Transcript
These days, we're all looking for healthy, tasty family meals and lots of variety. The good news is that our fishermen continue to bring us the best of the catch. Like fresh Irish hake and haddock, there are so many ways to enjoy them. Try delicious Thai curry with hate or mouthwatering Cajun seasoned haddock. For lots of tasty recipes and different meal ideas, visit Board Beer Desai and look out for Irish bacon. Had it. Next time you're shopping fresh ideas, great meals. The following program is a podcast Wine.com Production from Hollywood California by way of the Broken Skull Ranch. This is the Steve Austin show. Give me a hell. Yeah, yeah. Now here's Steve Austin. I have sitting here talking to the one and only superstar build on me Bill. Hey, man, where are you? Where am I talking to you? You were right outside of Memphis, Tennessee, right now. Yeah, I mean, Germantown. How did you end up over there? After all these years? All the journeys from from Scotland, Australian and all the time that I met you and worked with you in Tennessee, did you end up where you're at? Well, I lived in Hendersonville, where the baby's mamas for 29 years before she got tired of me, so that kinda need that. Then I gave it, you know, just try it again, you know? So I lived in Lexington, Tennessee, and that didn't work out too good for him. I tried it again and lived in Memphis, so that didn't put it through his or I'm trying it for a fourth time. And then he's in Germantown now. Why did they run you out of Lexington? Well, what was it? The law? An ex-wife? Ex-wife? Well, I mean, I guess it just left. You know how it goes. You've had a few of them in your day, right or trade and relationships. I think the only difference between being married and just being together is a piece of paper. Oh yeah, I kind of agree with you. I tell you what, I certainly had a few go rounds with the, you know, marriage, divorce. I got myself. Yeah, it's easier said than done, especially when you come from the business that we come and the business of pro wrestling entertainment, whatever, you got that much. Yes. So you have that much travel that much. Oh, god dang, distractions, let's call it. Yeah, yeah, anything could happen. And it certainly doesn't make it easy. The travel is what it is. You want to love your family. Nice things. You have to be going every day to do it. You know what I mean? You can't be home and make money. Do not in our business anyway. Hey, well, what are you doing right now? Because last time I talked to you about a week ago and I heard you was back with the circus and got you started in the circus way back in the day. So, or are you? Are you? Are you back with Cobra? The circus will lead on making some this money, so I don't want to leave. Still a sorry the 27th of this month? Yeah, so we've actually signed back up to be going. Yeah, so but two more weeks I'm sitting right, right this minute watching them play golf on the golf course I live on the golf course, right? Hated Jim and Germantown Country Club. Sounds exciting. Don't to bailed out here and a country. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, you know, a country club was what it called kind of blood and dry and up and down the road. How did you so what's your function within the circus? The marketing director has no mic in the good old days. I wouldn't have it in hand, but we did it after the elephants back when I did the bullying circus in Australia. But that was when I was 16 to 18. So now we do the marketing directors kind of like the wrestling business. You just say the word circus instead of wrestling. It's all the same things. You try to get people to come to the show, sell tickets, give them away, do whatever and get the ads for radio, television, newspaper, TV, whatever it takes. And that's what we did with nine months of the year. But I didn't go to the four six. I'm to going the last three. Well, how has been on the road these days after spending a lifetime on air? Because how did your in-ring career last bell Jesus over 30 years? So yeah, I started in 1964 and I'm starting to still do it. So are you still getting in the ring and having matches? Yeah, it's still pretty fair to say to myself now, do I do the stupidity that some of the kids do today? I want to try to watch some of them wrestling shows. And do you think I know I don't even attempt that? I mean, you know what I mean? The last time I was going to do that bombs and lay off the top rope, I climbed up onto the turnbuckle and I looked out and I for one, am I doing so? I just climb back now. I don't know what the people thought, but I didn't dive off, didn't know how stupid I just climbed back. Man, hook back up with a guy said, Let's go. So, yeah, but you know what? You've always ran your career like that. You never really took any. I mean, you probably took in. You share bumps. It didn't feel so good, but you never went out of your way to took it, to take a crazy bump that was going to thrill or excite the crowd on a suicide mission. I mean, it seems seems to me in the times that I work with you back in the day when I came in to Memphis, to Nashville and 90 and you were already an established veteran working on Typekit Lawler and other people selling out houses Mid-South Coliseum, among other things. But you've always been a guy that tried to learn how to work and tell a story in the ring and rely on getting over and using sound psychology and a hell of a damn match. And also, the business was perceived as being, you know, quote unquote real back in. But you never took stupid box. No, no. I bloody shame man was out way back in Australia in that when you came over and look for Jim Barnett, the Rangers bar was just like all young kids were for. That era was doing stupid stuff and the company said, you only to have so many months, so your volume of man is slowing down and when the year we get somewhere where you're working on top in the meantime. Then that's when you do them, you're trying to draw money, just don't go out there and have fun with yourself taking silly bumps because one day you'll land wrong and that will be all, she wrote. So like, I know that before I got here. Yeah, I mean, I mean, you can't. It's just it's real interesting. I don't know how much you keep in touch with today's current product, but you know, Daniel Bryan, it's kind of a really, really good worker, but somewhat of a cruiser style cruiserweight style worker and let us high risk maneuvers, but puts his body in harm's way a lot. And now, you know, it finally worked his way up to the top of that WWE ladder and now sidelined with a neck injury, and he underwent his first surgery to fix it to go into a second surgery. I guess the next couple of months after that first one settles down, but you know, my point is, and I'm not, I say this with all due respect to Daniel Bryan. But when you put your body on the line, I've said you get to your prime moneymaking years and you're on the sidelines, you know, as well as I do Bill. When you ain't working, you ain't getting paid. I don't know what the current system is, but back in our day, if you didn't work, you wouldn't make it own money if you wasn't making no money. It ain't like nobody's going to come over and hand you some groceries. You know, it was, you know, that's that's exactly what it was serving. And the guy I work with mostly is, you know, it was Jerry Lawler, and he's a hell of a worker, and he didn't want to do all that silly stuff, either to make a flying head scissors and a dropkick was pretty big for what we did. Or you may take the backdrop over the top rope, but you're really not doing that. You're not landing on the floor, you're breaking into the rope, the guy digging a hook, the top rope and you take the bump from the apron to the floor. It's not like some of them today. They land on the floor. Well, look at old Robbie. There's another good, high risk maneuver way back when before anybody else was doing that, we can hardly turn these magic. If I walk, it's just catch it up where you wouldn't get around 50 Man. He's one of my favorites of all time and it was your son in law or as he stood as he still your son in law. Yeah, basically, I don't think we get along great. But there's still there's still technically married yet. But you know, the Midnight Express and him specifically and I want my first TV title from him in Atlanta, Georgia. WCW by the Sea Pretty stove up right now, and I've heard he had a few hard issues as well. Yes. Yeah, I mean, well, you know, the lifestyle, you know, we just do back in the day, some people live more stuff than others, but drinking was probably the worst thing that we all did. Whiskey will be or whatever, and you have to slow that down. I mean, I'm 70 and still getting in the rain, doing a little stay with 208 pounds of savage fuel, insects and really fast. Me mean, I'll tell you about it. But so I mean, but I still enjoy what I do, but I will not work with the idiot if I get the show and I don't know anybody and say, Hey, brother, have you seen what this is? What we're going to do? And that's what we do. Nothing stupid. I don't try to hurt him and I'm not having him hurt me. But dude and bill, with all the years that you've been around and you started what was 62 or 64 62? Yes. Yeah, well done. The 64 was basically when you when you know, we're just getting to go in 63 64, his environment almost the right job for him. And then you got noticed and working and putting guys over on television and in a word was noticed you and brought you over. My question is bill through everything you saying and you know, back in the day when I came to us, you know, drinking a little bit of beer and that was par for the course. I mean, pretty much. And you know, this is a true story and about every car, you know, the guys are drinking beer on the way, the next town or on the way home. Actually, you know, everything was one shot. I was based out of Nashville. But, you know, as the years went on, things escalated. And then all of a sudden, you know, you get introduced to appeal there. There's a drug here. Does that whatever you're saying? Both of us are saying a lot of guys passed by the wayside. So what kept you, you know, going solo? How were you able to resist the temptation? Or were you always just a hey, say no to drugs, guy? Because I know you'd have your drinks because I had a few beers with you. But now, at 70 years of age, you've seen a lot of guys do a lot of stupid things, right? But I was lucky enough to have an office job. So when they were most in The Hangover or whatever it was they were doing, I hate to be selfish. And then you go home and eat lunch to get in your car and you drive to the town. Monday night in Memphis with Monday night, Louisville Thursday afternoon, like Wednesday Evansville Thursday, once a month, Lexington Rupp Arena or a spot show. People on Friday Jones were Saturday night and Memphis every Saturday morning and Jackson on the way home. So we haven't technically stopped when I say we