No-Contest Wrestling: WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather

27:41And I say another women's because she's already got one world's title, but she now gets a chance at the AEW women's title match. And that was fun. And like I said, the crowd was happy. The crowd popped for her because we see the work that she's done over the years and that she's put in. So very well deserved, Athena. Shout out to you. And then next up, we heard people. Yeah. We hurt people. Yeah. We hurt people. That hurt syndicate came out to defend their tag team championships against Jet Speed and the patriarchy. Jet Speed. You know, they have some spots in there, but I just want to give appreciation to Kevin Knight.

28:18Please do. Dude, he is so athletically gifted, and it looks so clean every time. It's just so measured, and there's nothing sloppy about him. and that is like the smart wrestling fans out there can see a worker and that dude know the gifts he got and I hope nothing but the best for Kevin Knight man I'm a fan so bottom line is oh that was great Lashley hits the spear to win because they hurt people when he smushed FDR I was like so now at the end right FDR comes out and they're having to face off with the patriarchy and then kind of a shocking turn of events. The patriarchy decides that they're going to leave Christian behind.

29:07Yeah, enough is enough. They turned on Christian. It was a weird moment because Christian's kind of a dick. So, like, they should be in the right. But it felt like, why are you being mean to Christian? But he kind of had this coming. Yeah, like, but I did not feel good. You know, Mother Wayne, shout out to, by the way, shout out to Mother Wayne, too.

29:33Stop it. Shout out to Motherway. Motherway was like he had it coming. He did. Valid point. I love him. I'm a Christian fan. I'm going to tell you right now, when Christian became the World Heavyweight Championship in that ladder match against Del Rio, that, to me, low-key, one of my favorite moments in the history of wrestling. But Christian had it coming. Bro. But right as Nick was about to maybe put him out.

30:01Here he comes. I think we all were waiting. We knew Cope was coming out. The Rated R Superstar Cope was coming out. Took his sweet ass time. He did the thing that we just laughed. He made sure he got his entrance in. Now Christian's down there about to get his brains bashed in. Cope comes out, runs to one side. Adam, please. Help me, dog. Help me. Now he's got to run over, play to this side. And then he makes his way down. And, of course, he goes for the save. I love age. So I ain't never going to say nothing bad about Adam Copeland, Cope, Edge, whatever you want to call him. I think what was his, Sexton Hardcastle, whatever the name was.

30:37It's something I told you once too. I've never not liked Edge at any point. That boy good. Good guy, bad guy, rated R, jerk, ultimate opportunist, vampire, New York's homeless street youth. It doesn't matter. I've always been an Edge fan. So of course, you know, he's coming down to make the save. And then it's the moment we were waiting for. Edge and Christian. Yeah. Coping. How many years? Coping Christian, right? Yeah. Helps him up. We're expecting that hug. And he told him, reminiscent of playing back to when they first got together in AEW. And Christian told him to go F himself. Go fuck yourself.

31:13Okay. You know, I'm not going to say it out loud. Because I don't curse on you. I didn't say it. My mouth was covered. But we figured we're going to get that nice little reunion. And Cope just tells him, go fix yourself. which would not have made sense for them to bond at that moment. It plays so much better. Let's milk this story. Now Christian go on a little, maybe a little journey. A little redemption. Redemption. Yeah. But eventually this is going to lead to Cope and Christian as a tag team. We would have got it when they had the hardy. Yeah, that's true. But it is what it is. It is what it is.

31:47And we're eventually, we're going to get them back. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, it was a great moment. this goes for me into my Hall of Fame of please hurry your ass up. And that's up there with Jeff Hardy while Matt was getting stomped out and Jeff still got to go do the thing. Or just recently, I forget, Penta was helping somebody. Penta came out to but the thing was, I don't think Penta was coming for the save. He was just coming to get brawn. Can you not right now? Can you help? Yeah. TJ, I promise if you ever get in jump, I will not stop to take pictures. Please don't. Take him on the way back.

32:21Just get, down the ramp. I got you. One second, TJ. I promise, bro. So that was it. And then we got there was a triple main event. You had to love it. Yeah. Triple main event, which is you know, I'll let you have it. I'll let you have it. But like, they all deserved it. Yeah. How can you pick one of these matches? Yeah, so it's our triple main event. Yeah, triple main event, Timeless Tony Storm against Mercedes Monet for AEW Women's Championship and it lived up to expectation. Absolutely. They knew what they had to do. It's the biggest women's match in the history of the company. Yeah, both colorful characters.

32:57Yeah. These women are so charismatic. And a lot of excellent displays of sportsmanship all throughout that match. Let me tell you something. It was displays of sportsmanship. I don't know what to tell you. That's all I can call it. It was a display of something. It was a display of something, man. Wow, that's really nice of her. Yeah, you just got to watch the match. Yeah, you just got to watch, bro. The great thing is neither one of them looked like they had the advantage. Like, it was as even of a match as I'm looking at my notes. And at one point, I was like, I wrote this down. I'm like, I don't know who's going to win this.

33:35When Mercedes kicked out of that triple Storm Zero, I was like, oh, she's going to do it. She's going to win this, yeah. My man Luther took a nasty Meteora while holding Tony. That's what Luther's out there for. I was like, all right, yeah, that's a bump in pay. And, you know, like, it's just these two, like I said, this match was highly anticipated. And you have two just exceptional workers. And you really, even though I say I wasn't sure who was going to win, the bottom line is this, and I've told you this, I just didn't see any way that Toni Storm would lose this match. She, neither one of them are AEW homegrown, but timeless Toni Storm, that's an AEW creation that is created from the top.

34:24And so because of that, I just, for some reason, in my mind, if I had the pen and I was him, TK, there was just no way I could have her lose this match. Especially after what she just went through to get it back. Yeah, so, yeah. I think it was the right move. It was fair. It was a great match. Mercedes didn't lose nothing. Mercedes didn't lose nothing. She's still the CEO. Still Mercedes, what, six belts? Yeah, man. And she's still, whether you like it or not, one of the best in the world. So that was great. We move on to Okada and Omega for the Unified Championship. One thing that you and I both hate is the name.

34:59But the belt, I saw the belt up close. It is a gorgeous belt, man. And the best part about watching Okada and Omega was the fact that I didn't have to stay up until 4 in the morning like I used to in New Japan to watch them. two of the greatest wrestlers ever made. They know what you want to see. Yeah, there's really no chance that this was going to be a bad match. Yeah. They did all the stuff that they did. I'd still probably say the Wrestle Kingdom match probably a little bit better because that Japanese style was just – Yeah. And plus, Kenny, now you can't – Yeah, there's a lot of things that go into it.

35:32But, man. Still a great match. We don't do stars, but I would give all the stars. Okada gets the win. And like Don Calis said, he might be the best big match wrestler in wrestling today and maybe of all time. And what I really loved is I read that because the Continental Champion won, that the bell falls under Continental Champion rules. So I can tell you this, being at the presser after Tony made that decision, and I was like, you sure you want to do this? But basically he said, because like you said, because the Continental Champion won, they're going to do those rules. So now there can never be any outside interference.

36:10If anyone, and he told Don, he goes, if you would have interfered, I would have fired you. So basically that's what goes on for this unified championship, which I think their, their goal is to put it on the level of the world title. So that means only main event players. Yeah. No, no mid carters, no B plus. Like you got to be the man to even have a chance to win this belt. Apparently. Yeah. So that's great. And you know you're going to get a real wrestling match with no outside interference because Tony said, anyone ever interferes, you're getting fired. So we're looking to see what Okada does with this.

36:46He's truly one of the best of all time. And then, hang man. Bow damn time. Adam Page. Bow damn time. He regains the AEW World Heavyweight Championship in one of the most unhinged, insane, bloody, chaotic, great matches that you're going to see, man. I don't care what nobody says about Jon Moxley. Yeah. Okay. It's probably one of my favorite matches. Jon Moxley is a man because he is willing to put it on the line. And, you know, he and Renee had a video. And Renee, I loved it. By the way, seek it out. It's those two driving. It's about four minutes long. Renee is questioning Jon. Like, why do you have to take things this far?

37:28Why do you have to do that? And I thought it was really dope because we all know they're married, right, obviously. We all wonder, like, well, we're keeping this kayfabe. Like, Renee, what do you think about this? Yeah, man, what's up with your husband? So it was great to see her kind of question him. Why are you doing this? Why do you got to take things so far? So if you guys haven't seen it, you can find it. It's on Twitter. That's where I saw it. And John actually had a good quote. He was like, I need to make sure people really want this. You want to be a wrestler? Okay, let's see how bad you want this.

37:59And that's kind of why his explanation for doing what he's done with the Death Riders over the last eight months was trying to make sure that this AW, you know, this is real. You know, if you want to be a wrestler, you got to take it from me. You got to take it from me. Yeah, man. Stab me in the head. So right off the bat, the fork spot. Yeah. Like a lot of people want to go, oh, he blade. No, no, no. We saw the fork. Hangman took the fork. Yeah. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. in the head and then the blood just started flowing. And that place, when that happened, was like, oh! And then after, in the press conference, Adam Page said, I don't know if you guys know this, but you can smell blood.

38:41He goes, as soon as I hit him with the fork, there's a scent. And it just happened. That was something that I never thought about. I'm cool. But man, this was just an amazing, amazing match. You had help from the Death Riders. You had Ospreay come out. Eventually you had Swerve come out. The thing about Swerve is he and Hangman have had this thing. Swerve threw him the chain that will end up winning him the title. It was like, go do it. Also, shout out to Bryan Danielson and The Return. Darby Allen. You can't spell all in without Allen. Do you see what I'm doing? Bryan Danielson coming back with the Blue Panther mask on.

39:24He got in the ring. He did that. The thing, the pot was huge. Darby coming down from Everest. Everest just coming down Stingstyle from the rafters. That was amazing. Like, check it out, man. It just, but at the end of the day, this could only end one way. And that's with Hangman Adam Page winning the title. Actually seeing the title because we hadn't seen it in eight months. Opening up that briefcase. We finally put it in the briefcase. I tried to tell you that it was not in the briefcase the whole time. No, it was not. You don't want to know how I can tell you? Because when you look at the pictures, that title still had Brian Danielson side plates on it.

40:01That means the Death Riders didn't really give a damn about that belt, man. They didn't bother changing the side plates. That shit was in the Warner Brothers office. No, it wasn't. I'm not trying to hear that, man. I just got to give a shout out, man. This pay-per-view, and I'm not one of these people who want to compare this one to this one. Nah. Was it a long day? Heck yeah. I got there about 12.45. I didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight. Yeah. Yeah, it was a long day. It was like seven hours, but, man, all in, two thumbs up, man. Incredible. Incredible show. You guys did yourself a disservice if you didn't watch it.

40:41Yeah. So go back, find a replay. Yeah, just do yourself. If you're a wrestling fan and not one of these, you know, I'm only like this or I'm only like that, if you're someone like us who likes everything, this is for you for sure. Now, I was in Atlanta, Georgia. I know. You were. Yeah, I was in Atlanta, Georgia, and I needed something to do, so I called in a favor. I called in my man, Paul. I said, Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. No, Paul. Levesque. Oh, that Paul. My guy. I'm in the city. Y 'all in the city. Let's make something happen. So, he took care of me, got to Saturday night's main event. from the jump, you're starting off with Randy and Drew, who are going to put on a show.

