Ep. 385: WCW's SuperBrawl V (1995) (Part 1)

It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn s e O and JP
Sorrow who's a lapsed fan in all my years and wrist plan you never seen
anything. And it's the laps fan man, not the one in the ring
to get about Osado. He the real king of swing with the bell goes
egg and the kick like me. It's in the corner with its rash like
stick. Even Jerry King can take off the crowd nodded in his head like
his tee Low Brown would just getting low down, got even high up,
flipp you on your head. But you know coul tribal spiting mow and dragon
spits fire. If you more shot than when Age tree tire dropping more truth
than the con of sniper. Bless you with a coconut, Roddy Piper checking
JP he a jat d drop the cupcakes and golden the brain. Bob means
the best podcast first start to close, flop you all been a fit his
classic and polls were rocking and rolling to nineteen ninety five. Boss Any thoughts
on Hogan versus Vader For Christ's sakes, Oh my god, I'm kidding,
that's like the fucking It's It's probably the match when when Hogan first announced that
he was going to WCW, that's the match people thought of. At least
I did. That was the match I thought of. I was like,
this is it, Like, that's that's the money match right there, that's
the that's about as Hogan andre As you can get. Think about that before
Hogan Flair. I mean, obviously Hogan Flair was the obvious one, but
it was it was like right there, like uh, when he came in,
it was like, obviously he's going after Flair, but at some point
it's going to be he in Vader, Yes, and it's going to be
it's going to be awesome. I still think, and I think I thought
then too, that it should have been at starkad absolutely ninety four, you
know, instead of that fucking beefcake barber match. Well, that was such
a marker of how Hogan was going to conduct business in WCW. You know
that once he got the belt and booked his first starcade, he didn't go
for the money match. He went for making his buddy, you know,
right, and sort of forcing that to be a main event. And of
course we've covered Stark ninety four and the Star Kad Memorial Tour, and we've
covered Uncensored nineteen ninety five, which takes place after this. Of course Hogan
Invader in the Strap match. But this this where Flare gets pinned, where
Flair gets pinned in drag, right, yes, yes he does. I
think I think as opposed to Flair getting pinned in drag, I think I
would have preferred someone getting dragged to all four corners. And that's absolutely that's
not what we got. And so it's it's his nineteen ninety five WCWS had
get Super Bowl five February Baltimore Arena, Hogan versus Vader for the very first
time. This is very original old San fran toy line, their version of
LJN. M mm hmm. This is very like just before Nitro. I
mean it is literally just before Nitro launches in September of nineteen ninety five,
but it's true, just the on WII of WCW, you know, feeling
their way around, starting to get a little more leaning in a little more
to the marketing and licensing, leaning a little more into multiple pay per views.
This is the first uncentered coming up in nineteen ninety five, and they
would expand their pay per view schedule considerably, causing the WWF to do much
the same within your house Later, nineteen ninety five is a fascinating year,
and Hogan having just beat Flair at Bash of the Beach the prior summer,
we're tired of it. Halloween Havoc, like you said, face the butcher
ed Leslie at Starkad and then right after that, and it's in the memorial
tour archives, Vader barges in on a celebratory Hulkegan, doesn't he with Jim
Barnett in the background, Oh my god, that's right, trying to hold
it all together. The senior consultant, Ah, I fucking love that.
That made me so happy, and he barks at him, and man,
I don't know, did you see sar k ninety four or hear about it?
Did you see or confront Hulk Cogan or is it just in your mind
that I did not? I just from I just know that afterwards. I
it was it was funny. I think I said this when we either when
we did Star Kate or when we did Halloween Havoc ninety four, that there
was even though even though I got the the Hogan, you know, I
was really excited about the Hogan Flair cage match like that to me was you
know, again, it's the only ww pay per view that I ever bought.
But but after it was revealed to be Beefcake as the masked man,
I kind of regretted not waiting till Stark. Yeah. Absolutely, I'm be
the only one. But I regretted. I was like, oh my god,
because I was, you know, being a fan from ninety two in
ninety one, ninety two one, and knowing that that that history with you
know, with the that they that they that they talked about it at Saturday
Night's main event in ninety two February of nine to where you know it was
it was after the boating accident. It was hul Cogan who was pumping blood
into the veins of Brutus Beefcake. To me, that was like holy shit,
you know, how do you turn on your guy? You know and
all that? So that was, uh, that was that was I remember.
Yeah, it was like being real, like fuck all that was left
in starka instead? Yeah, well, I mean that was you know,
if you cared about those two in their tag team, yeah, all that
was left of that heat around Brutus's facial reconstruction. Was Kevin Sullivan using his
Brutus's face on this show to smash Dave Sullivan into the plates in his face
and sex? What a dumb fucking moment. It wasn't a pretty match.
No, well, I mean, come on it. When you're getting Kevin
and Evad, it's not going to be pretty. And to say nothing of
dug In mixing it up at a snail's pace with the bunk house Buck.
How about Avalanche? How about Yeah, well Avalanche saw the show, but
I thought you did. Just find I was thinking of a Blacktop Bully and
Dustin Rhodes. Oh god, this is not a great show. It's not
a great show. And I actually wrote something down. I think it was
during let me say, I can find it here. It was during the
I think it was during the tag. No, no, it was during
the Blacktop Bully, the Blacktop bullshit match, and I wrote that. I
said, this is what I wrote. I wrote the magic of wrestling and
why it used to be better lies within this match. Wow, Okay,
even though this match is dreadful, I would still be invested in who was
going to win, and I would still watch TV the following we just see
what was going to happen next between the Blacktop Bully and Dustin Rhoads. Yep,
Well what would happen next would be the truck match after which is we'll
talk about They were summarily fired for getting color. The last thing WW could
four back then was to have colorful television. Yes, but vaderique, I'm
surprised their TV wasn't in black and white. Well, it depends. I
mean they were cutting costs and they were only they weren't doing live events,
they were just doing the TV tapings. This is still that era, the
very end of that era, where like they taped weeks of TV that was
going to air after the pay per view. Ah, So, like any
word that came out about what they taped at the show totally gave away finishes,
title changes. You know, people already knew the Slambury Hall of Fame
class because it was announced at the tapings, those kinds of things. But
Vader is a unique faue for hull Cogain. I mean, we're Hulka maniacs.
We were accustomed to the formula. We know what they look for in
terms of characteristics of a foe. To come looming over the Hulster into challenge
and threaten him. And certainly Vader has the size box check does it regards
your typical Hogan foe. But this is different. This is this is like
Sid ninety two plus ten in that yes, right, yes, it's not
just that it's a cooler heel than Hogan is a cool face, but it's
also a guy who can just do so much more dynamic things in the ring
than anybody Hogan had really faced in a main event pay per view program before.
He's a legit threat, like he is a legit physical threat to Hulk
Hogan. And and that's what I also think made it so exciting was that
Vader was such a beast, he was such a an animal in the ring
that it was it definitely it was. I don't remember if I felt like
that because I wasn't you know, I was. I was half invested with
OSW who still at the time, I was only invested because of Hogan.
But I don't know if if it felt the exact same as as I mean,
Sid was scary to me as an eleven year old. Sid was scary.
Sid was somebody who I thought was going to potentially kill Hulkogan, right,
you know, and it was it was very, very scary for me,
Whereas the worst the other heels could do was like seriously injure him by
like breaking his rights, by sitting on him or something. Right. It
wasn't like they would like strangle him to death, right exactly. You know,
like choke slams and power bombs. Those were unique moves to me.
And of course they was talking about the threat of hull Camania. Right.
So many people came after Hulkamania in WCW, not just Hulk Hogan, but
the idea of Hulkamania. Yes, yes, in this case, in this
Vader match super Bowl five, I really feel like it was Hulkamania that Vader
was going up against because the fans, you know, they did or they
had to do. With the Flair program. Flair did the honors, you
know, put the strap on Hogan. You know, if we're going to
pay all this money for this guy, we might as well, you know,
position him as strongly as possible and see where we can take this thing.
And you know, Flare's fine, he's Teflon. He can lose to
Hogan one hundred times. It doesn't matter. But Vader's different. Vader's a
guy who, like the fans are like, yes, if anybody is going
to go that extra mile to spit in the face of the cheesy presentation of
Hulk Canane, Yes, we'd grown so tired of by nineteen ninety five,
and we hear it in the crowd here in Baltimore. Sure it's Vader,
because Vader's Vader's much more, no bullshit. He's somebody that, yep,
you just you can believe, won't just do the Hogan song and dance,
even though he kind of tried to fit him into that box, did Hogan.
Vader never really, never really was eaten alive by Hogan like Hogan wants,
like Hogan desires, right and definitely not on this show. As the
match ends in a deeply dissatisfying disqualification for reasons of course we'll get into.
But I don't know. Vader, to me was was a deeper menace.
And it turns out behind the scenes somebody that Hogan Shock Shock was rather concerned
about. Brother. I mean, what's this guy going to do out there?
He's got bodies in his wake. Dude, he's hurt. I mean,
were talking about what do we Leon? I'm just you know, Leon
brother, Can we kind of dial this thing in a little bit? Du
Can we just kind of I mean, we're walking around the building all day
trying to find you, dude, I'm trying to figure out where you are,
and I'm like, you know where is you know? Where's Leon White?
Where's Big Van Vader? Do you know? Like I can't find the
guy? How are we supposed to you know, talk things over? Can
I get on the same page, kind of get all this thing back on
track to get to you that to get to that place where we can we
can communicate? Dude? How are you supposed to work out a finish that
I can then show up to the building on pay per view night an hour
beforehand and say I don't want to do it anymore and give you no time
to do anything but what I want to do on That's my kind of body
Hold Cord, I'm gonna be cho it. Hold Gold, I'm gonna I'm
gonna come down here. I'm gonna eat you alive. I realized too.
He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, Leon White, Sover Brover bra
you got it. In case you forgot the name of the pay per view,
and it's also a weird ass time because Flair is still kind of booking,
though Kevin Sullivan really seems to be pulling most of the weight. There's
kind of a committee, but nobody really has power besides Fla, and Flair
is kind of growing disinterested. He's kind of involved tangentially with Vader here.
He you know, sits in the crowd or in the main event, plays
a role in the storyline, but he's still supposed to be retired and they
haven't figured out a way out of that yet. And Harley race As will
talk about Vader's longtime manager who also played an important role backstage in terms of
calming Vader down when he didn't like a booking proposal, or didn't like a
finish, or was you know, inclined to go too far in the ring.
Harley was a guy that Vader would actually listen to and could sort of
crack whip on, and you know, as a conduit from Flair through Harley
to Vader, it was perhaps a little easier to get Leon to color within
the line, so to speak. He's gone because he gets in a very
bad car accident, is Harley race and so his absence is very much notable.
Is he gone for good at this point? Is this is so it
that, as he talks about in his book, people started to do the
Harley Race's dead stuff and oh my god, four or five different scenarios he
heard over his life about how he's actually dead. That's how deep into the
the background. He receded after this we because it was weird, because because
he's he's in like, he's all over the place in terms of the advertising
and everything, you know, the advertising and even in the opening package and
stuff like that, and then he just kind of no shows. Yeah,
they did a clash with the Champions in Las Vegas, which they make regular
reference to in January of that year, and Vader in fact comes out for
an interview on that show with Gene Okerland, and you know, Oakerland introduces
him as Vader with Harley Race, and then Harley doesn't walk out, and
Vader doesn't really address why Harley's missing. I think that or maybe it's ninety
six, that's the one I don't remember. Maybe I can't recall if it's
the ninety five one or the ninety six, you know January clash where Randy
Savage elbows Hulkogan to wake him up. I don't think it's that one because
now that the January clashes him and Savage versus Kevin Sullivan, and but it
could be, it could be that one. That that could be it like
the elbum will wake him up. I don't because Hogan's I don't remember,
because Hogan's completely out and he won't, he won't wake up. And so
Savage says, fuck it up, m and he goes up top and he
drops the elbow, and that makes Hogan Hulk Cup amazing. Of course,
Savage just showed up in November of ninety four, and super Brawl five is
his first WCW pay per view match, so yeah, grapple with that.
He also appears in Start ninety four. Also, can we talk about Sting
and Rainey Savage as a tag team. Yeah, what a fucking exciting idea.
Can you imagine that? I never really ever considered tag team. They
said title run Man seriously so awesome. They were such great, like they
really gelled together so wild. Last time we were with you Royal Rebel two
thousand and eight, talking about in reflecting on Rick Flair's retirement, here we
are Sting after his retirement and yeah, right, getting to taste what it
was people will miss about the guy. And you know, Sting was undeniable
and that while Hogan brought in all of his friends and sort of like remixed
the whole idea of what w c was, you couldn't deny Sting. Stings
still had to have a seat at the top of the card because he was
just maybe somebody. I don't think they wanted to push down, but even
if they wanted to, he still finds his way into the mix with Hogan,
Savage and the rest. But it's that time at WCW. You know,
it's now becoming clear after a few months that Hogan is going to essentially
book WCW in terms of deciding what the top of the card looks and feels
like. I mean, certainly other guys can do their own thing, but
it's pretty much that's the method going forward. He's got twenty five percent of
the pay per view revenue. They're boosting the amount of pay per view significantly,
which was a great move, as it always is in wrestling, and
aw's doing the same thing right now where they started with two and then four
pay per views, and everyone's like, oh, it's so great to have
so much build between shows, and then inevitably they add and add an ad
because people will buy them no matter what, and the buys don't go down
and you just make more money. And so ww desperately needed that money and
had a drawn hol Cogan that could you know, make for some very attractive
looking year over year comparisons. I mean, we'll talk about it later,
but super Brawl ninety four to Super Brawl ninety five within without hulkokein big difference,
and you got a Vader who's cranky because, as we've talked about before
in the Uncensored Show and we'll talk about here again today, definitely thought and
was led to believe that he was going to get the world title back after
dropping it to Ric Flair at Star Kate nineteen ninety three, right, and
that ended up not happening, as Flair took power over a Dusty Rhodes who
was still sort of booking when Flair came back to beat Vader and they changed
it from Vader versus Sid at Stark ninety three, and then all of a
sudden, that sort of promised return of the championship to Vader never happened,
and then Hogan comes in and he's led to believe that there might be some
business to do here and then finds out the way everybody does that. You
know, Hulk's going over. It's very simple. I mean, I know
there was no way around it, but man, I think, I think,
to really to really make Vader look like a fucking absolute unstoppable monster,
he should have beaten Hogan in this match. There's absolutely no debating that that
was the right move. Everyone knows it's the right move, you know,
And then they could have could have Hogan to agree to. So you you
latch onto all the explanations of why that it might not have been the greatest
idea, but you know in your heart it was the move. On this
night, just watching it and just watching how it was all going about the
way the way that that Vader was no selling Hogan, like the fact that
he kicked out of the leg drop at one, that's massive, massive,
massive, And you know, there's been a lot of like, including from
Vader's own lips, like mythologizing about how Hogan turned around and got right up
from the power bomb later and how that was almost like double he did the
same thing at the clash the month before. I don't know why anyone's ever
I never fact checked Vader. He didn't. Also, he didn't. It
was a it was a it was a splash. He didn't. He he
killed him with the with the with the power bomb and he laid there for
a while. Oh yeahsolutely he no soul of the splash right right, which
I guess is is him saying, is Vader saying he didn't expect that piece
of it? But I'm sure in Hogan's mind, if you kick out at
one in the leg drop, I mean, no one's ever done that.
Brother. So I've given you more than enough to be able to come back,
giving you all hulk mania, dude, right, I mean, I
just want you to know Leon, tonight, I'm going to give you a
hull cale mania and the silver platter. Brother. The power he points to
his palm, brother, the power right right here, dude, you see
you see the power? Brother? I don't see the power that's right here?
Brother? Where is the fucking pow colin? Oh? Sit o fucking
power? All right? Well, can we get someone else to change the
fuse box? Please? Oh? I'm telling you I'm gonna write my hand,
brother, I said, all you need right here. Do you got
the power? Brother? Give the fucking power. He was He was unleashed.
He was unleashed, was Vader back then? But a fascinating show in
a lot of ways. And I mean Hogan versus Vader for the first time,
it's just something we need to crack open. But yeah, Vader beat
him for the title. Like, people don't shit on hul Cogan in nineteen
ninety five anywhere near the degree they ended up doing. No, No,
you know, Hogan coming back against Vader like would have been that there's your
ninety five right there, and people would have wanted to see him do it.
You know, people would have I think, kind of respected that he
came in WCW and let somebody that you know, was a homesteaded badass main
eventor before he got here, uh, you know, to retain some of
that credibility. Because I think too, if they did a whole if they
did a whole angle where you know, he pins him clean and and and
he again Flair comes in and beats the crap out of him, you know,
they could have gone he could have taken a couple of months off,
you know, taken a couple of months off and gone and gone away,
uh to sell the the injury like he does, and all these things then
come back at like in like late spring, and they could have set up
that cage match you know at Bashed the Beach, and that's where he could
have won it back. I do wonder if part of the calculus was that,
well that makes sense. You know, they're ramping up pay per views
for the first time, and they're gonna have one in March, and you
gotta have Hogan on a pay per view. You know. The whole reason
they're ramping it up is because we have it, or you could do it,
or you could do this too. You could you could have him,
have have him went super brawl and then have this uh you know, I
mean, I know you're not gonna get listen this this is this is definitely
in perfect world thinking you're not gonna get Hogan to lose twice in a row.
I understand that, but it still would have been great. Maybe he
doesn't injure him at that, but he injured him at that fucking uncensored this
new you know, you know they have this because I don't think even even
the remat at the The uncensored match wasn't for the title, I don't think,
right, because it was a quote unquote un sanctioned about Yeah, they
were all unsanctioned. That was the whole thing. Yeah, right, is
that even though there it's a w CW pay per view, it's all unsanctioned.
Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't for the belt, so you know
it would have been, it wouldn't have mattered anyway you could have had.
So Hogan loses the belt at super Bowl, he wants revenge right away,
and you think he's gonna get it, but he doesn't. Vader beats him
again, and this time Vader Flair all them they fucking gang up on him
and and in Germany's gone from then you can go away because the next one
is Slambury yep, you know, and then he could make his you know,
triumphant return it like the Great American Bash, and then they have their
uh their their mash at Bash of the Beach with the little been a huge
number, yeah, I mean, this was a big enough number as it
was. This was the first uh ten thousand plus paid WCW show since funk
Flair in eighty nine. Think about that. Wow. As they returned to
where Funk and Flair did it. Baltimore here at the Baltimore Arena always a
rock solid city for w CW and Crocket, And part of the part of
the lore of that city is some as a market willing to support the number
two is something that started as a WWF city. So we're gonna get into
all that. We're gonna taste it, we're gonna feel it. We're going
to put ourselves where we need to be with our you know, original san
Fran Hogan and Flair busting each other up. I played this one often.
