James Guttman sent along the following:
ClubWWI.com has been bringing members star-hosted shows for years and “Breaking The Ice” hosted by former WCW star “Glacier” Ray Lloyd and James Guttman has been providing fans with many stories and tips they can’t find anywhere else. Now, in one of the most anticipated episodes to date, Ray and James are joined for most of the 54 minute show by former WWF Intercontinental and WCW TV Champion Marc Mero for a rare interview that leaves no subject off limits.
Among the topics discussed are:The Wrestler Who Invented The “Johnny B. Badd” Gimmick, Having His Car Repossessed Right Before His WCW Contract Signing, The Future WCW Wrestler Who Drove Him There, “Who’s Little Richard?”, Being WCW Rookie of The Year, The One Direction Dusty Rhodes Gave Before His Match With Marc, Decision To Do Public Speaking, Losing His Family, The “Thriller” Dance, Thinkpoz.org, Ad-Libbed Promos vs. Scripts, Never Having a Marc Mero vs. Glacier Match, Bruno Sammartino, Shawn Michaels, and More.
For a full list of topics head to: http://www.worldwrestlinginsanity.com/am2/publish/newsnotes/ClubWWI_Marc_Mero_BTI.shtml
For up to the minute information on all the latest guests, articles, and information posted on World Wrestling Insanity, you can join our Facebook Fan Page at: http://www.facebook.com/WorldWrestlingInsanity and follow us on Twitter @ClubWWI
Glacier and Marc Mero have a long history together. As many fans of “Breaking the Ice” know, Ray has been holding his Glacier 90 Day fitness challenge (glacier90daychallenge.com) for a while now and helped many people improve along the way. Much of Lloyd’s inspiration came from Mero, whose public speaking tours across the country have captivated many young people and lead them to a path of better choices. Through Thinkpoz.org, Marc has taken many negatives and turned them into positives by sharing his tragic personal story with others and showing how to overcome.
One thing that many fans know about him, however, is his storied “list”. Following the Benoit Murder/Suicide in 2007, Marc Mero appeared on a wide range of news shows with this listing of wrestlers who passed away young. One major problem that many, including James Guttman, had with it was that the list wasn’t limited to drug usage. However, as Guttman learned more about Mero’s seminar, he realized that Marc wasn’t on anti-drug crusade as much as he was on a pro-positive choices campaign. When put into that context, the list began to make more sense. JG asked about Mero’s decision to include these other names and whether people missed the main point because they were fixated on drug usage. As Marc explains to ClubWWI.com members, there were a number of reasons he faced opposition and a number of reasons why he chose to speak out.
“I broke the code of silence, so to speak. So obviously there were people not happy with me because I spoke out against wrestling. It wasn’t about pointing my finger at somebody else. It was really saying also what I did and what I was involved in. Here’s the thing with professional wrestling. There’s maybe 25 spots on television and you are doing everything you can to keep your spot. But there is a thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand people behind you who want that spot so bad who’ll do whatever it takes. You find yourself wrestling injured. You find yourself doing things that you shouldn’t be doing health wise – keeping your body strong through anabolic steroids, taking pain medication way beyond the doses you should be taking just to get through a wrestling match without looking like you’re limping or hurt. And I realize that many of those wrestlers that I wrestled against didn’t all die from steroids or drug overdose. But a lot did die because of their bad choices.”
As Mero explains, poor choices aren’t limited to substances. Sometimes it could be driving when you know you’re too tired or forcing yourself to continue doing something when you know you should physically take a break. He then tells ClubWWI.com members why the list is comprised of the specific names he chose.
“Some of them died in car accidents. A lot of them, the cause of death was listed as “heart attack”. Well, many of these guys were under 50, under 40, under 30 years old and died from heart attacks. Pretty unusual to die of a heart attack that young unless there were things you’ve done in life over a period of time that cause that to happen. But like I said in my presentation, most of them died of bad choices – not all of them. The reason I list all of these guys is because these are all guys I wrestled against.”
Of course, the show isn’t limited to non-wrestling talk. This rare wrestling interview for the former Johnny B. Badd deals with his career as well. Alongside fellow former WCW wrestler Glacier, the two share many great stories from the ring. One memorable tale involves the creation of the Johnny B. Badd gimmick. Marc names the person who came up with it, how he didn’t know who Little Richard was at first, and heading to CNN Center to pick up his contract. When he got there, he went to see Dusty Rhodes and, as many past ClubWWI.com guests have said about their first real contract – it was a surreal moment.
“I go upstairs to Dusty’s office and Dusty’s on the phone. I’m waiting for him to get off the phone and he just puts the phone down for a second and goes, “Here. Take this contract and have your attorney look it over and then get back to me.” And that was it. Now I’m standing in the office, looking at the contract, and it says $75,000 your first year. $150,000 your second year. So I go, “Dusty, excuse me. Do you mind if I sign this right now?” He goes, “Sure. Do whatever you want.” I go, “I don’t even have an attorney, man.” (laughs) I signed the contract, you know, and I was just so excited that I was now a member of WCW and that’s how my whole career started. It was a dream come true.”
The interview doesn’t end there. James Guttman and Ray Lloyd continue on with the 54 minute “Breaking The Ice” audio. The former Wildman Marc Mero is just one of hundreds available on ClubWWI.com the moment you join up. From Jerry Lawler to Dennis Stamp, you can hear them all along with thousands of hours of audio from show hosts Paul Roma, Fifi The Maid, and the World Wrestling Insanity staff.
