 3>top of the mountain, the below the woods, whatever the
<v Speaker 3>fuck he would say. And pretty soon the rock and
<v Speaker 3>Rolls at Midnights weren't carrying houses all on their own,
<v Speaker 3>that's for sure. Yeah, Air come the Nasties with intentions
<v Speaker 3>of making them the new top heel team in WCW
<v Speaker 3>after a three year running the WWF. The Nasties O'Rourke
<v Speaker 3>Wrights were seen as more valuable in the position than
<v Speaker 3>Austin and Pillman. It didn't hurt that Jerry Saggs just
<v Speaker 3>so happened to be the brother in law of the
<v Speaker 3>booker Dusty Rhodes. The fate of the champions so promising
<v Speaker 3>just two months prior Boss was sealed. M here lie
<v Speaker 3>the Hollywood Blondes.
<v Speaker 4>That's right.
<v Speaker 3>As for OI, I remember Steve Austin Conway when he
<v Speaker 3>first went to work for w W ninet eighty nine.
<v Speaker 3>This is him and his book Inside Out, How Corporate
<v Speaker 3>America Destroyed Professional Wrestling.
<v Speaker 4>Oh Jesus Christ.
<v Speaker 3>When we first met, he thought I could teach him
<v Speaker 3>something about wrestling, so he asked me, would you helped
<v Speaker 3>me learn to wrestle? It wasn't more than a month
<v Speaker 3>or two before he didn't come around anymore.
<v Speaker 4>He didn't need to.
<v Speaker 3>He was a star. Brian Pillman wanted me to help him.
<v Speaker 3>I had a lot of guys asked me for help,
<v Speaker 3>and they were getting started. But every one of those guys,
<v Speaker 3>within a month or two of being a TBS, said
<v Speaker 3>a hell would this. It took no time at all
<v Speaker 3>before they considered me to be really old school. Why
<v Speaker 3>do they need to know anything about working, about wrestling,
<v Speaker 3>about psychology, or about drawing money? Why do they need
<v Speaker 3>to know any of the things that once made wrestling
<v Speaker 3>a success. They were getting a paycheck, They were getting
<v Speaker 3>what the stars called mailbox money. They didn't have to
<v Speaker 3>do anything except show up for work, and that was
<v Speaker 3>only when they felt like it. At least Vince's people
<v Speaker 3>had to do a little something. They had to be
<v Speaker 3>able to read the teleprompter, so they knew what to
<v Speaker 3>say in their interview, and they must have gone over
<v Speaker 3>the matches to some degree, even though they were horrendous.
<v Speaker 3>I knew how to correct things, but they weren't going
<v Speaker 3>to listen to me. They would take their opinion to
<v Speaker 3>the extreme. Well, we can't be laying in a hold
<v Speaker 3>all night long. I never talked about laying in a hold.
<v Speaker 3>Dusty Rhodes never laid in a hold. The Sheiks, Bill Watts,
<v Speaker 3>Dory Funk under the giant haystack, Calhouna.
<v Speaker 4>None of them laid in a hold.
<v Speaker 3>So who are they talking about. There was just no
<v Speaker 3>way to get third of them because they would characterize
<v Speaker 3>everything as the old school. In my opinion, pro wrestling
<v Speaker 3>has always been based on emotion. That emotion never changes.
<v Speaker 3>People are instilled at birth, but the identical emotions. I
<v Speaker 3>don't care if you were born in nineteen twenty five
<v Speaker 3>or four thousand years ago. People will always try to
<v Speaker 3>screw their neighbor's wife or steal their neighbor's cow. Sometimes
<v Speaker 3>that's the same thing. By the way, the emotions that
<v Speaker 3>result from those actions are eternal with people. They don't change.
<v Speaker 3>The only difference today is instead of being stabbed with
<v Speaker 3>the spear, you get cut to ribbons by an AK
<v Speaker 3>forty seven. I can never convince anybody a TVs is
<v Speaker 3>that because they thought the wrestling business had evolved, after all,
<v Speaker 3>this is the new millennium. The truth is the business
<v Speaker 3>only changed because the people in charge didn't know what
<v Speaker 3>they were doing. This guy's amazing, It's oh god. He's
<v Speaker 3>the guy on the island who doesn't know World War
<v Speaker 3>two is over and he's still fighting.
<v Speaker 4>He's still ready. Exactly.
<v Speaker 3>You can use the movies to make and yet another analogy.
<v Speaker 3>There are many different emotions that you experienced when you
<v Speaker 3>go to the movies. You cheer out loud at the
<v Speaker 3>NSM movies, yet at others you want to cry. Every
<v Speaker 3>so often you wonder why are you can get up
<v Speaker 3>and leave twenty minutes into the stinker. Wrestling evokes the
<v Speaker 3>same emotions. In some cases, we want people to cheer
<v Speaker 3>and be happy. We want to go home and tell
<v Speaker 3>everybody what an enjoyable night they had. Another night's you
<v Speaker 3>want to go home and say, I know murderer is illegal,
<v Speaker 3>but if I received then sob on the street. I'll
<v Speaker 3>run him over, you dumb fellowm up man's way. I
<v Speaker 3>got stabbed so many times. Somebody had to have emotions
<v Speaker 3>to risk a jail sentence, let alone, and take the
<v Speaker 3>chance of kicking telling me, why would they do that.
<v Speaker 3>They had to be so caught up in their emotions
<v Speaker 3>that anything that made any sense was completely proven out
<v Speaker 3>of their mind. You don't see anybody who can listen
<v Speaker 3>to motions like that today. Only Yeah, sometimes I I
<v Speaker 3>just picture only uh just moving like you know, I
<v Speaker 3>picture him. He's like walking from place to place, but
<v Speaker 3>at at just hot like high speed and just absolutely
<v Speaker 3>like but like you know, not like not like high speed,
<v Speaker 3>like he's fast high speed, like the video is being
<v Speaker 3>fast forwarded, you know, like Benny Hill, Yes, exactly, Benny Hill.
<v Speaker 3>Benny Hill, what did you send me something? Yeah, we'll
<v Speaker 3>get to in a second. So that's uh, that's only
<v Speaker 3>Anderson's memories of having the book while to transformational generational
<v Speaker 3>talents were blossoming run under his nose. They said lay
<v Speaker 3>in a hold. I didn't say lay in a hole.
<v Speaker 3>And that's the only thing he remember is about Steve
<v Speaker 3>Austin and Brian Pillman. He said, laying a hole, right,
<v Speaker 3>That's yeah, that's what Brian said. You miss on what
<v Speaker 3>to laying a hole, you old man. I can picture
<v Speaker 3>him saying that, like point pointing at his chin, like
<v Speaker 3>go ahead, punch.
<v Speaker 4>I forgot to tell you, I don't even care about
<v Speaker 4>my own family.
<v Speaker 3>Until the laugh, I was gonna say, I thought Johnny
<v Speaker 3>Ace was out at the company. I thought he'd gone
<v Speaker 3>all Japan. But it turns out wrestler with throat issue
<v Speaker 3>all sounds the same, That's right. So we heard from
<v Speaker 3>you know, the biography of Brian Pillman in terms of
<v Speaker 3>what's going on, and some of the voices there, from
<v Speaker 3>Raven to Dave Melcher to Shane Douglas. We heard perspectives
<v Speaker 3>from Eric Bischoff and even from Olee Anderson. But what
<v Speaker 3>about the guys in the driver's seats? What about Steve
<v Speaker 3>Austin and Rick Flair themselves who have gone on to
<v Speaker 3>of course connect many times in their golden years to
<v Speaker 3>look back on their first interactions with each other here
<v Speaker 3>in w CW. And we'll still here, boss. If you
<v Speaker 3>could serenade the solar system with Steve Austin's book recalling
<v Speaker 3>how this sola came together, there's gonna be some narrative
<v Speaker 3>overlap with what we read from the Pillman book, but
<v Speaker 3>it's also nice to hear it in Steve's direct words.
<v Speaker 4>Sure.
<v Speaker 8>In February nine ninety three, I was promised a big
<v Speaker 8>singles push from WCW with Harley Race as my manager.
<v Speaker 8>Harley was legendary seven time NWA World Champion, which was
<v Speaker 8>a record for many years. Louthez held the title only
<v Speaker 8>six times thanks thanks to I was.
<v Speaker 3>Like, who's the other guy, Who's the sixth time holder?
<v Speaker 3>So this wasn't one of those books he thought would
<v Speaker 3>sell to non wrestling fans.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah.
<v Speaker 8>Race was a legit tough guy and had wrestled all
<v Speaker 8>over the world, including Japan for the NWA and for
<v Speaker 8>the WWE's The King Harley Race. This was before Jerry
<v Speaker 8>Lawler came to WWE. Ben Harley suffered a serious injury
<v Speaker 8>in a boating accident. He returned a few years later
<v Speaker 8>in WCW, this time as a manager, had a damn
<v Speaker 8>good one. He quickly got Alex Fluger to the WCW
<v Speaker 8>World Championship.
<v Speaker 4>Later on, Big Van Vader won the title as well,
<v Speaker 4>with Harley as his manager.
<v Speaker 8>Harley Race was real popular with the young WCW titlent
<v Speaker 8>and I was no exception.
<v Speaker 4>I could have learned a lot from him. I was flying.
<v Speaker 8>I was flying high about having Harley as my manager.
<v Speaker 8>When I showed up in Columbus, Georgia for a TV taping.
<v Speaker 8>Suddenly I saw Brian Pillman, who I barely knew, walking
<v Speaker 8>up to me. Brian said, Hey, Steve, how's it going.
<v Speaker 8>I said, Hey, what's going Ron?
<v Speaker 11>Brian?
<v Speaker 4>Just him fucking having him yelled the whole time. This
<v Speaker 4>is making me laugh. Hey, what's going on?
<v Speaker 2>Brian?
<v Speaker 4>Bron Brian Pillman, Bron, Brian Pillman, Brian.
<v Speaker 3>Ronny think of the word, Brian. B all right, Eddie Brian.
<v Speaker 8>He said, we need to think of for finishing move
<v Speaker 8>since we're a tag team.
<v Speaker 5>Now.
<v Speaker 4>I said, what are you talking about.
<v Speaker 3>That's a hell of a way to find out we
<v Speaker 3>need a finisher.
<v Speaker 4>He said, yeah, Dusty just made us a tag team,
<v Speaker 4>and I went damn.
<v Speaker 8>So I went and harassed Dusty Rhodes, the booker, telling
<v Speaker 8>how I was gonna be with Harley Race, you know,
<v Speaker 8>world champion manager.
<v Speaker 4>Dust Yeah, babe Man with changed I mind, Daddy, Then
<v Speaker 4>we're gonna go make you you and Brian a tech team.
<v Speaker 4>Just trust me, baby, This tag has legs.
<v Speaker 8>So I said, all right, in reality, what choice did
<v Speaker 8>I have? I didn't argue how much.
<v Speaker 2>How Brian.
