one day you wake up and you're like 55
years of age and it's all gone, daddy
It's like all in the rear view mirror, you know what I'm saying? It's been a nice trip, but it's like "now what?"
"Well doctor, that's reason I came to see
you. I mean, you're a psychologist right?"
"I mean why would you put yourself in harm's way like that?" "Well, it's a
steel cage match. What are you supposed to do?"
that's really what it's all about,  the people want to yell they
want to cheer they want to boo, they want the blood, sweat and tears, man, you know what I'm saying?"
say it which is also for Peralta for
your father to know that's why would you
want to put yourself in that situation
I don't know that's a reasonable pair I
want to go back to that situation know
what you know I'm always scheming in the
Pro Wrestling you know I was gonna join
the WWF and become famous you know I got
a demo tape together and I mailed it out
to WWF which is now WWE and nobody
called me I kept trying I would send out
every month different person different
name and finally one day somebody did
call me and they said we got your
package you look good if we're
interested we'll give you a call breast
enhancement to really do help any kind
of entertainment business trust me
whether you're a dancer a professional
wrestler or wrestling Dom or dominatrix
see a boob job
steroids yeah you know hey I did it
I'd do it again you do what you have to
do to be successful
always scheming stirs in
any chance
my name's Larry de garis I'm an academic
degree is PhD and support leisure and
exercise science I would say my dual
areas of specialization or sport
marketing and support sociology
originally from New Jersey and now
moving to Pullman Washington to work as
an assistant professor of Sport
Management at Washington State
University I read a paper criticizing
Japanese theater that there's no more
key its inner energy in performance in
theater anymore
actors used to be able to evoke the
tears in the audience just from their
presence you know that skills done I'd
say well obviously as people never been
to a wrestling match
I'm Johnny valiant alias Tom Sullivan
Tom Sullivan alias Johnny value I'm from
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania grew up in
Pittsburgh I still have family in
Pittsburgh a mother and a son in
Pittsburgh and son in San Diego three
grandchildren and they know that I'm Tom
Sullivan and I'm not really jonny
valliant to them
a Pennsylvania driver's license so all
things being formally still a
Pennsylvania resident that I happen to
live in New York City in the acting
business comedy business that's what
bring so let's just watch on TV but here
going on nine years from New York and
showing probably everything in as much
as in professional restaurant a
challenge I like
hi again adjust like I did with
different opponents to different
directors and just going with the flow
how I got out of rustling first place
was you know you could kind of see the
writing on the wall
that's the end of my homework done I got
to be in bed by 10 o'clock
you weren't being used as often it
wasn't on the booking sheets to a fury
longer that was manager beefcake in
Valentine they went to Vince McMahon and
they wanted to kind of do single matches
left me free free to be kind of let go
those phone calls don't always catch at
the wrong time and you got to make
decisions I had a powwow with Vince and
I thanked him thanks for the opportunity
funny because I had just been granted
custody with my two sons and now I knew
house that I purchased in Pittsburgh was
under peril there because the money
wasn't coming in so I had to put that up
for sale and had to move in back into my
mother's house with my two teenage kids
but it was very disappointing obviously
career and my kids and getting them off
the schools and being there for them was
a lot more important than being on the
road as a wrestler so that job at Saks
Fifth Avenue came along and being back
into that nine-to-five world as a store
detective in Pittsburgh for three and a
half years then I was in Long Island
doing a wrestling match when I met a guy
my kimmel and he approached me with
being an actor oh you'd be a natural for
this business had never ever ever
thought of it pushing a mop or a broom
or a Salesman or whatnot or security all
nice jobs how honest job
but they work for me as it turns out my
name is sky hos soya and I am a
professional wrestler I go by the name
Empress Asia
sometimes sky someone I also work as a
wrestling dominatrix when I'm not in the
squared circle it's like a fetish that
not too many women can do but it's high
demand
mother Leslie is the greatest sport
never invented by mankind
just by watching that you should be
doing this
consenting adults as you get hurt
my age is very good so I enjoy wrestling
but it was like the third or fourth time
we've actually wrestled and everything
she's very technical she knows how to
apply the holes and things like that
looking forward to it should be
interesting tag-team matchup starts with
a cucumber mud pack most impartial on
executive types cuz you have to have
money to do this when we deliberately
keep the price high to weed out the
undesirables I've done a gamut of
wrestling styles we've done a bikini
wrestling oil wrestling a couple of guys
even actually like the pro themed
wrestling I even made a hard up yeast
call himself the Bandit so it was the
banded verse Asia and I you know put it
up on the wall and he'd wear his little
wrestling outfit and I wear my little
wrestling outfit she would actually give
me money to hire an audience I pay them
to sit and watch us wrestle here we go I
gotta get up to the money guy you know
the guy it says fantasy so we'll see
what he wants that was one of the most
bizarre pro wrestling gigs that I did
you know this is something very special
for somebody so you know I'm making his
fantasy come true
nakisha girls yeah the investigation
into the towers of terror versus
wrestling geisha you can feel free to
take it off and I'm concerned about your
elbow there you know you got hurt
yesterday and if it if it's sensitive I
don't want the Land of the Rising Sun
Tokyo Japan
Wow
I went to college here in New York City
the famous Parsons School of Design and
I started taking a bodybuilding because
I felt bodybuilding was art it's a
living sculpture because I grew up in
New York City where women are very free
and liberal when I went back to Japan I
was surprised to see that women are
still a second-class citizen back there
there are not many women bodybuilders or
any women in the hardcore gyms they
would treat me like a pussy but I was a
serious athlete and I pulled my weight
and I actually trained with some of the
Japanese champions over there the
Japanese star wrestling they take that
as like a national sport number two
after sumo
if I started then my life could have
been different I would have probably
been somebody right now but at that time
I thought it was hokey and I was just
something to watch I was into my
bodybuilding and I think I really got
into the bodybuilding over there - yeah
express my empowerment as a woman and it
