WKPWP Interview Classic - Keller & Mitchell interview Bob Backlund & Iron Sheik in person in front of studio audience
In this week’s Interview Classic podcasts, we jump back to 10 years ago this week (8-4-2011) for PWTorch editor Wade Keller and PWTorch columnist Bruce Mitchell interviewing Bob Backlund and Iron Sheik live in front of a studio audience at the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum in Waterloo, Iowa on July 23, 2016. They discussed their transition from amateur to professional wrestling, their relationships with Vincent J. McMahon and Vincent K. McMahon, and much more.
In our second Interview Classic selection, we jump back ten years (7-30-2016) to PWTorch contributor Jim Valley's interview with Magnum T.A., plus live calls, nostalgia, more!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wade-keller-pro-wrestling-podcast--3076978/support.
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Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: PW Torch and Speaker bring you the Wade Keller Pro
Wrestling Podcast. It's time for this week's Interview Classic, where
Wade Keller Interview is one of pro Wrestling's newsmakers.
Speaker 1: On today's Wadkeller Pro Wrestling Podcast Interview Classic episode, we
jump back to two interviews from ten years ago. First up,
Iron Chic and Bob Backland. P tow Torch columnist Bruce
Mitchell and I were able to interview Bob Eckland at
Iron Cheek in person in Waterloo, Iowa at the Pro
Wrestling Hall of Fame Weekend banquet at a live studio
audience at the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum, and it was
a blast. And I mean, these two are such incredibly
significant historical figures. During a big period of WWE, especially
Bob Backland of course long term champion, but the transition
from Backland to Chic to Hogan a real seminal moment
in pro wrestling history, transitioning from the territory era to
the national expansion and Vince McMahon and the larger than
life muscular characters obviously the Superstarpully Grand before that and others,
but Hulk Hogan is a centerpiece world champ. Iron Cheek
was the transition heel for that era. We also talked
about the transition from amateur to professional wrestling, the relationship
with Vincent J. McMahon Vince Senior and Vincent K mcman
Vince and much more. These are two characters and it
comes across in the interview. And then our second interview
was just a few days before that. Actually it took
place a few days after, but it was posted a
few days before, and that was Jim Valley's interview with
maghum Ta. This originally dropped on or actually streamed live
on July thirtieth, twenty sixteen. Then Jim Valley talked with
maghum Ta about a variety of topics and also some
live callers with some nostalgia topics and more. So let's
get to it really fun back to back interview Classic
episodes here on the Weight Color Podcast on Saturday, August eighth,
twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: That radio.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the p W Torch Live Cast. I am
Way Keller, editor and publisher of the Pro Wrestling Torch
weekly newsletter since nineteen eighty seven, and also pwtorch dot
com the website and mmatorch dot com the website. We
covered the world of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts
with breaking news, exclusive features, live event coverage, and much
more every single day. So if you're a pro wrestling
fan or an MMA fan, be sure to check out
both PW torch dot com and mmatorch dot com every
single day. Right now at PW torch dot com, we've
got James Caldwell's report on last night's Cruiserweight Classic Tournament
results Week four, including Gargano versus Champa in the conclusion
of the first round. Also, we have last night's new
Japan G One results the g One Climax tournament.
Speaker 5: Can he used to.
Speaker 1: Produce some great matches. Sean Radikin doing a great job
covering that for PW torch dot Com and NXT results
last night with Adeowa, Tommy returning to action, Bobby Rood's
NXT debut and a main event tag team match with
the Revival, and also Metzger's r OHTV results with a
big tag team main event with tons of champs involved.
Moose wrestles twice and his analysis of the show. Thursday
mornings are always big on PW torch dot com because
we have so much going on on Wednesday nights now
with NXT, the Cruiserwey Classic and r o H TV,
and you add to that the g One Climax Tournament.
It's it's turned into a hub of wrestling television viewing
Wednesday nights have this is Interview Thursday, and normally on
Interview Thursday we run live interviews. This week got something
special and out of the ordinary that has not been
heard before, and that is a podcast that Torch Senior
columnist and Friday Peterlee Torch Live cast host Bruce Mitchell
and I hosted together at the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum
in Waterloo, Iowa. And this was at part of the
George Tragos Luths Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame weekend a
couple weekends ago. It's a second year in a row.
Bruce and I have attended Travis Bryant from the Friday
East from the Friday Live Cast and Wednesday East Coast Cast,
which you can find at East coastcast dot com. Along
with Torch Audio analyst Todd Martin joined me for those festivities.
We watched Dave Meltzer the Wresting Observer and inducted into
the Hall of Fame. Bruce and Day very tight over
the last twenty some years and a number of other wrestlers.
Two wrestlers who were inducted were Iron Cheek and Bob Beckland.
Those two were part of wrestling history, iron Cheek being
the wrestler who defeated Bob Backland for the WWF Championship
that then led to Hulk Cogan coming in and capturing
the WWF World title in a very big transition for WWF.
The move from Bob Backland, a white bread do no
wrong role model babyface, to Hulk Hogan was a major
pivotal moment in the history of professional wrestling, and Iron
Cheek and Bob Backland have never done an interview together,
never done any interview together until two weekends ago and
Bruce and I had the privilege of interviewing Iron Checken
Bob Backland. When I told some people about the interview,
they were like, Oh, I bet that was like hurting
cats and other such an agies because she could Backland
our such characters and they are and boy does that
come across in this interview.
Speaker 6: It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I think you'll learn a lot about Iron Cheek's background,
his story of why and how he came to the
United States, what he did when he got here, how
he found a home in Minnesota, and what he went
on to do with his professional life is amazing. And
at the end of the interview, it's one of the
great finishes to a podcast ever. And I have to
create a visual for this because you'll hear it, but
I think you need to understand the visual of what
was happening because this podcast was conducted in front of
a live studio audience. One hundred or so people were
packed into the the five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, which
is across the street from the Hall of Fame. It's
the major convention center hub in Waterlough, Iowa, and the
room was packed with wrestling fans who were part of
the All Access Past weekend for the Hall of Fame weekend.
And so I'm I'm sitting I'm sitting in the middle
of the table. To my left is Bruce Mitchell, to
my right is the Iron Cheek, and then to Iron
Cheeks right is Bob Backland. We're all sitting at a
table and looking at an audience of fans watching the
podcast and watching and listening. So we get to about
the hour mark, close to it, and so we're getting
near the end and I throw a question she can Backland.
Sheek answers it, and then Backland begins to answer it,
but he also stands up and he starts being very
visual about what he's saying about how you One of
his favorite parts about being a wrestlers started is taking
starting the match low and slowly building it up higher
to bringing the crowd to this peak moment, and he
can describe it better than I am here. I don't
want to steal his thunder, but he's being very visual
about it. And then at the end you'll hear him say,
and that is it. I have to go work out,
and so he ends the podcast in a very visual way.
Which is running around the building giving high fives to
to the hosts. Bruce and he gave a high five
to me and then a high five to Bruce, high
five to Iron Cheek, and he ran through the crowd
and started giving high fives. And these are not light
high fives. You don't take them lightly. These are shoulder
dislocating high five flaps from Backland, who is incredibly fit
for somebody who's sixty six years old. I mean, honestly,
you know, his skin looks like an older person. That's
not there's not much people can do about that. I mean,
you can eat healthy and stay out of the sun
and you know, use good soap and all that kind
of thing. Put me in general that that's a little
bit more of a giveaway. That's somewhat unavoidable in terms
of aging. However, But by the way, it's not bad skin.
It's just okay, he doesn't look thirty, you know what
I mean when you look at him. But his physique
is incredible, his energy is incredible. But but I mean,
he was wearing a tight shirt and it just I mean,
he what he has done to maintain his physical fitness
throughout his life is amazing. So I say that as
a as a preface for this. He after giving high
fives to everybody, he grabs a handle roller that he
uses to do a certain exercise that he finds that
he likes a lot and has done his whole life.
He grabs that and he runs out of the room.
Now I conclude the podcast. People are laughing and applotting,
I think the chic and I'm kind of wrapping things
up and taking, you know, sting the microphone down and
all that.
Speaker 6: At this moment.
Speaker 1: I found out later Bob Beckland is jogging from the
five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center across the street and down
the block to the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum, and he
runs all the way into the facility to a wrestling
matt workout area at the museum, because I have this
whole you can have a membership there. There's a shower facility,
there's a wrestling mat, there's mini bleachers, or you can
watch wrestling exhibitions. He runs into that room and he
starts exercising just as he said he was going to
do on schedule. He didn't want to miss his workout
with the time that he had that afternoon, and he
does a full workout, and he does I can't remember
how many, how many steps, how many squats, It was
an incredible number. I know that Dave Meltzer was talking
to him trying to think when he was asking, oh,
is that the autograph session the next day? Because the
members of the Trago Stas Hall of Fame do those
who attend the convention each year participate in an addograph session,
And so Dave Meltzer and Ire sit next to each
other and Bob Ackland is is next to us, and
Dave starts asking him about his workout routine, and so
Bob just talking about all the stuff he does, and
it just it was, it was Dave was in awe
of what Bob does and how he built up to
it and how he stayed healthy doing it.
Speaker 6: He was just he's amazing.
Speaker 1: So he's a real character. I would say there's a
fine line between Bob Backland the person and Bob Beckland
the character. I think that the character version is a
little bit of an amplified version of of who he
really is. But I spent a good amount of time
talking to him at the at the Indie Wrestling event,
the Impact Pro Wrestling event on Friday night after, which
was a few hours after this podcast took place, and
and he was much more low key and conversational. But
there's still something about him or you know, he's you
just look at him and you think he's on the
verge of snapping, you know, like not snapping in a
bad way, but snapping into into Bob Backland yelling mode.
You know what you see with him right now in
WWB TV with Darren Young and so I spend a
good amount of time talking to him at intermission at
the Indie show and and and saw a different version
of him. In fact, it was I think last fall,
was it or last year Bruce Mitchell and I interviewed him,
I think three weeks in a row about his his
phenomenal wrestling book. He and the co author of that
wrestling book just did such a trummendous job. I want
to give a shout out to Rob Miller too, who
was on the live cast last year. Backlan's book Books
is one of my favorite wrestling books four hundred and
eighty three pages, four hundred eighty four pages, and it
covers a timeframe in WWE history that no other book
covered in the way in a first hand, here's what
happened behind the scenes way because he covers the nineteen
seventies and early eighties Vince McMahon senior era of the
WWF from a wrestler's perspective thoroughly, and I highly recommend
the book. It's Backland from All American Boy to Professional
Wrestling's World Champion by Bob Ackland and Rob Miller definitely
recommend that book. And Bob was on this show and
did a great job with the interview. I mean, he
was really engaging, told great stories. This is a slightly
different version of that Backland because he's performing in front
of a crowd a little bit and it changes his
dynamic a little bit. But the stories and the attitude
and the outlook are all there, and he's being truthful.
And some of the insights he shares about vincick Mann
Senior in the transition to vinsick Man Junior, I think
are real poignant to understanding wrestling history and understanding Bob
Ecklin for that matter. So there's some really cool stuff
in this interview. And as I said, it was done
live in front of a studio audience and that doesn't
happen very often. Here at PW Torch Livecast. I was
going to run the interview last week, but because of
the draft, and because last week was the first episode
of Ron SmackDown post draft, and because I had the
opportunity to interview Jim Ross, I decided not to run
the interview right away and save it for this week
because it certainly is more of a historical oriented interview
and isn't in that sense, it doesn't have an expiration
date in terms of its freshness, So we present that
to you this week here at PW torch Live Cast.
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Speaker 6: So they do want to know.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow, Bruce Mitchell and Travis Bryant to be by at
seven Eastern for the Friday live cast and then Saturday
Morning Wrestling with Jim Valley airs Saturday morning of course,
so we encourage you to check those shows out live
and participate. Yesterday on the live cast, Jim Valley filled
in for Pat McNeil who was vacationing, and he was
at Nwafanfest on location with Britt Wittmeier, a longtime radio
veteran out of North Carolina, Jim Valley, a radio veteran
out of Portland, Oregon, and they did a live on
location at NWA FanFest show. It was just fun, real, casual.
There were some sound issues, not so much with Jim Valley,
but with Britt and his microphone and the one that
was used for people asking questions for about the first
twenty minutes of the show yesterday. I did a considerable
amount of post production work yesterday late last night on
the show, and I re uploaded it. So if you
did download the show yesterday and kind of gave up
on it because the sound level was kind of low
because it was at a remote live show and it
just wasn't a place that Jim had experience doing a
remote show from, so we had some technical issues. I
was able to amplify the sound, clean up some of
the sound, even out the sound levels with the different people.
It's still not great for the first twenty minutes or so,
but I think if it's unbearable, just skip to the
middle of the show. If you can get through it.
Either way, there's some really interesting stuff and fun conversations
with callers. Bruce Mitchell calls in gives Jim and Britt
a hard time about the sound issues because they're always
giving him a hard time about his technical problems that
he on occasion self inflicts on Fridays, and sometimes I'm
part of that by not allowing him to wrap up
the Bruce Mitchellatio Show recording before he does a live cast,
and he's scrambling. But nevertheless, it's a fun show and
I think it's worth checking out some fun stories that
the ties are loosened up and everyone's just kind of
being casual and having fun. And it's always cool when
you're on site on location and you're just getting the
host kind of observing what's going on and talking about
different people walking by, so I encourage you to check
that out. Also, I mentioned MMA Torch earlier. I encourage
you to check out our website. We've got the latest news,
results and more. In fact, we have some video up
on the site right now of Nate Diaz confronting fans
who were picking Connor McGregor to win at UFC two
o two. That was from Jimmy Kimmel Live and DS
thinks UFC wants him to lose at USC two o two.
We've got a quote from Nate Dias saying that USC
wants him to lose. What's that all about. Also, Cyborg
is reportedly set to headline UFC Fight Night ninety five.
Some details on that in the news. We also have
notes on USC two to one, full results, star ratings
in terms of entertainment value and historical significance of the fights,
and of Ultimate Fighter twenty three finale, live results, live
results of all recent shows, and the daily Top five.
The latest is the Top five Quotes of the week
that was posted earlier today. There's some good quotes in
the world of MMA every week, and mmatorch dot com
is your home, your weekly home to pick out the
top five and man Mark hunt unleashed on Brock, Lesnar
and UFC and how they're handling Brock's suspension. That quote
is worth visiting MMA Torch four and clicking on the
top five list alone. So some good stuff over at
MMA Torch. Here is a word about our home based website,
the PW Torch Live Cast, where you can find easily
find back episodes past episodes from our archives and search
by category and stream them right off our mobile friendly
site or on our desktop site. And here's some details
on that. And then when we come back, it'll be
time to play Bob Backland and Iron Cheek. Thanks for
your supportive the show, and thank you so much to
all of you for continuing to make this show such
a success. Here we go with some details on our
home website where you can get further more episodes of
this show. All right, so again, this interview was conducted
and recorded live at the five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center
in Waterloo, Iowa as part of the George Tragos Luthe's
Progressing Hall of Fame Weekend at the Dan Gable Museum.
And this interview was conducted on July twenty second, twenty sixteen.
It is Iron Chic and Bob Eckland. My co host
is Bruce Mitchell on this program Playback. I'm gonna start
with Bob, because what I would like to mister Backland
to you young man, mister Backland, Thank you, sir, thank you, sir. Uh,
mister Backland. The we got some water.
