WEBVTT

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Okay, I'm going to stop you right there. Before

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you even let your brain go to that smooth, soulful

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place, just hit the pause button on the mental

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record player. I know exactly where you're going

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with this. You see the name Al Green on the research

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packet, and immediately you're hearing, let's

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stay together. You're picturing the Reverend

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in a silk suit. Of course. Exactly. And I need

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everyone listening to take that image, crumble

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it up, and just... Toss it. Because the Al Green

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we are deep diving into today, he wasn't singing

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about love and happiness. Not even close. We're

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talking about a 6 '4", 280 -pound behemoth who

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spent 20 years throwing people around a wrestling

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ring. Getting thrown around himself. Quite a

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bit, actually. We are talking about Alfred Dobolo,

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better known to the wrestling world as the Dog,

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Rage, Blade, and yeah, Al Green. This is actually

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one of my favorite kinds of deep dives. Because,

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you know, usually we talk wrestling history.

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Everyone wants to talk about the icons, the Hogans,

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the Rocks. Yeah, that was on the martini. Right.

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We obsess over them. But today we're looking

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at something, I mean, arguably more important

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to the industry itself. We're looking at a perfect

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case study of the journeyman. The journeyman.

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It it sounds like a character class in a video

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game or something. But in wrestling, it's a very

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specific, very gritty role, isn't it? Yes. Think

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of the journeyman as like the essential worker

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of the wrestling ecosystem. They're the guys

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who travel the globe. They change their names

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and their gimmicks at the drop of a hat. Their

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job isn't always to win. It's to make the whole

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show function. Precisely. They are the mortar

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between the bricks. And Al Green, I mean, he

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lived that life from 1989 all the way until his

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passing in 20. And looking at these records,

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what a chaotic life it was. I mean, the source

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material here is basically a travelogue of the

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highest highs and the absolute weirdest lows

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of the business. The lows get really low. Yeah.

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We're talking about a guy who tagged with one

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of the biggest stars in history right before

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that guy got famous. And then, what, 10 years

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later, he was doing a gimmick involving a toilet?

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We are definitely going to have to unpack the

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toilet situation. Well, it's a lot. But you're

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right. It's a career of just constant reinvention.

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It's a survival story. So let's get into it.

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Let's rewind to 1989. WCW World Championship

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Wrestling is the big alternative to the WWF.

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The Turner era. And Al Green enters the scene.

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He's trained by Steve Kern, who is a legend in

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his own right, famously part of the Fabulous

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Ones. So Green has a solid pedigree. And physically,

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the guy is a house. 6 '4", 280. I mean, in any

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other sport, you walk in looking like that, you're

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an instant star. But wrestling has a pecking

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order. It sure does. I was looking at his debut

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records, and it's brutal. June 15th, 1989, first

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major TV taping. And who do they feed him to?

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Sting. The Sting. Face paint, screaming, the

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biggest rising star in the company. It's a classic

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trial by fire. Al Green is a rookie. He walks

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out there and he's staring down the WCW television

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champion. And naturally, Green gets beat. But

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he wasn't just losing, right? He was being established

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as something specific. Yes. Enhancement talent.

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Which is the polite term for a jobber. Well,

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jobber can be a bit derogatory, but yeah, essentially.

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His job was to be big and impressive so that

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when Sting beat him, Sting looked even better.

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Think about it. If Sting beats a guy who is five

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foot eight, who cares? Right. But if he body

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slams a 280 pound monster like Al Green. The

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crowd goes wild. Green's value was in his size

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and his willingness to fall down. So he's the

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measuring stick. But that first year. Man, he

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struggled. The notes show him bouncing between

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partners constantly. He teams with Ron Simmons

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for a minute. Damn. Ron Simmons. Yes. But this

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was way before he was a world champion. They

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were just two big athletic guys trying to make

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it work. It was very much a throw him against

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the wall and see if they stick face. And he teams

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with a guy named Lee Scott. And this is where

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I actually laughed reading the match results.

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They were losing to a team called the Ding Dongs.

