Kofi Kingston’s Gauntlet Match

into that a little bit. And this week we're going to dive into the KOFEE Gauntlet match, and in two different directions. One the one you saw on TV that got him the opportunity for the World Championship, which he won, and the origin of it, which was when I was working there and it was the whole writing team, but I remember I was the one who pitched it as long as as well as the producers behind it, UH Freebird and that lot. So we're gonna jump into that

because it was crazy watching it happen live. So without further ado, here we go, now stuffing up to the mic, the host of Wrestling with Freddie Freddie Prince June. All right, I was up in my attic and a lot of you if you listen to my old podcast with Josh Wolfe, he calls it my gym Attic. And I was watching an episode of I think it was Friday Night SmackDown and the Kofi Kingston. This is years after, ten years

after I left the company, easily ten years. So not only does he have to win all his matches in a row, he can't lose any to earn his prize, his title opportunity, and this is the w w E World Championship, but he also has to win them all in a row with no rest in between. And it's the impossible challenge for the impossible prize, right, And anyone who knew the business, there's no way they they thought they were going to put the title on Kofi Kingston.

And then the New day comes around and it's sort of re shapes and remolds him, and the hype and the and the passion became very very real, and you started to see, almost like in a Jeff Hardy way, people believing in Kofe and and the crowds were hot, and I'm watching this, and all of a sudden, I go, holy crap, I think we wrote this. And I texted my buddy who no longer worked at the company, or maybe he did, but he was there when I was there, and I said, oh my gosh, are you watching this

KOFE Gauntlet match? And he texted me back he goes, Dude, we wrote this gauntlet match, and I've freaked out. I was like, oh my god, I wonder if they're gonna They're not gonna let him win. And all of a sudden, he just wins match after match after match, and he wins the whole thing, and he gets his title opportunity, and then of I'm not connected to the to the rest of the story and I have no knowledge of it. But then he goes on to win the w w E Championship, only to then lose it to the to

the treaded brock lessner Um a few months later. So I'm watching this and I'm I just I have a grin from ear to ear on my face. You would have thought I was I was going back to Disneyland for the first time since I was a little boy. Like it was crazy watching the journey, the story that they were telling in the ring that night with the history involved. So now let's let's go back in time, right like Wayne's World, and I'm at the company. I

barely have any gray hair at all. I was looking smooth, and we come up with this idea for Kofe to become Intercontinental Champion. I believe I think it was Intercontinental night. It could have been the US title again, someone w someone will correct me. You is no better than I do. And everybody is like writing out their ideas and how they would book it this wrestler and how he's gonna beat him in that wrestler and how he's gonna beat him,

And that wasn't my that wasn't my strong suit. I was probably the weakest one in the room when it came to to who should win and who should lose. So I'm sitting in there and I'm trying to, you know, write out the story behind it and the and the promo that's gonna get us into the story, and thinking about after how this is gonna, you know, get over. And all this happened because Kofi had this crazy scene

on live television. Man, maybe it was Monday Night Raw and it was the US title but one of the NASCAR guys, and I don't follow NASCAR, so I don't I don't know their their names the way some of you would, so forgive me for not knowing. I think the only one I can think of. I was gonna say Jeff Jarrett, but that's that's not a professional race car driver, so I clearly I don't know the sport.

But there's a Jeff there that drives fast. One of these guys gave Randy Orton a NASCAR, like an actual race car NASCAR, and it's shiny and it's got all the logos. It looks like, you know, straight out of Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder, and maybe not with as good of hair as he had, but still the same vibe, and it's it's glistening the way they have the lights on it, and Kofe's going just ballistic for something that happened.

