Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: All right, all right. We're live from 304 Studios in Jonesboro, Arkansas. This is an STS podcast dot club production. It's a production, Gene. I'm BT and that is my partner in crime for this podcast, Gene Jackson. How the hell are you?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Doing well, man. Doing well. I've.
I mean, before I got on, before I was talked to you earlier, I thought I was doing pretty bad. I had a rough week. But then I found out how sick you've been. I was like, well, what I got to complain about?
[00:00:48] Speaker A: You're not even gonna about it, huh? I did an episode of Rolling Into Mempo and when I was clipping it, you know, and making the videos, I thinking, oh, God, man, I died sometime during that 17 minute episode, I think. I mean, it was horrible.
We had a lot of response for the May edition. Was it really that good?
The Snowman? And I mean, we had the normal. Well, the new normal. Like we got a lot more people listening to the podcast and we had the new normal number of listens or plays and. But we had a lot of people doing things like sending me comments and, and stuff like that, which I don't hear as much. I. I mean, I see the place, but I don't get as many, you know, messages in my Facebook or anything like that saying how much they enjoyed our view on what was going on. That had one guy say, you know, you got two white guys from the south and y' all were just honest and upfront.
My mom really enjoyed it. She said, I did not say anything out of turn.
She said, dad was. Dad was. He was racist, but I wasn't. It's what she made sure I said. She said to me and I said, yeah, I know.
Did you get any feedback whatsoever?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: I did. I had a few people hit me up and say that they really enjoyed it and that the Snowman was a name they had heard or read over the years, but really didn't have a lot of insight into. And especially that. That angle in Memphis and that, you know, they were.
They enjoyed getting to see a bit of it and hear some of the kind of, you know, behind the scenes of it. And I think we kind of give maybe an interesting perspective because a lot of. A lot of these wrestling podcasts is either really young guys who weren't around for it, just going back, watching YouTube videos and then talking about it, or guys who were deeply involved in it at the time. So, you know, they have their spin on it, their perspective of it. And so two guys who were fans at the time who can go back and look at it, but also provide a little insight from the different people we've met and known over the years who are involved.
I think it's a little bit of different take. And like you said, two Southern white guys from the South. You know, just usually most people will try to go back and put the current spin on things from back then. And unfortunately, that's just not how it was back then. Like you said, a lot of families, like places where we grew up, that was the case. You know, the dad was a bit of a racist and the mother wasn't, and she struggled to try to keep you on track to like, hey, I know he says that, but that's.
We like that, but you can't define right to his face. So it was a. It was a strange time and it was what it was. But, you know, we've all moved on.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: And I. I thought. I thought it was someone, you know, sent a message and said, well, bt, you could have just, you know, you could have glossed that part of it over and not said a word about it. And. And I said, no, that. I said that, you know, I'm. I'm not trying to be carny. I'm not trying to make you think I'm something that I'm not. And jeans, never. Me and Gene are two very honest guys and we've never pretended to be anything else.
So I wanted to present, you know, and I had so many people say, that was my house.
What you were talking about was what I lived through, you know, and it didn't, you know, it didn't lessen my love for my father any, but it did give me a perspective of.
To this day, I still wonder why I never get the racist thing. I really don't.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: No. But they were a product of their upbringing.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Their environment. And, you know, it's just. It's just one of those things that I gotta.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: I got a trivia, though, about the snowman that I just got A few days ago, I was listening to Wolfy D's podcast with Kevin Lawler, and.
And he reminded me that Brian Christopher and Tony Williams debuted for the Snowman's outlaw promotion. That was the first time they ever wrestled was for the Snowman.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Well, that. Okay, yeah, that is a fun fact there to think that.
That he wrestled Daddy, but too happy.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: About it neither, So I can imagine. Yeah.
But this was kind of when the snowman thing was fixing to start happening. So it was like he knew the name, but he wasn't really excited about the owl thing also. Was it really that good? It's gonna change a little bit.
I say this is going to be an evergreen episode in the sense that I'll put it on the main feed when we need an episode. If not, if you're a Patreon listener, you'll get it as soon as we get done. Probably two days after, it'll be on the Patreon feed, and I'll just put them on as soon as. So if you like these episodes, our Dream Machine episode, our Kevin Steen episode, and the Snowman were the three top in. And I know you're gonna laugh when I tell you this, Jean, but those WCW cards that I chose, they're. They're not in the top.
They wonder why no one wanted to listen to us do those.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Well, you just never know, right?
