Thrill Seekers In Smoky Mountain

Chris Jericho shows up early, obsessed with learning a move almost nobody is doing yet: the shooting star press. A few attempts later, the experiment turns brutal, and the ripple effect hits the whole locker room, the booking sheet, and Jim Cornette’s temper. We walk through what happened, why it mattered, and how fast you had to adapt in Smoky Mountain Wrestling when a plan blew up midstream. 

From there, we zoom out into what the Thrill Seekers’ arrival really changed. We talk about why some crowds gave “crickets” even when the work was wild, how gimmick tables and fan interaction could make or break you in Tennessee, and what the territory era demanded after the bell. Along the way we share legends-night moments, including running errands for Terry Funk in a dry county and helping veterans like Buddy Roberts make it from the dressing room to the curtain. 

We also dig into the bigger picture: Smoky Mountain becoming an early WWF developmental pipeline, learning the business by shadowing Cornette, and being thrown into pressure spots like junior refereeing in Pikeville’s famous cage match. And yes, we get honest about the 1994 reality of getting “on the gas” and how that culture shaped careers. 

If you love wrestling history, Smoky Mountain Wrestling stories, and the real mechanics behind getting over, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more fans can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Three Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

I am your champion. Oh man, that's classic. I love it. I'm gonna climb that ladder of success all the way to the top. Hello, everybody, and welcome to The Ride Home. I am your host, Brian Logan, and I am joined by the one and only my best friend and colleague, Dallas Danger. Are you ready to take The Ride Home?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

I I'm always ready.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

I was born ready. I was born ready. A little bonus track for everybody out there.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, I liked on uh so we're talking about episode three of Making the Towns, the thrill seekers come to America.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Very exciting times, which we'll get into. Uh, but I liked the little subtle background music to start the show. That was that was nice. Yeah, I just picked up my phone and hit play.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I didn't even get it near the microphone or anything. You could tell it was But I you know, because I didn't want to get busted for using the music, so I was just like, I'll just play it a little bit. I timed it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

You get, I think, 29 seconds. Okay, so whatever. Yeah, yeah. Um I I I don't remember, but you you were you were good. Yeah. And I don't think you could really even tell. Yeah. You know, it's like that old ECW rule where it was like where we're not directly feeding it into the TV, it's just in the in the building where we're filming, and it's like they can't really touch you on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah. Yeah, it was well to tell you the truth, I was gonna put it closer to the microphone, but um I got wrapped up in the in the song and forgot to do it. So well, that happens. But we did find out that you could still rock in America, and you can throw yourself at Velcro Wall.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Oh my god, do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Yeah, oh yeah. Oh, it was the cheesiest thing I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

It's not been that long ago since I've seen those videos. Right. Because I I'd started, I I didn't get very far, but I started a Smoky Mountain Rewatch. Yeah, maybe year and a half, two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you got me on it.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yeah, yeah. I think you had been watching some of it, just random, not in any kind of order.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

And I was like, man, I'd like to go back and watch in order, and you put me on to the place that I found it that I'm not gonna say because I don't want it to get taken down. Um but it was it's out there. It's out there. You can find it. Yeah, you gotta look pretty hard, but you can find it.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Yeah, yeah. And they've got uh every episode in order.

Jericho Injury And Cornette Blowup

SPEAKER_01 2:47

So um, not to take over hosting, but I I don't know I don't know any other way. Go ahead. Um you you at the top wanted to kind of cover a big moment involving the Thrill Seekers and Chris Jericho that did not get covered on the the main podcast because you didn't work a match the night that it happened.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, it was the uh night of legends, and I got a special assignment as it was called. I got to babysit the legends. So I was uh taking care of all of their you know gopher needs, uh and therefore I didn't write it in the book because I didn't I didn't have a match. Right. So, but that's the night that Jericho came early and was trying to learn the shooting star press, which nobody was doing back then.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, nobody.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

I mean, when he tried to explain to me what he was doing, I almost didn't get it. Like we had to he had to take a Coke bottle and show me what he was trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Wasn't there wasn't there like time at the pool earlier in the day where he was doing it into the pool?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, yeah. We did it. We went to the pool at Panther Creek and he was trying it there, and then we made the town in Knoxville, and he wanted to try it in the ring, and he was gonna he was doing it just in general, and then he was gonna practice it on me. And uh what ended up happening was is he he didn't complete it and he fell on his arm and broke his arm. And that's the night that they he went to the hospital, Cornette threw a fit, turned the racket sideways, and hit him um in the head, and he bled all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I mean, one of the stiffest shots I've ever seen. Yeah, it was brutal. I mean, just laid into that poor kid.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, yeah. So then that's why I worked Lance Storm in a singles because he had left and they just put me in there with with Lance instead of it being a tag mat. Right. So that was the but on a side note, uh, excuse me, um Terry Funk came to me and he said, Come here, kid, and he's looking both ways, and I'm thinking, ooh, this is gonna be important. And he goes, I need you to get me, and it was it was a Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Uh I'm gonna need you to get me a six-pack of beer, some athletic tape, and lighter fluid.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

And on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

And and if you know anything about Civic Auditorium, there's one gas station, and that's it. And it's a dry county. So basically, I had athletic tape, so I gave him that. I could go and get the lighter fluid, but how was I gonna get this beer? And I ended up driving around until I found I had to have gone to the next county and found a place that would sell me beer. Now bear in mind, I'm also only about 18 years old.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

So I, you know, he was like, Give give me some beer. But I brought it back and got him a six-pack, and uh, he took the tape and put it on the branding iron and lit that son of a gun, and uh the rest is, as they say, wrestling history.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Well, I guess that answers one of my questions that I had today. Uh, I guess that was the moment they realized you didn't look like a child anymore because you were able to go buy Terry Fox some beer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My hair was starting to grow out. It had grown out for, you know. Well, you can see it. I put it on on the socials and you know, it got it that picture actually got a lot of good responses.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Uh the 94 long haired, uh, I'm jacked in it.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

