What's she gonna do? Brother? When Jeff Townsend media runs wild on your molly? Alright, alright, alright, alright, this is a build hum on experience. I am Jeff Townsend, build him on of courses with me. It wouldn't be the build him on experiences without him. Bill. I'm drinking a Prime Energy drink. How do you feel about that drink? Uh? I like? As you can hear the Townsend dog is very upset and letting it be known in my not by barking. I can't hear her really. Oh well, she doesn't like Prime, I guess, but I do. I like the popsicle flavor flavor one, like the red, white and blue one. Oh? Is that like a bomb pop? Is that what it used to be called? The bomb? Yeah? You know like them? Well, those like popsicles that are like red, white and blue. Yeah, that are good. Yeah, that's what its flavored like. I'm drinking a blue raspberry right now, Blue re Prime a Prime Energy drink? Isn't that? Uh? Lobe Paul, you got it? Was this the caller of the what you thought was a crayon went to the announced table at WrestleMania. Yes, the blue crayon you called it before. I was quick to remind you that it was actually Prime Energy drink sponsorship. A great job. Oh yeah, we're not getting paid, by the way for Prime. That's just some free plug there, I guess because I'm thirsty. Anyways, Bill, you said the family's been out and about see a new Nike bag in the background, But yeah, it's not new Nikes. Wild Week. I thought I had. I thought I had a gift when I came home, And it's just my wife. As as many moms do. My wife will save most bags from her shopping experiences, and because she knows, she'll always use a bag for something. It's just a bag that's been saved. Yeah, Wild Week. While I was in New Jersey, we spoke the Foundation. We spoke with the hundred and sixty fifth recruit class from the New Jersey State Troopers. Awesome experience, but I literally I drove up Monday seventeen hours straight through. Finally got to bed, woke up the next day, spoke to the recruits, got up on Wednesday morning at five am, drove seventeen hours home because first thing this morning I had a We had a presentation in a Popca Florida for the Youth Academy, the Public Youth Academy. So it's the Foundation has been busy. And then Mama and the boy, we're in Nashville for New Balance. He you know, we talked about his baseball outings, and so he was in a national combine for the twenty twenty seven class in the United States, and he was out there with one hundred and I think one hundred and eighty other young men. And we're waiting to hear if he gets picked up to make that Fresh fifty. So if he makes the Fresh fifty, if he makes the cot, if if the Scouts and the organization choose him, if New Balance picks him up, he will be one of fifty to represent the United States for New Balance. In September. You might see a New Balance bag, so we throw Nike out the window. That happens, we'll have a I'll have an empty New Balance bag behind. Well, it's a pretty big size bag. So I was thinking it was his sixteen size sixteen shoes. I'll tell you, man, I think his feet are still growing too. Like I have thirteen, he's at twelve and a half, but he keeps growing. I'm a ten and a half. So you guys both have me be tall tall? Is he he's six one in year six? Are you six one? I'm six one? Yeah? He tall? Is he taller than you yet? Yeah? He's he. I think he's got me now, I think he I know he'll have me in the next six months. So I keep with the you know, I give the threatening looks in there so I intimidate him. But he knows, big Teddy BEARR, You're not gonna do nothing too. He's got me figured Well, you've got girls. You know they got you figured out. Man, we don't have a stroke anymore. Sometimes they you know, they ure us and okay, dad, but you know they got us. Yeah, oh yeah. How was your week? Not a bad week? Been busy? Uh, trying to get a bunch of work done because I have a project in Texas. Not next week, which is the Hall of Fame week. I forgot to bring that up. But the week after that I'll be in Texas. We won't be able to make the Hall of Fame this year. Uh, I know, I know. I would say everyone's gonna miss me, but you're the only one. Well, I feel like I'm everyone there. You go there's a couple of people there. I've interacted with it via video, Conrad Thompson, et cetera, that I would have liked to meet in person. But maybe one day. Yeah, we're exciting, excited. We leave for that. Uh, we leave for that next week. We're actually you know, you and I have discussed it. I'm a driver. I love to drive this country. Did it for thirty years on the road. I love to drive it. So the family, we're gonna we're to get in the Mini Cooper and we're gonna head on down the highway. Maybe I'll just pay for the ticket and I'll just let out the old Honda Chord, the Honda Chord sport that I have, like like the days on the road, right, like Terri, I can do that. Just pull up to the venue and just sleep till they come and knock on the door and go we're open, exactly. I've actually never been to Iowa. So, um, yeah, that's one state out there. I have not been to Iowa. Man, is there a state you have a mindu bill? No? I that off my list is every state. I wrestled in every state in the country, including Alaska and Hawaii. More actually more than once. I made my rounds in the states. I've been at least at every state two times, so that is awesome. What's cool about that is he talked to a lot of the guys and the girls that have been, you know, in the industry for a long time, and they'll still tell you there's certain space they've never worked it. So that's like, forget leaving the country, like it's so cool the places I've been, But I'm it's pretty cool to be in every state in the country and worked there and seeing some things. Yeah, that's one cool thing you could say about. Well, my dad was a truck driver, so he could say the same for awhile he actually visited Alaska side and uncle who lived there for a while, but not Lower forty eight. You know, my dad being a truck driver, he had been through up and down the road, all over the place. I actually have a knife that I have because in Chicago, South side of Chicago, lovely place, somebody jumped on the side of a semi and tried to put a knife through the window and he rolled the arm up in the window. You're kidding me, No, no, no, I actually remember this because I actually found the knife this week in the garage. So I was like, oh, this is that NiFe? Oh good? Yeah, the south Side interesting. Yeah, kind of stuck and if we get a semi there's not much you can do, is there. I'm just picturing someone jumping up through the window of a knight. That's all all sorts, like, just like you have stories about wrestling on the road, truck drivers have. Oh yeah, see, I have a podcast called Just Jeff. It's like a comedy podcast, and there's an episode where I talked to a fella. It's a truck driverybody in my name. They call him the Traveling Bard, and he has some stories for the ages also. But these truck drivers and man, they're up there with pro wrestling stories. Yeah, they've seated all too. Yeah. I'm sure there's I probably know him. We've probably met somewhere. Yeah, maybe cross Pats. I didn't even know so Bill. Last time recorded, we talked about money in the bank Forbidden Door. But now it's time to jump back into the United States Championship discussion Part three, I believe. Yeah, we're on part three already. We're on fire Man. This is we left off. We'll paint the picture here. We brought up the scenario where Bill Goldberg defeats Raven Ravens Rolls match on April twentieth, nineteen ninety eight. Things are rolling around pretty well at this time for the company, and uh, Bill Goldberg, obviously, we know his title reign was limited because, as we've talked about many times or a few instances so so far in this discussion, with that victory later on that he had with the United States Championship, came the vacate, vacated the title of the United States, well, the United States Championship, right, So yeah, Bill Golberg gets the big title and he passed and he vacates the United States Champion. I said, big Title's sound degrading. You know what I meant, he gets the I'm literally I'm thinking big. It's the big belt literally the title. Yes, yeah, so Bill, Okay, I call that the big belt, the big one of those hanging up in the studio. But yeah, so the titles vacated in Atlanta, Georgia on July sixth, nineteen ninety eight. Uh, that's that's that's they consider that the vacated day the day that he won the actual championship. Even though I think he came out. There wasn't like a big ordeal about it when he vacated the title either. Um, we had I don't remember on top of my head, but there was another instance where this happened earlier in our episode with a particular champion. I don't remember who it was, but it's not uncommon back then where you vacated the title when you won another one. But that this one, to your point, it was kind of dismissed, right. It wasn't even a that that didn't matter because the bigger picture was he won the big belt. Yeah, the rival with the nWo Haulkogan. That title really when you got past the raven moments, didn't have much with Bill Goldberg in my opinion. Yeah, it is what it is. It helped with the storyline of the flock and everything, but after that, it did its job for Bill Goldberg and it was just kind of a on Bill Goldberger wasn't really talked about because it's like you said, Bill Goldberg was a part of something bigger obviously. Yeah, and the shame of it is and I think we're getting into it now. This is where the and we talked about it in the other episodes. This is where the that that title is now definitely treated as something that's very secondary, not not as important, no matter who, no matter where it was going, it wasn't considered a big deal to be the US champion. Yeah, and uh like, I think one of the things I stated before we ended recording was this is really the last time in its existence on w CW that at this point on it's never going to be at rain more than three months, not even three months. Right, So we're going to get into some twist and turns here as we finish up the WCW days of this championship, but some good stuff on the back end. We'll get to go ahead and go to I just said titles vacated They okay back Salt Lake City Billy July twentieth, nineteen ninety eight. Brett Hart defeats Diamond Dallas Page for the vacated Championship. So Brett Hart and we we've mentioned Brett Hardt a little bit as we wrapped up the episode. Brett Heart's brought in too long after he's he's doing this later on in this discussion, Will, I don't know what what are you going on there? You had to a funny like alarm and clock. Of course it's me unprofessional, it's my phone. I'm gonna shut off. Mine's going off the whole time. It's all right. So Bret Hart has the championship. He's bad, He's