WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 Welcome to the deep dive. I want you to think 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:05.139 about your own career or, you know, even your 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:07.780 hobbies for a second. How often do you have to 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:10.839 completely reinvent yourself just to stay relevant? 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.179 Oh, man, it is a genuinely daunting proposition 00:00:13.179 --> 00:00:15.660 for anybody. It really is. Most people, they 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:17.859 find one specific thing they are good at. They 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:19.980 build their entire identity around it and they 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:22.140 just hold on for dear life. Yeah, they get comfortable. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.609 Exactly. But in a world of constant information 00:00:25.609 --> 00:00:28.850 overload, shifting algorithms, and just rapid, 00:00:29.089 --> 00:00:31.510 unpredictable change clinging to a single identity 00:00:31.510 --> 00:00:34.189 can actually be your downfall. Absolutely. So 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:37.170 today, our mission is to decode the ultimate 00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:39.909 career survival guide. We have pulled together 00:00:39.909 --> 00:00:42.710 a stack of biographical notes, historical wrestling 00:00:42.710 --> 00:00:45.450 archives, and even the Wikipedia page of a man 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:47.390 who is the ultimate chameleon of his industry. 00:00:47.429 --> 00:00:50.090 The mantra of reinvention. Right. We are going 00:00:50.090 --> 00:00:52.570 deep into the career of professional wrestler 00:00:52.570 --> 00:00:56.130 Norm - Smiley and as we trace his journey you 00:00:56.130 --> 00:00:58.969 are going to see a literal master class in checking 00:00:58.969 --> 00:01:01.990 your ego at the door adapting to survive and 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:04.969 thriving in just absolute unpredictable chaos. 00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:07.530 Yeah and the core contradiction of Norman Smiley 00:01:07.530 --> 00:01:11.200 is Well, it's exactly what makes this analysis 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:13.200 so compelling. For sure. For anyone familiar 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:15.500 with late 90s television, you probably recognize 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:18.480 him as a wildly entertaining, over -the -top, 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:21.060 almost cowardly, comedic character. Right. He 00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:23.379 was the guy screeching in terror on national 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:26.040 television. Exactly. The screeching. But beneath 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.000 that very carefully instructed persona is an 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.040 English -born, Miami -raised athlete with a remarkably 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:37.180 serious, highly respected pedigree. in the brutal 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:39.219 reality of the professional wrestling business. 00:01:39.459 --> 00:01:42.099 Wow. Yeah, I mean, he was never a joke, even 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:44.159 when his entire goal was to make you laugh. OK, 00:01:44.159 --> 00:01:46.959 let's unpack this. Because to truly understand 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:49.159 the sheer brilliance of the comedy later on, 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:51.379 we have to establish the concrete foundation 00:01:51.379 --> 00:01:53.859 he built first. What are you? So born Norman 00:01:53.859 --> 00:01:57.859 Anthony Smiley on February 28, 1965, in Northampton, 00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:00.560 England, his physical baseline was established 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:03.439 long before he ever stepped into a professional 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.859 ring. Yeah, his early life really set the stage. 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:08.639 Right. Following his parents divorce in the early 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:11.620 70s, he and his mother actually emigrated to 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:13.740 Miami, Florida. And by the time he was attending 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.680 Miami Beach Senior High School, he wasn't just, 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:19.759 you know, casually playing sports. He was heavily 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:21.860 involved in amateur wrestling and competitive 00:02:21.860 --> 00:02:25.840 powerlifting. So when he graduated in 1984, he 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.379 already possessed this incredibly legitimate 00:02:28.379 --> 00:02:32.139 baseline foundation of raw strength and authentic. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:34.879 grappling technique. And that amateur background 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.759 is the crucial filter for literally everything 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.639 that comes next. How so? Well, when he enters 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:42.439 the professional wrestling industry the very 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:45.500 next year, in 1985 on the Florida Independent 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:47.860 Circuit, he does go to a trainer looking to learn 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:49.860 how to play a character. Right. He seeks out 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.900 the absolute strictest, most punishing educators 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:55.060 in the entire industry. I'm talking about guys 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:58.360 like Carl Gotch, Boris Malenko, and Dean Malenko. 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:00.879 Oh, wow. So for someone outside the wrestling 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:03.180 bubble, those names might not immediately register, 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:05.919 but in the context of the sport, that is like 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.580 learning physics directly from Albert Einstein 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:11.120 and Richard Feynman. It is a perfect comparison. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:14.060 Because those men are not exactly known for their 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:17.020 sense of humor. No, absolutely not. And if we 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:19.319 connect this to the bigger picture, the wrestling 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.699 landscape in the 1980s was deeply divided. Right, 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.379 you had the big flashy stuff. Exactly. You had 00:03:25.379 --> 00:03:28.759 the highly theatrical, entertainment -heavy promotions 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:32.080 gaining mainstream traction. But you also had 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.340 traditionalists who believed the sport absolutely 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:38.180 needed. to maintain the illusion of a legitimate 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:40.919 grueling contest. And Gotch was like the king 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:44.000 of that. Oh, Carl Gotch is revered globally, 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:46.860 but particularly in Japan, as the god of wrestling. 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:49.939 He was a pioneer of what the industry calls shoot 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:52.080 -style wrestling. And shoot just means real. 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:54.520 Right, yes. Shoot is an insider term meaning 00:03:54.520 --> 00:03:57.259 real. So shoot -style is a form of professional 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.639 wrestling that strips away the theatrics and 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.099 it looks and feels like a legitimate punishing 00:04:02.099 --> 00:04:04.539 combat sport. So lots of actual pain. Oh, yeah. 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:07.599 It relies on actual joint locks, painful submission 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:11.240 holds, stiff strikes, and the malinkos, similarly, 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:13.960 are just synonymous with no -nonsense technical 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:16.360 perfection. They weren't teaching comedy classes. 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:19.139 Not even close. They did not teach their students 00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:21.399 how to cut a flamboyant promo or how to be funny. 00:04:21.860 --> 00:04:23.920 They taught them how to physically dismantle 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:27.680 an opponent and, crucially, how to do it safely. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:30.779 without actually tearing a ligament. Right, which 00:04:30.779 --> 00:04:33.240 is wild. It is the equivalent of finding out 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.420 an actor famous for, like, slapstick, pie -in 00:04:36.420 --> 00:04:40.279 -the -face physical comedy, spent his 20s training 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.240 as a classical Shakespearean stage actor at the 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.759 Royal Academy. It really is. It completely shifts 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:48.680 the perspective. But that actually raises an 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.209 immediate red flag for me. What's that? If he 00:04:51.209 --> 00:04:54.230 was trained by these dead serious bone breaking 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:57.490 technicians, what is the mechanism that takes 00:04:57.490 --> 00:05:00.189 him from that rigid environment to the wilder 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:02.410 character work we know him for? Well, the mechanism 00:05:02.410 --> 00:05:04.910 was just a relentless willingness to be uncomfortable. 00:05:05.170 --> 00:05:07.410 OK. He didn't just take that flawless technical 00:05:07.410 --> 00:05:09.589 foundation and stay in his comfort zone in Florida. 00:05:10.009 --> 00:05:12.949 He took it on the road to adapt to entirely different 00:05:12.949 --> 00:05:15.370 cultures. He went to Japan, didn't he? He did. 00:05:15.689 --> 00:05:18.129 He went exactly where a top tier goth student 00:05:18.129 --> 00:05:21.149 was expected to go to prove their worth. Throughout 00:05:21.149 --> 00:05:24.709 1988 and 1989, he wrestled for the Universal 00:05:24.709 --> 00:05:27.810 Wrestling Federation, or the UWF. And that place 00:05:27.810 --> 00:05:31.149 was no joke. The absolute bleeding edge of that 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:33.949 ultra -realistic, strike -heavy shoot style. 