The Shoot Interview Thread

[$heriff Tom]

I'm into these things. Any of you other yokes around here check these out?

For the unitiated, the fad in wrestling the last few years has been to sit down a grappler in front of a camera, and ask him/her questions and let them ramble on for a few hours. Used to be only the classic and controversial would get one of these, now you can literally find shoot interviews from just about ANYONE who has dabbled, from Cowboy Ron Bass to Kimberly Page, to the Powers of Pain, to Barry Horowitz to The Godfather.

Dana hates these. I turn these on and the droning puts her to sleep. But I can listen to road stories all day. While some grapplers (Mike Rotondo comes to mind) have nothing bad to say about anyone, others shred people apart. Its cool to get the backstories of why this guy left this fed, why this guy will never ever talk to his old tag partner again, who was doing drugs with who, who was sleeping around.

Just watched, over a couple of sittings, a 3 hour plus one with Barry Windham. Covering the whole career, having some laughs. This is one of the older ones, back around 2001. He was talking about "current-day" WCW then.

I will have more to say on certain shoots as time goes along. I just ordered a heap from a trader. Price is usually right from these bootleggers - while the dealers sell them for $15-20, I just got 15 for $35 shipped this week. In my collection I have about 50 shoot tapes which I probably paid $130 for over the past couple of years.

My last order contains shoots from, among others, Dr D David Schultz, Dan Spivey, Godfather, Brad Armstrong, Christian, Billy Jack Haynes, Ernest "The Cat" Miller, The Nasty Boys, Demolition (who had been estranged with real bad blood for a while), Bass, and a few more. Some favorites over the years included One Man Gang, Rick Martel, Skandor Akbar, and Koko B Ware.

[$heriff Tom]

So this is sort of funny. I am watching a Ronnie Garvin shoot. His hair is jet black these days, I swear to you he looks just like Ronald Reagan. Its almost creepy.

His shoot is a lot of old-tyme tales, a lot of name dropping on promoters he worked for that not many had heard of. It was a fun interview, though, and then around 45 minutes in, for no reason at all, he goes on a rant regarding politics, and the poor, of all things.

He starts by snarling that poor people are poor cause they are "lazy." He then makes an exception....cripples. He says he can understand a cripple being poor, but "99%" of the rest of the poor are poor cause they are "lazy" and "are not willing to put in a hard days work."

He then calls all politicians liars.

When they move back to wrestling he starts tearing Dusty Rhodes, who was booking NWA when he split town, a new one. He had a lot of nasty things to say about glory-hound Dusty, most of which I have heard echoed from dozens of others.

This one's getting good, I still got a ways to go.

[sancho231]

these seem pretty interesting these a bunch of guys out there who s got a ton of road stories.
i'd like to hear sid talk about stabbin arn anderson in a hotel , and his horrific broken leg

[$heriff Tom]

There is a Sid shoot out there. I do know from scuttlebutt that he carries himself like he was a mix of Lou Thesz and Bruno throughout, and the greatest draw in the history of the sport. He says he could carry a company today. I am sure he touches upon the scissor incident (although there are blatant misses in questions on these - Ron Garvin was asked NOTHING about Gorgeous Jimmy, whose name came up like once in the whole shoot)

I do know the tease for 2 Cold Scorpio's shoot is heavy on the REAL story of the Arn / Sid battle (2 Cold was the first on the scene of the crime)

[grover]

Explain the Ronnie Garvin/Gorgeous Jimmy thing a bit more.

[$heriff Tom]

Obviously pushed as brothers, but Ronnie was actually Jimmy's STEPFATHER. Ronnie ended up married to Jimmy's mom. I have heard rumors that they got along ok, but were never really close.

In fact, from the shoot I ascertained that Ronnie is no longer married to Jimmy's Mom (he referred to his 'girlfriend' a couple of times') and that would lend credence to a nugget I heard that Ronnie and Jimmy do not speak at all.

I dont know if Ronnie said going in "no talk of Jimmy" but I was stunned that in nearly 2 hours the only time Jimmy was mentioned was during talk of his run as a babyface with Ronnie after being "burned" by Jim Cornette.

[$heriff Tom]

LOL! LMAO! WOWWWWW!

"Outlaw" Ron Bass, off the hook.

