Weasel Tales: The Bobby Heenan Archives - Inside the Ring with Hulk Hogan: Unveiling Wrestling's Golden Myths

Hulk Hogan's rise to fame might seem larger than life, but as we sit down with a wrestling insider from the golden era, the myths become human and the legends walk among us. Nostalgia grips us tight as we travel back to the '80s, where a night's work could mean sharing the ring with icons and rushing from New York to Chicago, with only the roar of a Learjet breaking the silence between. Our guest, a ring veteran, doesn't hold back, spilling stories of behind-the-scenes strategies and the early days when Hogan was just a hopeful giant in Minneapolis, ready to take on the world.

It's hard to imagine the world of professional wrestling without the charisma and drama that changed the game in the '80s, and our conversation peels back the curtain on this transformation. We explore the camaraderie and rivalries that shaped the industry's legends, like Jesse Ventura and Hogan himself, and how character work and promo skills became as crucial as a well-executed body slam. The tales continue as we recall impromptu matches and the lessons learned in the absence of formal training, offering a glimpse into the hustle that drove the wrestling world before it became the spectacle it is today.

When the lights shine on the squared circle, it's not just the wrestlers who feel the heat—it's the broadcast journalists, too, and today's discussion shines a spotlight on this crucial role. From the unseen pressures of live TV to the craft of storytelling, we honor the voices like Jim Ross, who've narrated our most beloved showdowns. As we wrap, we delve into the unseen challenges of the wrestling business, teasing out the industry gossip and the personal branding battles that even the giants of the ring weren't immune to. Join us for a trip down memory lane, where the giants of wrestling share more than just body slams—they share their hearts and souls.

Transcript

Bobby: 0:04

I'm going to go for a few hours. This is in the 80s and I'm going to work in a program and I'm working with the firefighter and I remember one night we were in that cell on the island and it was sold out over 20,000 people. We were on a $1,000 house, I guess something like that, and it was hogan against the on-doors and they put us on third. And one of the memories that we put the main event on last, like they do boxing, I guess, everything else, the playoff the last, the World Series the last, but this we put the main event on like fourth, that way he could have an intermission and then announce the return for next card and sell tickets at that event. Oh, okay, see, and if you weren't coming back with Orndorf you'd probably go last, but if you were returning, you always went on in the middle so he could announce the tickets on third for next month's card.

Bobby: 1:13

Orndorf and Hogan back. We didn't know the qualification, so he probably did $50,000. I was like, oh, $100,000?. So the reason we did it this night was we got through wrestling and asked the on-line who got on third or fourth and we kept our clothes on and Orndorf and I and Hogan ran out of the building and got into a limo and they took us to McGarter Airport outside of Orndorf and they had a rear jet there and it's green but it's got on the rear jet. Hogan and Yellow Orndorf and Red. I had my sequence with Sun. They had that River Ratchey's a backup group going on a plane and they had a rear jet for us. They had a rear jet and we got on a rear jet and we took off to Chicago.

Bobby: 2:01

We had a show here at the horizon that was sold out at $300,000. So we left there about nine at night. We went through the eight here, two hour flight hour and a half. By the time we got here we landed over here. Rose Mont police came over to pick us up Two cars. We got in the cars and we got to the horizon. We drove into the building. Black Jack Lample was the agent that night and we got out of the cars. He said the intermission is just over, go to the ring. We went to the ring and did the exact same as we did two hours ago in New York. We were on last this time. In one night we had to miss about 700 concessions and burks. He probably didn't mind. I was like I don't do that anymore. No, but there were some interesting trips, stuff like that.

Bobby: 3:02

I always stayed away from Hogan because him and I had this long-going feud from the 80s, from Minneapolis, and uh, I was the one that got me into New York. I'm the one that got him to Minneapolis when we left in Georgia in 79, I went to 80. I went to Minneapolis and uh, I was just coming in as you were leaving To hang out in the morning. Yeah, he was there, still in Goldwood. He'd been there a couple months, four or five months, and I left to go back to Minneapolis and I told Ron about this guy. I said the guy is huge. I said he's got a hell of a body and people just look at him in awe. He's a little green but he'll get better Because he's.

Bobby: 3:49

I could tell he didn't care about wrestling, he cared about entertaining and making money. We went to New York from Atlanta and this senior always gave guys Irish names. Think about that Betsy McGraw, blackjack Mulligan, yeah, and his name was Linda. Betsy McGraw's name is Mike Davis and Hulk Hogan's name is Terry Balea and they gave him the name Hulk Hogan, irish name. So he was doing good in New York and what happened to him? I was still holding up their matches and saw him and sent word back that he wanted to talk to him Because he wanted him to play Thunder Ripson.

