WEBVTT 00:00:00.739 --> 00:00:02.940 You know, we spend a lot of time in our culture 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:05.200 obsessing over the guys on the poster. Right, 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:07.280 main characters. Yeah, the ones who hold the 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:09.240 belt at the end of the movie, or the ones whose 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:12.679 names are right above the title. Naturally. I 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:14.800 mean, that's where the spotlight is aimed. The 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:16.859 entire production is designed to make you look 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:19.800 exactly there. Exactly. But I've been thinking 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:23.359 about this lately, and... If you shift your gaze 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:25.699 just a few inches to the left or the right of 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:28.179 that spotlight, you start to see the machinery. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:31.480 The gears turning. Yeah. You see the people who 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:34.259 actually make the whole ecosystem function. And 00:00:34.259 --> 00:00:37.869 sometimes you find someone who is just. Well, 00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:39.609 they're everywhere. I'm talking about the connectors. 00:00:39.929 --> 00:00:42.609 The connectors, the people who bridge gaps between 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:45.090 eras that really have no business touching each 00:00:45.090 --> 00:00:48.509 other. And today, we are doing a deep dive into 00:00:48.509 --> 00:00:51.869 a man who is the absolute definition of a connector. 00:00:52.090 --> 00:00:54.969 A guy who really navigated almost every major 00:00:54.969 --> 00:00:57.829 shift in the business. Right. A guy who tagged 00:00:57.829 --> 00:01:00.630 with the biggest stars of the 1980s neon era, 00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:03.689 battled the gritty legends of the 90s, and then, 00:01:03.770 --> 00:01:06.790 in this weird twist of fate, provided the literal 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:10.150 DNA for the biggest horror character of the 2010s. 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:12.250 It really is a Forrest Gump situation. I mean, 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:14.189 he's in the background of almost every major 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:17.290 shift in wrestling history for 20 solid years. 00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:19.510 But he's not just a background player. That's 00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:22.810 the thing. He's a guy who is almost the guy over 00:01:22.810 --> 00:01:26.109 and over again. We are diving deep today into 00:01:26.109 --> 00:01:28.989 the career of dangerous Dan Spivey. And looking 00:01:28.989 --> 00:01:31.750 at the research for this, it's really a tragedy, 00:01:31.989 --> 00:01:34.049 a comedy, and a redemption story all wrapped 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:36.980 into one package. It really is. Our mission today 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:39.560 is to explore how this one man navigated the 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:42.180 territories, the giants of the 80s, the hard 00:01:42.180 --> 00:01:44.340 hitting style of Japan and eventually created 00:01:44.340 --> 00:01:46.900 a character decades ahead of its time. The Waylon 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:48.900 Mercy character. Yes, which we will definitely 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:50.959 get to. We're also going to look at the physical 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:52.739 and political toll the wrestling business took 00:01:52.739 --> 00:01:55.260 on him in the 80s and 90s. We have a great stack 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:57.340 of sources here to work from today. We've got 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.379 primary biographical data, a comprehensive career 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:02.700 retrospective spanning from his start in the 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:06.959 mid 70s straight through in 1995, and some really 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:09.939 revealing details on his post wrestling life 00:02:09.939 --> 00:02:12.400 and legacy. So let's set the scene for you. It's 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.960 the early 1970s. Dan Spivey is just a kid from 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:20.060 Tampa, Florida, born in 1952. And he is just 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:22.979 a monster of a human being. A complete genetic 00:02:22.979 --> 00:02:25.699 outlier. Even by today's standards, being six 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:28.479 foot seven and nearly 300 pounds is huge. Right. 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:32.490 But in the 1970s, he was an absolute giant. And 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:34.310 he wasn't a clumsy giant either. He went to the 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:36.330 University of Georgia to go Bulldogs and play 00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:38.409 defensive end. And we aren't talking about a 00:02:38.409 --> 00:02:40.090 guy who just rode the bench, right? Not at all. 00:02:40.210 --> 00:02:42.189 He was a legitimate standout on the gridiron. 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:44.189 In his sophomore year, he was actually named 00:02:44.189 --> 00:02:46.409 an All -American. Wow. Yeah, that means he was 00:02:46.409 --> 00:02:48.349 considered one of the absolute best players at 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:50.689 his position in the entire country. If you're 00:02:50.689 --> 00:02:52.349 an All -American defensive end playing in the 00:02:52.349 --> 00:02:55.009 SEC, you are essentially a lottery pick for the 00:02:55.009 --> 00:02:57.129 NFL. Which is exactly what happened. The NFL 00:02:57.129 --> 00:03:00.289 came calling for him. They did. The New York 00:03:00.289 --> 00:03:03.120 Jets drafted him. The path was completely laid 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.360 out. He's drafted by a New York team, huge market, 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:08.639 big career ahead of him. He really should have 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:10.180 been a household name in professional football. 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:13.639 But this is where the story takes its very first 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:16.939 sharp left turn. And it's a turn that involves 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:19.620 a piece of sports history that, honestly, I think 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:21.620 a lot of people have just forgotten about. Right. 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:23.659 Because he didn't sign with the Jets? He just 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:26.319 said no to the NFL. He said no. And to understand 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:29.669 why... You have to look at the context of 1975. 00:03:30.530 --> 00:03:32.909 The NFL had a direct competitor at that time. 00:03:33.050 --> 00:03:36.789 The World Football League. The WFL. Exactly. 00:03:37.169 --> 00:03:39.569 The WFL. This was kind of like the Wild West 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:42.030 of football, wasn't it? Very much so. Think of 00:03:42.030 --> 00:03:44.330 it like the Livy Golf Tour is today, or maybe 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:46.990 the USFL in the 80s. It was a disruptor league. 