Episode 29 - Bulk Denim

Timestamps:
 0:01:59 - Superuniverse Top Ten 
 * 10. The Hangman (Bruce Pobanz)


 * 9. Judo Joe Black


 * 8. Black Scorpion


 * 7. Sue the Shooter


 * 6. Santo Gold


 * 5. Disappointed Lance Russell


 * 4. Yomamba the Jungle Savage


 * 3. Rasslin' Glen Goza


 * 2. Orgasmic Larry Nelson


 * 1. Hot Bruno


 * STILL CHAMPION - Marc Gullen (def. Denim Fritz)

 0:34:37 - Listener Follow-Ups (KVE/Rocky IV, Glen Goza, etc.) 

 0:41:05 - Dr. Mike Lano Follow-Up (re: 1993 Sam Muchnick Roast) 

''“If anyone who signed this letter wishes to discuss this matter - please call me. To give adequate background on this would take up far too much space. In a nutshell, I received far too many complaints in regard to misleading advertising and misleading representation going on involved with it to be able to give publicity to this event without devoting considerable space to these complaints. I’m happy that most people who contacted me had a good time, although there were some who contacted me who were unhappy with how things turned out, but they were the minority, and that Lano didn’t lose money on this event.”''

- An excerpt from Dave Meltzer's response to the original 19 Attendees of the Sam Muchnick Roast from the May 24, 1993 "Readers Pages" column of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter

 0:57:19 - Homophobia of the Week 

 1:11:14 - Glen Goza "R-A-S-S-L-I-N" Fan Lyrics 

 1:22:41 - Dennis of the Week (w/ Don Laible) 

Don: So I’m just sitting in the car and there’s a Burger King, there’s a strip mall, there’s lots of foot traffic and lots of cars going by. Dennis comes back – I’m sitting in the front – and he’s got 2 fabulously looking, well-built ladies with him: blondes, I mean, anything you could imagine. Gorgeous ladies. He brings them over to the car. One thing I learned in wrestling for years, you became – or at least I did: paranoia sets in on everything. You don’t know what’s gonna happen next. So Dennis brings the ladies over to me, introduces them to me, and he also introduces me to the ladies as a doctor! So, I said “Ok – let me go along and see how far this goes.” Evidently, one of the ladies just had a breast job – had her breasts enlarged. So Dennis tells her that I’m a plastic surgeon and he wants me to check out her recent work. Again, I tell you: we’re in a parking lot with lots of foot traffic, cars going by, and Dennis is selling me to the ladies as a Plastic Surgeon from upstate New York. So – they lean in over the car, they’re looking at me, and by the way: they were Lesbians. It didn’t matter, but this is what Dennis is telling me in front of them – that they had an accounting business and blah blah blah. So, Dennis says “Well, go ahead Donny: check ‘em out!” I’m thinking “What?” So he’s going “You gotta check ‘em!” Dennis grabs my right wrist and he brings it towards this person who I never met before – this smoking hot lady – and he puts my hand on her breast and I’m thinking “Holy smokes – how far is this gonna go?” So he says “Well, what do you think?” and I’m thinking “Ehh, it’s good – little textures, a little lumpy here.” Next thing you know, Dennis is telling them “Well, let him see. Let him see what you did.” So I’m thinking “This cannot be happening.” So next thing I know, the girl – she was probably 25, 28 years old – she looks at me even closer and we’re nose to nose as she’s leaning into the car and she says “Are you really a doctor?” I said “No…but I work with them!” She goes “Oh! Okay!” So with that, she lifts up her blouse, here in the parking lot, and she takes her breasts out of her bra and she’s leaning over the car with her breasts just hanging there, and Dennis is telling me to feel them to find out the texture. Even though he already knows she knows I’m not a doctor, Dennis is still going along with this and so is she.

- Don on the absurdity of the lie and charade that Dennis had put him in regarding observing the recent breast augmentation of two complete strangers.

 2:09:42 - John Arezzi (on Gorilla Monsoon vs. Muhammad Ali) 

John: I remember it being like – feeling like I was something- like it was something special going on because he sat in the first row, and then Monsoon and Scicluna get in the ring for their match and you knew something was gonna go down. George and I were talking and there was another photographer there who’s from AP and it was just George and I and this AP photographer who we had never seen before, so obviously he was tipped off. But, the angle – when it transpired and took place, it was just trying to snap away, snap away, because you just knew that you were seeing something – at least for the pro wrestling business – was very historic; something that may never happen again. It unfolded right in front of us and as soon as it was over – and after the Monsoon interview – I didn’t think I stayed for that. I just ran right to the back as soon as it was over, and as soon as it was over, Ali ran into the dressing room and they slammed the door. So, I waited outside of the doors to see if he would emerge from the dressing room, and sure enough, he did. I was able to shake his hand and I was able to get a couple of pictures of him – some close-ups of him – just laughing. I remember him laughing, just laughing his ass off over what had just happened. I mean, he really looked like he enjoyed it. It was a very, very, special, special moment.

