Ep. 353: 'TNH' Brooke Gets Married

It's the lapsed fan wrestling podcast with Jack and Carneo and JP Sorrows. It's
the lapsed fans get all my years and wrestling. I've never seen anything like
it. L Well, it's the laps fan man by the one the ringer
to get about the sorrow with the real King of swing. When the bell
goes hanging to kick like men prone in the corner, rickets rash like sting.
Even Jerry King could take off the crown, nodding his head like a
d low brown which you get low down going even high up, flip you
on your head. But you know, coo driver, you speaking more knowledge
and dragon spits fire, give you more shocked than a head tree tires and
drop a more truth than the conn of sniper less you would a cocoon mut
Roddy Piper check a JP like j Y d drop the cupcakes and golden the
green bar means the best podcast FU start to close of y'all, I've been
all right, boss, So I'm thinking here as we really round third base
and total NonStop Hogan if you can believe it. After twenty twenty three has
been completely devoted to looking back at the TNA run of Hulk Hogan. This
is not what I thought it was going to be. I know, It's
so much more, isn't it. And as we arrive on the doorstep of
twenty thirteen, right a decade later, here we are God, and I'm
coming around to a thesis. Do you know what it is? What is
it that the tail end of Hulk Hogan's TNA run the last year should have
been the first year with actual plans to build a new star and Bully Ray
as world champion around his daughter Brooke, which is a you know, a
card that they haven't quite played before, and as we've demonstrated, she's actually
quite capable as I guess, for lack of a better term, an actress
and a wrestling storyline standpoint. Yeah, ye, Hogan his father as an
evolution of Hogan instead of just Hogan looking to come back and rip the shirt
and drop the leg again or sure something short of that. And it's kind
of sad that, just as in my opinion, and I'm fascinated to see
if you agree, the creative actually starts to click at TNA a bit with
Ugan involved. Um, it's way too late. Yeah, you know,
I don't know if Um, I don't know if I call it good.
I don't know if I call it clicking. I I mean, it's certainly
he certainly has better moments. Yeah, but it's very hard for me,
at least at this point, to uh differentiate, you know, or not
differentiate, but to accept good Hulk Hogan when I've seen so much bad Hogan.
Yes, it's hard for me to watch this without having that in the
background. And I think always that was very much the psychology of the wrestling
fan. Back in twenty thirteen, is TNA launched the storyline around Bully Ray
eventually being revealed as the true leader, the power, the greater power,
let's say, right of ass Nates coming world champion, turning his back on
Brooke after according her winning Overhulk and actually marrying Brook. Hogan on an episode
of Impact to pretty substantial ratings and Aces and Ates do you mean the mid
carters and zeros. It's so funny, how like I'm going back and revisiting
this with context and perspective and sort of like hindsight benefit and people remember Aces
and Nate's fondly not I see people. I don't mean everybody. There are
people who do and they they liken it to or at least they they cite
Bully Ray's very effective work here in this ame goal and he'll turn at the
end as sort of like a stroke of genius as part of the Aces and
Ate storyline. But what's hilarious is it? Everything that's good about Bully Ray's
heel turn has absolutely nothing to do with aces and eights, right, And
and also if people that's how people kind of remember aces and eights, then
they don't remember the six seven, eight months prior because that ship. Yes,
you know, when he comes, when he makes the turn, it's
it's great, it's a good turn. It's it's it's exciting, it's interesting.
But in regards to that fucking group of idiots, it's way too little,
too late. Yes, the Aces and Eights is absolutely one of the
most insignificant storylines I've ever seen in wrestling. I mean, it's such a
disaster. I want you to just for a moment, and I actually will
ask you to do this, if you could please pull up the Aces and
Ates the music, and I want you to just describe. I don't want
you to, you know, mimic the sound of it. I want you
to just describe after watching all of this TNA content, after devoting more time
than anyone ever will to going back and re examining the whole help, TNA,
just what flows through your emotions? You're sort of psyche as you listen
back to the andates we're about to kiss it goodbye. So this is sort
of wistful for me at least, thank thank Christ for that. But okay,
here, hold on, here we go. Uh that's feeling. I
mean, I feel like boom boom boom, and I'm just like I just
like kind of start look down at my shoes, Like, I mean,
number one, this is not a group that I feel threatened by, not
in the least. Like if anything that's more of a wolfpack vibe, then
it is an nWo black and white vibe, right, not not an invading
force, just a bunch of people trying to not cool and no, no,
no, no no no. I Also, I'm like, you obviously
don't know what we wanted in wrestling. I mean I say we like as
if I'm I mean, if people remember this fucking shit. Finally, I
don't, I don't know idea. I also at the beginning, I'm like,
I feel like it's gonna be a bon Jovi dett a little bit.
Yeah, maybe you know, there's a little bit of there. It's just
I don't know. I just got to the point going back through all the
stuff or TNH. Where as soon as I heard that song, I just
automatically felt like the wind was out of my sails. It's like, oh,
okay, here we go. Now these guys have to walk out slower
than any natural human would walk pretending to be menacing packing a ball peen hammer.
I'm learning more and more about biker culture here, and I guess the
ball peen hammer. Thanks to all the listeners who pointed this out because it
looks so foolish when they're binking people over the head with this. But did
you see the folks you know on Twitter and elsewhere that pointed out to us
why it's a ball peen hammer. No, Well, I guess the mythos
is that biker clubs would carry bald peen hammers because if they were ever pulled
over by the cops, they couldn't be arrested for carrying a dangerous weapon because
a bally peen hammer, apparently is something that you wouldn't get charged with if
you were just possessing it. So they were so badass that they were writing
people and menacing them with ballpeen hammers apparently. Okay, all right, you
know what, I care as little as I did before. Do you know
anything about Doc Holiday? Um no, when he was killed? Do you
know what hand he was holding? Aces and Nates? Yep? Isn't that
cool? Listen? Listen here, this is this is the only way it
could have worked. Okay. The only way it could have worked the dead
man hand. I could say that again, by the way, Yeah,
you damn right. The only way it could have worked is if because okay,
let me tell you why it failed. Okay, Number one dead Brand's
hand. But gun no, yeah, I'm right there we go. Number
one, you had a bunch like again I called it, uh, can't
remember what I called it already. Um it's uh mid carters and zeros,
That's what I called it, right, because that's what it is. It's
a bunch of people you don't fucking care about. You haven't We haven't seen
divon in like a relative like interesting fashion in ages. No one gives a
fucking shit about Festus. But didn't you see Garrett bish Off in West Briscoe
turn no One, no, oh God, West Briscoe is a fucking moron.
Why because look, oh, just his face, Yes, I mean,
let's be honest here. I mean his face is deplorable. He cuts
a decent promo sometimes, but he looks like he looks like an decent sometimes,
remember that's the key thing. Sometimes not many times, but he's just
like I couldn't you know. He he looks like like one of the demons
in uh In in Jacob's Ladder when their fucking face is all deformed, you
know, yeah, faces and hates. I just there's there is not one
person I feel like anybody outside of the idiotic fans in the Impact Zone who
are just so desperate for something that they'll like anything, and they live in
a bubble, which is funny because Bishop's whole thing is because they are who
they are, they would shit on things because no or we're prideful about being
you know, TNA hardcore is and would like to interrupt the show and stuff
and take it over like the the only this would interest them. Yeah,
but I don't know if you realize, Eric, by the time you got
the book, you would run off all those people that actually, yeah,
cared enough about TNA to can't call you and horr he's the exact fan that.
It's like he was going to the Impact Zone every week for years and
then Hogan was around for a year and it's like, no, I can't,
I can't, I can't pretend I want to show up to see this.
Yeah, and it's it's a hell of a it's a hell of a
turn of the calendar from twenty twelve to twenty thirteen for TNA, for whole
Cogan we talked a lot last time we went with you on I want to
I'm not. I gotta continue here. I want to finished my thought.
Here's It's not only that, it's also the fact that none of these fucking
no one in this stupid faction wins ever. I get their asses handed.
Yeah, when they have actually had matches, they kidnap people, but they
can't back it up in the ring, So how am I supposed to take
them seriously? And then they into the back and then it just it just
lingers and lingers for so fucking long. No you don't. I mean,
it's like you don't know what made one of the great things that you know,
whether they knew it or not. Whether they knew, you know,
whether they knew who the third guy was until Hogan walked out or not,
doesn't really matter, because what kept it intriguing was the fact that it felt
like they knew where they were going. And the problem is, I feel
like they know where they're going here, but it doesn't feel like it.
That's the irony here. It feels like it's just slog of a thing.
To the point we're about halfway through before before you know, fucking bully bitch
fucking gets reveals himself. They kind of get lost in the shuffle. So
what the fuck am I supposed to do when your your your main storyline gets
kind of lost in the midst of ship because no one fucking cares. It's
it's just I don't know, it's the height of comedy to me that this
has looked back upon. It's like he should have come in as the president
like four weeks into it. I'd hate to tell folks, but I think
we can read an awful lot into that one aces and eight segment where the
supposed president of the club was, you know, silhouetted, and it was
actually, as we discovered, Eric Bischoff that laid down the voice over track
like Ole Anderson doing Black Scorpion. I'd hate to tell folks that as much
as you know the presently, and I'm going to sit here and touch my
ball, and I'm going to fondle myself in ways you cannot possibly imagine what
pe he pleases me, I please myself. That's the president. I'm here
to tell you the evidence points to them planning on Eric Bischoff being the leader
of ass and Nates in the end. And if you hear as we're about
to from Bully who's talked about this, he was brought the idea of being
president of Vases and Nates out of the blue. He didn't know that Devon
was going to turn it bound for glory. He didn't know that there was
any game plan for him to be revealed as the leader of ass and Nates.
And that moment when Eric voices over the becket we'd never hear Eric to
another one again tells me that they didn't have a grand plan either for it
to be Bully right in the end, that that was a mid game pivot
as well, when they realized how probably odious and fucking lame it would have
been for Bischoff to emerge as once again Hogan versus Bischoff being the only thing
we're truly allowed to care about watching Impact every week. So at least they
didn't do that. However, that seemed to be the design early on,
and if you hear Bully and you'll listen to him, there's no way you
can conclude that from the beginning there was this master plan to unveil Bully Ray
as the president of Basis and Nates, even if they managed it quite slickly.
Yea. As we learned in the Immortal storyline in twenty ten when Hogan
turned it Bound for Glory and they did that whole retrospective about how well there
are all the hints along the way that's all manufactured. After the fact,
they go back and try to find moments that you know, they can claim
we're by design that absolutely love finding moments. That's what it's all about,
finding moments, no shortage of them. As we turned the calendar from twenty
twelve to twenty thirteen, of course, twenty thirteen again the final year of
Holkogan and TNA. We're ten years on from this and it's time to try
some new things. Brooke Brookno's best is done. Her music career has sort
of faded, sort of. She thinks there's another lease on life, moving
to Nashville and trying to get into country music with the guiding hand of Dixie
Carter, who's represented no shortage of country artists over the years. You know,
she even used to do those press junkets for movies like you know how
you bring like you know, stallone and he'll do like all the entertainment shows
for to promote his next film, and he'll sit there and get She used
to. She used to run point for things like that. You imagine,
Wow, yeah, I can, I can? Didn't she like a central
casting She totally like fits right into that fucking category. Um, but that
not so much the call here, or at least what's called for. But
now Brooks looking to exercise her you know abilities in the story line realm of
pro wrestling and for for better or worse. Um, this is going to
be basically her only angle, I guess we can say in the business.
And we'll see how it how it turns out, and how it might shape
or reshape up perceptions of what whole he can actually able was able to achieve
all the while, of course, we discussed last time We'll be with you
on TNH, just the absolute cavalcade of scandal and tabloid nous and all the
stuff on his sex tape and the lawsuits he's filing against Heather Clem and Gawker
and federal court and state court and being bounced from court to court, and
videos being posted and snippets being leaked, and future releases being hinted, and
FBI stings being set up in hotel rooms around you know, basically being extorted
around the release of more footage. It's just welcome to the Hulk Cogan experienced,
Dixie and Company rightday. Welcome to the fucking circus, and welcome to
the circus of TNH. And we've been proud to have several folks in our
corner here at the Lapsed Fan as we've undertaken this most painful of journeys.
Don't never asking most don't never ask again why we were so hesitant to dip
our till in the TNA water over our nearly ten years doing this podcast.
Because this is supposed to be you know, the high, the highest,
the highest of heights, right They're spending the most, They've got the highest
profile talent, they've got the best television they ever had in terms of clearance
and network and reach. And this is what we get. I mean,
Yeah, I never saw I've never seen it. I don't want to see
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Talk about the sponsorship category. We couldn't be more proud to announce the return
to the table. If you listen to our most recent live call of WWE
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can of the most honest beer in America, the Beer for those who don't
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the passed Fan. They stepped back up to the plate and they did the
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keys over on Patreon a huge, huge litany on a barrage of content coming
your way under the cinemat the cinemat hot as Ever, as we go through
the marine journey, oh yes, we hope you enjoyed a little bit of
a free preview as we posted our Marine one coverage from Under the Cinemat free
for all listeners recently on the main feed. But Boss fucking John Cena,
you know, if there's going to be paying on the TNH side, there's
going to be paying on the Marine side. Absolutely, and so we do
have we we we just completed the Marine four moving Moving target and we'll be
now approaching which had the miss and the first the first it was the first
entry that had an additional w superstar and that was the ever astounding Summer Ray
who you know, I must say, we we kind of grew fond of
in terms of her actual personality, and she showcased a way to an ability
to really stand up for herself in ways that we, at least I certainly
had not anticipated. Um, but she doesn't really follow it up on the
big screen or the small screen or the tiniest ass screen. It's pretty much
a nothing performance in the movie. But she's there, Yeah, she's there.
Um, we got to witness the the miss and talk about miss and
Miss Dow and lots more great stuff on that one and upcoming next you know,
Yes, we had a we had one w additional w W Superstar.
We're gonna have quite a few. In the Marine five battle Ground. Holy
shit, more than just the miss more than just the miss It's it's it's
it's gonna be wild, Oh my god, and what a what a tour
it has been. Also, through the corporate history of the WW films,
WW Studio's initiative as if they lose, this is kind of like a proxy
to analyze like how this business was evolving and doing under Vince, which really
was not my plan at all. It was never intended, but it just
kind of like happened. And it's been fascinating to to really understand how desperate
they were to make this thing, to get this thing to work. I
think so many people would have fucking quite years prior. But they torture logic,
They torture business logic, they torture the English language on quarterly investor conference
calls to try to frame the studio's vanity project is something that's actually going somewhere,
something that actually matters, that people care about, something that isn't just
another failed attempt to try to make what they do pro wrestling work in other
verticals, and it's been fascinating because the Miz is the ultimate monster created by
that that desire, that insatiable thirst WWE has had for so long, as
particularly since going public, to be taken seriously in the wider entertainment landscape.
And so join us under the Cinemat for the forty dollars executive producer tier as
well as the fifty dollar Moat tier members the absolute kings of the mountain over
at Moat to really, you know, take the temperature and assess the history
of this whole idea of the film's division, let alone, Yes, what
what THEMS is able to do and in the position he's put in, and
what that tells us about the aspirations let's say, of one Vince McMahon as
opposed to I mean, especially when you compare and contrast his where he stands
in the company itself when he's not making a move as far as in the
ring. Right. Yeah, Yeah, it's really really interesting. So I
know, I didn't know there would be so much tied up in Mike Mazzanan's
story. I know, as far as what ww he has tried to do
in the recent past. So check it out. Under the cinemat Rock and
Wrestle Mommia only fromote tier members, Thank you very much. Right, No
better way to start your Monday morning than with Mama Sorrow, watching classic matches
from the past and really bringing back that feeling of sitting on the living room
floor with your wise cracking parents or grandparents in the room, mocking you as
you deserve to be for watching pretend fighting or getting sucked into it, and
insulting you for watching such horrible stuff right at the same time maintaining a strange
naivete about the fact that it's all phony, and actually, by by getting
kind of into it themselves, revealing yes, indirectly, the real magic of
professional wrestling. Yes, and motors would have just seen this past Monday,
my mom reacting to Jr. Kissing Vince McMahon's hand. Come on, folks,
do we have to say anymore? I mean we will. I'm just
amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's what we get here, That's that's
that's what we want to see. I mean, just give people a little
preview. What did she say, I'm not gonna do that, No,
sir, that only for the biggest swinging dicks amongst us, you know,
It's like, it's a lot of money to be part of the moat tier,
and we understand that, but you gotta put yourself in our shoes.
What if people were willing to pay you that much to show support and to
get a little extra, Yeah, would you feel obliged to put them on
a pedestal too? Be honest with yourself hmm, and swallow those objections whole
before verbalizing them. We're talking about Abe Letier, We're talking about Iman Kivlahan.
We're talking about Andy Mulharron and Andy Toth and Andy Ellenich. How about
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Summer's Lam coming up. As all the ways we watch modern WW so you
don't have to, And I've noticed a steady upticking the amount of people expressing
sentiments along the line's boss of you know, I don't even watch it anymore.
I know this is actually enough the way you like. If I were
to watch it, I would be curious basically about all the things you guys
notice and comment on. So I'll just listen to you. And it's a
service. We're glad to broad yes, because if we're going to make the
case that it used to be better, we've got to confront the way it
is now and be able to defend the case. And they make it pretty
easy. Oh, without a doubt, so you do want to check it
out. So the ten dollars and above tiers get the live calls as soon
as they happen on pay per view night. The three sixteen tier gets them
on a three day delay over at patreon dot com. Slash the lapsed fan
and boss you know, like, for example, Cody passing out in the
camera, and how satisfying is it too to be able to just further echo.
We don't have to soft pedal anything that lapsed, Vince said in our
post WrestleMania live show in North Hollywood. We can only amplify it. Cody
sits there as as a symbol of what give people a preview, as a
symbol of the story never finishing. Correct, Okay, never ever finishing because
the story you guys want it, because because the story was never Cody's.
The story is not what you thought it was. The story is not what
you thought it was. The story is not Cody's. The story, the
story is not what you want. You want things, find someplace else to
get him. Correct. Cody Rhodes is never gonna win a world title,
and when he does, because listen to this, this is no, he
won't. And I'm listening. If he ever wins that fucking joke of a
fucking title. Yeah, there's like six belts that could qualify it. Now.
No, No, he will never ever ever win the world title.
And then he'll try to go back to a w Wow and men are not
gonna give him the world title after he abandoned ship. He it's never happening.
