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Road Trip After Hours w/ WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Host Mac Davis
The Fastest 30 Minute Wrestling Show with WWE Hall of Famer TEDDY LONG and MAC DAVIS! It's FAST, It's FUN and it's FREE!
Road Trip After Hours w/ WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Host Mac Davis
From WWE Referee to Caribbean Wrestling Leader! Justin King's Journey, Dusty Rhodes' Nickname, & Mark Henry's Vision!
Join us on an unforgettable adventure from the unexpected snowy chaos of the southern states to the vibrant sunshine of the Caribbean! Our special guest, Justin King, takes center stage sharing his incredible journey from WWE referee to the Director of Talent Relations for All Caribbean Wrestling. Discover how the legendary Dusty Rhodes nicknamed him "Bones" and learn about Justin's significant impact on the wrestling scene in the Caribbean. You’ll hear about the dynamic growth of All Caribbean Wrestling, from its humble beginnings to a thriving entertainment powerhouse under the leadership of the renowned Mark Henry.
Venture into the fascinating world of wrestling officiating as we explore the globetrotting career of a referee who’s ventured from Peru to Qatar. The influence of the trailblazer Teddy Long is a key highlight, particularly his role in mentoring Justin and shaping his professional path. This inspiring story underscores the importance of mentorship and the pioneering contributions of Teddy Long in paving the way for Black referees, sharing his wisdom and integrity with future generations.
Hello, I know, I know, I know, I know. Can we get started? Okay, don't even start with me, don't start with me. Look here, I'm looking forward to today because we're getting out of the snowy south, which is unusual to even say. I still got snow around the house. Oh, by the way, teddy, just before we went to air, I lost heat. Our heat unit just went down, so I've now got calls waiting to come in from heat techs. Jesus.
Speaker 2:You better go buy you one of those little space heaters. Do you have?
Speaker 1:them. I got a couple of plug-ins but I got to go out and get some more gas for one of the gas ones I got which will put out more heat. You know, it's just. You know, and our guest today probably has no clue because he's all down the Caribbean. You know, he's enjoying that lifestyle that I wish I could live every single day, I guess he's there.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure where he's living. They get tornadoes and stuck down the street. You don't want to be there. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Teddy, go ahead and introduce our guest before we start hopping in with him here.
Speaker 2:Why don't you introduce him? You was doing all the talking.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, God, I'm going to smack you. I swear to God, Justin's going to think we're crazy. Justin King is our guest today and he is Talent Relations. And that's for All Caribbean Wrestling. Now, you were just kind of smiling when I was talking about the snow here in the south. Where are you from, Justin? Where are you coming from?
Speaker 3:So I actually live in a small town called Rantoul, illinois. Yeah, and we get snow all the time. I'm close to the University of Illinois and what you guys are going through we go through all the time. Right now it just got back up to about 20 degrees, but yesterday it was negative 17 degrees. Yeah, I'll show that now it's normal for us.
Speaker 1:I was telling my wife yesterday. I said you know, we're sitting here looking at everybody in the snow on the ground, everybody's enjoying it, but everything's closed. I mean, where you are, business is just as usual, you know, but down here everything closes up. The bread's gone, toilet paper's gone, everything. It's like a natural disaster. Speaking of a natural disaster, teddy Long, you had told me that there was a guy that you knew in WWE, and that being Bones. So I want to know where the name Bones came from. Teddy, you want to elaborate on that?
Speaker 2:If you're not familiar with Justin King, he was a referee in the WWE. I think he might have been in the WWF. I don't know where he started there. It wasn't WWE, but I had the opportunity. It was WWE, yeah, okay. Well, I had the opportunity to work with Bones and that's why we started calling him Bones. And the reason we started calling him Bones is if you look at him, the guy weighs 85 pounds.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's why we're calling him Bones all right.
Speaker 2:So and I talked to Mac and me and Mac decided that we wanted to talk to Justin because he's really made a remarkable change. He's come a long way from being a referee to now he's in the Caribbean running all Caribbean wrestling. He's in charge of talent relation, which means he does the hiring and the firing and makes sure everything is ran right, and to move from refereeing into a position like that. I want to congratulate him first and just say, man, you've been putting in a lot of hard work and if you could tell us a little bit about all Caribbean wrestling cause Mac and I you know we're interested in that and we'd like to know, you know, how things are going there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so just a little backstory. I got the name bones from dusty roads. He named me that when I was training in FCW, because I was so skinny, you know, and I could cut promos.
Speaker 1:Were you training as a wrestler or training as a referee?
Speaker 3:As a referee, you got to do the WWE way.
Speaker 1:You got to learn the.
