Ep. 375: The Lapsed Funk, ECW (Part 1)

You know, good for nothing eggs secon dumb. We did it our way
because we love it that way. We love it that way, and I
have this wonderful gut feeling and I've had it all my life. When it's
time to go, I think is now much time to go? It's a
lapsed funk. It's a transition into the nineties. Boss, It's a transition
into nothing less than Extreme Championship Wrestling. We're about to witness some extremities.
It's you know, we don't spend a lot of time talking about ECW on
the cast. It's it's been a divisive subject over the years. Yes,
you know, folks in our demographics salivate for recollecting the feelings ECW gave them
and the angst written nineteen nineties as teenagers looking for a higher level of violence,
looking for a wrestling version of South Park before the Attitude era gave us
tits and violence and chair shots and blood and swearing. ECW told us that
there was a place for that in pro wrestling and laid down the case for
how different it could make the business feel, how it could revitalize the viewing
experience, even on the small scale. They operated out of in South Philadelphia.
But boss here we are. We must now realize and grapple with the
fact that for all the calling cards you think of when you think of ECW,
you might not think of Terry Funk right away. But without Terry Funk,
ECW would be much less than the sum of its parts. Yeah,
it is funny meal, you don't you know. I don't really think about
Terry Funk right away When I think ECW. I think what do you think
about? Yeah, I think about vomit. I think about misery and pain.
Uh No, I mean I think of honestly, you know, if
I I think the thing I think about the moment if you say ECW,
there are two things that come to mind. Tas an RVD. That's it.
That's the first, probably the first things that come to my mind,
tas an RVD, not even Paul Haymon and I and I think of I
think of of grainy television, yes, you know. And honestly, I
think about things that I don't want to watch. Why don't you want to
watch them? The limited amount of ECW we've sampled over the years here,
over ten years of the lapsed Fan, including the very first pape of You
Barely Legal in nineteen ninety seven, which Terry Funk played a key roll in
and closed the show, and as a matter of fact, is depict that
And beyond the mat what have your thoughts been? I mean, I just
don't. It's hard. It's a really hard thing for me to I mean,
it's I don't know. I feel like it is a if you didn't
witness it when it happened, yes, you really can't enjoy it. It
doesn't hold up. It does not hold up. And I have no nostalgia
for it because it was something I never caught on television. I'm not saying
I wouldn't have watched I probably I damn well would have watched it back then,
you know, mid nineties wrestling on TV wrestling, you know, because
they were doing things that I that I wanted more of in the WWE and
WW which was like more violence and more you know, just outlandish things that
were that were uh, breaking the mold. More of a sense that wrestling
was full of crazy people, which is what we want, right and and
that it was and that it was more realistic to you know, in that
way, and that they would do violent things, things that really would hurt
you. Yeah, yeah, and any price for it, you know.
And there I probably would have watched. I probably would have been into it,
but I just never it never crossed my radar. I didn't look for
it. I didn't know how to find it, and I only heard about
it on the periphery. And so from Terry Funk to Saboo, to Shane
Douglas to the Public Enemy, to Tommy Dreamer to Raven to Cactus Jack to
so many others, including folks you will not expect. The Lapsed Funk is
going to take us through several high points of ECW that I don't think short
of a hopper request that comes out of the blue sky, like when we
got the Born to Be Wired Saboo, Terry Funk, barbire Match. Yes
from our man there, Ryan Loko, it was it was unlikely, And
we're gonnaver sit down and say, Okay, this week it's an ec W
show on the Lapsed Fan, right. I'd to say it would never happen,
but this is going to be as the Lapsed Funk has proven to be
for All Japan, has proven to be for Memphis, has proven to be
for Florida Championship, wrestling has proven to be for just the seventies nw A
circuit has proven to be even so some ways for the very initial hult Comania
years, not in terms of what was on national television, but was on
a local television be it prison in Philadelphia or whatnot, and a lot of
the other stuff from the WCW Flair stuff in nineteen eighty nine that wasn't the
big pay per view matches everyone's watched, but the promo's in between, the
television, in between, the stuff that gives it its texture. In a
lot of ways, the lapsed Funk is going to give us the excuses we
need, excuses the wrong word. It's going to make it necessary that we
engage with Extreme Championship wrestling. And what do you know it, Terry Funk
is involved in a lot of the absolute high historical points of Extreme Championship.
I don't doubt that at all. And that's why, and this is why
he celebrated. Honestly, if his career ended in nineteen eighty nine with that
incredible series of brick Flair, if his career on a national basis, or
you know, his career in terms of having prominent matches ended in nineteen.
He would absolutely been a Hall of Famer first ballot. He would have absolutely
been one of the best pro wrestlers to ever do it, but he wouldn't
have had that extra bit of magic dust of the guy who when everybody else
was resting on their laurels, when everybody else had settled into their routines of
what got them over and kept them over and kept them earning. We know
WCW is rife with those guys. Terry Funk said, fuck this, I
Am not going to be somebody that plays the greatest hits. I'm going to
be somebody that goes in there and tries to match what the contemporary wrestlers are
trying to do. I'm going to be known as somebody who, despite the
fact that he's fifty, is still going out into that ring and doing things
designed to make it seem like I belong with the current crop. And I'm
not sure that anybody else ever did it before Terry Funk let alone did it
as well. And ecw' is that proving ground because as we talked about,
these guys, women and this company formed in nineteen ninety three as Eastern Championship
Wrestling and as we'll talk about transferring to Extreme Championship Wrestling, in no small
part with Terry Funk at the HELM. In terms of the roster, this
company said, we need to do absolutely everything that the Big two wouldn't be
willing to do on television to stand out right. And so it was necessarily
a petri dish for some of the edgiest stuff going on in the wrestling business,
because that was their whole rezon detro that was ECW's whole reason to exist,
was to do a litany of things that would make these small crowds go
absolutely insane that the WWFNWW couldn't in the right minds copy in those early ECW
hey day years of ninety four, ninety five, ninety six, and to
some extent ninety seven. But once Vince had his back against the wall in
WW was whipping that ass, he just fucking did ECW. That's what he
did, did Hew, and he did it with Steve Austin who was in
ECW and really showed us out of his personality that was much closer to Stone
Cold than he ever showed in WCW than his boofle of DCW Stint did with
Brian Pellman who if it wasn't for the angle injury, wouldn't have been right
up there with Steve Austin. He did it with Cactus Jack, of course,
who pretty much brought the character he played on ECW television more so than
the character he played on WCW television to the attitude era. Yeah, and
he did it, of course with Terry Funk to some small but significant degree.
Because when you call the Funker, it doesn't, as we talked about
it, and as we've discovered over the weeks here on this special, it
doesn't necessarily mean Businesses is knocking him dead. Right, You call the Funker
when you need a really, really good bet that somebody can come in and
create a spark. Someone can come in and cut promos that jump off the
screen. Someone can come in and suggest angles against your top babyface that will
seem like a fresh coat of paint, that will bring something new out of
the baby face, something intense, something the fans can believe in, and
just somebody that is going to get on the screen and not rest at letting
you be sort of impasted passive I should say, or impassionate about what dispassionate
I should say about what he's doing right. Terry Funk absolutely insists that you
believe he put all of the effort he possibly could into every match you ever
saw him have in front of your eyes. Yeah, And that is a
direction, that is a sharp detour he took in the nineties that almost none
of his contemporaries did. And that's why he celebrated above and beyond just the
former NWA World Champion of the seventies, just the sort of absolute heart throb
baby face of all Japan through the seventies and eighties, just the absolute wild
man, cutting bloodthirsty promos against his most bitter rivals on the territorial stage and
on TBS for Jim Hurd's WCW. This is it. This is why we
remember Terry Funk with that much more of an extra dimension than we will remember
any pro wrestler who's ever lived. Heartshop. Yeah, yeah, I mean
that's I mean, this is this is the stuff that for I guess,
lack of a better term, this is what I know him for, really
is what I remember. I mean, I'm not really this ECW per se,
but the the nineties stuff, this is the stuff. For everything else
we've seen him done, I've seen him do thus far in the lapsed Funk.
This is the stuff that no one else could have or did do is
this period of his career. This I hesitate to call it a reinvention.
It's really just him insisting on being relevant to the fans that take wrestling most
seriously. They may be small and mighty, they may not be the profile
that fills the WWF arenas. They may not be you know, your mainstream
wrestling fan that were in WoT shirts in ninety six, ninety seven, ninety
eight, but they were the fans that were going to buy tickets to wrestling
until they were in the grave. Right. Terry Funk was about those fans.
And it's not to you know, begrudge of Vince McMahon or Eric Bischoff
for not being about those fans in the Attitude era, because the fans,
they were about keeping their pockets well lined and their buildings full. But off
in the shadows here in places like the Elks Lodge in Queens and the former
Viking Hall, the Bingo Hall in South Philadelphia and so many other ECW signature
intimate small, fucking, steaming hot one hundred degrees, no matter what it
was like outside venues, and I went to several of them, insisting that
he be respected by the wrestling fan that had seen it all and thought they
had seen it all from the Funker, and indeed hadn't. It's now time
to go extreme as the Funker enters the nineteen nineties. Happy holidays everyone,
and we have greatly enjoyed having you along for the Lapsed Funk Ride, which
we ought to let you know, is gonna march on on the back of
that horse right up through twenty twenty four into our tenth year. We're going
to finish it up in the early part of a twenty twenty fourfold goes according
to plan. But this thing is just unfolded before us, like so many
journeys before. And it's pretty ridiculous to think, Boss, that we're only
now getting to what is definitive about Tarry Funk. I mean, that is
really I mean, it's it's wild. But I'm also not surprised at all
all the lives he touched in careers he touched, you know, it's at
his most voluminous in the ECW locker room. That was kind of the band
of brothers that absolutely had the greatest reverence for Terry Funk because of who he
was by the nineties in terms of his stature in the business, the places
he'd been, the roads he traveled, the opponents he'd worked so wild,
and it's just there was just, you know, everyone we've talked about it,
from Eddie Guerrero to Hulk Hogan, to Stan Hansen, to so many
others, to Tito Santana just an absolutely Dusty Rhodes to some degree, you
know, in terms of hearing Terry Funk tell it oh so much, Terry
Funk. Rick Flair just a fanboy of the Funker when he started in the
business. Everyone you care about in pro wrestling the last fifty years at some
point had Terry Funk say or do something that encouraged them to step up their
game or to stick with it. And you take all that and in the
ECW locker room, you can combine that impact by ten, because this was
just a band of guys who for the most part, had no stature outside
of ECW, you know, hadn't achieved much in the business outside of this
ragtag promotion, and just looked at the Funker for a signal that they were
on the right track, that they were doing things in a way that was
actually respectful of pro wrestling, even though what they did in the ring was
so outlandish and often so against the grain of what Terry Funk had done in
the ring his whole career, and actually, as we're about to find out,
wasn't that far of a stretch from what the Funker was comfortable is defining
the next logical evolution of his character in the nineteen nineties. So we're really
going to get into that lasting impact and why the tributes poured forth to an
almost unprecedented degree upon his passing this year, of course, launching this very
journey which we never could have anticipated coming into twenty twenty three, Boss,
and this all of the terry, not at all total NonStop terry. I
mean, folks who give you a tribute show, well, okay, be
careful what you wish for now you can't, as we have learned, there
are some people you can't just do a tribute show, that's right, okay,
And of course those are the people that we're going to get shouted at,
most loudly to do a show about right, play with fire, get
burned Funker style, and that's a flaming branding Iron, Thank you very much.
So we're entering the extreme, We're entering the nineties, and I'm excited
to bring to you all. I'm about to convey and get the boss up
on some of the ECW stuff that define the nineties. But before we do
that, we do want to give profuse thanks to everybody in the Solar System
who contributed to the TLF Christmas Show smashing success. Yes, we've rolled out
in bite sized format this year, which is also very successful, and we
were just all around tickled pink by the way it all came out. So
thank you for stepping up, because if you don't step up, it kind
of doesn't work. And it worked. It was amazing, absolutely amazing.
Yeah, wait for the handoff of that VK thunder lighter. I'm it's good.
That's I can't wait for you to see that thing up close. Any
other thoughts on there? You're sitting amidst the gifts, the bounty, Uh,
I mean, it's yeah, it's it's I've had to like move stuff
out because it's it's such my office is I mean, it was a complete
disaster, But you know, I do enjoy looking at the U the Vine
Air game, just like Oh, I'm gonna figure out how to play that
one. Gotta be kidding me. Just wild, just wild shit. It's
these curiosities from a generation before we were even born in terms of wrestling fandom
and these sort of like you know, baby steps towards a licensing model for
pro wrestling, towards creating licensed products for pro wrestling. Yeah, that wasn't
WWF, which we all know the beats of. Just just incredible to now
hold that in our hands as a result of what we've built up over ten
years here in the TLF Solar system. So wild. How's that Jeff Hardy
cutout looking from Steve? That was the first gift of Christmas this year.
It was the very first episode of our series of TLF twenty twenty three Christmas
shows, a life size cardboard cutout from the ww off Jeff Hardy looking right
in your face. Anyone who follows us on X saw the picture of you
standing completely enthralled next to the cutout, and I wonder, you know,
if it's won a place on your mantle. It's won a place under my
mantle, that's for sure. So it's won a place in the fireplace.
Did you in the hearth. Did you? Oh yes, what did you
do? I set that motherfucker ablaze? He sent me a video folks can
confirm, and actually went up brilliantly too. It went up really fucking brilliantly.
And I did. I did it on the slow motion things so it
could be nice and slow and I could relish every moment of it. We're
sure there's no carcinogens in there that you're burning. Hey, you know what
if if they are? Then and you know it's it's certainly less hazardous than
looking at that fucking picture. Ever again, Wow, Steve bringing the heat
man, and you returned the favor. That's right, I did. I
brought. I brought the heat. I reversed the heat actually on that one.
Amazing stuff. I mean, that's just it's all part of the fun,
it's all part of the experience. It still part of the lore.
Well, I just probably post that, I guess probably. I think now
people's curiosity is peaked. You know, people put the yule log on on
the TV while they're unwrapping presence. That can be our tlf ule Log twenty
twenty three burning like the way that it's you know, I was hoping you
know, because you only have one shot at this right, you only have
one shot at setting this thing ablaze. And so I was hoping that it
would do exactly what it did. So like the way, I had him
kind of rested up in my fireplace, and I started the fire from the
back, and I was just waiting for it to come just like crawl its
way up and and it just when he when he lights up, it's really
fucking money. It's a beautiful thing. Wow. So consider it an honor.
Maybe that'll be a tradition every year we burn one gift. Yeah.
Yeah, people are trying to force our hand, they're trying to tempt us.
Well, we might step up now. I fight back tremendous. What
happened to the Jerry Lawler believe print that that he laced us with last year.
I mean it's it's buried somewhere in fucking storage somewhere. Weren't and you
weren't about to have Jeff Hardy creeping around in your attic somewhere. Not at
all, Not at all, not at all. I mean it's bad enough
having that fucking Lawlor thing just you know. I mean, it's it's in
a box. I believe me. I wish I could burn that, but
I don't think that that uh, I don't think that material is is good
for the fire. Yeah, you've given the lapsed fan co chairman a gift
they loved for Christmas, But have you given given them one that they were
compelled to put in the fireplace. That's a that's a leak company right there.
Yes, that's exactly right. That's a one of one as far as
we're going here on the unwrapping too, So again shout out just amazing,
just add so. I hope it adds a lift to you. Guys.
We've gotten some some tweets indicating, you know that this is now their holiday
tradition, you know, listening to us unwrapped, you know, beneficence from
the from the fucking solar system. And that is a lovely thought. Indeed,
that warms the cockles of the heart. And that's why we do it.
Like I've said, if the show was us opening gifts and then returning
them immediately to sender, I'd be just as fucking gassed up about it.
This is not about collecting trinkets. This is not about hoarding, This is
not about really having stuff. It's about expressing the power of what this show
can do. And it's really about the creativity that's right, and and kind
of the thought that goes into it is really unbelievable. Yeah, yeah,
really been blown away. And actually I can tell you too, by the
way, uh the the the hot sauces too, by the way, oh
yeah from Arizona. Fucking awesome, able bring in the heat this season.
Beautiful stuff. Had to get my hands on some of those too. The
coffee, in particular, my coffee. The coffee's wild. The coffee,
it's it's it's it's very interesting. I don't dislike it. I want to
put yeah, dislike it, but it is it's very very it's so it's
it's I don't know if it's coffe I can have every day, very interesting,
very very powerful flavor for to rendering a verdict on that front. And
we've got so many bits of local flavor from across the world. Just just
folks, thank you, That's all I can say. It can't even begin
to say thank you. Honestly, thank you doesn't even cover, you know,
the generosity. And as you know, I mean, our our orienting
principle, our motivating factor from the beginning, is being worthy of the faith
you place in us. That's really motivates us is because you guys keep upping
the stakes before we have the chance to catch up. So we're always in
this position of like, all right, if they're going to give us this
signal that you know, with their wallets, with their contributions, with the
gifts, that they really really want us to keep doing what we're doing,
we have to step up. We have to keep going. And that's why
we're coming up on ten years of the Lapsed Fan in twenty twenty fourths.
TLFX all manner of different things that we'd like to do to commemorate the year
over the course of twelve months, and not the least of which is as
formal a process as our fans can possibly assemble to select your absolute favorite moments
from the TLF archive. You've heard us talk about the Lapsed Archive Transcription Service
on the year before. This is basically something that TLF superfans have created to
allow you to query full text of our episodes in our catalog and find your
favorite moments. Well, this group has now coalesced into an incredible power center,
a nucleus, if you will. This is a group of folks that
we're going to be calling the Lapsed power Plant. Lapsed power Plant are TLF
superfans that stand at the ready to reciprocate your enthusiasm for the cast and help
you rediscover and preserve the moments that made you rock solid members of the TLF
Solar System. These things deserve to be isolated, agreed, They deserve to
be recorded, and they deserve to be cataloged. And it is the Lapsed
power Plant that is indeed working behind the scenes on getting lapsed stuff done.
And we're here to let you know by a way of little a teaser,
a very long last as part of TLFX celebrations, there's finally a project underway
whose goal is to collect and organize time codes of the Solar System's very favorite
spots from ten years of TLF. If you already have time codes for your
favorite moments, that's great, because the power Plant is currently working on a
form for submitting those timecodes to what basically will be like a formal digest of
what are the moments that Solar System members call out as quintessential TLF. We
feel like this is a very worthy thing to do. Upon looking back at
a decade of doing this. If you don't already have time codes, folks,
the Lapsed power Plant, using an idea from Austin King sOliver, one
of the great Solar System members, is organizing a multi platform spot finding event
oh to help you pinpoint them. So if you don't have access to LATS,
or you don't have the inclination or time to go through the archives to
find that moment, the Lapse power Plant is prepared to step up on a
dedicated day to find them for you. Experienced LATS database users will be on
hand and ready to assist members of the Solar System on x Patreon, Reddit
discord. It's all happening January twentieth for International LATS Day. You heard that
right, January twentieth, as part of TLFX celebrations. Easy for me to
say, will be International LATS Day. So any recollection you have of your
spots will be helpful for finding them. But keep in mind that direct quotations
are by far, of course the easiest thing to search for, so really
think through what it is you're trying to find in the catalog and any sort
of defining phrases that you recall, not just the episode or even something more
generic than that. Really like a phrase that was said, we can search
for that said. Volunteers no lats and they know TLF, so there's a
very good chance that they'll be able to help you find whatever lapsed gold you're
looking for. That's how you celebrate ten years on the air, if you
ask me, I'm fucking right, that's not a Again. We always put
our listenership up against any podcast of any stripe. I don't care how many
millions of people listen. We are mightier pound for pound, fan for fan,
dollar for dollar, and it's the lapsed power plant and all that we
just outline. That's pretty much exhibit A going into twenty twenty four, and
go to Patreon for all the financial proof you need, because these folks are
like, give me more, give me under the cinemat for my twenty dollars
and above pledge. That's right. And what are they getting? Oh,
they're getting wonderful things. They're getting wonderful Christmas gifts. This year. They
just got Ghostbusters too. Yes, this Christmas movie, Christmas movie, Christmas
movie, New Year's movie, the whole fucking thing qualifies Ghostbusters too. Bringing
back our good pal Bill helm On Homburg fall Hamburg. Yes, and is
horrifying life. And uh, next up though, get ready Christmas Day.
That's all I'm gonna say. Christmas Day. Do we ever stop giving people
oh holiday boots? No? No, no, we don't and it only
continues. I mean, so you're saying under the tree this year, as
just about every year, ye devotee of under the cinemat on the EP and
above Tire and Patreon will have a very special gift. There will be a
very special gift. And I were listening to this a whole lot more too,
Yep, coming your way in terms of holiday special going above and beyond
programming efforts from your co chairs. Again, just trying to be worthy of
the faith that you place in us and in that vein. Let's get to
the funer. Let's get to Terry riding into Philadelphia looking around and saying,
well, I'm gonna go ahead and make this thing a thing. I want
ahead and decide I was going to go ahead and make a thing out of
a head. Well we'll work on that, mama. The date February thirteenth,
nineteen ninety four, Jim Cornett's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion. Oh Boy,
here we go show called Sunday, Bloody Sunday at the General James Whitemoral Civic
Auditorium in Noxville, Tennessee. Of course, the true stomping grounds for Jim
Cornett's short lived attempt to turn back the territorial era, and it had an
affiliation with the WWF. That's why you remember the Heavenly Bodies and others coming
through in the mid nineties, and Jim Cornett himself as a matter of fact,
but Terry Funk came through SMW And on this date in February of nineteen
ninety four, there was a Texas death Match. What was it? What
was the show? It was called Sunday Bloody Sunday. Then I have that
one. It's the day before Valentine's Day in nineteen and ninety four, okay,
and Terry Funk was in the ring. The masked Bullet Bullet, of
course, was legend of the Southeast Bullet bar Armstrong going through the hole.
You know, Barb Armstrong can't wrestle here anymore, so he's coming back under
the mask like the night Rider and Dusty Roads and all that, and so
he's going up against Terry Funk on this night in Louisville, and it's quintessential
Funk going in there with a hard punching, scrappy legendary feed me all day,
babyface, much in the vein of a Jerry Lawler was Bob Armstrong.
In terms of other Funk opponents, We've looked at Dusty as well a little
bit, and it's going to plan as you'd expect. The Funker now with
the national runs in his rear view mirror and big money made in the eighties
has hit the floor. During the course of this contest with the bullet at
the Colors in Knoxville, they brawl over near the table and Funk DDT's him
through it. This is a higher level of violence all of a sudden from
the Funker. This is a Terry Funk looking to impress upon us in even
more ways than we're used to. He applies the spinning toe hold, but
bullet gets free. Bullet throws some head butts in, the Funker does the
knock needs cell job, and then the action hits the floor again. And
Terry Funk at this point, as the action re enters the fray and we're
about to get there, does something for the first time in his life,
because well it's time. Let's pull it up this twenty one, twenty sixteen
to twenty one. You're there, I believe yes. So this is handicam
footage. Yeah, bar bomb Strong in the center of the ring, Terry
Funk about to re enter three two one play. There goes the Funker,
boss taking that big bump to the floor. Yep, Chim Cornett hovering over
the Funker. The Funker picks his ankle and takes him down in the concrete,
but put there with a spinning too hold on Jim Cornette in nineteen ninety
four Smoky Mountain Boss much. I'll say, Oh, so Funk's back up.
He's released Jimmy Cornette from his clutches as Bob Armstrong. The bullet recovers
on one knee in the ring, and the Funker is what's he what's he
doing? He's tossing shit? Hit himself? What's that? Did he hit
him on himself at the head of the table. What happened to the table?
He's throwing it around, He's throwing weapons. He's absolutely loading the ring
up with any flotsam and jets and he can get his hands on at ringside.
He's he's making a mess. And this is nineteen ninety four. Okay,
just think about how many of the mildest and craziest moments in ECW had
yet to happen in February no less of nineteen ninety four, And here in
Louisville, with no one expecting it, no one knowing it's coming. Terry
Funk, just a bunch of fucking weapons in the ring. Chairs and Jesus
he's going to town. Has filled this ring with chiefly chairs, and now
he's raining down chair shots on Bob Armstrong. What the hell is going to
happen? Can't forget how unusual this is right now, this visual in nineteen
ninety four, progressing. Imagine somebody doing this on rawat four such as it
was in ninety four. No, no, not at all, not at
all. It'd be insane. So the Funker has built a little nest,
a little small pile of steel chairs in the ring, takes a wild shot
kind of let the chair go. In fact, in mid bringin I did,
I'm not mistaken. That's Brian Hildebrands, February ninety four. Yes,
sir, wow, so yeah, for sure, because this is even before
the fucking ladder match. Yeah, good point too, Yes, because the
ladder match was something that I was blown away by. But this song think
about this came before and he slams him on the Oh that was awful,
but he dropped him soapd Now for the first time in his life, Terry
Funk is climbing. No Terry Funk here at Smoking Mountain in February ninety four.
He will moon salt. Why did he do it? Fuck? Why
did he do it? And he crashes onto the pile of chairs, mostly
entirely missing his opponent lateral press too. Terry Funk picks up the duke for
the first time in his life. He moon salted it. He moon salted.
That's the first time ever. Yes, Jesus. The victor on this
night was Terry Funk. As he tries to find his way his place in
the nineteen ninety four pro wrestling can hit pause. Let's not forget, for
example, that he had just walked out on the booking job at Survivor Series
ninety three. Oh Yeah, had a chance to kind of settle into a
more pedestrian existence in the pro wrestling business, but a better paid one at
the top. Organization at a time when they were desperately looking for new front
men with Vince McMahon facing indictment. And you know, he famously, as
we talked about last time, or a couple of times ago on the WWF
episode, left the letter for Vince and vinced, my horse is sick.
And he left in the night. The guy they thought they were bringing into
book and be one of Jerry Lawler's knights in the card at the Boston Garden
was gone. And where are you ride off to? Well, this is
months later. He's in Lewis, He's in a was it Knoxville? Yep,
Knoxville, Tennessee moon salting for the first time in his life. Boss.
We celebrate wrestlers reinventing themselves. Yes, and many of the greatest wrestlers
never did do that. Yeah. True, But as the high rolling excesses
of the eighties turned into the grungy and ornery and extreme obsessed nineties, Terry
Funk didn't just go ahead reinvent himself. He was at the landguard of reinventing
the business. I want, I had, and when I hadn't went I
had, And no one a hood won a hood, No one could believe
what he did that night and the clip we just watched a few months before
he turned fifty, including Jesus S. MW Owner at Ringside in that moment,
Jim Cornett himself, and that was quite a day. And why did
you do that? Was nobody knew you were going to do that. I
don't think that anybody was doing moon salt, so I'd say, like,
mudha, that's where you got it from, probably, But remember what you
piled all the chairs up and put you to get it? Yeah, you're
climbing up. I'm like, what has he done it? You did the
moon salt at fifty three? But what was what was so stupid was putting
all of those steel chairs on earth. Yeah, I'm trying to go ahead
and make it myself a patty there when they were all steel chairs. That
was a dumb thing in a world. I said, Terry, what are
you doing? You looked him said, I don't know, Corny, that's
exactly looked. It looked vicious, I'll tell you that. But anyway,
but Bob Armstrong was under the chairs, yes, and again he felt he
was just completely covered up by the chairs. And I flew off of there
on top of me that was that would be a classic thing to do.
Now, somebody ought to do that. I don't know, Corney, I
don't know why I did it and where are is? That? Not as
fun as it gets? That's that's I mean that that's just staple. I
can't stress enough. We are accustomed to seeing Terry Funk moonsalt in the nineties.
Yes, can you imagine him doing it for the first time at his
age. It's just that's I mean, I guess it. I guess it
makes sense in a way, but like, who the fucking thought that that
was only in retrospect, only when we know the road he was about to
travel. Yep, but this is still a bit precocious in terms of time
that those things having happened. That redefined our expectation set for Terry Funk.
