A Geek History of Time - Episode 58 - NWO and the Contract with America Part I

Episode Date: June 6, 2020

The World Disney Yes, beloved, beloved figure of our pop culture. That's how they get you. And out of Yada, she eventually causes her own husband to be born to death. And that makes me so happy on cold nights. Especially in and badly for the idiot Pecker Woods.

You have a bottle of scotch. Okay, that's twice that he's mentioned redheads. It is un-American to get in the way of our freedom to restrict people's freedom. That was the part I know plenty about this thing. I love me some Bobby Drake. Well, if that's all we've got then we're being really lazy. Yeah. Y'all bone.

You can literally poke a hole in it as soon as someone gets pneumonia. Well, I'm not as old as you. Well, ha ha mother fuck motherfucker, I got a wizard. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect an artery to the real world. My name is Ed Blamock. I'm a world history teacher currently via distance here in northern California. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with one random can be found in various parts of our apartment complex parking lot, which is awesome because it takes me to my happy place when he wants to go to daycare in the morning. It can be a little bit problematic. Can you guys find dragons on the way?

Because I used to turn the, my mini van is called the Millennium Falcon. And if I open up the sunroof, that's the dorsal cannon. And my sun will, and I will just turn on the soundtrack. And we will, we fought so many tie fighters on the way for so long. So just an idea. Turn your car. Turn it into like a seat like a cool thing like, oh, did you get that dragon because there's dragons down the street and we need to fight in our dragon wagon. Kids go crazy. Kids go crazy for rhymes. So I'm Damien Harmony. I give out

unsolicited advice. I'm all the time. Yes true. I do it professionally as a teacher and as a stand-up comic. So it's what we do. Yeah it really is. I have one friend who's a comic. His name is Keith Lowell Jensen and he doesn't know I'm plugging him on here But he says that he writes autobiographical fan fiction That's perfect. Oh, it's so good But yes, I am a stand-up comic. I'm also a Latin teacher with one rogue section of world history I'm trying to do this distance learning

rogue section of world history, trying to do this distance learning. AP tests have come up, so kids have completely fallen away because I'm a high school teacher. And it's a whole mess. I don't, I've put all the lessons online. I'm hoping they're doing them. Some of them send stuff back. I have literally one student from my world history class who's still in contact. I think all the rest have given up. They might never know how World War One ended and you know, that's the sad irony, but

I do any of us really know though. I mean, I had a joke on World War One. Like an existential level. Oh, yeah, no, you're never going to get to tell. Yeah, I'm in this place where like I had such plans this year, mm-hmm, or the Reformation. And like there's not even any chance I'm going to get to it online. No, like like I'm going to get one week of talking about Japan,

mm-hmm, which, which is not enough. Okay, so those of you who are tuning into the podcast for the first time, this is gonna be news. Everybody else is gonna be like, well, yeah, okay, right, this is it. But the secondary area of specialty for my history degree was East Asia focusing primarily on Japan, China being in there. And that's because I was exposed to Samurai movies at two young and age, and

it warped my brain. And so like I could spend a semester talking about the single Fuji die and the hay on period before it and and the Moromachi period and was the hay on period when they were ruled by an outcast. Nice. Thank you. Nice. The time stamp is four minutes. Okay. Yeah.

All right. You're getting. I realize why I stopped punning for our show. And it's because right before this, I do a digital pun tournament show on Twitch.tv-forward slash-capital-puns. So I'm like all punned out. But tonight, I'm not. Yeah. All right. Well, good. Yeah. And you even had a Japan round on the show. We did. So, you know, so you were you were already kind of locked and loaded for that one. Oh, yeah. Um, but, you know, and so I could spend I could spend a semester talking about this. And I have to cram all of Japanese history up to the Hian period into like an afternoon.

Wow. And then I get to spend two or three days talking about Hian Kyo and Japanese cultural development during that period. And then I have to spend a day taking everything from the Hian period to the Tokugawa Shogunet, which is call it 400 years. Right. Of of internecine warfare, the rise and fall of Dimeo, like as a thing. And like one of the most pivotal periods of Japanese history to to the development of modern Japan's kind of character. It has to get kind of spoken in a couple of sentences as well.

There's this period of civil war when lords fought against lords. Okay, there's so much more to that than that. And so normally I get to spend, I wind up spending like two weeks on Japan Nice and I and I weep every year Because that's too short. It's it's way too short and so now I'm gonna get one and Then I'm going to have to pick Whether it's gonna be the scientific revolution, the reformation or pre-Columbian America for the last like week or

two weeks. I'm leaning hard in the direction of pre-Columbian America. Good. And let me tell you why I support that. Because we cover the scientific revolution in 10th grade, we cover the scientific revolution in 10th grade. We cover the reformation in 10th grade, which I don't get why there's so much more other stuff that's happening. But, you know, Do you put Pope Leo on trial in the 10th grade?

No, no. Because you should. We had, yeah. But no, we don't. But, you know, there's a lot of focus on the splitting of the Christian church and then the counter-reformation and all that kind of stuff. And then Cardinal Richelieu and all that kind of stuff,

as it pertains toward the French Revolution. I mean, that's where it's really done. But pre-Columbian South America doesn't get touched until we get to, well, it doesn't get touched because we don't get to South America in the 10th grade until we get to the post-Napoleonic time. So, yeah, I was going to say, so that's, yeah. It's really just a tour of Westerns and all these places that the Europeans beat up. So, yeah, well, pretty much. It's really just a tour of Westerns and all these places that the Europeans beat up.

Yeah, well, pretty much. But we've relaxed on our content standards somewhat. So again, hit them with that stuff so that they can, because you've got kids who are presumably from Central and South American heritage, they'll get to learn about something that they can actually literally relate to. Yeah. So geographically it works better too. Yeah, and if they go into the eighth grade understanding that, you know, before European

showed up, Native American societies were literally 10 times as large as they were by the time the pilgrims showed up. Yeah. Yeah. Like like techno, techno to Cheatlon, to know it's part of the notion. Yeah. Had a population comparable to Rome. Yes. In the in the in the in the Republican period. And had aqueducts feeding it had a sophisticated system of, you know, fields and agriculture and everything to feed it, but he living there, I mean, it was, it was this incredibly cosmopolitan place. And it was all built without iron tools. Yeah. Yeah. Like they did, they accomplished an awful lot of what the Romans accomplished not everything the Romans accomplished But they accomplished

Darn near all of it right and they did it with stone fucking tools and To the year to the Europeans who showed up at that time It was like well look at these barbarians. They don't even have metal. It's like they don't have metal and they built all that Yeah, apparently they don't need the metal. So apparently they don't even have metal. It's like they don't have metal and they built all that. Yeah, apparently they don't need the metal. So apparently they don't need it. Yeah. So yeah, my kids won't know how World War One ended ever because I assume that they'll never learn it ever.

And your kids are going to not know that the church had a reformation ever. So that's the truth. Justice is learning. Yeah, when the church didn church had a reformation ever. So, the church is learning. Yeah, when the church didn't have a reformation, Christianity had a reformation that led to a whole bunch of churches, but I'm nitpicking. I was thinking about the counter-reformation, but.