really did fuel everything that followed
afterwards including the work that I do
with the wrestling applying it to
dominating and dominating man
I was probably 10 go to a friend's house
and we try and stay up until midnight
watch the old IWA which was the first
syndicated wrestling show and I liked it
but I didn't watch it every week and I
wouldn't say I was a huge fan I keep it
simple just my bag
boots towel tights hood never know when
you need it you know plastic bottle
little professional courtesy but also
it's mostly just alcohol
like most aftershave so protects against
skin diseases
dollars in college to 83 84
when Snuka started to take off in a WWF
I started to follow it again by that
time I was collegiate wrestler so I
think I looked at it a little bit
differently more of an appreciation of
what they do what they go through around
the time - I said yeah that might be
something fun to do but and you know
Jimmy is older now but he's a legit
athlete the newer guys don't have the
athletic background you look at the
matches tonight
you know besides me and Jimmy try and
find one legit tough guy on the whole
card but that's kind of typical for guys
have gone to the business you work a lot
with guys used to watch on TV JB
I wasn't commercial yesterday good yeah
yeah wrapped me about five o'clock for
vivid then chewing gum you go shoe it
they're gonna show it in Italy played a
garbage man I loved it some of my
students said they're coming tonight are
they gonna make the trip would you
believe that why not
I said no extra credit you know lunch in
the city I go to the Senior Citizens
Center on West 49th Street Saint
Malachy's and I get a beautiful lunch
for 75 cents I'm the youngest guy there
52 then I go hit the gym either before
or afterwards I go to Mass I go wait for
the beeper to go off I go on auditions I
go read for this and that send out a few
postcards and settle sit there with some
of the adapters and talk we all have our
ear to the ground and do some
brainstorming
there's a pretty decent Madhuri there
this cars riding smooth it better be
that's gonna be for sale soon
I go to conference and I sit down and
talk about France motto I'll talk about
Bourdieu I'll talk about Roman bars I
present papers dealing with his
postmodern cultural theory and
ethnographic histology you know
intellectual stuff it's funny because I
get in the ring maybe rock somebody up
this is the locker room people say man I
know Larry I can't imagine you in front
of a classroom if I go to an academic
conference on the wrestler in a locker
room the professor
and you want to ask me who's the real
Larry which is more authentic roland
barthes paper on wrestling pretty famous
for being one of the first things
written about wrestling by a serious
critic his major point was that what
wrestling signifies is very clear and
direct all the the signification is just
right there for you
two figures engaged in combat I mean
that's a classic image and that's
something that anybody can understand
anywhere in the world wrestling matches
like theater
like drama it's like human chess it's
all pantomime you just tell the
movements are exaggerated you don't go
like this like you wouldn't boxing where
it's just a short punch and you could
really knock someone out you wind up and
throw it you need to make sure that the
person in the last row sees the right
hand these guys move a lot better than I
ever did when I hit a one guy with a
mohawk haircut you know he he's already
developed a persona the audience is
responding to him but now they're
looking at him it was the wrestling
ability of which he does have something
it's there what he knows they're not
I'm basically a Confucian estate comes
to epistemology it's simple five
thousand years ago
Confucius said to know that you know
what you know and do not know what you
do not know that's true knowledge
certain things you can see certain
things you can the trick isn't knowing
the difference where to draw the line
okay what do I know well I know that
this guy fell down but I don't know did
he fall down or was he knocked over
you can't tell then you ask the guys and
even then you can't tell yes one guy you
fall down to where you knocked over say
not the motherfucker knocked me over man
and then you ask the other guy do not
come over so you fell I was real light
what postmodernists are saying now is
nothing new the truth is is fleeting
you know that it's hard to grasp this is
what's so funny and playful about the
business
as we drive away from then we see the
World Trade Center
and then I didn't hear into Jersey I
guess it's right around 17 exit 17 I'll
be looking for 31 South Flemington I
never thought about acting when I was
here years ago wrestling in New York on
top in the garden in all these places I
never I never dreamed of it I never knew
you go on auditions and you get eight by
ten pictures and you get agents and what
the agents do and what the casting
directors do and production offices
doing extra work and voiceovers and all
this stuff I didn't know what the heck
that was you know my casting director
friends surely send her she said it
Johnny
you remind me of Brian Dennehy I don't
know about that there's no way I don't
know I could maybe attempted but it
would I don't know like remember the
lines the guy could that guy's just
incredible Brian Dennehy is Hulk Hogan
the tonight's not a comedy club per se
tonight's a it's at a high school best
of my knowledge I don't know what the
hell I'm getting into probably at this
juncture I would think that the uncle
Floyd would be the headliner he's a big
name here around New Jersey New York
graduate of Juilliard I know Larry's at
Brisco and nothing Freddie Blassie no
they used to be on his show years ago so
look at Fort Lee
before you Stella's be are you a
wrestler
now it's just
I have my shot I have a great time
here's a program if you'd like to take
one explains a little about the
entertainer's I would like to get to ten
of the field I got to pick up on some
local humor yeah I hate to rush I'm a
funny guy I hate if I have my own wheels
out of bed every afternoon 2 o'clock 3
o'clock walking around Devon coffee did
the field enjoying you know a town
that's how I do I'll do the same way
rustling you know you get out there and
you talk about it you know people have a
conceived notion of it anyhow but you
kind of give them a little peek at
behind the scenes
poking fun at oneself wouldn't be too
bad
you know professional wrestling after
the 37 plus years that I've been
involved in it there's a lot to poke fun
at
I was always the bad guy in wrestling I
don't know why but I always had the
people booing me I never really wanted
to be the bad guy you know well I wanted
to be the good guy when I had the long
flowing bleached blonde hair and the
dark sunglasses and the fancy jackets
maybe I kind of paved the way along with
my brother Jimmy valiant for some of the
characters you see today totally no
stranger no Wooster and George the
eastern Josie how you determine or what
determines success in my humble opinion
it certainly is um but not how much