Bobby: 4:33

That first, jackie, I was in Minneapolis when he had done the movie and everything the school had took that and in 1983, I went to Japan for a month and when I came back Hulk Hogan came in and I guess Ron had talked to Vince. You know he had to use it in New York. When your time was up he was still left. So he came into Minneapolis and he was on fire and he tried to make him a heel. He even did my manager another really good one, johnny Bryant, and they tried to make him a heel. He was beating two or three guys at night and had to get matches. People loved him, loved him and he was hitting him in the pressure with the biggest thing they ever hit the AWA. Was there any thought of putting him with you? They wanted to make him a heel. I was really suggested that and I never thought of it Because I had Nick and I had Saedo and I had Paterra and I had I guess you could have.

Bobby: 5:37

I don't know why he didn't. How did the AWA change? I mean after he showed up from point before and after was there. Before we started selling out of it. We were doing great business too. But it was just phenomenal. This guy I mean St Paul we were doing 150, 200 grand, you know Brett Hogan and Nick there to have a rent-a-burner store and close their bid over 300,000 dollars.

Bobby: 6:08

I mean, it was just phenomenal. I've never seen a character or a wrestler like that. Andre was a. I was with him every day when he was out. I was with Hogan and I didn't know why he didn't do anything. I was never around, right. It was a good year to go and Lake Onkel was a promoter because he was a wrestler. All he boils down to is to cheer money. That'll make better decisions if you cheer money than you were if you do. That's what happens. When I came back from Japan, Hogan was there and we just set up the feud. He was an Elijah for one to go after Nick. He was a great wrestler. I was an Elijah for one to go after Nick. He was a good belt. I was managing Nick, so that was a save on that match. So if I had a bit of money I should have gone with Hogan as a heel to a Nick movie face. But I don't even know if it was my heat If I could have done that. He was over so much. Why did they put the strap on?

Steve: 7:10

I guess one of the biggest questions that people have is why do we read it?

Bobby: 7:17

They were going to that night in St Paul and one came in and the finish was he told Hogan he says we're going to beat Nick, give him the belt.

Bobby: 7:31

And he says now I want you to call a Yoki in Japan who Hogan was going there for making huge money, Huge money. And he said I'm going to do all your booking now, I'm the champion. And then, without Hogan being done enough to fall for it. But Hogan was smart enough to sit there and I just can't do all this right now he's coming in and telling me you're going to give me the belt, now, you're going to book me. Now I might say well, you know, he's going to be changed in role.

Bobby: 8:03

So he said okay, then get the acute Hogan Hogan we'll go back and put him on our case online or something we didn't, and that was the whole deal. He didn't want to be controlled by them.

Bobby: 8:16

And he would have been. He wanted to be free to go to Japan and he wanted to do what he was making, maybe 100,000 hours a day. Huge money, huge money. And it felt like a king over there and I'm looking at him. They were doing some kind of a business together with investments and stuff. He didn't think I needed it. He thought he needed it as much as I needed it. Oh sure, and it was a business decision. They're both made and one worked after one and one didn't work after the other. And I guess he laughed.

Steve: 8:48

Yeah.

Bobby: 8:49

Well, that's kind of the beginning of the animal. Yeah, that worked because soon as he left and David Schultz left and then Oakham left and then I left. So when you get your number one baby face gone, I feel that you were getting a little bit. We didn't work with Oakham a little bit here, but you were getting ready. You have your number one annulce so you remember the man as you're gone. That's a half of that to take. So that means you get Nick Greg and then you have the prizes. I don't remember if they had. Was this looking at just perching everybody out of there and some people just resisted it. I think he thought he could come in and buy everybody out and they'd all be scared to run.

Bobby: 9:34

I think he thought someone would give him a fight, like Eddie Graham would give him a fight or a guy named Gany would give him a fight. Teresie is still in business. We call that business. We do the same business when we win business for no reason.

Bobby: 9:48

But I don't care if Teresie and Watts put up a fight, but what it is is their mentality was gone. They didn't have the money. They may have had the money, but they had a lot of money. I know Eddie Graham had money. Watts had to have money because they never gave it to the boys. The old kids had money and what happened was they didn't have the ability to create like this, but they couldn't keep up with them. So they were still stuck in the 60s.

Bobby: 10:15

The Vince was going into the 2000s already and the mentality was no big deal. Stan Luisa-Mone had money, as you can to draw the most. I guess when they moved ice pallets up in the afternoon, it's right, they called it out there, a building out there and that's a couple. Now that's downtown. That's where we used to work the pallets. I don't know where it is, but it's up there, down from the Red Wings and the Pistons and all that in the city. But some of you put out a bigger place to make sure that was bigger. But if you ran downtown it's the Southside Army. It just sounds better. And that's what happened. Vince had the money from his father and from his life, I guess in the Westin from the year.

Bobby: 11:22

What was it? You know, hogan and Schultz were kind of a new generation of wrestlers. Hogan was an officer, but for you you were kind of the still the throwback to the 70s AWA, was that? And now we're in a new style of wrestling, was that? What kind of transition was that? And did you get any heat from your peers, or is there one? No, everybody in this business. But they'll hire me. Right, call me.

