WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are actually 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.320 doing something a little different. We're stripping 00:00:05.320 --> 00:00:08.039 away the pyro and the entrance music and all 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.140 the script writers. Getting right down to the 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.839 absolute bedrock of professional wrestling. Exactly. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:15.039 Because we usually spend our time talking about 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.300 the guys on the cereal boxes, right? The Hulk 00:00:17.300 --> 00:00:19.579 Hogan's and the Rocks and John Cena's. The guys 00:00:19.579 --> 00:00:21.739 who actually sell the tickets. Yeah. But today 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:25.079 I really want to focus on the guy who... Make 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.219 sure that guy on the cereal box looks good. We 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:31.399 are looking at a career that is, frankly, baffling 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:33.679 in its longevity. It really is. We are talking 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.039 about Robert William Howard. Better known to 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:39.140 you if you watched any cable TV in the late 90s 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:41.920 as Hardcore Holly. Right. And, you know, going 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.079 through this massive stack of research, we have 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:46.859 the autobiography, the match logs, the injury 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:49.340 reports. The thing that just keeps hitting me 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:52.399 isn't his championships. No, it's the timeline. 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:55.579 Exactly the timeline. This guy was on the main 00:00:55.579 --> 00:00:58.619 roster of WWE for 15 consecutive years. From 00:00:58.619 --> 00:01:01.079 1994 to 2009. Which in the wrestling industry 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:03.509 is essentially three lifetimes. And that's exactly 00:01:03.509 --> 00:01:04.810 what I wanted to ask you about right off the 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:07.109 top. For someone listening who maybe doesn't 00:01:07.109 --> 00:01:09.129 follow the ins and outs of the wrestling business, 00:01:09.489 --> 00:01:13.450 why is that number 15 years so statistically 00:01:13.450 --> 00:01:16.129 weird? Well, because professional wrestling is 00:01:16.129 --> 00:01:18.489 a meat grinder. You have the physical attrition 00:01:18.489 --> 00:01:21.370 where injuries just pile up fast, and then you 00:01:21.370 --> 00:01:23.629 have the mental burnout of being on the road 00:01:23.629 --> 00:01:26.329 300 days a year. Living out of a suitcase. Right. 00:01:26.689 --> 00:01:29.329 But the biggest killer of careers is actually 00:01:29.329 --> 00:01:32.560 creative churn. What do you mean by that? The 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.719 promoters just get bored of you. The fans get 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:36.439 bored of you. So you're the flavor of the month 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:41.079 and then you're gone. Precisely. So to stay employed 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:44.879 and relevant and on television through the new 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:47.700 generation era, the entire attitude era, and 00:01:47.700 --> 00:01:50.680 deep into the ruthless aggression era, that requires 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:53.519 a level of adaptability that is almost unheard 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:55.680 of for someone who wasn't a main event star. 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:57.909 And that's the key here, right? He wasn't the 00:01:57.909 --> 00:02:00.290 chosen one. He wasn't handpicked to be the face 00:02:00.290 --> 00:02:02.090 of the company. No, he was a utility player. 00:02:02.209 --> 00:02:04.930 He was the mechanic. And that is really the mission 00:02:04.930 --> 00:02:07.730 of this deep dive today. It's a case study in 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:11.310 survival. How do you keep your job in a ruthless, 00:02:11.509 --> 00:02:14.750 corporate, physically dangerous environment when 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:17.870 you are entirely expendable? You do it by making 00:02:17.870 --> 00:02:20.199 yourself undeniable. so let's go back to the 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:23.080 literal beginning because before he was hardcore 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.340 before he was a wrestler at all bob howard was 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:27.860 actually he was a welder he was and i think this 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:29.960 is crucial for understanding his psychology in 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.000 the ring later on he wasn't a theater kid he 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.400 wasn't a bodybuilder Looking for fame. He was 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:37.639 