Speaker 6: Excellent.
Speaker 1: This This this Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame is special
for a lot of reasons, but one of them is
the connection that it makes between amateur wrestling and those
who transition into professional wrestling. And I wanted both of you,
and I'll start with you, mister Backland, to talk about, uh,
your amateur background. People obviously know some people who know
your amateur backgrounds, so people know much better your WWF
and pro wrestling background. Talk about the roots of amateur
wrestling and how did that transition and help you in
professional wrestling in your earliest time, both training and getting
accepted and acclimated to the pro ring.
Speaker 5: I started wrestling when I was eighth grade and I
have a book out right now. It came out September sixteen.
It's about my whole life. And in eighth grade, I
went out for sports because I had a father that
was a very poor drinker. I didn't know nothing about sports.
I didn't care anything about sports. I was standing on
the top of a fence and I was going to
fall on my face and be disaster as far as
my future is concerned. I didn't care about winning and losing.
I just didn't want to go home and listen to
all the garbage. That's how I got started in football, wrestling,
and track. And I got beat up every day in practice,
every single day. That's how I started. And I'm very
happy that started, because at one time it started kicking in,
started paying off a little bit, and I learned six
principles from amateur wrestling, six of them. By the time
I was a senior in high school, not left Princeton,
Minnesota to come down here to Wallfield there and I
transferred to North Dakota State University. Used those same principles
that I learned from our sport, amateur wrestling, and I
left a bigger market North Dakota State University. I won
the NCAA tournament in wrestling and in football in about
a two month time period. And when I left to
go wrestle in the world of wrestling. I shouldn't say
the WWF because I started out down in Batan News, Louisiana,
I knew I was going to succeed.
Speaker 2: I didn't doubt it.
Speaker 5: And there was a lot of people in my hometown
that's that don't even leave town. You're not mad Dog,
you're not the butcher, You're just that oh American kid.
Those people are never successful wrestling business. And because of
those principles, I didn't let that get into my mind
at all. I didn't listen to it at all. I
stayed focused, and when I left Princeton, Minnesota, I had
a nineteen sixty eight green Chevrolet and pallor. I had
twenty dollars in my pocket. When I got down to
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I had twenty nine cents left. They
paid me five dollars. Grizzly Smith gave me an envelope.
Speaker 6: I opened it up.
Speaker 5: When I got in the car, I had five dollars
and now I got five dollars and twenty nine cents
in my pocket.
Speaker 2: The closest person that I knew to me.
Speaker 5: Was fifteen hundred miles away. I canceled the reservation that
I made it to Sheridan, and that cost me twenty
nine cents. Now I've got f five dollars left. I
went to a supermarket and bought all the tuna fish
I could buy, and then I bought a can opener
and sleeping in the trunk of the car that night.
I'm broke, homeless and sleeping in the trunk of the car.
But I believed that I was going to climb. I
started out in the exact bottom, but I believed I
was gonna go uphill every day, and I never let
up in that and I succeeded. That's what amateur wrestling
did for me. That's what amateur wrestling gave to me,
and that's one of the reasons why I'm here. That's
one of the reasons why I used to have kids tournaments.
I wanted children to get into sports because of what
it did to me, especially wrestling.
Speaker 1: You thank you, Bob, Thank you. Mister Backland iron Cheek
a similar question to you.
Speaker 6: This is the Hall of.
Speaker 1: Fame where there is a great reverence to the history
and connections of amateur wrestling and professional wrestling. Can you
speak about your amateur background and as a foundation for
your pro career.
Speaker 7: Well, mister Bob Baker said it purfor because wrestling is
the toughest sport in the Olympic and America and Rendez world.
Speaker 5: And I was very young in Iran.
Speaker 8: Nationalist sports is a firstall and grecor Wan wrestling and
I have a two Westerlins here, mister Megon and his son,
and they used to come watch me. I was fourteen
years old and in the run our practice and mister
Megan was one of the great thing.
Speaker 5: Corporate were same club.
Speaker 9: I go every day, take a bus from home and
one hundred and twenty five pm I was.
Speaker 8: I went to the practice practice. Like mister Backland said,
wrestling is the toughest sport in the Olympic one and
one and division.
Speaker 2: You want to be the best, you want to be champion.
Speaker 8: You have to pay for your due and every day
go practice practice. Practice makes us to be perfunction without
practice hard.
Speaker 7: To be champlain.
Speaker 2: So for me pleasure to outcome in the.
Speaker 8: Waterloo, Iowa then gave country and special Olympic champlain. I
wresting with mister Gabel in Minnesota in the University of
Minnesota and also my coach mister Alan Rice from Minnesota.
I was very young, I'll come to America and then
only person healthy was from Minnesota, neighbor of the Iowa.
Speaker 10: And I'm sorry, maybe my English not too good.
Speaker 2: I don't want to sweitch too fast or anything.
Speaker 8: But like mister Buckland said, and I paid for my
mister Buckland, paper is due. And then from Tehran, Iran
all this country in the world National Sports Crystal and
Greco Roman.
Speaker 2: And then I made it to the New York.
Speaker 8: From New York, I went to the Minnesota and then
Minnesota practice practice and my coach was mister Alan Rice.
And Sir Alan Right is one of a great coach
in Minnesota. And wipe me from New York to the
Minnesota and come in the airport pick me up.
Speaker 2: And then I used to live in the in the
dinky Town and dinky Town not too far from the.
Speaker 8: University of the Minnesota in Minnesota Golfer University. I used
to live in the Dinkiton and then in the Fortunity.
And mister Allen Rice come every day other day. Together
we heard the Minnesota wrestling crop, and Minnesota wrestling crop
was a very very.
Speaker 2: Good wrestling, a lot of good wrestler.
Speaker 8: My team was an excellent team nineteen sixty nine first place.
Speaker 2: And myself and nineteen seventy and also I'll after you
read this one and tell me what they was there
and what found I was and what poets.
Speaker 1: For you did read both of them Philae the PRAMI
my reading classes by the National Athletics National Athletic Union
of the United States.
Speaker 6: In the year Roman.
Speaker 5: Numerals you did the glasses of summer.
Speaker 6: He just had eye surgery. What's the Roman numerals?
Speaker 2: The glasses is long read?
Speaker 11: This is.
Speaker 12: For us.
Speaker 2: You up for my dude, so I can make it today?
What's her iva? Thank ever country? And I want to
say hello to all my wrestling firms to our year. Hey, no,
I'm up for my dude. Can you please if.
Speaker 5: You can not read, I give it Greg.
Speaker 1: Greco Roman Wrestling one hundred and eighty three point five.
Speaker 6: And I know this year. It was the year I
was born, nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2: So what year was? What country?
Speaker 6: What yours?
Speaker 2: What year?
Speaker 6: What country for the United States? Yeah? Well what a
sports Creco Roman wrestle.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I want to let you know you can buy
everything with money except that gold medal.
Speaker 8: Mister, No, you have to pay for your due to
you come from all this country terror I wrong to
the Minnesota and you be our sister coach Master Allen
Rise and make.
Speaker 2: My team to be three years a you champlin.
Speaker 8: From nineteen seventy one and I went to the Mooning
Olympic Game nineteen seventy two Olympic Game and over there
who was mister Dane Gabel, one of my greatest Wterloo
I WA from America, one hundred and forty nine pombs
and he was over there and we turned him into
the Srallen Rise. I'm happy to be in the Midwest
today and especially in the Waterloo, Iowa.
Speaker 2: I love all maners in fence.
Speaker 13: Longing for some nostalgia or maybe you want to learn
some wrestling history, don't miss the nineties Past cast every
Friday on the PW Towards Daly Cast Feed. Alex and
Patrick will transport you thirty years into the past by
taking you through the Torch issue from that very weak
follow news from the WWF and WCW and all the
happenings from across the wrestling industry in real time as
The Torch reported it thirty years ago. That's the nineties
Pass cast every Friday for the PW Torch Daily Cast Feed.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the transition to professional wrestling because times
are different today and the amateur wrestling Olympic experience doesn't
come around of that often. Obviously, Kurt Angle, who was
here last year, is one of the exceptions to the rule.
Mister Backland, talk about what your impression of professional wrestling
was before you got into it, how it changed, if
that if at all, and how you were accepted into
the pro wrestling fraternity. It was more of a challenge
back then to become accepted, probably than today, in terms
of the toughness and the dues that you had to pay.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, the five dollars that I got paid
that night. It wasn't that they were cheap. It was
that they wanted to find out how bad I wanted it.
They thought I would go home. They didn't want to
take the time. They paid me five dollars to see
if I would last. That's how it entered in there.
But I'm a very stubborn person, And when I was
sitting in the car, sleeping in the trunk of the car,
I found out what it was like to be hungry
and wonder how in the heck you're going to eat
your next meal. I went through that, and I believe
it was a very important lesson to learn, because when
I started doing a little better, I never wanted those
days to come back again. I was thinking of marrying
a young lady from North Dakota State University, and I
didn't want a family that could ever be introduced to
that kind of life. I learned to save my money,
and I did that. I had a friend that made
it a thousand dollars on his first night. Mister Sheik
knows him very well. He spent every dime he made
and he can't write a check for twenty dollars today.
They kind of did me a favor by testing me
like that, and myself when I got to Florida, if
somebody wanted to get into the wrestling business, they went
through me or Harley Race or Jack Briscoe, and Harley
Race would hurt him. I didn't have the heart to
hurt people. I'd work out with him. I trained with
him for hours and hours, and I would do it
with him. I wouldn't yell at them and screen him.
I made them do whatever I did, and then when
we got done it, say come back tomorrow at six
o'clock in the morning. We're gonna go do it over.
And there was only two guys that made it, Paul
Arndorf and Brian Blair. Those are the only two names
that I can remember that came back the next day.
They wanted to find out how tough you were. You
had to be tougher than the fames. You couldn't if
you were a wrestler and a fan beat you. That
would be disgrace to the business. And they were very
intense about that. Somebody that was tough enough to be
able to handle people. And it's a road, but it's
part of an education, the things they do to you,
because hard work pays off, it really does. I learned
that when I was a junior in high school. It's
not a picnic get into the business, and it's not
a very big promise that you're ever gonna have any success.
You had to give a promoter two weeks notice and
that's all he had to give you, and you were gone.
But I my success came because of the six principles
that I was living up to. I was in a
car with three wrestlers.
Speaker 2: One night, three of them.
Speaker 5: We were driving around Atlanta, three of the top wrestlers,
and you needed the top wrestlers to get a head
back then, because they were the ones that had the
contact with the promoters. When I was riding in the car,
they started smoking marijuana. I rolled my window down, the
driver rolled it back up. A few minutes later, I
tried rolling it down again and the window was locked.
A few minutes later, I asked him to stop the car.
I didn't give a care whether to do in marijuana
or not. I didn't care at all. I didn't care
if they made a bad mistake in their life. But
I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to
be there because of a lesson I learned when I
was in eighth grade about peer pressure, and I wasn't
going to cut circumb to it again in my life.
They wouldn't stop the car, and I thought about putting
the driver in the cross space chicken wing, But ladies
and gentlemen, I thought maybe that wouldn't be a good
idea either. I went to a nightclub and I walked home,
walked home, got home and my wife was a static.
She was expecting me to be home about one o'clock
at night. I got home at eight thirty. I didn't
know where it was when I started walking and I
explained to what happened. She was very happy and very proud,
and it was a great moment, but it could have
been a negative moment for me because I needed them
as my friends. Part of a long story, but years
later that was one of the best decisions I ever
made in my life.
Speaker 6: Thank you for that story, Iron Cheek.
Speaker 1: I'd like to ask you a similar question in terms
of your acclamation to professional wrestling. It was a little
different than than what you had been used to in
the amateur and Olympic ranks. Talk about who helped you
in those early months and years acclimate too, the changes
in your career going from amateur to professional.
Speaker 8: Like I said, I was Minnesota, Minneapolis anytime, anytime, my
team come first, plus Master Allan Rice and the team,
we go to the NWA and pemother was over there.
Speaker 2: Mister Burgania.
Speaker 8: Mister Gania was a promoter and he was himself one
of a great college wrestler.
Speaker 10: All American and one of the top in the America.
Speaker 8: And after the Olympic in nineteen seventy two moon in Germany,
I tell my coach, mister Allen Rice, I'll lecture some
day to go.
Speaker 10: See mister Wogania and I want to be a professhmen, So.
Speaker 2: Master Allan Rice take me in the office.
Speaker 8: And then after gold medal nineteen seventy one, and uh,
mister God bless him, he was a good promother.
Speaker 2: And then he gave me the job to drive the
ring truck and then put on the ring, pack up
the ring referee.
Speaker 8: All over from Minneapolis to the Winnipeg and from Minnieapris,
all over to Rochester and all over to the Chicago
Court in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: So that was the toughest job I had.
Speaker 8: But I loved wrestling so much and I didn't complete
and even I cannot read and write too good.
Speaker 2: But I was fully wrestling.
Speaker 8: And I'm in Minnesota and a promoter is mister Borgania.
God releaged to me possibly and then be turning over there.
Mister Bob Buckram also sometimes come over there, healthy young
generation and started Minnesota and to the later on I
traveled the coast to coast and all over the country
for wrestling started in.
Speaker 2: The professional for me was not easy.
Speaker 8: I have to trace to drive their ring truck, put
on the ring, and pick up the ring referee and
drive all over from Chicago to Minneapolis, or from Warapeg
Canada to Minnieapolis, from all over the mon Iowa.
Speaker 2: To Minneapolis, so anyway Midwest. I was so father wrestling
from a start, and I said, I cannot cover it.
I cannot give up the only thing I can do
in this earth to be a wrestling and be a
champion someday like.
Speaker 8: Back then, like some greatest we had in the Minnesota
bread Dragens and myself and some and lot of excellent
wrestler in Minnesota, and and then I met it to
the Charlotte coast to coast or all over the country
over the board.
Speaker 2: No I'm here the moan, I'm here.
Speaker 8: Watloiva the greatest free star wrestler one hundred and forty
nine pound.
Speaker 2: Then gave it.
Speaker 14: To mister go on with what you were talking about.
Can you tell us about the the other athletes that
you broke into professional wrestling with with Virgania's camp. I
know that you also even at that point where it
was helping train some of the people in that class.
Speaker 2: Excellent question.
Speaker 8: And that time in the camp it was mister Campetero
the strongest with lefter in the board and Olympic which
is waltzed together in the morning Olympic game. Mister Campetero
and Greg Gania and Jim Burunzeller another football player, passive
Adrejim Young and Bob Bruger.
Speaker 2: Bob Broger and so via started in the that camp.
Speaker 8: And mesid Rick Flair and nineteen seventy three you started
in there.
Speaker 6: He did well.
Speaker 5: Great Flair Oh.
Speaker 6: Out to be an ALTI.
Speaker 8: Excellent, it did great and a great former Griff talking
and but he has started.
Speaker 2: That was a good luck Missabo back then and myself
in Minnesota.
Speaker 14: Yeah, first, mister Backland, we interviewed you as part of
a Pro Wrestling Torch podcast about your book, and I
just want to say I really enjoyed and learned a
lot from your book. I recommended all wrestling fans. You
did a tremendous job.