He should have given it to himself the moment he opened that fucking company,
because he will never have one. He's dead. Patreon dot com slash
the lapsed fan. Let us be your chroniclers of the unfolding of WW to
come in twenty twenty three, and I mean thank you deeply for all the
support, to say nothing of the fact that you get ad free versions of
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We feel it's an honest exchange. We feel the market says back to us,
Yes, you're properly calibrated, and so we move forward here in twenty
twenty three, and again Pro Wrestling tis dot com sas low shortage of schwag
to show your support if you're going to actually attend one of these things and
let people know. I mean, we saw Zach brilliantly purchase the brother shirt
with a question mark in honor of teen h and just wear it while he's
doing landscaping. I mean, come on, folks buying that shirt to go
to the aw show and Wimbley Stadium coming up. Because it says brother in
the Hulkogan Hulkmania font. It looks just like a Hogan shirt, except it's
got the question mark at the end of Brother, and that means something very
specific to a very specific group of people. Those are worthwhile fans called lapsed
fans. There's there's certainly your Brothers shirt. There's also your Pumis Power shirt.
Another one deep cut from the TNH fucking there is your Clown Infrastructure shirt.
Clown Infrastructure, you damn right. I definitely encourage you to get your
Lapsed Army shirt. Yes, Bobo Army takeoff. Yeah, you know,
we got so much and honestly, I'm sure by the time this by the
time this drops, I'll have a um, I'll have a mid Carters and
Zero's shirt up. Excellent idea. We've also got the the I love this
one the um, come on, let me see it so I can actually
read it. I can't fucking read it from from there. To get this
thing back on track, we need to dial it in, brothers. Is
that coming to a T shirt near you? It's already there. I love
it. Pro Wrestling ds dot com slash nobody, nobody who will ever podcast
ever will be as astute at picking up on the verbal quirks of a category
of entertainers as we are visa v Pro wrestlers. We set folks in stone,
We characterize folks in ways that once you hear me, you can never
unsee it or unhear it. I mean, you know, I don't want
it to my own horn, but I'm going to. I mean, do
you think anybody whoever watched TNA ever heard this no doubt right picked it out
as and now like we have their thousands and thousands of people who will never
be able to think about Dixie Carter again without not only hearing her entrance music,
but hearing Scott Hall saying no doubt over it, which is something we
just you just created by pressing buttons. That's the kind of shit we do
that resounds at TLF. That's the stuff stands the test of time, and
we're aufering it every single time we step to the microphone. We explore more
to expose the core, as a great man once said, and it's been
such a treat to see the solar system take up the cause. What's another
thing we pointed out, Hide the ball. Yes, when Hulkogan in early
twenty twelve and TNA was talking about how the network Spike was working to undo
the influence that the tyrannical Hulkogan Eric Bischoff regime had brought to TNA and taken
the company away from Dixie Carter, he started making references to Spike or the
network hiding the ball. Right, And as we've talked long and hard about
so far in TNH, this is really this is really a Hulkogan who's become
completely enamored with lawyers at this stage of his life. Yes, that's the
new competition he cares about. And he's always been sort of a backstage lawyer,
a locker room lawyer. Now it's always been about the finer points of
his contract that explain why he why he goes, why he makes more money
than anybody else, why he basically controls entire companies when push comes to shove
or at least his will shall be done and hide the ball is so it
turns out, and folks, we thank everyone for pointing this out, as
we all work together for a greater understanding here at TLF of the stuff we
cover, it turns out to be so perfect. Yes, for who Hulkogan
is at the stage of his life that hide the ball is something that enters
his vocabulary because what it essentially means, in terms of legal slang amongst lawyers
and such, is to withhold evidence in a trial that may hurt one's case.
So when he says hide the ball, he means, you know,
your manipulative sons of bitches just like me, but you're withholding the things that
will prove that case. Whereas I'm all out in the open, brother,
I'm a tyrant without anything to hide, whereas you guys are tyrants to hide
the evidence of such and no one I don't care who is ever covered,
who will ever covered. Hogan and TNA would land un hide the ball like
we did and be like that's it. There's something there he's using in terms
that are revealing something about his inner monologue. Yeah, because there's no way
you start saying hide the ball to a pro wrestling crowd and expect it to
have any impact, to move them in any way shape before does make any
sense. And that's what this is. That every time Hogan touches a mic
sort of post especially post sex tape release, it's just all of this id,
all of this inner psyche just spilling out onto the microphone. And it's
been so awesome to see Solar System members begin to catalog and to be creating
whole cloth other things in that vein that whole Cogan not only did say,
but might have said. Okay, Ribbon Blade on Twitter pointed out that these
are the ones that Hogan actually said so far that we've talked about. Baiting
the hook, walk the walk, monkey, see monk, what's the bus?
Tell me? Speak to me? What's the tone? Right? What
is he? What does that say? I mean, it's like he basically
saying, all right, you know what, all right, brother, you
know, we see I get it. You guys all did this. You
did that. It's time to get real bro broll. We all see what
you're trying to do, right, right, is feeling that like every little
maneuver I saw coming and I've seen before the ball Marco another one. He
says, paying everyone TNA dead around here? Or how about you want me
in your clubhouse? And as ribbon Blade writes, what is Hogan even talking
about half the time? Hashtag tnh God bless it? And so people started
going going nuts. Ribbon Blade had a list. Felt the cheddar, pump
pete, the cucumber brother, push the fridge, well, WrestleMania too.
They did needle the monkey brother, I don't know what that means, squeeze
the papaya, burn the communist, flex the fishing rod, touch the dingle
brother, tickle the elmo, bade the heat. Oh, get the burger
back in the room, brother brother, fire and ice shout out to a
it's white DG two on Twitter. Shoot the deer, charge the phone.
Stop the cool brother, Yeah that's Bubba. That stuff, the wallet,
print, the paper washed, my balls, warm the blanket, Warm the
blanket. But it's all euphemisms, right, it's all we all know what
it really means. But fly the helicopter, lose the heat double Jay girardven
on this one, tik tac toe. I can see him saying that,
you know, brother or time. Stop playing Tick tack co dude. Time
to stop playing hangman brother, Time to stop playing stick my dick in the
whole dude. Oh oh, it's time to stop playing. I get it,
okay, See I didn't know we had started. Uh those are the
kind of things I'd appreciate it. Heads up on Terry read a few more
from from the twitter. Gimme, gimme lose the heat. There, Oh
we got lose the heat, dude. Toast the bagel brother. Stop playing
to play nutting Bubba's Wife. Dude, you're gonna stop playing Roll up the
Tortilla brother. Stop playing lace the dudes boots, dude. Stop playing have
the Beer with seagull brother, Stop playing war the Lorder. Stop playing marry
the woman that looks like your daughter. Man, fry the balogney, mow
the yard. Stop playing fry the cheese man. Stop playing Grill the Grill
the Hopper Brother, whoa grill the Hopper? I tried that podcast. They
left too much of the nge shit. It's ridiculous. Gotta stop playing rub
the stash man and paint the fence your milk and cookies. John Carpenter's Escape
from Me Tip the pizza guy, will barrowin Vern's barn. We gotta stop
playing. Lock the target, you know, bating the line, spread the
net, catch the man. Gotta stop playing at the end of the day,
brother, stop playing. Mass the potato, dude, stop playing rotate
the tires man. JD. Williamson seventy nine. Running this ship is great.
Popping myself all day long, and I want people to know that nothing
makes me personally more happy than knowing that people, when they're supposed to be
working or being responsible citizens, are just giggling at it. At this this
genre of speech that Hulk Hogan has that we didn't even realize till we watched
these TNA shows back Let's bring it home with four lads had a meme.
All right, you know, brother, it's time to stop playing. Stuff
the mattress man. Drain the monkey, sniff the mango, eat the sandpaper
you tickle the muppet, throw the noodles door. Time to stop playing.
Pass the torch, bro Broler. Yeah, I'll say, who Actually,
we gotta stop playing that dude, stop playing, you know, brother,
We're gonna stop playing. Stop the playing man. All you having your heart
is shape and pain, no doubt exactly correcting me. Thank we thank the
solar system for brightening our day and creating new genres of output thanks to h
TNH. Well, we knew it was gonna come to reckoning with Bully Ray
and his career highlight run as world champion in TNA and getting involved with Hogan
and getting involved with Brooke, getting involved with the Aces and eights. Uh.
Conrad actually did an excellent podcast with Bully and Rik Bischoff talking about the
heel Turn and and it's fun to hear like Bully be like, actually,
Eric, I'm not sure that that's how it went, or do you remember
this? And Eric doesn't remember it, and and Bully really mincing, mincing
less words than you'd expect about how he didn't really like the aces a Nate's
idea. He thought it sucked. He thought, wow, it wasn't him
because he's not a biker and he doesn't have any you know, her fealty
to that cause and that culture. It's all Eric and his you know,
loves fucking motorcycles. You know, we talked about it last time when we
discussed the genesis of the aces. Nate's idea. He's so stupid, said
you know, never another biker thing. He was out there on TNA doing
his version of the Bully Ray character, and he recalls one day standing by
a trash can backstage at Impact, Nerik Bischoff coming up to him and suddenly
saying, did you ever see yourself as leader of a motorcycle group and bully
thinking, in my mind, this is the worst fucking thing I've ever heard,
not what I saw for the Bully Ray here or her at all.
He had images of the undertaker biker gimmick and just you know, the other
biker treatments in wrestling that never go anywhere, basically because they have to wear
leather vests that it looks like they bought at a fucking flea market. Okay,
that's a big problem. I don't know. I think um, people
that might kind of lionize biker culture don't realize just how like chinsey and cheap
biker clothing looks, you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't do
you share? This? Is it just me when those vests in those genes
that it just looked they look so like like knockoff, They look so like
Oregon Basement, like Dollar Tree to me, and not not to cast any
expersions on people who chop at dollar tree. But it's it doesn't say badass
to me. It says like very poor and very like, um not with
it. I mean here, to be honest, I've never cared to really
look. Yeah, well there's that take it doesn't It just never fu can
matter to me. Yeah, biker culture has never been something that's interested me
on any level. More importantly, there's no evidence that the wrestling fan cares
it. There's only evidence to the contrary. I've never sat there and said,
hey, oh you know what, I'm like. I've never wanted a
motorcycle. I've never thought about it. I've never thought about, like,
you know, getting those fucking you know, a leather jacket with a fucking
thing on it. And I've never thought it's cool if someone has one.
I just think, you know, it's yeah, I mean, their thing.
It's fine, it's your thing, it's fine. But it's not something
that I'm remotely interested in, nor do I want to investigate it, nor
do I care to partake in it, nor do I care in general.
But I am forced to watch this ship with guys who also don't seem like
bikers either. I think that's pretty important. Yeah, you know, at
least at least a fucking uh you know U. But the Disciples of Apocalypse
they kind of looked like bikers. I could kind of believe him as bikers.
They were, especially Skull and eight BALLO Brian Lee is, you know
Undertaker's buddy. I'm sure they were motorcyclists. Yeah, for sure. There
you go like that, like you've got people who are actually interested. And
I'm not saying the Disciples of Apocalypse was any fucking great oh organization, but
I could at least see them as being bikers because well, guess what they're
into it. I mean, understand the culture. I didn't buy the Devon
or fucking h Festus or or or Garrett especially or Anderson bikers. Oh who
carries himself like a game show host. Is suddenly this fucking outlaw biker,
Like what do we doing here? Guys? Just a bunch of fucking frauds.
What it is is it's the kind of biker Bischoff is, you know,
like a weekend warrior type who who has a corporate jobs, you know,
five days hobbyist, yea, a hobbyist. He's not a real like
he's not a real biker who who like you know, that's their thing.
He's just a hobbyist, and no power to you. But I'm I'm within
my rights as a wrestling fan to say, there's no evidence that this is
going to intrigue anybody, right, and it's certainly And I'm also within my
rights to say that I thought it just brought everybody down that was involved in
it. That if you if you broke each person offs and eights and gave
them an actual treatment as an individual character, Yeah, every single one of
them would have been better served and the show would have been better served.
But Bischoff has this like group, you know, it's the only he has
one one idea. I mean, that's what we've really landed on here at
TNAG. He's going one idea, an invading force. That's it. That's
the extent of it. And even if there's other things that come up,
it all comes back to the invading force eventually. I've never the I never
thought that I would have been so disgruntled with Eric Bischoff, and I have
been disgruntled with them, for sure, but not to this level, not
to the point where I'm like, this guy is such a fucking idiot.
Well, he's such a joke. He's like anybody else in wrestling. They
have like two or three ideas that they just recycle over and over again,
and they add little a koutraman too, a little different garnish, and like,
you know, it's only fair to point that out. And in assessing
their body of work. And for Eric, you know, he's always hands
off anyway. I mean, you know, he wasn't even the booker at
WCW. For Christ's sakes, it was Kevin Sullivan. The whole nWo time
book and the heat was all Kevin Sullivan. The finishes weren't Eric. Proudly
he didn't. He brought in Johnny Aston, who finishes in two thousand,
because he just didn't want to deal with finishes or didn't know how to be
feel he was good at doing them. He said that as much on his
podcast, he produces television. He decides what the lights look like and who
the announcers are, and what the ins and ounces are going to sound like.
And he's obsessed with that shit. He's he's like, you know,
like a TV class at your community college, Like that's what he's into,
Like dressing up sets in like sitting there and noticing things that you know,
other people can notice because they can they have a job where they don't have
to watch the show when it airs. They can watch it Monday morning at
nine o'clock in their office. Right. That's him and everything else that he
kind of says he understands about booking wrestling, It's like, well, no,
I mean not really, because the real the raw material of what made
the nWo work was hardly him. He added some brushes, some some touches.
He added, I think he had a lot to do with sort of
the black and white esthetic and a lot of those really like moody and attitudinal
kind of videos that that Hogan hart Nash did. For sure, like he
understood, he understood how to get across visually what the nWo was supposed to
be. And that is a huge part of it, for sure, a
huge part of it. But when it comes to what the nWo did every
week to get heat, that's all Kevin Solomon, as far as I can
deduce with Bischoff just you know, given kind of a general up and down
and doing what let's be on it, taking Hulk Cogan's temperature on a weekly
basis and figure out Hulk's happy and if things are pointed in a direction that's
going to keep Hulk paid. Get him on a pay per view that's going
to give him big ups on that twenty five percent or whatever he gets,
and make sure that come contract manual time. You can't you can't really do
business without pleasing him and extending him. I mean it's not it's complicated,
and that he's got a lot of big money egos to deal with in a
big television operation and you know, Turner Entertainment to deal with. But it's
that's where all his energy goes. It's not in right, It's not in
building a storyline that intrigues wrestling fans. It's in doing all the other stuff
while the storyline creators actually create intrigue that gets it across the line. From
from a television production standpoint anyway, All that is to say that when Bishof
comes to Bully Ray first with the idea of being the president of ass and
Eights, he fucking hates the idea. And it's great on the podcast because
Bishop pipes him. It's like, you know what, this is fascinating line.
That's why I love having these guests, He's like, whoever he says
that, you know, he's uncomfortable territory exactly. You know, you know
he's getting you know, not only that, but you know, he's getting
caught in bullshit. He's afraid that he's he's afraid that there might be the
things that he's just said, just to have something to say on a subject
without actually, you know, reckoning with whether it's true or not, or
even even being willing to acknowledge that he might not remember because he was altered.
Maybe, you know, I think, but I'm choosing to believe that
when he talks about how I just wasn't television ready and I didn't look good
for television back then, like he's kind of talking about drinking too much.
Yeah, I mean, I think Jeremy Borash's line on the Bishoff Goodbye Show
where he talks about drunk tweeting is I think that cut a little deeply.
And I noted in very strongly Bishoff's utter silence when they did a podcast reviewing
that episode of Impact. When Borash goes there, I think, I think
it's kind of like they're the things he doesn't remember might come uncomfortably close to
I don't remember for a reason that's not necessarily flattering and doesn't necessarily speak well
to, you know, the professionalism I was exhibiting for four hundred and fifty
grand a year as executive producer of Impact. That could be totally unfair.
But I'm just sort of I'm trying to read into the silence as much as
I am what he says and when. And again, it's not that he's
gonna get caught so much on a line. It's gonna get caught in the
fact that he just said something out of his ass that he didn't even know
if it's true or not. But he just kind of trusted that no one
would ever care a right, that no one would ever care enough to present
to present an alternate set of circumstances. Was like, okay, true.
We heard it with Jeff Hardy at Victory Road twenty eleven and Bischof saying how
hard he was nowhere to be seen all day and was hiding, and how
he considered going in there and knocking him out, and then and then we
circled back and Bruce Pritchard's talking about how they saw Jeff but throughout the whole
day and realized that he was, you know, tilting in the wrong direction,
or that he seemed fine throughout the day, and there's nothing about him
hiding until the very last minute. If they invent the circumstances to put yourself
into position right of having nothing else to say about what happened besides what presented
itself on camera, and even Bully, we're gonna hear later Bully himself considers
that night Victory wrote a huge part of why he ended up getting an opportunity.
We've talked before in TNH about how Jeff Hardy having to exit the picture
due to his issues is what really created the opening for Bully to step up
as a heel, because when Jeff had his issues, he was a heel,
you know, that was off the down for Glory twenty ten heel turn
and him becoming world champion and running a mortal or at least being the hood
ornament, as Hogan called it, of a mortal, and so all of
a sudden, Bully steps into that void and he's back there, Victory wrote,
putting his hand up offering to go out there and do something to save
the sting Jeff Hardy debacle. And he tells Bischoff about that, and Bischoff's
like going along with it. But Bischoff never mentioned Bully Ray when he told
his version of what happened at Victory Rode. That's those kind of things,
you know. It's like, oh, actually, once you talk to two
or three other people who were there, you realize that Bischoff just kind of
kind of just has his story and he goes with it and doesn't really know
if it's exactly what happens. He's got these memories, you know, they
come from a real place. I don't feel like he's inventing things out of
whole cloth, but he's not above forgetting things on purpose. Okay, I
think we can put him that way. Yeah, but he starts talking about
how Bully's tough like to get to agree to a creative idea, but once
you get a little bit of daylight to work with, you can start convincing
him. And he's trying to make it sound like he was doing like some
kind of like delicate you know, negotiation, and Bully's like, no,
actually, I'm just going to do whatever you say. Because if if the
booker comes up to you and says we've got an idea, it doesn't matter
if you think it sucks, You're obliged to go with it, if you
want to give yourself a fighting chance. He says. You know, if
a promoter comes to you with an idea, that means they have the idea
in mind, a vision. They think you're the one to best portray this
role, and to say no would have not been a good idea. Bishops
here are trying to spin this yard about how he slowly convinced Bully and read
his personality, and Bully's like, no, he doesn't confront him in that
way when you listen to the pod. But that's like the lump sum of
what's said. It's like, that's no, you didn't. You didn't play
any subtle game with me. I just said yes because you were the boss.