born in Glendale, California, but he really built 00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.199 his life down in Mobile, Alabama. A completely 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:42.500 blue -collar guy. I was reading the notes on 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:45.360 his pre -wrestling resume, and it honestly reads 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:47.500 like the lyrics to a country song. He worked 00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:50.240 at a beer warehouse. He was a pipe cutter at 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:51.840 a place called Taylor Wharton. And he worked 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.740 as a mechanic at a Meineke. That's the detail 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:56.979 that really stuck with me. He's fixing cars all 00:02:56.979 --> 00:02:59.360 day, getting grease under his fingernails, and 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:01.139 then according to the sources we have to make 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:03.979 extra cash, he was boxing in bars. Yeah, tough 00:03:03.979 --> 00:03:06.439 man contests. Basically, you go to a bar, you 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:08.580 sign a waiver, and you fight another local guy 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:10.819 for a few hundred bucks. Which really paints 00:03:10.819 --> 00:03:13.379 a picture, doesn't it? It does. When we talk 00:03:13.379 --> 00:03:15.639 about toughness in wrestling, it's often a performance. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.539 It's acting. But with Bob Howard, he was literally 00:03:18.539 --> 00:03:21.340 fighting for rent money and welding pucks before 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:23.560 he ever even learned how to take a bump safely 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:25.900 in a ring. And he didn't just fix cars either. 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:27.759 He raced them. This wasn't just a character they 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:29.919 gave him later on. No, it was his actual life. 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:33.719 In the early 90s, around 92 and 93, he was a 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:35.659 regular at the Mobile International Speedway. 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:40.680 He even won the 1993 season driving a 1974 Chevrolet 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:44.330 Malibu. I love that specific detail, a 74 Malibu. 00:03:44.370 --> 00:03:47.250 It is just so grounded. So when the WWE or the 00:03:47.250 --> 00:03:50.650 WWF at the time came calling in 1994, they didn't 00:03:50.650 --> 00:03:52.610 have to look far for a gimmick. They just looked 00:03:52.610 --> 00:03:55.389 at who he already was. But this leads us to what 00:03:55.389 --> 00:03:58.090 might be one of the most unfortunate naming decisions 00:03:58.090 --> 00:04:00.650 in sports entertainment history. Oh, I know exactly 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.110 where this is going. So it's 1994. The company 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:05.590 is in this really weird phase where everyone 00:04:05.590 --> 00:04:08.330 has an occupational gimmick. You have a wrestling 00:04:08.330 --> 00:04:11.319 trash man. A wrestling hockey player. A wrestling 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:14.500 clown. A cartoon mirror. Exactly. So Bob Howard 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:17.300 walks in. He's a legitimate tough guy and a race 00:04:17.300 --> 00:04:19.540 car driver. Yeah. And Vince McMahon names him 00:04:19.540 --> 00:04:23.800 Thurman Sparky Plug. It is terrible. It sounds 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:26.139 like a plumber from a bad sitcom, not a professional 00:04:26.139 --> 00:04:28.519 athlete. And the research shows Howard hated 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:31.360 it immediately. He did. There's a great story 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:34.120 in his autobiography about this. He goes back 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:37.579 home to Alabama and his friends and family. the 00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:39.259 people he used to race with and fight in bars 00:04:39.259 --> 00:04:43.230 with they're just relentlessly roasting him They're 00:04:43.230 --> 00:04:45.310 calling him Thurman. Calling him Thurman. Giving 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:47.410 him a terrible time. I mean, can you really blame 00:04:47.410 --> 00:04:50.670 them? Not at all. So he does something that is 00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:53.610 actually very risky for a rookie in that environment. 00:04:53.850 --> 00:04:56.189 He goes directly to Vince McMahon's office. Which 00:04:56.189 --> 00:04:58.490 takes guts. Huge guts. Absolutely. Because in 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:01.209 1994, complaining about your name could easily 00:05:01.209 --> 00:05:03.490 get you fired. You were supposed to be grateful 00:05:03.490 --> 00:05:05.250 just to be in the building. The whole grab the 00:05:05.250 --> 00:05:08.149 brass wing mentality. Exactly. But he walked 00:05:08.149 --> 00:05:10.649 in and basically said, look. I will wear the 00:05:10.649 --> 00:05:13.509 racing suit. I will do the driving gimmick. Right. 