Bobby: 11:56

And he was from over in Kansas City, which was under the age of eight, and he said, bobby, I think you're going to New York. And I said, yeah. He said we've been friends for 30 years. You can't do this to us. I said, hey, I gotta look after myself, right, and my family. He said, hey, you're right, so we should best work. And that's what other guys are. They don't care what a guy does, because they know if the opportunity came they'll do it. You gotta do it for yourself. There is no insurance, there's no benefits, there's no retirement. You gotta do it. From another boy, from when I got there to New York, I understand guys that worked with before. My name's John Spett, I knew Flawdy, I knew Piper, I knew Pett, pape Wilson. I knew, uh, it's that group of guys, but it's, it wasn't any different.

Bobby: 12:42

Things picked up speed a lot, I think, after I left New York. No, I had to buy a view. I think it started with the bulldogs. The bulldogs, they're big press fans and everything. I think the business picked up speed there. And the marriage, if it's the same thing. You just know how to get yourself over. If you talk right, do the right things, do the right things, do the right time. You're gonna work for it. So if they're never buying that, we're not gonna take a route of Kelowna from Little Beaver. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha.

Bobby: 13:26

But Jesse and Hogan never liked each other and I don't know why. I think, uh, I think Jesse was jealous of Hogan and I think Hogan didn't like Jesse because he knew he could draw more money than Jesse and he and Jesse didn't like him and he just did a little thing that I think to piss this off all the time. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know Nothing left of him. Jesse hates him and Hogan hates him, but Jesse was never a threat to Hogan. He had a great ability to talk. I mean, there's no doubt about that.

Bobby: 14:05

But you know, once that bell rang and the bull came off, yeah, there was pretty much. I mean, he wouldn't even have been a good job guy, he couldn't take bumps, but he had a good way, he had a good talk and he he dressed as bad as anyone. So he made himself a music major for people. Yeah, he would see people, he could draw any money, but nothing like Hogan. That's why he teamed him with Adrian. I don't know why he did the bell yet probably because Adrian would just tell me how come?

Bobby: 14:30

You know, we beat me as if you'd been promoted. Who would you want to dress before? You would dress as you can do it better, as if your work is. Your work is telling you, your work is telling you, yeah, I'm just a good talker, yeah, but they were great as a team and I'm not I sound like I'm not congested, but it's the truth. It's the truth. I mean, look at me.

Bobby: 14:50

I wasn't real shaggy because I didn't have a body. I wasn't going to go to the gym or work out all those days. I wasn't into lifting heavy things, I didn't care about that, I didn't like that and I made a very good living on what I did and I went to Longtown. You don't have to be big or small, you just have to know how to work. And Jesse was a good talker and a good entertainer. And some people just can't take the big bumps. Some can I don't know if they're scared and not coordinated or whatever this is but they do what they can and Jesse did a very good job of what he did. Remember, I told my wife this one thing. We got an argument. I said if you cook anything better, you'll live. If I wanted to be president, I would have a school of good education, go into politics and I could have become president. I did the best I could. Yeah, that's it you know, work with many.

Bobby: 15:50

You can do anybody. I would. What about the cop? Because you're both workable commentators. At the same time we're a little very incompetent there. You know, I couldn't have worked with him.

Bobby: 16:03

He worked with Vince on Super Serious and I worked with my mom's film and challenge, and then Jesse wanted to do the movie with Arnold, and that's when I started doing Climetime. And then Jesse became a movie star and I stayed on Blumtime and then I started doing Super Serious and then I don't know what Jesse's complaint was. It was probably something about Hogan. That's why he had WPW, something about Hogan. So, yeah, jesse came home and got him fired. Hogan just left, he was gone. Jesse wouldn't put him over on TV, oh, he just left. Jesse just took him out. He went what a move. Look at that. He was, yeah. So I just somebody, a part of it was started said we only do this guy, I'm not talking to him. We were paying him all out of money to put over all our people and I didn't know what happened with those two. There was just a whole two in a room. We were going to go yeah, just come out and talk. It's Hogan. Yeah, hogan, yeah.

Bobby: 17:12

But Jesse knows for his preparation before Masterty just show up like four commentating questions Doing you know, learning an angle and knowing an angle. Hogan Jesse was always on the ball. He knew what to talk about, he knew what was going on. He prepared himself. Yeah, yeah, that's a common misconception about him. Sometimes he's solid like he doesn't know. Well, jesse's very smart what he does. He can make himself something. Wait, that's what he don't want you over, what he likes, that you don't care about all that shit. Okay, yeah, that's what he knows, what he's doing. What's that? I thought about it. Yeah, I thought about it. I've done enough of private with the canyon for it.

Steve: 17:55

That's what.

Bobby: 17:58

That's not a bad person to do it that's a person's personality.

Steve: 18:02

That's why people.

Bobby: 18:39

good girl. Alright, one little. She's rapping again. There was a tough guy. He was a good football. I think he was originally directed by Dallas, because he immediately went to Denver and then he went to the Jets and then he went to Miami and he was playing in New York.

