WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.339 Okay, so let's unpack this today. If you were 00:00:02.339 --> 00:00:06.320 watching television in 1996, specifically on 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:09.119 Monday nights, you might remember a moment that 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:12.980 just felt, well, it felt incredibly off. Oh yeah, 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:16.219 very off. Right. So a guy walks out, he's got 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:19.359 the slicked back hair, the vest, the little toothpick 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:21.100 flicked right at the camera, the music hits. 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.609 It is Razor Ramon. Yep. Except if you looked 00:00:24.609 --> 00:00:26.809 closer or, you know, honestly, if you just had 00:00:26.809 --> 00:00:29.149 working eyes, you realize pretty quickly that 00:00:29.149 --> 00:00:31.820 is definitely not Scott Hall. The infamous fake 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.060 razor. I mean, it is one of those images that's 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:36.979 just permanently burned into the retinas of wrestling 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:39.200 fans everywhere. It really is. And it's usually 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:41.399 treated as a punchline, right? Just this moment 00:00:41.399 --> 00:00:44.380 of corporate madness where the World Wrestling 00:00:44.380 --> 00:00:46.380 Federation thought they could just swap a human 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.420 being out like a spare tire and nobody would 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:50.799 notice. Like recasting a sitcom character, but 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:54.100 in a live arena. Exactly. But here is where it 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:55.700 gets really interesting and why we're doing this 00:00:55.700 --> 00:00:57.979 deep dive today. We're not just going to talk 00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:00.229 about a bad casting decision. We're going to 00:01:00.229 --> 00:01:03.929 talk about the man inside that vest. Right. Because 00:01:03.929 --> 00:01:06.549 if you stop at the fake razor joke, you miss 00:01:06.549 --> 00:01:09.390 the actual tragedy and honestly, the triumph 00:01:09.390 --> 00:01:12.450 of Rick Bogner. Yeah. Because this is a guy who 00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:14.829 went from fighting for literal beer money in 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:18.689 Calgary to being a legitimate superstar in Japan, 00:01:18.890 --> 00:01:22.030 got chewed up by the American corporate machine, 00:01:22.290 --> 00:01:25.060 broke his neck. And somehow came out the other 00:01:25.060 --> 00:01:28.459 side as a spiritual guide. Yeah, guru might be 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:30.519 a strong word, but he literally wrote a book 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:32.879 called Wrestling with Consciousness. Which is 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:35.480 an incredible title. Honestly, best title for 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:37.760 a memoir I've heard in a long time. Yeah. So 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:39.540 our mission today is to figure out how you get 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:42.420 from point A, which is being this brash knuckles 00:01:42.420 --> 00:01:44.760 champion in a ring surrounded by barbed wire, 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:47.620 to point B, teaching mindfulness and psychology. 00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:50.099 It's quite the pivot. It is. So we've pulled 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:53.079 together the match records from FMW, WWF, New 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.980 Japan. His biography and various articles from 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:58.819 the time. We're going to distill all these sources 00:01:58.819 --> 00:02:01.159 and really meet Rick Bogner because his story 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:03.620 definitely does not start in the WWF. No, much 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:05.480 more humbly than that. He was born in Vancouver 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.219 in 1970 and he breaks into the business in 1988. 