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WWE LEGENDS OF WRESTLING ROUNDTABLE REPORT: HEATSEEKERS

Legends of Wrestling Roundtable
Topic: Heatseekers
Host: Jim Ross
Panel: Jerry "The King" Lawler, Michael "PS" Hayes, Mick Foley & EricBischoff

We start the show off with JR introducing us to the panel they like so much they had them comeback again... in the same clothes: Jerry "The King" Lawler, Michael "PS" Hayes, Mick Foley & Eric Bischoff.  JR talks about how the topic of the day is a unique one because it deals with heatseekers. He explains that it doesn't mean that we didn't like the person it's just that they could be a pain in the neck to deal with in the back or liked to stir up trouble. JR talks about how heat is typically an inside term in which heat meant someone was hot at you or there was animosity. Michael put it in more blunt terms saying we're
going to be talking about whiners, complainers and bitchers. JR piggybacked on that saying I that's case let's talk about Michael Hayes to which he said "who else better".

JR talks about being with the Freebirds and talked about how it wasn't a coincidence he only had a cup of coffee in Mid-South, WWE, AWA and WCCW which he jokes they made it a record one year there. King hops in and talks about when the Freebirds came to Memphis. He talks about being the booker at the time in 1974 and he was in line to face the NWA champion. They brought in the top 10 contenders for the title and he had to beat them before he got the title shot. One of the guys they brought in was the Original Sheik. He was awestruck by his fire throwing so he asked if he would show him and the Sheik did. So from time to time he would "steal" the gimmick. Well one day the Freebirds roll in to town on an "off Monday" as Michael put it to which King was taken aback to hear. He asked was it the first time they came in and Michael said it was time he came in. back to the story, King said one time in a match they had against each other fire was thrown and it came a little too close to Michael's hair. Michael disputes that and said he burned his hair and King said "fire burns". Michael said all he wanted was a little extra money for it. JR asked if it looked like Dog the Bounty Hunter then too and while everyone was laughing, Hayes said, "Yeah, only thicker."  King gets back on track and talked about him throwing a temper tantrum to
which Hayes said, "That's right and got an extra 100 out of that."  JR said, "so you made a buck 25 that night". Michael defends the pay and King said a lot of people shaved their head for less, leading JR to mention some wives did it for less as well like Bill Dundee's wife.

King does say Michael really isn't someone that shouldn't be on the list and the JR asks who would be. Michael then throws Lex Luger out there and everyone cringes. Michael preferences it by saying he wasn't close with him but was shocked when Luger wanted to ride with him and got over with him because he liked R n' B. He feels Lex felt he was better than the boys based off of his spot on the card but also helped in getting the boys better contracts now. King steps in though and says Luger was never one of the boys. King talks about Lex's background playing football in the USFL.  King talked to Pepper Rodger, Lex's coach there and mentioned it to him. The coach said he'd make the perfect wrestler because all he did was hold. Michael does think he drew money thanks to the Horsemen and his then feud with Ric Flair. The counterpoint is that everyone in that spot drew money yet he was at that time at the peak of his career.

Eric was about to talk about his feelings on Lex Luger till Michael threw out the fact that they "stole" him to start Niitro. Eric comes back saying WWF stole him first. After, they think about it they realize no one really won when getting Lex. He talks about how he started there and being under the radar for the most part. He never worked with him then but he noticed he treated people like crap. King asked if it was the fact that he came from football because he has seen others act the same
way like Goldberg. Mick feels that as we go down the list you'll see a lot of guys that weren't fans growing up and had no appreciation. Eric thinks Lex was embarrassed to be a wrestler. Eric goes back to talking about when he was running WCW. He talks about Sting pushing for Lex to be brought back and Eric was pushing it off but did it as a favor. So the first night when he brought him back he told him he wasn't needed, paid him fraction of a fraction of what he made in WCW the first time
and WWE, hoping he'd say no but he took it. The only incentive was that if he did what he said he'd do, they'd rework the deal. When asked if he did get a bigger contract, Eric said not really and he never broke the big money like before.

