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
How A Legendary Ref Turned Heel, Survived Hogan–Sting Chaos, And Built A Hungry Roster In Atlanta
Ever wonder why crowds once believed with their whole hearts? We sit down with legendary referee and promoter Nick Patrick to trace the line from real-deal kayfabe to today’s indie surge in Atlanta—and we don’t dodge the messy parts. From growing up with The Assassin, Jody Hamilton, to flushing blades as a kid and learning the code that kept heels and babyfaces apart, Nick maps how presentation shaped passion and why belief is a choice a promotion must earn every night.
We unpack the Starrcade storm around Hogan vs Sting from the person counting the fall. Nick walks through conflicting instructions, a missing all-hands huddle, and the trust gap that turned a dream finish into a debate that still rages. Then the conversation shifts to craft: why calling it in the ring beats memorized marathons, how announcers should react to what unfolds, and how a ref can get real heat by playing the guy everyone thinks they can whip—until his friends show up.
The story lands in Atlanta with Deep South Wrestling. Nick breaks down a smart local model: outdoor brewery shows along the BeltLine that hook walk-up fans, a family-friendly tone with room for edge, and a card built for variety—technical, high-flying, comedy, and grit in the right spots. It’s not two hours of the same match; it’s a show that changes gears like a great main event. We share a moving moment when a fan took his graduation walk in the ring, then pivot back to business with dates, a new indoor home at Monday Night Garage, and monthly livestreams on the horizon. The takeaway is simple and powerful: make moments, not checklists. Teach young pros to work the people, not just the moves. That’s how you make wrestling feel real again.
If this conversation hits your wrestling brain, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves WCW history or indie gems, and leave a review so more fans can find it. Then come see Deep South Wrestling in Atlanta and tell us what moment stole your night.
Boy, that ended abruptly. Hello, everybody, and welcome to an all-new Road Trip After Hours. I'm your host, Mike Davis, and along with me, of course, each and every week is none other than WWE Hall of Famer, Mr. Teddy Long. Hey Teddy.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, Matthew, how are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02:Man, I'm doing great. Look here, I want you to introduce our guest today because you've worked with this guy. You've known this guy forever. Oh, great. Right the time I say that, he hands gets out of the room. What's he doing here, Teddy? Teddy. Hey, back.
SPEAKER_01:Something happened. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Anyhow, open up to everybody who uh we got with us this week.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, man. Uh, what a pleasure to have this gentleman with us, too, man. Uh Nick Patrick is uh his name, uh his referee name. Everybody knows him as Joe Hamilton Jr. Uh, but uh a little quick little story about me and Nick. Nick remembers uh God leave first when I was even trying to break in. I think I walked up to Nick and the umni and I hand him a resume.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's the first time with you. Yeah. That's what you got you. I turned, I gave that I gave that resume to Bobby Simmons. Yeah, I remember him. And I and he showed the office people, but you know who the other office people were at that point in time. Exactly. And it didn't really help you a whole lot. I I knew I turned it in and I I started working at that time. I was refing, and then I started working, and I and I was traveling, and I was in Louisiana working and uh as a wrestler, and and I saw uh the show back in Atlanta, and I saw Teddy on there refing, and I said, Holy shit, he made it, hell yeah. I didn't know the Crockets was running him to death, you know, uh shit at him doing man, because they they they can run you hard, especially that's that Charlotte territory. That was the Carolinas wasn't no joke. You traveled a lot in the Carolinas back.
SPEAKER_02:You too, especially when I you know because when I look back in wrestling, I mean you're in my sweet spot. Both of you are in a sweet spot. You were in the uh NWA, Jim Crockett, uh WCW2 WWE. So I felt like I grew with you guys as you progressed through your careers. Um, but man, I I was thinking today, it seems to me, and and you tell me if this is true or not, Nick, because it just feels like the fans of the early days were a much different fan than that there is of today. They I believe those folks truly, genuinely uh believed in a lot of cases what they saw. Uh, and even if they didn't, they would just, you know, they would give that uh, you know, they would let go of that, you know, functioning, going, no, no, I'll go with it. But is there a difference in the fans today and yesterday?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I believe there is because and and it's not all on the on the fans either. It's a lot on us because the presentation's completely different. There were a lot more believers back in the day because we tried to make believers out of them back in the day. And and K Fabe was like, you know, uh, especially, you know, I grew up in this. This is all my you know, from day one of my existence, you know. I got pictures of my mom holding in at shows, you know. But uh K Fabe, man, back in the day was a real, was real, man. I I saw all those Armstrong boys as a kid, but then his Bob was a baby face and Pop was a heel. So they were on the uh if we ever all met together at the like at the old city auditorium, sometimes they take their families every once in a while. Heels was on one side, baby fish was on the other, kids wasn't playing with each other, you know. I mean, there was K Fay, but I mean I didn't even I never even met and spoke to Brad Armstrong until we were both in the business and and working at Georgia Championship Wrestling, both of us greener than hell, you know. But I had seen all of them, you know, as kids, you know, and I and I knew who they were, but the K Fe was was the it was the real shit. There was only a couple of guys that that uh that Pop ever broke the K Fae with, and it was just like they would come to the house and it would, you know, they wouldn't be out anywhere, you know. And it would be, you know, they would just be kept quiet. They'd come and he didn't go.
