Latest / The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast / Interview with WCW's Lash LeRoux - FROM THE VAULT

Transcript

Interview with WCW's Lash LeRoux - FROM THE VAULT · The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as Daniel Podcast, The Doctor Show, Fucking Delenda What
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Today March.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome everyone to a very special major wrestling for your podcast.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Matt Cardona, Brian is here, small Mark
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Strolling is here. But our guest today w c W
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Legend Lash LaRue Lash.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: What's up, my man?
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: I'm good man. How in the world are you guys doing.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: It's good to see you again to my friend. And
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: I don't know if I've met the other.
• 0:44
  Speaker 5: JEMs or not, so corporal ocasion if I will. I
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: was thinking about this today. I think we missed you
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: in Deep South by like weeks.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Probably, So I think that sounds.
• 0:55
  Speaker 6: About right, man, because like.
• 0:58
  Speaker 7: You know, at a time, there were some new guys
• 1:01
  Speaker 7: were in there, not just new guys, but the new
• 1:03
  Speaker 7: generation was sort of coming in while an old generation.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: Was going out, right, So we got signed in uh
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: early two thousand and six, and then we reported like
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: that spring, and I recall, like you know, and these
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: people that we met there, like Luke Alo's and stuff that, yes,
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: we had just missed like you and Jindrak, So we
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: didn't get like interact with you guys, but we had
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: just missed you guys or we would have been been
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: De South alumni together.
• 1:29
  Speaker 7: That's exactly right. So my Deep South roots go even
• 1:32
  Speaker 7: deeper than that because Deep South, you know, was sort
• 1:35
  Speaker 7: of the genesis of what was the power plant in
• 1:38
  Speaker 7: WW and so that's what kind of got me calling
• 1:41
  Speaker 7: calling me back there to Deep South a little bit.
• 1:43
  Speaker 7: And that was my last more last kind of big
• 1:46
  Speaker 7: hurrah to try to make one more splash before Rodeolph
• 1:50
  Speaker 7: in Sunset.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: I guess for lack.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: Of right back with Jody Hamilton. Were it all started
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: for you?
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
• 1:57
  Speaker 7: Man's Amanda Pleedge Jody Assassin professional wrestling.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: That's what I call it.
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: Awesome.
• 2:05
  Speaker 8: So we actually just met at aw a couple weeks.
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: Ago, correct, Yeah, you and I did absolutely well. Yes, yes,
• 2:13
  Speaker 7: that was uh that was after or either before or after.
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: I think I walked down there a little rattle, but yeah.
• 2:20
  Speaker 8: Well you locked walked out of the locker room and
• 2:22
  Speaker 8: everybody said, wow, he's still jacked.
• 2:28
  Speaker 7: The best comment I got on that was from Les
• 2:31
  Speaker 7: Thatcher who saw me last November and less goes.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Wow, look at you kid.
• 2:36
  Speaker 7: You wait until you got out of the business to
• 2:38
  Speaker 7: get in shape.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I saw you at a at Starcast I couldn't believe
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: how jacked you were and you had just worked at
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: the night before, right.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, well yeah, I'll be honest with you guys,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: but yeah, I feel like you guys are being way
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: too But it's just it's one of those things.
• 2:58
  Speaker 7: I went on this journey and my life and I'm
• 3:00
  Speaker 7: not going to try to wax philosophical on it. But
• 3:03
  Speaker 7: you know how the wrestling business is, and not to
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: jump in the deep end too quickly, but man, it
• 3:08
  Speaker 7: takes you way way up to the highest highs and.
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: It takes you to the lowest low We know.
• 3:13
  Speaker 7: So little of yourself if you let it. And you
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: won't believe this, man, But about twenty sixteen, I weighed
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: three hundred and sixteen pounds. I turned forty years old,
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: and yeah, yeah, man, I let the injuries.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: I like the depression.
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: I like to being out of the business for eight
• 3:32
  Speaker 7: almost ten years kind of get to me.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: And I didn't have to take my shirt off of
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: National TV anymore. That was plus. But you know, you
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: also you take medication to cover up injuries and things
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: like that.
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: And I woke up at forty years old, man, I go,
• 3:43
  Speaker 7: you know what this is not sustainable, and I just decided, Man,
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: I'm gonna do something about it right now. And I've
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: never had an addictive personality, so any medication I was
• 3:53
  Speaker 7: taking was more physical than it was psychological for me.
• 3:57
  Speaker 7: So I dropped all that cold turkey started just trying
• 4:00
  Speaker 7: to lose weight. I lost one hundred pounds and went
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: from three sixteen to to eleven before I got back
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: in the gym, fell back in love with working out,
• 4:07
  Speaker 7: and just just just love to love how I feel now.
• 4:12
  Speaker 7: I love where that circle has sort of brought me.
• 4:14
  Speaker 7: And man, just to say, it took me about a
• 4:16
  Speaker 7: year and a half to do it. Man, But before
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: I lost that weight, dude, I looked like a Russian
• 4:20
  Speaker 7: nesting doll.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: I looked like last.
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: That's awesome.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean you look you look fucking great now.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And when I saw you at Sarcas, you had just
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: worked for GCW. So are you back in the ring
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: or what's going on here?
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: So far that's been a one off man, So to
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: be honest with you, Matt, here's the deal. Man. The
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: way that that whole thing happened for me was.
• 4:39
  Speaker 7: This, When I left the wrestling business, I truly left
• 4:44
  Speaker 7: the wrestling business. I literally, you know, and that thing
• 4:48
  Speaker 7: is a cumulative effect. I mean, for most people, unless
• 4:51
  Speaker 7: you've been extremely blessed in this wrestling business, you don't
• 4:54
  Speaker 7: sit there and plan out your retirement, right, you sit
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: there and you go it just hits you one day,
• 4:59
  Speaker 7: or you get a back, that injury that's taking you
• 5:01
  Speaker 7: out of the ring, or maybe more often than not,
• 5:03
  Speaker 7: I think it's a combination.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Of all those things. Right, it's in three and those
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: things start mounting up, while at the same time, maybe
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: the phone's ringing a little less, while at the same
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: time you're thinking.
• 5:14
  Speaker 7: A lot less of your work and who you are
• 5:16
  Speaker 7: and your value as a wrestler and where your place
• 5:19
  Speaker 7: is in the business. And mentally you get down and
• 5:22
  Speaker 7: you get down and you get down till one day
• 5:24
  Speaker 7: you just decide, Man, this ain't for me anymore. And
• 5:26
  Speaker 7: you've got a million excuses why it's not. And it
• 5:29
  Speaker 7: could be the injuries, it could be you know, any
• 5:31
  Speaker 7: other issues that come along. And for me, man, I'm
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: wrestling and a little independent in Alabama and I'm wrestling
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: Bull bu Cannon and we were the main event. Yeah,
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: and I know me at Barry's gonna have a great
• 5:42
  Speaker 7: batch so I'll walk up to him and I said, dude,
• 5:44
  Speaker 7: you're gonna be my last match. I'm retiring tonight. Of
• 5:48
  Speaker 7: course you are, yeah, and he just hugs me, laughs
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: about it. His reactions about to say, as yours. I
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: literally had that match. We finished the match, I rolled
• 5:56
  Speaker 7: out of the ring. I didn't cut up promo, I
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: didn't do anything, and I never got a ring again
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: until thirteen years later, which was about this past July.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: I think it was.
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: You know, I do the podcast with Conrad Thompson, the
• 6:09
  Speaker 7: whole ad free show thing, and he did his Top
• 6:13
  Speaker 7: Guy weekend up and Hunt's fa Alabama, which is not
• 6:17
  Speaker 7: too far from me, and he knows I don't do
• 6:19
  Speaker 7: autograph signing. I wasn't doing appearances. I wasn't wrestling. I
• 6:23
  Speaker 7: wasn't taking any bookings because when I swore off wrestling
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: and said I was done with wrestling, I was done
• 6:28
  Speaker 7: with all of it. And and you know, I very
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: rarely even did interviews like this, and so I went
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: to draw.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: Caricatures for him.
• 6:35
  Speaker 7: He talked to me into that he goes just draw
• 6:37
  Speaker 7: caricatures and be kind of in the corner. So I
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: interacted with the fans forgot how awesome it is interacting
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: with the fans man when they're genuine and it's good
• 6:45
  Speaker 7: and they love you and appreciate you.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: So I'm just drawing all day and keeping my mouth shut. Meanwhile,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: they did this mock indie show where they had Eric Bischoff,
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: Jeff Jarrett, you know, road Dog, and these guy Kevin
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Sullivan get together and book a show based on the
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: local talent that they had, and then they put on
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: the show in front of the fans. So long story short,
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, when we got through wrestling,
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: or they got through having the show, it was over.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: The building's empty, the ring was empty. We're all about
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: to leave.
• 7:18
  Speaker 7: And I looked at Conrad and I go, you know,
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: I haven't even taken a bump or been in a
• 7:22
  Speaker 7: ring in thirteen years.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: And he goes, there's no way. I go, yeah, trust
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: and I need to get in there and just take
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: a balt see what it feels like. Yeah.
• 7:29
  Speaker 7: I stepped in the ring. Kyle took a back bump,
• 7:32
  Speaker 7: and I went, man, you know that didn't feel too bad.
• 7:35
  Speaker 7: I backed up into the corner, just took one step
• 7:37
  Speaker 7: and took a front bump and went that's all right,
• 7:40
  Speaker 7: grab one of the guys that had a max that night,
• 7:43
  Speaker 7: shot him in the ropes through a dropkick and the
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: hot for there Tomy was there, hit him right on
• 7:48
  Speaker 7: the nose and it felt like riding the bike.
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: And so I popped up and Conrad's filming this whole thing,
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: because he goes, you, legit, haven't been in the ring
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: in thirteen years ago. This is fresh, so it's raw.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: He sticks the microphone my face. I looked at it
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: and I went, man, I'm here for a little bit
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: of fun my dad and the son. Maybe one more run.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: I ain't done. I ain't done. I then I realized
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: that have the sidebirds No but.
• 8:13
  Speaker 7: Still, and he plastered it up on Twitter and it
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: got a little bit of traction. And I got a
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: call from GCW and Brett Lauderdale and hey, what about.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: Having one more match and when we do star Cast.