And it's so hard because of the crazy flips the guys do now to put
ourselves in a mind frame where the moon salt was fucking incredible. But boss,
we lived it. Yeah, people, moon salt did. It was
like get out of your seat moment. Yeah exactly. I mean that was
totally I mean, in many ways it still is like it should be anyway,
But like a moon salt was was something completely completely foreign to I mean,
yeah, I remember it being I'm trying to think of the first time
I saw Vader and wcwa Is. When Corny said mood I was thinking,
well, yeah, Muda did do it before Vader, and I guess,
yeah, Muda did it in eighty nine, but I wouldn't have watched that
though at that point the Funk would have been there to see it. In
eighty nine, sure, of course. I think when he moon salted there,
I think probably as many people American wrestling fans that were in attendance thought
of Vader as they did Muda. Yeah, yeah, especially because Funk didn't
do that downward trajectory one, that forty five degree angle one that Mooded does.
He did the kind of soaring up right uh kind of angle salt a
bit just amazing, And it's amazing how like he misremembers where Armstrong was.
Armstrong was not under the chairs. He was on top of them, sliding
off the edge of the heap. By the way, he didn't fucking take
anything on that. He totally missed him. Yeah, fucking coward, he
is, what kind of thought, But he didn't tell Bob Armstrong, he
was going to do it, just like he didn't tell Rick Flairy's going to
drag him over to the table and pile drive at Russell wardy nine either,
because that would suck it up. He knows, he knows. The first
take is always the best. If you're Terry Funk, Yep, that's the
way to get the most genuine, organic, believable reaction out of your opponent
is to have people look upon them as they don't quite know what's going to
happen next. They just know their job is to be there to take it
when the moment comes. And there's Bob Armstrong, undoubtedly for the first time
in his life, laying on a bed of chairs watching someone moon salt down
on top of him. The fuck is he doing exactly? Son of a
bitch. Hey, hey, Bob, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and
moon salt the ship out of you. Be all right, But all right,
do you mind if I moon salt? Huh? Huh? Did you
say moonshine? Terry moonshine, moon salt. I don't know what the fuck
I'm doing, speaking of which, Terry Funk, reflecting on this faithful moment
in a shoots interview with our video. Who knows that I think moon salt
are a diamond dozen right now, I'm gonna yeah, it's amazing that they
have more people can moon salt that can wrestle. What made you? What
made you say to yourself, screw it, I'm gonna do the moon salt
anyway. I think it's the matter of pride again, it's wanting to change
with times and be with what's present in this day of nature. What that
many people doing long moon salt at that time? You know? Yeah,
Uh, when Ibride first started doing them, I thinking, oh, I'm
sure that I'm not sure that Vader did him first or I did him first.
I think I might have done it before Bader did them first. Yeah,
and uh, we else was doing it was, uh, the Japanese
boys were doing them. Saboo me Sa was doing moon salt, and I
think myself, that's just about it. Yeah, how did you what made
you decide to even try the moon salt the night in Smoky Mountain? Well,
and I just kind of looked around there and had all of those chairs
in the ring there, and uh, Bob that belaves Bob Armstrong. Yeah,
he was underneath the chairs, and I thought, well, hell,
this looks like a pretty good idea. Get up there and try to fly.
I think I did a better one then than I do now. It
was it was that it's something to watch. That's definitely something to watch.
And then every time was there any pressure in that at that point, because
every time you came to the town, everyone went to Terry Funk through the
moon salt. Oh, they weren't going to see that. I just have
so many moon salts too. I try to pick. I try to pick
the right time to use him. I don't know boss coming to not Terry
Funk as we have and having heard what we just heard, Why do you
think he moon salted? I I believe he moonsalted because because he I believe
he moon salted because he needed to moon salt. Please expound, expostulate momentarily.
I believe that he that in his mind, this was the only thing
that he could do to matter. Wow, he's Terry Funk. What do
you mean matter? No, he's like a god in these locker rooms,
isn't he. But he's Terry Funk in the nineteen nineties. And what does
that mean? And that means he doesn't you know he he he he's out
of his league. Wow, he's out of his league at this point because
he's older. What he says, fifty? When does the yep? And
you know, so there is you know he you know, here's a guy
who's whose Hollywood career is not what he thought it was going to be.
Yes, that's now clear. By ninety four. Yep, for sure,
the phone is stop bringing yep, or at least it's not ring in nearly
as much. Still, the roles aren't getting bigger, they're getting smaller.
You know, he's still got a thunder and paradise to come up there,
so that but yeah, he he needs to take it to the next level
and and and stand out as something that that that is relevant and matters so
that he can get money. And how do we matter in the nineties,
Well, your moon salt and you're hurt. Thank you. You prove to
us that you're willing to risk disability or death. Yes, you know that
you are willing to to that you are willing to go further than the younger
guys. Yeah, make me think that you don't care if you live or
die. Right, that's how to be relevant in the nineties. Right Ready
to Die was Biggie Small's album Yep, and Terry Funk had to convince the
people he was ready to die out there, and to hear him tell it,
he was. He climbed those ropes for those moon salts pretty well resolved
in his mind that this could be the last thing he ever does in a
wrestling ring. And if that's the case, so be it. Because better
to have moon salted yes, and ended your career than to bore the people.
And that's Terry Funk's gift. That's better to have moon salted and died
than to have died irrelevant and think about it. I mean, that's that's
the ofoir of the ECW audience. That's what's pulsating in those crazy, you
know, testosterone filled crowds. They want they embrace Terry Funk because not only
is he who he was, but he's going out there and saying endorsing the
level of demands that those fans placed on the performers before they were quote unquote
over you know, the things you had to do, the things you had
to prove to them, the risks you had to prove you were willing to
take. The table bumps, the real physical pain that you had to show
them before they embraced you. And when they embraced you, you were in
the money for a little while. For a lot of guys, especially the
ones who never would have gotten a contract in wwfter WCW, it was absolutely
a risk worth taking if pro wrestling business was going to have to be the
way that you made your money because you were so obsessed with it. There's
a litany of folks. I think of Spike Dudley as the ultimate case.
You know, think about this guy, Yes, how little business he had
in the business outside of the unique proposition of what ECW was vis It's fan
base and meeting those expectations and the opportunity to created for guys like him and
Mikey Riprack and these other sort of guys that had no no obvious apparent qualities
that would make them marketable pro wrestlers. Yet Paul, understanding the fans as
he did, existing on the wavelength they did, also saw on Terry Funk
a little extra bit of an edge, a little extra bit of heart.
We played the clip at the end of the last episode in the Rick Flair
series, did we not Boss were Paul Hayman talking about working for the NWA
when Funk came through in eighty nine, talking about driving him to the hospital
when he cracked his sacrem and could barely fly was sitting down. It still
went out in the Great American Bash nineteen eighty nine and had one of the
great matches of the era against Ric Flair, And how that inspired Paul Hayman
to sort of create a whole ethos who around the locker room he wanted to
build once he got the book at ECW, and of course bring in Terry
Funk and have him be the living embodiment of the kind of commitment to self
sacrifice that it took to be worthwhile in the fans' eyes in ECW. And
that's why he moonsults because he can feel that coming. If he's to survive
on the level of the business that he has now committed himself to by turning
down the WWF booking job, he's going to have to create a sense in
these fans' minds and hearts that the frailty of his age is going to add
to the drama of the risks he takes. Yes that because I'm old,
I must moon salt, Yes, and he does. As he says in
his book, Sometimes I think a dynamite kid and some of the insane things
I've done in my own career, Why don't we do that stuff? Why
do we shorten our careers and maybe our lives physically? Why did I drag
my fifty year old ass up to the top rope for a moon salt?
That is the question. Why do I hurt myself on small shows where there's
not a lot of money to be made. I have absolutely no idea what
drives us to do some of those things. Maybe guys like me are just
queer, but in a different way. Instead of being queer for guys,
maybe I'm queer for wrestling. Okay, Terry Funk, Okay, sure,
whatever you say. Terry Funk debut in nineteen six and pro wrestling he was
moonsulting in nineteen ninety four. The Funker was on a path he couldn't get
off of, for he would be the elder statesman of an extreme wrestling movement
that elongated his career and redefined his role in the business. A short time
into his run with ECW, Funk went up for the moon Salt again,
this time to the floor, thank you very much. Where more than once
in his life he landed on his fucking head. I don't know how he
didn't pass away. I mean, there was a match in ninety four with
Oneita and Mike Austin and Cactus Jack in Japan where he landed on his fucking
head when he came up short on the toss. There was one in ECW
as well. There's one in WCW against the wall on Nitro. He just
Moon Salts. Boss, take a moment YouTube Funk Moonsalts WCW Wall and just
tell me what you see. I'm not even going to load it on my
side. I just want you to to appreciate what it is. I'm trying
to tell you here as far as Yeah, the wall, of course was
the Jerry tweet the heel hang him, So all right, Terry Funk Moon
Salt. You see him on the top rope in that two thousand era Nitro.
You know you've come to the right place. Take up, place up,
He'll take it. Please off top cock. Look, he's not gonna
fuck to me. Go ahead. What did you see he he just lands
on his shoulder. He's old, He's so old. This is six years
after the moon Salt. We just watched he moon salts and to the floor,
to the floor, from the top rope to the floor, and he
lands like on his shoulder, Like, what the fuck? Why nobody needs
this except Terry Funk. Right, maybe he was just queer for the wrestling
business, boss, I guess so. And here Tommy Dreamer in a sit
down chet interview face off series with the I love that, like he has
to be gay for it, Like like that's what came to mind. That's
the best analogy you could think of. That's so his memoirs. That's such
a weird thing. It got. Yeah, he probably was gay for wrestling.
Think about it. I mean, I guess, I guess he's definitely
in love with it, and he considered a very masculine thing. I guess.
Okay, I guess it's weird. It's just weird. Like some call
wrestling their mistress. Yeah, he just calls it his gay lover. And
then we got his partner, his husband is whatever, Holy Terry Funk.
Only Terry Funk would phrase it that way, right, and he uh,
and you know it's too late. Now he's got a moon salt. He's
got to prove to us that he's willing to die. What do you say,
He said he only had a few in him. Yeah, he had
quite a few in him, had quite a few. That's right, Jesus.
And here in a sit down shoot interview segment with Terry funk Ferrara video,
Tommy Dreamer, sitting right next to the Bunker, reflects on a faithful
moment that told us just how far the Funker was about to take it in
the land of extreme. He was, you know, it's a joke about
you know, he was middle aged and crazy, but he changed his style
to like the ECW style, even though he was always doing the same stuff.
But then like I'm going to do a moon's halt to the floor,
and he does a moon salt to the floor because he sees people doing moon
salts. And you know, it wasn't the picture perfect moon salt, but
for the fact that he would do it, and he would shake climbing on
the ropes and work and everyone and put his hand up like, you know
this is going to be couldn't my work? Could be my last rod I
may die theoside definitely expected to die, and they every time I got up
there I was not working one of my favorite Tarry Fox mood salts. I
gotta tell you that, like your face, I have so many great moments
of like I have Kodak moments of your face where you just pop me and
your moons. When you climb up, it does take a while, and
you scream and yell andever you get everyone to focus on you. And when
you first go over, you look like you're going to be the most graceful
moon salt, like super crazy like floating in the air. Your legs go
like this. Your legs go like this, and then all of a sudden
you go and get ready for the landing there and I remember you do it
to the floor with me, Shane Douglas and Brian Lee, and I'm your
partner and I'm going to be back here just in Casey overshoots and me and
Brian are like this. I remember that on the floor and me and Brian
like this, and here he comes and I'm like, oh shit, he's
gonna overshoot us. And then he starts like this and me and Brian and
Shane was in the front, Me and Brian like and we dive and we
just hear funk and your head hits the floor, and Brian and we all
hang on what kind of would like to see somebody? Hey, god,
it's so funny that he so Brian so stupid. Brian goes out, my
god, dream we just killed her, funk And you come up to me
and your hair, your hair was and you go, that was the dumbest
thing I've ever done. That was your hair was like matted on one side
and this side was like Carlito hair. And you just kept going and the
Florida back and that was just the dumbest thing everything about me. Why did
I do that? Tommy Dreamer, That's the dumbest thing I've ever done.
I think he had a head boss. Yeah, he went ahead and dropped
his head. I mean, like any thoughts, I mean it it actually,
you know, there's a part of me. I don't know what his
facial expressions were like, but part of me is like, listen to how
sad he is about that, Like he keeps saying it wasn't funny. I
don't know how to make what to make of that, honestly, I don't.
I mean, is he to me? It just it just makes me
feel sad. And the fact that Tommy Dreamer called it his favorite, one
of his favorite moments, and it's like really like this, it's a favorite
moment, Like shouldn't have been like a horrifying Oh what did you send me?
Just go to nineteen eleven on that video. Please try to skip ahead
if you can. Okay, Yeah, it's kind of yeah, it is
kind of it is kind of horrifying in a way. I mean, I
think, to be fair, I've seen a lot of these funk shooting interviews
and he kind of takes this tone of like he pretends to take umbrage without
the other person saying, but like they've gone through the same song and dance
so many times before that the other guy kind of knows he's just kind of
ribbing him that he's kind of just taking a fake offense to it. Yeah,
not even the offense though, it's the idea that I mean he called
he called the fans perverts. They called ye. He called him a pervert
for thinking it was funny that he landed on his head. I mean,
I just don't like, what, what kind of a of a situation are
you in where you know, like you think this is okay, it's queer
for the business. Yeah, I guess so all right, I'm nineteen eleven.
You ready to hit play? Yeah? Three two one play Scientific Wrestling
move. This is from FMW where Nick Foley and Terry Funk Mike Ossomo needed
to knock and win him on a street fight. Here goes Funk. Get
ready? Come on? Why look at that fo Jesus Christ hippause you just
he just you know, the problem is he can't fully rotate. What what
did you just say? You just saw He's on the top rope. He's
moon salting to the floor, all right, and he gets to a certain
point he just doesn't rotate fast enough, and so you know, he he's
still like head facing down when he connects with the guys and he just lands
on his face and his chest. What happened to Sean Michaels in Saudi Arabia?
The Funker taking flight for the business. It's just not okay? Everyone
you ever cared about in ecw owes something if not damn near everything to Terry
Funk and upon his passing, Paul Hayman when on wwbe's talk show The Bump
to share some reflections, and I think in so many ways set it all
in terms of setting the table for what we're about to explore in the stage
of the Funker's life here, I'm I'm I'm a was hesitant to try to
encapsulate a life like Terry Funks within a sound bite or even even a portion
of a program. I didn't say anything publicly. I haven't yet, And
one of the reasons why is because I was aware of the decline in Terry
Funk's health, and I had the extraordinary opportunity and pleasure of speaking with him
in the last few weeks of his life. So I withheld my tributes because
I got a chance to tell him while he was alive. I didn't have
to explain my affinity for the man after his passing. I got a chance
to let him know. There was no pun intended acknowledgment of the greatness of
the performers in EACW without them getting into the ring with Terry Funk. Shane
Douglas was recognized as a franchise player because of his interaction with Terry Funk.
The Public Enemy truly got recognized as a pre eminent tag team of their time
by being in the ring with Terry Funk and and and the Funk brothers Terrrian
and Dorry Jr. Sabou came out of the gates at ECW making a splash,
but his splash was infinitely bigger because by the end of Saboo's first weekend
in ECW, he he was in the ring and holding his own and and
and and sharing the spotlight with Terry Funk. It's uh. I don't know
if there's anything that I can say that will match the brilliance of what Cody
said. What Cody said the other night moved me. It was it was
profound and and and and and and it's just so eloquent, uh in in
that you could be going through an airport and and egg shucking dog and what
what am I listening? Who's screaming is at my and and here's Terry Funk
coming, you know. It's just it's just it's so Terry Funk for him
to do and at the same time, uh he he. He was the
the grandfather of of of a revolution, of an evolution in the industry,
of a movement, of an extreme movement. I think what I wish future
generations will will take from the legacy of Terry Funk is the passionate pursuit of
greatness in all moments of a performance and never losing sight that it's a business.
Yes, because so many people today. And this is not a criticism
of the young guys, the new generations. This was true twenty years ago,
this was true thirty years ago. This is this is true in every
generational turnover in this industry, and it is true today. It's separate.
Either you have those who sit there and go business business, business, business,
business, or you have those that go creative pursuit of greatness. I
want to do this. I envision this with no viewpoint as to how do
we exploit this in commerce, because at the end of the day, as
a business, we are all commerce facilitators. And you know, and and
and and Terry never lost sight of that. Terry Terry was always balancing the
pursuit of greatness within a performance, how do we make this into business?
And then would say, okay, how do we make this end? Besnsh
and where's the greatness involved? And he always understood that that's the chocolate and
the peanut butter that makes the Reese's Peanut butter cup. You know that that's
just they can't be separate. They must always journey together, and sometimes it's
it's it's, it's, it's, it's it's not a comfortable marriage. Sometimes
you have to scale back on the greatness to pursue the business, and sometimes
you have to realize that the business needs to pace itself to allow greatness to
shine and then capitalize on it. So it was just it was a remarkable
balance that someone who at all times could could truly convince you he was out
of his fricking mind. But that's the line of greatness and insanity joining each
other, a genius and insanity always being hand in hand, And I think
part of his genius was the fact that he accepted himself as being insane.
Extreme Championship Wrestling was first Eastern Championship Wrestling. Terry Funk was there from the
start and boss when he talks about that fine line. There are many in
these w locker room who have sort of talked about how they felt like they
only occasionally got a glimpse of like the true Terry Funk, that even in
the locker room, he still had to keep up some facade of being a
little tapped, a little weird, little wacky. There are people who swore
that you know he was like a blood brother, and then they ran into
him ten years later and he was acting like he was ready to kill them.
But this is Terry Funk, and he's carrying on the cafabe wherever he
goes because he believes he's the worker. I think that's correct, Terry the
worker, and stand by on that their work. If they're working you and
you and you they're working with he's a worker. He's a worker, worker,
that's all. He is a worker. And so is he though,
because what I just heard Paul Hayman say is that, well, Terry Funk
appreciated when he had to dial back the insanity to do business and and you
know, create some moments where he isn't just like all in and just all
out there so that some things can can marinate and become business at the end
of the day. Paul Hayman seemed to be talking about that as something Terry
Funk was keeping at bay, not something not a mask he put on,
but something that was always ready to bubble to the surface. A lot of
guys tell themselves and Terry Funk blew up at them backstage because of a messed
up spot in a match or some errant fireballs, as we'll talk about down
the road here in our ECW installment, that he was just flipping mad at
him, and they didn't know what to make of it, and they just
chalked it up to Terry Funk just carrying the performance back through the curtain.
I don't know, I think he really was fucking nuts. Oh, of
course. And listen, you're not you're not saying if you continually go up
to the top rope and do a moon, salt to the floor and land
on your head. And he's something that a normal, sane person does,
and he's good at making people feel warm about him and in his personal life
and his interpersonal relations and sort of friendly in the same way a sociopath kind
of learns how to do those things they don't well, of course, you
don't naturally do that. It's it's a learned behavior. I mean, I
don't want to go too far, but I think Terry Funk became someone different
than his friends and family knew when he entered a wrestling locker room. And
I don't think it was all entirely within his control. Went to turn it
on and turn it off. I mean, well, I mean I don't
think that that's too different than any I listen to the wrestler worth a shit.
I don't think it's any different than anybody who goes to work. Ah,
don't you fucking go there? Like that's just it. People have their
work personality, people have their home personality. You know, you don't see
sometimes people at home don't see the work personality or the worked personality even damn
right. The Funker Extreme Championship Wrestling was first Eastern Championship Wrestling, and Terry
Funk was there from the start. Todd Gordon, a Philadelphia area jeweler second
generation, picked up where the TWA, which we actually got a glimpse of
when we did the Jerry Lawler series, remember that Boss mm hm. And
they brought the lular Funk view to the East Coast and Joel Goodheart's Tri State
Wrestling Alliance, which in many ways, both in terms of geography and in
terms of presentation, was the precursor to Eastern Championship Wrestling. That you know,
Todd Gordon picked up or Joel Goodhart and the TWA left off. As
Funk says in his book, Goodheart's crowds were loaded Besides me, he brought
in the Sheik, Abdullah and a bunch of others. This particular show he
was talking about drew a three thirty thousand dollars house, but he spent a
lot to bring in the talent, so it wasn't a profitable situation for him.
Yeah, Joel Goodheart was just you know, just spending money to see
what would happen if he put Abdullah the Butcher and fucking Terry Funk and others
the Sheikh in in the small venues in and around Philadelphia for the hardest core
wrestling fans. And that was kind of the seed. That was the seed
of what ECW would become. And Terry Funk was getting booked on on those
circuits from the beginning. It was almost wild. It was like it's like
these East Coast promoters were like import howarding hot feuds, programs, angles gimmicks
from the territories that they only saw on VHS from areas they didn't grow up
in, much like Memphis in particular, but as well as you know,
all Japan and Detroit here with the Sheikh and those heavy blood, heavy,
brawling, heavy chair shot, heavy, right hand heavy styles, and there
was like this moment in the early nineties, where these promoters seeking to differentiate
themselves from WWF and WCW, and with talent available that worked those circuits,
put on those performances, drew those houses, but whom, for whatever reason
WWF and WCW weren't interested in in the time, just trying to like import
those dynamics to an East Coast crowd that had never seen it before, and
it went pretty far. And Funk was able to, you know, sort
of exercise the kind of style that he worked against Jerry Lawler with and Dusty
Roads with here in the early nineties in the circuit known as the TWA for
a crowd that's much differently constituted. You know, a crowd coming out to
matches at the scene Pete Armory or whatever down in Florida in the seventies is
not looking for the same thing out of a night out at the wrestling matches
as these crowds in Philadelphia in nineteen ninety one. They're just not. But
in some ways, these old these old timers are the conduit through which they
could express what the new wrestling fan wanted, but the new thirst was for
and some stepped up, like Terry Funk, and satisfied that need and sensed
it, and others like you know, Jerry Lawler and Abdullah the Butcher just
you know, there wasn't another gear there. Yeah, and so they were
sort of relegated to the category of caricature of themselves. Not in a bad
way, but in a way. It was like, Okay, you know
you're gonna get Jerry Lawler. You're gonna get the same Jerry Lawler in the
e CW arena that you got at the Mid South Colisseum in nineteen eighty two,
right, And I thought some wonderful color for this came from our cracker
Jack Solar System member Matt, who lives in Philly and who's a longtime fan,
a big ECW fan, and does remember the twa and actually wrote a
letter in a very timely way in terms of how the lapsed funk was unfolding.
The guy just has a way of that. He just has a way
of dropping missives on us. Totally. Absolutely that are just where we need
them. Rights, Happy Holidays. You mentioned Tri State Wrestling in the birth
of ECW, and it made me want to give you this. There's a
thread of the ECW origin story that I almost never hear anyone call attention to
maybe this will one day be useful pickings for TLF research. Yeah how about
now? Ah yeah right. It isn't huge, huge, but it's a
history and it's missing. During the end of my childhood fandom in nineteen ninety
one, I stumbled on a local radio show that broke k fabe for me.
It was hosted by a man and a woman, and sometimes they'd have
wrestlers on. The guy hated the WWF and shoot mocked them all the time.
It basically contributed to my going laps for the first time, along with
Hogan pinning Mark McCool at Tuesday in Texas. Brother. I was thirteen.
The zeitgeist was getting real edgy and angsty, and wrestling wasn't working for me.
Brother. A few years ago, I became obsessed with this radio show
memory and went deep hunting for info. It was the first time I signed
up for newspapers dot com. I even went to a convention just ask Cornette
about it. In short, Joel Goodheart became involved in wrestling because he was
the insurance agent for a local wrestling store called The Squared Circle, owned by
Carmela Panfield and her husband back in nineteen eighty five. The experience apparently a
namor jowel to the business. It was Joel and Carmela running that radio show
that I found when I was a kid. It was called Wrestling Radio and
it ran until the early nineties. Only twenty three minutes of a nineteen eight
eighty seven episode survives today so far. I wrote myself a summary of everything
I'd learned with the intent of sharing it one day, and then I stashed
it away. I can't think of finer stewards than TLF portions of it.
Assumes that the anecdotes both Carmela and Joel have shared or accurate, of course,
since based below and most supporting data and found relics are here in chronological
order, You're goddamn right they are, Matt, Yes, he writes,
ps. Carmela was scared to trim at Tommy Rich's bangs because his forehead was
raw meat. Brother. Just you think about Tommy Rich for a second,
boss, Think of his long blonde hair, Think of like his dick getting
wet with ring rats, think about him at all, and just him just
spilling like the good old boy all over the place. Oh and yeah,
wow, oh, God. So now we're going to read No, I'm
not sending you a thing about Tommy Rich. So this is Matt sitting down
and I will turn it over to the boss Man for a recitation, recollecting
what it was like to be a wrestling fan in Philadelphia in the days before
ECW kind of calcified and became what it was. This is the Philadelphia wrestling
scene that Terry Funk walks into in nineteen ninety. On July fifth, nineteen
eighty five, a retail store dedicated a pro wrestling opened up just outside Philadelphia.
It was called The Squared Circle, occupying a modest stall less than one
hundred and fifty square feet in Levittown, Pennsylvania's nine ninety five Marketplace. Bruno
San Martino and Dominic Denucci were in attendance for its grand opening. Two thirds
of the business was owned by Carmela Panhil, a friend of the pro wrestling
business all her life, and her husband Paul Panfil, a super fan with
global tape trading connections. The rest was owned by their insurance agent, Joel
Goodhart. Paul Panfel acted as a silent partner working their business connections while Carmela
and Joel manned the storefront At some point. Within this first year, Carmela
and Joel started a pro wrestling radio show together called Rastlin Review on WTTM,
a small station notes out of Trenton, New Jersey. They discussed the latest
wrestling news, had guests, took live callers, and ran count contests.
By September nineteen eighty six, WTTM had merged with WDTV in Philadelphia, and
Joel and Carmela's show had a new name, Rasslin Radio That's Wrastling. Joel
later said that the name was meant to distinguish from the bad wrestling down at
the Spectrum. Rastlin Radio aired Sundays from twelve pm to one pm. Carmela
wrote the entire show, sometimes staying up until four or five am on Saturday
nights finishing it up. The pair amass a dedicated audience. Over the next
two years. They had their own one thousand member club, held local charity
benefits, hosted guest wrestlers, and even organized fan trips to pro wrestling events
around the country, including Memphis TV, Star KT seven in Chicago, WrestleMania
four in Atlantic City, and a third annual Crocket Cup in Greensboro. Brian
the Blue Meani Heffrin attended several of these. Joel and Carmela had also developed
a working relationship with Jim Crockett Promotions, occasionally attending NWA shows at the Civic
Center for Rastland radio night events in which members of their fan club would get
ring signed seats. Carmelo would work as timekeeper and Joel as the ring announcer.
So when WDTV signed off as a radio station on the July twenty fifth,
ninety eight, Joel was able to arrange for the show to be aired
instead on Philadelphia's premier sports radio station, six' ten. WIP Wrestling Radio
debuted there on third, nineteen eighty eight, Airing for an hour every Sunday
morning from eight am to nine am. It became the third most popular Saturday
morning radio show in Philadelphia, drawing twenty two thousand listeners per quarter hour.
According to Joel, that was such a thing, Like you think about John
Arezi and his New York Wrestling spotlight show. Yeah, like these these key
markets would have these these folks that would buy time on the key sports radio
stations and just talk about wrestling and overperform outperform expectations, you know, and
wow, yeah, of course, because like you know, they're they're people
who who need it. Absolutely, yeah, they need it. And the
what do they need? Just to be clear, I mean you say they
need information, they need like more, you know, wrestling fans always need
more. Wow, even when they claim to be completely overwhelmed by the amount
of content hours. Yes, because you know, because there's always something there's
always something we don't know, yes, Or there's always something we think we
know yeah that can be very easily dislodged, Or there's always something that we
want to know more about. There's always something that we want to be true.
