Episode 488: Ask JBL Anything - November 2025

Hello, I'm here with Jose Mourinho and Snickers for Football's Rapid Fire On or Off Your Game. Right, Jose, you've got one or two opinions on football, so I want you to tell me whether the following is On or Off It's Game. First up, VAR. Off the game. Half and half scarves? Off the game. What about backflip celebrations? Off. Cutting holes in the back of your socks? Off, off, off the game. What I hate, even the ones without calves, they do the holes. Snickers. You are off your game when you are hungry. Pizza carpenter. He loves his business, but hates the admin. Luckily, his Monzo Business Bank account takes some of the strain, like expensing, with real-time visibility and spend limits all managed in one app. So that's sound you're hearing is actually Pete nailing his business expenses. Make the switch and join over 800,000 other UK businesses already banking with us. Search Monzo Business today. Team plan starts from £25 a month. UK sole traders or limited company directors only. Teas and seas apply. Hey, just in time for the holidays. What if you didn't have to worry about any of that credit card debt? If you're feeling stuck making the minimum payments and you don't want to have to put Christmas on a credit card, we can help at savewithconrad.com. For routinely help our listeners save hundreds of dollars a month, find out how much money you can save right now for free at savewithconrad.com. Welcome to something to wrestle with. And a rattle with. Birds, pretzels, and creatures. Well, you know. That's not a rim. She pooed it. She pooed it. What a rim? No, you haven't peed it. There's no box of gimmicks. Rumor in you and no. I don't deal in rumor in you and no. And was he there? I was there. There's some of the balls. I don't give a shit. I ain't scared of shit. I ain't scared of shit. I kill you, Bruce. I love you. Double cheese burger. Double cheese. Double mayo. Double onion, mother. Bruce, Prichard. Hey, hey, it's Conrad the Mortgage Guy and you're listening to something to wrestle with. John Layfield. John, what's going on, man? How are you? Bradshaw, 316th, as I just stole your fucking podcast. I'm so fired up, man. We're getting a lot of great questions in from our listeners over the weekend. I took to Twitter and said, if you could ask JBL one thing, what would it be? So today's edition of something to wrestle, we're throwing you guys the keys. We're going to cover a whole host of topics. But before we do, we need to, I don't know, pay a little homage, pay our respects to one of the greatest voices in the history of professional wrestling. No longer with us. John, did you ever have a chance to meet the late, great Bob Cottle? I only got to meet him, which was a huge honor, like meeting Lance Russell. You know, I never got to meet Gordon Soli. I don't believe I may have run into him one time. I can't remember what year he passed away. But yeah, I got to meet him and it was a tremendous honor. He was kind of like, I went, I got to meet the bullet Bob, you know, I saw him backstage and, you know, of course, I knew Scott Bryan real well and bullet Bob walks in and he's just nice as he can be. And I was like, dude, this is a legend. The same thing I thought of when I met Bob, you know, just like this guy is a freaking legend. And he is, you know, him and Bill Mercer, Lance Russell, Gordon Soli. Those guys were just voices that you trusted and they made professional wrestling or certainly help make it. You want to talk about lending credibility and that at different times is what I think a lot of pro wrestling broadcasters have tried to do to the circus that is professional wrestling on screen at times. And who better to lend their credibility than guys like Bob Cottle. You may not know this, but he first started calling wrestling studio wrestling in the 1950s in Georgia. He also hosted a children's program and he even handled the weather. He had this calm demeanor and this smooth delivery and I don't know, he just commanded respect with his mere presence. But I think what most of our listeners here today would best remember him for is not what he did in Georgia, but what he did in the mid-Atlantic territory. You see him there if you're watching with us at somethingthewrestle.com with the world champion, the nature boy himself, Ric Flair. He was a staple along with David Crockett, all the other favorites, Johnny Weaver and eventually, of course, Jim Ross, Tony Chivani. But just an iconic voice in professional wrestling, I have to admit my first experience seeing him was in WCW in 1991 or 1990, rather. And then, of course, we know that he even went on to work with Jim Cornette and Smokey Mountain. He's from the Charlotte area and has just been a staple in that territory for so many years. People who went to Greg Price's NWA Fan Fest year after year at that university Hilton could always count on seeing Bob Cottle. I first learned of his passing over the weekend through themidatlanticgateway.com. Shout out to my buddies over there, Dick and Dave. But John, I don't even know that you and I talked about this, but when I decided to do Ric Flair's last match, we wanted to sort of recreate some of the magic from Jim Crockett's promotion. So we recreated the set and we had David Crockett and Tony Chivani there, but I felt like the show would be incomplete without the voice of Bob Cottle. So, as strange as it is, his last appearance in wrestling was associated with Ric Flair's last match. And I don't know, I think that's kind of fitting. I mean, even Ric took to Twitter to say that Bob helped him hone his interview styles. And when you think about what an iconic voice Ric Flair is and how legendary his promos have become, I think most young wrestlers aspire to be as good of a promo as Ric Flair. And when Ric took to Twitter to say, Bob Cottle helped me hone in my interview skills, is there a higher compliment in wrestling than that one from Ric Flair? No, it's not because that's what Ric took so close to his heart was the promo skills, especially a lot of old guys that can really talk incredibly well. Now, Ric was a great wrestler as well, but the promo skills, I think, I don't know, is he more famous for that or more famous for the slam off the top rope that never worked except for the one time with Hunter when he finally worked. It was a great storyline. Guys love that, the guys that can help them talk. And these old guys could do this. There was just something about them. You know, Bill Mercer, you know, and world class championship wrestling, he was the one that told Lee Harvey Oswald that he was charged with the murder of the president back in. Wow. You know, he was most of these guys were like this. They were legit in other areas and then they bring a man to wrestling and they somehow it adds the legitimacy to it doesn't always work that way. But with these guys that did with Bob Cottle, it did. You had this reassuring presence. And when you sit there with these guys and you do these promos, a lot of them are not live. And that's when they really become helpful because they'll tell you what they're going to tee you up with. Then they will tell you what you can say and how they're going to react because they do promo after promo with hundreds of guys and girls a year. And so they have a really good knowledge of this. These are the first producers really in wrestling. Bob Cottle has there's no doubt he helped no telling how many people, especially with what he knew best. And that was promos. I hope that they start Monday Night Raw tonight with a little note from the announcers. Hello wrestling fans. I think it would be a nice little tribute that they could do on AEW or TNA or WWE. I feel like Cottle always opened every episode the exact same way. Hello wrestling fans. And I don't know, man. It's a shame. You know, he lived such a great long life. He passed away at 95. So it's not like we can say we were robbed of any time, but you want some of these voices that we grew up on to live forever. And unfortunately, that won't happen for Mr. Cottle as we know that Father Tom does no jobs, but at 95 years old, it looks like maybe Bob Cottle took Father Tom Broadway. I don't know what else there is to say about Mr. Cottle, but I sure do wish that everybody would go watch some old men Atlantic or some old WCW and hear some of his work. And unfortunately, we've lost him now at 95 years old, but I'm hesitant to say goodbye because I hope we get to see him sometime in the future, at least for now. Maybe it's most fitting if we say so long for now. Bob Cottle. John, let's do some questions here. We got to tell them before we do. You know, somebody else passed away that was a good friend of mine this past week. I think it's his past week. Maybe it may have been a couple of weeks ago. Greg Oliver gave me the note. We're going to talk about his mentor and our top five list coming up. But Silent Brian, Silent McEnney. You know who I told you had sent me this, which I'll explain again. Silent McEnney is, I got to get the right thread there with the mask on. He was out of Hamilton, Ontario. Really nice guy. He later went by Silent McEnney. He went by Silent Brian when I knew him. Tiger Jeet Singh was a little bit past his prime. In fact, this is his boy here, Jeet Singh Jr. This is the Korean poster. That's Lee Won-Kyo and a bunch of the guys that wrestled over there. So Silent Brian was over there. And you know, I've told this many, many times. So this on this show, you know, where he would look at me and point to me and he'd do the bullshit. He'd go, boy, yeah, boy, yeah. And then he'd scream at me. He'd do his horns and he'd like that. He'd yell at me. Something to me and Jericho have like an inside joke about still because we got that from Silent Brian. But one night, one day I was sitting out there, it was just me and him. And I had my rope and I had a lasso instead of my full rope. And I thought, I wonder if I can rope him. And so I'm sitting there. So I started chasing him around the parking lot in Japan in the middle of the day. Can you imagine these two wrestlers chasing each other around the way? And I've got the rope and I'm trying to rope it. And I got him. I got his ass and I tied him up, you know, like a like a cap, you know, with two legs and a hand all tied up. So when Greg Oliver told me about, hey, you know, Silent Brian, I go, yeah, I want a great guy. And he goes, I told him the story. I said, that's Brian. If he remembers, which I knew he would, he, he not only went, he went into his office, got this poster and laminated it. This is from Korea and put on their JBL. Fuck you, Silent McNeely. I literally have had this thing hanging up in my office ever since and this is solid. They don't know what happened. He passed away at home by himself. They don't know what happened. He was around 70 years old, 67 years old. He's a little bit older than us. So anyway, I just want to give a shout out to Silent Brian, Silent McNeely, however you know him. We're really good dude that passed away as well. Man, a little depressing start here to something to wrestle, but we're trying to put a brave face on. And we'll let's, let's have a little fun talking a little rass on here. Yeah. More bad news, Conrad. I hate to bring this up. This is awful. This is the worst news you can hear all day. Chimble still alive. I'm sorry, folks. I'm so sorry to tell you that. Chimble is alive and relatively healthy as Chimble can be. And I'm sorry about that, guys. He may live a while longer and that's terrible news. And I'm sorry to have to report that. What a great fucking line. Ryan Purvis has a great question for us. He says, John had the Von Erick men not passed away. What do you think they would have done in the nineties and where do you think they would fit in today's business? It was all dependent upon David, I believe. David was the guy that was kind of the heir apparent. David was kind of the businessman. You know, Kevin, you know, was not Kevin was a wrestler and a good one. Kevin's a good dude and a good friend of mine. Carrie was not. Carrie just wanted to be a wrestler and a God almighty that guy, man. I say this all the time. I've been around the rock. I've been fortunate enough to be around Schwarzenegger a little bit. Don't know him that well, but a little bit. He was Otto Vonz's childhood buddy and grot. So I had a little bit of connection to him. I mean, there are certain guys that walk into a room that are just freaking rock stars. I mean, Bruce Springs, things like that. Carrie Von Erick was like that. He was from a, he was alien. He was, it was unreal to walk through an airport with him. But Carrie didn't really want to be part of the business part of it. David did, you know, and if David hadn't passed away in Japan, I think things would have changed. You know, Fritz didn't want to go national. They had a chance to do some paper views or close circuits rather. Fritz didn't understand it. Didn't want to do it. David did. And so if David hadn't passed away, I think it was 84, 85, maybe 84 when he passed away in Japan. I think the Fritz, the territory in Texas was the one that I thought actually had a better chance than the Carolinas and the Florida, even with the great Eddie Graham down there, that I had a chance to take over because of what they were doing technology was. They were using so many different camera shoots. They had so much different backstage stuff. I mean, it was really good TV. And I think if David had stayed alive, it could have made a huge difference. Where would David have fit in the attitude era? As a heel. He was a good heel. You know, he was one of the few boys that the, the wind, you know, they sent him down to Eddie Graham. And the briskos in them to turn him heel to let him make sure he knew how to work. You know, he really don't know how to learn how to work until you work heel, as they say. And that's why they sent him down to work heel with Eddie Graham. Many made David 100% better. He was a hell of a worker, a good talker, everything. I think he'd been a great heel. He'd have been a Texas heel. He would