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This week’s edition of JG’s Radio Free Insanity is on the air and available right now at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com (Flash and MP3 download). This week's guest went from CNN to MSNBC to ClubWWI.com. He's the one and only "Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman.
James Guttman begins things by talking about Steve Blackman's appearances this past week on different shows. He was on Larry King and Nancy Grace, to name a few. James says that although he's had on guests with differing opinions from himself, Steve shares an opinion. While the wrestling world needs to be cleaned up somewhat, there also has to be some responsibility taken for an individual's personal choice. JG then talks about some of the people coming out of the woodwork to talk about the problems of the business. Some are truly trying to help while others are just trying to kick the industry when it's down out of bitterness or just feeding the wrong information to a sensational-hungry media.
Guttman brings up Terri Runnels. People don't know this, but a few months back James contacted Terri about appearing on ClubWWI.com. While some people who choose not to appear just say, "Sorry. No." Runnels gave a long response. She said she was trying to get away from wrestling and move on with her life. She was working on a soccer program for kids and was no longer involved in the business. She wished James luck and that was that. Guttman said he didn't think much of it until he saw Terri speaking to TMZ.com about Soma, a drug that was popular when she was with the company a decade ago. JG says it was disheartening to see her turn down an opportunity to do a wrestling interview that would allow her to speak positively to her fans, but not turn down an opportunity to do a wrestling interview that casts dated allegations against a business that's already on the ropes.
James then speaks about who this whole thing might really hurt, why those looking to stick it to Vince McMahon are only helping him further his monopoly, Ken Kennedy's blog, and more. With that, he cues up the Steve Blackman interview.
Steve Blackman's full interview on ClubWWI.com lasted for 30 minutes and included talk of breaking into the wrestling business, Owen Hart, The Benoit Family, steroids in wrestling, drugs in wrestling, Steve's near-fatal bout with Malaria, a return to the ring, TNA, being contacted by the media, Harrisburg-MMA.com, and more. Among the other interviews available on ClubWWI.com are Kevin Nash, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Lawler, DDP, Rob Conway, Paul Bearer, Bobby Heenan, Ted DiBiase, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Road Warrior Animal, The Iron Sheik, Rhino, Earl Hebner, The Steiner Brothers, Nidia, Christy Hemme, Chris Daniels, AJ Styles, Vince Russo and dozens of others. Plus audio shows from Bull Buchanan, Lisa "Ivory" Moretti, D-Lo Brown, Kevin Kelly, Orlando Jordan, and Dr. Tom Prichard
Guttman then starts the interview with Steve Blackman and welcomes him to the show. He asks Steve to fill the listeners in on what he's been up to. He says he's been personally training during the day, but trains fighters at night. He runs Harrisburg-MMA.com, a fighting school for Mixed Martial Arts. Blackman says it's fun and he has 12 guys that actually fight, but on September 1st, six of the guys he's trained will be fighting in one night, which is an MMA achievement.
James then brings up Steve's history as a power lifter. He actually set an Eastern U.S. curling record. Blackman laughs and says that it's accurate. He doesn't know where they dug the info up though. Guttman says that it's the internet and there's probably a video from his 12th birthday party on Youtube. Steve laughs and says that's next; guessing they'll show his yearbook picture too. JG says that as long as he doesn't have the beard in it, no one will recognize it. Steve chuckles and says he's had his beard since he was 19.
-ClubWWI.com break-
Guttman asks about Marc Mero on Nancy Grace. Marc interrupted Steve, causing an argument. The reason was that he felt Blackman was "afraid" that people will find out he did steroids. James thought it was weird because Steve immediately admitted to them after that. He asks why Mero felt that way and Blackman answered:
"He was just missing the point. The point I was making there and to other people is that I was in WWF for all those years and never did any steroids. My point was it can be done and you can still stay in decent shape."
Steve says he didn't want to be put into the category of wrestlers doing steroids in WWF because he never cheated on his diet. He ate tuna for lunch and chicken for dinner and didn't want to be lumped into that category because of all the work he did to stay in shape. The only point the was making is that you could be in WWF and not take steroids. It could be done.
Guttman says that by lumping this horrific tragedy into the same category as every other wrestling death is hurtful. It seems like mainstream media is painting the business with the same brush. Blackman agrees. There's murder all over the country and just because it's a wrester, they say it had to be because of steroids. Steve brings up alcohol and how no one has talked about the role that it could have played.
"My God, if they stopped selling alcohol, they could shut down half the police stations."
James mentioned how Kevin Nash on Fox News had brought that point up. It's either GHB or steroids, but no one talks about the empty beer cans or wine bottles. Blackman says that no matter what we find out, we'll never know. He offers the theory that most others have given in that something could have happened between Chris Benoit and Nancy. When he saw what he had done, he chose to take his son's life. Regardless of what we find out, it's still something we'll never fully know the answer to.
Guttman asks about the media coverage of the tragedy and whether or not it's being done responsibly. Steve says they're harping on the steroid issue. He says there's too much emphasis on that. Anyone in the business has seen guys on prescription drugs walking around like zombies. Their minds get more messed up from pills than steroids.
"Now I don't mean to sound like I'm condoning steroids every time I talk like this, because I don't. Because they're unhealthy. They're unhealthy for guys down the road. But they're not causing them to do things like this. I've seen guys take astronomical amounts of those things and never show any outbursts, never act out of hand, anything like that. I feel they're really trying to emphasis that point."
Steve then says that from what he knew there was nothing wrong with Benoit's son. He doesn't know for sure though.
-ClubWWI.com break-
Guttman finishes things off by talking about Steve's team with Al Snow as Head Cheese. They had a number of great skits including the old age home stand-up act. He asks Blackman about that gimmick.
"It was fun. It was actually amusing. People seemed to love it as soon as we showed our faces. People started laughing and wondering what stupid thing I was doing next. I'd get to the arena and someone would say, 'You're milking a cow tonight.' I'd say, 'Sure I am.' Well, two hours later, I was milking a cow. 'Next week, you're doing a comedy act at a retirement home.' I'm thinking, yeah. OK. I thought people were just throwing things out there and ribbing me. Sure enough, that's what I was doing. That old lady at the retirement home that was funny because she was pretty good. I think she liked it. She kept yelling, 'Black Man, you suck!'"
Remember, Steve Blackman's full interview on ClubWWI.com lasted for 30 minutes and included talk of breaking into the wrestling business, Owen Hart, The Benoit Family, steroids in wrestling, drugs in wrestling, Steve's near-fatal bout with Malaria, a return to the ring, TNA, being contacted by the media, Harrisburg-MMA.com, and more. Among the other interviews available on ClubWWI.com are Kevin Nash, Eric Bischoff, Jerry Lawler, DDP, Rob Conway, Paul Bearer, Bobby Heenan, Ted DiBiase, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Road Warrior Animal, The Iron Sheik, Rhino, Earl Hebner, The Steiner Brothers, Nidia, Christy Hemme, Chris Daniels, AJ Styles, Vince Russo and dozens of others. Plus audio shows from Bull Buchanan, Lisa "Ivory" Moretti, D-Lo Brown, Kevin Kelly, Orlando Jordan, and Dr. Tom Prichard James Guttman’s book, World Wrestling Insanity, is available at Amazon.com or wherever books are sold.
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