WEBVTT - Part Five: Vince McMahon, History's Greatest Monster 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:04.920 Robert Evans here, and we'll get to the Vince McMahon 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:06.920 episodes in a second. I wanted to let you all 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.159 know that for the fourth year in a row, we 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:13.160 are doing our fundraiser for the Portland Diaper Bank. Behind 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.560 the Bastards supporters have been helping to fund the Portland 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.680 Diaper Bank since twenty twenty and bought millions of diapers 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:20.919 for people who really need them. So if you go 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.639 to GoFundMe and type in bTB fundraiser for PDX Diaper Bank, 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:28.040 or just type in bTB fundraiser Diaper Bank, gofund me 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.159 into Google anything like that, you will find it. So 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.720 please go fund me bTB Fundraiser for Portland Diaper Bank. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.680 Help us raise the money that these people need to 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:39.639 get diapers to folks who need them desperately. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.040 Oh boy, you know. 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.240 Robert Evans here, and I was just thinking the other day, 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.960 it's been more than three years since I watched Demand 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.160 Die last. I think I'm going to go to Applebee's. Hey, 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:01.240 Tom Sean, you want to go to Apple and witness 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.040 the the vast panopoly of humans suffering? 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:10.240 You know it, man, never ending ketchup bulls. There's just no, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.480 you can't. There's no place you can wallow like an Applebee's. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:15.400 No place you can wallow. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.319 And man, if you want to get just absolutely housed 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.240 on the worst long island iced teas you've ever had 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.520 in your life and then get into a knife fight 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.120 in a parking lot, there's no better place than an 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.959 Applebee's next to a truck stop. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:31.600 Can I just can I just say I am partial 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:32.319 to Chili's. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:38.480 It's pronounced CHILEI okay, anyway, if you want to, I 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:38.800 love that. 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.520 Sorry, I just saw a story that that they're like 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.399 shaming this woman for getting like fifteen dollars worth of 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.360 Chili's as her meal for her guests at her wedding. 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.640 And you know what, that's awesome. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.000 Can you imagine a choice than that? 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:02.720 Yeah, you can thrive, right, imagine. 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:06.840 Look, man, like, you know I do the I do 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.080 the righteous thing. You know, I don't pay for Chick 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.480 fil A. But man, back when I was like a 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.160 teacher and stuff, like sometimes we would just get they 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.480 would cater an event or something at the school, and 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.160 yes I did leave with armloads of their food. Like 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.440 of course, you don't bitch about free food, like you 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.680 just take it. You take it like a squirrel and 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.040 you hide it in your cheeks, and then you you 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.080 fill up backpacks with it and you go home. You'll 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:32.880 remember where half of the chicken nuggets you buried are. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:34.880 But that's still a good enough result to get you 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:38.280 through the winter. Yeah, exactly, Thank you, Tom Robert. I 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.720 had one more Applebee's joke. Please, if you want to 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.800 replicate the experience of getting drunk at your parents' house, 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:53.160 there's no other They'll just hand you a bottle of 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.359 drim booie and you don't know that you're not supposed 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.160 to drink it straight, so. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:02:59.760 Just go go wild. 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.040 This is because in all of the wrestling clips we're 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.720 using today, there's Applebee's ads, and now we're thinking of Applebe's. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.560 But this is Behind the Bastard's a podcast about the 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:15.800 worst man who ever lived, Vince McMahon. For the last 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:18.400 time in this series, we will briefly be referring to 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.320 him as Vincent Junior because we have to talk about 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:30.360 how Vincent Senior died. Good stuff good stuff not I mean, so, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:31.040 I don't know. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.560 I don't feel you particularly made a promise by saying 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:34.200 it that way. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.720 Yeah, it's not good stuff. He contracts a fast moving 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.080 cancer that defies all attempts at medical intervention. 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.080 And yeah, and the way you said it, I thought 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:44.520 a train was involved. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.640 I shouldn't have started the talk about a man dying 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:48.480 of cancer that way. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.080 You are right, Tom, That's what. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.200 Sir, Vince proncess is the grief by killing many many musclemen. 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:58.920 Y just just together like two dollars action figures. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:01.520 Like a scythe through corn that can't put its arms 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:03.320 down all the way. 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.880 So Vince mcmahonck aside through corn that's being fought over 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.240 by two carp in the mississip. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:13.440 Nice callback. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.240 So Vincent Senior takes ill at the end of nineteen 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.480 eighty three, and in about six months he is on 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.200 his deathbed. Vince goes to Vince Junior goes to visit 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.600 him right before the end. And you know, in interviews 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.840 since he has expressed that he felt shock, particularly at 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.320 seeing his father without his hair. Quote it was like mine. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:34.840 He had a hell of a head of hair, he 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:39.080 called it. He gave me those jeans. And like, obviously, 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.800 you know, expressing shock at seeing a loved one, you know, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.760 physically changed through cancer isn't weird. He does talk a 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.040 lot about his hair. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.880 Though, and one of these interviews to make that about yourself, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.480 he really much reframed his reframed his his father's cancer 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.080 battle to be about his vinces awsome hair. 0:04:58.520 --> 0:04:59.960 That is a little a little bit other thing. But 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.960 but anyway, in Vincent's telling of their last moments together, 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.400 he hugged and he kissed his father. He claims that 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.560 he's always been very demonstrative when it comes to expressing 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.919 love for his love for his family, especially his children, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.720 but that the old Irish in his father wouldn't let 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.200 Vince Senior respond this way, and he's Vince Junior says 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.200 that the very last time they saw each other in 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.640 that hospital was the first time his dad ever said 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.840 he loved him. Vince was leaving for the night, like 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.000 he's like, you know, Dad, I love you, and then 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.200 as he's kind of like leaving the hospital room, his 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:33.720 dad shouts I love you. 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.479 Back at him. Now, that's the very first time. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.719 Yeah, that's the first time his biological dad ever said 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.160 I love you to him. That's what Vince says. And 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:45.560 that's a powerful story, or at least it would be 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.520 from a normal person. There is some peculiarity around the 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.680 edges of this, because most places that will write about 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.240 this and like Vincent's reaction just kind of tell that 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.159 story and let it be this kind of strong emotional beat. 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:04.520 But like Josie Riseman talks to Vince Senior like his 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.560 other family, right, So he he marries this lady Juanita, who, 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:10.919 by the way, is super tight with Andre the Giant 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:12.760 and is why Andre doesn't have to sign a bad 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.360 contract later on because she's able to pressure Vince Junior. 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.680 Kind of cool, she seems like she ruled. But yeah, 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.960 so he marries this lady Wanita, and they don't have 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:26.039 kids together, but Wanita has a sister or sorry, Wanita 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.440 has a niece who has a family, and they've all 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:33.320 been abandoned by like the their father. So like basically 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.040 there's this like young family and a bunch of kids 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.560 that Vince Senior is kind of adjacent to when he 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.240 marries Wanita, and he kind of adopts those kids as 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.160 his his children, and he basically raises them like those 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.520 kids will say like we considered him to be a father, 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.960 you know, essentially maybe it was him like kind of 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:55.560 making up for the fact that he'd sort of like 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:57.760 left his first family. I don't know, I don't know 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.560 what's going on in his head, but like they they 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.920 speak very highly of him. And in the summer, this 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.560 blended family would take to the coast in the Northeast 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.120 where they had a beach house, and one of Vincent's 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.560 adopted kind of daughters told Josie Riseman quote, we used 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.640 to go around the house and just say I love you, 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.880 I love you, kind of announcing to everyone that you 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.520 loved them. Uncle Vince was the most loving person you'd 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.280 ever want to know. He was very genuine. He'd sit 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.400 and listen to whatever you had to say, no matter what. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:31.360 Extremely a family man, family, family, family, And there may 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.400 be some like conflict that I'm not super aware of 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:41.880 between Vincent's Senior's other family and Vince McMahon. But her 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:46.040 story of like how vincentor could not be more different 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.880 from like Vince junior like, she does not describe him 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:50.960 as like old Irish, She doesn't describe him as like 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.160 unable to express love. And her telling of Evince, he's 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:56.920 super warm and open with all of them, and she 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.800 says kind of by contrast, quote I never saw any 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:05.560 warmth and young Vincent. So that's kind of yeah, interesting. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:05.600 I love that. 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.680 Uh, it's such an innocent story. Well, my dad said, 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:10.600 I love you for the first time. You're like, well powerful, 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.320 and then someone just like poked it with the gentlest 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.960 of journalism and that story just fucking exploded. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.160 Yeah, is there anything you don't lie about? Yeah? 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.400 No, he said that all the time. So there's I 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:29.480 think there's two possibilities kind of broadly here. One is, oh, sorry, Tom, 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:29.960 you want to talk. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.160 Yeah, well, I just think that's I think you're probably 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:34.880 just about to say what I was thinking, Which is 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.520 the other possibility is that they're both telling the truth. 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:43.240 Yeah, exactly, this kid, Well it's dark, it's. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:47.200 Not necessarily hate. But I do actually kind of think 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.440 that might be the most likely version of the truth, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:55.319 which is that like Vince Senior thought, especially because of 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.080 Juanita pushing him, thought it was important to reconnect with 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.560 his first biological with his biological kids did and like 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.560 put a lot of effort into it, but also never 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:08.439 quite connected with Vince Junior. Like, and you know, maybe 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:10.560 some of that's because Vince Junior is kind of like 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.320 a weird dude, but maybe some of it's just that 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.160 they were separated for so long, and maybe he was 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.880 super affectionate with this kind of blended family that he 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:23.920 has later on in his life, but he's never able 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.240 to feel that way for Vince, which is probably something 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:28.520 that would have an impact on you. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.959 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:36.280 Like we'll never know, but it is interesting that you 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.080 get these two very different versions of the man. I 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:44.240 think they can coexist potentially though, Yeah for sure. So yeah, 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.719 that's uh, that's that's the events, just. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.040 That we have a good reason to doubt this story of. 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.320 It is wild that you could like poke a hole 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:55.200 in that one. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.959 All the things to not on earth. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.320 Yeah, that's how dishonest a life this man has left. 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:11.160 Yeah, to make even this seem as theatrical as possible. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.800 Starting in the late nineteen eighties, as part of his 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.120 takeover of the Regionals, Vince had embarked on a difficult 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.360 and cunning maneuver to build wrestling into something that, in 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.280 his eyes, was better suited for the modern era that 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.560 was coming. It was obvious to him that k Fabe 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.559 needed to either change or kind of go at some point. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.679 Not only were all of the steroids making his wrestlers 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.439 look larger than any but the most Russian of Olympians. 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.920 But the exploding market for cable TV kid shows meant 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.960 that there were new kinds of opportunities wrestling had not 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.120 seen before. And it's one of those things where like 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:57.080 he kind of recognizes this sort of weird position wrestling 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.600 is in where it pretends to be a real sport, 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.839 but like most people know it's non particularly the kind 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.600 of people who like run networks and run advertising. 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:06.240 No, it's not. 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.760 Kind of keeps some folks so kind of keeps money 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.440 away from it in certain ways. There's certain types of 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.960 money away from it. And so yeah, because it's for 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.920 ten year olds, and if you can kind of like, 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.600 if you can admit to some of the fakeness of 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.040 wrestling as a sport, you can get toy companies in 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.720 Hollywood to treat it as a real business, right, and 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.839 advertisers and stuff. So this is kind of the thing 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:33.760 that he embarks on. 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:34.240 Next. 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.480 One of the first moves he makes in the mid 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.920 nineteen eighties is he introduces exclusivity contracts to the WWF. 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:45.439 This locks wrestlers out of performing in other regional syndicates, 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.319 and it's also one of the most legally questionable things 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:50.600 because like there's a lot of well, all of these 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.240 guys are independent contractors, but you're like telling them they 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.880 can't work for other people in the same field, and 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.400 you're like you are telling them what they have to 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.480 wear and like when they can perform, and like you're 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.800 not treating them like an independent employee. Yeah exactly, Yeah, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:07.840 you're in you're treating them like employees. That none of 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.360 this should be working the way that it does. And 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.640 he also, this is one of the real fucky things 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.600 Vince does. He starts to mandate as he's doing this process, 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.480 where like he'll start you know, giving away you know 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.880 to local you know, TV Networks wrestling shows, and then 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.040 he'll throw events there. Once the events get big, he'll 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.640 start mandating that venues stop, not like basically like I 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:33.800 will not have WWF events in this in this venue 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.319 if you host you know, n w A events, right, 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.520 which like cuts the knees out from these guys. Basically, 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:42.480 it's a real fucked up thing to do. It's some 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.880 Disney ship. It is some Disney shit. Hey, everyone, I 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.280 think my my kind of summary of of how Vince 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.880 killed the regionals left some important stuff out for a 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.360 couple of things. The process by which he was sort 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.240 of offering up shows in order to use them as 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.880 advertisements and local markets. That's called bartering, and he was 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.040 not the guy to invent this. We do kind of 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:06.800 mention that a little bit later, but I wanted to 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.960 be super clear. He was kind of doing it with 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.439 more weight behind him than most people, but he didn't 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.640 start the process. It's also worth noting that the way 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.240 he got into a lot of these smaller local markets 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.920 where he would then bring in WWF shows and kind 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.720 of choke out some of these regional competitors was not 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.840 by bartering with local TV networks, but by spending a 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.079 ton of money buying airtime and basically paying more than 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:37.320 the local smaller regionals were able to do so. And 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.040 that's kind of how he was able to build up 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.520 audiences for live events in those areas. So bartering wasn't 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:44.520 kind of the way into the new markets. He did 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.920 pay for a lot of that. And while all this 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.120 is going on, he also licenses the identities of his 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.439 wrestlers for a whole Cogan focused cartoon in nineteen eighty five. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.000 Yeah yeah, well yeah, yeah yeah, and one of the 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.000 things that this does, because it's not like I don't 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.680 think it is like the wrestlers voicing themselves here, he's 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.240 kind of like divorcing pro wrestlers from their personas for 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.680 cash purposes for the first time in wrestling history. I 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.080 think Brad Garrett yeah right, Yeah, I mean that that 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:16.959 is a good pick, which I'm not saying like, yeah, 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.520 I don't think it's an ethical and a really like, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.080 especially by the context of wrestling, to have like Brad 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.520 Garrett do Hulk Cogan's voice, but it is an interesting 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:25.920 change for the business. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.400 I honestly think Brad Garrett and Hulk Cogan should be 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.120 legally forced to swamp lives like every six months. 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.920 Yes, and and you know what that means, Sean, Maybe 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.760 that means a shot for shot remake of Everybody Loves 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.680 Raymond God with the whole Commando Yeah, and Suburban Commando 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.239 My God. Yes, this is what AI should be doing. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.000 Yeah, putting just Brad Garrett into Suburban Commando. 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.720 And and also putting the whole ster and Everybody Loves 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.080 Raymond where like every every every argument between Ray and 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.320 his brother, he just gets fucking suplex. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:00.840 Oh, you can just. 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:05.040 Getting Rader and Redder Peter Boyle is going on about some. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:09.600 Shit man and that Yeah, through the window, Absolutely, that's 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.920 a TV show. That's a fucking TV show right there. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:18.920 So Vince also launches WrestleMania, which we've talked about in 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.320 previous episodes. Today, WrestleMania is the eighth most valuable sporting 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.040 event on the planet, although there's a real big drop 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.240 off after the first few because it's worth like one 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:31.960 hundred something million, and like, man, the fucking you look 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.240 at you look at like the super Bowl or whatever, 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.440 you know, which is obviously that's WrestleMania is a very 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.160 successful business. Vince has has succeeded in making that valuable, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.520 but there's a big drop off after like number five 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.240 or so. At the time, WrestleMania is a huge gamble. 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.880 It's so expensive, it's such a spectacle, and it relies 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.320 entirely and this is very new for them, It relies 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.360 entirely on pay per view to be worth the cost, 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.440 right because he yeah. 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.720 Does He's sort of pushes it, at least the first 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.080 couple as like a big pop culture event, like he's trying, Yeah, 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:08.400 isn't it isn't that right? Like he's still he brings 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.640 in all these celebrities. He's trying to give it like this, 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.240 yeah exactly, that's exactly what And it's a general appeal 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:15.880 as he can. Yeah yeah. 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.040 And this is there's criticism I think from like a 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.040 lot of old wrestling heads or people who are like 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.440 really into technical wrestling, because one of the things he 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.360 does is he starts bringing in famous people who absolutely 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:29.240 do not know how to fucking wrestle. And kind of 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.880 the first of these is Ba Barracas mister T, who 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.720 is a man I have absolutely no qualms with. But 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:40.080 but it is fair to say not really knowledgeable about 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:45.400 like wrestling techniques. Fair, yeah, yeah, fair fair That nothing 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.200 against you, mister T. Bouncer competition before this, So I 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:50.640 mean that's close. 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:51.440 Yeah, that is. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.720 I mean, he's let's saying he doesn't know how to fight. 0:16:54.520 --> 0:17:00.280 My dad saw that bouncer competition. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah whever. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.200 He told me that story once when I was a teenager. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.760 He was like, you know, I saw this bouncing competition 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:06.920 mister T was in before he was famous. 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.879 What a crazy thing to do to have as a 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.600 bouncing No. I gotta know, for like the people the 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.199 bouncers are bouncing. Are they like actors or are they 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.560 legitimately drunken problematic people. 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.359 I feel like my brain might have conjured this, but 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:25.800 I think there was dwarf tossing, okay, well, and the 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:27.760 rest was mostly obstacle courses. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:32.520 Right, Huh that's the way my dad explained it. It 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.720 would sound like a lot of obstacle courses, which is 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.439 just confounding for a bouncer competition. 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.119 Yeae, someone's doing cocaine in the bathroom. 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.440 You gotta saw some riddles to throw this coat down, 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.240 idiot out of the bar. 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.760 I mean, we are in the middle of a writer's strike, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.160 and I want to tell Hollywood, if you guys want 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:58.040 a free, unscripted reality show, launch a bouncing contest where 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.679 every week a new group of bouncers has to stop 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.400 me from ruining some people's nights, Like, because I guarantee 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.200 you there aren't going to be winners. I am slippery 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:15.359 and I can projectile vomit on command. Like there's no 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:23.200 Applebee's is strong enough to hold me anyway. So yeah, 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:26.600 before this big inaugural WrestleMania that is kind of a 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.520 lot of people will say he's basically betting the farm 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:34.239 on WrestleMania one in nineteen I think eighty five, and 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.399 before this happens, as we said, he goes on this 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.639 big PR blitz and he starts getting particularly mister T 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.960 and Hulk Hogan, who are going to have this huge showdown. 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.600 He starts getting them to like show up all over 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:52.760 like kind of like mainstream entertainment news shows. And yeah, 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.840 in March of nineteen eighty four, there's this episode of 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.399 a show called Hot Properties, which is a talk show 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:05.040 host by conspiracy theorist and beloved TV detective Richard Belzer. 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.120 That's that's right, Tom, have you heard about this, You've 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:08.520 seen this. 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.080 I've seen this. Critic Okay, glorious. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.560 Yeah, So the Bells if you're not aware, as I'm 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.520 sure we all of you all are, the Bells is 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.680 was a number one like at this point, I guess 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.760 he has a talk show, but he's he's like an 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.119 extremely successful like TV detective actor and kind of the 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.360 famous the probably the most famous role as in pop 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.399 culture is that because his character is on so many 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.800 like the same detective characters on so many different like 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.040 TV dramas and stuff from like the late nineties to 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.119 the mid auts. He kind of connects the universes of 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:48.200 a bunch of shows that like sort of by default 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.040 are now in the same universe. This includes Arrested Development, 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.160 The X Files, Law and Order and Law and Order SVU, thirty, Rock, 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:59.320 the Wire, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. In addition to this, 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.720 he's also a my regular guest on Info Wars. 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:03.959 Wow, two episodes. 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:07.000 In a row we got Info Wars guests, but this 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.200 one's not a wrestler, and in fact, the Bells was 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.480 kind of outspoken one of these things, you know how 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.399 we had, like in the early two thousands, like the 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.600 kind of online atheist community where like it starts with 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.360 people who are like reasonably you know, questioning of religion, 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.720 and it turns into people who are like kind of insufferable. 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:28.840 Yeah, you have that. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.000 This is something that's kind of been forgotten. You have 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.640 that about wrestling in like the nineties, in like eighties 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:37.720 and nineties, where like there's these these kind of like 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.960 pseudo intellectual guys will be you know it's fake, right, right, Well, yeah, 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:42.679 of course of course it is. 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.480 Yeah, there were some there's a couple of real ghouls. 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.360 I can't yeah, I can't. I can't remember their names. 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.119 But there's one guy in the steroid case that's like 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.520 really gung ho about Oh, these guys are using steroids, 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.480 and it's anyway, like fuck Vince, but also like fuck 0:20:59.560 --> 0:20:59.880 that guy. 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.959 There's some, there's some, like there's some, and the Bells 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:04.840 is kind of he's he can be a dick about it. 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:10.320 He's like really insistent that it's not real, and I get. 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:12.400 Very frustrated by these people. I once watched a Vince 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.400 McMahon wrestling match with someone who was in a bar. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.720 Everyone's enjoying the wrestling show, and this one person was 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.240 like this is fake and everyone's like, well, obviously it's fake. 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:21.960 Yeah, man. Then Vince got it. 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.200 Vince got his head busted open. I want to say 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.800 he was fighting the one legged kid that they hired wrong. 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.159 That's another ten part podcast series, but they hired the 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:35.080 wrong one legged kid and he like busted open Vince's 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:36.840 head the hard way, which means he did not mean 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:39.679 for the hit to bleed, yeah, and he was hemorrhaging blood. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.960 And so Vince McMahon, who's who's in his wrestling uniform 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.360 which is like black slacks and no shirt, but went 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.359 over to the ring apron and was just gushing blood 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:49.000 out of the ring because this would have turned the 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.720 entire ring red. And this person is still saying wrestling 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:54.800 is fake, and everyone's trying to explain to them, no, 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:57.120 look the man's bleeding from their head and they're like, yeah, 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:57.720 it's all fake. 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.000 I'm like, well, didn't get in you're a blood pump 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.680 and is like naked, how did he do this? 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:04.360 Right? 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:06.760 What world are you living in? 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.200 So I guess that's what I equate with this type 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.240 of person, where like they're so dumb. They think they're 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.000 smart because they spotted the fakeness, but it's like you're 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:17.879 like eight steps away from being just the base level 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:18.760 of not dumb. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.840 And look, Richard Belzer, an actor who we all have 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.680 a lot of fond memories of not the smartest man 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:29.360 who ever lived, and it's kind of evidence for that. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.600 Mister T and Hogan are on his show and he 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.919 starts insisting over and over again that he wants to 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.560 be put in a wrestling hold, and he goes after 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.960 mister T first, but mister T is number one not 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:44.080 an idiot, and number two doesn't know a lot of wrestling, 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:45.760 so he's like, I'm not going to put you in 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:47.040 a hold on life TV. 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:48.760 He's not going to tear a white man's head off 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:50.280 on TV. He's a little too tiny. 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:53.800 Yeah, my career things are I am mister T and 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.000 it's the mid eighties. Things are going well for me. 0:22:56.080 --> 0:23:00.400 I'm not going to gamble on this. But hul Cogan has, 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:04.399 you know, the brain of a goldfish, and so it's like, okay, 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:07.880 i will put you in a wrestling hold and I'm 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.400 gonna play the audio of this. Sean, would you announce 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:13.480 what's going on to the audience pleasure? 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:20.080 Okay, punched over, we's got him in a front headline. 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:22.160 Oh wow, Okay. 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:24.040 Watching it in On the other hand, he's got a 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.480 figure flour on it and Belzer looks like he's passing out. 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:32.840 He's completely limp and he's on the floor seemingly dead. 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:39.200 Mister T not surprised. Mister T has watched many rough 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.000 housing engagements. 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:44.760 Endless way, So this is this is like, uh, the 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.880 dumbest asshole party wants to play wrestle and you're like, well, 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.080 this is only going to end with someone like nearly dying, 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:52.600 like guillotine chokes some. 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:54.800 And it's one of those things it's Belzer's fault that 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.360 this starts. Hogan fucks up because, like, it is possible 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:00.280 to put a man in a headlock and he to 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:04.280 choke somebody into unconsciousness and not seriously injure them. People 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.520 do it with some regularity. Not that you should, because 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.160 it's also very easy to kill them if you don't 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:10.720 know what you're. 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:12.600 Doing, but you can do it. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.440 The problem here, I was gonna say I had heard 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:18.360 a version of the story where Hogan may have done 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:21.760 this on purpose because he was kind of sick. If 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:22.960 bells are running his mouth. 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:25.399 I don't think we'll ever know, because like there are 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:27.800 a lawsuit results from this, So Hogan's not going to 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:30.320 be like, yeah, I dropped him on purpose. He says 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.639 that he slipped out of his hands. Maybe Hogan let 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:36.160 him go hard, Like I can't prove that one way 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:39.480 or the other, but either way, Belser. The problem in 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:41.520 this is not that Belser got choked out. It's that 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:45.080 Belzer gets dropped when he is unconscious and he smacks 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:47.919 his head into the ground and suffers a significant head injury. 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:50.240 He's serious. 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:53.240 Shit, Yeah, I probably should have explained to this idiot, like, hey, 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:55.040 you gotta tap me when you're running out of air. 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:59.600 Yeah, it or like sit down, turns. 0:24:59.359 --> 0:25:01.879 His neck away from the blood choke, Yeah, just to 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:04.400 prevent an instantaneous like death. 