00:03:47.210 --> 00:03:50.129 They were actively trying to bleed the NFL dry 00:03:50.129 --> 00:03:52.949 by offering these massive, unprecedented contracts 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:55.289 to college stars. Just throwing money at anyone 00:03:55.289 --> 00:03:57.210 with a name. Exactly. They were throwing money 00:03:57.210 --> 00:03:59.330 around that didn't necessarily exist, trying 00:03:59.330 --> 00:04:01.789 to buy instant credibility. So Spivey sees the 00:04:01.789 --> 00:04:04.349 dollar signs. He sees a startup offering him 00:04:04.349 --> 00:04:06.710 the world. So he signs with the Jacksonville 00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:10.789 Express on the WFL in June of 1975. He's betting 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:13.469 on himself, thinking he's getting in on the ground 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:16.790 floor of the next big thing in sports. And how 00:04:16.790 --> 00:04:19.649 did that bet actually pay off? Catastrophically. 00:04:20.189 --> 00:04:23.089 The WFL was a complete house of cards, spivey 00:04:23.089 --> 00:04:26.350 signs in June. By late July, and we are talking 00:04:26.350 --> 00:04:30.149 literally weeks later, he is released. The league 00:04:30.149 --> 00:04:32.750 is crumbling under its own weight. The team is 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:34.709 cutting costs before they even play a single 00:04:34.709 --> 00:04:36.750 game. Wait, so he didn't even make it to the 00:04:36.750 --> 00:04:38.889 regular season? He didn't play a single down 00:04:38.889 --> 00:04:41.300 of professional football. And by the time he 00:04:41.300 --> 00:04:43.879 was released, the NFL season was already ramping 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:46.819 up, rosters were basically set, he was just left 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:49.120 out in the cold. That is a nightmare. I mean, 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:51.540 imagine the psychological whiplash there. You 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:53.879 are the big man on campus, an All -American, 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:56.480 you have agents courting you, and then in the 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.220 span of one single summer, you're just unemployed 00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:01.680 in Tampa. It's a massive identity crisis at 23 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.199 years old. your entire life everyone has told 00:05:04.199 --> 00:05:06.000 you that you're a football player and suddenly 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.100 the universe says no you're not. So what does 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:10.980 a six foot seven former defensive end do in that 00:05:10.980 --> 00:05:14.180 situation? He just drifts. The sources indicate 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:16.579 he spent the next few years just working random 00:05:16.579 --> 00:05:20.000 jobs around Tampa. Bouncer, construction, whatever 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.120 he could find to pay the bills. He's just a regular 00:05:22.120 --> 00:05:24.019 guy who happens to be capable of bench pressing 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:27.199 a Buick. But Tampa in the late 70s and early 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:29.560 80s, that's a very specific kind of place for 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:32.759 a guy his size. It is. It's the heat, the humidity, 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:35.680 and it's the absolute hotbed of professional 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:38.459 wrestling. Championship wrestling from Florida. 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.569 Run by the legendary Eddie Graham. But the face 00:05:41.569 --> 00:05:44.110 of the territory was someone else. The American 00:05:44.110 --> 00:05:47.350 dream himself, Dusty Rhodes. So Spivey is floating 00:05:47.350 --> 00:05:49.810 around Tampa looking for a purpose. And eventually 00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:52.470 he crosses paths with Dusty. And Dusty Rhodes 00:05:52.470 --> 00:05:54.730 had an eye for talent like almost nobody else 00:05:54.730 --> 00:05:57.790 in the business. But more than that, he had an 00:05:57.790 --> 00:06:01.290 eye for a specific look. He sees Spivey, this 00:06:01.290 --> 00:06:04.959 massive tan blonde, legitimate athlete. and he 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:07.300 immediately sees dollar signs. He tells Spivey 00:06:07.300 --> 00:06:09.699 he can teach him to wrestle. Now Spivey is 31 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:11.540 years old at this point. That's pretty late to 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:13.500 start in that business, isn't it? It is very 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.779 late. Most guys start in their early 20s. His 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:18.720 knees have already been through the meat grinder 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:21.100 of college football. His back has taken a beating, 00:06:21.139 --> 00:06:24.160 but he's so physically impressive that Dusky 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:27.279 takes the gamble anyway. He trains him. And in 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.360 1983, Dan Spivey officially makes his debut. 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:33.160 But Dusty didn't just throw him out there alone. 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.339 He had a specific vision for him. Lusky loved 00:06:36.339 --> 00:06:39.680 pairs. He loved tag teams. So he found another 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:42.279 tall, athletic guy who was also trying to break 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:45.120 into the business, a guy named Scott Hall. Scott 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:48.620 Hall, the bad guy. Razor Ramon himself. Exactly. 00:06:48.779 --> 00:06:50.839 But this is way before the toothpick, way before 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.500 the hey yo catch phrase. This was baby face Scott 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.759 Hall. Dusty puts the two of them together and 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:57.939 calls them American Starship. I have looked up 00:06:57.939 --> 00:06:59.860 photos of this tag team from the sources and 00:06:59.860 --> 00:07:01.500 I really need you to describe it for the listener 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:04.300 because my words almost fail me. It is the absolute 00:07:04.300 --> 00:07:07.500 quintessence of 1983. We are talking about furry 00:07:07.500 --> 00:07:10.379 boots that go all the way up to the knees. Silver, 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:13.779 shiny tights, bright, colorful masks that they 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:15.560 would dramatically take off before the match. 00:07:15.939 --> 00:07:17.379 They look like they just walked off the set of 00:07:17.379 --> 00:07:20.560 a low budget sci -fi movie. And Spivey was Starship 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:24.209 Eagle while Hall was Starship Coyote. which sound 00:07:24.209 --> 00:07:27.350 like names generated by a random word algorithm. 00:07:27.810 --> 00:07:29.629 But the whole idea was to hide their glaring 00:07:29.629 --> 00:07:32.389 weaknesses. They were both incredibly green. 00:07:32.829 --> 00:07:35.689 We hear that term a lot in these sources, green. 00:07:35.889 --> 00:07:37.730 What does it actually mean when you're in the 00:07:37.730 --> 00:07:39.970 ring? It means they didn't know how to work. 00:07:40.310 --> 00:07:43.550 They knew the basic moves, maybe, but they didn't 00:07:43.550 --> 00:07:46.009 know the psychology of a match. They didn't know 00:07:46.009 --> 00:07:49.110 how to lead, how to listen to the crowd, or most 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:51.389 importantly, how to protect themselves or their 00:07:51.389 --> 00:07:54.360 opponents properly. They were purely cosmetic 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:56.339 at that stage. So they look like a million bucks, 00:07:56.379 --> 00:07:58.740 but they wrestle like the rookies they are. Exactly. