Sunday, June 27, 2010

PC Shoot interview part 2

ALLEN: What happened with the failed run in NFW? I know you were brought in for a try out or two but you didn’t get on TV at all…

PC: Oh, that. Wow. Well uh, few things. One, Sully and Miles were leery about making it UWA part deuce. Think about who was there and being pushed from the start. Was Steele offered a contract? No, Sully and Craig had written him off. Was Canyeta? Fuck no. Dones? Yeah, and he was making half his old salary, and they buried him, completely. Hell, even Troy didn’t show up until much later on. The only UWA guys who came over were the ones who were on the verge of stardom, who Sully felt had unfinished business and untapped potential. So NFW brought over Manson, Alex, Ares, Shane Southern, and a couple tag teams. I still had a good name with Sully, but some shit went down between 99 and 2000 when I was in CSWA. Basically I went over there, pilled up, drugged up, I mean I was BAD…but I could still work, y’know? They didn’t know what the fuck to do with me, that was the problem, and I guess my gimmick wasn’t getting over with the fucking rednecks over in Greensboro. I basically got buried. The only reason they offered me a contract is because Troy and Sully vouched for me. Eventually I wound up no-showing a couple dates, and they fired me.

BROWN: I actually heard Melton had you fired for groping his wife or something?

PC: What? Man, how the fuck did that get started? No no no, I didn’t grope her. That was a whole separate incident from why I left- Melton’s a jealous bastard, he thought I was gawking at his wife, which I was…but who the fuck cares? And we had it out one day. He told me he didn’t like me, I told him he’s a faggot, and that was that. What’d he think was gonna happen, I was gonna solicit Teri Melton for a BJ in Greensboro? I was dumb, but I wasn’t THAT dumb. But that was only one reason why the brass didn’t like me. I just up and walked out on them. CSWA was all about the clean living, unless you were a Windham that is, and unless your name was Joey Melton. Then it’s OK. Otherwise, you were held to the Shane Southern standard, and I gotta tell ya, as much as I like the guy…I ain’t no fuckin’ Shane Southern, in the ring or out.

BROWN: So how did that impact you and NFW?

PC: Ok, so back to that. From what I heard, Sully wasn’t thrilled with the shit I pulled over there. Honestly, one on one me and Sully were cool, but man I was on a lot of drugs at the time and uh…ha, I think he felt I was a bad influence on the locker room. Like Alex, Manson, and the guys…he wanted their eyes on the ball, not their nostrils on the eight ball if ya know what I mean.

BROWN: Didn’t that happen anyway during Season 1?

PC: Shit man, that’s what I heard. I wasn’t there, you’d have to ask JJ. NFW was clean during 1.0, for the most part. So what happened was, Craig was still my boy and he hooked me up with the tryout. They wanted to see I could still work, gave me a few house show dates, told me to show up clean. First show went great, second show…I showed up zooted, tweaked out of my mind, and Sully gave me the scissors. They cut me, that was it.

ALLEN: Talk about your relationship with JJ Palazzo and that all got started.

PC: Oh JJ’s my boy. One of the coolest cats you’re ever gonna meet in the business. What’s funny is people think we’ve been friends for years and years, but we really didn’t know each other until I came back to NFW in 2008. When NFW opened it’s doors, me and Ares introduced JJ to Craig Miles as a favor to Jimmy Mylde. I actually didn’t know the kid. I was friends with his brother, RA, who now runs NLW. Going back to when I was training with Robby and Ross, you know, those guys were stars in NTWA. Jimmy was doing commentary and booking, RA’s camera crew filmed all the shows, and Robby, Ross, Ares, and Stan Vick were training all the new guys. Well, JJ came up the same way. He was working on his brother’s crew, and I think Ares and Stan were training him. Mainly Ares- he was Ares’ protégé.

ALLEN: Right, I heard the comparison recently between his style and Ares’.

PC: They’re very similar. NTWA closed I think around the same time UWA did, in ’99, so a lot of guys were out of work. Stan opened up WWWA, and JJ was only like 18 or something but they brought him in as Starr and he’d work TV. That was his first gig, I believe. Well about three months later, WWWA folded when the Prodigy Network went under, which effected lots of organizations because without PN they had no where else to go for a television deal. This was before ESEN. So JJ did the indie thing for a while until NFW got up and running, and that’s when Ares and I put him in contact with Craig. They immediately liked him because he had “the look,” but he was pretty inexperienced. He got a tryout, worked house shows for a few months, and they signed him after that. JJ told Sully the story about how him and RA’s dad was an Italian cult director who made all this high brow stuff that was criticized for being artsy porno, and Sully marked. Sully’s a pretty innovative guy when it comes to gimmicks; I mean, they had a white guy pretending to be Cuban for fuck’s sake…and it WAS OVER! JJ got the wheels in Sully’s head turning and they wound up calling him Castor Strife.

ALLEN: He left the business for a little while, and you both came back at the same time. Talk about that and the Jimmy Mylde angle.

PC: I know he had a back injury during Season 1, which is why they booked him as Commissioner of the East or whatever it was. Then like many guys in the business, he got hooked on pain pills after surgery. He was making good money working in LA with his brother for a while, I know that much, and did some straight to DVD acting gigs. JJ’s first love was wrestling, so I think he did the other stuff as a distraction until he could get clean and come back.

My comeback was a combination of two things: Jimmy Mylde, and Sully being out of the company. Jimmy negotiated my return, but it also helped that Mayfield was running shit. Eddie actually was the one who gave me my finisher, which is actually his, and then Sully named it. Props to him for that. I always had a good rep with Eddie, he knew I got clean, and Jimmy vouched for me…so it all worked out. But Jimmy also knew JJ was coming back, so they worked it as a package deal where I’d come in as one of his two “roided up” athletes and we’d take the tag division by storm.