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: And at the same time Conrad was asking me to
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: be a part of star Cast. So I'd be there
• 8:28
  Speaker 7: for the weekend anyway, maybe get to see some old
• 8:31
  Speaker 7: friends at ae W and just see what shakes down.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: You know, at least I won't be fifty.
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: Five wondering if I could have had one more run
• 8:38
  Speaker 7: so so far that's been the only match and the
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: only time out.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Wow, I mean, man, you wrestled Joey Janella?
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Right, yeah, sure did. Man. We did about fifteen minutes
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: and whoa, just the splits, the whole deal. You know,
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: I was. I was shot first time in the ring.
• 8:54
  Speaker 7: I promise you, guys, man, and now I'm one of
• 8:57
  Speaker 7: those guys I believe playing this game of life with
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: your cards face up and being completely transparent. I didn't
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: get in the ring and buff around. I didn't train around.
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: I didn't have time because.
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: My character sinned.
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: My artwork is so busy, and I'm on the road
• 9:10
  Speaker 7: so much. I just slim in the ring. I said,
• 9:12
  Speaker 7: let's go out there and see what happens.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: You know, now, do you have that match? You know?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Are you bit by that wrestling bug again? Do you
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: want to have another match? Or what's the deal? Are
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: you just playing it by ears? Staying in shape? See
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: what happens?
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: All the above, Matt, Because here's the weird thing, and
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: you know, not that Brown knows or anything like that,
• 9:31
  Speaker 7: but being completely honest with you. As I get older,
• 9:34
  Speaker 7: one of the things I really am impressed with when
• 9:36
  Speaker 7: I watch you, and I'm admired from afar is how
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: you're handling the business aspect of the wrestling business, because
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: I truly believe that one of the problems with my
• 9:46
  Speaker 7: generation of wrestlers was this. We came in during the
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: contract era and came in during the era of television,
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: and and you know, trying to make the spot and
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: learn to be a TV wrestler. That we all became
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: pretty good wrestling talents. For us to be on that level,
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: I mean, you learn how to work on match, you
• 10:02
  Speaker 7: learn the psychology, you learn to be a good worker,
• 10:04
  Speaker 7: but you really don't learn the wrestling business.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: And man, I didn't realize that after I was out
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: of it, you know.
• 10:10
  Speaker 7: And as I get older, you know, you spend the
• 10:13
  Speaker 7: first half of your career being about the wrestling aspect
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: of the wrestling business. Just give me a shot, give
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: me some TV time, put me in the ring, dude,
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: I'll get over and then the money will come later.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: And now the money don't always come later, you know.
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: And as you get widow gets smaller and smaller, man, dude,
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: you go, I better start thinking about the business side
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: of things. And I'm blessed now that I work so
• 10:37
  Speaker 7: hard to build up this caricature business that I have
• 10:40
  Speaker 7: that I honestly do as well off of it right
• 10:42
  Speaker 7: now as I did when I wrestled for WCW financially.
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: Oh yeah, and I would love to make one more run.
• 10:49
  Speaker 7: I would love to marry those things together from a
• 10:52
  Speaker 7: branding perspective to make myself more desirable to book as
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: a caricature artist. But you know, I have to balance
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: that thing where if someone like g c W comes
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: calling and they want to they want me to do
• 11:02
  Speaker 7: a one off match or an indie promotion invites me out,
• 11:06
  Speaker 7: I'm I'm flattered by that.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: I love that. I want to be a part of it.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: But oftentimes I can make more.
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: Money going and drawing that day than I can going
• 11:14
  Speaker 7: and drawing in the ring.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Well I love that.
• 11:18
  Speaker 8: So for a lot of people that might not know
• 11:20
  Speaker 8: what what is the what is the drawing business? What
• 11:23
  Speaker 8: exactly are you doing right now?
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: I always remember your your spots in WW magazine from
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: when I was in high.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: School exactly you doo of it all, man, dude.
• 11:32
  Speaker 7: Here's the thing is the way it all started for
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: me was I was a big fan growing up of
• 11:38
  Speaker 7: Mad magazine. Like I loved artwork, and I always loved
• 11:41
  Speaker 7: to draw, and uh, that was never a big mark
• 11:43
  Speaker 7: for comic books. I love the characters in the comic books.
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: But if you came to me showed me that you
• 11:48
  Speaker 7: drew Batman, dude, he's got a square ahead and a
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: lot of details. You're not impressing me with your artistic
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: ability on that one. You know, the storytelling is phenomenal,
• 11:57
  Speaker 7: but the face itself, you know, when I'm tracing those
• 11:59
  Speaker 7: things out of a comic book, that didn't impress me
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: as much as Mad magazine that would spoofed these movies
• 12:04
  Speaker 7: and TV shows and for that to work, just like
• 12:08
  Speaker 7: the actor or the wrestler, or if they put Hogan
• 12:10
  Speaker 7: on the cover or whatever, and you're going, wow, you
• 12:12
  Speaker 7: don't even have to tell me that that's Tom Cruise
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: in Top Gun. That looks just freaking like Tom Cruise.
• 12:17
  Speaker 7: So I carried that with me when I wrestled for WCW.
• 12:21
  Speaker 7: You know, you guys know how it is. You got
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: to be in a different town every night. You got
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: to be at the building at nude for a show
• 12:26
  Speaker 7: that doesn't go live on TV.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: Until seven pm. You got some time, you.
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: Know, unless you're playing cards or doing something else. I
• 12:35
  Speaker 7: started looking at those dry erase boards in the back
• 12:38
  Speaker 7: and I bought me a pack of markers and began
• 12:40
  Speaker 7: just drawing the guys in the back and Kurt hitting
• 12:44
  Speaker 7: of course, you know, being the consummate river that he was.
• 12:48
  Speaker 7: Anything that is humorous like that, that kind of pokes
• 12:51
  Speaker 7: the bear he loves, and he's going to encourage and
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: he'd sit there man constantly go draw, Hogan.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm like two years old, and he's going, now draw,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: I'm really old, drawing with an oxygen mask walker and
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: oh boy, Yeah, he gave me this great line that
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: he said, hey, look, you tell me you don't write
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: the news. You just reported. And so you know, Bill
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: After and Ross Foreman and some other publishers and editors
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: for wrestling the magazines saw that, and that started me
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: doing the cartoons. Well.
• 13:22
  Speaker 7: It was very forgiving for me because at that point
• 13:25
  Speaker 7: I was not a professional artist. I was a wrestler
• 13:27
  Speaker 7: that could sort of draw. So that was the pull
• 13:30
  Speaker 7: and the novelty, and I parlayed that over the course
• 13:34
  Speaker 7: of about ten or twelve years of doing that month
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: in a month out and teaching myself to be better
• 13:39
  Speaker 7: and better into me having some skills when I left wrestling,
• 13:43
  Speaker 7: and so I would early two thousands to answer the
• 13:47
  Speaker 7: question a little bit more directly about the caricature business.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: Everybody had a blog.
• 13:52
  Speaker 7: So all these caricature artists that I hadn'tmired, including Mad
• 13:56
  Speaker 7: magazine artists and guys like that Theme Park caricature artist,
• 14:00
  Speaker 7: all of them, they would have these blogs and they
• 14:02
  Speaker 7: post their working man just like a mark. I'd send
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: them a little message and go, hey, dude, why'd you
• 14:07
  Speaker 7: draw this nose like this? And this is really cool?
• 14:09
  Speaker 7: Here's my drawing. What do you think about this? You
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: got any kind of advice or encouragement? In ninety percent
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: of the time, to be honest, you know, not to
• 14:17
  Speaker 7: Most of their reactions would be wait a second, is
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: this last?
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: LaRue the wrestler and Big Wrestlings fan.
• 14:25
  Speaker 7: They start asking me about wrestling, and I go, ask
• 14:27
  Speaker 7: me anything you want about wrestling, as long as I
• 14:29
  Speaker 7: can ask you about caricature.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: And then I found out caricature artists have a union.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: They've got an organization.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, this man, you gotta way better than being
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: one of the boys.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Jesus, Well, here's the thing, man, you're one of the boys.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Here's what I hated about Edie wrestling.
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: And again it goes back to why I admire what
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: you doing so much, madness that the thing I hated
• 14:49
  Speaker 7: the most about when the phone did bring is having
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: to talk to a promoter and sit there and value
• 14:53
  Speaker 7: myself on what I think I can get from the
• 14:56
  Speaker 7: promoter versus what the promoter's going to try to pay
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: me and then go back and then you worry about
• 15:02
  Speaker 7: overpricing yourself, and you worry about under pricing yourself. Man
• 15:06
  Speaker 7: for me, and there there's a standard market rate for
• 15:09
  Speaker 7: caricature artists, and they know what they've got. So if
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: I don't charge what the standard rate is, I get
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: blackballed because now I'm undercutting all the other boys in
• 15:17
  Speaker 7: the business.
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: That's crazy.
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: They don't want me around, you know. And so we
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: all kind of work together in that regard. And so
• 15:25
  Speaker 7: I do caricatures. I do black and white version on
• 15:28
  Speaker 7: paper like you see at a theme park that's really
• 15:30
  Speaker 7: really fast. Or I do a digital version where I
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: draw directly on an iPad, I have a flat screen
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: TV behind me. I print it out four by six
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: on a little lanyard and the name tag people wear
• 15:41
  Speaker 7: at these uh at these shows and these trade shows
• 15:44
  Speaker 7: are their caricature plus the company's name imprinted on there,
• 15:48
  Speaker 7: plus the booth number and the whole deal. And more
• 15:51
  Speaker 7: often than not, I also get recognized from wrestling, so
• 15:53
  Speaker 7: they feel like they get a two fur. So they'll
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: fly me all over the United States and do a
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: three day deal there and and work their booth to
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: try to compete with the other boos and draw people
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: to their booth.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: How much money can you get done in like a day,
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: like at what's the most amount of Like?
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so this is generally what I average. I average
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: one face when I'm doing black and white really quick,
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: just on a sheet of paper, and I do it
• 16:17
  Speaker 7: on a twelve by eighteen sheet of paper with just
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: a Crayola marker. And man, I just did them yesterday,
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: did a wedding last night Memphis. I do one face
• 16:25
  Speaker 7: every three and a half minutes.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: That, yeah, that's exactly right. It's fast. You have to
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: be because I do a lot of campus Arkansas.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: State on Wednesday, and so as soon as you show up,
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: they know the caricature artists is going to be there.