00:05:34.110 --> 00:05:36.449 He was in the ring trading full contact ticks 00:05:36.449 --> 00:05:39.529 and complex grappling transitions with some of 00:05:39.529 --> 00:05:41.370 the most dangerous men in the business. And the 00:05:41.370 --> 00:05:43.769 crazy thing is, once he masters that brutal realism, 00:05:43.850 --> 00:05:45.629 he doesn't just settle. No, he keeps moving. 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:48.269 Right. He immediately seeks out the exact opposite 00:05:48.269 --> 00:05:51.209 end of the spectrum. He pivots completely. In 00:05:51.209 --> 00:05:54.189 1991, he travels to Mexico to work for Consejo 00:05:54.189 --> 00:05:56.990 Mundial de Lucha Libre, better known as CMLL. 00:05:57.129 --> 00:05:59.269 A legendary promotion. Totally. For context, 00:05:59.430 --> 00:06:01.629 this is the oldest professional wrestling promotion 00:06:01.629 --> 00:06:04.319 in the world, and it is the global epicenter 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:06.620 of lucha libre right the masks and the flips 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:10.019 exactly a style famous for vibrant masks high 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:13.800 -flying acrobatics and a much faster highly theatrical 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.000 pace and you have to understand the mechanical 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.639 difference between British catch wrestling and 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.319 Mexican lucha libre is staggering because tech 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:23.860 is all on the mat right right Catch wrestling 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:26.600 is ground based. It's grinding. It relies on 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.519 heavy leverage. Lucha Libre requires incredible 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:32.300 aerial spatial awareness. You're catching opponents 00:06:32.300 --> 00:06:35.259 midair. Which sounds terrifying. It is. Plus, 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:36.980 you're working on the opposite side of the body 00:06:36.980 --> 00:06:39.279 that American and British wrestlers are normally 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.680 taught to work on. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:43.459 Yeah. It completely flips your muscle memory. 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:46.540 And Smiley didn't just show up to learn. He absolutely 00:06:46.540 --> 00:06:49.120 dominated. As Black Magic, right? Yes. Wrestling 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:51.879 under the moniker Black Magic. He adapted his 00:06:51.879 --> 00:06:54.839 style so perfectly that he won the prestigious 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:57.579 CMLL Windled Heavyweight Championship. That is 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:00.160 insane. And he held that title until finally 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.730 losing it to Brazo de Plata in 1993. So by the 00:07:03.730 --> 00:07:06.129 mid 90s, Norman Smiley is an internationally 00:07:06.129 --> 00:07:09.050 traveled, technically flawless heavyweight champion 00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:11.829 who has mastered both most realistic and the 00:07:11.829 --> 00:07:14.370 most theatrical styles on the planet. His resume 00:07:14.370 --> 00:07:17.649 was untouchable. Exactly. And that resume logically 00:07:17.649 --> 00:07:19.750 leads to his signing with world championship 00:07:19.750 --> 00:07:23.329 wrestling, WCW, in 1997. The big leagues. Yeah. 00:07:24.050 --> 00:07:28.269 At this time, WCW is a global television juggernaut. 00:07:28.370 --> 00:07:31.370 They have infinite money, massive cable TV deals, 00:07:31.370 --> 00:07:33.930 and they are basically buying up the best international 00:07:33.930 --> 00:07:36.990 talent available. They had everyone. Right. So 00:07:36.990 --> 00:07:39.350 he makes his television debut. He beats Manny 00:07:39.350 --> 00:07:42.069 Fernandez and competes in World War Three. Oh, 00:07:42.089 --> 00:07:44.829 the battle royal. Yeah. Which is this totally 00:07:44.829 --> 00:07:48.430 chaotic 60 man battle royal spread across three 00:07:48.430 --> 00:07:51.709 rings. But then despite all that pedigree, he 00:07:51.709 --> 00:07:53.509 essentially just vanishes from the broadcast. 00:07:53.649 --> 00:07:56.709 And the reason for that is because being technically 00:07:56.709 --> 00:08:01.129 flawless in late 90s, WCW was just the bare minimum. 00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:04.149 Everybody was good. Exactly. The roster was bloated 00:08:04.149 --> 00:08:06.410 with dozens of the greatest international wrestlers 00:08:06.410 --> 00:08:08.810 of all time. He had massive stars like Hulk Hogan 00:08:08.810 --> 00:08:11.569 and Randy Savage taking up the main event and 00:08:11.569 --> 00:08:14.069 a mid card packed with dynamic cruiserweights. 00:08:14.110 --> 00:08:16.730 So there's just no room? None. If you were just 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:18.949 a quote unquote really good wrestler, you were 00:08:18.949 --> 00:08:21.329 invisible. The audience needed a hook. You had 00:08:21.329 --> 00:08:23.889 to give the television producers an actual reason 00:08:23.889 --> 00:08:25.829 to put a camera on you. Okay, here's where it 00:08:25.829 --> 00:08:28.810 gets really interesting. Norman Smiley vanishes, 00:08:29.230 --> 00:08:31.649 he studies the landscape, and he realizes that 00:08:31.649 --> 00:08:34.490 stoic technical perfection is a dead end. Right. 