Favorite Wrestling Videogames & Merchandise Chat

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. The ultimate question really is like, what's the most obnoxious fan base? Star Wars. Oh, easily. Well, they're both becoming annoying though, that's the problem. They are. Who's the most obnoxious? Most obnoxious Star Wars. Sam, I'm gonna answer this right now. Cam, we talked about this last week.

[00:00:29] Yes. Wrestling fans, Star Wars fans, comic book fans. Yeah. I do love wrestling. I do love wrestling too. Me too. That's a good point. My other podcast is a wrestling podcast. It's wrestling fans, Star Wars fans, comic book fans. I've said for a long time like the worst thing about Star Wars is Star Wars fans. Yes. I had a fan station earlier on Facebook with somebody about that. Sam, to answer your question, are some wrestling fans of the most obnoxious fans of all?

[00:00:59] Easily. Easily. Well, maybe AEW fans, maybe. No, that's a good point too. Yes. Jason did say comic fans, which I think they go above the wrestling. Oh yeah. Comic fans are a lot worse now than they were about that. If you've been on a podcast for four years, wrestling fans are the fucking most toxic fans. Yes, they are. I agree. I agree. Ryan, look at your wrestling podcast. I was doing what I do. I ended it, but it was called Front Face Lock Podcast.

[00:01:28] We interviewed a shit ton of wrestlers. We were WWE fans. We had AEW fans on. Wrestling fans are the fucking worst people. AEW fans? AEW. They're the worst fans. What was the worst thing they ever did? Everything. No matter what WWE does, AEW does it better. No matter what TNA does, AEW does it better. No matter what MLW does, AEW does it better.

[00:01:57] It's like, no, I can give you 20 points in a fucking slideshow about why you're wrong. They don't want to fucking admit it. Like I enjoyed TNA up to a certain point and then just moved away from it. Be careful how you word that. They act like wrestling started in 2019, you know? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, oh, did you hear this guy Chris Jericho? It's like, yeah, we've heard him for fucking 40 years. Like, we all know that. So this guy Edge, he's really cool. You mean awesome?

[00:02:28] That's the thing about AEW. It's reminding me now of WCW in the 90s. Because all of a sudden, all the guys that weren't popular go to AEW and it's like, oh my God, they have a second life. And I remember there was a wrestler who said going to WCW was like going to the elephant's graveyard. Yeah. I mean, look at her. Go ahead. I'll end my wrestling thing on this because I'm going to start up my old wrestling podcast again. But AEW is what WCW became.

[00:02:58] Like, it was the end. And it was bad. I've watched every Nitro. I've watched every Thunder. It's fucking terrible. Have you watched Reliving the War on YouTube yet? Yes, I've watched everything. Fair enough. I'm a fucking wrestling encyclopedia. Another episode, I'm sure we can fucking talk about it. If you ever want to come on, I'll come on. Yeah, 100%. I love wrestling. I'm restarting the show. I will have all you guys on to talk wrestling. I love wrestling my brother. All right. That sounded so sexy. Although Ryan, real quick.

[00:03:27] I love the fact that Tony has enough money to keep it going. And if there's a place for other wrestlers to go to make money, it isn't just WWE. That's great. I love that. That's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. I love the fact there's another promotion. I just don't like what they're doing with it. I love MLW. I love fucking NWA. I think there's still enough good in there. Not everything's perfect, but there's enough good in it for me to keep watching. There's good in there. But I love NWA. I love MLW. I love TNA. I love WWE.

[00:03:55] AEW has its good moments, but overall, WWE is a better product. Yeah. Overall. And you gotta think, you gotta think, the established now, who's been more stacked? When AEW came along, you gotta realize, their roster was guys you heard of on the independent circuit, maybe. Yes. And then all of a sudden, they were coming in. And then what happened was, was that when that happened, all of a sudden the guys were

[00:04:22] starting to jump ship from, and it looked like it was gonna be another Monday Night War. But what happened was, was that the pandemic hit, okay? That killed everything. And that basically slowed everything down. And then what happened was, is that AEW was, you know, was getting up there. And, and remember, Vince stepped away. And Triple H took over. And all of a sudden it became like this new thing. And AEW isn't selling out.

[00:04:51] They keep saying, although they're selling out everywhere. They're not selling out everywhere. Well, and to your point, James, you know, WWE has more money. So you know, they're just hiring more money. They don't. AEW has just as much money. Yeah. Let me finish my thought though. Like, I think they're hiring their cronies in corporate media just to pick down on them. You know? Yes. Well, I think Ted Turner. And Ted Turner. And I lost the conch. Cam, I'm sorry. I will have a side conversation with everybody here.

[00:05:21] I would love to talk wrestling with everybody. You guys need to be on the off topic podcast. It's a wonderful show. No, but my other, my other show is at it's at front face pod. I'm switching it soon, but it will be added. It's at front face pod. Yes. My old wrestling show. You can check out all our old clips and interviews and everything. And this has been a hell of a wrestling match.

[00:06:24] Be very loose and kind of talk how we got into wrestling and do an overview of the some of the merchandise like video games. But I'm also just an open forum. If we want to deviate a bit, that's fine. So James, welcome back. We got a special guest in a world where we have a very special guest. One man from the TW takes podcast is none other than Bishop joining us today. Welcome. Thanks for having me, guys.

[00:06:53] I appreciate being here. The intro to the terrible wrestling taste podcast is about a 30 second clip of people saying it all wrong. So it's all good, man. I'll add it to the list. No, James, you never have to apologize. You're good. But yeah, so terrible wrestling takes. But as TW takes on Twitter and yeah, I have followed a lot of your posts and some of your live chats.

[00:07:21] And it seems like you're just always just a delight because you're just you're trying to actually kind of put some thought into this on why do we have these hot takes? Why do we have? Absolutely. That's that's the impetus. You know, when we have conversation, everyone says you're stupid. Everyone says you're wrong. I bit the bullet at the beginning. I'll call it terrible wrestling takes. You guys don't even have to tell it. But it's it's always about the conversation. Listen to listen to a couple episodes from you guys.

[00:07:51] I can tell that it's if it starts with passion and then you have the conversation. Nothing's off limits. There is no right. There is no wrong. And art is up for interpretation. Half the time we intended just to two part chats and we end up having seven to eight. So I'm pulling my hair out saying, where do I insert this? OK, fine. This is next year's April Fools special. We're going to April is the month of humor. And when I got in the habit of having five episodes a week, then that's where we're like, OK, perfect.

[00:08:21] Everybody gets their episode quicker. We have a themed week we found. I found out by accident that's way better. And so, yeah, you can count on wrestling to be during a more comedic or sarcastic week. But yeah, no, I've always just. I just casually knew about who the people were, just like it was impossible not to. Whether you sell the Walmart toy shelf or just them being merchandised on chips and barbecue sauce, like just wrestlers were everywhere.

[00:08:50] So I just always had fun seeing if they could actually stretch themselves in a movie other than just playing thug number five. And I figured this would be a fun excuse to also just talk about how they crossed over with wrestling. So I don't know about you guys. I always forget the name of this particular one. There was a WWF game from 2000. It had the goofiest soundtrack. Wow. Wow. It's like almost like a Power Rangers working out theme.

[00:09:17] I'm like, it wasn't it wasn't WWE Smackdown versus Raw, right? I don't think it was Raw versus Raw. It was WWF and it was in 2000. And to make matters worse, it was so much fun. But my parents didn't want me playing the game because long story short, my best friend next door had gotten the game used. And all the characters had inappropriate names locked into their characters.

[00:09:43] So all their characters range from, you know, like Rico Suave number five to the most priceless one that we ended up quoting for years was Russian bear humper. It's like, man. So, yeah, someone had hacked into the game. Was it WWF Attitude? It might have been. Yeah. Let me look 2000. WWF. Yeah. So, uh, came out in 99 Smackdown WrestleMania 2000 attitude was 99. Yeah.

[00:10:12] Um, war zone. Yeah. Whatever is WWF and from 2000, 2001 is it might be no mercy Smackdown to know your role with authority betrayal. Jesus Christ. It might just be, it might just be WrestleMania 2000. Cause yeah, it was definitely Nintendo 64. Did they have any arcade games in you guys's area? They did. They had one by me, which was WWF. And that was, that was the Royal rumble game.

[00:10:40] And that was like, you could play like Hogan warrior, um, the road warriors. Oh, sweet. Big boss, man. I think you could, I mean, you know, most of the guys now are dead in that. Um, you know, so it's like, it was like all you, you only had a certain amount to pick from, from the roster back then. Um, and you have to realize like WWF at the time. See, I grew up during the time of the territories. Right.

[00:11:08] So it was, um, and, and, and you may know about this too, Bishop, um, the, the days of the territories where it was the, you know, the WWF mid South NWA, um, AWA world-class championship wrestling, uh, Don Owens up in Oregon, you know, those, all those guys. So Vince was the guy that was basically looking into the wide spectrum of things and wrestling.

[00:11:37] I kind of found out through a friend of mine when I was in like, geez, fourth grade. That's pretty good. Yeah. I was just at the beginning of Hulkamania and the first WrestleMania. I remember that first WrestleMania, um, because it was 39 95. And my father was like, you're not watching that crap. You know, we could go to William Patterson college and we could watch it. I'm not paying that money to go sit around with a bunch of people screaming at a screen.

[00:12:06] And then my parents, I think when I was in sixth grade, they got me WrestleMania two. And that was the one where Vince, if you know, your wrestling history, it was always him trying to one up everybody. Yeah. So the boss has to do a takedown. Yeah. One year, one year, the NWA did a thing called starcade and that was their version of WrestleMania. And they did it in two, two areas. It was the Omni in Atlanta and the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

[00:12:36] Okay. And you had, you would, you, they would switch the matches. So a bunch would take place in Greensboro. Then they'd flip over to the Omni. Then they'd flip back to Greensboro. Right. Um, but Vince said, okay, I'm going to do three, three, um, three, three, three spots. Okay. And we're going to do it in certain areas. Right. So his thing was to, um, do this.

[00:13:02] So they did this where they had, they had, um, it was long on the Long Island Coliseum, you know, where the Islanders played. And the big match that night was Mr. T versus Roddy Piper and a boxing match. Okay. I, I just say that aloud one more time. Mr. T. Roddy Piper and Mr. T in a box in a boxing match. That's okay.

[00:13:29] And, and, and that's when Roddy started to started to get fans. Cause Mr. T was not welcomed as a wrestler in the WWF when he did the first WrestleMania. Was it cross promotion for Rocky or no, it wasn't even a cross for Rocky. He was, he was at the, the, the height of the 18.

[00:13:48] And his thing was, they said, okay, we're going to get Mr. T involved because Hulk Hogan needs someone to take on, you know, Paul Orndorff, Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff and, uh, Roddy Piper. And then, um, they had the war to settle the score. The one night Mr. T got involved. So then they hyped it. So Mr. T and Hulk Hogan were a tag team against Roddy Piper and, uh, Mr. Wonderful, Paul Orndorff.

[00:14:13] So then the second time they did WrestleMania, it was Mr. T versus Roddy Piper in a boxing match. Okay. The, the, the, the, the card at the Rosemont horizon in Chicago was a 20 man battle Royal. Okay. And then the last match, the match at the, um, LA sports arena was Hulk Hogan versus King Kong Bundy in a cage match.

[00:14:40] And the, the storyline was Hulk Hogan had bruised his sternum after Bundy splash, big splash from like five, 10 times. And Hulk was like trying to train, you know, and all this shit. And, you know, they were, they were building that up. They were building that whole thing up and it, it, it made millions. And then the third one he did at the silver dome. And that was the big match where Andre, the giant took on Hulk Hogan and, uh, and Hogan slammed on Hogan's Hogan slammed Andre.

[00:15:09] And we thought that was the first time that was done. It wasn't Hogan. Andre had been slammed before they, we just didn't see it, you know? And then all of a sudden people were going, no, he's been slammed before. Stan Hansen slammed them, you know, come on, slammed them, you know, and we were going like that bullshit. And then like later when YouTube came longer, it was going like, Oh, what do you know? Now we can fact check everything. Now we can fact check. But I, when you grew up in the territories in that territory or the NWA was dusty roads, Rick Flair, Harley race.

[00:15:39] Um, you know, uh, Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff, Magnum TA that was Southern wrestling. Okay. Yeah. And Southern rat, rasslin. They called it rasslin, not wrestling, rasslin. And that was, that was the mid Atlantic area too. So they were kind of like the Crockett's were in cahoots with, you know, it was mid Atlantic, but they was the NWA. They were the oldest wrestling association around. Okay. Then you went down to Florida. That was Eddie Graham.

[00:16:07] And those were like guys that were going to come up to the W like, you know, Ted DiBiase, Jake, the snake, Roberts, all those guys. Mid South was like that too. You know, they were all in that area there. Then you went to Texas and that was world-class championship wrestling. Right. That was the Bon Eriks. That was the missing link. Kamala, the Ugandan giant, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, the free birds. We're down there. Um, the Bon Eriks were like the first family of Texas wrestling.

[00:16:36] Um, and they were, they're the ones that if you ever read about them, they were always beset by tragedy, which was sad. That's, that's, that's a great thing to go over one night. If we were to have the chance, um, we could probably include it just as a side tangent, just on celebrities who had a good career, but it just went downhill, like in the worst way. Like, I mean, wrestlers, wrestlers are always known to have like the best, the best career. And then it just goes to shit, you know, after the wrestling. Same thing with music artists and some other entertainers. Comedians.

[00:17:06] They had great standup, but not great movie output. Uh, so Bishop, you, you've had the honor of covering your boy, John Cena, knowing how Cody Rhodes is done, but as a human being and as a wrestler. And what's going on Cody Rhodes. It's just, people are just, just tired of some of the personas and other hot takes is doing. But, uh, how about, Oh yeah. How about you Bishop? Like, but why did you think you really wanted to weigh in on that storyline? I know you mentioned in the episode, but for those listening.

[00:17:34] So how Cody and, and, and Sina did their thing headed into mania last year. Is that what you like in that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. So for, for me, um, it was, it was the first time, uh, Cody had really faced adversity since coming back to WWE. So, um, like in, in everything, um, you know, that was just spoke upon, there's always this massive baby face with it, with a heel to overcome.

[00:17:58] And it seemed like when Cody came back to WWE, his, he was a baby face and nothing to overcome except for this history that he has, which is a beautiful history of his brother and his father being wrestlers that are well respected. So the American dream, Dusted Rhodes. And everyone, everyone, everyone who loves wrestling has a dusty and a macho man impression. Uh, it's, it's, there's very few that have a good Austin impression.

[00:18:26] Uh, which is ironic because we've heard Austin talk for years and years and years. Let me tell you this. The first, okay, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. First out of the hamburger. What? Then I had a cheeseburger. What? Then I had a milkshake. What? Then I pulled up a can of whoop ass, you know? Right. Do you think there's going to be more ADW video games or they just put in their card and just what matters most, make a good show show WWE that you're kind of irrelevant compared to us.