Speaker 6: I just say, there's no one else.
Speaker 1: We did interviews with three weeks in a row, and
we interviewed about three weeks in a row and he
was great every.
Speaker 14: Time, every time. So and even the stories you're telling
now there's more. You have more details, more depth in
the book.
Speaker 5: So when you read the book, you know me better
than my brother.
Speaker 14: Absolutely absolutely talk about your time with the Grant with
Eddie Graham in Florida and how you knew that you
were on your way to bigger and better things from
the professional wrestling boss.
Speaker 5: Well Don Florida with Eddie Graham. He was the promoter
of Florida Championship Wrestling and they had a really a
great organization going there. Everybody was able to get out
of the trunk of their car and.
Speaker 6: Live a better life.
Speaker 5: But he was real close to Vince McMahon. He was
almost like a brother to him. He did a lot
of business with him against he had they were He
was a take team champion up there for a long
long time, and he was one of the ones that
were very instrumental in letting Vince know that I might
be the guy. Vince McMahon sor was calling these promoters
up and asking who would be the best All American boy.
Speaker 11: And.
Speaker 5: To every promoter that they he talked to the on
they only mentioned one name. And when I got in
the business, I wanted to outwork everybody. When I got
in the business, I figured I was going to do
a few things. I started going to hospitals to visit
kids in the in the seventies and seventy four seventy five,
I thought, you know, I'm going to do this, because
that's called going the extra mile. And I started stopping
at high schools to help out the amateur wrestling teams
that were at the schools in the towns that we
went to in Texas at the time. And I continued
to do that, and I think it trickled back to
the promoters in each town that I was doing it in,
and I think it was worth it in the long
run because the promoters knew me well enough to say
to Vince McMahon, this is the guy inside the ring,
and this is the guy outside of the ring. And
that's how I actually got my opportunity was because of
the promoters mentioned in my name.
Speaker 1: Did you know that you can enjoy commercial free versions
of all of your favorite Weightkelor podcasts and pw torch
daily casts on Spotify. Just go to patreon dot com
search pw Torch and subscribe to a VIP membership tier.
You get a seven day free trial, by the way
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Speaker 14: To follow up on that and moving to the WWF
and working for a physic Man Senior, A big theme
in your book is the close relationship you had, close
business relationship, a personal relationship you.
Speaker 3: Have with with.
Speaker 14: Jay McMahon and like for you to talk about that relationship.
Speaker 5: Because he Vince Senior became a dad to me about
six months before I got the championship, which is on
February twentieth of nineteen seventy eight, he promised me that
he was going to put the belt on me, and
I was coming up from Florida and wrestling on TV,
and he was trying to give me exposure to the
people fans of the WWWS. Back then, I heard that
some people were trying to talk him out of that
and that wasn't a good decision. And then when Billy
Superstar Graham won the belt from Bruno San Martino, Billy
Superstar Graham wanted to trust trying to talk Vince out
of putting the belt on me. Also because Billy Superstar
Graham was having big crowds every night, and Vince Menci
Senior on the day of the Garden, he got me
aside and he said they wanted me to not do this,
but I told him I gave Bob Backland my word
and we're going to make him a winner. And I
never forgot that. I think about Vince McMahon every day
of my life because of his intense read his honor.
It was a pleasure to work under that man, because
he wouldn't tell you you were going to do something.
He'd ask you for an opinion. When you work for
a Vince new Man. There's no stress. You knew everything.
And I wouldn't trade my time that I spent with
Vincewoodman Senior with anything else in the world. Think about
mister Sheek. You know Vince Man as well as I do.
Not as long, but I think as well as I do.
Speaker 8: Absolutely, mister Backland, because like I said myself, I was
the Midwest and also close to course after that myself
mcwam called me ovent today number one company in the world.
Speaker 2: W W that time was a WWF. I have a
lot of respect as long as I live for.
Speaker 8: Mister mcwan and his family because he was the number
one the mother in the world to give me great
and I'll make a good living later on. Maybe something
I did bad, I pay for my due. And also
I want to let the all young generation in the
America know and if.
Speaker 2: We want to be Champain, you want to be the best,
and look at the Orange sheet where he comes from,
where he does.
Speaker 8: But sometimes bad thing push me back and take me
down and costs me a lot of things. But still
I have a lot of respect for mister mcqwin senior
and his son and his family.
Speaker 2: Number one company in the world, and I'm happy to
do that today. Come here with the.
Speaker 8: Greatest six years, Champlain, mister Bob Backland, to act resting
with him, plager for me and to see him again
one of the greatest men. Good hard work. That's because
mister Rickman noticed that young man deserveth to be champion
for six years. So I just want to say, I
mean God to help me to pay for my due
to our compted New York and mister b mister Buckland
said that man was whatever he said.
Speaker 2: He meaned, and he was the greatest promoter for.
Speaker 5: Me to our resting for his company.
Speaker 8: And I'm happy to there from mister Bob Buckland to
the Orange Sheet and all of the songs that Ja.
Speaker 2: Bronnie Hogan and guitar player. Come to there, Yeah, come.
Speaker 8: To there and double with w E number one company
without mister Bob Buckland, without mister Orangstreet and without w.
Speaker 2: W E legend and an owner and the president mister
Rickman Hog Hogan was real Jevronie Big Tom j.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So now.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, I'm happy, chorgerel Champlin Chorgen enjoyed my talking.
Speaker 2: Enjoy to come.
Speaker 8: Today the greatest wrestling country. What's in loyal Dan Gable Country?
Speaker 6: Iron cheek? You have changed my follow up question. I
have a new follow up question.
Speaker 1: You did not get to practice the art of interviews
or as they're called today, promos in amateur wrestling, probably
all that often, or on Olympic TELEVI in the Olympics.
But when you got to professional wrestling, there's cameras, there's
selling tickets, there's getting the crowd engaged in the fight.
Speaker 6: Did that come naturally to you?
Speaker 1: Was that something that you had help with or that
you felt comfortable with right out of the bat, because
obviously with the crowd response here, you know how to
owne a crowd.
Speaker 9: Well, to me, it was a natural because you know,
I speak from mind and heart and I feel it.
Speaker 2: What I can say about that topics sport too, I
grew up since fourteen years old to.
Speaker 8: Right now, and just for me was a natural because
I mean, you know, I'm in a marcham, I'm a wrestler.
University of Minnesota coach and assistant coach mister Allen Rights Macevonia.
Speaker 2: I mean, to me, it was really natural because the
only game I had, only a sport I had all.
Speaker 8: My life and it was a three star girl Roman
to a com w W holy fame, legend, whatever.
Speaker 9: And I mean to me, it was a natural because
a lot of good people under me and they helped
me and teach me.
Speaker 2: And if you want something, you make it.
Speaker 8: And I want to say to the new generation in
w W, E number one company in the world, all
of them, they're doing great and all of the battle stuff,
and then I think a lot of sports is is
still the best in the number one in the world.
Speaker 2: I first saw you.
Speaker 14: I'm a North Carolina boy and I first saw you
working for the Crockets in Charlotte, and I remember it
vividly because you were such a unique character. You were
such a such a great attraction. Talk about changing from
Kaser Vassiri in the a w A and then using
more of your more of your heritage, and talk about
the pressures of working there during the Iran hostage crisis,
because I remember I remember as a fan thinking he's tremendous.
But they know or said the word. You never said
the word hostage. You never said Kamani. Then, I mean
I was I was very impressed with that. But I
and what a great wrestler in the ring when we
were going to say tremendous stuff, thank.
Speaker 2: You, thank you.
Speaker 8: You know this because Laco said, that's a cheap hit,
because the real chaplain going in the ring and do
his best and shrotively gives the people good match, good show, whatever,
And that to me it was a cheap I can't
mention too much about politician or about Ayatollahomeny or about
Iran that I wasn't not involved.
Speaker 2: With a palitician.
Speaker 10: But I was in the North Caroana.
Speaker 8: Mister for Master Jimmy Crockett, her mother and his son
David and another one. So to me, it was a
good in North Caroana, and I traveled over there lots,
and I lock North.
Speaker 10: Carolina but not Krano.
Speaker 2: It was good for me, but not luck New York.
Speaker 10: New York was different than North Carolina. But I had
a lot of good friend in.
Speaker 8: North Carolinas only Underson brother Jean under Zoon.
Speaker 10: I troubled with the gene and then uh, master Vic
Prayer was over.
Speaker 2: There and then uh a lot of a lot of
a lot of.
Speaker 8: The big name good wrestler in also in North Carolino
and I and I enjoyed and but it was different than.
Speaker 2: For me than than New York.
Speaker 14: Okay, just to tell a story, I went to see
you wrestle Jim Brunzell Christians Hotel here last year at
the at the w r L Television Studios for from
for the for the TV and I went with some
skeptical people, and by the time you and Jim Brunzell finished,
they weren't skeptical anymore. They were very impressed, and they're
you know, they were.
Speaker 2: New to it, and they're just like, Wow, I get it.
Speaker 5: And I still that match stays me to this day.
Speaker 2: Change served.
Speaker 8: Jim Bronzilla was a young All American from Minnesota come
to the North Carolina.
Speaker 2: We had a great match, and I was also mid
Autlantic chaplain.
Speaker 8: And then Jim burn Zella accident former good wrestler from Minnesota,
and and we had a good lot of good matches
in the Minnesota with Jim Braunzilla and another one running.
Speaker 7: Arven And then which is the red Flair was there?
Speaker 8: I mean North Carolina was a top three territory in
America and New York, Minnesota and North Carolina I was
we go and the promoter was a mister Georgia Scott.
Speaker 2: And then we traveled from uh Charlotte, come to the
Georgia make our television tape over there, and was a
good or for me.
Speaker 8: And and also I had a lot of memory in
the North Carolano on good for me, but but different
than New York.
Speaker 1: Yes, mister backlind you talked about vincc mann senior and
being very close to him. I think a lot of
people would be interested because vincucmann Junior, Vincent K. McMahon
still in control of the wrestling industry for the most
part today. When you first were around vincemcmann junior, Vince
Senior's son, talk about your early impressions of him and
maybe a funny story and observation and just your your
your thoughts being around him and imagining that someday he
would take over for his dad. Did you have confidence
that he would have the type of success that he has.
Speaker 5: Had, well, Vince. I always thought Vince and Vince Junior
were together on everything. I thought they were talking behind
the scenes before Vince Senior came to me with something,
maybe ending of a match or something, or whether I
was going to wrestle with a mister chic. I thought
they were discussing it with each other, and I thought
they were making decisions on how they thought.
Speaker 6: But I found out but.
Speaker 5: That wasn't true at all. Vince and Vince Junior were
one hundred and eighty degree different, one hundred and eighty
degree different.
Speaker 2: If you were going to.
Speaker 5: Make a switch to them, it would.
Speaker 6: Be one hundred and eighty degrees.
Speaker 5: And at the time, it was hard to make decisions
because it was like fire in the air in the
wrestling business in nineteen eighty four. It was rocking, and
there was war, and there was promises made that weren't kept,
and Vince Senior never hid from the guys. When this
got stirred up, it was hard to get to Vince Junior.
It was hard to find him.
Speaker 16: And I.
Speaker 5: Didn't have a liking for Vince Junior for a long time,
but I understand now about the hardships he had, and
I'm not very bitter or anything like that. I think
he's the hardest working man in the entertainment business. He's
out there every night at Monday night, rod SmackDown with
his headphones on, telling the referees, why did you miss that?
Or the wrestler you should have had a better facial
question he's very into detail and I don't and I
didn't have any doubts that Vince McMahon r. Wasn't going
to attain his goals. I didn't doubt that at all
because he had such a strong found day. The foundation
of the WWWF back then was built on guys like
Bruno San Martino, Pedro Morales, guys like Don Morocco, Jimmy Snooker,
the Iron Sheet, the Iron Chek played a very important
role in vinced Junior's success. And I know the Iron
Cheek maybe had some problems with that, but he made
the right decisions and I know he checked on those
decisions and thought about him for a long time. I'm
saying you did the right thing, Iron Sheet, Thank you much.
Speaker 8: The Rockland, I have a lot of struck for you,
to least you know where our country dot com, what
I did in America and a special WWE.
Speaker 2: Number one company.
Speaker 8: What I want to say a sid I'm happy to
v with you today in the Botcher Louai Wa then
gave a country and I'm very happy.
Speaker 2: To see you again.
Speaker 8: And one of the biggest stay for me and a
special my young agents and Meghan and his fathers are
here and my family Here's got a lot of good
friends in the Boer Loop. I'm very happy to be
today to see you again since the Olympic nineteen seventy
two Moonic Germany and now I'm in the batter lou
Wah after forty years.
Speaker 2: God bless w W and then gave it.
Speaker 6: Admit it.
Speaker 1: You love Nick bar Batty when he co hosts with
me on the Wade Keller Post Shows. Well, now you
can listen to him every week on The Nikkis Club,
a v i P xclusive podcast. Here's Nick to tell
you more.
Speaker 17: Hey, wrestling fans, It's Nick Barbatty and I'm back with
the Nickys Club, the place where the family of Nickys
comes together for big laughs and Shark takes on WWE
for WrestleMania rumors to surprise returns. I got you covered,
the Nicky's Club, where the wrestling feels like the coolest
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Speaker 1: Nick Barbatti wants to be part of your pro wrestling
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Speaker 14: Mister Backlin will take you back just a little bit
from what you were talking about. You had a six
year reign as WWA champion, You sold out Madison Square Guard,
and you were very successful in the big markets in
the Northeast.
Speaker 5: Talk about the opponents.
Speaker 14: That you were the most sussel with. I think of
Don Rocco, who you talked about, my myth from Morocco,
and what a contrast he was to you. The all American,
the all American, the Ray Band, Sun Glasses, I think
I have mine on and Greg Valentine, and but you
had just the who's who of wrestling villains too to
do business with.
Speaker 5: Talk about that.
Speaker 14: Talk about your reign, your very successful reign in WF champion.
Speaker 5: Well, Vince mcmanon Senior said he was going to bring
the best in and ladies and gentlemen. I was trained
by Harley Race, Dorry Funk, Terry Funk, Jack Brisco, and
they showed me how to do it, and they were
training me to be the n w A champion, which
I didn't know way back when. And in the nw
A you had to wrestle Dusty Rhodes in Florida, and
you had to be because you're the champion. But you
had to make him stronger. You had to make him
better because he was going to stay in Florida and
keep making money for that territory. And the next night
you'd wrestle in Texas and you'd wrestle with some big
heel and you had to beat the babyface, and you
had to travel. And I was prepared to go and
wrestle with people in the WWF that Vince McMahon wanted
me to, and I was prepared to make them look good.
I was prepared to let him share in the drawing power.
Don Morocco, I beat him? How good was his career
after I beat him? Don Morocco? Sergeant Slaughter, I beat.
Speaker 2: Him, I got carried out of the ring.
Speaker 5: I won the match, but he won the war. I
was a constant underdog. How good did Sergeant Slaughter do
after I beat him?
Speaker 11: Became a phenomenon?
Speaker 5: Working with the Iron Shape, Yes, sir, they had matches
that were above all levels and Jimmy Suka. How good
did he do? After I got carried out in the stretcher.
Speaker 14: He became the biggest box office draw in the world.