[00:06:22] Speaker A: But it seems like they like the idea that we pick one person or, you know, a team or whatever, and we talk about that. So I think it's kind of the. The evolution or was it really that.
That good? And we're going to talk about a tag team that I was a huge fan of.
And you can tell me how much you like these guys, Stan and Steve, the Fabulous Ones.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: I was a fan of the Fabulous Ones, if I'm being honest. Back in that era, I was honestly more of a Rock and Roll Express guy, but I was a fan of the fabless ones. And we'll get more into it here in a few minutes. But they were very unique in a couple of different ways that made them superior fan favorites. But like I say, I'll let you kind of lead us into it, and then I'll kind of tell you why. I think they worked on a different level than a lot of teams did.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: All right, cool, cool, cool.
So they were formed by. They give credit to Jerry Lawler and Jerry. Jerry. Putting these two guys together, letting Fargo kind of be their manager in 1982. So we're looking at. I was.
I was a freshman in high school. So there we go.
It was an exciting time for wrestling. 83, 80, 82 to 85 was really. I was huge. Memphis, it was hot. There was a lot of things going on.
They formed as a tag team, and we had seen Kern and Lane. Lane was all over the place in the South. We'd seen Kern mainly in Florida, and then when they came here, they put them together and they started sending these videos out.
So what was your first impression of the video?
[00:08:11] Speaker B: I'm five years old in the era. These are like when they first got together in 82, I'm five years old. And as the, you know, they roll along, they didn't really strike me any kind of way exactly at that age. Now later you're like, wow, these are.
I guess the only way you'd be able to describe it back in that era is borderline homoerotic to some degree.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: I don't think we can do justice to these videos by us talking about them. So sharp dress man and everybody wants you came out around the same time, everybody. The Billy Squire song is the one I remember the most.
Running around the playground going, you know, doing the strut and everybody wants me and like that just being stupid.
But you dropped the bomb on me is the one that I find. Well, let's. Let's play it. And hopefully copyright rules. At least we'll be able to get it on Patreon. But here we go.
What the hell are they doing here?
Now? Take notice of the crowd. Them were walking out there in those jackets and how the crowd is so into them.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: I just can't.
Like, what can we do to get these guys over? What if we show them in a bubble bath? We show them hanging out together in tight jeans on hay bales.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: I'm not sure whose mouth that was, but that hay in his mouth gets me too. The wing.
Oh, man.
Please watch the video of this if you're able to. If not, I'll put the videos in in the episode link.
Watch a little few minutes of this.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Like, don't do it.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Not at all.
So I've said this before to you and we talked about. I think we did a cool Kids countdown one May about the top 10 tag teams. And I've said this three or four times on this show. When the Fable Swings first came out, you know us guys at.
At South Pemoscott High School in Still, Missouri, our favorite term for the fabulous ones was the. We called them the Bags. We did not like them.
Why were they putting these homosexual videos out? There's no way we're gonna like these guys at all.
Jimmy Hart. Then they opened up. Their first feud is Jimmy puts together.
And I guess this was his idea or whose idea, I'm not sure. But they put Troy Graham, the Dream Machine together with another journeyman, Rick McGraw. And they were the New York Dolls, right?
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep, New York Dolls.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: And actually, if you think about it, two damn good solid workers there.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
When you look at those videos and if you. And God forbid, if you try to describe them to people, you know, in the 80s, you know, guys who came off, you know, less than masculine, we'll just say it that way, would fall more in, like, the Adrian street category. You know, they'd get the heel heat because back in those days, anybody that did even an insinuated homosexual type gimmick was perceived as a heel. You know, that was. You know. I mean, eventually Adrian evolved into being a baby face, and he played it differently. But, I mean, just to watch those videos.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Your first thing's like, okay, well, we got a new heel tag team coming in, because everybody's gonna hate these guys.
There's no reason on earth why that should have worked other than.
And kind of what I was alluding to earlier.