- John on the electric energy of the event of Muhammad Ali crossing over into the world of professional wrestling with this iconic angle.

 2:29:55 - Book of the Week 

TGBL: This is certainly the only book that I’ve ever seen talk about having a discussion with Bruiser Brody about Cocaine. It’s this book – it’s Larry Nelson’s (laughing) self-published autobiography. He’s very open about his love of Cocaine and Scotch, he’s very open about the women he lusted for – I’m not even talking about the women he slept with; the women he lusted for. There’s some weird things where, you know, he got some woman booked on WrestleRock to sing because he liked her, and then he found out she had a husband (laughing) but like, it’s just like all these women he finds cute and really digs-

Bix: All that time he spends on that woman he worked with at the radio station, putting her picture in the book (laughing)

TGBL: The biggest picture in the book is her 8 x 10 picture reprinted in the book.

Bix: “She’s the finest radio professional I’ve ever worked with…”

TGBL: (laughing) And then, he lived in this complex when he first got to the AWA. He lost his apartment and he needed a place to live, and Ken Resnick hooked him up at this apartment complex, and it was him, Stan Lane, Ken Resnick, Sheik Adnan-el-Kassie and a few other people, and it just sounds like a riot each and every day there. There’s lots of great stories in there – he’s very self-deprecating. You know, if you wanna read about a story about the Midnight Rockers, The Road Warriors, some pool orgy in Winnipeg – there’s all sorts of wacky stuff in here, and it’s a fun book.

- TGBL and Bix on the luridness of Larry Nelson's autobiography

 2:41:47 - Bulk Denim 

 2:49:31 - Polish Joe Ciupik (Part 1) 

Polish Joe: On television – no. My face was never exposed through Superstars and through the gimmick that Larry Nelson himself had set up. But, if I may, let me just back up real briefly to the start of Superstars. So, you brought up Mike Shields’ name – Mike was given an opportunity by several of our networks out there. They wanted another wrestling show from the AWA and I think we maxed out at maybe about a dozen or so markets, but Mike came up with Superstars. We used basically the same matches and the same interviews and it was sort of like a re-cap show of the All Star Wrestling show. Well, in the markets that the show aired- oh; before I get into that. Verne gave Mike and gave our production his full blessings to do whatever we want to with the show. We told him we’re gonna have a little fun with it and still keep Kayfabe alive – which is long dead, that’s a whole ‘nother topic –but then so we started doing the show, and every market that we were in, the show actually had better ratings than the All Star Wrestling show. That really ticked Verne off – he didn’t really care for that, and so that ended up leading to the demise of Superstars of Wrestling, or AWA Superstars as we say it – called it at the time. Um, in terms of the whole Polish Joe character: so, at that time, Mike Shields was directing and I was running camera and there was another gentleman by the name of Will Bryan, who he and I were the production assistants at the time; we’re running camera. I was floor directing the first show and Will was running camera. At the end of the show, Larry says “Polish Joe, you know, come out here; come out here.” As I’m walking onto the camera, you see the back of my head and we go to black. The fan mail that we would get – obviously before the internet – was “We wanna see Polish Joe! What’s Polish Joe? Larry, be nice to Polish Joe!” It ended up being a, gosh, probably a good couple of years that we were on the air and ended up being an ongoing shtick on camera that I was too ugly to be seen on television, and so therefore, Larry Nelson would not allow it. Well, the one time that I was “exposed” was in Las Vegas – we were set up to do a charity softball game with, I think it was a local VWF Las Vegas, and I played a lot of softball when I was younger and had a good game on this one. Well, when the introductions were made, there must have been 3-4-500 people in the stands watching this charity softball game, and I got introduced and (sigh) I feel funny about saying this, but I got if not the largest, but one of the largest ovations from the people because they knew everybody else – they didn’t know Polish Joe! In Las Vegas, Superstars of Wrestling aired. I ended up having a great game, signed autographs afterwards – which was something completely different for me – and then the next night at The Showboat Hotel, right before the show I’m working in the production truck, came up and gave the last notes, and Larry goes “Joe – hold on; just a sec.” He announces to the crowd “Would you like to see Polish Joe?” and much like the first show of Superstars, I was caught off guard, and it’s like “Larry, really?” I never had any desire to seek any fame or be on camera. Well, lo and behold, he introduces me to the sold out Showboat Hotel and I got the biggest ovation that I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t get embarrassed easily but I can tell you that I was- I was a little embarrassed by it but I soaked up every minute of it and that was part of my 15 minutes of fame.

- Joe on the origins of his "on-screen" character and the mystique around "Polish Joe"