<v Speaker 8>And I got together, we started out wearing different colored trunks,
<v Speaker 8>using our old using our old attire. Then we began
<v Speaker 8>coming up without some ideas for our team. While we
<v Speaker 8>were out riding on the road, Brian said, God, dang, kid,
<v Speaker 8>if we're gonna be a tag team, were gonna have
<v Speaker 8>a name. Every good taxi message has a cool name
<v Speaker 8>and some match now fits and stuff like that, so
<v Speaker 8>we had to at least look like a team. Scott
<v Speaker 8>I faminga Ak. Raven was traveling with us and was
<v Speaker 8>real creative about this stuff. Who We started kicking around
<v Speaker 8>names and ideas for trunks and jackets and things like that.
<v Speaker 8>That's when we came up with the Hollywood Blonde idea.
<v Speaker 8>I think Raven came up with it with that name
<v Speaker 8>for us. Jayar told me that in the early seventies
<v Speaker 8>there was another Hollywood Blonde tag team consisted of a
<v Speaker 8>veteran wrestler named Jerry Brown who once swore he'd shoot
<v Speaker 8>cowboy Bill Watson, Buddy Roberts, who was to become a
<v Speaker 8>known as a member of the fabulous free birds.
<v Speaker 4>Those guys had some good heat going with the fans. Jr.
<v Speaker 4>Thought we were a good update on that concept.
<v Speaker 8>I just ordered one hundred and fifty dollars worth a
<v Speaker 8>new ring gear, which I could barely afford from a
<v Speaker 8>lady in and Brian wanted to order all new stuff. Damn,
<v Speaker 8>that was a cheap bastard back then, and for a
<v Speaker 8>good reason.
<v Speaker 4>But we were in.
<v Speaker 8>Desperate need of a look. So Brian and Brian had
<v Speaker 8>his little Bengal point trunk print trunks. Brian had his
<v Speaker 8>little Bengal print trunks on, and I was wearing these
<v Speaker 8>horrible looking red and black trunks. It looked like an
<v Speaker 8>independent worker's hand me down.
<v Speaker 3>How sun those look like an independent worker's hand me down?
<v Speaker 8>We didn't look like a tag team. We looked like
<v Speaker 8>we were just two guys thrown together. So we came
<v Speaker 8>up with some designs for our trunks, then showed off
<v Speaker 8>the name. We had the star and Hollywood blondes on
<v Speaker 8>the back and three stars on the front.
<v Speaker 4>We had a black pair and a red pair. Then
<v Speaker 4>Brian had their.
<v Speaker 8>Jackets made, a silver leather jacket and a black and
<v Speaker 8>red jacket. Brian said, we gotta to wear some chains.
<v Speaker 4>And he got me a deal on one.
<v Speaker 3>Hell, Brian, I'm with you, but can you get me
<v Speaker 3>a deal? Can you get me a deal on one?
<v Speaker 4>I I'm a cheap son of a bitch.
<v Speaker 3>I'm here at the House's Welcome to Steve Austin Show.
<v Speaker 3>I'm here with the cat.
<v Speaker 4>You know.
<v Speaker 8>I'm just walking up and down my hallway wondering exactly
<v Speaker 8>what the fuck is going on. And I say, Brian, Brian,
<v Speaker 8>give me a goddamn buck. Oh no, He goes, oh no,
<v Speaker 8>But it's the chain. It's just a gold wait minute,
<v Speaker 8>and he got me a deal. It's got more sentimental
<v Speaker 8>value than anything I own. It's just a gold chain.
<v Speaker 8>But it's the chain that Brian got me when we
<v Speaker 8>were the Hollywood Blondes. And I had it ripped off
<v Speaker 8>one time in a fight and thrown a and throwing
<v Speaker 8>a pretty good distance into the bushes, and wondered if
<v Speaker 8>I was gonna lose it.
<v Speaker 4>But I looked real hard and found it. I swear
<v Speaker 4>that chain. I wear that chain all the time. That's
<v Speaker 4>the when you see around my neck on w television, had.
<v Speaker 8>In many photos, and Brian is right there with me
<v Speaker 8>about the same time, we came up with all the
<v Speaker 8>stupid little camera stuff out of the brush with greatness.
<v Speaker 8>That was when Brian would do a comedy panamime like
<v Speaker 8>he was filming me while I put a power move
<v Speaker 8>on a guy. We got a little bit more interview
<v Speaker 8>time and the fans were gotting into what we were doing.
<v Speaker 4>We were different and we were.
<v Speaker 8>Listening, and we listened to the fans to gauge what
<v Speaker 8>they were buying from us. Then we started making fun
<v Speaker 8>of the legendary Rick Flair. We figured that would get
<v Speaker 8>us some heat with the crowd. It did because we
<v Speaker 8>were so damned cocky, especially Pillman. He was a Hollywood
<v Speaker 8>Blonds guiding force. The Flair for the Old segment got
<v Speaker 8>over real big. This was a parody at the Hollywood
<v Speaker 8>Blonds did on Rick Flair and arn Anderson in WCW.
<v Speaker 8>Every week, Flare at a televised segment called a Flair
<v Speaker 8>for the Gold with Arn Anderson as his co host,
<v Speaker 8>and he'd feature himself on what or one of his
<v Speaker 8>friends in some kind of cheesey interview segment.
<v Speaker 4>Brian and I would.
<v Speaker 8>Rag on those guys and our promos and refer to
<v Speaker 8>that segment as a flair for the old to get
<v Speaker 8>heat on us w being wise asses and not respecting
<v Speaker 8>the legends, whom we actually admired greatly. It was all
<v Speaker 8>ad libbed. We just went out there and did it.
<v Speaker 8>They turned out to be some very entertainment segments and
<v Speaker 8>the fans started cheering us. That got us legit heat
<v Speaker 8>with the office because it was turning us baby face.
<v Speaker 3>Baby, hell, hell a baby.
<v Speaker 8>No turn me baby, I'm playing hell, I'm playing baby.
<v Speaker 8>I'm wondering what in the goddamn hell's going on.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like a mother Teresa's on, I'm healing a baby.
<v Speaker 8>Brian always got more interview time than I did because
<v Speaker 8>Brian could really run the mouth.
<v Speaker 4>Run at the mouth, by the way, run the mouth,
<v Speaker 4>Run at the mouth.
<v Speaker 8>He had a very good command of the English language,
<v Speaker 8>so when they stuck the microphone in front of his mouth,
<v Speaker 8>it's just start going. He was real good at making
<v Speaker 8>a point and all like everyone else, and it was real,
<v Speaker 8>it was real well thought out. Just by hanging with him,
<v Speaker 8>I was forced to try and keep up on the mic.
<v Speaker 8>He was instrumental in getting my gears going thinking about
<v Speaker 8>how to cut promos well. Brian would be talking, I
<v Speaker 8>do arn Anderson by just standing behind him like a statue,
<v Speaker 8>running my chin and nodding in agreement with whatever he
<v Speaker 8>was saying.
<v Speaker 3>That intellectual nodding and stroking the chin was to mock
<v Speaker 3>double A. That's interesting.
<v Speaker 8>Yep, Yeah, that was some funny stuff we did. But
<v Speaker 8>we were put together as an interim tag team to
<v Speaker 8>put someone else over. We ended up getting over ourselves.
<v Speaker 8>You know, Pilman and I became a hot team. They
<v Speaker 8>shut us down, they buried us. They didn't want us
<v Speaker 8>to become popular. That was bogus and not good business
<v Speaker 8>because the fans wanted to see us, and there was
<v Speaker 8>an opportunity for the company to make fucking money.
<v Speaker 3>I'm looking for fucking all right. You added that, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>like is he done? It just says for the company
<v Speaker 3>to make money. That of course from the Steve Boston
<v Speaker 3>book The Stone Cold Truth, which I know we've accepted
<v Speaker 3>from before, probably when talking about the Austin Pillman angle
<v Speaker 3>or something, because yeah, the significance of that chain lasting
<v Speaker 3>all that time. So yeah, sure, that's that as far as.
<v Speaker 5>You know.
<v Speaker 3>Steve standing on the apron working against Rick Flair, watching
<v Speaker 3>him interacting with him in the ring for the first time,
<v Speaker 3>what's going through his mind and how does this fit
<v Speaker 3>into Steve's larger idea of where he was going in
<v Speaker 3>his career and who inspired him. Well. On the Broken
<v Speaker 3>Skull Sessions episode that he did with the Nature Boy,
<v Speaker 3>he talks about what's going through his mind, uh facing
<v Speaker 3>off against Flair at this point in time in WW
<v Speaker 3>and including here at this clash of the champions.
<v Speaker 19>I want to go back to you, know, like I
<v Speaker 19>remember back in our WCW days, I modeled my career,
<v Speaker 19>my early part of my career after you because I
<v Speaker 19>was so influenced by you. I just looked up to
<v Speaker 19>you and a lot of people back in the day
<v Speaker 19>because I had a little bit of an athletic style. Hey,
<v Speaker 19>this might be the next Ric Flair. Well, we both
<v Speaker 19>know that there's never gonna be another Rick Flair, but nonetheless, man,
<v Speaker 19>we'd go in there and we had some six mans,
<v Speaker 19>whether it's Anderson, South Carolina. Sure, those kind of local
<v Speaker 19>TV taps we used to do when we're all based
<v Speaker 19>out of Atlanta, you're probably still in Charlotte. Spend a
<v Speaker 19>lot of time in the dungeon. We're a lot of
<v Speaker 19>crazy things. We had some six man tags out there
<v Speaker 19>and I'm thinking, hey, man, you know this guy that
<v Speaker 19>he's getting a little bit older now, I said, I'm
<v Speaker 19>showing what's up tonight, And I said, I'm standing on
<v Speaker 19>the apron. Off of a sudden, you go out there
<v Speaker 19>and just start going into Rick Flair Moode, And I'm
<v Speaker 19>sitting there thinking, man, you got a all ways to
<v Speaker 19>go before you.
<v Speaker 10>Well, we're only I just said to you, you got
<v Speaker 10>plenty of time to do this. Yeah you did.
<v Speaker 19>I mean it was really interesting because you know how
<v Speaker 19>competitive the business is, and I think you were so successful.
<v Speaker 4>Because you took it so serious and I was too.
<v Speaker 19>But when all of a sudden, the guy that you're
<v Speaker 19>measuring yourself against, all of a sudden you're out there
<v Speaker 19>in the ring with him, when you're watching him doing work,
<v Speaker 19>you know, up close and personal, it's like, dude, you
<v Speaker 19>ain't never gonna be a Flair.
<v Speaker 3>So that set him back almost on his back foot, like,
<v Speaker 3>oh my gosh. Sure here I am thinking he's old
<v Speaker 3>enough that I can go in there and show him
<v Speaker 3>that I'm like the next generation, and he's I still
<v Speaker 3>can't keep up with him. I still can't be as
<v Speaker 3>you know, wild and electric as he is in that ring.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, honestly, that's that's that's.