You look at their feud with the Moondogs and. And the different brawls they were in. The women liked them because of their looks. The men respected them because they were freaking tough, man. I mean, they had some hellacious fights with the Moondogs and all these different New York Dolls, all these different people, and they earned the respect of the men. That's kind of how they stayed on top is, you know, the women were coming to see him no matter what. The guys wanted to see them in the. In these fights, and it just kind of worked. But on the surface, when you look at that video, you're like, there's no way these guys could ever be baby faces. Like, you expect if it had been done in the 90s. You expect Jerry Seinfeld to pop up at some point, go, not that there's anything wrong with that. You know, it's. It's kind of bizarre how it came together. Well, just the conception of them. I came. I can't believe, like, whoever produced these is sat Stan and Steve down and go, okay, here's what we've got in mind. I can't believe they were like, we're not doing that. We're going to look. No, no, absolutely not. But, I mean, they. You can see they leaned into it. He was chewing on the hay bale. I mean, they were.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: They were in it very, very much into the gimmick. And then they were with the New York Dolls. Didn't last long. They eliminated them pretty quick. But they were just.
Troy and Rick were just going to be the bump guys for them to make them look good. They got their struts over, blah, blah, blah. There was a. There was a note that I don't remember, but which is not going to surprise me, and I'm gonna say something about my memory here in a few minutes, but they actually feuded with the original version of the Midnight Express. Dennis Condre, Randy Rose and Norville Austin. I don't remember those matches.
And they ended up.
They went for challenges against the Southern tag team titles.
Didn't win the titles from the Midnight Express, but ended up winning the titles, which is. This is really fun. They ended up winning the titles for Bobby Eaton and Sweet Brown Sugar, who was Coco Wear. So that was their first titles from Bobby Eaton, who was the mid. Blah, blah, blah. But yeah, fun stuff there. Fun stuff.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: I think another thing we haven't brought up yet that I think may have played into why they got a pass on a lot of things and why the fans initially took to them.
They were brought in as Jackie Fargo's tag team. You know, he endorsed them. That's why they did the strut. That's why they were the fabulous ones. You know, they were. They were his guys. So I think maybe that's why everybody gave him a chance instead of jumping to conclusions. It's like, oh, well, Jackie Fargo endorses them. They gotta be good, you know, because he was a God in Memphis.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Well, and let's talk. Steve Kern and Lane both were. I guess I said journeyman already once, but let me go ahead and say it kind of. That's what they never got.
They never got a huge push. There was a few angles in Florida with which they eventually did another angle with his dad with. With Kern's dad in Florida. And he was.
He was a Graham guy and. And everyone knew that he was.
Let me. So Lane, to me, was the better looking of the two, but I thought Lane was the less wrestler at the time. I thought Kern was, I don't know, less wrestler, I think. Tough guy. I always thought Kern was a tough guy, no matter what.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Rugged.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Rugged.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: There's words looking for be rugged. Yeah, he's more of the rugged tough guy where. And you look at Steve and go, okay, you know, he's got the top hat and all this and he's playing a pretty boy, but he looks like a tough guy where Stan looks like a male stripper. And when he's. When he fires up and starts fighting, you're like, hey, I didn't see that coming from him. Like, I just thought he was probably a dick dancer somewhere and, you know, decided to team up with Kern. So.
But it worked. It worked. But like I said, yeah, Kern definitely had a more rugged, tough guy fighter feel to him than Lane, for sure.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: And the two feuds. And you talked a little bit about the Moondogs, but I have these Two feuds flip flopped in history, which is wrong, but they actually feuded against the Sheep Herders first, which were. Which was Luke Williams and Jonathan Boyd in the. Later on, I think RIP Morgan came in, but they feuded with them first. Had some really crazy matches, some bloody matches.
But what really turned me to be a Fabs fan was the Moondogs. When they came out there and ripped their jackets famous angle. Look for it on YouTube.
And they had some of the craziest matches, bloody.
It wasn't even wrestling. It was just hardcore doing something. And what did they ended up bringing Jackie into help one time, right?
[00:17:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: And then Rough House came in.
They had everybody. And then the Moondogs. You know, I think Larry Spot was the only guy that was the.
That was the regular Moondog for the whole time. It was Rex's Spot at first, and I'm not sure who it was after that, but they had a crazy feud with those guys, which was really fun.
They also list. I remember Duke Myers, he was a. He was a regular guy. He was the guy that put all the monster masks on. And Lawler would be. Lawler would beat him ever, you know, the same guy three weeks in a row. They feuded against him and Bobby Eaton for a while, which. That was one of Jimmy Hart's teams again.
And then came in the Grapplers. Now I remember these matches being so good, as in, all of a sudden I'm thinking these guys, man, they're not only brawlers, but they can wrestle. Blah, blah, blah, blah. But you know, Gene, it might have had something to do with the Grapplers.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, the Grapplers were great, but they also had, you know, they also had great feuds with the Assassins as well. And just a quick aside to something you just said, folks. If you're ever in a Memphis trivia type situation, if the question is who was under a monster mask, it's probably Duke Myers. And if the question is who was under any other mask, you got a pretty good shot. If you say Don Bass and Roger Smith, you're probably going to be right because there were so many different mass tag teams in Memphis.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: They were. Yeah, they were the Interns at one time. They were Fire and Flame. And I seen.