in WCW. So we'll talk about Bret Hard to hold up more on this podcast as we already had. What was it like when he came in? Man, obviously he came in on a piss poor note on WWF. End with the Montreal screw job is famously talked about, But what was it like for you guys when he got there? The initial thought, and again my my perspective on it is as being there is, the initial thought was, Okay, that's freaking awesome. This is gonna be you know, anytime something was gonna give a jump start to things, you were looking forward to it. And even if it didn't, necessarily it didn't. I knew when Brett Hard came in it wasn't going to affect my trajectory, my you know, my career, let's say, but the company should have got a big boost out of it, should have been a bigger deal. How long before he showed up did you know he was going to show up? When when he did the you know, when he did the road w c W in the air, you knew he was coming that, You knew he was watching that when it happened or oh yeah you remember, Yeah we were we were notorious for and the same thing with them. They were watching our shows and we were watching their shows. You always hear that Vince McMahon never was Do you believe that he's kind of in his own world. Yeah, I believed that Vince himself never watched our shows. But I know he got reports about what was going on in the show. Oh yeah, Bruce Pritchard and all. Bruce Pritchard talks about how he would watch him in the Hotel LA. But yeah, Vince mcman himself just in his I believe Vince Vince never never really watched the shows. He didn't really, it wasn't his thing. He you know, he had an agenda, that's all he That's all he was, you know, gearing for. This is a guy that watched like no movies either. You always hear the story about rais or Mount's character and some of the references in it, and he had no idea. Well, I'll tell you funny, like we're gonna go off track here, but I'm gonna tell you a funny story conversation I had with Vince and the one and only one of the greatest coaches in my mind in wrestling, Jerry Briscoe. Jerry Briscoe was my agent at the time when they were still called agents. I was very fortunate in my career for the people that were my agents. Jerry Brisco's my agent. Jerry comes and gets me, he says, Vince wants to see us. Jerry and I walk the other side of the reader. We find Vince's office. We go in and I'll try to make this very short. Vince sits down. It's very very stoic. Three of us are sitting in like a little circle in chairs. You know what we need. We need a guy that can make people laugh and then rip their heads off. Jerry. We need a guy that that can be funny and make the people laugh and at a turn of a hat become up Villati beat down a lot of somebody. That's what we need. Jerry, you agreed, Yes, yes, serve Vince and oh, by the way, he gives Hugh Morris sitting in the chair, going, I think we can do something like that, find someone who could make people laugh and be a killer. I'm telling you, when I sat in that chair, I was waiting for like eight people to drop jump out of different spots and goes, how you're being punk? Long story short, Jerry and I sat there agreed with Vince. Okay, that's that's the way Bill Demart was told. That's his new direction. Let's find a way to be you know, it was just a new laughing matter. Yeah, So I waited till we were on the other side of the arena and I stopped and I went, mister Briscoe, what the hell is that supposed? And Jerry looked at me and went, I don't know. He's like, He's like, but we have to do it. Literally, that night, I had a writer come up to me with knock knock jokes. Here's a series of knock knock jokes. We want you to try anyway. So when you're saying this, Vince watch things. That was my character for seven years before you hired, and then you kind of had that taken away, but then he wanted it back. So it just brought me back to that conversation of yeah, I don't think he really watches a lot of things except the product, you know what I mean? Was Hee like real into it too. I'll tell you, ah, you know you can you can walk in there and someone used this analogy years and you can walk in there. You know what you're gonna say. You're gonna stick to your guns and you're going in there like a zebra. You're coming out with spots and polka dots. So he was using Dusty Rhodes as the example. You're going in there sticking to your guns. This is who I am, this is what I'm gonna do. Stay with me, and you're gonna come out and you're gonna be and that was it. You came out, but I came out motivated. But then I had to wait till you know, a little clarity though. That's kind of what I do. But it's one of the things now that he sees that vision, Now you do it, Red Hart was I feel it was anti climactic. It did have that big name feel to it when he was there. I'm not sure, and I can't speak for Brett. I've heard a lot of his interviews about it and stuff, and now he felt about the company and actually when he got there, you know, what he thought it was going to be and what it was. I don't really feel like he came in gung ho, you know. I think he got the feeling early on and that, you know, not knowing his business conversations. But it wasn't very It wasn't the build up as like everybody else had been the build up, you know, even in front of the crowd. So him becoming us champion felt like a big, you know, slap in the face kind of thing. I feel like, all right, I can understand why you would think that he would probably feel that way. Also probably not in the best of moods of way everything played out. Yeah, I wouldn't imagine at least. So we'll jump back into where we left off here. So Brett Harris the champion for just three weeks, then Lex Luker defeats him on Nitro on August tenth, nineteen ninety eight, and Rapid City just holds it for a few days till Monday comes back around. Then Brett hart is now the champion again and Bret hartolser for seventy four days. Then he is defeated by Diamond Dallas Page on October twenty six, ninety eight on a Nitro turnaround. Four weeks later, Brett Heart defeats Diamond Ella's Page for the title of Nitro and Chattanooga, Tennessee on November thirtieth. This was a no disqualification match, so we had a huh Diamond Dallas Page Brett Hart thing going on for a few months here, kind of sort of yeah, so okay, well this this is going along with what we had talked about happens with this title now that Nitro is full forced up and going. This is a this is defended all the time on Nitro. We segue too that in the last episode, and that's exactly what we're starting to see here. Okay, So seventy Day Rain, February eighth, nineteen ninety nine, Buffalo, New York on Nitro, Roddy Piper is the new champion. What do you remember about Piper during this time period in WCW. But loved it. He was great to have around. Was this your first role experience around him too much? Yeah, a couple of times elsewhere outside of WCW, but you know not, I'd never been in the ring and worked with them, but I was fortunate enough to have some conversations. It was always very social, very willing to drop the knowledge and you know, have a conversation or just shoot the breeze with you. I think at the same time there, I mean, look at it, and it's not enough, But look at you have Brett Hart, Roddy Piper, Lex Luger and Diamond Dallas Page knowing that nothing's going to happen with them at the top of the ladder. Now they're trying to create and this is what was happening at this time. They were trying to create buzz outside the buzz of the nWo and things like that, and to me, it just was flat every time because as I think as a fan and as people looked at it, that's hard. You know, wrestling fans who came over from WWE to watch them in WCW. We're not happy. People that saw a hot rod. We're not happy. And it's not to say that Dallas and Lex, but Dallas and Lex were WCW guys and so they that's I think that's where the tradeoff kept coming. Let's give it to the guys that we're not gonna that are not going to be on the upper tier, all upper tier players. So you would think in hindsight that this US Championship now would mean more, But it was just being ping ponged and it gets it gets ping ponged again, man, because thirteen days later a Super Bowl, Scott Hall is the new champion on February twenty first, nineteen ninety nine. It's the thing now. The only thing is now it's defended only on TV because all of those names had a very restricted schedule. They didn't make a lot of live events in our show. So it wasn't like and that's why I say it wasn't like it meant much, you know what I mean. So it's it's just paint ponged around. Okay, who else do we have to put it on? I think I actually speak for it now looking back at it. Maybe the thing was that we put on enough big name guys it'll mean something. But it didn't. I think it it wortered it down because it was just something that was passed around. Well, Scott Hall only holds it for twenty five days and it's vacated. He was stripped of it because okay, this is when Rick Flayer, the WCW president, I'm doing quotation marks there, stripped him of the title. So yeah, another shorty and it sounds like a lot, but that was literally just two months I think we covered. Yeah, it's fun, look how much happened in that two months. But talking about that was wrestling then though, Bill wasn't just this title. It was everyone turned into the other channel and you see a lot of this sort of thing. I mean, not very long matches and title changed frequently. It was just kind of the way wrestling was during this time period For a while. Are the the US Championship I think was the equivalent of their Hardcore Championship. It was always being passed around and and you know, wow, was that out loud? Yeah? That that Hardcore Championship. I always loved the story on and it was like a joke when he gave make fully that taped up, crappy looking title, but it became so he's so good. It became so much more. But do you remember, I remember that segment when he handed it to you know, when he had that title handed to him, What the hell was that? Of course he sold it right, oh right, you know, like and then then it grew legs. Yeah, because when he dug it, everybody dug it. He treated it like it was that was it? Yep, not a name that we've been brought brought up in any of this title discussion either. So he was in and out of WCW. But ye would have been cool to have him on a list of this and brought it up, but did not happen. Okay, your guy. Scott Steiner defeated Booker T in the tournament final for the vacated Obviously, the titles just vacated. Like we said as Spring Stampede April eleventh, nineteen ninety nine, Scott Steiner, big, big pop. Right. Yeah, we had aid and asked about Scott Steiner. I think last week the listener aid and yeah, so yeah, Scott Steiner's got the bilt Man and and if I'm not