A Bishop talks about aces and eights being the name because it was the
dead man's hand the duck Holiday was holding when he got shot in the back
of the head about four hundred eighty miles east of my house. Okay,
Duk Holiday got shot four hundred eighty miles east of Eric Bischof's house. I
want to hope you know that, Boss. I don't know what's the problem
with them. It's just telling the truth. It's a Western mythology he's always
been interested in. I don't see the problem, of course, of course,
about this. It's it's it's, it's it's you know, that's just
like that kind of he wants to TNA really is a Western, right,
that's what it is. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, it's totally normal
things. He is from Dallas, after all. There we go see that
a Bully says, I never knew I was going to be president. It
was a very well kept secret. And I'm thinking, well, and probably
was a well kept secret because it was not the plan anyway, right,
he didn't even know he was in the running for it. Um. He
remembers asking a year before the unveiling um and he's watching the storyline play out,
and he's an agent. That's nothing to mention here, you know,
Bully is essentially remember the creative team. We've noted in some backstage footage that's
come out in documentaries of TNA how it ran back then, that Bully's at
the table, you know, next to Bischoff and Vince Russo and Hulkogan and
Dixie Carter and today and Terry Taylor and all the rest kind of putting the
television together, and I think that's kind of I might as well say this
here. It's a point I wanted to make that occurred to me going back
revisiting all this stuff or TNH Dilo Bully, and so by extension divon,
these are people who are on payroll already, and TNA is in a cost
cutting mode. Why the hell would you make Delo a character when he's clearly
not in any shape to wrestle, or because he's it's cheap, you know,
the guy's getting paid to do something else. Why would you just have
Why would you have that fucking piece of shit even on roster? Any fashion
about Dilo? Yes, well, a Delo doesn't understand how to put together
a good match, and he is respected by who, by the wrestlers in
TNA. Why because he knows how to put together a good match? I
just said it. He's an agent, it's fine. He wears a polo.
That's not fine, but there he is. It's not fine at all.
Then to plug him into the top storyline of the company the only thing
I can think of it, you know, And they played the idea that
he infiltrated the management side, that Dilo was the one who was k faving
TNA management to allow Aces and eights to run rough shod, pretending to be
caught by surprise by their antics when really he was facilitating them, and that
you know, they planted the seeds, but it barely landed because just as
they announced Dil as that guy and unmask him, they go right to Bully
being unveiled as president. So there's no time for the whole Delo thing to
sink in as any kind of master plan at all. It's they rush it.
I think what they basically did was we needed this thing to come to
a head for lockdown because by that point, as we're going to talk about,
which is hilarious because could have come to a head away earlier, it
would have been better. Yeah, yeah, it's true. But at that
point in twenty thirteen, they had decided to dial way back on pay per
views. We had dialing mbroller from twelve a month to four, from twelve
a year to four a year. So now it's like, we need something
big for all these pay per views because we're going on the road, We're
trying to sell tickets outside of Orlando, and you know, if there's going
to be a pay per view. We need to make something impactful happen.
And I feel like all of a sudden, they were just like rushing all
these asis and Eates reveals after making them take so long, like the Fall
of twenty twelve through January and February. It's like so long for even like
Bischoff, Garrett Bischoff to be revealed as a member. It just takes so
long, and they like Mike not being revealed matters, you know, It's
like, I know, that's the thing. Nobody. There was never a
reveal where I was like, oh shit, like they mean business. No,
No, they didn't have theyn't have the horsepower of the finances to bring
in anybody that would say that. And that's my pet theory is that guys
like Delore slotted in because they're already on paidroll. I'm sure they didn't get
paid. If they got paid any more to do aces and eight storyline work.
I'm sure it wasn't as much as they would have to pay someone else
they would bring into the company. And I'm starting to bully they're getting double
their benefit off of him because he's helping put the show together. Backstage and
fill an important role and at the same time he's out there as the top
heel. It's a it's just a thought I have. It seems to be
a through line through some of the more curious talent decisions they make around this
point in time that, oh, this person also does something else for them.
But again, Bully kind of taken by surprise by this idea that he's
going to be the president. As an agent, He's watching the entire storyline
play out week after week and month after month, and nobody in the room
and the rooms he's in actually knows who the leader was because Jason Hervey and
Ark Bishoff. Remember it's Bishoff Hervey Entertainment who are hired and contracted as we've
read out on the air before. Oh, I know, the executive producers
of T ANDAMPAC Wrestling. It's not just Bischoff himself. So Hervey is very
much involved, not just in producing those backstage interviews that he's sort of the
voice of, but you know, coaching talent because you know, wondering years
in Aboma, so he can get the best out of the talent and produce
them and all that shit. You know. Bullie even suggest that there may
have been up to three other people that they had in mind to run ass
and Nates, And unfortunately, I don't think Conrad had covered the point where
there's that moment where Bishoff voices over the backstage silhouetted Asis and ATE's top figure
to ask Eric straight on if there was ever a consideration to make him the
big reveal. But look, Vince McMahon, Higher Power nineteen, it has
to be you know, the original idea has to be Eric Bischoff. That's
the only thing they know how to come back around to. If Hogan's entire
run that we've chronicled and painstaking details any indication up to this point, Ye
agreed. So I'm not willing to just grant that it's some stroke of genius
to have Bully Ray behind it all along when that wasn't even their plan all
along. Okay, So here's how Bully finds out that, in fact,
he is going to be the leader of the Aces and dates from eighty three
weeks. Like I never thought it was going to be I never knew it
was going to be me. I didn't even know I was in the running
for it. But because he had asked me, like a year before the
unveiling, and at the time, I was an agent with TNA, so
I'm actually in on all of the meetings the creative So I'm I'm watching this
entire storyline play out week after week, month after month, and nobody in
the room knows who the leader of the Aces and Eights yet was yet because
Eric and Jason Hervey, I think we're just keeping it, you know,
to themselves, and maybe they had maybe they had another person in mind or
it or three people, and I don't know. I just knew I was
sitting there and I was in the as in the dark as everybody else.
And then one day Hulk, who was also in the meetings, didn't understand
something that was going on creatively at the time, and he just sits back
and he goes, well, who was the leader of this damn group?
Anyway, Me and Eric used to sit next to each other in the meeting,
and all I remember was Eric going like this and he points right at
me, and I was like, oh, damn, this is really gonna
happen. So you think the chances of zero that it was in that moment
when he was put in the spot by Hogan that Bischof actually decided that Bully
Ray was going to be I think that's exactly what happened. I think there's
no other way to fucking put it. Wow, what a fucking Jesus made
it up on the spot because Hull called his bluff. I mean, bluff
is a wrong way to put it. But he'll put a question on the
table that I don't know if he was entirely ready to answer. I'm willing
to accept a version of events where Bischof still doesn't know and he's just deciding
on the floor totally, totally, And there's a reason I think that Bully
was taken so by surprise because they didn't know enough to tease it was him
that they were going to go. Clearly they were going to go with him
turning on Brook from the beginning, as soon as they embrace on television is
his boyfriend and girlfriend. But Bully makes a face at the camera like I'm
a conniving son of a bitch here and this is all going to be a
big manipulation. But the idea that he's also the head of Aces and Eights
that I think is way later in the game that's decided, you know,
for Bully, him and Divon having been, you know, a long time
tag team, there were there were no more teams for them to work with.
In Bully's mind, he wanted to branch out as a singles wrestler.
We talked last week. This is kind of underappreciated in the chronology. I
think about how you know, Devon became unveiled as an Ace's and Nates member
at Bound for Glory came after he was at a contractual impass with Impact,
and they had announced on television that he'd been stripped to the television title and
you know, sort of announced that he was gone, and there was the
Devon's better chance that would ring at the Impact zone when Bully would come out.
Jesus. So, I mean to me, that's not a stroke of
genius either. And I know you were clearly underwhelmed by the unveil of Devon.
Oh it was awful, But I'm willing to think that that's just basically
something they offered him to bring him back to the table in just like a
last minute contractual um uh, concession right to get him into a key storyline.
Maybe the whole thing about his contract coming up is a work, but
I don't. I don't think so. The way the way it played out,
uh, the way the messages he was posting and stuff. I'm fifty
fifty as to whether I wish someone would ask Dvon head on. Maybe they
have and he just says and he has heard enough. So you're saying that
it was I'm saying Devon was gone from the company when they were Yeah,
his contract was up, he hadn't renewed, they couldn't come to terms.
They announced he was gone on television and they took the belt off him,
only to give it back to him when he came back as this new reveal.
I think they knew there was going to be a reveal at Boundford Glory.
It could have been Bischoff, it could have been d Low, it
could have been Dvon. I think it ended up being Devon for no other
reason than they resigned him and wanted to bring him back with an impact It
maybe even promised an impactful role for him to get him to resign because he
was playing contractual games. And there's a version of events where you could say
that's all a work. They were working people into thinking Divon was gone because
they wanted to make it that much more impressive when he was unveiled, And
I'm sure I wouldn't put it past Bishof and others to claim that that was
the case, to claim it was all by design, But I just I'm
here to tell you I don't necessarily believe it just going but week by week
with a close attention to how things were playing out with him in TNA.
So just a fucking shit show, I think, yeah, I think it's
really it really is going to grind my gears to hear people talk about this
master plan for races and eights and then when you break down every little piece
of it, there's like some some totally like random, circumstantial reason things happen,
and there's no grand design, you know, really at all, and
that Bully apparently wasn't even thought of in the genesis of this thing as the
leader of the group. So to look back and claim that it was this
master plan to get to is I think very um is to ignore a lot
of detail and to ignore a lot of signals to the contrary. That's all
so again that the incident would sting and hardy happens at Victory Road and Bully
talks about offering to just run out there and have Sting put him through a
table so no one notices the condition Jeff was in. They get Jeff out
of the ring, and while Eric turns him down, or at least you
know, says thanks but no thanks on that, and does what he does,
go into the ring and having Sting pen him in seconds. The next
day, according to Bully ray Eric Bischof. The next day, the next
taping, Bishof pulls Bully aside and says, hey, man, thanks for
offering to help save the show. And he thinks that's really when Eric Bischof's
wheel started to turn around, pushing Bully more strongly as a single star.
Bishofs is that Jason had a lot of input Hervey, and he's a good
director. When he was talking to Bully about how to say things differently from
different perspectives, Oh my god, being a good director. I mean,
look, he grew learning, he grew up learning to take great direction as
a talent, of course, and it evolved. Bischofs is, it always
evolves through this guy. He says, it's what a fucking even says.
He even says, it's not like we woke up one day with a twenty
five page story arc and said, Okay, let's work through this. Maybe
you should have, although he's willing to let people say that that's what happened
here without interjecting, you know, do some low risk to us. You
see how the audience reacts to it early when we started, Yeah, they
didn't react very well, and you still went with it, and the ratings
were awful in the end of twenty twelve when Aces and Nates was the main
thrust of But I'm sure that's all because of eight PM and playoffs and blah
blah blah blah blah and direct TV and jerk me off and blah blah blah.
Work in progress until it got finally tuned, and that's when we tagged
in Bully. When I got finally tuned, Bully straight up says I never
saw that divon connection to this whole Asis Nates thing. He didn't get it.
He has to chalk it up to it is just simply done for a
swerve so that when Hulkan masks, it's somebody that you know is supposed to
surprise Hulkogan And yeah, at the very least, we can pick somebody that
people didn't see coming, even if it doesn't really make any sense. And
I'm thinking no one cared. No one cared that it was demon. I
mean maybe there was up kind of a shock. And the shock came honestly
because people thought Devon was was gone from TNA, right, not because he
was a baby face just last week and now he's turning heel and what I
mean the thing is, I mean, I mean, okay, so the
Dudley Boys, I mean, granted, Bully Ray made a made a name
for himself and doing this this fucking thing, yes, but it was done
in WWE. The Dudley Boys were not interesting as singles wrestlers. Bully was
a straight up like singles heel on raw when they split the brands and yep,
it wasn't wasn't much. And when he went back to din't want to
do this character and he knew about it. It just was they were all
just it was not well done. And so I I just don't care about
Devon Dudley. Yeah, I don't care at all. I never cared about
him. Yeah, he's like Marty Janetti, like give me a break,
right, right, and everybody knows it, and it's not not not to
denigrate him as a performer. But I mean, there were just some talents
in this business, like animal. I think Animals ever gonna be a main
event singles wrestler. Give me a fucking break like he was right, don't
forget, Yeah he did main event greed sin. I know, I'm aware.
I'm aware that someone would snaps his leg or whatever. Yeah, right
right, Um, because John Larnids is over there. Anyway, we'll talk
about some other times. Suppose perhaps I should say, um, but you
know, Eric, you tell me, I think, boss, what this
is is you don't understand SARSA? Who SARSA? Is there more than that?
Or should I guess? Eric Bischoff and you know creating a I know
how to produce television power point kind of podcasting. He does has come up
with an acronym called SARSA, and it stands for these are basically the tenets
of building a good wrestling show. Okay, SARSA stands for story, what,
anticipation, reality, action, story, story action. Yeah, I
think it's his story Twice, I don't. I don't know why he better
say story twice? And I want I want you to listen to this now
that you know what SARSA is. I want you to hear bishof make an
inspired case for after bully on the on eighty three weeks says he doesn't understand
why Devon was involved in any of this, make an inspired case for why.
I thought it was. It was an interesting idea. Devon was revealed,
Um, much quickly, much sooner than I was. To be honest,
I never got the Demon connection. I really didn't. Um. It
was something that they came up with creatively. I think it was done more
for a swerve, like when when Hulk unmasked Devon. It was supposed to
get this reaction of like, oh my god, we never saw that coming.
But I think that we got the reaction of, oh my god,
we didn't see that coming. Um, I don't think it was Eric,
Eric, you tell me why why Devon was there a Was there a real
reason? Was there a storyline point? Or was it just to have Bubba
and Demon together within this uh, within this group. No. In the
in the SARSA formula story of action, Devon was a surprise. Devon was
that that who that coming? WHOA Where's this going? He was that moment
in terms of the way he was written in that story, terms of the
way he was written into that story and I can't stand it. I can't
stand it. Sarsa, get your blackboard out. Time to learn, time
to go to time to go to school, young grass grasshopper, Sarsa,
take the take the a off the end of it, and you get the
fucking virus that, yeah, a lot of this stuff actually is. And
thanks for that there, Boss, that it was surprise I missed. I
didn't write it down correctly. Surprise, which basically means surprise, is the
one you set aside from when you do something for no fucking reason other than
surprises because you don't know it. Surprise actually is more about you being surprised
that this is going to be happening. The surprise is you're fucking up against
it and you gotta come up with something. Um a reveal that you set
in motion without having any idea who was going to be in the end.
What a goon he was that moment. What a fucking goon. And look,
they've they already broke up the Dudley's and TNA before this. It's not
like this is Devon turning on Bubba for the first time. They were at
each other's throats before this, and so it's I don't know so uh.
Later in the conversation, which again I I encourage you to check out,
it's it's a really good I wish Conrad would do more of these, uh
if they're you know, low hanging fruit for the taking. In that regard,
Um, Bully goes even harder into how much he kind of thought the
whole idea of aces and Ate sucked while Bishop sits there and tries not to
make any faces. And you know, one of the things Conrad that I
always kept in the back of my mind is it can always be resentment in
pro wrestling, like oh, why did they pick this guy or why this
guy or Bubba Politic to be the leader of the Aces and eights. The
last thing Bubba Politic for was the leagal leader of as the idea sucked,
to be quite honest, Um, so I was really I really tried to
keep in mind that we were a group of guys, just like a motorcycle
club would be. They the boys elect the president because they love and respected
him. And that's how I wanted those guys to feel about me, because
that's how I felt about them. I didn't want them to look at me
like, oh, he's getting this push and we're just along for his ride.
It's no, guys, we're getting the push and we all have equal,
you know, equal parts to play in this story, so let's all
do it together. I was really conscious about that because I didn't want anybody
to feel like, um, like I was better than them, because I
knew the spotlight was being thrust onto me, because I thought the idea sucked.
Just I'm so glad that's that's so great refreshing to hear him, to
hear him saying, oh, I fucking love that, and I can imagine
just the fucking bishofs squirming boil, So, you know, so interesting,
Bully, to hear you say, so we flashed, but this is flashing
all the way forward to lockdown, slashing all the way forward to lockdown.
When he's revealed there's a whole lot of shit that happens before that, and
what the real emotional way it is, the whole thing is not that he's
leader vases Nates, is that he screws over brook Hogan, that he wins
her over, he gets her to marry him unimpact, and then reveals that
it was all a manipulation and all he was looking to do was take over
become world champion. Now, why you have to marry Brooke to become the
leader of vases Nates and win the belt? I don't know, I know,
I know, I don't understand. That's kind of like it's it's it's
the way he weasels his way in a Hulk Hogan's heart. Because Hulk Cogan
is general manager of TNA, he decides who gets title shots, I guess.
And there's this awkward moment a few weeks out from from Lockdown in March
of twenty thirteen where Hogan just comes out and despite Bully winning no matches to
deserve it, decides that Bully is the one that's going to get the shot
at Jeff Hardy in the championship at Lockdown, and so it's like, finally,
you know, that's the trump card. He He tried to win his
way in a Hulkgan's heart by proving to Hulp that he'd be a good husband
and a faithful protector of his daughter, who, in her own right is
undersieged by aces and eights, right, and so we're supposed to believe that
it's actually the best of Bully that aces and Ates is menacing Brook Hogan and
scaring the shit out of her. So he's right. He's running a protection
racket here, almost like a kfabe protection I'm doing a lot of work for
them here. One thing that is said out loud is that Bully does convince
Hulkogan. Hulk Hogan does come out of nowhere and give Bully the title shot
because he's proving to be an honorable partner to his daughter. But you know,
the one thing you have to remember is you're gonna get Hogan buy in
here only because at the end he's right. At the end, he proved
to be the best judge of character, right because his gut reaction is that
Bully's up to no good and can't be trusted, and he has ill intentions
here visa Vie my daughter and has yeah, of course, and he absolutely
he knows enough about his daughter to know that she'll fall for shit like that.
That's also implicit in a lot of this, which I think is hilarious
because obviously his daughter's a moron. You know, I don't know one's left
to wonder, you know, how, God, it's it's a great idea.
The Bully Brook romance. But how does this fall out of the sky,
this opportunity to be the one to share the screen with whole Cogan's daughter
at the peak of her you know, pop culture stardom. I guess you
could say, or coming off the peak, why Bully? Of all the
people, why would it be Bully? I mean, is there some some
basis to launch from doing there's some reason to suggest that of all the wrestlers
in the TNA locker room, that in reality, Bully is a step closer
to anybody else to actually being involved with Brooke Hogan. Oh oh no,
did Bully ever fuck that pussy? Oh? How did it come about?