I don't know. I'm sure at some point I had, but I did not remember ever seeing a picture of you with long hair that wasn't dyed blonde.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yeah, that was I I didn't even have the idea for it to be blonde yet.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

I just had it.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Well, how how how is that? Because you go back and watch those old smokies, and it's like there's 12 guys on the show with the flare, like white blonde dye job.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, well, uh it just it never occurred to me till one day I was like, you know what? I want to dye it blonde, and I just did it and you know, hoped I didn't get heat for it.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Well, if Pillman and Austin taught us anything, it's that blondes have more fun. Absolutely. And Missy Height. Shout out to Missy.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Blondes have more fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Any any other uh fun legends interactions that night being the gopher?

Legends Night And Terry Funk Request

SPEAKER_00 7:14

No, they just had me. Uh I had Buddy uh Roberts of the Freebirds was there, and you know, he had cancer.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Was that the was that the day he walked in and everybody thought he was dead? Yes. And and somebody said uh uh I heard you we we all heard you were dead, and by the looks of it, it was that was the truth.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yes. Yes. Yeah, he passed away shortly after that.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

So I it was really cool that I got to handle uh his needs, and uh I actually had to help him to the curtain because he was, you know, he couldn't walk very well. Now he made it from the curtain to the ring.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Well, once that red light goes on, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

But but getting from the dressing room to the curtain and the curtain to the dressing room, I had to I had to help him along.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Hell, I've been able-bodied for most of my time in wrestling, and getting to the curtain is always the hard part. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Getting to gorilla is just, or as we call it, the monkey position. Yeah. It's like the gorilla, just a little bit smaller.

The Infernos Reality Check

SPEAKER_01 8:16

All right. So um let's just go in order. Question number one on ride home number three. How fucking naive were you and Anthony to think that the Infernos was was gonna be something that got y'all a push?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Well, we were we were complete idiots. We thought because it was red and black that Cornet was gonna manage us. You know, we thought that, you know, because there was all these teams coming in. We thought we were just another was gonna get pushed evenly. Yeah. But I mean, we were really naive to think that. I mean, it didn't take long. No.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

You you said you said the second match on the TV when you lost to rock and roll, y'all were like, now wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I mean, we'll say that, and a shout out to Anthony Lamonico, he wanted to make sure I made this point very clear. That's Anthony Michaels. He the they pick it if the goal was to sell tickets because of girls and to interact with the girls of the area and save money and have good quality matches, they picked the wrong team. They should have had me and Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Because that's what we were all about. Oh, yeah. Um, the Thrill Seekers were not about that. They were about doing things their way.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

And that's another point, I think, to bring up. You know, you you did a good job of kind of illustrating with broad strokes the impact that those guys coming to America and other talents of the time, Mysterio, Psychosis, Eddie, Mul Dean Malenko, coming to the sort of the big three in the United States, ECW and then eventually to WCW through that triple A uh Win Worlds Collide pay-per-view. Yeah. Those guys largely were not tr the traditional boys from a mental standpoint. No. I mean, these guys were just obsessed with wrestling. You know, and Eddie had his off the, you know, uh away from the ring, you know, stuff. But you know, I think that's what they inspired more than anything was guys that just wanted to be in shape and work and make the towns, and that's it. And just and just be themselves and not get so wrapped up in the extracurriculars, if you will. Um you know, because that's what we've got more than anything now, I think, are are are you know smaller guys that aren't the prototype from that era before. Yeah, you know, the 80s, the the national boom, the land of the giants, all that stuff. That just they're they're they're clean living people uh who who just like working out and and wrestling. Yeah, you know, and and um and that hybrid style, you know, it it it it was kind of funny. Well, we'll get to that. I think I've got it down here somewhere later. But uh, well no, that's the next thing. Oh, and and uh under under how naive were you, I put at least you got a raise.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

We did get a raise, and that was pretty cool. But you know, talking about the extracurricular stuff, we were taught by the Armstrongs and rock and roll that you know it was part of the job. Right. Like it was a r requisite that after the show's over, you go have a couple of beers and you try to meet a girl.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Well, because they were from again that previous era where you were working so many nights a year, yeah, that you had to unwind because you couldn't just go, go, go every day, different town in the car, you know, killing your body without that release of women or drugs or booze or whatever your flavor was. And for a lot of them, it was just whatever they could get their hands on. Right, right. Um, you know, you hear the you hear the old WWF guys talk about you know those those two, three-month loops, and then you'd get like a weekend home. Yeah. You know, and and it's like by the time you, you know, your head stopped spinning, it was time to get in the car and go again.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah, you know, you got a minute off from the circus, and it was time to get back on the uh, you know, the flying trampan. What trampanzee? Trapeze? Trapeze, trampanzee. Trampanzee. What that is, is that's a monkey that swings on hooks in the circus. In the circus. Trampanzee. But yeah, we'll make one.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I like the analogy you made for Calgary that it's Memphis meets Japan. Yeah. And we w we'll we will continue to uh uh allude to WFS until we get there, way down the road. Right. But that's kind of what we were going for in WFS.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Absolutely. Every territory that I've tried to run um or company I've tried to book and run, I've always built it up like Calgary. Yeah. Because I because I I think you gotta have the goop goofy hokey stuff because that's entertaining. But when the bell rings, it's gotta be super serious.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And it's all about fundamentals.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