need Bill Dundee because he didn't go to town as I did. So we would lay everything and do what we did. And Lawler would only come Memphis one day in Louisville to the end, and he kind of took off. So I was the workhorse of this story for a long time, just 24 seven and Eddie Marlon. So I didn't have time to do the other stuff. Now I like to drink the beer and just like I thought, coming home like everybody else, but I never really know. Have I'm stupid stuff? Yeah, yeah, but not not. On stupid stuff, let's put it that way, I went to a party and somebody said, Hey, do this, I have done the and I like that kind of feeling so but the other stuff, the white stuff was something you stay awake, but anyway. Right? Yeah. But no, I never, never, never, never appealed to me to do that every day. And I've seen guys do it every day. And I have to and you know, and don't get wrong. I've been around the horn and I talk very openly when I was living a little bit fast, but that was a short period of time and I didn't see any long term future in that. So, you know, I was always more kind of in the drinking crowd. Hey, one of the things that I really want to talk to you about Bill, because I was thinking about starting this conversation out there like, man, I'm talking to a superstar Bill Dundee, a guy who had a tremendous influence on my career. And you know, I read your book and I've got it right in front of me. Bill Dundee wrote a book probably about two years ago, and it says, If you don't want that answer, don't ask the question. As Bill Dundee's life story and man, through the career that you had, you know, back in the day. Born in Scotland and ended up over in Australia, I always thought, You are from Australia, but you've been a farmer, a cowboy. You joined the circus. You started training for basically a shoot fighting back in the day, got the business of pro wrestling. Now back to the circus. And you've taught so many people how to work over the years. I remember that when I rolled in to you, S.W.A.T. territory. I guess the name of Just Change and Jerry had just brought Fritz out in Dallas, and I come rolling in Mid-South Coliseum and I was greater than gra*s. I'd been working too much, and it wasn't very long after that. I started working with the superstar Bill Dundee himself. And I tell you what, you know the deal bill, because what are you? Your five seven? You said 209 pounds twisted steel rod sex appeal. I said, you know, an idiot like me and you've met a bunch like me, but I think I think I was a pretty good dude back in the day. But I come in ignorant six one six two, 250 pounds, former football player. I'm thinking, OK, I'm a lot bigger than this guy. You know, I shouldn't sell this or this out of whatever and barely knew how to work a high spot. Chris Adams taught me how to bop, taught me about two wrestling holes and the rest, as you know, is on a job training. And you were always very, very patient with me and very giving in the ring and you always got yours and you always stay well, that's a testament to you staying over for over 30 years. But dude, what goes through your mind when you get in there with a young crowbar like myself and is like, OK, here we go again. I got to show this kid how it's done. Don't get me wrong, I love the people that you had the biggest legs. You mean when I say scared me and it was scared me to death, I still have this big bastard falls on me. It'll just hurt accidentally. Yeah, I mean, you with solid muscle. What do I do? 50 Yeah, give or take? Yeah. And I was like the best to stand on Aretha. I was a monster, so my 200 pound frame and people say, Wow, rest in this wrestling that when your opponent outweighs you by 70 pounds and he just tackles your ass, it's very shattering. I mean, when we do the double mark of the year with going down on me, I got the worst of it because I was running into a brick wall. So I was like, I got to be very gentle here and very careful. So you're just careful, but we didn't do stupid stuff. Yeah, we hit a little clumsy really on some things. Yeah, because he was trying to, you know, just getting going and saying that we off with you or a not to me, after 40 years in the business, you can go to somebody and say, Hey, this is real easy. But when you start, you think to yourself, I'm never going to get this. And then one day it just hit you off. You go and you become a star someplace, and maybe you always start that. We think that would happen with you in Dallas, Texas. No, we you know, we're sort of, wow, this kid doesn't kill somebody. It'll be a wonder. But anyway, you made it. We are not married. A Not Not Just Kill Somebody and Ray, but kill a bear territory. You know, back in the day, you know, with that, we were sort of the same towns every single week. It was the same towns over and over again. And that's the thing that I loved about breaking in in that territory was you were forced to learn to work as soon as possible because you couldn't work. You know, like like right now the WWE and I'm not speaking disparagingly. I'm just talking about today's system versus the other system. You're working that weekly character. WWE is a giant loop, and you might be 30, 60, 90, 120 days from getting back to that next town or in close proximity. You had to change your match up every single night of the week, and if you were in a program, you damn sure had to change it up every night of the week. So that really helped me get up to speed. Was all those towns after another right? And there were the same lines. Memphis with my new label, which is the Evansville, Indiana, was Wednesday Thursday once a month with Lexington Rupp Arena, Tupelo. Friday, June four, the Saturday night and. And just not sure, even if we was going to the same half a dozen towns and everybody got rich, it got so frigging rich, you built a seventeen thousand square foot house. I got I got to ask you the question about the seventeen thousand square foot house, because in your in your book, you talk about the big house on the hill. It caused a lot of heat within the territory. What was the story behind the big house? Well, his mother said he had an illusion from the with that he told everybody said, I'm going to build a new house watch. When you start making a few dollars, I mean, you've done it, you've paid off your little one, your head, then you move to a bigger one. As we got more successful with the house. Vegas is a natural progression. Everybody does that. I started off in a little three bedroom, one with Jamie and his mother and his sister over in Hendersonville, in the poorest part of Hendersonville, and worked up to a bigger house on the hill up there and nothing major, but just about a mile from him. So we we have time to get to the bottom of the hill. So he said he was going to build a house and he decided to give the guy credit. He laid out the plan. He went to an architect. He drew the whole thing from go to whoa. He designed the whole thing, and it just seemed like it got bigger every time he went to do something to do it, and it ended up a monstrous thing. I mean, it was the actual part he has lived in was 7000 square feet. But these offices and his ballroom and all the things it was around, you know, the house itself with three bedrooms, a kitchen, the bathroom, whatever else, and that was about seven or eight thousand square feet. So, you know, and as Jerry, Laura said, Bill, you build one wing of that. And I built the marriage in good old days that you said that. But now he will make jokes about as they built a big house. So anyway, he sold it to a guy, and I think the guy went broke trying to pay for it, so he got his money back. He had everybody's happy and we still talk. But it did cause a rift because at that time, Jerry Lawler was a partner with Jerry Jarrett, and obviously he felt like he was getting this. Not the short end of the stick. But the short side of the payoff. Well, I think technically we know it was back in the day they got the first bite of the apple. Well, this is where you kind of screwed up. You had a housewarming party and he had Bobby there sitting there, and he had the Nashville Symphony Orchestra come play. The music competition was singing for him. His wife wanted the orchestra. He invited Lance Russell, Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler, Stan and Steve for the fabulous ones. On the belief that all the rest of us. So when Lawler showed up, he was you can see the look on his face that he was pissed off. And you see this house? Yes, every day if I'm to laugh at you. I live in it half as much as those in the office. But, you know, I mean, that's where was. So that was when he went back. And I guess with his little wheels to work in his you haven't got together. That made another deal and they become more big partners. Well, that never ended up with the 17000 square foot house, but the one he has in Memphis now. But I think Vince bought that one is pretty big here. Nice place down, you know? Yeah, but it was a great story to book because it was a real eye opener for Jerry Jarrett and a power play because Jerry Lawler was going to split off unless y'all could have a come to Jesus meeting and living out the level of the playing field a little bit. Right. And we went to TV that day and nobody was like, What happened? Lawler had everybody on. Well, yeah, you had them all along. Oh, no, were in Memphis. But the reason we knew about it, my daughter is dating Bobby. Yep. And you know, Bobby, he's one of the nicest country honest people you'll ever be around. You do a fault. And it was really your fault that he did this because a lot of us don't talk to nobody till we get the meeting with Jarrett. Well, Bobby felt guilty. I guess it was Donna Donna tells her mother. So Beverly called Jarrett and says, Jerry Lawler is going to take your territory, except that we don't have enough brains to take my territory. OK. That was the start of that. So it starts to me saying you lying about the whole thing going on. I said, Know what? What's happening? He said, Well, Beverly just called and said they're going to steal the ring from him. Well, I don't know. So he started calling people and nobody and all the boys showed up in Memphis. Lance and Jarrett and Jerry Lawler all had the meeting at the TV. They get their stuff all sorted out. Who was getting who was what got the shaft. As usual, I didn't get none of that, but in the past there's still work. But anyway, that was all right. So they got together the case. They made up all the boys showed up and it was a lot of promotions. I'm sitting here talking to the one and only superstar Bill Dundee, a guy who had a tremendous impact on the career of Steve Jobs and a guy who took me under his wing back in the day and gave me some psychology lessons and had great matches with me. I'm coming right back with more superstars. The after these messages from my sponsors, the Steve Austin show on the Steve Austin show. The Steve Austin show, Steve Austin show returning with superstar Bill Dundee. Hey, you