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LEGENDARY MINNESOTA JOURNALIST & BROADCASTER ERIC ESKOLA DISCUSSES THE NEW PBS DOCUMENTARY ON JESSE VENTURA, VENTURA'S LEGACY, WHETHER HE'LL EVER ACTUALLY RUN FOR PRESIDENT, COVERING SUCH AN UNCONVENTIONAL PERSONALITY, HIS TIME RING ANNOUNCING FOR THE AWA, HOW PROTECTIVE TALENTS WERE OF THE BUSINESS, KEN PATERA, DICK BEYER AND TONS MORE

PBS Twin Cities recently premiered a brand new documentary on the life and political times of WWE Hall of Famer and former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, Jesse Ventura Shocks the World.  The film is available now for streaming on the PBS App.

Among those interviewed for the film is legendary Minnesota broadcast personality and political journalist Eric Eskola, who sat down with PWInsider.com last week to discuss Ventura, his legacy in politics and the world, Eskola's own time ring announcing for Verne Gagne's AWA in Duluth, Minnesota and more.   We thank Eric, a Pavek Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee and Frank Premack "Graven Award" winner for his contributions to journalism for his time.

Highlights from the conversation:

Ventura landing in such a political role:

"I really don't believe there's another story equal to this, where a guy who is a inner city high school student in Minneapolis becomes an underwater UDT  man for the Navy SEALs.   He has very little pro wrestling training, he didn't go to Verne Gagne's fabled, wrestling camp out there in the western Twin Cities suburbs.  He was good on the mic, he was a good promo guy.  He owes his allegiance his character to superstar Billy Graham and yet he parlayed all that into The Predator 'Ain't got time to bleed' into a gubernatorial a career a victory, four years as governor, international celebrity, and then he always finds a way to reinvent himself.  I look at Ventura more as an entrepreneur.  then like a big athlete. And of course he was an athlete, but he always seems to be able to he often says that, 'I have no trouble making money. I have trouble spending it sometimes.' "

First thoughts when he learned of the documentary being produced:

"[Ventura] is a part of Minnesota folklore. It's hard for people around here to believe it's been 25 years since he was elected and served as Governor, because it was a long time ago, but it still seems pretty fresh.  He's a character. We have Al Franken, we have Garrison Keillor, and we have Jesse Ventura, Bob Dylan, and Prince.  He's one of the handful of Mount Rushmore stars of Minnesota pop culture. I was thrilled to be a part of that.  Since I had done some ring announcing in Duluth in the late 1970s and introduced him when I was coming down to work in Minneapolis.  The last night I did ring announcing, he leaned over the ropes and he said, 'When you get to get to Minneapolis, remember I made you.'  And of course, I got a big laugh out of that.   Then 20 years later, he's Governor and I'm covering him. on a daily basis for WCCO Radio down here. You really couldn't make that up."

Ventura winning over voters but the honeymoon eventually coming to an end:

"Minnesota has a very easy way to register to vote on Election Day.  He had gone to, I think many of the college campuses and registered a lot of young men who came in on Election Day and registered to vote right then and there and then voted for Ventura.   Times were good in Minnesota. We had a bulging budget, State budget surplus. He had been the wrestler, he'd been the Mayor of a suburb. He had been on the radio doing daily talk shows. He was 100 percent a name in Minnesota and Minnesotans aren't above taking a flyer.   Al Franken,  is an example of that, and we took a flyer.   The other two candidates were very distinguished political career guys in Minnesota, but they were what  would you say? Black and white.  Jesse was Technicolor and we say in the documentary, we show in the documentary, how many times in the debates leading up to his election, how many times the other two candidates agreed that Jesse's right.  Jesse's right. I agree with Jesse. I think on Election Day, a plurality of people thought Jesse must be right.  Then he had a little bit of a honeymoon of a couple years, 18 months, where the legislature, again, he was independent.  He wasn't a Democrat nor a Republican, and they were a little afraid of his popularity and they went along with him, but as things soured, he did a couple of outside gigs.  He did the XFL, Vince McMahon's football league, and he did commentary for that, and people thought that was, unjustly using the prestige of the Governor's office in the State to make money.  His defense was that I'm free on Saturday nights and I could be a citizen and I can  do a side gig if I want to, I'm not hurting the state at all.   Then it got a little bit,  he got a little bit defensive and people teamed up on him and then the legislature noticed this weakness, so they began vetoing everything that he sent down.   It ended up, I think, people thought it was a little more about him than it was about the people of Minnesota.  That's where it soured at the end, and he decided not to run for re-election."

Ventura's contemptious relationship with the Minnesota press while Governor:

"My 99 cent personality analysis of Ventura is that when you were a wrestler in that era [where Ventura performed], you kept kayfabe. You protected the business from those who thought it was fake and predetermined and illegitimate.  Then, I think through that you develop a bit of a suspicious nature....I don't want to say paranoid, but of course that that doesn't mean that they're not after you and I think that kind of that attitude.  With wrestlers from that era, maybe that was a common set of character traits for folks, for wrestlers from the kayfabe era.  I think that carried over into his governing, that he was prickly with the press and suspicious of the press and kind of thin-skinned and he felt that the federal government had let him down with the two parties.  A total disdain for Republicans and Democrats, and I think some of that attitude spawned by the Kayfabe era carried over into his governing.  I don't know if you think that's a good analysis or not, but that's my nickel's worth on that."

Ventura stating he would not run again due to his wife wanting him to be a private citizen again and whether that may have been a cover reason:

"That's a good question, and it's a little bit....I think there's multiple answers there. I think his family and  Terry, his wife, they have a very strong marriage and they are the real thing and I think she was sick of it.  Of course, the one way to do...he gets this incredible bump about being the winner in a three way race as an independent coming from nowhere to be a winner.  If you lose in the second time around, that tarnishes your reputation, and I think that was part of it.  Family considerations were a part of it, and I think he was ready to move on. He, as I say, I don't think he's a career guy for anything. He's a guy that just keeps reinventing himself and entrepreneurial, if you might say, and he was ready for the next big thing."

Ventura teasing he would run for President in the doc:

"He's 72 years old, so I, I think that ship has sailed. But, I know it tugs at his heart.   I know this for sure that he likes being in the arena. He's a smart operative. He's not a dummy. He's done a lot of things that kind of run contrary to his image as a big, rough and tough wrestler and social issues where he's on the liberal side. He's knows what's what and I just don't think it's in the cards for him, physically or mentally, but I'm sure it tugs at him and he and [Donald] Trump were friendly.  Trump's in the WWE Hall of Fame and he interviewed him at one of the, I don't know if it was a WrestleMania or one of the big four  pay per views that the WWF used to have.  Trump came out here in 2000 to get a rub off of Jesse to see if they could work up something where Trump could run for President with Jesse as maybe his running mate, that never came to fruition." 

More on Page 2!

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