[00:18:56] Hey, a w should, they should focus on video games and, and alternatives. Um, you know, Eric Bischoff once said, or he's actually says it often. You can be better than or different than. Right. So that's what, that's what made W WCW so successful as being different than they, they couldn't compete with WWE. Uh, and a w can't compete with WWE. It's, it's like starting a cartoon company and trying to compete with Disney. Like, it's just not going to work. Right.

[00:19:23] But if you start a cartoon company and you're different, that's how, you know, I mean, you guys are movie guys, right? Like Disney would take the award every year. Yes. And all of a sudden Ice Age comes out and it's like, Nope. You know, this blue sky company really figured something out. I'm glad you brought that up. I'll go, I'll go back. I'll go back further than that. Okay. You look, you look at Disney and they had their little cutesy poo workshop set up with Mickey and Minnie and you know, all that crap. And then all of a sudden here comes MGM. Yeah.

[00:19:52] Here comes, here comes Warner brothers. Disney's classical music. And MGM is like jazz and like Warner brothers is like, you know, freaking, you know, rhythm and blues, you know, down and dirt. It's like three different types of music you have. Yep. You know, and then you get even more anal retentum guys who are like, my music is this, even though it's classified as that.

[00:20:15] It's like, however they're going to sell you, you're using variations of both hip hop and R and B or soul and funk, you know, take it or leave it, but be happy. You got a career, but I'm glad you brought up the Ice Age thing. I listened to kill the messenger and Kevin Gates is a very talented dude who's made a career being he's like, he organizes testing groups for like secret preview screenings for different entertainers.

[00:20:41] So like if they want to see this TV pilot needs to be fleshed out, you got to recast this actor, you got to delete this subplot in this one movie. It's making kids cry and it's for families. He's done stuff like that. And he talked to the one controversial guy from Greece who's been at. He was at Fox now. He's at Paramount. I forget his name. Your goes for something. And he had an interesting motto. I think it's kind of lame, but I understand it.

[00:21:05] And he's like, he's done it since Ice Age and he's done it through Avatar and the new Planet of the Apes films where he's like, I have Fox has no business being the studio that turned down what every other studio was going to say yes to instantly. So, yes, we're going to say yes to this. Don't be the loser who says no. So I feel like everybody could have a bit of that motto. But I think you're right.

[00:21:25] Like, a W doesn't want to be the greater value of, you know, wrestling that they don't want to be every other knockoff company, which, you know, blows its load, spends way too much money is like, no, we need to be investing slowly and still utilizing the basics, which is social media, word of mouth, interactivity with fans after show. So, you know, you're like at AEW when they came out in 2019. Right. And they did all in and they were at the I think they did.

[00:21:54] They had some wrestlers at the the G1. What was it called? That one in. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The jet, the big Japanese one. It was like the young bucks were there and all these other wrestlers were there. And I think Cody wrestled there, too, that night. My best friend, Jeremy, who's now a California patrol officer, introduced me to some independent. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:21] And they were just kind of a delight because some of them were former WWE people just making their living just doing local wrestling things is like and we actually got insurance and benefits. Yeah, we made our own thing. Yeah, that's the thing, because if you listen to Jesse Ventura, when he did an interview one time, you talk about benefits and stuff. He said, I wanted to make a union of the wrestlers so we can have health care benefits. And you know who ratted on me? Who? Hulk Hogan. Hulk freaking Hogan. Yeah.

[00:22:52] Hulk Hogan ratted on him, man. But you guys, you know, the thing is, is that with these indie, these indie, these indie guys, they come in. It's the DIY. It's like a punk rock movement. You know, you've got punk rock. Many of the comic book artists I talked to the Tampa con, same deal. Like they had done independent contracting for like, you know, dark horse or Marvel, but they're like, it's over. I'm, I'm going to do my own thing and not be held down by the man.

[00:23:22] Yeah. Doing something I don't want to do. So it's less time. It's less money, but a thousand percent creativity. So my best work is going to come out. Well, punk rock's the perfect example because it is that right. Punk rock gets so independent and all of a sudden here comes a pop record from your favorite punk rock artist. Right. And that's what happens here. But it ebbs and it flows. You know, a couple of right.

[00:23:46] As you said, like in 2019, around the 2020 2021 time, the indie seed dried up and you and WWF were pulling everyone from the indies. But then over the last two, three years, these guys couldn't keep paying everyone. And now you have major stars back out on that indie scene. So that ebb and flow comes back. I'm sure it happens in all these industries, music and comics and otherwise, you know, that the demand for what's cool, what's new that that we don't have our hands on. Oh, yeah.

[00:24:15] With us for a little bit, you know, and then all of a sudden, right. It's like it's like in ninety five, in ninety one to ninety six. That whole alternative music scene, you looked at bands that were on independent record labels and then they would sign to a major label. And then it was like, oh, fuck, you know, they lost it like they lost their way. I can't remember. That's the great thing.

[00:24:36] What I loved about when like I'm a big replacements fan and I'm a big Husker Husker do fan is that when they went when they jumped aside, when they jumped to Warner Brothers, you know, they kept their their their artistic vision there. You know, granted, they were working on a major label, but the labels like you do what you need to do. And then everything do everything you got.

[00:24:57] When you think when you think about wrestling, you know, I can remember like the great thing was back then was guys in those territories could go back and forth. Yes. You know, they could be here. They could be there. They could you know, they could be in the AWA one day. They weren't just kept in one area. And when you think about it, too, when it was the Monday Night Wars and somebody jumped ship over to WCW, it was like, holy Christ, you know, but somebody said it best.

[00:25:26] They said, you know, WCW like right after the NWO formed and everybody started coming in. It became the elephant's graveyard. You know, everybody was going on guys that were guys were like not big. We're now going over there. But the one thing that the undercurrent everybody forgets about ECW. Yeah, W was fucking phenomenal. And it wasn't just the hardcore. They had scientific guys there. Dean, you ever see that match between Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero?

[00:25:55] Yeah, I've heard of Guerrero, but I have not seen his fights. Guerrero was a Guerrero when he got to the WWE. They kind of overplayed his character. When he got into when he was in ECW and he's part of that family of the Guerreros, which are like Mexican, you know, wrestling, you know, that. Yeah, they weren't. They were luchadores, but they didn't have the masks. OK. And then you get Dean Malenko, whose father was Boris Malenko, the man of a thousand holes.

[00:26:24] Basically, Dean Malenko was a more poor. That's what she said. But the wrestling style. They did a show one night they did a show. And you got to remember, you guys remember who was the head of ECW? Paul Heyman. Paul Heyman. He basically brought these guys in. He was bringing guys in Terry Funk, who had left the WCW. Yes. And was now coming in doing his hardcore stuff that he had done. He was known as the father of hardcore. You had Mick Foley.

[00:26:54] You had Sabu. I like Mick Foley. You had Eddie. You had Ray Mysterio at some point there. You know, so that's what happened. Guys, I got to just run to the bathroom home. You keep talking, all right? I'm sitting along with Bobby DeBrain Heenan on this very special Mother's Day weekend. One day of the year set aside to honor, to show respect for your mom. Unfortunately, 365 days would be more like it.

[00:27:23] But mom, to you out there in Las Vegas, my love, my honor, my respect, and a special gift headed out your way. As I'm sure, Brain, that big gift headed for Beverly Hills. Boy, you said a mouthful. I wish Mother's Day was every day. Last year, my mom got me a red Mercedes. What do you mean, got you? Well, it's Mother's Day. You're supposed to show your love and give something to your mom. I'm her kid. How's that? You're disgusting. Here we go. We'll return after these messages.

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[00:29:27] Howshack. everyday life, then listen to the Florida Men on Florida Man podcast. That's Florida Men, plural, on Florida Man podcast. Do you ever find yourself thinking about who would win in a fight between Goku and Superman? Hi, I'm James Gavsey, and on the Who Would Win show, me and my co-host Ray ignore anything important happening in the outside world and debate fictional battles between characters from comics, movies, and video games. We got a new show every week, and almost always

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[00:30:22] Oreo is joining us in the mayhem. Again, man, you bring it every time. Glad you can meet Bishop. Terrible wrestling takes. So you're often pretty good at researching various merchandise. Have you ever collected like wrestling trading cards or other merchandise? You're just like, interesting. The only thing merch-wise of wrestling I have is

[00:30:48] a Rey Mysterio card that I got ages ago, and the New Age Outlaws 2-pack from decades ago. I bought at a toy store. And then I got some other wrestling figures that I got from my aunt's son last decade that he sent up because he was cleaning out his toys and whatnot. So

[00:31:16] a couple wrestling figures were in there. It was Monster, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Undertaker. All right. And I think I kept Rey Mysterio too. Yeah. It's always interesting, though, how that was kind of the mainstream. You're going to play a character and we're going to have these unusual storylines, even though it's technically a reality show. You know, that's brought into country. Bishop, did you have any other highlights from like the video game era?

[00:31:46] Like where you're just like, this is the perfect must-have game. Like I've played as most of my icons. Yeah. I think the WWF Royal Rumble that was mentioned earlier as an arcade game, that was actually, I believe, a Nintendo game as well. And that was amazing. There was also like a wrestling superstars game from even before that, that had like the masked wrestler with the star on it and this Ric Flair knockoff.

[00:32:17] Yeah. So those games, in my opinion, up until, what's it? I believe No Mercy for 64. Yeah. Those early games were better than anything until, because everything they tried to do, like I had WCW Thunder, which was trash. I still have it. Was it just very junky with plotting? There was like three modes.

[00:32:45] There was solos, tag team, cage match. And like you could type in a button code, a cheat code to get all the wrestlers, including developers and things like that. So you could literally beat Goldberg with Stacey Keebler just by powerbomb. What? Yeah. What? That was the fun part about cheat codes back then was that. Anybody's a badass, I guess. Anyone, yeah. You could unlock everybody and it didn't matter who you had.

[00:33:15] So just no care put to it, like Bishop's saying. Yeah. Yeah. There was never any issue. It was just funny. You put in the cheat code, everything's unlocked. Oh, he's got it right now for those. Oh, this is a different one. This is Rage Cage. Yeah. Oh, God. I remember that. The Sega CD, which this is the closest to the WWF Royal Rumble arcade game that I have. It has very, very similar action styles. You can see like where the dropkick is. Gotcha.

[00:33:45] The arcade game. Maneuver around. Yeah. More characters than. Because it's interesting how. Oh, yeah. They. Once we get to the 2000s. Let alone even the 2010s. They not only endorse so many different personas, but then. They pretty much become like every official sports game after a while where it's like, we got to update it with the current roster. We're going to have to dedicate their personas.

[00:34:15] And that's why they've been doing like, you know, WWE 2K24, 2K25. There was one recent one. They brought the rock back and he was like exclusively promoted. It was like 2016, 2018 or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I did see a cool review about it where everyone was saying very inspired button combos. But like you guys are saying, kind of a diamond in the rough. People just got to where it's like we would prefer to just watch them.

[00:34:41] You know, the matches on USA Network or as of now, Netflix. I my pal Tony has recently rediscovered wrestling again, and he watches all the live streams every time they're on Netflix and he is one of those where he's both self-aware of the bullshit politics behind the scenes. And he looks forward to who he's going to root for or against. Like, he just he's a self-aware animal, if you will.

[00:35:09] Like where he's like, yeah, he's like, Cody, you're fucking going down. Tired of bullshit. And then he gets into some of this other stuff. And I'm like, hey, yeah, Mr. Dawson, I love you, but chill like so much. There's already enough intensity on the screen. I just need to get this intense here in the living room. I'm sorry. Get over the chair.

[00:35:34] That's why I just got done with reliving the war on YouTube for Muscling Bios. He spent the last five and a half years covering the Monday Night War and pay-per-views. Yeah. All of it. Like, it was amazing. How many videos did that take? Like 10? No, it was five and a half years. And it ended on 270-something videos. Jesus.

[00:36:03] Yeah, he did all of it. And he hasn't done SmackDown and Thunder yet, but hopefully he will. But he's covered the pay-per-views. He's got a new fan. Thanks, don't worry. But no, if you don't mind forwarding that, I wouldn't mind sharing that in the group. Yeah, give us a look on that. Because I like hearing about that Monday Night War and how, you know, they were... WWE was almost at the brink of collapsing.

[00:36:30] And he actually turned me into a WCW fan. Like, in the beginning, I was WWF for a while. And then as time went on, I was more TNA. And then I liked ECW. Because then I watched ECW, just the pay-per-views of it. Yeah. And enjoyed the shit out of that. And then I was like, I never really watched WCW. And then he came along and did all that shit.

[00:36:58] And I got hooked. Like, it's really fun to get hooked on this shit. And that's a good documentary. And if they contain any kind of pop culture, regardless of whether they're using a humorous narrative approach or not, and was like, here's what I'm going to cover. If you like what you see, sling along for the ride. You guys do know that WCW, before they were Nitro, and they used to have a show on Saturday nights. That was their big show. TNT.

[00:37:27] No, it was on TBS. Oh, system channel. Yeah, super station. It was called World Championship Wrestling. I shared the channel, too. And that was the forerunner to what was going to happen with Nitro. And they started saying, okay, look, we're only on once a week. We're a dying fish, basically. And you got to realize, when you hear the history of WCW, when they were bringing in different

[00:37:54] people, would run the company, you know, because the Crockett's were there. They owned it. But they were bringing in guys like, who was it? Like, you know, Jim Hurd, who was not even a wrestling fan. I think he ran a pizza company. That's what the irony. They get all these guys. It would be just like, again, Navy Souls, like Ventura, and all these other guys. They didn't plan on being a wrestler, but it just happened. These were guys who were running that thing. And they had a guy named Cowboy Bill Watts, who was a wrestler. But basically, he had all these rules.

[00:38:24] Like, you can't jump from the top rope. You can't do this. You can't do that. And it was like, how fucking boring can you be with the wrestling, you know? Yeah. And then, you know, when you hear about it, you know, you realize that, you know, when they brought in Eric Bischoff, who I think was... Not to be confused with Bishop, our lovely guest here. Eric Bischoff. The guy who saved it from going downhill. Yeah.

[00:38:48] You know, creating the NWO, creating, you know, making Hulk Hogan turn heel, you know, doing all this shit. It was like, whoa, okay. This is new direction we can go into, you know? Was there ever anyone who's, kind of like with comics, who's getting the license to use their image in, like, spinoff material was just a pain in the butt? Was there anyone who ever turned a heel, so to speak, on that, where you're like, stop it.