41:25These are people that you can trust. It's going to be a solid match. Everyone's going to feel strong about it. The thing that a lot of the discourse that has been happening is that it was made to kind of set up another match, which is the tag match of Jelly Roll and Randy versus Drew and Logan. And if y 'all don't stop acting like WWE ain't been doing this forever. They have been forever. I've watched, bro, Lawrence Taylor alone. Like, I get that there is this belief or these people that think, well, you're taking a spot from other wrestlers. There's wrestlers in it. There's wrestlers in it. And they want to share their spot with the guests.

42:07And it's going to be okay. I promise. I promise, baby. So I just want to give my shout out to Jelly Roll. I hope you put on a show, brother, because the fangs are out right now. Well, that was a nice little setup. But the segue after that was Bianca coming in as a surprise special guest referee that she was going to be in Naomi and Jade's match for Evolution the next night. The pop for Bianca was insane. Oh, so they weren't overseas this time. Oh, DJ. Because, you know, other crowds don't get me started. The roof came off that place, but I was looking real close, and I still saw that. I was hoping.

42:48I was hoping. I'm dying to see Bianca back. I think you're still a little broke right now or something. Yeah, Naomi and Jay, though, they went at each other, setting it up for Evolution the next night. And then here's where the controversy happens, because it's LA night versus Seth Rollins. And the match going as you'd expect. Now I'm just waiting for Seth to kind of win this match and get the pin. but Seth Rollins got hurt says Rollins got hurt for real and I was sitting next to some people who might be a little bit in the know of the business the sister of our tribal chief and his mom but when we were watching Seth land and then the ref come over and how much commotion it was really happening you heard the uh oh and then when we saw LA Knight get that quick pin, we knew.

43:42And WWE's in a real situation creatively with what they're going to do now. We don't know the severity of the injury, but we know he couldn't keep going. And we also know that he is the money in the bank holder. He's the top heel that they're trying to push right now. There's a lot of things going into it that you have to worry about. And we just have to see what's going to happen tonight on Raw to see where they're going to go with it. And then, you know, I got to say goodbye to Goldberg. I got to say goodbye He put on a 15-minute match. About that. 15 minutes. I was like, look at Bill go. At 58 years old.

44:16We even saw his son get involved. It had the right amount of drama. He still looks strong. When Guther tried to chop him, it was a great send-off. He gave a great speech at the end of it. Even had Cody come out. This was not televised. Cody came out and gave props to Bill. Atlanta showed love. The next night, Evolution and Wow. Every lady's match in Evolution put on a show, so much so that we're talking about Evolution being at least every other year to get them to showcase this talent. But what we got to hit on is our world champion, Naomi. Well, even before that, though, let me piggyback off the Goldberg thing.

45:00A lot of people were in their feelings about why he got this shot. But in Atlanta, you realize that the only people that don't seemingly want Goldberg around are people on computers? Because every time Bill Goldberg shows up, the pop is huge. People lose their mind. That was my first Goldberg match I ever saw. Like, come on. And then how can you be mad? Goldberg walking to the ring the way he did all those years ago with his son. Yeah. I mean, that alone, how can you hate on that moment? Gage Goldberg, who if he's playing football for Dion at Colorado, If that doesn't work out, if NFL doesn't work out, you're going to see him in the ring for sure.

45:42With Josh Barnett, with Chuck Zito, with Ernest the Cat Miller. Like, by the way, I put on our Instagram, if this was Gage Goldberg's bar fight crew, Bill Goldberg, Chuck Zito, the Cat, and Josh Barnett. Now, if you don't know who Chuck Zito is, legendary, real tough guy, Hollywood, like people in the know know Chuck Zito apparently knocked Jean-Claude Van Damme out cold years ago at the height of J. Yeah, Chuggsito's a bad dude. Josh Barnett, former UFC champion. Ernest and Cat Miller. Yeah, that's my boy. Yeah, so, like, yeah, it was great. Goldberg got the send-off. Congratulations. Also, shout-out to DDP.

46:20Oh, DDP, true. Thank you, Bill Goldberg, because like I said, so many of my friends back in the day didn't like wrestling, and then they came over to the crib and they saw Goldberg, and all of a sudden these cats were showing up at my crib on Mondays. Yeah, yeah. Goldberg did that, man. So thank you. Yeah, shout out to Goldberg. Shout out to all the ladies in Evolution. We here at No Contest, we support women's wrestling completely. Yeah, no doubt. And Evolution, while Triple H does have a point, it being every year would take away the specialness from it. Yeah, I don't think it needs to be. Every other year at least.

46:51Because when they know it's about them, they're going to go hard. And I also want to give a shout out to Raquel. because Raquel looked big and strong in that triple threat tag team. Yeah, fatal four-way tag team. I love that. I love that for Raquel, but we got to talk about the cash-in. We know the episode's going long, so we're trying to – Look, they're going to hold on because they want to talk about it too. We need a live chat. But the cash-in, the cash-in. First of all, before, look, I was going to leave that for last. Before we get to the cash-in point, we have to point out, Jade Cargill defeats Naomi in that match.

47:36Yes. And the way that she did it made you think Naomi was done for the night. It was a brutal match. It was a brutal match. She went for it. Also proud of Jade for her performance. And communicating. There's some spots where you can see them communicating, and I appreciate that. Because you want safety is the first thing I care about. because the best ability is availability. And Jade got the dub. Jade looks strong. But her and Bianca had a bit of a stare. Yeah, because at first, after she got the one, two, three, she didn't, you know, normally you go to the ref, have your arm raised. She kind of gave B the side eye, kind of went over, did her thing.

48:14And it was about a minute later where she finally allowed her to raise her arm. So, you know, I think Jade is still not, I don't think she's over it. She's definitely not over it. I didn't know, bro. Yeah, she's definitely not over it, and she still kind of doesn't trust Bianca. I think that was pretty obvious, even though Bianca called that match right down the line. She was a great referee. Solid referee. Yeah, so. Even used her bad hand to count. No, she used her right hand. Are you sure she used her left? I don't know. I don't know. I take it back, Bianca. Don't yell at me. Because specifically, I can remember one point to see if she did, and I thought she used her right hand.

48:53All right, all right. it is. You know, whatever. Either way, she called it right down the middle. And then the Women's World Championship, Io, Rhea Ripley, we don't give stars, like I said, but we'll give in this match every star in the galaxy. Whatever's in my pocket. Those two tore it down. Io Sky might be the best wrestler in the world right now. I love Io. We love Io. No, Don Buoy loves Io. Don Buoy loves Io. Yeah, man. And it was so good because when you have in your mind, number one, the record that Io has over Rhea, and then also just because my ear is so to the ground with the IWC, I know what they're going to say if Rhea does win.

49:40And so we kind of had that heavyweight fight pressure on it, and it felt like, okay, they know where they're going to go with it. but you know that the performers are going to do their thing. And they are going at it. They are slugging it out. Yep. Move for move. You know, both looked almost unstoppable at the same time. And then. Well, before that, Jessica Carr, she takes the bump. Yes. She's knocked out. EO and Rhea. Jessica Carr, I got to remember her name. EO and Rhea decided they're just going to take it to the streets, essentially. They fight through the crowd. We have that spot where EO does the jump off of the boxes, the speakers, whatever.

50:27She'll jump off anything. Yeah, they fought back to the ring. They're going at it. And then, like you said. Yeah, that music hit. And I'm not used to Naomi's music yet. Yeah, I'm still like, yeah. I'm still used to, my ear is trained to the old music. Yeah, I'm like, who the hell is that? Yeah. Here come Naomi with Black Lady Raph. who we got to get on the show to. Because of respect her. Respect to her. She always, Daphne Joy, down the middle. She come out hobbling, hobbling. And now I've always had the fear that, please, Naomi, don't fail your cash. Right, yeah. And her coming hobbling, I was like, tonight, right now?

51:03Also because we assume she's going after Tiff. Yeah, the whole time. Because they had beef from day one. Yeah. So I never really thought that, like, oh she's going to go after the women's world champion oh and I think it was on episode of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast where we mentioned that she never had the Raw women's title so this would be the equivalent to that with it being Raw's brand title she goes in cashes in once again kind of a little pump fake moment because I thought the bell rang the bell did ring and Io you can see she goes to swing the case to Io. Io tried to cover it. And then Naomi stops, like, rigged the bell.

51:44She didn't hear the bell ring. That's how loud it was. It rang again. She came through with the hit. Chucked Rhea out the ring. Like, hit the... On the post. And then, yeah, man, she is our... She's our world heavyweight champion. Show the merch. Show the damn merch. You see it. You see what it is. Proceed with caution. That's your world champion. and she's gonna talk so much shit. Yeah, this is gonna be so much fun. She's unhinged on Twitter. She already put the word out that if you hadn't congratulated her by 9 a.m., she was blocking you. So I made sure that we, yeah, from no contest, we sent it.

52:28Shout out to Naomi, man. Shout out to Naomi, well-deserved. This has been so much fun to kind of watch her with this new character. Now it's gonna be fun to watch her as the women's world champion. Can't wait to see. Yeah. And we had an interview, damn it. Yeah, we did. Maybe we'll put some of that out. Shay will tell you we had Naomi about two weeks ago. There was a huge power outage in the city of El Segundo that cut all of our power for about an hour. So we couldn't finish the interview. We do have about 25 minutes, I think, maybe half an hour in the can. So we should probably put something together.

53:03Something, man. We had her. Yeah, just because we had her and it was really awesome. Yeah. So we'll probably put that out at some point soon. But now she's the champ, and we're in Naomi's world, man. And I can't wait to see where she takes us. Now, we know you guys have been waiting a long time. And I think the Godfather's been waiting a long time, too. Long enough. Yeah, so here's our interview with Godfather. The greats don't shy away from change. They attack it head-on with confidence, preparation, and a clear strategy. KPMG LLP and their transformation professionals work with organizations across industries, using their advanced AI to help them move faster, work smarter, and adapt with purpose.

53:44Because in today's business environment, winning teams don't react to change, they shape it. Learn more at visit.kpmg.us.

53:53Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high-interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an Audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast. Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. Fast funds terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. Fans of the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, you already know how truly special it is when me and TJ get to talk to a legend.

54:31Yeah. All right, and legends in this beautiful thing that we call professional wrestling. And this next guest, he's graced our television with a few beautiful things. You can say that. Yeah, and then giving you an offer you can't refuse. But TJ, just like Joel Embiid, he plays no games. Unless it's Domino's. That's my stuff. He's a former tag team champion of the world, a former intercontinental champion of the world. Whether you know him as Kama, Papa Shango, Just always remember to call our favorite train conductor a Hall of Famer. But today, he is a guest on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast.

55:06Please welcome the Godfather. Amen. Yes, sir.

