The Othership #155: Talking the Upcoming Glory Days Grapplecon 4!!

0:00I know Cornette had that mustache for a very short period of time. He really could have used the old dick dastardly, snidely whiplash long kind of mustache. I think that would have worked well for him. And have Big Bubba be muddley. Yeah. Just chuckling in the background. Cornette ties Rousseau to the train tracks. Welcome back everybody to the other ship podcast. A proud member of the WrestleCopie podcast family. I am Drifus R Jones, the freight train. Tonight I am joined by a special friend and brother. He is fresh off his appearance on the Rasslin Rushmore series with Uncle Jamie Ward. He is our

1:06good friend Bruce Cohen. Welcome back Bruce. It's great to have you. Drifus always a pleasure to see it. It is absolutely reciprocated my friend. Reason I brought you back tonight, Bruce. Grappelcon right around the corner. It's become quite the destination, quite the event in and of itself. For reasons more than just the legends. I've been reaching out to some of our good friends and asking them their thoughts on Grappelcon. And I wanted to get ahold of you because I'm not mistaken. You've been pretty much every single one of them. I just want to get your impressions, Bruce. What Grappelcon has come to define for you, what it's come to embody, I guess, in its own spirit for you. Well, you know, you said, I mean, if the legends are great, I've had great opportunity to meet some of my favorites from when I was growing up in the 70s, going to the matches on Miami Beach, the assassin, Kevin Sullivan, whoever it happens to be. But it's really the camaraderie with you and Uncle Jamie and Michael and all the rest of the other shippers and brother shippers that attend the event. It's seriously just as important. I always knew that was the case between Grappelcon

2:11and its previous aid cardation. But it really hit home when I I had been to most of I can't remember it's two or three that I missed. But one of them was absolutely unequivocally couldn't be helped us. Everybody out there knows my situation from three years ago. It was that particular instance that it registered to me how important this is to get together with people that you have a lot of stuff in common with whether it's wrestling in this case, food, movies, television, music. And when you can't go, it's missed. It's definitely missed. There's no doubt about it. So it means a lot. It means a lot, even though it's only once a year. What's why's a year, depending on the year? There really is an element of FOMO as the kids say these days, the fear of missing out. I was not there in November or October or November for the last one. And it was a gut wrench. I was thrilled to see everybody's pictures and partake that way and stuff, but it's a part of your heart's missing seeing all your friends enjoying those moments and stuff because you know what they are and how special they are. Just sighted curiosity this time around. Who are you

3:13looking forward to seeing? Well, you know, you got Jerry Lawler and all-time grade in the business. And then there are a couple of return ease. Nikita Kohloff was there the last time very entertaining guy, a Dutchman Tal who tells great stories. It's pretty much everyone that's going to be there. It's just everyone. It's everyone gathered in a room. It's all of them going from legend to legend and hearing the stories and taking pictures and getting autographs or whatever it happens to be. But those are three off the top of my head that come to mind as the key attractions in this event. I think I'm really really looking forward to getting to meet the Godwins or as Mike and I like to refer them as their old gimmick text Slashanger and Shanghai Pierce. Loved them when they were in WCW. Just thought they were a great tag team and really looking forward to talking to those guys and getting to meet them and Austin Idol. That should be really fun and interesting. This has a really cool Memphis kind of theme to it this year. I think one of my favorite, it's becoming a tradition now is that Thursday arrival. Everybody kind of rolls in a little early. Is it the San Jose or is it the Santa Fe, the

4:16Mexican restaurant? Yeah. It just has such a weird kind of generic name, but the food is fantastic and they have the big giant portrait of what really really appears to be the Mexican Bert Reynolds on the wall. But the food is outstanding, but I mean you walk in and there's three long tables just together and it's everybody. It's just everybody. It's amazing. It's like the best family reunion. You get all these great restaurants right there. It's truly not Mafia like, but you know when you see the Mafia movies with just the huge banquet with the huge long table and it's just shoulder to shoulder. Everybody's laughing and everybody smiling. Everybody's having a good time. It's just incredible. It's really incredible. Yeah, and then don't forget the pizza on Saturday. Yeah, the brick oven is right around the corner. I'm anxious to see what we come up with if we don't do the Columbia. I'm not sure how that's going to go. Where will end up? Who knows? Yeah, I don't know. Culver's, Portillo's, you know, all the usual hangouts. And then of course those late night door dashes and everything else that comes around with all that stuff.

5:18Sure, I'm an old man. I don't make those. I'm interested to try the ice cream shop. It's over there. I love that place. Love that place. Somewhere downstairs by the garage entrance, we have a copper kettle that has all kinds of crap in it and one of the things in there is actually a frequent buyer's card to the ice cream place. So I only have to make six more trips to to live and forget a free scoop of ice cream. I'll be worth it. I don't know why I took the damn thing. It's not like I can go there every week like I can't hear because I'm able to bury everyone so I'm like, hey man, you go out for ice cream money champs? Here at the grocery store actually that we were just at today where they have their own little section where they serve food and ice cream. And for every dollar that you spend at the store, you get a dollar towards a free ice cream. So we actually stopped for some ice cream this afternoon, but at least that I can make on a regular basis. And this year, you know, I'll tell you, we're actually going to go in even a day earlier. We're going in on Wednesday because we can save some money. I don't understand airlines.