0:25:05.000 --> 0:25:06.480 There's a number of things that could have been done, 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:08.159 like if you're gonna do this, okay, let's get on 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:09.920 the ground, you know, so you maybe have. 0:25:09.960 --> 0:25:10.600 Less to fall. 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:12.960 I was gonna say it was like, for instance, don't 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:14.920 do this at all, but don't do this at all 0:25:14.960 --> 0:25:15.840 would be ideal. 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:18.960 Do not choke a man in New unconsciousness on Life 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:23.879 Television's arm is wider than big. Yeah, Like each of 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:28.240 his biceps is fifty percent of Richard Belzer's body weights, 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:30.920 Like those twenty four inch pythoughts. 0:25:31.240 --> 0:25:33.800 It doesn't take hindsight to think, no, is this going 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.439 to end? What? What are the end what's the endgame 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:39.520 of this? Will it be? Yeah? An awkward like he'll 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:41.240 release me and I'll say, well that kind of hurt, 0:25:41.359 --> 0:25:41.840 Like that's not. 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:46.040 Fucking because it's also like, even if you think wrestling 0:25:46.119 --> 0:25:48.960 is fake, do you think Hulk Hogan isn't much much 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:49.720 bigger than you? 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:50.320 Like? 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:53.959 Do you do you Richard Belzer disbelieve that Hulk Cogan 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:55.960 could choke you into unconsciousness. 0:25:56.040 --> 0:25:59.680 Right, it's not outside of the realm of possibility that hulk, 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:05.480 the hulks of a giant, dumb guy might accidentally not 0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:09.880 you well and a smaller than him. 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:13.840 This was not like a wrestling choke like generally a 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:15.760 front hand block, and wrestling is a resting hold, which 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:17.760 means you're just kind of hanging out catching your breath. Yeah, 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:20.679 he locked his hand over his other arm to like 0:26:21.960 --> 0:26:23.280 to get his forearm. 0:26:22.960 --> 0:26:24.800 To cut off his fucking blood. 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:25.080 Yeah. 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:28.400 Yeah, he definitely wanted him unconscious. 0:26:28.560 --> 0:26:31.000 Yeah, this is a real like kill a guy choke, 0:26:31.119 --> 0:26:34.600 not a wrestling it is. So if you sorry, I 0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:37.159 think that fucks have any story Hogan's telling because he's 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:39.240 he did this with intention to choke him out. 0:26:39.960 --> 0:26:40.160 Yeah. 0:26:40.240 --> 0:26:43.200 I think definitely with intention to choke him out. I 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:45.080 think the question is like, did he intend for him 0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:48.040 to like hit the ground. I don't know, right, we 0:26:48.080 --> 0:26:50.320 can't prove it, but it is if you want to 0:26:50.359 --> 0:26:53.439 watch a guy get choked the fuck out and drop 0:26:53.680 --> 0:26:57.840 like a sack of potato instantly, that this is this 0:26:57.880 --> 0:26:59.639 is a pretty good one. 0:27:00.119 --> 0:27:03.320 So somebody granted a wish that you'd be conscious, Like 0:27:03.359 --> 0:27:05.280 he's just Richard. 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:10.400 Belzer suffer ahead injury. It's like wishing to get into 0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:12.760 a fistfight and then going to an Applebee's at one 0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:15.560 in the morning. You know, It's it's just like granted 0:27:15.600 --> 0:27:16.280 by a genie. 0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:16.800 Man. 0:27:17.119 --> 0:27:19.520 How many times has a guy that looks like the 0:27:19.640 --> 0:27:27.640 hulkster choked out a guy that looks like Richard Belzer added, Applebee's. 0:27:25.440 --> 0:27:31.000 Almost a daily encounter, Tom almost a daily encounter. So somehow, 0:27:31.280 --> 0:27:35.120 because the universe is occasionally giving, In the exact same year, 0:27:35.520 --> 0:27:38.840 another TV journalist is assaulted by a pro wrestler and 0:27:38.880 --> 0:27:41.479 suffers at least allegedly a serious injury. 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:45.760 John Stossel, John Stossel, this is the other guy. 0:27:45.800 --> 0:27:47.360 This is the other guy I was thinking of. It's 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:50.680 kind of a dick. Yeah, and it's a clip after 0:27:50.720 --> 0:27:55.800 this swash get smacked. 0:27:55.960 --> 0:27:59.040 Yeah, you love to see it. So Stossel is the 0:27:59.040 --> 0:28:01.280 host of twenty twenty, or at least one of them. Uh, 0:28:01.280 --> 0:28:03.400 and he's got a reput he's like a hoaxbuster, right, 0:28:03.440 --> 0:28:05.360 that's like one of the things that Stossel does. And 0:28:05.400 --> 0:28:08.040 like there are real problems, like people are starting to 0:28:08.080 --> 0:28:11.720 get really concerned with like steroid abuse in the WWF 0:28:11.800 --> 0:28:14.520 and the impact that's having a people's health, and Stossel 0:28:14.640 --> 0:28:17.080 is like kind of on that beat, but he's much 0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:19.679 more interested in proving that wrestling is a hoax. 0:28:19.920 --> 0:28:24.880 Yeah when I jump in real quick, what please about? Oh? Sorry? Nice? 0:28:24.920 --> 0:28:25.800 And please? Oh please? 0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:28.760 Okay, Yeah, what bugs about Stossel is like he the 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:32.840 guy he gets to like help him demonstrate how wrestling 0:28:32.960 --> 0:28:36.800 is choreographed. I forget the wrestler's name, but like that 0:28:36.840 --> 0:28:40.200 wrestler has a very legitimate grievance about the fact that 0:28:40.240 --> 0:28:43.200 there's no union and no healthcare. And he's like if 0:28:43.200 --> 0:28:45.200 you watch like the Dark Side of the Ring episode 0:28:45.280 --> 0:28:47.960 on this, like that guy's talking about all this stuff 0:28:48.440 --> 0:28:50.920 and like he's telling Stoscle this. But like you said, 0:28:50.960 --> 0:28:54.080 Stossel is way way way more interested in like this 0:28:54.280 --> 0:28:57.480 is fake and not like pointing out the actual problems 0:28:57.480 --> 0:28:59.360 with the industry. It's like he gives a shit if 0:28:59.360 --> 0:29:01.240 it's fake, Like it's. 0:29:01.080 --> 0:29:04.360 Not actually a problem if some people are pretending a 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:06.760 thing it's not a sport. When it's a sport, it's 0:29:06.800 --> 0:29:10.000 a problem. If guys are dying, Yeah, that's what you 0:29:10.000 --> 0:29:10.840 should care about. 0:29:11.200 --> 0:29:13.800 Exactly like he was, he treated the fact that like 0:29:13.880 --> 0:29:17.480 wrestling is choreographed as like this big bombshell scandal and 0:29:17.480 --> 0:29:19.320 it's like, bro, who cares. 0:29:19.520 --> 0:29:21.920 It's like if one of those like Renaissance fares, if 0:29:21.920 --> 0:29:25.320 there's like a fucking uh cholera outbreak because of some 0:29:25.360 --> 0:29:27.600 infected food and you go there to proof that the 0:29:27.680 --> 0:29:30.800 Knights aren't really nighted, Like, no, man, there's like. 0:29:30.760 --> 0:29:34.480 A problem here. Somebody needs to look into this. People 0:29:34.480 --> 0:29:35.080 are dying. 0:29:35.320 --> 0:29:37.320 It's like a Chinese genocid and you show up and 0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:39.280 be like Jackie Chan didn't really kill those guys with 0:29:39.320 --> 0:29:39.720 a letter. 0:29:40.200 --> 0:29:45.800 Yeah, it is just I don't know, it's wild. 0:29:45.880 --> 0:29:50.040 So John Stossel, host to twenty twenty is on in 0:29:50.080 --> 0:29:52.760 his trying to bust the wrestling hoax era, and on 0:29:52.760 --> 0:29:55.800 December twenty eighth, he shows up outside of a match 0:29:55.800 --> 0:29:58.240 at the Madison Square Garden to do a segment on 0:29:58.360 --> 0:30:01.240 pro wrestling, and for reason I haven't really found a 0:30:01.240 --> 0:30:04.800 convincing explanation why. I think it's just that he wants 0:30:04.840 --> 0:30:09.400 any kind of press he can get. Vince lets him in. Now, 0:30:09.600 --> 0:30:12.120 this is not a good decision because again he's very 0:30:12.160 --> 0:30:14.160 much like Vince knows he's going to try and like 0:30:14.400 --> 0:30:18.360 make the business look bad. But also McMahon is fine 0:30:18.400 --> 0:30:21.640 with this. He wants to kind of generate conflict, so 0:30:21.720 --> 0:30:25.240 he sends out David Schultz. David wrestled under the name 0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:27.840 doctor D, and David's kind of like getting dressed in 0:30:27.880 --> 0:30:30.160 the locker room when mc mahon comes in and he's like, Hey, 0:30:30.400 --> 0:30:31.920 we got a guy out here making a joke of 0:30:31.960 --> 0:30:33.600 the business. I want you to go out here and 0:30:33.680 --> 0:30:36.000 interview with him. Blast him up, tear his ass up, 0:30:36.160 --> 0:30:38.959 stay in character, doctor D. That's what he tells him. 0:30:39.000 --> 0:30:42.320 According to Doctor D, like blast him right, like that's 0:30:42.400 --> 0:30:44.360 Vince's exact words here. 0:30:45.080 --> 0:30:46.960 Yeah, I want to be a clear doctor D. 0:30:47.080 --> 0:30:50.400 Tear his penis off, Yeah yeah, your hands right off, 0:30:50.520 --> 0:30:51.960 straight off like a paper towel. 0:30:52.720 --> 0:30:54.640 I've been reading a lot of books about you know, 0:30:54.720 --> 0:30:57.280 these difference called to eunuch units in the in the 0:30:57.280 --> 0:30:59.479 Ottoman military. I think it's a good idea. I think 0:30:59.480 --> 0:31:01.280 we should try here. So why don't you, why don't 0:31:01.320 --> 0:31:03.120 you geld this TV journalist? 0:31:04.240 --> 0:31:05.000 I understand this. 0:31:05.960 --> 0:31:07.760 I was gonna say, this is the thing you need 0:31:07.800 --> 0:31:12.120 to understand about David Schultz if you've never seen him before, 0:31:13.080 --> 0:31:15.040 those those of you listening, is that he's like the 0:31:15.040 --> 0:31:18.120 shitkick and his ship kicker that's ever lived. Oh my god, yeah, 0:31:18.160 --> 0:31:21.720 like yeah. 0:31:20.640 --> 0:31:22.720 Yeah, he looks like the kind of guy you would 0:31:22.720 --> 0:31:25.640 bring with you in a fight if you needed back up, 0:31:25.720 --> 0:31:27.959 but who would need like an explanation. 0:31:27.480 --> 0:31:29.720 Of how your car door works in order to get out? 0:31:30.240 --> 0:31:30.800 Like he looks. 0:31:31.000 --> 0:31:34.800 He looks like he's been questioned in every unsolved murder 0:31:34.840 --> 0:31:35.800 in his guiltest. 0:31:36.200 --> 0:31:40.719 Yeah, he swallows two gallons of chewing tobacco spit every day. 0:31:43.320 --> 0:31:46.200 So I'm gonna play you this clip here, or at 0:31:46.240 --> 0:31:48.160 least I'm going to make Sophie do it and then 0:31:48.200 --> 0:31:51.520 take credit for it, because that's that's how the entertainment 0:31:51.560 --> 0:31:52.320 industry works. 0:31:52.360 --> 0:31:52.680 Baby. 0:31:53.520 --> 0:31:56.640 I asked Schultz questions that I assume all wrestlers have 0:31:56.640 --> 0:31:58.080 been asked dozens of times. 0:31:58.440 --> 0:32:00.600 What it is a good business? Yeah, a good business 0:32:00.600 --> 0:32:01.480 wouldn't be in if it one. 0:32:01.640 --> 0:32:02.360 Why isn't it good? 0:32:02.640 --> 0:32:04.680 Because it's only the tough sur vibe that's reading you 0:32:04.680 --> 0:32:06.760 ain't in it And this punk holding the camera reading, 0:32:06.760 --> 0:32:08.520 he ain't in it, reading he's read next out here, 0:32:08.520 --> 0:32:12.480 ain't in it. Because there's a tough business that's terrific. 0:32:12.520 --> 0:32:14.400 What is that all you got? I'll ask you the 0:32:14.440 --> 0:32:17.680 standard question, you know question, I think it's a fake? 0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:29.960 Do you think his bike that's an open hand slap? 0:32:30.400 --> 0:32:32.480 He does, kind of playing off like I'm showing you 0:32:32.560 --> 0:32:35.040 a move, like isn't this like you think it's not real. 0:32:35.120 --> 0:32:38.640 Here's like a slap that we take, but because it's 0:32:38.720 --> 0:32:43.480 so funny, yeah it is a second time. He does 0:32:43.560 --> 0:32:45.239 get him a second I believe he does get him 0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:48.600 a second time, and it's it's like it's one of 0:32:48.640 --> 0:32:52.400 those things. Obviously, doctor d horrible decision, but you shouldn't 0:32:52.400 --> 0:32:55.560 do that, but also can't pop he's just. 0:32:55.680 --> 0:32:57.120 Done a knife hand chop or something. 0:32:57.280 --> 0:32:58.960 Is like, yeah, let me show you one of our 0:32:58.960 --> 0:33:00.640 moves that we do, and then just fucking put a 0:33:00.680 --> 0:33:01.960 handprint on his chest or something. 0:33:02.480 --> 0:33:05.520 You're big and terrifying, He's John Stossel, Like, throw a 0:33:05.560 --> 0:33:08.160 fake punch and get him to like back up and 0:33:08.240 --> 0:33:10.800 flinch and be like, I don't know, looks real to me. 0:33:10.920 --> 0:33:14.080 You flinched, you know, I don't know. Something you could. 0:33:14.120 --> 0:33:17.000 In fairness, also on the list of things you don't 0:33:17.040 --> 0:33:20.360 do is go up to a guy that looks like 0:33:20.440 --> 0:33:23.560 David Schultz and tell him, hey, I think you're. 0:33:23.440 --> 0:33:25.080 Fake yeah, I think you're a liar. 0:33:26.120 --> 0:33:29.400 It was no hesitation, he said, a fake in hand 0:33:29.520 --> 0:33:30.280 his mouth. 0:33:30.160 --> 0:33:34.920 Immediate immediately, and you know there's a cobra strike. 0:33:36.160 --> 0:33:39.240 Like STOs You've got this foreign life without like seeing 0:33:39.240 --> 0:33:43.400 that guy and thinking that dude is seconds away from punching. 0:33:43.520 --> 0:33:48.120 Yeah, you can see it in his face on the mind. Yeah, 0:33:48.440 --> 0:33:53.560 just back off Stossel. It is like it's like somebody 0:33:53.640 --> 0:33:57.160 trying to pet a rattlesnake while it's making the noise, 0:33:57.240 --> 0:33:57.720 and you're. 0:33:57.720 --> 0:34:00.880 Yeah, it's it's the it's the confidence of somebody who's 0:34:00.960 --> 0:34:02.240 never been punched before. 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:05.840 That's exactly what it is. And unfortunately John Stossel has 0:34:05.880 --> 0:34:07.960 a platform and is able to sue. I'm not saying 0:34:08.040 --> 0:34:10.880 what Schultz did is wrong. Also, I think some of 0:34:10.920 --> 0:34:13.240 this is Vince's fault, because if you have a man 0:34:13.640 --> 0:34:18.239 at Schultz's level of like smart capacity, and you're like 0:34:18.440 --> 0:34:20.839 go out there and fuck up this journalist and then 0:34:20.880 --> 0:34:23.160 he hits him, some of that is on you, Vince. 0:34:23.320 --> 0:34:26.000 Like this is not a tire just Schultz. That is, 0:34:26.040 --> 0:34:29.320 it was bad decisions leading to this, and that reporter 0:34:29.440 --> 0:34:31.719 made the worst of them all. Like I hear, like 0:34:31.800 --> 0:34:33.799 nothing could have been made more clear to this man 0:34:33.840 --> 0:34:35.560 than like if you fuck with him, you're gonna get 0:34:35.560 --> 0:34:38.040 punched in the vase, and he still did it. Well, 0:34:38.120 --> 0:34:40.240 it's natural selection at best. 0:34:40.560 --> 0:34:43.160 It'd be one thing if like Schultz had been involved 0:34:43.200 --> 0:34:46.160 and something like you know we talked or yeah, we 0:34:46.200 --> 0:34:49.720 talked about the the Snooky case right where he fucking 0:34:49.800 --> 0:34:52.120 murders a woman. If you're going up to like a 0:34:52.160 --> 0:34:55.440 fucking gorilla like that because of a serious crime and 0:34:55.480 --> 0:34:57.440 you ask him that kind of question, knowing you're gonna 0:34:57.440 --> 0:35:00.359 get fucking hit, well that's that's kind of heroic. But 0:35:00.440 --> 0:35:03.319 like Stossel, the thing he is trying to bust is 0:35:03.360 --> 0:35:07.440 that like wrestling's not real, Like it's it's pointless, you know, 0:35:07.680 --> 0:35:09.120 it's it's it would be like. 0:35:09.160 --> 0:35:17.160 Interrogating a mal Santa. Yeah, it's like what's your endgame here? 0:35:17.239 --> 0:35:18.239 Yeah? Why are we? 0:35:18.480 --> 0:35:20.640 Yeah, it's like waging in this case, it would be 0:35:20.640 --> 0:35:22.520 a Malsanda with lots of tattoos. 