Watched the Ron Bass shoot over the weekend. He looks way different, you can see shots of him in the "Where are they now" feature on wwe. com. He was brandishing his big cowboy hat, though.

Anyway, this was a fun one, including the best comment I have heard on a shoot aside from Ronnie Garvin's contention that all poor people are lazy.

At one point Bass was asked if the WWF was too cartoony around his time there, and he bought up the days of Gorgeous George to counter the contention of Koko B Ware and his bird.

"Give me a parrot over a fag any day." He said.

Other things of note were his tales of smoking wacky weed with Bruiser Brody, a joke played on JYD where he was thrown into a room with the lights off with Jake Roberts' snake, and his admittal of using steroids regularly, throughout his career. His take was as long as you do not abuse, its totally fine.

He has a heap of disdain for todays product, and is not a fan of smaller wrestlers. And for all the garbage Vince Jr takes, this is the second shoot I watched in a row (along with Ronnie Garvins) where Vince was praised to high heaven.

I'll have more for ya on this one and others as they come back to me, like it or not.

[$heriff Tom]

So the latest one I threw in and burned through in the wee hours of twilight over the weekend was a shoot with Charles "The Godfather" Wright. Man, Wright was a party in a can. He grinned and laughed his way through the whole thing, having a great time. You could tell he loved his time in the business. He is loving his time out of the business right now, the GM of an exquisite strip club in Vegas. He has a lot of highbrow celeb friends.

Some interesting notes. He HATED Stevie Richards. He called him a jackoff. Hated doing the "Goodfather" gimmick, which was done simply as a shot at the groups that were attacking the WWE at the time. He admitted being thrown into the fire well before he was ready when he was tossed into the main event mix with the likes of Ultimate Warrior and Hitman Hart.

He alluded to he and longtime best bud The Undertaker having some sort of crazy encounter with a then "18 year old Shane McMahon and a large quantity of women."

He didnt really bury anyone, he was too busy cracking wise. Although he had not talked to Vince in about "3, 4 years" at the time of the shoot earlier this year, he is like the 5th shoot subject in a row that I have watched that had NOTHING BAD TO SAY about Vince at all. Yeah, maybe these guys are kissing butt to get those special appearances or royalties down the line (heck, Godfather ended up getting one at the Krystal/Teddy wedding) but Vince does not watch these shoots. I simply think Vince is not the devil all the "sheets" make him out to be.

It was interesting to see Wright admit to not watching todays product at all - more cause he is too busy "working at night" to total apathy. He really had no idea what was going on with todays product.

Wright was funny, at one point he asked permission to curse (granted, of course) and also to have a sip of the beer he had on the floor by him. Of course, he ended up kicking over the beer after a time.

This was an entertaining shoot, clocking in at the right time of under 90 minutes. Some of these can go on for a seemingly laborious 4 or so hours (or an engaging quick-moving 4 hours, like Barry Windhams) - but as fun as Wright was to watch, he did not really spill a heap of dirt or funny road tales.

[$heriff Tom]

So late last night I watched the first hour of the BRAD ARMSTRONG shoot. Entertaining. Brad was known as a bland sort of grappler through most of his career, but he has a true gift of gab, which you can see in his pop and especially brother "Road Dogg."

One thing that struck me immediatly was how much the Brad of 2004 looks like The Dever of today, facially.

Anyhoo, I have good memories of Brad. When I was a kid watching Georgia wrestling, he and dad "Battlin' Bob" had quite the brouhaha with Roddy Piper, who was taking snipes at Brad and Bob from his perch next to Gordon Solie. The pull-apart Bob and Roddy had in the studio is one of my fondest wrestling memories, although I have not seen it since.

Brad freely admitted the loose lifestyle back then, and the rampant drug usage. Georgia would tape at 9:30 AM on Saturdays, and many times the guys would be out all night, and head straight into the studio.

One funny road tale had him getting his truck stuck on the side of a muddy road while waiting for referee "Pee Wee" Anderson to pee, and Hercules Hernandez trying to push it out, and getting doused with mud. Brad laughingly told of how Herc looked like a cartoon swamp monster...."all you could see were these white eyes in a big blob of mud." Herc ended up checking into the hotel that night, still swathed in mud.

