WEBVTT - Part Four: Vince McMahon, History's Greatest Monster 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:04.720 Robert Evans here and we'll get to the Vince McMahon 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:06.800 episodes in a second. I wanted to let you all 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:09.040 know that for the fourth year in a row, we 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:13.040 are doing our fundraiser for the Portland Diaper Bank. Behind 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.440 the Bastards supporters have been helping to fund the Portland 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.560 Diaper Bank since twenty twenty and bought millions of diapers 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.799 for people who really need them. So if you go 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:24.520 to GoFundMe and type in bTB fundraiser for PDX Diaper Bank, 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.840 or just type in bTB fundraiser Diaper Bank, go fund 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.920 me into Google anything like that, you will find it. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:34.560 So please go fund me bTB Fundraiser for Portland Diaper Bank. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.559 Help us raise the money that these people need to 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.240 get diapers to folks who need them desperately. Oh boy, 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:46.320 it's another episode of us talking about Vince fucking McMahon 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:50.519 and also wrestling history because they're kind of inextricable. And 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.279 you know who else is inextricable. My guests on this episode, 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.600 Tom Ryman and Sean Riley aka Sean Baby, how are 0:00:58.600 --> 0:00:59.480 you both doing today? 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.560 So ready for some Vince? Yeah? That is so true. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.880 I cannot be extracted. That's right, that's right. 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.840 You both had blood tests recently then showed blood infection. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:16.600 Yeah you are, you are deficient in vitamin v OH 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:23.560 for Vince. Yeah, anyway, here we go. So as Vince 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.560 Junior remade wrestling in his own image, he knew that 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.960 he was going to remake the popular image of wrestlers. 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.319 His dad's most recent big star, the man who had 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.600 sold out matches and ignited imaginations throughout the seventies, was 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.399 one of the all time coolest people to ever live 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.200 on this planet. Andre the fucking Giant. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.399 And I thought you were gonna say, Brudus the barber beefcake. 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.920 No, non fucking Andre man, we we are. I am 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:51.680 so excited. 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:57.480 I am so excited to talk about Andre the Giant. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.920 Up one or two so. Born Andre Rene Russamov in 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.839 nineteen forty six, Andre had gigantism caused by too many 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.480 growth hormones, which kind of as a young kid, you know, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.720 he's a normal size, but like once he kind of 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:17.000 hits you know, gets into his late teens, I think 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.680 he starts to grow and just never stops like he's 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.799 growing until the day he dies. It's part of why 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.320 he dies. Right, because his organs can't really keep up 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:25.680 with how. 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:26.080 Big he is. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.959 He winds up kind of at his height, being about 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.639 seven foot four normal landing most of his wrestling career 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.680 is about four hundred and fifty pounds kind of by 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.280 the end, he's like five twenty. He's he's a very 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.280 large man. He is. He is a massive dude. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.320 I think he listened him at seven hundred on some announcement. 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:49.200 Ye, yeah, it look it's credible. If you saw Andre 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.520 the Giant, someone said that man weighs seven hundred pounds. 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:52.560 You go, yeah, man, I don't know. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.120 Sure, yeah, they always they always increase those numbers. Yeah, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.120 but he is massive. Sure yeah, yeah, you would believe you. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.160 I believed that he was seven out of hell. Sure, yes, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.400 it scans now. Andre is a very bright guy. He's 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.280 a really smart kid. He's very good at math. It's 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.800 interesting he's when he's in kind of primary school, he 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.640 does really well in math, and some of the like 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.320 adults around him are kind of surprised when he doesn't 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.280 continue his education at fourteen. But he's like, I'm not 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.240 supposed to be a smart person. I'm just gonna like 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:24.960 work on a farm, you know. It was kind of 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:26.880 noted by people around him at the time that he 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.680 very easily did the work of four men. And one 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:31.760 thing you have to know when you look at Andre, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.720 his most famous kind of cultural touchstone is obviously the 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.680 movie Princess Bride, that is near the end of his life. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.440 He is not in great health in that movie, kind 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.720 of very famously in that scene when Princess Buttercup like 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.120 leaps into his arms, they actually had to have her 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.960 like on wrote strings or something so that the weight 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.240 was not put on his back because he was in 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.840 he was in such bad shape. You know, he was 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.760 sick at that point in his life. At the height, 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:00.680 like when he is a. 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.240 Young man in his you know, eighteen, you know, early 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.000 twenties and stuff, Andre is jacked and not just a 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.160 huge man. Like he's a big guy, you know, in 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:12.680 the Andre most people know if you watch videos of 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.280 young Andre, he is both swoll and seven foot four. 