0:35:22.960 --> 0:35:27.520 It's like waging a desperate and ultimately fatal insurgent war 0:35:27.640 --> 0:35:29.800 against the storm troopers at Disney World. 0:35:30.160 --> 0:35:34.760 Like there was no need for this cameras to bust 0:35:34.800 --> 0:35:38.200 the Easter Bunny for Yeah, why are we here. 0:35:39.440 --> 0:35:42.640 Anyway, Stossel claims that he suffered permanent ear damage, and 0:35:42.680 --> 0:35:44.520 that is quite a slat. Maybe he did, Like I'm 0:35:44.560 --> 0:35:48.000 not I'm not questioning him on this. McMahon settles with 0:35:48.120 --> 0:35:49.759 him for I think it's like four hundred and fifty 0:35:49.760 --> 0:35:52.320 thousand dollars, Like it's a significant amount of money. 0:35:53.760 --> 0:35:55.880 And so too much money to pay for a bitch 0:35:55.920 --> 0:35:56.560 ass ear. 0:36:00.160 --> 0:36:03.560 So despite the fact that Vince was allegedly happy to 0:36:03.600 --> 0:36:07.000 provoke violence to protect k Fabe, and you know, you 0:36:07.040 --> 0:36:09.520 can say which I don't know that Vince is to blame. 0:36:09.520 --> 0:36:11.560 I don't think I haven't seen any evidence that like 0:36:11.640 --> 0:36:14.200 Vince is really to blame for what happens to fucking Belzer. 0:36:14.440 --> 0:36:18.520 But he's definitely part of Stossel getting assaulted here, and 0:36:18.560 --> 0:36:20.200 I think you have to describe that as like he 0:36:20.320 --> 0:36:22.800 is happy to have violence occur in order to protect 0:36:22.880 --> 0:36:25.759 k Fabe. In nineteen eighty four, despite this fact, and 0:36:25.760 --> 0:36:28.600 despite the fact that he like damages doctor D's career 0:36:28.680 --> 0:36:31.359 forever by sort of inciting him to go out there, 0:36:31.880 --> 0:36:35.200 Vince spends the nineteen eighties, the mid to late eighties 0:36:35.239 --> 0:36:38.959 and an active and engaged campaign to kill it right 0:36:39.080 --> 0:36:43.560 to kill the concept of k fabe if you have forgotten, 0:36:43.760 --> 0:36:47.239 in the late nineteen eighties and early nineties, wrestling was 0:36:47.320 --> 0:36:51.160 mostly treated as a real sport under the law. Referees 0:36:51.200 --> 0:36:53.759 are licensed by the same reps, you know, as the 0:36:53.800 --> 0:36:55.879 same way that like reps for the NFL are, right, 0:36:55.960 --> 0:36:58.160 like there's no difference to the state between them, because 0:36:58.239 --> 0:37:01.480 people are saying wrestling's real, right, so would there be matches? 0:37:01.560 --> 0:37:03.800 Are thus subject to these same kinds of health and 0:37:03.840 --> 0:37:07.000 safety requirements, And you know, it's a little silly to 0:37:07.080 --> 0:37:09.239 have like the same sort of refs for wrestling, but 0:37:09.280 --> 0:37:14.480 it's totally reasonable that like the NFL and WWF would 0:37:14.520 --> 0:37:16.960 have the same health and safety requirements. Right they're both 0:37:17.080 --> 0:37:19.640 huge guys slamming into each other. Presumably a lot of 0:37:19.680 --> 0:37:23.560 the same problems are going to occur. Despite the fact 0:37:23.560 --> 0:37:26.080 that Vince and other promoters have a big issue with 0:37:26.160 --> 0:37:30.120 this state of affairs, it is not particularly strict strict. 0:37:30.160 --> 0:37:32.960 There's a lot of like wink wink, nudge, nudge. Doctor 0:37:33.040 --> 0:37:36.840 George Zahorian, who was going to become the WWF steroid dealer, 0:37:37.160 --> 0:37:41.480 is like Pennsylvania's state appointed medical doctor for wrestling, So 0:37:41.719 --> 0:37:46.960 not necessarily the strictest situation imaginable here still the modest 0:37:47.080 --> 0:37:51.160 regulation that wrestling existed under cost money, and the McMahons 0:37:51.200 --> 0:37:54.360 weren't about to stand for that. They started by lobbying 0:37:54.360 --> 0:37:57.520 in Connecticut before the first WrestleMania, and they succeeded in 0:37:57.560 --> 0:38:01.600 getting Republican state Representative Lauren Dickson to introduce a bill 0:38:01.760 --> 0:38:04.920 ending all state government oversight of wrestler health and in 0:38:05.040 --> 0:38:09.040 ring safety measures. A lawyer for the WWF appeared in 0:38:09.160 --> 0:38:12.400 the state legislature to make the argument that, quote, we 0:38:12.560 --> 0:38:15.520 consider ourselves in the same class or league as the 0:38:15.520 --> 0:38:20.000 circus and the Harlem Globetrotters. Wrestlers, this lawyer argued, were 0:38:20.080 --> 0:38:24.840 quote terrific athletes engaged in complex performances, but they shouldn't 0:38:24.880 --> 0:38:27.719 be regulated because there wasn't a real competition going on. 0:38:28.560 --> 0:38:32.480 This passed. This bill passes without much talk, and it 0:38:32.680 --> 0:38:35.400 you know, it's significant obviously for the business because now 0:38:35.400 --> 0:38:38.480 they don't have to deal with like these additional taxes 0:38:38.520 --> 0:38:40.440 that you have to pay in Connecticut for like running 0:38:40.480 --> 0:38:44.160 a sporting event. It doesn't get a lot of attention, 0:38:44.560 --> 0:38:47.000 but this is the first time that a wrestling promoter 0:38:47.160 --> 0:38:50.480 publicly acknowledges that wrestling isn't real, right, this is this 0:38:50.560 --> 0:38:53.480 is the first time that there's an official break in 0:38:53.560 --> 0:38:57.600 cafe from one of these big wrestling organizations. The state 0:38:57.680 --> 0:39:01.120 legislature buys the argument, which is kind of insane when 0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:03.399 you think about it, because, like, well, again, the question 0:39:03.440 --> 0:39:05.399 isn't whether or not there's a competition. It's like our 0:39:05.440 --> 0:39:08.920 people endangering themselves sometimes they need health and safety standards. 0:39:09.160 --> 0:39:13.439 But the McMahons win. So next, Ncent, it's a good thing. 0:39:13.520 --> 0:39:15.400 No wrestlers die in the ring after this. 0:39:15.560 --> 0:39:19.080 No, no, that's not what this entire series is building towards. 0:39:20.200 --> 0:39:22.799 To compare themselves to Harlem Globetrotter. I mean for those 0:39:22.800 --> 0:39:24.560 guys lose a leg every month. 0:39:25.360 --> 0:39:27.440 Yeah, oh god. 0:39:27.560 --> 0:39:31.759 The graveyard of the globe Trotter's limbs, it's like one 0:39:31.800 --> 0:39:34.640 of those burial pits for severed body parts. In the 0:39:34.920 --> 0:39:37.879 at Waterloo, one of the pulse chainsaws out of his hair. 0:39:38.040 --> 0:39:40.560 I don't know if anyone knows this, but his hair 0:39:40.640 --> 0:39:45.879 is filled with weapons. We'll do our Globetrotters episode soon. 0:39:47.120 --> 0:39:49.920 So Vincent Linda next move on to Delaware, where they 0:39:49.960 --> 0:39:53.080 win a similar victory in nineteen eighty seven, and they 0:39:53.120 --> 0:39:55.520 follow by pushing anyone who will listen to them in 0:39:56.200 --> 0:39:59.600 New Jersey politics to deregulate wrestling there. This is kind 0:39:59.600 --> 0:40:01.640 of like a process for them, but they started in 0:40:01.719 --> 0:40:04.520 the late nineteen eighties, and while they're kind of slowly 0:40:04.560 --> 0:40:07.440 trying to build support there, they move on to attacking 0:40:07.520 --> 0:40:11.719 the wrestling regulations in the state of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania 0:40:11.800 --> 0:40:14.680 State Athletic Commission there has a sunset provision and it 0:40:14.719 --> 0:40:16.879 was about to expire. So the whole state is having 0:40:16.920 --> 0:40:19.800 this debate of like, do we keep having a state 0:40:19.840 --> 0:40:23.560 athletic commission. The McMahons wanted dead, and they hire a 0:40:23.600 --> 0:40:26.799 fancy law firm to try and ensure this happens. So 0:40:27.040 --> 0:40:29.600 said law firm is put to the task of arguing 0:40:29.640 --> 0:40:33.200 that Pennsylvania should kill their athletic commission, and they put 0:40:33.239 --> 0:40:35.680 this job on a brash, young lawyer who has a 0:40:35.680 --> 0:40:39.640 real hatred for government regulation. Now who here wants to 0:40:39.680 --> 0:40:42.640 take a guess as to which modern political shithead this 0:40:42.719 --> 0:40:47.360 guy is Giuliani. No, No, thankfully it's not Juliani, although 0:40:47.520 --> 0:40:52.000 it could have been. You gotta guess, you gotta it's 0:40:52.080 --> 0:40:57.800 Rick Santorum. Oh, I never would have got there there, 0:40:57.880 --> 0:41:02.920 Rick is, Vince McMahon's like like trigger man to kill wrestling. 0:41:03.160 --> 0:41:10.640 Uh regulations in Pennsylvania. Pretty yeah, exactly, yes, sir, it 0:41:10.719 --> 0:41:11.400 hurts people. 0:41:11.560 --> 0:41:15.399 I'm there. That's my bat signal. Get those kids back 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:16.839 into those minds. It is. 0:41:16.920 --> 0:41:20.120 It is very funny. So, in true Rick person fashion, 0:41:20.200 --> 0:41:22.560 he says ship like this to reporters about the case 0:41:22.920 --> 0:41:25.600 Pennsylvania was the most pernicious of states when it came 0:41:25.640 --> 0:41:27.840 to regulation. I mean, you pay all this money to 0:41:27.880 --> 0:41:32.800 the boxing commission that used to just rape these guys. 0:41:32.360 --> 0:41:34.840 Was no. 0:41:38.320 --> 0:41:41.560 Good guy. Love that his career ended there. So one 0:41:41.560 --> 0:41:43.880 of richards. The boxers have had it too easy for 0:41:43.880 --> 0:41:47.000 too long. I think we can all agree on that. Yeah, boxers, 0:41:47.480 --> 0:41:51.000 I think with too much regulation boxing. But you know 0:41:51.080 --> 0:41:54.920 what isn't regulated? Yeah, I saw Sophie. You know what's 0:41:55.040 --> 0:41:56.480 not regulated in any way? 0:41:58.760 --> 0:42:00.480 That's pretty true. 0:42:01.520 --> 0:42:06.600 Podcast advertising, whatever ad you're about to hear by their 0:42:06.640 --> 0:42:18.080 gold Yeah, don't tell the FTC. So we're back. One 0:42:18.080 --> 0:42:22.319 of Rick's tricks as he's lobbying to deregulate wrestling is 0:42:22.320 --> 0:42:26.160 to take state lawmakers backstage at WWF events where they 0:42:26.160 --> 0:42:29.720 got free food and liquor. In a way that didn't 0:42:29.760 --> 0:42:31.239 technically violate the law. 0:42:32.560 --> 0:42:34.879 Sounds like he's trying to whine and dine some nine 0:42:34.920 --> 0:42:37.759 year olds. He took me backstage, they got to meet 0:42:37.800 --> 0:42:40.680 the Ultimate Warrior and shake the Snake, and Big boss 0:42:40.760 --> 0:42:42.319 Man and Big Bless. 0:42:42.120 --> 0:42:42.959 Driver was there. 0:42:44.440 --> 0:42:48.879 We're grieve. We're joking about this. But when I get 0:42:48.920 --> 0:42:52.840 into politics, like, I will vote on anything. If you 0:42:53.000 --> 0:42:55.840 take me backstage to meet Hulk Cogan and get me drunk, 0:42:56.120 --> 0:43:00.680 you know, anything, anything you want to invent to rack again, 0:43:00.760 --> 0:43:04.680 let's do it. I'm on board. No body count too high. 0:43:04.800 --> 0:43:06.959 If I get to meet the Holkster and talk about 0:43:07.000 --> 0:43:09.440 Suburban Commando with him, I'm fine with it. 0:43:10.239 --> 0:43:11.040 That's my limit. 0:43:11.320 --> 0:43:14.160 And that was these guys' limits, right because you know 0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:17.200 Santorum takes these guys backstage. They all get to take 0:43:17.200 --> 0:43:20.600 their photos with Hulk or whoever. This all culminates as 0:43:20.640 --> 0:43:23.360 they're kind of doing this charm offensive. In Lynda McMahon's 0:43:23.440 --> 0:43:26.680 June eleventh, nineteen eighty seven testimony in Philadelphia to a 0:43:26.680 --> 0:43:30.920 committee reviewing this commission, Josie Riiseman writes, quote she was 0:43:30.920 --> 0:43:33.720 preceded by two executives from the Athletic Commission who pleaded 0:43:33.719 --> 0:43:36.080 with legislators to allow them to make sure the wrestlers 0:43:36.080 --> 0:43:38.560 were safe and safe and healthy. The chairman of the 0:43:38.560 --> 0:43:41.520 State Athletic Commission, James J. Binns, argued that if the 0:43:41.520 --> 0:43:44.400 state got rid of wrestling regulations, they would be replaced 0:43:44.400 --> 0:43:46.399 by the good old boys system of live and let live, 0:43:46.480 --> 0:43:48.040 and let's just see what we can do to get 0:43:48.040 --> 0:43:51.240 beyond this problem. The committee members were less interested in workers' 0:43:51.239 --> 0:43:53.560 safety than they weren't trying to parse out the question 0:43:53.600 --> 0:43:56.720 of whether or not wrestling was real. After Bins delivered 0:43:56.719 --> 0:43:59.920 this opening statement, the first question from a legislator was, 0:44:00.239 --> 0:44:03.200 do you believe honestly that wrestling is a competitive sport? 0:44:03.560 --> 0:44:03.960 It is not. 0:44:04.080 --> 0:44:08.880 Serpents replied, wrestling is an exhibition. No reasonable person like, 0:44:09.360 --> 0:44:11.880 it's so insane. It's the same stoscilshit where it's like 0:44:11.960 --> 0:44:14.960 sim embarrassing that they're this hung up on it. The 0:44:15.000 --> 0:44:19.080 only adult in Philadelphia state government is like, well, these 0:44:19.320 --> 0:44:21.759 these men are really encountering dangers and like we need 0:44:21.800 --> 0:44:25.800 to have health and safety regulations, and the entire state legislatures. 0:44:25.200 --> 0:44:29.799 Like, but is real or is he real? Sins can 0:44:29.840 --> 0:44:30.399 really talk? 0:44:30.520 --> 0:44:30.759 Right? 0:44:34.160 --> 0:44:37.680 Can the Undertaker really bring back the dead. Yeah, I 0:44:37.719 --> 0:44:40.680 don't know about that. Is he some form of necromancer? 0:44:41.239 --> 0:44:46.160 If I could eye control him? My constituents, you want 0:44:46.160 --> 0:44:47.320 to know, yehs. 0:44:48.239 --> 0:44:51.759 It's remarkable how dumb these fucking people are and how 0:44:51.760 --> 0:44:52.520 many bad. 0:44:52.320 --> 0:44:53.640 Consequences there are to it. 0:44:53.719 --> 0:44:58.520 But everybody's like, yep uh, this this is a reasonable 0:44:58.560 --> 0:45:01.520 thing to be debating on. And to her credit, not credit, 0:45:01.560 --> 0:45:03.800 because this is an awful thing to do, but it 0:45:04.000 --> 0:45:07.160 just Linda is very savvy at what she's doing. She's 0:45:07.239 --> 0:45:10.000 much better at certain aspects of the business than, certainly 0:45:10.040 --> 0:45:12.960 than Vince is. And she follows up with an extremely 0:45:13.000 --> 0:45:16.040 disingenuous argument, but a very successful one. And this is 0:45:16.320 --> 0:45:20.200 me pretending to be Linda McMahon. But I'll just I 0:45:20.200 --> 0:45:22.439 don't know, yeah, I'll do my Ben Shapiro voice. 0:45:22.440 --> 0:45:27.359 Probably I'm listening. I'm letting the illusion take take me over. 0:45:27.719 --> 0:45:32.759 Just just close your eyes. We provide quality family entertainment 0:45:32.800 --> 0:45:35.000 for all age groups and for people from all walks 0:45:35.040 --> 0:45:39.080 of life. Unlike professional boxers, professional wrestlers are not competing 0:45:39.120 --> 0:45:41.880 in contests where points are scored and the winner determined 0:45:41.960 --> 0:45:45.719 by potentially injurious blows struck at an opponent. Instead, like 0:45:45.760 --> 0:45:47.840 the skilled athletes you see in the circus or the 0:45:47.880 --> 0:45:51.279 Harlem globetrotters. Our athletes are well conditioned professionals who are 0:45:51.280 --> 0:45:53.120 the best at what they do, and what they do 0:45:53.200 --> 0:45:56.120 is entertain people. Does the Liquor Control Board assign an 0:45:56.160 --> 0:45:59.160 agent to every tavern? Does the Game Commission assign a 0:45:59.160 --> 0:46:02.200 game boarding to every hunter? To such questions, the answer 0:46:02.239 --> 0:46:05.120 is obviously no, And these are areas where real dangers 0:46:05.160 --> 0:46:08.280 exist to society. There is no such danger in wrestling. 0:46:09.480 --> 0:46:12.120 And there's a lot that's silly about. For one thing, 0:46:12.480 --> 0:46:15.480 like every hunter might encounter a game warden. There are 0:46:15.480 --> 0:46:17.480 game boardens out there. If you are if you shoot 0:46:17.520 --> 0:46:19.600 a deer and a game warden is there, they will 0:46:19.640 --> 0:46:21.960 like make you show your tags, They'll check to make sure. 0:46:22.000 --> 0:46:25.800 It's like that's a part of hunting. Yeah, I absolutely 0:46:25.840 --> 0:46:29.319 do not understand that part of the argument. And also yes, 0:46:29.360 --> 0:46:31.440 there's not one game boarden for every one hunting. No, 0:46:32.080 --> 0:46:35.960 And like yeah, like the liquor Control Board doesn't have 0:46:36.080 --> 0:46:38.640 like a sky marshal guy in every bar, but like 0:46:38.719 --> 0:46:42.760 every bar could be investigated by a liquor controvery bar. 0:46:42.640 --> 0:46:45.640 I can have its license pulled if you, yeah, break 0:46:45.680 --> 0:46:48.200 the rules, like that's a that's a nothing argument. 0:46:49.200 --> 0:46:51.600 It's it's a nuts argument. But you can see why 0:46:51.600 --> 0:46:53.560 this could sell to a room full of guys who 0:46:53.600 --> 0:46:56.000 are dumb enough to like listen to a man beg 0:46:56.080 --> 0:46:59.839 them to take seriously the health consequences of wrestling and going. 