Episode 24 - House of Gullen

### Episode Etymology

The moniker given to the stable of wrestlers in Memphis, which included The Midnight Rockers, Teijo Khan, Yomamba the Jungle Savage, and was led by manager Marc Gullen.

## Timestamps

**0:01:57 - Superuniverse Top 10**

* 10. El Pibe 10 '83

* 9. Hobo Brazil

* 8. The Slip House Boys

* 7. Akeem Bixenspan

* 6. The Hangman (Bruce Pobanz)

* 5. Sue the Shooter

* 4. Black Scorpion

* 3. Orgasmic Larry Nelson

* 2. Denim Fritz

* 1. Yomamba the Jungle Savage

* **NEW CHAMPION** - Marc Gullen (def. Santo Gold)

**0:22:44 - Follow Ups (The Great Antonio, Michael Hayes 1988 Audio)**

**0:39:51 - Dr. Mike Lano (The Aborted CAC Seminar, Shooting Louie Spicolli in his casket at his funeral, & A Plaque for Dory Funk Jr.)**

**TGBL**:
One of our listeners, Mike Bentley, sent me this – I wanna read this real
quick:

“I attended the recent 51st annual Cauliflower Alley Club
event. One of the events was a last minute seminar thrown together by Dr. Mike
Lano himself. It was titled “The Mt. Rushmore of Wrestling Announcers.” I
claimed a seat in the front row, and Mike put his notes on the table in front
of me. I snapped some pictures to reference the pure chaos later-“ and I may
ask him to post these pictures, because they’re nuts. “Mike had this great “idea”
that he would pass around a sheet of “Hello, my name is” tags, where he’d
written down random names of announcers in sharpie, and then in pen, he wrote
the organization they’d worked for as an announcer. He wanted everyone in the
room to wear one, but never gave a clear explanation as to the reasoning. There
were several scheduled guests who did not show up, including Terry Funk and
Bobby Heenan. He DID manage to have: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Lance Russell, Gene
Okerlund, and Pepper Martin on the panel. At one point, he had Greg Gagne on
the panel. Much like the rest of us, Greg couldn’t figure out the relevance of
him being there, so he left. Even with the star studded panel and the promise
of a Q & A type format, Mike dominated the session. He threw to Okerlund
who said “I don’t need to say anything, Mike – you just read all of my copy!”
Gene kept looking at his watch and told Pepper Martin “I’m outta here!” Moments
later, Gene was asked a question. Gene said “I’m going to the Men’s Room,” and
never came back – a very bizarre event to say the least.”

*Photos courtesy of Mike Bentley.*

**TGBL**:
...So all this happens, and then he’s gonna give this award at the Eddie Gilbert
Banquet, and Dennis goes “Mike Lano wants to give an award and he’s not here –
I don’t know where he is. Could someone find him?” because that was the moment
where he decided to get up and leave, and then of course Dennis couldn’t help
himself and crack some jokes. He goes “I know he’s not out there buying people
drinks,” and then all of a sudden, Lano runs into the room – and it’s one of
the funniest videos, ‘cause Dennis, you know. Dennis is letting him do this,
but he had no idea Lano was going to do this, so Mike says something like “I
was out there-“ and Dennis goes “Yeah, yeah, yeah; whatever.” The room is
cracking up at Dennis and Lano gets up there and he does one of his classic
moves, which is to get himself over. He says “I want everyone to please – let’s
all, I don’t know if she’s been acknowledged yet, but we should all stand up or
raise a glass to Diamond Lil – Katie Glass, who’s meant a lot to me, and Jim
Cornette, and Don Liable, and all these people.” So for no reason at all, he’s
just honoring someone else who’s not even on the Dais – they’re  just in the crowd sitting down with Moolah. So everyone claps and says “ok,” and then he says – ‘cause again, he’s all about
complimenting and getting himself over this way; it’s hysterical. He goes “I
think we should also acknowledge Dennis Coralluzzo for what he did with the Tom
Robinson Benefit – he brought us all together and he deserves to be
acknowledged for that,” and Dennis gets a round of applause. The Tom Robinson
Benefit was in 1990 – this was 1998. It – I mean, it just made no sense. So
then Lano starts rambling, and he says that he’s gonna play this story, he’s
gonna honor Dory Funk Jr. as a surprise to Dory, and he’s gonna play this story
from Dick Steinborn, and he has a tape recorder in his hand. If you watch the
video  - and I was in the front, at the
first table in front of the Dais – and what an All-Star table this was, Bix. It
was me, Marc Coralluzzo, Scott Cornish, Franz Shuman, Kevin Lawler, Tiger Khan,
and Fred the Elephant Boy. He’s pretending to press the button on the recorder
to press play – he’s not pressing play and it won’t play, he’s PRETENDING to
press play. After a second of trying, he goes “Oh well, I guess I’ll just tell
the story anyway,” and everyone starts laughing. As John Arezzi pointed out
last week, he has a reputation for making up stories that other people didn’t
say. So right away, Cornette yells “We need some documentation that this
actually took place!” and all of a sudden, Lano goes “Oh no no no, it’s not
like shooting flowers outside of a funeral,” which was like the first time I’d
heard that defense. No-one had brought it up – other than Dennis introducing
him as the “Funeral Photographer,” I should say that (laughing). He does this
story, and it kinda goes no-where and ends, and then Dennis gets back on stage
and he says “And next year, if you wanna get yourself over, just bring a plaque
like Mike Lano did.” (laughing)

