Ep. 360: NWA Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 (Part 1)

It's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and carn Seo and JP Sorrows the LAPS fans get all my ears rustling like you never seen anything like it, And it's the laps Fan name of the one in the ring to get about the sorrow with the real king of swing with the bell goes name to kick like me throne in the corner, but a splash like stay even Jerry King could say, go off the crown, nodding his head like hiss d low brown, which you get low down, go even high up, flip you

on your head. But you know, coul Driver, you speaking more outge dragon spits fire, keep you more shocked than a head treat hire drop a more truth than the kind of snupber less you with a cooking Roddy pipe fer checking JPD like j y D drop the cupcakes Ago the grain bar means the

best podcast fun start to close round if y'all be so. We talked about the very first televised Yal Rumble Inch nineteen eighty years the fast time we were with you here on the Lapsed Fan, and a key part of understanding that event is that it basically right was created to fuck with Jim Crockett. Like most things Vince did in the mid to late eighties aren't the good old days,

and so what exactly was it Vince was fucking with? We of course alluded to it, but it made a lot of sense to follow on our Royal Rumble eighty eight coverage with the show that was unmoored by the record cable television rating for a free Sunday night special in the USA network. That was the Royal Rumble. To talk about the show that it disrupted. It was the Bunk House Stampede January twenty fourth, nineteen eighty eight, Nassau Coliseum,

Long Island, New York. You heard it right, Jim Crockett Promotions and wa running in New York on pay per view. In some ways, you can call it Crockett's first pay per view because, as we talked about,

the nineteen eighty seven Starkaden Theory was on pay per view. But by the time Vince had his way with the cable companies and put up Survivor series Head to Head really wasn't available to buy in most markets in this country because Vince gave them an ultimatum with all the leverage of WrestleMania three at his back. I want to say, I want to say something that is it's totally it's totally a meme, and it is maybe elitist in some way and whatever.

But you know, you didn't even need to say that this show took place in the Northeast because all you had to do was look at the crowd. And they're actually attractive people at these shows. Come on, they look at I'm sorry, you know, you know I said, I said, it's rude, it's awful, But come on, we've seen we've seen our fair share of of of Southern wrastling crowds during this time period, and they're not fun to look at. Well, I'll tell you they had some opportune cutaways

at their disposal during this show. To guess, some very eighties looking, you know, twenty somethings in the crowd undoubtedly looking to you know, I mean, we're not you know, there were no women. Put it this way, there were no women, you know, with mullets and beer goggle

glasses like we've seen in the southern shows. Right. Well, there's more of a more of a front row fervor and some of those traditional seven wrestling markets where those first several rows are always going to be taken up by the wrestling lifers, especially in you know, hardcore wrestling buildings like the Greensboro Coliseum that was the home base of Jim Crockett Promotions for the twenty two lifers, right, whereas here one of their first forays, not their very first,

but one of their first forays into the New York market, their first. For a big televised event like this, you probably will get some folks that otherwise, you know, don't typically attend wrestling, and there's not like a first three rows whole hard camera mounted for by the hardcore right when it comes to turning out for for n WA wrestling at the time. But yeah, you know, certainly there were plenty of twenty somethings turning out hoping to choke

on Horseman Cock at the Helmsley Palace. That's right, come on now there it would be uh uh, there was a Marriott right across the way from from from the coliseum. That there was. But fortunately we actually know the hotel that the wrestlers stayed out for this show because it turned out to be the site of some historically significant banter about whether the booking range of Dusty Rhodes

should be aborted with with with all due haste. There was a lot of a lot of post gaming on this one because this is one of the biggest unmitigated disasters ever in terms of the business. This is awful, This is this is really I mean it should be called rough House Stampede. I asked you a question picture sitting down January twenty fourth, nineteen eighty eight, going through all the rigamarole it took to order a pay per view in nineteen eighty

eight to do it, and this is what you got, thoughts. I mean, I mean, listen, you know, if we're talking nineteen eighty eight and I'm seven years old, I probably would have found reasons to like it. I'm sure I would have, because I would do that. I found reasons to like WrestleMania eleven. I found reasons to like Summer Slam ninety

five. Besides, you know the ladder match, so you know, as a kid, you get your blinders on, so I can imagine, I can actually imagine being somewhat intrigued or enthralled by a Battle Royal that involved people being tossed over a cage to be eliminated. I can. I can see that with myself, because I was my imagination like was so out of control, Like I probably, honestly, you know what, I probably fucking booked

one in my Hasbro universe. Sure, you know, I you know, because I made like a you know I made I made a steel cage out of some kind of wire and stuff, and I'm sure I had some kind of weird cage match that involved people having to go over. It sounds like something I would come up with, like my weird fucking tag matches, that I would have my my weird elimination tag matches where you had to eliminate.

This is what I would do, I'm not I'm not kidding. I would have a tag team, right, and the only way to win was to have your team pin both partners in a row. So like if if team won pinned team two, and then team two pinned team one, team one would have to pin twice again. And if you're waiting for me to say I really like that idea, no, I really liked that idea. Actually, yeah, all right, they haven't tried that one yet. No, no, But like you can kind of disrupt, you can disrupt the score

talian right by eating. It's like, it's kind of like if you will like the the the mentality of a strap match by touching. Sure the thing. It's not best, but it's first two straight falls too, right, exactly best two street yeah, yeah, first two straight falls like you can have pinfall. I'd have pinfalls going crazy like galore. I think I did

a couple of these with the Steiner Brothers and money incorporated. So all right, I will grant you that you know, your impressionable young wrestling mind could have been intrigued to check out a Battle Royal advertised as the bunk how Stampede was. But by the time it was over, would you have been satisfied as a young wrestling fan based on the way it played out? Yes, because I was always about a baby face winning. I don't care who it

was. Now Listen, if I was one of those twenty year olds, now if I ordered this, if this have then happened, say in in like two thousand and eight, a whole different story, different story. And I think what's important to remember is a key distinction between WWF and JCP at the time was that the profile of the audience was, you know, it's all all the kids are watching WWF because of the toys and the cartoon, and I'll watch it. Uh, they're not watching in as great numbers.

I mean, I don't know this for absolute sure. I'm sure plenty of kids watched you know, JCP on TBS and stuff, but it's it's very obvious to me that they skewed older, significantly older in talk at least who turned out at the Nassau Coliseum. I don't remember seeing hardly any keys on camera. I mean it always felt like that anyway, like because it was right the whole idea with it being a little more violent, a little more edgy, you know like that that yeah, and that was the key sort

of distinction with wrestling fans in the eighties to two. It was like if you were into NWAWCW, if you were if you were in the Rick Flair camp, you were into a wrestling that was, you know, more mature and harder, raged and sort of you know, more respectful of what wrestling has always been. Where Camp Carnival dressed up for a for a new, young, impressionable audience. What do you mean, brother, what are you talking about Rick Flair camp? Dude? Are you singing at a Camp Brother

Camp WWE. But all that to be said is that there's a reason that by the time it's over, you can audibly hear on this pray Pay broadcast infamously fans in the Nassau Colisseum chanting refund so loudly that it gets picked up as a Jim Ross and Bob Coddle are doing sort of a post show wrap

up. And that's for many reasons, including the fact that there was tremendous confusion over which time the show actually began, so that for a lot of people that turned out to this event at the Nassau Colisseum, they basically just got like an hour of wrestling and the show is over because they showed up at a time the earliest printed tickets indicated they should have, which was eight o'clock, when really they should have showed up at six thirty because that's when

the first dark watch when the shit and so come nine o'clock, the show is over and these people basically got an hour of wrestling. That that's pretty much the reason assigned to why there's a refund chant not so much the fact that Dusty Rhodes went over, which is a whole other song with of course, which I mean we'll have our way with on this episode. And and you know, I mean, I'm sure you're going to get into this as

well. But I when I was watching it, and I went into the you know, they were talking about previous bunk House Stampede matches, and I go and I go back and and look at the other at the stats for the other ones, and realize that Dusty won all of them. Yes, what the fuck? Well, I mean, the reason is very simple. It's because he's the bull of the woods. Now, what isn't simple is explaining what the fuck that is supposed to mean in four and two thou twenty

three. He's the bull of the shit, is what he Yeah, he's the bullshit of the woods, right, And we're gonna get into why here on this episode, because this was it for Dusty. I mean, certainly he kept the book for a little while longer, but it's pretty the time is nigh, where Jim Crockett finally throws his hands up, Turner moves into buy, Dusty gets I guess you could say his time is up. His

time is nigh, correct, His time is nigh. That's correct. And Dusty, you know, has a fit and leaves and books and angle where the road Warriors hit him with a spike despite the edict remember that there'd be no blood on the turnaround w CW. And so he gets fired and goes to WWF. But this his decision. How can you sit there and endorse a product when they simply lie. They said they're not going to have any

blood on their television. And look what this guy does on his on his you know, I'm gonna write letters to to to to parent FCC, parent organizations, and then I'll tell you what I'm gonna hire that guy, give me Dusty Rhodes. Yeah, that's, of course the most delicious part of the story, which of course we'll get to as well. But bunk House Damp eighty eight remembered for all the wrong reasons watching it back, there's no

redeeming qualities to it whatsoever. So awful that Dusty sat down and thought that many non finishes on a pay per view and they to service the customer is a permanent indictment on his booking ability. He was a good booker for a little period of time, but so were a lot of people. How hardcore the mistakes are when you start losing momentum, and his were epic. I mean, I guess, I guess Rick Flair versus Hawk was fine on paper and the match was okay because you know, but if you have that's the

finish you have to give people. What are you doing putting the match on the show? Guys? I know this is pay per view, Dusty. This isn't like, let's do a finish so that you know, in our minds the guys who are is hot the next time they come to the town. This is pay per view. This isn't an arena show. This isn't a house show that my mom's show. And you know, the previous punk house stampedes that you just mentioned, those were house shows. They weren't on

television. They were promoted on television move tickets, but they weren't television presentations. And so I think Dusty just failed to reimagine the punk house stampede of ND you could have stopped it failed? What's that you could have stopped it? Failed? Yeah, to reimagine the concept for the pay per view medium, you know, and sort of what how that shifts the expectations of the people watching the matches in terms of like, no, we actually get conclusive

finishes. That's what pay per view is. I mean that's the thing too. I mean you may bring up an excellent point, because I sit there and it feels like a house show. It is right, like that's exactly what it feels like. I think they got the wind taken so out of their sales by how Starkade eighty seven was gutted as a pay per view proposition that they were just we gotta do something, we gotta get on the air list. We got a New York date to circle on the calendar. Here

circled on the calendar. I should say, let's make that the pay per view without any actual you know, because they didn't have a lot of time after the Thanksgiving star Kake I turned around to start really getting programs hot Jr. I said, you know on this podcast about this this event, that they just had no momentum that there was something you could point to that was must see a resolution they could put in front of the people that everyone was

was was thirsting four at the time. You know, coming off Starcake, you're you're you're cold. You know that that's that's your peak of the year, and so they're going to put this on, so you know, only a couple of months later there is Yeah, there's nothing, there's nothing really interesting. Yep. And yeah, the fact that Dusty won them all. I mean this is like, this is like if Hull Cogan won the ninety two Rumble. I mean not even I'm gonna say like, not even Hogan

won a rumble on until nineteen ninety. But but if he won ninety you think in ninety great, you know, it's a wonderful show. Ninety one, great, wonderful show. Hogan wins again. But if he wins again in ninety two, and it's it's supposed to be a bigger one for the title and it's not, you know, a pay per view for this case, it is supposed to be a bigger one than the usual. You expect something more, You expect something a twist, you expect something landmark, not

just a repeat of the last two years. I mean, I know you would have loved it, but what would be talking about the nineteen ninety two Yal Rumble is the greatest rumble of all time today of Hogan one absolutely not no chance I would be but uh, you know, and here. You have it here. You had a chance to make the match means something different when the spotlight was really bright, and he just didn't do it because he's the bullow the woods or whatever the fuck. And we'll hear his reasoning,

Dusty's reasoning as we go here. People were very attuned and sensitive to this at the time. I mean, Dusty was you know, he was not knocking him dead in any way. When you looked at the business metrics, you know he was. He was putting himself in positions to define the product when you know every day, every data point would have told you that that time has passed. You know that that's not working, and he kept doing it. So you can see with the frustration in the locker room starts horse

boil. So it's all here. It's the Bunkhouse Stampede nineteen eighty eight. A great a great show for us to cover, one that I felt like it would probably be hard to get to a reason to cover. I thought maybe a copper person would pick it at some point, right, or just

you know, a random show to pick right. But here, uh, if you're tuning into television at the time, is what you would have heard in terms of the selling points for this bunk House Stampede pay per view and the town right of Live Something January twenty four and the showdown to New York, the third annual bunk House Stampede Final is more than turnment of the top NWA wrestlers, Only the roughest, only the toughest will be left standing at

the end, and the payoff one half million bucks for a bootfull of dollars. These cowboys will do anything. Everything goes, anything goes. Don't miss it. See us do what we do. Miss double team, triple team the finals of the bunk House Damped, the baddest of the match duty will be a mac and dreaming out here to day. They ain't nothing as bad as the bunk House Dampeede, and that's only one way that you can get the bunk House dempets. So I want you to enough depth. Children.

For more information on how to order the bunk House Stampede Championships in your own home, on January twenty fourth, call your local cable company. I'm good. What did Dusty say? There's nothing as bad as the bunk House Damped. He's not wrong, so we're wrong, you know, And that's a funny thing too, Like they make such a big deal out of this as being this this, this, even fucking Caddle. Even Caddle at one point callses the most dangerous fucking match, and I'm like, really, it's more

dangerous than war games, not even close, not even close. This is

a bitch. This last time on the Rumble Show, when we talked about the fact that w WOF was already running this has always forgotten in this history of bunk house dampede was already running bunkhouse battle royals of their own, mocking right the bunk house concept, because what Coddle's talking about is what he had seen to date, or what NB had put forward to date, which is bunk house stampedes where people came to the ring with all manner of weapons,

and the bunkhouse stampede was not just a battle royal, it was also like a weapons match, and everyone you know, came dressed in jeans and cut off shirts, ready to brawl childboy boots to you know, split people's heads open and stuff like that. But here because of the cage element that that was never part of bunkhouse stampedes prior. It's not like every bunkhouse stampede was in a cage here Suddenly the punkhouse stampede concept is there's no weapons. Really,

people are just getting in there and fighting. Yeah, it's very, very stupid and all the backward psychology. It sounds good to throw someone over the top of the cage. Then you think like, wait a minute, how are you going to do that? Right? Why would they why why

would they go up there? Right? It looks so fake when they do it, and most of them are out the door anyway, which is hardly as dramatic, and they didn't even they don't place to a tend dis degree that someone's gonna get thrown out of a cage, right, And it's the same thing as you know, it's to me, it's the same thing as

a scaffold match. You're never going to see what you really want to see, all right, because no one's going to take that kind of risk, like you don't want to see something Like, no one's actually gonna like get thrown over the top of the cage like you want them to, because they don't want to get hurt. Yeah, that's right, And you know that's

the thing too, that's it right there. If you can't fucking make if you can't do a match, if there's a match that requires a major ass stunt that no one is willing to do, don't do the match's corrects. Just over every hell in the cell match, you know, right right? Totally? No, I mean he has to he has to do something ridiculous. Everyone has to do something ridiculous. Not until Shane was willing to put

it all on the line to try to make his dad love him. Did anybody come along and do what people got animated by when they hurt Helen a cell? Who's his dad? That's correct, disowned son? Didn't Caesar have one of those two one he didn't acknowledge as his own son. I believe he did. I did. And of course you think Dusty right when he got the book at TNA, what's he doing lethal lockdown or all cage match pay per views? When he thinks big show pay per view, he thinks

put it in a cage, it'll be fine. And of course lethal Lockdown was basically an in cage weapons filled battle royal kind of the same thing. And we know how awesome that is from the recent TNH journey. So it's just it's it's it's not going to work, and it's just very important that

this whole timing thing it was. It was made known really the night of the show, and it was the talk of the show afterwards, in the talk of the locker room that like, these people that bought tickets to this thing early were totally fucked over because their tickets said to show up at eight and the matches started ended up starting at like quarter to seven or something like

that. So you know, people show up and get hardly any of a show and they get dusty going over, which I'm not sure they were, you know, really would have been as mad about if they got three and a half hours of wrestling beforehand. But it's like you didn't even get something impactful at the end. You didn't even get like someone breaking through or something a novelty or anything like that. So it was it was bad. This

was in Pro Wrestling, illustrated after the event. The year comes to an end at midnight December thirty one, but the effects of nineteen eighty eight will be felt long afterwards. Blah blah blahm okay headline the NA fails at the Nassau Coliseum. Wow, this is in the Kfave Aftermags the magazine holy shit,

you know, just like jumped into bed with Jim Crockett. When Vince Junior took over and banned their photographers and writers from ringside primarily pissed them off to the point there was like, you know, just an absurd bias towards UH Crockett wrestlers and NBA wrestlers in terms of who got the cover, who got the Wrestler of the Year awards, all that shit. You know, Fucking Dusty Rhodes would go on TBS every week and thank Bill Apter after had

a television segment on TV. It was, you know, for them to go at in this hard was a was a sign of like, we're doing this for you, We're calling you out for your own good, not just to be assholes. The NWA fails at the Nassau policy and the NWA's were turned to the New York Metropolitan Area. Lasted only five months and may have destroyed any hopes for a future return, although the debut card last November. Yeah, Dot's not forget I was going to get to this. The first

time they ever ran New York was not this event. That is to say, Jim Crockett promotions. The first time they ran was November of nineteen eighty seven, and they did a very healthy crowd. Really yeah, or what so what happened? Uh? Well, I mean they came back with a show that people weren't that interest in. You A respectable number of people turned out for this show. But you watched the pay per view, you know what happened. Fucking watch it. Although the debut card last November drew a

promising crowd, things steadily worsened. The Bunkhouse Stampede card in late January began, depending on which tickets you held a half hour or a full hour before the time listed on the ticket. The card itself lasted barely two hours and left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. The NWA never did recover, nor did it ever again draw over ten thousand fans to the Colosseum.

Because of the Colosseum's decision to book n WA cards, the WWF pulled out of Nassau for several months and didn't return until this past October, and doing so, the ww have delivered a clear message to Colosseum officials. If you want us, you can't have them, and after the NWA's failures, the Colosseum's decision was an easy one. We'd also be foolish to think that the hierarchy at Madison Square Garden, sitting only twenty miles away in the heart

of Manhattan, wasn't watching this experiment. Have we seen the last of the NWA in New York, the most lucrative sports market in the country. Now we pretty much hid. They certainly came back. I can try it again. But yeah, yeah, there was actual hope that this was, you know, Crockett's CounterPunch to Vince closing in on their on their towns and their circuits, and not so much the nwas. I mean, they certainly tried

to go in some Crockett markets and had some success. Baltimore was heavily contested, for instance, in towns in Virginia and such, and it's not like they totally avoided North Carolina. But no one had any high expectations for those markets. But here you have Crocketts saying, all right, this is a

national battle. Let let's go right in any New York. Let's put our better wrestlers and better matches in there, and let's you know, leave the wrestling fan with the impression that we're the place to go if you want real wrestling, the kind of wrestling that you know, you went to see Bruno do in the sixties or whatever the fuck. So this was sort of like their attempt to be national. I mean, I didn't I didn't go,

you know, I was didn't see Bruno. But I don't think I don't think that Bess would have been I don't think Bruno would have done this. No, now you would. You would have gone home pretty satisfied. Yeah, yeah, right, kick somebody's ass. He would. He would have kick some ass. And you know, Dusty kick does here too. It's it's kind of ironic. He basically does do here what Bruno would do, except the fans. It's not like everyone showed up to see Dusty kick ass.