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.079 And this led to one of the most humbling stories 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:04.680 we came across in the source material. In 1984, 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:07.420 Dusty moves up to Charlotte to become the booker 00:08:07.420 --> 00:08:09.439 for Jim Crockett promotions, which is essentially 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:11.860 the big leagues of the South. And he brings American 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:13.939 starship with him. So they made it. They're in 00:08:13.939 --> 00:08:16.060 the big time. Well, they're employed by the big 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:19.319 time. But Jim Crockett Jr. wasn't gonna put these 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:21.920 two completely green rookies on his television 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:23.800 show every week and pay them top dollar. But 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:25.920 he still needed to keep them on the payroll to 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:28.699 keep Dusty happy and to develop them. Now the 00:08:28.699 --> 00:08:31.019 Crockett family also owned a minor league baseball 00:08:31.019 --> 00:08:33.440 team, the Charlotte Orioles. I feel like I know 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:35.500 where this is going and I really don't want to 00:08:35.500 --> 00:08:38.149 believe it. It's completely true. to earn their 00:08:38.149 --> 00:08:40.529 keep while they learned the ropes. Dan Spivey 00:08:40.529 --> 00:08:43.009 and Scott Hall were assigned to the grounds crew 00:08:43.009 --> 00:08:46.909 of the baseball stadium. No way. Yes way. I want 00:08:46.909 --> 00:08:49.389 you to imagine this visual. It's a random Tuesday 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:52.429 afternoon. It's 90 degrees and humid in North 00:08:52.429 --> 00:08:56.690 Carolina. And you have two six foot seven giants 00:08:56.690 --> 00:08:59.690 who are supposed to be these larger than life 00:08:59.690 --> 00:09:01.950 wrestling superheroes called Starship Eagle and 00:09:01.950 --> 00:09:04.990 Starship Coyote. And they are literally out there 00:09:04.990 --> 00:09:07.129 raking the infield dirt and mowing the outfield 00:09:07.129 --> 00:09:09.470 grass. That is, man, that is a massive slice 00:09:09.470 --> 00:09:11.909 of humble pie. It was that old school wrestling 00:09:11.909 --> 00:09:13.870 mentality. We're gonna break you down to see 00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:16.409 if you really want this. If you can handle raking 00:09:16.409 --> 00:09:19.389 the dirt for minimum wage, maybe you deserve 00:09:19.389 --> 00:09:21.250 to wear the championship belt someday. Did they 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:23.629 get any big matches during this Charlotte run? 00:09:23.870 --> 00:09:25.970 They had a few opportunities, but they usually 00:09:25.970 --> 00:09:28.429 felt pretty flat. They had one notable match 00:09:28.429 --> 00:09:31.169 for the national tag team championship against 00:09:31.169 --> 00:09:33.450 Arne and Ole Anderson. They enforced theirs. 00:09:33.570 --> 00:09:35.809 The absolute toughest guys in the room. And the 00:09:35.809 --> 00:09:38.070 Andersons just ate them alive in that ring. It 00:09:38.070 --> 00:09:40.090 wasn't that Spivey and Hall weren't trying. It's 00:09:40.090 --> 00:09:43.509 just that you cannot fake experience. And against 00:09:43.509 --> 00:09:46.509 seasoned veterans like Arne and Ole, if you don't 00:09:46.509 --> 00:09:48.590 know exactly what you're doing, you're going 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:51.320 to look foolish. So the American starship basically 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:54.120 crashes. The sources say they try a brief stint 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.460 in the Kansas City territory. Spivey hates it 00:09:56.460 --> 00:09:58.759 there. They come back to the Carolinas. It's 00:09:58.759 --> 00:10:02.220 just not working out. It's 1985. Spivey is now 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:05.019 33 years old. He's failed at the NFL, failed 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:08.299 at the WFL, and now his wrestling career is stalling 00:10:08.299 --> 00:10:10.659 in the infield dirt of a minor league baseball 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:14.059 stadium. But 1985 is a very special year in wrestling 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:16.879 history. It's the year Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:20.139 take the business national. The WWF is expanding 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:23.779 rapidly, and Vince McMahon loves one thing above 00:10:23.779 --> 00:10:27.379 all else. Big bodies. Big, muscular, blonde bodies. 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:30.740 He sees Dan Spivey, and he doesn't see a failed 00:10:30.740 --> 00:10:33.200 football player or a green rookie. He sees a 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.460 potential star. He signs him almost immediately 00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:37.720 in the fall of 85. This should be the moment, 00:10:37.779 --> 00:10:39.799 right? He's finally in New York, Madison Square 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:43.179 Garden, but he walks into a very specific, almost 00:10:43.179 --> 00:10:45.740 doomed situation. He walks directly into the 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:48.289 role of replacement. Barry Windham, who was another 00:10:48.289 --> 00:10:50.570 tall blonde wrestler, had just abruptly quit 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:53.809 the WWF. Barry was one half of a very popular 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:56.269 tag team called the US Express, with his partner 00:10:56.269 --> 00:10:58.429 Mike Rotunda. The guys who came out to the Born 00:10:58.429 --> 00:11:00.870 the USA song. Exactly. Yeah. Vince didn't want 00:11:00.870 --> 00:11:02.570 to kill a lucrative gimmick just because one 00:11:02.570 --> 00:11:04.629 guy left, so he just slotted Spivey right in. 00:11:04.809 --> 00:11:06.549 He basically said, here, you're the new Barry 00:11:06.549 --> 00:11:08.509 Windham. They called the new team the American 00:11:08.509 --> 00:11:11.029 Express, or sometimes US Express, too. They just 00:11:11.029 --> 00:11:13.389 recycled the patriotic gimmick. It's like when 00:11:13.389 --> 00:11:16.070 a famous rock band replaces the lead singer and 00:11:16.070 --> 00:11:17.990 just hopes the audience doesn't notice the difference. 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:20.929 But the audience always notices. And poor Spivey, 00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:23.370 he was fine. He was athletic. He could move around 00:11:23.370 --> 00:11:25.049 the ring. They had feuds with the Dream Team, 00:11:25.230 --> 00:11:27.809 the Moon Dogs, the Heart Foundation. He even 00:11:27.809 --> 00:11:30.029 got to be in the WrestleMania 2 Battle Royal. 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:32.009 The one with the NFL players, right, where he 00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:34.070 was eliminated by the Iron Sheik. That's the 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:36.330 one. But he just didn't have the natural chemistry 00:11:36.330 --> 00:11:39.399 with Rotunda. that Windham had. It felt manufactured 00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:41.360 to the fans. And then Rotunda eventually leaves 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.519 too, and Spivey's left all on his own as golden 00:11:44.519 --> 00:11:47.019 boy Danny Spivey. And this brings us to what 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:49.259 was probably the biggest hurdle of his entire 00:11:49.259 --> 00:11:53.580 career, the visual. Picture Danny Spivey in 1986. 00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:56.620 He's six foot seven, blonde hair with that 80s 00:11:56.620 --> 00:12:00.240 feathering, yellow trunks, yellow boots, a really 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:02.200 deep tan. Who does he look like? He looks like 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:04.240 Hulk Hogan. He looks exactly like Hulk Hogan. 