The reason why the angle didn’t work was all due to bad timing. They were pushing BND as a team, but not as a stable. The problem was, Jimmy wanted it to be an anti-NFW, anti-garbage crusade, and it was too similar to Eddie’s “NFW Revolution” and what he was doing with JTP. But you won’t hear me complaining; I was just happy to be back. It all worked out anyway. Jimmy’s still on the payroll as a part-time commentator, Castor’s got a huge push, and when I’m not doing NGEN I work shows when they need it. It’s a win/win/win.

ALLEN: There were rumors Sully coming back is the reason you’re not on TV anymore.

PC: I hadn’t really been on TV. That had more to do with my push in WFW: NE, and NGEN. They were giving me more and more work, so my role in NFW diminished over time. Which is cool with me, I just wanted to work again. But me and Sully are cool now. He wouldn’t have taken me back, but I was already rehired when he got here. He’s seen I’ve gotten my shit together in the last couple years, so there’s no issue. We talk now and then, it’s all good.

BROWN: Think it’s about time we quit grilling you and let the fans get a chance…Caller who are you, where you from?

CALLER: Hi this is Steve from Omaha…PC what was it like with the Windhams? I know you were in the frat, how much time did you spend around Troy and Mark and the rest of those guys, did they really party as hard as it’s claimed?

PC: Uh, I don’t know what’s out there since I’m not on the internet too much, but I can tell you those guys partied like pros. Troy had the locker room jumping down in Philly. Just a non-stop party. The Frat gimmick wasn’t just something he came up with out of thin-air, that was how we were living at the time. Funny story- Troy took me down to the Windham family ranch down in Sweetwater years ago. This must’ve been summer ’99. So we get down there, it’s me, Troy, Alex, Manson, and Ken Severe, and we meet his brothers, his uncles, I meet Mark Windham for the first time. I go up to Mark, ‘cause he’s a legend in the business, and I go to shake his hand. “Hey, Mark, honor to meet you dude, my name’s Pete.” Shakes my hand: “Pete I’m gonna tell you boys this one time and one time only: don’t use the downstairs bathroom. It’s all backed up to hell, and you can’t flush. It’ll stink for days. I’m serious, don’t use it.” Uhhh, OK, sure thing. Like that’s the first thing you say to someone? “Hi, I’m Mark Windham, don’t shit in my toilet.” Come on bro, show some hospitality!

So of course, what happens? First chance we get, we take turns pissing in his fucking toilet. We’re thinking, “Yeah, we’re out of here when he finds out.” Next day comes, he doesn’t say anything. Later on Alex has to shit. “Dude, go shit in Mark’s bathroom downstairs.” He does it. “OK, now we’re getting thrown out for sure.” Saturday comes, it’s our last night and we figure if he throws us out we can drive up to Dallas and rent a hotel for the night, party over there. Mark still didn’t know, cause he didn’t say anything. That night we go out, we eat like fucking pigs, all that Tex-Mex southwestern shit they got down there. We drink, wash down some Somas, Mark gets coked out of his MIND, Troy too…I did a couple lines. Now I don’t know about you, but coke makes me wanna shit. On top of that, Manson takes it to a whole ‘nother level cause he went out and bought a bottle ox X-Lax. (laughter)

I’m not kidding, man. He’s like, “We’re destroying that toilet TONIGHT!”

We get back, make our way downstairs. Mark is already passed out somewhere else, Troy’s gone with a bunch of girls, and there we are like a bunch of homos trying to blow out Mark’s bathroom. Dude, the smell from the previous nights was so bad…but we didn’t care. I thought I was gonna shit my spleen out, that’s how bad I shat in his toilet. There was shit all over the seat, around the rim, everywhere.

Alex takes it further, he goes and starts pissing on the couches, Ken’s rearranging the bar, mixing all the liquor together. And then, to top it all off, and I kid you not…Manson goes, gets the Windham family bible, and jerks off in it. (laughter) Dude, swear to you, this HAPPENED. Manson jizzes all up in the Windham family bible.

Now we’re convinced- we’re DEAD. I mean, not only are we getting kicked out, not only are we never coming back, Mark’s gonna make sure we never work another day in the business. We even thought Troy might freak and it would get back to Sully. But the sad thing is, we didn’t care, we thought it was the funniest shit ever. This was the ultimate, cause we just ribbed the WINDHAMS. Know what I mean?

Next morning, we’re having breakfast with the Windhams. Everything’s cool. We pack our shit, still no word. We leave, “Hey, you boys are welcome back any time.” Really? Wow, ok. Guess they don’t use that downstairs too often. No joke, TWO WEEKS LATER, it took THAT LONG…Troy approaches us in the locker room. He didn’t even look mad, so much as disappointed and just fatigued by the whole thing.

“Guys, what’d you do at the house?” Blank stares. “Mark’s demanding I find out who’s responsible.” Well, we’re all kind of responsible, right? “Yeah but he wants to know specifically who shit in the bathroom.” WHAT?! Doesn’t care who pissed on his couches? Doesn’t care who ruined a thousand dollars worth of top shelf liquor? Doesn’t care that Manson DESICRATED their family bible? No, he wants to know who shit in his toilet. Our answer was basically, “We don’t remember.” Troy says, “He’s demanding whoever’s responsible pays for the plumbing.” Fuck man, he’s made his money, let him pay for it. Troy just kinda shrugs and goes “Whatever, you can guys deal with him. But you’re all banned from the house.”

But it doesn’t end there. Mark actually called up Sully, complained about us, and threatened that if the person responsible didn’t come clean, he was gonna have the feces brought to a lab. (wild laughter)

Duuuude I swear to you, I am NOT making this shit up. This motherfucker threatened to DNA test our shit to find who did it. Most of the shit was mine, but fuck it, I wasn’t gonna say anything. If he hadn’t introduced himself that way, I wouldn’t even have thought to blow his bathroom out.

ALLEN: Did he ever say anything about the bible?

PC: Uh, not that I heard. I don’t think that means the Windhams don’t care about their bible, it prolly just means they don’t READ their bible. But just as a precaution, Mark, Troy, if you’re watching this…DO NOT turn to Galatians. The pages are stuck together, bro.

