We are so Back!!!

After a 4 year hiatus we are back with a vengence. New co host Josh O and original host Johnny O bring you a newer format with interviews with your favorite stars from the retro era of the 80s,90s, and early 2000s of pro wrestling, tv, cartoons and comic book mumbo jumbo . This first episode is a reintroduction and future plans, as well as a tribute to my former co host, friend and co creator Metal Ed. We also speak about our first memory of pro wrestling from the 80s.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to Double Axe Handle Smash podcast. My name is Johnny O, and with me today is the brand new co-host of Double Axe Handle Smash, Josh O. So we have Johnny O and Josh O. We are the O's. Thanks for having me on, John.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

So it took me four years to come back with this show. I had this show four years ago, uh, and it was starting to be a huge success. And um my friend Metal Ed passed away during COVID. And um so this episode and all future episodes will be dedicated to the memory of Edwin Rivera, Metal Ed. And uh before he passed away, he did tell me that he wants me to go on with the show and continue because it's my dream too. And uh this has been very hard last four years and not knowing how to do the editing and not knowing how to um uh you know I I never knew how to do this stuff. So I went to uh school, uh CSB, Connecticut School Broadcasting and Media Arts Center, and um now I know how to do some of this stuff and all of it actually. Um I'm not always perfect and I'm you know trying the best I can. Um but yeah, um I miss Edwin very much and this is all dedicated to him. And uh we have a new format, and not only will I be we will be heavily talking about professional wrestling and have some guests, upcoming guests on here, but we will also be discussing pop culture, um retro pop culture, 80s, um comic books, um movies. I mean, I'm a big Back to the Future fan.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Are you a Back to the Future fan? I mean, I saw them when they first came out in the theaters and everything. It's been a long time so though, so it'll be interesting to like re-watch it now, all these years later. And knowing that the time gap between the first Back to the Future movie takes place in the 50s when it goes back, we actually have a longer time span between now and the first movie coming out than they did between that movie and where it takes place in the fifties.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

If that made any sense. It does, it does, because wasn't uh Back to the Future 2 supposed to be like 2015?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

And uh we're supposed to have flying cars and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Right, but even in the first movie, because EO, it takes place what, 30 years earlier? Or not even thirty years, and it's been now over 40 since that first movie came out. Wow, I feel really old. Yeah. You're older than me, a couple years ago. I am, I am. I was old enough to see the first Back to the Future in the in the theaters.

unknown 3:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Hubble Star Wars. Are we a big Star Wars fan? Once again, I you know, where I was only two when the first movie came out, uh, my parents have assured me that yes, they did take me at two years old to see it in the theaters. So I in in everything. And back then it got re-released in the theater as well. So I have seen all the Star Wars movies in theater.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

That is awesome. Um I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan, Star Wars, Thundercats, Transformers, He-Man, even She-Ra. I mean, I love all that stuff. Smurfs. I mean, we're gonna be discussing all this stuff um in our favorite comic books right now. I'm reading Transformers in the Energon Universe, and um a couple more things we'll discuss in a later episode. But um, what do you uh besides wrestling? Um, what do you uh what do you do? What do you like doing?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

You know, I'm also I've always been a huge comic book fan ever since I was a little kid. Uh I also am very big into the Energon universe right now. Uh I also read a few other books. I read uh the Dick Tracy comic, the Phantom Comic. Uh I've always been my gateway into the larger world of comic books was Captain America. And over the course of the last 40 plus years, that is the one book that I have picked up every single month. Um and even like the other year when I sold a large part of my comic collection, I did not sell a single issue of Captain America. Yeah, I still have them all, even though I have them in other formats too, like I have them in the Epic Collections, I have them in Omnibuses, I'm never selling a single issue of Captain America. Uh so I've got all that and everything. And I I'm, you know, I I was really getting into buying a lot of the retro toys, you know, trying to on eBay and everything, but the during COVID, the toy market on eBay just went insane because too many of us who were in our forties and or now as I'm in my fifties, uh, we had far too much time on our hands and a little too much money, and the toy market on eBay just went insane and prices just got ridiculous. So it kind of took me out of it. But if you uh I have a room, I have a finished basement in my house.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

