Everybody’s Got A Pod: E36 “Royal Rumble 1989”

This week on Everybody’s Got A Pod, Ted and Marcus set their sights on January 1989 and the second annual Royal Rumble! Topics include Harley Race leaving the company, Big John Studd, Andre ribbing Jake Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior vs Rick Rude in a posedown, The Mega Powers, and much more!

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[Laughter] million in man everybody’s got a priceon everybody’s got a priceon everybody’s got a it’s the Million Man in the man understand what’s up everybody it’s Marcus we are back for another episode of everybody’s got a pod and of course I couldn’t do it without my buddy there

The Million dooll Man look at that that’s that’s a Dallas Cowboys thing he’s got there isn’t it that’s exactly right so I want all my fans out there I know you’re all over the place and I know you you got your team I’m just letting you know that my team’s the

Dallas Cowboys and has been since I was a little boy way back I mean I must have been 12 years old and I was in wi Arizona this little town where my grandparents lived living with them at the time and they had the the four four dealership that they had a

They called it the punt pass and kick contest so you would punt the ball pass the ball and kick the ball and they they they they would uh tally it all up and whoever won first place got first place second place I mean there was there were

Three place for three places they had something but the first place winner which that year was me I got like a a Letterman’s jacket and don’t you know it was the color of the Cowboys and right there they had a cowboy emblem and so ever since then buddy I’ve been a Dallas

Cowboy fan I live in Mississippi I’m only 180 miles from the New Orleans Saints and uh and of course you know I’ve got family members here here who’ve lived there here a long time and the Saints are their team and I said well yeah okay that’s okay but uh and if you

Go 400 miles the other way is the Atlanta Falcons nah I don’t care about them hard to care about I am a cowboy all the way man and you got to see uh by the way for our listeners who are not into football talk or Dallas Cowboys

Talk I’m sure we’ve got some Eagles fans listening right now go ahead and Skip ahead with whatever five minutes uh we’ll get to the to the meat of the show but right now we’re talking Cowboys because it’s playoff time and we’re pumped up Ted you got to see uh the

Greatest eras of the Cowboys as well uh so you got to I imagine watch the Roger saach era Andro man era so like man you you’ve got to see the success I’ve seen mostly failures since I became a Cowboys um I saw starback you know and I saw

Jimmy Johnson’s run as a coach there uh I’ve seen just about all of it and uh and and I guess the other the other my other my other very good friend who’s uh uh like myself a very devout devoted Christian his name is George South George has a wrestling school and

He he lives in the Charlotte uh uh Charlotte area and uh Charlotte North Carolina and um I don’t know I may have told this story if I have uh Well everybody’s going to hear it again he loves the Cowboys and uh he would pull his ring I I I I was

Doing back when the there were still guys that wrestled with me that that were still wrestling a little bit I would call on some of those guys and I would I would get like the Road Warriors to come and do one show and but George would pull his ring to wherever I

Was and we used the wrestling show as bait to draw people in to a church and then after uh after the show was over I mean the show would end uh by me coming out and interrupted a match and doing this gig and and uh and finally it’s

Kind of like I’m the million-dollar man and I keep offering this guy he just wins and I said you know what he like uh I’ll tell you what I’ll give you you know this much money this much money and finally he says uh he says I can’t be

Bought I said kid everybody’s got a price and I said what’s yours he says I can’t be bought I said well what makes you different than everybody else he says I’ve been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and that’s when I came come out of character and I just become Ted

And I start sharing uh my testimony right there from The Ring did it all over the place anyway back to George South we were someplace in Texas I’m I’m I’m trying to remember where where it was but uh on the way back um he said I have got to stop at Cowboy

Stadium so I mean I mean it’s not a game or anything it’s just the stadium he says and so we’re we’re the we’re I said okay George and so we we pull up to Cowboy Stadium and everything and this you know the gates and everything and

All that stuff and he’s just he’s just kind of looking around and then one of the grounds Keepers comes you know and George say sir you know don’t don’t be worried he said you know we’re not vandals or anything he says he says I’m just a big Cowboy fan

And I said sir he’s about probably the biggest Cowboy fan I’ve ever known in my life and so he says really and uh said yeah he says well tell you what I’m gonna do and he unlocks the gate and brings us in and takes us on a tour a Cowboy stadium incredible down

Where the locker rooms are and all that stuff and uh and so I mean George was just you know you know he was beside himself and uh so as we’re we’re getting ready to leave he says boy just I wish there was something I could I could have and I I

Don’t know how how the guy did this but he gave him a seat one of the seats from the stadium wow but you I guess they make him replace but he he gave him a seat so George has got man uh he’s got he’s got you know not only is a

Big Cowboy fan when he’s at home and they’re playing he says he can sit in Fr of the seats from Cowboy stadium absolutely incredible and look it’s you and I have talked about it off air I think next year you and I are going to have to go to a Cowboys game

There in Arlington we’ll tailgate we’ll do the whole thing maybe I can convince Jake The Snake to come along for the tailgate and have some fun and take in our Cowboys because all three of us are huge fans yeah absolutely we got to do that this week on everybody’s got a pod

