Episode 507: Prowrestling's BIGGEST Offense

This is a Monday.com ad. The same Monday.com designed for every team. The same Monday.com with built-in AI, scaling your work from day one. The same Monday.com with an easy and intuitive setup. Go to Monday.com and try it for free. 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 its game. First up, the AR. Hostage. Half and half scarves. Off the game. What about backflip celebrations? Off. Cutting holes in the back of your socks. Off 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. Today's episode comes to you from the Bluetooth studio. Right now, when you buy two months of Bluetooth gold, you get the third for free with promo code wrestle at bluetooth.com. Well, do something to wrestle with. And a river will. Birds, pretzels, who's for you? Well, you know. That's not a river. No, you have a me. There's no box of gimmicks. Rumor in the new window. I don't deal in rumor in the new window. And was he there? I was there. I don't give a shit. Talk to something to wrestle with. Something to wrestle with. Something to wrestle with. Conrad the mortgage guy and you're listening to something to wrestle with. John Langfield. John, what's going on, man? How are you? I tell you what's going on, Conrad Bradshell 316 is what's going on. Because that says, I just stole your fucking podcast. All right, you got to get hot about it. I'm glad you're talking about it. The Grants on 316 had just said, I stole your fucking podcast. Well, we're glad you did. I think people had a lot of fun last week. We debuted some new ideas and some new concepts. It was an impromptu last minute show and we sort of called it in the ring on 316 Day and it was a rare Monday something to wrestle, but now we're back on Friday. The last Monday, man, we had a lot of fun. We visited with our pal Tony from Heritage Octons. We talked about what the value might be of a stone cold Steve Austin knee brace in order to celebrate 316 Day. We also valued my WCW United States title and I agreed that I'm actually going to be sending that auction. It's going to be a wrestle con and you can check it out in Vegas, but of course, this May it'll be on the auction block for Heritage Octons. We're going to have Tony join us a little later in the show, but what really had everybody buzzing last week, John, was curtain jerkers. What was the feedback that you saw from our silly idea that we finally revealed to the world last week? The feedback was pretty incredible, especially when you find out we were talking about mule flogging, which I had no idea we were going to talk about, but that's how the conversation went. If you're not in the loop, I encourage you to check it out in the archive. It's the crime of comrade. I want to tell you that was the craziest thing I think I've never nearly ever been a part of on an interview. I had no idea that was going to happen. None. I was, I, what I was seeing up was the rooster underneath the ring in Mexico city because we got the footage of it and nobody else has the footage. So I thought, man, this is awesome. We got this footage. All of a sudden, Horn Spuggle brings up the back rather than it had. I had no idea that was going to happen. I don't think any of us did. I don't think we were ready. It was news to all of us to say the Rastlin world will shock. It would be an understatement over two million impressions just on social alone. The internet was buzzing about that writer. And as a reminder, that Cardona is not finished. May or may not have the good brothers to help us clarify a situation too. Okay, we'll stay tuned for that. I do want to talk about some news and notes. We normally like to have fun here on the program, but got a little bit of sad news in our wrestling community. I think most wrestling fans would probably consider that if they're not the best tag team of all time, the Midnight Express are certainly on everyone's Mount Rushmore of great tag teams. And sadly, we lost Bobby Eaton, Huntsville native a few years ago. And this past week, the wrestling world lost another North Alabama native, Dennis Connery. Dennis Connery, one of the more underrated performers in the history of tag team wrestling, he really helped establish the Midnight Express and the Rock and Roll Express. And I think an elevated tag team wrestling in mid-south and in gym-crocket promotions. And when you just think about tag team excellence, I mean, the Midnight Express comes up over and over and over as an inspiration to a lot of the great tag teams today like FDR. John, you're a student of the game. What can you tell us about Dennis Connery, the in-ring performer? You know, Connery was just a consummate tag team professional. You know, the medics, the old tag team and the guys in the white suit and those guys got massive, massive amounts of heat. Dr. Jerry Graham was one of their managers at the time. That is a lot where Connery learned how to get heat. And, you know, it's just different. You know, when wrestling was, you know, say 60, 70 years ago, wrestling was completely different. Up in the Northeast, there was the great big guys, you know, the Bruno San Martino's, the great big, you know, tough guys. In the South, it was more of heat and characters. You know, guys like the green shadow, guys like the medics. You had so many guys. Roy Welch was a big reason behind all that. But Connery was the beneficiary of that. He learned how to get heat from some of the greatest tag teams of all time that could get massive, freaking amounts of heat. And he was just a consummate professional at it. He knew how to put guys over. He knew how to get the team over. He knew how to get the territory over. Connery was just the consummate professional wrestler. You know, you hear a lot of guys pay really nice tribute to a guy like Dennis Connery. And the thing you hear over and over again is how they just don't make wrestlers like this anymore. And there's some great tributes out there like from Paul Heyman. He said, there are many who were close to Dennis, but few who had the blessings of learning more from him. What a remarkable performer. Much like Ray Stevens, he did it so naturally. Instinct, talent, feel. I remain forever appreciative of the patients he had in dealing with me. Thank you, Dennis. And even Ricky Morton, who's perhaps one half of his most famous and iconic opponents, one half of the rock and roll express. You know, whereas the midnight express for the ultimate bad guys, I think most would agree who saw him do his thing in the ring. Ricky Morton was the ultimate baby face. And Ricky had this to say, it's hard to even find the words right now, because losing my dear friend Dennis Connery feels like losing a piece of my own life. And this wasn't just someone I shared a ring with. He was part of an era. A brother in this wild journey and a man who helped shape a professional wrestling myth. So many people who traveled the roads, lived the highs and lows and created memories that I'll carry with me for the rest of my days. People saw the competitor, the toughness, the presence. I got to know the man behind it all, man with heart, with grit, with love for the business that never faded. Those are the things I'll miss the most, the conversations, the laughs, just knowing he was still out there. The wrestling world lost someone truly special and I lost a friend I'll never forget. Rest easy, Dennis. Thank you for the memories, the miles and the moments. You'll always have a place in my heart. What a fantastic tribute from Ricky Morton. You know, if you go back and you review the tape, man, the rock and roll express and the midnight express, did it get much better in tag team wrestling, John? No, it sure didn't. And I was just reading an article by Tony Richards who does a daily wrestling historical article. It's really, really good. I don't know how he finds the time to write as much as he does, but he's writing about Warren Buckwinkle, Nick Buckwinkle's dad and how he trained Nick. He helped me train Fez a lot. And, you know, it's so important about who brings you into the business. And so you look at the history of Connery when he came in, in that southern territory, and, you know, around Pensacola, around the Fullers, then Connery starts passing all that on. This business is not just about athleticism. You know, athleticism certainly helps, but it's not like playing an outside end in the NFL. You know, knowing the history of the game may or may not help you in NFL. I certainly won't hurt you. I think people should learn it, but knowing the history of wrestling is so important because you learn the background, you learn how to get eat, you learn how to do things that aren't just moves. And that's what Connery was so good about. That's what Connery passed on to others. That's what Connery got from the others before him. You know, it's just an incredible thing when you look at this is a great part of our history. My Dennis Connery was a terrific part of our history and left a huge mark of people that he touched, people that he helped about territories that he built. I mean, just he was an incredible person. Do you think the Midnight Express should be in the WWE Hall of Fame? And if so, why don't you think it's happened already? I think so. You know, I don't know. I don't, you know, I think Vince for a long time was reticent to acknowledge other territories. I think that came from past prejudices. And I say prejudices, I don't mean he just liked them. It's just it was survival. You know, you would not acknowledge the NWA. You would not acknowledge Crockett. You would not acknowledge Fritz or Byrne or Eddie Graham because they're your competition. I think that was so embedded in Vince that the Hall of Fame kind of carried that over. I think now that, you know, it's kind of a little bit further removed from the territory days and that bias of, you know, those guys are our competition. But I think stuff like that can happen. I certainly think that those guys are worthy to be in there. And I'd love to see them in. I just want to see Cornette and Doug somebody again. Well, you mean Cornette get inducted? I mean, he's got it. I mean, I feel like, you know, the most tragic part of all this obviously besides the human loss, I'm saying with regard to the Hall of Fame. I wish that Dennis and Bobby could have went into the Hall of Fame while they were still with us. Yeah. Stan Lane is still with us. Jim Cornette is still with us. And I'm like you, I'm ready to see him back on the WWE Hall of Fame stage. He was there to induct Rock and Roll Express and he needs to receive his flowers. And I'm really hopeful that that happens, you know, while Stan is still with us and Jimmy's still with us. Well, I want to also mention we've got a link in the description for today's show that will take you right to the GoFundMe for Dennis Connry. Dak Carwood over with FDR on the other channel had this to say. Dennis Connry is one half of the greatest tag team of all time in the Midnight Express. For years they brought excitement and entertainment to millions of people. However, as great as he was in the ring, it doesn't hold a candle to the human being he was. A sweet, God-fearing man who loved his wife, Theresa, with her permission, I've opened this GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses and bills that she now has to take on her own. You didn't ask for this. I asked. In his honor, could I do this for him? He allowed me to do this for Dennis and her, but is expecting absolutely nothing but love and return. If Dennis Connry and the Midnight Express ever brought any amount of joy to your life and you're able to help, please do. If not, it's absolutely okay. Please send all your thoughts and prayers to Theresa Connry and her time of need. God speed, lover boy, Dennis Connry. You know, obviously one of the all-time greats in an alternate universe. How successful could he and the Midnight Express have been? In Vince McMahon's WWE, when they first started to go wide, you know, with Rock and Wrestling and then their first WrestleMania in 85, around that same 84-85 period is when they were absolutely taking over in mid-south. They got super hot, became one of the main attractions. And then even when they went to Jim Crockett Promotions, they started on top. And often it would be, you know, Rick, Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes in one main event and then the Rock and Rolls in the Midnights on the other main event. If they were running sort of two towns, A and B shows, if you will. And oftentimes the tag team match would outdraw Flair and Dusty. And I'm just curious from your perspective, was there a way in an alternate universe that the Midnight Express could have been a huge hit in the WWF? Because I can see that. Yeah, if they'd just been there. Yeah. That's all. If they'd just been there. I mean, the Rock and Roll boys, the Midnight Express, those guys would have got over like a million dollars anywhere in the world they would have been. Anywhere. The Simpson brothers out of Dallas, Tommy Wildfire Rich. I mean, you have a list of guys that could have got over anywhere and would have been huge in WWE. You know, I was talking to Ricky Morton one day who I loved dearly and then his son, Terry as well. And he said, you know, there's one man you and I said, what? He goes, you had a contract. And I thought, you're exactly right. I got lucky. I mean, I got really lucky. I got to be in WWE in a time when Venice was incredibly hot. You know, I mean, I could have been there from 91 to 96 and that would have been it. But back then, because you didn't stay in territories very long. I just happened to get there when the world changed and people got contracts, longer contracts. Never dreamed I'd be there this long and never dreamed that Venice would take off like it did with Stone Cold again and the Rock and be incredible. And I'm talking to Hacksall this week. I sit by him at autograph signing. You know, Hacksall got to be in two huge runs. A lot of those were his because he was there, but he was on loaded rosters in the Hulk Hogan era, the Russell Main era in the attitude era with WCW. You know, Ricky and Robert and the Midnight Express, those guys were huge. You couldn't have been any better. Those guys are as good as any wrestlers that have ever wrestled on this planet. They just happened to be in territories that didn't make it as big as they did in WCW. And WCW did, but specifically WTV or else they would have made a freaking fortune and they had merchandise all this time. It was just the difference of where you were. You know, some guys were really lucky to be in hot territories that made it huge and global. Some guys were unforeseen to be in hot territories that stayed regional and never made it big. And that was what was a Midnight Express and nothing against them. They were as good as any tag team in the history of the world. It's just where they were. Didn't put them in the place that they can make the super money that a lot of the guys did because they were there. Shout out to the Conjury family. I know he's got a lovely wife, Theresa. They live like a couple miles up the street from my parents in Huntsville, Alabama. And I just can't believe he's gone. You know, he was just that AEW last year. Normally, anytime they announced AEW in Huntsville, I'd get a text. They think he can help me arrange some tickets. I said, well, of course, Mr. Conjury. It's funny because, John, I think sometimes, you know, people wonder, has the business passed them by. And I was like, Mr. Conjury, you can get tickets anywhere to any show. You just let me know when you want to go. And he's like, well, I'm not sure if anybody would even remember me. And I'm like, are you kidding? You can just show up to the back door of any wrestling show and say, I'm Dennis Conjury. And they're going to roll out the red carpet for you. He couldn't. Yeah, that's exactly right. And these guys Conrad, I'm telling you, I've been in the ring with so many of these guys. There was a ring with Ben Noddy Crest. But I was in the ring with all those other guys I mentioned. And except for Tommy, I would have loved to have been in the ring with Tommy Wildfire. But Conrad, it's just different. When you get in the ring with those guys, it's just like, you feel safe. Not just safe as far as you know you're going to hurt. You know you're going to have a hell of a match. You know, no matter what the people are after by it, what they're trying to do, they're trying to hijack the show, they're trying to be involved in the show. They want a different match. You know it's going to be good. But there's just nothing like guys like Dennis Connray, the Rock and Roll boys, and all those guys that are such, I mean, there's a lot of those guys. Man, and those guys can just flat work. It's just, I don't know what the law started. There were a lot of people back then that can do it. Those guys were some of the few. Hey, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you already know how much I love souls out of office, THC gummies. 