money you have in a bank
certainly is no indication of me as a
man by the title precedes my name you
know as a doctor jonny valliant special
in voice jonny valliant a state Supreme
Court justice jonny valliant inmate
valiant
hold that tire yeah where's that tiger
where'd even the Barney song has better
lyrics
I think a successful person is simply
doing what they have a passion for
from the security valium thank you so
very very much for coming on and have a
safe trip home
thanks once again for me to New Jersey
good night well that's it
yeah pretty good well good there was
some funny guys here I weren't there
uncle floor he was something witty yeah
yeah thanks for coming up
okie dokie
I wish I was going on the fucking Road
I was about three years old we worked
our way in through Hawaii and so most of
Japanese immigrants came in back in the
day
my ancestors backed me up to the shrine
I'm out of candles they played an
instant so before I go out to do a
wrestling match or a boxing match I
would pray light a candle and they come
through the channel and they back me up
and he gave me the strength at least
that's what I believe
this is Kannan this is Buddha disguised
as a woman so women wouldn't feel
awkward to confessor talked to him this
is my family this was when I won the
Golden Gloves my mother my sister my
brother my mother is real cool she knows
what I do she knows I do the pro
wrestling she knows I do the Dom stuff
and this one is my father my sister my
brother we're in Chinese New Year my
father doesn't know that he thinks I'm a
personal trainer or you know I just tell
what I do for the daytime you know what
what all ex wrestlers and fighters do we
teach I teach the cardio kickboxing
boxing our body sculpt at all the top
New York Sinkin walk into any of these
gym ask for sky there I am
three times three is lucky number in
Japan actually I'm quite lucky because
my folks they ran away from Japan
because they didn't wanna be cookie
cutter they didn't want to fit into the
Beehive my brother's a suit he works for
a banks livestock company my sister's a
nurse my sister and my brother know they
love me so they accept it they just say
please don't talk about it and we have
company no I came back to New York from
Japan I didn't have a job when I had to
get a job before my mother so that I was
unemployed so I started looking through
the New York Times and it said wanted
athletic women to do phone work few
columns down it said women wanted as
wrestlers will train and it was the same
number and it turns out it was like a
wrestling female phone line hi this is
Asia you want to know how big my biceps
are my biceps are 14 inches I'm gonna
get you in a headlock oh yeah I'm
punching you now oh now I got you hip
toss oh you're on the floor I'm gonna
piledrive you oh we don't have a ring
it's like a large bedroom no furniture
wall-to-wall mat yes I'm a professional
licensed professional wrestler yeah so
you want you want the wrestling in the
high heels okay all right so Brian when
you're ready give us up to become a true
good phone wrestler I had to learn the
terminology if the actual grunts and
sounds of wrestling so I wound up at the
world famous Gleason's at Johnny Rodz
wrestling school
back then the license was still old and
rundown and not too many people know
about it this is the old dog himself
Johnny Rodz and this was back in the
beginning my gosh 1994 93 yeah he was
still young and strong then the kids
coming up and was Tommy Dreamer Taz
d-von dudley bad Billy Walker Java
chubby be Larry Brisco we all came up
together we were just taking our roll
downs and rolls up at the time just a
bunch of kids
my first workout we start off with the
balls roll up roll downs and the slap
outs if you can't get past that slap out
or the fall you can't be a wrestler I
went home with whiplash
yeah Johnny rod said Oh see you tomorrow
and I was like I don't think so and
that's where most people end you know
they don't come back
crippled whiplash and all I came back
and I think that's when I won the
respects from Johnny it was a good
Japanese go you bug when I graduated
from college the first job that I had
was as a high school teacher and I had a
student whose dad was one of the
Lumberjacks I said ask your dad you know
how'd he break into the business and she
said he told me to tell you to go see
Johnny Rodz
and then I went down and visited to
school and like what I saw it was
serious and that Johnny himself was in
the ring with the guys and I signed up
everybody there's weightlifting steroid
type guys and you walk in you're just
like a kind of a normal-looking guy they
figure out it's guy's a pussy you know
until they try you and they're like wait
a second
when I started out Larry was like
Johnny's right-hand man he was the
professor exactly he said rule number
one protect yourself
rule number two protect your partner it
was serious but he was a little bit of a
clown you know and to this day I really
don't know what he does for work it's
this guy you don't know me I say yeah I
guess I don't but all I know is it is a
great wrestling instructor
we're all young we were wolves and yeah
he had this beat-up old Ford or
something that the ceiling was coming
down in there rustling put your finger
out the door yeah he drive me home
sometimes I don't know I think in the
beginning I think he just have a little
crush on me but then you know it was a
guy's Jim he's a police since Jim I was
like one of the only girls there back in
the game my father was a blue-collar
find a guy
painting contractor and had a series a
fleet of trucks and would paint the
giant eagle supermarkets and the ANP
well the first time sitting down having
to watch pro wrestling I was with my
father watching wic-tv like a local type
wrestling so when guys like Edouard come
party a would come in there and do that
big backflip off the top rope or
whatever that was a big thing LM on soon
and Walt led Barry and killer Kowalski a
Waldo Von there and all these other guys
I said oh yeah
how much did all of all these people I
didn't cut my hair cut once in a short
crew cut because of Waldo boner I kind
of like the way English soap so arrogant
whatnot but then I was kind of drawn
towards guys like Buddy Rogers and
Johnny Valentine long blonde hair and
real tan physiques and a daddy-o and all
this I never heard anybody ever talk
that way Pittsburgh Pirates whatever
interview they never spoken like that
my brother one day came in and said hey
this guy that I met at the supermarket
these city's gonna be on wrestling
tonight
my name was Bruno Sammartino he came
from the old country from Italy and
moved into the Oakland section of
Pittsburgh the University of Pittsburgh
is situated so they called him the
Oakland strong man and he was a very
strong guy and that guy it was the
hometown favorite later to be a world
champion and a big celebrity nationwide
he moved up by me a few streets from
where I lived I just went up knocked on
his door he reduced myself to him and
though it was quite nice and give me a
schedule on how to lift weights and not
show me some holds and whatnot yeah he