have been, he'd have been the attitude era. I think he'd have been very similar to the Hart Foundation, except that have been Texas. That would have been the baby face only in Texas and a heel everywhere else, literally in the whole world. Could you compare where a Carrie Von Erick would have fit in the attitude era? Like would you have seen him on the WCW side of things, the WWF side of things? Like is there a performer who you think, Hey, the trajectory of this guy, we could have seen Carrie follow a similar path. Does that exist? A comparable? Yeah, I think so. He was good friends with the Dingo Warrior, who became the Ultimate Warrior. And I think Carrie was a better worker. I know Carrie was. Carrie was a lot better worker. And Carrie, especially Carrie had lost his foot in that motorcycle accident. We're assuming that the what if, if these guys, these young boys who were being at the time staying healthy. And Carrie was a lot better worker than Ultimate Warrior. A lot better. He, man, he could, that guy had unbelievable credit. So the Warrior, the Warrior of Great Charisma, not as good a worker. I don't think Carrie would have done well in WCW at all. I think he was a WWB guy. 100% Vince would have loved to have an athlete. He was a six foot four inch high jumper in high school. And Carrie would have been great in WWB under Vince McMahon. I'm curious why you think that, that he wouldn't have been a fit in WCW. What was it about WCW style that you don't think really worked for, for Carrie? I don't think they knew what to do with it. Same as they didn't know how to do with Warrior. Now they got a Warrior that was older and not the same Warrior that, you know, from WrestleMania 6. Obviously, to be fair to those guys, they didn't want to do with him with an attraction like that. I didn't feel like they know what to do with attractions with a Stan Hansen, with an Abdullah, with a Warrior, or with a, Carrie was a little bit more than an attraction, but kind of the same mold. I just didn't think they knew what to do with him. I mean, this is the guy on the verge of a rock status. Not as good a promo as Rock. Rock, I think, you know, a brilliant human being, obviously, that's shown throughout the years. But I think Vince knew how to do with these guys so much more than WCW. They knew what to do with wrestlers and with good wrestlers, and they did a great job with it. I don't think they knew as much to do with characters as they did. I mean, you look at Goldberg. Goldberg did a great job with Goldberg, making Goldberg this huge star, and they kept him very simple. This Spear Jackhammer, your next, that was it. They didn't do a good job expanding his character beyond that. You know, and you can argue, you know, maybe Vince McMahon didn't either later, but that was also later. I do want to ask, you know, when we're thinking about Carrie Von Erick and the WWF, I don't know a way to ask this without sounding like an asshole, so forgive me if I do. Could he have survived the new generation era when steroid testing was so prevalent? Like, he had a body of a Greek god, and I don't want to accuse him of taking performance enhancing drugs, but I think most people would say from an eye test that that may have been a challenge for him. But I do love the idea of Carrie Von Erick wrestling guys like Sean Michaels or Brad Hart or Razor Ramon or, hell, Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash. Like, that era feels like he could have thrived and done really, really well with that. But what do you have been able to, I don't know, is it fair for me to just make the assumption that he was probably using steroids? It feels like it's not all face. No, I think it's fair. I think it's pretty much certainty. I don't know if, you know, Carrie were talking to me about that specifically. I mean, all the guys when I was in Texas, when Carrie was there, were taking, you know, guys that had a little bit of body work. They were hookups everywhere, Conrad. I mean, back then you'd get them from a pharmacy, you get them legal, you can get them from your gym. I mean, guys had them everywhere. Guys would give you just price sheets at the gym. That's how, you know, it's almost like weed now. And the police didn't really care about it. So, you know, you had price sheets literally in gyms that would circulate for steroids. And because nobody knew, you know, how bad they were, and they just knew that you build big muscles. So, I think it's fair to say I don't have 100% definitive proof that Carrie took them. But I would certainly place a large wager on it. I think Carrie's problems was not the steroids. It was the other stuff that, you know, was circulating. That's what he got in trouble with, you know, that was, you know, Carrie had addiction issues. And so the culture would have got him. And I don't think it was a steroids. I think it was other stuff. Now, it's a test for steroids. Carrie was a hell of an athlete. You look at him when he was younger. You look at Kevin when he was younger. I don't care if Kevin took them or not. None of them have been this and I don't care. But you look at these guys had great bodies, terrific bodies. That's with or without steroids. If steroids enhance it, they don't give it to you. And I think that's, I think Carrie would have been fine without them. It is interesting to think about, you know, hypothetically, if it would have happened, you know, you've got Carrie Von Erick, the Texas tornado, and we know the boyhood dream is going to come true for Sean Michaels in 96. But wouldn't Carrie have been an interesting opponent for a Bret Hart champion to WWF for a pay-per-view or even for that matter, Sean Michaels do something with that Texas affiliation. Like it does feel like there could have been something that would have been really fun in 94, 95, 96. But a year later, when Stone Cold gets hot, I mean, you want to talk about two antithetical personas in wrestling that epitomized Texas wrestling of that era, the Texas tornado and the Texas rattlesnake. Come on, like there's a lot of opportunity there, it feels like. Yeah, and Carrie could sell. I mean, for being a big guy, Carrie could really freaking sell. He loves selling and he put heels over like freaking million bucks, man. I mean, him to put over Stone Cold when Stone was a heel. Oh my God, what matches they could have. And that big son of a bitch fighting back from underneath. That could be, that would be legendary stuff right there. You know, Vince believed that he needed Carrie to break into Texas because a lot of these old territories, you know, we didn't do very well in these old territories. You know, we go into Minnesota, we wouldn't do well because people were used to watching AWA. We go into Memphis, a lot of times we didn't do very well because people were used to watching Jerry Lawler. Same in Dallas, we weren't drawing many people there until Steve and Rock got hot. Same in San Antonio with Joe Blanchard, but we didn't do well in a lot of territories. Vince thought he needed Carrie and that's one of the big reasons there was a push to get Carrie because Vince wanted Texas. Well, I'll tell you what, we know that if Carrie would have been a part of that new generation when all the steroid stuff was going on, he may be looking for a different solution and maybe you are too, which is why we're proud to talk about Mars men here today. I know that John has been looking for, and we're going to get into this a little later, John has been looking for a solution to feel like the old John. And if you're looking to do the same, I want to recommend Mars men. We're such a big believer in this product. I mean, here's the reality. We all as guys start to feel changes in our body. Maybe it happens around 35 or so. But if you're between the ages of 35 and 45, I guarantee that you felt it. Everything that you used to do that felt easy all of a sudden doesn't feel easy. And we barely ever talk about it as guys, but a lot of us feel like we hit a brick wall in our mid 30s. We give it the same workouts or have the same diet, but it feels like you're sort of moving through mud. Well, nobody really talks about this stuff. You know, one day you're crushing it, next day you're wondering why everything feels twice as hard. But here's the reality. 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And they're going to report our show and tell them we sent you. Hey, John, you know how I'm going to ask. I'm sorry to point out also that I just checked. Chimmy was still live folks. Sorry. Well, I don't know if it's too young too early for us to talk about this, but I know you've been saying you've been training and we just we just talked about Mars men. And I know you've been, I know you went to mengotomars.com. I know you use the promo code wrestle. You're you're feeling like your old self again. Yeah, but there's rumor in innuendo. That you have a training video. Where you're starting to move around and you've you've leaned on your coaches and we've talked about this before. But your coaches, as I understand it, are supposed to be Jerry Briscoe and Jody Malenco. Do I have that right, John? 100% Yeah. Former NWA junior champion, the number one trainer of number one student of Carl Godz. Jody Malenco, one of the greatest legends in MMA. Yeah, they're my coaches and good my good friends. I'm so happy to have my coaches. They set me up with the whole training facility in my garage with a wrestling mat, a suplex dummy. I call Bruce some Persian clubs, you know, the not the great big ones, the iron ones and all kinds of things. Yes. Well, I know that you have. You've sent that video off to these guys for them to break down and I don't know why I know that we've all been on a group thread. And I'm honest with you, I'm not even sure exactly why I'm on the group thread because they're your coaches. But somehow accidentally, I'm not sure this is what Mr. Briscoe meant to do. But if you've ever watched stories with Briscoe and Bradshaw, you know for sure that occasionally it's revealed that Mr. Briscoe is technologically challenged. Would that be fair to say, John? Fair to say that. Well, I think they still got a rotary doll phone. He tries to get on Zoom with a rotary doll phone every week. I mean, I know there was one week he brought like 10 cans and string. I don't know. But somehow he thought he was leaving a voicemail for Jody Malenko, but he left a voicemail on my phone. You're kidding me. So he refers to me over and over in the voicemail as Jody. So I thought it might be a prudent time just to A, let's poke the bear and have a little fun at Mr. Briscoe's experience. But B, I know you're looking for feedback from your coaches and I feel bad because I got the feedback. You didn't get the feedback. So why don't we show fans what you've been up to and we'll sort of, I think Silva's got to put together with Briscoe's voicemail. Awesome. Take a look at how John's training for his comeback is going. And here's some inspirational words, if you will, from Jerry Briscoe. Let's take a listen. Cool. Hey, Jody, man, I just got that video, man. I'm so sorry. I've watched that thing over and over again and I'm just sick and I apologize. And I don't want to do anything that's going to ruin your reputation over in Japan. You're a worldwide trainer, but man, this is going to be a challenge. I just don't think that guy's up there. He is a Texan, so we just got to, I don't know, Jody. I mean, it's not too late to back out. That's good. You know what's great about that? It sounds just like him. What do you mean? This AI stuff is awesome. I love it. That's so good. That's my pal, Mr. Briscoe. It sounds just like him. John, that's, uh, that's not AI. We just said Briscoe can't figure out webcam. She think he knows how to do AI. So Jerry didn't like, oh, stop it. Stop it. Jerry's my friend. Jerry's my good buddy. He'd never say that. That's a misunderstanding. Those words are taken out of content. That's what they call fake news. Jerry's my dear friend. Those guys love what I'm doing. Mr. Briscoe's always put me over. He signed me back in 1995 and been my biggest supporter. Oh, yeah, that's, that's nobody doing. Okay. Let's do another question. This comes to us from James Sorensen. And he wants to know if you had been given John Cena for the company, Secret Santa, what would you have gotten him? That's interesting. That's a hell of a question. I love that question. That's great. I would give him some type of like exotic boots. You know, John, I told the story last week, you know, out there week four about John, you know, coming in, you know, a guy that has this master of tolerance for booze. But, you know, John's like a regular guy. John likes moonshine and stuff, you know, or, or Schlitz or PAPS or whatever it is. You know, he does this regular dude. I would find some like crazy vodka or some crazy, probably not wine. Most boys aren't wine drinkers. And are some tequila or something and get him some type of real exotic, probably expensive bottle of booze or something that you can kind of leave on your top shelf and open up when you, when you feel good or your team wins a big championship or something, something like that. Did John have a favorite? I know you said that he would drink moonshine or whatever, but was there one like, I've heard, and I don't know if this is true, but I've heard through the grapevine. Did Vince used to drink Dewar's white label? Is that right? Yeah, sure did. Vince had a higher, you know, higher gimmick up there, but he also drank a lot of Dewar's, but he also had a higher quality bottle. So he had a bunch of, you know, he had a bunch of stuff. I'll tell you a funny story. One time I get on the plane with Vince and I got a bag, I get a brown bag. It's literally a brown bag. Vince, good Vince, that bird's a voice. What do you got in that bag? I said, Coors Lied. He goes, why are you bringing beer on my plane? And I said, because you don't have any fucking Coors Lied. He said, I don't? I said, no, you know, Vince wasn't a beer drinker. And he said, from now on, we have Coors Lied stocked the fridge. So from that