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:19.520 Some of the shit some people will write that like 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.960 he was not a great technical wrestler. He was just 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.680 good at kind of presenting himself and he was entertaining. 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.880 I don't think that's fair. I've watched videos of him 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.080 wrestling as a young man, and he can do shit. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.560 He's picking up like two hundred and fifty pound dudes 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.919 and throwing them one handed across the fucking ring. He 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.839 is deeping and landing onto people with his entire body 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.000 weight and not killing them. That's a that's a technical skill, right, 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.560 that's a that's a tech in boss. Yeah he is. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.559 And he's mesmerizing like young andres. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:52.839 Absolutely, yeah, amazing. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.200 Anyone's saying he wasn't a good wrestlers. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.880 No, no, wrong, he's looking incredible. Yeah they only saw 0:04:59.000 --> 0:04:59.760 eighties Andre. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.360 Yeah, if you say that, even then, he was pretty meschive. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.160 There's some pretty early eighties he's got some. But it's 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.200 it's also you know, it's one of those things. As 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.160 a kid, I guess I knew that his like nickname 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:13.920 was the eighth Wonder of the world. Watching Young Andre 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.160 wrestle dudes like it is awe inspiring. It's like watching 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.720 a fucking hurricane. Like it's like, I don't think it's 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.839 an exaggerate. He's amazing, Big Andre. The giant fans it 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.720 sounds like all around the table to taund Yeah, he's great. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.200 So it is true. Obviously, you know, as he gets older, 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.359 especially his mobility issues mean that he can't handles, and 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.120 he's never really he's never able to do like the 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.360 leaping off the turnbuckles stuff, kay, because he's he is, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.480 you know, too big for some things. He is very 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.560 skilled anyway. Andre is such a big hit for his 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.600 dad that Vince Junior is like, I want this guy, 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.240 but more so so. The first thing he does is 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.279 he keeps Andre the Giant traveling more than ever in 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.440 the early nineteen eighties, I don't think there's a man 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.200 in America who puts together the air miles this man does. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:06.400 He said about Andre in nineteen eighty three. He's traveling 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.039 every day. Two weeks ago he was in Japan. He's everywhere. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.240 Lucky for us, his IQ was as large as his body. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.120 He travels most of the time on his own, does 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.320 everything for himself. There are guys who have to have 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:16.960 someone with them all the time. I don't think any 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:19.200 general manager in a sport says he has a larger 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.440 can say he has a larger collection of eccentrics than 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.080 we do, but not Andre. He'll always be there when 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.360 you need him, and this is real genius. 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:27.679 He can book his own plane. 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:31.800 Chickens it is like one of the say like obviously 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.320 Andre did love I think love the job, love doing it. 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.000 These flights are nightmares for him. One of the things 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.040 I work he can Yeah, he literally couldn't fit in 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.600 the airplane bathrooms. They had to like like put a 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.480 curtain aside and let him like go into a bucket 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.599 when he was on long haul flights because there was 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:51.600 like you can't fit Andre the Giant, and they. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:07:00.920 Would fly so that they could window pressure dong out 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.800 the emergency exit. There you go. He destroys more American 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.880 cities that way, yeah, and nine Japanese ones. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.520 He was kind of known for being like the boss, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.800 Like that's literally that's what other wrestlers called him, was 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.680 the boss in the locker room. And one of the 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:19.600 kind of the things with Andrea was he was really 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.160 the only guy in the business who would never lose. Right, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.000 if Andrea's in a match, He's going to win the match. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.840 And one of the things that kind of like and 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.040 still everyone wanted to wrestle him because like, if you're 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.840 a big regional wrestler, you want to wrestle, you want 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.240 to lose to Andre the Giant and just lose well, 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.680 because that can make your career, right, just fighting him 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.400 can make your career because he's fucking Andre the giant. 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:41.920 Now. 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.880 The sheer ferocity of Andrea's travel schedule and the social 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.800 demands of stardom wore him down over time, as did 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:51.520 his lifestyle, being massive. He ate incredibly huge meals, but 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.200 he also drank an estimated seven thousand calories of beer 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.800 and wine per day at one point, Yeah, he sure did. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.280 At one point he got into a contest with an 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.760 olympian named Chris Taylor that ended with Taylor tapping out 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:07.960 at one hundred and twenty six bottles of beer and 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.320 Andre drinking more than one hundred and forty seven. 