CheapHeatTV- Bruiser Brody vs, Big Van Vader

Here's a match from the early part of Vader's career when he still wrestled as Leon White in the AWA taking on "King Kong" (Bruiser) Brody! Enjoy! CheapHeatTV will be bringing you the best and most rare wrestling youtube has to offer.

The Lawler Situation and other stuff.....

Wow, so this Jerry Lawler/Sal Corrente situation that was reported on Brian Tramel's site over the weekend has turned out to be a bigger ordeal than first suspected. RasslinRiot broke the story that Corrente is pressing charges on Lawler and it's been sited all over the wrestling sites on the net. Rumor is even floating around that Lawler has been suspended by WWE, although I haven't read that anywhere reputable and I don't know why they would other than perhaps trying to avoid somehow getting dragged in on a lawsuit. It will be interesting to see how this plays out cause if this guy wins it will completely change the way things work in wrestling and the line between what's part of the show and what's considered assault will be forever in question. Hell, New Jack stabbed a guy multiple times in the ring in Florida(yes with a fucking knife) and was acquited because it was in the context of a wrestling show. So this will be very interesting. Times have changed and the old guys are gonna have to realise you just can't do shit like that anymore regardless of the reason. While I do agree that Sal guy is the shits and needed busted in his face just for filling a spot that Hollywood Jimmy should have been filling, you just can't do that shit anymore. Moving on.....

I really don't know how I feel about the whole "blowing up" Mr. McMahon thing, it's sad this is the direction the business is taking and this is the kinda outlandish shit they have to do draw ratings since booking good angles and matches are apparently no longer and option but what I can't believe is how many assholes on message boards here and there are debating whether or not he's really dead, or posting where WWE "admitted it's a work" as some sort of groundbreaking news. Damn, maybe it's not too late, maybe they could bring back kayfabe. Anyway, I'm not offended by the angle I mean you knew they'd have to go there eventually. I just don't like how they are doing a lot of the things they've done when guys really have died, I guess they have to somewhat to get it over but it just confuses the remaining marks and pisses off the "smart" people. Let's just hope the payoff is good and it doesn't turn out to be Coach or someone lame as the culprit.

I'm gonna be posting here quite a bit with a variety of things, thoughts on current wrestling news, articles on wrestling's past like one I'm writing now entitled "The Legacy of WCW", and another one I'm putting together on the heyday of tag team wrestling. Also, dvd reviews as I've just finished WWE's Most Powerful Families in Wrestling as well as several new shoot interviews. So check back here often and please feel free to send feedback to genejackson@charter.net


GENE

An interesting newspaper article on 'The Big Show' Paul Wight

The large price of fame and fortune

Aiken Co. native with growth disorder risked his health — and life — for the lifestyle provided by pro wrestling

By KENT BABB - kbabb@thestate.com

2007 WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Paul Wight, aka The Big Show, kicks Bobby Lashley during a World Wrestling Entertainment match. Wight, who grew up in New Holland, relinquished his title to Lashley during a December show in Augusta due to WWE's concerns about Wight's weight and injuries.

AUGUSTA— There was a moment when the giant looked reborn. He moved with grace, bounced his fist off his opponent’s skull, primed himself for victory.

What a way to go out it would be, to retire as world heavyweight champion. The Big Show is winning this wrestling match, pounding Bobby Lashley into oblivion. The only thing left is the Big Show’s finishing move, the devastating ...

Hold it. In a flash, Lashley flips the switch. Now he is pounding the Big Show. One ... two ... three punches and a running elbow that knocks the giant on his back. This is no way to go out — no way to begin the final descent of the Big Show’s career, looking up at a snarling opponent.

Look around. Thousands have piled into James Brown Arena on this night, a Sunday in December. They came for this, to watch this main event and to watch the Big Show, who grew up less than an hour from the arena. In here, he is an attraction. Listed at 7 feet and 507 pounds, he is something to see. He is one of the largest characters in a business of tall tales.

Out there, outside the ring and beyond the spotlights, he is Paul Wight. He grew up in New Holland, a town in rural Aiken County. He was a football player and all-state basketball player at Batesburg’s W.W. King Academy.

In here, he is marketable. His size has earned him millions of dollars, a house on a Florida lake and a diverse career as a wrestler, actor and businessman. Without his looming body, none of it would have been possible.

Out there, his size represents a health risk. Wight is morbidly obese and has an enlarged heart. His work and travel schedules allow little time for proper rest and nutrition, which has prevented many of his injuries from healing. He cannot stand for more than a few minutes. He cannot sit for much longer.