Bully? That was a little Don't get me wrong, I don't want to
give you the impression it was a tough sell. It was not a tough
so, but it was a tough situation to manage on a day to day
basis. Now, keep in mind, um Hulk had been through a lot
family kids issues in her in her family relationships, and typically having your kids
around you in the wrestling business is sometimes tricky. Right. The audience is
automatically gonna you know, somebody's kid that comes into the business. Yeah,
just automatically right, you don't want that for your kids. I didn't want
it for Garretts. Why I tried talking about it getting into the wrestling business
because I knew it was gonna happen. Hulk felt that same way. He
didn't want his daughter getting criticized in social media, didn't want to take an
abuse just because she was his daughter on the one hand. On the other
hand, he's excited to give his daughter an opportunity, and she was excited
about doing that. So he's constantly kind of, yeah, I can't wait
to do this because this is gonna be fun on but oh my god,
my daughter's going to take a lot of abuse online because of me. So
that's a conflict right there. Um, and then you got you now other
influences within the family that could become an issue. So it was a little
tricky on a personal level. But at the same time he was so she
was excited about Rook doesn't get she's another one we're talking about. As a
performance wrestler inside the ring, she never really got that opportunity or really trained
for that opportunity. But as an on camera personality, she did some great
work with Boy, here's some believable shit going on there so much so that
I was kind of wondering myself what was going on between Bully and good stuff
there? Brother, Wow, you got to watch the video this one Boys
and Girls. So Eric tell me good stuff there, Brother Wow, I
gotta wonder. Here's the problem. What everybody knows TNA at this point that
he's dating Velvet Sky, the same Velvet Sky who, just at the time
Bully starts to get his world title singles main event Push suddenly re emerges with
a fresh, new contracted impact and wins the Knockouts Championship and is the centerpiece
female star of the company, directly coincident with Bubba's rise to the top of
the of the singles division. Oh no, Bubba was on one of Vince
Russo's podcasts a few years ago, and Russo is a fan of Velvets who
pushed her really hard when he had the book at TNA just has he's got
something. God, you know, Boss, He's got something. He wants
to ask Bully about his relationship with Velvet Sky, but he just can't bring
himself to ask Bubba. I gotta answer me seriously now, as as honestly
as you can. Bubba is in another relationship. I'm bubba. Velvet is
in another relationship. Why well, she's in it and they're all multiple,
multiple beautiful girls backstage. But while Velvet is in another relationship, Okay,
do you have your eye on Velvet or do you you know, just see
Velvet as a beautiful angel like you know, like like the rest of us
do, or do you have your eye on her that? Yeah? God,
I wish you know she was single, available and it could be something
more. Now, absolutely not, because I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't
do that anybody else in the business. Okay, So you want that done
to me? So I would look at that as disrespectful. Me and her
have been friends from day one, okay, doing each other for eight years,
and we just our personalities always clicked on a friendly level. Okay,
beautiful, Okay, all right, so now the relationship ends. We've been
friends on a friendly level for a certain number of years, right, so
pro is Listen, and you gotta understand I'm living vicariously through you because I've
been married for thirty one years. I'm dead, bro, I'm like,
I'm just as good as dead. Okay, So now, bro, do
we have like is there a conversation to bring this to the next level.
Is there a bubba line or does it like kind of organically just happen totally,
totally organic because she was in a relationship. I was in a relationship
outside. I was in a relationship for a very short time in the wrestling
business, but I had a three year relationship outside of the wrestling business.
So she was going through her her tough times in her relationship. I was
going through my tough times in my relationship. We were always friendly. We
had always seen each other at TV, we had hung out in the same
circles sometimes, you know, after shows, going out to eat or going
out to have a drink, and we always just got along. So me
and her relationship what it is today was probably the foundation for it was being
poured years and years ago just on friendship. So after she, you know,
got out of her relationship and I got out of mine, it was
kind of like we just started talking and we found out that we had so
much in common in the things that went wrong with our relationships. We knew
we had got along so well. We just started talking, and you know,
that's it. It's happened to a million people before This is not like
I walk up to her and I, hey, can I buy you a
drink? Baby? You know it's not bad at all. Bro, Where
is velvet from Connecticut? Okay? She was pointing raised in Connecticut? Right,
so Broa, I'm assuming you've met the parents. Oh? Absolutely,
and that was a beautiful thing. You're just trying to find something negative picture.
Bub Hey, hey, hey, hey, As much as you know
I love velvet, you don't think i'd want to see how with somebody like
you? Are you out of your mind? Come on now? The parents?
All right? Hey, hey, Bubba, I gotta ask you this.
I know. Okay, Yeah, You're really not give me anything any
dirt day, so I'm gonna move on. You don't ask the dirt.
I don't. I can't. I can't for dirt. But I can't ask
you for Ask you who you want dirt? D ask the dirt question.
I can't. I can't, I can't, not not not because it because
it's velvet. Bro, what do you want to know? Okay, let's
move on to the next topic. I see, I gave you the opportunity,
but you punked out. Okay, Bubba, listen, I know you're
a big soccer guy, a soccer soccer as in the game of football.
You I don't know, could it have been? Could it have been?
This from Hollywood Raw? The Brook Hogan interviews from last year are wrestling royal.
You've been around wrestling your whole life. Have you ever dated a wrestler
for a brief moment? For a brief moment. It's so funny because on
TNA, we did a like a storyline with Bully Ray and I was like,
all right, cool, I love the storyline, super cool, like
he's trying to take over the company and you know, pitting me and my
dad against each other and this whole thing. And in real life, he
actually asked my dad if he could actually take me out, and totally like
not somebody that you would think like, oh, yeah, you're gonna date
a big old wrestler. But he was super nice and funny and really cool,
and I was like, yeah, whatever, you know, like I've
never been about anything other than like if you've got a personality or talent,
Like that's a turn onto me. So we went on a couple dates,
and I think he was maybe still dating Velvet Sky. I'm not really sure.
So I did not know that at the time, but I definitely did
not get I think the vibes. I put two and two together and I
was like, Hm, I'm just going to remove myself from the situation right
now. Interesting, I know, boy, I mean that's uh so did
it are you guys still friends? Are close? Or how did that relationship
sort of end? Dating? End? Um? I'll work totally cordial.
I mean, he'll text me once in a blue moon and like I'll just
be like maybe I won't answer. Yeah, Brooke, Brooke Brook. The
question is this, did he satisfy did your urges? Okay? Howard?
And and you love it and you love and you love it, you love
it and you need more of it? Right, it's not stop bully pounding,
bully pounding, bully Velvet. When you were making these passes, were
you with velvet? Movie masked? Hogan for permission? Mark? Mark?
What's going on here? Pal? Is this the reason you were chosen for
the storyline? Was it was the horse already out of the barn? Mark?
Were you inside? Brook? M Brother, I can say that.
You can say that again, dude, and you can see how being into
it if it's business right, it's like m hmmm, well, you know,
if he's gonna actually go out with her, then we need to do
something. We need to make it a storyline. You know, well,
I mean brother or not, we are we gonna you know, we're gonna
kind of play up that kfabe dude, kind of keep it on the level.
I gotta chick in a red question on this whole thing, you know,
Devil does Brook does Bully seek permission to date Brooke after he starts the
on screen romance when they were before. To me, that's a critical question
and apparently still going out with Velvet or at least Brooke picked up those Wow
they were together a long time Bully and Velvet and they got engaged. And
then in November of last year of twenty twenty one, a month after,
Velvet put a tweet up and then deleted it, taking issue with an interview
Divon did, explaining from Devon's perspective, why he and Bubba don't really associate
with each other anymore and don't certainly don't do business together anymore. Velvet tweets
fiction can be fun l if you'll only knew the truth because this saying hit.
She then deletes the tweet. Whoa October twenty twenty one. The month
after that, Bubba and Velvet issue a joint statement announcing their split. Taking
to Twitter, they both tweet Buba and I or Velvet and I have decided
to part ways amicably. There's no animosity and we will always be cool and
we wish each other well in life. This will be the only public comment
we make on the matter. And then then here's Brooke dishing and way she
hasn't dished before about the history and the backdrop. That's that is the fact
pattern I can present to you. You make your own judgments from there,
but I would suggest there's quite a bit going on behind this on screen romance
between Bully Ray and Brooke Hogan and TNA. As for Brook, she's out
there kfabe and the ship out of this wedding. She's doing interviews like she's
actually going to marry this guy, including this one on the John Boy and
Billy radio show right around the time of that January seventeenth, I think it
is right or nineteenth twenty thirteen episode of Impact where Bully and Brooker wed and
center ring or about to be broke about the wedding. Tonight, Tip Ted
we can all watch live on Spike TV getting a PM Eastern. How do
you feel about this? Let me tell you, Let me tell you,
Let me tell your fun brother. You know what's so funny? Even though,
um, you know, in the wrestling world, I love it.
I'm very proud of it. I'm loving being with Tna. I am still
a girly girl. And I never ever thought I was going to get married
in the middle of a wrestling right easy. You know. I thought I
was one of the people that was like, that's so cheesy. I some
people do that. But you know Mark or I'm sorry Bully as you guys
know him, Um, you know, just said, hey, I want
to marry in the middle of the ring. And that's his personality. He's
he's really crazy. He's got stuff last minute and you know, off the
cuff, and you know, when you love somebody, you're just kind of
like, it doesn't matter when we get married. You just kind of go
with it. You know. I can say, you may tail of my
wife, and sure, I don't think. First of all, I think
that this is I'm trying to do some inner psychology work on my daddy.
I think that he never wanted me to data wrestler in the first place,
which is where from? And I think now it's becoming a personal, you
know issue, because he might be a little bit jealous or he might be
for losing this little girl. I'm not really surf it. You know my
dads. I love my dad and he knows I do so, and he
raised me right, so I know I'm making the right choice. I know.
I know Bully is a good guy, and you know he'll feed out
to get married in the middle of a ring. What you're gonna do about
the honeymoon? No, you know what where I might as well be like
a perfect little sex what. Oh gosh, I don't think about that's not
gonna be a pay per view if that's what you're asking, make some I
haven't even had a bird. D Well, we will see the reaction.
We'll see what happens. And I tell you what it is. It is
something. It is a lot of buzz going around this and everybody free of
charge tonight. Okay. She starts calling him my daddy because she's trying to
be Nashville, right. She never just called him my daddy in her life
like that. Yeah, and Eta, oh my god, that has to
be pointed out my daddy the bald faces. There's no honeymoon because there's not
a real wedding, because it's all fake. And uh, after this,
after this interview airs, Uh, I think a certain Tampa area code lights
up. Brookto who's calling it? It's Hogan? What does he say?
Boss? What is birds and the Bees? Brother? I just I just
want I just want to I just want to dial the centelment. Brother.
Are you when you say birds and bees? Are you talking? Are you
talking Bronzel? Brother? You're talking killer bees? Dude? Are talking about?
Actually? Brother, we're taking it. We gotta let's dial this back
in again. Brother. Are you talking when you talk birds and bees?
Are you talking Bronzel and Coco? Brother? Are they the Birdman and the
killer Bees? I mean, brother, are you talking about? I don't
understand why you bring them up? Broke? I mean, have you Brooke?
Are you talking Broke? Are you talking to Coco? Dude? Are
you talking to Frankie? Brother? What's going on? What's going on here?
Brother? I want to just get these kind of laying out, brother,
right exactly. I want to get all the facts out, dude.
You know, listen enough playing, you know we're done sticking in the drawer.
Brother, And I have to tell you, Boss, of all the
things I salivated over the potential of when I planned to ask you what Hulk
said to Brooke after the phone call highest on the list, and I'm glad
you hit it was. Have you been talking to Frankie Brother? No,
Dad, I've been talking to Christopher Daniels. Did Bubba pound? Boss?
You tell me who? I imagine that There is a look on Bubba's face
when he is about to nut. That's been clear, all right? Now
this line down is yeah, oh yeah, you know, and like that
that kind of psychotic face, except now it's red and it's sweaty, and
he is just just accelerating because it's now you know, he's got that he's
got that that that get the tables look after. You know, he he'd
power bomb a woman through a table, you know, and he's just like
he's just he's just stone faced, but red and just like hungry. I
mean, look, I say this with no negative connotation whatsoever, only with
positive connotations. I'm just noting that, you know, when brooksharees the screen
with another member of let's say the knock House roster, she's wanting to do
as an administrator. She towers over them. She's taller, she's a oh
my god, she's huge. A woman we saw in Two Headed Chart Attack,
the film she did that we did under the Cinemat. She's so much
bigger than her female co stars in that movie. She is just a broader,
show, older, bigger. I mean, she's a Hogan. You
know, she's got exactly you know, does it take someone the size and
proportion of a Bully Ray to tame her? Yes? I mean that's the
question I have. Yes it does. Yes, it does. You know
that she needs to be tamed? Is that what it is? Yes?
And Bully Ray? This straight from stern Man. I can't I have to
do this whole thing. I hope people believe me. It's just me trying
to be started, just loving that thing of his act where he could just
do this as poking prod. The thing is he would have the actual person
in front of him when he did it right, and they signed up for
it by coming on his show. But it's a lost art. Mark Mark
god Mark Lamonico of all people. He he relishes in ravaging, and he
becomes a psychopath when he when he when he is ready to fucking just shoot
his fucking wad. He he is, he disappears, he becomes something else.
Yeah, it's a Jacqueline hide thing, a ja yeah, yeah,
yeah, a jaculate and hide the ball. And he just like, yeah,
it's actually not safe to be his to be That's why I didn't last
so long with him, you know, because because it may end in death.
All Right, it's good play. That's what he does. He's he's
he's a maniac. So you're saying he's up to the task. As it
regards Bill, I'm saying, if there you know, I'm saying, if
there's anybody who's gonna tame anybody, it's Mark Lamonico. I just love when
they asked Brooke on that Hollywood Roy interview if she's ever data wrestling, she
goes like she knows, like she's got to go there. Now. It's
a it's a long story, boss. And speaking of long stories, if
we're going to be out in the in the media ahead of this big impact
U in January of twenty thirteen, the Big Wedding episode, which U it's
important to note, was the lead in to the premiere of Bellatore Mma live
on Spike TV. This is the m a company that bet that Spike and
Paramount bought after Viscom bought UM after UM after UFC left for Fox, and
they had like that year into Regnant period where they didn't have MA and then
they started putting Bellatoor fighters and personalities on Impact to try to do essentially what
they did with the raw audience to build interest in the UFC's reality show in
two thousand and five, which launched the UFC into the stratosphere, trying again
borrow that wrestling audience to you know, seed a new base of interest for
an MMA product. And so this Bully Ray Brooke wedding was really rushed all
of a sudden, was happening the week after the proposal on Impact. Yeah,
And the reason it was that way, as far as I can tell,
is that Spike was really relying on them and leaning on them to deliver
a big walk up audience to the premiere of Bellatour, which aired immediately after
this episode of Impact. You know, to make the ratings look better for
Bellatoor. You want a big splashy rating week one out of the gate with
this new investment you have here, So you know, what's the hottest shot
angle that t Anda could put together. At the time, it was pretty
much this, So they went ahead and did it, and you know,
we'll talk about and get into more detail as we dived through this material in
chronologic order. They did pretty much deliver on that front. But that's the
reason if you're marching through the Brook Bully storyline progression from the end of twenty
twelve to twenty thirteen, that it suddenly comes to a head of a wedding
so quickly is because they had to deliver for Spike him as a lead in
for belatory. But now Brook's out there doing interviews, trying to get people
to care, trying to get people to believe in this wedding, and she's
really pulling a lot of pages out of her daddy's book. This is an
interview here. Arkland Newsday, January sixteenth, twenty thirteen. Take it away.
Brook Hogan was just twelve years old when she watched Triple Age Mary Stephanie
McMahon on an episode of Monday Night Raw, a self professed girly girls.
You vowed then that her dream wedding would never take place on a wrestling show.
Quote. I still wanted my flowers in my church and my beautiful ceremony
with all my friends and family there, said Hogan, twenty four, the
daughter of pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan. I kind I just kind of let
go of my dream when I had the man that I love standing in front
of me saying, baby, you want to do it next week in the
middle of the ring. That man is Bully Ray, the Native Long Islander
who went on to achieve wrestling greatness as one of the decorated tag team the
Dudley Boys Slash Team three D. The unlikely wrestling couple is set to exchange
their vows on this Tuesday's edition on this Thursday's edition of TNA Impact Wrestling on
Spike at eight pm, proving that she is her father's daughter, Hogan was
sure to keep a straight face when promoting her wrestling world wedding. In an
interview Wednesday, She's now at Carney Yes. Quote, this is my family,
The wrestling business is my family, So why not do it right in
front of God and everybody? Literally, said Hogan, who drew comparisons between
her betrothed and the other man in her life. Quote, I came from
my father being one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. It's really hard
to fill those shoes, and it's really intriguing to me to find a man
who knows the same business as my father, knows how it works, and
is savvy in it and intelligent, not just as a performer. He's so
smart. That's one of the things that really turns me on about him,
Hogan. Instead of Bully Ray forty one, who was a lot leaner and
more muscular than the Bubba Ray Dudley she washed on television as a child,
it's not right, Like, let's be very clear, he's not fat anymore.
Brooke is marrying a fatty. They very go out of their way to
say that, and she even says it in that little interview clip. She's
like, you know, if you've got a personality, then that's a turn
on to me. In other words, like I know, if you google
him right now, you won't think that. Yeah. Well, when I
first started working with TNA, I didn't even recognize him because he looks so
different. I was like, God, he's hot, look at those arms,
look at his face. You know he's Italian too. I was like,
I bet he makes some really good meat balls. Yeah, they're all
gone by the time you can have one, exactly. He makes him and
he eats him before you get home. It's been nearly a h you want
some awesome I bet he makes him really good meat balls. Meatballs, Brook
Jesus Christ. Yeah, Yeah, that's all it takes. Brook Jesus fucking
Just walk up and down fucking Little Italy in New York, for God's sake,
find somebody there with good meat balls. Go go to go to go,
go to uh, go to go to Little Italy during one of the
fucking Italian festivals, and you'll fall find a lot of great meatballs. So
basically, what you're saying is Mario Batali could have betted her as well.
I mean just saying, my grandma could have two. What's she's saying.
It's been nearly a year since Hogan joined Total NonStop Action Wrestling as the on
air head of the Quote Knockouts Women's division. After facing some early doubts from
vans and colleagues about her place in the company, Hogan said she believes she's
proven herself. Quote. I think it's been my willingness to spend time with
the girls. Of course, they were going to be like, who is
this girl? She's younger than us, She's totally inexperience, Hogan said.
But what they can rest easy knowing is that I have the two best mentors
in the wrestling business. Ever. I had Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan over
my house every day. I heard the folk excuse me. I mean she
was like when when Hulk was in WWF, she was like in grade school.
She's not learning a single goddamn thing from Vince McMahon. Brook, Come
on in, I'm gonna teach of the business. Pell Ye, it's my
business. Stephanie's like, Daddy, can I come into shut up, get
back in the merchandise catalog, Go go, go, go do some kind
of creative work, and the hell alone. I'm here with Brook Hogan,
the other Hogan, the immortal one herself. Normal thing to say to her
four year old girl, So you learn how to read? Yet you know
how to read copy? Are you a fan of the internet? What?
Vin smith Man sits down an adolescent Brook Hogan in the nineties and tightened Towers
asks her, because you know he knows how to relate to children. Do
you know how to read? Yet? Do you know how to read copy?
Are you familiar with internet? What she's about? Why does he What
does the internet have to do with this? Where were you going with that?