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:13.200 Good for both them. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.960 Yeah, that's too much beer. It's too much beer. 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.520 Honestly, honest to hear, what's the most beer either of 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.760 you have ever drank? Like, and let's say like a day. 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.520 Yeah, I mean maybe like thirty, you know, And that 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.040 was like that was intense, that was like regretted it. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.600 For days, Like I've had twenty six before, I've never 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.560 gotten to I think I've been in the twenties. 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.960 Yeah, so we all understand that that that's like a 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.240 one time in your life you drink yeah, like a 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:41.839 quarter of what Andre did kind of. 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.520 Yeah, yeah, and it and you and it hurts you 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.960 for possibly years. 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.120 It's one of those things that you kind of you 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.040 have to do it when you're like twenty five because. 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:56.640 Your limits, you know. Yeah, I couldn't do that now, No, no, God, no, no, 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.000 I'd never wake up. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:08:59.679 It'd be real sad if we all did it now. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.360 But yes, or twice in your life. You gotta party. 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.560 You gotta test the limits of your party. Look at 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.040 that event horizon of alcoholism. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.520 You must taste the oblivion of partying. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:12.960 Yeah, And with Andre, you know, part of why he 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.040 drank so much is just that like it affected him 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.120 less than it does people who are not seven foot 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.040 four giants. And part of it was he was in 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.800 a horrible pain because his body was far too large 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:22.920 for his back, in his knees. 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.920 Yeah, Andre, there's some sadness behind those, Yeah, there is some. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.160 Now, there's some funny stories too, because like so one 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.959 of like when kind of Andre is this is in 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:34.880 the kind of the mid eighties, when he's sort of 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.240 at his near his addor near his height as a 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.880 as a famous wrestler. He and Arnold Schwarzeneger become friends, 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.960 and this is like peak body built, almost peak bodybuilding 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:45.720 Arnold a little bit. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.720 It was the Monster and Kommando Destroyer. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.160 Yeah, yeah, exactly. So the two of them go out 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.880 like drinking and have a meal one night, and at 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.840 the end of the dinner they have a fight over 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.960 who's going to pay, and Arnold tries to be like, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.040 I'm gonna pay, and Andre the Giant picks him up, 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.840 picks up Arnold Schwarzenegger and sets him in the eve 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.240 of a window above them so that he can go 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.880 pay like like lifts. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:21.160 Up like Arnold, like he's a Gina doll, like carrying 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.720 a cat out of the room, exactly. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:34.440 To Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was so cool still that night 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.200 because he was in de Yeah, you have to assume, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.600 so you have to assume they just drank all of 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.280 the liquor in that small man. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.040 That must have been cool. It must have been a 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.160 cool night. Yeah. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.960 So by the time Vince takes over, he's already starting 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:51.480 to look for Andre's replacement. 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:51.680 You know. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.959 Andre is probably the biggest name in wrestling, or close 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:56.439 to it, you know, and tied with a couple of 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.360 other guys. But he's also he's old, He's not able 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.040 to move the way he was. It's kind of clear 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.000 that he's on the downswing of his career. And Vince 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.800 finds Andre's replacement and a young man named Terry Bolia. 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:09.520 Now. 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.720 Terry was just in his twenties when he'd started wrestling 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.080 for the WWF. A child of the nineteen fifties and 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:19.560 of a dirt poor neighborhood in Port Tampa, Florida, Terry 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.800 loved wrestling, had loved wrestling as long as he could remember. 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.480 His favorite wrestler as a kid was Billy Graham, of 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:31.360 the younger brother of Vince's mentor, doctor Jerry Graham, which 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.240 is pretty cool. I do love that the Grahams had 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:39.040 such an impact. Young Terry was particularly drawn to Billy 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.760 because of his larger than life physique, including improbable twenty 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.439 two inch biceps. These muscles were the product of steroids. 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.280 As Billy was among the first generation of wrestlers to 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.160 get really into that shit, he evangelized them to other wrestlers, saying, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.920 you can feel your body stretch. Just lay in bed 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:01.520 and you'll feel yourself grow. So that's right, good stuff. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:03.600 What okmus wizard. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:11.640 Okay, Yeah, So Terry starts up infected with strength. So 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:18.280 Terry still out your chest a little. Sure, So Terry 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.160 starts wrestling small time in Florida. Graham notices his skill 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.040 and he buys him a drink one night in Tampa, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.760 and Boleiah stated what everyone else knew by now. He's like, yeah, 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.720 guys aren't breaking into the big leagues of wrestling anymore 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:36.560 without chemical assistance. Yeah, And so young Terry is like, hey, 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.000 I know that you kind of need to be roided 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.120 out to some extent. You have to be larger than 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.240 life to make it in this business. Now what should 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.080 I do to take my career to the next level? 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.600 And Graham is like, you should take Diana ball and 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.920 winstrol and then chase them with valium because that's what 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:52.360 I too. 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:54.640 Great's gonna get. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:56.319 Some real like you know, you got to get out 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.040 there and grind, you got to try your best. 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.080 But no, he's like, no, take this. Yeah, you have 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:02.040 to rus growth. 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.600 If you have any space in your ass that isn't drugs, 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:10.720 you're doing it wrong. Like fill that butt. So within 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:15.000 the WWF, the task of handing out steroids went to 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.120 an osteopathic doctor named George Zahorian. He'd started as a 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:22.640 house doctor for the McMahon's League and then became one 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.960 of the chief state athletic representatives for Pennsylvania. He was 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.600 required to examine every wrestler to see if they were 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.360 healthy enough to perform. The allegation made later was that Vince, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.400 who was alleged to be a steroid user himself, would 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.400 not so subtly encourage wrestlers to get bigger. This didn't 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.600 take much of a push since it was obvious that 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.040 only the monsters got the choice roles, so doctor Zohoian 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.760 would go through wrestlers one by one to check them out. 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.920 He brought a doctor bag full of steroids, painkillers, and 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.240 valium with them and would ask, is there anything else 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.520 what you would like? If it isn't here, I can 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.000 get it for you and send it to you. 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:02.160 I honestly cannot imagine a more corrupt job than WWF 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.880 house doctor. No, you just say that, and you're like, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.239 there's not a person in the world that doesn't immediately 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:07.959 know what that means. 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.400 I will note there are This is not an allegation 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.720 that Vince or the WWF broke any laws because steroids 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.560 are not illegal at this point, right, Okay, sure, right, 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.800 like this this is like the like by just handing 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.360 them out like candy, you're not necessarily breaking the law. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:23.040 As a doctor. 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.520 No, maybe hypocratic, you know, we can argue that on 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.120 a personal level, but this is not like illegal drug 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.240 dealing in the eighties. 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.320 Right Listen, It's it's my sworn oath to make every 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.520 one of these wrestlers' asses as hard as a concrete 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:39.320 dipped horse. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:46.160 So, Terry Bowley, statues, that is that is that is sewn. 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:49.400 That's why Pete hates statues so much, every one of them, 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.120 even the ones not of horses. Look right, you go 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.680 to the Washington Monument, that's full of horses. It is 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:56.160 horses all the way up that side. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.800 It's just fifty eight thousand horses stacks on top of 0:14:58.840 --> 0:14:59.880 each other, always screaming. 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.280 For that's what That's what happened to all of the 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.960 horses from the South that we captured in the Civil War. 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:15.640 That's how we punished them. So, Terry Bowl, it would 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.400 be very America if we just punished the horses, for 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:23.680 they wouldn't have been a war if they hadn't carried 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:30.120 them down. There were those horses were no angel, tell 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:35.000 it to God. So Terry Bowleia is going to become 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.640 the poster child of the success that steroid use could 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.200 bring one of Vince's wrestlers. He could not have succeeded 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.160 in the business during an earlier era. Holk Hogan, as 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.680 he came to be known, was not a good technical wrestler. 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.840 He never gets very good at the technical stuff. He's 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:51.960 good at number one, he's a good performer in that 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:56.440 he's like good at, you know, presenting an appealing personality 0:15:56.640 --> 0:16:00.000 to the fans, and he's good at being a gigantic muscle. 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:00.840 So freak right. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.360 Matches with him had to be kind of scripted to 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:10.080 avoid some of the choreography that guys like Brett Owen 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.440 could have done right, or Brett Hart could have done. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:14.440 Yeah, you know he's. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.480 Yeah, yeah, he just he. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:19.760 Was pretty great. 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.400 Yeah, And again, wrestling is but this has always been 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.320 the case. We talked about this in that earlier age. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.600 You don't have to be a great technical wrestler to 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.720 be a good wrestler. It's it's different kind of things. Hogan, 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.400 though a lot of his early success comes from the 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.200 fact that he is just so fucking big. Ten years 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:42.040 after their meeting, Superstar Graham met Hogan again at WrestleMania three, 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.760 and he later told Inside Edition, we went off to 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.480 a shower stall and Hogan pulled down his wrestling tights. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.320 I injected him with six hundred milligrams of testosterone and 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:52.560 the right buttock. He had scar tissue on his butt 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.560 from so many injections over the years, and it was 0:16:54.640 --> 0:17:00.600 hard to shove the needle in that Leavery Dinas skin. 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.800 He does have skin like a fucking leather jacket. Like 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.760 he has a complexion of Indiana Jones's jacket. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:11.440 Always sunny. They had that bit where they sit. He 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.000 had the skin of a hot Yeah, that's perfect, perfect analogy. Yeah, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:17.440 Gus this ideal. 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.400 So by the late nineteen eighties, Hogan was the WWF's 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.639 biggest star. Andre still drew crowds, but his body was 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.960 by now very much failing him. Vince became aware that 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.040 his former main draw was on the way out. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:31.320 Now. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.840 Previously, Andre had been treated like a supernatural force. No 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.000 one was ever allowed to actually beat him, and again 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.399 careers were made by just getting hits in against the giant. 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.040 He was beloved, He was cheered every time he came on, 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.240 he was kind of the ultimate babyface, but now Vince 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.760 engineered a storyline to turn him into a heel. Andre 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.359 was somewhat uncomfortable with the whole turn, but Vince executed 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.679 it effectively, having the Giant betray Hogan and turning him 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.000 into an object of disdain for the audience. At WrestleMania three, 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.879 they cheered as for the first time, Andre was beaten 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.879 in the ring by Vince's new golden boy, hul Cogan. 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.080 From here, Andre's career descended rapidly, and his last matches 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.640 where a dispiriting series of villainous appearances. For the first 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.520 time in his life, he was booed and jeered as 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.320 he entered the stadium, an experience that his friends say 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.960 caused him some amount of anguish as his body continued 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.760 to fail him. Now, yeah, making a big sweet man 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.480 feel bad is given. The crimes this guy commits is 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.159 low on the list of Vince McMahon evil, but the 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.239 way this all goes down says a lot about him. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.360 I found a documentary. There's a documentary he came out 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.480 in twenty eighteen by Bill Simmons, just titled Andre the Giant. 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.120 I have a lot of criticisms of the documentary. There's 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:44.840 a degree of whitewashing in it that's pretty significant, but 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.720 they get Vince to talk for it. And there's a 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.840 moment in this that is extremely revealing, and I'm going 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:52.920 to play that for you now. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.240 When his career is over, the net. 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.440 Of value YO to himself. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:02.720 No longer. 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.639 I'm not gonna be around the boys and socializing and 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.440 takes nature. I'm stuck here in North Carolina, and I 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.200 was responsible for the fact that business was going and 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.920 everybody else was going on aloud him Andrey more or 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.520 less wanted to buy me, you know, and presented me 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.560 a bit because he knew the business were going to 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:21.920 go on without him. I think Hatrey resented that a 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.119 little bit too, as time was up, damn it, you know. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.880 And yet I was going to continue on. And sometimes 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:31.680 it can even be a situation whereby what you used 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.400 me no longer when I was Gore's presence, no longer 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.119 was it this loving, warm admiration that we have for 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:38.760 each other, wasn't there. 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.080 Now There's something real. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.879 Telling about that, because he's characterizing something that is a 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.080 normal practice in wrestling, where you can't you can't stay 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.480 on top forever. The guy on top has to pass 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.920 the bell Tonto on the top. That's just how the 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:07.600 business works. However, Vincent, this clip is ignoring the fact 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.040 that Andre's career is ending, because Andre is literally dying, 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.879 like this is this is a unique situation, Like you 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.000 didn't have to put the strap on Hogan like that 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.639 by making by making Andre end his career as a 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:27.280 bad guy. Uh so he's that's so, man, There's. 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:28.560 No real fucking way to spin this. 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:30.840 Andre hates me and there's a lot of good reasons 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:32.960 for him to hate me, and uh yeah, I really 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:34.160 kind of phoned him. 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:39.520