55:11Rich Eisen:What's cracking that, y 'all? Oh, what a treat. What an honor. Come on, now. Come on. I left out, out of your names, I left out the Goodfather because I heard you didn't really like the Goodfather. Is that true? You know, as time has passed, I've kind of gotten over. There was a time at these signings that I wouldn't even sign the Goodfather. I put like a G in shit. But as I've gotten over, I've kind of gotten over it. And, you know, it is. But just at the time, what a lot of people don't understand is at that time, that cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars going from Godfather to Goodfather because I was in the top three T-shirt sales at the time for merchandise as godfather.

55:58Rich Eisen:And I mean, you know how merchandise is. Yeah, yeah. And I was in the top three. And once I became the good father, that all got wiped out. And so more than anything, it cost me so much money that I just hated it. That makes sense to me. Yeah, man. I mean, it cost me a lot of money. Yeah, when you start messing with people's pockets. Yeah, that was the censorship group, right? Right, the censorship. Oh, man. It was a point where Vince was fighting for me and fighting for me. And he'd say, Charles, Charles, my real name is Charles. He'd be like, Charles, I'm fighting for you every day, brother.

56:33Rich Eisen:But they were after the suckets and everything else. And really me, because I was calling girls hoes, talking about smoking weed, rolling fatties. Oh, we're going to get to all that. We're going to get to all that. I was doing it all. Bro, that group had probably top three worst entrance music. It might be top two and not two. I hated it. See, I got to be honest with you. I heard he didn't like ROTC or ROTC. ROTC, ROTC, ROTC, so I didn't even have any questions. I wasn't even going to bring up ROTC today to be honest with you because I heard it wasn't his favorite thing. Right. And, you know, me and you, we met at, I think it was WrestleMania 40 at that WrestleCon.

57:18Yes. You and I got to talk to you and Boogeyman and Kat, who we will have on the No Contest Wrestle Podcast. We got to get all of them. But we had to call his mama. And she said, good dude, good dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this has been a long time coming. So I want to thank you for being here. Yeah, this is amazing. Yeah, let's kick it off. I guess my first question other than, you know, the previous would be, when did you get bit by this wrestling bug? You know, I know you had your life prior. What was life prior before you got bit and knew that this was what you wanted to do?

57:51Rich Eisen:You know, girl, I grew up in the 70s. A lot of people think I'm younger, but I mean, I'm 64 years old. So I grew up in the 70s and I grew up in the Bay Area. And so in the Bay Area in the 70s, roller derby was bigger than wrestling. And so at the Cow Palace, the San Jose Civic Auditorium, but mostly at the Cow Palace, man, that's what we would go watch is roller derby. So I really never watched wrestling. Wrestling kind of knocked on my door and I wasn't really familiar with it. I wasn't a wrestling fan, but it knocked on my door and I opened that cell phone and got up and ran with it. But, yeah, I was never, I was, what a lot of people don't know is I was like a hardcore biker, like with the patch and the whole biker scene and the brotherhood.

58:39Rich Eisen:And that was my life. And so to go from that to become a voodoo man in Papi Shaka was a big change. Big change. Godfather, you know, you brought that up. It doesn't seem, I guess, and you might agree with this, it didn't seem like when it came to bike culture, we had a lot of brothers that at least we saw on TVs and movies. You know, the biker guys always look kind of the same. Never were there guys that look like you that I got to see. So were brothers really into the bike culture back in those days? They were, back then, the brothers were riding Kawasaki's. And we were riding Harley's. And I think there was a group in Oakland.

59:19Rich Eisen:In Oakland, California, you had the Hells Angels, the Soul Brothers, and the Raiders. And I don't know which one was getting in more trouble, but they rode Kawasaki's. I know a lot of the black motorcycle clubs now ride Harleys. Yeah, my uncle Star, rest in peace, one of his prized possession was a Screaming Eagle. That's all he kept talking about is his Screaming Eagle, man. I wasn't really over with black people back then because I was all tatted up. And no black people back then, man, back in the 80s, early 80s. I mean, I've been tatted up since 82. And so a lot of black people weren't tatted up back then and riding Harleys and listening to country music and hanging out at Western bars and fighting every night.

1:00:08Rich Eisen:And, you know, I was a little different, man. Bear was a little different than everybody else. All right. So I don't want to take us off of this, but because we're talking Harleys, I've got to ask you this question, because here on The Rich Eisen Show, what we're a part of, i'm kind of known for uh a visit to the price is right i made godfather a few years ago so i get to the final showcase showdown okay and it's me and another girl of course there's two of us showcase showdown uh one of the packages contained two harley davidson motorcycles now she passed on it and she gave me the package so i've got a bid on this so can i just ask you This was 2021.

1:00:49What would you say would be the cost, since you were a bike guy, of two Harley Davidsons? If you're on the prices right, there was a—

1:00:55Rich Eisen:What type of Harley Davidsons? That I can't remember, but it was a trip to— I mean, you got to know. I'm just—okay. I mean, it could be a street glide. It'd be an electric glide. It could be anything. I would say back then I would put each bike at about$20 ,000. So I'd say$40 ,000 for two new bikes,$36 ,000 to$40 ,000. Okay. Thank you. godfather because i went out there it was a trip to space camp in uh nasa space camp of florida some really high quality uh telescope the two harleys and something else so i bid like 46 thousand dollars because i figured harleys the people i know who have harleys they're expensive right it came back that my price i think was 22 000 for my whole package and the harleys were eight thousand dollars as you can see that that's me i went over the trip and the motorcycles and everyone's clowning me but i'm like i've never heard of a harley davidson i you can't i mean i was looking i always look at bikes i was seeing 2005s in 2008s going for seven eight thousand dollars so thank you so i wasn't crazy to think that these somebody there was some type of fix in there man somebody there was something funny something fishy in denmark there bro no they need to have me back on.

1:02:09Rich Eisen:I can't tell you I've had Harley since the I had a Harley in 77 and back then, man, I don't remember a Harley being a, I don't ever remember being able to buy a Harley, maybe a Sportster or something back in the day for $8 ,000. I feel like I don't know. These were two Sportsters that could be different things because they're a lot cheaper. Man, you don't understand that I would get clowned for it on the show but I'm like, there's no way If they were Sportsters, they could have been 8, 9, you know because that's not a full-size Harley So, I mean, I don't know what type. I was saying if they were full-size Harleys, big, you know, 80, 90-inch bikes, then they'd be up there.

1:02:46Listen, as soon as you would have asked, well, what type of Harleys are there? They would have been like, let's get him up. So I just needed to feel redeemed by this, and you just did that for me. So thank you.

1:02:59Rich Eisen:Unless they were sportsters, then I'd be like, hey, man, come on now. But even so, a sportster, you would still think a Harley, that's a top bike. No, but a Sportster is like a girl's bike. Oh, okay. Because somebody did put that in the YouTube comment. They were like, look, this bike is blah, blah, blah. And he goes in TJ's too big for that bike anyway. So what's it matter? It might have been Sportster, like 883s or something instead of 1380s or whatever they are these days. Well, I still feel redeemed. Yeah, you are. You're all right, man. Don't worry about it. Let me ask you about a movie and you tell me what it means to you.

1:03:34The movie Over the Top.

1:03:37Rich Eisen:That's where I got my wrestling start. All right, let's talk about it. You're working in a bar? Working in a strip club in Las Vegas called Crazy Horse Saloon, strip club. And back then, you were a manager, bouncer, doorman, barback. You're everything in one, man. They even had sawdust on the floor in these places. Rough and tough places, man. And I was working there, and they were filming a movie called Over the Top. and they were filming it at the MGM, which was two blocks down the street. A lot of guys in that were wrestlers. I sent you a picture earlier. I was so big, dude. I was like beyond big, like stupid big.

1:04:22Rich Eisen:And they'd come in there like, dude, you should become a wrestler. And I'm like, man, I don't want to do that phony shit. And they're like, no, dude. They're like, you ever hear of a guy named Bam Bam Bigelow? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, the dude with the tattoos on his head right charlie's i've heard of him they said well he made a million dollars last year and i went wrestling they made a million dollars and i'm like well everybody's like dude you're so crazy you'd be a good wrestler the way you are anyway so uh i made a call and literally literally less than two years from that call i'm wrestling jerry lawler in memphis tennessee on a monday night on my very first match ever, not knowing anything about wrestling, because I never went to wrestling school.

1:05:05Rich Eisen:I just hung out with strippers and did that type of stuff. And, dude, I went to a place called the Monster Factory, and I was probably there a couple months, and I think I went to class one time because I'd be out all night chasing tail in them strip clubs, man, getting in early in the morning, getting up late, going to the gym. I just wouldn't go. And Jerry Lawler came in, took a look at me. I knew nothing about wrestling. I thought it was a shoot, actually. Do nothing about wrestling. Jerry Lawler took a look at me, offered me a deal. I went to Memphis, Tennessee, my very first match ever, not knowing anything about wrestling.

1:05:49Rich Eisen:I beat Jerry Lawler on a Monday night. I was the soul taker in Memphis, Tennessee, man. And it kind of took off from there. I kind of learned as I went from there. I spent like a year in Japan I spent a year in Germany you know I kind of learned as it went and that was the United States Wrestling Association with Jerry Lawler yes yeah mid-south Tennessee real quick the Soul Taker can you tell us where the that's what I was headed to the Soul Taker I know down there is where you ran into what we would know as the Undertaker later on but let us know where that Soul Taker brand kind of came from When I went to Memphis, they're like, we've got to come up with a name for you.

1:06:33Rich Eisen:And they couldn't. They said, well, what's that tattoo on your arm right here? You know, right here. I'm like, oh, that's the soul taker. He takes, I got the tie, but I was just like, it takes a bitch's soul. And so, dude, all my tattoos are demons taking women's souls. This is what I was into back then, right? And so he said, soul taker. I'm like, we like that. So that's where the name come from. That tattoo right there. I don't know if you can see it or not, but. Just send me a picture of it. We'll post it. Make sure they see it. They see it real good. You've got some big titty girl all wrapped up.

1:07:09So you were saying how big you were. Do you remember what you weighed? Because you're what, 6 '4", 6 '6", somewhere in there? What were you weighing?