<v Speaker 3>That would last quite a while, right before he could
<v Speaker 3>really lap Rick in that department. Yeah, but it says
<v Speaker 3>something about Steve's drive that he goes into these Hollywood
<v Speaker 3>LNS matches thinking he's gonna outwork Ric Flair essentially.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>Another version on Steve's podcast that he had before the
<v Speaker 3>Brookings Skull session show that they told a similar story
<v Speaker 3>to what Rick said, was that you know, you told me,
<v Speaker 3>you know, you don't have to take as many of
<v Speaker 3>the bumps tonight, like let me go out there and
<v Speaker 3>bump like I'm the younger guy. Let me do more
<v Speaker 3>of the bumps here. You don't have to be bumping
<v Speaker 3>like that. And Rix's comeback was, actually, You've got all
<v Speaker 3>the time in the world to bump like, it's not
<v Speaker 3>your time to just you know, rack up your bump
<v Speaker 3>card with so many years ahead of you in the business.
<v Speaker 3>In other words, I kind of want to take all
<v Speaker 3>the bumps, thank you very much. So we turned now
<v Speaker 3>to the breach mention the Flair makes in his book
<v Speaker 3>To Be the Man about this time period and underutilized
<v Speaker 3>talent in WCW and the Hollywood Blondes. Boss, if you
<v Speaker 3>could regale the solar system, please.
<v Speaker 4>To night the Renegade. There were so many guys I
<v Speaker 4>saw in WCW who were loaded with talent, among them Guerrero, Benoit,
<v Speaker 4>Chris Jericho, and Steve Austin. He and Brian Pillman were
<v Speaker 4>a tag team called the Hollywood Blonds. I had worked
<v Speaker 4>against Steve a few times, as did Steamboat and Arn
<v Speaker 4>and we all agreed there was he was a great performer.
<v Speaker 4>I had a positive attitude and went out of his
<v Speaker 4>Flair's off today. But whatever he has, Yeah, he had
<v Speaker 4>a positive attitude. Luger. I can't get into it. Whatever,
<v Speaker 4>I'm just gonna read it normal then. Uh. He had
<v Speaker 4>a positive attitude and went out of his way to
<v Speaker 4>make other people look good. Once before a match, he
<v Speaker 4>approached me with a few ideas, almost all of them
<v Speaker 4>involving him making him making me look good. I appreciated
<v Speaker 4>his generosity but had to stop him. Steve, we're almost together.
<v Speaker 4>You don't have to bounce around for an hour tonight.
<v Speaker 4>We'll both bounce around. Were equals. I saw a ton
<v Speaker 4>of potential in Steve Austin and believed that he could
<v Speaker 4>be a single star, but the people running WCW claimed
<v Speaker 4>that he was injury prone and bland and resented his
<v Speaker 4>habit of speaking his mind. So went to Steve there.
<v Speaker 4>All right, Yeah, so.
<v Speaker 3>Let's go to Flair's High Spots interview. This is like
<v Speaker 3>that six hour interview he did. Isn't make good for
<v Speaker 3>a Oh my god, for debts. He he talks about
<v Speaker 3>this period and I don't know, he comes with sort
<v Speaker 3>of like a very reserved tone to me, almost like
<v Speaker 3>he knows more than he's saying. Almost like when he
<v Speaker 3>says the people running w CW claimed that he was
<v Speaker 3>injury prone and bland, that he might be included in
<v Speaker 3>the people who are running w CW if you slice
<v Speaker 3>and dice it a certain way. Here he is being
<v Speaker 3>asked about this feud on the High Spots interview that
<v Speaker 3>he did a few years ago.
<v Speaker 11>First match back with arn Anderson wrestling Steve Austin, Brian Pillan.
<v Speaker 4>I loved it.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, I thought we had a good match too. Film
<v Speaker 10>and Austin could really work, as everybody knows, and Iron
<v Speaker 10>and I could do good chemistry, really good match.
<v Speaker 11>Do you wish you could have had a few more
<v Speaker 11>matches with him?
<v Speaker 10>Oh, yeah, we could have got a lot of that.
<v Speaker 10>I don't know. I can't tell you why we changed
<v Speaker 10>our own or why they do. I mean, the whole
<v Speaker 10>set up was good. You know, Brian and Osten had
<v Speaker 10>a little vision of what they were doing. They were
<v Speaker 10>good together.
<v Speaker 4>I don't know.
<v Speaker 10>I only had one match for him. I don't know
<v Speaker 10>there's something that I can refresh reckon. I don't know.
<v Speaker 11>Well, I think the match was you know, at the
<v Speaker 11>end of that match, Windham attacked you to set up
<v Speaker 11>the match.
<v Speaker 10>Yeah, I know that, but I mean that's why we
<v Speaker 10>didn't if I ended up going with Barry next.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, thanks for that lifeline there and the Barry thing,
<v Speaker 3>so I didn't have to say what I was really thinking. Now,
<v Speaker 3>I'm just I've decided just to make this a little
<v Speaker 3>like pet conspiracy theory that that that Flair was not
<v Speaker 3>much of a supporter of Steve's either. They said commimentary things,
<v Speaker 3>But the thing is he was only asked about working
<v Speaker 3>with Steve after Steve became stone cold, right. But here's
<v Speaker 3>Jody Hamilton, who it's kind of like a fly in
<v Speaker 3>the wall perspective. He has a book as well, called Assassin,
<v Speaker 3>and he of course was.
<v Speaker 4>Let me tell you something, Jody Hamilton ain't no fly
<v Speaker 4>on the wall.
<v Speaker 3>That's true, but he it was. You know, he helped
<v Speaker 3>Dusty book and he was watching proceedings very closely as
<v Speaker 3>well at this point in time, and I think he
<v Speaker 3>has an interesting perspective on this whole thing. When it
<v Speaker 3>came to booking, Flair was a lot like Dusty, Hamilton writes,
<v Speaker 3>he wanted to do it all himself and refused to
<v Speaker 3>use anybody else's ideas. Let's not forget, by the way,
<v Speaker 3>Flair would have the book quite soon in WCW in
<v Speaker 3>his own ring. He didn't want to take the chance
<v Speaker 3>of somebody else getting credit for any of the ideas.
<v Speaker 3>To be completely fair, that had been the attitude of
<v Speaker 3>bookers for decades. Paranoia ran rampant in the wrestling business,
<v Speaker 3>and it still does so. Most bookers were reluctant to
<v Speaker 3>ask anybody for suggestions or ideas. They thought, if Ford
<v Speaker 3>gets back to the boss that so and so has
<v Speaker 3>better ideas than I do, they'll fire me and hire him.
<v Speaker 3>The only bookers didn't seem paranoid were the ones who
<v Speaker 3>also owned the territory. There was one primary reason, however,
<v Speaker 3>why Flair failed as a booker. If you weren't one
<v Speaker 3>of his buddies, you wouldn't he wouldn't give you a push.
<v Speaker 3>It's as simple as that. There were a few guys
<v Speaker 3>who weren't his buddies who did get a push, but
<v Speaker 3>they were only given a push because he was forced
<v Speaker 3>to give it to them by somebody who overruled him.
<v Speaker 3>To make matters worse, if he didn't like you, not
<v Speaker 3>only would he not push you, but he would hold
<v Speaker 3>you back. The most glaring example of that was Steve Austin.
<v Speaker 3>Flair promises made promises to Steve, telling him that he
<v Speaker 3>was going to take care of him, but when it
<v Speaker 3>came time to follow through on those promises, he didn't deliver.
<v Speaker 3>Steve finally realized that he wasn't going to move past
<v Speaker 3>a certain level as long as Flair was in power Wow.
<v Speaker 3>When it came time to a newest contract, he decided
<v Speaker 3>to leave w CW and make a move to WWE.
<v Speaker 3>Vince McMahon took Steve Austin, a good looking young wrestler,
<v Speaker 3>had him shave his head and turned him into stone
<v Speaker 3>cold Steve Austin. That's how Jody Hamilton sees it and
<v Speaker 3>look Austin would leave. Remember you know the twenty second
<v Speaker 3>job to Hacksaw on pay per view? Yeah, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>being failed, being fired via FedEx and stuff. Flair had
<v Speaker 3>as much power in that regime as Hogan did. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>Hogan had the ultimate power, but day to day Flair
<v Speaker 3>was booking that company back then. So you can't the
<v Speaker 3>way it ends with Steve. I think it's very it's
<v Speaker 3>very suspect if you don't put most of it on Flair.
<v Speaker 3>So take that for what it's worth.
<v Speaker 4>That's that's nuts.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. In that High Spots clip, I just
<v Speaker 3>heard too many pregnant pauses from Rick, Like I know
<v Speaker 3>the real story here, but I'm trying to remember something
<v Speaker 3>I can say about why we didn't continue with the
<v Speaker 3>Blondes other than I came to the curtain or saw
<v Speaker 3>the rating, I was like, fuck this, no way. Because
<v Speaker 3>it's his return match. You've got to think he's watching
<v Speaker 3>that rating. You gotta think he oh yeah, absolutely absolutely.
<v Speaker 4>I mean I would imagine that that's going to be
<v Speaker 4>one of the more important things he's got to I mean,
<v Speaker 4>especially with his uh you know, we we we've we've
<v Speaker 4>we've chronicled his uh, his confidence and lack of it
<v Speaker 4>aslutely that's gotta be a huge thing. And if he
<v Speaker 4>ain't gonna work with somebody who's who's uh, you know,
<v Speaker 4>not lifting him.
<v Speaker 3>Up and it's not helping ww either. That they have
<v Speaker 3>Vader sid and rudversus Roadsting and a Davy Boy ahead
<v Speaker 3>of the Beach Blast, which is basically that match, but
<v Speaker 3>just a tag version of it. So the basic give
<v Speaker 3>that away on free TV. Barry Winnimbers too Cold Scorpio
<v Speaker 3>is pretty damn good actually as an NBA world title
<v Speaker 3>match on this show, mm hmm. But Barry's not long
<v Speaker 3>for this world as champs. So there's a lot of
<v Speaker 3>things on this clash that are sort of like lame
<v Speaker 3>duck in retrospective. Yeah, not that that was going through
<v Speaker 3>the fan's mind at the time, but it you know,
<v Speaker 3>it starts with Dix later versus Ron Simmons instead of
<v Speaker 3>Ron Simmons Versusaul Orndorf.
<v Speaker 4>That's not much trade off that fucking a piece of
<v Speaker 4>fucking Berry Wyndham's world champion. Well, you know, a champion named.
<v Speaker 3>Barry, champion named Barry, he uh just does not work.
<v Speaker 3>He's He's a he's an acquired taste.
<v Speaker 4>I feel like he is, and and you know what,
<v Speaker 4>that's a taste that I have not acquired.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely well, when viewed in his own context, he was
<v Speaker 3>he was excellent, but he was always pushed as more
<v Speaker 3>charismatic than he was because people, you know, knew his
<v Speaker 3>daddy and blah blah blah blah blah. But he was
<v Speaker 3>her next He was an excellent in wingworker, and he was.
<v Speaker 3>He wasn't a great promo, decent promo, but I definitely
<v Speaker 3>definitely pushed harder than you would expect considering.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, it's always funny. I always say he had
<v Speaker 4>the look, and I just never saw the look in him.
<v Speaker 3>He's got a goofy kind of Yeah, he's got like
<v Speaker 3>a pre Vince expansion baby face build, like a Tommy
<v Speaker 3>Rich kind of like a la you know what he
<v Speaker 3>was like in the US express he had like that
<v Speaker 3>blonde kind of like you know, pretty boy, young upstart looks, and.