6:19You would think that with the airlines and adding the data to the hotel, it's a wash or something, but somehow I managed to save money so whatever. Anyway, so we're going down Wednesday and I figured, you know what? I figured I'm going to go to one of my favorite steak houses ever down in Florida called Burns, which has been around for, I don't know, 70, 80, whatever number of years. I have no ideas. I think the first time I was there was like, I was 15 years old with my family or something. And back in the day, if I remember correctly, you can actually choose the steak and they would have a nice long, like a filet, I'm a big filet person. So they have a big tenderloin and they'd have the knife and you go, no, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. Anyway, so I called them to make a reservation today for, what is it? April 8th, I think is the Wednesday. What is that a month away? Really, they've got is 845. I'm like, yeah, I don't think I'm waiting day 45 to eat. So we'll see, we may decide to do a walk-in. We did it the last time we went, happened to get lucky, we just happened to sit at the bar, but you know what? You're eating the same food. So really, what difference does it make? What's your go-to there? Oh, it's a filet. It's always a filet. Mashed potatoes, green beans. I started to think about this because Benji's post earlier today,

7:23just with this thing about being at the steakhouse down where he is, or up where he is, I should say. But yeah, no, potatoes and green beans do it for me and then some kind of beer to go with it. And then the more important part is afterwards, going upstairs to their dessert room. Harry was dessert room, which is like a separate, you know, they actually take you up an elevator, or you can go upstairs. You know, they have a separate menu and whatever they take you up there when you're done eating, it's just, it's, it's quite an experience. So I was looking forward to doing that, but we'll see, maybe we'll still do it. What type of desserts? Everything chocolate, everything. I mean, it's, it's amazing. Whatever your mind can imagine. Go online, Google it, and you'll see what I mean, it's just when we did it, I think we had like three different chocolate cakes of some kind or something. Oh my goodness, like a flight of cakes. That's another thing about the gravel con. We get down there. There's so many options and places to go, whether it's the trip we made to Ford's garage as a group. We've been to the Columbia as a group before. Of course, we make the Portillo's runs, the culverts runs, the glory days, and now the break of it and the

8:26Santa Fe or the San Jose. Actually, last time I did Dordash a few lunchtime meals, I just wasn't up to going out. I got a chicken Euro and a regular Euro from the Hungry Greek, which is somewhere semi-local, and it was there in a jiff, and it was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. I know Jeff and Kim order from someplace pretty much every Saturday. If I remember correctly, from some deli, I don't remember name, it always looks good when they're eating it. Last spring when we rolled in there, I had made the mistake, I guess, slash brave decision to just kind of blindly order from a deli in the area, and ordered a few Italian sandwiches to be delivered, and they were interesting. The roll was like beyond. If you had happened to lock your keys in the car, you definitely could have broke the window to get in with the bread. It was a very hard roll, very light on the meat and the toppings and the oil and the vinegar. Everything was very light. I felt like maybe they had some of my physiques somehow through social media and thought I needed to eat lighter, but the sandwiches were not good, and I cannot think of the name of it,

9:30but I'll have to. I'll make a list because I know I have it saved in my Dordash file. I'll be avoiding that. Maybe read some reviews next time, because when I went back and saw I did have not so good ratings, but those are the mistakes that you can make and lose after a fun night with the boys. The Portillo's and Colvers are especially important as the right word, but we don't have those here in New York, as Benji will confirm. It's part of the experience. One of the things about Crapocon that's become sort of a tradition, again, also is the Friday night event, Q&A. We've had Stan Hansen, we've had Ted DiBiassi, they've had. It's always somebody really cool. Somebody who had Nikita, Friday night Q&A, John Nord, I remember John Nord. He does maybe an hour, 90 minute Q&A, whoever the guest may be, and they're just really kind of fun, and even more private than your average day at Crapocon with the VIP event and everything. It's a very cool setting and everything intimate in a way. You get more time with the person. It's a very cool setting, and we get Jacques Rousseau this year, the Mounty. That's going to be really cool. I think he's going

10:34to have a lot of really cool stories to share with us too, and I'm sure somebody's going to bring up the dynamite kid, so it'll be interesting to get to hear some of that stuff in person. Is there anything with Jacques that you're interested to hear from him or hope that he might talk about? He was part of some great feuds back in the 80s and 90s, so really anything about that time is really fun because that's when they were really rolling. Every show you never knew what was going to happen. Today, with all of the lack of KFA, if you will, things just aren't as unpredictable as they used to be. It was a different time back then, so there's plenty to tell matches whether it's with the hard foundation or whoever back then. I don't know that there's a specific one, although you certainly just mentioned one, and the drinks afterwards, of course. One of the things I think I might want to ask, or hope somebody asks, or he just talks about is WrestleMania 3 being in front of that monstrous crowd, and ultimately being responsible for Brutus, the barber beef cake, because it was that defeat by the hands of the dream team with

11:36Dino Bravo's interference at cost, Brutus's job, and then he started cutting hair, and we were strutting them to cut. They could have won. Start thinking about it like that. There's fewer and fewer of the guys from the top of the card they're left these days, so anyone we get a chance to talk to about is a great opportunity. Right, and that's one of the things that Mary likes to mention a lot, too, when we talked to Barry about the events, is you never know when it's gonna be the last time that you might get a chance to see some of these guys, and the one that hit home for me was getting the opportunity and missing with Pat Patterson. I really would have liked to benefit that one. It's kind of legendary in the event with Pat there. I just really wish I would have been to that one. That's that regret that comes with missing Grapplecon. We just want to remind everybody that you definitely want to get you a ticket, especially if you're in the area. If you're local, there is absolutely no excuse for you not to be at Grapplecon. I mean, you should just be shamed. Geez, Crowder came from, what is it, Santa Clara where he lives? Hell, literally he's going corner to corner on this sucker. I remember when these first started,

12:39if I remember correctly, I was the one who came the furthest and I was only coming from New York. This has changed over the years. This time has gone by. So no, you've got Matt coming in from California and so forth. Now New York doesn't seem Benji, me, Big Bill, all of us coming from up here in New York, but Kudos to Matt. What a crew we've assembled through these groups, through the mothership, the brothership, the other ship. I mean, like you said, you guys from New York, Jamie and Spiker in the gang from Philadelphia area, we got Travis from North Carolina and Jeremy Marshall, Mike and myself and Chris AHA from the Midwest, Dave Jordan coming down from Michigan, Aaron Grafton from somewhere in Alabama or maybe Arkansas. Eddie Arkansas, North Carolina, Georgia, wherever. People from everywhere, Reggie from South Carolina, I believe, and a huge Florida contingent too. I love to affectionately refer to him as the Florida gang. A lot of you guys who grew up in Florida spend a lot of time in Florida in your younger days and stuff and the guys that are still there. How unique. A lot of those guys like Jeff and Barry and those guys have

