Episode 116 - It's a Family Affair # 4 - La Vie en Rose

The Natural Blonds, Ken Timbs and Pat Rose, with Chris Love (Bert Prentice) from WOW TV. in 1987.

It’s been a while, but this is episode number four of the It’s a Family Affair episode of the podcast. We’re very happy to welcome to the show for the first time, and hopefully not the last, veteran wrestler Pat Rose.

We go over a good chunk of Pat’s career, starting with Nick Gulas in Chattanooga in 1979, working most of the territories in the 1980s and then retiring in the mid 1990s.

Of particular note for us here on this pod is both his time in Southeastern and Continental, teaming with first his boyhood idol Mr. Wrestling II and later Randy Rose as the Rose Cousins and, more importantly, his time in the short-lived independent promotion World Organization Wrestling (WOW).

You’ve heard us talk about WOW here on the pod with Armstrong Alley, who has about 8 months of the promotion on his YouTube channel and on Between the Sheets, when we talked about the week in December 1987 when Nick Gulas showed up on set with Christopher Love (Bert Prentice) and had a showdown with Don Fargo, Ken Timbs and Pat himself.

We talk about the promotion’s start, who was in charge and a number of the wrestlers who came in and out of the territory, including Bob Sweetan, Bob Holly, Marcel Pringle, Bad Company, Samu and Kokina (Yokozuna) and others.

There’s also talk about his time in Memphis with Dr. Tom Prichard and Sherri Martel as the Heavenly Bodies, how they got put together, the run’s premature end and the “Dear John” letter Pat read on live Memphis TV when Tom and Sherri left the area.

We also talk to Pat about working with people like Lord Humongous (Jeff Van Camp), Sid Vicious, the Master of Pain (The Undertaker) and how important it was for guys like him to make those guys look like stars.

To wrap up, Pat tells us about his fishing show Set the Hook, how it got started, where you can hear it and also his son’s country music career.

We had a great time talking to Pat and hopefully he will be back on the show with more stories from his time in the business.

Episode Ninety-Four - It's a Family Affair Number One

Ron Fuller on the Continental Championship Wrestling set.

We are happy to debut the first episode of the “It’s A Family Affair” Podcast, the companion piece to the website project of the same name examining Continental Championship Wrestling. And for our first show, it’s great to welcome back Karl Stern (@WIWCool) to the show. Not only is Karl a wrestling historian, but an Alabama native who grew up watching Southeastern Wrestling and saw its transition to Continental.

In a very wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the transition of the promotion in June 1985, the logistics of the change, why they changed names, format and even announcers, bringing in Gordon Solie to replace longtime host Charlie Platt. We talk about where the promotion was in terms of angles they were running at the time and what they did on the debut show, including bringing in world champion Ric Flair to kick off the first episode.

After that, quite frankly, we just all over the place, talking about just about everything related to the company, including their start in Knoxville in 1974, Ron Fuller acquiring the Gulf Coast terrritory and renaming it Southeastern in 1978, the towns they ran and where the TV show was seen in that part of the country. We talk about Ron Fuller’s career as a wrestler and promoter, including whether we think buying Knoxville cost him the change of being NWA World Champion .

And we discuss just about every name you can think of from this era: Robert Fuller, Jimmy Golden, all of the Armstrongs (Bob, Brad, Scott and Steve), Adrian Street, Rip Rogers, Austin Idol, Tommy and Johnny Rich, the Nightmares (Danny Davis and Ken Wayne), Tom Prichard, Tony Anthony, Jerry Stubbs, The Flame (also known as the Assassin), Roy Lee Welch, Bill Ash, Lord Humongous and more.

We also talk about Karl’s When It Was Cool website, a wide ranging popular culture site, very akin to our own. We even find time to talk about Southern Basterds, then now missing in action comic set in the part of Alabama Karl knows very well.

The goal of the podcast is not only have wrestling journalists and historians on the show, but also the wrestlers were that is possible.

Note: You can also hear me on an upcoming episode of Ron Fuller’s Super Stud Cast, where I can to ask Ron about the creation of Continental and hear how it happened from the man himself.

Be sure to check out the It’s A Family Affair section of the website for a look at the Continental television shows and other articles about the promotion. Thanks for your time.