credited Bobby Shane with, you know, saying, Hey man, the bodies only got so many bumps bumps. Bob said it, but it was at a time when you were. I can't remember the territory was, but you said that Red Bastard and Mark Loewen really helped you as far as the psychology of working goes. What were those guys able to teach you? What did they impress upon you? Well, for the day in the era of what they saw, I was little red by Steve was small compared to what came to Australia. Got to see a lot of Killer Kowalski, while the Von Erich, you know, that was the type of heels. And red was a little bitty little bitty mean. I'm a little bitty for the rest. And he was probably five stand 210 pounds, 215 at the most. And he would say, Bill, you can't go in there and change that. We're just explaining units and let them big guys beat you around and drop everything on your phone, even though they're working. It takes a toll on you and do them certainly bump to me. If I slam the door, I do 50. It's a little hard for me to do that. It takes a lot of it from just throwing me to the mat and you've done it with powerslam and, you know, sitting with Brad, Eddie and tried to drive you through the matt powerbombed quotes that I'll let her swing a little. And that's what you said. Said, Don't take the silly bumps and don't let people do that yourself. They were very good at that and my glue and he was it was a sleeper hold, so there was nothing real dangerous. And that and shortly after the roads right and behind you asleep. And that was it. So but they took bumps when they were to do them, but they never did silly stuff. But what was the secret to when you came over and started working with Jared and you were putting the guys over in Australia? You come over in Upper Tennessee and you're good, buddy George Barnes comes, and you've got to start off as a tag team now. George ended up getting homesick about three or four months in, and it goes back to Australia, right? Right. Okay. So then that leaves Bill Dundee by himself, and you're not superstar yet, but explain to me what you're and Lawler had taken a hiatus. He was out of the territory. When you and George came and you all got over and you all got over big because you was a very physical tag team with a lot of a lot of intensity. But what was it? What is the key to you getting over in that territory at five seven? £250m say at the time to get over like you did. Because I mean, I watch TV today and I watch a lot of guys struggle to get over. So I'm asking you what your secret was to getting over back in the day, being your shot. OK, we got here, and George was probably six foot, even an 225 230 at his heaviest, which is usually between 25 to 230. So he was six feet tall. I was five seven in the restaurant, which is probably about five seven in the city. Who knows? But anyway, I thought it was six eight. So the very first time Christine Jarrett saw me, we walked into the office and Mick Gooda said just built a brand new office up on 8th Avenue that moved from the Sam Davis hotel. And nobody told us this when we got to the Sammy Davis hotel and went to see the rest of the office and said wrestling office images of Nick Willis and Roy was unbelievable. Wow, there's nobody here, so the whole thing was cleaned out. So this old man, what the hell? No, you see, the movie didn't have the element of the old man. What's the elevator? They had one of them at the Sam Davis, and we went up to the state would come back and watch women's wrestling. But it was the wrestling and this organization. Oh, he he moved up on the Eighth Avenue North. Well, we have no car. We've just arrived in Nashville, so I haven't, you know, since about two miles up there. I think you'll just know that there. So we walk, walk up to the next. So we get up there. And he is this nice, beautiful office built in that part of town. And you can do that like dogs ball. So he has a fence around it. The doors are locked. After we got to work for him, we knew why. All this resort, it was the end of what we thought. Why is he in jail here? Everything's locked all the gates and locked. The doors are locked. So we have given people under siege, but nobody's they don't know who we are. We're, you know, we're, you know, open the door. So my girlfriend finally comes to do, is this guy? Hogan said. Yeah, don't do that. Do you here? So anyway, that brings in so when we walk into the room where you know, the meeting room, Christine Jarrett says that little one needs to be a good guy, right to be a. Well, didn't respect bad. Talk dirty and clean and cheap. All good and bad. No heels and baby faces. But anyway, so he needs to be a good guy is due to be a bad guy. I said, No, no, this Christine, or I'm a bad guy, so I didn't want to be a babyface. You know, when you start, it's more fun being a heel. So anyway, she said, no, you definitely need to be a good guy. So we didn't see her do that. When we got here, we had to work for Nick and oh God, that was an experience. George Lewis and Nick. And that's my boy. You know, Nick was my boy, you guys and you worked with him. You look after him in. Well, I hardly worked with Harley Race in Nashville. And there were well limit for two minutes a day or some gift of finish hardly had to go save George from the people because we wanted to beat up George. They knew he couldn't be. Toleration hardly did a job before people even thought about it back in them days. So getting back to the dressing room and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, that was that was an experience. So they wanted me kind of babyface from day one. But I was George and he got over his heels. So they left me that that when George went home. Jerry continues this. We're switching gears. Asked whether you like it or not. Well, OK, but you want me to do so. That's what we did. The interns come in, we and remain beat up any moment, and George and me had worked the program with Eddie and Tokyo. So when I hit the ring to tell Ken not to do it, he pushed me and I nailed him and they jumped on me and he came and saved me. So I think I got up, you know, it was done in Tennessee. So that was the start to build on the just build on the good guy. Now that was 1976, we brought big bad John in here, who had been a bad guy black outfit, black leather coat, steel helmet. Everything he wore remark ruin in Australia for 15 years. So I knew him over this. So Jerry, Jerry, this in 1976 for the bicentennial year. And you know, he was very smart. So he comes into the big bad John. We're going to switch you babyface and John Babyface. I'm I'm a heel, he said. I know that. But we're going to put this little devil with you, and he's going to do all the segments and thank you and you're going to come in and kick a*s. And we're going to name the Bicentennial Baby and you're going to wear the Big Top Hat, the red, white and blue outfit, the last. So what do you think you're the boss? So why not just maybe the first week will be down there, Francis? There's always that. Not on the bicentennial, baby. So John comes, they think they don't talk like that. So I don't know if I'm going to be the bicentennial baby. This gentleman right here. Bill Dundee is now bill superstar Dundee from this day on and people who study only superstar Dundee because he said it on Memphis, Stevie and we are 30 years later. But so he gives you the the nickname superstar and that man. That's one that's just a great name. Superstar Bill Dundee. And, you know, obviously I have tremendous respect for you. So you got that going for you. You had a very solid work style inside the ring. And here's the thing, and I think you touched upon this a few minutes ago. You're five seven, but you're in your mind. You're six eight and you didn't take any crap from nobody. And one of the stuff, one of the things that I really enjoyed about your work as a babyface, you had tremendous fire, which you have to have. You got to be able to show, you got to have fire, you got to be able to work as a heel. You had a main street. You're a c**ky, arrogant and that's money, especially kind of coming out of a five seven dynamo. You have to have the means to reach these parts are smaller than everybody. You know how it is? Yeah. When did you when you did? Did you always have that tremendous work in place because I go back to, you know, watching all of your work, but I love the battles between you and Lala would talk about Lawler a little bit because you've got to go on record saying, Hey, man, if there's no Lawler, there's no day because half of your career was done and the other half was Lawler and a pivotal part. You guys each played in each other's careers and such a tremendous feud, a lifelong feud, a 30 year feud. How did you get that working punch? So damn, Chris, whether it was a left or right, you had that thing dialed in. Twenty four seven. And there's a lot of people you watch the show today and you don't see a whole lot of textbook bad a*s working punches. No. And Lawler had one, too. Yeah, but here was the saying that we called them, I think, on each other and we never really what would we say if we thought it was? Another real Soviet, nobody b***hed and nobody came back crying, and nobody, I mean, you know how it is when the million thing you do, the look on your face, you can tell when the guy's been spotted. Yeah. So you just I just did it. I was always pretty good with the right hand, not so hot with a laugh, but on the South Pole anyway, so I buckshot the South Pole style, so I'm all right and I have no real left. I couldn't knock you out when my left hand if I wish they had a 10 year old kid. I just have no way it's all right, and I think it was just that's how it was working, too. But how did you put together your style of work? Because I mean, for a large part of your career was basically started brawling, but you prided yourself in your wrestling skills, as evidenced by, you know, many of your matches with Tony Charles. You love to wrestle, but a lot of your part was was stand up a brawl, you know, and a lot of that was Lawler, because that's the way he worked. So what what what was the true build Dundee style? Because you could do it all. What did you prefer? Oh, I think I really enjoyed the matches were Billy Roberts and Tony Charles, and in the restaurants and all the guys, it could actually do that. That is a whole lot more like Broadway. This is how you can get the people I work with. But my uncle in Lexington, Kentucky, rubber in $79000 house back in the good old days, that was a lot of people we wrestle. This was the finished rehearsal for 40 minutes. And we break, you know, you push the guy in the ropes, you step back and break and he step back and break and we check now and we did all the things the people forgot about the FARC. Yes. So we just wrestled and holder, will they only take one other than cover it up? Blah blah lost everything. The finish was at the time to go back in their hands and put my hands up and step back, and he went black. Then I went one two