wrong, this is when it starts to starts to get interesting again. I think Scott was the right for for me, like as a fan and that someone there, Scott was the right guy for it because he was everywhere, he was going to be everywhere with it. I think him and Booker had some you know, good bangers anyway. But I think I think what the next Scott Hall title reign, which is about a year away, is when it changes quite a bit until then, But that's when we started seeing Lance Storm. Terry Funk came by for a couple of coffee with the title You're involved. Okay, No, I said Scott Hall. I don't know what I said, Skot Hall. I said Scott Steiner. Scott Steiner, dang it. Oh, you know, it's terrible, as I know exactly what you're what you mean. So I didn't even catch on to that. I didn't even realize, you said Scott All. Okay, So then again I asked, yeah, I don't know what I said. I meant Scott Steiner. Of course. Scott Steiner is the champion for eighty five days after he feeds book or t Then he is stripped of the title by Rick Flair on a night Troll in July fifth, nineteen ninety five, and that same night, David Flair is awarded the title by his father, Rick Flair. What do you remember about David Flair getting in the picture and David Flair in WCW. He was timid, he was trying to keep his head above water. And I say that respectfully. Look who his father is. You can't live up to that. But when he came in, there were so many naysayers because odd, it's his boy. Okay, now he's taking TV time. You know, this is when this is when the horns come out of the grizzled veterans in the back. You aren't getting TV time. And guys would have been there for longer than a cup of coffee trying to get involved. And now David's And don't get me wrong, David was great at that time. He's a great kid. David's good man. I think a lot of David, but I think he was just a lot thrown at him. I think he handled it the best he could at the time, because then I'll say it openly, he was rotten. He would you had to tell him what his father's finish was. He wasn't a fan of the business. You know, no matter who your father, if you're not a fan of the business, then you don't then you don't get it. But yeah, Rick came in made a statement there booms kids US champion storyline. Jerman obviously right, Yeah, yeah, not by a lot. That's strictly what it was. Now let's take a flip side of that. The other company here, Does Shane McMahon have that different scenario. I realized not Apple's apples exactly. But does Shane McMahon have this that kind of heat even or seem more in with the boys. Shane was, Shane was, and he is one of the boys. Shane cared, Shane understood the business. Shane wanted, wanted in the worst way, always be there. Unfortunately, he's very good at business and the other things he did, so you know, he was in and out. But when he had that schedule where he's there full time, Shane was in. He didn't come back and bark and tell people what they were going to do like he was in the conversation when he was involved in those matches and even in the back, he knew who everybody was, what they did, how they did it, how to move. He was training on his own anyway. But Shane was one of the boys. I mean, I understand he's the boss and at the time he was the boss's son and he was a boss, but he was one of the boys. There was a big difference there. Yeah, there's not as thank you, he's afraid to do it. I don't think nothing nothing. I'd defy anyone who's ever worked for the mcmahn family to find one of the mcmans that wouldn't do what they asked someone else to do. I defy them. You always hear that story about Gronk, you know, Robin cancrast with Vince mcmah at that that balcony former. Yeah, that's like man going on eighty years old and uh yeah, second story. Shane's a perfect, perfect example of that, because Shane's like a whole other level. Yeah, I mean Vince is too, right, falling off of the cage through an an ounce table when you're yeah, crazy stuff, but old different level. Shane is big Shane. I just wanted to bring up that comparison. But that's the thing, like here's here's a kid, same thing. But Shane grew up in the business. David didn't. Does that make sense? Like David his dad was famous. Vince McMahon was the owner of Different Family Dynamic, Different Family Dynamic. What was going on to Flair Family maybe behind the scenes, yes, much different. Yeah, Shane grew up in the business. Yeah, I'm sure Shane was always there, always there. Yeah, And you always hear the story about how he was when he started out with the company, hadn't working in the warehouse, kind of learned the ropes like all the way around from the bottom up. Yeah, which is such super cool. Yeah, same with Steffs Sam with Steff's Okay, so let's get back to this story here. Thirty five day Rain that he loses it to Chris ben Waugh and Nitro and Boise Idaho on August ninth, nineteen ninety nine, and that's I think the build up of trying to remember that. It made David a little more legitimate beating in the ring with ben Wah. But if you're going to do it, you know, Ben wall is n actually gonna take it because here's that time and that timeline. This is when everything's going down now, this is when the rumors are starting, and this is so what are we going to do now to really jump start this company past the nWo stuff, because clearly there needs to be more stuff being done. Chris ben Wah holds the title for thirty four Days Sid Vicious defeats him fall Brawl September twelfth, nineteen ninety nine. Wins in Salem, North Carolina said Vicious is even getting in on this man. Yeah. Now, now, everybody, and remember the timeline you're giving. Remember the dates, and if people put it back together and look, okay, so we're talking about ninety nine, right, and then in two thousand and one, in the early two thousand and one, it's over. So this is the okay. Now, think of how many different bookers there have been in the process of this championship. He had Bishop was there six months, he was out. Rousseau was in for six months, he was out solid it was back six months he was out, Bishop was back, he was you know, so the players kept changing according to who was booking, said Vicious. The decorated career. What was he like? What was it like being around him? What's great man? I think it's just a gigantic country boy who was who was really Uh? He was really cool. I had a good time with said I know. He his thing was uh, you know, a lot of people said wrestling was this thing. It was softball that was his love. So when he you know, he when he had that time of the year when it was a softball season, he was a little less visual. I love Sid. I thought it was great a career still, that's decorated. Yeah, he's a giant of a man too, But he's like, to me, he's like a big teddy bear, but he was, and I think I think that goes for a lot of us though, right, if you were with the right people, you can be yourself. And when you had to be that persona, you were that persona. But I, like Sid, never had never had an issue, neverre had issues. And it's like that chatting with you. You're not the Bill Damont that you read about on the dirt sheets or a fee and my reputation doesn't precede me. Be too hard on yourself. Damn it, Bill, We'll move on. You're making me, said, well it will forty two day reign. Bill Goldberg gets the title on Halloween Havoc, October twenty fourth and ninety nine. So by this time, fast forward a couple of years after his initial not even a couple of years, actually a year and a half, I think, after his first shot at this title. I don't want to say Bill Goldberg's out of the picture, because he's not. Lately, but things have shifted a little bit in WCW. And like you said, the wheels of the bus they go round and round, aren't going round and round too well anymore. They're starting to get a little wobble, you know how you watch that car on the interstate that drives by you and you're like, yeah, it's missing a log nut. Yeah, and it's like whoa. Yeah, So Bill doesn't have this title this time long. It's less than a day. So he won the title because sid Vicious suffered excessive bleeding and the referee stopped the match. Brett Hart's the champion a day later, on the twenty fifth in Phoenix, Arizona. He holds it for two weeks. Scott Hall defeats him on nitro in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November eighth, nineteen ninety nine. This is a forty one day rain then, so okay, so the Scott Hall when he wins it. If I remember correctly, this was a ladder match that has Sid Vicious and Bill Goldberg in it. All sip what you're shaking your head because the same reason somebody who can see him. I'm literally just sitting here shaking my head when I think of a ladder match. No offense to say they're one of those two gentlemen. I don't think about fishes some little Goldberg. Why would you? Why would you even? And here's the bad thing about it is, I'm pretty sure those two men didn't think about it much either. There was there was no investment in it. It was it was I don't know. It was kind of a like I said, there was a lot of booking changes and a lot of the ideas being thrown around, and guys were doing things and even if they didn't agree with it, they had to do it because they everybody's trying to keep their jobs, keep those paychecks and things like that. But it's a lot of the thing And to be honest, I've completely forgot that Bill even beat said to become champion. I mean, and I forgot that Brett came back again for it. It's gonna sound bad, right, that's how unimportant it was at that time. It was just let's do stuff, you know, and let's do stuff, and at least it's important to people if we put a title around it while we do it. Yeah, I remember this time period. I was just getting to the teenage years, so that's when you really I remembers wrestling pretty pretty well from then. This is the time definitely when it just was not quite as meaningful, to be honest. And the next couple of situations are up there at that so he just talked about Indianapolis, Diana victory Chris ben Waugh at Starcade December nineteen nineteen nine is awarded the title when Hall suffered a knee injury during the match. He holds the title until the following evening there's a ladder match takes place and double j Jeff Jarrett is the United States Championship. Is champion bookers, people in charge o the riders, my guys coming in. Yeah, I get what you're saying. What was the thought on Jeff Jarrett coming in after that? WWF that a famous fall out he had with Vince Wickmahon. I think Jeff had a great run with us, had I had the opportunity. I had Jeff on a few independents early on before I went to Japan and stuff, and Jeff gave me some great advice when I was younger, and I held on to that, so, like, listen you can. I don't think we could ever say that Jeff isn't relevant in wrestling