Speaker 5: In a cage match in Madison Square Garden where he
jumped off the top of the cage. I loved the
people that he sent to me, and I changed the business.
The undercard started meaning something. And I'm not saying anything
negative about Bruno San Martino, but he was a monster,
strongest guy in the world probably, and he went out
there and he beat people. He wasn't really thinking about
their career, but that was his job, and he was
the draw in the WWF back in his day. We
were complete opposite. It was one hundred degree difference, and
I think that's what Vince was trying to make happen.
It was a little more control for him, and I
think that was purposely done to change the way the
business was out.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the when you found out that you
would be instrumental in that transition with Bob Ackland to
Hakog and how was that presented to you, and how
did you feel about the news being delivered that that
was on its way and how much did you know
when that was happening.
Speaker 10: Well, I didn't know too much about it to the.
Speaker 2: One month, and I mean just I feel at that
time was too for the.
Speaker 8: Orange sheet after many years to the traveling and paper
is due and hard working.
Speaker 2: And all the time was ready to.
Speaker 8: Arg and be the w W Champlain and I've never
forgotten back then did the great job for me and
put me over and I want to say, without mister
McBrien and we got master back then, I cannot be
here today.
Speaker 15: And it was.
Speaker 10: Great, great feelings for me, like I said, I mean,
I mean, like I said, I grew.
Speaker 8: Up with wrestling and it was everything was hard for
me to Geral America but myself not speak English and
not too many friends and be a bad guy and
with the Atollo flag and and uh you know speak
for c and but but I loved my sports so
much I said, someday we're gonna be my tour to.
Speaker 2: Aby Champlain changed to god, I made it now even.
Speaker 8: I'm handicapped a lot of damage into my knee an
killed bar because that.
Speaker 2: Was part of my job.
Speaker 8: But but I'm happy is still and to the mister
McMahan and teactured me and I'm just to meet it
to be the Hall of Fame or champ whin. I
cannot forget about my sport. I know I have up
and down, a lot of damage sometimes in my body,
and a lot of bad thing on the roads sometimes.
Speaker 10: But still I'm a good example for the.
Speaker 8: Young generation in America and all over the world. If
you want to be champlain, if you want to be
the best, you don't mix it. You have to ready
go practice and paychich to your sport, and then you
have to love it to be the best. But sometimes
sometimes bad friend, and I don't want to put the
hit to the bad friend, and a harder about my
job a sport, I added something bad thing, and I
pay for my dude costicity lose a million million dollars,
but love still changes to God.
Speaker 2: I'm here.
Speaker 1: I want to ask both of you this question, and
either of you can jump in first. I want to
know what era of your career you had the most
fun with what you talk about. You have to have
a passion for what you do to be successful, and
obviously your professionals you're doing it for the money, You're
doing it because the promoter puts a lot of faith
in you.
Speaker 6: But you have to have fun.
Speaker 1: What part of the business for you, what era of
it and what aspect of it did you love the
most that kept it, kept it rolling and kept your
enthusiasm going.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, well, get to have.
Speaker 8: Every day and the head the gym were parts running
and stay good shaped barbone and then love my business
and pay attention to the old time in La Bruno
Sammartinos and some another and.
Speaker 2: Greatest wrestler in the w W and w O or
all over the country.
Speaker 8: And uh it was to me was different because I'm
the first Middle Easter Iranian come to the greatest professional
wrestling country.
Speaker 2: And it was very hard, very rough and not.
Speaker 8: You know, I mean travel every day and airport to
the airport, and sometimes I had a cup of.
Speaker 10: Cold beer make me relaxed on some another thing. And
you know, I mean I cannot say I didn't have it,
but I had it.
Speaker 2: It's good to have it. But also moderation is number one.
Speaker 5: I want to talk about the art of a wrestling match,
and this art isn't there anymore.
Speaker 18: You start out here and you want to end up here,
and you build that slowly throughout the match. You're trying
to draw the people in the crowd into it slowly
as you go through these certain moves in motion, and
you listen to the crowd and they tell you what
what direction you're going to go by the way they react,
and you build it. You build it, and you build it,
and you want to blow the roofus at the end,
not in the middle. There's a lot of matches.
Speaker 5: The middle is bigger than the end.
Speaker 15: Back in the day, the peak always had.
Speaker 5: To be at the end. You go home at the end.
You want to get those people involved in liking it.
I had people that I had me and the the
the cold call the short arm scissor, and I try
to pick him up once and I couldn't do it.
The next time I tried to pick them up, people
were more involved and they cheered louder. And then the
next time, on the third time, I'd try to do
it again and they the crowd would even start louder.
Because you thought you were helping me get out of
the hold. Well you were. You were making me stronger
by they are adrenaline in my body. I picked up
Paul Cogan with one arm. I could have never did
that in practice. I gave the toomic knee drop to
crush your Blackwell three four hundred and fifty pounds because
of you, and because of you being involved the match.
My whole life in the wrestling business was like a
wrestling match.
Speaker 2: It started at the.
Speaker 5: Bottom, and it built, and it built and it built,
and you got behind me stronger and stronger on a
day to day base.
Speaker 15: When I walked into the ring, there's nothing that Vince
McMahon asked me to do things.
Speaker 2: I never questioned it. There was no option like that.
I had to do it.
Speaker 15: In the dressing him one time he said, called Ernie
Ladd six ten, three.
Speaker 5: Hundred and fifty pounds, He's gonna do the Tomic knee
drop to you. Ernie Ladd said after the match, I
wouldn't have believed it unless I was there when Vincent
Man said that, I couldn't question it.
Speaker 2: I had to do it.
Speaker 5: It was like a wrestling match my career. I loved
every minute of it, even though it wasn't fun. Sometimes.
Speaker 2: I loved the climbing the ladder.
Speaker 5: I loved the excitement, and I love the story told.
And I was trying to be a good role model,
and I'm still trying to be a good role model.
I go out there and I want to inspire every
person in the building of all ages, because it's never
too late to make your life better. Thank you very much,
ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: I gotta get to the gym. I gotta work out
right now. Thank you, good night, and we'll see you later.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you.
Speaker 5: Good good, Thank you, do you much your back, thank you,
thank you.
Speaker 16: You got that.
Speaker 19: Okay, that's right, Hold up, thank you quick.
Speaker 2: You're doing right up here.
Speaker 19: Okay, oh, thank you.
Speaker 11: Well.
Speaker 1: I don't know Bob knows a chic, but we we
have three more hours to fill of podcast TODs.
Speaker 6: So no, no, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: My STERI back then, my ster back then, steal you
have it.
Speaker 5: You don't have No, he's not je Ronnie.
Speaker 8: He's a very good man.
Speaker 10: I have a lot of him, you know, mister Bob Bucke.
Speaker 20: Yeah, thank you, yeah, yeah, thank you, mister Blank Josolen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: She for your stories and your insights and sharing your
time with the audience today. Thank you everybody for joining
us here at the museum. It's it's great show and support,
and we thank you for coming here from Iowa or
across the country. And showing support for UH, something that
I have been touting since last year when I made
my first appearance here.
Speaker 6: This museum is special.
Speaker 1: It is run by good people and I think they
are paying a tremendous tribute in some very classy ways
that deserve the attention and the attendance that we're giving it.
And to have Bob and Cheek here and to be
able to share stories and insights with them is a
big part of that. And you guys being here is
why it can happen. So thank you for that too.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1: All right, well, thanks for joining me here. This is
WAYD Keller back after listening in on the podcast recorded
last month. I appreciate all of you for joining me
today here at PW Torch. iPhone users, if you're listening
to us on the native podcast app on your iPhone,
you can unlock our commercial free versions of our free
shows by searching PW Torch in Apple Podcasts. You'll see
a charcoal grade logo that says PW Torch VIP on it.
Click on that. There's some free samples of VIP shows
and you can unlock the entire VIP lineup, which includes
VIP exclusives plus commercial free versions of the free shows
by searching PW Torch in Apple Podcasts and clicking on
the PW torch VA logo and then activate your three
day free trial and after that you can become a
VIP member using your Apple account.
Speaker 6: It's that easy.
Speaker 1: Enjoy a streamline listening experience to our free shows and
unlock all the VIP exclusives, including our post pay per
view roundtables, the Wade Keller news bulletins, Everything with Rich
and Wade, The Fix that I host with Todd Martin,
and a variety of other VIP exclusives. Just search PW
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Speaker 21: Wake Up, Hey, Wake Up. You're not from Portland and
didn't grow up in the sixties seventies radies. You have
no idea what the hell I just did? The hell
did I just say? I'll tell you what I said,
as you probably heard a couple of week earlier. This week,
about a week ago or so, that the legend very
pitch man for Portland Wrestling, one of the great sponsors
of Portland Wrestling, Tom Peterson, passed away. It was very sad,
you know. He he had been he had been sick
for for quite some time. So that's that's understandable. But
you know, and he was eighty six years old. That's
that's another thing. But Tom was a legend, you know.
And I don't know where wherever you grew up. And
this is the thing, if you're too young to remember this,
there were you know, there was a time when how
do you how do you put this? There was a
time when you had these crazy, these crazy local commercials
with these crazy pitch man I guess carvel Cakes in
in New York would qualify.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 21: You know, we talked about I think on the first
episode we talked about Bob Luce and his wrestling, and
we talked about Moose Cholac and UH and the commercials
he did for his place. Also we've talked about Mad
Dog Vashan when he did commercials in the Minneapolis area
for god what beer was it. I don't even remember
it off the top of my head. But Tom Peterson
was in that vein and you know, and in the
world we live in, and and don't get me wrong,
I you know, the world we live in is a
decent place. When we've got things are much slicker, things
are faster, things communicate better. But one of the things
we are missing are those crazy local characters like that.
It's just it's just not the same. There was There
was cal Worthington in California, the car dealer who would
eat a bug to make you a deal, or stand
on his head to make you a deal, and then
he got kicked out of California for our ethical business practices.
But by god, those commercials were funny, and that's that's
really what matters, isn't it. So we had Tom Peterson
in Portland all that stuff. In Seattle, there was Dick Balch.
There were the the Rainier Beers, the stampeding herd of
Rainier Beers, these giant bottles of beer that people put
over their heads and they would run around. They were
like like a stampeding herd of deer or bison or something,
but they were these large beer bottles. So there was
all kinds of crazy stuff. And Tom Peterson fit that mold.
And I don't know where you grew up or if
you even know what the hell I'm talking about, but
that's why, you know Tom Peterson was such a big
big deal.
Speaker 10: Was because.
Speaker 21: He uh, you know, he was just he was the
guy in Portland. I mean, he was very amus in Portland.
He you know, he's in a bunch of movies because
of his affiliation with with Portland. And you know, he
was he was eighty six years old, so I mean
he was born in nineteen thirty and so obviously he
had very different sensibilities and different things. He had that
he had this flat top marine haircut, and that was
part of his his persona. I mean, this thing was
you know, you could you could take a level and
put it on top of his head and I'm sure
that bubble would not move on Tom Peterson's hair, that
flat top marine haircut. But also part of his appeal
was his crazy, his crazy, nutty wacky commercials. And that's
what the fun of his of his whole deal was,
is that he was Tom Peterson and that he uh,
he was just fun.
Speaker 12: He was just.
Speaker 21: He was just fun. Wake up, wake up. And I
mean everybody loved Everybody loved Tom Peterson. Everybody did. There
wasn't there's not anybody alive who did not love Tom Peterson.
And he'd been sick for quite some time. He's, uh,
he'd suffered from Parkinson's and his wife Gloria take care
of him, and you know, he'd been in this home
for for quite a while.
Speaker 12: And uh.
Speaker 21: And and and of course you you know you've probably
heard regardless of whether or not you you have listened
to uh you know, you know Portland Wrestling or not.
Speaker 8: You know, you know that.
Speaker 21: But one of the sponsors went bankrupt and that sponsor,
that sponsor was Tom Peterson. And he didn't go out
of business, he just went bankrupt. He bought stereo superstores
in the early nineties and that just kind of took
care of a lot of his capital and so he
was still in business up until like two thousand and nine,
I think. But it was just the timing of you know,
the problems with the Oregon Boxing Wrestling Commission, you know,
the territories dying out anyway, don owen getting older, and
then you know, Tom Peterson lost a lot of money.
And also the TV station KPTV Channel twelve. You know,
like a lot of TV stations discovered that it was
that it was easier.
Speaker 2: To just have.
Speaker 21: Just have you know, recorded programming and not have to
do live because they would go out to the Portland
Ports Arena every Saturday night and set up these cameras
and these I was there's got to be a picture
somewhere online of these cameras. These cameras were like like
refrigerators on their side, like refrigerators on a dolly. These
cameras were ridiculously huge and ridiculously out of date. I mean,
and this is another thing about wrestling is is in
the uh in the the sixties, they're still making the
move to color TV. And you may see like some
older older shows that say, you know, the World of
Disney in color, or someone make the phrase live and
in color, Well that was because you know, they're much
like the transition to HD, where everyone was talking about
HD a few years ago and being an HD was
a big deal that in that era, being in color
was a big deal. I know that sounds crazy, but
it's true. As a Christopher crosslong, wasn't it. But we're
not caught in the world between New York City the
Moon in New York City, but we are talking about
you know, wrestling was kind of behind the times, and
it took a while for Portland Wrestling to get into color.
And that probably explains because the handles ridiculously huge TV
cameras for Portland Wrestling, so anyway, Tom Peterson passed away.
He was a legend as far as advertising goes in Portland,
and you know, he's you know, you can't have a
conversation in Portland and talk about Portland wrestling without talking
about Tom Peterson. And you can't talk about Tom Peterson
without talking about Portland wrestling. It's just they're just they
just correspond. Later on, they did this great thing and
I tried to text him. He hasn't gotten back to me.
I don't if he got a new phone or he
doesn't like me anymore.
Speaker 11: What.
Speaker 21: But I tried to get the grappler on because there
was a probably like nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine, maybe
maybe ninety, I don't know. Towards the end, Tom Peterson
would have those cardboard stand ups of him, and he
brought one into the studio, and the grappler was kind
of a promo about who knows, you know, Billy Jack
Haynes or whoever. He was talking about, Steve Doll whatever,
just out of nowhere. Towards the end of the interview,
he goes and I'm sick of these Tom Peters. I'm
sick of Tom Peterson, and he rips the who roofs
the head off of the Tom Peterson cardboard cutout. It
was hilarious, but you know, and Tom was like, I
gotta get revenge on the grappler somehow. I'm not strong,
I can't fight him, but I'm gonna get revenge somehow
on the grappler. And I don't know that he ever did,
but it was still really funny. Tom Peters said he
used to stack up TVs in the Crow's Nest or
it did. The shows they would stack up TVs sort
of looked like a game show, looked like twenty thousand
dollars pyramid or something with all of the TVs and
he would stack up in the uh in the Crow's Nest.