Bobby: 19:03

He would say the attacker was made by who? And everyone in Shade State would chant wahoo, wahoo. He was over that much as a linebacker. Then he started wrestling and I guess he got an argument with Vince McMahon Sr and some other promoters about money and turned over the table for a ticket and money and walked out and then we used him again. But Watan went to the University of Oklahoma and he's an Indian and a tough record guy. He ran once from the where he lived, the dorm, a school, downtown Tulls or something, for a hundred bucks and he got a better one, another guy, they'd been like 150 bucks. He couldn't drink a quart of motor oil. So why would he drink a quart of motor oil? And he said the only funny thing was every time he's sweat he smelled like a cheque. But that's what I'm guessing. He's not doing too good now he's a kidney transplant. That would be just. But what an attraction he was. What a choppy control.

Steve: 20:12

Yeah, he was a.

Bobby: 20:14

He's one of a few wrestlers promoters in India and there's actually an Indian. Yeah, I used to tell him, you know, while you played for Ace Delcombe TV, you played for Denver, you played for the Jets, you played for Miami. I said I would have thought of you when you're good. One would have kept you. And I said the last big trick they made for you was to get to Miami. I'm hiding, got walking big games. I just got two smoke bomb salesmen and one parking one attendant.

Bobby: 20:45

Where you go, boy, in America there was a guy named Max Curtis. Never took his mask off from the boys. That's what I heard about. He was in Rockville and I had taken a shower. So Jack and I pulled up in the shower.

Bobby: 20:56

Meach is in it. Get the better chin turns around and look at him. Meach is back and shuts the curtain. There's too much to look at. I'm going to get some of these ads. How can they become this rich? They're running up to seal. They did. They had to run the newspapers Every time.

Bobby: 21:59

I looked at what that week was like. My mask was going be that cold mainly, and Bobby Fletcher and Billy Dave Farmer and I and after you set the ring at the Patello Sain. We set up, usually after an ice show or something after public skating. So I'd be like at midnight you set work, you'd be down like at three in the morning. But then all the other hobos they had help us. They were all male, going just the way and do some.

Bobby: 22:42

We were young kids and so we all get in the ring, had tag matches. Then we just worked back late in the MTV. All of them guys were Patello workers in the city today and that's how I learned to work. And then again Tom Jones was an Indianapolis and he was a friend of Chris Polms and Tom Jones wrestled for a while around there in Tennessee. He was a real nice man. He went and looked at the South Side Army when the ring was up and he and I worked out there a little bit but that was all. But nobody ever taught me timing or anything. He billed me, he saw me. I'd go up the headlock to him over stuff like that, but no, and my first night wrestling was with Chris Polms and Chris was about two tan must be a reckon wasn't real big, I was about 180 pounds.

Bobby: 23:30

And the ring was real hard because it was a boxing ring the army had. But I didn't. I didn't go to slamming out on this ice. I was a father, that man. I was so high, I was so ready for this one. The one thing I forgot was I never bothered on checking on my endurance. So that's, the bell rang and I turned around a lot.

Bobby: 23:53

At first of all I started begging away from him and after about three times doing that I was out of gas. I was so blown up from nerves. I was nervous. I hadn't taken a pump yet. Now my tongue was hanging on. I took a cash register. I couldn't get any air. I thought, my God, I've got to go eight minutes with him, I'll die, I'll never make it. Then I go back and talk to Markov to get my air all done and he grabbed a hold of me and threw me in and gave me that head a couple of bumps. My God, I didn't know where I had this air. It was more air coming out of me and finally went into the finish and I think he had me in the corner,

Bobby: 24:45

Oh, you said four and a half, checked out, I took a four and a half job which was a bar of soap taped and I went over and there, pulled from behind, he went down and I got the one, two, three on him and I thought to myself, if I had, I'd rather be a manager for five bucks, I'd rather wrestle with your 10s. I was on my own win. This was hard, it was fun, it was, it was. It was my home. I had all my friends there and I wanted to do good. It was a that. And the WrestleMania three, no, not the biggest throw of the business, yeah, oh, and I got to work. I got to wrestle at Soldier Steel in Chicago. I had to work at Twisky Park. Oh, my God, and the idiot, he can't hide this.

Bobby: 25:28

Bruiser and Bobo I'm sitting there and I'm saying I used to carry all their jackets. I used to give me five bucks to watch his car. Bruiser used to give me five bucks to wrestle for the year and Bobo would have given me 50, I would ask because he was such a nice guy. Yeah, bobo taught me how to chew tobacco and and coke and hanging. He went on to Red man for a while or beach, and I forgot he was Red man. We had to be. We take it out, open up, put the coke and hang it in there. Then you used to deal with yourself. But he was a good man, bobo. So I was more. It was like the first match. It was more like excitement. I was full of nerves.