1:07:15Rich Eisen:I'm 6 '4", 6 '5", probably closer to 6 '4". At the point of my biggest, I was 360. 60. Bench pressing 600 pounds. I was strong, man. Big Bear was strong and big. Well, you don't get a name like Bear when you're looking like a little bear. I used to tell people don't call me Bear. Call me The Bear. Love that. Absolutely. Now, take us through that moment of meeting who we know as Undertaker. You guys met in the ring, right? After my program with Lawler, I'm pretty green now i don't really i'm only doing what jerry lawler is telling me to do in the ring and so i don't really know anything so they said we're going to bring we want to keep you here so we're going to bring this big tall redheaded kid in to work with you and uh martin and he showed up and mind you dude i'm used to dealing with like racist white bikers like real bikers not these pretend dudes like real hardcore outlaw bikers and so i'm used to like there's another one of motherfucker right here right i'm like but he ain't got no tattoos so he must not ride and i'm looking at him like yeah but look at him i didn't know one of these motherfuckers and so we had our match i'll let him describe the match but after the match it was so bad that they put us together as a tag team and they he was mean mark even though he was master of pain master of pain yeah he was master of pain i was a soul taker they put us together and we became really really good friends and to this day he's one of my best friends so you did you introduce him to the motorcycles man dude dude all right here we go so here so i meet him and i'm riding with him and he's listening i call it long hair music like bon jovi type of motley crew that type of long i don't know long hair music right and so takers listen to that shit and i'm like at the time that's a whole nother story i didn't start listening to like rap till like 93 up until 90 i listened to nothing but country old country music because that's the type of people i hung around johnny cash all my life people like that so i'm like dude you don't listen to country music what's some shit so i get him listening to country music we go to order a drink and he orders like a cubra libra do you know what cubra libra is never even heard of it it's a rum and coke with a lime and I'm like dude I'm like yeah no no Jack Daniels we drink this is what we drink we drink Jack alright and so and then I got so he didn't listen to country music I got him listening to country music he didn't have any tattoos I'll show you a picture actually that picture that picture right there is my very first match after I beat Jerry Lawler and won that belt that's the soul taker back there Then I'm like, well, he don't have no tattoos.

1:10:14Rich Eisen:So I made him in Vegas. There's pictures of it out there. Me with him getting his first tattoo. And then the most thing, he didn't ride Harleys. He says he knows how to ride a bike. Oh, see. We all know. Anyway, we got him riding Harleys. So all that stuff that you see, the old dead man, That's a big part of it. He'll tell people that I was a very big influence on him in that part of his life. And I tell people, I just kind of opened his eyes up to a different way, and he kind of took to it. It wasn't until, like I said, until like 91, 92. I'll tell you a quick story. I'm riding Yokozuna. I'm driving.

1:11:03Rich Eisen:Yokozuna's over here. Taker's behind. And somebody else. It might have been Macho Man. I'm not sure. somebody else is with us all right and i'm driving down the road and i i still chew tobacco i got some copenhagen in and i'm listening to some hank williams jr and i'm just driving i'm just driving and i'm singing the hank williams jr song so yoko looks at me i think we were rid of the cadillac they were in a cadillac or lincoln yoko looks at me looks at the tape looks at me puts the window down, he just, probably a cassette back then, puts the cassette out, throws that motherfucker out the window.

1:11:40Rich Eisen:And I'm like, dude, what the fuck? Why are we, what the fuck you doing? He goes, hey, motherfucker, anybody ever tell you you black? So from that point on, we started listening to your dance music. We started listening to DJ Quirk. It was all West Coast. The Booyah Tribe. It was all West Coast. And then from from that point on i was into the rap scene even bought a 64 impala because of your dad 64 impala would had 16 switches 12 batteries eight dumps i mean it was crazy man yeah i was out there i wish i had never sold somebody came to my house buying cars taking them to japan and they offered me like stupid amount of money for it.

1:12:30Rich Eisen:And I had so many cars at the time. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here, I'll take the money. Wish I'd never sold that car. Man, threw the tape out the window. And it was a rag top, too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You have to. Have to. I got to have an option. Can you imagine Godfather rolling around Vegas and his rag top? Absolutely. I can definitely see that. Some of your dance music. I can definitely see that. Absolutely, I can see that. Yes, sir. Now, all right. I mean, I was, I was, I'll come back to the question I was going to ask but you know you're bringing up I'll take you in all types of directions.

1:13:01You're bringing up the members of your crew man so I gotta ask about this crew. You know I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up you know the BSK man. Talk to us about it. Yeah.

1:13:12Rich Eisen:Just a bunch of guys. Well me and Taker knew each other. Yeah. I kind of got into with all the Samoan family that whole Samoan thing and we were all guys that hung out together. Both Most of us during the day at nighttime, it was mostly me, Yoko and Rikishi and Taker, me, Rikishi and Yoko in the strip clubs. But we hung out each other. We watched each other's backs. We rode with each other. We weren't political. We were just everybody was watching everybody's back. And to this day, we're all still friends and talk to each other regularly. Dominoes. We were all domino players. Bones. Me. And I'm just telling you, I'm trying to toot my own horn.

1:13:53Rich Eisen:All right. But I am the best domino player in the thing by far. Okay. So if y 'all ever want to play, I don't get to play. I used to own, I was one of the owners of Cheetahs, a Las Vegas strip club here called Cheetahs. Yeah. And everybody used to come through and play dominoes. But now that we sold it, I don't get to play dominoes anymore. But don't step to me unless you can play. I'm just saying, don't step to me unless you can count. So that's where the name of the crew, the Bone Street crew, came from, playing Bones? We would get to a TV. At TV, you'd get there one in the afternoon, and depending on if you were riding with Taker and he's on the main event, you ain't going to get out of building until 11, 1130 at night.

1:14:35Rich Eisen:So you'd be there all day, so we'd play dominoes. Some guys played spades. Some guys played cribbage. A lot of guys played gin. But all the people with soul played dominoes. Kane was a guy. I taught Kane how to play. He picked it up real. Big Show was a decent domino player. Mark Henry was a decent domino player. JR was a decent domino player. But you're the man. I'm the best. You're the man. All right. Because we met Taker when we went to Fanatics Fest. By the way, I always have to, like, really think and remember Fanatics Fest's name. Really? Yeah. We've been doing a lot with this pot. So we met him at Fanatics Fest, and I told him, I was like, yeah, I'm trying to get Godfather onto the show.

1:15:22And you know I'm going to ask him. I know that's your boy. He said, whatever stories he tell you, make sure you come back to me and I'll tell you the real. So I'm going to bring that Domino story, man.

1:15:35Rich Eisen:He'll confirm me. He ain't going to lie. He'll say, yeah, he's good. He's not going to lie. He's the best. He's the best. He's the best. So I want to keep going on with it. Wait, wait, wait. You know what? To be honest, I thought I was like, because I'd go down to the barbershop and I'd go here and there. I could hold my own against anybody. Well, somebody gave me a celebrity entry into a professional domino tournament. Whoa, okay. I learned real quick. I ain't as good as I think I am. Hey, you know, pro. I learned real quick. I'm good playing against average mofos. Yeah. But I'm no pro, man. And so I learned real quick.

1:16:12Rich Eisen:I got humbled big time, man, where they were just talking shit to me. And I was up, they were talking so much shit, and I was filming, I was sitting there going, turn the camera off, motherfucker, turn the camera off. Keep talking to your shit, motherfucker. I bet you won't say it outside. Yeah, but yeah, I learned that I'm okay, but I ain't professional. So I want to keep going on with the BSK, because legendary group, like those of us who were in the kind of the new, knew about you guys, we would catch glimpses of tattoos that the members have. So can we talk about who really comprised the group?

1:16:45Who were your main members?

1:16:47Rich Eisen:It started off Yoko being basically the leader of the group. Yoko. It was Yoko, Taker, me, Rikishi, the Godwins, Savio Vega, Paul Bearer, Mr. Fuji, and Crush. Oh, yeah. And, you know, Crush, Fuji got in there because of, besides his family, he was Yokozuna's manager, and Paul Bearer was Taker's manager. Yeah. And Crush was one of Taker's. Crush was cool. He was one of Taker's good friends. The strip club crew was me, Taker, and Yoko every night. Every night. Every night. Every night in strip club. So, Kalfar, you mentioned something earlier when you first were talking about BSK, and you mentioned we weren't political.

1:17:36Back then, we hear the stories about how it was all politics backstage. You know, you had, I guess, the clique. They had their, you know, they were in Vince's ear. What was the BSK's kind of thing backstage? How did you guys, like, come together to make sure your crew was getting ample TV time and opportunities?

1:17:57Rich Eisen:Nobody fucked with us, man. To be honest, nobody, no writers. Sean and that group didn't mess with us. We were friends with them. I mean, we had no animosity with nobody. I'm just as good of friends with the clique as I am with BSK. I just didn't hang out with the clip. But there was nothing there, man. Politically, they didn't affect anything that we did. Shawn Michaels even put me over in the King of the Rings in 96, you know. So nothing. They were cool, you know. We had the pleasure of backing him up in a little fight one night that was about ready to kick off. So, you know. We want to talk to you about that.

1:18:36Yeah. I mean, I might as well just get the question out the way now, too. Well, let's set it up with what we were told. All right. Yeah. Yeah, so let us know about that night because X-Pac was here, and he told us how y 'all might have came in with the capes and saved the day when it came to a situation they were in. Because if you can, expand on that night, if you will. Why don't you tell them how the question came up?

1:18:59Rich Eisen:All I remember, I think it was like Halifax, Nova Scotia or someplace, and there was a bar that we used to go to. It was a happening place, and we showed up, and we'd seen that the clique was getting ready to get their ass. And the clique, you know, the thing about BSK, BSK, we weren't looking to fight. We weren't looking to fight. But if you had to fight, we'd be ready. And those guys partied so much, man, that they weren't in the right shape to be taking on a bar. So we just happened to be show up when things were getting ready to kick off. And, of course, we backed them up, man, and said, hey, let's get this party started, man.

1:19:39Rich Eisen:We've got nothing better to do. And they decided they didn't. There was, I heard your thing. There was all of us. The Godwin, there's a picture. I'll send it to you guys. There's a picture that the WWE did of it, a cartoon character of all of us in a bar standing up. And it was over that scene that they were talking about. I think the Godwins were there. I was there. I mean, we were all there, man. And after that, everything calmed down. We went in there and had a good time. We never really, we weren't looking for trouble, man. We were looking for girls, a good time and girls. That's how we were doing.

1:20:17I mean, I think I kind of know what the answer is going to be, but we got, I got to ask anyway. So Godfather, we got a question that we ask everybody on here, which is how it came up with the Xbox, which is how the Xbox, the Xbox story even came up because we asked him and he told us, yeah, that really happened. the question is you're in a situation you in a bar there's 50 dudes in that bar that don't want you in there I need you to pick a team of you and four other dudes to make sure the godfather is getting to the car

1:20:51Rich Eisen:now I'm only going to pick people that I know not stories that I've heard of people or people that I don't know I would definitely take Brock Lesnar in there I'm telling you That's a bad motherfucker. How did you not? That dude's a handful right there. That's a handful. Ron Simmons. Makes sense. Oh, yeah. Got to get him on. Bradshaw, because I've been there with Ron Simmons and Bradshaw many times. Back in the day, before social media, before ESPN. I've been in a lot of things with those two. God, there's so many people. You got one more. What's that, three? Yeah, you got one more. You brought JBL and Ron.

1:21:36Rich Eisen:huh you brought jbl and run and uh dude there's so many scrappers bro there's so many scrappers one more you know what even though i i've never seen it i'd have to take haku because everybody puts haku in every story so so you said there's got to be i mean when i met haku of course he was older like i'm older now and there's probably a lot of stories about me out there but i'm a lot older now. Those were old stories, so I ain't that same guy that was a handful back then. But I hear back in the day he was a handful. So you can attest that these stories were... I hear the same stories from everybody, and they say the only person tougher than Aku is his wife.