Real quick though, I’ll say this: Mark dropped the whole thing and eventually forgave us. Me and him were cool when I got to CSWA in 2000. But Alex actually thought he was the one holding him down behind the scenes, which I don’t think was true. I think that was more Alex being paranoid, and impatient as usual. Once again, another promotion he could’ve been headlining if he just learned to play the game.

ALLEN: Caller, name and hometown…

CALLER: Bill from Reno, glad you guys got on the air…Love hearing the insider stuff…What the hell happened in TEAM? I thought your shit was hilarious…Management there just not care for you or something?

PC: Wait, TEAM has management? Shit dude, that’s news to me. Lemme tell you, and I don’t care who I piss off with this, the guys running the show over at TEAM have no business running an ice cream shop, let alone a wrestling organization. It used to be pretty decent, from what I’ve heard, but when they handed it off to new owners…MAN! Talk about shitting the fuckin’ bed. And it ain’t even cause they misused me. Which, they did misuse me, but that isn’t a big deal. Who the fuck am I? I knew Jared was going over, and I’m friends with Jared from way back in NTWA when he wrestled there…they should’ve made it a more competitive match, but that was only one small problem. The entire tourney was botched, and to this day we don’t even know who won. They never got the finals up and running! Fucking idiots…

BROWN: I got a question for you...NGEN and the whole crazy events with WFW: New Era…What led to you tagging with Cruise, who’s idea was that?

PC: That was just some brainstorming between me and Jonathan Marx. Personally I didn’t think Cruise would go for it, ‘cause you know how he is, he doesn’t like to fuck around with the Cameron Cruise tried and tested formula. But to his credit he said yes, and if they let us have a run I think it’ll get over big. I heard some people comparing it to “The Cameron Cruise Project” with him and Melton, but it’s more like “Cameron Cruise Goes To Hell.”

ALLEN: Haha, kind of like “Ernest Goes To Hell”?

PC: Exactly. “Cameron Cruise Goes To Hell” where PC is his tag partner and makes his life a living hell. I actually had an idea for EPW last year, but Cruise didn’t wanna do it. PC was gonna join Anthology as sorta the wannabe who takes shit way too far. So they’d be out at the bar, Cruise is buying some girl drinks, Wells is buying her shots…and PC spikes her drink and she gets alcohol poisoning and no one gets pussy. (laughter) Another promo: Cruise gets up in some dude’s face, Wells gets into a shoving match, and PC comes in with a beer bottle shank and blinds the dude. They all get arrested and brought up on serious charges, and PC has to pay a real top notch criminal defense attorney. “Come on man, we like to party and have a good time, but you’re shitting the bed!” Anthology parties, PC comes in and shits the bed. Classic, right?

ALLEN: Oh man. We can take one more call…Caller, make it a good one.

CALLER: Dale from Orlando…PC you’ve been honest with your drug use, what’s your thoughts on the drug testing policy in NFW. Is it legit, and if it is, is it still enough or could it be tightened even more?

PC: Hi Dale. How’s Disney World, buddy? Uh, drug testing in NFW, let’s see. Well you have to go back to the beginning of say, Season 1. From what I hear, and I know lots of guys who were there at the time like Cruise, JJ, Mikey Manson, Steel Viper, Marx. They all tell me that not only was drug use rampant, not only was it turned a blind eye to, but it was encouraged. Now that ain’t me calling out Sully, ‘cause I know he hates that shit. It was two guys: Manson and Miles. And if you talk to one, he’ll blame the other. Manson says it was all Miles, Miles says it was all Manson, but the reality is: it was both of them. They turned that locker room into a shit show. And I know for a fact a lot of it was happening under Eddie too, although he helped get it under control. So they let everyone become junkies, they even made it COOL to be a junkie, which, where the fuck was my phone call? (laughter) I’m serious. It wasn’t cool to be a junkie when I was on the stuff. I was getting blackballed from every locker room, but they give Felix Red a title. Anyway…go on, do what you need to do, just get to work, make dates, you need some coke? Here’s some coke. You want pills? Here’s a doctor or two you can shop. It’s cool to be a junkie. Few years later- it ain’t cool any more. We don’t want junkies. It’s all about the wrestling, it’s all about purity. OK, cool. But what’s missing in the interim?

Rehab. Where’s the fucking rehab for these junkies you helped create? Palazzo needed help for a while and he footed his own rehab bill. I could name you…six or seven other guys who were fired after failing drug tests without being sent to rehab first. It’s like throwing a party at your house, letting people get sloshed off their asses, and then banning them from coming back cause they drove home and got a DWI. No wait, it’s like if the police themselves got you drunk and then gave you a DWI. Eh, you get what I’m saying, right? I’d just like to see a program put in place to help some of the boys who right now can’t help themselves.

BROWN: What happened between you and Ares? I heard you two had a falling out.

PC: That’s still something I regret today. Yeah, I got Ares thrown out his old neighborhood. Man, that guy really took care of me when I was at my worst. Pills…all the time, drunk all the time, cocaine, the works. The bank was after me for some money, I was having major financial issues, and I needed a place to stay. Ares took me in, let me stay with him in this beautiful home, man, I mean this place was really fucking nice. But, as usual, I fucked it up. He was living in one of those neighborhoods with a homeowner’s association, which if you add me into the equation…that’s bad news. Nobody was supposed to know I was staying there, otherwise he’d be asked to leave. Well, one night, Ares is gone, and I’m playing my guitar really loud. Dude from across the street knocks on the door, tells me to turn my music down. I’m already jacked up on cocaine and Wild Turkey, so I literally smacked the guy in the mouth and told him to get off my friend’s steps before I beat him down like a faggot. (shrugs) Hey, it was wild times back then. Turns out though, the guy was legit gay, so he reported it to the HOA, called the police and had me arrested. I was actually charged with a hate crime for that. Shit hit the fan, and to make a long story short, Ares had to leave. He freaked out on me, told me I couldn’t be trusted, that I was a piece of shit, and to stay the fuck away from him. I guess I really took the guy for granted, because he was a good friend to me. We didn’t speak for a year or two after that, and then we were somewhat on good terms when I was in NFW for .2 seconds back in the day, but it was never the same. Shame what happened with him, too. If it weren’t for the injuries, he might’ve gone down as one of the all-time greats. Talk about a guy who put asses in the seats! Not sure what he’s up to these days, ‘cause we haven’t spoken in almost a decade.