Yes, And so you know, free sheets, you're right, and
you're automatically going to get a fan base of that because people are going to
like, well, look at this, they're talking about the thing that I
love the most and nobody else is. And how cool is that they're just
talking about it exactly, even if they're not saying anything particularly worthwhile about it,
right, And yeah, that's that's just fascinating. This where we got
Vince Russo from. He's a creature of that world, right, you know,
he's a creature of being on the radio and trying to be like a
journalist with the wrestling gimmick vick venom and all that and all started there,
and that's where hardcore fans went at the time, was they they sought out
these little small pockets where you know, it's just like today, it's just
like this podcast. Yes, you know, it's like a way for like
minded people. Of course, it's easier than ever because of the Internet and
podcasting in particular to find like minded wrestling fans. But this is what everyone
who listened to that show is in search of in the eighties, and it's
what we're capitalizing on to great joy and effect today. Yeah, yeah,
jeez fucking nuts. One of the most notable events during their time on WIP
occurred on April thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine, in the Philadelphia Civic Center's Plaza
Ballroom, when Rick Flair attended their banquet to crown him Wrestler of the Decade
as voted by Rastlin radio listeners. There were one hundred and thirty eight people
in attendance, each paying seventy five dollars for the privilege. To commemorate the
event, Joel Goodhart commissioned a custom belt from Mike Vartanian for twelve hundred dollars,
It said Rasslin Radio's wrestler of the eighties. There's only one known photo
that exists of Flair holding it. He knows where the belt is these days,
but I've heard that Joel had two made and he has the other.
This was right around the same time when Joel quit the insurance business, opening
Ringmaster's Wrestling School and started running his own shows that would become the Tri State
Wrestling Alliance. One of the fans of Tri State Wrestling the w of Wrestling
Radio, Todd Gordon. Todd Gordon was a minor financier of TWA. They
held events all through nineteen ninety one, but by January of nineteenninety two,
Joel had sold his slice to Todd and was backselling insurance. Todd, of
course went on to form Eastern Championship Wrestling, sold it to Paul Hayman in
nineteen ninety six, and the rest is well documented. Carmela says there would
never have been a Squared Circle store or Wrestling radio without her husband Paul,
and if you take the obvious implications to the next day, ye there would
have been no TWA, which means, of course no ECW. Depending upon
where you started on stand on ECW as an organization, you ultimately have the
pan fills to thank or blame. Here's an interview with Joel Goodheart from twenty
twelve. It starts about seven minutes and he talks quite a bit about the
early days of the Square Circle history melaw talking about Tim Radich's hair as well.
Yeah, yeah, amazing. Yeah, so TWA and it does fold
and Todd Gordon does pick up the slack. You know, he had a
family jewelry store called oh my God, how is it Escaping Me? In
South Philly. They used to advertise all over the wrestling show and we'll we'll
see a couple of those advertisements as we watch it back. It is it
is Carver read all right. So anybody who ever sees the Carver Red Jewelry
store in Philadelphia know that that's a ECW proprietor Todd Gordon's store. Wow.
And Todd Gordon set up Eastern Championship Wrestling is kind of like, you know,
more than anything, Like there's the local guys training in the school,
trying to make it your local indie guys, and then there were just WWF
and ww castoffs, guys with names that happened to be available that were big.
At one point in the Northeast, he booked Jimmy Snooka, he booked
on Morocco, he booked Hawk, He booked a handful of other guys that
had Tito I think, came through and had made an impact on the circuit,
and it was kind of like a one off payday. It wasn't really
like a it wasn't a touring centralized group yet, and guys would come through.
It was kind of like a super indie in a way. And booking
for him was Eddie Gilbert. Terry Funk, by the way, said that
he was offered the initial booking job for RECW, but Eddie Gilbert ended up
getting it and Terry kind of passed on it. Eddie Gilbert was a true
Memphis wrestling nut, obsessed with Jerry Lawler, wanted to emulate him in every
way, and he wanted to export that brawling style of Memphis everywhere, including
some early nineteen nineties matches that Eddie Gilbert himself had with Terry Funk in a
series of fledgling independent promotions across the East coast where the appetite was there for
that kind of wild and wooly brawling in and out of the ring, into
the crowd, into the parking lot, everything. And so Eastern was going
to run its first television taping having received clearance. I believe it was on
a sports channel Philadelphia. Really good clearance there. And it was March nineteen
ninety three. He was at the Cabrini College, about a half hour outside
of Philadelphia. Of course that night there were three feet of snow to hear
Todd Gordon tell it, counting for a rather lethargic and sparse crowd. But
it aired on April sixth, nineteen and ninety three. Eastern Championship Wrestling ECW
Folks April sixth, nineteen ninety three. And if we can turn, well
we will in a moment, let's do it. Disc nineteen. Boss,
if you can open that puppy up, We're going to see who comes out
to be presented to the television audience on the very very very very first c
W taping as a commentator. Hold on here, so Disc nineteen at the
beginning, or is there a time code? Oh, I'm Cotyl right at
the beginning, yet Yeah, okay, so three two one play ratings wrestling
fans to a packed tas Cabrini College field House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has the
inaugural edition of Eastern Championship Wrestling on Sports Channel. My name is Jay Sully.
I'll be bringing you all the play by play action this evening along with
my co host, the official color analyst for the ECW, mister Stevie Wonderful,
and in in one of lore here live and in living color. ECW
first Week or Sports Channel Philadelphia gotting down the hatches. Here we come.
We got a lot of things happening to night, j Sully. But before
we get started with any of the action tonight, it's my pleasure to first
introduce the President of the e c W, mister Todd Gordon. Oh my
god, I'm leading to see here. Jay, It's a pleasure to be
here with both of you and Steve Wonderful. How much how much he's a
jeweler. What do you trying to say? Rushing champion, That's what it's
all about, and it's starting tonight. We got sports downal We have a
tournament right here. E c W style, the way only e c W
wrestlers can do it. From what I understand, some of the top stars
and professional wrestling are here and in that tournament. That is correction, a
special announcement just for you and just for you. That's right, special person
is going to be. You're about to introduce a very special person joined us
bring all time living legend himself. That's right, the living legend and Soleddy
Gilbert. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much, mister Gardens.
That's indeed, you're right. But mister Gilbert, and I know you
better than anybody knows you. That's right, and I'm not gonna put up
with your Shenanigan. I want you to look at the monitor right now and
see who it is that's gonna be our new third. Let's just say this
wasn't clear. Quantumly hespuns into the window and Quantumly the television show God the
Funker tearing your head off and shove it up here. God warn me,
you tring to kill me? What's happening? Doors off you? Sam?
Look at him? God, I want to selling. He's going ahead.
Oh, I want to add him sold, Quantum leap Sam. I don't
know why I didn't get another act cop after this, imagine taking Quantum Leaf
off, Quantum Leaf off television, the real b He comes Gerry Gilbert looking
like fucking Shane Douglas's my thousand Chris. There's a funker and a blazer and
my god, she knows look at him. Jerry fuck Jerry fuck? No,
No, you taking me where? I call him a legend, Well
legend to me, old man. Okay, hey, hey, I want
to say something, And what I want to say is this that when you
run with my old gang, you gotta be tough. And if you want
to get tough, you can get into the wrestling ring with me. But
then how would that look if this old man here kicked your butt? Oh
yeah, oh yeah. You know. I want to say to you people
here and you people out home there that it's a pleasure being here because each
and every one of you in this area have got a place in my heart
because it is the HC portion of the United States is where the Eastern Championship
Wrestling is originated. And what I mean by HC it's a hardcore fans ICEE.
And I want to say one other thing too, that Todd has put
together a bunch of wrestlers out here that maybe some of them you haven't seen
before, and some of them you've seen many times on your television. But
I promise you hardcore fans, that the lot of these guys will give you
their heart and their soul right in that wrestling ring, Terry. It's a
pleasure to have a great living legend like mister Terry Funk joining us in the
e c W. And I right now would like to start the announcing by
saying, we'll be back with e c W Wrestling right after this break.
Yeah, yeah, what the fuck? So what do you think of Todd
Gordon? First of all, I mean, I feel like I just got
robbed. Why. I mean, he just I feel like together, gentlemen.
Yeah, he's put together by other people's money, That's what he's put
together. I feel like I feel like I just got swindled out of money.
I feel like he just convinced me to give him money. And I'm
not even the same room as him. And this happened fucking you know,
thirty years ago. Are you still on pause? Perchance? Yes, there's
a further introduction of Terry Funk on these initial Embryonic proto ECW episodes, and
again they just shamelessly continue to rip off footage of him acting in major television
shows without any permission, presumably to air the clips on the on the screen.
Oh, I'm sure, but they're trying to build up the bona fides
of how like you know, it's from day one, Terry Funk being associated
with ECW served to elevate its profile. You could see how they kind of
treated him there. And he comes out dressed in you know, not in
the usual threads. Right, he's he's there to be a sort of like
you know, the NFL Sunday desk guys. Almost yeah, right, you
know he's right, yeah, he's he's there to fucking you know, call
the action and analyze things. Right, He's not there to bring chaos.
He's there to class up the joint and that promo face off there we just
heard with Eddie Gilbert. He's all smiles, he's all you know, calm,
cool, collected. There's no hint that the insane Funker is being imported
here to Philadelphia for this new BCW show. And so let's just keep playing
this here on the count of one and see what else ECW did to ingratiate
Terry Funk. To their audience from the absolute very beginning. So here we
go in three to one play return of the King of the Texas Deathmatch.
Terry Funk will be back here with as live on e c W. Let's
take another look at the livy legend and movie star Harry Bomb. Look at
him on wild Side. It always looks worse than it is. Miss breaking
off. He's gonna be all right. It cuts your superficial and a breaking
the right leg is only a simple fracture. Oh fire, all done.
You're gonna take it easy now, aren't you? Herman? I thought his
time was threw on his ses. Tomorrow, I bring you some strude harmon
loves my apple student. I GI means something to look forward to, something
You've never seen this stuff? Right? What are you doing? I'm trying
to get the location of the mine out of that man. What do you
would think I'm doing? Brodie, That's not how we plan it. I'm
supposed to be the bad guy. You're supposed to be the good guy.
He spin on my boots? Did he spin on my boots? Or starty?
Getting mad? And I am mad? Trying to scare that man?
Where's Teak again? I want to see more than anything. But well,
I'm the one who's supposed to always get mad and scare things house people.
I studied this one. It's my turns to see. We both can't get
mad at the same time. Just doesn't work that way. It's not the
way we plan though. Are you terrorizing me yet? I'd like to get
some sleep. Do you imagine pause just like shamelessly plum that on your wrestling
show. I mean, it's just it's awful. It's awful. It didn't
even have like the ECW logo watermark on it or anything. You'd just be
flipping the channels Sports Channel Philadelphia in nineteen ninety three and you would have just
seen Wildside, just footage of Terry Funk acting on the show. Wildside was
a country western show, like an Old West thriller or whatever the fuck they
were doing, right, I mean, that's a pathetic went back to j
Sally, here's fucking idiots. Here you get this clown in the suit and
then the redheaded the love child of fucking Jimmy Garvin and Oliver Humberden care.
Oh, you nailed that one. No needs to try to up you on
that. But didn't go so well, this first maiden voyage here for Eastern
Championship Wrestling. Again, as mentioned, there was a lot of snow.
It was spring break on campus or close to it, so it might not
have been the best time to bring the show to the Cabrini College fieldhouse.
They got moved around quite a bit. The people who did show go up
to make sure, you know, hard cameras were covered and such, and
Todd Gordon in his book writes, despite all that, I was pretty elated
after the shoots. We'd pulled it off in the face of some steep odds.
I was walking away from that weekend in March ninety three with enough footage
for three weeks of Pro Wrestling TV featuring names the fans new like Snooka,
Morocco, Gilbert and Funk. I was proud of what we'd done. I
joined the broadcast team for the show's sign off. I stood with Sully and
Funk and said how proud I was of our exciting show and told the fans
they could expect more of that every week. That's when Terry Funk, one
of my wrestling idols, picked up his mic and told fans and don't worry,
it'll get better. Did he really just say that? I forced a
smile, though it took the year out of me like a pricked balloon.
The voice of God was pretty audible on the drive home, reminding me that
I should get the hell back to work. Diamonds are where it's at.
Or maybe that was my dad's voice. Either way, I'd successfully gotten three
weeks worth of TV in the cannon. I felt some momentum, however slight.
I'd also meant a very creative guy named Paul Hayman, So Hayman lurking
from day one, and Terry Funk did say to the crowd. He said
it more on the television broadcast than he did to the live arena event people.
But I don't know why Todd remembers it as him being at ringside when
Terry Funk said it, because when you watch the actual broadcast, it's very
evident that Todd Gordon was not out there when Terry said it. Yeah,
maybe there was another segment where he was next to him, But here is
the moment in question. This is Terry Funk realizing that they hadn't knocked him
dead in the very first ECW taping that he was hired to be the respected
and esteemed and you know, venerated voice of Jay. I will say that
we had a great show. Here does I answer the first show? And
I'll say what, I think we got some room for improvement, and we're
gonna try real hard for your people out there. Forgive us some time and
we'll get better, and so on the crowds when I'll say what, I
don't know if the wrest will put down. It was not such a big
put down. I mean, geez, the fuck still amazing that he said
that, though it is, oh, you know, Hannah, it wasn't
that good, but uh, you know, we'll try again. Give us
another chance. That's so like you know, Terry Funk's like, you know,
satisfy the consumer mentality, you know, like a wrestler who's thinking of
like the audience, not as a bunch of marks, but as customers,
you know, right, spoken like a true son of a territory owner,
an NWA boss. So in Terry's book, he recalls these early days.
Eddie ran our first show held in a gymnasium. The show was the biggest
fiasco that I ever witnessed in my life. Yeah, I imagine, So
the dressing rooms were full of wrestlers, non wrestlers, hunchbacks, fat girls,
skinny girls, and very few pretty girls. Just the damnedest menagerie of
humanity you can imagine. One guy I remember was the Sandman. He was
there and he was god awful. He was one of many what's that not
just grunting and groaning. He was one of the many who became good workers.
But who was just the shits that night? Yeah, the weather was
bad too, so they didn't have that many people there. We just had
a few hundred for the first ECW show. That show was so rotten you
just wouldn't believe it unless you were there. After after my matchro grabbed the
microphone and said, you know, I know the show wasn't the greatest,
but you people bear with us, and I promise we'll put you on a
better product. And they did. The fans stuck with ECW. The morning
after the show, we were trying to get out, but we were snowed
in and ended up stuck at the hotel for two more days, and Eddie,
Gilbert and I spent those two days creating stuff for ECW. Some stuff
in wrestling today is a byproduct of an idea for Eddie Gilbert, people have
no idea how influential his ideas really were. So among the things they sit
down, apparently and booked together are their early era feud against each other,
Terry Funk and Ellie Eddie Gilbert is sort of telegraphed by that face off at
the very top of the very first ECW broadcast. We're about to go to
war, about to engage in an angle and fisticuff. So it isn't all
to be just straight laced announcer Terry Funk here in ECWS, as you wouldn't
have expected it to be. And by the way, I do know that
Terry Funk said this snow storm seemed to occur after the taping, not before
the taping, as a Todd Gordon seemed to want to represent, perhaps to
offset light attendants. So I don't know, I don't know when it snowed,
but it seems if it afterwards, you couldn't quite blame that for the
pieces of shit. So this nineteen is the next stop, nineteen, and
we're going over to five thirty four on the time CO. That's five minutes
thirty four seconds on nineteen. We're on nineteen, and we just saw five
thirty four. Okay, it must be that and then more. Okay,
so we're going to keep it rolling. Now this is going to be more
of Terry Funk, including another confrontation with Eddie Gilbert. So where we paused
last, we hit play again three two one, so we got the answer
to Prank's side. Hey, Selly and Stevie. Wonderful they have the ECW
typeface television they would keep when it came to stream Championship Wrestling for a little
while. That's right, and it's wonderful to be here tonight. On's for
solo up here, and right now, I would like to introduce my very
special we'll call him a guest commentator. Right now, Fus King of the
Texas Death Match. I give you the third man, the move hot Soup.
Eddie Gilbert says, I am now the official guest commentator. I am
right, my right, I am another commentator for the e c W.
Take a quick look at the monitor right down here and you'll see who I'm
talking about, the real King of the Texas Death Match. Didn't we just
do this like the rest of Oh damn quite, you're yelling, I'm right
here. Where's the funker. Ah, nice hat, mister shallow. Well
look here, if it ain't the leaping little post reader, good boy,
what are you doing in here? I just congratulating the kid. We were
just talking, all right. You got to get that post to talk.
You ain't trying to wrestle my wife? Are you a boy? As a
matter of fact, we were just about to do it right here, uncle
when you walked in. What star quantum Scott vaculate gv Scott bacula. It's
exactly right, sorry, funking a full cowboy out the suit like ta boom
pickings? Is I molly this guy in the locker room because he's about to
hunt his wife and I have to break in such a kind of ship that
I can't that. I always hate that, you know, once again is
denting the door of the locker over his head as the funker. You gotta
treat wrestling like it's real, you know, it's like carry What do you
think about that? So Eddie Gilbert was supposed to watch that footage of me
intimidated, didn't didn't see what did the same fucking thing the last thing we
just watched. Thanks for joining us again had me a little bit worried.
Bunker's back up. Get that up here, you professor? Or what this
TV stare? Even he gets contact? Hit you going and handle the sidrophonesny,
because I'm my knee full of my fist. Now, Gilbert is Conker.
You want to talk, you go ahead and talk. If I want
to talk, I'll go ahead and talk. Yeah, But are you gonna
know about it? Huh? What do you gonna do about it? If
I want to stay here, I'm gonna stay here. These are my people
here. Oh leave, you're here. They don't let me, they don't
let sounds like lawler. You don't use for a long time. And I
don't intend on taking any crap from you now or any other time. And
you and your perier water that means nothing to me. Oh yeah, see,
what are you gonna get about it? Pours the water down his T
shirt that sells it like his melting Oh you're something right now? Yeah,
let me tell you something. Him out here insulting me. I don't need
him out here, insulting the fans that have came here to e c W.
And it's not gonna happen, but they're gonna have a fine wrestling show.
Let's go to a break and we'll be back in a minute. Podcast.
Yeah, we're gonna have a fun wrestling show, so let's take a
break. A humbred days there he is, right, yeah, and the
Dusty booking pause that puppy Okay, so not the best no awful, I
mean, not the best stuff here early on in ECW it's important to remember
this well, it wasn't extreme yet, right, and this is the initial
vision, this before Paul had the book. Paul. It's a long story,
but Todd Gordon lays it out well in his book. Paul was still
representing himself as scouting talent for Jim Crockett Junior's latest venture in wrestling, because
Jim Crockett signed a deal when they sold to Turner in eighty eight that basically
kept him on a consulting fee until about nineteen ninety three or four, I
believe, And so Jim Crockett got paid for years after the transaction to Ted
Turner. And it was upon his you know, the expiration of that deal,
that he started sniffing around trying to start up another organization. I believe
it was the WWN that he was starting to do the world Wrestling Network,
which is what he called kind of the collection of syndicated television stations that Crockett
and UWF after they bought that company's promotions aired on the World Wrestling Network.
Was you know, you could buy the World Wrestling Network for an advertisement and
advertise across all of their wrestling shows and all their syndicated stations, and using
that term, he kept Paul Hayman close by his side as an advisor and
as a talent scout when he was trying to get a locker room together and
start and he did a couple of shit and didn't really, of course,
end up going anywhere. A lot of people forget that. Jim Crockett even
tried to do wrestling after selling to Turner in nineteen eighty eight, but he
did. And at the time there was kind of like a series of loosely
affiliated independent promotions across this country, you know, is WWFWCW and everybody else.
They were kind of independent doing their own thing. They weren't, you
know, all answering to the NWA per se, They weren't hostile to the
NWA, but the structure wasn't necessarily so much there that everyone was due's paying
members of the NWA either. The NWA World Championship didn't mean a whole hell
of a lot, which will prove to be very germane to ECW's particular history
here in a moment, as we'll talk about. But Paul Hayman is just
kind of hanging around ECW like he is some other indis at the time,
you know, befriending Todd Gordon and gratiating himself, but strictly just saying,
look, I'm here, I'm willing to help and do whatever you need to
put on a successful show, and don't pay me. That was the big
thing Todd Gordon pointed out in his book over and over again, as Paul
absolutely refused to be paid by Todd Gordon. And at first, you know,
he thought it was just this kind of gregarious gesture, Paul saying,
look, I'm only here to help scout talent for Jim Crockett in exchange for
you letting me do that and you know, potentially poach the talent that I
like on behalf of Jim Crockett. You know, I'm going to help the
facilitate the smooth running of your show and help out in any way I can
looking back on it with retrospect. As the book unfolds, Todd Gordon comes
to the conclusion that what Paul Hayman was doing was basically preventing any ties that
bind between him and Todd Gordon, so that when he made the move to
take over the company entirely on his own, there wouldn't be some kind of
a breach of contract or anything like that between the two, or breach of
implied agreement. Yeah. Yeah, Paul Hayman doesn't want to get paid.
It's because on the other side, he doesn't want you saying, but I
paid you, How could you do this to me? That's all the tangled
web that is the ECW story, And it doesn't have a whole hell of
a lot to do with Terry Funk, but it does explain while Paul Haman's
kind of on the scene in the early Todd Gordon run ECW, but doesn't
have the power of the book yet or doesn't really have any executive authority,
and when he does get it, then we're off to the racist. But
what you're seeing here is like you just detected kind of cheesy pre Paul Hayman
vision of what ECW is going to be not the best, and Terry Funk
was not afraid to say it, as we just talked about. So he
gets into a feud with Eddi Gilbert, the booker, and they go ahead
and set up Texas death matches and all the rest. And it's very old
school. And if we migrate over to twenty three fourteen here on this disc
boss okay, okay, one second, So now we're going to go ahead
and get a glimpse go ahead of Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk tussling on the
initial ECW television. This is back from April of nineteen and ninety three.
So hit play three two one play. So Edi Gilbert dressing somebody Gilbert.
They just have a posters as SPCW tape to the wall, which you can
see by a talker. Well, let me the size of this building and
the Funker blindside edge with a chair at wingside. Here we go. Time
to try to do business studio wrestling style. Terry Funk has just come to
the rig tossed up together with the chair totally twelve for think Terry chancers like
hundred people here maybe howked up at a giver was doing nothing but give it
Jay Billy an interview. But there he is, the guy with the straw
hat from every ECW show you've ever seen. He's there. Just break it
down again. We're gonna get out of here. We'll be back along the
tossing a chair across the auditorium as a head of Gilbert takes us way as
the curtain. Now, what do we do? Funk are still kind of
conservatively dressed. What's going on here? How about ahead? It pitched your
commercial but they're still in the air. Now we've cut the sound so bad.
Oh, this is pathetic. It's public access television production areas. Don't
tell me. I didn't. I heard you're popping off about him. I
heard you're popping off about him. Oh no, I heard Gilbert out here
making a fool of me. I hurt him. I'm not an idiot.
I want to tell you one damn thing, as I am an individual,
and I am an athlete, and I am something that nobody is gonna tell
what to do. And if I want to come out here and kick ass,
how damn turk is on you? Or kick anybody else's around now.
As far as Gilbert's concerned, he thinks that I'm a fool. He thinks
that I am an idiot. He wants to discredit me. He can call
me an old man, and I don't give a damn because I am an
old man, and I am I am an endangered species, and I am
the one and only I am tired, Bump, and I am the meet
us in the towns me. He can rustle me and me wants to damn
well, shoot at me? What did they do? Shoot down? Shoving
j Cellier on Jesus, you can fight me, screaming to the camera,
not even the mic tip, tipping over chairs. It's getting serious. I
think he hit a little child when he threw the chair. There he's back,
man, scream Bump. Hold on a minute. I had to pause
for a second. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go back. Don't kick anybody
else. Kid trying like he hit him in the leg with a chair.
Oh my god. And then when he walks in the aisle, he looks
down at the kid ready right about now? Oh hell, I'm sorry,
son, I didn't mean to do that. I don't know what got into
me. I could have shot someone in the fucking head, but I don't
know what got into me Terry Funk. So he's trying by Todd Gordon,
Todd Gordon being played by actor Fisher Stevens. I don't think I know who
that is, the guy from the Guy from a Succession that the pr guy.
Oh my god? Oh did you ever have a beard like that?
Is that what's making me think that? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I'm
looking at some some pictures of him, like he's got the kind of balding
hair like slick back and beard and and ship five. Hello fish, it's
good. That's a really good one. Oh my god. All right,
well, now it's time for a promo that Terry Funk cut that's very well
remembered from this time period, uh, in terms of creativity and him just
kind of bringing a different dimension to the E c W TV show. This
isn't the run up to fighting with Eddie Gilbert, And we're going to go
out to the Double Cross Ranch and we're going to pay visit to one of
the Funker's own steers. So do you have what time code do you have
there? Boss? I'm twenty six fifteen right now. All right, Gilbert
three two one plays? But I want to tell yourself that Todd Gordon's side
with j Selle and the other guy talking about Gilbert last week, Gordon,
when Eddie Gilbert so Terry Funk had his you know what, let's take a
look at that clip right now, what Eddie Gilbert looked like when he walked
out of here with his tail between his legs. If we can, I
want the director of roll that Gilbert from the Quimack, and I want to
tell everyone watching Sparks Kettle, Randy Living legend, Terry Funk. Let's go
that tape right now, start the tape right now. We're not gonna show
that tape. We're never gonna show that tape. You did not run Terry
Funk out of the e c W. Terry Fuck is filling the ec W.
He's back in the ec W. I Terry Funk has up to the
states. Ricty to you, mister Eddie Gilbert. Now I know a lot
of years Eddie Gilbert, Terry Fucker loves too many. Let's hear what Terry
Funk had to stay right now here we go. I'm not ship, thank
you, I'm I'm not you know. I've been riding all morning long out
here on a double cross ranch. I rode ten miles in every direction,
and I have been looking for Eddie gilber Eddie Gilbert Hot Stuff is supposed to
meet me out here on the Double Cross Ranch so I can explain to him
the rules of a Texas chain match massacre. Letting me tie up my horse,
Clyde here, and then i'll see if I can't find Gilbert anywhere around.
Come on, Clyde, come on, you're looking hind low Freddie Gilbert
and I can't find him anywhere. I've looked all over this dad gum Double
Cross Ranch. Oh there you are? Are They put the word Tony Gilberts
you hot stuff? Now? I would like to explain to you the rules
and the regulations of a Texas chain match massacre. Are you ready to listen?
Are you? I hope so, hot Stuff, because you realize there's
no stopping because of blood in a Texas chain match. Falls do not count.
There's no count outside of the ring, no count on the floor,
no time limit. There's only one way to win the match. Do you
understand that, Eddie? I certainly hope that you do, because how you
win the match as you have to pull your opponent around to four corners in
succession both of us will be chained together with his eight foot chain, Eddie,
and I'm gonna pull you around to uno those trace and quato corners and
the match will be over. Now, you tell me what you think about
time. Oh that farts. Your voice has changed, but your breath is
still the same. Oh my goodness, that's wow. Pause thoughts. I
don't even know where to begin with that piece of shit. I mean,
we saw fucking wide eyed Terry Funk talking to a horse's venus and like they
put the words Eddie Gilbert under the horse's ass. Like, of course,
because it's humor and god, people remember that really fondly. People think that
that's amazing when he makes that was big eyes when the horse rips a fart.
Your thoughts, I think it's awful. I think it's it's it's just
it's why wrestling is embarrassing. Wow, you're gonna go that far in the
funker? Yeah, wow, Well he's trying to bring some life into the
show. We can say that so's the so's the horse's ass. Let's go
to a vignette that air during this program. This is fifty four to twenty
one, four twenty one. Okay, there wasn't hit. Yeah, I
play. You're back on the ranch. Are the funkers behind a back home
or bulldoze or whatever that there is? You know, it's a mighty fine
tracker right here out on a Double Cross ranch. When you're out here on
a place like this, or you're in a wrestling ring, you gotta have
the proper equipment, and you gotta be prepared. Whenever you're ranching and farming,
you gotta be a rancher in a farmer, and a darn good one.