three and we had a riot. Yeah, there were still much enjoying the wrestling part, so they will have you give it to, they will buy it. And that was the finish. Have you did that to make people laugh at you? Yeah, a vision that will work, but it will work if you have the people. If you're over and they're buying with you, a satellite or you brought up the name of Billy Robinson, and I've got some Billy Robinson questions for him because he was a guy that I was never around, never met him, didn't, didn't really even catch his body of work until literally bill about six seven months ago. And I'm watching every single thing I can on YouTube, on this guy. He was absolutely incredible and one of the probably the best catch wrestlers of all time. And I also heard he was a bad stick of wood, if you know he got you to ring and he was extremely tough. But God dang, what a worker, and I'm mad that I miss so much of his work. Tell me about your matches with him and also about him as a person. Well, Billy was one of them, guys, it was actually a lot bigger than Billy looked right. Some guys are just he. He wasn't, but he was a big guy. He was six to three and two, 45 to 50, and he just never looked until you was in the ring with his hands and his wrist was sticking a big hand and he could wrestle and he could reach it anytime he felt like it. But I would attack him like a little pit bull. I would. I'm going behind your rubbish. This is me and him having fun in the ring, but I got behind. He was here. I would come. I ain't been there yet. Yeah, well, that was the left, you know? And that was a kind of the joke to me and him. So and that's how he was. That's how good he was. He could be worse and I could be shooting, and I still haven't got behind him yet or took him down. None of that stuff. And you know, it's just, yeah, he was an unbelievable worker and he never had no problems working this day, but lots of the same. What? He's pretty tough and they find him, but he does favor some of the guys in the wrestling business and no problem. Real tough guys don't have a problem because they know it's to work right. You know what I mean? So Billy was beaten for the title of being part of the belt to do whatever. Okay, that's great. No problem. You had no problem doing nothing. And he was a hell of a worker, and just the way he would put a hold on you and get him put holds on, you know, get you out of him and do so and people that while it was great. But he did it all. Billy Joel, there was another one. The thing about the and you know, I remember when Steve Ringo first came to WCW and I think he was influenced by a lot of Billy Robinson's work and that was happiest. And, you know, back in the day when when you worked with Steve Regal as Lord William, I mean, that was what Steve did for 70 percent, which matches was put a lot of the green guys he was working with and holes reversed and put himself back. And it basically be Steve wrestling himself with the body of another person, and he'd make him look like a million bucks. Now, back in the day, you guys could all work. But when you working with the Billy Robinson and probably to a large degree, the whole roster there wasn't too much set in the ring other than here. They're a high spot because it was all work. You fill in the gaps, guy puts a hold on your version. You start working that hold with a Billy Robinson. Was it the same thing? I mean, all of sudden, this guy just switching you in and out? Yeah, and he knew. And it's kind of like you just stay loose with jerking you around to do whatever they need to handle up on you. And it doesn't belong in any locker rooms. You from the hammerlock spins around in front of you for a space, walks in and looks like he's joking, Yeah, you just go with him. It's kind of like, you know, well, you know what's in it? So it works. But most of all, they don't know what the wrestling part is. It's like you go. Before Daniel Bryan, he started down there with Danny Davis and we had, I mean, he was something else that was his name when he was and he was Randy Hale in the making the power pole or whatever it was. And he worked. Yeah, and I like to watch him. He's one of the few that I actually watched today. Maybe it's the size, but anyway, he's very good at it and he can do. That just doesn't seem right, but he can do it right. Hey. So what was the spark of, ah, the beginning of what would become, you know, the Lawler Dundee feud? And it seemed like every time I found a lot of you, a lot of your matches, and at the end of this interview, I'm going to give everybody these matches and some of the, you know, the loser leaves town match. I mean, just an early match, a bunch of stuff that you guys did. But what was it about you and Lawler that was so intriguing? We wasn't in love with one another. We have respect for one another's professionalism and what we did both did in the ring of what he did. And he was always a hell of a talker. So he wanted to be the big. But really, technically he was the big, though he was the king, I was a superstar. Things have got to have a couple of points more than superstar. And he, yeah, you know, and so you kind of live like that. And I I just watch it. Okay? He's the top dog. I'm the next top dog. So. And we wasn't in love with one another and Jerry Jarrett would go. And if he were to high respect one another, it was. Jerry Lawler said this bill bandied about your jacket or something. Know then he would go along and say, Don't you think good ground sucks? Just silly little things like that. So you go into the ring thinking this son of a b***h. But like my jacket today? Oh, okay, you know, just when you get this, it kind of. And there was a reason for that. Jimmy Hart told me that Lawler Jarrett told him they should do. I have to keep Lawler and Andy apart because of the ever got together in the territory. We never had enough brains to do that. Even when he went over back to the thing, he never came and talked to me. He lost everybody except me. So I kind of asked him. I said, Well, why didn't you come and talk to me like you did everybody else? He said, Well, boy, yeah. But when you're talking about money and points in an office, that can change, right? Right. But I never got the chance. So he just got the groove, and then he just figured, well, he will stay with Jarrett. Well, Jeff Jarrett would do this and do that. I say this, I say that. But if it hadn't been for Jerry Jones, maybe the last would still be a monster. You probably shouldn't call him, he said. Yeah, it's not the favorite we'll get. It took a year and I mean, Braun showed up here and he gave us a sit down with John Key back, and we thought that was a fortune. And it was a fortune. I remember when one was, yeah, when I rolled in to us, NWA and ninety man, I was making either fifteen or twenty dollars a night. And you know, the drives and that was probably overpaying me when you brother, when you cash your check in Evansville at the liquor store, always to cash them at and you cash in a sixty nine dollars cheque for the week to kind of live a little bit on the thin side. I used to call that place a Nutrisystem territory because all the new guys who came lost weight because you couldn't afford to eat and you knew where every buffet was in town. Yeah, but the man that made you today, I know that we all. Say them stories to me when I give the service away back and. We never got rich either we never meet with the Fed has never had much money, but it makes you look what the dollar does for you. Oh, don't let me tell me which I mean. Easy come, easy go. It was like, it's never going to end, but it does end. Oh, I had ours go on record saying. And that's what I was making. And I remembered I went back to Texas to turn heel against Chris Adams, and when Jerry brought me back, he gave me a hundred dollar a night guarantee. And that lasted for a couple of months, and the territory took a nosedive and we went back to whatever it was that he could afford to pay me. But when I look back at those days riding up down the road with the guys and I was ride with and working with the people that I was. And you know, that's that's almost. There's no periods of your career where you're just learning, and it's so fun because you always wanted to be a pro wrestler and then you start to get kind of good at it and then you really enjoy that part of it. And then you kind of start making money. And that part's good, too. So all phases, whether you're staab and learning, making money or whatever, was a blast for me just because I love the business and I'm sure it probably was the same for you. Yeah, I mean, I used to go to pay us back in the day because that was all the work and the way the circus and the fans and I went to Shaman's boxing club and I was always a little kid. I mean, I was like a girl with long hair and pretty face. But anyway, I would go and say, Oh, that's a big mess. So I would stand in the ground and they would pick me. I go in there, Look the boy. And then when the people was actually paying me shaman to, they could never meet the guy. But there were working women, and there were some tough guy who came with the big guys. And so you can see them and they were losing a few bucks back, man. So, yeah, I admit it never really made a lot of money, but it's good stuff to talk about the deal. It's a good education. I was watching some of your matches on YouTube, and I know you had several scaffold matches now. Way back in the day, I can't. I think it was 1990, one or two of the Great American bash. I got booked at my one and only scaffold match with peer news, and Terry Taylor and Terry Taylor was a good worker news that close to 400 pounds had no business on a scaffold. Bobby Eaton was also on this match, one of greatest workers of all time and a super sweet guy. And in my myself, I got no business being on a scaffold. I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't love heights either. And then what they had done, bill, they said the wrong scaffold. So here's the reason. And Dave Meltzer called it called this the worst match of the year worst work match of the year. Well, when you got underneath the scaffold, they had set the the one with the tubes were so big you couldn't wrap your hands around them. So that totally eliminated any kind of thing where you could hang from the scaffold and have a little jeopardy and some near catastrophes. We were relegated to staying on that platform. It sucked a*s. We we never killed the territory, but you built in some great ones. In particular, I'm going to give out the time code to the scaffold mash bill Dundee and Sweet Brown Sugar, which was actually Koko B, where before it turned into Koko, was a two out of three falls. June 21st 82 Mid-South Coliseum with the referee Jerry Calhoun. Well, my question is I read when you first got in the circus, you were working with the elephants. But then also I hear that you are a trapeze artist watching the scaffold match the way you're swinging from that damn scaffold, dude. There's