E457 Ric Flair
Episode Stats
Length
2 hours and 9 minutes
Words per Minute
175.62357
Summary
16-time World Champ, 16-time world champion, 16 time world record holder, and 6 time world champion of the Harlem Globetrotter, Rodger Sherman, stops by The Oven Lounge in Tampa, Florida to talk about his career, his love of cigars, and his love for guns.
Transcript
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theovon.com slash t-o-u-r for the return of the rat tour thank you so much uh for just coming out and
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being a part of my life new merch for you merch heads out there we've got some new shorts
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to yourself tees in aqua creamsicle and indigo get that and more only at theovonstore.com
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we want to thank grand cathedral cigars in tampa florida for letting us host uh the episode here
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really uh universe for cigaring and um and doing that it's it's stunning it is it is undeniably the
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nicest cigar lounge that i've been in now i've only been in probably 11 cigar lounges
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so that's the only part of it that i want to be honest about but we are very thankful for them
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in uh tampa florida at 2201 north florida avenue today's guest is a 16 time
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world champion uh there's nobody like him i'll tell you that he's one of a kind he has had quite
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a life i mean the guy has been he's almost he survived a plane crash a lightning strike
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he's been through it all uh we're grateful for his time today he's one of the greatest entertainers
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of our time of our time today's guest is the nature boy rick
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Yeah, that's where I moved over to Nashville a few years ago.
00:04:01.000
And you can conceal, carry a weapon over there.
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I mean, even if it's not legal, somebody's carrying a weapon.
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Well, heck, in half your career, somebody always,
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You wouldn't believe some of the stories I could tell you about guns.
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I grew up in Minnesota, so we pheasant, duck, stuff like that.
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I had a guy that was a policeman in Asheville, North Carolina.
00:05:00.960
In the 70s, you know how these guns that they recover in raids and all that shit, right?
00:05:07.980
And he would let me walk in the room, pick out what I wanted.
00:05:10.780
He would pay, I would just pay ridiculously low amounts of money.
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Like, as an example, they used to have the state troopers to carry that nickel-plated at .357.
00:05:27.980
The only gun I don't have, I should have got it, but I didn't, is I was going to buy a replica
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I shot, recently I shot, I was in Nashville, actually, I was at Kid Rock's house.
00:06:07.980
Yeah, and John, they went all five of the bars now.
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He built like a new, it's almost like the capital of the South in a way or something.
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Yeah, you roll up there, you're like, this is unreal.
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In a big arena, I thought it was like a warehouse.
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He's got a good darn production studio in there, all his collective cars, I mean, two bars,
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He said he can get married and divorced right there legally on his property.
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I said, I think the bar probably helps you get divorced.
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He said, I'm going to let the young kids or help inspire them and help them.
00:07:06.980
Man, I spent so much of my childhood watching you, man.
00:07:10.780
You know, it was, some people watched WWF, right?
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But when I was a kid, if you stayed up and if you watched NWA, right, that's who knew
00:07:24.980
about, like those, that's when you could tell if people were rich or not.
00:07:30.800
Like poor kids always knew about all the NWA guys.
00:07:37.440
So just like a small town outside of New Orleans.
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And man, it was, dude, Terry Funk, just, uh, Ron Eriks.
00:07:48.060
Just, God, there was so much awesome wrestling back then.
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But that was the Rock and Roll Express where they're in that express.
00:08:03.820
You know, we've lost a lot of them, unfortunately.
00:08:10.560
And that's, I mean, yeah, that whole family just tragedy.
00:08:22.760
Well, obviously, the oldest son, you know, got electrocuted.
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When his dad first started out there in Buffalo, New York.
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He got electrocuted with a hot wire in a damn trailer park.
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And then Carrie and David, you know, had some kind of, obviously, illegal substance.
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It was a, I can't remember what they're called.
00:09:02.720
He loaded up on Somas and he got sick after eating Korean barbecue and all that, which we all do in Japan.
00:09:15.460
Yeah, she couldn't regurgitate because she was taking the Somas and that, I've never understood that, but that, that high from a Soma is nothing I want to entertain ever.
00:09:25.460
Yeah, a buddy of mine gave me two Somas once and I was, he wanted me to drive us somewhere.
00:09:34.100
And I drove us onto a street that didn't even exist right into a ditch.
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I've never tried one, but man, I've, I've been, I can name three or four guys that have died, you know, because they just can't regurgitate.
00:09:47.200
They wake up in the middle of the night and that the Somas relax your muscles so bad, you can't.
00:10:00.700
Did, did you go to some funerals over the year?
00:10:07.860
Was there, I mean, obviously funerals are just heartbreaking.
00:10:11.320
Well, probably the hardest for me, um, in the last five years, but well, first of all, Dusty Rhodes was, Dusty and Piper were really difficult for me.
00:10:22.780
And then Harley Race, that was really difficult.
00:10:27.840
Yeah, Dusty must have shot, I mean, it must have been heartbreaking.
00:10:30.300
The WWE, they, they, the funeral for Dusty was as, was as well handled as I think I've ever seen.
00:10:40.360
And the, shit, there were probably 2,000 people trying to get in, but the WWE had full security.
00:10:46.600
And, um, the boys spoke so elegantly of their dad.
00:10:52.760
Um, Cody, who's wrestling now, well, they both wrestle, but Cody with WWE was telling a story.
00:10:59.840
And he, you know, he didn't, neither one broke down real bad.
00:11:04.980
But he said, he asked his mom one time, he said, how come there's only just pictures of dad in the house and no other wrestlers?
00:11:12.360
And his mother replied, why would you have a picture of any other wrestler when you're married to Elvis?
00:11:30.360
They were tied with Vince and innovative with ideas and creativity and, uh.
00:11:37.040
He was so fun to, like, there's wrestlers that are entertaining to watch because of their physical acumen.
00:11:44.260
There's wrestlers that are entertaining to watch because of the moves they do.
00:11:48.540
Dusty had that, like, I love when he would go against the ropes and kind of put on this, like,
00:11:53.040
like, almost feminine wiles kind of thing, you know, and, like, he was just a, um.
00:11:59.640
I wrestled him probably a thousand hour Broadway.
00:12:06.180
It was, it was deceiving as to the fact that he could, he was in good condition.
00:12:28.020
I bet I keep you overnight in Tampa tonight, brother.
00:12:31.420
I get some people that can help you out with that.
00:12:38.480
My friend Dick Murdoch told me I started one time.
00:12:42.740
He said, hey, we both started at the same time.
00:12:55.360
All these chicks want to, you know, everybody wants to get off and it's just too much, man.
00:13:00.260
I miss the old days when a woman was as happy you showed off.
00:13:08.120
Well, I always had to take, you know, I've always had, so I was always so nervous.
00:13:11.360
I've always been nervous, kind of nervous my whole life.
00:13:13.540
And I've always had to get those gas station pills, those wiener pills, you know.
00:13:18.620
And a lot of the series they came out with, they never even tested.
00:13:26.000
Which I respect, but it's a little different, you know.
00:13:28.880
Three blocks from here at the age of the nation.
00:13:39.360
It's amazing what you can do to yourself these days.
00:13:53.260
Yeah, because look, I would get these, I'd get the gas station pills and they make my legs
00:13:59.160
So I could have, heck, but I could barely stay on the bed.
00:14:04.340
I mean, it would be like, the lady would be like, she'd be like, did you get off?
00:14:20.980
I think I used to, I used a lot of steroids when I was young and I don't know if that had
00:14:24.540
enough, I don't know, who knows, who knows, you know, it could just be that I'm in my head
00:14:32.380
I took a few too, I have to admit, in my youth.
00:14:36.600
Dude, I took them, dude, I once, I'll tell you.
00:14:46.800
Oh, man, you could spend four minutes looking for one of your nuts.
00:14:52.080
Wait, we got the medicine over here to make them grow back?
00:15:09.220
I think when I was a senior in high school, it was like trying to find the last two pieces
00:15:19.620
Yeah, I remember, we used to use Test 200, I think was what we used or something.
