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Tape Reviews
Brian Christopher Shoot Interview
Posted by Brandon Truitt on Nov 25, 2002, 19:00
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Before we start today, I'd like to send thanks out to Tom Zenk and our own JHawk for pimping my work recently.
I'd also like to give condolences to JHawk because he reviewed Starrcade 83 for his most recent column... It's like a VERY hard to find copy of Wrestlemania 10, with three good matches anchoring a card full of TOTAL AND UTTER SHIT.
I echo JHawk's sentiments and suggest you just find a copy of the Best of Starrcade 1983-1987 set instead of Starrcade 83. Not only does it have the three good matches from the 1983 show, it also has the classic Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard I Quit cage match, Tully vs. Ricky Steamboat, and the Rock and Roll Express vs Ole and Arn Anderson.
As for my choice of the Brian Christopher interview this week, I had tried to do the Nikita Koloff shoot but, due to unforseen circumstances, it will be pushed back several weeks.
As always, if you have questions, comments, or free stuff to send me, I can be reached here.
Brian Christopher (Grandmaster Sexay) Shoot Interview (7-19-01)
The tape opens with a musical montage from USWA of Brian stealing everything that made his father, Jerry �The King� Lawler, famous. He even looks like a cross between Lawler and the WWE�s current incarnation of Jamie Noble.
After that, we get an interview segment with Christopher and Jeff Jarrett that ends up with a beatdown on Jarrett, then cut to Jarrett interfering in a match and laying the smack down on Christopher.
The next sequence is Christopher challenging The King to a match. They have an impromptu one, but while chasing Christopher around the ring, Lawler slips on some banana peels left behind by Doink the Clown and both Doink and Christopher whale on Lawler. Man, I HATE this Memphis bullshit.
The interview opens here, with the standard question about how he got in the business, but Christopher has to ask first whether the hotel they have him in was one of the interviewer�s �secret hideaways with Missy Hyatt�. I wouldn�t mind claiming I�d banged Missy Hyatt somewhere in the 80�s or early 90�s when she was VERY good looking, but father time hasn�t been kind to her since the mid-90�s.
He finally answers the question saying that he was a junior in high school when there were wrestling matches at local high schools being promoted by someone he knew. One night, he says the wrestling was so pitiful that he talked smack backstage about how he could do a better job than them and someone told him to put up or shut up. He and his friend took the guy�s challenge and had a tag match, claiming that their match was the best match of the night even with no prior experience. (Yeah� right)
His relationship with his father- He showed a tape of the match above to him and was told that he could do matches on the weekend as long as he got wrestling gear that covered his entire body and wore a mask. He did that while he was still in high school. He says that his father never realized he wanted in the business until he showed him the tape. Getting back to their relationship, his parents got divorced when he was 6 and they saw him only a few times each year due to his schedule� until he started going to the matches at the Mid-South Coliseum each week. He and his brother would get to talk with him for about 15 minutes each week between promos, matches, etc.
When did he go to the matches when he was young? Not really, he was in his teens by the time he�d started doing it. He talks about how great that there was wrestling every week at the Mid South Coliseum with the same people and that they�d always sell out, but that the only things to do in that town were to watch wrestling or Memphis State games.
Training- He was never formally trained. He�d watched a lot of matches over the years, so he tried stuff he�d seen before. Once he got into the business, Dr. Tom Pritchard and others taught him the psychology of the business. He talks about how things are booked too much these days, as you have a match plan laid out before you go in and you stick to it �whether the crowd�s on their feet or whether they�re fuckin� fartin� at it.� He says that wrestlers aren�t allowed to feel out the crowd to see what kind of match they want (comedy, serious, etc.).
�Filling his father�s shoes�- He doesn�t think anyone will fill Jerry�s shoes in Memphis, but someone could do it in another fashion. He puts over Lawler as a color commentator and claims he�s the best in the business. He says that he didn�t use the Lawler name because he wanted to make himself instead of having the stigma of �oh, that�s so and so�s kid� he�s only there because of his old man.�
Treatment in the locker room from the other guys due to who his father was- �Well, they definitely didn�t kiss my ass.� He says that they didn�t like him and that people thought he was getting paid a lot more than he was getting. He went to college for a while but blew it off because Lawler, Jerry Jarrett, and others made a lot of money without having to use a college education. He talks about how, instead of getting paid some nights, he�d end up with a �certificate of appreciation� for wrestling that night in his pay envelope instead of money.
