Speaker 1: Hey, this is Brian Alvarez and this is today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Wrestling Observer Daily podcast on the eight Side Network.
Speaker 2: Are you ready? Are you ready?
Speaker 3: Let's get it off.
Speaker 2: Let's get it Mike Simper VB here with you for
Speaker 2: the next hour talking about professional wrestling, which is something
Speaker 2: we do every single day here on the Sports Byline
Speaker 2: Broadcasting Network. Tune in, iHeart American Forces Radio, Sportspieline dot Com,
Speaker 2: over the air affiliates like KMAB ninety nine, KMSR and
Speaker 2: The Mighty or ten ninety. Maybe you're listening on podcast
Speaker 2: or via replay on sirius XM, or maybe you're video
Speaker 2: streaming on Twitter YouTube. However you're joining me today, I'd
Speaker 2: just like to say say thank you if I can
Speaker 2: actually get those words out. It's hot, folks. Usually this
Speaker 2: is when I say, hopefully, wherever you are, it's sonny outside,
Speaker 2: and if not, hopefully it's sunny inside your mind. Sonny
Speaker 2: here on Del Marva, very sonny, it's very hot, and
Speaker 2: hopefully wherever you are, if the son is out, you're
Speaker 2: getting some sort of calm, northeasterly breeze, because man, it
Speaker 2: is sweltering out there right now. We're on that don't
Speaker 2: know what it's like where the Big Boss Man Brian
Speaker 2: Alvarez is right now. But wherever it is, I'm sure
Speaker 2: he's happy taking another day off. He'll be back with
Speaker 2: me tomorrow. But as you know, it's Thursday, and you
Speaker 2: know what that means a lot to get into. Last
Speaker 2: night ae W Dynamite, we have got the worst secret
Speaker 2: in the world ended up being revealed, and that is
Speaker 2: Pac and Coda Abushi being members of the respective teams
Speaker 2: for Blood and Guts, which is coming up next week
Speaker 2: in Boston. It all broke down and let itself be
Speaker 2: known during the main event segment of the show and
Speaker 2: the BCC and Don Kallis and Knoski Takeshna try to
Speaker 2: pilmanize poor Kenny Omega inside of a steel chair, but
Speaker 2: he stopped him. So guess what, Pac just attacked me
Speaker 2: with that steel chair. He's helping you. I got a
Speaker 2: member that's going to be joining us as well too.
Speaker 2: And then the video played It was Codo Bushie and
Speaker 2: again not a surprise to anybody, but it does make
Speaker 2: everybody happy. So we're going to be talking about that.
Speaker 2: We have Rush saying that he now is going to
Speaker 2: show up for the Triple A Triple Mania Leg two
Speaker 2: show taking place in Tijuana. It's gonna be an incredibly
Speaker 2: busy weekend. And then a little later on in the show,
Speaker 2: author Emily Sweeney will be joining me to talk about
Speaker 2: her new book, Dropkick Murphy. So we'll get it started
Speaker 2: when we get back from break Wrestling Observer Live. Welcome
Speaker 2: back to the show. Mike Simper bb here with you.
Speaker 2: You know, we do this show right here for an
Speaker 2: hour at a time every single day. But if you
Speaker 2: want to try to find us twenty four to seven,
Speaker 2: you can do so on either Twitter, Instagram, or threads.
Speaker 2: I don't have everybody's Instagram or threads, so I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna go ahead and give you mine. It's at semp
Speaker 2: on every platform. That's how you can go ahead and
Speaker 2: find me. And since Brian's not here, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: to make the Wrestling News part of your day. Everything
Speaker 2: you need to know to get your day started, get
Speaker 2: you up to date, or get you to your favorite
Speaker 2: review pod like Wrestling Observer Radio. A brand new version
Speaker 2: of that is up for subscribers, with Brian and Dave
Speaker 2: posted up this morning talking about aw Dyne Mite Well really,
Speaker 2: it's just Dave talking about aw Dyne might because unfortunately
Speaker 2: Brian did not have a chance to see the show
Speaker 2: when they had recorded. So you know that's how that goes.
Speaker 2: But back to my plug daily free between five and
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes every single day, no clickfait, no speculation, no rumors,
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Speaker 2: ASMR kids. There it goes. Look, I obviously need the
Speaker 2: caffeine just to start this show off. Here here I
Speaker 2: go delicious. I like that new Red Bull flavor I do.
Speaker 2: Probably not the best thing to drink when it's nine
Speaker 2: thousand degrees outside. That's okay. I get some water here too.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna balance everything out, don't worry about that. Try
Speaker 2: to get this show back on balance. NXT is always balanced.
Speaker 2: Every time you look at NXT, they're balanced when it
Speaker 2: comes to their ratings. The Major League Baseball All Star
Speaker 2: Game took place on Tuesday, did not take anything really
Speaker 2: out of the USA Network at all, as NXT scored
Speaker 2: the third highest total audience of the year for the show,
Speaker 2: as well as the second highest key demographic rating of
Speaker 2: the year. A total of six hundred and seventy one
Speaker 2: thousand viewers tuned in, up nearly a third from last
Speaker 2: week's audience of five hundred and eight thousand. The rating
Speaker 2: in the eighteen to forty nine year old demographic was
Speaker 2: point two zero, representing two hundred and fifty six thousand viewers,
Speaker 2: and that's up more than fifty percent from last week's
Speaker 2: point one three key demo rating. So there is I
Speaker 2: mean again, we talked about it yesterday. We've talked about
Speaker 2: it over and over again. Talk about getting hot at
Speaker 2: the right time, talk about putting your best foot forward
Speaker 2: and making an incredible imprint into things. When it comes
Speaker 2: to WWE and their future television deal prospects, obviously they're
Speaker 2: trying to pitch NXT as a third brand on par
Speaker 2: with Raw and SmackDown. Now, they're not going to get
Speaker 2: that kind of money for it, but if your USA network.