00:15:29.560
My God, I would fucking choke out my own stepmother.
00:15:37.460
I never gave me, I guess I didn't take enough of it, but I didn't have that, what they call
00:15:43.080
I mean, things upset me over the years, but it wasn't as a result of being a steroid,
00:15:51.000
But I think you had enough, you had enough energy in you.
00:15:58.520
People have always assumed that I snorted cocaine and all that.
00:16:02.160
The only drug I've ever taken, but it was prescription Xanax.
00:16:09.360
I did smoke weed when I'm younger and I smoke it now.
00:16:11.820
Now that I'm involved in the world of cannabis, but I think that's one of the reasons I'm
00:16:17.220
still here, because that, that up and down of cocaine and then the guys would take the
00:16:21.840
uppers in the morning, you know, not just our guys, but athletes, period.
00:16:28.360
It's a game when you're competing, stay up and then go down, stay up, especially, you
00:16:34.900
know, when you're internationally, when you're traveling internationally, you know, like going
00:16:39.340
to Japan twice a month or going to Australia twice a month.
00:16:47.220
And once you get used, this is the tough thing about using performance enhancers.
00:16:51.120
I think once you get used to getting something to help you get up or to get down, it's hard
00:17:02.780
Well, when I almost died in 17, I mean, I literally, you know, do you know the story?
00:17:14.040
Oh, when you had the stomach, when you had the intestine rupture.
00:17:17.580
I was septic, respiratory heart failure, total kidney failure, pneumonia, septic being the
00:17:28.860
So when all that, and then of course I had the stoma, the bag attached, had that for a
00:17:36.080
But at the end of the day, when I finally realized, and I had no memory for six months going
00:17:41.140
backwards, forward, from the time I woke up, of course I recognized everybody, but I couldn't
00:17:50.780
Um, so, but when I finally started taking a toll of myself, like, I'm like, fuck, I am
00:17:57.740
really a fucking, I'm a nightmare, cosmetic fucking nightmare.
00:18:14.980
I was, stoma, I'll show you some pictures later on.
00:18:20.280
Yeah, and my testosterone count, you know, something I always took pride in, right?
00:18:24.800
And we all do, we get it done, blood work is a necessity of life.
00:18:34.140
But doctors don't want to play, the word testosterone is like, no, like, you know, doctors don't want
00:18:41.740
I mean, you can, there are ways to find out the levels that you should be at.
00:18:47.880
So I called the doctor, I said, well, that's too old, but I don't want to prescribe it.
00:19:02.340
But I have to run by the gas station every week.
00:19:04.240
Oh, yeah, dude, fill her up, you know what I'm saying, brother.
00:19:10.960
The 400 of my age don't work, I get the thousand, I got to have a little bit of a check.
00:19:22.740
Yeah, so you were out of, what was it like to be in a coma, man?
00:19:29.760
I just dreamt, and I wake, like I dreamt my daughter, I got married, and I went back
00:19:37.100
and old thought about stuff and wrestling, and it's funny, I got so high with Mike one
00:19:45.440
So high, we're partners in the cannabis business.
00:19:48.740
Got so high with Mike one night in the Hamptons that I went, it's called a cannabis coma,
00:19:59.760
I said to myself, and they brought me back to my room, and I laid there, and I thought,
00:20:09.260
I kept asking people to touch, you know, like you do when you think you've been hurt, and
00:20:14.700
people were squeezing my hand, but I'd be talking to them, and they wouldn't talk back
00:20:18.840
to me, and I was like, you know, on the delay process, right?
00:20:27.520
Because I feel like I did when I was in my coma.
00:20:32.040
I don't think I could think, because I was in my coma.
00:20:34.000
I mean, that's the way I was talking to myself.
00:20:36.240
So, and all of a sudden, I mean, everything possible, I was in the room, finally, at three
00:20:42.520
o'clock in the morning, I kind of sat up like Linda Blair, and went, I'm alive.
00:20:49.040
I called someone on the phone and said, is this really you?
00:20:57.300
That was just a television, that was a television timeout, Rick.
00:21:03.600
I said, did I take my clothes off at the dining room table or anything, but let me know what
00:21:09.200
All I could think of was what I possibly could have done wrong.
00:21:14.240
I remember, I remember just being too, just, yeah, there's something about that level of
00:21:21.960
Oh, well, I just hadn't done enough, but I practiced up every time I knew I'm going to
00:21:32.760
I'm about a three or four hit guy, but I just said, I'm going to smoke as much as you right
00:21:40.460
Dude, that weed comes off the top road, brother.
00:21:46.480
I remember getting so high one night, I was trying to sneak up on a mirror for like probably
00:21:57.820
And I'll tell you this, dude, I got pretty fucking close, man.
00:22:04.060
Oh, I think if it had been a leap year, I could have done it.
00:22:06.120
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Um, you know, I've had times where I wasn't seeing the world as comfortably as I should
00:24:08.940
be, you know, and it wasn't just a little thing.
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It wasn't just something that I knew would pass.
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It was something that that was building and gaining momentum inside of me.
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You know, one thing, Rick, that I noticed that you did, that you always did really exceptionally,
00:25:20.680
which kept me super entertained, was your ability to play defense actively, right?
00:25:30.360
Like, even if you were being the victim in the fight, you were always, like, asking for
00:25:37.000
There was always, if you got hit, you always went over your own legs.
00:25:40.640
It was like, it was as much fun to watch you, like, being defeated as it was to watch you
00:25:57.080
And then I just lie the next day on TV and then people forget about it.
00:26:02.540
When you were begging for mercy, nobody did it.
00:26:07.460
Especially with the hair, red, blood flying everywhere.
00:26:10.100
But there was something about it that, because a lot of guys, they would just be getting
00:26:15.140
But you were always actively demanding the attention.
00:26:19.920
Sometimes I wouldn't even know who was hitting you, because I was watching you.
00:26:25.280
A lot of times you're watching the beater, not the BT, you know?
00:26:39.220
I'm still looking out the window in fourth grade.
00:26:47.280
I spent 13 years in high school, let me tell you.
00:27:06.140
Do you remember going, did you go to high school prom?
00:27:33.920
Because I got in some trouble trying to buy liquor underage.
00:27:38.500
Nothing serious, but it was enough to get me in trouble.
00:27:41.240
And then riding my scooter around Lake Calhoun.
00:27:47.520
And there's no cell phones back in the 60s and all that.
00:28:02.420
And I said to my mom and dad, I said, can I go visit my friend Bruce in Chicago?
00:28:13.200
And I walked out of the train station and hitchhacked all the way to Fort Lauderdale.
00:28:19.500
So would you go right out to the interstate and put your thumb out?
00:28:23.780
I mean, I'm walking through Macon County line, man.
00:28:26.720
That was some strange shit for a guy from Minneapolis.
00:28:34.380
So anyway, then I got picked up by these college girls.
00:28:43.240
And with my friend and this chick who is working at Arby's.
00:28:49.060
Oh, God, a Wisconsin leather jacket on and no shirt.
00:28:58.540
She said, you want to go have drinks afterwards?
00:29:02.980
And so I ended up staying with her and her mom.
00:29:20.780
But I ended up inviting her to a prom, you know, but not even thinking.
00:29:33.760
Are you going to pick me up and take me to prom?
00:29:58.620
And you told your girlfriend you couldn't take her?
00:30:07.720
Well, I didn't really have that kind of relationship in high school.
00:30:28.720
At 10 o'clock, you get ten minutes to go hide behind a tree.
00:30:36.780
But we all had binoculars and shit, you know, and telescope.
00:30:53.420
So they gave you ten minutes after the prom and after the dance ended?
00:30:57.060
After every Saturday night, they called it SOCH.
00:31:02.380
Which one of the night is going to be in a tree.
00:31:08.140
And just as I got that first hook I called, here goes the whistle.
00:31:30.480
Oh, it's so hard to touch a tit with a St. Bernard bite.