People showed up to see the alternative wrestling product put their best foot forward. They almost certainly showed up more to see Rick Flair alive in action in the New York market than they did to see Dusty, for instance, And

that was one of the big things that Meltzer would to cry. And the observer at the time was that, like, they're just don't have the courage to turn Rick Flair baby face, but it's very clear that he's the only shot they have at a champion that can actually define the brand, and everybody

wants to cheer him. People are sick of booing him. They're sick of him getting fucking knocked around for forty five minutes and escaping by the skin of his teeth and yet still be the only real wrestler they care about in the company. But they just didn't didn't turn baby face. Flair don want to

do it. Of course, come eighty nine after the just by Jim hurdon well by Turner and Jim Hurd getting put into power Flare does have a wonderful baby face run in nineteen ninety nine, a legendary one, but I tries to undo it as quickly as he can. At the same time, because he wasn't the best man on the world limit, he didn't want to be

a baby face, never did, so that's that. Plus there was a string of no shows on the card, which we'll talk about, and that wasn't just an issue for this market, and this event is what happened. That's the problem. He wasn't right, but they were having a lot of trouble with that in a lot of towns, no shows. As they pushed into these new markets. They're trying La, They're trying big time markets.

They're doing Dallas. Of course, after buying the u WF the Bill Watts Company in nineteen eighty seven and moving the Jim Crockett Promotions offices from Charlotte to Dallas, they start to try to make a push and set down roots in Texas. Jim Ross, who of course came with the purchase and who calls this bunkhouse stampede event with Bob Coddle, actually bought a house in Plano, Texas and within like five months had to sell it at yes yes, yes,

yes, yes. Jimmy Crockett was talking himself into saying that being in Dallas made him a bigger deal and made them more polished from a standpoint of trying to make a national push into non JCP markets. And you started insisting, just like the Bridge trying to copy events, that everybody live in the sort of the area around the office. And then Turner buys the thing and

now everyone's got to move to Atlanta, So fucking what a joke. Under the same guys, Yeah, yeah, really really a joke when you consider that all this stuff is happening, all this window dressing stuff is happening, those money's being spent, and there's no plan to make the wrestling more interesting, right, right, to invigorate the actual thing that sells tickets and makes

people watch the TV. Nah, who means that shit? And as we'll get to it basically comes down to the fact that Jim Crockett had no ability to see past sty in terms of what could be a who could be a successful booker for his company. You know, he just he was swept up by the magic Dusty brought in eighty three and eighty four. Well, you know, I am Dusty's just brought. He just keeps on bringing it.

Yep. So how how could I you know, you know what they say, you know, don't fix you know, no point fixing something that it ain't broke. Yeah, exactly, Jim, I don't. I don't not mean, I just look at I look at look dust just it just keeps on bringing the goods. So I don't. I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't see what's the problem. Don't fix something if it ain't broke, just fix it. When you are broke. That's that's kind

of a well, uh what right, exactly my sentiments. So it's basically an unwillingness from you know, for Dusty his supercard, you know, last Angle in Tampa, st Arcade Mega event formula worked beautifully before Vince Junior decided to define what a major league wrestling product looked like with production values and infrastructure that you know, Crockett could never match because as much as Crockett took the national TV slot and pushed into New York in LA and big markets, he

never sort of upgraded the core in terms of like who's in the office, who's running production, how many editing facilities do we have? None? They

had to do everything lives to tape because they had no editing base. According to Tony Schivanni, and he knew the contrast because he went to work for WWF in nineteen eighty nine and took a look at what they had and was like, holy shit, copying, how was Crockett even putting a wrestling show out that was you know, sort of presentable in the marketplace without this kind of equipment and resources. It's not Klondike bill on on payroll. Although you

know, there's not to say Klondike Buil didn't do a good job. He stayed employed. These are all good old boys that worked for you fucking father. You know, yeah, I did a fine job doing that because you know, I'll tell you how I know I did a fine job of that because every time I went back to home, I was able to afford bringing a woman back with me to sit up on table. Exactly right, that's exactly right, bring into the table as they say, oh oh, oh,

he was Did you hear your mama sound like that? Whoa, whoa, It's a lot. Parlors were fine, but Klondike Bill really got excited when they legalized the table games in his and that is to say he he lays on his back underneath the glass table and has a woman ship on the table while charps off. Can you do? Is that allow? We're about to find out, Bill, what would you do for a Klondike Bill? Uh? What what would you do for a bill that actually is delivered on

when you buy your ticket and show up to the building. Here's Tony Schavani's in this podcast covering this show, talking about the reaction of the fans when they realized that the show is already over, and I remember the talk being about, you know, these tickets. These tickets are incorrect, both of them, the one that says eight o'clock is wrong, the one that says

seven o'clock is wrong. And we're gonna start at six thirty. And I remember someone saying, well, they're just getting some bonus stuff, and I remember thinking, they're not getting bonus stuff. They'll get here and they'll think they've been fucked out of something that they paid for, which is what they

basically what they were. And I remember, distinctly, because I was a ring announcer, the booing that you heard at the end of it was not necessarily because that Dusty had won, Because I think dust he had a lot of his fans, and I think that's he got a very big pop that night. I think it was because this event was all of a sudden over and a lot of the people got there at eight o'clock when we saw an hour's worth of stuff and miss some good shit, or what they thought was

good shit at that time. The opposite wasn't over. That's the problem. That's correct. JJ Dillon was, of course number two to Dusty in terms of the booking regime. He would handle, you know, cards much lowered down cards. Dust the dust he didn't care about, you know, preliminary feuds and matches and towns. And also, you know, they absorbed Florida Championship Wrestling and they're still running like Florida's specific house shows with different crews during

the course of this time. They're also running shows with a lot of the u WF guys in old mid South towns that aren't even JCP shows. They're just like other things that Dusty is pretending he can keep track of and intend to. And Dylan also was responsible for things like you know, timing the show and all of that. So Dylan was also party to the disaster this

thing was. And he did a timeline conversation with Sean Oliver at KFB Commentaries about this particular night, and here's what he remembers about all this band. And you want to expand everywhere, and it wasn't a question of you know,

going into the heart of somebody else's territory. But when you when you have a national television show like the TBS program that went everywhere, it was seen everywhere, and you have to think in terms of being a national promotion, maybe a worldwide promotion, but national at that point, and where Crockett started as an a mid Atlantic territory and then a little by little started branching

out these other places major markets. New York is a major market eventually to be perceived as a true national promotion, it's hard not to say, well, you know, I want to make have a presence in New York. Now, maybe you can't get into Madison Square Garden. That's what it's gonna would they not, because Vince was running the omni, It would seem only it makes sense that they would try to put the stake in the hardpack onto the garden. But would you have some kind of have some kind of exclusivity

with them. Exclusivity is a very bad word to use. You should never use exclusivity because you can you can you could challenge that on legal grounds. But Vince was a very smart man, and he had a man named Ed Cohen who was booking the arenas. And because they had longevity in running major buildings, their logic as presented to the building was look, I'm a regular repeat customer and we're in this together, and we we've done well in the

past. We want to continue to do well. And the only thing I'm saying is we don't want another very similar product to come in, say, six weeks to two months before our date. And by the same token, we don't want a competing product to come in six weeks to two months or whatever the time frame was after just to give us that distance. Well, I forget the exact terminology that they use prime tenant, and so it's a kind of a concession that you would give to a guy that's that's a regular

customer. Yeah, you don't want to get sued, and here's a new guy, and you want to give him a chance, but you also want to take care of somebody who's who's done good business with you over a long period of time. So that window of exclusion on both sides kept. Vince was running the garden every three weeks, so there were no dates in the guard because he had a prime tenant status. What was the company's initial reaction to was there any kind of well going up to New York? Now?

Was it? Was it a big deal to the talent. I don't think as big a deal to the talent. I equate a lot of things to baseball. You know, they talk about, you know, the Yankee Red Sox rivalry, and I think the media and maybe the fans get more revved up. Not that the players don't think those encounters are important. They do. But except for maybe a few isolated individuals, it's not a hate hate thing. We're all in the business together. But there is a pride factor,

you know. It's like, well, you know they're there and they're doing well. I'm here and doing well, and if I can go up there and do well too, that says something about my value in the industry as a whole. So a lot there, But I think one of the keys honed in on is you know, the arena exclusivity and how bad a word it is to use exclusivity, yep, because you can't really put on paper that you can't book any other wrestling company in this building because it's you

know, you run into antitrust concern. It's like, right, it was actually really impinging someone else's ability to compete in the marketplace. However, and I think the Pro Wrestling Illustrated snippet we read puts it even better than JJ does in his exposition there, like, look, that's fine, we can't tell you to not let JCP in, but we can tell you we're not coming back if you do, right, And that's what it appears. W WF did is I see there's actually a date that's flashed on the marquee at

the Nassau Coliseum during Bunk House Stampede. You only see it in a couple of frames, but if you squint, it's advertising a February, a late February return to the Nassau Coliseum and just as wrestling, and I was like, wow, are they actually advertising a WWF card in the on the big screen or whatever on the the thing, Oh my god, But they weren't. It was it was a JCP event, which might bolster the notion that Vince, you know, said all right, fine, you guys are gonna

let them in. We'll see you later. We'll be at the garden. You know, if you don't, if you don't value us enough to write. But the closest you can get to writing that down is, you know, six weeks of this way or that way, prime tenant status, all this shit, and so you know, with the amount of lead time you need to make a decision on a building. And the nature of the war was such that you're making decisions in real time. Like the Royal Rumble,

as we talked about last time. I mean it was basically decided on a month out from the show, which is insane. Which is insane, you know, do a live television special of that caliber and importance to them with so little notice just sort of speaks to the urgency of the time they're especially on the wwfside, trying to respond to demand for their product. They're not even pushing it out there. They're not even deciding on their own to do

something and then shopping it around. They're being told, we need something because this thing does such great ratings for us, from the Slammies to Rumble to the NBC specials. It's like, you need, we need this, and it's like, okay, well, let's scramble to set up a tent somewhere so that we have something to do for this date. And so in that kind of an environment, you're never going to have enough time to consider. Okay, let's make sure we're six weeks out from the next time they come

to New York before we try to book. Say, it's like, do you never have that much lead time in an environment and an atmosphere like this, Right, So I thought that was an important point that he made. But also so j JJ, how did it work out? You know, you did get to New York with the ticket thing? This date is notable because this Bunkhouse Stampede pay per view is going up against WWE's first Royal Rumble, which they give away for free on USA basically to counter the pay per

view that was announced prior. So with them going head to head like that, did Crockett do anything to prevent Vince's free program from being given away on the date that they had a pay per view? Where is there basically nothing you can do if somebody has that TV time, probably nothing that you could brother is something that you can do. The what ultimately happens, I mean, it's it's a competitive environment. Everybody's trying to you know, protect their

own turf, protect what they have. But the other thing that happens too in the television industry, the television industry doesn't want to get into a situation where they're involved in a war. The pay per view company wants to see every pay per view do incredibly well. So I'm I bet you there was more pressure within the television executive area with you know, this is what I normally expect to do with a pay per view, and this is what I

did while you're airing this. You know, hey, what are you doing? You know? And a lot of times the decisions weren't that simple because you have strong personalities and they're they're both trying to take that next big step

forward. But the television industry doesn't like to see things like that where and that's why they As time went on, you saw less and less of that, and people would move pay per view dates, so you didn't you never you wouldn't have two major pay per views competing with each other on the same night, because the pay per view people are are more of the ultimate losers.

Yeah, and that's ultimately we called the truce was the cable industry stepping in and saying shit like because I forget, you know, the cable industry made money on these pay per views. This is a huge revenue stream for them. Then you know, right, of course you're paying your cable provider

for this. They don't even have to split it in the same way with like an ESPN or whatever, you know channel that they're paying to retransmit, right, So they're not fucking around, like this is their wallet that you're harming by playing your little games. And so basically, by WrestleMania five, when they countered with the Clash special, that was what was a flair funk? I think it was no no, it was something no no. That

was steam boat which one oh and wrestle Mania five. Yeah, yeah, that was the two out of three false teamboat flair match in New Orleans. Yeah, that's pretty much the last time that a tape of view event from one or the other was countered with a live television special by the other guys. And that's classic jconp big Brother getting Big Brother Like at n WAWCW Big Brother like, Okay, we're gonna do it to you. And by that point Vince has already won. It's like I had, you know, put

Flair Sting against WrestleMania four, put a Flair Steamboat against WrestleMania five. It'll be fine because I've already proven to the pay per view providers that when push comes to shove, they need my show more than they need yours. Would they like to have both on different nights they could collect as much money as possible. Yes, yes, of course, but you're not harming me by

doing your live show. You're not. And eventually, as we've talked about when we covered that clash, the cable company said enough, like you guys need to stop doing this, or like it's going to be difficult for you. I'm putting words in their mouth, but I'd imagine the implied leverage. What's it's going to be difficult to you to schedule what you'd like to schedule if we keep having to worry about you? You know? Yeah, that makes total sense. So this is this is sort of like those early days

where like Cable knew they wanted wrestling, but they didn't. I don't think necessarily realize how pitched the battle was between Vince and Crockett, and how far Vince was willing to go to Like there's no battle. I'm not fighting him. It we're competing. I don't, you know, I don't. I don't want to good to put the Royal Rumble on another Sunday night. I mean we had it was the night you know the show was booked. Timing. I mean, I don't see anybody else change in plans. Well,

he already knew that was going to be that night. And Bruce Pritchet, you are you are you are presuming things. You are presuming that I am an individual that follows what is what what Jim Crockett was doing. I don't know. I don't know a Pritchard unless you're talking about the doctor of desire, Tom Pritchard, which I most certainly am not and probably never would. So then I don't I don't know any of the Pritchard Do you know any

other doctors of desire? Myself, I'm very desirable and I have a doctorate in that. How did you manage to get triple H off the board? That was a really slick one board? Well, I mean, listen, the the the thing about you know, the the political nature of a board of directors is is the thing? And and did I get triple H off

the board? You know? I mean it is sure, it's easy to say that, you know, But at the same time, you know I'm not the only member of the board, right yea, uh so yes, let's not forget that while this abomination is happening in New York, uh Jim Crockett Promotions is pretending that they can do a show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando in that same night that anybody will come to headlined by Ron Garvin ver Stick Moreno going to cage there, Brad Armstrong and Ricky Santana versus

Eddie Gilbert and the terminator in the car. And you better believe Bugsy McGraw is nowhere near Dusty at this point. We've talked about how Bugsy straight up slap Dusty at one point. Oh my god, Bugsy McGraw. Now this all sounds very chaotic, and I thought it was a great point made by one of the one of the most unbelievable members of the Solar System, Matt, who always provides such great backup to us as we prepare episodes. And

he was just a hungry Philadelphia based Crockett fan at the time. He was so into how how NWA contrasted with WWF, and he says, actually, the chaos that you know everyone seems to recount when they revisit the Crockett of this era was actually part of its appeal. And I thought this was a

perspective worth wow. Looking right in here, Matt writes one more thing I want to say, Well, this is top of mind that that JCP chaos, the inconsistent branding, the unpredictable appearances, jobbers who are never named, broadcast locations that are never identified, references to past and future events that I'd never heard of and would never see that MESSI maybe it didn't happen. Maybe

it didn't happen either, right, yeah, little did you know? Like that's the thing they're referencing the bunk House Stampede to sell this pay per view. The bunk House Stampede was never on television. They showed clips of matches sometimes, but also according to Wikipedia, there's one more. They called this the third annual, but there was a fourth one after this, before this, before this was the last one. Yeah, I mean yeah, let

me let me yeah, yeah, please take a look. It's hard because you know what they would do is they would do a serious of bunk House Battle royals, and then the winners of all of them would face off in a big finale, and the big finale would be the one for the half a million dollars and this big fucking boot, this trophy boot that would be filled with all the cash, this big cowboy boot. So, according to Wikipedia, there were four Bunk House Stampede matches eighty five eighty six, eighty

seven, eighty eight, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, they call this third annual the third annual. Yeah, that's that's not right. That doesn't job with my understanding. The fourth annual. I wonder if that first that first year may not have been called a stampede, because I feel like the stampede piece of it is supposed to a bunk House Battle Royal. The idea of the stampede was it was all the winners of the bunk House Battle Royals

on the circuit, We're coming together. I'm not sure in eighty five they did it that way. It may have just been a one off recording. Again, I mean not that I'm saying this is the most accurate thing in the world, but it's probably. Again. According to uh Wikipedia, the concept says in nineteen eighty five, the nwas Jimcarcker Product Promotions come up with a new match to increase the fans interest in their product, the bunk House Stampede. Yeah, all right, Stampede's right there. Yeah, so yeah.

The inconsistent branding, unpredictable appearances, jobbers who never named broadcast locations, never identified references to past events, You'll never see Matt writes, all of that was part of its charm and a lure back in eighty eight when I was a kid watching in Philly. It's only a detriment now as an adult watching it as a television productive. Wait, I see why, I see why it's different. I'm reading now. Sorry, But because in eighty seven

there was no stampede match. It was eighty seven that didn't have the stampede match. Yes it was. It was the right They didn't have the match. It was whoever won the most battle Royals would would was the winner, right without a finale, And that meant that I think the and well, I mean kind kind of because so at the end of the these fucking idiotic things, Dusty and Big Bubba Rogers, we're tied for most wins. And

then they had a two man steel cage bunk house match. Right, it was a one on one match almost where you had to throw your opponent over the top of the cage. Oh god, okay, so there was some precedent for the cage element of it, but that was just a one on the daddy. We did it with a two man prevent baby, we can do it with eight men. If you know what I'm talking about Daddy.

We're fan. Will build the cage, baby, We build the cage high and toe all the way to heaven itself, and we'd take people up they off. We'd take our opponents and we'll toss them over the cage of the floor. Opponents, they should have been bunk beds in there. Make it look like a real cowboy bunkhouse. You should have been a bunk bed stampede. I brought this up last time, and we were talking about bunk house

stampede. I think during the art of war games. What's the movie where all the cowboys stay in a room for like ninety percent of it and shoot each other over time? Oh God, here we go. Is it a Coen Brothers movie or a or a Tarantino movie? Oh oh oh Hateful eight? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, they're all on that fucking thing. Yeah. Sure. As the historical precedent that this is like it, we'll get into kind of like a cowboys mythology thing, the idea

of the punk house. I mean it, it existed. It's not like a it's not like a fabrication. But this is sort of like a dramatization of it. So there you go all right, I knew it was some element of that. I thought it was the first year that wasn't the same, But of course, this being nonsensical, would be the third year. Yeah, the third year they changed things up, just like the It's the

equivalent of adding forty men into the Royal Rumble. Well, it's wild that you mentioned Bubba Rogers because we mentioned last week in the Rumble coverage that well, you know, Bossman is not in the Rumble right around the time of the Rumble as when word starts to hit the sheets that he's coming in, And that was a big blow because Dusty was really building up Bubba to be a top heel. It really his top foil, like the next in line after you know, the Niki to feud and then the Tully Blanchard feud.

Of course, you know that was a that was a big role to have, the heel that would give Dusty a run for his money on the circuit, and Bubba was primed and that one really was said to bruise Dusty when when they signed away boss Man, who was very unhappy with his Star Kade eighty seven payoff and wasn't shy about letting people know about it. So, I mean I didn't. I didn't know about that, that he was being

groomed for anything. I just didn't. And I said, well, you know, I mean, if you need there's a talented side of a bitch. He's like a big guy, he can move, he's fast. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't mean Dusty any harm. I just was. I mean, if he had told me he had plans, I would have never signed boss Man. Is that right? And I mean that to be a trick question. Uh so, yeah, back when I was a gid watching in Philly, it's only a detriment. Now was an adult,

he says, watching as a television production. I was ten years old when this pay per view happened, and jcpn WA was not a TV show. I think I mentioned this in an email years ago. But my impression was that these wrestlers were constantly fighting each other, and every week they turned cameras on so we could all watch some of it up north. Wow, that's what it out like. It felt dangerous, like horror movies that I wasn't allowed to watch or something. I wouldn't have had that feeling if it was

polished. And it's a feeling I really enjoy revisiting only eighties JCP in early nineties WCW gives it to me. Maybe that's part of my own loose association with JCP slash WCW in the autumn Horror, Blood Chaos, screaming, Yes,

let's fucking go. And this is also a great place to put some of the wonderful feedback we got to the Rumble Lady eight episode, filling in a few holes that we had in terms of, you know, how the show was put together and presented at the time, for sure, and in the spirit of kind of keeping with what we're trying to achieve here and painting

the picture of this this very important night in the business. January twenty fourth, nineteen eighty eight, across two podcasts, I thought we'd we'd take some time to pass on some some words, this one from from Stephen Boss.