0:47:00.200 --> 0:47:07.680 But is it real, Like it works. 0:47:03.840 --> 0:47:09.360 Yeah, yeah, it's and one of the things that say. 0:47:09.640 --> 0:47:13.000 How everyone is today and then like take them back 0:47:13.040 --> 0:47:16.840 thirty years. Yeah, and they just like didn't know anything. Yeah, 0:47:17.200 --> 0:47:19.600 like nothing at nothing at all. Not a single brain 0:47:19.680 --> 0:47:22.600 in the room. They are all like all all of 0:47:22.600 --> 0:47:26.480 these guys, cognition is like sixty percent old fashions and 0:47:26.520 --> 0:47:30.360 forty percent camel cigarettes. There is there is just not 0:47:30.440 --> 0:47:34.359 a thought in their head. Their brains look like the 0:47:34.360 --> 0:47:36.080 inside of a Playboy spread. 0:47:37.000 --> 0:47:38.760 Yeah. Tragic. 0:47:39.280 --> 0:47:44.040 So after this kind of big testimony, you start to 0:47:44.040 --> 0:47:46.000 get a little bit of leak into like the public 0:47:46.080 --> 0:47:48.399 consciousness that like some like some people who are paying 0:47:48.400 --> 0:47:51.120 more attention are like, well, actually, like WWF's claiming that 0:47:51.239 --> 0:47:53.320 like what they're doing isn't real. That's kind of interesting. 0:47:53.360 --> 0:47:55.879 That's a change, but it has no impact on how 0:47:55.960 --> 0:47:59.319 Vince treats. It's his own people. When they break KFA right, like, 0:47:59.320 --> 0:48:01.640 there's still very aggressive about it. In fact, the month 0:48:01.719 --> 0:48:06.320 before Linda's testimony, the Iron Shake and Hacksaw Jim Duggan 0:48:06.360 --> 0:48:08.840 get into a traffic stop and there's like liquor and 0:48:08.880 --> 0:48:11.960 drugs in the car. They're supposed to be bitter rivals 0:48:12.000 --> 0:48:14.359 in the ring, and Vince fires them because like this 0:48:14.400 --> 0:48:17.120 is like an unacceptable breach of KFA. He does not 0:48:17.280 --> 0:48:19.480 care that, like this is like we just talked about, 0:48:19.640 --> 0:48:21.560 you know, the murder that he doesn't care that they're 0:48:21.600 --> 0:48:26.040 drunk driving. You know, the issue is they're not supposed 0:48:26.040 --> 0:48:28.920 to be friends. Now, in the middle of all this, 0:48:29.000 --> 0:48:32.799 in nineteen eighty eight, Vince is getting ready for WrestleMania four. 0:48:33.000 --> 0:48:35.320 This is the one that has the epic showdown between 0:48:35.360 --> 0:48:38.600 Andre and the Holkster. It's a very famous event, although 0:48:38.600 --> 0:48:40.960 because there's so much cool shit happening in the event, 0:48:41.280 --> 0:48:43.600 it's often not being remembered as like as much of 0:48:43.600 --> 0:48:46.320 a shit show as it was. And part of why 0:48:46.440 --> 0:48:48.719 the actual event itself is kind of a shit show 0:48:48.760 --> 0:48:52.160 on the ground is that it's held in Atlantic City. Now, 0:48:52.440 --> 0:48:55.240 if you're not a Springsteen fan or from the East coast, 0:48:55.440 --> 0:48:58.680 Atlantic City is Las Vegas, without any hope at all. Right, 0:48:58.760 --> 0:49:00.600 That's that's kind of how I would describe it. 0:49:01.239 --> 0:49:02.000 Yeah. Yeah. 0:49:02.120 --> 0:49:05.600 It's also where a certain real estate mogul named Donald J. 0:49:05.800 --> 0:49:09.319 Trump had a casino in the late nineteen eighties, And 0:49:09.920 --> 0:49:12.920 there's kind of a little bit of wonders like how 0:49:12.960 --> 0:49:15.520 this exactly happened. But basically, one day at an event, 0:49:15.800 --> 0:49:19.000 Trump and McMahon meet and they get to talking and 0:49:19.200 --> 0:49:22.560 McMahon is like, you know, we're doing a big wrestling event, 0:49:22.560 --> 0:49:25.680 you know, one of our WrestleManias. And Trump is familiar 0:49:25.719 --> 0:49:27.680 with wrestling and is like, well, you know, I got 0:49:27.680 --> 0:49:30.319 this casino, I got this hotel. You know, you should 0:49:30.360 --> 0:49:33.160 do an Atlantic city. I'll sponsor it. And this is 0:49:33.200 --> 0:49:36.520 in fact what happens. Trump agrees to sponsor WrestleMania for 0:49:37.800 --> 0:49:40.840 the future President records some awkward promos for the event 0:49:41.440 --> 0:49:43.720 it is. They kind of lie about it on TV 0:49:43.920 --> 0:49:46.360 and they say that it's being held at the Trump Casino, 0:49:46.440 --> 0:49:49.480 even though it's actually being hosted quite a while it's 0:49:49.480 --> 0:49:51.719 like at the Pier or something like that. There's a 0:49:51.719 --> 0:49:53.600 little bit of like fuckery with that kind of stuff. 0:49:53.640 --> 0:49:56.160 Not a big deal. There are also some really awkward 0:49:56.200 --> 0:49:59.000 moments from that time. And my favorite is this video 0:49:59.360 --> 0:50:02.719 featuring Rilla Monsoon and Bobby the Brain Heenan, who are 0:50:02.719 --> 0:50:06.919 both like wrestlers who have become like commentators. And it's 0:50:07.000 --> 0:50:10.640 like a video of Bobby Heenan trying to check into 0:50:10.640 --> 0:50:13.520 the Trump hotel and casino. This is part of like 0:50:13.600 --> 0:50:16.160 a twenty minute thing that's like basically supposed to be 0:50:16.239 --> 0:50:18.920 an ad for Trump properties, you know, because he's sponsoring 0:50:18.920 --> 0:50:22.040 this shit, but it's like deeply off putting and and 0:50:22.200 --> 0:50:24.359 to show that, here's here's just a clip from it. 0:50:24.440 --> 0:50:26.680 This is a clip from like what Trump is meaning 0:50:26.719 --> 0:50:29.160 to be an ad for his property of Bobby Heenan 0:50:29.200 --> 0:50:30.560 like checking into his hotel. 0:50:30.960 --> 0:50:35.120 Oh boy, have any reservations, And we all completely sew. 0:50:35.360 --> 0:50:36.880 I got the whole top floor here, I got the 0:50:36.880 --> 0:50:38.080 suites on the top four here. 0:50:38.200 --> 0:50:39.960 Don't give me that, bimbo. Do you have all the 0:50:39.960 --> 0:50:43.040 sweets on the top floor? That's right. Excuse me, there's 0:50:43.080 --> 0:50:45.320 no reason for you to be calling me in. It's okay, 0:50:45.400 --> 0:50:48.040 for no reason. I don't know who you're talking. I'm 0:50:48.040 --> 0:50:49.640 just sitting here. I'm trying to be in the park 0:50:49.719 --> 0:50:51.879 my parking cards in about twenty minutes. Please just bear 0:50:51.920 --> 0:50:56.360 with me. It's just like really kind of off putting. 0:50:56.560 --> 0:50:58.000 Well that's just really unpleasant. 0:50:58.280 --> 0:51:04.120 Yeah, just it's raight weird. A heenan's doing his heel stuff. Yeah, 0:51:04.480 --> 0:51:07.640 not like a charming way. He's just being really mean 0:51:07.680 --> 0:51:10.080 to this one. It's being deployed in a weird way. 0:51:10.400 --> 0:51:15.080 Like this woman's clearly not an actress, and it's exists. 0:51:15.200 --> 0:51:17.720 You get like exists, like you get like a lady 0:51:17.719 --> 0:51:19.840 wrestler or something here and maybe like they have a 0:51:19.920 --> 0:51:22.480 conflict or something, and like there's some betwet back and 0:51:23.000 --> 0:51:25.520 she she does seem like someone who works the front 0:51:25.560 --> 0:51:29.360 desk at a casino and is just really uncomfortable and scared. 0:51:29.960 --> 0:51:33.680 Like it's just very off putting. But what else do 0:51:33.760 --> 0:51:36.440 you expect from Donald Trump's casino and hotel. 0:51:36.760 --> 0:51:38.880 This is why any gorilla monsoon next to him at 0:51:38.880 --> 0:51:40.800 all times to go, would you stop? 0:51:41.440 --> 0:51:46.520 He does come in eventually rescue the situation, but yeah, 0:51:46.600 --> 0:51:51.680 it's it's awkward. So, despite Trump's friendliness to the sport, 0:51:52.000 --> 0:51:54.759 Atlantic City has one big downside for events, which is 0:51:54.760 --> 0:51:56.520 that it is in the state of New Jersey, and 0:51:56.560 --> 0:51:59.000 the state of New Jersey charges a tax on TV 0:51:59.160 --> 0:52:02.800 sporting events. The bill comes to like sixty one thousand dollars, 0:52:02.920 --> 0:52:05.759 and you know, WrestleMania four, the first couple are really 0:52:05.800 --> 0:52:08.840 big hits. He's seeing kind of declining revenues in the 0:52:08.880 --> 0:52:11.680 late nineteen eighties, so like the fact that he's just 0:52:11.760 --> 0:52:15.200 kind of getting annoyed with all of these additional charges 0:52:15.239 --> 0:52:17.960 he has to deal with. So again, the McMahon's call 0:52:18.040 --> 0:52:20.359 up a lawyer and this is a lawyer with more 0:52:20.400 --> 0:52:24.279 firepower than Santorum, and this lawyer successful or starts to 0:52:24.320 --> 0:52:29.239 lobby a Democratic state Senator, Francis McManamon to try and 0:52:29.320 --> 0:52:34.440 like in some of these Jersey state laws, and that guy's. 0:52:34.239 --> 0:52:38.239 Name probably led to a McMahon and mcmannonon hall. Yeah, yeah, 0:52:38.640 --> 0:52:40.080 it is. It is frustrating. 0:52:40.680 --> 0:52:43.760 So they apply the lawmaker and his staff with gifts 0:52:44.160 --> 0:52:47.120 and tickets to WrestleMania four. They like put McManamon and 0:52:47.160 --> 0:52:50.800 his aid right next to Donald Trump. The AID, I 0:52:50.840 --> 0:52:52.960 think Riisman talks to the AID and the AID is 0:52:53.239 --> 0:52:55.880 like years later, like we were so close that macho 0:52:55.960 --> 0:52:58.240 man Randy Savage fell into our laps. 0:53:00.080 --> 0:53:03.000 God, that's it. That's a dream, lady. 0:53:03.120 --> 0:53:04.960 It is for him, It is for him. He's so 0:53:05.080 --> 0:53:10.120 happy about this. The senator and his staff like have 0:53:10.239 --> 0:53:12.520 this kind of perfunctory thing where they talk to a 0:53:12.560 --> 0:53:15.960 couple of wrestlers about health and safety backstage, and the 0:53:16.000 --> 0:53:18.480 aid recalled quote. They told us, look, we've got a 0:53:18.520 --> 0:53:20.560 lot of money invested in those people. It's in our 0:53:20.600 --> 0:53:22.200 best interest to make sure they're safe. 0:53:22.239 --> 0:53:24.480 You know. Well, that's enough research for me. 0:53:25.520 --> 0:53:30.399 Yep, sure, I want to talk to you about making 0:53:30.440 --> 0:53:34.600 it less safe and putting more toxic waste in the rivers. 0:53:35.360 --> 0:53:37.960 Yeah, I don't want anyone to scan my head to 0:53:38.000 --> 0:53:40.240 see if I got CTE. 0:53:40.800 --> 0:53:43.800 You better not do your due diligence. 0:53:46.080 --> 0:53:50.160 That was a much better Macha man. Yeah, damn, that 0:53:50.239 --> 0:53:54.239 was That was exceptional. We got to get you into 0:53:54.280 --> 0:53:55.560 a Trump Casino to. 0:53:55.880 --> 0:54:00.880 Be one of the staff members because it's haunted. 0:54:01.360 --> 0:54:03.520 Yeah, like a giant man was falling into my lab 0:54:03.560 --> 0:54:03.920 rate there. 0:54:05.880 --> 0:54:10.440 So Spring of eighty eight, Senator mcmannonon introduces a bill 0:54:10.600 --> 0:54:15.560 to deregulate wrestling in New Jersey, New Jersey, as it's 0:54:15.600 --> 0:54:19.600 more accurately known, he took the McMahons out. Mcmahnonon took 0:54:19.600 --> 0:54:22.399 the McMahons on a tour of the Capitol, and they, 0:54:22.440 --> 0:54:25.799 in turn started like finding other lawmakers as like he's 0:54:25.840 --> 0:54:27.840 showing them around. They're like, you guys want tickets to 0:54:27.880 --> 0:54:30.240 some wrestling shows. You guys want to see some shows. 0:54:31.000 --> 0:54:33.959 So they try the same thing. It doesn't work this time. 0:54:34.120 --> 0:54:36.680 Actually to this, and I very rarely say this. To 0:54:36.840 --> 0:54:40.960 New Jersey's credit, the bill dies in committee, and wrestling 0:54:41.000 --> 0:54:44.640 actually stays regulated in the Garden State until nineteen ninety seven, 0:54:44.680 --> 0:54:48.520 which makes it later than most. It is a technical 0:54:48.600 --> 0:54:52.239 loss for the McMahons. But also I'm not entirely sure why. 0:54:52.280 --> 0:54:55.040 I guess maybe just because, like Jersey is bigger news 0:54:55.080 --> 0:54:56.040 than Philadelphia or. 0:54:56.040 --> 0:54:56.960 Connecticut or whatever. 0:54:57.280 --> 0:55:00.239 But this is like this kind of the crew say 0:55:00.280 --> 0:55:03.520 it in Jersey to deregulate wrestling by admitting that it's fake. 0:55:04.000 --> 0:55:06.080 This is the thing that actually like blows up and 0:55:06.160 --> 0:55:08.720 becomes like massive, like national news. 0:55:09.280 --> 0:55:09.759 And I'm going to. 0:55:09.800 --> 0:55:13.680 Quote from the book Ring Master by Josie Risman here, Now, 0:55:13.719 --> 0:55:16.400 what can be told? Those pro wrestlers are just having 0:55:16.480 --> 0:55:18.520 fun To clear a front page headline in the late 0:55:18.640 --> 0:55:21.480 edition of that day's New York Times, Cara began his 0:55:21.600 --> 0:55:24.680 article by writing, the promoters of professional wrestling have disclosed 0:55:24.719 --> 0:55:28.400 that they're terrifying towers and spandex tights, massive creatures like 0:55:28.480 --> 0:55:31.359 Bam Bam Bigelow, Holk Cogan and Andre the Giant are 0:55:31.400 --> 0:55:34.000 really no more dangerous to one another than Santa Claus, 0:55:34.040 --> 0:55:36.279 the Easter Body, and the Tooth Fairy. But please don't 0:55:36.320 --> 0:55:38.759 repeat this. Millions of grown men and women just don't 0:55:38.760 --> 0:55:41.279 want to know, and like you see, it's like the 0:55:41.360 --> 0:55:45.200 subtle side bastard here. In addition to Vince is like 0:55:45.640 --> 0:55:49.799 all of these journalists and lawmakers who either like just 0:55:49.920 --> 0:55:52.200 desperately want to know themselves if it's real, but like, really, 0:55:52.280 --> 0:55:54.600 what's the worst thing to me is these journalists who 0:55:54.600 --> 0:55:58.680 are like ignoring all these serious issues and like the 0:55:58.800 --> 0:56:01.959 dangers of the sport to its performers and being like, aha, 0:56:02.320 --> 0:56:04.960 we were right, it's wrong. Look these idiots who think 0:56:05.320 --> 0:56:09.160 wrest don't tell these idiots it's fake, like and like really. 0:56:09.239 --> 0:56:11.799 In New York Times too, Yeah, like it's like, it's 0:56:11.840 --> 0:56:14.400 no more dangerous to each other than Santa Claus or 0:56:14.440 --> 0:56:16.080 the Eastern Body or the Tooth Fairy. 0:56:16.120 --> 0:56:19.520 It's it's fucking they're just like offended people are watching 0:56:19.520 --> 0:56:22.359 wrestling and not reading Camille Paglia or some shit it's 0:56:22.400 --> 0:56:29.880 like stop being like there's a real thing to investigate here, guys. 0:56:28.000 --> 0:56:31.360 Several real thing. Lot of shit, Why are you writing 0:56:31.400 --> 0:56:32.120 this article? 0:56:32.600 --> 0:56:34.879 Yeah, they're getting so up in arms about it being 0:56:34.960 --> 0:56:38.399 fake and whether or not wrestlers were using steroids when 0:56:38.400 --> 0:56:39.120 they were legal. 0:56:39.239 --> 0:56:41.680 It's like Jesus Christ, part of when. 0:56:41.560 --> 0:56:43.719 We talk about all of the guys whose hearts are 0:56:43.719 --> 0:56:46.719 going to fucking explode, who get like CTE and you know, 0:56:47.360 --> 0:56:50.920 as one guy does kills their entire family. Behind it, 0:56:51.000 --> 0:56:52.920 there's a lot of things behind it. It's not like, 0:56:53.080 --> 0:56:54.960 you know, just the times of fault here, but behind 0:56:54.960 --> 0:56:59.200 it is like years of people whose job was to 0:56:59.360 --> 0:57:04.440 take this stuff seriously and who couldn't get over the 0:57:04.480 --> 0:57:08.960 carnival right right, Like they couldn't get they couldn't get 0:57:09.000 --> 0:57:12.680 over this like reputation built in kind of carne stuff 0:57:12.960 --> 0:57:14.480 to like be like, well but this is these are 0:57:14.480 --> 0:57:18.160 still human beings, Like this is real. What's happening, Like 0:57:18.200 --> 0:57:22.000 even if the game isn't a real game, Like and they're. 0:57:21.760 --> 0:57:24.520 Watching tigers get tortured to death while they're like, you know, 0:57:24.560 --> 0:57:26.640 I think they're using mirrors to sign lady in. 0:57:27.360 --> 0:57:32.240 Yeah, it's like there's a anyway that's pretty gross. So 0:57:32.960 --> 0:57:36.520 once again the news media is a side bastard in 0:57:36.600 --> 0:57:37.320 this story. 0:57:37.600 --> 0:57:37.920 Cool. 0:57:38.680 --> 0:57:41.680 So, despite fighting in court to the care clear wrestling 0:57:41.880 --> 0:57:45.320 just entertainment, Vince had his wrestlers leap to k Fabes 0:57:45.360 --> 0:57:48.000 defense yet again. So they have this guy, he has 0:57:48.040 --> 0:57:49.760 this press as guy's go on shows and be. 0:57:49.760 --> 0:57:51.240 Like you, Joe calling me this fake? 0:57:51.320 --> 0:57:54.480 You know this isn't fake and kind of likewise the 0:57:54.480 --> 0:57:57.560 only other big game in wrestling, which is so at 0:57:57.560 --> 0:58:01.120 this point, Ted Turner is kind of the functional heart 0:58:01.200 --> 0:58:05.040 of the very weather withered NWA. Right, He's like running 0:58:05.040 --> 0:58:07.440 a lot of shows and stuff on his network and 0:58:07.640 --> 0:58:10.840 they declare the NWA like launches a new tagline which 0:58:10.880 --> 0:58:14.320 is like the NWA we Wrestle. So it's like the 0:58:14.440 --> 0:58:16.920 WWF have admitted that what they're doing is fake, but 0:58:17.000 --> 0:58:22.360 our wrestling it's real here in the NWA. Very funny 0:58:22.960 --> 0:58:25.920 that said, McMahon still plowed ahead. He never kind of 0:58:26.160 --> 0:58:29.960 entirely gives up k Fabe, but he also starts introducing 0:58:30.080 --> 0:58:33.520 new terms to describe what is wrestlers are doing, and 0:58:33.560 --> 0:58:35.920 the ultimate conclusion of this is eventually kind of the 0:58:36.000 --> 0:58:40.280 somewhat replacement of the term wrestling with the phrase sports entertainment. 