Oh, well, yeah. So, the rubber band snapping back, so. Yeah, pretty much so all right So now now that we've you know spent all of this time segueing into all of that sure We we were having a conversation earlier today in which you you mentioned a couple of a couple of political figures

from from the 80s and 1990s. And I know that we're going to be tying that in with your absolute favorite medium of nerd rate. And so I'm going to ask you to start right now. I don't know if this is how your notes are all formulated, but I want to hear what is the thesis statement for what we're going to be talking about tonight. Well, the thesis is actually in the title.

It's like an 1800s book. The NWO storyline and WCW was a reflection of the South's hatred of Bill Clinton. Fuck yes. I am here for it. Okay. All right. Now, but it hold on.

Uncle Billy was, was, was a, was an avuncular, you know, jovial good old boy, wasn't he? He was. The problem with it was, well, it'll, you'll see it come out. But there were a few things that happened in the early 90s that set the tone for the election in 96, which then set the tone for the NWO storyline. What I'm talking about with the NWO storyline is a very small slice, but a very loud slice

of wrestling's history. If I mentioned the name Stone Cold Steve Austin to you, you'd recognize that, right? Oh, hell yeah. There you go. Nicely done. Can I get a hell yeah? Hell yeah. And here's the thing. Part of the reason I remember that quote has less to do with Steve Austin and has more to do with far escape. Okay. Because John Crichton in a memorable moment wrestling with the demons inside his own head, both metaphysically and on screen literally winds up throwing one of them into a dumpster

and then shouting, can I get a hell yeah. And so yeah. Yeah, and that became a tagline within the fandom too, which was taken directly from. Oh yeah, yeah. And if I said what's your name and then you told me and I said it doesn't matter what your name is. It doesn't matter what your name is. It doesn't matter what your name is.

So all that, as memorable as it is, only happened in about a three-year period. Wow. Yeah, the amount of memory people have and to give you some idea, a three-year period is less than the total reign of Hulk Hogan's first shot at being champion. Like really? Yeah, he held the belt longer than that. Oh yeah, he did. He held the belt.

Hulk Mania happened in 84 and he held it until 80, let's see, 87 he wrestled Andre and then they had the thing and that was in the summer so to 87. Yeah, so he had the belt, yeah, for four years. Almost exactly. I could probably find out precisely. But yeah, and then he held it again for another year, a little while after that. But my point is, is it more that this period of time that we know about from wrestling,

it fits within a context that's only, honestly, only from 96 to 99. I mean, it really is. So it burned so white hot that, yeah. That was that, yeah. That was that long ago. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, like the bullets were still a thing.

So, in May of 1996, I'm gonna start there, but I'm gonna come back, okay. In May of 1996, Vince McMahon, and two different wrestlers could not come to terms on a contract renewal. Okay, so Scott Hall, do you know that name at all? I Recognize it from from other stuff we've talked about. Okay. So Scott Hall was a pro wrestler who had been an upper mid card guy in the AWA.

The AWA was a Minneapolis-based wrestling alliance. It was one of the first offshoots of the NWA that really made it big. It was Vern Gagnia's wrestling federation and he had, it was a star factory. Like, he made amazing stars come out of there, but very often he would, I don't wanna say he held them down, but he had this kind of traditional way of doing things.

And as wrestling was exploding, his territory kept getting raided by McMahon. So, Scott Hall had been an upper mid card guy in the AWA as big Scott Hall, and he floundered elsewhere and finally found a character that worked for him in the 1990s. You might know this name, Razor Ramon. Oh, yeah, okay. That was Scott Hall. He was not in fact Cuban. So, he was essentially a Tony Montana ripoff. He wrestled in the main event many a time. He held the intercontinental belt, which is the second highest belt in the WWF at the time. And I'll be talking about the WWF mostly because that's what it was at the time. But he held the intercontinental belt a few times. He was known as an excellent worker.

And a worker is somebody who can make their opponent look really, really good. So he was good at doing that. And yeah. Just a curiosity. What was his reputation as a shooter? Didn't have one. OK.

Yeah, he, by this point, shooters are pretty much gone. If you're a shooter, you're probably going to be in the Southern Wrestling Leagues and yeah, and you're going over to Japan a lot. At this point, it's been cartoonized so much. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, he- He's throwing like, you're only going to be shooting when you're trying to make a real fight look fake. Right. Exactly. when you're trying to make a real-site look fake. Right.

Exactly. So he made people look really good. He told a really good story. I never liked his character, but I loved his work. He never got the championship, possibly because he had what's known and wrestling as the curse of the good worker. He didn't need the belt to be compelling. This also was true about a few other wrestlers, but essentially if you're really, really good,

then they're going to put you wherever because they need you there. He was the Dan Acherite of the WS, WS, he was a utility man. Yes, he was. Yeah, he was, yeah. Okay. That's a good way to put it. Or the Phil Hartman, you know, for later generations. Yeah. He had been contacted by the rival company at the time, WCW, because his contract was up. Why?

Oh, I'm just remembering, you know, two rich guys having a dick waving contest from our exhaustive survey of this before. But keep going. Oh yeah. And WCW offered him a decent amount of money. And they offered him half the days that the WWF was requiring to make that same money. So if you're wrestling 320 days a year,

that's a lot of wear and tear on your body. And you're all that travel and all that all the havoc that that wreaks on your family. So if you get offered to do the same amount of money for literally half the days, 160 days, you're going to take it. And it was a guaranteed contract, which the WWF did not do at the time. The only guarantee they had was they guaranteed you $150 a night for 10 nights a year. That was the guarantee. Anything you made over that was because you worked for it. It was like, you know, kind of like you get

a minimum and then you get commission. Really? Yeah, and it was all discretionary. Now, you worked really hard and you brought people in and you got a slice of that pie based on where you were on the card. But it was discretionary. So, yeah. And Vince McMahon did not have the money to be able to give people guaranteed contracts in the mid 90s now. In the mid 90s, he'd almost gone bankrupt as had a whole bunch of other things that I loved a lot, including Marvel Comics.

I still am thinking about doing an episode of why a bunch of different things almost went bankrupt in the middle of a really good economic upturn. But Vincent Command did not want to match the contract and Scott went to him and said, if you match it, I'll stay. Because I wanna stay. You've done great things for me.

You've done great things with my character. I've made a lot of money with you. And Vince said, if I match your contract, if I give you a guaranteed contract, I have to give guaranteed contracts to a bunch of other guys that are above you, and I can't afford to do that. And so the man didn't match it.

So what you're saying is that Ted Turner literally bought talent out from under the WWF because he had the fuck you money to do it. Yeah, he did. He did. And that was the one thing that WCW had that the WWF didn't. WWF had, it's so weird because it was Ted Turner ran a media empire, you would think their production values of their shows would have been much better, but they weren't.