I wish you could share it. What's wonderful here is that Stephen was sitting in the position of somebody living in Canada as it to be a fan at the time, watching television on Canada, watching WWF Canadian television, and it's fascinating to hear him describe how the rumble was presented to him as someone who theoretically could have bought a ticket to this show, and therefore was much more

I pressed upon by the hype co chairs. I heard you discussing the eighty eight Rumble and in its promotion locally in Hamilton, and so I thought I would toss you a little context, as I was lucky enough to see the whole thing as a seven year old hulkamaniac. The show was in fact promoted as a big deal, not just another house show. Cops Colosseum was a brand newish eighteen thousand seed venue, a state of the art rink in those

days. It was because it was booked because Vince always loved christening new buildings. It would look good as a full house on TV, and he'd benefit from the tax breaks in the American dollar exchange while producing TV. It wasn't just another show on the loop. Cops was specifically booked on short notice for this TV special. In those days, the localized promos for ron Into area events were shot at the Airport Howard Johnson, where everybody stayed on or backstage

at Maple Leaf Gardens. This was still the era of the blue backdrop with white WWE logos for promos. Our promos were handled by local TV legend Billy Red Lions. Billy promoted this card over and over again on local TV for a month leading up to the show. He first announced it as a special added event separate from the usual monthly MLG House show, which was still going

on as usual. He'd encourage you to buy tickets to both events and stress the need to buy tickets to the added Hamilton's show as well as the regular Toronto show using two points one. This Royal Rumble was a special event that would be broadcast on TV only in the United States. USA was then remains now unavailable on Canadian cable. Well, then wouldn't be USA, would it? No? It wouldn't right, No, I call USA if it's in Canada anyway, So the only way you could see this unique show was to

be there live in person. Billy's catchphrase don't shut damn miss it carried extra weight here He's stressed filling the arena so as to well represent the local wrestling scene too. The names of the Royal Rebel entrance would be drawn from a hat. The first time Billy mentioned this in What Jack Tubby fully suited and wearing a black fedora. At that point, I considered briefly that this might be a troll email. But ah, I'm just about to head out that

Jack Tunny or is you know what? Are they fucking Philip Marlow? Jesus Marlow? Yes? Is that it is that the detective? I think so? I was going to say, is that Jack Tunny? Or is that Jack Abramoff? This likely suggests a Maple Leaf Gardens taping in December of eighty seven, Tony took off his hat and explained that every every few minutes at the time, every few minutes and under termined amount of time a new participant will be able to enter the match. It could be thirty seconds, it

could be ten hours, but you can't win until everyone's come out. Uh, Jack, it can't be ten hours. I'll quibble with that. Why, brother, I'm what I'm cut? Sorry, Jack, we shouldn't have Can you not throw curveballs like that? Please? What? We're trying to get a shoot done here? Jacket's fine? Hold on all right? Hold on to what? What? Am I holding on too? Too? Please? Continue? I remember then he would pull a wrestler's name out of his

hat. He then demonstrated he fucked around with some slips of paper in the hat, pulled out one and Red and Reddit Don Racco. He said, I wish the stuff was on tape. I don't know. He and Billy then explained the rumble and how it worked to viewers at home. So what you're saying, oh, no, no, this is him. So what you're saying, mister President, is that Dom Morocco was chosen first, he'd

be at a great disadvantage type shit. These were two minute spots. As the weeks went by, different participants would walk in front of the interview backdrop and talk to Billy while he continued to hold Jack Dunny's hat. The hat and the idea of pulling names out of it became a key part of the promotion, so much so that when I first saw the eighty at Royal Rumble via bootleg tape trade, I was disappointed to not see Jack Tunny and his

mother fucking hat. It was very odd to see this show promoted so heavily, have the rules being explained so regularly, and then have it just seemingly disappear forever. I didn't beg my parents to take me to the show, because they also mentioned that Hulk and Andre would be would be having it, would have a contract signing, and so my kid Bring computed that as Hulks

not wrestling to the show must be bullshit filler. Also, it bears mentioning that everybody, and I mean everybody called it the Rumble Royal or Rumble Royal. Thanks for the hard work you Fedora tipping badass legends and don't you dare miss it a wonderfully male man. That's stuff that's totally lost yep, because, like he pointed out, if you watched ww television in the United States,

you would have seen none of this. That's so amazing at these unique shoots they would do for the Canadian market and of course a market that they had taken over by getting into business with the Tunnies after they were working with Crockett. It was those early Crockett eighty four, eighty three, eighty two. You know, you would see all kinds of shows from Maple Leaf Gardens that Crockett would staff not vince so so truly tremendous stuff. And man would

love to see the footage of Jack Tunney with a Fedora. Said a lot of first Royal Rumble Please, that's like necessary, highly necessary, and great color there that Steve brings because the impression I got listening to Pritcher talk about it in reading was that this show was sort of it was on the it

was on the schedule for a generic Hamilton's House show. But when you put together the missing piece, which I did not know, that Cops Coliseum was brand spanking new, and that you know, Steve's conviction that this show was specifically added to the calendar because they had the Royal Rumble concept in mind and it wasn't just another thing they already had on the calendar that, like Pritcher talked about, that was proximate to television equipment that they knew they could use

to do this thing, and the tax advantages. So there's a lot of wrinkles there. But I guess that's the historical question, is what was there going to be a show in Hamilton's without the Rumble or was it specifically selected from it? So the world may never know. I'm not sure they're even accustomed to doing Sunday night house shows back then on the regular, they probably worked, and they were running three fucking times a night, so often back

then, and also from the Great White North. Corey from Winnipeg, who is such a wonderful resource for us during our life and death of a wa Winnipeg being of course in a Watown who is able to live it and is of a vintage that he can reflect on what it's like to experience it as a fan, which is a disadvantage to us, who you know, we were two years old when a lot of the stuff is taking shape, or

four or six. Has this to say about the eighty seven rumble piece we talked about, you know, the Saint Louis show that when trial ran the Rumble that wasn't on television running. Corey writes, your Coachairman, it may be late in the summer, but the release of the nineteen eight eight Royal Rumble is like the rebirth of spring. Apologies if you did mention this and I missed it, but I think you may not have come across the following

nugget. In an article I read last year about this event, the writer noted a major gaff that was made in Saint Louis at that eighty seven Rumble. Before intermission, the ring announcer detailed the tickets for next month's card would be on sale that day. They announced a few matches to entice the crowd, including a main event of Hogan defending against the One Man Gang. Prior to the Rumble starting, they read off the rules and declared that tonight's winner

of the Royal Rumble would receive a title match next month. Wow. Since they had already announced a Gang as the challenger for that show, people realized who was going to win the Rumble. That probably hurt it's enthusiasm. Yeah, it's a factor and why it was considered a dud. Sure enough, that is how it played out. A contingent of the crowd booed throughout the Rumble as they already knew the outcome Rumble Royal. I definitely remember hearing it

called this another Canadian saying this, boss, here you go. In fact, I'm pretty sure the VHS jacket was printed that way for the eighty eight event. I don't believe that's the case. I don't know if it did, it was I saw it. The nineteen eighty eight Royal Rumble remained the most elusive card for me. We never had USA Network, so while I saw some info and syndicated TV about it. We had no access for some reason. Rental never came to any stores. I called dozens of rental places

to no avail. I actually didn't see this royal this rumble until nineteen ninety three when a store finally had it. So yeah, they didn't have Wow, I've never seen the VHS for this, I'm either of I. I mean, I certainly certainly was not around my neck of the woods. But you know, this is a similar thing for Crockett fans in terms of the bunk house Stampede. They've just seen snippets on television unless it came to your

town and you bought tickets. You know, you're you're hearing about this thing being referenced, but it was never something that you could have watched while you while you wanted to. So that those are some helpful I think pieces of context on the rumble side of things. So what is a bunk house? That is a question definition. I think it's this wikipedia a barracks like building that historically was used to house working cowboys on ranches. So that fits yea.

These cowboys are definitely working or loggers in a logging camp in North America, as most cowboys were young single men. The standard bunkhouse was a large, open room with narrow beds or cots for each individual in little privacy. The bunk house of the late nineteenth century was usually heated by a woodstove, and personal needs were tended two in a cook house and an outhouse. So this is like, you know, men were men, blah blah blah.

That's right. And while the Bunkhouse Stampede was not a television presentation or special or even like a closed circuit starcaded ESK event as we mentioned, it definitely was something that Dusty was keen to move tickets for when it came to your neck of the woods. So he did back before he was completely fried.

From a creative standpoint, when they launched the thing in nineteen eighty five, put some real creative energy into telling the story of what this bunk House Stampede was to be, what sort of mythology it was supposed to tap, what it was supposed to represent, and to explain this to the viewers of NWA television at the time. Of course, this is eighty five, the year

that Crockett took TBS back from Vince, bought it from Vince. We should say after it's got it in the Black Saturday heist and then eventually found that he wasn't going to be able to work it out with Ted Turner. As we discussed in sensational detail on our Black Saturday coverage, It's back in the hands of the n WA. Dusty's motivated, he's telling stories. I'm not sure this actually ever aired. I'm pretty sure it did not on TBS, but it did air on the the n w A syndicated JCP syndicated networks,

which included for years wpi X Channel eleven in New York. That's an important thing to mention in terms of, like, you know, it's not just TBS that New York wrestling fans would have had to watch to see Jim Crockett promotions in Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. They had a coverage on a very prominent New York station as well. So here is former junior heavyweight star in the Territory Nelson Royal, donning a cowboy hat and explaining in a vignette they are

done Crockett TV. Around Thanksgiving of nineteen eighty five, just what this bunk house Stampede is supposed to be all about? Ladies and gentlemen back in the Old West, when they had an argument, they went outside and fought. When they lived in that bunk house, all those people together, you always had argument. We have a man that's been in a bunk house fight before. Let's listen to him. Nelson Royal, the world's junior heavyweight champion,

former junior heavyweight champion. Out a brother, come in and have a cup of coffees. I'm glad you could make it because I've been asked to explain a few things about a bunk house stampede match, and I considered myself an authority honor. But I was in the first one it was ever held in

Texas, and I came out of it with a broken arm. And where they derived from, in the western part of the country, where you hadn't ten fifteen twenty men living in a bunk house something like this behind us here, and when you put men that close together and you've got to have problems. There's a lot of bad blood between some people. One there was no other way to settle it. To get one thing, you went outside,

and you want the way you work. You might have your boots on, you might have your jeans, have your shirt, your spurs, whatever, and that's how you went out. And the winner of something like that was the man that was left standing. And now they've come along and said a few years ago and they had the funk house Spam teen the only funk seenor had it in Texas, and it's one of the wildest things you'll ever seen

in your life. The second worst thing that you can be in the most dangless nat is a battle royal where you've got twenty men in the ring and the only way that you can be eliminated is to be thrown over the top rope. Or you take these two and you combine them, put them together, and you've got something that's really a deadly match because money and greed and bad blood make things a luck typer than what they really are. Because you've got men that come in this ring and like I said, they can bring

anything they want to bring. The are virtually no rooms, there's nothing to stop the man from doing. And you can bring the cowbell, you can bring a good branding iron and whatever you want. Because when you get into this type of match, you have no friends, because there's nuch there's no such thing as a friend. When you're in match, you have to watch your back, to your front, everything about you. You're in danger of being hurt and get broken legs because the people flying around in the ring.

Like I said, when there's money here in danger, there's a lot of things can happen. And the only way that you can be a winner in this you've got to be the last man standing in the middle of the ring. And when I say the last man standing, mister, that's that is a problem within itself. And believe you, when you can only be eliminated

from this match is to throw you over the corp road. And then when you're the last man standing in the middle of the ring, and brother, you can call yourself the full of the woods, and then you are the matter. What do you think? Uh? I mean, I'm I'm curious about all the men being in that place is gonna cause what do you say, cause trouble? Yeah, you're that many men. When you have that many men in a in a in a bunk house, that means you're gonna

have trouble. Okay, I mean, and why were you Why is anyone going into a bunk house? I guess there's no other place for the little cowboys to stay and get chilled, right, you know, this is the wild West. There, there's no accommodations. You're going out there seeking fortune. You're and you're you know, you're you're going into a lawless area where there aren't police. And yeah all that. Yeah, is that the one that aired on on on Starcade? Oh? Did they're in Starkade? I

don't remember. There was one. There was one that we saw that was on that was on a starcade and it was the Yeah, I mean I remember it being long, kind of like that. I don't know if that was is he buy a fire? Yeah he is? Yeah, that's the one they put on Starkad. I forgot that they put on Star KaDee. I think it was eighty six. Oh maybe they replayed it. That's from eighty five what I just played. Oh okay, maybe that's maybe that's when

they had I don't know. I just remember it like it just like like Star kade just fucking it stopped. Yeah, and then and then all of a sudden we get this right, you know, you know stampede, pull up a chair, up a chair. I wanna tell you a story about bunk house. I'd rather not I can tell me a story about Marty funk Houser instead, can you tell me a story about cheese or something. That's what the that's what it should have been in New York is funk Houser.

Yeah, but he's got the fire crackling and they get the song going. Oh my god. He made reference to it being a Douty funk Senior thing, which is entirely possible. I didn't see any reference, you know, and clippings from the sixties or whatever, and you know that territory is pretty well covered by the papers to a bunkhouse stampede. Perhaps they called it something

else, but that's of course. You know, Dusty broke in under the Funks and Dory's Senior in Austin and Mr Alone stuff, So if they did do it, he remembered it. It's also the inspiration, from what I understand to the Western States Heritage title that Larry Zibisco wins on the show. Yeah, that was a title that existed apparently in that old territory, and a lot of what you know Dusty tried to bring was stuff that he learned

there or picked up their concepts. So their thanks to Nelson Royal as kind of the I don't know the spirit of the match, but it's so it's so wild because you see that described in such you know, flowery and literary and almost poetic terms there by Nelson Royal. Then you watch the match, it's just a bunch of guys walking around elbow and punching, blading themselves. Like yeah, it's it's the same fucking shit. It doesn't feel particularly chaotic

to me. I mean, it doesn't feel particularly dangerous. No. I think the other ones might have been the house show ones where they brought weapons and didn't have a cage wall. But I don't know. I hear that description and then I think about the match I saw here at Bunkhouse Stamped nineteen eighty eight on pay per view, no less, and this is not I don't know, this is not it. This is not the spirit of what

he was talking about. It just looks like a I don't know, it just lets a bunch of guys standing around punching each other, right, I mean, it's a battle royal in a cage. It's a battle royal in a cage much more than it's a bunk house anything. Right, So it's kind of a shame that the spirit of it is kind of lost. But again, the first one happens in nineteen eighty five, and again you have

to draw the distinction between bunk house Stampede finales and bunk house matches. They started doing bunk house matches as far as I can tell, starting in the beginning of nineteen eighty five. You start to see six man tags being referred

to as bunk house matches. For example, Columbia, South Carolina, January third, eighty five, that's Dusty Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat and Dick Slater over Tully Blanchard, Ron Bass and Black Bart in a bunk house match December of eighty five in Cleveland is referred to, however, as kind of the first bunk house victory that's stampede and is talked about on television as as a bunk

house Stampede victory. And it's one this particular one which I believe is it's referred to on television, is the very first bunk house Stampede is December seventh, nineteen eighty five in Cleveland, Ohio, and it's won by magnum Ta. He wins a twenty man bunk house Stampede match. That's not the same as winning the whole thing, whole bunk House Stampede series, if you will, or whatever. It's almost like the Bound for Glory series. You know,

there's a bunch of matches life not to the final one happens. Do you actually have an idea who won the thing? Guess what? It sucks either way, I think, I think I have to agree with you, but especially love that magnum won this match because later on Come eighty eight, when Dusty puts himself over in the match, his thing is, it's my match, Like it's stupid for anybody else to win the Bunkhouse Stampede or for anybody to see the bunk House team as as a springboard to make a new

star. That that's not what the match is there for. It's not there. But in fact, it's exactly how they used it in the beginning to get magnum Ta over the top. Who was you know, of course, Dusty Rhodes's personal protege. And this is of course before the the fateful accident the paralyzed magnum Ta and cut his his career short. So let's hear how this first bunk House Stampede was talked about and hyped on Crockett Television. First, here this bit of sound O, my good dad, there were good

Okay, David, what do you talk about now? Anything goes Kaine Bratt knuckles, belt, belt buckles, boot boulders. I'm a good Tonic. You got to pay these guys, Dancy. Now remember it belt, I remember this is every man for himself. That is right, the way you are eliminated and then you're out. So that was the December seven, twenty five match. They played a clip of it on Crockett Television that Magnuntier one. But you hear their boss. They're describing brass knuckles and they're describing actual

chaos. I mean, I guess that would have been more interesting. I don't know. I just I don't know. I don't know how I feel about this whole fucking thing. Yep. Yeah, it's it's questionable, to say the least. But so there is footage of that first one, but again it wasn't a standalone television presentation. They went back to the Omni on December eighth. The next night in Atlanta and Magnuntier wins a twenty man twenty grand bunk House Stampede according to history ofww dot com. Then they go to

December nine, Greenwood, South Carolina. There's another bunk House Battle Royal with a range of participants for twenty thousand dollars prize. And while it doesn't appear clear from the results that survive who actually won the thing, we do have

the list of participants, including of course Dusty Rhodes. And then come December fifteenth, nineteen eighty five, and Greensboro, Dusty wins a twenty man bunk House Stampede match, which I suppose is the final because I didn't see anything else in eighty five that would constitute the records showing that Dusty one quote unquote the nineteen eighty five bunk House Stampede, So that was pretty much the finale

that we're talking about with the twenty thousand dollars prize. December twenty eighth as well, I should take that back Ccember twenty eighth and Philly, Act of All Places, Philadelphia at the Civic Center. Dusty Rhodes also wins a bunk House Stampede after he and magnum Ta beat Flair and Tully in a tag match earlier in the show, So maybe that was the one that captain I think I think they ended it in Greensboro though. December fifteen, Dusty winning the

bunk House Stampede. So let's get a look at some of the print ads for these original bunk House stampedes. We had a lot of fun, of course, Boss with the print ads. Love for Royal, rumble, I love it. Gimme, give me, gimme, gimme design just to get people in the building. Boy. This is one for the Greenwood Civic Center.