When you're in a wrestling ring, you gotta be a darn good wrestler.
And when you're out here on this place like this, hey, you
might be confronted with vermints, kyles, coons, rattlesnakes, predators, perverts,
perverts. Well, it looks like ones headed this way? How that
pod? Now do you realize that you are on private property? I know
if you were a Texan that you would realize that you can't walk on to
our man's property like you're doing right now. Where are you from, Sonny?
I'm Eddie Gilbert's brother from Tennessee, and I came to challenge you.
You came to challenge me. You are hot stuffs, brother, what is
that to the camera? Real hotstuff? Well, have I got something for
you? He's throwing around a fucking dummy like they cut him press slamming.
Now he started up the tractor with the dummy in the bed um that's and
he's running a dummy over back and forth with the tractor. The fuck the
funker walking Gilbert shad a chain match, Massaker. You gotta see it.
Pause it. I mean, I hate to keep saying this, but we've
got to do it this way. What did we just see? I don't
actually know. I don't know what the fuck we just saw that was?
That was bizarre. This is the early vision of what E c W was
supposed to be. Can't be. It's awful, Like Stayed wrestling. Here
he is, he's on the double Cross and this guy with his back to
the camera presents himself as Eddie Gilbert's brother here to challenge him. And it's
clearly supposed to be a deal where you know, Terry Funk set this guy
up to pretend to be Eddie's brother so he could kick his ass on the
ranch. And then, like you said, they do a jump cut and
all of a sudden it isn't a human being standing in front of Terry.
It's a dummy with the same clothes that the human being was wearing with his
back to the camera. It's not even I mean, obviously they're not trying
to they're trying to be funny with it, because it's just like they cut
to like it's a scarecrow. Like it's got white dangly legs, dangly legs
and arms, and it's just awful. And he puts it in the bed
of the tractor the mouth of the thing there, and picks it up and
then drops it and then runs it over several times and then just acts like
he, you know, was completely losing his mind and completely disassociated for reality.
I mean, in a weird way. He probably was, probably was,
But just what a glimpse at what how lacking the initial ECW was that
Terry Funk walked into. Now it wasn't It wasn't a fully formed idea.
That's what I'm trying to get across here. Garry Funk had to go ahead
and author what ECW was going to be in a large way. You did
have to go ahead. I'll tell you that. You have to go ahead.
So let's go ahead ourselves to one O six forty eight, and we're
going to see the aforementioned chain match that's been built up in the segments and
promos we've watched this far in ECW. It's Terry Funk versus Eddie Gilbert from
June nineteenth, nineteen ninety three. All right, one O six forty eight,
yep, and if you're ready, we'll hit play. I'm ready a
two to one play. You know. Being from Texas, I delt with
about every kind of animal and vornament that there is in this world today,
and that goes from rattlesnakes to coyotes to burman to just about anything you want
to speak of. But I've never ran into a low life like Eddie Gilbert
before. And you people here in Philadeli, you you know how to spot
a good wrestler. You know what ability is, and you know who's got
that, who's got it whenever they go in the ring, whatever it might
be that makes them the best. Well, Eddie Gilbert doesn't have that,
you know. He just keeps on blowing off and talking big and trying to
really really be somebody. Well he's trying it, and now he's got the
opportunity to be king affiliate. Well I do too, So we're going to
find out who's going to get that crown and wear it. But there's only
one thing that Eddie Gilbert better give a whole lot of thought. It's a
type of match that he's coming into because it's my type of match. It's
a Texas chain match massacre. He's accepted the match, and now he's going
to have to deal with me. And I'll tell you, you know,
I've told people before, I'm meaner than a rattlesnake, tougher than shoeleather,
more dangerous, and a hollow eyed score pine, middle aged, crazy,
crazy like a fox, and all that stuff. And I am truthfully because
I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have in the professional wrestling business,
and I intend on being in it a lot longer, and I intend on
being on top in Philly because you all are something near and dear to my
heart, you fans out there, because what you are is you're hardcore fans.
Because wrestling here in Philly is different. You've seen it all, you've
seen the best and you've seen the worst of it, and now you're going
to have a chance to see the most violent of wrestling matches with myself against
Eddie Gilbert in a Texas chain match. Hot stuff. I don't think so
you got an IDEO there? Yeah, so Eddie Gilbert, I just been
to the rank, let me go and his manager all all regard still in
the w W gimmick with the slick back hair in the cell phone starting to
look a little more like ECW. We remember, h. I guess still
see the wall on the hard camera side, right, Super Summer Sizzler,
spectacular boss here whatever? Okay with welc on Todd Gordon. Welcome Tod Gordon,
Todd Gordon. I believe this one's for the King of Philadelphia. We're
told as Todd Gordon joins the wingside announced position announcer Bob Artiz, who was
a voice of VCW the entirety of the promotions existence as a trick or for
much of the promotions existence was a close a lie of Todd Gordon from day
one, and Todd Gordon actually got to start promoting a couple of wrestling shows
in bars in Philadelphia. A bar, that guy, They're gonna do something.
I guess. Indeed, the t W a opportunity opened up here,
we got this. So this is the match they've been building and this is
really, in a lot of ways, Lady Gilbert's first and last hurrah as
the book or at CW. These two are cross paths on the booking committee
of Jim Hurd in eighty nine. Eddie Gilbert was on that committee as well.
Strong idea man student of the game, Bill Watts acolyte, like you
know, childhood fanatic of Memphis wrestling and the sheets, you know, as
a manipulator. Sure this beauty star years ago, but you heard in that
promo, right Terry Funk talked me about what's unique about the Philly wrestling fan
even back in nineteen ninety three. Uh sure, well, sure, well
you know what a what the Realdea looks like in that ring and even saying
here in ECW, know, you know when you've seen the greatest and when
you've seen the not so greatest. It's about to lock up here a chain
risk to wrist with Eddie Gilbert as the Funker? Is this what does this
feel like? Watching Funk in this context after watching him tangle with Flair on
TBS. I mean, it's it's just it's it's kind of sad we can't
agree more on that one. You know, like to see him. I
mean it's weird because it's like, you know, we we we already did
see him wrestle in venues like this with the Dusty Roads, but that was
still like fifteen years after this. Well the venue, yeah, well the
venues we saw, like as far as the TV tapings, those were all
done in studio, so yeah, they were necessarily tiny. But when it
came time to have those matches on the circle, you're talking ten thousand seat
buildings, eight thousands slip buildings, whereas here they're no those last dusty rhads
ones. It was in fucking gyms. Oh you're talking about p w F.
I'm talking about the very very end there like that, right, No,
like no, like uh the twenty fifteen or whatever. Okay, Yeah,
that's that's what it reminds me of. This reminds me of that very
similar pathetic you know, buildings and with with like you know, you just
don't want to for me as a as a wrestling fan, you don't want
to see that. You don't want to see walls like I want to see
roads, rows of people, Right, that's very important. Do you wonder
if I lived in this market? You know, it's funny this is the
the Summer Sizzler Spectacular. The Sizzler also has a Summer Spectacular as well.
Does it really? Oh my god? Gilbert immediately slips out of the ring,
trying to keep his distance from a funk that he has chained to.
Gilbert, Yeah, dangerously. It has to do. What is this openly
speculating and commentary. Why Paul Hayman is at ringside like it's a surprise that
nobody's up to. I want to say, why would he be ringside for
a chain match right right? True? At all four corners to win this
one? I wonder if I lived in this market at that age, you
know, if I was like a teenage wrestling fan in nineteen eighty three,
if I would have been compelled to go to these or not? I mean,
you know, I think you'd be compelled as much as you'd be like
that, I was to go to a fucking you know that that that that
awful wrestling show that I was going to watch at the fucking Lions Club in
nash One, New Hampshire. You know, sometimes you just want to go,
that's for sure. This was a company trying to actually build like repeat
guys that came back all the time and not try to build by kind of
come see honky talk man. You know, yeah, you know man,
you know cannot get a vision in the market. Oh Jesus, So Funk
thrown over the top and then use the chaine of Yank Getdy right out after
him and Eddie Gilbert taking a hard bump back up on the apron. Now
the Funk are going to work with the left hands. Now he missed.
Eddy Gilbert dropped off the apron to dodge the blow. This is the raw
material here. This is like, you know, they're figuring out what ACW
is going to be with every match. It seems like Gilbert, come on,
John finnigin, he's going through the head of referees in the ring.
Well, I gotta say a moon salt in this match. Now he hadn't
moon salt to get this is still ninety three. Oh wow, that's important
to glad you said that. You have to point out that well Funk was
you know, a day one ECW guy. This is still early enough that
he's not like ECW threw and through He's done the company hasn't made enough progress
in terms of vision yet that there was anything to really wed yourself to.
It was just one other shot in the circuit that happened to have TV.
You have to be to be Terry Funk and of someone with Terry Bunks,
Terry Funk, Terry Funk's caliber. You really have to get rid of your
ego in order to fucking yes, just take a paycheck and do this.
Fucking you know a great high school gym match, a body slam by Eddie
Gilbert puts down the Funker, he rolls out of the ring. Yeah,
you have to be, honestly to me, you have to be so wedded
to the idea of what the wrestling business was before Vincent Junior consolidated that you
have to still see charm and hope and possibility in a show of the scale
or an idea of a circuit like this. It's the Funker trying to keep
alive that vagabond wrestling existence that had served him so well for twenty five years,
ever really staying in an area for too long beyond his owner Marilla,
and even that he eventually bought out of, sold out of, and he
just wants to have places he can go and you know, tuck his head
in and do impactful matches, but not have to, you know, subject
himself to WWF air travel or Yeah, And that's what I think it was.
That's why I think Funk kept trafficking in these areas that seemed below him
at this point, is because he's trying to keep alive a circuit that makes
him enjoy working in pro wrestling instead of slowly begin to despise it. He's
kind of miserable in w F and w W anymore, taking plump some of
his comments. Sure, I couldn't wait to get outs here. You don't
have to get out, you just go home for a little while. So
the Funker has been dropped. Eddie Gible to slap one corner. But again
we've talked with referees about this and everything. When does the count restart?
I guess it just did well. He said he's going to be in succession
or whatever, but I guess I don't know. So what it exactly interrupted
the succession, I don't know. You know, that's it's great action,
is what we're watching. Whipping him with the chain and made Gilbert so you
can refuge on the floor again to kind of a refrain in this one on
top of him that steel chain wrapped around it's so steel chain wrapped around it,
dragging Eddie back up to his speed. Here Eddie's trying to get a
couple of fingers in. I mean, I guess it was amazing too,
is that people seem invested in this. The people who are here in the
audience yet tanging Eddie by the throat over his back with the chain wrapped around
his throatting hungry for something. I don't know what it is, but I
think they're hungry for action. That's like close up, the guys are hitting
each other hard enough that you can believe in it, and they might swear.
You know. It's like it just feels a little more, a little
more gritty for people who think the Big Two are too cartoonish. I can
see the appeal in a way starting to form. It's not there yet,
but it's started. So now Terry has tapped two corners. He's going for
the third. Needdie Gilbert yanking on the chain, but still the Funker makes
number three. Let's see if you can get four. I must have now
more. Referee started waving his hands when Eddie Gilbert dropped him with the right
hand, so that must be how to break it. Bunk comes up and
does one of those knock need cell jobs, like he just stumbled out of
a car that just would got involved in head on collision. I see a
sign on the hard camera says kill him. Yeah, fans are like telling
them where to go. That was something Terry Funk always said. And I'm
sure we'll get the bite as we go. It's like, why did wrestling
become what it is because the fans took it there. Yeah, the fans
would want you know again, this is this is where I get very especially
when it comes to this kind of the hardcore, and you know, it's
like they want they want that. I do think that there are probably fans
in the ring who kind of, maybe not even consciously, would like to
see somebody die in one of these matches. And they don't have baby faces
and heels really in the same way in terms of rooting interest that what they
are rooting for, though, is for someone to get fucked up, Like
right right, they're in it for Holy ship, you know, before they
go funking all sorts of troubles. Heady Gilbert rams's head into the ringside announced
table. And that's why it's hard. It's it's very hard for me to
give support like and and maybe it's it's too just in my middle aged years
that I'm just like, I just it's it's hard for me to tell you
something I can think about spending money in giving these guys money to hurt themselves
for enjoyment like as as ah you know, research or as a kind of
studying thing for this the laps Fan. It's it's different. I don't I
don't you know, because I'm you know, I feel like one of the
things, one of the kind of the the sub when I don't know what
do you want to call it? Like sub themes of the laps Fan is
kind of is exploring the question of why, oh very much so that's the
only question that matters. And and so like for that, I I feel
okay, but like to be like these guys, and you know, I
know, I know we have fans and listeners who who who who love this
kind of stuff. I just for me, it just there's something that that
maybe back then I would have been fine with it. I don't know,
but there's something about me now who I just I can't spend money, or
I don't. I feel uncomfortable spending money to have guys just mall themselves for
my entertainment because I just don't find that entertaining to know that they're really getting
hurt. Right, And you know, I know what people have said about
the fucking the hooks on that guy's back and whatever, and how like it's
like not what it right, It's not as bad as it looks or whatever,
but it's still you know, you still had a guy with hooks that
went through his flesh and out the other side, still playing, You're still
playing to people who want to believe that that actually happened to the play,
right, you know, Like it's like it to be clear, we're not
there yet. This is a pretty standard issue chain match. This is totally
we're not even rule in the Flare matches. Totally, no no question,
no question, We're ahead of there. Like I'm like, in a in
a way, I'm also more okay with it because you know, at least
Terry Funk is taking in a hefty sum working with Flair and a big audience
like that. Here, It's like, you know, what are these people
pay for tickets like fifteen bucks if that, and he hit the corner three
times. Funk making the comeback dropped him with the left with a chain wrapped
around his fist. But this is pretty much been punches and yanking each other
by the chain. Take him at tomorrow things are polly you know, doing
his ringside thing right hand, left hand, rather than completely decleats hot stuff
at Gilbert, who had a long time relationship with miss Hyatt. I don't
know if I knew that, boss, Oh yes, I didn't know that,
and absolutely saying honor, no question, just fucking you know, let's
be clear, let's you know, let's just put it mildly. Just fucking
went to town on that pussy, just drilling her and she's just asking for
more you say it like, you know, and and that's just the way
it went, I know, And this is it. That's just that's life,
you know. To the floor they go, the fight spilling into the
people. That would be a dc W trademark. To the back of the
building. Yeah. When Eddie Gilbert and Terry Funk worked together this year,
they very much like to do the tour through the audience and then fight to
the back wall of course, Funk is doing that with the chain wrapped around
Gilbert's throat, throwing lefts among the people here, refere admonishing them trying to
get it back in the squared circle. I'm not sure if this is pretty.
I don't know if there was no count outs in this version of ECW,
like they would be in a more popular way. Up against this white
wall with the flashing cameras, looks pretty fucking while to see the shadows there.
Yeah, Spunker whipping the chain down on a felled Eddie, Gilbert Jesus
raining down chain shots. We have one camera, by the way, so
I don't imagine one hard camera. They can't get up on the action at
all, zooming in. He that looks like there's a fucking second video camera
right there. I think that's a videographer from Oh that is a video camera.
Yeah, yeah, there's not cutting to his angle. That's great,
good stuff, guys, even though he's right on top of the action with
a light and everything. Maybe he didn't have a maybe he didn't have a
tape in there that I found that out in the post. Did you see
that happening? Yes, I can. I can tell you see that happening
a press record. It'd almost be better if you didn't. Is that what
I told you? There's a fucking tape in there, Jim pressure recording.
I just you know, I saw the images. I don't know what you
want. I pressed record and I saw the images. I don't know what
you want. Anything else you'd like to say in your defense? I surprised
about him. A complete fucking moron. I want to add that to I
didn't even have a drink. I want Eddie Goldman right there, box inscribe
with the big glasses. It's gonna say this. This this stuff was on
the Philadelphia Wrestling went from in the spectrum to on the spectrum. So Terry
Funk lifted a bunch of chairs and he was going to rain them down on
Gilbert, but it looks like Gilbert got to kick to the gut in before
Funk could damage him. Funk rolling back into the squared circle. Now he
looks like, right, both both principles back in the ring. It's time
to bring this one home. And apparently both guys have got blade jobs,
not that you really notice that, considering they only have the hard camera ship
to his knees falls. Gilbert Funk going nuts on the cut or raking the
chain across the blooded forehead of Eddie Gilbert. A lot of wrestling photographers like
George and Paulaitano at ringside. That was probably part of the mission too here.
You know, when you think about it, think about reading PWI in
the nineties, you know, and seeing pictures of this that would that would
have got your attention. A chain match with blood everywhere, Yeah, yeah,
for sure. The photographers could shoot at such an angle that you couldn't
tell there was no one there. As far as you knew, everybody was
there. Funk Dodge is a chain shot by Gilbert and referee uh John Finnegan
takes it right in the nape of the neck. I can't believe John was
a knocked out exuplex by the Funker actually atomic drop. I don't know why
they did the ref bump thing. If the ref is gonna look at the
action the whole time and not act like he's knits also, who cares like?
Right? So after the atomic drop, the Funker throws the chain over
his shoulder smacks two turn buck was in succession. You're at the Summer Sissler
nineteen ninety three. Philadelphia, PA. A new referee. Now, yeah,
just to watch him slap the fourth uh buckle padding and again. Lady
Gilbert pulling back on the chain, sitting on the canvas and kicks Terry Funk
and the balls to prevent that fourth corner from getting slapped. The Texas Massacre
chain match buss, that's what it is. But I'm sure yes he was
a recently recent edition of and chain Wrestling. Ironically, there's Polly bearing witness
to the guy that inspired him to go all the way with his ECW concept.
Eddy Gilbert chokes the ship out of the Funk or the bloodied Funker on
the canvas. Now it's hot stuff slapped in the first corner and the ring
announcers counting along for the benefit of the live Audience's second it's number two brother
Funk rolling around on the canvas, clutching the chain, trying to pull Eddie
Gilbert away. You don't have to expend any energy into the fourth corner anyway,
I know, right, I mean, what's gonna Oh, he's almost
there, fun pulling on the chain, Eddie Gilbert leaning against the ropes,
trying to make it Paul Hayman probably dangerously there waving on Eddie Gilbert trying to
get his attention, trying to get him to walk in. And at the
last leg of the journey, Funk's standing Now I know what's going to happen
here, not pulling on the chain, cucko. Funk's flicking, little nut
lit, little tapped, looking a little touched. Oh, here we go.
Series the rights down the pipe, jabs by the Funker, and a
left hook drops Gilbert clean, both men bloodied. Funk throws the chain over
his shoulder like Santa's sack. One corner slap, two corner slaps, three
corner slaps. Funk moving. There we go out number four on the way,
dragging Gilbert's arcas then again it ref's distracted by Paul Hayman. He slapped
it, but the ref didn't see it. Announce it's reacting like it's over.
The referee didn't see it. Ref puts the hand down at least all
three. Well, just didn't tap it right there, you're right there,
tap it? I know exactly exactly. Why do you stop? Why does
it reset? Also, what is the referee wearing for a shirt striped in
so odd way? Striped? Gilbert got a chair hit Funk in the back
with it. Now he's got a pile driving on the steel. That's right,
Eddie Gilbert crops Funk head first, and Gilbert touches once and twice three
Now Funk grabbing the chair, but still Gilbert makes it. Funk crosses the
chair in the direction of Gilbert. But too little, too late, because
that's what we need. Eddie Gilbert charious with the with the crown king because
he said to Jerry Lawler Mark, look at him, what a fucking idiot,
I'll hamen the mine. That's awful. A crown placed on the head
of Eddie Gilbert. What's he saying? Seeing the praises of Eddie Gilbert.
But other than that, it's hard to tell. I can tell it's Paul
Hayman, but you can't tell what he's saying. So now Todd Gordon is
in the ring, grab the mic, protesting to the wrath, and right
in the ref's face is Gordon. You're fired. Okay, Todd Gordon has
fired the official. It shoved for it. Gordon shoves and drops the ref.
Oh oh, look at that. Polly dangerously clips Todd Gordon behind the
head with the brick phone. What an ass, thus beginning ears of onscreen
tensions between the two that would lead to reel behind the scenes attentions predate the
behind the scenes attentions. Awhile the Funker is recovered, he's back on his
feet and he's mad dog and Eddie Gilbert still tied to him via the chain
and there was no plan to get off that thing. Huh No, he's
free, he doesn't have the change anymore. Billin's on the run has raised
up the aisle away here in Philly. Eddie Gilbert Victoria just what we need.
The Funker's here to do business. I think that's one thing that that
establishes. Yeah, Terry Funk tending to Todd Gordon in his unique way.
Bunker's got the crown and the crowd of Eddie Gilbert some standing applause, puts
it on Todd Gordon's head. That masked Todd Gordon sitting there, Bunker with
the mic. I went ahead and didn't win. He said something about King
of the Ring, say something complimentary about Todd Gordon. The crowds are plotting,
okay, and an embrace between Terry Funk and Todd Gordon. C W
experiment in year one Oh my good lord, didn't pause that. Yeah,
the blue, plain bluey CW logo before it was that white barbed wire one.
You think Boss Terry Funk mixing it up with Eddie Gilbert in his first
ECW program, I mean, you think you got it and everyone needs everyone
needs a payday. I guess it would be the only one. It would
be the only program for Terry Funk and Eddie Gilbert in ECW. By nineteen
ninety four, e Gilbert was out of a position of power as booker in
ECW, replaced by Paul Hayman. He was kind of in and out as
a booker on an on and off basis with Todd Gordon as he battled a
substance abuse demons and big time drug problem. Did Eddie Gilbert have? Yes?
He died of a drug overdose February of nineteen ninety five, just two
years after the those early ECW tapings that we just took a look at.
Funk wrote in his book, I get mad at Eddie Gilbert too. I
tried many times to help him, to tell him he needed to be careful.
But it's hard. You see someone with a problem, but you also
see that person as a friend, and you never can tell which guys you
need to be watching out for. It's not like there's a glow around their
heads to where you could say, Wow, i'd better talk to him.
He's going to be the next one to go. Eddie knew he had a
problem, and it was something he fought hard and hard against. Eddie was
extremely proud of himself. In the summer of nineteen ninety four, he was
clean and sober and was actually trying to go into politics in Lexington, Tennessee,
where he was from. He saw an escape in a totally different way
of living. About six months later, he overdosed on cocaine and died in
a Puerto Rican hotel room while on a wrestling tour. If he had won
that constable's election, I think he'd still be alive today and still be drug
free. Even though I knew he'd had a problem, the news of his
death came as a terrible shock. He was only thirty four and had such
a great mind for the wrestling business. He was another second generation guy.
I also knew both his father, Tommy and his brother Doug Well. Tommy
spent a couple of years wrestling Forrest and was a good man. Eddie.
We had a very strong, tight knit family and I can't imagine what they're
going through even to this day. The toughest thing in the world must be
as a parent to lose one of your own and Vicki and I hope that
God blesses us with death prior to either of our daughters. Eddie Gilbert was
a friend. But I'm at the point where when I get news about one
of them passing away and drugs are involved, I'm pissed off at them.
I'm mad, and I don't know if that's right or not, but it's
how I feel. I don't think it's callousness, but I want to yell
at them. God, damn it, you're cheating me. You're cheating your
friends, and you're cheating your mm family. Yes, by God, learnt
to count how many pills have you had? Keep track? Hew? I
even get mad at Eddie Graham sometimes for killing himself and taking himself away from
all the people who loved him. The sad thing is a lot of times
I just feel numb to the news when someone call to tell me about another
young guy in the business dying. There have been so many I've almost just
thrown numb to it. I know that anger and numbness is a horrible combination
of feelings to have in reaction to news like that, but I feel like
I've gotten that phone call one hundred times. That's right. There are many
things Eddie Gilbert brought over to e c W in addition to his affinity for
a Memphis style presentation in angles and match style table crashes, brawls that got
so intense that tables would get broken. We talked last time about how Randy
Savage Pile driving Ricky Morton through a table in Memphis in nineteen eighty four the
Mid South Coliseum was kind of seen as the first table crash of its type,
and even Terry Funk was sure to reference it and writing in his book
about the Rick Flair nineteen eighty nine table spot, tables and running over them
and falling on top of them and using them and breaking them was part of
the Memphis scene, and Terry acknowledges as much and said, you know,
he didn't know about that necessarily in nineteen eighty nine when he had his spot
with Brick Flair, and uh and we go from there, though, because
that's the spiritual sort of a vision of wrestling, the spiritual bass that Eddie
Gilbert had for wrestling that he brought to E c W. And if you're
talking about tables, right, you're talking about brawling, You're talking about insanity,
the revolution, the revolutionary of all that stuff was indeed Sabu, nephew
of Terry's oldest nemesis and friend, the Sheikh. By the way, Sabo's
real name boss, Yes, Terry Brounk. Of course, why didn't they
fucking form a tag team Bronken Funk The great question w W versus the World?
You can select Terry Brounk. I guess they couldn't use the Sabo name,
but they had him in the game. They couldn't use the sa name,
but they could not. So bizarre that Sabo is in that video game.
That's bizarre. Sabo met Terry Funk in the FMW promotion, which we'll
get to in Japan. That's where Sabu started using the tables and moon salting
onto them, even with no one on the table. Okay. One of
Sabu's early career signatures was after the match was over, win or lose,
he'd put a table in the ring with his opponent nowhere in sight. Get
up on the top rope and moon salt through the table for the industry,
for the people's desire to see furniture explode. No opponent there, He'd just
do it to himself. That's where the business is heading. Thanks sadly writes
in his book, my gimmick was super over with the fans, so much
so that Paul felt he had to put the belt on me. That idea,
of course, was one I didn't have a problem with. Part of
my first world title reign was probably due to the fact that he appreciated what
I brought to the table. Paul recognized the whole Japan influence that the promotion
had under my charge, and the table spot thing that I brought to the
promotion. I think this is his way of thanking me for helping with the
company's success. Other than my uncle, Terry Funk was a huge part.
Mary Funk was a huge part of my development that helped to make my first
heavyweight run happen. He helped me with finishes, psychology, and the little
nuances that really polished me. The most significant matches during the early part of
my ECW career were with him. These would eventually lead me on Toto dropping
the ECW World title to Terry after beating Shane Douglas then defeating Terry Funk in
a crazy barbed wire match which I will discuss years later to win it back.
Terry was also in a three way dance for the CW World Heavyweight Championship
at ECW's the Night the Line was crossed against Shane Douglass and me. Now,
three ways often can be a cluster fuck, but Terry was an excellent
leader and a teacher. He showed me how to go to a one hour
time limit draw and still beat Public Enemy for the ECW World Tag Team Championships
with my partner Taz in a double tables match on the same show. That
was a busy night for sure, Boss. He said, yeah, you're
familiar with the night the Line was crossed. No, I wasn't sure that
seemed to strike a chord with you. I think I was just responding to
just the garbage that he's saying. He's saying, so again, another guy
that was central to the whole picture in the nineties. In the next decade,
the next generation saying yep, Terry Funk, Terry Funk was the guy
that came along at the exact moment I needed that extra polish, that extra
advice, that extra encouragement, And indeed, is he's about to say here
in a shoot interview that Sabu recently did with Title Match. It took a
long time, I'm talking like fifteen years for Saboo to finally start talking in
public, to start thinking he had to benefit Hi more than it could hurt
him in terms of his gimmick, even insisting on not speaking when he went
to work for Vince McMahon in two thousand and six with the ECW reunion and
revitalization, and that didn't play very well. They eventually got him to crack
and talk a bit, but that sort of nobody anyway. Here he is
reflecting back on the role that Terry Funk played as he was becoming in a
lot of ways, especially in nineteen ninety four, the hottest, most talked
about Starr in the business. Now, he told me a lot. He
was the first guy of his caliber that would do my moves, let me
do what I wanted with him. He's the first guy anybody else was his
caliber or his physicition in wrestling would say they said no to everything, and
out of respect, I wouldn't do it him. I asked him, and
he goes, go ahead, try it. I said, really and I
and then he goes, just tell me what it is. And I couldn't
explain to him what the moon saut was. I said, his standary here
and catch me, and he goes, what do you that something? He
called me and then I'll say, stay here and move or stay here and
catch me. And that's what we did. He the first one of his
caliber that would allow me to do that, and that gave him ten more
years or more of his career after I wrestled him the first time. He
says, I gave him ten years of life because before he wrestled me,
he was considered you see, now, old guy, he his allience,
like in his fifties. He's younger than I am. He's younger than than
I am now. But yeah, I gave him ten more years because people
thought he was a new wrestler. He changed and he made all the guys
coming up legitimacy. It's been said too that he wasn't selfish at all.