Brad went through some Georgia tales and his run in Bill Watts' Mid-South. I am planning on getting some discs of that, and look forward to seeing his work there. I was always a fan of Brad in the ring. I would love to get my hands on some of his matches back in the day with Ric Flair. I have not gotten to the part where he is discussing his Badstreet, Arachnaman, and Buzzkill gimmicks.

This is a fun watch, Brad is a likeable guy.

[sancho231]

Always like the armstrongs. how many of those boys did bullet bob have? and what ever happened to brad doing ECW commentary?

[$heriff Tom]

You had Brad, the best grappler of the group. You had Steve (Young Pistols, Southern Boys) and goofy Scott (who is now an ECW ref). And of course Road Dogg, who was the most charismatic of the bunch. I too was an Armstrong fan...more on them in a bit when I recap the Brad shoot complete, but check out what I just ordered!


Ever wanted to spend the evening with two former NWA World Heavyweight Champions, drinking a case of beer and talking about their thoughts on wrestling, memories, and just some great tales that only legends could tell? Highspots did and now you can experience it yourself!

Harley Race and Terry Funk, drinking a case of beer with you along to enjoy everything they had to say. The more beer cans that were emptied, the better the stories got! Itt starts off with Terry Funk saying, "You wanna know why Dusty Rhodes isn't here tonight? Because he's in New York with his head up Vince McMahon's ass!" and that was before one beer had even been opened!

Imagine where he goes from there! This is one special, intimate conversation with two of the greatest world champions of all time... up close and personal.

So pull up a chair and pop the top on a cold one... hit the play button and enjoy!

[$heriff Tom]

Ok, this week I watched the TITO SANTANA shoot. Mr Santana was engaging, and surprisingly grumpy about the direction his career took.

Some highlights, he thinks he was held down (but never even implied racism) - he HATED the Matador gimmick, which was no surprise. Ole Anderson is the only person in wrestling he has "not one good thing to say about." Andre the Giant liked him a lot but hated John Studd and Randy Savage, and would stiff them in the ring. Andre would do that trick where he would lift you by your hair if he did not like you, and if you did not grab his arm and go up with it, he would tug out your hair.

Howard Finkel once told him no two guys worked the circuit together, and with as much heat, as Santana and Greg Valentine. When Randy Savage first came in, Santana let him "call their match" and it was a clunker of high-spots that meant nothing. Tito dressed him down, and called all of the rest of what became a very strong series of matches. The stories about Savage's insane jealousy and locking Liz in the dressing room when he had somewhere to go were true.

He lost a lot of respect for Ric Flairs wrestling style after he threw Flair off the top rope one night and Flair jumped right back up and never sold the move.

The night the dead woman was found in Jimmy Snuka's motel room was the same night Santana rejoined the company after stints in Georgia and the AWA. Santana is another one who "does not know the story." He once approached Vince with an idea to turn heel, but Vince had plans for then-partner Rick Martel as The Model down the line, and said no. Santana regrets never working the heel role.

This was a fun trip down memory lane, and since I just came into a NINETEEN DISC Tito Santana set, with over 200 of his WWF matches (1980-1993) I wanted to see this and hear his take on things heading in.

[MSBNYY]

ARRRRRIBA!!!!

I wonder how life is for him in Petula Mexico.

The Tito Santana/Greg Valentine feud was one of the first I ever watched. In fact, the first time I ever watched wrestling, Santana lost the IC belt to Valentine. That was when I thought the championship matches were real.

[$heriff Tom]

In actuality, its TACULA, Mexico, which is a nonexistent place.

Santana actually lives in Jersey, is a substitute teacher, and with his wife owns a hair salon for the last decade or so.

I forgot to mention, he ended the interview with a bellowing, "Arriba!" and fist pump. That was cool.

Another interesting aside - when he was asked to go into the WWE Hall of Fame, all he was concerned about is what it paid. He was not interested aside from the money, and apparently it IS a nice payday. But, that said, he loved the experience, it was much better than he thought it would be, and he is very appreciative after the fact.

[sancho231]

i saw tito last march at a show in Union city. didnt look that bad still worked an 80s stlye match with one of the young guys from that school. always liked tito

[4dogg]

bobby the brain used to say....."isn't tacula a suburb of tijuana"?

[thecaptain15]

One of these days I am going to visit the WWE Hall of Fame...LOL

[MSBNYY]

Jesse the Body says Chico's from Petula Mexico, and that's near Tijuana.