Did being small hurt his career? He said that Jeff Jarrett went from 170 pounds to about 230 within a year and a half and that Jeff always had bullshit excuses for it, such as �training with the Dallas Cowboys� and that he steadfastly denied he was on steroids. He never really wrestled young guys, as he tended to work with veterans like Brian Lee, the Dirty White Boy, etc. He says his size came into play a little bit, but that you can work your match around it.
Working with his dad- He says that Jerry�s claim that they have a buddy-buddy relationship instead of a father-son one is true. They used to travel all the time when they were both in the Memphis territory. He did about 2000 miles on the road a week for about 7 years and spent a lot of that time with his father.
Developing his character and interview skills? Brian Christopher isn�t a character� it�s all him. He says he�s mischevious and a big ribber, etc. etc. etc. He says that he�s no longer called Grandmaster Sexay in the then-WWF but, rather, Grandmaster Satan due to the ribbing.
His interview skills- Jerry Jarrett was booking him in about 1992 and had turned him singles heel after spending his career to that point in a tag team with a high-school buddy called the New Kids, based on New Kids on the Block. (It was Lawler�s idea to rip off anything popular on the national level and package some wrestlers in a related gimmick.) He claims to HATE the New Kids though. Jarrett decided to see what he could do on his own and split up the team. Jarrett would give him a block of 6-8 minutes and let him do whatever he wanted to do on the mic, so he ran with it.
The best advice he got early in his career? Every time someone asks about that, he always thinks of Mideon saying �The best advice I ever got in the wrestling business was when Jerry Lawler told me in the shower �Boy, you ought to shave your pubic hairs to make your dick look bigger.�� He says that it IS good advice and it does make it look bigger. Man, I REALLY could have lived without either of those comments�
The real best advice he ever got was �Always save 10% of anything you make� in the business so you�ll always have money to fall back on.
Doug Gilbert- They go way back and feuded for a long time. He says that feuds today are unbelievably short considering that he feuded with Jeff Jarrett for 2 years and Doug for another year. I say it was necessity because the talent pool (like the gene pool) were VERY shallow in Memphis.
Was Jeff Jarrett a role model to him? They never sat down and discussed being second-generation wrestlers, but he learned a lot from Jeff in the ring. He says Jeff got it drilled into him by his dad Jerry, but he never really had great interview skills.
Eddie Gilbert- He travelled with him for about a year in Memphis and he thinks they were good friends. Eddie would do good for a long time then get frustrated while booking. Eventually he came up with the Memphis Mafia that included Doug, Brian, �Jumping� Joey Maggs, and others.
Eddie Gilbert�s off-and-on-again relationship with Jerry Lawler- It was a business relationship but Eddie probably DID idolize Lawler because he was always talking about him. He thinks things went sour towards the end but doesn�t have any specifics.
Miss Texas (Jacqueline)- He knew here ever since she got into the business and �she looks NOTHING now like she used to look�, in that she used to be stockier and had lost a hair-vs-hair match around the same time.
Bill Dundee- �You�ve got to respect a guy who�s been in the business so long and keeps on going.� He�s had a hard life but made the best of it� and now owns a strip club about 100 miles from Memphis now as one of his sidelines.
�Boogie Woogie Man� Jimmy Valiant- Loves him to death, great guy. Looks very different today, as he�s lost a tremendous amount of weight.
Feuding with Jeff Jarrett and Dr. Tom Pritchard- He learned the most in his career from Dr. Tom, psychology-wise. Danny Davis, currently head OVW trainer, was also a great psychology.
What was it like to be a Memphis star around the time of his first big push? He got a lot of fringe benefits from being a star, but now he has to go in disguise to go in the mall in Memphis and that signing a horde of autographs takes up a tremendous amount of time if you�ve only got 30 minutes to do something.
Teaming with Scott Levy (Raven)- They didn�t work together long. He says they were seperated because they were too much alike and kept clowning around out there. He jokes that Levy looks very different today as �it looks like he hasn�t even SEEN a gym in 5 years.�
Tommy �Wildfire� Rich- One of a kind. Respects what he�s done in the business, although he�s let himself go over the years.