We’re doing something pretty fun as we take a look back 35 years to the WWF at the start of 1989 which of course means the Royal Rumble as many of you know I also host podcast with Jake Roberts and Hacksaw Jim Dugen and it occurred to me that I had the opportunity the

Opportunity to do something really fun so yourself Jake and Jim were all at this event and all played key roles so I had decided I would talk to all three of you about this pay-per-view and get three unique Hall of Fame perspectives so if you folks enjoy what we do here

Please go check out the snake pit with Jake Roberts and the hacksaw with Hacksaw Jim dougen and get the full story behind Royal Rumble 1989 it’s interesting getting to talk to you Jim and Jake every week because you guys all had these careers that were on very

Similar paths you guys were all out the same time and WWF it’s really cool yeah I mean and uh and again uh Jake you know by this time was a baby face and uh I think he was wasn’t he yes I yeah by the

Time he was a baby face and I mean I loved to wrestle with Jake it was so easy because Jake and I came from the same school if you will the same like uh uh you know the same ideology you know this is what this is what this is

Wrestling this is how you this is how you should do it and and so it was it just was easy to work with him and I mean it was kind of like and we got to know each other well enough while we wrestled that we could just position

Ourselves in a in it’s kind of like if for example if if he were to you know like duck a duck a cloth line and he comes off and and uh you know hits me and I go down and I stagger up to my feet and I I start uh I start staggering

To toward a corner with my back to him well then he would just come behind me grab me by the air and run my head into that turnbuckle but he knew because I was already walking to the corner what I wanted so things like that uh and it was

Just yeah but yeah he was easy yeah I working with Jake was like a night off it was really really was it’s really fun getting to talk to you guys because your your personalities are pretty different in a lot of ways but like when when it

Comes to wrestling you guys could not be more aligned in everything yeah um so yeah it’s fascinating uh getting to talk to you him and Jim and uh speaking of Jim and the hacks hour I’ve got a really big announcement to make here on the show uh every week we encourage all of

You to go and subscribe to our YouTube channel and now you’ve got a really really big reason to go and do it Jim and I uh have been doing our podcast exclusively on adree shows but we wanted to grow our audience so we are now moving this bimonthly show exclusively

To the everybody’s got a pod YouTube page so that’s right you’ve got all things Ted dbsi and Jim Dugen in one place and it’s our YouTube page you can get the first eight episodes of the hacks hour right now on adre shows.com but every episode moving forward W is

Going to be only on YouTube we’re not going to have an audio version you can only watch it a lot of people actually prefer to listen to their podcast that way so it’s going to be a lot of fun it’s on the YouTube page for everybody’s got aod

Youtube.com everybody’s got aod get over there and get subscribed today man hacksaw is such a fun Storyteller he’s got so much personality gonna be a lot of fun H having him help us grow our page HED that will be awesome yeah you got to get a all together on one of

These like a round table if that’s possible that is a hell of an idea um yes we will definitely do that this year special event you know yes you know what it’s it’s it’s occurring to me that uh you know not only were you guys all of

Course here at uh the Royal Rumble but you guys are all going to be working at WrestleMania 5 uh which was which is going to be 35 years ago this year so maybe that’s going to be the opportunity to get all three of you guys on one show

Wow I I think we might have to pull the trigger on that so uh yeah but without further Ado you ready to get into these notes about Rumble go let’s go with it all right let’s get it so the former sheep herders are coming into the WWF in late 1988 but

They’ve been rebranded as The Bushwhackers and to say that their characters have changed would be a big understatement as they’re coming in the door here Ted what do you recall about your earliest experiences about around Luke and Butch as the sheep herders uh you know what those guys were great

And and I loved them I mean uh you know was kind of like the uh their gimmick you know they do the deal and they would get everybody follow them but you know you know aside from the gimmick you know and all the faces they could make

And all that stuff they were really great workers I mean it was another it was like a night off because because they were so easy to work with uh you know you didn’t you you didn’t have to do much coaxing or or leading it was

Just it was just a natural and so uh to have a a tag match with those guys I would always look forward to it you know Vince brings them in and they make this change and again you know it’s kind of like me uh you know they’re going to be

Good guys but they’re the kids are going to like them because of all that crazy stuff they do you know you know for me um you know the first time I went to the WWF I was I was a baby face so when when Vince brought me back in he brought me

Back in you know you know the whole thing we we told the story about you know here’s you know the one thing everybody hates is somebody who by virtue of their wealth police people the character of the million dollar man and and I was and I was healed but it was always

Easy uh to work with these guys uh because the kids love and of course it was especially I I had a lot of fun because you know being one of the most hated heels you know and and wrestling with the uh with The Bushwackers was and and and you know and they would

Do you know they would do things to where you know it’s like I’d be backing up like this and was in the he comes in the ring he just Taps me on the shoulder and I turn around and he just pokes me in the eyes and I just go down and sell the