13:42been friends for decades through wrestling and to see it manifest into something like this and have a lasting effect is a very cool thing and it's awesome to be a part of. A lot of the relationships I've been able to form and foster through this event and these groups on Facebook have been life-changing for lack of a better term. I've met people that I never in my day-to-day life would have opportunity to cross paths with seeing how different our regular lives are but still having so much commonality. It's inspiring in a lot of ways especially in the kind of world that we're living in now where there's so much division and division. It's an amazing, amazing time and an amazing opportunity to just create and generate all these new relationships and they become more than just this is a wrestling friend from the internet. It's unbelievable. I still marvel at the fact that I made the friends that I've made to this thing. People outside of Florida I've met and got to know at the same time as I got to know Barry and Pete and all those guys who I was actually at the matches with at Miami Beach all those years ago. I probably sold them sodas because I used to

14:44then at the matches so it just always strikes me as weird that I never met them before I found the group. It's really wild. It's like all these star crossed friendships have grown and it's truly a familial group. When the door is under residence in part and you walk into the lobby you just see everybody sitting around the aircraft carrier sitting around on the chairs sitting over in the breakfast snack and everybody's out front hanging around in chairs and it's just like putting on a warm sweater. It's just the best feeling in the world. I love that aircraft carrier thing. That's very funny. I've never heard that before. I don't know what to call it the big long giant. No, I know what you're talking about. I just never heard it referred to that before. As late as we go some nights somebody might come in for a crash landing on that one these times. I mean it happened. These events literally you can wake up at 6.30 in the morning and go downstairs for the Intercontinental breakfast and you're sitting there having waffles with buried or so in building or you're having a bowl of oatmeal next to Nikita Kholoff. Yeah, it's so surreal. They're just

15:48talking to you like a normal guy makes it even more intimate. Yeah. If you're ever on the fence you gotta just jump in and check it out. Some of the guys have just taken those like they caught the podcast and it sounded interesting and they just caught a wave and wrote it in and decided to check it out like guys like Tim Graf guy's like Steve Rafeful just on a whim just started by it take it and come check it out. And now they're so ingrained in the fabric of the group and who we all are as friends. It's instantaneous almost in so many of these cases. I met Fletcher and John and two minutes later it was like I had known these dudes my whole life. It's unreal. It's like you meet people and it's just like a warm sweater. It's like your woobie, your favorite blanket or a stuffed animal. It's such a comfortable place to be in such a comfortable environment and it's awesome. I'm sounding like Chris Farley doing the Paul McCartney interview here. This is awesome. It's awesome. It's amazing. Like I said, you happen to find the podcast. The reality is like I said and like we've already talked about the camaraderie amongst the non-legends if you will is as important.

16:52So if the legends and I'm sure there are people out there who would enjoy coming even though they don't care for the wrestling part. This is the way to do it. I mean you put it perfectly. You meet people that you wouldn't normally have a chance to meet. I would have no reason to think I would ever meet you or Michael or Zaha in the Midwest. Never mind Matt out in Cali, you know. Although I have had some weird experience of seeing people in far-away places that I know. So I can't say 100% but the reality is it's a wonderful opportunity. It's a great time and there's no way to recommend it enough. It's right. Like we've said a hundred times already. It's great as it is to see Jerry the King Lawler and it's great as it is to see the Mount Yshak Rujo. It's great as it is to see the God one brothers. It's equally as great to see Bruce Cohen and Barry Rose and Harold Strassler and Reggie Harp and Rodney Sobelson and Michael Herrick and Travis Reigns and you get to meet me too. Uncle Jamie could come rolling in. You never know who's going to show up. Aaron Gartland, two-time grapple-con rookie of the year. Will he make it three in a row like Marcus Bagwell?

17:56We'll see. It's something to look forward to and I'm starting to get the little butterflies going. Having some fun in the sun with sun and fun, the sliphouse boys, Fletcher and John. In closing, everybody get on txtree.com. Check out the price. There's various levels of tickets. Of course, the VIP is the best way to go. You get the all-inclusive everything. Get to meet seven or eight of the legends. You get pictures and autographs for free. There's plenty of other vendor guests that you can. It's kind of a la carte. If you don't want to picture with the headbangers, you don't have to get one, but you can still walk up and give them a high five and they'll be extremely gracious to you. We always reciprocate too. There's opportunities galore there. There's also just regular level tickets, entry-level tickets to just go in and have the opportunity to get all-incart autographs from even the VIP guests. Then there's also Venn and Kelly there with selling action figures and memorabilia. John Crowther will be there selling his comic books and people will be there selling pictures and Jeff will be selling magazines.

18:58Cahegas and Brock will be there selling their merchandise. You're going to see so many awesome people. So get your ticket. Check it out and you won't be disappointed. 100 percent. You said it, brother. I want to thank you, Bruce, for coming on and sharing your experiences with us and with everybody. I cannot reiterate how anxious I am to see you and Cindy again. Hug your neck and just spend time and have a meal and laugh and just have the best time man that I cannot wait. Or two or three meals. I'm for second lunch, guys. Sincerely awesome and love you guys and I can't wait to see you man real soon. And other ship land we want to thank you for riding along again with us and tune in soon because you might hear from another buddy coming right around the corner as we piece this thing together. The one and only Harold Strazzle. Welcome back to the show, Harold. Thank you so much for having me back. We had a blast the last time.