history. I thought he was good when he came in. I thought he did great business the things he was involved in. I don't want to say he was a victim of booking, but everybody went with their guys. You know, who do I trust? Who do I want to do business with? So at that time the lines were being drawn in so many different directions that again, I don't think it really mattered what anybody else thought. It's just whoever was running show, this is what we're gonna do, and they wanted to do with the guys that would go with their program. Going back to this here, there was a ladder matrically talked about. Title was vacated. Twenty seven days later Jeff Jarrett suffered an injury, and then a day after that that was at a pay per view. A day after that on Nitro where he's seventeen two thousand, he was awarded the championship by Commissioner Kevin Nash. This is when Kevin Nash was That's what he was doing with w C TB at that plant in time. What do you remember about Kevin Nash at a little bit of a transitional phase. Yeah, the funny thing about Big keV was, you know, he has a mind like a steel trap, So he remembers things that have been said and things that were done. And oh yeah, when he had the opportunity he could he could put it to you which in a spot that wasn't very favorable or something like that. And here's the greatest example I can give you, Knobs and I were working against Malenko. Was I think it was Milko and Ben Wah or Malinko and Jane Douglas or something like that, and we took the fall on Dean because they didn't feel like they should be in the ring with us. We weren't the same caliber and all these things. And that's when that's when like, well, guess what, guess what's gonna happen tonight. And somewhere in the record books around that time, Hugh Morris and Brian Knams being Malenko, I think I'd beat Dean right in the middle one, two three. But going back to Jeff, Jared Big, Jeff Jarry Fan, I loved, yes, loved it all. I liked the DoD WF stuff too, And I always remember that song he add finding it out years later that road Dog was the one singing to solve How great is that? How great? Yeah? It is great. I remember that music video. I can picture in my head the bar scenes perfectly done. Right. You you would thought all that time you thought he sang that song? I agree, you really did uh, And I add sometimes I still get it. I need to go back and listen to this song again. I think I'd get a gig out of it. But now I'm a big Jeff. I think Jeff Jerry has a great wrestling mind. Yeah, he's still added today. Man, he's still sharing that knowledge and he's still first of all, physically he is in great shape perform, He's still having great matches, and you know what he gives behind the scenes is amazing too. Big fan of Jeff Jared, So, yeah, we talked about Kevin Nash. There also a big Kevin Nash fan. I think that when you think of you asked the average casual wrestling fan a couple of people they think about when they hear WCW it, He's going to be one of them. Yeah, Kevi. Besides being a giant of a man, you know, a modument of a man, he was brilliant enough to always stay relevant. He knew the business. That's the thing that I don't think a lot of people understood about Kevin if they weren't paying attention. He's a really good business man. Yeah, he's a smart guy. If you I feel like for me and I only talk about my experiences in my opinion. For me, if you dealt with him, which I had lots of opportunities to deal with and work with him in the ring and speak to him outside the ring and things like that. If you want to do business, he did great business. But if you wanted to play the game, he played the game better than Nope, you know, better than no one else. But I'm a I'm a big fan of Big keV was then him. Now listen to the podcast on a regular basis that they do him and Sean been listening to Sean Oliver stuff forever. So he's like, the Uh, when I think of wrestling shoot interviews, I think of hockey talk man and I think of him back in the day on Olivers. Yeah, they do good work now, good stuff. Okay, So we just talked about what happened there all the WCW titles. On April April twentieth, on Nitro two thousand, Denver, Colorado, all the WCW titles were declared vacant by Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff. This is WCW's attempt, like one of the last fighting attempts here at a reboot of the company. Do you remember this happening? But this is it. We're gonna light the world on fire. We're gonna start fresh, and everybody's gonna get along in the back of Kumbayak, create him. We're all gonna we're all shooting for the same thing here because we know we're going out of business. This is this is the guy sold on? This was this? Was this a valiant effort together the troops. No, because if you've been there, and again, I can't speak for a lot of the guy, but if you've been there and you had tenure there, you've seen this before. You've heard the raw rob before, and then you've seen the outcome right after the raw rob speech, never mind the day later, a month later. You saw it happening right in front of you. So I think the attempt was more in front of the camera because behind the camera there was a lot of people Biden too. There's a lot said about Vince Russo and how much of an impact did he really have at WWF. My opinion, he obviously had a lot, but when he came in, he was kind of brought in with a bag of turret on that already been lit here. I'm not sure you could. You could call a lot of stuff you did questionable. Here we talked about David Arquett, etc. Vince Russo really didn't stand a fighting chance no matter what he was gonna do right in this company this one time. Yeah, he came into a sinking ship. To his side of it, I think he was he was trying, man, you know, Listen, everybody was complained about him bringing in David Arquette, But Vince Russo wasn't the one who made Buff Bagwell's mom tag team champion years earlier. So what was the difference. The only difference was is wc W was going under now and now they had a different poster board to pint it on. In my opinion, yeah, because there was still some goofy crap that was for years. So but our Quette brought eyes and people to the days, no matter how you felt about it, That's what they were trying to do. They were trying to bring it back to where people were talking about. Let's talk about this. People love or hate Vince Russo. You're always called a job or right, and we've joked about it before. It's on your Wikipedia page. Even in the first couple of sentences. But Vince Russo was on board with the work that you were doing. Yeah, I mean I remember I think when they first started, Vince and ed Ferrara and Billy, when they first came in. I want to say we were in Philadelphia. I could be wrong. I'm trying to think of the area we were in. But anyway, you know, he took time to meet people. Everybody, you know, naturally knew Booker. Everybody wanted to run up and you know, get their nose as deep into them as they could, and hey, loved your stuff there. And this is that. I just simply introduced myself and he told me, he goes, Nope, I know who you are. And Vince and I come from the same place in Brooklyn, Johnny Robs. Bench Russell trained Johnny Robbs. It was a couple of years after I was already out and about, but yeah, he knew who I was and he told me, and without remember exact words, told me to hang in there. You know something, they're trying to make things happen. Okay, I'd been there long enough to know that. One I had my job too, I was still getting opportunities and an other than that, I was working every live event there was, so I was always on the road and always working. I think it would have been different if I was sitting home and not getting But I'm a I'm a Vince Russo fan as the man. Yeah you knows as a guy I know outside of wrestling. But he gave Vince Russo gave me the opportunity, as we're going to talk about coming up, to really put some steam behind everything I was trying to do for the previous six years. And these are relationships that last forever a long time. Obviously there's could be falling out to stuff. But in your case of Vince Russo, you when you got into podcasting, it was with Vince Russo. Through Vince Russo, we shared the episode on ours that was originally on the Realm when we got permission to do so, where you had to talk with Bence Russo and he was like, hey, man, I know you'd be great at this and you can tell you guys genuinely have friendship with each other. Yeah, because there was no there was no animosity, there was no preconceived notions of how we should get along. And that was always a lot of people told me that was always my problem. It took everybody at face value, which was that was the name of my podcast. Everything for me is face value. If you tell me something, I have no reason to doubt you. Let's let's go that direction. I had no reason to doubt Vince and eddin what they were doing. I questioned the beginning of it. But they had finishing move taken away. Yeah, Jesus, but they shook a moon salt on his side. They had to. They had to, you know, they were trying to juggle. You said it, he walked in to a turd show, and now he's got all the top people, you know, telling them how it's gonna go and what they want, and now he's trying to create, you know, momentum and kind of changed the atmosphere. So it was listen, there's not a lot of people who could have taken that spot and made chicken salad out of that. We're going down a little bit of rabbit hole here. But yeah, I'm sorry about that. No, No, it's okay. I'll continue it a little bit longer. But Vince Russo has tweeted in the last couple of days, I don't know how much you can relate. He's a guy that has really struggled with. I don't want to say why he's become, but how everything's kind of played out with pro wrestling and his side of it. You could tell that he struggles with the enjoyment of it, especially the current brand. And I don't it Maybe it's something like when you give so much to something like like you did, Bill, and it just doesn't Things don't end the way you quite thought they would. And obviously it's not over because you both still are fans and involved and you're we're talking wrestling right now, But can you relate to do Do you get what I'm trying to say with it seems like the emotional battle he has, Yes, yes, because unlike Vince my my battle or any of the other guys on the roster, their battle was as wrestlers. We were being blamed for the demise of a company. We were being blamed for taking the company that had walked all over WWE for all that time to being the person who is destroying it. If you you know, and I know you know this, but that's all Vince Russo heard. You didn't hear Eric in the in the conversation or Kevin Salvin or anybody else. All you heard was it was Vince Russo was responsible