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Please tell me they aren't what I think they

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are. Oh, they are exactly what you think they

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are. It's a tank team covered in bells. No. Oh,

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bells, like legit jingle bells. Bells on their

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ankles, bells on their wrists. The idea was that

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they would ring every time they moved. It was

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a disaster of a gimmick. But here is the harsh

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reality for Al Green. If you are losing to the

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Ding Dongs, you are at the absolute bottom of

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the car. That's got to be tough on the ego. It's

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the business. You take the paycheck, you drive

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to the next town. So he's struggling. He teams

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with Bill Irwin, gets a win here and there. But

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then September 1990 hits, and this is the first

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major pivot. The sources call this his first

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real break. Right. WCW had a team called the

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Master Blasters. Great name. Very 1990. Sounds

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like a boombox. Very. They were modeled after

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the Road Warriors, face paint, big muscles, spikes.

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But one of the original members, a guy named

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Iron, quit after one match. So WCW is stuck.

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They need a partner. Enter Al Green. But he's

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not Al Green anymore. He gets a makeover. He

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is now Blade. Blade. And his partner is named

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Steel. And this is the part that blew my mind.

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I had to double check the photos. Who is Steel?

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Steel is a very young, very tall guy who would

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go on to become one of the most famous wrestlers

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on the planet. Kevin Nash? Kevin Nash. Diesel.

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Founder of the NWO, the guy who changed the business.

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The very same. Before he was Big Daddy Cool,

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he was Steel. And our journeyman Al Green was

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his partner, Blade. That is such a sliding doors

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moment. You have Al Green and Kevin Nash side

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by side, effectively equals. And apparently they

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were crushing it. They were. This is what we

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call a monster push. October 1990, they go on

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an undefeated streak. They get a match at Halloween

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Havoc, a huge pay -per -view. They beat the Southern

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Boys. For a moment, Al Green isn't a journeyman.

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He's a contender. It's amazing how fast the air

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goes out of the balloon, though. They're undefeated,

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they're scary, and then they hit a wall. That

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wall was named Tom Zank and Brian Pillman. Flying

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Brian Pillman. A legend. November 22nd, Zank

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and Pillman hand the Master Blasters their first

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loss. Pillman pins Blade, our guy, Al Green.

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And in wrestling psychology, for monsters who

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rely on intimidation, that first loss is devastating.

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The aura just evaporates. It's like when the

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bad guy in a movie finally gets punched in the

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face. Exactly. The office, the bookers, they

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lost faith. The Master Blasters got a shot at

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the U .S. tag team titles against the Steiner

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brothers around Christmas. And the Steiners were

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absolute beasts. The gold standard for stiff

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working. They hit hard. The Steiners beat them.

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But the real end, the moment they killed the

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team, happened on TV February 2, 1991. I saw

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this in the notes. The 52 -second burial. Yeah,

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it's the only way to describe it. They had a

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rematch against the Steiners. Yeah. And they

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were decimated. It lasted 52 seconds. Less than

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a minute. Less than a minute. Rick and Scott

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Steiner just threw them around. That wasn't just

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a match. That was a corporate memo sent via suplex.

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That was the office saying, we are done with

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this. And that's where the paths diverge. Kevin

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Nash stays in WCW, becomes Oz, Vinny Vegas, then

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a megastar, Al Green. Al Green leaves. He goes

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back to the grind. He heads to the independent

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circuit, Florida Championship Wrestling, the

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IWF. He needs a new partner, a new vibe. And

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he finds both. He starts teaming with the Terminator.

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who later changes his name to Fury. So, naturally,

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Blade reinvents himself. He's not Blade anymore.

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Now he is Rage. Rage and Fury. The Wrecking Crew.

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I gotta say, I love the simplicity of 90s wrestling

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names. It's effective marketing. And it worked.

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They win gold in the RWF and they look dominant

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enough that WCW calls them back in 1993. So Rage

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and Fury are back in the big leagues, but they

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aren't getting the same undefeated treatment,

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are they? No. By 1993, their role had shifted.