Heck out of it just you know some of it some of it was silly stuff but you mix you mixed it with a serious match it’s it’s hard to explain but they were great at it they were and you know I think that a lot of the old school DieHard

Wrestling fans are like ah you know the Vince ruined them they were the sheep herders and they were you know this this really nasty couple tag team wrestlers uh hard the original hardcore type uh style and it’s like hey look you know that might not fit your preference

However I would be willing to bet that they would tell you they made the best money while they were with the WWF and their legacy is what they did in the WWF much like yours is yep absolutely absolutely couple guys that got the Hall of Fame nod in 2015 very welld deserved

Absolutely um well somebody who’s getting ready to head out the door at this time is your old friend Harley Race he’s coming off surgery and he’ll make a brief return in 1988 before leaving the company following the rumble apparently Harley is citing Road fatigue as one of

The reasons he was leaving which really kind of stuck out to me as I was reading about it because we’re talking about a guy who’s the traveling NWA world champion and now here he is in the WWF and he’s like hey this travel’s too much it’s man uh that is that really speaks

Volumes what can you tell us about how brutal the travel was here in in the late 80s oh gosh I mean you know when I started some of the guys told me they said Ted they said the first couple of years when he was just trying to he it

Was even worse and I said worse yeah it was worse I mean I mean they would be on the road sometimes for I mean like weeks on then you know like I mean could you imagine going on the road and not not getting home for two months oh my gosh you

Know but uh by the time I got there they they they had started to whittle it down and they it back then when I first started it was three weeks on the road and a week off so it was 2 days 21 cities oh that’s brutal yes oh I mean

You know I would wake up at hotel sometimes and and lay there a minute and go okay where the hell am I and I would actually roll over on the you know in the in the hotel rooms there’s a name plate on the on the phone and it’s got

The the name of the hotel and the phone number and I would have sometimes I’d roll over and go oh okay I’m in Chicago man it’s just absolute Insanity what you guys were doing out there on the road and it’s like you know you’re live in that Rockstar lifestyle of course you’re

Going to do Rockstar things like maybe take an upper to to be able to make the next town or you know okay I need to blow off some steam after the show you go and get drunk with your friends so it’s like it’s it’s it’s no wonder that

There was so many issues going on in these days yeah and you know talking to Jake about this whole thing he had said uh you know I i’ mentioned this about Harley and he was like like well here’s the difference he’s like Harley was the traveling NWA Champion but he might work

Whatever three days if during that travel week he’s like we were working every single day he’s like so yep we’re he’s traveling about as much as as before but now he’s got to work every day as opposed to maybe three or four days a week well and now I don’t

Know again I know that when uh the NWA Champion would come to the Amarillo territory and that’s where I was during the time that uh Harley was Champion he was he wrestled every night oh wow yeah I mean it was like he came in and he he would wrestle whoever the

Top baby face at the time was you know and then every night they go an hour now you know I don’t know he he may have had to have a couple of travel days or whatever but the the life of the the world champion in now the other it’s

Like okay the WWF world champion was only the world champion in the WWF the AWA world champion was only the world champion in the AWA territory the NWA world champion was the world champion in territories all over the country that’s the difference a lot of pressure a lot of expectation uh so man

It’s incredible that he guys like him and Terry Funk and all the others were Ric Flair were able to do it at the at the level they did for as long as they did yeah um well so I do have to ask you before we move off the topic of Harley

Uh the character that he was portraying here in the WWF is a huge huge departure from what we saw him as previously in his career um you know in years prior he was this non-nonsense wrestlers wrestler type guy uh but during his WWF run he’s working his King Harley Race and

Everything is very gim Mick and cartoonish uh we know that Vince was trying to go more mainstream of course as you and I have discussed here before but I’m like your personal opinion uh you come into the WWF Harley Race is King Harley Race while he’s here what

Did you think would it would they have been better served letting him just be Harley Race of old you know well my opinion is yes you know uh you know for me it was kind of like you know the people have seen this guy um as you know just Harley Race this

You know I mean you know uh and you know in the make believe world of of professional wrestling he’s a tough guy in in the real life he’s a tough guy right he’s he’s a guy you do not if you I I would say it this way if you had to

Walk down a dark alley at night and you knew there were a bunch of thugs in an alley if you only had your choice of having one person to go with you it would be Harley Race but sometimes I wonder if that was like Vince you know like a like a rib

You know like okay this big tough Harley Race and I’m G to make him King again you know what I have to and here’s the thing that’s hard for me too it’s like um and I think Jake would probably agree with me this because we grew up in the old school way our

Fathers were old school wrestlers and so this new thing with the WWF and you know trying to Market towards children and you know toys and you know stuff like that you know you’re bigger than life you know hero Hulk Hogan and you know I’m lik snal Whiplash you

Know everybody’s got a price for me uh kind of kind of cartoonish and so you know I I have to keep that in mind in terms of what Vince would find for Harley so you know I don’t know it swings both ways I think he was selling