was very supportive and he was kind of a
hero to me you know I little that I know
that years and years ahead that I be in
the same business with people like that
and travel with them and even wrestling
them totally unbelievable
in the past few years now there's been a
really tremendous upsurge of independent
motion where someone buys a ring and a
pair of tights and boots and you're
arrested
I think though when you see kind of a
legitimate throw in the ring you can see
how it is over time these are the
heaviest things everything's like 70 25
territories us before the VGO where you
go to wrestle for the time there's no
school the way you learn was you get in
the ring and wrestle guys were more
experienced every night so you're better
schooled in the fundamentally yeah hit
if he knows overs always slower yeah but
it was a favor for you know for a while
you know just anything wrestling was hot
and now it's kind of
but it's always been that but yeah with
the eighties fifties was hot
yeah I was lucky because when I came up
things were starting to die down but
there were still different places around
the country that you can go on a wrestle
the AWA was still going in Minnesota you
know there's still a promotion in
Georgia and Tennessee was running okay
there were still these old timers the
veteran guys they were still around so I
had an opportunity to wrestle a Bob
Orton jr. Greg Valentine jonny valliant
his wife okay
the wrestled Ivan Koloff
Jimmy Snuka five years ago when you
could really move a lot better you know
I learned more in one night wrestling
these guys than I did in a year train
come on they might as well been Madison
Square Garden
they have to be calm down the guys
coming up now don't have that
opportunity very few and the old-timers
who are around are really at the tail
end of their careers and there's a big
difference a big difference let's go get
a chili dog I've done shows where the
scouts have come out to the shows and
they've seen me in my gimmick in my
costume I believe that they took my idea
my costume my image for China take your
head off China Asia Asia China oh they
get that look in their eye when they're
on top and they know that me and him are
the only one in the farm bill what do
you do I name the boy art it's real hard
but you got to make it like it was an
accident like that
oh I'm sorry because you don't wait to
say hey come on that's it because it
that'll give them a chance to lock up
and they'll think you're afraid you
cannot show fear
would you wrestle for me tonight sure
Russell it's already work it's like it's
salt and pepper shaker say nobody wants
a salt shaker you need the pepper you
need somebody to work with my first
match Wow I should have kept the ticket
stuff for that right one of the local
shows in the Bronx or something would
Jeanie who came into the wrestling
school eventually they got paid a buck
and a quarter and they pay me the last
bits in the coins actual innocence a
double bicep Rose Lucy's point me you
Theodore didn't do so and I think that
was my first match what and caught a
rake of the eyes or anything like that
or a quick kick or underwear Jeannie was
my arch nemesis on stage but she was my
partner backstage we worked together for
a while different costume different
state sing same
there we go
I was over at Johnny Rodz training and
then this classy elegant charming older
guy walks in great thank you well try my
question I didn't know who he was I
didn't know that was Johnny Valley New
Year's to get into second what you do
get in boys sure narrows things down you
know you know yeah how you know you
gotta pay the rent I mean yeah it's
great and everything but what about your
rent he started telling us and giving me
hints on how I don't need to be too loud
because I'm the under T jabbin chapter
he kind of molded my character you know
I guess as a heel guy told me once he
said you go to LA John you'll come back
and yet you love you'll think
wrestling's real we've become actually
quite good friends and I've known him
for like four years yeah strange
occasions what are you talking about New
York compared to LA well multiple layer
New York City once single layer LA I've
got some chocolate Ben arete there I
have some muffin I had some beautiful
chicken
I forgot the chicken
these are the envelopes you haven't
figured out by now tonight there's a
stack of them if this show doesn't make
money it's my fault
the boys get paid if we make a fortune I
make a fortune but the boys get paid all
the time that's why the envelopes are
paid tonight before the show are you the
same price one let's see what happens
I'll talk to you later
almost like a an old-time cowboy movie
where you would see the bad guy and the
other guys trying to get his way up on
the cliff with professional wrestling
you don't necessarily have to be a good
athlete Bret Hart said you had to take
all the old wrestlers take them out back
and shoot them I think he's right it's
more about the show it's the
entertainment it's it's the characters I
think you fall in love you're now
allowed to talk on your baseball player
with the rest on you you can plead your
case
you play up that alter ego Nike that's
what people want now I think that crazy
Ivan is got Italian accent so I don't
know if he's Irish Italian or German or
something noted that this men have may
have a foreign accent
well when you go out there and you're
doing a show we gotta stay in character
whether you make a mistake or not
you know you just go out there you wing
it show once in a while there's a
mistake and you'll get a boot in the
face but for the most part you protect
each other you protect apart really to
be honest with you the audience doesn't
know they don't know what you have in
your mind so if you miss a spot or
something it's not a problem sometimes
we've worked in people's yelled at us in
say the boo boring boring you know you
ignore them they'll get back with you
we'll get back with you one of the
wonderful things about wrestling is it's
live one time get it right that's it
information
get on the class we got t-shirts and
give rub down your head
brush your teeth for wrestling cake
production so you can go to Uganda with
me do you have a big Hut there oh I bet
you a pie
I think it's a gift to have a sense of
your movie
and but laughs album with Jonathan
winters album this guy would make noises
you know and do things like like a
flying saucer or whatever there wasn't
fit you know in the two voices of Aging
and I would listen to this over and over
for hours and I would incorporate that
you know in school well I used to drink
as I was in the business not join cuz I
wasn't it mr. drink was I was on the
road all the time because that wasn't uh
no wrong all the time
funny how you get used to happy with me
because I would cause commotion while
science class is going on her math class
it's not exactly the best time to do
that so this I kind of lagged behind and
I didn't do all that good and I chose to
go to Atlantic City to work in front of
the Steel Pier and a boardwalk rather
than repeating uh summer school my
mother and I were food shopping and mr.