Did things change in Memphis once Lawler went to the WWF? Yeah, things changed, if only because Lawler was rarely there for Monday nights at the Mid-South Coliseum. He and Jeff Jarrett were the main two guys left at that time and they feuded for forever as a result.
What was the locker room like when Vince McMahon was there? People would show up all dressed up to make a nice impression instead of wearing their normal clothes. They�d also put on their best performance for him, although he feels you should always put on your best performance.
What WWF guys came down and how were they? Bret Hart and Owen Hart were among them and it was great. He says it was the only way he could have done met them, though, because he was still married to that territory while Lawler and Jeff were going up to the WWF. He says he signed a contract around that time but was left in the territory due to all the people leaving back then.
Working with Sid- �Sid makes me laugh.� He�d make ME laugh if he tried to attack a short guy with a squeegee� He said that one time, in mid-match, Sid turned into Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and it makes him laugh his ass off thinking about it.
Brian Lee (�Prime Time� Brian Lee, fake Undertaker, Chainz of DOA)- �Want some fries with that?� Last he heard of him, he was working at a Sonic in Nashville. Man, that�s cold. You don�t kick someone like that when they�re down� they�re likely to come back and whip your ass.
Rock and Roll Express- Love them to death and learned a lot from them too.
Feuding with Chris Adams, and is it true if he pimped his wife Toni out? He never heard of it happening, although she did a storyline as his �nanny� then started cutting shoot promos against Chris once they started their divorce. He also thought Adams was a bit stiff in the ring with him, but that may have been a side effect.
Billy Travis- �He just came over to my house to steal some old tights I�m not using anymore.� This would have been funny if Travis hadn�t just died this weekend (well over a year after the interview had been taped)
When was he approached about a WWF deal? Sometime around 1994, as they put him on a developmental deal and kept him in Memphis. He says he was the only guy under contract at the time, and he thought it got him a lot of heat in the locker room.
Did they want to bring him in to team with Chris Candido as a Bodydonna? �News to me��
His first tryout match against Jimmy Snuka at Madison Square Garden- He thinks in hindsight he should have been more nervous, but that Raven and Luna Vachon had picked him up at the airport and he had been joking around before he got there. He thought it ended up being good, though.
Wrestling Lawler for the first time- He treated it as just another match and didn�t make a big deal about wrestling his father. He said that both he and his father hushed up that he was Lawler�s son, as he wanted to make it on his own and Lawler was �vain about his age� and didn�t want people to know he had a son that old. I think it was because it would have been hard for him to pick up girls on the playgrounds if everyone knew he had a kid twice their age.
Teaming with Lex Lugar- He only teamed with him for a few weeks, not long. Lex was doing the Narcissist gimmick at the time and felt that it wasn�t getting over �but what do I know?� Not much from what I�m hearing, Brian�
PG-13- Jaime Dundee is one of the funniest guys he knows.
Buddy Landell- He said that once as a kid he thinks he told someone that his idol in the business was Landell, so EVERYONE brings it up to him. I�d say he�s living up to Buddy�s example, as he�s blown most of the shots that could have made him a superstar.
Dutch Mantel- Dutch is business-like. Had a long feud with him.
His brother going to ECW and doing shoot promos on his father with Eddie Gilbert- He never heard them or saw them. He thinks that his brother wanted to get into the business so bad, which is why he did it. He and Lawler only found out that his brother had wrestled by reading about it in the �stooge sheets� which I rarely ever read�.
Thoughs on ECW coming down to do a program in Memphis- This was when ECW was just getting started. He says that ECW�s lack of TV outside the northeast hurt them when they came down because the fans didn�t know who anyone was.
Paul Heyman �revealing� that Lawler was his father- He doesn�t know anything about it and has to be refreshed on it. When he does hear about it, he blows it off as being insignificant. He talks about how Jim Ross did the same deal with him in 1997/1998 when he�d do commentary, such as at No Way Out 1998.