Bobby: 26:10

Yeah, I was a nervous. I mean, I had never experienced one of your moves in my life, have you? As far as I made you level like I won and lost at Littleby's? That was it. Yeah, I never had the once the NCAA championship, anything. I never went to that cup for a hundred grand. I never went to a real series ring. I never played. I don't go to high school so I never played on a team. So I don't know what winning and losing is. I don't know that the agony of defeat. I've never been defeated. I know the agony of getting a bad paycheck. I know the good feeling of getting no money you thought you'd get, which doesn't happen.

Bobby: 26:54

That often but no, I had no idea that competitive feeling, so it never occurred to me I was out there to entertain. I would suffer myself. There's the experienced actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier, there's comedic actors like Robin Williams, and there was athletic actors. And that's who we are. Nothing less, nothing more. There were some wrestlers, like the one guy who was a very tough man and a very good wrestler, very good shooter. There was no shooting that did what you might. Yeah, if there was, he'd have been in it.

Bobby: 27:29

He didn't want it all, but he never met me. Yeah, ha ha ha. What was that? We were talking earlier about the colleague I'd been leading for the WWF Dude was was Bernouwer that everyone was leaving or was he where the some were leaving? Or Hogan, because everyone had a big match here at the Garevon Rash he substituted for. It was like a Christmas match, or. I don't know, I'm not at the timeline. I was like December of 83,.

Steve: 28:03

I'm thinking, you know, you're right about that.

Bobby: 28:05

There was something, yeah, and Hogan had come back from Japan and he wasn't going to work for brands there was some discrepancy about T-shirt money. Oh, okay, I did. I think he stole a lot of T-shirts but we never got a dime for it. I never had, nope, never got a dime for anything.

Bobby: 28:25

And then, no one did, but I know so, greg, ha ha ha. And I think Hogan complained about it because he had a bad role. She wore all her faces on it and Andrei didn't like. Andrei was mad about that because he never made any money off of it. I mean, if you're using somebody's image, my God, I hear you.

Steve: 28:43

I made these people, I put them there well, that's right, but if we couldn't have stayed there, you wouldn't have kept us there.

Bobby: 28:49

Exactly Like when Jesus started me. He said I did, I did just give you a break. No, you didn't, you didn't, you didn't, you didn't, you weren't able to. You had just left out and became able to make you and I living yeah.

Bobby: 29:02

And that's what it was about money, and I think it was Schultz or somebody. You know, hogan. They were scared Hogan was going to come to St Paul and come into the ring and they gave Nick two different finishes they had or something. And I just laughed. I said is that going to happen? Yeah, I said, can you show up? This is business. So Hogan went to New York and he fired. Then they, david Schultz didn't show up, so he fired him and David got mad and came to TV studio and everybody was at lunch break and David came in. I was in the back having a cigarette. He came out, he was in our body, he had baseball cap on, he had cowboy boots tucked in jeans, tucked in he was pants, he had rodeo gloves on and a mac and he was ready to fight. I had a lot. I'm like a number jet.

Bobby: 29:53

I had yeah, he came in. Everybody's gone to lunch except Superstar Billy Graham, myself, jack Lamza, greg Ganya and Gurn. So everybody had to send out for the sandwich or something. And we did a channel 11, channel 9 studios now and they also had the news desk set in there. So some of the guys were sitting by the desk set and doing different things. I'm not sure Jesse was in there or not said he was at. We sleep on the floor behind them, so I think everybody's reading the magazine or something.

Bobby: 31:09

But Schultz was, he was around the time that he watched and was exposed and they told Greg and then Schultz finally just left and then after Schultz left with Hogan, they got team to go and he just left. But when I talked to Hogan and then I talked to him, I called Gurn at home and his wife said he's not here and then I said he said he was with the grandson which is Greg's boy. So I called over Greg and I said is your dad there? He said no, why? I said well, I just want to talk about something. Is that important? Well, I couldn't hear him here. Anyway, I thought I was made an offer about it at WWF. He thought I was a bastard or after it again, and I said I'm not going to take it. I just thought it was a substantial offer. He said go ahead.

Bobby: 32:06

Well, I asked him whether why? He always said I go ahead because usually the guy won't go. Nine out of ten times we win. Okay, smart man, how do we? So I called and Vroom called me back. I guess Greg found him and Vroom said well, what is it, bobby? I thought that's something I talked to you about. He said I said WWF called and they made me an offer. Well, that's just after you again. That's the same as if I had a smile on the arm, you know. And I said now I'm going to accept the offer. He said you what? I'm going to accept the offer.

Bobby: 32:44

He said tell it to me face to face as you came in the office this afternoon. He said yeah. I said what time would you like me there? He said one o'clock. I said see you at one. This will go down for a bit, so that's fine. I'll just make sure the batter is cooked. So I tell my wife. I said we're going to the office. She said for what? You're going to be a witness and I'm going to get my notice. I really didn't know what they would do to me. She said you don't know, he lost hope and he lost. She also didn't mean that much to him here. He lost hope and gene and now he was going to lose me. Nick wouldn't have anybody. He would be a big dent, like Nick Lawson the pawn and made a pawn in his manager. Yeah, and then, since we're going up, everything is going to be more popular every week.