BROWN: Any funny road stories?

PC: I just told you a bunch, didn’t I? Ares was a big scary guy, but deep down…man, he was the cheapest Jew that ever Jew’d. I’m serious! We used to laugh- lemme tell you what this guy used to do. Every time we’d stop at a diner or somewhere, I dunno, Applebee’s, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, wherever. He’d ALWAYS complain about the food or the service, just so he could get a free dessert. “Eh, I don’t know, there’s just something not sitting right. I don’t know if it was the pasta, maybe you microwaved it, or maybe it was when you put the lemon in my water and I asked you not to. It’s just not sitting well with me. How ‘bout you throw us some free desserts and we’ll call it even?” It was unbelievable, EVERY FUCKING TIME. It got to the point where we were paying the bill up front or while he was in the bathroom, just to avoid the situation completely. (laughter)

Another great story is the time Mikey Manson’s dog took a shit in Sully’s office. Manson was such a pig, man. He’d just leave shit around, or do something disgusting, and just shrug it off like, “Oh well, that’s just the way it is.” It was a well known thing, Sully rarely locked his office door. The money wasn’t in the office, oddly enough. Nobody knew where it was, except maybe Dones. Anyway, Manson would bring his dog to the shows, and if no one he trusted was in the locker room he’d just open up Sully’s door, whether he was in there or not, and leave the dog while he had his match. Sully never cared. So one night, he puts the dog in the office, and after the match he comes back and the dog shit and pissed all over the place. Which was weird, because the dog was well trained, never did stuff like that. On this particular night, he did. I just laugh it off, “Oh man, good luck cleaning that up.” An hour later, Sully approaches Manson. “Yo man, next time your dog shits in my office, you either remember to clean it or you find somewhere else to put him.” Dude, I was laughing. HE LEFT THE SHIT WITHOUT CLEANING IT UP! Who lets their dog take a shit and a piss in the promoter’s office? Wouldn’t you clean that up? You’d think so, right? But not Manson. And best of all, when we asked him why he didn’t clean it, he goes, “Why should I? He’s a dog, that’s what they do. You can’t train them to flush toilets. It’s his office, not mine.” He’s lucky Sully put business before all the petty personal shit, ‘cause anyone else would have suspended him or docked his pay.

ALLEN: How was working with Alex Wylde again in WFW: NE?

PC: It was great to see him again, but he looked like shit in the ring. Totally out of shape, just a mess. Even the promos were off the mark from what he used to be capable of. And then he leaves because they didn’t give him his “proper assurances.” Well what the fuck are proper assurances? You’ve been out of the game for 5 or 6 years. You think the crowd is on the edge of it’s seat waiting for your return? WFW is probably where he did his best work, but even then…there’s gotta be limits to what you demand when you’re negotiating from a position of weakness. He’s not exactly Troy Windham.

ALLEN: What did you think about Troy’s A1E run?

PC: I think they had the greatest all-around talent in the history of this business, had him highly motivated, which he hadn’t been in some time, and they jobbed him to Ken Cloverleaf. That’s what I think. No disrespect to Ken, I never met the guy, I’m sure he’s great, but Troy could’ve taken them to the next level. Palazzo loves them, though. From what he tells me, they’re using Castor the right way, Nadalny’s over there running with the ball, Jeff Roberts I hear nothing but great things about. So I dunno, maybe the Troy thing just wasn’t right, but they seem to have their act together. I just…if that was me, and I had Troy Windham, I’d make the most of it. But they have a ton of talent over there, young motivated talent. Hart, Daymon, etc. Cruise likes them too.

BROWN: I’m gonna throw out some names, and you tell me what comes to mind. Hornet.

PC: Moneymaker. Legend. I never got the appeal, but that’s just one man’s opinion. Guy made his money.

BROWN: Mike Randalls.

PC: Five star. Every main event I ever saw him in was five star.

BROWN: EPW.

PC: Consistent. High quality, pushing all the right guys. Never worked there, but I hear good things. That’s where all the action is happening. Dan Ryan runs a tight ship.

BROWN: NFW.

PC: Rollercoaster. The highs are super high, the lows are really low, but as soon as you’re off…you get right back in line. I’m a big fan of the formatting change they made, and of course their World Title has exceeded CSWA’s as “the standard.” And from a personal standpoint, it really meant a lot when they took me back, after all the bullshit I pulled.

BROWN: Shane Southern.

PC: Class, pure class, all the way. Top performer who had to pay a lot, a lot of dues before getting the main event, but he did it. He’s what happens when talent meets patience.

BROWN: Joe The Plumber.

PC: The man. He’s the man right now, what else can you say? And he’s not a premadonna either. Genuinely nice guy, doesn’t throw temper tantrums backstage, cares about the business. That’s why he’s the BOUSE.

BROWN: Mike Manson.

PC: Hardest worker in the business, left at the top of his game. Legend.

BROWN: NGEN.

PC: Entertaining, good talent, but they need to work harder to get the product out there.

BROWN: NLW.

PC: Same thing. RA’s a pretty creative guy, knows how to grab attention. He’s got the Palazzo gene for entertainment, but NLW needs to run more shows.

BROWN: Biggest asshole in the industry?

PC: Past or present?

BROWN: Either. Both.

PC: Uhh…I’d have to say (laughs) Doc Silver. Yeah, Doc Silver, fuck that guy. Career killing motherfucker. Built his career by killing off other people’s, in promos, in the ring, and politically. It started in AAWC, and just got worse everywhere else.

BROWN: But didn’t you once say he was the best heel of all time?