• 16:41
  Speaker 7: They'll be five hundred deep in students and you're there
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: for four hours, and it's one person right up the
• 16:46
  Speaker 7: other man, just.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: Boom boom, boom, boom boom.
• 16:49
  Speaker 7: And then when I do the digital, the digital is
• 16:52
  Speaker 7: full color, it's a little bit more involved.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: It takes me probably about eight minutes to draw each person.
• 16:58
  Speaker 7: And so these companies will book me out for volume
• 17:01
  Speaker 7: and quality, man, and and for the interaction and just
• 17:05
  Speaker 7: an experience for their guests to have this thing going
• 17:08
  Speaker 7: on at whatever party, event or anything it is.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Man and I get paid by the hour.
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: Oh my god.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: The Connie and me is thinking, oh my god, why
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: are you not at every wrestling convention charge of these marks,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: like Jimmy comes up, you draw Jimmy, you sign it.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Steve comes up, yet, you draw Steve, you sign it.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: And then you're eight your eight by tens a right
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: there too. If they want to, you know, buy that there.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: It is ready to go. That's exactly right. And I
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: tried to kind of I've thought about that for a long.
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: Period of time, and I've tried to make that happen
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: a little bit there at star Cast when I was
• 17:41
  Speaker 7: just a couple of tables down from you, Matt, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: I don't think people quite got it yet, you.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: Know what I mean.
• 17:47
  Speaker 7: And that's the other thing that will happen. Sometimes I'll
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: go to a wedding. Weddings are really big right now,
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: but most people haven't realized it's become a thing in weddings.
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: So all go into the cocktail hour and most people
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: will walk by and they think you're gonna make fun
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: of them. They think it's like the TikTok videos where
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: you u's nothing but a big schnoz and the goat
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: keys and the whole deal.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: And so they walk buy and they go, hey, you
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: want to draw it, and they'll go maybe later, Well,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: you'll get a couple of brave people be the first
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: people to sit down, and once they see the quality
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: and they see what you're turning, everybody starts lining up.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: You got to get a few out there, you know.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Wow?
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: And how did this turn into a podcast? And especially
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: one with Conrad on his network?
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: So Conrad hit me up pre covid, I would say
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: maybe a year year and a half before when he
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: was first talking about doing the paywall and doing adfree
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: shows dot com, and he hit me with the idea
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: of finding out a way to do where I could
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: draw a live for the wrestling fans and talk about
• 18:49
  Speaker 7: whatever it is I'm drawing, and he kind of had
• 18:51
  Speaker 7: the genesis and the idea for the show. And at
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: that time, Man, I was just in a place where
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: I still was a bidder is toong of a word, man,
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: because I've never been a bitter person in my life
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: at all.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: I just have it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: But you know, I just didn't feel good about wrestling, man,
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: And I didn't want to have anything to do with wrestling,
• 19:09
  Speaker 7: and I didn't want to do anything even remotely connected
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: to wrestling. And the excuse I would give to him,
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: and give to anybody else that would listen, was this,
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: I don't want to be around the wrestling business. And
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: if I do a podcast, it's going to lead to interviews.
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: If I do interviews, it's going to lead to promos.
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: Promo is going to lead to autograph signings. Autograph signings
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: are going to lead to me having matches. Matches are
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: going to lead to me back in the business.
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: Again, this sounds.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, which is exactly what eventually wind up happening. Right,
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: So I said no the first time, and then they
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: hit me up about two years later, and uh right
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: right in the towards the end of COVID, I think
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: is when they started hitting me up about asking about
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: doing We've been doing the podcast, I think now for
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: about two years, and uh, in that time, it felt
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: right At that Tommy was right. I was in a
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: better place.
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: I had my feet underneath me a little bit more
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: where I had to have done enough digital that I
• 20:01
  Speaker 7: had an idea of my mind of what that podcast
• 20:03
  Speaker 7: could look like. And I still don't feel like I
• 20:06
  Speaker 7: have done it complete justice yet. In fact, I've just
• 20:09
  Speaker 7: built a studio in my house, just one room over
• 20:12
  Speaker 7: from where I'm at right now, where I'm trying to
• 20:15
  Speaker 7: equip that out and get the right equipment, the right
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: sound equipment, the right cameras, because I think that there's
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: a way where I could do it where my entire
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: behind me would be the green screen so people can
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: see what I'm drawing as I'm drawing it live.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of opportunities there. But that's
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: how it kind of turned.
• 20:32
  Speaker 7: Into us doing this podcast, and that turned into me
• 20:35
  Speaker 7: interacting with fans again.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: And I remembered, man that you.
• 20:39
  Speaker 7: Know, when you push all the bad stuff away and
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: you get away from the negativity, and you distilled the
• 20:43
  Speaker 7: wrestling business now to its purest form, which is are
• 20:47
  Speaker 7: the fans enjoying what I'm doing?
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Is it getting over? Is the interaction here?
• 20:51
  Speaker 7: We're making that connection whatever it is, whether I want
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: them to fear me, or I want them to love me,
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: or I want them to laugh at me, or I
• 20:58
  Speaker 7: want them to hate me, whatever that connect is. Man,
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: Once you get that back and it's genuine and you're
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: being yourself and they're they're accepting it.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: Man, they're giving you that feedback. They know the language back.
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: Wow, I forgot how good this can be when it's good.
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: Mm hmm.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Well I'm glad you're you're back in the business and
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: you're all positive. But I do have to bring up
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: one negative thing. No wrestling figures, no action figure.
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: Never got a figure, Yeah yeah, you got figure out.
• 21:27
  Speaker 7: The only ones I've got are the ones that are
• 21:29
  Speaker 7: kind of indie made, I guess were lack of a
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: better way of putting it. You know that that people
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: through the years have just kind of made the tribute
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: action figures, iizing stuff, you know, And again that goes
• 21:41
  Speaker 7: back to the business minded me. One of the things
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: I've thought about about trying to make one more run
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: is I would just like to be relevant enough, you know,
• 21:49
  Speaker 7: to have that little bit of merchandise. I've learned to
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: appreciate mailbox money when you're not actually bumping.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: Just go out there, and I need more of that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So let's let's backtrack a little bit, because you know,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: obviously you were a WCW. Were you a fan growing
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: up or was this you watch on TV and you're like, WHOA,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: I can get into this because you were you were
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: you started the power plant, right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, and so extraordinary story if you guys don't
• 22:18
  Speaker 7: mind me telling it, if.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: You'll showl with me for a second. But when I
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: was a kid, I was a huge fan.
• 22:24
  Speaker 7: I'm younger than most people probably think I am because
• 22:27
  Speaker 7: I started the wrestling business so young.
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: And I also, for whatever reason, got tight casted with
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: the older guys.
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: Like even when they brought it in the new Blood and WCW,
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: the new Blood were all ten years older than I
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: was at the time. Started when I was like eighteen,
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: I was youngest guy WCW had under contract at the
• 22:43
  Speaker 7: time when I started, and I you know, I started
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: about eighteen, retired when I was about thirty two or
• 22:49
  Speaker 7: something like that. I'm forty six now forty seven. Yeah,
• 22:54
  Speaker 7: So I just I got I got in early and
• 22:56
  Speaker 7: got out young. And that's why most people when they
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: think back to the nineties, they think I must be
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: older than I really am.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: I would have thought that too, until I looked at
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: your Wikipedia today exactly.
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: So I was a child of the eighties, and I
• 23:10
  Speaker 7: was a whole a maniac like everybody else, and was
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: there for WrestleMania one and the WrestleMania three and all
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: these iconic stepping stones and wrestling and became a huge
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: wrestling fan all throughout my childhood. But I came from
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: a really, really poor home, and I started working when
• 23:26
  Speaker 7: I was nine years old. My first job was washing
• 23:29
  Speaker 7: cars and got grass at nineteen years old, then working
• 23:32
  Speaker 7: on construction crews cleaning up around homes that were being
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: built when I was ten and eleven years old, and
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: then actually building houses when I was twelve and thirteen.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: And I played sports also during all this. All throughout high.
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: School, played football, wrestled, and my junior and senior year
• 23:49
  Speaker 7: of high school, I was homeless.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: When I was twelve years old.
• 23:52
  Speaker 7: My mom had a boyfriend that on the property we
• 23:55
  Speaker 7: lived in and he beat her up, and I was
• 23:57
  Speaker 7: too young to do anything about it. When I was fifteen,
• 24:00
  Speaker 7: he tried to do it again and I took a
• 24:02
  Speaker 7: baseball back to him, and I wasn't too young to
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: do anything about it then. And my family all love
• 24:08
  Speaker 7: each other. My mom loved us as best she could.
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: She raised her kids really, really well. She had five
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: kids and quit school in the eighth grade. So we
• 24:15
  Speaker 7: live in houses that didn't have running water, electricity, just
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: because we couldn't afford it. And so when that riding
• 24:21
  Speaker 7: on the wall kind of came and I knew it
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: was untenable really for me to stay home any longer.
• 24:26
  Speaker 7: I started taking care of myself. And I still had
• 24:28
  Speaker 7: a great relationship with my mom and my family. It
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: was just kind of an understood thing, even though it
• 24:33
  Speaker 7: wasn't stated that, hey man, I'm better off financially just
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: working and taking care of myself.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: So the company I worked for also had some clothing stores.
• 24:41
  Speaker 7: And I slept behind the cash register from midnight to
• 24:44
  Speaker 7: five am. Yeah, and that was my job. I was
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: security and they gave me a company vehicle.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: I would leave there.
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: I'd lock it up and I'd drive down the hill
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: to the high school that I played football at, and
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: I could take a shower in the athletics department because
• 24:58
  Speaker 7: I did athletics, And then after school, I'd go to
• 25:01
  Speaker 7: football practice. After football practice, I'd go home with a
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: buddy I played football with. I'd eat dinner with his family, shower,
• 25:08
  Speaker 7: do whatever homework I had, and then be back up
• 25:10
  Speaker 7: at the store at midnight to sleep there from midnight
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: to five am.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: Those were my hours.
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: That's great.
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: So that was my schedule. Yeah, all throughout high school,
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: we want to state championship. And when undefeated at football
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: at Alabama that year, so it was like a rudy
• 25:23
  Speaker 7: story man, and I want to stay championship in amateur
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: wrestling as well. But I was so busy living life
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: and surviving and plus wrestling in the early ninety sucked,
• 25:33
  Speaker 7: so I wasn't really watching it as much. And then
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: about nineteen ninety five is when I graduated high school.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: About ninety six, I started college.