20:01Something I want to talk with you tonight about and something that's near and dear to both our hearts. And that is grapple-com which is right around the corner here coming up on April 11th down in Loots floor to put on by our good buddy Barry Rose and the captain Nick Massey. I'm not trying to knock anybody else out there that does any events gatherings, inventions, whatever you want to call them. But I've been to some stuff not just in the wrestling realm comic books, action figures, trade shows, toys, music stuff. The way Barry and Nick put their event on is amazing. I'm excited to see you. I'm excited to see Reggie. I'm excited to see Barry. I'm excited to see my Travis everybody, the family reunion. It's right around the corner man. Excited. So I'm going to start with a little story. The very first one was 2017. It was CWF Legends fan fest. And I'd never done one of these, never gone to one. I live about four and a half hours away. And I think it was Facebook or so. I can't remember. And maybe Barry reached out to me.

21:05Barry and I used to be on the old KFA memories board back in the day. He was man of a thousand one holes. And I was the mass scorpion because when I started watching well a little bit after but go white, who was a great veteran was the scorpion. And I was just intrigued by it by mass guys, which you'll see sometimes on the CWF board. I take a little bit of ribbing on it. But anyway, so the kicker was Jody Hamilton, the mass assassin was going to be there. And I'd seen him live in West Palm Beach. He's on a Mount Rushmore. He's just amazing. And my wife was the one who convinced me. So I got to give a shout out to my wife, Sheila, married 29 years. She's the one who was the driving force to get me to go. And I thought, what am I going to say to this guy? And to your point, Barrie Rose, Captain Nick Massey, they're great guys. And it's about the experience. Nobody's rushing you. Nobody is sitting there saying, oh, you got two minutes. You can stand there and talk as much as you want. And people are patient. People are friendly. People are cordial. And I got to

22:06meet Jody Hamilton. And it was an honor, quite honestly. I thought I was going to mark out. I probably did. But the other story I'll tell you, I'm standing there with Rodney. And I had met Steve Kern, who is just one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I talked to him before and I had a question for him. And I asked him and he turned and he answered it. And only to do that, he talked for 45 minutes to us. And then the part I remember is he's leaving. I wish I had recorded it. It's just a touching moment. The assassin's sitting down. He turned on the way out and gave a hug. For those of you who go back and see to be off, I believe it was Steve Kern's very first title was the Southern Heavyweight belt. They beat the assassin. It was just the respect. I'm going to mention a few names on this of talent. I promise that there was a couple people I had to mention. And I will. But the other thing real quick is when you show up in the hotel and you're in the lobby and you see all the people, the fans or the people who attend, it truly is a family. I'm not trying to sound corny. There are people who I hold dearly. Obviously drew your one of them. I always say this about

23:09true friends and I've experienced it reconnecting with some people from high school and other people I worked with. It may be 20 years that I see them. But if you have that bond when you're in the room with them or around them, it's like no time's passed. And anybody who's ever on the fence about going on one of these, you really you have to experience it. There's really nothing better. Didn't those doors open and you walk up and you're going to hit the front desk and you just see everybody. Of course, when the doors open, their eyes all shift to the door. Who's coming in now? It's like a warm chocolate chip cookie from the oven. It's like a hug from your grandma. It's like the best feeling in the world. It's everybody's like Titan Trion entrance. It's amazing. What a great feeling, man. Proceed. I'm sorry. No, no, no. I really want to encourage people. If you're ever on the fence again, it was the assassin who got me to go to the first one. Well, my wife and the assassin. I've never missed one of these. Anything that Barry's put on now in Captain Nick Massey. They're just they're wonderful people. I want to mention a few of my experiences just because I'm so grateful

24:13that I've gone to every one of them. I'm so grateful that I had the chance to meet certain people who are no longer on this planet and others who I was big fans for not to leave anybody out. But obviously the assassin was the first one to Steve Kern's amazing Brian Blair. I've spent a lot of time with him, but I met buddy Cole. I met Rocky Johnson, the crippler Rick Oliver. Oh my god. Great guy. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Barry set this up. So as I mentioned, I grew up on CWF. What made CWF and I'm going to throw some out there. Sorry for any WWF fans, but you had a work if you were in CWF. You had to be able to work. And if you ever watched the TV matches, even the ones that were you knew who was going to win, the guys in the ring could work and they could make you believe that it was possible for an upset. For example, I'm going to go 1980. Jeff Ports Scott McGee's dad, amazing in the ring. Frank Monty, Gordon Nelson, Reggie Parks. These were all guys who had been successful elsewhere. And they were on TV every week and I got to see some of them

25:16in West Palm, Bobba Douglas. I mentioned Bill White, but there was another mask guy who showed up. He was actually wrestled without the mask and then he became masked. And that was a guy named Ted Marshall T terror. I have remembered him as a kid. I don't know how it came up to Barry, but Ted came to one of the fanfests and I spent a lot of time with him. He became a very good friend. I kept in touch with him. We lost him to cancer a couple of years ago. But again, relationships, I kept in touch with him throughout his whole battle. Got to see him in a couple of them and just a great guy. Bob Roop, if Benji's going to listen, he'll tell you this story about how Bob Roop and I spent a lot of time, my wife met Bob Roop. And at the end of it, he's hugging her. Bob is one of the warmest guys ever. Got to have breakfast sitting there with Rocky Johnson and he had let his guard down. I'm excited because obviously the King Jerry Lawler is going to be there. I'm also excited about the Golden Boy checked out of him. Believe it or not, big fan of his used to watch him CWF in Georgia, Tennessee. So I'm excited. I mean, there's so many. But again, as Drew said,

