Exclusive interview with former WCW and WWE Superstar Buff Bagwell

The hosts of Ring Rust Radio – Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin – recently had the chance to speak with former WCW and WWE Superstar, Buff Bagwell. Over his long career, Bagwell played many parts and goes in depth in this interview on his time in and exit from WWE, the Monday Night Wars, his dream retirement match and more. 

This interview with Buff Bagwell can be heard on the YouTube video below or continue past the link to read the entire interview here.

Ring Rust Radio: There’s always been a lot of speculation and rumors out there regarding your brief stint with WWE, and you said recently on “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s podcast that you believe Jim Ross was responsible for your release from the company. He responded and said he didn't make the decision. What do you make of his response, and what do you think JR or WWE’s motivation was to get rid of you so quickly?

Buff Bagwell: First of all, I actually did read his response. The way Jim responded, which I can respect, I think he didn’t want to watch what I had to say. Therefore he was responding to something that he really didn’t know what he was responding to. I wasn’t saying that Jim’s job didn’t require him to let people go. What I’m saying is I think he is strictly looking at it from WWE terms. Everyone knows that many years ago on the round table special, and I thought Jim and I were always great, but go back and watch that round table special which I encourage everyone to do. Everyone was talking about heat seekers in the business. During that time, Jim kept trying to get his story out. Someone else would always cut him off, though. It wasn’t to protect me, but they felt like they had something to get out. So at the very end of it, Jim sits down and proceeds to bury me and tells a story about how my mother called in and cancelled me on some house shows. I think first of all I was put out there because I had some heat from coming into the business from WCW. Zero heat with WWE, but the perception was I could be a pain in the ass. Remember, they are the one company now. So I’m shaking hands and kissing babies and walking on egg shells. Even though I knew I had a job, there were some things that happened with me and Shane Helms when I first got there, and I felt that I really had to watch my P’s and Q’s. I felt that me and Booker were kind of set up with Booker and the whole invasion angle and us main eventing with a kind of horrible match. I look back and realize it was not as bad as it felt that day. It just felt like there was going to be a setup and a fall guy. I never claimed that I was a big main event star, but Sting and I are the only two guys that did the entire run in WCW. Evidentially, I was worth using and added some value to the product, but came into WWE feeling like I had to re-earn my spot. In fact, I came in and gave Vince back money to show him I was a team player. Fast forward to Jim Ross, I’m gone and still trying to make a living on the scene. Let’s be honest here, if someone tells that your mama called you off of work, what’s that say about a man? That’s just burying somebody. Truth is it never happened. That’s not my opinion or Jim Ross’ opinion. Between Jim, myself and God, all know that didn’t happen. I even had my manager come to me and say what if she called and you didn’t know about it, what if that was the case? My mother was involved with WCW television, but she never made a dime from it. Everything you saw her do that everyone gives her crap about, she did it for free and to help the product. She did enjoy her time there and she was just having a good time.  Just like if your mother was asked to do the same thing, I’d imagine she would more than likely. My mama was out there taking Diamond Cutters at 50 something years old and not making a dime for it. Even if she had done something like that, she would have called me and said that she spoke to Jim and they didn’t need me for those house shows. She would have been working both ends of the spectrum if she did something like that. She was up in the stands the night they did fire me and she had no clue. I don’t know where Jim gets off saying my mother called me in, but those were prime shows for Buff Bagwell. I think they were Columbus, Georgia and Birmingham. Those were both prime shots for me, and I think we had Philips Arena coming up for Monday Night Raw at the time which was right in Ted Turner’s backyard. Booker and I felt we could have gone into there and blow it up. I think they wanted the reaction from the fans to be negative because they were still in that Monday Night War mentality. WCW was the bad guys, but here we are forced to play in their backyard. So you go to Philips Arena and that’s the home of WCW, I don’t care if it’s a Monday Night Raw crowd or not, those were WCW people. Booker and I would have gotten a pop, but it never got a chance to happen. Even the Tacoma show, I was walking out from the back with my music playing, and Shane McMahon comes up and tells me not to look at the cameras. You guys know, that’s 80 percent of my job! I go out there, look at the cameras, pose, boom boom boom, flex; that was my gimmick. When someone tells you don’t look at the camera, that’s like telling Austin not to kick, punch, or shoot birds. That’s why Booker and I felt like there was something strange about that Tacoma show. I still feel like Jim was trying to bury me while I was trying to make a living. Of course my story had never been told, so I never got a chance to answer that. So at the end of the show when Jim said my mama called me off, and that Missy Hyatt brought me into the business. They said, “Oh well that explains it all.” Well what does that explain? Missy helped out a lot of guys in the business and she was at a time the first lady of wrestling.

