The Hardcore Truth

by Bob Holly

  I ended up doing a few shows for Henry Hubbard in the U.S. He does shows now and then for the military, so I’m happy to help. He always takes care of me. Billy Gunn asked me to go with him to work for a start-up group in Canada called WFX. The promoter, Mike Davidson, was a good guy and the production was very professional. It wasn’t people throwing a show together at the last minute; they had writers and production people, and it was all organized. I ended up going up there once a month and making decent money. They paid for my hotel, rental car, gas, everything. WFX would have been a great TV program but somebody made some poor decisions somewhere and they ran out of money.

  Bushwhacker Luke got me in touch with an Australian promoter named Sammy Russo who runs a promotion known as the AWE. He sounded like a goof on the phone and I almost backed out because I thought he wasn’t legit but I’m glad I didn’t — that guy took care of me better than anybody ever has. He flew me out to Australia and treated me as if I were a world champion. This guy went out of his way to make sure I had everything I needed. As soon as I got there, he gave me the money we’d agreed on and he actually went out of his way to get me more. I was supposed to do an interview with a rugby team, which I was going to be paid for, but the interview got canceled. Sammy still gave me that money. I told him not to, but he insisted and said he wanted me to have it. It was a first class operation all the way. Another first class guy is James Soubasis, who runs Legends of the Ring conventions and was involved in the documentary Card Subject to Change. He took very good care of me. I’ll work for Henry, Mike, Sammy, or James in a heartbeat because I know they will take care of me and live up to their promises. They might be few and far between, but there are some decent people out there promoting wrestling.

  Still, I’ve been fucked around by a few others. Billy put me in touch with a promotion in Atlanta and I ended up doing a show I didn’t get paid properly for. I paid for my own hotel, which wasn’t part of the deal, when the guy handed me my money, it was $300 short. He drove me back to the airport and I cussed that motherfucker from one end to the other. I was surprised he didn’t just pull over and tell me to get out! There are a whole bunch of promoters out there who will fuck people over in a heartbeat just to make a little bit of money. It’s sad.

  The biggest disappointment for me on the independent circuit was the first group I worked with after I left WWE. Billy couldn’t make his booking, so he asked me to fill in. I ended up becoming really good friends with the promoter and flew across every few months to do two or three shows at a time and to help train his students.

  In the end, even though I thought we were good friends, he let me down. On the last tour I did for him, we got to the airport, and as I was just about to go through security, he told me, “I don’t have all your money but I’ll send you the rest next Friday.” He still owed me over a grand but I trusted him and said that was fine. Friday came and went. And another Friday. And another. He kept saying there had been “miscommunications” and that his shows weren’t drawing as well as he’d hoped. That doesn’t matter. You should always make sure you’ve got the money before you agree to pay the talent. It’s just basic decency. It turns out that not many promoters have that decency. I didn’t like the lying. I didn’t like the fact that he had waited until the last minute at the airport to tell me about not having the money. He still hasn’t paid up what he owes me.

  Although that relationship ended on a sour note, I enjoyed helping out and doing the training sessions. I would be happy to do more training seminars; I think I’m pretty good at it and have no problem getting in the ring with the trainees. I don’t think you can really teach from the floor. I’d also like to do something else on TV — maybe some reality TV or hosting a show. Anything to do with NASCAR would be good!

  But I won’t go out of my way to wrestle anymore. It means a lot of stress, and dealing with people who let you down gets harder to take each time. If one of the four decent promoters I know asks me to help out, I might do something, but my body can’t take the abuse any more. It takes me a lot longer to recover from matches now, so until further notice, I’ll consider myself happily retired.

  Part 19: THE STATE OF MODERN WRESTLING

  Back in the day, wrestling had a mystique about it. Even if people thought it might be fake, nobody was sure. Nowadays, everybody knows that wrestling is entertainment so it’s harder to get the fans to suspend their disbelief but that’s not to say it can’t be done. Things need to be kept simple. Back in the ’80s, when Jake Roberts hit his opponents with the DDT, that was it. But as soon as people started kicking out of that maneuver, it stopped meaning anything. Now this move that used to be deadly is used as just one more maneuver that everybody does. When people are kicking out of finishers all the time, what do you do to top that? If everybody is Superman, where’s the fun in that?

  The main problem with wrestling these days, in my view, is that the talent pool is very weak. Many of the younger guys coming through have been pampered and can’t take the travel, the schedule, or the roughness of being in the ring. They don’t realize how good they’ve got it now because they for sure wouldn’t have survived in the ’90s. Look at the difference between Randy Orton and Matt Cappotelli, two guys I tested out within months of each other. Randy was born into the business as a third-generation guy; he knows what to expect, he’s taken his knocks, he’s hung in there, and he’s now one of the biggest stars in the industry. Matt thought it would be cool to go on a reality show and be a star. One pretty tame ass-kicking later, he was reconsidering everything. Like I said earlier, it’s a damn shame he got cancer but that doesn’t change my point that the tough lifestyle of being a wrestler wasn’t going to be for him.