SPEAKER_02:And and well, you let's talk about your dad, first of all, is the uh Jody Hamilton the assassin. Uh now when did he smarten you up?
SPEAKER_03:Uh I can I think I was I can always remember being smart because he didn't want me to be traumatized. Yeah, you know, I mean he didn't smart me up to every, you know, uh of how the actually things worked, but he let me know that he was friends with this guy. You know, like if he was getting if I was there at the matches and he was about to go out and have this, you know, blood and all that, he would get me with the guy and say, Look, it's gonna be rough tonight, but this is my friend, and we are friends and we're doing this together. And I'm not mad at him, and he's not mad at me. And and when it's done and we come back, we're gonna shake kids and we're gonna be friends again. So I want you to understand that, you know, this is our business, is what we do. And I was a little kid, just listen, yes, sir, yes, sir. I I went hell, I was in elementary school flushing blades down the toilet stool looking so they can get and come back and go, kid, go flush this down a toilet, you know. Okay, yes, sir, yes, sir.
SPEAKER_02:And did you catch on at that point? Okay, I know what these are for now.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah, but that terrified me too because I was a little kid, I was scared to get a shot as a little kid, you know. And I thought, oh my god, I couldn't believe when I found out what they were really doing. I'm like, oh no, no way. I'd rather somebody just bust me open than do that. I thought, you know, I didn't know as a kid I was a kid how bad getting busted open hurt too.
SPEAKER_02:So oh, yeah, I was surprised by how many guys would carry them in places you wouldn't expect them to carry a blade.
SPEAKER_03:I know some would actually tuck it up in their cheek of their mouth, and crazy, and and on your fingers, and and and I used to have to stick it in my pocket sometimes. And when you have to go in your pocket to get it, nine times out of ten that some bitch is gonna stick you somewhere on your hand and your finger or somewhere, you know. And if you think about it now, think of how unsanitary that is think about this sweat and the dirty ass mats.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Nick, if you if Nick, if you remember this, you remember uh uh uh Dennis Condri, you know, he uh left a piece of the blade in his head, they had to take him to the hospital. He kept having headaches, you kept having headaches, didn't know what it was, and they finally checked him. He's left a piece of the blade in his in his head.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, yeah, them old blue blades were real flimsy. They could, you know, if somebody hit you while you was doing it, I can see how that could happen.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean gig a little harder than you really want to go.
SPEAKER_03:I got a funny Dennis Condri story. Oh, boys back in the day, he he was uh working Georgia Championship Wrestling and they made him the Georgia heavyweight champion for a short time, right? And that's when the limelight was kicking big time in Atlanta, you know. Everybody was going partying in a discount, yeah, you know. I was pressed, uh I was only a couple years out of high school, you know. So I had a bunch of young lady friends that you know that used to be cheerleaders, and all that, and we you know, we see them up there every now and then. So we was all going to go to the limelight one night, and I was going, and Condri was gonna be me and Condri and Stan Lane, and I think Eddie Mansfield, I think was was the group that was gonna go. And so when I get there, I was going to go meet Dennis and I saw Steve Kern come out. It was at the old Falcon's rest, and Dennis had an upstairs apartment. I saw Kern coming down the steps. He was laughing. He said, Where are you going, Ken? I said, I'm gonna go see Condri He needs some help. I said, No shit. I said, So I went in there and the door was opened, and Dennis was standing on his kitchen chair, clutching onto the to the Georgia heavyweight title, going, Nick, help me! Help me! I went, What the fuck is going on? And Steve Kern walked up, and there was a damn possum on the trash can, and he closed the lid on it and captured the possum and went upstairs and knocked on Conry's door when Conry opened it. He popped that lid open, and that freaking possum jumped out and ran into Conry's apartment. Oh he was freaking out about this damn thing, right? So I ended up catching it with the same trash can and Lynn and took it back out eventually. But what was funny is the damn the damn uh possum ran into the closet, and Dennis had a bunch of robes. I think they was made by by uh uh two's wife. He had a couple of them really nice robes. He was going, Nick, get that damn possum out of he's gonna eat my robes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, where was Dennis from? Was he not a country boy?
