The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 590 - Sputnik Monroe - Reverse Dollop

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

Comedians Gareth Reynolds and Dave Anthony examine wrestler Sputnik Monroe.  Tour Dates Redbubble Merch Sources   Squarespace

You're listening to the dollop on the all things comedy network. This is an American way. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you babbling sack. Be quiet. That's what my mom called me. Be quiet. Dave. Dave, I just, I think it's actually this week, this week, you're listening to the Pollard on the All Things Comedy Network. That's not a name. This is a bi-weekly American history podcast where sometimes I man-in-shoes guy with nails at the end of his fingers and toes. Person excited for push-ups. Gareth Reynolds reads a story from American history to my grandpa.

I am. Yes, your grandfather, David Anthony Reynolds. We have been family for as long as I can remember. That's right, Papa. You came from my loins. Thank you, Poppy. And a lot of it got on the couch. Did you say your part yet? The story I've never heard or whatever.

Good stuff, but. It's like a well-loyal machine. You know what? Sometimes grandpa doesn't remember things. Yeah, no, I've noticed. And I don't know what it is. A lot of lapses. I don't know what we're doing.

Yep. So I'm gonna read you a story Okay, you're gonna sit there and you're gonna like it. Okay. I mean, I've already heard some of it. Well, here we go again And called it quote his jam pat Jim I'm the fucking hip-hop guy. Dave. Okay What I'm scared. It's Wait. Is it far five? And this is not going to come to Tiggly Quad, guys. Okay.

This is like an- I don't think. I don't think. I'm not five-part coefficient. My room is flat. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. No, sleep down, hip-hop.

That's like hell, hip-hop. Action, part. I can't. No. I see it done, my friend. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I see, done my friend. Now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, analytics, all in one, they got the whole ball of wax. I have been using Squarespace forever before the horse and buggy even. I first started using Squarespace, what, 10, more than 10 years ago, probably ages ago. I was looking for a simple way to have a website, not, don't have to, I don't want to update stuff. I don't want to have to deal with all the nonsense, just have it all done for me.

And then I plug in stuff and I enter my information. And I do this stuff I want to do. Not the tech stuff, I don't want to get involved in the nonsense. And that's what Squarespace is. And Squarespace also looks great, great templates. That is why I first chose Squarespace because I went and I looked at the templates and I was like, oh, these actually look looks great. Great templates. That is why I first chose Squarespace because I went and I looked at the templates and I was like, ah, these actually look really, really good.

Gareth also has his website with Squarespace and then of course we have the dollar sources with Squarespace and we have the dolloppodcast.com with Squarespace where you can get all your two information and we now have some swear free episodes. So if you want to listen with the kids, we have some no cursing episodes up on the dolloppodcast.com, which is hosted by Squarespace, as I said. So here's what you're gonna do. You are gonna go to squarespace.com slash dollop

for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code dollop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right, Dave. Should we measure? We're on tour? Yes, we are going to be on tour starting July 26 in San Jose. Then we go to San Francisco, Sacramento, Boise, Salt Lake, Boulder, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, we're adding shows in Salt Lake and Denver. We're doubled up. Yep. So if you want to go to the other,

remember those are the exact same scripts for the, oh, wait. No, it's not. It's different scripts. We do a different show. Yeah, yeah. And one's a musical. And then later in then later in your will be in other cities that are currently covered by boxes will be in uh... bloomington chicago chicago milwaki madison and

saint paul sure think it's that something like that so midwest uh... and yeah go to dial podcast dot com for all. I'll be, go, doing a bunch of shows. You can go to guiartherons.com, Wes East Coast run for that. And I guess away we go. You strapped in. I won't be going anywhere.

You strapped on. I'm legally restricted from going. You ready? You strapped on, you strapped in? Oh, I'm strapped. You ready to go? Ready to go. All right, you okay? I'm your dad. See you're my grandpa. Here we go Dave. Five four three two two December 18th

1928. I'm out. I Whisper a bio right before the great the great day the big do that's right. Yeah, that is actually I don't even think about that God What a time let's beat it Roscoe Monroe Merrick not a great name was born in Dodge City, Kansas Mm-hmm his mother was a widow named Rue Merrick or Rui Merrick are you i.e. Go either Rue Merrick, are you i.e. Go with either. Rui Merrick I think. His father had been killed in an airplane crash only one month before Roscoe was born.

Had it coming. Lot like your dad. Yep. What happened to you and your papa? Exactly. Yep, passed away. After his father's death, Rui and young Roscoe moved in with her grandfather at 909 West Trail Street just across the street

from the main line of the cross country Santa Fe Railroad just in case you wanted the holiday. I did want to know what the train situation was for the bull. So the train closed, that's the address. Yep, so he's affected by trains as we all were. A lot of, he'll go insane because of the trains. You know my father ran a wooden train company when I was a child.

Okay. Your son. In his early years, Roscoe was raised by his grandparents at an African-American nanny, quote, I grew up with a black nanny and she had the patience of God. She was just outstanding and I always thought highly of her and her family.

I thought, boy, what a great people. Well, that's a weird way to put it, but yes. It's one of those things where it's at the time a super nice sentiment. Mm-hmm. But never, never comfortable with the language. Yeah, well when you're saying you people or whatever, you've gone off while you're with me. But he's, you know, he means it in the best way possible,

but yeah, it's, it's not great. When Roscoe was four, his mother married a professional baker named Virgil Brumbaw. Brumbaw's, Brumbaw's baguettes. Yep, sure. Well, how do you want to put it? I'm getting heavy if my dad has. I was hoping there was not going to be any more.

If my, my pa, my new pa has a bakery I'm big kid your past your boy yeah past your boy yeah for sure yeah well um that cram and baguettes and everything all the time all the holes every every hole full of baguette sure let's uh let's just let's move call me baguette boy sure Sure. And people are amazed because I can eat it from all sides. I wasn't allowed in the bakery. I'm not sure, yeah, I'm sure eating baguettes from all sides. What did you say?

And they didn't allow me in because I was scaring the customers. Yeah. What is that guy getting spit fired by bread? So as a teenager, Roscoe spent a lot of time working in Virgil's bakery with his fully integrated workforce. Through his relationships with his co-workers, Roscoe became aware of America's brutal system of racial discrimination and simply couldn't understand why his friends were treated differently based on the color of their skin.

Same. Yep. Sure. Yeah. It's nice when you have that moment where you realize, God, it's just horrendous. What a terrible place. Yeah But yeah, so he has that and okay, so a born pugilist as a young man, Roscoe's grandfather a horse trader and a bear knuckled fighter Well, those two always went together. Yeah. Well, this is a guy who he would fight the horses. Yeah It was a horse fight.

That's why you traded for a horse because you've beaten up the last one so much. Yeah, I mean, and yeah, by the way, well, I'll get to that a second. So his grandfather taught him how to box and Roscoe excelled in amateur wrestling at East High School in Wichita, Kansas. Man, I don't care for it.

Interesting. High school wrestling is weird and I don't think people should do it. Hmm. I think this is my take. I think they should be allowed to come up with characters. Like real wrestling. That's totally fair.

I think they should be able to come up with, you know. It would be much better. Yeah. As a guy, there. It's a little like it's just, you can't go from the wrestling you're used to seeing now to that. Yeah. You should let them be like, you know, like, I'm King Derek or whatever, you know.

King Derek's a good one, but he's a pretty good one, you know? It's weird to the king. Yeah, it's not great. Yeah, the Royal Dan. Again. Like stuff like that. I don't know why we're doing monarchy wrestlers. No, no, no, no, you know, but like a-

Marshmallow Tommy, like let's come up with a room. And he comes out and he's all covered in marshmallows. You try to get him to block. Oh no. Yeah. I'm not wrestling a guy covered in blick with Shiller. Yes, you are. We're Jake in high school.