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So listen, I hate to be a downer again, but I just saw over the past week since we hung out, John. Chuck Norris passed away. And I know Chuck Norris didn't have a ton of crossover in the wrestling space. But what you want to talk about when the wrestling business went national and it went wide and Vince was really focusing on his expansions and some of the territories were maybe at their peak. Chuck Norris was a rock star, you know, going to Bruce Lee movies and then all of the action hero stuff happened through the 80s. I'm sure he inspired a lot of characters and a lot of moments in wrestling. Perhaps most iconic moment that most of us remember of Chuck in wrestling is giving a some sort of fancy kick to Jeff Garrett at Survivor Series 1994. I saw this clip absolutely everywhere after Chuck Norris passed. Of course, I'm talking about the Internet wrestling community Twitter that we all spend so much time on. I was kind of surprised to hear John that Chuck Norris is not in the WWE Hall of Fame. Again, I know he didn't have a ton of moments, but I'm thinking of myself. So you're carrying others are in it. How the heck is Chuck Norris not the WWE Hall of Fame? Yeah, I think that's a mistake. I didn't realize he wasn't. I just assumed he was. You know, hey, you gotta think about it. You know, Chuck Norris was a badass man. And he was a legit fighter. You know, he was just the Hollywood stuntman. He called, you know, 105 or whatever it was as long as record. The other day, I mean, it's massive. That guy was a badass, legit badass. And you got to think if you're Jeff Garrett, you got to get out there and cowboy boots. He's going to karate kick you in front of a live crowd. You know, he's amped up. This could end really badly. That's kind of nerve wreck. I'm still there for a couple of guys who are thinking, you know what, this fight just got called by detail. Jeff sat there and just kind of they took it like a man. It looked like that's a great curve. But that's a pretty nerve wracking thing when you're having to sit there and wait on it. I didn't know he wasn't in the Hall of Fame. I just assumed he was. I think he should be. I mean, if Arnold Schwarzenegger can be in the Hall of Fame and he didn't do a ton in wrestling, but he was an action hero and inspired a lot. And obviously, you know, I think he's inspired generations of people to start weightlifting and bodybuilding and taking better care of themselves and things like that. It just feels like, man, Chuck Morris, he should be in the WWE Hall of Fame, but someone who is finally in the WWE Hall of Fame. Maybe the news that made me most excited this week. Sid Vicious, Psycho Sid, Sid Justice, no matter what you call him, Sid Udy is now going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. His son Gunner actually took social media and wrote, it's official. My father, Psycho Sid Vicious, is going into the WWE Hall of Fame. The master and the ruler of the world is finally getting his flowers. I'm proud to be his son and to carry that legacy forward. The Hall of Fame just got a whole lot more vicious. This guy may have been it's not one, but two WrestleMania's. Some of your favorite wrestlers didn't get a chance to main event one and that rarefied air. Sid did it on two occasions, once with Paul Kogan, once with the Undertaker for the title. Incredible moments here in the WWF, but on the other channel, man, whether it was the NWA or WCW, he was running around with the big gold belt over there too and challenging sting before that. What a legacy he leaves. I got to tell you, I know that a lot of smart Mark wrestling fans who are really into five star matches and things like that, they don't hold Sid in high regard. I have always felt like he is. If you could draw a pro wrestler, it might look something like Sid. The facials and the way he would interact with the crowd. When I was a kid, he couldn't convince me he wasn't the baddest dude in the entire business. Now as an adult, he's still my guilty pleasure. You were one of the best big men in wrestling. Chat me up about Sid. Yeah, it might look like Sid. It does look like Sid. That guy had a presence that was just unbelievable. I mean, it was Earth Shattery. His presence, first time I saw him, I believe was at Cary Von Erick's memorial on the, that wouldn't carry past the way and I think I believe that's the first time I saw Sid. I'm gonna sit there and oh my God, look at this guy. I did those huge traps here, that incredible body. And Sid just had a presence about it that was just, it was shocking. When he came out, I understand these guys, you know, love these five star matches. I'm not trying to get into the debate of people wanting this stuff. But I can tell you when Sid walked out, the entire arena noticed and they stood up. It was shocking when that big man, he had a kid of presence that you, you couldn't coach. Now he had a size that, you know, that just, you know, was just God's gift of genetic. Plus he worked incredibly hard. Sid was a very, very hard worker to get to that body. And Sid worked really hard. But that presence that he had, I mean, that's just, God gave him that. That was just unbelievable how shocking it was when he walked into the arena. I say not a great worker, but people wanted to see him. So what is a great worker? I mean, the greatest matches of all time, I think was Hogan versus Andre. And people will say, Oh, that wasn't that good of a match. Really? Okay. Ask anybody about professional wrestling. And if they were live back then, they will tell you where they were when Hogan slammed the giant. That's how big that match was. That Sid was the same way. You know, you can talk about work rating all that. I'll take people selling tickets every time. Big fan of Sid here. And I'm so happy that WWE is acknowledging him and putting him in the Hall of Fame. I wish that Sid would have been here to receive that induction, but I'm thankful that his family will have the opportunity. And I'm really glad that WWE on YouTube, they started to upload a lot of great Sid stuff from their vault. I mean, I'll never forget as a kid. I don't know if you saw this, John, but that was an enhancement match in the WWF. And they would show a clip of this on the way to WrestleMania 8. He cut so many great promos on the way to WrestleMania 8, but he put a poor enhancement talent that he had just destroyed. And then they had to stretch her, you know, to the back. He goes and commandeers the stretcher and just pushes him on the stretcher back down the aisle. He goes crashing into the ring post. The guy goes flying. And as a kid, I thought this is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Hey, if it hadn't been for softball, Sid would have had a heck of a career. You know, Sid would literally, that's the truth. Sid would live the third softball season. He loved softball. You know, he had pro softball back then. He wouldn't make it near as much money as softball if he was in wrestling. He just loved softball. He loved hitting the ball a freaking mile. And he could. He was a terrific athlete. But if it hadn't been for softball, Sid would have really had a good wrestling career. I know that JR always prioritizes and he's talked about it on his podcast, Drilling JR for Years. The number one thing he looked for as the head of talent relations was reliability. But I always felt like, you know what, it kind of feels so on brand and very ratchelin to have a guy like Sid be like, hey, I know I could come in here and make tens of thousands of dollars this morning. Or I could just go home, make no money and play softball. You know what? I think I want to go home. And he just did what he wanted to do. And I don't know, maybe it's old school, but I liked that he was like, not exactly Brody, but he did what he wanted to do is what I mean. And I think that's really cool. I think it's awesome. I love guys like that. I've always loved guys. I'm the same way. You know, there's so many guys that are so freaking talented. There's so many, there's a lot of just kiss asses that'll still have to work every day. Most of those guys you don't want. You want guys like Sid. Okay, Sid, can we talk to you on a plan softball this weekend? Cause we have this paper you call it summer slam. We'd really like you to be at it. That's the kind of guy you want. I hope that folks will investigate who the man said was to, he had a special needs neighbor, a young man, and he made sure he got that kid, anything and everything he wanted wrestling wise, even being featured on WCW TV. Go ask a guy like Booker T what he thinks about Sid and he'll be the first to tell you, Hey man, Sid's a large part of my success. He vouched for us in a time when a lot of other people don't vouch for people in wrestling. Sid was always advocating for me and my brother. Those are sort of the type of things you would hear from Booker T about Sid. And I gotta ask, John, I don't know that you know the answer. So I'm going to put you in a bad spot because I know that this is the response a lot of people have. And I can admit I've asked it too. Why don't you think Sid was in the WWE Hall of Fame before now? Multiple time world champion, multiple WrestleMania main events. I know we sort of tongue in cheek joke about softball, but Vince didn't honestly believe that they would announce that Sid was going to be in the Hall of Fame and then no show at softball, right? Like that's not a real thing. Why do you think it didn't happen before now? I don't know. And I don't know if it was some old animosity with, you know, Sid was, you know, Sid was his own man. And Sid was a good guy, by the way. I really liked Sid. I travel with Sid a little bit. Rue was Sid Wanzi. He's a good dude. Sid was a good guy, but he could be difficult to work with, I believe. You know, like a lot of these guys could, especially back in the day, a lot of guys could. And I don't know if Vince had still had a little animosity from that or what it was. I'm not sure why, because everything about Sid, everything about his resume says that he should be in the Hall of Fame and should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago. You know what's crazy is I kind of always countered that argument that people would say, oh, he didn't have a good relationship with Vince. He came back and beat up Heath Slater in 2012 and one of those throwback Rawls. So it felt like, hey, if he was really, you know, somebody Vince didn't want to be around, he didn't have to bring it back in 2012. Like it wasn't necessary that we had to sit on that show. It wasn't even a show in Arkansas or Tennessee. It was in a show in Indiana, but either way, it's never too late to go to the WWE Hall of Fame. I'm super happy for Sid Vicious and his family and the legacy that they are going to have and just the moment that they'll be able to cherish. You know, that's going to be a frame photo in the entire family's house. And when I think about Sid, obviously there's that first run we talked about with Hogan on top. But man, the stuff he did with Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 96, these days, people talk about, you know, aura. And you want to talk about aura? Sid had that in a way that you can't model, you can't sell, you can't replicate. His entrance at Survivor Series 96 in Madison Square Garden was just next level. Was it not? He was as over as anybody. I mean, he was at one point, they thought he was the heir apparent to Hogan and for all rights and reasons, people thought he was. I mean, he had a presence. Conrad, when he walked into the arena, that place went nuts. It's like Brock Lesnar or, you know, like Hogan. I mean, there's only a few guys that are like that, like Brock. I mean, there's just a few guys in the history of this business that are like that. Sid was like that when he walked out. And Conrad, he was at his peak. He was so freaking big and such an incredible body. This was a powerful looking body. It wasn't like a body building body. Me, you've seen the millions of pictures of it. It was just this powerful big guy and he had that look about it. I mean, just that guy had an aura and everybody, people thought he was the heir apparent. And, you know, whatever happened, you know, he said was a little bit difficult to deal with. He had softball season. He also thought he should have been the guy, you know, instead of Sean. I remember, you know, I remember hearing Sid tell me about it, you know, that he thought he was the guy, not Sean. And, you know, so there was a lot of animosity there. But Conrad, a lot of top guys, they were the guys compared to another top guy. That's one of the reasons that these guys make the top is because they have that belief in themselves. Now, did you ever share a ring with Sid? Did y'all ever do any matches together? Sure did. Yeah, we wrestled. When Sid first came in, we wrestled. And Sid was supposed to go over and he said, I don't know, you know, me going over, you know, and, you know, Sid was a little different, you know, about his belief and things. And so Sid wanted to agree to do a DQ. And I got heat on Sid and they ended up getting a power bomb. But then Dutch got a power bomb. And then Harry was all over the ring once he got the grandfather Dutch. And then I got a power bomb. But yeah, it was said probably would have been better just going over clean instead of going to DQ. But that kind of favored me. But that's what Sid wanted. I find it interesting. It looks like that match may have been in Seattle, Washington, Monday night, raw July 22nd, 19th. Is that sound right? That sounds right. Yeah. Well, yeah, Sid's one of his returns and that was though he was out there with me. Let's talk about somebody else in the Hall of Fame. Mark Merrill was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vleet at the DDP Performance Center. And he was asked about whether or not Sable belonged in the WWE Hall of Fame. Mark Merrill had this to say, Oh, absolutely. The women's division, they didn't really have a women's division so much back then at all. But she brought eyes to the channels, the ratings and everything were very high because of her. I think it has a lot to do with she's always wanted to be in the spotlight. And then she had a big part of the spotlight and then getting married. They live a very private life. She just stays out of the spotlight. And that's what they chose because she doesn't do wrestling conventions. I don't think she's ever raw or smackdown with Brock. But that's just what they chose. And you got to respect that from her. I agree. It does feel like, man, Sable should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago. I'm not asking you to betray any confidences, but I would imagine this is just a decision that her and Brock have made. Like, hey, they want to keep that part of their life private or why don't you think Sable's already in the Hall of Fame? From what I understand, but where I guess that that's what it is. I mean, Sable certainly has every right to be there as far as her resume. She was a rock star, man. She was huge. I mean, she would walk out and the place would go nuts. Now she's one of the first women that we had on the cover of Playboy. Sable the freaking ton of copies. She was incredibly, she had a huge part of the attitude there. I mean, a huge part of its success. All of the Divas Division or whatever you called it back in the women's division. She was a huge part of it. And she did a great job. Everything she did. She did a great job in the ring. She did a great job out there at the ringside. Sable has ever qualification in the world to be in the Hall of Fame. Don't know why she's not and maybe that's a choice that they've made. Maybe it's a choice that W2B made. I don't know, but as far as merit, yeah, there's no doubt about it. She was a huge part of the editor and she was an incredible star. And Conrad, I was there when she'd walk out. She was as over as anybody in our company here. It was, it was, it was amazing. And she was a huge star. Well, this year's Hall of Fame, we know is going to be co-headlined by Stephanie McMahon and AJ Styles. Also going in as a tag team this year. Final demolition will be there. The celebrity announcement was also big this week. Dennis Rodman is now going to be a part of the WWE Hall of Fame. WWE is part of that. Has launched a whole bunch of NWO merch, including the retro merch. It looks just like the old Dennis Rodman NWO stuff that WCW sold. Now WWE has that. Now Sid Vicious. What a class this is though. Stephanie, AJ, demolition, Dennis Rodman, Sid. That's the heck of a class. Thank you. Thank you. It's a heck of a class. And I see those demolition guys a lot. You know, I know very little bit when I first started, very doll soul when I started, didn't know Bill, except for, I met him, you know, last few years, really good guys. And I'm very happy with those guys. Those are good dudes. They deserve to be in there. There's little animosity going on with some lawsuits that had gone back and forth. And, you know, now that's kind of water in the bridge. So I'm glad they're going in. Well, it all happens this Las Vegas. It's WrestleMania week. And of course, the Hall of Fame is a part of those festivities. And today we're excited to announce the new sponsor to the show. I'm talking, of course, about Morgan and Morgan. They are America's largest injury law firm. They've been fighting for the people for over 35 years and they've helped their clients recover over $30 billion. Now, not only are they one of our new sponsors here on the program, they're also the official law partner of WWE. And what I love most about Morgan and Morgan is that they're truly for the people and they're coming in hot. They want to hook up one lucky fan with two tickets for WrestleMania 42 this April 18th and 19th in Las Vegas. That's right. One of you is going to go to Las Vegas to watch WrestleMania 42 live. In addition to the two tickets to WrestleMania, they're also giving this lucky winner $2,000 to cover their travel expenses to Las Vegas. Now to enter, all you've got to do is take 842 to the number four, the people. Text 842 to the phone number 484-373-6753 and follow the prompts. Don't miss out on your chance to see WrestleMania 42 live. Just take 842 to four the people. Now there's no purchase necessary. This is open to legal residents of the contiguous United States of D.C. who are 18 and older. Sweepstakes and March 29th, 2026. This is a paid advertisement. So John, one of the other big pieces of business that happened since you and I spoke last, I couldn't believe this happened. But last Friday, you want to talk about a Swerve row. Ted DiBiase Jr. was found not guilty. Not once, not twice, but on all 13 counts. Now we talked about this last week, John, and it felt impossible. The person that the government had called co-conspirator. Yeah. He's 32 years just at the state level. I don't think he's even been sentenced federally. And Ted Jr.'s own brother, Brett, took a plea deal for five years in prison. So it felt like insurmountable odds. And somehow, some way, Ted DiBiase was found not guilty. Not once, not twice, but on 13 different counts. Of course, this is all related to the misappropriation of funds, the welfare funds from the state of Mississippi. And I know that a lot of people have already got their mind made up about Ted DiBiase. And I saw that comment over and over in the wake of the news that he was found not guilty. People saying things like, just because you were acquitted doesn't mean you weren't guilty. And I'm like, gosh. That's the definition of not guilty. Yes, 13 times over. And listen, we can talk about