00:12:04.460 --> 00:12:07.659 And in the WWF in 1986, that is a death sentence 00:12:07.659 --> 00:12:10.299 for your career. Why though? Wouldn't looking 00:12:10.299 --> 00:12:12.779 like the biggest, most bankable star in the world 00:12:12.779 --> 00:12:16.860 be a good thing? Not in wrestling. Not if you're 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:19.720 positioned as a babyface, a good guy. Because 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:22.440 there is only one Hulk Hogan. If you look just 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.139 like him, you are automatically viewed by the 00:12:25.139 --> 00:12:27.980 audience as the Diet Coke version. The great 00:12:27.980 --> 00:12:31.059 value brand Hogan. Exactly. Fans do not want 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:33.259 to cheer for the copy when the original is on 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:35.539 the exact same card. It creates a glass ceiling 00:12:35.539 --> 00:12:38.100 for him. A completely concrete ceiling. He couldn't 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:39.899 move at the car because he couldn't wrestle Hogan, 00:12:40.019 --> 00:12:41.960 since they were both good guys. And he couldn't 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:43.940 outshine Hogan because he looked just like him, 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:47.720 but without the massive push. So he was completely 00:12:47.720 --> 00:12:50.240 stuck. He participated in the King of the Ring 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.340 in 86, lost to Nikolai Volkov, was in it again 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:57.059 in 87, lost to Rick Martel. He was just a guy 00:12:57.059 --> 00:12:59.139 to fill time. The sources show they tried to 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:01.559 turn him heal a bad guy in the spring of 1988 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:04.100 to fix this, but by then the damage was kind 00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:06.179 of already done. He was just wrestling low -carders 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.720 like Lanny Poffo and Outback Jack. And we really 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:10.539 should pause and mention a serious note here 00:13:10.539 --> 00:13:13.039 from the sources. This was the absolute peak 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:16.740 of the steroid era in wrestling. In 1991, Spivey 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:19.399 actually testified in the federal trial of Dr. 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:22.399 George Zaharian. Right, the doctor who was supplying 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.059 wrestlers. Yes. Spivey testified under oath that 00:13:26.059 --> 00:13:29.279 during this late 80s run, Zaharian was illegally 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.759 supplying him with steroids to maintain that 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:34.649 massive look. And we're just reporting what's 00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:36.830 in the historical record here. Not taking his 00:13:36.830 --> 00:13:39.629 side, but it's crucial context. It really adds 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:42.549 a layer of darkness to his situation. He's destroying 00:13:42.549 --> 00:13:45.970 his own body, taking illegal substances, just 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:48.289 to maintain a cosmetic look that is actually 00:13:48.289 --> 00:13:51.070 holding him back from any real success. Precisely. 00:13:51.149 --> 00:13:53.110 It was a complete trap. And in the spring of 00:13:53.110 --> 00:13:56.820 1988, he finally realized it. He quit the WWF. 00:13:57.080 --> 00:13:59.559 So here we are again, another major pivot point. 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.340 He needs to reinvent himself and he does it by 00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:04.279 leaving the country completely. He takes the 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:07.179 advice of Bruiser Brody, who was a massive legend 00:14:07.179 --> 00:14:09.480 in the independent and international scene, and 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:13.019 he decides to go to Japan. Specifically, he tours 00:14:13.019 --> 00:14:14.960 with All Japan Pro Wrestling. I want to pause 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:16.360 right here for the listeners who might not know 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:18.120 the history. What is the fundamental difference 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.700 between American wrestling in the late 80s and 00:14:20.700 --> 00:14:23.080 Japanese wrestling at that time? It's night and 00:14:23.080 --> 00:14:26.080 day. In America, especially the WWF, it was a 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.039 cartoon. Bright lights, highly scripted storylines, 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:33.340 basic punch -kick pose action. In Japan, it was 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:35.559 presented much more as a legitimate combat sport. 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:37.799 In All Japan, they called it the King's Road 00:14:37.799 --> 00:14:40.259 style. And the physical style in the ring. Brutal. 00:14:40.330 --> 00:14:42.970 They hit very hard. In the business, they call 00:14:42.970 --> 00:14:45.370 it working stiff. Right. If you chop someone 00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:47.269 in the chest in Japan, you are really chopping 00:14:47.269 --> 00:14:49.830 them, leaving welts. If you kick them, you are 00:14:49.830 --> 00:14:53.330 making solid contact. The crowds are also different. 00:14:53.889 --> 00:14:56.370 They are much quieter. They study the match almost 00:14:56.370 --> 00:14:59.409 like a boxing purist would. They respect physical 00:14:59.409 --> 00:15:02.309 toughness way above theatrical showmanship. And 00:15:02.309 --> 00:15:05.519 Dan Spivey just fit right in. He thrived. Because 00:15:05.519 --> 00:15:07.960 underneath the yellow trunks and the bad patriotic 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:10.259 gimmicks, Spivey was a legitimate tough guy. 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:12.940 He was a major college football player. He didn't 00:15:12.940 --> 00:15:14.460 mind the physical contact. In fact, he seemed 00:15:14.460 --> 00:15:17.200 to actually enjoy it. He got an incredible education 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:20.179 competing against legends like Gennikero Tenryu. 00:15:20.259 --> 00:15:22.600 And he found a new tag team partner over there, 00:15:22.980 --> 00:15:26.399 too. Stan Hanson. The Lariat. Stan Hansen was 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:30.100 this wild Texas cowboy who was basically a god 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:33.179 in Japan. He was legally blind without his thick 00:15:33.179 --> 00:15:35.799 glasses, so when he wrestled, he just swung his 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:37.940 huge arms wildly and hit everyone as hard as 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:40.500 he physically could. He was genuinely terrifying. 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:42.940 Spivey and Hansen teamed up as this big gaging 00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:45.259 team, the foreign monsters. And they were just 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:47.860 wrecking balls. Just two giant angry men beating 00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:50.320 the absolute hell out of Japanese stars. They 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.399 won the World Tag Team Championship. They finished 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:54.440 highly in the World's Strongest Tag Determiner. 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:58.139 in 1990 and 91. Wow. Yeah, for the first time 00:15:58.139 --> 00:16:00.240 in his entire career, Spivey wasn't a clone of 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:02.779 anyone. He was just a giant, scary foreigner. 