[00:00:00] Speaker A: October 12th Kennen, Missouri look of all things dangerous Duck over the King. Jay Lawler we'll be in Kennett from 3pm to 7pm King we'll be signing things. The King will be meeting people, taking pictures with them.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: We will also have the hall of.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Famer, Ricky Morton from the Rock and Roll Swiss King. We will have Downtown Bruno, Memphis hall of Famer with us. There's gonna be so many of us there from 3pm to 7pm at the American Legion. King, myself, you, Ricky Morton, Downtown Bruno. They'll be wrestling that night.
PM to 7pm if you want to see the King. J. Law Dangerous stuff.
Are we going to be there?
[00:00:37] Speaker C: I think so, but it looks like we're out of time now. We'll see you there that Saturday.
[00:00:42] Speaker D: Hey guys, Ray Russell here, curator of the Wrestlecopia Podcast Network, inviting you guys to listen to many of the programs here as part of the Wrestlecopia brand, including but not limited to the Wrestling Memory Grenade, currently covering the 1988 in the WWF Project. You can also listen to the Regional Wrestling podcast where we talk the territories, whether it's Jamie Ward with Georgia 81, Roman Gomez with the UWF in 1986 or Gene Jackson covering Memphis in 85. Three projects going on right now over there at Regional Wrestling. You can also listen to the Wrestling Stoop with the legend himself, Bob Roop. Bob goes back in time each and every week, covering not just his career, but countless stories and interactions with hundreds of wrestling names spanning his two decades in the business.
But that's not all. You can also check out the Puro Wrestling Academy with the professor of Pura Raisu, Mr. Dan G.
Dan and I go back in time and cover the history of Japanese professional wrestling in the English language and you can listen to all of those shows and more. All part of the Wrestlecopia Podcast Network located
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[00:03:00] Speaker C: Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode number 10 of Dangerous Conversations with Dangerous Doug Gilbert. I'm your host, Gene Jackson, and as always, is my pleasure to welcome the man you came to hear, Dangerous Doug Gilbert.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Man.
Gene, we have got a guy on here with us today that has been my number one doctor, and that would be no other than Dr. Tom Fritzer.
[00:03:26] Speaker E: I want to know who your number two doctor is.
Number one, I want to know, too.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: We, we had him on last week, Tom. It was Dr. Harvey Whippleman.
[00:03:35] Speaker E: Oh, okay. All right. I just want to make sure.
How you guys doing today?
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Oh, we're doing good, Tom.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: I'm great, man. We're excited to have you.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Hey, I thought he's fixing to say Dr. Tommy Rich.
[00:03:49] Speaker E: Whoa.
Yeah, well, Tom could have been a doctor. He just spent time, A little too much time in the pharmacy, I think.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:03:58] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Well, Tom, here you are, freshly off, being inducted into the Memphis Wrestling hall of Fame. That's where we just saw you here recently.
How was that, man? Tell us, Tell us how that was to go in there in the, the Memphis Wrestling hall of Fame, man, that was awesome.
[00:04:17] Speaker E: You know, Memphis, as I said when I was inducted, Memphis has a long history in for the wrestling business, and they stole a lot of ideas they got from Memphis in wwe, aew. Anywhere you go, Memphis wrestling has an influence. And I, I, I was, I was blown away, man. It was great. I thought Randy Hales and Terry Gold did a hell of a job, and, yeah, it was, it was really, really cool.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: I had a great time. It was great seeing you, Tom. And, and like, I got to see you, Tony, Anthony, Danny Davis, I mean, just a bunch of us that, that I hadn't seen in a long time. And, and, you know, it brought back memories for me from you working in this territory and everything, and, man, that was cool.
[00:05:09] Speaker E: You know? You know, one thing I don't want to bring up because you're wearing your Tennessee Vol hat and everything else.
No, no, no, no. I don't want to bring this up, but I have to because. And, and you'll probably hate me for the rest of the Chono.
Exactly.
Mr. Chono was driving a car. And I didn't know, man. I was just being ridiculous and stupid at the time. And Doug's wearing his hat, and I didn't know that he collected hats. You know what I mean, with people who collect hats.
Have a favorite. Have watch. Took his hat off his head and threw it out the window.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But now in. All right, that wasn't really Tom's fault because I was sitting in the back seat, as I recall, and Tom was sitting in the front seat, and I. I popped Tom.
I don't. I don't even know what I was messing with him for, but I. I messed with him for some reason, but I. I was slacking on like, the back every once in a while. He said, if you do that one more time.
So when he said that, you know, I had to do it one more time, but when I've done it one more time, he rinsed right back, and I went like this, like he was gonna hit me. And he grabbed my hat and he told Chono. He said, chono, he said, you tell me in one mile. He said, when we go one mile, you tell me. And Chono's looking at him and looking at me like we're both crazy. Yeah. And. And finally he said, one mile.
When he did, Tom rode the window down and throw my hat out the window.
[00:06:41] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. I got heat that day. Yeah.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Actually, I was thinking about that when. When I called you and. And asked you about coming on here with us, Tom. But that. It's funny, the stories that we remember. And that's why I tell Gene, Tom, you know, everybody wants to.
Everybody thinks just we're at the building and we're in the ring. They don't think about us leaving the building and going to other towns or leaving our house, going to the towns and everything. And that's where some of the funniest stuff and stuff that us guys do is, to me, is great.
[00:07:14] Speaker E: Well, I gotta tell you, I mean, in Memphis last week, you know, we were gonna go out to have some drinks. Tommy and. And I thought everybody was gone. Right. Didn't Terry tell. Were you there? Terry said, go to Slip and Slide or something like that.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's his. That's his place.
[00:07:31] Speaker E: Well, there's. Did you know there's two slip and slides in Jackson? There's two bars with the same name, and they're about a block away from each other. So we first went to one. Well, we first went to one. We pulled up and we see Tommy out outside, you know, and. And I just go ahead and walk in. They go, five bucks.
So. No, we're with. Terry says, I don't care who you with five bucks.
So. All right.
Well, then I got to thinking, wait, maybe I ought to go outside and ask Tommy why he's out there, what's going on? So I called and come in and Tell him to charge us five bucks. Long story short, the guy says, hey, there's another bar right up there. That's the one you want.
Gets better, though. Hold on.
Here's a story to tell. So we go and this. This slip and slide is like. It's got loud music coming out, rock and roll. And it's. Everybody's going through a metal detector.
And we go through the metal detector, get there, and the ladies at the entrance, there she goes. It'll be 45 bucks for three of you.
45 bucks. We're with Terry. We don't know no Terry.
I said, okay. She said, well, just a minute. We'll get Pookie up here and you can talk to Pookie. I don't know.
So anyway, this place was like a. Had a mosh pit, I think, and just a bunch of, you know, it looked like trouble. So as we walked out, I said, I'm not paying 40, 45 bucks to get in here.
So we walked out and met Tommy, went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some wings and laughed about it and had a good time, you know.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: I bet. I bet all Tommy had was wings, wasn't it?
[00:09:09] Speaker E: Yeah, that's all he had.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: He didn't have nothing drink, did he?
[00:09:12] Speaker E: Nothing at all.
He didn't have four beers.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: He had one beer.
[00:09:18] Speaker E: One beer. That's all it was.
Yeah, yeah, but.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: But. So y' all was at the wrong place and then.
[00:09:25] Speaker E: And we were at the wrong place again because come to find out, they didn't know who Terry golden was.
So. So we just went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had some wings and little. Little libation. That was it.
Oh, man, that.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Well, I have to know, did you guys get to meet Pookie?
[00:09:41] Speaker E: Oh, no, we just stick around. We just said the Elephant Man. We're gonna go eat somewhere and try and find something else to do.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: I hear you. I felt like that probably was a whole different story had you met Pookie.
[00:09:52] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, I think so, too.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Might have a little something else if you had. If you met Pookie.
[00:09:59] Speaker E: Well, apparently they had these. These wild. Not these. These mechanical bulls you can ride in the back of the bar and stuff, and people get thrown off and all kind of stuff, but it just looked like a place we didn't need to be that night. It was getting a little late.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Well, doc, Dr. Tom, when you go in. And they got metal detectors now, that was a sign.
[00:10:18] Speaker E: Yeah, that was a sign.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Good sign, that.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: You might not want to be there.
[00:10:22] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah, not for me.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Now, Jean, you told me you had some questions for Dr. Tom, right? Yeah, I've got.