PC: Yeah, that’s why. (laughter) How many people did I kill in my promos last year? I’m a shooter, that’s why I’m an asshole too. I never disputed that. But Doc Silver is an asshole, biggest there’s been.

BROWN: Nicest guy in the industry?

PC: Brian Nadalny. The kid is all smiles, he’s like Opie or something. And they got him working with (laughs) Doc Silver Jr. over there in EPW.

BROWN: Who? Winters or Stevens?

PC: Haha, I’ll let you decide. Fuckin’ both.

BROWN: Three best workers of all time.

PC: Hmm. In no particular order…Ares, Randalls, and Canyeta.

BROWN: Canyeta, huh?

PC: Yeah I mean, he was a snake backstage, but the guy could work. Two of my ten favorite matches of all time are his: Canyeta/Steele 2, and Canyeta/Windham. He’s great as a heel right now. This might be his rebirth, and if it is then NLW got him at a steal.

BROWN: Best worker right now?

PC: Probably Impulse. Dan Ryan is underrated as a big man, so I’d like to say he’s up there, and of course JJ is always impressing me. He looks like Ares out there, except he’s more athletic. Karl Brown is also excellent.

BROWN: Best promo?

PC: JTP.

BROWN: Most underrated?

PC: From everything I hear, especially from JJ, I hear Westcott is not only underrated as a worker but also as a booker. As far as what I’ve seen, I’d say probably…umm…Wildstar. He’s rated pretty highly, but not high enough.

BROWN: Most overrated?

PC: Wow, fuckin…how time ya got? Two jump right out at me: Tom Adler and Kin Hiroshi. Ricky Zane was overrated, but every time he won something big it was because someone else fucked up backstage, so maybe he’s more “right place, right time.” Both IWC and NFW crowned him because the champion at the time fucked up. Maelstrom was super, super overrated. JT TYLER! Oh fuck, FUCK THAY GUY! Who’d I say was biggest asshole? Doc Silver? Nah, it was JT Tyler. That lying scumbag fucked over my boys at NTWA, he was a backstabbing cocksucker in UWA, and man…I heard they were gonna strap him had Sully not closed up shop. Man, I really hope that isn’t true, because then it would’ve died anyway. JT Tyler…good for putting crowds to sleep. And he HATED me, we didn’t like each other from the start. Ares’ injuries got 1,000 percent worse when JT potato’d him one time. I heard he ended one of the Violent Boys’ careers as well. What a freakin’ cock. Evan Aho was overrated too, big time. He was like Shane Southern with half the class, and half the talent. Fuckin’, they churned his ass outta one of them FisherPrice playdough cookie cutters. I think they called it the FisherPrice Shane Southern playdough churner. “I can out-Southern you!”

BROWN: Problem Child, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for being on Going Off Script, glad you all tuned in…See you next time.

PC: Any time, dude.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

PC Shoot interview part 1

BROWN: Hello everyone, Will Brown here, joined as always by Allen Tyson, we’re here for the debut of Going Off Script, and we’re joined today by a man who’s really been everywhere in wrestling, Pete Iatello, who is better known as Problem Child.

PC: What’s up YouTube? And uh, radioland. What’s this shit, XM? Sirius?

TYSON: Well XM bought Sirius, but we’re on the XM brand right now.

PC: Already we’re off to a good start, I don’t even know where the fuck I am, haha.

TYSON: Cool man, we’re glad to have you. We’ve always been big fans of yours, and you’re kinda sorta infamous in the wrestling industry…

PC: Infamous, I like that!

TYSON: And you’re one of the few guys who hasn’t done a shoot.

PC: Oh I do shoots all the time, I just do ‘em in my promos.

TYSON: Haha yeah. Why don’t you start by telling us how you got into the business?

PC: Wow, that’s going back. I’m not sure my memory has the muscle for that. Ummmm…let’s see. Well I grew up in the Bronx, hung out a lot in the underground music scene, mostly metal and punk, shit like that. And at the time, in the mid-90’s, indy wrestling was getting popular again, especially in Philly with UWA paving the way and everything. So it was a natural transition in terms of ‘the scene’; punks and metalheads were getting down with the indy wrestling biz and vice versa. You started to see a lot of promoters hire punk acts to play their intermission, etc etc. And it wasn’t just Philly- wrestling orgs were popping up all over the mid-atlantic and tri-state area. You had EFW, WFW, Tri-State, NTWA, all these organizations, and I would go to these shows with my friends watching the guys wrestle, and some of them were like…you know, in SHIT SHAPE, I’m talking fat, no cardi, all that. I’d sit there thinking, “Dude, I can talk for miles, and I’m athletic, why couldn’t I do this?”

BROWN: So who was it, exactly, that broke you into the business?

PC: Well by this point me and all my buds were hanging out with the wrestlers after shows, getting drunk, living it up with them. I became pretty good friends with Alex Wylde, and this was I think…1996 I wanna say? 97? Alex was starting to really break out as a star in his own right, and the big leagues were taking a hard look at him. So he started training me, but only for a little while ‘cause he was on the move after that. Most of my training was under Robby Leland, aka The Great White Void from NTWA. Robby and Ross, who was Se7en, were training me most of the time, and they got me a job putting together the ring for NTWA. And then eventually I’d work some house shows for them. But I was real lucky, because Ross and Alex were two good friends of mine and their stars were one the RISE, man. UWA was interested in them, CSWA, and then of course…ACW.

BROWN: Yeah, that was your first big break, I remember that. Tell us about ACW and how that happened.

PC: Oh that was all Alex. For those that don’t remember, and most probably don’t, ACW was a big time Mid-Atlantic promotion. At least, they were, for a little while. What happened was, Ryan Engelman and Brad Smith, who were name bookers back then, lots of respect and money too, which is important, haha…Ryan and Brad put together all this money and got a bunch of other promoters on board and really hyped the shit out of this new organization, ACW, which was going to be this national powerhouse out of Jersey. Before they held a single event, ACW had a very decent TV slot, and what they had that was most important was the young talent, the guys everybody wanted to see pushed that just weren’t getting their shot in CSWA. I mean, no disrespect to them, but who the fuck really cares about Mike Randalls versus Julius Godreign 8?

