More Than Just Hardcore (34 page)

And Ric Flair is a great talker, but Foley’s promos are unreal. He just has a feel for the audience, even today. If I were a promoter and needed a guy who I could tell, “OK, I need an idea, and we’ll go with it, but we need you to come up with the program and the way to build it up over the course of six months,” Mick Foley is the guy I’d want, because he knows his faults as well as his attributes. The reason is, he’s going to have an idea, and it’ll be a good one. There aren’t many other guys in the business who I think could do that.

And I’m not here to kiss Mick Foley’s ass, because he’s got one ugly ass! I’m not just saying this because the guy’s a friend of mine. If I didn’t think this was true, I just wouldn’t even bring it up.

Foley also helped make Tommy Dreamer into a top ECW star, but as I said, Tommy himself also deserves a lot of the credit for that. He turned into a really good performer and was willing to do anything. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way at all—this is a compliment. After the matches were over and the fans were going home, Tommy Dreamer was out there with a broom, cleaning off the mat and making sure there weren’t any problems with anything, so we could have an arena to come back to. He went beyond the call of duty.

The Dudleys were the same way. They would sell tickets at the door, help set things up, whatever needed doing. They knew they needed ECW to stay up and running. They knew—you can’t be a performer unless you have a place to perform.

Tommy and I teamed up against Cactus Jack and Raven in a series of matches after Cactus turned heel in 1995. Those were some unusual matches. Raven is a guy with a lot of ideas, and once he had one, by God, he’s going to use it! And if Raven can avoid a bump, he’s going to avoid it. I can assure you, when Cactus and Raven were partners, it wasn’t Raven taking most of the punishment during their matches. Raven figured Cactus should be taking the punishment, but that was because he was under the assumption that he was the captain of that team. But it was only an assumption, and we allowed him to hold onto that assumption.

Raven really is creative, though, and he’s three-quarters nuts! But you must understand, it’s all about Raven. If I were to have a match with him where Raven’s hands and feet were tied, you can be sure we would be in the dressing room beforehand, discussing what spots to do to make sure it was all about Raven. Raven also saw himself as one of the great workers in the business, and when he wanted to be, I’ll be damned if he wasn’t!

All those guys—Public Enemy, the Rottens, Balls Mahoney (possessor of one of my all-time favorite names in wrestling) and the rest—were great characters in their own rights.

And over the course of his years in ECW, the previously godawful Sandman graduated into being an amazing character. The Sandman was the first authority-flaunting, beer-drinking, ass-kicking babyface. His beer drinking and chain smoking on his way to the ring was like nothing fans had seen before. Vince McMahon and Steve Austin (and Steve was in ECW for a while and saw how over Sandman was) pretty well ripped that idea off from ECW and used it to create the “Stone Cold” character.

I really think Austin is a very talented guy. I don’t think he would ever have become a superstar on that level if he had kept the blonde hair on his head. Shaving his head and becoming “Stone Cold” made a world of difference for him. It didn’t change his working ability, because he always had that, but being “Stone Cold” was a natural for him, because it was very similar to what he was really like. It sounds silly to think so minor a thing as a haircut would make a difference, but think—can you picture “Stone Cold” with hair?

Some of the ECW characters were just nuts. I remember a show where Bill Alfonso, the manager of Sabu and Rob Van Dam, broke his arm. He went to a grocery store across the street, pulled a bunch of cans down on himself, fell on the floor and said he’d broken his arm there. On second thought, I might not be remembering that right. If that were true (and I’m not saying it is), he could possibly get into some trouble. If it were true.

But there weren’t many options for the guys. ECW didn’t exactly have a hospitalization plan.

All through this period, whether I was working in ECW and FMW, or doing shows for WCW, or taking acting jobs, I never subjected myself to the kind of travel schedule Id had in much of the 1980s. I stayed busy, but I always made sure I was striking more of a balance, allowing myself to be with the family more.

My last stretch for ECW was in late 1998, after I left the WWF for a second time (relax, we’ll get to it). They put me in a short program with Tommy Dreamer. For the first time in a long time, I was a heel there.

