This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video version here: https://youtu.be/dQ9GgLNNx54
If you grew up in the 90's like me, chances are you remember what we now know as Trash TV. You could even argue that some of what we were seeing in the attitude era fell under that label, similar to the likes of Jackass and shows like it that followed. There was however one undisputed King of trash TV, and that was the Jerry Springer show. Starting in late 1991 as a fairly earnest and tame looking talk show that tackled political issues. That would change with the arrival of a new producer in 1994 and his show would make a drastic change, addressing more extreme subjects. Springer would host some of the most bizarre segments ever shown on television. From Klan members debating Jews to a man who married a horse, with much of it feeling less real as the years rolled on. In the words of Jim Cornette talking about the show "when they ran out of real knuckleheads it became a work", but more on him and Springer a bit later.
Before I begin I'd like to remind you to please leave a comment of consider subscribing if you like this video, and let me know if I miss any wrestlers that appeared on the Jerry Springer Show.
Why am I talking about the Jerry Springer though? Well a few months ago I made a video of every instance I could find of wrestlers appearing on Saturday Night Live, and the passing of Jerry made me think of times he hosted wrestlers on his show. Unlike SNL though it's likely impossible for me to find every one, as for an undetermined period of time many wrestlers who hadn't yet made it would appear on the show, and a few would be discovered after they were famous. These wrestlers would be booked with the help of a wrestler known as Jamie Dundee, who was most famously a member of the team PG13 in ECW and WWE, and was an early part of the Nation of Domination, rapping the group to the ring in his one Wrestlemania appearance. He was the Son of Memphis Wrestling star Bill Dundee, who had a lengthy feud with Jerry Lawler back in the day, and was also known for being a loose cannon in shoot interviews.
So that all said I'm going to show you some of the more notable appearances that I found, and one that nearly happened, and where better to start than the Bad Guy? On an episode aired on January 17th 1996, Springer welcomed 11 year old Hydeia and her friend Tyler who were both diagnosed with aids at a very young age. The two had been on the show two years earlier and had married each other in a friendship ceremony, whatever that means exactly... According to Tyler years later the producers had asked them both who their heroes were and he had mentioned WWE star Razor Ramon, but he had no idea that they would get to meet him until he showed up on the stage.
If you know Springer for the anarchic brawls that would take place on an almost daily basis, you'd be forgiven for expecting the worst of this segment as the Bad Guy walks out, but it actually was as wholesome as it possibly could have been. Razor would invite the two to Wrestlemania 12, and hand his intercontinental title to Tyler, who claimed to still have the belt in a 2016 interview with WWE. Hydeia in the same interview years later said of Razor "Even though he had the bad guy persona at the time, he was really cool and awesome. He really seemed to care about us and wanted to make us happy." She went on to talk about how good it felt for her to have such a public figure show her such support. It's not clear what Tyler went on to do with his life, though as of the WWE interview he had a family of his own who have grown up HIV negative. Hydeia is more a public figure, as she has since childhood continued to be an advocate for spreading awareness about the disease.
Brace yourselves, because it's time to talk about Jim Cornette again. In a segment from his podcast three years ago, Cornette noted that one time he was close to going on the Springer show, but it never actually happened. For a bit of context before I go in, in the Mid 90's when Cornette was booking Smokey Mountain Wrestling, he hired a team known as the Gangstas, Mustafa and New Jack. If you don't know much about New Jack I strongly recommend that you go and watch the Dark Side of the Ring episode about him (after this of course), as he goes into detail about his time working for Cornette. There isn't really way to sugar coat this, but the gangstas, New Jack in particular would take full advantage of being black wrestlers being booked in the South in the early 90's. New Jack would fully play up to this in promos, going as far as to incite hatred from the fans. He would even go as far as to refer to real life new stories, such as a horrendous line relating to OJ Simpson that I'm not even sure I can repeat on YouTube... A fan had questioned Cornette as it had been reported by Dave Meltzer in April 1995 that a segment was supposed to be taped on the Jerry Springer show but had been scrapped. In the following issue Dave went into more detail, claiming that WWE had blocked the appearance because in the 49 other states that don't get have access to Smokey Mountain Wrestling, Cornette at the time was a WWE personality, and so they wanted to avoid any controversy. Cornette's immediate retort was that it was actually 47 other states, which makes it so much better... Jim claims that someone on the show contacted them having seen the ongoing storyline, and Cornette accepted based on getting a bit of exposure for SMW, and a payday for the wrestlers involved. He goes on to say that word got back to Vince through the Undertaker who worked occasional SMW dates, and soon after Vince called and did his Jedi mind trick, talking Cornette out of doing the Springer show. He then goes on to note that at the time he was still managing Owen Hart and the British Bulldog in WWE, who were also sending talent to Smokey Mountain for his bigger shows, so it really comes down to Cornette weighing his options up and not wanting to wreck his long term relationship with WWE over a short term payoff, and I can't blame him for that.