00:31:39.700
Next time you just not wear a bra or just wear a big sweater, nobody will know.
00:31:47.500
So you were unsuccessful with staying committed in a relationship from the beginning.
00:32:01.240
You know, you being a fan, you probably don't realize.
00:32:04.300
I wrestled an average of 400 days a year, 400 times.
00:32:10.160
Because twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday for 10 years.
00:32:14.340
My accountant would say, how can you wrestle 400?
00:32:16.100
Don't, Rick, I know you graduated, but it's only 365 days.
00:32:20.100
I said, I know, but I wrestled twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday.
00:32:33.060
My first wife just said, this is cool, and I have two kids by her.
00:32:39.420
She just said, this is not what I signed up for.
00:32:47.640
Because once you get on the road and you're successful, as you know,
00:32:57.700
If you have a day off and you're like in Los Angeles, you have one day off.
00:33:01.220
Are you going to go all the way back to Toronto, Carolina, or are you going to
00:33:04.980
You're going to stay in L.A. and start a new family.
00:33:11.140
How many guys do you feel like had kind of illegitimate children out there?
00:33:32.840
But, you know, some of these girls, in the old days, they wanted to get pregnant.
00:33:41.820
You know, that's why all this stuff is so sophisticated now with DNA and all that.
00:33:47.900
That stuff wasn't around back when I was your age and that.
00:33:51.860
Yeah, you had to hold the baby up next to the man.
00:33:58.680
But I think, you know, falling back, that kids can't all fall back on wrestlers.
00:34:08.400
I mean, the football players that travel, the basketball players that travel, baseball players
00:34:22.560
I'm like, can we have tickets to the match this night?
00:34:39.660
They still are some of them, but it's just an attitude thing now.
00:34:43.980
But some of them now, they're hot, but then they're like men.
00:34:51.200
Or, you know, they're just kind of like, you think it's a woman, and then they turn them
00:34:54.720
and they say, you know, and they're like, I'm a man, you know, and you're like, oh, dang.
00:35:00.020
I haven't experienced that, but I've experienced it where they just don't want to do any more
00:35:06.260
In the old days, I think that they were trained.
00:35:14.960
Things have changed a lot with that, and, you know, you just, you can't, you can't, you
00:35:20.280
got to be very careful what you say to a woman now.
00:35:27.980
I used to walk around all the flight attendants doing the sweet and low joke, you know.
00:35:33.680
You know what sugar is different between sugar and sweet and low?
00:35:42.560
No, you couldn't, you couldn't never do that with a flight attendants now.
00:35:46.660
But did women get offended back then by it, or they kind of liked flirting, or what was
00:35:53.700
I mean, but, but, but, you know, now it's like any kind of travel today.
00:35:59.420
I, I mean, I dread, that's why I fly private a lot.
00:36:03.240
If I, if I can, if I, if it's within, if it's practical.
00:36:08.580
Um, because people in general, they put computers on, put earplugs on.
00:36:14.920
People don't drink on, in the old days, people would drink on the planes.
00:36:18.480
Talk to each other and walk around, and now everything is such a stringent, I mean, everything
00:36:26.240
You know, remember the old, we used to sit in the old cabins on the higher end, the 747s,
00:36:32.200
tell stories, laugh, and the big trays of food.
00:36:35.520
I mean, that, all that stuff on, on our domestic airlines that are gone.
00:36:40.320
Now the foreign airlines still let that stuff go on.
00:36:45.520
Singapore Airlines, you would never get off the plane.
00:36:53.700
They had somebody come out and polish my feet on there.
00:36:56.100
I never, I didn't even know they needed polish.
00:37:00.340
They'll fucking cut your, I mean, they'll cut the hair on the back of your legs.
00:37:03.020
Yeah, I mean, I mean, but on, ongoing, uh, Dom Perignon, I mean, they just, they
00:37:11.320
It does, but domestically, it's just gotten so conservative and it's just different.
00:37:22.660
Well, I understand that, but I mean, it's just, you know, I understand the pilot thing,
00:37:27.500
but it's like, you know, if you're, I'll give you an example.
00:37:30.920
So I fly, I've got, like, I've got 4 million miles with, uh, Delta and I had, you add up
00:37:42.000
No, I probably have had 15 million miles between Northwest, which went bankrupt, Eastern
00:37:50.660
Well, I mean, they've all, you know, gone upside down.
00:38:02.080
But, um, we're used to be able to socialize and all that.
00:38:05.160
Now, you know, when the cap, like when the thing goes on and they go, here's what makes
00:38:12.700
You know, when the captain goes, okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're getting ready to approach.
00:38:22.260
You're still 45 to 50 minutes from touching down to Plains of 70.
00:38:33.220
Ma'am, the flight, we're not going to land for 50 minutes.
00:38:37.260
I said, ma'am, I said, um, can I have a boat beer?
00:39:01.320
And some of, and I would say it's like 80, 60, 40, good.
00:39:06.480
But the 40 can just, you know, and then, and then like I had that surgery, right?
00:39:12.460
That bag broke a couple of times on their plane.
00:39:22.800
Oh, you really don't want me to know, but don't knock in the door again.
00:39:43.360
I mean, I've stepped in shit before and that's, that's, if I was bringing my own shit outside
00:39:56.440
But it, it got me where like on the weekend, it sends out like a weekend warrior.
00:40:02.260
It's like, you know, like being in a rest home though.
00:40:04.720
Regular staff is gone and the people working on the weekends, I don't want to be there
00:40:12.020
So then she finally went to a stoma class and learned how to do it herself.
00:40:18.320
And, and you have to rewatch what you eat because different things trigger it.
00:40:23.460
Was it kind of cool to eat some things and see them come out in the bag?
00:40:40.580
My sister was born with a rare liver disease and so she needed a transplant her whole lives
00:40:49.400
And so there was always, we were always dealing with bile or some type of thing around the house,
00:40:56.280
I feel that I'm, I feel bad at making light of it.
00:41:00.400
No, I was just saying some of the things that you go through with that condition,
00:41:10.240
That really care for you, that to be around you.
00:41:14.280
I would love to marry a nurse, I think, one day because this, the ability to have that
00:41:23.620
Let me tell you, this, I had, right after this, right, I had to have four heart surgeries
00:41:34.740
But by the time, by the second two, they were walking me in,
00:41:40.080
into the same room and the same nurses, and the girl brought a, what do you call those
00:41:49.100
things, a player, she was playing my space odyssey.
00:41:53.540
Yeah, my entrance music, yeah, and she goes, she goes to me, I swear to God, you couldn't
00:42:00.620
make it up, right, so they're putting me down and covering me up, and she put a washcloth
00:42:07.400
on top of my groin, and she said, I won't let Buddy C. Space Mountain look like this.
00:42:28.500
She said, we don't want to see Space Mountain looking like this.
00:42:39.920
These days, man, you don't know who's trying to look.
00:42:57.360
Yeah, you don't want to, yeah, that would be the worst, man.
00:43:02.780
Yeah, when I was getting my second best activity, the first one didn't work.
00:43:06.800
I told the grocer, wait for me, and I said, dude, you guys signed the release?
00:43:13.340
This release is such, you're not going to tell a buddy how small my dick is.
00:43:28.100
I'm getting ready going, have you guys cut my nuts again?
00:43:31.940
Trying to find some fucking humor in the moment.
00:43:34.060
Yeah, like, gee, first lady, you're about to saw into my nutsack.
00:44:00.840
Girls will be like, come and fuck me, you creep.
00:44:24.480
Because Florida has a lot of criminals built into it.
00:44:36.620
You know, the difference between Miami and Tampa is like night and day.
00:44:47.000
But it just seems like there's an abundance of them in Tampa.
00:44:59.740
I mean, and then you've got Florida, Florida State.
00:45:02.640
I mean, there's a bar over here called AMSO that during the football season, when the alumni and all the – it's insanity.
00:45:12.980
Yeah, and they – it's over here on the water, you know, with the yachts outside and everything.