Gillespie who was the butcher said it
wasn't Tom go to the school that my son
goes to in Virginia military school so
they dropped me off
and then they they left and left me
there while I was very homesick business
Waynesboro Virginia a real sleepy little
town I've never really been away from
home all that much course ilanic city
and all but I mean I I knew I was coming
home with not that I thought that I'd
made a mistake but it's like what the
head that I do I should have went to
English class I should have went to
summer school
so I was on the Fishburne military
football team and so was Vince McMahon
he was on the wrestling team I was on
the basketball team we're on the same
baseball team together
he was very self-assured of himself not
arrogant but close to it like he didn't
really answer anybody one day we were
supposed to go to a parade and we're too
smart for them why would we want to do
that so he and I and like one or two
other guys decided that we're gonna go
up on top of the roof where they had the
flags and all this but up there just
took a tan you know worked out and stuff
and I look at all the other guys
marching out in the heat and doing their
military formations and we got busted in
I got kicked out of school for that they
came back down from Pittsburgh in the
car and picked me up took me home I
shook hands with Vince and I was kind of
teared up a little bit maybe he wasn't
too and that was the last I was to see
Vince McMahon so I thought
it's got an interesting when somebody
uses a sport metaphor for another field
so here's somebody who wrote about Kafka
and Pinter calls it shadow box I'm gonna
struggle between father and son in the
past few years I've become a student
when I started really writing about it
and when you're trying to learn the
crowd may help to know the history the
rope got a Half Nelson on him now
referees better watch every move walk
around it's funny I don't think
wrestling was ever a shooting
right as a scientist you're trained
always to be skeptical show me the
evidence wrestling's always been a
business and has always been about
making money
if the sport ever gotten away of that
then they would have to change the sport
and that's the direction that it went in
if you ever see a real wrestling match
you'd have two guys locked up for five
hours and after five hours maybe one guy
would win ticket for that it's not very
exciting for fans to watch
if you look at professional basketball
all the rules have been changed in order
to accommodate television and spectator
interest so if you wanted to parallel
that to wrestling pro wrestling's like
the Harlem Globetrotters version of the
sport of wrestling the bottom line is
the bottom line if you don't make money
you don't have his Joe but certainly in
in medieval times the joust was a work I
mean it was a spectacle and
stage-managed you know for entertainment
purposes and discourses performance it
moved from patronage to tickets owned so
pro wrestling I think kind of indirectly
comes out of that lineage it's kind of
funny you know I read about like prize
fighters and that's supposed to be the
Golden Age where it's pure John L
Sullivan was a theatrical performance he
toured in burlesque houses and wrestling
was the same way Frank Gotch toured in
burlesque houses
has it changed that much
okay so today we're way down town in the
Meatpacking District in a club that
they're volunteer to rent out for
wrestling tonight
you know Wow party woman's only
wrestling I found out about it because
uh I ran into one of my girls who goes
by the name of crimson she really likes
to the wrestling personally core self
but I've been trying to do strong women
out to explore their physicality and so
I can throw these parties and it can
comprise of anything from erotic cat
fighting or women rip out their clothes
and you know do all sorts of naughty
things to really send me competitive and
pure physical domination it's just such
a thrill for me I only got the mats
Collegium at setup it's it's just people
plus you know alcohol is being served so
you want to keep that into consideration
everything should be kept in a playful
fun you know situation I was the only
girl at the wrestling school for seven
years I had to work out with the boys
some of these guys are 250 pounds
they're putting their hand between your
legs and then you know pile-driving you
and hip tossing you and you can't take
it personal you can't be a girly girl I
was never a girly girl I was just one of
the boys and no one's really just been
getting seriously hurt
you know stress relief you don't make
any money out of it so I mean if you are
going to the next level like
professional wrestling and that's a
whole different routine you know but we
just try to stick to
I remember a couple of summers back the
movie came out Fight Club it was just
like that it was called dracool in fact
it was in a sweatshop
they had a makeshift ring made out of
like a rubber foam
I had wrestlers wannabe wrestlers there
I had has-been boxers boxers
up-and-coming changing their names
working it was as close to Fight Club as
you can get one day I decide that I'm
gonna kick the weakest goofiest looking
person out of the audience and wrestle
them
I guess he looked small to me at the
time but the guy was actually kind of
buff and he was a little strong I
believe that they was charging
and the guy comes out of nowhere BAM and
my head goes snapping back and I'm
grabbing it I'm like dude this is you
know this is like entertainment you get
it right you think he was drunk he was
high he wasn't hearing me my corner man
it says yo this guy's a freak you gotta
fuck him up
I hit him in the face and his eye this
camera I'm okay
my flip him out of the ring that ring
was only in yo big and I sent him
crashing into the audience he seemed
okay at the time like a few weeks later
I get a phone call from the judgmental
slain shop and they said that this guy
wants to sue me because I heard some
spine in his neck or something he was
suing me for mental cruelty mentally
of course judge me Elaine's knows me you
know I've met the man on the boxing
circuit so there I am on his show and
judge Mills Lane points finger and said
you went into the wrestling ring and get
a little sexual gratification shame on
you court dismissed to this day people
stopped me in the street if that gotta
be my wrestling claim to fame the judge
knows lane shop we're just gonna go over
the safety features once the real girls
start coming in how to fall I keep this
wall until 11 o'clock in the evening
you guys got to leave because your men
that's probably the greatest thing I
ever did in my life of course you know
being a father the most proud of all
times of any somewhat meaningful
promised Messiah had in my life yeah
once in San Diego he's 29 and the other
one's 27 in Pittsburgh I would sometimes
take him ever so often to the matches
certainly never let him in the dressing
room and dad I was always like an off
limits for me I was always kind of
personal about my family life I'm kind
of an open book myself and at that part
of my my life I kind of let them have
their privacy
Armstrong middle school in Queens I'm a
school program chairman evany would tell
me about his wrestling newsletter and
his radio show I see people who I think
really believe that these people are
killing each other in the ring and it's
for real and here he said he could bring