You gotta have those fundamentals to pull that off and make that work absolutely uh at any kind of level. Um but yeah, that that that that that kind of struck me, and I was like, oh yeah, that's what we were doing in WFS. Oh, yeah. We didn't talk about that in as many words at the time, but that's basically what we had. Yeah, you know, legit athletes, um, work in a modern kind of style, but with emphasis on fundamentals, and then we did the Memphis Gaga.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

And in the in the sort of, you know, weekly episodic Southern presentation. Yeah. Um, and again, way down the road, we'll get deep in the weeds on WFS because boy, do we have some stories about that era.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Well, and you know, Apex was done the same way, and the short-lived uh four months that we had Blue Ridge Wrestling. That was totally done like that. Yeah. You know, we I me and my buddy Flex and uh um Lance Erickson, we changed West Virginia similar by by doing a new style, taking what I was doing at OBW at the time and changing it and modernizing it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And even further down the line, we'll get to some of this, but uh it's 2025 and Bam Bam Lance Erickson can still go. Oh, yeah. I mean, wow, what a what a monster talent. Uh I I I would venture to say the most believable guy I've ever worked with. Yeah. To the point where for me, interviewing him was a challenge at times. Yeah. Because he was so deeply believable as a monster. Yep. Um and and and and yeah, and can just go. I mean quick. Have a match with anybody.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

I mean, he's a 50-year-old man and he's quick. Yeah. I mean, just sudden. And big, big, big, quick, 300 pounds, and and and we'll we'll take a bump and be right back in your face. And I mean, you gotta actually slow him down a little bit or he'll blow you up.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

I was and I was gonna say, and you gotta get right back in his face, or he's gonna light you up.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, yeah. You can't you can't give him a second because he'll cut you off and that'll be that'll be it for you.

Getting Over Without The Gimmick Table

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yep. So all right, what do we got next? Okay, so um you talked about that first match with the Thrill Seekers and how it was like the wildest thing you'd ever seen, and you were so excited to do all these spots and all this stuff, and it was just crickets.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

And we have been led to believe for years, mostly from the man himself, that that's the type of thing that Cornette would react to super irrationally. What was the Cornette and the sort of the backstage reaction to the fact that y'all went out there and did everything and gotten no response?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Well, he thought that they had to be over, that they just hadn't gotten over yet, that the crowd would would be willing to embrace them once they saw the product.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

So he was kind of hip to what they were trying to do and what they were bringing to the table. He just knew it would take time.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Well, you know, that they had gimmick tables back then. That was the beginning of the gimmick tables, because believe it or not, the wrestlers didn't go to the tables prior to this. Yeah um, they wouldn't go out there, you know, to hustle their gimmicks. So how do you get out there and get over with the fans if you're not talking to them? If the rock and roll is out there talking to everybody like their family, and you're supposed to be the replacement for them, but you're not willing to talk to anybody, it's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

And that's kind of a regional thing, too, because Tennessee had always kind of been that way. I mean, yeah, the the you know, Cornet did a book on the gimmick tables in Memphis. Yeah, you know, and that was such a big part of the business there. And guys like Tracy and Punky and Who were used to that. You know, and then they were working independent shots post WCW, and that was I mean, that was your livelihood in that world because as you illustrated, going and working the cab company for Gypsy Joe wasn't paying the bills. No, you had to go hustle at the table to to buy your bucket of chicken.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, that chicken. I you know, I I had chicken this week and I ate the whole bucket, and I just laughed to myself because I just missed Tracy so much, and I just kept thinking about that night while I was eating that chicken. And man, I just missed Tracy.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, he was somewhere laughing too over uh over a Jack Daniels or a beer or both. And yeah, man. Yeah, you were right to speak for everybody missing Tracy.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

He's I got so many messages of people saying, Yeah, we miss him too.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah. Oh yeah. I just there there there there will never be another Tracy Smothers. No, I mean that dude and and and I I I was fortunate to interact with him a few times um over the years, and I don't think he ever truly knew who I was from one time to the next. I feel this way about Punky too. But man, he made you feel like you were the most important person in the room every time you talked to him.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Tracy, when he called you brother or sister, uh, he meant it. Yeah. I mean, it you were family.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

First show I was on with Tracy was in Newport. And as as as we were, as he I helped him, uh I carried his bags to the car for him. He asked me very nicely if I would do that for him. He was that's when he was kind of hobbling around a little bit. And um I got his stuff to the car and I said, uh, Tracy, be safe. Good to see you. I said, Oh, I said, as soon as I get in the car, I'm calling Brian Logan. You want me to tell him anything for you? He said, Yeah, man, just tell him I love him and I miss him, and I hope I see him soon.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

You know, and that was that was it. I mean, it was just he was like, Man, yeah, tell Brian I love him, you know. And uh he was just that type of guy. Yeah. So just a great dude. Great, great dude. Um, I loved your gypsy joe impersonation. That was great.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

I Logan, you're gonna kill somebody one of these days. Don't go in the hamburgers then.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

And then and then you said, now every time I hear don't go in the hamburgers stand, I'm thinking, how many times since then have you heard someone say don't go in the hamburgers?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Well, they say don't go to the concession stand or don't mess up with this. And I and I just think of Gypsy and the way he just I mean, he's throwing hot hamburgers at Tracy. Yeah. I mean, they made extra hamburgers so that he could throw it at Tracy. I mean, it was it was classic. And I would have loved to have had one of those hamburgers. Oh, yeah. Because again, we were starving. And they're stomped to bits on the floor. There's ruined food. Food just wasted everywhere, and I couldn't get anything to eat.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