[00:10:28] Speaker E: I've got.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: I've got several, but I guess we'll start with this one kind of before we move completely away from the Jackson deal. How long had it been, Tom, since you had seen Danny Davis?
[00:10:40] Speaker E: Oh, man, Gosh.
Been a long time, maybe. No, no, I saw him a couple years ago. He came and visited when we came to Tampa for an NWA taping. And he came after the show? Yeah, we. We sat down, we had a few drinks and talked.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: I. I hadn't seen Danny since about 97 or 98, Tom.
[00:11:06] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: And that's what he come up and me and him hugged and everything, and he was telling me some stuff in my ear, and I told him just. I just talked to him a day or two ago and I told him, I said, man, you about.
You about made me break down. And I said, don't. There's not many people that can do that. But, you know, Danny's a great fellow. And he was just telling me stuff about my dad and how my dad really helped him and took him under his wing and stuff, and, man, just stuff like that, you know, it hits. And then he got to 80 and he started talking about stuff with 80 that, you know, I mean, and it was. It was heavy.
[00:11:48] Speaker E: Yeah, pretty hard, man. Yeah, we went to lunch before the ceremony and everything, before everybody got selling gimmicks and all that stuff. We had a good long talk, too. So, yeah, it was one of those weekends, man, where you're catching up and you're telling everybody what's going on, and you go, I didn't know that. And go, whoa. I really didn't know that.
So.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Well.
Well, I guess before we even started this, or at first, me and Gene should have thanked you, and people be saying, thank him for what? But actually, we kind of borrowed your room to do a podcast and didn't we, doctor?
[00:12:24] Speaker E: Yeah, and I meant to ask you about that, man.
Left a few presents there for me. I heard, open up the toilet. And there was.
Yeah, no, it was good, man.
Tommy kept telling me, and I'm thinking, now, wait a minute.
Then again, you know, Tommy, it's always. There's always a supposed. It did.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:43] Speaker E: But everything.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: Doug said, this is Dr. Tom's room. Tommy said, oh, me or Doug, Neither one went in after that.
[00:12:50] Speaker E: So, yeah, yeah, they left me a little present. All right.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:12:56] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: But, yeah, Danny Davis is a guy that you'd be hard pressed to Find anybody to say a bad word about. Man, like, everybody. Everybody loves that guy.
[00:13:06] Speaker E: Yeah, he. You know, he broke in the hard way, too. He broke in around Dyersburg with. Was it Irv Welch? Yeah, yeah, Herb. And. And he got. He got a start down there, so he came up the hard way. Yeah, he started.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: And it's just. Danny's a great guy. I mean, he's just a great guy. I love. I mean, we traveled a lot, which I was around. Tom when he was here a lot, Danny when he was here a lot, but also he in Continental. All three of us traveled around a lot together, and, man, we. That was. That was some good times, wasn't it, Tom?
[00:13:40] Speaker E: Yeah, it was. I mean, it really was. And, you know, it was a different time in the business. The businesses was traveling into cars, didn't have cell phones, didn't have any of that stuff, but you made up for it and just had great trips.
[00:13:56] Speaker C: I loved Continental. I. I grew up in North Mississippi, so I. I grew up on Memphis and Continental, and. And my dad used to take me to Columbus, to the Lavender Coliseum to see you guys down there. And we recently had.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, Tommy, you know what one of his favorite angles was, right?
[00:14:13] Speaker E: I'm not sure.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Okay. Gene Dillon.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: Well, that's where we're headed right now. We had. We had dirty White boy Tony Anthony on the show recently.
And of course, I had to tell. I had to tell Tony, you know, that I could. One of the most vivid memories of watching wrestling with my dad was watching Continental the night that Tony hung you out there at ringside. And I was telling him and Doug, I said, you know, I used to have to. I'd have to, you know, beg my dad, like, and, please take us to the matches. Please take us to the matches. And he liked it, but he didn't necessarily like having to get off work and head to Columbus, you know, for. For a show and fight the traffic and all that. But I told them, I said that night, after that angle, my dad goes, when's that next show in Columbus? And I said, I think it's two weeks from now. He goes, we gotta see that dirty white boy just tried to kill Tom Pritchard. We got to see what happens, man. He was. He was all in on that. So as the hangy in that situation, I got. I gotta hear your side of that and what your memories of that whole angle was.
[00:15:13] Speaker E: Well, I'll. I'll tell you exactly what it was, because Randy Collie, if you remember him, he's part of Demolition Detroit Demolition. Detroit demolition. Yeah, sure. Was he. He was.
I don't remember how he got the needle, but he had. Maybe it was a diabetic needle, but he drew blood from my arm and put it in a condom for. Because when we went out, I was going to have. Be hanging from the. From the ring, and I was going to have blood coming out of my mouth. Well, I don't know if you've ever been into a condom or had the occasion to be by the condom, but. But I have, and they don't break real easy, you know what I mean? They're meant not to break, you know, so if you get a condom that's too easy to break, they're. They're defective. I understand.
But anyway, he put that into condom, and I knew he didn't tie it tight enough. And I'm thinking, well, he knows what he's doing. And he was telling me, all you got to do is just bite it and it'll. It'll come. Well, when I went out there and was talking to dirty white girl and all that stuff, and she turned me around, you know, Tony came in and hit me with a chair.
The referee came out. My glasses fell off. Referee came out and put the condom in my mouth. And now I'm feeling. It's all squishy in there. And I'm going, oh, Christ, I can't. I know I'm not gonna be able to pop this thing. And somebody had a pin or a blade or something. I think it was Danny Davis who actually had the blade at the end of the deal, after he hung me, he hit it and it. The blood came out, but they were already off tv, so it kind of wasted that. That.
But no, that was. That was pretty crazy, man. I remember we pitched it to Eddie.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Well, Tom, I.
I look back at the thing that. And I don't know where you and Tony had done this at. But you said when he was dragging you. And I haven't seen. I. I didn't see the. The actual him hanging it or anything, but you said why he was dragging you from, I guess, around the announcer's table to the ring, he's about. About to choke you to death or something.
[00:17:18] Speaker E: Yeah. Which. Well, if you ever again, if you've ever had the occasion to have a noose around your neck and a condom in your mouth at the same time.
Let me. Let me just. I'm here to tell you.
It tightens up as you pull it, and Tony's trying not to choke me, but it's just tightening up and my hands are handcuffed behind my back. And we had. It was a. It was a. Like a riser where Gordon Solely and Charlie Plat were.
And he had to throw me down and then drag me from the floor. And there's no way for me to tell him he's choking me. There's. There's no way.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: And Tom, now, I think Tony told me it was your idea about the handcuffs, wasn't it?
[00:18:00] Speaker E: Was my idea about the hanging. Eddie says we need something else. I said, what if he handcuffs me my hands behind his back.
Sounds great.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Say Eddie didn't think the hanging was enough.
[00:18:11] Speaker E: No, no, he didn't. He said he knew something else, too. What else can we add to it?
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Well, at least Tom, that. That hadn' and done. I mean, people would. Like you said, they copy stuff, but you add a little something to it. That was a little something to it, wasn't it?
[00:18:24] Speaker E: That sure was, man. I got the idea. I got the idea watching it. When I was a kid, they had a guy named the Hangman, and he put a noose around Nick Baka was like. It was just fill him around the ring. It scared the hell out of me.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:36] Speaker E: You know, but, yeah, that was. That was pretty violent for that time. There was no way. I mean, they couldn't say I wasn't hanging because I was hanging.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: But, I mean, Tom and me and Gene have talked on here about this before, and like, I told Gene that to me, the difference in Eddie is a booker, and a lot of other bookers was the other bookers would want to have everything done their way and just what they wanted. But, like, Eddie would come to y' all and ask y' all for ideas, right?
[00:19:04] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: And I mean, wasn't that cooler? I mean.
[00:19:08] Speaker E: Oh, that was much cooler. It was much better. Yeah, I think so. And we had a great time doing it. You know, we. We had a. We had an angle planned out. He beat me for the. For the title and. And they chloroformed me. Then I cut his hair. And then she. Then he hung me. So what?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: He said his hair didn't have grown back, didn't he?
[00:19:26] Speaker E: Oh, wait a minute.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: No, I think that's what he.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: I think that's what he said.
[00:19:32] Speaker E: Oh. Oh, okay. I got.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Not what you said.