Speaker 2: And again we talked about it when they were having
Speaker 2: all of those media and telecom conferences that Nick con
Speaker 2: went and spoke at a month or two ago, and
Speaker 2: he talked about how great that of a partner that
Speaker 2: NBC Universal always has been and how great Peacock is
Speaker 2: for him. But you know, we're really great for Peacock too,
Speaker 2: And I've got the numbers, and I told them I
Speaker 2: wouldn't give those out to anybody, because you know that's
Speaker 2: how good a partners we are. But we know how
Speaker 2: important we are to you. And not only that, he
Speaker 2: also mentioned the fact that you know your ratings are
Speaker 2: looking pretty good right now, and that's probably because of us.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something. I know that they're trying
Speaker 2: to get Amazon into the mix, and maybe they do
Speaker 2: end up with SmackDown on Friday. I still don't think
Speaker 2: that that's a good move at all for WWE. I
Speaker 2: still think them sticking with Fox and writing with that
Speaker 2: is going to be their best option, staying on network TV,
Speaker 2: continuing to get the attention that they are now continuing
Speaker 2: to be propped up as you know, of a failing
Speaker 2: primetime TV schedule. And when you look at the primetime
Speaker 2: TV schedule, how many are game shows, how many are
Speaker 2: reality shows? How many are a different show but in
Speaker 2: the same city. Because there's Chicago, Men in Chicago fire
Speaker 2: and Chicago this in Chicago that you got, ncis Bakersfield,
Speaker 2: ncis Tuscaloosa and all of this stuff, and they're SmackDown
Speaker 2: and SmackDown, pulling almost the number that WWE had guaranteed
Speaker 2: Fox the one point zero eighteen to forty nine key
Speaker 2: demo rating number. They got a point nine to seven
Speaker 2: last time around. So to me, them sticking with Fox
Speaker 2: and SmackDown, to me, is the best way to go
Speaker 2: about things. But they have I'm not saying that they
Speaker 2: have NBC Universal and the USA Network over a barrel,
Speaker 2: but if you were USA, what are you replacing that with?
Speaker 2: What have your successes been? What has been going on
Speaker 2: good for you? Besides WWE RAW and NXT. You don't
Speaker 2: have Below Deck, you don't have vander pump roles. What
Speaker 2: do you have? You have those shows that are kind
Speaker 2: of propping up their original quote unquote content that they
Speaker 2: have there on that network. So eventually, look, I don't
Speaker 2: know how much they're going to get. We've talked about it.
Speaker 2: You know that Nick con Is is trying to downplay
Speaker 2: things and saying, hey, you know, we're hoping for one
Speaker 2: and a half, and man, we think we can get
Speaker 2: you know, two times the amount. But you know, we
Speaker 2: got to be easy about this. I have a feeling
Speaker 2: from NBC they're going to kick out whatever they need
Speaker 2: to keep Raw and to keep USA on there on
Speaker 2: Mondays and Tuesdays because obviously, number one, they're hot right now.
Speaker 2: And again, if you don't have anything else to try
Speaker 2: to fill the void with, look, Fox can, Fox can
Speaker 2: just once this thing is over, just kind of turn
Speaker 2: their noses up and go, Okay, we're gonna put this here.
Speaker 2: It may not do the eighteen to forty nine numbers
Speaker 2: that SmackDown does, but Fox is going to continue to
Speaker 2: roll on. They could put sports on there on a
Speaker 2: Friday night and make that look because that was part
Speaker 2: of this whole deal to begin with, was SmackDown was
Speaker 2: going to be the start of their weekend. You know,
Speaker 2: you get baseball on Saturdays in the summertime, as ball
Speaker 2: comes and you're gonna get your Big ten game of
Speaker 2: the week, and you're gonna get whatever it's going to
Speaker 2: be that they're going to show on Saturday nights, and
Speaker 2: then on Sunday you have the NFL. So they could
Speaker 2: easily put and again I have to see when the
Speaker 2: Peacock Big ten game is. They would have an issue there,
Speaker 2: But there are plenty of other things that they can
Speaker 2: go ahead and put on there that right now, USA can't.
Speaker 2: So I have a feeling that no matter what USA
Speaker 2: and NBC Universal, they're going to end up remaining with WWE.
Speaker 2: What happens in a couple of years when it comes
Speaker 2: to the streaming deal and Peacock and where we are,
Speaker 2: then you know that's something we're gonna have to see.
Speaker 2: We got to see how all these streaming services play
Speaker 2: out anyway. But like, look, if if Fox is serious
Speaker 2: about maybe taking two B and turning that into a
Speaker 2: pay service like a Peacock or a Disney Plus or
Speaker 2: something like that, you know it would be nice. It
Speaker 2: would be a great boost to and then immediately bring
Speaker 2: over the entire WWE library and say here you go.