Wight is 35 years old, but his mother, Dorothy, says her only son’s body operates as if it were 40 years older.

Wight’s size was partly caused by a tumor on his pituitary gland, which controls growth and tells most bodies to stop growing at a certain age. The tumor, which prevented those signals from reaching his brain, was removed when Wight was 19 ... and 7 feet tall ... and nearly 350 pounds.

Was the tumor the best thing to happen to Wight or the worst thing? It created unimaginable opportunities. It also created a world of health problems that could shorten his life.

In here, none of that matters. He is the Big Show, and on this night that is what he is putting on. His job is to suspend reality, ignore its consequences and keep the thousands at James Brown Arena mesmerized by what might happen next.

But what comes next for Wight? As of this night, he has three months remaining on his contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. His plans, according to Dorothy Wight, are to take time off and possibly retire. She and others have urged Paul Wight to stay retired, to stay out there for good.

But out there is reality. Out there, consequences are waiting.

One life offers riches and fame ... at the expense of health. The other life stomps opportunities but promises a healthier, potentially longer life.

Even in a world of tall tales, straddling both sides can be done for only so long.

q q q

“He had a Nissan truck or a little old Toyota. For exercise, he’d go out to the back of it, grab it by the fender and start picking it up. He was the picture of a monster when it comes to strong.”

— Bill Scyphers, Wight’s basketball coach his senior season at W.W. King

“We heard we were getting a new basketball recruit who was really tall and really good. He got to the school and walked toward the football field. It looked like he kept growing and growing and growing the closer he got to us.”

— Jason Booth, a former football teammate of Wight’s at W.W. King

q q q

A GIANT UPBRINGING

Dorothy Wight did the math and shook her head. The equation must have been off. Dorothy and her husband, Paul, did not notice their son’s rapid growth until a Southern tradition yielded startling results.

The equation suggests that, at a child’s first birthday, multiplying its height by three will predict its height as an adult. The result suggested the younger Wight would grow to 7 feet, 4 inches.

Dorothy, who is 5-foot-10, scoffed at the prediction. So did her 6-3 husband. Then again, Paul was always hungry. Two weeks after Paul’s birth, Dorothy stopped buying baby formula because it served only as an appetizer. When she fried chicken, the baby smelled the cooking meat and screamed until his mother gave him a taste. Years later, when Paul was a teen, Dorothy needed a plan for her son’s hunger, which required about 6,000 calories per day. Weekly trips to a wholesale food store yielded 10 pounds of ground beef and 50 pounds of potatoes.

“I was in labor for 14½ hours,” Dorothy says. “He didn’t want to come out. When he was ready, he popped out, started growing and said he was ready to eat.”

The food fueled Wight’s growth, which never seemed to slow. When he was a junior at W.W. King, Wight was 6 feet, 9 inches and weighed 325 pounds — with 7 percent body fat.

He wore size-38 pants and a XXXXL shirt the day he walked into David Rankin’s office and asked how a kid might sign up to play football.

“I said, ‘What grade?’ because I thought he had a young’un or something,” Rankin says. “He said, ‘I’m going to be a junior.”

Football was Wight’s first love, but basketball grabbed him by the ear and didn’t let go. He was an unstoppable post presence, sure. But he liked to shoot 3-pointers. When the Knights had a lead that satisfied coach Bill Scyphers — 70 points or so, Scyphers says — Wight had permission to leave the lane and pop 3-pointers until his shoulders ached.

He was an all-state player in 1990, his senior season, and had several scholarship offers to play college basketball. He spent a year at an Oklahoma junior college before playing the 1991-92 season at Wichita State.

Wight was a 19-year-old sophomore when he noticed blurry spots in his vision. Regular checkups found nothing unusual, but his vision remained unclear. A trip to the Mayo Clinic, a renowned hospital in Minnesota, yielded an answer. There was a tumor on his pituitary gland, doctors said. It was smaller than a grain of sand. If it was not removed, Wight’s vision might never improve. And he might never stop growing.

Surgery eliminated the tumor, but it came during the most difficult time in Wight’s life. He gained about 100 pounds after the procedure, making basketball more difficult than ever. At the end of Wight’s sophomore season, Wichita State coach Mike Cohen was fired. Soon afterward, Wight’s father died of cancer.