[$heriff Tom]

Yeah, this shoot was pretty recent and Santana said he is still working "2, maybe 3" shows a month on the Indy circuit. He looked good during the interview, aged a bit, but what do you expect. I am sure he could probably still go.

Last night I was watching disc 1 on that massive Santana comp I have, and he was mixing it up with Hulk Hogan in the Spectrum in early 1980. Hogan beat him clean in just over 6 minutes. I have a rematch between the two in the Garden, a couple of months later, comin' up.

[$heriff Tom]

So Ive started listening to a lot of audio shoots off of the www.57gold.com website. What I like about them is some of the more obscure classic guys from the past are on there, and these are free to listen and download. Cap, you in particular would appreciate some of these.

Just finished listening to a 3 parter with "Hangman" Bobby Jaggers. Part 2 was completely devoted to the murder of Bruiser Brody - Jaggers was at the show that night. There was some interesting stuff throughout this interview. I always kinda liked Bobby Jaggers, though most would find him nondescript. He did not touch on his time as a Kansas Jayhawk with Dutch Mantel, but there will be future installments.

Other people interviewed on there off the top of my head include Ricky Morton, Rick Martel, Ox Baker, Dennis Condrey, Ken Patera, it goes on and on. And make sure to listen to the multiple installments with TOMMY RICH!

[Chris]

For a second, when I saw the title of this thread, I thought you were talking about the greatest wrestler ever ... none other than Brian "The Shoot" Shute.

[$heriff Tom]

I swear I dont even know who you are referring to, or what movie that guy would have been in.

[$heriff Tom]

So you guys already know I like the shoot interviews, especially with the old faded talent who has nothing to lose, and enjoys telling the old road stories, and telling us where the bodies are buried.

My latest watch was another guilty pleasure that goes over a lot of heads, "The Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez. Fernandez was a noted tough guy, though apt to the tall tale, especially regarding his sketchy background as a NAVY Seal. But from other sources and interviews, its true he was prone to trouble, and quite the ass-kicker. Manny had a good career in the Southwest, Florida, Crockett, Memphis, and AWA territories. He also put in some time in Japan.

Some nuggets from an entertaining couple of hours -

****************************************

Hates the Hardys. Actually claims to have slapped them both around at an Indy Show. Calls them clowns with no respect for the business, and glorified acrobats. Says if he ever sees Matt Hardy again he is going to beat the crap out of him.

Trained the likes of Ron Killings, Homicide, and Lo-Ki. Very proud of them, and they speak well of their time with him.

Hated Michael Hayes. Disgusted with Dusty Rhodes over time, like everyone Ive ever heard in any shoot. Basically over the fact that Dusty pushed himself over everyone else...watch the old interviews on the shows, even guys not wrestling him or in his angles were talking about him. Called Dusty SELFISH.

Also did not like Ric Flair, he included a funny story where he was going off on Jim Crockett bout a payout, and Flair stepped up as if he was going to back up Crockett, and Manny told him to step off or he would kill him. Flair apparently backed off.

Another guy who called Flair "boring" in the ring. While I disagree with those who call Flair one-hit wonder, he was mad about how Flair always had to get all of his spots into the match, including the flips into the turnbuckle, which destroyed realism in a tough fight.

HATED Paul Jones. So did Rick Rude. Jones of course managed the team when they were tag champs. They used to crap in his hat and boots. They thought he was a dick. Hated being saddled with him.

Loved wrestling Ricky Morton of the Rock and Rolls, but called Robert Gibson awful and clumsy as Hell. When they would wrestle the Rock and Rolls, they would try to keep Morton in as long as they could, so Gibson would not flub the match.

Like many others, adored Wahoo McDaniel, called him his mentor, his brother, his friend. Put him over like the Pope would put over the Lord. I have heard many people show this reverence to the big Indian, including Flair.

During Superclash, Lawler and Kerry were backstage arguing about the finish, and Manny apparently was so tired of this crap from the two of them he started shoving them around, and grabbed Lawler by the neck. Lawler is another guy he said he would kill if he ever saw him again. He claims Lawler stiffed him out of paydays in Memphis.

Repeated the much told stories of Buzz Sawyer collecting money to train someone, and jetting off with the money. Apparently Buzz stole thousands of dollars from Magnum TA in this fashion. In another Buzz story, Manny was in the car with him when Buzz did a cocaine transaction, and shorted the supplier. As they drove off the guy apparently started shooting, and blew out the back windows.