Bobby: 33:38

So, I went to the office. Before I went to the office, I made a braid.

Steve: 33:42

I put it in my pocket.

Bobby: 33:43

They don't notice, they read about it. And then we were going to go to the ceremony and start to marry on once his sister-in-law, and since then she worked at the desk there and she was a real nice lady. I know she passed away and I was a very nice lady. Mary Markson and I went into the office, and I kept my hands on my pockets the whole time.

Bobby: 34:10

And we went out of the door and he turned around and he said to Greg, let's get him and throw him out the window. We're under 20-something forward that we're here in his office. So I just sat down on the couch. I said go ahead, you'll make my wife a very wealthy woman. And then they both sat down. I was just kidding. So tell me what's going on, what's happened. That's what he called me and made me his offer, which is twice as much as you're paying me, and it's to do Madison Square Garden TV and.

Bobby: 34:43

Manage, and the managers in those days would only work the TVs and they'd go home and then they'd get paid for every time their man was there. So I could be home with my daughter, who was born in 1978. So she was two or four years old. I had a chance to be with her and be home. No traveling Twice, three times the money. And you're doing TV and you're doing a broadcast. I don't forget that.

Steve: 35:10

No, no, no, he was always on Madison.

Bobby: 35:12

Square Garden TV broadcast, but I wouldn't do the syndicated shows. I can't review that or anything. I would do the same as MTA broadcast MSG, and then I would do the TVs whatever they had, tvs, whatever the man I managed, and he told me how much money I had to make. I said I got it, but I'll give you this much. I don't know what I'll get, but I'll give it to you. I thought to myself. I know he needs to be so business. I think he liked me, but I have to wait for him out for myself now. I mean, you've got a big home on Minnetonica, you've got all this money.

Bobby: 35:54

I want that. I have my chance to advance myself and to have it. So I said but I will finish up my day. I said but I won't work with Brad Ringing's. That's the truth. And he said why. I said I just won't. And the reason I wouldn't work with Brad Ringing's was because Brad was new and then said Brad had just started him and Brad had donated a lot of money to the Olympic Committee and Brad's an Olympian, brad's from Minnesota, brad's from Minnesota. Now Brad probably told Brad or somebody planning on giving him the belt one day or something.

Bobby: 36:36

So Brad don't know me, I don't know Brad. I don't want him out there breaking my leg or breaking my neck accidentally, on purpose. See what I mean? So he's the only man I wouldn't trust, not because I thought he was dishonest. He was so green and young. He might have done it not knowing, but that's not the thing to do. So I said to him I won't work with Brad. I finished up my day, I thanked him a lot and now I see Brad, we're friends. He thanks me for finishing up my day. He's the only guy that gave me a proper notice and finished those dates and I thought if they were going to touch me and hurt me.

Bobby: 37:16

I was going to take that blade and I was going to cut the top of my head off. Then they were going to act. Then we went to court. Then, I see, then we found OJ's shoes in the ground. I said I act like, and then you started.

Bobby: 37:38

It was your first appearance, w W F Perrinston, the very center At the guard. Yeah, we stayed, okay, and the other guy knew once he was at the guard center. Yeah, but I don't think at that time there was about to converge, it was in the internet. Then what we knew was that it was there. No, my first appearance was in the guard. But I walked to the ring and I got on the mic and I know that. I know him from there. I was working for talent. I didn't manage anybody. Oh, and that was it. Yeah. And then you went to the Met Center. Yeah, but it's fine. I walked to the ground and everybody knew me. People are sad, you know, about the cooks. Oh, yeah, I used to tell them about bringing Diane and Rebecca Bring Drew and women. Well, they only know them. Well, if you pay a few bucks for a wad of these seats, you don't pay 50 cents to see a cook with everybody in there.

Steve: 38:28

Exactly, yeah.

Bobby: 38:29

They never thought they could cook for anything. Yeah, but they do Sure right. So I have a case that we didn't want to see who was in it. We said this to the town's local icon. My mom told me to stop doing it. I would do nothing for me later in life. I know you thought he was a good guy. You kicked a bear in the tail, oh yeah.

Bobby: 38:50

It doesn't look like a youngster, it's a man, it's a man, it's a man, it's a man. It's funny, the belt that they had at the WWE yeah, they had made it. They had it made at the same place. The police had their batches made in the Annapolis the Annapolis batch, I think. Well, they made a giant batch, a giant batch. I think we told them we used to do that. Young kids only used to have to wrestle a bear. They would put a honey on that guy in the back. They would put a lot of effort in it. The only person that was going to have a good luck was Teddy. So if there were other promotions, that would have struck and they would try to survive, but they didn't. So this guy, all we did a hat remember. Yeah, the hat guy was just how about when you decided to stop being a manager of the transition from not doing that to just broadcasting?