<v Speaker 4>He's got that terrible, terrible, thin blonde hair.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's a negative. It's a negative, absolutely negative. And
<v Speaker 3>then he had this fuck that was his dad that
<v Speaker 3>had the counterfeiting charges. That was also a problem. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that can get in the way of your push as well.
<v Speaker 3>But I certainly love the stalker though. Yeah, that was money,
<v Speaker 3>that's a meant, that's some meant that his legacy to me.
<v Speaker 4>We're gonna bring it back, and like what we should do.
<v Speaker 4>I think the only thing we can do is make
<v Speaker 4>you a predator of sorts. You don't like, You're just
<v Speaker 4>not that I. You know, it's I don't. I don't predate,
<v Speaker 4>that's for sure. And this too, we can't lose sight
<v Speaker 4>of this. This is the beach blast.
<v Speaker 3>This is the one with the mini movie that shared
<v Speaker 3>Sidela green lit, with the buxploding boat yep, and the
<v Speaker 3>midget that blows the boat up. Remember all this this
<v Speaker 3>is like part and parcel of why Davy boys WTW
<v Speaker 3>experience was so abortive that he took part in this.
<v Speaker 3>So there's all over the place, and they're spending money
<v Speaker 3>on that when they have when they don't have a
<v Speaker 3>pot to piss, and they're spending untold amounts of money
<v Speaker 3>on that thing.
<v Speaker 4>Just pathetic.
<v Speaker 3>Meltzer reported at the time that the the TBS contract
<v Speaker 3>to air Clash of the Champions called for two more
<v Speaker 3>ninety three, at which point they would have to renegotiate.
<v Speaker 3>So in a renegotiation year, you better not be coming
<v Speaker 3>in with all time low ratings. That's not gonna help
<v Speaker 3>you no way. So it was a tough deal all around.
<v Speaker 3>Norfolk Scope though legendary building. Look at that ceiling, baby,
<v Speaker 3>give me a sense of play.
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it.
<v Speaker 4>I remember whenever we did I think it was star
<v Speaker 4>K ninety one, and somebody emailed us kind of talking
<v Speaker 4>about how it's such a it was such a nasty building.
<v Speaker 4>But I love that that ceiling. Oh, it's so important.
<v Speaker 3>Every arena in this country should have a signature ceiling.
<v Speaker 3>Why even build a new stadium if you're not going
<v Speaker 3>to do that right or a new arena. So the
<v Speaker 3>house is in like the twenty thousand dollars range, six
<v Speaker 3>thousand people there, We talked about the the paid and
<v Speaker 3>the paid and non paid split. Just just a very
<v Speaker 3>very negative time. Their Their average gate in June of
<v Speaker 3>ninety two compared to June and ninety three, it was
<v Speaker 3>a fifty three percent drop. Their attendance went down fifty
<v Speaker 3>three percent from a really low period christ they sold
<v Speaker 3>out no house shows and June ninety three. They sold
<v Speaker 3>out seven percent in June and ninety two. Nothing to
<v Speaker 3>hang their hat on, no signs of life. You know
<v Speaker 3>it's still there, know something, it had been demolished, it's
<v Speaker 3>still there there.
<v Speaker 4>Yep.
<v Speaker 11>Wow.
<v Speaker 3>Bichef's saying this podcast to the goal of the clash.
<v Speaker 3>You know, if you get three four, if you're going
<v Speaker 3>to hit a four year hero. But if you're in
<v Speaker 3>that three four range, that's pretty damn good. But a
<v Speaker 3>two six or two five that was considered pretty miserable.
<v Speaker 3>He said, there's pressure on everybody when a rating like
<v Speaker 3>that comes out. He couldn't take single handed responsibility for
<v Speaker 3>the performance of a show, but as part of the team,
<v Speaker 3>we were all in it together. We were all disappointed together,
<v Speaker 3>he says. He also wants to point out that because
<v Speaker 3>of where they had come from and how bad things
<v Speaker 3>were prior to that clash of the Champions, like a
<v Speaker 3>year before, he wants to you know, he's been saying
<v Speaker 3>Bill Watts, it wasn't like Creative was under the gun.
<v Speaker 3>Like everybody who's looking at Dusty, You're looking OLDI and going,
<v Speaker 3>what the fuck are you doing? If we don't turn
<v Speaker 3>this thing around next week? Your ideas are horrible, You're fired.
<v Speaker 3>It was not Bichef says that type of a situation.
<v Speaker 3>Everyone knew we were rebuilding, but at the same time
<v Speaker 3>we couldn't take any comfort in that. So it's not like,
<v Speaker 3>in other words, not like anything changed as a result
<v Speaker 3>of this rating. That would be fucking crazy, right. But
<v Speaker 3>one of the signature Bischoff things that he does have
<v Speaker 3>control over and that you do see his impremeteur on
<v Speaker 3>during this slash of the Champions is Michael Buffer.
<v Speaker 4>That's true.
<v Speaker 3>Now, I know for a fact that I've in a
<v Speaker 3>past episode. I'll be damned if I couldn't find it.
<v Speaker 3>Took the time and stopped it. Nothing until I find
<v Speaker 3>out found out Rather, what was Michael Buffer's first WCW appearance.
<v Speaker 3>This seems like it because they interview him.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and they make a big deal And I think,
<v Speaker 4>I don't know if they even they make a big
<v Speaker 4>deal that he's there right too, Like it's not I mean,
<v Speaker 4>they own just interview, but they talk about him being there.
<v Speaker 4>They make it very very apparent that this is got
<v Speaker 4>to be his first appearance.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, a special occasion for sure, And they actually have
<v Speaker 3>Bischoff and Zibisco and what used to be the old
<v Speaker 3>genocal in position doing interviews on a stage with the
<v Speaker 3>fans behind him, and that that's where Michael Buffer offers
<v Speaker 3>some words and you know, shows a little bit of
<v Speaker 3>being somewhat conversant in the language of wrestling. A Bischoff
<v Speaker 3>said that he was He was at least a fan
<v Speaker 3>of the business. He knew enough about the business to
<v Speaker 3>be excited by the opportunity and certainly liked the idea
<v Speaker 3>of being on on on the TBS family of networks
<v Speaker 3>with his his vocal stylings. But this, this is Bischoff,
<v Speaker 3>This is Bischoff's regime. Like, not who's wrestling, not who's
<v Speaker 3>going over, not who's got what gimmick, not directing promos
<v Speaker 3>or angles or storylines, but you know who's doing the
<v Speaker 3>ring announcing, right, who's doing the TV announcement? What camera
<v Speaker 3>angles are we using, what venues are we taping?
<v Speaker 4>Mm hmm.
<v Speaker 3>That's his his that's where he makes his his bones.
<v Speaker 3>And this route, this Michael Buffer move was a pretty
<v Speaker 3>big deal, as he explained on his podcast eighty three weeks.
<v Speaker 1>But the what was clear to me, and what was
<v Speaker 1>part of the the agenda that was made clear to
<v Speaker 1>me is we had to attract national advertisers. We could
<v Speaker 1>not be perceived as a regional company any longer, you know.
<v Speaker 1>And part of it was inherent. You know, TBS was
<v Speaker 1>perceived as a regional Southern network even at that time,
<v Speaker 1>even though they were national. Most people thought of TBS
<v Speaker 1>and they thought of Atlanta Braves and Andy Mayberry, you know,
<v Speaker 1>because that's what it was built upon. So that stigma
<v Speaker 1>or that association was prevalent not only in WCW but
<v Speaker 1>across the board. And that was one of the things
<v Speaker 1>that was made clear to me that I had to change.
<v Speaker 1>So in changing that, it's one of the reasons on
<v Speaker 1>this particular pay or excuse me, on this clash, I
<v Speaker 1>brought in Michael Buffer. Why did I bring in Michael Buffer?
<v Speaker 1>Because he had such a high profile in major sporting events,
<v Speaker 1>beyond wrestling and beyond the southern traditional kind of nwas
<v Speaker 1>TBS ESQ footprint. It was a way to kind of
<v Speaker 1>change the perception.
<v Speaker 3>Good thing. The leading voice in boxing at the time
<v Speaker 3>didn't have a Southern accent. I don't know what the
<v Speaker 3>fuck he would have done then, Oh.
<v Speaker 4>I think he would have just you might have jumped
<v Speaker 4>out of a window.
<v Speaker 3>But I have to say, as much as they may
<v Speaker 3>have spent on Michael Buffer and as extraneous as it
<v Speaker 3>may have seemed at times, I think it was a
<v Speaker 3>good move.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, Yeah, I think it added It added a different
<v Speaker 4>like like a little a legitimacy to him, to everything.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it actually meant something to you that Michael Buffer
<v Speaker 3>chose to work for WCWA, that he wasn't just like
<v Speaker 3>WWF or BUST, right, because we're still in that time
<v Speaker 3>period where WWF is synonymous with the entire industry of
<v Speaker 3>pro wrestling. WSW has yet to make in roads in
<v Speaker 3>that department. But you know, as Bischoff Institute's change, someone's
<v Speaker 3>gonna lose. You know, as he takes as he jumps
<v Speaker 3>off the bench from third string announcer to the boss,
<v Speaker 3>Jim Roscoe's and as he puts Michael Buffer in the
<v Speaker 3>announced position for the big events, Gary Michael Kpetti is
<v Speaker 3>sitting there like, oh shit. And I think a nice
<v Speaker 3>flip side of the Bishoff regime that we've characterized and
<v Speaker 3>colored in here. In this episode, we turned to Garret
<v Speaker 3>Michael Copetti's book Finally Here for some perspective on how
<v Speaker 3>he experienced the Bischoff regime, Oh boy, working in a
<v Speaker 3>position that Bischoff actually had direct hire and hiring and
<v Speaker 3>firing dominion over, I witnessed Eric's aggressive self promotional style
<v Speaker 3>early on. He writes. It was only a couple of
<v Speaker 3>months after he arrived at the CNN Center for his
<v Speaker 3>first WCW job as an announcer. In the green room
<v Speaker 3>of our production studios, as we both waited to voice
<v Speaker 3>over our weekly programs, Bischoff showed me a storyboard of
<v Speaker 3>a kid's TV program he had developed. It was a
<v Speaker 3>game show in which w w's wrestling stars were matched
<v Speaker 3>against youngsters in the Nickelodeon style of fun family programming. Eric,
<v Speaker 3>of course, would be the host. The first week, he
<v Speaker 3>was excited to have arranged an audience with a Turner
<v Speaker 3>exec who could give the green light in his project.
<v Speaker 3>The next week, he returned frustrated at being rejected. The
<v Speaker 3>third week, he was already pitching his idea to the
<v Speaker 3>folks at Disney. The guy never gave up. He always
<v Speaker 3>saw wrestling as a springboard to loftier heights.
<v Speaker 4>There you go.
<v Speaker 3>That's all we've ever been saying. Doesn't make him a
<v Speaker 3>bad guy?
<v Speaker 4>M hmm, yep.
<v Speaker 3>But to deny it is to really have blinders on yes.