My goodness. My goodness. That had to be like that had to be culture shock to go from you had only worked in Smoky Mountain Wrestling at that point. Every show you had ever been a part of was professional, yeah, and very serious and sort of regimented, which you illustrated, you know, and all the guys you were there with, and then you get to a cab stand and you just I mean, I'm sure there was some direction, but for the most part, it's like just go out there and have your match.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, yeah. We just uh we just got the finish. That was it. Yeah, you know, and and I called the match, and you know, the the guy I worked with just followed along and you know to make him look good and you know, yeah, but it was culture shock because I didn't know that world existed out there like that. Right, right. Because I'd never seen it on TV, obviously, because that those kind of shows aren't on TV. And then I'd never been on those shows, so it it was a culture shock.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, yeah. I I just the way you illustrated the the building and uh it I could I could put myself there. Yeah, you know, and it reminded me of so many of these shows where you know I'm sure you didn't think this at the time just because it was kind of your first foray outside of Smoky Mountain. But you know, I've I've ended up in some of these buildings and I just kind of look around and I'm going, what did I do to end up here?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of moments like that as we get deeper into the books.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

I mean, yeah, as we get deeper and get in, you know, into the later nineties, I worked every little team. Teeny tiny hole there was.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

All over the map for all amounts of money.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I I can't wait till we get to the Mississippi-Canada story.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Yes, yes, yes. That's gonna be that's gonna be a great one. And it's gonna be a good lesson for the young'uns because uh, you know, there was no map quest or uh, you know, cell phones or anything like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

No, no internet really, no text messaging.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Nothing. Answering machine and a map.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yep. A Rand McNally. Yep. Shout out Bo James.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yep. And uh you you you gotta be there a certain time and you better be there.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

So this is something I really want to like get deep in the weeds on, and I want you to give me as much as you can on this because as we're getting through the Thrill Seekers matches and getting into you being the junior referee in the big huge blow-off main event. Was that Paintsville or Pikeville? Uh Pikeville. Pikeville. The loser leaves, rock and roll versus the bodies, and the bodies lose because the bodies are going to the big time. Yes. And and I just I think about here you are, you're heavily involved. There's there's obviously a level of trust in you now, you know, not even that far in, less than a year in to your run. You're working multiple gimmicks, you're working heel and babyface, you're you're you're the you're the backup referee in a big blow-off main event that that you did a good job of kind of illustrating, you know, that still is a sought-after match. People still go back and watch that match and relive that moment. Cornet talks about it like it's one of the greatest nights of his life. Right. Um setting the ring up, tearing it down. And you're you're just your hands are all over this promotion, and now the this top tag team, this top heel act, sort of opens this pipeline that would that would exist from Smoky Mountain to the WWF. I j I just wanna I just want you to talk about like how exciting that time in your life and in the business must have been, you know, because again Smoky Mountain was sort of not that they were breaking ground because it was very much a call back to the territory era, but you're surrounded by consummate pros, some of the biggest names in the history of the business, and now there's this clear path. If I'm successful here and I progress here and I get to a top spot here, I could go all the way. Yeah. Literally to the very tippy top. Yeah. So just talk to me about the excitement of of that era.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Well, about three weeks to a month before Cornet debuted on Raw. We were in the gym uh working out three hours a day. God bless you, Tim Horner. And uh Tim said that uh two he had two things. We're gonna do a fan week where the fans are gonna come in and be a part of the of the festivities. And out of that fan week, we're going to have WWF is gonna become we're gonna become a developmental. And that was the first time I heard developmental.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

And he had and he went on to explain to us that you know that there was gonna be a pipeline and that they would send guys and we would send guys, and it was very, very exciting because it was a short road. Yeah, you know, and other than Mark, uh Mark Kyle, Bobby Blaze, and myself, every single person in Smoky Mountain went to work for New York or ECW. Right. Um, so it was very, very exciting, and then I I was doing everything, and I was learning every aspect of everything. Um, Cornette had me as his little unofficial understudy kind of thing, which was kind of just stand by Cornette and you'll learn.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

You know, he had no problem with me following him around, and I did, you know, uh, because I wanted to hear everything. I mean, and eventually he said, Do you want to come to the production meetings? And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I want to come to the production meetings, you know, and I didn't ever say anything and never had any input. I just was listening to how it was going on.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, two ears, two eyes, one mouth.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Exactly. And uh so it was just such an exciting time, and I was learning so much, and I had I was becoming an adult, um, not officially an adult, like not mentally, but you know, but age-wise, I was becoming an adult.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And Jury's still out on the mental part of adulthood.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I'm still working on it. It's it's a work in progress.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

He says in his Batman t-shirt.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

But yeah, it was very exciting, and and we we almost we never took anything for granted. Uh I think that was one of the good things, but it was almost a foregone conclusion that we were all gonna go there.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

I mean, nobody said that. They didn't say, hey, you're gonna go to WWF, but it was just you could see the writing on the wall.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

And that relationship, you know, and I'm speaking from a very young fan perspective. You know, I turned nine years old in 1994. And I I may have said this on a previous episode of this show, but it's worth reiterating for to make this point. You know, I was into all wrestling I could find. Right. It didn't matter, you know, if it was, you know, an outlaw show at the local high school or if it was WWF and WCW on TV. If I could find it, I was into it. Right. But Smoky Mountain was sort of the first wrestling that I found that was like, oh, I know these towns. I've been to some of these towns. My parents talk about some of these towns, and I know all these talents. And this is my wrestling. Yeah, this is our wrestling. You know, it's on my local TV station. Yeah, you know, um, yeah, it was a network, but this is this is my wrestling. And so that relationship with the WWF just sort of ignited this excitement from a fan standpoint. You know, yeah, I've got my guys, but now it's like, oh, Lex Luger's coming in. Jeff Jeff Jarrett's there's gonna be an intercontinental title match at a Smoky Mountain show, Shawn Michaels, you know, and this is further down the road where we we get to these specific examples, yeah. But that that all kind of came from this, you know, um Dr. Tom's brother Bruce being being uh one of the highest ranking deputies up there, and yeah, eventually that it just sort of you know materialized that that it was gonna be that pipeline like we talked about, and then now Smokey Mountain is a developmental. So so it's not only are not only is the WWF sending their known entities down, guys are going up. Yeah. And and and there's a there's a there's a like you said, there's a there's a clear path um to going from an upstart in Tennessee to you know the big lights and and the in the in the big time. I mean the the the major leagues at that point, you know, um WCW would come along pretty big shortly after this, but in 1994, um I mean if you were in the business and you weren't striving to get to the WWF, what what were you really doing? Um especially a young a young you know beginner like yourself. I mean that that should have been the goal. That should have been, you know, I want to get to that point.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