I'm a king. Okay. I'm king Derek. You're also third string on the, is there a string? I'm third king. I feel a bit of light heavyweight. Okay, so anyway, we're not doing the Marsmobile kid. So after graduating, Roscoe joined the Navy at the age of 17, and he was assigned to the

USS Nierrius on the Pacific for Operation Rhodes End, whereas Jab was stripping 39 captured Japanese Navy submarines of their armaments and then towing them to sea and blowing them up. So they would, best job? D Torpedo a ship and then explode it. Which is my next point, yes.

As far as a Navy job goes, is there a better one? Why didn't they tell me about that in high school that you could do exactly? That's the job. Because these recruitment guys, like recruitment guys are obviously, they're just, a lot of times it's like the financial squeeze, there's a lot of con and going on.

You should just mention that this is an option. Yeah, some guys take everything out of a sub and then blow it up and I'm like, where do I sign? Yeah, I don't know what job you get. You know, you might be boots on the ground in Kabul and that could be tough. Or sometimes people go and they detour peto ships and explode them.

Yes, I would be much more into it. I'm gonna put people on it, some people. I can think of. No, no, no, there's no people on them. Some comedians. No, no, no. No, we're not gonna turn this into a. Personal Grudge Mansion.

Yeah, we're not gonna do that. It is. Although I think I have a good idea of who you be putting on after watching what happened on Twitter the last couple days, were you at a new beef or an old beef? I don't think I have the beef. I think you do.

I think that's a one way beef. No, there's not such a thing as a one way beef. Okay, so yeah, best job ever, right? So they would basically, they would blow the ship up and then they would return the torpedoes across the Pacific to the base at Mayor Island near Vallejo, California. So yeah, I mean, low fear as far as like, yeah, you know, except for maybe one of the torpedoes accidentally blown up your pretty your pretty smart i mean that's pretty good though uh... you accidentally are on the sub when you like the fuse

you know roads and would be a great so-called movie i would love to see that uh... after serving in the u.s. navy for two years Monroe save three thousand dollars anybody's own bakery in anthony cancels you know that was a city? Of course I did. It's a shithole. How f**k is it?

It is a shithole. It is a shithole. Great grand f**k. Anthony Kansas is considered the urethra of the nations. What's wrong with him? It is where it is. It's the anus. It's not.

They call it, you know what they call it? The awesome town. The pro. Awesome, awesome, Anthony. It's called the pro. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Because. Awesome awesome. Awesome. Anthony. It's called the pro. No, it's not. Yes, it is.

Because it's basically the Bung. Anthony can. I'm not even saying this because it's your last name. But Anthony Kansas is known for being a lump of dog shit. That's where we're holding the dollar podcast festival. We are certainly not doing that in Anthony Kansas.

So anyway, they're in that, they're in that God for sake of hell. Shut up. Can I finish reading the story? This is all written down. So they're in what's widely considered to be the worst place in the country, maybe the world. And Roscoe starts attending, oh yes, but his bakery dream doesn't work out.

What? Yeah, so that's, and that'll be the end of the, that's the end of the bread stuff for the episode. There's no more yeast stuff. So it's, it's something that will come back. I'm pretty sure of you. I'm telling you that it won't. I know the right.

There's going to be a muffin portion. No, there won't be. No. Baguettes. Nope, this is, this is it. It's croissants. Nope. There'll be a little croissant part. Nope. Nope. Where he's just crying and no more bread stuff. It's croissants. There'll be a little croissant part. Nope.

Where he's just crying and gnome. It's over. There's no more bread stuff. It's just numbing himself in a pile of croissants. Bread on arrival. So Roscoe starts attending. He did the next logical thing. Obviously, he starts attending local carnivals

where he discovered that he could get paid big bucks by surviving five minutes against a local carnival brute. I did that. So he could get money by doing five minutes with the carnival brute and the one he started with was someone in Wichita named Big Belly Billy Ellie or Big Belly Bill Ellie. I don't want to call him Billy. So he was a one trick pony. Big Belly Bill Ellie.

I don't know. Originally called Big Belly. I believe he was the guy covered in marshmallow if memory serves. Oh. Yeah. I did try to find more stuff on big belly belly, but there's nothing.

It's like there's an airport right next to Anthony Kansas. All right, put your phone down. As far as looking at Anthony Kansas. There's an airport. There's also a really nice courthouse. Well, they're gonna need it with all that. Oh, fuck you, very criminals. Those assholes.

There's not a jail big enough for the people of Anthony Kansas. And I mean this, if you live in Anthony Kansas, I apologize. You need to get out of there. It is truly, they call it the prostate. 2100 heroes. That's who lives there.

Roscoe did well enough at the carnival. So he was off to Jack wrestling. How was that hard? It's hard. You fight a big belly bill. What point have we done a story where someone's like, and then he joined the carnival and it washed out. He has to go.

He has to go wrestle the dude who's or like the main guy, the biggest guy. It's like, you know what I mean? It's like unseating a jeopardy champion, but with your muscles. That's a great. It's not a good, that wasn't a good. Parallel. It was like, now you're in a car in general.

Roscoe did well enough that he was offered a job wrestling for the carnival, which was truly a feat because those shows, okay. They, obviously the carnival, they have to pay money if the, if the wrestler from the carnival loses. So a lot of times they would have a curtain on one side of the ring, just like, you know, whatever, backstage, I guess.

And if the carnival wrestler was losing, they would, the carnival wrestler would kind of get the crowd member who's beating them up against that curtain. And someone behind the curtain would hit that guy with like metal or like a wrench or something like that. Knock him out. And then the dude would drop it.

People would be like, whoa, but sometimes the timing would be off. Like the guy would just kind of get hit, fall, and the wrestler would be like, oh, punched him. And people would be like, that seemed strange. That timing seemed off. Okay. So all I'm hearing is that I have a job at the account. Yes, you are perfect.

I have a job. But there's like, no, I'm going to wrestle them. And you're just like, get them to the card. Get them to the card. Come on. I beat him. Get them over to the card. Come on.

You just come out. Always. What are you doing? Always in my life. It's quote, it was nearly half a century ago. And $5 and plenty of machismo could get you five minutes in the ring with a strong man and a chance at 50 bucks. I had shovel fights, rope fights, pickaxe handle fights, I wrestle,

I box sometimes with one hand tied down, whatever their specialty was. So, you know, different time for the sport. Different strokes for different folks. And then I am realizing it's pickaxe handle fights, which is it's sort of why do you need them? That's the best way to fight with a pickaxe. Why do you need the pickaxe?

Can you just have a handle or? Yeah, I could just be a handle fight. But the pickaxe is, I think, something that has a pretty sweet handle is supposed to. It's a little bit of a different handle than say a shovel. I wouldn't like knowing that if I'm beating someone with the pickaxe handle fight they can just go pickaxe and what I mean when any pickaxe handle fight that I've been in that got goes past 10 rounds and then you put the top on right sure yeah I bet you've done a lot of those in Anthony Kansas that I

think I got out of the cave that's it at that point Roscoe literally ran away with the circus so he goes on the road with the carnival yeah for five years Roscoe traveled from town to town and he got really good really quickly at wrestling but even bigger than his wrestling talent was his ability to piss people off by taking on all comers, hooking them into submission holds, and then berating their families as he threatened to break their legs or arms. I don't understand what the value of that is.