WWF was just a wrestling company. Ted Turner's thing was a TV company that had wrestling on it. And the WWF had so much better production and so much better everything For any number of reasons, but Ultimately, McMahon couldn't match Scott Hall's offer now. Yeah, the other wrestler in our story Whose contract was up one week later? Was a man named Kevin Nash

Okay, he'd been on the lower to middle of the card in most of the promotions he'd been in. He was about seven feet tall. He looked amazing and yet, and he was incredibly smart. I mean, he is an incredibly well-spoken smart fellow, but he could not catch a break. He was one of the master blasters known as Steel. That name ring about? It shouldn vaguely yeah, he was Vinny Vegas He was Oz Nope, I encourage you after the show to look up Oz. It's a ridiculous gimmick when he came to the WF He came in as Shawn Michaels's bodyguard diesel

Okay, and he got pushed to the moon cuz Vince McMahon likes big champions as Sean Michaels' bodyguard, diesel. Oh, okay. And he got pushed to the moon because Vince McMahon likes big champions. He, within a year of being in the WWE, if he was the champion, and he was the longest, one of the longest-raining champions in the 1990s. He also went to Vince McMahon,

asking him to match the offer from WCW for guaranteed money, because he really wanted to stay. He told Vince flat out, nobody is done with me. What you've been able to do, I want to stay. And Vince said, I can't match guaranteed contracts. I just can't. It's bad business for me. So, so, okay. With, with the reputation that man has earned. Yes. I'm not going to say gotten because I think there is an aspect of earned involved. Oh, yeah.

As being, you know, just a giant douchebag. Yes. I find it really amazing that this is actually a circumstance where he wasn't actually fucking anybody over. Yeah, this was no seriously. I want like he's not an idiot. I'm sure he wanted to keep these guys. Yeah, he did. And like no, and Turner was literally shown up just like. His funny. Yeah, I'm mimin, I'm mimin counting bills, you know, in my hand, hubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbub bills in my hand, hubb hubb hubb, money, money, money, hoody, a trust, a lot of jack Nicholson, like, right, there's, there was just no way for him to compete with that. And I, I think, I think it's worth kind of pointing that

up because everybody knows now, because the WWE is a cultural juggernaut. You say the word Vince McMahon, you say the name, Vince McMahon, everybody goes, oh, that guy's a prick. Yeah, you know, but nowadays, if you say the name Ted Turner, like people younger than you and me, don't remember who's that.

Oh yeah, you know, well, you know, he was the founder of CNN TNT TBS TBS the braves. I think he had a stock in the hawks and yeah, and I don't think he owned the Falcons, but he owned the TV rights to basically all Atlanta sports Yeah, he was amazing. Yeah, I mean, he was, yeah, he was, he was the Donald Trump of media airwaves in the very early 90s.

He was the name everybody knew. And he also wound up earning reputations being a gigantic douchebag. Yeah, well, turns out money does that to you. Well, yeah, money tends to do that to you. And I think in Ted's case, you know, he was always, you know, a rich boy to begin with. You know, so, but, you know, but, but, but he doesn't have the level of name recognition nowadays. True.

That Vince McMahon does. And so I kind of want to make a point for nerds listening who are younger than you and me, that like, no, no, there were in fact people who were bigger dick bags than Vince McMahon. Yeah. And Vince is an interesting case because he contains multitudes. I mean, he, on the one hand, yes, he ran an incredibly exploitative carnival. On the other hand, you've heard of Mr. Fuji, right?

Yeah. Okay, so Mr. Fuji was this guy who'd wrestled since the 50s and he was a manager in the 80s and 90s, and then he kind of went away, because managers went away. One day, a wrestler came back to Vince and told him, hey, I just went to the movies before the show, and you know who was tearing tickets was Mr. Fuji. And Vince handed the wrestler $10,000 in a bag,

and said, go give that to him. Like, when a guy has that much discretionary income, he's been a dick to do it and he still is a dick in a lot of ways, but he does contain this very generous heart at the same way. And I'm not a Vince with man stand but at the same like he contains multitudes and he genuinely wanted these guys to to make the money that they thought that they should make and he just knew that he wouldn't be able to do it. He also I think knew that these guys were a little bit older and that they were on the way down like they were burning pretty hot but they were on their

way down and he needed to build new stars anyway. So there's a few things going on, but ultimately the WWF could not match these contracts. So, both men go to WCW and they had guaranteed contracts and they had something called favored nation status. So when you get to WCW, there is a term for getting the most pay that you can get. And it's really kind of a tiered system. If you're making sting money, because sting was kind

of the hot item there, that means you're making the top tier of money. And it was like $750,000 a year kind of money. Yeah. And so when they get there, Scott Hall has favorite nation status. And he tells Kevin Nash, hey, when you show up, negotiate for more money, because you were the champion. So you should be able to draw more money than they're offering to pay you. Talk them up. And Kevin Ashtard, all right, cool.

Well, what Scott Hall knew was that because he had this thing called the favored nation clause, and what that is is, anytime somebody comes in who's newer than you, if they come in at more money, you get a raise to match them. A Me Too clause. Yeah. And so the most of them had a Me Too clause for each other.

And they're coming in at the most, it's just so clever. And so they got raises to match each other. And so, you know, you know, WCW is going to do a big thing with them. Now WCW at this point is rating talent. They're not building their own within, really. And so it's the end of May, 1996. Scott Hall shows up on WCW television with very vague threats. He shows up at the end of a show and he says, you know, you know who I am, you don't know why I'm here. And he's still talking with

the pseudo-cuban accent. And he's wearing a little bit of gold, but he's not razor-romone, but he's looking very similar. There's a whole lawsuit about it. A couple weeks later, Kevin Nash joins him and they start calling out the company itself, WCW. They didn't challenge specific wrestlers exactly except for sting. So they start by challenging the company and then they challenge sting is kind of the the face of the company and Then they challenge the company's executives and its owners and it's a really different story Like normally you come in and you want to pick a fight with that guy They're like calling out WCW and they're calling out Eric Bischoff and they keep challenging Ted

Turner and all this. Now these guys work for it but this is the storyline that they're doing. Like they're coming in and challenging the actual federation and it's exemplars. They were called the outsiders I think by Mean Jean Ocarland first, because they kept coming through the crowd and invading the ring during matches. And sometimes they'd show up with aluminum baseball bats. And they'd smack them on the stairs on the way up. Like there was a sense of like what is going on here? Like they really made it real.

They disrupted everything and they attacked wrestlers on the show. And what they did was they never set out right that they were from the WWF still, but they would imply it until they were asked point blank and then they said no. And that was too low void legal trouble because there were a couple of depositions that were happening.

Like WWF was suing WCW for basically stealing their intellectual property. So in June of 96, they appear at something called the Great American Bash. It's one of the big pay-per-views. They bullied the on-air announcer and vice president WCW named Eric Bischoff into naming his three wrestlers who would meet them the next

month at the pay-per-view bash at the beach. He refused to, so they power-bombed him through a table to make their point. Now power-bom for those of you that aren't watching is where you take a wrestler and you put his head through your legs. So you're basically a crotch is sitting on the back of his head. And then you grab him by the waist and you flip him up so that his crotch is now in your face and his legs are over your shoulder. So you're wearing him like a feedback. And then you slam him back first down onto the mat from your shoulders. So it's a devastating maneuver and they did it to him through a table. The next night on Monday night show and this is like, wow, these guys haven't had a match

yet and they're just disrupting everything and they're bringing this hitherto unseen violence. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So, the next night on Monday night show, which is their night, their, their weekly Monday Night Show. Eric Bischoff had a draft and he drafted Lex Luguer, Macho Manor Andy Savage and Sting to represent the WCW against the outsiders.