for the demise. And the problem is once you have fans and people saying and you have the boys going out and saying it to people, that's a lot of pressure, man, and it takes your fandom away, it takes your love for it away. And I feel like, no matter how creative you are and the people that you did try to do right by, everybody turned on him because that was the topic of conversation. So even a guy who never had an opportunity is going to bad not Vince Russo, because that's the topic and it now makes them relevant. But to me, truth be told, he gave it his all. He gave, but he gave it his all while being handcuffed because I wasn't in WWF at the time. But he had that control, that creative control here. He had a certain amount of creative control because now there was Harvey Schiller and all these other people involved, these companies that are talking about buying the company and all the things we can and can't do now, so you've kind of handcuffed them. But at the end of the day, to your point, I see where he battles with the business he grew up loving and made a great living at and still talks about because every once in a while, as any human would do, he goes he gets on social media and just goes on a ramp for a little bit. But how much are you supposed to take as a human being before it gets to you? And I say this, thank goodness that he and other people do at least vent because you hold that stuff in. You know, you're doing a gainer off the roof sooner or later because it's just it's your life and it gets to you. You know. Reset, Let's reset also right now. Bro shout out to Vince Bro. This is so we just talked about the reset. This is when you start to come into play in You and Others bill, This reset happens. Titles are wiped out. Clear we're going to go back here. This is the last heart of this title and w CW as in NW and the last part of WCW. So we will jump into this here where do we leave off here? Vince Russo wipes the slate clean. Dott Steiner. On April sixteenth, two thousand, Spring Stampede Chicago, Illinois defeated Sting in a tournament final for the vacant title. This is the title ragin that you're probably referencing with Scott run here. I'm excuse me, Scott Steiner's reign here, Yes, this particular title run So Scott Steiner's in the picture. He has the title for eighty four days. It's vacated Bash at the Beach July ninth. He was straight to the title when he used the band Steiner Recliner submission. Hold on Mike Awesome. We've got Mike Awesome in the picture. Now he comes over. We're on the ending days of w CW. Here we say that we still got every year. What do you remember about this Steiner Recliner being banned? Well, that was the thing, right, You took away his weapons, right, that was the story. You take away the things that that could um. Now you take away his chance of winning or being a champion or being victorious. So that was you know, I thought it was creative. It's these things you're trying to do and they still do it to this day. You take away somebody's finishing move or they're they're what they're known for, their you know, the maneuvers. It's a different shift of kind of the title, swapping for on the various people here when this happens. All right, so you ready for this? Land Storm July eighteenth, on Nitro defeated Mike. Also, I'm in a tournament final for the vacated title. Storm unofficially renamed the w That renamed the title to the WCW Canadian Heavyweight Championship Aiden. Now we're talking about Lance Storm, right yourself, Lance Storm, others are coming to the title picture now right now, it's myself. Shane Douglas is in there, I believe. And this is where and you talked about it on the last episode. This is where there starts to get a little bit of story behind it again, like old school US Championship when Lance turned it over and made it the Canadian you know that that was the thing to build on. So this was an opportunity and this is all Bence Russo. But so the ironic part is and this is where I probably, uh, you know somebody, oh DeMott doesn't know. I do know. But who could Lance beat? Who is it more conceivable for him to beat Mike Awesome or Scott Styner. There's the there's so there's the thing with the belt and the vacating and all the stuff, and now it's Lance and he's a heel man. He's that Canadian guy. Us. This is a tale as old as time. Yeah, professional wrestling, but his own spin on it. Yeah. And here's the thing, looking back at it. For all these years, Boy, if we couldn't get that story right, we really sucked. It was built in man. If you couldn't get there right, you suck that. The ball does get dropped on this whole Canadian or other country bad guy thing every now and then, but not by Lance Storm, because he rode this one out and even af he he did this right, I mean, and he was good at it. Him and other Canadians in history of wrestling have been great at this. Yes, so Lance Storm holds the title for sixty six days. A house show is set up in Amarilla, Texas. Terry Funk comes up with the wind. This title change is not recognized by WCW historically then, but it is recognized by WWE. He only holds it for a day. The following night that this is a little bit of a tour of Texas Lubbock's Texas. The following night, another house show, land Storm gets it back the Terry Funk gets this night man at home. But that and I and like, there's a lot of things that we'll talk about. And you're you're a great historian of this business, and you remember things that you can recall it and you speak well of it. And me sometimes I listened, and that's what reminds me of where I was or what was happening. But that night, I remember Terry Funk homb Town. He was in you know, Terry Funk. Forget it. Well, if I started talking about him, we'll never get to the end of this subject. But what a great time in his town. He rolled out the red carpet for everybody. Everybody felt welcome, the arita was live and everything and it was sver was Terry Funk. Oh she's Christmas. I saw. I believe that Moses was sitting ringside. That's how over he was. Like everybody came out of the woodwork. He had people that were sharing stories with him from childhood memories that were there showing up and every son of a gun in the place had to dip in his mouth when he was talking to you. And it was just a good yee on night and you had fun that Night's wrestling. Yeah, this is all wrestling. It's about This night is a good example of that takes you back to the good old days of wrestling. The culture waits. The cruiser weights were acting like he was Christmas and they were at a party because they everybody loved Terry, but he made everything was so relax in the back and the guys were ready to go, usually going oh crap, I got with another twenty five minutes into night. Am exhausted. That night everybody was on the jazz and that's because of Theiry Buck. And I appreciate the comment about the wrestling a story, and I'm certainly just a fan. Some people actually do call themselves wrestling a story, and I I just consider myself a fan that likes wrestling up. But you're a fan. You're not a subscriber. You're not and you know, I don't know what's to say it, but if everybody who's listening, so this is people get to know you as I have. There's a love for the business. There's a respect for the business. And that's that's why I say you're a his storian because you can recall it. You know where you were, Like you said, since you're a young man, but you've always treated it respectfully and that's what that's what makes me gravitate to you. That's that's the side side note for me. And it's not just like, hey, I remember all these things when they happen, but I also have made an effort. Like I said before, I talked about Terry Funk episodes ago with this title picture, you wouldn't know how great Terry Funk is if you just tried to come in right now. And at this point, Tom we're talking about and wrestling. You hear stories and stuff. And for me, when I heard the stories and stuff, that's when I would go back to the old tapes. All the things you had to do then to see you really as a fan, if you were truly really big mega fan, you had to go back and making an effort to find these things. It's not like now. Man, you had to make an effort to find some of this work that Terry Funk's done, find some of the work Dusty Roads. You had to do some digging. And I did that with Terry Funk long ago. And that's how I know he's more than just a guy that's portrayed with Nick Foley on. Yes, And that's the thing for me as a fan of this business. Not only did I know who he is and appreciate what he's done prior to what we were doing, then I got to share the ring with him. Then I got to talk to him, and now everything I watched heard the story behind the reasons why I got, I got the goose bumps. That's the best part for me about wrestling, Like that's the thing that I wish everybody could appreciate, and I think that would change a lot of people's perspective on every one of us and what we do and how we do it and why we do it is the things behind the scenes. But Terry Funk he's up there, man, He just he walks on water for me and a lot of guys because he's he's truly the guy behind the scenes. He's just as awesome as he is on camera. And he's just yep, and he's a big part of wrestling history. He's had amazing matches. Yeah, but this going back to what the title here, this is wrestling one oh one. What a great night. I'm sure it was amazing. That is wrestling to me. Yeah, And then okay, so what do we do the next night in Lubbock go back return match that you know, we're on a tour of Texas. So we just talked about that. Bill. Here comes to Bill's big moment, Lance get the title back in Lubbock's thirty six days later, General or General, I have a hard time calling you that you were never even when I watched you live then you weren't that to me. I'd be honest with you. You were humorous to me. That was the beauty of it. And and and I won't go into it because we'll go way off this object. But remind me to get back to that. Why I was still you boris because there's a there's a story with that. But this is yeah, General, U g wreck shit you talk about? Okay, so you've talked about on a million and I'm not a bit And I'll be honest with you, it's like this, I'm not a big fan of this gimmick. Note I can see that's what wrestling was right then. But this is your foot in the door, and I get that you made the absolute best of it. You told the story of why it happened A million times. We've talked about on this podcast. You talked about it on another podcast recently that they reached out and you went on too. It's a story you can definitely find out there if you want to hear in detail. But this is what you had. This is why you're handed and you get this title at it. So in honor of your first championship here, which took