Speaker 2: Apparently nickn knows those numbers, but he won't tell them
Speaker 2: to anybody, but he knows they're worth. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: Rushe is somebody that knows his worth. I think he
Speaker 2: was trying to flex that on Triple A and our
Speaker 2: own Brian Rose posted this up on the main page.
Speaker 2: Rushe is going to be at Triple Mania this weekend.
Speaker 2: On Wednesday night, Rush posted a video confirming that he
Speaker 2: would be a part of this weekend's Triple Mania event
Speaker 2: in Tijuana, where he has set to team with La
Speaker 2: Park against Sam Madonnas and Psycho Clown and and Dom
Speaker 2: judge me on this in the finals of a Guerrera
Speaker 2: Day reval Dades tournament. How'd I do?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 3: Would be Guerrera that which would be the word for war,
Speaker 3: not Guerrera, Gourera.
Speaker 2: Guerrero go Okay? How'd I do? With the reval daves?
Speaker 3: Seven out of ten from the American judge?
Speaker 2: Thank you? You just stay right there. I might need
Speaker 2: you again. Back on June tenth, Rush announced on Facebook
Speaker 2: that he and his father Bestilla del Ring quit Triple
Speaker 2: A and now we're quote totally independent, end quote moving forward.
Speaker 2: Neither Triple A nor Rushe confirmed whether or not the
Speaker 2: match was still on until Rushe posted the video on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: The team that loses the match this Saturday will then
Speaker 2: face each other in a mask versus hair match at
Speaker 2: the third and final Triple Mania event that will take
Speaker 2: place in Mexico City on August twelfth. Now, Dom, you
Speaker 2: know what, I'll save this I think till coming after break.
Speaker 2: But have you heard that the Denver Broncos and the
Speaker 2: Rustling Organization CMLL have gotten together. I have not.
Speaker 3: That's a new one.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, And I'm going to then now attempt to
Speaker 2: read the actual quote here up on the Broncos Twitter
Speaker 2: page here, and you're gonna have to judge me on
Speaker 2: this when it comes to it here, I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to find it. Hopefully I can do it before break
Speaker 2: here now. Unfortunately, I can hold that thought, so I
Speaker 2: will hold that thought. Attention on, everybody, keep that attention
Speaker 2: on as we get back from break and I embarrass
Speaker 2: myself here on Wrestling Observer Live. Back on the show,
Speaker 2: Mike send for vv here with you Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 2: Big boss Man Brian Alvarez will be back tomorrow on Friday.
Speaker 2: Until then, if you want a little bit more of me,
Speaker 2: you can find the mid Atlantic Championship Podcast across social
Speaker 2: media at mid Atlantic Pod. Free feed for the show
Speaker 2: is available wherever you find your favorite podcast, or at
Speaker 2: mid Atlantic pod dot com. And if you like what
Speaker 2: you hear, I encourage you to join the show's Patreon
Speaker 2: at Patreon dot com slash mid Atlantic Podcast. If you
Speaker 2: like reading and learning about wrestling history, or just like
Speaker 2: hearing a good story, it's a great place for you,
Speaker 2: Patreon dot com, Slash mid Atlantic Podcast, and the Adam
Speaker 2: and Mike Big Audio Nightmare is It is the longest
Speaker 2: running Japanese based professional wrestling show anywhere in the world,
Speaker 2: and it's only available for subscribers at fourw online dot com,
Speaker 2: head on over to the Wrestling Observer dot com, or
Speaker 2: wherever you find your favorite podcast. Our seventeenth consecutive at
Speaker 2: least on this website. Look at the g one Climax
Speaker 2: Tournament is up right now. We go match by match,
Speaker 2: we go pick by pick, and we see what happens
Speaker 2: at the end, and we see who comes out as
Speaker 2: our predictions for the g One Climax Tournament are all
Speaker 2: up there at the Edamin Mike Big Audio Nightmare you
Speaker 2: can find on the front page of the site. Now, Dom,
Speaker 2: you're still there, I'm ready for you to butcher some
Speaker 2: some words. Mike. This is on now, This is on
Speaker 2: Broncos and Espagnol. All right, already right there. You know
Speaker 2: it's going to be bad attention on Rudosi, Technicols and
Speaker 2: Broncos Country. I don't know. Also, why I go into
Speaker 2: a fake soccer announcer voice when I do this too.
Speaker 2: It just I don't know, but.
Speaker 5: Estamos preperando so pressos con el CMLL official para LAFOO
Speaker 5: officialda fans istan alpitiente, istan al pitiente de nostras redes Socialists.
Speaker 2: How'd I do?
Speaker 6: All things considered, Mike, as you know, as a guy
Speaker 6: who looks white, I will give you a six and
Speaker 6: a half out of ten. As somebody who has a
Speaker 6: lot of Central American blood in them, and knowing that
Speaker 6: you are of Italian heritage, I'm embarrassed.
Speaker 3: For you, and we'll give you a three.
Speaker 2: It's I know, I know the original Latin. I should
Speaker 2: be a lot better at this. You know all those
Speaker 2: Paulina Rubio songs I would listen to in the in
Speaker 2: the late nineties, early two thousands. I should be better
Speaker 2: at this. I apologize. I can get the hashtag, though,
Speaker 2: which is hashtag Mexico's Broncos Country. It's not, is it.