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:10.759 So he's around 19 years old. It's a kid. It's 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.780 a kid. And the sources paint this really gritty 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:16.680 picture of the Western Canadian independent circuit 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:19.689 at that time. Yeah, I found this detail in the 00:02:19.689 --> 00:02:22.530 notes. Completely wild. So he has his first match 00:02:22.530 --> 00:02:27.110 in Calgary. He's 19. He is putting his body on 00:02:27.110 --> 00:02:29.370 the line. And do you want to tell them what the 00:02:29.370 --> 00:02:31.569 payout was? Well, it certainly wasn't a check. 00:02:31.810 --> 00:02:35.569 Nope. $25 and a six pack of beer. Which is just 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:38.330 the quintessential paying your dues story in 00:02:38.330 --> 00:02:40.889 professional wrestling. But wait, explain the 00:02:40.889 --> 00:02:43.539 economics of that to me. Because you cannot live 00:02:43.539 --> 00:02:46.039 on $25 and some beer a month. You absolutely 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:48.520 can't. And that's why the sources note he spent 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:51.080 two years working as a bouncer just to fund his 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:53.539 wrestling habit. Wow. Yeah, he was only getting 00:02:53.539 --> 00:02:55.639 matches a couple of times a month using these 00:02:55.639 --> 00:02:58.280 early names like Rick Titan or, I love this one, 00:02:58.419 --> 00:03:01.500 Mega Mask. Mega Mask. That's fantastic. Right. 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:05.939 And he was big. He was 6 '7", 285 pounds. But 00:03:05.939 --> 00:03:08.080 in Canada, he was just another big guy trying 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.639 to get booked. So he's stuck in this loop. Right. 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:13.979 Bouncing at clubs, wrestling for beer. How does 00:03:13.979 --> 00:03:17.000 he actually break out? Because normally the path 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.340 is you go south, you go to the U .S. Normally, 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:23.860 yes. But Bobnar looked east. In 1991, he did 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:26.419 what every hungry wrestler did in the pre -internet 00:03:26.419 --> 00:03:30.159 era. He mailed a physical videotape. A VHS tape. 00:03:30.219 --> 00:03:33.800 A VHS tape. And he sent it to Atsushi Onida in 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.759 Japan, who is the head of FMW. OK, we need to 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:39.120 pause on Atsushi Onida and FMW for a second. 00:03:39.789 --> 00:03:41.210 Because if you just say to the listener, hey, 00:03:41.289 --> 00:03:44.189 he went to Japan, they might picture, you know, 00:03:44.189 --> 00:03:47.270 a nice traditional sporting event. Oh, no. Right. 00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:50.509 FMW stands for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:52.840 And from what I'm reading in these sources, martial 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:55.020 arts is a very loose term. This sounds more like 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:57.259 a demolition derby. That is a very fair comparison. 00:03:57.620 --> 00:04:00.599 FMW was not about technical arm bars and headlocks. 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:03.979 It was the direct precursor to the extreme hardcore 00:04:03.979 --> 00:04:06.719 wrestling we saw later in the late 90s. The really 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:08.900 bloody stuff. Exactly. They replaced the ring 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:11.419 ropes with barbed wire. They used C4 explosive. 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:15.099 Literal explosives in the ring. Yes. It was violent. 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:17.660 It was incredibly bloody. And it was just pure 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:21.730 theater of the absurd. And so Onida, this mad 00:04:21.730 --> 00:04:24.509 genius running the company, sees a tape of this 00:04:24.509 --> 00:04:27.149 massive Canadian kid and just thinks, perfect. 00:04:27.449 --> 00:04:29.829 Exactly. Bogner had the size. He had the look. 00:04:29.870 --> 00:04:32.470 He was intimidating. So he flies over in 1991 00:04:32.470 --> 00:04:35.889 and almost overnight, his entire narrative changes. 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:39.170 He isn't the struggling Rick Titan anymore. They 00:04:39.170 --> 00:04:42.189 rename him Big Titan. And does it work? Like, 00:04:42.250 --> 00:04:44.959 is the success instant? It is staggering how 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.720 fast he gets over. He debuts in July of 91. By 00:04:47.720 --> 00:04:50.519 January 15, 1992, he is standing in the ring 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:52.800 across from Onida himself. The founder of the 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:54.939 company. The founder, the ace, the absolute biggest 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:57.779 star they have. And Bogner wins. He defeats Onida 00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:00.839 to win the FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Championship. 