point forward, they had Coors Lied on the fridge because I got called sneaking a six pack on in a brown paper bag on his plane. I'm going on to a plane with a billionaire and I've got this private plane I'm getting on and I'm sneaking on a bag full of Coors Lied in a brown bag. Yeah, Vince like doers and John Cena, I think was a PBR guy. I believe. Okay. All right. I mean, that beer's when we used to round up cattle when I was a kid, we used to have like PBR and Schlitz. So it was so cheap. We had Keystone back then. Remember Keystone? Like a Ripwolf Coors Lied. But they were like, it's like a dollar for a case. You know, all the cowboys had it. But man, I didn't like that PBR. But John would drink the PBR. I don't know if he liked it or it was just cool to drink PBR. I assume he liked it because John's not a poser. I'm fascinated by the plane conversation because I've heard guys like Eric Bischoff talk about how, you know, the plane on the ride home after a big show because that's everybody's flying in on the plane and it's all business and we're focused. But afterwards people can let their hair down and relax a little bit. So I want to talk a little bit about the plane because Eric has said, I mean, I've heard him tell stories that he said, Hey, I'm sure there were more than one time when I ate like $600 worth of sushi. What can you tell us about food and drink on the plane afterwards? What were some of the things that stood out? If you wanted something, you could get it. I mean, if you wanted like whatever it was, you know, like sushi and sashimi, all that stuff. I'm not a big fan of that stuff. So I never ate it. You know, I did drink a lot. But Vince had whatever, you know, like when he called me sneaking on the Kerslacht bag of brown bag with a six pack in it. They had Kerslacht from that point forward. Vince was the, Vince was the ultimate host. Vince loved people to have a good time. And when he got, when he, when the show was really good, Vince was in a good mood, he would crank ACDC so loud, you couldn't hear yourself think it was so freaking. That's that plane had to be rocking in the sky. The music was so freaking loud. It was awesome. And Vince to be dancing up and down the aisle. I mean, it was just, it was a rolling party. It was a lot of fun. And it's always going back. Of course, you know, going forward, you know, going there, it's always to work. Coming back, it's over. And even when the show was bad, you know, Vince could compartmentalize anything. You know, we could have a bad show at Vince and the guys get on kind of depressed about it. Vince, oh, always next week. And on goes ACDC and here comes the booze and we're having fun roll, roll rocket to the sky. Hey, I wanted to ask about that because I've heard some people say that after the show, Vince has these weird rules like, Hey, you shouldn't nobody falls asleep. Like everybody's kind of scared to fall asleep. And other people would say, Oh no, that's not true. I fell asleep every time. And then other people I've heard say, you know, people were kind of minding their peas and queues after a show. Vince would be looking over notes or making notes, but he would always have like the glasses hanging off the edge of his nose. But it sounds like the way you just described it. Vince dancing down the aisles. That was for a regular show or a bad show, but he was celebrating is for a great show. Was his demeanor different based on, you know, how the show went? What can you talk to us about there? Yeah, it was, but Vince now he compartmentalized stuff really well. He could get really bad news and you would never know it. You know, Vince was really good about that. He didn't sell nothing. We could have a bad show. We got a bad attendance and Vince going plain and it is almost like he went completely out of his way to not sell it. Vince was very, very big on that. Now on the other side, also Conrad, he didn't sell when things were just over the top grade either. He carried that kind of middle of the road demeanor. It's kind of like Tom Landry on the sideline. Remember coach Landry for the cowboys, you know, he never reacted either good or bad really to plays because he was always thinking he'll always want to be one step ahead. And Vince didn't want to let people too much into him. He didn't want to sell. And so there was not a lot of selling going on. If the show was bad or if the show was overly good. Now when he was in a good mood, most of the time it was, you know, I guess probably corresponding more with a big show or something, we'd have a crazy party. And there were times it was a working, the whole thing was working. You know, he had the glass on his nose and he wanted to go over some stuff. He had things coming up. He would sit there and want to talk business. And sometimes he'd gather you to the top, the front part of the plane had four captain seats in it. He always sat in the one that was facing the cockpit. Kevin Dunn sat Caddy corner across there and then the two people would fill in the other and specifically with guys that Vince really wanted to talk to on the flight. Or if it was a guest, you know, it was a stone cold or a Hogan or something. Vince, we want them sitting up front with him. I remember Jimmy Garvin got on the plane one time. He had Jimmy Garvin up there because he just, he just wanted to hear the old free bird stories. They told the funniest story about the doing a little blow behind the Crockett's plane. And as they go to hit it, the plane kicked on with the jets and blew the cocaine all the way down the runway. He told it four times of that flight. It was awesome. But Vince just, Vince just loved to have a good time. But when he, when he wanted to work, he also worked. A lot of times Conrad, Vince would land and we'd have a rolling party or whatever we had or work, whatever it was. And then Vince would sit there and work with Kevin Dunn for another couple hours sometime right there on the tarmac. Everybody else would get off the plane. As far as going to sleep, Kevin loved, Vince loved to mess with Kerwin. He loved Kerwin. You know, Kerwin's one of his first hires out of the Harrisburg area. Not sure exactly where it was there in North, Eastern Pennsylvania. But he loved to mess with Kerwin. He was asleep, but it wasn't, it really wasn't mean spirit. You know, he would just, you know, kind of poke him and, you know, but guys fall asleep, especially that Vince didn't know very well. Zero happened to him. It wasn't a big deal. I know that you said that, you know, he wanted to be a gracious host, but I'm sure he's had some interesting guys on that plane. Maybe guys like Michael Hayes also know that you're not a stooge, but I'm trying to get to, is there a funny story you can share that maybe won't piss anybody off? Cause you mentioned when you said that you like Coors Light from that point on, there was Coors Light there. Was there ever a weird request that Vince was like, my God, I can't believe because Bruce has told us before way back pre-jet days of the WWF that he and Pat Patterson and Vince McMahon stopped at like a rest station, a gas station, and they served corn dogs. And Bruce was all excited to get a corn dog and Vince had no idea what a corn dog was and couldn't believe that Bruce was eating it saying something like, you put that in your body. Do you remember there being a weird request that Vince was really off foot by? No, I don't. Cause guys would hide stuff from Vince because they knew not to eat like shit in front of him, you know, like candy and stuff like that. Cause you know, Vince would probably say something about it. So guys would, you know, guys would K-Fabe candy like, you know, I probably back, and probably what it was was like the older generation was like, hey, we used to hide drugs and you guys are now hiding candy. So they probably said the same thing about us as we say, as we say about these guys. I'd say a funny story. Michael Cole, you, you judge it's funny. I used to love when people tell Vince, cause I was around Vince a lot. They come to a Vince, I got an idea you're going to love Vince, but look at him go, I'll be the judge of that. And just sit there. That's the greatest answer ever. So I say, I want to tell you a funny story. You'll be the judge of that gun, right? So they're flying down. I can't remember where I'm going to say Florida. I can't remember where I'm going to get it wrong no matter what I do. Anyway, they're flying somewhere. And this was before Vince had the big plane with the bathroom in the back. And if you remember, like some of these private planes, you had the bathroom underneath the seat. So the only way to go was like to pull the seat up and you're in the main area there. Michael Cole has to go to the bathroom before they land. You got Linda is in that seat. Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education is in that seat. So Michael is like, Oh my God, I may just, he's like debating at this point. Should I just piss on myself? Because whatever I do, this point forward is going to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. And so finally Michael Cole says to her and goes, Vince, I got to go. And Vince's like, God damn, we'll land in 30 minutes. You can wait. I got to go. Michael has Linda get up in front of the whole plane. Michael has to get down his knees and use the bathroom with that little bullet that's in that's on the private plane before the thing. And Vince was like, you're kidding me. You're not going to do this. And Michael goes, you don't know pain. And to this day, they ribbed Michael Cole about saying, you don't know pain because you're on there with all these boys and like broken bones everywhere. And Michael's got to be in. He says you don't know pain. So yeah, Michael went to the bathroom for everybody. This day, he may not have lived it down. Michael will tell you the story. It's hilarious. 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After you purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Man, can you imagine back in the day if these old timers would have had a Ridge wallet? I remember seeing a photo of the brick that Harley Race used to carry around. Man, Ridge is... Yeah. God, it would have been a game changer. Ridge is awesome. I got a Ridge wallet because they're a sponsor. I'm so glad I got the DIN. It's very functional and incredible to use. Let's talk about the old Aftermags here. We've got a question from Terrell Lewis who says, how did yourself and other performers, a.k.a. the boys, feel about the Aftermags? And what did you think about the PWI 500? So we'll save the PWI 500 for part two of this. Did you grow up reading the Aftermags? And once you were in the business, did you appreciate their approach or did it annoy you? Like, two-part question there. Were you a fan growing up and did your perception of the magazines change once you were, quote-unquote, in the business? Huge fan growing up. That's 100%. Love the Aftermags. I used to go to the store all the time. There was a Skinny's that was right down the street from where I lived in Sweetwater. Skinny's is a convenience store for those down the south. And I'd go down there and I'd look through the mags without buying them. You know, sit there and they run the kids off because they all did that. I go to the store and it was so cool about it because I didn't know a lot of the wrestlers. You only knew the wrestlers from Texas because that's all the TV we got. And so it was so cool to read about all these guys that were all over the world. I didn't know where they were. I mean, New York could have been freaking in Bangladesh for all I knew. I didn't know an urban outstay of Texas. So yeah, it was awesome reading the Aftermags. They were so good. The pictures were so good. And yes, absolutely loved reading them. Now, let's talk about the PWI 500. When that first comes out, is it on your radar? What do the guys think of it? Does anyone take it seriously back then? I know there's always an online discourse with fans, but I'm curious how did the guys within the business perceive that PWI 500, John? To my knowledge, no one I knew took it serious. No one. No, no, the boys. You know, we just assumed that the mags were all to work. And I think, you know, they were, they were their promotion. And they were using the PWI to give guys promotion for different things. They put a guy number one because they want to promote that guy for whatever reason. That's what we felt. You know, it's a better question for Bill Aptor is the reasoning behind it. Was it supposed to be legit or not? But being a top 10, I thought it was always a reason to do that, a working reason. So I don't think any of the guys were, man, I'm 63rd. I'm pissed off. I don't, I don't know anybody that would have felt that way. Maybe animal. But you know, animal kept up with win-loss record, but I don't know. I don't know how many other people that would, I'm sure there were a few Conrad that were upset about the ranking. I didn't know anybody that was and I didn't know anybody talked about it. We just thought it was for the fans. Let's do another one here from a wrestling historian. Is there a prank that you regret pulling on a coworker? We all love hearing about the ribs, but sometimes ribs can go wrong. And it's not as fun as we hoped. And maybe there's some feelings hurt. Is there one that you look back and say, hmm, wish I had that one to do over again. Yeah, I've told you this before. There was a big sumo guy, a boy that in Japan and we went to Korea to wrestle. And, you know, we were sitting there drinking one night and he was a good, good young guy. You know, you don't rip people you don't like. You know, you rip people you like, you know, and so we super glued him in his room. You know, and it's easy to do. I don't know if you know, I don't know if you want to talk about, you know, there's always a little space in the door. So he pushed the door back a little bit, put super glue in it and then pull the handle and it'll, it'll bind. And then you're literally super glue a guy into his room. And so we super glued him into his room. What