Bobby: 39:53

Yeah, that's when you'd already been broadcasting. Well, yeah, but it was very hard to do colorable broadcasts. When you managed people. I could never get the other guy over because I had to talk more about my manager and I couldn't get the other he over. If I managed you, I couldn't talk how good DB Ackie was, because I would have to put all my attention to my manager. I'm not a manager, but DB Ackie was good. I'm doing interviews now. Db Ackie is very good. He's got millions and millions of dollars in the bank, in Swiss banks, but Rude is. You know what's the body on Rude? I don't know how many bodies there are, but Rude is just at the peak right now, you know that's how they have to do it.

Bobby: 40:32

So he's saying DB Ackie can buy whatever he wants, nobody's going to beat this man. That means my man can't beat him. So I just started just being a commentator. Then it was easy, I could beat him in the middle of the road and be a healer. But I could like all those styles. You know I was a healer, so it was a tough transition.

Steve: 40:51

No, I'm sorry, it was an easy transition.

Bobby: 40:53

Yeah, it was no problem at all. It was easy. It's what I wanted to do. You became the. You had to be the first one to use the term broadcast journalist. This came to that. You said you were a broadcast journalist as opposed to a color commentator.

Bobby: 41:08

Yeah, the reason really there shouldn't be a playback by a guy, because you know, the playback by the pretty guys came from radio where you had to talk. Jim Lock taught me something. He used to do a lot of radio. He said you know I'd get a radio out of Boston Gardens one night. He said you gotta say everything you know, like Don Mirocco. And then we ran out wearing the blue trunks and then you got a whole coat you know, yellow and red, because people don't understand it. That's why you don't have to call. He gives them a call, he's going. People don't want a call. He's going.

Steve: 41:36

You don't need to tell them. Hey, she's buying.

Bobby: 41:39

What I think you do is you have to have a guy like a Mike today and him and I we talk about the angle that they're working and what's going to happen the next time they meet, what they're capable of doing, but when he's beating up on the man and Eggers just don't mean nothing. You know this is a rule. It's a rule to move up the top and the guy goes through a lane for a four-hour or something. But you don't have to call a close line because of an Irish whip. I think I know him. He was mad at me, but no, I don't think.

Bobby: 42:12

I think, if you talk about the angle, because if you had talked about Goldberg and you had talked about Holger and we could have built that, we wouldn't have had to talk about what was going on in there. That's how I think. I think I'm a play-by-play guy that day at Holger. But you needn't to throw the things like over to them. We have this from Bobby Hinnon and don't forget, they feel better with Baskov, stuff like that. But you know he'll curve, I can't merchandise, so that's what they do right now. Even yeah, that's payment, yeah, I wouldn't buy anything that Blacksy would endorse, exactly. And Jim Ross almost had. He had a certain amount of drama like a storyteller, yeah, yeah, well, I guess, as opposed to just the straight. He's doing this, he's doing that, and Jim Ross had a certain amount of emotion and drama.

Bobby: 43:02

And Jim Ross he's very prepared because the time I worked with him he always hit everything down. He knew about all the football stats, he knew about baseball stats, he knew about amateur wrestling. He's a very educated, well-prepared guy, not well liked by a lot of guys, and has been put in positions where he had to deal with contracts and other people's money. That's not his money, so he's a rough position to be in, but he's a man who chose it. So Good luck. I like Jim Ross as a man, he was a talent. Vince was a tremendous guy to work with. At the beginning I was scared, because you don't like working with a boss, but Vince was the kind of guy that I really like, so if you screwed up he'd tell you how you should do it. I got to do an interview with the bad Bruno. I was saying something about making fun of him or something. Vince went by and bumped the camera. Uh oh, retake.

Bobby: 44:02

He bumped most of the time, goddamnit you can't say that he said Bruno doesn't really like it if you talk about age and things like that. I said, fine, he just stay on this and that. Fine, that's the way he was. He just smoked. I never yelled, you know, um, and when I went out there I did the way he wanted you know I'm the kind of a guy that should never play for this one buddy.

Bobby: 44:27

He'd yell at me. I'd go home. If you're complimenting and giving me a pat in the back, I'll work harder for you. I'm not the kind of a guy being motivated by that kind of yelling because I had said that he never did nothing competitive. I don't know?

Bobby: 44:40

Oh, was it Bruno yelling? Yeah, bruno was yelling. That's why he's don't hear you and not go off his head. Gee, yeah, he wouldn't ever say. Geez, he'd go. Crikes, yeah, crikes, yeah, he gets so mad. Well, yeah, wally was yelling at you.