26:20you walk in and you see people who are dear friends, they really are. I would be remiss if I left out Bob Cook, spent a lot of time with Bob. I've spent literally in the lobby there two hours alone with Bob when we didn't feel like going to eat. Bob's a sterical, great guy. These are amazing experiences. And again, I'm sorry if I leave people out, I'm not trying to. It's all stream of consciousness. But if you're on the fence, you should go. All of this is born out of that out of these events. Just a great group of people. And I mentioned Benji, so give a shout out to Antonio. Great kid. You mentioned Reggie. I know he's doing his rehab. So I know he'll do great with that. If you think about it, when they do the panels, Jeff Boudreon does a great job keeping those going. Bobby Van Candler does the streaming. So many people, and I pause up leaving everybody out, but it's wonderful to see everybody. I'll throw one more out there. Ray Russell, obviously, it was funny. Ray went to the one in Orlando and I went, oh my god, I haven't run into

27:26him. I think I texted him or message literally, we met the lobby for five minutes before we had a leave or whatever, but just so many great people. And you realize you talk wrestling, but then you talk about other things. That's how we end up doing stuff like this where we're just talking about 80 music. You meet so many people with so many other interests outside of wrestling. And you find more kinship through that type of stuff, too. Whether I'm talking to Dr. Philip Khan about action figures or whether I'm talking to Ben James about sports card, whether I'm talking to you about MTV. And another thing I love is, too, you have different, I don't want to use the word generations, but you're a click ahead of me on the dial for age or whatever. Your wheelhouse of childhood wrestling was probably early 70s, 70s, throughout the 70s. Mine picked up right at 1980, like right 1980s when I became a fan. So obviously stuff like early WWF expansion era for me, I was a kid. So it hits more for me than it ever would for you guys or the people that we go

28:28there to see who are from even a click before. All of us, nobody ever treats anybody bad because of the wrestling they like or the territory they grew up on. The kinship is amazing. Literally every time you're turning around, you're hugging somebody's neck and just shaking hands and high five and just these amazing conversations, these amazing relationships are born. And like said, we're end up doing stuff like this all the time and all these groups on Facebook now. We have all these other new ways and means to stay in touch and to keep those fires burning, to keep coming back to these events, to not just see our favorite stars, but to see our favorite people and our family and our brothers and sisters. You guys, you gotta get down to lutes. For real, there's no better value. Take it wise. You don't get any more bang for your buck than what you get with Barry Rosennick. Grapplecon, everybody. Grapplecon for get to tips tree.com. T-I-X-T-R-E-E.com. Get you an event ticket. There's multiple levels. Of course, I recommend the VIP. There's other tickets and events. There's so much stuff coming up. Barbara Goosh doing a, that's the wife of

29:32Bruiser Brody Frank Goosh, the Mounty Jacques Rougeau, also known as Jerry Roberts. Regular guy, Jerry Roberts, not Canadian. Since I'm from a click later, Texas Slashanger and Shanghai pierced the godbans. I'm really excited to see Tex and Shanghai. Super excited for that. It's a packed line. You mentioned Barbara Goosh. I got to spend time with Barbara at the last one. She's just a very classy, special lady. I remember she said something like, it's amazing how people still remember and care about Frank, who's Bruiser Brody. I relished the time I had at the last one with her. I got to have dinner. She was there and friend Darla, who's a good friend now. Mandy Fernandez built after we had a lot of fun and we laughed a lot, had a blast. There's no agenda. You show up and if you give it a chance, you'll have a wonderful, I have, like I said, from 2017 on, I'm so thankful. I really am just the people, the talent. Everybody, you will have a wonderful time. And I'll throw one more thing out at you. The very first fan fest, we used to organize these drives around Tampa and

30:38you'd see special sites. You got a devilish grin on your face. Well, no, it's just it was about seeing the sites that were important to CWF Champions rest from Florida. So Barry put me in the car. He goes, you're going to ride with this guy. He was a worker and it was Sean Pasco, who was Sean Davis of the heartbreak express. Sean is wife Jessica, dear friends. I'm so grateful that again, this is all born out of these experiences. And these are all people who, if something goes bad, I could call like you and say, hey, I need somebody to talk to and vice versa. So again, the lesson is what is the foundation, but it's really the people and everybody is so nice and you just have such a great time and laugh. And I know it sounds like that it's all true. It's from my heart and it's just they're amazing. So that's another 80s tie-in, buddy. It's like Starship. We built this city. Written by Martin Page, you also wrote these dreams that heart covered, by the way. Yeah.

31:39Well, Harold, I want to say thank you. This has been a great time chatting with you tonight and just talking grapple con. I can't wait to get down to Florida. Have a meal, have some conversation, spend some time and just hang out. Again, people grapple con is the only convention where people show up two days before the convention, just to hang out with people before the convention starts. That should tell you everything you need to know. I come in on a Thursday and it's always because I want to get there. I don't want to be from it's for now if I ride, but I like hanging out with everybody Friday, whether it's a lunch or whatever we do or hanging out. By the way, you'll see people hang out in the lobby kind of food area where this food or not and just hang out and talk and we'll talk about if it's wrestling even before my time. I started in 78, 79 and it's amazing because people tell stories of this is what I saw and you're like, you wish that they were the magical genie who could show you the video of it. We are picking up and putting down some testimonials from friends

32:44in the group about an event known simply as grapple con. It started out back in the day as the CWF fan fest and it's kind of trans mortified into this new event called grapple con, but the event and the people and the family surrounding it are all the same and to talk about that experience today, I'm bringing in one of my favorites, a guy that I actually got to meet at his very first. It's something I'll never forget and it's a shared memory hopefully with him. I'm talking about a guy that I had affectionately referred to depending on my state of inebriation either Stevie Rock or Steve O. He is my good friend and brother. I am talking about Steve Rafe from Welcome Back Steve. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Happy to be here and thank you for such a great introduction. I'll never forget that day either. Well, I brought you here today obviously to pick up your testimonial about the grapple con event. Instead of hearing me go on and on and on like we have a week after week on this show about my experience there. I want to talk about you and yours. I want you to just kind of fill everybody in on how you found what was the fan fest at the time and