Don't ask me this. I. I don't know why I had one, but I had a small American flag that I was waving. It probably had something to do with a heel or something. And the Fabulous Ones wrestling the Interns. And they got my flag and used it on the Interns. And boy, man, I thought that was awesome.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: So.
But yeah, don't get much better than that.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: That was awesome, brother. I was just. I was talked about that when I went back to school and everything and it was a. It was really one of those things where they just grabbed it, you know, while they're. They're fighting and jumped in the ring with it in Blava, Arkansas. That's where we always went.
But yeah, I. Even then, it's like I never said I was a smart fan back then, but. But the Mask guys was a big deal to me. And I knew every time that those two guys came out, the Assassins, the interns, firing plane, I knew they were the same two guys.
And you know, speaking dirty roads, he came out as dirty roads also, man, he was a really solid worker. I mean, well, Don was too, but he was, he was the bump guy. He did all the bumps and everything.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: It's kind of shocking. He never made it up to, to, you know, WWE or you know, at least Crockett territory or something for any significant amount of time because, yeah, he was a really good worker.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
They talked about the Fabulous Ones also. One of their last feuds in that era was with Troy Graham and Pork Chop Cash, who came out as the Bruise Brothers. Do you remember that?
[00:20:41] Speaker B: I do.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: That was kind of the version of the New York Dials, another version of them, which was kind of the version.
Pork Chop was never, to me a great worker, but he had some fun stuff with this. And then Troy Graham also, as we talked about on the Dream Machine episode, just a solid, solid wrestler. And we know why he never made it to the big time.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: So. Yeah, yeah, no mystery there. Back in my tape trading days or towards the end of it, I. I got a. It was like a 12 disc fabulous ones DVD.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Wow.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: And it spanned from their beginnings in Memphis, stuff in awa, obviously Florida, different, different territories up to, I think the last match on it was the match that they did against Lawler and Dundee at the fairgrounds in Nashville for Burt Prentice.
But there was some really good stuff on there. But that's where I got to see a lot of their matches with the Sheep Herders. And there was a couple from Florida on there that were just, I mean, just bloody like, you know, brawls. And so, I mean, I was a fan of them back in the day, but after getting to watch that I begat became even more of a fan of them just getting to see, because I didn't always get to see. I saw a good bit of their Memphis stuff, but I really didn't see a lot of their stuff outside of Memphis, especially awa, so that's pretty cool. So I suggest, you know, you mentioned already, but yeah, get on YouTube and search the Fabulous Ones. There's a ton of footage of them out there to watch be it matches and these videos like are referring to and things like that. But I just wanted to mention, just not to get off down a rabbit hole of this. But you know, we talked about Steve Kern coming from Florida. We talked about the Fabs having some matches down in Florida.
I don't know if you've watched the most recent episode of Dark side of the Ring talking about the grams, but I have Cow. That's heavy. I suggest anybody who hasn't seen it check it out because.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Wow, very good, Very good.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: A lot of it, but I didn't know all of it. And that's something else. But had quite the career, you know, down in Florida. And that's what's crazy is as good a run as the Fabulous Ones had and as big a part of their careers, the fact that Steve Kern and especially Stan Lane had gone on and be, you know, part of the Midnight Express had completely hall of Fame, separate careers from each other also aside from the Fabulous One. So I have to ask, this is. This episode isn't about them, but what is your, what do you think is the best version of the Midnight Express?
Like Dennis.
Dennis and Randy Rose.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: You know, I love Stan Lane, but.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Or Stan and Bobby.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: I love, I love Dennis and Bobby. That's my favorite version. But it doesn't mean it's the best. I mean money wise, they made a lot of money in Mid south. But then it was a real short and then Stan Lane, Stanley was always one of my favorite. Was my favorite because of the fabs. And I, I just, I never. And this is so weird, but I just never seen him as part of them in Express for a long time. It took me a long time to become a Stan Lane Midnight Express fan. He was good. He had a, you know, a good record. He apparently worked with everyone, did everything anyone want him to do. So you can't, you can't beat any of that. But yeah, my favorite Midnight Express version would have to be. And we're going to talk about favorite Fabulous One version. How's that? Okay, I've got some other versions of the Fabulous Ones I want you to watch the videos of.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: But when we come back from a commercial break watching the video, it is Terry Taylor and Bobby Fulton and they Worked as well.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: All I can say is fantastic ones, wasn't it?