To a different audience than you guys had been in the territories and the territories you’re selling to adult men uh and in in the WWF you’re selling your product to children and so with that being the case kids like cartoons which means you’ve got to be a cartoon

Character yeah um so I mean you would mentioned that possibly a rib on Harley and Harley used to be a promoter of course much like much like Vince so may maybe uh you know whether’s smoke there’s fire sometimes and I do have to ask you I asked Jake this question and

He didn’t know anything about it so I’ll ask you did you ever hear the story of Harley threatening to kill Hulk Hogan before race joined the WWF nope you didn’t no okay uh so I’m going to give you the Reader’s Digest version because I don’t know all of it

But in a nutshell uh I guess uh he was pissed off that the WWF was stealing business from his territory and so I think he actually pulled a gun on Hulk Hogan at one point and threatened him I’m gonna look the story up and come come back more prepared the next time I

Know I’ve heard it I just don’t remember all the details you know you know I might when we when we get through the podcast I might pick up my phone and call Hulk and go did he really do that as a matter of fact and you know

What I’m just going to Google it real quick so we can actually talk about it because I think that Hulk is the one who revealed the story so here we go here’s the article um getting through the part of it we pumped the signal this is Hogan we pumped the signal into

Kansas City for eight weeks Harley Race had been there for like 18 years he was NWA Champion I’m the champion of the world and he’s a very proud and mean son of a and all of a sudden Here Comes This blond-haired idiot from New York and went I’m the WWF Champion the

WWE Champion I’m coming to keer Arena we pumped the segment so I come I fly into town I show up about 2: in the afternoon my guy’s call me and said Harley Race came down here with a gun he tried to light the ring on fire they told

Me they told me Harley said when I show up he’s gonna kill you I had to go to the bathroom and my stomach was killing me so I’m sitting on the toilet going to the bathroom Davey Boy Smith the British Bulldog said oh my God the guy

Is here he’s gonna kill you Hogan I pull my wrestling yellow tights up I don’t even wipe my ass as fast as I could because I don’t want to get caught with my pants down and I don’t have a fighting chance I blow out of the

Bathroom I turn around the corner and he puts that gun right in my face he said I should kill you for coming in and doing this and this is Harley Race talking to me and he puts the gun down and he goes I really need a job I went holy I

Shook his hand brother I was a huge fan love the guy to death wow all right so there you go so he said Harley Harley said I really need a job yeah I guess I guess first Harley threatened him and then he was like by the way could I get a

Job yeah well and again you know you have to understand that Harley was one of the owners of the Kansas City territory he and Bob gule and uh I think it was Pat o’ Conor those three guys were partners and that you know the Kansas City territory was

Like uh it wasn’t a huge territory but I mean it was it was theirs they were the they were the owners you know they were the promoters of that territory as a team you know o Conor uh Harley and and Bob GLE and Bob GLE and and OK Conor are

Both I think older than Harley you know so anyway hearing that story uh would you say that that like you knew Harley Race about as well as anybody does that sound like the Harley Race you knew yeah I could see him doing it like yeah like you talk about a

Rib oh man awesome I’m glad we read that um another guy who’s going to retire briefly in 1988 before making his return at the end of the year is Big John Stud he’ll be coming back into the company as a baby face and he’s going to get a nice

Push right out of the gate and talking with Jake and hacksaw about JN I heard varying accounts on how they viewed him as a as a performer and as a guy what were your experiences like with John uh you I didn’t have too many but you know I wasn’t I wasn’t that impressed

Okay oh so you know we’re talking about a dude who’s whatever 610 s foot tall somewhere in that neighborhood yeah I mean I mean’s he’s impressive to look at but right you know uh his his work didn’t impress me that much no it’s you know you’ve got Andre

And then you’ve got pretty much every other seven foot giant out there like Andre is in a league of his own so like comparing the two is uh yeah it’s not easy there curious you know what what did Jake say so Jake was like he seemed like a nice enough guy and everything

But he was like essentially he was like the guy was dimwitted it was pretty much how he put it he was like I I think Jake actually said he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer he was a little bit closer to being like a butter knife oh okay yeah

Well said I mean you know that’s basically like I said you know big guy very impressed to look at but his work no no left a little bit lacking apparently it was so Bruce pitchard tells the story that Big John came in and said like hey

Bruce you know I’m ready to come back to work and you know I can deadlift whatever it was some crazy amount like 1,200 pounds or something he’s like I can deadlift all this weight he’s like I’m in the best shape of my life so Bruce gets him to the gym he’s like all

Right we’re going to film a vignette of you deadlifting and here he couldn’t do it and so uh Bruce had to put some gimmicked plates on the thing to get the vignette yeah so uh so yeah apparently he told a big whopping lie to come back into the territory here but still he’s

Coming in and he’s getting a big push he’s about to win this Royal Rumble which is you know back then it wasn’t quite what it is now where get the title shot and it’s this huge thing but it is still like they’re really highlighting this guy coming back in the door yeah um