1:22:21Okay, that makes sense too. She had to hold it down.

1:22:24Rich Eisen:That's the only one Aku back down from is his wife. Absolutely, you better. So, I mean, yeah, he looks tough, so I'd have to put him in there. It's so hard because it depends what you mean by tough, and people are always like, are you a tough guy? I'm like, I don't consider myself a tough guy. I just consider I'm willing to take an ass whooping for something I believe in. That's a quote right there, right? But I ain't afraid to take an ass whooping. Any other legendary kind of bar fight stories that you can think of off the top? Oh, dude. This is like way back, way back, way back in like the late 80s, early 90s.

1:23:11Rich Eisen:You would get into some bar fights, but they would end quick, and we were so big. I mean, nobody really wanted to fight us. I mean, and we hung out in strip clubs. And another reason we hung out in strip clubs, because most dudes, they're there for the girls. They're not there to get autographs and take pictures. They're there for the girls. So it was kind of cool to get a break from all that. And we happen to like hoes. That's true. Excuse me. You can't say that. Strategic. Strategic. We used to like work. I don't even know what to say. I got to be careful because I can't talk like I used to talk.

1:23:43Exotic dancers. Exotic dancers. Exotic performers. Yes, performers. Indeed. So you're talking late 80s, early 90s. Let's move into you making your way to the WWF. Tell us who Sir Charles was. um i had i was in germany for eight months i was working over there and i was with scott hall

1:24:03Rich Eisen:chris benoit fit finley dave taylor owen hart man most of those guys are gone um those are the guys that i was with for eight months over there learning and um i came back and taker had gone from wcw to wwf so i got a tryout in arizona where barkley was playing i think it was phoenix and so they didn't know what to call me so they wanted to put some heat on me so they called me sir charles that's the only time that i ever wrestled as sir charles my name being charles and that was only to put heat on me to make me the heel of that match i had a tryout they hired me right then vince called me into his office hired me said we're gonna sign you a contract we're gonna pay you this much we want you to just go home and get in the best shape you can because he said you have a body of a monster but you have a baby face he says we have to do something with your face your face don't match your body and that's where they came up with the papashango thing to cover my face that's why okay yeah isn't that crazy that's interesting yeah but i tell you what nowadays like i said at 64 that that baby face shit's coming just working out all right Papa Shango.

1:25:18Yeah, that's where he came.

1:25:20Rich Eisen:So I went from a hardcore, basically outlaw biker to a voodoo man. Yeah. That was a stretch. And, you know, Papa Shango would come to the ring with the smoke and skull and like supernatural control the lights, have, you know, wrestlers vomiting and puking. You know, but for some reason it didn't seem like it was as well received as I think it would be today, to be completely honest with you, why do you think that Papa Shango didn't? What happened to Papa Shango is not the WWE. It is me. I had married. I got to watch what I say. I get myself in trouble because I'm the most honest motherfucker in the world.

1:26:01Rich Eisen:I had married. I don't want to say that. I married an exotic dancer for some really stupid reasons, and I was on a lot of drugs back then. And I'm talking like pain pills. I was heavy into pain pills back then. I wasn't even smoking back then. It was pain pills and Jack Daniels. And I ended up marrying this girl. And when I sobered up, I realized I'd made a big mistake. And I tried to get out of it. It cost me a lot of money. And so as I was trying to get out of it, this girl was putting me through the ringer, like open. And I'd shut down the American Express and she'd open it back up because we were married and buy her mom a car or buy whatever, you know, some stupid shit.

1:26:46Rich Eisen:She would call the boys on the road and say, hey, if you don't get to have them call me, I'm going to call your wife and tell her what you're doing. It was that type of shit. So I was getting in a lot of trouble and I was literally going out every night getting in a real fight because I was in I wasn't I was bare at that time. that Bear's a whole different cat. And I was Bear at that time, and Taker's pulling me off of people every night. And so me, Taker and Vince decided the best thing for me was to go home and get my mind right before something stupid happened because I was in a bad place, man.

1:27:24Rich Eisen:And I was a big, strong dude in a bad place and looking for trouble. It ain't hard to find in those type of places. Yeah, well, you know, we're glad that you, you know, had the people around you to tell you. Yeah, but that's really what happened to Papa Shango. And Vince just kind of phased him out because he didn't want to hurt me too bad. Vince is the coolest person in the world to me, man. I just got invited to his 82nd birthday party or 81st birthday party. Oh, nice, nice. Isn't that cool? Yeah, man, that's really great. Yeah, that's what happened, man. And I had to go and get my mind right.

1:28:01Rich Eisen:And actually, that's when I started smoking cannabis and changed my life completely. Better alternative than painkillers. Painkillers and alcohol, for sure. Dude, I've had my, so far, my left hip replaced, my left knee replaced. I refuse to take any type of pain pill. And I used to take somas, vicodins, placidils, percocets, halcyons. I mean, A to Z. And I'm taking these son of bitches like vitamins and drinking a bottle of Jack behind them. I will have a shot of Jack every now and then. I don't really drink beer, but I smoke a lot. And that's what's really saved me, preserved me. And it's just made it's, you know what?

1:28:39Rich Eisen:Cannabis for me, and people laugh when I say this, because like I said, there's this guy here that you're talking to. And then there's this other dude named Bear, and he's like me. He's kind of mean. He's not a bully. He's not a bully, but he's mean. And he's got a short fuse. and smoking cannabis the way that I do keeps that dude away. It keeps me creative. It keeps me motivated. And it just keeps me from going to jail. That's a powerful combination. Yeah, best thing in the world for me. Absolutely. And now in those early days, a question that we like to ask is, do you remember your welcome to wrestling moment?

1:29:19A bump or something you took that was like, man, that was a truck. You know, just a feeling of it.

1:29:25Rich Eisen:My first big pay-per-view check. Where I said, that's been a different answer. Found like gross income and then that. I mean, that and getting like my first action figure. Oh, wow. I didn't get a t-shirt until the Godfather. I got a Pimpin' Ain't Easy shirt. And it became the number one selling shirt. It's a great slogan. That was a big bump. to get my first action figure, Papa Shango action figure. That was a big moment to go in the store and say, Oh, that's me. That's me on the wall. You know, that was a big moment. That's it. You know, you guys during that attitude era, a character like the Godfather, you you're having fun.

1:30:12What it seems like every, every week. Now I know that, you know, you, during that time, a lot of things in the attitude area just would not fly. They just would not fly in today's WWE. Were there any times during that era where y 'all tried to, we know it's competitive in the back, and everyone wants to have great matches, but did y 'all ever try to outdo each other promo style to see what you could get away with?

1:30:40Rich Eisen:All right. How much time you got? Check this out. We got a minute. Check this out. We used to, in basketball arenas, that's usually where you perform in basketball arenas, and they always had, I don't know if they still have it, but they used to have applause meters in the basketball readers. And so when Stone Cold, the glass would break or the rock, you know, it would go up so high. And so when they'd hit the Godfather music, I was getting like real close to that. It's called the pop. I was getting real like if they were getting 98s, I was getting 94s and nobody else was even close to them. so i said hmm i gotta come up with some way that uh i get a louder pop than these two and so i think i say what i'm gonna do is i'm gonna go out and get that original pop right but i'm gonna go out with none of the girls and then people people start booing me and shit people be like they start turning on me i'd be like all right chill fuck out chill out and then i would wind up and then i'd call the girls out, right?

1:31:43Rich Eisen:If that pop would beat Stone Cold and The Rock, it would go like 100 for that second pop. That's smart. I know that when we were having the wars against WCW, I know that The Godfather, on TV, they would have lineups of the matches, this person against that person amount of time and that type of stuff, and then it would say Godfather segment. It wouldn't even have nothing about wrestling we just say godfather segment they never ever gave me anything to say verbiage wise all my promos was just me um people don't know people wrestling fans realize this had nothing to do with the godfather it was my wife who came up with the whole godfather personal persona that was gonna be my next question how did this come about yeah my i was in the nation of domination.

1:32:38Rich Eisen:I'm Kama Mustafa. We're going to go backwards on that. The Rock has become his own little star. D-Lo and Mark Henry are doing tag teams together and they weren't really doing nothing with me. And the thing about me, about wrestling was, the money's cool, but it was also about having a good time. So that's why you'd see me come and go. If I wasn't having a good time, I would leave. And then they'd call me and ask me to come back. And so I was having a good time, man. I'm like, I got to come up with something that keeps me here because my contract was coming up so my wife basically said you know if we can come up with a way that these people really see how your high ass really is all the time and uh and just see your real your personality they would love you if they got to really see your high ass and so uh i'm like i don't want to be a pimp man i used to beat up pimps in strip clubs i can't tell you how many pimps i've beat up over the in the 80s in strip clubs so I didn't want to be a pimp.

1:33:36Rich Eisen:I didn't want to wear the hats. I didn't want to wear the... All that shit my wife told me to do that I didn't want to do, it worked out pretty good. They never would even ask me what I was going to say. Never. They might ask me to hit a town or a pay-per-view, but those white dudes, they didn't know how to write for me. I'm up to shit. They didn't know what to do. If I was wrestling you, literally, I would sit there and go out and smoke and say, I'd be with Visser or somebody, gotta rest his soul. I'm like, dude, I'm gonna say this shit tonight. And he'd be like, you ain't gonna say that. I'd be like, no, I'm gonna say this shit tonight.

1:34:13Rich Eisen:You watch what I say tonight. You watch. All Vince would say to me was, Charles, I need you to be good tonight. And I'd be like, don't worry about it, Vince. You got me, bro. Be good while I'm allowing you to go on TV and your pimpin' ain't easy. Vince heard about it. Me and Bradshaw, we were we were me and Bradshaw were wrestling each other and we were in the popcorn match which is the match after the intermission to get people back in their sleep seats slowly it's usually people don't care about that match and we're going 10 12 minutes and we're beating the hell out of each other and the people we call it sitting on their hands there nobody's clapping or nothing long story short now I'm growing my hair and I'm doing that and I kind of dress a little different and I said, let's try this.

1:35:00Rich Eisen:So Jack Lanzer was the agent. I'm like, I'm going to try something. I went out there and said, yeah, you know what? I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm a pimp. And then I got a little bit of reaction. I said, but what you don't know is right here in L.A., they got some of the best hoes ever born. Okay, now people are kind of coming with it, right? I said, how do I know? I said, there's one of my old hoes. There's one of my old hoes. And then I find one that wasn't attractive, maybe you're overweight. I'd be like, hey, she's a little overweight, but hey, Pippin ain't easy, man. And so I see how you guys are reacting.

1:35:35Rich Eisen:And so I would say, hey, man, I didn't even have any girls. I'd say right now in the back in a limo, I got five of the nastiest girls you ever seen in your life, Johnny. And I know what type of freak you are. You know, I'm like, all you have to do is walk away. So the people would start saying, take the hope. Now we've gone from beating each other up for 12 minutes, beating each other up to not doing anything. And we got the whole stadium crap chanting, take the hose, take the hose. So we'd have to get out of it somehow. So Johnny would take the hose. I would get on the mic. Johnny would step and start walking away.