a couple of high spots where other men do. It's about to die and then you start climbing the thing like a monkey. You all do a dose, you know, almost fall off. I mean, it was a hell of a damn scaffold match to what I'm saying. So how did you feel on those things? Well, let me rephrase that. The trapeze artist part I did, the elephants then was the guy. Is that hard to learn? He said, Would you like to learn this deal? Bull and one of the Muslim brothers? And he said they did. I said, Well, yeah, I'd like to get up there. So when you're up there, then on the ground looking up, it's like the scaffold doesn't look so high until you're up there looking down on that little platform. And they showed me the thing where you bring your legs back behind it and you put your hands to go. And the catch is that you handed I did about three days of that. That was my trapeze. I said, I don't think I want to be a trapeze artist. I just sit somersaults and all that. I'm saying the same things, you know, you can do in some things, you know, you can't. So when the guy wrote that in the program in Memphis, you said, Well, what did you do in the circus? Well, I looked after the elephant and I tried out for the trapeze and I said the words, Try it out. And he wrote, trapeze artist. So then this it means you can do it. And what I did was just learn. Well, let's talk about the scaffold match with sweet brown sugar for a second. Do you remember that match? Yeah. And we a pretty stiff kicks in on that theme, too. I mean, it was a it was a great work. It was a damn good match. Did you like doing scaffold matches? Because again, I'm not a fan and you remember the big the one that they did in WCW were road warriors, and Cornette took the long bump and blew his knees out. Yeah, that was dusty. Big Brother, the Big Brother passed away. Bobby Rogers, yeah, he told Jimmy, he said, Well, mother will catch you can't get the 270 pound double lord falling off a scaffold. Bobby, you out of the way in Jimmy hit the ground. You saw what happened. Lose me out or his ankle or something. Well, yeah, you can't catch a human being at that kind of distance, much less ten feet. I mean, you can kind of give them a cushion, but at that kind of distance, you'd be crazy to try to catch a guy. It happens, and we just can't. So that was not that she'd never been in, would say we call it the night in the sky walk. Everybody think it was his idea, which it wasn't. We'd done to it. And then, you know, I got roped into doing the first one. That one revealed how worried Jarrett told me that him and Don Green had blown off a program with a scaffold match. I say the scaffold that you said, Yeah, scaffold match, what did you do? But basically the same you do in the ring. He had backdrops and hip tosses and all kinds of things. So it's not what you said. It's a great story. Yeah, yeah. He said, Yeah, I did anyway. Some I have a tape of somebody give me a video of it that were on a six foot long ladder through six foot ladders and a plank across the top, and there were two guys holding the ladder. They never stood up. They sat on it and punched at one another. Going green, the bumpy hung off its vintage feet down the street with four inches off the ground. That was what and I played it on the bus. You may have been there when we played on the bus. Go to Dallas. I read it. I read the book. I can't remember if I saw the tape or not, but I read it a book that after you played that tape, you ducked you for a couple of days. Yeah. So I played the tape. I it was the man with the gavel, but they say, Here is somebody gave it to me, Oh my God. But he was kind of mad at the superstar, but he got over. It shared the bulls**t. But anyway. Yeah. Anyway, and watching so much of the matches that I watched. And of course, you know, going to TV, they're back in the day and back in the day that that loop was, you know, Monday, Memphis Tuesday, Louisville Wednesday unveiled Thursday Spot Show and then get on a bus drive to Dallas and works for Dawn Friday night. Get back on a bus drive to Memphis to work TV Saturday morning in Memphis. Go get your car wherever you left it. Go back to your hotel, take a shower, go to the Nashville Fairgrounds. Work at Saturday night, maybe Sunday. We was off and and watch and that was the schedule. And then going to those Memphis TV tapings and watching all your matches back, listening to Lance Russell do the Play-By-Play. That guy was such a big part and Dave Brown to a degree. But really, Lance Russell was the guy who was the glue and all of the chaos and the mayhem and the great stories you guys were telling over there and angles doing the Play-By-Play stuff. How important was Lance Russell in your mind? To me, this is to analysis and I like the best. Gordon certainly was the best that Colin. Actually, restaurants go behind taking down, do whatever, take away the head the body will follow and all that kind of stuff. He was very good at doing that. But Lance Russell was the best that Paul talking to a guy realized he thought could do an interview, which is when I got here, I started stammered like everybody else did do reviews on live TV and Lance would pull interview out of me and everybody else couldn't really talk. Lawler was always seemed like he was a good dog, but you know, so yeah, Lance was the best in doing that, and he came across as believable what he said, you believe. And another thing you know, when you've got a guy out there who completely can talk, he would almost ask the guy questions and an answer. Um, for him, it was a real art and a guy was absolutely incredible. One of the things that I really enjoyed, and I'm going to give this time go to at the end of the podcast as well, was it was one particular well, it was the one particular show that was dedicated to the loser leaves town match. I guess it was a one in eighty three, all basically spent. I'll show and it was you all at the announce desk. You were beside Lance and then it was Lance and Eddie, Marlon and Jerry Lawler. A lot of tension and you guys are going back and forth and a couple of pull up. And then there's another seated session where you guys are going through the paces and telling the story You were, you were. You didn't give your self credit in the beginning as a babyface promo, but as a heel promo, I really thought you were bad a*s because you had that edge. You had a chip on your shoulder and you were talking to a lot of s**t and you were backing it up. So I think your heel promos were outstanding. Don't don't. Don't you feel as a heel? You talked better promo that as a babyface? Yeah. After one on one, we're kind of got going. But even in the heel wanted to begin and bonds with most of the talking and I would do the thing. And yes, and he used to say, and you know. As well as I do, and I think it's kind of like like a movie mogul making a movie, I would imagine that made one. But when I was a hero, I became this c**ky little fella Bill Dundee. And I believe in that plucky little fella Bill Dundee, and that's what I portrayed to the people. There wasn't really a work that was me, right? I mean, you know, I would fight him if somebody said, You little b***h, I kick your a*s. You may be you. You'll be in a fight. You'll know you didn't fight when you wake up, whatever the next day. But I am laying down, you know what I mean? So yes. And that was how I felt. It was a kind of like I would rather be naked, right? 70 year old. And I'm like being a babyface. But when I was younger, I like being the hero. And I really thought, I can walk baller, you know? So I mean, I would say this is a real I really like and what? We never had a cross world with a man never even going to look like come to a real fight. But I believed in my head. I could, and I think he believed in it. I think you probably want me to find out. So I would talk just like that. I'm sitting here talking to the one and only superstar Bill Dundee. I'm coming right back with more superstar after these messages from my sponsors the Steve Austin Show. The Steve Austin show. I have seen her jump into the one and only superstar, Bill Dundee, you know, back in the day when you look at some of the I used to have an old VHS tape, some of the old music videos you guys shot. And there was one showing you travelling down a road of Dunn to a Willie Nelson show. I couldn't find that one. But, you know, a lot of had won him driving around in a Rolls Royce and Lincoln and doing his thing. But what was the genesis behind the idea of the bad reputation? VIDEO Joan Jett Song and you're riding your black motorcycle. You all filmed it up there on Jared's property, I would imagine. And whose idea was it to put you on that motorcycle and film that video? Well, technically they are I had I had a motorcycle anyway, and I did that, so we're trying to bring up the hill. I was switching here on that video. Yeah. So I was trying to get Joan Jett with a bad reputation with me because Lawler would make the interviewer say, Well, not to problems, and you don't give a damn about your reputation. And he would go on with that saying like, Well, I would like to make a video, so just come up to the house and we'll make one. And that's just what we did. You know, I was reading your book and I enjoyed it very much. But one of the things I called you the day I said, Dang, bill, I said, I remember one time your work and I guess what? Mid-South Coliseum and you wrote a motorcycle ring and I heard there was a big crash, and I never have heard the story firsthand from you. I said, Why didn't you put it in the book? I thought there were some legal ramifications. You go, Oh no, I have just forgot it because I was excited about writing everything else. Break down the motorcycle story for me and detail, so I know what happens. Okay, this is exactly what happened with Lawler. First started doing the entrances and then we can see when one time you came up to the stage with a forklift, it looked like it was coming up to the stage smoke. Yeah, yeah, he was doing all that. So we were having a six man tag the fans Lawler and Dundee on one side and Jimmy Hart and his family on the other. So Lawler want everybody to have an entrance. I mean, Jerry. So Lawler was coming in on the white horse. The fans was coming in with Fargo in the limo. And, of course, Marlon Brando to ride his motorcycle. So I go to Jericho and I said, Hey man, let me write my motorcycle to the ring. He said I wouldn't let you ride a motorcycle to the ring if the the business depended on it. He said, You're crazy. I said, No, man, we'll just do the thing. So I was supposed to be on Eddie Mullins golf cart, but we traded the same covers that turquoise jumpsuit. I just go stand on the back and Mr. Crawford and somebody was going to drive and I was going to hold the cape out and be like Elvis and walk me on the back of a golf cart, drive it down to the ring, step off me in the ring. And that was billed as the day we went to go get the golf gods. The battery was better than TLC do. That cost me