do you know is claustrophobic? That big son of a bitch got so scared. He sumoed the door, knocked the whole damn door frame out. I mean, that's a powerful kid. We're sitting there looking at course we had to pay for it, you know, and like, it would suck. We didn't have any money. And like, this sucks. What a terrible rip this was. And plus them were thinking, hope he doesn't find out it's us. He knocked the door frame out. That boy, my sumo was. And so, but he did get me back. He found out it was me. And this is this one of the best ribs ever pulled on me Conrad. I applaud him so much for this. So I'm sitting there. I'm going back from Korea. My stomach was messed up. I haven't eaten Korean food. I'm not used to it. So my stomach's messed up. Halfway on the flat back. Not a short flight back from Seoul back to Tokyo. I got to go to the bathroom. So I squeeze into this little, you know, little airplane bathroom, you know, and get it. I'm going to finally get my pass. I'm 300 something pounds, you know, my pants down. Every part of the wall is touching me. I'm sitting like this. And that big boy found out I was in there and he sumo that damn door and knocked it off its hinges. So I'm stuck in there like a bear stuck in a garbage can and I'm sitting there. I can't even move. I can't even get out my pants are down. I look up and there's about 30 people there that can see me. So I'm sitting there taking the dump Conrad. I'm sitting there on a looking and I'm stuck in there. I got my pants down. I got to pull my pants up and everything. And these people are just like sitting there looking at me like, what's the big American doing stuck in the bathroom and why is the door off the hinges? So yeah, so yeah, there was a rim I regretted. I regretted the shit out of that. I love that. Sorry. Oh yeah. I give huge kudos for that. He got over big with me by doing that to me. Carl Hayes, friend of the program wants to know what's your favorite winning bet and what was the biggest heart breaking bet? That's a fun question. Yeah, yeah, I had a bet this weekend. It was a rugby game and it was the it was the over. I think it was and all they had to do is kick the two point conversion and somehow the clock ran out. Somebody ran on the field and they didn't work. They didn't allow them to kick the two point conversion. And after this second, I don't know why the bet was one. I mean, I win the bet in the very last seconds of the game. All the guys got to do is kick the two point conversion and for some reason they didn't let him kick it. And I don't have the sound. I just lost money because there's some crazy fan around on the field or something. So yeah, it was one of these bad beats that SPP talks about all the time. I've also had just the opposite in several games where a fumble happens and that's the best thing in the world. It sucks what it happens of the way basketball is the worst, by the way, because all of a sudden you get down there and somebody throws a ball. Somebody throws up a three pointer from half the court and it affects the over under or the spread. That's the absolute worst. That's gambling. I got to do a question here from Patrick Ruth and what a great question this is. My favorite APA skit was Royal Rumble 2001. What was your favorite memory of it? I don't know if you recall this, but you and Ron were backstage playing poker. You were comparing numbers for what you drew for the Royal Rumble and Income's Crash Holly, who has to apologize to both of you in advance that he's going to have to throw you both out of the Royal Rumble. So great skit. Love the idea. What do you remember about that one? Crash was great. I love Crash. Really nice guy. And we had a lot of fun working with Crash. Crash was fun. He was a perfect foil for us. So was Pinocchi and Taka. The young guys that had great banter about him, with the big, you know, supposed tough guys and stuff. It was just a great dynamic to work with. I loved working with Crash. We got to do so much. We had Rebecca Romain on with Ella Kool-Jay and Chris Klein. They're promoting a movie and Miss Romain was going to have down a beer for part of the skit. And I said, Rebecca, I will get you a beer that has water in it, you know, gimmick beer. She goes, I'm fine. It's okay. So we did this thing. We're doing it before the show so we can edit it. And it's got screwed up. It got screwed up probably three to five times. She downs three to five beers. He downs them. I mean, like freaking Dick the Bruiser. She's like, bam, pounding them. I fell wrong. I said, that's the greatest woman on the planet. I love her. We had a lot of fun with the APA. We had a lot of fun with guys coming in. We just enjoyed, you know, putting guys over and having fun with them. Guys were great to us. Undertaker, Rock, Booker, T. Some of these guys would come in and put over the whole skit. That's what made it because guys put it over for us. Uh, Kylan Furlow, he's asking a question that I think we've answered before, but I guess people haven't heard the answer. Did you ever meet or talk to Larry Hagman since your character was based on J.R.E.U.ing? No, I'd love to have met him. Would love to have. And I want to point this out, though. I always thought my character was based off Larry Hagman. I've heard Vince be asked about it and he thought that was preposterous. Vince had, my inspiration was Larry Hagman. Vince did not see it that way at all. But we did do a scene at South Fork one time. And I got to work with Governor Rick Perry there who, by the way, was fantastic. Rick Perry came up and Rick Perry is the governor of the state of Texas. And literally, hey, John's gonna do something with it. He goes, hey, I'm so sorry. I just, I've been going around. They gave him like five or six bullet points in about 10 seconds. He walked up like he had known me since Sweetwater High School and grew up with me and hit all five or six bullet points and roll like, I mean, just like it was not scripted. Nothing. It was really remarkable. That was all at South Fork. But no, I got to do something at South Fork Ranch. I was supposed to do something with Larry Hagman one time, but I never got to do it. I would love to have because he was, I loved that character. By the way, he always wore a hat when he went through airports because he wanted people to see him as JR Ewing. He did it on purpose. 100%. Yeah. He was not a cowboy. He wore a hat because he, people wanted to see him as JR Ewing. He dressed as JR Ewing to go through airports. Essentially, it's staying in the gimmick. What a great story. I know that. Yeah. He was very big, very big about letting people see him as JR Ewing. I feel like that's just leaning into the nostalgia and that's probably what everybody listening to this podcast is doing as well. And if you're a fan of the 80s or 90s, are you long for the good old days? Are you still too sweet every stranger wearing an NWO shirt? Then check out the new nostalgia podcast called Be Kind. Let's Rewind. Join three lifelong friends where they discuss television, movies, music and pop culture from the 80s, 90s and beyond. They've covered topics ranging from personalities like the Macho Man, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan to movies like Predator and Happy Gilmore. They've also got live interviews with authors like Dr. Brad, who we have absolutely loved his books. John Finkel. How about the Batman executive producer, Michael Eustlund? Yeah, they're all here as a part of Be Kind. Let's Rewind. Be sure to check out John and Brad's books Macho Man Untamed, The Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage and The Six Pack, An Open Road in Search of WrestleMania. Join Be Kind. Let's Rewind for boozy segments like Booze of the Week, Shit Stuck in My Head This Week and the now infamous Pizza Gorilla and of course the Norm MacDonald Clip of the Week. New episodes there every Friday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and all the major podcast and platforms. Be sure to use their YouTube page at Be Kind. Let's Rewind and you can engage with the show on Instagram, X and even Discord. If you love the 80s and 90s nostalgia, this show is for you. Check it out. Be Kind. Let's Rewind. Be Kind is something we should tell Dave McClay because he's got a question here or maybe it's a comment. I can't believe but I think you'll love it. Dave says, I don't really have a question. I just wanted to tell you that Something to Wrestle was my very favorite podcast. But then a few years ago, it turned into my fifth favorite. But when you took over, it is now my favorite podcast again. Thank you JBL. I'm okay with you being the new permanent host. Let Bruce just go do his thing. Dave, you're the fucking best. When we get the shirt, we need to send you one. Bradshaw316 says, I just stole your fucking podcast. Yeah, Dave, you're awesome. Ron for your life says, one of my favorite finishes of all time was JBL and the Big Show and a cage match at No Way Out 2005. JBL gets chokeslam from the top group through the ring. Big Show escapes the cage and the ref calls for the bell. The ring announcer says, and your winner and still undisputed champion, John Bradshaw Layfield, a confused Big Show and a pissed off audience coming to find out that JBL had escaped the cage from under the ring. As he had been chokeslam through before Big Show escaped the cage. It was absolute brilliance. Our question is, John, who came up with this masterpiece finish? And do you recall your reaction to the idea when it was first pitched? Yeah, I remember talking events about it probably two or three months before we did it. And I can't remember events came up with it or it was just a matter of talking back and forth. I think events came up with it. I'm pretty sure I could be wrong about that, but I remember talking to him about two or three months before we had to build this. And so we kept it secret for quite a long time and man, I thought it was just fantastic. In fact, but a lot of stories about when they first built it, you know, Ellis built the, the, our gimmicks back then are props. They had a small little door that for me to go through. Man, I'm coming off the top rope. We're only been wrestling for 20 or 30 minutes at this point. And you know, Big Show's got to put me there and I'll talk about that in a minute. That's the most safe guys in the history of the business is Big Show. There was, I mean, there was so much room for error with that little small trap door. And then I looked at events sales. Why can't you double it? And Ellis goes, well, I guess we could. Fuck you, think? Yeah. Otherwise I'm going to die. So they built the trap door in the corner. And if you watch it, we walked right over the trap door before. So it certainly didn't give it away. The problem though is, you know, everything around it gets really stiff, you know, because you got to reinforce the rest of the rings. The rest of the ring is people hate that when you had to gimmick the ring because the rest of the ring was, oh fuck, it was hard. And so we walked over it and the guy underneath the ring was the one that left the trap door out. So the night before in Pittsburgh, we had to go over, we wanted to go over to Stunt. So it's about 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock at night. And so we go up there and so we need to make sure this stuff works. So I go up the top rope and Kevin Nunn's in the truck and they're filming it, you know, to make sure you get the right angles and stuff. And also, you know, Big Show is on the top rope. I'm on the top rope. Big Show is going to give me the move the night before. And all of a sudden you hear, stop, stop, stop. And it's Kevin Dunn. And he says, guys, if John gets hurt, we got no match tomorrow. We can't let him take the risk of going through the ring tonight because there's a good chance he could get hurt. You know, going through this, there's a lot of things can go wrong with this. I mean, Big Show is throwing a two or 80 pound man, you know, from whatever eight feet, whatever it is in there, 20 feet in there, as they say in wrestling. Through this spot, he has to hit me just perfect or I'm screwed. And he did, by the way, that man. I wouldn't trust a few people in the world. I would trust more than Big Show because of that. So we didn't know what to do. So Ellis was right there. And so they said, hey, Ellis, you want to do it? Ellis wouldn't do his own stunt. Now, they got confident I am. Ellis goes, well, no, no, no, I'm not the same size. I'm going, Ellis, am I going to be okay? Ellis looks at me. He goes, I think you'll probably be all right. And I said, you think caveats are in there? I'm going to say, I'm going to spend the night in the Pittsburgh ER. So Finley was the agent of the match. Finley had been at the bar. He's in a shirt and a tie because he'd been at a show that night. He comes up to do things. He'd been having some drinks. Finley keeps up there at midnight in a suit and goes through the ring. It was awesome. I wish we could find the video there. That was one of the best parts of the night of the weekend was Finley going through the ring. He's climbed up there, Big Show picks Finley up over his head and throws him suit and all. And a bunch of pints of Guinness in him through the ring. And so when we did the match, Big Show did such a good job, man. He is such a talented guy in so many different ways, but he's also very safe and very sure. He was a legit giant. You know, when he went to take that last step down, I put my hand out underneath the ring. So when I go underneath through the ring, they have a monitor for me. So I'm watching Big Show live. And I've also got somebody there telling me just so I don't screw up in case there's any time with the layer, anything, stick your hand out and win the match. You know, what I did was I stuck my hand out underneath the ring apron and put it out on the mat before Big Show put his foot down right before. They had a camera angle of it. So it worked really well. And Big Show looked around, you know, surprised and shocked and all that, you know, just like you're supposed to do