33:46what became grapple con. How did you kind of stumble into the whole thing? Well wrestling was a huge part. The biggest part of my childhood. I guess about five or six years ago I had a day where I was nostalgic and really had nothing to do and I said you know what? Let me go online and see if there's any web pages devoted to classic wrestling from the days of when I grew up and going on those and obviously K-fabe was gone at that point. I didn't really follow for many many years so I started finding out all these real facts about wrestlers that you only knew the what they let you know obviously when I was growing up. So I became so interested in like personal and other stuff going on that I just kept digging and I came across podcasts. One of the ones I came across was breaking K-fabe. I started listening to it and I'd love the fact that it was a lot of wrestling but also there was a lot of just stuff that I love, movies, food, a lot of really good people. Then they started mentioning the grapple con a few years ago and I'm definitely not the type of person who's just going to travel and wander into a situation that I don't know anybody. I wanted to go so bad but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That's how I found grapple con. I talked to Barry on the side

34:51and he basically talked me into going. I was worried about acceptance and spending money to go to this thing and am I going to be alone the whole weekend and I'm shy to begin with and he talked me into going. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. That's how I found it. That's a great point that you brought up. I think initially most wrestling fans in general are kind of shy and introverted in a way. I think that's what draws them to wrestling because it's a unique experience to watch wrestling and you get made fun of so much by like all your people and friends on periphery. I think we're all kind of sharing that shyness but once we all get together it's just like mold it grows all over. Okay so you're there now. You talked about that shyness and everything. Did you feel it initially? How long did it take you to kind of just like I feel like I belong here? Well what I did was on the first trip I was delayed a few hours at the airport and I was starting to get nervous but I was in. I had bought in already and there's no way I was turning back. I started drinking a little bit at the airport. I drank on the plane and then I got onto the airport, ubered over and I walked out of the uber at the hotel and the first thing I saw

35:56in Lutz was everybody had taken over the hotel. It was like a sight I've never seen before except when I used to travel with follow the dead a little bit around. Fans would take over hotels and that's the last time I saw that. You're talking the 80s. So I was blown away immediately. I ran upstairs. I dropped my stuff in my room. Everybody was just in clumps of people. Everybody was talking. There was nobody standing alone and I went up and dropped my stuff off. Came down. The first person I bumped into was Uncle Jamie. I heard his voice and I said I know you. And I'll tell you what that night he grabbed me. He walked me around. He introduced me to everybody. I met you that night and I met a bunch of other people that night that I will consider life long friends and it disappeared. The shine has disappeared. As soon as I shook Jamie's hand, we just talked all night long and I remember talking, you know, it was like probably two, three in the morning. We're going up to our rooms and we were literally talking at his floor. I stepped out on his floor and we were talking about I remember a Madison Square Garden show from the 70s or something because we had grown up in the same area, same wrestling, same time.

36:58I remember going to bed that night and thinking, man, this is the best thing I ever freaking did. If you remember, that was going to be the last one. I think that was going to be the last one. Yeah, so that's how basically the shine is disappeared immediately and I felt part of everybody like at that point. First night, within a first half hour, I was in. That is awesome. We talked about the gathering and you made an amazing point there. There's literally no one ever standing by themselves at these events. You can't help but get vacuumed into conversations just by you over here, someone and you kind of migrate into the group like Geese. Yeah, so here's another thing. I have not only come out of my shell, not in my life. I'm still the same, but when I go to these things, which I've been to everyone since and I think that was April of 24. I believe was my first one. Not only have I come out of my shell when I come to these things, but when I do see a new person that may be sitting alone, I always go up to them and introduce myself. Then I'll come with somebody. I'll grab them if I'm with you, Jamie, whoever. Let's go talk to that guy and introduce ourselves. At least two or three people I've become

38:01friends with that have been to everyone since because that's what Jamie did for me and I was certainly going to extend that to other people. I don't feel like I'm going to get laughed at, I don't feel like I'm going to get thrown out or you know what I'm saying. I felt comfortable doing that and I'm not really comfortable doing that in my life. I'm getting better, but that was something that I also learned to do with shedding the shyness that is natural to me. He talked a little bit about how the event is very group based and everything. What can you share with everybody out there who might be on the fence about coming to the event like the value that the event represents and all the being a part of the group and being on the VIP ticket. What the value just truly encapsulates and how far reaching everything can be. This is such an incredible event. When you buy a ticket, you have a choice between tickets. I always buy the VIP because I want the full experience and the full experience is anywhere from the camaraderie that we have which you don't need a ticket for that. But the camaraderie we have is where it all begins. You get in early to the autograph sessions,

39:06you get a ticket to all the interviews and the special side events that they have that are always great. Great value. Here's another thing that I was on the fence as I said in the beginning for probably two or three years I was on the fence wasn't going to go. I am someone who hasn't watched wrestling since really like 1990 and the only way I came across this is because I was nostalgic thinking about the old days and I said to myself, I don't even know I probably would be hard pressed to name five current wrestlers. I haven't watched it in years and that was one of the things that held me back not only my shyness but I'm not going to be able to talk to current product with anybody you know for not even five minutes ever. I decided when Barry talked me into going to go and this is something that even if this was such a huge part of your childhood and this is something you loved as a child and you miss those days. This is a perfect, perfect situation for you because not only do you have people of all ages there but I'm 60 years old I got people who are younger than me a little younger than me older than me who don't really