I remember coming into your house and I remember seeing your collection, and I think it's the best collection I've ever seen in anyone.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Thank you. Thank you. Uh yeah, I have a you know, but if you go into my workout room, I have uh all my He-Man figures, both retro and the new stuff and everything, because I've a huge Masters of the Universe fan. Uh I now you know I can't wait for the new movie to come out in June. I'm gonna be there opening night and everything.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

So yeah, down the road we'll have to do a He-Man Masters of the Universe uh episode.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Absolutely. I will I actually just re-watched the uh Toys That Made Us episode about Masters of the Universe. That is a good episode. Uh such a great episode. Yeah. And you know, so sad that the uh one of the creators of He-Man uh just recently passed away. Yeah, and you couldn't even see the new movie. Yeah, that is sad. So and I will defend the Dolph Lundgren Masters of the Universe. I liked it. Here's my thought on it. It is a bad Masters of the Universe movie, but it is a very good, cheesy, late 1980s sci-fi cheap made sci-fi. And everything. And in that you can say that about certain like the Dolph Lungren Punisher movie. It's a horrible Punisher movie.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

I heard it was existed, but I never seen it. It is a bad Punisher movie, but it is a perfectly good B 1980s action movie. I'll have to check that out now. I I I do own a copy, uh, so we'll have to give that a watch. We'll have to do uh maybe a watch-along or something. So the other thing we're gonna have to have you do is because you told me you've never seen a James Bond movie. Never seen a James Bond movie, no. Okay. I now I'm gonna resist the urge to get up and walk out right now. Uh that that is uh I I I take moral offense to that. Uh, but we are going to have you watch uh a James Bond movie. I think we'll uh have you start you off with uh Daniel Craig's first movie, Casino Royale, uh probably one of the best Bond movies ever.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Speaking about movies I've never seen, um you and you can all make fun of me because I have never seen Rocky or any Rocky movie until two months ago. Two months ago was the very first time I seen the first Rocky movie, and I was brutally made fun of, especially by my boss at work. And um I've so I finally watched it, and um, it wasn't bad. Um I don't know when I'll watch Rocky II, but I know I'll keep going with this. Not sure about the Creed movies, but I think I'm gonna just stick with Rocky for now.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Oh, you've got plenty of time. Yeah, I mean there's plenty. I would only skip over uh Rocky V. It's horrible. I I would skip that movie. It it just yeah, it just fails on so many levels. Uh, you know, so stop at Rocky IV, and you know, when he goes to fight Ivan Drago in Russia during the height of the Cold War. Or, you know, as many of us know, Rocky actually ended the Cold War.

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, that movie is the reason why the Cold War ended.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah. Yeah. I think they talk about that on uh the TV show, Cobra Kai.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Another good show, another good franchise.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

I loved Cobra Kai. I loved Cobra Kai. That that show was so over the top, it was just wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Um, upcoming episodes, um, we'll have, like I said, guests from the professional wrestling world. This is mostly a professional wrestling podcast. However, like we're just talking about, we will talk about movies, we'll talk about the 80s, the time we grew up, and uh everything else. And there's gonna be even uh some female um uh uh themed episodes uh talking about Rainbow Bright and uh She-Ra and um even maybe Hello Kitty and we'll we'll we'll discuss all that. And we have some guests coming up, and uh I've said that several times. I'm not gonna about to reveal that yet of who we have, but you guys are gonna like it. You guys are gonna like it a lot. And uh so stay tuned to the show. Um now I want to talk really quick about the wrestling and discuss our fandom and our um the rest of this episode. I like to talk about how we um how we got into wrestling and our uh knowledge and stuff like that. I always like to think of myself as an encyclopedia of wrestling, but talking to Josh here and getting to know him, he has told me stuff I have never heard of or known before, and he has familiarized me with the uh Midnight Express and the uh Rock and Roll Express, which I know who they were. I just never got to watch NWA wrestling and uh you know Mid-Atlantic and um all those uh the Crockett promotions and stuff, and the early WCW. So Josh is is really, really knowledgeable about that stuff. Um do you do you want to uh take it away, Josh?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, no, I um you know I got into wrestling because you know in the early 1980s, that was like the birth of Hulkomania. And I was aware of Hulk Hogan as a pop culture figure, but the first actual wrestling match I watched was on an episode of the A-Team because Hulk Hogan was there. The concept was he was friends with uh Mr. T's B.A. Barackis, and they actually showed clips of a match with him against Big John Stud. So that was the first time I saw wrestling. Um I had a friend, Matt, who was really into wrestling. Um, you know, he had all the posters on his wall and everything, and it just happened like one Saturday I'm home and I threw on wrestling, and Mr. Wonderful's on there going, How next week him and his best friend Hulk Hogan will be wrestling. And I'm like, oh, Hulk Hogan's gonna be on my TV next week? I gotta see that. Then the next week, him and Mr. Wonderful team up, they take on the Moondogs. Alright, that was cool. And then they're like, and next week we're gonna be back here and we're gonna take on Big John Stud and King Kong Bundy. Well, I have to watch that. And then that match was the one it ended with Mr. Wonderful turning on Hulk Hogan, you know, hitting him with the short on clothesline and then the pile driver. And I was hooked from that moment on.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