Now, Hulk Hogan was away with an injury. That's why he wasn't a part of this. All three of those guys started painting their faces to show how much on the same team they were, because staying always wore face paint. Yeah, okay. Pause. Really quick. So at this point, Hulk Hogan was already with WCW. He had been for two years, yeah. Okay. All right. And the giant is the champion. He's now known as the big show. The giant is the champion having beaten Hulk Hogan and Hogan like took some time off to take care of probably hip injury. He's usually got those.

They all start painting their faces. Like I said, the lines are drawn. The outsiders had a third mystery partner. And they said, you know, we will bring him to the show you just bring these three goofs and we'll do it and they're going to take on the legendary macho man savage as well as WCW stalwarts Lex Luger and Sting and Lex had just come back from the WWF a couple years earlier or about a year earlier. And he was getting a pretty good push. The outsiders refused to name their partner

and they came out to the match at Bash in the Beach in July of 1996, just the two of them. And it's the first wrestling match that they're a part of. And during the beginning of the match, Lex Luger gets K-Fabe injured and stretchered out. Now K-Fabe means like, you know, this is the storyline that's going on. So he basically gets Stinger Splash,

Sting does this move where if you're in the corner, he'll go and he'll jump on you. It's called a Stinger Splash, it's devastating. Well, it hit Lex as well as Scott Hall. And anytime there's action in the ring, Scott Hall is taking all the bumps because Kevin Nash kind of sucks as a Hall. And anytime there's action in the ring, Scott Hall is taking all the bumps because Kevin Nash kind of sucks as a worker. He does. He has four moves. He's a big man. He had like 20 knee surgeries before he even started wrestling. He's, you know, it's not necessarily

his fault, but that just goes to show how good of a worker he was that he wasn't a good worker. And yet he's central to a lot of the ring action. But yeah, Lex Luger gets stretched out and now it's a two on two match. And eventually the situation becomes dire for WCW's representatives, Sting and Randy Savage. And Sting is outside with Scott Hall, if I recall, call correctly, and Randy Savage has just been, I think Powerbombed, I don't, and Randy Savage has just been, I think Power Bombed, I don't, it's been a while since I've watched the match. Hulk Hogan comes out to save everyone.

Thunderous applause, huge pop, which was good because he was starting to get kind of a more of a tepid response. The cavalry was here, the outsiders immediately fled the ring, and then America's hero dropped a leg bomb or did the atomic leg drop on Randy Savage. Multiple times, he turned bad guy right then in there. Savage and Sting retreat, Hogan is there standing with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in the ring. And the audience is so mad at him they're throwing garbage

into the ring. It's audience is so mad at him, they're throwing garbage into the ring. It's a very Southern, oh yeah. Yeah, this is where you can tell it's a Southern company because they are throwing stuff. Not that New York wasn't brutal in the 70s, they were. They threw like glasses of acid at people and stabbed them. Yeah, that happened in the 50s. The fuck?

Really? Oh yeah, yeah. If you were a heel, yeah, your tires would get slashed, like all kinds of horrible shit. Wow. People thought it was real. So then, Mean Jean Ocarlin comes in and here's what they say. Okay, so I'm quoting from exactly what happened, from the aftermath. Mean Jean, I have been with you for so many years for you to join up with the likes of these

two men absolutely makes me sick to my stomach and I think that these people here and he points to the crowd and a lot of other people around the world would have had just enough just about enough of this man pointing at Kevin Nash and this man pointing at Scott Hall and you want to put yourself in this group, you've gotta be kidding me, and Hogan. Well, the first thing you gotta realize, brother, is that right here is the future of wrestling. You can call this the new world order of wrestling, brother.

I just wanna let that set in. That was a improvised line. Really? It was. As far as I've been able to tell, he improbed that line, but it took off. Ocarlyn pointing to all the debris on the mat says, look at all of this crap in the ring.

This is what the future for you. This was, this is what is in the future for you. If you want to hang around with the likes of this man Hall and this man Nash, Hulk Hogan. As far as I'm concerned, all this crap in the ring represents these fans out here. For two years brother, for two years, I held my head high. I did everything for the charities. I did everything for the kids. And the reception I got when I came out here, you fans can stick it brother. Because if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, you people fans can stick it brother because if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, you people wouldn't be here.

And if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff would still be selling meat from a truck in Minneapolis. And if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan, all these Johnny come lately is that you see out here wrestling wouldn't be here. I was selling out the world brother when they were bumming gas to put in their car to get to high school. So the way it is now brother with Hulk Hogan and the new world organization of wrestling brother and me and the new blood by my side, what you gonna do brother when the new world

organization runs wild on you. See that's why I'm saying that new world order was just a line that he tossed out and then he was like trying to pick it back up and he was yeah So that's the beginning of the NWO and from that point forward the NWO the new world order of wrestling Would attack people with bats? They would entirely disrupt the wrestling shows and they would threaten wrestlers and Hogan then Challenge the giant for the title at a pay-per-view called Hog Wild, which was a biker rally up in Sturgis that they gave away for free. Like they didn't charge a gate at all, but it was all pay-per-view, it was TV money, it was a weird thing.

At Hog Wild? Yeah. And presumably since it was at Sturgis, the crowd was made up of bikers. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that matches up real well with NWOs. Oh, they're aesthetic. Yeah. And yeah. So the outsiders wrestle and they defeat Stingen Lex Luger. So there's a return match. Hogan defeats the giant winning the championship. His long time friend the booty man, you might know the booty man as the zodiac or

the butcher. No, how about Brutus the Barber Beef Cake? After he stopped being Brutus the Barber Beef Cake and he went to WCW, he was the booty man. Well actually he started as the butcher and then he was the zodiac and then he was the booty man, but you get the idea. So, you're okay. And he was whole Hogan's best friend in real life. So Hogan brought him with him. Also I think he was Hogan's weed guy.

So, so, no, where do you get that from? Just because of how often Hogan had him with him and there's just something about it, like, because back then, traveling with weed was a bad, bad idea, especially in the South. So it's not like Hogan didn't partake and the other guys didn't partake. So yeah, now he comes out wearing an NWO T-shirt and he seems ready to join the NWO, right? And everybody knows that he's Hulk Hogan's best friend. Hogan pretended that he was going to let him in and then beat him down and spray painted the championship belt with the words, or with the letters NWO.

So now this, this 10 pounds of gold belt, this, this belt that has been a tradition in WCW is now being spray painted with NWO. Like, they are throwing all the tradition out the window. God, the fans must have gone. They've shined. Yeah, it was insane. So yeah, that was, yeah, I mean, that was the beginning, as you can see, of the NWO. And now, there are a faction of very, very powerful bad guys.

