Here are today’s wrestling podcast recaps courtesy of Chris Siggia. You can leave feedback by commenting below or email him at jspodcast2020@gmail.com
JIM CORNETTE EXPERIENCE 4/10/20: KEVIN SULLIVAN TALKS CHRIS AND NANCY BENOIT
Sullivan on why he hasn’t commented on the Chris Benoit situation: “I have been extremely sensitive to them. They were dear friends at one time, and I can’t imagine how it is to get up every morning for the mother and the father to see two urns on a mantle. That to me has to be the hardest thing in the world. I respect them very very much and I wanted to hear from them if they ok’d it because they have never talked about it publicly that I know of.”
Sullivan on how he met Nancy: “She had done some publicity pictures for the magazines. They took some pictures with me and that’s how I got to meet her. I was 32 and she was 21. We got to be friends and it was one of those things that blossomed into something else. But we were friends for quite a while.”
Sullivan on how the Fallen Angel character come about: “We were going to have a big show in Miami at the Orange Bowl. I was going to wrestle Mulligan in a hangman’s noose match. I thought, I need something spectacular. They drew close to 30,000 people and I was saying what am I going to do. The photographer said why don’t you have her valet you. I had The Lock, Winona Little Heart. I had her as The Lock who I supposedly hypnotized and was a childhood friend Kendall Windham. I also had Humperdink. She actually came up with a pretty good idea of her wearing the bikini and high heels. We did the thing with the chains and her carrying snakes because a lot of people are afraid of snakes and it seems to me most ladies are afraid of snakes. It was so over that night. I have to give her a lot of credit because she pulled it off well and some of the Divas that tried to follow her is something very similar. I think she opened the door for Divas and the other thing is, I think she deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”
Coronette on how the Midnight Express was going to be part of the 4 Horseman group: “Woman was going to be the new manager of the new 4 Horsemen consisting of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane. Herd (Jim Herd) was trying to split me and the Midnights up and he blocked Tully and we needed horsemen, so we all go together, you (Cornette) I and Ric and we came up with that and Ric loved Nancy’s work. We even shot a couple of promos that were going to begin to lead to this. Herd decided to stop the whole thing and the Midnight Express never became horsemen and the whole thing fell in the hole.”
Sullivan on him and Nancy having problems before Chris Benoit came in: “We had problems before Chris (Benoit) came in for about 6 months. It happens daily. It happened to us. We grew apart. Truthfully, there was that age difference where she spent her early 20’s with me. She saw the world but not on her own and Benoit when we put him with her, his wife was pregnant at the time and he was very leery about it because he had a meeting with Eric (Bischoff) and I. He said I have to make sure my wife doesn’t get upset about this. He was very concerned because she was pregnant at the time. We (Sullivan and Nancy) had two houses at the time that we lived in. I was spending more and more time down in the keys and she was spending more and more time in Daytona. Then as it eventually went, an incident happened where I actually stayed in the keys 98% of the time and the only time I went up to Daytona was when she wasn’t there. We were headed for divorce somewhere down the line. We tried to patch it up a couple times, but things just didn’t work…We got married in ’92 but we were together full time for 13 years, but for the first year and a half, we were not living together.”
Sullivan on his relationship with Chris Benoit when Benoit first came into WCW: “I had never met him before. He was very professional. He was all business. He was a quiet guy. He had a small circle of friends, but they were very loyal to one another. Every night he was going out to have the best match on the card.”
Cornette mentioned that there was only one report of domestic violence between Sullivan and Nancy. Sullivan responded: “Yea, I never brought that up Jimmy. If you look at it, there were charges put on her. She spent three days in jail, and she stabbed me with a knife. That was the breaking of our relationship completely. Then I never went back to Daytona. I paid for her to get out of jail, but I never brought it up because of the respect I had for her mother and father. I know it weighs heavy on their heart. I used to say I can carry this, they can’t. I’m not trying to be a hero here but why put more weight on their heads and say that. I think Sandra (Nancy’s sister) sees things her own way. These guys from Dark Side of the Ring certainly are not Sherlock Holmes or Watson or they would have figured that out if they did some research on that. Her mother was very appreciative, and father too, of what I did to get it squashed. We went to court and said this is the only time we ever had a problem; it won’t happen again, and I got her out. She went home and I got the car and drove to the keys.”
Cornette brought up Sandra saying, “There were a couple of physical fights (between Sullivan and Nancy)”. Cornette asked Sullivan if he ever gave Nancy a black eye as was said in the program. Sullivan said “I was living down in the keys. I did not see Nancy for four months. If she had a black eye, I’m not sure how she got it, but I think Sandra got her timeline wrong. I never gave her a black eye.”
TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING 4/10/20: BUTTERBEAN
Butterbean on if why WWE brought him in for the Brawl for All: “It was punishment for Bart Gunn. He actually tried to box and jab which was his worst mistake. He should have just come out and thrown haymakers like he did in the other fights. He might have had a little bit better chance. There is no way he would have won, but yeah he would have done better if he would have come out trying to box.”
SOMETHING TO WRESTLE WITH BRUCE PRICHARD 4/10/20: PAUL BEARER
Prichard commenting on Paul Bearer coming to WWE: “I was managing Undertaker as Brother Love. Vince gave me the ultimatum and said you got to choose one. Undertaker is such an attraction that he needs the complete package of the manager and that’s got to be you on the road all the time. You can be on the road with Undertaker full time or you can be in the office full time, but you can’t do both anymore. I chose the office. But, in doing that, it was like ok, and if you’re gone, how do we make that transition. We need somebody for the Undertaker. Rick Rude may have suggested Percy Pringle. I suggested Percy Pringle. Pat Patterson suggested Percy Pringle. I even think JJ (Dillon) had a hand in saying, hey how about Percy. So, Percy had sent his shit in and he had been on the radar for other things, but yes, I don’t think that there was one single person that didn’t highly recommend him that we spoke to that had worked with him previously. So, he didn’t know. He thought he was coming in for a job interview to do anything. He was really being interviewed for the Undertaker manager. They were looking for someone there, but as Vince always does, he may bring you in for one thing and use you for ten other things. He said what do you do, what are your hobbies. He said I’m a licensed mortician and everybody popped, like oh my God, this couldn’t be better. The guy we are bringing in that we want to have manage the Undertaker is a licensed mortician. It doesn’t get any better than that. You can’t write that. So, I think at that point, his fate was sealed. He was going to be the Undertaker’s manager. As the story goes, when he came in, it was Road Warrior Hawk who was like, what if we called him Paul Bearer, get it? Paul Bearer and brought it to Vince and he became Paul Bearer.”