00:08:34.710 --> 00:08:37.929 So he returns to the flagship show, Monday Nitro, 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:42.830 in February 1998, and he unveils a complete reinvention. 00:08:43.029 --> 00:08:45.850 Oh, this is the best part. Right. During a match 00:08:45.850 --> 00:08:49.450 with a very serious, popular wrestler named Conan, 00:08:50.110 --> 00:08:53.070 Norman Smiley suddenly debuts his signature dance 00:08:53.070 --> 00:08:56.330 move. The big wiggle. The big wiggle. It honestly 00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:59.090 remains one of the most bizarre and brilliant 00:08:59.090 --> 00:09:02.250 visual spectacles of the entire era. Describe 00:09:02.250 --> 00:09:04.649 it for someone who hasn't seen it. So he would 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:06.950 trap his opponent, usually standing right behind 00:09:06.950 --> 00:09:10.370 him, and perform this exaggerated rhythmic full 00:09:10.370 --> 00:09:12.090 -body shimmy. He's right in the middle of a match. 00:09:12.210 --> 00:09:14.490 Right in the middle of a match. And in an environment 00:09:14.490 --> 00:09:16.830 completely saturated with hyper -masculine tough 00:09:16.830 --> 00:09:19.490 guys trying to look incredibly dangerous, Smiley 00:09:19.490 --> 00:09:22.049 doing a ridiculous dance was entirely disruptive. 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:24.860 I bet. The crowds instantly woke up. They finally 00:09:24.860 --> 00:09:27.440 reacted to him. And he leans all the way into 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:30.799 that disruption, too. He realizes the absurdity 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:34.019 is his golden ticket to screen time. By December 00:09:34.019 --> 00:09:37.179 of 1998, he flips his character dynamic and turns 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:39.799 heel. which is the industry term for becoming 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:42.399 a villain. Exactly. And he does this backstage 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.460 interview where he reveals his new villainous 00:09:45.460 --> 00:09:48.440 motivation. He is furious with fans because they 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.860 keep mispronouncing his name. It is a total masterstroke 00:09:51.860 --> 00:09:54.519 of pettiness. So funny. Yeah, I mean, arrogance 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:57.320 is a classic wrestling villain trope, but Smiley 00:09:57.320 --> 00:09:59.899 played it with a slight... almost imperceptible 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:02.379 wink to the audience. He knew how silly it was. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:05.840 He did. He was basically mocking the very idea 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:08.519 of taking oneself too seriously. And that winking 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:10.600 arrogance sets the stage for one of the most 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.559 notoriously unhinged moments of the era. He enters 00:10:13.559 --> 00:10:16.840 a rivalry with Chavo Guerrero Jr. Oh, boy. Yeah. 00:10:17.379 --> 00:10:19.200 Now, Chavo's character at the time had completely 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:21.279 lost his mind and was carrying around a wooden 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:24.179 hobby horse mascot on a stick named Pepe. Just 00:10:24.179 --> 00:10:27.789 a toy horse. a toy horse. And he treated this 00:10:27.789 --> 00:10:31.409 toy horse like a living manager. So how does 00:10:31.409 --> 00:10:35.299 Norman Smiley escalate this rivalry? On the January 00:10:35.299 --> 00:10:39.299 11th, 1999 episode of Nitro, Smiley literally 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:42.600 kidnaps the hobby horse, brings a roaring industrial 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.080 grade wood chipper out to the arena, and feeds 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:47.919 the toy horse into the blades on live television, 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.639 spraying sawdust absolutely everywhere. It sounds 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:52.620 like an absolute fever dream. It really does. 00:10:52.759 --> 00:10:55.679 But that absolute fearless commitment to the 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.639 absurd is exactly what cemented his spot on the 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.620 roster. It made him stand out. Exactly. While 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:03.700 dozens of other incredibly talented wrestlers 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:05.539 were sitting in the back complaining that they 00:11:05.539 --> 00:11:07.659 weren't being treated like serious badasses, 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:10.860 Norman Smiley assessed the market. He realized 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.080 the fastest way to become indispensable to the 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:15.679 television product was to gladly do the weird 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:17.940 unhinged things no one else's ego would allow 00:11:17.940 --> 00:11:20.220 them to do. And that willingness to cast his 00:11:20.220 --> 00:11:23.320 ego aside brings us to late 1999, which is the 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:25.399 era that would permanently cement his legacy. 00:11:25.559 --> 00:11:28.470 The hardcore era. Right. The late 90s wrestling 00:11:28.470 --> 00:11:31.490 boom was heavily defined by the hardcore style. 