So both Jake and Jim pointed out about JN that Andre did not like him at all and uh after the rumble the two of them are going to be working together what do you remember about Andre disliking Big John Stud uh yep yeah uh no he didn’t like him at all

Uh and and you know and again obviously um here’s a guy who is not that good uh and is is big and when you’re when you’re Andre the Giant you know it’s kind of like you know it’s it’s Andre’s like you know there’s only one giant and it ain’t

You it ain’t you John Stud so I you know and and again okay not too many people you know a lot of people had the same I you know thought about John Stud as Jake me probably I don’t know I don’t know if you asked AAW uh but uh you know it’s

Just you know it’s uh what a bad guy you know big strong guy but you know he wasn’t he wasn’t this you know and and again obviously uh willing to lie to get back in get back oh all of a sudden you you you can’t what happened did you not eat

Your weedies this morning you know you you didn’t eat your SP spinach so you could full of you know Popeye routine and work all that way yeah gota be a little bit embarrassing to have like a vignette centered around it and oh yeah and then he can’t do it yeah that would

Be terrible you know but um you know to me there were a lot of big guys and there were a lot of a lot a lot of big guys that you know there were some that that were you know decent workers to me nobody topped Andre Andre you know Andre mastered the the

The skill of being able to get in the ring with somebody that’s half his size and find a way to make the people believe that he just might lose that’s hard to do so but Andre could do it I mean how many people that got in the ring with

Andre were as big as Andre not nobody yeah probably nobody ever yeah so man it’s yeah and and by the way like uh you know Jim did have nice things to say about Big John Stud in that like he was like he was a nice guy he was really

Soft spoken he was a gentleman uh he was like so I had no issues with on um but that being said you know like objectively a guy like you or Jake who’s like second generation wrestler you view wrestling very differently from from anybody else where yep it’s Sports

Entertainment but also it’s like it’s it’s a it’s a trade right it’s it’s a trade that’s been passed down to you from your fathers and something you learn and put your heart and soul into and you see a guy like this come in and you’re like this guy’s getting a big

Push because what because he’s huge like he can’t work like I can you know so it’s got to be a weird Waring perspective and and I didn’t you know it’s like uh I didn’t have anything against him you know wasn’t that but it’s just you know he he was a he was

Very big and impressive but that’s about where it ended you like to your point it couldn’t work right you know he had you know whoever’s in the ring with it has to leave him Andre could get in the match and and and tell the whoever he’s

Working with what to do and how to do it you know here’s what we G we’re going to do you know what I’m saying yeah Andre Andre had that that that ability John Stud did not so that that race is an interesting point and something I never

Talked to you about before Ted when you would get into the ring with Andre I know that usually he was your tag team partner um did you ever face him though you know what I never did never I never had a match against him okay I was

Always his tag team partner and that is and that is that’s smart that that’s you know you don’t want want to get on the big big man’s bad side and I think you know I don’t think he he didn’t like Jake for some reason so Andre had an issue with Jake

Apparently right out of the gate I so from the way that Jake tells it they climbed into into the ring the first time as they were starting their starting their program actually during this period late 88 into 89 and uh Jake said I got into the ring with him the

First time and he just ate me up he didn’t give me anything um you know you’re out in the ring you can’t EX take anything from him either so like he he just wouldn’t give me anything just ate me alive out there so apparently Jake stormed into his locker room afterwards

And confronted him and said hey look we can have shitty matches all through this program or you and I can work together uh and make this something good and I guess Andre respected it and after that he and Jake had no issues but he did

Like to rib Jake in the ring and he would like get him pinned down and fart on him or step on his hair and then pull his oh yeah I I was yeah I was on D partner yeah when he was doing that he yeah Jake had that long hair you know

And he stand on his hair and he said get up get up going ah such a mean rip like what can you do about it nothing you’re like a play thing in this guy’s um I am curious though uh what I was driving toward before was when you’re in the ring with Andre

Whether a tag team partner or whatever who calls the match does Andre call it or does like a more technical guy like Jake well it’s like again you know and I I understood that I mean like when I’m Andre’s partner you know Andre is

Limited as to what he can do so I’m the guy that’s got to be in the match and capable of taking the bumps and and bouncing around the ring you know especially if you’re the heels you know and uh and of course I was always a heel and uh so was he I

Mean with you know with with in the WWE when he you know he turned heel and he and I are partners and uh so but somebody’s got to get beat up and of course that’s got to be that was me if you you know what I’m saying yeah

You you know when when it came time you know for the like the uh for the baby face to make the hot tag you know and come in and and you know clean house I had to be the guy to take the bumps because Andre couldn’t take that many

Bumps so you know and that was understood I mean that was just that’s just logical right right he’s not gonna be out there bouncing around the ring no no uh but I had yeah I had no problem with Andre ever but it sounds like he respected you

And yeah grew to grew to respect Jake yeah um on the way to the rumble you’re making the loop with Hercules and beating him every night With a Little Help from Virgil but on December 26th in Toronto Hercules is gonna have some travel issues and instead you’re gonna

