Episode 22 - This Is My Loveness

Timestamps
 0:01:14 - Follow-Ups ("Buh Buh Must Die") 

TGBL: Come to find out, one of our listeners – sent us, Bix, this video that, I guess, the Dudleys did a shoot interview years ago, and in the shoot interview, Buh Buh says the reason he became a heel was because the fan that brought a big bed sheet to the show and it said Die Buh Buh Die – which is wrong, it said Buh Buh Must Die, which is what we chanted – and that he used that as the reason to go to Tommy Dreamer and say “hey look, you guys gotta make me heel. I can really run with this,” and then he became a heel. So, Buh Buh Ray Dudley owes me a big thank you and some royalties or something. But yeah, apparently MY sign caused the heel turn of Buh Buh Ray Dudley. How about that?

 0:06:49 - Homophobia in Wrestling 

TGBL: (laughing) You know what, I spent so much time focusing on the “turning fruits into vegetables”/AIDS diss, that I didn’t even realize he was just saying the Rock and Roll Express were gonna OD like various – well, Marvin Gaye didn’t OD, Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father. Janis Jopin overdosed, Elvis Presley overdosed: what exactly was he trying to say there, Bix?!

Bix: That Paul Morton was going to shoot them dead?

TGBL: (laughing) Yeah! You know, the interesting dynamic here is Randy Savage – the guy you think of as being the crazy guy – is in the ring; it’s Lanny. They send Lanny out there to do this amazing heel promo talking about the death of the Rock and Roll Express and – you know, using AIDS as a nice, funny, interlude in the interview. Boy. (laughing) 1984.

- on the Lanny Poffo promo in Memphis, in which he claims that the Rock and Roll Express will die from AIDS, as Poffomania turns "fruits into vegetables."

 0:14:17 - A reading of another nonsensical Jimmy Snuka transcript 

TGBL: What’s that exact line again? Let’s go back to this. Uh – it’s hard to even know where to start – it’s all one sentence, like, with commas. “To fulfill myself and you people, for representing such a thought, and the beautiful mind, deep, and so wonderful, that it’s so hard to even explain more than I could ever give to you, is this is my loveness, and the faith of my belief is what I can give to you to thank you for your kind honor, which it may be. I might not have a belt around my waist, but it’s just a thought in mind, that the beautiness of the kindness from your heart will tell you who you really are”

Bix: It should be "This Is My Loveness."

TGBL: "This Is My Loveness!" This is gonna be the second week in a row where we get the show title where we’re actually doing the show! (laughing) We’re gonna have more – there will be more Jimmy Snuka transcript readings, not related to the the trial, coming up on 6:05, the Superpodcast (laughing)

Bix: Awww! (laughing)

- from a transcript reading of Jimmy Snuka's acceptance letter for Wrestler of the Year from Victory Magazine.

 0:28:26 - Superuniverse Top 10 
 * 10. Robby V


 * 9. El Pibe 10 '83


 * 8. Denim Fritz


 * 7. Black Scorpion


 * 6. Orgasmic Larry Nelson


 * 5. Fake Stan Lane


 * 4. The Hangman (Bruce Pobanz)


 * 3. Marc Gullen


 * 2. Sue the Shooter


 * 1. Santo Gold


 * NEW CHAMPION - Yomamba the Jungle Savage (def. The Slip House Boys)

 0:37:04 - Dennis of the Week (with guest Tom Robinson) 

Tom: So it’s me, Gabrielle Bolin – who I never met – and an infant. I had a net worth of about $27 bucks, and those fuckin’ guys left! They shoot left! So – and Kenny smartened his wife up to get out of anything he does, I guess – and I’m like “fuck this, man,” and I left too! So the Maitre D catches on when I leave. Kenny went first so he already got his car, and Dennis at some point – I wasn’t there to view when he got it – but he found a Chef’s hat on his way out and he puts this Chef’s hat on to cover his bald head to try to fit in with all the crowd of Opryland. I was skinny as a rail, so it was easy for me to hide, but I see this Maitre D cursing in Armenian or something, you know; some language that I didn’t understand. He was hot. It was like a Three Stooges episode – it was Dennis with the Chef’s hat on, who’s behind a pillar with four sides. Dennis is running about 300 pounds at that point, so he could barely sit behind one, and the visual of seeing in the Chef’s hat, hairy forearms with his mustache and 300 pounds, and this guy is, like, I could see it – Dennis is making eye contact for me to give him signals, so to speak, and I kept like kinda pointing where the guy was, and he would tiptoe to the other side of the pillar. It was out of Vaudeville, where the guy never saw him, and then when the guy (laughing) went back towards the restaurant for two paces, Dennis started trucking it – 300 pounds with the Chef’s hat – and the Chef’s hat came off like, I don’t know, like Jimmy Rollins when Jimmy Rollins steals a base and his baseball cap falls off. I start running as well, and Kenny Bolin’s out there and he never drove stick or some shit, and he bought a car because he’s always looking for a deal, that was stick-shift. It’s just like “RRRRRR, RRRRR, RRRR” and just screeching across this Opryland parking lot. Dennis gets in and it was like, I had this little opening because Dennis closed the door on me and I dove in like Dukes of Hazard, and we get the fuck outta there. I’m like “What are you guys fuckin’ doin?! Your wife and kid are in there, man!” Kenny, he’s like “Ah, she knows what to do. I never pay for food.”