00:11:31.950 --> 00:11:34.769 For anyone unfamiliar, hardcore wrestling basically 00:11:34.769 --> 00:11:37.029 throws the traditional rules completely out the 00:11:37.029 --> 00:11:39.490 window. No rules at all. None. These matches 00:11:39.490 --> 00:11:41.629 involved smashing each other with skill chairs, 00:11:41.750 --> 00:11:44.210 diving into dumpsters, hitting each other with 00:11:44.210 --> 00:11:46.850 garbage cans and just brawling through the concrete 00:11:46.850 --> 00:11:49.769 concourses of the arena. It was incredibly chaotic 00:11:49.769 --> 00:11:52.889 and genuinely dangerous. Oh, incredibly dangerous. 00:11:53.049 --> 00:11:56.330 And to capitalize on this trend, WCW decides 00:11:56.330 --> 00:11:59.200 to create a dedicated hardcore championship. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:02.179 So Smiley ends up in the finals of the inaugural 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:04.019 tournament at the Mayhem pay -per -view where 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:07.000 he defeats a notoriously stiff brawler named 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:10.840 Brian Knobs to become the very first. WCW hardcore 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:13.139 champion. Which is just wild. And out of this 00:12:13.139 --> 00:12:15.580 violence, the Screamin' Norman smiley persona 00:12:15.580 --> 00:12:18.639 is truly born. It's so good. It is a stroke of 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:21.000 psychological genius. You have a man with a legitimate 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.340 shoot style background, a former heavyweight 00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:26.379 champion in Mexico, and his new character is 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:29.440 that he is absolutely paralyzingly terrified 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:31.940 of weapons. He played it perfectly. He played 00:12:31.940 --> 00:12:34.480 a man who is essentially being forced to fight 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.399 in these barbaric matches against his will. And 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:39.879 the auditory component of this was hilarious. 00:12:40.059 --> 00:12:43.179 The screeching. Yeah. The moment an opponent 00:12:43.179 --> 00:12:46.039 would even reach for a steel chair or a kendo 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:49.440 skick, Smiley would let out this high pitched, 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:53.690 blood curdling screech. that just echoed through 00:12:53.690 --> 00:12:56.029 the entire arena. And the visual component was 00:12:56.029 --> 00:12:58.690 even better, honestly. To quote -unquote protect 00:12:58.690 --> 00:13:01.289 himself from the violence, he ditches normal 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:03.850 athletic wrestling gear entirely. Oh yeah, the 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:05.750 outsets. He starts marching to the ring wearing 00:13:05.750 --> 00:13:08.769 oversized football shoulder pads, heavily padded 00:13:08.769 --> 00:13:11.490 catcher's gear, bulky hockey helmet. Whatever 00:13:11.490 --> 00:13:14.509 he could find. Exactly. And to ensure the live 00:13:14.509 --> 00:13:16.850 crowd cheered for him, getting what the industry 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:20.230 calls a cheap pop, He would purposefully wear 00:13:20.230 --> 00:13:22.769 the local uniforms of whatever professional or 00:13:22.769 --> 00:13:24.710 collegiate sports team happened to be in the 00:13:24.710 --> 00:13:27.090 city they were broadcasting from. It was brilliant 00:13:27.090 --> 00:13:30.169 pandering. It really was. So he is just waddling 00:13:30.169 --> 00:13:32.950 down the aisle in oversized gear, visibly shaking 00:13:32.950 --> 00:13:35.190 with fear. I have to challenge this premise for 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:37.730 a second. OK, go for it. We established his pedigree. 00:13:38.070 --> 00:13:40.740 He's a train shooter. He learned leverage and 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:42.879 bone breaking technique from Carl Gotch. And 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.759 now he's screeching in football pads, literally 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:47.899 running away from his opponents. Right. If you 00:13:47.899 --> 00:13:50.679 are an athlete of his caliber, how do you justify 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:53.399 that? Doesn't that feel like a massive degradation 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:55.519 of your craft? Yeah. What's fascinating here 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:58.860 is that it is actually the ultimate, un -deniable 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:02.820 proof of his mastery. Really? How so? Because 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:06.740 true technical mastery allows you to safely orchestrate 00:14:06.740 --> 00:14:09.779 chaos. while acting completely out of control. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.139 Okay. That makes sense. Let's break down the 00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:14.639 physical mechanics of it. A core component of 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:17.299 wrestling is taking a bump, which is the industry 00:14:17.299 --> 00:14:19.740 term for safely falling flat onto a wooden ring 00:14:19.740 --> 00:14:23.019 canvas that is reinforced with steel beams. Ouch. 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:25.620 Right. The goal is to maximize the surface area 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:27.820 of your back hitting the mat to disperse the 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:30.919 kinetic energy. If you tense up or land awkwardly, 00:14:31.379 --> 00:14:33.580 you shatter a collarbone or compress your spine. 