Boss? Continue speak? You can't speak, just talk. I don't
understand the difficulty here. Explain where you were going. I'm a I'm a
novice with the with the with the internet, and there are certain web pages
that I would like to to to observe, but um, I don't.
I don't know. It's like eight but I'm not sure how to how to
put it in. Vince is still in the stage, like when he presses
a key it makes a bleep noise on his computer because he's so like fucked
up an ms ms doss. Why was there noise coming from my my my
computerized machine? Do you know how to read copy? Are you familiar with
the internet? He asks Brooke Hogan Aj in a closed door meeting. Now
are you well kick his own daughter out? Are do you do? You?
Do you? Are you? Are you really eight years old? M
hm? Do you do you have the qualifications to be any earld child?
I don't know if you do so, I mean Hulk is out of the
company by ninety three. How old could you have been do you do?
You? Do you? I mean, listen, you know they're illegal issues
if you lie about being eight years old. This is stenographer. Really have
to be present for this. Vince taking contemporaneous notes for Jerry mcgevitt. Now,
can you tell me what your father's actually doing over there at Turner?
Wow? Okay, so that's that makes more sense. So he's already at
WCW. So now she's actually like probably twelve. I want I need to
know what's going on at Turner? Do you know Turner? Have you met
ted Turner? And scene flash forward twelve hours later. Brooke comes into the
house in bel air, puts the keys on the table, presses the the
answering machine and it's Hulk dialing in from the road. They're in des Moines
doing nitro. Message one left at blah blah blah. The day after she
met with Vince, Dude, brother, what's going on up there in Stamford?
Dude? We his daughters talk to eight years old brother. He's called
what's going on in Stamford? Dude? Fourteen? You've been talking to VisiC
man? Brother? YEP, I gotta know why it is? You know,
I think I'm a pretty good dad, brother, But I gotta wonder
exactly why it is that my own daughter he's trying to put her hand between
my legs and roll me up. Brother, Well, you certainly put your
hand between hers. I'm an applying baby oil. Not get that aces and
ATE's voice gimmick you have? Do you have one that makes it sound like
you're on the telephone or a nineteen nineties answering machine? Probably good, but
again, make it right now over recording. But I could, I should
probably set that. I think that that that'll probably paid evidence down the line.
Totally. An awful lot of voicemails. I think we've established that over
the years. Brother, the machine stopped for the halfway through this muttering.
First of all, Dude, I'm not a this answering machine. Dude,
I'm not a I don't understand, brother, why the answering machine takes it
upon itself to cut me off? Dude? Why are you talking to this?
What are you trying to become Vince's daughter? Brother? You're trying to
leave me at the parent alter dude, And I gotta, I gotta,
I need to go check probate records. Brother, process all right, you
know what, dude, I'm gonna tell you right now. Brother, all
right, enough of the games exactly here we go. All right, Brook
Tiny, it's time to stop playing, you know, stink up the bedroom.
Stink up the bedroom, litigate the fix. Stop playing walk the sidewalk.
Brother, all right, stop playing watch the movie at home? Brother?
Enough enough of this, be kind please rewind dude enough you know Rent
in the video, Brother, we gonna talk Turkey Brook Katy, and I'm
sick and tired of having to listen to these games. Brother. You're grounded,
dude. Fuck, it's not going well. Derry Vince is not losing
in the psychological battle. Hold on, brother, Broke can't even finish her
name. Are you the third guy? Brother? Talk to you? What's
going on? Oh? Is he talk to me about the third man?
Brothers? I gotta understand he is it? Brooke? Brooke is twelve?
What are you talking about? Why? Brother? You know, dude,
I got these things happening at home. Brother. I don't know what's going
on, dude, and I'm just wondering. I'm sitting here, like the
only thing that makes sense to me, dude, is that you've talked to
Brooke and you're gonna bring Brooke in into third guy brother back to the Beach
ninety six hulks like this the third man, Bubba Ray Dudley dude, like
the guy from dc W in the overalls. Brother, You getting the brother?
You getting the Dudley boys in Brother as the third guy. Dude,
you're gonna have two guys the third guy Brother. What's going on? Dude,
I'm I'm I'm trying to figure out. Brother. You got fucking that
that that Mark Lamonico, Dude, that's far We're bringing him in brother backstage
Impact you give him the title dude, twenty twelve Impact Zone late November.
Mister ruh, mister Hogan. Can I have a minute of your time?
The cameras aren't rolling, by the way, this is a shoot. Sure,
brother, sit down, dude. What's going on? What do we
got? Dude? You know I just hold on, hold on, brother.
This is kind of backing up a little bit. Dude. You push
that chair back. Brother. We no, we're not you know, brother,
we're not playing holding the hands here, dude, exactly? You got
a recording device on your dude, are you gosh something? I just want
to listen, dude, I don't want to. I don't want to take
things out of context. Brother, are you according this conversation? No wires?
Dude? Can you stand up? Give me a three sixty one time?
Can you? Can you give me a favorite? Brother? Can you
please lift your shirt up? Dude? I want to see make sure you're
not not wired? Brother? All right, I'm sat. You have an
ear a piece in your ear? What? All right? Brother, I'm
satisfied. Dude, sit down. What are you want to talk about?
You have a piece in your ear? Dude? Do you have a piece
in your ear? Oh? I have a piece in the safe at home,
just like you. If it's not in the glove box and you're going
to get more fat? Oh? How do you have a piece at home?
Brother? Are you watching me? Dude? Mister Bala, I just
thought it appropriate to ask you face to face as a long islander. I
thought I owed you the courtesy of asking your permission to date your daughter.
M brother turns in his chair like James conn when he decides to bring in
Miles Finch. I like it, you know, dude, I'm digging that.
Brother. I think that'd be okay, dude, that's all. It's
gonna take Really, this is amazing. Hold on, dude, hold on,
we're not you know, we're not talking turkey yet. Brother. You
know, I want to understand exactly what it is that is your motivation,
brother, Because here's the thing, Dude, this is what I'm wondering.
Brother. Who else you've been talking to about this? You've been talking to
relatives? Brother, you talk to Linda, Dude talking talking to the clearedge
side of the family. Dude. Because I've seen some phone records brother that
I think you're I'm gonna tell you, brother, I actually have access to
your phone record. Had Joe Parks look into it? All right? I've
actually been reading your phone records and transcripts of phone conversations from your household.
Who else have you asked for permission to date my daughter? I know I
know who you've been talking to. Dude. I want you to tell me
the truth. This is your opportunity, brother, to come clean and let
me know who you've been talking to. OK. I gotta respect your diligence.
I have talked to you to your ex wife a little bit about it.
I thought I owed her the courtesy as well, and I told her.
You know that I thought, uh, I would be a great boyfriend
to her, to Linda. Brother, oh whoa wow. Now that's not
what I meant at all. Brother, Well do I want First of all,
we gotta take a moment. We gotta come whoa brother, We gotta
get this thing back on track. Dude. What I'm sensing right now,
Brother, I'm sensing a lot of confusion. Brother. You know what,
dudeen of this hide the ball? Oh Brother, I'm gonna tell you right
now is dude, I'm sick and tired of you playing hide the ball with
me. Brother, all right, I'm sick and tired of you, you
know, fucking riding the kangaroo, madam, fucking riding the kangaroo. Not
just riding the kangaroo, fucking riding the kangaroo. Awesome, the same my
first rodeo. Dude. It's time for you and me to stop taking down
the scaffolding. Brother. It's time for you and me to get back on
the ladder, brother, and figure out what the fuck is going on?
Dude. Wells, mister Blair, I was in the middle of disclosing to
you all of the people I've been talking to Whoa Whoa Beck's wife Linda.
I thought I needed her blessing as well. And I also talked to your
brother in law about it, and I think I've convinced them that I deserve
a shot at treating your daughter the right way. Hold On, dude,
I asked, let me, let me ask you, Terry. I mean,
you started right away, and there was a Boston you started right away,
uh, telling me that you were cool with it, you liked it.
I'd like to lean more into that. Brother. No, I never
said that, dude. I never saw brother. I never said I was
digging the creative brother. I never said I was. Brother. See,
you're twisting my words. I never said anything of the sort. Dude.
You come in here, brother, and you started accusing me of things,
dude, accusing you of holding you back. Man, bro, brother,
I mean you're putting words in my mouth. Dude. What else you're gonna
put in my mouth? Dude? Your cock? Whoa? Old on?
Hold on? Whoa? All right? Everybody positions please? What we got
an awful lot to talk about here? Okay, I want you to know
something boss here on TNH. I set the hook. I did. I'll
admit it. Sometimes I do this. It's it's it's what they call stick,
right. I told myself, well, you know, if I set
the hook of I'll say that you're putting words in my mouth. What's the
next thing you're gonna put it? I thought you were gonna say, put
your hand between my legs and roll me up, brother, Like something very
something that tracks with the history, something that one could reasonably expect, much
like an AI rite machine learning that's been trained on laps episodes past. But
instead the entire tenor of this meeting changes. What Hulk says the following you
put words in my mouth, brother, what else you gonna put in my
mouth? Food? Your cock? As in, that is something that Hulk
would have no agency in deciding if it comes to pass, as if that's
something that can be done to him without his buy in. Dare I say
it contains a suggestion of if you'd want to do that, I'd be down
because what Linda has said about me and Brute I might not necessarily be inaccurate.
Oh my god, tnh tnh tn Oh god, uh no, oh,
not not at all. I did not plan on putting my cock in
your mouth at all. Oh, I'm not seeing you planned it, brother,
I'm saying, is that what's gonna happen next? Dude? Where are
you going? Brother? Finding that this chair wheels its way to towards the
door all by itself, Derry, But we gotta talk turkey, dude.
What the fuck is going on? Brother? Why are you here? Dude?
You know what? I gotta get ready for my match, Terry.
We can take a rain check on this, just sleep on it. I
don't mean a rain check, man, I gotta get ready. He leaves.
What are you checking on in the rain? Three minutes later, Brooke
Tiny's cell phone rings somewhere else on the lot. No, no, no,
no, I don't know about uh Hi, daddy, what's going on
with that fucking bully ray? Brother? What are you doing to him?
You putting cox in mouth? Deep? All right? What's going on with
that bully ray? Brother? What are you doing? Are you putting cox
in mouth? What? Daddy? What are you okay? Well? I'm
not okay. I thought I was doing fine, but all of a sudden
I get thrown way off track. Brother Mark comes in here and says he's
gonna put his cock in my mouth, dude, And you know what am
I supposed to do? I sucked it. Brother, I mean what brother?
He saister? Brother? What am I supposed to do? Brother?
He's a bully dude, He's Bully Ray brother off of Bully dude. What's
going on? Brother? Where am I? Dude? I think you were
about three paragraphs into this article from Newsday boss at last check. Oh yeah,
it never goes right. This all came from. This all came from
I had this McMahon all over my house every day. That's TLF the heart,
It's so of TLF. Pretty soon Bully standing on Hulk's desk, trousers
down his ankle and gorged. I heard the phone calls. I went to
the matches, I saw the business meetings. I saw everything. Did not
so what people didn't think. I don't know. I actually do know,
and it's second nature to me. Hogan thinks there's no coincidence that in the
case of both her father and McMahon, it was their daughters and not their
sons that showed a greater aptitude for and interest in the wrestling business. Quote
in such a name old story of girls being daddy's girls. I think being
the girl of such a huge father figure, you want to be that tomboy
because you are so close to your dad, and Hogan predicts she may follow
in her father's footsteps even further. The six foot one Hogan noted that quote,
you don't grow up with whole Cogan as your dad and not learn a
few moves, and said she'd love to one day have her father stand in
her corner during a match. A bridge you never crossed, you never wow.
Yeah. Match. But if she ever does transition into a career in
the ring, she said, she'll be more careful than her dad was when
he began his wrestling career. Quote, you have to remember that you've got
to be smart when you're throwing your body around. My dad was twenty three,
twenty four years old with tons of testosterone in a drone. Brother,
we talk tons of synthetic testoster o. Brother, brother, are you talking
tons of are you adding me? Are you outing me? You do as
a steroid user? Brother. Imagine if the author took the liberty she says
my dad was twenty three, twenty four years old with tons of testosterone and
adrenaline, just going buck wild, and the author puts in parenthesis as if
Brooke meant to say exogynists testosterone and as well as annavar and yeah, he
puts it all in one in one bracketts testosterone open bracket aka Annavar aka winstrol
Akaa androlone. Oh my god, God, Diana Ball aka aka hide the
Ball, Brother, Diana the ball now playing Diana the Ball, Hide the
ball, Eat the ball, meat balls, brother, what the fun is
going on? Dude, eat the ball, Meet the ball? You know,
Diana the ball sounds like a fucking my grandmother. Meet the ball,
Davey boy Smith Diane at the ball right. Uh, I'm just like going
buck Wild, whose dad fifty nine, has endured multiple back surgeries and lives
with constant ah. So sad. Brother. Oh dude, Oh, it's
gonna be easy to want to get to brother. I can't make that.
The gate doesn't look good enough. I'm not gonna be able to make that
one. Oh God. The walrus rises from his Tampa back. Hogan's tan
skin on white shoots. Oh god, and there's like oil left over.
It's like breezy. It was like it like you know when he gets like
sticks to the you know, h it's like that that dry coldness because the
ACMs cranked to a thousand in Florida. And you hear and you hear that
because this flesh leaves pulls from the fucking bed. Ferfet do that again?
Oh so good, so good, Oh my god, it's so good.
Oh my god. Um uh, Now that I have, Now that I
have him watching out for me, he says, listen, you know when
you use leg drop or you take this body slam, you have to protect
yourself. He's making me think about what I'm doing more than just throw myself
out there and being a boy. What was she talking about? She's not
getting in the ring. Why giving her advice about a light drip? He's
willing to hint that she's thinking about it. I never saw her go down
this road before. Growing up and around wrestling performers also meant growing up with
their children, and Hogan remembers she vividly remembers hanging out with Eric Bischoff's son,
Garrett, now a TENA wrestler, when he was a snot nosed kid
who wore a backwards baseball cap. Quote. David Flair is a very close
friend of ours. I remember sitting there watching WrestleManias with him. Our moms
would right, Our moms would sit us down in front of the TV together
and we'd watch our dads get bloody. He was the one who would tell
me, don't worry, it's ketchup. It's ketchup, Hogan said. I
learned later that it wasn't ketchup, brother, ketch up dude, hip by
the hich up Dude. Hi the mustard brother, Memorial Day barbecue, dude,
Terry, I said, hold the mustard. Okay, what do you
hold the mustard? Why do you have me hold mustard? What do you
want, dude, mustard? Red and yellow brother? I mean, what
brother? Why? Why are you denying the red and yellow brother? Huh?
Who? Brook? Tiny say? It wasn't catch what he She must
be talking about watching w c W matches with David, because there's no way
she watched, Well, there's no Hogan Flair match at WrestleMania even watch never
was. Yeah, So she's like conflating the big the bigness of WrestleMania with
the fact these matches happen not in w W, which is just classic shit.
And it feels like it feels like wrestlers often do not know the actual
pay per views they wrestled on. It really doesn't. I mean you know,
it's easy to forget how many dates they work between television shoots all we
watch his fans or television shoots, but like to them worked like twenty matches
in a month. Like honestly, especially back then, and like the WrestleMania
one doesn't really stand out as much as you think it does because they're on
the road right away doing another one, and it's like, okay, yeah,
they meant a lot to a lot of people because it was on television
and it was a bigger arena and it was more brightly linked. But yeah,
when I when they think back to working Flair, it's like, I
don't know what when that happened. I just know what happened. So Brooke
isn't the only one k faving this wedding in the public. Hulk is on
Twitter this whole time, and they say, someone says on Twitter, I
think she says it, are you going to give brook away at her wedding?
Can't believe she's going to marry? Someone tweets this and Hult comes back
with no way, gag me. He writes, hh please and he tags
Brooks account on it. So he's like playing up the idea that he's which
is the storyline, that he's not in favor of this wedding and he's not
going to walk her down the aisle. That's the big reveal, right,
as he actually does walk her down the aisle, and he does ultimately do
the right thing by his daughter despite his reservations about Bully. And I just
think it's good. It's it's very satisfying to note that Brooke Hogan has since
deleted this exchange from her Twitter history wow, wherein she's cafaving the wedding and
Hulk is saying things like he would rather be gagged than walk her down the
aisle to Mary Bully. Wow. Now also watching all of this play out
is oh god, oh we learn here in this clip would be referred to
I Brook is uncle Bubba. Well, first of all, welcome, Yeah,
First of all, guys, there were several a minute so callous.
Sorry, that's an old one. Brother. I go over to Hogan's house.
I tell him this news. He's real mad and Linda's mad, and
so Hogan goes, well, we need to get rid of Perlman. And
I was in Hogan's office and he said, you call him up and fire
him for me. And I Luke Pearlman's dead. Now he died somewhere recently,
right, he died in prison, but uh yeah, he died in
prison. But I had to call Lou Pearlman up and I said, hey,
Lou, it's baba. And he goes, oh, hey, bubba.
You know, well, I'm doing pretty good. But I got I
got Terry and Linda here, and they would They said, uh, hi,
Lou, tah listen. Um, they're not interested in, uh,
you know, Brooke being part of your stable anymore. And they're firing you.
And he goes, Terry, Linda's not true. Hogan goes true,
Brother, I fired. I fired Lou Pearlman. And if they would have
gone to the country route then instead of I think they went with m Stacks
and like, yeah, soby records Paul wall Stacks. And she went and
got a grill. Remember she went got a grill. Yeah, and Mark
Chase, God bless Mark Chase. Mark Chase told me like in two like
O two oh three. Hey, dude, I'm telling you right now,
man, country would eat her up. They would go crazy over her.
That that stuff she's doing now, Man, Diama doesn't remember we doing that.
We said that back in the day. Yeah privately, I mean just
yeah, so you should have done no well, and I think she could
still do it. I think so too. I mean country didn't care.