Speaker 2: It can't be. It's still got to be the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: It's got to be the Cowboys and the Raiders. And
Speaker 2: as you mentioned during the break, it's got to be
Speaker 2: the San Francisco forty nine ers, right, I mean all
Speaker 2: of them. I don't think Denver and think, you know, boy,
Speaker 2: this is the this is the group that needed to
Speaker 2: work with CMLL. I don't know. I don't know about
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 6: Now that the only thing I see the connection I
Speaker 6: mentioned to you in the break is both promotions, both
Speaker 6: cmm CMLL and the Denver Broncos. Calling the Broncos a
Speaker 6: promotion for the sake of this conversation, have a thing
Speaker 6: for altitude.
Speaker 3: That's all I've got.
Speaker 2: Thank you, AW Dynamite. Like, did you watch a AW
Speaker 2: dynamite last night?
Speaker 3: I did, look at that. I beat Brian at something.
Speaker 2: Now, what did you think about Nick Wayne against Swerve
Speaker 2: Strickland being someone who's got kind of a toe in
Speaker 2: the life of Nick Wayne and that you you know,
Speaker 2: you know me that knows Brian that obviously was trained
Speaker 2: by Buddy Wayne and was very influential to many people
Speaker 2: on the site, including Vincent Vera High and Craig Proper
Speaker 2: and all that. What did you think about Nick Wayne's
Speaker 2: big debut on AW last night?
Speaker 6: Now, to be fair, I yes, I know a fair
Speaker 6: bit about Nick Wayne. Brian's told stories on here. I
Speaker 6: saw the video that went viral of Darby giving him
Speaker 6: the contract at I think it was a defy like
Speaker 6: a year ago or whatever it was. But I've never
Speaker 6: actually seen him wrestle, just just like the ending of
Speaker 6: the match leading up to Darby hanting him the contract.
Speaker 6: So I didn't know exactly what to expect, and I
Speaker 6: gotta say I was pleased.
Speaker 3: It was entertaining. He looked I don't know how tall
Speaker 3: he is.
Speaker 6: I know Swerve's not the tallest guy, but he looked
Speaker 6: hella tall very after he's tall.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm like, he looked super tall.
Speaker 6: I don't know he actually is, because a lot like actors,
Speaker 6: with some of these wrestlers, they are all similar in height,
Speaker 6: so they look taller than they actually are.
Speaker 3: But I thought he was great.
Speaker 6: He had a couple of moments where I'm like, oh god,
Speaker 6: don't fall I think of there was one moment he
Speaker 6: tried to kind of hop over the turnbuckle and land
Speaker 6: on the apron and definitely caught his foot. So there
Speaker 6: are a couple of moments of okay, okay, okay, But
Speaker 6: I know that's first match nerves and how many eighteen
Speaker 6: year olds are getting a couple of weeks of vignettes
Speaker 6: leading up to a debut. So I think all things considered,
Speaker 6: he performed well. He handled at least I believe he
Speaker 6: handled the pressure and the expectations well. Again, it also
Speaker 6: was really good having him in there with Swerve, somebody
Speaker 6: who he's been in the ring with, I would imagine
Speaker 6: tons of times.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure they have a battle plan for this
Speaker 2: whole thing already laid out, you know, well in advance.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's one thing that you know, Tony Kahan
Speaker 2: is always noted for. Anyways, He's got a plan for this,
Speaker 2: and I know a lot of people were probably some
Speaker 2: people I know were upset. Some people I know were
Speaker 2: really surprised that, you know, he did not get the
Speaker 2: win over Swerve, especially since Swerve has been on a
Speaker 2: losing streak. But this is Swerve still got things going
Speaker 2: on with Darby Allen. Obviously, Darby Allen is going to
Speaker 2: be playing into that Swerve attacked him during his match.
Speaker 2: Darby goes out there and Nix his you know, nixt
Speaker 2: his guy, his friend. You know, he's the one who's
Speaker 2: kind of kind of overseeing him here, and I have
Speaker 2: to see what happens. They did show Nick's mom a
Speaker 2: lot during the match. I don't say a lot, but
Speaker 2: they showed her you know, two three times during it.
Speaker 2: They made sure that swerve was in her face at
Speaker 2: the end of the match. I have a feeling, and
Speaker 2: I tell you what, Prince Nana he was in been
Speaker 2: in the business a long time. I'm sure he's been
Speaker 2: hit hard by somebody. I've heard rumors here. You don't
Speaker 2: want to get hit by Mamawaane. So I have a
Speaker 2: feeling that we'll see what happens here, We'll see what
Speaker 2: the hell the whole plan plays out. But you know, again,
Speaker 2: this could be incredibly entertaining. I saw Nick Wayne at
Speaker 2: GCW shows and that's the first time that I had
Speaker 2: ever seen him live work, and I had seen clips
Speaker 2: of him working out with Brian way back. Brian was
Speaker 2: making one of the comebacks. I can't remember what it was,
Speaker 2: and he sent me a video and I could not
Speaker 2: believe it. And it's like, how old is that kid?