00:05:01.060 --> 00:05:03.040 That's his first pro title. Hold on, let me stop 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:04.699 you there. Because from what I understand about 00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:07.399 Japanese wrestling, how rare is that? for a gay 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:10.139 jian, a foreigner, to just walk in and beat the 00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:12.100 owner for the top belt within six months. It 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:14.079 is incredibly rare. Usually the foreigner is 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:16.279 brought in just to be the big scary monster that 00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:18.420 the local hero eventually vanquishes to make 00:05:18.420 --> 00:05:20.620 the crowd happy. Right. The final boss that you 00:05:20.620 --> 00:05:23.540 always beat. Exactly. So for Onida to actually 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:26.439 put the top belt on Bogner, even if the reign 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:29.819 only lasted 15 days, it signaled a massive amount 00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:32.699 of trust. It meant Bogner could safely work the 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:35.000 crowd. He could handle the really grueling physical 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.779 style. And most importantly, the fans believed 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:41.319 he was a legitimate champion. So he is decidedly 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:44.000 not a joke at this point. He's a legitimate headliner 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.740 in a major market. Far from a joke. He's a massive 00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:49.839 star. He joins the stable called Team Canada 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.480 with the Gladiator and Dr. Luther. Awesome names. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:54.839 Right. And he and the Gladiator actually become 00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:58.120 the first ever FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champions 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:02.220 in 1994. Wow. Plus, he's hustling globally. He's 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:05.019 touring Germany with the CWA, feuding with a 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.519 guy named Rambo. He's working in Japan's war 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:09.860 promotion, feuding with Jinichiro Tenryu, who 00:06:09.860 --> 00:06:12.939 is a living legend. So by 1995, if you're a scout 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:14.660 looking at talent anywhere in the world, Rick 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:17.060 Bogner is a blue chip prospect. Which brings 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:19.759 us to the turning point of his entire life. The 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:23.100 phone call that changes everything. 1996. The 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:25.660 WWF comes calling. Yep. Bret Hart reportedly 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:28.040 put in a really good word for him. So Bogner 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:30.660 gets a tryout match, beats a guy named Frank 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:33.100 Stiletto, and he gets hired. Now, if this were 00:06:33.100 --> 00:06:35.839 a movie, this is the happy ending, right? The 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.360 bouncer from Vancouver who worked for Beer finally 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:40.379 makes it to the big leagues in America. But the 00:06:40.379 --> 00:06:43.720 timing of this. It was a complete disaster. You 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:45.879 really have to understand the corporate landscape 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:49.680 of the WWF in 1996 to see why this failed. The 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:52.019 company was absolutely panicking. This is the 00:06:52.019 --> 00:06:54.800 Monday Night Wars. Exactly. Two of their biggest 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:57.319 homegrown stars, Scott Hall, who played Reza 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:00.300 Ramon, and Kevin Nash, who played Diesel, had 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:03.540 just defected to WCW, their direct rival. And 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:06.949 WCW was just... crushing the WWF in the TV ratings. 