What? Like, why does he want to make them so angry that they're losing their shit? Well, because that's stylistically- No, it's more the passion. It's like the more, you know, you, what, I mean, it's almost like, you know, people getting furious is good business. We see that even now, you know, where it's like,

so it's like, they're creating the fury. People are furious. They're gonna come back because they want to see him lose because they hate him. Okay. So he's doing a good job of that. Roscoe took what he learned about riling up the mizarks in the Carnival Circuit with him

into a career as a professional wrestler when he debuted as Pretty Boy Rogue. Here we go. In 1951 and he was absolutely vicious. Not pretty, was he? Beautiful. Carnival wrestling was brutal. It was violent.

You'd use anything you could. You could, you'd use your elbow, your shin, your shoulder. But he did need a signature move. Okay, so I take a glove. I stick it in glue and then I put it in crushed glass. That's the kickboxer. Now, is that really a guy? That's in kickboxer. Now, is that really a guy? That's in kickboxer, isn't that in kickboxer?

The movie kicks box. I don't remember. In kickboxer, at some point, they have to dip their hands in glue at glass. Is that true? They fight. Well, I guess I remembered that somehow. It's deep in my mind.

And it's interesting because those punches, they hurt more. When you get hit with glass. Yeah. Not a glass. Not in my experience. Yeah, so, no, that is a, a great, John Claude Van Dam.

Wait, John Claude Van Dam did kickboxer and blood sport? Yeah, I think so, yeah. I mean, he's versatile. There's no argument. There's a lot of versatile. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was not his, that was not, Rosco, he's versatile. There's no argument that there's a lot of versatile in there, but that was not his, that was not a Roscoe signature move. Roscoe signature move was he would rip off

the wrestler's mask who he was wrestling, and then he would chew a hole into their forehead until it bled. So sort of a zombie-ish, the pretty boy rogue is eating braids. The crazy braids. There's not anything really pretty guy about chewing another guy's head on it. Well, you boy, Roge is eating brains. There's not anything really pretty guy about chewing into the guy's head.

Well, you relate to that guy because he's attractive and then you go, oh, he does the sort of stuff I do. He eats brains through the skull too. I don't think other people do that. He drinks brains out of guys foreheads just like I do. And then if your job is to wrestle him every night, you know, your head is just a wound. But then it's a bit scabby, but that's probably easier.

You come out for the fight and everyone's like, oh God, this guy's head is a scab. Well, you have the mask on, but when they do take it off, then you're like, oh God, and then he just has to, he has to just pick the ax with his teeth. So I just call it a pickaxe. I don't care for any of this, I wanna go home.

It's not good. You are home. OK, so as far as what happens in the match and the roles of who wins and who loses at the time, this is known as K-Fape. This is basically, it was how the wrestlers would design the moves they were about to do, and they would chat in the ring to each other. Robert Evans does a good job of explaining this

on his Vince McMahon mickman behind the bastards but basically calls it a mix of quote lies in theater so they kind of speak a secret language in the ring and there really is a language it's called carney uh... it's fully its own language mizarks for instance is carney for marks uh...

i use that you know it actually as i'm seeing it it's very similar to the Snoop Dogg language. Snoop is... Mizzarks. Snoop was a 50s wrestler. Snoop doing, I think Snoop maybe just took the carny language. Yeah. I don't know if it was all like that, but Mizzarks is Marx.

And I mean, again, I'm not fluent in Snoop, but I do believe it was something like that. You're not fluent in Snoop? No, no. It was like, you know, a scissor. I took one course in college, but I never finished. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough.

Okay, so yeah, Mazarks is calling for marks. The face was known as the hero, so that's like who everybody loves. I love 18. And then you have the, and then you have the heel. The heel would make everyone furious. That was to what we were saying before, like that was kind of the job.

Brash, big, the heel was loved by some, hated by others, but the job was to drive the fans crazy and Roscoe is a heel. But Roscoe, as you will see a little bit, doesn't necessarily pay, like the bookers were kind of in charge of who would win and who would lose. But Roscoe didn't necessarily follow along with that.

But if they were, they would communicate in the ring as far as what they're gonna do. So it's kind of like Robert Evan said. It's just like, it's partial theater and then it's partial just like, let's wrestle. Sure. So he, Roscoe described his wrestling style as, quote, scientifically rough.

That's like mine, just like you. Podcast style. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I think that's scientifically difficult. Oh, yeah. That seems. I've been talking to another comedian online about you.

And we have some issues. What did you think when you saw all the... I couldn't, I thought he was a psychopath. I guys saw all of these tweets about me and I'm like, my God, this man has lost his fucking mind. It truly is red free. It's very, it's the red free. Yeah.

Which is hard in America. So Ross go to scrubs, okay, so when asked to elaborate on his wrestling style, he explained, quote, when if you can, lose if you must, always cheat. And if they take you out, leave tearing down the ring. There you go. So pretty good. That's again, this is all my podcast.

It actually is not super different from how you would handle most things, I'd say. Yeah. Now, the ring that they would fight in was not cushioned like there today. Marose said, the ring we quote, the ring we would wrestle in, you could run a herd of elephants over. Why would you do that? Well, you wouldn't, but he's basically saying you could.

I just don't think you should. And he's in the circus. Okay. You could maybe. You know, this is back when we would cage animals and abuse them for the entertainment of society instead of making lipstick. Yeah. Thank you.

He said there were 35 wrestling holds and you quote, needed to know all of them. And he did have some tough injuries. So the point of that is that he was a very capable wrestler. Okay. He did have some tough injuries. Over the years, according to various sources, Roscoe had his throat cut, his shoulder stab. We're talking about wrestling, right? Correct, okay. He had his throat cut, his shoulder stab. We're talking about wrestling, right?

Correct. He had his throat cut. He had his shoulder stab. He was shot once in the ass. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, go ahead. Okay, we seem to not be talking about wrestling. No, no, no, we're talking about wrestling. Because you said he was shot in the ass.

Yes, yes, yes. So over the years, Roscoe had his throat cut, his shoulder stab. Yeah. He was shot once in the ass. No, so right now, there's more. I feel like I should keep going. He was shot once on the leg with a pellet pistol. What the fuck?

And he had a baby thrown at MNO Dessa. No, that I get. Yeah, so who hasn't had that? Yeah, that's just wrestling. That's podcasting too. Thank you. How did you get shot in the ass? I think a gun.

I think from a gun. And so the other wrestler is just really bad at wrestling? No, I don't even think it's necessarily another wrestler shooting him. Oh, someone mad at him. Like when you're walking to the ring, there's a lot of people who are furious. Yeah, I would shoot guys in the ass. So at that point.

So yeah, imagine the guy who shot him. Yeah. Imagine if you're standing next to the guy who shot him. Well, this is what I say. I shoot him and I go, I got him in the ass. But then you'd be like, dude, come on, look, it's relaxed.

This is what we're doing. No, now we can't watch the match. Part of the whole thing. It's over. Look, he's down. I can't stand him in the shoulder. He's down, he's dead. Yes, we win.