[00:39:19] Like, I gotta... Like, if I use your... There's Hogan's contract. Well, yeah. That thing is funny as shit. The funniest part about that, literally, when you go, when you, if you decide to watch Wrestling Bios, I shared the link in the chat. Yes. Um, pay attention to how many times, when it gets to the NWO part of it, pay attention to how many times he comes out with a NWO shirt. He gets paid 20 grand every time he wears that shirt. Oh, really?

[00:39:47] 20 grand just for wearing... That's a highway robbery. Now, think about that. 20 grand every appearance on Nitro and pay-per-views. Who do you think they'd do that to now? Nobody. Nobody. He's the only one they were gonna take a risk on. Jesus Christ. 20 grand. Yeah. That's low budget. That's low income right now. Hogan was like, like, fucking like...

[00:40:17] I remember, like, Hogan was... He was everywhere. He had, like, a Hulk Hogan, you know, workout set for kids. Yeah! I'm just the mania, brother. You know, we're like, okay, yeah, we get it. You know, say your prayers, eat your vitamins. You know, prayer to the big Hulkster. Okay, we get that. I wanted to see guys like, freaking, you know, you know, Andre the Giant. You know, it was like... It's like, Hogan, ew. Fuck Hogan. I got tired of Hulk Hogan. For real.

[00:40:46] He is boring, but it's like... He's dead now, but yeah, his legacy... He's an asshole, but his legacy endures. But he fucked himself over. He's a good example of just, like, people had... He's kind of like a Gene Simmons type, where everyone had to put the artist separate from the art, you know? Yeah. No, he basically screwed himself for two reasons. Yeah. Number one, the whole thing with him using the N-bomb. Mm-hmm.

[00:41:17] You know, on that video. Yeah, brother. Number two, him endorsing a certain president when most of his fans are people who don't like that guy. Yeah. You know? Well, not to mention... I do have. John Kassar, that's right, the future director of hit shows like The Orville, Revolution, and 24. One of his first gigs after doing syndicated shows like La Femme Nikita and Baywatch was doing all of Hogan's movies for TNT. The Ultimate Weapon. What was that one?

[00:41:47] Thunder in Paradise? Oh, yeah. Wrestling Miners covers that, too. I'll get it. But he has a funny theme for it as well. He's so cool. He's also from Ireland. So he has an accent, but it's not super heavy. He has an international take on what's meant to the other countries. Yeah. And he's not biased at all. He just gives his honest opinion on this shit. And I loved it. And it's beautiful. He's like... And he used to downplay himself. Wrestling Bios on YouTube.

[00:42:16] Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I don't want to be at a convention or anything and, you know, meet people. I'm like, okay, I get that. Has there been any big turnouts for conventions? It seemed like other than Hogan and Ventura giving copies of his book, it seemed like... We've had wrestle conventions here. With Flair? No. Flair does it on and off, you know. Generally, you get the guys that you remember from certain eras.

[00:42:44] It was like one year I can remember out here in Jersey, we had Sergeant Slaughter, the Honky Tonk Man, Greg the Hammer Valentine, Brutus the Barber Beefcake. I forgot who else was out here. I think Luscious Johnny Valiant before he passed away. The game may enough, brother. Kevin Nash. Kevin Nash. Kevin Nash is a fucking great guy, man. He's just like... He's humble.

[00:43:11] He's like, you know, I met the Iron Sheik, man. That guy was cool, you know. Because, and I'm going to tell you this, the first time I go to this, I went to the Chiller Convention, because that's where they were doing that. It's him. There seems to be a lot of crossover with horror fans for some reason. Well, yeah, because the horror fans are wrestling fans, too. So you got, you know, that... But you got... That's a two-prong deal. There's a table, like a table across the room. And it's...

[00:43:36] It's Greg DeHaner Valentine, Bruce the Barber Beefcake, Captain Lou Albano, Iron Sheik, and Nikolai Volkov, right? And I think there were a couple other guys there. I just saw him. And I'm looking, and I see the Iron Sheik, and he's sitting there. He has an American flag do-rag on. You know, 9-11, never forget t-shirt.

[00:44:00] And I'm looking, and I'm like, wait, this is the guy who used to get in the ring and say, Iran, number one, Russia, number one, USA, fuck, TIE! Like that. And he's like, I'm like, wait a minute. And then you start reading back. He's like, he came to America with practically nothing. He's loved this country. It was all a fucking act. And I had to think that in the back of my head. These were all fucking acts. Yeah. But they did it so convincing, so I guess they're good actors.

[00:44:28] Yeah, I did a video on that dissociation shit with wrestling. Because I believed in all that shit, too. But then as I got older, it wore off. And I was like, this is really dangerous when you think about fans who get so deranged and shit. It's bad. Because you get them fans that will flip the fuck out and storm them. He said he'd be president. No, no. He's joking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One guy. There was one time Piper.

[00:44:57] I think it was Rodney Piper was in a. Or no, the Freebirds. Some of them were wrestling somewhere. And they were getting a lot of heat. Really? And this guy pulled out a knife. What? And tried to stab someone. And there was an undercut. There was a cop with his kid. Yeah. And the guy was trying to. No cop. You're going to wrestle in country. There was a cop with his kid on top. Like when you walk in. I think it was Madison Square Garden. I forgot who it was. And he went to go chase the guy with a knife. And the cop jumped down. And two other cops.

[00:45:27] New York City cops came out of nowhere. And just wrestled the guy down. And they told the wrestler. They were like, you know, this guy was going to stab you. He's like, holy shit. Yeah. That was on Dark Side of the Ring. Yeah. They did cover that on that. Yeah. Who was it? Was it Piper? No. It was someone else. But it was a very pivotal one. And it. I think they. Even though it was one episode. They still would come back to it on just. Much like rock stars. Everybody has a stalker.

[00:45:56] Or someone who has gone simply. Can you imagine? I know you've already gone bananas. But like. It would be boring. Just to sit there. Just to kill someone. You're just like. Well, you're not going to have any entertainment. Lunatic. If you kill this person you admire. Just a couple years ago. Just a couple years ago in Brooklyn. A fan jumped the rails. To tackle a wrestler. Because they got duped. On their DMs. They sent. They stayed. What? They got duped. They got duped. Sending money to.

[00:46:25] To this wrestler Seth Rollins. They got duped. Oh my god. And sending like. 20, 30, 40 bucks. Some shit like that. And because the guy never heard back. Or whatever it was. He jumped the rail. And tackled him. During Raw. And. Yeah. I remember that. I didn't know the backstory on that. Who was it that got tackled? They believed it too much. Seth Rollins ended up getting tackled. Oh, Seth Rollins. Oh, okay. Yeah. So the guy who. Fan account. Pretend to be him. Yeah. A fan. Yeah. A fan got. Over 30 bucks. That's pretty pathetic. Yeah. It was crazy. It was crazy.

[00:46:55] People still believe this shit so much. Yeah. I know. You remember the guy who ran into the. Ran into the fucking cage match. You remember that? I think it was a WCW cage match. And this guy jumped. Like Macho Man. Yeah. Macho Man. Yeah. It was Macho. Cage match. Macho Man beat the shit out of him. Also, you got guys going. You know, you got guys going after Kevin Nash. Who's six foot eight. You don't want to fuck with Kevin Nash. These guys know how to defend themselves. Trust me.

[00:47:25] And Kevin got pretty screwed on his deal. I would. If I ever met him. I would say. You played two of my favorite comic book movie villains. You played Super Shredder. And you played the Russian in the first Punisher. Oh, yeah. And then I would say. You were hysterical. Magic Mike. And you gave a good performance. In John Wick as the doorman. So. Dude. He was so lazy in Magic Mike. I know. But his song was pretty catchy. I know. But. Yeah. Either way. I mean.

[00:47:54] It is funny how he was like. On some other wrestling podcast. And he was joking about. And he joked. It's like. That guy who's playing the Russian. In Deadpool and Wolverine. That is not me. That does not look like me at all. I don't know. Yeah. Let me share Kev's podcast. Because that. That is an interesting podcast. Well. When he talks about. The NWO. When he talks about. When they were going to form it. Yeah. Who the mass. Who the third man was going to be. And you find out. It was going to be Flair. No.

[00:48:25] It was Sting. Sting? No. It was supposed to be Sting. They thought it was going to be Flair. Yeah. You're right. Because they said it was going to be Sting. So that was the cover. Sting was like. Sting was like. No. I'm not doing that. And then. He says. The best thing he ever said. When he said. The Legends of Wrestling. That round table thing. He said. Hulk Hogan saw that money train. And jumped right on it. You know. I don't think. I don't think. He's really the one that fucked it too. Because. Yeah. He ruined the payoff with Sting. And. And you had mentioned it earlier.

[00:48:54] About his contract being so. Really what. Hogan's contract always was. Hogan gets to decide the ending. No matter what it is. He gets to decide the ending. So just like Vin Diesel in The Rock. And Jamie Foxx do the whole. I can't die on screen. He's doing the whole. Yeah. And even. And even. At the. The behest of what's good for the crowd. Because what was happening. When the NWO was building. And Sting wasn't even in the ring. He's in the rafters for 18 months. Yeah. The number one thing you want to see him do. Is whip everyone's ass.

[00:49:23] And Hogan just couldn't lay down for it. And. And just. Blew it. Just blew it. And they would have. So like I said earlier. About Cody never losing. Had Hogan. Actually lost. To Sting the right way. He would have been so interested. In Hogan coming back. And just being. Relentless. Being more ruthless. Being more brutal. The NWO being more crazy. And he just blew it. Because he wanted more money in his pocket. For whatever fucking reason. And he's got. The loudest voice in the room. He's like if a bunch of comedians. Formed a troop together.

[00:49:53] But he has to start. And end it all. And it's like. Well there's not much suspense. If you're. If there's a. Head face. To this whole thing. We gotta differentiate. And we gotta change it up. The one thing that happened was. Was that. When you look at the Monday Night War. Right. Right. Uh huh. It's a couple of things. Number one. For WCW. They had Goldberg come in. Right. Yeah. He was a fucking. He was a jackhammer. Right. You remember how many. How many. What his unbeaten streak was.

[00:50:21] A hundred and sixty three. Officially. Yeah. Yeah. So. I remember. Bob. Bobby Heenan saying. So he'd have to wrestle. Like you know. They did the. He did the average one time. And Bobby Heenan's. He was like. He'd have to wrestle like. Three times a day. To get to like. His unofficial record. Right. Yeah. And they're like. They're just hyping this up. And secondly. It was Goldberg. It was the NWO. Splitting to all these factions. Right. Yeah. It was.

[00:50:52] Fuck. Who's. Who's that dipshit. That took over. After Bischoff left. Oh. Vince Russo. Vince Russo. It was a lot more than just that. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot. There was a lot of. A lot of shit that. You know. Finger poke a doom. You know. Bringing in. Bringing in. You know. What's it called. Arquette to be the champion. Well. The biggest issue though. Wasn't. It wasn't all that. It was the fact that. And. Wrestling. Byers covers this. When you watch it. It was also. The fact that.

[00:51:22] They decided to take. Thunder's. Budget. Out of Nitro. Every week. Thunder aired. It was 450k. Every week. Yeah. So. That's what drove. That was part of the reason. The company went down. So. Every. So. From the start of. Thunder. When it started. There's 450k. All the way. To the very end. That's. And. Oh. There's so much. And I just. Finished that shit. Two days.

[00:51:51] A couple days ago. Oh. It still hurts. Did you talk about. Did they mention the thing. When Chris Jericho said. When WCW was put up for sale. He felt he could have bought it. Yeah. Oh no. It was actually Bischoff. Because he put up 63 million. For it. But then. They said no to him. And I was like. That's bullshit. And then. One of the other things. Going back to. Hogan. And his bullshit. Nash mentioned on his podcast. About wrestlers health. I don't know. It was DDP.

[00:52:22] He brought up how wrestlers. Older wrestlers. Health and shit. And how they look. And he's like. You see. You see how a lot of them. Carry themselves. And they don't want to get help. Whereas. Certain ones like Jake the Snake. And Buff. And all the other ones. Came to him for help. Yeah. Yeah. And did better for themselves. As a result. Even Kevin Nash. Quit wrestling completely. Because he had to get. Both his hips. Rotated in. Because they were so. Fucked. And every time.

[00:52:51] He's at a convention. People are like. Oh yeah. You're going to go again. Aren't you? And he's like. No motherfucker. I'm old and retired. I just got my hips fixed. I think I told. I think I told him. When he was at the convention. I'm like. I just said. Just rest. Just rest. You've done enough. Just rest. You know. Because to me. And he started laughing. And I. I said. Jesus Christ. You dyed your hair black again. What? Just to bring Diesel out. One more time. He's like. Yeah. Yeah. That was Vince's idea. I was like.

[00:53:21] You're going to do Diesel. One more time. That's so funny. And I did great. Then I did that for Greg. And I said. You're going to lose the belt. At Tio Santana. And smash it in the rack. Oh wow. And then Greg just goes. Go fuck yourself Vince. A lot of those old school guys. Were under his father. Vince McMahon Sr. When Vince McMahon Jr. Came in. It was like.

[00:53:50] Night and day. Yeah. You got to realize. With. With Vince McMahon Sr. You know. You had a proven roster. You had. A couple of great champions. You had. Bruno San Martino. Pedro Morales. You know. Superstar Billy Graham. Bob Backlund. The minute. The minute Vince. Jr. Took over. And bought out his dad. Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan. A lot of the guys. A lot of the guys. That were there. Were going. You know. Okay. Smoke up your ass. Now.

[00:54:20] We'll swallow our medicine. We'll take it. A lot of other guys. Like you know what. Fuck this. I'm leaving. It's bad medicine. James. But. So please. Riddle me this. Is there a cheat code. Where you can beat up his son. In every game. Please tell me there is. Because. Anytime I saw that. I'm like. Vanity. Vanity. Capital V. You're not a wrestler. You know. I wouldn't. You know. His son is not a wrestler. And he can't drive a car. Neither.

[00:54:51] Isn't that sad. Isn't that sad. You can't drive a car. His daughter. Well you know. Unfortunately. His son was in a car accident. And he killed the kid. Who was with him. And he paralyzed him. Holy shit. I didn't know that. Yeah. Nick was driving drunk. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. I thought we were talking about Vince. That's Hogan's kid. Hogan. Vince. Vince's son. Not to be confused. Not to be confused. With Jimmy Snuka. Or Chris Bennett. And all these other. Chris Benoit. Oh god. Yeah.

[00:55:21] That's a different story. I know. That's a different story. That's a story. For you know. The more with Dark Side of the Ring. Season one. Watch it all. It's a great show. You know. I think the one thing that gets me. Is Hogan. Was so. I mean. I can remember in 89. You know. When they were releasing that video game. There was him on the back of a comic book. With you know. The Hulk rules. Ripping their shirt off. Which one for 89? Uh. The. I think it was. Or 90. I don't know which one it was. It was like the 90.