Forgive me again. This is a long time ago. I can't I can't remember, but he takes an axe of fire axe to this NASCAR while he's cutting the promo, so there's a ton of effort and breath behind it, and it doesn't sound like the standard baby face promo or baby face, trying to be a tough guy. Help trying. The man's holding an axe and he's cutting holes into the hood of what looks like it's clearly not, but of what looks like, you know, a two million dollar car,

however much in the ASCAR costs. I have no idea, And he's like, is this what you wanted? Is that what you And it's like he's yelling every time the axe hits, and we're watching I'm watching Vince's reactions to this, and he's just lighting up like a teenager watching it. I mean, you just see when he sees something and somebody's like, that's that. Damn it? Yes, and you can

he's just behind him all the way. And then Kofe finally like puts the axe through the windshield or if you're in England, the windscreen I respect all cultures, and he jumps off the car and he storms off, and Vince is like, damn it, yes, and he's this kid's going to be a star. So that was the impetus to write, is that the right word to to write

the story? The seed that that sort of sprouted when when Vince fertilized it, so to speak, and we started riding crazy as fast as we could because we knew we had a green light. And when you work at that company, there's so much certainty, and so much of your hard work feels like it goes to waste sometimes because you get assignments that aren't even approved by the boss,

or maybe they were just approved but in passing. So he wasn't really listening, you know, like when you tell your your better half man or woman yes, just to get them to stop asking you questions and talking because you're watching something that you really like, or you're trying to play a video game, you're like, yeah, that sounds amazing. Have you heard nothing of it? So you know it could have been that, or it could just be random politics,

which is where this story goes. We have this story, the whole team is motivated, and again I don't remember everyone who worked on it, so I'm just including everyone, but I know I wasn't alone on this. We finished the whole thing up, and everybody thinks we have this great run to the title. We bring it and it gets a proved by Steph. She's she's way behind it. I don't think Shane was back in the company at that point. I think he was over in China at

that point in time. In the meantime, Randy Orton and Kofi have a match. This is a week later. In the match, a spot gets blown. And for those who don't understand, who aren't wrestling fans, that's like if if a scene on Saturday Night Live a live show, or if you're watching a sitcom that happened to be taped live, like Rock back in the Day, or or I think Will and Grace eventually went live. Things like that. You can't have people making what you would deem a foolish

mistake because it could kill the whole show. Now, in a sitcom, it's sort of funny, so the audience is laughing and you kind of roll with it. But imagine if it was Law and Order Live and someone just blew their line and started laughing when they're trying to you know, arrest or break up some like pornography ring right, It's it would just kill the show. So a spot gets blown and Randy gets piste on live TV and you see him and you can check this on YouTube.

You know, stupid with that deep orton booming voice and that that that Vince wanted him to be Johnny Cash and and present himself even though everyone already knew he was Randy Orton as Hello, I'm Randy Orton. Like, Yo, that's exactly like it is from the trailer that you saw in that movie. Goes Yeah, that's great. We already know he's the best wrestler in the world. Everybody knows who he is anyway. So this spot gets blown, meaning a technique, a stunt in the in the match gets blown.

You can tell something doesn't look good. I don't know what it is because I don't see the spot when it when it happens, so I don't know what happened. I just know something is not good. Right. We get to TV the next week with our story and it's written in the script and again I can't remember if it's a SmackDown or a row and we're in there pitching it. I'm pitching it, the producers are pitching it. I'm trying to help shape and tell the story and bring a lot of passion and energy to it. They're

talking about, Yeah, the guys have worked this out. They've worked that out. You know, he's gonna save face here's meaning he's not gonna look bad when he loses. We've got some real creative ways and they're spelling it all out, and Vince just kind of looks at Kevin, and Kevin has this sort of knowing smile, right like he just let us do this whole pitch for no reason other than to watch it get shot down with joy and pleasure, which is so weird and counterproductive to me, but to

each their own. And it's because I'm sending to the dryboard on that and like the everyone's hearts, like you just heard like multiple thumps on the floor, like blah blah blah blah blah boa And they weren't toes tapping. It was just everyone was crushed and no one would would tell me why at first. And so I'm sitting through this two and a half three hour production meeting and my story is dead. I've tried to save it

for about ten fifteen minutes. And when I say my story, my team's story, it's my job to sell their crap. It's my job to put it over. That's that's my job. Is your salesman in there on on production day. And when I say crap, I don't mean bad stuff. I was behind this. I believed in this story. I say that about my crap two, don't worry, But ten fifteen minutes, I'm fighting for it, and it's just there's no there's no winning this battle. So now I'm trying to fix it.

I'm offering, you know, alternative solutions. Other people are offering alternative solutions. The whole thing's just gone at debt. So finally I just shut up and we move on. And I don't think CoFe even worked that night. And I get out and they tell me what happened. They tell me about this blown spot and and he's piste at him, and it's got it got shut down, and they ended up.