Tazz claiming Brian no-showed a match with him- �He�s either lying or misinformed because I was never supposed to wrestle him.�
Wrestling Chris Candido on RAW- He was a substitute because his opponent couldn�t be there for whatever reason. He�d been hanging out with his longtime fianc�e, Sunny, backstage when he was asked if he had his gear to wrestle that night and, as Brian points out, �A good wrestler should ALWAYS have their gear.�
Was it frustrating to be under WWF contract but being in Memphis? No, which is a stark contrast to today�s developmental guys who freak out if the company�s doing nothing with them within 6 months of signing them when he says �some of these guys need six YEARS before they�re brought up.�
Coming up as a Light Heavyweight- He didn�t have a problem with it at the time but feels that the label you get for wrestling as a Light Heavyweight hurts you later on down the line. He says he was the largest by far of the guys in the LH division because �TAKA [Michinoku] and all these other Japanese and Mexicans weren�t even 200 pounds.�
First impressions of Vince McMahon- Had a few impressions from him coming to Memphis, but made got his first real impression when he went to Titan Towers to sign his developmental contract. He remembers Vince sitting behind a desk and JJ Dillion and the other office cronies sitting on the side and thinking to himself �Do I really belong here?�
Locker room atmosphere in the WWF vs. Memphis- He had heat at first because people didn�t know he was a clown and thought he was serious when he made jokes about people. EVERYONE was pissed off at him over it, although Shawn Michaels in particular took the jokes personally.
Shawn Michaels and Triple H in the locker room- Michaels kept to himself and Hunter wasn�t really in the locker room much �due to all his office stuff� at the TV tapings. When he�s there, Triple H is a clown just like him. He talks about how Trips will dish out the verbal abuse and some people will take it, but some guys like Brian will start making cracks about his nose and supposedly get on Trips� good side.
Him and Lawler feuding with Ivan Putski and Scott Putski- They only had that one match on TV with the tag angle, and only a few matches with Scott as a single before Scott�s knee was destroyed in mid-match at the Ground Zero PPV.
Getting paired with Scott Taylor (Scotty II Hotty)- The office put them together because he figures they saw chemistry between them and turned them into Too Much (later Too Cool).
Wrestlemania 14- He doesn�t even remember who he worked with. He knows Too Much beat the Road Warriors at Madison Square Garden one night and the LOD were PISSED about it. They were on their way out anyway, so it all worked out.
Working with the Hardy Boyz at Survivor Series- He remembers wrestling them a lot in 1999 but not any match in particular. He says that he was always looked to as the ring general in their matches and that the Hardyz were willing to do anything he suggested.
We reach a tape break here, so we get more Memphis stuff.
We get a promo between Miss Texas (Jacqueline) and a fat guy in suspenders where the guy makes some shoot comments about Jackie screwing half the locker room. (There are stories about how some trainers and owners of the Memphis territory would practically rape her as partial payment for her wrestling lessons.) Eventually, she gets a pie in the face from Doink the Clown, the fat guy slaps her around, and Brian stands there pointing and laughing like a jackass. Lawler and Jeff Jarrett come out and make the save.
The next bit is Brian giving an impromptu challenge to Jeff Jarrett, Doink does the same �slip and fall� trick from earlier on the tape, with cooking oil in place of the banana peels, Brian and Doink lay the smack down, lather, rinse, repeat.
Brian cuts a promo insisting that Jeff Jarrett get real that he�ll never take the championship belt away from him (don�t know which one it is and, fankly, don�t care).
Brian then cuts a promo about being a double champion and how important it makes him, which means he gets to meet OTHER important people, and that he met The Narcissist Lex Lugar as a result.
Screw it, I�m not covering ANY more promos on this damn tape. He isn�t Ric Flair on the stick, so it�s all the same Memphis heat-drawing bullshit which makes me want him off my TV because you KNOW they�ll never show him getting the shit kicked out of him like he deserves.
We now get a Jarrett-Christopher match, which is pure Memphis� Stall, stall, stall, laugh like a hyena, stall, stall, bullshit finish, come back for the Same Old Shit next week. It�s amazing that Memphis drew as well as it did with this repetitive shit. It�s like Dusty Rhodes� booking from Jim Crockett Promotions from 1986-1988, except you don�t have guys the caliber of the Four Horsemen and the Midnight Express carrying the promotion in the ring.
We get a match with Scotty Flamingo and Brian Christopher vs. �Nightmare� Danny Davis and Jeff Jarrett. Typical Memphis crap.