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They were established as monster heels, bad guys.

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But their function was to be the gatekeepers.

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Define gatekeepers in this context. A gatekeeper

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is the test. If you're a young, rising star like,

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say, Too Cold Scorpio or Marcus Alexander Bagwell,

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you have to beat the wrecking crew to prove you're

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ready for the main event. So they would beat

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the lower card guys to keep their credibility.

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But when it came to the hot new acts, their job

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was to lose. It's classic contrast. The wrecking

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crew is big and scary. The good guys are fast

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and pretty. When the pretty guys beat the scary

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guys, the fans go crazy. But there's one feud

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here that made me chuckle. The Cole twins. Ah,

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Keith and Kent Cole. Identical twins. And the

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wrecking crew feuded with them for months. It's

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one of the oldest tropes in the book. The big,

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mean brawlers versus the smaller, faster, identical

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twins. And you know the drill. The twins probably

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used twin magic to switch places. And eventually

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that WCW run fizzles out too. But being a journeyman

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means the journey continues. Literally. We're

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going international. A huge part of the career

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of a guy like Green. If the U .S. runs dry, you

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go to Europe or Japan. In 1994, the wrecking

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crew heads to the CWA, the Catch Wrestling Association

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in Europe. And there's a really somber detail

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in the notes here. They win the CWA tag team

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titles, but the context is tragic. It is very

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dark. They won the titles in a tournament. But

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the reason the titles were vacant was that the

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previous champion, a wrestler named Larry Cameron,

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had actually died in the ring during a match.

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God, that really puts it all in perspective.

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It's a stark reminder of the physical toll. Green

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and Fury win the belt in the shadow of that.

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They only held them for about three weeks. It

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was a short reign, but it shows Green was trusted

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to carry the company during a crisis. He was

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a safe pair of hands. And from Europe, they head

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to Japan. Summer of 1995, all Japan pro wrestling.

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AJPW in the 90s is the holy grail for purists.

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hard -hitting, serious. The Wrecking Crew toured

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there, and again, look at their role. They're

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beating the rookies, but when they face the top

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foreign team, Doug Furness and Dan Crawfett.

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They lose. They lose. They were there to make

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the legends look good. It's the same story in

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a different language. Which brings us to the

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late 90s. The Monday Night Wars are heating up,

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and Al Green finds his way back to WCW one more

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time. But this time, he's solo. And honestly,

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he seems strictly there to fill out the card.

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Cannon fodder comes to mind. But there is one

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specific match in August 1998 that stands out.

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Monday Nitro. Al Green versus Goldberg. Goldberg

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was the man in 1998. If you were wrestling him,

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you were getting speared and jackhammered in

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three minutes flat. It was a ritual. But the

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meta moment here is fantastic. Kevin Nash Green's

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old partner was on guest commentary. He was.

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And Nash, being one of the smartest guys in the

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business, actually referenced it yeah he acknowledged

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green was his former partner and then because

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he's kevin nash he made a joke connecting him

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to this soul singer of course he did but it's

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kind of a full circle moment nash is at the announce

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table making millions green is in the ring taking

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the spear but the circle wasn't closed yet we

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have to talk about the year 2000 oh boy the year

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2000 in wcw the russo era notorious for being

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chaotic and just Desperate. All of the above.

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The company is sinking, bleeding money, and trying

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anything to stay afloat. And in this chaos, Al

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Green gets repackaged. He is no longer Blade,

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no longer Rage. He is the dog. The dog. Okay,

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explain this. Was he a cool dog, like the big

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dog? No. He was a, well. A human acting like

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a dog. He formed a hardcore tag team with Brian

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Nobbs from the Nasty Boys. The story is he was

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a last minute replacement for Sabu. So they needed

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a body. They threw Al Green in there, gave him

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a spiked collar and called him the dog. And the

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behavior. The notes mention degrading. That's

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the only word for it. He would bark. He would

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act like an attack dog. And yes, as you teased,

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there were spots where he would literally drink

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out of a toilet. What? I mean, was he that desperate

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for work? That's the question. But you have to

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view it through the lens of a journeyman. It's

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a paycheck. The writers come up with a gimmick,

00:11:56.960 --> 00:11:59.399
no matter how stupid, and you do it or you go

00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:02.460
home. Al Green was a pro. He went out there and

00:12:02.460 --> 00:12:05.299
did the job. It feels like a humiliation ritual.