Ring Rust Radio: You have worked for WCW, WWE and even TNA, so you know the value in competition within the wrestling industry. Do you feel the business will ever reach the level it did during the Monday Night War?

Buff Bagwell: To be honest with you, I think that everyone can have their opinion, but if WWE would have kept that tight lipped and made it look like Shane was running it and kept it as two separate entities, I think wrestling would have stayed hot for a lot longer. Maybe Shane should have actually bought it. There is more wrestling and talent out there than there ever has been right now, but there are limited places to work. I think that it can be again and everything does have its peaks and valleys. Will it ever be that hot again? I really don’t know. It would have to be put at a real competitive level for that to happen. Competition creates business. In the back of Vince’s mind, he is so far ahead of TNA right now they aren’t even a thought to him. If the right people and minds get in there and get the right programming, we could see a lot of things change. With TV open to more of a free market and including the internet, people are going to have more selections and choices. That may saturate the business, but it could captivate the business at a cheaper rate. If you weren’t on a major station on a prime time night, you were kind of screwed. I do think the business itself can go back there again, but I don’t know if the right people are in place to make that happen right now.

Ring Rust Radio: I really enjoyed your run as a single competitor, but you were also part of several entertaining tag teams. Was there one partner you enjoyed tagging with the most and any story that comes to mind from your run with him?

Buff Bagwell: I really enjoyed with Two Cold when I broke in. It was fresh and new; we did a lot of cool things, WCW tag team of the year, and led to my first belt. Everyone I ever worked with added something to my career which helped me develop my character over time. Scott Norton, Vicious and Delicious, that was a lot of fun. That might be on the backburner in a lot of people’s minds, but I had a really good time working with Scott. Even working along with Dale Wilkes, the Patriot and all these guys I worked with I had a blast with. There were a lot of stories of Scott and I working over in Japan for example. I can tell you one time, I had a few beers in me, and Scott Norton was a pretty tough dude. We had our wives with us on a trip one night and Scott’s wife at the time, though I love her to death, there was an annoyance going on. For some reason, I was going to threaten to slap Scott’s wife. This was after drinking and having a good time, but at that moment I thought I was going to die. He made the hot tag with me and came in as my partner and defused the situation. I really did have a good time with everybody. Something that blew my mind, before we did the interview section for the “Good, the Bad, and the Buff,” my manager had found some footage of shoot interview with Too Cold Scorpio. Mind you, I just saw him a few weeks before this and we had tagged together as an anniversary, reemergence, reunion type thing together. I hugged him and everything was good, I even gave him a couple DVDs of our best matches together. After watching his shoot interview, I will say it blew my mind. He called me a cock sucker, every name in the book, and that he poked my wife in the face on an airplane over a seat I told him to get out of. Brother, one thing about me is I always try to treat people with respect. I never was a guy to push his chest around. He said we were all traveling together on some flight overseas, I told him to get out of the seat, and he told me who was I, poked my wife in the nose and told her if she wanted to fuck a real man he would show her why they called him Too Cold. I don’t give a shit if you are the biggest pussy in the world, but if a man is poking your wife in the face with a plane full of wrestlers on an international flight and some guy is standing up telling some guy’s wife he can fuck her better than you can? Don’t you think you would have heard about that story? We would have made a world press release because he and I would have gone out the fucking exit door on that plane. So when I heard this, I thought what the fuck is he talking about or what is he on? They literally show this to me live during filming, and then go right back live with my response. I never saw it before and I did know it was out there, but they waited to show me live to get my rebuttal. You want to see some real deal situations? It’s on the film. I promise you, you have never seen anything more real than this in your life.