Speaker 2: And he was I don't know what the time, fourteen
Speaker 2: or whatever it was, and it was like thirteen maybe,
Speaker 2: and it's like this kid is won. You're short and
Speaker 2: this kid is tall and he was moving. I mean,
Speaker 2: you saw it last night during the video package that
Speaker 2: they had where he's such a He's like sixty years
Speaker 2: old and he's doing RNA's on Buddy and Lakess is
Speaker 2: on Buddy, and it was just it was it was
Speaker 2: crazy to see him. And as soon as Avery saw him,
Speaker 2: he wanted to be a wrestler, not that he didn't
Speaker 2: want to, you know, maybe want to be a wrestler before,
Speaker 2: but he saw Nick Wayne, saw somebody two years older
Speaker 2: than him, you know, looks like him a little bit,
Speaker 2: and was like, I want to do that. I like
Speaker 2: this guy. This is my dude. And that's what Nick
Speaker 2: Wayne's gonna have going for him. It's Billy Starks is
Speaker 2: gonna have going for her, you know, when they expose
Speaker 2: her more on the aw roster. I think she's on
Speaker 2: the roh side right now, but at some point she's
Speaker 2: going to be there. Two eighteen year old kids with
Speaker 2: just five tools, you know, as far as being prospects,
Speaker 2: they are blue chip prospects here and we're going to
Speaker 2: get to see their evolution happen on national TV. And
Speaker 2: I would never suggest to anyone that you get your
Speaker 2: kid in the wrestling business under the age of eighteen.
Speaker 2: In fact, in some places there should probably be laws
Speaker 2: and rules around that. And I know that there were
Speaker 2: people that when Nick and Billy started to make more
Speaker 2: of a name on the independent scene, people kind of
Speaker 2: turn their nose up at it. And I get it,
Speaker 2: I do get it. But because there's a lot of
Speaker 2: predators in the wrestling business. There's a lot of garbage
Speaker 2: in the wrestling business, especially on the independent level. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of drugs, there's a lot of bad influence,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of nonsense. You don't want your kid
Speaker 2: exposed to that. You don't want to send your kid
Speaker 2: off for trading. That type of mentality I don't get.
Speaker 2: But these are two people that again, and the only
Speaker 2: thing I don't know the lucha scene, But I know, look,
Speaker 2: kids start thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, it'll be minis. You know,
Speaker 2: Raymisterio started as a mini and then you know, as
Speaker 2: he started to grow, you know, that's when he took
Speaker 2: on the Raymisterio Junior name, you know, from his uncle,
Speaker 2: Raymisterio Senior and all that. And that's the only thing
Speaker 2: I can I can try to equate, you know, starts
Speaker 2: and Wayne to Yes, Nick's father has passed away, but
Speaker 2: let me tell you something, you don't want to cross
Speaker 2: Mama Wayne. And on top of that. There's just a
Speaker 2: lot of people that really care about that kid because
Speaker 2: Buddy was such a good guy, because Buddy did influence
Speaker 2: so many of those guys. You think Craig Proper is
Speaker 2: going to let anything happen to Buddy Wayne. Hell no,
Speaker 2: you think Garby Allen or Swerve Strickland or about a
Speaker 2: zillion people, you know, No, absolutely not. And they were
Speaker 2: very well protected. Same thing with Billy Starks and her
Speaker 2: father being a photographer or stepfather being a photographer. He
Speaker 2: would be there at all the shows. We met her mother,
Speaker 2: you know, wonderful lady. And those two kids are the
Speaker 2: exception to the rule. And there's somebody I think that
Speaker 2: aaw is really going to be able to get some
Speaker 2: make some really great hay out of because there are
Speaker 2: kids like my kid who see them. And again, wrestling,
Speaker 2: you want to identify with somebody. That was one of
Speaker 2: the whole points of bringing in more diversity into the
Speaker 2: writer's rooms. It's one of the reasons that you want
Speaker 2: more diversity. You do want somebody that you can identify
Speaker 2: with and go, that's my dude, you know, or that's
Speaker 2: my person, that's the person I want to root for,
Speaker 2: you know, And again. They have that with Nick Wayne
Speaker 2: and they and I think they're gonna have that with
Speaker 2: Billy Starks. And I tell you a lot of pressure
Speaker 2: on Nick right now. You know, obviously being on national
Speaker 2: TV your whole career. There's not many examples of this.
Speaker 2: You know, a Ketsuhikinakajima was one case in Noah recently,
Speaker 2: but there's not there's not a lot of this. Tommy
Speaker 2: Rich is a good example of it though. When WTBS
Speaker 2: started in nineteen seventy six and went up on the
Speaker 2: on the satellite, one of the big things that they did,
Speaker 2: which unfortunately did not make it to tape, was Abdullah
Speaker 2: the Butcher killing Tommy Rich, you know, killed him. But
Speaker 2: then it was the fight that he showed. It was
Speaker 2: the expressions he showed on his face which Nick showed,
Speaker 2: and they went through a series and then finally he
Speaker 2: beat Abdullah the Butcher, and then that really sealed a
Speaker 2: deal with him being the most over guy not only
Speaker 2: in the state of Georgia, but anybody that had a
Speaker 2: TV that was watching WTBS. Coming up after the break,
Speaker 2: author Emily Sweeney to talk about her great book, Dropkick Murphy,
Speaker 2: available through Hamilcar Publications. Back on the show, Mike simperviv
Speaker 2: here with you Wrestling Observer Live. Brian Alvherez. We'll be
Speaker 2: back with me tomorrow, but right now, it's my pleasure
Speaker 2: to introduce our next guest. Emily Sweeney's the author of
Speaker 2: several nonfiction books, including Boston Organized Crime and Gangland Boston,
Speaker 2: as well as writing for the Boston Globe newspaper. A
Speaker 2: journalist known for taking people through time to recount the
Speaker 2: often violent adventures of nefarious people from Boston's organized crime scene.