Hogan of course, had the bandana and the shirt that didn't come off,
and Vader was like a rock in your hand. Yes, with his two
fists perfect for Ada EIGHTA in the corner. Yep. All for God's sake,
he fucking laid out those potatoes. Yes, and then the match started
right exactly. That's how that's how he that's how we eat the potatoes,
the Taito tita, I mean, any any other accurate things you want to
re enact. He h and he's on the charge too, I mean when
he when he and when he's done eating, he does that kind of like
that little uh, that little kind of squatted hop thing that he does around.
You know, that's his happy face, has happy dance when he's done
eating. I mean, this is the show where like our whole thing of
Vader, you know, coming down on a SnowCat and busting into a white
castle and eating all the inventory that this is the body language we're talking about
the way he rampages around the Baltimore He's like jumping onto limousines in the parking
lot. He's attacking Jabbroni's on the pre show. He's just he's just wandering
hallways. You know, we hear about it. The announcers talk about how
he's wandering hallways back there. It's all it's all the idea of Vader,
you know, scrounging for sustenance, scrounging for calories. Yeah, because you
know that's the thing. This is, this is what Harley Race has done.
He he he says, you know what he says, Vader Vader big
day of the match. You can't eat the damn food. You can't eat
anything in the morning, can't eat anything until the pay per view is over.
None of that catering tops that's the whole ball game. Eat after the
match, eat after the show, not before the show, from when you
wake up until you until the end of the show, you're not eating a
damn thing. I want you hungry. I want you hungry. I want
you wanting to kill people in the ring. Imagine me, imagine Vader rolling
into a Denny's, like, shut it down, guys, like this is
going to be a long process. He rolls into the first, first restaurant,
and and and and you know, he goes up to the he goes
up to the the what do you call it that? Who's the person you
meet at the hostess, the hostess and the host hand and just like smashes
it with his hands. Dinnifood dinner phone up, fucking hog d It's the
second hostess he walked up to and smashed with his hand that day. Actually,
I believe the first one he smashed with his mouth, but that's a
story that was filled with cream. It's right, So let's wat a time.
I'm fucking ugright, hobody you we're gonna see if he eats here at
Super Brawl five. So let's acquaint ourselves, of course, among the cast
of characters that followed Hogan and WW was gene Oquoland and they imported the event
center concept to WCW, and they were doing something like that before with Gordon
Soli and stuff. But here is a gen Ocalan event center for super Brawl
five featuring Hulk Hogan promo. Let this sort of give us a sense,
give us that backdrop, that that sound of what Hogan in the dawn of
nineteen ninety five sounded like. In WCW, this is hit gene Okerland fact
at the WCW super Brawl Control Center. Super Brawl comes your way alive from
one of the great wrestling cities of North America, one of the great wrestling
cities of the world, Baltimore, Maryland, and the beautiful Baltimore Arena that
eight Sunday, February of the nineteenth at seven o'clock Eastern times. Fans are
going to be coming in from neighboring New York, Philadelphia, Washington, d
C. And of course from Baltimore, especially our core fans who have always
dreamed of the Hulkgan Vader meeting for the WCW Heavyweight title. Remember that injunction
that stayed at Hogan in the four hundred and fifty two pound Vader could not
see each other after what happened at Starcade, Then came last Wednesday in Las
Vegas, and again blatant interference by Vader, one of the most exciting single
matches this sport has ever seen. Holt, Cogan and Vader at Super Brawl
five standing by right now. Let's hear from the rainey t me way check
into the world, Old Covid yous after what happens to class man, These
grouns are crazy. You don't need to pty more fuel on the fire.
Look at Rick Brow think he's up to something. Man, he was at
Caesar Palace sitting in the ringside. Man, Well you know something, Jimmy
Hart, after what went down a couple of days ago with the clash,
there's more than the w CW title that the maniacs and all the people have
to worry about. Brother, You know, Fader time is approach, yest
dudes, And you gotta realize when you talk about the atmy of what wrestling's
all about, that it's the greatest wrestler of all time. It was the
greatest w c WV of all times. Old Cogan, Ess Vader, with
all of this mean, nasty, dangerous analystics and all his credibility has got
to be the Cootie Graw Wrestling is all about. Brother got the w c
W title. Here's a mere tricking as far as parties go. The fact
that we're for the future, the real new generation of hulk Amniacs, the
real new generations dug a fall all lead or the trade and the prayer of
the Vidains in the Hulk Hogan credo. That's what we're fighting for. Brother
and Jimmy Hart. Make sure all the details are in check when you get
the pen in hand, as it's signed, sealed and delivered. Make sure
Harley races in check, and this thing is left just between me and Vader.
Brother. Because of the rulers of Rick Flair, the rumors that he's
hanging out of ringside, I just don't know what he's up to. I
don't know if there's no lines between him and Vader. But however it goes
holk Aniacs, you can best believe the Pythons won't be ready. The Hulk
a Maniacs at ringside and all around the world are going to be ready.
Invader. Once I focus on you, Brother, once I put you in
a once position. Once I drop you on your head? What are you
gonna do when the art just arms in the world? Are you Wow?
What a match up that's gonna be wc W Heavyweight champion Hull Cogan to defend
against the four one hundred and fifty two pound number one contender and challenger Vader.
Invader's corner is long time, manage your former seven times n W A
champion, party race, Kang Swang Hang wng Wang Wanging, the real new
Generation, that's fucking money. Thoughts on the promo, Uh, it just
sounds weird. I don't know, it's it's you know, Hogan Promo's kind
of post flair. Hogan promo seemed lost to me. He doesn't seem on
on point. Yeah, it sounds like he's trying to say things he doesn't
want to explicitly say. Like he's making a lot of references to like physical
credibility. He's like, right, it's like trying to say shoot things through
the lens of like his Carni talk, and it's like half the time what
he says is like impenetrable, right, I feel like, but he's trying
to say that Vader is a unique threat Vader, somebody that you know,
is supposed to be somebody that I'm too cheesy to overcome. But when I
put him in my fucking pile of victims like the rest, it's gonna be
an accelerant for for health media. And look, Jimmy Hart such a negative
with Hogan, like such a negative it really is. It makes them look
like such a tool that he needs this manager guy hopping around like what kind
of baby face superhero needs a guy behind him in an airbrush jacket holding his
title and waiting a Megan. It was. It was a unique thing in
WWE because the whole story there, but you know, coming into ww it
just didn't work. No, you know, it didn't work. It makes
it look like a prima donna frankly that he comes to the ring with like
a handler, you know, or a guy who it's like, what's he
doing? Like why is he out here? First of all, a guy
who is by far his most successful work was his heal manager, So it's
like he's not even some of the fans are inclined to didn't give a shit
about if he's playing a baby face and I know he was his real consigliary
in real life and minding the ps and ques and kind of like Hogan's business
manager behind the scenes. But absolutely no reason for Jimmy Hart to be out
there with him. And you know, it's all the set up the heel
turnhere he joins with Kevin Sullivan and the Dungeon to doom, and I get
that with Hogan, like whenever he has an alliance on screen, it's always
like, you know, so they can turn on him eventually and he can
do another year of business, of course, but but it's just just bizarre.
So we're locked in and this is going to be folks. Uh,
this is going to be like the last one for a little while because we're
locked in on Philly. Philly's coming strong. Oh yes, you know,
we've got to deliver from members of the Solar System. We're gonna be with
us. April seventh, high noon, Sunday Punchline. Philly is the club
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is part of WrestleMania Weekend. Cannot believe boss the contingent
that we expect in Philly. I'm I'm I'm very excited. I'm very very
excited. It's uh, it's going to be It's going to be crazy.
It's gonna be Seriously, if if last year was crazy, this is gonna
be off the fucking hook. There's like little pockets of lapsed fans that we
you know, know and have hung out with and have dealt with, and
they're always sort of like in their own silos. This is this is like
every single every single little group that I've heard of of lapsed fans coalescing into,
like you know, their smaller discussion groups. We heard from Gabe,
you know, yes, we did last time when we talked about the whole
ball game and and the and the sort of smaller subdivision of the solar system
that they that they created and found. There's like six of them that are
going to like megapowers colliding mm hmmm hmm. And I can't wait to see
it all play out. It's gonna be fucking that's going to be unreal.
And you know the sick lineup of stand up comics they're going to be joining
us, including Lamar Lee, high Level Guy, hilarious dude. We shared
an interview we did with him just last week on the Feed. He's going
to be joining us on stage. Of course, Ray Goots are partnering crime
putting this together, is going to join us on stage. Dave Pintowski from
the ringside Colleptical Electable's Family is going to be there really excited about all of
the folks that are going to be joining us to review what happens when the
Rocky steps back into the ring to team of the Roman reigns. I mean,
this is lab serendipity. I remember thinking like, yeah, it's perfect
to have a Sunday afternoon show instead of a Sunday after But one thing it
does deprive us of is the opportunity to sort of really digest two nights of
Mania and digest Rock versus Roman, because when I was thinking about the show,
that's my main event in my head yeap of course, and thinking like,
oh, we're not gonna be able, but really, the way it's
playing out, we're going to get to talk about rock wrestling one more time
because that's just a Saturday night thing. Is that guaranteed? Yes? So
the stipulations now sit that if a Rock and Roman beats Seth and Cody,
then Cody never gets another shot again. And it's bloodlined rules that is to
say, notice qualification essentially and they can interfere to their heart's desire. However,
if Cody and Seth win, there will be no outside interference and it'll
be Cody and Roman clean on night two. Wow, So we're gonna have
a strong idea of how they deliver on that. It's pretty clear to me
Rock turns on Roman. If not night one, he maybe he loses Night
one and then comes around and stops the bloodline from interfering in night two and
we go in that direction. I would lobby for Roman to turn on Rock
before Rock and fucking around, just turn around and spear him for taking all
the spotlight and kind of less walking in on his fucking legacy defining it.
And it would be good because he's talking about too, he's talking about what
he I just watched one of the pro I just I don't know when it
was, but I just watched this promo him singing a song, the Rock
singing a song. I what a surprise, Holy shit. I just I
just stumbled on on on on Instagram this evening and I just died. It
was so fucking funny. And uh uh, I was like, he keeps
calling himself what he keeps now he's calling himself the hottest heel in the business
since the eighties. He's calling himself a final boss. The that's the final
boss, right, the final Boss. That's what it is, which is
crazy fuck all the time on Instagram. Yeah, exactly, it's it's feeling
different, hey, because you know why, because he's uh, he's the
board of director. He's the director of the board. If the Rock says
wrestling is cool again, does that make it true? I guess we're about
to find out. Yeah, I guess, Hot Night, Hot Weekend,
Wrestlmania. Forty your co chairs on the ground to deliver the unscathing perspective that
lapsed fans deserve what is known as the unvarnished truth. No sacred cows,
no bullshit, no allegiance, no interest in being friends with anyone in the
industry, only interested in delivering for our people who suffer the same ailment of
lifelong wrestling fandom. We do, yes, and if we're all going to
be stuck on this boat together, we might as well enjoy the ride and
work and work to keep the surf on the other side of the of the
starboard. And so Punchline Philly the Venue, April seventh, noontime the time
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the co chairs back on stage for the only WrestleMania preview
and review show you need, and of course, only the true premium line
of live event, absolutely weekend. And if you think our friends in stand
up comedy are the only ones that are going to be joining us here,
you're totally wrong, because there's a rogues gallery of lapsed characters that I haven't
on good authority going to be in attendance as well. I've been told that
they might be making an appearance, and again, don't miss out on this
because the window will close eventually. We are raffling off and authentic Terry Funk
branding iron to one attendee at Punchline Philly. If you buy your ticket at
Punchline Philly and send us proof of purchase to the Lapsed Fan at gmail dot
com, you get two entries in the raffle. For one of the premium
tickets the preferred seating, you will get one for a general admission. We'll
draw the winner. And you know, we got that branding iron from the
Terry Funk estate sale as part of the Lapsed Funk Thrilled to see a video
sent to us on Twitter by a member of the Solar System. Turns out,
in twenty twenty, Terry Funk stood in his kitchen boss and did a
whole little speech about what this branding iron is. Wow, And I could
tell by the unique grooves of it that is the exact one we came into
possession of. That's crazy. He was quick to point out in the video
that this wasn't the one with like two crosses on it that he used in
WCW and some of the more you know, the one you see when you
first google like Terry Funk branding iron, you see him holding in promotional photos.
But it's definitely one that he used extensively, pretty sure. And each
W and the second w W run in two thousand definitely like Major League Wrestling
and stuff. Just a fascinating one of a kind piece. And we're proud
to give one last salute to the great Terry Funk as we head to Philadelphia,
the city that he carved out so much of his legacy in, And
don't miss that opportunity because once we get on the ground and you know,
sort of the pre sale mentality is behind us, we're not going to be
putting anybody else in play for the raffles. So tell anybody else you know
that might be interested in this one of a kind collector's item that there's only
one way to qualify to get it. That's to buy tickets. Send us
proof of purchase the Lapsed Fan at gmail dot com and join us at Punchline,
Philly, high noon, April seven. Not a fucking joke, not
a fucking game is going to be high level shit. Oh yeah, And
I can't think of a soul who won't regret it if they pass on the
opportunity to join us. And we hear you out in the Solar system who
for one reason or another can't make it to Philly but would love to be
there. You be there in spirit. We hear you, we see you.
And I'm just fucking amazed at how many people are making the trip,
especially when you consider a quotient boss that aren't even going to WrestleMania. That's
that's always the part that I that really that really gets me hard. Yes,
that's correct, that's the word, all right, The fact that there
are that many people who are coming to see us and don't give a shit
about WrestleMania. And I'll buying airline tickets. It's we're strong on the East
coast. There's a lot of driving, which is great, you know,
a lot of driving distance fans. Yep. But the fact that people are
getting on planes and not going to WrestleMania always blows my mind. It blew
my mind last year in la it blows my mind. This year in Philly.
It'll blow my mind going forward. Absolutely, because the story of TLFX
in ten years of the show has been you put energy into the atmosphere.
You tell us that what we're doing is worth it, and we perpetuate it,
and we give it back to tenfold, and then it comes back at
us tenfold and everything grows at It's a beautiful cycle and no missteps are made
because we only respond to signals that you send us. You tell us it's
worth it, we go hard, you tell us it's not worth it,
we do something else. Yep. Very simple, and so we look forward
to seeing everybody April seventh. Please, if you're interested in joining us,
just google Punchline Philly. The venue. It's a wonderful venue from all indications
in Philadelphia, very conveniently located, and join us in Philadelphia, jump to
their event schedule. Scroll down April seventh, you'll see the lapsed fan bozos,
biceps and bullshit. Yes event, buy those tickets, send us that
proof of purchase and join us. It's going to be an unforgettable evening upon
forty years of WrestleMania and more importantly, ten years of the lapsed Fan.
I'm fucking right. So we're in Baltimore, favorable press coverage, or at
least a press that's interested in running some articles about the wrestling show coming to
town. Of all the papers, that Baltimore Sun is one that you can
kind of count on to cover wrestling, just somewhat seriously, of course.
And Hull Cogan picked up the phone and did an interview ahead of Super Brawl
five. Try to get interest moving, ticket sales moving. And I wish
Boss that you would share this article with the Solar System. February seventeenth,
ninety five, Baltimore Sun. When you first meet Hull Cogan face to face,
make that face to belly button, the wow she's short? Yeah right?
Seriously, yoh bro, if you kind of get a little bit lowered,
you to give me exactly where I want you to. It's in front
of my big python wrote this, Oh oh oh by Dylan Postel. Okay
um uh, you are tempted to blurt out to the six foot seven two
and seventy five pound professional wrestler, oh man, you are hute, and
we do mean huge biceps like ham hawks, so large that a regular shirt
won't hold them. He wears denim cutoffs, thighs the size of redwoods.
Everywhere you look at Hulkogan, there's muscle. Even his eyelids are muscular.
That's not true. They're not, so I have a problem with it.
Even his fingernails are muscular. This herculean sized man is affectionately called the Hulkster
by thousands of screaming Hulka maniacs. But he's just Terry to his wife of
seven years, Linda, and Daddy to his two children, six year old
Brook and four year old Nicholas. And that suits the Hulkster just fine.
But he's just fuck you Terry to his wife of seven At the beginning,
he was also called daddy by Linda while though it's been a while. Though,
yes, even hulk Hogan has a sensitive side. The man who once
picked up the five hundred pound seven feet tall on it brought five thousand pound
dude. Actually you're missing a zero there. He's twelve feet tall, brother,
and slammed them down to the mat with a mighty thud. Now can
be found picking up the kids from elementary school. Mister Hogan was in town
recently to talk about his Super Brawl five match Sunday night against Vodder. Was
your opponent Votder? I see, let me see they sent me some publicity
here, so hope you're wrestling Vodder on Sunday? Can you tell us about
how you planned to approach the match against Votter? You No, we've called
him that. I've called him that so many times, but you know,
doing it and like thinking about actual like a like a TV news anchor making
the mistake of calling him Vodder. It's funny, actually it's so not exactly
I mean not even not even considered that Darth Vader. Like, this guy's
so so completely not involved in pop culture whatsoever. All right at the Baltimore
Arena, as the Haulture says, though, this ain't no ordinary match,
brother, that's because his World Championship Wrestling Heavyweight title is on the line.
Mister Hogan forty one, Wow, I'm older than him. In at this
show, like that's I'm older than him, and this is like thin faced
Hogan would like that. Yeah right, the wristbands, right, he looks
older than ever. Honestly, he's only forty one. Jesus Christ. Mister
Hogan forty one, says he has to work hard to keep up with the
younger wrestlers, especially someone like Vader, who's so nasty. He wears it
looks like a harness on his face. Ooh, that's written in there by
the way I want you to know it is. Ooh is written in there
that guy. That guy does scare me, said mister Hogan, looking decidedly
unscared over lunch at the Polo Grill. Over lunch, like we need to
know he's eating a salad when this is happening. No matter what my think
about wrestling, you know, being fake or choreographed or whatever, you have
to admit that Vodder is scary. Say that again. That's that's actually what
it says in the article. Go ahead. They didn't even have to have
the writer say it's fake. Hogan offers it up. No matter what you
think about professional wrestling, but being fake or choreographed or whatever, you have
to admit that Vader is scary looking. That's Hogan's ninety five bag. It's
like, I'm gonna talk about how it's fake in my promos and how like
the sky listen, I just want to be real, brother, represents a
menace even in the abstract. Not know if you if you think about wrestling
being real and you consider what voters all about, dude, I mean this
is where the column of the line gets blurred. Brother, you know what
is real? What is fake? Dude? I won't not only come out
of the ring. That's a good line. That is a good line.
It's like how he didn't know if he was retiring right right, exactly great
life. Ask why he got back into wrestling after a two year retirement,
mister Hogan says he did it for his son. If my son never saw
me wrestle, you, Nick would come home from nursery school and ask me,
you know, dad, what's hull comnia bullshit? As for what is
typical day is like, it may surprise him to learn if the hulksure doesn't
start it by downing a glass of raw eggs, running ten miles or going
to the gym to bench press a few hundred pounds. It begins with Dad
making breakfast for the kids, which used to piss off Linda, which I
thought is one of the best things in his second book. Of course,
absolutely as always, for some reason, one of the kids have a big
breakfast and she just come down and be like, what the fuck is this,
Terry, Why don't you just have They can just have a bull cereal.