The Index Journal presenting this this ad here, tell the people what you see worldwide mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling. How can you be worldwide and mid atlantic because you were mid Atlantic and then you got the TBS contract, h the WMA, CW, the the the Walmaco Wrestling, Greenwood Civic Center, Monday, December nine, seven thirty pm. Greenwood bunk House Stampede. Is there

anything different about a Greenwood bunk House Stampede? I ask uh Nope. Twenty man bunk House, over the Top, over Top Battle Royal, twenty thousand dollars to winner, come rest as you want, anything goes now. Wait a minute, can't you really talking about can't you come to any match dressed as you want, right, and I mean I get, But I guess

not only anything goes isn't always the case. Dusty Rhodes, Rage and Bull, Billy Jack, Don Car Noodle, Pistol, Pez Whatley, Rock and Roll Express, Jim Jeffers, Mac Jeffers, Ivan Colof, Nikita Koloff, Colden, Terror, Magnum Ta Crush Your Crush, Chef Only Anderson, Arn Anderson, Tolly, Blanchard, Abdullah the Butcher, Barbarian, Tony Zane NWA. Subject to change. It doesn't just say at the bottom of this lineup subject to change. It says for some reason. Car. It doesn't say

card subject to change. It says to the end of you is subject to change. Well, hey, they knew it before everybody else apparently. Plus TV taping of the Live min Atlantic and Worldwide wrestling programs. Join us for this great one time event. Pick up your tickets at the Civic Center box officer call a number. Ticket prices are ten dollars, eight dollars and three fucking dollars Greenwood Civic Center Box Office. Hello, I'd like to purchase tickets

to the Bunkhouse printed. Can I please purchase three dollars tickets great South Carolina accent. It's Greenwood South Kakilaki for those wondering. That's from the December six, nineteen eighty five Index Journal. And we have another one boss to set the stage to let us feel what it would feel like, this one from the Richmond Times Dispatch in Richmond, Virginia. Always at Crockett Stronghold in the home turf of one magnum Ta Oh Boy mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Richmond Colosseum

Tonight Ringside and Reserve. Fifteen dollars general admission, twelve dollars Children under the age of twelve, five dollars. Bunk House Stampede, twenty man bunk House Battle Royals bunk House, over and over, like anyone knows what the fucking

bunk house is. Twenty thousand dollars to the winner, Rick Flair, Olie and Arn Anderson, magnum Ta, Dusty Rhodes, Tully Blanchard, Nikita Coloft, Billy Jack, Rock and Roll Express, Ivan Coloff, Crusher, kruchef Abdul the Butcher, the Barbarian, Don car Noodle, Pistol, Pez Whatley, the Raging Bull, Tommy Lane, Golden Terror Denny Brown plus Double Texas Bull Rope Match, Rick Flair and arn Anderson versus Magnum Tya and sty Rhodes,

Tully Blanchard versus belly Jack for World six man title, Ivan Cold Off, the Kita Cold Off and Crusher kru Chef versus Rock and Roll Expressed and the Raging Bull After the Butcher versus Pistol, Pez Whatley, Tom Lane, Tommy Lane versus Don car Noodle plus other matches. Tremendous, tremendous. Where do I buy tickets? They talk so much into this little corner of the newspaper. I mean, like also, like I love how all the all the guys who are in the Battle Royal have these other matches. Oh yeah,

yeah, they're working twice. You got the little carved out heads where they just like, yep, photoshop the heads. They got one from Tully where it apparently is from the top of the page because the top of his head's cut off. Look at Olie's face, Oh, floating dusty head. You got Arn't floating head for some reason, wearing a New York Angeles cap all. He looks like all he looks like he just got bit in the ass by some kind of animal. Absolutely he does. You're absolutely right about

that. So just tremendous man that you just open up your paper and oh wow, look at this stampede. You guys want to go to the bunkhouse. Mom, I cluds You're never doing that again. Fuck. So this is Magnum's big moment, and let's get a taste of how he was talking about it on Crockett Television at the time winning. I hesitated to say the first bunkhouse stamped because I would create the wrong impression. But the first kind of time on television, they were saying, this is at bunk house event,

and Magnum is going to get the win. All right, everyone here at World Championship Wrestling very please and excited to welcome back this man with the US heavyweight title now in his possession. Magnum tak you very much less the most brutal match in my entire life to Tolly Blanchard to get back this ansti sevyweight tunnel. Yeah, that's all history now. Now I got to look towards the future. I tell you, Bracker, you talk about wrestling matches,

you want more wrestling matches. Well, this title is gonna be up for anybody out there that wants a shot at it. You Buddy Landell, aren't Anderson, Ollie Anderson. Anybody that thinks they can unseat me from the un say Saity weight champing ship, come right on up, take your shot, because there's contracts out there for anybody that wants a piece of it. This belt wasn't made by putting up on a shelf and just keep it all nice and clean. It was made to be defended, and that's exactly what

I intend to do. Man. Let's talk about now, you as many wrestlers around the world a chance to win twenty thousand dollars and the bunk House

Stampede that's underway certainly a Grueli match, that's right. You know, a bunk house Stampede will probably be the most exciting match that I've ever taken place on myself, because not only do you have a better role situation, twenty men in the ring at one time, they can wear whatever they want, bring any type of apparatus they want it right here, you see, Man got a weightlifting belt and it's just gonna be mad cap chaos situation going on

in there. And you've got twenty thousand dollars at stake each and every time we go in there. This is gonna be the most exciting series and professional wrestling that I've ever been involved in, and it's going to draw the toughest competition in the country today because everybody wants to be a part of this thing now, Bunk House Stampede, and it's coming very soon. And once again, congratulations Magnum. Everybody glad to see you the day. All right,

Magnum, let's go back to the rim. That's right. And also, as we have talked about earlier, though, Bunk House Stampede is well underway. And congratulations to Magnum ta right, he won the very first Bunk House Stampede in Cleveland the other night. He has twenty thousand dollars Richard. So there you go. And this is like, you know, it'und like they would have a lot of focus. They would have like at the top of the show, Chavanni and Crockett would mention like four things about what's coming up

in the NWA, and that would be one of them. It would come to be like a throwaway thing almost for the national show. Yeah, they didn't really try to harp too much on something that you can only see in one city or you know, a handful of cities if you bought tickets, but it was referenced. So it's really tricky. There's it's not like you know, watch the raw after the pay per view to see how they follow

it up on it. It's like, you know, you hear magnum kind of tucking and mention of it into of course discussing his classic match at Starcade nineteen eighty five. Yeah, I quit match with Tully Blanchard. He was just coming off that big victory that was that certainly catapulted him into you know, a spot where you could easily see him becoming the new champion and NWA's

counterpoint to Hulk Hogan. Frankly, I was talked about a lot in the recent Dark Side of the Ring special on Magnum Ta's life story, and uh yeah, and and and then you know, he doesn't even do a promo celebrating winning the bunk House Stampede's just mentioned in passing and with Tony Schavanni offering congratulate don't matter. That's why. What's that it doesn't fucking matter? That's

why. That's one way to look at it. As far as being in the ring, being in those early sort of mysterious bunkhouse stampedes, magnum Ta spoke to Kfave Commentaries about what it was like mixing it up in the ring on these things talk about the bunk house stampede, Dusty's famous creation. Do you like them? J yeah, I like him because I like putting on the boots of the jeans in the ripped up shirts, sent the bandannas and

just stomping mudholes and people and it was fun. Though. I will have to say there's a classic picture going around the Internet of of from talking about bunkhouses of Dusty. Dusty and I Jerry Lawl are all coming back from a match. Dusty's all covered in blood. I'm all covered in blood, and Jerry looks like he's been at the popcorn stand. And I was like, you know, and this after, you know, twenty five minute match,

I think about stuffing. Oh, that's pretty funny. But to that point, they were fun because they were outrageous and you knew when you went in there, you know, guy's gonna take his cowboy boot off and try to beat you of the head with it. And somebody's gonna have, you know, pull out a piece of barbed wire and we're gonna have this, We're gonna have that. And it was a fun just kind of Steve blow off kind of fun kind of deal. But you know, something you do once

a year and drive on and not once a year. But I get your point, now, yeah, one season a year. Yeah, so yeah, Joe Lawler was definitely at the popcorn stand. Yes, for reasons that don't need to be experienced. Girls were read, I'll expound upon them, and yeah, so I guess it's fun that you could dress in jeans and people that take off their cowboy boots. I'm still waiting to understand what's interesting about this match. I'm still waiting for them. I'm still I'm still still

waiting to hear about what is actually fun about it. I don't care these guys are wearing jeans instead. It isn't I mean dick to me right? And I get barbed wire. I guess that's kind of a novelty. But I guess I remember those first time ever saw bob wire, there was pictures of the Dusty Tully matches with barbed wire in the This is Wrestling Coffee table Book I had. I just love a copy up by the way. Wow.

Indeed, so this being Nasaucolosium, as I mentioned, this was not the first time JCP ran Nasaucolosyum. That would have been November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven, Thanksgiving weekend. To be a wrestling fan in New York in the eighties, you know what I mean? Yep, get this. You get Pro Wresting USA trying to come through. You get like that steamboat Flare match in eighty four at the meadow Lands. You get a WA trying to run the meadow Lands as well in eighty five when they get Slaughter.

You get Crockett trying to make inroads here and doing a handful of events in and around the area. And of course you get WWF rocking and rolling like never before, Hull Comania running wild, and every Madison Square Garden show. It's just Thanksgiving weekend. I mean, how about we go see Crockett at the Nassau Hall Seum and then watch fucking Survivor series. Yeah. Fine.

They probably threw this date on when they realized that Vents was calling the cable company's bluff on carrying Starcade Versus Survivor series, because it seemed like they went into New York when they had a fucking mentality, not when they had like a strategy behind it. Of course. Yeah, like that's what it definitely feels like like. There didn't seem to feel like a like there was a

real like, oh, let's let's see what we can do here. It was more like, oh, this guy fuckingsfull, I want to do this. How about that motherfucker? And that's what sunk Verne. Verne tried to do the same thing and he ended up dead. And Fritz tried to do the same thing as we talked about in the World Class Journey where and he's dead too, and he's very dead. They moved into Dallas and then they

start pushing into Boston and they start we'll do von Ers across America. And it's like, guys, like you're just going to spend yourself out of business, pretending that people outside your area actually give a shit to the price sustainably give a shit, you know, to the point where you can turn a

profit. But yeah, So that show on Long Island in November twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven, saw Ron Garvin Dusty Rhodes and Barry Wyndham, as well as Ricky and Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson in the Rock and Roll Express and a five on five beating Big Bubba Aren and Tully, Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane. It was actually a war games, Thank you very much. Wow. We did talk now that I think about this, we did talk about this as one of those stealth how show only war games that they would

do. They did one in Chicago as well, featuring the Road Warriors prominent I think in August of nineteen eighty seven, after holding the first one earlier in eighty seven and then doing the one in July. They did both of the first ones in July, right, it was Atlanta and then it was Orlando, and they did a handful around the circuit that you know, no video footage exists off, but they that's how you come in in New York.

You bring the fucking war games. That's how you do it. And also on that show they had Road Warriors versus Flair and Lex Luger and a tag team match. Luger had yet to fully consummate his breaking off from the Horseman. That was a late eighty seventh thing, and that was a huge thing because part of what frustrated people so much about Bunk House Stampede eighty eight that we're talking about here this week was the idea that it made a whole

lot of sense for Lex Luger to win the thing. For whatever reasons, Dusty put magnum Ta over in the first bunk House Stampedes, he should have put Lex Luger over in these because clearly the guy to make a run at Flair and come Star's always been in that weird position where he should have, but he just never gets that extra mph, right yep, totally That's the story of his career in so many ways. Even you know Green Recamaction ninety when Sting wins, the push from the office at WCW was for a Luger

to actually get it, but Flair famously insisted that Sting get it. They were pushing for Luca after Sting stuff Is suffered the knee injury. But it's that classic thing, you know, someone joins the horsemen, they then break off from the horseman and go after the world title, and Luger was It was actually a Bunk House Stampede show where Lugar did the turn because they wanted

him. They wanted the other horseman, wanted Luger to throw himself out of the bunk house Battle Royal to protect the four Horsemen, Glory and ric Flair, and he refused to do it. And that was the big moment where Lex Luger finally took a stand and turned baby face. And so with the follow on being here January eighty eight, you would think perfect Luca should go over no, no, thank you, because it's the what's it about?

It's about the bullshit. Com me, baby, of the wards if you want throat that, I'm a bullet wards baby, because I'm a bad motherfucker. That's will be doing, Daddy, because the American dream doff their roath. He's gonna be there, baby, He's gonna be in the woods, Daddy. I sit in the woods. I'm climbing trees. Baby, I'm sucking the sap off the fucking trees because that's what the American dream doth. He's taking all the elements. Baby, I'm sitting him inside my body and

I'm gonna screep them out and it's gonna come a bunk house stampede. The American dream the buckle, the boot, the prestige, the money of the bunk House Stampede, being the baddest of the band, being the bull of the woods. If you will, twenty five thirty men stamped into one little bit of ring, you understand, with one thing in mind, to hunt somebody that, to kick somebody bullet there, to twist our arm off and

put the egles up in the chain. And many mornings I got up dwelling on the factor being the two times for another bunk House stampead, Hi, am I gonna do it this year? When last year I had to fill around fee my nose was still on my feet, look up in the morning and see if my ears was still on my head. My eye balls in the socket was were playing steady on my mind because I knew Dusty Roose has to be the buck House Stampat champion for the third time. If you will,

for your hockey fans, it's a hat trick. You understand, it's a hat trick. And Dusty Rose now comes out here with this in mind, anywhere in a place that on the marquee you see the national rest of their lives presents the bunk House stamp beat if you want to just feel a little bit of how bad it is to be the baddest to beat the bullet the woods, then and only then buy your ticket, walk in and sit down and watch Dusty Rhodes become the bullet of the woods. Bad bad Betty,

come fit depth the roll. They come to me, motherfucking wood baby, It's like a cow of the woods. Dust, what milk? M Tenny's baby? You know what's going on? Many who who are you kidding? Dust? The only of the woods you ever cared about is chicken of the woods. The only, the only, the only of the woods he cared about was getting wood from the woods so he could fucking, you know, fucking roast marshmallows own Yeah, Nelson Royal, Right, I mean it's

great. I love listening to the guy. He's just fucking amazing. But like he's talking, he's talking into the wind. By nineteen eighty eight, it's like Dust, no one, no one even knows what you're talking about, and no one cares that you're gonna win the Punk House Stampede. But maybe they did. Maybe I just don't looking back on it, I lack what it felt like to live through it. But man is he Is he playing a card that's not working for him by this point in a lot of

ways. So I wonder where the hell he got You know, if the idea of the bunk house stampede and the whole concept of the match came from, had its DNA and what a dory funk Senior used to do, I wonder, you know, sort of where the idea of bull of the woods came from? Like what is that even? Ye what, I don't know. I've never heard of that term. I don't believe it's a real term.

But go ahead tell me sure what you know. This is a piece by a writer named Roger Branch who is Professor emeritus of sociology at Georgia Southern University, and he wrote back in twenty eighteen this piece was put together back in the top. Well, you know what, I think we can do better. I think we can hand it to the boss. Oh boy, let's remember okay, Georgia Southern yep. And let's let's tell the people. Let's educate him if you wiel on, what is all right? Woods?

All right? Here we are here with the buller woods here and back in the time of the open range. One of the most striking critters was the bull of the woods. As the term suggests, this apex member of the bovine species was locally dominant and predominant. If there were other male beasts in the area, the bull the woods was the boss by reasons of size,

or combativeness or plain meanness. The link between such animals and the terns bully and bullying as applied to people's obvious the bull of was was predominant, meaning the his side most of the calves dropped by cows throughout the community. It might spend most of his time with his home heard, but he visited elsewhere in response to phenomenal signal or pheromenal pheromones pheromonal the pheromonal phenomenal. There's a

phenomenal pheromonal signals which apparently characquatted disks. So interesting to the idea of bull of the woods. Yeah, in the community where I grew up, the bull the woods and impressive polled no horns. Hereford belonged to Daddy's cousin JP. He's heard followed him and he wandered widely. He had no name, and I cannot print most of the things he was called. Let's now call him Toro. Toro's widespread on popularitis him from his habit of breaking into fields

and grown corn. Breaking into fields of growing corn, the bull did not grow corn was watering for a moment. His habit of breaking in the fields a growing corn leading his head with him, A dozen cows and a cumping young can destroy a lot of corn in a short time. I wonder who's a pull of the woods. No one could destroy corn in his record time if his method of venture was simple. The huge beasts simple walked through fence

posts, popped or staples that held fence. The posts went flying. Sometimes the eggsited in the same way but in a different place, So that's like you know, the fence post, the fence of the car. Yep. Persuading Toro and I hire him to leave onecefield was a challenge. Y'all dogs would bark, but not chase did old brave bulldogs. Humans did not take a switch to him, did not want to go into the field with him.

The solution was a shotgun loaded with bird shot. A load of numbered eights to the rear quarter to delivering were offensive from forty to fifty yards away, hardly penetrated his thick hide, but stung enough to persuade him to go elsewhere with Hiram and tow If Daddy was not at hand, Mama knew how to use the Remanton twelve gage pump. Once Toro invaded the field of Uncle Bill, who stepped over the broken fence and went after him with his brown

and automatic shotgun. In response to the butt shot, Toro turning his attacker and advanced no more, mister nice guy. The next two shots went straight to the broad white head. At the third Toro fell to his knees, bellowed, climbed back on to his feet, and exited. Thereafter, he invaded other fields, but not Uncle Bill's. Given to a humorous hyperbole, my uncle declared that whenever that bull was sold to the by would pay for

ten pounds a lead well. In the end of the open range, some farmers could get out of the cattle business, and the rest confine their heads to fenced pastures and woodland PROCs. They learned from the marketplace and the ba's favored animals that turned out good beef, leading to the selection of breeding stock that thrived on proper care and feeding rather than wildwood hardness. The term bull the woods came to be applied to other things. One popular brand of plug

style chewing tobacco was so named. My one encounter with a quick part from Granddaddy William's plug ensured that it would never be popular with me. The term was also applied to men, usually with the connotation of someone dominant or at least extraordinary. This one man appropriated it for himself. Usually mister Lewis and Clark was a quiet, ensuing man. Except for his being shrinking. He seemed to be an almost model citizen. And Ben's drinking is an interesting phenomenon,

a practice followed by several men that I knew back then. Most would not drink a drop of alcohol for weeks, even months, then consumed with the point of drunk and is constantly for days. Perhaps this pattern reflects the fact of farmers had to stay sober doing crucial parts of the crop here and full fell off the wagon after the harvest, are doing long holidays in in case, Lewis and Clark went on a bench and decided to go exploring.

When his wife decided that he had been long gone gone long enough for her to be concerned, she'd went looking for him Eventually she heard his voice and then found totally nude in the middle of a brie patch, proclaiming, I am a buller wood. Picture Dusty. Read that sentence again, please and picture Cody's mom. Eventually she heard his voice and found him totally nude in the middle of a brie pat, proclaiming, I'm a brother wouldn't been here

that what the fuck's going daddy? I got my cock in my head and I'm on a fucking bright pitch and I'm a bull of wood and I'm getting off. And if you're the bull dust, what would that fuck count? Mother fuck out? I think we're ready up table for two and shown he's please. And when he's sobered up enough to discover all those scratches on pots of his anatomy that had never been described before, he decided that he was not cut out to be the bull of wood but a piece. What a

piece? I forgot to mention, And I'm glad you reminded me that while Roger G. Branch Senior does profess at Georgia Southern University, he is in fact Foghorn Leghorn from New Orleans. Don't assume that just because he teaches at Georgia Southern that he is at George Jackson. That's right. I also send you another piece bus that I wish you could share with the solar system.

This one a little less modern. It's kind of like a vintage explanation from the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which I supposed to be the part of the country, of course, the Dusty grew up in, and the part of the country he would have first been made aware of and become acquainted with, the lore of the Bull of the Woods. This is from nineteen sixty six, and it's about a bull named Stormy who apparently, through some like formal competition, was named the Bull of the Woods. Okay, where you're sunding

to me? Oh my my, apologies, it's in your email. This is a good old fashioned clipping bar. A man's field, Texas. N't going nowhere? Where the fuck did it go? Motherfucker? What's going on here? Bad bull? Bad bull? Motherfucker man's field? All right here we are, No what the fuck's it doing? This shit? I can read it, all right, I got I got it, I got it all right. Storming of the Bull of the Woods nets top bucks for bucking

Mansfield. Can you please read that headline again slowly, storm Bull of the Woods nets nets top bucks for bucking. Got it all right? Let me take that one back to the lab and figure out what it means. By the way, it's oh the Woods its spelled oh, oh the bull of the Woods Bull the Woods, Oh willow the whist all right. None of the Kyle Bell rodeo bull has made the big time. He is a little faulty and looks he wouldn't be judged the top prospect as a herd sire and

wouldn't bring very much per pound through the sale ring. But no one could say he's disturbed about it. He's diabolical talent is carrying him to the top. Dick and jack ratching producers of the Cowbell Rodeo in Mansfield and reputable bull entrepreneurs have said they're Stormy young bucking bull bull Oh the Woods Dusty also a bull entrepreneurs the Bill McKee, a Rodeo Cowboys Association and stock crontractor of Savory,

Wyoming, for a large but undisclosed amount of money. As far as they know, it is the second highest priced highest price ever paid for a rodeo bull, the highest price ever paid for one was for another Cowbell rodeo

bull by the name of Speedy Gonzalez. The Ratchean brothers said Speedy old Speed and McKee about a year and a half ago for an undisclosed amount of money, but they are quick to say the price was well in the five figures, and considering the way Speedy began strewing the RCA bull riders across arenas all over the country, McKee made a goodbye. He ended the nineteen sixty five rodeo season unridden, and as a rookie RCA bull, he came within two

votes being selected the Outstanding Bucking Bull of the World. When Bill Cornell, world Champion bull rider in nineteen sixty three, drew Speedy at the National Finals rodeo in Oklahoma City last December, an interviewer asked him how we planned to try to ride him. He replied that he didn't have the slightest idea because he had never heard of anyone who stayed on him long enough, who stayed on him long long enough to know just what all he could do. So

this is like, you know, rodeo bulls. Yes. A little while after that, Speedy Gonzalez died of dustnemon is that our Dusty died dumb the dath pneumonia, dad at big death pneumonia. He had been bucked out in actual four hundred and forty two times and had had twenty seven riders who had drawn him refused to even get on him, and had never been ridden to the never been ridden to the whistle. He was nine years old and in his prime when he died bull the woods called prime beef. Damn right.