00:14:33.690 --> 00:14:35.710 The physics of a car crash, basically. Yeah, 00:14:35.750 --> 00:14:37.590 now add a steel chair swinging at your head. 00:14:37.730 --> 00:14:40.009 Yeah, no thanks. An amateur will panic, right? 00:14:40.070 --> 00:14:42.870 They'll dodge unpredictably or tense their neck, 00:14:43.110 --> 00:14:46.070 which leads to severe concussions. But Smiley's 00:14:46.070 --> 00:14:48.610 background gave him immaculate spatial awareness 00:14:48.610 --> 00:14:51.269 and an innate understanding of kinetic leverage. 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:54.149 Because of the gotch training. Exactly. He knew 00:14:54.149 --> 00:14:56.710 exactly how to feed his body into a weapon strike, 00:14:57.049 --> 00:14:59.850 protecting his head and neck at the exact millisecond 00:14:59.850 --> 00:15:02.470 of impact, all while screeching and mock terror. 00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:05.919 That is incredible multitasking. It really is. 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:09.059 He was wrestling massive, legitimately dangerous 00:15:09.059 --> 00:15:12.120 brawlers like Meng, Fit Finley, and Rhonda Singh. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.519 Yeah. The secret sauce of the Screamin' Norman 00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:17.179 gimmick is that the joke only works if the defensive 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:19.220 technique underneath it is completely flawless. 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:22.320 Wow. He was literally the safest man in the room 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:24.779 pretending to be in the most danger. He is the 00:15:24.779 --> 00:15:26.779 anchor in the hurricane. And the hurricane of 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:29.080 WCW just kept getting crazier as the company 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:32.100 began to financially destabilize. It really fell 00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:34.120 apart. Yeah. In the year 2000, the promotion 00:15:34.120 --> 00:15:36.500 undergoes a massive reboot, vacating all the 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:39.120 titles. Smiley ends up in a heated feud over 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.779 the hardcore title with the legendary Terry Funk. 00:15:42.059 --> 00:15:45.539 And Funk actually is as crazy and violent as 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:48.740 his character suggests. Exactly. So to up the 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:51.120 ante and protect himself, Smiley decides he needs 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:54.389 a manager. So he recruits a man named Ralfus. 00:15:54.649 --> 00:15:57.330 And for context, Ralfus was not a trained performer 00:15:57.330 --> 00:16:00.009 at all. Not even a little bit. No, he was a former 00:16:00.009 --> 00:16:02.809 truck driver for WCW who had randomly become 00:16:02.809 --> 00:16:05.590 an on -screen character a year prior alongside 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:08.909 Chris Jericho. Right. He was an ordinary, unathletic, 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:12.029 visibly out of shape guy whose entire appeal 00:16:12.029 --> 00:16:14.009 was just how out of place he looked on television. 00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:16.769 Teaming Screamin' Norman and Relfus together 00:16:16.769 --> 00:16:19.769 leads to a cinematic masterpiece of absurdity. 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:22.950 Oh, the park scene. Yes. They filmed a vignette 00:16:22.950 --> 00:16:26.090 where Smiley and Relfus go to a local park, they 00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:27.710 stalk a group of neighborhood children playing 00:16:27.710 --> 00:16:30.490 in the grass, and they literally mug these kids 00:16:30.490 --> 00:16:33.529 to steal their plastic backyard wrestling championship 00:16:33.529 --> 00:16:36.919 belt. It's so funny. A legitimate world -class 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:39.240 grappler organizing a heist on a 10 -year -old 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:41.980 for a plastic toy. And it was incredibly entertaining 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:44.460 television because of the utter lack of vanity. 00:16:44.580 --> 00:16:48.039 It's totally unselfish. Right. Smiley would eventually 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:51.159 win his second hardcore championship by defeating 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:54.480 Carl Ollett. But as we move into early 2001, 00:16:55.059 --> 00:16:57.320 the financial writing is pretty much on the wall 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:00.159 for WCW. The corporate structure is collapsing. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.960 Yet, even in the final dying days of the company, 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:06.700 Smiley is delivering high -level physical comedy. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.599 He never stopped. Never. His final storyline 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.480 paired him with a wrestler named Glacier, who 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:15.420 had this elaborate Mortal Kombat -style martial 00:17:15.420 --> 00:17:18.200 arts gimmick. And the skits were amazing. They 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:20.059 really were. Glacier was supposed to be his tag 00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:22.339 team partner, helping Smiley survive matches. 