in guests and they would discuss it and
they would say how its rehearse how they
practice it that they they know what's
going to happen and it's not something
you should do on your own
deploy deploy football bad press about
kids doing terrible things here's an
opportunity to give them the truth Mike
later Mike Leno yes yeah he wants you to
do is radio show all country in the
morning so you ever want to come we love
wearing lots program not a wrestling
show so we have actors improv comedian
Sopranos I do that riding around with
guys like Sammartino and anoche and
autumn or in Lou albano I got my taste
of The Sopranos right from the get-go
I like kids a lot yeah I was coaching
American Legion baseball in Pittsburgh
sigh I do I like I like it I like
teenage kids I like kids are probably at
that borderline by just showing up you
think Kurt Angle put a lot of hard work
do you think you guys are gonna get
anywhere you want to be in life by not
just showing up yep when they say you
have the will to win that's not enough
you have to have the will to prepare to
win the time that you put at home it's
the time that the effort that you put on
outside the classroom so that will you
tell them a very attentive looking at
you other ones they're very disruptive
and their full intent and purposes to is
to be disruptive some of these kids they
really shouldn't have a teacher they
should have a trainer I went up thrown
an eraser at one of them maybe I don't
know what piece of chalk I don't know
I tried to play off of them by showing
them and I'm a little bit of a zany guy
but by the time I said that magic wand
I'll let them know it enough enough I'm
coming here my own free will given my
time for free so for you can be
entertained I know you have to use the
restroom but wait a minute
and the smarter you get the more you're
gonna find out how much you don't know
but you'll always remember when jonny
valliant closed
now kids know a lot more than I ever
know in that you know life's a little
bit more a lot of simple offices they're
all good kids and we got to support them
because a lot of these young kids
they're out there on the front lines now
over in the Middle East defending us
this nation
today we are at the riverbank State Park
and yeah it's incredibly beautiful
annual the thing is looks like not so
many people show that you know it looks
like there's actually there's more
guardian angels and security out there
than paper doesn't matter we play to a
crowd of 10 play to a crowd of 10,000
played any crowd even
and his partner storm guy was a young
wrestler jabroni he couldn't think of
his own giving so he was stealing the
doll rock I think a couple of wrestlers
beat him up for that yo come on people
come up with your own ideas you know
we've got three good-looking sexy chicks
to work today
and it's gonna be sober us first I want
to make sure I catch that when she goes
out let's see what happens
the responsibility of wrestlers to
children or their viewing public I think
is greater than other sports
the kids look up to these people as our
you know hero and I think what they see
is gonna be what they emulate brother is
killing their own little sister by
putting them in an atomic pile driver
because he saw a restaurant do it on TV
we believe ourselves with a gimmick a
little blade or a little ring
they take shit loads of aspirin things
the blood you bleed for a long time
barbed wire your matches and setting
girls on fire the kids are gonna emulate
that the Booker's and the producers they
just want more sex and more blood and
more sex and more blood
we had her come in as a valet for mr.
Puerto Rico was a complete mark to
wrestling she didn't know anything about
wrestling
and the kids the little kids they were
groping her through the the guardrail
and grabbing or opener
so totally disgusted and she said I will
not support an industry that preaches
sex and violence to children the funny
thing is she was like if she was a
stripper
I told you we're come for the gold Tony
plays how does it feel
that needs to be fixed up a little bit
they really need to rethink what they're
projecting as wrestlers
I went to the point car college for
about close to a year studying
journalism and communications and then I
went to the Marines down to Parris
Island South Carolina and then got out
and went back to Pittsburgh and then I
went knocking on Sam Martino's door
I guess it was Bruno Sammartino and
Vince McMahon's senior that contacted a
notorious villain wrestler that had a
ring in his backyard and that they felt
were pretty good friends with the Sheik
the original Sheik any Farhat at the
ripe age part about 19 I started my pro
wrestling career I saw him as a
youngster in Pittsburgh on television
and he was announced as the Sheik from
Beirut Lebanon no never heard of Beirut
Lebanon what's what is Beirut Lebanon
what's a sheik
you never spoke a word of English and
the authenticity of it all there's
nobody that thought it that the guy
didn't have a camel double-parked
outside
I started out putting up the Rings for
this guy in refereeing now Costello one
of the wrestling kangaroos the World Tag
Team Champion guy nice guy Australian
type now you know he put me through the
ropes and he was the guy started George
Steele would kind of make you suffer you
know and stretch a quote/unquote as we
collude to it as and didn't really hurt
me per se but let me know that he could
if he wanted to man because a lot of my
friends have asked me they said do you
have any pictures you know would you
believe I have maybe one or two
Jarnell Sullivan that was the first name
I used one six years maybe never thirty
years maybe seven years as Johnny
Sullivan
well I should remember that one Miami
Orange Bowl was raining down there so
much that time I was always a good guy
at that point I was never a bad guy or a
villain always totally preliminary
matches
Russell a little bit as best I could
paid my dues meager pay 10 bucks ball
bucks i'm ashlyn her and living into
YMCAs and third-rate hotels and long
trips and short money and very humbling
type experience but I was on my way as
far as I know blind ambition that's
something to actually wrestle the guy
that you knocked on his door with you I
guess I was about 14 when I first met
Bruno one of my actor friends says you
realize he would have never knocked on
that man's door your life would have
been totally different and as a result
of doing that do you know how your life
totally changed that's what I've gotten
marry me no no I have a lot more to be
more accountable for keeping two homes
you know one on the road and then
sending money home for my wife to take
care of the kids look at some of these
guys here like Bobby Duncan Rocky
Johnson whose son is so famous now the
rock right all of a sudden after eight
years you get a break holy cats 1974
introducing ya introducing meet luscious
jonny valliant success does a lot of
things to people I saw it with Hogan you
certainly have seen it with McMahon it's
kind of parallel to the acting business
Texas and Florida Atlanta Charlotte
North Carolina Tennessee Los Angeles in
San Francisco just you know bouncing
from territory territory and up into
Ontario and that's what I met Jimmy
valiant
I was born in Tennessee max I'm amber so
that was over I love it here you know
I'm back in 2000 we bought this farm
house out here in Charlottesville in
Indiana and I've said the end of a shot