He was a four year old. He had barely started his bucking career when speed he went to the big Time. But since he started spinning and kicking his heels up in the rodeos, he has been bucked out of total seven three seventy three times without ever having been written, and some people say that he already has more spectator fans than any other bucking bull gone. Many of them spent a full six weeks this year submitting names to the Kyle Bell Rodeo

that would have fit his champions stature and colorful future. They finally came up with one he now has. They can feel they have some stake in his future, and the Big Time say that again they can also taste that they have some steak in the future in the big town has some steak in his feature maybe like right after the show, Yeah right, maybe maybe every morning

for breakfast. His first RCA rodeo will be an Ogden, Utah, and from there he will move he will move on to one of the grandest of them all, the Shine Frontier Days Rodeo and Shine Wylming got along with Dusty So yeah right, talk about bulls, bulls and bull of the bull of the woods, right right, talk about fucking big fields and you know, and hunting open prairies and open prairies and fresh air and breathing and tiny post offices that's right, right that are only open for two hours a day.

I ain't gonna name if they're going to be weather awesome not bad weather weather. Most betting that his perfect record won't be marred by the big bulls there or for many of the big shows that come. Speede. Gonzalis was cold black, with a curly, hornless head, and weighed about fifteen hundred pounds. After he took on his mature flesh, yummy. He came out of the bucking shoot in a furious spin and sometimes just turned and dumped the cowboy

back into the shoot they came from. And then he had a proud way of strutting from the arena when he finished his brief flurry bull the woods comes out of the shoot in a furious spin too, and many has been dumped. The time has been the time he just dumped the rider back in the shoot, And they say he acts so proude when he trots from the arena. You can hear the bull riders gritting their teeth in anger. The bull weighs about thirteen hundred pounds now, but he will eventually fill out to about

fifteen hundred pounds and his head is hornlessen Curly. I want you to read that again, And when did you say bull? Think Dusty it's gonna Dusty weighs about thirteen hundred pounds now, but he will eventually fill out to about fifteen hundred pounds and his head is hornlessened curly. Sup must be the seventies Destiny Daddy fuck it in size looking town. He is almost exactly like Speediegnzals. The only difference is that he is white is a sheet. Seems clear

he is being touted as Speedies replacement. No one has complained about his name, but some have suggested that he just as he could just as well be called Speedy's ghost. Now, there's a lot of things I feel like we've accomplished over ten years of the lapsed fan. But yes, bringing back to life this nineteen sixty six right up on Bull of the Woods and whoever wrote this, where are you gone? I'm like, what? What? What did I right there? Oh? I'm right, I'm sure you're proud of

it? Then what? Absolutely, I'm not proud of anything. Listen, I want to tell you. I'm wanna tell you right now, I'm not proud of a damn thing. Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, And don't you tell me otherwise. All right, So let's hear from Dusty here. These are some clips from a shoot interview he did in nineteen ninety nine with RF Video rob Minsteining Company. Rather famously, A Cody, a young Cody must have been like ten years old or whatever, twelve or maybe

he's in high school, was kind of walking around in the background. He's on a camera, but Dusty makes reference to him milling about the home. So this is Dusty after wc W had gotten rid of him, after he was sort of cast about and in the wrestling business and trying to find a

way to you like a Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion. He started he wanted to do like a fantasy camp for wrestlers, and eventually Paul Hayman hires him in ECW and he does a program with Steve Karino that's been referenced that was referenced in some of the interactions that Cody had with Paul Hayman where you know, they got teary eyed over the notion that Dusty was down on his luck and

Paul found a way to get him paid respect for the family. And so that's sort of the position Dusty's in, so he's not really in a position to give a fuck. He's you know, the business has kind of spit him out a little bit. So he's shooting and it's a great interview and it's pretty much the only one of its type I've seen from dust. I

know there's some things in several shooting interviews he did. He did one that we excerpted from an Art of War Games with Gabe Zapolski going through his book from nineteen eighty seven with all the dates and the cards and everything in it. But this is, uh, I think the definitive career shooting interview. I'd encouraged to check it out. But here he is kind of setting the scene for us for what it was like to compete with Vince in the eighties.

What was it like to fight Vince had on in the eighties. It was fun because you would go to you would go to a Philly well. You would be in the civic Center and they would be at the spectrum. We started with twelve hundred people or nine hundred people in the civic center. Pretty soon we got eight thousand. We're busting balls, the warriors and you know, and uh uh everybody there. We're busting balls in that building.

And we'd go to the Marriott. Let's close the room off and would all sit back there together, you know, I mean, WWF and a in Wa and uh Crockett. And it was good. It was a war. And you always wondered what they were doing and what I mean. We couldn't get in their buildings, you know, we would get one of their buildings and do good. We would get a building in Pittsburgh and do the ships. Except for the record to date in Pittsburgh arena with me in the Boston

Man, Me and Big Blabba and the cage scalping chickets. That's when we finally turned in there. It was again, okay, well it's Dusty Rose, but who the who the hell do you think Big Bubba put all the people in the building. How do you think they fucking got in the building. It was a package that I put with me with you. It was a package. But then there's a match that there's all there's something up here

at the end that they would die to see. You know. That's limp dig Biscuit, limb Biscuit, Uh, limb Biscuit, who are great kids, but they're that's them here and they might have four other bands here. Doesn't mean they're worse than them. But there's somebody that you want to see. So that that was a turning point for the company, the Pittsburgh Show. Uh, And I think if we hadn't tried to run the whole world, we would have probably still been there, you know, without the move

to Texas and everything. But uh, it was uh and vinced was uh conversations back and forth. We always kept in touch. Junior and myself. We grew up to business at the same age we grew up together. I was a start for him. So we kept we kept in touches. We

still do today. You know, even when he computed to kept Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was not It was not a like you know, how you're doing or whatever, not not much what ever said about the business right, And he had a great ability to make you feel bad, you know what I mean because of how you know, we cud. He just kicked your ass without saying it. You know, that's just the way it was. But yeah, it was great. Kicked your ass without saying it's

right, that's right. So that's right. The notion that Vince and Dusty were talking collegiately and socially during the course of all this warfare we're discussing, I just I love the notion. I love the idea that Dusty thinks he's still friends with Vince while Vince completely destroys weakly ever been. I mean, we're we're all friends. I mean we have we have, you know,

a compatible nature of individuality and desire. I just wonder, you know, frankly, when it came down to pick up the phone and catch up with dust what would that sound, dyke? But big fin babies. It's a big conm duff the roads. Oh dad, if if the big duff, Daddy, big duff. Does anyone know a big duff? No, not at that big duff daddy Duff the roads. Oh yeah, yes, yes, Hi. What can I do for you, sir? Maybe I'm just going to say hello, we're gonna I just wanted to check in, Daddy.

I know that you've been You've been doing the thing, baby, You've been working the business, You've been doing so well that fails and taking care of Thames. But just want to check in and see how you're doing, Daddy. Uh, well, I would like to say that. Can can somebody tell me? Hold hold on? Dusty? He wants to know how I'm doing? Can somebody please tell me how I'm doing? All right? Okay, Dusty, I'm fine. That's great, Daddy. He's so excited to talk to this guy. Well, Dad, I just felt happy about

that. Baby. You know, I'll check it in. You know how Linda doing? Baby? Hold hold on? This is gonna take all day, Dusty. Are we gonna keep asking? Are you just keep asking questions? Or do you have something to actually hold on? How's Linda doing? Does anyone know has anyone seen Linda? Oh? Wait, all right, which lind are you talking about? Maybe I'm talking about your wife, Daddy? Right, No, No, my wife's not Hogan. What she She's

fine? She's not fine? Action what I'm getting conflicting stories here? Dost he she? Dusty? The truth that she may be fine, she may not be fine. We're not sure. We're checking in on that. What else can I do for your Palin? Well? Baby, I just wanted it. I just wanted to fit in chatting daddy talk about the old time, baby, talk about the good time in the business together, getting him in the business. Baby. You know I'm gonna talk about your dad,

Dusty. We don't talk about my dad. We don't talk about him. He's dead and he's dead to me. But uh, okay, well what about this baby? Let's talk about you know what? You know? What's going on in your personal life? Baby? Ware? You band? Who are you? Who are you going around with? Who you're hanging out with? Baby? How have a hoax for doing? Daddy? You haven't dinner? Baby? What's going on? Baby? I want to know? Well? You well, you see dust Uh, what's going on? I guess

I'm in the process right now of booking it down. That will come from the obliterate you. I mean what I'm doing is, uh, you know, we are we are in the midst the WWE, in the midst of of a of a of a big transformation. That's digital transformation. He says digital transformation in nineteen eighty six. You mean digital trans We talk on Daddy digits on Well, Dusty, what we're trying to do is, at the end of the day, we're trying to create a cloud based So Dusty wasn't

the only one with his head in the clouds. A cloud based bandwidth U line alignment. But what a hypo? But I know you scale it. What if it's ship you talking about finnergy? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, well, Dusty, we are talking about synergy. I'm talking about paradigm, synergy, learnings, holistic natures and things of that nature. We're talking about. Uh, you know what is you know the big question we have here in the w w E is what is going to be the

next gen thing? Hey, you asked him what's on his mind? You want to make small talk? This is what you get. Maybe what what next gen? What are you talking about dust The bottom line is we get there are a lot of big things, a lot of it's technical. You know, we have you know, we're looking at a holistic culture here in the WWE with buy ins and and uh you know ro Ois, you know influencers, But what the fuck is an influence? What do you mean?

What what? I guess the computer took your plans? Dad, I guess I guess. What I'm saying is that, you know what, a computer took your place, daddy. And here's a nice gold watch, and go pay your wages, your dumb stick. So that Pittsburgh show he's talking about was February twenty seventh, nineteen eighty seven, at the Civic Arena, sold out house north of sixteen thousand fans to see in the main event, Dusty Rhoades defeat Big Bubba and a steel cage match which was called the Bunk House

Stampede Finals. So maybe that's where Dusty got me. You know what, Winter Northeast, we did a hell of a house last year, right,

and then Bubba leaves him. So you know exactly what show convinced McMahon to make an entreaty to Big Bubba. Probably this show and yeah, so maybe you can start to see why Dusty's mind would go to the Bunkhouse Stampede for nineteen eighty eight when he needed something that was able to fill in Northeast Arena and be paper view quality, or we should have tried better at pay per

view quality. Yeah, yeah, that's a because there's a much better card Dusty Bubble one on one in a cage that as the bunk House Final four hundred grand that works one hundred, Nikida's US Champ against Flair as World Champion, right US champers World Champ second from the top, similarly to the Hawk match finishes by DQ. But that's that's another story. They had Ruden Fernandez over the Rock and Rolls for the Tag Championships, they had Tully and Tim

Horner, Les Luger in action. They solid card again that did I guess there's conflicting numbers. Some say seventeen five twenty one, some say sixteen thousand, six hundred. Either way, it was a sellout in Pittsburgh, which is, you know, very important and very impressive. Yeah, for sure, not something you hear, but when they come back for not something you would expect when this show bunk House is presented as like this almost first foray into the Northeast, that was a total flop. It's like, no,

actually, they had already done all the towns. They had done Philly, like Crazy, Pittsburgh, New York, even this building in fact, with war games into a hell of a house and back Jenry twenty fourth, it's only six thousand in attendance, so's there's no there there any longer. But a nice color from the Amaic and dream. They're talking about competing with Dust with Vince in the eighties and the boys getting together, you know, when

they were in overlapping towns and talking amongst themselves. We excerpted this on the Rumble eighty eight show because it was relevant. We'll do it again here on the bunk House Show because it's relevant. These passages here set the stage beautifully from Shauna sales, book, sex, lies, and headlocks. In retrospect, he would have been better off with a more developed sense of paranoia because

Vince McMahon had no intention of letting Crockett crash a party heat started. WrestleMania three had turned into the mother of all pay per view events up to that point. On the heels of his success, Vince announced that he was going to air a new event called Survivor Series on Thanksgiving, the very same day as Stark eighty seven. A cable company that wanted Survivor's series not to mention future WWF events had to promise it wouldn't air any other pay per view that

day. It was a bloodbath. Only five cable companies out of the original two hundred stayed loyal to the Crocketts and put Starcade on. Starcade wound up being bought by just fifteen thousand homes, leaving the company to take in just eighty thousand dollars after expenses. Crockett might have weathered it if he had a strong base, but as he looked around, he realized that the twin revenue streams he'd hoped would carry him to the top pay per view income and national

advertising sales were bone dry. What he needed was a salesforce akin to the one Vince It built. Instead, all he had was a few fast talking consultants in New York at a bunch of greatful wrestlers driving Mercedes in Dallas. As he turned to his bankers to make up for cash flow, problems,

resentments, and the family began to flare. David, who'd grown up sharing the same room with his brother, had the choke back discussed every time he flew to Dallas and saw the suite of marble floored offices bearing his father's name, Big Jim Crockett. Their father always told him never to flaunt their money before the public, which is why he ran things out of his house until his wife got a new white carpet. Only then did he move his office

to a boarded up convenience store marble floors. David was sure their father was turning in his grave. Like many of the wrestlers, David also believed that Rose was running on fumes. For one thing, he'd all but given up on writing. The days of his half hour classic matches were gone, replaced by bland a Blinking You miss A playlets. Roads argued that he didn't want to give away the best material free on television because he needed to save it

for pay per view. Either way, the Saturday night show on TBS that McMahon had left with the five point three rating was doing a two point nine. In October nineteen eighty seven, the Enway extended down to the arena shows, where Roads insisted on penciling himself in his Flaire's challenger, long after the fan stopped caring worse he'd fallen in love with the transparent trick, ending Dusty would win their matches, only to have the referee to squalify him and a

technicality after the bell told. The scheme allowed Flare to retain the NWA belt, but at a cost his title was diminished, while Roads, whose weight problem was becoming embarrassing, clung to the limelight. At Christmas nineteen eighty seven, Roads launched a last gasp series of punkhouse stampede events in which two dozen wrestlers started in a ring and got eliminated. That's not quite accurate. He was already doing those and got eliminated his eachist and over the ropes until one

was left standing. Roads at wrestlers flinging garbage cans and tire irons while dressed in stetsons and spurs, and after eight successful shows, he decided to turn the whole thing into a pay per view. The main event was to be a cage match, literally a match held inside a locked wire cage placed over the ring. Among the prior eight bunk House Winners. Once again, he

penciled himself into in the main event. The Jury twenty fourth, nineteen eighty eight show might have done business in Atlanta or Dallas, yet Crockett inexplicably decided to stage it at Long Island. It's not inexplicable. He did great business there in November, Long Island's Nassau Colisseum, a place that owed more to

Billy Joel than Billy Jack. Making matters worse. Mcmaan once again counter programmed another show aimed to hobble Crockett. This tied me decided to attack the a cable, creating a Battle Royal of his own and airing it free on USA. More than three million homes tuned in to see the show called The Royal Rumble, a record up to that time for the network and the most homes

ever tuned to a wrestling show, that is to sand Cable. Jim Cornette remembers sitting in the Colisseum's locker room for the Crockett show and looking around at the long faces. We wanted to be there like we wanted to have our mothers hooked up to a machine, he said. The crowd was dead. They hated everything because they've never seen it. They hate everything. What they hated, Jim, was that matches went twenty five minutes and ended via DQ.

Yes. What they hated was Nikita Coloff with one of the best workers in the business, Bobby Eaton, working a hammer lock for fifteen of those twenty minutes. That's exciting stuff. But they hated was the fact that no one cared enough to put together a card that had any significance for these people in terms of the results. Yep. After it was over, several wrestlers climbed into it. They hated everything because they'd never seen it. Cornett's quoted

as saying they just saw it November in this building. After it was over, several wrestlers climbed into a limousine to head to the Helmsley Palace hotel in Manhattan. I think that's a innacurate I think it was another hotel. As we'll get to a Tony Schavanne who remembers a different hotel. Tully Blanchard, who was in a foul mood, was one of them. Dusty just shook himself. Pardon me, Dusty should just book himself against Dusty. Tully muttered,

at the hotel bar, Blanchard's mood got worse. This is the post match scene I was talking about with every new drink that got pored. Finally, he and Crockett exchanged words. Dusty's a genius, Crockett insisted and walked away. What a pitch now, I was thinking about it. Dust's genius. I'm telling you he's a genius. I believe he's a genius, and I believe that he has only just scratched the surface of his ability as a book. If you know better than him, Telly, i'd ask, what,

why isn't your daddy in business anymore? Well, I'm gonna do right now. I'm gonna go up to my room and buy a porn over. That's correct, Jim Crockett. That was the problem is he would go to his room and important decisions had to be made and just tent polled, set up shop in his room, and just had like a forty five minutes sash Right fell asleep because he couldn't, because he couldn't get a woman right, he couldn't do all this stuff. He couldn't he couldn't play like the fucking

four horsemen. So instead he just imagined it. Remember that one time you had laps to Vince say about Seawn Michaels. He taught me to dance. This notion that Sean Michael's made Vince feel cool and young and hip and attractive by by you know, pushing him. It's exactly I feel like what Crockett had with Dusty. Yeah, I listened, dust It makes me Dusty listened.

Dust He taught me what it was like to be a man. That's right, all right, before I met I wasn't a man, and Dusty taught me what it was beat what it was like to be a man, to be, you know, a bull of the woods if you will. And and now I can say, but I am, I'm the I'm the bull of JCP. All right, That's what I am. And dust he's my boy, alight again the bulls, the bulls of of of Jim Crockett and uh and and you know what, you're gonna go get yourself a woman.

I'm gonna go get myself a woman. I'm gonna go up to my room, get myself a woman. Some more smart expenditures of Crockett money fifteen hotel room born. But that was it mean they would go to Vegas on the jet, I said, star Dust on jet and they would take it to Vegas just because, you know, they're on the West Coast doing shows and they'd hooked to Vegas just so they could you know, party for a little while. Or they'd go try to feel like hotshots in La or New

York City. You know, Dusty kind of convinced Jim that he was a big city executive. And Dusty did that, in my sense of things, because it served him. It served him to think that it served him to get Jim to think that he was his link to being taken more seriously. You know, it bothered Jim Crockett his whole life that he was perceived as just like a Charlotte boy. You know, that he could only Stephen Charlotte blah blah blah. But at the same he's a bitch. What's that's that's

a problem too. Yeah. Yet he has this like undying loyalty to people that work for him, even when they're not up to the task of competing on a national basis that that cost him as well, and just generally what

seems like an unwillingness to confront people. It's like he was one of those guys that you know, like, even when it was abundantly clear that it's time for conflict, it's time for confrontation, he would find a way around it and just not do it and just stay the course instead of having uncomfortable conversations. Dusty's a genius, Crockett insisted and walked away. According to the Assale book, this thing is going to hell and he can't see it,

Blanchard said to no one in particular. Through the late winter and spring, the hard travel and small audiences made it difficult for everyone to keep going. Roads and Flaire started feuding, causing matches to be rewritten at the last minute because they couldn't work together, and one instance, Crockett had to go to Flaire's Charlotte home and beg him to work just to keep things afloat. Guaranteed half million dollars contracts with balloon payments needed to be paid. And that's the

big thing. The big thing was it. When Vince started waiving that big money around, Crockett was like, all right, I can get on pay per view and make the money, So let me commit to these contracts with the plan of the money coming in later and Vince found ways, for example, Star Kat eighty seven, which they were highly counting on to make good on these promises that they had made to keep all this talent came in so low due to that power play that there was nowhere near the money he expected

to have on hand to pay these contracts out. And you know, these guys are working and they're getting paid, not they're not getting paid on the on the course, you would expect to meet that number with the promise that come into the year will make you whole. And yeah, they could do that, but pretty much just for one year, pretty much, just one year could they afford to do that? And then it would it just blew the books up, and the books already weren't in good shape. And that's

when people start saying, what did you look at this jet? And these are all expenses of course that weren't necessary in the office. But I think, really, when you get right down, speak for yourself, I do believe that these are important, that these are necessities to the business. I believe having you know, golden columns are essential to the to the the appearance and the attitude of Jim Crockett promotions. I think having a statue commissioned and

made of my head, big old dumb ass head. You know, I believe that that is important. You know, let me tell you that there was there was no over the top spending the money. No, no, clearly not. It was all done with what we needed to. Everything that we spend money on was necessary to to to to succeed. Sweaty ass Jim Crockett doing an interview on the CBS, say thank you. We're going to do you have done. Someone wipe my brow, please please wipe my brow

for God's sake, something, Please wipe my fucking brow. Anybody. I think that's a T shirt fellow out of Jim Crockett. You here for Jesus Christ. Someone please whip my brow. Brow's not well, the brow is in a moist state. I've got like an inch of liquid on top of

my brow. But again, you can sell you want about you know, the jet travel and the office in Dallas and the fact there was even a jet and these like wild like totally illogical arrangements of towns that don't you know, that don't economize the loop, so guys are flying all over the place, and the big fur coats and all that shit. You can say all you want about that, but it's really contracts. It was. It was the promises made to keep talent in a time where Vince was able to overpay

and willing to overpay, especially if acquiring a talent would hurt Crockett. That was really and that's always been his emo. We've talked about this at nauseum now, Like you think it's not a Vince kind of wrestler, but it becomes a Vince kind of wrestler, like Jericho at ninety nine and the Radicals, all these guys you think he would never want. He wants you real bad, Cody. He wants you real bad. When it can rip the heart out of the other guy and put them on the ropes. That's when

he wants you. That's when he wanted the Von Eric's badly. It's all the same. So here's Tully Blanchard in a shoot interview with RF video kind of explaining like the full gamut of people that were owed these kind of huge money deals and and sort of the set up for failure. That was some of the contractual promises being made around this time in Jim Crockett promotions. Actually, the whole deal was this My contract had run out with Crockett in like

April. They were not pushing to renegotiate my contract. I was one of the first five guys to sign a contract with guaranteed money. And it was not guaranteed money per week. It was a yearly thing. Right, So we've never changed our pay procedures. It's just if my income would not have reached a certain level, he would have kicked in at the end of the year. And my first contract was for three hundred thousand dollars guaranteed, whether

I got hurt or whatever. And I got seventy five the first year, one hundred and the second year one hundred and twenty five, the third year and then that had never been hurt of And so I just and this is great. You know, Claire got one, Dusty got one. I got one. I think Magnum got one, maybe Slater, I'm not sure who. But in the meantime, the Road Warriors signed a big contract for five hundred thousand dollars. They're Pander manager three hundred and sixty, for heaven's sakes,

paying Polo Ellering more than you paid me. An arn right, is there something up wrong with that? Picture. But I had signed my deal and I was happy. When my deal was up, I wanted to sign a contract. I was supposed to fly to Dallas. They'd moved the office to Dallas, and I had my first day off in like a month and a half and I missed my plane in bad Wasn't that big a deal. You know, we got to get this thing done and we'll do it again.