Ring Rust Radio: If you could pick anyone to wrestle against for a retirement match, who would it be and why?

Buff Bagwell: So many people to pick from. Steve Austin. He would be the majority of the draw, but that’s not the reason why I would work with him. Steve and I had a lot of tag matches together with Brian Pillman and Too Cold Scorpio, and we worked a lot of matches with those guys. We were always friends and respected each other so of course it would be a good match and a good draw. Before the film, I never saw Vince in there with the thumb up, thumb down deal. I had never seen that because I was in Panama City Beach, Florida, when that happened. When he goes through that whole list of guys, Buff Bagwell got a pretty good pop. When he asked the crowd there about Bagwell, I was really proud of that. It meant that I meant something to those people and that pop made me feel really good. We’re all human and love to get over with the crowd.

Ring Rust Radio: A lot of fans look back and wonder how you would’ve fit in WWE and how they would’ve used you had your stay not been short. Were you ever given any indication of what storylines or feuds you might have been involved with, or is there anything you would’ve liked to have done in that respect?

Buff Bagwell: Well of course everybody wants to see how Buff Bagwell could have evolved in WWE. It was more of at the time, “Hey you guys are the invasion, play off the enemy thing, put you and Booker out there, and just roll with it.” As time changed, they were very good at connecting to an audience and be able to change. I think I was pretty good at it. If you look at Marcus Alexander Bagwell who broke into the business, to Mark Bagwell the tag team guy, to the evolution of Buff, I think I could have very well fit in there to make those changes as generations of fans change. I think I would have been perfect for that. I was always open-minded, not afraid to make an ass out of myself, wasn’t scared to be a jester and I didn’t need to be the man, I just wanted to be part of the team. It would be very hard today to go out and wrestle wearing a top hat to the ring. I got a top hat over brother. You know how many people would book me and then ask, “Do you have the top hat with you?” It’s got its own case and flies with me on Delta.

Ring Rust Radio: I enjoyed your run with Lex Luger as Totally Buffed. It made perfect sense given your physiques and you two were part of the reason I started to go to work out when I was a teenager. Is there one moment or match that stands out to you the most from you career?

Buff Bagwell: I was still working singles matches, and something that really gave me an opportunity for a major push was working a lot of singles matches with Chris Benoit. All of a sudden when I was working with Chris, who was a very technical wrestler, they got to see Mark Bagwell do the up-and-overs, fish out of water, the reversals, the pin and the boom boom boom. I go to the back and they never knew I could do any of that. Chris Benoit gave me the opportunity when I worked with him to show that I could go with someone like him. Vader was in the back and came up with the idea of putting me with Scorpio thinking it was a good idea. So a match that I did with Chris to show I could do the aerial moves, led to me and Scorpio doing tag team moves that people like the Hardy’s ended up doing after us. That gave me my break into my tag team run. Before then I was getting beat up by the Dangerous Alliance and then getting saved by Sting. The match that sticks out the most in my career would be the tag match when I broke my neck with Scott Steiner. It brought a lot of attention on me, but I felt WCW really dropped the ball with it. They really could have took it and made it a reality driven type of wrestling angle. I was telling them to follow me to surgery and film these things. It wasn’t about getting myself over, but WCW taking advantage of me breaking my neck on live TV. Take advantage of doing that even they want me to flip on the people afterwards, but put some investment into it. To break my neck on live TV then make a comeback and they really didn’t even focus on that as well as they could have. I would of said the same thing had it been anybody that broke their neck on TV, it just happened to be me that it happened to.

Exclusive Ring Rust Radio interview with WCW and WWE legend Bill Goldberg

The hosts of Ring Rust Radio – Donald Wood, Mike Chikari and the other one – recently had the chance to speak with WCW and WWE legend Bill Goldberg. Along with discussing his role in the upcoming film “Check Point,” Goldberg talks about returning to wrestling, a dream final match, his time in WWE and more. You can listen to this interview on the YouTube link below or continue past to read the entire interview here.

Ring Rust Radio: You are staring in the upcoming film “Check Point.” You play TJ, a major character who requires you to bring both acting skill and fighting skill. Tell the fans what they can expect from your character and the movie as a whole?