He really wanted to make people. He cared about what he was doing and
He always wanted to make the guy he wrestled better. Have you talked to
Terry Funk recently before the pandemic started. I talked to him and he was
had a little bit of dementia. I couldn't kept saying where's his bag?
I goes under the table and about every five minutes. It was worth my
back. At first I thought it was funny, but then after you know,
ten or twenty times, got to be old that he really didn't know
where his bag was ready to drive. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah,
my uncle helped break Terry Funk in. My uncle's first territory was Texas
m Moro, the area for Doriy Funk Senior. And and uh so,
the first project my uncle had on the road was to take Terry Funk on
the road and break him in. So that's what he did that. Terry
Funk was my uncle's first student. Oh no kidding. Yeah, Dory was
a little older than Terry. So Dorry had already broken the business as he
was on the road. And then so but Miucale wrestles for Dorry Senior,
and his first first thing he had, the first he learned, was to
break him in. You know, great and Terry and but then turned the
full circle by him helping me out. When Terry Bunk helped me out,
he didn't break me in, but he let me allow. He allowed me
to do the moves with nobody's seen me before. Think that got me over
at his full circle for absolute sure. And I'm sure Terry Funk had the
Sheikh somewhat in mind as he canceled Sabo and worked his style and brought him
along. But it's that same dimension we were talking about as to why Terry
Funk moon salted in nineteen ninety four. Yeah, that would lead to him
engaging Saboo and leaning into the style that Sabu was bringing. Sabu was like
Wrestler of the Year in nineteen ninety four. He was the most buzzed about
wrestler in the whole country, despite the fact that he wasn't with the major
promotions. He actually made a WW nineteen ninety five on the back of that
for a short live run he was involved, didn't image, Yeah, I
remember, did we actually was on a pay per view? Did we see
it? He did wrestle on a pay per view, and then he didn't
make another pay per view over a pay dispute. He did a I'm matching
the second edition of Money Nitro. I think it was against Alex's right and
he broke a table and there was disagreement about allowing him to break tables and
all of that. I remember when we did Slamburree ninety four and there's that
handicam that Rob Feinstein shot is part of Legends Reunion Bank, where he's like
walking around the hotel lobby and get some time with Eric Bischoff, and Bischoff
is chatting them up about Saboo and give him my number, and I want
to bring him in, and yeah, he was almost talked about start of
the business. The problem is anyone who wanted to bring Saboo in would not
allow him to be Saboo through and through in terms of just like the all
mad cap wide open style. And that's what Sabou saying there in that interview
because in Terry Funk, he had a guy with you know, more respect
than any wrestler could possibly have in terms of tenure and things he'd done,
saying yes, I will catch you on moon salts, Yes we can go
through tables, Yes you can show me you know five or six things that
you do in the ring that nobody else has ever done, and I'll I'll
do it for you. That's something a lot of veterans that Sabu dealt with
early in his run would absolutely not. I'm not going to stand on the
floor while you triple jump, front flip and land on my shoulder. You're
fucking kidding me. Why would I do that? Like? Well, because
we want to make an impact, But that's not how a lot of the
people that Saba went into in his early days looked at the business. But
Terry Funk was an exception, and Sabu has a lot of Terry Funk to
thank for that. I mean, Sabu went out there and did it,
but at the same time that he was able to do it against some of
the caliber. If Terry Funk made all the difference in the world, Funk
writes in his book Something else that became popular at ECW shows was something I
had popularized, going through tables. Randy Savage was the first of my knowledge
to send someone through a ringside table. When you powdrow of Ricky Morton threw
on in nineteen eighty four. But I truly think me doing it to Flare
nineteen eighty nine was what put tables on the map. And when I did
it, it wasn't even aware that Savage and Morton had done it in Memphis
five years earlier. But a kid named Terry Brunk was the one who really
made the tables into a staple of his arsenal. Terry was the nephew of
my old friend Ed far Hot, the chic he wrestled with Saboo. The
stuff Saboo did from the top rope and his moves through tables were practically unheard
of in wrestling in the early nineteen nineties. When I first encountered Saboo in
an independent show, now one, I'd never seen moves like the back dive
off the second rope into the body press. He was a real creator and
a real innovator in that ring. Every time you see someone doing a high
flying move using the ropes as a springboard, you were watching someone imitating a
Saboo invention. That's not true of the springboards. I mean, Jimmy Snookt
is a springboard at wrestling. His seven against Undertaker, right, he would
also sell that stuff. He wouldn't do some crazy move and then pop right
back up. Actually, Terry, he did that often. When he hit
it, he would sell it, but when he would miss it, you
just go and repeat it in a way that was like time standing still.
But that's fine worked for him. He made sure the fans understood the physical
price he was paying by selling every movie he made. The generation of guys
who borrowed things from sabboo overdid it and killed a lot of those moves by
doing too much, too fast. But Sabo's in ring performance was great.
I'm not going to say his work was faultless, but it was damn good.
First time I saw him, I immediately realized what a huge inflame once
he would be. How could he not how eighty percent of his matches were
things that had never been seen before. Anytime I went to an ECW show,
I tried to do more than was necessary. Sabu did the same,
and so did Shane Douglas. We all had a common desire to make the
company we were going to extremes, so it was appropriate when they renamed it
Extreme Championship Wrestling. But ECW is also a place where a lot of innovations
took place. One of those was the triangle match, which a WW calls
the Triple Threat match today, and we'll get to that in just a moment.
But while we're acquainting ourselves with Terry Funk being acquainted with Sabu for the
first time in nineteen ninety four, we're going to dial it back to February
twenty eighth of that year. And this is not in ECW. This is
during a time period where are much like Terry Funk, Sabou's taking independent bookings
at ECW in just about any other territory that would have him before ECW became
a place that you could really set down a base of operations in and work
for full time. And so Terry Funk and Sabu are wrestling not only in
ECW in this point in time, but all over the circuit, including this
Febu twenty eighth, nineteenninety four WWN match, which I think really well in
capsule Late's the kind of indie spirit and hardcore style that was just beginning to
come into focus as Sabou was allowed to basically be unleashed and have unhinged matches
across the circuit against the likes at Terry Funk. So we're gonna go to
disc twenty two. Bost is twenty two two. It's twenty two twenty two.
Okay, I've made this clear before him, very much in favor of
you singing while we pill up at ether so started zero zero zero and we're
gon hit play in three two one play. Here's the Funker stepping out,
no shirt, towel in his hand, starting to get a little uh chubby
around the waist again. Yeah, starting to lose that sveltness from eighty nine
which we also saw in ninety three and the Eddie Gilbert match which just saw
true. There's Paul E dangerously walking right behind him. So this is WWN.
This is the Jim Crockett attempt. They did a couple of tapings.
This is one of them, and apparently what circulated was a fan cam from
the balcony. You see this weird angle we're at Punk grabs the mic and
Paul's face. We can't see what's happening, but we'll jump cut the latches
underway, so nol we've got Terry Fumeke versus Terry Broome came very much so,
and the bright yellow pants reverse on the whip Funk drops down for a
backdrop. Saboo rolls off the back of Funk, which you didn't see much
back then, and running Larry It puts down Saboo. They keep a very
quick pace. And again keep in mind Terry Funk is willing to do a
lot in there with Saboo that someone of his age, No on, they
wouldn't be willing to do for the most part. They probably couldn't physically do
it for the most part either. Funk off the rope's clothesline, ducked in
from the other end. Saboo drops in with a forearm shiver. That ring
is tiny, it is. Funk spills out of the ring on the floor.
It's kind of like a ballroom setting here. Yeah, it kind of
lends me of the Manhattan Center. Yep. Oh, Sabu the slingshot flip
dive to the red carpeted floor, taking out the Funker and hard. Just
remember, just think about wrestling in early nineteen ninety four where it was at,
and then think about this match happening somewhere in Philadelphia. Oh, it's
crazy. They have those ballroom style chairs, not the steel folding chairs,
one of those casino boxing matches on the wove. That was he was throwing
the ring. What is it step ladder? I think, yeah, remember
those are the ring stays for this fucking place I have been referre. He
threw them out of the ring, regardless of what they were. This is
all kind of pre ECW. This is like the existed and they were wrestling,
but they're resting just as hard outside of his c W right side headlock
in the center of the ring song before the fifty four or sixty Studio fifty
four, Paul Hayman had very good connections at Studio fifty four. All right,
I would do publicity for like Bam Bam Bigelo there, which you who
would unto the business. Well, whatever that was, that was Funk grabbed
the ropes, put his stomach on the top and just front flipped out of
sight, probably on a saboo. Look at nobody there, I know,
nobody there, nobody. Oh my god, he just fucking ran him through
a table. There's a table at ring side. But it wasn't on all
four legs. It was just on two one leg. Look at the carpeting
like that to me is like that's that's where we're at carpeting, And I
think you're right that a ring of armors show that we went to and that
at the that Rhode Island Convention Center or whatever. Exactly what it was,
Yes, table just on one leg leaning, Funk ran up behind Saboo who
was facing the table, grabbed him by the back of the head, and
just jumped onto the table with just like they rolled across it like it was
a boogiey board. Yeh. And then Funk ddt Saboo onto the table on
the floor. Jesus. Crowds reacting like this is out of control. Yeah,
I know at that running throw them at the table. I'm surprised we
don't see that more often. That looks really cool. Yeah, it did
look greats like a barroom thing you'd do, you know, in a barroom
fight, running them across the whole bar, sliding him back into the ring
as the funker again in real time, developing the bond, the respect for
each other and figuring out like what this crowd responds to? What they can
pour it over At ECW more often than not, you're a nice neck breaker
there hangman's noose by the funker. It's almost like he knows how to lassow
him. Huh. Sabu gets his fun. The rope on the cover rocks
first. On the top rope goes Saboo, Funker up after him. I
mean, this is Terry with no cameras, you know what I mean.
I think they did take this for TV, but just what he was doing,
that's what he chose to do in nineteen eighty four. Oh Jesus,
ellacious middle rope superplexed by the Funker red, white, and blue ropes for
the wwn YEP. That's definitely the Studio fifty four logo. So there's the
Paul Hyman connection. It's crazy that the man has got a fucking Studio fifty
four logo. I didn't know that. I don't know, it's crazy.
That was the thing, you know, Terry Funk spent years on shoot interviews
saying, you know, why, why couldn't you run cheaper markets like a
you know, like Greater Dallas or something, or Greater Houston in the nineties
and build another Texas wrestling territory where he actually could could get to the towns
in an affordable way. Why did all the indies in the nineties insist on
being East coast? And the thing about Paul is he was well connected in
New York City. He knew those streets very well, grew up in Scarsdale,
but really knew how Madison Avenue worked, really knew how the nightclub promotion
business worked. It's a both men reach of stalemate. Funk dropped with a
clothesline when he was almost out on his feet anyway, and that was the
terrain he knew best, as expensive as it was. All Hayman really was
of the city, and Todd Gordon was mister Philly. You know. It
wasn't like some It wasn't some like decision to locate there to feel like a
big deal. It was the hometown and backyard of these folks. Drop kicking
Funk back into the corner now by Saboo, who's out? Oh my god.
He's gonna use one of those ballroom chairs. Oh as a launch point
of poetry in motion. Oh, just like a splash, kind of crossbody
splash. That was a huge thing. Sabo's triple jumps off chair seats.
Like no one thought to use a chair as a launch point. The only
thought to use it as something a bludging you in. Yeah, right,
I on the floor. Funker's got the chair position. He's gonna atomic drop
Saboo on the onto that chair with no give. Oh he dropped them hard
too. And that point you made before about like watching people abuse themselves,
you know, like Saboo, that was his thing. I know, as
kind of fake as something contrived, as a lot of the spots were in
his matches, he absolutely would take the full brunt of a blows like you're
still watching the guy getting launched out of a cannon. Oh, the funker
blindside Hayman and grabs his telephone. Should make a phone call so I can
charge up those minutes called collect upside the head of Terry Brounk Paul his jeans.
He's got a pile drive Hayman on the carpet, called him out of
the carpet, and now he's gonna pile drive him on it. For Christ's
sakes, I remember Paul taking a lot of bumps like that. That's awesome.
Yeah, Sadly, after Funk throws him over the railing out after him
up against the wall of the building, boom, the trash can on Terry's
head. This You didn't see this ship in nine ninety four, not at
all, not at all. Maybe in Memphis, but yeah, in Memphis,
you would, because you know, I remember again ninety two. I
remember the fucking concession stands Lawler and Jarrett versus the moondogs getting fucking blooded up
back over the rail and into the ring they go. There's definitely not a
northeast thing, not at all. This isn't exactly, This isn't Bruno throwing
punches, backlarting, doing the bridges from the apron to the inside. Saboo,
the oh my god, what the fuck fucking Christ tried to rotate on
the slingshot from the ring apron to a moon salt and landed right on the
back of his neck on the funk stomach the club. That's exactly correct.
These guys today are amazing athletes. I saw the Sabo and he was just
yeah, the Saboo. You know that's good funk with that delayed vertical fuck,
he's bringing the tradition. Jesus, you're gonna drop him someplace hard.
No, that's hard enough, bunker. Going back to fundamentals, there delayed
vertical souplex rock Saboo. Both men doubled down. I don't know. This
match just struck me. It's like particularly chaotic for nineteen ninety four, like
he is honest to God, Like this is actually more entertaining than I'm saying
most the Saboo matches I've ever seen. The Funk has one of the ring
the things used for the ring rope, the retaining ropes. About what those
things are called, like a fucking it looks like a cocktail table. Yeah,
maybe it was that. I don't know whatever it is. Sabo drops
Funker on the floor and I was unfolding a table, going to work with
the wood. Here clothesline lays Funk Souphine across the table. Yeah, Saboo
jumps in the ring. Here we go, time to sacrifice, sling shots,
front clipping. Saboo Wow explodes through the table as Terry Funk moves out
of the way at the last second. Yeah, that's kind of like that
kind of popped, Like he's coming back for that every time. I going
to show this small like if you can get the people up that much,
Saboo is now like sentenced to table crashes for the rest of his life.
Yeah, listen to the people, Saboo. Saboo Bird was traveling fast and
the sheets and stuff in ninety four about Saboo and what the crazy shit he
would do because there was still mystique to it, you know, because you
couldn't get your hands on the tapes too easily unless you happen to be in
the markets where he was on TV, like Philly. And with a broken
piece of the table, Saboo crowns Terry Funk, who's now walking around like
a like all wind up doll at ringside. He grabs it and a piece
of the table and smashes Saboo in the head with us so glad you noticed
that Studio fifty fourth thing. That's a clutch detail. Yeah, and take
my eyes off it now, I know, seriously, I was wondering,
I like, what is that weird thing in there? And he's like baiting
a minute that looks like studio fifty four learner back in with a broken piece
of the table. Is the funker leaning against the bottom rope? What's it
going to do with it? Snatches up Saboo up to the broken table piece
and Bile drives his head onto it. Ah, big nasty sound on that
one. And this is before Saboo had suffered some of his more difficult injuries.
So he is he is unleashed. He has no physical limitations. Really
hasn't learned his lessons yet about some of the bigger risks unhinged And now what
time is it, Terry? Would he ever? Do you ever learn those
lessons? Absolutely not. This is just a couple of weeks after he moon
salted the first time in for SMW You're Smoking Mountain. But he only had
a few in them. Right, Well, here goes another one in the
bump card funk. They had never seen him do this. Oh my god,
Jesus Christo's so pressed by the funker. And there's the terry chance that's
why he did it. That's why he did it. A funker up to
his feet, stumbling closes on the cover one nope, foot on the rope.
Imagine just like buying a ticket to an indie wrestling show in nineteen eighty
four. U show up and this ship's going down. No idea who this
haboo is? Yep, to the floor. They go, mh funk,
leading him into the people again, into the crowd and the rail. He
goes funk, actually parting a curtain. I don't know where he's going.
It really doesn't work. The manhattanser that where that fucking gold curtain? That
does. What's he got? He got one of those TV boxes and the
slammed. No, it's like a Jesus, it's like a laundry thing,
like a laundry push cart and he slams Taboo into it and he's rolling him
into the bring instead of flying into the post. Chance they love that ship.
Raw footage, raw footage. Yeah, that's shooting it for brother who
shooting who? And now pile driver on the floor. No, it's blocked.
It's blocked. Funk bronc backdrop on the carpet, runk on the floor.
Sado just jumps on his ass. Holy shit, Jesus, he rotated
admit air in a way that he is not human. A clean landing and
possible. All I know is he landed on the funker and again, wow
that he missed back to terry Funk after all the brilliance we saw on the
national stage in the eighties, goes ahead and one hives into this world.
Funk to the apron. Now, no, he's he's going to climb the
ropes in the center of the ring. How's he doing? He's had his
back to sab what's he doing? Oh? Why is he being stupid?
Kerry, Please, I don't know where I'm at. I hurt my ribs.
I can do it. I want ahead and try, but I want
ahead and couldn't do it. That's what he was trying to signal there,
I think so looked like my fucking hurt his ribs. Sabo takes over Funk
to the apron goes. Sabo climbs the ropes and fast finish four fifty one
homes christ a Sabo could four fifty necessary. It's just like people are accustomed,
weren't even accustomed to one of the crazy things Sabo's done in the match,
and then you go and see him and he does like ten of them.
He's missing, oh yeah, funk, hair up, swinging, didn't
know where he was sitting. Duck for the right hand of Sabo, and
then the leg drop across the back of the head by Sabou. Funk is
down and out, Arabian press moon salt by Sabo. Wow, No,
Terry's undone incredible heart on display by the Funker. Here, Sabu shifts to
the candle clutch, afraid, eye level, funk, fading, reaching,
grabbing, grunting, climbing, and Saboo starts stomping the ship out of the
ref Funk gets back up in atomic drop. Saboo, fucking referee, no
selling that fucking bump there. Oh now he is. No, you gotta
fucking get out of here. Your fat ass probably like, hell, we'll
get the ref out of there. Saboo. He threw in those ballroom chairs.
There's piece of the table attacking Saboo with the fucking hollowed out steel frame
of the table. It's fucking crazy. It's got such a sense of like
people like just calling for blogging up, like everyone's like fuck, yeah,
you know, fucking cum exactly kill the fucker. It's like kill. The
fans were like smart enough to know they wanted like real violence and contact,
but not smart enough yet to like have this like connoisseur thing about them,
you know where they were like trying to appreciate it. They were just looking
for fucking impact. They brawled the floor. The bell sounds appears this one.
It's either a double count out or the referee having been assaulted by Saboo.
Yeah, I did this qualification. Terry Funk makes his way back through
the curtain. I can't go through the curtains up against the wall, there's
falling down and selling and his nuts and boss. One thing that didn't happen
and this match is Sabo didn't break a table. What the hell is Terry
Funk having his hand a beer bottle? He did break a table? What
you're talking about? I know he didn't, that's true. Oh, trying
to set something up here? Back, I forgot that Terry in the empty
seats. He's got a beer bottle in his hand, right, haven't went
and got I think so? Then it's okay. Yeah, I mean heard
the clank just now. They're trying to clank it against the steel railing as
much as you can so everyone can realize what he's up to. Sabo baseball
slide drop kicks Funk on the floor. Here's whort have dropped the bottle?
Sabo has it now? Oh Sabu cranks it on the post and breaks it.
Oh no, come on, he's got a broken beer bottle and he's
chasing Terry Funk around with it. This is the kind of thing I do
for wrestling, Mammy, Yeah, yeah, totally come on. Oh wait,
oh come on, I wasn't there anything to stop that? That's this
is not right, Funk carries the cocktail table over his shoulder to the back.
I want I hadn't got on our door, Dorves, Yeah, he
did funk parts the curtain. Saboo left in the ring with a broken off
beer bottle in his hand. Watch him fucking plunge the ref Oh he's out
of the ring now. All of a sudden, he starts just fucking letting,
just like destroying the referee with the fucking mess the broken beer bottle,
like blood just starts flowing from the guy's chest and he dies. And this
guy's got it on fucking fan footage. It's fancam delight. Yeah, So
Sabu is throwing a broken piece of the table in the ring. I don't
know what he's doing. He's looking for something, I f I know Sabo
in nineteen ninety four, he still doesn't quite feel like he's given the fans
their money's worth. He now hops out of the ring over the rail end
of the crowd. He is he gonna fucking put himself to a table.
He's got one. Looks like he grabbed the merch gimmick table, throws it
over the rail. But I don't seen who's he going to put through the
table, owning the table without much grace into the ring, over the top
rope, Sabo climbing in terry funk, gone backstage, you know where to
be found. I think I'm not going to be a part of this one.
I invite you to offer your thoughts. A Sabo sets the table up
in the corner. He's going to do it to himself and in this fucking
idiot, I want ahead and went backstage. You do whatever you want to
do. Shamoo, he's gonna do it. He's a fucking idiot. Oh
look at the damage. What a fool? What is wrong with him?
Ah? You know he just ruined it all. As he lays there in
a heap of busted table, Sabu mo insalted himself through the table. What
an idiot? No respect for that. And the sad thing is all these
people do, all these people can get entertained. What a goddamn fuck had
he is? He pokes his head out. What a son of a bench.
I saw one match he did where the table would not break, and
he moonsalted himself like four times until the table broke with nobody there after the
match. He's got blood on his knee because he that table exploded in away,
but there were a lot of shards. Yeah, imagine like getting the
worst injury of the match when you moon salt yourself through the table. Efforts
already over, so bizarre, such a strange ritual. Looking at people,
they're going nuts. They're standing for the for him, so unnecessary. Something
is changing about the business. And while Terry Funk is changing with it,
to your point, it's not all upside. He's also changing his tights.
They pause now, so we've now become acquainted with the Funk Saboo dynamic.
That's for damn sure. And while Terry Funk is touring the country doing these
matches in front of you know, different crowds, he's doing interviews about what
it is he thinks he's representing on the American independen scene, doing these kinds
of matches, working these kinds of venues and promotions, wrestling these kinds of
wrestlers, and doing these kinds of spots. And here's one he did when
working for an independent I think in the Midwest. Here kind of explaining his
thought process. It's, you know, it's half work, half shoot,
of course, but I think there's a lot in what Terry Funk says here
that helps us understand his frame of mind as he enters this new disorder early,
strange, wacky, almost low rent part of his life and times it's
territorial wrestling. I'm talking for an NWA World Heavyweight Champion and bona fide superstar,
Terry Flood. Terry's both of a shock and a pleasure to see you
competing here in the best territorial wrestling in Taylor. They spoke a little bit
earlier. You you discussed competing in front of the smaller crowds compared to the
large arenas. How does it lend to the flavor of the competition? Hotly,
I really like it here. I'm not a real app because of the
WWNLC WCW, which is keed Turner and Vintentman shows. It's a different type
of wrestling that they do AP And I'm tired of the nunders giving the whole
lot, giving the silly one liners from your joke book. And I'm tired
of Artcare of the hot anounchers making their own stars so to speak, and
talking about who they like, Anderson of the television, And I'm really into
the independent the World Professional Rest. I think that that's where you see the
greatest rest of the day. I've always been a lover of poor fans.
I've always felt that I've tried to give a hundred percent or if I don't,
und I sure want to do that, and I don't want to I
want to continue doing that. I want to continue. I don't want to
overstay, you know, on my mean I stay. I'm getting up there
an age right now, and I want to retire at the right time.
And I don't want to ever embarrass myself and my family in the New York.
I love my profession, and I think at the professional that I grew
up with in the profession, I know all my life, the majority part
of my life is not with those two major groups. It's out here in
an independence and it's performance like staff who with the Shane Douglas's and the like
all tonight. And this group here in has got right individuals within it,
and I think it's a wonderful chance and an opportunity for some of these guys
to develop that this operation or this wrestling promotion will continue. And I really
believe it he will, because I think it's because it's just going to be
growing and growing grow because I think people enjoy themselves and I know they do
it, and I don't think. I don't think there's a womman that can
come out here and say, damn, I saw that on WW. Damn
I saw that on w C. I mean, I'm physically and I'm not
trying to be smart to say that I'm wonderful thing. Yeah, I'm physically
hurt right now, and I'm sure that's sad who he is too. And
but I did it for the people, did it for the dams, for
my profession's part of my life, and that's what I want to really.
So I guess An E. C. W and some of these hard orcore
indies he sees something more again of the business he grew up in. Does
that make sense to you? Not at all? Yeah? I don't.
Maybe maybe maybe I'll tell you what. There's only one thing maybe he could
be talking about heart, Yes, that speak to it. Only thing I
can think about is that he looks at you know, It's like it's like
how some people look at the NFL versus college football, and that they you
see one, you see the pros and they're playing for money, whereas the
the the college kids are playing for pride and they're playing with heart. And
maybe that's what he sees, which is incredible, honestly on a level that
I don't know that I can get to. But if he sees that the
the ECW guy, I mean, in a way, it's true because you're
not getting paid. I mean, if you're an ECW, you're not gonna
pay anything because you know, Hyman is just going to defer your payment anyway.
But right you know, you're trying your hard is to just like do
what you do to the best of your ability. And Funk we've heard talked
about it one hundred times. Big on the camaraderie at the locker room.
Yes, big on like an atmosphere where guys can get ahead by you know,
blending in well with the other guys they work with and forming a sense
of you know, fraternity and common mission. And when you go to work
for the big two companies, and he's already got the sense of this,
he'd worked for both at the highest levels. It's every man for himself.
There's no three musketeers, there's no all for one, there's none of that.
There's no sense of like everyone pulling together. Because if you didn't,
there wouldn't be a promotion to collect a paycheck from the next time you came
to the town, earning the people's return business every time you went in the
ring, as opposed to knowing that no matter how hard you did or didn't
work, it was pretty much the promotional machine behind you that was going to
decide if anybody was in the building the next time you came or not.
You know, there's nothing Terry Funk could do in WWF in nineteen eighty five
that would ensure a big house that he felt like he could take credit for
the next time if he worked really hard this night. And he did work
hard, but it just wasn't the same effort and rewards system that he grew
up with. And I think that's what he's pointing to. It's the closest
thing he can remember or sense in the business in the nineties to where you
really feel like you earn your keep. And it makes sense for everyone to
push in the same direction because everyone's kind of on the brink of not having
money coming in. No one's that comfortable. It's certainly nothing approximating guaranteed money.
No one's covered when they're hurt all of that stuff, and it just
forms a different mentality about the business that he he strongly preferred, clearly because
he's at this level doing these matches when he could be working for the Big
two, he could be booking for WWF and he's just not. And there's
a lot to be said about that and him clinging to a vision of the
business that we lose when we lose Terry Funk, and he keeps it alive
as long as he can, and he tries to foster the kind of talent
that can only thrive in that atmosphere because if they go to the Big two,
we saw it with Saboo's disastrous WCW run short lived ww fronts, it
just doesn't gel. What he had to do to get noticed and stay relevant
just does not work in those systems. Just can't do it. You can't
throw the window open to the degree you have to to let him just totally
sort of define what's going to be most memorable on the night. It's like
we all could go out there and do the things nobody will ever forget in
ten you know, rapid fire succession, But only e CW was set up
in such a way where they could actually do that. I mean, Hayman
was very judicious about it. He wouldn't he wouldn't allow every single match to
be forty table crashes, though it felt that way sometimes, But for the
most part, everyone out there felt like they could do what made them stand
out every match they had. They didn't feel like they had to battle to
get their stuff in or that they had to mold what got them to the
dance in the first place, to fit, you know, a formula that
didn't necessarily suit them, and ECW was a place where you could play that
way, and that's what Terry Funk prefers to operate in. So there was
reference there to the Triangle Match, the Triple Threat, the three Way Dance,
and this was Terry Funk versus Shane Douglas versus Sabu in nineteen ninety four.
