The legendary Superstar Bill Dundee joins The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling for a special look inside his iconic and well traveled career. Starting with leaving his home country of Australia through his greatest battles with his on again/off again partner Jerry Lawler, Dundee provides great insight into his most iconic moments and how he helped shape the Memphis territory into one of the hottest destinations ever in pro wrestling.
Working the Bill Watts Mid South Territory & brining Memphis talent with him:
I was there two years and it’s a hard ass territory. Bill worked seven days a week and in the Spring time and the Fall you worked two shows on a Saturday. You did a Saturday afternoon show and then again that night. You were working a lot of wrestling matches and doing a lot of miles in a car and a lot of miles in an airplane and it was a hard territory. The two years that I was there The Midnight Express left and first went to Dallas and then over to Charlotte, Ricky (Morton) and Robert (Gibson) followed them and Magnum TA went over there as well so all of the guys that I brought down to Mid South to begin with just wanted to go over to the Crockets. So I thought, well they are leaving, so I’m leaving and I went to Charlotte and did not like it and just went back to Tennessee.
Pairing the legendary personality of Jim Cornette with the Midnight Express and Cornette’s present day perception:
Well I don’t know about the legend part but he has been around a long time and I got along good with Jimmy and I do like Cornette. He wrote all my finishes down that he learned in Louisiana and when he went and did his own thing and I don’t blame him because that is how you learn and that is what you did. To say did he ever have an original thought of his own? I really don’t know. There used to be a formula with this business that if you stick to it, it still works. We can all cuss and we can all swear and we can all call people names and that don’t make you tough that makes you look more ignorant then tough and anyone can do that . I think Jimmy gets mixed up with what tough is and what cussing is, because that don’t make you tough.
In comparison the reception his son Jamie Dundee gets for his very controversial comments and persona:
There is definitely some Cornette in him. He wanted to be a white/black guy and when him and Wolfie D started and called themselves PG-13 they had the same gimmick as Cena and wore the sneakers and wore the shorts and they thought they were from the hood. Now he signs everything “white trash” and he’s got tattoos all over him and he’s back to being a redneck. He’ll say silly stuff and he’ll call people names and say stuff on the internet and write sh*t and it’s just more stupid then it is anything else. The only bad thing is people know you didn’t come into this world by yourself so when you say stupid stuff like that they think your mother and your father are like that and we ain’t nothing like that. He says well you know I’m nothing like that and it’s just a gimmick. But they don’t, the marks that listen to you on the radio shows and the podcasts hear all the things you say and they get you drunk and hear you saying silly words you and the (Iron) Sheik, they think that is you. When you do it on the internet it goes to Australia so your Aunts, Uncles and all the people that still live in Australia say look at Jamie. I think he has calmed down a little bit on that and he had a hell of a talent for this business but he got it all screwed up. I told him the drugs and alcohol are gonna kill you if you don’t get away from it and most of the ones that didn’t are not here.
Thoughts on Jeff Jarrett and seeing him come up through the business:
You kind of have to feel sorry for the promoters son. Greg Gagne got it with his Dad, Mike Graham got it with his Dad in Florida and when you are the promoters son people either like you or they don’t like you because well he only got to do that because his Dad is the boss and you have that cross to bear. It’s hard not to be Dad and not put your son in that position. Jerry said well I’m not going to push Jeff, well bull-sh*t you are going to push Jeff because that is your boy and that is what you are doing and that is how it is. Did he push him too fast? Maybe, who knows it took awhile for him to get his act together and I never thought he was one of the better talkers in this business because babyface wise his father was a very good talker. I got a long good with Jeff and drove up and down the road with him but were we big buddies? No, but when we were on the road we like to drink a beer and go to the bar so we had somethings in common on that part but we weren’t like the best of friends but we weren’t enemies either. I got a long good with the kid and tried to get along with helping him.
Continuing with sons in the wrestling business, thoughts on Brian Christopher:
I got a long good with Brian. Brian has a few demons that he has to get rid of. Jamie, Brian and Wolfie were all kind of painted with the same brush it was like what they did away from the ring was just goofy. Like I said, I’d have a few beers after the match but it ended there, I never wanted to stay up all night and party but the three of them were like that. They all ended up on the mountain and all ended up with Vince McMahon and all ended up with a job and all ended up getting fired for the same reason. Stupidity.
Meeting with Vince McMahon after WrestleMania 1:
I went up to Vince’s house after his first WrestleMania. He’s got that big friggin house up there in Connecticut, it’s like a damn castle. I asked him why did he have Liberace and the Rockets on his show and he said “Bill my father was in this wrestling business all his life and like you he thought just wrestling”. “When he went to the big arena in the sky he left a few dollars but I made more in the first WrestleMania then he left being in the business all his life and show business works”. He just got worse on the show business. How much can you do with the smoke and mirrors and his show now is all smoke and mirrors. I watched Raw (last night) and some of the stuff he’s doing on Raw is absolutely terrible in my opinion. Vince is a brilliant man for Vince and he’s made a lot of money and he turned his father’s business around so obviously he’s not a dumb guy. There are more millionaires in the wrestling business today then there ever was back in the good old days.
The day I went up there Shane was about 14 maybe and Stephanie was just a little girl and they were just young kids then. We talked and we just never quite saw eye to eye on anything and he fed me lunch and I got on the plane and had to wrestle in Jackson, Tennessee that Sunday night. It was fun and I can always say that I’ve been to God’s house and that was it.
Superstar Bill Dundee in an over 90 minute interview also discusses his biggest feuds in Memphis, his relationship with Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler, his time in WCW, growing up in Australia, meeting Jim Barnett and much much more.
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Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