Face Sam Houston and Sam is of course the the brother of Jake Roberts and a second generation wrestler like yourself dad what can you tell us about your impressions of Sam Houston and his ring work um when I F you know again I’ve known him since before he you know got in the

Ring uh you know like uh when I was working for Bill Watson and grizzly Smith who’s his father was the agent so to speak you know Sam was around then you know but uh uh he he was okay I mean you know you know again he was very young you know

When I was around him and you know like and he’s just starting out in the business but uh I thought he was I thought he was okay he was decent you know he wasn’t you know he wasn’t bad it was like I wouldn’t thumb my nose at him

That’s for sure compared to Jake though not exactly the same kind of second generation chemistry that you had with Jake no I don’t think so um about a week after you defeat Sam Houston you’ll step into the ring with one half of the young stallions Paul Roma for a TV match Paul

Is one of those names that we will likely never bring up on this show again so let’s take full advantage right now Paul had a great look a fantastic build seemed to be pretty good the ring what did you think of him yeah I mean he was

Uh you know I didn’t uh I mean you know obviously I didn’t think he was like the greatest of all time but I mean he was a good worker he was a good solid worker um um but I don’t know that if I you know I just don’t know that I would ever

Have you know I don’t it’s one of those guys who I didn’t think I respected his work but he was never going to be a superstar he’s one of those guys that you know like a lot of times we like hear some of these gimmicks and we’re

Just like ah you know like Harley R is a great example we just talked about him where it’s like ah you know it’s it would have been great to have seen territory Harley Race here in the WWF Paul Roma on the other hand like he’s

Just a dude he’s just Paul Roma and I feel like a guy like that with his build and his look like he would really benefit from having kind of more of an over-the-top character that people could really sink their teeth into you know yeah so probably missed opportunity with

Him because like I said the guy looks like a million bucks he I mean an 8 by 10 of that guy you’re like hey that guy’s a star he looks like somebody um and he was a good solid worker right right yeah yeah no you know it was kind

Of like uh I don’t know I would much be would uh much rather be in the in the ring with Paul Roma than uh then who I think I have an idea who you might be referring to and who well actually that person is the next subject

That we’re about to move on to if you can if you can believe it um so at the Royal Rumble we’ve got a couple of other guys with great physiques are about to go at it the Ultimate Warrior who I assume is who you’re talking about and

Rick Roode are squaring off at this event but it’s not in a match instead Ted they’re going to have a pose down here to determine the better physique uh Ted I asked Jim and Jake this question so now I’ll ask you um you came from the territories Blood and Guts

Stuff in Mid South and the loaded glove and you know second generation star all this background that you have and now here you are it’s a pay-per-view it’s a pretty big money slot uh if you if you boil it down to Dollars and cents the amount of TV time they’re using up and

It’s a POS down with a couple oiled up guys flexing at each other dad uh what did you think about this I was like you know I mean it was kind of like really really I mean this is what this is what we’re gonna do here we’re not gonna have a match we’re

Gonna have a pose down oh man was like but again you know of course that that was the that was the old school me speaking you know it’s kind of like even now as I got older and was got it took me a long long time as I as I got older

And matured and looked back and and and at some of these things you know you know what I what I it was was kind of like um kind of like this is the way I was taught this is the this is the way wrestling should be and you know but but Vince

McMahon had a different vision and to his credit it worked you know it’s kind of like everything changes is you know over time you know it’s just you know and and uh you know it’s kind of like because of my mentality and how I’ve been raised in

The business and everything and you know yeah it’s kind of like we used to K the kayfabe thing kayf that me you know keep your mouth shut you know if you’re in a program with a guy don’t ever let anybody see you guys like riding in the

Same car and all that stuff uh you know you you know that it’s a show but you treat it like it’s real as far as the public is concerned and um that’s how you know that that was my mindset you well now you know Vince is coming along and basically said look

Yeah we we’re we’re Sports entertainment so what we’re good you know let me show you how good and so he just yeah he took wrestling to a place that you know I I never envisioned and and to his credit I mean we wouldn’t be doing this podcast if it hadn’t been for Vince

McMahon and what he did for my career I mean and for for wrestling as I mean 93,000 people at the Pontiac silver doome W insane WrestleMania 3 I mean wrestling draws the largest indoor crowd ever for anything that’s pretty impressive it shows you that there’s demand for it and

Like yep to your point criticize this pose down as as much as you want and certainly I do it’s I I view it as a fan and I’m like this is rid like if if I was watching this on pay-per-view and I paid money for this I’d be like come on

Can we just have some wrestling or something uh that being said after this is like warriors on the biggest run of his career uh following this he’s selling all kinds of merch and you know fans are coming out to see him he’s going to be world champion here in like

A year so it’s like Vince is doing something correct with the way that he’s marketing this guy also I have to imagine that having Warrior out there posing is better than having him in a match right yes he’s a much better poser than he was wrestler so we’ll give him that yeah Ted

Let’s get to our first clip this week you pull a random number and maybe aren’t quite so happy with the results we’re going to share this the link to this clip in the description so everybody can watch it well the time has finally arrived for the million doll hand to pick the