[00:19:35] Speaker E: No, I didn't say that.
But I want to show, like, if.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Y' all had stayed at that second slip and slide rodeo, you might have had a second occasion end up with a noose around your neck.
[00:19:45] Speaker E: I'm telling you, man, I was looking at the customers in that place, and I went, yeah, I don't think we need to be there. And when I told Wildfire, he agreed. Yeah, I got my slides on. I don't need to go in there and get. No trouble.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's the last thing I needed that night was to get a call and come get you and Tommy out of something.
[00:20:07] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah, because there's definitely gonna be something in there on Fireball.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Okay, Gene, what else was it about the angle that you was.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: So, I mean, do you. Do you remember what that did for business once. Once that angle aired on tv and. And a second point to what you were saying? That was one of the things that stood out to me, and it's. It's on my YouTube channel now. For people that haven't seen it, go check it out.
Is the.
[00:20:32] Speaker E: The.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: The different colors you were turning as he was dragging you down? If anybody is like, oh, Tom's just at. You know, years later. Everybody likes to add to these angles and make up. No, man, you were turning red, purple, and blue by the time he got you down the ring from him dragging you with that noose around your neck. So it was no doubt. I mean, I know. I know you probably got some. Some pretty good acting skills over the years, but you really can't work turning different colors and looking like you were in the middle of being murdered, so.
[00:21:04] Speaker E: Well, yeah.
[00:21:05] Speaker C: Struck a chord with me for sure. But I imagine that had to really be a shot in the arm for business.
[00:21:08] Speaker E: I would think they were hanging from the rafters.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: There you. There you go.
No, but they did. It did, actually. I mean, y'.
[00:21:18] Speaker C: All.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Was the angle when Eddie come in, that. That he run with that right.
Was over.
And the two guys that could work, and, man, they.
Oh, I'd watch.
Watch her matches, Jean. And they would beat each other to freaking. I've been in easier street fights and. Than some of their matches was or all their matches was, actually.
[00:21:41] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't know if it boosted Birmingham any, but I think it did for the surrounding.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Doan Do.
[00:21:50] Speaker E: Montgomery.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: Montgomery, Dothan, Pensacola. Yeah, everything. But I don't think nothing at that time, Birmingham was just out. Tom was it just. And he was down there a world more than I was. But it seemed like to me, Birmingham was never. I mean, I hear everybody talk about. About auditorium and everything, and I worked there just two times, I think. But while I was in Birmingham, it was like Birmingham just wasn't.
[00:22:19] Speaker E: Wasn't happening.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: No. I mean, it don't matter what you did.
[00:22:22] Speaker E: Well, and I don't think being at the fairgrounds helped any, but. Yeah, it was.
The angle was kind of.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Do you think if we'd have been about wolf Tom, it would have been better?
[00:22:36] Speaker E: Don't know. I really don't know. I mean, but they drew better about.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Well, yeah, yeah, but in that building, the fairgrounds just wasn't a wrestling atmosphere.
I mean, it.
I don't know. It just.
[00:22:47] Speaker E: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if it was.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: It wasn't a great side of town.
That's why I always heard people say, like, man, we ain't going to fairgrounds.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Hey, Tom, that's it. That's that building. I popped old Paul Heyman and he had that one.
[00:22:59] Speaker E: You threw. You threw a boot at him, I remember.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: No, Eddie threw a boot at him.
[00:23:04] Speaker E: Oh, Eddie, I thought that was. You came out.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: No, Eddie threw the boot at him. Then I attacked him and hit him in the head. And then Tony grabbed me off of him.
[00:23:11] Speaker E: Remember? What you was there, remember? Well, I was outside the dressing room because I was standing there, and then the next thing I noticed, he comes hauling out and somebody throws a boot at him.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: I thought, well, yeah, no, it was Eddie. Eddie threw the boot at him and then I tackled him and popped him once or twice. But anyway, he deserved it.
[00:23:28] Speaker C: Can we get a little more details of what.
[00:23:30] Speaker E: Yeah. What exactly happened? Because I never. This is. All these years I was outside.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: It's a pretty big tease there, Doug.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Well, to be honest, you remember mine and 80s buddy John, John Gillen. John was following Paul to the building, and Paul just. And John, you know, didn't know his way around very well and everything, and Paul just left him and. But like Paul, that's.
And everything, and it got in you highly upset and.
And then that was just. That was one of the bad things. But no, it was okay.
[00:24:10] Speaker E: I was.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: That building.
[00:24:11] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah, it was chaos. Yeah, it was for a minute.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: But anyway.
[00:24:17] Speaker E: We'Ll.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: We'll definitely talk some more about John Gillum.
[00:24:20] Speaker E: He.
[00:24:20] Speaker C: He played a big role in. In you and Eddie's angles and stories over the years, but we'll. We'll keep going with Tom here about now. So we've kind of. Something's kind of accidentally. It's not something me and Doug plan, but it's just kind of started to become a tradition here somehow where we always put Jerry Stubbs over on this show pretty strong. And so talking about Continental, what's your memories of Jerry Stubbs, Tom and What did you think of working with him?
[00:24:46] Speaker E: Well, I first met Jerry Stubbs when he came to Memphis, actually. And I worked, I think two or three weeks. And then he said, n standing around for this and. But I got along with him. He stayed with me when he came into Memphis. I don't know how. I don't remember how that happened, but we rode together and he stayed with me. And then when I got to Pensacola, you know, I stayed at his house and he had a pool in the back and.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: And what about time?
[00:25:15] Speaker E: What about.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: He had a hot tub inside. Remember that?
[00:25:19] Speaker E: I think so, yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah, like in indoor, big hot tub, like right, guys. He had it going on.
[00:25:26] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Like I said. I told Gene Tom that Jerry taught me a whole lot. That's who Eddie put me kind of in angle with right when I come in Continental. Man, Jerry was such a smooth worker. One in town.
[00:25:39] Speaker E: He was a smooth worker. Yeah, he was. He was really good. He was great. He had timing, he had chemistry. And with anybody he got in the ring with, he could make it work. And I got along great with Jerry. Had some great. Had some fun.
Had some fun times. Had some chaotic times with him too, because he. Man, he's one of those guys will punch you right in the mouth if he doesn't like you.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: Oh, he was tough, wasn't he, John?
[00:26:00] Speaker E: Yeah, he was pretty tough. He's a pretty tough guy.
Ex cop.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: But now, here's another thing about the continental territory, Gene. We'll get to time. I know you got a lot of questions you want to ask him, but me and Tom was neighbors in the continental territory.
There was my apartment, then there was a pool, then there was Tom's apartment. And I'd go, Tom sometimes say, peck on the door. I wouldn't. Wouldn't get no answer. I just walk on back, go to the pool or something or go back to my apartment. Then I'd catch Tom at the pool.
[00:26:38] Speaker E: And we'd mess around a little bit.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: And everything, but I laughed. The guys that asked me say, what'd you and Tom do today? I said I couldn't get him to answer the door today. I don't know what Tom did today.
[00:26:49] Speaker E: Well, I was a little antisocial at times, you know, and there's. And there's still times when I am anti social, you know, I can't explain it.
You know, I might have been. I might have been busy concocting.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: Hey, I think you're in a lot better place in life now than me and you both are. Than we was Then.
[00:27:15] Speaker E: Whoa.
Yeah, definitely, man. There was a. There was a whole lot.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: Hey, but I had great times during those times, you know, down there and everything.
[00:27:25] Speaker E: Yeah, me too. Me too.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Yeah, there's.
There was some. There was. I know from the fans perspective, that was. It was some great wrestling that went on back there, and. And I was always a huge fan of it. So it's fun to me to hear some of the. The other side of it, you know, some of the stuff you guys did, you know, the. The stories about these, you know, hotels and apartments and different things that you hung out at and.
And to see where a lot of guys went from there in their. In their careers, you know, because there's people at all different stages of their career. You had guys that had been around a long time then, like we've talked about. You had Sid there that was just starting out. And, you know, Doug, you were early in your career there and learning from guys like Jerry Stubbs and Danny Davis.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Oh, I have all the. I mean, all the guys like Tom, Jerry, Danny, I mean, all the guys. There was so much talent, Tony. I mean, Tom, that was a heck of a crew there at that time, wasn't it?
[00:28:20] Speaker E: That was a heck of a crew, you know, and I got there. I lived in Pensacola first and moved to Birmingham, and most of the guys then were in Birmingham, but, yeah, for the most part, it was. It was a hell of crew.