<v Speaker 3>From the beginning, his primary goal was to make a
<v Speaker 3>name for himself that would allow him to hob now
<v Speaker 3>with Hollywood types. After his stint with w CW was
<v Speaker 3>over predictably, Eric found it distasteful to play the junior
<v Speaker 3>announcer to broadcast veterans Jim Ross and Tony Shivani. But
<v Speaker 3>playing second fiddle was only temporary. It would just be
<v Speaker 3>a matter of time before he would step over his
<v Speaker 3>more experienced, more talented colleagues. They would someday be worsen
<v Speaker 3>for Bishoff, and now that day had finally come. Something
<v Speaker 3>that power changes a person, I don't think so. Power
<v Speaker 3>simply allows one to reveal his true self without fear
<v Speaker 3>of reprising. Yes and Bischof's transformation from toothy grinned telecaster
<v Speaker 3>to TBS top brass was radical. As a second string announcer,
<v Speaker 3>he was go along, get along kind of guy, but
<v Speaker 3>when he moved into the driver's seat, he pushed the
<v Speaker 3>pedal to the medal with an it'sma way or the
<v Speaker 3>highway arrogance. Nevertheless, Eric now had the combination to the
<v Speaker 3>company safe. He began to revamp WCW from the ground up.
<v Speaker 3>He spent four hundred grand to update the sets of
<v Speaker 3>WWS TV shows. He hired former WWF on air talent.
<v Speaker 3>He enlisted scriptwriters in an attempt to rival the storyline
<v Speaker 3>formula of episodic TV that had worked so well for
<v Speaker 3>the WWF. He paid big money for Vince's former arena
<v Speaker 3>promoter to jump ship that scene bread the most important
<v Speaker 3>part of wcw' success story that nobody talks about whose
<v Speaker 3>now I passed away. Unfortunately, the smooth sales job that
<v Speaker 3>convinced Turner to entrust him with the control of the
<v Speaker 3>company gained Eric the freedom to shape ww's television product
<v Speaker 3>as he saw fit. I had naturally wondered what part
<v Speaker 3>I would play in Eric's vision. It would not take
<v Speaker 3>long to find out the answer. As Bischoff suited up
<v Speaker 3>for a slugfest against Junior for what would be the
<v Speaker 3>biggest wrestling war in the history of the business. Many
<v Speaker 3>characteristically scoffed at the notion that anyone could rival his success.
<v Speaker 3>From the first TV taping that Eric produced, his plans
<v Speaker 3>for ME became crystal clear. For the preceding five years,
<v Speaker 3>I had enjoyed prominent on air roll Jim Cornett had
<v Speaker 3>dubbed me the world's most dangerous announcer. Jesse Eventurer playfully
<v Speaker 3>referred to me as Capetski. The production team accepted me
<v Speaker 3>as a full member of the production family, rare for
<v Speaker 3>a ring announcer. The directors were generous with close ups,
<v Speaker 3>name mentions, and the occasional interview. But soon after arriving
<v Speaker 3>at the Dothan Civic Center in Alabama for his first
<v Speaker 3>day as producer of the w CW syndicated television show,
<v Speaker 3>Bischoff began to banish me from the close knit family Wow,
<v Speaker 3>with little regard for my years of loyalty to the
<v Speaker 3>parent company. And as had been the case with McMahon
<v Speaker 3>fifteen years earlier, I was appalled at Eric's manor of
<v Speaker 3>cleaning house. Gary, I just came up with an idea.
<v Speaker 3>I want you to try something new starting these tapings.
<v Speaker 3>Eric delivered his message with so much enthusiasm that I
<v Speaker 3>was already picturing the toys rush sheelves overflowing with a
<v Speaker 3>Gary Michael Capetta battery operated microphone that our head of
<v Speaker 3>merchandising had promised me years before. Sure, Eric, what is it?
<v Speaker 3>I want you to speed up your introductions, you know,
<v Speaker 3>make them livelier. Don't change your announcements, They're fine. Just
<v Speaker 3>pick up the pace. It's not a problem. Whatever you
<v Speaker 3>think of the means. What's that pick up the pace?
<v Speaker 3>That means pick up the be less of a thing.
<v Speaker 4>On my TV show?
<v Speaker 19>Right?
<v Speaker 3>It means yeah, exactly good. So you don't have any
<v Speaker 3>objections to changing your style a little. When Eric uttered
<v Speaker 3>that one crucial question for extra emphasis, I should have
<v Speaker 3>suspected I was being set up. Before long, I learned
<v Speaker 3>that he was only telling me a small part of
<v Speaker 3>his plan. He failed to mention that he'd already instructed
<v Speaker 3>our director to avoid capturing me on camera, and then
<v Speaker 3>told the play by play guys to talk over my
<v Speaker 3>muted announcement.
<v Speaker 4>Oh my god.
<v Speaker 3>At effect, he slyly and subtly eliminated me from the show,
<v Speaker 3>so that the damage was done without my knowledge. It
<v Speaker 3>wasn't until the program started to air when I realized
<v Speaker 3>this was not a last minute Bischoff brainstorm. Unfortunately, telling
<v Speaker 3>me only a portion of the truth became one of
<v Speaker 3>Eric's bad habits. I was further silenced later that same
<v Speaker 3>week when word came to me that I would no
<v Speaker 3>longer be needed to voice over the commentary for our
<v Speaker 3>Spanish language syndicated show, as I had done in the past.
<v Speaker 3>But it was Eric's third chop to the throat that
<v Speaker 3>left me in stunned silence. Not only because it was
<v Speaker 3>the blow that stripped me of the lead ring announcer
<v Speaker 3>position for our major shows. Not only because he was
<v Speaker 3>hiring a boxing announcer who was unfamiliar with the nuances
<v Speaker 3>of wrestling to work our most prestigious events. No, I
<v Speaker 3>was dumbfounded by the hippocrisy that Bischoff demonstrated the day
<v Speaker 3>he arranged a meeting to tell me of his plan,
<v Speaker 3>well at least part of his plan. When I arrived
<v Speaker 3>at w W headquarters, Gary Juster called me into his office,
<v Speaker 3>where Eric soon joined us. Here is how Bischof's latest
<v Speaker 3>story went geary. In order to elevate the importance of
<v Speaker 3>our next Clash, the Champion Special, I'm gonna bring Michael
<v Speaker 3>Buffer in to handle the announcements for the main event.
<v Speaker 3>Now it will only be for this one show, and
<v Speaker 3>I wanted you to hear this directly from me so
<v Speaker 3>that you won't misinterpret Buffer's appearance at the clash. I
<v Speaker 3>want you to know how much I value you work.
<v Speaker 3>Although there are going to be quite a few changes,
<v Speaker 3>and nobody's position is safe, you should know that you
<v Speaker 3>will not be affected by the cuts that are going
<v Speaker 3>that we are going to make nobody's nobody's position is safe.
<v Speaker 3>That's great, thanks pal. I just want you to know
<v Speaker 3>it well. I just want you to not be able
<v Speaker 3>to accuse me of lying when I fire your fucking ass.
<v Speaker 3>Just took an in her office call, then excused himself
<v Speaker 3>from the meeting. As soon as the doors shut, Eric
<v Speaker 3>lowered his voice leaned toward me in hush tones. He continued,
<v Speaker 3>if there's anyone who should be concerned for his job,
<v Speaker 3>it's him. As Eric sternly gestured toward the closed door
<v Speaker 3>with an assertive nod, I sat there in a state
<v Speaker 3>of shock. Wasn't he aware that it was through Jester
<v Speaker 3>that I had got my big break with WCW. Didn't
<v Speaker 3>he know that Gary and I had enjoyed a long friendship.
<v Speaker 3>Was Eric putting on a show for me? Or was
<v Speaker 3>he really that cold? As I sat facing Bischoff, it
<v Speaker 3>was clear he was not to be trusted. Either he
<v Speaker 3>was setting me up again, or Eric was demonstrating that
<v Speaker 3>he had the compassion of a cleaver wielding butcher. I
<v Speaker 3>began to feel like an animal en route to slaughter.
<v Speaker 3>It became clear that I too was being set up
<v Speaker 3>for the kill. And that's when I decided to sneak
<v Speaker 3>out to seek out legal representation for our upcoming contract negotiations.
<v Speaker 3>And that's when an incensed Eric stopped the I'm your
<v Speaker 3>buddy ureade. Wow, he would worked there for several more years.
<v Speaker 3>I think Kapetta was down in ninety five.
<v Speaker 4>I think something like that.
<v Speaker 3>We actually had to sit there next to Michael Buffer
<v Speaker 3>for years and watch him do the important while he
<v Speaker 3>sat there like a bit. That's so crazy, it's pretty funny.
<v Speaker 3>But that's that's a little taste of you know, Bishoff
<v Speaker 3>in the earliest days of getting power. How he's changing
<v Speaker 3>things around and how it's impacting people that had kind
<v Speaker 3>of defined WCW up to that point in time. Well, boss,
<v Speaker 3>we got but you got David boy in the card indeed,
<v Speaker 3>and a long standing thing. As we've gone back to
<v Speaker 3>the random draws for twenty four shows, I'll just say
<v Speaker 3>it's funny how for years we never really went under
<v Speaker 3>the mat.
<v Speaker 4>For a long time.
<v Speaker 3>Now we've read the whole book in one year.
<v Speaker 4>This year, we have gone back so many times?
<v Speaker 3>Is it possible to talk about this brief but fascinating?
<v Speaker 3>I mean, look, who's in the dark match on this show?
<v Speaker 3>Jim Knightheart in WCW. Maybe I don't have that. Actually
<v Speaker 3>I didn't have that in Bowie shot of nineteen ninety three,
<v Speaker 3>Jim Knighthart wrestling for WCW.
<v Speaker 4>How do we bat's insane?
<v Speaker 3>How do we get here? Diana?
<v Speaker 4>Well, let's see what she says. Davy returned to the
<v Speaker 4>to the WCW, the rival federation to the WWE, as
<v Speaker 4>Davy Boyce Smith turned returned. So I guess he was
<v Speaker 4>there at some point that I wasn't aware of and
<v Speaker 4>that nobody was aware of. And there are no contracts
<v Speaker 4>to prove that he was there. He signed a contract
<v Speaker 4>with Bill Potts, but he never really liked it there.
<v Speaker 4>It was way too clicky. It's kind of funny given
<v Speaker 4>given the click and the WWE as a little bit later,
<v Speaker 4>and the management never treated Davy like one of their own. Instead,
<v Speaker 4>Eric Bischoff focused on Steve Borden aka Sting really is
<v Speaker 4>and that Bischoff focused on him, did he focused on.
<v Speaker 3>He's focusing on Steve.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he's focusing on.
<v Speaker 7>He's focusing, He's focusing. Do you see it, die, do
<v Speaker 7>you see the focus on Steve Borden.
<v Speaker 4>Steve began as Ultimate Warriors tag team partner back when
<v Speaker 4>Ultimate Warrior was the Dingo Warrior. It's not true.
<v Speaker 3>Before that, right, he was Rock and Blade before that,
<v Speaker 3>and then he came Dingo in Texas after right, Steve together,
<v Speaker 3>right and together they were the Blade Runners. I always
<v Speaker 3>thought Sting was overrated. Gary Hart shirt right, that's exactly right.