[00:55:50] It's on the back of a comic book. And they were. Acclaim was going to. Acclaim was going to put it out. And. It was Hogan on the back. And it's like. Now you can have WWE wrestling stars. On your own home. You know. With the Super Nintendo. You know. Or with the Nintendo. And. That was coming out. And then. WCW. Beat them to the punch. With a game in 90. Wow. Where you had. Where you had. You know. Ric Flair. Jimmy Garvin. The Road Warriors.

[00:56:20] I think. Dusty was. No. Dusty wasn't there. So. Visual Concepts. Does it now. How long did Acclaim have the license? Do you think? Not. Not too long. I don't know. I don't know really. I gotta think. Well. You can look at those. Thinking's overrated. I'm kidding. Thinking sucks. Let me see here. I've been wrestled too many times. I don't know. Let me see here. Hold on. I saw that Ukes. Published a bunch. Wow. 1990.

[00:56:51] That was the one. I never heard of it. I might have to. Put that on. We just did a deep cut. That Bishop doesn't know. What the hell's going on here. Well. Hey. No. You guys are already rocking me. With the wrestling trivia. I grew up in Addisbury. I'm a little bit younger than you guys. Yeah. But you still give us deep cuts. On the other. Oh. For sure. For sure. It's. It's. No. It's all fun. And that's. We're not here to show off. We're just. No. No. It's fun. We're all learning something. That's the point of having a conversation. Even. Well. That's the other. That is true. Oreo.

[00:57:21] Like. There are people. Who don't even watch it. But they love it. It's just kind of. It's a mirror. It's a mixture between. Kind of like. Circus freaks. Even the adult film industry. Yeah. And just kind of. It's a baritone. And makeup. Just there's something about it. Where. It's not that it's a forbidden fruit. But it's just kind of. Morbid curiosity. Rusty mixed in with. It's like social media. But you can't quit it. It's a little bit of that. Except. I don't.

[00:57:50] I don't feel guilt when I look at wrestling. I'm just kind of like. I get it. It's. Meant to kind of be. A big. Stunt show. Mixed in with. All kinds of other stuff. It would be like watching. I don't know. For me. It's. It's full contact. Broadway. Full contact. There you go. Shakespeare in the park. But with. Unusual. Fighting angles. And. Yeah. I think just the fearlessness. Is like. Yeah. I'm going to be wearing a toga. I'm going to be in bizarre makeup. You know. And I'm going to.

[00:58:19] And I have to be in character. This whole time. Doing. See the thing is though. In my opinion. If you were to make wrestling games. There are the fans like me. Who were like. Remember the guys that were there. You know. Like adorable. Adrian Street. And you know. The great Kabuki. And the great Muda. You know. All those guys. That were like. You know. The forerunners of who we have out there today. Make a game where it's a game where. And now I know WWE. Has done it where. You know. I think one of the 2K.

[00:58:49] Games. You could play. Like the old school guys. But put a game out. Where it was like. You know. Where I can use the free birds. Where I can use. You know. The rock and roll express. You know. You know. You know. I remember. And hardcore wrestling fans. Will remember. You know. Such a game exists. But it was made in Japan. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it was. You know. Yeah. But the thing I always said too. Is like. When you think about it. Video. The video game market. Was primed.

[00:59:19] And that's the thing WWE did. They jumped on that video game market. And they basically were like. Okay. We can make more money. Because kids love video games. And if they love video games. They're going to be. You know. Going for it. You know. Buying it over in Oregon. You know. That one wrestling game. That WCW put out. It did good. The minute WWE came out. Bam. Went through the roof. Because kids wanted Hulk Hogan. To play with. They wanted to have. Sergeant Slaughter. You know. Yeah. And this was. This was when Sergeant Slaughter turned.

[00:59:48] The toys were pretty awesome. I'm not sure. Who did the toys for WWE. The toys. Jack's Pacific. Okay. Toys go back to. There's ringside collectibles. Remco. Remco. Remco did the AWA. Vern Gagne. Got a license with Remco. Who were. Basically. Kind of like. They were like a. They were a big toy company. But they were like. They made like. The Sergeant Rock figures. And all that. They.

[01:00:17] Vern Gagne said. Okay. I'm going to put my guys out. And you can buy them in two packs. Blister packs. Uh-huh. And basically. You could get like. Rick Martel. And Baron Von Raschke. That's the first time. The road warriors are done. Properly. You could get Jimmy Garvin. And Ronnie Garvin. You know. Kurt Henning. And Scott Hall. Who was. Would become Razor Ramon. You had the three birds. You had. You know. Jimmy Garvin.

[01:00:46] I forgot who else was there. You had Kurt. As I said. Kurt Henning. You had. I think it was. Larry Zbysko. And Nick Bockwinkle. You know. The high flyers. Greg Gagne. And. Jumping Jim Bronsel. You had all these guys. And what happened was. Was that. They went out on the shelves. They didn't sell too well. You know. You had a ring. Really? The rest. You know. They didn't sell. They did. But. It wasn't. It wasn't. What they want. All right. It wasn't what they want. And these were. I have a Baron Von Raschke figure.

[01:01:16] That I bought the other day. For like eight bucks. And it's. Nice. Baron Von Raschke. That's all that people need to know. You know. And. I love it. Well. So. I'm an amateur. Compared to what. You guys. What the knowledge is. The trio here. But. So. IGN. In 2014. Did do a top 10. WWE games of all time. They have a linked. Disclaimer. Showing. Some polls. From. Members. And fans. So.

[01:01:45] Going to take this with a grain of salt. Since it is still corporate media. But. I'm going to ask you. If you guys recognize any of these. Or if you've seen flyers for them. They ranked on here. Most of them are all in the 65. To 70 percent range. Which is fair for a game of this type. But. They have WWE Smackdown. Versus Raw. From 04. I remember that. Yeah. I remember that earlier. They have. WWF Smackdown. From 2000. Which we've been kind of going around on. Yeah. Yeah. They have versus Raw. In 07.

[01:02:15] It's a little higher rated. Yeah. They just feel like it's a testament. To. Something being the first. Even though it's not. Too spectacular. Nowadays. Uh. They didn't. Start to list. A triple threat match. With the Rock's catchphrases. It's like. Stop it. Know your role. Take some advice. From the Rock. Yeah. They have. WWF Smackdown 2. Know your role. From 2000. Then they have. Then they have. Just bring it. From a one.

[01:02:43] They didn't go on to list. Shut your mouth. And I remember that one. Being promoted. A shit ton. That was like. In every gaming magazine. And it was in WWE's. Raw and Smackdown magazines. Yeah. Back then. Yeah. There you go. They have. WrestleMania 2000. From 99. So there you go. Yeah. And then. We go on to. 2K24. From 2024. I remember that. It's their highest rated. So far. Yeah. They have. Here comes the pain. From 0-3. And then. At number one.

[01:03:13] They're going to list. No mercy. At 80.5%. So. Interesting. I'll let you guys be the judge though. You are the people. Yeah. No mercy. Is kind of regarded. As the best one. And I think that. That list goes to exactly. What we're talking about. There was a kind of condensed version. Of how good video games were. For wrestling. Kind of like. Early 90. And then all of a sudden. 0-0 to 0-6 pocket. There was some good ones. And then not until 24. You know.

[01:03:43] They just slacked. Yeah. Yeah. I have a theory. I have a theory. You guys. Because you'd mentioned. Mentioned about having like. Some old school wrestlers. In the games. And things like that. So I don't play many video games now. Because. I'm a. I'm a reward searcher. So like. I like to hunt for trophies. And that doesn't quite exist anymore. All I really do. Is play Fortnite. With my kid. That's fine. The brilliance.

[01:04:13] Family time. Yeah. The brilliance of Fortnite. It's the same thing. Every time. But you're new. You're engaged with a new event. Over and over again. So I thought to myself. If Madden was like this. I would probably sign up for Madden. I would get the Madden pass. And I would play the thing. Gotcha. If WWE 2K was like this. I would sign up for the 2K pass. Get a discount. Yeah. Yeah. And then. Because I haven't bought a WWE game in forever. Because it's not worth it.

[01:04:41] I bought the Stone Cold one that was on the cover. And by the time I was done doing his career mode. They shut down the server. It's like. Ah. She's the worst part of the relationship. Yeah. So if it was like. If it was a Fortnite style. Where the server never shuts down. And you can continue event after event after event. And you can earn. The great Muda. Or you can earn. You know. Superstar Billy Graham. Or you can earn. You know. Mr. T from back in the day. Like the mobile game does that every once in a while. But it's not.

[01:05:10] It's not as. Rewarding. You know. That's almost a more pay to play than go search and find and have fun. So. I would like. I would like 2K games. And Madden. To be more like the Fortnite style. Where you can. You can constantly be entertained. As you're moving. Or Mass Effect. They should do like Mass Effect. Where I take. Or Destiny. Where we take our character that you built. It looks like you in every mod. And update. And sequel. Because we've saved your progress.

[01:05:40] Yeah. People love that interactive custom ability. Um. But what happened to Stone Cold? And talk about. What an unusual career. It's like he. He's active in wrestling. He has a brief return role. As a bounty hunter. On Nash Bridges. Or a cop. I remember that shit. And then. After doing the Expendables. He does some. Like 10. Direct to video. Action films. And comedies. And then. Gives it up. Starts. Coming back to wrestling events. Once in a while. But for now.

[01:06:09] He pretty much just posts photos. Of him hanging out with his friends. Hunting trips. And his cat. And his cat. Or going on. Or producing reality shows. And you're like. But. You had kind of the. Persota. That was. Would have been perfect. For a Roddy Piper type. He. He. I always say this with Stone Cold. There was a guy. Arn Anderson. In the WWE. Right? Yeah. Okay. Arn Anderson. Was a member. This. This. This group called. The Four Horsemen.

[01:06:39] Yeah. W. Arn. Was the template. For Stone Cold. Okay. Yeah. Take das. Take names. You know. You don't fuck with them. All right. Stone Cold. When you hear about. Austin's career. He was. Basically. Was in WCW. As part of the Hollywood Blondes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Brian Pillman. Okay. Yep. Then he leaves. He goes to ECW. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then. He's. He just. He doesn't wrestle.

[01:07:08] He just basically. You know. Riffs on Vince. Riffs on. Riffs on. Right? It's beautiful. It's so funny. And then. And then. He's like. All right. So he goes back. You know. Because he. No. He wasn't. Yeah. He was riffing on Vince Russo. Because Vince Russo. Fucked him over so much. Then what happens is. Is that. Vince get tired of that. And be a bad sport. Or. Vince Russo. Fucking hates him. You know. Doing all that shit. And then. What happens is. Is that. You know. He comes into the WWE.

[01:07:38] As the ringmaster. And the first thing he does. Is he fights. Jake the Snake Roberts. At the Royal Rumble. And he says. By that time. Jake Roberts was like. You know. Becoming like. Born again. I don't know if that was his character. In real life. But. What he does is. He says. You know. You can say. You can thump your Bible. You can say your songs. But Austin 316. Says. I just kicked your ass. And boom. He took off. And he wasn't. The ring. He wasn't the ringmaster anymore.

[01:08:08] Yeah. That's right. Speaking of. Speaking of. Jake the Snake. Dallas Diamond Page. Oreo turned me on. To an awesome reality show. That Dallas Page hosts. Which is basically. People transforming their lives. For fitness. And it's not like. The greatest loser or anything. Where. Someone has to lose. It's not scripted at all. It's not scripted. It is literally. All these. Different. Just workout tips. And tricks. And the only thing in suspense. Is who's going to progress faster.

[01:08:38] But everybody's a winner. And so it's a very unusual thing. Yeah. And I was just like. Oh. The nerve. A reality show. That's positive. And that's the only thing. That's. That's what DDP is man. He's very positive. And very uplifting. I love him. He is so good. He's the guy. He's the guy. I can remember. When I was. When I'd watch WCW. If he was in the ring. I was like. I like this guy. This guy's good. You know. And then you find. Come to fact. This guy's good.

[01:09:07] He was over 40. When he was wrestling. You know. Where most guys. Are throwing it in. And he's. You know. He was. He was in the ring. Insane. And he was. He was one of these guys. He said. Look. I tried. I tried. I tried yoga. And it works. You know. And he had guys. There. He had. He has. Lex. He's now working with Lex Luger. Who had a spinal stroke. And. Lex Luger was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And he walked. Yeah. He walked.

[01:09:36] He had a little thing with him. But he walked. He walked. And. You know. Lex was in a wheelchair the whole time. Before that. And he said. We're going to get you walking again. Yeah. Because he got both his hips replaced. Yeah. Yeah. And. You know. I think. Are you telling me there's optimism in this world? I love it. You know. Yeah. That's the great thing about him, man. He's very optimistic. You know. No. Everybody loves getting off on other people's suffering. I'm like. What is wrong with humanity? Trump.

[01:10:05] I don't know. Let me. Let me ask you guys a question. Do you guys ever go back and watch those old. Like wrestling tapes from the 80s and the 70s. I'll see some. Fights shared on my YouTube feed. And I'll watch out of curiosity. And it can be fun. Just also just seeing. The different kinds of crowds. How they were filmed. And the coverage is way different. Compared to when they. You know. From money at the wall. Where there's. You know. Now crane shots. And you know. Just doing funny. The commentary really killed the story.

[01:10:36] The commentary changed. Well. And then you get the late 90s. Especially when it would air on UPN. A lot. Where. Let's actually show them backstage. Doing. Yeah. Like he's scared. Hey. You want to go? You want to go? And they have a pre-match face off. You know. When Vince had his. His little. You know. His. They would always do something where. The story would play out during the show. Like through interviews and whatnot. Mm-hmm. And Vince would do these things where he had.

[01:11:05] You had Piper's Pit. And you had the body shop. And you had. You know. The. The bar. The. The salon with Bruce. The barbecue. Like I can remember. Them building up the whole Andre the Giant thing. Just through Roddy Piper's. Piper's Pit. Okay. I can remember. Seeing the Rockers break up. On you know. On Brutus. The Barber Beast. Yeah. The Barber Shop. I can remember watching. You know. Who was it also.

[01:11:34] The Body Shop. You know. Andre the Giant coming on. Wanting to take on. You know. King Kong Bundy or something. After he had his hair cut. What a great name. Chris. Chris Pellis was a great guy. I loved him. I met. I was friends with him. Really? Yeah. Funny guy. I. We talked a couple of times about. You know. The old days. When he used to wrestle. And he said. Yeah. They billed me as four. As you know. Five. You know. 500 pounds.

[01:12:04] Or something like that. He was really only about. Maybe 350. 400. But what they would do. Is they give him an extra small singlet. So. Looked like he was bigger than most of the guys. That was the trick. I saw him wrestle at a house show. He wrestled Sid. He wrestled Psycho Sid at a house show. Very first wrestling show I ever went to. It was in 97. 98. Yeah. They were the main event. The only other wrestlers I remember there were the Bushwhackers. Which was awesome. And they're both gone now. Damn. No.