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.559 He really found his true identity in the violence 00:16:05.559 --> 00:16:07.960 of that style. That confidence must have been 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:09.679 huge for him when he decided to come back to 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:12.799 the States in 1989. He returns to the NWA and 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:16.159 WCW. And initially they stick him in the varsity 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:18.940 club faction. Which made logical sense. You know, 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:21.139 Mike Rotunda was in it, Steve Williams was there, 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:23.799 all legitimate athletes with college backgrounds. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:27.259 Spivey used his real -life University of Georgia 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:29.799 football pedigree to lend credibility to the 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:32.200 group, but it was just a holding pattern. Because 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:34.460 then, and this is my absolute favorite version 00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:37.340 of Dan Spivey, then we get the skyscrapers. Now 00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:39.779 we're talking. He gets paired up with Sid Vicious. 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.340 Sid was another total genetic freak of nature. 00:16:42.580 --> 00:16:46.080 Six foot nine, incredibly intense, a little bit 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.700 unhinged, honestly. They called them the skyscrapers. 00:16:48.860 --> 00:16:50.940 And for once, the wrestling name wasn't just 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.580 hyperbole. It was literal. You had Spivey at 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.840 6 '7", Sid at 6 '9", and they weren't overweight. 00:16:57.179 --> 00:17:00.429 They were incredibly lean and shredded. In an 00:17:00.429 --> 00:17:02.590 era where tag teams were usually smaller, faster 00:17:02.590 --> 00:17:05.269 guys, like the Rock and Roll Express or the Dynamic 00:17:05.269 --> 00:17:07.430 Dudes, the skyscrapers looked like Godzilla, 00:17:07.650 --> 00:17:09.690 and King Kong had just decided to form a tag 00:17:09.690 --> 00:17:13.109 team. They dominated the Dynamic Dudes, by the 00:17:13.109 --> 00:17:16.069 way. They even co -won a two -ring King of the 00:17:16.069 --> 00:17:17.990 Hill battle royal at the Great American Bash, 00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:20.529 right? Yeah, their manager Teddy Long convinced 00:17:20.529 --> 00:17:22.630 them to just split the prize money rather than 00:17:22.630 --> 00:17:24.730 fight each other at the end. Teddy Long did all 00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:27.109 the talking for them. Which was the perfect dynamic. 00:17:27.650 --> 00:17:30.519 Teddy would run his mouth... agitate the crowd, 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:33.880 and then these two literal office buildings in 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:36.440 trunks would step forward to back it up. They 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:40.019 had this incredible aura of complete invincibility. 00:17:40.339 --> 00:17:42.660 There's a specific feud from the sources that 00:17:42.660 --> 00:17:45.400 defines this era for them. The Road Warriors. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.400 Hawk and Animal. The Legion of Doom. The Road 00:17:49.400 --> 00:17:52.660 Warriors were the absolute alpha males of wrestling 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:55.880 at that time. They were famously known for not 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.390 selling for their opponents. Explain selling 00:17:58.390 --> 00:18:00.490 for us just so we have the terminology straight. 00:18:00.849 --> 00:18:03.450 Selling is reacting to the pain of a move. If 00:18:03.450 --> 00:18:05.789 I punch you and you reel back and hold your jaw, 00:18:05.890 --> 00:18:08.230 that's selling. The road warriors wouldn't do 00:18:08.230 --> 00:18:10.529 that. They would just eat heavy punches and keep 00:18:10.529 --> 00:18:12.910 coming forward. It made them look completely 00:18:12.910 --> 00:18:15.190 unstoppable. Right. But it also made it really 00:18:15.190 --> 00:18:17.130 hard for the bookers to find opponents for them 00:18:17.130 --> 00:18:19.329 because nobody looked credible against them. 00:18:19.490 --> 00:18:22.809 Until the skyscrapers walked in. Exactly. When 00:18:22.809 --> 00:18:24.930 Spivey and Sid stood nose to nose in the center 00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:27.210 of the ring with Hawk and Animal, the crowd just 00:18:27.210 --> 00:18:31.069 went insane. Finally, here were two guys who 00:18:31.069 --> 00:18:33.589 could look the Road Warriors in the eye and match 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.529 their power. It was a clash of titans. But it 00:18:36.529 --> 00:18:39.589 was also physically very dangerous. Incredibly 00:18:39.589 --> 00:18:42.710 dangerous. You have four massive guys, pumped 00:18:42.710 --> 00:18:45.109 full of adrenaline, throwing heavy, heavy leather 00:18:45.109 --> 00:18:47.750 at each other. At Clash of the Champions and 00:18:47.750 --> 00:18:50.230 IX, the Skyscrapers wrestled the Steiner Brothers, 00:18:50.569 --> 00:18:53.769 who were another team of legitimate, hard -hitting, 00:18:53.869 --> 00:18:57.069 tough guys. And Sid gets hurt. Badly. Punctured 00:18:57.069 --> 00:18:59.630 Long, broken rib, he's completely out of action. 00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:01.809 So the team is dead right there. Not quite yet. 00:19:02.390 --> 00:19:04.430 Teddy Long brings in a replacement partner for 00:19:04.430 --> 00:19:07.309 Spivey. a new guy named Mean Mark Callis. And 00:19:07.309 --> 00:19:09.150 for the listeners, if that name sounds a little 00:19:09.150 --> 00:19:11.369 vague, just imagine him in a black trench coat 00:19:11.369 --> 00:19:14.329 and a wide -broomed hat because Mean Mark Callis 00:19:14.329 --> 00:19:16.490 is the man who would become the Undertaker about 00:19:16.490 --> 00:19:19.730 10 months later. It is wild to go back and watch 00:19:19.730 --> 00:19:22.809 the footage now. You are essentially watching 00:19:22.809 --> 00:19:27.250 Dan Spivey mentor the future Undertaker. They 00:19:27.250 --> 00:19:29.910 kept the skyscrapers gimmick going. And in Clash 00:19:29.910 --> 00:19:32.430 of the Champions X, they did the unthinkable. 00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:35.049 After a brutal match with the Road Warriors, 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:38.390 they beat them down. They left Hawk and Animal 00:19:38.390 --> 00:19:40.970 lying completely prone in the ring. That was 00:19:40.970 --> 00:19:43.329 a huge torch passing moment. They were signaling 00:19:43.329 --> 00:19:45.509 to the audience that the skyscrapers were the 00:19:45.509 --> 00:19:47.769 new kings of the hill. They were heading into 00:19:47.769 --> 00:19:50.130 a massive Chicago street fight at the Wrestle 00:19:50.130 --> 00:19:52.930 War 1990 pay -per -view. It was going to be the 00:19:52.930 --> 00:19:55.150 biggest payday and biggest spotlight of Spivey's 00:19:55.150 --> 00:19:57.910 career. And then he just vanished. He quit. Again. 00:19:58.150 --> 00:20:00.269 Right before the pay -per -view. You walked out. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:02.859 right before the biggest match. Why you are finally 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.140 at the absolute top of the mountain. It goes 00:20:05.140 --> 00:20:07.160 back to that selling issue we talked about earlier. 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:09.339 Spivey felt that the Road Warriors were taking 00:20:09.339 --> 00:20:11.519 liberties. Taking liberties? That's wrestling 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:14.140 code for cheating, right? Or being unprofessional. 