(studio laughter)

PC: Ha, no seriously, I love Randalls, Godreign was always cool to me in UWA, and Chad and Steve made their money no doubt, but it was what it was. So ACW comes along, puts all this money behind the young guys, you’ve got Ares, Manson, Alex, Se7en, that ‘Highway Star’ dude that got the push from heaven and fizzled out, and the list went on. They were running an angle with Alex, who was their Interstate Champ at the time, working him into the main event. Alex comes to me and says, “I need a lackey, I need more heat…want a shot?” And I said fuck yeah. So over night, I go from busting my ass in gymnasiums to being Alex Wylde’s lackey on ACW television. They had me doing all this shit for cheap heat, like lighting dog shit in a paper bag on Brad Smith’s doorstep, pissing on the radiator, all juvenile, retarded shit that we used to do as kids, but hey…it was getting over. People booed me, they booed Alex more, and we made money.

BROWN: Where did the name Problem Child come from?

PC: The name ‘Problem Child’ literally came from the movie. Me and Alex were talking on the phone about what my gimmick should be, cause at the time I was wrestling under my real name. And in the background, I had Problem Child on. I said as a joke, “Yeah, I’ll be Problem Child” but Alex thought it was great and the rest was history. So to all you fuckers out there claiming I ripped off the movie…IT’S ALL TRUE, I did, so eat a dick.

(studio laughter)

PC: I mean, my initials are PI, so I could’ve been PI, but there was already a PI. Except he was like the McDonald’s version of me. The bigs created him for cheap heat, but see…I’m the master of cheap heat. Cheap heat may be cheap, it may be stupid, but damn it…I’m really, really good at it. You can’t take that from me, haha.

TYSON: Yeah, I remember Bob Ryder used to rip the shit out of you in the dirt sheets for being overrated, toilet humor…

PC: Yeah, well, Bob apparently was ripping the shit out of teen boys assholes too, so what the fuck does he know? Overrated…I used to love when they’d say that. What World Title have I ever held? What singles main event run did I ever have? I thought I was rated pretty accurately.

TYSON: So the ACW run continued…

PC: The ACW run continued, Alex was drawing, I was making a name, he was on the verge of stardom, and then something happened for the first time…and it would go on to happen many, many times…brace yourselves for this one, big fuckin’ surprise here…Alex got frustrated that he wasn’t being pushed fast enough, and he fucked around with the company. And in my experience, companies…don’t like to be fucked around with. Alex thought the Interstate title was garbage, wanted the World Title, wanted the main event, but they just weren’t having him drop that title. So what’s he do? “Aight Pete, the title’s yours.” Huh? “The title’s yours, man. I’m gonna get on the mic, in the middle of the ring, and crown you the new Interstate Champion. Congrats, man.” Uhhh, OK sure. You think they’re gonna be mad about this? “What can they do? They need me.” Alright man, if you say so. So he does it, makes me the new champ, and we hear…nothing. Not a phone call, not an e-mail, nothing. Alex just takes in stride, “Told you so, man.” But I’m thinking it’s the calm before the storm. In reality, it was no big deal for ACW, but in the long run it showed Brad and Ryan that they couldn’t trust Alex. And you saw that over and over and over in his career. Always a step away from stardom, from the big belt, and then the wall goes up: “Can’t trust Alex.” (shrugs) I could trust Alex, Manson could trust Alex, Ares could, Troy could, he was one of the boys and the people he was good to loved him back, but the promoters couldn’t trust him. Not that they could trust me either, but that had nothing to do with impatience or ego. That was more me being a drug addict and an asshole, hahaha.

BROWN: How did your title reign go?

PC: I dropped it to Jared Justice in my first defense. But that was OK, ‘cause I was comic relief at the time anyway. I wasn’t getting in the ring much at all. At the time I was kinda pissed about it, but looking back…me and Jared put on a hell of a match, and it showed all the internet dickheads and anyone else who was watching that I could work. (shrugs) I could work, man.

TYSON: And as I understand it, the UWA came calling not too soon after?

PC: Oh yeah, shit, that was like…phew, that was crazy how that happened. But lemme finish up with ACW real quick. So they slowly put the ki-bosh on Alex’s big push. They’d push him up a lot, and bring him down a little. Push him up A LOT…then bring him down a little. The Highway Star dude still had the belt, God knows who’s cock he sucked to get it, with that fucking gimmick ripped from a song.

TYSON: Yeah, what was the deal back then?

PC: I dunno! That was such a 90’s thing- base your gimmick off a band or a song. How many fuckin’ tag teams back then were named after songs? Danzig and Sepultura, one dude’s name was Skynyrd in UWA, Marc Robinson…the promoters loved that shit. I should have called myself Van fuckin’ Halen or something man, hahaha. But me complaining about gimmicks is like MJ complaining about child molesters. I got the worst of the worst. ANYWAY- Alex was so fed up with ACW that he swore to me if he ever DID get the belt, he’d lay down for Killer Bee and quit.

TYSON: Wow.

PC: Yeah, and I believed him too. Me, him, Ares, Manson, it sorta became a click and we were getting a bad reputation in the locker room. Then there was the TUSK incident where Manson punched TUSK in the mouth for saying some shit about him being a Marilyn Manson ripoff. Which he wasn’t, by the way. Some promoters wanted to present him like that, but aside from the name and the theme music, he was actually very different. People see the name, they see the theme song, and they think of the band. But with some it’s more coincidental than with others. Anyway, so Manson hit TUSK, who was like a big retard anyway, big fuckin’ baby, he goes running to Brad saying Manson punched him and pissed on his clothes while he was in the shower…which he did. So Manson and Brad had a falling out, Manson left cause UWA was pushing him, giving him more dates. Pretty soon Ares left for the same reason. Highway Star dude just up and left the business cause he thought he got an acting gig, which never panned out. Fucking loser. And they split up me and Alex. I got shitcanned to the undercard, Alex wasn’t making headway…so shit went from good to bad really quick.

