Cheap Heat Interview Part 1- Memphis Wrestling Star Tony Myers

(Coming up this week at hollywoodjimmy.com, the 2nd part of the interview with Memphis Wrestling star Tony Myers, in the meantime in case you missed it. Here's part one from a few weeks back)


GJ: What are your thoughts on the current state of Memphis Wrestling?


TM: It is what it is. Meaning that the more you overanalyze it, the more you find wrong with it. When we were doing big houses with Funk and Lawler on top everyone knew it was hotstreaking and thought everything done was so wonderful but when business went down, fingers are always pointed everywhere





GJ: What's your opinion of Corey Maclin both as a person , and a promoter? Do you think he really thinks that FANS want to see him as the centerpiece in main angles and in the ring, or does he just do it cause he wants to?



TM: If Corey wants Corey to do the job, who is he going to argue with? Is Corey going to rely on Corey? Will Corey ever no-show Corey. It is still worlds better than Randy Hales, who was nothing short of a retarded retard. Corey cuts tremendous promos still and hey, he in the ring with the right talent has proven to draw money. I've always gotten along great with Corey, you have to understand the business world Corey was apart of to understand why the landscape of wrestling in Memphis is the way that it is. Ok, Corey came from a background of selling used cars and selling commercial time on Tv, radio ads, newpaper ads and the like. Unlike Jerry Jarrett and Lawler or even Nick Gulas or ANY of the Welches, in this day in age your bread is not buttered by fans attending matches and paying for a ticket. There are so many sources of revenue for Memphis Wrestling that clearly, the man has done his job and then some. I'll digress more here, follow me. When your passion is dying out and you've been up and down the roads for so long living out your dream, I don't care what it is you do in life, eventually you are going to get tired of it. If you told me at the age of fifteen, after having my first match that I was going to completely lose my passion(for wrestling) by 30 years of age, I d have sworn to Thesz (God of wrestling) that you were crazy, but hey, point is that's Ok, remember back in the mid-eighties when Vince McMahon was taking everything over (more like territories self-destructing and not being able to compete with him), well, all the dirtsheet readers (like me at the time) were going nuts claiming this cartoon wasn't wrestling, best example I can give would be a course I took in my second year of college in economics and the dreaded Widget system, if Widget A is more than Widget B, Widget B is more successful. If Widget B is operating at a plus margin of error, than Widget B is profitable and a success. You be hard-pressed to tell anyone anything when you don t even have a Widget that you own yourself. Yes, you have to listen to the fans and yes, Jerry Jarrett did that for 2 years on Wrestling Classics message board and where did it get him? You have to listen to the fans not attending anymore and find out why. The loyal fanbase will come regardless because that is what pro wrestling diehard fans do. They watch wrestling. To sum it all up, I am not saying the product is wonderful or has the greatest matches but I am pointing out the operational overall success STILL, every week from a financial standpoint. Gorilla Monsoon once said it best, If you are in this business for anything other than money, you are a fool. The reason we are fans and love the business is because we aren't the ones up and down the roads and paying dues. It would be a job for guys like you and I who really likes to work that hard and put up with all the politics and everything when we can just sit around and bash what we don t like from the comfort of our own home.




GJ: Was there ever a time at an indy show that someone didn't want to sell for you, or put you over cause you did jobs on tv?



TM: Just a few. Luckily for me, and I truly hate saying this, the guys ultimately respected what I could do because they knew I was being held back and was so thankfull that I even had the chance to do the loop and wrestle (along with haul Lawler's ring) for an almost a 4 year stretch. I learned too much. Only the indy talent smart enough to know it wasn't their time or who loved the biz so much that they would stay on independents to do it for next to nothing just so that they could go over on the less talented were the ones who understood. Most younger talents just lied to themselves and said, They wouldn't make me no job-boy. I was only learning and even knew being green that given the chance you'd have to be a fool in any context if you love the biz enough like I did (I moved from Jersey to Memphis) to pass up just being given the opportunity




GJ: Given the current state of Memphis Wrestling (low ratings, small crowds, cancelled shows) Do you think the benefits of doing jobs on television (getting exposure, paying dues, getting a chance to work with "legends") outweigh the damage it does to your reputation on small local indy shows?



TM: There is next to no money anyway on what is left in the sad state of the Memphis independents. I'll put it to you this way, Vince McMahon will be here tomorrow night (August 8, 2006) and I promise you, every single job-guy in the whole area from Channel 30 will be there.