Wight was finished with school. In the summer of 1992, he dropped out of Wichita State and shuffled among a handful low-wage jobs. Wight’s luck changed in 1994 when he was invited to appear in a celebrity basketball game in Illinois. One of his teammates was legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan, who was stunned by Wight’s agility and size and offered to connect him with the right people in wrestling.

Wight, a longtime wrestling fan, accepted Hogan’s invitation and began training.

In his first match, with World Championship Wrestling in 1995, Wight — known as “the Giant” — beat Hogan to win the world heavyweight championship.

q q q

“He could take a Coke can and hold it in his hand. His hand was so big, the only thing you could see was the ends.”

— Rankin, Wight’s football coach at King Academy

q q q

SUCCESS ... WITH A PRICE

Wight’s wrestling success earned him a 10-year contract with WWE in 1999. It paid him about $1 million per year. His exposure also opened doors for movie roles and appearances in TV commercials.

He is a real-life giant, and he is more marketable when he is at his largest. His listed weight of 507 pounds is part of the show; to make the figure believable, Wight has weighed around 450 pounds since his 1995 debut.

But the heavier Wight is, the more his body breaks down. The weight strains his muscles and joints; he has had several knee surgeries, one of which deflated his chances of reviving his basketball career at a small college in Illinois. His mother says Wight has an enlarged heart, which she downplays as being part of the large package.

Still, the show must go on. And if Wight wants to be paid, he must weigh enough to look like a giant — and he must be silent about his weaknesses.

Dorothy Wight said her son’s contract forbade him from participating in interviews without permission from WWE officials. Upon learning this story would examine Wight’s health and the strains wrestling puts on it, WWE spokesman Joe Villa said The State would not be permitted to interview Wight at the Augusta show in December. Phone calls and messages left at Wight’s Tampa, Fla., residence and home office were not returned.

It was in late 2006, however, when Wight’s body began breaking down to a point WWE could no longer hide it.

q q q

“When he got his high-school ring, as a junior, he had the second-largest ring that Jostens had made. ... It looked like a bracelet, the thing was so big.”

— Keith Gibson, former basketball coach at W.W. King

“I’ve seen eight people try to tackle him and eight people bounce off like he was a steel wall. I never saw one or two tackle him. That just didn’t happen.”

— Jason Booth, one of Wight’s former football teammates at W.W. King

q q q

THE UPSIDE OF LOSING

It is all staged, of course. Scripted, yes. But ask any wrestler: It is sure not fake. The action, like a compelling tall tale, has a beginning, middle and end. The chaos is kept in order by, of all people, the referee. The wrestlers are the players. The referee is the director.

It is a Sunday night in December. This night’s main event is billed as an “Extreme Elimination Chamber” match. Two wrestlers begin the match in the ring, and, according to the rules, four others will enter at random. A wrestler is eliminated by being pinned or disqualified. The last man standing among the six will be the Extreme Championship Wrestling heavyweight champion. ECW is a branch promotion of WWE.

The Big Show is the last wrestler to enter. All but Bobby Lashley, a chiseled man and a former college wrestler, have been eliminated. Neither of these facts happened by accident. Like the match’s ending — Lashley pinned the Big Show to win the championship — Wight’s entrance order and participation were scripted.

He spends 3 minutes, 42 seconds in the ring. The next-shortest appearance is more than twice that amount of time. Wight’s movements, on offense and defense, are slow and careful. Wight, who once could execute a back flip off the top turnbuckle, now has trouble walking. At this stage of Wight’s career, priority is placed on getting him in and out of the ring as quickly as possible.

He entered this night with a torn abdominal muscle, a bulging disk in his back, a weak ankle, a sprained wrist and a history of knee surgeries.

The injuries, and that Wight’s WWE contract will expire in three months, played into promoters’ decision to relieve the Big Show of his championship. Wight accepted the decision with little commotion. After all, losing the title has an upside. His time out of the main-event spotlight means he can spend much of the final months of his contract doing what he could not for the past 10 years: healing.

It was his schedule — Wight’s WWE contract, which expired in March, required him to work 285 dates per year, not including travel days — that left few options for his at-home routine. Upon returning to Tampa, Wight visits a chiropractor. The next stop is the acupuncturist. His final destination, for as long as the calendar will allow, is his sofa.

Wight’s mother, Dorothy, says her son has the body of a 70-year-old. That he smokes cigarettes and maintains a global travel schedule, Dorothy says, is reason to worry. And it is proof that her son’s work is far from fake.