• 25:45
  Speaker 7: I was already engaged by then to who would be
• 25:47
  Speaker 7: my future wife, and so we settled in a little
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: bit more and we were about to start college together,
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: and I had more stability in my life and all
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: of a sudden, WCW had Monday Night Drove.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: It had just started.
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: They had all the guys I grew up with under
• 26:04
  Speaker 7: that umbrella, right they had Now the nWo is just hit.
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: My mind's blown because I'm watching hul Cogan turnhel and
• 26:10
  Speaker 7: now he's a bad guy.
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: You know what's this all about?
• 26:13
  Speaker 7: And they got Rick Flair, they got Lex Luger, they
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: got Steamed, they got Roddy Poker, they got the Macho Man,
• 26:18
  Speaker 7: and then on the undercard, they got.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: Stuff I've never seen in wrestling before.
• 26:22
  Speaker 7: When you see like Billy Kidman and Ray Minsterio Junior
• 26:26
  Speaker 7: Wrestling and even guys like just go Inferno. We're entertaining
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: his activity, man, And to watch that stuff play out,
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: you know, and I'm going, this was a good product
• 26:34
  Speaker 7: from top to bottom. And then right in the middle
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: that sen my main event slide. You had guys like
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: Eddie Guerrero, Chris bin Wan, Chris Jericho, Dee Malinko or
• 26:45
  Speaker 7: Wrestling weekend and week out, and You're going, man, this
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: is just a great product top to bottom. And I
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: watched for maybe three weeks or four weeks, and then
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: I saw the promos that were running for the power
• 26:56
  Speaker 7: Plant and they open tryouts, and my mentality at the
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: time literally was Atlanta is a drive away from me.
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: I'll never make it professional wrestling. I don't know anything
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: about professional wrestling. I didn't even know at the time
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: this will work, you know, I didn't I've never been
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: to a show, backstage, nothing.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: I just thought, man, what a great story to have
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: for the rest of my life if I go on
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: a tryout and I meet Steam or I shake his hand,
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: or meet Rick Flair, and I didn't know what to expect.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: So I got this open tryout at the power Plan.
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: Those were three day long tryouts, and anything you guys
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: ever heard about about how bad and brutal it was
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: is absolutely not over exaggerated or overstated. And Sarge, I
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: don't know if you guys have ever met Sarge. You know,
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: with Sergeant Buddy Lee Parker, Dwayne Bruce. Yeah, he was
• 27:47
  Speaker 7: a legitimate like coast Guard drill sergeant. And so he
• 27:51
  Speaker 7: would come in this fire club that was like five six,
• 27:53
  Speaker 7: two hundred and thirty pounds and built like a Rubets cube,
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: and he would just come in and go grab a bucket,
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: Grab a buck what's the And they had these five
• 28:01
  Speaker 7: gallon paint buckets. You flipped them upside down and you
• 28:05
  Speaker 7: did free squats, and you started with reps of fifty
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: drop down push ups, roll over sit ups, run in place,
• 28:11
  Speaker 7: reps of fifty again continuously until.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: You built up the five hundred squats. And I'm looking
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: in the tryout class.
• 28:18
  Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, So there was like twenty four guys in
• 28:21
  Speaker 7: the tryout class, and I would say it was a
• 28:23
  Speaker 7: mix of guys that were like college athletes that weren't
• 28:27
  Speaker 7: quite good enough for the pros, like football players and
• 28:30
  Speaker 7: those types of athletes they knew they were wanting to
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: go pro, but they wanted to continue to be an athlete,
• 28:35
  Speaker 7: or the bodybuilders that wanted something to do in the
• 28:38
  Speaker 7: off season to make money, and they thought they had
• 28:40
  Speaker 7: to look. Or you'd have raw boned guys that were
• 28:43
  Speaker 7: just naturally six foot eight, four hundred pounds and had
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: tattoos and.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: Mohawks and thought they had to look.
• 28:49
  Speaker 7: In their mind, all those guys thought if I checked
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: the boxes, they're gonna see me and just sign me
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: to a contract, you know. And I'm looking around and
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: I'm watching drills, you know, Serge get in their face
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: and when they're falling out and cramping up because they
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: can't do anymore squats, you know, or the juice gets
• 29:08
  Speaker 7: to them and they're locked up, they're blood or whatever.
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: He would get down in their face. But look, you
• 29:14
  Speaker 7: called us. We didn't call you if you can't do
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: it out here, and he's just running them off one
• 29:19
  Speaker 7: after the other. It took about the first half of
• 29:23
  Speaker 7: the first day for me to realize this was a
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: war of attrition, and I looked around, went, oh, that's
• 29:29
  Speaker 7: the game. Well, I've been through some stuff in my
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: life by then. You may ask me to leave, but
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: I'm not gonna quit, you know, I'm not that guy. Yeah,
• 29:38
  Speaker 7: So that was my mentality.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: And once I realized that was the thing, I was
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: like a Rick flair Mark at that point because every
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: squat I wasn't just doing them. I would do them
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: and go oooh, I wanted to be there.
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: And at the end of three day trap well, at
• 29:54
  Speaker 7: the end of the first day there were sixteen guys left,
• 29:56
  Speaker 7: second day, eight guys showed up. End of the second
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: there was maybe six five six guys left, and then
• 30:03
  Speaker 7: the third day and all of it was just ten
• 30:06
  Speaker 7: hours of exactly what I just described and the third
• 30:10
  Speaker 7: day there was two guys left. Me and one other
• 30:12
  Speaker 7: guy were the only two that showed up, and we
• 30:15
  Speaker 7: did the same thing I described for the first half
• 30:18
  Speaker 7: of the morning. Then we finally rolled into the ring
• 30:20
  Speaker 7: for the first time. They didn't they still k faved everything.
• 30:24
  Speaker 7: They didn't tell us nothing about the wrestling business. They
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: taught us very quickly how to run the ropes, taught
• 30:29
  Speaker 7: us how to take a back bump, how to take
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: a front bump, and see if we were athletic enough
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: to pull that off. And then they pulled us into
• 30:36
  Speaker 7: Jody Hamilton's office and then you sat down with the
• 30:39
  Speaker 7: Winston Churchill Professional Wrestling.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: And you know he would do the dealry and lean
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: back and he'd take us off, hold his hands over
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: his start and look, kid, we're not promising you'll ever
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: have a job in a wrestling business. I'm not telling
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: you you're gonna be on TV telling you that you're
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: going to be a big superstar. You are not a
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: wc W wrestler. But if you want to pay us
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: three grand, you've shown us enough to prove to us
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: that you have.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: To pay.
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: Unreal count shit.
• 31:16
  Speaker 7: Well, my mentality at the time was this, and honestly
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: was this. I go, you know what, you pay for
• 31:21
  Speaker 7: any training you get in this world. I don't care
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: if you want to be a doctor or if you
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: want to be a welder, You're going to pay for
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: some kind of training or schooling. And if I really
• 31:30
  Speaker 7: thought that I could have any kind of career of
• 31:33
  Speaker 7: professional wrestling, and for whatever reason, it felt natural to me.
• 31:36
  Speaker 7: It felt like it came natural to me, just did
• 31:38
  Speaker 7: from the first time I stepped in the ring.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: It felt right. So I said, you know what, this
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: is my best bet for training.
• 31:44
  Speaker 7: I'm not there's no place I can go that's bigger
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: than WCW was at the time.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: And get better training. There just wasn't.
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: And so I go, you know what, I'm gonna get
• 31:53
  Speaker 7: this thing a shot, and I'm a bet on myself.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: I had fifteen hundred dollars in my savings account.
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: I gave that to w CW and Ted Turner also
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: owned see an In Center, so I worked the rest
• 32:04
  Speaker 7: of it off moving furniture.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: At the c an N Center.
• 32:06
  Speaker 7: And I was from Alabama to Atlanta, two hours there,
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: two hours back, ten hours a day, five days a
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: week for about ten months before I had my first match.
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: So my two questions are one, who was the other guy?
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: Did he ever make it? And what was like the
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: actual training like when they let you in?
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, never saw him again.
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: So what happens is they brought us into the office individually,
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: So I don't know what they said to him, if
• 32:33
  Speaker 7: it was the same spill they gave to me, which
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: it probably was, but I never saw him again after
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: that last day.
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: That's incredible, yow.
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: And so the guys that came after me that very
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: very quickly after that, I don't know how this fell
• 32:47
  Speaker 7: the way that it fell, But like the very next month,
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: they had another training, you know, exactly would have these
• 32:54
  Speaker 7: things monthly. These tryouts were monthly, and then the next
• 32:57
  Speaker 7: month that tryout through there was Mike Sanders trial Ale Sanders,
• 33:02
  Speaker 7: you know, and the power plant with us, and then
• 33:05
  Speaker 7: not long after that was Alan Funk, and then right
• 33:08
  Speaker 7: whatever Alan Funk was Elix Skipper, and then Mark Jennerak,
• 33:12
  Speaker 7: and then Chuck Palumbo and then Sean o'harron not too
• 33:14
  Speaker 7: long after that. We just all kind of came through
• 33:16
  Speaker 7: together about the same time. And I was the first
• 33:20
  Speaker 7: of that crew, so to speak, and I was probably
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: the first of that crew that kind of got a
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: little bit of a break.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, we want to.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Ask you about your obviously your your wrestling career, but
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: we have some questions from the fans. I think the
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: questions might come up organically, right Mark.
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, sure, I mean there's a lot. I mean
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: we've actually, uh you know, answered a lot of them already.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: But you got all right, guys, met So you know,
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: we asked.
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: Our fans in our little Facebook group to ask you
• 33:51
  Speaker 8: some questions. So these aren't going to be sort of
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: in order or anything. They're just gonna be kind of
• 33:55
  Speaker 8: all over the place. But uh so here we go.
• 33:58
  Speaker 8: So Chesley Gobar says, did you enjoy the corporal Cajun
• 34:01
  Speaker 8: persona or not? How much input did you have in
• 34:04
  Speaker 8: that gimmick? He says, I loved it?
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Ha ha.