That’s when the UWA thing happened. One day, out of the blue, I get a phone call. Guy on the other end says he’s Quentin Sullivan, and I recognized the voice from TV. I’m like, “Wow, you’re Prez of UWA and you’re calling me…that’s awesome.” Now the thing with UWA is, I was a HUGE fan. I tried so hard, so many times, to get in there, because that’s where all the noise was happening. The traditional crowd stuck with CSWA, but the new fans were into UWA, that’s where the business was headed, and Quentin Sullivan buying the company from Avery Prosser made it even bigger. Quentin killed off a lot of wannabees, man. He signed their talent, made them into stars, rinse and repeat. That’s pretty much why ACW failed, because they didn’t have the money to keep the cream of the crop, didn’t have the brains to know what to do with them, and when UWA, AACW, WFW started signing away their biggest draws…that was it. Game over. No more TV, no more crowds, no more ACW. Bye bye. They let the inmates run the prison, which was a problem, and eventually became part of the problem in UWA, but we’ll get to that.

So Quentin’s on the line, says he’s a fan of my work, and has an idea for an angle that he wants me in on. I told him I’d love to work in Philly, and the rest was history. I had a contract the next week, six figures motherfucker, and that was that. I left ACW without prior notice, they didn’t care, and I wound up bringing Alex with me. By that time I had worn out my welcome with Brad and Ryan anyway.

BROWN: Did you know what the angle was when you signed?

PC: Hahaha, no. Good thing too, cause I would’ve worked it for free.

BROWN: Tell us about that. They brought you in to work with Troy Windham, right?

PC: Specifically, yeah. You remember what it was like…Troy Windham was THE SHIT. My tagline was always “PC Is the shit.” But no, Troy Windham was the shit, brother, he was the real McCoy. By far, BY FAR, the biggest draw at the time, and the biggest draw in the history of this business. Hornet made money, Melton made money, Manson made money, Doc made money, Randalls made money, but Troy Windham MADE MONEY. They built Troy up for a run in UWA, with the “show Troy the money” angle, still one of the hottest angles of all time, which hit it’s peak I’d say around Random Rumble ’97. Then they put the belt on that elegant ASSCLOWN Javid Dones, hard worker, good booker, one of the smartest minds in the business at the time, but truth be told…he was an assclown. The guy could have had everything, but he burned and fizzled out. He was a better booker than he was a gimmick, and he sucked in the ring, but he was smart, he was Sullivan’s right hand, dealt with all the boys, and I think Sully was just repaying him. But this was before I came in. I had friends there at the time, so it’s really just second-hand.

Anyway, Troy stopped working the World Title scene and started feuding with Sullivan, this time as a heel. They made him a heel stable, The Frat, but it was Frat 2.0 since they did it once as a face, and Frat 2.0 was Troy, Bandit, me, Alex, and some douche named Red Headed Step Child. My second match in the company, SECOND MATCH, they had me go over Tex Wayne for the Mid-Atlantic title. It was unbelievable, man. In less than a few months, I went from being nobody in ACW to carrying gold in UWA, getting heat as Troy Windham’s stablemate. Way, way too cool.

BROWN: So you get to UWA and get your first sort of sustained push…What was the company like?

PC: Wow, how should I answer this? Well for me it was one giant party. That was MY UWA experience. And anyone you talk to from back then has their own, because the first thing anybody learned about the UWA locker room was it was full of cliques. Lucky for me, I was in good with Troy, Miles, Manson, Ares, Alex, and Sullivan liked me well enough. And like I said, it was a party. It was work, but it was fun, and we lived like Kings. Then you had the Dones/Steele/Canyeta triumvirate, which was all work and no play. Those guys lived and breathed the business, they worked hard, but you know…like anyone else, they wanted theirs, know what I mean? And who were the last three champions in that company…?

BROWN: Dones, Steele, and Canyeta?

PC: Exactly. They had pull, big time, but they had heat with a lot of the boys. Miles and Troy were cool with Steele, but had heat with Dones and Canyeta. Alex and Manson were cool with Canyeta, but had heat with Steele. Southern was being held down, at least to many of the boys. He kinda became the common cause, “If Shane gets over, there’s hope for the rest of us.” I don’t mean like he sucked, I mean…he was indicative of the future star talent that wasn’t getting it’s chance. In retrospect, no one was pushing new talent like UWA, at least not in the big time. But ya know, everyone thought they were a step away from the World Title. Not me of course. I knew my place, and was just happy to be making money. My push was a big step up from where I was, and PC wasn’t the type of gimmick they were gonna strap with a World Title. So hey, as long as the beer was cold and I was getting the friendly neighborhood discount on pills, I was all set.

BROWN: And towards the end, did you notice any change in UWA? Did people know it was going out of business?

PC: Uh…I don’t know if anyone really saw it going out of business, except maybe the people who were real close to Sully. I dunno, if Troy knew he never told me. But the factors that drove it out of business were definitely snowballing. Everybody knows what went down at Random Rumble ’99…

BROWN: That was when it was decided last second that Michael Sparks would win.

PC: Yeah, but that was just the final Jenga block that sent the rest tumbling over. The reality is, there was a lot of mistrust being sowed between the top guys, Dones was falling out of favor with Sully, Troy was talking about going back to CSWA, and it just got out of control. All the bullshit was getting to Sully, and Random Rumble pushed him over the edge.