00:07:07.129 --> 00:07:10.189 So the WWF is bleeding top tier talent. And instead 00:07:10.189 --> 00:07:11.670 of, I don't know, creating new characters for 00:07:11.670 --> 00:07:14.870 their new hires, they decide to do what exactly? 00:07:15.110 --> 00:07:16.589 They decided to play hardball with intellectual 00:07:16.589 --> 00:07:19.350 property. Of course they did. The WWF lawyers 00:07:19.350 --> 00:07:21.389 basically came out and said, look, Scott Hall 00:07:21.389 --> 00:07:24.329 and Kevin Nash are gone. But they don't own those 00:07:24.329 --> 00:07:27.209 characters. We do. We own the trademark for Razor 00:07:27.209 --> 00:07:29.949 Ramon. We own the purple vest. We own the concept 00:07:29.949 --> 00:07:32.970 of diesel. It just feels so petty. It's like 00:07:32.970 --> 00:07:35.790 if a famous band broke up and the record label 00:07:35.790 --> 00:07:38.350 just hired four random musicians off the street, 00:07:38.470 --> 00:07:40.629 put them in the exact same wigs and outfits, 00:07:40.829 --> 00:07:43.129 and told the fans, hey, look, it's still the 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:45.629 Beatles. That is exactly what it was. It was 00:07:45.629 --> 00:07:49.870 intended to be this legal flex and also a storyline 00:07:49.870 --> 00:07:52.370 heel turn for the announcer, Jim Ross. Right. 00:07:52.410 --> 00:07:54.730 Ross introduced these new versions of the characters 00:07:54.730 --> 00:07:57.569 to prove that the WWF machine created the stars, 00:07:57.670 --> 00:08:00.810 not the men themselves, basically saying wrestlers 00:08:00.810 --> 00:08:03.139 are just... interchangeable parts on an assembly 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:05.339 line but the audience isn't stupid you can't 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:07.759 just swap out a real human face and expect people 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.220 not to notice no and that is exactly where the 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:12.879 master plan collapsed when bognar walked out 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.279 as razor ramon and glenn jacobs walked out as 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:17.839 the fake diesel the fans didn't boo them because 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.139 they were bad guys in the story they booed because 00:08:20.139 --> 00:08:21.959 they felt their intelligence was being insulted 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:24.759 yeah looking at the notes on the 1997 royal rumble 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.139 yeah this really seems like the moment the company 00:08:27.139 --> 00:08:29.589 realized oh wow this is not working at all It 00:08:29.589 --> 00:08:32.070 was the absolute death knell for the gimmick. 00:08:32.090 --> 00:08:34.370 So, Bognar enters the Rumble match, which is 00:08:34.370 --> 00:08:35.929 their second biggest show of the year. Right. 00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:39.509 And he is the very first person eliminated. Ahmed 00:08:39.509 --> 00:08:42.289 Johnson literally throws him out. almost immediately. 00:08:42.490 --> 00:08:44.590 And in wrestling language, when you get dumped 00:08:44.590 --> 00:08:47.009 first like that, that is the company publicly 00:08:47.009 --> 00:08:49.929 washing its hands of you. It's just brutal. And 00:08:49.929 --> 00:08:52.330 the critics destroyed it, too. The Wrestling 00:08:52.330 --> 00:08:54.409 Observer Newsletter, which is basically the Wall 00:08:54.409 --> 00:08:56.909 Street Journal of Wrestling, voted it the worst 00:08:56.909 --> 00:09:00.590 gimmick of 1996. They also voted the whole recast 00:09:00.590 --> 00:09:03.190 idea the most disgusting promotional tactic. 00:09:03.690 --> 00:09:06.210 So Bognar, through no fault of his own, becomes 00:09:06.210 --> 00:09:08.409 the face of arguably the worst idea in wrestling 00:09:08.409 --> 00:09:10.990 history. And he is totally stuck. He's a highly 00:09:10.990 --> 00:09:13.570 talented, well -traveled guy, but he's trapped 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:15.730 in a costume that everyone actively despises. 00:09:15.889 --> 00:09:18.809 And here's the real sliding doors moment that 00:09:18.809 --> 00:09:21.409 just kind of haunts this whole story. His partner, 00:09:21.590 --> 00:09:23.669 the fake Diesel. Glenn Jacobs. Glenn Jacobs. 