[01:12:34] No. One of them's still around. No. No. Sid and Bundy. Sid and Bundy are gone. Yeah. But one of the Bushwhackers is still alive. Do you guys ever go on cage match dot net. Where you can post in the forums. And commentate on famous matches. No. No. That seems to be a pretty popular one. Just because people will just weigh in. On just how the match went. And go a little step further. Just saying. Yeah. Just. It was a pretty lame tag team. But interesting finish. It's like. And again.

[01:13:04] I think that's what's so wild about wrestling. It's like. If you're not into sports. That's your sport. Like. That is your. Commentary. That is your event. That you want to be a part of. Right. If it's not NASCAR. That's the one. My friend Randy. Wanted to be a wrestler. And he was going to save the money to go to. There was a guy around here. I had no idea. Johnny Rods. He was. He was around my. Around in my area. And he was a professional wrestling trainer. And him and this kid. Mike Flood.

[01:13:33] They were going to go become. Professional wrestlers. And unfortunately. You know. Randy just was kind of like. Nah. I can't do it. You know. But. The thing was. Was that back then. Johnny Rods. Operated. I think out of Patterson. And he had. He had a gym. And I remember. You know. They were talking. He's like. Yeah. Yeah. You know. They. They. They featured him on news. He was one of those guys. He was what you call a jobber. Which is a guy. A guy who. Yeah. People over. Because the technical term is a jobber. Yeah. He puts.

[01:14:03] He puts guys who are on their way up over. And he was a good wrestler too. But. But. But he's a people person also. So that's good. Yeah. He. He had people come. Dominic DiNucci. Who was from the WWE. Had a place over in Pennsylvania. Yeah. And. You know who trained there for. With Dominic DiNucci. Okay. Mrs. Foley's little boy. Mick Foley. Trained with Dominic DiNucci. Yeah. It all comes together. It's a small world. But that's. That's neat though. That.

[01:14:33] They can call each other. These mentors. These. Instead of just. I'm influenced. Or I just. Ape to your style. You know. Or. You had to go to. Was. You had to go to a. A trainer. Back then. Yeah. And a couple of these guys. Were real good. A couple of these guys. Were just shit. The one I remember is. Is. Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer. The Undertaker. Talked about. Well. He lived in Texas. And Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer. Was like in the same area. So he said. All right.

[01:15:03] Give Hayme 20 bucks now. Meet me here at six o'clock. Tuesday morning. So him. The Undertaker. And a couple of his buddies went. They knocked down the door. They looked inside. The place was vacant. He basically took their money. And ran. Ah. Yeah. Fuckers. But there were. There were guys. Who would train you like. It's like the lowest form. Of being ripped off. Usually. It's by gunpoint. Or a scam. Or click on this link. And only steal your credit card. Seth Rollins. Because it was me $50. Sorry.

[01:15:33] Go ahead. That's just. Very angering. The best guy to train under. Back then. The one I've always heard. Was Stu Hart. Who was. The Hitman Hart's father. They lived up in Calgary. Alberta. And they had a house. Right. And the house. You know. Stu Hart had like. You know. Seven or eight kids. And so. The story goes. Is that. He would have these guys. Come in. He was. Stu was like. In his 50s. In his 60s. So these guys. Come in. Who were like.

[01:16:03] You know. Half his age. Are coming in the train. And Stu's going. Stu's putting him in moves. Like. You know. Breaking them in half. And Bret Hart said. When he was a teenager. When he was a teen. When he was a teenager. Growing up. You know. His room was like. Above there. So he could hear. Stu yelling out. Going. You know. That's pain son. That's pain. You know. The guy's going. Shit. Shit. You know. And he.

[01:16:31] They had a ring built. In the basement. You know. Where he could. You could run around and shit. And then. There was. Who was it also. Japanese guy. Hero Matsuda. He was in Florida. He trained. Hulk Hogan. Gotcha. And the first time Hulk Hogan. Went there. You know. He was. He wasn't paying attention. Hero Matsuda basically. Hit him on the leg. And broke Hogan's leg. That was. Yeah. You crippled me brother. Yeah.

[01:17:03] And then there was. Vern Gagne's camp. Up in Minnesota. Where basically. He had a farmhouse. That's. And the farmhouse. He ran for like. You know. Like. I think maybe. 25 years. He had a farmhouse. And all these guys. Would go up there. To train. He had guys. Come out of there. Like Sgt. Slaughter. Ric Flair. I think Dusty Rhodes. Chris Taylor. Who was like. An Olympic wrestler. Heavyweight wrestler. The heaviest wrestler. Of all time. Came out of there. I think. Yeah. I think Piper. No. Piper trained with. Judo G. LaBelle.

[01:17:33] Oh. That's right. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Judo G. LaBelle. Who made. Steven's golf. Shit his pants. Yeah. Steven's golf. I don't have any. Two of the paper. So Bob. So. Bob. The guy who was. The guy who was. Bob. Sergeant Slaughter. Said. You went up there. And it was him. The Iron Sheik. Was training you there too. Because he had come out of that school. So he was a trainer there. Basically. What it was. Was there. There were. There were.

[01:18:02] Surplus army cots. And blankets. And you would sleep in the barn. Right. You'd get up. You'd run. Five miles. Come back. Do your wrestling. Eat breakfast. Wrestle some more. Learn your moves. All this shit. Go back to bed. Get up at five o'clock in the morning. Repeat. Repeat. It was always a repeat. And just the guys who came out of there. Were. Repeat. Repeat. Yeah. We're great wrestlers. You know. Yeah. What did you think also about.

[01:18:33] With the crossover with MMA fighting. Where you take both martial artists. And wrestlers. And you're having to learn all these grappling moves. That. I think. I think in the 90s. It was a really good experiment. Because. TMA. Yeah. Ken Shamrock came over. Yeah. That. Ken Shamrock came over. And I think. It was so believable. Yes. Dan Severin. Well. Yeah. For me. It was. Shamrock always solidified to me. The.

[01:19:02] The difference between wrestling and MMA. Because. Oh yeah. Here's a guy that. Can kill everyone in there. But would lose. Because of wrestling. Yeah. And to. He wasn't allowed to go MMA. He couldn't be as brutal. Because that's against the rule. Right. So. Watching that blend back then. Makes it all make sense to me now. So like. When Ronda Rousey came in. And Shayna Baszler. And. You know. These MMA people from today. You. It's like. Oh well. Shit. They are badass. But they do have to play by wrestling rules. Yeah. How is that going to.

[01:19:32] So I. I. I buy into it that way. You know. It's not just. Hey. Like. You know. Fake fight over here. Real fight over there. No. There's different rules here. Come over here. That's how. Yeah. Like. Shit with Daniel. Powder. And Kurt Angle. That shit was funny. Yeah. Because he. He almost broke. Kurt's arm. When he brought him in the ring. Because he was. Because Kurt was told not to. Call on him. Kurt did it anyway. And. Daniel put him.

[01:20:01] In an arm bar. Almost. Snapped his fucking arm. And. Because it. They were going by. Original wrestling rules. In the ring. Which was. One. Yeah. One count. But. Since it's WWE. It was a. Three count. Because if they had just. You know. Rang the bell. Fans wouldn't have understood. What happened. True. So. They made it a three count. And. He broke the hold on him. But yeah. Kurt was like. Yeah.

[01:20:31] I learned my lesson that day. Still didn't care. There's a thing where. Certain wrestlers. Are doing MMA moves. Because the Undertaker. Yeah. The Undertaker. Was doing. The Gates of Hell. What was that one? That he did. Yeah. But. But you guys don't realize. Is that. Back in the day. There was. Um. A match. Between. Antonio Inoki. And Muhammad Ali. That was. That was. Broadcasted.

[01:21:02] That was. That was. Um. And it was. It was the night. From Shea Stadium. Where Hulk Hogan wrestled. Andre the Giant. The first time. This is 1980. We're talking about. Okay. And Ali. Was fighting the Inoki. And it was like. It was like. Holy crow. You know. Like. It was. Kind of like. It was. No. It was kind of like. The forerunner. What MMA was going to be. You know. Right. You couldn't look away. You're like. Whatever I'm doing right now.

[01:21:31] I'm going to drop it now. And watch this. You know. Well. Inoki. Is one of the. You know. One of the most highly respected. Wrestlers of all time. And. You know. If. And if you guys ever want us to watch something. Watch Bill Burr. Talk about. Antonio Inoki. Versus the great Antonio. I. I. I've. I've. I've never laughed so hard in my life. I brought. I've heard him bring up some events on some of his standup. And he just seems like he's just. He knows how to do all the right metaphors. When.

[01:22:01] Summing up stuff like that. This is Japan. It's like 1984. 85. Um. And there's this guy called the great Antonio. He looks like. You know. He doesn't even fucking bathe. You know. He's like 400 pounds. You know. Probably. He's got. You know. Probably. He's got like a lot of. You know. You know. Bodily odor. And shit like that. And there's Inoki. Coming in with. You know. A robe on. With a towel around his neck. Looking like a. Uh. Freaking. You know. Movie star. Right. Which is what he was. Yeah. So. What happens is.

[01:22:30] Is they're rustling. Right. And Inoki. Inoki. Inoki is like. It's like. You know. Trying to get him to sell the moves. And Antonio is not doing it. And that's. What's going on. Yeah. You have to sell the moves. Right. And Inoki is like. So basically what he does is. He. He hits Inoki a couple times. Right. Inoki gets pissed. And starts beating the shit out of the great Antonio. Like. He's physically making him. Like. He's. He's slapping him. But he's slapping him so hard. Like his face is turning right. Then he starts punching him. And kicking him.

[01:23:00] And he's making the guy bleed out. You know. This wasn't cut. This wasn't a cut job. This was Antonio Inoki being pissed. Because the guy he's wrestling. Is not selling him. And it's. When Burr talks about it. It's fucking hilarious. You know. Oh yeah. There was another instance with that too. Because the guy was. He wouldn't take all of his helmet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That motherfucker. I was like. If you remember. There's. There's stories going around where guys were like.

[01:23:30] Where guys were not safe in the ring. Like. You know. Yeah. You hear about Bruiser Brody. You know. The guy who got. Shanked down in. Puerto Rico. That's right. By the. By the. By the. One of the invaders. Oh. And I don't know what that was over. Was it over money or some shit like that? I don't know. What the fuck was that over? It's some argument Bruiser had with. One of them. And. The only person that's ever given an account on that. Is Tony Atlas.

[01:24:00] Yeah. Yeah. And Atlas was called by Abdul the Butcher. Yeah. It said you better get out of here or there's going to be problems. And like I think Abdul the Butcher left. Yeah. After that too. Because. The guy who was. They were trying to get the. The accounts from like Carlos Colon shut his mouth. You know. Because he was. He was regarded down there. You know. A lot. But. Supposedly. If you ever watch this tape. Manny Fernandez.

[01:24:30] Gets even. With the freaking invader. Because he does knee drops right to the invader's chest. And they're connecting. They're not. They're not. They're not. They're down solves. And you see the. You see the. You see the invader start spitting blood up. He's broken. You know. He's broken ribs and shit. And you know. That. That was because. You know. Everybody liked Bruiser Brody. But now you find out later. Bruiser Brody was a real asshole to a lot of people. He never played the tape in the ring. So.

[01:24:57] That's why I also kind of came to respect it. I was taught stage combat when I did theater and. Training in college. And so it was like. Yeah. It's the same kind of deal. It was like. You're. Hit me without actually. You know. Causing damage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't put pressure into it. Just. Imitate the move. And then. Soft landing. You know. It's like. When they're in. When they're in that ring. There's. There's points. You know. They're talking to each other.

[01:25:27] Because the camera goes away. And they're going like. All right. Arm bar. Okay. Put me in there. Arm bar. Okay. Put me. Okay. Go. It's like. They give directions to the ring. And then. The ref has an earpiece in there. And they're telling him what to do. So. It's like. You know. I can remember. Do you have a favorite commentator. Or. Referee. Oh. Jesus. Commentator. Earl Hebner. As a referee. Always was. Was part of the match. Stupid as hell. And. And like.

[01:25:56] Made you believe that rules counted. Because like. Nowadays. Rules don't seem to count like they used to. Oh yeah. Commentary. I actually think. Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura are highly underrated. A lot of people hate Vince McMahon as a commentator. But I think Vince and Jesse together are really good. But I also grew up in that era. Yeah. I look back on Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. And I think it's. The mainstays. Really bad. Really bad at telling those stories. Like today.

[01:26:26] Today I really like Corey Graves. Because he's. He's a former wrestler. Who actually names the moves. As they're happening. So if you're an ill-informed fan. Or a lapsed fan. You can like. Sink back into what wrestling is. By listening to what he has to say. So. And there's not just. There's not many of that. Today. That's true. My. My favorite. Of all time. Will be the immaculate. Greatest duo of all time. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby. Gorilla and Bobby. Yeah. Gorilla and Bobby. Gorilla and Bobby were the gold standard.

[01:26:56] In my opinion. And Gorilla and Jesse. You know. When they called WrestleMania 3. And you know. Even Ventura was like. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. After. It's a conspiracy. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Gorilla. If I saw it in my own two eyes. And then. He calls him Gino. Like. He calls him Gino. All through the podcast. Yeah. You know what Gino. Gino. Gino. Gino. You know. There's guys. You know. You know. If it was a done match.

[01:27:25] If they would just start talking about something else. Like. You know. It's like. Yeah. Yeah. What are your plans tonight Gorilla? I think I'll go home. And just you know. Watch some television. It's like. Because if it's a squash match. You know. It's good. You know. The one I love is when. You know. Whenever it was Bobby Heenan. And Gorilla Monsoon. And you knew it was going to be a match. You know. None of Heenan's guys were involved. But it was this. You know. It was this guy. It's like. You know. He in one point goes. Goes. I don't know what. You know. Gorilla. Right now. I'm just bored out of my mind. I don't know what this guy's doing in the ring. He's like.

[01:27:55] I don't know what. What's he trying to do Bobby? I said. I don't know. I've been in the ring with a lot of guys. And you know. I try to figure. I try to figure. I try to figure out my guys sometimes. What they're doing in the ring. But I know what they're doing. Because they're my guys. This isn't one of my guys. We're playing chicken here. We don't know what. You know. And it's like. It's. It's. It's fun. But you know. There were. There were certain guys that. You know. I liked. You know. Gorilla and Bobby. Tony Schiavone. And David Crockett. For WCW. When they were there.

[01:28:24] And then Tony Schiavone. When he. When he. Um. Bill Mercer down in Texas. Was great. Because it was just him alone. And he would have a guest sometimes come in. Um. But I think Bobby and Gorilla. Were like. The best ever. You know. And. When. The sad thing I always found out. You know. Is like. When Gorilla. When Bobby left. Um. Yeah. WWE. And he was. He was going. He was leaving. They left that night. They went to the hotel. And.