through Virginia until I haven't slept
in about 48 hours you know farms and the
mountain I just love this little bit I
saw the boy in southern bread when I
died of the senator does
I was actually born yet James Hill
Fanning I wrestle in a Jimmy Valentine
Jimmy McDonald
Big John ballon Jimmy the body balland
and then finally in the 69 I went to
Texas and fifth on Herrick and named me
handsome Jimmy valiant
I'm handsome Jim midnight at the
boogie-woogie man and I'll tell my
people my brothers sisters don't you
dare don't you dare miss this one we
gonna be bonus qualifying the wall old
times you believe Bloods gonna flow like
white yeah I was born 1942 and start
rest of 1942 really happening I hit the
ground rushing brother I started
wrestling in 1964 this is 2004 it's been
40 years and this is my farewell tour
and me and my lovely wife angel every
Sunday we cross off an X every week I
look at it and I said man I'm will make
it I'm gonna keep going and hey if God
lets me another seven months brother is
going to happen well you know it's just
a goal I set in my mind and hey Social
Security kicks in and I made a lot of
money but man I you know I blew a lot of
money too you know but hey it's time to
stop so I'm very fortunate to be able to
go out on my terms
40 years I had to complete different
careers because I was there I had some
Jimmy valiant and it was a bad cat man
you know a rough guy and then in the 80s
this is it's time to move on so I grew a
beard and started singing and dancing
and kissing people and thinking of stuff
a different you know man the boogie
woogie when man was born and that was
for the crowd-pleaser for the next 20
years you know
yes hello y'all are you doing my man
back in my mind I says when I retire I
wanna do a wrestling camp and I'm gonna
help these kids I did a little earlier
than I expected
this is gonna be our 12th year September
to 12 and it'll be a twelfth graduation
classes oh yeah yeah yeah it's all
family here man it's all family my kids
keeps me involved in it and also I'm
writing a book and I'm with tour with
that and so on
I'll never get out you know
boogie-woogie use like my first favorite
wrestler it's awesome
all you've been turning by the dream for
years my first pro match was with
Charlie Fulton in high school in
Connecticut
it was really nice you know like giving
me pointers and helping me out in the
locker room there's an Iron Sheik
Abdullah the Butcher professor Tanaka
was there Here I am sitting in the
corner soaking in all that's going on
when you're a novice you don't have the
awareness I think I was pretty lost
you're in the ring without the blinders
on the only thing I really remember
about the match itself was said at one
point Charlie got me up against the
ropes and whack me with long
and I said boys I thought this was
supposed to be fake
and then in the same night ted arcidi
hillbilly cousin Luke over the head with
a chair and busted him open hard way I'm
like well stitches are no big deal cuz
they just sew you up in none of us I
don't know second class I left with a
good feeling so I was invigorated by the
all experience ready to learn more ready
really hit the gym one of guys I met was
the bear man while he was in Pittsburgh
and he had a territory up in Ontario and
he's one particular time I went I
happened to see a guy named Jimmy
valiant along with bobby heenan that
would news fellas were wrestling in the
Indianapolis Territory in henan spotted
me and the figured that boy I'd make a
good partner for Jimmy valiant then they
approached dick the bruiser in
Indianapolis the promoter and a great
wrestling to consider that and they
brought me out there as Jimmy's brother
with flowers and young girls you know
you look at my brother lucious and you
look at myself handsome baby we got 60
inch chest but our waist is 32 you look
at the deltoids you look at the biceps
you look at the tram pieces you look at
the value brothers you're looking at men
we had like that four or five weeks to
talk about Johnny for anybody seen him
luscious Johnny Mans he's the roughest
cat he's the biggest cat he's the
best-looking cat then when Johnny walked
down the aisle first time in Annapolis
they were throwing beer on us and you
know it was doing that to big blinds
walking down and I just told obby just
was on fire so I had some outfits made
correspond with his already established
gimmick for parents that is
the sayings on the back or whatever
we're basically a lot of them were my
ideas
yes Star Wars moneymaker macho I love
Johnny or something I am a star instead
of star ima and in a star
so in those days nobody else was doing
it and so I guess we kind of set a
precedence at that point
and the flamboyancy was kind of picked
up as we went
when I got into it to be jonny valliant
I didn't follow a scrip you know nobody
wrote me a script as to what this guy
should be larry the axe' hennig
in Minneapolis a setting like a
fast-talking cabdriver kind of guy maybe
a used car lot for the diet Jimmy said
to me I can't wait until tomorrow more
than I said why's that Jim and he says
because I'd get better looking every day
and I said well just go to sleep and
everything would be cool and he woke up
and sure enough he it was a little
better than it was at midnight we
incorporate the blonde hair in the
sunglasses or whatever you know you
don't do all that stuff to be quiet and
then it was a match that Bruno
Sammartino and dick the bruiser put it
against Johnny and Jimmy valiant the
valiant brothers they stood for up
righteousness whereby these two blond
guys were totally off the law
the Midwest type town accompanies guys
from New York alone today
we beat some Marquinho addictive brews
are there and then put us on the
wrestling mat was attacking
oh we know the Olympic auditorium maybe
back in the day it was like a Carnegie
Hall for them in the Bronx but it's this
rundown pink healing place there's not
many girls that do the pro wrestling
that was really not too much interest in
it be in her corner I'll be bothering
her they'll hire girls the girl doesn't
know how to work I don't even think
she's licensed but you don't have to be
licensed in other states because you can
kick me right on the ball got a pair of
tits and something that looks like a
wrestling outfit sky girl girl sky work
this whole thing one more time in front
of him otherwise the minute he sees her
not that he's gonna are your workers or
girls that know how to wrestle they've
actually gone to schooling and they put
in time in the ring the other girls the
showgirls the city girls the valets
they're the most dangerous kinds of work
they had us backstage for like felt like
I think it was three hours it was the
middle of February or March it was
freezing there was no heat in the
building no water no food the place was
freezing we're standing around for three
hours in costume everybody wants to be a
star and everybody wants to put on a
good show it was the worst they had
spent like $2,000 on fireworks they went
off like that they could have paid us a
little more
there was like 40 people in the seats
and most of them are up in the balcony
with the balcony or the cheap seats
there's only so much person to take
heartbreak
I try to stick with what we talked about
I try to stay with story line
and she just didn't know what to do a
work we called some spots she messed
them all up and to top it all off after