00:05:13.649 --> 00:05:16.370 But please, for the love of God, can we lose 00:05:16.370 --> 00:05:18.589 Thurman? And Vince actually listened to him. 00:05:18.689 --> 00:05:21.689 He compromised. He changed it to Bob Spark Plug 00:05:21.689 --> 00:05:24.209 Holly. Which is marginally better, I guess. It 00:05:24.209 --> 00:05:25.949 was enough to get him on the card without being 00:05:25.949 --> 00:05:28.439 completely humiliated back home. And he actually 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:30.779 had a flash of success early on with it. Oh, 00:05:30.779 --> 00:05:33.680 right. He won the tag team championship with 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.220 the 1 -2 -3 kid Sean Waltman at the Royal Rumble 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:38.959 in 1995. But if you look at the record books 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:43.000 here, that title reign lasted exactly one day. 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:45.259 24 hours. Yeah, they won it on Sunday at the 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:47.579 pay -per -view and lost it Monday night on TV. 00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:49.740 Talk about a fleeting moment. And that really 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:51.959 set the tone for the first act of his career. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.259 He was what they call good hands. He was athletic. 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:58.199 He could have a decent match. But he was just 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.019 a guy in a racing suit smiling at the crowd. 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:01.920 And that becomes a massive problem because the 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.339 culture of the audience was shifting fast. Oh, 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.860 credibly fast. We're moving toward the late 90s 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:10.129 now. The Attitude Era is kicking off. You have 00:06:10.129 --> 00:06:13.170 Stone Cold Steve Austin drinking beer and swearing. 00:06:13.610 --> 00:06:16.829 D -Generation X is causing absolute chaos. And 00:06:16.829 --> 00:06:18.870 a smiling race car driver suddenly feels like 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:21.550 a dinosaur. Exactly. And this is where we see 00:06:21.550 --> 00:06:24.269 that struggle for identity in his career. If 00:06:24.269 --> 00:06:27.350 you don't evolve in wrestling, you simply vanish. 00:06:27.649 --> 00:06:30.949 So in 1998, they tried to repackage him in something 00:06:30.949 --> 00:06:34.069 called the New Midnight Express. As Bombastic 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:37.699 Bob. Alongside Bodacious Bart. Which was Bart 00:06:37.699 --> 00:06:40.699 Gunn. It was a reboot of a classic 80s tag team 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:43.980 managed by Jim Cornette. And on paper, maybe 00:06:43.980 --> 00:06:45.879 it works for a really traditional audience. But 00:06:45.879 --> 00:06:48.160 in reality. In reality, it was a total disaster. 00:06:48.500 --> 00:06:50.540 The crowd rejected it immediately because it 00:06:50.540 --> 00:06:53.019 felt like old news in a cutting edge world. It 00:06:53.019 --> 00:06:55.220 is genuinely fascinating that he didn't get cut 00:06:55.220 --> 00:06:57.600 right then. He went from a bad gimmick to an 00:06:57.600 --> 00:06:59.709 even worse one. But then he lands in something 00:06:59.709 --> 00:07:02.129 called the J -O -B squad. Now, for the listener 00:07:02.129 --> 00:07:03.810 who doesn't speak Wrestling Insider, we should 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:06.610 probably define the term jobber. Right. So in 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:08.829 wrestling, the outcome is predetermined. We know 00:07:08.829 --> 00:07:11.170 this. But for a match to work, someone has to 00:07:11.170 --> 00:07:14.449 lose. The person whose professional role is to 00:07:14.449 --> 00:07:17.490 lose matches to make the main stars look stronger 00:07:17.490 --> 00:07:21.089 is called a jobber. It's their job to lose. So 00:07:21.089 --> 00:07:23.470 the J .O .B. squad was literally a team of losers. 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:26.490 It was medic commentary. It was Al Snow Scorpio 00:07:26.490 --> 00:07:29.410 and Bob Holly basically winking at the audience 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:31.430 and saying, we know we are at the bottom of the 00:07:31.430 --> 00:07:33.410 barrel. We know we are here to lose. That seems 00:07:33.410 --> 00:07:35.670 like professional suicide. If you tell the audience 00:07:35.670 --> 00:07:37.949 point blank that you are a loser, why should 00:07:37.949 --> 00:07:39.970 they ever care about you? That is the immense 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:44.610 danger of it. It is funny for a week, maybe two. 00:07:45.449 --> 00:07:47.730 But it kills your credibility dead. You cannot 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:50.610 be a tough guy if your whole brand is, I lose 00:07:50.610 --> 00:07:53.949 fights. So how on earth does he pivot from that? 00:07:54.129 --> 00:07:56.810 From bombastic Bob and the J .O .B. squad to 00:07:56.810 --> 00:07:58.930 becoming one of the most legitimately feared 00:07:58.930 --> 00:08:01.389 men in the locker room? Because the transformation 00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:04.449 he makes in 1999 is jarring. It happens the moment 00:08:04.449 --> 00:08:06.889 the joke stops. The J .O .B. squad breaks up 00:08:06.889 --> 00:08:08.750 and Holly finds himself in the division that 00:08:08.750 --> 00:08:11.519 really defined that era's chaos. The hardcore 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:13.300 division. This was the anything goes division. 