Episode 30 - Lady Of The Morning

## Timestamps:

**0:01:57 - Superuniverse Top Ten**

* 10. The Hangman (Bruce Pobanz)

* 9. Santo Gold

* 8. Black Scorpion

* 7. Sue the Shooter

* 6. Judo Joe Black

* 5. Disappointed Lance Russell

* 4. Yomamba the Jungle Savage

* 3. Rasslin' Glen Goza

* 2. Denim Fritz

* 1. Orgasmic Larry Nelson

* ***STILL* CHAMPION** - Marc Gullen (def. Hot Bruno)

**1:04:55 - Kurt Brown (on wrestler Jerry Brown of The Hollywood Blondes)**

**Kurt**: I was – it was 1981 and it was the first time I actually started hanging out
with some of the wrestlers in the LeBell territory, and, you know, would hit
some of the towns with them. One of them was Tim Flowers, but there was one
journeyman – not gonna mention his name, I don’t know if he’d appreciate that
or not – but we were all drinking one night, and he had worked all the classic
territories. When he was, you know, pleasantly just plastered – he started
talking about Jerry Brown. It came up when they were talking about Kansas City
and Mike George, and I think that’s where he worked with him, and he said
“Jerry Brown – oh my god.” He says “The most wonderful human being you’ve ever
met. He’s just the nicest guy,” and then he shook his head and says “God was so
cruel to him, man. God made him so ugly and it’s so sad because he’s such a
beautiful human being inside…” and, you know, we’re just going “Oh, that’s
interesting.” He goes “You know what – I told him that. I told him “You are so
beautiful – why did God do that to you?” (laughing) And he was being in no way
sardonic – he was sincere. He was almost crying and saying it (laughing), which
is why I was surprised when I heard about him shooting up Bill Watts’ house.
The few people I know who knew him didn’t portray him (laughing) as this psycho
with a gun.

*- Kurt on the inherent "beautiful ugliness" of Hollywood Blonde Jerry Brown*

**1:22:47 - Homophobia of the Week**

**1:26:21 - Wild Bull Curry stories**

**1:36:34 - Book of the Week**

**1:44:23 - Dennis of the Week (w/ Brian Tramel)**

**Brian**: I
know I have a horrible memory, guys, so sometimes what I remember I remember
really clear, but some of the other stuff’s like “What? What was his name?” I
just recently, you know, remembered the guy that picked me up for the benefit
they did there in Philly, but I don’t remember Kenny, which is surprising that
I don’t remember him with the personality that he had. But, we all went to a
restaurant in Memphis, and if I remember correctly, it was probably me, him,
Kenny, the Piss Boys – Joe and Tom – and I think Jammie was with us, and we
went in and the place was, like, packed; I mean just totally packed. So Dennis
is like – and I don’t do voice like TR does, so no voices – and Dennis is like
“Get us a table, get us a table!” He’s acting like that to the waitress, and
he’s being kinda rude and I was like “Oh, man.” I live in this area. He’s like
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll give you a $30 tip if you will get us a
table right now – right now as I’m standing right here.” So that lady, she
busted her ass – went and cleaned the table, got the table ready for us and sat
down, and then she came back to wait on us and he says “Alright - you earned
the $30. If you can get our food within 20 minutes, you got a $50 tip.” I was
like “Damn! Dennis is throwing the money around,” that’s what I’m thinking. So,
we’re all eatin’ and all of us is getting ready to get done, and I pull my
money out and said “How much do I owe you Dennis?” “You don’t owe me nothing!
You don’t owe me shit, man! I’m getting this; I’m getting it for everyone!” I
was like “Well, cool dude!” you know? I get up and he says “Ya’ll just meet me
outside.” So, you know, apparently Dennis didn’t pay it and eventually
(laughing) I found out he didn’t pay that tip to that lady neither, but we ate
– everyone ate – for free, and that $50 tip, that lady didn’t get, so. So,
apparently I was part of the diner dash and didn’t even know it.

*- Brian on his memories of being an accomplish to yet another of Dennis' dine-and-dash adventures in Memphis, TN*

**2:00:15 - Kurt Brown**

**Kurt**:
Oh, lord…uh (laughing) god! I talk to him but I kinda kept my distance a bit,
but (laughing) I heard so many Mike Lano stories. I like the pronunciation
“lay-no” – it sounds more comical (laughing). The wildest one I heard was…oh
god, who did I hear this from? Well, he was on a tour that a friend of mine –
the late Steve Gerber – organized for Japan, and there were 2 stories I heard:
one was that somebody – I don’t know who was supposed to give Debbie Malenko a
book on Japanese/English language but it was a Japanese/English dictionary that
had a lot of, you know, good information on learning the language – so the
person was holding the book for Debbie Malenko, I don’t know if it was in their
book bag or whatever, but Lano snatches the book and apparently was writing
love letters in the margins to Debbie Malenko.