place Milwaukee, West Okay, No, it was Halloween, Havoc. You're in Paradise, Nevada. Really yep, in a handicap match. You defeated Landstorm and Jim Duggan in a handicapped match, right that was That was at the MGM, that was in Vegas. Yeah. Um, And so if we can't go into the history of Team Kenna, how Duncan became part of that because he was mister USA, right. Um. But that was the night and they wanted they wanted me to take it, but they wanted me to take it on Jim, and so I gave him the safety belt Moon Salt and made sure he was in a little closer so I would just hit it with my head. Nonetheless, Yeah, that was the night in the Vegas where I became champion. A couple of different things are going on in Wrestling. This is the same week time period where Brett Hart announces his retirement, and also because Vince McMahon's mustache a Twitter fan of ours, he sent me over the Dane Meltzer view of the match if you'd like to hear it one point, I'd love the hear what is it? We'll get into that. But so brat Hart retires and like this the same week. Also this same week I read it. I read an article from Dave Meltzer talking about how he didn't think the WWF purchasing WCW would have but yeah, so yeah, NSI man, I've got it on my phone here, I'll go through this match, Mustache. He wanted to get your reaction. I'm sure. Okay, So Captain Rection beat Jim Duggan and Landstorm to win the wcw US title. Duggan, of course this is this is the recap here from Dave Meltzer. Duggan of course, looked hideous. Storm was awesome and one of the few guys on the show that looked major league. Rection can only do so much. Match was going along okay until the ref took the most comical bump of the afternoon at and the match fell apart, fans bood like crazy. Duggan hit Rection with a pile driver, Skipper ran down with a two by four, but Major Guns hit him with the Canadian flag. Storm yelled at her. She responded by trying to pull his pants down. Really he got mad about this since there was a match going on, and they got into an argument and the ring. Duggan swung the two by four high above Rection's head, but Rection ducked anyway. He then Ko Duggan hit the moonsalt and Penn Duggan. Crowd at least went bonkers for the finish, Storm was disgusted and marched off to the back. They really made a big deal about the finish, with Rection hugging the title and the rest of m a squeezing Major Guns ass under the disguise lifting her up in the celebratory manner. One star. He mad, I chars that star that Doug Dougan certainly didn't come close to hit you though. He's right, though he took care of you. He wasn't gonna hit get that due by for yeah and then turn yeah. I would duck anyway too. Somebody was swinging a damn too much. He's hit me with that damn thing. I'm I'm ducking even if he acts like he's swinging it. That's what I thought when when I read that before we got on the air, and I also I had an even harder laugh out loud when he had to throw in the celebratory bulls bullshit. I don't know I had anything to do with the review of the match, but damn it, he hadn't squeeze it in there before he dropped the one star. I think I had two stars because the crowd went bonkers, but then with the whole major guns thing, had dropped me a star. He did say the crowd went bonkers. Finished with you. Then he followed it up with the insult of the celebration than one star. But that's a decent summary of the match, though there was a lot of movie pieces because his storm was a part of the picture. Lee's storm and you were going to go on and do things here. Obviously he's not gonna meet He's gonna not gonna take the pendonite. What do you remember this match? How awesome was this bill? So this in Vegas? What happened was I'm gonna ask is the next day we're in herby California. Is that when this takes place now, Okay, I see here in California. The next day, I can't confirm where. So if I think, if I have the timeline right, if I've been hit had a few times. But that's what it is. I at that time, I had a lot of issues with my head from concussions and losing my eyesight and things like that. When when I really got going, I would lose my vision completely. It'd be like a white sheet. So when we got on when we got on the plane, I didn't realize we were on a plane. I didn't realize we're in California. I didn't realize I won the championship the next day in Chavo. As as he always does, Chad was always taking care of me. He made sure I got to my room because clearly there was something wrong. You know, I got my bell where I'm gonna gain. But I I enjoyed. I just enjoyed the whole thing with Lance. So this was a small part of it and the kind of the beginning ish kind of stuff. But everything about this where we're gonna talk about is the best part of wc W to me. So but this was the point I think when like you asked me how it felt until the next day I did, I had no clue. I had no clue. I was just getting on the plane to get to another show. That's that was the only mentality I had. That's not exactly glorious answer to the question there, Bill, but we'll take it. But it's an honest I think the glorious answers coming up though, if I remember correct, have you watched this match recently at all, the one with dug It and Lance? No, So maybe something you gotta show Billy Janior one day. I think he goes on and looks, I don't really watch my stuff thirty thirty plus years. I think I may have watched one or two matches back just to see if I felt what I felt in the ring afterwards, you know, but the reaction it was real though for me winning this title appeared to be very It was important to me. It was you know a lot of people think this is just a bunch of hogwash and who cares? And you know a lot of you hear a lot of the stories of the guy said a big deal. Now it's another twenty pounds in my bag. I gotta carry and take it out of the airport, you know, go through security, all that stuff. It meant a lot to me after seven years or just under seven years at that time, of just getting an opportunity to be on the pay per views and featured, you know, not just another match featured and getting in and the storyline that was laid out was what really grabbed me, and it grabbed Lance. So I was working with a guy who was just as invested in, just as excited about this opportunity as I was. So when I had that, when I had that belt, that was as real as it gets. That was that thing of set of the gun. I did it like everywhere else I'd ever wrestled, I was a champion, and I'm not saying I should be, but I always had the opportunity that made the best of those situations. And so when had happened in WCW, especially with all the other things that were going on, this was like that. I'm so glad I stepped this out. You know, there were a few of you here that still appeared to be this is the towards the end of DWCW. Theres a few of you here that still seem to be pretty emotionally invested. There was a good group of guys that were invested. There was a there was such a strong group of young cats, you know, power plant guys that were starting to get work and get in a rub of working with guys and stuff that were really invested in what was going on. Because you I think there was a handful of more than a handful, but a handful of us that truly believed that we could stay in business. Here. We had no control over what was going to happen, but we were going to do our best to make sure that if it wasn't gone tomorrow, we were going to be a part of it. Okay, so this is a title reign of two weeks. When when when you had this, then the next story then the next Well, Landstorm story is obviously sticking around here. Talked about that. You go over to London, England where land Story picks up the championship. Do you remember this? Yeah, that was the same that it became Tag team Champion. Yeah it is, isn't it? Yes, Lax and I went out there easy twenty minutes, if not more. I remember that night. The crowd was awesome. I mean, we had full houses. So we were doing great business and there we were a featured story on that on that that loop is that Bill You're over. You're international now as the champion, so so awesome, so freaking cool. Same thing when we were in Australia and all that stuff, it was just like that's what you didn't get into the business for that. But when that was a perk and when that became a thing, and now you know, you're standing next to Hogan and storylines and page and these guys and doing all these things. And when people know who you are, I don't care what ego you have or don't have, or how humble you try to be. When people are chanting for you and buying your stuff, your head gets big and you go hot. Damn. I never wanted this to end. It was It was awesome, dude, awesome. It's it's the equivalent of seeing your kids being born. It's freaking awesome. Two weeks go buy Again. You defeat land Storm at Mayhem in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November twenty sixth. Oh, you got a couple of weeks here going on, a couple of months here going on with this lant Storm thing, and we're about to move on past it. So what do you want to talk about from the Lance Storm? Obviously what comes next is Shane Douglas. But this was how fun was this working with land Storm for a couple of months. We so that's it. On TV? Everybody thought Lance and I were together for a couple of months. Lance and I ran together for almost twelve months. We were we were given a set, a solid part of every house show. We got to know each other very well in and out of the ring, but it was just to me. It was just two guys that really wanted to be there. And like when our title thing kind of faded away, we were working on every live event because it was one of those things that gelled and the people at that point, thank goodness, the people didn't need to see either one of us have a championship. They wanted to see the fight right USA in America, and they wanted to see you know, Erection and Storm and you Morrison Storm and things like that. So it was great. And even when we got away from that stuff on TV, we were still together for for such a long time. And funny, so here's the funny story. When they needed us to do something on TV again, down the road. Arn Anderson was the agent and Arne came to us in a little bit of a panic because this time the company's going under. Everybody's trying to keep their job. And Arne had a little bit of a panic thing going. Listen, they got you and Lance doing this thing, and if I can get you guys together and let's figure this out. And Lance and I are looking at each other like is he kidding? What? Like why is he freaking out? Like yeah, I don't know. Can you guys do something together? Need guys think you make something? And the funny part was Lance goes, yeah, I'm sure we could work something out, and Arne left in a panic, like trusting us to try to be professionals