they all. I really have more sense than to do this, but take your motorcycle and it's the go kart. Don't show up where we can't get it running. You can ride the motorcycle. Well, this 10000 people live the fabric, let in on the limo down the road. And if Andrew Hot is going to get a good pop, they're really over the time, right? OK, here you go. Yeah. And targeting all have been ranked. So now I go, Jerry just said I went all the way the back fence and was on one wheel when I passed him could have been don't know. We said your hair was blown at the back. You had to be doing 50. I know. Oh man. But anyway, I told the man, do not turn on the spotlight. You all the way up in the rafters and report like coming down the I'll make it look like a big superstar to me and don't make it dark and don't turn on the spotlight. Man agreed. I met the from the back of the fence and under the building. You know, when you went through the back door, there was a little ramp guy thing. That's when the bike kind of jumped up on the back wheel. But anyway, we got up a little bit down down and he turns the freaking spotlight on I can't see nothing. I went, Oh my god. So the floor, you know, the Coliseum was to get the condensation. The flow was a little damp. I touched the front brake to slow it down. That's what you tell you on a motorcycle. It's no different than the back of the combine. So I put the front making the front wheel slid out from under me. Oh, by him and we go under this thing. I just thought, Oh my God, I was dark and I picked the bike up and I'm going. The lights went back on. I had to do, I'm standing there holding the bike and this girl is laying on the floor. So a lot of us coming in on the horse, so the guy comes to take the bike back. He pushes the bike back and one of the security guards picks the body up. Now a lot of us coming in and the people are going nuts, a little fussy and had an awful lot preceding the body. So he's carrying this girl in his arms and he's walking up and I walked him while I'm in the ring. I'm as nervous as a Hornchurch. I'm watching Lawler and he's looking and he sees the guy carrying the body and he turns his whole head around. He looks at what you walks by the horse and he looks and he looks all the way to the back and we have to bring the horse down right when he steps off and he gets in range. Just I I think a lot of hope is this dead? I don't know. I just go up in the ring here and he picked them up when he's taking her to the back and then you move. You saw, he said, well, she looked like she was going to steal it and he's on this anyway. Get to the back and to provide do all kinds when we get there. I'm glad it didn't happen. Ten years later, because she would own the. With everything we all had. So she's back there, everybody who can talk and do it, we do the match and come to the back. And yeah, it's real. We're talking to anybody and they're always Jarrett's limo driver, so. We're talking to the lady who actually watches pictures, I like a picture of the fans, I like one of the older, like Laura Jackie Farwell. Everybody will get a picture so everybody gets protective signs and they stand her up. Everything's good, just about 20, 21 years old, I guess. And Bobby Mineral-Rich, the man you're not going to assumes, are you either Jerry Jarrett was going to punch you and you will get the hell out of here. So Bobby means the same. The lady said. No, I wouldn't say old bill. He didn't mean to do it with the story of the motorcycle. God, yeah. If that would have happened today, it would have been all over. Oh, you, she wrote. So she never this gentleman horse to tie a little bit. Now here's a question for you when you and Jerry Lawler in the ring at various times you're working hill. He's working, maybe you're working. Maybe he's working here. Two veterans in Iraq who's calling that match. Well, we just trying to maybe whatever works, offer that you didn't really have to talk to one of the guys. It was like we had whatever it was. If we did the tackle deal where I tackled him and he would shoot up in the air, they did it for a finish. One time I went to dive, three French civilians stood me up and then he followed me. Yeah, well, we are kind of moved by what the other guy was doing, what he was doing to get you to do the karate kick one time. I don't know where to have learned this. So he shoots me off and he wants to kick. Well, I didn't know what it was. I was just watching a picture. I was coming off the rope. So he's trying to get his foot up to karate, kick me in the face and already got up in the air. But oh god, did it hurt him down? I went under the cover of. I thought he would get the giggles. It was kind of like a little hard little sniff. Again, I'll be the last one of them. So that was that he was doing this for the French. This is getting over. He wants to do this every night and I can't take it every night. Well, yeah. So the same kind of things they did when I was going to do the remember the Harley race? Hey, buddy would stand up on the turnbuckle and fall forward? Yeah, but the guy, well, I was going to do that one on my. I was just going to do a little different. I was just going to head, but I was going through the air. So I get a lot of watch the headbutt, so I slamming him and he stands up. I get up on the turnbuckle and he starts back up. So I just dive off and head body. I am down. He hits, but I cover the top of him and that be the last one of them. So that was a little stiff. So we tried, you know, sometimes it would work good and sometimes it wouldn't. Hey, you know, when you were doing the looters press, I don't know what you call it because maybe you got it from looters, but I stole it from you or I borrowed it from you when I moved on to to WCW. That thing where you jump up and just the guy, you know, that's what I call it. But I got that from you. That was that was your contribution to my offense. And so thank you very much for that. Who taught you that? Well, Jerry Jarrett give it to Tommy, which is only 18 years old, and he had me do it. And that's what I was going to do. First of all, I don't know what the retail price is, so they showed him what it was, and that's when you jumped up there and you went. So when he went to Georgia for Barnett, I would do the thing off the dive off the second rope where you turn around and do the flying buddy press all that. But I never felt comfortable doing that. I never seemed like I did it right. So I just never. So I kind of quit doing that, but I did it for a while before I did it, and we did it all the time. Hey, you said in the book when Tommy Rich became the let me see, was it your book or did I read somewhere else? But Tommy Rich, being the world champion was the worst thing that could have happened to him? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it got to ruin his credibility. Yeah, I never really I I just never thought that would be what went on for a week that I just don't know what kind of ownership admits to me about it, but I don't think, you know, but it was making a lot of money, right? And then by Sawyer, when they would rule anything down, there was Land of Georgia football and that normally Anderson, they were on fire. They were going up north to Ohio, Cincinnati and all the bigger towns up north off the Channel 17 TV and making lots of money. Hey, how was your how was your dealings with only Anderson? Did you? Did you deal much with only because he was a very he was always good to me and he was a very to me. Talking to him as our listen to him, our conversation was hilarious because he got so outspoken truly has a passion for the business, but it can be a little bit of a bully and a hard head. So did you deal much with only back in the day, OK? They brought us down the Georgia. I was looking to Georgia in Ronnie West and me and I had the Taylor and Bobby Fulton as the Fantastic Two before Bradley and Tommy Rogers was with Gary Taylor was the first one to stay, was supposed to be one of the fabs and I'll get interested in that. So I kind of felt bad for that ever happen for Kenny. So I made it one of The Fantasticks brought him to Atlanta and we were doing the Atlanta towns and Atlanta TV of TV, and Chad was just playing in Georgia. So he calls me up and he says, Can you send me the fact that I said, Yes, I can. You're technically playing this, so I can. So he said, okay, thank you to the army. So somebody calls right there on the last that he says he hasn't booked against the fantastic. They're all long, you know, they were just stuck. Yeah. So I searched above me for Bobby. On no circumstance or you and Terry Taylor going to do the job for the road warriors in the army denied anything but the one two three need to count anything. No finish. So we just know. And, you know, Bobby, you've been around Bobby, he's a guy and nervous anyway, smoke a cigarette. So they go over the finish. So Bobby's standing there and this is only the shake me. They say, well, they told them fairy tale of an animal. And this ain't us. This is our book, and we're going to be here running the other end of the territory. And he says, No, why are we doing the job for y'all tonight? And anyway, all to get to on the phone us the whole, I knew the call was coming off on Monday night. Hey, little son of a b***h. Bobby Fulton to hear the road warriors over. I said, Oh. We're trying to grow money with it. That's the best team I got. We're not to get it over our little Mickey Mouse TV in Chattanooga as you've got the big Channel 71, but I can't go there to be jumped boys and I come back and tell them how great everybody is, blah blah blah. So if you're mad at anybody? Be mad at me. I had nothing to do with them. He said, Well, hell, maybe that was right. Like, I saw him at the office. I wanted to go along with him. And then what was it that we read together about? You was there when he was there and you know, it was just I got along great with him. But yeah, he could be a little bit of a bully. Watch with another one just because they were making a kind of golf. They just thought, you know anybody below six foot two in it didn't think you'd be in the wrestling business. Yeah, but you probably got along with Bill when you were down there. Good for him, and I think it was eighty for the eighty five year or bills to most profitable years, who I guess was Mid-South still then, right? You were bucking, but then you didn't get. So you didn't so much see eye to eye with him, particularly when he was running WCW. That's when you came in and started working with Steve Regal. So how was it working with him when you were booking the territory and did you have complete autonomy? Well, ninety nine point one percent, probably. This is what we're what. He came up here. There was dead on its backside. It was just dead on its a*s. All the big guys Dusty Rhodes, Dickie Murdock, bill walks in and out and they let Jay do all monsters. So he comes up. When he's telling Jack, he says, I need to get another book and my territory is dead