I’d say the first incident that got the ball rolling on UWA’s collapse was when Steele went over Miles. If you remember, “Cocky” Craig Miles was getting major pops, “Troy” pops y’know? Everyone thought he was the second-coming, and that’s how he was being built. Steele was over, but he wasn’t the “God’s gift to heels” they were marketing him as. He replaced Dones as the top heel, and he was just raping everybody. Steele was the champ, and nobody could touch him. Now I didn’t know this at the time, but from what I’ve heard since from Canyeta himself, Miles was originally supposed to go over for the belt at the PPV. I forget which PPV it was. Apparently, when word got out to the top guys, and I’m talking Canyeta, Dones, and Steele…all three. This is from the mouth of Canyeta himself, he swears it up and down. They thought it made no sense to put the belt on Miles at the PPV. Their reasoning was that if the belt only changes hands at PPVs, nobody’s gonna wanna work the main event for TV, and it’ll be like a death race to get the PPV shot. So apparently, all three of them went to Sullivan, begged him not to strap Miles, and Steele wound up getting the booking reversed.

BROWN: Wow, Steele who was friends with Miles.

PC: Yup. How’s that? Here ya go buddy, big white cock right up your ass. Although I should say that Miles and Steele weren’t exactly best friends. They didn’t have heat, but there was a definite professional rivalry between them. After that, there was some serious mistrust between Miles and Canyeta, Steele too. Especially since the guy who eventually ended Steele’s run was…lo and behold, Carlos Canyeta.

BROWN: Did you think less of Canyeta for it?

PC: At the time I did, but looking back…could you really blame the guy? He was working the system to get to the top. Who the fuck hasn’t done that, in the main event? I felt bad for Craig, but if he wanted to be champion he shoulda been working Sully like the three douche amigos were. Y’know? I don’t think Craig really cared that much about being champion. I guess at the time he probably did, but years later I think it was just the principle of the thing that bothered him. The fact that a clique could influence the Prez at will. He might not even know to this day the details behind why he lost, but he assumed it was some political BS with Canyeta and Steele behind it. And when NFW was created, a lot of that was the impetus, and Craig was very protective of Sully to make sure people weren’t working him hard like in UWA.

BROWN: Why do you think Sullivan listened to them?

PC: To Steele and them? Sullivan’s a smart guy, he’s a business guy, and if you appeal to his business sense, he’s open to discussion. They made a case that Miles winning at the PPV would be bad for business and bad for the locker room, and there was no rebuttal from anyone else. Craig might not have made a strong enough case FOR himself. Who knows. But Sully’s about the money, first and foremost, and if you can make him money, if you can carry the ball, he’ll listen to what you have to say. Look, I don’t care whether it’s Sully, Dan Ryan, Chad Merritt, you take any booker in this business…and if he has a handful of guys working hard for him, harder than anyone else, and their focus is the business and the booking, they’re gonna have influence. So I’m not sure it was a Sully thing so much as a…you got three guys who decided to form a power triumvirate sorta thing.

Again, it all went downhill after Random Rumble when the locker room imploded- that was the end. Sully had enough of the drama, the BS, and he called it a day. Part of the problem was also payroll, but I think Sully got burned out and also got the feeling Philly was all tapped out, that UWA went as far as it could, and it was time to move on. Then of course came NFW, and Sully made his REAL money.

ALLEN: Before you get into NFW, quickly talk about what happened at Random Rumble and the aftermath.

PC: Oh God, this again? Haha. OK, so right before Random Rumble, you have Southern getting over, Manson and Ares getting over, Alex is over, I’m over, Maelstrom was brought in, he was over, Anarky was over, lots of guys were getting over. Couple with that with two things: one, Steele up and left after he felt they killed his character in the Canyeta match. Which, granted, they didn’t do him any favors by having him job three times in one night, but then again…you should’ve jobbed to Miles, you whiney fuck, now you’re bitching cause your loss to Canyeta wasn’t epic enough? Get the fuck out of here, you overrated crybaby bitch. Canyeta caught heat for a lot of the politics, but lemme tell you…Steele was responsible for half of it.

ALLEN: Did the boys have heat with Steele?

PC: I mean, I didn’t talk to the guy much, but the few experiences I had weren’t good. I can tell you right now, me, Manson, Alex, Ares, we thought the guy was a punk, straight up. Thought his shit don’t stink. Yeah, I’d be over as shit if GUNS went to bat for me, too.

Anyway, Steele was out, he wasn’t gonna be in the Rumble. Dones, who was Sully’s right hand man, fell out of favor with Sully and left. So no Dones. Canyeta was champ and would start the night by defending against Troy, so no Canyeta and no Troy. So let’s see…no Steele, no Dones, no Canyeta, no Troy…that means Sully had to elevate someone who was previously unelevated, and they would be getting a title shot at the end of the night. The boys were so fucking hyped, I thought they were gonna stroke out. Thing is, Sully kept the booking from everybody until literally the NIGHT OF. It was only an hour before start time that we learned who was going over.

ALLEN: Mike Sparks?

PC: Not Manson, not Southern, not Anarky, not Alex, not Miles, not any of the guys who’d been busting their ass, paying their dues, saying their prayers, eating their vitamins (laughter)…not the guys who people were SCREAMING to put over. Mike, fucking, Sparks. The X-MAN! Dude…shit ERUPTED. And it eventually wore on Sully. And to make matters worse, they didn’t know who was going to win the main event until match time. A whole locker room of people, guys with big, fragile egos, were convinced Mike Sparks was gonna be the new UWA champion. Of course, Canyeta wound up going over, but shit had officially hit the fan.

ALLEN: And what’s your take on it?

PC: (shrugs) Eh, Sully botched it, but again…he was trying to think outside the box. This guy turned nobodies into stars, repeatedly. He knew he could get creative and most of the time it would work out. It just so happens, this time, he got a little too creative at the worst possible time, and it just blew up. It wasn’t in his personality to start sending out fuck yous to everybody, so he took his ball and went home. He said, “Fuck it, now nobody’s making money,” essentially, and years later him and Craig would open NFW based on the lessons they learned from UWA. On the other hand, Sully’s been successful everywhere he’s gone. Maybe in retrospect we should’ve all calmed the fuck down and rode the gravy train to Disney Land, but again…egos were involved. (shrugs) What’s that line from ‘Point Break’? “We were young, dumb, and full of cum.”