0:58:41.240 --> 0:58:44.840 This is first added to the introduction logo of televised 0:58:45.040 --> 0:58:48.240 WWF matches I think at the late nineteen eighties, and 0:58:48.280 --> 0:58:51.880 as logo appears on screen, a voice reads the tagline 0:58:52.160 --> 0:58:56.800 the recognized symbol of excellence in sports entertainment. And that's 0:58:56.880 --> 0:58:59.720 kind of the that's what sort of replaces, you know, 0:58:59.880 --> 0:59:03.760 the the era of like KFE being taken seriously is 0:59:03.760 --> 0:59:05.960 like the sports entertainment era, right, which you could say 0:59:05.960 --> 0:59:08.880 we're in now to an extent, although there's other terms 0:59:08.920 --> 0:59:11.400 that you used, but like, yeah, that's kind of that's 0:59:11.480 --> 0:59:14.080 a that's a you know, not a bad thing that 0:59:14.560 --> 0:59:17.840 he transitions away from taking it as seriously as people did, 0:59:17.920 --> 0:59:20.160 but like a bad thing that it's in order to 0:59:20.240 --> 0:59:25.680 end regulations. Yeah, and there's going to be some consequences 0:59:25.720 --> 0:59:28.160 of this, but there's going to be consequences to a 0:59:28.160 --> 0:59:32.280 lot of Vince's decisions because, as a serial entrepreneur in 0:59:32.400 --> 0:59:36.320 nineteen ninety decides to launch a new enterprise. 0:59:36.840 --> 0:59:39.919 Now, shock, you. 0:59:39.840 --> 0:59:42.920 Are a recognized expert in this one, so you know 0:59:42.960 --> 0:59:43.880 where I'm going here. 0:59:44.080 --> 0:59:47.040 This is nineteen ninety. Yeah, that would be the World 0:59:47.120 --> 0:59:48.320 Bodybuilding Federation. 0:59:48.640 --> 0:59:51.800 That is that is exactly correct, sir, And this. 0:59:51.680 --> 0:59:56.760 Was Vince who decided there what bodybuilding needed was more steroids. 0:59:57.040 --> 1:00:02.200 Yeah, these guys aren't huge enough. Yes, Cape's top outs, yeah. 1:00:02.080 --> 1:00:05.160 Command to outfits, sure, but more steroids is really what 1:00:05.200 --> 1:00:05.920 we're going for there. 1:00:06.080 --> 1:00:08.840 He walked into a competition and saw a man who 1:00:08.880 --> 1:00:11.240 was almost able to reach his pocket with his hand 1:00:11.280 --> 1:00:14.200 and was like, absolutely not. 1:00:13.400 --> 1:00:14.720 Not on my watch. 1:00:16.200 --> 1:00:19.480 So every year prior to this point, miss the Mister 1:00:19.880 --> 1:00:24.560 Olympia competition crowned the best bodybuilder in the world. And afterwards, 1:00:24.840 --> 1:00:28.080 you know, after you get your your your the winner 1:00:28.120 --> 1:00:31.160 declared or whatever, there's closing ceremonies, and a big part 1:00:31.160 --> 1:00:33.240 of the closing ceremonies is all of the different companies 1:00:33.280 --> 1:00:36.760 that had sponsored the event get to like, you know, give, 1:00:37.080 --> 1:00:38.880 you know, say shit in order to kind of like 1:00:38.960 --> 1:00:42.800 try and pump whatever products they're selling. Right, that's a 1:00:42.800 --> 1:00:46.760 pretty normal thing to do in a competitive event. That year, 1:00:46.920 --> 1:00:50.080 McMahon had paid five thousand dollars for a booth at 1:00:50.120 --> 1:00:53.120 the event in order to promote a bodybuilding magazine he'd 1:00:53.160 --> 1:00:55.200 launched called Bodybuilding Lifestyles. 1:00:55.360 --> 1:00:58.080 You know what, I already know this booth is a trap. 1:00:59.280 --> 1:01:03.240 It's not it's not gonna go right. So Tom Platts 1:01:03.320 --> 1:01:07.280 is a bodybuilder working for McMahon at this time, and 1:01:07.520 --> 1:01:11.720 he addresses the crowd on his behalf, on Vince's behalf, 1:01:12.400 --> 1:01:15.600 and he kind of surprises everyone by directing a tirade 1:01:15.760 --> 1:01:19.840 against the International Federation of Bodybuilders, promising we at Titan 1:01:19.920 --> 1:01:23.040 Sports and Bodybuilding Lifestyles Magazine are pleased to announce the 1:01:23.080 --> 1:01:26.600 formation of the World Bodybuilding Federation and we're gonna kick 1:01:26.640 --> 1:01:30.280 the IFBB's ass. And this is, you know, kind of 1:01:30.880 --> 1:01:33.960 ghosh because you know it's the IFBB, you know, putting 1:01:33.960 --> 1:01:36.800 this shit on. And he's like, fuck these guys, and 1:01:36.920 --> 1:01:37.760 fuck your event. 1:01:38.160 --> 1:01:41.600 We're gonna kill you. In an article from a. 1:01:41.640 --> 1:01:46.560 Late Great Spy magazine, Irving Muchnik wrote quote, the audience 1:01:46.600 --> 1:01:49.920 fell silent and leggy models in slinky black evening grounds 1:01:50.040 --> 1:01:53.080 gowns and bodybuilding lifestyle sashes emerged from the wings to 1:01:53.160 --> 1:01:57.280 distribute handbills promising bodybuildings. It was meant to be a 1:01:57.320 --> 1:01:59.760 code phrase, some thought for no drug testing. 1:02:01.320 --> 1:02:02.200 We know what that means. 1:02:02.560 --> 1:02:06.200 Yeah, Vince McMahon in thoroughly upstaged the Whiters who ran 1:02:06.240 --> 1:02:09.160 the idea IFBB at their own event, and he still 1:02:09.160 --> 1:02:11.200 had one more trick up his sleeve. That evening, when 1:02:11.200 --> 1:02:13.800 the bodybuilding contestants returned to their rooms at the McCormick 1:02:13.840 --> 1:02:20.040 Center Hotel, they found WBF contract offers slipped under their doors. 1:02:19.480 --> 1:02:20.920 Really really ballsy. 1:02:21.080 --> 1:02:26.840 Now, look, the Whiter Brothers are our bodybuilding promoters, so 1:02:26.880 --> 1:02:31.080 they're not like they're not like morally peer here, right. 1:02:31.040 --> 1:02:31.520 Like we're not. 1:02:31.840 --> 1:02:37.200 This isn't This isn't the battle between good and evil. Yeah, 1:02:37.280 --> 1:02:39.320 but it is. It is like a pretty tasteless thing 1:02:39.360 --> 1:02:41.000 to do to go to an event promoted by this 1:02:41.120 --> 1:02:42.880 organization you're trying to destroy. 1:02:42.680 --> 1:02:44.280 And almost needlessly evil. 1:02:44.400 --> 1:02:49.200 Like, yeah, every sport or sport sports entertainment has multiple 1:02:49.240 --> 1:02:53.320 promotions where it's like, hey, I'm this promotions champion and 1:02:53.360 --> 1:02:57.000 I'm this promotions champion. Vince McMahon like made it so 1:02:57.160 --> 1:03:00.640 adversarial like before it even existed. He's just like, sucks, 1:03:00.680 --> 1:03:03.520 this is the real one. And that's it's still I'm 1:03:03.520 --> 1:03:06.240 gonna poach all your best talent with exclusive contracts. 1:03:06.640 --> 1:03:10.440 It is interesting kind of that strategy of like before 1:03:10.720 --> 1:03:12.840 I'm even off the ground, I'm going to start this 1:03:12.920 --> 1:03:15.920 with a fight is a very wrestling thing to do. 1:03:16.160 --> 1:03:16.320 Right. 1:03:16.680 --> 1:03:19.840 Yeah, Like it's very much like a challenge promo between 1:03:19.840 --> 1:03:21.800 a heel and a face here that he's kind of 1:03:21.880 --> 1:03:24.600 like launching. He's you can see that, Like he's just 1:03:24.640 --> 1:03:26.880 got wrestling so deep in his bones. 1:03:27.280 --> 1:03:28.920 Yeah, it's a real thing. 1:03:29.080 --> 1:03:31.760 Is Yeah, it's the way his It's the just the 1:03:31.800 --> 1:03:33.680 only way ideas occur to him. 1:03:33.920 --> 1:03:37.120 Like this was also something that Vince McMahon genuinely thinks 1:03:37.160 --> 1:03:39.320 bodybuilding is more interesting than most people. 1:03:39.640 --> 1:03:40.480 Oh so love. 1:03:40.560 --> 1:03:42.960 He was sure this is going to be a huge hit. Yeah, 1:03:42.960 --> 1:03:44.920 and so he was throwing money at it, and so 1:03:45.080 --> 1:03:48.000 like these these were offers these men couldn't really say 1:03:48.040 --> 1:03:49.560 no to in a lot of ways because he's like, 1:03:49.600 --> 1:03:52.320 here's I'll give you a fucking million dollars a year. 1:03:52.320 --> 1:03:54.560 I don't know where the numbers. The numbers were stupid, Yeah, 1:03:54.640 --> 1:03:57.000 numbers make no sense from a business standpoint. And so 1:03:57.560 --> 1:04:01.680 you're just a bodybuilder who, if I'm understanding industry correctly, 1:04:01.720 --> 1:04:04.160 like kind of who's really unregulated. I think a lot 1:04:04.200 --> 1:04:06.920 of bodybuilders are considered amateurs even at this point in 1:04:06.960 --> 1:04:09.200 their career, meaning that you could just do whatever you 1:04:09.240 --> 1:04:11.960 want to them. None of what they do it counts, right, 1:04:12.040 --> 1:04:15.200 These are just like anyway. So Vince is offering these 1:04:15.200 --> 1:04:16.520 guys real money for the first time. 1:04:16.520 --> 1:04:20.960 It's their live, yeah, and he does find some ways 1:04:21.000 --> 1:04:24.720 to fuck them because like the money sounds real good, 1:04:24.840 --> 1:04:27.520 but like there's restrictions on other stuff that you're allowed 1:04:27.560 --> 1:04:30.280 to do. And also people when they get into it, 1:04:30.320 --> 1:04:33.320 they find out that, like if you win a prize, 1:04:33.600 --> 1:04:36.240 like that's basically taken out of your salary, so you 1:04:36.240 --> 1:04:38.520 don't get extra money on top of it. Like he 1:04:38.560 --> 1:04:41.360 does fuck around with them, but like it's one of 1:04:41.400 --> 1:04:43.800 those things where like people don't realize the contracts not 1:04:43.920 --> 1:04:45.960 as this is always the case with Vince. People don't 1:04:45.960 --> 1:04:48.160 realize the contracts not as good as it sounds like 1:04:48.200 --> 1:04:50.400 it is until they're already signed. 1:04:50.520 --> 1:04:50.760 You know. 1:04:52.120 --> 1:04:54.120 It is, by the way, worth noting I said in 1:04:54.120 --> 1:04:57.600 an earlier episode Vince was probably on steroids. He was 1:04:57.640 --> 1:05:00.720 absolutely on steroids, and it has admitted as a result 1:05:00.800 --> 1:05:02.520 of some of the court stuff we're talking about later 1:05:02.880 --> 1:05:05.080 that in this period of time when they were legal, 1:05:05.160 --> 1:05:07.280 he was using them. He says he stopped when they 1:05:07.280 --> 1:05:08.120 got made illegal. 1:05:08.560 --> 1:05:11.760 You can no reason to think, no reason to doubt 1:05:12.360 --> 1:05:15.800 the word of Vince McMahon as a person who's watched 1:05:15.880 --> 1:05:20.360 Vince McMahon on television for I don't know, twenty five years. Yeah, 1:05:20.520 --> 1:05:23.280 you can absolutely tell he's doing steril. 1:05:23.560 --> 1:05:25.680 No, that's not for a seven year old man to 1:05:25.680 --> 1:05:28.000 have four percent body fat and four pounds. 1:05:29.000 --> 1:05:32.800 When I look at his late seventies, to look at. 1:05:32.760 --> 1:05:36.640 Vince McMahon in like the early two thousands of sixty 1:05:36.640 --> 1:05:39.520 to fifty year old man, I see, that's a guy 1:05:39.560 --> 1:05:42.160 who's not on gear. That's a man who doesn't spend 1:05:42.320 --> 1:05:45.520 like a nice new car every month on fucking gear. 1:05:45.720 --> 1:05:46.760 He just loves to jog. 1:05:47.080 --> 1:05:48.840 He just like, yeah, he likes to jog. Just a 1:05:48.880 --> 1:05:51.680 couple of push ups, you know, stay, stays in shape. 1:05:52.200 --> 1:05:55.800 Maybe fights a couple of marines, you know, yeah yeah, 1:05:56.200 --> 1:05:59.360 eye goug is a handful of marines. Yeah, drops a 1:05:59.360 --> 1:06:01.640 platoon or two, you know, on the weekends. 1:06:03.400 --> 1:06:06.640 Good stuff. So and again. 1:06:06.760 --> 1:06:10.720 So critics will say that basically Vince's plan is just 1:06:10.760 --> 1:06:13.640 to throw more steroids at bodybuilding than the other guys 1:06:14.280 --> 1:06:18.680 who actually the IFBB is at least attempting to provide 1:06:18.680 --> 1:06:21.520 a visual show of being against steroids. I think there's 1:06:21.560 --> 1:06:23.800 a lot of debate as to like how serious their 1:06:23.840 --> 1:06:26.160 testing program was, but they do have like a testing 1:06:26.200 --> 1:06:28.480 program at this point because people are starting to really 1:06:28.760 --> 1:06:31.680 in nineteen ninety really get concerned about steroids and like 1:06:31.760 --> 1:06:34.400 legal regulation is coming, so kind of part of what 1:06:34.520 --> 1:06:36.720 Vince is doing. It's actually so like, you know, the 1:06:36.800 --> 1:06:40.920 NWA responds to the WWF saying wrestling isn't real by 1:06:40.920 --> 1:06:44.440 being like, our wrestling's real. Vince responds to the IFBB 1:06:44.720 --> 1:06:47.680 taking some steps to regulate steroids by being like. 1:06:48.440 --> 1:06:51.400 You can do other roids, you want to hear shot 1:06:51.440 --> 1:06:54.120 and downplay the costumes too. He also had a costumes Yes, 1:06:54.120 --> 1:06:57.560 the vampire guy. He shared that Indian chief guy. Yeah, 1:06:58.160 --> 1:07:04.800 the college they gotta fight fight an Italian. Now this 1:07:04.840 --> 1:07:08.080 guy had like a blonde crew cut, like he should 1:07:08.080 --> 1:07:09.640 have been a surfer guy. But they already had a 1:07:09.640 --> 1:07:11.840 surfer guy. They're like, we gotta have an Indian. 1:07:12.320 --> 1:07:17.960 Yeah, my god, every single time, like a sorcerer, a warrior. 1:07:18.040 --> 1:07:20.480 They have a full D and D party. 1:07:21.160 --> 1:07:24.320 That that part I do appreciate because I get bored 1:07:24.320 --> 1:07:26.920 by normal bodybuilding. I want to see them. I want 1:07:26.960 --> 1:07:29.720 to see like fucking a barbarian in fishnets, you know, 1:07:29.800 --> 1:07:31.280 call him Honan the Barbarian. 1:07:31.400 --> 1:07:34.760 Like, let's go with it anyway. 1:07:34.920 --> 1:07:38.040 Critics basically are like, yeah, he just wants to roid 1:07:38.040 --> 1:07:40.640 people up even more. And by the start of the nineties, 1:07:40.760 --> 1:07:43.959 steroids have become a regular topic in the news, doing 1:07:44.040 --> 1:07:46.480 part because like a bunch of guys, some of whom 1:07:46.520 --> 1:07:49.920 are wrestlers die right like, people have their hearts fucking 1:07:49.960 --> 1:07:52.760 explode from steroids. And even more than that, a lot 1:07:52.800 --> 1:07:56.080 of people who had been like Vince Seniors, big wrestlers 1:07:56.120 --> 1:07:59.000 like his, kind of like top guys, their bodies are 1:07:59.040 --> 1:08:01.080 starting to fall upon. You know, some of that's just 1:08:01.120 --> 1:08:03.760 wrestling's bad for you, but like it's not. They also 1:08:03.840 --> 1:08:05.960 were like taking a bunch of steroids in a period 1:08:05.960 --> 1:08:08.720 of time where they didn't realize how much damage they 1:08:08.760 --> 1:08:11.680 were doing. And you know, the butcher's bill has come 1:08:11.760 --> 1:08:15.240 due by nineteen ninety and so they are starting to 1:08:15.280 --> 1:08:19.200 speak out against the WWF because they realize what they've 1:08:19.200 --> 1:08:21.479 done to their body and that more is being done 1:08:21.520 --> 1:08:23.320 to the bodies of young guys that are in the 1:08:23.360 --> 1:08:26.040 field right now. And I'm going to quote quote from 1:08:26.080 --> 1:08:30.760 Uschnik again. According to superstar Billy Graham, a retired WWF 1:08:30.920 --> 1:08:34.400 champ crippled by bone and joint degeneration from steroid use, 1:08:34.600 --> 1:08:36.920 and Bruno sam Martino, who had has had a falling 1:08:36.920 --> 1:08:40.160 out with McMahon. Nearly all of today's WWF stars are 1:08:40.240 --> 1:08:42.800 on the juice. I love this business, and it's really 1:08:42.880 --> 1:08:45.640 sad to see what's happened to it, Sammartino says. With 1:08:45.720 --> 1:08:48.120 all the drugs they take, the guys are now like zombies. 1:08:48.479 --> 1:08:51.880 Wrestler Jim Helwig, a former chiropractor and one time Venice 1:08:51.920 --> 1:08:55.599 beach Habitchu, who calls himself the Ultimate Warrior, is perhaps 1:08:55.680 --> 1:08:58.799 the ultimate example of the WWF's Bigger is Better ethic, 1:08:59.240 --> 1:09:01.839 even though he can bely pose and mug without getting winded. 1:09:01.880 --> 1:09:04.880 Hellwig was last year given the lead of the WWF 1:09:04.960 --> 1:09:08.720 troop when Hogan was temporarily detained by Hollywood commitments. I 1:09:08.800 --> 1:09:11.559 eat the chemical toxins that other men fear, the Warrior 1:09:11.640 --> 1:09:15.360 huffed and puffed. In one TV interview, Dave Meltzer, wrestling 1:09:15.400 --> 1:09:18.400 columnist for The National and publisher of a newsletter called 1:09:18.400 --> 1:09:21.960 The Wrestling Observer, now refers to Hellwig as the anabolic Warrior. 1:09:23.760 --> 1:09:27.200 Goes for it. They have his number. Yeah, he was, 1:09:27.280 --> 1:09:31.200 he was winded. I mean Ultimate Warriors so great. What 1:09:31.320 --> 1:09:35.559 a great beautoroul piece of Yeah, he runs out to 1:09:35.600 --> 1:09:37.920 the ring like a jackass. He's already winded by the 1:09:37.920 --> 1:09:41.639 time he gets there. He cannot do He's he can 1:09:42.040 --> 1:09:46.240 do less wrestling than Hulk Hogan. U pins people in 1:09:46.320 --> 1:09:48.880 thirty eight seconds and sprints to the bag. 1:09:51.439 --> 1:09:53.400 And then becomes like a right wing crank. 