It's funny how it pissed her off that you would make breakfast. Of
course, I just love that, of course much, because you know what,
because she would just be you know, this is this is this is
bad. I'm not I'm not taking sides here, although I totally am taking
sides. Is that, you know, she'd be so lazy, she wouldn't
want to make fucking I think, yeah, exactly food, and so she'd
make it. And so now he's one upping her in an area that really
is supposed to be you know, kind of taking taking not that I'm trying
to say, you know, just their situation. She's supposed to be kind
of the keeper of this es, of this domain, of this of this
realm. You know, this is where she is is the uh is the
true is the Hulkster you know, like at home and taking care of the
family, and here he is fucking coming in and kicking her ass and ripping
open like packages of bacon, just like three packages of bacon. I want
you to have like fifteen eggs. I got bacon, dude, I got
sausage, I got I got, I got it. I got bread over
ears holder make toast. He's sizzling by like eight point fifteen on a Sunday,
and she's not. She's no, exactly exactly. The whole fucking house
smells like coffee and bacon, all right, And my best party, and
the best party is to when push comes up, she gets none of it.
Well, I mean it's there, it's all eating. It's all eating.
You kid me, Come on, Hulk Hogan. You know you think
he's not gonna eat it himself. Goods, come on in and get some
eggs. Hey, they sit at the island. Hey kids, dude,
just let's come on Brown brother, Hey Brooke teeny, I got some eggs.
I got some tiss for you, dude, Nick brother, Nick teeny,
dude, I got look, I got the sausagel. They're watching like
Nickelodeon right, Oh God, Terry, it smells awful. What the fuck
she's like rubbing her eyes? Well, I just I just made some bris
for the kids, dude, some briz, some briz. Yeah, brother,
I made bris for the kids. I said, you know, I
might as well come down. You know, I'm up early in the morning.
Anyway, Brother, I might as well cook some things. Dude,
it'll make the kids, make the kids a nice big briz. Okay,
he tucks. He talks in exact detail about the breakfast and eggs to please
keep reading. I've got it down with science, eggs, sausage, and
cinnamon toast seven minutes, he says proudly. Then I packed their lunches.
I get the sandwich, the yogurt, the little fruit toots coe, uh,
you know, and pack it into the Batman and Barbie lunchboxes. And
it's off to school. Oh after these domestic chores are completed, does mister
Hogan head to the gym. After a couple hours of working out, he
heads home. That's it, mister Hogan sends it the disappointment. I know
it doesn't sound like much, he says, almost apologetically, but when you're
at my age, you have to really work a stain in shape. So
when I was single. He always talks about, saying like he harps on
his single life like it's fucking I mean, obviously he probably misses it like
nobody's business even at this point. Yeah, what he means by when I
was single, he means when I could do steroids. Right, we're very
good. I mean when I was single, I think of nothing of going
out all night and having fun. Now it's different. He even eats right,
puts his napkin in his lap, like just like his mother taught him.
You might expect a burly guys, which is mister Hogan, to order
something like the raw meat d Jules. How about food, folks, I
mean this article, Look what's happening here? I know it seriously is.
But instead it's two chill grilled chicken breasts with no butter, no salt,
no grease, and egg white ahmet we spinach and mushrooms and a toss salad
with red onions. Didn't we say when we asked bride Knobs? But Hogan
cooks for breakfast if he has egg white omelets exactly exactly. Omelets is right
there, Oh Knobs, dude, you got the skill it going, brother,
Give me one of those egg white dude, egg white omelet dude with
the spinach and the cheese, dude, rights, maybe put a little you
know what, brother, kind of put a little uh miss ushrooms in there.
Brother, feeling a little frisky tonight. Dude, feeling a little frisky
tonight as he orders breakfast. I can't that big house from Holgan knows best
that Belanda can't them coming down in like a bathrobe, like all sleepy like
it's just too much. I can't. Mm hmm morning dude. So what
do you think Vince is going to do with the paper? What's the dizz?
Yo? What's the diz? Brother talking about that pay per view is
coming up? Brother, what do you think Vince is going to plan for
that? For the finish Dude? You think leg drop one, two three,
game over? Brother, That's what I'm thinking, Dude, what a
surprise. Isn't that what you were thinking last month too? Terry, Well,
I thought I kind of wanted to change it up a little bit,
dude. Maybe have one, two three then leg drop? Yeah, beat
him with a so get the pin, then drop the leg just bring back,
bring back the axie boomba. Dude. Wow, No, kind of
like you off the let's let's uh, let's let this Baltimore sunwriter gal us
with just a few more food items. Uh. He notices that his lunch
companion is eating only a salad. This is too much food for me,
he says, sounding vaguely like Ward Cleaver, and leave it to beaver.
Then he puts some chicken on an extra plate for his companion. Gee,
you'd think dad would cut the meat for you first. This is what it's
come to with. Uh, he doesn't. I mean, I guess he's
leaning into it, but not a superhero here. Well, dude, I
want to tell you, brother, I'm cold. What I want to do,
dude, is long come to take things back a little bit, can
dial things back in, you know, brother, because I want what I
want to do is kind of bring into w CW the idea of action venture
comedy. Brother. And that's why I think, you know, Hulkemania should
be about. That's what I think w c W should be about, not
blood and guts about you know brother. Yeah, we got the these guys
over here, dude, they're like, oh, you know, you know
this is you know, you're damaging what we call wrestling. I'm like well,
you know, dude, we're kind of taking in a little bit of
a different direction, dude, kind of bringing the family's brother. You're kind
of making it that action adventure comedy. Dudes to that more people can come
to the table and see what's at WCW and this thing we're making. Brother,
I'm intrigued. I mean, we got this thing over here, and
somebody said at one point, I think what he said, you know this
thing we got to we're taking this thing to the next level. Brother,
clearly, yeah, we want right now, we're about here, dude,
we gotta take this thing up here. Bro, we're building something new.
You know, we got to con you know, we're taking things to the
next level. Brother. So that's the play with Terry, you know,
Family Man, somebody who's just like more cookie cutter than ever. Interestingly,
Oh yeah, and this is what he's giving up when he turns here in
ninety six. This is the exact you know, marketing plan that he turns
us back on articles like this and Family Man coming off testifying against Vince.
Of course, in the summer of ninety four, the week BEFO for beating
Flair at Bash of the Beach. You know, it's a new Hogan,
but in a lot of ways, it's the old Hogan just less interesting,
you know, just even more Anna Dye than the original babyface Hulcogan run.
So meanwhile, Vader gets himself a bit of ink in the Pittsburgh Post to
Gazette, future w CP commentator Mark Madden writing this up maybe pro wrestling's most
incredible sight ever. The six foot five, four hundred and fifty pound wrestler
climbs to the top rope inexplicably facing away from the ring, away from his
prone opponent than he Moon Salts does a backwards flip onto his foe. No
ordinary move. But then Vader, former All American defensive lineman for the University
of Colorado's football team and the next Los Angeles Ram is no ordinary wrestler.
He's been wrestling nine years and has been a recognized world champion eleven times.
He's been world champion for Ted Turner owned World Championship Wrestling three times. Vader
WCWUS Champion and World Champion for Japanese promotion UWFi. Yes, Vader had a
deal boss at the time that allowed him to work Japan and he was the
champion of the UWFi organization, a shoot style group Wow. At the same
time, he's wrestling Hogan on pay per view, so you can imagine how
that complicates. Is his interest in doing the clean or for the Hulkster wrestles
Hulk Coogan for the w W World Heavyweight title in the Super Bowl pay per
view Sunday at seven pm. Vader began life as Leon White thirty eight years
ago. Injuries cut his football career short, but he quickly became a sensation
in wrestling. In nineteen ninety, he was recognized world champion on three continents
at the same time. I'm lucky to have conquered the globe in wrestling,
he said over the phone from Tokyo. I've been called the best big man
in wrestling, but I think I'm one of the best period. I take
a back seat to no one, not even Hulk Hogan. M I see
Sunday's match as the largest event in wrestling's last twenty years, said Vader.
It's the match people want to see, Like Fraser Ali, I don't really
like Hogan, but I respect him. Does Hogan want to wrestle me?
I don't know. Ww CD has to last twenty years. I don't know
about last twenty years. Yeah, that's pretty big. I think you'd say
maybe the last five years. Yeah, you can't say it's bigger than Andre
Hogan. I'm sorry. Oh, not even close. You can't say it's
bigger than any of a WWF pay per view headlines. Really, it's the
match people want to see. Like Fraser Ali, I don't really like Hogan,
but I respect him. Does Hogan want to wrestle me? I don't
know. W CW says he has to. I'm certainly not afraid of him.
Bravado Aside wrestling results are pre mmmm. Bravado Aside wrestling results are predetermined,
period, period, right now, all right, you got to put
that fucking in there? All right? You write that there for a second.
Come on, come on, I get this column here on this Veda
guy. Look, I'm looking. I'm looking. I've read it three times,
mark, and I don't see what I need to see in here.
Look, I want to tell you quotes. I've read this. Yeah,
yeah, you got great quotes. But you know what, this was one
thing that's missing, and it's very important because really this is what the story
is all about, all right, see see miss you missed. If it's
not happens too much when you write about this stuff, all right, then
this is the thing I like, I've let you have, you know,
I let you go along, you know, and do your thing a couple
of times, and and you keep dropping the ball. You gotta say,
this ship's fake already anywhere in here that wrestling is pretty determined. How how
are we supposed to keep credibility with our readers? You don't listen. The
credibility is the fact that we are saving their lives. Their lives are endangered
with these assholes, all right. They are having the wool pulled over their
fucking eyes by these sons of bitches. So what I need you to do
is I need you to recognize what it is that I'm saying, all right,
that that it doesn't matter what what this fucking, this fucking humpy dumpty
clown said all right to you in your fucking interview culvator, A humpty dumpty
clown. That's awesome, all right. He's a bitch, he's a fucking
he's a fucking oath. It's not even a real fighter. He's not even
a real fucking fighting he he he pulls his punches. You know, he's
he's, he's he's a loser, all right, he's him using an M
M A glove in Japan. And think that changes anything. Oh I'm sorry,
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, now he's now he can fucking look at
he's. He's waffling people in the fucking corner there. It doesn't matter.
It's all bullshit. It's all bullshit. And I don't give a ship what
he says, because he his job. His job is not to tell you
the truth. His job is to lie to you. That's what his job
is. And I'm not gonna let him lie to our readers. He doesn't
need to say that it's fucking fake. I'm telling you to put in your
fucking article that it's fucking fake. I know the truth, you know the
fucking truth. Do you want to keep your job? Of course I do.
How do I keep your apartment? What do you want to keep your
life? Intact? I will beat the ship out of you. I will
step on your fucking face. I'll go find your mother, I'll step on
her fucking face. Well, let me ask you a question, mark,
Do you want me to stab you? Right now? Let me let me
ask you something. Let me let me let me ask you this. Do
you know what this is? Do you see what I got in my hand?
It's a fucking gun. I got a loaded fucking gun. It's a
word. He isn't pushed back at all. I got a loaded fucking gun,
cocked and fucking loaded right now, and I'm aiming it at your fucking
face. What do I need to do to not get shot in the face?
Do what I fucking said and make it in the fucking article that this
ship is fucking fake and you're a fucking dick. Here's what you write,
Okay, Bravado Aside Comma. Wrestling results are pre determined, right, I
want to if you want to make it classy, I understand you want to
keep it a little bit of your bullshit bitch ass reputation in this paper.
You can buy something like bro Voda aside. All these things. Wrestling matches
are all predetermined, all right? Could we come to an agreement on that?
Is that a good enough compromise for you? I'm listen, I'm pulling
the trigger right now. The trigger was pulling. I got it. I'm
halfway there. I thing it's shaking. Mark. I'm halfway there. Huh,
you're gonna do it? Or do I have to kill you and right
it myself. Let's forget all the rules of this great country of ours.
This is the freedom of the press, freedom to tell the truth, the
freedom to protect the citizens of this fucking country from from ingrates from fucking fascists
like these pro wrestling bitches. I tell you something about America. The only
way to protect those rights, mark is to exercise them. And if you're
not going to exercise the freedom of the press to tell the truth, then
you're doing the opposite. You're fighting against freedom by not putting wrestling as fake.
Let me tell you something, if you don't exercise the freedom of the
press, I will execute you with the freedom of my right to fucking buy
arms. This is pretty clear that exercise I could ask of you. Now,
get to you fucking typewriter and put this ship up right? It right?
Right, that it's fake, Right, that it's right, that it's
bullshit right, everyone already knows is predetermined. Why don't have to fucking care
what people know? You're gonna We're gonna have to listen. If ship hasn't
sunk into the people yet, we're gonna keep reminding them and reminding them and
reminded them until they fucking get it. And if they don't fucking get it,
what does it mean to get it? What do you want them to
do to to prove to you that they get it? Because I think they
already do. No, they know, because if they got it, they
wouldn't be going to the ship and wasting their fucking money. All right,
They are being brainwashed, they are being hoodwinked, they are being completely disturbed
by these pieces of shit, these crumb bums, these crumb bums, all
right, that's what they are. They're fucking crumb bums. I kill crumb
bums. Wow, all right, don't get the fuck over there, Get
behind your fucking desk, right the goddamn article. Remind the people that what
they're watching is fake, that what they're paying for is fake, that people
know the outcome. You don't fucking buy tickets for the Super Bowl if you
don't if you know that what the fucking outcome is gonna be. Look,
I understand where you're coming from when you say you know, Why why should
I have to tell people that that it's predetermined? Everybody already knows it.
Why should I have to do it? And I'm thinking, I know why
because look what's in my hand. Yeah, I know why, because I
get a gun to your fucking head. That's why. Yeah, your boss,
you can go sucking till anybody you want. My boss had a fucking
gun to my head. He was gonna kill me. And you know what,
they'll come to me, the police will come and I'll say, yeah,
I did because I was I was doing it for the people of this
country. That's right. I'll be glad to go to jail for this.
I don't mind going to jail for protecting people, gentlemen. This is democracy
manifest Bravado. Aside, wrestling results are predetermined pagraph Thank heavens too. That's
a good one by Mark. Thank kills someone if they weren't. If not,
my boss will he is, Yeah, exactly projecting much there, Mark.
He is considered perhaps the toughest man among pro wrestlers, adept at martial
arts, brawling and technical wrestling. As if that's not enough to make him
a drawing card, he does dynamite, blood and guts interviews. He's definitely
wrestling's most fearsome persona. And then there's that moon Salt. I never really
practiced it. I just sort of pictured it in my mind and did it,
he said Vader okay, later, looking to excite the buying public ahead
of super Brawl. Yes, indeed, well, looking back on it,
it would not be a knight that he relished very much at all. He
sat for our video at a shooting interview. I think it's way back in
ninety eight, and it's it's it's pretty much the first time we heard Vader
kind of talk, you know, from the hip about his career. And
here's how he sized up everything that happened. He'saly health kilget in super Bowl
five, heard that Hogan was coming in. Now, you at the time,
even up to that point, you know, as Flair was just starting
to come back, you were the top dog more or less in the company.
You've been there, champion for a long time. You were You've kept
the door open with Sid. What was your reactions when Hogan was coming in,
because you got to know right away, you know, when when when
Rick double cross gate for the title. Yeah, it was took dotsy job
two days for Bige and I left. My first reaction was no, you
know, he said, well, I'm gonna keep the time, said,
don't you know. You know, I said, that's not what we talked
about the dot the agreement on which you don't and Rick, that simply can
happen, you know. And we had long, big discussion, and you
know, after probably fifteen ors two hundred promises maybe for the future, I
said, okay, okay, let's go ahead and just get out of this
cage match best what we can. And then really I thought maybe he had
stuff his onn toe there where he was whole coming in hope what lose.
No matter what he had told Rick, you know, they would trade off
a few I mean, he'd beat Rick four straight, you know, and
penned him four straight, and that certainly didn't do Rick any good way.
So I figured, well, you know, maybe after winning four straight,
and then then he went to his buddy what's his name, uh Savage.
You mean as far as the title, Yeah, he went to the butcher,
the barber beefcake produce. In other words, yeah, he went from
Vlaar and then he chose his apponent, which was the butcher, I guess
at the time, butcher, the beefcake whatever. And I mean obviously the
biery was horrible, horrible. So it was like, okay, boom,
Vader to the rescue, right, Yeah, that's resurrected thing. And I
sat down with with Eric and I said, look, you know, the
guy just went four straight on Rick Clair. He just beat you know.
And the best thing for Hogan, the best thing for Vader, the best
thing for this company is is with Flair as my manager because Harry was hurt
at that time, Flair was gonna walk but walking out with me and my
manager, with Flair my manager, I said, I have to go over.
I said, one the only one from the deal with with the star
ky thing with Flair. But the best thing for the company is you know,
I've got to go over this first time on Hogan. And I'm not
talking about a clean one, two three, but I'm talking about it.
I mean, I don't care give Flair Bezuka and shoot him in the back
somehow. Let me walk out of that belt and get the heat. Because
you know, no matter no matter how hard I walked out in the match
against Hogan, you no matter how hard I get, I tried to get
the people to hate me. I mean they were cheering me and bluing Hogan
at this time, you know, it was it was getting to the point
where it's very obvious Hogan either needed to quit or become a heal. Obviously
you initially end up doing it. And at one point had told Eric and
what you know, that I would have to consider, you know, if
if you don't do what's right for for for me, if you don't want
to do what's right for me, and if you don't want to do it
right for Hogan, if you don't want to do what's right for yourself,
then do it right for the company, because then you imagine had I went
over that first match with Terry right, and had Terry had the sense I
mean you talk about a swerve. I mean he kicked out of my mind.
He got got up off my finish before the series, and he told
me, you know, I was told to give it to him. He
was gonna lay there. He's thinking, I know, he got up,
and you know, what are you thinking at that point? Well, I'm
thinking, you know, Jesus, this is this is how these guys get
over this. They backstabb you. And and yeah, I mean I thought,
what you know, and you know, I was making good for the
era. I mean, you know, I wasn't making the kind of money
Hogan's making day and certainly wasn't making kind of money bread Hearts making. But
for that time, I was, you know, I was making right at
you know, right at that seventh figure mark. Uh and uh and that
was a lot of money for the time and a lot of money today.
But you know I had I had to give a lot of thought you know
about that, you know, just saying no, this is the way it's
going to be, or you know, you can fire me and and I'll
go up and doctor fans. Yeah, and uh, looking back on that
one, Uh, that's that's without question, that's what should have happened,
because the next three match would be off with the kind of business we could
have done, you know, would have the farce passed what we did.
No lies detected. Wow, he lays it all out, doesn't he.
That's right? I mean, just uh, just out Fox at the table.