Speaker 3:WWE way and working down there, I got to work side-by-side with Dusty and that was my first little taste of getting into the behind-the-scenes things. And then then, obviously, as Teddy said, I worked with him for about five years, got hurt really bad, had a bad accident where I required several surgeries, and it was because of that that WWE and I parted ways together amicably. We did it respectfully. I have nothing bad to say about them. They were great to me, they took care of me.
Speaker 3:But to get to All-Caribbean Wrestling, I had decided that I wanted to jump on this board with All-Caribbean Wrestling when it first started and we started in 2021 in the Bahamas and we had a very, very, very small show and the idea came that you know, if we could do the Bahamas, we could really do anything in the Caribbean. And from that moment on we all started brainstorming. Jeffrey Brazel was in charge of that at the time and he was moving in such ways that was so big. Next thing, you know, we're in Trinidad and then we go from Trinidad to Jamaica. We've done three shows in Trinidad, three shows in Jamaica, three shows in the Bahamas. We've done a show in Haiti and we've done a couple in Santa Domingo and Teddy was with us in the Santa Domingo one time.
Speaker 3:But what we are now is we've gone from that small company to we're no longer an independent wrestling company.
Speaker 3:We don't want to say that that's bad, but we are now on the verge of going to a production style company. The verge of going to a production style company. And with that come along Mark Henry, who is now taking over as the CEO for all Caribbean wrestling. Jeffrey Brazel, known as Jamie cool, is now the CEO and I got the position of director of talent relations a couple of weeks ago. I was blessed to have that position as I've been side-by-side with them for quite a while doing the behind the scenes things. So on top of being a head referee, I was doing a lot of the backstage things with all the talent and they said that I have shown so much growth that they put me into the position to take care of our talent as far as the hiring and the firing and the paperwork and making sure everybody's happy, because it is a big job and it needs someone that can be focused and dedicated to what we got going at this very moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a hell of a nod from the guys to let you handle talent relations. That's no small job and it requires a lot of heat sometimes that comes with that job. But to get that position and have those guys say you're the one, I would imagine that's probably one of the biggest moments in your career, maybe even more so than when you were in WWE right.
Speaker 3:I think the WWE, what they did for me was they set me up to advance my life outside of just being a referee, to really understand the importance of wrestling not just inside the ring but outside the ring, to to build relationships. A lot of people don't know is no nod to myself, but I'm the only referee that's traveled the world as a referee. So after WWE I took about a three year break and I'm just I'll ramble it off real quick. But after WWE I took about a three-year break and I'll ramble it off real quick. But after WWE I took about a three-year break from my injury. Teddy knows I was badly injured.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you. I don't mean to cut you off, but I know a lot of people who are listening right now are probably wondering what the injury was and what happened.
Speaker 3:So when I was working at FCW, I did a show Raw and SmackDown. I came back home. I did a show Raw and SmackDown I came back home. We needed to put a banner up. At the time, fcw had big banners with the champions on it and they needed this banner to go up. And I was the only one that was doing it at the time, but then a couple other people had to do that because I was on the road. So I got told that I needed to come put this banner up. Well, I climbed up 23 feet on a ladder. The banner fell. I fell with the banner and I lost my foot.
Speaker 3:So I had a big break on my foot and my left foot and I had to have six surgeries and you know it was a lot of rehab, a lot of putting me back together. And thank God for WWE for doing that for me, because I would have lost that foot had it not been for Triple H and those guys really taking the time to make sure I was OK. Johnny John Laurinaitis was very influential in that at that time because he was still in charge and Triple H they spent a lot of time talking with me, they reassured me that everything was good and I did get the chance to go back. They put me back together so quickly and so well, but I did get the chance to go back. But I think I came back too fast and it just over time. It just wore out and I needed an actual break from wrestling to get back to what I love doing.
Speaker 1:What brought you back into it after?
Speaker 3:that break and to come back into the business. So that's where we get into the international thing. I took about three years off and I drove great Kali around in WWE. I spent a lot of time driving this man from city to city. We stayed at hotels together. I made sure he got to airport, to airport, and I got a call on Christmas Day 2015,. And Ricardo Rodriguez was down there with Khali doing his school and they had this big brainstorming idea that they would have a great Khali returns and from there I was asked to come to India and I was the sole referee to go to India and I did 12 matches on the card, but the first night we had 50,000. Second night, 80,000. Third night, 10,000 in pouring rain and from,000. Third night 10,000. And pouring rain and from there, from Khali, just exposure on that. And I actually have a thing back here that's got all my accolades with Khali. I don't know if you can see that or not.