that night, can try to have a good match. Well, we've been run together for so long. But it was like in Arne's mind he forgot that because of the situation that's around the company. But to Lance and I, we looked at each other laughing, and usually you'd panic of a veteran like Arne Anderson's a little bit like Jesus, this gonna come out all right. Usually somebody else panic, but Lance and I had danced together for so long that it was just you could do it in your sleep. But as a as a person, I appreciated him as a as a dad and as a worker. And his knowledge was like he really truly loved what he what he does. He was good at it. That's why he became a trainer after and a coach because he had so much knowledge to pass on. But the highlight of Mike wc w career was all my time with land Storm. That's meaningful. First of all, love Arn't Anderson by the way, O listen faking love arn Anderson and his work? What was it like putting matches together with Blant's storm? Talk to us about that? How much effort went into it? Was this natural? I mean, like, what was it like working with all these months? These months that went by with him? To me the best way I said, there wasn't a lot of hard work putting into it. It was basically, let's get to know each other. As we got to know each other, let's add fuel to the fire. But for me, and I say this with all honesty, I would listen seventy five and all for twenty five because that's how good to me Lance is, And because I trusted Lance that he Lance never went into business for himself and never you know, he never made it about him. Like I said, we were both on the same page with this story and the opportunity and where we could go with it. So to me, it was a very easy process to start. It was always easy to go back to every time I know that I'd be worked with Lance, I came to work ready and knowing that nothing, nothing could kill the mood. Although one night, I want everybody to listen to this part. One night at a live event, Lance Storm hit me with a super kick that knocked me into next week, and he felt awful. Because anybody's ever worked with Landstorm or knows his work, Landstorm wouldn't hurt you. He was so good at what he did. He never touched you, and you got to dance with him that way where we were in a live event, Like I said, we did this for so long, we just had fun. Whatever happened happened. Well. One night it was just we were that much closer and boom and he got me sack bam down I went and it was like the oh my god, because he knew he felt it his foot in his leg, that he just kicked my head up, you know what I mean. That's what a pro he is. In the year we ran together, he touched me one time. And I don't mean he touched me like he never punched me, never kicked me, never you know, glombed on me and stuff like that. This was the one that this was the one time it came out of nowhere like a cannon, the one I never would have expected, Like you punched me in the face. All day long, as long as I see it coming, I'm golden. Well. He caught me with that foot and it was like the and he couldn't have apologized more than less than a million times. And to this day, if I see him, I kicked me and he goes all. But Lance is a dream opponent for anyone. I'll say it publicly, I've said it to him. I'll say it every time I thought someone about Landstorm. The best part of my WCW career. Sounds like you're saying thank you, Landstorm, thank you. Hey. I've told Lance thank you on many occasions. I had a lot of head trauma and brain things going on, and Lance was one of those guys that really he could have done things differently, but he did business, and he kept me. Lance kept me alive in the storyline a lot more times than I think he'd ever had met. And he didn't use this a thigh slap, and he never slapped laying. That's a really cool moment to see. All jokes aside. I mean, that's that's why we do this pod. Guest. Well, as we get into their faction another episode later, we'll talk about the story itself more. Obviously, this episode is about the title. Yes, to take a moment and recognize lads storm Yeah, big fan. Okay, So Bill forty nine day Rain rolling back into Indianapolis, Indiana. Those listen who don't know, that's where I live. Okay. So January fourteenth, two thousand and one, Shane Douglas First Blood Chain match. Talk to us about this match. I think I could be wrong if someone watches it back. I thought this was a pretty good, pretty good match for what it was, you know, the the chin Melzer's radiance in front of me. But yeah, sure, I'm sure it's got to at least equal to Young. But I had a lot of fun with Shane, and that was one of those things. Unfortunately at two guys, and I was a big fan. If you get if there's a chain involved, then there's physicality with with you know, objects all this stuff. Then you I'm sorry, you've got to hit me. I'm not gonna, you know, pussy foot around it, and you know, baby it like, let's go, let's swing for the fences. I had a lot of fun with Shane. I thought I had good chemistry with Shane. Another guy got to dance with for a lot of time. I thought it was a good match. Another guy that doesn't get talked about enough. Probably, I mean, he was really freaking good man. Yeah, he you know, Unfortunately he's like everybody else, right, everybody's got there's certain guys that don't like him and stuff, and that's usually all we ever hear. We don't hear the good things. We just hear the gossip in the you know. But yeah, I had a good time with Shane. And there was no screw driver stabbed at the head. No, he'd left the She's greater at all. So Bill, that is your time here, or get really close to wrapping up this. We'll jump into WWF next. We can wrap it all up. But Shane Douglas holds the title for three weeks. Rick Styder gets it from him on Nitro on February fifth, and again at that time, I know, we're just doing time of the Championship, but in that time all these guys were involved in some way, shape or form. It was much like we said, lex Dallas, Brett back to Dallas. But so we were doing that at that time, but we were all involved in some little bit of a story within it, you know. So, but this was my exit from the US Championship, and it's it's really the summon up here, the exit of the US Championship for for WCW, because Rick Steiner holds this thing for forty one days. Then we come to what was known as greed. Right, it took page to this excuse me, took place on March eighteenth, two thousand and one. This is the last, This is last pay per view, man, this is it. Booker T gets the title. What do you remember about Booker T winning this title and this night Greed is professor the last pay per view? Well yeah, it goes back to look who's in charge. But if you were going out and this is this is again my opinion and recall from it. This was the time for the guys that have hung in there and done their thing for so long and proved themselves. And I think that's why Booker Booker became the last face of you know, WCW. It's just one of those things, like not a lot of it mattered anymore. We were going down. We knew we were going down. They made a point of telling this every night all Coca Cola, this one that one Ted's back in. Eric's gonna buy it. Everybody was holding none to Eric was gonna buy it, And so there was a little trying to make it a little less pressure. But at the time, none of it really mattered. You were just putting it really showed the back and production everything. We're just putting on shows to put on shows. But I think Booker was the right choice, has proven in time in history he was the right choice to end to be the face of WCW. But to the point, it but us thing WW And you think of like a couple of people that you think of when you hear WCW talked about Kevin Nash, talk about gold Bill Goldberg, Ric Flett, Booker T is one of them. Yes, Booker T is one of them. What do you member about that night, which nighter agreed this night and what did you guys know? This night obviously five days later, I believe was the official purchase in Panama City. That's when Panama City was right right after that. Yeah, because this one was in Jacksonville, I believe. Yeah, we didn't know. We still were being told the same thing. And then everybody speculating because everybody had a different leadship, but this one or a secretary or girl in the office, and they were telling things, but we still didn't know. We knew it was coming. And then half the guys, you know wrestling mentality, go ah, it's the same as everything else. It's a big work. But some people were holding up to Eric was buying the company and things, We're gonna try to stay status quo. A lot of guys didn't, like I said, and we talked about this in the past going into that night. A lot of us didn't care. They were getting eight guaranteed money. You can go to business all you want, you OLB. But then there were guys trying to There were guys still fighting the fight Booker was one of them. There was no more status quo at this point in time, unfortunately. Yeah, there was there was a clear whose ships that get every night when you showed up, I'm working. I don't like it. How you working? What are you gonna do? Dummy's going out? You gotta fire. Wrapping up this episode here, we have one other listener question. We'll get to you. But you are a part of this title's last year in w c W. Really after that, this title, we'll talk about it and we will cover up a lot of ground pretty quickly as we sum up this. We'll have one more episode about this and we'll cover what twenty years it's we'll get that done an episode. So far, we've really gone through a lot here with this title. But you were a part of the end of this man. The title is not quite what it was then, it's not quite what it was before maybe, But how cool is it known that you're part of that. I went in. I'm a big fan of I always say doing my homework and when I it's a shame I didn't do it earlier. But when I became part of that picture for the United States Championship, I went and looked back at everybody who ever held that title. And we've talked about everybody prior to me, that's previous to me, that's held that title, and just and here's the thing, And if you don't know I'm a fan, after this statement, you'll never believe that I'm a fan of this business. I'm holding the same championship belt as Dusty Rhodes, as Harley Race, as Ricky Steamboat, as Rick Flair, as all everybody we've mentioned. I watched the magnum Ta Dark Side Ring thing seven times because every time I watched it, I heard something different and I learned something else. These were the guys that were the groundbreakers, Harley, Rick command Man, Hardy Race, and then for me to even be included in the history of it, and I'll tell you how much a fan I am. I took a screenshot on the WWE website when they list every United States champion, and