****************************************


This was a fun shoot, well worth the $3 I paid for it. There is another one Manny did later that I just ordered, where he "Tells All" and goes off with a heap of crazy road stories. Looking forward to it.

[thecaptain15]

Always interesting to hear their takes on certain guys..

Also I have read in a few of the books I have been reading lately about Buzz Sawyer taking the cash and dashing............

[$heriff Tom]

Cap, what was your take on Manny Fernandez? I always liked him, I thought he was a badass brawler who was able to pull out some surprising moves for a big, stocky fellow.

Ok, the next in the series, banged out a 2 hour BRIAN ADIDAS shoot during lunch at work end of week. I got this cause Adidas was known as someone who left the business, and never looked back. For years people could not get him to say a thing, he wanted nothing to do with the business. He does not do signings, does not watch wrestling anymore, and does not keep in touch with ONE PERSON from the past. Yet RF got him down there for a shoot.

Ill say this, pretty droll. Not much came out of it. He flat-out said he would not rip anyone, as he had "nothing to gain at this point" for it. If I paid more than $2 for this, I may be glum, but still, it was cool to listen to a guy from the storied World Class era speaking his piece.

Heres some talking points...

Totally painted Chris Adams as he was, a horrible drinker. When he drank, trouble ensued. Hated being around him cause there was always trouble ahead when he drank. They discussed the myriad of arrests Adams was subjected to.

Lots of talk about Mike, it was well-known he did not even want to be in the business, and they talked about his clumsiness. He added that he was always "wrecking cars" and was a terrible driver.

He called wrestling Kevin "the worst." Kevin "wanted 90% of the match, before beating you" which went against wrestling 101. As I have heard on many of these, Kevin was clumsy and sloppy, had no timing, and was way too stiff. Adidas, and many others, hated wrestling the guy.

Told a funny story about the wrestlers being on the beach, and a few of them putting a rotting fish on top of a drunk, sleeping Buddy Roberts. Roberts soon woke up and lost his lunch. Added that Roberts was a fall-guy for many pranks, but a great guy at that.

A wretched aside about Kerry, who he knew from when they were both 6. Kerry apparently joked around at even the worst times. At Chris' funeral, he went over to Adias and asked, "you know what was the last thing that went through Chris' mind? A bullet."

Like many old wrestlers, Adias had an inflated view of himself. Let me add that I did not dislike him. I enjoyed his later heel run with Al Madril. But he was no one special, I just liked goodie-goodies who turned heel. However, Adias acted like he was a money heel, and tremendous in the role. I dont recall that. He also claimed his original name-change was due to Adidas sneakers complaining he was stealing the name (this I believe) but that later on, during his 'hot heel run' they called him and asked him to take the name back! I dont believe that.

He works for EXXON now, in financials. Left the business and as I said never looked back.

So overall a decent shoot. Lots of talk about growing up with Kerry, his training, stints in Mid-Atlantic, Portland, and especially Texas. I figured going in this was going to be more sleepy than some of those I watched, but Im still glad I got to hear from another of the World Class lineage.

[thecaptain15]

Manny was OK by me....Yes I agree he could pull moves off for a big guy and I remember seeing him a few times in CWF. Brian Adidas now there is a blast from the past that I totally forgot about. Did not really see much of his work but you pulled that one from LF.

[$heriff Tom]

One of my favorite Brian Adias things, aside from his predictable turn on the Von Erichs, were he and Al Madril beating some jobber up with a board they picked up from ringside.

As to Manny and the CWF, i got a 6-disc set of Manny stuff a while back (for like $12 total) and it has a bunch of CWF matches and angles on it. I had never seen that stuff, and should be seeing it soon (Im watching and still in his Crockett stint)

[thecaptain15]

Sounds like Summerslam prematch fodder...LOL

[$heriff Tom]

There is some good stuff on there. I really liked a lot of Manny's hard-hitting style. There are some classics against Wahoo, and whats not to like about a bunkhouse battle with Abdullah the Butcher?

My next shoot during lunch is......THE GODWINNS! This is reputed to be a good one with lots of juicy road tales. I can say this from watching a little at lunch today....Mideon is VERY DRUNK. Thats another common theme on some of these shoots.