is the baby face that can't believe that he had it won. And something crazy happened. So anyway, I do the finish. I come to the back and the guy from underneath the ring comes back, goes, Hey, man, thank you. And he looks at me goes, Is that real blood? Yes, thank you. It was just funny. You know, you sit there with me down underneath the ring and had no idea that this blood flowing out of my head might actually be real. And my wife Meredith, when we first started dating, we were in New York and we're in a cab and I catch a cramp in my rib, just a cramp, you know, from whatever. And oh, she sees it. I couldn't move in the back of the cabin. Oh, she sees it. And she tells the cab jar go to the hospital, go to the hospital. I go, I'm not going to the hospital. I got a cramp. So I mean, she goes, go to the hospital. I said, no, no, no, no, we're not. You know, she had never she'd gone to Ivy League school. She had never been around, you know, athletes, you know, male athletes. She played some hockey herself. She was she's an athlete, but never around male athletes. You know, they've been hurt a lot. So fast forward that to Pittsburgh. I come back. I'm a covered completely in blood and I walk up to her. She's sitting there talking to some people and I come up and say, I said, hey, I'll be right there. Let me go shower. Quick. I'll be ready. These guys look at me like they've seen a ghost. They're like, guys covered in blood. And she like, she likes to go. Okay. Great. I'll see a little bit. It's not a big deal. By that point, she had gotten used to me being beating up, beating up and bloody. What a great story. Tony flowers has a great question for us. He says Adam Rose debuted with, but I thought was a surprising amount of support and push from WWE. Lots of promo backstage and teasers leading to his television debut. Not to mention a huge entourage with him on TV. It's been over 11 years now. And I think the WWE universe would like to know why exactly did JBL hate that damn bunny so much? You know, we use the bunny during the JBL and Colso to Daniel Bryan always played the bunny. So there was a lot of history with that bunny. We had a bunny in the bar fight. We did with the APA that I threw through a window. I think I threw the bunny through a window. I'm not sure I threw somebody through the window. Bruce was in there. You had all these guys. We had an Easter bunny was in there too. Beat up the bunny. I don't know how I got to hate bunny so much, but it's definitely a thing. I still hate bunnies. Not as much as Chimmy. But bunnies are definitely on my shit list. Sean wants to know, do you think the JBL character should have could have ever been a face or was he always destined to be a heel for his entire run? No, he could have been a face easy, I believe. No doubt about it. We had to work very hard to keep it heel at one point. You know, Vince would give me all kinds of advice and a lot of times he would sit there. You know, he told me before I went out there on a promo, do not be entertaining. Just be a heel. You know, because there was a chance of the crowd starting to change and start, you know, if you're entertaining for too long, any, any old heel becomes a baby face. And I saw killer Tim Brooks one time work baby face one night and gets cry baby Bucks in the sport thorium and he went crazy for him because he came out of the baby face side. All right, he came out in the heel side, but he came out as a baby face. And yeah, I think JBL could have been a baby face very easy. We had to be very careful for him not to be. I never, I never wanted to be a baby face. Ryan says you've talked about your feeling towards Vince Russo. What are your thoughts on Ed Ferrara and his mockery of JR and WCW? You know, I didn't like it. I didn't think you're going to make much money with it. You know, making fun of persons, you know, the problem that they had with physical impairment. But you know, I don't know. A lot of things are free, free game, I guess. It was always go along with it. And to my knowledge, I don't know if we were friends, but we certainly were. We're good acquaintances. You know, when Russo wanted me to learn how to speak without a Southern accent because he thought anybody from the south sounded stupid because he's freaking northern idiot. Ed Ferrara was one of the ones that, you know, if you talk slower than he was, I'm not going to do that. You know, Ed was a good guy. As far as I remember, I always got along very well with Ed. Don't know where he is now. But as far as the stuff with JR, I'm not sure. I don't know where he is now. Don't know where he is now. But as far as the stuff with JR, I'm not sure. You know, I don't know if you look, I'm big on if you're in the wrestling business, they're going to take shots at you. I don't really have a huge problem with that. I don't know where they were going with it to try to make money or if it was just a personal thing. I have no idea. The main thing was I didn't think it was that entertaining, but that's maybe that's not their fault. I don't know. I'm very mixed on stuff like that. Here's one from Joe Gould. He wants to know, is Ron Simmons really as unfuck withable as JR claims? I think that's interesting. Like, have you seen any, I'm sure you've seen some crazy Ron interactions where even you as his best friend go, oh, maybe I'm puckered a little bit right now. Yeah, Ron was, Ron's ungodly strong. I mean, just, he's just a man. I mean, literally some guys, you know, you don't mess with the old store with Vader back in WCW and back in Japan when Vader almost knocked out butch in the corner and Ron goes tag me. And he came in there and literally spinebustered Vader who never left his feet and he did it as a shoot. I mean, think about that, about how strong Ron Simmons is. And Vader told me about it. He goes, man, I've never been manhandled like, here's a guy who was a former first round. I believe first round, I was like around draft pick of the NFL. He said, I've never been manhandled like Ron Simmons manhandled me. And he, Vader says, and Nick Patrick told the story to when I hit the ground, he goes, I looked at him, it's a work, it's a work, it's a work. Ron was unbelievable, man, the stuff he would do and the stuff I'd see him do in gyms and the respect he had and the way he carried himself. That's, well, that's a legit legend. That's a legend. And a great human being, by the way. Good question here. What's your favorite non WWE promotion that you have previously worked with? So besides WWE, who's your second favorite promotion you worked with? AAA, I believe. I believe AAA. I had so much fun down there. You know, I went down there, I was down there and I was watching the, they had like a Royal Rumble, the first show I was down there for triple mania. You know, I worked with the Northern Territory, which was Elizondo, which worked with both groups, CMLL and AAA would work up there on Sunday nights at the Plaza del Toro and Monterey. We also worked Satio and a few other towns. Sometimes we worked four towns on a Sunday and then working quarter towns on Monday and Tuesday. Then I'd fly back to Texas. And so I got to work with a lot of the guys, but I didn't work down triple mania or anything. You know, Conan was the first big main event of the first triple mania. I went down there and I'm sitting there watching it and you've got the little guys and you've got big little guys and little little guys. So you've got Andre Spot being done by the big little guys, little guys. Then you got women come out, then you got men coming out, fighting each other, intergener. Then you got a trans come out. I'm like, this is the craziest thing I've ever frequency. I look at Jeff Jarrett, I'm sitting backstage and going, this is freaking awesome. I mean, this is, this is insane. Well, it's going on. No wonder people love this stuff. It's just fun. I mean, triple A to me is just fun. It's just lucid to me. It's fun. It's just people go to have a good time. They want to see these magnificent characters. And I think as far as other promotions I've worked with, because it's so different, you know, a lot of promotions have been really fun. I love, I love working with Tommy and Dreamer and TNA. I mean, I love Tom and TNA was a lot of fun to work with. The Ryan Nimeth, by the way, is one of the best characters out there. So even Nick are so entertaining, but probably triple A was probably my most fun to work with. One last question from a man. He brought a bunch of good ones. Shout out to Joe. Who could not keep up with you when drinking with the boys? Oh, interesting question. Yeah, there were quite a few. I mean, I back in the day, I mean, I drink a lot. I drink 25, 30 beers, literally one sitting. I mean, just one sitting. I didn't drink alcohol very well. I didn't drink whiskey very well. That's why I would stay away from him. I mean, guys would get me, you know, pretty drunk on. These are the Garbel Jack Daniels and stuff. That would kill me. But as far as beer, I could sit there and drink beer all day. I'm literally 25, 30 beers and I'm still relatively fine. Obviously I'm impaired, but I'd still be functioning pretty well. And occasionally guys would try to, we had a writer one time. We were in, oh man, we're in Minneapolis or Colorado. I can't remember after the show and I called him over. I said, would you like to have a drink with us? And he said, oh no, I'm good. Thank you. It was me, Michael Cole. And I can't remember who it was. I don't see it was there or not. And anyway, Michael Cole for sure was there in Orlando. And he said, besides, I just got out of college and I said, what does that mean? He goes, well, I'm in drinking shape. Oh, that's a bad move. Really? Really? That's what I say. What comes up about me? And I said, I'm not going to ask you to do anything I don't do. I'm just going to ask you to do what I do. And so the next morning I got up, I go golfing and I get a call. It's from the WWE. They go, we're in the production meeting. We just found that writer outside of his room passed out in the hall. And I was playing golf the next morning. All right. So even better question. You know, when we're talking about who could not keep up with you, who could you not keep up with? Murdock was a guy, I rode with Murdock. Man, Murdock drank beer all day. And I couldn't drink beer all day. You know, I prefer to wait till after wrestling. Murdock would drink all day. I've never seen anything like it. He would drink from morning to night. And apparently didn't look like he ever got drunk and made him drive me nuts. He was a fun, fun guy by the way. But Murdock was probably the one that I would not sit down and try to go beer for beer with. Did you ever go into one of these drinking sessions and maybe somebody got too drunk to really handle their part of the bill and you had to settle up with them the next day? Like you covered their tab, but made sure you let them know about it the next day. Did that ever happen? Yeah, I did. You know, but it was never a matter of, you know, hey, give me my money. I was never, never big on that. The guy forgot the bill. They didn't mean to do it. And, you know, I would, unless there was a reason to tell them, I probably wouldn't even tell them about it. I probably just cover it. Now there's a reason like they left the bar bill and the bar was mad about it or something. I'm not telling them because they need to know because they need to apologize to the bar next time we're there or something. But if they just got drunk and forgot about it, I would, I would say just give me the bill. That wouldn't a big deal to me. These days you could hit them with cash app. You know, everybody I know is using cash app. And if you're not already using it, my question to you is what's wrong with you? I'm telling you, they make it so easy and you may not know this, but cash app is more than just a safe way to send and receive money. Check this out with the cash app card. You get tons of perks all without hidden fees. You can think early access to concert pre sales to big stars like Kendrick Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter. Plus you get discounts on your everyday purchases at brands you're probably already spending money on. It even keeps your money safe by automatically flagging suspicious transactions and letting you lock your card instantly if it's ever lost or stolen. There's no reason not to have cash app. It's just easier. It's more convenient. And then it gives you the peace of mind. I mean, you can actually go ahead and take advantage of a really cool promotion. I can't believe they're doing this. I don't know how long they'll do it. But right now for a limited time, new cash app customers can earn $10 if they use the cash app code, cash app 10 in their profile at sign up and then send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Cash app is a financial services platform, not a bank banking services provided by cash apps bank partners. Free paid debit cards issued by Suddenbank member FDIC. Discounts provided by Cash App, a blockade brand. Visit cash.app.s-legal-slash-podcast for full disclosures. One more time, new cash app customers can earn $10 if they use the code cash app 10 in their profile at sign up and then send a friend $5 within 14 days. Come on now. It's like free money. Why wouldn't you do this? JCW Lunacy. New episodes every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on YouTube. For over 25 years, JCW has delivered the very best in pro wrestling entertainment, bringing fans deep storytelling drama, gut-busting comedy and unbelievable in-ring action. From wild characters to unforgettable rivalries, don't miss a single moment. Tune in every Thursday night at 7 p.m. on YouTube. JCW Lunacy. The APA has one of the rare tag teams in the early 2000s to not start a feud where they split up. Before Ron Simmons' retirement, was there ever a discussion of doing a program between the two men? The payoff would have been perfect at WrestleMania 20 instead of a tag team fatal four way. Well, can you tell us about this, John? Was it ever discussed? No, never