the legal system another time, but if these are the rules, these are the laws, he's played it all the way. He's found not guilty over and over and over. But I do wonder, hey, what's next? What do you make of this news? I'm sure you're about, I saw you fist pumping. You're glad that Ted DiBiase was... I'm thrilled. I'm absolutely thrilled. I said it last week. I love Ted. I love Ted Jr. Those are good dudes. I said last week they're good people and I don't know what is going on. I hope that whatever works out is best for them, but it needs to work out best for them. Works out. And then this thing comes out. And after I said it, I saw some comments on it from typical freaking online trolls. Oh, you're so stupid. You don't know. Really? Here's the issue, Conrad. The government charged them. Okay. And the government, as the jury said, that the government had no case, that they're not guilty. But the problem is you only have one person speaking here. So you have the government speaking saying, okay, they did this, this, this, this, this. People just take their word for it. I talked with Ted about it many times. Ted had told me his version of the story. And that version, the jury believed to be 100% believed to be true. So there's two sides to every story. And people just want to take one side of it. You see allegations against people that are out there. And even when they're acquitted, those allegations stick. I just think it's the way social media works. I think it's just bullshit. I think it's terrible that that's how our, not our system works, how our social media works. And I'm not going to say you're guilty because one person or one group of people or a government has says, okay, we're charging you with this. Right. Well, that's one side of it. The other side is the DBAs side. And the DBAs side, the jury believed not the government. So these guys, Ted came off as not guilty, could not be more thrilled. I think Ted's a good dude. Ted and Ted Jr. I think they're both good guys. I'm very, very happy for the family. I do want to ask you, John, you know, one of the bad things about this at this point, at least in my opinion is Ted D. Be Oscar juniors forever going to be linked with this story. Better. You know, anytime you Google his name, any, any potential job opportunities or employment opportunities or, you know, his kids and their relationships, like this is going to follow him around forever, even though he was found not guilty. Yeah. The other thing I thought about was, you know, he's been in this lawsuit and defending himself for years. I mean, probably five years or more. And the idea that he's had to go through that means this was a very costly process. Yeah. I can only imagine it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm just venturing and guess it might be 700,000 a million bucks. It wouldn't surprise me when you're talking about defending yourself for that long. And by the way, it's not like when you win, the government says, hey, well, we were wrong. We're going to reimburse you and pay you back. That's right. So now, you know, his reputation is forever besmirched by Google and search engines around the world, but also do he's got to pay for this now. Like this is a no win situation for the DBSC family where it's like on the one hand, I'm relieved that we won. But now it's like, damn, what now? Where do we go from here? This is not easy. That's right. Our system is horseshit and absolute horseshit. You know, you've got you got people who can charge people with whatever they want. And if they can get these charges or it does to stick these charges on there and take it to trial. Now, if if something happens and these charges prove that there's no merit to them, which is what this court case is done, those charges, like you say, it's like being called a racist. Now, somebody calls you a racist, you know, somewhere out in the public somewhere, even if people come out and say, no, he's not a racist, they prove you're not. That always sticks with the person. Always is going to follow Ted Jr. around. And the problem is we need loser pays in this country. When you have a frivolous lawsuit and I don't care if it's the government, we don't need some moron from the government that can file suit on somebody, a private citizen. And if that that suit proves a meritless that citizen goes bankrupt because they have to defend themselves against the entire government, the government should have to pay the legal fees of the person that has to defend themselves against a meritless case. And that's the problem that we have. We need loser pays in this system. We don't need to have all these lawsuits that come out, all these allegations that come out. So at least when you get done, you don't say, OK, I prove myself that I was not guilty, but I still have this million dollar lawyer fee. That's where I think if the government loses, the government should have to step in and not play with company money and pay for the losers pay, pay, pay as the loser pay the legal fees of the other person. The DBSC did release a tweet. He's often been pretty private and pretty reserved in recent years on social media, but he did make a statement. Mississippi jury has equated equated me on all charges. I'm forever indebted to nationally recognized trial lawyer, Eric Kershman, who guided my overall defense strategy and stepped in to masterfully cross exam in the government star witness. I and my family are grateful to him and John Gonzalez of his firm, Kershman, Benson and power for their incredible commitment and loyalty. I've seen firsthand and agree with Ice Cube. Eric Kershman is the best lawyer in the country. Thank you for defending my innocence and bringing the truth in delight. Forever grateful. Now, the question is, what's next for Ted Jr.? You know, I don't know if you saw. Maybe it's a publicity stunt. Maybe it's not. But as a reminder, once upon a time, Ted DBSC Jr. was a member of the faction legacy. And two of those members who were also in legacy are the main event of wrestle freaking mania this year, Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. You and I have absolutely no inside information, but from a storyline perspective, boy, this could get awfully interesting because it does feel like a lot of fans have already got their opinion and their minds made up about Ted DBSC Jr. He has made headline news everywhere. It would be a compelling story, but it has been 13 years since we've seen him in a WWE ring. He most recently competed in WWE in 2013. And here we are 13 years later. But we did see, and I assume it was a stunt. Someone on his team doing an interview and we would see Ted in the background say, oh yeah, April 19th. Look it. Now, of course, I think that's tongue in cheek because I would imagine that Cody and Randy are going to be the night one main event and that would be April 18th. Maybe he's going to be at Wrestlecon or some other event on the 19th. We'll see. But this feels like a natural story for WWE. If Ted has any interest, what do you think the odds of that happening are him coming back wrestling and leveraging some of these headlines and maybe finding a way to pay that big ass attorney bill, John? Good question. I think the odds of like put odds on stuff is fun for me. I think around 40% just slightly under a coin flip, right? Slightly under 50%. I don't think it probably happens, but I think there's a chance it could. I think there's kind of a ground spell. I think Ted would get a huge baby face reaction, you know, coming out. Haven't been acquitted of all charges. I know people aren't people out there won't believe it. But that's, you know, and that's their prerogative. That's what they want to do. But I think you'd get a huge baby face reaction. I don't know, you know, I don't know how much of the mainstream wrestling audience would be following this. You know, obviously the hardcore people are people that are in the news. People that know Ted obviously are. So I don't know that. That's why I put it slightly under 50%. But I'd love to see Ted come back and do something. I for one would absolutely love to see there be some sort of beat this story. I don't think they necessarily need it. WrestleMania weekend, but you know, whatever Cody and Randy are doing at WrestleMania, it's unlikely to just end at WrestleMania. There's going to be follow up at some point later in the year and sprinkling him in at some point could be really, really entertaining. Let's do talk about rest. Yeah. And then real quick, you know, Ted D. Piazzi senior was such a big character in WWE that laugh at million dollar laugh, you know, and there was this black cloud kind of hanging over them. And now that black cloud has been lifted, you know, it might be. Good chance to do something, you know, with him and maybe with Wood Jr. I think it could be a pretty good TV segment. You know, and you're always they got Conrad, you know how it is. They've got 10 hours a week or whatever it is they got to feel. I mean, there's there's places to do this if they choose to. Let's talk a little bit about, you know, how that could work as a reminder, of course. Unfortunately, Dusty's no longer with us. But Bob Orton Jr. still running around and so is Ted DiViotti. And the idea that they lean into that real legacy and that real history and I don't know, it could be fun. I got my fingers crossed. I'm hopeful for a good story. And I'm also wondering WrestleMania weekend. Hey, as we look around, what the hell's Gunther going to do? I'm not saying you have any inside information. Certainly I don't. But when we're talking about Gunther, I think a lot of us can reconcile. All right. Last July, he ended Goldberg's career on Saturday night's main event. And then of course, in December, he ended John Cena's career on Saturday night's main event. And then at the Royal Rumble, he forced AJ Styles into retirement. And I think a lot of people were wondering, hey, we've built all of this up since last July. And the narrative is that WWE has trademarked the term career killer. So it felt like, OK, whose career is he going to take at WrestleMania? And there's been speculation. Hey, will it be Brock Lesnar? Well, we know he's going to be with Oba Femi. Will it be Chris Jericho? We've never even seen Chris Jericho. But the rumor in innuendo is that he was going to wrestle Rey Mysterio. Now, that is not something I would say I was looking forward to. Not because they wouldn't have a great match, but I want Rey Mysterio to wrestle forever. Don't you dare let him have his last match. I'm not ready for that. We need more. Well, somehow, some way, Rey has injured his ribs. And now there's a lot of people who are wondering, where does this leave Gunther? And I don't think a lot of fans who immediately jump to, oh, I can't believe they screwed this up. They don't blah, blah, blah. No one planned for an injury. Right. Whatever the story was here, when someone's injured, it's not like you can just slide someone else into that spot and it'd be a great story. What would make sense at this point for you, John? What do you as a fan want to see Gunther do this year at WrestleMania? Yeah, I think we need him. But I tell you what, he's going to get a baby face reaction at WrestleMania. I'm convinced that a huge European crowd, that European convention, they're going to go nuts for him, in my opinion. I don't care what he does as a heel. They're going to go nuts for him. It's going to be like Dom at WrestleMania when they go nuts for him. When they went nuts for him. I think it's going to be the exact same thing. I think, you know, and I'm sure they're prepared for that. I'm sure they know, you know, they know exactly what I know that that's most likely going to happen. You know, it's unfortunate when you have an injury and I don't know if that's what was planned, but when you have an injury like that, it just, shit happens and you got to figure out plan B. And sometimes plan B is not what you want. And sometimes, you know, Vince used to say, sometimes it's better. You're not on television. You know, instead of forcing somebody to be on, I think they'll find a spot for Gunther, but I'm not sure where that spot's going to be. Do you think it's going to be, it could be some sort of celebrity integration? I mean, I don't pretend that I have any sort of plan or anything like that, but it does feel like, Hey, if you can't get a Rey Mysterio, because it feels like what they're trying to do is make Gunther, for lack of a better word, like a heat monster. Hey, he took Goldberg from us. He took AJ from us. He took John Cena from us. He took Rey Mysterio from us. Well, if there is some sort of beloved celebrity, and I don't know exactly who that would be off my head. Could that be it? He just beats the start out of a beloved celebrity. He'll get over like a million dollars doing it. It's not going to be an ounce of heat. I'm telling you, it's not going to be an ounce of heat. You bring any celebrity in there and he's going to get over like a million dollars, especially at WrestleMania with that European contingent. I'm just convinced. I saw Dom do it. I just, I know that crowd. I've seen that crowd, how it's morphed over the years. And you're bringing a celebrity. You're going to turn him huge baby face. Is that the right thing to do? I think it'd be great to do for him to come down and annihilate some celebrity. I think it'd be absolutely fantastic. You know, one of the celebrities that I'm curious about, and I'm not suggesting that this would be the gunter spot, but I'm sure you've at least seen where Tom Brady and Logan Paul have been, you know, jaw jacking a little bit. And then Grant got into it. And of course, this was all to set up the celebrity flag football game that Netflix paid a freaking arm and a leg for or Saudi. I'm sorry, played an arm and a leg for. But now as a reminder, WrestleMania, of course, is certainly going to feature Logan Paul. He's a main state with WWE, but it's also in Las Vegas. And some of our listeners are big NFL fans. They'll know that Tom Brady is part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. And one of Tom's best friends, certainly the one that we all know as a celebrity, if you will, is Rob Gronkowski. And he actually rubbed up against WWE back during the COVID WrestleMania. He's a big wrestling fan. I feel like as crazy as this is. And I know some of our non NFL fans who listen to this may not recognize what a big deal this is. If you've got a Tom Brady appearance at a WrestleMania man, that's history. That's a big deal. This is the most decorated quarterback in the history of America's most beloved fourth NFL. And I know he's controversial, but still it would be a big deal to have him do anything in a WWE ring. Do you think we see Gronk and or Tom Brady do something at WrestleMania? First, I was there when Gronk was at the WrestleMania before they're in the COVID year or whatever it was. And they wanted Gronk to do some spot. You know, of course, there's no crowd there. And Gronk was like, are you sure that safe? And Gronk's, he's just super tough. Well, the greatest title is maybe the greatest title in the world. I wonder the greatest title is the wall of time. And Vince goes, I'll show you. And Vince got up there in a suit, took a bump. And Gronk goes, okay, I'm fine. So, yeah. I think Gronk's fans. Gronk's made this visit. It's like Mojo Raleigh has made this made this business. He's a good friend. This is awesome, Conrad. I mean, you think about it, the greatest quarterback of all time. And maybe Joe Montana, maybe Brad Shaw, you know, of course, for know both those guys and Super Bowl's, but Tom Brady is certainly in the conversation with anybody with all those freaking Super Bowls. You've got one of the greatest quarterback of all time, but one of the biggest stars of all time is a terrific commentator. He's out there all over the news has been forever. And he's talking about WB. Now, is it good or bad? Who cares? It's awesome. The fact that Tom Brady is involved in all this. I don't know if the whole thing's a work. If it is, or if it isn't, I don't know if it's working itself into a shoot, shoot itself into a work. What are the two? But I think Tom Brady doing something at WrestleMania, he seems like just a fun guy. Seems like he's having a lot of fun with this when he threw the ball at Logan Paul during the football game. It seems like he's having a lot of fun with this. And I would, I'd be shocked if he wasn't there in some way at WrestleMania. And I'd love to see, I'd love to see Gronk there. That, that, that could be, that could be pretty cool. It feels like, um, I don't know exactly who's going to have Logan's back and how all this would work, but it does feel like there's going to be some sort of Gronk-Tom Brady thing and they become the baby faces and beat the spot out of Logan Paul or something, but I'm a huge fan of Gronk and Tom Brady. So I for one am looking forward to it. Um, we got one of the biggest stars in the world talking about wrestling. This is awesome. There's no downside to this. This is huge. And God bless Logan Paul for getting all this, making all this happen. Boy, there's a lot of people who are listening to this who are going to be upset with you, but I totally agree. Like this is something that, you know, Tom Brady would not be discussing WWE if it weren't for Logan Paul, in my opinion. That's right. And, and it's not so big. I mean, this is huge for wrestling. You know, wrestling was some little minor thing that, you know, like it was at certain times in our history, Tom Brady wouldn't fool with it. The fact that they're going to fill up the arena where he's a part owner of a team. I mean, that's huge. And Tom Brady knows this. He knows he's a brilliant guy, obviously. Anybody who can dissect defenses like he did, a guy led the league in passing when he was 45 years old or what it was and then retired. I mean, the guy is an un-multi-generational talent of all of different kinds of levels. This is great for wrestling. What else is great for wrestling is Keele Tony. And I know that a lot of our listeners are going to disagree with that, but Keele Tony has become a juggernaut not only on YouTube and has a live touring brand, but also on Netflix. Some of their biggest shows, I mean, they've had multiple shows from Madison Square Garden that were Keele Tonys that