Goldberg: The movie as a whole is in modern times, end of days, the possibility of home grown insurgence this day and age of terrorism. It’s about never letting our guard down cause it could happen on U.S. soil and in our own back yard. My character is a hand-to-hand combat veteran with a couple of tours now finds himself as a delivery man in a small town in North Carolina. Among the other civilians in town, there are a plethora of veterans strewn throughout. Ranging from the Vietnam War to the Afghanistan War with all sorts of different types of specialties. At the end of the day, they find out the terror cell is in their own back yard and they band together in a rag-tag team of veterans that try to take them down.

Ring Rust Radio: Earlier this year, you had the chance to step into the ring for another spear and jackhammer at Citi Field. How did hitting your moves feel after so long away from the ring and did it give you the itch to consider another run as a competitor?

Goldberg: The itch will always be there because I am always a competitor and my wife and son have never seen me wrestle. Let me be clear though, that itch won’t supersede my ability to be a businessman. The itch is always there, it’s there three times a week when I walk into my Muay Thai gym and put the gloves and shin pads on. It was a very special circumstance at Citi Field and ironically now the Mets are in the World Series. It was something I chose to do and thought was appropriate at the time. It was not me coming out of retirement by any means. I am a part owner of Legends of Wrestling so if I want to go out there and pick and choose my spot to do something interesting, then that’s what I do with no motives behind it. I am a competitor and always have that itch until the day I die, but I won’t let the itch supersede being a businessman.

Ring Rust Radio: If you could choose your ideal opponent for a final match, who would it be and why?

Goldberg: It would be Austin for sure. Brock would be a good one since we have unfinished business. At the end of the day that everyone clamors for, and I even clamor for, would be Austin and me. There will always be a question mark there unless we were to do something one on one. It’s kind of a match made in heaven.

Ring Rust Radio: Brock Lesnar is the biggest draw in WWE today, and you had the opportunity to lock horns with him in a dream match at WrestleMania 20, but it wasn’t necessarily received as well as expected by the live crowd since they knew both you and Brock were leaving WWE afterward. How do you view that match looking back? Were you happy with it? Is there anything you would’ve changed?

Goldberg: No, I mean you play the cards you are dealt. At the end of the day, we were up against an impossible task to entertain a group of people that 100 percent know you are both leaving after that match. Utter distain is what we received from the fans. Would I change anything about? Yeah, I would change everything about it. At the end of the day, if you take it for what it was, it was an interesting match. The overtone was so skewed, it was just such a weird situation and insurmountable task. Would I change anything? Yes. Would I change everything? Yes.

Ring Rust Radio: Mike mentioned the negative crowd reaction from WrestleMania 20 and crowds of recent years have become very hostile and can throw out some pretty harsh chants. As a performer, what is typically the reaction to the crowd, do you just take it in stride or do you find it disrespectful?

Goldberg: It’s a totally different crowd these days. I can’t speak to it since I don’t have much experience with them. Coming out at Citi Field and doing my thing and certain appearances, I interact with them. It’s a total different information age with the crowd out there now. It seems as if they kind of dictate things, but at the end of the day you go out and do your job and follow your directions.

Ring Rust Radio: You’ve said in previous interviews that you never truly felt welcomed in WWE and never felt like you were “one of them” after making the leap from WCW. In your opinion, why did you and WWE never truly click? Why wasn’t the relationship as fruitful as it could have been?

Goldberg: Because I was a football player and competitor in life and those were a bunch of fraternity boys.

Ring Rust Radio: You appeared on Celebrity Apprentice in 2010, which is a show I'm a big fan of. What are your thoughts of Donald Trump running for president and if he won, do you think he would make a good president?

Goldberg: I think if he won, I would move to Canada. I think he would be a horrible President. At the end of the day, when you are in the front office, your tenure is dictated by the people surrounding you. To think that Donald Trump could have his finger over the big red button is absolutely terrifying.

Exclusive interview with WWF legend and former governor of Minnesota Jesse "The Body" Ventura

The hosts of Ring Rust Radio – Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin – recently had the chance to interview WWF legend and former governor of Minnesota Jesse “The Body” Ventura. With Ventura’s book “American Conspiracies” recently being re-released, Ring Rust Radio talks to the former governor about his potential bid for the presidency, his ORA TV show “Off the Grid” and his short stint in WCW and more. You can listen to the interview on the YouTube player below or continue past to read the entire interview here.