Here's where it gets interesting, who came in and ran roughshod over everyone in the WCW. They called all the shots that they wanted. They had the biggest prizes in the WCW, they called all the shots that they wanted. They had the biggest prizes in the organization. The outsiders would get the tag belts in October at Halloween havoc. And they added influential wrestlers to their faction. Now, I'm going to take a break from that to ask you, where did you use to get comic books before the shelter in place?

Oh, I haven't actually spent a lot of time at buying comics, but just down the street probably my favorite place to go into and maybe pick one up when I would, is Empire Comics here in Sacramento. Yeah, I also like Empire Comics. Now they are still open, but they do all kinds of other things right now for their customers. If you call them at 916-482-8779, you can talk to the owner Ben,

and he will actually put together a package for you and put it out for you to pick up when you are ready. He can do a lot of different things for you at Empire Comics. It's a wonderful, wonderful comic bookstore, and I can't wait to go back when it is, what am I thinking? When it's safe to do so, I guess, would be a term that I would use. And he has given me the permission to plug his comic book store in terms of-

His fine establishment. Yeah. And so he mails comics out to people. He still has gift certificates. And he also, he reads a lot. So if you don't know what you're looking for, he could probably get you close to it. He can do recommendations. All right.

Also, if you have any gaps in your collections, he is re-stocking back issues. So if you let him know, he will find the issues that will fill the gaps. And if you have kids, the books are always 20% off for the kids, or kids books, 20% off. Yeah. Very cool. So I encourage all of you to go to, well, you don't go to it anymore, but it's at 1120 Fulton Avenue, and you can call Ben at 916-482-8779. All right. So, now back to the NWO.

By this time, October of 1996, yeah, by the way, it's October of 1996. Putting a pin in that date. Sure, yeah. Because I'm feeling like that's gonna become important It might be might be now by the time these three men are settling into their roles as the top of the heap at WCW Scott Hall Kevin Nash Hulk Hogan they have the top championship belts Okay

Um a few more things have happened first Ted D. B. Ossie. You remember his name? Yeah, yeah, really? Yeah, a million dollar man. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's Ted D. Biosi. So he can't come in as the million dollar man because that is a gimmick that got started in WWF. But Ted D. Biosi, that's his real name.

So he comes in as billionaire Ted. Wait, isn as billionaire Ted. Wait, isn't billionaire Ted the guy who owns this whole operation? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So he joined making sure. Yep, he joined them in August as, now he's a retired wrestler.

He's had too many injuries, but he's a wonderful mouthpiece. And he kind of represents the money behind the throne. So he's there kind of for name recognition. Now I would point out again, Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Ashtead, D. Biasi, all were made famous by the Northern Company. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, yeah. No, we went through all of this. Yes. The magnum opus of how all of this reflects a lost cause of ideology. Yes. The magnum opus of how all of this reflects lost cause, ideology. Yes.

They're all symbolically a bunch of, you know, union, I'm sorry, I mean, northern, you know, aggressionists, yeah. Aggressionists. Carpet back. Yes, prosecuting a war. An unjust war of an unjust war of Northern aggression against against a and an order of of things a tradition a set of traditions a heritage you will uh focused focused you know in and around Atlanta right um which know, I just want to say, go big, willy. Yeah. In this moment,

I just want to say Atlanta has particularly important meaning in this context. Yes. Sherman Sherman. Sherman, Sherman had the right idea. It's not what I'm saying in regard to that so okay So they also had a another member join them in September He was the first defector from WCW the giant the guy that Hogan had beaten at hog wild the giant The only guy bigger than Kevin Nash has now joined the NWL. Big Show is actually on record for absolutely hating this idea and he feels like this was their way to neuter him and to make it so that they all had the push and he didn't. But story wise, it's interesting that now they've got a defector and now they've got the two top

titles, the tag team champions and the champion. They've got the two top titles the tag team champions and the Champion they've got the largest wrestler in the Federation probably the second largest as well with Kevin Nash and they've got a spokesman so they've got muscle beyond compare and the very next week it appeared as though sting had joined the NWO and had attacked his longtime friend Lex Luger with the aid of a referee who was in favor of the NWO, Nick Patrick. They even had a referee who was NWO. Wow, yep.

Now, this is September, did I say? October. Yeah, it's October, because what's coming up is the fall brawl. And fall brawl is their November pay-per-view and It's normally fall brawl is called war games and it's normally a cage that stretched over two Rings that are stacked next to each other and you get two factions in there that have just been warring and warring and warring Well WCW had its team. Lex Luger, Arn Anderson and Rick Flair.

Arn Anderson and Rick Flair. Yeah. Wait a minute, Rick Flair. By this time, wasn't Rick Flair pretty old? He's always, to me, he's always been old. But actually, he was only in his early 40s. Really? He and Hulk Ogan are within a couple of years of each other. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. Somehow I, okay. I think he was about my age at this time.

Yeah. And, and, uh, Arn Anderson was, I think, 37, but he always looked 40. Like, whoever. Like, he was born looking 40. But Arn Anderson, Lex Luger and Ric Flair, Sting was supposed to join them, but now, because it looks as though Sting had attacked Lex Luger, he'd no shows, and so they're like, ah, Sting is okay. So Hogan and Hall and Nash were there for Team NWO, and their fourth member was a surprise. Guess who their fourth member was. Sting. Yes. and their fourth member was a surprise. Guess who their fourth member was?

Sting. Yes. So Team WCW felt betrayed. Until the real sting showed up and beat up the entire NWO, including the fake sting. So who was the fake sting? Oh God, what was his name? Jeff Farmer, I think. A guy who looked a lot like sting,

if you put on body paint and you give him same tights. Really? Yeah. All right. So the real Sting, having beaten up everybody including Fakes Sting, then left the WCW upset that they had not believed him and Fakes Sting ended up winning the match for the NWO by beating Lex Luger with real sting submission hold. Okay. Visually it works. Yeah, okay. So the next night, it's obvious that sting isn't the trader

and yet what they had on video was a sting submitting Lex Luger, who those two were best friends. The real sting comes out the next night on Nitro and what's interesting is, when you think of wrestling, you always see it from the same angle, right? That hard camera up in the stands looking, looking like that.

Sting kept his back deliberately to that camera the whole time. And he had on some new face paint you see coming down and it's black and white only. Now interestingly, the NWO's colors were black and white only. So here, and to the point where Hulk Hogan is now wearing black and white, he's not wearing the red and the yellow.

Red and red yellow. So here's what Sting had to say. He comes out there and he says, I want a chance to explain something that happened last Monday night at Nitro. Last Monday night, I was on an airplane flying from LA to Atlanta. When I got to Atlanta, I tuned into the TV on Nitro, or it turned in the TV to Nitro. And I thought I was watching a rerun. It was a very convincing film. Off-animated, but never duplicated, though. And what else did I see? I saw people, I saw wrestlers,

I saw commentators, and I saw the best friends doubt the stinger. That's right, doubted the stinger. So I heard Lex Luger say, I know where he lives, I know where he works out, I'm gonna go get him. So I said to myself, I'll just go into this conclusion. I'll wait and see what happens on Saturday night, and I tuned in Saturday night, and what did I see? More of the same, more doubt, which brings me to fall brawl.