[00:28:38] Speaker C: Shifting gears to kind of. We. You have to forgive us, Tom. We kind of jump all over the place here on this.
[00:28:43] Speaker E: That's great.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: Really follow timeline. But a guy that. That you mentioned in your hall of Fame speech, I know is one of Doug's very best friends that you feuded with quite a bit there in Memphis early in his career. And I know that I heard him say in interviews over the years that he credited you with being a guy who taught him how to wrestle and when and why to do things. Brian Christopher, could you talk a little bit about working with Brian earlier?
[00:29:11] Speaker E: Yeah, I remember. I don't. I don't remember. I think. I think it might have even been. Danny came up to me one night in Louisville and said, I was working with Brian. He says, beat the. Out of him. And I said, whoa, what? Yeah, he's a. He's a. He's a punk. He doesn't listen to anybody. And I thought, man, that's not the way to do it. So I took Brian off to the side and said, hey, man, I'd worked with him a couple times and. And he wasn't. He didn't trust me yet because he was very, he was rushing and he was, he was kind of wanting to make sure he got his stuff in and I was. And it wasn't time yet, so I told him to move. I thought, I'm starting to say, hey, listen man, I'm gonna tell you something. Just, just hear me out. So nobody likes you, nobody wants to work with you. And he looked shocked. Nobody ever told him. I said, if you will just listen to me out there, I promise you I'm not going to eat you up. I'm not going to try to get over on you. Just listen to me out there and I promise you I'll, we'll do this.
And he did. And from then on he listened to me and not saying that I, I know everything, but I just, I knew what, what he was trying to do.
So.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: And, and you know, Tom, a funny thing. Brian told me this story and he told me exactly everything you said and he said, you also said. And you know a lot of these guys with you being like you are, it's you. But a lot of these guys don't like your dad either. So they, they aren't going to teach you anything.
[00:30:40] Speaker E: Yeah, probably so I probably said that too. But you know, just, it's one of those things where, you know, I've been in that same position where my, my, my quietness sometimes, I mean in my, my kind of sitting off by myself. I can't explain it. Why, what was going on then. I know a little bit more now, you know, after therapy.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: But, but, but, but, but Brian always. Just me and him talking and everything. You know, Tom, we talked about everything and, and work against each other so much. But he always credited you for, for, I mean, a ton of the stuff that he learned.
[00:31:21] Speaker E: Well, that's, that's, that was nice of him because he, he really did learn a ton of stuff and he, he went on and had a pretty good, pretty good career and I, I like Brian, you know, I really did. And, and he, he just, I think he, just because of who he was, I think he was constantly trying to prove it.
[00:31:41] Speaker B: That's. You're right, you're right. I, I love Brown was, I mean freaking best friends time travel together, everywhere.
I mean, you know, did everything together and everything. But yeah, he always, I mean spoke.
I mean if anybody ever said word about you or whatever, he was the guy that, that he credit for as far as chemistry and teaching him as far as wine when and what needed to be done. I thought that was really cool.
[00:32:10] Speaker E: Yeah, that is cool, man. I remember we had a. We had a match, the Mid South Coliseum, for each other's cars.
And we had to drive the car inside the arena. And I had. I forget, a Cougar or something, whatever it was. And then Brian had the other car and his girlfriend was sitting in the car. After the match, I grabbed the coke and she had the window down. Damn it.
Yeah. I would have thrown on the window, but I got so far I couldn't not throw it and I threw it on.
You know what I mean? I remember times like that. And he was pissed. She was pissed.
Yeah, it wasn't good, but I had the drink I had. I couldn't very well just put it down and walk away.
Yeah, I mean, I'll remember that one forever.
[00:32:58] Speaker B: Oh, that's funny.
[00:32:59] Speaker E: Yeah, man.
[00:33:00] Speaker C: That was one of the fun things about the Memphis territory, the weekly nature of it. You had those. Those types of stipulation matches where you got guys. It starts out it's just a. It's just a feud, but then there's a belt involved. And then it's belt versus the car versus the hair versus your house versus your dog.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Well, it's funny. Tom said that I won Brian's vehicle. I mean, we was in something where it was. Yeah, my Something against his vehicle, and I pulled his vehicle. Now his girlfriend wasn't in it. I actually got in his vehicle after the match and pulled it out of the Coliseum.
[00:33:36] Speaker E: But.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: But, yeah, like you're saying, Gene, there.
There's all kind of memories, right, of stuff like that.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Hey, it's Bob Smith. And guess what? The Outdated Wrestling Hour is now part of the Wrestlecopia Podcast Network. But hey, no fear, you're still gonna hear the unique guests. Comedy, music, authors, journalists, funny people.
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Hey, everybody, Gene Jackson here inviting you to check out the Retro Wrestling Review, where each week I'm joined by some great co hosts who help me review classic episodes of USWA Championship wrestling. And right now we are doing week by week reviews of 1993. But we don't just do reviews. Sometimes we get a chance to interview some of the people who were there and lived it. Plus, do watch alongs. It's a lot of fun. So check out new episodes that drop every
[email protected] and to find links to everything associated to the podcast. You can go to uswapodcast.com and we've talked about that. I don't know. I don't know if there's many people that lost their hair more time than Doug did, but there certainly wasn't people who lost their hair in matches where his hair wasn't even at stake.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: That's what I was gonna say, Tom. I don't know. How do you do. That's when you're, I guess, really one of the guys, right? When you're not even in the hair match, but you go in the ring and with father and son, when they're in a hair match against each other and you wind up getting your head shaved.
[00:35:27] Speaker E: What's wrong with that?
[00:35:29] Speaker B: What's wrong with that?
[00:35:30] Speaker E: Yeah, what's wrong with that picture, man?
Yeah.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: But hey, you're gonna laugh. You're talking about vehicles.
We was doing radio for that show that we was just on and Jimmy Valiant said, we was at the car lot and he said, the King Fish stole my car. And I said, he did what, Jimmy? He said, he stole my car. I said, he stole your car? He said, yeah, he stole my best red Corvette I ever had. He stole Kingfish, stole my car. I laughed, but it was a match and everything and it was for a red Corvette and I laughed at him. He was funny.
[00:36:07] Speaker E: Well, there, you know what. And just real quick to go on that we. I was.
I was with Handsome and Tommy and Jimmy Hart in St. Louis A couple months ago, and he was talking about a red Corvette that he was driving.
And then Jimmy had to get in and take it to Jerry Jared's house. And he said, I think we called up Jerry and he said, I think we've got a problem. He said, what's that? He said, there's marijuana seeds.
[00:36:37] Speaker B: Have you heard about this?
[00:36:39] Speaker E: Well, couldn't find out. It wasn't marijuana seeds. It was the sesame seeds.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Oh, that's funny.
[00:36:47] Speaker E: From a McDonald's hamburger.
Jimmy didn't smoke pot back then, you know, so. Yeah, it might have been the same record.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Oh, that's funny.
[00:37:01] Speaker E: Yeah, I thought that was good.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:05] Speaker C: So speaking of matches at the Mid South Coliseum, a match that happened at the Mid South Coliseum that I was there for, that took place between you guys is in 1996. Tom, you're a member of the Body Donnas teaming up with Chris Candido and the God Ones are involved. And Doug and Tommy, y' all faced off in a three way tag match in a WWF show at the Mid South Coliseum. And, and it was an afternoon show and it was a huge card. I actually got a poster of it over here.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: Oh, that, that Tom, he, he's talking about the, that USWA against WWF deal. It was Lawler against Bret Hart, Brian against Tataka, and you and Chris against me and Tommy against the God was you. Don't you remember that time?
[00:37:53] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Hey man, that was cool. Y' all freaking put me and Tommy over like a, like a million dollars, which, I mean, and y' all was the champions at the time.
[00:38:07] Speaker E: Wow. Well, and that was. Yeah, that was kind of in that however many months you held the titles.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, how many ever months y' all was. Y' all was the champions. And I mean, but y' all made me Tommy. I mean y' all put us over like a million bucks. And, and I mean it drew great. I don't know, Gene probably knows what it drew.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: It was a big, I don't have an exact figure, but it was a big house because we were sitting up towards the top because it was kind of a last minute thing. Me and my little brother was like, you want to go to that? And like, yeah. I was like, well, hell, let's go. And we took off and headed up there and, and you know, we thought, all right, so it's the God ones and the body Donna is like, there's no way our home team's gonna end up winning this. You know, Doug and Tommy's probably not gonna win. So when you guys won, we were over the moon. We're like, oh my God. You know, they beat the WWF teams. That's awesome. You know, but there's a ton of stars on that show. Like I said, Shawn Michaels and Owen Hart had a great match that there was a pay per view in Louisville the next day.