This is before the first WrestleMania, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Uh no, this would be after. This is uh in between WrestleMania 2 and 3. So this would be the summer of 1986. Uh it kicked off um actually um financially the house show run with Hulk Hogan and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorf was one of the highest-grossing house show runs of all time. Uh it actually led to my first live wrestling event. I was I went to a taping of Saturday night's main event in December of 86. The episode aired in January of 87, and the main event was Hulk Hogan and Mr. Wonderful in the old big blue cage. And it's the infamous match where they were both escaping at the cage at the same time, and they both jumped down and they hit the mat the ground at the same time, and the match got restarted. So very, very famous match. Um, but a but a but an absolute great moment for me. Uh then uh I got my first wrestling magazine for Christmas, and and this is gonna seem strange that that's important. I open up that wrestling magazine, I'm seeing all these other guys, and I'm seeing, wait, who's this other guy? This blonde guy with a big belt who's claiming to be the world champion. And it's like, oh, that's Ric Flair. You know, and everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

And I remember Is that your first time ever hearing about who Ric Flair is?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yep. First time hearing who Ric Flair was. Um, first time seeing a picture of the Road Warriors in that magazine. And it's like, holy crap! These big, big guys with the face paint and the spikes. It's like, wow. And it just, it's an image that just leaps off the page. And I remember going, Matt, Matt, who are these guys? And he's like, Oh, but that's the NWA. And Josh, their wrestling is even better than WWF's. It's like, all right, that's not possible. So, but then in 87 I do start watching uh the NWA, and you know, from that point on it was great. You know, the late 80s were actually a really good time to get into wrestling because you had a very strong presence on Saturday Saturday mornings with the syndicated shows, because you had the two WWF shows, Superstar and Challenge, you had the NWA syndicated show, and you had world classes syndicated show. Uh, and then during the week, um Monday through Friday, ESPN's in its infancy. And AWA? Yeah. ESPN, uh, because they needed content, they had uh reruns of the AWA and world class. So I was able to see like several years worth of old wrestling. Like I was able to see the Von Ericks Freebirds feud in the AWA. I was able to see uh Shawn Michaels and Marjorie Gennetti, who were then the Midnight Rockers. I got to see their chase for the world ta tag titles and everything, and them winning the belts for the first time. So it was all very cool, and it was a great time to be a wrestling fan and everything. And then, you know, i on Monday nights you had primetime wrestling. You know, and they'd show a lot of the house show stuff where you could see a lot of the you know, the Bulldogs Against the Heart Foundation. You know, you had the Saturday night's main event specials and everything, and that's where you could see Hulk Hogan defend the championship and everything. So it was it was a really great time to be a wrestling fan and a really great gateway drug-in. And so I'm actually there for the birth of the pay-per-view era, you know, with WrestleMania 3. I remember get getting that on pay-per-view, and that was huge. And everything. And in a future episode, as I would I really want to dive into uh 1980s uh WWF and NWA, The Crockett Territory, in everything and go over all of that because I'm I I'm so intrigued by that time period. I have a lot of fond memories, a lot of nostalgia, but I also think it's got a lot of great storylines, and a lot of the backstage stuff that was going on in Crockett that would lead to him selling to Ted Turner is just absolutely fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah, actually, um on our first iteration of the show, uh we had our guest Bill Alfonso, and uh I can reveal that he will be back on the show. Uh he used to work for NWA and he was uh referee during that match with uh Lex Luger versus Bruiser Brody and a steel cage. Oh, I will be asking him about that because Yeah, so but he's he's gonna be coming back on the show. I can reveal that. And um uh he is a wealth of knowledge to talk to about all that. He was refereeing the WWF as well, as well as the handler for Giant Gonzales um backstage. And um, you know, of course, uh manager of RVD Taz and uh Sabu, the late the late Sabu. May you rest in peace.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Um yeah, so I'll be looking forward to asking him questions about his refereeing days. Yeah. Because I just as I re-watch 1980s wrestling, I see him in the ring for all those great matches. Like I think he was even might have been the official in one of the uh Ric Flair Ricky Steamboat matches. I'm not quite sure. I think he was, I think I remember.