No, I don't care about the age, I don't care. Still hot,
No, still you're still hot. I mean I think by today's standards,
she's still really sexy. Uncle Bubba, so weird. So that's just
too illustrate that he played no small part in apparently these formative years where Brooke
is trying to make it in music and signs with Lou Pearlman, who,
if you don't know, was like, you know, the mastermind behind a
lot of huge number one hit boy band acts like in Sync and stuff like
that, and had a real sort of disturbing beat on you know, the
teenage want and need and was able to market acts very successfully to that audience
and you know, younger girls basically, and the idea that he would push
her into a pop category you know, kind of like Britney Spears and you
hear her basically you're trying to sound like Britney Spears and a lot of earlier
music. The result of guiding Lou Pearlman, according to Bubba, those clips
there from his more recent radio shows that he's doing, you'd see them on
YouTube now, maybe at a cost I think, he said of thirty six
grand a month. Hul Coogan was paying lou Pearlman to guide Brooks's career early
on Wow and Linda, and her book talks about the wife clearly believing in
Perlman and sort of being disenchanted with the fact that there was going to be
a separation from the guidance of Luke Perlman and her daughter's career. She was
very hands on and dissatisfied with Perlman anyway. But sort of like Hogan start,
Hulk starts to steer brooks music career sort of totally on his own and
in a direction. And this is what gets him in trouble because it's this,
it's pushing her into the hip hop category and sort of going down the
Soby Records R and B route. That gets him making those fucking awful comments
in the bedroom with Heather clem on those surreptitians who recorded victags. It's all
about the disenchantment with like the R and B and rap in black music world
that Brooke finds herself trafficking in and dating this guy and shit, I mean
it's like all that stuff. It's a Bubba is involved. Bubba's Bubb's on
the calls, if you believe him. They're like licensing Bubba to speak for
the family, and she calls him uncle Bubba. Wow. And here we
are, all these years later, and all of the all the things,
the materials that resulted as from that whole coken Bubba, the love sponge relationship,
even as it relates to his daughter's career, they're all now proving to
be like so ruinous. So it's not just Bubba filming whole coke and having
sex. It's Bubba's entire sort of weaving into the ballet of family right in
a way that kind of leaves everybody, Um, you know the victim of
the us just collateral damage. I mean, there's just there's you know,
there's there's shell there there's a shelling going on here, and there's a there's
a lot of what's the what's the term for when the bullet fragments sprail over
the place and you take you take that um oh, I can't think of
it. And we're talking about that, know what it is? So the
shrapnel, Yeah, Essentially UM is reaching far and wide. Uh So back
to Eric and Bully, Eric Bischoff and Bully Um. Bully wants nothing to
do with it. And in this clip, Eric talks about putting Bully in
a position to walk right into Brooke's life, who we've been talking about.
That was a little don't get me wrong. I don't want to give you
the impression it was a tough sell. It was not a tough sell,
but it was a tough situation. Is that. Uh, that's that's him
talking about whether Hogan believed in it. Yeah, apologies for that. I
thought I had UM. I didn't think I'd played that yet. So that's
uh, that's the explanation on how it comes together now. Bully says on
the podcast that it was basically Jason Hervey who first floated the suggestion that he
actually linked up with Brooke. The way Bully was telling the story, there
would be something involving him as he turned stronger heel and a knockout. Yeah,
there'd be something going on with one of the female wrestlers on the roster
to play this this this heel character up. And it was Jason Hervey who
suggested, what about Brooke, And I'm here to suggest that Jason Hervey didn't
just pull that out of the sky, Like why don't you date the daughter
of the most famous wrestler of all time. Why don't you involve yourself as
the very first wrestler to have anything to do with Brook Hogan from a storyline
perspective on wrestling television. Now, in fact, you're already going out with
her, You're already you've already gotten Hogan's blessing to data. Now we can
do business and that that's kind of that's kind of think the extra bit of
context that isn't so much spoken to when but yeah, he says he was
having a meeting. He even like for some reason, you know, when
wrestlers get add the specific about where, you wonder why he's oddly specific about
like the hotel in Orlando where they were having the meeting when Jason Hervey made
the suggestion that it be Brooke Hogan and they go from there. As for
Bully, I mean, he told Chris Jericho when he was on his podcast
he wanted to do three things when he was a kid. Be a pro
wrestler, be a rock star, and a porn star. Okay, uh
uh wow ho new layer to your aforementioned I guess so visual depiction that bully
crossing or the threshold of of of of orgasm. You wanted to be a
porn store and he actually dabbled a bit in an adult film, not as
an actor but as like an a producer of capacity. Um you know because
Rob Rob Black, the porn provocateur who ran XPW. Yeah, yeah,
he sort of got involved with Rob Black, according to the story he said
on Jericho's podcast, and had something to do with a couple of porn shoots
there. So he got to scratch that itch. But that's who's uh,
that's who's looking for a way in on un old Brooke teeney um So Bully
and Hulk, and the question, I guess naturally becomes, you know,
was this building to Hulk Helgan versus Bully Ray? I mean that's the I
mean, yeah, that's what it seems like. That's the refrain from the
very beginning of TNH is. Yeah's doing all these things where it looks like
he's supporting cast to a storyline involving wrestlers. But when you actually think logically
about where this is heading, whether it's Abyss or Rick Flair, or Sting
or Matt Morgan or any of these other people that suddenly start getting pushes.
It's Hogan toying around with the idea of wrestling, and it's Hogan toying around
with the idea of being the ultimate destination for this wrestler who seems to be
building up a name in a storyline next to Hogan. When an actuality,
it's it's going to come down to Hogan waking up one day and deciding whether
he feels good enough to do an actual physical match. And so that's the
pattern that's setting in where it's like they've got a spot on a supercard for
Hogan to wrestle, but they can't commit to it until you know a certain
time out because of the uncertainty of Hohle Coogan's physical condition. He just can't
stop going under the knife. And addition all the back surgeries he had,
the hip surgery he talked about before the twenty twelve Pound for Glory taking him
out of consideration to wrestle on that show, despite teases that he may team
with Sting, And then they had the tease talk about when they go back
to London in early twenty and thirteen where they play Hulks music like he's going
to wrestle on Impact, but he never comes out. It's so crazy,
And he undergoes a knee operation right around this time that sort of ices him
again from potentially wrestling. You know, Bischof's talked in his podcast about how
they'd have plans for Hogan to do a match, and then you know,
Holk would have to sort of put his finger to the wind and decide whether
he felt physically capable of doing it. And staying in bound for Glory twenty
eleven really seems to be the only time he actually gave the thumbs up to
going ahead and doing it post a spinal fusion surgery. I do have to
put my skeptics hat on a little bit and think to myself, like,
Hogan leaves the door open if he feels like something catches right, and we'll
do the kind of crowd befitting his return. You know, he doesn't want
to return on a show where he can't claim an outsized house for TNA.
He doesn't want to return if the storyline doesn't feel to his gage of things,
and if the television ratings don't indicate the run to something big that he
can ride the wave of as he yes. Just as important is how it
helps back fields when he wakes up a month out from the show as to
whether he doesn't matches, whether he feels like the match is going to reflect
positively on his remaining drawing power in the business. So this is sort of
the background. So well, we'll go here to Bischoff talking on his podcast
about whether Hogan versus Bully was ever on the drawing board, and you can
hear in Bully's voice here, I would, I would submit a lot of
hoping and wishing. You can tell he was led to believe along the way
that this was a possibility that just didn't materialize. Yeah. No, the
desire was definitely there, and we were working towards that because every week,
you know, one week could be Brother. I think I can pull this
off, and the next week could be Brother. I don't know. I
don't know, I don't know if we can make this happen. But it
was literally on again, off again with him, and not because he didn't
want to or he lost heart in the idea. It's just because he was
you know, the injuries and the issues that he was dealing with, but
he wanted that so bad, and we were definitely working towards that. Eric.
I don't know if you know this, but he actually pulled me in
a room one day and he sat me down and he said, all right,
listen, here's how we're going to do the match. He actually laid
the match out to me. He says, I got five or six minutes
in me. He goes, as soon as I come underneath the bottom rope,
you get right on me heat until it's time for me to come up,
and I'll just blow the comeback and you hit him with the big boot.
And because Hulk was who Hulk is who he is, But at that
time, people felt a lot of sympathy for Hulk because of what I was
doing to him and his family. I had all the heat in the world.
We could have pulled off a typical five minute Hulk Hogan special and had
the place going crazy because the characters were exactly where they needed to be.
And since I had already screwed over Sting and screwed over Brook and screwed over
a Hulk and just about the whole company, it would have been amazing business.
So yeah, we had even spoke about the match, and yeh,
I wish you could have happened, but whatever, Yeah, okay, whatever,
yeah whatever. Yeah, he got over it clearly. I don't know,
Bully. I think when Push came to shove the Holzer didn't think it
was worth getting in there for it. But you notice how Holk immediately puts
a stake in the ground, like, Yeah, if we're gonna do it,
this is exactly how it's going. It's what we should do, brother,
this is kind of how we have to get this thing going. Terry
had another thought. I mean, what if we could extend this thing.
B They're not a good idea, Dude, that's not a good idea.
You haven't heard my idea yet. Brother. I'm just telling you you.
I've heard your idea. I don't think it's haven't. I just came up
with it just now. Brother. I'm telling you, dude, I understand
that, I understand. What do you think I'm gonna been doing. I
don't need to tell you, dude. You know what you're gonna say.
I do, but I don't think what you're gonna say, brother. And
I'm telling you, dude, it's not gonna work. Brother, what isn't
gonna work. You want to talk about things, dude, and put out
ideas Brother that just are not in the in the right context of what TNA
is all about. I understand, but I would like you just so I
can be sure that what you're poo pooing is what I was actually about to
say, that you have an understanding of what I was about to say.
Brother. You want to play hide the ball? Absolutely not. I'm trying
to reveal. I don't want to play hide the ball. I'm trying to
play hide the I'm trying to reveal the ball. Right. I'm trying to
move beyond that, dude and get onto something a little more calm. It
seems to me like you're the one hide in the ball right now. I'm
not hide Brother. Where are you going with this? Dude? What's your
problem? I suggestion? Was that your suggestion? Brother? I heard your
suggestion. No, you didn't understand where you're coming from. Brother. I
understand I'm saying, dude, it's not gonna work. You said beat me
in six minutes, right, I roll? I never Brother. I said
things dude that you don't even know happen. Okay, I grant that too.
I mean that has something to do with this conversation. I grant that
you've said things I didn't know you said. That's fine, brother, I
have done so much shit, including drugs. I get it. But Terry,
here, I don't need to what instead of just blowing it off in
six minutes I want to do. Brother. Dude, you're here, your
brother, you keep you don't listen, Dude, I keep telling you,
brother, it's time to move on to it's time to stop playing hide the
Tamali's brother. Well, they're gone, they're not hitting, they're just gone.
Okay, Terry, I can tell you that. But no, my
thought was, you know, why don't we get three months of pay days
out of this thing we've got? You know these three pay per views?
Listen to that's what you're pay days, dude. I want to get three
years of padding. I want to move it on. I'm tired of playing
eat the tacol brother, I'm tired of playing stuff the burrito. Get brude.
We gotta move on, brother. Stop putting topics on the pizza pie.
Just find the way it is. Dude. We're fine with a plaine
cheese and TNA. Have you just said it. You want three years of
pay days out of this? Is that right? Brother? Dude? You're
putting words in my mouth again. Brother, this, by the way,
we'll take three years of pay days. But that's fine. So um,
look, so how can it not be true that instead of you just beaten
me right away, we extend this thing. Maybe. Look, we don't
have to do a really physical match the first time. How about I just
roll brother? I thought I fired Vince Russo? Dude? What the fuck
is going on? I'll say, characters and wrestling the same way when we
come from New York. It's just the way it goes. So look,
how about first way, I don't have to do a long match with you,
Terry, I don't even have to do anything. Really, how about
I just roll you up quick in the first match? Whoa dude? Whoa
brother? Let's hold the fucking business, dude. We're not opening the fucking
video cassette right now. Brother, I'm not even gonna what are you talking
about? Dude? How about why are you playing? Pull the shade over?
Brother? How about half a chance? Okay, how about half a
chance whatever that means? How about I make a counter proposal? Brother?
All Right, I see where you're going. Here's what I'm thinking. I'm
thinking, brother, instead of you three fist bootleg drop brother, and I
get my wind back brother, even oh, you canna let me beat you,
Dada the wind back brother? You beat me long ago, dude in
your fucking mind, Brother, and that's good enough for me, dude to
need a wind back brother. Brother. How about all right, how about
instead of you roll me up to beat me in the first match, we
do this instead, go ahead, said brother. How about dude? How
about this brother? Instid of you rolled me up and trying to beat me
dude in the first match? Brother, how about I come in and kill
you? How about that? Brother? How about I fucking lay you on
the ground, dude, and push your face and fucking stop on your face
until it either squishes or goes through the fucking match. Here's what I'm thinking,
Bubba, all right? Six match series, dude, Okay, Match
one? What's a finish well? Match one? Brother, I'll go over
pin you one two three two, Match two, I pin you one two
three, Match three, DQ, I win match four, count out,
I win match five, submission, I win match six, steel cage match,
and I fucking beat the shit out of you, brother, in two
minutes? How's that for? How is that for a longer program? Brother?
You like that? You like the way that sounds. That's three years
of fucking pay days for Hulk Hogan. Dude, Yeah, you better believe
those dcs and countouts. I'm looking like King and Con the whole time.
Bro, You're gonna kick me in the nuts. Dude, get just qualified
and I'm not gonna sell brother. Dude. You want to say, how
about right six match series? I beat every time? Brother? How does
that sound? How about I win every fucking time? Brother? But no,
and reality, Hulk was a lot more giving, according to Bully,
gave him these little tips about how do I how to be worthy of a
worthy foil to the Hulkster as this develops. This is from the Steve Austin
Broken Skull sessions that he did with Bully not too long ago. One of
the one of the biggest learning experiences I had from Hulk, and I will
never forget this. Hulk was all business with me, all business. And
one night me and Hulk are facing off on the ramp and we got a
little too close. And as the heel, I'm not getting too close to
the legendary baby face. I don't want to leave him what he is Johnson
in his hand where he can't do anything. I thought to back down.
What we're getting to the back and he calls me over and he goes,
don't you ever back down for me again? And I was like, I
did not understand the lesson that I was just about to learn. I'm like,
Hulk, you're you, and like I didn't want to get you close
where people would expect you to hit me. He goes, I'm here to
make you. I back down from you. Wow. He made me understand,
don't you do that. We're trying to bring your character up to a
certain level. Your character doesn't need to be backing down at this very moment.
That was a big deal for me to learn that lesson. Pretty kill
a lesson from a legend. Yeah, yeah, thanks for screaming at me,
Steve. I appreciate that as i'd do something wrong, Steve, you're
screaming at me? What? Um? So I love I love that example
because it's like, uh, you know, guess what in the end you
one two three, Like, yeah, I'll back down from you, but
guess what guess is going over? So it's all it's Hulk. It's self
serving for the for Hulk to have the course to back down. He does
this against Matt Morgan. There's a segment that goes nowhere ultimately where Hogan Hogan's
they do the grand opening of his beach Shop merchandise store, and they shoot
an angle where Matt Morgan breaks in and takes the robe he wore when he
was managed by Fred Blastie against under the Giant at Chase Stadium with the purple
interior. He takes it from Hogan's collection and he stands to Hogan, and
he steps to Hogan and Hogan backs off. So that's Hogan's one idea to
get a giant over. Yeah, it's so stupid, and that I don't
know what he's talking about. Being on the ramp with Bubba. There was
a moment and that they shot in Hogan's office almost like the hallway where they
go face to face and Bubba kind of steps back a bit. Yeah.
I don't ever would call them going face to face on the ramp and impact,
but if they did, certainly not amongst the h They carefully curated list
of segments we'll be talking about on this latest installment of TNA. But I
just I love that he's got a little story to tell. You know,
you rubbed elbows with the Hulkster, and you gotta come away feeling like you
learned something instead of the age older. All I learned was how to set
Hulk up for another payday. That's fine. He's he's got good vibe.
So that's that's the lesson Bully picked up from Hogan. As for a kind
of you know, bringing Brook Hogan into TNA and her involvement with the Dixie
Carter and how it all ties up Nashville, I think Bruce Pritchard has some
pretty good perspective on all this. I'm sure he does into our next stage
of understanding here. Let's here from Bruce on his podcast. She moved to
Nashville. She had a singing career that she wanted to continue, and she
moved to Nashville that to continue that. And I don't dare say that the
folks on the Nashville end of things held up their end of what was promised
to her. It was a situation where Spike Dixie I think Hulk, and
not even so much really Hulk, but where they saw an opportunity, and
we're like, oh my god, you know, we can get Brooke Hogan
to come in and we can do all these albums with her and do all
this music with her. But once they got her, nobody was prepared to
do anything with her. And when the subject was brought up and the plans
were all made was during the time that I was rehabbing after my heart attack,
the first one I had, and I'm sitting there listening They're They're laying
out this idea and saying Brooke and Brooke, and I'm listening to it,
going okay because I'm thinking Brooke Adams all right, and then it's like Brooke
Hogan. I'm like, hey, how are we doing Brook Hogan? She's
not even on the roster. I mean, what we don't And then you
know, got on. But it was it was an ill conceived idea.
It was one of those deals too, I think in their mind was to
peace Hulk when and I don't know that Hulk was really ever. You don't
think Hulk pushed for that. No, come on, okay, I'm sorry
because you were there and talk to him. I think Hulk, if he
had brothers, would definitely not have wanted her to be there, would rather
hurt just be in the music deal and only doing that. Hulk didn't want
his daughter being a part of this stuff. I mean he wants if you
were talent relations, how did you not negotiate her coming in? I did
after the fact, after it was already done. Okay, So so everybody
decides she's coming in, not at what price point? Right? And so
then you have to figure out and do some Yeah, and then you gotta
deal with with somebody on one side telling him one thing and then that same
person on the other side telling you something else. So Dixie saying, we're
gonna promise you the moon, and then do you get her as cheap as
you can? Correct? Well, I mean yeah, I get that.
Yeah. Uh. And so then you're the bad guy. Oh, without
a doubt. Does she take issue or does Hogan get involved when you low
ball? Um? They both took issue with it, because because what would
you negotiate with him for her? No? I negotiated with her, and
then I negotiated with her agent, and you know, Hulk, Hulk was
out of it. Hulpe didn't want to be in it. But but Hulk
did get involved when he was hearing from one side one thing, and then
hearing from his artible. Bruce said this, So I get put in the
middle of it. So Dixie tells Hogan, we're gonna give you X,
Y and Z and then she tells you, hey, just give her X
yeah, and you call off her X yeah, and then Hogan calls you
what the fuck? No, Um, you're saying, Hogan, but they're
all Hogans there, Hulk. You know, Hulk got involved at some point
saying why am I hearing two different things? Yeah? And there you know,
it was two different stories. And again I'm in the middle. And
there were instances where a matter of fact, we were in Huntsville, Alabama,
and it came to a head and I'm trying to get Dixie, Hulk,
Brooke and me all together. So we say, okay, here's let's
get all this shit on the table here, and um, it was difficult
to get the uh Dixie was playing games. It was difficult to get her
to that table. Yeah. Never did knew that she would be well because
and again my thing is is if you're gonna have different stories, I can
just figure it out. Then. Yeah, Okay, I was in a
really tough situation. Yeah, it was that I win. I'm dealing with
a guy that I've known for you know, at that point, close to
twenty years um or more, and always had a good relationship with, and
now you're dealing with his daughter, and he's hearing one thing from someone else,
and then I'm getting other directives and information and I don't know that Dixie's
talking to him, and the brook and things of that nature. What a
mass? It was a mass. Welcome to nature? What's that? Things
of that nature? Where do we get that from? Welcome to t NA?