Ring Rust Radio: The first edition of your book “American Conspiracies” was a New York Times bestseller, and you have released the second edition that is already making waves. Why was now the right time to release the new “American Conspiracies” and what are you hoping to accomplish with this book that you didn’t with the first?

Jesse Ventura: First of all, I didn’t choose to re-release it. My publisher Sky Horse publishing wanted to do an updated version, so I said fine and had no problem with that. We released a new version with four new conspiracies because generally the way the government operates, you can probably get a new conspiracy out of them every year. They will do something they don’t want you to know about, they will cover it up with the cloak of national security, and then you have to uncover it to find out the things they are doing now.

Ring Rust Radio: You’re very well known for your time as Minnesota governor and you’ve expressed interest in potentially running for president in 2016 as a Libertarian candidate. Why might you consider throwing your hat into the ring, and why do you think you would have success if you did?

Jesse Ventura: Well, if you look at the situation right now, there is the start of a revolution happening here. You can see it in the Republican Party right now. Their three leaders have never held the office at the any time. You’re watching these two parties disintegrate in their own way before your eyes, which is good. Come next spring time, the pipers will be out and it will be down to two people when the Libertarians name their candidate. They go to the Libertarian convention, name their candidate, then from June to November you will be on the ballot in 47 to 48 states. Then the key would be to get into the debates. You have to be in the debates to have a chance to win. You need to wait in my case, if I am going to do it. I wait until they get down to one or two people so you save money and don’t spin your wheels and waste your time.

Ring Rust Radio: Donald Trump is undoubtedly the most polarizing figure in the presidential race currently. What are your overall impressions of him and his presidential qualifications?

Jesse Ventura: Donald Trump was a supporter of me way back in the days of the reform party in the 90s. I knew Donald for twenty or twenty five years now since back to WrestleMania four or five and all that. He has always threatened to run but has never gone through with it, but now he has gone through with it and he is in for the long haul. The problem is, if he doesn’t get the Republican nomination, what happens to all the people that were going to vote for him? Would they just go back to the normal Republican? Or would they look for something else? The same thing could be said for Bernie Sanders.  He is an Independent infiltrating the Democrats. He won’t get the nomination either and what will happen to all his voters? Where will they go? Will they simply go back to the Democratic Party? I don’t think so. When you look at the whole nation, the last election, 64 percent of the people chose not to vote, that is almost two-thirds of the nation didn’t vote. Well those are potential customers for me if I run because that’s how I won in Minnesota. I was getting people who didn’t normally vote to get out and vote.

Ring Rust Radio: In addition to your books, you’re also hosting ORA TV’s “Off The Grid.” Tell the fans who have never seen the show what to expect when tuning in, and where and when they can find the program.

Jesse Ventura: It’s on ORA TV which is on the internet Monday through Friday and I am off the grid when I do it. What you are going to get is Jesse Ventura in a ten to eleven minute interview on any subject. It really turns me loose and being on the internet there aren’t any FCC regulations, I’m in total control of my show, and it’s the most fun I have ever had doing a show.

Ring Rust Radio: Your history with Hulk Hogan is very well documented, and he’s been in the news a lot lately because of his falling out with WWE due to a racial slur scandal. Having known Hogan dating back many years, what was your reaction when you heard about the scandal?

Jesse Ventura: Maybe the people are seeing the real Hulk Hogan. Let’s all remember we play parts in wrestling and may be nothing like we are in real life. Maybe we are seeing what Hulk Hogan is in real life. I am only speculating on that so bear that in mind. We would always laugh when he would tell the little kids to say their prayers and eat their vitamins, and we would always laugh and say, ‘oral or injectables?’ What kind of vitamins are we talking here? I remember when Hogan would always deny that he used steroids and I would always laugh.

Ring Rust Radio: Your stint as an announcer with WCW from 1992 through 1994 was fairly short-lived and there’s been a lot of speculation over the years why you and WCW parted ways. What’s the real story regarding that situation?