Speaker 2: Her new book, Dropkick Murphy, A Legendary Life, shines a
Speaker 2: light on a man who really was a shining light
Speaker 2: in Emily, How are you today?
Speaker 4: Great? Hey, thank you so much for having me on
Speaker 4: the show. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely. Now, look with what you often write about,
Speaker 2: like was this a cleansing voyage for you of like
Speaker 2: you know, I gotta deal with something good here, or
Speaker 2: like how did this project come to be?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, so, I mean I write a lot of
Speaker 4: I cover a lot of break in news and crime
Speaker 4: for the Globe, I write about organized crime, and you know,
Speaker 4: the this was like a nice a nice change of pace,
Speaker 4: I gotta say, because there's a really positive story. And
Speaker 4: I learned so much about this this this guy who
Speaker 4: read it like led just such an amazing life and
Speaker 4: was a great professional wrestler as well.
Speaker 2: Now were you growing up? Were you at all of it?
Speaker 2: You are a a former uh Northeastern University hockey player,
Speaker 2: so you obviously you were athletic growing up. Did you
Speaker 2: ever have any interest at all in professional wrestling?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, so I grew up, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: during like the eighties WWF, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: was like prime time for me when I was younger.
Speaker 4: I even got to see, you know, a match the
Speaker 4: Boston God and when the old Boston God and back
Speaker 4: in the day and and yeah. So I always had
Speaker 4: like a love of professional wrestling, but I gotta say
Speaker 4: I didn't follow it as much as I got older.
Speaker 4: And so, you know, writing this book and learning all
Speaker 4: about you know, professional wrestling, you know, Dropkick Murphy was
Speaker 4: active in the thirties and forties, and just learning about,
Speaker 4: you know, how wrestling was back then was just really
Speaker 4: really interesting.
Speaker 2: This man, John Murphy, a former professional wrestler turned osteopathic doctor.
Speaker 2: He got it. He became a doctor, and then he
Speaker 2: opens up this uh the sanitarium, this this relaxation form,
Speaker 2: and to pull it back a little bit, it seems
Speaker 2: like Murphy was just put on earth to be drawn to,
Speaker 2: because you write about him when he was in high
Speaker 2: high school and you're running, you know, and there are
Speaker 2: reporters and cartoonists of the newspaper that are covering the
Speaker 2: high school football game. They're more dazzled by him being
Speaker 2: the drummer of the band. And it seemed like that
Speaker 2: continued throughout his wrestling career and into his his medical work,
Speaker 2: where he just seemed like a light or a crystal
Speaker 2: that people just could not like help but be drawn to.
Speaker 4: You know, he really was. He was a real true showman,
Speaker 4: no matter what he was doing, whether he was like
Speaker 4: leading the matching band in high school. And again, you know,
Speaker 4: like you said, there was Globe reporters like, you know,
Speaker 4: mentioning how amazing he was, like how figh he could
Speaker 4: throw his butts on up in the air, and then
Speaker 4: in the wrestling ring, I thought it was amazing. So
Speaker 4: he was. He would wrestle at night, and then he
Speaker 4: put himself through four years of medical school that way
Speaker 4: during the day, going to classes and labs, and he
Speaker 4: successfully graduated, you know, and then obviously went on to
Speaker 4: you know, open up detox center for alcoholics.
Speaker 2: That and we will get to that too, because it's
Speaker 2: that is such a fascinating thing. There are so many
Speaker 2: fascinating parts of this book because it's not just about
Speaker 2: a wrestler who wrestled and then did something with himself
Speaker 2: after his life. I mean, you cross weave so many
Speaker 2: different stories into his life and in through that time
Speaker 2: in Boston, and I guess, I guess first what when
Speaker 2: you went and looked back, what was it like? Because
Speaker 2: you write about it in the book about the fact
Speaker 2: that there was no alcoholics anonymous, there was no narcotics
Speaker 2: anonymous or any of that sort of stuff. There were
Speaker 2: these types of getaway relaxation forms for people, but there
Speaker 2: really was nothing. I mean, this book is really a
Speaker 2: lot of it's about the evolution of recovery and his
Speaker 2: part that he played in it, being so again being
Speaker 2: so forward looking without ever even knowing about it. Can
Speaker 2: you kind of talk a little bit about just kind
Speaker 2: of the times and what made him want to help
Speaker 2: people so much where it seemed like there were so
Speaker 2: many others that would always turn people away because of
Speaker 2: their alcoholism.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so, I mean Dropkick Murphy. Throughout his life
Speaker 4: he was always into sports. He was always athletic and
Speaker 4: living a healthy lifestyle. And you know, when he became
Speaker 4: an adult in a professional wrestler, he was really into
Speaker 4: helping people live healthy lifestyles too. He was doing like
Speaker 4: at his farm, he opened up like a state of
Speaker 4: the art gymnasium. He was offering like personal training and
Speaker 4: fitness classes. This is like the nineteen forties, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, you know, before like you know, gym
Speaker 4: memberships were like really you know, mainstream, and he was
Speaker 4: really ahead of his time and really enjoyed helping people.
Speaker 4: And I think that's why he went to medical school
Speaker 4: as well. And there was definitely a need because you know,
Speaker 4: he ran the Fellows farm for decades and had steady
Speaker 4: business throughout, so clearly there was like a need for
Speaker 4: you know, this type of you know service, like having
Speaker 4: a place to go to dry out and to also
Speaker 4: you know be among you know, your peers too for support.
Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seemed like the brotherhood aspect, and at one
Speaker 2: point the sisterhood aspect was very important when they came
Speaker 2: to running that farm, and they came to helping people
Speaker 2: dry out. It wasn't just about okay, you know, you're
Speaker 2: going to go through the delirium tremens. We'll take care
Speaker 2: of that, and you need to eat better and that
Speaker 2: sort of thing. It was really seemingly about getting these
Speaker 2: people together because they were all really in the same boat,
Speaker 2: whether they were you know, businessmen or bankers or whatever
Speaker 2: that led them there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so, I mean the clientele, you know, was
Speaker 4: represented a broad range of you know, occupy patients, professions,
Speaker 4: he had like politicians, all kinds of people. And drop
Speaker 4: Kick actually was very clear eyed about it too, you know,
Speaker 4: he's you know, looking back, he said he wasn't sure,
Speaker 4: you know, he wasn't looking to cure anybody of alcoholism,
Speaker 4: but he did want to just provide a place where
Speaker 4: somebody could go and you know, get a break, and
Speaker 4: you know what, if they continued to be sober, great,
Speaker 4: If not, he'd probably see them in a few more months,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. But you know, it was uh,
Speaker 4: you know, it was a service that was really needed,
Speaker 4: you know, And and yeah, yes, pretty incredible and like
Speaker 4: like you said, he was really forward thinking, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean, kind of ahead of his time.
Speaker 2: Well, and you talk about you know, you hate nobody
Speaker 2: was ever held there against so well, if they wanted
Speaker 2: to go, they could go, but they would be welcomed
Speaker 2: back as long as they didn't do anything crazy or
Speaker 2: anything like that. And you write about a story in
Speaker 2: the book where you know, he would pay for people's
Speaker 2: cab fare if if they if they showed up and like,
Speaker 2: you know, okay, we'll pay for that and we'll take
Speaker 2: air of you. There was a story about a guy
Speaker 2: who he was uh that that that that dropkick was
Speaker 2: fond of, that got a ride from Prince Edward Island
Speaker 2: two hundred and ninety dollars cab fare, which god knows
Speaker 2: what that is adjusted for inflation. But he would seemingly
Speaker 2: do those things for I don't want to say for everybody,
Speaker 2: but anybody that came around that he felt, you know,
Speaker 2: really was trying or really he felt something about, he
Speaker 2: would really go out of their way to help them.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, and it really speaks to like, you know,
Speaker 4: how I guess like how well liked he was too,
Speaker 4: and how great of a place it was because you
Speaker 4: know a lot of the guys would come back again
Speaker 4: and again and and you know, and they travel long
Speaker 4: distances to go, you know, to get help. And yeah,
Speaker 4: it's yeah, even from as far as Prince Edward Island,
Speaker 4: which is not you know what I mean, your typical
Speaker 4: uh freaking cab fair.
Speaker 2: You know. And you talked about him opening up things
Speaker 2: to the public and one of the things that you
Speaker 2: talk about in the book or some of the athletes
Speaker 2: they came through and you're thinking, Okay, probably everybody listening
Speaker 2: right now, it's a wrestling show. Okay, wrestlers went through. Surely,
Speaker 2: wrestlers probably did go through, But it was the boxers
Speaker 2: that came as a getaway to train the same way
Speaker 2: that you know that the custom model would have his
Speaker 2: place in the cat Skills or people go to dig
Speaker 2: Bear to train before Dala Hoya before a big fight.
Speaker 2: His location because of all the state of the VR
Speaker 2: equipment and because of a apparently the best masuse on
Speaker 2: the planet. Guys would go up there and get ready
Speaker 2: for big championship fights.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, a bunch of guys. Champion Tony Demaco train there.
Speaker 4: Tommy Collins, you know, before his big fight against Jimmy
Speaker 4: cattat in Boston Gaden, he trained at Drop Kicks. You know,
Speaker 4: they had you know, access to State of y at
Speaker 4: you know, fitness equipment and also most importantly a regulation
Speaker 4: size ring. You know that they were used to to
Speaker 4: spa and everything. So, I mean that's another interesting twist
Speaker 4: to it all too, because you know, it was like
Speaker 4: this interesting, really interesting place because you had all these
Speaker 4: guys who were you know, bleary eyed drying out from
Speaker 4: being drunk, and then you had like these elite athletes
Speaker 4: who are like training like you know, feet away from them.
Speaker 4: So it was it was interesting, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Now are we sure that the great One himself, Jackie
Speaker 2: Gleason did not go up there for a for a stay.
Speaker 2: He was only up there to visit and say hi
Speaker 2: and hang out. He did not have a true stay
Speaker 2: up there, as many people believe that he did.
Speaker 4: Well, most people believe that he did. You know, there
Speaker 4: was a picture of Jackie Gleason that that that was
Speaker 4: hung at the Fellow's Times said, you know if and
Speaker 4: and he did visit there, but Dropkicks children I interviewed
Speaker 4: for the book. Uh, you know they you know, the
Speaker 4: oldest guy living son He had told me that, you know,
Speaker 4: Jackie wasn't there to dry out, but he did want
Speaker 4: to get in shape, you know, and you can read
Speaker 4: into that however you want. And he wanted to lease
Speaker 4: the whole place, and Dropkick thought about it. And even
Speaker 4: though like it was like a very generous offer, you know,
Speaker 4: Jackie was willing to pay top Jalla, you know, Dropkick
Speaker 4: you know decline, you know, declined his offer because he
Speaker 4: didn't want to close up shop, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: because he had to study, you know, study in flow
Speaker 4: of patients coming in all the time, and you know,
Speaker 4: he didn't want to turn anybody away.