What the hell? Put a bag in him. No, god damn it put a bit of body bag it the dollop will be right back he wants it opponent locked in a hold and shouted at the crowd threatening to break the guys arms and one of those you know and he's milking it so the crowd's getting furious and then a local sheriff

approach the ring with a gun and threatened to shoot roscow if he did snap the appendage roscow said he'd release only when the other wrestler either gave up or starved death and the sheriff then pointed his gun and began to count to three it was a tense count so Monroe let him go uh... but that's also amazing that a sheriff

yeah i mean like it is it's sure fired up it's a great example of the sheriff's are elected they're They're not appointed and The town can be made obedient Just when you see the show like sheriff what the hell is it you let him go? I don't like it America It's just review listening America has always been very stupid Yeah, our It's very our relay. I mean, okay, there's more to come but that but that relationship with with i mean law seeing law enforcement taking a pistol to arresting the can it's just insane that's pretty good

uh... once what working in the ring somewhere down south rascal got hit in the head so hard with a wooden chair that splinters had to be removed from his scalp true his head was okay but after it healed a patch of silvery white hair grew around the wound, giving him the look of a skunk. And for most of us, you know, we'd be like, oh, God, but Ferrasco, he was like, this is a great one. Yeah, no, there's some skunker. Yeah, so it's, he doesn't go with the skunker. He lives his ass in his place. He's got a plastic sack back there that he's squeezed

The skunker's horrible the sheriff on a shootup Jesus skunker I saw b-hole By the mid-50s Roscoe became such a dry heel. He was able to move to bigger shows in bigger markets He began toying with more heel names to piss people off He started calling himself the sweet man and the diamond ring and Cadillac man He began sporting purple suits sparkling capes expensive Hamburg hats the kind church of war and a diamond-tipped cane Yeah, and we always know no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, That's current because it's never going away. That's there for a hit in the head. Yes.

And now he grew up great. And there is, there is, there is some talk about maybe he made it up or maybe he kept it going forever, but. Are we saying he maybe died it? Maybe died it. But whatever, he's still had it forever. What a stinker. Put your hand down. Put your hand down put your hand down

I'm myself and And in some territories he'd occasionally use the name Elvis rock Monroe. I use that quote rock Monroe sounded like rock and roll And I'd carry guitar into the ring I think I could play one chord and then I'd get the hell beat out of me with my own guitar But sounds like a really bad. so that's pretty good. Character. Gotta have a guitar budget. First of all, it doesn't sound like rock and roll. I don't know.

It's hand-drixie. And then you need a new guitar every time. That is a problem. Yeah. The guitar budget swells without question. That's why eventually he moved to ukuleles. Sure. Cheaper, not as effective.

And then the triangle. And then the triangle, which again, yeah, not as great, then he did the maraca for a little while flute the flute the recorder yeah you know just getting smaller and smaller but then landed on the tuba yes the tuba was and and actually that's where he passed away he was tuba beaten so he would taunt the crowded lines like it's hard to be humble when you're two hundred thirty five pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal With the body of the women love and men fear and it worked people hated him hated him And I also think that's a pretty good description of you

Wait, what just you 135 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal with a body women love and men fear You weigh left some truth in there. Yeah, do there's some truth in there. Thank you. The women, the women love part. All right, Dave. So at this time, the USA and the USSR, never heard of it. We're in a heated space race. Each side fighting for shooting monkeys into space to die. We out those stories. I at one point was like toying with doing some story

about that stuff and it's just pretty awful. It's pretty grim when you realize we're shooting dogs up into the space stage. Yeah, and you're just like, well, that's the end of that dog. Well, all right, we've learned a lot. So each side fighting for the upper hand in the space race, wanting to be the first in every development. In October 4th, dark day, 1957, the USSR launched the R7

Indra Continental Ballistic Missile, known as Sputnik. Sputnik translated to Traveler and was the world's first satellite that remained in the Earth's orbit. It began broadcasting radio pulses that were detected the world over. And the launch of this beach ball sized metal sphere created what's known today as America's Sputnik Crisis. The New York Times would have mentioned Sputnik

at 279 articles in the first month alone, more than 11 articles per day, and President Eisenhower saw his approval ratings plummet. Yeah, we're dumb. We're also, it's so similar to now. The New York Times, like, it is, it's like, when you, I can't think of like, I mean, there's so many, but it's like,

oh my God, stop writing articles about this. Like, the way that the Titanic sub thing, the fact that they knew that that thing imploded. I mean, it was just so fucking... So early. Well, also, the Chinese thing. And then the news was like, we have like, an oxygen counter.

What about the spy balloon that turned out to Spy balloon off course and there was nothing recording in it And again this I'm gonna say like I even this even makes a little bit more sense because it was like an actual I guess you know, yeah, there was a thing just so like 279 articles in a month. Yeah We'll also like hey, it's okay to come in second relax. Just get it up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Okay, so Meanwhile on the midst of all this Roscoe is driving from a show into Koma, Washington to the studios of WKRG in Mobile, Alabama where he's supposed to cut a TV promo for Buddy Fuller's golf coast championship wrestling. Sure

Quote I pooped out in Greenwood, Mississippi. I couldn't drive anymore. And I pulled into the station. There was a little black guy standing there with a suitcase. So I asked him if he could drive. And he said, yeah. And I said, okay, drive me to Channel 2 to the TV station. What the hell? And after it's over, and I'm woke up, we'll go rock and roll with the ladies on the street. Uh oh. So. Oh boy. So they drive, they arrive at the TV studio and deeply segregated Alabama and Roscoe has an idea. They already hated heel, decided to get a little more heat with the local red necks by bringing his new friend

into the TV studio with him. And as the crowd yelled, racial epithets at Roscoe and his friend, he sent them into a frenzy by grabbing the hitchhiker and kissing the man on the cheek. They booed. He bought him back on the stage and he did it again. Quote, and then there was this old lady and she cussed better than drunk sailors and she's calling me an n-word lover.

And finally the security told her they were taping this for TV. And if you don't stop cursing, we're going to have to ask you to leave. And she said, what he really is is a damn sputnik Now this race is lady had no idea, but she'd just given Roscoe his new ring name Roscoe like the sound of it so much he had the ring announcer Reintroduce him as Sputnik Monroe. Oh my god and Sputnik continued to wrestle for Gulf Coast wrestling championships throughout 1958 what the hell so that's his name from now on sputnik continued to wrestle for Gulf Coast wrestling championships throughout 1958. What the hell?

So that's his name from now on. Sputnik. He goes, he's known in wrestling as Sputnik Monroe. Okay. So this woman, he heard it, he just loved it. It's great. That in early 1959, Sputnik Monroe came to Memphis. Sputnik moved into a double wide trailer

in the predominantly black east side of Memphis at one four, at 1415 Sparta Drive in case you need that address. I do need that address. So now you have that? Now I'm going to go there. And that's good for you. There will be vengeance. Thank you. Sputnik's daughter Natalie Bell, quote,

My daddy would tell you he did what came naturally to him. He got to a new city and he began figuring out how to make money. He settled on a plan that made sense to him. That wasn't too far removed from what he was doing in carnivals. He talked them right into the arena. So, Sputnik said about promoting his matches at the Ellis Auditorium by displaying his physical prowess around the neighborhood, running around the trailer park, jumping rope while playing loud music out of his car. And this drew a crowd of curious onlookers who would then show up to Sputnik's matches

just to see what the weirdo with the crazy hair was going to do. It's so weird. It's very strange. But it's good advertising. Like he's very good at getting people to events. He's a good promoter. Yes, he's a great promoter.

He knows that it's easy to make Americans furious, which is simple shit. I do think though, also like after like going through this, like you do start to, is that it, is that like, is that an actual slipper? Is that some sort of like medical slipper? That's a medical slipper. Is it really?

Yeah, I was sprained toe thing. Whoa. So we've got like medical slipper? That's a medical slipper. Is it really? Yeah, I was sprained toe thing. Whoa. So you've got one medical slipper. I was walking down the rocks to the beach carrying my surfboard above my head and slipped on. You heard your toe. You slammed into a rock and... And then hearing these stories about a guy getting attacked

with a pickaxe and shot and then you have a toe slipper, do you feel... I call it a slipper. You call it what a toe slipper. Do you feel, how do you feel? I call it a slipper. You call it what? A slipper. A slipper, sure. Yeah, yeah. And how do you feel fine?