THANKFULLY the shoot restarts at this point� I feel that most Memphis footage, ESPECIALLY from that point in time, should come with a loaded 9mm pistol or some cyanide in order to end the pain.
Al Snow- He only worked with him a few times. The King of the Ring 1998 match, with put Too Much against. Al and the Head, sticks out because he didn�t really want to do such a bullshit. He didn�t understand the Head stuff because he didn�t watch ECW and says that the whole idea of the match was probably a Vince Russo creation due to its stupidity. He was feeling like such a smartass when the match was pitched to him that he made the suggestion that Too Much get the three count on Head after they attached a bottle of Head and Shoulders shampoo to it, and they went with it.
Getting injured after that- He screwed up his knee in a tag match against DLo Brown due to an enziguri spot being blown. When he was examined, it turned out his ACL was torn in half AND tore up both meniscus in BOTH knees (FUCK� I tore ONE meniscus and it hurt like a bitch). The infamous Dr. Andrews, who had, at that point, just performed some amazing never-before-done surgery involving Triple H�s knee and a torch, claims it was the worst knee injury he�d ever seen. He claims to have the fourth-quickest recovery in history from that injury, behind several pro athletes including Jerry Rice. (Whatever, Brian. I'm not buying that one unless I see some documentation) He talks about training about 8 hours a day and that it was due to the Too Cool gimmick had just made its debut the night before he blew out his knee at a house show. He gives the credit for the Too Cool gimmick to Vince Russo.
Getting paired with Rikishi? It was the office�s decision. However, the dancing, yellow sunglasses, etc. from the gimmick all came from him. He talks about how the Rikishi heel turn failed miserably because the gimmick lends itself to the �fat guy dancing� cheap pops.
Owen Hart�s death- It was bad because he was a few matches after him that night at Over the Edge 1999 and he saw them bring him in on the cart. He thought that Owen might still alive when he was brought through there. He says he then went up to Vince Russo and suggested that they go out and say a prayer for him, but that the company was in damage-control mode and did what it did instead (ignoring it at the event and waiting a LONG time before telling the PPV audience what happened). He understands their decision though.
The Dudleyz- They�re� different. �If you can get Bubba off his feet, it gets better.� He and Scotty didn�t wrestle against them much because both teams were babyfaces the majority of the time.
ECW guys coming into the WWF and their attitudes- They came in as team players. Tazz came in with a big reputation but was still a team guy, etc. etc. etc.
Jerry Lawler�s statutory rape charges- It was embarassing because it was front-page news for WEEKS in Memphis. They'd traveled up to Lousville, Kentucky, together that night and says that Lawler was being followed by two young ring rats (read- wrestling groupies, locker room toys, etc. etc. etc.) who ended up following him to his hotel room. He doesn�t think anything actually happened with them, though, and claims that the girl had run her mouth to the boyfriend saying she was screwing Lawler and he went to the police and told them she was underage. He claims that the whole mess fell apart in court when the jealous boyfriend was put on the stand, as opposed to claims that Lawler paid a six-figure settlement to the girl to make the matter disappear.
Was it embarrassing when Lawler would bring Stacy Carter (The Kat, Miss Kitty) to the locker room? Yeah, because guys like Bradshaw would pick at him and say that his mom (Kat) was going to spank him, ground him, etc. He says that, despite most reports to the contrary, she actually IS older than him and he doesn�t have a problem with her being his stepmom.
Is the WWF locker room clique-ish? No, right now it�s not. It was when he got there in 1997 though. You�ve always got your travel partners which, in his case, was The Rock for about 2 years because they�d worked together in Memphis for a long time. As a rib when The Rock first arrived in Memphis, he got him to ride to Louisville with Jamie Dundee of PG-13 and, not 30 minutes later, a pissed off Rock called him up and yelled at him over it. Apparently, Jaime had rolled up some wonderjoints in the car and had offered Rock one while Rock was driving, which resulted in Jamie having to ride with someone else back to Memphis because Rock was so pissed about it.
Getting paired with Steve Blackman in 2001- It wasn�t done as a rib, contrary to popular belief. He thinks it did a lot of good for Blackman, as it had done for Rikishi, and figures that Blackman could have taken off if Brian hadn�t gotten fired.