I anymore fly to Dallas anyway, didn't want to move to Dallas, so they never really wanted, never tried real hard to meet me again and tell he's faithful and he'll never do anything and he's loyal and da dada dat. Well. In the process of this time, the negotiation for the sale of Crockett Promotions to Turn and Broadcasting was going on, and during the summer time they interviewed. Okay, they weren't in the hurry to meet with me,

but TBS's people had people. The guy that had eventually hired Jim Hurd, and I forget his name, but we met with him. All the stars had to go meet with these people and they'd ask you questions, and really, my problem is, I'm just honest and never really been around the corporate world or anything like that. So it has always been to my own detriment. Unfortunately, the guy asked me, an arn this, this and

this, and I said this, this and this. I said, there's a reason why we lost three TV stations this week because ratings and Dusty getting back to your point a long time ago, is there comes a point whenever you got the booker. And this is not against Dusty, this is against anybody that ever had that position. Where when when, when you've only been at Florida, the Florida territory or Georgia territory, one guy could could carry

the load. This had got bigger than anybody and nobody it was new ground. So I mean, in Dusty's defense, it we'd gone someplace he didn't know what to do. Is that why? I think this is what led the Crocus failure. And we had got to the point where the guy calling the shots couldn't be the star anymore because we needed more stars, okay, and we were bigger than that. And so I said, I said that in a meeting to these guys at TBS, and it made Crockett mad,

and it made dust too mad. And but those people asked questions and opened up to Pandora's box, and Crockett called me on the phone and told me I wasn't loyal. Tell me you're not loyal. M I wonder who was on the Who's on the background of that phone call. I'm Telly Blanchard. Uh, this this is this is Jim Crocker, Jim Crockett, I got I got something to tell you. Hold on, hold on, hold on. What do you want me to tell him? Hey, I want you

to tell me it's not loyal, Daddy. What I don't understand, Daddy? I want you to tell me it's not loyal. All right, He's not Lord the mid Atlantic, Lord of JCP. Why am I to fucking say a daddy? Okay, okay, ty Tyler, You're not loyal. Hello, good story, bro, I'll talk to you later. Here's uh, here's Dusty from that shoot kind of call. And Tully a pain in the ascids money and Tully was not a big guy in the mold of Sean Michaels. Maybe good talk, uh, good finishes. What's who's foreigner?

Maybe at times you know, I made a lot of money with him. When you think back, you don't want money with money when you take three hundred four und grand six hundred grand compared to it fifty seven hundred, eight hundred thousand bucks from the interry in different eras. But I made a lot of money with the Tully. But I think Tully received the spinoff of flair, you know, uh, and the Horsemen were the first electrified group in

the history guy industry. That was kind of different. And where did that all come from? So you said, you know? But and I think Tully actually called the Fraith one time on TV. I took that, and I would like to take credit for that, but I'm not sure if I said it or he said it or but I think Tully did it, and we took it and ran with it. And that sounds like farting. What the fuck is that? What's what's that's? His dog is asleep next to him in snow? Oh my god, he makes reference to it. It's

hilarious. I mean, it's like living wow. So okay, so Tully's a pain in the ass and it's tremendous yea. And but yeah, that's famously why Telly and Arn ended up in WWF was you know, the the

purchasers from Turner Home entertainment or whatever you must say. Turner Enterprises during broadcasting, we're doing due diligence interviews before they bought Jim Crockett Promotions and right talking to people and what's supposed to be in confidence about what they think is right and what they think is wrong about the organization and what the new ownership should

consider changing. And Telly Blanchard, who has that excerpt from the Shawn of Sale book indicates is loose with his tongue when it comes to uh verbalizing. At least he was at the time what he what he thought was unjust or wrong or crooked about a situation, spoke right up and he kind of he softballs out a little bit in that shoot interview, but it basically lays it on the shoulders of Dusty, somebody that had pissed him off, and said,

you know, that's the problem. And then naturally the idea that what's said in this room is held in strict confidence is complete bullshit. Of course, the word immediately gets to Dusty and Crockett, thus leading to the phone call that Tully mentioned where disloyalty is broached. So that's just great stuff. It's fucking amazing around this time too, Terry Taylor got let Go from again.

I love, I've always loved and I will always love. Just how fucking how fucking the backstabbing in this business for something that's so it's not even something that that that that's regarded with respect from most people, you know, and so to have all this shit go on backstage, the fact these guys don't all look look at each other and say, you know, we're goddamn lucky that we all, when working together, can pull the wool over the

public's eyes to the point that they make this millionaires. They all just fight with each other about who deserves some credit for it all, and none of it's real, Like, right, I mean it's real that you can, you know, this guy can draw better than the next guy, this guy can have better matches. But it's not not a competition. It's not no right, I mean, they're not going out there like you know. Again, it's it's amazing how there's more how there's there seems to be more tension

in a fake sport than in a real sport. It kind of makes sense because in a real sport, you say whatever you want about politics and it's valid. It's it's it's a part of the business in any sport. But at the end of the day, are you going to produce on the field

or on the court or not. You have a chance to shove it down the throat of people who might say things like you're not worth the money right the spotlight you get right by winning or not, and that just to sort of like the proving ground, there's sort of like a moment of objectivity.

I still hold to the thesis that that's why so many wrestling fans embraced you FC in two thousand and five when they put Ultimate Fighting Run after rob because that show gave you pro wrestling style build up to a showdown, and the icing on top of it is that it's an actual fight. Yea, brother, what was that? I'm sorry? That was a sound that just came out of Noah. Yeah, yeah, Okay, tell me more what it was the sound? I can't tell you because it's about under the sentiment okay,

good one, good job. Yeah I had a thing. Uh yeah, No I can't, I can't. I can't share it tremendous. So it's like, wait, we're getting this great conflict build up that we love about pro wrestling, and then we actually don't know who's gonna win. It's actually gonna be decided by real fists and feet flying fuck pro wrestling, you know, Yeah, it's funny. I'm that never really excited me about it. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of funny, you know, Like I

just like you never you know, you would just watch fights cold. You wouldn't see interviews building up. Yeah the stakes if this guy, you know, is made to look like a bitch, it's funny how I just never really cared to put the time in, Yeah, to care about a fighter outside of Brocklesner. It makes sense. That's why Brock's box office was on

a different level for so many years. Was contract that contingent of fans that were only willing to do exactly what you were describing get invested when he was involved. Yeah, so so great stuff there. We mentioned that this is all around the time that that Lex Luger broke off from The Horseman. In fact, it was December second, nineteen eighty seven when he turned on the

Horseman. This is from Jim Dillon's book Wrestlers Are Like Seagulls. Eventually, Lex left the Four Horsemen at December second, nineteen eighty seven, he turned on me. Sorry, I still think that is the stupidest, terrible, terrible title. It's it's it's awful. I mean, I don't know how many times I've combed through that book to remember why he titled at that at which he explains, and I still don't remember it. That's how stupid it

is so embarrassing. You know, he's such a fucking idiot. He's tremendous. The guy has such an amazing diversity of experience in the business. When you think about don't care, I don't care. It's a great He's a loser. Oh, he's not tremendous asset business. You know what, as

long as he names his fucking book that loser doesn't help. On December second, nineteen eighty seventy, he turned on me during a bunk house stampede in Miami Beach and solidified his face turn, giving us yet another fresh opponent. Lex worked against Flair at the God American Bash in Baltimore, Maryland, on

July tenth, nineteen eighty eight. So that's still to come here. In eighty eight, we were trying to figure out how to end the match without having to pin Luger at the time the Maryland Commission issued a ruling there was to be no blood, and we know all of that. We know the

Bash eighty eighth story and the blood that appears in the match. So the point is that despite the missed opportunity, many would consider to not put Luger over in the bunk House Stampede on pay per view and get people gassed up about seeing him go for the world title later in eight. They don't do it, and it still happens anyway. That's how obvious it was. Lex still ends up campaigning for the championship and coming into the bunk House Stampede.

You know, viewers close viewers of Crockett Television, I think would also have reason to think that they were leading the fans to conclude that this would be a crowning achievement night for Lex Luger. It's not like people just invented the thought that it would be nice if Lex one based on their sense of the landscape. He was telling them to get excited. Here's a promo from Crockett

Television from the Total package on the Bunkow Stampede. Coverers of National Magazine cards and letters by the thousands of this man who Lex Luger, and he's battling against go four horses, no tortfone. Tonight is a big night, the big event of the big up best, the final of a bunk house stampede. Now, if you're out here, Tony, I do listen. Arn Anderson, Untilly Pride Short. They probably drop the money stretch. They're the

funny tune unit. There'll be two guys in there, there'll be working together and they're gonna win all the money. Let's put it what you see that doesn't work like that, bitch is the n W way. We're the best switchers in the world now and this is a turn of the toughest prefessman and professional wrestler day, all that are going the same time. For the cage around him, There'll be no friends, there'll be no team where you will be able to tag hit it out. So will be our drags top be

headlocked chignal rule. That's not half Garion stellars by the line. So you see, I've been there. I've been in the press for fifteen years of football, seven years of professional I've been trained for this night, but there's never been anything like it, and I'll tell you right now, I've been a lot of big predictions for the year to a lot of the people say

big predictions for the Kicker chickens. Think of a better way to take it off, and I'll walk out of NASSAUF calls m a half million dollars pincher and the winner of the book House Stampagne. I don't know, Bosses that promo get you excited about Lex winning the bunk House Stampede. It's pretty much designed to make you think he's gonna win it. I mean it. I don't know. There's something weird about Lex Luger promos. Lex Luger is better

for me when he just wins at things. When he talks, he's he's I've never heard someone come across so monotone yet be so loud and full of expression. Spastic is yeah, you know, exploding and like it's almost like he's having an episode more than talking. It's it's very it's it's always very uncomfortable for me to hear him promo because he's so I can't say I'm excited for it, but but just like the wrestling logic of it coming right off

that I mean talking about right, I'm talking about it. Yeah, I mean he should probably maybe he should have gone and one it. I can see listening to that promo why people would come into the Bunk House Stampede expecting someone other than Dusty to win it, because it seems like, well, that's just that's just that's that's being that's just plain stupidity. Yeah, it turns out to be you should no, no, no, you should always just go in there expecting Dusty to win. Yeah. Yeah, I know,

I'll save you a lot of trauma. I wonder if they were betting once back then, if Dusty would have come in the favorite, if that prevailing wisdom would have held in the time period. So we hear how Luger was talking about the Bunk House Stampede coming into the show. They did have a Sunday syndicated show I believe that was worldwide. So there was an episode of Crockett syndicated television that aired the day of the Bunk House Stampede pay per

view. So a lot of these promos, you know, cut the week before or two weeks before to TV taping I believe in West Virginia are referring to tonight, tonight, tonight. So that was pretty good advertisement for the show. Here's how arn't Anderson and Tully Blanchard talk about the Monk House Stampede ahead of the pay per view and of course the notion of you know, teaming together as the horsemen do to gain advantages in multi person environments. Okay,

here we are, look four horsemen together. These two men in the championship tonight have an astok policy. You know, Tony Shivani. Everybody talking about freez ass three that what you have is Rick Flair? Aren't Anderson tell me lactor J J. Jillen that's four. And I don't think that mapromatics has changed that much. So all you intellect, your datis is out there. Please remember four horsemen. That's the way it's started, such a way

it's always been, and that's the way it will always be. Now you're talking about the finals, it is the greatest thing that has ever happened. Papers your falled. I just all over the country, all over the world tonight, ten men fighting for I have a million dollars over the time. The ain't got the door whatever it is. But you'll think about it all individuals. There's only one team that made it to the bunk House Finals.

Aren't Anderson only lectured the world Tag team champion. And that's exactly what it is. It's a unit. Everybody else gonna be worried about who's shitting in the back whatever. Arene and I will function as you've already seen as the ultimate unit in professional wrestling. You got running the world Warriors has gone. You've only got animals. It's you and me, baby two fifty apiece. I can spend that, Holly. We don't need any more money as far

as that goes. But I don't explain to you people as in New York City, a city that has bread hold mullet, you've got people sleeping in the streets, the population of state people as long to the most small town, you've got people they want cut their grandmother's throat. Put us a few dollars in sames. I'm talking about it. People stay there and tell doing whatever they can do for a few mini siy dollars. Now, Luger, When you getting a buck out stampede and you look around, you won't say

one friend you won't find. If you think that's too old, throw more around him off. So bud So war Lord Tully, Blackier myself are gonna help you for money that side sum of money. You're out of your mind. So Luga keep in mind one thing. This is a big deal for the Earsman. We want to win the second ship for the start Paine, for Luga. We're seeing this as a chance in a case standing with you,

what's the problem? Sure, yesterday, same type of pelly. You don't, Hey, listen, you don't if we listen to Luga talk told maybe you I shouldn't even show up. And that's the lot it turns off, aren't Interston Tully Blanchard totally Blanchard at time sounds like Larry's a biscuit. How many glorious years is it? Tully? But again, you know, trying to hold on to the notion of the horsemen there while Dusty tries to

de emphasize them. I mean, they're getting beat every night and whipped around, and it's like they're going on like three consecutive years now of like the Horseman just getting fucking plump pummeled everywhere and still being a huge part of the reason anybody buys tickets to these shows. Unbelievable, So it's it never really the beat never changes, daddy, and that's a big part of the problem as well. But that's how the wrestlers were cutting promos leading into the show.

Here's Tully all those years later in the shoot interview kind of talking about, you know, his his mentality about the whole event and looking back on

the frustration of Dusty ultimately coming away the victor. So we go from Tully in eighty eight to Tully and like whatever, this was ninety nine and he was asked to do things that he couldn't and so when he didn't get the push, okay, we switched in baby face and his first thing as a baby face, he doesn't win a battle Royal New York and our first show

on Long Island. And that was a mistake. That that was That was a booking calculated mistake because it tarnished a guy that you just switched baby face and made him and also ran. Okay, even though he was six five and and built, he needed the push of winning the baby face he needed to be the guy. Okay, Dusty was already over. He didn't need the push. Okay, he didn't need to win that match, and Luger

did and because the other happened, it started a downfall. In fact, in a limousine driving back to Manhattan to go to the hotel that night, I told, I told Francis Crockett and David Crockett, I said, this is the Titanic, and uh and uh you got you got two engine rooms full of water and uh. I'm not sure they liked it or even remember it, but I remember saying it and uh, uh because it was it was. It was a bad stake that night, pretty clear. Yeah, all right, I mean I I can't agree with him. I mean I

can't disagree with him. Rather, I mean, sure Luger, Luger should have won, for sure. It's it's interesting, you know, I think he puts it all differently there than Shawn of Sale does in the book. He says, you know, the twin engines and the Titanic on the limousine,

as opposed to in the hotel afterwards. Not to say Tully didn't mouth off at the hotel afterwards, but I find it interesting that he he he remembers it being in the limousine with the Crocketts and sort of more of a confidence than a public blow up, you know, he's talking about Luger, and everyone's talking about Luger kind of being getting raw dealed in this thing. It's not like he gives a fuck like Luker's just, you know, all he wants to make sure he's paid. That's oh my gosh, oh my

gosh. Yeah. Absolutely, he doesn't give a shit. I know he doesn't care. Yeah, that's one thing about Luger in this in this time period is he is all business, all business. And as long as the eyes are audit and the teases crossed, and the wife approves of the contract language, and he's got Polo sweaters, no doubt, he's not going to be the person complains even if he should be put over. But people who have a problem with Dusty, like Tully, latch right onto this finish of

the Punk House main event to make their case. Tony Schavanni is also someone who agrees with Tully's perspective on things, as he explained on his podcast about this show, Here's what I remember. I remember the line that that Flair

put in his book where Tully said Dusty Rhodes should wrestle Dusty Rhodes. He said that line to me in the limousine going back, and if I recall, and I think I'm right, there were two separate limousines going back, and I wasn't in limousine with Arne Tully and Jju and Flair wasn't another limousine. I'm not so sure who was with him, but he said that line to me, and when we got to a Harry's bar, he went and confronted Jimmy with it. Jimmy said something that night that kind of took me

a back. Now let me preference this by saying that I was always a supporter of Dusty Rhodes. I thought he had some true and there's no question he had no one but put as much effort and thought into booking matches he had, and up until this time he had made some pretty big money for Jimmy Crockett. I don't think there was any question. I remember that night. I don't know if it was after Tully confronted him or before, and

I think it was after Tully confronted Jimmy because I was there. Jimmy's kind of shook his head and he said that Dusty Rhodes was a genius. I remember him saying that line, and I remember thinking to myself. I love Dusty, I love his booking, but doesn't Jimmy see what's going on.