I feel like one on one of them. You feel like you're one of those big residents. And what I did with my ass. He got shot in the ass. He's almost no different than what they were doing. He got shot in the ass and you have a medical toe slipper. I have a medical toe slipper because I'm, a lot of people are intimidated by a toe slipper.

Yeah, yeah, you're Cinderfella. Sure. Yeah, that's cute. Slipper. That's awesome. Slipper fella. Yeah, you slipped and yeah, there you go. Tlipped. Well, just so, I'm impressed that I identified what that was. The beach is a nightmare and a lot of people have it.

Do you have a second one? A second. Toastlipper? Oh, no, I just had one toastlipper. Now do you, that's okay. I went to the doctor and sat there for three hours and got X-rays and it's the whole thing. It's awesome, good for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, well, I'm not gonna stop thinking about that. Okay, so, okay. So now in 1959 in Memphis, pro wrestling was not too popular. Popularity with wrestling would go through ebbs and flows, and it was on the downswing. Wrestling shows in those days were held on Monday nights at a 10,000 seat venue on Poplar Ave

called Robert R. Ellis Auditorium. Great Auditorium. I don't have the exact address, but do you need that? Yeah, I also might get a note of Get Vengeance. I will get it to you, and I'm not sure what that means. I'm not sure what that means. After you do a reverse dollop, I go and get vengeance. Okay, it's pretty normal.

It's troubling, it's troubling, but I can get that to you. So the Auditorium was segregated, and it had a separate entrance for black patrons and a segregated balcony referred to as the crow's nest. In 1945, don't care for it. Nope, nope, nope. And it won't, you won't care for it more, I've found. I mean, because I'm thinking about the fact that it, you know, crow's nest, okay, that

is what it was called on a ship. But in a theater, it's because Kros are black It's also Jim Crow It's I think it's a two-fold the above so okay So just so you know in a 1945 performance of Annie get your gun at Ellis Auditorium It did not go on because the gas the cast included black members and not much had changed by 1959. So just because there were black members in the cast, they didn't hold the show.

Yeah, because it's like you would know. Well, that's why they had minstrel shows so that they could have. Right. Yeah, okay. No, I think it just continues to show that we've always had a really normal, yeah, you know, at least we fixed it. It's fixed and it and it and honestly looking back kind of cute. Yeah, very cute.

Kind of cute watching us get our sea legs a little bit. Okay, so uh, Spurdon by his early success in promoting himself in the black community. Sputnik figured he'd lean in a bit further. So he started to promote his appearances by going down to the black only area of town. Now, I'm not sure if everyone knows this, right? But if, okay, so segregation worked both ways. Jim Crow laws sought not only to keep black folks

out of white establishments, but also to keep white folks out of black establishments. So obviously the idea, which again, I'm just like, the idea at one point that this just shows you how dumb this country is and how don't settle for the stupid solution offered up by government because the idea that the concept we'd landed on

was black people and white people will just live in two separate America's forever. Was like, that's pretty good. Yeah! That's, I think that's pretty close. I mean, what is the other option? Be near each other? I don't think that'll work.

Mingling? I don't think that'll work. Well, people from different races don't mingle. No, no. No. I mean, okay. So he goes down there and he starts promoting him. But yeah, like I said, so he's in the black part of town.

He's going into his establishments. But again, I guess part of this thinking is that you keep them separate. They don't realize they have a lot in common and the 1% continues to seem like they make a lot of sense. So, Beale Street is the biggest tourist hotspot in Memphis. You didn't even touch it tell me that. Really? What's it named after?

Larry. Larry Beale. Who's Larry Beale? He's the great magician. Larry Beale. Mm-hmm. Who's Larry Beale? He's the great magician Larry Beale and soldier Okay If I were to look that up something would come up. Yeah, I would tell you pop up right away And the name again Larry Beale Larry Beale magician and soldier soldier magician Okay, I made a lot of the enemy just made what?

Disappeared interesting. That's how the battles were won. Okay back then Okay. I made a lot of the enemy just... You made a what? Disappeared. Interesting. That's how the battles were won. Okay. Back then. You are not sober, right? I'm very intoxicated.

Okay, yeah. And on ketamine and mushrooms. Okay. So in 1959, Beale Street is a no-go for white people. If Memphis police saw whites around Beale Street, they would be arrested on charges of vagrancy and moepery, which is basically loitering. It's not just to keep the,

it's also to keep like, like a white woman from meeting a black dude. Like that's the big part of it. I mean, it's just, the whole idea is just, you trust us, you to trust us You got to trust us. It is not good You do not want to be talking to each other that is not I trust me. I talk to a black guy. Yeah, it's not good Not good trust me

Hey, there are people listening to the dollop. This is Gareth. Yes, this is the same guy. I listen. I have a new podcast called We're Here to Help that I'm doing with my friend Jake Johnson. It's basically a call and advice show where we don't say that we're professionals because we aren't, but we try to help people with problems that are important to them. You can listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts and it is out right now. So go listen to We're Here to help with Jake and Garrett. We're here to help with Garrett and Jake.

I don't remember how we did it, but either way, fun, half hour comes out Tuesday, August 22nd, and episodes will be out every Tuesday and Friday. We're here to help. And since, okay, so Sputnik's down there, you know, moppereeing, he was risking it. So on January 13th, 1960, Sputnik was arrested on disorderly conduct charge. From what an officer said was the crime of quote, drinking with Negroes at Red Johnny's Cafe on Beale's House.

How dare you. And the owner was also warned not to serve whites or he would face a suspension. Just, yep. Always been doing the right work with the law enforcement. So Sputnik immediately hired lawyer Russell B. Sugarman, Jr. to represent him. And in doing so, became the first white man in the history of Memphis to be represented by a black attorney from the Memphis Daily News.

Minro did not speak on his behalf, but sugarman argued at length that Minro had a right to be where he was. That he is a professional wrestler and he has a lot of Negro fans and he was simply creating goodwill by visiting Negro cafes and having a glass of beer where he could be seen and talked with the people. And the courtroom was packed. And Sputnik did not get it, quote, I'm a veteran of a war,

and I'm the toughest son of a bitch you'll ever meet in your life, and I can't go where I wanna go. And the lawyer, Sugarmon, would go on to serve in the Tennessee House of Representatives as a Democrat from the 11th district from 1967 to 1969. So, okay, so Sputnik is fine, $26, and they put his picture in the paper alongside the story.

And the next week saw a spike in attendance at Ellis Auditorium. Of course. Sputnik went back to a black barber shop on Beale Street to get waves put in his hair. He's arrested again, he gets in the newspaper again, and there's another spike in black attendance at the house show. This is how you do it.

So he did the math. The more he goes to the black part of town, gets arrested, the more he mess with the dumb law, and the attendance went up. So this is where I wanted to talk to you, Gerrath Reynolds, about getting some more people into our shows. Right. By you.

Yeah. Need to start getting arrested for whatever. I don't, I think you're missing the specific. See, what he did here was so specific, and that's what's, that's what's not in your plan. Murder. That is not a good long-term strategy. Drive your car into like a building. But what does that do? Who are the people that that, what asses are getting put in seats with that? People love that.

Who? You're wearing a crazy wig when you do it? Let me walk you through it his plan. Okay. His plan was if he goes to the black part of town, he is, he's doing what he wants to do, which he likes. But it's also like he's helping become an ally to the black people in Memphis and they like him.

You get a Buick, you put on a rainbow wig, you drive the Buick into a Starbucks, and you say you... It's closer. Union, union, you close it's closer it's still not gonna happen it's gonna help with the shows I don't think it will and then john three sixteen I'm sorry so your plan is to turn me into rainbow man kind of yeah I'm not falling for that again once a lifetime for me pal um okay so quote they charged me with

MoPery and attempted gawking. That's an old son. Attempted gawking. That's great. Attempted gawking. He's dumb shit. That's an old Southern vagrancy thing they made up. I was on Beale Street every night for the first six months.