discussed. Ron and I wrestled each other a ton of times. In fact, when we went unopposed, that one time that we wrestled, we did an 8.6 quarter hour. That was the same quarter hour that Jerry Briscoe and Beth Patterson wrestled the Main Street Poster, but it was an 8.6. That will never be equal. Not taking credit for it. We just happen to be the highest quarter hour of that unopposed show. We wrestled each other a ton of times. We tagged against each other a lot. We didn't have a desire at really at the end to wrestle each other in an angle. Not that we minded to wrestle each other. We certainly, we'd done it enough times. That was not a big deal. Ron was, I think six years older than me. So he retired. I retired a little bit earlier than he did. Age wise, he was beat up. He played in the NFL nose tackle. He played in college football. He's never a college football hall of fame. He was as as a nose tackle and they just destroyed those guys knees, hips, everything. He's got a fake hip now. Ron was pretty beat up. He wrestled probably longer than he should have been. One of the reasons was because we were good friends and we're having so much fun. So it wasn't a huge desire of Ron to continue wrestling. He did the best thing for me, which is so appreciative. He's been my best friend and is really cool what he did for me. He made me before he left. And gave me all that equity that he had in himself. And I just, I don't know. We just never really thought it was that good of an idea. And, you know, maybe if we, maybe we had done that in early in the mid nineties, it had been different. But this point, you know, I've got to go almost straight to Eddie Guerrero and some other things. And Ron's, Ron's kind of ready to get out of the ring completely. Interesting question here from James. He says, do you recall your short run with the European title in late 2001? And if you recall this, you defend and lose the European title to Christian on a Smackdown at Cincinnati. But the match doesn't air and then Christian comes out as a new champion on Raw. John, why didn't the match air? I have no idea. I saw this question before as well. A few questions I saw. I had no idea. I didn't know that. I didn't know the match didn't air. I guess they gave such a little shittier about the me or the title that the match didn't air. Just get rid of me and the title and give it to somebody who can carry it. I guess I don't know. I have no idea why it didn't air. I guess time constraints. That tells you how much they cared about some of these secondary titles. Yeah, it's weird that they didn't even show the title change on TV. That's, that's, I think, a weird, we got a weird question here that maybe I wish you were 35 beers deep before I asked the doc wants to know, would John prefer to fight eight tigers the size of a duck or one duck the size of a tiger? So you want eight little duck size tigers or do you want one big tiger size duck? Oh, that's easy. Yeah, that's easy. I had some ducks when I was in college. I don't know how we got these ducks. I can't remember. I only got them like a rescue them somewhere and it was free like little ducklings and we had a sweet. And so we'd lock off the door and we'd put them in the bathroom in the middle. There were like two rooms on one side, two rooms on the other in the middle was like a bathroom for everybody. The shower ain't side and two told it to not think a year in order to in the middle. So we'd lock off the door and we kept these ducks in there. We'd feed these ducks and they shit 24 seven. That's all they did. I mean, all they did was eat and shit. I mean, they shit over the, over the place. It was horrible. I finally found like a little refuge now to you, Louie and do it the ducks and we named them finally found a little refuge and I took them out this lake and made sure that they were compatible with the other ducks and put them out there. We fed them for a while and they they were on their own and they were fine. They quit coming after a while. And I so glad to get rid of those damn ducks because all they did was go to the bathroom. So there's no doubt about this. I've got cats everywhere. As you've seen, I've got a cat named Briscoe that I rescued recently. Cats will run from me if you kick them. So if you've got a bunch of like eight duck size tigers, they're not much different from house cats. Same type thing. If you kick at them, they're going to run from you. They're not going to jump up on you and like all eight. That doesn't happen with cats. But if you have like a duck size, a tiger size duck, ducks are mean. That's some bitch will peck you to death and then probably shit all over you. There's no doubt about it. Give me the freaking eight duck size tigers. I will whoop their ass, but I ain't messing with that tiger sized duck. The idea that, you know, he would whoop your ass and then shit on you. It makes me wonder is that giant duck is its last name. Waltman. I don't know. I don't know. The corner is his wings flapping. Yeah, I guess it would be a duck buster. Maybe he'd call it a goose buster. One of the two wings flapping. What a visual. We're going to have to get silver to make that with AI in time for next week. The thing he did with the drill brisco, by the way. You know, it's funny you say that because since we've been recording, I got another voicemail. I feel bad for these guys because these are supposed to be the trainers that you've signed up here. Jody Malinko and Joe. But now I've actually got the voicemail that again, I think he sent to me by mistake and I forwarded over to silver. Now I'll admit I haven't had a chance to listen to this one, but it is a voicemail from Jody Malinko. But I think he and Mr. Briscoe are accidentally leaving these messages for me. Let's take a listen to whatever this voicemail says. Great guy. Love Jody. Yeah. Hey Mr. Briscoe, I got your message. Look, you and I both know we've worked with worse. I got some of them training right now. Kind of on par with John. And I finally, I turned to that person and I said, Grandma, let's go put the walker off this side and let's get moving. It's about intensity. Not just going through the motion. That sounds like Jody. Well, John, I'm not kidding. I mean, I know that we do, we mess around and we have fun here on the show, but that came in while we were recording. I wouldn't have had a chance to mess with you and do AI on this. Now, a couple of things here. Jody's training her grandma with a walker. I don't know if he's teaching her how to walk again or maybe she was in a car wreck or I don't know what happened, but. Is she training like MMA or something? And somehow this grandma reminds Jody of me. I think I don't think Ron is using a walker. I don't know who he's training, but he was kind of making a comparison there that didn't seem so pleasant. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings or pile on, but do we need to look for new trainers or are you going to? Oh, hell no. No, no, I got the best trainers in the world. These are my dear friends. Jody is like all the molecules. He's the funny, funny guy and he just he loves to make jokes. So that's all this is Jody's a wonderful human being and you're going to see Mr. Briscoe is the same. He's my dear friend. These guys are training me. They're legendary trainers and they're very much behind me. It doesn't sound like it with this, but some of this is I'm telling you some of this is AI. Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Zilla round says who is the most professional wrestler that John's ever worked with? No complaints about putting someone over and never giving her seats. Always pleasant in the locker room and then the reverse. Who was the worst? All right. I know that's not really your deal. You're probably not going to shit on anybody. Love for you too. If you feel so inclined, but let's give somebody some flowers. Who's the most professional wrestler you ever worked with? And if you were thinking about saying it, do not say the undertaker. Let's pick another day. I know it. Barry Wendell. Okay. I was so stiff when I was young and I just, man, I kicked the shit out of people and Barry told me one day, he said, kid, I don't care how hard he hit me. I just care about your aim. Cause I was, I was, maybe we were wrestling. I'm just kicking a shit out of him. Barry never gave me a receipt. Barry never gave me nothing. He didn't, and he certainly didn't bitch. He is a tough, tough fucker. But he did tell me one point. He goes, I just care about your aim. And so it was a really cool way. He said it, you know, I felt terrible. Like, I go, my God, I've been stiffening him and didn't even know it. And Barry was awesome that way. There were a lot of guys. I mean, there are a lot of really good guys like that that were just super old, tough guys. They wouldn't bitch about nothing. Now some guys like black bar would bitch about anything because bitching wasn't art to them. So when they come back, they were doing, they did it as a way to entertain the boys. Road dog was like that. Road dog was a tough dude, former Marine, been in war and combat. Road dog's a tough dude. He'd come back and he'd say, oh, that, he, maybe I'll have him there, kill me. I'm like, road dog doesn't care. But you know, a lot of the older guys and old road dogs like me, some call myself older too, loved to bitch as a form of art. And they come back and they'd love to bitch about Murdock was like that. Murdock was super tough. Come back with bitch like crazy. And, you know, Stan would even bring it up sometimes and Stan certainly didn't care. A lot of these old guys would love to bitch, but it wasn't serious. It was fun, bitching to entertain the boys. And as far as the other, no, I'm not going to say about it, but I will say this and you can make your own judgment as to who it is. There were some assholes that you'd go into these territories and they were either big names at one point or they were decent sized names at one point. They never made it anywhere. And they would, they'd bitch about everything. You know, they're unhappy with their lot in life. They weren't successful. And those were the guys that were, you know, could be real assholes. That's one of the reasons a lot of older guys won't go some of these reunions for territories because you see these guys that, you know, when you go back and you visit some of these top guys, our guys who made it, our guys who were on the roster for a long time, they're not bitter. They were glad of their time. Guys that didn't make it and thought they should and thought so much higher of themselves. They'll tell you stories. I went, I've been back to some Texas reunions and I hear stories that guys will tell and I was there. That didn't happen. You're just lying to try to make yourself feel better around your current family or your current friends to make you feel like you're, you were worthwhile or something in your life. And most of those guys weren't. Let's do a question here from boom, boom room 131. He wants to know, John, why do you think we haven't seen any more cinematic matches? It seemed the Boneyard match and the Firefly Funhouse match were both successful during that COVID WrestleMania. As a retired wrestler, what a cinematic match interest you in any way to have some sort of a return match? Oh hell yeah, because you can dress up so much for the cinematic match. Now I would have a hard time with the stop and go. You know, the hard part about cinematic matches and I called the commentary for WrestleMania when they had no crowd. Vince asked me to come down. He wanted an old voice on camera. And I remember they're doing a ladder match. They called stop one time and read it a spot off the ladder. I'm like, you gotta be shitting me. You know, when you do it, when you're like flowing in a match and you're sweating and you go up the top of something and take a big bump off or something, you know, it hurts. You know, you just, you know, you feel it later. But you're part of the action. When you got to climb back up and go, okay, now I'm going to do this just for as a stunt. That hurts. And so that would be one of the problems that I would have was a stop and go. But yeah, I'd love to do a cinematic matches or fun. I don't know why they don't do them anymore. I think it's because they're hard and they take a lot of time. You know, a lot of times we do these cinematic matches and we would do stuff where we do shoots off offside or something. And we'd be out there almost all night. We shot a commercial one time, a baseball commercial. We were there from, I think, 10 o'clock at night till 6 o'clock in the morning filming this commercial to get the nighttime scene in because we needed the park. We had to do it after they were done using it for baseball or whatever they're using it for. And they're hard and they take a long time. I think that may be the reason, but I love the cinematic matches. We got another fun one here. Gareth wants to know if you were booking two guys to portray the APA in the 80s to early 90s and the 2010s to today, who would you pick and why? So if we're going to take a look back, John, and we're going to think about the 80s and 90s, let's try to find a group that aren't necessarily already a tag team. Oh, it may were two guys who were who could have played the roles, but just didn't really have the opportunity. So if we were to put the APA gimmick on two big badasses, the 80s version of yourself and Ron, does anybody stand out? I can tell you the 90s version. I just love this. I can tell you the 90s version I would love to see, and I think this would be God is be entertaining, is Booker T and Scott Steiner. Okay. I would love to see those two guys together in a tag team. They both can talk. They're both entertaining as they can be. You know, double tough dudes. I think that would be my God, man. That would be freaking entertaining. As far as the 80s, you got to go stand. I mean, Stan is, you know, he would be perfect. Not just because, you know, I look up to Stan so much and really respect him. Stan would be perfect. Stan's the most entertaining guys there