Jesse Ventura: The real story was, when they brought me in they paid me big money because I made the jump from the WWF. A lot of people couldn’t handle the money they were paying me to just be an announcer, Bill Watts included, who was the head booker. I think Jim Ross was very jealous because he wouldn’t work with me. I would toss him lines and he wouldn’t respond to them, and he even admitted that he didn’t do the best job he could when he worked with me in WCW. I think Jim was jealous of the money I was getting which wasn’t my fault. He shouldn’t have blamed me for it. There never was the chemistry there with Jim Ross that I had with Vince or Gorilla. The reason it ended up the way it did, was they brought Hogan in and then Hogan had me immediately dismissed. I remember, I had six months to go on my contract and I never had to work. They just paid me and I sat at home. Hogan came in and he did not want me on the mic there. He had the power to do it so Eric Bischoff—that little—I have a few names for him, the backstabber Eric Bischoff, and I never worked my last six months as soon as Hulk Hogan was brought in.

Exclusive Ring Rust Radio interview with legendary pro wrestling manager J.J. Dillon

The hosts of Ring Rust Radio – Donald Wood, Mike Chiari and Brandon Galvin – recently had the chance to interview professional wrestling legend J.J. Dillon. In his long career in the industry, Dillon has worked for many major promotions and was the manager of the legendary group, The Four Horsemen. You can listen to the interview on the YouTube link below or continue past to read the entire interview here.

Ring Rust Radio: The Four Horsemen is the most iconic group in the history of professional wrestling, but it’s interesting in that it had several different incarnations over the years with a bunch of different members getting involved at one point or another. In your opinion, what was the best version of the Four Horsemen and what put it over the top in comparison to the other versions?

J.J. Dillon: I’m often asked that question.  The history of wrestling is that anytime anything catches on and is successful, promoters by the nature are going to ride it past its peak and ride it until the horse has nothing left and drops.  So with that no one should be surprised there was number of reincarnations of the Four Horsemen even after the glory years.  The original group with Ole will always be special to me because everybody that was part of that group was already established.  It wasn’t like someone was trying to get a rub from somebody else to elevate somebody else.  Everybody who was there was already a champion and had the bragging rights.  That was a part of the initial appeal.  I always think that if it wasn’t for Ole, maybe a lot of the things that followed never would have happened.  Certainly of that group, Flair was the foundation with the limousine driving, jet flying, kiss stealing, son of a gun.  If you look at everybody, I was a little bit older but I could have fallen into that grove.  Ole was young but just didn’t seem to fit that mold.  Ole, late in his career, is always referred to as a grumpy old man.  It made it easy to move Ole out of the picture after our first successful run.  Ole drew money everywhere he wrestled, his style never changed, and no matter what side of the ring he was on you go the same act.  It helped freshen us up because now we had a personal issue with someone.  A part of us was now across the ring from us and that opened up a spot for Luger.  He wasn’t experienced at the time and was really green.  He came up because of a situation he was in down in Florida with Bruiser Brody and had to leave.  I think Eddie Graham and Jimmy Crockett talked and said that he had a great body, we can move him in with these guys, and camouflage the fact that Lex wasn’t experienced.  We then moved past that to when Barry Windham shocked the world and jumped sides to join us after that.  I really believe that in terms of bell-to-bell action, the group with Barry was probably the greatest in terms of what we could accomplish any given night in the ring.  When Tully and Arn left to go to New York to join Bobby the Brain Henan to form the Brain Busters, as far as I was concerned the glory years of the Four Horsemen was over.  They were never going to be as big as they were during that extended run.  Ole was always special, Barry was the group that was technically the best, and beyond that I really don’t think that much about it.

Ring Rust Radio: The biggest news recently was the passing of Roddy Piper. As someone who has spent the majority of their life in and around the wrestling business, how do you view Piper’s impact on the business and what are your thoughts on his career as a whole?