00:45:18.920
And I would say it's probably – probably 14,000 or 15,000 square feet.
00:45:28.220
But, man, for these – they have, like, 30 TVs for these college games and that river in town.
00:45:49.020
35 on a Saturday in American Social, a lot could do a lot of damage.
00:46:05.400
Who – did you guys – after the matches, was there, like, group shower?
00:46:09.280
How did it all – was there, like, a big group shower?
00:46:13.600
Like, for the – like, did you guys – was it, like, a football team that after the night, everybody – was there, like, a big –
00:46:23.780
And when you guys used to drive – I mean, one thing that's always fascinating about wrestlers, I'm friends with The Miz, right?
00:46:33.040
We've known each other for almost 15 years now.
00:46:36.740
He's a guy that really cares for the business, man.
00:46:44.640
And that, you know, that's – the guy's a bully.
00:47:01.660
Whatever they hand him, he goes, he doesn't complain.
00:47:16.540
He always had that energy that was – he always had this charisma that was a little bit beyond him as a person.
00:47:30.640
He and I communicate sometimes on social media.
00:47:34.200
The Miz and I have been friends for a long time and I've always admired his ability to roll with the punches.
00:47:40.400
What was it like whenever you – did your storyline ever get like where you were like – I know you had like those Bischoff years where you didn't love it and –
00:47:55.900
Well, I was – you know, out of sight, out of mind.
00:48:02.480
Like what do you mean out of sight, out of mind?
00:48:04.460
I mean he thought if he could take me off TV and bury me that – he forgot where I'd been for 20 years, 25 years before I met him.
00:48:18.420
And then all of a sudden have some good shit try and put you in the back of the pack.
00:48:24.480
Yeah, I don't even think – you couldn't either –
00:48:28.360
That was a big self-confidence, a big time loss of self-confidence period in my life.
00:48:39.320
I guess you don't have as much control over how – not relevant you stay, but how much –
00:48:48.940
I mean it's kind of interesting the way you guys' business is set up, right?
00:48:52.080
It's like you're the performer, you're the athlete, you're the competitor, but then there's also this business side that kind of gets to –
00:49:08.180
When I got in the business, you were either good or you were bad.
00:49:12.280
And if you were bad and they don't like you, they beat you up.
00:49:24.440
Usually when you enjoyed it the most, when I enjoyed it the most is when you were there because you were that much better than the next guy or the woman.
00:49:37.740
Now it's – you can be better than anybody, but it's all – it's sad.
00:49:47.240
But you either accept it or you don't be part of it.
00:49:52.880
And I'd rather be part of it and accept it and I don't talk about it, then I'm not talking about any individuals.
00:49:59.620
I'm just addressing the reality of our business now.
00:50:06.020
Where football and all that, it's political, but you're not going to put Aaron Rodgers down.
00:50:11.520
You're not going to put down X, Y, Z, whatever, use Aaron as an example.
00:50:21.940
And if somebody says something smart, it's almost – with you guys, it almost would behoove them to use that as the –
00:50:30.100
Well, yeah, but they have these writers that come in that have never wrestled.
00:50:39.960
Because if it took me 12 years, let's say I started in 72, I didn't figure the shit out really until 83.
00:50:55.000
And every time I thought I had it, something else popped up.
00:51:25.480
What was it like when you guys would hit the road?
00:51:32.820
And it was mostly the southeast you guys were in, huh?
00:51:43.560
But Hulk and I are probably only two guys that during the course of our career and our heyday that never left home.
00:51:59.260
I mean, I wish I had come down here only because of the state tax issue.
00:52:05.400
But once I found it, when I was there, when I got to Charlotte, it was me and Richard Petty.
00:52:16.760
And why would I leave that to come anywhere, right?
00:52:21.600
If it's a city, you feel like that's your home.
00:52:23.220
Well, I moved there when I was 23, and I grew with the city.
00:52:27.480
Did all your wives, you met them all in Charlotte?
00:52:35.920
She lives in Charlotte now because of my grandchildren.
00:52:45.180
So we used to stay at the Raleigh Hilton, and there was a bar called the Hilton Underground, right?
00:52:50.820
So this guy walked up to me and says, God damn, I was talking about 10 girls that was packed.
00:52:55.780
Because I used to always say on TV, I used to go, whatever hotel we were going to be in,
00:53:02.920
I would say, 18 to 28, no boyfriends, no husbands.
00:53:15.160
Well, same thing as you thought about me not wearing them a wedding ring.
00:53:18.860
I said, God, that's not my gimme, honey, please.
00:53:21.280
I said, why are you telling them where we were staying at?
00:53:27.300
I mean, do you actually think anybody shows up?
00:53:35.440
This guy goes to me, can the guy get laid here?
00:54:04.360
And listen, I was so good, I used to get the midget wrestling laid.
00:54:12.400
I said, you little sumbitch, it's hard to get you laid.
00:54:18.280
Yeah, what kind of women would you usually go for that little fella?
00:54:35.620
The officer called me and said, the midget's turned down.
00:54:43.640
So we're driving on the road, like, give me your laid, give me laid, give me laid.
00:55:02.060
So in Tokyo, it was hard to get a little person laid?
00:55:05.680
But Cowboy Lang had a pretty good hang on him, so I could sell that to the girl.
00:55:14.600
I mean, that would be just a, you know, that's like a damn kettlebell.
00:55:25.020
I mean, if you even have half a pound of wiener on a little person, that's fucking.
00:55:35.480
And especially if you put the right makeup on the sides of it, dude.
00:56:08.000
Probably for a lifeguard at a, at a, I got, I got my lifeguard and thing.
00:56:17.860
So, um, I got my WSI so I could be a lifeguard at the, my parents lived in the colony apartments
00:56:24.380
while they were waiting for a new home to be built for two years.
00:56:27.680
So I, this summertime job, I clean the pool, lifeguard, go swimming instructions, talk to
00:56:39.300
The lonely mothers with their husbands on the road.
00:56:42.200
You were, you were working both sides of the net then, man.
00:56:54.380
Don't let your babies grow up to be a little nature boy.
00:57:00.200
I want to let you know that, uh, Gray Block Pizza, you know, they, uh, were the first sponsor
00:57:12.780
He, he, he, he folded up his dough and, uh, and he moved to Oregon and he started a business
00:57:20.540
called blue cube baths and they are ice plunges.
00:57:26.320
And man, they just put you, God, they just put you right back into the cradle of civilization,
00:57:36.900
They'll make a, Oh, they'll make a dang Eagle land on your tongue.
00:57:51.100
Um, I was very fortunate to receive one as a gift from them.
00:57:57.280
And I just wanted to let you know how they associate, uh, to the podcast.
00:58:01.800
And, uh, if you're interested in, in an ice bath or in a cold plunge, blue cube baths
00:58:09.520
We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.
00:58:20.500
Fast free wifi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.
00:58:34.760
Wifi available to Airplane members on equipped flights.
00:58:46.820
To this day, I'm not a beta because I was, I was seeing this girl that was a flight attendant
00:58:52.680
for Northwest Airlines who was dating the head of the beta, the beta house at the University
00:58:59.360
So when they rushed me, it's like five years later, the guy, he never, he never got over it.
00:59:15.340
I'd talk to her mom and dad in the apartment and she would say, Rick, come to the door.
00:59:19.460
Come up to the stairway so I can show you something.
00:59:22.580
And she, I'd walk over to the stairway and she'd be standing there completely naked in
00:59:34.620
And tits was just so nice back then, weren't they?
00:59:39.460
God, I'd never seen anything like that in my entire life.
00:59:54.820
I blew corral her car, which is that old-fashioned deal where it's 10 hours, sweating like a snow
01:00:08.240
And that's the first woman you ever made love to?
01:00:11.820
The first woman I made love to was, I didn't know how to make love.
01:00:20.160
But the validity of the fact is I could recover in six seconds.
01:00:27.520
So just think, okay, let me just, okay, I'm ready.
