Episode 129 - I Am A Rock

Young Tony Schiavone interviews Ole Anderson on WTBS in 1985. RIP Ole Anderson.

We welcome back Beau James (@kingofkingsport) to the show for some wrestling history chat, including looking back at the lives of Ole Anderson and Mike Jones aka Virgil.

We discuss Ole’s long career, as wrestling and booker in both Georgia and Charlotte. We talk about his tag teams with Gene Anderson, Stan Hansen, Ivan Koloff and Arn as a member of the Four Horsemen. We talk about his famous feud with Dusty Rhodes, the ups and downs of Georiga Championship Wrestling and more. Beau also tells us some stories about running into Ole at the Gulf Coast Wrestler Reunions.

We chat briefly about the passing of Mike Jones, his longevity in the business in both WWF and WCW, his internet notoriety and meeting him on indy shows.

From there, we talk about the Iron Claw movie, even though Beau hasn’t watched it yet. There’s chat about dramatic licenses vs historical inaccuracies, Easter Eggs, when can a sad movie have a positive ending and more.

That segues into a long discussion about being a wrestling historian and the problems that can entail, when you research something built on a lie, including primary sources and their trustworthiness, faulty memories and newspaper reporters keeping kayfabe.

We end the show with a talk about Beau’s Southern States Wrestling promotion, their recent Hall of Fame inductions and upcoming shows this spring and summer.

Episode Eighty-Five Splendid Isolation Four

Jerry Lawler, Dave Brown and Scott Bowden. RIP Scott.

First off, condolences to the friends and family of Scott Bowden, who died earlier this week. We had been talking to Scott the last couple weeks about returning to the podcast to talk Memphis wrestling and even were Tweeting with him a few days ago.

On the show we are finally to nabbed The King of Kingsport Beau James (@kingofkingsport) to be on the show. We start by remembering Scott, as Beau had just done his Kentucky Fried Rasslin’ podcast not that long ago. As one of the foremost experts on East Tennessee wrestling, we pick Beau’s brain on all things about the Knoxville/Southeastern/Continental/USA territory, so plenty of stories about Ron and Don Wright, Whitey Caldwell, Les Thatcher, Ron and Robert Fuller,, Jimmy Golden, Ron Garvin and many more folks. We also talk about Memphis, including the angle (see below) when Robert Fuller brought back Nick Gulas to do an angle about the control of the promotion. There’s way too many stories to listen here, including Beau’s long friendships with Buddy Landell and Jimmy Valiant, starting in the business at 16 years old, indy wrestling horror stories and so much more. Easily one of my favorites podcasts, as Beau is a master storyteller. If you want more, be sure to check out his new Patreon and his King of Kingsport website.