And a lot of those matches were, I guess, kind of tune ups for the pay per view because I end up seeing the pay per view later and it's like, oh, that's the match we saw in Memphis today before between yeah and Sean, you know.
[00:39:16] Speaker E: Yeah, well, they like, they like doing stuff like that. Yeah.
[00:39:20] Speaker C: Had Yoko and Undertaker and he had Brett and Lawler in a cage and yeah, it drew really, it drew really well. So that was, that was quite the. Like I say, it's quite the thing to get to see our, our hometown USWA guys against the wwf.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: So until you got to realize Gene, you know, we was coming back every, every Monday where Tom and those guys wouldn't be back one more time a year. And if they was back they was going to.
[00:39:49] Speaker E: Well, let's see.
[00:39:50] Speaker B: What.
[00:39:51] Speaker E: What building would have.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Would. Would that have been the pyramid days or. I supposed to say they wouldn't. Probably wouldn't.
[00:39:57] Speaker E: No, I don't think the pyramid was. Was there yet or was it, I don't know, 96?
[00:40:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it was.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: I think, I think it was around. Yeah, I think it was around. And. But that's what I'm saying. WWF wouldn't have run the Coliseum. They.
If there was something else, they would run it, is what my point was. But anyway, like I said, it didn't bother them none. Like I said, Tom and then was traveling all over the world at that time during those when y' all was the champions time, y' all was on the roads, on the road every day, right?
[00:40:29] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Pretty much.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: So how did you enjoy teaming with Chris Candido? I'm sure you didn't love shaving your head and, you know, becoming.
[00:40:40] Speaker E: Well, I'll tell you, man.
But yeah, not really.
And didn't really enjoy that too much. But, you know, Chris Candida was a great guy and I enjoyed teaming with him. You know, it's. It's the rest of that package, it kind of, you know, rocked the boat a little bit. But, you know, at that time, I was, I was going through some stuff. Chris was going through some stuff, and we just made the best of it as best we could. But, but I was, you know, I tried traveling with him and Tammy one time, and that was all it took. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. So, yeah, I pretty much found another form of transportation.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: So you found another riding buddy?
[00:41:25] Speaker E: I sure did. Yeah.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: And see, that's. I've told Gene that before, Tom, and like, you know, people don't understand. They just think we all, all our big buddies and we all just go everywhere together and, and go to each other's houses. But there's not. But like, And I mean, I wish more of us would have probably got along, but I was explaining to him, you know, like, maybe you, me, one or two more, you know, would hang out, but then, you know, would be a different bunch, but you'd have 8, 9, 10 different cars of people going different directions. I mean, people thinks all the time, oh, everybody's friends, they all go together. They go to each other's house. House. Well, that's not the reality, right?
Not.
[00:42:04] Speaker E: Not always. I mean, you know, sometimes it's just.
It's a matter of when you're off the road, you want to be off the road, and you want to just kind of chill, you know?
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:42:13] Speaker E: Or sometimes even. Even on the road, you just want to that.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Well, that's what I was telling. But that's, I think, the perception, people's perceptions. We're all going to the same place. Like they think we're together, but I, you know, it might be me and you, and we might not care about being around another, you know, some of the other guys, and we might get a car, just go our own way, but everybody had their own. It wasn't like everybody was great buddies. Like everybody, you know, always thinks.
[00:42:42] Speaker E: Right. But I mean, for the most part, everybody got along.
Yeah.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Done our best anyway.
[00:42:51] Speaker E: Right. Well, especially me. I do my best all the time, try to get along, you know, but my best sometimes isn't good enough. You know what I mean? So there you have it.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's all of us sometime.
[00:43:03] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:43:05] Speaker C: You know, taking the. The money aspect out of it, as far as what you're making at the time. But if you look back over your career, Tom, from, you know, Continental Days and Memphis, the different stages, you were there, of course, your time in Smoky Mountains, one of the heavenly bodies through the wwf. What would you call your favorite era of your career as far as just enjoyment, having fun.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: Hey, Gene.
[00:43:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: And I want Tom, if you will, talk a little bit about his Louisiana days. You kind of.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, my bad.
[00:43:36] Speaker E: Oh, you know what? Yeah. Because I remember coming home for Christmas.
I was in Oregon, and I flew home for Christmas that year, and I went down to see the guys and I saw Bill Dundee, and I told him, I said, hey, you know, I've been a year in Oregon now, so if there's anything happening was that it was right after the rock and roll of midnights, you know, big run there. And Bill called me up about a month later when I came back and I came. Came to Louisiana, and that was.
That was a good experience for me because, you know, all I want to do is wrestle back. Then you did 3, 000 miles a week, and I was living with Brad Armstrong and Tim Horner. But Louisiana is where Bill Watts, you know, saw me, and he asked me if I'd ever thought about being a heel. And I said every day, you know, I was just. I was just at that place, you know, where.
And where, I guess sometimes.
[00:44:34] Speaker B: And Tom, Bill run Houston, which. Houston being kind of your home and everything, that was a good, good thing. You had to do that, didn't you?
[00:44:43] Speaker E: Yeah, it was great. I got to come Home wrestling. My hometown. Got to turn heel and be a heel in my hometown.
So, yeah, it was awesome, man. It really was. You know, you stayed busy, and if you were in the. You were young in the business and wanted to break in and learn and. And listen and. And have a good time all at the same time, you know, your life was wrestling, that was a good place to be, right?
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Well, that's what I told Gene. I graduated, Tom. The next day after I graduated, I. I started in the Louisiana territory. And I was telling Gene about, I mean, miles and everything, but, man, it was great, though. You got to work every night. And a lot of times, you know, with Watts, it was twice on Saturday and maybe twice on Sunday.
[00:45:26] Speaker E: Twice on Saturday. Twice on Sunday. Yeah, it was. It was just like that.
[00:45:32] Speaker C: And so you got to, you know, I named a few of the territories that I was able to see.
But, I mean, you worked in a majority of the territories in your career. Is there a territory that you wish you'd have got an opportunity to work in that you didn't for one reason or another?
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Well, is there a territory you actually didn't work in, Tom?
[00:45:52] Speaker E: Yeah, I didn't work in Charlotte territory.
Yeah, I didn't work there. I'm gonna work some shots in there. But I never worked territory. And that would have been. I think that would have been an experience too, because they were. They were like Watts. They were running all over the place.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:08] Speaker C: You know, the story I've always heard was that when Dennis Condrey left, you know, up and kind of disappeared overnight in the. In the Crockett territory, that Jim Cornett's first choice as a replacement in the Midnight Express for Condrey was you. But Dusty had Stan Lane, you know, already in the queue because of taking over the Florida territory. And so Stan kind of ended up in that spot by default.
I mean, that would have been. That would have been something to see you and Bobby as the Midnight Express in 87. How do you feel about that? Would that have you think it would have made a major change in your career had that been the route you went?
[00:46:49] Speaker E: Well, it definitely would have made a major change in my career, but I don't know that I was ready for it. I mean, I was in Continental when that happened. And Adrian street, someone who told me, he said, jimmy's been trying to get a hold of me. But we were. We were on one of those four day loops. I think we went down from Birmingham to Pensacola and then Panama City or something like that. And we were, you Know, standing, staying in a hotel for, like, three days in a row.
And Adrian told me that he talked to Jim Cornette, and he'd been trying to get a hold of me, and then by that week, Stan had already got. Got hired. So. But I think they didn't. They didn't miss a beat. And Stan brought a new dynamic, you know, to. To those guys, and they never. They never missed a beat.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: And. And if they would have got a hold of Tom, it would have been a different dynamic, but I think it would have been great. I mean, Thomas would have been great.
[00:47:40] Speaker E: Yeah, I think.
I'm not doubting that it wouldn't. It wouldn't have been really, really good. I don't know how great we could have been, because Stan really brought something extra to it, and he complimented Bobby so well, and. And Stan had already been part of the fabs, and he had. That. He had already had that taste of what it's like to work on top in that. In that capacity, you know, where they're. They're relying on.