<v Speaker 4>Garry Heart is the same thing. But what really got
<v Speaker 4>me was that Eric was having Davy beaten by Leon
<v Speaker 4>White a ka Von Vader. Oh yeah, that Van Vader.
<v Speaker 4>In violent dangerous matches. Vader was clumsy and unskilled. Unskilled,
<v Speaker 4>He's very skilled. He's just you know, he's just gonna
<v Speaker 4>kick your ass. If he's gonna kick your ass before
<v Speaker 4>you can kick his. I got the impression he was
<v Speaker 4>trying to knock Davy out cold. That's probably true. It
<v Speaker 4>reached the point where our son Harry and I couldn't
<v Speaker 4>even watch these matches on TV. When Davey tried to retaliate,
<v Speaker 4>he was called on the carpet. But that's soundly such
<v Speaker 4>like a like a like a fifties or sixties term.
<v Speaker 4>Absolutely called him the carpet. What that this is? I
<v Speaker 4>guess generic WCW management. What the hell are you doing?
<v Speaker 4>Davy Vader's our world chap, Get out here in the carpet,
<v Speaker 4>Come on, get over here right now, so I know
<v Speaker 4>it's so great.
<v Speaker 3>She thought he would be as over as Sting in WCW,
<v Speaker 3>as he wasn't.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I guess. Eventually Davy and Sting tagged against Votter
<v Speaker 4>and sid Udy aka sid Vicious. Sid Invader would handle
<v Speaker 4>Sting like he was porcelain China, but when Davey stepped
<v Speaker 4>into the ring, they'd power bomb him with all their might.
<v Speaker 4>They were destroying his health. I don't know about themself.
<v Speaker 4>Has something destroying I'd say, I think, yeah, hurting him
<v Speaker 4>in every match. Thankfully, Davy was the best wrestler out
<v Speaker 4>there and could legitimately take care of himself. He continued
<v Speaker 4>to be professional and do what he was told. In
<v Speaker 4>February and March of nineteen ninety three, the WCW sent
<v Speaker 4>David to Europe. He was a huge hit and took
<v Speaker 4>the WCW from seven hundred seats in the King's Court
<v Speaker 4>in London to selling out the Royal Abbot Hall twice
<v Speaker 4>in one day. Is there a legitimate is that legit?
<v Speaker 3>Never heard that? I mean he's talking about WW when
<v Speaker 3>they went the European tour. Yeah, yeah, I mean they
<v Speaker 3>did great business on that tour, that's for sure. In
<v Speaker 3>July of that year, Davy was facing a seven to
<v Speaker 3>fourteen year jail sentence over an altercation in a bar
<v Speaker 3>with a guy named Cody Light. Cody claimed Davy man
<v Speaker 3>held him. Specifically, he alleged Davy smashed his head into
<v Speaker 3>the wall into what wall exactly? Says, no wall, she
<v Speaker 3>has not set up. I guess the bar of the
<v Speaker 3>wall of the bar.
<v Speaker 4>I guess.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, he hadn't even broken into the business yet.
<v Speaker 4>Uh Davy the wall oh uh pile drived him onto
<v Speaker 4>the floor and power bombed him. I mean even to
<v Speaker 4>make those accusations, like if any if any lawyer were
<v Speaker 4>to look at a video of that, they'd be like, really,
<v Speaker 4>you couldn't not go up right and stick your feet up.
<v Speaker 3>In Well, that was go on, read on if I
<v Speaker 3>remember correctly, that actually was an issue at trial.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, all these accusations were untrue. You can you cannot
<v Speaker 4>put these moves on a civilian. Oh, this is one
<v Speaker 4>of my favorite. We have a shirt from this fucking
<v Speaker 4>line right here. It takes two to create certain holds.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my God help us. The hits are back. In
<v Speaker 3>the spirit of TLFX, folks, you.
<v Speaker 4>Can you can get that shirt at Progressingta's dot com
<v Speaker 4>slash Lapstoe.
<v Speaker 3>I was like we turned into a oldie the oldie
<v Speaker 3>station sometimes exactly.
<v Speaker 4>It's not like Davy was looking for a fight that night.
<v Speaker 4>Other nights he does, but not that night. But we
<v Speaker 4>were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It
<v Speaker 4>was a Saturday night. We were tired from a day
<v Speaker 4>trip to the Rocky Ford Rodeo. Okay, this was during
<v Speaker 4>the time he was working at the WCW and wrestling
<v Speaker 4>in title shots. This was during the time he was
<v Speaker 4>working at the WCW and wrestling in title shots against
<v Speaker 4>von Vater. He said, like he felt his back was
<v Speaker 4>going to shatter. Davy and I stopped, had stopped onto
<v Speaker 4>the into the back alley nightclub. We rarely went out
<v Speaker 4>to nightclubs because fans would pester us. Really yeah, I
<v Speaker 4>don't know, but this night a friend of ours wanted
<v Speaker 4>to buy us a drink in order to impress her friends.
<v Speaker 4>I don't drink, So I got up to dance with Adam,
<v Speaker 4>our friend's teenage son.
<v Speaker 3>Excuse me, A teenage son is in the.
<v Speaker 4>Nineties son, teenage son, isn't?
<v Speaker 20>I mean?
<v Speaker 4>I guess, I guess he could be eighteen and be
<v Speaker 4>a teenage son. But nonetheless, why are you dancing with
<v Speaker 4>him in a nightclub?
<v Speaker 12>Like?
<v Speaker 3>Respect respectfully, respectfully. I don't think the chances are zero
<v Speaker 3>that after Davy passed away, Diana had some dalliances with teenagers.
<v Speaker 3>Oh for sure, you know, like I'm talking like eighteen,
<v Speaker 3>I'm not talking anything illegal.
<v Speaker 15>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah, like you like Charlie Hill, like a like
<v Speaker 3>Linda's boyfriend kind of thing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, look she she listened.
<v Speaker 3>Think how much he sacrificed.
<v Speaker 4>You know, Diana Hart needed a little young cock. All right,
<v Speaker 4>it's fine, exactly.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if people get so animated by the
<v Speaker 3>suggestion like nooks so judgmental that like that that would
<v Speaker 3>true would be a problem.
<v Speaker 4>You know, think about it. Think about it. Any any
<v Speaker 4>person after they've been in relationships for as long as
<v Speaker 4>as as Davy and uh and and Diana or Linda
<v Speaker 4>and and and Hogan. You know they they they need
<v Speaker 4>a little they need some young.
<v Speaker 3>Fucking they need to be taken in the ocean grass. Right,
<v Speaker 3>that's right, exactly know what I mean? Like, all right,
<v Speaker 3>Dian Diana definitely wants to be like a cape Cod novelist. Yes,
<v Speaker 3>you know what I mean, someone who likes is divorced
<v Speaker 3>and moves to like someplace to write and ends up
<v Speaker 3>like getting with a twenty year old.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, and you know she needs she needs that, like
<v Speaker 4>she needs to be pounded by someone who can go.
<v Speaker 3>Honestly, didn't see I honestly didn't see that one coming.
<v Speaker 3>And look maybe this, uh, this upisode on the dance
<v Speaker 3>floor here in ninety three is exhibiting. And what we're
<v Speaker 3>talking about. I think I think maybe after the divorce
<v Speaker 3>for sure, that she and Adam they got it on
<v Speaker 3>and he and she received him a complete stranger named
<v Speaker 3>Cody Light who had been drinking there since the bar
<v Speaker 3>opened that he how does she know?
<v Speaker 1>This?
<v Speaker 4>Also? Is it a bar? Is it a nightclub?
<v Speaker 3>There is quite a difference. Actually, you're talking about hanging
<v Speaker 3>out with teenagers and stuff.
<v Speaker 4>Right, exactly, I mean, there's a huge difference. And also,
<v Speaker 4>how does she know he's been drinking since it opened.
<v Speaker 4>They weren't there when it opened, it was already opened.
<v Speaker 4>She kind of insinuated that, Yeah, well she makes up
<v Speaker 4>quotes too, so it's all I know. That's very true.
<v Speaker 4>So the bar opened that evening and had a blood
<v Speaker 4>I mean, okay, so we're talking about details. Here's one
<v Speaker 4>had a blood alcohol level six times the legal driving limit.
<v Speaker 4>I guess she had a breathalyzer or something too. Well,
<v Speaker 4>maybe baby came out in the case in the trial.
<v Speaker 4>Maybe maybe, I guess. I guess that is true. Approached
<v Speaker 4>us on the dance floor and began harassing us. He
<v Speaker 4>was slurring his words, and a brutifal chicks like here
<v Speaker 4>and a geek like that is screwing who's on top?
<v Speaker 15>Huh huh huh.
<v Speaker 4>Adam looked embarrassed, and I told him to ignore this idiot.
<v Speaker 4>Cody began lunging at my chest. Meanwhile, Davy had wanted
<v Speaker 4>over to find me, totally unaware of what Cody was doing.
<v Speaker 4>He tapped his watch to indicate we had to get going. Light.
<v Speaker 4>Comfort confronted Davy, Hey, I'm talking with lady that's my husband,
<v Speaker 4>I snapped, that's my wife, Davy added, Light smirked, you
<v Speaker 4>got a nice fucking wife. Then he grabbed Davy's hand
<v Speaker 4>and squeezed. Davy tried to free his hand, but Light
<v Speaker 4>wouldn't let go. Enough was enough. Davy put him in
<v Speaker 4>a foot face locked and walked him ten feet over
<v Speaker 4>to the bouncers, then abruptly.
<v Speaker 5>Let him go.
<v Speaker 4>Light stood up and as the blood rushed back to
<v Speaker 4>his head, he weaved and fell backward. There was glass
<v Speaker 4>from broken There was glass from broken beer bottles all
<v Speaker 4>over the floor, and some of it became embedded in
<v Speaker 4>the back of his skull. What is a hardcore match?
<v Speaker 4>And like what two thousand and one?
<v Speaker 16>Maybe?
<v Speaker 4>I mean? Also, what kind of estalagement are you going to?
<v Speaker 4>Where they don't sweep up the broken glass. An ambulance
<v Speaker 4>came and while we waited, Cody's friends began taunting Davy,
<v Speaker 4>challenging him to a fight. The bouncers instructed us to leave.
<v Speaker 4>Four things get out of hand. We returned to Florida
<v Speaker 4>Monday night as plan, and it wasn't until four months later,
<v Speaker 4>during a Christmas phone call to Brett, please we need
<v Speaker 4>more Christmas phone calls to Brett.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, be still my heart. I know Christmas, Christmas,
<v Speaker 3>nine Christmas.
<v Speaker 4>I need three, I need three?
<v Speaker 3>Three Okay, Blade, turn that, turn that super Nintendo down.
<v Speaker 3>It's Uncle Davey, mister hit Man.
<v Speaker 4>It's a hit Man. Are you there?
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I'm here. Oho, what all right? Christmas? Davy?
<v Speaker 4>And did you?
<v Speaker 5>And uh?
<v Speaker 3>And and I'm I'm fucked. Merry Christmas City.
<v Speaker 4>I'm fucked.