“The body is not designed for that,” she says. “They (pro wrestlers) hurt. They bruise. They get beat up. They do stuff that sane people wouldn’t do. It’s time for him to give this up. He needs to give it up.”

q q q

“What he eats, for you and me it would be two meals. For him, it’s one. His latest kick is cutting up four or five hot dogs and pouring Campbell’s Chunky soup over them. Then he’ll drink a gallon of chocolate milk and go to bed.”

— Dorothy Wight

q q q

AFTER THE FINAL BELL

Three months after his WWE contract expired, Wight is gone. He is gone from wrestling. Gone from the United States and its demands. Reality, it would appear, can wait.

Dorothy Wight said her son and his wife, Bess, spent last month on vacation in Greece. It is Wight’s chance to relax, unbutton his trousers and exhale.

For now, Wight can wrestle when he wants — and not one match more. A report on a pro wrestling Web site stated Wight wrestled Hulk Hogan, a longtime friend, last month in a small-promotion show in Memphis.

During a news conference before that match, Wight said he no longer would wrestle under the name “the Big Show,” a moniker he jokingly referred to in April as his “slave name.”

Wight said he was tired of living at the mercy of others, presumably promoters who profit from his obesity. It is a role he has played for more than a decade and one he played flawlessly. Wight sacrificed his body and his health in exchange for fame and fortune. It is a trade that eventually wore thin.

Dorothy Wight said Bess, who also works as Wight’s manager, has invested much of the money Wight earned from his various occupations. Dorothy Wight said the couple would have no problem living comfortably, even if Wight never returns to wrestling.

Wight has lived 35 years as a giant, part of a tall tale. He might spend the next decade undoing the damage he did to his body during the past 13 years. Wight said during the Memphis news conference that he had lost 60 pounds since retiring after the December show in Augusta. He said he feels better, mentally and physically, than he has in more than a decade.

“Paul Wight, not the Big Show, is very intelligent,” Dorothy Wight says. “Paul Wight is funny. He’s articulate. He’s a clown. He reads. He’s Stephen King and Star Trek. Heavy stuff. When you get to know Paul the guy, he’s a good, loyal friend.”

Wight came to a crossroad that night in Augusta. There was something about the way he walked up the ramp after losing to Lashley. There was something about the way he paused and stared into the crowd. It was as if he was saying goodbye.

Less than 50 miles from his home, where the growth started and the wild stories of a giant man took flight, Wight turned and walked away. It was in Augusta that Paul Wight took the first steps out of the Big Show’s skin.

Perhaps Wight realized tall tales are better without a sad ending.

This should be amusing: PG-13 Shoot Interview

Here's a preview video of Highspots newest shoot interview with J.C. Ice and Wolfie D. It looks to be entertaining as Jamie is drunk and going off about all kinda shit while poor Wolfie looks amused and embarassed at the same time. I got to work some shows with these guys years ago and they were memorable to say the least. One of the shows was the night Jamie started a riot (literally) in Corinth with fans storming the ring and getting beatdown by Jamie, Wolfie, Brickhouse Brown, and someone else whose name escapes me at the moment. One of the other times was in Verona, MS for Chris Kilgore and Jamie was carrying a polaroid picture around the dressing room saying "You remember my dad the legend 'Superstar' Bill Dundee? Here's picture of him smoking weed." He seemed genuinely amused by it, I always thought he was pretty funny. Check out the preview:

R.I.P. "Sensational" Sherri and other stuff

So after months of no posts I'm bringing Cheap Heat UNCENSORED back to life. Now I'm sure many of you are saying, "But Gene, I thought you swore off wrestling to go try to be a comedian or some shit", well to read more about that go here http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=79774733

Anyways, the fact is I love wrestling, as shitty as it may be nowadays, I still love it and even though my bad back and lack of talent won't allow me to physically to do it, I still enjoy writing about it, and I know a couple of you enjoy reading it, the others at least like to have something else to bitch about.

There's been a ton of shit go on while I've been gone that I eventually wanna talk about and I will get to it, these are just a few of the things that's happened in my absence: The Hogan/Lawler Fed Ex Forum Clusterfuck, Wrestlemania, Dudley Williams started back promoting (how bout sticking his ass in an exploding limosine), David Burcham said he was gonna write a column that's all positive so in his very first column he swore off talking about wrestling, JD McKay has been harder to spot than Bin Laden, Cannon fought with marks on the message board, Good Call, Bad Call has become a great addition to HollywoodJimmy.com, Soultaker started a new promotion, Corey Maclin is still putting himself over on tv, Soultaker's promotion folded, Hugo still has heat on the message boards, Bill Dundee is still alive......and wrestling, Hollywood Jimmy "went nuts" and destroyed a car, Iron Sheik went apeshit on Ultimate Warrior at a convention, RVD finally left WWE, Anton Leveigh is the darling of wrestlebirmingham internet fans, The Great Khali put on a 5 star main event (just checking to see if your really reading this), Vince McMahon died (work), Sherri Martel died (shoot).