So um, yeah, man, just a really uh exciting time, you know, and and I know we're gonna get to well done um uh in the next episode, and um, you know, and and and we're just gonna I mean it's just gonna get better from there. I mean, as far as the personalities that are that are gonna be involved in these stories.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Yeah, well done, the gangsters, you know, the gangsters are so important.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

That's something I wanted this the the first Dalton Georgia show. Was that the first time Cornette saw Newjack? Yes. I thought so. Yes. I thought so, because he he talks about he's talked about that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

And how he basically was like, the guy can't really have a match. He I mean, he can. By today's standards, he'd be Luthes. Right. Um, which is, you know, and and that was something I really appreciated when when Newjack passed away, was the people that were like, no, I saw him rolling around before shows and like he knew his stuff. Yeah. But he also knew that he didn't have to do that because all he had to do was run his mouth and do the crazy shit, and he was over like crazy. And I mean, and there are some stories uh coming up uh from the Smoky Mountain days involving New Jack that uh people I don't think people will believe.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah, it's gonna blow their mind. Yeah, there's some crazy shit about to come up in the state.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Uh and we'll get into why, you know, and again, it was right place, right time, and willing to give for the business, you know, but uh and we'll get into that on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Absolutely. I mean, we don't want to give anything away early, but but you know, this is um I I I I felt like, you know, episode one, getting into the business, very important, very, very, very good story to tell. Episode two It was so short and not as exciting just because, you know, it was really just okay, now I'm doing it. Now I'm doing it. But the Thrill Seekers sort of start this string of I think really exciting interactions, matchups, stories in your career that um that I think people are gonna really, really get into um even more than they they've already been into the the first you know three episodes here.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Um I think part of the dynamic was is that because we hung out out because we were all about the same age and we hung out some, we were we looked at each other as equals. Right. I mean we we were doing the job, but that was the the business part of it. Sure. They didn't look at us as jobbers, they looked at us as the guys they're working on the house shows.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, and the guys that are helping them make their living, yeah, because your job is to make them look good.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, we just had and I had such a good rapport with them, and I think that led to the better matches, which showed Cornette that, oh, they can do a little bit more than just go out there and get beat up.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah, you know, yeah, for sure. And and again, there was obviously a level of trust for you to be out there three times, you know, in different gimmicks and you know, working baby and heel sometimes in the same night. Yeah. And then and then, oh, you're gonna be a junior referee in this big angle, you know, that's gonna uh as you put it very accurately, is gonna make not just Smoky Mountain history but wrestling history. Yep. And um, I mean, I just, you know, I I just and I and I just get giddy talking about this era of Smoky Mountain anyways, because again, I was I was a little kid in rural Virginia glued to the TV every Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Because it was like it's all I cared about, you know, as a fan, was you know, what what's gonna happen in Smokey Mountain wrestling next? Who's gonna show up next, you know, because there were so many guys in and out of there. And you know, that's why for me personally back then I wanted to watch as much wrestling as possible because I wanted to learn about as many different guys and as many different characters as I could. Yeah. You know, and and you and I have talked about how into the Hornet I was because I was like, oh my God, this is so cool, you know, and and and and all that.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

And it just uh I think you were the Hornet's biggest fan. I really did. I mean, there the the Hornet had a couple of fans here and there. Sure. You know, uh especially in Beckley, because you know, there were some people that that that suspected. Yeah. Um, but uh, you know, I think you were the biggest fan man.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

I was all about the Hornet. But it but it was a love to hate, you know. I loved to hate the Hornet. Right. Um Yeah, I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on me. This show's not about me.

Thrown Into Refereeing And Fame Back Home

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Well, you know, but uh when I did the uh the referee spot at uh at Pikeville, I was so nervous. Oh, I bet. Because I had never refereed before. So there we had been there. Yeah, and was just like here, you gotta hit this thing in tandem, and yeah, you gotta make sure that that you and Mark Curtis count at the same time and uh uh in a cage. I'd never been in a cage before. Yeah, and I was just so, so nervous. But but back then the nervousness made me rise to the occasion because I had been taught and trained for so long that it didn't seem like there was anything that was out of my wheelhouse. Yeah, yeah, you know, so even though it was being done for the first time, it had been talked about.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

Right, right. How how far in advance did you know you were gonna be doing that?