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:25.140 Instead, Glacier would take five minutes getting 00:17:25.140 --> 00:17:27.740 to the ring just to pose for the fans. Doing 00:17:27.740 --> 00:17:30.730 his forms. Right. Once he finally stepped between 00:17:30.730 --> 00:17:33.250 the ropes, he would physically push a helpless, 00:17:33.509 --> 00:17:35.710 getting beaten up Norman Smiley out of the way, 00:17:35.990 --> 00:17:37.569 just so he could find the center of the ring 00:17:37.569 --> 00:17:40.130 and perform his choreographed martial arts kata 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:42.630 routines for the crowd. It was such a brilliant 00:17:42.630 --> 00:17:45.809 visual gag. Smiley is taking a severe beating 00:17:45.809 --> 00:17:48.230 in the background, selling every punch beautifully, 00:17:48.789 --> 00:17:50.809 while his partner does slow motion karate poses 00:17:50.809 --> 00:17:54.210 in the foreground. He remained the most consistently 00:17:54.210 --> 00:17:56.490 entertaining segment of the broadcast right up 00:17:56.490 --> 00:18:00.549 until March 2001, when WCW was ultimately sold 00:18:00.549 --> 00:18:03.289 to their direct rival. the World Wrestling Federation. 00:18:03.549 --> 00:18:05.910 And despite being that reliable entertainer, 00:18:06.150 --> 00:18:08.890 Smiley wasn't hired by the WWF immediately following 00:18:08.890 --> 00:18:11.309 the buyout? No, a lot of guys weren't. The industry 00:18:11.309 --> 00:18:13.589 consolidated overnight and hundreds of guys were 00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:16.230 out of work? So what does the Ultimate Chameleon 00:18:16.230 --> 00:18:19.779 do? He doesn't quit. He reinvents again. He adapts 00:18:19.779 --> 00:18:22.180 again. He heads back to the independent circuit, 00:18:22.339 --> 00:18:24.480 lending his credibility to startup promotions 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:27.960 like the XWF and WWA. He also becomes a foundational 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:31.500 pillar in the early chaotic days of a new promotion 00:18:31.500 --> 00:18:34.420 called NWA Total Nonstop Action, which we know 00:18:34.420 --> 00:18:38.279 today is TNA. And his run in TNA proves his versatility 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:40.940 all over again. He is doing the comedy frequently 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:43.619 teaming up with Sharkboy, a wrestler who literally 00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:46.680 performed in a neoprene shark mask. Classic TNA. 00:18:46.829 --> 00:18:49.529 Right. He is still busting out the big wiggle, 00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:52.529 famously doing it to TNA's founder, Jeff Jarrett. 00:18:52.829 --> 00:18:55.390 but he is also being put in the ring with a brand 00:18:55.390 --> 00:18:58.869 new generation of intense main event acts. He's 00:18:58.869 --> 00:19:02.289 wrestling the monstrous Abyss, the technically 00:19:02.289 --> 00:19:04.789 brilliant Christian Cage, and the hard -hitting 00:19:04.789 --> 00:19:07.490 faction known as the Latin American Exchange. 00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:10.650 And that is a remarkably difficult needle to 00:19:10.650 --> 00:19:13.089 thread. How so? Well, if you are a comedy wrestler 00:19:13.089 --> 00:19:15.809 facing a terrifying monster -like Abyss, you 00:19:15.809 --> 00:19:17.910 run the risk of making the monster look ridiculous 00:19:17.910 --> 00:19:20.369 by association. Oh, right, because if he can't 00:19:20.369 --> 00:19:22.289 beat a comedy guy easily, he doesn't look tough. 00:19:22.250 --> 00:19:25.369 Exactly. But because Smiley's fundamentals were 00:19:25.369 --> 00:19:28.329 so incredibly crisp, he could seamlessly blend 00:19:28.329 --> 00:19:31.049 his comedic evasions into a highly physical, 00:19:31.369 --> 00:19:33.789 hard -hitting match. He made the main event talent 00:19:33.789 --> 00:19:36.210 look like absolute killers while still getting 00:19:36.210 --> 00:19:39.250 his laughs. That makes perfect sense. But the 00:19:39.250 --> 00:19:41.470 final act of this narrative is perhaps the most 00:19:41.470 --> 00:19:43.890 impressive and validating pivot of his entire 00:19:43.890 --> 00:19:46.230 career. It really is the ultimate payoff. In 00:19:46.230 --> 00:19:50.309 2007, Smiley relocates to Orlando, Florida. And 00:19:50.309 --> 00:19:53.009 he isn't moving there to be a comedy act on television. 00:19:53.690 --> 00:19:55.569 He is hired to work as a behind -the -scenes 00:19:55.569 --> 00:19:58.910 trainer for WWE's developmental territory, Florida 00:19:58.910 --> 00:20:02.190 Championship Wrestling or FCW. He even does some 00:20:02.190 --> 00:20:04.970 on -camera authority work as the FCW Lieutenant 00:20:04.970 --> 00:20:07.789 General Manager. Which is awesome. But this raises 00:20:07.789 --> 00:20:11.769 an important question. If WWE is a billion dollar 00:20:11.769 --> 00:20:14.609 corporate machine tasked with building massive, 00:20:15.210 --> 00:20:18.460 incredibly serious hyper -athletic action stars. 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:21.960 Why hand the keys to the developmental kingdom 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:25.509 to a guy whose resume peaks? with a screening 00:20:25.509 --> 00:20:28.410 coward routine. Right. That seems entirely counterintuitive. 00:20:28.509 --> 00:20:30.950 You would assume they would want a former WrestleMania 00:20:30.950 --> 00:20:33.430 main eventer or just some stone cold tough guy 00:20:33.430 --> 00:20:35.390 molding the minds of their new recruits. You 00:20:35.390 --> 00:20:37.390 would assume that, but the executives running 00:20:37.390 --> 00:20:40.369 WWE's talent relations recognized everything 00:20:40.369 --> 00:20:42.529 we've just analyzed today. They saw the foundation. 