For those who aren't in the know, they ended up using that real moment of why Randy sort of held KOFE down in the actual story of KOFE winning the title after winning the Gauntlet match that I saw ten years later off of Randy Orton. They literally put that into the story, like, you know, because of the person you were, that opportunity was taken away from me. Those aren't the exact words, but I'm just trying to communicate

the gist of it as quickly as possible. Um, But I remember watching that and it all came from this sort of this moment of of acting, which was him on the hood of the car, which kind of inspired the thought on the question that I got from Twitter, which was who are the best wrestlers turned actor? Who are those wrestlers that have turned actor? And why do I think that it's such a hard transition from one part of showbizzs to the next. So we'll get into

to all these. The obvious ones are the Rock Hulk, Hogan did a did a few, John Cena. Some of the movies that they did. I think you can kind of see the the talented actors almost always leave, you know. Halt did did a few. You know. The only good one I think was No Holds Barred where he played rip that had it was Zeus Verus his rip. That was tiny Zeus Lister, Rest in Peace teny uh tiny Zeus Lister Jr. I believe, And I think that was nine uh Rowdy Roddy Piper rest in Peace. Uh. He

was a solid actor. You guys could see this cult movie that John Carpenter directed and I think wrote from eighty eight the year The Doctors in the World series. That's how I remember that it's called They Live and Piper is just great in it. One of my dad's best childhood friends, Keith David is in that movie. He's the black dude, the voice spawn from the animated series and he's the other lead in in that movie. And they have this great, like seven minute fight in an

alleyway over a pair of sunglasses. And that's all I'm gonna say. And it's ridiculously eighties awesome in every possible eighties way. Uh, that was a great one. People. I think sleep on Jesse Jesse Ventura, uh from The Running Man and from Predator, which was Predator. I don't know. Man, maybe he was better than Running Man because he actually got to be kind of funny in that one. But Predator he was such a badass. He played Blaine. That

was eighties seven or eighty eight. That's John mctiernen. He also did movies like die Hard and uh, random one that I don't know why. I know, The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio banderis underrated, flick kind of Viking Norseman bology which was kind of cool. Um, and those were sort of like, you know, oh, he did uh Hunt for Red October. Everybody saw that movie, so cool director there. But um, you know, the modern wrestler Dwayne is another one who's work you saw grow right, he made it through.

But it's hard. You can We're not at ten, you know what I mean. Like, you can count Andre if you want, you could count. You can count Big Show for sure, you could count Edge for sure. They've done a lot of a lot of work. Jericho has done a lot of work. But as far as like what this question was in reference to, like the ones that make it, as far as the Rock, it's really the Rock and John Cena is on his way. He's on

a skyrocket there. So let's discuss some of the wrestlers that are working today in the that aren't out there making movies that I think could transition. Um, I think a very easy one that everyone would agree with would

be Bray Wyatt. I think he has the kind range and the level of commitment necessary to play multiple types of rules, not just the scary guy, but he could do I know he can do comedy because I saw him do scenes back in promo class where we would pull scenes from like Beverly Hills, Cop and stuff like that, and he would just knock him out of the park. But his chops are no joke. His commitment is next level. He's the kind of guy that I could see make

that transition. It would be a much stranger role, you know, because he's not that he doesn't have the look of a typical leading man, right, He's never going to have the body of the rock. So you have to kind of carve out what kind of not necessarily a character actor, but what character would become his sort of signature character. But I think he could do it. I think Miss could be the lead on any sitcom on any channel, and he could find a way for that thing to

be on for ten years. I've loved Miss for a long time. He's been asked on here. If you haven't listened to that episode, you really should. All my guests kind of the main thing that I try to focus on is is how they accomplished their dream. And I tried not all my guests are going to be people I know. Some it's just people I respect, But the ones I know are always people who who are problem solvers,

not problem identify irs. They're constantly looking for solutions, and MS is the kind of guy that can do that. UM one of the best actors on the entire roster, or in all of wrestling, I think is Alexa Bliss. I think she's shown that over the last two three years easily even when they mess up segments that should be so simple, and she would be so easily written

if they didn't have twelve people writing it. She's able to pull off even some moments that I would not want to sell as an actor if I read it in the script as hey man, we've got to change this line. The same the same work, and oh I really like it, and then you hit him with the Well, maybe I'm just not good enough to do that, so if you could help me out. That's Meryl Street said that in an interview once, was like, oh my god,