But yeah, it's a time gone by. And I hope
wherever you live that you had had somebody, some crazy,
wacky zany guy who does commercials, and you know, there's
it's some people still do them, but I don't know
what it is that they don't seem to fit in
this era. They don't seem to be as effective as
they used to be. And I don't maybe it's just
because it's a different era, different generation, different sensibilities, different
senses of humor. But there's like this one guy who
has like a mattress store and he's got it's like
matt Barn or Mattress Ranch or something, and it's it's
got like all of these cutout animals all over it,
and it's, well, it's fugly. I'm not gonna lie, it's
it's hideous. And he's got a wacky tie and he
dances in his commercials and I find it annoying. I
don't find it endearing anymore. And I don't know if
it's just that I've gotten older or production is slicker now,
but it's just I don't know, it's just different. Speaking
of different, Oh, by the way, we do have magnum Ta.
He's gonna come up here in a little bit on
the show, and I'm very excited about that. He's gonna
be at fan Fest in Charlotte, and I'm coming to
fan Fest and Hell's coming with me. Sorry, some friends
on Facebook we're talking about Tombstone. But anyway, fan Fest
this Wednesday, I'm filling in for Pat McNeil. Pat's gonna
go on a much deserved, much earned vacation and I'm
in between vacers, so I'm gonna go to fan Fest
and we're going to do the live cast on Wednesday.
I think it was five thirty. I think it's five
thirty Eastern, two thirty Pacific. I think that's when Pat
does his. Anyway, we are gonna do it live from
the from the hotel there, the Hilton or whatever it
is there, and we're gonna do it live there and
we're hopeful to get My goal is that there's going
to be a whole bunch of wrestlers and stuff setting
up that night for fan Fest, and they're gonna come
by and we're gonna go, hey, so and so come here,
and they're gonna talk story and tell some tall tales
and they're gonna take off and set up their booth
and get ready to sell their gimmicks. Then another guy's
gonna come in and they're gonna talk, and maybe a woman,
superstar wrestler, whomever will come in. I just picture this,
this whole thing where just there's a whole bunch of
walk ons. I want it to be like the old
Johnny Carson show where there's just walk on after walk
on after walk on. That's that's what I want. I
make no promises because it's going to depend on who
the hell's there, and I don't know. I can't control
who's going to be there, but we're gonna try so
Wednesday myself and then Britt Whitmeyer from The Brad and
Britt Show is going to be co hosting and he's
going to be there too, So we are going to
be hopefully doing a fun, live, active, crazy show and
maybe we'll talk about SmackDown if anyone cares. Still good, God,
what a terrible show, but we don't talk about that here.
Oh and by the way, this is funny. So I
was talking with Greg Price, the guy who promotes the
show and everything, and I was like, so, is anybody
going to be there on Wednesday? Setting up ahead of time?
And he goes, yeah, let me see if I can
get Jim Cornette to come over and talk to you.
Speaker 12: Oh.
Speaker 21: I had a good laugh over that.
Speaker 12: I laughed and laughed.
Speaker 8: Laugh.
Speaker 21: Hang on a second, I'm still laughing, man, Is that funny?
Let me see? Because Jim Cornett hates Wade Killer and
Bruce Mitchell and Mark Madden too. I think, even though
Madden's not with the Torch anymore of it, Jim and
Jim Cornette, I don't know if you know this or not,
but and I may be talking out of school here,
I don't know, but Jim Cornett is known to harbor
a grudge from time to time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so.
Speaker 21: I gently explained to Greg that, no, I don't think
that's going to be happening. Don't think Jim Cornett's going
to be on the show, even though I've never met
the man, never had the pleasure harbor no ill will
against him. Pretty sure Jim Cornett is not going to
be on the show.
Speaker 22: Are you a fan of AW looking to sit back,
relax and listen to some like minded podcasters who share
your passion?
Speaker 16: Do you want to be topped off the ledge after
a segment that has you wondering what the heck are
they thinking?
Speaker 22: Do you want to join a discussion on what AW
is doing right and what they could do to improve?
Then join me Joel and me Greg for.
Speaker 16: The All Elee Conversation Club every Friday on the pw
torch Live Cast. Fee search pw torch in your podcast
app and subscribe to pw torch Daily Cast or stream
our shows directly from pw torch dot com. Find full
details on the pw torch Daily Cast lineup at PW
Torchdailycast dot com.
Speaker 21: Enny moving on, I still think that hilario. Yeah, Jim, Yeah,
no problem.
Speaker 2: Hey yea, Jim, We've got a podcast we need you
to do.
Speaker 21: Oh yeah, no problem, Sure, what is it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 12: What is it?
Speaker 11: The Torch.
Speaker 12: Then he'd just go off f bombs boom boom boom,
promo boom boom, probably mixed Vince Russo in there.
Speaker 21: Hey, yeah, that would be That would be a beauty.
So anyway, Wet Whitby and myself live from fan Fest
and hopefully we'll get some people setting up speaking of
fan fast. Magnum Ta is gonna be coming up in
a few minutes talk to us about his career. And
by the way, he started in Portland, Oregon. And we'll
tell you why a guy from Virginia started in Portland, Oregon.
And I'll give you a hint two words, buzz Sawyer
so and if you know buzz Sawyer's reputation, I think
you've probably put a couple of things together. But anyway,
we'll talk to Magnum coming up here a little bit.
There's another thing we'll talk about, speaking of old time
studio wrastling. You know, you probably if you're younger, you
know about Black Saturday when Vince McMahon got control of
the Georgia office, when the Brisco sold him their stock.
And there was that Black Saturday when Vince was the
host of Georgia Championship Wrestling or World Championship Wrestling or
whatever they called it. And it was a taped show
and it was all taped matches which we'd already seen
before on the USA Network a number of times. And
that went on for quite a while. But what is
not talked about a lot? And I've looked for this
on YouTube and it's now up on YouTube, and this
is exciting if you haven't seen this. And I just
tweeted it out last night because I couldn't sleep because
it was I have air conditioning, but it was too
damn hot in my house. Hey, what that happens? Anyway,
I slept like craplers. So I'm a little cantankerous this morning.
You've been warned anyway. So I was serving YouTube, which
I want to do, and they have like they did.
I think they did only like two or three weeks
two for sure, but right before WrestleMania because part of
the agreement with that Ted Turner had with whomever had
the contract for TBS Wrestling was you had to do
a live show or you know, a show from the
TBS studios. You know, you couldn't just tape and do
those shows. And Vince McMahon and Ted Turner butted heads
and butted heads and butted heads, and finally Vince relented
and they did did the WWF did the show from
the TBS studios right before WrestleMania. So we're reaching the
crescendo of WrestleMania. It's a peak for wrestling. It's very exciting.
And there's this live show in a studio format, which
is crazy because the WWF always did arenas for the
most part. I mean sure back in the Worldwide Wrestling
Federation days, and you know, when Hulkogan first won the title,
they did, you know, shoot an Allen Town where they
had before, but not long after that they moved to
arenas in larger venues. And so the WWF is always
about this big spectacle, the big arenas and the banners
and all that stuff. And there are two shows which
are now up on YouTube, during the whole Black Saturday
debacle where the WWF is in the Georgia Championship Wrestling,
the TBS studios, there's the background that World Championship Wrestling had,
and there's Guerrilla Monsoon and there's Freddie Miller and they
bring in everybody and the crowd is going nuts and
deservedly so because it's it's the WWF and it's in
this tiny studio and it's it's fascinating. So I tweeted
it out last night this morning, whatever it is, you
can go to my Twitter at gim Valley and you
can see it for yourself, or look up on YouTube
wellu WF Georgia Championship Wrestling and there's about two hours
worth of stuff. And I knew it existed because I
watched it as a kid and it blew my mind
as a kid, and is seeing it as an adult,
it still blows my mind because there's a certain energy
and excitement about it because it's right before the big WrestleMania,
so the media frenzy. And then also to see you know,
hul Cogan is in the studio cutting promos, and to
see so many of these guys, it's like, oh my god,
they were you know, there's Roddy Piper, he was in Georgia.
Oh my god, there was Orange Orf he was in Georgia.
Jimmy Snooker Georgia. All of these guys had been in
that studio before under different auspices, but still and so
it'll just it blew my mind. So you'll see the
Junkyard Dog who made appearances in the TBS studios. You'll
see I said, Snooker wrestles Junkyard Dog. Andre the Giant
comes in.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 21: In the first hour, Gorilla Monsoon doesn't even know who
Freddy Miller is. He just calls him his colleague. And
then by the next week he knows who Freddy Miller is.
But it's just it's mind blowing. It's like an episode
of the Twilight Zone. To watch the WWF in the
Georgia studio and the TBS studio with the World Championship
Wrestling NWA background, the Crockett background doing the show, and
like I said, the crowd is going nuts. I don't
recall a Georgia crowd an NWA crowd being quite as loud.
And probably the reason is is because you know, those
are their guys and they can see their guys. But
now you've got you know, these people are not the
hometown people, and they're the people you see on MTV
and all that stuff. By the way, if you think
Piper was was never got crazy later on, Oh yeah,
he's he's, he gives he gives a completely nonsensical rambling interview.
It's it's crazy. So yeah, so you should look it up.
It's WWF Georgia Championship Wrestling. Or look at my Twitter
as I tweeted out a link yesterday, So go to
at Jim Valley and you can you can look it up.
So there you go. So, uh, we're here, we're live.
You can tweet me at Jim Valley. You can email
at PW Torchlive Cast at gmail dot com, or you
can call in it. What is the number six four
six seven one six four six seven two one nine
eight two eight. It's Jim Valley. It's the PW Torch
Live Cast and Magnetier is gonna be coming up in
just a little bit.
Speaker 2: Wake up, hey, you wake up.
Speaker 11: It's our stuff, a pucking Lop.
Speaker 21: Sail where free is a very good crime, free mini brunch,
free Tom Peterson haircut.
Speaker 4: Free gift with every purchase.
Speaker 21: That's our famous seventiece living room group brow only four
ninety eight, but a free six by nine area runs.
Speaker 18: Join us this weekend, have a chip, take a sip,
sit right down and have a clip.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: That's Tom Peterson and Glorious Too.
Speaker 21: That was after they restructured after bankruptcy. It went from
Tom Peterson's to the new name of the company was
Tom Peterson's and Glorious Too. And throughout the sixties, seventies
and eighties. Gloria wasn't part of it up until the nineties,
but that's when they restructured after the bankruptcy. And again
Tom Peterson had this flat top. So the gimmick was
is you could go get a free Tom Peterson haircut,
and you know he gave it. What you know, he
had the wake Up wake Up that was his gimmick
and he would he would show or give away depending
on the promotion, alarm clocks Tom Peterson alarm clocks that
would talk and say wake up with his face on it.
There were t shirts and wristwatches and all of this stuff.
And I mean, he was such a great character and
such a such a great community member, and you know,
he lived a great life and before Portland was weird
and Hipsterville. You know it was you know, in the
Pacific Northwest. We were you know, we got by on
the timber industry, on logging and natural resources. So you had,
you know, all of these loggers and Tom Tom fit
in with bull as far as you know, he had
the the ironic thing going on for the hipsters now
and then also you know, fit in in a more
realistic way with with with the people who were who
were her logging men and women, who are mountain men
and women. But I mean that's you know, he had
Grammar furniture, and he also had you know, if you
lived in the Double Wide. So there you go. But
Tom Peterson, a great supporter of professional wrestling, passed away
at the age of eighty six, and everybody in the
Portland area is gonna miss him. It's big news. It
was big, big news. And like I said, so no
matter where you lived, I'm sure you can relate as
far as if you're old enough to remember some crazy
local business that advertised and there's really like I said,
I think that has kind of gone by the by
the wayside, but who knows, maybe maybe it'll come back
in some shape or form or another. But yeah, so
So Tom Peterson a big deal when it came to
Portland wrestling and a big supporter of Portland wrestling. I
mean seriously, I mean how many how many people do
you know that are associated with just you know one thing,
you know, Tom Peterson. No one talks about any the
other shows that he that he sponsored, just Portland Wrastling
live for the Portland Sports Arena. So it's Jim Valley,
It's Saturday Morning Wrestling coming up here, magnet who is
going to talk about?
Speaker 4: Uh, the the n W a fan.
Speaker 21: Fast, the Charlotte FanFest every year, and he of course
is a staple of the fan fast. You can go
to NWA Legends dot com and take a look at
that and see more inform me. Yeah, they do a
Hall of Fame, but I don't think they can call
it a Hall of fame, so they call it the
Hall of Heroes. In one year, I think when I
was there, they inducted Jim Cornett in the Midnight Express
and they've they've inducted everybody, and now they're going to
uh induct Dusty Rhodes and Magnum of course, who was
a man who was a protege of Dusty Rhodes is
going to induct Dusty and we'll talk to Magnum about
his relationship with Dusty, and we'll talk to him about
his career. Of course, Magnum, you know, one of the
things fans love to play booking what if or you know,
you know, fan booking. I'm trying to think of the word.
I can't think of it, but one of it would
have happened if and one of one of the big
ones is always what if Magnum Ta hadn't been injured
in that crash? And I want to talk to him
about it, just to get his thoughts on where he
thinks he would fit in, because not long after his crash,
wrestling got really silly, you know, Crockett went out of business,
and Jim Hurd and then you had, you know, for
w CW, you had all this goofy crap, You had
the ding dongs, and you had all of this stupid
garb and I just wonder, I mean, the guy like
Magnum Tier, where the hell would he fit into all
the news because he was just a plane speaking, boots
hit you with the belly to belly, straightforward, kick ass
kind of guy. And it's just I wonder sometimes where
he would fit in this goofy circus. The WCW became
not terribly long after his accident because when Crockett's sold
I don't know, but we can talk to him about that.
We're gonna talk to him about a lot of things.
But we're very excited to have on the show a
guy whose career was relatively short. But I think it
speaks to the quality of his work and the character
of his persona and his person that he is well
remembered and well thought of to this day joining us now,
I'm joining me. Jim Valley here on the PW Torch
Live cast is the one and only Magnum Tia Magnum.
Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Well, it's pleasures. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 21: Hey man, So you've got the fan Fest. It's coming
up this weekend. You're you're a staple of the fans Fest.
What do you what do you enjoy about the about
the fan Fest?
Speaker 4: Well, I enjoy the reunion, the reunion with so many
of my counterparts that I don't have the opportunity to
see uh without an event like this, and and then
relive in memories with the fans and then bringing their
kids and you know they told their kids all about
you know, the history and uh things they grew up watching.
And you know, now YouTube and the WWE network, you know,
all have brought those things back full circle where uh
you know, they made the things we did thirty years
ago current in today's time.
Speaker 1: Before pushing play on the weight Teller, Pro Wrestling post shows,
check out pw torch dot com and our TV review
section and skim through a full rundown of the TV
show if you didn't see it. That's your way to
get an overview of what happened before you dive into
our in depth analysis of the key happenings on the show.
That's pw torch dot com. You're home for live TV
coverage every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with my TV Reports,
and also check out our NXT and Impact coverage on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, our Collision reports on Saturday nights, and
of course our live pay per view and PLEE coverage
on weekends, all waiting for you at pw torch dot com.
Speaker 21: And you know, I mean all the fans, they love you,
they remember you. One of the things I made it
a couple of years ago to FanFest and you and
I we talked briefly, and I'm totally sure you completely
remember it. I'm kidding, But anyway, I grew up in
Portland watching Don Owens Portland Wrestling and I remember you
briefly here around what was it like nineteen eighty one?
Speaker 4: It was actually nineteen eighty and that was my very
first match in wrestling, was working for Donna Owens there
that Portland Bowl and out he had converted into a
wrestling arena.