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:26.250 Right. Glenn Jacobs somehow survives this absolute 00:09:26.250 --> 00:09:29.509 train wreck of a storyline. He does. Jacobs was 00:09:29.509 --> 00:09:31.470 eventually repackaged. They put him in a full 00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:34.190 face mask, called him Kane, made him the evil 00:09:34.190 --> 00:09:36.570 brother of the Undertaker. And he goes on to 00:09:36.570 --> 00:09:39.490 have an absolute Hall of Fame legendary career. 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:41.529 But they didn't do anything like that for Bognar. 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.320 They didn't repackage him. Not at all. Once the 00:09:44.320 --> 00:09:47.039 fake razor experiment was deemed a failure, Bogner 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:49.759 was just let go. Jacobs got a magical second 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:52.559 chance, and Bogner got a pink slip. Man, that 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.460 has to completely mess with your head. You do 00:09:54.460 --> 00:09:56.559 exactly what the billionaire boss tells you to 00:09:56.559 --> 00:09:59.200 do. You play the role, you take all the public 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:01.460 humiliation from the fans, and then you're the 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:04.539 one who just gets discarded. It's a massive psychological 00:10:04.539 --> 00:10:07.720 blow. Just devastating. But this is where Bogner's 00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:09.879 resilience really kicks in. He doesn't quit the 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:11.919 business. He takes the razor gimmick down to 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:15.379 Mexico to work for AAA and then to the USWA in 00:10:15.379 --> 00:10:18.039 Memphis. Oh, wait. I see a note here about a 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:21.000 Loser Leaves Town match in the USWA. Please tell 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.799 me it was against Fake Diesel. It actually was. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.600 That is amazing. It's almost poetic, really. 00:10:26.820 --> 00:10:29.399 He wrestles his former partner, Fake Diesel. 00:10:29.700 --> 00:10:32.500 Bogner wins the match. Fake Diesel leaves town, 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:34.620 basically, so Glenn Jacobs can go off to become 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:37.460 Kane. And Brognar finally gets to shed the Razor 00:10:37.460 --> 00:10:39.659 Ramon skin. He goes back to being Rick Titan. 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:43.320 He reclaims his actual identity. He does. And 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:46.000 in 1998, he returns to the one place that actually 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:49.330 respected his talent, Japan. But this time, he 00:10:49.330 --> 00:10:52.950 doesn't go to FMW. He goes to New Japan Pro Wrestling, 00:10:53.129 --> 00:10:55.169 which is the biggest, most prestigious promotion 00:10:55.169 --> 00:10:58.470 in the country. He joins the NWO Japan faction. 00:10:58.789 --> 00:11:01.529 He's performing in the massive Tokyo Dome. He 00:11:01.529 --> 00:11:03.990 is officially back. But just as he's rebuilding 00:11:03.990 --> 00:11:06.309 his career, we hit the physical wall. And this 00:11:06.309 --> 00:11:08.110 part of the story, honestly, it makes me cringe 00:11:08.110 --> 00:11:10.509 just looking at the notes. February 15, 1998. 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:13.629 Yeah. So he's in a match against Shinya Hashimoto. 00:11:13.710 --> 00:11:15.789 Now, for listeners who might not know, Hashimoto 00:11:15.789 --> 00:11:18.850 was notorious in Japan. He hit incredibly hard. 00:11:18.990 --> 00:11:21.450 He was stiff. It wasn't a choreographed dance 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:23.149 with him. It was basically a real fight. And 00:11:23.149 --> 00:11:25.090 something goes wrong with a move called a DDT, 00:11:25.129 --> 00:11:28.179 right? Correct. A DDT is a move where you grab 00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:30.980 your opponent in a front face lock and drop backward, 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:34.159 driving their head into the mat. In this case, 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:37.360 the timing was just slightly off. Bognar landed 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.960 directly on the crown of his head. The impact 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:42.440 was so severe, it caused a hairline fracture 00:11:42.440 --> 00:11:45.679 of his C5 and C6 vertebrae. Okay, let's just 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:47.779 be very clear for everyone listening. That is 00:11:47.779 --> 00:11:50.659 a broken neck. That is absolute... Don't move 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:54.019 an inch. Call the paramedics. Stretcher out territory. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:56.179 Medically and structurally, yes, absolutely. 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:59.179 But Bognar, he gets up and finishes the match. 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:01.659 How is that even? physiologically possible is 00:12:01.659 --> 00:12:04.659 it just pure adrenaline adrenaline shock and 00:12:04.659 --> 00:12:06.840 honestly the toxic tough guy culture of the wrestling 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:08.779 business at that time you just did not stop a 00:12:08.779 --> 00:12:10.860 match but what's even more terrifying is what 00:12:10.860 --> 00:12:12.980 happened after he went to the back because he 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:15.399 didn't take six months off to heal no way you're 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:17.940 kidding he kept wrestling he participated in 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:20.419 the iwgp tag team tournament in june of that 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:22.659 same year and then and this is the part that 00:12:22.659 --> 00:12:25.379 is truly hard to fathom he entered the g1 climax 00:12:25.379 --> 00:12:27.899 tournament in august you need to explain the 00:12:27.899 --> 00:12:30.970 g1 climax Because that's not just showing up 00:12:30.970 --> 00:12:33.710 for one match on a Sunday, right? Not at all. 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:36.509 It is widely considered the most grueling tournament 00:12:36.509 --> 00:12:39.490 in professional wrestling. It's a massive round 00:12:39.490 --> 00:12:42.169 -robin tournament. You are wrestling high -intensity 00:12:42.169 --> 00:12:45.009 singles matches, often going 20 or 30 minutes 00:12:45.009 --> 00:12:48.070 long, night after night for weeks on end. It 00:12:48.070 --> 00:12:50.409 routinely destroys completely healthy bodies. 00:12:50.690 --> 00:12:52.750 Rick Bognar did the entire tournament with a 00:12:52.750 --> 00:12:54.889 healing broken neck. That crosses the line from 00:12:54.889 --> 00:12:58.309 being tough to being deeply self -destructive, 00:12:58.350 --> 00:13:00.759 doesn't it? It does. And I think it speaks directly 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:03.200 to the immense pressure he felt. He had lost 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:05.940 his big spot in America. He was desperately trying 00:13:05.940 --> 00:13:08.259 to prove he was still elite in Japan. And he 00:13:08.259 --> 00:13:10.840 just pushed his body way past the breaking point. 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:12.820 Eventually, the bill has to come due on that 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.649 kind of physical debt. It always does. He wrestled 00:13:15.649 --> 00:13:18.250 his last major match for New Japan in March of 00:13:18.250 --> 00:13:21.950 1999. He did a very brief run back home in Calgary 00:13:21.950 --> 00:13:24.850 for Stampede Wrestling. But by 2000, he officially 00:13:24.850 --> 00:13:27.710 had to retire. He was only 30 years old. 30. 00:13:27.789 --> 00:13:29.769 I mean, 30 is usually when a professional wrestler 00:13:29.769 --> 00:13:32.500 is just hitting their absolute prime. Exactly. 00:13:32.659 --> 00:13:34.480 They're just figuring out the psychology of the 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:36.679 crowd. So now you have this 30 -year -old man. 00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:40.000 His body is completely wrecked. His biggest fame 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.700 in America is being a widely mocked fake version 00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:45.559 of someone else. And his entire career is over. 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:48.960 This is exactly the moment where so many wrestling 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.600 stories turn into deep tragedies. The addiction, 00:13:51.799 --> 00:13:55.720 the deep depression. But Rick Bognar, he pivoted. 00:13:55.779 --> 00:13:59.039 And not just a small career pivot. He completely 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:01.639 reinvented his entire operating system. He really 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:03.820 did. He went straight to school. He enrolled 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:06.240 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and dedicated 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:08.779 himself to studying business and psychology. 