[01:28:55] Bobby. He and. Gorilla called Bobby. He says. Bobby. He came over. He brought him a whole bunch of flowers. And they sat down and cried for like an hour. Because they didn't want him to go. His. His contract was up. And he was going to WCW. Where. You know. He didn't have to work all the time. Yeah. He would call the match. And did you notice something different. About Bobby. When he was calling the matches down in WCW. He was happier. He was happier. But. He didn't take the side of anybody. Like he used to. You know. No. You know. Well.

[01:29:25] Just the one time. Just the one time. Yeah. Just give him a pay. Hogan. Hogan turns heel. And he says. I told you. I've been telling you for years. It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. The one thing. In that moment. I've been telling you for years. The one thing I've always said too. Is that. When you come. When you. When it comes down to it. When you think about announcers. I like Wade Barrett. As the announcer. I like him. As an announcer. I do. Corey Gray is good. Wade Barrett. You know. I.

[01:29:54] I think he's a good announcer. I think. Scott Stafford. When he was there. For a while. When he was doing raw. He was a wrestler. And then he became an announcer. And now he was. He was doing sports. On channel 11. And. Jonathan Coachman. That. Coach. Coach. Coach. Coach. Coach. Coach. Coach goes. Coach goes from there. To ESPN. And I'm like. Yeah. Where's he. It happens. Like. They went all over the.

[01:30:26] Just shared. The Mother's Day. Wrestling clip. From 92. Yeah. It's my. It's my favorite clip. Of Bobby Heenan. And. Gorilla together. It's. It's them discussing. Mother's Day. Oh. God. Oh. No, the one I was like, oh, I'm trying to think of it. What was it? Shit. So he basically says, Gorilla's like, well, what did you do for Mother's Day? And he's like, well, my mom did this for me, did that for me. She bought me this. He's like, what?

[01:30:55] He's like, yeah, well, I made her a mother. You know, it's like. Oh, my God. My favorite was they were hosting a midget wrestling match back then. And Bobby Heenan made Gorilla break when he said, what do you call a toilet for midgets? A little John. And Gorilla just started breaking up like crazy.

[01:31:19] But my favorite is like when he's when he's he's like trying to make he's pretending he's calling George Slaughter of laughing. He's like, I got Miss Betty upstairs calling George George Slaughter. He's like, he's like, what? Wait, I can't hear anybody on the phone. I can't. What? What? What? I can't. No. Can you hear me? And then Gorilla takes Gorilla takes. He's got the mouthpiece for the phone in his hand. And he goes, give me that. He's trying to screw it back. He says, can't give me phone calls. Can you there, Bobby? Huh? Huh?

[01:31:49] Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. You know, that's what made them so good. You know, Bobby was such. You knew Bobby was having fun. That's the thing. You know, when he was having fun, then, you know, things would go well. I think when he left and they gave it to, you know, McMahon and Piper, Piper was good. Um, and, you know, and Macho Man. And then, you know, J.R. came over with Jerry the King Lawler.

[01:32:19] That was, that was fun. I didn't like Jerry at first. He's been doing the rounds on a lot of podcasts lately, sharing Andy Kaufman stories and other celebin count. Oh, God. I remember seeing that one of the matches he did. Um, Andy Kaufman on that, uh, he's all about being unpredictable. I saw the video of that pile driver that he took and Jerry thought he killed him.

[01:32:48] And, and he's like, he's like, he's like, he's just, are you all right? He's like, are you okay? He says, just keep doing what you're doing, you know? And he's like, you know, he's like, so they take him out and he's got the neck brace on. Right. And then when you watch Man in the Moon, you realize later it was all just a work. You know, that's the great thing about when you see, it's like Bob's a Buddha sitting there with him. And like, you know, he's like, he's like, well, what'd you think? And it cuts to Jerry the Lord. He's like, you know what?

[01:33:18] That's the best time I've ever had in my life doing that with you, Andy. He, you know, he, he said he's that whole thing, that whole, you know, I'm for pay to say, and that, you know, that whole thing was a great, great thing to do. You know, that brought wrestling a little more into the fort, into the, to the spotlight back then. Speaking of Man on the Moon, that was also the hardest film for Jim Carrey. Cause he had a hard time letting go of that role. Yeah. He didn't piss people off the whole time. So, yeah.

[01:33:49] Who's my favorite? Let me see. Commentators. I love Joey styles. Cause he was so goddamn good. He was in ECW, right? Yeah. Yeah. ECW. And then he came WWE and he just tore it up and then he left. Then I got into TNA and it was Mike Tenet and Don West. And I love that combination so much. I miss Don West from the old home shopping. Yes.

[01:34:18] I have baseball cards here that Don West sold me. Oh man. Where are they? I wish they were close. So I can show up to you. Just shouts to Don West. He's a legend. Mm-hmm. Opie and Anthony. Opie and Anthony used to make fun of him all the time. Cause they'd be like, here we have this. Dave Trevelli's arm. Be dialing. You know. Yeah. Here we have the Lindbergh babies rattled. One time only. Signed by Bruno Hauptmann. Be dialed. You know.

[01:34:49] Honestly. Well. If bodybuilding hadn't worked out, I would have been surprised if Schwarzenegger would have been a wrestler. You know. He's smart enough. Well. You know. The thing was. Vince. Vince had a. Vince had a little brief stint as a bodybuilding guy. Yeah. He made the WBF. He got the wax on the wax. Yeah. You know. I think Arnold was good friends with Bruno San Martino too. They were. They were good. Yeah. He was good friends with Bruno San Martino. You know.

[01:35:18] Not only that. He's the godfather to superstar Billy Graham's son or daughter. Get out. Yeah. So he definitely would have been in wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. Movies and bodybuilding didn't go all that way. Yeah. For sure. Would have been in it. He played a wrestler and stayed hungry. He was. He was a bodybuilder. But he plays a wrestler. And you know. He wrestles as a body. You know. As a bodybuilder. So the thing is. Is that. That was the thing. And then Arnold said that.

[01:35:48] Billy Graham and him used to hang out. And. Billy Graham and him were good friends. And Arnold was like the first guy to hold his door. Because Billy Graham was on the road when his. His kid was born. And. What happened was. Is that you know. Bruno San Martino. Wayne Coleman for those following. Not the. Not the pastor. Not the televangelist. No. Superstar. Superstar Billy Graham. Superstar Billy Graham. Who I think. Who I think. Basically. You know. Was a great wrestler. Unfortunately. You know. He had his.

[01:36:19] Falling out with Vince. But it wasn't over. With Vince. It was over the steroids. Yeah. You know. If you ever. Read about that. You know. He wasn't going to be in the Hall of Fame. For a long time. And they got him in. I think a couple years. Before he passed away. Yeah. And. He was. He was. He was magnetic. He was. He was like. You know. He'd come in the ring. Dressed in tie dye. And like. You know. Have his hair long. And you know. Big muscular. Other. But he was kind of like Hulk Hogan. Yeah. That's who Hulk Hogan.

[01:36:49] Stole his stuff from. Yeah. Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan. Borrowed from Dusty Rhodes. And Billy Graham. The theme of the common man. And then. The. The. The great. You know. The outfits. So that's what happened. It's me brother. I made it myself. Yeah. I have a superstar Billy Graham. Figures. Um. Still in. Still in the case. Um. But it's him with the goatee. We're gonna have to exchange action figures. Do you. I still have. What. I have. I have. I got him.

[01:37:18] I got Piper. I got Flair. I got Rhodes. I got Dusty and the polka dots. Yeah. All. Dusty and the polka dots is legendary. I had actually a spiral notebook as a kid with Dusty and the polka dots. Loved it. But all mine from a kid. They. I. I. I changed residences. Long story short. I moved from living with my mom to living with my dad. And in that time span. She gave all my shit. All my. So I was born in 85. Okay.

[01:37:48] So in 1990. 91. When I'm full on action figure mode. You guys know that era. So all my. All my G.I. Joe's. All my Ninja Turtles. All my wrestlers. Got hand me down to some. To some kid that was a friend of the family. And they got lost in the shuffle with that family. But what I have now. Is my. I got it all back together. Oh shit. I have my Ninja Turtle. Wrestlers. That's what I have now. I got.

[01:38:18] Let's see. It's John Cena as Michelangelo. Sting as Raphael. Donatello's The Undertaker. Macho Man is. Oh he's Michelangelo. Cita is Leo. Then there's Finn Balor as the demon. As Leo. The Rock as Raph. We got. The Ultimate Warrior. Super Shrutter. Donatello. I wish. Right. Just put him as Diesel. Piper. I see Piper. Yeah. Piper is Michelangelo. So yeah. They all come with.

[01:38:47] Same kind of short temper. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So they were done really well. That's so that's the only action figures I have. I saw those at Walmart. I bought them all. When I could. I got some solid deals. I don't think I'll ever get rid of them. And I have an 11 year old. Isn't that funny though? Since he was seven. It's funny though. Like it's common with every household. It's like dads will just tease you saying. While you're playing with your dolls. It's like. It's not dolls. Shut up dad. I mowed the lawn last week. And moms go. Oh well.

[01:39:16] I guess you don't like it anymore. You're a big boy. Going to college. It's like. No. I will never abandon my inner child. My mom. I will let you know. God bless her. I will sell it if I don't want it anymore. My mom. God bless her. Kept all my toys. But then we had raccoons. Come in the attic and shit. No. So a lot of my shit got ruined. And I was like. Fucking raccoons. So I'm just. I'm going to build it up. You know. One piece at a time again. Like there's some stuff. I was like. I can't. You know. I can't replace it. It's ruined.

[01:39:46] You know. Yeah. I went through that. You know. Cam. You know. I know we're still waiting for the Millennium Falcon. I don't know where the fuck that went. I. It's funny. We have a running gag. And we're going to probably do it every other episode. I have shipped Jameson merchandise. As just. As a friend. And just as being. Just a great comrade on the show. And yet. Doesn't matter how. I avoid holidays. Everything's getting stuck in transit. And it seems like it was pretty common. The last year. Everyone had their shit stuck in the mail. To where it's like. Jesus.

[01:40:16] Do I just have to make another phone call. Complaint. And say where the hell is. Everyone's stuff. Yeah. The minute. The minute it comes here. I'll be like. Hey. It came here. You know. I'm not breaking your balls or anything. I'm just saying. No. If it takes all. The next. The rest of the year. I guess so be it. But. As long as it gets there. Jesus. Yeah. I don't know. But. When. When you talk about wrestling. And all that. The. The multimedia. Like. The way it was done. Was. In the 80s.

[01:40:45] It just hit. It was like a tidal wave. The 70s. Didn't have that. Yeah. The 70s. Didn't have that. I think. The thing with the 70s. Was. Was that. You know. It was still. Kind of like. You know. The smoky. You know. The smoky arenas. And shit like that. And. And then. It got to be where guys. Were. You know. Guys were watching the NFL. And the NBA. And you know. They were looking at movies. And all that. And they were like. Hey. Why don't we just make. Like. People want real life superheroes.

[01:41:15] And that's what it was. You know. I can remember. Like. My father talking to me. When he was. You know. In his 50s. Watching Bruno San Martino. Yeah. But then. My mother used to tell me stories about. When. TV was in its infancy. There was a guy named. Gorgeous George. Yeah. Yeah. Gorgeous George was like. The first big wrestling superstar. Mm-hmm. And there were guys like. You know. The Swedish Angel. And Tor Johnson. Time to go to bed.

[01:41:46] I love Tor. But he was a wrestler back in the day. You know. Tor. You know. Like all these guys. And my mom said. You know. Your great great grandmother. Used to watch it every Friday night. Channel 5. Dumont Network. Dennis James would do wrestling. wrestling. And he would like. You know. You know. He would like. He'd be like. That's an arm bar mother. You know. Like that kind of stuff. And. You know. That's. That's what it was. But. The 70s. You know. In the 60s. And the 70s. Came around. You had bona fide superstars. You had Bruno San Martino. You know. You had. You know.

[01:42:16] Guys like. You know. Lou Fez. And. Vern Gania. Who was wrestling. Until I think he was like. In his 60s. Yeah. You know. All these guys. And. You know. It was. It was. You know. It's when. When Vince came along. And said. You know what. I see the big. I see the big playing field. Of everything. And. These guys. These other promoters. These old guys. You have a game plan Bruno. I love it. Yeah. That's what it was. It was. It was. The. The idea of seeing. The whole spectrum. And going.

[01:42:47] Wrestling's not for idiots. It's for. Everybody's going to enjoy it. Everybody comes to it. We're going to have. You know. Crossovers. That's why Cindy Lauper came over. That's why. You know. You know. The rock and wrestling connection. Came over. And then everybody started following it up. Because I remember. Like. One year they did. In Texas. I think it was. It was. Waylon Jennings. And. Wrestling match. Yeah. Like a wrestling card. I was like. Holy shit. Those always sell out. Loud. Big. Giant.

[01:43:17] Stadiums. They will always host them there. Alongside with exclusive music guests. And I. I can never believe it. And. Oh yeah. Parking is always a nightmare. But. Like. Like. The one Wrestlemania. I went to with Kathleen. That was unbelievable. We didn't. We didn't get out to like. One in the morning. Because. That was the night. They had it. The Meadowlands. And they couldn't get the freaking. Buses to run. Taking lifts. And Ubers. You know. Back to their hotel rooms. Yeah. Clock.

[01:43:47] You know. Getting a few hours sleep. And catching the flight home. Or the train home. Oh my. Was that the one in 2018? When they. When they went seven hours. 2019. Yeah. When they went seven hours. Yeah. And that's why they do it now. In two nights. Yeah. Two nights now. Yeah. You know. Last time they went that long. Wow. The first Wrestlemania. I remember it started. Like one o'clock. Or twelve o'clock. It started twelve o'clock. In the day. Yeah. And then. Because it was. At Madison Square Garden. So you started at twelve o'clock.

[01:44:17] It didn't get done. Until about maybe. Five o'clock. You know. I'm not entertained. And Vince. Vince's ideas were like. You know. You know. Okay. We'll make. We'll make. You know. We'll make ice cream bars. We'll make. You know. We'll do this. Ice cream bars. Did you hear the story about the ice cream bars? No. It was a. It was a. It was a. Yeah. It was a small dairy farm. In Minnesota.

[01:44:47] And they didn't expect the ice cream bars. To sell out. That good. But anyone who had them back in the day. Knew how great that ice cream was. It was a. So it was a. A popsicle stick. Ice cream sandwich. Uh. Uh. Uh. Basically a sugar cookie. On two sides of an ice cream. Oh yeah. Word. You're printed wrestler. You're printed wrestler on top of it. So you get a. A macho man ice cream bar. A Hulk Hogan ice cream bar. They were fucking amazing. And when they tried to. To re-watch them. I think it was Bruce. Bruce Pitcher's podcast. That he said that. They tried to re-watch them.