- on the hilarious story about Dennis and Kenny and the gang dine and dashing at an All-You-Can-Eat Buffett in Nashville.

 0:59:57 - John McAdam (Part 2) 

John: I was getting Mat Watch. I thought it was outstanding, and one thing that Steve did: I talked earlier about if you get the Observer, you get everything. Steve came from a unique point of view where he came from a television point of view, and Steve was very smart, and Steve – I think he not only understood the business, but he could see where the business was going and he could see how it could be better. Jim Cornette will break my face with his Tennis Racquet if I said this in front of him, but Steve had an excellent idea called “bring in writers.” No, I don’t think that two guys in the back of a car are going to come up with better ideas than a professional writer who has done something elsewhere; sorry. That was Steve’s idea – and I’m not saying hand the whole thing to him, but make this – get a few of these people, make them part of a booking committee, and don’t treat them like stepchildren who don’t belong there. I felt 1990 that was going to be the future of the business, and, for once, I was right.

- on a divisive train of thought about bringing writers into wrestling.

 1:49:43 - Bobby Simmons (Part 3) 

Bobby: Bill Watts was booking, and we had a match in the Omni between Harley Race – who was the champion at the time – and Wrestling II. I forget what finish they used, but II won the match, and then the belt got taken away on a technically of some sort. I don’t remember what it was, but they filmed it and put it on Atlanta TV. So Watts came up with the idea of having a Champion of Champions Cup. We bought this big huge trophy, paid several hundred dollars for it, and presented it to Wrestling II as the Champion of Champions; that was a Watts idea. Well, the only problem with that, is NWA bylaw says you cannot recognize any champion to supersede the World Heavyweight Champion, and of course, they had made this out to be “well, you beat the NWA World Champion, so you’re Champion of Champions.” So, anyway, just set up a return to get rid of the trophy and to get Harley to win the match; to get rid of it. So, we get rid of the trophy and we get that out of the way. Then, we say “Who would you, the fans, like to see wrestle Harley Race for the title the next time the champion’s here?” Now – the whole reason for doing this was this: we were about to begin the tours going up north. We wanted to find out where the most letters would come from. We had no idea the amount of mail we would get. A US Mail truck would back up to the office door every morning, and would unload sacks of mail. I’m talking hundreds of letters per sack, and they would throw 10, 12, 15 of those sacks in the middle of the floor. We hired somebody to come in and to open these mail sacks and all they had to do: they didn’t have to open them. All they had to do was check the post mark. Well, of course, 90 to 1 was Columbus, OH. We had strong ratings there, and that’s where we got the most mail from. We began to open the letters. Every letter to a person was: Mr. Wrestling II; Mr. Wrestling II; Tommy Rich; Mr. Wrestling II; Tommy Rich. We finally wound up going to Columbus, OH – was our first town we ran up north. It was all because of this letter campaign, but, I think the main event that night might have been Tommy Rich and Harley for the title. But, Wrestling II was in the semi-final, and just, we sold out that building in 13 minutes when the tickets were on sale. So, it was just, I don’t know what it was. It’s just – it was one of those things. I guess, you know, I mean – as a fan from the south, I never got Bruno in New York. I never got why people adored him like they did, but I guess up there, why would somebody adore a guy with a white mask? That’s what happened. That’s the way he was, and I got news for you: you can still bring him into town now for an independent show and advertise he’s gonna be there, and you’ll draw 3-400 people.

- on the incredible drawing power and gravitas of Mr. Wrestling II during the peak years of Georgia Championship Wrestling.