GJ: Another hot topic in the area (thanks to an article in Brian Tramel's WrestlingRiotOnline) is wrestlers still using the Moondog gimmick on shows despite the fact that Moondog Spot's family has asked that people let the gimmick be buried with Larry Booker, Do you think it's right for people to continue to make money off the gimmick he helped make famous?



TM: It is the worst thing about the biz I've seen in years that on a personal note makes me wanna puke. The only time I've ever went into any detail about Spot's death was in the December 8, 2003 Wrestling Observer and I did it to clear the record and make sure Dave Meltzer got all the facts right. It took me 4 months to even talk about Spotty's death other than with his sons Jo Jo (Jody) and Bubba (James). He was my best friend and a father figure and someone I idolized. His stories and thinking for the entire business and passion for it are untopped. I know respect is more than due to a guy who took so much of his time in helping so much of the younger talent. The amazing thing is Spot never asked for a single thing in return.




GJ: Looking at the "big picture" from the old days of CWA up through USWA, Power Pro, and the current Memphis show, Where do you feel the true decline in Memphis Wrestling began? Could it have been avoided?



TM: Randy F***ing Hales and no, It could never have been avoided. You couldn't get through to him, like I mentioned before, Macklin has underated promo skills, what did Hales offer the business?



GJ: Do you think it can be salvaged? If they handed over the reigns of Memphis Wrestling to you tommorow, what would you do to try to bring it back to it's past glory?


TM: No, wrestling just works in cycles, the entire business is down, this next boom period will definitely surpass the last one. My duties right now are providing the old DVDs/VHS for the 'Opening the Vault' segments, booking the guys out of town to various promoters and throwing in an idea or two. The boys always come by for old videos and stuff. I don't have to leave the house any more. I just don't have the desire to climb into a ring since 2003 and I m essentially a health-nut at around 165 lbs. now. I just live out my true passion for my love of the actual business itself and wouldn't want all the fingers pointed at me if things continued down. I feel so fortunate that they (the office) value my opinions and I am kinda harsh to the guys at times but in all, the day they come to me with the book is the day I know Memphis has gone insane!

As for bringing back the glory years, all the voices speak and want the blood, brawls, dirty arena look, blood stained canvas, guys working tighter, younger undersized talent (Memphis was NEVER built on size) with speed and zip in what they do. THOSE were all that the glory days. We can't go back to how it was, it would take too long to reprogram the fans and clearly the promotion is more than still profitable.





GJ: I've heard various stories from different people, Was the infamous Power Pro "Doug Gilbert Shoot", really a shoot, or a "worked shoot" that maybe got out of hand? I was told Jerry Lawler (who wasn't working there at the time) raced down there from his house to the studio. This was told to me by a well known worker who was there at the time. Any truth to that?


TM: Worked or shoot? C'mon cousin, let's look at the repercussions shall we: Hales had money liquidated out of his paychecks from the Gilbert family for years afterwards, Lawler attempts to sue Hales, Doug Gilbert gets fired, Tommy Rich quits that night. Lawler goes roughly 4 years before even speaking to Doug (Doug broke the ice with a "Hello King" greeting to Jerry at the Memphis International Airport). YEAH! Lawler sure did march into the studio, about 10 minutes after it happened, he looked at Corey and said, I ain't got a f***ing thing to say to you, turned and found that jerkoff Hales and said to him, I wanna copy of that tape and I am suing you. They've since bridged the gap, Jerry and Doug got together and worked things out over a game of golf but it took years for things to cool off.


GJ: What is your all time personal favorite Memphis angle?


TM: I am so glad you didn t do this interview over the phone-lol. Ok, the Dundee-Lawler promos back and forth in '86. I just got goosebumps thinking of Dundee screaming, 1, 2, 3 and you re gone, outta here Lawler, incredible and unsurpassed.


GJ: Outside of the occasional "Legend's Show", Do you feel it's good for business for guys Bill Dundee's age to still be on tv every week, going over on the younger talent?


TM: He doesn't always go over and he really takes his time in helping out the younger guys with advice. I don't know how guys like him, Lawler, Brian Christopher, Koko Ware, Brickhouse and Robert Gibson have the patience with the younger talent. I go nuts on them when they get in the way of a VHS I am grabbing for in my basement-lol

IWF Benefit Show in Fulton, MS. on Nov. 11th!

Larry the Cable the Guy- without the gimmick

This isn't wrestling related but someone sent it to me. It's a video of Dan Whitney a.k.a. Larry the Cable Guy doing stand up before he got the Larry the Cable Guy gimmick. Check it out.




http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1694862