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Yes. A total ripoff of the thing was subtle about that. That is not even nothing.
And I think Cornette worked with them during the time that they were doing this.
I may be wrong about that. But there was some promotion. It wasn't South Chattanooga. Yes, it was the Chattanooga promotion. Yes, yes, yes, you're right.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: There's a. There's a channel on YouTube that has some of Armstrong Alley. That. That's the. I've heard of that promotion. I heard Cornette talk about it in shooting reviews, and that's the only footage I ever seen of. And it actually got several episodes on there. And it's not great stuff, but just for trivia purposes.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: But it's Southern wrestling. Yeah, yeah, wrestling.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: And you know, Terry Taylor and Bobby Fulton and Frank Morel wrestling. And there a lot of interesting stuff.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: It is. It's real fun.
We talked about. You said they. The Fabs left Memphis, they went to Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, supposedly won this big tournament in Australia to be the tag team champs.
Then they feuded against the Sheep Herders again, and then they went to awa. And I always thought this kind of made them the awa, kind of exposed the Fabulous Ones for that. They were a good team for Memphis, but on the big stage against a team like the Road warriors, in my mind, they didn't have a chance in hell to beat the Road Warriors. What did you think about that stuff?
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a concept I didn't get as a kid until years later, that there's a lot of people that had a lot of success in Memphis and did well in that weekly brawl on Monday nights and then shooting an angle on Saturday. But when you put them into wrestling situations and different.
But, you know, different places didn't always translate. And I think that's. Yeah, that's probably a good example here.
Fabulous Ones against the Road warriors on paper to me sounded really great. And I never really got to see much of that until, like I said years later when I got. When I saw these DVDs and when I went back and watched it, it's like, that's really not that great.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: No, I know. It was. It wasn't.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: It didn't translate at all. But.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: And it was, you know, AWA was a total different promotion, but in my mind, there's no way in hell they could beat the Road Warriors. I mean, that's just, you know, maybe Lawler and Idol at the time, but not. Not the Fabulous Ones, Come on. You know, they came back to Memphis after that and then they were.
That was when they worked Rip Morgan. I mentioned Rip Morgan, who I like, but he was a really weird looking guy. They feuded against the Sheepers then because you know how wrestling is. If it's good the first time, let's keep doing it over and over and over. They feuded it everywhere. They went against the Sheep Herders.
Then they did a breakup in 87 when Stan decided he was gonna go with Bobby and they were going to be the Midnight Express.
And so that was it. They. We put the end to the fabrics for a long time there. They had a brief reunion in December of 1990, known in Uswa. They were actually in Uswa. And I, I want to ask you about this. As part of this was they were managed at the time by Jim Cornette and they were heels. What was your thoughts on this?
[00:28:07] Speaker B: It's.
It felt. It felt out of place. It felt kind of bizarre.
I. I don't know if just because, you know, at that point, Cornet's kind of associated with Stan Lane and, you know, they're both looking for somewhere to work and you're like, well, you're not going to book them. You know, you're not going to book a tag team managed by Jim Cornette as a baby face team here in Memphis, I guess. But yeah, I mean, I think if you would have brought them in as baby faces and let Cornet manage somebody else or however that might have had a chance of being successful. But you go back and watch that stuff now, it just. It feels really, really weird. It just. It doesn't.
I don't know, it doesn't work.
I can't figure out any other way to say it. And it just didn't work.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: It did not work at all.
One of the things that.
But there is the breakup. When they start the breakup, which I think is really smart, is Jimmy gets on there and he just tears Jackie Fargo a new, new one just goes into him like crazy as soon as he gets done. Steve, Steve or Stan goes, no.
And Jimmy's like, what goes, man? He said, you know, we'll fight anybody. We'll fight Jury Lawler, we'll fight Dutchman till build on D whoever you want. But no, no, no, we're not gonna do anything against Jackie Fargo. Which went right with the establishment of the very first part of everything that they did.
And I thought that was just, just so genius. It sounds like something Jimmy would throw in and just love that. I love that part Real, real quick trivia. They lost to in the Jim Crockett Senior Memorial cup was held in New Orleans in 1986. And they lost the first round to the Fantastic.