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah. Um is there anything else you want to share about your childhood or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And growing up, we'll get uh we'll get into that in future episodes. But I'm really looking forward to to talking about like 80s and early 90s wrestling and everything, and that'll be great.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, and really quick, um before we uh end this, I uh we have a few minutes left, and I want to just quickly go over how I became a fan. Is when I was young, um, I have an older brother who's four years older than me. He hates wrestling now, but when he was younger, he knew who Roddy Piper was and Big John Studd, and we had those little wrestling trading cards, and they were scattered all over the house. And um we had a farm and uh they're on the over the farmhouse. Sometimes you find them on the porch. And um, but I remember looking at a card, I'm like, who's this? And my brother would tell me that's Roddy Roddy Piper, and I'm like, oh okay. So he's like kind of the first name I've ever heard of. And then yeah, they're wrestlers, and then we watched the was it the I don't know, I might have my timeline wrong, but the rock and wrestling cartoon show. Um so I we watched that, and then I think the beginning we had they had like Hulk Hogan and Mean Gene introducing the episodes, and Hulk Hogan would always make Mean Jean drink this milkshake or something that had like raw eggs and everything, and and uh I remember an episode where Hundre the Giant was trying to find a car and he would they put him in a bulldozer, and it was just funny. But I think you can watch those on YouTube. Um but I remember I think my first big memory of I remember and I told this on the old show, I s I heard uh Vince McMahon come on TV. I didn't know it was Vince McMahon at the time, and I never knew he was the owner until somewhere in the early 90s, I knew someone told me. But um, because somebody gave me a book, The Good and the Bad and the Ugly, and then he told me Vince owns it, and I didn't know that. But I um in the 80s though, growing up, uh Vince McMahon, Vince McMahon came on the air, and he um he I remember hearing his voice showcase of the immortals, and it just somehow like I they always showed the Greek gods, and he showed these structures and uh the Coliseum and everything like that, and uh, you know, because I think they were promoting the Coliseum home video as well. So I I remember seeing that, and then I remember watching, I was at my grandparents' house, and I remember um my watching Saturday night's main event, a little bit of it. My grandfather would switch back and forth between that and something else. And I remember seeing it was later in the 80s, I think Miss Elizabeth the Macho Man was getting beat up, and Miss Elizabeth went in the back and got Hulk Hogan. And I think Macho Man was getting beat up by either the boss man uh or I think it was um it was Heart Foundation or somebody.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Okay, so the initial forming of the Mega Powers, yeah, it was uh the season premiere Saturday Night's main event that year, uh 1987. Uh it was Macho Man who had not yet become a baby face. He was kind of a tweener at that point uh taking on the Hockey Tonk man, who over the summer had beaten Ricky the Dragon Steamboat for the belt in a huge upset. So Macho Man's uh about to win the match, the Hart Foundation came in and jumped Macho, causing the disqualification. Because at the time, the Hart Foundation and Hockey Foundation. Honky Tonk Man were all managed by Jimmy Hart, so they were all in the same stable. So the Hart Foundation and Honky Tonk Man, they're beating up Macho Man. Honky Tonk Man goes to grab the guitar. He's got the guitar. The Hart Foundation's holding him. He's about to level Macho. Elizabeth steps in the way. She's like, no, no, no, please don't. And Honky Tonk Man did the unthinkable. He actually shoved Miss Elizabeth to the crowd. And and and people are just somebody just laid their hands on Elizabeth. We were outraged. Weren't they chanting Hogan's name though? Yeah, they uh well I yeah they probably were. Um I know on the TV they were, but now you don't know if that's something because Saturday night's a main event was recorded that they piped in afterwards. Uh but either way, she goes hauling running off to the back, and then she brings out Hulk Hogan. And yes, the crowd, if you watch that crowd and that and when they cut to the wide shots, that crowd is losing their minds. And Hogan comes down, and him and Macho Man clear the ring, and they they're they've got their backs turned to each other, but they accidentally back up into each other, and then they turn and they both got their raised fists. You know, because they had feuded over the belt, not you know, just like a year or so earlier. And then Macho Man's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Thanks, thanks for coming out to help. And he extends the hand.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