00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.100
It might have been. He only secured five victories

00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:10.740
in that whole run. Mostly he was just there to

00:12:10.740 --> 00:12:12.600
get hit with trash cans and act like a canine.

00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:15.940
Man. From teaming with Kevin Nash to drinking

00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:18.320
out of a toilet, that is a rough ride. It was

00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.179
the dying days of WCW. Soon after, the WWF bought

00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:24.700
the company in 2001. And I'm guessing Al Green

00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:27.120
wasn't on the must -keep list. His contract wasn't

00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:28.980
picked up. And that was pretty much the end of

00:12:28.980 --> 00:12:30.700
his full -time career. He didn't disappear completely,

00:12:30.899 --> 00:12:32.940
though. He popped up in a few places. A little

00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:36.120
bit. A masked gig in a promotion called WXO.

00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:39.320
A match in 2007 against Abula the Butcher. And

00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:42.759
reality TV, strangely enough. Right. Hogan knows

00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:45.340
best. He lived in Florida. He was part of that

00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:47.080
extended Hulk Hogan circle. You see him in the

00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:49.679
background. Just another reminder, he was always

00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:51.740
around the business, even if he wasn't in the

00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:54.240
spotlight. So we come to the end. Al Green passed

00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:59.080
away on June 14, 2013. He was only 57. COPD.

00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:01.980
It had been affecting him for a while. 57 is

00:13:01.980 --> 00:13:05.500
far too young, but sadly not uncommon for wrestlers

00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:07.679
of that generation. When you look back at it

00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:12.519
all... The rookie, Blade, Rage, the dog. What

00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:15.019
do you see? He's not a Hall of Famer. No one

00:13:15.019 --> 00:13:17.720
is wearing an Al Green t -shirt. No, they aren't.

00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:20.080
But if you zoom out, you see a master class in

00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.919
adaptability. He played every single role the

00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.820
industry asked of him. Be a monster. Okay, tag

00:13:25.820 --> 00:13:28.019
with this rookie. Sure. Put over the young guys.

00:13:28.139 --> 00:13:30.620
Done. Act like a dog. Fine. He kept the machine

00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:33.059
running. Exactly. He worked for the biggest companies

00:13:33.059 --> 00:13:35.399
in the world. He shared the ring with Sting,

00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:38.399
Nash, Goldberg, Hogan. You don't get to do that

00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:40.320
for 20 years if you aren't dependable and professional.

00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:42.519
It's the difference between the guys on the poster

00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.019
and the guys who make the poster possible. And

00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:46.659
that leads me to the big thought I want to leave

00:13:46.659 --> 00:13:49.759
you with. When we write history, we obsess over

00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.360
the Steeles, the Kevin Nash's who become icons.

00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.360
But think about how different history would look

00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:57.860
without the Blades. Without the Al Greens who

00:13:57.860 --> 00:14:00.620
stayed behind, who took the losses, who made

00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:03.500
the stars look like stars. You can't have a hero

00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:05.500
without a villain. You can't have a winner without

00:14:05.500 --> 00:14:08.700
someone willing to lose. Precisely. The Al Greens

00:14:08.700 --> 00:14:10.980
of the world are the mortar that holds the bricks

00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:13.360
together. You might not look at the mortar, but

00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:15.820
without it, the whole wall falls down. Well said.

00:14:15.980 --> 00:14:18.720
So next time you see a highlight reel of Goldberg

00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.360
spearing someone, take a second to look at the

00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.419
guy taking the hit. It might just be Al Green

00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:26.990
doing his job. thanks for listening to this deep

00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:28.269
dive see you next time