Don't you love that? And just so, so weird to see, you know. And I've got.
This is our. My only other video I want to share. I've got to share this one and see if you see anything similar to what the Fabs were doing.
Sh.
Back to them half naked together at the pool.
It's the Fantastic.
Don't you love my Spunk Lube right there. The Spunk Lube sponsor we would like to thank Spunk.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: L.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: All right.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: People gave so much grief when WWE brought in Demolition. And everybody's like oh my God, they're ripping off the Road Warriors. Why would you have Road Warrior ripoffs? And I'm like my gosh, we've had how many rip offs of the fabless ones over the years. Like it's kind of established. Thing is if we find something that works then everybody's going to rip it off. So why. Why not? I can't believe it took that long for them to really have a real ripoff of the Road warriors in wwf.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Right, right. I. I want to say something. Okay. Huge Babishman's fan. In my mind though, the Fantastics were a much better team when it came to work rate and having great matches. They were a much better team but they could just not get over to. To, to the level. Well, they did get over, but only in, in. In probably Texas to that level.
That, that the Fabulous Ones were over. But I thought they were a much better team. And, and both of those guys, Tom, you know, just excellent, excellent workers. I like those guys a lot.
See, I can't think of anything else. Oh, just. We just got to talk about. You just talked about it. The formula. The first team was the Fabs. We had the Rock and Roll Express.
We had the Fantastics. We had the Rockers, believe it or not, who were. Weren't they the Midnight Rockers?
[00:32:27] Speaker B: They were the Midnight Rockers. They. They combined. They ripped off the Midnight and the Rock and Rolls. And in one swoop there so that.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: A version of Stevie Richards of Blue Meanie did a parody of the Fabulous Ones. At one time there also was a main. One of the main what they say, inspirations. I love this. WCW created a team called the West Hollywood Blondes.
Yeah. And then WWE modeled after the Fabus ones. They had the Heartthrobs. Yeah, I guess so.
But another one was well done. They Were. They were in Nashville. Very popular in Nashville and Portland. They were big in Portland, but they were the Portland version of the Fabulous Ones.
Anything you want to add to it? Because I got. I got a few things I want to ask you about.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: The couple things I'll add is, is I agree with you on the Fantastics being the superior team as work rate goes. If you're looking at it from like a melts or match rate.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Right, right, right.
[00:33:31] Speaker B: Or being able them into any territory and them have great matches. The Fantastics heads and shoulders above Fabulous ones again saying the Memphis style as far as going in there, going toe to toe with the Brawlers of the day, the Moondogs, the Assassins, the Sheep Herders and all this fabless ones got over with the crowd like that. So I think they're superior from that standpoint because the Fantastics aren't necessarily believable going toe to toe with the Moondogs as much as the Fabulous Ones were.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Let me mention something while I'm thinking of it. I'm thought of this earlier and did not mention the Fantastics had a Sheepers feud in uwf and I saw a bob wire match that was so brutal. I mean, what would happen was, you know, the baby faces, they were. They were getting heat on the baby faces and like Fulton and Rogers put the bl. You could. I knew what they was doing, but they would put the blade like the center of their head and then the super would grab, you know, but they would move their own head like this in the barbed wire and the blade.
Just crazy blood all over the place and just nutty. At a uf UWF show here in Jonesboro, there was not a huge crowd.
Trivia note, David Haskins won the TV belt that night and he didn't even know he was supposed to win it.
So they. They gave it to him that night. I need to get him on the show to talk about that, but. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. I'm sorry.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's a cool guy.
And then just like, you know me, I'm a big collector. I have, you know, I collect a lot of wrestling stuff. So if nothing else, maybe they're matches with the Road warriors or the Pits, but nothing else. The Fabulous Ones going to the AWA resulting us getting those really cool Fabulous One action figures. Oh, I forgot about bow ties and the suspenders and the whole bit. I remember having those as a kid and thinking those were super cool. So I don't have them. I need. I want to get them in my collection. I used to have them and traded them off years ago and I need to replace them now that I've started back collecting. Pretty hot.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: I remember that because I play with action figures. I had.
I had the Johnny Custard or. Or something.
They were Johnny, Johnny Custard and oh no, there was like five or six of. Geronimo was one of them.
And so I played. Those were my wrestlers. Like the, the Custard guy looked like Handsome Jimmy. And Geronimo was always built on D. Look just like Bill Dundee.
But the cool thing about those figures is that their legs, you could actually put.