<v Speaker 3>He told me one Christmas because hit he calls, says,
<v Speaker 3>I'm a fucked.
<v Speaker 4>I'm so fucked right now.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I'm on crack. Yes, I'm a cran.
<v Speaker 4>I'm a crockhead.
<v Speaker 3>I called you on Christmas Day to lake. You know
<v Speaker 3>I'm a I'm a crackhead, he says. He says it
<v Speaker 3>very Christmas.
<v Speaker 4>I'm a fucking crockead.
<v Speaker 3>Christmas.
<v Speaker 4>I love it.
<v Speaker 3>Christmas Christmas Day, I'm a crackhead.
<v Speaker 4>I love it. Okay, I'm pissing in my Christmas tree
<v Speaker 4>right now. I'm watering the tree. Oh ship, yeah, and
<v Speaker 4>you know what, I'm gonna jerk off on the tree.
<v Speaker 3>The goose is almost ready.
<v Speaker 4>The goose is gonna get my comb. I'm coming, mister Hitman.
<v Speaker 3>And the goose is gonna get my calm. I'm coming,
<v Speaker 3>mister hitman. Oh oh.
<v Speaker 5>Oh, I did it. I did it, mister hitman. I
<v Speaker 5>came in the goose.
<v Speaker 4>My mince pie.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, Davy, Merry Christmas. I'll talk to you later.
<v Speaker 4>Oh my god, that's right, thanks Davy. Chris is calling
<v Speaker 4>for that. We found out the police were looking for Davy.
<v Speaker 4>Davy back to Calgary and turned himself in. He was
<v Speaker 4>locked up on charges of aggravated assault. He spent the
<v Speaker 4>weekend at the at the the Remand Center, and I
<v Speaker 4>posted seven thousand dollars bail. My dad had to put
<v Speaker 4>up a five hundred thousand dollars a surety bond. Jesus
<v Speaker 4>Christ for David. He at his passport back. Eh what
<v Speaker 4>oh no, all right was it? I guys don't want
<v Speaker 4>to sell the I'm going to sell the spit tell
<v Speaker 4>the spit for Davy. Don't want chicken, No more chicken,
<v Speaker 4>just eating grass for now on.
<v Speaker 3>Only Roadkill said that last week.
<v Speaker 4>By November, Davey still had not received his promised bonus
<v Speaker 4>for his European tour. Eric Bischoff took Davy up to
<v Speaker 4>a suite at the Marriott Residence in in Orlando to
<v Speaker 4>meet with him Bob Do, one of w CW's top
<v Speaker 4>managers in Bill Shaw, another suit I was there because
<v Speaker 4>the w CW had rented the whole courtyard at the
<v Speaker 4>Marriotte for a wrestling party. I remember talking to Brian
<v Speaker 4>Pillman and his new bride, Melanie. She was expecting Brian's
<v Speaker 4>first son. I felt like a third wheel hanging around
<v Speaker 4>them because they were sort of in that newlywed stage.
<v Speaker 4>Davy came back fuming. He said, when he asked for
<v Speaker 4>his bonus, Eric pulled out his false teeth. Is that true?
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure true. I'm sure she knew he had false teeth,
<v Speaker 3>but he didn't actually take them out. Oh I'd love
<v Speaker 3>to hear Eric respond to this.
<v Speaker 4>Does he have false teeth? Yes? Okay, and slapped him
<v Speaker 4>on the table and said he did he did. I
<v Speaker 4>have a black I have my black belt in karate,
<v Speaker 4>and I know you killed a man up in Calgary,
<v Speaker 4>but if you want to fight me over your money,
<v Speaker 4>then let's do it right now. David said that initially
<v Speaker 4>Eric had been leaning toward paying him, but that Bob
<v Speaker 4>Due refused and had acted like a complete asshole. Eric
<v Speaker 4>worked for Bob and Bill and Bill and Bob and
<v Speaker 4>then Brad all the bees and then Kevin and sc
<v Speaker 4>free Bees. Yep, that's right. So he switched horses and
<v Speaker 4>challenged Davy to a fight. Davey left the WCW shortly
<v Speaker 4>after that. They claimed he failed his drug test for
<v Speaker 4>steroids and cocaine and insisted he either enter rehab on
<v Speaker 4>Peachtree Street in Atlanta or leave. Davy refused. He didn't
<v Speaker 4>want to work for them anymore anyway. The only thing
<v Speaker 4>Davey felt bad about was that was the previous November,
<v Speaker 4>Davey had beaten Rick Rude aka Rick Rude. I mean, yes,
<v Speaker 4>she does spell it, but it still sounds stupid.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it does.
<v Speaker 4>Beaten Rick Rude aka Rick Rude. Davy was scheduled to
<v Speaker 4>return the f and in the time, on our tradition,
<v Speaker 4>lose to Rick at starkad. He called Rick to apologize,
<v Speaker 4>but Rick said, AH, don't worry about it, and that's it.
<v Speaker 3>Wow, amazing. WW always have to keep that series of
<v Speaker 3>unfortunate events in the way we talked about Davy ninety
<v Speaker 3>three yep, a titanlest Davy yep, Yes, out to pasture,
<v Speaker 3>like so many others, ended up being after Clash of
<v Speaker 3>the Champions twenty three. So before we deep dive this
<v Speaker 3>puppy as it took place on TBS all those years ago,
<v Speaker 3>we are obliged to remind you of a couple things.
<v Speaker 3>First of all, patreon dot com slash the lapsed fan
<v Speaker 3>rocking and rolling, Yes, the very eventful summer on Patreon.
<v Speaker 3>Of course, the Summer Slam live call coming soon your way.
<v Speaker 3>As we watch modern WDWBC, don't have to under the
<v Speaker 3>cinemat boss. Oh yes, Carneyes are forever, Carnies are forever.
<v Speaker 3>We are rocking and rolling. We're coming close to the end.
<v Speaker 3>We're taking a little bit of a detour, a little
<v Speaker 3>bit of a detour to discuss the the uh, the
<v Speaker 3>Kevin McClory situation. Will leave it at that right now.
<v Speaker 3>And it's got some very exciting turns. You know, it's
<v Speaker 3>a very exciting turn of events if you ask me,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm very and I'm very excited, I did say
<v Speaker 3>right away because it is a remake of Thunderball. So
<v Speaker 3>we are doing Thunderball. We found a connection that was
<v Speaker 3>found recently, so I actually figure there's no better time
<v Speaker 3>to do Thunderball. Actually believe it or not even though
<v Speaker 3>even though it happened during the Sean Connery era that
<v Speaker 3>we already did and we're already out, it fits in
<v Speaker 3>right here amazing just as well to be uh, to
<v Speaker 3>set up the remake.
<v Speaker 4>So I'm very excited, very very excited things to come.
<v Speaker 3>Bated breath as we go through every Bond film with
<v Speaker 3>a wrestling connection ever under the cinematic available to the
<v Speaker 3>executive producer tier and above, and of course includes the
<v Speaker 3>Moat tier, the only ones entitled to well, first of
<v Speaker 3>all the deepest cockles of our heart, but also in
<v Speaker 3>our deepest appreciation and our first thoughts when it comes
<v Speaker 3>to coming up with exclusive solar system get togethers that
<v Speaker 3>will every now and then wind up but also wrestle
<v Speaker 3>Mommy at Boss. Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>The most recent one was was Kurt Angle versus Shane McMahon,
<v Speaker 4>King of the Ring two thousand and one.
<v Speaker 3>What a thing to watch with Mama Sarrow.
<v Speaker 4>That's right, watching Shane McMahon get tossed through windows multiple
<v Speaker 4>times people will preview. Was she horrified? Oh yeah, oh
<v Speaker 4>she was. You know, it's the kind of stuff that
<v Speaker 4>I loved. Oh my god, Oh how do they do that?
<v Speaker 4>How can they do that?
<v Speaker 3>Exactly, just glorious everything watching stuff like that, as far
<v Speaker 3>as the consumption of wrestling from a speculator point of view,
<v Speaker 3>still alive in Mama Sarro's chair, available to you for
<v Speaker 3>a premium price at Patreon indeed, and so much more,
<v Speaker 3>including ad free versions of this show. Folks that are
<v Speaker 3>subscribed to us on Patreon. Last week, for example, got
<v Speaker 3>all the mic awesome stuff before anybody else as we
<v Speaker 3>went through the contract and the club and everything like that.
<v Speaker 3>So uh, definitely definitely an investment that pays off over
<v Speaker 3>the long term.
<v Speaker 4>Mm hm oh, for sure. Lots of goodies there, lots
<v Speaker 4>of goodies.
<v Speaker 3>And of course we also can't forget about our friends
<v Speaker 3>outfitting members of the Solar System.
<v Speaker 4>Boss mm hmmm.
<v Speaker 3>Whether it be chop teas or Pro wrestling teas, your
<v Speaker 3>co chairmen are giving you no shortages of ways to
<v Speaker 3>fly the lapsed flag wherever you go, and there's only
<v Speaker 3>more and more opportunities to do that. Tell them about
<v Speaker 3>Pro wrestling Tees dot Com get started, I.
<v Speaker 4>Mean pro wrestling Tees dot Com where you get pretty
<v Speaker 4>the majority of our of our schwag are acceptable shwag,
<v Speaker 4>I should say at this time, got a couple of things. Listen,
<v Speaker 4>the sweatshop is open again, all right. I got some
<v Speaker 4>got some things, got some things in the works right
<v Speaker 4>now and they're gonna be coming soon. And then but
<v Speaker 4>there's one that may not make it to theres. So
<v Speaker 4>we're going to go to shop because they're open to
<v Speaker 4>having everything else that we can't get across that finish
<v Speaker 4>line and such as, for example, our long delayed Scott
<v Speaker 4>Hall Hulk Hogan line that had I had prepared right
<v Speaker 4>when we were doing the Scott Hall tribute, but it
<v Speaker 4>just couldn't, you know, for certain legal reasons. It couldn't
<v Speaker 4>cross the line at pro wrestling teas. No hard feelings,
<v Speaker 4>but they've been I keep them all, I keep them there,
<v Speaker 4>I keep them ready to go in case an opportunity
<v Speaker 4>comes up. And there's no better opportunity than chopped.
<v Speaker 3>And as you know, any TLFX fan knows that there's
<v Speaker 3>rarely more money territory than when we start to brainstorm
<v Speaker 3>what kind of things Vince came up with when he's
<v Speaker 3>coging with the loss of hul Cogan in nineteen ninety
<v Speaker 3>three truck Hogan for Diesel, for example, Yep, and here
<v Speaker 3>Hall a J. L. L Cogan and Hulk Rules. Hulk
<v Speaker 3>Rules another example so that brought to you by our
<v Speaker 3>friends at chop Teas also are outfitting you with lap
<v Speaker 3>shwag like snapbag hats and zubaz pants and fucking fanny
<v Speaker 3>packs and track jackets and tank tops and all sort
<v Speaker 3>of non t shirt related items. So me money in
<v Speaker 3>the bank, so to two great sources of schwag and material.