00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:17.819 It's code for being unsafe. Spivey felt they 00:20:17.819 --> 00:20:20.359 were being far too rough with his partner, Mean 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:22.980 Mark. They were sandbagging him, which means 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:24.980 making themselves dead weight so Mark couldn't 00:20:24.980 --> 00:20:27.079 lift them safely. And they were hitting entirely 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.930 too hard. Spivey, being the veteran, felt highly 00:20:30.930 --> 00:20:32.829 disrespected. He felt they were intentionally 00:20:32.829 --> 00:20:34.710 trying to hurt the new guy. So it was a matter 00:20:34.710 --> 00:20:37.609 of principle for him. Principle, pride, and probably 00:20:37.609 --> 00:20:39.529 some money disputes too, because let's face it, 00:20:39.529 --> 00:20:42.130 it's always about money in this business. But 00:20:42.130 --> 00:20:44.069 mostly, Spivey just looked at the situation and 00:20:44.069 --> 00:20:46.109 said, I don't need this. And he could say that 00:20:46.109 --> 00:20:48.349 because he still had Japan. That's the safety 00:20:48.349 --> 00:20:50.369 net. He knew he was basically a god in Tokyo. 00:20:50.549 --> 00:20:53.750 Exactly. He goes back to Japan, resumes his dominance 00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:56.670 over there. But the American Siren song keeps 00:20:56.670 --> 00:21:01.210 calling him back. He tries WCW again in 1991. 00:21:01.950 --> 00:21:04.009 And this brings us to one of the most interesting 00:21:04.009 --> 00:21:06.869 political moments in his entire career. The Tom 00:21:06.869 --> 00:21:10.410 Zenk incident. Yes. So picture this scenario. 00:21:11.089 --> 00:21:14.809 It's June of 1991. Spivey is back in WCW for 00:21:14.809 --> 00:21:16.990 a brief run. He had challenged Lex Luger for 00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:19.930 the U .S. title at Russell War 91 and lost, but 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:22.789 he's there. But at the exact same time, he is 00:21:22.789 --> 00:21:25.750 actively holding the All Japan World Tag Team 00:21:25.750 --> 00:21:28.130 Championship with Stan Hansen. Okay. And that 00:21:28.130 --> 00:21:30.849 belt is incredibly prestigious. In Japan, carrying 00:21:30.849 --> 00:21:33.170 that belt means you are literally the best in 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:36.170 the world. Right. So he shows it to a WCW television 00:21:36.170 --> 00:21:39.029 taping on June 22nd, and the booker looks at 00:21:39.029 --> 00:21:41.150 the sheet and says, okay, Dan, tonight we want 00:21:41.150 --> 00:21:43.869 you to lose a match to Tom Zang. Tom Zang. Now, 00:21:43.910 --> 00:21:46.230 no disrespect to the Z -Man, but... He's a solid 00:21:46.230 --> 00:21:48.609 worker, good looking guy. Uh -huh. But he was 00:21:48.609 --> 00:21:50.309 in mid -carder. He was nowhere near the level 00:21:50.309 --> 00:21:53.589 of world champion. So Spivey sees this request 00:21:53.589 --> 00:21:55.750 on the booking sheet. And he refuses. Flatter 00:21:55.750 --> 00:21:58.029 refuses. He says, I am a world champion in Japan. 00:21:58.250 --> 00:22:00.849 If I lose to a mid -level guy here on American 00:22:00.849 --> 00:22:03.490 TV, it makes my title in Japan look like complete 00:22:03.490 --> 00:22:06.430 garbage. It insults me, and it insults All Japan 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:08.549 Pro Wrestling. He was protecting the brand, both 00:22:08.549 --> 00:22:11.789 his own and the Japanese companies. He was. And 00:22:11.789 --> 00:22:14.349 when WCW management refused to change the finish 00:22:14.349 --> 00:22:17.309 of the match, Spivey quit. Again, he literally 00:22:17.309 --> 00:22:20.569 walked out the door and get this Stan Hansen 00:22:20.569 --> 00:22:22.910 who wasn't even at the building that night Heard 00:22:22.910 --> 00:22:26.250 about what happened and he quit WCW the very 00:22:26.250 --> 00:22:29.470 next day in total solidarity Wow, that is loyalty. 00:22:29.569 --> 00:22:31.069 That is the Brotherhood of the Road right there 00:22:31.069 --> 00:22:33.769 Yeah, they both knew their true value was in 00:22:33.769 --> 00:22:36.230 Japan not dealing with the politics in Atlanta 00:22:36.410 --> 00:22:39.789 He does try one more WCW comeback in 1992 when 00:22:39.789 --> 00:22:41.829 Bill Watts takes over the company. He goes on 00:22:41.829 --> 00:22:44.109 an undefeated streak in the summer, teams with 00:22:44.109 --> 00:22:46.089 Van Hammer in the Lethal Lottery at Starcade 00:22:46.089 --> 00:22:49.069 92, gets eliminated by the Great Muta, actually. 00:22:49.789 --> 00:22:51.849 But the spark is clearly fading. He's getting 00:22:51.849 --> 00:22:54.390 older. The injuries are really mounting up. By 00:22:54.390 --> 00:22:57.269 January 1993, after a loss to Dustin Rhodes, 00:22:57.730 --> 00:23:00.670 he's out of WCW for good. Now, in most wrestling 00:23:00.670 --> 00:23:02.569 biographies, this is the end of the line. The 00:23:02.569 --> 00:23:05.289 guy is 41 years old. He's six foot seven. His 00:23:05.289 --> 00:23:07.710 knees are completely shot. He's been raking baseball 00:23:07.710 --> 00:23:10.009 fields, fighting road warriors and getting kicked 00:23:10.009 --> 00:23:12.710 in the head in Tokyo for over a decade. It's 00:23:12.710 --> 00:23:14.890 time to retire and open a car dealership. But 00:23:14.890 --> 00:23:17.390 Dan Spivey had one more idea left in the tank. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:20.380 And honestly, looking at the sources, this is 00:23:20.380 --> 00:23:21.819 the part of the story that blows my mind the 00:23:21.819 --> 00:23:24.720 most. He takes two full years off to heal, and 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:28.920 in June 1995, he calls the WWF. But he doesn't 00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:31.380 want to be Golden Boy Dan Spivey anymore. He 00:23:31.380 --> 00:23:33.420 wants to be Waylon Mercy. Where in the world 00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:35.500 did this character come from? It came directly 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:39.240 from the movies, specifically the 1991 Martin 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:42.579 Scorsese remake of Cape Fear. Robert De Niro's 00:23:42.579 --> 00:23:44.960 portrayal of Max Cady. Yes. If you've seen that 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:47.160 movie, you know exactly the character. Max Cady 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:50.420 is this highly intelligent, deeply disturbing 00:23:50.420 --> 00:23:53.460 southern ex -con. He wears loud Hawaiian shirts. 00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:56.019 He has strange tattoos. He quotes the Bible constantly. 00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:58.539 But the absolute scariest thing about him isn't 00:23:58.539 --> 00:24:00.859 that he yells or screams, is that he is so intensely 00:24:00.859 --> 00:24:03.900 calm. He smiles at you while he intricately threatens 00:24:03.900 --> 00:24:07.180 to ruin your entire life. Exactly. Spivey saw 00:24:07.180 --> 00:24:09.680 that De Niro performance and realized, I can 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:12.200 do that. I can bring that to wrestling. He saw 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.500 a massive gap in the WWF market. Think about 00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:21.069 1995 WWF. The villains were literally cartoons. 00:24:21.509 --> 00:24:23.490 We had evil dentists, we had wrestling plumbers, 00:24:23.769 --> 00:24:26.029 we had guys dressed as minotaurs. It was loud, 00:24:26.109 --> 00:24:28.450 it was goofy, and it was squarely aimed at children. 00:24:28.670 --> 00:24:30.910 And right in the middle of that circus, here 00:24:30.910 --> 00:24:33.670 comes this massive guy in a white tank top and 00:24:33.670 --> 00:24:36.029 a Hawaiian shirt. He dyed his blonde hair jet 00:24:36.029 --> 00:24:38.589 black, he put temporary tattoos all over his 00:24:38.589 --> 00:24:41.650 arms and chest, and he even drew a dagger tattoo 00:24:41.650 --> 00:24:43.759 right in the middle of his forehead. Let's talk 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:45.500 about the promotional vignette leading up to 00:24:45.500 --> 00:24:47.759 his debut, because they were totally different 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:49.819 from anything else on television at the time. 00:24:49.900 --> 00:24:51.700 They were shot almost like an indie thriller. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.079 Spivey would sit on a park bench or just stand 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:56.839 on a porch, speaking in this incredibly soft, 00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:59.400 syrupy Southern drawl. He'd say these cryptic 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:01.460 things like, lives are gonna be in Wayland Mercy's 00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:03.880 hands. It was genuinely creepy. It wasn't your 00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:06.359 standard wrestling promo of, I'm gonna beat you 00:25:06.359 --> 00:25:08.359 up for the belt. It was this weird, I'm gonna 00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:11.119 save you vibe, but the way he delivered it made 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:13.990 your skin crawl. And the ring entrance, I watched 00:25:13.990 --> 00:25:16.569 the footage of this and it's fascinating. He 00:25:16.569 --> 00:25:19.029 would walk down the aisle to the ring and he 00:25:19.029 --> 00:25:21.809 would purposefully shake everyone's hand. The 00:25:21.809 --> 00:25:23.849 fans in the front row, the referee, the ring 00:25:23.849 --> 00:25:26.230 announcer. He even shook hands with the opponent. 00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:28.529 He'd offer a polite handshake to the guy he was 00:25:28.529 --> 00:25:31.450 just about to fight. It was so disarming. He 00:25:31.450 --> 00:25:34.230 acted like this peaceful, misunderstood Southern 00:25:34.230 --> 00:25:37.339 gentleman. But the exact moment... The bell rang, 00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:40.200 snap. The violence was just sudden and explosive. 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:42.640 He was vicious. He brought all that stiff Japanese 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.880 style right back with him. He would chop guys, 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.480 throw them around violently, but then for his 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:49.759 finisher, he'd put him in a sleeper, hold a choke, 00:25:50.099 --> 00:25:52.140 and his facial expression would completely change. 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.319 His eyes would bug out. He had this wide -eyed, 00:25:55.700 --> 00:25:58.119 completely insane stare. And the gaslighting 00:25:58.119 --> 00:26:00.039 during the match? That's the craziest part. Oh, 00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:01.619 this was the best part of the whole psychology. 00:26:02.059 --> 00:26:05.230 He'd be actively choking a guy unconscious. And 00:26:05.230 --> 00:26:07.349 he'd lean down and whisper loudly enough for 00:26:07.349 --> 00:26:09.390 the cameras to pick it up. I'm sorry. I didn't 00:26:09.390 --> 00:26:11.609 mean to hurt you. You made me do this. Then he'd 00:26:11.609 --> 00:26:13.829 release the hold, try to gently help the guy 00:26:13.829 --> 00:26:16.529 stand up, only to violently knock him back down 00:26:16.529 --> 00:26:19.210 again. It was pure psychological warfare. It 00:26:19.210 --> 00:26:22.730 was so complex. Honestly, it was arguably too 00:26:22.730 --> 00:26:25.849 complex for the 1995 audience. The kids in the 00:26:25.849 --> 00:26:27.910 crowd didn't know whether to boo him or cheer 00:26:27.910 --> 00:26:30.150 him. They were just, they were deeply unsettled 00:26:30.150 --> 00:26:32.769 by him, which is exactly what he wanted to achieve. 00:26:33.109 --> 00:26:35.589 He ran through some notable names during this 00:26:35.589 --> 00:26:38.230 run right. He beat a really young Jeff Hardy. 00:26:38.710 --> 00:26:41.009 He fought established guys like Bob Holly, the 00:26:41.009 --> 00:26:44.369 123 kid, Doink the Clown. He even faced the top 00:26:44.369 --> 00:26:46.799 stars of the company. He wrestled Bret Hart. 00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:49.119 He wrestled Razor Ramon, who, if you remember, 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:51.579 is his old tag team partner, Scott Hall. That 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:54.079 is wild. Can you imagine that locker room reunion? 00:26:54.660 --> 00:26:56.740 Ten years after they were raking the minor league 00:26:56.740 --> 00:26:59.519 infield in silver pants, now Hall is the bad 00:26:59.519 --> 00:27:02.390 guy, and Spivey is this... terrifying cult leader 00:27:02.390 --> 00:27:05.250 character. He even got a count out victory over 00:27:05.250 --> 00:27:08.029 the WWF champion, Diesel, on television. They 00:27:08.029 --> 00:27:10.769 were clearly pushing him. He had his only pay 00:27:10.769 --> 00:27:13.089 -per -view appearance against Savio Vega at In 00:27:13.089 --> 00:27:15.410 Your House 3. He was heading straight for the 00:27:15.410 --> 00:27:17.710 main event scene. But the clock just ran out 00:27:17.710 --> 00:27:20.349 on him. The injuries caught up. The body always 00:27:20.349 --> 00:27:23.210 keeps the score. He debuted the Waylon Mercy 00:27:23.210 --> 00:27:27.309 character on television in June 1995. By October 00:27:27.309 --> 00:27:30.660 1995, He was completely forced to retire. Four 00:27:30.660 --> 00:27:33.460 months. That's it. That's it. That is the entire 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:36.119 television lifespan of the Whaler Mercy character. 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.700 His back finally just gave out completely. all 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:41.799 the years of college football, the hard impacts 00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:44.460 and the stiff wrestling in Japan caught up to 00:27:44.460 --> 00:27:46.680 him all at once. He literally couldn't feel his 00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:49.299 legs on some days. He had no choice but to stop. 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:51.240 That feels like such a massive tragedy to spend 00:27:51.240 --> 00:27:53.839 20 years searching to finally find the perfect, 00:27:53.940 --> 00:27:56.400 most nuanced character, the absolute masterpiece 00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:58.799 of your career and then have your physical body 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.000 fail you just as you're starting to paint it. 00:28:01.099 --> 00:28:03.200 It is a tragedy on a personal level. Yeah. But 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.440 it's not the end of the legacy. And this is the 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:06.940 twist in the research that I really love the 00:28:06.940 --> 00:28:09.980 most. Right, let's fast forward about 15 years. 00:28:10.680 --> 00:28:14.059 Dan Spivey is long retired. He's down visiting 00:28:14.059 --> 00:28:16.839 the WWE Performance Center in Florida, where 00:28:16.839 --> 00:28:19.519 they train the new wrestlers. And he meets a 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:22.380 young kid down there named Wyndham Rotunda. Who 00:28:22.380 --> 00:28:24.599 just happens to be the son of Mike Rotunda. His 00:28:24.599 --> 00:28:26.940 old tag team partner from the US Express The 00:28:26.940 --> 00:28:29.660 Second. It is all incredibly connected. It really 00:28:29.660 --> 00:28:32.720 is a small world. Spivey sees this kid, Wyndham. 00:28:32.900 --> 00:28:35.700 He sees he has natural charisma, he has the size, 00:28:35.779 --> 00:28:38.119 he has the pedigree, and Spivey decides to give 00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:41.319 him a gift. He sits Wyndham down and completely 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:43.400 explains the psychology of the Wayland Mercy 00:28:43.400 --> 00:28:46.019 character. He explains the loud shirts, the soft 00:28:46.019 --> 00:28:48.599 southern drawl, the peaceful facade hiding the 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:50.539 extreme violence. And then Wyndham Rotunda takes 00:28:50.539 --> 00:28:52.859 that seed. And he waters it. He evolves it for 00:28:52.859 --> 00:28:55.000 a modern audience. He takes those exact concepts 00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:57.859 and he turns it into Bray Wyatt. When Bray Wyatt 00:28:57.859 --> 00:28:59.960 debuted on the main roster, anyone who was watching 00:28:59.960 --> 00:29:02.920 in 1995 immediately said, that's Waylon Mercy. 