Mick defends Lex which leads Michael to ask if he was his defense lawyer and Eric to mention the last time he was in a court room with Mick, he ended up fired. Mick said he likes everyone but he likes Lex not because he'd let him work out for free at the gym Sting & Lex owned but because he was there when Lex was at his peak. He remembers seeing Lex go 42 minutes with flair and also had good matches with Steamboat as well. He said Lex might not have been great but with the right guy he could definitely hold his own. Hayes does kind of agrees  thinking back to when he and Nikita Koloff  had a good match when no one expected but it didn't negate the bad. JR said that's the point because a lot of them could work and they reminded you every day.

JR tries to go into another name on the list: Buff Bagwell. As Eric cringes, Mick tells a story about Goldberg. Mick talks about how he met him before and didn't realize it because it was at Lex's gym. He remembers going to a book signing and the next week it was billed that "the Legend" bill Goldberg. He was annoyed because he wasn't billed that way after everything he'd been through yet Goldberg was, even though his matches weren't long and he was still new. What made it worse was that his dad kept messing with him about it, talking about a Jewish grandmother that was there and her wondering why her grandson couldn't like Goldberg.  Then he remembers going to Santa's Village where a wrestling fan came up to him to ask him if he was Mick Foley, only to say they were big Goldberg fans. The kid wants to show Mick his impression of Goldberg.  Mick gives in, excepting to hear "Who's next" and leans in. Instead of "Who's next", he gets a punch to the nose and the dad just cheered the
kid on. King talks about seeing him in Memphis and said he was overly friendly. So as he was leaving he was like, "say hello to... never mind". Michael talks about how outside the ring Goldberg is fine but while in WWE he wasn't and he thinks it was because he didn't get what made him a star in WCW. He says he wasn't responsible for drawing.

Michael felt when he got here with people that were bigger than him, he couldn't handle it and you can ask everyone that worked with him here he just wasn't nice. Eric then steps in and talks how while Bill is his friend, he'd rather chew his leg off than work with him. He also feels that he might not have just been he didn't loved the business or the fact that they pushed him too hard. Eric thinks he didn't understand the business and had the wrong people in his ear. He said it made him paranoid. Hayes agrees and talks about outside he was great. JR talks about how he had dealt with him in talent relations and felt he may not have had the aptitude for the business and had the wrong people there talking to him. Hayes felt that the original NWO almost used him like a puppet and it screwed his mind up. Ross also thinks Bill "expected to come here and be John when and got cast as Nathan lane".

King then tells us his motto "if you don't have anything nice to say about someone... come sit next to me." So they move onto Paul Heyman. JR then asks King about when he came down to Memphis and King admitted he broke Heyman's jaw on purpose. King talked about how when he was booking, he was teaming with Bill Dundee in a feud against Austin Idol and Tommy Rich. He talks about how they had built it up to a scaffold match that was going to take place in Louisville, KY where they had some of the first ones. They build up how dangerous it is and he talks about how Heyman kept saying he's not afraid and everything. Day of he says he can't do it because he's scared of heights. That was on a Tuesday and that Friday in Arkansas was where he punched him.

Eric was about to move on to Scott Hall which shocked King that that was all for Heyman. JR asked Mick if he had a Heyman story which Mick talks about being hurt when he played Mick. As the story goes Paul referred to Mick as being a whore for money. JR doesn't see an issue with that but Mick was just hurt by that. He still thinks Paul was a genius and that he still liked him but was hurt by that. Eric though kind of compares him to Rev Jim Jones. Mick talks about Paul and his pep talks. Even
though they were making low money and they'd be ready to run through walls for him every time after hearing it. King talks about his heat being because of the Internet. He feels that at that time the business wanted to keep things in yet a lot of personal stuff was getting out and a lot felt Heyman was feeding it. Hayes does agree with Mick saying there was a method to his madness in terms of having things edited into music videos, having an us vs. them and putting people in a better light than
normal. JR said at that point in time that's what they had to do to survive. He felt Paul had to do that to keep people motivated. He had to make it look like it was them vs. the world yet he had to make sure a portion of his budget went to ECW. Eric agreed but was also building his audience and found his niche by dumping on the big guys while taking their money.

Mick does agree but feels WWE wouldn't be what it was without taking from ECW as well. He feels the attitude era was born out of that. Hayes thinks it's partially true but it was also because of the talent that they had that they wanted. Mick talks about being ridiculed for leaving and how as time went on the ECW chants would disappear at WWE shows. He also mentioned that was when he had the most fun. Mick talks about how the fans didn't like Vince yet respected him but they couldn't stand
Eric and he talks about his pro WCW promos got him over even more. Hayes talks about how the NWO forced a change but wants more info on Hall. Eric talks about dreading dealing with Hall.