I knew I had to get to fall brawl and face to face with the total package to let him know that it wasn't me. What I got out of that was no sting. I don't believe you sting and he's yelling at this point. Well all I got to say is I have been a mediator, I have been babysitter for Lex Luger and I've given him the benefit of the doubt about a thousand times in last 12 months true Lex Luger had gone good guy bad guy good guy And I've carried the WC band WCW banner and I've given my blood my sweat my tears for WCW

So for all those fans out there and all those wrestlers and all the people it never doubted the stinger I'll stand by you if you stand by me But for all the people all of you commentators all of the wrestlers and all the people that never doubted the stinger, I'll stand by you if you stand by me. But for all the people, all of you commentators, all of the wrestlers and all of the best friends who did doubt me, you can stick it. From now on, I consider myself a free agent. That doesn't mean that you won't see the stinger from time to time. I'm going to pop in when you least expect it. So that's pardon me, September 16th, 1996. So fall brawl was September. Okay. That same night, so September 16th, 1996. That same night, the NWO added a sixth member, a guy named six. You might remember him as the one, two, three kid in W, or in WWF. No, no, he's also later known as X-Pock.

No, yeah, he's fairly forgettable if you're not a wrestling fan. Okay. But he's a friend of Holland Nash and he kind of got made famous in WWF as well. In October, they added Vincent. You might remember him as Virgil, which was in WWF. He was Ted D. Bossi's man servant. Million dollar man. The guy always holding the money.

Now that's just kind of a fun little story. When he was in WWF, his name was Virgil because the real name of Dusty Rhodes is Virgil Runnels. So they named a character after him. So then when he comes down to WCW, Dusty Rhodes works with WCW, and so they name his character Vincent, Vince McMahon. Nice.

So this guy's like entire career is just based on burning each other. So here's the pattern, and we talked about it already. There's all guys from the Northern promotion coming in and taking over this promotion with a sizable defection by one person who'd previously been a monster villain. So he was a bad guy, but he was our bad guy, but now he switched over. The referee kept showing favoritism and became their referee, and that gets us to October when

Miss Elizabeth joins the NWO betraying the four horsemen. She'd already betrayed Macho Man's Savage to join the four horsemen and now she betrays the four horsemen to join the NWO. Wow. Yeah. So the NWO has this real renegade kind of feel. They made guerrilla style commercials that look like they'd hijacked the signal briefly. They sold their merchandise out of a truck outside to the fans.

They ran their own wrestling shows briefly and empty arenas. They were trying really hard to make it look like a takeover with the WCW claiming that Hall, Nash and Hogan were the only employees there who were WCW employees and they were only employees because they held the belts. Okay, so getting meta business like, okay? Yes, like we have to employ them because they have our belts. If someone would beat them, we could fire them. But all these other guys, they're not part of us.

So it's just this idea of like this northern takeover, right? Eric Bischoff was the vice president of WCW on the air and he was also one of their announcers. After Halloween havoc, so that's October, um, Roddy Piper had come to WCW. And he wanted to match with Hulk Hogan. You remember Roddy Piper, right? Oh, of course. Oh, yeah. So Roddy Piper also from the North, but he had been Hogan's rival up North. And he comes down and he calls out Hogan again.

And he's representing tradition. His promo is very long and windy. And there's a lot of back and forth. So I didn't bother writing it down But essentially he wants a match with Hulk Hogan and he essentially tells Hogan As big as Hulk Emanio was it was because of Roddy Piper because I was the one standing across from you You have to at least admit that And and he steers Hogan down and Hogan admits it, but then his pipe is leaving

And pipe even says to Hogan like straighten up and he is these leaving Hogan down and Hogan admits it, but then his pipe is leaving. And pipe even says to Hogan, like, straighten up. And he is these leaving. Hogan says something about pipe is killed. And then pipe is, oh, yeah, I wanna fight. Oh yeah, okay, well, here we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. And he, like, the giant is coming toward him. He's like sit-outs frow, and the giant backs off.

Like, it's a fun, fun thing. Well, the NWO responds by attacking and running off the announcers, forcing and keeping Eric Bischoff their hostage and forcing him to say that Hulk Hogan was better than Piper on the air. And at the end of that episode, or at the end of the episode in mid November of 96,

mid November of 96, P-November of 96, Piper is arguing in the ring with Eric Bischoff about the fact that they hadn't yet made the match between him and Hogan, and the NWO comes out and attacks Piper, and they reveal that Bischoff has been with them the whole time. He stops being an announcer,

he becomes the spokesman for the NWO. The corruption goes all the way to the top. The guy in charge is now a part of the new world order, with some of the most recognizable wrestlers in the company running roughshod doing whatever they want, changing the rules as they go all from the north. Eric Bischoff was acknowledged as being from Minneapolis. It gets better. Wow. Sherman didn't burn enough. Right. So following his resignation, Eric Bischoff gives all the wrestlers an

ultimatum. Either you join the NWO within the next 30 days or you'd be on the losing end of a beat down forever. Many joined over the next few weeks and they're all mid-carders. So now you have guys in the NWO that you can beat and nobody's touching Hogan and all those. So they're driving the story and you've got guys that could be beaten. After Starcade in December, they kicked the giant out because he refused to continue an assault on Roddy Piper. So it's December of 96. All of this detail is to make the following connection. The NWO storyline was a Southern wrestling company's reflection

of how the South had come to think of Bill and Hillary Clinton and most of the Democratic Party due to the efforts of Newt Gingrich and the contract with America. That is a Really big Headspin RKO dog who kind of kind of connection there Okay, so all all of that Mm-hmm all of that Was was a metaphorical Mythologized reflection.

Yes. Is what you're saying? Yes. Of the Southern Zitguys to ward, Uncle Billy Clinton, and the Democratic Party. Yeah. Don't forget Hillary.

She's living North. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's true. She is. So, wait, that's true. She is. So wait is is is miss miss Elizabeth Hillary in this in this scenario. I think Hillary's probably Eric Bishoff. Okay. And I. So, okay. But, but and and all of this is through the manipulation of,

or through the machinations and the, and the messaging of, um, the Republican Party led at this point, uh, strategically led by Newt King Gritch. Um, by this point, yes, but there are some other players that we need to strategically led by Newt Gingrich. By this point, yes, but there are some other players that we need to acknowledge on the way. And so I'll finish by acknowledging a bit there, and then I'll stop us after a big board watershed. So in 1992, George Bush loses his bid for re-election,

largely because the Republican vote was splintered by Ross Perot. Yeah, see, if you present two really rich people from Texas, the right doesn't know what to do with itself. Uh, so, in 1992. Yeah. In 1992. See this button right here?

Yeah, it's a button right here. This button, this is the one that makes trains run on time. I used to love my favorite Ross Perot joke. I used to love the one where Dana Carvey, you know, because Ross Perot bought like a half hour of TV time to put out his platform. Now, let me tell you, now I want to understand something I've eaten it, taken it into my intestines, digested it, and passed through my colon.