00:08:13.459 --> 00:08:15.500 Weapons and steel chairs and fighting in the 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:18.740 kitchen and fighting in the snow. Exactly. He 00:08:18.740 --> 00:08:21.120 defeats Al Snow for the hardcore championship. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:23.839 He shaves his head, finally getting rid of that 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:27.040 mulleted look. He gains about 15 pounds of solid 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:30.310 muscle. And he changes the name. No more Sparky. 00:08:30.329 --> 00:08:33.269 He is now Hardcore Holly. And this is where the 00:08:33.269 --> 00:08:35.049 cousins come in. This is the part of his career 00:08:35.049 --> 00:08:36.970 I actually remember most vividly from watching 00:08:36.970 --> 00:08:38.929 as a kid. It is likely the most entertaining 00:08:38.929 --> 00:08:41.690 run of his entire career. They introduce a new 00:08:41.690 --> 00:08:45.090 wrestler named Crash Holly and bill him as his 00:08:45.090 --> 00:08:47.830 cousin. Now, Crash was smaller. He was chaotic. 00:08:48.149 --> 00:08:50.570 He was basically like a frantic little brother. 00:08:50.809 --> 00:08:53.129 The dynamic was just perfect sitcom writing. 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:57.700 Bob is the super serious, grumpy, older cousin 00:08:57.700 --> 00:08:59.980 who just wants to hurt people and crashes the 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:02.120 delusions of grandeur little cousin constantly 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:04.220 causing trouble. And they absolutely hated each 00:09:04.220 --> 00:09:06.200 other. That's the beauty of the act. They would 00:09:06.200 --> 00:09:08.220 be tag team partners, but they would physically 00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:10.080 fight each other during their own match. It's 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:12.480 hilarious. But strangely, it completely worked. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.259 They actually beat The Rock and Mankind. The 00:09:16.259 --> 00:09:18.159 Rock and Sock connection for the tag titles. 00:09:18.590 --> 00:09:22.049 Which, for you listening, is a huge rub or endorsement 00:09:22.049 --> 00:09:24.450 from the company. You do not get to beat The 00:09:24.450 --> 00:09:27.889 Rock unless they see real value in you. Exactly. 00:09:28.210 --> 00:09:31.649 But what is really fascinating here is the psychological 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:35.549 shift. Bob Holly started believing his own hype 00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:39.029 a bit. He adopted this persona of the big shot. 00:09:39.250 --> 00:09:41.250 Oh, I remember this. They would actually carry 00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:43.899 scales down to the ring, right? Yes. They were 00:09:43.899 --> 00:09:47.100 the super heavyweights. Now, Bob is maybe 235 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:50.600 pounds on a good day. Crash is barely 200. Right. 00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:53.580 But they would rig the scales or just flat out 00:09:53.580 --> 00:09:55.720 lie about their weight, claiming to be 400 pound 00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:58.080 monsters. But the joke actually had a sharp edge 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.899 to it because Bob started picking fights with 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:03.419 the actual giants on the roster. He was feuding 00:10:03.419 --> 00:10:05.899 with the Big Show and Kane guys who were literal 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:08.259 giants. And usually in wrestling, the smaller 00:10:08.259 --> 00:10:11.039 guy uses speed or cheats or runs away from the 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:13.440 big monster. But Bob Holly didn't do that. Not 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:15.419 at all. He would walk right up to the big show 00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:17.259 and punch him right in the mouth. It established 00:10:17.259 --> 00:10:20.659 this idea that he had absolutely no fear. And 00:10:20.659 --> 00:10:23.559 the thing is, that wasn't just acting. We really 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:25.519 have to talk about the reputation he was building 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.080 backstage during this time. He was known as a 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:30.460 very stiff worker. Okay, let's unpack that term 00:10:30.460 --> 00:10:32.779 for the audience. Stiff meaning he was actually 00:10:32.779 --> 00:10:35.279 hitting people. Right. In wrestling, the goal 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:37.639 is to work your punches. You make it look like 00:10:37.639 --> 00:10:39.919 it hurts without doing actual damage. The illusion 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:43.379 of violence. Yes. But a stiff worker hits you 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.700 for real, maybe not with full knockout force, 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.960 but you definitely feel it. Hawley had a philosophy 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:53.519 that if it looks fake, it is bad. So he hit hard 00:10:53.519 --> 00:10:56.299 and he expected you to hit him back just as hard. 