were live on Netflix. So clearly Tony Hinchcliffe, huge wrestling fan, used to do a podcast for some of his other comedian pals from the comedy store and they would call themselves the store horseman. I mean, he is a big time wrestling fan and he's bringing Keele Tony to the stadium at WrestleMania, of course, at this West Coast. So, you know, they're going to get to do it after hours. I assume that it's going to be filmed or maybe it's even going to be live on Netflix, but knowing that WWE and Netflix are so entrenched together and the Keele Tony brand is obviously so closely affiliated and love in the wrestling space and they love wrestling themselves. The idea of the visual from a branding standpoint of Keele Tony and Netflix, this is a big deal. And I know that some fans maybe don't understand it or don't agree with it, but it is a Netflix integration and it's probably going to help sell some tickets, don't you think? Absolutely. Yeah. You know, again, wrestling being so big, we wouldn't have got guys like this years ago. You know, there are times in our business that we couldn't get anybody to be a part of, you know, in the late 30s, you know, you started to see guys, you know, the Primo Canera and Bronco Nagersky that were coming into wrestling. Then you saw it again when Gorgeous George, you saw it again with Hogan, you saw it again with Rock. Now you're starting to see it on a level that is beyond probably even all of that. I mean, this is incredible. Everybody wants to be a part of this juggernaut that is WWE TKO. And that's a good thing. You know, you may disagree with the guys, whether you like them or don't like them. It's great the fact that these massive stars want to be a part of wrestling. Because that hasn't always been the case. I can't wait to see what happens with Kill Tony. I know that it was pretty controversial when they tried it before, but I'm interested to see how it's received this time, especially since it's going to be in a freaking stadium. The visual from a Netflix standpoint makes a ton of sense. And you got to assume WWE is going to get a major payday. So if tickets were slower and there's an opportunity to satisfy a sponsor, court, more attention, sell some more tickets, it checks a lot of boxes. Hopefully it's money for WWE. But WWE did get some money back. Allegedly, there's a report out there that Tomatanga is in some hot water. There was word going around back down that Tomatanga was fined by WWE for posting a video of rehearsals the prior week. And the report says quote was told it was a significant fine. So I know once upon a time this was considered like a no, no. I guess it still is because they're finding folks here. But isn't this the same company that puts out WWE Unreal? Where's the line? Where's I mean, talk to me about this, Joe, and I'm trying to learn. Yeah, like I don't know as far as where the line is. I think talent, releasing anything like this. I mean, this is to me as this was always a horrible offense. You know, you release something like that. You release secrets of your company. Now, the company chooses to release that in a way that is canned in their WWE Unreal, which, you know, we can talk about that show and a different time. But that's the prerogative that they have to be able to look at that, edit that, figure out what they want to put out and what they don't. You can't have talent just putting out stuff like here's a rehearsal. Here's what's going on backstage. You know, and just letting stuff out like that. I mean, it's I completely agree with them to be for the fine for whatever the mount was. And if they'd have fired him, I'd agree with it. Well, that's old school. I can't say I necessarily expected that. I do want to talk about Unreal, but I got to tell you, I think that it's a little stiff, it was a significant fine. I can see how I might be. Yeah, I can agree with that. I mean, I think, you know, young people that and that's why I don't, you know, the horrible offense my generation. Yeah, you should use our guy. We knew better, 100% knew better. I don't know that the talent today knows better. And that's a matter of education, not a matter of intelligence. You know, you don't know unless somebody tells you. And so I think, you know, you get a slap on the wrist, you get a pretty big fine. I don't know what the big fine was. You know, I'm sure it hurt his pocket pretty good. You know, some guys with money, if you find them, ten dollars. Like they got like they lost their home, you know, they're cheap guys. But I think it's appropriate to slap on the wrist, let it be water in the bridge at that point and forget about it. And I don't think it should carry forward anywhere in his career, anything going forward about as far as being held against him in any way. I think once it's done, that's one thing Vince was very good about. When Vince would find somebody or would punish somebody, that was it. And it was over. And Vince forgot about it after that. I think that's what should happen with this young man. Well, I can't wait to see what happens with Tomatanga. I, uh, I'm a big fan of him personally and I'm looking forward to him having a successful career on the other side of this. But speaking of step, can we talk about blue chew here for a minute? Blue chew gold is the latest innovation from the number one chewable E.D. brand. It's not your grandpa's little blue pill though, buddy. This is the four in one beast that's setting the gold standard for performance. We've got two ingredients for blood flow to keep that rocket pumping. 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So listen, one of the great things about this new WWE Unreal show is we can't really tell at least I can at times. Hey, what's the storyline that they're using unreal to tell and what's real? And maybe that's what we love about pro wrestling. Here's what we know is real. It was reported earlier this morning as we're recording that WWE Unreal on Netflix has been nominated for three sports Emmy awards. Outstanding sports documentary. Outstanding sports editing long form. Outstanding sports graphic design specialty. Triple H of course is taking a victory lap. Fragging about this. Hey, critical acclaim coming down for unreal. Maybe not from LA night though. LA night was recently doing a podcast on the bootleg have podcast and he talked about his appearance on unreal season two. And he says that that has actually changed how he conducts himself backstage now. Specifically, they're talking about the moment where they had the money in the bank match last year. He comes back through the curtain and he crashes down next to triple H to give him some instruction. Now the producer for that match was Chris Park. We know him as a BIS and in the program, he explained the original planned finish and exactly what was supposed to happen in that money in the bank match. And it didn't go down exactly as they had hoped. But now there's a conversation after that happens on camera. And LA night says that he was holding back significantly more than what viewers saw on the screen. Quote, I was majorly holding my tongue in that scenario, if you could tell, because I had my own frustrations about that situation that partially had to do with the finish, but more so, I had to do with an overarching theme that I don't need to get into the weeds about here. He also revealed that he was unaware he was being recorded during the exchange with triple H and that prompted a behavioral change moving forward. Quote, I had no idea I was on a microphone at that time. So with that being the case, I don't even stop there in gorilla anymore. When my match is over, a segment is over. I go straight through and I go to the locker room. Night that he remains open to discussing what happened in his matches, but on his terms, quote, if they talk, they want to talk to me about my match or whatever happened out there, sure, let's talk about it when there's not a microphone or camera around because that's how it's always been. And with that being the case, I'm not going to stop in there and leave myself susceptible to that. So we know that WWE is working on a third season for Unreal, but I see this and I wonder, Hey, is this a story and it's going to reveal itself on camera on raw or SmackDown or something like that? Or is this real? And is it a real frustration and we're airing dirty laundry? Either way, I think that's why I like wrestling. I can't tell all the time. Hey, is this real or not? What do you make of this? I don't know. And that's what I love about wrestling. I do love that. And I've always thought that Unreal is the perfect way to work people because people are not expecting to be worked during Unreal. Now, I don't have no idea if this is a work or not. I don't have any inside information, but I would use and I have no doubt they're going to use WWE Unreal to further storylines. And I think it's brilliant to do that. It's a great product, a great product. I'm not so sure about opening up the amount of that much, but that being said, Conrad, I don't know. And so I'm not against it. I look at these arenas and going out there to Vegas and they're going to fill up football stadiums back and back nights. We didn't do that. And, you know, so they're doing something right. And so I'm a whole judgment as far as I think it's good. I think it's bad. I don't know. It makes me uncomfortable. It does that. But, you know, that's so what? Go walking out in front of, you know, 70,000 people does not make me feel uncomfortable. So something is right about it. But Conrad, the business has changed significantly. You know, guys, and guys, when I was there, just walked the grill anyway, you know, events wanted to see you. He'd call you over. You know, now guys, I sit there watching them. They all want to go in there and be put over and be told how great they are. And, you know, stop. They stop off and want to talk about, you know, this stuff. That's why, you know, all that happens, you know, and so you want to walk through and they want to holler at you. Then yeah, that's a, you get to expect microphones to be on. You got to expect cameras to be on and you got to expect the stuff to be recorded. There's cameras everywhere there. You know, we used to talk before the show. We always be very careful about what we said, just joking around because, you know, microphones are owned everywhere. I'd sit out there in ringside with Michael Cole all day long. And because I'd sit out there so you could see the rehearsals and stuff and be available to the talent. You always knew that microphones were owned, cameras were owned. You've got to assume that and to not, that's how you get yourself in situations like this and that which you look back on and think, I wish I hadn't done that. You know, and that's apparently where LA not is right now. He's right now. I'm excited to see if this is a story or not, but I'm with you. I love that we can't really tell. I know one of the major arching themes of season two was all about the John Cena retirement for and John Cena was in Orlando at mega con this past weekend. And he was asked about his potential future with WWE. And I'm happy to report that he says he's been trying to figure out how he'll be contributing to WWE quote, I'm working diligently to try to figure out my next path as far as contributing as a useful member of WWE. I think I might crack the code and I think we have something and if the stars align and everybody signs off, it will be a whole lot more integrated in the system. And I'm very excited about the road ahead. I'm just crossing my fingers that it works. And that made me excited. I think I love the idea of John Cena. Maybe he is done in the ring, but that doesn't mean he can't still be a valuable team member or an entertainer for WWE. But the question is, John, if you had the pencil, what would you book John Cena to do? Would he be your Jesse Ventura and do commentary? Would he, would he be a GM? What, what, what is the highest and best use for John Cena in WWE in 2026 in your opinion? Yeah, I don't think GM because that's a regular occurrence. And I think that's almost, I don't know. I'm not certainly not beneath John, but I think it uses him in a way that is probably not his, I think he needs to come in just as a special star and be that guy that when he walks in, and I think it's almost too much to have him be a regular character. I think it'd be great to have that. But if you're a regular character, don't be deemed a regular character. Just kind of show up regularly, you know, kind of like the rock does for a while and then kind of leave. John's a huge star. He's a huge star outside of wrestling. And so I think the ways to use him is sporadically to bring him in for different things with different people to give, to give people a rub and make him a character. I say a character. He's John Cena, but be the John Cena character as he comes in involved in certain different storylines. Well, I for one can't wait to see what's next for John Cena. I don't know that we're going to ever see him in the ring again. Wrestling a match, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be involved physically. Maybe we'll see him do something at WrestleMania fingers crossed that we see John Cena sooner rather than later. Hey, let's talk a little bit of old school. I want to talk to you a little bit about Chris Jericho and I want to talk to you about Brock Lesnar. For right now, I think we should, um, I think we should take just a few minutes and talk about our friends over at policy genius. You know, you and I have lived a couple of very blessed lives, John, and every now and again, uh, I'll start thinking about how blessed we are, but I also know that at different times it can feel like it's a stressful proposition to be the person responsible for providing for your family. You know, you have a responsibility as the man of the house to take care of everything. And, and sometimes you wonder, have I done a good job? Am I on the right track? And I think one of the things that a lot of us can lean on peace of mind is life insurance. You can get some help with that weighty responsibility of protecting your loved ones and having the right financial planning without it all being overwhelming. That is, if you look for our friends at policy genius, I trust policy genius. And I want you to know that their license team works on your behalf. So you know that the guidance they're going to give you is for your needs. I'm a big believer in this product because it's all about peace of mind. That's why I want you to lock in life insurance, but do it a smart way with policy genius. Let me explain. This is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side and they can do it for free. Their license team helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life. You can easily find what you need. The coverage amount, prices, terms, there's no guesswork, just clarity. Policy genius helps you find the most affordable policy to meet your needs. They answer the questions, handle the paperwork and advocate for you throughout the process. Policy genius has five. Policy genius has thousands of five star reviews on Google and trust pilot from customers who found the best policy fit for their needs. So protect the life you've built with policy genius. You can see if you could find a 20 year life insurance policy starting at just two seventy six a year for a million bucks in coverage. Just head on over to policy genius.com slash wrestle to compare life insurance quotes and top companies and see how much you could save. That's policy genius.com slash wrestle. And we're back here on something to wrestle with a brand new segment that we debuted last week. John, wrestle worth. I've had a lot of fun last week. We got to catch up with our buddy Tony. We actually broke down the value of some pretty cool things. We were able to authenticate and really value all Stone Cold Steve Austin's very first knee brace. You ordered at WrestleMania 13. We're going to be able to get a little bit of a break. We're going to be able to get a little bit of a break. We're going to be able to get a little bit of a break. We're going to be able to get a little bit of a break. First knee brace. You ordered at WrestleMania 13. 