Like just... But my... Yeah, go on. I'm instituting a national bedtime of 8 p.m. That seems really early, but you're going to be glad you went to bed that time when the National alarm clock goes off 5.30 the next morning. Yeah, that that that that particular impersonation was I think one of Dana Carvey's true genius master strokes. Yeah, yeah, but I'm but I'm stepping on your toes. Oh, it's fine. I was gonna say my absolute

favorite though of all the impersonations of Ross Pro. It wasn't even a very good one, but the phrase has stuck with me to the point where it's a quote on my classroom wall. And it was Will Durst, San Francisco comedian Will Durst. The first comic I ever saw live once I turned 18. I have the ticket still from my birthday. And he said that Ross Pro is, he said he is an enchanted tree stump with ears, which I loved. And my parents would drag me to all the Earth Day festivals in the Bay Area,

so and very often will do comedy at them, and I would just go and sit and watch that. But my favorite was he says, Ross Pro, he would talk so weird, and he'd have the weirdest metaphors that wouldn't make any sense, because of his accent you'd think they should. So you say look you can't put a pork you're pining up on a barn expect to make licorice. Which is it's my favorite quote It's so good. Having lived through both of Ross Perot's campaigns. Yep. That actually sounds like him. Yeah, it does. It really does. And I love that phrase. Like, you can't put a porcupine up on a barn. Expect to make licorice. I wish that those words existed in Latin, but they don't.

I wish that those words existed in Latin, but they don't. So, so in 1992, Pat Buchanan pulls Bush further to the right and was allowed to make the keynote speech at the Republican Convention. And this speech is the watershed, okay? So he went all out for the culture war, giving a speech called the culture war in Houston, Texas. He spoke for 30 minutes, and he hit all the boilerplate issues that we've come to recognize. He started them though, or he named them. He said that radicals and liberals

were dressed up as moderates in the, quote, single greatest exhibition of cross-dressing and American history Which links transvestitism with liberal ideology and by extension with the Democrats Wow, so yeah, so You know He he wouldn't get away so he said that 92 yes and in He he wouldn't get away there. So he said that 92 yes and in 96

2000 he wouldn't have gotten away with that Now he would he get away with it again. I know isn't that weird That's fucked up as what it is. All right carry on he was referring to the Democratic National Convention Which that year had been held in Madison Square Garden. Now, he's in Houston, Texas. Houston had its own wrestling promotion there. It was a very southern type of wrestling, but it's in Houston, Texas, right? Texas.

Very much identified themselves as the South. The place where Kennedy got killed, like there, like yeah. So, and Madison Square Garden is the crown jewel of the WWF in terms of venues. Madison Square Garden represents everything that there is about New York, you know, to the people in Houston. Here's some other thing.

Yeah, it's prototypical in Yankee. Yes, it's everything. It represents literally everything that is the urbanized Yankee. I mean, during the Civil War, it was what symbolized everything about what Yankee, who Yankees were, to anybody from the South never mind the fact that, you know, if you're talking about a Michigander or an Iowan or, you know, a manor, they're not from that, but that was the stereotype of, you know, the Billy Union was, you know, he was a soft city boy. Yeah.

So here's some other things that he said, Pat Buchanan says, quote, there is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. I'm just going to back up for a second. Anytime anybody talks about soul for a country, they're pulling directly on Mussolini. The only time that they're not is if they are in reaction to the hyper-right-wing policies and they're pulling on a moral authority, like in the civil rights movement. But they're still using a very Mussolini-E language. It is a culture war as critical to the kind of nation

we will one day be as was the Cold War itself. He also went on to point out that a victory by Bill Clinton and the Democrats would impose on this country, quote, abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units, that's change, all right. But it's not the kind of change America wants,

it is not the kind of change America needs, and it's not the kind of change that we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country. So in the middle of all that, the first thing that occurs to me is I want to look at them and go, so patty boy. Aren't you imposing litmus test if you require that judges support pro life, positions just as much as you're accusing the other side of requiring them to be you know pro choice. Oh there you go using my arguments nice job nice try. See that's the thing about being that kind of a

shit bird is that you can accuse the other person of what you're doing and then they can't point out when you do it. Yeah yeah So because then you're like, oh, nice two quokuei argument there, you know, it's yeah. Yeah, but but it's not wrong. I mean, it is it is to to coque way, but it's not, it's factual. Like, yes, this one is doing like like like like, like, like, like the fact that it falls into that category doesn't automatically make it illegitimate. Like, oh, I don't know. I'm done thinking already. Sorry. Yeah, you lost. Well, you know, and, and it's not works. Sort of sort of in, in mitigation, in it, in, I don't want to say defense, but you know, at least back in 92,

that would be the point that they stopped thinking as opposed to nowadays, they never start. Yeah. So. Yep. Wow. All right. So, so he gives, he gives this barn burner of a of a y'all kind of Religious or yep speech and then Clinton wins Yeah, well, and that's exactly my point was that this really sets the tone for the losing side You would also later name abortion sexual orientation pop, pop culture, Confederate flag controversies, feminism, school vouchers, environmentalism, elitism, that's one of my favorites, considering the background of both presidential candidates, people's dislike of his speech itself, all as examples of the polarization that sweeping the nation because of this culture war. So again, the bushes, super rich people who helped hide Nazi money, they're the good people.

This guy who is an adopted step son of really, you know, kind of lower middle class folk who bootstrapped himself up out of Arkansas and on and on and on, that's not one of us. And I'm going to get into that much more, but it's just kind of interesting that he's like, you know, these people are elites. And it's like, wait a minute, you're standing for the bushes. Yeah, and, and, and, um, I had a thought, but I got, I got lonely and left, But, you know, but yeah, you wanna talk about, you know, families, oh, oh, the thought came back. This is, I think, the very beginning. This is the point at which it actually becomes overt

within Republican culture, becomes overt within Republican culture, that any democratic president is prima facia illegitimate because the presidency should be held by a Republican. Like at the end of the day, if you tighten down on whatever complaints they have about Bill Clinton, whatever complaints they have about Bill Clinton, whatever complaints they have about Obama, what it all comes down to in the end is their Democrats and Democrats

are inherently politically illegitimate period. I think I'm going to go one step farther than that though, is that the Republicans had a better finger on the pulse of America's demographic shift, and they realized that the only way to keep power as a growing minority, which I guess a shrinking minority, was to push these culture war buttons was to push these culture war buttons and was to create a greater sense of tribalism and ultimately make themselves into an insurgent party because people want to root for the underdog. And again, we go back to lost cause.