• 34:09
  Speaker 7: Hey, here's the thing about the corporal caguing gimmick. I'm
• 34:12
  Speaker 7: extremely proud of it. It's probably the better way to
• 34:14
  Speaker 7: explain that. And what I mean by that is this.
• 34:17
  Speaker 7: The way all that stuff came about with the n
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: I A was Vince Russo came in and he just started, man,
• 34:24
  Speaker 7: you know, changing everything right away. He was really high
• 34:27
  Speaker 7: on the young guys and wanted to make new stars.
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: And I think part of that was he had to
• 34:31
  Speaker 7: feel like he, you know, was proving himself by making
• 34:34
  Speaker 7: new stars. And he was really big on doing that.
• 34:37
  Speaker 7: And he brought me and a lot of people don't
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: don't remember that this was a part of it, but
• 34:42
  Speaker 7: it was me, Hugh Morris, Chiabo Guerrero, oh man, what
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: was Big Van Hamer, Van Hammer and Booker T Booker T.
• 34:54
  Speaker 7: Because Booker T was g I Bro, I don't know
• 34:56
  Speaker 7: if you got remember that, this.
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: Gimmick, right. So he brought all of a sudden there
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: and he said, look, bro, bro, here's the thing. Yeah,
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: I don't have room for all you guys on.
• 35:09
  Speaker 7: On the show. But he goes, I got two choices.
• 35:12
  Speaker 7: I can either send you home are we need comic
• 35:14
  Speaker 7: relief in the show, and we want you guys to
• 35:17
  Speaker 7: basically be on the movie stripes. That's the way he
• 35:21
  Speaker 7: sold it. And they kind of gave us the names
• 35:24
  Speaker 7: Corporal Cage and and and I think van Hammer was
• 35:26
  Speaker 7: stashed at first, and uh and then you know, general
• 35:30
  Speaker 7: Hugh erection and.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: Bill hated that he hated that Gipp guy. He hated
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: he hated the name but what me.
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: And Hugh and He'll always build a mott will always
• 35:42
  Speaker 7: forever be Hugh to me for him because that's just
• 35:44
  Speaker 7: how I knew him. And uh, but me, Hugh and
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: Chabo were pretty close at the time, and we were
• 35:51
  Speaker 7: pretty proud of the fact that I think the fact
• 35:53
  Speaker 7: that that got over when it was booked just to
• 35:55
  Speaker 7: be comic relief to the extent that it did. I mean,
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: I realized that this is a a flashpan point of
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: WCW there where it went a lot of good to
• 36:04
  Speaker 7: probably look at, but it got over to a certain extent.
• 36:07
  Speaker 7: And for the extent that it got over, we took
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: pride in the fact that it was strictly forced based
• 36:12
  Speaker 7: on our workability. And once we got in the ring,
• 36:14
  Speaker 7: you know, especially me and Chabo as a tag team,
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: once you put us in the ring, man, we felt
• 36:18
  Speaker 7: like we could go with anybody and we could play
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: whatever part you needed us to play. So when they
• 36:22
  Speaker 7: came to me and they said you're going to be
• 36:24
  Speaker 7: corporal Cajun and you guys have to wear camouflage for instance,
• 36:28
  Speaker 7: because the I think they asked how much input did
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: we have in it? Well, I had no input on
• 36:32
  Speaker 7: the name but when they came to me with the camouflage,
• 36:36
  Speaker 7: you go, well, now wait a second, as long as
• 36:37
  Speaker 7: I'm wearing this urban camouflage that they just ran and
• 36:40
  Speaker 7: got from the surplus store, they said some runner for it.
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: I said, doesn't matter how I wear it, as long
• 36:45
  Speaker 7: as I'm wearing it. No, no, no, no, as long as
• 36:47
  Speaker 7: you guys kind of like, okay, well what I felt
• 36:50
  Speaker 7: fit my personalaws. I take one color of the urban
• 36:53
  Speaker 7: camouflage and another pair of pants, took it to the
• 36:56
  Speaker 7: wardrobe and asked Sandra to split them up the middle,
• 36:59
  Speaker 7: take two alternate colors, and kind of saw them together
• 37:01
  Speaker 7: so that would look different.
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: Uh.
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: Then I took my wrestling boots and I would fold the.
• 37:06
  Speaker 7: Tops down to make them look a little bit more
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: like World War two jump boots instead of just wrestling.
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: I took a bucket hat, cut a hole in the
• 37:12
  Speaker 7: top of it, pulled the hair through, and I still
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: wore my money grub beats, you know, just tried to
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: make it our own. And Chavo wore the you know,
• 37:19
  Speaker 7: the dow rag and the bandana and that sort of thing,
• 37:22
  Speaker 7: and uh and and then we.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: Pretty quickly threw Van Hammer out of the out of
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: the group, is there.
• 37:32
  Speaker 8: Yeah, So actually taking a step back so that the
• 37:35
  Speaker 8: Last LaRue character, Rob Buck says, was there any inspiration
• 37:39
  Speaker 8: whether in name or hairstyle taken from the X Men's gambit,
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: which is his real name is Remy Lebue.
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: Honest with you, here's the way all that stuff came about.
• 37:50
  Speaker 7: And this is one hot and and so I promised
• 37:55
  Speaker 7: with you guys are transparent, transparent.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: So my real name is Johnny Mark LaRue.
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: Anybody can Wikipedia that and see that my real name
• 38:04
  Speaker 7: since I was eighteen years old is Jonathan Mark Last LaRue.
• 38:07
  Speaker 7: And the reason why it is the best advice I
• 38:09
  Speaker 7: got in the wrestling business that really helped me out
• 38:12
  Speaker 7: so much was again Jody Hamilton and all this wisdom.
• 38:16
  Speaker 7: He called me Last from day one because he remembered
• 38:19
  Speaker 7: the old cowboy Last LaRue from way back in the
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: Western time, right, that guy just spelled his last name differently.
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: And so as soon as he here last, Hey, he
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: goes Hey, Last LaRue. And so he called me in
• 38:29
  Speaker 7: there and he just called me in his office one day
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: and he goes and this is before ever signed with
• 38:33
  Speaker 7: WCW or anything. I just really started training and he goes, hey, kid,
• 38:38
  Speaker 7: so you really think you're gonna use this like last
• 38:40
  Speaker 7: LaRue name? And I go, well, I don't have anything better.
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: I think, yeah, probably, So when he goes, he goes,
• 38:46
  Speaker 7: I would I think it's a good college, got built
• 38:48
  Speaker 7: in name recognition already. He goes, it's great. He goes,
• 38:51
  Speaker 7: give you a little bit of advice. Give me all
• 38:54
  Speaker 7: the advice that you can, Jody, please, he goes. If
• 38:57
  Speaker 7: I were you, I wouldn't worry about trademarks. I wouldn't
• 39:01
  Speaker 7: worry about copyrights. I wouldn't think about any of that
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: stuff because all that stuff expires, or you have to
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: continue to renew it, or you.
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: Got to pay more money.
• 39:08
  Speaker 7: You have to really stay on top of He goes,
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: Since your real last name is LaRue, I would go
• 39:12
  Speaker 7: to your local probate office back home, and I would
• 39:17
  Speaker 7: petition the court to just legally add that to your name.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: Don't change your name what anyway, the example he gave me,
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: he goes, he goes, like a woman.
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: That goes against married and changes her last name, just
• 39:31
  Speaker 7: go and fill out that same form.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: And I went and talked to my lawyer. I go,
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: can I do? He goes, Yeah, we do, that like
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: for twenty five bucks, I added last.
• 39:38
  Speaker 8: Money before everyone, Oh my god.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: And here's the best part of that story. For instance,
• 39:45
  Speaker 7: w CW was never an issue. W CW never thought
• 39:48
  Speaker 7: about it. And by the way, as a side note,
• 39:50
  Speaker 7: as a parenthetical, I knew I couldn't be Mark LaRue
• 39:53
  Speaker 7: because the first time I ever went to a wrestling show,
• 39:55
  Speaker 7: I met Terry Taylor, and you guys know Terry, I'm sure.
• 39:58
  Speaker 7: I walked up to him and I said, hey, mister Ta,
• 40:00
  Speaker 7: I just want to introduce myself. My name's Mark, and
• 40:01
  Speaker 7: he goes, I'm sure you are, kid, and guy, I
• 40:07
  Speaker 7: work in the wrestling business. So I went and changed that.
• 40:11
  Speaker 7: W CW was never an issue WWE. When I signed
• 40:14
  Speaker 7: with them, they had in their contract that they owned
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: Last LaRue, the rights to it.
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: The name, the whole deal. And so I called them up.
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: And I said, the only issue I've got with the contracts,
• 40:24
  Speaker 7: not the money, nothing else is I don't know how
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: you own the name Last LaRue when that's my name,
• 40:29
  Speaker 7: And they go, well, we bought WCW, and we we
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: assumed that they came up with the character and that
• 40:34
  Speaker 7: intellectual property and we owned that and go No, they
• 40:36
  Speaker 7: didn't come up with that's my real name. They go, well,
• 40:38
  Speaker 7: just send us copy of your driver's license. So I
• 40:40
  Speaker 7: sent a copy of my driver's license. They changed the
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: contract and it was never an issue. Here's my idea,
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: my legal name for six or eight years or so.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: Wow, I never even thought of something like that. Maybe
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: you can help me with my geography, raige occasion. You're
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: from Alabama, so is that right? Can you be a casion?
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: Is it that region or is the only New Orleans thing?
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 41:01
  Speaker 6: Help me out with this.
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: So here's the deal on that. So legit true story.
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: My dad was from Lofila, Louisiana, but I never knew them.
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: I never knew my dad. I never knew that family.
• 41:10
  Speaker 7: My mom raised us in Alabama. I just got this
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: legit shoot cage in last name LaRue.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: So when I.
• 41:16
  Speaker 7: Started at WCW and I come over there and I'm
• 41:19
  Speaker 7: trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself.
• 41:21
  Speaker 7: Like they asked about the hair when I showed up. Man,
• 41:24
  Speaker 7: my hair was short. I always kept it short for
• 41:26
  Speaker 7: ball in high school and the coaches made us do that.
• 41:29
  Speaker 7: They said, kid, you need to grow out your hair,
• 41:32
  Speaker 7: and you need some facial hair because you look too
• 41:34
  Speaker 7: much like high school you look actually they said, look
• 41:37
  Speaker 7: the kid Rudy.