[01:45:16] That farm no longer exists. So they. They couldn't get the same milk. Same ice cream. None of that. So they couldn't actually recreate those bars again. Crazy. That'd be wild if the creator passed away. The manufacturer passed away. So now he took that family recipe to his grave. You know. Right. Probably. I used to laugh my ass off. Go ahead. I used to laugh my ass off about that. Because my father was like. My dad was like. Hey dad. Can I get. Can we get WW ice cream bars? And he looked at me like. What are you fucking nuts?

[01:45:46] Where are you asking? No pies in this family. Shut the hell up. You know. Thanks dad. My mother. My mother was like. Okay. We got you something from the store. What is it? A wrestling figure. Who is it? Is it Hulk Hogan? Is it? No. We got you. Hey John Studd. Oh. Thanks mom. I'll just ignore what icon's on there. And just enjoy the taste. Whatever's left there. I remember. I got Hulk. The Hulk Hogan action figure.

[01:46:16] In LJN. It was just basically. Vulcanized rubber. With like. You know. They didn't. They don't. They didn't have to move apart. Oh God. Yeah. I mean. You could throw him against the wall. Two weeks later. Your George the Animal. Deal. It'll be scuffed up. And you're trying to find. Magic marker. To put back. Where the paint's stuffed up. And everything. And. And the thing was. Was that. You know. When. It's got smooth. A flesh wound. And when they. LJN had the right. I mean. Remco had the right idea. You know. Just.

[01:46:45] Just use the He-Man model. For what we have here. Make a movable parts. And then they can. You know. They won't go crazy. But. You know. The LJN stuff. Was like. Vulcanized rubber. And you paint. You know. It was painted on. And they all were smiling. You know. Like. Andre the Giant. Andre the Giant's figure. Had two variations. Long hair. And short hair. Short hair. Was where I get. Everybody had to find the long hair. Right. So. The short hair one. Was like. Was like. The rare. So my friend Randy said. Oh I got a surprise.

[01:47:16] I was like. Come on. So we go up to his room. He's got Andre the Giant. With long hair. Andre the Giant. With short hair. And I'm like. You mother. I was like. Dude. How'd you get it? He's like. He's like. My dad went to this place. Joe Ordinis. Down in Patterson. My dad knew somebody. Yeah. Yeah. His dad knew somebody. At this place. Joe Ordinis. Which was a pool place. Like a pool. Like a. You know. Stuff on like a toy store. On the side. Right. Yes. So. You know. You go in there. And be like.

[01:47:45] I told my dad. Dad. We got to go to Giordini's. Why do we got to Giordini's? Because. Because. Because they got good pool supplies. He's like. No. I don't know why you want to go down. He's like. Pool supplies. You want. You want. You want to get toys down there. Because Randy told you. Because Butch. Butch told me where he gets his stuff too. His father. Who just passed away. And I'm like. I'm like. Rest in peace. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. You son of a bitch. You're not going to take me down. You're not. He eventually took me down. About a year later. And.

[01:48:15] I wound up getting. I wound up getting. George the animal steel. And I think I got. Roddy Piper. With the removable kilt. Nice. I never got. I wanted to get. I think I had Paul Orndorff. Mr. Wonderful. And. Yeah. Paul Orndorff was doing an interview. He's like. You see that. Yeah. That's how I really looked. Yeah. No. He was. He was like. Buff. Oh yeah. He was. You know.

[01:48:44] Hogan. Hogan looked kind of paunchy. You know. Yeah. You ever see. You ever see the picture of Hulk Hogan's figure. He looks kind of paunchy. Andre looks like. You know. They just were like. Fuck it. Put a big belly on him. It's Andre the giant. Yeah. Brutus the barber. We got to punch something on there. We just don't know what. I mean. Greg the Hammer. Valentine didn't. Greg the Hammer Valentine looked like he was like. He was having like. You know. Like a. Mid contraction. You know. His arms were like. You know. You couldn't. You couldn't bend them. You couldn't. You just put them in the ring. And you hit each other. Like.

[01:49:15] I'm going to get you. You know. JYD. JYD. Junkyard Dog had the worst thing. Because his was. Jesus Christ. His was. Go for it. He came with. A collar and a chain. Yeah. He was a black wrestler. And he had a collar and a chain. And I was going. Oh Jesus Christ. Like. How'd they ever get away with this? How are they going to get away with that? Like. Like. Tito Santana. Okay. Yeah. We got. We got that. You know. Um.

[01:49:45] Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. You know. He came out with. He was just like. You know. He was just a. You know. An oriental. You know. Asian figure. With you know. The black trunks on. Um. They. But they. The one I was like. Never wanted. Was Adrian Adonis. Oh my God. I mean. You know. He looked like. He looked like. Your aunt. Who basically comes over. And sweats through her pantyhose. Oh. Gross. It was like. It was like. It was like. They come out. They put him in a dress.

[01:50:15] Okay. Now. Adrian Adonis' gig. Back in the 80s. Was that he was with. Dick Murdoch. And they were known as. The North South Connection. Yeah. Jesse Ventura. They were the East West Connection. Okay. So his thing was. He was a biker. From Queens. And basically. He wore like. A leather jacket. And you know. You know. Biker hat. Leather biker hat. And he come to the ring of that. So one time. He comes out. And his hair has died. Right. And he's wearing a shirt saying. Relax with Trudy.

[01:50:45] And I'm like. What the fuck. And then. He announces. Everybody. I'm gay. Like that. Yeah. And he starts putting makeup on. And he gets. He gets really. Really heavy. He was like 400 pounds. Yeah. When he wrestled Roddy Piper. Anytime he was on. I got physically ill. Yeah. Yeah. You know. I was like. What the fuck. And a lot of wrestlers were going. They couldn't get away with that today. Oh. You know. You know. The guy who got away with it. The best was. Age.

[01:51:15] Was adorable. Adrian Street. Have you ever heard of him? He was down. He was down in the. Mid-South. He was a. He was like a glam rocker. But he could. He was big and built. And he could beat the shit out of you. You know. I remember seeing him. Walking around. He had like eyeliner on. And all this makeup. And I'm like. Oh. He's probably. You know. My father was like. You know. Dad. That's adorable. Adrian Street. He's like. My father just said. He looks like a fruit. And I'm like. Wow.

[01:51:45] Say that to his face. Say that to his face. I'm like. He's like. I wouldn't say it to his face. I'd probably run and hide. If I said something like that to him. Don't say it. Bob. You know. And. And. My father was like. Jesus Christ. Jay. You watch this. I'm like. Yeah. I'm like. Dad. It's like. Kiss. Kiss. It was. Kiss. It's like. You know. They're in makeup. You know. It's like. It's like. You know. He used to tell me stories about. When he would watch wrestling. There would be this guy. You know. Bill Johnson. You know. All American.

[01:52:15] And he would lose a match. And he would leave town. Five. Five weeks later. He'd come. Five months later. He'd come back. It's like. Red Skolnick. Russian. Russian terror. You know. They used to do that back then. You know. Oh yeah. That's right. Speaking of. Who the hell. I'm trying to think. Is that or it'd be sailors wrestling in their bunks. Yeah. Oh God. It wasn't. It wasn't Nikolai. It was. The other Russian guy. You mentioned Adonis. Boris Zukov. You mentioned Adonis earlier.

[01:52:44] Please tell me. He wasn't from an incestuous relationship. No. Let me think. They're not Volkov. Great mythology jokes. Couldn't resist. Oh. There was Boris Zukov. Who's the other Russian guy. It might have been. Yeah. I think it might have been Boris. It was Nikita and Nikola. I think it was. Nikita Koloff. And Ivan Koloff. Yeah. It was Nikita. And Ivan. Sorry. Ivan. He kept the gimmick up so hardcore. That when. No. This is.

[01:53:14] This is true. No. It's true. I know where to go with it. It's going to be true. Yeah. He. He had a baby girl. And at the hospital. He signed her last name Volkov. To keep the gimmick going. Koloff. Yeah. Koloff. It was Koloff. Yeah. Because they didn't want to break it and shit. He was. He's actually a really good guy in real life. Yeah. Yeah. Ivan. Ivan's real. Ivan's real name. I think was Red Bastion. He was from Canada.

[01:53:41] And Nikita is. I forgot his real name. But he's actually from. From Minnesota. That's the funny part. This is. This is the weird part. Him. The Road Warriors. Kurt Henning. Scott Hall. Who was it also? The guy who played. Dukester the Dumped Rosie. Barry Gartho. They're all from that Robbins. Robbinsdale area. And Dumpster ended up being the worst out of the bunch.

[01:54:12] Yeah. Yeah. And when you think about. Like you know. Like Barry Darso. When they were doing the thing about. The Road Warriors. He was like. Yeah. We used to lift. And then we'd go. Bounce at this club. Yeah. You know. Where there were bikers. And the bikers didn't fuck with them. You know. They said. You know. But they'd say. You got. You got to keep your colors out. Don't wear your colors in here. That would be a perfect comic book superhero origin. If someone starts off as a wrestler. Before they acquire their superpowers. And they just test it out.

[01:54:41] And all the bikers. Won't leave them alone. Formulaic much. Sorry. I'm. I couldn't resist. It is wild though. To how. Again. Like you can't. Just like you can't be a rock star. If you don't have an off color persona. Or a bad boy attitude. You definitely can't be a wrestler. If you don't have the most. Zany. Upbringing. Like. That's how you get into entertainment. You gotta have the weirdest. Deal. Of dominoes. Just. Falling. You know. For it to just.

[01:55:11] Occur. And. But. Again. My hat is off for. Regardless of Vince. Just being a douche. Behind the scenes. And doing so many wrongs. I do applaud wrestling. For becoming a mainstream thing. Just like all the sports. Merchandise stores. Just like. Yeah. All the action figures. For different entertainment properties. I do think it is. Lovely to have all these different options. And then celebrate these at conventions. Where they actually get to. Let them know. Hey. You changed my life in some capacity. No.

[01:55:41] Yeah. And. They all appreciate you saying it too. Yeah. I mean. I've had a handful of wrestlers myself. Not. I mean. Mick Foley. Sergeant Slaughter. Tajiri. And a couple others. But they. I just. As an adult now. It's just like. Hey man. Thank you. You know. It's not. Right. I rode an elevator with Seamus. After Survivor Series. Oh wow.

[01:56:09] And we were ironically getting off on the same floor. And I'm. This was in. 21. So I was like 37 at the time. Right. Yeah. And he looks at me like. Are you serious? Dude. Like. I. He pushes the button. And. And then he like. Puts his hand up. Hey. You too. And I'm like. No. Same one. And he looked at me like. Are you kidding me? I was like. I. My hands up. I'm like. Seriously. Same floor. So. And I. I just said to him. I was like. Look man. I'm a fan. I said. But my kid.

[01:56:40] Actually really loves you. Especially when you're a bad guy. Right. I said. Yeah. Because. There's something about your performance. That he just enjoys. And he even said to me. He's like. Dad. I know Seamus is bad. And. And I shouldn't want him to beat up the guy. But. I just want him to win so much. And he goes. No man. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And we got off the elevator. Too close to it. But that's cool. That you got to just pick your mind. Is like. Have you not looked at your resume lately? You've had some fun.

[01:57:09] If I do a YouTube compilation video. You got some zingers. Yeah. Well. We talked. Like another 10 seconds. And I was just like. You know. On some like. Fan stuff. Like. I appreciate it. I'm not going to bug you out. But like. Thanks man. And then he goes into his room. I take two steps down to my room. And this other guy comes walking down the hall. And he fanboys out. He's like. Oh my God. Was that Seamus? Did you get to talk to him? And also. I'm like. Bro. Like. They're people. It's 1.30 in the morning. He's fucking. Gotta go to his hotel.

[01:57:38] He wants to go to bed. You know. He could have told me. Buzz off. Loser. You know. He was actually eating a TV dinner. From the microwave. From the hotel. Like. Yeah. He's fucking exhausted. Man. Like. He's mad enough. He had to ride the elevator with me. He don't want to fucking talk to you. He got in late. Super late. The weirdest thing. The weirdest thing I think. I can remember hearing from a friend of mine was. He used to be able to go backstage. For a lot of the stuff. Because his dad knew people at. You know.

[01:58:08] You know. Continental Ironizer. It used to be Brendan Byrne Arena. Right. So like. This is about your third friend. Who has a. Yeah. I have. Some of his special set of skills. Like. I. They luck. They luck out. I'm just like. You know. Yeah. So. So one night. You know. He's like. They go back there. And. Um. He's. He's. He's like walking back there. And he hears a voice. And he's like. Oh. Jesus. Who is that? And it's Hulk Hogan. Like talking to somebody. This is when Hogan.

[01:58:38] The height of Hulkamania. Right. And he says. He sees this other guy walking down. The hall. And he's like. No. That can't be him. And the guy's talking to me. I was just. Hey. How's it going? Was it in Florida? Or. No. It was up here in Jersey. Because they used to have all the stuff here in Britain. At the. At the. At the Britain and Burn Arena. So. You know. He's talking. And he sees the guy. He's looking at him. He's like. Holy fuck. It's the missing link. Because the missing link. Was this guy. Who was like. He had his face painted blue and green.

[01:59:07] He had like a. Like a. Like a. Like a. A hair horn. In the middle of his head. And he used to act real crazy. And it's just. The missing link. Was like. It wasn't this guy. He's just. This really nice guy. And they. You know. He got to sign autographs. He met Kamala. The Ugandan giant. And Kamala couldn't sign his name. He would just put an X by his name. You know. Wow. He met. He met Andre the giant. While they were there. And Andre was like. He was up to Andre's. He said.

[01:59:37] At that age. He was like. Looking up on Andre. He could look at Andre. And like. Andre's. Like. Region. Was like. Right. Level with his head. You know. And he's like. He's like. Holy shit. He's like. Yeah. My father. He put an arm around my father. And an arm around my mom. And I'm just standing in front. And he's like. He's like. Jesus. I said. Do you have the photographs? He's like. Yeah. I lost him. I did see them eventually. But he said. He lost him in the flood. We had a lot of shit. Got taken away. But yeah. Like. That's the thing.

[02:00:07] I mean. When you see these guys. In there. You know. Out of character. Like. If I saw. If I saw somebody. Like Chris Jericho. At like. My local stop and shop. I'd be like. Hey. You're Chris Jericho. So yeah. Dude. Big fan of yours. Love. You know. Love your wrestling. Love Fozzy. Love the fact that. You know. You don't take yourself seriously. You know. Like. You know. Like what you've done. You know. Hope the career goes. You know. Hope. You know. Hope for the best. You know.