14 and 15. Of course, this comes on the heels of fanatics. Selling his one of two knee braces. He's in his final match. It's a WrestleMania 38. Went for $58,000. Of course, most recently, the entire collector world has been upside down about the Hulk Hogan WrestleMania one boot. Selling for more than a million dollars. And we threw out the gauntlet last week and said, Hey, if you've got something. That you collected through the years and you might be interested in getting it evaluated or not necessarily saying you have to commit to selling the item, John. But just you want to know, Hey, what is this wrestling collectible worth? That's what we're going to do here on this segment. We're calling it wrestle worth. And if you've got an item that you'd like to learn what it may be worth, send us your pictures and your story behind the item to wrestleworth at gmail.com. And when you do that, if we select your item, we'll bring on our pal Tony from Heritage Octans and chat about what it's worth. I absolutely loved our segment last week, John. I'm excited to do this again the day. Yeah, me too. You know, one thing we should ask also is how do they get them? Yeah, people come up with the stuff. You know, how do you get this stuff? I mean, I don't know how you end up with stone cold knee breaks. I mean, there's obviously a tale to it, which is pretty cool. And somehow that thing got somebody's hands. But I think it's also pretty cool if you let us know the story about how you got it. That is the best part. You know, it's almost our internet version of WWE's most wanted treasures that they've aired on A&E. Except instead of having, you know, a nine month cycle after they shoot something and then it airs on TV, we're doing it week to week. So if you've got an item that you've collected, maybe it's in your man cave, it's on your mantle, it's on a shelf to work. And you wonder, hey, I wonder what that's worth. Drop us an email wrestleworth at gmail.com. And when we welcome in our guests today, he'll let you know what it's worth. Welcome to the program, ladies and gentlemen, my pal and yours, Tony from Heritage Oaks. And Tony, how are you, man? I am all right. I'm excited to be here. And JP, I'll be at a great point. And I said all the time, when you're buying some of these pieces, you're buying the piece, but you're also buying the story to the piece. And there's a lot of these items, some of the game use items, some of the matches items that have a very interesting story to them. And that's what people coming back is the story behind the piece of a lot of time. Well, you mentioned last week here, Tony, that you're going to be featuring a lot of the items that are coming up in the May auction from Heritage Oaksons this year at WrestleCon. So if you're in Las Vegas, you definitely want to stop by and see the Heritage Oaksons booth. That's where you'll see some really cool things, including the million dollar WrestleMania one whole token booth. Yes, you can see them in person at WrestleCon. And a little bit of an update from last week, John. Tony and I caught up off air and he sent me all of the pertinent paperwork and shipping information. And later today, I'm headed to FedEx and the WCW United States title is headed to Heritage Oaksons. It's going to be at WrestleCon, John. Are you proud of me? Yes, I am. I'm excited to see it. All those great champions that warred a lot of friends of mine, a lot of terrific legends, all the favors. That's a pretty cool title belt. Stop by the Heritage Oaksons booth at WrestleCon. You'll be able to see the WCW United States title held by Steve Austin, Sting, Lex Luger, Vader, Ricky Steamboat, so many others. But Tony, you've got another item. Tony, wait, before we go, Tony, how do you still have the hoax and boots? Have they not been actually, has the sale actually not been normalized? No, no, it has gone through. It's the owner, we talked to the owner and asked if he would allow us to have them at WrestleCon and he agreed to allow us to have them at WrestleCon. So it was a very nice gesture and it's going to be pretty cool because we're going to have the boots, we're going to have the belt and people can take photos with both of them. Obviously, they're going to be under class and we're going to have a security guard and all that, but people can take photos of these and it's so people can kind of enjoy them as well. So we're really excited that the Winning Vitter allowed us to have them there and I can't wait to see them again because if you look on the inside of them, there's really good use. There is some blood actually on them and a lot of times these things will get you so much that there's nothing left, but these are a very nice tape yet and come by, take photos with them and we're excited to have them. Tony, I got to ask you a medical question with this. Is this kind of like Jurassic Park like what you had like brontosaurus and like pyridactyls and things where you had the blood of Hulk Hogan? Can you actually bring the Hulkster back? It hasn't quite gotten to that level yet, but it will at some point where you can test the blood and everything on it, but hasn't quite evolved to that at this point. We can't clone Hogan yet. Not quite yet. No, we're working on it. I may call Raymond Redington and Dembe and see if I can't try to range a little procurement of those items there at the base. I've got some other plugs that we have on some of the other items that we've got. We could maybe work with some other guys as well. Hey Tony, you know you've been in the sports collectible business for a long time. I guess I've never even thought to ask this, but man when you just say blood in a traditional electric context, it feels weird, but somehow in wrestling it makes sense. So I guess I'm asking, have you ever seen like baseball or basketball or hockey or any of the other sports where there were blood-stained items that were available? Wait a minute. Now don't even. Don't even. What the hell? No. The king Nolan Ryan Ventura. Very good call. Yes sir. They're selling right now and I'm going to get one. They're selling like a replica jersey of Nolan because when he played, but Nolan Ryan's jersey. So that jersey, I don't know where it ended up. Probably got thrown away, but the famous one we had was we had first feelings, bloody stock, which probably about, I want to say about 15 years ago at the time it was like 98,000. So one, the first one that he wore got thrown away actually. This was the second one that he had, so stock. But yeah, a lot of that jerseys, typically you'll see it on hockey jerseys. I remember seeing a Bob Cobra that was very bloody. You'll see it on football, you'll see it on hockey. Baseball, basketball, not as much, but those would be the two sports that you will see typically better use, but a lot of hit marks on uniformed football jerseys. On hockey jerseys, you get thick marks. That's what you'll typically see on that with some team repairs as well. Those are the two sports. With wrestling, you do see some from, you'll see it on occasion because again, they would wear these and wear them and wear them. And it's not like they had five different pairs of pants. A lot of guys, they would just make, they would just be wearing them and wearing them. Yes, they could wash, but we've got a pair of front sets I've got here that do have some blood still on them. That is one thing that, I'm not saying it helps authenticate them, but it gives it personality, I would say. What do you, I don't know what to say about the bloody sock auction. I never even imagined that that was an item. I remember that game very well from 2004, but the idea that that somehow went up in an auction is fascinating to me. I want to say the first new body. That's a great idea. The thing was they had to get, they don't really have a mannequin for a sock, so they had to get creative with it. Because you had to form it, but in so many times, and I know we talked about the hoaken boots and the sock, people pay for those moments, those historic moments. A lot of times, people, they remember where they were, when it happened. And there's so many times people would really pay to have that moment forever. And that's an instance where 98,000 per single sock is a record to this day yet. But if it's sold today, it would probably definitely be over 100,000. Oh yeah, I'm sure. Let's talk a little bit about some other items that maybe folks can see at Wrestlecon this year. You sent me a picture last week that I guess there's another item that maybe it's from one of the more recent favorites, a fan favorite who left us way too soon. Tell us about the item that we're going to be talking about today, and I guess you're going to be featuring it at Wrestlecon. Yeah, we've got a pair of gray-wired boots that were used early in his career when he was in NXT, but also followed him to WWE as well. And he did a great job signing these, hit the NXT with the nice, very nice signature. We were looking at photos from NXT, and he's sitting in the chair, and he's wearing these exact boots. And back during that time, they didn't make a lot of money, and they didn't wear a lot of different outfits because, again, they didn't have a ton. And these boots show great where you can see the black mark just below the autograph. And then you can see, you know, and they're in great, they're still in great shape yet too. And there's multiple photos by photo matches, tile matches, all of these exact boots. Very wide, one of those guys that to pull off this character, incredibly difficult, and he could reinvent himself. And he was, you know, at such an elite level that I think as the next generation goes on, he's the guy that's always going to be remembered in the wrestling business, because he was just different. He was not the norm. He's the guy that was, he could pull off the scene. He could pull off being very, very creepy. It's a hard thing to do. And he was amazing at it. His Mike Kills were off the charts. He could wrestle. And I think when, you know, as this starts to evolve, he's one of those guys, you're right. He left way too early. And it's, you know, you almost get chills when you see some of these items. Thinking they were on the road for all long, how many events they were at. And again, great use, not overused. They're in great condition. You can put them in your man cave and they look really, really good. So Tony, do we know any specific matches that this is associated with? I know you mentioned NXT and his first main roster run as the very white character. So I would imagine that would include matches with Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan and John Cena. Do we know if there's a WrestleMania type of impact for these booths? We're still doing the research, but I know there's an NXT program that they were featured on. And I know there was, there were a couple different ones, different instances where he's wearing a fitting in that chair, rocking back and forth. And it's the same pattern, the same design. We'll be doing more research once we write them. We'll be going and trying to find more matches because now in this industry, photo matches really turned it upside down. Obviously with the whole booth getting to the number that they got to, it was because of photo matches. So we're going to be doing a little bit of work on those and trying to find as long as possible that you wore this particular model. Hey Tony, question about this. You know, he was, I guess, Bray was what, Husky Harris? He was in the beginning. First character, first iteration, but you know, as we always went through, you know, very few guys ended up with the one they started with. You think it's a great idea and you do it and you realize, you morph into something else. Harley Race was Jack Long, I believe it was. When he first started, Gerald Briscoe has a signed Jack Long photo. What is the parameters of being worth more is like you have like old Harley Race, like a Jack Long photo, you have Husky Harris. How does that work as far as value for objects about what they've signed? Because when I go to signings a lot of time, I will ask people, I'll say, look, I was Bradshaw in this picture. Do you want me to sign Bradshaw or do you want me to sign JBL? And you know, it's up to them and lots of times people say, I want you to sign JBL or no, no, you were Bradshaw. Does it matter much as far as like person? I think it does because I think people want to have something signed from their favorite character. Mankind, Mick Foley is a perfect example of this. There's a lot of images of him where he'll sign all three. Do love mankind, Jack and Jack. So I would, for me personally, I think in the future, the one that really stands out to me was the Firefly Firehouse. I think there's going to be a day where that material is, he did it for a, I never short-cured his time. And I think some of the stuff that he wore during those episodes is going to have some good value because it was so different for its time. I think some of the Firefly Firehouse, obviously the theme to mask is kind of the holy grail for him because again, that would be his final character. And it was also so far-owned when he did that. And it was creepy. It was creepy. I remember when they burned his body and it was a big deal when they did that. And so I would think the themed, obviously like Stone Cold, you do think of him as Stone Cold Steve Austin, not stunning Steve Austin from the early WDAs much. So I would say the one that's the main characters where people are really going to grab a cake board and really collect a little more so than anything else. I saw Gangrel get burned one night. He wasn't supposed to be. Really? It was the rehearsal when he got burned. I was watching it. And I thought, man, this is really cool. This looks like it's burning him alive. And it was. And it was. Yeah, it was. They created a vacuum. You know, they come up with the elevator through the stage and they had the fire coming up with him. And obviously it wasn't supposed to happen, but they created a vacuum and it sucked all the fire in with him. And it looked absolutely awesome because you think, this is awesome. How's he not burning alive? Then you realize he is burning alive. Oh my God. Well, Tony, tell us about these Bray Wyatt boots. You know, that's why people tune into this. What do you think these boots are worth? Since we've been chatting, I have been over on the WWB website and I found a ton of images of Bray Wyatt wearing these boots, specifically as part of the Wyatt family or the leader of the Wyatt family in the NXT era. I'm sure there's lots of main roster moments as well, but those are just readily available and it looks like there's dozens of photos that you can photo match these two. So in your professional opinion, when these go to auction, what do you think that they'll fetch and when can fans take a look at that item as an auction item? So these are going to have a $20,000 estimate. The opening bid, we open everything at 25% of the estimate. So these will open at $5,000. That's the conversation that's always kind of interesting with the consigner because a lot of times people are like, I think it's worth more than when we start on hire. I like that we're starting these at $5,000 and these are really going to be the first pair of Bray Wyatt boots from NXT at least that are going to sell. And I think it's going to get a lot of bid early on and then people wait for the end to bid. And I think it's going to exceed the $20,000 estimate just because everything right now is off. The market is really solid and you're going to get that whole boost of WrestleMania having them at the event, having them at WrestleCon. And they're nice looking boots as well. You've got the snaps on the sides, you've got the white leather and you've got the black leather on the tips and on the heels. So they're good looking boots. I think they're going to far exceed the $20,000 estimate on them. They delivered the very best in pro wrestling entertainment bringing fans deep storytelling drama, gut-busting cover and unbelievable in-ring action from wild characters to unforgettable rivalries. Don't miss a single moment. Tune in every Thursday night at 7pm on YouTube. J.C.W. Lunacy. Dave Miller wrote us a great story that said, hey, back in 2021, high spots announced they were going to auction items from Jimmy Garvin's personal collection. Jimmy had saved a ton of memorabilia from guys he worked with, especially Wahoo and David Von Erick. Conrad knew I was going to be a player in that auction and he told me to shoot my shot with Garvin before it ever hit the block. He even put me in touch with Garvin's rep. So I did. I made an offer and went all in right up to my max. They countered and of course it turned out my true max was another $1,000. The wild part is I couldn't just buy the trunks. It was a package deal. I also had to take a Fritz Von Erick Zippo lighter, a David Von Erick t-shirt that was sold by the promoter in San Antonio. A photo of David versus Bruiser Brody mounted to a piece of wood made by a fan and gifted to David. Honestly, I believe if those items had made it to auction, I never would have gotten them. So there you see it. The trunks from a pretty phenomenal performer. There's our buddy Dave. You've probably heard or prefer to him on some of the podcasts. It's on Water Dave or Super Dave, independent Rasslin referee in the Mississippi area and a heck of a good guy. But I can't believe it. He has decided to part with those trucks and you see Dave did a great job getting it framed there. I know that's going to be something that's near and dear to your heart. John, John, have you seen that before? Look at the way Dave framed it. That's a pretty cool way to display these. I've never seen that before, but that's the little lighter of Fritz. That is cool. That is something I would love to have. That's awesome. So, you know, talk to us about this. You know, as you take a look at this item and you know the story and you know the provenance, I guess is the right word. You know how Dave got these. What do you think these Von Erick trunks could be worth? We're going to estimate these at 10,000 plus. We dealt with Kevin Von Erick and the family four years ago now and they put in some of the items from their collection. There wasn't much from David, unfortunately. I mean, he was the first one to pass away. And what I love about these trunks is we had a pair of Kevin's and they were just straight yellow. These have the black on the side, but if you look really close, Texas, I think was in sequence on these at one time. So that Darwin gave them to Dave and they came straight from David Von Erick. The Von Erick family has a very big following. I watched them when I was up in northern Wisconsin as a kid in syndication and now I'm in Dallas, Arlington, and they're in the world class area and they are revered in Texas. They're revered in the south and they're also overseas. There's a lot of collectors of the Von Erick as well because they were the first family in wrestling and they really helped make this more and more mainstream worldwide. And there's just not much out there. And when I went out there to visit the family, they had a food jacket. They had some photos. They had a couple. They had actually had some autographs that did really well in auction. But as far as the ring worn stuff, it was more, they had Mike. They had a little bit of Kevin, but David's the one that I think we all know is going to be the champion if he had lived longer. And just a historic piece of wrestling memorabilia. Again, I like that it's a 10,000 estimate. You're going to open them at 2,500. I think these are going to go for much more than that though too because the Von Erick family is just, like I said, it's royalty. There's great use on them. There is some flood mixed in there. So I will say that. But of course, there's more with the black on the side, but also that Texas. Again, you got to really look close. You can see the outline of where it was. And that these were given to Garvin and Garvin gave them to Dave Miller. That's a big, big deal because you know the lineage of this piece. And it's not like this thing's sold five different times. It's a great piece of Von Erick history. It's great use. They're not torn apart. The drawstring is still in them. And we're very excited to have these at our wrestle time. John, how are you helping me? I'm going to say hi to the guy who's a