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: From the movie Rooty. So back when I was young,
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: I guess I did. And so when I grew my
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: hair out, all it would do is just curl up.
• 41:45
  Speaker 7: That's all it would do, is just naturally curly and froy,
• 41:47
  Speaker 7: and so I just kind of leaned into that. Let
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: it be crazy. Then when I didn't want to go
• 41:52
  Speaker 7: to everybody had to go to in the nineties, so
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: I started going out these big port chop sideburns because
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: I'm a huge Elvis mark. And now I looked in
• 42:00
  Speaker 7: the mirror one day and the artist and he said, hey,
• 42:03
  Speaker 7: I could shave those into my initials and make that different.
• 42:06
  Speaker 7: And so I put the double l's on that. And
• 42:08
  Speaker 7: then they stuck a microphone in front of my face
• 42:11
  Speaker 7: at eighteen years old and wanted me to come my
• 42:13
  Speaker 7: first promo. And when I graduated high school, I talked
• 42:17
  Speaker 7: probably about like from Alamma. So while I was from Alabama,
• 42:20
  Speaker 7: they putting my phone on I my name blast a
• 42:22
  Speaker 7: real mama. They go, oh, you can't talk like that
• 42:25
  Speaker 7: on television because Southern's considered ignorant. You got to drop
• 42:27
  Speaker 7: the Southern accent. I go, I can't drop this. I'm
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: gonna drop my Southern accent. And I tried, and I tried,
• 42:33
  Speaker 7: man for about six eight weeks. Man, I'm working every
• 42:37
  Speaker 7: day on annunciation and everything else, and I'm going, I
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: this guy can't drop it. And then one day it
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: hit me. I go, now, wait a second. And by
• 42:46
  Speaker 7: this point I met Macho, I met Dusty Rhodes, and
• 42:49
  Speaker 7: those guys they kind of talked like that, but they
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: had really like Dusty Dusty kind of thought like this.
• 42:54
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: But when he's kind of promo because.
• 42:56
  Speaker 5: He's got anyway, he's.
• 42:58
  Speaker 7: Gonna really put pronounce it, lean into it. And then
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: you know, Macho got that gimmick voice and that sort
• 43:03
  Speaker 7: of thing. Man, And I go, you know what, I
• 43:06
  Speaker 7: can't hide my Southern accent, but I can go. But
• 43:09
  Speaker 7: I'm with a Cajun accent because I grew up watching
• 43:11
  Speaker 7: this thing in Alabama and that came on Alabama Public
• 43:14
  Speaker 7: Television and it was this guy justin Wilson, and he
• 43:17
  Speaker 7: was a cage on shelf man and he come out
• 43:19
  Speaker 7: and he go, We're about to cook a little bit
• 43:21
  Speaker 7: of cage on food it's gonna be the best thing.
• 43:23
  Speaker 7: I'll put you about, my Gary, A little.
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: Wine for the ticket, a little wine for me, and
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: so I the whole Cajun culture thing.
• 43:32
  Speaker 7: Man, wow, and the first choice. And then they said
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: to me, they go, okay, well where's home? And again
• 43:39
  Speaker 7: the branding and the artist in me and everything else
• 43:42
  Speaker 7: and the dad's roots, and I go Cajun country, Lofay
• 43:45
  Speaker 7: at Louisiana. Double L's a little subliminal thing there, so
• 43:49
  Speaker 7: I can play off that.
• 43:50
  Speaker 6: So of course, my love.
• 43:52
  Speaker 7: The first place w cw ever sends me to an
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: augrass signing is lofaiat Louisiana. So now I'm thinking, all right,
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: I'm either gonna blow this, this this gimmick right now,
• 44:03
  Speaker 7: or this is the best test for it. And the
• 44:06
  Speaker 7: people would coming in wanting an autographs, and I go, hey,
• 44:08
  Speaker 7: how y'all doing? Where y'all at? Who can I make
• 44:10
  Speaker 7: this out to? And I and these people are trying
• 44:13
  Speaker 7: to convince me they know my family. They go, I
• 44:15
  Speaker 7: knew your daddy or daddy. I want to have a
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: name and a number or something. I've never met it.
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: And then it instantly goes.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: In my mind. I go, look this may be cheesy,
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: it may be over the top, but if the people
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: here believe it and treat me like a hometown hero,
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: I won't have any trouble in Brooklyn, or say, I
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: see and then I'll find out really quick too. If
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: you spend any time in Louisiana, they all have different
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: accents anyway, every parish you go to, every one of
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: those cages sound different.
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: And then you go downtown New Orleans and those guys
• 44:49
  Speaker 7: sound like they're from Brooklyn.
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: No figure, that's that's where Red's is at, right, Broski legit? Yeah,
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: Red's gym in best gym in the country, man, where
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: the boys are hitting that?
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: Well, and so with the with the whole gimmick itself. Man,
• 45:06
  Speaker 7: I kind of came up with all that, and uh,
• 45:08
  Speaker 7: I just started adding to it.
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: You know. I went up to Terry Taylor at.
• 45:12
  Speaker 7: A WCW Worldwide TV taping in Orlando two matches into
• 45:17
  Speaker 7: my career and said, Hey, Terry, you monif I wrestler
• 45:19
  Speaker 7: as a last LaRue.
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: He goes, I don't care what your wrestle erst and.
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: He did in that time.
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: I go okay, So I went and knocked on the
• 45:26
  Speaker 7: production truck, you know, twenty years old. And they answered
• 45:28
  Speaker 7: the door and I go, hey, Terry Taylor said, I
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: could wrestle as last LaRue, So if you don't mind
• 45:32
  Speaker 7: changing the cry on at the bottom there, so instead
• 45:35
  Speaker 7: of it saying Mark Lewis says last lear they go, sure,
• 45:37
  Speaker 7: no problem, and they did that, and then now the
• 45:41
  Speaker 7: announcers are kind of forced by that point to start
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: calling you that. And then when you come out and
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: you just went and had your gear made and you
• 45:48
  Speaker 7: put raging on one side and caging on the other,
• 45:51
  Speaker 7: they get the hint they need something to talk about
• 45:53
  Speaker 7: the in your match, and I'll call you the rage
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: and caging and I added the Martigras beads.
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: Then I added the side burns and it just kind
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: of took off from there.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 46:06
  Speaker 8: So this one's kind of topical with the with the
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: return of TNA this weekend. Ted Conley Baker says, how
• 46:13
  Speaker 8: did you get involved with TNA? I remember seeing on
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: a few shows on the TNA explosion back.
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: In the ya as you're in the inaugural episode, right, Yeah, yeah,
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: sure was.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: And again it was the only time in my wrestling
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: career that I really cracked was stuck up in Cincinnati,
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: and you know, I'm sure we'll get into more of
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: that at some point. But TNA came round on the
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: heels of that, and I was out of shape.
• 46:37
  Speaker 7: Man, looking back, I really squandered probably a good opportunity there,
• 46:41
  Speaker 7: and and I still had just enough of w CW
• 46:45
  Speaker 7: gravatas that I was trying to carry around on my
• 46:47
  Speaker 7: back that I thought that I just kind of deserved
• 46:49
  Speaker 7: the spot.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: Anyway.
• 46:50
  Speaker 7: Probably I didn't act like that because I've always tried
• 46:53
  Speaker 7: to not be arrogant or anything like.
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: That in my wrestling career. I tried to be humble.
• 46:56
  Speaker 7: But I think in the back of my mind I
• 46:58
  Speaker 7: probably squandered a lot because I expect more instead of
• 47:01
  Speaker 7: working for more and with TNA. But I was on
• 47:03
  Speaker 7: that very first episode. It was because Ed Forera came
• 47:06
  Speaker 7: in early to help out, you know, doing production and
• 47:09
  Speaker 7: stuff with him. And Ed gave me a call and
• 47:11
  Speaker 7: they said, hey, you're a Bama guy and this for
• 47:14
  Speaker 7: who's going to.
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: Be in Huntsible. We want to fly you in or anything.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: Are you interested in doing it? I said, yeah, absolutely,
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: I'll do it.
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: Love to do it.
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: Let's be a part of it.
• 47:21
  Speaker 7: So I had that short little stint on that show,
• 47:23
  Speaker 7: did a couple other matches with Saboo, and then I
• 47:25
  Speaker 7: kind of got the hint and I go, you know what,
• 47:27
  Speaker 7: I need to work for this a little bit. And
• 47:29
  Speaker 7: there was a time there pretty early on, when they
• 47:32
  Speaker 7: were doing the fair Grounds in Nashville. I would drive
• 47:35
  Speaker 7: back and forth. It's four hours in Nashville, four hours back,
• 47:38
  Speaker 7: just to be backstage on Wednesday night, hoping that they'd
• 47:40
  Speaker 7: give me a little shot. But again that goes back
• 47:44
  Speaker 7: and at that point, Man, so much stuff had happened
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: to me in the wrestling business. You would think I'm
• 47:48
  Speaker 7: a forty year old veteran, but I was probably twenty
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: four to twenty five man, and I didn't have a clue.
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: It goes back to what I was saying before Matt.
• 47:56
  Speaker 7: I knew how to wrestle. I didn't know the wrestling business.
• 48:00
  Speaker 7: I knew how to have great matches, you know. And
• 48:02
  Speaker 7: I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. I'm
• 48:03
  Speaker 7: just saying I think I could go out there and
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: work with anybody, and they could put me out there
• 48:06
  Speaker 7: with Saboo and do the job to Saboo.
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: I didn't know how to protect my gimmick. I didn't
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: know how to get myself over.
• 48:12
  Speaker 7: I didn't know how to talk to the people in
• 48:13
  Speaker 7: the back politics so much is just put forward some
• 48:18
  Speaker 7: ideas and have some uh, you know, have enough belief
• 48:23
  Speaker 7: in yourself, enough confidence in yourself that you can you
• 48:26
  Speaker 7: can be a little aggressive and assertive about going, hey,
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: use me, you know, do something with me. I got
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: a lot to bring to the table, and instead I
• 48:33
  Speaker 7: just kind of hope that they would go, Hey, they
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: know I work hard and I'm a good hand.
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: Why wouldn't they hire me, you know?
• 48:39
  Speaker 7: And I think I squandered some chances because of that,
• 48:42
  Speaker 7: And then that feeds into the bitterness even more because
• 48:45
  Speaker 7: then you wonderline the world wand to give me a shot?