[00:48:04] Speaker B: On.
[00:48:04] Speaker E: On the. You know, the fabs in Memphis, and they. They got over like a man. Like, they got over great. Let me say that.
So I think that was another.
Another reason that they put him in that spot.
[00:48:20] Speaker C: You said a name there that. I want to circle back to that. I love hearing stories about this guy. I find him fascinating. Do you have any fun stories or memories of Adrian Street?
[00:48:32] Speaker E: Yeah, he was one of those guys that he. He. He had the gimmick, you know, and it was. It was obviously meant to be portrayed as either gay or whatever. And back then, you know, that was always a heel. Yeah, but. But once he got in the ring, then he wanted to fight you like a wrestler instead of doing the gimmicks, you know, he would. He would kind of pinch on your ass or do whatever it was. But.
[00:48:59] Speaker B: But I mean, he was actually a. A wrestler. Wrestler, right, Tom?
[00:49:03] Speaker E: Yeah. And he'd tie you up in knots and make you. You know, and I'm thinking, what the. Why. Why are you beating up the baby face? But yeah, you know what I mean? Anybody. And nothing you could do about it, because he puts in these crazy holes and do stuff to you, and then he. He'd be. He'd be like a regular wrestler, but coming. Coming and going to the ring, he'd be, you know, exotic, Adrian. And once you got in the ring, though, if you couldn't hold your own with him, he'd eat you up.
[00:49:29] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what I always found fascinating. Like, you Said he played that gimmick where you thought he would get in there and was gonna probably be a chicken shit heel and run and prance around and all that, but then he'd get in there and just tie people in knots and, like I say, and sometimes make a fool out of the baby face in some instances if they couldn't hang. And it was almost from a psychology standpoint, if you understood that side, it was almost kind of like a head scratcher, like, what are we doing here? You know, but.
[00:49:53] Speaker E: Right.
Yeah, that's how I felt every time I got in the ring with him.
Yeah.
[00:50:02] Speaker C: So, you know, you had a great career in the ring, but you have also made a huge mark on the business with all the guys, you know, we talked about within your career, guys like Doug and Brian Christopher and all these different people that you've helped.
Helped along in their career. But, you know, since in training, especially all the training you've done for the. For the WWE over the years, you know, you have trained some of the biggest stars, guys that have already been put into the hall of Fame in the last, you know, 20 years, and you now have a actual school of your own in Knoxville. Tell us a little bit about how that came together and. And how it's going.
[00:50:43] Speaker E: Well, Glenn Jacobs was going to run for the mayor for Knox county, and we were doing campaign stuff with him, and my wife was working at his insurance company, and so we got to go into the campaign stuff and, and helping him out, and we were having lunch one day, and I was telling. I told him I had a seminar to go to that weekend, but the next next day was a fundraiser, and he wanted to talk to me and said, listen, man, why don't we do a wrestling school in Knoxville? Both from Knoxville, living in Knoxville.
How about you and me? Let's. Let's open up a wrestling school.
So that's how it started. Just. Just kind of throwing it out there. And Glenn won as. As mayor, Knox County. And he. He's obviously got a lot on his plate right now, but I teach the guys, you know, five days a week in LA, Tennessee, which is like 45 minutes from Knoxville.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: Now.
[00:51:42] Speaker E: We got thrown out of our other place in Knoxville after five years, but now we've been doing this six years. And, you know, it's. It's something I enjoy doing. It's something I like doing. And we've. We've got. We just graduated four people last night, as a matter of fact, in.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Oh, Carmel Tom, did you enjoy when. I mean, he was I mean, I know for. I mean, he was there quite a while.
I don't know how many years. But when he was doing the training for wwf, did you enjoy that during that time?
[00:52:21] Speaker E: I did at times, yeah. And I really enjoyed it. Went to FCW down in Tampa.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: That's, you know, that, that's what I was referring to. That wasn't that. I mean, what was that? How many years was that four time that he was there?
Oh, man.
I mean, three, four, five.
[00:52:40] Speaker E: Was about five years. About five years in town.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: And I mean, what some of the guys have come out during that five years.
[00:52:47] Speaker E: Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: Say the top.
[00:52:51] Speaker E: Their top. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guys like that. And if you look at everybody who came out of he, Slater came out of, you know, the last five, six years in wwe, you know, they came out of Tampa and they came out of the performance center.
[00:53:07] Speaker B: Right. That's cool.
[00:53:10] Speaker C: That is of. Over the years of people you trained from, from that era on, is there anybody that really stands out in your mind as somebody who just seemed to just have it naturally? Like it just came to them more natural than. Than anybody else that you can think of?
[00:53:27] Speaker E: Kurt Angle. Kurt Angle was a pretty natural guy. I mean, for an amateur wrestler, especially guys that not used to getting on their back or being put on their back. That's. That's so foreign to an amateur wrestler. But Kurt understood it from day one. I told him, we got the ring the first time when we lock up. I said, I have nothing to prove to you, so don't stress me. Don't try anything, please, I'm begging you. You know, so. But no, we locked up. He locked up great. And he got it, man. He understood.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: And on the other aspect of that time, is there anybody on top of your head that when you first started working out with them, you thought they might not get it and they really.
[00:54:06] Speaker E: Called on and, and Mark Henry, Mark Henry I wasn't too sure about. You know, he was. He was an Olympic weightlifter and he had his ideas about things and, and I wasn't sure he was going to catch it, man, but he did. He got on.
[00:54:22] Speaker B: Man. That's great. Aunt Gene, to hear some of these stories.
[00:54:25] Speaker C: It is, yeah. Kurt Angle is such an interesting case because so many of those guys, like you said, the Olympic types and the amateur types, it's so hard for them to catch on to, like you say, not only just the working aspect of it, but the personality of he. It was amazing to me how, what a natural, like personality and how he took to that side of wrestling, the promos and the humor in the backstage segments and things like that was, was really amazing.
[00:54:53] Speaker E: Yeah, he was a good guy outside man, we have dinner. And he knew how to, how to tell stories. He had a lot of good stories too. And he was, he's a pretty charismatic guy.
[00:55:06] Speaker C: So when you have people coming in these days who are signing up from this, the school, how different are the, the prospects of people who are wanting to get in the wrestling business compared to. We'll make a couple different comparisons. One compared to like the days when like you guys broke into the business and then even like in the days 10, 15 years ago, as you were going in the beginning first going into doing training for the WWF.
How different as today's person who's interested in breaking into the wrestling, their mentality, just them as people, as the people who took an interest in wrestling back then.
[00:55:46] Speaker E: I think the perception these days is anybody can be in the wrestling business, so to speak. And there's a school on every corner which we're just as guilty of. You know, there's a wrestling school out there. You can go to wrestling school and then become a wrestler.
Back when I broke in, back when Doug broke in, you had to know somebody who knew somebody.
And it was a real secretive, mysterious business.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: And Tom. But, but you had to be able to be in the business like you said. Yeah, there's a rest in school on every corner, but on 90 of those corners is probably somebody trying to teach that don't know, right. And like you said, and, and you might have had, you had to know, like you said, somebody at our time to get in. But if you couldn't do it, you, you wouldn't, you were out, it was gone.
[00:56:39] Speaker E: Yeah. And these days, you know, you, you, you can, you can get in and anybody will book you. They can run a show on every corner too these days. And that just back then there was, you know, not that I'm four commissions, but I mean they had more commissions. They have people looking out for it and it wasn't easy to get a license. You know, promoters kind of kept their licenses real tight knit, you know, in the towns they ran and it was hard to get a license to promote, much less wrestle. And yeah, it was just a whole different, the business was, was different back then. The guys were different back then, you know, and of course everything changes. Not saying, you know, we can do the same thing we did in 1990, 60, but at the same time, you know, you still have the basics and fundamentals still blocking and tackling, you're still trying to hit the ball over the fence. You still, you still gotta do the things that are necessary to, to have a strong foundation to do it.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: And, and here's the thing, Tom, you're around world these guys a lot more than I am and everything but.
[00:57:48] Speaker E: Like.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: At the seminars and different things, but I was trying to think, I had a, actually a question for you, but we went over who, who got it the most. Who you didn't think what is there do you have right now, how many, how many students do you have at your school now? Or do you do like, like two or three week seminars or how do you.
[00:58:16] Speaker E: We, we do, we do three 12 week sessions a year. Than one 10 week session. We're getting ready to do our 10 week session at the end of this year. And this last class we only had four students.