Speaker 21: You know, we talked to let's let's let's let's talk
about that before we get into exactly the roundabout way
you made it to Portland. But one of the things
I talk about on the show is like, I, you know, I,
you know, I used to talk with with Buddy Rose
and Kurt Hennig and such and and they would always
talk about the uniqueness of the what was dubbed the
Portland Sports Arena. And you mentioned that it was an
old bulling alley. What was your reaction the first time
you saw that place?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I had so many things going through
my head because again this was my first actual n
ring appearance. YEA ever, and I had like little or
no training, and my very first match was all over
there television show. Russell was no Sawyers, So it was,
uh the surroundings, uh kind of paled in comparison of
just the anxiety of doing what I did for the
very first time in my life.
Speaker 21: So go ahead and tell this story, So about how
how how a Virginia guy ends up going to to Portland.
Speaker 4: Well, I met I met Bruna Sawyer when he was
in the mid Atlantic. Uh, I was I was trying to,
you know, figure my way into the wrestling business. And
you know, back then it was so guarded, it was
so protected. It was a really tough thing to do.
And through just the backstage, uh backstage introductions that I
had to people because of friends I knew in a
law enforcement that had introduced me to some people, guys
who worked security there. Buzz and I struck up a
relationship and he was going to be the one to
train me and get me into wrestling. But before all
that was to be able to take place in the
Carolina's uh, he went to work for Don Owens went
out to Portland. So he had me go pick up
his little brother Brett down in Tampa, Florida, and I
brought him all the way back up to mid South,
uh to to uh bill watch Territory. While I hung
out with him, and guys like Jimmy Garvin and and
uh oh gosh, Junkyard Dog and Jason Saint Roberts and
all those guys met. You know, just a lot of
people kind of watched watched the rest and watching what
was going on all the time, waiting for Buzz to
call me up and and you know, bring me, bring
me up there. And I never got the call. So
I got in my car, drove cross country. I drove
all the way across California, then all the way up
the coast of Portland and showed up on his doorstep
and opened the door and had to a little sock
and make a long story short. I had one workout
in a ring prior to getting into business where it
was me, it was Buz, this little brother Brett, and
uh Princess Victoria, and we all worked out in the
rink for about two hours.
Speaker 3: Me.
Speaker 4: He had our surfle hit the ropes up to do
a few basic things and uh then Russ got of
history my first match with Buzz on TV. Uh he
had un tony to me, told Don that I'd been
working get him to south from Bill and nobody ever
checked it out, obviously, And they put me right to
work seven days a week, and I learned everything I did.
Uh im prompt too the hard way in the ring.
Speaker 21: Now, had you given buzz Sawyer money prior to him leaving?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I had, But you know, in respect of those passed
on and and things, uh kind of water under the
bridge or really don't want to belavor it.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: He sure he did some unscrupulous things to me, and
I think the Undertaker as well. Uh, but you know it.
Uh you know, why go gooky? You talking about that?
When had it not been for that, Uh yeah, my
story would be what it is today.
Speaker 21: Well, I just want to say that you're obviously a
very determined You were a very determined young man at
that point. I think a lot of people probably just
would have written off the losses and and moved on.
So I think that says something about your character and
determination and desire to make it in your chosen field.
Speaker 4: Well, I was young, I was strong, uh that I
didn't think that there was anything in the world I
couldn't do.
Speaker 21: Uh.
Speaker 12: And you know.
Speaker 4: So the sky was the limit. Once somebody cracked the
door and let the end, I wasn't going away.
Speaker 21: So do you do you have any memories of wrestling
in Portland other than other than your first match or
were you so focused on your craft that you sort
of had blinders on?
Speaker 4: Well, the Savage was the booker, and uh, you know,
like I said, it was just a real learning experience.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: And I was so green, and the people there didn't
know how green I really was. But like less than
a month of the business, they put me in there
with Gene Kaninski who was a former world champion, and
we were we were working in uh oh gosh, where
were we at? Anyway, we were working somewhere in port
up there in the Washington state, No Seattle where it was.
I remember he did the spot and he picked me
up and dropped me behind him, and he told me
to push him in the roads to do a row up.
Well I didn't know what a row up was. I mean,
I didn't know all the lingo, all the terminology in
the spots. He dropped me behind him because I didn't
know what to do. I'm bullied him back, superlex him
on his head and I remember he after the match.
He got a big kick out of that because he
was a bigger, rough, tough guy and he thought I
was pretty salty to Uh, you know, I've done that
to him. So, you know, all the guys were really helpful.
They're really good natured. I mean they saw my desire,
and uh, I got to put in a lot of
rig time. I was only there for six months, but
I was brought some seven days a week, and uh,
you know, if you're gonna I had more rig time
in the first my first six months of the business
than these four kids breaking into the indies will in
you know, probably six years.
Speaker 21: Talking with a magnum Ta who's going to be at
the nw A fan fest this weekend in Charlotte. You
can go to n w A Legends dot com. He's
going to be interviewing, inducting his mentor, Dusty Rhodes. Will
talk about that coming up here just a couple of minutes.
But first let's let's go to the phones. Let's go
to Brian from Phoenix. Brian, you got some questions VIP member,
you got some questions for magnum t A.
Speaker 4: Good morning, m Good morning.
Speaker 23: Morn A Magnimum fan of yours. However, I grew up
in Detroit, uh, and I didn't Detroit didn't the cable
until really nineteen eighty, late summer for eight light for
me eighty, so I didn't see your career real time unfortunately,
you know, like DVD's two things, But that makes sense.
Speaker 21: Hey, Brian, you're bleaking up a little bit of my end.
Speaker 23: Okay, I'll try to move around.
Speaker 4: A little bit.
Speaker 23: And I'm looking right now, Okay, thank you. I'm looking
at the Legends of Missouf Wrestling DVD set that I
got from w w E, and I really enjoyed, uh
your mattresson here. But the question I want to ask about,
Magnum is about the the build up for your match
with Mister Wrestling too. Can you talk a little bit
about the segment where you were out at the farm
and you and Jim Ross and mister Wrestling who were
working out were actually as Jim wasn't working out, you
and Mister Wrestling were working out and Jim they're filming
and interviewing everything. He talked about filming that and building
all that part up of the of that few clicks.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, it was, uh, it was to be To
be fair, I was really the only one working out
two was like, that's what was kind of touching me.
And they were having me do all these things that
I was doing, take after take after take, and and
it was, uh, it was it was really interesting, uh
because the one thing I remember the whole thing was
they got me what did they wanted to fill me
running and running up to where they were at, uh,
and then conclude with a little little interview or something afterwards.
And if you don't think that's a hard thing to
do to do, m keen wind sprints to to get
you know, get up to a place where they want
to do a take talking about being blown up. That
was that was really an interesting thing. But it was
it was a great program that we worked And uh,
you know, my heat's off Jolly Walker because he he
ends up turning heel and he's been a baby basit
in entire career and you know when he finally got it,
he really ended up being a good heel.
Speaker 21: And those those That's a great question, Brian, because in
those vignettes, Magnum, you are a long ways away in
the background and we watch you run the whole way.
It's not like you're off camera and then suddenly come,
you know, strutting up from off camera. You are a
long ways back. Mary, it is. It did look tiring.
I mean you looked legitimately tired. And I don't think
I blame you.
Speaker 4: Uh you know, I was a really good shape. But
the things that they were we were doing and doing
multiple takes, uh yeah, I mean it was something that
uh yeah, I wasn't mentally prepared for exactly what we
were out there to do. But again, back then, if
they said go do it, you know, I just said
where and win and and you know, go get it done.
And that's that's what we did.
Speaker 23: Anything else, Briand Yeah, the last question I have for you, macdum,
I'm not sure how much you follow uh today's wrestling.
I know you at least watched Testa Blanchers matches. But
so the million Dollars kneelest that mister wrestling who is
trying to teach you again? I love that name, million
Dollar Dalist. Can you you think that's something that could
be brought back to the current wrestling or is that
just a little too eighties? Is early eighties wrestling?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, anything can be brought back. It be
how it'd be depending on how people sold it. You know,
if somebody, uh, if somebody did it and everybody was
you know, selling like they'd been hit by a freight train,
then yeah, you know, I mean the coal stole, the
stone cold cutter and uh, you know the records and
things that you know guys did, none of it would
amounted to an LB's that the people didn't sell belly
suit plants that I used. You know, there's there's so
many people used for a high spot. They could all
use it for a high spot. But if I do
it and the people didn't get up and they got ten,
then it made a difference. So you know, it's all
about you know, perception and and how the guys around
you put over what you're doing. You could, you know,
I mean, you can make anything exciting. It's just been
on how you're working.
Speaker 23: Great again, gentlemen on Magnama. Hope people have a real
good weekend. Thanks a lot, Jeff for put me on
and macnam was great talking to you, and have a
real good day.
Speaker 21: Gelements, there's Brian v Ip you member from Phoenix dialing
up at six four six eight. You know that's interesting
you bring up the belly to belly because I guess
Shane Douglass used it a few years ago, but it
was like a standing belly to belly. I never understood
why no one did the whipping the ropes and then
the belly to belly like you did. That seemed like
a like a move that you could do out of
it seemed to have I guess, all of the criteria
you want for an exciting finish. It can come out
of nowhere, it can be decisive. Is that move particularly
difficult when it's whipped off the ropes because it doesn't
seem like a lot of people picked it up? Uh
after your career?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4: I mean to me, it was a very natural thing
uh to do.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: And I actually did it to somebody in the ring
when I was a rooky and I was breaking in
and I had a guy that was greener than I
was and didn't really know what he was doing in
the ring, and I got so frustrated with him. I
couldn't you get him to do anything that I just
grabbed him and ended up suit budging him like right
out of his boots. And I realized that I had
That's where my strength center was my lower back and
my pulling ability and my wrestling. That ground just gave me,
gave me the ability to do that move to anybody,
whether they wanted to go, didn't want to go, didn't matter.
I could do it. So I kind of put that
in my mind, and you know, for the future, I
used that for a finish because basically, you're finished. You've
got to be an execute on anybody at any time, anywhere.
And I knew that that was something I could do. Anybody,
whether they were you know, two hundred pounds or three
hundred and fifty pounds, I could still do it. So,
you know, for me, it just came natural. I don't
I don't know whether I remember one time Dustie and
I when we were wrestling America, see we I think
it was with the Multi Brothers or something. We threw
them both in the ropes and we gave him a
double Donny de Belly off the ropes and Dustie never
done it before his life, and you know, it wasn't
any big deal. He just you know, he did it.
So you know, I don't think it's not hard. I
think it's just a matter of you know, in God's minds,
it's not, you know, exciting enough. They're trying to always
come up with something you know they don't think somebody
has seen before, or something with that next level of excitement.
So maybe for that reason it's kind of god overlooked.
Speaker 24: Need an extra dose of positivity in your wrestling podcasts,
will come join me Alan farrel Over in the Progress
Paradise at penoge Torch VP as we mask on the
bright side of wrestling and focus on some of the
great matches and shows from around the world, be it
the US, Japan, Europe or Mexico. There's always a place
for wrestling's past in the Paradise too, and we've done
fun historical shows such as the We Love Liger series
celebrating the glorious career of Jusian thunder Lighter and Our
Eye Was There when shows where our guests will join
me to talk about a classic bout that they were
in attendance for. We love variety and you can expect
lots of it at the Progress Paradise. Detailed PW Torch
VIP subscription information and a list of all the VIP
benefits is available at pterbrew Torch vip info dot com.
And yes, all VIP podcasts are compatible with popular podcast
apps on iPhone and Android devices, or you can stream
them directly from our ad free VIP mobile site. See
you in the Paradise.
Speaker 21: Now speaking, I want to touch on the knee lift
of Mister Wrestling number two. I think I just got
done rereading Jim Duggan's book where he talks about the
worst thing about was it the knee with mister Wrestling too?
It was that slap on the back that's stung?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, because I was just sound effect, you know,
he make it. He hit you at the back too
with with the you know, big smack to make it
sound like that Need was hitting he that hard in
the chest. And that's where the you know, the panel
was coming from. So yeah, absolutely, uh godn't remember.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously I took it to Need for everyone
I worked with him as we turned heel, But you know, frankly,
compared to some of the other things we did in
the rank, that was kind of my.
Speaker 21: Huge So after after Portland, did you go to Florida?
Is that where you went?
Speaker 4: I went from Portland to San Antonio for Jim Blanchard
and I worked there for six months and still as
a rookie.
Speaker 12: Uh.
Speaker 4: Ray Fernandez uh came in about the same time I did,
and he and I trained together for for two three months.
Uh in the gym, I was there and uh he
he was, of course, you know, one of the young
young uppers coming slight myself and uh and while I
was there, Mike Graham came to saying, come to Russell something.
The jug bols everyway handing chip or something, and him
and I struck him a friendship just in this natural camaraderie,
and he went on and told his dad about me.
The next thing I knew, he called me up asked
if I wanted to come to Florida. And so after
my first year of the business, I made my way
to Tampa and uh then I spent a year and
a half in Florida.
Speaker 21: And is that where you met Dusty?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 4: When I first came there, Dorry Funk Junior was the booker,
and so I think for about that first six months
Dorry was booking and then uh, he he left and
Dusty came in and he and I met, and within
amount a week or two I got and spent some
quality time together. Found out we had a lot of
common interests and just talking a lot of things in life.
Uh yeah, struck up a friendship, the loss of the lifetime.
Speaker 21: We're talking with Magnum t A and he's going to
be inducting his mentor and friend, Dusty Rhodes into the
nw A Legends Hall of Heroes this weekend at the
Charlotte FanFest. You can go to n w A Legends
dot com and get get some more information. Let's take
another phone call from Magnum t A. Let's go to
A seven seven three, seven seven three. You're on the
live cast with Jim Vallely. Who's this and where you
calling from?
Speaker 2: Bors from Chicago Orris?
Speaker 21: What do you got for Magnum Magnum?
Speaker 2: Hey?
Speaker 11: Ji?
Speaker 25: My first question because I think you're gonna hit on
what if Magnum didn't have this accident and how how
his impact was you know, being in the industry at
any time would have changed. I think you're gonna cover that, right, Yeah,
we can talk about Well I had the same thought,
but since you go, I can go to something else
and y'ah, you know, talk about that. My thing says
he's inducting Dusty Rose.
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 25: My first question is what do you think about Cody
Roles having to lead the biggest company, wrestling company to actually,
so to speak, be himself, actually be a wrestler.
Speaker 5: That's my first quo.
Speaker 4: You know, everything in the business is a journey.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: I think you know, Cody, you know, wants to find
himself back into the you know, the Cody Rhoades character
and be himself. And you know, there's a you know,
there's a writing staff and a group there the w W.
You know, he's creating so many things and so much stuff.
But I don't know exactly. You know, I haven't talked
with him about it. I thought with this Bob and Michelle,
but yeah, I know he wanted to go experiment and
do some other things that you know, I wouldn't rule
out the fact that Cody might not be back one day.
I think if he goes out and uh, you know,
proves what he can do, uh, you know, working his
Cody Rose and get big enough uh following and people
out there supporting, uh supporting that that he could uh
you know, bring that character back to the w W
at some point in time. He's still a very young man.