Speaker 1:I can see some of it in the background.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So with that came several different countries. Then next thing you know, I'm in Lima, Peru. Then several different countries. Then next thing you know, I'm in Lima, Peru. Then from Lima Peru, I get a tryout in Kuwait for Qatar Pro Wrestling. Then 2019, South America, and then 2020, Qatar, and then 2021, boom I'm with All Caribbean Wrestling. So most of my career has been spent out of the country. I actually don't even work in the United States at all. I haven't since 2016,.
Speaker 1:Really, Did you have a dream as a kid what you wanted to do? I mean, did you know, young, that you wanted to be a referee or be in the wrestling business, or was there something else that you had planned on doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so me and my twin brother. I have an identical twin brother who was also a referee for a long time. Now he's a security for Tony Khan and AEW. But before we knew that we would be in the business, I kind of had an inkling that this is what I would do.
Speaker 3:I met a couple of referees when I was very young Chad Patton and Jack Doan. They both were long-tenured WWE referees. I met them when I was like 12. And I knew from that moment, at the Peoria Civic Center, I knew at that moment that that's what I wanted to do. I knew I was never going to be big enough to be a wrestler. I was too small, but I knew watching them.
Speaker 3:Then I started studying the referees versus being a fan, and I knew at that moment that I had to do something to really keep myself occupied because I was such a huge wrestling fan. Yep, and at one moment Chad calls me and says yo, vince is looking for a black referee. It's not. You know, obviously race doesn't play a part, but the demographic at that point, teddy was the only one that had made an impact on wrestling as a whole. Teddy was the first black referee that everyone knew. You know, every now and then they may have had a one-off, somebody come do something in the 90s, um, but teddy was the one that really stapled what it is to be a referee as a black man, and so I always gave teddy credit, because without teddy and I mean this truly, without teddy there would be no justin king, there would be no mark harris, there would be no derrick's, there would be no adja, who's in ww now, there would be no Dallas Irving, who's in NXT right now. There wouldn't be none of us.
Speaker 1:There wouldn't be this show, we wouldn't be talking right now without Teddy Long.
Speaker 3:To be honest with you, yeah, and that's why I'm so grateful that I was able to ride with Teddy. I was able to travel the highways with Teddy. I rode with Teddy for a long time and his wisdom to me really shaped who I am as a person. You learn how not to make mistakes and to play the game, a way that you're not going to get yourself in trouble, and remember not what to say and how to say it, but keeping your mouth shut and doing the job. And sometimes you may not like what you get told, but Teddy would always say hey, bones, I know you're upset right now, but let it go the day's over. And when I came in as a second, I really wanted to make Teddy proud as a referee and I think that I did that. So I give all the flowers to Teddy for really truly shaping me as a human being.
Speaker 3:I've always said there's no greater person to talk to about, to talk to, wrestling about. You know, outside of Teddy Long, because he's been there for so long and done it all in every facet. You know, here's a guy who was a referee in the nwa but then he goes on to be the one of the greatest managers, I believe, because I was a huge doom fan when I was a kid. Yeah, um, to have those guys and then to see teddy come be a referee in wwe. Next thing you know, he's got mac and he's got uh jazz and he's got mark henry and he's got the whole beat up, the white boy thing. And then he goes from that to GM and his accolades are so high that I wanted to pat myself after him and I think I've done quite a bit of a job doing that.
Speaker 1:And you know, Teddy, I don't know why, I'm not surprised, but every time we talk to somebody, it's always the same thing. And you go back and listen to any of our episodes of guests and they always say the same thing Teddy helped me with this. Teddy helped me with that. Teddy is probably one of the most giving people in wrestling when it comes to passing on information and knowledge that you need, without a motive of getting something back from you. He just wants to help. And, Teddy, I got to say you did a great job here with Justin.
Speaker 2:Well, I want to say thank you. Sorry, guys.
Speaker 1:No, it's all right, man.
Speaker 2:That's cool. But thank you, Justin. I've had several people Boogeyman, God bless him Godfather, those people always, you know, talk about things that I've done and, like I said with Justin, I didn't really know I had this much impact on you at all, but I just wanted to make sure you did the right thing. I wanted to make sure you said the right thing because I know how it goes and if you can say the wrong thing, you can be in trouble for the rest of your life. Or you can do the wrong thing. It's just so, just little, bittest things that you can do. That'll mark you where you'll be. You know you'll be this bad guy for your whole entire career. So I'm just glad that I can, you know, just did what I could do for your bones. I really appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:And you know the thing is is, with that wisdom and with that learning from you, I was able to take that around the world and really staple it to other people. And the best part about all Caribbean wrestling. I know we don't talk about the impact, but I need to say this about JV Cool People have opinions about him, listen, but I can say this right now what I've learned from him is the business side of things. I've learned how to talk to people and approach people and give people the directive that they need without putting wrestling into it. It just has to be business over here, wrestling over here.