I'm stealing that because they hired you. The first thing they're gonna say, Oh no, no, of course you couldn't. We'll change the line. It works, But in wrestling you don't get to do that unless you're you know, top top dog with a with a belt around your waist. But I think her skills are our next level. Um. I love Kevin Owens, but I'm trying to think, like, what would he be if he became an actor? Would

he be? Would he be like like the tough guy version of Monk, Like would he be a detective solving crimes on like the USA Network. Would he be a bad guy in movies, like the scumbag that you always want to take out? Would he be the Mr Mom kind of dad, like the eighties Mr Mom with Michael Keaton.

But I know he can act, like I've seen him commit to everything from the absolute most absurd ridiculous comedy takes that you could possibly even have the guts to put out there, to improv type stuff two serious series of stuff, to evil son of a bitch kind of stuff. And then I already mentioned Edge, but I think you know, out of the shield. I really wanted to be able to say all three of them, but I think the

one who would have the biggest shot. And if you disagree with me, I'd be interested because I think I know which way you'll go. But I think I'm gonna go with Seth Rollins and here's why. And in second, I would put Moxley, and I think that's where a lot of you are going to go. Moxley definitely has his thing right. He has the uh it's the Jack Bower quality right, and he's had that for a long time, whether he's a baby face or a heel, so he

could definitely pull that off. But Seth lately has been able to do something where he showed arrange that I wasn't. I didn't know he had right. So and so check this out. He becomes the Monday Night Messiah and now he's the Friday Night Messiah or whatever night he is. He's the Messiah and uh the w w E version, And I hated it. I hated that laugh, that forced laugh. I hated all of that. And then I realized, because I'm an idiot, I'm supposed to it's not making me

change the channel. It's making me want to shut him up and punch him in the face for laughing at something that he and I both no, it's not funny in any way, shape or form. So I actually think he's doing a great job with this character. And for the first few weeks I did not, And I love getting proved wrong. I loved watching The New Day explode. Um. I didn't like Elias when he first Kate was in n x D, and then he hit on w w E Monday Night Run. I was like, oh my god,

I love this guy. Adam Cole finished a promo with Babe after executing this beautiful promo, and I was literally like, wait, what, dude? But I had never seen Adam call and I watched him week after week after week, and by the time is the fifth week, he's finishing his promo and I'm right there with him at I'm called baby, and I'm all on that train. And so I get proven wrong

a lot. And that's kind of the great thing about art is we have these these preconceived notions based on how we were I used the term programmed, but based on how we were raised culturally, what our parents tastes were, what our friends tastes were, what the kids who were cool but we weren't allowed to hang out with because they were older than us, what they thought was cool. All those things shape how we interpret art, whether it

be wrestling or or literature or or anything. Right, So, if if a man is writing a script or a book, the woman is usually underwritten, but the men reading it don't notice that as much as the woman does. If a man ever read like one of those female mystery books where you know, they get framed for murder and things like this, the husband almost always does it. An insecure guy would be like, you know, yo, this men are underwritten. We're not all horrible people, right like, We're

all programmed to interpret this in different ways. And and there is no wrong when it comes to art. Is if you like something and I go, oh that sucks because of ABC and D, none of those effects the reasons A, B, C and D Y you like it, and vice versa. So there are Picasso paintings out there that I I don't like at all. I would literally walk right by. They would have zero impact on my life. There are the ones paintings that I've seen that it

made me cry. That's oil on canvas, man, that's not even a photograph, it's not even real, but it made me cry. So you know, taste is it is it? As I always been a tricky thing now as far as the business side of it, Hollywood has been weird with wrestling for as long as I've been in the business, all right. I moved to Los Angeles from New Mexico or back to Los Angeles to begin my acting career, and things happened quickly for me. Um, for those who

haven't listened in, my father was in this business. It provided me some opportunities that I had to be ready for it. I was a very disciplined young man and I was ready for most of the opportunities that came my way, and I moved up the line quick. And I'm telling you this because wrestling has always been a passion of mine and I have always tried to find opportunities throughout my career to try and bring wrestling to mainstream Hollywood. And it has always been like running into