Million dooll number and the winning number is uh uh wait a minute slick slick slick hey what’s up man what’s up S listen I got a question for you when you picked uh your numbers for your voice today uh were you happy with it brother unbelievable that happy huh hey man

Executively well let’s let’s let’s go talk this over I got something to talk to you about that’s really important gentlemen excuse me gentlemen oh boy you’re up to something there man such a character and I mean Such Great Character stuff for you here isn’t it yeah yeah it was it was good

Yeah and I you know was that a gold suit I was word no that was uh that was sparkly green sparkly green okay okay sparkly green hell of a suit and hell of a very distinct identifiable look that you’ve got there um I mean when it comes to something like this Ted

You know we always hear that guys like Jim Dugen and Aron Anderson they would get given creative and they’re just like yep no problem like yeah whatever you say I don’t care and you know not not really guys that make suggestions they’re just like okay this is what you

Want I’m going to do it to the best of my ability uh were you like that or were you every once in a while saying like hey you know can I throw my two cents in on this or hey what if we change this to

This well by and large most of the time I W I was I was like the rest of the guys uh because I mean again at the end of the day you know it’s kind kind of like uh there’s no bargaining power I mean that I mean wrestling

Regional wrestling died if you left the WWF where you going to go you didn’t have any place else to go as a wrestler so if you want to keep your job then you do what you’re told and that’s basically you know that’s where Vince had everybody you

Know back in the regional days back when you could you know like if you were working you know like for Georgia championship wrestling and and they asked you to do something that you didn’t want to do or you feel felt like you were being Mist mistreated you could

Just give your notice and go to another territory well now there was no other there was nowhere else to go now now for me I did have one place I could go and I could I could have gone back to Japan but I mean you know I I I got

Treated really well I mean my gosh they ran with my character I mean for a long time I mean made as a top heel I was probably the one of the the top heels for the longest run that of anybody yep probably the most identifiable mainstream heel that’s ever

Been established it’s you um and by the way I want our listeners to kind of hear that like you were much like Jim and and Aron saying yep yeah whatever you want yeah let’s just do it and I’ll do it to the best of my ability and all three of

These guys have had very very long careers so there’s something to be said for just like okay that’s what you want to do maybe I don’t agree with it but I’m just going to do it as as as well as I can and let’s see how it goes so it’s

You know I know a lot of fans are like oh well he should have said no to that gimmick or like I I I think I can do better no not necessarily sometimes you just got to do what you’re told well well again and as I just explained to

Everybody you know okay you don’t like you don’t like it well quit where you gonna go you know man there were still a couple territories but they were you know and Turner is getting ready to buy uh or maybe they have bought I think they have uh you

Know the wcw’s an option at this time but you know the other options are like Jerry Jarrett’s promotion wccw and it’s like not a ton of money going around down oh yeah yeah you weren’t gonna make any money there right right so you better just uh better just run the play yeah

Um all right so we’re not wasting any time before we get to our final clip this week uh you would successfully purchase the number 30 spot in the rumble and when it comes down to the end it’s just yourself AEM and Big John Stud in there let’s have a

Look say it one more time oh look at that whoa big job pull the Milli man right in front of him Big John St oh oh look at that on keep it’s John St the Million dooll Man if I was the million-dollar man I’d try to buy off stud right now I don’t

Like DB’s chances right now he’s saying wait a minute look at he’s showing him the money oh it stud’s not going for it deasi looking for some money perhaps to bribe this you’re not going to bribe Big John St hey everybody’s got their price he can throw you a f and get you

The this is what it’s all about he suckered him in close enough to get an ey R but oh look at that right by the throat oh think John stun extremely confident right now I don’t think iioi could hurt this guy he did well when AE was in there with

Him but look out now who Big John Stud just measuring the Million dooll Man Scoops him up big body slam John’s having a good time Jess yeah John better not get too confid double arm suplex look at this hooked them underneath I’ve never seen Big John stun

Do that before neither have I a big smile on his face extremely confident suplex gut R suplex threw him away like a piece of [Applause] garbage Big John Stud takes him in for the ride who I’ll tell you something about gorilla as bad as it looks for the Million dooll Man

Right now don’t count him out yet why cuz Virgil’s still out there no because he a darn good wrestling oh so just as Jesse is saying like hey don’t count him oh never mind he’s gone but man uh I don’t think you got any offense on Big John Stud there at

The end he just kind of dog whipped you and threw you out the ring oh that was it yeah I was you know of course the people loved it you know that was the whole deal that’s it you got to send folks home happy and you know it’s look

You may not necessarily agree that this guy’s going to be a future Superstar but you’re given a job to do you got to shine this this baby face and you it yeah yep yep um I mean based on his look and his character could you see him

Going on to have success or did you know like yeah this guy just doesn’t have enough under the hood ah well you know I mean he he would have some success but I mean it wouldn’t be long I I wouldn’t say he would have a long run well you’re