You know, this is absolutely come on. I mean, you know
it's really it's it's Vigder's fault one hundred for not either preparing for it or
not you know, doing something about it. Because he was there enough to
watch Hogan walk all over Flair and and and change, change finishes and stuff
like that for the first year that he was there, like the fact that
he didn't fucking catch on like he was going to be any different. Like
that's what it is. It's when you realize you're not any different. You're
not any different, Listen, You're all the same in his eyes. And
he made it seem like, you know, let's resurrect the Vader thing because
the buy rate for Star Kid was so horrible. Dude, you shot the
angle for the match on that pay per view like a month and a half
before they even knew if the show did one by right, you know,
got to be careful with Vader too. He would he would take his sour
grapes and like kind of structure reality to act like he had signals that he
didn't really have. And when you watch the match, I mean, this
thing that's supposed to get him so pissed off, he certainly gets right in
a position after Hogan's up from his finish, no problem, and it carries
himself in a way where he totally expects Hogan to do that. I don't
know, it didn't really jump out to me what he's talking about. I
mean, I've heard I've heard the story that Hogan, that Hogan no sold
the the power bomb and killed it, and I and I heard, I've
heard that for I've never seen the show, by the way, until we
watch it for this, Oh wow, I've never actually watched it, and
so I've had that in my head the whole time. I have that in
my head, like, oh yeah, so I'm gonna wait for Hogan.
He's gonna no sell the the the power bomb here, and then he sells
it, and I'm like, what's everyone fucking talking about? He sells it
for a minute, he convulses on the canvas. Vader covers him, and
he kicks out before a one and he's up and punching it within it.
No, that's it's the again. Vader does another move. Vader goes for
a splash. Yeah he does. Yep. Vader goes for a splash,
and that's when Hogan kicks out. So he doesn't have anything to do with
the fucking power bomb. It's the splash. Well, he gets well,
Vader power bombs and covers him, and Hogan gets up immediately and starts punching
him in the head with no cell whatsoever. I don't I mean, I'm
not I'm gonna take a look right back. Yeah, that happens, because
I know I know he does that. I know he does that, but
I'm pretty sure it's after a splash and it's not immediately after and then splashes
him. Yeah yes, yeah, so so he kicked out of two things
instead of one. Well right, but it's not like he again. To
me, the idea is, and I've always this is what I always have
thought about in wrestling, is that you do one move and then, in
a weird way, the next move you do kind of negates the last move.
Oh well, see, that's not how I think about it. I
think of it as if they happened back to back. It just piles on
the punishment. It's even more impressive when you kick out of a power bomb
plus splash than just kick out of the power bomb. But not when you
have a moment of so so do you Technically that isn't kicking out of the
power bomb. It's kicking out of the splash. Kicking out of the splash.
Yeah, well, whatever it was. I mean, you know,
if I were to take a guess, is what he's talking about. It's
not that Hogan kicks out. Okay, so here, okay, this is
what it is, so okay, I'm watching it back right now. Okay,
I got it on silent. Randy Anderson is down, Vader picks him
up, power bomb, goes for the pin and clearly gets the pin.
He's Hogan's down, he's covered with the referees out the no ref count.
Flair comes in, registers a three count, stomps Hogan, stomps no,
stomps on Randy Anderson, and then Vader gets up. So all this time,
Hogan's been recuperating right from the power bomb, and then he splashes him
and then he gets right, yeah, and then Flair stomps on Hogan,
big splash and then to count. Actually it's a two count as a two
and then he's up like and then Hogan's up like like like Hogan does.
Right, but I'm sorry he sold the power bomb and even let Vader get
the visual pillar. We're talking about Hulk Hogan here. I think what he
does is he doesn't do like the Hogan like Hulk up where you punch and
he builds and no, because he did that already, he did that earlier
on right, So I think Vader might misread it as him just mixing it
up the comeback, because it's kind of uncharacteristic the way he springs to his
feet and just rushes Vader. He rushes Vader almost like he's he's going to
catch him by surprise. Honestly, right put him in a position to be
dancing to his tune because he's in his face punching him in. Vader didn't
necessarily expect that that's what it seemed. Maybe, but I honestly I was
like I was. To me, it didn't come across as bad as what
I'd always heard, right, I think what matters most is what they went
into the ring expecting, you know, and one of those expectations were reasonable.
I'm sure Hogan would have a story about how Vader misinterpreted something and we
go from there. I just don't think that. I don't think he damaged
the power bomb at all. I don't think he damaged that finishing hold.
He sold it and took the visual pin that was the whole point on the
pay per view in Caesar's and the clash in Caesar's in January, Vader powerbombs
Hogan, and Hogan kicks out at one and gets right up. So this
idea that the power bomb was sacred and then Hogan was going to sell it,
that's already yesterday's news. I don't know why we forget that, but
Vader does. I just guess he had a different expectation in the ring that
night. Of course, Hogan's never talked about it. Hogan doesn't mention Vader
in either of his books, and I've never really seen him talk about him
in any interviews. It would be kind of a random thing to ask Covid
about anyway, but I've never seen it. But when Eric Bischoff covered the
show in the eighty three Weeks podcast with Conrad Thompson, as he's wont to
do, he sort of speaks for Hulk Hogan a listen directly. He doesn't
like to say that, but he kind of is. Of course, Eric
was senior VP and Executive producer WCW at this point in time, so the
situation is already well ensconced. Wherein Bishoff essentially does you know Hulk Hogan's prerogative
right ten times out of ten? And so here he is delivering a bit
of context as to how Hogan was feeling coming into the match with Vader.
The other part of it was legitimately Hogan had concerns about working with Vader.
Rather, the primary concern was that Vader's style, although he was so capable
and after watching this match back, you know, it only reinforces that that
feeling on my part. Vader was so capable of working with anybody in any
sally wanted to. Unfortunately he had you know, he had a track record.
He was a unpredictable personality. You never knew which Vader you were going
to get, which is why Harley Race was his manager. By the way,
Harley Race wasn't Vader's manager because Vader couldn't dok. Vader could cut a
pretty good promo given the opportunity and a little bit of direction. But Harley
Race was there to talk Vader off the cliff more often than not and try
to manage him and get what we needed out of him creatively. So,
you know, I think that Hulk was concerned about, you know, Vader's
willingness and that ability, willingness to work you know, a Hogan style match
until a Hogan style story as opposed to the type of stories and the types
of matches that Vader typically was involved in where he basically ate everybody a lot
live. So those were two issues. I'm not going to you know,
minimize the second, but I'm also not going to just you know, gloss
over the first. You know, there was no there was no urgency in
getting that match out there because we knew it would be a big match,
We knew it would probably sell out, we knew it would be a draw
on pay per view, and we wanted to build it correctly as correctly as
we could. Okan had concerns about working with Vader Brother. Dude. You
know, I'm just not digging this creedy. Can you come in here,
dude, You take a see Brother easy easy? What's up? Brother?
Uncle dude, Uncle, brother? The kids? Brother? What's his name?
What's the kid's name? Garrett? How's g how's G biz? Brother?
How's G Man? How's G Easy? How's how's geezy? Dude?
I want to talk about Vader Brother. This match coming up here, and
we got we got watch watch. I wanna tell you watch a lot of
stuff, dude, not only in WCW, but I've also watched some of
his japan stuff. Brother, I'm telling you, you know, I don't
know. We get to kind of dial in that offense. I don't know
what you know, I don't know what Vader to expect. That's the thing,
bro. You know, I've seen I've seen different kinds of Vader brother,
and I'm I'm I don't know exactly what I'm going to be getting,
Dude. I've seen the Vader working with Flair brother, I've seen the Vader
working in Japan with Missala. Dude. I've seen all these things, bro,
I mean, I mean, also, he is he big Van Vader
brother? Is Evader? Is he super Vader? Dude? You know what's
the Diz brother? That he's super Vader? I am, I'm I'm I'm
concerned dude, that I don't know who I'm wrestling and that I don't know
what's going to happen. Yep, that sounds about right now. The Observer
was reporting at the time that Vader had two years left on an existing deal
but was pushing for a renegotiation. It's very clear that when Hogan came in,
the sort of a nature of WCW contracts was busted wide open, and
that all kinds of things exceptions were being made. I guess you could say,
or new deal structures were now suddenly possible that never would have been entertained
before he came in. You know, Savage got an incredible deal and all
this stuff's guaranteed and everything, and everyone's looking for, you know, a
piece of this new kind of normal on the back of I suppose higher revenue
expectations from doing that, many more pay per views and Hogan adding to the
pay per view bottom line and some licensing starting to flow. Bischoffs talked a
lot credibly. I think about how Hogan opened a lot of doors to people
willing to put a check in WCW's hand to license their merchandise that they never
would have gotten before L. Cogan came in. So while you can look
at you know, how show attendance and TV ratings and stuff and saying,
eh, Hogan wasn't as big of a difference maker as as you would have
thought or expected, and even pay per view. You know, he definitely
boosted pay per view, but perhaps not to the degree justified by his contract.
There were some licensing opportunities that equaled real money that he opened the door
for as well. So all that said, there's more money slashing around.
It seems like or at least the purse strings are now loosened somehow and people
are looking to make deals. And The Observer reported, and Bischoff kind of
brushed this off on the podcast, but that Vader was trying to push for
a three year extension and that perhaps the politics of who goes over and the
Super Bowl match was kind of hanging in the balance and those negotiations. Bischeff
says, it wasn't true. It had nothing to do with money, and
it's got nothing to do with me or ww. Vader didn't make that play.
He just didn't. I think Eric was sort of saying, you know,
did Vader say, give me a three year contract and I'll do the
honors. No. But I don't think that's explicitly what the report says necessarily
anyway. But when it comes to him commenting on how the match actually played
out and how Vader kicked out of the leg drop, which he pointed out
right, that's a big deal. Eric is sure to remember that piece of
the story. One other high spot in this match for all the Hogan haters
out there, at two hours, thirty nine minutes, Vader kicks out of
Hogan's finish. So there you go, as hard as Vader work to make
Hogan look good. Hogan did the same thing for Vader, which is one
of the reasons why this match wasn't nearly as bad I think as some people
would like to have assumed it would be. And I don't know if people
assumed it would be a bad match or not, but it's one of the
only times I can ever remember where Hogan match won best match on the Observer
reader poll. Wow did it really? Yeah? This was best match of
the show according to the ors. It's a good match. It is good.
No, it's great, it's great, And honestly, it's you know,
it's a different type of match. It's it's a Hogan is Hogan looks
like he's in danger? Right, Yeah, we get to see a Hogan
fight in a different way. You're in danger. Yeah, have to overcome
two or three more mountains and usual, right right, it keeps going after
the typical Hogan nets would have already exhausted itself. And yeah, who's counting,
right Bischoff recording the exact fucking time code on the fire where Hogan helm
Oh my god, it's the leg dropping Vader kicks out to Vader's point in
terms of why he didn't win the title and how that was best for WCW.
Here's the boss, Eric Bischoff, responding to that line of thinking.
Yeah, the baby faciation. But I think the consensus was that Hogan hadn't
had the belt long enough yet. You know, you don't want to start
flipping and flopping that soon. That's one school of thought, and I can
see both both sides of that. To be honest with you, there was
there any sort of hesitation on either guy. You know, listen, fans
would say, oh, neither guy wanted to lose this. Do you want
to correct that narrative? Or I mean, yeah, that wasn't true.
I mean, I think Vader really really wanted to work with Hulk. Of
course he really did. And I don't think it mattered to Vader whether he
went over or not. It really didn't. I think with Vader, you
know, Vader's politics were all about money and not so much you know,
his ego. Vader. I think Vader and I'm just guessing now, we
didn't have talks about this or anything like that, but my impression was that
Vader was smart enough to know that if he went in there and he had
a great match with hug You know, his his leverage, his opportunity to
improve his position, would have been on the flip side of that, not
on the front side of it. So for Vader, it was just I
think an opportunity to get in there, improved that he could have a good
match and proved that he could have chemistry with Hogan when everybody was kind of
betting against that. Now, I know you're looking for leverage here, brother,
but just from one professional to another, I've been through a lot of
fires, dude, I think your leverage isn't so much, you know,
in agreeing to lose to Wholthoven. I think the leverage, brother, comes
in when you lose the whole heaven. Think about it, huh. I
thought about it, Terry. I don't go Well, I just want to
say, dude, I you know, brother, But that's the thing,
dude, See you see, no one kind of thinks that kind of on
that level. You know. I'm asking everyone to kind of think on a
different level so that we can take this thing that we're building here, brother,
to the next level. So how does me losing instead of winning help
my bargaining position. Well, what it does, dude, is that it
says, you know what, brother, I took a shot at hulk Hogan.
You know, well, will I beat hulk Hogan? But hul Hogan
beat me? Brother, Well what happened? What exactly? Dude? They're
confused, brother, And so it's like that's your bargaining power. Brother,
I know I can beat hulk Hogan. But you didn't beat Hulkogan. But
I know I can. Right See, that's where it comes in, brother,
It's a psychological advantage that you have over everybody else. Dude. It's
not about it's not about what happened, right, It's about what can happen.
Dude. Wow, leon to see it. By way, we have
a match at Super Bowl, I win. We have a match it uncensored,
I win. We have future matches I win. You gotta understand,
brother, we gotta This is what you gotta think about. Dude. You
gotta think about Long Game, brother, of the Long Game for three years.
You know. It's it's like if if if you kind of go back
and forth and have this kind of this fifty to fifty titles like oh dude,
oh look Hogan, the Hogan's in the bile of vaders go. I
don't even know who's they both have the title? Dude? Do they not
have? Is there no title? Brother? And I'm what I'm telling you,
dude, is that is that we want. I want to build And
I'm telling you, brother, this is this is the truth. I'm not
lying to you. I want to build to a lengthy Vader run, brother,
Like a total lengthy Vader run, dude, at the hands of hulk
Hog. Do you mean a title run Terry? That's what I well,
brother, I'm talking about a run dude. Yeah, But what do you
mean by run? Like a run bank? You know? Brother? Like
like you ever see uh you know it's wonderful life, dude. Yeah,
they're gonna run on the bank. I wanted you to have a run with
the bank, brother, A run that is bank, dude, A run
with the money in the bank, A run with money in the bank.
Brother, No, no, Leon, All right, let me slice it
and dice it a different way. See if you can't get on the same
page with me when I talk about, dude, let's kind of slizten dis
this brother, let's listen. So when I talk about wait a minute,
did you wait a minute? Hold on, let me look at it.
Did you sign this, dude. I thought, Uh, dude, I
thought before he got in here, he's going to sign this piece of paper.
Brother, whoa, whoa this NDA? You didn't sign this, dude,
Dude, we got I'm sorry. Brother, We've been talking all this
time, but we haven't been papered on the deal. Dude. Is that
what you're telling me right now? Well? Are you? Why don't you
sign it? Brother? I'm dude, I want to do you want to
get an understanding brother? Because you did? There's ever h what do you
say? What? What did your attorneys talk to mind before this meeting?
That's want to say, Dude. I don't have any conversation brother without people
sign an NDA. So first of all, everything I just said is null
and void. It's a brother non admissible Dude. You can't, yeah do
you cannot admit this to any any legal issue. We got to shut this
down, dude, I think dude, you know what, dude, we
call the cops having secure all exits. Dude, I think I think right
now, do you have sealed your own fate brother by not doing what's best
for business? Has a way only you've sealed your own fate brother in this
matter? Because I was here offering you the world, and now all of
a sudden, I find out that you didn't sign the NDA, which is
what really is supposed to get this whole ociation, this whole discussion moving forward.
Brother, That's how Hulk overs to do like giving things with this like
k fabe nd a thing like the wrestler never saw the NDA. And then
when he says that, he's like, well, attorneys didn't tell you,
but maybe your attorneys aren't to be trusted. And then he has a choice
but to go back on everything. I got to go over one, two
three. Now, I mean I can't. I can't. I try to
do this, but I can't. I can't have this any any sort of
this kind of thing leaked out, brother to the press, dude, to
to to New York dude, any of the stuff. So I gotta everything
I said, dude is null and void. Brother, We're going with the
with the with the the original finish dude of meat going over. I'm going
to pin you at at super Bowl. I'm gonna pin you at at Uncensored.
I want to pin you on the road dude, at house shows.
I'm gonna pin you at slamber Ree. Brother, and then I'm going to
pinion the cage at at at bash of the beach. Why the only way
can you sign the papers? Brother? If you sign NDA? Dude,
we could have we got to talk to Turkey brother, and you sign it?
Oh? I mean, what was with with your mind? Dude?
Why Why didn't you sign this non disclosure? Dude? Why why do you
have was just like step one and a pier plan? Why? I guess
I want to know, dude, why are you so eager to disclose?
There it is? I was looking for it, you lay it. I
guess what I mean, brother, is why are you so eager to disclose?
Awesome super brawl five? But yeah, I had to do with pay
Vader in his book. With all the new signed talent and the price tags
involved, with Hogan taking the main spots up for him and his friends,
all this must have cost substantial amounts of crazy money. Since I didn't always
see eye to eye with Eric, it was often stubborn and protecting my character,
I guess I no longer fit into his plans. Couple this with the
fact that since I wasn't in the Hogan click, I think Eric eventually decided
to figure out a way to sideline me and keep some of my payouts for
his new pals. So yeah, Vader's hardly the only one to say that.
Dustin Rhodes is going to say it later too, where when Hogan comes
in, it suddenly seems like people are getting fired for infractions that they never
would have been fired for in the past, and it happened to be big
earners that are getting fired. Of course, Vader's case, he has a
fight with a Paul Arndorf at the second nitro before the second nitro and gets
fucking shit canned. So yeah, this is the fucking opening credits for god
knows how long, oh my god, they kept him in they did,
which tells you there wasn't some long drawing out conspiracy to get rid of him
if they invested to put him into the intro. But here's and he'd be
in WWF at no time. He said that he should have called Vince right
after this. It's sort of like, you know, not even gone down
this road sure with Hogan, but that was his leverage, you know that
I could call Vince and shift the tide a little bit. We're going to
go to Vaders book now for a full recounting and a bit more blow by
blow detail than he provided in that clip from the art video shoot interview course.
I think it was released posthumously actually after Vader died. I think the
book came out. Remember we we saw his son had one of the conventions
and he was hawking the book. So, bossif you could give the Solar
system a taste from Leon White's to their ears, absolutely the dude Vader Vodder
Vodder. There we go. Nobody made good on Dusty's promise, which was
fairly getting the belt back after start Gate. From what I heard, there
was some talk and scheming on how to reduce my infringement on Hogan's potential TV
time when Rick Flair started wrestling again. Apparently the politicians wanted me gone from
the main events scenes so there would be less spotlight to share and more money
for them. In the end. It was kind of like the same mentality
as pepsi and coke. Okay, I always love coke references. I don't
know what the fuck that even how that even he'll explain. Okay, the
two mega companies dominate the entire scene, so only they can own it all.
You only get one or the other and no other companies even make a
dent in their share like A and W or RC Cola or as for that
matter, it's right. I've also been told that the whole Paul Orndorff incident
was a bit of a setup, as someone was looking for a reason to
put me in the doghouse and keep Flair and Hogan happy awesome knocked down.
A step after the thunder Caage, executives took me out of the main event
scene. I knew it was coming, and it bugged me. I knew
not to say anything, but I figured maybe I could make my actions speak
louder than words in the ring and force them to keep me in the mix.