I got arrested three or four times until it didn't work anymore, and then the cops left me alive. Then they realized that it was just working. Yeah, against them. So then he's just allowed to hang out there. So hilarious. But Sputnik didn't take that they won't arrest me for an answer.

And another famous incident, Sputnik brought a black friend with him to go hat shopping. Quote, my friend and I went to Dillard's and he took his hat off and I said, Sam, don't take that damn hat shopping. Quote, my friend and I went to Dillards and he took his hat off and I said, Sam, don't take that damn hat off. We may have a fight, but we ain't taking our hats off. Put your hat on and we'll do our business and then we'll leave. But we're going to be wearing Thumbs Humbergs. We integrated Dillards because nobody wanted to fight me." Yeah, a hat store isn't where you go for a fight. I've tried. Well, and it's also, I mean, this is just kind of insinuated in here, but taking your hat off is I guess a sign of...

Ready to go. No, I think it's a way of being like... Disrespectful. Respectful. Oh, respectful. Yes, so I think by keeping his hat on... Being disrespectful. Taking his hat off is like his way of being like,

sorry, or like whatever, like more meek. And Sputnik's like, put your hat on. Again, just more hat laws. Yeah, sure. There's no hat etiquette that we don't get. Yeah, it just continues to be baffling. But anyway, big move, right? So meanwhile, over at Ellis Auditorium,

all the press Sputnik had stirred up was having a huge effect on the box office. What once had been a show that welcomed only a few hundred people every week the previous year, now Monday nights at the Alessauditorium We're selling out every week. Mom. Sput, huh? Just say mom? Yeah mom, go ahead.

What happened? I said wow, but also mom. It's a, I see, I hear things upside down a lot. The mom, I hear things, I hear things upside down a lot. I hear things. I hear wow upside down a lot. It comes out as mom. Sputniks fanbase now included not only the black community of Memphis, but also the rebellious white teenagers

who were also bucking the societal norms of the time by embracing black music and culture. And liking the Sputnik Monroe was now hip. It was like TikTok. You know, the kids liked it. like TikTok or that ice bucket challenge. I love an ice bucket challenge. So do the kids, that's all they're doing now on TikTok. You know the app.

Oh, yeah. I'll mall up and get the money for the fun. Yeah, you send me toks. You send me toks all the time. Yeah, we're always talking. We're always talking. We're always talking. Yeah, we're talking.

I like cats when you can hear a person say what you think. I got it out for you. Hello. Oh, what are you talking about? Sputnik, quote, there was a group of wealthy white kids that dug me because I was a rebel. I'm saying what they wanted to say. Only they were just too young or inexperienced or afraid to say it. You have black maids raising your kids and she's talking about me all the time.

So I may not be in the front of your living room, but I'm gonna be in the back door of your goddamn house feeding your kids on Monday morning and sending them to school and meeting the bus when they come home. Pretty powerful thing. Now that's hyperbolic, obviously. That's not actually happening.

Well, we don't know that. No, we do. Um, so yeah, so, you know, words getting out, everyone thinks he's cool. He's not, he. Well, we don't know that. No, we do. So yeah, so you know, words getting out, everyone thinks he's cool. He's not, he knows what he's doing. He knows that the kids are into it and that he's getting in their heads. At the time, they said it was very similar to TikTok.

So that's what I was going to say. So Sputnik was a rebel and rebels were cool, like TikTok. And in high school, in high school yearbooks, all across Memphis in 1959 and 1960, many white high school seniors can be seen pictured with spotniks hair. They dyed the white streak up the front, they have the white hair on their head with the non-white hair,

which is actually hair integration, which is also, which was not illegal at the time. Hintegration. And, yep. So white kids and black kids love spotnik, which is also which was not only at the time integration and uh... yep uh... so white kids and black kids love spot nick or white kids and black people of spot nick but only the whites could watch spot nick ringside his black fans are still relegated to the balcony with the upsetting name

so as you'd imagine spot nick was despised by the older whites of my believe that it't believe that. It's shocking. I can't believe that. Old whites... But they're an art and issue. Have you ever found that with the country? They're always old whites and dorks like DeSantis. They're always a problem.

Oh, yeah. Old whites are definitely a thing. It's just old... Logan's run was on to something. Old whites. Yeah. Really would be... Let's not do it, old whites.

If we could just see a year without the old whites. Hey, old whites. Stop. It'd be great. Just don't. A year without old whites. I would, oh, well, whatever. Just put them all on some kind of farm.

Yeah, put them in a fucking, put them in the balcony. So he's despised by the old whites of Memphis. He would walk to the ring under a course of booze and shouts from red necks and Sputnik would ignore them. He would never look at them on his way to the ring. And then once he'd get up to the ring, he'd let the noise die down and then he'd turn, look up to the balcony and raise his arms

to his black supporters and they go crazy for it. But there was a cap on how many black fans were allowed into the event. I remember, right? So after a few weeks of doing this, Sputnik started paying off the door guy But there was a cap on how many black fans were allowed into the event. Right. So, after a few weeks of doing this, Sputnik started paying off the door guy to under-report the number of people in the balcony. Oh, yeah. And this made the box office oversell the black section of the auditorium.

Roy Welch, one of the organizers, was pissed. He wanted the numbers to be figured out before the event began. So Sputnik doubled down, staring down Welch, the police, and the owners of the auditorium, Sputnik said he would not wrestle should the fans be forced to leave the show. Quote, I said there are a couple of thousand people outside wanting to see me, so I told management I'd be cutting out if they don't let my black friends in. I had the power because I'm selling out the place. The first guy that ever did, and they damn sure wanted the revenue. So.

Yeah, money always wins. At the end of the day, he knows that money is going to win. Forcing the hand of capital. Yeah, and it works because they will bend whichever way they can to make money. It is amazing. Yeah, I know. I mean, it is. It's just like watching someone actually change through. There's a reason like everything I look at now, I'm seeing pride flags and stuff, it's because that's where the fuck of money is. The money isn't in being a bigot asshole. It's still like, they sure, the buttlight took it off,

but there's still, it's fucking everywhere. It's not going anywhere. No, I know. I mean, yeah, so, so you're, to your idea of me driving a Buick into a Starbucks, that's what made that idea. That's what I should do. So poignant and brilliant. You should probably do that. Oh my God, yeah.

You paint the car in pride colors. Well, I don't think I'm gonna do it, but I get it. It's better than the idea of just driving a car to a building. That's true. Yeah, it is true. So okay, so right, so he's, so then a guard says, he doesn't like how many black spotnik was letting in

So Sputnik it's listed the promoter cut that guy out of the black money quote give him the white money only He said So okay wait till the guard is making money Well, yeah, he's getting he's getting paid whatever a percentage Something okay, and so and spotnikicks just basically like oh you don't like black people okay so you don't get any money from the black people you just get the white person money for the fans that you like great yeah so um so ls audit to where he was integrated that night and every Monday night going

forward Memphis was still segregated but spot nickman rose wrestling matches were not once when asked if he was a do-gooder because of his civil rights campaign, Sputnik said, quote, I'm not a do-gooder, I'm a do-er. That's it. He's a do-gooder. I agree. He's doing good.