The show would be called the Night the Line was crossed for reasons that
will become clear in just a moment, but it was for the ECW World
Championship, and it was widely considered the match that created the buzz that made
ECW more than just one of ten fifteen indies going under the surface of the
Big Two in the nineties. It was this match where people realized, wait
a minute, if you went to the CCW thing, you could see sixty
minute knock down, drag out world title affairs on top of all of the
high flying, extreme violence and spectacle stunt moves that guys like Sabou brought to
the table. And so we're going to close out this section of the lapsed
Funk focused on this, focused on this match and all that it Saeid in
motion. First, we're gonna hear from the Funker talking about what this match
means to him, because it's not just ECW fans that remember this one really
really fondly. Yeah, what do you rememory that that three way match with
you and Shane and Taboo one of the better matches that I've been in.
Yeah, it just it just went, you know, we just went and
just kept on getting better. Yeah, It's just one of those things that
just take place in that And he said that was well, that was great.
You didn't know's gonna be great? God, that was good. Yeah.
Yeah, And we'll hear a promo spot that Funk did after the conclusion
of the match with Shane Douglas where we really get at least for our purposes.
Here in the Lapsed Funk, our first glimpse at what the franchise character
that Shane was embraced to great heights in ECW would look like feel like it
was Terry Funk. Of course, in so many ways, that short gives
shape to what the franchise was provided the foil that Douglas needed to cut that
promo style and get across the character. And here is Shane Douglas, another
participant in the Fames triple Threat match, the three Way Dance, as ECW
coined it, talking to Shun Oliver on KFAB Commentaries about all Terry Funk meant
to him in this pivotal part of his career, his defining run in so
many ways in the industry. For here Shane Douglas at that point, I've
been in the business for about eleven years, I think maybe going twelve at
that point, So I've been around the business a long enough to know that
being put into that position work or no work, is a slap on the
back from the company that they trust you in that position to draw the money
to help take that company on the ride that they expected to draw the crowd
in. So from that standpoint, you know, it was intimidating to me
to some degree, but also rewarding to know that to this you know,
it snos kid that grew up watching wrestling, you know, get in trouble
for jumping off the couch on my brother and sisters. That you know,
here I am standing at the you know, the peak of his company.
The fact that it's with Funk that a he was as gracious as he was,
as professional as he was to take the time to teach me how to
be the heel that I would become. You know, when I first went
to play that He'll rule, my mentality was, well, just do the
opposite of what a babyface does, and that is so not what a great
heel does. Uh. You know, but again I learned that from Funk
night in and night out, and by making a whole lot of mistakes.
You know, it was Funk was never one to come back and say,
God, damn it, Shaaney fucked up tonight because of this or that.
He would come back and say, well, damn you fuck that one up.
And you know, it was just like a comment to let you know
that he knew you fucked it up, and then you went on from there.
It was not a lecture. There was not a brow beating that came
associated to it, you know. And again, like I said earlier,
there's no doubt in my mind that had anybody you could think, in any
other veteran, in any steamboat or whomever put him in that role, the
franchise character, I think, with the tools that I brought to the table,
but built on the foundation that Funk had taught me in the Ring,
that that franchise character became the character that everybody would talk about in ninety six
and really what I think changed the way the heels are are introduced and built
today. That's something I'm proud of the fact that, you know, like
I said prior to that, you know, you had to be a three
hundred pound ward faced ogre to be a heel. And you know, suddenly
here's a guy that looks like he could be the babyface champion and instead is
so full of rage and contempt and himself that this character works, you know.
And those were things again that Funk taught and again not in the camp.
Page one to have the attitude, and page two you gotta be a
prick, and on page three, you've gotta be a tough guy. It
was that kind of learning experience with Terry. But I think part of the
reason I could get what Terry was explaining or trying to explain with his with
his entering work, was I had been a mark for Terry for years and
years and years. I mean from you know, back at the time that
he made the movie with Stillone. You know that, you know, I
was watching the Funks. I dorient Terry both and that whole style of wrestling.
I was never growing up. I was never the guy that was nothing
against all Coogan, but that wasn't my style. I loved, you know,
the wrestler like Flair, steamboat funks, and there was something about the
Funks that, especially Terry, that even as a kid, used to enamor
me because you'd look at this guy and say, man, he looks like
he's half insane, but what a great wrestler. You could never really classify
Terry. You could say, well, he's crazy, but he knows every
move. He's he's nuts, but he can counter anything. He could talk
with that out screaming and convince you that he meant it. Uh. You
know, there were so many facets to the Funk character. Terry Funk's character
that for me to pull from and to learn from. And I think for
anybody that's as big a fan of Terry Funk as I was all those years,
if they look at the franchise character, they can they can pull it
out. They'll say, Okay, that he got that from Funk or this
from Flair or whatever. But he's uh, I asked Terry one time.
You know he's because his business can't really get to you. As you know,
sometimes you get ready to strangle somebody. And one night there I forget
even what it was over, but I was so pissed off at everything right
around this time when I was working, right when I was at the outset
of working with Terry, and I went to him. I was so pissed.
I was ready to strangle somebody. And I said, God damn,
Terry, how do you keep your sanity in the middle of all this bullshit?
I mean, how do you keep yourself from not wanting to strangle somebody?
And he said, you know, god damn saying. You know what
I'm saying. I'll tell you, Shanel, it's you know, he's got
to be crazy. That's a Shane. You gotta be crazy. You know
what I'm talking about, be crazy, crazy like a fox. And they
went right back into character. And it was the only time and even till
today, that I've ever seen him drop in the facade of Terry Funk that
crazy old cowboy routine just last plus second. And that was another way for
him to teach me, you know, don't lose your temper like this and
don't get all pissed off and or to strangle somebody. You know, that
was his way of teaching me, just one more business side of the of
it. You know, it was always learning experience with Terry. That glimpse
of the noun, well, you know, cowboy bullshit. He said,
like a fox. And if you see the video, Shaneuglas makes like wide
eyes to imitate with Terry. How Terry's countenance changed when he said that,
like crazy like a fox, like b nuts, b nuts beneath the surface,
b nuts And look, I mean that was like a full, a
full dissertation there from Shane Douglass on how Terry Funk underpinned everything he did to
reinvent himself in ECW. It's all there, It's all Terry Funk. Basically
at the very east we can say without Terry Funk, a lot of these
ECW breakout stars wouldn't have been because they would have missed those little nudges along
the way, those little pieces of connective tissue to how to really connect on
a higher level to where they were all employable by the big leagues at you
know, a few years in it. It's funny to hear Shane Douglas talk
about reinventing the heel and all that and talking about, you know, getting
the endorsement to be the guy to draw the houses for the company, and
then you watch these shows and there's not a hell of a lot of people
in the building, although they did go to larger arenas, including a I
forget what the name of the place is. It's like a dome of some
type in Pittsburgh that you know, being a Pittsburgh boy himself, that Shane
Douglass convinced DCW to run and they did a pretty good house there. And
when they had some bigger houses and like ninety nine and stuff for their pay
per views, like in Chicago, the Anarchy Rules show did like forty five
hundred people. But Paul Haman wasn't about trying big buildings he was kind of
gun shy about overdoing how big they could draw and how big of a venue
they could try to run, So there was a lot of you know,
on unexplored upside. I feel like in terms of crowd size that they could
have done. But at the same time, it's it's funny that these guys
are learning these real fundamentals and feeling like they're draws and top guys. And
there's like a thousand people in building every single week, and it's like eight
hundred of them are the same people you know every single time, right right,
the same fucking clouds there. But they're learning, you know, these
lessons and feeling like big time draws because Terry Funk was telling them that they
were doing everything right. That's good enough for them even if they're not working,
you know, the biggest arenas in the cities for the biggest promotions in
the world. So before we get into the match here, to close this
one out, we're going to listen to two pieces of sound from a sit
down interview that Terry Funk and Shane Douglas both did with Gabes of Pulse Get
the time booking for Ring of Honor, and he did a shoot interview series
and they talk about the February fifth, nineteen ninety four, three way dance
for the ECW Championship. I don't think I never dreamed that it was gonna
be as creative as it was at time. I never thought it would be
that creative. And I thought it was a very creative match. Who been
just close to that or laid it out cause it was so there went on
and a lot of that one Yeah, well any points to me. I
point to him, He said, I hope you know. I we considered
it was about that. It was again, it was just one of those
nights where it just started bowing, you know, and it just wait,
it wouldn't wanted to flee. Well, all, I'll say this a very
little we really we only spoke for about a half an hour before that.
We didn't we didn't plant out a ton of spots on who was out.
We were in there and and pretty much about just from one move to the
match. Yeah, we we just dancing inside each other and aga a again
as one as uh, you know, un selvish things where especially on a
lot of the creative stuff, it was too Yeah, it just flowed.
Yeah, it just kind of flowed. Yeah when you and and I think
part of the you know, a big part of the reasons the success of
that match was it was original, but also because you had three dinner most
people say, the conventional wisdom would be, let's put three guys that can
fly and you have a great match. You had three very different styles.
I mean you you know, you had so set I do with all his
homicide and suicidal and anything else. You had this guy that had the legendary
hardcore subject' gonna have a strong wrestling heritage too in there. And then you
had this this trash talking heel that had a matt wrestling uh, you know,
a building. And so you had three different styles that we played off
each other. Each went really well, and we knew how to feed off
each other. So you know, And I gotta say one other thing about
that though, the most important thing about it was only because somebody was very
smart anyone and said Shane and I and I said, hum and sap,
We'll go ahead start. They say, I'll come wait in about fifteen minutes.
And I went, sure, collab, I'm telling you, but I'll
tell you what because I and I'm serious about this. It's Uh, they
set to they set the match before I ever got in there. What really
did the temp? Oh? Which set? And uh the fans were hot
whenever I came it was just honter. So I had a I had a
reach that night. So they keep on, you keep on saying about the
sixteen minutes. The funker was pretty smart. I acted Kate the first spit
tea. If I recall, we started off we they would do something who
jumped to earlier in the night and then he was sat to hurt and uh
so he wasn't supposed to make the match, but then Saboo got hurt.
Well, it just an insane dive. He had a table at about a
guy. It was I'm almost straight up and down, leaning against the railing
and he did a flipping a dive and he hit and slid down and landed
on his head on the concrete floor. I I thought he was then for
for legits here and uh, you know, we carded him out, and
of course came me the opportunity to you know, start my heir. I
know, funks not coming. His knees hurt and Sabba he was done.
I'm in the I'm in the runner of this match. And he come to
Spirit at seventy six, and it just it just fed the fans the right
amount of food in the right side of bites at the right times. You
know, it just kept building and building. And to be honest with you,
I've said this pump player before. I you know, it was such
a different match to me. At the end of it, I was disappointed.
I rolled over on the apron. I was blown out first of all.
And I was lying on the apron closest to the hod camera right and
and and I I was still there, going Jesus, this was it.
It just cause it didn't feel like a way gear wrestling, I said.
We talked earlier about the dance and being in the groove, and it never
felt to me like we got in that groove and we wanna dance. But
again, looking back, it was because he and I would do a spa
or wrestle some you know, a couple of minutes, and then I would
sell away and he and Sab we would go. So you never really got
a chance to get it that one group and keep ran on. You know,
you wanna were in and out, in and out, and uh,
I was lying on the apron and just trying to catch my window and just
just think of myself, God, we would really miss that one, you
know. And and I, you know, I heard the applause, but
I, you know, I was more worried about getting my wind back.
And and I heard Sherry Martell at the time of my valet going holy shit,
holy shit, look at this. And I pulled my head up,
and I look around, and I said, the fans getting as a standing
ovation. I thought, well, it was being polite. And even after
the match, I still didn't get it. I mean, I was still
disappointed afterwards in the dressing room. But when I went back, I watch
the tape of it as if I was I'm a big mark for I said,
I love watching professional wrestling. And I was sitting at home watching the
match him and I'm and I remember sitting down and thinking myself, you know,
I really kicked yourself in the aswers cause it sucked. And as I'm
watching it, I'm thinking, man, getting more interesting than that. I'm
you know, cause I was over here selling. I would see, you
know, I was paying a thing and thinking about that. I was seeing
from the fans perspective that in one man funk and Sabo were busting the mass
over there and then you know, and then you know, me and Saber
were busting ns over here and then and it just seemed like it just fit
together right. And after I'd watched on TV, then I started seeing you
know, what the fans brought into him, you know, and and even
I'm I'm still amazed now that it seemed like it is and that it's you
know, that it's it's seen as that first historic match in ECW. Uh,
you b but I you know, again after I having watched it,
man, I thought it was a very good match, but you know,
I'm proud of the fact that it's that the legacy is what it is from
that match, and and uh then it became the match that I really set
ECW on that course, that became the the first of many great matches in
ECW UP. So a lot there from both, but totally, as with
any great legendary match, the guys involved feel like it sucked during the match.
Shane Douglas ling on the apron feeling like this isn't working. It was
a fort I mean sixty minute matches in nineteen ninety four, I mean,
not really something the audience was equipped to handle the kind of thing you heard
about happening back in the day, but you'd never had really seen it.
Yeah, and you certainly didn't see it coming here because it wasn't forecast as
some kind of you know, a sixty minute iron man battle. And indeed,
as Saboo mentioned, he'd even wrestled earlier in the night in a tag
match and then came back for the title match. There was a mention there
of how Terry funk enters the match late. That is, in fact,
as Shane Douglass made reference to, due to an injury angle they did to
explain funk Er entering late in the contest. So a lot of it'll just
be Douglas and Saboo in the beginning, but in the final math, I
mean, Terry Funk stands by this being one of his proudest achievements. Oh.
I loved it. Love something very special. Yeah, something very that's
well. Uh, I saw your your comments on Forever Hardcover. You said
about, uh, you know, in thirty years, you know you only
have you have you know, a lot of matches, but a handful that
really stand out in your mind. Oh and and and you you you look
back at it and you're really proud of and and that that was one last
very h mine on that But back ten years ago, sure, and I'm
still thinking of that match, and you know, and and a lot of
the fans look back ECW fans especially, and they're still proud of what they
saw that night. I mean really seriously, you know, and uh uh
got here's there's just a hand. Really I looked further back in that,
you know, and there are certain times that I I can remember, like
getting in the ring with LU fans, you know, I tell you it
must have been awesome. Huh yeah, scared Tess, I bet yeah,
I did, you know, and uh uh you know Shay and us being
a very wrestling for Sam mashm you know, and uh uh some of the
Briscoe matches and Florida Bengs, so the Japanese matches and they after the matches
and then the sheet matches, you know, and and uhlen ECW match.
You know. I mean it just stands right up there. You're ready to
make your own decision. I suppose twenty one forty two Eastern Championship Wrestling Presents
the night the line was crossed, CW Champion Terry Funk, who had already
uh won the title. Again, we're looking at forty thirty two. Okay,
so Funk had won the ECW title. Uh, let's see, Uh
when did you win it for the first time on July sixteenth. No,
that's not it. Okay, we'll get it as we go. Let's prepare
all all systems YEP three two one play. So this is off ECW home
video and they still have a lot of development to do. See Douglas's manager
boss is a Sherry. Imagine it's her. Well, they were in W
together. That's a good point. So before there was Francine the second to
Douglas, it was you know who the first DCW champion was. It was
Jimmy Snooker. Yeah, Funk one at December twenty sixth ninteen ninety three,
the Holiday Show, uh defeating Saboo and then Shane Douglas. A look at
that Saboo coming out and Paul Hayman's in the ring getting head butted by Douglas
and it's automatically chaos. Sherry's down, Saboo blindsides Douglas and we are underway
with a three way dance tabo and loves the rights corner of the corner of
the whip. They're going fast. Oh yeah, I don't think I've seen
Shane Douglas fast a long time. Yeah, this before. He really packed
on a lot of that bricked up muscle in NCW. By the end there
he was all like, hghd out. The big head in there is so
fucking slow. Here he's very He's like the ninety one rumble guy. Yeah,
right, like the Hasbro you have. That's right, big boot on
the charging Saboo puts him down. Shane Douglas just thoughts overall boss. I
don't know. He's so kind of middle of the road. I've never been
away, Yeah, kind of. I don't know. Iffy, his big
thing in e c W was he'd say fuck and you'd get in the ring
and call Rick Flair Dick Flair and right like I feel like he get over
on on on to get over on belt had it's like cheap tricks. Yeah.
He was an excellent promo. I mean they he came out and he
was cutting like hour long promos right into the camera at a time when ECW
didn't have a whole hell of a lot of guys coming through that could do
that. Joey Styles on the call. This is one of his first assignments.
We've now transitioned off of Jay Sully and his idiots, the Ragdag Crew
Outside in Soup play by Douglas, Vertical Prescott's two on Saboo. And you
know, Joey Styles went on to be pretty much the only guy of his
type, I mean, the single man announcer. Sure, And I guess
you could say at Whalen and you could say Lance Russell flew solo Gordon Soli
to some degree, although we often had color. Other guys did it,
but Styles like exclusively did all the work anybody cares about. Not to denigrate
his WW run, but as a solo guy made his whole bones. It's
just the only the defining voice of ECWN was key because he played like almost
like a straight laced broadcaster who would take exception to the immorality of certain things.
And and he had like a good straight man counteraction to the ECW spirit.
Still no Terry Funcus. He's still selling the injury as the snap mare.
And now Jane Douglas digging into the face of Saboo, slowing down the
aerial attack spitting at people. Yeah, big name guys coming through. I
mean you had Snooka, then you had Don Morocco, uh, Sandman beating
Morocco o Moronco beat Sandman Titos Indiana also winning the UCW World titles. It's
bizarre. It was bizarre. It's fucking weird. It's halfway between like you
know, one of those fallback indies and like this startup group. You know
what happened is they started getting guys like Shane Douglass from WWWCW who had you
know, kind of mid card status and found men of venter in him and
pushed him that way, and so all of a sudden, his W became
this place where the underappreciated could shine. So here's a right hands and a
spinning heel kick by Sabou Douglas hits the floor. That's Paul him and next
to him is nine to one one. Do you ever hear about nine to
one one before? Boss? I've heard that name. It's a big guy
that they basically hired to just come in and choke slam people at random points
in the show. They'd play his music and Jesus people would go nuts as
he would like choke slam. It like they'd set up like these big elaborate
moments where it was like it would die down and then his music would hit
like when you would least expect it, but they'd set it up in really
creative ways. And the Sky had like the most unbelievable run because he was
just like he barely knew anything about wrestling. They just taught him the choke
slam and he was over like the fucking mate Hayman and a lot of those
man only Paul Hayman could make certain guys over from Paul Hamon guys right,
That's exactly it. Sabo back in on Douglas slam's and middle rope springboard,
and Saboo takes a hafunk. Jesus, it's like a lion salt. But
he did the rotating front flip, almost laying it on his fucking head that
the Saboo was and almost landing on his head. He's afraid that you might
not have gotten your money's worth. Here's the straw hat guy still there in
the front row. Now this looks more like ECW. What a difference it
makes when you can't see the wall on the hard camera. It makes a
huge difference. Building isn't that much bigger than the ones we were seeing for
the funk Eddie Gilbert stuff. But man, what a difference of the People's
a huge difference. Sabo with the dragon sleeper applied now to Shane Douglas.
This Douglas bridge is up. Yeah, I'm about to take a dragon sleeper
myself. Yeah, I know. Yeah, this is a tough one.
This is a tough one. Asked the boss to go through. These are
the moments Jesus Hanging's noose neck Breaker by Douglas puts down Sabo in the middle
of the ring. Douglas limping about, drops the elbow. Nobody home.
I mean, I will say it's better than watching seth rawlins, so I'll
take okay, all right. I wouldn't necessarily expect you to say that walking
on an arm bar now cross arm breaker of Saboo. He would do matt
stuff. He would He would almost insist on, like some chain sequences in
some of his matches, just so that I couldn't say he didn't know how
to do it. I don't know something. I just you know, he's
not. No. That's the thing that bothers me is that I don't understand
the reputation of him being so great when he is so sloppy. It's just
the stuff he was doing was so like second third degree passed. When anybody
else had been doing it, it was you had to see it. It
was like a buzz, the way the buzz would build for the stuff he
would do. And I suppose that's kind of it. Like I saw so
much stuff that was kind of on that level and probably a little bit less,
not not as dangerous right before I ever saw him do anything that.
I just he just doesn't He's not interesting to me. Yeah, you know,
yeah, It's definitely a you had to be there kind of thing,
right. I mean, it always goes back to that, like you know,
imagine like hearing about some crazy spot he did on a show. I
thought this was a triple threat match. Yeah, and they had entered Funk
earlier in the card, so it was like we'd have to go out there
and wrestle. They were kind of explaining in those soundbites that it was kind
of by design that that that was a way they thought they could break up
the hour long match a bit is to have someone come in late just seemed
like a no, basically a world rumble, a most god work in that
arm Cherry in ECW that doesn't get talked about enough. Oh not at all.
I went off Shawn Michaels right at this point. She would have been
yeah, this is ninety what now, ninety four ninety four? Yeah,
so she would have just been out. I mean she she left Summer in
ninety three. Wow, actu she was a Summer Slam ninety three right with
him. I don't know if she no, no, no, no,
she wasn't there. It was so rumble. Ninety three is when they broke
up, and so she was basically managing anybody who you know, went against
Sewn Michaels, and then Luna Vashan came into play and at WrestleMania. Yeah,
I just seemed to associate Sherry with Summer Slam nineteen ninety three for some
reason. Yeah, she's like eight. Oh that that's Joey Styles for you.
The franchise, the franchise of what well, he's the franchise of ECW
is what he is, but it's barely even alive, right, and he's
sort of cockily assuming it's going to be him. Oh well, the character
is kind of like like a high school quarterback that everybody hates because he's you
know, he's got he's swag, he's got swagger, he's he's clean cut.
You know, he's all the things that you know, we say make
you all American, but also make you a heel in reality, you know,
right? Uh? Do you want to know something fun? Actually?
Yes I do. Oh, Saboo actually helps qualify a number of movies for
Under the Cinema. Is that because Sabo based his name off of his uncle's
favorite actor, whose name is Sabo. Oh my goodness, is that right?
Yeah? So Sabo's the actor. Saboo's movies qualified because of that.
That's really remarkable. Oh it's funny because I was actually I sat there wondering,
like, you know, is it is it? Uh, like,
is it a coincidence or whatever? And then you know, I happened to
look it up one time and I was like, Nope, no, it's
not a coincidence at all. It's remarkable. Yeah, I didn't. I
certainly read his book, but I don't remember that part of it. Yeah,
I'm looking forward to that. I mean, it's not like he said
a lot in his lifetime, especially in his prime, so we can contribute
on sco he just standing switch and a lot of you know, essentially chain
grappling here between Saba and Chane Douglas, significant amount of the chain grappling and
not the chain grappling we saw between Terry Funk Andy Gilbert earlier. I think
that's called Texas chain grappling. That's right, exactly, Texas death chain grappling
with right, taking reference to the fact that Terry Funk still doesn't come under
the ring yet. So that's it's so stupid. It's like the least interesting
thing about this. Yeah, it's a curious choice. I think the idea
of a three way was so exotic to these guys, right that they sort
of felt like, you know, two guys have to get shined to start.
I mean, of course, we still see it today with's triple threat
matches in every company, where the whole formula is one guy gets knocked out
on the outside of the rings so two can take center stage. Here.
That wasn't you know, the pattern that hadn't been canonized yet, and w
CW didn't do that either. WW actually had you know, they had some
actual three ways like that. You know, if I remember correctly earlier one
were in play. Yeah, except for when they had there was I think
there was a difference between a triangle match and in a triple threat match.
It was because a triangle match had one guy in the apron right right,
tag right, Oh my god, look at is that? It's nine one
one picking up a table. So action hit the floor, reversed, whip
Shane Douglas whip by Sabo over the guardrail, sharing and nine to eleven causing
terrorism. I'll say, Cherry lunches over the guardrail checking the franchise, and
Sabo is now positioning the table not just on the floor but passed the guardrail.
As fans, i'd be concerned about the franchise as well. Absolutely,
yeah, also concerned about the franchise. Bob Kraft laid across the table past
the rail, Sabo to the apron. He's bring boards. He moon salts
for the industry. That's it. And again a one camera shoot, big
time problem, oh for sure, because Saboo on the far side of the
ring just moon salted out of the ring over the rail, through a table
on the concrete and all we could see is him disappear behind the apron.
Is nine to eleven supposed to be like dieseler or something. Yeah, pretty
much. Yeah, that's a good analogy, because he's wearing that stupid biker
fringe. Shit hops the guard rail to check on Saboo on behalf of poly
Dangerously of course, with Saboo's manager at this point in time, is that
guy actually security is you're just trying to fucking help out. I don't know
the other the Polo Paulo shirt. Yeah, he's dressed a little too country
clubby for this crowd. Up guys, Back up, guys, huh,
Jerry, Jerry Stoules, We're not in Atlanta. That's a big thing called
ww F New York. You know, he was being sarcastic. We're not
in New York here, huh. Back to center ring. Douglas has Saboo
right where he wants him. If the look on his face is any indication,
the shitting breaker goes to franchise the size of Shane Douglas's head, like
it's just not appropriate. It's it's prominent. Yeah, it's a it's a
dome. It really is, like it's it's it's really you know, he
should have taken care of that early Carnegie Mellon. Yeah, I'm from Pittsburgh.
Uh Carnegie Mellon met at the Carnegie Deli that right, what a minute?
Uh? There he is their feet is Terry Funk forehead wrapped, emerges
from the locker room, walks down the rail and tosses he's got something in
his hand. He went ahead and dropped it. I want to hadn't dropped
it. I want to ahead and put a thing on my head. That's
where he started doing the bandana, and that's what it was. Kinda well,
yeah, I guess I want to head and ban Dan in my head.
I said, you know what, I think, I'm gonna go ahead
and enter the match. He entered the match like a guy's entered rumbles and
wrestle fest right exactly ahead and tax Shane dounb this and threw him out of
the ring. I want ahead and join the three way dance. I want
ahead and decided this dance has gone long enough two way. It's time for
three way. And even though for anajut right in the ring, a manaja
extreme because I'm gay for fake sport. He's so Queery's standing in the guardrail,
thrown punches behind a big ass pole. I got a big ass pole
in my pants. I need Vicky to take care of it. Who Ivan
Putski? What Douglas gets the upper Hell, yeah it is. Douglas gets
the upper hand of the Funker in the crowd. They brought back into the
ring and Douglas with forearm shivers and the battered Funk. Terry Funk was actually
introduced by ring announcer Bob Artees despite it entering their match twenty minutes late.
He still announces him. I guess now you're gonna enter, and it's legal.
You can introduce somebody whatever you want. Shanon Douglas looks like you know,
he does look like a fucking quarterback. Oh, totally yeah. He
look like a little fucking high school bitch. He does. He looks like
a high school bitch. Yeah, he looks like that quarterback and Ken Hardly
Wade who comes back to the high school party. Yes, I mean he's
a little better shape. That guy was kind of like fat for a reason,
you know. But Pnell wasn't it. I think it was Jerry.
Watch it with that. I can't. I'm not always ready for you to
name him. Little of the Ring franchise with the bear Hug and the Funker
Pep bring him with tight punches, Funk having suffered a beatdown earlier in the
card, entering worse for wear. And you see that front row sign Terry
Funk. The true legend, true true legend. Is that what it says
legend legend says twice or something? Does it say twice? It's also signed
that said Shane Dufis, which is prepared with that. I'll take that one
ahead and again on the fire side. Can't see a damn thing as Funk
or Pile drives Shane and the concrete. You know, it was my way
of telling the easter w folk that they got to have cameras on other places.