So I mean I've had as many as 22. I've had as little as one.
And what we do 12 weeks, they take a week off, do another 12 weeks week off. 12 weeks, week off. Then we do 10 weeks and we do Christmas and we start over at the next, the first of the year.
[00:58:46] Speaker C: Okay, so I'll ask you one more question along those lines and then we're going to have you kind of tell people if they're interested in getting in the wrestling business, how they can contact the school and what they would need to do to, to sign up and.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: Gene, just one second. I know what it was time that I was wanting to ask. But also I hear a lot of people now say that people comes to wrestling schools. Like you said, there's a ton of them, but there's not a ton of people that they should be going to their schools. But they say there's more people like now that wants to be actors. It's not so much. I mean they want to get into. It's like actor type people, not wrestling type people. Is that, is that the case?
[00:59:26] Speaker E: Yeah, I've seen that. I sure have. I've seen a lot of people who think all they have to do is flip, flop and fly and then they're in the wrestling business, you know, hey man, I can do good stunts. I've heard that too, and that wasn't it. You know, you still have to learn how to lock up. You stuff learn footwork, you stuff learn how to, how to move around and do the simple basics from a headlock to, to a waist lock, takedown or hammer lock, you know. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that. So they just think they have to.
[00:59:52] Speaker B: Do the good moves and, and Tom, it still works, don't it?
[00:59:56] Speaker E: It does if you know how to. It's not, it's not the hold you do, it's how you do the holds you do. And in between the stuff, it's the in between moments that people forget about.
[01:00:08] Speaker C: One thing about wrestling in recent, in the past several, several years is, is women's wrestling has really evolved a lot from what it was back in the day when, you know, you'd have your, your one's women's match on the card and a lot of the matches were all very similar.
Do you find you, you have a lot more interest from female students looking to get in the business and, and they seem to have a different mentality from what, you know, the women of the past did when they got in.
[01:00:35] Speaker E: I had one woman this last session. She's tougher than all the guys, you know what I mean? And she, she just.
Yeah, I, we, we've had. I've had as many as four women at one time in the class.
But, you know, to do this, you really have to be dedicated and, and responsible about showing up. And some women just, you know, to do this, number one, you have to be a little crazy. But as a woman, especially, to want to do this and take the bumps and do the same thing the guys do, it takes a lot. So I give them all the credit in the world for doing it.
[01:01:11] Speaker C: Well, Tom, if somebody is listening to this and they, you know, they have an interest of trying to get into the wrestling business and they want to come to the wrestling academy there in Knoxville, how would they look you up? How would they go about trying to make that happen, happen?
[01:01:24] Speaker E: All they have to do is email me@jpwrestling academy.com it's actually G. Gmail. Go to Gmail. Let me try that one more time.
JP Wrestling Academy.com will take you to our website and you can check out all the pricing and, and all the stuff we do and check out the website. But if you want to send an email, you can send an email to JP Wrestling Academy and somebody will get back to you and let you know all the information.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: Well, hey, like you said, there's wrestling schools out there on every corner. There's guys who have never been anywhere or done anything that are charging people ridiculous amounts of money to train. Tom Prichard's reputation speaks for itself. The people that he has trained over the years speaks for itself.
So if you want to get in the business and you want to be Trained by someone who has been in the business, who has been successful in the business, who can send you down the right path to actually succeeding in wrestling. Not just, you know, being the. The big hit at the Armory down the road from where you live. This is a man you need to reach out to.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: You ain't kidding. He sure is. And also, like I said, we just tell. Like I said, like I told you, we'd like to have a good time on here and talk about different things and everything. But now it's funny how certain. Certain things you don't forget. I think this was like an Exit 56 at the Brownsville exit, like going to Memphis.
What about the time you got out of the car at the gas station?
What the guy say? Ain't you Dr. Dr. John?
[01:03:00] Speaker E: No, that was. That was at the. The center, outside of.
What was it? Was it Pipkin Center?
[01:03:07] Speaker B: Pipkin Building?
[01:03:08] Speaker E: Yeah, Pipkin Building. It's outside the Pipkin Building, yeah.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: That's where that happen. That.
[01:03:12] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: This story.
[01:03:14] Speaker E: Well, I was with Road Dog and God, maybe Jeff.
Maybe Jeff Jarrett. And we're walking out to Pipkin Building, this dude comes. Hey, man, you Double Jeff.
[01:03:24] Speaker C: You Road dog.
[01:03:26] Speaker E: You. You Dr. John Richards.
Road dog said, yeah, he's Dr. John Richards.
[01:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I've called it Dr. John, everybody.
[01:03:38] Speaker E: Yeah, Yeah, a lot of people do.
Yeah.
[01:03:41] Speaker C: Doug has referred to Dr. John. Actually, I was going to slip that in and be like, we want to thank Dr. John Richards for doing the show with us. We prompt that story out of you there.
[01:03:48] Speaker E: But I. I answer. I answered all names.
[01:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we. We got to.
[01:03:53] Speaker E: Don't we, Tom? Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah, no kidding.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: But, man, Tom, we sure appreciate you. I appreciate everything you've done been.
I mean, my dad was around you quite a bit also and everything, and. Yeah, good man and everything. But, man, we sure appreciate you being on here with us and everything, and I sure appreciate everything that you taught me and helped me with, and I appreciate everything you're doing with my brother and my brother.
[01:04:21] Speaker E: Sure appreciate.
[01:04:22] Speaker B: Like I said, I told Gene that, you know, different bookers have different styles. And like I said, a lot of bookers don't want you telling me anything, but I thought that was kind of one of 80s cool things. Like, he would come to people like you that. That had a mind for the business, and he.
That he knew that you knew, and he would ask y' all and let y' all and not put something. Like I said, put something else with it, but let y' all have. And to me, Tom, that always.
I mean, that makes you want to do more. We all want to do as good as we could do. But don't that make you want to do a little more and everything?
[01:04:59] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, sure did. Especially when somebody gives it right back in your. Your lap and say, what do you feel comfortable doing? What do you want to do? And then kind of tweak it and add to it or take away.
Yeah, good.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: But Gene, you're kind of hearing, like I said, Tom's got, I mean, he's got stories for days. He's. He's seen it from. From time. When. When did you start? 79, maybe.
[01:05:23] Speaker E: 79. I have my first match. Yeah.
[01:05:25] Speaker B: Okay, cool.
And like I said, I, I was wondering. He said he didn't work in Charlotte, but I guess about all the other territories you did work in that time.
[01:05:34] Speaker E: Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much all the way from Portland, LA to Texas, Louisiana and. Yeah.
[01:05:41] Speaker B: And see, I mean, now, you know, you got the WWE and aw. Which, I mean, you got independence, like.
[01:05:48] Speaker E: You said, almost in every little town.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: And schools and every little town. But I mean, Tom, don't you think it's, it's a bad disadvantage for the people as far as not being able to work at least five, six nights a week? And, you know, like, we had it.
[01:06:05] Speaker E: That's.
[01:06:05] Speaker B: To me, that was the cool part. And learning, and learning your character and.
[01:06:10] Speaker E: What you was going to be and.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: And you know, like the nights, you know, we like, you wouldn't even, even see or be in the dressing room with who's working with. So you got in the ring with them. I mean, don't you think that had that, that, that aspect of it, to me, you know, I think made you.
[01:06:28] Speaker E: Made the workers so much better. Yeah. I think the only way you're going to get better is doing it in front of people and seeing what works with the crowd. This crowd one night, another crowd the next night. What may work tonight, may not work tomorrow night. So, yeah, I think working every night is the only way to really learn this. And I tell guys at school too. I mean, we can go over everything in front of an empty building, but until you get in front of a crowd and you feel it out, you're.
[01:06:52] Speaker B: Not going to know until you get in front of them and you don't breathe. What is the time? I remember when I started, I thought I was in shape. I mean, as far as cardio. But then when you, your nerves, what's the first thing goes?
[01:07:05] Speaker E: Time you're nervous, right?
[01:07:06] Speaker B: I mean.
[01:07:06] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. And you're gonna blow up, so. And the hardest thing to do, the hardest thing to do is slow down and relax. Once, once I learned to do that, I thought, oh my God, now I know. But that just comes with experience.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: That's it.