[02:00:36] But when I see guys freak out. And they're like. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah. By the way. Before we go. Oh my God. Did you guys ever play. I would see this promoted all the time. And it had an M for Mature. So I could never play it. It was a Backyard Wrestling 1 and 2. Oh Jesus. Oh God. They had a mixture of rappers. Like Insane Cloud Posse. Born Stars. Yeah. Wrestlers. And it seemed like that was the discount version.

[02:01:06] But it sold a bunch. How about Def Jam Fight for LA. Or in New York. Is like. Let's mix in. Wrestling Bios likes that game actually. It was like. Yeah. Let's have rap stars. In an ultimate action movie. But they're wrestling each other. In underground fighting. You could have Biggie Smalls. You could have Biggie Smalls. And Tupac Shakur. In a wrestling match. And it would be a drawer. You know. I see what you did there.

[02:01:36] But yeah. I mean. The thing is like. When we see wrestlers. I mean. They're modern day superheroes. No. They really are. You know. And. You know. You always have to have the bad guy. And the good guy. Back then. Now it's like. The bad guy can be a little good. The good guy can be a little bad. You know. The baby face. He'll. Is kind of blurred now. Um. But the thing was. Media. Especially video games. Especially all that. You know. Captured that era perfectly.

[02:02:06] You know. Yeah. You know. You know who was going to get the boo. You know who was going to get the yay. You know. And. You know who was going to draw heat. And who was going to get a pop. You know. And if you know those wrestling terms. Heat is when they're booing the shit out of you. Pop is when they're cheering you like crazy. You're right. And now wrestlers today. Wrestlers today don't give a shit about fans. Because they want left 11 to get to the airport. They hate it. Oh. I've heard. I've heard the Warriors. Oh. There's plenty of them. There's even.

[02:02:36] Let me see. CM Punk has done numerous posts about this. There's tons of videos. It's really disgusting. Like there was one video showing Ray Mysterio arriving at the airport. And there's some guy standing there with a display of Funko Pops for him to autograph. And he's like, no, you're going to sell these on eBay. It's soon to see it soon. Do you think any of them will try comic books again?

[02:03:03] Because yeah, I tried the Undertaker comic book from like 99. It is not good. I don't know. No good. It was over a couple years ago. I don't remember what it was. But they did a limited release of, I think it was like 10 comics that were supposedly really good. But they were so limited. I could never get my hands on it. Let me see if I could find that for you. Yeah, look online. Internet archives should have them.

[02:03:29] When you were talking about guys being total dicks to fans, you ever hear the Ultimate Warrior story? No, I haven't. Taker told us. So it's like Taker's first, maybe second year in the WWE, right? And Warrior is going over like crazy, right? You know, Hogan's still there, but Warrior's going over, right? So, you know how the Ultimate Warrior, he had like his face on the jacket and all that shit, right?

[02:03:54] So this kid comes up to him and says, hey, are you the Ultimate Warrior? Can I have your autograph? And he tells the kid, I think he told the kid, no, I don't do autograph. Go away. Wow. Now Undertaker. Really? Undertaker is sitting there with his hoodie on. He's got a hoodie on, sunglasses, you know, a baseball cap on. And the kid's dejected. Well, Vince gets wind of this, right?

[02:04:21] And the Warrior has to issue a fucking apology on TV, on the air about that. Now, if I was a wrestler and a kid came up to me and said, hey, mister, can I have your autograph? I'm like, yeah, sure. What do you got to sign? He's like, okay, yeah, just, okay, yeah, here you go. All right. And tell your dad, you know, tell your parents, you know, stay in school. You know, you give them a positive message. Warrior supposedly was the biggest dick in wrestling.

[02:04:51] I can see that. If you watch Dark Side of the Ring, he was going to have an angle, a story with Jake the Snake Roberts. And he basically said, Roberts once said, okay, yeah, we're doing this angle. What are we doing? He's like, I'll let you know. And he never heard a word from him. And Jake Roberts was going to make like $75,000 that year, if not a little more, doing that angle. And the word just basically shut it down.

[02:05:20] And, you know, he basically. Just say no. Hey, Cam, we're going to do a podcast. He also created a. I'll let you know. We'll leave us hanging. I guess. Warrior University. Oh, yeah. What? And stiff people on tuition as well. Yeah. It goes back to Trump. Real terrific. He was doing training for kids. Like, you know, like teenagers and shit.

[02:05:50] And it was like he would yell at the kids. Like, you know. You want you to push that. Push that thing. If you're in front of 20,000 people. And they're yelling. You are not going to stop. I was like, Jesus Christ, bro. You know, fucking no wonder why you died of a heart attack. Well, no. Like watching him come back. That's karma, James. It was. It really was karma. Like watching him come back on raw that night. Like he was. That was wild watching that shit.

[02:06:20] Because it was him coming home finally after everything bad happened. But like at the same time, everybody was watching him slowly die in that ring. It was scary. Like when I look back at that. He ran in like to the music. Right. He had the mask on. And you remember this Oreo. He was like breathing heavy. And I was like. You know. I got to say. Doing the.

[02:06:49] And I was like sitting there. And I was like. He's got a heart problem. Yeah. And you know. We're all kind of like. Me and Kathleen are watching. I said. There's something wrong with him. Yeah. I don't know what it is. There's something wrong with him. And then. What happened was. Was that. Two days later. He died. Getting out of a hotel parking lot. Yeah. You know. Of a massive heart attack. And a lot of people think. Is it because he was on the juice? Because he. Him.

[02:07:24] Of it. Yeah. And so. Scott Steiner too. Yeah. Scott. Scott Steiner was on it. But. If you think about Scott Steiner. If you see him nowadays. Yeah. He's not. Yeah. He looks basic. But. He said in his big pop of pump days. He wasn't big. He was smaller. But. He worked himself out more. Because if you watch with him and Rick. Yeah. He was a little bit more chunkier. He basically made himself smaller. But. You know. They. You know. The way they did everything back then. But he said. He said. I think in an interview. He says. Yeah.

[02:07:53] I don't do that shit anymore. Yeah. You know. He just had a wake up call. You know. His body was going nuts. Oh yeah. He said. You know. And if you look at Sting. Sting was like that. And then. He stopped. He cleaned up. And then. He became like. I love the black and white. Yeah. You know. The black and white thing. Yeah. The crow version of Sting. I like Sting or Sting more. Sting said recently. In an interview. Somebody asked him. You know. What. What would have happened.

[02:08:23] If you and Warrior stayed together. He said. Work. We'd have. We'd have fought like crazy. To write it up. To run. God. Just would have. We just would have been bad and like crazy. And the interview looked on weird. He goes. I'm just being honest. We were both worded up like crazy back then. Yeah. When they were the Blade. When they were the Blade Runners. Back in the old. Warriors. The UWF days. When they were the Blade Runners. And it was. You know. You saw them. You're like. You're like. God. These guys are big. Like. That's what I liked about the Road Warriors.

[02:08:53] I don't think they were on roids. I think they just basically worked out. Like fucking nutcases. And I remember seeing their workout. In Pro Wrestling Illustrated. I was like. Maybe I should buy a weight set. That was a thing. Yeah. What magazines did you read the most. For your updates on wrestling? Oh. Jesus. WWE Magazine. For the most part. That was it. Pro Wrestling Illustrated. PWI. And then there was another one. Wrestling Observer. Yes. With Dave Meltzer.

[02:09:21] But PWI was the big one. PWI was the one. Everybody bought. Yes. And they always had the top 10 rankings. And they'd always make these stories up. You know. Like. Dusty Rose. I'm going to make Ric Flair bleed. You know. Why the. Why. You know. Why Hulk Hogan is afraid of Terry Funk. You know. All that shit. You know. It was all. His brother can stink. Yeah. Please. That's the one thing. That's the one thing. I watched Terry and Dory Funk wrestle in the NWA. Through videos. And when they got to the.

[02:09:51] When they got to the WWE. I was just like. Oh boy. Oh jeez. Just make them cowboys. And you know. Yeah. Put a brand and iron in Terry's hands. We're going to have a good old time that time. You know. Good old time. Woo wee. And the thing that separated WWE F. From WCW. Was the fact that WCW. Acknowledged. Where everybody came from. Versus. WCW. Because they were like. Oh. Brand new talent. And like. Sure. No.

[02:10:20] They were just an ECW. Right. They've been doing this for years. They're not brand new. I used to. I used to crack up. When they used to say like. From. You know. From. You know. When Jesse the Body Ventura would come out. I was like. You know. He was from. You know. Los Angeles. California. And my father. I'd hear it. I'd be like. That's not a California voice. And then you find out later. He's from Minnesota. You know. The one I always loved was. From Parts Unknown. You're from fucking New York. And the guy's from like.

[02:10:49] Parts Unknown. Parts Unknown. Doody Robertson was from Florida. You know. You know. I remember like. Who was. Oh. What was that. The big guy who danced from Africa. Akeem. Yeah. Akeem. That shit was so funny. All right. He's from Africa. I'm like. Really? Akeem. Akeem was. Akeem was the one man gang. Yeah. Yeah. And he was from. First off. He was. First off.

[02:11:19] When I watched him in a. World class championship wrestling. He was from. House to the street in Chicago. Okay. Yeah. And then it's like. Then he becomes from. You know. From deepest. Darkest Africa. I'm like. The one man gang is a black guy. But he's white. And then. And then somebody said. And then a young. And then a young. Robert Van Winkle said. Hey. I could do that. I'll just name myself. And now I. You know. Did I tell you the story? If I haven't.

[02:11:49] I'll tell it again. Super shredder. I. Right. Yeah. Go ninja. Go ninja. But. Oh. That's actually. Coming back to theaters. Next month. Oh. So there you go. But. Yeah. I had a friend who. Well. A friend of a friend. Who. His cousin was in. Painting and construction. And they're renovating a house. And they notice one of their true men. His surname is Van Winkle. And they're like. Yeah. Yeah. The gig is up. Are you related to Vanilla Ice Van Winkle?

[02:12:19] And he looks around. Yes. I'm sorry. And. But he didn't want to say that at first. That was the other irony. He's like. Yes. I think. I think the thing that God always got me. Was like. When I'd watch a guy. And it'd be like. Like. One time. When. Demolition came along. Right. One of the guys. One of the guys. Was Moondog Spot. Or Moondog Rex. And they kept chanting. Moondog. Moondog. And they got.

[02:12:49] Basically. Like two weeks later. They got rid of him. They put Barry Darso in. And he was. You know. It was. You know. Action smash. And. You know. It was like. Okay. Now. Now. We got the guys that we need. But. The thing I always used to crack up was. If you guys remember back in 86. There was a. There was a thing. I was born. There's this. There's this. There's this trio. There's this trio called the machines. Right. Right. And the machines were. Black. There was super machine. Big machine. And.

[02:13:19] There was super machine. Big machine. And there was a. Strong machine. Right. And they were supposed to be Japanese wrestlers. Well. They go to this. They film this. Like. Gene Okerlund's like. I'm Gene Okerlund. And I'm in Japan. No. You're actually at a Japanese tea house. Somewhere in. In Rhode Island. And then. Then they are. That's where you get out of your Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboard. Come on. Don't bullshit me. And then. Then they're being interviewed. And they. They go. Oh yes. We love America. America. Itchy bun.

[02:13:49] Itchy bun. And I'm like. My father's going. They're not Japanese. Jesus Christ. You know. What are we doing here right now? And then. Then they had it. It was. It was the machine. It was super machine. Big machine. And the regular machine. Right. So then. You find out who they are. It was. I'll show you a machine. It's called. It was Blackjack. It was Blackjack. It was Blackjack. Blackjack. Lanza. Bill Eddy. And somebody else. And they were all. They were all. And they all had masks on. These like really like. They look like.

[02:14:19] Like. Ultra man masks. Right? Ultra man. Wow. And I'm like. Oh. You got to see this shit. You'll fucking laugh your ass off. Ultra's a name. I have not heard it in a very long time. All right. Guys. I got to go. I'm. But I got work in the morning. This was delightful. And glad we could wrestle. Can we do this again? Yes. Please. We have a part two. Because Ryan was able to make it. But yeah. We got plenty of life left in this tunnel. But no. Bishop. You're the life of the party.

[02:14:47] So where can people find terrible wrestling tags? It's on Spotify. It's got YouTube. But. Yep. Yeah. So TW Takes Podcast is the gimmick. At TW Takes Podcast on Twitter. Is the best way to find me. I delve into some other ventures as well. So just check out TW Takes Podcast on Twitter. If you search terrible wrestling takes on all audio platforms. I'm there. I've been running it for five and a half years. So what do you do on there? What do you do by terrible wrestling takes? So I. It's about the conversation.

[02:15:17] So usually I just give my opinion of what I see on TV. Oh yeah. Okay. Bunch of sweaty people hitting each other. No. Exactly. Actually I think that's. I think that was my shortest episode. Five seconds. Sweaty people hitting each other. Well. Nice. Thank you to good cop, bad cop wrestling and the others for introducing me to Bishop. This was a great crossover. And. All I'm going to say is. All I'm going to say is I have my opinion on Logan Paul. My opinion on Logan Paul. What's your opinion on Logan Paul JJ? I don't have one.

[02:15:47] Okay. Fine. Fine. He's. He's too incredibly talented and athletic. I don't know her. I'll tell you this. Here's. Here's one of the main points. One of my first episodes was about Pat McAfee and NXT. And. And what I realized then about any celebrity. So this is the biggest point about terrible wrestling takes. Any celebrity that. That jumps into wrestling. Especially when they don't have to. Thank you. Yeah.

[02:16:16] He made $16 million this week. And he got his head stomped into the announce table. He doesn't need to do that. Yeah. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. He. No. Pat McAfee was. Was commentating five and a half years ago when I first did it. That was before his commentary. He had a. He had an NXT run with. With Adam Cole. Oh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And Logan Paul this week. On. Logan Paul this week on raw. Got his head stomped into the announce table.

[02:16:47] Accordingly. Before that. He sold his Pokemon card for $16 and a half million. Oh yeah. That was. Oh my word. Does he need to wrestle? Does he have to be there? Does he have to do flips off the top rope to break through an announce table? No. Does he have to be a brother of a shitty boxer? Right. Fair enough. I felt more sorry for Tyson. He's like Mike. I know they paid you to lose this fight. But Jesus. Did you. He even said it was scripted.

[02:17:16] When he looked better than I did. Jesus. God. I can't even talk straight. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. No. I don't know who. I don't know who's left straight. My. My. My. Did you all line or hit. James. It's been a blast. We will do it again. Oreo. You brought the heat. Follow us on the web. On Facebook. Twitter. And Instagram.

[02:17:45] The podcast is available on Podbean. Spotify. I heart radio. Anchor. Apple. And anywhere else. Podcasts are available. Feel free to review our show. And leave comments on any of those sites. Thanks a million for listening. It's a jacked up.