a brick wall. It is the disdain that this business has for it. I just I get it, but I don't understand it. I get everyone has their taste, but we can talk about documented things like before the c W was the c W, it was known as the WB, and they had an executive there named Jamie Kelder, who I knew because he was the main executive on a

little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also happens to be the executive that hated professional wrestling when he went to T n T and basically got rid of it. And his perspective on the business was very is the word pervasive was very just sort of universally accepted is probably a better term then than anyone else's that I've seen, at least in a position of power. So a lot of times when I've even mentioned wrestlers for hey, you need to meet wrestler X, Y or Z just on

a general casting meeting, they can really act. Here's some clips. And I've done this for wrestlers in the past. I've literally gotten hit back with yeah, but they worked for w W and I'm like, so what they would They'll quit. A TV contracts better than a w W E contract, I assure you, and SAG is better insurance than having to go in there with your own so it's always there's always a speed bump. I'll give you some more examples.

I tried to pitch two wrestling shows last year and two friendly or two friendly faces only no strangers, and one of them I pitched to three networks and the other one I pitched a four that I had again friendly faces and people that I've known over a decade, who I said, listen, I know, you know you guys aren't necessarily looking for this, but here's something different. One was sort of around the world of women's wrestling, and one was in the world of sort of comedy wrestling

or yeah. More theatrical wrestling. So both times in all seven rooms, four for one, three or the other, it was every single question, how do we sell this? And I'm sitting there, I'm like, like any other show, what are you? What are you talking about? You? People know it's fake? Well yeah, but people know that the green arrows fake, that no one could shoot an arrow it at nice in real life except catnets like what are we talking about here? And everything was always about that.

And then a lot of times they talked about the level of acting, the quality of acting, or the lack thereof that they found, and that was an argument that I wasn't always able to match because not every great wrestler is great on the mic because they don't have to be. You're not there to watch at acting and to match. You're there to watch wrestling. And if someone can talk, you want to get them either fired up with you or fired up against you. That's a wrestling show.

So and I know it's evolved and changed over the years, but in the heart of a wrestling show, that's what it is. So not everyone has to talk. And by the way, not every actor on every network is a great actor. Okay, I look at the movies I did when I first started, compared to when I stopped, my work got a lot better near the end than it was at the beginning. So maybe that's where their argument

falls flat. But it's their perspective, so it's not gonna it's not gonna change with me just saying no, you're wrong, and here's why nobody's trying to hear that. So I've always run into massive brick walls and I and again, these are people that like me. These are people that I've sold things to in the past. These are people that I've taken no money at all and just said, hey, you need to meet my friend. They have a great idea and everything worked. Like they trust my opinion on

these things. So to go in there and get just shot down universally time and time again, it's very, very frustrating, to the point where, like, my dream is to have my own wrestling federation one day, right, that's my like final retirement project. And I had to change my whole perspective on it, which was I have to have enough

money for two years of failure. I'm gonna let it fail for two years while constantly working to build bridges, open up connections, find homes for it to the point where it can finally start financing itself, paying the wrestlers themselves, providing insurance for the wrestlers, things like that, things that I feel are important. And if if it can't, then I'll fail and in that venture and I'll move on to something else. But that's what's necessary in order for

me to try and jump into this train. And I don't want to compete with w W E or a e W. I just want to kind of have my own thing and have it on smaller channels, smaller networks. Have it be a SAG show so that they're all Screen Actors Guild, that's what SAG stands for, and then they can have some insurance for as long as that union lasts. I'm sure there's some scheme to bust that one up too, But if it's still there, than uh than Yeah, But I've been uh I went back to work.

I'm excited for it. I'm putting together my little my little wrestling well what do they call that, my little piggy bank, But there's a cooler word I can't think of. Anyway, I'm putting some money in there for the next year and a half, a little over a year and a half and then I'm going in on my indie wrestling brand. And that's about setting small goals and then finishing with something great, which is the moral of each podcast for you,

my friends. Thank you guys for listening. I'll see all of you next week and make sure you check out everything here on the Michael Jorter Network. They're doing cool things and I'm very happy to be a part of it. So thanks guys, to see you next week. This has been a production of I Hearts Michael podcast Network. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.