Put them in figure four leg locks. They had these little hinges on the legs. Absolutely loved them.
And then they even had a girl that I used, but I usually used her as one of the Moondogs. So I called. Yeah, that's pretty sad. But here's some.
In some inside stuff I want to end the show with. And me and you are very familiar with all this stuff, but I think it's fun to. To talk about.
And you know, we were not there in the dress room. We don't know how true all this stuff is, but there's a lot of rumors about them creating the fabulous ones and the fabless ones doing. And one of the deals was Jared wanted to create the fabulous ones because Lawler didn't like to do the. The route. He didn't want to do Louisville and Evansville during this time because Jerry got a percentage of the Mid South Coliseum.
So. And he didn't. And again, when it all started, when it exploded with the fastest ones, they were drawn more than Lawler had had drew in in those towns, the Louisville, Evansville, the Spot towns and so forth. And there was some heat there. Did you always hear about that?
[00:37:39] Speaker B: I did. I always heard that. And then I. Maybe it was Cornette that I heard talking about one time that that's how the Rock and Roll Express was created because they were in the B towns. If you can consider, you know, A, B and C from, you know, the Memphis territory. You had the fabs on the big shows, you had the rock and roll on the smaller shows. And then they started, you know, drawing so big on their shows. And then of course the fabs left town, so they stepped right up. But. But yeah, I had heard that. And that's. That's pretty interesting to think that that's what they were actually born out of, you know.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: And we had the big trade with Rock Row Express and Midnight and Corny all going to Mid south and the Rest is history when it comes to the rock and roll stress going to nwa but it's funny that the Rock and Roll Express were, were kind of made because of the fact if the Fabulous Ones never existed, we probably wouldn't have had the Rock and Roll Express.
One final, one final version of the was once. And I start laughing because when I had Jerry Jared on the show. Guys, go, go to the Jerry Jarrett version that we talked to him in Memphis. Ma.
I asked him about this team. A huge Eddie Gilbert fan, huge Tommy Rich fan.
[00:38:54] Speaker B: Me wait for this to come up.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Both of these guys, I had to le. I had to wait till last.
Huge fan of both of these guys. But he called that a huge mistake. A huge mistake. He didn't think it was a good idea in hindsight, did you? And I want to say they had some of the best matches ever with pyt. Do you remember those matches?
Coco Wear and Norville Austin? The PYT is very good matches. What was your thought, what was your thoughts when Tommy and Eddie were put in the Fabulous Ones? And do you have any, you know, insight on, have they said anything about that in the past?
[00:39:37] Speaker B: Not really, other than just, you know, the Stan and Steve had left and you know, I don't know if Jerry Jarrett or Lawler or combination of two just wanted to basically show like, oh, hey, we can, we can make anybody the Fabulous Ones. You guys can go off to Minnesota. We'll, we'll call these guys Fabulous Ones and draw the same houses and if you had maybe some young guys that people didn't know and suddenly made them the new Fabulous Ones, you know, somehow made that make sense. But for two established guys like Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich that were so well known in Memphis and had their own Personas for so long, it just felt so weird for them to suddenly be a knockoff of guys who really, you know, in that area.
Eddie Gilbert and Tommy Rich were bigger stars than Steve Kern and Stan Lane were when they started out as the Fabulous Ones. I mean, I know they blew up and became big stars, but it felt weird for two guys that had their own reputations in Memphis to suddenly be, you know, perceived as rip offs as two guys who have left.
It just, it, it's, it felt so. I know like you said, they had great matches, that few of the PYTS was tremendous, but it just from the very beginning is just a head scratcher. Even as a kid it's like, why are Eddie Gilbert, Tommy and Tommy.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: Yeah, they were such good friends too behind the scenes and, and it's even translated to the, to the future. You know, if you look at it, after Eddie died, Tommy kind of took Doug under it. It was wing. And every independent, especially now, almost every independent show that you see Rich on, you got Gilbert on. And Gilbert negotiates the price for the two guys.
So it's one of those things that you see still happening after all these years. But it was, I was not a fan.
They were fake, they were copycats.
I, I liked Richard Gilbert.
Absolutely love the angle. And we would have never had the angle that's been done over and over and over where the, the, the guy apologizes and then he posts.
Post somebody. And Rich bled so good.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: Everybody knows the term the dusty finish.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: That is the Eddie Gilbert angle. Pretty much that's been done. It's the Eddie Gilbert angle.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: It's the Eddie turn and it's been done many, many times.