01:00:35.900
I would get counted out of the ring all the time.
01:00:43.180
And there's nothing sadder, I'll tell you this, from somebody, you don't have this experience,
01:00:47.060
but I'll tell you, there's nothing sadder when a girl's like, you want to go again?
01:00:49.720
And you're like, I want to, you know what I'm saying?
01:00:54.320
And then you have to sit there and do something, or you got to fucking go get a lemonade or
01:01:05.580
But in that situation, I just go, like, I'm tired.
01:01:10.920
But then the worst part is, I never say I can't.
01:01:18.400
The minute you start telling a woman the truth, then you got to be honest with yourself, and
01:01:25.320
They can put the hottest light on me and ask me a thousand times.
01:01:29.240
And I am guilty of doing it, but I still won't admit it.
01:01:34.780
I told the judge five times, judge, I did not do that.
01:01:41.720
The judge said, I'm going to hold you in contempt.
01:01:56.860
When you start telling the truth, boy, you're in trouble.
01:02:04.160
They want you to, they want to be, they want to be as clever as we are.
01:02:41.260
Even if there's your blanks, they make the noise.
01:03:04.480
I think there could be a woman that could come up to me right now and be like, do you
01:03:10.820
First of all, a lot of them don't look the same.
01:03:13.940
I just, I have no idea what you're talking about.
01:03:31.780
Have you had some ladies that came back that showed back up?
01:03:49.340
And I'm probably, it's like my friend and I just said, beak.
01:04:23.900
Was it, you worked, I know you worked on the road.
01:04:29.220
Who do you, who was fun to travel with on the road?
01:04:31.060
Like when you guys were just in the car cruising?
01:04:43.320
You guys, and would y'all all ride in the same car?
01:04:48.080
We're all driving Cadillacs and I bought, and then all of a sudden the Mercedes thing hit
01:04:56.140
I bought a Rolls-Royce one time, but it just, it wasn't even worth it.
01:05:02.780
And you can't park it near anything because you're afraid it's going to get dinged up.
01:05:06.880
I rode with a friend one time who was rich, and I'm like, dude, we got to park seven miles
01:05:11.000
away because you don't want to get the doors dinged.
01:05:23.040
Our company bought a Falcon 10, which was great.
01:05:36.900
But as we started to realize that we were at a level of popularity, why not spend the night?
01:05:44.340
And enjoy the local, you know, whatever, food, whatever, establishment, ladies, whatever.
01:05:53.040
But then when we got the jet, that's when we, we parked our jet in like Vegas, worked
01:06:23.900
You know, a lot of the guys were loading up, which is not uncommon.
01:06:34.280
He said, you're going to, this guy can see this happening in your business.
01:06:39.600
But, you know, it happens not just to you guys, but because of the wear and tear in the
01:06:49.700
But, oh, man, I'll tell you, I've had 17 nervous breakdowns.
01:06:56.120
And one night I wrestled for an hour in Orlando in the old Eddie Graham Sports Arena, which
01:07:17.300
He said, what was the last time you went to bed?
01:07:26.700
And then, so I had to go to Tokyo the next day.
01:07:32.660
And I got in a plane going, God, I can't do this.
01:07:41.700
I maybe slept two hours, but I woke up and kept drinking, right?
01:07:53.340
And I could hear Bob, his wife, Flair, son, you know,
01:08:00.220
I said, when's the next flight back in the United States?
01:08:05.020
He said, we got one for Seattle, leave in the 20 minutes.
01:08:08.440
I said, I went back there, didn't have that deal but the bags.
01:08:13.660
I flew from Narita to Seattle, Seattle to Chicago,
01:08:44.340
You know, and so I talked all the way to Seattle,
01:09:11.160
I mean, I was having a full-fledged nervous breakdown.
01:09:22.960
But the guy from Seattle, we changed addresses, right?
01:09:50.900
God, what did it feel like when you're having a nervous breakdown?
01:09:57.100
I mean, you're just like, you're looking for somebody to talk to.
01:10:05.540
Most people want to run away and go, call the cops.
01:10:13.960
No, I waited until the plane took off before it sent it to him.
01:10:22.740
And nowadays, can you imagine walking up to a plane in it?
01:10:33.440
They'll put you in the suit and take you off the plane.
01:10:57.720
I couldn't get myself to leave and drive to the airport.
01:11:04.780
And when you feel back in it, like, what did it-
01:11:06.820
Yeah, because I was just living a crazy lifestyle.
01:11:10.200
Do you think you felt bad about anything, or do you think you just, it was just so much
01:11:19.760
And the one thing I did do, which is kind of legendary in our business, is regardless
01:11:24.380
of what I did to myself, I worked out every day.
01:11:28.300
And sometimes I just pushed myself too hard, and that would cause that.
01:11:32.940
And then, and having different promoters try to, you know, like when I cut my hair, I
01:11:48.300
When I cut my hair and I walked through the Charlotte airport, nobody knew who I was.
01:11:52.400
I wanted to absolutely walk in the bathroom and kill myself.
01:11:56.540
I used to, I mean, normally walk down there, hey, Ric, combing my hair and all that.
01:12:00.380
Now I got the surfer Joe haircut, just give me a break.
01:12:05.220
You know, I mean, Native Americans, it was a big thing to them to have their hair.
01:12:10.720
If they captured one another, they would scalp one another.
01:12:16.700
I mean, I still can't believe I gave in to them.
01:12:18.940
Man, it's funny because I've cut my hair before and it fucking hurt me.
01:12:25.400
Oh, I can't remember the girl's name, Mary Riley.
01:12:29.560
I said, no, I don't want to do it, but I almost have to to keep my job.
01:12:44.260
Like, I could imagine, like, I don't have any children yet.
01:12:57.620
No, my problem is it was the greatest thing in the world, but I didn't have time to spend with my older ones.
01:13:07.880
But my younger ones, I mean, they lived in Minneapolis, number one.
01:13:22.780
And when they came for the summer, I'm traveling.
01:13:33.200
Or we went to Portland for a week or went to Dallas for a week.
01:13:37.560
You know, but it's a lot to do here with the kids.
01:13:41.920
I mean, I've been to Disney World and Universal at least 50 times each one.
01:13:49.800
With both four sets of kids, with the four kids.
01:13:55.520
Is it hard, like, because you're a hero to so, like, you're an icon to people.
01:14:00.860
You're this, you know, this thing that's larger than life, especially in the time when you were, like, when you were wrestling in your prime.
01:14:10.000
And that was just the prime for, like, if somebody was a star then, there was no way to, the only, they were, if television and their job labeled them a star, they were a star.
01:14:21.440
There was no, and there weren't that many stars, right?
01:14:27.180
But was it, like, I wonder if it would be hard as a child, right, if I'm looking at my father, if I would always feel like, man, how do I love my dad?
01:14:44.600
Yeah, I think my older kids actually, because they didn't understand what I was doing, I think they were very resentful for a while.
01:14:54.220
But, you know, it's just, where is he, you know, and that's all they want.
01:15:00.800
All they want is your time, and the time is what you don't have.
01:15:08.560
I mean, even the kids today are still traveling four days a week.
01:15:13.320
Oh, what's fascinating, a lot of people don't know about wrestlers, is that they, there's, all the times they aren't on television, they're still wrestling.
01:15:20.720
Different fights, they're still wrestling different matches.
01:15:22.900
They're leaving, they're leaving for a two-week tour of England and Italy.
01:15:32.460
Yeah, I just wonder if that built up, like, what it would be like to, you didn't have a choice, so you couldn't wrestle less, really, right?
01:15:43.520
I had a chance to make a movie with the Ryan Pictures.
01:15:52.840
He came to the forum where we're wrestling out there.
01:15:59.380
And I went back, and then Krocchi said, yeah, you have to drop the world championship and go for six months, but I don't know where you'll be when you get back.
01:16:16.800
And you, I think life forced you to make decisions based on what you know, not what you think you can be this.