J.J. Dillon: Well, I knew Roddy for over 40 years.  I started in the business full time in the Carolinas with Jim Crockett senior.  I wasn’t a kid, I was 28 years old when I started full time.  I stayed there for over two years and from there I got my first break in the business with the Canadian Maritimes.  It ran during the summer months in the hockey arenas when they didn’t have the ice down.  I went up there and that’s where I got my first big push. I would work on TV one day a week and one of my TV matches was with a young, inexperienced guy by the name of Roddy Piper.  I beat him up on TV and that was the only time in my career that I faced Roddy.  It was 1973 and that was the beginning of a relationship that lasted over 40 years.  When you look at Roddy he wasn’t physically a monster, so it wasn’t like his size or anything stood out.  He was a legitimate tough guy and a Canadian Golden Gloves champion.  He also studied Judo and had a black belt in judo.  Despite his size, Roddy never backed down from a challenge from anyone.  Fear was not a word in his vocabulary.  I had a chance to see him many times over the years and be around him, and as over the top as he was he has an innovator.  He was in the first WrestleMania. He could go on with Gordon Solie as his co-commentator in Georgia Championship Wrestling and do an excellent job.  So when he went on to do Piper’s Pit, and broke the coconut over the head of Jimmy Snuka they still talk about that now a days.  Roddy was always off the wall and you never knew what he was going to do.  The words icon and legend get thrown around a lot in our business and over used, but we lost two people in less than two months that for me, who spent half a century in and around the wrestling business, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes and Rowdy Roddy Piper exemplify what is really an iconic legend.  Both of them are going to be missed very much, I care deeply for both of them, they were friends as well as people I worked with, and I don’t think there will ever be another American Dream or Rowdy Piper.  There will never be someone that comes along with that type of iconic talent, achieve what they did in the ring, and have the impact they had on the business.

Ring Rust Radio: We mentioned losing Roddy Piper before, but another devastating loss for wrestling fans recently was Dusty Rhodes. You had a long history with the American dream in and out of the ring. How would you describe Dusty’s legacy in the wrestling industry and do you think he made a bigger impact in the ring or behind the scenes?

J.J. Dillon: I think he did both. He basically took Crockett promotions to another level.  At the time they were a regional company based out of Charlotte and a family owned business.  Dusty came in there and I was fortunate enough to join him at the very beginning.  Certainly the pinnacle of my career was the run with the Horsemen and part of our success was because of him.  People wouldn’t buy tickets to come see the Horsemen come out and stand in a corner.  There had to be someone across from them, and there had to be someone on the other side that when the bell rang it was something they wanted to see.  Dusty was the catalyst across the ring and was surrounded by the Road Warriors, Magnum TA before his accident, Ronnie Garvin, Jimmy Bang, and just a whole lot of talent.  It was the chemistry with all those people that made it successful and Dusty was the driving force behind it.  War Games was his brainchild, the Great American Passion in the outdoor ballparks where we drew crowds in excess of any of the buildings we were going to. He was an innovator and his in ring persona was great.  He wasn’t just big in Florida or the Carolinas, he main evented in Madison Square Garden.  Everywhere he went he was a main eventer.  So when I say that I look at the American Dream Dusty Rhodes and Rowdy Roddy Piper as being iconic legends, that’s a definition that I reserve for very few.  We lost two of the greatest in such a short time and it’s sad that they are gone forever.

Ring Rust Radio: A lot of wrestlers jumped between WWF and WCW during the Monday Night Wars, but you were unique in that you worked mostly backstage in addition to your on-screen authoritative role in WCW. Having been in the trenches with both companies, what were the biggest differences between them during that time period, and what do you believe ultimately put WWF over the top?