So I said, fuck it, I'm just going to do it in
places where they can't see. I'm gonna show you what I mean. I'm
going to show you how to do business, and that that that that problem
will be fixed real quick. I like the fans, the front row fans
high five each other. Would Funker Pile drove Shane Douglas on the concrete because
they did something like it's like football fans or Fock's egg, you know,
like they fucking scored a touchdown Oh, Terry's chasing Sherry, and she knows
how to run away. Look at her, Terry and Sherry got that right,
Cherry, Oh Terry Ann. She obviously went to WO. She always
went to WW manae Haarlane heat and everything after this. But you, yeah,
I'm really interested in like a Sherry during ECW's peak, you know,
like her unhinged, you know, allowed to be extreme, tussling with Beulah
and frank Out and all that, and maybe them in people's faces. I
could the ring the Funker d DT Shane Douglas, I want ahead and dropped
him on his head. Sure did another DDT by the Funker. Bunker always
complimentary towards Douglas, gave him like a forty minute classic for the ECW title
at this rough stage of the company's evolution. And true living Legend is what
it says, True living legend and uh covered by funk gets too. No
foot on the rope, no one's sitting down in the front row. That's
a good song. Yep, where's Shamou? I don't know, Saboo and
Moon salted into the into a black hole because where his body should be everyone
standing, everyone. I'd love it if he's like eating a hot dog or
snorting coke or something awesome. Well, that's actually a valid reason to hit
the floor and not do anything, unlike other triple threat matches, because there
isn't a camera to observe what you're doing. So yeah, right, it's
a good time to do it. Why I bother doing anything if no one's
going to see Cherry Shery grabs a franchise. Funk throws a hay maker Cherry.
Let's not forget if the guy's gonna give him a chair. They're feeding
chairs from the fans. I said, what's this for? Oh? Are
these the things you're throw into the ring. It's like it's like there's a
magnet that draws the chairs in. There's like four chairs. Cherry's in the
ring. She leaves the ring again. Funker's whipping. I think Terry Funk's
trying to hit Sherry with these projectaile steel chairs. Oh, and she likes
other projectiles. Actually, indeed, that's what I've heard. After look at
Funker. He's waving on the ECW arena. He's calling for more chairs and
they're giving it to him. Heirs, come on, I want ahead,
and called for the chairs. I'm gonna go ahead and say, give me
a fucking chair. I need to sit down. These fans are like you.
Sure I wouldn't be that way for long as we go through the ECW
Journey of Terror, Funk, there would come a point where it became highly
inadvisable to tempt the rabbit ECW craft to throw steel chairs in the seriously,
you know once, because you know, you know, these are the kind
of people that once you give them permission, that's exactly it. It's it's
it's gonna be anarchy. You open that door. Forget it. It's a
wild Texas looking to Joey Styles. Starry Funk has that wild Texas look in
his eyes. So dd Douglas on the floor. Douglas back in though there's
still no sign of saboo here we go, went ahead and dropped him on
his head. Jesus Christ made another steel chair bonfire in the middle of the
ring. Look at Sherry. The thing is I did ted him on all
those chairs. But you notice I sold as well because I hurt my back.
Well, it wasn't really selling. Actually did myself. I went ahead
him, broke my fucking back, broke last sick room again. You know
it was ECW. We did what we had what but I'll still gut up?
Oh did you? I'm still waiting. He's crawling at all fours like
like he's in a smoke filled room. Oh wow. Jane comes off the
middle with a big splash across the back of the bunker, and Terry's selling
like he's having a seizure. He's grabbing off this funk, rolling around on
the mat, grabbing chairs like you can do anything with him and throwing them
around, just moving them. Basically you can't Mars over there. Well,
uh, you got the last name right? I think I said a groucho.
His first name is Buncha. Led it back by Shane Douglas gets two
in the latter goal. Press still fight in the funker. C W World
Championship on the line here at the Arena on South Swanson by Terrence Fumek as
Fumek punning up a spirited effort, but Douglas proving a bit more spry.
Let's see we've never got a match between Terrence Fumeke and Norbert Group. That'd
be a good idea, right, when is it? Big Red? What
is his name? Red Red? Groupa to the floor, they go funk
whipped into the steel guard rail and everyone's standing they are counting down the time.
So the idea that this one could go sixty was kept alive through the
whole match. There has been several call outs by Bob Arties of how much
time has elapsed. Again in nineteen ninety three, that wasn't the giveaway that
it would be today. Yeah, yeah, what are you making the Funker
so far in this one? Ah? Yeah, he's funking. Yeah,
yeah, it's a very very good way to put it. Yeah, funking
doesn't necessarily mean great, It just means only Terry Funk could create this mood
of the match. Yeah, Like he's he's doing what he does all the
way to the back of the arena towards the wall itself, and the ladder's
there and Funk, you better believe gets driven into that head first. Is
he going to moon salt off the fucking ladder? Yeah? Would I?
When I hadn't moon salted landing out my head, I said, this is
the one drop sault up my hand? Yes, well, like this is
this is one of the drawbacks of not doing this strictly chronologically. This match
actually took place before the first moon salt Oh really, yeah, it was
a year before that. Just think about, like, you know, Royal
rumbled ninety three, having just wrapped, and this is going on in Philly.
That's this Douglas slam's fun hard on the floor near some chairs as well.
No, uh no, real proper guardrails. After this is when will
it take place again? February fifth, nineteen ninety four. Oh four,
Okay, yeah, I'm sorry, I said nine ninety three and four looking
there, right, yeah, exactly, Yeah, we just first talking about
what she was doing in ninety three. She should not be there. It's
like two weeks before the moon salted, I think, or a week all
right, I think Funk just threw a punch at the at the post with
no one anywhere nearby. But oh my, pull my head and hit me
on my head. But already a little more lively than those very early ECW
shows we saw from the year prior. Yes, it's not like this thing
looks like Madison Square Garden, but it actually looks like a happening, you
know what I mean, on the ground happening right right, not just the
thing people like found themselves in with no intention of actually like walking down the
Jersey boardwalk and ah, I heard there's wrestling going on. See what that's
about. Huh, that's Douglas turning the tide on the Funker DDT and him
in the center of the ring. Looks like Terry Funk's been opened up as
well. Oh yeah, he's lifeless. Well, I guess today strictly speaking,
that's true. Terry Funk taking an issue with the cadence of the count
that allows Funker to do a perfect O'Connor roll. What is he doing?
He's great, he looked awesome doing that. Yit he did. It's like,
just you know, unacceptable. At the same time, absolutely Funk exploding
into the spinning toe hold on on Douglas, who counters with the inside cradle
well scattered by the franchise that gets to move the spin told so stupid.
Yeah, back up, and Douglas quick to the draw, dropping Terry Funk
with a swift lariat before Funk could begin building momentum. Doesn't he doesn't even
like spin the toe. You spin the ankle, well, the toe is
like lodged in your crotch, so like when you spin around you're supposed to
like you know, use the tip of the toe to push the ankle.
Yeah. I mean it's not strictly a move that grabs you by the toe
and tries to bend the toe. But the point of leverage, the fulk
croom of the whole thing is the toe. Like the heel hook is it
something that actually attacks the knee, But the heel is what you grab,
what you latch onto. Long bloodied, having trouble standing as Shane Douglas continues
to pepper him with shots. Shane Douglas coullins, like Glenn Jacob's a little
bit there. Interesting, I guess you could say that, Oh so I
want had and killed the referee. He did. He just funk through a
wild haymaker, no idea where he was, and took out the referee right
in the metal buckle. That's it, that says, removed that buckling pad.
That's it. And the funker eats steal. Still no sign of the
uh homicidal, suicidal, genocidal maniac. I think he's eating falafel actually,
and that's what I heard. And champions in trouble. I'm in trouble.
Oh, actually, I take that back. Paul Haman is right, there
the funker here he is just all up in the ropes. Oh you gotta
know it. Oh my god, is that up for a wrestling crucifixion version?
There the way he's hanging like that, and oh oh oh oh he
gets a shot in. So funk got one arm and one leg wrapped up
in the bottom rope like hanging halfway to the floor and in perfect equipoise as
Cherry gets some shots in on the prone funker. But all Shane Douglass here
off the apron and a kick to the head Terry's he tries to regain his
uh, his balance, his footing or Shane Douglas and ECW and you have
to consider, oh is that his music? And you remember, that's one
thing I did back when I got my first PC Home PC in eighteen eighty
six, the packard bell I downloaded the ECW theme songs off a website and
then only years later, not years later, but months later, did I
realize that what I'd actually downloaded was a bunch of actual songs, not things
ZCW created Jesus songs that people would recognize that knew nothing about wrestling, like
war Machine by Kiss was Taz his entrance and I had no idea it was
a kiss song. And this time back in the ring, the Funker beats
Shane Douglas to the punch show to speak, sending him face first into the
exposed buckling Funk slapping the shit out of shape. It's like we get we
get a we get a half hour with no Terry Funk, a half hour
with no Saboo. Right, That's how they were. We're gonna close with
a with a half hour of no Shane Douglas. I don't know is that
is that? Is that a wish? Or is that a question? I
mean oath Maybe so Funk's going off with the hands a big left hay maker
drops the franchise, Funk working them over now in the corner with those all
japan punches. Baby this Shane. I'm gonna go ahead and punch in the
head like Japan style, and then I'm gonna eat a sandwich. I'm gonna
I'm gonna go ahead and punching here in e c W until well curfew in
ec W, I'm gonna punch in the head. I'm gonna punch an ec
W like I do in Japan. Japan Wump extreme Championship Went Ahead. Extreme
Championship Japan e c J series of chops whipping a back elbow puts down Douglas.
Terry Funk standing tall despite being more than on the ropes literally and figuratively.
At several junctures in this three way dance, the floor goes Douglas courtesy
the Funker. Who's gonna mix it up? All right, Chino, I'm
gonna go ahead and put you on the head in the front row. I'm
gonna come out after you and uh, you know, just walk some spots
and it'll I'm gonna I'm gonna float, I'm gonna touch you where you stink,
and I want you to just accept it, understand it. I'm celebrating,
and I wondered they thought he'd be a good replacement for Patterson. Deep
into the crowd now on the hard camera side, Funk was throwing punches the
mob encircling them, flyers jerseys in case you forgot what city you're in.
All right, I am pretty fascinated by the ECW crowd before they realized they
were a thing. Yes, yeah, this is a crowd that's like really
dialed into what's happening. And of course bloodthirsty and extra rowity and all the
things we would come to associate with nineties Philly wrestling crowds. But they're still
not aware. They're just a time call there by Bob artiz I missed what
they said. How many minutes? Somebody said fifteen minutes. Things have been
way more than fifteen minutes. But they're not like performing yet. The crowd,
you know, they're not like if we say this, chan, it'll
end up on home video. They're like, well, they're they're yeah,
it's kind of in a very very neat spot where they're actually truly invested in
what they're thinking. Here's the comptro home alone one there keeping order that doesn't
want to hear. The house looks like cure. Yeah, the house looks
secure, right, Officer, there's about eight hundred and fifty through the turnstiles.
Tell them to count their tickets again, exactly just a little sojourney to
the crowd and back, and now Douglas is on the floor, Terry Funk's
on the apron, and Sherry's trying to grab the Funker and prevent him from
attacking fans still handing chares. Hey you want this, Terry, you want
to smack her in the head of this fucking chair. Who's that guy running?
I don't know who's that idiot somebody else. Funk has decided to run
after he's got the wrist tape. What if he What if all of a
sudden, Terry Funk just started, you know, fucking Sherry from behind,
grabs her like he's trying to like and to give her the spanking spot,
and then he enters her and she just tock her hands on the apron and
he's just going to fucking town. I was such a Sherry fan. She
was wonderful. But we know, we know that she ripped through the locker
room like nobody else. Absolutely, so there was a midring collision. Funk
did his drunk man stumble cell out of the ring, and now Saboo with
a taped right knee, drawing an explosive chance of Saboo has re entered the
three way dance and they want you know, you know what's so funny about
these things is that, you know when is that they really can't. They
don't know how to fucking book a triple threat match for real. Yet in
video games, video games, you really know how to fucking book a triple
threat match, right, Well, the games don't have this thing of like
we can't shine, we can't control who has the shine if it's not one
on one. I don't understand why they need to just has the mic.
The match is what shines like, just you dirty, rotten gossard. You
please a shitt talking to both of you talking now, damn it? You
know he tosses the mic down all right there it is. Yeah, So
on the on the cam side, if you go all the way to the
back of the arena, that's where I guess a house mic was set up
and Funk took the opportunity to start screaming at both Shane Douglas and Saboo on
them idiots and fools and anything. He called them a geek also at one
point that's hilarious idiots, that's a big If you let Terry go long enough,
he'll eventually say something like pervert or something. Whoa what? Yes,
So the Funker has re entered half drunk, collar and elbow with the franchise
and they're throwing fisticuffs. Douglas really piling up the shots. Oh, Funk
almost spilled to his death through the ropes there now there it is thirty five
minutes of a lapse already. That's that's interesting. I don't know if that
was on purpose, but and Funker takes the opportunity to hook the spinning toe
hold on the bad right wheel of Saboo. Saboo ailing right now, What
do you think did Shane Douglas mean to throw himself under the ropes and clothesline
himself like that? Who the fuck dons? Here comes nine to one one,
nine eleven in the ring. Somebody called nine one one and here he
is. Oh, did he waffled him in the head with what? Now?
When was that? Polly got him with the phone and hit Funker in
the head that stupid phone. I was in Funk to relinquish the spinning toe
hold on Polly's charge. Saboo almost convulsing on the canvas. It Funk's kicking
out. Look at him, his ticking out of a phantom cover. There's
nobody on top of them, but it's just instinct jy D style. All
fours headbutts now by the Funker to both Shane Douglas and Saboo. And this
is where they start doing the three way innovations. At this point in the
match. This is where it's like we start seeing combinations of moves we haven't
seen before because of the unique you know, dynamic here. It is weird
to think, you know that that this had never been done before pretty much.
I'm sure you could find an example, but yeah, it hadn't been
done in a way where anybody bothered to repeat it or talked about it as
a success. Eric Hengman's noose neck breakers on both Shane Douglas and Sabo Funk
covers Saboo gets one, gets two, and Paul puts Saboo's foot on the
rope for the break. Wow for a no DQ company. It was kind
of funny that they adhere to the rope break. Verry Funk thinking as well,
shove Jim Molino, the referee to the canvas for that. Gotta blame
somebody, that's true. Right hand and Funk laid across the middle rope and
Sherry's choking the Funker across the middle strand Funk can't catch a break. He's
getting Polly and nine one one in one direction on behalf of Saboo and he's
getting Sherry on the other on behalf of the franchise. Douglas is going to
town now on that knee with a leg grapevine, dropping an elbow, trying
to really force the Uh you sure brought mc foley in. Oh look at
this. Wow, that's something Shane hadn't acounted for while he's got the legs
admission on. Funk just rolls over and covers Terry Fun up, covers Saboo
and gets two. I don't think Shane Douglass realized it. He didn't even
try to stop the cover. When ahead, Oh, when ahead ahead,
Cherry? Uh got Sherry niplock. Yeah, oh no head butt to Sherry
by the funker. Douglas has a sleeper on Saboo, and this is a
famous one, the triple sleeper. Look at this ship ever been done.
And Douglas would say that he had no idea what was coming, and they
didn't work out the triple sleeper moment. He expected Funk to actually hit him
and try to break up the sleeper hole. A Funk called it on the
fly, and this is this is fucking clever for that. That's great.
So you got Shane Douglas with a sleeper on Saboo, and he got Terry
Funk with a sleeper on Shane Douglas. All at the same time, referee
Jimmalino has his hands full here. I mean, who's gonna yeah, who's
gonna win? If I guess if Sabu concedes, Douglas wins, I guess,
I guess. Eventually the Saboo collapses to the canvas, out cold,
Shane Douglas releases his sleeper, Funk still has his on elbow. There it
is. Douglas gets free, hits the ropes flows Lyne three sixty over the
top to the floor, goes Terry Funk, Chunk right back to the bat
knee. If Sabou goes Shane Douglas, Sabu wasn't uh, you know,
it wasn't really out too. I guess. Yeah. That's the thing for
ECW's reputation as being, you know, emphasis on the ultra violence. You
know, Shane Douglas was their first poster boy, and he couldn't have been
less of a table crasher, you know. And the problem too, you
know, the ultra violence means that violence, you know, you lose the
impact of it. It's no different than than seth rollins oh, in terms
of like, yeah, believing it actually hurts mattering. You know, the
more you do, the the the violence and the less impact it has.
Yeah, Big Get four applied now by Shane Douglas on the Bad Wheel of
Saboo. Sabo's shoulders dropped me a couple of times here for the cover,
but not enough. Yeah, it was weird. Like at the time when
ECW would stack up violent, crazy stunt spots, you know, the thought
was like, oh my god, this is like just like a blatant stunt
show just to like. And then now we look back and it looks like
these guys were actually doing it to win matches, compared to the the the
hyper pointlessness of some of the violence we see and some of the garbage promotions
and stuff. Long tries to re enter the fray, Sabo keeps him at
bay. Saboo, despite the bad Wheel, is now taking the fight to
Shane Douglas scooping a slam down, goes the franchise we go, Sabo's gonna
position him, takes off of the Arabian press. He totally blows it.
But it's a bad knee, all right, I'll take that, all right,
not bad, that's good. That's actually good, good storytelling. There
they tried it again? Will we get it the second time? That time
he got it right across Douglas's chest. Cover two the Sherry's in the rings
screaming, did she just kick him? Maybe some of the script called for
we had those ropes shat shake, they were I'm not ready for Sabo.
No, well they're not ready for a match. Sabu climbing to take off
the top rope again. At this time, Cherry goes right up to him
and stops him. Cherry, look at her, what a what a fucking
you know, we were spoiled. Oh what a pro so spoiled pro A
pleasure every time she was on TV, A pleasure to watch, Yeah,
screaming her everything. She was just an absolute. She was brilliant And then
out of the ring in all fours of Saboo tries to give chase, but
he's get the bad wheel and that allows Douglas to hit the floor. It
looks like Funk is attacking over the chair. Funks few good men. I
don't understand. I think it's an Axel Rotten and Ian Rotten, right,
yeah, yeah, he kind of formed like an alliance with them at this
point in time. So Joey styles sells us. We can't see it.
The funks on the ground not moving. Meanwhile, back in the ring,
Shane Douglas hooking up the Fisherman's buster on Saboo. He turns into a bridge.
Combination gets too not enough, it's to get there. I think he
was touching himself. Maybe. Oh, Sabu tries to explode up with a
hurricane ron and lands on his head. On his fucking head, no problem.
The problem with Saboo is that you'd never know if it's if he meant
to do it or not. Well is that a problem? Though? Is
that a good thing said, something that sets him apart? It depends because
it's one thing to make it. But sometimes he just looks like an idiot,
right, you know? Yeah? Yeah, And you if you're convinced
he was actually trying in that moment, but I think the fact that he
would he would claim and others claim that he purposely would mess up spots sometimes
to keep alive. The mistique that there's just something about him that that I
don't like. It really bugs me the way he does it, because like
I don't I don't feel like it's a it's a it's just because he's just
so sloppy. I find him to be so sloppy overall, and so that's
where I guess it it. I don't like it because he just, yeah,
he just comes across sloppy. Whereas you get someone who's normally crisp and
clean and then they screw up, it's like, Okay, that's actually good
story. You know that that works for me. But when you're generally sloppy
and just fucking doing shit for the sake of doing shit, which you know,
I don't know if that's what he is at all, but that's just
how I see him, because yeah, you're making you're making I think,
very understandable observations about the guy, and I don't disagree with anything you're saying.
I think he came along at a time before there was a way,
a way to do it right, So everything he did was like creating a
new category of wrestling. So it's kind of hard to see him as messing
up because he was doing things no one else had done cleanly. Yeah,
it's like, what do we know? What are you expecting? You know?
Meanwhile, Axe Lean rotten Ha hit the ring and completely double team swung
chairs on both Douglas and Saboo and cleaned house on behalf. I guess if
Terry funk they are rotten fucking Brian Knobs stunt doubles here. Ah, I
know forty five minutes of elapsed according to Bob Artes Rice speaking of Bob Artistes
in the ring here. Oh uh, Sherry's up on the apron now is
the Rotten brothers continue to assault that. She rakes the back of Ian Rotten
breaks the back, Sherry, have you seen how much fat they're there?
He can't feel bad. I had to take more than that. Douglas low
bridges Ian Rotten on a clothes line. Rotten hits the floor. Axel Rotten
sends a Saboo hard over the ropes with the clothesline, hits his face on
the mat too. That was pretty That was actually pretty cool. He just
looks like Knobs, especially from this far away. It really does. Like
just a fucking idiot Axel tossing Sabo over the railing. Never I like,
just they so grotesque. Weeks after uh Luger and Brett tie and the rumble
here deal with that. It's wild, Like you said pre Ladder match,
that's a key insight. Yeah, up the aisle Go, Axel Rotten and
Saboo. Saboo send him to the wall. I'm gotta be carefully keeps running
like that, he's gonna fucking collapse, definitely. Paul Hayman ECW trademark.
You know world title matches that like have sixteen people involved, seventeen people involved,
it still comes down, will finish. It's not like I think the
match is over when twenty five people get involved. And it really explained it.
You know, they didn't bother to do ref bumps. Really, they
just did it. They didn't give a shit. He didn't They didn't like
explain that their worn't count outs. Really, they just never counted anybody out
right. I'm gonna say, if there's no DQ, there's no point in
even having rough bumps. Yeah. Yeah. Jane Douglas finally catches up to
Sabos who's fighting Axel Rotten in the back of the building, runs him down
the island back into the squat circle. Douglas with the Irish whip and Funk
collapses a pardon me, Sabo collapses on the bad wheel. Sabo is like
a Kamakazi and he's like a fucking right throwing his body at you, and
so yeah, sometimes it sometimes the rocket misfires, you know. And again
I said before I do, I do wonder if my opinion would be differently
if I had seen him. Yeah, think about you as a wrestling fan
in nineteen ninety four. Yeah about if you saw Saboo tape, Like a
very very good possibility that I would have been a bigger fan. We're just
interested, like in what this guy's up to, you know, like,
what is this pressed by it? Yeah, for sure. So now Terry
Funk has re entered the fray and he's battling with Shane Douglas on the floor.
You know, it's they got all this credit for doing three way innovations,
but it's actually a twelve way match. There's Yeah, it really is.
It's actually just a battle royal, That's what it is. A million
things to look at, not just Funk, Douglas and Sabou as a axe
of rotten is held wide open by nine one one and Paul Hayman keeps wrapping
him over the head with a cell Punk rotten Human beings here, and we've
actually reached the point in the match where none of the principles are on the
screen. Yeah, just see Paul Haman attacking. We don't see Terry Funk.
We don't Oh, by god, they've left the building. We panned
to the right and we realize the reason we can't see the three wrestlers in
the match is because they've exited the door. They've gone home. Not just
still going everyone's going home. They're leaving. Like fuck, this this shit
sucks. It's an absolute fucking maniac streaming out into the parking lot. Imagine
it's like, you know, this fucking match sucks. It's been going on
too damn law I'm going home February and Philly. Imagine how cold it is
out there and how the fuck reemerges and like it just like came up out
of a hole in the ground. Is that? What the fuck is that
barrier thing? It's I don't know, it's it's weird. I think it's
a screen to prevent people from seeing inside through the front window front doors,
but it's like it's like weirdly detachable. It's bizarre substance. Yeah, the
and Todd Gordon has great stories about this in his book. The UCW Arena
was very much a work in progress. They every time they came to the
building. There was some new leak or some new issue and and also some
little improvement they'd made to where by the time they got to their first pay
per view and I actually addressed the building up and lit it up pretty nicely.
But they had to learn show in and show out, not actually uh.
Fifteen minutes into the match and Terry Funk, the Bloody Terry Funk is
back in the middle of the ring with Shane Douglas, and the Funker dropped
another referee by the by the way, and then he kicked Shane Douglas in
the nuts. Douglas cells Saboo re enters the Fray kind of go home,
boss, like you said. Yep, another low blow from the Funker,
at this time towards Saboo and the Funker standing tall, hug it a hole.
I gotta give these people credit, man, They've been in their feet
for sixty minutes. They have no one has sat this whole match, and
I'm talking like five six rows back rzi. I can see, oh,
a series of headbuts by Terry Funk to Saboo and then he stumbles around like
that wasn't the best idea. Look at him, he's such a fucking meat.
He's such a fucking lunaticus collapse from his own head. But I did
by one I had and hit my head and I said, fuck it,
I'm out, Absolutely I quit. Sabo runs over Douglas and Funk with a
pair of clothes lines, and Sabo scoops and slams Terry in the center of
the ring. Hair Saboo in coming middle rope top rope alight, loses the
footing as a springboard and loses his footing again. Yeah, he's definitely fucking
these up. I think top rope Saboo. Now I'm gonna set a springboard.
A Funk rolls in a position moon Salt press by Saboo, fucking crotch.
Yeah, Funk comes up and falls. Got God damn, he's a
He's such a he is so wild like the move lands and the fun is
just begun because now you get to watch to Terry Funk react like you just
got took a bullet in the back, you know, yep. Sabo now
turning his attention to Shane Douglas, scooping a slam towards the corner of the
ring and going up top again. Boon Salt Pruss across the knees of Douglas.
Terry Funk meanwhile, climbs over to try to take advantage. No referee
to count, poly dangerously is trying to wake up an official that Funk dropped
about ten minutes, five minutes ago, we had got no referee. Well
there that there's one reason to attack a referee, right, I guess it's
not there to count if you're in a bad position. Bunker over to the
reft trying to wake him. U maybe should have knocked him out. Terry
what Douglas capitalizes, pounces on the Funker, lifts him in the middle of
the ring and spike pile driver. Yeah, tough landing for Terry. Saboo
next in the cross heirs of the franchise. He's thinking, soup Lex,
what's fun? What's Douglas gonna do here? It's gonna dunk. Yeah,
that's it. Supplex is Saboo cross Funk. But Taboo is pinning Terry Funk
ges no referee to worry about. Yeah a referee, Well, Sabo is
covering. They might want to address that first. When in a triple threat
environment, just use your opponent as a weapon and hit the other guy with
him two As Douglas covers Funk and gets too we continue. All right,
guys, it's time. It's time. It's December ninety six in your house,
he said, Sabo with a splash and a prone Funk, a pair
of splashes. There's no reft account well, Molino's showing some sentience cover one
not enough. Funk kicks out Saboo's cover take back up. Douglas with a
snapmare on the Funker and drops a leg across Funker's blooded face. Here comes
Terry. He's past No, Douglas cuts him right off. Huh eave vertical
suplex by Douglas walks Fun his foot Raf is right in the way, and
then Sabo splashes both prone opponents. Crowd's going nuts at the prospect of this
being in two count. Both men kick out. I hadn't seen that before.
That was actually pretty cool, a near fall. That was pretty cool.
Sabu grabs a camel clutch. Look at this on Terry Funk, and
then Douglas basically does want a Sabo Another three way submission here in the three
way dance. Maybe not a submission? Now? Is that a peer?
Shane Douglas, He's just straight up sticking his fingers in Saboo's nose and yanking
backwards. Yes, that's a submission. At DCW single leg pick up by
the Funker takes down Douglas. He but Sabo to keep him at bay while
he twists the toe hold. Fifty five minutes have elapsed, according to Bob
Artiz. Sherry enters the freight, jumps on Terry Funk's back. Fucking chaos.
Here Uncer peels her off his back. She takes the bump. How
is this one going to end? Terry Fox got a suplex Sherry. Oh,
he's touching, totally fucking grab that puss. I want a taste.
That was a key thing about ECW man when the guys would attack the valets
and the people loved every second of it. Of course, it was nothing
like because you get a lot of angry men out there. Yeah, watching
this ship all the way back to Terry Funks, soup Plex and Sherry.