Right he went six months uh was gone here in June 1989 yeah and and that’s because you know his capabil you know there’s only so much you can do with him that’s it uh so Ted before we wrap this one up I also did want to mention

That the plans are beginning to form here for uh Mania 5 in many respects namely The Mega Powers will have an issue here that will start their breakup and lead them down the road to the main event too where Savage will accuse Hogan of having lust in his eyes for Liz which

Is a hilarious line um Ted this is a year-long storyline with these two it’s finally starting to come to a head what’s your take on super long story lines like this good stuff or should angles be reduced to something like six months at a maximum well you know it

Just depends on who it is you know U you know I would say it depends on the talent and are they capable of keeping it going and if they’re keep if they’re capable of keeping it going and and keeping the interest of the people will

Get go you know it was you know like one of the things I was you know uh you know that started happening that I didn’t like was there was like some of the story lines were just too short you know it’s kind of like you know you know

Uh I don’t know you could you know back back in the uh territorial days man uh you get the heal that come in and you know he would uh he was he would rule the roost for a long time you know I mean it was you know it would take a

Long time to get to that place where you have the big blowoff if you know what I mean and to your point you know it’s you had been paired here with Hercules uh and now like that’s essentially over after this Hercules is moving on to I

Don’t know what and I think you’re going to be moving on to Brutus The Barber Beefcake for Mania so it’s like yeah that you’ve got a really short story line where Hogan and Savage been building this thing for a year and you know uh a lot of fans Ted consider this

Mega Power storyline the greatest story line in the history of wrestling we’ve talked about a lot of your stuff over the years and or over the course of the podcast and some of your great storylines objectively do you feel that the mega power storyline is the greatest storyline ever told in wrestling well

Gosh I don’t know I mean it was good obviously it was good and and it was financially good because it worked uh but yeah I mean the the the greatest angle of all time how do you do that I don’t even know what that would be so it’s it’s

It’s a tough question to think about the greatest storyline of all time uh when I asked Jake that question he was like oh I don’t I don’t know what the you know there’s so many it’s hard to even kind of consider it so many different things

We did right right so uh yeah I don’t know I’m gonna like let’s go back to Mid South and uh you know you know like who’s that in the gorilla suit see now that’s good stuff that’s an underrated storyline uh I can’t wait for us talk about that we will folks coming up

Sometime um okay guys that’s going to do it that’ll wrap us up for this week we’re turning our attention back to Georgia next week but now it’s going to be January 1984 and your rivalry with Tommy Rich is going to get kicked up another notch with the introduction of

The Mysterious Mr R character so uh Ted I can’t wait to go and have a look at that go and I had so much fun doing that oh yeah you know and we you know I did a similar thing with with jyd stagger Le right stagger Le yeah

Same thing same gimmick same angle it’s tried and true in wrestling you’ve got Stagger Lee and Midnight Rider and Mr R and you know this is good stuff and I cannot wait to watch back some of this footage and go over that next week before we go I have to do my usual

Reminder that if you’d like to get this pod with no commercials and get access to a ton of sports and entertainment wrestling content get over to Premier streaming network.com and sign up for Premier plus uh we’re over there RVD’s over there you’ve got Sabo over there you’ve got so many great wrestling

Podcasts hours and hours and hours of content all you got to do is subscribe right now Premier streaming network.com Premier plusus also we don’t want you guys to forget that we have been nominated for the best wrestling podcast of 2024 through the sports podcast Awards if you’re listening to this and

You’ve enjoyed enjoyed our show do us a big favor go to my social media or Ted social media and click the link to cast your vote for us or you can visit Sports podcast group.com and cast your vote that way it only takes a couple minutes

And it would be a huge honor to win the whole thing less than a year into the Run of our show so again you can find the link on my ex account at Marcus PD Angelo or on Ted social media at MDM tdb or if it’s easier just head to sports

Podcast group.com and cast your vote right there all right uh that is going to do it for this week Ted as always it’s it’s such a blast to look back uh at this era of pro wrestling with you well and I appreciate it Marcus you do

Such a you s you do a remarkable job of of of uh I mean doing your homework to delve back in I mean you know you’re you’re you’re you’re bringing up a lot of stuff that you know I go gosh I forgot that I forgot that I forgotten

That you know because uh well and again I mean you know when you wrestle for what almost 20 years and almost every night yeah yeah it’s kind of hard to remember them all and it’s funny because I’ll be like so Ted it was October 26 you know

1984 let’s talk about what you’re doing and you’re like okay like I don’t remember what I did two days ago and I’m Marcus what did I do well look the big highlight is that I got to let you know that Harley Race pulled a gun on Hulk Hogan during this

Episode oh yeah glad we got to cover that I I could I mean Harley was a he I could see Harley doing that yeah I I can I also see him doing it as a rib yeah I mean if he was looking for a job that is one way to get the guy’s

Attention yeah really well guys we’ll look forward to bringing you more more stories next week right Ted that’s right and remember everybody’s got a price for the million dollar man see you guys next time right here on everybody’s got a pod