1:36:17Rich Eisen:People would go crazy. We should have left it there. But then we'd go. We wanted to do something. So I'd start healing on the people. See another dumb redneck. I'd start doing all the rednecks. Johnny would turn around. I would turn around like I didn't know he was there. He'd hit me one, two, three. I'd pop up, put my hat back on and say, man, pimpin' ain't easy. And we did that on two house shows. When we got to TV, Vince says, hey, I hear this thing you're doing. Might have some legs to it. He goes, you think you can get me some girls? I'm like, really, Vince? Let me get you some girls. So me and Taker went to a strip club and got some girls, brought them back to TV, put them on TV, did the little skit that we did on TV that night with only two nights practice, and it got over like Rover, man.

1:37:08Rich Eisen:And after that, Bruce Pritchard started getting the girls, and it was given to other people to get the girls. And then it got to a point where strip clubs were calling WWE, saying, hey, when you're in town, we'd like to use our girls. And then the girls started getting, I'd get them girls turned up before I'd put them on TV. And so it got to the point where the strippers were acting so bad, Vince is like, no more strippers. No more strippers. Just doing too much. I need some professionals. And so Vince goes, we're going to get models. Let me tell you something. The models were worse than the strippers.

1:37:43Rich Eisen:Oh, man. Let me say this. Can you imagine being at TV and there's a TV hotel and all the office people are there, everybody's there. Okay, you're all going to work at 12 o 'clock and you walk by the pool and at 1230, Godfather's out there with a bunch of strippers smoking weed, drinking shit. Y 'all going to work at home out there going, what's up, y 'all? So how were you? You had some classic lines, like you said, when that music hit that. you know everybody would lose it you'd come out you'd have you'd have sayings that you would say like you know light up a fatty for this mac daddy how long did it take you to really get to the point where you were like all right this is the this is what i'm gonna say to get the crowd to pop or did you get pushback for talking about weed so much talk about what we did you get pushback for talking about weed no not at all not at all got me over in the cannabis community yeah no i'm not At that point, they were living on the edge, bro.

1:38:47Rich Eisen:And so I had carte blanche to say anything I wanted to say, do anything I wanted to do, put anything I wanted on my vest. Nobody ever told me to calm it down. Not one time. Not one time. Man, that's trust. Yeah, right? Yeah, those were amazing. And I wouldn't tell you. If I was wrestling you, I wouldn't tell you what I was going to say to you. We knew what the little match was going to be. Yeah. But you had no idea what I was going to say to you before the match. And I'd always keep it just a little bit personal. That even goes back to him. What was it? Over the top? You getting discovered the way that you were.

1:39:28And them saying you would just be funny being the dude that you are. You being yourself is what had you over the most. Took you over, yeah.

1:39:36Rich Eisen:Dude, the Godfather. being a pimp or not it's not important i had a strip club we won't touch that but that whole person is just me being it's me being me at this stage of my life maybe not when i was the bear in my 20s and early 30s but at this stage in my life is just it's it's how i am and it's i really like this every day man i live life to its fullest i'm basically retired. I do some signings. My wife has a business. I smoke a lot of weed and I just relax and enjoy. I work out a lot. Try to eat right. My weight, look at that. My weight's down. I got a little bit of muscles going on there.

1:40:18Rich Eisen:I'm seeing you. I'm weighing, my weight's down to 248. Things are going good, man. All the power in the world. I'm very blessed. How about that? The godfather, though, that character was, because we literally you never saw anything. You never saw a cat come out looking like you did with the entourage that you had. Talking about the things. I was calling him. We'd sit there and be like, how is he getting away with it? By the way, we were loving it, but wondering how is he able to do it? Be real one time. Be real Toby one time. I've known him for a long time. He's like, how are you getting away with this?

1:40:58Rich Eisen:And I'm like, I don't think they really know what I'm saying. That makes sense. I always get blunts and this and that. I don't even know if they really know what I'm saying. That does make sense. Yeah, you got to speak in code sometimes. A little whisper here and there. That's not what I was saying. You had a few of your, and I'll just call them your accompanying acts. I'll leave it at that. I won't use the H word today. Acquaintances, yeah. It's hard for me. You'll catch me. Associates. No, you can say it because you're the godfather. All right. Who gone on and they became wrestlers themselves.

1:41:36I know I remember specifically a Victoria. She was one of your.

1:41:40Rich Eisen:Victoria came in. She was going to be one of the original girls. And then that's when everything kind of fell apart and she was going to be traveling on the road. There was another one. I can't think of her name. It was a blonde. She didn't want to become a wrestler. So when they, that was just about the end of the Godfather run. So she, Victoria got to the wrestling school, became a wrestler. Yeah, she had a great one. I know you're going to bring up Lita. Yeah, I was thinking. Lita, you know what? When I see Lita at signings and stuff, I try to stay away from her because all that was was we had some ugly hoes that night.

1:42:15Rich Eisen:We had some homely ass hoes. And my wife was there, and she's like, she kind of talked Lita because Lita, back then the girls were all divas. They weren't wrestlers. Lita was a wrestler. Yeah. And so she had no girls to wrestle. So she went on TV as one of my hosts. Just my wife asked her that. And I feel bad about it now because if I walk around her, you know, they'll be like, look, Lita, there's your pimp godfather, you know. So out of respect, I kind of stay away from her when I'm on these signings. Which is wild. I'll say hi to her on the quiet side. Lita's accomplished so much more than this.

1:42:50It's amazing. You know, to be hanging on for that.

1:42:53Rich Eisen:She just went out there one day to help out. Okay. Team player. Team player. She did it, yeah. Remember that there was two Budweiser girls from L.A., blonde girls, twins. They were my girls. A lot of rap girls, girls that became rap hoes or rap whatever you call it. Video vixens. Rap artists. What do you call them? Video vixens. Video girls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were girls that were seen on TV as one of the hoes girls. See, you're going to catch me. That's all right, because that was the godfather. That's how we got down. I try. I really try not to say that word. I really do. It was historical reference.

1:43:32Historical reference. And, you know, these are characters.

1:43:35Rich Eisen:But it sure is fun, I bet. You see me smiling, don't you? Now, two individuals that I know you've had, you know, you've shared the ring with are Brett and Owen Hart. You know, you, you, from what I understand is you were supposed to go against Owen, the, that tragic night. Can you speak a little bit about what it is to go up against a member of the Hart Foundation in Brett and Owen and give us some kind words about Owen? Love that family, man. Brett, super, super cool dudes. took up for me one time when uh they didn't want him to wrestle me as papa shangal they thought it was going to ruin his career he's like no i'll work with him he's a good dude owen um best guy in the world bad rich jokester when i went to germany for the first time he taught me how to go around order food when i went to japan for the first time he taught me how to take the subway the trolleys eat food just just good dude man i'd hung out with him that whole day because I was the intercontinental champ at that time and they were going to drop it on him because Vince says that the belt, I had the girls.

1:44:52Rich Eisen:Yeah. So that the belt didn't really mean anything. The belt was just something that the, I think they just wanted to put some gold on me and, uh, the belt didn't really mean anything. So they wanted to put it on somebody that it would. So, you know, I'm like, hell yeah, I'll drop that belt to Owen. And then that happened that night. And yeah, sad, very sad. I didn't see it happen. I was behind the curtain with the girls firing them up. And then it was either Bruce Pritchard or whoever was at the table. They're like, oh, and fail. And I'm like, oh, and fail. We don't fail. And then the shit went down.

1:45:25Rich Eisen:But sad night, man. Sad night. Yeah. A question that we, you want to add to it? Well, I mean, I just, you know, that night, like you said, it was so awful. can you like maybe think back to like what every, what went through everyone's mind? Because the company, the company got a lot of slack for continuing with the show, but the show must go on is what they say. Right. Honestly, my wife remembers more than I do after. I just remember seeing Owen. Yeah. When he came through the curtain and he was blue and he was, he's already gone. And I really, honestly i don't remember much about that my wife tells me i called her and she remembers a lot that i said that i don't remember saying yeah and then i think the next night we had tv and they put up some matches and then vince is basically like hey we're gonna run the show if you guys i'm gonna put up matches if you want to wrestle wrestle if you don't want to wrestle let us know we'll replace you with somebody else and uh i had to wrestle road dog and i think we went out there and nothing scripted, man.

1:46:31Rich Eisen:I'm like, dude, do you really feel like doing this shit? And he's like, no. And I'm like, he's like, no. I'm like, man, why don't me and you go downtown St. Louis, man, and roll up a fatty for Owen, man, and smoke it out. You know, I think that's what we did. Yeah. That had to be so awful. A question that we usually ask guests on here, we try to get it from when they were a wrestling fan, but now that, you know, we know that your story, we're going to ask you from when you were in the business and I know this is probably one of the moments, but can you remember a moment when wrestling broke your heart?

1:47:07Broke my heart? Yeah, we've heard everything from when superstars were fans.

1:47:14Rich Eisen:I know where you're getting at, like with Hogan switched or this scene and this and that. I was never a fan like that. It didn't break my heart, but I was surprised Taker lost to Brock in the way that he did. yeah but because i was with him that day i was with him all day the funny thing about me and him we talk about everything in the world but we don't talk about wrestling and so i never knew that day that he was going to drop it i didn't see him till the next day and i was leaving for the airport and he was he was like he was fucked up and i'm like take you all right he goes no he goes i'm going to hospital and i'm like dude you don't look good man you want me to go with you and his wife was with him.

1:47:56Rich Eisen:He goes, no, I'm going to be all right, bro. Go on home. I'm like, you sure you don't want me to go with you? He's like, no, I'll be all right. And I think he was in the hospital for a couple of days. So that kind of, if anything, kind of broke my heart. That broke a lot of people. He was that next morning, bro. He was, I mean, he wasn't there. I mean, I know him real well. You know, he wasn't there. Was that an injury stain during the match? Yeah, something happened in the match. I guess he got a really bad concussion in that match. and he don't like even remember the whole match. He don't even remember it.

1:48:28Yeah, like you said, that tore up a lot of people. I was surprised.

1:48:34Rich Eisen:To this day. I'm surprised he didn't tell me. Like I said, we never really talk about it. We really don't ever talk about wrestling. We've been through so much together in life, kids, marriage, life, money, problems that we got more to talk about than wrestling. Yeah, you know, with your friends, your boys, work is probably the last thing you talk about. And then we do talk about wrestling. It's when we weren't making no money back in the Midwest days, driving 200 miles and making$50. Those are the stories we always tell. Soul taker, master of pain, making towns. Yeah. Driving in a Ford Escort.

1:49:12Wait a minute, what? You two monsters in a Ford Escort?

1:49:16Rich Eisen:I had a Ford Taurus. Okay. All right. You got to get it right. I had a Ford pickup. It was only a two-seater. So Taker in his 6 '9 frame is fitting into a Ford Escort. Yeah, a red Ford Escort. Okay. And that's another thing. You know, we did meet Taker. I just want to share this because I find it funny. We met him at Fanatics Fest a few weeks ago, and I went up. I met him years ago after WrestleMania 21. Not that he would remember. We took a picture and we recreated it. But my friend Mike, who works for Fanatics, was like, he introduced me to him. And I shook his hand and I went, Hey, Mark, good to see you.