Lex Luger should have won the Bunk House Stampede. That was talked about in the limousine when I was talking to Tully, Narn and JJ going to the Harry's Bar at the Hemsley Palace, and and the reason was, and I think Tully or maybe aren't said it, that if Luger is going to be the top star that we're pushing him to be, then he should have gone over in the thing. But Dusty successfully put himself over again. When Dusty went over in the Bunk House Stampede won the boot and won the half million

dollar prize. I was shocked. I thought Lex Luger was going to win the thing, and I didn't know what was coming down. So when lug didn't win it, everybody was upset. Things were not going well, things were down since Starkade and what happened at Starcade, and we were all shocked. And Jimmy said that night that Luger or that Dusty Rhodes was a genius, a line that we had heard many times, but look it sounded like

to us he was still hanging on to that. Yeah, it's over, Jenny, it's over if he's still saying Dusty's a genius in the hotel after the show, I mean, well, I don't know who didn't watch the show, but I thought it was a brilliant show. It's probably the most some of the best wrestling I've ever seen in the history of the whole, whole, the whole thing. I would be surprised, Tony if we put

Vins out of business by the end of the calendar year. I mean, look, I'm gonna tell you right now, Tony, I wouldn't be surprised if we put Vins out of business tonight. That's how fucking great this was. Right now, I've got a question for you, Tony. How much do you value your family's livelihood? How much do you value there will be? And I got a question for you, Tony. Now, how much money you got in the bank? Right? How much you got and account

other people's money? How about account? Yellers? Can h what's your bank account number? Do you mean how much is in there, Jimmy or what's the actual account number? Routing? Please? I like I need your ear ear well? How much also? Can I see your signature, what's your social please? And he gives him all this information just because he's so curious of where this is going. And once Jimmy gets the information, he just leaves the bar, say another word. I'll see you back at I'll see

it back headquarters Tony. Tony goes to withdraw Hunter bucks the next morning and it's all fucking gone. Fucking Dusty buys a new mink with Tony's money. They both do, Jimmy Crockett in the mink coat like Magnantia want a moron, man, Well, look at the let's see we'll get these match in jackets. Uh, how'd you pay for those? That's a good question, my money, right exactly. So listen, if you're listen, If anyone's don't enough to give someone their bank account number, then that money is the

person. Well, I mean, I worked, I worked for you, Jimmy, you kind of have to have my bank account number to pay me. Well, maybe I think it's about time you start paying and that and that lot of reasoning. Everybody's dumb enough to give their employer or their bank account number, that's a good point. What the fuck? But yeah, Dan correct Tony saying that it was a different place, but it wasn't. It was the Harry's Bar in the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York. So

Harry's Bar is not separate and distinct. I remember looking at Harry's Bar's website. I think they're like the home of the First Martini or some bullshit like that. So you can see like them feeling really cool, like you know, the Crockett guys, feeling really like big city going there. It's kind of gross, but I know it's like you were in Long Island, dude, Like, I mean, you weren't playing the garden like I go to

Manhattan. But you're not fooling anybody, right, I mean, it's it's it's still not like this suburban New York, you know, right right, I mean stop, I'm pretty sure it's a hike to get there too. I got a question for your boss wf's up in Hamilton, Ontario on this evening. Correct. Yes, And we established when we covered World Rumble eighty eight that, according to Pritcher, the whole crew, as far as from an office Vince and Company flew in the day of the show from Stanford.

It wasn't like there was, you know, an overnight stay in Hamilton or anything for the rumble. They flew in and I guess they flew out that night. Crockett guys are getting together post show at the Helmsley Palace in New York. If Crockett's in New York, do you think one of Vince's lieutenants maybe lurking? Yes. Also something happened that night which was very surprising. Oh my god, Gene Okerland showed up and that's first time I had met

Jeane Okerland and he was there. He said he was just staying there. He just was in town. And I guess that was Where was the Royal Rumble at that time? Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario. Okay, this was very late in the night, and I guess he had flown He had flown back. There was thought that he was here to try to get Lucer to go to the w W E. That was paranoia talked that night. But Luker was our big star and we didn't put him over the bunkhouse stampede.

So Jimmy held firm to his beliefs that night at Harry's Bar, while everybody was pretty pissed off, and of course you know, the later the night gets, the more people drink, you know, and the more people you know. I mean, let's let's face, we're in New York City to where Cape Fabe is not what it is if you're in Columbia, South Carolina. In other words, if you're in Columbia, South Carolina, the heels

and baby Face is not going to be in the same bar. At Harry's Bar in New York City, they were all on the same They weren't sitting side by side of the bar, but they were in the same room. Remember our Black Saturday coverage when Vince sent Alfred Hayes down to the Omni. I do fuck do I have to want to see the gate. I want to see what's going on. We own this place, now, can you imagine? I mean, Oakerland was on USA Network doing the Dino Bravos segment.

He's involved in all of these interviews on the show, and they make sure his ass gets back to New York and in the exact bar all the Crockett guys are at too snoop around. I can only assume, what's the problem. Imagine, Jean, what's up? Pal? Hey got a little mission for you? I know, you thought the night's work was over. But Car will be picking you up in minutes. Jane, we got it. Listen, you're gonna get picked up. Car is gonna pick you up.

You're gonna be given several hundred dollars in cash. What I want you do? As I want you to go to? Where are they? All right? The driver's going to Helmsley Palace. Helmsley What Helmsley Palace? The Triple H Palace in the fucking hotel somewhere in midtown. And you're going to You're you're gonna, yeah, you're gonna buy Lex Luger. What pretty simple

mission. Not everybody it looks back on Dusty's decision to put himself over in the bunk Castanpete is a negative, even though you know it's everybody remembers the frustrations being expressed on the night, and despite the fact that he walked out of the company in solidarity with Tolly Blanchard after the aforementioned leaking of what he said to Turner executives in the due diligence phase of the purchase, arn Anderson

doesn't look back on Dusty's decision as a negative or at least that's what he says. Now, let's hear Arn. This is from Arn's podcast that he does with Conrad talking about his feelings as a participant in the match of course, as we established, and and a talent. On Dusty's decision to win the bunk house pretty contract question. I've never had a problem with that. Dusty was the biggest star in the company. He just was. Ricky and Robert you could say, were as hot as you can get. Yeah.

It was too a particular age group, mostly women, which really helped draw a lot of money. Because if you've got a lot of women at ar wrestling event, kiss who follows them into the event? A lot of guys? Yeah, and kids loved them. Dusty appealed to everybody, right, he was across the board, champion for everybody, for grandmothers, grandfathers, twenty five year olds. He appealed to everybody, and I'm sure kids too. And you know, he's the biggest star. He was the biggest star

in the company. And him winning, you know when I want to see Okay, that ended with i'man cole Off as your winner, or aren't Anderson as your winner? Or Dennis Condry one? You know that doesn't have the same ring buck House stampede Dusty, who had him cowboy boots every time you saw him. You know, it's just fit. And if people look at it and look at the concept, it was like a bunch of cowboys having a brawl, you know, back in the in the saloon of the old

days. That was the theme of it. And Dusty, you know, I had no problem with him when it was the right choice. There you go. So now we know who was leading a Cody to the ring as part of Team Nightmare in a w F that point in time, I guess. So, yes, there's a lot of that, a lot of sensitivity around calling Out's legacy on some of these things, because you know, Cody's

everyone's buddy, so it gets a little sensitive. But you know, there's been so much lionization of Dusty, you know, when he went over and re architected NXT and got so many of the current top stars in the business off on the right foot. It's it's sacrilegious to you know, say anything

negative about the guy. But any who was around before he did that and before Vince decided to let him back in the door and let Triple h you know, sort of partner with him to build up NXT remembers with the smirk that you know, this is a guy that was just perceived as just I mean, go maniakely driving everything in the ground he touched, right, I mean that's the thing like you get, you get. I mean, it's funny how they are these guys who all they want to do when they're wrestling

is put themselves over. But then when they're when they're done and they can't fucking work anymore, they're so great at putting other guys over, getting other

guys to get over triple hs the same fucking way. You know, a guy that that that sat there for years and just fucking made our entire college career miserable in terms of in terms of wrestlings watching, Yeah, you know, wrestling watching by having to suffer through all that shit that, but then when push comes to shove and he's on the other side, he's he's a much better you know, behind the scenes guy. Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's you know, there are so many wrestlers like Teddy Yass.

I think of an others who knew exactly how to get themselves over, But we're never good when putting a position to get somebody else over. Never really could find what until their ass wasn't on the line. What's that? Until their ass wasn't on the line. Yeah, yeah, I mean dbs. He sucked at commentary and he sucked at managing, and he got no one over because he just didn't know how to find that in somebody else. He

didn't know how to highlight the qualities and speak about themselves. Dusty could you know? Dusty was someone that could spot talent and he could evolve his way of thinking to see new venues of appeal, like being able to see page for the the pro wrestling representation of with a Girl with the Dragon tattoo? You know, like Finns mcphon does not like that movie is and he does not detect and page a play on that theme? Which did we make that movie? Is that a girl with the what? Pal? The girl would

Ricky the dragons tattoo? Exactly correct? Right? Last movie I saw pal was Austin Powers and it was hilarious. The last movie I saw was on Golden Pond. Oh Man, Like yeah, once once, it's like once they realize that they can no longer aggrandize themselves and keep themselves in ring performer, front and center than sure that in Tripoli, Dusty. That's the thing about it, like because now they're front and center in a different way.

Right now, they're now they're the Now they're the guy everyone thanks, right, and they can associate themselves with and sort of you know, collect dividends

on the success of the talent that they usher through. You know, Tripoli has done that, I mean, and anybody who came through an XT when Vince was kind of letting him play with it like a toy and just you know, with the whole idea being to basically keep telling away from Ring of Honor in New Japan, even if Vince would never push them on main roster and just let them do their forty minute you know, aerobic showcases in the

n XT ring. All those guys, once Vince lost a little bit of power and influence, ended up coming to WW and just worshiping Triple Hs, just seeing him as like the vessel. I mean, look no further than when Vince first stepped down, how much more interest there seemed to be in talent coming back. All of a sudden, people were going to aw strictly because they knew Vince would never see anything in them, but I triple h's booking WWE, while Jesus Christ, well, let's I'll fucking fool ourselves.

We want to be talk guys in ww At the end of the day, Allister Black and others all of a sudden started making entreaties again that cash brother. But you know, opinions all over the place, apparently on the decision for Dusty to go over in the eighty eight Bunkhouse Dampede. We'd heard from Arn Anderson. Let's hear from another guy in the ad Free Show's family. This is Jim Ross Tuck, who was of course the commentator on the show

talking about the decision. And I don't remember any by being overwhelmed with that decision. We had a chance right there, Douse. He was a made man, for God's sakes. Yes, he didn't need to win the Buckhouse Dampede. It didn't move the needle and uh and that's just the truth of it. So we had a chance there to elevate somebody, you know, maybe Luger, maybe somebody else that you you have a you have a feeling that could get over. But they just need a little something something to push

him over the top. But Dussie went into the bunk house stampede was unnecessary. It was just that wasn't more of an ego thing? Well, instead of going still there you go more importantly? Do we do we know what Bob Coddle thinks that we don't. I'm sure he would say something Sylvanilla, Well, you know fans uh as we're As we're watching the bunk House Stampede, I was thinking to myself, the real one who should have gone over was m sounds like Bob, the one went under meat loaf. Meat loaf

should go over? How much we gotta pay him? I mean, I'll do anything for love, but I won't do that. I'll tell you one thing i'll do. I'll do anything for meat loaf. Yeah, that's a different conversation. I wish my mom would make me she's been dead like thirty years, Bob Caddle, I wish my mom would make me a meat loaf. Jim My well, Jim, well, Jim just wondering if I could get some of my mom's meat loaf before Oh okay, well Jim just wondering.

Now what exactly puts Jim in a position to decide or facilitate the delivery of mom's meat loaf to Bob, Like, why is he someone you just have to check in with on this anybody? Starkaide memorial tour Bob Kydle coming home after Thanksgiving nights, dark Aide. You know the thing about it is my wife doesn't like to feed me. That's sad. Whenever I've got to work. She says, well, Bob, you're gonna come home hungry, and she cleans out the whole house. No food, only a handgun in

my face. There's usually just a small revolver on the dining room table, says Bob, here's your dinner. Put it in your mouth. Dark Oh, I say, I say, okay, what's did you want? I took a bite that one time and I lost two teeth. Tries to eat the gun. It's his dinner. What's he supposed to do? Not try it and I'll insult his wife. He crushes two of his teeth. Oh well, I don't know, a little bit harder than a job breaker there. Okay, can we see do it that? I? Maybe I get

a delivery of my mom's meat loaf. Bob, your mom's been dead since sixty eight I know, but she stored meat loaf and uh freezer someplace? Can you find it? Do you know where it is? They were talking about, you know, can we get David allan Coe to do the Great American Bash Tour dust well, you know, and they started talking about what about meat loaf? Maybe he's available, and then someone in the other room over the dusty c I'll do I would do anything for meat love, and

uh, everyone interpreted it. Oh, I just want to say, if anyone is interested in getting meat loaf, you can count me in. Thanks, good stuff. J Jr. Said, you know, because he calls the show with Caddle bunk house step. You know, he loved working with Coddle, and he said, like, you know, it's a guy. If you traveled with it was like traveling with your uncle. It was that sort of pleasant. And the hardest thing you have to worry about drinking is

a mountain dew. So I'd vite you to consider Bob Caddle drinking a mountain dew traveling. Oh, Jim, this is uh. I believe we have a very energetic experience going on with this. Bever, it's a little way to put it, Bob, but we have an energetic experience going on. I feel a little pepp in my step. I might be, uh, you know, walking more than a quarter mile an hour. Yeah, you haven't gone to sleep yet, so it's obviously working. I'm doing the do as they say, Jim and I, have you ever done the doe do

do? Oh? Oh? Sorry about that. I said a dirty word. I think he said, I gotta watch my mouth. Have you ever I think he said, have you ever done the dude do do? Dot? Dot dot do? Do? Oh? Bab, I can't say I have well, you know, I gotta I said a dirty word. I gotta punish myself. Shit, that's a new avenue. The self Flash's okay with it, everybody. You know my my wife said, I gotta take care of myself when I when I, when I use a curse word and

doo doo it certain there it is again. Jr. Comes back from like a snack run. They're sharing a hotel room on the road, and he opens the door and coddles like fully, like exphyxiated, like, oh, Jim, I'm just torture. I'm just punishing myself. I did something very naughty while you were gone, and now I'm in my hand on my penis. Did Bob shay it again? No? No, no, say it again? Now, I put my hand on my penis, Jim, I put my hand on my penis. Jim M. My wife said, that's

not very good. Uh, that's not very gentleman. Let So I have to punish myself in a way that h will hopefully prevent me from wanting to do it again. This guy got the worst deal of all time, the nicest guy in the world, and he is like constantly in the Mo's compromising positions, unforgiving circumstances. You get the most rowd deal of anyone I've ever heard of. Jim can ask you a personal question, sure, Bob,

Jim. You know, Jim. Every now and again, as I'm i wake up in them in the morning and I'm traumatized by by a certain thing. And for some reason my penis has gotten rock hard. And I don't know why. I don't know why it does that, but it really it causes me a great stress every morning. I wish you wouldn't do that. There's a couple of things you do about that, Bob. As always, I'd recommend smoking a fat blunt. First of all, I'm figuring it out. It's not on our line. I've tried to do my w C W

JR. It's not easy. I know, it's very difficult. He's so kind of normal, talking like young cherubic jiucking chipmunk cheeks. I mean, Jesus, looking like a baby that just ate four cookies. And here's the thing he did. You're fucking kidding me? What do you think those ODIs spunk? My rappers came from jays That a bad thing. That Continental Breakfast never stood a chance when he was on the road. Oh, I'll forgot to say, come on. He he heat six croissans and put six more

in his pockets. So so I think when Bob's are Bob just gotta have a bite. Is that how you it feels like to eat food? Oh, Jim, it's how it feels, Bob. Look at it. Look at my crumb trail. The fucking flakiness for the flakes all over the play god like a like a what do they used to call those things? The toaster strudles Yep, yep, yep yep, just like everywhere so so croissant flakes. We need an arbiter here as to whether Dusty made the right call

because we have people all over the map on this thing. Started with Flair's book. I think Flare has say he's the champion, he's the he's the horse that's pulling the wagon back. Then Flare rights My match with Staying in the birth of my son Reid were bright spots and what was otherwise at disappointing nineteen eighty eight. On January twenty four, Jim Crockett Promotions tried another pay

per view bunk House Stampede from the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. I had a pretty good match with my friend Mike Hegstrand the late Road Warrior Hawk, But as far as I recall, everything else about the card turned out to be a disaster. Vince counter of the show. But the first Royal Rumble then called the Rumble Royal on the USA network available we have charged anyone.

It wasn't. It was called a Rumble Royale by mistake for like a week, like people act like day one in the year on USA and we're calling it Rumble Royale. Was clear from Primetime Wrestling that we played by like the second mention of it on Primetime they had it straightened out right. The world Wrestling Federation was at a high point in eight million viewers watched it. Flair

Roade. Crockett may have thought that he was starting a revolution by promoting in the World Wrestling Federation's backyard, but that wasn't enough to get the fans to like the show, and Nassau Coliseum wasn't even close to full And why should it have been? Smart at Dusty is? Sometimes he was so small minded. An old time bunk house stampede about a royal style match inspired by the days when farm hands fought it out by the bunk house farm hands, it's

cowboys. Is there a difference? I can't. I don't understand why a bunch of guys would just fucking be fighting it out from each other? How do you go? But but okay, sure, but that's like two guys, or you have like teams of guys. But the way this is described, it's like you've got six guys who are all against each other, who want to kill each other, all wronged each other at the same time. Right, doesn't someone want to sit it out? I mean, isn't aren't

you on sides? I mean, how did this all happen? What was the timing? Of this point may have done well in the South at one time, but in New York, Italians from the Bronx and Jews from Brooklyn couldn't have cared less about cowbells and bull robes. O gave Flair. Has there ever been a bunk house in Manhattan. I've seen a few bunk houses, and men, I've seen quite a few bunk houses. You go to

the right neighborhood and there are plenty of houses that are bunk. The company just seemed so far behind the times, and then we kept David Krockett contributing this passage to Flair's book. The best thing for Dusty would have been for him to just book and not wrestle. We probably would have done better. He kept a lot of people down and chased a lot of fans away because he wanted to stayed in number one at all times. All of Dusty's ideas

seemed inspired by one movie, True Grit. We gotta put that under the cinemat that qualifies it get into the booking mind of Dusty and our storylines. He had to come back from the dead, just like John Wayne. His creativity got stale after the Nassau sim Show. The boys ended up in Harry's bar at the Helmsley Palace hotel in Manhattan. Tully was complaining about the direction of the company. He walked right out to Jimmy and confront him about some

Dusty's decisions. Dusty should book himself against Dusty, he said. Jimmy didn't want to hear it and walked away. Dusty had gotten so close with Jimmy that I couldn't reason with him either. Jimmy Crockett had been a very important part of my life, but I could see our relationship changing. Here was a person who meant so much to me that I had made him the best man at my wedding. I couldn't understand how Dusty could step in and con

Jimmy out of that friendship. Dusty also began telling stories that were too preposterous to believe during a trip of one of the crop. During a trip on one of Crockett's private planes, Dusty notified a group of us here getting ready for this one. Boss. I notified a group of us that we were going to outclass Vince by making these big Hollywood style productions. Oh my god.

Apparently the first movie in the company's list was the life story of Terry Allen aka magnum Ta, a handsome wrestler who suffered spinal cord damage when he drove his portion too a telephone poll one rainy night, we all agreed that Terry had caress that who fucking cares? Well? It could make you know, we don't have to care about magnum Ta for to make a good story. It's just an interesting story. I mean, I guess I don't care.

Y all agreed that Terry had an inspirational story that could make a decent film. Then Dusty added that, what who's who's making movies about me? Brother? Am I in the movie? Did I film it? Dude? What's going on by Terry? Brother? Hey? Yo? Date? Whoa what are you hearing? Brother? What I heard about a movie about Terry? Dude? I can only you got dollars thing in? Brother? What's going on? What are the odds that you guys pushing another Hogan named Terry?

This is actually concerning brother? How many Hogans you got over that? How many Terry's you've been hiring? Dude? I gotta no dude? Am I over an nwa? Brother? Like it could happen without his knowledge? Like contracts could be passed in the night, options could be exercised. Am I working both promotions? Dude? Where am I? Darry? Just go to bed, we'll talk in the morning. Ah. There sometimes gets these calls. He goes at one point, how many Hogans you got over there?

Dude? Any Huggans? Dude? Any what Hugans? Yes, plenty of Hulk Huggans. But get this. Then Dusty added that Sylvester Stallone had agreed to play magnum Ta. Of course, well, of course Sally Field was committed to portraying his wife to Mary. Oh my god. The only problem, dust He said, oh yeah, oh yeah, I'll play. It's a story of great a story of heart, right sly yeah, yeah, yeah. You know it's under Dog. You know, I like being on a dog, especially like how he ends up in a wheelchair and then

we got him getting to him in a match. You know, we could that's what we could do. We could have him, you know, he he gets in the wheelchair and then all of a sudden he comes out of retirement gets in the match. I got ask because I never feel like I got a straight answer from Terry Funk or Hulk or anybody. This stuff.