SPEAKER_00 36:03

The when I got there.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Um, I mean, he he called and said, Bring uh bring some dress pants and a dress shirt. And uh, but I and I knew it looked like a referee, but I didn't know what that was about. Sure. Uh and then he said, Yeah you're gonna referee uh killer Kyle and Anthony, and then you're gonna be in the main event as the special junior referee. Yeah. And I was just uh wow.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

I mean that's crazy. The the one time I have been thrust into refereeing, I found out when I got there too.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Sometimes that's the best way because then you don't have time to think about it.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Oh, yeah, I'd have made myself sick about it.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Oh yeah, I would have too. Yeah, yeah. And I would have overplayed it. You know, the I this doe-eyed young kid as the junior referee. Right. That no one had ever seen before. And they used my real name. Right. You know, which I hated, but they used my real name in it. Right. And but they say it like ten times. So it got me over. Sure. You know.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Well, and you know, that that was huge for everybody back in Beckley. Oh, it was. You know, to hear that name ten times. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Oh, absolutely. Well, and then I'll tell this later on, but well, I'll tell part of it now. But um, you know, I didn't go home for two years. I mean, I went to Beckley to wrestle, but we went we had to go to other towns. Right. When I went to my buddy's bar after two years, I didn't know they had been playing Smoky Mountain Wrestling there every Saturday night. Right. And I walked in, and that's all they had been watching for two years.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

And you were a celebrity. I was a celebrity.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

And I wasn't used to that.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, well, right, because you used to just be another guy.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Just another guy, right. Another loser in town.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

And then I come in and I and I look different, and I'm in shape, I'm jacked up, um, you know.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Well, you're a man now.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

I'm a man, and you know, it just it was a different, different scenario.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

And it was cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

And I liked it. Oh, yeah. That that that's not obvious. Yeah, what a great uh man, what a great era to talk about. Um, so what and you might not even really know the answer to this. We may just have to speculate. What suddenly changed to where you got to wrestle as Brian Logan?

SPEAKER_00 38:29

I went to Jimmy and I asked him if I could start working as myself uh every now and then to build up my resume tape. Yeah. Because back then you still sent tapes and the the the territories would send you to a different territory. So I was trying to get my demo tape together so that I could later on, I knew I wasn't ready then, but I would have it so that I could go to like a WCW or a WWF or Memphis or somewhere like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Yeah. Well, and you say not at that point, but it wasn't too much longer after this. You you you did leave.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Yeah, I went I went to Memphis right after this.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Yeah. Yeah. So, and we'll get to that, obviously, and those conversations and how that came to be.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Which was a totally different world.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Yeah, there's some good stories about your first night in Memphis that people are gonna really love too.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Yeah, it was it was almost a very short short run.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Really short.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

The first run was very, very short. But yeah, just go ahead. I have a great quote by Eddie Marlin when we get there.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Oh, yeah, a really good one.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Yeah, Eddie Marlin was not impressed with me at all. Or my mouth, which was, you know, say uh the probably the first time I started saying stuff that I knew better, but I said it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Yeah, yeah. You you had to be seeing red to pick up that basketball bench and be ready to swing it at Johnny Canine.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Oh, I was mad. I mean, he hurt me.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

I mean, he s he hit me, he it hurt, it swelled up, it blacked immediately, and I was like, I I'm uh I gotta do something.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Yeah, you can't just take that.

SPEAKER_00 40:19

No, because it is uncalled for.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

I mean, I didn't even take a bump. He he knocked me down. Right. It's a it's a miracle he didn't knock me out, and you know, and I grew up fighting. So it's not like I hadn't had a black eye before or been popped in the face. Sure. This was this was a grown big man hitting a kid, and the kid's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not I I have to stand up for myself or he might kill me next time.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or you or you could lose respect in in the in the back. There's a lot wrapped up in that moment. And and you know, you preface that story with like something happened to me for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

And I initially thought he this is the first time he got knocked out in the ring. Yeah. And had to come back to in the middle of you know, business. Yeah. Um, and then you were like, it was the first time I stuck up for myself. I was like, Oh, okay, that makes sense too. Uh it is a wonder it didn't knock you cold.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

You know, I never got knocked out until OBW. Really? No. I mean, I see stars, but I I mean, out, out, yeah, not until I got to OBW. Yeah. Which would be the 2000s.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

Yeah. But uh some great stories from that era too.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Yeah, I can't wait to get to OBW because it's the most recent on my mind, so I can remember all of those stories. So I can go into detail about that.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Sure. Yeah, that's why I'm looking forward to getting way down the road to where we can get into WFS because we we just lived that. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's not been all that long. If I mean it feels like a lifetime ago sometimes, but uh there's so many stories, and and those, you know, these ride the ride home is gonna be so much better at that point because there are shared stories between you and me and stuff that I was actually there for. So I have my my perspective on the stories you're gonna tell, and I can add to or correct, or what you know, or or say, Man, I've remembered it this way, or what you know, what have you.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Yeah, I'm interested to hear your version of some of the stories because I know they'll be different.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Yeah, of course they will. I mean, especially, you know, it's gonna be a while before we get there, so there's gonna be even more time removed. And so, you know, the brain is a funny thing. We're gonna remember things a certain way individually. And man, what a yeah, that's exciting. So uh I hope everybody's enjoying this, but we're really please stick around because it it's just it just the twists and turns are never ending down this road.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

Yeah, we're just getting started with all the all the characters and the names and the different places and everything. And it, you know, I'm still just a baby in the in the business that that we're going over. We're really getting started of getting traction and moving and and moving and shaking.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah, well, and at this point, you're a talent. Yeah. And that's it. You know, we get down the road and and you're wrestling on shows that you promoted, yeah, um, and booked, and you know, we're way more heavily involved in the decisions, and there's a lot of there's a lot that's not in these books. Yeah. You know, as we get further down the road. And um Yeah, it's it's it's just gonna be um I I'm excited, man. And I knew I knew that once we got to the Thrill Seekers, this this was gonna we were gonna be off to the races. Oh yeah. You know, and and again, there's just so many, so many people, if you're listening to this and you're not even a die hard wrestling fan, if you're just sort of a casual fan, um, there there's a lot more names you're gonna recognize and and know and and um You know, that that you, Brian, had personal interactions with and worked with directly and and things like that. That Terry Funk story was great. Yeah. Um, I mean, that's just that's just so cool.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