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:58.820 Which brings us to the segment of this deep dive 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:00.539 that actually makes me wince a little bit just 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:03.000 reading it. Yeah. The injuries. Because if you 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:04.720 are going to call yourself hardcore and you are 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:06.620 going to work stiff, eventually you have to pay 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:08.799 the bill. And the bill came due in a massive 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:12.429 way in 2002. The Brock Lesnar match. Now, for 00:11:12.429 --> 00:11:15.889 context, Brock Lesnar is a freak of nature, one 00:11:15.889 --> 00:11:18.370 of the strongest, most explosive humans to ever 00:11:18.370 --> 00:11:21.389 enter a wrestling ring. But back in 2002, he 00:11:21.389 --> 00:11:23.730 was still a rookie. He was still learning his 00:11:23.730 --> 00:11:26.649 own strength. During a match on SmackDown, Lesnar 00:11:26.649 --> 00:11:28.870 goes to powerbomb Holly. And for you listening, 00:11:28.970 --> 00:11:31.289 if you haven't seen it, honestly, do not go look 00:11:31.289 --> 00:11:33.590 it up if you have a weak stomach. I agree. It 00:11:33.590 --> 00:11:36.409 went horribly wrong. Holly essentially gets dropped 00:11:36.409 --> 00:11:40.500 directly on the top of his head. The neck creates 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:43.080 a shape that human necks are simply not supposed 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:46.399 to make. He broke his neck. Legally, legitimately 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:49.919 broke his neck. Ruptured discs, broken vertebrae. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:53.159 It was a catastrophic injury. He was completely 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:55.580 out of action for 13 months. And most people 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:57.980 retire right there. You made your money, you 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:00.100 survived, you walk away before you end up in 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:02.919 a wheelchair. 99 % of people retire. But this 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:04.919 is where that adaptability we talked about earlier 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:07.840 turns into pure, unadulterated stubbornness. 00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:10.269 He had the surgery. He did the grueling rehab 00:12:10.269 --> 00:12:13.850 for over a year. And he came back. But he didn't 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:16.210 just come back to wrestle. He came back specifically 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:18.750 to feud with the guy who broke his neck. The 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:21.509 storyline was reality. It blurred the lines perfectly. 00:12:21.750 --> 00:12:24.710 At Survivor Series 2003, he returns and goes 00:12:24.710 --> 00:12:28.169 straight for Lesnar. That is wild. And it earned 00:12:28.169 --> 00:12:30.970 him a level of respect from the fans. This marquee 00:12:30.970 --> 00:12:33.330 plug never could have touched. They knew he was 00:12:33.330 --> 00:12:35.149 risking absolutely everything just to be in that 00:12:35.149 --> 00:12:37.639 ring. But if the neck injury was bad. The incident 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.179 in 2006, honestly, this is the stuff of horror 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:43.539 movies. This was the ECW match against Rob Van 00:12:43.539 --> 00:12:46.500 Dam. This is the exact moment that cemented his 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:51.200 legacy forever. So, WWA had revived the ECW brand, 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:53.639 which was known for being incredibly violent. 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:57.080 Holly is in an extreme rules match. He goes to 00:12:57.080 --> 00:12:59.620 suplex Rob Van Dam out of the ring and through 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:01.779 a table on the floor. Which is a standard wrestling 00:13:01.779 --> 00:13:04.120 chaos spot. We see table spots all the time on 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:07.679 TV. Usually, yes. No. But the table broke weirdly. 