01:16:25.720
A lot of guys tried forever to make it in Hollywood, and three have made it.
01:16:34.300
But, but I can tell you, I mean, Roddy Piper spent his whole life, but outside of that, they live, they were just B movies.
01:16:51.660
And now it's a lot of people's, you know, there's also even nepotism in that business.
01:16:55.500
There wasn't, there was nepotism in you guys' business kind of, isn't there?
01:16:58.380
Or, like, I guess there's a tradition of name in you guys' business.
01:17:02.180
You know, because you have, like, Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes.
01:17:08.700
There's a lot of people whose children will also wrestle.
01:17:29.160
But my daughter, I have no problem saying this, is the best wrestler, period, female or male
01:17:39.020
Was there ever a thought, did you guys ever get pitched to do a match against each other?
01:17:45.900
What was it like when they had the ladies of wrestling back then?
01:17:50.900
They'd put those dames in there sometimes, you know?
01:17:53.960
And everybody looked like they were like angry jazzercizers.
01:18:07.640
I saw lady wrestlers in the old days, but it's a totally different thing.
01:18:10.920
And they were as badly managed and mistreated as the midgets were.
01:18:19.800
That's why anything I could do to help them transportation-wise and that, or buy them
01:18:30.080
You didn't hate your boy, you didn't hate your boy.
01:19:15.860
Oh, if you show up to fuck at four foot, you got to really mean it.
01:19:36.880
I have a friend that was with a one-legged mission in Dubois.
01:19:52.460
We had a little person in our town and people would always try and get him to like tell
01:19:57.180
Like people always thought he knew secrets and like magic and shit.
01:20:14.060
But there's, you gotta, there's, you, there's one and it's all wrestlers.
01:20:17.420
Who's the guy that's got to get in there and fucking, the only way to save the plane
01:20:27.940
Oh, the, I used to call him John Wesley Harden, you know, who John Wesley Harden is.
01:20:54.140
Oh, he used to wear that shirt that said, he had the best shirt of all time.
01:21:12.100
I would love, I mean, I would turn an eight ball into a two ball in fucking four minutes.
01:21:21.820
He said, I told us, I was in the Dominican Republic wrestling Jack Veneno.
01:21:36.060
Because over there, the wrestlings, I'm the first white guy to go to the islands, man.
01:21:50.540
And the referee went, one, dropped my arm, right?
01:22:01.020
I'm laying there like, you know, bloody and all that.
01:22:14.320
And gave Roddy Piper his platoon full of cocaine.
01:22:17.200
And took us over to a whorehouse and dropped us off.
01:22:24.560
Roddy looked like Chevy Chase in trading places, the line around his mouth.
01:22:29.620
Is that trading place, is that movie with Chevy Chase?
01:22:42.040
He ended up doing stand-up comedy at the end of his career.
01:22:48.580
To me, he's funnier than when I inducted him in the Hall of Fame.
01:22:53.720
I said, who's the guy that was married to Jenny McCarthy for a while?
01:23:08.960
I mean, one thing about wrestling is staying creative, staying unique,
01:23:16.060
but also as the producers, the people putting it on.
01:23:18.360
What was some gimmicks or a gimmick that fucking flopped?
01:23:38.120
I'm not accurate on this count, but between 80 and 100 kids in Orlando right now at NXT, right?
01:23:44.420
If I'm looking at what I've seen in the last 10 years, which my daughter's involved in that equation,
01:23:50.320
in the last 10 years, my daughter, Sasha, Bailey, Becky, Roman, Seth, Dean, they're all main eventers and still are.
01:24:10.120
And once you get on top, it's harder to stay on top.
01:24:13.980
You don't realize, Miz has been around, Miz has been there 20 years.
01:24:32.880
But the percentage of people that come out of there, I would say is 1%.
01:24:38.420
I went to a big recruiting thing this summer in L.A. at WrestleMania, and they had 100 kids, I think, and they took 10.
01:24:47.980
And they recruited legit college athletes from all over the country to attend.
01:24:53.260
Flew them in, put them through the drills, physical drills, not the kind like we used to, but still, let's see what they're made of.
01:25:02.340
But most Division I athletes have got the fortitude in that.
01:25:12.080
Was there as many people trying when you were coming out?
01:25:15.360
It was what the young, they did everything in the world to keep young guys away from it.
01:25:27.760
The best example of all time was Ricky Steamboat.
01:25:31.440
He was not only a great wrestler, a great person.
01:25:34.300
But when Steamboat came to Charlotte, they hated him.
01:25:43.120
Because that was, back then, the bodies were just starting to become a big part of the business.
01:25:59.840
I had to really fight for him to get him, to even get him going.
01:26:08.020
But so, and he's a real nice kid, too, which is not the kind of guy that's going to be a prick, you know?
01:26:18.140
It's easy to be a prick and then say, that's your way out.
01:26:34.300
If you're not the promoter, how do you hold someone back?
01:26:39.500
You call the promoter and say, this guy's an asshole?
01:26:42.640
Well, a good promoter's going to go, fuck you if a guy's got talent.
01:26:47.980
Well, like Vince, look at all the shit with Bischoff.
01:27:13.320
Vince could forgive anything if there's a dollar attached to it.
01:27:21.880
Hey, tomorrow, you're going to be with Hulk, right?
01:27:24.640
So Bischoff, Hulk, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall would go out on TV.
01:27:34.240
And I used to think to myself, you know, Hulk knows this.
01:27:40.460
Bischoff got so mad at me because I wouldn't do it.
01:27:43.260
And they'd be on TV and they'd say, we're going to close you down, Vince.
01:28:01.040
And within two years, the company was bankrupt.
01:28:19.420
Are there two biggest stars in the history of the business?
01:28:25.760
I'm traveling around the world doing everything.
01:28:54.000
Your championship belt, I don't know if we win it.
01:28:56.920
Hey, tell Hogan that I'm going to tell the story about the Hooter girls in Jacksonville.
01:29:13.240
Funny how girls wake up in the middle of the night and just walk off my Rolex.
01:29:23.760
Some chick told me she was a professor at Northwestern University.
01:29:29.740
And my friend came in at four o'clock in the morning.
01:29:31.860
And she was going around her revolving door with my Rolex on.
01:29:35.080
My friend grabbed her and said, I don't think so.
01:29:41.500
He walks back to my room, kicks me into his bed.
01:30:15.420
I said, where are they throwing them on the wall?
01:30:27.460
Were you always like too much of a party for the scene, you think?
01:30:35.240
I could find something I do in Lubbock, Texas on a Sunday night, brother.
01:31:17.360
And at one time, I was taking steroids, and I took an overdose of one.
01:31:22.520
And the guy said, you've been drinking too much.
01:31:59.380
So my roommate, my roommate's a doctor from Fort Lauderdale that is there for digesting crystal meth anally.
01:32:14.220
The other one, the other guy is a 23-year-old that was taking 40 milligrams of Valium at 23.
01:32:29.580
The other guy, I don't know what the hell he did, but I mean, it was so far-fetched.
01:32:34.760
I get there, I go through all the physical and all that, get all the shit done, right?
01:32:40.340
I wake up in the morning, and when I was a kid, I used to smoke, so I just loaded up with cigarettes and dip.
01:32:48.880
I've quit twice, and I don't dip anymore, but I...
01:32:57.580
But I look across the courtyard, and I'm smoking a marble, right?
01:33:02.400
And I'm drinking a cup of coffee, and I said to the guy, my roommate, I can't remember his name,
01:33:12.820
He said, he's been a patient here for five years.
01:33:14.580
I said, the doctor is taking care of us as a fucking patient?
01:33:21.540
I tell him, is that fucking guy, does he have a license?
01:33:37.760
When the doctor's taking care of you, give me a shot, prescribing medication, and he's
01:34:38.740
And we went to the big meet, and I threatened to kill him.
01:34:41.240
I said, next time you stooge on me, motherfucker, I'll find you before we get here.
01:34:46.260
Because the way I was thinking, anybody want to talk?