J.J. Dillon: I worked for some of the greatest minds and since I started late in the business, I was like a sponge.  I knew father time wasn’t on my side, and if I wanted longevity in the business I loved so much, I would have to become more knowledgeable and informed.  I became more educated in match making, television production, management of talent, and how the travel aspect of it worked.  Even when I first started, every territory I went to, I got involved with wanting to know more about the behind the scenes details.  Some guys would go to the arena and just learn about their match and nothing else.  I wanted to learn about the whole picture and that helped give me longevity in the business.  When it came to dealing with talent, I had the advantage of I walked a mile in their shoes and knew what I was dealing with.  Once contracts became the norm in the business, most of them just gave an opportunity.  The logic was the wrestling promotion was established, we had a time slot, and an audience.  You as the talent comes in so we give you the chance to be part of that program, get the exposure, and what you do with it is yours.  When I worked all the small territories, I would wear ten hats and deal with multiples aspects.  Compared to when I worked with the WWF before they went public, I all of a sudden worked for this huge company that had ten full time professionals doing what I used to do myself on a smaller scale.  They weren’t necessarily all huge wrestling fans either.  They were experts in their field and the whole operation was on a much larger scale than anything I had seen anywhere else.  The other thing that was eye opening was that Vince McMahon was hands on with every single aspect.  He would be in the office like I was with the suit and tie on Monday through Friday.  If there was a poster for an upcoming PPV or a DVD with Hulk in the ring tearing the shirt, the attention to detail was amazing. If you ever took a picture of someone in the ring with the audience behind him, you will never see the background completely full of people.  Either there is someone going to the bathroom or getting popcorn and there are empty seats.  When you look at that poster, every seat was full and filled in.  Keep in mind this was back before Photoshopping and airbrushing.  Hulk was made to look the absolute best that he could look and Vince was hands on with that.  The creative was done on the weekends in the comfort of Vince’s home while dressed casually.  Pat and I would be there all day on a Saturday past the point of exhaustion.   Most of t hose nights we would sit at the dinner table with his family and work late into the evening and come back Sunday to do it again depending on what the urgency was.  Vince and I had times when I had frustrations with him.  Vince didn’t believe in people taking vacations and I thought they were something healthy for people.  Sometimes people need to be able to get away, to get a chance to clear their heads, and come back with a fresh perspective.  Vince was 24/7, 365 days a year.  He would have a pen and notepad by his bed at night in case he woke up with an idea to jot it down.  There was times we weren’t in agreement with the direction he took things but you can’t argue with success.  He has built a global empire with the WWE universe and now a bigger step with eliminating the traditional PPV with the Network.  It’s a work in progress but if there is one person that can make the Network work its Vince.  He is tireless and he is demanding.  At TBS we didn’t have that figure that was a third generation person whose whole life was centered around the wrestling business.  That was part of the demise of WCW because you had all these people that worked at the North tower of CNN working with the broadcast company but knew nothing about wrestling.  Most of them looked their nose down at it and would have been happy if it wasn’t part of their products.  Ted Turner though was a huge fan of it though.  When he started the station and made it the Superstation, it wasn’t on very many clearances.  The three things it had was the Andy Griffith Show, the Atlanta Braves who were drawing horrible numbers to the point you could fire a shotgun in the outfield and not hit anybody, and the third thing was wrestling.  If you asked Ted to give them in order, wrestling was number one to him.  He always had a passion for it and protected it so it was sad when it came to an end.  There was a pool of 70 some odd guys that earned a full time living from the business and when it ended Vince was able to draw from that pool.  Guys like the Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Steve Austin, all these guys came from WCW but Vince made them into Superstars in the business.  Even when Bischoff came in it was all smoke and mirrors. He had carried coffee for Verne Gagne and talked his way into a job at WCW.  He could sell himself and I give him credit for that.  He enjoyed some success but he wasn’t spending his money.  He had an open checkbook and because of his success nobody questioned it.  Even if they did question it and looked over his shoulder they had no idea what they were looking at it anyway.  I’m not saying Vince didn’t lose some sleep when they were losing in the ratings, but during that time WCW was not successful running Pay-Per-Views and live events.  Vince had pioneered licensing and merchandising as a profitable source of income for talent which WCW couldn’t do.  When you stand back and look at the big picture, Vince just had to ride it out long enough.  The production budget that WCW was spending kept growing leaps and bounds.  When the company was looking at a loss of 80 million dollars projected, somebody said it was time to cut, cut, cut.  Because Eric Bischoff had given out all these high dollar contracts, they cut all the low level guys but were still looking at a 60 million dollar loss and another projected 60 million dollar loss.  When you have partners like AOL Time Warner, they see it as just another division and they don’t need to be in the wrestling business.  They were successful at other things so they pulled the plug and WCW ceased to exist.  It was a sad day for wrestling and a sad day for Ted Turner.  He no longer had the power to stop it and it was a shame for someone who loved the business as much as Ted did.