And that's when Is that that famous handshake?

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yep, the famous handshake in everything, and you know, the mega powers are formed, and Macho Man solidified his babyface turn, and like in that one moment, Macho Man became the number two babyface in that company.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

All right. Yeah, so I remember that moment, and I I I meant to do that just to show how how much knowledge you had.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

I actually well, I actually was just uh re-watching the best of Saturday Night's Main Event DVD set, and they actually had that on there.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

So it's fresh in my memory. Um yeah, I'm I'm I don't know. I had a 46-year-old brain fart. Uh, I don't know what happened. Um I'll have to take that out in the editing. Um but but yeah, I remember that, and I remember um I I didn't watch any pay-per-views, I didn't even know what a pay-per-view was yet. And how what year was that, 87, 86?

SPEAKER_01 24:15

87 would have been the first pay-per-view. Before they that they did like WrestleMania was on closed circuit. Okay. 88 you get or yeah, 87, WrestleMania 3. Um, at least I know in our area in En where I was living in Enfield, that yeah, we had just gotten cable like within like the last year, and that was like the first major pay-per-view in everything, and that was huge.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

But when was the Macho Man getting beat up by the Hart Foundation? What year was that?

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Uh that was fall of eighty seven. So that would because 1987 WrestleMania III, that's him versus Steamboat in one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time, where Steamboat won the belt from Macho Man.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Okay. So so I did that, I watched that, and then I would start watching Saturday morning superstars here and there. I wouldn't I wouldn't understand when to put it on. My parents never helped me with that. But I would um go, I think my first pay-per-view I ever got, I would watch the pay-per-views with my neighbor. My neighbor Jesse always got the pay-per-views at his house, so I'd started watching them from there. My first one that we paid for, my mom paid for, was the 1992 Roy Royal Rumble, which I think was the greatest Royal Rumble of all time. Absolutely. And um made most of all those people in that show, Rest in Peace. I mean, we'll talk about that in another episode. Um, and uh yeah, so that's and then I was off, and then I would tape every episode of wrestling since 19, I think was 92, is the late 92. I started taping it and I had it recorded on VHS all the way up, and you don't understand how many VHS tapes I would have to go through.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

I was the exact same. I had all these different wrestling tapes like you know piled piled up.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

And then when Nitro and Rock came on, they were head to head, WCW versus WWE, and I would switch back and forth while recording, so it would be very annoying watching it back because it would just go back and forth. And so I I just stopped recording stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Well, so what I would do is I would alternate weeks. One week I would record one episode and watch the other show live, and then I would do the opposite the next week. See, I didn't know how to do that. I just knew how to watch something as I recorded it. I never had enough TVs in my house that we could get away with that because I had cable and a VCR up in my bedroom, so I would in the bedroom I'd record, and then downstairs in the living room, I would watch the other show live.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Okay. Well, um on that note, uh we will stop and um join us next time for Double X Handle Smash Podcast. We are um still still on the reformation of the sh show, and um we will have another episode back to you soon, and then we'll get more steady on this. Um thank you for listening and tune in next time. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.