The Thundercage was him and Flair at the prior years super Brawl. Yeah,
and also the hold on so in the little you know, the thing
that comes from the kindle it sah, yeah, this is white leon,
you know, walking on walking on hot waffles. I don't know what that's
about. What the does that mean? No, I don't know. Eating
hot waffles is more like it butter and syrup, you know, like most
people get like you know, if you order a waffle at a restaurant,
you get one but but you know, Vader wants to like a like a
stat stack in case but with waffles though, and just like completely soaked in
sky. Yeah yeah, like five waffles high. What are you doing?
Man? Eating it? It's like, I mean, I love waffles,
but come on, dude, stop it. I love that this guy don't
even do this and we just go I mean, I love waffles, dude,
but stop it. He didn't do anything. It was all made up.
We've made it up, telling him to stop it, like he's trying
to get something in under the door. You know. I heard the stories,
all right. I've heard the stories of him at fat Camp and absolutely
you know, running out to get fucking what a burger in and out whatever
the fuck it is. In the Stark title match, they put me over
dug In to win the US title. It was kind of cool having this
title, as it gave me back some recognition from the fans. But just
when things started to show a little hope for me, I was forced to
end my on screen alliance with Harley Race In January of nineteen ninety five.
Harley was in a pretty bad car accident and forced to leave WCW to recover
Harley's drinking had caught up with him. He retired from wrestling around nineteen ninety
one, and I'm pretty sure that took a toll on him. Without the
rigors of the job, he worked out less and ballooned up to more than
three hundred pounds. I knew gain the weight pissed him off. Leaving the
spotlight also depressed him, so I think he took to the bottle even more.
Without the physical side of the business anymore. To neutralize his avid alcohol
consumption, Harley just drank whatever he wanted. Yes, there was no match
the next day he needed to worry about. I think Harley realized he was
only going to play second fiddle from now on. The fact that he was
out there in front of those people performing in the ring may have made him
feel old. And Harley was a proud man. He was revered as being
one of the toughest guys in the industry and probably didn't like this change.
After sticking around the business for a few years as a manager, promoting the
stars such as Lex Luger, Steve Austin, and myself had all wound down
to a horrible finish. After one night of drinking, his sorrow away.
In January ninety five, he crashed his car into a concrete barrier near Kansas
City. The impact fractured his forearm and crushed his hip. Harley Race hasn't
set a foot, hasn't said foot in a big league wrestling ring since,
except for a few minor cameos. The news of this unfortunate accident crushed me
as well. I felt horrible that was the that this was the end for
him. Not only was I emotionally hurt for him, but selfishly I knew
my career I would suffer as well. It was then that I realized that
he had played a big role in keeping me going behind the scenes. I
also felt bad for his family, whom I had grown close to for many
years. Turns out that Harley fought battles for me that I didn't even know
existed. He squashed heat I may have received for being too stiff. He
squashed heat for me saying something I didn't mean from having a short fuse.
He kept my brand alive in WCW and well into the spotlight. He was
such an advocate for me that when he was gone, I could tell right
away that his absence was the beginning of the end For me, Harley was
the political guy in our team, and with him gone, I was left
to float alone in a sea of politics where I unfortunately didn't know how to
swim. Looking back, I have to give Harley all the banks in the
world. He really was a mentor and looked out for me when nobody else
would. Thanks Harley. At first, Eric Bischoff didn't know much about the
business. He couldn't find his ass with both hands as far as wrestling was
concerned. Back then, the thing that Eric had going for him was that
he was smart. Eric was intelligent and well spoken, and a good looking
guy on camera. I mean that's what he was hired for because he looked
like a mannequin Vader's awesome. Before he became the executive producer of television for
ww he may not have known much about running a major wrestling promotion, but
you can bet he had a plan on how he was going to learn it.
That plan involved listening to only one person. Investing your time and energy
to learn from one of the highest earning wrestlers of all time only made sense.
Hey Hogan knows best, right, brother? What I mean? You
said it? Brother? I don't. I mean yes, I mean I
do. I thank you for you know, reaffirming that, Brother, But
what's the dis I send them some sarcasm? Dude? You want to do
something about it? Are you? Are you like? Are you unhappy?
Brother? Is that what you're telling me? Dude, you're not pleased with
with the way Hulk Hogan's time taking things to dude? Mm hmmm, Hogan's
kind of what things? Kind of taking things? Dude? Did you call
Hr? Brother? Have you called Turner Hr? Dude? Dude? Are
you Leon? Have you have you have you sit down with Ted? Dude?
Right? Are you talking Turner brother? Because you know one of the
things in my contract? I don't know if you know this Leon has Anybody
who talks to Ted has to go through me first. I mean I have
exclusive rights to Ted Turner Brother to my contract. Dude, Dude, I
have accessibility and nobody else supposed to have accessibility without me knowing about getting his
calendar? Brother? Are you you talk you talk Turkey Brother? Talk about
dude? Did you talk Turkey? Dude? I don't bullshit me, brother,
I already know that was just a test. Brother. You're sitting opposite
You don't listen. I'm gonna tell you what right now. Brother, Your
silence, Dude is loud, speaks volumes. Dude speaks volumes. Brother,
what did you talk to Ted about? Brother? Come on, dude,
open up, talk turkey. I'm listen, I'm listen. I want all
right, hold on, hold well it was around Thanksgiving? I want I
want doll listening back? Brother? I like, what, wait? What
you talk Thanksgiving? Dude? I thought it was in jail. Wait?
Whoa whoak? Meaning I don't know about on top of this one, dude,
Brother, whoa whoa? Whoa? I mean we're talking, dude.
Now we're talking between Halloween, Havoc and starkad. Brother, So you're already
talking to Ted talking about during this time, Dude, what what's going on?
Do you talk about Ted about Flair not losing to me in the cage?
Brother? Are you talking about Flair coming back and rolling me up at
starka? Brother, Terry, I went to dead Turner's office and talk to
him about Rick Flair rolling you up at Starkate. That'd be funny. Has
a contractual right to see Ted's calendar and anytime anyone from WW is in that
room, he gets a call immediately from Hulk Cogan. Dude, dude,
I'll see that we got did you see that? Have you got? Can
you pull up? You pull up Ted's calendar? Brother. I want to
just take a look, you know, dude, I want to see what's
going on, dude, see who's kind of taking meetings? Brother, if
it was today, like you know, you have like a virtual session with
Ted, because of course he'd be in the mountain somewhere for all of his
calls, with like a taxidermy behind him, hanging from the balcony, and
he's like, you know, he opens up the t there and Ted,
how you doing? Leon? I love there now A big fan of that,
and I love everything that's going on down in w C. So he's
so Ted's taking up all the screen. Leon's in the bottom right corner,
and then all of a sudden, the top right corner that's Hogan. Just
look at it the screen. I just want to say, dude, I
don't listen. First of all, hello everybody, good morning. Appreciate everyone
being on the zoom call. Dude, I just want to say I'm a
little I'm a little concerned over the amount of meetings that Ted's been Ted is
taking you know. I mean, I'm looking at I'm looking at his calendar
right now, brother, and we're talking. First of all, Leon has
a meeting, Dude. I see that Dugan has a meeting with him.
Brother, I dug him. What's what's going on? Dude? What do
you what do you have to talk to Ted about exactly that you can't just
talk to me about. I mean, I see that that that Randy's going
to talk with him, brother, I'll see that. I'll see that Johnny
b Bad's gonna like Meryll's gonna go to meeting with him. Brother. This
is all I just want to know, dude, what's going on with Marrow?
Dude? What where do you get off booking a meeting with Ted Turner?
Brother? Did you meeting or are you meeting to book? Did you?
I mean, are you getting Wait a minute, maybe we should take
this, you know, off offline. Let me everybody, dude, I
think everyone wants to know. Brother, you're getting a push. I mean,
I'm just gonna say, dude, if you're getting a push, that's
that's that's news to me, brother, because nobody they didn't cross my desk.
Brother, you know what I mean? Yes, Mark, Marrow if
he's getting a push Hulk Scott like the Yeah. Everyone everyone's in a very
professional like zoom cam like static, you know, at a high level.
Hogan's is like under his nostrils on like a phone, right, yeah,
yeah, yeah, he's like in the car. You know, I got
you know, I got my laptop here. Brother. I'm just I wish
you could see me too, because I'm I'm I got. I'm like taking
my glasses off and putting them back on. I got the end of my
nose, you know, like I just you know, I'm just I just
think it's more important that we have clarity, dude, in regards to you
know, the the way w CW is gonna be run. And i'd listen.
I trust Ted, I trust easy brother, and I need to trust
everyone else, dude. But I don't know if I can can I trust
you guys. I don't know Vader I'm gonna get because I don't know what
bad I'm dude, I don't know which Vader I'm going to get. Problem
I getting super Vader? Am I getting Big Van Vader? Am I getting
Vader Vader? Dude? You what what are you telling? Leon? Tell
me? Who am I getting by getting baby balls. See, you don't
even fucking know, dude. That's the problem. Brother, dude, brother,
you know what, dude, Let me, dude, let me tell
you something. Vader, you muted yourself, Brother, your muted, your
mutedness spoke volumes all right, dude, because you don't even know which Vader
I'm going to get. I'll tell you what's not muted. Brother, And
that's the voices in my head telling me that something's amiss here, dude.
I want to tell someone. I'm going to tell you something, Dude,
what's not muted? Dude? Are the millions of Hulk maniacs out there saying
Hulk Hogan, you're number one brother, Ichi Bond Hogan Son exactly? And
here you are getting on Ted Turner's calendar. Dude, I just don't understand.
First, I don't. I don't, Brother, I'm not I'm not
seeing sign saying Ichi Bon Vader Son brother right exactly. Like So if you're
if you're not Ichi Bon and I'm Echi Bond, how come how come you're
getting in with Ted dude and I don't know about him? Brother? I
have to approve all of Ted's meetings from wrestling side, of course, to
be respectful. No, brother, dude, I listen, it's in my
contract that I have. I have meeting approval for all of Ted's meetings,
dude, because I don't know who's coming in to to fuck with the Hulk
Hogan. Maybe Terry. I'm like fast forward apartment rewind a year before when
they're negotiating. Terry, I'm really excited about the deal. I think we
I think you'll find that everything's to your liking here and that you've got all
the access you were looking for. Is there anything else we need to talk
about before we put our John Hancocks down? Well, you know, dude,
I do want to talk to Turkey about one small thing. You know.
I listen. I understand that WC is just one, you know,
one of the companies underneath the giant turnerom brother an important piece, one piece.
Abslutely, dude, I totally get that, Brother, It's one piece.
So I do have one major concern, maybe a minor concern to you,
but it's a major concern to me, brother, because I have to
you know, I'm not even thinking about just Hulk Hogan. I'm not thinking
about Terry Blaya brother and his family. Dude, I'm not even talking about
c W. There's something else that's kind of on a bigger, grander scale
that also is my concern. Now again, I'm telling you, I'm thinking
about Hulk Hogan, I'm thinking about Terry Bulla, I'm thinking about w CW.
But I also go to worry about hull Comania. A proposal for what
I do, brother, I I I don't think it's not fair, brother,
and we can talk about this, but I think it's important that I
have say over everyone who wants to schedule a meeting with you, because I
don't know who's coming in saying oh yeah, you know what, Oh yeah,
I'm uh, I'm coming in due to talk to talk to CNN.
Brother, I'm I'm fucking here's here's Robert Wiener coming in. Dude, I'm
gonna hear talk CNN. You know, But how do I know Robert Wiener
isn't actually trying to roll up heul Covian exactly exactly, all right, So
this is what we get. I need to kind of like lay things out,
Dude. I got to kind of figure out and I want to do.
You know, whenever you got to get someone you know, trying to
try to book you for a meeting. Brother. I just want to have
about a week or so to get an approval, brother, so I can
take my guys. I can have easy ease a couple of people. Dude,
you know I got I'll have dug in on this thing too, Brother,
kind of like go through, do a little bit of a background check,
dude, see what's going on, See where they lie, where their
allegiances lie. And then when you get the okay, then you can actually
schedule a date with these guys. Why because I have to worry about Hulco
mania unbelievably good stuff. Wimi was at a corporate structure. Yeah, okay,
we get it. So let's have some fun. Let's have some fucking
fun with it. Please carry on from Vader's boken. Oh yes, water
water U mannequin, uh investigator, that's right. The problem was by,
however, by shifting gears and becoming a full time hulk of maniac himself and
turning your back on everybody else, he forgot about who had got him to
the dance at all. The main reason why he was considered to become the
top man was all the hard work of Cactus, Jack Sting, Rick Flair,
Ron Simmons, Rick Rude and said vicious the whole WCW group before the
Hulk Cogan era. Some people behind the scenes today say that if you look
at the ratings during the time before Hulk Hogan, the nWo, the Monday
Night Wars and all that WCW was more profitable because they obviously had a lot
less money and salaries going out. You know what I mean, Hulk.
When Hulk first got to WCW, he seemed great. He was real nice
and polite, He was cool with all the boys and seemed to be sincere.
Well did we know that he was obviously really working on winning over one
person behind the scenes, the only one needed who really could get him over
by winning, Eric Bischoff. Once he got in with Eric real quick,
everything changed. When Hogan first came in, it was perceived as a positive
and people believed it was what would be good for business. However, he
lobed me to go over clean on Rick Flair. That booking certainly didn't help
Flair. After Hogan destroyed him four times in a row, which made him
which made absolutely no sense to do so early. Eric let him then hand
select his next opponent more politics to get his buddy some main event pay per
view money. Hogan chose The Butcher aka Brutus Beefcake. This match drew horrible
money out a payd review, and the fans boot Hogan the whole match.
After that fiasco, they decided to call me in to save the day.
Harley was hurt, so Flair was sort of acting as my manager in a
storyline twist to end their program. Flair lost a retirement match to Hogan in
October ninety four. He came back in a few months oh a few months
later to just sit in the crowd in interfer in matches, then to keep
him in the top heel scene with me for about two months. He started
managing me. It made me very It made very little sense to me at
the time, because we technically should have hated each other still on TV.
Other than the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I
couldn't think of anything else to justify the logic, and I was part of
the storyline. I saw what Hogan got away with working with Flair. I
knew it was bad, so I told anyone who would listen to me exactly
just what I thought people knew. I wasn't happy about what I was seeing
with Hogan falling back into the undefeatable pattern he enjoyed in the WWE. I
had no problem with letting word get out about what I thought. Back then,
there was no Internet to post behind the scenes wrestling gossip and all.
There were there were weekly newsletters that smart fans subscribe to. However, to
get the dirt. A bunch of these dirt sheets, like The Torch and
The Observer were saying that I was going to an essence shoot on Hull Cogan
and hurt him to get out of the picture because I had enough of how
I was being booked. Brother, Can you come here for a second.
I got the Torch here. I just want to say. The torches came
in, dude. Let's conference calling five, dude. This code read brother.
I just I just want to say, dude, I'm I'm looking here.
I'm just flipping through that. I mean, I got both. I
got both Keller and Meltzer here, dude on on my desk, dude,
and they're both talking about Vader shooting on me. Brother, I mean literally
that's what it says here. How am I what did I sign up for
dude? You told me this was a safe place to work, brother,
and now I'm reading this stuff. What kind of what kind of ship you're
running? I never had to deal with this ship with Vince. Dude.
Brother, what who's gonna shoot on? Are you serious right now? Brother?
Dude? I'm I'm I'm talking about my livelihood, dude, and he's
gonna shoot on my safetume. We're talking about a fucking mad gunman, brother,
fucking sniper, dude, Vader gonna shoot? Dude? Is he going
to shoot? Did you tell him to shoot? I don't know who to
trust at this point. Brother. All right, brother, let's kind of
like just cut it down the middle day. All right, let's take this
thing one step. But it's his brother. Did you tell Vader to shoot
on me? Brother? Yes? Is this an easy thing? Dude?
I don't want to hear he's not going to I want to know did you
tell him to I don't I don't want to know if it's a yes or
no on what he's going to do. I want to know where the order
came from, brother, because we all know Vader doesn't work alone. Did
you give the orders? Dude? Did you give the orders? Did Turner
tell you to give the order? Brother? I heard he was meeting with
going on two weeks ago. Brother, listen, dude, and you listen.
You know what he was vetted, dude, and he came out legit.
This meeting came out legit. Brother. I don't have any concerns,
but now I have concerns. What happened was that after the after the meeting
was over, they found a way through back channels due to communicate that maybe
you might might shoot on hul Hook and at super Brow. Now they're also
leaking it to the Torch and to Meltzer. Dude, what's going on?
Brother? Time to level would be, dude, enough of the gaga,
enough hide the ball? All right? Yeah, dude, you know what,
I'm tired of playing games, Brother, I'm trying. I'm tired of
playing hide the salami, Dude, I'm tired of playing you know the way,
you know, roll the skateboard down the street right exactly. I've been
I've seen them all. I played all the games. Brother, what's going
on? Answer the goddamn question? When did you tell Vader to shoot on
me? Brother? How did you tell Vader to shoot at me, brother,
And how did you tell and what did you tell Brother Vader to do
to shoot on me? Dude? Bischoff decides the hell with that. He's
not gonna believe you anyway, so just leans in, Terry. I told
him two weeks ago to attack your ankle during the match and try to snap
it like Matt Suita did. I'm sorry. I feel you rowed the truth,
you know, dude. I want to say something right now, brother.
What you did just now, dude, was the hardest thing I can
imagine you doing, brother, And you told the truth, and I'm sure
makes you feel good. Dude, you have to realize the burden you just
put on me. You put a burden on me, brother. But I'll
tell you what you know. What I know now, dude, is that
I know that Eric Bischoff's gonna have whole hoo ah. That's what I believe,
dude. And if you got my back, brother, I got your
backs me and Brudhist dude, friends of the end, dude, And I'll
fucking pump blood into your veins. Brother. He's going to shoot on you
in the first two minutes. See, here's the thing, dude, Here's
what here's the thing, dude, you can't. I'm not going to tell
me you told me, brother, So we're going to kind of play it
out like everything's going along. And then I know that Vader's going to shoot
on me, brother, so then we can I can surprise him with you
know, he tries to surprise me, and I surprise him on the surprise,
right, you know, we get that old crime Frank Ruski going on
brother, make him pass out like a fucking comedian. Dude. What what
so Terry goes into the ring with a fucking exacto knife, but he never
has to use it because it was all bullshit. I just want to say,
I got my blade. I'm gonna say leon dude, all right,
look at me in the eyebrother, I got my blades on me, dude,
just so you know before you try anything, dude, you want to
try something, dude, if you try to try anything on me, brother,
that we haven't planned, that we haven't choreygraphed. Dude, actually know
what you does? Grab grabs the fucking microphone? All right, dude,
commaniacs. I want to tell you something, brother, Big Van Vader over
here, dude, he was going to try to pull something on Hulk Hogan.
He was gonna kind of go behind Hulk Hogan's back. Brother. He
told Eric Bischoff, Dude. He told Ted Turner brother that he was not
gonna go through with the choreography and the plan finished, dude, that he
was gonna shoot on Hulk Hogan and stab me in the back. Brother.