01:35:01.660
And he said, we're so proud to give you the coin to do it.
01:35:03.900
I walked across the street, walked into a bar, put it on the counter.
01:35:12.120
And give me six Miller Lights and two Jack and Coke and two Kettle One and Cranberry and Lime.
01:35:23.240
Then I had a limo pick me up and take me over to the beach.
01:35:43.420
The company will never have your back break if you don't go back to rehab.
01:36:00.840
Was there a point where you really damaged your ability to go back?
01:36:24.940
If they gave me something to do, I just made it better.
01:36:53.400
And as a parent, is it hard to notice when that's going on?
01:36:58.640
It's like, yeah, well, I think I noticed a little bit in high school with the weed and
01:37:11.400
And one time, one time when he came off the ventilator, his left leg was like gone.
01:37:24.900
And from there to, he went to Colorado, I mean, to climb to this facility that exercised to
01:37:41.080
Yeah, Eddie Money used to huff so much gas that his leg shut down.
01:37:44.800
Well, then the next time, the worst was his oxygen level went down to 42 for 24 hours.
01:37:52.860
That's supposed to be in like 95 plus, 97 actually, 98.
01:38:00.500
The doctor calls me in and says, if he wakes up, he's going to be brain dead.
01:38:08.200
I swear to God, as I'm sitting here in front of you, he woke up, the whole family was there.
01:38:15.820
We thought he was, you know, we all came, everybody came from around the country.
01:38:20.680
It's a good, because we thought he was going to die right there.
01:38:33.740
He said, I've never seen anything like this in my life.
01:38:35.700
I'm happy for you, and I'm sorry that I gave you that.
01:38:42.240
Because then we went and sat down and figured out how to attack it again.
01:38:51.040
But I mean, to this day, when you go to the doctor, if your oxygen is at 42, you're not supposed to be functioning.
01:39:05.740
And I went, my God, this has got to be, you know, like.
01:39:12.740
And so I took him to Tokyo, and I got on a plane to go back.
01:39:17.520
I looked at him and said, let me tell you, they put Paul McCartney in jail here for smoking a joint.
01:39:22.200
They will bury you, and you're going to be very strict in Tokyo.
01:39:27.580
They don't fuck around like they do here with drugs.
01:39:31.440
You're in drugs in Tokyo or Singapore or something like that.
01:39:36.600
Man, he came back home to go to WrestleMania to see his daughter, see my daughter, and let him on my site, went to buy tennis shoes, came back, went through Del Frisco's to watch the NCAA.
01:40:00.060
So Wendy picks up the pills, took it away, didn't even tell him I had it, right?
01:40:10.800
So Wendy calls me and says, and I'm not going to read the door to get, like, aspirin or whatever, not Tylenol or something like that, right?
01:40:32.080
This is what this is like all in 45-minute time, right?
01:40:47.460
So I thought, oh, God, he just, I've seen him like this a thousand times.
01:40:57.940
Because we were so lucky he didn't make the news because the cops kept it loaded on a DL for me.
01:41:11.880
They pulled him out of his car one time and called me.
01:41:15.320
I mean, so I had a really great rapport with them.
01:41:19.100
So I just said, I'll just let him, I said, but this time I said, I'm going to let him bottom out.
01:41:25.260
I mean, that's, they keep that, that word bottom out, you know.
01:41:29.020
I just couldn't imagine him dying in an alley somewhere because I let him bottom out.
01:41:38.940
So I wake up in the morning and go out, coffee with my oldest daughter, come back.
01:41:44.360
And I just said, fuck, I'm so fucking mad at him right now.
01:41:47.540
I opened the fucking door just to check on him, which I just, I even walked out halfway.
01:42:00.220
Same two, same crew, same exact people, same paramedics.
01:42:07.280
And the guy said, Rick, you can say the same thing he's telling him.
01:42:11.660
He came out three minutes and said he didn't make it.
01:42:23.180
Well, I've told this story a hundred times, but I can't.
01:42:31.440
Hell, I got there at 9.30 because I knew the bartenders while they were setting up.
01:42:36.240
9.30 in the morning until 2 a.m. for five fucking years.
01:42:46.360
Say if you don't go drink right then, why do you think you had to go, like, just?
01:42:54.360
How do you get away from the feeling that you're responsible for not calling?
01:43:07.720
I'm sure it's really hard to be the parent of someone that has an addiction.
01:43:12.200
What did you learn about addiction, like watching your son?
01:43:15.460
Was there anything that you were able to learn about, like watching it from, you know?
01:43:28.300
He would not believe that they were getting high, that they were screwed up all the time.
01:43:47.160
They're just growing up and having a little fun, smoking a little weed.
01:43:55.840
Do you think addiction just runs in y'all's family?
01:44:05.800
I've lost a lot of friends from addiction, and it is heartbreaking to watch, you know?
01:44:34.420
And he would call me and say, Dad, will you do me a favor?
01:45:01.640
Did you have to really talk to some strange friends?
01:45:05.300
This is, if you can find humor in this, is I'm standing up there.
01:45:11.420
Let's say there were 1,500 people at the funeral.
01:45:20.140
And there were 20 girls in the first two rows I didn't know.
01:45:26.280
I would take them down to South Carolina to Columbia to go to the Gamecock game.
01:45:32.460
I said, well, I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock.
01:45:35.660
He'd come home with a different girl driving home the next day, every day.
01:45:45.960
Do you think he felt like it was tough to live?
01:45:47.920
I mean, I just wonder what it's like if your dad is so, such a, has had such a unique life, you know?
01:45:56.080
Do you, I wonder if you, do you feel competitive?
01:46:01.000
I think I say it's just life because the other kids aren't affected like that at all.
01:46:05.580
Ashley, Ashley, Ashley, I can imagine maybe once in her life smoked a cigarette when she was 10 years old or 20.
01:46:17.780
I mean, it's not as prevalent as it was, which is a big difference.
01:46:23.560
No, there is prevalent, but not where the guys can just grab me.
01:46:29.200
For some reason, thank God, everybody's aware of the fact that the shit is dangerous.
01:46:36.120
And we didn't have time to think about back then.
01:46:41.080
If it made you look bigger, if it kept you up longer, but at least they have three days
01:46:59.240
The worst thing that ever happened was they invented cell phones so your goddamn wife
01:47:20.240
I used to call the front desk and say, if anybody calls to me, I ain't here.
01:47:38.620
One of my favorite jokes, he said, my wife said, never answer the phone during sex.
01:47:52.240
Did any strange woman ever show back up at your house?
01:48:27.940
Somebody had a dog with 11-inch hair over here?
01:48:33.700
You're like, I think it was a long-haired child.
01:49:24.360
What's the toughest thing about getting older, Ric?
01:49:28.940
What's been like one thing that surprised you that you didn't think would be that certain
01:49:32.060
way or something that's been kind of interesting?
01:49:38.120
So it's all like even just getting to sit around a man who's 70 and be in the present.
01:49:44.080
It's just, you know, it's almost like, I don't know, it's just interesting for me.
01:49:47.660
You know, I never got to spend a bunch of time talking with my dad and stuff.
01:49:50.340
So even to be able to have a conversation as an adult with a guy in his 70s kind of like
01:49:54.560
resonates with me in like a special place, I think.
01:49:58.500
What's, yeah, what's been interesting about just being older?
01:50:00.940
Like what's, or what's been surprising about getting older?
01:50:03.020
What, what do you think would not be one way or maybe would be different or?
01:50:10.380
I don't think I even ever thought about anything like that until I got sick.
01:50:15.360
Then you really appreciate, you appreciate when you recover from something like that.
01:50:22.360
I mean, the airplane crash was one thing, getting there with lightning was something
01:50:26.540
else, but when you literally are life support and you almost die.
01:50:31.100
And then you realize that for some reason you're lucky enough to be, and I truly believe that
01:50:41.460
But I spend so much time preoccupied with trying to figure out how not to fuck up.
01:50:58.660
But how do I, how do I have fun and not get in trouble?