***(**What?!**)** (laughing)*

**Kurt**: and they put it back in the sack and when the fan – I guess this guy knew
something was up and he, before he gives it to Malenko, he opens it and he sees
those and he rips ALL of them out and just was in a rage. That was the tour you
guys recently referred to, where I guess he just pushed his way up to the ring
to take photos and security comes and says “You don’t have license to,” and he
starts putting up a fuss, and then he went up to Mrs. Baba, who interfered, and
I’ve heard stories: you do not want to run interference with Mrs. Baba…

*Yeah, we’ve heard the same – yes! (laughing)*

**Kurt**: And he and my friend Steve said he went off on Mrs. Baba saying, like “I’m a
very important person – you MUST let me at ringside!” Then, he throws Dave
Meltzer’s name in as a reference and Mrs. Baba and Dave knew each other and
were friends, and, um – I remember when I was with Dave at one of the shows at
the Misawa/Tsuruta show, she was all excited to see Dave and I think she gave
us some free AJPW towels or something like that. But, apparently Mike Lano –
that was the end of the friendship; Dave I think wasn’t even able to explain
his way out of it. I think somebody from the promotion called Dave and Dave
said “I didn’t tell him he could take photos!” (laughing)

*- Kurt on his memories of the infamous Dr. Mike Lano and Lano's false credentials for getting ringside at an All Japan Wrestling card in the '90s*

**2:45:40 - What If? - Hulk Hogan Hadn't Left the AWA?**

**3:06:17 - Polish Joe Ciupik (Part 2)**

**Polish Joe**: Unfortunately,
Verne’s…Verne’s unwillingness to change the way that the AWA did business was
his ultimate – or was the ultimate – demise of the AWA. Working for Verne, and
I’ve told everybody that I worked with: Verne was hard-nosed. He could be a
real prick to work for, but I think that was a part of his success of being
demanding and having – being that prick when he needed to be. On a professional
level, Verne could be very tough to work with. On a personal level, I can
proudly say that I was very close with Verne. I’d mentioned earlier that Nick –
became friends with Nick and he – was at my wedding; so was Verne. In fact,
I’ve got a picture of the two of them: I’ve got ‘em both in a headlock – and I
got my tux on - and this was at the reception of my wedding, and my wife had
that blown up to poster size and had both of them sign the photo – or the
poster – and she got it framed and it’s hanging in my office – I’m looking at
it right now. Verne was so kind as to, well, right here: “I’ve always
considered you like my second son.” We – that, and now all of this was before
we revived the AWA; worked with Verne and as I say, the second time with the
AWA when I worked with him at that point, it started to get sad because that’s
when Verne’s Dementia began and a lot of the meetings we had to repeat a lot of
stuff. We had to rely on Greg to talk to his dad outside of the meetings to
explain stuff to him, and for the 4 years that we did the Classic AWA
Wrestling, he slowly went downhill and it got to the point shortly after the
sale of the AWA – about a month later – Verne had called me up and just said
“You know, Joe, I know the AWA is done, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t talk,
that you still can’t call me. I’d still like to stay in touch and have lunch
with you every once in a while.” Hey, that was great. Then it was great the
second time he said the same thing, and the third and fourth time, and probably
even the fifth time in the same 10 minute conversation. It was after that that
I had called Greg and just said, and I started experiencing the same thing with
my dad at the same time, and Greg and I went through the same thing with our
fathers and I just wanted to let Greg be aware of what Verne was doing, and
that was calling me and having these memory issues. Just, out of really respect
for Verne and Greg and their friends, to make sure that Verne maybe wasn’t
doing that to a lot of other people – because, some people, you know, might get
coarse with him or not accept or understand what he is going through. That was
the last time I actually talked with the Verne Gagne that I knew. The one other
conversation I had with him after that, he had no idea who I was. That was the
day that Verne Gagne died for me, unfortunately – not when I went to his
funeral, but that was the day: when they don’t know who you are and you’re a
complete stranger.

*- Joe on his everlasting personal and professional memories and recollections of Verne Gagne*