Well, I could tell you right now, dude. The only stabbing happening
here, brother is gonna be me, because I got a knife right here,
dude. And if Vader tries, if Vader tries any ship, brother,
I'm gonna shank him right in the fucking fat gut. And what you're
gonna do, Big Van bitch? What a pro ba? People just sitting
there their jaws on the floor. It has an actual knife in his hand.
Here's a knife, brother, huh my Hulk a knife, dude,
Hulk of blade. Brother, I'm gonna cut Vader dude the Monday after the
pay per view, mister Turner, It's Hull Coconu line two. All right,
I'll take it, ah, Hulk, how's my pay per view superstar?
I'm great, dude. I can't say the same for Vader the brother.
Oh wow, what happened to him? How's leon? Well, you
know what, dude, I gotta say, Brother, I got a little
nervous, dude, because that meeting that you had with him, dude,
and I got word back that he was actually gonna try some shit in the
ring. So I had to kill him, brother, on pay per view
last night. I hope that's all right. I hope it's okay, dude.
Uh okay. I needless to say, you can cancel the rest of
the meetings you have with him on the calendar because I know you have something.
I know, Brother. You told me you didn't have any, but
we both know you do. I know I know you had him, dude.
I saw your calendar, Brother, I saw your secret calendar too that
you wanted you to like to hide from me today exactly when you don't think
I know about So I want you to know, dude, I have eyes
and ears all over your office. Brother. I know everything that's going on.
I know all the ins and outs. I know when you get there.
I'm the only guy in your roster that dude. And I'm just gonna
say, brother, did you keep up this ship? Brother? Hulk Cogan's
coming with that turner ass dude. For now, I'm just gonna tap my
teeth with the butt end of the gun. Oh shit, can someone have
Lei Lally call Terry again? Go ahead? Uh? In essence, yeah,
shoot on uh uh shoot, because I didn't know how that is.
I am a professional and never went into a match with the intention of hurting
someone. Sure, I hurt some people by accident and was also hurt by
accident, but I wasn't going in to actually hurt Hogan. Hurt Hogan Rick
double cross me for the title of Starcade. He took Justice's job two days
before the pay per view, scrapped all of our plans, and never made
good with it. Therefore, my first reaction to being asked to work with
Hogan was no. I told Eric I would not recuperate or work with not
cooperate. Rather, this is Eric, by the way, who said,
I really think Vader wanted to work with Hogan, right. And then here's
Vader in his book saying, when I was first old being asked to work
with Hogan, I said no, no, I would not cooperate or work
with Hogan at all, with whatever they wanted to throw at me unless they
agreed to make good with old promises. I refused to work with him unless
it meant getting my title back. Eric didn't like that and really wanted me
to work with Hogan, so I got called into a second meeting with Eric.
At this one, I tried my hand in politics. Flair screwed me
on what Dusty and I had agreed, and you still owe me for that.
I said, not only that, but you should put the belt off
Hogan because we don't want to hurt WW with a long, stale championship like
they boot Hogan WWE. Eric promised change, but he wasn't budgeting yet.
Eric, if you don't want to go with my idea and do this for
me, you should do it to save Hogan's stock and do it for the
company. I said. At this point, Hogan was getting totally booed and
it was obvious that they would soon have to turn him heel. I was
getting cheered so hard as he healed because of how much our fan did not
like the old idea of the immortal storyline. They can't be beat Hogan coming
into our promotion. Uh to tell just the say the old boring story again
was a waste of everybody's time. Also, Hogan was seen as an invading
Northerner coming into a Southern territory. The old fans of good old boys southern
wrastling weren't having it. They hated his Yankee ass. It soon became more
and more evident that Hogan would either it's kind of funny given that he's not
from I No, he couldn't be a redneck, right exactly. It soon
became more and more evident that Hogan would either need to quit or become a
heal. I love that. I love that. This is the obvious thing
for fucking later, right, Eric agreed. We both knew by now the
audience was not buying it, and that eventually something was going to have to
change. I didn't want to. I didn't want to feed into the whole
Invincible Hulk Hogan booking route. What I proposed was that with Flare acting like
my new advisor, I didn't care how they took the belt from Hogan.
Flair could shoot him in the back with a bazuka. Just that we said
in the fucking interview too. Yeah, yeah, just so, as long
as it did happen. But Eric didn't go for it. He did,
however, throw more money around and agreed to me not having to job out
or do any sort of clean finish for Hogan, which would hurt my character's
image and lower my stock. Before our first match of super Bowl five,
I attacked Hogan in an angle to promote our upcoming series of matches. Before
the run in, he said, brother, you know do you you do
your finisher to me? Brother, I'm just gonna lay there get you over
as a monster. Brother. So he was supposed to take my finisher and
lay there out cold, but then you want to talk about a swerve.
Hogan got up off of my finish here to make himself look strong even before
our series of matches. Nice, that said, an awesome tone. I
hit him with the Vader Bomb and I took and I look over and Hogan
gets right up like it was nothing, You son of a bitch. I
said. That was my first experience with him. I was like, Jesus,
this is how these guys get over. They lie in, backstab you.
At Super Brawl, we had an okay match, Okay rematch, okay
rematch? How was it a rematch? He's all over the place in this
book. Yeahs as good as you can with a guy like Hogan. But
I'll tell you I made good and sure to kick out of Hogan's trademark leg
drop after a one count as a receipt for the for that nonsense he pulled
out on me earlier. That was before before he blew off the finisher.
But I guess he's talking about clashing the champions, which if you watch it
is very clearly something Vader sees coming the way he sets up the clothesline over
three sixty over the floor after even gets up. Yeah, I'm telling you,
man, they're so it's like they yeah, they lose it. Also,
you're gonna tell me you're gonna you're gonna kick out at one. I
mean, also, Hogan, here's the thing about that. I also call
bullshit on this as a last minute decision two, because Hogan is prepped to
for the big kickout and he lands on his feet. Yeah, you know
when Hogan when when when Vader pushes out, it's right away and Hogan does
that thing where when a powerful kickout happens, he ends up on his feet.
Wow. So lads, Yeah, And to me, like, you
don't you can't do that without knowing that someone's going to kick out by the
move right, you need some cooperation? Yeah, one count as receiving the
referee was knocked out before I hit Hogan with the hit the Vader bomb on
Hogan, then Rick, then Rick Flair ran to the ring, made the
three count and attacked Hogan, resulting in Might's qualification in the match. On
the first w CW one cent uncensored pay per view, I wrestled Hogan again,
this time in a strap match. Flair once again was booked to in
to intervene, this time in drag, which still baffles me to this day,
costing me the match. After this, it was obviously that Flair was
being booked into all my finishes. This became a way to meet the promise
I had with Eric of not having a job to Hogan. To Flare's credit,
it was It has come to my attention that he has since mentioned he
hated this and wanted nothing to do with it. I would have preferred beating
Hogan's senses and then and then being disqualified over Flair running in and costing me
the match and making me look stupid all the time. It's funny because Eric
Bischoff was the one who begged me to work with Hogan, and talked about
future programs, but a return series with a possible title exchange never happened.
Today. In interviews, however, like a recent one with Greg Oliver,
Eric says Vader was known for being a bit unpredictable and I'm professional, and
as a result, Hogan didn't really want to work with him again. Conriad
Conrad Conriad, Yeah, I find this ironic coming from the same person who
would say one thing backstage then do a different thing in the ring. I
he no sell the Vader bomb. Now who now? Who was the unpredictable
and professional one? To this day, I don't know if Eric decided to
keep me away from Hogan or if it was a request from Hogan himself politics.
There was no incident, nothing stiff or anything of or anything in any
of our first series of matches. I took good care of Hogan and all
of our bouts. He always thanked me after and said how everything was great
and it was a pleasure. Clearly he was telling Eric something else behind the
scenes to keep me out of the spotlight and keep himself on top. I
don't understand Vader's mainsa ment's pay per views. The entire first half of the
year until he is until he's out. It doesn't win the belt back thing
he cares about. He headlines the goddamn show, every fucking show except a
Great American Bash, because neither he or Hogan were on it right. I
don't know. After that, I was booked into another feud with Flair based
on my frustration at Flair's constant interference in my title matches and Flare's annoyance at
my inability to Hogan. This frustration angle booking was probably a rib on me
because it was also what was going on behind the scenes. They were frustrating
the hell out of me. The weird thing that I cannot explain is that
before the very end, it seemed as if I started to gain Hogan's respect.
Maybe Hogan was impressed that I was hanging in there. I don't know,
but Hogan started coming around more and seeking me out. He seemingly grew
interested in working with me some more. One day he surprisingly asked me to
help develop his feud with the Dungeon of Doom. He said he wanted me
to join him Randy Savage and staying for the main event at WSW Wargames.
We got together went over some spots and came up with some really good ideas,
but the storyline never developed. Well that was because he got fired,
right. We talked about that in the ard of war Games. She was
supposed to be on Hogan's team at the ninety five War Games exactly. It
is possible, however, that Hogan was just practicing politics with me to keep
me at bay. Maybe the whole Wargames thing was a ploy to cover up
his true feelings of not wanting to share the spotlight with me in future main
events. Who knows. Somebody was working so aka tlf's coverage of Super Brawl
five, The Observer said that supposedly the finish of the Hogan Invader match originally
was double juice with bockwinkl or the commission stopping the match to set up a
no stopping for blood uncensored strap match, he wrote, but circumstances over the
past week made the company next to the idea of juice, and they went
to plan B. There was there was an article in The New York Post
by Phil Muschnik, the you know, rampaging anti wrestling New York Post columnist
that more than anything it called gene okerlint to task for a nine hundred line
teaser where he basically said, I've got news now in the hotline of a
former world heavyweight champion who's died at the age of forty whatever age Rick Flair
is. Yeah, oh my god, and or Ventura could have fit the
category two I think or something like that. It was Jerry Blackwell that he
was talking about, who wasn't even a world heavyweight champion as a singles he
was a tag champion the awri right, and so mustna heard about this and
did a whole thing about it. Yeah, wrestler might die, but you
have to pay to find out about it, and how you know, callous
it is to sort of dangle the threat, you know, the potential news
of a wrestler's demise is a way to profit. And so boss I figured
we take a listen. Thanks to our pal Matt who was able to track
this down. Gene Okerland on WCW Television promoting the you two for the low
price of what probably amounted to seven ninety nine by the time you sat on
the phone long enough to hear the announcement of who was dead. Heard this
in terms of this is of course, as not the report on the hotline.
But this is the advertisement for the hotline that got WCW Andngene and some
negative publicity. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to w CW Pro.
It's rumored one of the top tag teams as all of wrestling are on their
way to w CW. I can't talk about it on the air. I
will talk about it today on the hotline. Plus the tragic death former heavyweight
champion at age forty five, all of that and more today give me a
call of the hotline at one nine hundred nine on nine ninety nine hundred.
I'll buck forty nine per minute, But ladies and gentlemen, give me a
call today. I'm a hotline buck forty nine per minute. Boss. Oh,
I now would ask you to put on your best film Mushnik voice.
It's time for the February fifteenth, nineteen ninety five New York Post article pouncing,
pouncing, of course, fucking betrayal of integrity from Gene Okerlands. He's
a New Yorker, right, oh very much so. Yeah, you know,
instead of entertainment lawyer, he says, entertainment lawyer, entertainment lawyer,
equal time. Phil Mushnick headline Boss Turner phone scam better dead for Ted.
By the way, that tag team was that the Seiner Brothers. That's you
nailed it exactly. Who's coming in now that Bill Wats is firmly in the
background. They did not get along with Bill Watts. So I see,
I see nationally televised sleeves for kids try top in this. One Saturday night,
February fourth, veteran TV pro wrestling Shill Gene Oakland appeared on the weekly
World Championship Wrestling extravaganzov TBS. Oakland is employed by the WCW. Both the
WCW and TBS are owned by Ted Turner. Oakland, facing a TV audience
the ww acknowledges to be predominated by children, had some really big news.
He reported that a forty five year quote quote a forty five year old former
heavyweight champion unquote had died. Good gosh, who right? Oakland wouldn't say.
Instead, he said that the info could be gleaned by dialing a WCW
nine hundred number one fifty per minute. Yeah, people do meltzer. Oh
no, you don't have Yeah, I just read it. Quote. People
thought the deceased was Rick Flair, a huge WW star, said Dave Meltzer,
who reported this scam in his Weekly Wrestling of Observer newsletter. Flair meets
that description, and with Flair not having appeared on TV for two weeks,
Oakerland didn't discourage that thought. In truth, the deceased was Jerry Blackwell,
a fellow who wrestled as Crusher Blackwell in the eighties. Blackwell died two weeks
earlier and is now relegated to bulging to the bulging scrap heap of pro wrestlers
who died twenty five years or more before the rest of us. Fucking go
Phil not that callers to the ww's nine hundred the line found out about Blackwell
right away at a buck fifty per minute. Oakland's taped voice was in no
hurry to break the old news about Blackwell's death. A w CW spoke person
said he didn't know just how long Oakland kept callers on the line before telling
of Blackwell's death, but another weekly newsletter, Pro Wrestling Torch, reported this
breaking tail from the Crypt reported this breaking Tail from the Crypt was withheld until
the fifth minute, meaning the call to the ww's deathline costs seven dollars and
fifty cents c W deathline. I mean, where where have voices like this
gone? I know you know what I mean. Meltzer said the ww's pay
per orbit paropit call whiles representing a new low, and sleeves represented a new
financial high for the ww's nine hundred number endeavors. A WW spokesman said he
didn't know exactly how many minutes were logged to the line, but I can
acknowledge that the promotion quote did do quite well unquote yes. In the past,
with so many pro wrestlers dying young, dying of drug overdoses or of
drug related diseases, or from incidents outside the ring, pro wrestling rarely mentions
death, Meltz has said, but this time Pro wrestling cashed in on one.
A lot of money was made off the death of Jerry. Of all
fucking people, let's make money off Jerry Blackwell. Well, someone had to,
right, I guess, I guess you know he's not making enough money
as it is. Might will make money off the fucking guy. I mean,
it's ridiculous. Pro Wrestling's nine hundred lines have been abused before. You
know, kids have been encouraged to call in the choices for whom they'd like
to see in big pay per view events, even when the matchups are already
set. But this is the first time a death has been dangled and sold
on a nine hundred line, one hundred number, Meltzer said. The WW
in the hands of Ted Turner makes for a curious match. After all,
we're talking about Ted Goodwill, Games Turner, Ted National Geographic Turner, Ted
Preserved the Global Environment Turner, Ted CNN Turner. Turner is tough on illegal
drug use among his employees, even though even tough on legal drug use now
ten years ago, Turner banned cigarette smoking is in his Atlanta offices. For
years, his employees have had to sign a statement value not to use tobacco
on his premises. Yet, just last spring, Turner sat for photoshoots with
his new multimillion dollar employee, Hulk Hogan. Hogan, at the time was
in the midst of admitting under oath that he was a practiced liar. That
is the most celebrated act in the ww's rival World Wrestling Federation. His character
wasn't built on quote prayer invitamins, but on years of steroid abuse. No
matter Turner made, Hogan is new ww star. This is the Ted Turner,
who will present a TV series on the sorrowful plight of the Native American
Indian at the hands of white ex manchioness yet present to America's kiddies through the
WCW on yielding string of negative ethnic and racial stereotypes, including the American Indian.
Recently, a champ who wrestled for Turner under the name Vinnie Vegas,
an Italian stereotype, stated on Check Kopick's new sport talk show that the w
CW is lousy with steroids. Yeah, Vinie Vegas would know, Yeah,
right, Hey, fucking you know shit, Hey, you know I've been
done with Atlanta. I know what the fuck is going on. That place
is just you know, it's it's like two rabbits fucking and making steroids.
That's what's going on down there. Last month, a fellow named Frank Anderson,
who used to be a World World Champion Greco Roman wrestler, was convicted
in Sweden for the purchase and possession of human growth hormone. Anderson is employed
by the w CW, and it's just not a big name in pro wrestling.
He doesn't make much money for the w CW for tied Turner, but
with any luck, you soon suffered drug induced renal failure. In Die you
talk about the perfect whipping horse for a guy like Phil Mushnick, like he
could just go off yes and just have and just say the most like outrageous
things because it was pro wrestling. This is listen. It's it's a pro
wrestling is a haven for murderers and death. It's a fact. It's not
an opinion. I think we know who the lapsed editor's favorite columnist was a
monthly. I've been reading this guy, Mushnik, this guy nobody's fucking talking.
He's got it, he's got it, he's dead on. This guy
gets exactly what the fuck is going on? How do we get him or
how do I get on the post? Somebody kill the editor on the post
please. We'll have to talk about that coming soon in the paper. Part
two. Then the WW on a Saturday night can tell kids that a former
champion wrestlers died, and for only a dollar fifty minute, they can find
out who Anderson, as Jerry Blackwell proved, could be worth more to Turner
dead than alive. It's time for mister Turner, mister goodwill missed to save
the environment, turn to take his friendly TV wrestling business out to be cleaned
and burned. Wow, burned. This is one environmental issue that should not
be subject to recycling. A great line fell, so there was like heightened
sensitivity. They made something about juice in there too. Was very clear that
there was a no juicy edict to w W because this mentioned that's what gets
Dusty Rhodes fired. Dustin fired. The next amounth that uncentered because there's blood
in their match. He and Barry Darcel Blacktop Bully both tell that exact story,
so that there clearly was a problem of including juice and the Hogan Invader
finish because that wasn't allowed. But maybe that edict came after the original plans
were drawn up for how this match would finish and involved juice. Not sure,
but that's out there, and you know, the idea that you're going
to get a clean job out of Vader while he held that Japanese heavyweight title
was also political football very much an issue. The thing we've learned about Japan,
of course, over the years is if an American superstar goes to Japan,
that's probably the best money he's making in the business like hour for hour,
match for match, and so compromising their ability to stay on top in
Japan by doing too many jobs in the United States. It's always a problem
for guys like him and Hanson and Brody and Abdullah and others who found a
way to make their nest egg in Japan over the United States. There's also
talked that the two scheduled works and how Show dates An Invader and those finishes
being watched closely, as well as for Hartley's situation. Pretty hilarious when you
think about the history of Harley kind of being the person that was threatening Hogan.
His wws take off on his back and moved into territories like Kansas City
and Saint Louis were Harley thought he had the stronghold totally and Hogan was very
paranoid about Hartley showing up with a gun because there was a threat like that
at one of the shows when they came into his territory to defend this turf
and pretty hilarious. Harley walks right into the WW for arena one time when
ww first started going there. This is an Invader's book. Harley walked down
the familiar Halls and found Hulk Cogan in the dressing room. Harley stormed in.
Hogan supposedly said something like wrong building the night brother, and that's all
Harley needed to hear. Race walked right up to a seated Hogan smacked him
with his sledgehammer hand directly in the face. Hogan fell off his chair and
went down to the floor. Geese dude, Hogan said, knowing damned well,
while he got hit, I'm surprised you just coming here with a gun.