I'm so bothered that it's not and I think they changed it to Humors instead of General Erection because I think, but they kept it for a while was General Erection. And I was so proud of that, just to be in that picture of you know, and where a lot of people go, oh, that's a bunch of nonsense. It really doesn't mean think, yes, it did it meant a lot to me. It meant it meant the world to me to be trusted to be part of that history. And I'll say that till the day. It meant so much to me to have that opportunity and to be trusted, and then to have the dance partner that I had in land Storm and the you know, and then working with Scottie Steiner and Rick Steyer and Shane and all the guys I got to work with during those runs is unbelievable and it meant the world. So that's like, no one can ever take that away from me. I was part of that. We've shared so many moments as we've gone through all these names, and we've taken the time to stop on all these individuals, not near enough time they deserve, right, but we haven't taken the time to stop and just take it all in. It's a lot to take in, like you just said, and you really think about it, it's a hell of a lot to take in. And it's it's incredible. You look at that thing, like my name, my name's on the same list as Roddy Piper, my name's are you know, on the same list as all these and as the list started to get to the later years where I'm gonna I got to not only admire them, I got to work with them throughout the rest of my career. I'm I sat next to Dusty Roads in the same office for six years. We spend nights together talking about these things and that. You know, so it means a lot to people when you can share that with people that appreciate it's it's awesome. But what a list, and take my self out of it, now, what a list of talent on the United States Championship list? What a list of talent? I don't I don't know how us to finish up that? That part of it incredibly well said. It's like I said, we'll get the one listener question here and next week we'll finish up the title. But well done Bill with that title reign and looking back at it's you know you. This question that we're gonna ask about here kind of ties into what I was gonna say. But I also say the question is from Tristan Vice on Twitter. He wants to know what your feelings are on the comments Kenny Omega recently said about people. So this is what happened here. The critics that think Kenny Omega's rest his sous too dangerous. He said, shut the shut the fuck up right. This was an interview with SI And what Tristan's asking here is Kenny Omega even take the time to comment back on things like this. No, No, his body of work speaks for itself. What he's, what he's done, and what he does now speaks for itself. And why do we put so much stock in people's opinions? And that's the thing that I talked about being a fan. They're not fans of the business, they're not fans of what he does. Do I agree with a lot of it? Who am I to say because of the things I did bob wire backs and glass cages and you know, bob wire cages and lightening myself on fire. So the things these cats are doing, it is just the evolution of what we did. But I don't think, and I don't think because I think he's better than that one. I think Kenny's better than that. And once you once you validate that, that phrase, you know, that comment that opens the Canada works for everybody else to jump on board. So it's it's all hard thing to do. I've become very good at it. I ignore that stuff. Somebody who makes that comment isn't watching for the right reasons. So I don't think Kenny has to justify anything he does. I think it's it's it thinks that we get baited in as grown men to instantly just cuss people out and you know, screw off and all that stuff, and it's not who you are, but it's it's emotionally that's what happens them at the time, and after way you get sick of his social media stuff. So I don't I don't doubt him for his reaction. I just as as an old fart, I would say, don't, don't put it over man, don't don't give him the time of day. They'll go away because they got no reaction. I'm not on the level of you, or can you make it about what I have been doing his podcasting for over fifteen years now. I've been associator involved with well over fifty million podcasts, download listens whatever. Obviously there's a lot of that in this as well. I get it today for the comments I say about things, I've gotten it the comma as I said about sports and all the other podcasts I've been doing for fifteen years. I really just tried to not pay attention to it, even stuff I've done on TV. Yeah, I know they let me on TV. Isn't that crazy? Bill? No, I try to. I try not to let it get to me or even acknowledge it. It's hard, I get it, but it really just adds more fuel to the fire and then it doesn't help anything. Yeah, it's so hard because you're going, dude, have you not watched what I'm doing? Did you not appreciate anything I've done? Or is that why you watched it to tear me down? Same as and like you said with podcasting, like why tune in if all you're gonna do is wait for a moment to lack of you know, everything's wrestling to me to get yourself over. You're not in it for the for the right reasons, but as human beings, as grown men or grown women, you can only take so much because and to me, that just shows his passion and where his heart is. Because somebody go, if you don't answer, you really don't care. No, that's not the case at all. But then if he ads, that makes him a schmuck, right, So we're really putting a bad position, and but we didn't know that. For me, we didn't have this internet problem when I was you know, the first half of my career and guys like that. But these these guys, that's different. Now it's out there a lot. Yeah, these guys now, they're they're they're on put out on Jump Street twenty four hours a day. So his reaction is justified the question. I think the statement was ridiculous and after what he can only thinks so much. So I guess every once in a while, you got to shut somebody down and whatever happens happens. I'll I did with this. I need a Kenny Omega WW run before it's done. I told you I think we talked about him. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about time and time again. I believe that's where when the time comes for him to finish off. I'm pretty sure it'll be in Japan. But he needs a WWE run that'll never end, it'll never end all the haters, but it will do work. Oh yeah, they'll come out of the woodwork. Um, somebody will heat it or Hill can't win. You can't win, Bill, But we did win on this episode. I feel like man, my heart feels warm and it was a great another great night to share with him. Man. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, this this was one that really made me feel like you, Like you said, your heart is warm, like this is the one I probably I know by tomorrow, I'm gonna shoot Lance a tweet or something and I know the answer he'll give me, and I'll give you the heads up. So I'll tell you right now, and I'll tell everybody right now was listening tomorrow the day after the day after we shoot this will be Friday, fourteen, yep. And this will come out on Wednesday. The whenever it comes out, you will see that I tweeted Lance and he will have a sarcastic Canadian comeback for me. Um. But that's how much I think of him. So when you us talking about this at the end, really just brought all that stuff up again. He always makes me feel good when I get to talk about that part of my career with him because it was It truly was a good time with no there was no drama, there was no guessing anything. And I think that was the hardest part of ending WCW for me because I was in the pocket of I was in you know, I was in shanghalalah man. Everything was just working. It all. After six and a half seven years, it finally started to click. It was all gone. But let you you said you mentioned lands and I could just talk forever. Utmost respect for that man, absolutely, So we'll get our plugs and we'll get out of here. Yes, of course you can check out all the episodes on any major podcast platform, but we encourage you to check out the website Buildmont dot com. We've got all the episodes on there. We've got the latest merchandise that we've put out, it's the build Amont Experience T shirt, and of course all the proceeds go to the Foundation, which you can actually find a link to the foundation website on there as well. So every episode you hear us talk about the foundation, well, if you want to learn more about it, see more about it, you can now do so off our website, pick up the t shirt. All the proceeds that come from that will go to the foundation. And of course we have for contact I on Twitter. Podcast father you're build him on on Everything, Think on podcast, Hold on Everything too. Also have the email build um on pod at gmail dot com. I believe it is. Yeah to build him on at gmail dot com. So if you want to reach out you don't have social media, or you don't want to tweet on social media, hey we'll take an email too. But we all we really do appreciate you listening. We have a hell of a good time doing this every week. Great questions every week from from our fan basis building by the week. Um. Great job on the website, and thank you so much for adding the foundation stuff on there. It looks amazing. Get the merchandise. Tune in. We're we're we haven't even started to find our groove yet. You and I we're this thing is running so smooth and we're building such good momentum. Just appreciate it every week and thank you to everyone, and keep tuning in absolutely. Like I announced this week, we passed the hundred k on the listens. That's just on the podcast platform. That's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate it, Appreciate it completely, and we'll keep trying to deliver the best content that we can and we'll talk about whatever we want. In the meantime, we'll talk about Bill Dumont's massive young teenage son that he has has size sixteen shoes. We'll talk about whatever we want, so stupid. No, I'm happy to do that with you, man, Thank you man. It's always a pleasure. I always tell you truly great, and I got to let you know that. Every week it's Julie the best part of my week, and I enjoy it and thank you. Thank you for bringing me in to your world. And I'm having a lot of fun. I could say the same to you. Thanks for bringing me into your experience and everybody else going along with experience with us until next week. Keep being you and keep being great. You can get you feel a bright sha take a lostance on the right. What don't let my molly? Y'all you sweat shot the best yourself, finish yall shot things, Jeff Townsend. Media saves you. Good night. And the question is do I stay here? Will you be back? Are you gonna come back? Will you be back? Are you coming back?