And that's gonna be really easy for a lot of people to grab onto. So he also railed against publicly funded art, a war on Christmas, and the inferior moral authority of Clinton compared to Bush, which that really makes me happy. This wait, okay, yeah, the war on Christmas thing. 90, 92. Oh, we'll get into talk radio Really it's a God goes back that far. I know shit. Yeah So in 1992 when bush loses his bid for another term and Clinton wins By nowhere near a majority I might add and that also feeds into it

There's a tremendous feeling of betrayal in America, like you were talking about. The losing side doesn't accept its loss and figure out how to win next time. They're too invested in the narrative that there's a war for America's culture. And it's turned into ordinary Americans versus liberalism. And what's interesting there is ordinary American's is a group of people, liberalism is an ideology. So they kind of just took the Cold War and re-skinned it on some levels. It's an effort to take back the America the same way the military took back the streets of Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots and he mentions that. There's no mention of what that led to the riots of course. They now start to go after high school history curriculum. The fact that there's a number of court cases

that are working their way through the system that come up at this time is more proof of the evil of liberalism. Like that's all part of what Pat Buchanan had started and named. And it's not that he started it. It's that he named it. And by naming it, he gave it a power. And he gave people a brand to latch onto. And the, yeah, he's that he named it. And by naming it, he gave it a power. And he gave people a brand to latch onto. And the, yeah, he's, he's not the originator of these troops. He's a codifier of them. Yes. And the worst part is the punchline here is that Bill Clinton was hardly liberal. He was as centrist as they come. He had former Republican advisors. He implemented TANF, uh, temporary assistance for

Needy families, which replaced the AFDC, which was aid to families with dependent children. I would point out the first word of each of those, temporary versus aid. Essentially, there were more efforts built into the system for means testing, lifetime limits on being on the programs, and new work requirements. He built, yeah, go ahead. Okay, hold on. So, but the tant thing, was that during his first term? Or was that, yeah, this is first term, really? Yep.

Because I had always been under the impression, well, I mean, he did do it, but I had thought that the sweeping the middle out from under the Republicans by doing that stuff was strictly a, I lost my shirt in 94. So now I'm going to do with a congressional midterm. So now I'm going to do this in 96. The triangulation happened in 92 and he was lucky that Ross Perot came in and split the Republican vote. Otherwise, he would have lost.

Yeah. He used the Republican program, their reform plan on welfare. He did their program because he twice vetoed it and then he was like, okay, fine, we'll use it. He was also a big fan of deregulation in the communications industries. As well as the financial industries, under his presidency, Glass-Steagall took more of a hit in terms of what banks could or couldn't do with the positive monies. He also deregulated the derivative markets. The man was not a liberal, but he was painted as one because he was part of a

growing movement toward a greater equality for people on the margins of American society, and here you could say he is more of a liberal. He was far more liberal in his approach than prior presidents, but take a look at who the prior presidents were. Reagan. Yeah. When it came to the right. Yeah. It like for for the love of God. A man who who would have made Eisenhower just shake his head and go golfing. Well, in his defense, lots of things made Eisenhower shake his head and go golfing. But it's very true. No. But you know, I mean, I who finished his term by warning Americans against the military industrial complex for God's sake.

And then that then turned into Kennedy, which turned into Johnson, which turned into Nixon. And for God's sake, yet Nixon. And Reagan ran to the right of that. And then, and then, and then Reagan ran to the right of that. And, you know, H. W. Bush, you know, started out saying that, you know, supply side was voodoo economics. But then, but then it became heresy to say that, so he had to go along with the party line.

Yeah, the parasite took over the host. Yeah, and like, and, you know, so saying that Bill Clinton was more liberal in many ways than that, is like saying that, you know, I can't even think of a suitably ridiculous comparison, but like, you know, is to say that, well, you know, Genghis Khan had his flaws, but he wasn't Vlad the impaler. Yeah. Like, yeah.

Yeah. Jesus. So he was much more liberal when it came to the rights of Gays in the military. The restrictions on women's health and assault weapons. He was more liberal than those guys. He however became the icon and how he gets there, I'll talk about in the next couple episodes.

He becomes the icon of liberal elitism and liberalism in the culture war that you can and breathed life into by calling it. Yeah. And that's where I'm going to leave us for this episode. So anything you want to glean or do you want to call it here and be the cliffhack? I think I want to go back to the whole emotional that gaced surrounding Surangle 92 election because as I've mentioned before, I'm a recovering Republican.

And 92 was the beginning of my senior year of high school. Okay. And so in my journalism class, senior year of high school, the morning of Bill Clinton's inauguration, we watched the inauguration in class. And I was still enough of a larval Republican at that point that I remember watching that smug hick was taking the office that should have gone to my guy. Right. Your brand lost. Yeah, and looking back on it now, I want to grab smug self-important, know it all me by the lapels and say, that's not how this works. You stupid kid. And I had a whole bunch of life experiences that led me out of that. But I think within within the right, I mean, that's still, that's like the driving ethos behind people like Tommy Laren. Behind so many of the talking heads on the right is.

Let's not bring her into it because she was born well after that shit. Like she, like she's glomming onto that but she's not in any way coming. She's a shell. She's not coming by it naturally. Like I am willing to let people who were born and came of age at that time. I'm willing to let them have that as they're like battle of Kosovo moment. Or you know, remember the main moment for them.

But anybody who comes after that, they don't remember the fucking main. They don't get to claim it. Well, I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is it's now, I'm bringing her up just because she's the first of the talking heads that occurs to me. But you think of, you know, assholes like Tucker Carlson and all these other, you know, Fox News motherfuckers. Yeah.

That's the same thing. Yeah. You know, and, you know, to me, Laren was raised in it, like, you know, and News mother fuckers. That's the same thing. Yeah. You know, and, you know, tome and Larry was raised in it, like, you know, and so, so she's just, you know, parenting the stuff that, you know, made her daddy happy when she said it when she was a youngster, you know.

But, but it's this, this, this motivating factor is this bitterness over, you know, we are, we are the only ones who are legitimate. Our side is the only one that can be legitimate. And even when we're in power, we are victims. Right. And that's that insurgency that I was talking about. Yeah. And the thing is, when Buchanan gave that speech, that wasn't yet part of that. True. But that became part of it. When Wild Bill took the White House,

and then it crystallized and like metastasized into something even more angry and uglier when Obama took the White House. Oh, hugely. You know, when I was, when I was a teenager, the joke that I was used to go around was, you know, liberals are never able to have any fun. Liberals, liberals can never be happy. Now I got to say conservatives are never happy.

They're always furious like rage has become their ideology. Yeah. And that's all there is to it. And I think that's that's the biggest takeaway I have here is like hearing hearing those words from you can in speech is like, oh my god, this is when it fucking started. Yep. And that's what I have right now. Well, next time we'll actually get into the Clinton presidency. And either next episode or the following, I'll bring it back around to wrestling, because the wrestling kind of serves as bookends for it. All right, so. Okay, so where can we find you on the social media? On the social media, I am at EH Blaylock on the Twitter and I'm at Mr.

Blaylock on the Instagram. How about you? I am at Da Harmony on both the Twitter and the Instagram and you can also find me every Friday night in May. Actually I don't know if this is gonna release in in May but every Friday night in May, actually I don't know if this is going to release in Friday in May, but every Friday night in May you can find me at Twitch.tv forward slash capital puns, but starting in June we're switching to a Tuesday night at 8.30pm Twitch.tv forward slash capital puns. Every Sunday night though you can find me at 8.30 at Twitchtv, forward slash calling it in the ring where we talk a lot about wrestling. So those are the places you can find me. So for, oh, and you can also find us at where?

Geek History Time. And add Geek History Time on the Twitter. Yeah. So for Geek History of Time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.