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: What did I do to kiss anybody off?
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: But I think the most important thing is that now
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: you know you're talking about you may have been better,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: but you're not. Now you know you put the you
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: hold yourself accountable and responsible, and you're not one of
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: these old timers sitting here say this guy help me down,
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: or this person backstad me.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: So I respect I respect that a lot.
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: You know, well, thank you, brother.
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: I've thought a lot about this throughout the years, man,
• 49:09
  Speaker 7: And and to be honest with your perspective is a powerful.
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: Thing in life. Right, you're as good as you think
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: you are, good as you're not. And I don't mean
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: necessarily talent skill wise, just where you are right now
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: in this world. Right, and then whether whether or not
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: things are going well for you has so much to
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: do with the perspective. And you let that stuff get
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: in your head and you think it to yourself the
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: over they're burying me and they're out to get me. Dude.
• 49:33
  Speaker 7: Look, I came into WCWWWE at a time when they
• 49:38
  Speaker 7: just bought the company, you know, and I got bitter
• 49:41
  Speaker 7: because they signed me to a three year deal and
• 49:44
  Speaker 7: I took one hundred thousand dollars pay cup when I
• 49:46
  Speaker 7: could have set on my WCW money, just to prove
• 49:49
  Speaker 7: that I want to be part of the team.
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: And I signed a three year guaranteed deal and they
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: treated me like I was a trainee when it was
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: a wrestling talent contract. And then they send me to
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: Cincinnati and tell me I'm gonna be there for four
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: weeks and that turns into in months and you start thinking, Okay,
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: why are they messing with me and why they're burying
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: me and all this stuff. And then you get older
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: and you look back, you're there. How many people were
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: on the roster? Look, get any guys that were on
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: the rosters that had been world champions and are not
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: getting TV time.
• 50:14
  Speaker 7: Nobody was out to get lash LaRue. It's about the time, man,
• 50:21
  Speaker 7: and so you could put all your heart and soul
• 50:23
  Speaker 7: into something in the perspective everybody else's Oh he was
• 50:26
  Speaker 7: in the business for a cup of coffee. You know,
• 50:29
  Speaker 7: it's tough, it hurts, but it's live, man, and then
• 50:32
  Speaker 7: you pick yourself up, you go next.
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, I love that. I love that perspective. I
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: love that attitude for sure. Uh.
• 50:41
  Speaker 8: I guess we got time for a couple more. Brian Harrison,
• 50:45
  Speaker 8: I don't know what he's talking about here, but this
• 50:46
  Speaker 8: is interesting. What was it like riding in the Marti
• 50:49
  Speaker 8: Gars parade? I still have beads from the parade he
• 50:52
  Speaker 8: rode in.
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, okay, So here's the genius of WCW at
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: the time. No, I'm kidding.
• 50:58
  Speaker 6: This is part of part of of.
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: Me not really having enough foresight and enough awareness of
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: where I was in the wrestling business to probably make
• 51:08
  Speaker 7: more out of it than what I did. And now
• 51:10
  Speaker 7: looking back, man, I would never miss these opportunities. But
• 51:13
  Speaker 7: because I was the raging Cajun lash LaRue man, they
• 51:16
  Speaker 7: treated me. They embraced me like I was the hometown
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: boy in Louisiana, man, And they were great to me.
• 51:22
  Speaker 7: And I still feel like a big part of my heart.
• 51:25
  Speaker 7: I'm not trying to be cheesy about it.
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 51:27
  Speaker 7: It feels like a wholetown to me when I get
• 51:28
  Speaker 7: to go to Louisiana, and I love that the people
• 51:31
  Speaker 7: were proud to think of me as one of those
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: guys man. And hey, Cajun is caguing. It's more of
• 51:36
  Speaker 7: a mindset than it is anything else. And so they
• 51:39
  Speaker 7: had me Grand Marshall and Marti Gras about three years
• 51:42
  Speaker 7: in a row. In one of those years they actually
• 51:45
  Speaker 7: had the last year that they did that, they sent
• 51:46
  Speaker 7: a pretty good group of WCW guys there because it
• 51:49
  Speaker 7: was getting over so well. As part of Marti Gras
• 51:52
  Speaker 7: Crew of Caesar Parade they put us on. And that
• 51:55
  Speaker 7: one that our friend there is probably talking about is
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: one of the last ones where I was there.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: I think Canyon was there, Disco Inferno was there, some
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: other guys maybe Ravens Stereo, and we were riding on
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: the float Man and w CW.
• 52:09
  Speaker 7: I actually still have one and I love it to
• 52:11
  Speaker 7: this day. They had Marty Grass beats made that had
• 52:13
  Speaker 7: the big gold belt on it as count of the battallion.
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then they had these do balloons they had
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: the w CW logo on it, the coins that they
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: throw out, and we just rolling the parade threw these
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: things out and it wasn't I did that three years
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: in a row, and the last year that I did
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: at w CW sent a camera crew to film it
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: and use that as b roll for my entrance, and
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: that never got made because WWE bought the company.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: Yeah, obviously hindsight being twenty twenty, the first year I
• 52:43
  Speaker 7: got to do that, I would have gone to whoever
• 52:45
  Speaker 7: I needed to go to and go, hey, why don't
• 52:47
  Speaker 7: we think about going and filling.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: This and using this part of my b roll?
• 52:50
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Right. Then, when you're young man, you're too naive
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: and you're too passive, and you're too intimidated by your
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: circumst as is to really speak up because you're so
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: worried about heat.
• 53:04
  Speaker 8: Yeah, Fowers, that's great, great, advice for any wrestler that's
• 53:08
  Speaker 8: watching this right now, Uh, mark House that asks about
• 53:13
  Speaker 8: the about the video games that you were in specifically
• 53:18
  Speaker 8: money wise, or or what was that like for you
• 53:21
  Speaker 8: being in video games and all that.
• 53:23
  Speaker 7: The video games from a money perspective was the best
• 53:26
  Speaker 7: checks I ever got, you know obviously as far as
• 53:29
  Speaker 7: one check. Yeah, And I can createit EA Sports, and
• 53:34
  Speaker 7: I can create the video game with really getting me
• 53:36
  Speaker 7: my first job.
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: And the reason why is because I've been training at
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: the power Plant.
• 53:40
  Speaker 7: I had a few matches on Saturday night and uh,
• 53:43
  Speaker 7: and you know the way things were geared back then.
• 53:45
  Speaker 7: They would even tell you at the power Plan when
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: they do the TV taping in Orlando where they would
• 53:50
  Speaker 7: do three months worth of Saturday night tapings in like
• 53:52
  Speaker 7: a week, you could go down there with your gear
• 53:55
  Speaker 7: and back then. Man, you can knock on the door,
• 53:57
  Speaker 7: get into the locker room, tell me you're from the
• 53:59
  Speaker 7: power Plant, you got your gear, and if they just
• 54:01
  Speaker 7: need an enhancement talent, man, please let me work it.
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: So my first match ever.
• 54:05
  Speaker 7: In wrestling was about a four minute squash match with
• 54:08
  Speaker 7: Perry Sattern, but I wasn't under contract at that point,
• 54:12
  Speaker 7: and so the one point in my life or in
• 54:15
  Speaker 7: my career where I can say I really was asserted
• 54:17
  Speaker 7: in the right place at the right time. I would
• 54:19
  Speaker 7: be at the power plant every single day, and if
• 54:22
  Speaker 7: there was an opportunity at the power plant, I was
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: not shy about jumping in the ring.
• 54:25
  Speaker 4: One thing was for me.
• 54:28
  Speaker 7: I may have not been so self assured about my
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: skills backstage and politic and on behalf of myself or
• 54:35
  Speaker 7: speaking up for myself, but in the ring, I was
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: always confident, sure of what I was capable of. And
• 54:42
  Speaker 7: the EA Sports came to Atlanta all the way from
• 54:45
  Speaker 7: Vancouver with their crew because they were going to make
• 54:47
  Speaker 7: the very first video game they had ever made where
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: they used the motion capture suit, which was new technology
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: back then, and they're trying to figure out how they're
• 54:55
  Speaker 7: going to go about doing this. They knew they could
• 54:57
  Speaker 7: put a suit on somebody. If they put a suit
• 54:59
  Speaker 7: on somebody with the sensors, they could film that guy
• 55:02
  Speaker 7: and use that to as the skeleton for any other
• 55:06
  Speaker 7: wrestler and just kind of change it and distort it
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: however they needed to from a size perspective, and so
• 55:12
  Speaker 7: they came down just to film some moves and decide
• 55:14
  Speaker 7: what they wanted to do. Well, I'm in between, Matt
• 55:17
  Speaker 7: from meeting me, you you can probably vouch for this.
• 55:19
  Speaker 7: I'm one of those in between guys. I'm not a
• 55:21
  Speaker 7: really really big guy. I'm not a really really tiny guy,
• 55:24
  Speaker 7: and I've got some amateur wrestling background. And i got
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: the eyes in WCW because right when they first started
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: that cruiserweight push and brought in all the luchadors, I
• 55:34
  Speaker 7: was one of the few American guys that could do
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: that luchador style. Maybe me and Billy Kidman could fly
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: around with Hoovey and Ray and those guys.
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: And so when we're.
• 55:42
  Speaker 7: Standing all around the ring, you know, one of those
• 55:45
  Speaker 7: types of circumstances. You guys have all kind of been
• 55:48
  Speaker 7: there where whatever's going on in the ring is going.
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: On in the ring, and all the other boys, yeah, yeah,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: we're standing around the ring and they're talking about all
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: this stuff, and they go, Okay, who can do some
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: chain wrestling?
• 56:00
  Speaker 7: And then their mind they're thinking a lah Dean Malenko,
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: and I'm going, well, I was amateur. I was amateur
• 56:05
  Speaker 7: wrestler in high school, so I could always do the
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: chain wrestling.
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: Man, I could do it. Without even talking about it.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: I could get in there with someone kaz Hayashi who
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: had limited skills when it came to talking English, but
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: we could get in the ring and just fill off
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: of each other and just go, go, go and trade
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: trade holes. So I got in there and did that
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: and did a lot of amateur stuff. And then they go, well,
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: who can do the power moves? Well, I raise my
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: hand and jump in there. For anybody else strong enough
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: throw the steinersplexes.