Where it seems like, you know, Hulk's getting paid, He's gonna
get his daughter in the door. It's gonna be fine. The shooting angle,
she tries a country music career. But really Dixie, according to Bruce
there if you read between the lines and what he agrees in terms of Conrad's
characterization of things, really Dixie is promising big money for her and then delling
Bruce to lowballer and the offer, and then when it comes time to get
everybody in a room so that everyone can you said this, he said this,
She said this. Dixie doesn't want to do the meeting because she is
in contraction. Mode. She's running expenses up the flagpole to Dallas to her
mommy, and mommy saying Nope, no moral money for you, sweetheart.
That's enough. We're not going to be um, we're not going to be
spending. We're gonna be deficit spending here, like we're only going to spend
as much as we can generate. And so yeah, but she she's so
badly wants it. She's so badly wants a brook Hogan involved. You know,
she makes what it says about her Nashville connections and all that bullshit,
and it's a mess, and it's just it's only for the brook Hogan thing
is as well as it came off on television. If you hear that story,
it just kind of puts it in a whole new perspective of Oh,
it's just another fucking headache and another bunch of he said, she said,
double faced duplicity that comes with the Hogan and TNA, and it extends to
his daughter as well. Ultimately, why am I hearing two different things?
Brother? And how about Flair? He's gone? What happened to him?
Yeah? I know he's gone. Um. At the end of twenty twelve,
he's telling people he's done with TNA. He was kind of making some
noise about wanting to return to the ring, but we'll get into what happened
to him a bit later. Hogan's out there saying he wants to be back
in the ring. In late twenty twelve, he tells the Guard he promoting
the January tour of the UK. I've had eight back surgeries as well as
new replacements and both hips replaced. I only need one more surgery to fix
my right knee. That I'm going for the TNA and I'm going for the
TNA World title. I want to be fifty nine years old and be the
champion. Of course, he does so. He takes the big beat down
in London as part of the tapings that led to the aforementioned moment where they
play his music for him to come out for six man tag, basically a
mimic of the match he actually did in London, untelevised on the January twenty
twelve tour and his last match in fact in his life as it turned out.
But they do the beat down to explain the knee surgery. So whenever
Hulk gets laid out, whenever he's out backstage, oh my knee. He's
actually going under the knife to really get an operation on them. That's hilarious,
what you have to know. But then he goes ahead and as soon
as twenty thirteen turns over, he goes ahead and sues Laser Spine Institute for
fifty million dollars. So, right after saying he's going after one knee surgery,
it's all he's gonna need. He's going to get back in and go
for the world title, he then sues the Laser Spine Institute for permanently taking
away his ability to ever do that. So's that's the duality of the Hulkster,
even in the twilight of his TNA run. As for Bully Ray,
it's certainly the highlight of his career. He later has conversations coming back.
He comes back for a royal rumbolt to WWE, and he wants to pitch
the Bully Ray character to Vince, and he requests an audience with Vince,
and Vince, according to the way Bully tells the story, pipes up right
away and says I know about Bully Ray. In other words, don't sit
here and pitch me the idea of the Bully Ray characters if you haven't already
done it, I know about it, and he's not interested. Wow bullies.
Version of the story is that he told Chris van Vleete this that it
was in part because they had their b A Star anti bullying campaign going at
the time and to have a character named Bully Ray would just not work.
But he also says there's a second half of the story that he's not really
comfortable telling yet, but one day will as to why that never happened.
They even suggested maybe instead of Bully they could call him. Of course this
sounds very Vince the intimidator, Bully Ray still Bully. Of course, none
of it happens because no one cares, and he never gets say yeah a
singles. He'll run in WW subsequent to TNA and ends up kind of floating
around. He goes to Ring of Honor for a while and now is beca
in impact wrestling such as it exists today. As for the other of the
Hogan spawn, Nick Hogan, it's worth a reminder that he's he's out of
the clank and he's starting to pop up a little bit in the news as
well in his own right, not not for negativity, but sort of you
know, we're seeing the next chapter of Brooke Hogan's career developing. Let's turn
now, Boss, if he could help us with this too, was a
Chicago Tribune in a write up they did about DJ Nick Hogan starting to make
his presence. By two thousand and nine, when the shine of VH one's
popular reality series Hogan Knows Best had worn off, it appeared as if Starr
Nick Hogans and a world wrestling entertainment icon Hulk Coogan would follow in his bandana
wearing father's footsteps and pursue a career in professional wrestling. Hogan had the name,
though he wasn't though he was born Nick Balaa, and the teachers he
was getting trained by wrestlers Rakishi and gangrel the problem he kept dislocating his left
shoulder. According to the twenty two year old Hogan, He said it happened
so often that it would require surgery for him to go on. While most
aspiring wrestlers would have worried about the months the procedure would would keep him them
out of the ring, Hogan was more concerned with the months that would keep
him away from the turntables, because by that point, Hogan had fallen in
love with djaying. It began when his sister and Hogan knows Best co star
Brook Hogan, who found success as a pop singer success Sure, bought him
turntables for Christmas. He said he paid a dj four hundred dollars to teach
him how to use the turntables and would practice in his spare time. When
it came time to choose between wrestling and djaying, he decided to postpone his
wrestling career so he could give djaying a go full time. Much to the
relief of his dad, Hogan was able to find steady djay work from the
very beginning. Whether they were ideal gigs as a different story. Quote being
me was kind of a double edged sword when it came to djaying, Hogan
said over the phone from Los Angeles last week. It's a blessing that I
have a father whose last name is famous enough that people want to look book
me at a club. At the same time, the clubs that wanted to
hire me weren't the best clubs for me to play at. It was a
novelty for them, but it wasn't a novelty for me. The places I
wanted to play wouldn't hire me because they didn't want to be associated with the
novelty. Oh man, here's another celebt DJ. A lot of club owners
wouldn't give me the time of day a few years ago, but now they've
seen that I stuck with it. Hogan opened for Jersey Shore star Paulide during
his DJ sat at a Los Angeles club in April, and has booked a
handful of Chicago area appearances over the years, including Lionhead Pub in Lincoln Park
in twenty ten, Vision Nightclub River River North, and the now closed Raven
Nightclub in Schaumberg in twenty eleven. He will return to the latter city Friday
to spend at John Barkley Barley Barkley Corn I don't know. While Hogan as
quietly reinvented himself as a DJ, Brooke has become a major on air personality
for Total Non Step Action Wrestling. She was set to get married to her
father's nemesis, Bully Ray as part of a storyline on last week's episode of
Impact Wrestling on Spike TV, but saw her wedding interrupted as as his mandatory
during wrestling weddings of all the people, the last person I would have bet
money to end up in the wrestling business, was Brooke, Hogan said,
Oh, sorry, you've all that's Nick. That's Nick, all right.
It blows my mind. I'm so proud of her. Hulk and ex wife
Linda Hogan have also been making headlines recently, mostly the unwanted kind. Hulk
found himself part of a sex tape scandal in October, and Linda was recently
charged with a dui stemming from an arrest that also took place in October.
In two thousand and seven, it was Nick who was in trouble with the
law. He spent six months in jail due to charges stemming from a car
crash that left a friend with brain damage. Nick, Who's manager and assisted
he not be asked about his family personal issues, said he stays away from
what gets written about his family, and it's more interested in what gets written
about his music. Quote. I try not to read a lot of the
pop culture stuff and celeb bloggers, Hogan said, but I do check out
people's feedback when I put up new mixes and new songs on SoundCloud. Some
might wonder if Hogan ever regrets that his family opened up their lives to the
cameras and start in their own reality show. After all, it's the main
reason celebrity news shows and websites have taken such a big interest in the family's
drama. But the youngest Hogan said he would do the show again, and
it's grateful for the opportunities reality TV gave him. Quote. I don't think
I've ever regretted appearing on reality TV, but there are moments where I wonder
what life would have been like if I hadn't been on reality TV, Hogan
said. I found myself in certain places, maybe where fortunate things happen,
and have realized how blessed I am to be. In that pages from the
Book of Hogan in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, Nick back at the turntables
Brooke in TNA, Hulk teasing he's going to come back and then suing because
he can never come back. It's all here, boss, Linda getting a
DUI. All good, you're wondering. And of course Hogan's lawsuits against Gawker
and the others working their way through the courts. As for Rick Flair,
He's got a lawsuit himself, or at least he's involved in one because Flair
tried to have his TENA contract terminated in twenty twelve and is working it through
the entirety of twenty twelve because ww's back interested. Remember they cut the deal
for him to go and get inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of
the Four Horsemen in exchange for Christian Cage being lent out by WW to TNA
so he could appear at the slam Averse Rachel and be part of the Hall
of Fame. Of course he does that with absolute dispassion, and so TENA
SE's no upside in continuing using him in any way, shape or form,
so it's really an uneven trade. But this is of course Rick just trying
to enter his way out of TNA and back into WW, who now finds
is to be interested in him again. But it leads to a contract Tampa
ring lawsuit from TENA against WWE because they claim that so long as Rick Flaire
is under contract to them, it's a violation for WW to pursue him knowing
he's under a valid contract to them, so they file suit. Flaire's sixty
three at the time, but by the end of the year, you better
believe he's walking the raw stage to present the Slammy Awards. That's right,
December seventeenth, Monday Night Raw from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is saying that,
having been inactive since he wrestled mcfolio really on that episode of Impact in
twenty eleven, that as of December twenty, twenty twelve, he's retired from
the industry. One thing Vince McMahon was always a stickler four was keeping up
the Shawn Michaels Russellman need twenty four retirement stipulation. So Flaire isn't going to
get back into the ring for w W if he returns there. That was
acknowledged. So not only Boss did we see the end of Hulk Coogan's career
in early twenty twelve, We've seen the end of Ric Flair's in ring career
as well. If you don't count the Ric Flair last match promotion not too
lunch, I do count that, So there you go. This is shortly
after Jerry Lawler took a series of elbow drops on Raw and the next week
had a heart attack at a ringside announced position and nearly died. Had the
arena and Montreal not been so close to a high level medical facility, he
probably would have expired right there on the air. So as a result of
that as well as Ricky Steamboat suffered a stroke after doing an angle deep into
his fifties where he was beat down by Nexus, WW sort of putting the
akabash and anybody of Rick Flair's age taking anything by way of a physical punishment
on their air waves for fear of, you know, presiding over a tragedy.
So in making his return to WWE, rick Flair calling it a career
not only in the ring, but for TNA as well. But there was
that lawsuit and that kind of sets the tone for w W ETNA relations going
forward because part of what WW says in court is that they have absolutely no
interest in TNA wrestlers. That is to assure the judge that they will not
be doing anything that could resemble contract tampering going forward because they're simply not interested.
And by making that representation to the judge, you better believe that they
then institute a policy of not signing anybody from TNA, including talent they may
have signed had the conditions not existed around the lawsuits, such as Robert Rude
and others whose contracts came up and who eventually were brought into the NXT system
years later. Once that whole situation died down in Dixie, Carter works basically
an empress without a kingdom. But this is bad news for a lot of
talent in TNA that would like to use leverage of going to WWE or the
potential of going to WWE and resigning with TNA. Suddenly this lawsuit in and
around Ric Flair, making that very very difficult for all parties. Flair also
in the news at this point in time because of the breakup of his fourth
marriage to Jacqueline Beams. This is the one that famously had the incident where
he got busted opened during a domestic dispute. Oh yeah, oh my god
for blading himself to dea on TENA television in a bid to make us care
and then his wife busts him back open during a shoving match or whatever it
was. That's right, So another round of alimoni for the nature boy is
a fourth marriage fails and she files for a legal separation. According to TMC
dot com um Eckelberg County, where both live, she claimed husband has had
numerous intimate relationships with other women during the party's marriage to the embarrassment of humiliation
of wife. Flair soon jumps in public with Fifi the man married Rick Flair
for Fox say guess I'm sorry. I mean, listen, it's it's not
I don't mean to to to demean her or anything. But like you,
if you're marrying Rick Flair, you gotta know two things. Number one,
it's it's not an exclusive relationship, all right. He is going to fuck
other women exactly. I'm not saying that's right, Oh no, I'm saying
that is the fact that you don't have the you don't have the choice of
not knowing that by the stage of because because because here's the thing, it's
not that you know, he doesn't matter how hot you are, doesn't matter,
you know anything else. The bottom line is you're not that woman over
there, that's right, and you're not that woman over here. To take
it personally, she doesn't shave her bush and he's going to eat around on
an yer plane. It's fine, right exactly you listen, listen when he
gets the hunger for that pause, he wants all the slice exactly right.
Next in line, by the way, is Wendy Barlow aka Fiefy the maid,
his valet and WCW for time, and she sticks. She sticks with
him all they divorce as well eventually, But she was the one that was
with him when he suffered his near fatal heart attack. And you know,
she's in all the documentaries they've done recently about him, being mostly complimentary towards
him. So she's still very much in his life, even though or not
wed. So he I guess you find the life partner if nothing else after
this failed tena era divorce. Yeah, I guess, but like I mean,
it makes me laugh, like you're not. You got to learn by
now that that nobody is going to tame Matt Beast. Indeed, that's exactly
correct. It's noted this is from the Observer. A few things notable about
this was her claim. This is the divorced wife's claim that Flair makes more
than a million dollars per year. I have no idea of the accuracy of
that. Melzer writes only that Flair hasn't worked in pro wrestling in several months.
When Flair left TNA in May twenty twelve, which brought about the TNA
lawsuit against WWB, the belief was he could afford to do so because of
a multi year contract he had signed with Coca Cola to endorse an energy drink,
a deal that was believed to be very lucrative and would have allowed him
to walk away from wrestling. If it was up to him whether he financially
could or not, He'd never leave wrestling. He's still in a contract with
a Coca Cola and being paid, but they removed him as the face of
the drink due to negative publicity stemming from the stories relating to Beams. The
woman divorced him after the second occasions, police were called over called over her
attacking him, even though the incident was about her and he was being attacked.
They wanted him to stay out of the news with stories like that Beams
also has a dui charge pending. Big fucking course, yep, big fucking
thumbs up. TNA subsequently tried to get Riclar to attend one of their shows,
but that did not happen. So relations really get strained between the two
parties, and the lawsuit happens, and we mentioned the Christian piece as well,
and what ultimately comes of all this one can say is that the contract
tampering in part was alleged in lawsuits because someone who worked for TNA went to
work for WWE, leading TENA to allege that he took with him trade secrets
about the nature and structure of TENA contracts such that WW could leverage them and
bidding for talent in the marketplace, or at least being smarter than they had
a right to be about how exactly TNA structured it steals without permit to see
those trade secret materials. He was a gentleman by the name of Brian Wittenstein,
and he came up in a lot of the coverage of the TENA and
ww legal volleys from this point in time, and just to close the loop
on that, this from just this past October from four to one, Mania
Cardy Rhodes agent has been fired from his agency over allegations of misconduct. Deadline
reports that Brian Wittenstein, who serves as an agent for Cody and Brandy Rhodes,
left the Hyperian Talent Agency after a clientiff has allegedly contacted the agency's leadership
and made a complaint about inappropriate behavior. Details are unclear, but the client
was said to have been made uncomfortable about the situation. The agency looked into
the matter, and the word is that previous instances were uncovered in Whittenstein was
let go on Wednesday. He was said to have been escorted out of the
building and was immediately removed from the agency's IMDb pro pages. The agency said
in a statement to Deadline, Brian Whittenstein is no longer an employee of Hyperion.
We have no further comment at this time. Whittenstein previously worked for ww
and TNA, and reportedly represents other wrestling figures as well, though no,
we're UNHUDNA follow the lawsuit in May of twenty twelve alleging that he violated a
non disclosure agreement and shared confidential information about the company when he went to WWE,
but the lawsuit was withdrawn in January of twenty and thirteen without prejudice.
So a big fucking thumbs up, boss for one of the alleged agents of
this exchanging of trade secrets going on to represent Cody Roads in the formation of
AW and undoubtedly his migration over to WWE. So if there is an unsavory
character to be had in the business, everybody wants a piece here, someone
who's willing to go there allegedly and around this time, Whole Cogan's also getting
attention, not just for the sex tape stuff and all the other familial and
domestic stuff we talked about, but also because he's trying to claim that the
Wrestler was supposed to be about him. The movie by Darren Arnovsky. Do
you recall this, No, Meltzer, I know this will shock people,
but Darren Arnovski was asked about Hogan's story about being the original person asked to
be in the lead role of the wrestler. Ogan claimed he dirted down.
Here's what Ronofsky said for the record, the role of the wrestler was always
Mickey Rourke. It was never Whole Coggan's, as he claims on Howard Stern.
Actually Rourke was the original lead Meltzer reports, but things fell apart in
Nicholas Cage was the lead at one point until work came back into the picture.
A Cage step aside because Arnovski felt the role was more suited for Rourke.
But that's uh. That part of Hulk, the Hulkster Boss is still
very much alive, the old Oh yeah, I would have got the George
Farman grill if I was home to answer the phone. Also claiming once the
wrestler, you know, becomes a hit. I mean really it was.
It was a hit for its totally for its budget. I mean, I'm
sure you have better perspective than I do, but that that movie, and
I love its weight. It was a it was a it was a massive
success and it was very um you know it was. It was such an
eye opening Uh you know, look at the business for people who don't who
weren't aware, you weren't aware of, like what the twilight of a pro
wrestler's career looks like, how sad it can be. It was so successful,
And I know that there's that TV show, but I'm still waiting for
a movie about a wrestler who in its prime and uh, you know,
dealing with drugs and all that ship. Indeed, yeah, I mean the
Kurd Agle movie, right, it's just waiting to be exactly. And the
anti biography they did in Kurt Agle, I think serves as a great baseline
for a script about that because it did a wonderful job threatening together just the
personal to malt that Kurt went through, like for all the professional success he
had and for the standard he said in the ring, this guy was constantly
a fucking mess on the home front. Just constant mess. And that's the
business. That's what the business demandons. The business demands that you suffer personally
so that you can succeed professionally. Yes, and the people just go,
oh, great, moon salt and that's it. Take as many perfect yep.