  A lot of the newer guys see wrestling on TV and say, “I want to do that,” but there’s nowhere for them to properly learn the business. Back in my day, you had to work hard to even find a trainer. These days, there are a lot of wrestling schools out there, but it’s important to find one with a good reputation and experienced trainers. Although some of the schools are excellent, others are run by people who need more training themselves! And even if you turn out to be pretty good, the fact that there isn’t a territory system anymore means that it’s hard for new wrestlers to tour, pick up experience, and learn their craft. WWE has such a monopoly on the business that, until you get into WWE, you’re likely going to be based in just one area. You might get some ring-time but you won’t get the experience of being on the road and learning whether you’re cut out for it. You won’t get the experience of working in front of lots of different crowds and having to get yourself over from nothing every night.

  WWE tried to reboot Tough Enough to create some new stars and put out another hour of television. I thought the show was fine for entertainment, but they’re not going to find a top star that way. Bill DeMott, Booker T, and Steve Austin were all great trainers but it bothered me to see Trish Stratus there with them. Don’t get me wrong, Trish is a good person and I like her but what does she know about training wrestlers? She needed to be one of the students! She didn’t get in the ring to show them anything because that would have exposed her. That’s why she just stood on the floor and pointed. Whenever I train new guys, I get in the ring and sweat my ass off with them, show them how it’s done. I don’t stand on the floor and direct traffic.

  I feel most wrestlers these days don’t take enough pride in their work. Up until the ’80s, wrestlers believed in the characters they portrayed and took that part of the business seriously. Because they took it seriously, it was easier for the fans to suspend disbelief. A lot of the new guys treat it like a joke. Most of them don’t even watch the rest of the shows they’re on. It’s important to keep watching for two reasons; one, you get a chance to learn what works and what doesn’t from each wrestler on the card, and two, it gives you a chance to change your match if somebody else does a spot you have planned. If your finish is a superplex but someone uses that in the match before y
ou, how are you going to know unless you’re paying attention? Too many of the new generation sit in the dressing room, not caring what’s going on. They should be paying attention and learning.

  I don’t like seeing guys come in and have a spot at the top handed to them. Look at Sheamus — because he was buddies with Triple H, he was the WWE Champion within six months. Are you kidding me? He’d only just arrived! It was like Lashley and Lesnar all over again, guys who got put on top before they’d earned the spot. I know Sheamus stuck around but what would have happened if he had left? They would have just sacrificed most of their roster for a guy who didn’t deserve it. It makes me mad because they’ve got so many guys who are good and do deserve it, but it comes down to politics so much. In any other professional sport, you have your best guys in the best spots. In basketball, you play your best five guys. In baseball, you have your best nine guys. You play your best guys in the big game but the main event of WrestleMania in 2011 was John Cena vs The Miz and it was horrible. Despite the fact that John is pretty much the hardest-working man in WWE, he’s not a good wrestler. Miz isn’t much better — he’s improved but he’s nowhere near good enough to be WWE Champion and main-eventing the biggest show of the year. Meanwhile, you had Dolph Ziggler working underneath on that same card for about a minute. Miz couldn’t even carry Dolph’s bags. That goes to show you something is fucked up in that company. They really missed the boat with Dolph for such a long time. As I’m writing this, it looks like they might finally be giving him a run at the top but I can’t believe they’ve been holding him back for so many years now. I bet Hunter told Vince that Dolph was too small to be believable. Well, you know what? Hunter’s too much of a pussy to be believable as the tough guy he plays on TV, so what’s the difference?

  I don’t go out of my way to watch WWE anymore but when I come across it, channel surfing, I give it a chance. I end up wanting to attack the TV. I don’t like the storylines, I don’t like who they’re trying to push, and I feel bad for the guys they’re doing nothing with. Guys like Ted DiBiase Jr. who end up doing jobs for everybody. That kid has it all and they do nothing but beat him on TV. They were pushing him and he was getting over; he’s another Randy Orton and could really be big, but it seems like they’re punishing him. For what? It’s wrecking his career and it’s a waste of talent. The same goes for Drew McIntyre. He’s got charisma, he’s an interesting character, he looks good, and he can work. I have no idea why they stopped pushing him.

  For the life of me, I can’t figure out what they’ve been doing with some of their other guys. They built Daniel Bryan up as World Champion and then beat him in 18 seconds at WrestleMania. No champion should be beaten in 18 seconds! They’re World Champion for a reason. It just goes to show how unimportant they thought Daniel Bryan was at the time, even though he can wrestle circles around Sheamus. I guess Hunter thought Daniel Bryan was too small to be “believable.”

  I also don’t care for the fact that they make the boys do scripted promos these days. Nobody should know your character better than you. Cutting a promo in somebody else’s words isn’t going to work. The same guys are writing all of the promos, and everybody ends up sounding the same, as well as looking the same, and working the same. It’s too cookie-cutter and very few of them have any flavor. It’s not all bad though — there are some other guys who are great and have the potential to build the business up if they’re used right. I’m glad to see C.M. Punk got there. He deserves it — he worked his ass off, gave his body to the company, and is super talented. He takes what he does seriously. Guys like that deserve to work on top. Randy Orton is top rank. He had so much potential when he started and he keeps getting better. Christian is one of the absolute best. He knows what he’s doing three or four spots before you get to it; there are only a handful of guys who are that good. He was so smooth in that ring I could have worked with him every day of my life. I would have loved to see him go 30 minutes with Shawn Michaels. That would have been one of the best wrestling matches ever.