Bobby: 44:57

But Ray Stevens and Wally and Wally had this girl driver who was driving us up to Dahlsen, manitoba, 500, 300 miles north of Winnipeg. So Ray and her in the back. Wally was coming back that night. We don't know where we're at, we're off. We had some beer in the back and bottled wine. So Wally gets out and goes in the hotel to find directions. It's tough poor. He's a really, really good student, so we're a hitchhiker. He's a good carer, I don't know, and I went in the hotel. He's a good wine beerist, it's his. So we got out of the car, got some fans there. He goes in there. Wally comes out, he's mad and how he's looking at me. We get back in the car. He's slamming through. He says you, you, you, you, fucker. He says he's spending $250 to have an open bottle in the car and we're picking up hitchhikers.

Steve: 45:57

Oh you know what, you know what. I got that too in a half-pack Many times oh yeah, sure, yeah.

Bobby: 46:08

So Ray Shuyers was yelling. You got to spit on a floor and yell in front of people. Uh, same much. Nick, never yelled at anyone that I knew of.

Bobby: 46:18

Uh, paul Bosch was the best put up man in the business. Paul uh, all the trees are like a gentleman His wife, valerie, and her very good friends. There's her son, joey, who's uh turned out to be just a marvelous job, and Paul, which is a very fair guy, just great with the money paging cash and uh, you know he's got a big envelope and I hope I got the same lose. You can slide into the door, but the things don't change. I got more established than people knew who I was and no money got better.

Bobby: 46:54

But at the beginning, personally, I don't believe you get any respect where you start and we just started meeting some. Naturally, the movie before I was Bobby's son and I was respected to begin with. You'll never pay your like to pay a star and if you don't know the mentality you start with, you don't have a going place. But money does suck and we lose a lot, ha ha. So you started with the TV. You started doing that.

Bobby: 47:24

Talk about maybe some stories about where you just said you managed to score a good TV. I went there and I started as a manager Paul. Then after about a year of Paul, I needed to network him. But this is Tony. He said I'll work you into the management of the score, better than TV doing the commentating. So after Jesse left and I said to him Prime Time Jesse was doing the garden with Monsoon. So when Jesse was gone, I moved into Monsoon. Well, prime Time was really a show done like that. You mentioned how you watched every match and everything. Yeah, it was, and we also do the voiceovers and challenge. So we've seen this match now for the whole week four or five times. It became repetitious. But working with Monsoon was a joy. It was a highlight of my career. He was the most honest, gentle, intelligent man I've ever met. He had a tremendous mind. He was educated, he was smart, some people were educated and some people they ain't.

Bobby: 48:33

But he knew about the human body. He knew about half muscles and parts and he always used to say he hit him in the lips, typically in the back of the eyes. He said, yeah, he kicked him in the butt. So he knew all that. And he was a. He wrote the gamble. He wrote the play, brad Jack. He wrote the play cards. I was here about 25 grand on him. I said, well, how do you even do all that money? He said, well, man, I want to buy something.

Steve: 48:58

So I went to the house driving through Green Bay.

Bobby: 49:01

I was there 27 grand in Green Bay by the team and I bought worse, but he was that way, he was very family-oriented. When Joe was killed there, that took a lot of them and I left and there was no more primetime. His desire to work anymore had diminished. Well, they had changed the format of Primetime, didn't they? Because they went from studio part to kind of a live audience, like what we did for the facilities. Yeah, the audience people were employees, really From Texas. After work they'd have to come in and sit. They couldn't go home because we had a real audience in there one time and they do through shows.

Bobby: 49:49

So Vince is kind of a guy. If you start live TV 8, you start at 8. If you start taping at 8, you start taping at 10.30. Oh, ok, and then we'll have to go on an air ride. So he would do his own. He was always getting phone calls. You know he was the only guy running everything. Yeah, he was always being booked by people. There were problems and questions. He had answered. We'd be done by midnight sometimes. So if there were regular fans they went home.

Bobby: 50:15

And they couldn't get and go to the bathroom doing it? Oh, because then you have empty spots. You know, like at the Academy Awards, you never see an empty spot. Yeah, people that sit in Texas there. So he made the employees come over and sit so we'd be on a date. Why didn't he change the format? It was just a beautiful exchange. Yeah, the exchange was a sacred change and I think I think prime time was doing so good. There was a jealousy factor there around people. Yeah, some people will cut their nose off to spread the faith they will. Well, the vehicles went to. So it was a good merchant to ask for that WBF. Oh, that's right, I used to tell him. I said, obviously some cheap motels missing a shower curtain.

Bobby: 51:07

And then they stopped doing it because Mooney was doing it For Sean. Mooney was I.

Steve: 51:13

Yeah, I guess I don't know.

Bobby: 51:15

That's why, sean Mooney, he wasn't given a resume around for work, I mean the television industry. He never put down that he worked for WBF after he lost the job he was you know, I think it's New York, the station we were on there in New York and he never put down that he was a I don't know WBF. He named everything else he'd done. I guess he just got that few years gap in the resume. Good guy, good time. I mean he just put Titan sports. No, I think he was going to mention a video about a wrestling. I think Wow. And you know he was a good looking guy. I thought he was great on TV, but maybe he was too good looking. Yeah, maybe he was too good looking, I don't know. We're in the story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.