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:10.139 The metal folding mechanism and the sharp edge 00:13:10.139 --> 00:13:12.820 of the table frame were exposed. Holly's back 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:15.120 slammed directly onto that sharp metal edge with 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.179 the full weight of two men driving it down. And 00:13:17.179 --> 00:13:19.679 it didn't just bruise him. No, it sliced him 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:21.500 completely open. Yeah. We were talking about 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:23.679 a laceration that was over 10 inches long, slicing 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:25.940 deep right into the muscle tissue. And he just, 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.200 he kept wrestling. He didn't just keep wrestling. 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:30.960 He worked the entire rest of the match. There 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.279 is footage of him standing in the ring and the 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:35.200 amount of blood running down his back is just... 00:13:35.370 --> 00:13:37.750 Catastrophic. Just terrifying. The referee knows. 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:40.649 The medics at ringside know. But Holly just waves 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:43.389 him off. Why, though? Is that bravery or is that 00:13:43.389 --> 00:13:45.809 just stupidity at that point? It is the code. 00:13:46.029 --> 00:13:50.629 The old school wrestling code. In his mind, unless 00:13:50.629 --> 00:13:53.049 you are completely unconscious or literally cannot 00:13:53.049 --> 00:13:56.769 walken up, you finish the match. You give the 00:13:56.769 --> 00:13:58.909 fans the finish they paid to see. Unbelievable. 00:13:59.070 --> 00:14:01.570 He wrestled for another several minutes with 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:04.169 a gaping wound that eventually required 24 stitches 00:14:04.169 --> 00:14:06.600 to close. And what was the crowd reaction to 00:14:06.600 --> 00:14:09.379 that? They gave him a standing ovation. Now, 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:11.919 ECW crowds can be notoriously hostile. They're 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:14.980 cynical. But they know when they're seeing something 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:19.220 real, you can fake a punch, you can fake a fall, 00:14:19.419 --> 00:14:22.559 but you cannot fake a severed back. Right. That 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.879 moment turned him from a character into an absolute 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:27.419 legend in their eyes. It really drives home the 00:14:27.419 --> 00:14:29.740 point that hardcore wasn't just a nickname on 00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:31.980 a T -shirt. It was a lifestyle choice. A very 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:35.370 painful one. So he survives the 90s. He survives 00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.909 the neck break. He survives the back injury. 00:14:38.730 --> 00:14:42.169 We get to the late 2000s and he transitions again. 00:14:42.549 --> 00:14:45.450 This time he becomes the mentor. Which is the 00:14:45.450 --> 00:14:48.470 natural final stage for a guy with his kind of 00:14:48.470 --> 00:14:52.149 tenure. In 2007, they pair him up with a rookie 00:14:52.149 --> 00:14:54.889 named Cody Rhodes. And for you listeners, Cody 00:14:54.889 --> 00:14:57.470 Rhodes is arguably the biggest star in the entire 00:14:57.470 --> 00:14:59.590 business right now. He's the guy main eventing 00:14:59.590 --> 00:15:02.750 WrestleMania today. But back then, he was just 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:06.009 a kid in basic trunks. He was Dusty Rhodes' son, 00:15:06.190 --> 00:15:08.850 sure, but he hadn't proven anything on his own. 00:15:09.070 --> 00:15:11.190 Holly was the grumpy veteran teaching him the 00:15:11.190 --> 00:15:13.629 ropes, and they actually won the world tag team 00:15:13.629 --> 00:15:16.090 titles together. Wait, that is his third partner 00:15:16.090 --> 00:15:18.450 to win gold with? Exactly. Think about the range 00:15:18.450 --> 00:15:20.149 there. You have the 1 -2 -3 kid who's a high 00:15:20.149 --> 00:15:22.529 flyer, Crash Holly, who's basically a comedy 00:15:22.529 --> 00:15:24.690 character, and Cody Rhodes, who's a green rookie. 00:15:24.929 --> 00:15:26.950 That proves he could literally work with anyone 00:15:26.950 --> 00:15:29.190 on the roster. He was the gatekeeper. That is 00:15:29.190 --> 00:15:31.830 the perfect term for it. If you could have a 00:15:31.830 --> 00:15:34.190 good match with Hardcore Holly, and if you could 00:15:34.190 --> 00:15:36.809 earn his respect, which was not easy because 00:15:36.809 --> 00:15:39.330 he would test you physically in that ring, then 00:15:39.330 --> 00:15:42.830 the office knew you belonged in WWE. He was the 00:15:42.830 --> 00:15:44.590 ultimate litmus test for the next generation. 00:15:44.970 --> 00:15:47.909 But the end of his WWE road came pretty abruptly 00:15:47.909 --> 00:15:50.559 in 2009. And we really should address the why 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:52.519 here because it loops right back to all those 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:54.860 injuries we just discussed. It does. We've talked 00:15:54.860 --> 00:15:57.759 about the broken neck, the stitches, the 15 straight 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.159 years of taking bunks on hardwood and solid steel. 