celebrity. The Von Erick star in Texas. Early life last year, I was at my local country called their Nathans, Texas, and some guys were talking about some local guy. They said, man, that guy is huge. He's a celebrity. And one of the guys goes, he's like a Von Erick. This is 2025. And the Von Erick have not been on top and wrestling good lord 30 to 40 years. But they still are that revered. People think about celebrities in Texas. They still talk about Von Erick as being, that's the absolute cream of the crop. David was the heir apparent. David was the guy that if he had lived, the territory probably would have looked completely different. I had some competition coming out of Texas. That territory really suffered. Another thing I have is where Jimmy Garvin get these? He got them directly from David. I think after the feud was over, what I was told at least, after the feud was over, Garvin asked Von Erick if he could have his dot front. The guys now changing jerseys and stuff, Garvin was doing it back then. He was the head of the game by 30 years. He beat everybody. I think the movie also brought them back into the forefront as well. The movie helped create deals. That introduced the next generation to the family. I'm 49. And when I was a kid Saturday night, it was world class and it was NWA was right after it. Even as a kid in Northern Wisconsin, we watched them even though we were in AWA country. The Von Erick, I knew them from when I was a kid. I always wished to this day that I could have seen the S-Portitorium. I know it was the pod, but you heard about it. When I moved here in 2012, it was demolished. It was gone. That's one of the things I wish I could just walk through it one time just to see it. You need a hard hat and certain gloves on. That was the fastest brought in place. It's great to meet in the world. Let's take a look at one last item. Tony, you motivated me last week on our conversation about the WCW United States belt. I actually acquired something way back in 2013 that I've had displayed for a long time on top of my bookcases in my home studio. They're headed your way. They're going to be a WrestleCon. They're from my favorite promotion, ECW. These are the entrance letters that were used from before WrestlePalooza in 1998. They started appearing on TV around April of 1998 and they were used through the end of ECW. We've got a lot of images here that you can take a look at on somethingnarestle.com. That's totally for YouTube. We've got these letters here. Tony, the bar bar has been removed. By the time I received the actual letters, the bar bar was already off. I got pretty heavy in the collecting in 2013. I landed the big gold belt and some Ric Flair robes and some other items. One of the things I was able to secure was the very first ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Around that same time, I was also able to get one of the ECW Arena signs and I guess the word got out. As the story goes, Johnny probably familiar with this as the narrative goes, a lot of guys at the end of ECW did not get paid. That apparently included even members of the Ring Crew. As a result, someone who was responsible for carrying these to the different shows and setting them up, he's had them in his garage this entire time, from 2001 to 2013. We broke her to deal. They showed up at my house in a giant UPS box and now they're headed to WrestleCon. You can see these iconic ECW entrance letters used before WrestlePelusa 98 all the way to the end. A lot of wrestling fans point to Heatwave 98 as being perhaps the best ECW pay-per-view of all time. These were used at that event in almost every other major moment in ECW history. Tony, if you had guessed the value of my ECW entrance letters, what would you guess that these will bring and what will the reserve be in the May auction over at Heritage Octans? I would do 10,000 on these. I think ECW, there's going to be a day and it's going to be very soon that true wrestling fans are going to be looking for ECW material. It was a renegade league and Paul Heyman was just, it was so different for his time and it just has its own, there's a cult collecting part of this whole thing for ECW. There's not a lot out there. The toys, they did some figures I believe. There just isn't much out there. A lot of the stuff they used was literally thrown away. They didn't have a very big budget obviously. I remember watching it when I was a kid and I'm like, what the heck is this? There's no commercials. They were homemade commercials I think. This one is very, very interesting to me because there's a lot of rabbit wrestling fans and there's a lot of ECW fans. They weren't the norm. They survived just by being different than everybody else and I think this sign is going to surprise us all because there's just not much out there from ECW and it's something you can find when you go back and watch the episodes of it, watch the videos, you're going to see that sign prominently featured and I can't wait to see the reaction of fans at the end of the season with that sign because ECW was just different and there's just not much out there of it. You may see some tickets occasionally but the wrestlers, it's not like they were wearing these big crazy robes. They wore t-shirts and whatever they had, 10-6 and that kind of thing. I can't wait to see that and I know it's going to cause a lot of that rustle. Tony right now, the true wrestling fan, that's a holy grail piece. It really truly is. I think you're going to like taking a look at the letters to Tony because you can actually see the indentations from the barbed wire. It was real barbed wire and as I said, the barbed wire is not there now. I'm sure it was removed for shipping or just storing in this garage as long as it did but you can clearly see the marks where it's pressed into the sign. I'm excited for you guys to see it. It is going to be a wrestle con and if you've got something in your man cave, you've got something in your home office, you've got something in your manhole, your storage facility, maybe it's in your attic and you wonder, hey, I wonder what that's worth? Well, let us know. Tell us how you got the items and just pictures of your item and we'll have Tony discuss what he thinks the hypothetical value could be. Everything that we featured today, the Bray Wyatt boots, the ECW entrance letters and the David Von Erick Crofts are all going to be at wrestle con. You'll be able to see them in person and of course you'll be able to check them out in the Heritage auction this May. If you've got an item and you want to know what it's worth, let us know. Send us an email wrestleworth at gmail.com. We want your pictures. We want your story and Tony, we appreciate all your time, man. I can't wait for fans to check out a wrestle con and hopefully we've got some cool stuff for you to look at next week. This is my favorite part of the week. I love this. I love this. I'm in my element when we're doing this and yeah, send us anything. It could be a ticket, a photo, an autograph, whatever you have. Nothing's too big, nothing's too small. Send it to us and we can get you an evaluation of it. And we're cloning Hogan. And David Von Erick because there is some blood on these David Von Erick. Yes, we are. Absolutely. I found an action figure. I thought it was Conrad. Turned out as one main gang. We'll see what that's worth next week right here on something to wrestle. Conrad is signing. Stay tuned folks. Thanks so much, Tony. We greatly appreciate you. Thanks guys. 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I know that we always talk about the way Rasslin used to be and there's two comments like that from two guys that once upon a time I felt like would never be talking like this. And I guess we all get a little older. Brock Lesnar was recently quoted as saying that the backstage environment in WWE is softer than it used to be. The exact quote is, I was a shooter, an amateur guy. I had a lot of credentials to my name. Of course, I got tested along the way by the old timers and the guys. You have to pay your dues. Back then, you paid your dues and you had to get your respect. It's different now, obviously. Things have gotten a lot softer. There isn't no more kangaroo courts. It's different now. But I mean, I go there. I'm the old guy now. No more kangaroo courts. Boy, you resemble that remark, don't you, John? Brock was in a few of them as they witnessed and just for fun times. Yeah, we had a lot of fun with the rest of the sport. And nowadays, you got to be so careful with stuff that you got to walk a fine line. Nobody can, you know, it's just a different world. The world's changed. Not wrestling. The world's changed. You know, it's not like the world is a reflection of wrestling. You know, wrestling is not that big. It's wrestling is a reflection of the world. It's all the way around. The world's changed. And has the world gotten softer? 100% of course it has. There's no doubt about that. Are there still really tough guys out there? Of course there are. Then there's still great talent in wrestling, but the world has got different. Well, we're going to be taking a look at some kangaroo court. We've got another clip from Curtin Jericho's that we're going to be showing you. But before we do, I want to talk a little bit about Chris Jericho. You know, a lot of people are wondering, hey, when will we see Chris Jericho again? A lot of people thought he would be in the Royal Rumble. Some people are predicting he's going to be around WrestleMania weekend or maybe the Monday after WrestleMania. But everybody is hanging on every word from Chris Jericho. And he had a lot of words recently. He said, but worries me about the guys working today is here I am at 55, 35 years in with still some career left to go. I don't know if it's a year or two years, four years. I'm not sure. But I don't know how many of the guys working now will have the option to go 35 years. Hopefully all of them, but you can already see what serious injuries do. Bad neck surgery changes everything. The longevity may be harder to sustain when there's so much emphasis on the physical at the expense of charisma and character. I remember the first time I ever got hurt. I thought I was invincible. I was in Leone, Mexico to dive over the top rope and the guy who was supposed to catch me, a guy called Masaka just stepped aside. I landed on old school bolted down arena chairs. I messed up my arm and I thought, oh, I could actually get hurt doing this. And if the guy doesn't want to catch you, that's even worse. After that, I started getting smart about which moves were worth the risk. The guys who figured that out, figured that out early are the ones who get the longevity. I'm not pretending that you were a big plunge. A guy in your day, John, but I do want your take on what what Jericho saying here. Yeah, it's part of the business. You know, I think it's Bob Orton once told me, said you learn your first few years in business, not only what you can do, but what you can't do. And that's very important. And when you're working every single night, you learn that very quickly because you learn doing something and all of a sudden you can't wrestle the next night or you're hobbling the next night. You learn things that you shouldn't do. You know, when your body's young, you can take a lot more than what your body should be able to. That's important. You take some big fog. I'm okay. Those things pile up on you. And if you're doing that every night, it's easy to figure that out. And if you're doing it just once a week, it's harder. So it's harder on these guys, you know, and they have guaranteed contracts. So, you know, getting hurt to them is not near as devastating as it was to us because we didn't get paid and didn't couldn't make a living. And because of the fact that we worked so much more, we could figure out what we could do and couldn't do a lot easier. And now the bar is getting so high out there. I agree with Chris. I mean, there's these guys are doing a lot of stuff. Is it too much? I don't know. They're fantastic athletes, but I think you're not going to see as long a career because you're going to see a lot more injuries because guys don't have the ability wrestling every night to learn what they shouldn't do. Well, I can't wait to see Chris Jericho sometime soon. But what I'm excited about right now is what we've got coming up. It's Curtin Jerkers and everybody seemed to have a lot of fun with this last week. We saw some cameo appearances for a friend of the show, Horne Swaggle and Heath Slater. Today we've got a special treat and it's interesting as we're as folks are listening to this today, and I was surprised to hear that you have never worked with Tony Shavani or even really spent any time with Tony Shavani. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to start with a question for you. What is your biggest impact on your career? What is your biggest impact on your career? What is your biggest impact on your career? What is your biggest impact on your career? What is your biggest impact on your career or even really spent any time with Tony Shavani? So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a look at Curtin Jerkers with special guest Tony Shavani. What does Curtin Jerker mean? Is that something you do behind-out the goal-club? I'm going to do another edition of Curt Jerkers. We are with one of the greatest commentators in the history of pro wrestling pro wrestling pro wrestling pro wrestling. Tony, it's great to have you. Hey, Johnny, it's great to be with you, man. It really is. Thanks for having me. It's an honor to be with you. Thank you. I'd sent you a text about a year or two ago. I was watching some random show and you were calling some match which is a nondescript match. No offense to the match. I remember it was in it, but you were calling that thing like it was the greatest wrestling match ever. And I thought this is freaking awesome. No wonder people love you so much. Well, you know, I tried to, I've always a wrestling fan, right? I grew up as a wrestling fan. I was very excited about getting in the business and I'm very excited about matches, even matches that maybe fans don't like. I try to get very excited because sometimes I hope to elevate the excitement of the match. I appreciate you saying that. I really do. It's been a, been a quite a journey for me in this business. How long you've known each other? Not very long. Personally, we don't know each other personally. We've probably met over the years, but never, never worked in the same territory. No, that's right. That's crazy. Is that something? Never in the same territory. Absolutely. So there you go. So here you are today. Here we are today. You are today on Curtin Jerkers. I'll be together. I know Curtin Jerkers brought me together and when you think of the term Curtin Jerker, what do you think? Well, I think of guys who opened up the show, the first guys open up the show, you know, the guys didn't really mean that much. You know, you have a seven match card and the Curtin Jerkers are the opening. Always heard Arne Anderson talk about Curtin Jerkers. Really? Yeah. And a negative. In a negative context. The way Arne would say it with that Southern accent is kind of a nostalgic, romantic idea. You know, I think of the Curtin Jerkers. Curtin Jerkers coming up like, I don't know who they are, but I want to meet them. Right. That's right. Is it a lot of pressure to be a Curtin Jerker? Yeah, you've got to set the tone. Yeah. I remember there's a couple of times there was one time we were at the Fayette County, Cumberland County Civic Center, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and it was Sam Houston and Black Bart were the Curtin Jerkers. Okay. And they both like bled and they were like, they were going way over the top and Arne was so mad. I remember he said, he said, that was motherfucking Curtin Jerkers. Shouldn't do the stuff the Main Eventors do. Of course, you build up to it back then. Right now, I guess you kind of still do. So that's that term kind of stuck with me thinking about Black Bart and Sam Houston, awful the juice and the opening match of the car. I feel like the comedy was Black Bart was like, who you call the Curtin Jerker? I'll find some green grass and teach you a lesson. Right. Find some green grass. He told me that so many times, I'm gonna find me some green grass and I'm gonna teach you a lesson. Yeah. Somebody's gonna take you outside and walk your hand. That's right. Just make sure. Yes. Just make it right. Bart was the best. He was something else, man. Yeah. He was something else. He used to get in there early and just he'd get dressed and he'd sit in the corner of the locker room. Yeah, with the big trash can. Big trash can just spit in it. All these tobacco stuff. Those are the spittoon. Okay. Yeah. That's what Bart used to do. Couldn't talk without his glasses falling out his nose. Yeah. He always pushed him up like this with the little finger-lung that went on. Yeah. Was he like Stan where he couldn't see when he was out there wrestling? Maybe so. I don't I just stand. Because there's all the stories about Stan Hansen, of course, not being able to see at all. Not being able to see at all. But yeah, I'm not sure about Bart, but he was quite the character. He really was. We had Bart, Black Bart, and we had Randy Colley, who was, they were the Desperados. Of course, we had Dutch Mantell, and they were the Desperados. They were going to be like the three Stooges of the Wild West and wanted to bring, waiting for Stan Hansen to come to WCW. That's right. And Stan like, I don't want to have anything to do with those guys. I think I don't like silly wrestling. Well, we get that. You don't like silly wrestling, but they are going to be like thinking like they you're their buddies and you're going to beat the shit out of all three of them. He still didn't like that. We didn't want until we had to get rid of the Desperados. I was on Dusty's Big Ideas and we had pretty good videos we shot on that. So there it is. Never worked out. Never worked out. Now, of course, behind the desk, voice of our childhood, the whole deal. Yeah. John, when he's he's done it so many times now, filling in, you know, sitting in on the commentary table. So I want to talk to both of you on that aspect. John, first of all, what do you remember? What's your