So as you can see there's plenty to talk about these days and I plan to get started real soon. Check back soon for updates!

Article on "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

Rowdy Roddy Piper wrestles with a new foe: cancer

Hodgkin's disease - The Hillsboro resident and famous brawler vows to beat the illness

Sunday, December 03, 2006

TOM HALLMAN JR.

Rowdy Roddy Piper, the Portland-area wrestling bad boy familiar to fans worldwide, has Hodgkin's disease, according to announcements posted on his Web site and by World Wrestling Entertainment. Piper vows to defeat the aggressive lymphatic cancer, which often responds well to radiation therapy.

Piper, now 52, started his professional career at 15. He built his reputation with flamboyant performances, a smart mouth, appearances in dozens of low-budget movies and highly publicized feuds with the likes of Hulk Hogan. His wild persona sometimes played out in private life, and he has had some driving-under-the-influence run-ins with the law.

Born in Canada, his real name is Roderick George Toombs. He's married, has four children and a grandchild. And even though wrestling has taken him across the world, Piper -- as he is generally known -- has considered the Hillsboro area his home for the past two decades.

Piper was succinct in his statement. He and his family expressed thanks for the "overwhelming support" from fans across the world. "It seems like I have been fighting someone, something, someplace, in some manner, my whole life," Piper wrote. "But this fight is one I am gonna win!"

Piper is affiliated with World Wrestling Entertainment, and the organization released a statement saying Piper was "sent home early from WWE's early November tour of the United Kingdom and hospitalized for surgery, where doctors removed a mass at the spinal cord with an enlarged lymph node. The mass was completely removed, but the lymph node was positive for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Radiation therapy is used to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is an extremely successful procedure, so the prognosis is very good."

Joe Villa, a WWE official, was unsure where Piper was receiving treatment or when the family would release more information or consent to be interviewed.

News of Piper's illness sent ripples through the wrestling world. Greg Tingle, a fan in Sydney, Australia, has a Web page devoted to his hero. "Roddy Piper is one of the world's most successful and respected wrestlers of all time," Tingle said in a phone interview. "He is a true icon."

In his official bio, Piper claims to have fought a record 7,000 matches as a pro. He became a local hero/villain among Portland fans during the years he was a featured attraction on Portland Wrestling, which was broadcast for nearly 40 years on KPTV. A TV announcer interviewed the wrestlers during breaks. Threats and insults would be hurled their way, prompting a melee -- all part of the show.

It was the perfect setting for Piper, who arrived in the late 1970s. The real entertainment didn't occur in the ring but during the interviews. The camera loves Piper and he knows it. As much an actor as an athlete, Piper could ad-lib with the best of them. He was cocky, smarmy and yet all at once charming, able to trash-talk in an instant, feign indignation and then trade blows -- all before the commercial break.

Piper, who'd spent years on the road honing his act, knew exactly what the crowd expected. He wore a kilt, and bagpipes sounded when he approached the ring. He was named "Rowdy" because of his temper. And he had all kinds of moves: the sleeper hold, the eye poke, the inverted atomic drop and, of course, the infamous low blow.

Show by show, his popularity grew.

"He started as a brawler and, over the years, matured and treated it as a profession," Tingle said. "He knew it was entertainment and a business. He helped bridge the old school and the new era of pro wrestlers."

Piper joined the World Wrestling Federation, which later became WWE. Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine named Piper the Most Hated Wrestler in 1984 and 1985. In 1985, Piper and Paul Orndorff teamed up against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in Wrestlemania 1. In 2005, Piper was elected to the WWE Hall of Fame.

He has appeared in more than 30 movies and is the co-author of a book, "In the Pit With Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy," referring to his "Piper's Pit" segment on World Wrestling Federation TV.

"I've been around the world seven times," Piper once said, "been stabbed three times, been down in an airplane and once dated the Bearded Lady. I've had Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy as a tag-team partner. I've been in 30 car crashes, none of 'em my fault, I swear. . . . OK, they were probably all my fault."

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