Speaker 3:How you make a great wrestling company is you start with the business, then you do the wrestling, and it took me a long time to really realize that, until you got 40 people down your back and telling you, hey, I want this, hey, I need this, hey, I'm this person, hey, I'm better than this. When we see the accolades they give us, some people are not even worth what we give them, but we do it anyway because we show a lot of respect. Now, what's happened now is there's a shift. Mark Henry is 100% business. He understands the business and what we've done is we put a lot of things in place that some of our talent may not understand. They may not like it, but it's going to help the business grow to this anomaly that's going to be bigger than a typical wrestling company that just throws on shows.
Speaker 1:We're doing storylines now. Yeah, I was going to say you know, there's a reason why it's called a business. It's because you make money and you have to make money to make things grow. So there's nothing wrong with it being a business. But there is a separation. There's got to be the talent side and the business side, because talent and the business and the office don't understand each other too well.
Speaker 3:No, and I think that's where I come in, because I understand both sides. Yes, the reason why I have this position is because they know that I can easily turn on the business side 100% when I have to be straightforward. But then there's the caring side as far as talent, where you understand your talent, where you have your talent come to you for anything. My talent can come to me for anything. They can talk to me 24 hours a day. I've opened up my phone to them.
Speaker 3:I put so much into this every single day and I work 60 hours a week in my regular job. But while I'm doing that, while I'm doing that, I'm doing 100% for them too. So I really throw my eggs into two baskets Monaco's Pizza, all Caribbean Wrestling Been with Monaco's Pizza for 25 years off and on Been with wrestling for 18 years off and on. So there's a fine line of being structurally sound to hey man, it's okay to talk to me about this, but you may not get what you want. But I'm hearing you, I'm listening to you and I think that's what Mark and JD have given me is the opportunity to be that middleman so that they don't have to be so hardcore when they, because when business is business, you're not trying to please people. You're trying to get the better good of to make that business work.
Speaker 1:And, like I was saying earlier, in that position of talent relations. Teddy, you know this, people in talent relations positions most times catch all the heat and you've got to be the bad guy because you're delivering the news that's got to be told.
Speaker 2:Well, here's what you've got to understand. Some people that are in talent relations. They need to get the heat.
Speaker 1:Oh well, yeah, Some of them earn that heat. I know exactly what you're talking about, but let me ask you now you've got some shows coming up. I've heard Barbados is a new area for you guys. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are now doing TV tapings quarterly, so every three months about. We are doing live shows. So our next one is going to be in Santo Domingo, march, and then we do the Bahamas June 28th. Then we do July 12th in Barbados, and Barbados is a new place that we've never been, that we're already set to go, we're ready to go and what we're doing now is we're not doing tv tapings just to do tv tapings.
Speaker 3:We got a deal now with temple networks. We signed with temple networks. We do our first 30 minute show. It's going to be aired every saturday, 30 minutes, uh, for temple networks starting march 1st. So we're doing tvs to lives.
Speaker 3:So if we do tv tapings, that's leading into our live shows and it'll be based off the storytelling we're doing storytelling. Do TV tapings, that's leading into our live shows and it'll be based off the storytelling. We're doing storytelling versus just doing matches. That's why I always tell people listen, I don't want to disrespect anyone that's coming on. Because, teddy, you know as well as I know, as soon as I got this position, everybody became my best friend Because now I have that position of power to hire. Then you're going to start to get all the emails. Then you start to get all the phone calls, then you can start to get a hey man, remember me? Yeah, I remember you, but at the end of the day, it's not my company, I'm just the man that says what I can do and what I can't do.
Speaker 3:If they say nay, nay is nay, right, and we're doing storytelling now to lead to those live shows, to make an impact all year long. So so what you're going to see is now that and we also have an all Caribbean app. Now we have the app. It's on a Roku, it's on iOS, it's getting ready to be on Android, where people can go and pay $2 a month to get all of our content. We've even dropped the price to $2 and 99 cents a month. You spend that on a pack of gum. You can do that for once a month to watch our content leading into the lives. You get all the pay reviews, you get all the matches and if you can't afford it, then you go to YouTube channel. We got YouTube matches. That we're doing for the people who can't afford it, but the goal is to get the viewership and to get people involved in storytelling, not just wrestling.
Speaker 1:Now, if people who are watching right now they're thinking, well, I'm not gonna be able to catch the show because a lot of it's down, you know, in the Caribbean, Are you not going to be in Vegas as well?