first? Hey, I'm going to do commentary. Well, I want to make it clear. I like I'm a Hammond Eggard and a part timer. Tony's a legitimate legend that in the business, the big difference between that two, that dynamic. But I remember the first time I did commentary, I was with King and JR. Oh, during that, it's there when they were really hot. The product was hot. And I went down there and I saw JR had these copious notes. I mean, it's pages and pages of notes. And Jerry Lawler was drawing a woman in the front row. He said, big boobs, he's very serious. And I thought that's how you do commentary. You got to have the great play, play by play guy who sets the table. Then you got to have some kind of animated and draws boobs and disanswers. Tony, on the other side, when you see one of the boys is going to come sit in on the table with you guys. You've done it so many times now, but when you first started seeing that, what's your thought process? You go, hey, I got to help this guy. Do you ask him for a hand? What do you do? No, I just I let him do their thing. I think when a russer comes and sits down at our table, I think it's my job to set him up to make him look good and to let him talk as much as he wants. I've always, I always thought that you don't have to call every spot. It's television. They're seeing every spot. You got to make some of the things exciting, but you don't have to call everything and they want to hear you talk. They want to hear the athletes talk. So I let them talk as much as they want. It doesn't bother me at all. And I think it's very important. People don't understand how important a play by play guy is. A lot of stuff you're not there with with different play by play guys over the years. And they are the ones that run everything. Absolutely everything. They've got to go to break. They've got to anything that's wrong. They got to fix it. And because TV is wrestling TV is is live and it's not football, you know, somebody gets hurt football, you go from football to football. Yeah, you know, you can go to break and go to whatever you want. You go from a women's match to a men's match to a mixed tag match to you name it. You're going from one variety show going one thing to another. And the play by play guy has to be able to lead that and lead all these different guys that are here at this table and somehow make sense of it. It's it's that's why there aren't very many good ones. Look at how many good play by play guys over the last 40 years. Half a dozen at the most right most. Yeah, I that's a good way of putting it. I I always considered myself. I always thought it wasn't about me. It was about the athletes in the ring. And I've always and I think maybe that's part of the longevity of what I've done because you don't make it about the announcer. You don't you make it about the guys in the ring, the girls in the ring. Once again, if one of the wrestlers sits down beside of us and talks who has the experience in the ring, that is valuable. So I think maybe the longevity is and why many people have loved my career. I don't make it about me. And because if you do your job the correct way, you know, you you'll get the notoriety without even trying to try put music on a good movie. You wanted to be there. Yeah. You don't want to notice it because that means it's taken away from the movie. It's nothing like that. And I think the older you get as a wrestling fan. Yeah, thanks. I'll be over here. I think the beautiful I think the beautiful thing is the older you get as a wrestling fan, you think back on your favorite announcers and go, they did paint that picture. Yeah, there's been some incredible storylines I've been a part of and some have worked with someone having but it's my job to make you enjoy it. So let's get down to brass tax. And what is also a matter of where your ego is, you know, is your ego in yourself or is your ego in the chair? And that's a big difference. That's where a lot of people make mistakes. But only the ego is in the product. Because that that shows, you know, that that means you're going to get the match over, you're going to get the guys over the next to you. You know, that's that's something that's just it's all a mindset of where your priorities lie. That's in your ego. Let's get to the brass tax when you're out there doing a show. Okay. Multiple hours. Yes. What happens if you got to use the bathroom? You don't. I have the strongest bladder in the world. I do. I have had I have had shows to where I've listened I drink energy drinks. Drink one in the morning. This is TV day. Drink one in the morning. Drink one in the middle of the day. I'll have one at the show. So I have three energy drinks in me by the time the show is about midway through and I'll have drunk water. No pissing at all. None. By the time I go to the hotel, it's like get me to the fucking toilet right there. And but it's a strong bladder. I've never had to do that. And I know that other announcers, you know, have problem. There's another thing too about announcers. Let me tell the story if I can. This is back in the WCW days. As announcers, we were very reluctant to go into the announcers bathroom because one time I can't remember where it was one time we were all out. I think we're maybe we were catering or some of us were out doing the sound check or whatever. And we came back and Paul White had just left our locker room. Okay. All right. And we look into the bathroom and he had shit in our toilet. Okay. And have you ever seen giant shit? No. Okay. All right. Okay. It was like a big A giant. It was like it's like 3D Jurassic Park. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. It was like a big old Texas rattlesnake that that big around that's curled up in the fucking toilet. Okay. With a head sticking up out of it. And I look and we knew exactly who it was. Okay. And all owned up to it. Yeah. I took a shit. I sure did. Right in there. So we were kind of scared to go back in there. No one had to piss right. I'm not going in there and taking a piss because I'm telling Paul for God's sake, you can take a shit in our room, but flush the fucking toilet. Yes. Why did he want to do this? He has shit. Okay. So I've seen I've seen giant shit. So have you seen giant shit? I have. Yes. Yes. I have. Yeah. It's stop up South Carolina. But you know, I've had like so many great interactions with wrestlers through the years. They, you know, the older you get, the less, the less fun you have. I guess I don't know. You just not. But you know, as I was talking to my wife about this the other day and she said, take the people that you have traveled with during your career. You know, and I do. I mean, when I started out, I was traveling with the flare tolling on and JJ, right? You can start. It's a crazy start when you want cirrhosis. You want to go to you want to end up in rehab? Right? It's a great fucking start. Yes. Yes. Yes. I came back to the house many times. They dropped me off and I was drunk. One time, totally brought me back to the house. We were working Charlotte. It was like 3am and she locked me out of the house because she knew I was with because they did crazy stuff. And then, you know, I started working for the WWE and then I started traveling with the word Alfred Hayes a little bit and and then WCW era and then I was traveling with Inan and Mike Kinay and probably Jimmy hardsum. And now my travel is different. But those years of traveling with Ric Blair for some of the craziest years of my life, they really are. I'm going to take you back to 1990. It was with StarCade 1990, St. Louis. And it was the old killer arena. And we had no idea that entire year. We had this idea of the black scorpion going to be Sting's nemesis and who's it going to be? And only Anderson had thought about this black scorpion deal. But no one could come up with the idea of who the black scorpion would be. It was Al Perez on under a mass from many of the TV shows, but Al didn't want to do it. We understand. So Ric Blair finally said, fuck it, I'll do it. So he came out. He was with the black scorpion that night. And when the when the curtain came back, everybody knew that it was Ric Blair, but she couldn't hide that fucking nose. Through that hood. All the fans were going, woo. We fooled him tonight. And then, of course, he did all the Ric Blair spots. So you know who it was. So that night, later that night, I'm asleep and this is before cell phones, right? So the phone rings in my room and I'm thinking I'm hoping my wife's home. She's got five young kids and something bad's going to happen. If she calls, I pick it up. Hello. And it's a drunk Ric Blair. And he said, come up here. I want to see you. I went, no, fuck you. Okay. He calls again. Come up here. I pick it up again because it could be my wife. I should have known better. He's come up here. Are going to come down there. I'm going to embarrass you. I'll find out what room you're in. So I get dressed. I go up and the doors are jar and Rick has the mask on. Okay. Yes. Yes. His big rope on that. Olivia had built for him. Okay. It was, it was monstrous. Wait him down. And he says, Hey, I got want to show you something. I said, okay. And he stands in front of the mirrors at the merry out there. And the back used to be the sliding glass door, sliding doors for the closet were all mirrors. And he's standing there at a little hallway and he goes, Sting in the black scorpion's voice. How can you contend with this? He opens up. Okay. And there's the baby's arm just fully erect. Okay. Rick, you called me to come up to show me this. Something that everybody has seen. Everybody has seen your penis. Everybody has. Okay. Okay. Right. He said, no, no, no. Hang on. Wait, wait. Let me hold one more time. God almighty. Okay. So I mean, he's Sting. How could you contend with this? And the robe is so heavy it pulls him over and he falls in the foot. So I said, Rick, I got to go to bed. I'm getting the fuck out of here. He said, no, no, no, don't go. No, don't go. I said, okay. So I've, some of these buddies from Charlotte came in, we're all hanging around and Rick was acting crazy. He goes out of the room, naked. Okay. Out of the fucking room naked. And they, they're, they're panicking like, we got to find him. I'm like, yeah, you probably do. Okay. So they go running out. They're all gone. It's like three guys. I'm sitting in the room and I'm not going to look for and fuck him. Okay. I was, I was in his dead sleep. So he, he's running around the Marriott airport. Marriott St. Louis, but naked. Okay. He'd taken the mask off. He has scars on his face and he's, he's running around and they're looking for him and they all three come back. We can't find him. We can't find him. I said, I don't give a shit. I'm going to bed. Okay. So here's the story that I was told later by one of these friends. I can't remember his friend's name. They all said, fucking dude. Okay. So everybody leaves his room. The door locks. He's stuck in the hallways of a Marriott naked. No place to put the key. Right. He doesn't have a key to his room. Unless he's sucking up his ass, he probably should have. Okay. So he's locked out. So what do you do when you're locked out? You call security. Sure. Okay. He goes down on the elevator, butt naked down on the elevator and sticks his head around the elevator door and goes, they go, but I was locked out of my room. She said, I'll get security. Security came, it was a female and they wrote up in the elevator together and unlocked his room. Naked. Naked. He's naked. Good for him. That was just some of the crazy things that that Ric Flair Ric Flair did. And I've seen him stand on the bar, drop his pants down. I'm a little teapot. I'm a little teapot. Drop his pants and shut up down the bar and it's because it's so cute. I don't know. It's like a best of misdemeanor. Yeah. He couldn't get away with this stuff today. He could not get away with this stuff today. No, he would say I'm a little teapot for some reason and drop his pants and do the first shut up and down the bar. Yeah. I saw him drop his pants on top of the bar and when Nikita pulled off walk in, he crossed body Nikita. Out of his mind. He's just absolutely out of his mind. Nikita walks in and goes, whoa, there he goes. There's our world champion. God bless America. Just the crazy shit he's done is amazing. All right, folks. Listen up. I know a lot of families are feeling the pinch right now. I actually saw a report earlier this week that says all of a sudden Americans are making withdrawals from their 401k more than ever before. If that's you and you're feeling the pinch and you're looking for some cash, the solution that I'm going to recommend is hiding in your house. Now, it's not in your attic. It's not in your drunk drawer in your kitchen. It's not in the basement. It's in the equity in your house. You see, whatever you pull money out of your 401k, not only do you have the opportunity cost, spending your money's out of the market, so it's going to stop growing for you. It's also a taxable event. You're going to pay tax on that right up front. You're going to get a bill at the end of the year unless you just send them their portion right now. 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And I want you to know Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac removed their minimum credit score. That's right. We've been able to help families just like yours with credit scores in the 530s. This is not a subprime loan. Those don't even really exist. This is through Fannie Mae. They're looking out for you and we want to be your mortgage advisor for life. We're not a bank. We're not a credit union. We're not going to say no. We're going to say not yet, but here's how. Let's get a plan together to save money and save with conrad.com. If you'd like to reach out to me personally, shoot me an email conrad.savewithconrad.com or just kick it old school and give me a call 888-425-0105 savewithconrad.com. End of my list number, 2129, Equal Housing Lender, savewithconrad.com. Absolutely. Just what a lot of those guys. Yeah. And ride with Heenan I always thought when people ask who's the greatest color commentator of all time, they don't mean who's the greatest. They mean who's second. Yeah. Because I ain't nobody who's Heenan. Right, man? He's a different level. He always made, Heenan always made, tried to make us laugh. I mean, when we were out, we were in Pensacola and it was back in the days before you really had to check out and get a portfolio, right? You didn't get it on your phone, right? This was the nineties and so we all had to line up and check out and this was four o'clock in the morning, Pensacola at the hotel. I never would get this old guy's buffing the floor and Heenan is looking at him and he looks at me and looks at today and he's watched this. So the guy had to plug right straight under the desk. The plug ran out, there was a lot of coil, Heenan wrapped his foot around that coil, okay, and kept wrapping it around. And we all knew it there was a line of like 10 of us and he wrapped it around and by the time Heenan, he goes up, Heenan trips, okay? And he just did it perfectly because the buffer went out of the old guy's hands, whoosh, shot right across the lobby, okay? Heenan falls forward, pulls himself up. There's a lot of things on the counter like the like a lot of flyers and everything. He knocked all of them down. Okay, it's four o'clock in the morning, Pensacola, knocked all of them down and goes, I'm sorry, it was a late night. I apologize, I just didn't get much sleep. And he used to do those crack balls for us all the time in convenience stores. He used to fall on the counter and clear off the whole fucking counter, the counter everything, okay? There's a lot of convenience stores that have a lot of stuff on the counter. Yeah, he would have, one time he cleaned out, he cleaned the counter out and we're all standing behind him and he's trying to help the lady pick up stuff and he reaches over to pick up some and grabs right the boob. He goes, oh, I'm sorry, I was just trying to help you out. That time was Lee Marshall with us. I told Lee, let's get the fuck out of here. I don't want to be here with a cop to come and this crazy guy in there. But he used to make us laugh. He was, and he was, you're right, on the air, there was nobody like nobody close. Yeah, nobody. Always regretted he lost his voice. Yeah, anything but his voice. That was terrible. So gifted. That was terrible. So we've asked a lot of people, we've did some, you know, interviews with a bunch of fans and one of the questions we asked, who do you wish was around today to still have a in this podcast era? Right? You know, that's what we're doing is we want to hear these stories. And he's probably one of the number one answers. Yes. And if Bobby Heenan was in the podcast era, would have been incredible. Yeah, he was, uh, he was a funny, funny guy and, uh, and a great, a great teammate. Uh, and, uh, he would be great on the podcast. He would be awesome. Yeah. Wrestling is wonderful, but the best times are the travel time. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Getting to talking to the guys going from town to town. Yeah. Yeah. That's the best part of it. Absolutely. The best part of it. So for these, uh, you know, we are, we're here at Breastwood, Gage, Winston Salem, great event. Yeah. Is this almost the closest thing you can get to that camaraderie back then? Because you're seeing all your boys here. You're seeing all your friends and coworkers you haven't seen in a while. Is this the closest? Yeah. You know, I got so bored during COVID, like everybody did, you know, you didn't get to see anybody. I just wanted to get out and see some people. I just want to see Ron Simmons and see Godfather, the guys, the boy, you know, everybody, you know, it's the only guy like, coming, coming, everybody. I missed them. I really missed them. You know, I don't, obviously, you know, I'm 59 years old today. And so I, uh, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, so I don't miss the wrestling that much. You know, of course you do. As the older you get, the more you forget your hurt and everything, but you missed the boys. Right. You missed the car rides. You missed the sit-around bullshit. You know, we didn't have the internet. We didn't have cell phones. Right. So we just had to imuse each other. And that's one of the reasons stories were so much better in our day. Right. Because we didn't have all this different stuff. Sure. That's a great point. It's, uh, I, uh, I miss the times riding and I do ride with some guys in, I ride with, uh, uh, I ride with Don Callis some, I ride with QT Marshall some, I ride with Sanjay some, I ride with guys who've, you know, been in the ring and have done some things and just hear the stories that they tell. And, uh, it's just, the stories are just wonderful. The stories that you, you know, I, I love John. I love to, I love to bust people's ass backstage. I really, really do. I love the really good backstage. I mean, everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah. Okay. One of the things I do all the time is because I, I get out, I get around, I spend a lot of time in Tony's office backstage, which I should and I would the announcers have their own room. I'll go into, they all have signs everywhere and I'll do this almost every week when I know there's a lot of guys in the back and there's a sign that says male talent, right? A walk in the room, they'll look at me and say, I'm sorry. I thought this didn't male talent outside. I'm obviously in the wrong fucking room and they always pop. So they're now looking for it right now. They're definitely looking for it. Uh, and then, uh, I remember saying that I, then they all look at me alive and I say, yeah, I didn't mean you Miro, you're, you're, you're your talent buddy. There's always a caveat to everything. Ken Shamrock was that way. Haku was that way. Listen, I'm ripping all you guys set for you, Ken. And Haku, we're not talking about you. No, absolutely. We even said when they did the invasion of North Pole kill when, when WWE invaded the WCW, we're sitting out there. We actually waited because we didn't know what WCW might do back and we're sitting there going, you know, if they send over Haku, we're sending out Shamrock. We're going to watch the bottom center. They'd still be fighting. Well, I'm sure they would. I didn't know Shamrock, but I knew Haku. He told me that he's claims that he saw in a bar one night. A guy was running off his mouth at Haku and I guess the king that I called him, you know, had too many drinks and just reached in the guy broke off his bottom teeth as the guy's talking. Yeah. The guy was running his mouth at the bar and Haku had had enough and just reached in his mouth as the guy's talking to just broke off his bottom teeth. Enos, where's this group? I've heard stories of very much the same. I've never seen Haku fight. I've been around him a lot. Never seen it. There's like a sniper from what they said. Yeah. He just took people out one after another systematically. Nick Patrick. Yes. Get him out now. Okay. But he said he was at a bar at least guys, as you guys know, we've talked about when they see one of the boys, they want to start popping off. It's a fake, you know, right. And so it started going down and he was there and in like two seconds had the guy open the air with one hand up against the bar up against the column. Yeah. And was choked. The guy was like, get free. Yeah. And they were like, Hey bud, we need to leave now. Thank you for showing this down. We need to leave the area because you went immediately to that. So yeah, it's like, that's we worked Disney one time years ago back in the 90s and we we were at the parking lot and I got it on my rental car. He got out of his and he and I were walking. He said, I have a question for you. I said, okay. He says, you have sons. I say, yes, I have four sons. He said, I do do. He said, how do you control these kids? They do not listen to me. What what do I do? I said, first of all, you let them know who the fuck you are. You tell them who that is. They're not going to listen to me. It's fine. But if they don't listen to hot, do something wrong with those kids. I was working with hockey one time on a battle royal and I said, I got to fill this job one time because it's supposedly so big. So I said, hit me with that big shot brother. He hit me so hard in the chest. I thought he broke my ankles. This motherfucker has broke my ankles, but hit me and I thought about it. If I ever call that again, please ignore me. Do not do what I say. You hurt me. But as they say, it is true about him. Sweetest guy in the world. Yes, really. He is a nice human being. He went to the waterloo the same year you did. Where's that Conran? He went to the same year with Conran. Okay. Yeah. He deserves it. It's super nice. Yeah. Boy, he's got those me at the same time. Yes, everybody. Yeah. Yeah, he came to a show that we had in Charlotte a couple of years back and his son was there wrestling. We were back in catering and he was sitting at the table with Arne Anderson. There was a walk down Arne Anderson because I love to give Arne grief. Love it. There's one of the greatest things in the world. Arne Anderson just looked at me and said, say something to me now, motherfucker. He just went into the hockey. It's well known, man. Well, is there any lore about Tony Shavani that you've heard? Well, I've heard some rumors that Johnny Valentine, a dinner with Johnny Valentine, legendary figure in legendary river. Yes. Yes. I used to wrestle Greg back in Texas. Right. I tried to run it and Johnny would show up and Craig would turn into Think Abbot. I don't care if your dad's here, please. I'm not trying to impress him. Would you quit beating shit out of me? Oh my God. Just beat the shit out of me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Johnny was one of the toughest men ever. He was like Wahoo. They were just as tough as they come and didn't take much shift from anybody, which back in those days, it was a little bit different. He treated people. David Crockett has told me this story many times and I've had it validated by people like Blair. Johnny would do two things that were very, very well known back in the Middolanic territory. They would have catering, right? And no one wanted to get in line after Johnny Valentine and catering. Oh no. Because Johnny would, at many times, had taken a shit and had it in a napkin or something and would dump it in like in the steak and gravy. Okay. And then stir it up. Stir it up real good. Okay. Stir it up. At many times, not just the story. He did that. He would take shit and throw it in the macaroni and cheese and that was his rib. Yeah. That was his rib. That's not a rib. That's a crown. Okay. And then... Yeah. That's not a rib. That's at least the misdemeanor. What the shit was all the fairytale gets up? And the biggest back then guys would go, oh yeah, they're just ribbing. He has shit in your bones. If a normal human would. I took a shit. I dumped it in my dinner and made my wife eat it. He'd be like, what are you talking about? Oh, that's awesome. Oh, it's great. Do it again in the next one. She didn't know. She didn't know. Yeah. Did you ever eat the shit? No, that was before my time. But thank God. That was wrestling before your time. Then there's another. When thinking about this one, but he used to take a, in the locker room, used to take a coat hanger and fashion a coat hanger with a little hook and a little hook on the end, right? Yeah. And he used to sit over here and grab the end of Flair's penis with it. Yeah. And whack him off the food. He would. I don't know if he really got him off or anything, but he used to grab his penis and pull it back and forth. What's the next one? How did he get it on Flair's penis? I guess he knew. I guess he knew. It's new to the side. But like Flair had to be somewhat complicit with this. Of course he was. I mean, he was like, he just like, sit there and go, hey, you got a coat hanger. Would you put one on him? Sure he did. I'm sure he did. I've heard that story too. We've all had the move for you to start doing that move and say we're happy. But I don't expect the coat hanger to come out. Coat hanger. Like it's the night of the Apollo. Yeah. I gotta ask Davis for some more of those stories because those are legendary Johnny Valentine stories from back then. Of course, Flair just started, right? He just started in the business and I'm sure Flair was every bit as crazy back then as he is now. And apparently he's naked back then. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I said when I got into the Hall of Fame in Waterloo, I mentioned during the acceptance speech, Shani, I said, hey, I've seen Ric Flair's penis and almost to a man. Yeah. Almost to a man. Everybody in there said everybody has. Every restaurant there said that. So it all started with Johnny Valentine in the coat hanger. Have you seen it? No, I haven't. I've heard about this. I don't know why people would think that would work. I don't know why you're in your hotel room and think, hey, I'm going to grab one of those coat hangers. I'm going to go to the locker room, find one of the boys and I'm going to whack him off. That just doesn't seem like something logically goes through your head. Like I'm going to fashion a loop on here. I'm going to find a guy sitting next to me and I'm going to put this around his yank. Was he throwing out the vibe and then he started fashion. Okay. I told you what I know. Okay. Don't act like my wife. Don't act like my wife. Let me look straight in this camera and say these are stories that I've heard about. This was not validated. No, but how do you make up stuff like that? Right? Is it a good call? Yeah, it's a good call. I'm just going to have to talk to David Crockett again. David, you got any more Johnny Valentine stories and he could probably give me some more. Anybody in the locker room over your years putting a household items on it? No, I've never heard nothing I know of. Oh, God, really, really a wonderful business with these stories. What do you think Casio? Oh man, what is this life? This is still just gone. It is still just, you know, what a good guy is. I've never been around Tony Shavani. He just, he doesn't care at all. Does he? No, he, uh, yeah, zero on the fuck given scale. And yeah, you mentioned it, man. I was, I was as shocked as anybody realized you guys have never crossed paths. Never crossed paths. He's always been at WCW or somewhere else. I've always been in different territory. Never crossed paths one time. He won the greatest commentators of all time and obviously, and you're right, zero fuck given, zero. He does not care. Thank you for Tony for joining us. Somehow, I mean, I know our name is Curt Jerkers. We didn't plan on having jerking in every episode though, but somehow it is length there. We're two for two here. The biggest shock I've gotten in the last like decade or more was Horn's Woggle-Telling that story. Because I was teeing up the rooster underneath the ring because we had the footage of it which nobody else has, which is a really good story. Not even close. Not even close. Zach Ryder's story, which by the way, you and I both, oh, yeah, we're fans. The people have spoken, my friend. The people have spoken. Matt Cardona, we're your biggest fans. It's not finished. It's not finished. The story is not finished. See the stories, John. I got a little something for you. I know, look, we're working on it. The internet is clamoring for a flogging mule- This doesn't end well. This does not end well. I know this doesn't end well. There's nothing serious about this. This is like trying to come and see if something really heartwarming for me. This is not good. We're working on trying to get a flogging the mule shirt. The people have spoken. There's nothing like mule flogging. Oh, but what else we might need to sell, especially after that, is a little bit of this, John. And I got something for you, especially since this shirt you're wearing. I'd like to, now this is plastic. I can't shape this. It's not going to be form fitting for you, John. If you like it, it's right. This is better. This is apparently what you do in the business when you're working with somebody. You can go easy way or hard way since I can't. I don't know which one to start with, but let me just give you some of that. That is disgusting. Who even thinks of that? Maybe we can figure out how to sell these with a little cowboy hat right there. Just a little, a dirty, hell, dust thing. Just for when you need one. You never know what you need. You got cowboy hats everywhere around here. Just what do you need? Yeah. We'll put a little one right here, a little branding. Maybe some curtains. What do they have curtains right here? We can get those for curtains, your of course. We've got this in research and development. How does that even happen? I mean, where does that? I don't even know who would even think of something like that. You tell me that you've never, I mean, surely somebody's done it to you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, do not, do not guess that. No, that's not a good thing. I don't know where the fan is. Oh, God. What is this? That is disgusting. I don't know. Johnny Valentine, the first one out with Greg and Medusa when they were dating and Medusa says she feels like some water underneath the table. Didn't figure out what it was. Johnny was at a restaurant, was pissing on her feet. And it was ruined like pissing on her feet. I just piss it on the floor and just like that was normal. Johnny was Valentine was crazy. What's wrong with all your people? All your people and this is insane. They're absolutely insane. Yeah, they're absolutely crazy. Yeah. I wrestled Greg and St. Angelo and he tells me I knocked his tooth out. It wasn't a close time. His dad was there. And so when his dad was there, when Johnny Valentine was there, Greg Valentine turned in the tank and he just all he was just beating. He was beating shit. I'm like, Greg, I understand your dad's period. Please get off me. So out of the fence, I guess, I hit him with the clothes and I knocked his tooth out. And so we're driving back to Abilene or where we're going. And I looked up and I see these bright lights just fired for me. I mean, I just fired. I've also copped or something. We had beer in the car. It's all shit. And the guys are just laughing. And one of the guys goes, oh, that's Greg. And then right, bam, hit us going about 90 miles out. Oh, yeah, going down the highway. Bam, run that road. We got beer, they got beer. He just keeps hitting them. Like, the guys in the car just laughing like this thing. That's normal. No, it's actually not. You're in death rays. This is the strangest cannonball run ever. Well, look, I feel like people are receiving it well at least first couple of days. We'll see after this one. Are we canceled yet? I mean, there's no after this one. If we survive, I think we're good to go for a little bit. Maybe until the next one. Yeah. I think I'm off this a week. Because from what we have already, you comedian guys do that stuff. Now, I, uh, now it's a much different green room. We don't, one, we don't dress nice enough to have coat hangers. Perhaps it's our best t-shirt. So the coat hangers are out. But, I mean, for another time, you know, I got a story about soap and a guy's ass. I bet you do. You got to be clean after you go. What, look, from the things we have ready to go and the things we have scheduled for curtain jerkers, this is, this is going to be a fun ride for everybody. And like you said, I have no idea when it's going to stop. Good talk. Sh, barrier problem. We can be canceled. I mean, like the whole internet cancels. I would hope y'all get to see what we. It'll be a mercy killing. Like fuck those guys. We did. We did roll out with, I mean, we came out of the gate. Oh, we're strong. Like, like, oh, dacus. Like, oh, dacus on tough. Edie. But we came out strong. And if you're, if you're in the business and we, if we have not contacted you yet. You have stories, get out there. Call us, please. Look, we are by your merch for supporting the trap. We will support by your merch that support you. Yes, we will. Curtin jerkers is not finished yet, either. We got to go back to our notice biggest, we're back for notice at the fan club. All right, John, this has been a good one, man. Y'all let us know what you think. We're having a blast I don't know what else to do it, but we're having a blast. Are people watching this? Judging by my Twitter lot of time line last week, yeah, they are watching. We'll see after this. The term, the term mule flogging. I don't think, I don't think anybody thought that was going to be the term of the year. Well, we, uh, nothing about anything we've done. We saw, we saw none of that coming literally. It's all none of that. None whatsoever. Whatever. You know, you know, Finley tried to sell horns foggle one time in Thailand. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He had him sold and horns foggle like he had him sold. Seriously, that's a true story. And horns foggle says, dude, you can't sell another human being. No, that's highly illegal. It is illegal. I think it all like, I mean, like 200 something, it's illegal. Yeah. What held it up? Did this foggle not pass inspection or what? I tried to get it back. Of course that held it up. Look at it. You know, you can pass. Yeah. So at one point, horns foggle says, dude, you can't sell me. And Finley says, I'll get you back. He could have probably bought him back deeper after one night. Oh my God. They don't sell him. I'll let it send him back. The postage would have been too much. We'll give you your money and some. Yeah. Yeah. You've made a huge profit. We're going to give him back and we're going to pay you like a wheelbarrow full of money. John, this is you. They should just have like money. That's right. That's right. And then the profit. Instant profit. Let's see if we can get that guy that's auctioning off our trans belt and put it off. We can auction off the Orange Foggle every single week. And like on Monday, people call us back and go, dude, you're taking him back. No, not unless you pay us double. Interest. Yeah. You need interest. You got to pay us double. That's a new scheme. That's walking with these shirts and her. We are on to something here, son. And you thought you had to talk to Conrad about money. You got one of me about money, too, sir. You damn right. Hell yes. All right. That's been great. I hope y'all see us again. Again. Maybe don't. We're going to miss you. We are. Hey, me. Just you know. Just you know. Oh my God.