Chyna�s reported attitude- She might be hard to work with when it comes to the other women (he doesn�t know because he�s not one of them), but she didn�t have an attitude when she teamed with Too Cool at No Way Out 2000.
The locker room�s reaction to Vince blowing money on the XFL- They�d joke that they may be facing off with Steve Blackman this week but they could be in the backfield the next week. Then, when the league started going tits-up, people started making jokes about their payoffs going down in order to pay the football players and, in fact, they WERE pair slightly less for drawing the same amount of people at the same arenas they always worked at.
Locker room vibe to the WCW purchase- The sale had been off and on for months before it was finally concluded prior to Wrestlemania X-7, so no one was paying much attention to it right before it happened. People were, justifiably, nervous that they wouldn�t have the opposition�s offer to get more money out of Vince.
Thoughts on Lawler quitting after No Way Out 2001- He couldn�t believe it when it happened, and it really blew his mind when he heard that he quit over The Kat getting fired considering how much he�d put into the business. He wasn�t too close to his dad during that situation. He also wasn�t worried about the company taking it out on him, as Jim Ross and Bruce Pritchard came to him, laid out why Kat was fired, and made it clear that he wasn�t going to be punished for his father�s decisions. He was told that she was developing an attitude and was hard to work with, and that some of the female wrestlers had complained that she was self-centered when it came to planning matches. He figures that it may have been bullshit, but that �where there�s smoke, there�s fire.�
Getting stopped at the Canadian border- �I made a mistake� because he�d hung out with a friend of his in New York after he�d done Sunday Night Heat at WWF New York. He says that he knew that the guy had a drug problem, but he didn�t hold it against him. When they cleaned out their rental car before he left for the airport, everything that was still in the car got put into his gym bag, including a small baggie of cocaine. All he knows was that, going into Canada, all the wrestlers were being targeted even if the drug dog wasn�t getting a hit off of them. He claims that he walked 30 yards past the drug dog before being taken back to customs and got the dog to sniff his toiletries bag. They claimed to have gotten a hit off of that so they searched it and found nothing. However, when they opened the other bag they found the coke and he was �in stunned amazement� and realized what had happened. He did a REALLY stupid think in my opinion as, when they took the coke out of his bag and asked him if it was his� he said YES. CoughDUMBASScough When Jim Ross asked him the same thing that night at the arena, he said the same thing. He wasn�t detained for more than 2 hours due to the small amount of the substance found. He claims that people who know him know that he�s not a drug guy and that he doesn�t hang around with guys like that, yet he gives us this story.
He also says that the reports of all the drugs in his bag is overblown, as the methamphetamine that he supposedly had was residue on the cocaine baggie.
Does he feel he was wrongfully terminated? Not really, because he had technically breached his contract. He feels that he should be given a second chance eventually, though, when things die down.
Does he think the Memphis territory would work in today�s wrestling world? No, because the territory only succeeded because there was nothing else to do in Memphis and today you could get wrestling for free several nights a week and never have to leave your couch. He says that no territory would be able to do that these days due to burnout.
Was he ever contacted by WCW? Yes, he got contacted by them shortly before signing his WWF contract. He was possibly going to be brought in to the York Foundation angle with Ricky Morton and Terri.
Stephanie and Shane McMahon�s reputations on their involvement in the company- No one cares as long as they do a good job. He says Shane does a great job and Steph does a real good job, both on and off the camera. He knows that Shane always wanted to be one of the boys, but he�ll always be Vince�s son in their eyes because he didn�t have to work his was up through the indy hell where most guys paid their dues. He says that Shane lasting 20-30 minutes in a match with Kurt Angle hurts the business because a guy seen as having no obvious training shouldn�t be holding their own against a trained wrestler for NEARLY that long.
The relationship between him, Lawler, and his brother- They get along fine, especially since he and Lawler are �unemployed� now. (�Unemployed� because they�re still doing the odd indy shows)
Best ribs he�s seen in the business- One time, he and Jeff Jarrett had gotten a batch of St. Patrick�s Day cookies from a fan and Jacqueline kept pissing and moaning because they wouldn�t let her have one. Brian got so tired of it that he took one and covered the top of it in Icy Hot and then let her have one, but Jacqueline knew better than that. However, one of the referees ended up taking the cookie and got his lips burned up pretty bad, which he thinks is a hoot. I�d say that he�s not only an asshole, but also uninventive as he'd do the standard stuff like putting padlocks on people�s bags. However, he got creative a few times, like tying Jacqueline�s hair weave to the bottom rope during a battle royal or to an airline tray when she fell asleep on a flight. He pisses and moans about Ivory bitching him out for doing that.