00:29:03.460 --> 00:29:06.299 The exact cadence of the speech, the tropical 00:29:06.299 --> 00:29:08.960 shirts, the terrifying mood swings mid -match, 00:29:09.380 --> 00:29:12.740 it was essentially Waylon Mercy 2 .0. But Spivey 00:29:12.740 --> 00:29:14.700 wasn't mad about it being repurposed. He was 00:29:14.700 --> 00:29:17.799 incredibly proud. He viewed it as his own creation 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:20.400 living on and finally getting the main event 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:22.890 run it always deserved. They even made the connection 00:29:22.890 --> 00:29:26.049 completely official in 2019 when Bray Wyatt started 00:29:26.049 --> 00:29:29.190 doing those weird creepy firefly funhouse segments 00:29:29.190 --> 00:29:33.089 on TV. He introduced a buzzard puppet named Mercy 00:29:33.089 --> 00:29:35.109 the Buzzard and who provided the voice for that 00:29:35.109 --> 00:29:37.910 puppet. Dangerous Dan Spivey himself. That is 00:29:37.910 --> 00:29:40.150 just beautiful. It's the original master voicing 00:29:40.150 --> 00:29:42.789 the literal homage to himself. It closes the 00:29:42.789 --> 00:29:45.410 entire narrative loop so perfectly. It really 00:29:45.410 --> 00:29:48.150 validates his entire career. Even if he never 00:29:48.150 --> 00:29:51.650 won the WWF world title himself, he created the 00:29:51.650 --> 00:29:54.049 foundational blueprint that directly influenced 00:29:54.049 --> 00:29:56.210 the next generation of main eventers. Now, we 00:29:56.210 --> 00:29:58.410 do have a touch on his actual life after wrestling, 00:29:58.970 --> 00:30:00.710 because looking at the interviews, it wasn't 00:30:00.710 --> 00:30:02.930 all just voice acting and victory laps for him. 00:30:03.289 --> 00:30:06.450 No, it wasn't. Retirement is notoriously brutal 00:30:06.450 --> 00:30:09.029 for professional athletes. The roar of the crowd 00:30:09.029 --> 00:30:11.910 and the adrenaline shuts off. But the physical 00:30:11.910 --> 00:30:15.289 pain remains every single day. Spivey struggled 00:30:15.289 --> 00:30:18.140 heavily. In 2007, the public record shows he 00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:21.279 was arrested for a DUI. He was dealing with severe 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:24.059 addiction issues, which likely stem from trying 00:30:24.059 --> 00:30:26.500 to manage the chronic pain of his in -ring injuries. 00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:29.099 But he managed to turn that completely around, 00:30:29.460 --> 00:30:31.960 too. He did. He got completely sober in April 00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:35.299 of 2009. And in typical Dan Spivey fashion, he 00:30:35.299 --> 00:30:37.859 didn't just do it halfway or quietly. He founded 00:30:37.859 --> 00:30:40.619 a company called Spivey's Sober Companions. He 00:30:40.619 --> 00:30:43.460 became an addiction counselor. Yes. He actively 00:30:43.460 --> 00:30:45.740 helps others navigate the dark waters of addiction. 00:30:45.789 --> 00:30:48.230 He works with people in Florida and Connecticut. 00:30:48.569 --> 00:30:50.650 He essentially took the darkest, most difficult 00:30:50.650 --> 00:30:53.130 part of his post -wrestling life and turned it 00:30:53.130 --> 00:30:55.589 into a dedicated service for others. The sources 00:30:55.589 --> 00:30:57.809 also mention he worked for his family's construction 00:30:57.809 --> 00:31:00.109 business, and this is my favorite detail. He 00:31:00.109 --> 00:31:02.049 became an ambassador for the Breakfast Station 00:31:02.049 --> 00:31:04.569 restaurant chain down in Florida. Which is just 00:31:04.569 --> 00:31:07.250 a delightful visual. Imagine walking into a local 00:31:07.250 --> 00:31:09.690 diner for your morning coffee and being greeted 00:31:09.690 --> 00:31:12.549 by a six -foot -eight Waylon Mercy asking how 00:31:12.549 --> 00:31:15.900 you want your eggs cooked today. He also finally 00:31:15.900 --> 00:31:18.019 got his proper flowers from the wrestling industry 00:31:18.019 --> 00:31:20.900 itself. He received the Frank Gotch Award in 00:31:20.900 --> 00:31:24.019 2022 from the George Tregus -Luthez Pro Wrestling 00:31:24.019 --> 00:31:27.319 Hall of Fame. That is a very prestigious, legitimate 00:31:27.319 --> 00:31:30.039 award for contributions to the wrestling industry. 00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:32.640 It was a formal recognition from his peers that 00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:35.339 basically said, hey, we see you. We see the heavy 00:31:35.339 --> 00:31:37.480 physical toll you took and we see the creative 00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:40.640 work you put in. So as we wrap up this deep dive, 00:31:40.660 --> 00:31:42.700 I want to pose a final provocative thought to 00:31:42.700 --> 00:31:45.180 you and to the listener at home. We spent a lot 00:31:45.180 --> 00:31:47.400 of time talking about how Waylon Mercy was just 00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:49.019 completely ahead of his time. He was doing this 00:31:49.019 --> 00:31:52.559 psychological, gritty, complex character in 1995, 00:31:53.180 --> 00:31:54.740 smack in the middle of the cartoon era. Right. 00:31:54.740 --> 00:31:56.299 He was totally out of place, but in a brilliant 00:31:56.299 --> 00:31:59.519 way. Exactly. But just two years later, in 1997, 00:31:59.700 --> 00:32:02.920 the famous attitude era begins. The era of Stone 00:32:02.920 --> 00:32:06.259 Cold Steve Austin, mankind, the rock. An era 00:32:06.259 --> 00:32:08.240 entirely defined by characters that were deep. 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:11.559 flawed, dark, violent, and highly gritty. I see 00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:13.519 exactly where you're going with this. If Dan 00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:16.259 Spivey's back holds up for just two more years, 00:32:16.900 --> 00:32:21.059 if Waylon Mercy debuts in 1997 instead of 1995, 00:32:21.819 --> 00:32:24.960 what happens to his legacy? He becomes an absolute 00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:28.200 undeniable legend. I truly believe that. Imagine 00:32:28.200 --> 00:32:30.880 the Waylon Mercy character feuding with Mick 00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:33.359 Foley's mankind in a boiler room. Imagine him 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:36.289 cutting those quiet, chilling promos against 00:32:36.289 --> 00:32:39.730 The Undertaker in 1998. He would have fit the 00:32:39.730 --> 00:32:42.250 aesthetic of that era like an absolute glove. 00:32:42.450 --> 00:32:44.329 I think he undoubtedly would have been a world 00:32:44.329 --> 00:32:45.750 champion. He's got to be one of the greatest 00:32:45.750 --> 00:32:47.589 what -ifs of wrestling history. It really is. 00:32:47.589 --> 00:32:49.829 He had the absolute perfect character. He was 00:32:49.829 --> 00:32:52.309 in the right place, but he was just 24 months 00:32:52.309 --> 00:32:54.269 too early for the audience to fully embrace it. 00:32:54.430 --> 00:32:57.009 But even without the shiny belt at the end, what 00:32:57.009 --> 00:32:59.930 an incredible life and career arc. From the collapsing 00:32:59.930 --> 00:33:03.269 WFL to raking baseball dirt to the massive Tokyo 00:33:03.269 --> 00:33:06.450 Dome all the way to the Firefly Funhouse. Dangerous 00:33:06.450 --> 00:33:08.990 Dan Spivey really did experience it all. He is 00:33:08.990 --> 00:33:11.069 the ultimate connector, the man who stood just 00:33:11.069 --> 00:33:13.170 an inch outside the main spotlight, but helped 00:33:13.170 --> 00:33:15.470 make sure it shined infinitely brighter for everyone 00:33:15.470 --> 00:33:17.930 else. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive. 00:33:18.490 --> 00:33:21.569 It's been a truly wild ride through the history 00:33:21.569 --> 00:33:23.890 of the Squared Circle. Keep digging into the 00:33:23.890 --> 00:33:25.789 history, there's always more to find. We'll see 00:33:25.789 --> 00:33:26.329 you next time.