40:08watch it either and we sit there and talk about everything including old school stuff that we grew up with and cards that we had been to and all that stuff and you know food and movies and comedians and everything music music is a huge part of this community we all love to talk about music anyway getting back to I know I've drove out a little bit but the value of buying the complete ticket is you get the full experience there's not a minute of downtime other than at night when we're done but you just get to see some of the people that you grew up watching talking to you in real life telling you about their experiences and dressing rooms and in the ring and without the full ticket it's still a great value but the VIP ticket I will always get that just because when I go and if I'm traveling I definitely want to get the full experience I want to get everything I want to be in every room when things happen I've had some of the greatest experiences in my life at those side events that I wouldn't have if I didn't buy the VIP ticket so if you can do it I would certainly without hesitation get the VIP ticket if I may for a moment you talk about those

41:13side events we didn't do it last year but normally he used to be kind of thing where we would go do an independent wrestling card and that was some of the best fun that we ever have at these things we really kind of get lost in the escapism we kind of put ourselves back in that old school feeling and we really act like old school k-fabe fans we're given the guys the shit in the ring and we're chanting and we're cheering and just having a great time if you could like you said you went to your first and it was an amazing experience and now you've been back-to-back-to-back you're riding it out now and it's awesome if you could share some of your favorite moments your favorite guests just things that you could share with us from all the events that really stand out to you absolutely there's a few meeting Stan Hansen meeting Baron Von Rushka who I literally grew up watching the Baron Stan Hansen was someone I read about magazines until I was older but he was someone I always knew the guy who broke Bruno's neck so meeting him was just amazing John Nork meeting John Nork I know from the late AWA days as Drew had mentioned the card that we went to was

42:16absolutely wonderful we just tuned in and hollered and did everything that he said there was actually some funny moments that I won't really bring up here but it was just all great and I got to tell you out of all that the interviews and meeting all the wrestlers and managers and stuff like that my favorite part and what makes me keep going is the people I have met there when I go there for three days two days whatever it is it is literally a break from life I have a great life it's very busy but when I go down there I'm like with my people don't have a lot of that where I am I do but in another sense this is like my second family when I go down there I get up I can go downstairs I can just hit any group oh I wanted to ask that dude something I go over to that group on there for an hour talking to him another great thing is a lot of my stuff is not really wrestling based but going out to dinner and lunches with these guys and sitting there having a few drinks and eating at places that I always hear about on the other ship and on breaking

43:17k-fabe that I don't have anywhere near me we don't have those places in New Jersey and going there and sitting there and breaking bread with these guys that I love spending time with them is when I leave and I'm on the plane I'm like sad like I want to live with all these guys and be down there all the time I can't wait for the next one I've mentioned before that the first one I went to was going to be the last one so I was very happy that I went but I was like this can't be the last one on the plane home I was like no and I remember texting these guys I'm like really this isn't going to be the last one right that was so great that there's got to be another one it can't end on this and already there were some behind the scenes like yeah we think there's probably going to be in a different way you know in a different place maybe in a different theme I was so happy to hear that and of course it came the fruition pretty immediate and I've been to everyone since but yeah just things like that to me it's not going to talking about the current product at all you're gonna lose me at that I just don't have to talk about that but talking about the old days and like I said spending some serious great times with these guys that's why I go I got to tell you

44:21if it changed from a wrestling thing just to go down or hang out once a year for a weekend I'm in for the rest of my life as long as I can do but if you are a wrestling fan and you even in your past like me in the 70s and 80s watched wrestling in not since still go because we're gonna take you right in you're gonna have a great time and you're gonna also if you still like the product or meet some people that maybe you would never think you were gonna be you know like me I met some of these wrestlers who just I remember when I was a kid being them and that was very nostalgic you mentioned breaking bread with everybody and having those times around the table and all the conversations and getting to really know people and the laughter and everything this event we go for the nostalgia and to get our autographs and our pictures and collect some memorabilia and hear the stories from the legends it's all that but it's also mixed with like that nostalgic feeling of a high school keg party like he said the event is all day it's action packed it's bang bang bang you're going from thing to thing room to room with all these amazing encounters and

45:24all these amazing events taking place then it's over for the day and then we've got that high school keg party mixed with a family reunion mixed with just hanging out with your best buddies after a long day of work feeling it's just it's all that it's truly like a fucking old Milwaukee commercial it truly does not get any fucking better than that we go to the wrestling show we go to Denny's and we hang out we go to Friday night event and we have a best time and then we go over to glory days and we take a quarter of the restaurant up and then we hold court out front and that in Milwaukee and at the pool nothing to say that when we go over go back and take over that hotel again if you want the day to be over the day can be over but if you're like me and you want to just to get as much time out of these incredible friends that I have and spend every moment you can because it's going to be at least six months maybe a year before you see him again you go and you sit down you'll laugh your ass off all night long some other brothers of ours brought their guitars last year I wish I would have thought of that but I didn't and you know there was a jam session out right in the lobby everybody was singing along it was great we had a guest Ted D.

46:26V. O. C. last year it's nothing to see him walk out and spend an hour talking everybody and literally just talking to them as equals as equal human beings John Nord spent hours with us not only but at the restaurant we went and got him dinner and just listening to him talk and things of that nature is it was just as crew said it doesn't end at the hotel when there's no events going on no no we're hanging out until all hours and having a great time speaking that are you going to be bringing your axe with you this year you got a rent one when you get down there travel case but that's a great idea to rent one you just get we ought to get a hold of Gator and see if he's got a spare axe take him bring on he's a lefty bring an extra one because you drive you could throw in your trunk you know what I mean with me I travel and my shit's really expensive and I don't have a good case yeah you don't want to mess around like that dude we love the airlines but not that much but that's a good idea I will look up a rental store a music store and see if they'll rent me one I'm glad you brought that up man we are very eccentric here in the group like you said