00:14:09.139 --> 00:14:10.740 You know, psychology seems like the absolute 00:14:10.740 --> 00:14:13.340 perfect field for someone who has just been through 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:16.419 the carnival funhouse mirror of pro wrestling. 00:14:16.539 --> 00:14:18.720 It makes total sense. He started to process his 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.159 own wild experiences, the massive highs of main 00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:24.379 eventing the Tokyo Dome, the intense public humiliation 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:27.200 of the fake razor gimmick, the chronic pain of 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.070 the broken. neck. And he decided to use all of 00:14:30.070 --> 00:14:32.070 that trauma to help others. He became a speaker. 00:14:32.210 --> 00:14:34.490 But the sources are clear that he was very specific 00:14:34.490 --> 00:14:36.590 about his title. He did not want to be called 00:14:36.590 --> 00:14:39.110 a motivational speaker. No, he preferred the 00:14:39.110 --> 00:14:42.110 term transformational speaker. And he wrote that 00:14:42.110 --> 00:14:44.230 book we mentioned earlier, Wrestling with Consciousness, 00:14:44.250 --> 00:14:46.570 which came out in 2010. I really want to dig 00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:48.710 into that concept for a second. Wrestling with 00:14:48.710 --> 00:14:51.289 Consciousness. What was he actually teaching 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:54.279 people? Was it just kind of standard? Think positive 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:56.740 self -help stuff. It was significantly deeper 00:14:56.740 --> 00:14:59.539 than that. He drew from his education to teach 00:14:59.539 --> 00:15:03.299 specific techniques. breathing exercises, deep 00:15:03.299 --> 00:15:06.539 meditation, cognitive reframing to deal with 00:15:06.539 --> 00:15:09.759 deep -seated anger and regret. He talked a lot 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.659 about how the wrestling business is entirely 00:15:11.659 --> 00:15:14.460 predicated on creating conflict. The whole model 00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:17.299 is about fighting. But a healthy, happy life 00:15:17.299 --> 00:15:19.879 is about resolving conflict. So he literally 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.279 had to unlearn the very instincts that made him 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:25.980 a millionaire star in Japan. Wow. That is such 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:28.460 a profound shift in mindset. To go from a world 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:30.659 where you are financially rewarded for aggression, 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.139 to a world where you are rewarded for inner peace. 00:15:33.379 --> 00:15:35.259 And by all accounts, he really seemed to find 00:15:35.259 --> 00:15:37.480 that peace. He even managed to keep a great solid 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:40.100 humor about his past. He actually did some acting 00:15:40.100 --> 00:15:43.779 later on. Yes. I saw the IMDB credits in the 00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:46.899 notes. He played the meanest barbarian on the 00:15:46.899 --> 00:15:51.129 TV show. Honey, I shrunk the kids. And he played 00:15:51.129 --> 00:15:54.029 a literal Sasquatch in a movie called Painkillers. 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:56.750 He wasn't hiding from his massive physical size 00:15:56.750 --> 00:15:59.190 or his past. He was just finally having fun with 00:15:59.190 --> 00:16:01.970 it. He even reconnected with the wrestling world 00:16:01.970 --> 00:16:04.950 in a really healthy, giving way. He helped train 00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:07.330 Jinder Mahal, who eventually went on to become 00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:09.990 a WWE champion. So he didn't run away from wrestling 00:16:09.990 --> 00:16:12.129 in the end. He just made peace with his place 00:16:12.129 --> 00:16:14.769 in it. Exactly. He integrated it. He wasn't Fake 00:16:14.769 --> 00:16:17.330 Razor anymore. He wasn't even Big Titan anymore. 00:16:17.509 --> 00:16:19.250 He was just Rick. Which really makes the end 00:16:19.250 --> 00:16:21.700 of this story. so heartbreaking to read. It definitely 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:24.419 catches you off guard. On September 20, 2019, 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:27.519 Rick Bognar passed away suddenly. It was a heart 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:29.659 attack. He was only 49 years old. It just feels 00:16:29.659 --> 00:16:32.299 deeply unfair. Like he'd done all the hard work. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:34.500 He had fixed his mind. He had fixed his life. 00:16:34.600 --> 00:16:37.879 He was helping people. And then he's just gone 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.750 before he even hits 50. It is incredibly tragic. 00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:43.509 But, you know, if we look at the actual philosophy 00:16:43.509 --> 00:16:46.289 he was teaching in his later years, he talked 00:16:46.289 --> 00:16:48.690 a lot about the impermanence of things. He wrote 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.389 heavily about living in the now because the character 00:16:51.389 --> 00:16:53.149 you play in life, whether that's a professional 00:16:53.149 --> 00:16:56.429 wrestler or CEO or a podcast host, is ultimately 00:16:56.429 --> 00:16:59.429 just a costume. So if we zoom out and look at 00:16:59.429 --> 00:17:01.990 this whole deep dive, what is the ultimate legacy 00:17:01.990 --> 00:17:05.059 here? Because for most casual fans, his name 00:17:05.059 --> 00:17:07.720 is still just a trivia question from 1996. I 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:10.319 think his true legacy is incredible adaptability. 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:12.859 Just think about the sheer range of this man's 00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:15.420 life. He was a struggling bouncer, a Japanese 00:17:15.420 --> 00:17:19.140 cultural icon, a corporate pariah in the WWF, 00:17:19.259 --> 00:17:21.579 a legitimate tough guy wrestling a tournament 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:24.599 with a broken neck, and finally, a peaceful scholar 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.140 of the human mind. It really challenges that 00:17:27.140 --> 00:17:29.480 whole idea of being defined by your worst public 00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:31.920 failure. That's the key takeaway for me. The 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.839 entire world tried to define him by the fake 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.000 razor gimmick. They tried to make his whole existence 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.660 a joke, but he simply refused to accept that 00:17:38.660 --> 00:17:40.819 as the end of his story. It reminds me of that 00:17:40.819 --> 00:17:43.660 saying, you know, you are not your job and you 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:45.759 definitely aren't the worst costume your boss 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:49.000 ever made you wear on national television. Precisely. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:50.579 And I actually want to leave you with a thought 00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:53.259 today, a bit of a provocative question to chew 00:17:53.259 --> 00:17:56.809 on. We spend so much time in wrestling circles 00:17:56.809 --> 00:17:59.869 analyzing why the fake razor thing was a disaster. 00:18:00.109 --> 00:18:03.569 But ask yourself this. If that disaster hadn't 00:18:03.569 --> 00:18:06.109 happened, if he had just stayed in Japan and 00:18:06.109 --> 00:18:09.269 had a nice, steady, successful career as Big 00:18:09.269 --> 00:18:12.279 Titan, would he have ever written? wrestling 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:14.039 with consciousness. Oh, that's interesting. Did 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:16.859 the absolute failure force the spiritual growth? 00:18:17.019 --> 00:18:19.480 Sometimes you have to be completely stripped 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:22.259 of your identity, humiliated even, to start asking 00:18:22.259 --> 00:18:24.440 the really big questions about who you actually 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:27.420 are. Bogner was forced to be a literal fake version 00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:29.539 of someone else in front of millions of people. 00:18:29.900 --> 00:18:32.039 Maybe that trauma was the ultimate crash course 00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:33.720 in figuring out how to be the real version of 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:36.259 himself. Failure as the literal fuel for enlightenment. 00:18:36.910 --> 00:18:38.829 I mean, that is a hell of a legacy for the bad 00:18:38.829 --> 00:18:41.250 guy in the vest. It certainly is. Well, that 00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:43.109 is going to do it for our deep dive today into 00:18:43.109 --> 00:18:46.069 the many, many lives of Rick Bognar. A truly 00:18:46.069 --> 00:18:48.990 fascinating story of grit, terrible corporate 00:18:48.990 --> 00:18:51.450 gimmicks, and ultimately finding peace. Thank 00:18:51.450 --> 00:18:53.049 you so much for joining us, and we will catch 00:18:53.049 --> 00:18:54.190 you on the next deep dive.