is. That promo he cuts where he young kids are all around chasing women in their short little britches. I got a fat ugly wife and four kids to feed. Just the big stands the greatest out there. I think Stan and Brody be great APA. Put them in a backstage skit. Another tag team, but put them in the backstage skit and put them around the table and let them be funny. I think that Brody could be, Brody was never the funny guy. I think Brody could have been a really funny straight guy along with Stan. I think they could have done some great stuff together. You know, your idea about Scott Steiner and Booker T, no doubt I see the parallels in that you and Ryan were both had a lot of successes. Tag team wrestlers and then a single champions, but I might actually go the absolute inverse. I think Stevie Ray was criminally underrated and super funny and Stevie Ray and Rick Steiner, just the absolute opposite of what you suggested. Everybody knows Rick Steiner can tie your ass in a knot. He's unf-winnable, but then I think Stevie Ray adds all the personality. I don't know that to me, especially with if you go back to early Rick Steiner where he was playing like he wasn't so sure about what was going on and he was kind of aloof or whatever. That could lend itself to some fun comedy stuff, I think. I agree. Smart guys always play the dumb guys because it's hard to play them. And Rick is the typical of that. Rick and Stevie, I love Stevie. I think Stevie's great. I think Stevie's a smart, smart guy and Stevie can freaking talk. I think Stevie would be great in that role. I agree completely. There are a lot of guys out there that would have been a lot of fun, especially if you put them in. Me and Ron got lucky. You know, we were just kind of mute guys as the freaking hells, hints and lies. What the hell we were. And we got lucky, you know, then get all of a sudden Vince and hey guys, just go out there and be entertaining. You know, we would go out there for weeks and just do backstage skits. We didn't even have to wrestle. We'd wrestle obviously on the road and the house shows. It was awesome. Some of these guys like that, they had the same opportunity. They had been just as good as we were. Think about early Rick Steiner where he was drawing like a little mouth on his hand and making it like a hand puppet. If he was doing that with, should we kick their ass? You know, and all that sort of silliness with the APA. But you have all the personality of Stevie Ray, who was calling people fruit booties on commentary and things like that and WCW. That's an old thing to say. I could see Vince getting into that gimmick in a big way with Rick Steiner and Stevie Ray. And by the way, how does Stevie Ray seemingly, how is he in better shape now than he was back then? He looks better than ever right now. I don't know how old Stevie is, but he looks amazing. I saw him the day at some deal and caught on by he looks good. I mean, he looks fantastic. That's a big, big man. And he looks, he looks good now. He's never looked. I look at wrong. They look like he's got 23 inch arms. I don't know what the hell these guys are like. Jonathan Winters and Mork and Mindy. They're aging backwards like Billy Gunn and freaking Al Snow. I mean, I hate these guys because they make me look so freaking old and decrepit. So, you know, the only time I got in the ring with the Steiner's were to battle Royals somewhere. I can't remember where it was. I think it was on the hunting trip we did with when Jeff Foxworthy was down there and they, you know, put the dead buck in his bed. And I think that's what it was. And the Steiner's got me in a freaking battle. They both jumped me and tied me up. Like, guys, I'm telling you, if I can get a hand free, I will. Both your asses, I will. Both your asses, baby. You'll just let me up. They're like, I couldn't do anything. Tell me about the modern era. Let's talk about maybe 2010 and now the last 15 years. Are there two guys who could pick up where the APA left off if we put them together? Like, they have the enough credibility as big badass guys, but they could also lean in and do some comedy stuff. Does anybody come to mind? Yeah, I've always thought Shelton, Benjamin, you know, even Charlie, you know, and I don't know, you're talking more than modern era Shelton still out there. It's always Charlie actually looks great right now. Coaching a high school team and Mr. Brisco hooked him up with the job, doing a wonderful job. Charlie's doing a wonderful job down in Florida. Good guy. I always thought Shelton would be perfect in that role. He used to do a slim Whitman impersonation of me where he'd walk pigeon toad. He'd wear my hat. He'd do the romp and then a stomp and a whooping and a wamp and whooping. Every man and child in a inch of their life. He'd do all this shit making fun of me. It was so freaking funny. I'm one of the biggest Shelton Benjamin fans in the world. I think Shelton would be good. I think Bobby can do anything as well. I think Bobby can be the ultimate straight guy and so Bobby's a very smart guy, obviously. And I think Bobby would be a great one half of that. I mean, obviously we're kind of trying to pick, you know, matching, you know, black and white tag team. So I got to figure out who the white guy would be in it. I'm not sure. It's interesting to think about though, because when you're thinking about who has credibility, but also could do more of the funny ha ha stuff, that makes it more complicated. You know, I know it's not exactly 2010 the now, but a guy like hardcore Holly, I feel like could have checked that box. Yeah. And Bob's entertaining. Yeah. Bob's entertaining. You know, another guy, and I just talked to him on the phone a couple of days ago was a Steve Blackman. Blackman was very entertaining. Blackman, I think could have done that. Blackman's a very funny guy, very has a great sense of humor. I think Bob R. Steve could have been very good at that. He played in that role of being also, you know, the tough guy, you take him out of that environment and put him in something else. Let's do another question from Mark. And this is kind of a financial question. What does JBL think the future of crypto is? I don't understand crypto well. And so I don't invest in it. And obviously there's been a lot of money being made in it. Here's my view on it. And I've been wrong 100% and I may be wrong in the future. I believe if you can't control the ebb and flow of a currency and you can't control crypto, then central banks become irrelevant. And so I think central banks can have a problem with crypto because they can't control the ebbs and flow of printing money. And so they can't control inflation. I believe also if you have a cash economy, this is the cash economy on steroids. And so if you have a transaction between me and you, Conrad, long as there's not an off ramp here where I cash out the crypto into currency or something. And nobody knows about it. So there's, you know, if we're not honest and we don't announce this or declare this for taxation purposes, you've got a real economy here that you're not going to be able to tax. It'll degrade your tax base. So I believe if you have a degradation of a tax base and you have the central bank becoming worthless, I believe banks are, I believe governments are going to try to limit crypto. And the only way to do that is to limit the transaction places. You can't limit crypto, but you can limit the off ramps of where you can cash in and cash out. I think governments, because they can't control it, I think are going to try to limit it. That's my biggest fear about crypto. I have been 100% wrong about it, by the way. But that's my biggest fear. We get lots of questions like these. I'm not sure that you even ever see them. But sports fan, or as he's known on Twitter, SMS, well, SM Sports Guy on Twitter says, ask the wrestling god to unblock me, please. I don't know why I even did it in the first place. How often when you're making appearances like a wrestlecade where I know you're going to be later this month, how often do people approach your table and say, will you please unblock me on Twitter? Does it even come up like that? It does come up. And a lot of times I will unblock them. A lot of times I'll say, I don't even know why you blocked me. And I go, you had to say something because I don't just randomly block people. So invariably, they will look at me like, oh, yeah, yeah, I like a tweet that said you were this, this, or that. You know, yeah, it's okay. So you were actually guilty. So that's one of the funny parts when people tell me because I always try to figure out what it is that I've blocked them for. It's always something. I don't just, I don't, you know, I blocked 17,000 some people. There's a good chance I blocked somebody by mistake, but pretty good high likelihood that nearly everybody on there is done for a reason. Big Sabbath letter on Twitter wants to know who came up with the random door to the APA office. It was genius, especially when people didn't use it in APA aggressively told them to use the door. Ron Simmons, we're sitting there building the set and Ron goes, I'll leave it like that. And he'll run. There's no walls. Ron goes, yeah, leave it like that. And they're sitting there looking at it. One of the writers, I don't know if it's Tommy Blanchia, who I love and a really smart guy goes, oh my God, that's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And they left the door and that's how the whole thing came is it was Ron's idea. Here's one from Hicks. He wants to know, John, what's the difference between a clothesline and a lariat? No, Mclature. That's all. There's no difference. You know, I hear him all the time. Oh, that's a lariat. That's a clothesline. Yeah, I don't know what the hell you guys are talking about. Now, listen, you guys may have it defined some way to yourself. I don't know the definition of it. And I have no idea that people say, well, laryn is this or laryn is that. A clothesline is this or clothesline is that. My opinion, they're the exact same thing. It's just whatever you want to call it. So I have no idea what people are out there saying the difference is. I've heard people go into it. It didn't really make a lot of sense to me because I didn't see that. I didn't, I've never heard that. So I think it's just a matter of no Mclature about what you choose to call it. Well, what I choose to call the holiday season sometimes is stressful. But if you want to call it fun, can I recommend soul? You know, when the holiday season rolls around, it feels like there's a party every single weekend. All the sugary drinks add up. And this season I'm going to reach out to souls out of office gummies instead. It's the same fun vibe. It's low in calories and zero hangover. You got cold nights and cozy blankets and souls out of office gummies. It's a favorite routine now here in the Thompson household. I love to throw on an old Christmas movie, grab a gummy and unwind, especially this time of year. Maybe call it a little self care ritual that keeps me calm through the holiday chaos. Soul is a wellness brand that believes feeling good should be fun and easy. 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You actually put a lot of thought into this and I can really appreciate that as you've been making appearances at places like wrestle con. Has anybody sort of challenged you on who some of your answers may have been for these top fives? Does it ever come up like, hey, you had so and so and I totally disagree. Yeah, and I love it. Absolutely love it. Because it's a matter of opinion. So I love to hear people's feedback. I didn't know if people want to send me stuff on Twitter. I'm not going to block you for that. I'll block you if you call me an asshole, but not going to block you for that. I love it. I love people to scream this because I love hearing their thoughts on it. Because I like when you're talking about like the five best of anything wrestling has been around so long. There's been so many thousands and thousands of performers and instances and all kinds of events. I mean, it's impossible to get that right. I'd love to hear people's feedback, but yeah, I go to these cons and people challenge me. Hey, you had the top five of this. I disagree with that. I think you should put this one in there. I just I love hearing talk like that. We want to hear from you. Who are your answers to today's top five? John, today we're going to be asking who are the top five foreign heels who got the most nuclear heat? And if you're watching with us on YouTube is something to wrestle.com. I want you to drop your top five foreign heels who got nuclear heat in the comments coming into number five on John's list of the top five foreign heels. You got the most nuclear heat. The great Kabuki. Now this is a throwback name. I haven't heard that name in quite a while. Why is the great Kabuki in at number five, John? He had scary heat. Now, you know, he had scary heat like an Abdullah or a cheek or he had he had scary heat and with Gary Hart. Nobody had ever seen anything like this. Kabuki, you know, he was not a big guy, but he could do incredible things. And he and Gary Hart. I don't know where Gary Hart, you know, the whole story of it. But my God, man. That's when that's when wrestling first started taking off in Dallas was because of a heel, not because the Von Erick boys. The first thing that was started taking off was was Kabuki. And then the Von Erick boys took it to a new level and the free birds come in the place, accelerate and goes straight to the moon. But Kabuki was the guy. I mean, this guy was an incredible deal. And he had one of the greatest managers of all time and Gary Hart. I mean, Kabuki is easily top five foreign heel of all time. Coming in at number four on John's top five foreign heels who got nuclear heat list, the original Sheik. And you have talked about the Sheik so much on our last year together. I know you hold him in high regard. But why does he make your list on the top five foreign heels? This guy printed money. I mean, printed money. He was one of the first