1:09:53.520 --> 1:09:56.479 Right. He goes on as as an older man. Yeah, yeah, 1:09:56.520 --> 1:09:57.719 he goes real hard. 1:09:57.920 --> 1:10:04.479 Yeah, the aphobic way, Yeah, super homophophobic, racist, it's all 1:10:04.560 --> 1:10:08.080 the above. Yeah, it's it's good stuff. We all love 1:10:08.200 --> 1:10:09.679 the anabolic Warrior. 1:10:11.880 --> 1:10:12.080 Yeah. 1:10:12.080 --> 1:10:15.200 In fact, here's here's here's in two thousand and five, 1:10:15.280 --> 1:10:18.240 here's the Ultimate Warrior talking at the University of Connecticut, 1:10:18.640 --> 1:10:22.520 summing up his life philosophy. As Reisman says it, liberals 1:10:22.520 --> 1:10:25.880 believe in a utopian society where everything is equal. Life 1:10:25.880 --> 1:10:28.240 doesn't work that way. It's a good for nothing joke 1:10:28.280 --> 1:10:30.960 that it can, and worse, an oppressive, evil fraud to 1:10:31.000 --> 1:10:32.040 then pursue it as a. 1:10:31.920 --> 1:10:38.599 Goally funny coming from a guy who has had the 1:10:38.640 --> 1:10:42.760 briefest of flash in the pan careers in a in 1:10:42.840 --> 1:10:45.599 an industry that he knew nothing about and didn't respect, 1:10:45.640 --> 1:10:49.040 and was only propped up by other guys covering for 1:10:49.120 --> 1:10:50.880 the fact that he was fucking terrible. 1:10:50.960 --> 1:10:51.720 Yeah, he was. 1:10:51.800 --> 1:10:55.280 He was willing to shoot the most steroids into his ass, 1:10:55.360 --> 1:10:58.000 and so he had a brief career and then his 1:10:58.080 --> 1:10:59.599 brain melted out of his ears. 1:11:00.240 --> 1:11:00.400 Yeah. 1:11:00.479 --> 1:11:02.960 For him to start talking about some kind of meritocracy, 1:11:03.000 --> 1:11:05.080 it's like, buddy, you are the last. 1:11:05.320 --> 1:11:09.439 Yeah, there is absolutely no merit and I'm convinced I 1:11:09.439 --> 1:11:11.000 don't think we should try to make the world better. 1:11:11.000 --> 1:11:15.559 I think right the dead maniac with a lot of 1:11:15.560 --> 1:11:18.080 problems might be right. Yeah, yeah, you know what, you 1:11:18.120 --> 1:11:18.880 know what, You're right. 1:11:18.960 --> 1:11:21.920 Sean Behind the Bastards is now a podcast where we 1:11:21.960 --> 1:11:25.320 find people like filling potholes and just start kicking them. 1:11:25.640 --> 1:11:28.439 I mean, I mean kicking the shit out of them, 1:11:28.520 --> 1:11:31.440 like Applebee's bumps idiots. 1:11:32.880 --> 1:11:36.880 A guy who wore that many bicycle streamers around his 1:11:37.000 --> 1:11:39.639 biceps cannot be wrong about this about them. 1:11:39.640 --> 1:11:41.760 Not on social issues, no, absolutely not. 1:11:42.040 --> 1:11:42.240 Never. 1:11:43.040 --> 1:11:45.920 So during the period in which steroids are spreading throughout 1:11:45.920 --> 1:11:49.360 wrestling and Vince is getting into bodybuilding, he also develops 1:11:49.360 --> 1:11:51.599 this kind of This is when it becomes really obvious 1:11:51.640 --> 1:11:54.880 that he's like on gear. Colleagues would note that in 1:11:54.920 --> 1:11:57.400 between minor matches or meetings, he would leave the room 1:11:57.520 --> 1:12:00.520 and do barbell curls and then come back sweaty and shirtless, 1:12:01.240 --> 1:12:03.759 and people who wanted to like manipulate him. It became 1:12:03.840 --> 1:12:05.720 known that, like if you told Vince that he looks 1:12:05.760 --> 1:12:08.839 better than his wrestlers, Like that's the line, right, everybody 1:12:08.960 --> 1:12:10.680 uses it on I'm like, wow, Vince, you're bigger than 1:12:10.720 --> 1:12:14.560 your wrestlers. He'll do like whatever for you, right, likes 1:12:14.600 --> 1:12:18.720 four thousan dollars, thank you. Yeah, that's how you manipulate him. 1:12:19.120 --> 1:12:21.000 The IFBB. Meanwhile, when you. 1:12:20.920 --> 1:12:23.280 Get more toxic waste in your community, I think I. 1:12:23.400 --> 1:12:26.920 Know a senator, Yeah, well we really want to poison 1:12:27.000 --> 1:12:28.080 some kids, can we do it? 1:12:28.280 --> 1:12:32.120 Yeah? So yeah. 1:12:32.200 --> 1:12:34.640 The IFBB during this period kind of has like a 1:12:34.720 --> 1:12:38.280 number of public firings of bodybuilders who are testing positive 1:12:38.280 --> 1:12:41.439 for steroids, and the public concern is enough that in 1:12:41.520 --> 1:12:44.599 nineteen eighty eight, the United States had made it illegal 1:12:44.600 --> 1:12:47.680 to distribute anabolic steroids I think without a prescription, and 1:12:47.680 --> 1:12:50.240 in the middle of nineteen ninety, Congress felt motivated to 1:12:50.240 --> 1:12:53.719 pass the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of nineteen ninety, which 1:12:53.720 --> 1:12:56.400 is why you can't pick up decaderobylin with your creatim 1:12:56.439 --> 1:13:01.280 in hot pockets heartbreaking they go right together. Oh my god, 1:13:01.320 --> 1:13:04.360 two great tastes. So while Vince is at war with 1:13:04.400 --> 1:13:07.160 the IFBB, the United States is going to war with 1:13:07.200 --> 1:13:13.040 an even deadlier foe, Saddam. Who'ssein Ah friend of the 1:13:13.080 --> 1:13:16.800 pod Saddam Hussein al tacreedy. Are you guys aware of 1:13:16.840 --> 1:13:18.759 his intersection with the world of wrestling? 1:13:20.479 --> 1:13:22.439 I remember the Sergeant Slaughter gimmick. 1:13:22.680 --> 1:13:25.880 Oh I remember when he switched to the Diraqi side. 1:13:25.920 --> 1:13:29.479 Yeah, yeah, we are that. We will be talking about that, 1:13:29.640 --> 1:13:32.439 but it gets much worse than that. So also, I 1:13:32.479 --> 1:13:35.400 think Saddam did more steroids and ulti oria. Right he 1:13:35.520 --> 1:13:37.360 was like the king. Yeah, yeah he was. 1:13:37.439 --> 1:13:40.280 He was. That's what you thought. He could kuwait a 1:13:40.360 --> 1:13:43.479 several month title run in the WWF in nineteen ninety one. 1:13:45.160 --> 1:13:47.360 That's not quite true, Tom, but he does nearly. 1:13:47.479 --> 1:13:52.120 He does nearly murder Andre the Giant, So post strap 1:13:52.160 --> 1:13:52.840 in for this one. 1:13:52.920 --> 1:13:53.520 Boys. 1:13:54.280 --> 1:13:58.240 So there's this guy named Adnan al Kaisi, right, you 1:13:58.280 --> 1:14:01.200 will know him later because he's the Shake, not the 1:14:01.240 --> 1:14:07.559 Iron Shake, He's the Shake. So yeah, the Iron Shake 1:14:07.600 --> 1:14:10.160 and the Shak are both noteworthy because they are kind 1:14:10.200 --> 1:14:14.000 of the racial stereotype wrestlers who are actually from where, 1:14:14.120 --> 1:14:17.200 kind of where they're supposed to be, both of them, 1:14:17.400 --> 1:14:20.160 Like the Shake is Iraqi, the Iron Shake is Iranian. 1:14:20.920 --> 1:14:23.320 Now during the Gulf War, the Iron Shake, they're going 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:26.800 to pretend he's a Raki, which is kind of problematic, 1:14:27.000 --> 1:14:30.840 very problematic, but y whatever whatever, Like what we're about 1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:33.519 to talk about is so far past that. So Adnan 1:14:33.600 --> 1:14:36.280 al Kaisi, the Shak is born in Iraq, and in 1:14:36.320 --> 1:14:39.240 fact he actually went to high school with my Special Boys, 1:14:39.240 --> 1:14:43.280 Saddam Hussein al Dacredi. Both young men were intellectual and 1:14:43.360 --> 1:14:45.760 prone to debates and coffeehouses, so they kind of like 1:14:45.760 --> 1:14:48.200 were friendly for a while, and then they eventually drift 1:14:48.240 --> 1:14:50.200 apart in that way you do and your friend goes 1:14:50.240 --> 1:14:52.600 off to become the dictator, and like you go to 1:14:52.640 --> 1:14:56.160 Oklahoma State University and a study abroad program and fall 1:14:56.200 --> 1:14:59.559 into pro wrestling as a side gig because you're huge. 1:15:00.000 --> 1:15:02.200 So al Kaisi loves wrestling. He does it for a 1:15:02.240 --> 1:15:03.800 while in the US, and then he comes back to 1:15:03.840 --> 1:15:07.599 the to Iraq in sixty nine when Saddam finds out 1:15:07.600 --> 1:15:10.719 that like a real pro wrestler because Saddam loves wrestling 1:15:11.080 --> 1:15:15.240 and apparently believes it's real. He invites his old friend 1:15:15.320 --> 1:15:18.720 for an audience. Adnon later claimed he said to me 1:15:18.760 --> 1:15:21.080 that he really enjoyed pro wrestling, but had never seen 1:15:21.120 --> 1:15:23.640 it in person, only on television. He wanted me to 1:15:23.640 --> 1:15:25.960 bring it to Iraq as soon as possible so everyone 1:15:25.960 --> 1:15:30.599 could enjoy it. Now, this is pretty in character for Saddam, 1:15:31.000 --> 1:15:34.439 and unfortunately, like again, he's kind of bought the kfab line, 1:15:34.720 --> 1:15:37.599 or at least that's the allegation from Adnon, who is 1:15:37.640 --> 1:15:40.880 not an entirely trustworthy source. But we're going to choose 1:15:40.920 --> 1:15:43.720 to believe what he says here because it's amazing. So 1:15:44.280 --> 1:15:47.160 Adnon recruits some Western wrestlers and they come and fight 1:15:47.240 --> 1:15:47.920 in Bagdad. 1:15:47.960 --> 1:15:48.120 You know. 1:15:48.160 --> 1:15:51.120 Bagdad holds a number of like big wrestling expos and stuff. 1:15:51.880 --> 1:15:55.400 There are some problems, though. Adnon is obviously the most 1:15:55.439 --> 1:15:59.639 popular Iraqi wrestler and he's not supposed to lose matches. 1:16:00.120 --> 1:16:02.519 So near the end of nineteen seventy he brings one 1:16:02.520 --> 1:16:04.800 of his friends from the US over to Iraq, a 1:16:04.840 --> 1:16:07.200 guy who was very used to wrestling in foreign countries 1:16:07.439 --> 1:16:11.880 named Andre the Giant. Now, the match they've got planned. Normally, 1:16:11.920 --> 1:16:14.680 Andre's gonna win, but in some of these like local exhibitions, 1:16:14.720 --> 1:16:18.639 he'll lose to like foreign like wrestling heroes, right, because 1:16:18.640 --> 1:16:21.120 that's just kind of the way it goes. And so 1:16:21.520 --> 1:16:23.240 they set up and they're like, all right, you know, 1:16:23.400 --> 1:16:25.599 me and Andre will go together. We'll do three bouts. 1:16:25.680 --> 1:16:27.840 All win the first, he'll win, the second, all win 1:16:27.880 --> 1:16:29.640 the third. That way where it can keep everyone on 1:16:29.680 --> 1:16:32.000 the edge of their seats, you know, pretty standard stuff. 1:16:32.120 --> 1:16:32.320 Right. 1:16:33.479 --> 1:16:36.240 There's a problem with this. One of the problems is 1:16:36.280 --> 1:16:39.320 that this match is scheduled for a major military holiday, 1:16:39.520 --> 1:16:42.519 so the entire stadium is filled with Iraqi soldiers with 1:16:42.600 --> 1:16:47.880 their guns. So that's an unsettling scene to wrestle in. 1:16:48.880 --> 1:16:52.320 And Josie Reisman writes, Saddam two was armed and seated 1:16:52.360 --> 1:16:54.639 in the front row. Ad Non went over to him 1:16:54.680 --> 1:16:57.479 and wished and received a wish for good luck. Then 1:16:57.520 --> 1:17:00.320 Saddam pulled odd On close and whispered forcefully into the 1:17:00.320 --> 1:17:03.720 wrestler's ear. Be victorious, add Non. He said, we are 1:17:03.760 --> 1:17:06.320 all counting on you be victorious. This guy is big, 1:17:06.479 --> 1:17:08.160 but he is a pussy. I know that you can 1:17:08.200 --> 1:17:09.880 beat him if he hurts you. In any way he's 1:17:09.920 --> 1:17:12.360 going to get this. Saddam lifted up his coat to 1:17:12.400 --> 1:17:15.160 reveal a solid gold pistol. I will put every bullet 1:17:15.160 --> 1:17:16.960 there in his fat head and send him back to 1:17:17.000 --> 1:17:18.240 France in a pine box. 1:17:18.520 --> 1:17:19.280 Oh my god. 1:17:19.400 --> 1:17:22.080 Now again, I don't know if I think this is 1:17:22.439 --> 1:17:27.240 one hundred percent true, but it's not impossible, right, not impossible. 1:17:27.720 --> 1:17:30.519 So a real trail, according to adn On, at least 1:17:30.600 --> 1:17:33.759 a real tragedy is avoided because Adon like gets Andre 1:17:33.840 --> 1:17:36.559 into a headlock early on, and which was like all 1:17:36.600 --> 1:17:38.639 that stuff we had planned about, like making this look 1:17:38.680 --> 1:17:40.880 like a fight. Don't do it, like just go flat, 1:17:41.000 --> 1:17:44.559 like dude, like Saddam will murder you if you are 1:17:44.600 --> 1:17:48.839 seen to fight at all. And so Andre, terrified, huddles 1:17:48.880 --> 1:17:50.720 on the mat wondering, like am I going to be 1:17:50.840 --> 1:17:55.160 shot to death? Especially since the crowd celebrates Adnon's win 1:17:55.280 --> 1:17:56.479 by firing into the air. 1:17:56.800 --> 1:17:57.679 So this is sh. 1:18:00.040 --> 1:18:02.960 Shoin testinal system to know that fear diarrhea from Andrea 1:18:03.000 --> 1:18:04.839 the Giant could kill that whole stadium. 1:18:05.080 --> 1:18:07.960 Oh yeah, no, it's a real problem for everybody. A 1:18:07.960 --> 1:18:12.120 lot of lives at risk here. Thankfully it ends fine, 1:18:12.960 --> 1:18:15.599 and for several years ad non is a big Iraqi star. 1:18:15.680 --> 1:18:18.439 But obviously, if you know anything about Saddam ad Noon's 1:18:18.479 --> 1:18:20.080 not going to stay in his good books forever, and 1:18:20.120 --> 1:18:23.400 eventually he has to flee the country before that becomes 1:18:23.439 --> 1:18:28.080 a terminal condition. So you fast forward August second, nineteen 1:18:28.280 --> 1:18:32.360 ninety Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait and George H. W. Bush 1:18:32.400 --> 1:18:34.920 finally gets an opportunity to bust those rumors about being 1:18:34.920 --> 1:18:35.880 a wimp that have. 1:18:35.880 --> 1:18:36.799 Dogged him for years. 1:18:37.120 --> 1:18:39.840 We get our Operation Desert Storm, and the USA goes 1:18:39.920 --> 1:18:42.920 nuts with war fever all that good shit. This is 1:18:43.000 --> 1:18:46.960 going to wind up being super convenient for Vince because 1:18:47.000 --> 1:18:50.680 wars distract people, and in the late nineteen nineties he 1:18:50.800 --> 1:18:54.360 needed a distraction. And this is where we get back 1:18:54.400 --> 1:18:58.400 to the story of anabolic steroids. But you know what's 1:18:58.439 --> 1:19:04.400 even more active the n anabolic steroids. Hmmm, the great 1:19:04.439 --> 1:19:09.040 flavor of Applebee's. Yep, well that is true. Sean played 1:19:10.360 --> 1:19:15.240 one nine hundred, Hot Dog and gamefully unemployed, both the 1:19:15.280 --> 1:19:19.720 only comedy website left on the Internet and the podcast 1:19:19.760 --> 1:19:23.040 network that features such great shows as Fox Molder is 1:19:23.080 --> 1:19:27.479 a Maniac. Yeah, glorious, glorious. Do you guys have do 1:19:27.520 --> 1:19:29.360 you guys want to plug two, you want to you 1:19:29.360 --> 1:19:30.439 want to expand on the plug. 1:19:31.000 --> 1:19:33.360 I'll add just a little to my plug one hot Dog. 1:19:33.720 --> 1:19:36.000 I run that with Robert Brockway with all star cast 1:19:36.080 --> 1:19:41.440 writers including Tom Ryman who is here today, that's me, yeah, 1:19:41.840 --> 1:19:45.800 and Alex Schmidt who you both know Lydia Bug Yeah. Dale, 1:19:45.960 --> 1:19:52.320 Brendan McGinley just a huge Heroes superstar comedy writers. 1:19:52.880 --> 1:19:56.400 I've crashed on his couch a bunch. Oh very nice, Yeah, 1:19:56.560 --> 1:19:59.639 very nice guy, Brendan great Tom. 1:20:00.439 --> 1:20:02.759 Oh yeah, I'll just add that GameFly u employeds podcasts 1:20:02.760 --> 1:20:04.400 and streaming network I do with David Bell. 1:20:05.200 --> 1:20:05.960 You guys know him. 1:20:06.200 --> 1:20:08.200 Uh yeah, just check it out. Head over to our Patreon, 1:20:08.240 --> 1:20:10.519 patroon dot com slash game flun Employed. We have a 1:20:10.560 --> 1:20:11.960 bunch of tears you can get in on. 1:20:12.160 --> 1:20:13.479 You can uh. 1:20:15.200 --> 1:20:17.599 Commission your own podcast series, or you can just listen 1:20:17.640 --> 1:20:20.160 to episodes for free wherever you find podcasts. 1:20:20.160 --> 1:20:23.599 So yeah, do that, do that, and remember, folks, you know, 1:20:24.040 --> 1:20:26.679 if you want to know what it's like to stare 1:20:26.720 --> 1:20:31.720 down the barrel of Saddam Hussein's gold plated handgun. Tragically, 1:20:31.720 --> 1:20:35.439 Saddam isn't with us anymore, but you can always find 1:20:35.439 --> 1:20:38.120 a man with a handgun at an Applebee's near a 1:20:38.160 --> 1:20:42.040 truck stop after ten thirty at night, So good luck 1:20:42.040 --> 1:20:43.280 and God bless everybody. 1:20:44.360 --> 1:20:45.040 Tell me's fake. 1:20:47.800 --> 1:20:50.760 Oh yeah, you can listen to this podcast without ads 1:20:50.800 --> 1:20:52.080 if you go to Cooler Zone Media. 1:20:52.200 --> 1:20:56.320 It's on Apple or something really threw that one away. 1:20:58.000 --> 1:21:01.120 Behind the Bastards is a production of Zone Media. For 1:21:01.240 --> 1:21:05.240 more from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia dot com, 1:21:05.360 --> 1:21:08.640 or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:21:08.720 --> 1:21:10.400 or wherever you get your podcasts.