Speaker 3:We are. So I forgot to add that because I was talking about the uh. So we do have a show August 7th or, excuse me, april 17th in Vegas, and that's also going to be a show. That's from our storylines. We're not just doing the WrestleMania week. You know a lot of people just come to WrestleMania week. They go there, they do a show, they pick up random people, they do a night of wrestling and then that's that. No, the show on the 17th is not an all-Caribbean show. It has nothing to do with all-Caribbean. It has nothing to do with all Caribbean. It's got to do with fighting evolution wrestling, which is a sister to all Caribbean wrestling. But it still is going to tie into what we're doing. You know what I mean, cause the all Caribbean part is very, it's very much in the Caribbean. So we're going to. That's going to be um uh, april 17th, and the show does start late. I think it's 11 or midnight one of the others.
Speaker 3:It's a later show, but we got a lot of good things going on in that show. There's a lot of giveaways, there's a lot of things that's going to happen with that in Vegas, and then it's back to the grind. We got tapings in May, we got tapings in August, we got tapings in September. We're going to be taping all the time, so we're going to have several pieces of content and again, that app is going to be the gateway for the United States to the Caribbean.
Speaker 1:All right, one more quick question before we run out of time. As Talent Relations, what are you looking for for all Caribbean wrestling? Is there a need for something that you're looking for out there?
Speaker 3:I think, as Talent Relations, I'm looking to structure the best team that can do a job on a monthly basis without any drama, without any hesitations, just to understand where we're trying to go, what we're trying to do. And to the people that have signed with us. We got so many big names that have signed to us already. We got JTG, we got Sidney Akeem, we got Kenny King, we got Jay Rios, who's all over Mexico. We got so many big names. We got Leah James, who was with NXT UK. We got so many big names that have signed with us, zicky, dice there's so many names that have signed with us. I know, zicky, there's so many names that are signed with us.
Speaker 1:I know, zicky, zicky's crazy man Yep.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot. We got Elijah Pope. Pope is with us. He's our champion right now. There's so many rising stars that we got signed on now that are trying to take the next step to really Danny Limelight. I just said so many names, but what I'm looking for is people who want to be in a business for the greater good, not just for individuality, not just to get a paycheck, not just to come in and showcase them. It has to be about the company, not the individual.
Speaker 1:So that's what I'm looking for in our career lesson.
Speaker 2:Teddy, anything you want to add before we get out of here? No, I just want to say I'm just happy that you and I had the opportunity to talk to Justin and to get him on the show here and tell us a little bit about All Caribbean Wrestling, because these people are on fire. They are doing absolutely great. I had the opportunity to go to one of their shows, but I couldn't get my passport. That was the only thing that detained me. I wasn't able to get my passport, but I do have that now. So all Caribbean wrestling, teddy, I'll just say this.
Speaker 3:I'll just say this, teddy, now that you got your passport, I'll be in touch with you. Okay, I'll be in touch with you now, bro, I ain't gonna have you do none of the local shows, but I'll bring you down to the Bahamas or something like that, so you get the experience of the Caribbean. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:You got my promise on that, Teddy.
Speaker 3:And I appreciate you having me on the show, and Mark and JB, thank you for having me too. I told them I was coming on today. They were very pleased that you asked me to do this and I thank you, mac. You guys are awesome and I thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for paving the way for young black men like me that didn't have a chance, but you opened that gate up for me and I'm so grateful for you and I will always love you for that.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, thank you very much. Hey, I opened the gate for myself too I didn't have a chance here, brother.
Speaker 3:The only problem was he doesn't know, you didn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:No, you didn't Well, justin. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon on Road Trip After Hours, teddy and I. When Teddy told me about this, I told him already. I said I saw just something on that just recently that popped across my Facebook page. I saw the announcement about you as Talent Relations. So it was a small world when Teddy brought that up. Absolutely enjoyed this conversation, my friend, hope to have you on here again. Yeah, man.
Speaker 3:Anytime you guys need me, I'm here. Man, I'll never say no to Teddy or you guys. I'm just happy that y'all offered me. I was so grateful that Teddy called me yesterday. I was eager. I'm like where's the Zoom thing, teddy?
Speaker 1:I'll give you tomorrow. Don't think, teddy, calm down, we can get you on the phone with robert gibson, maybe you can tell him how zoom works.
Speaker 3:He still can't figure it out. I might, I might be able to teach him. I might be able to give him some pointers I don't know. Robert gibson is a guy that would try to put a bag of m&ms.
Speaker 2:In alphabetical order you.
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