I don't care about what you're doing as long as I'm entertained. Make
sure that angle slam looks smooth. Make sure in the main event of a
pay per view you counter a slam or a suplex with a trough to the
ankle, lock right, come up screaming and even scissor that leg if it's
a big show. Also in the courts, making this uh, nothing less
than a continuation of a TENA law and order or TNA law, as we've
yes and talked so much about and lampooned on our YouTube page and Instagram and
Twitter accounts. Scott Steiner remember him, he was in for He was for
a while in early twenty twelve. He's suing the company as well, he's
actually countersuing them, But he turns out to be the clarion call for what
is about to be the ultimate end of the game. For whole. Coogan
and Eric Bischoff continuing to extend their gainful employment with TNA wrestling under the guy
I don't know doing a single damn thing to move ratings appreciably from where they
were before they got there. Scott Steiner doesn't give a fuck. He files
a suit against them, claiming breach a contract, said they never gave him
royalty statements on merchandise, failed to pay him his royalties. So the cracks
are very much starting to show, and TNA's ability to satisfactorily pay their talent
and renumerate their talent. Pritchard has talked about this is when the checks start
in the mail with the FedEx gimmicks of like, oh, you didn't get
your check, We FedEx. It's something must have gotten lost. We'll get
it off to you next week. Oh god. And yeah, the bigot
is being turned off. Dixie's mommy is not pumping more funds in. Spike
has done all they can do in terms of supporting TNA budgetarily. They got
to go on the road, and it's not untirely clear how they're gonna be
able to afford to do that. They're cutting way back on pay per views
which you know, they were hardly breaking even when you consider the cost of
putting them on. But that's supposed to be their revenue center. It's not
like they're selling any tickets to their TV tapings. They begin to it's offset
by the cost of doing a live broadcast satellite feed for He's Impact as live
now, so they're competing. They're all these competing pressures, and we're starting
to realize, is every single thing that a Bishoff would say they had to
do to position themselves for success that he frets they did not do, they
actually did. They did them all. They went to Monday nights, they
went live, they took Impact tapings on the road, They reduced the number
of pay per views. They did this, they did that. They got
spiked to chip in the money. There's nothing they changed time slots. There's
nothing that people said TENA didn't do that they actually didn't try. And it
made not even close to enough difference to continue down the road of essentially more
expeditious financial ruin. And so Scott Steiner I think serves as kind of a
canary in the coal mine. I think when he leaves TENA unceremoniously in early
twenty twelve, just weeks they're arriving and starts filing suit against them. They
had sued him because he went crazy on the internet. On the internet,
and what did he tweet? Okay, this is from April right now.
Steiner tweeted, I'm trying to save TNA. What because it's the Titanic and
it's sinking fast because Hogan and Bischoff are doing the same bullshit they did to
WCW. Okay, destroy WCWUM, so that's not taken too very kindly,
and that that leads to uh, to the back and forth, the legal
back and forth. TNA sues him for saying that UM, and he defends
back. He said, I wasn't trying to disparage the company, UM,
not preaching my contract and saying what I said. He just believes it.
UM. And then he comes back and sues them and says, well,
actually, uh, I suffered an injury during a house show and it was
while wrestling Jeff Hardy, and you let him get in the in the ring
high so fuck you guys, Like, ah, there's that whole thing there,
that whole pretending it's okay to make Jeff Hardy the world champion while he's
under indictment and due to report to jail any day now. Because Dixie has
a mothering instinct, how about you mother someone who isn't under indictment. How
about that? How about how about you cut your fucking losses here and get
the fuck out of dog happening. But no Scott standards to give a fuck.
Fine, I'll put this all on the table and hopefully get some people
in deposition to to tell the actual truth about who knew what went about Jeff's
drug use. That'd be fun reading, I'd imagine, right, he's looking
for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in damages from his injuries and loss of
consortion with his wife. It says, it sounds good to me. I'm
listening. It's it's a good fadder for me, he'd but Jesus asking questions
from twenty eleven. November three, twenty eleven, Steiner alleged in the lawsuit
he only wrestled a few more times for the company. This eventually all goes
away. It doesn't really result in any like blockbuster testimony or trial or anything
like that. I'm not sure if Scott Stannard got a set, but that's
kind of where that thing goes. But I bring it up mostly to point
out that he fucking said it. He said it, wasn't afraid to say
it. They're doing to TNA what they did WCW. Bischoff and his podcast
was once asked about this, and he goes into this yarn about how oh
God came down to um. They were trying to get James Storm wins over
credible people and they wanted James Storm to beat Scott Steiner, so they wrote
the match out, but they said, you know, you go over to
Scott. You guys work out how the Finnish goes, because I'm not a
finished guy. In other words, Eric doesn't want to deal with actually having
to get talent buy into his ideas, so he basically tasks James Storm with
going to Scott Steiner. He hired Johnny Lory Knights to do this dirty work
back in two thousand and WCW and come up with the match finish wherein Storm
goes over Steiner, and Storm is kind of a shrinking violet around confrontation with
this. He does not want to do this. He does not want to
go and try to convince Scott's center to lose to him and Bishop's. The
Storm was intimidated by Scott, so mid afternoon he comes back looking like a
puppy dog does James Storm, saying he doesn't want to do anything. Scott
doesn't want to do anything. Bischeff said, you know, it wasn't that
Scott refused to job the James Storm, just that he wanted to finish that
made sense to him, which is also known as not wanting to do a
job. So they go back and forth two more times that afternoon, and
finally Bischef goes, fuck it, if he's not gonna do it, we'll
replace Steiner in the match. It's not worth the hassle in the time we're
spending on this. And of course Bischof it did have the authority to fire
anybody that was not his remit at TNA. That was something exclusively that Dixie
Carter could do. So he basically just takes the initiative to rebook the match
instead of trying to penalize Scott Steiner. But Scott eventually, because cording to
Bischof, this goes up the chain and someone other than him, because he
has no he has no ability to fire. Anybody makes the decision that Scott
has to pay for not doing business, and I gets taken off television,
written off television. Bischoff basically says it got back to the Carters or Dean
Broadhead, who worked in the office in Nashville for TNA but also panned Energy,
the family company of the Carters, and that they were sort of pissed
Scott Steiner for this and wrote him off as a result, and that's the
reason and Scott's mind. According to Bischoff, Hogan and Bischof were the ones
that went and got him fired because he wouldn't do the job, not the
Carters. Bischoff said, nothing could be further from the truth. I never
breathed a word about firing him. Scott assumed it was Hogan and I because
like so many people, he thought we were calling the shots. And in
fact, hul Cogan is actually quite disappointed that Scott Stenter left TNA and he
really likes Scott, So no blame to be cast in that direction. You
never call him a shot unless you call him a shot. That funny.
I had responsibility for everything and nothing. At the same time, I deserve
no blame in all credit it's a pretty sweet position of being. But let
Scott Steiner go down as the sage of this story, because it's funny to
me to have Scott Steinner be the first one to go on Twitter and go,
come on, man, I know what this is. I know.
It's just extending as long as you can those TNA checks landing in the mailbox
until the gigs up, and the gig is coming up quickly. As we
turned the corner to twenty thirteen, Oh God, bound for Glory in twenty
twelve, that about twenty thousand buys slightly down from Bound for Glory twenty eleven.
So the Hogan Sting Match was really the high point in terms of the
interest Hogan ever managed to draw to one of his programs in TNA. We'll
say that that was it if you don't count the the aberant January fourth,
twenty ten debut number where he was all over the show and premiered into the
angle with Holland Nash and all that, which is a very big audience in
an appreciable moment. It really was the Sting Match that came anywhere close to
feeling like Hulkegan brought value to the table and as the numbers trickle in for
the twenty twelve Bound for Glory compared to the twenty eleven Bound for Glory with
the sting match, that becomes very apparent. Still though Bound for Glory the
company's best showing of the year, beating out Lockdown for two and twelve.
Dana White's kind of getting involved because they're in bed now with Bellatoor Spike and
that's his now enemy. Yeah on the earthWhile on Network that's feeling jilted by
his departure. My words, not theirs, but Dana White offering a quote
at one point along the way. You know Dixie from TNA. They love
Dixie's Spike. She worked her ass off to build her business. I have
nothing negative to say about her. They were on Spike, they get one
point eight million viewers, and they can't sell a pay per view at those
Bound for Glory numbers. I just read proved that, and again they drastically
reduce the amount of pay per views they're going to do. It turns out
they wanted to do this all along, and that's the reason so many of
these pay per views seem so dead. It's because they don't want to do
them. But They have contracts within Demand and such to provide a certain amount
of pay per views a year, so they have to do them if they
don't want to get sued, which is interesting. It then becomes this weird
era where they're not doing pay per views for the US market, but they
still have contractual obligations to do things resembling pay per views for international markets.
So why because they signed a deal that said we will provide this many shows
that are exclusive and different from Impact, So they go they go nuts.
They move the limited amounts. So stupid pay per views they are doing in
the US on the road. They put them on the road. They have
the Lockdown show where Bully wins the title in Philadelphia, for example, and
they just they leave the Impact Zone. They leave the Impact Zone in March
of twenty and thirteen. This is the end of the Impact Zone run for
a while, and they just do these marathon tapings there instead. I'm talking
like seventeen, twenty third, twenty fourth, and they take all of these
one night only pay per views to satisfy these international contracts. None of these
involved matches of really any species. But they're just now like it's just all
starting to come undone. The wheels are coming off, and you realize all
they're doing is just rolling cameras for the sake of rolling cameras because they have
to, because they are parties that need content, and it's becoming a very
apparent that that's the case. But they do, after their contracts laps to
provide US pay per view content drastically reduce their calendar. At first, the
thought was they were going to go from twelve pay per views to like seven,
but they end up going to just four. They do a Genesis show
in January of two thou thirteen, and then they don't do another one until
the March tenth. Pardon me, Lockdown was not in Philadelphia. I'm thinking
of the Bound for Glory show. Lockdown that we're going to cover here with
BULLI Ray was in San Antonio, Texas. And they do Slam Aversaries.
Does it matter, Oh, of course, it's massively significant. They do
Slam Adversary in Boston, and they do Bound for Glory later that year,
after Hogan has left Brother Indeed, so no more pay per views in the
Impact Zone, no more television taping is They're going to go exclusively on the
road and tape two shows at a time, so they're going to do it.
They terminated their lease with Universal for the Impact Zone at the end of
March twenty thirteen. According to The Server and Meltzer reports, there has been
a lot of locker room on happiness when word got out that for the TV
tapings they would be paid as if it was one show, even if they
appeared on both shows taped. So this is another sign of cracks where they're
telling this talent, we're going on the road. Okay, we're changing things.
It's not that you show up, tape four weeks of television, get
paid for four weeks of television and go home. Yeah, you go on
the road. You're going to tape two weeks of television, but you're only
going to be paid as if we tapped one week. You're just going to
be paid for showing up. It's not going to be to all of a
sudden. This income is shrinking drastically for so many of these TEENA regulars because
even though they're taping two shows, they're only being paid to show up that
night. Not good, Elsa writes. Most wrestlers in the company are on
per show deals, and since they rotate, people at house shows and run
limited crews. The only shows at the full crew or at least the main
crew is consistently on would be the TVs. Before they were mostly taping one
show at a time in Orlando, whether live or on tape. Now they
are taping two shows starting this week in Chicago, but the vast majority will
be getting paid for one show and thus make half as much over the course
of a year for television shots. So all of a sudden, Hogan Bischoff
are here and we're getting paid half as much. You tell me why so
many you know, middling wrestlers in TNA look back at Hogan and Bischoff is
ruining the company because they're fucking pig. I couldn't have all. That's not
us. It's not us, book guys. No, no, no,
it's not us, brother whatever. I didn't do that. All I know
is I'm making half as much as I did before you got here. And
that's not all I know is that, dude. All I know is that
I'm making three times as much as here, and I don't care what you
say about what budget it comes out of. That is not the vision that
was sold when you guys came in here at a buck five for hope million
five up to two with incentives, and then a bishof at four fifty to
produce the show Give Me a Freak. Speaking of Bischoff, Bischoff and Jason
Hervey Entertainment announced the acquisition around this point in time, late twenty twelve of
a fifty percent equity stake in a company boss called MX Digital. They developed
casino style betting games for online platforms and mobile game platforms. This hit the
business one. What is what does Eric Bischoff want to do? He want
fasting companies and make money what he wants he does. That's why he went
bankrupt. And this is the tragedy. You know, Hulk Coogan couldn't make
a go of it stringing together or living outside of doing pro wrestling. He's
Hulk Coogan, for God's sakes. That's the whole point of this thing,
as tnh thing. As he ends up damn near destitute and he's the most
successful wrestler of all time. Where do you think? What chance do you
think Bischoff is essentially a Hogan hanger on has of stringing together a living that
befits the amount of money he made in the WCW Boom period. Not not
very good. But he's out there playing pretend. You know, he's out
there, you know, pitching reality shows at a time when Cable had a
voracious appetite for them, and he's got the Jason Hervey backing, so he
sells a lot of shows. But it turns out it's not really it's just
the market forces are blowing in his direction. It's it's not really something you
can chalk up to like an innatibility that he has. And to his credit,
he's pretty honest about that. It's hard not to be when everybody knows
you went bankrupt because it's a public record, and he kind of takes the
opportunity in his second book to try to spin a yarn about why. That
just comes down to his just insatiable appetite for risk. Boss. He's just
he's just ready to take a risk, risks like this. I know Bischoffervy
Entertainment Television today. This is December eighteenth, two thou and twelve, according
to the Business Wire, announced the acquisition of a fifty percent equity stake in
MX Digital, a leading games developer established in two thousand and eight. MX
Digital as a leading developer of interactive casino and betting games that are delivered in
a variety of online and mobile platforms, with offices in Los Angeles, Hey
know, Buenos Aires and Miami. MX develops in distrybutes games in more than
twenty countries with a heavy focus on proven brands. They are industry leaders in
game design, game marketing, and promotion. We're incredibly excited about our partnership
with MX. We're expanding into an entirely new sector of entertainment and content,
says Eric Bischoff, who along with Jason Hervey, founded BHTV in two thousand
and three. Combining the skill sets of bishof Hervey Entertainment with those at MX
puts us at a unique advantage in this explosive business sector, noted Bischoff,
business sector. That's that's always a mark of a high level operative, calling
it a business sector. BHTV has been a leading producer of reality programming for
Discovery Channel, CMT, NBC, VH One, True TV, Spike TV,
and The CW. Recently, the company broke new ground by moving into
the scripted comedy genre. But the first season of c Dad Run starring Scott
Bayo and Curly airing at Nick at night. I mean, what the fuck
this is what he's up to when he's supposed to be running TENA for a
half million dollars a year. I don't understand is like he he he just
seems to I mean, look, I mean, you know he to me.
You know, they always say this, They always say, you know,
one of the one of the reasons why people should you know, um,
why people you know, young people should write scripts and like try to
get their sell their stuff, because they always say this, lesser, lesser
talented people are always getting this shit done. Yeah. Eric Bischoff is that
person. He is the lesser person. Yeah, he's why getting He's why
to owe it to yourself to try, because he's a testament right exactly,
because he's he's getting shit done and it all is stupid. It sucks,
and he just regurgitates the same shit over and over again. Stop using Scott
Bayo so true, you're gonna ride the Scott Bayo horse. Maybe they just
get together and talk about like the Tea Party and you know what I mean,
like anti government whatever. That's a big streak. He would go on
and like rance about Obama back then on social too, Bischoff, so you
can start to see the Scott bay Off Scott Scott Bayo crossover. He probably
knew what was his name? Oh my god, already forgot this fucking guy's
name. He was. It's like a he was like a Latin soap opera
star that jumped in with. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm forgetting
this guy's name. Who I think of him as? Um? Uh kind
of tantamount to uh tantamount antonius about a JR. Oh sure and the rest,
Um, you know the ones who like stopped getting booked in Hollywood and
go conservative. Yeah, right to extend you know, the paydays a bit?
Who to that? John Voight did that? Some others yeah, um,
Dennis Miller did it. So. Twenty fourteen, MX Digital um launches
a social casino app on Facebook. There are there Eyeing Boss, a billion,
multibillion dollar worldwide sector social casino slot games social meaning that you have a
profile, that it's on your phone and shit, MX sounds good to me.
MX Digital today announced the launch of its catalog of celebrity branded slot games
onto the MX Social Casino app on Facebook. I can't tell you how annoyed
I am by just those words you're repeating. The Next Digital currently develops and
distributes Waged Digital slot games internationally, featuring Halt Hogan, David Hasselhoff, James
Dean, Dennis Rodman. He's getting the crew back together from the fucking Turner
Days Man. Yeah right, seriously. MGM's Missing in Action starring Chuck Norris,
and recently announced distribution of the newest edition of their catalog, The Blues
Brothers with waged gaming powerhouse William Hill. We have been looking for the right
strategy and the right partner to expand into the social gaming sector for sometimes,
as Eric Bischoff of Bischoff Hervey Entertainment and co founder of MX Digital, we
have great brands with partners who have passionate social media fan basis who are anxious
to promote these games with us. As we recently announced, MX Digital has
partnered with data and analytics specialist traff Gen as in traffic Generator, whatever,
who recently announced expansion of the United States and his open offices in Las Vegas
and Chicago. Ike McFadden, co founder of MX Digital, said traff Gen
is a perfect partner. They offer a variety of marketing and technology services to
their clients and social, online, waged and land based casino industries. Excuse
me, so word leveraging like the Hulk Coogan IP. So you can download
a fucking casino app on your phone that is Hulk Coogan's face on it.
That's the marketing plan, or David Hasselhoff or any of these other celebrities who
probably just you know, fucking bitcoin style, just collect money and they don't
even care for dies. You know, just give me my fucking check,
thank you very much. So this is all going on. He's closing this
kind of deal when he's the executive producer of Impact, when the Aces and
eighth storyline is waging with the raging, I should say, with this tremendous
storyline progression. He turned out of Bischoff's book Grateful Great around the same time
as the abandon Wow, around the same time as the Abandoned Beer project.
That's the Buffalo Bill Cody beer that went nowhere that he did. We've talked
about that. Something else he's doing while pretending to run TNA I became not
No, he would not running. He says he was only involved with the
Hulkogan's creative I've forgot right Around the same time as the abandoned beer project,
I became heavily involved in the online gaming industry. While the time, gambling
in the US was fairly limited to Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or Indian
casinos, among other places, Europe was an entirely different environment. All over
the continent. You could come into storefronts to buy lottery tickets, play slot
machines, and indulge in other things to that effect. Therefore, I got
involved in celebrity branded digital slot machines, whereby shut up players throughout Europe in
certain parts of the world where it was legal, would play online games such
as Hulk Hogan's Hulkamania. Think leg dropped instead of bells and cherries. Oh
God, that's the business models. When you pull the slot instead of a
cherry, it's Hulk Hogan's face and the Haff featuring David Hasselhoff. We ended
up licensing games with Dennis Rod and Chuck Norris, Joe Frazier and the Blues
Brothers as well. It was a highly lucrative business at the outset. In
the end, however, that particular venture MX Digital cost all of us combined.
I was an the only investor and even bigger fortune think seven figures.
While we had done all of our homework, completed all of the necessary due
diligence, and partnered with the right people to make the idea successful, it
ultimately didn't work. We had entered a highly regulated business and seemingly overnight,
the regulations in Europe all changed. I had now depleted all of my resources,
including my retirement savings and everything else, because I really believed in both
the Buffalo Bill Cody and MX Digital projects. Everyone involved saw the same vision.
But each of those investments didn't work out for a variety of reasons that
couldn't really have been predicted. Er Bischoff soons, files for bankruptcy, and
one more thing. Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey have a casting call out for
a proposed reality show about step rams and step daughters who are the same age.
They probably got the idea Meltzer Rights from Hulksheff ex wife and her boyfriend
who was working age