Least favorite people to work with- He has to think hard and can�t come up with any names, so he gives a blanket �guys who feel the business owes them something� response. He also hates to work with �anyone who sucks�. Man, what a vocabulary on this guy. Someone get him a thesaurus STAT!
People he respect a lot due to their dedication to the business- Jim Ross, Howard Finkel, Jimmy Valiant, Mick Foley, etc.
Name association-
Undertaker- A guy he respects a lot. Hard worker, remembers watching his early matches in Memphis and he�s gone a long way since then. Played a shitload of dominos against him.
Sean Waltman (X-Pac)- One of his real good friends, which he defines as a guy who he hangs out with when he isn�t on the road.
Kurt Angle- He didn�t think he�d accomplish everything he�s done because his style was very different from the normal WWF style. He did a great job of showing his personality and is one of the quickest learners he�s ever seen.
Chris Jericho- Good guy but he needs to �tighten his stuff up� and had a reputation for being REALLY sloppy when he came in during late 1999.
Paul Heyman- A guy who loves the business. Says you have to respect what he did with ECW but keep in mind that ECW went out of business.
Paul Wight (Big Show)- Good friend of his now, but they got into a fight after a UK pay per view. Apparently Show had decided to spend his entire day flying from London to New York to his home in Florida in order to see his girlfriend for a few hours before heading back to New York, but pissed and moaned that they were late because Brian had left his laptop in the hotel. Show cursed up a blue storm to all the guys in first class then walked into the next cabin in order to go to the bathroom and saw Brian immediately after going through the curtain, which meant he had to put up or shut up since he made such a big deal out of it. This sounds like the verbal equlvilent to a limp-wristed slap fight, so I�ll cut to the chase and say that someone broke it up and Show loves him because he was willing to go toe-to-toe with him.
Anything he wants to say to his fans? He cuts an incomprehendable Grandmaster Sexay promo about how he�ll be back.
Included Footage-
More promos, blah blah blah.
Brian Christopher vs. Tony Williams- Stall, stall, stall, armdrag, armdrag, stall, stall, go to the commentator�s table and yell at the opponent using the mic, stall, monkey flip, Christopher gets the pin with his feet on the ropes.
Promos galore.
Koko B Ware, Doink the Clown, and Shawn Michaels vs. Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher- This is a Survivor Series elimination match. Eliminations in VERY short order were Michaels by Lawler , Lawler by Koko, Jarrett by Doink, Doink by Brian, and Koko by Brian. Team WWF kicks Brian�s ass after the match.
Brian Christopher and Jerry Lawler vs. Doug Gilbert and Tommy Rich- This is a hardcore brawl, but VERY clipped and short. Pretty unwatchable in this form, but it looks to be tolerable if you could see the whole thing. Lawler gets DQed after a piledriver on Rick, then there is a MASSIVE set of beatdowns after the match, including people hitting each other with crutches, cutting each other open with scissors, and piledrivers galore.
More promos.
Japanese match here� Outside of Christopher, I can�t make out any names or faces, though. Christopher�s partner takes the pin after a moonsault. Better than any other match on this tape, but that�s not really saying much because I fucking HATE the Memphis style.
The last match on the tape is an indy match from around the time of the interview, as he faces off with a guy wearing black trunks with the Superman logo. Brutally bad match here. Stall, stall, stall, test of strength, stall, stall, stall, test of strength, etc. etc. etc. for several minutes before they move outside of the ring and do some hardcore stuff. This is below even the low standards of the WWE�s recently dissolved hardcore division.
Thoughts- This tape isn�t too special, as Brian is conceited and/or just plain annoying for most of the interview, and the match footage is WELL below the low standards I expect from these tapes. Don�t waste your time. Strong recommendation to avoid, but still not as bad as the first Abdullah the Butcher shoot or the Slamboree 1994 one with Jesse Ventura.
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