[01:07:19] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:07:21] Speaker C: Well, man, when, when you look at the, the who's who of guys that you guys worked with night in and night out through your career, and like I said, working, you know, six, seven days a week a lot of times and multiple times on Saturdays and Sundays, there's no way to replicate that anymore.
Guys with that type of experience aren't out there and nobody's running shows that frequently. There's just not an opportunity for people to get the kind of experience that you guys got coming up through the territories. And it's a shame, but it's just, it's just a fact of life, you know.
[01:07:52] Speaker E: Yeah, it's non existent, man. But I still think that's, that's the way to do it, you know, there's certain things you got to do to, to figure it out and have somebody with more experience than you who understands and knows how to do it. And so you slow down, sit here, come up, hit me, you know, no, go back down. We're gonna wait a little longer. And that just. Yeah, you're right. It just, it doesn't exist anymore.
[01:08:14] Speaker B: And, and Thomas, like I've told Gene before, you know, they think, look, these big office wrestlers and the last thing just common people thinks is the word psychology. But like me and Brian taught, and he told me that you actually taught him psychology and why to do the things, when to do them, why he was doing them for and everything. But that's what I mean, anybody be crazy? I think, I mean, I'm sure there's other guys out there, but you'd be the guy that if I wanted to send someone to harassing school, I want.
[01:08:48] Speaker E: Some, you know, you awesome. Well, please do if you do.
[01:08:53] Speaker C: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Tom. This is, this is what we do this show for, is for guy here, people to hear guys like you learn about the wrestling business and have some fun, hear some fun stories in the process. And we got plenty of both this week, didn't we, Doug?
[01:09:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Like I said. Well, Dr. John there, he could, he.
[01:09:10] Speaker E: Could tell you stories for days.
[01:09:12] Speaker B: Great stories. I mean, I've traveled with him and, and work with him and, and like I said, he's been.
Man. It's just cool to me, Tom, that like you talk about the territories and like I said, the stories and, and, and like at all the territories. Like I said, some of the. I tell Gene, you know, people gets, you know, wants to talk bad about stuff and everything. There's so much actually fun stuff that when we left the building and when we went and we go the hotel. Hotel and go do things that we laughed and had fun and, you know, people wants to be downers so much these days. And to me, I told you, man, why can't we just talk about funds?
[01:09:52] Speaker E: The good times. Yeah, right. I had a lot of great times when that's where I met Tommy and Brian Armstrong in Atlanta, Georgia. When I first met Tommy Rich, I couldn't believe it, man. He's. It was insane. He's still insane, but in a good way. In a good way.
You know what I mean? And Tommy's never changed.
[01:10:11] Speaker B: No, no.
Exactly the same. I think from when he probably started to right now.
[01:10:17] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: And everything. But hey, Tom, man, I sure appreciate you being on the show with us. And like I said, there's ever anybody that asks me and Gene about. About wrestling school, you'll be the one that we tell them to go to.
[01:10:32] Speaker E: Awesome. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Good deal.
[01:10:35] Speaker B: Thank you, Tom.
[01:10:49] Speaker C: All right, everybody, before we get out of here, we just want to thank one more time Dr. Tom Pritchard for joining us on this week's episode. And I just want to remind everybody where you can catch Dangerous Doug Gilbert coming up very soon.
First of all, you can see him in Kennet, Missouri. If you're checking this out as it drops on Thursday night or on Friday the 11th, then there's still time to make your plans to get over to Kennet, Missouri, over there to the American Legion building to check out the Show Me showdown throwdown from American Hostile championship wrestling.
Saturday, October 12th. As a matter of fact, rather than hear me talk about it, let's let Dangerous Doug and the King himself, Jerry Lawler, tell you all about what's happening October 12th.
[01:11:41] Speaker A: October 12th, Kenan, Missouri. Look, of all things, Danger stuck over the King. Jay Lawler will be in. Kenneth. From 3:00pm to 7:00pm King. We'll be signing things. The King will be meeting people, taking pictures with them.
[01:11:53] Speaker B: We will also have the hall of.
[01:11:56] Speaker A: Famer, Ricky Morton from the rock and roll Swiss King. We will have Downtown Bruno, Memphis hall of Famer with us. There's gonna be so many of us there. From 3pm to 7pm at the American Legion King, myself, you, Ricky Morton, Downtown Bruno. They'll be wrestling that night from 3pm to 7pm if you want to see the King JLR Dangerous stuck, Gilbert King. Are we gonna be there?
[01:12:18] Speaker C: I think think so, but it looks like we're out of time. But now we'll see you there that Saturday.
All right. Not much more I can add to that. Make sure you get out to kennet on Saturday, October 12th to see Dangerous Doug Gilbert, Jerry the King Lawler, Ricky Morton, Downtown Bruno and a host of others for this great event coming back to the American Legion Building right there in Kennet where there's so much great history. Also, the following Saturday, October 19th, it's going to be Football Wrestling Day at the University of Memphis. And down on Tiger Lane there's going to be wrestling action. There's going to be all sorts of Memphis wrestling legends down there, including your host, Dangerous Doug Gilbert, including Tommy Wildfire Rich, Downtown Bruno, all sorts of great legends are going to be on hand right there at the University of Memphis for Football Wrestling Day right before they take on Texas. So make sure you get down there. Check that out on Saturday, October 19th at the University of Memphis. Also coming up November 2nd, that is Saturday, November 2nd, there's going to be a big Legend show taking place in Clarksville, Arkansas. It's going to be at the exhibit building at the fairgrounds. There's going to be a fan fest from 2pm to 6pm Bell time for the matches is going to be at 7pm but there is going to be a whole host of legends there. You're going to see the grapplers there from the WWE. Brian Kendrick will be there, Preston Vance from AEW, the Perfect 10, Baby Doll Action Mike Jackson, Miranda Gordy, Tony Atlas, Mr. USA is going to be there. The Golden Boy, Chick Donovan will be there.
And of course Dangerous Doug Gilbert and Tommy Wildfire Rich is going to be there as well. This is going to be a big one. Tickets are on sale now.
You can go to our Facebook page page Dangerous Conversations with Doug Gilbert. Find out where you can get your tickets in advance. And Again, that's Saturday, November 2nd in Clarksville, Arkansas for this huge legend show. You don't want to miss that. It's going to be a great one now. And by the way, if you have an upcoming wrestling show, autograph signing, collector show, Comic Con, or any event or booking that you would like to inquire about the services of Dangerous Doug Gilbert and or Tommy Wildfire Rich, just send us an email at doug gilbert podcast outlook.com and someone will get back to you as soon as possible to find out more information. And we will do our best, do some business and make that happen.
Also, if you're interested in advertising your event, business or product to the listeners here on Dangerous Conversations with Doug Gilbert as well as across all our social media platforms. You can also send those inquiries to Doug Gilbert podcastoutlook.com and remember to check out douggilbertpodcast.com there you can find links to all things related to this podcast and to Doug Gilbert himself. There are links to the Dangerous Conversations Fake Facebook page where we post all sorts of great content regularly involving the Gilbert family. There's the Dangerous Conversations X and Twitter, plus the Dangerous Doug Gilbert Facebook and X pages where you can keep up with everything that Doug has coming up, like shows, signings, conventions, you name it. You can keep up with it by following Doug on social media.
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[email protected] at Retro WrestlingArchive, we're adding more videos every day of not just the Gilberts, but old school wrestling from all over the world. And you can find that link for that YouTube page at Doug gilbertpodcast.com Plus don't forget, you can find all things related to my popular Retro Wrestling Review podcast at USWAPodcast.
And last but certainly not least, we are proud to be a part of the WrestleCopia podcast network. Going over to wrestlecopia.com to check out all the great pro wrestling related podcast and content that our friend Ray Russell provides over there. You'll be glad you did.
So with all that being said, we look forward to seeing you here again next week for another episode of Dangerous Conversations with Doug Gilbert.
[01:17:22] Speaker F: This is Wrestling Nostalgia, the podcast that dives into wrestling history. Hey wrestling fans, I'm Dave Dynasty and if you enjoy podcasts that are knowledgeable and history driven, then Wrestling Nostalgia is for you. With great guests and fun interviews. There are over 200 episodes in our archives. We chat with several first time guests and often cover topics not discussed on other podcasts. Look up Wrestling Nostalgia on your favorite podcast platform and visit all of our links at linktree grasslepod. That is L I n k t r e e slash R a s s l e e o d.
And remember, wherever you go, whatever you do, be good, be safe, and keep on growing.