I mean, at some point, and I I feel I can tell this story here. Um, at some point I meet Rick Rubin, and I didn't know he was A, not a homeless person, and B the money guy.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Yeah. Well, nobody knew he was the money guy.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Right. Um, so he we're at Johnson City at Freedom Hall, and this guy walks in uh in a beach comer outfit with long hair and a beard. And uh, and this was fairly early on, so this is right about the same time as as the story is going, right? And I and I looked over to somebody, I want to say the the Bruce Brothers or somebody like that, or Brian Lee, one of one of that that bunch, and I said, Who's the homeless guy? Who let the homeless guy in? And uh someone said, Oh, that's the big boss, that's the money guy. And I was like, Who is he? That guy? He he looks like he he doesn't have two cents. Yeah, you know, so and I went up, shook his hand, and uh in you know, just skeptical, sure that they were rich. As as anybody would be at that point, yeah, and then then for Cornette to later confirm, yeah, that's the boss. That's the boss. Yeah. And you know, I mean, thank God I didn't say anything stupid like, hey man, you look homeless. But yeah, I I I thought he was I thought he was a homeless guy. But I mean he came in in a beach comer robe. Yeah. I mean, that that's wild. So there was always things like that. People would show up and you, you know, it just odd for the moment, but you know, yeah. Sawyer Brown uh wanted to be part of the wrestling so much they wanted the gold album to be b uh broken over the one of their heads. Wow. And uh Jimmy wouldn't do it. Yeah. And uh they got mad, quit quit appearing on the show because of it.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Because wow, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Because they were Brian Lee's cousins.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:14

You know, they were all about Smokey Mountain. That's why they did the commercials, right? You know, and uh, but yeah, they wanted to break a gold gold album over I think their drummer's head.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

But uh no, Jimmy said no, no, we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Yeah, right. Well, and I understand both sides. Right, you know, I see Sawyer Brown saying, Well, it's our gold record, what do you care what we do with it? But I see Jimmy too going, well, that's the type of thing that sounds good right now, but then when we do it Well, what's the payoff on it? Well, and beyond that, we've learned uh through the years when you bring people from outside of the the the bubble and you let them get so directly involved, sometimes they get carried away, they get wrapped up in the moment, and things don't always go as well as the as you theorize they will, you know, leading up to stuff like that. Absolutely. Um, I definitely understand why Jimmy, you know, squashed that idea. Put the big kibosh. The big old kibosh. I almost said that. Put the old kibosh. The kibosh. You gotta watch out for the kibosh. On the furnum and the snaving.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Yeah, if you're doing the snabits with the fernum and the kibosh is coming, you're in big, big trouble. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

Yep. Do you remember? I I don't mind telling this because I don't think I'd be able to pinpoint a specific date on this conversation. But do you remember in WFS when I was laying out matches for guys, you were like, dude, you gotta start saying boom, boom, boom. If you don't say boom, boom, boom, they're not gonna take you seriously. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, that's not how I talk. And he's like, but you need to. Yeah. And I tried it and it failed miserably. It was one of the worst matches we ever did. It was a battle royal. Yeah. And I'm laying it out and I'm doing the boom, boom, boom, and it just was not at all what I wanted them to do. And I think I confused them by not talking like myself because they at that point they were used to the way I did things and the way I spoke, and that was not it. And so um that might have been the point where I said, you know what? You book the Battle Royals. You do whatever the hell you want with the Battle Royals, which was a mistake, and we'll get into that as we go along. Um but all I heard was boom, did it, boom, boom, boom. Another great story that we might get to down the road. Yeah. We'll save it for that actual match. Oh, we got to. Yeah. We got to. All right. Well, enough teasing y'all of what's to come. Um I I just want to reiterate, I know we already talked about it, but what a great Tracy Smothers story. Yeah. The bucket of chicken story. Yeah, and that, and you know, you don't have to have known Tracy very well to know that is a quintessential Tracy story because he had no idea what he was doing.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

No, he was watching WCW, watching his matches, focused. Right. Eating the chicken. He barely knew we were in the room. Yep. The chicken wasn't even a factor of what he was doing because he's watching him against Giant Gonzales.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

And uh Reliving that painful experience.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

Reliving that painful experience and bitching about it, and then bitching about being a heel uh as part of the young piss, or yeah, the young pistol. Yeah. And um then when it the light went off and he's like, Oh, are you guys hungry? You know, it was too late.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Right. It didn't matter what your answer was because there was nothing that could be done about it either way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

I mean, he had said you can help yourself to anything in the fridge. The problem was there wasn't nothing in the fridge.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Right. Box of baking soda. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

I think Anthony got a jar of empty peanut butter and one the heel slice of bread.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

And r just wiped the the canister with it and and took a bite of it. But that was like the most that he had. Right. Well, because he was never home. Right, right. He had been on the road with us.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:21

So he he didn't have groceries or anything like that. Right. Yeah. Good times, man.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

Good times indeed. And we we again we we miss Tracy. We miss a lot of these guys, honestly. It's it's uh the one sad thing to think about all this is you know how few. I mean, we were we were at WrestleKate a few years ago and we were kind of half joking, half serious, planning a Smoky Mountain reunion with uh Stephen New. And we're going down the list and going, Well, there's not enough guys left to book. Right. I mean, there's just so few. And the ones that uh, you know, you you eliminate everybody that's no longer with us, and you've got a short list, and then you go, well, these these three to five guys, there's no chance we get them. Right. Because of contractual stuff or or you know, I mean, Steve Steve is generous when he funds things like this, but he ain't generous enough to get Glenn Jacobs or Chris Jericho. Right, exactly. I mean, exactly. That's just not in the cards.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

Or fly in Lance Storm from Calgary. Sure, you know. Sure. Hey, real quick, uh, before we wrap this thing up, I just remembered later that night. I can't believe I'd forgotten. Oh, this is gonna be good. We stayed, it was like the the guest bedroom was like almost an attic. I mean, it was it's kind of like this house, you know, where you go up the steps and it's just a couple little bedrooms. Sure. But this was one bedroom, and it had two beds in it, and we're up there and we got the door shut and we're tired, so we're getting ready to go to sleep. We are woken up at whatever point in the morning to Tracy yelling and screaming, and he was having an argument with his girlfriend at the time, yeah. Which I think was Candy Divine.