From here things will only get stranger in this next segment from 1999 titled 'amazing tales'. It begins with a woman having a confession to make to her partner, as these segments often started. The man in the segment being a wrestler known as Anthony Durante, or Pitbull number 2 in ECW, but he's not the only wrestler involved. The woman admits to finding a new man, and out walks of all people the Iron Sheik. Pitbull falls out of his chair, and frankly I nearly did too. If you know anything about the Iron Sheik these days, you know he can barely go a few sentences without bashing Hulk Hogan bubba, and it takes him about 10 seconds until he does it here. The segment doesn't end with the tradition Jerry Springer brawl, however it does end with Pitbull worryingly pulling a woman out of the crowd to prove that finding someone new wouldn't take long. Television in the 90's was very different.
The next entry is going to be a quick one, and wasn't technically on the Jerry Springer show. Jerry was at one point so popular that he once made a cameo on a show called SMTV live, a British Saturday morning kids show from the late 90's, hosted by Ant and Dec, who simply won't go away. He took part in a sketch called Chums, which was a crap parody of Friends, and I'm really starting to feel old now. Anyway, Jerry's security in the skit bizarrely was Kurt Angle. Kurt even laughed about it on his Instagram when people found the clip a year ago.
Before we leave the 90's I guess we have to briefly talk about Vince Russo, who has gone on record multiple times saying that he and Ed Ferrara would watch Jerry Springer while writing Raw to get ideas. This makes total sense when you look at all of the shows Vince is credited, and I use that word loosely, as writing, especially his initial run of WCW shows which I will go in depth on on this channel eventually for their insanity. Even in his TNA writing days years later he would never really evolve past the late 90's trash tv style, peaking in a 32 man brawl in several locations all at once at the Impact zone, which Jim Cornette has described as a logistical nightmare.
I'm going to end this video with two non wrestlers who are currently employed by AEW, as both Justin RRRRRoberts and Alex Abrahantes both appeared on Springer in the 2000's. By this time Springers show had fallen into a pretty basic formula where every segment would erupt into a pro wrestling style brawl. In Roberts' episode he played a man called Joe, who was on the show to be told that his girlfriend had been sleeping with her own Sister. Many years later in an interview while still in WWE Justin would explain that he was 19 and in College at the time, and was recommended to the shows producers by a New York wrestler called Big Daddy, not that one. Justin said he took the gig as it would allow him a free trip home to Chicago, where he is from and also where Springer used to tape. He then goes on to explain in detail how the story was entirely fictional, and how the way it was produced it reminded him of wrestling.
In Abrahantes' case he was on the show as Alan, there to find out he was being cheated on. As far as I'm aware Alex has never commented on this publicly, but heres a trivia note for you. On the January 25th 2001 episode of Smackdown, clips of both Alex and Justin Roberts are shows auditioning for the first season of Tough Enough.
I wondered how I was going to end this video, but it has to be with a Jerry Springer inspired final thought... Are you ready? Thank you for watching Yet Another Wrestling Channel, if you enjoyed this please comment, like or subscribe.
No comments:
Post a Comment