Speaker 2: When you started this, like, did you know you're going
Speaker 2: to have to become so proficient on the history of
Speaker 2: state regulation of pro wrestling from eighty years ago? Because
Speaker 2: I look at the list of guys and you have
Speaker 2: a murderer's row of wrestling historians. Scott Teel, Steve o Hey,
Speaker 2: Tim Hornbaker, Greg Oliver, Steve Johnson, Julian Shabbat. I mean,
Speaker 2: how much did they help you out with this? And
Speaker 2: did you have any idea what it was going to
Speaker 2: be like when you started to go back through history
Speaker 2: and kind of start, you know, looking back and retelling
Speaker 2: the tale of the Dropkick portion of John Murphy's life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what, so I had no idea when
Speaker 4: I am backed on this. I mean I've written books before,
Speaker 4: I I you know, I do research, you know, every
Speaker 4: day as a profession. But it took me like the
Speaker 4: beta pod of ten years actually to pull this book together.
Speaker 4: That's just because there was a lot of moving pots
Speaker 4: number one. And then also professional wrestling back then, you know,
Speaker 4: I mean, especially following Dropkicks career wasn't exactly you know,
Speaker 4: documented perfectly, but you know, talking to guys like Julian
Speaker 4: Schabaz it was so helpful. I talked, you know, had
Speaker 4: phone conversations and exchanged emails with him and and all
Speaker 4: the you know, wrestling historians before me who like helped
Speaker 4: dig up information, you know, I you know, I I
Speaker 4: relied on you know, you know a lot of their work,
Speaker 4: you know, and then also just digging through old newspaper
Speaker 4: archives and looking up old state laws. Yeah, like I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, professional wrestling was regulated so differently. Some places
Speaker 4: it wasn't regulated you know, different state by state, could
Speaker 4: change year to year. It was uh yeah, it was. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was quite a research project from BACA, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Well, Emie can I keep you through the break here,
Speaker 2: and do you have two more minutes to give me
Speaker 2: after the commercial?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 2: Oh, I really appreciate everybody. Speaking with Emily sweeteny H's
Speaker 2: new book, Dropkick Murphy A Legendary Life is available through
Speaker 2: Handlecar Publications, and we'll talk a little bit more to
Speaker 2: her when we get back from Break. Wrestling Observer Live.
Speaker 2: Back on the show, Mike said, for BV here with
Speaker 2: you Wrestling Observerlive speaking with Emily Sweeney, who's new book,
Speaker 2: Dropkick Murphy A Legendary Life is available through Hamilcar Publications
Speaker 2: anywhere you buy books, Amazon and all that sort of stuff. Emily,
Speaker 2: I thank you so much for hanging with me during
Speaker 2: the break. Look, I gotta be honest here. As I'm
Speaker 2: reading the book, I kept waiting for a shoe to
Speaker 2: drop on this guy's life, like something bad is going
Speaker 2: to be said, something he did something. There was seemingly nothing,
Speaker 2: and his family loved them and they accepted what he
Speaker 2: was doing. And they again he says, it taught his
Speaker 2: kids a lot of humanity doing what he was doing.
Speaker 2: Was there any negative at all that you saw going
Speaker 2: through this journey and finding out about Murphy?
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, what I mean. I dug in as
Speaker 4: deep as I could, and I did not find any
Speaker 4: you know that there wasn't any like you know, secret
Speaker 4: scandal or anything like that. You know. Yeah, So, I
Speaker 4: mean he lived a good life and you know, he
Speaker 4: out so many people along the way. You know, it's
Speaker 4: a really incredible story. And you know, I hope books
Speaker 4: who are interested in wrestling will check it out because
Speaker 4: you know, I think he's a little overlooked, you know,
Speaker 4: in the wrestling world, and I'm hoping the book changes
Speaker 4: out a bit.
Speaker 2: I think it will. You know, wrestled out of the
Speaker 2: Paul Bowser Syndicate, wrestled Jumping, Josephaldi, Gusan and berg Luthez,
Speaker 2: all of the big names from wrestling's history he crossed
Speaker 2: paths with in just a This is a great story.
Speaker 2: This is a great book. And again, there are so
Speaker 2: many things in interweave in here very quickly. Do you
Speaker 2: have any signings or anything you're going to be doing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know what, I'm going to be giving
Speaker 4: a talk at the Medford Public Library tonight at seven o'clock,
Speaker 4: and then also I'll be doing a book signing event
Speaker 4: September seventeenth, at the Bull Run Restaurant in Shirley, Massachusetts,
Speaker 4: and tickets are available for that, and that's also a
Speaker 4: fundraise of for local libraries.
Speaker 2: So awesome. Well, Emily, I thank you so much for
Speaker 2: coming on and I hope to have you on again.
Speaker 2: Everybody make sure you grab this book. I'll tweet it out,
Speaker 2: and everybody that's out there listening, have a great rest
Speaker 2: of your day and we shall talk to you again
Speaker 2: after a while.
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