But that's what do-gooders do. Do-gooders demure. Do-gooders don't go. I am doing great. Do-gooders go. Come on, what do you want him to do? I'm just a guy doing a thing. Yeah. And then the non-do-gooders go, hey,, what do you want him just do? I'm just a guy doing a thing. But yeah, and then the non-do gooders go,

hey, look, my Instagram, I fixed the wall here. Yeah. It's fun to also fun to piss off the racists. Yes, it is. It is. I mean, it's dangerous, but it is fun. But look, this guy, I mean, you go back to the thing you said when he said the carnivals,

just making people mad. He digs it., just making people mad. He digs it. He likes making people mad. He's enjoying making the racist mad. Yes, and it is so like, you know, when you watch what happens, what is happening today, it's just, I don't, it's like, it's, I wonder what, how we would handle Jim Crow

if it was happening now. It would be absolutely, I mean, it was insane then, but now it's like, I mean, what, the level of violence and it was more, and it was always violent, but it just would be like, yeah. You know, people, I mean, we have it now, we just have, we just have a different form of it.

Yeah, right, it's a little more like cops shooting people. I haven't read about that, but yeah. It's a thing. So people joked at the time that there were three pictures being hung in the homes of black people in Memphis. Jesus Martin Luther King and Sputnikman Row. I've heard that version of that in many ways, but whatever, some people are saying it.

August 17th, 1959, Billy Wix, Billy Wicks and Sputnikman Row were set to face off in a, whoop, that got big. That got really big. Oh, it's going in and out. This is great to watch. Okay, Billy Wicks and Sputnikman Row were set to face off in a blowoff match. And a blowoff match is the final match between two rivals. This is it for all the marbles.

We're never going to do it again after this. This is it. One man dies. No. One man dies. Let me handle what happens. One man. No man dies.

No. But you did win a Cadillac. Winner got a Cadillac. Same thing. It is very close. Yeah. The rivalry had been stirred by Memphis Channel 5. It started when Billion's Sputnik went on air to promote the fight and Sputnik ended up slamming Billion on the concrete floor. Sure. It's fine.

It was good TV, so they brought him back and they kept doing it on Channel 5. Each appearance, they would get heated, it would help sales. But Channel 5 did vilify Sputnik. And... And it's just for show, right? They're not their friends. Are they? It's, I don't know. I'm not sure if they're friends. It certainly played up. Like, basically this channel five thing, you know, is the start of what you would see

and like professional wrestling. Sure. When it would be like, how dare you like the talking into the camera stuff. I don't think they liked each other, but there is a moment coming up where maybe they did, but I think for the most part, no, I don't think they liked each other.

So because also, there was a very different. Billy Wicks was like, he was like the great white hope. Like he's the hometown hero. He was Elvis' favorite wrestler. He was a cop and then Sputnik just kept beating him throughout the summer of 1959 in various nefarious ways and people were pissed. So everyone there is just like wants to see Billy win. And this is the final match, right? Um, it was to take place at Russwood Park, which was a huge stadium.

Great park. Uh, it's a great part. Do you need the address? No, I have it. You have it. That will have. Um, it was used mainly for baseball, but also special events like when Elvis performed there. The men drew 13,749 paying fans to see their blow off match. But another 5,000 on paid fans were said to have watched the battle after destroying the park's outfield fences so roughly eighteen thousand people came to watch the city do it which for boxing seems like they was not that's a lot

but the boxing matches actually big boxing matches or wrestling sorry yeah but i a big boxy matches withdrawal but uh... to see. Yeah, have you ever been to a boxing match? That's like a, oh no, it's, you can see, it's just like your far back there, like. Well, who did you see? I've seen a few boxing matches that's like MGM

and stuff in Vegas. Who are you? And then those, please. I used to watch, I used to be a big boxing guy. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think it's boring now. But I don't like cage fighting, because it's dystopian.

Right. And Joe Rogan. But you like the slap fighting league. I love slap. You like to watch people slap each other from bottom. Oh my god. And tell you've seen the guy slap another guy's ear off. You haven't really lived.

I agree. OK, so boxing legend, Rocky Marciano, was brought in as a special guest referee to ensure that Monroe couldn't cheat his way to victory. So it's him that's going to cheat his way to victory, not the other guy. Well, this match was, okay, Billy Wicks was supposed to win this match. The promoter decided that.

I think it was Sputnik was supposed to win and then he switched it at the end. The promoter was like, no, I want Billy Wicks to win. But in the end, Sputnik did escape with the title for typically nefarious methods. After the two men's match got completely out of hand, Marciano was forced to rule in no decision, allowing Monroe to retain the championship. So Sputnik then confronted Marciano

and Marciano punched Sputnik knocking him over. So that's normal when the ref punches. No, it's fun. I'm totally downwind. Just genuinely punches. I'm sure Marciano. I don't really know much about him, but I'm sure he was probably racist too. Let's just say, let's just pretend. It's safe. Yeah, I feel like it's in this time it is safe to just be like, yeah, that guy was racist. So a while after the match, Sputnik found out that the actor Gene Barry, the star, so, okay,

so like we're saying, right, he's so good at getting in the paper, he's so good at self-promotion. Yeah. And a lot of it he's doing for, you know, I mean, like the stuff where he's going to be ill-streatened and Memphis and shit like that, like, you know, he is doing it because he genuinely is like, this is insane. I believe so.

Yes. This next move, I don't know if there's much to it other than trying to get in the paper. So a while after the match, Sputnik found out that actor Gene Berry, the star of the hit show, Bat Masterson, which you love. Love Bat Masterson. Was coming to Dodge City, the Dodge city fair his hometown And and a batmaster batmasterson was yeah like He played like a sheriff so it's like you know law

Yeah, but that was an old western Sure guy As a publicity stunt sputnik decided he was gonna go to the fair get up on stage and punch Gene Berry quote Gene Berry was the star on Batman Masterson and dressed like I'm dressed with a Hamburg and a vest. I figured if I jerked him off a horse, the wording's not great, I agree.

I agree, it's really actually perfect. It's not great wording, but there is more to the quote. I figured if I jerked him off a horse and hit him in the nose for dressing Dodge City style, I'd get a national reputation. Yep. So Sputnik had some beers and he went to the fair to pull it off, but it was so crowded that he couldn't get near the stage.

And while trying to find a way to the stage, he makes a remark to a cowboy who's on a horse about one or two things, either about the guy's horse or about a woman. We don't know for sure. Same thing to a cowboy. But the cowboy come had and punched him. And Sputnik fell down. As he was trying to get up, he slipped in horse shit. And when he was getting up, the cowboy hit him again

and again, and he hit him nine times total. And that story made the paper. That's not the same. It's not the same thing at all. It's not the same. But so it's a pivot, right? So now the paper is talking about not the same. It's not the same thing at all. It's not the same. But so it's a pivot, right? So now the paper is talking about like how a cowboy beat up Sputnik. So he doesn't like that, but all the racist love that.

Right, for sure. So the promoters and Sputnik then asked that cowboy. They found him to come to the, the to Ellis auditorium the next week to wrestling. So Sputnik could show him who was boss and the cowboy agrees to do it, but then something happens where the cowboy starts to get real paranoid and he starts to think that it's a trap to kill him. So before the show he pulls out and so they're like oh shit we don't have a cowboy. So they scrambling they get that guy's friend to show up in a cowboy outfit

Yep, outfit and then so Sputnik kicked that guy's ass. Yep, and then everyone was like Sputnik's back So I don't I'm not sure what just happened. So it's a good pivot. He um, it's weird It's weird, but he's he good instead of punching Jean Berry out. He he makes he makes something out of everything He gets beaten into a shit pile. Yes. And then he did slip in manure. So yep, then it all makes sense. It's a clear through line of normalcy.