He got the whole world in front of him, but uh,
you know, timing is everything, so they just weren't ready
for that day right now. And uh I respect his
decision to uh, you know, go do what he wants
to do, go be his own man. And uh so,
you know, I'm watching that situation closely because I mean,
he's he's a special guy in my life. He's my
he's my godson. And uh though we you know, we
weren't close as he was growing up because you know,
obviously life the things I've had dealt to me changed
my path and being geographically at different places, you know,
I very much have a you know, a tie to
him because of his dad.
Speaker 2: Excellent.
Speaker 25: The other second question is sure, uh hey, he nailed
it for me.
Speaker 5: And my second question is the women's wrestling.
Speaker 25: What do you think about what do you think about
Charlotte Charlotte the Sasha Banks is actually how they're coming
into the business and and actually we're getting back to
the women's professional wrestling and finally getting out the divas
era and getting back into you know, and it's taken
and it took him to It took us the time
of a Charlotte rich player's daughter and a few others,
which is surprising to you know, come up through n
XT and and get us back to women's wrestling.
Speaker 4: Well, I applauded the movement because there's tremendous female athletes
out there in the world that can represent women's rights
like the way it deserves to be represented. And certainly, uh,
you know, you know Ashley Charlotte Rick's daughter, Uh, she
is a world class athlete in and of itself. She's
paint her dues and on the roads, and you know
she she worked at at NXT for so long that
Dusty was a big part of coaching her, developing her
her persona and her ability to speak all the mic.
And she's got the uh, you know, she's gotten all
the right stuff in the ring. Johnson Banks does too.
Sasha Banks, you know, honestly, Uh is one of is
just an absolutely incredible worker. And uh she doesn't have
the size of the stature that it actually has, but
she's got all the right stuff to be the champion.
And uh, you got to mix it up. There's got
you know, one person can't just dominate all the time.
It's gotten to be knocking forth in a challenge and
a picture painted that there's a contest going on with
somebody trying to take the tunnel, because if you don't
think there's a possibility of that happening at some point
in time, you're gonna lose you some fans. So you know,
they're both young in their careers, and I think we're
gonna see incredible matches and I think Nashville could continue
to grow as a competitor. I can imagine you know,
Page getting back in there. Uh, you know how good
a worker she is. I mean, there's this there's some
real depth of that women's division and fact that it's
really competitive because there's not as many opportunities and spots
for women all the wister as there are the best.
Speaker 5: Excellent.
Speaker 25: I really enjoyed your answers. My last, my last, My
last thing is the moves, which you guys are pretty
much hit on it. How you know your belly belly
was effective as it was and actually see I think Bailey,
which is another popular woman wrestler, I think she was
using the bell of the back for a finisher, which
is awesome, you know to see. Uh, And that's the
first thing I thought about was you, because I know
you're the only person that I watched, you know, in
my history to watch the wrestler that took that movement
and not it wasn't a spot move, you know, for
the next move, for the next move, but actually was
a finisher.
Speaker 5: And to see her which is a woman's wrestler with.
Speaker 25: You know, like I said, we haven't we hadn't got
that many women at the time, to see her executed too.
The first flashback I had was you and I think
that was awesome and I want My question was to
that is, what do you think of how like you said,
simple moves is not working anymore because they use you know,
you had to take the DDT used to be a finisher,
it's not now, and you think it's wrong that they
don't turn into it takes ten moves ten finishers to
take out somebody or this is where it had to
evolve to or can we go back to, you know,
where you had to actually use brass nuskles to cheat
or something like that.
Speaker 5: You know, the simple form, the basics, that's what you know.
Speaker 4: Honestly, doctor, wiggle my nerves and you know, be twenty
seven in the shape I was in, uh you know
back in nineteen eighty six, and I had the opportunity
today it would be it would be like stealing candy
from a baby because they've done so much that somebody
that came in today that did something that is completely
was sold and put over like a you know, instead
of the like you said, fifteen tennis booths that they
kick out just to get a pot. But if somebody
came out today that was you know, still did exciting
things that had one you know, one thing in their
arsenal that it was over game set point that you
could get over like a million bucks. And you know,
to me, it's wide open for a you know, for
a character for somebody who's that serious. They can't you know,
just you bring it all. Uh, you know, you could,
you know, the Scott could be the limit for what
you could accomplish.
Speaker 21: Thanks, Boris, I appreciate the calling it magnum that that
you bring up an interesting point and one of the
things I want to talk to you about because after
your crash, I mean, you were still there so you
know better than I, but wrestling sort of pivoted and
with the with the Crockett sale and everything, and and
people came in who you know and you worked with,
who didn't seem to really know what you were what
they were doing, wrestling got really silly as far as
w c W, I guess in an effort to to
to to get the kids like w w F did
at the time. I mean, you know, we we saw
a lot of a lot of a lot of stupid crap,
which you what you lived through because you were you
were backstage through through a lot of this. But where
do you think that you as a wrestler and a performer,
had it not been for the crash, where would have
magnum t a the wrestler have fit in to all
of that ridiculous crap? Would you have just gone to
w w F, what how would you fit in with
all of that, all of just the just the ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Well, I wouldn't have ever fit into the ridiculous as first,
because you know that just wasn't me.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: The tact of the matter, the tact of the matter is,
you know, you know, everybody knows, you know, they were
pushing me like nobody had ever been pushed and the
World Championship was was a foregone conclusion. But the fact
of the matter was that I had no I had
no desire to wrestle thirty years old. Uh, most people
don't know that I had this huge passion for racing
and I had the opportunity to drive many parses race
car at a sharp motor speedway because of Rustling, I
got to to, uh uh, you know, go out there
and drive the US to back the car, and I
really wanted to have a couple of year run with
with the world title, and I wanted to be seingling
off into racing, so you know that, you know, all
the stings and all the things that work to come
could have still come because I didn't really I didn't
want to be one of those guys that couldn't couldn't
find the graceful way out and didn't know when it
was time to hang it up. I wanted to be
remembered in my prom at the top of my game,
being the best I could be. And you know, if
the money had been just absolutely insane, you know, obviously
that would have kept me in a little bit longer.
But uh yeah, driving that race car around Charlotte Hunter
Speedway at one hundred and ninety miles in Iron was
the biggest rush I've ever had in my life. You know,
that was before Jeff Gordon and all that kind of
good stuff, and there was a big tie in with
wrestling and racing, and that was somewhere that you know,
I really wanted to go.
Speaker 21: Rick Flair said a pretty high bar as far as
championship matches, and we saw a lot of people that
that that took the title, that couldn't that couldn't maintain
the fans interest and keep their imagination. How do you
think you would have pivoted from from magnum Ta US
champion and world title challenger to magnum Ta defending NWA
and or WCW World Heavyweight Champion.
Speaker 4: But I think the only glimpse that we can see
into it, besides just sheer speculation, is to look at
the program with Nikita and I. Nikita was green as
the grass on the ground, as strong as anybody you
ever laid your hants on, and stiff, and Nikita and
I on many many occasions went out and went thirty
and forty five minutes and tore the house down. So
I have to think that if Kenneth had opportunity and
being able to general the match as a world champion
does that I probably could have gotten the job done.
I feel like I was kind of a precursor to
the Steve Austin type character. And that I wasn't a babyface.
Babyface wasn't a cutsy little babyface. It was a kind
that would smack, you know, mob goggle of the mouth
for saying the wrong thing. And I was kind of
anti authority, even though I tried to represent values and
principles and things that were good. So with that said,
you know, I can't ever see myself, you know, being
the cowardly heeled type character like Flair could portray and
do so well. But I think I could have. I
could have entertained the people.
Speaker 21: And if you well, I guess, I guess by that
time pretty much he wasn't traveling much, so you wouldn't
have had to been like a like a subtle heel
too often, sort of like a maybe like a Jack
Brisco did at times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there I mean, and there were heels out
there that didn't work like Flair. I mean, look at
Johnny Valentine. You know, Tony Valentale is about himself. The
son of a gun. Is you never you don't want
to see work? And I watched him and Whilie McDaniels
just beat each other's depths, you know growing up here
at the Atlantic, so you know you could be a rough,
rugged heel and not have to be a Cora at WIMP,
you know heel like you know some people were comfortable
portraying and still get the job done.
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Speaker 21: Every week we're talking with magnum Ta. He's going to
be at the NWA Legends Fan fest this weekend. Go
to NWA Legends dot com for more information. A couple
of years ago when I went you did a great
Q and A for the fans with the Tully Blanchard
talking about your your famous Starcade match, and got an
email here from from a fan wanting to know it
was Was that your favorite Starkad match by far? Or
were there others?
Speaker 9: What did you like?
Speaker 4: Blackway matches is for you know, you gotta be the
pinnacle as far as performance, because I mean anything that
can be you know, talked about thirty years after the
fact in the fashion in which you did, uh. I
mean I spoke with always with Dave Beltzer last weekend
at at at Waterloo io on him for the first
time and he said, you know, you know what kind
of match did people still talk about, you know today
thirty years after the fact. They had the kind of
impact that one still match at And so you know,
even though demanding times of things that I might have did,
the ad the one more enjoyable, There's certainly nothing I've
done is left that kind of long lasting impact. The
best of seventh series was was uh, you know, was unbelievable,
but won't for one single match to stand out like
it did.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's certainly got to be the highlight reel for me.
Speaker 21: And sure it seems like every few years people do
dust off a best of seven or a best of
something series, So yeah, that is quite a quite a legacy.
We got another question here from Matt from Washington State.
He wants to know did you ever wrestle outside of
the US?
Speaker 4: Got outside? No, I really didn't.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: I worked with Joe Blanchard, we went over into Mexico
I think one time, and Russell at Hawaii, which, of
course that's still in the United States, even's off the continent.
But I was scheduled to have dogs at Japan in
February of eighty eight, seven before you, before the crash affened,
so that would have been my first opportunity to go out,
But no, I did not.
Speaker 21: One of the things I learned when I was at
n W A fan fest, which which is a great story,
I think, tell everyone the magnum Ta name, tell him
whose idea was that name? And it's it's a pretty
great it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 4: I think, well, you know it is I and I
still I had to laugh about that to this day.
I had struck up my friendship with Andrea John back
in my Portland days because I had a great, big
old ninety eight for to a car. And when he
came in, as he did back then, to you spent
a couple of weeks in the territory whoever had the
biggest car called the Giant around. So we met and
talked and got to be actually, you know, good friends.
And then when I was down in Florida, we were traveling.
We'd been out to some night club something late at night,
and we're eating breakfast at a place called fat Man's
Barbecue and down there in Tampa, and he looked across
the table at me, and and I progressed quite a
bit since he had first met me when I first
broke in, and he said, you know, he said, eating
a handle eating He said, he looked kind of like
that guy on TV. He said, you should be magnum Ta.
And he came right out of his mouth, and he
was going to go back to New York. And then
Senior was still living and talked to Vince about bringing
me to New York. Then, and you started starting off
a career as magnum Ta well before he could get
that done Ernie Land, who was working with Bill Watts.
He was in for a TV taping. He saw me,
and this is when Warren Dorf left Bill it went
to New York. So it opened up to a spot
in their roster. So Ernie gave me the call, told
me the spot was there, asked me if I wanted
to come. I went there and that's where I lonched
off the magnum Ta character.
Speaker 21: How do you think magnum Ta would have fit into
the WWF.
Speaker 4: Frankly, I think it would have been amazing. Vince was
so creative, especially during that area, Kara. It's so hungry,
you know, looking for the next big thing that I
think potentially that combination of he and I could have
just been dust It would have never happened unless Dusty
had left too, because my loyalty was to Dusty. It
wasn't even the m w A. It was Dusty. And uh,
I mean I left Bill to come to Dusty when
when the VIDs, you know, Atlantic was on his rear
end and Mid South was on fire. So you know,
if Dusty had said, you know, I think it'd be
you know, if Dusty said, I think it would be
best for you out of gone, but I would have
really loved to see what I could have done with
that kind of machine behind me.
Speaker 21: I was Florida when you were there, was it was
it starting to taper off.
Speaker 4: It was you know, we were doing decent houses. I mean,
you know, I was work in the middle of the
card and making decent money and uh you know it
was it was a great place to work in. You know,
the experience, uh get experience with all kinds of season Metrians.
But as far as you know, as far as business wise,
I mean, it was nothing compared to what we turned.
He had been south into where we where we'd got
that place called all as Far.
Speaker 21: And this was the era where they were they were
had they had the Global Tag Team Championships. They didn't
have the US titles of the Florida titles. They were
kind of transitioning to to the global identity.
Speaker 4: Right and that was a Brad Armstrong and myself myself
were the Global Tag Team Champions, as were Scott McGee
and myself, So we both tell those titles and we
weren't with the U with the Royal Kangaroos.
Speaker 21: That was Was there any heat from the n w
A for for I mean, essentially you're calling it a
world title.
Speaker 4: You know, if there was nobody talked about it, Uh,
you know, it wasn't being talked about at a bi level.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 4: If you know, Eddie Graham would have been handled all that,
and he kept things pretty close to the cuff, so uh,
you know there could have been heat, but whatever expressed us.
Speaker 21: All right, let's go to a six two eight six two.
You're on the Life cast.
Speaker 10: Who's line?
Speaker 21: Where are you coming from?
Speaker 11: It's Kyler Jim?
Speaker 5: How are you funny?
Speaker 10: Good man?
Speaker 2: What do you got for making ta okay?
Speaker 11: First off, magnimum, it's an honor to talk to you, sir.
My first question for you is did you ever think
of going to w w WE at some point before
your accident happened to you?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: I never had to play to go on there before
the accident. I mean, my goal was firmly set on
I'm coming to the WA world anyway can And of
course you know that had not happened. U. You know
idea it was probably about sites if you take place,
So yeah, the WWE wasn't even an achely gonna find
in my head back then.
Speaker 12: Hmm.
Speaker 11: Interesting. And my second question is even though you just
expressed a desire to enter the the stock car racing profession,
did you ever have any inklings of becoming a producer
flash wrestling agent, Because in this last hour or so
of conversation that I've had the privilege of listening to you,
seem like you would have made an excellent boy. That
transition in through and all of the career post accidents.
Speaker 4: Well to you know, today, at fifty seven years old,
I've got a great deal different outlook on it than
I would have than I did at twenty seven, twenty
eight years old. It was very difficult coming back after
the accident and interjecting myself back into the industry when
I was still so young that you know, by all rights,
I should have been out there performing, even though I
had this vast head knowledge because I studied under Dusty
and Eddie Graham and Bill Wattson. I was such a
student of the game. It wasn't I wasn't comfortable in
my own skin working with my contemporaries that I should
have been out there in the ring performing with trying
to be you know, directing in and giving guidance and
doing all those kind of things. So everything because of
my youth and the time at which you know, this
untimely accident happened made it made that kind of transition,
you know, difficult. Uh, you know, if I've been older, absolutely,
but you know, in today and even in today's time,
even though I've gotten the head knowledge, I don't have
the patience to be you know, so tied up and
away from your family and not being able to do
the things with my kids that you know, the business
does to you. Because I'm a dad of seven and
my youngest are eight years old, boy girl, twins, and
you know, at this point in my life there's nothing
more important to me than my family. And when I
was twenty seven and no kids, you know, I was
married to the business, in love with what I was doing,
and had, you know, such high goals and desires to
be the best in the world. And that's what I
was committed to. And it takes that kind of commitment
to me in this you have to sacrifice those other things,
and I would never you know, as a peture group band,
you know, want to sacrifice those kind of things for
a profession.