hardcore guys. He was one of the first guys who went around the territories. You know, he owned the territory there in Detroit. And we've talked about it many times that he may want six or seven hundred thousand dollars is what he reported to the IRS back in the early seventies. That's what he reported. So obviously, you know, you can do the math yourself and the natural assumption that there's probably a lot more that was not reported. That is a hell of a wage back then. And he got it by giving heat. You know, he stayed in character. People would call. Ed Farhat was his name. And people would call his house and say, Ed, and he goes, there's no Ed here. He would pay fame on his own personal phone. And he was. It's just hard to explain what a great heel the chic was and the longevity that he had as well in Detroit. Coming in at number three on JBL's list of the top five foreign heels who got nuclear hit. He explained this one to me. I'll admit, I don't know a ton about him. He heard the name the fabulous kangaroos. Holy shit, man. This was Costello and Heffernan. These guys drew massive money. I mean, they're the first tag team to draw really big money. First tag team to go in the pro wrestling hall of fame. I mean, these guys were just, I don't know if they were journeymen necessarily, but they were not big stars. And they all of a sudden decided to put this tag team together and they became the kangaroos. There's all there are several iterations of the kangaroos, but these guys drew nuclear heat in different places. I mean, there were riots. There were police having to show up to get these guys out of rings. I mean, these guys were legendary, man. But a lot of you see in tag team wrestling came about because the kangaroos and a lot of stuff you see because of heels came out by the kangaroos. A lot of people imitate these guys, but it's kind of like the road wars. You know, always imitated, never duplicated. And that was the fabulous kangaroos. Coming in at number two on your list of the top five foreign heels who got nuclear heat. Tiger Jeet Singh. Boy, I remember getting footage of this guy in like the 1995 IWA king of the death match. I have to admit, when I saw that tape in 96, that was my first exposure to this character. Tell us why he comes in at number two for you. The amount of money that he drew in Japan, he and Mr. Weta. Mr. Weta was a legendary old tough guy, he'll blonde hair heel. He was the first heel to be a traitor is Mr. Weta behind him right there. Man, you talk about a tag team now. Weta was the first traitor heel in Japan. You know, he died his hair blonde. He became the traitor. He brought in Tiger Jeet Singh. These two guys were freaking menaces. I mean, absolute menaces. I rode with Tiger. Tiger stayed in character 100% of the time. He get out, we get out at some little 7-Eleven somewhere in Japan and he get out with his sword and chase people around the 7-Eleven. And people, people knew him so well, they were scared to death of him. I mean, Tiger drew massive amounts of money. This was, I mean, you talk about a foreign heel, I cannot begin to tell you how over Tiger was. Now, by the time you saw him in the 90s, he had lost a bit of a step. You know, he came back and did the stuff with the death matches and stuff. This was 20 years past probably his prime in Japan and he was still over. Then he came to where I was in the wrestling world in Japan, same company. And I got to ride with him a lot. We got to go all over Japan together and I learned a lot from him. But man, Tiger, my God, man. You know, he was one of these first, he's one of the ones that Stan Hansen got his style from. Because Stan saw Tiger come out and never quit moving. And Stan thought, if I can do that, nobody else does that. And that's where Stan got this crazy wild style from, was from Tiger Jeet Singh. That's how much Stan thought of Tiger Jeet Singh, but him and Wada together, brother. Hey, we're unbelievable. I tell you what, we're down in Kumamoto one time and Wada had separate friends down in Kumamoto. And Wada had been out for good Lord man three nights. My Wada was an incredible, generous man, very, very nice man. He would take all the boys out, take care of us. He made sure we were taken care of. He was a really nice man, but he had a lot of connections. So did Tiger. We're in a six man tag one time. Wada takes a bump off the apron, falls down and he's out on the ground and James Beard was referee. I said, what the hell happened to Wada? He goes, I don't know. I said, you better go check on him. Something's wrong with him. And Wada's down there. He had fallen asleep. He had fallen asleep in a six man tag. He'd been out for three days because he had so many obligations to take out, you know, the Yakuza and the boys and all this. He took a bump and he finally hit the ground and fell asleep. That man woke up and did the finish. I'm not sitting. He woke up. He woke up and came in and remember the finish and did it. What James Beard went and got to go, what Mr. Waitesson? Finish. And he goes, okay. He woke up and freaking did the finish. So legend can be added to both of those guys's foreign heels. Last one. Number one on JBL's top five foreign heels who got nuclear heat. John, drop some knowledge on us. Youssef Ismail? Oh my God. Ever a heel in the world is a descendant from this guy. The terrible Turk. He didn't have a long career. He had riots everywhere he'd been. He was a guy that you don't know how much was legitimate about him or not. How much was real. How much was fake. He had a story that, you know, he could have been a dock worker from Paris. That's what they think he may have been. Or he could have been the guy who defeated the Turkish champion. It was undefeated 30 years, which he did as well. But he came to the States and he was such a freaking heel. He would beat guys Conrad. He was a Goldberg before Goldberg. He'd beat guys when guys were wrestling an hour and two hours. He'd beat guys in 15 seconds and the place would riot. They were not mad about it. They were just like, we hate this guy. When his boat finally sunk, he had got enough money. He was going back. He was going to open up a Turkish coffee shop back in Europe. The boat sank somewhere around Nova Scotia or somewhere. They still made up some bullshit explanation why he drowned because he had his gold belt around him. And he wouldn't let go of his gold belt. He also threw a bunch of women and children off the lifeboat to their deaths trying to save himself. They made up all this heel stuff about him, even in his death. He is maybe the greatest heel of all time. But every foreign heel, every heel in wrestling from that point forward is a descendant of Yusef Ismail. What a great list. So that's John's top five. We want to know your top five below. But before we put a button on it in typical JBL fashion, we got to run through some honorable mentions. So I want to shout out some of those honorable mentions that you felt like were worthy of being mentioned, even if they didn't quite make your top five. Here's one that was born in Tennessee, but actually was the Ugandan giant Kamala. He makes the honorable mention list. Chat me up. Yeah, absolute. I mean, you talk about inspiring fear in people. I mean, James Kamala was a guy that inspired fear everywhere he went. I mean, he did a hell of a job with his Kamala. It would never speak. It was similar to Abdullah would never speak English anywhere. He stayed in character all the time. He drew a hell of a lot of money and was a terrific. Even though he's from Tennessee, he played a foreign heel. Also, by the way, I love the fact that when you had Kamala against Trump, all these memes about the Ugandan giant running against Trump. Yeah, I don't know if I'm going to touch that one. I do want to talk about Brad Hart. He is a name that I did not expect, but I guess from an American perspective in 1997, he was a foreign heel, probably one of the biggest heels in the business besides Hulk Hogan that year. But goodness gracious. Didn't see him making the list on your honorable mentions list. Yeah, I got to give it to Brad. He was a foreign heel and he was a heel at different points in his life, but he was a real foreign heel during the late 90s during the attitude era. But I didn't put him in the top five because he's a babyface in Canada. So you got this huge country up north, our neighbor that loved him. He was just a heel everywhere else in the world. I don't know about everywhere else in the world. He's a heel in the United States is where he's the heel. So I didn't put him in the top five because you had a whole country up there that loves him and reveres him as they should. But he was absolutely hated in the United States because he was such a great heel. Also on your list of the top five foreign heels, an honorable mention, Masahiro Chono, also of a more modern era. Why does he make the list? You talk about a walking talking badass man. That Chono was freaking the man. I mean, this guy was walking. This guy was walking death, man. He came out of that black, a duster with the sleeves cut out. I saw him wrestle Tony St. Clair in Europe. I think it was Hanover. I believe it was Tony. Tony or Luke or Rambo. I remember Chono because I remember taking the pole outside the ring. Like it was yesterday, the way you took it was just amazing. Chono was a hell of a heel. I mean, just a pure freaking heel and just an absolute badass too. He had that look about him that a lot of people try and a lot of people have imitated and they don't come across as badass. They just come across as cosplay guys. This man was not cosplay nothing. This man was a badass. Last but not least, boy, this will get some attention. An honorable mention on your list of the top five foreign heels that get nuclear heat. Gunther. Man, I'm missing him these days. Why is he on your list of honorable mentions? I think Gunther is an incredible heel. And I think, you know, obviously he's a foreign heel. So he didn't really play up the foreign. You know, he does some. I think Gunther is an incredible heel and he tries to be a heel. You know, he doesn't try to be a baby face. Gunther tries to be a legit heel. And I think Gunther has incredible heat. I'm a huge fan of Gunther. I think Gunther in any generation, Gunther is a star and lucky that this generation has him. He's a he's a hell of a heel. So there you go. There's JBL's top five list of. Conrad, just so you know, the reason I put Gunther, he's in my point, he's not eligible in top five because his career is not done yet. So that's the reason I put him in top five because career is not done yet. Let's talk about who is on your top five at number five. It's great Kabuki at number four. It's the original chic at number three. It's the fabulous kangaroos at number two. It's Tiger J. Sing and you said his ball at number one. We want to know your top five foreign heels. Drop it in the comments below and let us know. This was a lot of fun, John. I love when we get to bounce around and have some different topics. And we certainly got that today with ask JBL anything. Drop us some comments. Drop us some questions in the comments below. Maybe we'll have a chance to do more of these before the end of the year. John, I don't want to spill the beans, but you and I have been working on a pretty big idea that I'm pretty excited about. I think we're going to start piloting that here in the next couple of weeks. I don't know that we want to give a tease yet, but I also see that you're actually taking this training pretty seriously. We've heard about the tackling dummies. Now we're seeing footage of it. We'll get to the bottom of what was real and what was AI in the coming weeks with Frisco and Malinko. But this has been a lot of fun, man. We're getting close to Wrestlecade. You've already announced that you're going to be there. I think a whole host of wrestlers are going to be there. It's like a who's who. So if you find yourself in the Winston Salem area, the day after Thanksgiving or the Saturday after Thanksgiving or the Sunday after Thanksgiving, join us all at Wrestlecade. Tickets are on sale now at Wrestlecade.com. This was a lot of fun today, John. Any final words you want to leave us with as we wrap up this episode? There is. And I want to shout out to SoCal Val, who left the message. I just saw it on the social media and she asked a question about the what was in the limo as far as snacks and drinks. And as far as I know, nothing. And she also asked if Amy Weber is no longer the personal assistant. Is there a spot open? I love SoCal Val. You are always walking. I'll tell you this many times. I'm going to go up with with me, JBL or John Lafa, whatever I think SoCal. He's an incredibly talented person, but I wanted to give a big shout out. But also with the training, I got derailed last year because of things that were out of my control. Company getting bought, a creative person that was probably shouldn't have been there. And I got to figure out where to I'm not going to get derailed this year. So it's got I got a plan and hopefully that you will not hopefully you're going to see that plan work out in the next. Several months. I think it's going to be very entertaining and we do have a hell of an idea, Conrad. I think this could change. How about change podcast? If you always ask, it's going to change the business. I don't know. The biggest thing will be changed, but it can be very entertaining. Stay tuned. We're going to have a lot of fun in the coming days. But in the meantime, go ahead and hit the subscribe button, turn on notifications bell. And we'll see you next week right here on something to wrestle with John Layfield. I'm sorry, John Layfield. There we go. That's better. All right. Real quick, want to remind everybody, especially this time of year, did you know what save with Conrad.com? You can skip your next two house payments. That's right. You'll get a cheaper monthly payment and no payments until next year. About a little Christmas vacation from house payments. That's right. No payments in November or December at save with Conrad.com.