He's not gonna put Sherry in the spinning toe hold. That creates the opening
for Douglas to run him over with the clothes line. Funk down across the
bottom rope. Saboo backed his feet Douglas steps to him, Ducks underneath Douglas
with the back soup a. Four minutes remaining as Douglas drops Saboo with the
back suplex. Somebody's got to go for a pinfall. Have we seen fifty
eight year falls in moment, Joey, We have not seen fifty minute.
That would be a near fall. Every minute right hand down goes a falling
dangerously. What does Funk got? He's got a boot, Sherry's boot,
Cherry's boot from Lord and Taylor. Douglas tries to pile drive Saboo. He's
back dropped out. Hit him, hit him. This must be the moment
she remembers laying on the apron thing in this match sucks. Oh it's the
funker. Oh nice, nice, that's brilliant. It's Sherry's leather, high
heeled boot on his hand like a glove. Low blow Saboo. He's gonna
tell you what was he gonna do to Sherry? She's dead. Shove that
heel up er pussy do it. Thirty minutes remaining as Terry Funk He's got
Sherry's heel. Sherry is a heel. It's all it's all working, and
he's scraping and gouging at Shane Douglas his eye and head his ear with the
with the boot. Douglas gets free of the clutches. Sabbo attacks Terry Funk
from behind, knocks him to the apron time running out here in the E
CW arena, brother went black for a second? Okay, two minutes remaining.
Joey Styles tells us Terry Funk attacking Sabo on the floor giving chase to
Paul Hayman. They called him Paul back then oh, big tom Y drop
on the floor to Paul by the Funker Joy and while Funk gives chase and
theanders around. No, he's back in the ring, as is Saboo,
both going over to Sherry rolling her. Covering Sherry. Terry Funk is covering
Sherry while Shane Douglass goes to the top rope. He soars body. Funk
took out Saboo and hit Funk with his leg. Funk scrambles to cover Saboo
with one minute remaining. Funk then scrambles to cover Douglas. He's going back
and forth between the two. H Terry, I don't think either one's really
ineligible. Uh oh, there's no referee either, absolute chaos and the closing
moments his panic sets in, Douglas and Saboo exchanging chops. Sabu dropped with
one by Douglas, who covers. Saboo makes his own count no ref Douglas
thirty seconds as Paul loads Jimmalino back in the ring, Douglas up behind Funk,
Collin Spots holds him open for what. I don't know. It's Sherry.
Yeah, Sherry's recovered, She's back to her feet. She swings and
hits Douglas by mistake. Here's the countdown. Saboo splashes Douglas ten nine.
Funk falls on top of them, one to no. Douglas foot of the
rope God Savo covers kick out. Oh not the reaction for a classic.
You expect that from the crash. It's stupid. Ah. There it is
refree's decision. There is no winner, boss. Yeah, yeah, I
agree, definitely not me. That's one of the matches I'm most proud of.
Yeah, I mean, you know, he didn't go an hour.
Saboo didn't go an hour. Shane Douglas went the hour. He's the only
one planet. Joey Styles talking about uh, nobody else can do this on
his planet the wrestling promotion. Okay, I mean and I the line was
crossed. So that's how it finished. Harry Funk remains ECW World Champion.
And now we're going to take a look. We're here immediately at the post
match festivities. Joey styles with the champion. Let's listen to Terry Funk fantastic
athletically contested n w WA Eastern Championship Wrestling. Noticed that off not one but
two challengers in Shaboo and Shane Douglass and Terry. If we can just get
a few words from your oh he was crying. You know, I'm want
to tell you people something that I love wrestling. I've loved it all my
life, and I'm going to tell you that I'm not real proud of the
way that it's evolved in a lot of places in the country. I don't
believe that the WCW is worth the damn wow. I think it ridicules my
profession, and I think that we have a bunch of people that don't have
any respect for a profession running those organizations and a WWF. I'm not talking
about the the guys individually, but I'm talking about the way that they have
belittled my profession because I think that I'm an athlete, and I think that
I was out here tonight with a hell of a lot of competitors in that
ring that, uh, we're not even only wrestling. They were they were
wrestling with their heart. And I don't particularly like the opponents that I was
against, but they damn sure gave the fans their money's worth, and I
think that the I did too. I think ECW has come a long way.
I think that you got guys like that that have come from from nowhere.
I'm talking about the Sandman's, I'm talking about the other guys. I'm
talking about the old timers. I'm talking about Jimmy Snooker, and we've all
seen this organization grow and I am really proud of it, and I am
very proud to be wearing this belt around my waist. And I told you
people before, I I'm an old man, but I'm making my stand and
I'm making it here with the ECW. And those other people can go to
hell, because we're here and we're here to stay, and we're going to
become a it's not producing straight to help for kids. I mean, we're
not We're athletic, and I think that we're a sport. And I know
that we've got a lot of guys here that are wrestling their heart off.
And I'm not trying to take anything from anybody else, but I have respect
for Shane Douglas, and I have respect for Saboo, and I have respect
for all of the guys that are with ECW. And I want to thank
you people out there for being hardcore fans, and that's what we're playing too,
is a hardcore fans, and I want you to know that I love
you and thank you very much for supporting me, and I really appreciate it.
Terry fun Well, they have from a very emotional Terry Funk, who,
as I said before, it's not one but not just getting a promo
post match, he's giving a franchise and he would do that just about every
time I touched the microphone. It was the most amazing match I have ever
seen. The press conference tonight, of course, and will be coming to
the microphone and said that again, I'm sorry he's talking about hardcore fans.
You know, pretty soon it's going to be a whole different meaning with that
phrase. Right, that's kind of where it came from. It didn't so
much come from describing the style of wrestling in the spots. That came from
anyone who's waiting for that. You know the nature of the fan that would
want to see this kind of wrestling. Boy, it's a press conference format
in the ballroom. So now Sabo is being led in restraints. You know,
Todd, you can do this nine one one and Paul Hayman, I
don't know what that is in the Zubaz. I don't say. John Cromnis,
let's not to say about this match to trap Justice. Shane Douglass is
absolutely the most disgraceful human being I've ever met in my life. As for
Terry Funk coming out of like a cry baby, this is not impressed.
Sabboo. Sab Boo should still be the ec WA A champion. There was
a conspiracy between Terry Funk and Shane Douglas and I'm not so emotional about any
innty sixty minute draw, the referee was unconscious for too long. Terry Funk
was eliminated. We all saw Terry Funk get eliminated and at the referee.
Now, she's not showing the table find The fact of the matter is that
is that when Terry Funk went down with the injured knee, Shane Douglas could
have pounced on top of him. The referee, the reft the referee played
favorite chose to protect Terry Funk was disgusting. Cars Oft concerned that would have
Terry Funk should have been eliminated right there, and then Saboo would have Shane
Douglass all himself. When Shane Douglas cannot fight man to man, a shatboo.
And that's all I have to say. And that's all I gotta say
to you. We want our money, and that's all I gotta say to
you. And I don't think you're very good. Announce her the hell with
the book. Thank you very much. Members of the media. I hope
you all go to hell. There's no one there. By the way.
The objective opinion from Paulie andels a touchgoing man. And here Tom Shane Douglas
words for you tonight. I took the living legend, so called self proclaimed
Terry Funk, and I beat his ass right in the center of the ring.
I took Saboo, the crazy man of wrestling, and I beat his
ass in the center of the ring. I sent him both back to the
dressing room, mister Gordon, as a result of that, I want you
to declare me right now in front of this TV camera, in front of
the entire world, as the ECW Heavyweight Champion, to prove that I am
the franchise Cherry Solid. The whole world sow it, Philadelphia. You witnessed
it live professional wrestling as it was meant to be. Ass kicking, take
no names. Beat the hell out of whoever's in front of you. Terry
Funk, I smashed your knee to a bliatrey when I took you in a
chair outside the ring. Even the crazy man saboo, and if people looked
at they said, oh my god, it's the end of an era.
Finally put to rest. Fuck family, I don't give it. Come on,
media, keep your mouth shut. You can fire me if you want,
You can take me out of this territory if you want to, but
you can't stop the franchise someplace sometime I will be heavyweight champion now as it
goes. For you, mister Stoules, and anybody else and all you other
sons sitting out here today, I've had it up to here. I've come
to Philadelphia. I've watched Peter and the audience hold up signs and call me
every name in the book. I've seen people outside the arena call me names,
say things about my family, say things about Sherry. I've seen people
And what do you want? And what do you want? It comes the
Funker? Wow, what's wrong with you? Are you some kind of a
fool? Or what am I some kind of a fool? What are you
out here? All? I've got to ask you, mister Funk. What
you were ten years ago was a legend. What you are today is an
old man, a shell of yourself. The legs after tonight certainly aren't what
they used to be. Muhammed Ali knows what it's like when the legs go.
Look at your face. Take a look in the mirror around you.
Ask the media, how's this face? Look? You've been beat to a
pulp. Now I've been beat up tonight. Take a look Philadelphia. Look
at his face, Look at my face. Look who's standing tall? Terry
Funk, you were a beaten man tonight. I'm just scaring to listen to
you. Call me an old man. I've listened to you ridicule me,
and yeah, maybe I've had better days, damn, But I don't think
that you have any right to go ahead and say that I came in here,
I paid compliments to you, I paid compliments to Sabou. I paid
compliments to everybody because I think you're a good athlete and the heck of a
guy. But you didn't walk out of there with this thing around your waist,
and you know you didn't. Terry Funk, let me tell you something,
and you ought to know this after twenty five years, and this man,
don't call me old man. I gave you your time. You let
me talk. As the franchise of VCW, have got every right to come
out here and say what I want to say. Paying compliments to Shane Douglas,
paying compliments to Saboo, don't pay the bills. The Gold pays the
bills. Now, I want Todd Gordon right here and now to declare me
the champion because you were dragged out. You were carried out of the arena
tonight by your own men. That's not a champion to me. Shaboo was
carried out by his own men, both of you at the hands of the
franchise to me. That means that I'm the heavyweight champion. No fens or.
But's about it, mister Funk. You want this belt so bad.
I said earlier that I've drawn a line. I'll tell you something. You
made a mistake. I'm put by calling me an old man. I won't
put my finger in your face. I have no intention of doing that.
But your biggest mistake was whenever you called me an old man, because first
of all, what is it gonna look like whenever this old man whips your
butt? And as far as this belt is concerned, you can have this
belt. I'm giving it to you. I'm giving it. I'm giving it
to you. Give me the belt. That is so silly. No,
No, i'd be quiet because that's that's silly. And I know that.
I'm I'm sorry that wasn't very respectful to you. But I'm telling you you
take that belt. And you know why you can take that belt, because
it's gonna be the biggest thrill to me on the fifth whenever I whenever I
take the thing back from you, that's what's gonna give me the biggest elation
because I'm gonna show you that this old man is not as easy to push
him around as you think he is, as you should have found out tonight,
Terry Funk, don't put my finger on your chest. I understand that
I don't have to give me any belt. Terry Funk, I won't touch
you with my You don't have to give me a belt. You will piece
the gentlemen. You don't have to give me belt because I'm taking the belt.
How's that standing there before the brated No, the less slap from funking.
Here we go, you guys, back to the studio. They're brawling
on the carpet. Oh my god, he bump has no police. He's
got socks on the locker rooms here breaking this fight up. Johnny Grunge in
there, call for the police. Let's go Kevin Solomon to look at Yep,
yep, mister Hughes. All right, we can pause there. So
there it is the big first three way dance, a match that's pointed to
is a pivotal moment for ECW and the post match festivities. We see their
boss at Terry Funk. That's gone with a different character in ECW. He's
you know what I mean, he's straight laced, he's he's sincere, he's
calm, and you know he takes exception to personal insults. It's it's a
different Funk than we just saw in NWA, that's for sure. Oh for
sure. I'm I I can appreciate that. I never knew he did that.
Yeah, And it's kind of a further illustrative of just the role they
saw Terry Funk playing for this the cc W. I think what's remarkable is
when you go back and watch ECW before it really sunk in as a phenomenon,
all these guys were talking on their promos like it was inevitable that they
It really was like a called Babe Ruth shot from a lot of these guys,
and Terry Funk in particular, I mean he, as you just heard
there at the top of that post match segment, gave voice to the whole
idea of the whole company and explaining why it is that he chose to,
as he put it, take his stand in ECW, and it had just
as much to do with the shortcomings of the Big Two in his mind,
and in particular how the Big Two just didn't illustrate what it was that he
loved about pro wrestling and what he sacrificed for to be a part of the
business, and that was that was the exact rallying cry of the whole promotion.
They would build the identity of VCW around the kinds of things we just
heard Terry Funk say on that promo. After the night the line was crossed
the triple threat match with Sabou and Shape, Douglas thoughts on Shane Douglas's might
work there as he berates Terry Funk, He's fine, He's fine. I
just, you know, he's just not someone that I've ever really, I've
ever really said, you know, yes too, right right? Yeah,
Now, I just I just can't get you know. I mean, maybe
someday something will click and I'll be like, ah, fuck it, look
at this, But I don't, you know, again, he's fine,
He's totally fine, He's totally adequate. I don't see I don't see main
event. Yeah, and you noticed nw Way Eastern Championship Wrestling on the on
screen graphics. Yep. Do you know the story of what ended up happening
with Shane Douglass in the NWA World Heavyweight Title. I feel like I've heard
it. I don't remember the same ten pounds of gold that Terry Funk wore
when he was champion in seventy five and seventy six, And in fact,
I feel like what we just saw there was kind of a glimpse of,
you know, NWA World Champion nineteen seventy six Terry Funk, the way he
was, you know, a little nuts, a little wild, but choosing
to sound sane on the promo. It's like that interview he did with Gordon
Soley after they played him defeating Jack Briscoe to become world champion on Florida television,
and they're discussing the rematch afterwards, and Funk is all smiles and he's
all clean cut, and he couldn't be happy or U doosh Garnet to be
a world's heavyweight champion. But as soon as Gordon solely says that the rematch
won't be in his backyard, suddenly that facade there's a little crack in it,
and you can see him start to bubble and boil again. Yep,
And that's the Terry Funk that ushered in ECW. That character. I think
it's a I think he went back a couple of decades in terms of his
presentation here because we didn't see the Terry Funk we just saw. We didn't
see him against Flair, we didn't see him against Hogan, we didn't see
him against Dusty Rhodes or Jerry Lawlard. That's for sure. He had to
dust that character off. You had to go back to, you know,
the Terry Funk that would beat you with Holtz yep, yep. And what
happened with the championship and why it's sort of smirk worthy that the graphics on
this show showed NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling was of course, as Todd Gordon's ECW
grew, it did form an alliance with the NWA, which still was a
going concern with that. Dennis Corluzzo in particular being the promoter most associated with
the NWA at the time, and they and they had a belt, but
they were trying to figure out what to do with it because of course Jim
Hurd dropped the NWA affiliation and in nineteen ninety three, Bill Watch brought it
back in nineteen ninety two and they put the strap on a massa chono,
remember that, and yep, I do crude. And then when they finally
dropped association with the NWA, in nineteen ninety three, shortly before Rick Flair's
returned from the WWF, they created the International Championship. The Big Gold Belt
became the International Heavyweight Championship in the secondary world title that, of course Hulk
Cogan would go on to merge, right, he would go on to put
the WCW title together with Flair's belt, or did Flair wrestle Sting on a
clash before he wrestled Hogan. Flair wrestled Sting on the Clash and they merged
the Big Gold Belt with the Luger the Luger title, and then Flair lost
to the merged belt to Hogan. Right, it was yeah, right,
right? Sting lost the match and Flair held the Big Gold Belt as the
championship. And then yeah, so in WA, you stop referring to the
Big Gold Belt as the NWA World Championship and stopped any association within the NWA
had had a problem on their hands. They had an organization, an infrastructure,
a championship that meant a lot in wrestling, and they didn't have a
champion, and they didn't have, you know, a company to fix their
name to and say this is where the world champion is parked you know this
world. Of course, long gone were the days that the World Champion would
take dates for promoters other than WCW. But still the NWA saw themselves as
sort of like acceding to this reality. They convinced themselves that they somehow had
a say in how WCW was presenting the NWA World Champion. They found out
that, you know, they were just that wasn't the case that they could
give a fuck less about the affiliation and dropped that, especially where like Bischoff
takes over, forget it, I mean, oh, forget it, No
no association with that belt in his mind at all. It means in a
WA guy to begin with, and so and so the promotion, the NWA
starts to try to loosely, you know, cobble together another circuit based on
the state of the American independent wrestling scene in the early nineteen nineties, and
of course ECW what we've been watching was one of the more vibrant scenes out
there. And they thought, you know, if we're going to stage a
tournament to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion who's going to carry the ten
pounds of gold, let's do it in ECW. Let's do the whole tournament
there. Let's call talent in from the best talent we can from all over
the world, including guys like Chris Benwah who is looking to get a break
in the US at the time, and of course ECW was it for him.
Guys like Too Cold Scorpio who'd just been cut loose by WCW when we're
looking for some moorings in the industry, and a lot of the other important
early stage ECW guys that were given a new code of pain or brand new
exposure under that promotional auspice. And in fact, Terry Funk, if I
remember correctly, was supposed to be in the NBA World Title tournament and didn't
end up making it. Thus they would make hay about that in ECW after
the tournament was overclaiming that Terry Funk ducked the opportunity or tried to leave ECW
high and dry. Nonetheless, what happened was that Todd Gordon and Paul Hayman
got together with Dennis corleye Uzzo in the NWA and put on this tournament at
the ECW arena, and the decision was that Shane Douglas was to win the
tournament, beating too Cold Scorpio. Ultimately I believe it was and to become
a NWA World Heavyweight Champion. It went down like that. Shane Douglass was
handed that traditional NWA championship. He took the microphone and what did he do?
He threw the belt down on the canvas. That's what I remember that.
Yep, to hell with that belt, to hell with the NWA,
to hell with whatever you think that belt represents. This is the ECW World
Heavyweight Championship. As he holds up the belt, we just saw these guys
fighting over and this is now the premier championship. This is the belt that
signals what it was that this tournament represented and where this whole thing is going.
And the key to it is that Dennis Corluzzo on the NWA side did
not know that was going to happen. It was a double cross Dennis cor
looser yea as it turns out, and Funk had a pretty good relationship with
Dennis Corluzzo and you know, kind of on shoot interviews and stuff, shies
away from this subject. I think he probably was strategically missing from this tournament,
sensing subterfuge in the air and wanting to keep up appearances and relations.
He wasn't negatively disposed towards Cordluso as Todd Gordon was. Todd Gordon tells a
ton of stories in his book about Dennis Corluso trying to cut him off at
the knees and playing all kinds of games and you know, trying to keep
under his thumb. Essentially, Jim Cornett was aligned to Dennis Cordaluso and sort
of set up and an opposing viewpoint. You got remember Cornett's trying to make
Smokey Mountain work at this exact same time, a different vision, but a
similar attempt to get a circuit like this running where you know, it's back
to a territorial sort of geographically limited, a different older style presentation, or
a presentation at least designed to appeal to an older style fan that had been
disillusioned for whatever reason by the Big Two, be it it being too cartoonish
and not violent enough in Philadelphia's case, or it just being so far removed
from the rastland traditions of the South. Hayman and Cornett rafted the same thing,
and Funks got his toe in both waters because he's deeply respect them on
both sides, and so it puts him in a tough spot. So he
kind of conveniently is missing from this night where Shane Douglas makes the move,
and Douglas has talked about it. They had to convince him. He wasn't
sure about doing it. It was kind of like a last minute, gut
checked moment, and when he threw that belt down, it was war in
the eyes of the NWA guys. Basically, they just said, you know
what, this is now Extreme Championship Wrestling. This is now ECW, and
it's not this NWA affiliate. It's not this thing trying to fit into this
superstructure of a bygone era. This is its own revolution. And Shane Douglass
just did the ballsiest thing you could do at that stage, at that level
to launch its formation. But here on the three way Dance that had yet
to happen, So there's still keeping up appearances that Eastern Championship Wrestling is an
NWA affiliate. It's pretty rich considering where it's heading. That's wild. Yeah,
it was a wild night, it was, and not a lot of
people appreciated what was actually happening in the building. It's one of those things
that as people came out and told the story over the years, the lore
of it grew so much it was clear and if he heard the sheets and
stuff that Shane Douglass went into business for himself. But the fact that there
was actually like this thing being engineered to break off ECW in its entirety and
go in its own sort of self controlled direction with its own world championship was
so he just, you know, Shane Douglass just stole all the cloud of
what it meant to be n WA World Champion and just put that cloud on
the ECW belt and said, this is actually the belt that matters. And
so that's the breaking off point that everybody was looking for. But on this
night in February nineteen ninety four, after an hour in the ECW arena,
Terry Funk still the champion, but as we just heard, dissatisfied with the
level of respect or lack thereof that Shane Douglas is showing him, and they
will continue to battle over the championship in the weeks to come. Sabou continues
to be unhinged and off off the chain. So closing thoughts here, as
we take our first bite out of the ECW pie on the lapsed Funk Boss,
It's I'm not sure it holds up looking back on it, I'm not
sure that the mystique of this match is evident and a parent just watching it
without hearing all the the you know, the color of people talking about what
it meant in its time. But we're in the CW land, We're in
Terry Funk trying to make ECW a thing, trying his hardest. What do
you think? What do you make of it so far? I mean it's
I definitely appreciate the effort. I think it was fine. I think it
was you know, uh, I don't know. There. You know,
when you can feel that people don't know what they're doing, people as in
as in the wrestlers in a triple threat match and then also kind of the
company and how to book a fucking triple threat match, you can feel that.
You can feel that in this in this match, or at least I
could, but you can feel it knowing how it looks, how it came
to evolve. Yeah, yeah, And I don't know, like I mean,
I didn't, I didn't hate it. I just and I and I
definitely you know, I mean I'm I'm kind of at this point, I'm
kind of biased towards Terry Funk stuff, you know, And so I go
go in on it. If you think it wasn't good, I mean,
I'm not not to put words in your mouth, but absolutely, I mean
no, this is Terry Funk tribute. But eyes wide open, like always,
it's a weird thing, like I didn't I didn't hate it, but
I didn't like it, right, And that's probably the first time you've felt
that way during the laps Funk. Yeah, yeah, you know, And
and I know that the ECW stuff is probably gonne the hardest stuff for me
to to try to enjoy, just because I just I just don't get it.
And but like watching Funk in this there is there there there are elements
of him just bringing great ship to this, right, you know, the
way that he sells kinda like like you know when he when he got right
up and and fucking walked around and stumbled and fell down to his feet,
like that's that's something that makes it special, because that's that's a Funk thing.
But it's like, you know, he just kind of he makes it
special. But at the same time, they're not. They do. I
don't know, they don't seem they didn't seem to be really maybe adjusting themselves
to maybe fit the moment around him and the moment and stuff. It just
kind of felt like, you know, at times they're just going through the
motions for sixty minutes. He's pulling them up. He's trying to pull them
up. Whether they get on board, yeah the question. But he's there,
Like he said, he's taking his stand. He realizes that by doing
this and saying these things and presenting himself this way, that he's really marking
his territory and saying that if ECW fails, I mean, that's the end
of me in terms of like taking anything I say seriously about being able to
what's around the corner in the wrestling industry and being able to be at the
vanguard of the next evolution and be connected to the fans and the hardest core
fans, the most passionate fans and what they look for at of pro wrestling,
and being obsessed with studying that and delivering that to them. So he's
he's taking his bet now, of course, is we'll get through. As
the ECW portion of our program unfolds, the ultimate irony is that while he's
out there preaching the gospel of ECW at every moment and you know, defining
what ECW is in direct contrast to WWWWF, during the entirety of that run,
he goes to work for wcw Right, goes to work for the WWF.
But somehow he's Terry Funk and he knows how to twist the interpretation of
those decisions in such a way where he's still keeping it real. You know,
even though he sold out, he didn't sell out in the way that
guys do when they leave a group like that and go to one of the
Big two, because he predated the Big two in so many ways, And
so how can you say that he's, you know, giving himself over like
an ECW original would to a system that you know would seek to control him.
When he's going to be Terry Funk no matter where he goes, and
he's gonna be more than happy to bring executives in those two companies to the
brink in terms of doing whatever the fuck he wants and almost daring them to
do something about it, because he's more than happy to be told to or
you know, he's more than happy to feel like he should leave now that
it's time to go. Yep. And that's the thing throughout the nineteen nineties
for Terry Funk. As many places as he journeyed after it was time to
go, and he put the cowboy hat on. The horse always pulled into
a stall at the ECW Arena. Watching that night as Douglas Saboo and Terry
Funk had the three way dance for the ECW World Championship was Todd Gordon,
of course, and he wrote the following in his book. The reality was
we were still losing money every month, but we were improving in other ways.
We were putting on good shows and our fans were amazing. We closed
out nineteen tenty three with a big card called Holiday Hell at the Arena the
day after Christmas. You could feel something coming just around the corner for us.
That around the corner what happened on February fifth, nineteen ninety four.
Our February card was a regular monthly house show. We didn't bring in any
big outside names other than Terry Funk. He'd been working with us pretty regularly
and was involved in our heavyweight title angles. Our lineup looked pretty much as
it had for the previous few months, but there was an energy and the
packed building that night I hadn't felt prior. We also managed to create a
new match for that show. Our main event was something we dubbed a three
way dance for the heavyweight title between Funk, Shane Douglas, and Saboo.
All three wrestlers would compete against each other at the same time. It proposed
a unique challenge for the three participants and that they had to tell a story
from three simultaneous perspectives. Now, I don't know about telling stories, man,
it's just fucking chaos. Yeah, I don't know, you know what
I mean. I mean, I'm sure Shane Douglas is in there trying to
keep like a logistical glue to it all, and it wasn't a mess.
But it's just so funny that that is telling stories what we just saw.
Of course, of course they all stop with telling stories. It's ridiculous.
Ah, they have to delete that from wrestling vocabulary because it always makes a
mockery out of the person that says. It's just not what they're doing.
They're telling stories. They're out there trying to keep the crowd interested. That's
what they're trying to do and get to the destination, and so there it
was those it led to creative spots, Todd Gordon wrote, like the now
famous double headlock. Those three guys put together what was the prototypical match of
that sort. Three way matches called by various other names, have since appeared
in all federations, but that one between Funk, Douglas and Saboo was the
first history was made. Our amazing audience was right there for the ebbs and
flows of the entire sixty minute match. I hadn't seen the crowd reactions like
that from any federation. Wrestling redder Dave Scherer told me a spectator's wife seated
beside him passed out from the heat and fell through the bleachers down to the
floor. When Chery told the guy he couldn't even take his eyes off the
match, fuck her, he said, I'm sure that happened. By the
way, though I would have liked a happier ending to that story, it's
undeniable that the fans' passion helped make that match. More telling was what I
saw upon arriving at the nearby Marriott after the show, wherein Paul and I
were greeted by a couple hundred fans. They began chanting for us, chanting
ECW, E CW. We had no wrestlers with us, and they weren't
chanting our names. They were mentioning the company. This was next level stuff.
They were cheering us like we were the stars. Maybe we were.
We stepped into the packed bar and thanked everyone for a great show. The
place exploded and Paul and I couldn't help but exchange glances. We were both
speechless. Something was happening. We went upstairs to smoke adobe and process the
scene downstairs in that night show, which felt perfect. Smoking pot was another
commonality I shared with Paul. It relaxed us. We finally sat down and
put our feet up. No one gets a reaction like that, I said.
I knew something had changed, and Paul agreed. WWE and WCW might
get some fans waiting at the bars to see the wrestlers. Ring rats,
a crude term for wrestling groupies were cut customary in the bars and hotels,
but not fans waiting to thank the owner and booker. This was special tonight,
Paul said, we crossed the line. You know, good for nothing
eggs second, dumb. We did it our way because we love it that
way. We love it that way, and I have this wonderful gut feeling
that I've had all my life. When it's time, Joe, now, time