1:49:51And then I, I thought, and I was like, Oh my God, you're dead, man. And so I said to him like about two minutes went past. I was like, Hey, I, I want to apologize. And he looked at me. I'm like, because you know, the podcast now and everything, I think we got comfortable calling you by your first name. I said, I should not have called you Mark. I said, I apologize. Undertaker. And he goes, listen, it's fine. He goes, the older I get, I let things like that slide. And that was, and so, yeah, that's the picture. The picture on the right is after, I believe, WrestleMania 21 in L.A. Oh, my God. So that's like 2001.

1:50:22And then, you know, we recreated it a few weeks ago. You got taller? The picture on the left.

1:50:28Rich Eisen:That's what I told you. That's what I told you. All of a sudden, your ass is, you went from being six feet tall to 670. Yeah, so that was the cool moment for us to be. And he looked at that picture, and he was like, wow. And I was like, yeah, can we. So Shea came in with the camera. we did it. He's good people. I might have been on my tiptoes. You might have been standing on a box. I mean, I'm 6 '3", so he's a legit 6 '8", 6 '9", for sure. I think he's a legit 6 '8", 6 '8". 6 '8". He's one of our bucket list guests to get Taker. Another one is your boy Rikishi. Can you talk about how have you been paying attention to current WWE and his family?

1:51:21Rich Eisen:I've seen him just a couple weeks ago. I'm like, what are you doing stirring all this shit up? He's serious about it. He's saying what he's saying he's serious about. So, hey, God bless him and his kids, man. I remember the Usos when they were, mom was pushing them in strollers, the double stroller, so So I'm really good friends with that family. So God bless them all, man. But, yeah, Rikishi's out there putting it out there, man. He's letting them know. Yeah, man, we got to get Rikishi. Right, yeah. These kids are like, man, they're running the game, man. Yeah. So that reminds me, okay, so a lot of wrestlers who are wrestling now, you know, that came from wrestling families, you probably did see some of these kids when they literally were kids.

1:52:08So what is it like to see, like, the Usos and, I guess, Randy Orton, who was young back then, probably running around. And people like that.

1:52:15Rich Eisen:I think it's cool, man. Natalia. Natalia, Charlotte, yeah. My youngest son is 6 '7", you know. But they weren't into, you know, he's a paramedic. They weren't interested in wrestling at all. None of them. Well, did you say he a 6 '7 paramedic? Dude, he had all the talent in the world. My son Ty, best kid in the world, man. Great kid. but he don't want to practice hey 6 '7 paramedic he was the type that would be happy to go there and just dunk the basketball he could dunk before everybody else or pop the basketball but he didn't want to practice I'm like well if you don't want to practice to this day like he's in great shape too I work out dude I work out every day at my house here he's just not into working out but he's in great shape you gotta let that shit go after a while you gotta let it go So, now that we're on this, let's talk about your family.

1:53:11How many kids do you have?

1:53:13Rich Eisen:Oh, in what country? Oh, boy. In the country? Like Tracy Morgan said, you mean on the books or off the books? Oh, my God. This motherfucker's unhinged. I'm telling you what to do. You got to be careful what you ask. Anything goes, you know, when it comes to it. United States?

1:53:40Rich Eisen:Does that count in Hawaii? It does count, yes. We will count Canada, too. Don't count Canada. We'll count them as North America. Definitely don't count Germany. This is my favorite episode. I'm just bullshitting. I'm just bullshitting. I got three boys and one girl. My youngest is, like I said, a paramedic. The next one works at where the Lakers play. I don't know what it's called now. Crypto. Crypto. He works at Crypto Arena. He's in charge of the VIP suites. What? And keeping the clients in that. That's what my one son does. Well, you better... Another son's a plumber. A plumber? Yeah, he's been there forever.

1:54:16Rich Eisen:His name's Corey Sobo. You better break the... Look this up, because I'm saying he's the number one Laker fan here. Yeah, he's in charge of all the real expensive million, million, million dollar suites. Yeah. And keeping all those people. That's what he does. Okay. And he did work for the special football team that... Hey, I only know the Raiders. Of course. Chargers. Yeah, he did work for them for a minute. But I did one's a plumber in Miami. Okay. And then my daughter's kind of involved in, like, hotel suites and the conventions. She runs things. They're all very well-successful people. Yeah, nice.

1:54:56That's awesome. That's a good drive in there. You know, because sometimes—

1:54:58Rich Eisen:I have a daughter in—I'll be fine. We're just talking about the state. because sometimes you hear the stories of wrestlers kids who you know because their parents were on the road so long they never got to see their their fathers or their mothers and there's a disconnect sometimes but it doesn't seem like that happens seems like your kids were well adjusted yeah i spent as much time as i could and now we spend like my my daughter's here now just walked in a little while ago oh okay that's awesome i was with my youngest son yesterday day we went to breakfast and went to a swap meet, which was real smart, with a godfather hat on, because I got swamped with godfather fans.

1:55:39Rich Eisen:And I'm like, that was real smart. And I think I had a godfather shirt on, too, with my high ass. Godfather shirt, godfather ass. And then wondering why, why is everybody noticing me? Well, because Dad, you're 6 '6", and jacked and tattooed. Oh, and the godfather. Yeah, man, we gotta, listen, mania's going back to Vegas. We gotta go see our boy. Oh, yeah, for sure. I gotta come hang out with the Godfather if you smell. You guys play dominoes? We will. Listen, you ain't gotta threaten us. We just said we wanted to hang out. I just play dominoes. We can play the game of dominoes. You just want to beat our ass in dominoes.

1:56:15No, man. You got anything over there? Oh, man. I got so much, man. Like, where do we go? Oh, we almost...

1:56:24Rich Eisen:I told my wife, they asked for 30 minutes. I said, you watch after an hour. They're gonna be like, god damn. because we have to watch the clock because we tend to go on. We'll know we some yappers, bro. Once we get going and, like, get in a conversation, we'll stay in and the episode's got two hours. We're not this wrestling pod that wants to be investigative journalist and break down now. We just want to have the wrestlers that we loved, and we just want to, like, put the spotlight on you and get some great stories. And one thing that we got to talk about, because we skipped over it in the timeline a little bit, Let's get to that.

1:56:59We are the nation of domination. How did that all come about? Talk to us about that.

1:57:07Rich Eisen:I was coming back as Papa Shango. And I show up to TV thinking I'm going to be Papa Shango. And they put on Jerry Lawler. In fact, Jerry Lawler is an artist. I don't know if a lot of people don't know him. He's like a real artist. So he paints the face on me. And we take some pictures. and then they say, Vince wants to talk to you. Let's get your face off. So they take my face off. I go in there and Vince says, Charles, change of plans. I'm like, change of plans? He goes, tonight, we're going to call you Kamen Mustafa. We're going to put you in the Nation of Domination. You and Ron Simmons are going to wrestle Undertaker in a handicap match.

1:57:50Rich Eisen:And you're going to go... It's my wife making noise over there. I put you over. I made sure they know that you were the one that came up with the whole Godfather thing. I forgot to mention her name in the Hall of Fame. Oh, you better say it right now then. Come on, dawg. Her name is? Denise. Hi, Miss Denise. Miss Denise. How you doing? She already walked out with my daughter. Oh, man. my high ass Snoop got inducted the same year oh no that green room is really green I'm hanging out doing our stuff having a good time I know I'm getting off the other story no sir and I'm telling my wife you wait till I talk about you I'm gonna put you over I'm gonna do this do that and I'm the type that don't write shit down I just go off the cuff my high ass gets up there starts having a good time I get done walk off the stage just to go, oh, shit, I forgot.

1:58:49Rich Eisen:Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah, that went real well. So how'd the couch sleep that night? Was it comfortable? I felt so bad because she puts, you know, it was bad. I always put it over now, but yeah. Right, honey? She gave me that dirty look. Did she want to join us? I don't want to talk about that. You want to join us? No. come on and we're you know we're ncw we're we're family friendly here oh yeah oh man so i forgot the other story i just oh yeah so we were talking about uh by the way i saw pictures i think it was on lawler had a documentary he showed the picture of the face paint that he did for papa shango and yeah it was completely it was gonna be not as not as cartoonish yeah it was gonna be a little bit more rustling in it than more seriousness but It was going to be a voodoo man.

1:59:44It looks so dope.

1:59:45Rich Eisen:And then what happened was, that's when I first met Ron Simmons. Of course, I knew who he was, but I'd never met him. And I asked him, he's like, man, I don't know what's going on. And he goes, I'm the last one to know. So the next week, they pulled us over. Ron is one of my best friends, too, right now. Ron, they pulled us in the next week, me and Ron. And they said, you know who Dwayne Johnson is? And I didn't know who he was. and I was like, yeah, I know who he is. He goes, well, he goes, once he goes, I'm going to, I'm not going to say what he actually said, but he says, once I get people to hate this kid, when I turn to him, he's going to be the biggest thing wrestling ever saw.

2:00:28Rich Eisen:He goes, this is what I need from you guys. That's what Vince said about the rock. And that's why I went from Papa Shango to there, because they wanted to make it bigger and blacker and stronger looking. and that's so I got put in that group and that was just for him so Vince knew that and then we had a meeting with him and me and Ron was like he didn't want to wear the colors he didn't want we all wore the hats right he didn't want to wear the hat he didn't want to wear the colors so me and Ron said well fuck it then we ain't gonna do this shit then we're doing this shit for you not for us and so then I think he put a little stripe on his pants wrist pads he had a little but yeah man he was cool dude it was fun man good I mean of course I don't talk to him but I talked to Ron D-Lo this year well I mean he's a big star yeah yeah yeah if he's seen me he'd be super cool with me I talk to Ron all the time I talk to D-Lo all the time I talk to Mark Henry all the time yeah Mark's a good dude man I'll do anything I can for Mark Henry he was I think our third guest Third guest ever.

2:01:38Showed up. Drop of a hat. Drop of a hat. I was like, Mark, man, I need you. Are you free tomorrow? He said, just tell me the time.

2:01:47Rich Eisen:I was like, all right. He's a good man. So, yeah, that whole group, good people, man. To this day, we're all still friends. And it was a great group. You know, as a young black male at that point to see you guys, that kind of did something for me to have, like, this group to come out and, you know, with the fist in the air. and it was just like, man, the nation just captivated me personally. And obviously, arenas full of fans were behind you guys. I was having a great time with that group. Some of the best times was in that group because we had so much heat. And then the Godfather, of course. I was having a great, but people, man, we were a rough, tough bunch of guys.

2:02:31Rich Eisen:It was pretty cool. And Nation of Domination, one of the best names. Right? The Nation of Domination? Come on, bro. Man, I had to, Godfather, first of all, I have a Nation of Domination t-shirt and a Godfather t-shirt. I had to make myself not wear them today because I was like, I don't know if he'd wear the shirt of the guy. I bet Domination's shirt was the one with the fist. Yeah, so I might wear that tomorrow. That's a rare, rare shirt to find one of those. Yeah, right. I don't have that one, but I remember doing research. I think I saw Mark had it on. Yeah. And I was like, they need to start reselling.