  The wrestling world has lost so many of the great workers, though. Shawn is untouchable, and Bret Hart was right up there too. Flair was good in his day but he’s a shell of himself now. Edge was good and now he’s retired. Benoit was great. Eddie was one of the very best of all time. Even guys like Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, and Triple H (and despite what I think of him personally, Hunter is one of the best workers ever) are slowing down and won’t be active for much longer. They just haven’t groomed the next generation properly, so you end up with guys like The Miz and Wade Barrett, who are fine in the mid-card but can’t get the job done at the top level. The company seems desperate for new stars. It’s a great shame, especially when I see people like Dolph Ziggler busting their asses and being held down for years. I just hope they catch on and start using guys like Dolph and Daniel Bryan properly. These guys are good and they are over. The product would be a lot better if management just let these guys do what they are great at. There are also some older guys out there they could bring back and that would help. Look at Billy Gunn. He’s hard working, he’s got a couple of decades of experience, he looks great, and he can still go better than most of the locker room. He could teach the new guys so much about the business and be good for TV at the same time. He even seems to be in Hunter’s good graces these days, so I don’t get why they wouldn’t use him. Bottom line is that, as this book is being written, the ratings are falling so what they’re doing right now clearly isn’t working and they need to try something else.

  CHAPTER 36

  HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?

  For over 20 years, I gave my life over to wrestling. Was it really worth it? I hadn’t considered that properly until I began writing this book.

  It was what it was . . . I liked the wrestling part of the job. Once that bell had rung to start the match, I enjoyed it. I didn’t like the traveling, the physical wear and tear, the politics, and the frustration at always wondering when — or if — my time would come. I may not have won a World title; I didn’t even win a secondary singles title. But I did work for the biggest wrestling company in the world for longer than almost anybody else and made enough money to retire long before I turned 50. That’s no bad thing, but it came with sacrifices.

  Because I was in wrestling for so long, I now live with physical pain every single day. It doesn’t inhibit me but it does aggravate me. I have a bunch of nagging injuries — I’ve got absolutely no cartilage left in my elbows so I can’t actually straighten my arms anymore, and whenever I get stressed out or worked up, my neck hurts like hell. The body wearing down is part of life — it just accelerates when you wrestle for a living.

  People may understand that being a wrestler damages your body, but they don’t consider the damage it can do to your personal reputation. For more than 10 years, I was told to go out there and be an unsmiling prick — that was my job. I feel like I’m always trying to undo that reputation now. People seem genuinely surprised when they realize I’m not actually like I was on TV.

  Bob with his daughter, Stephanie, in 2003.

  I don’t feel like I made any lifelong friends in wrestling. It’s the way the industry is — there are people you are friendly with and people who are good friends when you’re in the business, but when you’re out, your phone never rings. You learn pretty quickly in wrestling that nobody really gives a fuck about anybody but themselves, so you keep a wall up to protect yourself. There were a lot of people I really liked, and a lot of people who I would describe as a friend, but there isn’t anyone I speak to regularly anymore. Billy Gunn is probably my best friend from wrestling and months will go by without us talking, sometimes years. If you do end up with a true friend out of wrestling, then you’ve got something special there.

  I think I’ve missed out on some of the normal family stuff that a lot of people have. I do wish I’d reached out to my dad. When I last heard from him after I’d made it to th
e WWF, I was hurt because he had been out of my life for so long and had shown no interest in me until I had “made it big” on TV. I didn’t want a relationship with him based on my fame. Still, the older I get, the more I wish I’d had some form of father-son relationship. It’s a shame I didn’t reach out sooner. I could have had a chance to know him at least a little.

  I don’t blame wrestling for the breakdown of any of my relationships. They just weren’t the right relationships for me. It had nothing to do with wrestling. I missed a lot of milestones in Stephanie’s life because I had to work. I’d spend as much time as I could with her when I was off the road, and I’d like to think my then-wife and I gave her a good home. It was hard to balance things because of my schedule. I almost missed Stephanie’s high school graduation because I was wrestling. I made it just in time to see her walk up to receive her diploma. I was there just long enough to tell her I was proud of her and to apologize because I had to go straight to the airport to catch a flight for the next show. When I had days off, I would take her to the mall or we’d go out to eat, but that sometimes ended up becoming an ordeal for her. Back when the WWF was really taking off, people were constantly coming up and saying hi or asking for autographs. That upset her because it was taking away from her time with me and she wasn’t getting 100 percent of my attention. It was really hard on her and I think she became a little resentful of wrestling. She didn’t like having to share me. You can’t blame a kid for not wanting to share her dad with everybody else.