• 56:31
  Speaker 7: I can press people over my head, whatever I need
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: to do. I'm pretty strong for my size and stout
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: for my size. And then who can do or can
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: run off the top rope? Raise my hand going there?
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: Do the herd come run off the top rope? The
• 56:41
  Speaker 7: whole deal, and so they go.
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: They go to uh W CW after filming all this
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: for about two days, and they go to the office
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: and they say, we want Lash to come up and
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: do the video game for us and be the be
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: the guy that does all the moves.
• 56:57
  Speaker 7: And they go, ah, well, you know he's not on
• 56:59
  Speaker 7: the contract. Can get one of the guys that are
• 57:00
  Speaker 7: on contract, so we don't have to pay them anything additional.
• 57:04
  Speaker 7: And EA Sports to their credit they go, now, this
• 57:07
  Speaker 7: cat has impressed us so much. He can do everything.
• 57:10
  Speaker 7: We don't have to get three cats. One that does
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: chane wrestling, one that does power and one that does
• 57:15
  Speaker 7: of high flying. We won't last because he can do
• 57:17
  Speaker 7: all that. And that was enough of a mark that
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: I can mimic the other guy's gimmick.
• 57:21
  Speaker 6: You know, I can do that's the fun part.
• 57:24
  Speaker 7: I could do the holding whatever, and so struck like
• 57:28
  Speaker 7: Flair and so Ea Sports. To their credit, they fly
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: me up to Vancouver and they pay me. And at
• 57:36
  Speaker 7: first it started out really really sweet because the first
• 57:38
  Speaker 7: trip up there, man, was sixteen days straight and they
• 57:41
  Speaker 7: gave me like eight hundred dollars a day.
• 57:46
  Speaker 6: For them.
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and so that that felt really really good until
• 57:50
  Speaker 7: the second trip up there. They came up to me
• 57:52
  Speaker 7: and in their defense, they don't know any better. I
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: was even smart enough back then to know this had
• 57:57
  Speaker 7: to come from somebody in the office. But they walk
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: up to me with a new contract and you go, up,
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: We're gonna have to cut your pay from eight hundred
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: a day to four hundred a day because you're.
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: Just a jobber, right.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: That was a.
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: No. Yeah, God, hey, my Alabama place still went to, Hey,
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: I'm still I'm twenty years old and I'm making you know,
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: I'm nineteen twenty years old. I'm making four hundred dollars
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: a day. I'll take it.
• 58:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's pretty sweet, but damn yeah.
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but that's the way it got worded. But anyway,
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: so I did about three different stints up there, and
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: it allowed me to make some really really good money
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: off of them. It guaranteed that I was in the
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: video game even though I wasn't really an established star yet,
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: and it also really got the eyes of w CW.
• 58:43
  Speaker 7: So when I came back from being up there at
• 58:46
  Speaker 7: EA Sports, that's when I was just at the Power
• 58:50
  Speaker 7: Plan on a random Friday not long after that, and
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: they just call me up and they go, hey, last
• 58:55
  Speaker 7: can you be at at Nitro in Minneapolis on Monday night?
• 58:58
  Speaker 7: I go absolutely, And they just wanted me to have
• 59:01
  Speaker 7: a good match with Billy Kidnon and that was the
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: debut man, and they had put the strap on him,
• 59:08
  Speaker 7: made him the Cruiserweight Champion, and they were just looking
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: for guys to feed him that he could have a
• 59:14
  Speaker 7: good competitive match with weekend week out and just be
• 59:16
  Speaker 7: a fighting champion. And I said absolutely, I'll be there.
• 59:19
  Speaker 7: So when I flew up there, I knew Billy well
• 59:22
  Speaker 7: enough by then and had done a few matches on
• 59:24
  Speaker 7: Saturday Night and stuff where he trusted me and knew
• 59:27
  Speaker 7: what I was capable of. And to his credit, he
• 59:29
  Speaker 7: wasn't just looking to eat me up. He wanted to
• 59:31
  Speaker 7: have a good back and forth match. And then you
• 59:33
  Speaker 7: add to that the fact that by then I had
• 59:36
  Speaker 7: kind of put my stick together in my mind. I
• 59:39
  Speaker 7: had worked that gimmick out man had and you know,
• 59:42
  Speaker 7: again in all seriousness, that there are people that wanted
• 59:45
  Speaker 7: to be in the wrestling business and they're listening to
• 59:47
  Speaker 7: this man. You can't over state how important it is
• 59:52
  Speaker 7: to think through what your character looks like to.
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: You, What do you believe in? Why do you believe it?
• 59:58
  Speaker 7: Because if I'm trying to convince the that they need
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 7: to believe something about me, I better believe it first,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 7: and I better know it inside out and know who
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 7: I am and be true to that, be genuine and authentic.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 7: And I had worked all that out enough and played
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: that over in my mind so many times, and by
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 7: the time I had that match with Billy Kidman, I
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 7: wasn't just taking bumps and doing moves.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: I was taking bumps, doing moves and looking at the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: crowd and going.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 7: And you know, and the bookers in the back. The
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 7: guys didn't expect that. And when they saw a little
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 7: bit of charisma along with the working ability in the ring,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 7: they didn't say anything to me. There was no sit
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 7: down with lash LaRue moment and talk to him about
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 7: putting them on the road. They just started booking me.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: I just went from being at the power plant and
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 7: now suddenly I'm getting a booking sheet and I'm expected
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 7: to be places and they're paying me a nightly.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: And not long after that, I have one more run
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: up to Vancouver.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 7: I was frustrated up there and had to sit down
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 7: with tend to Be and Ted dB Issi and I
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 7: share a common faith, and so I sat down with
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 7: Ted and I asked him if I.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: Could talk to him that night after we got through
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: with the day and everything else. And went to his
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: room and said, you know, Tam, I'm just frustrated man,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: and I'd like a little advice and encouragement. I said,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: I don't know what else I got to do to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: get their attention, the company's attention. I said, you know, I'm.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I've been there almost a year now, I'm in
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 7: the best shape of my life. I don't feel like
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 7: I could be more prepared physically. There's not a move
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 7: in the ring I can't do. And I know how
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 7: to put together matches. I could call a match even
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 7: on my own, even being in the business for so young,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 7: you know, for such a short amount of time, I
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 7: feel like I could be more prepared mentally.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: And he said, look, you need to get yourself ready spiritually.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 7: And uh, because you're gonna you're gonna face more demons
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: and more opportunities to really let your life go off
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 7: the rails and things like that in this business and
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 7: you are anything else that's gonna be a rock and
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 7: roll lifestyle and you need to be ready for that.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 7: Oh man, I didn't think about that. So I really
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 7: kind of tried to get myself ready spiritually and mentally
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 7: for that. And man, it was like two or three
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 7: days later I had called up JJ Dylan, Yeah, you know, randomly.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 7: He was in the office. He was doing talently Ason
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: and I went in there and I just had a
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 7: handful of pages of websites that were tribute websites to
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 7: lash Room that I just far copies of because you know,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 7: it was still it was the Internet was such a
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 7: small thing at that point, man, and I went in
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 7: there and showed that. I said, well, I'm getting some
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 7: attention obviously, I've gotten, you know, some fan base going,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 7: and I just need to know, like nineteen years old,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 7: and I can't believe I'm saying this to them even
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 7: then something to be said for the balls of youth,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 7: right and you go, Man, I need to know whether
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 7: or not I've got a future here in w CW
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 7: or if I need to pursue other options.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. My other option was to come back to Alabama
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: and dig ditches. Probably.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's track wow.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 4: One randomly in the and I found out while I
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 4: was on the road. My wife called me and said, hey,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: w CW just fedexed you a contract.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: This has been an hour, but it seems like ten minutes.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: I feel like we get we've known each other for
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: years ago. We keep talking. We definitely need a part
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: two with with last I think our fans are really gonna,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: Like you mentioned earlier, you're so transparent, and I think
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: the fans are really gonna enjoy that. That's you know,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: we try to do just one of our mottos here, Yeah,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: be authentic and transparent. And I think, you know, the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: fans can see through the bullshit and when they listen
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: to this, they're gonna know that you're the real deal.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: So I really appreciate you coming on here tonight.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Man, thank you guys for having me man, And
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: I think that speaks a lot to just the type
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: of people that we all are and the meeting you
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: guys and getting to be around you and you Matt
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: and talking even the short amount of time we did.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: You know, you find out really quick in this wrestling business, man,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: that there are certain people that you gravitate towards because
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: we're like minded and we have the same type of
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 4: philosophy or the same type of perspective on life and
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: on the business. And those are the people that you
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: really feel like you can kind of grow with, you
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: can depend on, you can trust in the business and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: outside the business. And you know, the reason why there's
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 4: clicks in the wrestling business is because of that sort
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: of thing. It's just it's a natural magnetism for one another.
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: You know, right at the gate, I felt like we'd
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 4: known each other forever. So this has been fun for me. Man.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's awesome to meet you and get to talk
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 6: to you like this, man, really truly, and.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: Lash, if you lace up those boots one more time, Yeah, that's.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 6: What I'm I'm hoping to see you around. Man.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: I'm always ready for for a good match.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: Baby. I saw Matt, I saw your your your tweet
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: a while back about some click in the indies. Right, So,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: I'm wondering where I signed up to be part of
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 4: the car there it is.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: I'd rather be on the opposite side of the ring
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: the Lash.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 5: I know you're good, but you're good enough to carry
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 5: Matt Cardona. They're a good one. I don't know, Lash,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 5: Where can you? Where can all our fans find it?
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 5: You have social media that plug the podcast, plug all
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 5: your stuff here.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: All right? You can find me on x I'm an
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 4: at Lash can draw literally and and and uh literally.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 7: And physically and then also you can also follow the
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 7: show adfree shows dot com. You can find my sixty
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 7: minute Tom Leman draw with the last three And that's
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 7: pretty much the extent of what I Man. I was
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 7: a ghost on social media for about ten years, so
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 7: it's all new to me.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: Well, I love it. You get a new fan base
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: on your old fans, and we love you.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: We'd love to keep you part of this major pod
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: family and do a part two of this interview because
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: I think our fans are really gonna love this.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: So thanks a lot, Lash, Yeah, hey, thank you doing
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: man gotta do is reach out.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 6: Anything you won't eat, appreciate it. Thank this