waiting and seeing the incredible fire
date displayed she's wearing the street
boots I get kicked in the groin hard
I've never gotten kicked that hard
before my right if somebody gives me a
potato that's when they fuck up and they
hurt you for real
I give him potatoes back I smacked her
across her back and her way well Wow
whiplash that's the only way they
learned it's like a bad dog you have to
teach something I thought I was gonna be
in the WWF and I'd be traveling with
McMahon and you know I was gonna marry
Big Daddy diesel at the time confess we
all do you know it would mark out in the
beginning
the people that succeed they succeed
because they keep believing in I think
somewhere along the line I stopped
believing it yeah I think that's why I
didn't make it you know going to stores
Cowtown UConn Huskies last day of class
student presentation
classes graduate level Sport Management
at eight students five master students
and three PhD students one of the things
that I stress is define your core
business if you think about it Anna
wrestling promotion are you in the
business of selling t-shirts are you in
the business of soap opera or less what
do you do
campus is pretty empty there in a summer
Manchester Hall good seminars pondering
the intricacies of postmodern cultural
theory I did my undergrad at Wesleyan
University went to grad school at the
University of Florida and did my PhD at
University of Connecticut seems like a
long time ago now but it's nice to be
here under different circumstances
okay it's a good group of students you
know real good group you learn a lot
about people by teaching them and you
learn a lot about yourself you start out
students don't have the skills and the
end of the semester put something
together it's gratifying and fun you
know we're not imparting technical
skills
we're selling motivation and you know
we're kind of skirting around these
issues right up feeling motivated so if
we can really focus on that feeling
we'll give everybody a is eight people
in the class you know my grandma always
told me if you can make a career out of
a hobby that's the smart way in kind of
a backwards way that's what I'm doing I
can make a career out of writing about
wrestling
in two days I'm going to Pullman
Washington to teach at Washington State
University and I showed up at Ruby's job
and they just had a big luncheon for her
for leaving I had my my shredded shorts
you know Guinea tea and you know the
cigar in my mouth and I walk up hey
honey you got the key they say wait a
second this is a professor
hopefully I'm taking my wife with me
unless she's so tired of listening to my
bullshit
although she's got to realize that we're
gonna be in a truck for 14 days this is
good for me anything and she's never
really heard me talk about wrestling
especially on a hot day today she better
make sure there's fresh batteries for
portable CD because Washington's long
drive and I got a lot of stories we're
gonna be living right on the Idaho
border in northern Idaho so actually
there's a shows September 4th in Bozeman
Montana AWA is running there I'm trying
to get booked on a show Johnny leaves
hopefully out of
just like that you pick your way set you
know you're spoiled
for me it's its food and gyms that's
where I spend my money I don't go out to
nightclubs I don't drink a lot
that's probably the Italian heritage if
I eat well and get enough exercise and I
feel good
strongest guy that I've ever got was you
know you lift weights and you know
people who lift weights and don't take
steroids and they work really hard and
you see what they look like right and
then you look at another guy who looks
clearly different gonna say yeah he
can't say while I work I train really
hard and take a lot of steroids he's got
to say you know genetically disposition
yet to take steroids wrestled in high
school wrestled in college he was the
New England Heavyweight Champion know
Monroe Louisiana promoters like that
much it's good TV I'm having a good time
here
and when I was a kid I didn't know how
to play - I always just wanted to win
and now I think I'm much better at
playing and when I come back there
better not be any bones on this bed yeah
that's what fun looms on the bed some
students come down from Connecticut that
was touching spent six weeks in the
classroom and then they're driving that
distance to see you off I was a good mix
of a couple of wrestlers and then family
cold beer good food and kids to play
with I think that's something that for a
long time I aspired to be but it didn't
know how to how to do it just being you
know really personally happy happily
married very rewarding career
very rich family life social life you
know having a good time it's all about
the smile
moving is always it's mixed emotions and
it's all about the sadness as you feel a
loss of not being near people you care
about and feeling that sadness there's a
certain warmth and comfort because it
shows how deep the feelings are I was so
sad that I was happy overcome with
emotion but I I was feeling the emotion
in a different way came out smiles
I live on the west side in New York on
the West 51st between 8th and 9th
it's a SRO single room occupancy and
that's kind of the way I like it it
affords me the opportunity to be here in
Manhattan and my rent is very very
reasonable and I also affords me the
fact that I have freedom of movement and
I just have a real nice little humble
little room with a window and little
black-and-white TV a little radio I
listen to talk shows and whatnot and go
down the hall and take a nice shower and
shave and it's kind of nice not the door
I go
is gearing up for the big show tonight
jonny valliant third go-arounds niagara
east village I was introduced to
Ginsburg Evans been a good buddy of mine
and Russell and fan it was a positive
experience that's how I met Johnny
Valley okay and presently you are
managing him yes he cada as a lightning
me now is to keeping up pace with all
the other wrestlers by way of
merchandising when the tapes for sale
and t-shirts you know kind of managing
me and stuff getting the night
appearances basically all of it by way
deepers over here at cell phones and
internet señal but you have to
understand I've kind of been away from
this business for a while so after I
finished here in New York and the WWF
wrestling I had to take it upon myself
that I got to go through something else
with my life so I'm kind of getting my
you know one toe at a time back into the
water
you know you've been logging along seven
several years here doing very meager
roles
how long you gonna give yourself how
long do you when you're my age there's
only so much work out there if you watch
television you can see it's usually 20
30s and 40s
it's up I kind of narrows things down
it's a big city there's a lot of people
but really don't have the leverage that
I had in wrestling because once you quit
so I'm really out there all by myself I
have to wrestle it's probably the
biggest adjustment my life life as it
has a way of humbling us that also is
always bringing about changes and
tomorrow Monday I'll be an exterior
movie called taxi that's one of the taxi
drivers what I like to be a principal
tomorrow yes tomorrow it's just a job
they can wrap me after eight hours so I
could get some overtime or whatever and
I go back to my little room there and
then that's it it's okay to be humbled
now and I'm going with the flow
you
you