<v Speaker 3>And we always love to see your posts on social
<v Speaker 3>wearing our stuff out in the wild. We do our
<v Speaker 3>best to make it esoteric enough that you're not necessarily
<v Speaker 3>giving away that you listen to a wrestling podcast, but
<v Speaker 3>at the same time, any other fan of the of
<v Speaker 3>the cast within your midst if you were in the shirt,
<v Speaker 3>you suddenly have a friend. Indeed, as it should be.
<v Speaker 3>And speaking of new friends, you may have saw that
<v Speaker 3>we dropped the surprise TLF talk on the People. TLF
<v Speaker 3>talks to Matt Camp formerly of WWE, hosting their digital
<v Speaker 3>show The Bumps and a long time a commentator for
<v Speaker 3>them on on their social channels and things. Great to
<v Speaker 3>talk to him about what it's like in modern WBE,
<v Speaker 3>what it's like to come off being a part of
<v Speaker 3>the modern WWE absolutely with a with a jaundice lapsed perspective.
<v Speaker 3>Turns out he's he gets.
<v Speaker 19>What we do.
<v Speaker 4>And yes, uh he and you know, okay, so he
<v Speaker 4>uh and he's he's been familiar with us for for
<v Speaker 4>a while, you know, he was, he's very good. He's
<v Speaker 4>he told me so, all right, I guess okay, so
<v Speaker 4>can I cut in here with this with this whole thing. So,
<v Speaker 4>in case you didn't notice, if you listen to the interview,
<v Speaker 4>I was. I was in the car driving, so my
<v Speaker 4>my brain was in a million different places while also
<v Speaker 4>listening and talking to to Matt. But I was very
<v Speaker 4>very uh privileged and honored to be in a movie
<v Speaker 4>that shot a few about a month now, a few
<v Speaker 4>weeks ago now, directed by Clark Duke, who's a friend
<v Speaker 4>of the show, and he and you know, I get
<v Speaker 4>there and I get the call sheet and there was
<v Speaker 4>a very a very very impressive lineup of people that
<v Speaker 4>I was like, very excited about that they were all
<v Speaker 4>wrestling talent, and one of whom was Kayla Becker formerly
<v Speaker 4>CAYLEB Braxton on w B Television. And so she and I, uh,
<v Speaker 4>you know, I introduced myself at one point and we
<v Speaker 4>were chatting and and stuff because we had a couple
<v Speaker 4>we had a couple of scenes together and just talking,
<v Speaker 4>and I made it known that I, you know, knew
<v Speaker 4>that she was that she worked for w w A,
<v Speaker 4>And and then the the awkward moment, So what do
<v Speaker 4>you do? What else? Do you know? What's uh? Is this?
<v Speaker 9>Uh?
<v Speaker 4>I'm a podcaster? What's it about? What's it about? That's
<v Speaker 4>so cool? Was it about? Well? I'm like, well, you know,
<v Speaker 4>you're you're business about pro wrestling, which you know is
<v Speaker 4>you'd think it'd be normal. You think it'd be a
<v Speaker 4>little bit easier with someone in the business, right, But
<v Speaker 4>then but it's not, because then you're like instead of
<v Speaker 4>instead of instead of being a you know, a person
<v Speaker 4>on the outside who's like, oh you like that fake shit?
<v Speaker 4>Like really, that's that's what you you you you talk
<v Speaker 4>about that fake shit? Now it's oh my god, oh
<v Speaker 4>are you one of them? You're like a fan?
<v Speaker 3>You know, like everything about me kind of weirdo right.
<v Speaker 4>Right exactly, And so I have to even kind of get,
<v Speaker 4>you know, to go even faster into the into the
<v Speaker 4>rationalization of of what it is. But then along the way,
<v Speaker 4>she said, you know, she she mentioned Matt and she said,
<v Speaker 4>you know, he's he's just a.
<v Speaker 10>Just a a.
<v Speaker 4>I don't recall it. I can't think of what it is,
<v Speaker 4>but like basically a valley worth of of knowledge about
<v Speaker 4>wrestling and w W E and everything. And I was like, yeah,
<v Speaker 4>we should, you know, would love to do something with him.
<v Speaker 4>And so she after the shoot was done, about a
<v Speaker 4>week later or so, you know, she she she hooked
<v Speaker 4>us up and I he was great, and he said
<v Speaker 4>he was familiar because he's all over he was all
<v Speaker 4>over uh you know, internet wrestling stuff. Like he just
<v Speaker 4>was very keeps himself, very very informed. What's going on?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, bring talking points on what what was what fans
<v Speaker 3>were buzzing about, but running through that very unique filter
<v Speaker 3>of k fabe, you know where yes, you know, certain
<v Speaker 3>things you couldn't touch, but when you could touch on something,
<v Speaker 3>you wanted to thread the needle between advancing the company's
<v Speaker 3>agenda and its storylines while also giving fans that you know,
<v Speaker 3>wanted something a little more you can sink their teeth
<v Speaker 3>into as well.
<v Speaker 4>Yep. And so it was.
<v Speaker 19>It was.
<v Speaker 4>It was crazy and it's great and was it was
<v Speaker 4>great to kind of put something together so fast because
<v Speaker 4>it was it was maybe what the beginning of last
<v Speaker 4>week where we finally kind of all got in touch
<v Speaker 4>and and uh and whatever. So it's, uh, it was
<v Speaker 4>great and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful to to
<v Speaker 4>Caleb or setting that up. And obviously it wouldn't have
<v Speaker 4>happened if if I, if I hadn't worked on the movie.
<v Speaker 4>And I'm very excited, uh stranglehold the name of the movie,
<v Speaker 4>by the way, not the Larry Nelson autobiography, unfortunately, even
<v Speaker 4>more so for a second. But I mean, i mean, look,
<v Speaker 4>this all serving is what we've been saying for ten years.
<v Speaker 3>You know, it's not like people know people know at
<v Speaker 3>higher levels than you could ever imagine. Clark Clark Duke's
<v Speaker 3>a wonderful example, like, yeah, you have no fucking clue
<v Speaker 3>the profile of people that need it just as badly
<v Speaker 3>as you do out there in the solar system. And
<v Speaker 3>we'll leave it at that. But it's good to have
<v Speaker 3>it was It's good Matt come through, feel him out
<v Speaker 3>and in and offer our endorsement at the end. He
<v Speaker 3>definitely passed the test.
<v Speaker 4>Oh for sure. Just it was great. I mean, it was,
<v Speaker 4>it's it's it's exciting, it's it's you know, it's it's weird,
<v Speaker 4>it's it's TLFX is turning into not that I thought
<v Speaker 4>it it not that I thought it wouldn't be exciting,
<v Speaker 4>but it turned out to be a much more exciting year,
<v Speaker 4>and in different ways than I anticipated.
<v Speaker 3>Opening doors that you didn't know were at all relevant
<v Speaker 3>to the to the cast. It's all. It all goes
<v Speaker 3>back to that that nucleus that is UH t lf
<v Speaker 3>so definitely checked out Matt stuff. He's kind of now
<v Speaker 3>bootstrapping his own operation doing UH content on on on
<v Speaker 3>the business and following it along at the Wrestling mattshow
<v Speaker 3>dot com and you can also am on Busted Open Radio.
<v Speaker 3>So nice to make Matt's acquaintance and UH get him
<v Speaker 3>on the hook. So very very good, very good to see.
<v Speaker 3>And it's all in the spirit of TLFX celebration and
<v Speaker 3>we are very excited to offer the next incremental update
<v Speaker 3>in what you've been buzzing about on social media for
<v Speaker 3>weeks now, the TLFX Games King of the Cast tournament
<v Speaker 3>to determine the greatest LAPS fan character of all time.
<v Speaker 3>Thirty two participants have been slotted. After the brackets went
<v Speaker 3>through a few iterations thanks to your very constructive feedback.
<v Speaker 3>The brackets are available on our Instagram page as well
<v Speaker 3>as our X page, and we're also pleased to tell
<v Speaker 3>you that we've received promos from all thirty two participants, yes,
<v Speaker 3>making the case this election season for why you should
<v Speaker 3>vote for them to advance in the first round, and
<v Speaker 3>keep your eyes peeled to the feed. In the coming weeks.
<v Speaker 3>You're going to be hearing from both sides of each
<v Speaker 3>matchup in the first round, all sixteen matchups, and then
<v Speaker 3>you'll get the opportunity on X shortly thereafter to vote
<v Speaker 3>on each and every contest. So if you want to
<v Speaker 3>have a voice in who advances, visit us on X
<v Speaker 3>at the Lapsed Fan and place your votes. The easiest
<v Speaker 3>place for us to do a pole and to link
<v Speaker 3>it together with sound from the participants, But again, the
<v Speaker 3>plan is to roll out the sound and the promos
<v Speaker 3>from all of the participants, and then after those of
<v Speaker 3>all rolled out, I offer you a chance to begin
<v Speaker 3>voting on social and we'll we'll resurface those promos to
<v Speaker 3>match them to the poles, so you can get refreshed
<v Speaker 3>as well. But consider it basically homework time. If you've
<v Speaker 3>got your brackets out. It's almost like going to the
<v Speaker 3>way ends before boxing. Oh yeah, absolutely, or UFC shaped
<v Speaker 3>it your one last look at the horse. You're going
<v Speaker 3>to ride here and make your final determinations on their
<v Speaker 3>fitness to advance and see if you notice perhaps any
<v Speaker 3>weak spots that might change who you lean into and
<v Speaker 3>out of and can't wait to see who stands prevailing.
<v Speaker 4>I'm very excited to see how this turns out.
<v Speaker 3>It's a very constructive bracket and it doesn't let you
<v Speaker 3>take your foot off the gas and just take it
<v Speaker 3>easy till the end.
<v Speaker 10>Not at all, Not at all.
<v Speaker 3>There are legendary characters up against each other right from
<v Speaker 3>the very beginning, and that's that's we're going to go forward.
<v Speaker 3>So to look for that in the month of August
<v Speaker 3>here on our podcast feed as the tlf X games
<v Speaker 3>roll out and celebration of ten years of lapsed All right,
<v Speaker 3>that put to the to the side. It's now time
<v Speaker 3>to deep dive the show. D Jhore that being WCW
<v Speaker 3>Clash of the Champions twenty three from June of nineteen
<v Speaker 3>ninety three at the Scope in Northfolk, Virginia. It's time
<v Speaker 3>for the Clash twenty three death toll.
<v Speaker 4>Indeed, we have nine, yeah, nine dead on an hour
<v Speaker 4>and forty minute show. Referee Randy Anderson, Paul Orndorf, Yeah,
<v Speaker 4>Dick Slater, Tom Zinc vodder, Rick Rude, Harley, Rays, Davy
<v Speaker 4>Boys Smith and Flyin Brian Oh.
<v Speaker 3>Hurts. Some tough ones in there, Hurts yep, some really
<v Speaker 3>tough ones in there. But that's what we do here.
<v Speaker 3>It's trying to engage with the past and all of
<v Speaker 3>its thorny beauty. And on the other side of this break,
<v Speaker 3>it's the latest deep dive into that WW network archive.
<v Speaker 3>Ladies and Gentlemen Clashed the Champions twenty three coming your way.
<v Speaker 3>It's that fucking cast. Stay close,