Paul E. had just wanted me to come in for a short pop. We worked a deal where I went nuts and attacked Tommy over and over, but he didn’t want to fight back because I was his hardcore wrestling hero. Of course, he ultimately kicked my ass as he became ECW’s big babyface.

It was a shame ECW couldn’t make it, because Paul E. had a little school going, run by one of the best guys you could have training wrestlers—Peter Serneca, a.k.a. Taz. He taught those young guys a tremendous amount of respect for the business and for the guys who came before. Taz understood that you have to appreciate the heritage of our business, and that the past was important. His methods of taking things very seriously, instilling a sense of history and respect for the toughness of the other guys working a physical style were very similar to the way the Japanese trained their young wrestlers. And it wasn’t just him playing some character; that was how he really felt. He was also an excellent evalua-tor of talent. He knew what made a good wrestler, and he believed in wrestling hard. He would have it no other way.

When I was around the young guys in ECW, I used to get tired of them calling me “Sir,” but Taz would make them do it. It really kind of pissed me off! And he had them calling me “Mr. Funk.” Well, I don’t like being called “mister,” and especially not after I reached the age of 50. But that was the respect Taz demanded of his students.

Between the original generation of ECW stars and the Taz students, Paul E. had groomed some new names and faces to be the top stars of ECW. One of them was Rob Van Dam, who worked a lot as a heel in 1996 and 1997 but became too popular with the people to keep him that way. Rob was, and still is, an incredibly talented individual. He really is one of the most creative wrestlers I’ve seen. He also shared with Sabu an understanding that you have to sell the high-impact stuff in the ring for it to mean anything. Watch him on Smackdown! even today. When he hits that frog splash off the top rope, he rolls around for a second, to show you that spectacular move hurts him, too! Who else does that?

Sabu and Van Dam were both trained by The Sheik, and you can tell they learned together, because they both have a lot of the same wonderful characteristics in that ring. The only problem I see is, some of the younger guys watch Sabu and Van Dam, but they just watch the maneuvers. They don’t watch their selling capabilities.

That last time I worked for ECW, in late 1998 against Tommy, I saw ECW was trying to branch out into new areas, and within a year, they’d be on the cable network TNN (now called Spike TV).

For them, it was a “do or die” situation. They had to take the chance. I think if ECW could have moved to an area like San Antonio and the surrounding towns in Texas, it might have made it. The company’s base wouldn’t have been in the East Coast, an area saturated with wrestling. There was a good base of fans in Philadelphia, but I think they would have been better off running in the old Southwest territory.

Truthfully, I’m surprised no one ever made a serious run based out of Texas. The isolation of the area is perfect for growth of a wrestling company. There are some tremendous population bases, close enough that travel expenses would be less, especially with Southwest Airlines and the $50 hops they offer from place to place. One of the most extreme things about ECW’s latter days was the amount of money they were paying to go from Philadelphia to a show in Florida. Expanding into Florida and New Orleans sounded great, but the travel expenses made it not very cost efficient.

There’s enough population here in Texas to build a base, and there are plenty of towns that can handle having a wrestling TV show. It’s untapped potential in my mind. And Texans would make great fans for a regional promotion like that, with the right market penetration, because all Texans are just naturally proud of our state.

Can’t you just see it? “This is Texas RASSLIN’, by God!”

I know a lot of guys want to be tied to the big population center up there, but that big center is pretty saturated with independents, and it’s in the big boys’ back yard. There’s also more expense flying in talent from all over, all to the Northeast than there would be in a more central location.

But Tod Gordon and Paul E., they were tied to that area, because that was where they were from. They were attached to it, the same way Jim Comette was attached to the Smoky Mountain area, the same way I’m tied to Amarillo.

And so ECW ceased to be in January of 2001. But it left a huge impression in the wrestling business, in terms of its style that the big two companies borrowed, and in terms of its talent. Vince McMahon has gotten a lot of use out of ECW wrestlers. It was, in a way, the Ohio Valley Wrestling of its time, but for most of its existence, ECW continued to manufacture talent. ECW turned out to be the greatest proving ground for talent the WWF ever had.