**0:50:51 - Brian's memories of Harry White**

**0:59:05 - Marc Gullen**

**Marc**: Well, I – when we started with the USWA, we went to Memphis to do our first
television show, and the heel dressing room was the cafeteria at the television
station. I was sitting at one of those little round cafeteria-style tables, and
I was pulling my shorts up – my shorts were about around my knees – so I’m
basically naked. In the dressing room comes Sid Vicious, who’s purple with rage
and looking around the room, and I’m thinking “this is certainly not good.” He
looks around the room and sees me sitting there, one of the new guys – never
seen me before – and I thought “this is not good!” Sid comes over and he leans
down and puts both hands on the table and flexes all of his upper body and his
face is absolutely purple with rage, and he looks at me and he goes "I
think I’ll just kick your ass!” By the time he got to the word ‘kick’, my brain
had gone into overdrive, and I’m into fight-or-flight, and flight – since my
trunks are around my knees – was quite out of the question. There was no place
to run – what could I do? Have him chase me out of the locker room? I’d never
get back in. My brain – I’m thinking “what could I do?” and my hand-eye
coordination was extraordinary. I was a Fencer – enjoyed it very much – but as
a result, I’m thinking I could take out one of his eye balls that he was close
enough to me and couldn’t stop me. I thought about yanking one of his eyeballs
out, then I thought “He’s a big man with the promotion – he’s one of their
stars here. That wouldn’t bode well for my future if I came in and mortally
injured one of their wrestlers!” Other than that, it’s just going to be a death
match. So, I’m thinking, and as he gets to the end of the word ‘ass’ – and spit
is flying all over me – I look up at him, roll my eyes, and go “Ooooh!”
(laughing) I swear to god, it was like watching Robocop where in his Visor it
blinks “This is not your person – you must go after someone else” because he
looked at me with a really confused look in his eye, and I could tell that he
didn’t want to beat someone up who might have an orgasm while he was doing it!
Fortunately for me, if that’d had been his thing, I’d have been in real trouble
then!

*- Marc Gullen on getting out of a potential dust-up with Sid Vicious in the USWA Heel locker room.*

**2:12:09 - Dennis of the Week**

This week's Dennis of the Week is an audio clip of Dennis sending in a promo to USWA in 1992 to disparage Jerry Lawler and Koko Ware, while promoting his client Kamala, the Ugandan Giant.

**2:25:20 - Book of the Week**

**2:39:37 - Bobby Simmons (Part 4)**

**Bobby**: The
only thing – the only reason it was done was to establish Tommy as a legitimate
contender, because Barnett had Tommy on a guarantee, and he was going to book
him out some for some dates around the country. But, to legitimize him being a
top contender, Tommy didn’t have the best body in the wrestling business, but
Tommy – the little girls melted when he’d come on TV. Let me back up and tell
you how Tommy got this position in Atlanta: he was sent here from the Nashville
booking office to be fresh meat for Abdullah the Butcher on Atlanta TV. They
were gonna kill him on TV, pay him, and send him back to Tennessee. Barnett
happened to come to the TV station that morning and saw him, and he told
Renesto, he said “Put him on TV, sit him next to Gordon. Don’t let him open his
mouth – don’t let him say a word. Just let people see him, but do NOT put him
in the ring.” He went back home, called Nick Gulas, cut a deal to get Tommy
down here. Tommy Rich was born, and of course, he got the big push because he
became a big Babyface; people loved him. But, Barnett went to the Board of
Directors, got the approval to do it. The only people that knew it was going to
happen was Jim Barnett, Buck Robley, and myself. The only reason I knew about
it – if you’ve ever seen a program from anywhere in the country, when you have
a new World Champion, they always have a copy of a Western Union Telegram in
their program. I’m sure you’ve probably seen one.

**TGBL**: Yeah.

**Bobby**: “Title Changed Hands” – those were a shoot. I would send out a telegram to
every wrestling office in the NWA roster as soon as the title changed hands to
let them know what happened, so they could legitimately tell their people, put
it in their program – however they wanted to handle it – that the title had
changed. That’s the reason I knew about it. I sat at home that night until
Charlie Harbin called me – he called Jim from Augusta. Jim called me at home
and I sat there and sent Telegrams to every office. So, we were the 3 that knew
about it; nobody else knew. Tommy did not know about it until he got to the
building that night.

*- Bobby on debunking the long-standing myths surrounding the circumstances of Tommy Rich's short stint as NWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1981.*