Well, one last note, and I had to mention this while we were talking, Jimmy Cornett, if you, if you see any of the fabulous ones. So on the gimmicks table in the. And that's what they called it, by the way. On the gimmicks table, you had Mr. And Mrs. Coffee smiling all the time and talking to you, being just super nice.
I had a wrestler and I won't say who said, miss Coffee. I sure hope she cooks good. If you've ever seen Ms. Coffee, you will get that joke.
And they nicest, sweet, sweetest people. I got to be friends with a lady that worked on the gimmicks table and that was my end. I could go anywhere I want to miss a Coliseum Jonesboro and just walk through the door because of the coffees.
I shouldn't have made that comment about her, should I? Damn.
But if you see one of those gimmick photos and there's some still out there.
Jimmy Cornett was a photographer of all those and was making a ton of money, a shitload of money on that. He was making 10 or 15 cent per pitcher, I think.
And he negotiated different things with different people.
But he, he made a joke about it one time that he made so much money during as gimmick and doing the gimmick table that when he started being a regular manager, he didn't even start even coming close to what he was making until he went to Mid south and, and, but he made those pictures. I still got some of them. I'm actually looking them up because there's a huge collector in Evansville, my buddy Jeff Osborne, who's going to try to get rid of Some of them. But, but that gimmicks table, those pictures were only a dollar. Can you believe that?
[00:44:04] Speaker B: I know, and I think that's something that's lost on like guys today. Like, I don't think they realize how much money those gimmick tables used to generate from like, you know, 4 by 6, 5 by 7, 8 by 10 pictures. I mean there's guys who bought cars, there's guys who pay down payments on houses based off the money they made off the gimmick table selling those, just those pick. Not even, not even twenty dollar T shirts and stuff like guys try to sell now just off those pictures alone. I mean, you hear Jeff Jarrett talk about his podcast.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: That's what I just fix to say. Jeff Jarrett was the one that in Jonesboro I saw make so much money on 8 by 10. I think he had 8 by 10 were 5 or $10. And then the he at that time it went up to $2 for the gimmick shots.
And he saw. Which is funny because I knew Jeff, I've been knowing Jeff since he got into business. And I was just like, I was in awe. I was a total awe. And I asked him after the, the crowd cleared, I said, hey man, how much money did you make?
And he said to me, it's none of your business.
And I said, you're correct, it is any of my business. So yeah, yeah, thanks for sitting me straight.
[00:45:22] Speaker B: Not to go off on a whole other tangent, but you know, back in those, you know, now you go to indie show and there'll be heels with tables and faces with tables and they're four feet from each other and all that. But that used to be a huge factor in sitting guys down and selling them on the idea of turning them heel in the territories because you were about to take away a big chunk of their income when you took that picture money away. And you better be prepared to be able to offer them something to make up for that because that was a, that was a really big piece of the pie as far as their income goes.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Here's the deal. There would be he real pictures on the gimmicks table, but they would never be out to sign them, which made a difference because everyone wanted to meet them by the photograph and sign the photograph gimmicks table. When Jamie Dundee was working Knoxville, he was Gumby, they called him Gumby because he wore the. He was in Jonesboro sell at the gimmicks table for his dad during the whole time and no one knew who the hell he was.
And I. I went by the gimmicks table and was like, I can't believe it. It's Gumby. And he was like, how the hell did you know that? You know. You know how Jamie is.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: And it was because I watched the tapes, you know, I was able to get the tape.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: Yeah, he had that green jumpsuit and he looked like Gumby and.
[00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they. Oh, it was perfect. They what? They. It's like he came out with the green jumpsuit. Is that. Is that how a blue or purple one? And it was supposed to be a big deal because it was his dad. He was heel manager. And the crowd picked up on it so quick and was screaming, gumby, Gumby. But yeah, awesome, awesome. We ended the fabs was talking about Gumby.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: Gummy.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: But thanks, guys. And I want to. I'll go ahead and say, was it really that good? Was the. Was the fabs really that over? Were they really that good? I'll say yes for me.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if you. If you want to. If you. You can pick apart work rate and, you know, how many stars their matches were. But as far as getting over and. And being, you know, a big draw, like you said, that could, you know, draw house. Draw houses as good or more than Jerry the King Lawler or Dundee, you can't argue that. They were definitely that good.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Yes, very much so. All right, guys, thanks for joining us.
Same bad time, same bad channel. On the best little wrestling podcast in the business.
Be there. And as everyone knows, I love my mama.