SPEAKER_01 52:02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

I can't swear up and down, but I'm I'm like 99% sure. And they're arguing just back and forth, back and forth. And uh Anth kept going, if I hear that window break, I know he threw him through threw her through the window, and I'm going down there, but I'm not getting involved till I hear that window break. So we sat there on pens and needles waiting to hear that the glass shattered. Well, all of a sudden, after hours of them arguing, it gets super quiet. Like you could hear a pin drop. Yeah. And we were like, oh my god, he's killed her. Now they were making up at the time, and you draw draw your conclusion on on what that was. Yeah. But at the time, we were like, Oh, he's killed her. Yeah, she's dead. We're gonna wake up tomorrow and there's gonna be a corpse right there. But yeah, I can't believe I forgot that story.

Steroids And Getting Jacked In 1994

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Yeah, that's good. That's good stuff, man. Good stuff. Well, rest in peace to Tracy Smothers. Uh, like I said, there will never be another. Yeah. Um Yeah, and that that's that's really all I got, man. I mean, it's it's just such an exciting time to talk about um for me, but I know it is for you too, because this is the point where you really like you're in the business now. Yeah. I mean, you know, breaking in is one thing. Getting get you know, getting time TV time in a territory is another thing. But at this point, I mean, you're in it. Yeah, I'm one of the boys. It's your whole life. You know, and you talked about, you know, uh off days you were you were at the school in the ring, working out every day. Every day. I mean, uh you're you're as entrenched in the life as uh as a young man could be in 1994.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

And get in such good shape.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

I mean, I was just jacked. I mean, I had a little help, but I was I was in great shape. So well, who didn't have a little help in 1994? I mean, that was just that was a prerequisite back then. You had to you had to do a little steroids here and there.

SPEAKER_01 54:09

I remember this is years ago um when I was first entertaining the idea of breaking in, and I was weighing my options and I was kind of figuring out the path I wanted to go, and I thought I was gonna be a wrestler, which you know was a crazy, it was just stupid at the time. Um that that that idea changed real quick. Um But at the time I thought, yeah, I'm gonna get in better shape and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm I'm I'm gonna do this. And I was talking to um one of my managers at my job at the time, and he was he was a hoot, man. He was great. His name was Donnie. He was a former cop, and he was just uh great storyteller. Uh and he had some stories. And uh I told him and his first reaction was, Oh, you ready to and he did the little motion like yeah, sticking a syringe in your ass. He's like, You ready, you ready for the little, the little little stick, the little poke? And I was like, nah, and he's like, You're gonna have to. Oh, yeah. He's like, You're gonna have to. I mean, you you think now you don't you won't, but you you it's inevitable. Yeah, you're you're gonna have to.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Well, I I kind of lucked into it because I was working out all that time and everything, and I I wasn't putting on muscle mass, I was losing baby fat.

SPEAKER_01 55:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

So I was getting in better shape, but I was actually getting smaller. And uh uh Candido and Brian Lee come to me, and they're like, you need to get on the gas. And I didn't know, you know, anything about that or anything. And they're like, it's 60 bucks, and you get and we'll get we'll we'll show you how to do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

So what had happened, and I can tell this story because everybody's deceased except for Brian Lee.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:54

And I ain't seen him in 2014.

SPEAKER_01 55:55

Well, he's in witness protection, right?

SPEAKER_00 55:57

So he and he really didn't have anything to do with it. He's just the initial hey, hey, hey, my little brother. Yeah, you know. But anyway, so that was a pretty good Brian Lee.

SPEAKER_01 56:07

It was, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:10

So um Johnny Canine, Bruiser Bedlam, would come through customs in Canada, and his hands were so meaty, he would hold two vials in each hand, and when he would walk through, he would put the one fist through real quick, walk through with his body, and then come back through with the other fist. And he could bring four bottles in every trip.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

And he supplied some of the boys, and then I got on that regiment, and then we were in Beckley, and uh uh Candido got got I gave him the syringe and he he got a CC in there, and uh, which is really not much at all. Right. I mean, that's a baby dose. And he he stuck me in the ass with it, and and that would now I'm on the gas.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

No turning back. The syringe is in your ass cheek.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Yeah, so he did it a couple times uh over the next couple weeks, and then I started doing it myself. And those pictures that I put up uh from '94 were the first photo shoot I had taken after being on the gas.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

So I was very proud of the size that I had in those pictures.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

And uh, but yeah, that's how I got, that's how I started using, you know, steroids.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

With your baby dose. With my baby dose. All right, man. Well, I'm excited to uh get into Well Done and the Gangstas and everything else coming up uh in the very near future. So uh yeah, that's all I got, man. Unless you got anything else, take us home.

Closing And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_00 57:55

All right. So uh if you're on social media, look us up on Making the Towns with Brian Logan on Instagram and Facebook. Also, if you're listening to this, you are on the Patreon, and you can listen to this early, get it earlier than anybody else by signing up for Patreon. And then, of course, Making the Towns with Brian Logan will come out each and every week, and we'll be doing episode four, which goes into the well done, the gangsters, and some other tag teams. And uh just looking forward to that. It's gonna be a great episode and a good cast of characters. Thank you for listening. Uh, we've enjoyed being with you. Real shout out, real quick, to all the guys over in England, Johnny Rose, Paul McCartney. Thank you guys, love you guys. Uh, thank you for the messages. And uh, as always, I am your champion.