00:20:42.730 --> 00:20:44.670 Exactly. They don't look at Norman Smiley and 00:20:44.670 --> 00:20:46.730 see the football pads. Yeah. They see the Carl 00:20:46.730 --> 00:20:49.569 Gotch and Milenko training. They see the CMLL 00:20:49.569 --> 00:20:51.589 World Heavyweight Championship. The technical 00:20:51.589 --> 00:20:54.390 perfection. Right. They see a performer who survived 00:20:54.390 --> 00:20:57.529 the sheer political and physical chaos of WCW 00:20:57.529 --> 00:21:01.109 by being completely adaptable, unselfish, and 00:21:01.109 --> 00:21:03.890 fundamentally perfect in the ring. Today, Norman 00:21:03.890 --> 00:21:06.910 Smiley is still employed by WWE as an elite trainer 00:21:06.910 --> 00:21:10.109 for their current developmental brand, NXT. That 00:21:10.109 --> 00:21:12.470 is so cool. He is also signed to a prestigious 00:21:12.470 --> 00:21:15.009 Legends deal. He is literally standing in the 00:21:15.009 --> 00:21:17.490 ring teaching the next generation of superstars. 00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:20.269 The men and women who will be main eventing WrestleMania 00:21:20.269 --> 00:21:22.710 in five years are currently learning how to execute 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:26.029 a basic lockup, you know, the foundational collar 00:21:26.029 --> 00:21:28.170 and elbow tie up that dictates the pace of a 00:21:28.170 --> 00:21:30.130 match. The building blocks. Exactly. They are 00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:32.690 learning how to take a bump safely, how to protect 00:21:32.690 --> 00:21:34.710 their necks, and how to tell a story without 00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:37.519 saying a word directly from Norman Smiley. He 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.119 is basically a living library of decades of international 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:43.920 multi -promotional knowledge. He is passing on 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:46.059 the legacy of catch wrestling and lucha libre 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:49.440 to the athletes of tomorrow. So we've gone from 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:53.339 a British born amateur powerlifter to a Mexican 00:21:53.339 --> 00:21:56.480 heavyweight champion to a screeching football 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.539 pad wearing a hardcore comedy act all the way 00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:02.579 to a highly respected elder statesman and elite 00:22:02.579 --> 00:22:06.640 WWE trainer. What a ride. Seriously. So. What 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:09.039 does this all mean? When we look at this stack 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:11.420 of sources, the core lesson of Norman Smiley's 00:22:11.420 --> 00:22:13.579 career is that professional longevity is rarely 00:22:13.579 --> 00:22:16.519 a straight unbroken line. No, it's a zigzag. 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:19.200 It proves that surviving in a volatile industry 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.299 isn't about maintaining a rigid, unbending image 00:22:22.299 --> 00:22:24.940 of toughness or perfection. It is about knowing 00:22:24.940 --> 00:22:27.460 exactly when to pivot. Absolutely. It is about 00:22:27.460 --> 00:22:29.900 checking your ego, recognizing what the audience 00:22:29.900 --> 00:22:32.000 or the market actually wants, and leaning into 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.259 it, even if it means doing a ridiculous dance 00:22:34.259 --> 00:22:36.000 or running away from a fight. I couldn't agree 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.339 more. And, you know, examining his career through 00:22:38.339 --> 00:22:40.619 a modern lens leaves you with a really fascinating 00:22:40.619 --> 00:22:42.420 question to consider. Oh, I like this. What is 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:45.220 it? Well, we live in an era defined by hyper 00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:49.039 -curated, flawless digital profiles. On LinkedIn, 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:52.339 on social media, everyone is exhausting themselves 00:22:52.339 --> 00:22:54.819 trying to project an image of being a tough, 00:22:55.279 --> 00:22:58.160 unbeatable, perfectly polished expert. It's exhausting. 00:22:58.440 --> 00:23:01.220 It is. But if the man trusted to shape the most 00:23:01.220 --> 00:23:04.039 highly athletic superstars of tomorrow is best 00:23:04.039 --> 00:23:05.960 known for wearing catcher's gear and stealing 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:08.839 a toy belt from children, maybe we have it all 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:11.119 backward. That is a great point. Are we actually 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:13.599 making ourselves completely forgettable by trying 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:16.740 to look so perfect? Maybe the real risk to your 00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:19.099 career today isn't looking foolish. Maybe the 00:23:19.099 --> 00:23:21.789 real risk is refusing to. That is a brilliant 00:23:21.789 --> 00:23:24.490 thought to end on. A huge thank you to you, our 00:23:24.490 --> 00:23:26.450 listener, for joining us on this deep dive into 00:23:26.450 --> 00:23:29.470 the absolute master of reinvention, Norman Smiley. 00:23:29.569 --> 00:23:31.670 There's a blast. We highly encourage you to keep 00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:33.930 exploring the sources, perhaps track down some 00:23:33.930 --> 00:23:36.410 vintage footage of the Big Wiggle or that infamous 00:23:36.410 --> 00:23:38.569 woodshipper incident for yourself, and we will 00:23:38.569 --> 00:23:40.509 catch you on the next deep dive.