Episode 138 - Keep Young and Beautiful

Whitey Caldwell and Kevin Sullivan as tag champs in the early 1970s.

We’re happy to have Beau James (@kingofkingsport) back on the pod for a wide-ranging chat about his career and other classic wrestling topics.

First up, we discuss Beau’s start in the business as a teenager, as it is currently Southern States Wrestling’s 44th anniversary month. We hear about going from behind the scenes gofer to referee to running his own promotion while still in high school. Did the kids in school know about Beau’s “after school job?” And since SSW was just getting started in the early 1990s, we talk about what relationship if any he had with Smoky Mountain Wrestling, which started up in Knoxville around the same time. How did Beau get along with Jim Cornette at the time? Did they peacefully co-exist or did things go sour, like another promoter in the area at the time, Terry Landell?

After that, there’s a long discussion about wrestling footage? Beau talks about of the tapes he acquired when East Tennessee wrestling super fan Kenny Short passed away last year and what newfound footage was on some of those tapes. This leads to a chat about “holy grail” footage that may or may exist and what would we most love to find out actually exists. And then we talk about the wrestlers who were known to be tape collectors during their career and what other wrestlers might have had footage squirreled away that we do not know exists.

We also talk about Beau’s upcoming talk in July at the Thesz/Tragos Wrestling Hall of Fame about East Tennessee wrestling and what artifacts he may be bringing with him to Waterloo this summer. Plus some random chat about the recently-deceased Ed Wiskowski, traffic in East Tennessee and just how amazing it is that just how few travel-related fatalities there were during the territory era, given just how many wrestlers were driving thousands of miles a week at high rates of speed before every place in the country had Interstate roads.

As always, a great time talking to Beau. Be sure to check out the From Outlaws to Independents podcast that Beau does with Jon Boucher and Southern States Wrestling content on YouTube and other streaming platforms.

Episode 133 - Legend of a Mind

Kevin Sullivan, King Curtis Iaukea and Mark Lewin. Sullivan passed away on August 9 at age 74.

Before we start, an apology for no podcasts during or after the Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame a few weeks ago. During the travel to the event, we had some weather-related issues at home that necessitated putting any recording plans on hold. But we are now back, although we were it were under better circumstances.

We’re very grateful to Mike Sempervive (@sempervive) to take some time to discuss the recent passing of the great Kevin Sullivan at age 74. There’s no rhyme nor reason for how we talk about the great man’s career: We go from Florida to Knoxville (all six more or times he worked there) to WCW to ICW to Hawaii and all points along the way. We discuss our favorite angles, try to place the Prince of Darkness gimmick in historical context, our favorite angles and promos, including The Dream Mike Davis, the Slaughterhouse, the Varsity Club, the third Head Hunter, the Sheik, Mark Lewin, King Curtis and so much more.

It’s great when Mike has time to fit us in. If we had him on more often, maybe the shows wouldn’t be as long, but the winding road takes us to where we want to be, in the end.

Episode 129 - I Am A Rock

Young Tony Schiavone interviews Ole Anderson on WTBS in 1985. RIP Ole Anderson.

We welcome back Beau James (@kingofkingsport) to the show for some wrestling history chat, including looking back at the lives of Ole Anderson and Mike Jones aka Virgil.

We discuss Ole’s long career, as wrestling and booker in both Georgia and Charlotte. We talk about his tag teams with Gene Anderson, Stan Hansen, Ivan Koloff and Arn as a member of the Four Horsemen. We talk about his famous feud with Dusty Rhodes, the ups and downs of Georiga Championship Wrestling and more. Beau also tells us some stories about running into Ole at the Gulf Coast Wrestler Reunions.

We chat briefly about the passing of Mike Jones, his longevity in the business in both WWF and WCW, his internet notoriety and meeting him on indy shows.

From there, we talk about the Iron Claw movie, even though Beau hasn’t watched it yet. There’s chat about dramatic licenses vs historical inaccuracies, Easter Eggs, when can a sad movie have a positive ending and more.

That segues into a long discussion about being a wrestling historian and the problems that can entail, when you research something built on a lie, including primary sources and their trustworthiness, faulty memories and newspaper reporters keeping kayfabe.

We end the show with a talk about Beau’s Southern States Wrestling promotion, their recent Hall of Fame inductions and upcoming shows this spring and summer.