It's it's it's not real, right, It's just it's all kind of it's it's fucking fake, right, I mean, it's all kind of put on, right, dust Maybe I'm I ask you something, not what are you putting on? Daddy? Huh? Where are you putting shit on? Baby? Because I'm sitting here, I'm talking a rocket about Boa and I'm thinking of myself, what a fucking bitch Yep, I'm gonna eat that bout Boa and then I'm gonna shot out my ass. You stump fucker beat the ship.

I no wonder he did end up doing the movie. Dusty said, though he wasn't sure if sally Field was really right for the part, but they could fucking get anybody. Imagine telling himself this like because he's so in his mott. We played that one clip on The Rumble eighty eight, remember of Dusty absolutely losing it on a promo about how we're the best and we're the real wrestling. He's just like mumbling and just talking about how they're they're

copying us and all this desperation famous last words kind of shit. He's so fucking lunar. Vince is like doing non wrestling stuff. He's leveraging his wrestlers and other arenas and media, and and so Dusty is telling himself, all right, we'll be in movies. It's like Dusty stopped trying to nobody. Stop. It's not I know you watched movies to come up with booking ideas, but you are not going to have a film career. Stop. He wanted it so bad. Oh. He absolutely talked a lot about it during

our War Games. This part was compared to why the War Games match even happens because he was obsessed with that movie. What was it now? I already forgot it was mad Max, mad Max, thunder dumb, amazing. Arn and I looked at each other flair rights and rolled our eyes. If Jimmy was dubious, he wasn't showing it to us. Later, when his son dust And started in the World Wrestling Federation as gold Dust, Dusty said

that Vince was arranging to put dust In in a video with Madonna. Of course, fans were getting tired of seeing the same thing on the road over and over. The referee would get knocked down, the challenger would toss me over the top rope, a second referee would run in just in time to see me to submit or get pinned. The fans would think that I had lost the championship until the first reff woke up and announced that throwing your foe

over the top ropes was a violation of NWA rules. Therefore, the good guy was disqualified among the boys. This ending, with a few variations here and there, was called the Dusty finish. It worked great in the days of the territories when the fans in Charlotte knew nothing about the match results in Miami or Oklahoma City. But because of cable and pay per view, people became so familiar with the Dusty finish that they could predict it ahead of time,

and that wasn't good for business. Yeah that's interesting, Yeah, yeah, another sort of like how Dusty's mentality was an ill fit for pay per view. It's like he just like, yeah, right, this is how we get out of this, this is how we move on. It's like everybody's watching this, Dusty, like you've got to make them want to watch again. In the spring of nine eight eight, Vince Man called me with a straightforward question, what do you think about coming to the World Wrestling Federation.

How So, just months after this, Vince is hitting him up about coming in. Of course he is, I'd fight you to consider Flair coming in and eighty eight I mentioned Flair in the WrestleMania four tournament. Huh, I mean, sorry, Ted, Jesus christ Man Flair eighty eight. Could you imagine? I mean if all of a sudden, Flare's like a Flair is a is a like a secret entrant, and and it's like, I'm sorry, nobody else can fucking win that tournament anymore? Sorry, Ted,

I'm sorry. Savage's picturing him in his resplendent robe walking out at the Trump Plaza. You know you fair think about this, Think about this, okay, Rick Flair comes in, wins the tournament, WrestleMania four, WrestleMania five, Hogan versus Flare Shore And in the eighties, are you kidding me? Oh? It would consummate it unlike in ninety two. That would have been spectacular. Can you imagine Flair Hogan WrestleMania five. Oh, but we have

plans. Look at this, Flare writes, he already knew what he wanted to do with me when the First Summer Slam debuted August twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, I would be in the main event challenging Randy Savage for the World Wrestling Federation title. That works, too, not quite as good as what you just laid out, not as quite as good as what I'm thrilled that you're giving me the opportunity, I responded, But I don't know, by the way, it's possible to Flare had a contract too that he couldn't

get out of until August, but maybe it wasn't available till August. But what about I thought, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall created the first guaranteed contracts in pro wrestling. I was hearing Kelly Blanchard there talk about something that sounded very much guaranteed, and he listened about twelve other guys that had the same deal structure. So you fucking tell me, well, hey, you know what, I wasn't fucking there, But it's really not guaranteed to me.

Right, those guys they get their balloon payments at the end of the year, guaranteed about him. When you gotta wait till the they fucking leave, they fucking leave, right, you get these guys, they fucking head out, they're not getting paid. I fucking gonna check in the mail. I'm sitting home injured. I'm still getting fucking checks from WCW. Guys getting checks when they're home injured. Yeah, you're getting checks from wc WALK. You're not getting checked from WCW. It's a yeah, I know, keV.

I'm just an interviewer, Like, why would I be getting Yeah? My point is I'm getting fucking checking out of the mailbox in my bathrobe. Yeah. Check comes every two weeks as tally if it how biweekly his pay cadence was thrilled that you're giving me the opportunity. You know what he did? You know what. I'm sorry, but you know what he did have a fucking guaranteed contract. You want to know what it was. Yeah, sure, he was guaranteed not to get paid. Nice keV, thanks for swatting

that one away. I was worried about a contradiction, I responded, But I don't know. I try to explain that the nw AD been my home since nineteen seventy four and parting ways with the organization seemed a little frightening. Even though I was getting the running around from Jimmy and Dusty, I wasn't politically a student enough to deal with being romanced by this guy who I didn't

know. Despite the strain between Dusty and myself, I approached him and mentioned Vince's offer, But instead of trying to find some sort of common ground, he just counted, all right, go to Rowan Oak today and draw the title to the luger. Wow, you're damn right. You're damn right. And that shoot interview that Dusty did that we excerpted, he calls Rick a flim flam man, somebody who convinces you that he's in to help other people,

but all he really gives a shit about is himself. So I apparently Dusty feels season he's entitled to some money that Flair didn't give him that would put him in a less destitute state. In retrospect, I believe Dusty knew that Crockett Promotions was going to be sold Flair Rights, and he wanted to downplay my value to the new owners. I also think that this was the point where our friendship became very strained. It was painful. For the first

day we met. I respected Dusty and I still respect so much about him to this day, but now I was seeing him for what he was. Everything had been great between us until the moment I had rivaled him as a top attraction. Aster Flair comes down. Yep. As for Jr. You know from his position as the announcer, he actually thought it was a good card, but they didn't have any momentum coming into the show. I thought it was too predictable that the Dusty would win the bunk House the first one

to pay per view. He said that no one knows where the boot is, and Conrad, the Ultimate wrestling collector doesn't either. That's like a big holy grail. Does anybody know with the bunk House Stampede, Rod's ye is. But Jay remembers coming into the show knowing that they would be challenged to produce much decent and he enjoyed working the show and it was fun, but it felt a challenge to deliver a real good product, and it was a

good challenge. But they were swimming upstream because nobody was really over, like really over to where you know. The fans had this sense of we got to see this, so they had a tough hand they had to play. Everybody was well aware by this point of the consequences of the balloon payments. At the end of eighty seven, and late payments to talent led to overreactions in paranoia. There's a lot of that in a locker room, he said.

Talked about Dallas, as we mentioned, and buying a house in play Now and losing his ass on it when they turned around and sold the company to Turner. Might have been poking the beer by going to New York, he said. Jimmy and Dusty had plans to push into those markets, but not one that was going to work, and theory, it makes sense, look at all these markets that aren't being served by our brand of wrestling. Are things Going national was the right thing to do, but you had to

have a better game plan than these two did. Vince running a rumble against Bunkhouse Dampede Jr. Recalls on his podcast was the talk of the Crockett locker room. But the guys who knew Vince well knew not to be shocked by this move. Jr. Said they simply needed to get some guys or angles

hot and interesting and unpredictable around this point in time and just couldn't. He didn't like that there were so many bunkhouse matches on the road before they tried to sell this as a pay per view in a unique attraction, and Nassau

thought it should have been kept more rare, and that in general. Jare says he'd never really been a fan of Battle Royals anyway, dating back to his day's referring in mid South and in Oklahoma where he associated Battle Royals with guys taking it easy and half asking it, which isn't is an interesting you talked about a little bit in the Rumble show. Yeah, that's an interesting legacy of the Battle Royal from the territorial days. I never shut it that

way. And you know, when I hear about the San Francisco January Battle Royals at Patterson in the Rumble after, those were some of the biggest attractions on the calendar year, right, and it seemed like the big annual Battle Royal was a huge attraction just about any territory that did them, Like you know, Andre would come down for Fritz's and Dallas and stuff like that.

It's a big deal. But it's also interesting to hear that this had the reputation of being a something that wasn't necessarily a great value to the wrestling ticket buyer. When it was Battle Royal time, everybody thought that just meant all the all the wrestlers taking it easy. But for the fans, and you know, Battle Royal is fucking exciting of course. Yeah, so I think

it's it's always it's funny. It is funny, how how disconnect there is there really is because it's so It's always been one of my favorite matches. I always loved, loved Battle Royal, especially growing up, and I've seen so many. We watched some of the early ones from Coliseum collection, remember like the Big John stud one, the one eight four in La. Yeah, these matches, it doesn't it doesn't strike you, even as as a fan that is kind of smart Now, all these years later, it doesn't

look like the guys are taking it easy. I don't know, right, I guess in theory it makes sense that guys would take it easy in a match where they couldn't take bumps if they wanted to. But I have yet to see a Battle Royal where I'm like, all right, everyone's a fucking

dog in this. You know, It's never a thought that crossed my mind when I watched Battle Royals until I started hearing all these old timers saying that that's kind of how everybody regarded battle Royals within the business as a night off. Yeah, so here's Jr. Speaking to just kind of the state of things that Crockett at the time of the show. But I do think there was he was getting a frayed around the edges, getting a little burned out.

And it's easy to seek why, and sure, and who wouldn't That's the thing about not knocking Dusty for God's sakes, God bless her soul. But he needed he needed to tag out and I think that a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of ideas was very uh much needed. But it just didn't have He didn't want to give up his power, and he wouldn't have had to have somebody else book it and then you prove it,

are disprove it. That could happen. But he he's like a lot of old guys that were territory guys and finally made it to a position of influence and financial security. And it's just it was not it was a tough thing. It was a tough thing. I think he needed help and and uh, you know, you were afraid to say much to him because he he took everything as ah, you're you're knocking my booking type thing personally. Yeah, yeah, and that's as that was very unfortunate. Something else I wanted

to ask about is the way, here's just clarify this one second. My opinion is Dusty didn't see any value in it. Jimmy was open minded. Jimmy just wanted to grow the business. But does he has such creative influence over Jimmy that Jimmy just didn't have the conviction lack of a better term a top of my head too to do this. He's gonna ride. He didn't want to upset Dusty. He didn't want Dusty to see that well, Jimmy's got a different idea, or Jimmy didn't trust me anymore, or whatever.

Wrestler paranoia is. It never goes away, man, No, deep in your heart it will see Thank you, jim Yeah, thank you very much. That's right. And the thing he's talking about Dusty not seeing value in is using the u WF Mid South guys from the purchase in a prominent way. Most of them just found themselves to find down like Steve Williams is looking

for a way out the UWF Heavyweight champ when they bought the company. Yeah, you know, Jim has found a spot and they're putting him, in fact on TBS, which leads to Chavanni saying, fuck this, m I'm not going to not be on the national show after all these years in this company and going to WWF. But for the most part, all the wrestlers that they got Michael Hayes on down, they're all Bubba came over, They're all finding ways out the door after this. And Yeah, Dusty just didn't

see value in New WF. And that was pretty much the end of the story, even if there was a glimmer from Jim Crockett that there so there's something could be done. They get Terry Taylor, who came in as a result of the purchase and was pushed pretty hard in the beginning. Dusty fired him, reportedly because Dusty caught him imitating him in the locker room with the boys. Oh my god, I can imagine that Dusty at this time must

have fucking hated anybody doing impressions of him. Man, Yeah Jr. Says later in the podcast, he says, you know, when you've got an alpha male like that, you can you can criticize him one on one, you know, in a in a private meeting. But when you criticize an alpha male like that, or make fun of an alpha male to a wider audience, this is immediately they's gonna find a way to get rid of you.

Yep, yep, yep, you're done. Yeah. Tully talked about after word getting out of him shit talking Dusty, that all of a sudden he was on less desirable flights and found himself, you know, with less comfortable accommodations on the road. So Dusty definitely knew how to put a ton of energy into making its sting if you crossed him. And I think I think Cody carries that too. I think Cody is very sensitive about people making

fun of Dusty. Uh. He's very defensive about the reality of the Polka dot thing, you know, he has like he's convinced himself that it wasn't Vince just taking a piss on his dad, which is exactly what it was, Yeah, and all the rest. So, you know, I think it's not Guess what if you celebrate that you're a fucking phony, Well, if you believe what Dusty told himselves so he could go back and collect another decade of money from Vince about that being just sort of all in good fun.

You know, you're kind of it's kind of suss that you let yourself believe that when you look in the context at the time and realize everything that was going on. But yeah, you know, as far as the mentality, Jr. Says he wouldn't be at that point. It was like you would be surprised to hear on any given day that they were selling or closing down. The infrastructure was lacking, and it was talked about all the time

in the company, but Crockett was loyal to too many people. He kept too many people employed that didn't really help push the company forward, no matter what the cost. He mentioned klondyke Bill as an example, though Jr. Was quick to say it doesn't necessarily be in klondyke Bill wasn't good at his job and contributing, but he was just sort of like an emblematic of the kind of person that would never go even if they couldn't do their job.

Everybody opened their eyes like, wait a minute, we keep doing the same thing over and over. None of it's working. Jim said, why not if you Jim Crockett tries something different. But Dusty had that magical hold seemingly

over Jimmy, and that got a lot of heat on Jimmy Crockett. Jarre knows the talents when they were alone with Crockett would express themselves directly to him about their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs and talking about how Dusty's killing us and you're not doing anything about it, and he didn't, and he didn't, and he was remorseful about that later, Like the High Spots documentary that's terrific on the Crockett years, the first interviewers to find Jim Crockett since eighty

eight really yeah, or at least in a context to talk about the collapse of Crockett Promotions, because he did try a few promotional ventures in the nineties after a short lived tenures, still being involved with the turnaround WC do after. I think I can promote other things they can't. I think I think I'm you know, I think I'm a good general promoter. I believe that I can promote generalities in uh in this world general activities. Okay, fine,

I believe I believe I can promote generalities in this world. I'm just I don't know what you wanted to say. I'm just repeating what you said, and well, I don't want there's nothing to say, just that this is I believe that that that the world, My world does not revolve around, you know, professional athletics. I believe that I can promote other things

to a more general base of humanity. I believe that is always a key pretext in the laps character's statement, because usually you're the only one that believes

that. But it was hard to know what to talk to because if you piss the wrong person off or dust he perceived he was criticizing him, like he just he just flies off the handle, you know, like he's just gonna scream and do the whole his whole jive talk thing whenever somebody's like, dude, you're you're out of bullets, man, No, dadda, I mean I'm a fucking bullets baby, because you know what, I got the biggest bullet of all right here, daddy, I got the pen, the

pen that rough down exactly what's gonna happen every net when it comes to NBA rough and daddy, And I'm gonna tell you, maybe I feel as long if I'm doing that, you ain't got no fucking job, all right, Danny, because you're gonna fit Mack. You're gonna watch a lot of people doing the ship and then I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna put my foot in your face and then I'm gonna shot on your damn head. How about that, motherfucker. I'm a Mack and dreamed down the road and you're the

American bitch. You bitch as motherfucker and all the way, you better believe I'm gonna win the Bunkhouse Stampede. The concept of the Bunk House Stampede about boy, I got fucking heat for that man and I get he with Lex Luger and Flair and stinging these fucking guys. Is that the bull rope was a unique thing that I that I created because of the d for me and

created that. That was the first extreme h match, real new extreme match, besides the war Games and everything and uh and I owned the war Games. It's my deal, you know. I think that the extreme I think I got a group like ec W first ever sell it to PAULI war Games, anything goes, it would be phenomenal. I just take a meager fee for but he uh uh the Bunks Tempe we had cage matches, right, and our cage match was different than Vinces vinceys. You put a cage in

to get out. I didn't ever understand that concept. You get out the door, you go over the top of you win. The match. Art was to keep the heartsoman out, to keep the evil guys out, to keep the people out from getting in and finally finishing this thing with you and so and so. You know, let's finish this match, and uh something always happened in some cases, but a lot of finishes were done in the

cage. So the concept of the two and me being the cowboy from Texas and the Bull of Woods, the baddest you know, in the in the in the in the deal. The concept came for the bunk House Stampede because we needed and now we had started. Instead of doing four pay per views at three, we were doing five. We were doing six. So I was and naming the different things. I wanted different concepts and different things to

happen. Leathal lottery and you know there were I had to create in the Stampede with a not a throwaway pay per view, but it was a pay per view that was at a time of year. The were. It always didn't do as well as the other ones, but we had to do it, and we couldn't make a little money off of it. And it was over the top coming to our bunk house rules, because back then you always had the street fights. But in our company it was bunk house street fights

be cause the cowboy that era, you know what I mean. It wasn't like the New Jersey the Chicago. What the hell is the difference between the Chicago New Jersey and the Texas street fight? There? You so mine was the concept was in the old days, we didn't here we come again. I said, video precede what I'm wanna do. Bunk house, the old West. We showed all the deal, you know what I mean. It's

like a midnight rider. We showed the video preceded this this thing, and uh so we told the story of the old days, the bunk house and all that stuff. So it just came about like that. And I had won the I had won the stampede because I was a creator. I was the I was a bull of the woods. I created this fucking thing. There was none of the cowboys and god damn thing, you know what I mean? What looker want to be a fucking cowboy, I mean, you

know what I mean. So that was my match, you know, and I wanted again the second year and the Nassau Coliseum and uh Long Island. Remember getting on the plane and then questioning me about that, Why did you put yourself over on this thing? And uh, I kind of laughed to myself, you know what I mean, and uh it was just uh it was just uh, we don't even do it no more, but it was just uh an era that uh that that thing did some business, you know. That's how that's how it came about. When I was a king,

that was my match. Nobody else gonna win that fucking match with me. But here it is not putting words in his mouth. That's rout, baby. No one fucking winning that a god damn it with me. And so I am the bull of the hoods that it. And so within a year, what do you think has happening? Do you think Dusty is vindicated?

Businesses up, they're fighting tooth and nail with Vince, pushing in a new market, successfully consolidating talent, and they're differentiated kind of presentation of pro wrestling or no, do you think everyone's sitting around wondering how did we get here? And it was it was it was like riding the wave, you know. So I mean to say whether he's good, bad, or indifferent. When I was there, it was nothing but good. You know. I don't know what kind of booker he was after I left, Uh, but

it wasn't too long that things kind of fell apart. And I don't know what contributed to that, but I can remember Vince making a comment to me at TV one time. We were all sitting watching the monitor and we were in Syracuse or Rochester, New York or something like that, and it was Dusty sitting there, and Barry sitting here, and me sitting here and aren't sitting here and and uh, Vince looked around like this and he said, is my territory safe? And I just looked. I didn't I couldn't respond.

I mean, what kind of I didn't understand the comment at the time, And you know, it was he was kind of being humorous, but he kind of wasn't being humorous too, you know, because it was we were all working for him, you know, in six months earlier, we were all you know, opposition to him. Good God, damn right, that's right with that, I believe it's time for the bunk House Stampede nineteen eighty eight death Toll. Boss, ooh we we have I didn't well?

Yeah, thank seven seven so kind of funny, not not not never as many dead on the on the NWA JCP, the non steroid ch w Yeah of the you know the down South, the less system shows. Yes, we have Paul Jones, Yeah, bush Whacker, butch who's in the dark match before it's a recent one and it's a recent one. Another recent one. Bobby eat Shore. It's not that he's Bobby, he's eating his grave.

Uh. We have Hawk, Ivan Coloff, Animal, I mean Mac and dream Duff the road rest in peace to all in the Bunkhouse Stampede. And with that, Boss, I think we need to get our jeans on. I got him, I got my cowboy hat, I got my cowboy boots get and I got a I don't know whatever else I need. I got a horse too, Can I use a horse? We'll go find out. I'm gonna tie this bandanna around my neck and we're gonna get to deep dive. And this motherfucker it's time for the latest deep dive into that WW

Network Archive. It's the first ever I guess you could say unfucked with to some degree, pay per view presentation from Jim Crockett Promotion's head up with the very first televised Royal Rumble. It's the Bunkhouse Stampede nineteen and eighty eight. On the other side of this break