Beyond the Mat

I was at an independent show in Las Vegas in 1997, working for a guy named T.C. Martin, when I met Barry Blaustein.

Martin’s little independent group was actually doing pretty well and getting an ever-improving following among the Las Vegas locals. Unfortunately, T.C. decided he should be the star of the show despite the fact that he wasn’t a trained wrestler. Pretty soon he became the play-by-play announcer. Then he became the ring announcer. Then he became the guy walking to and from the ring and managing the guys. Pretty soon he was all over the place, and it didn’t take long for people to get sick of him and stop going to his shows.

Realists are few and far between in this business, and T.C. was not one of those rare ones. Of course, if everyone in the business was a realist, there would be no business.

Barry and I had actually originally met in 1978, when we were both guests on The Merv Griffin Show. I was on the show with Sly Stallone, plugging the movie. Richard Simmons was on the show, too, as filler, almost, coming in for the last two minutes of the show. This was before Richard made it big, and I remember looking at him and thinking, “Who is this little jerk? He’ll never amount to anything!”

And now, he’s the richest little jerk in the country!

Anyway, Merv asked me to demonstrate the sleeper hold on one of his writers.

Merv looked offstage and said, “OK, come on out here.” And here came Barry Blaustein.

I said, so everyone could hear me, “All right, just pinch my leg when you start to feel yourself going under.”

So of course I put him all the way out. And he pinched the hell out of my leg, too! Several times!

Barry never forgot that initial meeting and reminded me of it when he ran into me at the show in Las Vegas. He was with a mutual friend of ours, another Barry—Hollywood agent Barry Bloom. Barry Bloom had been a friend of Arthur Chobanion’s, and was around when I was first talking about going on the Wildside show in 1984. Barry Bloom just kind of stepped in and handled all the contract stuff for me, without an agent’s fee or anything. He just did it to help me because he liked me.

Blaustein told me he was working on a documentary about wrestling, and he asked me if Id appear in it. I told him I would. I knew it was a documentary and never expected a penny out of it. I just agreed to help.

Blaustein ended up filming the events leading up to my latest retirement match, at a show called 50 Years of Funk, celebrating the anniversary of my father’s 1947 debut in the city. It was set for September 11, 1997, and was to be my last match in Amarillo. In my mind, I needed another reason besides the “50 years” to make the show a special one, one worth promoting, so I announced it would be my last match in Amarillo. I never intended to retire altogether, even then. I just wanted one last reason to do big business in Amarillo.

That show had some incredible talent, from Japan, ECW and even the WWF. They were guys I knew or had worked with, like the Hart family in Calgary. I asked Bret Hart to come in, and he OKed it with Vince. Vince also OKed my good friend Mick Foley working the show as Mankind, his WWF persona.

One of the more memorable scenes in the movie is one where I’m talking with Dennis Stamp, a former wrestler in the area who I’ve known since the mid-1960s. Dennis was telling me he had wanted a match on the show, and was refusing my request for him to referee my main event against Bret Hart, although he finally agreed to do it. I’ve had questions about it from people who think Dennis was working for the camera’s benefit, so let me set things straight. That whole conversation was 100 percent real.

Once I realized his feelings had been hurt, I really did regret not having him on the show, because he was exactly the kind of guy I was doing that show for. I was doing it for my friends, for the guys who had wrestled around there, the guys I liked. I really did want Dennis to be a part of it, and I was glad when he finally said, “OK.”

Dennis was actually one of my first tag-team partners, when I wrestled for Verne Gagne’s AWA in Minnesota. He came down to Amarillo in the mid-1970s and has been here ever since. These days he has a pretty successful bug-spraying business. Dennis was actually a good wrestler, with some amateur wrestling background. He was a solid worker and did not rely on gimmicks, or anything. He believed that straight wrestling was the way to go. To this day, he’s very involved with amateur wrestling in the youth leagues. He referees matches and just loves working with kids. He’s a very good legitimate, amateur wrestling referee. He takes a great deal of pride in it, and he should.