on its backside. He said, Well, we have abundance of talent here. As you can see, Galen Gallagher was on a roll. He would be, you know, Mr. Mitchell here can say, we have abundance of talent here, he said. And if you need a to talk to that man right, there will then be he may come looking for you. So he comes over talks to me. We make the deal the much you think, should we pay me or never? Nothing less. And what we do, and I should have made a percentage deal. But nobody knew it was going to do what it did, right? Anyway, I won't for the big money deal three grand a week, up to a lot of money back then. Yes, sir. A lot of money now. Yes, sir. Maybe not now. But anyway, so that was the thing. And then some of the major fours and fives and Ricky and Robert. So are we. Of course, I go to Little Rock at Dumbarton Coliseum. It is $9500. Nobody in the building. Well, we get the rather little, you know, Ricky and Robert's DVD that would be right here. The music videos? Yes. No. He's playing for four weeks on Louisiana television. We went back the next month to the Burton Coliseum and it was fifty four thousand dollars and it stayed that way about for the next couple of years, off and on. That was the best two years Bill Watts ever had, and he'll tell you that, but otherwise I would have to run it by him. I said, Bill, this is what I want to do, and this is why I want to do it. And I would have to sell it to him before I could even try it on television. He said, Well, why do you want to do that? Well, there's nothing really to do with Russia. I'm just going to hang the, you know, it is. It would put the rope over the next room over the top rope will build and do angles like that. He did more wrestling angles as far, you know, without doing the gimmicks, right? So he let me do it. And a couple other little things we did and that place was on fire. But even even then, if I wanted to do it and do crazy, I'd have to explain it to me. Did it catch me by surprise when the rock and roll caught on like they did? Because, you know, Bill's a big dude. A little bit of a bully. Love big guys in his territory. The physical, rough, brutal, you know, pro wrestling like that. And then all of a sudden, you know, here's you. He comes to you for the book, and there you go. Rock and Roll Express two good looking white me babyface. You can work your a*s off great fire. Sound like a some b***h and I get over there. Dallas Did I catch you by surprise? Because in your book you like he had a bunch of big, rugged hills. Some of them had some heat, but didn't have a whole bunch of good looking babyfaces. Got to bring somebody into that the females can identify with. Right? Magnum T.A. was the best babyface he had. There are the most looking babyface. Yes. And early early was making him do jobs every night. When I first went to Houston, Bill said, Just come to Houston, walk around. Don't tell nobody who you are. No, you know, and some won't. Don't telling you, just say you in the movie, you come by watch what's going on. So I grew Houston walked around addressing some of the guys in the audience, and I never thought I was going to do a better job. And I come by cynical. So I watched the show so many calls me. What did you think? Said, Well, all the matches over saying what you mean by that? They're all big, lumbering sons of b***hes and they're all sucking, you know? And I said, Well, you actually think and I'm telling you. The injured, yes, so until we do the thing, the Ricky and Robertson and he saw him work, so when he came up for the inspection, I mean the fans who were the number one tag team. That's why we didn't get them right. The plan was if we take the rock and roll and they don't get over and then the fans has another three months in Memphis, then we can switch them. The bigger, you know, the more mature looking guys will get over and blah blah blah. That was the plan of that part. So Ricky and Robert never thinking they were going to set the place on fire. But they did. And so we never had to bring the family right. Tony and Robert and Leslie saw them. And that was another story. And I know the world champion is the world's champion. He was Crockett's boy and all the things you do. But when he would come to the Superdome on the Big Show, you don't think you went back until Jimmy Carter and Dusty Rhodes was over the best in Louisiana. Who they were, right? Ricky and Robert The Midnight Express. So, you know, it was just and here's the other thing I've always thought like this is it may be a little egotistical. Or maybe it, I don't know. The only difference is, is it is the property. If you don't know what to do with them, little fellows, they don't do nothing, right? So I knew what to do with them because I'm little and I knew what to say blah blah blah and what worked and what didn't work. So, you know, it all has to start at the back, you know that it's the guy in the back is not paying attention. Whatever happens in the way it happens. Right. And that's what's happening today so that people start wrestling companies are they say, Well, I'm the booker. Okay, where where you got any money? Well, I've just been here. You know, you're a little biased, but of Arkansas, and that's all the guys name. But he's the booker. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just it's all different. And you hate to knock the kids today because it's monkey see, monkey do. And this is vintage stuff. But that's not what happens in the little towns. You know that one other thing I wanted to ask you about Bill. It was an interesting part while you're down there in Tennessee. Jerry decides to take the book from you or Jerry, but it gives the book to Robert Fuller. Robert Fuller started bringing his end of the guys into Nashville and the territory. It takes about a six month dive. So you guys need to do something to revitalize a saying shoot a hotshot angle, which ends up being the big a*s concession stand brawl at Tupelo, Mississippi. How how down was a territorial? Was it that bad of a shape? And obviously the concession stand brawl worked? Tell me to tell me. Take me through this period of time. Okay. Bonnie Fuller was Jerry Jarrett's partner. Yep. And that was Roy Welch's son, Robert and Ron Paul, all his buddies sons. So, buddy, you said I'd like to take a little interest more in helping run the territory, blah blah blah. When they got away from Nick said, Well, okay, so he's bringing his son into the book. Well, Robert, he said his wild idea he had to knock against the Mongolian stomper at a main event in Memphis two monsters. Memphis had never seen that type of thing and didn't really like it. I mean, there were issues for them to make moves, hooking up with Wilder and then there. Well, it was unexciting in Robert's head. It seemed like it was better than it really was in real life. So he had a month of that and it started going down and going down and blah blah blah. So Jerry and Buddy had a little meeting and because I was at the office, he said, Well, buddy, do you want to tell Robert or do you want me to tell him? He said no. I brought him in here and get out, and it's not working and raising money, and he's going back to Knoxville. So anyway, he went back with his brother. Not only did half the crew with him. So now we have Wayne Ferris and I release them as the brawn bombers. Yeah. Sergeant Danny Davis is the manager. We're going to Tupelo, Mississippi, and we shot everything in Memphis, so now we're getting this bright idea, we have last full time. It can do the talking because he's not working for the TV station, the more he's working for every other promotion so he can go anywhere and make TV. So we're going to Tupelo. We're going to do this tag team match and they're going to screw the belts. And when the screws at the belts, we're going to get into a fight with them, juice and all the things after and blah blah blah. And we're going to take that. That's right. So like a hundred times before we've done big fights and did the things really get going? Blah blah blah. He'll run to the back. Jerry Lawler, Bill Bundy is chasing them. They jump over into the concession stand. Well, we jump over at the concession stand. So now they look at Lawler, and he's kind of nice. We do now. I don't know that this may work. So he picks up a jar of pickles and he just throws in the East Coast rain forest. And I don't think you can hit him or not because he was in love with one another. But anyway, he so he knocks it, hits the wall, and now it's on. They pick something up and throw it back at us. And if you watch the tape, you can see the people look under Herman, Chevron and his wife. They're picking stuff up and running out of the damn concession stand with it and trying to save candy bars and whatever else. We have a hell of a fight. If I were slipping and sliding the floor, is it going to wet and would fall and down as much as we're standing up? But it's exciting. So sorry. But are you telling me the concession stand brawl in Tupelo or was it was? It was a word shoot, but it was not necessarily quote unquote play. That should happen once you got there and you all just worked on the fly. Right. Technically, well, it was a punch here, but yes, but if we got over there, then we got into a fight. Good riddance that Typekit. So when lawless through the pickles and the people like, Oh, and you can say, Look, when it's happening, you know, when you get on that ship and you feel it, Oh my God, this is going to be unreal. And then Lance had shut the camera down so you can hear him talking to Mike Shields. He was with the guy with the camera ready, said Mike a few minutes ago, a hell of a fight going on downstairs. And they only had one camera, and Mike has to get the camera and get on his shoulder or whatever and pointed downstairs. And I'm telling you this whole damn thing. And Lance's commentators come on, Mike, and give it a hell of a fight. And that strong words were meant for Steve. Yeah, yeah. All of the fights back in the day. And damn. So we've fallen down and fighting, doing all the things that we're doing. So here comes Jerry Jarrett. He jumps over into the melee and come on, you go fight until somebody nails him and he takes a look. So once we got it going, everybody just started working, right? So they tear. Jerry's goes off the dairy shirt off. They just really demolish this guy suit. He had only just like a real fight the other way. He escaped with his life. I take it when we fight. So then Eddie Martin comes in crowd here in Vegas, me and Lawler out and the heels are still in the thing and Jerry's lying on the floor with a clothes ripped off. So that was how we went off the air. But to say it showed the match was Lance, it said, Okay, thank you very much. Good night from the Tupelo Arena. See you next week. That had closed the show. Then you hear his voice black on the television. Well, be like, well, hell about what you said. He starts it all up again, and the camera looks like it comes back on and all that other stuff. Here we go. Was