Speaker 21: Again, we're talking with Magnum here on the p W
George Live Cast. Magnum. You are the stepfather of Tessa
Tessa Blanchard. Correct, absolutely, yeah, Now obviously you you she
grew up around you and you obviously uh did are you?
Were you surprised when she decided that she wanted to
enter the profession.
Speaker 5: No, I wasn't.
Speaker 4: Simply for the fact that Tessa has always been intrigued
with uh, with hacking and me on the stage, being
in the spotlight. And when she went down to Wrestle Media,
when they inducted Tully to the Hall of Fame, and
she saw the biggest show on earth for wrestling and
excitement and the just all the things surrounded that, and
she came back with stars in her eyes. I mean,
just totally intrigued by that whole life, that whole world.
Speaker 5: Because even though she was raised by.
Speaker 4: Me and with her dad, uh, you know all the here,
we were both out of the game as she grew
up and was young, so she didn't wasn't around it,
didn't see us performing, didn't you know, view of it
and about it, and because people talking to her about
us and our past, but which she was, you know,
seeing all that excitement of Russellmedia. Uh, it excited a
spark in her and she's just you know, dug her
heels in. She's gotten me that intangible in factor that
you either have or you don't have. And she's given
the opportunity to, you know, to perfect her craft, which
takes just spakes times as your right time, takes lots
of low some ring and time in the front of
live audiences. She's gonna be a superstar one day.
Speaker 21: What type of professional advice did you give her?
Speaker 4: Well, I told her to work hard and to you know,
work hard and listen and to be humble, because you
can't listen to the accolades of the fans and the
marks and all the things around you and let it
get teen. And you've got realized that this is a
craft that you have to learn. It takes time, and
no matter how hard and how many workouts you have
in a ring, it takes time of performing with lots
of different people, with lots of different styles, and it
just takes time to perfect that. So I've asked, you know,
trying to encourage her to be patient, to be diligent,
to keep working hard to be the best he can
be every day, and that if she's persistent with that
and true to herself and what she's doing that she
can be a success.
Speaker 26: Do you ever watch a WWE and think it.
Speaker 6: Used to be better?
Speaker 27: I don't know, josh Sometimes I think it used to
be a whole lot worse.
Speaker 26: I mean, whether it's WrestleMania main events, old dudes at
the top, to many titles, or women's wrestling.
Speaker 6: We're here to.
Speaker 26: Answer the big question, is it worse or better?
Speaker 12: Now?
Speaker 27: Join me Joshua White and me Stephanie Cheese for Worse or.
Speaker 26: Better part of the pw Torch Daily castline up, dropping
on Monday nights.
Speaker 27: Search pw Torch in your podcast apps such as Apple
Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe for free or get a
commercial free version with the pw Torch VIP membership. Check
out pw torch dot com slash go vip for details
and going vip.
Speaker 26: Worse or Better. Finally, something for wrestling fans to do
on Monday.
Speaker 21: Nights, We're talking with magnum Ga, who is going to
be at the NWA Legends fan Fest this weekend in Charlotte.
All kinds of people are going to be there. A
Lady Blossom Genie Clark, the ex wife of Stone Cold
Steve All Chris Adams and Billy Jack Haynes. She's gonna
have a Q and A on Thursday. Also Mickey James,
Tony Shavani is going to be there. I believe this
is Tony's first time being there. Jim Cornett is gonna
do his live podcast taping at eleven o'clock, which is
a tradition.
Speaker 5: He's in.
Speaker 21: He's in fine form ringside with Jim Ross. Austin Idol,
who was on the show a couple of weeks ago,
is going to be doing a live Q and A again.
Austin Idol does not do a lot of speaking appearances.
Definitely something I'm looking forward to is I'm going to
be there this weekend. Jimmy Garvin, He's going to be
speaking Roadway or Animal Magnum. He's going to be doing
a Q and A at one pm on Saturday. And
of course, I guess one of the reasons you're here
is to talk about the Hall of Heroes banquet, and
this year you're going to be inducting your your mentor
your your friend the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes, who he
lost about about a year ago. Talk about what what
Dusty did did for you that maybe we may we
may not know about.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't want to give away you know, everything
that I'm going to talk about in the conduction cerebody
and obviously everybody listening, he doesn't have the potential of
being uh being you know, being part of that. So
you know, the the one of the biggest, one of
the bigger things I'll share is that Dusty was that
true friend to the end kind of guy. Uh. He
he wasn't friends with me just because uh, you know,
I helped you know them, you know, set the the
Atlantic on fire and go into the battle against the
w w E and do all the things that we did.
We had a friendship, a brotherhood that was second and
that and you know, after my accident, uh and after
he departed going to the w w E, and uh,
he was getting an opportunity come back to to w
c W as the booker, as the creative director. You know,
he opened that door up for me to come in
and be his assistant. And that was huge at a
time when you know, I didn't have a lot of
opportunities out there because the CBS organization had let me
go after my contract had expired, and there was a
whole group of people there that really didn't know anything
about me or what I went to the business, or
history or anything, and it was kind of a cold place.
And he opened up opportunities for me that theybled me
to take care of and provide for my family. And
it was just a true and good friend at good
times and bad times. So, you know, a very special
relationship there. And I've never had a relationship even come
close with any one person of my adult life. Drug
Dusty and I shared both during my wrestling in the
ring career and half.
Speaker 21: As far as as far as Dusty, what do you
think he meant the to the wrestling business.
Speaker 4: Well, he was bigger than the wrestling business. His impact
will be felt throughout time because not only is at
ring performance and what he did and helping you build
the big Vega shows that people enjoy today, but his
work in the ring and his sideline work with all
these kids down there in the NFT and the developmental
Center has has firmly entrenched, you know, the philosophies and
what Dusty was brought to professional wrestling and a whole
huge generation of kids that we're going to see performing
over the next ten fifteen years. So you'll see pieces
of events and pieces of Dusty Royds and his influence
over the wrestling community for seventy years to come. That
his impact will be fault for for multiple generations.
Speaker 12: Yea.
Speaker 21: And I think it's amazing back, you know, with the
with the with the six o five show, if you
watch it now on the network, you'll see the interviews
that Dusty would cut and he would make veiled comments,
veiled digs at the w WF, and it was it
was a very heated rivalry as you as you talked about.
And I think it's it's a testament to Dusty's legacy.
And people talk about when he went to the WWF
and they they put him in polka dots and he
may or may not it may or may not have
been a rib but whatever. But for for a guy
who was on the front line of that very bitter war,
who may or may not have been humiliated by Vince
when he went to the WWF, here we are thirty
years later, and I think it's a testament to the
work that he did and the person that he was,
where he has been remembered and embraced and you know,
and enshrined as as one of their own.
Speaker 4: Now, well, Vincent and his wife and Triple Ah and stuff,
we're all there, and Dustin's general saw them while they're
talk to them, and the thing was it was about
our business has always been about respect. The other. Rivalry
was huge, and there was certainly animosity when Dusty first
went there. And now, I don't think the publy nuts
were a rib at all. I think they were an
attempt to discredit him and the fact that he rose
above and beyond anything. Ever anybody imagined what he could
do with what they laid on his plate only elevated
him even higher in their opinion of you know, in
respect for what Dusty was capable of doing as a
performer and both you know what he also would later
bring and his coaching coach mentoring to the view and
young talent that they were trying to cultivate for their
own their own uh endeavors. So yeah, it's an amazing
story and one that has so many layers of so
many passes that you can write multiple books about it.
Speaker 21: So when I was promoting this interview with you, Magnum,
I tweeted out a picture of you and Dusty in
these huge fur coats on the six o five show
doing an interview with Tony Schavani, and Tony's got this
look on his face. And I guess a lot of fans,
younger fans are people had not seen, uh seen those
coats before. They had they had it, got it, got
a lot of engagement. Everyone was commenting on the the
fur coats. So do you wanna do you want to
explain the huge fur coats you guys wore?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we, you know, we we had a lot of jesting,
you know, go on between us, and you know, Player
was always run in his mouth and his mis and
this that and his you know, all his high dollar
suits and all the things. And and one day we
were just Dusty dye Player. We were all in Vegas
and Dusty and I walked into this furrier shop with
the guy who'd made coats for Limarachi and everybody else,
and of course they were all over he and I
and we just we just had a long hair. This
time we both could get full link coyote coats made
to wear on TV, just to shut up Rick. And
so we again we both bought these coats. We paid
about seventy five hundred dollars a piece for him back
in nineteen eighty five and wore maybe three times but
Warball TVs and had pictures taken with him, and you know,
it was it was just kind of a tongue and
cheek kind of funny thing to us back then. But
you know, that's kind of competition we had. And you know,
as a cavadery and everything else out of a bots
this and it's H'm glad that there's some good pictures
of us out there in them and the wolves and
did create quite a stern to say the least.
Speaker 21: Did did do you still have the coat? Did you
sell it?
Speaker 5: What? Was it a tax?
Speaker 11: Right?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was that I sold a couple of years ago,
I think dusty Gauges and down in Dallas Page one year.
But I mean it was so big and heavy, it
was it was like wearing an electric blanket. Unless it
was about thirty below outside. You couldn't merely stand award.
It's the warm stand out all of my life.
Speaker 21: Well and in that era, you guys are doing great
business and and you know, I understand like in particular
for the TV tapings, the uh, the cars in the
parking lot when everyone showed up, they were pretty spectacular.
Speaker 4: But we were all making big money. And you know,
in the eighties, big money. If you're making one hundred
and fifty two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
that was huge money back then. And uh so, yeah,
I mean Corvettes and Mercedes, Jaguars and Porsches were, you know,
just just everywhere.
Speaker 6: I mean we were.
Speaker 4: We were in Charlotte before there was any pro sports team,
so we were the pro sports team and there was
about two hundred of us here and there was a
lot of money flowing.
Speaker 21: All right, Magnan, Well, look, we'll see you this weekend
at the nw A fan Fest. Any words before we
let you go, Man, just thank you.
Speaker 4: I never ceases to amaze me the impact and the
great stories the fans have. Look forward to seeing them
all there. I'm so honored to be inducting Dusty into
the Hall of Heroes. He would have loved that. He
had a great passion from the city of Charlotte and
for the Atlantic Wrestling Organization in this territory. So you know,
I'm excited about it, look forward to seeing the fans,
and thank you so much for having me off this morning.
Speaker 21: My pleasure anytime magnum and thank you. And by the way,
we'll be doing a live show on Wednesday night around
five thirty, So if you're in the hotel and you
see a podcast, come on by and just say hi
for a couple of minutes.
Speaker 4: All right, that's great, you guys have a great day.
Speaker 21: All right, man, there's magnum Ta, the Great magnum Ta,
Terry Allen joining us on the live cast, and we
covered a lot from mid Atlantic Crockett, which I guess
is the same thing, to Watts, to Portland and Florida,
to WWF and Andre the Giant. But yeah, he's going
to be at the Hall of Heroes. It's going to
be uh this weekend and you can come on by
and see magnum Ta and everybody. Go to NWA Legends
dot com and again, Britt Wittmyer and I we're going
to be there this Wednesday. We're gonna do a live
cast at five thirty, the usual five thirty Eastern time
for the Pat McNeil Show, because we're going to be
there for Pats. If you're in the area, if you're
going to NWA FanFest, come by and say hi. But
hopefully we'll get some wrestlers on and some wrestling personalities
whoever they are. We'll see what happens. But it's going
to be live and engaged and hopefully be a lot
of fun. But a lot of people are going to
be there, so be sure and stop by Bruce Mitchell.
He's going to be there, so I say hi to
say hi to Bruce and say what's up with with everybody?
So yeah, n w A legends dot com and you
can can check it all out book heads. This has
been fun as always, So I'll see you on Wednesday
and they again next Saturday. I need to book somebody.
I haven't had a chance the opportunity, but we'll figure
something out. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll find somebody this
weekend and we can we can make it work. Make
it work that way, all right, Well, we will see
you on Wednesday for Pat McNeil, so be sure and
call in and we will talk to you then.
Speaker 12: A lot of.
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Nicky's Club, a VIP exclusive podcast. Here's Nick to tell
you more.
Speaker 17: Hey wrestling fans, It's Nick Barbatty and I'm back with
the Nicky's Club, the place where the family of Nicky's
comes together for big laughs and Shark takes on WWE
for WrestleMania rumors to surprise returns. I got you covered,
the Nicky's Club, where the wrestling feels like the coolest
club in town.
Speaker 1: Nick Barbatti wants to be part of your pro wrestling
life every week, so why not let him go vip
PW torch dot com slash go vip for full details
on signing up. We're compatible with Patreons, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
and just about any other iOS or Android app out there.
You can also stream directly from our ad free VIP website,
The Nikki's Club waiting for you every week at pw
Torch VIP. Did you know that you can enjoy commercial
free versions of all of your favorite Weight color podcasts
and pw torch Daily casts on Spotify.
Speaker 5: Just go to.
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com, search pw Torch and subscribe to a
VIP membership tier. You get a seven day free trial
by the way to kick the tires a bit and
see if you like the service, and then sync it
with Spotify and you can listen to commercial free versions
of our free shows like the Waightkeller post shows, the
Weightkeler Podcast, Flagship, our Flashbacks, and also the pw Torch
Daily cast lineup again all commercial free and nice streamline
listening experience. But with third tier membership you can also
unlock all the VIP podcasts, including Everything with Rich and Wade,
to Fix with Todd Martin that I host with Todd
every week, the Wadkeller news bulletins, post pay per view tables,
and an array of other VIP exclusive podcasts with different
hosts and different themes. Check out the lineup. Go to
Patreon and search pw Torch and subscribe and sync it
up with Spotify, or stay within the Patreon ecosystem. Either
way works. Go to Patreon and start your seven day
free trial. If you're listening to us on the Apple
podcast app, on Spotify, or any other app that allows
you to rate our podcast, please take a moment to
give us a five star rating. It really helps us
in the algorithm and helps them know that you recommend
us to others. Just look for a place to rate
the show on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're
listening to our shows, and please click that five star rating,
and of course thank you so much for listening. A
PW Torch VIP membership doesn't just give you add free
access to these shows and a ton of other VIP
exclusive podcasts throughout the week, but you also gain access
to our unmatched vast library of wrestling history, our contemporaneous
week to week coverage through our progressing Torch weekly newsletters
dating back to the late nineteen eighties, along with streaming
and download access to hundreds of retro radio shows from
the nineteen nineties, including some of my interviews with wrestling's
top newsmakers in the nineties, and also our podcast library
dating back to the year two thousand and three. There's
no larger, longer spanning pro wrestling podcast library than that
that comes with a PW Torch VIP membership. Now approaching
twenty years of podcasting, Go VIP and dive into our
post pay per view roundtables are covered with some of
your favorite eras of wrestling, top name, long form interviews,
and special format podcasts that we've done throughout the years.
Pw torch dot com slash go VIP. We have a
streamline sign up for me and you can pay it
with PayPal or directly with your credit card or debit card.
In one or two minutes from right now, you can
be a VIP member and diving into our library. Pw
torch dot com slash Go vip