01:51:00.980
Well, well, it's just because social media, you can't do anything.
01:51:05.700
And I love to go out and I like, I never, I never drink at my house.
01:51:19.360
You know, people don't understand when you do, when you spend 38 years on the road, like
01:51:24.000
Kevin Nash said to me one time, if I don't spend two nights in a hotel every week, I'm
01:51:30.200
No, no, I mean, I, when I took that year off and Bischoff sued me.
01:51:39.740
I hadn't been home and didn't even know my wife.
01:52:09.260
Dude, I remember my dad used to take us to the bar and they'd have like that bowl of fucking
01:52:30.960
But you remember when they didn't have them, don't you?
01:52:44.000
I didn't know what that was until, until I got sick.
01:52:54.560
All I did was drive, travel, wrestle, and have fun.
01:53:06.080
She showed me the other day how to work emojis on my phone.
01:53:10.000
I mean, I'm, and then when I'm laying in the chair, home from the hospital, I didn't,
01:53:17.400
after being in rehab for a month, learn how to walk.
01:53:24.920
One day, one day I'm sitting there, I'm home in the house, and the girl comes and said,
01:53:37.580
Yeah, and I go, and I said, I said, I didn't, well, I'm in rehab, because I couldn't walk
01:53:50.440
I didn't know, I didn't know I had a stoma in rehab.
01:53:58.440
Then I got home, and the woman's there to change it.
01:54:09.720
Well, then, were you shocked that you just, after that 30, after the days in rehab, that
01:54:21.740
I mean, also, the doctor was in the facility, so.
01:54:29.040
So, being from a medical family, I went, I didn't get one second opinion.
01:54:38.120
Every time I met a doctor that knew anything about your internal, I'd had prior surgeries
01:54:45.960
in 2015, and it's one in one million times that you can nick your intestine, and it can
01:55:00.380
So, now, when I drink, my kidney levels, everything's perfect, and my kidney levels are off a little
01:55:09.400
So, now I drink, for every drink, I drink a small bottle of water.
01:55:22.540
I don't know, but I'm sure trying to mend my ways.
01:55:52.640
They didn't know homo, but what wrestler really had that freaking wand on him, huh?
01:55:59.240
I mean, you've been around some of the biggest men in the world.
01:56:17.820
Yeah, I got the name, but I don't want to put it on the air.
01:56:32.120
No, look, I'm just glad somebody's got a big one.
01:56:37.940
Yeah, when you see one of those joust victims like his wife, that's got to be unreal.
01:56:41.320
Yeah, but she wouldn't like me making a joke about it.
01:56:45.980
This will be the front page out of the whole interview.
01:56:52.700
No, look, I remember, but there's something about you, you know, because most of your
01:56:59.180
And then every now and then, somebody walks across with some real crazy wiener, and you're
01:57:03.420
like, my God, that guy's fucking running a different ball game.
01:57:11.700
Yeah, that guy's fucking, that guy's in a different line of work.
01:57:35.840
I woke where I'm going right now to John Cena's trainer.
01:57:48.700
And I had 10 weeks to get in shape for it, and I was doing everything.
01:57:54.640
I mean, and I had a partner, and I drove, I drove, that's why I'm going right now to Rob,
01:58:02.820
I mean, and we've, but I was fixated on, I got down to 218, but a cosmetic, I'm a nightmare
01:58:15.280
But I woke up in the morning, and of course, I was drinking the night before at the Palm
01:58:33.720
He walked in my dressing room, and he went, I've been entertaining you for a long time.
01:58:38.980
I didn't want you to, I came to watch you entertain me tonight.
01:58:46.740
He's got to get a bathroom on each floor, though, man.
01:58:54.040
That five, five-floor climb downstairs to one stall when they got 2,000 people, it's
01:59:01.320
It makes me want to get one of those stoma bags.
01:59:06.480
But anyway, so all I had was two cups of coffee and three egg bites.
01:59:15.920
And I got out there, and I felt great and all that.
01:59:18.440
And then I realized that anxiety, and I made a mistake of saying to one of the guys, I don't
01:59:25.980
Of course, now they think I'm having a heart attack.
01:59:46.480
And then I did something else, and I'm laying there.
01:59:48.920
And at the end, Manny, my son-in-law, was going, you have to wake up, sir.
01:59:57.380
He was handing me the brass knucks to hit Jarrett with, right?
02:00:17.140
And then because everybody was panicking, to end it, right,
02:00:32.320
But, you know, everybody, first of all, I appreciate they were scared to death
02:00:39.800
But I wanted the match to be better because we rehearsed it to be a 20-minute.
02:00:47.140
They were supposed to suplex me off the top rope and all kinds of shit.
02:00:50.800
But anyway, that's what makes me want to do it again because I got in such good shape.
02:00:59.280
Like now my new goal is like I'll be 75, right, in February.
02:01:08.200
And I want to do the 500 free squats in 14 minutes again.
02:01:21.700
That might be one of the best quotes I've ever heard.
02:01:29.580
I used to be able to do when I was really in the best shape of my life.
02:02:03.640
Because getting up and down for the free squats and the push-ups,
02:02:19.920
You know, when you're traveling these shit towns, right?
02:02:26.200
So I just sat in a hotel room and had to figure out a way to kill the day.
02:02:37.420
Well, the biggest thing I miss about wrestling is the camaraderie.
02:02:43.440
Like, is there a person you met that you were like, man, we really-
02:02:54.640
I'm not sure what it was, but it's a horrible thing.
02:03:08.200
I love hanging out with Undertaker, and I don't get to see him very often.
02:03:14.420
Steve just keeps himself in basically isolation.
02:03:21.280
Yeah, Undertaker came out to a show of mine a week and a half ago, two weeks ago in Austin.
02:03:25.120
It was really nice to meet him, and Michelle, that's his wife.
02:03:47.540
How in the hell do you cheat on Madonna for Carmen Electra?
02:03:54.320
I go, I mean, Dennis, I said, Dennis, Dennis, you realize that I would walk on fire to lay
02:04:08.180
When she was younger, what's that song of hers?
02:04:22.080
And they wouldn't let us watch wrestling or nothing, dude, because they were fucking, you
02:04:32.200
That's what my mother-in-law would say to my wife, they're drinking again out by the pool.
02:04:48.120
Every day's the Lord's Day, especially you freeloader living off me.
02:05:13.400
We used to pack the beer cans up, me and Aaron, right, to tell stories, laugh all day long.
02:05:23.820
They live in, they were in a small town in Illinois, in Wyoming, Illinois.
02:05:27.200
So I go across the street and there's a park there.
02:05:29.700
And some girl, I'd never known her or anything.
02:05:34.500
She plugged it in and tuned it to like a virgin, right?
02:05:38.700
And she starts dancing on this picnic table for me.
02:05:51.200
I was trying to think of some of the big stars then that were some of the biggest in the world
02:05:57.220
and who you would have crossed paths with that would have been surprising.
02:06:02.180
I mean, I'll tell you, I adore Chris Everett, right?
02:06:07.600
So I'm flying to Japan and I'm sitting this far from Chris Everett.
02:06:28.180
I'm not going to go over and shoot myself and die, right?
02:06:38.960
But I flew back with Yvonne Lindell and he wouldn't stop talking.
02:07:00.780
And so one of his legs shut down and quit working.
02:07:03.220
And then he started showing me semi-nude pictures of his newest wife.
02:07:35.920
You think you're better than the regular folk, Rick?
02:07:43.540
Than the regular people who run you out your little loose meat dinners?
02:08:05.900
Name the time and the place and the place and the time.
02:08:09.260
Because I got a clock and a globe and an axe to grind.
02:08:19.840
It's your call, you turkey slicing boner monkey.
02:08:32.060
Rick, thanks so much for sharing your life with us, man.
02:08:34.560
You've been, it's obviously you've wanted to be an entertainer.
02:08:38.020
And you've been extremely entertaining throughout my entire life.
02:09:01.020
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.