47:27food music wrestling sports a multitude of topics and interests and things that we all love it was incredible last year we had Aaron down there but the guitar we had Craig down there with the guitar everybody was singing along it was a really fucking cool impromptu jam session and a guy that we all know he may or may not be the proprietor of the pro wrestling Facebook Hall of Fame he had Bill after his phone number and he was brazenly bragging out to everyone about it and I will tell you if you leave your autograph Bill afterbook laying around it may get stolen be take care of that people that's the most amazing the camaraderie see that yeah it's an amazing time everybody we'll put a plug in the old testimonial here man I want to thank you so much Steve for sharing some time this morning I know you got a lot to do but we'd be remiss if we did not point out that Steve is one of our favorite other shippers dads and we're talking about Taylor from Luna Worldcast and Hunter they're out burning up the roads burning up the club scene they're out kicking ass out

48:31there out west and they're doing real good I am follower of the patreon everybody out there LunaWorldcast.com check them out let's support our people Steve it's incredible talking to you brother and I'll break a little k-fabe plan wasn't for me to go this year just wasn't in the cards but my good brothers they made it happen I had a pretty rough time while I was flying home last time and it was a bad experience and they've made concessions in their own lives to accommodate me so that I can be there with them and with you and with everybody else so I'm so grateful to all my friends and my brothers and gonna be fucking awesome dude I cannot wait to get down there and give you a hug we're gonna have the best time I cannot wait you just made my freaking day I was afraid to ask you because I'm like it's gonna kill me if he can't freaking go the fomo is real people the fear of missing out is very real with this the real it gets you a ticket everybody you know when I go and spend the money and it's like I start reserving shit I'm like it's gonna be like you know I'm not a rich man you know and it's like I'll put a kid in college too I have another daughter who's in

49:31college you know it's not easy for me to come up with this kind of money right now with a kid in college but I gotta go I make it happen I just got to make it happen you know what I mean I don't have a lot of huge expenses anymore my kids aren't young anymore they're out of the house but it's still a lot of money because of the college thing and I just have to make it happen even if I go into that for a little bit I just do it it's one of those things where it's truly that escapism it's like the enicle out of song you just want to get away and it's not like you said we all have good lives I mean we have great people in our lives people in our families we love and jobs that for the most part we enjoy and the people that we work with and stuff it's not that we hate our lives in any way but it's truly Bruce and I when we talk it's like cheers sometimes you just want to go where everybody knows your name I mean you just truly have I don't want to say it in the normal term but you can like drop your inhibitions you know it's a chance to take your armor off from the daily life on the daily grind and just great great analogy and 100% true I would urge you if you are on the fence about this because you're shy you can't tell now because I know Drew and I'm

50:34very comfortable with Drew and I'm a salesman I have to put on an act when I meet new people but I'm just like you if you're a shy person and you just don't want to go because you don't feel like you're going to have a good time and be accepted you look for me there and I'll make sure you have a great time and I'll introduce you to my brother Drew and everybody else that we're with we'll take you in and we will show you a great time and you will not regret going you won't be on a plane home saying I didn't meet anybody I didn't have a good time guaranteed you look for me and you walk up to me and put your hand out to shake my hand and I would probably grab you and hug you and welcome you in so if you're on the fence because of that let it go man drop over to the other side you are gonna love it break on through you will love it guaranteed and I'll make sure you do take that everybody a good time or else yeah I want to say thank you again I love you I can't wait to see you love you seeing a month I want to thank everybody out there for listening to the other ship podcast or proud member of the Russell Copia podcast network besides catch me here on the

51:35other ship with my brothers Michael Drew and Bill you could catch me on Ray Russell's regional wrestling podcast where Ray and I cover 1982 and Georgia championship wrestling it's a real deep dive we go over every house show and every TV taping and every result and angle that occurs check that one out you can also catch me on Ray Russell's ultimate here of his patreon where Ray and I do regional wrestling unreal first we do 1982 in mid-South wrestling currently we're up into the month of February and we're about to close up February on the other show Southwest championship wrestling that Ray and I are reviewing we're getting ready to finish February of 82 and move into March also you can find me once every couple months I appear on John McAdams stick to wrestling you could catch me a couple times a month on Brian Trammels shooting the Shiznit podcast and then finally either by the time this has come out or shortly after this comes out I will be appearing on Tony Richards pro wrestling time tunnel and Tony and I are going to

52:38discuss Jim Cracker promotions in 1985 so if you get a chance check out all those podcasts we want to remind everybody to check out our friends the Joe's Fiends at the Joe's Fiends.net check out our friends Luna Worldcasts at LunaWorldcast.com check out our friends toasters and moose at toastersandmoose.com and check out Ray Russell and the WrestleCopy of podcast family at WrestleCopy.com you can find everything Russell go be there we also want to remind everybody to check out our other ship store on tpublic.com you can find a link on the other ship podcast Facebook page so please support us everything that you purchase all that money goes to help us with our stream yard fees for the year upcoming so we appreciate anything you can do for us at our other ship tpublic store page we'd also like to remind you to check out mister and missus swift on youtube see what they've got going on they just started back up a new set of review videos they just reviewed the trailer

53:39for the michael jackson biopic this coming out so check that out we also want to let you know about tickets on sale for glory days grapple con for taking place april 11th at the residence in in lutes florida get your tickets at txtree.com that's txtree.com if you want the most bang for your buck at that top level ticket that gets you into the morning q&a with barber goodness it gets you the afternoon panel discussion and the after party discussion cider day after the fan fest has concluded it gets you autographs with the super ticket talent and photo opportunities it's the best deal you're going to get at any kind of fanfester convention because the price point is easily half of what the autographs and photos would cost you anywhere else so get your tickets today at txtree.com search glory days grapple con for

55:01taking the bruv in our b8s on brina michael let me win if come over me now i can get a lot of rips they say that i should red my horse to the ground oh i should get away before i drown and cody ain't i'm leaning way too far oh i speak now my words this is our first one to know i staggered in my car oh i get for my keys i guess i sleep at the bar

56:01they say that i should red my horse to the ground oh i should get away before i drown no fee i push it to my life

57:01oh oh oh oh

58:05oh oh oh oh

59:09oh oh oh

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