2:03:03Oh, my God. Somebody needs to start bootlegging this shirt or something.

2:03:07Rich Eisen:I have one, and then I donated one to charity, and it sold for big money. But the only reason I know it, they only made so many of them, and so they're hard to find. Man. So I guess I got two things real quick of the nation. One, I'll ask you, and you can answer them as you will. One, we talked a little bit about Dwayne. Were you shocked at how big he became? I'll ask you that first. No, because I've seen Hogan. I've seen this one. I've seen Macho, man. I've seen a lot of guys get big, man. I mean, it was good for him. I wasn't surprised. He has a lot of talent. He was good on the mic. He had a lot of charisma.

2:03:44Rich Eisen:I wasn't surprised, you know. He was given an opportunity, and he ran with it and did like Stone Cold. Like, given an opportunity, and he did a hell of a job with that opportunity. And just a last thing on the nation. So, real quick, we'll talk about this. the whole DX Nation thing where they came out and they kind of dressed up, that caused kind of a ruckus. Can you maybe remember what the thought process was? Did they talk to you guys about what they were going to do? When they came to me and they told me what Billy Gunn was doing, I didn't have no problems with it. Now, don't mind you, it was a whole different time back then.

2:04:24Rich Eisen:But it was more like, to me, it was like doing a movie role. you know you're just playing a part and that was part of your part so i didn't have a major problem i hear stories that after the fact of some guys but i know ron didn't have a problem i think mark henry had a problem with the way i think he had a problem with it i didn't have a problem with it ron simmons didn't have a problem with it i know that for sure d-low didn't have a problem with it Now, people who are fans of the podcast know how I feel about Hulk Hogan.

2:05:04The Hulk Hogan, Sid Vicious, the spot.

2:05:09Rich Eisen:First of all, how do you feel about Hulk Hogan? I don't know about Hulk Hogan. I got you. Yeah, there was a situation in Los Angeles where there might have been some booing. Might have been some booing. I might have been there. I might have helped. I saw you. Yeah. I saw you. I was standing. But can you take us through that situation? I think it was WrestleMania 8? 8 or 9. I guess. It's a long time ago. Yeah, but yeah. You're supposed to come out for the spot. The word is that there was miscommunication on that spot. What went down? Basically, what happened was somebody should have, Bruce Pritchard brings this up on his podcast all the time and other people, what somebody should have did is they should have timed how long it was going to take to run from the curtain all the way to the ring.

2:06:04Rich Eisen:And it was a long run and nobody really, nobody took the time to time it. So when it happened, it took longer than people thought to get to the ring. That's what happened. Simple. As simple as that. Looking back, we should have practiced at lunch and timed how long it was going to take me to get to the ring and then set me accordingly. Yeah, you got a 280, 90-pound man. He's not going to be tired. Oh, dude, look at the video. I was moving. I was 9.1 in the 100, baby. I was moving. My favorite part about that, somebody kicked out the leg drop. Yeah. I'm going to leave all that alone. My mom said, if you ain't got nothing good to say about somebody, don't say nothing at all.

2:06:50Rich Eisen:So I ain't going to say nothing. Well, it shouldn't have gave me a microphone. It shouldn't have gave me a microphone, man. Well, we're not trying to get him in trouble. I mean, look,

2:07:01he's talking time-wise. We're going to tap out. Cause I'll stay for another hour with you. We've still got many, many questions that we usually ask, but you have to bring me back some other time.

2:07:12Rich Eisen:Maybe I'll be Papa Shango. Oh, could you imagine? Yeah, we didn't have those. Coming in here as Papa Shango. What if we just do, we've interviewed the Godfather, we get Shango, we get Karma, and then maybe Sir Charles will pop out the stuff. Yeah, we'll figure it out. No good father, man. No good father. No, no, no. You know there's nothing good about the good father. Nothing good. Another thing about the good father, to this day, I apologize. And I ain't seen it, man, but I apologize to Stevie Ray, man, or Stevie Richards. What was his name? Stevie Richards. because i am not a bully i've been a mean motherfucker a big part of my life but i was never a bully and uh i was kind of a bully to him because i took out my aggression on me not being the godfather on him yeah and i was not nice to him by no means was i nice and the sad part about it for him is I was so over in the dressing room that people were treating him like I treated him because I was treating him that way.

2:08:14Rich Eisen:And that's too bad because he didn't deserve that. He didn't really have anything to do with that. But like I said, man, it cost me a lot of money. Yeah, yeah. Pretensions are high. That's dope. I was kind of mean to him. I'm very sorry for that because I've never been a bully in my life. Even when I couldn't, I've never been a bully. Somebody get this to Stevie. Let's get this to Stevie, and hopefully he'll accept that. Well, he knows because he talks about it, and he talks about the fact. I know Godfather lost a lot of money on merchandise. In 2016, you were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

2:08:50But here in 2025, TJ, we have to induct the Godfather into the NCW, the No Contest Wrestling Hall of Fame.

2:08:59Rich Eisen:Come on, let's do it. Hall of Fame. Now, TJ, please tell him what he has to do for the ceremony. Well, Godfather, here's what you got to do for the ceremony. I need, because we're going to, you know, we're going to get the bus made like the NFL. When we get the brick and mortar, we're going to have a little video package rolling, and we're going to run in a loop some of your best moments. So if you could, give me three quintessential Charles Wright, Godfather, comma, Papa Shango moments that you'd want to have running on a loop at your Hall of Fame.

2:09:33Rich Eisen:first of all i don't want none of the hall of fame on there because that's gonna remind my wife okay so we won't put that on this uh this this frame here behind me yeah it has it where's it it has a video of it it has a video right here that plays that's exactly something like you're talking about godfather 420 jersey back there yeah yeah and that was uh i did i threw the puck out at a, what's the hockey team called? The Los Angeles Knights? Golden Knights. And that was the jersey. I dropped the puck. And that's the jersey. And look at the, they put 420 on it. Yeah, all right. That's amazing. And I can't wait for everybody to watch this on YouTube because you've got a lot of cool pictures behind you, a lot of cool stuff.

2:10:14And the pictures we talked about, we'll have that all on the YouTube when we put this all together. Yeah. But so, yeah, what would you, what would you want on there?

2:10:24Rich Eisen:um of course I wonder where I tell Taker I know you like hoes that clip he swung on him so quick I did a spot with Kurt Angle where Kurt Angle does his thing and he pulls out a used rubber that was kind of funny hilarious a used rubber Dude, there's so much stuff, man. Maybe your IC title win? I mean, you'd have to put the Papashango putting the voodoo curse on the warrior, making him throw up. You'd have to throw some type of nation clip on there. Only part that I spoke in the nation is I used to go, power to the nation. That's when everybody put their stuff up. I never ever got to talk. That's how I got the Godfather name is because the inside of my hats, the hats were called Godfather hats.

2:11:20Rich Eisen:It said Godfather in the inside of him. And that's where I got the name. And I told The Rock one day, because he was doing all the talking, I'm like, hey, when you say my name, call me the Godfather from now on. And so when he called me the Godfather, that day that TV, it showed on TV, everybody started calling me the Godfather. So I did that on my own, too. That's simple. And then maybe we'll put the clip where you went in the IC title. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Goldust. Goldust, right. And how about that? You know, Dustin just won a TNT title in AEW, man. And it was the first championship singles that he's won since 1999.

2:11:56Yeah. So, yeah. Wow.

2:11:58Rich Eisen:I just seen him a few weeks ago in LA at the LAX Fan Fest. It was two or three weeks ago, and I just seen him there. Good guy, man. I've known him since probably 87, 88 in the Memphis days. Yeah, he's still out there doing it, man. Like I said. Good dude, man. Been through a lot. Been through a lot. absolutely man it has been an honor it has been an honor we gotta have you back we gotta have you in studio this will not be the last time you see the No Contest Wrestling Podcast ladies and gentlemen give it up for the Godfather oh man thanks for having me man nothing but fun you guys made my day absolutely man appreciate you wow dude Godfather yo

2:12:43we gotta work on that yeah bro it's because the mic beginning in a way Thank you to the Godfather. That was quite the interview. One-liners for days. For years. But we know we've kept you guys for a long time. This was a long episode. We apologize, but we had a lot to talk about. We had a week to make up too, TJ. And plus, we didn't even get to all of Women's Evolution. At some point, we will. Because that Women's Evolution, A-plus show, all in, A-plus show. We couldn't even get to NXT. Didn't even get to NXT. R8 Supercard of Honor. A-plus show. Great weekend of professional wrestling. It's why we're fans.

2:13:24It's why we wanted to do this. And it's why we love wrestling, man. Listen, bro, eventually, we might get two shows a week, bro. Well, the day is probably coming. Eventually. But either way. Before we go, I want to let everybody out there. I want to put you on to something special. This Wednesday and this Thursday, I believe, is July 18th and 19th, I believe. Let me just make sure I got those. I don't know what's going on, ladies and gentlemen. Hold on real quick. July. Wednesday. I'm sorry. Wednesday, July 16th, and Thursday, July 17th. On the Rich Eisen Show, we're going to have a very special guest host.

2:14:01And that guest host is the architect. He is the visionary. He is the holder of the men's money in the bank briefcase. Despite the fact that his knee is jacked up, he's honoring his commitment. Seth freaking Rollins will be guest hosting the Rich Eisen show Wednesday, the 16th, Thursday, July 17th. I'll be on set with him. We're going to talk a bunch of wrestling and we'll talk football. We'll maybe get to know Seth outside of wrestling and, you know, get to get, get to know Colby a little bit, but yeah, man, it's going to be dope. I suggest everybody you find this. We're on the Roku channel. Check us out.

2:14:39Make sure you tune in. Seth Rollins guest hosting the Rich Eisen show Wednesday and Thursday. it's going to be an absolute blast. And I'm going to get to the bottom. I'm going to figure out what's going on with that knee and where he wants to go from here. Well, you told them where to find the Rich Eisen Show. How about you tell them where to find us? Oh, that's right. Well, you know, if you're on social media, on Twitter, there's no contest. On Instagram, no contest wrestling podcast. And of course, all of our videos, make sure you go check out the Godfather video. We're going to have some of the pictures we talked about during the interview.

2:15:08That's on the Rich Eisen Show YouTube page. We're out there, man. We're in these streets. Yeah, man, on behalf of my co-host, this has been the No Contest Wrestling Podcast. Make sure y 'all have a good day. Congrats, Naomi. But not too good, because who the hell do you think you are? Bye, Daniel Parker.

2:15:36Rich Eisen:It's Saturday morning. The game's coming on soon. and your quick project wasn't so quick after all. Stay ahead of the game with express delivery from the Home Depot and get what you need to keep it moving. Just order in the app or online, get it delivered fast, and track your order along the way so you can get that project over the goal line. Get what you need in two hours or less with express delivery from the Home Depot. Subject to availability, order select in-stock items by 4 p.m. Restrictions and fees apply.