it laid out? Not exactly. Oh, what happened in Reno? We go over there. That's what we're going to do technically. But if it worked, it worked. And it didn't. Didn't work. But listen, let's bring it back to today's current day wrestling, because you said something about Lance Russell's language of words that was a little bit strong for TV back in that day. And basically, when you go back to the old television tapings there in Memphis, that whole show from man for years and years and when I was passing through there, certainly in regards to language that was a pig territory, nobody was cousin carrying on. And don't get me wrong, there are lots of blood and bleed jobs. But take that out of the equation. Y'all had a bad a*s show. So my my point is, I mean, this logic or this style of booking could still be, you know, a part of today's wrestling landscape because y'all won't do anything crazy just telling stories, but you presented it in a serious shoot style fashion. Now, many people knew the business was a work back then. Obviously, everybody knows it's a work these days. But my point is, man, if you just present wrestling from a serious standpoint or that's your basis as everybody knows, it's work, but you present a serious project, a product, and not everybody's laughing and giggling and a bunch of B.S. storylines that could that still works today. Right? All right. Well, it hard to do this kind of wrestling, but I have done this just for my entertainment and fun, even today. Same with wrestling student, and nobody knows. And we're sitting in McDonald's. You're sitting there talking and doing, and if you do something stupid, you just snatch them up and do a better job than just put up by the shirt and look like it or not. Everybody in the store go, Oh my God. Because they like the truth. See what I'm saying? Right? And it can be done that way on TV. I mean, which, like I said before, when all put the crown on, he really thought it was the thing I put that suit on. I thought I was the second coming of Elvis, so we was a superstar in the. And we believe we believed. So we were saying he was convincing people to believe, but I wouldn't watch him today, and some of the interviews are just that's exactly what they are. I don't know how they do that. Some people say that. But then the reading of show that you've been there with, nobody has any. But if he let you be yourself. Well, you know, that's that was one of the things you just hit on when you know, Geraldo was getting his superstar. I thought I was stone cold. I believed in a hundred percent. So, you know, and it just, you know, I don't want to. Again, I'm not to be critical of today's product. I just I feel for the guys because the guys are missing out. You know, and you can go out there and just ad lib a promo and you're learning how to work. And I've said you learn how to carry an angle. And it's dependent upon you without somebody just telling you every little thing to do and say it takes you out of the zone because you can't freelance and be as spontaneous as as it would happen, almost like a shoot. And so I just I just feel that organic nature is missing from today's product, which would, I think, make it a better product. But again, not to harp on today's system. I still love the business, but I just hearken back to those days when things were so much more simple because human psychology and basics. Good, good and bad are not any different. Right. And that's what we had in Memphis. We had good versus evil, and the people know who the good was and the knew who the evil was. So we switched roles. When they involve, they would think he was the bad guy or whatever. The video you remember this match up was a months ago where we had the first blood match and I got the juice and bled all over you. Yup. Do you remember why we did that? Oh no, I can remember. Okay, that is the babyface cheating on the on the heel without actually taking the heat off the heel. By getting him busted open. You busted me open. I bled on you. He had blond hair back then and I just rolled out the ring and cover my head up. And still he's waiting on hold the babyface. Just end up. Remember that? Yeah, yeah, that was what it was for. So that was the psychology in that 10000 people, whatever was it, the building, the fights, wherever we was. And I actually outsmarted you. You busted open with a gimmick or whatever. And they're like, Get your head bleed on you and I just roll out of my head up and the referee sees how he ruined the bump. The rest, he's down, he gets up, sees that you saw all over you and it has nothing to do with you. So you gave me your heart to whoever that is. You become arms, you know? And one day he was busted over. We were and blah blah blah. Reverse psychology. Yeah, it was, yeah, a lot of those those were a lot of fun days back in the day. So hey, when are you getting on the road you saga's cranking up here in two weeks? Yeah, but two weeks there will be about the 27th of this month talking to on the road before my offspring, when he was manager for a little while to remember them day. I mean, done, they sure do. I want to tape the other day. He had a friggin polka dot suit on our outfit, a shirt and a pair of pants, black with big yellow dots on it and year long blonde hair in a robe. I thought, wow, it was just so simple. It was really weird. I didn't know what I was doing, but we had a little bit of heat. It sure was. You know, the training wheels were on and I was soaking it all in. And again, I was lucky to ride up and down the road. Work with you right up down the road with Dutch and Chris Champion. And when I went down back down to Texas, you know, riding up down a road with Bronco, scanned our gorgeous hair. Young never got a great break, but he was a very good guy as far as psychology and as a journeyman, but a really, really good worker and could teach what goes on in the squared circle. And it damn sure dropped a lot of information on me. So I go back to those days being some of the most fun of my career. Yeah, but here's the thing, Steve, and I don't really know how they do today, but somebody has to like the person mark one ruin the jobs for him in Australia and Bobby sitting there like me and Barnes, we worked hard. We did whatever they wanted, but they taught us s**t. Well, Mark, why did you do this? Why did you do that? Watch the match watch and then you're learning as you're going along now. I mean, you get along great and we do things and we Poland may to keep you from killing me. But no, you know what I mean. So but I like, can we go along with? And when you get along with your opponent, it makes it a whole lot easier. Nobody was really jealous of one another. We just did what we did on a lot of fun. And hey, man, I appreciate you talking to me today. And again, I thank you for all the stuff that you helped me with back in the day. It was when I went to look back at some of those things. I watch the IPL. I'm critical of the stuff that I did my last few years in the business and BWF. But when I watch some of the stuff I watched with you there, that Memphis studio, I just cringe. I'm like, Jesus Christ, that was brutal. So these days, when I'm trying to assess some talent that is new in the business, I'm pretty easy on them because I know how green I was, how bad I was, how how bad I rush things. But certainly, you know, I lived and breathed the business enough so that I could pick it up and, you know, present a hell of a god dang match and something that you couldn't see through. Right. And when somebody is telling you, Well, Steve, you don't do this because you do this because it makes it a whole lot easier and find out a year later. Yeah, yeah. If nobody tells you, Hey, kid, right, here's a heads up. You've got smart. Yup, that's right. Hey, let's plug your website right now. And the book is if you don't want the answer, don't ask the question. It's built on these life story. Let's talk about that website. Build that superstar Dash Dundee Dash Enterprises dot com. And that's the only way you can get. I sent you one and autographed it for you, right? Yeah. So if you want all that's just go to my website builder superstar bash Dundee Bash Enterprises dot com and you can get T-shirts, DVDs, all kinds of bills, drinks. I'm on Twitter at Bill Dundee and then I'm on Facebook. You can find that so and I have a radio show I do every Friday, 11 o'clock, the one that's on Yahoo Sports, 7:30 a.m. in Memphis, Tennessee, every Friday morning. So Bill, I didn't know you on Twitter. Did you just start this because I'm not following you? Well, okay. Well, I need to do the same in Randy Hale house, and I'm just kind of started to do so. Yeah, we are just kind of trying to get me going on it. Well, welcome to Twitter. Give me that Twitter handle one more time. Bill Dundee. Yeah. Bill Dundee your heart and follow the man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I hear you by the book. Help a brother out. You know that goes right. Hey, Bill, be careful traveling down the road. I appreciate you spent an hour and a half with me. All right, I've I've really enjoyed it. We have another hour and a half any time you want, and we got all kinds of stories. We could probably get people divorced, but we'll keep them telesales. That's another story, right? Well, I'm gonna try to get down Adele's neck of the woods. I'd love to shoot the breeze with you in person. These Skype calls are what they are, but the magic happens when you've got a couple of beers or just just shooting the breeze and not trying to cover anything in general. You know that that's just the way it is. Yeah, hey. And that's who we are, and that is how we are and that's who we are. I appreciate your time, Bill Bennett. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. This has been a podcast. One Production download new episodes of the Steve Austin show every Tuesday at podcast Montcalm. That's podcast on Omnicom. See what hit blockbusters are streaming free this month during Popcorn Summer movies on Pluto TV. Watch Django Unchained or Transformers Dark of the Moon for an action packed evening or The Truman Show and School of Rock for a good laugh when the whole family. Plus, Pluto TV has thousands of other free movies available on live and on demand. Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices for free and start streaming now. This is below decks, captain Lee. Listen to my new podcast, Salty with Captain Lee. Don't you mean our podcast? Yeah, I guess I do anyhow. Listen to Soldi with Captain Lee, co-hosted by my assistant Sam, and we will be talking about the latest pop culture news and all the gossip every week. So does this mean we have the top fire songs about ourselves, or at least have some guests on? I don't know. I find myself pretty interesting, but yeah, we can have some guests on some of our reality TV friends and some stars. Works for me. Listen to Saltine now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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