Eric talks about DDP talking him into bringing Scott in.  He compared it to Lex. He talks about picking him up the first night and telling him he doesn't want or need the drama. He felt he got it because for a few months he was fine. After that is when he became unwound and it almost seemed like he couldn't wait to stir the pot. JR talks about how Hall had his period where he was fine until one airline altercation. King then brings up Vince Russo, who Mick also likes. They go back to Scott though. He remembers having a conversation with him before he left WWE the first time. Mick says he was still doing the Pacino voice and talked about how if you were lucky you'd make 400,000 a year and then surged it off like if was nothing. Hayes asked if Mick would take it today and he said no but he wouldn't tell someone just starting out that was bad.

Michael brings it back to when he's was a great hand and King talks about how everyone always had some redeeming qualities, wondering if there was anyone they just don't like. JR brings it back to Vince Russo and Hayes said he "made" the attitude era then just left WWE for WCW and insulted JR. he asked how that felt and JR says he's worked for some
unique people but when his children saw that was the day they started to lose their love for wrestling. King explains that the Oklahoma gimmick while Mick asked if it was worst then Dr. Hieney. JR said Vince at least waited until he was out of surgery before he did it so Oklahoma was more hurtful. He was on a morphine drip when he saw Dr. Hieney so he doesn't really remember it only that it was too long. In his eyes for his kids to see that not only annoyed him in the first place because they
should've been watching raw but also pissed him off because it hurt them. JR says based off their bosses, it's in the spirit of
entertainment and everyone is fair game. Mick doesn't agree with that because he thinks you should take someone's feelings into consideration like with the Rosie O'Donnell stuff.

Michael then talks about something else that was mean was the spoof of Arn Anderson's retirement. Eric talks about how he would say it's on the same level as what Russo allowed. He said Oklahoma stuff was done as a personal attack while Vince does it for entertainment and he's sure of it. Michael thinks the Arn stuff was personal and Eric can't say it wasn't. Eric talks about breaking his arm and how he felt useless, getting a small understand of what Arn went through. Michael said at least Vince will let you do the same to him and expect it done to him. Eric brings up getting his head shoved in Big Dick Johnson and who told him the finish:  Arn Anderson. Vince set him by saying "your going to love this pal" which he knew meant he wasn't going to love it. After waiting around he started to get an idea of where it was going and he didn't like it. He was debating on not doing it and before he did he talked to Arn about it. Arn walked him thru it.

King mentioned Vince being on the list but Mick brought it back to Eric asking about Bad Blood 03 and the Redneck Olympics. He tells him about Mae Young and how she got prepared for it with sardines and stuff.  Michael talks about her and the Fabulous Moolah not understanding live television because they were never ready. Michael went to get them and Moolah said "Mae still shoving sardines down there" after hearing that no one was going in there after them. Mick talks about why Eric has heat with him. He talks about Sting coming into nitro on a helicopter. He talks about and episode of Nitro they did in Panama City, FL when Sting came to the ring by helicopter. Eric was acting like Marcel Marso when all the wind came and it was so over the top he couldn't forgive it.

JR talks about you could have ten different panels and talk about Vince you'd get 40 different stories because they blame him for not making money or spending the money they did make. Mick gives us a Hardcore Diaries plug when he mentions having stories about Vince in it. JR then talks about hearing stories about Buff Bagwell in the past. Fast forward one day he was sitting in his office and he gets a call for Judy Bagwell saying Buff can't work this weekend. While JR is telling the story, Michael mentions her being a former WCW tag champion. JR said he felt like a PE teacher while she tells him he'll be at television. He then tells her that was fine but next time she calls it'll be fine as long as it has nothing to do with her boy because he's not a boy, he's a man. He then told Bagwell at television to never have his mother call him unless it was to say happy birthday or Merry Christmas. Michael then brings up who got him in the business; Missy Hyatt. King says he likes her leading JR to ask what two things he likes about her. Michael says we could ask Hollywood John Tatum or Eddie Gilbert about her. JR notes that we end on death as we close the show.

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