It's not the same. And I think obviously when the real cowboy didn't show up, but it does show you my theory that all cowboys do look alike. I agree. Nobody could tell. So. Okay. So several months later, Billy Wicks and Sputnik Monroe would actually team up to wrestle

the Corsica brothers in a series of matches. Just quick side note, because I did try to look up a lot about the Corsica brothers. There's not much. I guess one of them has a lovely love story that's pretty renowned in the world of wrestling. But excuse me. You don't have to tell me that. Okay, yeah. But one of the guys was a boxer originally and he stopped boxing when he hit a guy so

hard that the guy's eye fell out of the socket. Oh, it was like he was fighting a pug. And that is when, yep, that's when he was a pugilist. And that's when he pulled the plug on boxing because the guy said the guy's eye was literally sitting there dangling. Well, that's not your fault. That's the guy's eyes fault.

I don't know. I would feel guilt. I would feel guilt and also like your body's not great. It's just to punch a man's eye out makes you be like, I don't think I should do this. If anything you should do it. That should make you be like, I don't think I should do this. If anything you should do it. That should make you be like, I'm a fucking amazing guy. I'm really good.

I'm really good. I'm not gonna get eyes out. That's going right on the top of the resume. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, you know one eye Johnson? How do you think he became one eye Johnson? I'm the eye guy.

The optometrist. The pop optometrist. Okay, so they're gonna wrestle the course of good, brother. So they're now on a team, Billy Wicks and Sputnik. However, proving once again that Sputnik was not to be trusted, he turned on Wicks and he started beating him down. During the match. During the match and. I'm telling you, Wicks was a racist.

And then I think, I definitely think that obviously there was not. Yeah, they didn't like each other. I mean, you could not trust Sputnik. So he started beating him down and it set up another short series of matches against each other. But it would be their last major angle together. And shortly thereafter Monroe lost his championship and he left the territory he goes off to Florida for a little while and he fights I did I left this out because I think wrestlers know this more than I do but he was fighting a guy named

like Thunderbolt someone who uh... yeah was uh... had the actual Thunderbolt through the Thunderbolt he was a bit of a Zeus. Okay, so then in the early 70s in Memphis, he returns to Memphis and he continues to be an activist for equal rights anyway that he could. And while there, Sputnik would take on a tag team partner named Norval Austin. And after they would- And Norval didn't have a normal name. No, it was abnormal. And after they defeated be normal didn't have a normal name no it was abnormal uh... and uh... after they defeated an opponent

usually a white opponent Monroe would dump a can of black paint on the loser and scream black is beautiful and then norvel austin would then pour a can of white paint on them and screen on the on the person and then scream uh... white is beautiful and then in tandem and Rowan Austin would shout, black and white together is beautiful.

And I remember, these are the bad guys. People were like, oh my God, these sides are bitches. So yeah, so okay. That's very cool. I know, I would just like, and there was's. So yeah, so okay. So that's very cool. I know, I would just like, and there was like, yeah, they rostled for a while. So, so in 1978, Sputnik was driving his bright red caddy through Odessa

and his car was hit by a Greyhound bus. The bus landed on top of the car and he was trapped in it for hours before they got him out. That's not supposed to happen. No. You don't want that. Yeah. I'm glad you picked up on that because I was going to put a finer point in it in a minute.

I thought about it for a minute and then I thought that doesn't sound good. It's not good. Buses shouldn't be on you for hours. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Although there is an exercise program that recommends that. I would love to get eyes on that. Yeah, you should.

The event doesn't seem. It's good. Possible. His back has hurt really badly, and he retires from wrestling. 2,886 matches fought by Sputnik Monroe. 863 wins, 943 losses, 1,080 draws or no contest. So that's it for wrestling. Things take a sad turn for Sputnik around here.

It's kind of like the movie The Wrestler a little bit. He doesn't have wrestling money. He ends up working at a gas station. He does odd jobs around Texas. He was still a living legend in Memphis and young fans who weren't even alive to see him wrestle would often run up to him because their parents are grandparents and told them all about his exploits. And when asked how it made the old time he'll feel to receive such an adoration, Marose simply would say quote, to see the toughest son of a bitch in the world cry, but that's what happens. So Roscoe Sputnikman-Roe Brumba passed away on November 3rd, 2006, after a battle with lung cancer.

He was 77 years old. His boots in Roe were on display in the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, which is a fine place. It's good. For sure. The plaque reads, quote, Sputnikman-nik Monroe played an important part in destroying the color line in Memphis entertainment venues.

Which I also think is like, I always think this whenever people in the government tweet out about Martin Luther King Jr. and stuff, the absurdity of the people. Like Ted Cruz. Yeah. And honestly, anyone, they represent what was trying to stop him. I mean, we saw it last year, like the FBI was like, happy Martin Luther King.

You know, it's like, you tried to get him to kill himself. It just shows you that the amount of fight you have to put into something when everyone is telling you that it is not right or it is wrong, they eventually, once that becomes popular and accepted, they then are like, you're so right. But it's like the whole time the establishment is fighting against it. Anyway, we're going to end on a quote from Bubba Monroe, who is his son and also a wrestler. Quote,

I went from Saturday morning TV and Memphis to the fairgrounds in Nashville one Saturday, had a little pretty pick me up in a BMW. Took me to a real nice horse farm and I guess it was Tennessee Bluegrass Country. She had a little sex with me and everything and she took me back and she said, quote, you make better love than your daddy did. Just about fell out of the car.

So. Well, that's uncomfortable. Her road life. Yeah. It's been at least you did better. Well, we did that. Least your better apartment. Sources are the LA Weekly Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Heat, a documentary of the true story of Memphis, Rastlin, history.com, some YouTube stuff, Jeff Drock, and Rivers Langley.

He's the first stuff for us. Most of that together had told me about it a while ago, was like it would make a perfect dollop. And yeah, pretty much I added a couple things, but that's pretty much his story. But it is like, to what he was saying to me, you know, he's like, he's from that area, you know, and he's just like, it's such an important story as far as like,

you know, someone really using capitalism to Fight to yeah to fight an evil yeah and And yeah, and you should follow him at Rivers Langley. He's on tons of shit. He's a great guy Yeah, who does a lot of stuff for us, but but yeah, so that's the story of Sputnikman row And he's threatening rivers is threatening to go to the Phoenix show Yeah, so that's the story of Sputnikman Row. And... He's threatening, it rivers is threatening to go to the Phoenix show.

Oh gosh, he's threatening, huh? Yeah. So they might have him on there. Oh yeah, they're great, yeah. Yeah, he's great, he's so smart. I'm smart, but he's smart too. We're both really smart. So there you go, is that the first wrestling dollop?

Yeah, not a big wrestling guy. Yeah. Yeah. I know people often ask us to do Vince McMahon, but- I'm not gonna do that, so man. Well Robert Evans just did it, and it is. I haven't listened all of it. He's, he's, there's, like we've talked about this.

Yeah, sex crimes aren't funny. No, he's, I think that's the thing is it's like, there's a, I mean, reading through some of the history of wrestling, it is crazy. But Vince McMahon is a horrendous figure. Yeah, he's terribly human being. He's the doctor-fill of wrestling. Yeah, I think Robert makes this point on,

I think he does. I might have been something I thought while listening to the podcast, or either Robert makes this point on I think he does I might be I might have been something I thought while listening to the podcast or either he makes this point But you get Trump because of Vince McQueen. Yeah, it's like yeah, it's We are just So dumb Yeah, we're pretty dumb. We're so dumb. Yeah, we've been hacked. Oh, yeah, we're it's it's it's amazing to watch Another election cycle. It's amazing to watch all of it. It's all air all of it now is just like wow I as I'm watching this election. I am just going holy shit. Yeah, it's crazy to watch

It's really crazy to watch Well buckle up buckle up we'll be here for it. All right, thank you everybody. God bless you. God bless you.