Race reached into the jacket and flashed a thirty revolver. The locker room
cleared. When Hogan's camp tells the story today, they claim Harley took a
gas can that the Hall used for their lawnmower and tried to burn down the
WWF. Ran That's untrue, Ray said to some Hogan supporters at one of
the barbecues. There was no gas can. The rest of the story was
very game. So he pulled the gun on them. There's that, and
the rumor was that Harley Race is going to show up with a shotgun with
a shotgun. When the WWF came back to town, Vader Wrights just as
before, he was still pissed that the Missouri territory was his and he was
not going to give it up without a fight. Everyone in the locker room
was nervous about the booking that night, especially the WWA front men hul Cog
And that night came, and just as before, Harley simply walked right into
the dressing room like you owned the place. The only thing different this time
was he peeked his head in first to make sure he could strike it precisely
the right moment. A bunch of the wrestlers were moving about. Harley snuck
in when Hogan had his back to the door, which is always a couple
of the wrestlers looked up and Hardly held his finger up to his lips.
He signaled for everyone to be quiet, and he snuck up behind Hogan.
When Hogan was at least expecting it, Harley put him in a chokehold from
behind. Ah Before anything could happen, he slapped his slapped him as hard
as he could on the ribs, and released the hold. Hogan turned around
and winced. He turned as white as a ghost, Hardily smirked and extended
his hand in friendship. Hogan rightfully breathed a sigh of relief, the whole
ball game. What do you want, brother? What do you want?
Dude? What the fuck? Brother? What are you doing? My fuck?
What do you? What? Do you? What do you? What
do you? Did? You? Who told you? How? When?
What? What? What? What? How? Often? What do you
when? What's going on? Dude? Where are we? Brother? Huh
so huh uh? I don't know. With that backdrop, is hardly being
associated with Vader and advising him in a real life capacity as well as on
screen a factor in Hogan's level of distrust towards working with Vader. It's not
talked about often enough. I just think it's a goddamn fascinating thing that as
soon as Hogan gets in and consolidates power, Harley's never seen or heard from
again. Yeah, he had nothing to do with the car accident, of
course, this is Harley's book. In January nine ninety five, Bjay,
which was his girlfriend, was out of town on a banking convention, and
I went downtown to a bar to shoot pool with a couple of friends.
At least I thought they were at the time. We started playing for fun,
but one of the guys suggested we'd make it interesting and play for a
little money. By the end of the night, I was down about thirteen
hundred dollars and physically feeling worse for the wear than the few drinks I had.
Only later, after I started piecing things together in my mind that I
suspect that I was the victim of a scam. My two friends were working
as partners and I was their mark. To make matters worse, I still
suspect someone might have slipped something in my drink that night. Okay, Harley,
you got drunk as a skunk. You don't have to do all this,
all this ca faving about it. When I left the bar, I
was driving across an inner city bridge and ran across a pothole from hell that
popped the airbag and jerk the car to the left. It was an intersection
where one concrete divider stopped at the start of the intersection and another one began
at the end of it. Lost control of my car and it plowed into
the front of the barrier. The impact pushed the engine block into the front
seat, nearly crushing my legs. My right forearm and hip were both fractured.
Doctors told me later that most people wouldn't have survived the wreck. I
managed to get out of my car and stand up, but that was about
it. I don't remember much after that. I took a steel plate and
four screws to put my hip back together. But my luck was about to
go from bad to worse. Two weeks after the wreck, I developed gout
in one of my feet. It's a build up of uric acid that can
cause intense pain and, if not serious tissue damage. On this particular morning,
I wasn't able to put any weight in my foot. I was in
no shape to walk to my physical rehab class, and I told my nurses
much. Still, she insisted, and she got an aid to help me
lift me out of bed in my physical rehab class. I'll pardon me in
doing so. They dropped me and I collapsed backward into a chair. I
banged my head, but my body absorbed much of the shock. It was
enough to fracture my hip all over again. Oh Jesus, and I realized
this time in various places. You would think that would get me out of
physical therapy class for the day, but it didn't. At the time,
they didn't know I had refractured my hip. It was pure torture, so
they insisted I attend to the session. Why I complied, I'll never know.
It was pure torture, but I completed their bullshit exercises. Only after
that, when they got me back to my room did they perform an X
ray. I determined that I had refractured my hip and that was it for
hardly raising the business. Really wow. This is the same time too,
that Hogan is starting to launch his music endeavors with Jimmy Hart, trying to
model himself after the success of David Hasselhoff in Germany, who, despite having
no discernible musical talents, but due to being an American television star, had
a huge music career in Germany. Hilariously, Hogan of course got to know
Hasselhoff and dealing with Baywatch, right, of course, I'll be read.
In nineteen ninety five brought it. I came out with an album called Hulk
Rules by Hulk Code and in the wrestling boot band. But really the album
was born back in nineteninety two at Wimbley Stadium. You know the deal.
Here we go again. I have to read the whole thing. But I
had the hassel Hoff position twenty five percent of the company, just like I
wanted David Hasselhoff at twenty five percent of Baywatch. But my partner is as
good as producer as good producers do. We're always trying to talk to me
into taking less and less money because they needed it on the set. They
would say, you know, what's your company too, We'll make money on
the back end anyway. The first movie, this is all the movies he
signed on with Turner at the same time, So we had twenty five percent
of the We talked about this and we did Hoky movies enter the cinema.
Sure. Sure, he also had twenty five percent of the movies that clearly
Turner was obliged to produce as part of Hulk Cocin's incentive agreement in compensation agreement,
because there's no other reason to make these movies than they were forced to.
So he's got all these other things going on under the Turner aegis,
which is important to remember. Here's an article from Business Wire from February fourteenth,
nineteen ninety five, just a few days before Super Brawl five. Tell
you how thin Hulpe might be spreading. Superstar professional wrestler Terry Hulk Hogan,
manager Jimmy Hard and other members of the Wrestling Boot Band will sign a major
recording contract with Select Records. According to Hulk Hogan, the millions of Hulky
maniacs all over the world can't wait to see the Halt star team up with
Select Records. I know, is Hulton maniac myself? That could be more
true? Yeah, so fired up in ninety five about Select rec oh heard
all about it. Select is the home of the Jerky Boys, Kidden Play,
chub Rock and other happening products. Happening. There's a word you haven't
seen used in a while. Thank god for Chubb Rocks. Yeah, I
know, happening stopped happening apparently. Yeah. Yeah, And now the greatest
force in the universe meets up with the power of the music industry. The
Hulkster had a lifelong involvement with music, and his band, The Wrestling Boot
Band, is incorporating a diversified spectrum of music on their debut album. Both
rap and rock music will be featured on the record, including a ballad and
the official theme song American Maid, written by hulkoganin, Jimmy Hart and Jimmy
McGuire. Frank Manow, president of Select Records, states Hulk Hogan, with
his incredible history of media dominating, represents a marketing challenge that's locked up with
fucking go that will do t L t M. Fun with my family friends?
Wanna be fun with my family? There you go, be sure?
Tell you how to stay on track to at the Maniacs, dud Lost the
Fox and some of the things that always be could be your family and Prince
that's the only ones that will be there in the end. You wanna have
fun with my family friends? And do you wanna have fun with my family
when you're looking for something cool to do? Who just don't need You don't
need drugs to move your feet? Brother Harley did a. Hul Cogan,
with his incredible history of media domination, represents a marketing challenge that Select Records
relishes. We are looking forward to bringing this unique music package to his legions
of loyal followers as well as newfound fans throughout the world. Select Records marketing
consultant Michael Mansky believes quote the marriage of Hulk Cogan and Select Records is a
powerful and exciting combination. I guess it means to be seen. Hulk is
an amazing superstar who transcends professional wrestling in so many ways, and Select Records,
led by Fredman, now has the cutting edge and artist development savvy to
capitalize on this huge opportunity. Wow. Jimmy hartch marks regarding the record deal
state, when you're on top, let a rock. Hulkimania will live forever,
and now Select Records will bring his music to our millions of fans.
Music has been in my blood since the days I was part of the gentries,
and now we move forward with Holt's very first album, adding to the
marketing challenges and excitement store for the wrestling boot Band Turner Licensing and Merchandising is
granted the original San Francisco toy makers the licensing rights to produce a bendable,
stretchable, and collectible toy line featuring hul Cogan and Jimmy Hart, superstars of
World Championship Wrestling. Hulk Cogan draped and bright hues of red and yellow,
and commonly referred to by millions as the greatest force in the universe. I've
never called him that, and I've never even heard him refer to Asta as
a matter of fact. Unveiled his action figure at the annual Toy Fair in
New York on February thirteenth, nineteen ninety five, So that's going on too
around this time. Toy Fair Jesus, and this was a big one for
them because they really put their best foot forward that year. You know,
they were able to go forward with Hogan at the Toy Fair for the first
time. I really I think I talked about this, but there was a
part of me that when they that was really hoping that they would get a
a deal with Hasbro. Wow, that was up. Well, this is
the last Hasbro line, right, ninety four ninety four was the last Hasborough
line. Wow, that's when the green cards came out. And then it
was over, and I was like, I kept like, oh my god,
I would have loved the like a like a W. CW. Hogan,
you know, like a Vader Hasbro in ninety five, a Vader Hasbro,
Sting Hasbro, A Sting Hasbro, a Dustin Rhodes has a Blacktop Bully
has Bro Blacktop Bully has Bro. For sure. I love that idea.
Man, what an alternate history that would have meant. I think that so
cool. What does suck is you know they did come out with those Mattel
Hasbro throwbacks where we actually have seen a Vader Hasbro kind of yeah. Yeah,
that kind of bums me out because you can't just like picture something that's
never existed anymore. Yeah, but yeah, now they signed on with them.
They didn't have a deal since the Glub deal died WCW, so it
had been a few years since they had respectable toys out there, and that's
a door hol Cogan opened and there was there was talk about how you know,
WWF had a week showing at the Toy Biz Fair that year and they
sent home King Savage and some heavy hitters there to really try to sway people.
You heard several times in the broadcast of Super Brawl five they're trying to
make the tagline work where the stars are this is before where the big boys
call God it sucks. Yeah, but that was part of the whole push
is we've got these stars and we're gonna let people know about it. I
think it was a marketing VP share in Sadello that came up with that tagline,
according to Errek Bishoff. But this is this is big for WCW that
they're making these moves in the trade world. We get a good view in
this from Gary Michae Kapetta, who was the ring announcer on the show and
also wrote a book, and he recalls this particular point in time as he's
winding down his time with WCWS. They're gonna put Dave Penzer in the prim
positions soon, and of course saw Michael Buffer as the big match, big
pay per view bring announcer for the main events. But he remembers the January
nineteen ninety five nat PEAK Convention, which is the National Association of Television Program
Executives. Yeah, you know, you go there and try to sell the
television program and advertisers and all the advertisers go to this convention and walk the
floor and you try to have your big wrestlers and your booth to draw attention.
WWF always took this very seriously, would often set up a ring and
have matches to draw attention to their stuff as part of their syndicated package,
you know, back when television actually worked as a business. Exactly. So
here's Gary Michael Capetti's recollection of just how different a foot ww is able to
put forward at the NAPTE Convention, which of course took place the exact same
time as the aforementioned Caesar's Palace Clash of the Champions from January nine, ninety
five. They booked that show to coincide with the Convention of nap Tie in
Vegas, so a lot of the people that are in attendance of that clash
were actually at a convention goers and not ticket buying fans. And you can
see a lot of people in the audience of that clash with like suits and
ties on. It's hilarious. Yeah, that's wild. More Syndication markets their
new TV shows. Television programmers. Michael Copeta writes Worldwide. Eric was intent
on humiliating Vince Junior. He confidently scheduled the live Clash of the Champions broadcast
at the Caesar's Palace on the Wednesday of Convention Week to showcase the ww product
and show showered convention goers with free tickets to the televised extravaganza. Bischoff had
dreamed about this opportunity to humble the braggadocious Vince McMahon. He was primed to
take the swagger out of the step of the King of All Wrestling and presarios,
and what better place to pick a fight than in full public view on
the convention floor of Nappy, The place where a million dollar deals are commonly
inked with the flick of a pen. The place that well how elds you're
going to ink a deal, Gary, right and Fairness. The place that
sparkles with celebrities who will star in the programs offered for next year's television season.
The place where the most powerful media magnates meet to determine the shows that
will influence our language, dress, and pop culture trends. That was about
power, It was about dominance. This was better than anything the two wrestling
execs could script for the ring. At the Clash production meeting the night before
the broadcast, Flair raced through the lineup in a mirror twenty minutes. I
sat staring at my watch, realizing that his protective old school mentality had kicked
in for bidding us from knowing any more about the TV about the show than
the TV guide offered our viewers. As a big complaint at the time,
of course, Heenan would always complain about how and shooting interviews, about how
Tony would know something about what was about to happen in WCW, like a
finish or something, or someone who's going to get fired and kind of like
consider information power and keep it close to the vest and not tell Heenan a
lot of things, including that he was about to be fired. Tony would
go on to regret that and say, you know, even though someone higher
up in the turner chain told me not to tell, I think it was
Craig Leathers that Bobby Heenan was about to be fired. Instead of listening to
him, I should have then immediately turned around and called Bobby Heenon and told
him. But that wasn't how Tony operated. It also occurred to me that
he could have faxed the lineup to me, Michael copetit writes, allowing me
to spend an extra day at home. I began to feel like this meeting
was a waste of time. That is until Bishoff strolled into the room.
He went directly to the wet bar, grabbed a beer bottle by its neck,
and smirke, it's only five twenty here, you guys done already running
like a Rolex watch. Flair responded, Wow. Eric didn't seem to hear
the answer and continued, I just came off the convention floor and we were
kicking ass McMahon is down and bloody and can't get up. The production crew
and announcer stared at Bishoff in silence. It was obvious that our exhilarated leader
had a lot more to say. We had a great press conference. I
drove a steak into his heart twice and turned it. I wanted to do
it again, but time ran out. It was especially fun since he had
his spies there and they ran right back to him. It must have been
the steak in the heart comment that left us dumbfounded. He had no talent.
At one point, it was just Vince posing for photos and that went
over real big. Then he had joinked the wrestling clown. Pretty pitiful to
see a clown standing there waiting for someone to ask for an autograph. That's
actually so true, as the WCW chief chuckled, then shugged his long neck
brew flair sarcastically spouted, Eric, you're showing your sensitive side, wiping the
dripping beer from his bishof ignored Rick's swipe. Well, you know, the
naptic convention feeds adrenaline through me, with huge deals going down all over the
floor. That's what I live for. I can't help it. We're writing
business signing up affiliates for our syndicated show. He's the steak and I'm the
fork and knife, and we're carving him up. I looked across the room
at Bobby Heen and gene Oakerland, two announcers who had reached their height of
celebrity things to their work on WWF television. They had been Vince loyalists for
many years before being lured by Turner's big money contracts. They slumped in noncharacteristic
silence, seemingly embarrassed, perhaps feeling a twinge of guilt upon hearing Bischoff's characterization
of their former boss. They sat staring at a picture of water that sat
on the otherwise empty banquet table before them. That's so funny to think about
he and Joly having a deal with is shitting on Vince all the time.
Oh, can't say anything, but to have to be in the room at
the same time, yep. And then later on in the year at Slambury
there was also that was the moment where competitor realized it was over because he
hadded the mic over to the Michael Buffer and you know, he pretty much
got the word that they had given up on him. He said Buffer was
making six thousand dollars per night to two shows, which was, oh my
god, quite a bit of money, especially considering he only he only uh
contracted to main event matches, not the whole card, which honestly bea a
little weird for Michael Buffer to introduce Dustin Rhodes and Blacktop Bully. I kind
of fine with that. Yeah, yeah, I am too, but he
remembers. Uh. Buffer was to announce the final two matches at Slamboy ninety
five, which were considered co features. Following the last preliminary match, I
impatiently waited for Buffer to entered the ring with that warning, Big Bubba Rogers
music began to play for the first co feature, I still had the ring
like, so I automatically introduced his match against Sting. I later learned that
Buffer refused to introduce the co feature since his contract called on him to work
only main events. This guy who's being paid six grand a night declined to
work a second match, and the director didn't have the courtesy to let me
know. And so what's interesting is that Buffer Buffer actually does the ring announcing
for arn Anderson versus Mark Merrow. The final match of the main event broadcast
that really yeah, took place on TBS right before Super Brawl went live.
They were leveraging that Sunday night TBS slot on pay per view nights to you
know, do a live show like they used to do with Sunday Night Heat
and stuff. And on Buffer did that match. So I guess that was
considered a main event of a different show. Wow. So Dugan was in
play too, and he's got an interesting perspective because he was considered part of
the whole Cogan crew that swept in a WW nineteen ninety four, and of
course Dugan ran over Steve Austin infamously in ten seconds to win the US title
and Steve never really came back from that in terms of WCW, and the
rest is history. But Dugan writes in his book, when it was those
business oriented as WCW was getting the nineteen nineties, everyone was nervous about protecting
themselves because there was a lot of mistrust, especially between the different groups.
I think there was some resentment because a bunch of US came in around the
same time and there was a perception that we were WWF guys us. The
fact that business picked up almost as soon as Hogan got there, and then
kept getting stronger and stronger, probably created even more tension. The whole thing
was dumb because in theory, we were all looking for WCW to succeed,
but those of us in the Hogan group got to a point where we didn't
care about the other camp getting pissed off. Our attitude was that it was
all about the business, and business was going up, so anyone who didn't
like it needed to put the business ahead of his own hurt feelings. Damn
right. So Doug Duggan's feeling like a king. Of course, feeling like
he's king made you know, who's someone who who didn't necessarily see it as
all all upside business? And maybe we should just shut our mouths and play
along. Sure sure. Dave Sullivan, Oh, of course, of course
he wrestles Kevin Sullivan in one of the most disastrous matches you'll ever see on
a pay per view on this card and to here. Kevin Sullivan tell it
in the podcast that he does with the folks at Two Men Power Trip and
is on Hannibal as well. He talks about what happened to uh Dave Sullivan
shortly after the show. I'm going to tell you a story how Dave lost
his job and this is a vicious thing and that happened. Okay, I
in the group, it was to me an out and out, fuck you
and fuck your family. You're gonna get fired. I'm not going to say
who said it, but one of the Hulks protective group, we're at TV
and some fan said, oh, he looks exactly like hal Cochin. That
person that was it. He went told Hulk, and he told Hulk got
get rid of him. And that's how a very nice human being that busted
his ass got fired by a guy that was sucking Hogan's ass and didn't give
a fuck about the other human being. Okay, and the guy probably didn't
even realize how vicious he was. He was just trying to protect help.