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:03.440 The human body has a limit. Right. According 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:05.480 to his own autobiography and reports from that 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.220 time, Holly developed a severe dependency on 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:11.309 painkillers. Which tragically is a very common 00:16:11.309 --> 00:16:14.309 story in that specific era of wrestling. We hear 00:16:14.309 --> 00:16:16.730 it a lot. It's an absolute epidemic. You wrestle 00:16:16.730 --> 00:16:19.750 200 days a year. You are hurt constantly. You 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:21.330 take something to numb it just so you can make 00:16:21.330 --> 00:16:23.669 the next town. Holly was officially released 00:16:23.669 --> 00:16:26.889 in 2009 after an issue where he was caught stealing 00:16:26.889 --> 00:16:29.830 pills from another wrestler's bag. It is a dark 00:16:29.830 --> 00:16:32.909 note to end such a long tenure on, but it feels 00:16:32.909 --> 00:16:35.230 very important that we impartially report what 00:16:35.230 --> 00:16:37.990 the sources say. We celebrate the toughness of 00:16:37.990 --> 00:16:39.909 finishing a match with a gash in your back, but 00:16:39.909 --> 00:16:42.490 this right here is the cost. Exactly. The bill 00:16:42.490 --> 00:16:44.909 always comes due. Toughness has a price tag, 00:16:44.970 --> 00:16:47.009 and usually you pay it with your health and your 00:16:47.009 --> 00:16:49.259 well -being. The good news here, though, is that 00:16:49.259 --> 00:16:51.759 he didn't become a tragedy statistic. No, he 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:54.799 didn't. He went to rehab. He got clean. He actually 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.259 wrote a book called The Hardcore Truth in 2013, 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.159 which I highly recommend if you want a really 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:02.960 unfiltered look at the business. He pulls zero 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:05.420 punches about the people he liked and the people 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:07.279 he absolutely didn't. And what's he doing now? 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:11.099 He is living a quiet life in Dubuque, Iowa. He 00:17:11.099 --> 00:17:12.859 actually reconnected with his high school girlfriend. 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:15.259 He wrestles occasionally on the independent circuit. 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:17.480 He did some shows over in the UK and the Netherlands 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:20.380 a while back. But mostly he's just living. He 00:17:20.380 --> 00:17:22.720 survived the war. So bringing this deep dive 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:25.619 to a close, we have looked at a welder who became 00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:30.180 a race car driver, a joke, a champion, a gatekeeper, 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:34.140 and finally a survivor. What is the one key takeaway 00:17:34.140 --> 00:17:36.400 we should have from the career of Hardcore Holly? 00:17:36.599 --> 00:17:38.339 I think the biggest takeaway is that durability 00:17:38.339 --> 00:17:41.150 is a skill. We constantly obsess over charisma 00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:43.970 and athletic ability, but simply being able to 00:17:43.970 --> 00:17:46.690 show up, adapt to whatever terrible idea the 00:17:46.690 --> 00:17:49.289 boss has, like, hey, go be a race car driver 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:51.970 and make it work. That is a rare, incredible 00:17:51.970 --> 00:17:55.049 talent. He was the true backbone of the roster. 00:17:55.170 --> 00:17:57.069 He was the guy who made sure the show actually 00:17:57.069 --> 00:18:00.109 went on. Precisely. He wasn't the star, but without 00:18:00.109 --> 00:18:02.289 guys like him, the stars have nobody to wrestle. 00:18:02.569 --> 00:18:04.329 Which leaves you with a thought to mull over. 00:18:04.549 --> 00:18:07.329 Today, wrestling is so much safer. We have wellness 00:18:07.329 --> 00:18:10.190 policies, concussion protocols, and guaranteed 00:18:10.190 --> 00:18:13.190 contracts. It is a demonstrably better environment. 00:18:13.450 --> 00:18:15.670 Absolutely. There's no question about that. But 00:18:15.670 --> 00:18:18.430 looking at a guy like Holly, who literally bled 00:18:18.430 --> 00:18:21.089 to make the show feel real, do you think we've 00:18:21.089 --> 00:18:23.990 lost something? Can that specific type of gritty 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.250 blue -collar toughness even exist in a world 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:29.450 that is so curated and protected? Or was hardcore 00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:32.759 Holly truly the last of a dying breed? That is 00:18:32.759 --> 00:18:34.480 a real question. I think we will always have 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:36.579 great athletes, but I don't know if we'll ever 00:18:36.579 --> 00:18:38.839 see anyone quite that hardcore again. Something 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:42.079 for you to explore on your own. That is it for 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:43.400 this deep dive. Thanks for listening.