Well, if you can't tell the difference between haw Covid and Dave Sullivan,
you don't need to be watching wrestling. Why was this all of a sudden
a problem that he looked like hul Covid. That was the whole point of
the whole storyline. And then right right, I mean I always thought that
was exact for it. What's the deal. Kevin makes it sound like it's
almost like it's one thing for them to realize that, but it's another for
a fan to a goof like, Dave Sullivan looks exactly like hul Cocan because
I don't know, I'm trying to like read what he's saying, and maybe
that's like a knock I guess, you know, like the fans don't see
that I look way better than this guy. They say I look just like
him, and he would, My god, would he come out in the
exact same ring attire as Hogan. I mean, oh, I mean,
I mean, Jesus Christ, he's gonna He's got a very similar physique as
well, you know, a blonde hair with the thinning top and and and
a and a similar kind of upper body look not as not as uh as
defined per se as Hogan's like a little more flabby, but still like you
know, not, I mean, there are a lot of there's he could
easily be a Hogan stand in. I just don't get how one of Hogan's
protectors could just like run to him and say, hey, a fan said,
Dave Sullivan looks like you. You've got to get rid of him.
I mean that's like to me, that's like fucking Kevin Dunn and the WCW
Invasion. Yeah, pretty much. You know, it's the exact same kind
of mentality, like, how can you you know, why do you want
to have guys you know, beaten? You know, I don't want to
have these guys come in and beat you work together so closely, like it's
not like, right, I wonder in the car to look like Hulkin had
nothing to do with Hulk on TV. He was fucking I know he was.
He was a whole camaniac. That's that song you just played, right,
very very very bizarre. It is very bizarre. Kevin clearly thought that
there was a screw the screws being put to uh. I guess someone talked
Hogan and to think it's actually a problem that he looks just like you because
already they've already given up on the Hulk of Maniac storyline with him. That's
already done with so yeah, right, I mean yeah, but it was
Kevin Sullivan idea, the whole Evad Sullivan thing. So he's probably a little
jilted about, you know, his story ending up with the guy getting shit
canned and going absolutely nowhere for anyone involved. But Dave Sullivan did do an
interview with Hannibal a little while later where they a little bit on it,
and Dave sort of, you know, it doesn't seem like the kind of
type to really dish and spill the tea, but this is what he did
say about it, right, Yeah, that was kind of Kevin's kind of
put that together, and Hogan agreed to it, so we went, we
went with it. Yeah, how did Hogan treat you? Okay, I
mean he treats me like like he treats everybody else, Kainda, I think,
kind of standoffish, even when you were tag team partners with him.
Yeah, Mike wants to know if you think Bischoff was the right guy to
lead w CW. No. No, I think when when when that happened,
I don't think that was good. He had no background, he was
an announcer, He never had a background to run it, and I think
he just pulled it off and got that job, you know, and kind
of and then when Hogan came in, he got all those rights, and
I think that's where it all went kind of south. So you felt the
politics, I know, it got worse after Hogan came in when all in
Nash and then you had all those clicks backstage. What was the atmosphere light
back there in those days? It was it was tense. I mean,
it was just it was it just wasn't relaxed, just because you had all
those people making decisions and not one person kind of guide the decisions. It
was this decision. I think it was really hard enough. Kevin quite a
bit trying to control it all, and then he especially lost control. I
mean it's hard, it was. It was difficult. Too many, too
many voices did fucking coughing, I know, going on there. Yeah,
he definitely did lose control and it was pretty much Flair running the book for
a while there. Yeah, over and above his head. But Solomon is
always there, you know. But he's better booking heat than Babyfaces. I
mean, yeah, you know, that was the bottom line. His idea
of like of the hero triumphing in wrestling was always like, what the fuck,
Like, Jesus, where did that? Why does that have to be
so weird? Yeah, yep, But you know, whenever Kevin Sullivan comes
up on the podcast, especially considering that we'll be on the ground in Philly
here, real soon and who knows what kind of carnies will run into an
encounter at the wrestle cons and things like that. I don't know. I
get a little nostalgic. And with Philly coming up and another opportunity to uh
to interact face to face with folks like this, I thought, let me
pull some sound at the time we met. Oh yes, Yes, pleasure
to talk to such a last fan wrestling podcast, last fan, last last
Yes, we're here with Kevin's Oliver and it is a distinct honor here at
Starcast. Absolutely Kevin, what what is different about today's scene and what's missing
from today's scene? I think that we're you guys are gonna see history made
Sunday. This is a watershed mom come into all out business, get all
in n you guys can come out because they give you what you want.
You're not getting something shoved down your throat. And I look for this to
be the start of something very big for these guys. I mean, they
sold the guidance out. I look for them to take this to London.
You know they'll have all of Europe there, right. I mean I see
nothing but good things. Guys from my generation, Sometimes everything's better back then.
No, you know that these kids the most talented group of all times.
They've laid waste to cape though. I mean there's nothing left. But
I think in some respects that you can enjoy it more because you know what
they're doing and you know it's choreograph, but it almost gives you a thing
when you say, God, how do they do it like back in the
day? Mostly yeah, most. I saw something on TV Land. I
don't know if you know that yet. They had a Superman one right,
and it showed the shooter from India was to win the belt and they boarded
him up and cemented him in the dressing room because he was gonna shoot him
the champion and all the other guys are saying, oh, he'll hurt us,
he'll hurt us, And then Superman sees it. He knocks the door
down and the guy goes in and beats the guy for the championship, and
the promoter says, I love it. I love it real wrestling, and
I look at them copyright nineteen fifty three, fifty three. So we're going
back that far. Can I ask you about Buddy Rogers and Patt O'Connor Miskey
Park sixty one. Have you have you broken in yet? No? No,
no, that was a decade before me. Oh decade, pardon,
pardon, just you know, if you had perspective, that was those massive.
I mean people still talk about that as the Chicago Landmark show. Yeah.
And you know, here's something that I think has been over looked.
This is the home of professional wrestler myself? Do want network? You know,
this was the first time so that I've heard some television people say to
me, did TV make whistling or did wrestling make TV? It says so.
I mean, it's almost a proper fitting that they came back with this
historical thing here in Chicago. One more fact. Now you have things to
get to. You're a Boston boy. Yeah, we're Boston boys ourselves.
Cool. I saw a garden show in the seventies where you announced from Lexington.
Is that one where you grew up? Well? I grew up and
I was born in South Boston. Then we moved to getting their Boston when
I got to high school. Did you okay? Good? So take us
what it's like. Take us through what it's like shoveling snow in the blizzard
A seventy six, oh, It was brutal. It was brutal everything.
It was the first time I ever went to a show that was snowed out.
We went to a Portland, Maine, and we were snowed in for
three days. No towns. We were supposed to run Portland, Augusta and
Lewiston. We got snowed in for three days. But it was it was
wild, you know what I mean? There was nothing open. Did you
shovel your own drive going up? Yeah? Of course, my potoos are
gonna do it. How were you? Were you a fishing or did you
you know, kind of get pissed off the whole time you had to do
it? Yeah? Of course I've a passed software. I'm not gonna say
anything to him. You know, bop me in the head, you know
that full little good correctness? Was it around? And maybe I would have
been a better student, different one. Yeah, you have to duck two
on that. Yeah yeah, yeah. Kevin is an absolute pleasure. Thank
you for talking to us. I hope everything goes well for you this week.
Thank you, thanks so much, very kind of copyright Yeah, nineteen
fifty three, fifty three, so we're going back that far. Can I
ask you about Buddy Rogers and padd O'Connor's Whiskey Park sixty one. I guess
we doubled up there. Oh yeah, that's great. It was so funny.
Oh god, it's so funny. Isn't like the basement? Remember there's
like many levels in the basement, yep, signing autographs and I'm like,
I'm gonna asking about shoveling snow somehow, some way. Yeah, it's gotta
happen. It's gonna happen. Oh man. So looking forward to more hijinks
like that coming up in TLF on the ground is not to be fucked with.
Absolutely, And finally, we've mentioned him several times, but I guess
the neutral party, to such degree as is possible with this guy in this
whole thing is Rick Flair. Of of course, he's a man in between.
He's kind of retired from the ring, yet he's got more power than
ever in WCW, at least on paper and theoretically as head of the booking
committee. But he's hating it. So how much of what we see at
Super Brawl five is his deal? How much is Hogan's deal? How much
is Evader's deal? Is even involved? We turn his book quickly to get
one last bit of situational awareness before we deep dive this nineteen ninety five WW
pay per view Flair writs. Hogan always maintained creative control of his character and
often had us fly down to Tampa to have booking meetings at his house.
Secularly would come up within a contractors are, of course, not that it
made any difference. We'd spend weeks putting a TV show together, but on
the night of the event he would come in and change things around. It's
hard to be the booker when your primary job responsibility is making sure that one
guy is happy. I know we've read this before, and this is why
I gained some interesting insight. During this period. He was fixated Flair Rights
with Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer newsletter. Oh God, this so called dirt sheet
that a lot of guys condemn, even though they regularly pass it around and
read all the gossip, like Brettard mcfoley hoping thought the Wrestling Observer was the
Bible. I swear he spent more time talking about Meltzer than sting, Ted
Turner or Vince McMahon. I I once asked him, why would a guy
with fifty million to the bank care so much about Dave Meltzer twenty million,
he corrected me. My entire motivation for being on the booking committee was finding
a way to survive. I wasn't paid an extra dime, but the strategy
frequently worked against me. I caught it, brother, brother, what's going
on, dude? That's us. Don't don't mess with it. What's his
dog that he posted videos of one time? Don't mess with her, brother,
Don't mess with the dizzle, dude. I got a lot of heat
from my relationship with Arn flair rights. I pushed for him to join the
committee. Well, he was on the committee because if you watch the credits
on Super Bowl five, Marty Lundy is right there. That's right, That
is true, And make no apologies about it. Arn's the perfect eye for
that position. He is people skills. And by the way, Barry Darso
said that arn Anderson was the one who came up with the black Top Bully
name, So wow, there's a merit the knowledge and the authority, and
perhaps the most important is respected by his peers. Not everyone shared my opinion,
and the friendship drove a wedge between Bischoff and myself. Once, when
I suggested that Arne win the TV Championship, Eric sneered, you could roll
Arn Anderson and shit and you wouldn't draw a fly. Let me explain just
how defensive this was to me. It's by the fact that our matches are
predetermined. Wrestlers are forced to be competitive with each other. We're independent contractors,
so we have to find our own way in the business. It's almost
like we're not allowed to be friends. Even when wrestlers are nice to each
other, they're still working around, walking around lonely. Yet Arne and I
had become as close as brothers, and everyone knew it. For Bischoff to
make a comment like that in front of a group of people was like slapping
me in the face. I could practically hear Hogan's voice coming out of Eric's
mouth as he elaborated, Arn's not colorful. He doesn't move merchandise. Well,
how many wrestlers did once they left the World Wrestling Federation marketing machine for
WSW It's true. One guy who I was certain could sell a few T
shirts was Randy much immense savage. He'd been relegated to an announcer's job in
the World Wrestling Federation and could have been doing more. So Eric and I
used the same strategy we employed to recruit Hogan. First, I called Randy
up. Then Eric and I flew to Florida and took him out to dinner,
selling him on the company. Later, when the discussions turned to dollars
and cents, Bill Shaw, who was Eric's boss and the turner hierarchy,
asked me, is Randy Savage worth half a million? I think he is,
I replied, name recognition. We're trying to build a company. He's
another piece of the puzzle. He still got a lot left in him.
I was happy when Randy joined WCW. We've been friends for most of my
career, but almost immediately, Hogan a pretty big influence on him. I
felt that Hogan convinced Savage that they were bigger than the company. Soon it
wasn't just Hogan messing around with finishes. He and Savage would go out in
the afternoon, drink beer, show up at the building and start changing things
with Eric's approval. After a while, Eric was drinking with them himself.
The company was anxious for me to do something with Savage. But you may
recall they had retired me. Kevin Sullivan and I came up with an inventive
way to get around this dilemma. March nineteenth, ninety five, I have
uncensored. I stormed the ring dressed as a woman and jumped Savage in the
middle of his match. Now that I was back, I could also interfere
in Hogan' strap match with Vader later in the night, because Leon wouldn't lose
to Hogan and vice versa. I did the honors. Of course, Ogan
drag me in all four corners of the ring to get the win. It
was a mind boggling finish. How could an intruder come in and lose the
match? Well, because the company was really fucked Wow with that, boss,
we prepare ourselves to dodge this puppy. I go something for you.
I'm glad it didn't come up. Oh okay, great, this is good
regale me. So. Uh. I don't know if you know this or
not, but I actually I had a uh. I would have access to
a VHS copy of the show. Oh nice, I did not know that.
And on the video you did the Nasty Boys thing. Yes, okay,
you can do it now. I won't do it, all right,
you're gonna do it later. You had it all, oh darn excited.
Yeah, this is they had it before the show started. They had this
whole fucking skit and the Nasty Boys so bizarre. It must be like a
deal they cut with like Mary and Tourism or something. But you could play
it, I guess, but yeah, I got it here, I got
the fucking uh uh yeah it opens it comes again right before you get the
the Turner Home Entertainment logo, and then this shit happens and you see them
go to the Science Museum an aquarium. They wit sprinkle things like this the
home video releases so well, yeah, it's like their Colosseum video version,
you know, with like the exclusive Colssum video exclude the one with real we
had one time it was him walking around La right with talk about OJ and
stuff. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah that was like nowhere. You couldn't
find that anywhere besides the video itself so bizarre. But here this is uh,
here's the Nasty Boys, like completely not being nasty. It's kind of
weird. Yes, sad you off in the Harbor, Baltimore, that's right
with the Nasty Boys. They roping stopping her on the street score in the
ring. We like to relax too, so did I. We're taking a
corm of the lovely city of Baltimore and maybe, well, nasty sides and
what about it? I don't know if I can handle the house. The
air's too clean, moon, No bus engines are running, no smog is
settling in, no garbage is smelling, and no stores are smoking. I
might have to get out of here before you know it. Well, they're
not nasty. We're gonna have a good time. And why didn't feel a
little feeding on the walls now? But we could do that? Oh my
god? Yeah, nothing, nasty cats are right here. It's getting built.
Yeah, I don't look so far? All right looking? Okay?
Yes to say? So what they're doing is at the science museum is this
kind of kids science museum. They're building a tower out of legos on on
a surface that can shake, so you can simulate an earthquake and just see
and see if you created a building that was stayed to stand an earthquake.
Yes, that's what there's your mine. Hey, what's just butting down here
for? Don't push that fucking hi? Hi hi. We just built that
up from scratch. It's supposed to the earthquake broke your building. Build it
right. Next time we'll have to start over down. Let's go pick what
tell you this? I? What is this do? Ohright, guys?
Where this works? How does this work? A second? I can show
you how it works. Yeah, sure, sure, I'll tell you what
I can. Step out on the side there. He's standing right up on
this crate. All right, I just put your hand on the dom.
Put my head over your Now what I do Now it's going hurt a bit,
so sure, I'm absolutely positive the doom. All right, you're good.
Hold on all right? I see this is our vandigraft generator. What
we created is is static electricity. Hey, you're standing up here, me
coming covered in charge, your hair standing off there? It is she recovered
negative charges just like this machine. Yeah, and similar elections charges will kill
each other. Nice. Alright? Hey, what's out over there? Starting
where you're going by? I'm getting shot burning off? Where's he going?
Alright? I got shot in the back. Turn this thing offside all right?
Whatever? Put him outside, cut it off. You're getting shot on,
dude, the biggest brawl of them all due what killed degree? Yet?
Degreed? Put your hand byers. Are you ready? All right?
One? Two, three, we're worn to go where fit is? No
till guys, you see a big guy missing two big black mohawk, Yeah,
exact, Yeah. I went on to the quays. Yeah, quarry,
the staff and the s s the quarry, morrisey guy, where is
he at? Hey? Did anybody see a big guy missing to mohawk?
I don't see. Yes, I'm looking for a big guy missing to mohawk,
black hair mohawk? If like that? No, sir, what's in
here? Oh? It looks a little bit like h Scary Sherry, sister
Sherry's face. Oh wait a minute, wait a minute, he's picking up
a horseshoe crab. Just so you know what it is. Oh my gosh,
it's a horseshoe crab. And that's what Scary Sherry's face looks. O
this look this, look, this looks a little bit like my partner SAgs.
Look at even at teeth. Have you seen anybody like this around?
A face like this? I do recall somebody like that going to the rainforest
side, No side, where is he at? Boy? It's hot here?
We have to keep it. This st stop a strainfark. Really,
it's kind of nasty, kind of enjoying myself a little. Let's not worrying
about like clean on show me the rest of the tour, right, you
need a little help with that? Come on, come on run. Let's
all sorts this doll. Say. If you like dolphins, I have something
you'll really like. You follow me? Okay, Aurrah, you're a nasty
boys. Hey, where have you been? Where you been today? Right
behind me? Were all over the Science center looking for you, all over
the aquarium. I couldn't fight teen whales. I've seen chips, I seen
it all. Then you weren't around. When these two rotten kids locked me
in the door in the submarine, I couldn't get out for an hour.
Really, Hey, Dolphins show was about the stars were together? What's what?
Arah? What an incredible day I had my pana wait, wait to
super Bowl? Eat up and let's go all right? All right, okay,
all right, disgusting it's so viz. They munch on some Maryland crabs
to close it out, right. Yeah, the Super Bowl five VHS jacket
does have like a little burst, like a voice bubble on it. It
says the nasty boys go on vacation so bizarre. And the extra footage I
mentioned before was the Bashard the Beach ninety five cassette, which you know,
Ah covered that. That's another Hogan Invader match in the cage on Huntington Beach.
And extra footage blue Blood's Tour Hollywood. Remember it was him and Bobby
eaton Blue Blood's Tour Hollywood. Is that got Tom Selleck and uh Donny Walbury
no comment? But yes, so much bizarre little side projects just to fill
the home video box. I guess I don't know why they would do this.
I don't know. I guess it makes you I want to go to
the Maryland Science Center. I guess it doesn't. But sure, so it's
super Brawl five and before we deep dive this match by match, blow by
blow, boss, I believe it's time for the Super Brawl five death toll.
We do. It is time, It is time, and there are
sixteen oh no, sixteen referee Randy Anderson. Sure well he's not actually fifteen.
I don't know why I have Dusty Rose down here. He's not on
the show. Well, he's on the main event as a co commentator.
Oh that's right, that's right. That's right, that's right. That's why
I have him down right, because he's a co commentator in the main event.
They play clips of it in favor attacks them, Dusty Rhodes, Gene
Okerland, Bobby Heenan, Harley Race Barely, Nick Bockwinkle, Sister Sherry,
Pedro Morales. Wow, he's there as a commentator for the Spanish feed.
Miguel Alonso. Oh wow, his commentator Parker Yep, Paul Orndorf, Brad
Armstrong on the main event show, Dino Casanova. Sure, one of the
two brones that Vader beats up Yep, Randy Savage, the Avalanche, Big
Bubba Rogers and the man they call Vodder. Wow. Yeah, Vader's gone.
That's crazy. Yeah, you said heenan, Right, I did say
Heenan. Oh. Bless them all, Bless super Brawl five and join us,
ladies and gentlemen on this one of a kind adventure. What happens when
the Hulkster and the man they call Vader collide one on one for the very
first time. About to find out on the flip side of this break,
it's that fucking cast