SPEAKER_03:No, he would wherever he was from, they he they weren't friendly with possum. Because it was a baby possum. He was a big one, it was scared and it was hissing, you know. He wasn't getting near us in.
SPEAKER_02:By the way, those of you who are watching uh right now, uh, we're gonna take your questions in the room. If you have any questions for Nick, any point of his career or for Teddy, just uh ask him and we'll throw them up on the screen. Uh, before we do that though, uh Nick, I do want to ask you about something specifically uh from your career. Uh was it Starkade, I guess, was the uh pay-per-view with Hogan and Sting. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:All right, let me ask you. Uh, first of all, I've heard different accounts of how that went down and how the confusion came around. I know you were told three different things in the process of how to count uh for that match. Uh one of the things I want to ask is when I when I heard you mention, he said quick count, one, two, three. Um when you saw Sting at that point, were you shocked by the way he looked? Was it anything off about him when he told you that and gave you the heads up?
SPEAKER_03:No, I did it.
SPEAKER_02:And the reason I asked that, Nick, is because you hear everybody say that uh in in their different stories that, well, he just uh something wasn't right with him. He didn't look good, he didn't have a tan, he did all these little silly things, but now that's ridiculous because he wore a friggin' bodysuit.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, he wasn't in tights you know that like he used to wear at that point. He was he was doing a different gimmick, so you wouldn't really be able to tell if he had a tan or not. Was he jacked up like he used to be when he was Beach Boy Sting? No, he wasn't. He wasn't, but he had just come off of an injury. He didn't look, he wasn't out of shape. He he didn't look, you know, he he wasn't fat or needed to work on his gut, or you know, I mean that happens to a lot of us when we get out, we get hurt, and we sit at home and we can't exercise like we used to, and we just want to enjoy this time at all. When you eat like you want, yeah. Next thing you know, you've put on 30 pounds and you got, oh shit, I go out, you know. But uh, but that didn't happen to him, you know. And and that's what I never understood the thing about the tan because, like I said, he was wearing the pretty much the bodysuit by that point in time. So tan was, however, uh the attitude was a little bit off. Not so much with me, but I could tell that he he was very apprehensive and and uh non-trusting of Hulk and of the whole scenario. That's what I was about to ask. I get the impression he was being he felt like he was being uh set up and uh didn't you as well? Yeah, oh God, yes. I I felt like I was being the scapegoat because I who would have been the person it had been so easy to just say, uh, let's get rid of Nick Packett, you know? Put the heat on me and get rid of me, and then they could all move forward and be happy, and that's what I thought was going on. Because honestly, when I got there, Eric usually got there early, but yeah, I'd never see him until later on after production meetings and stuff. Man, I got out of the car and I was four or five steps away from my car walking toward the building, and he met me in the parking lot and told me what was going on, you know. And I thought, well, that's kind of flat, you know. I mean, uh, but I imagine there's gonna be a shitload of twists and turns getting to this point, you know. But yeah, but you know, it's okay. But he told me exactly pretty much he didn't tell me slow, like Hulk wanted me to act like I was on Valiant Count, you know what I mean? But but but he just said normal, regular count, you know. So I'm okay, you know. So that's what the boss told me to do. So that's what was gonna happen. So then Hulk, you kind of almost reaffirmed what Eric said, but he went slow, you know. Yeah, so I'm like, okay, I got it, you know. And then Sting hit me later on, like an hour later, because I hadn't even seen him, and and there was never any point in time during that entire freaking day that they got all of us together at one time in the same room and talked about it. Not once. Well, that's a mistake. Not once did that ever happen.
SPEAKER_02:That's a shame because that was a huge match for WCW, who is the highest buy rate of any pay-per-view or something like that. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but uh, I was kind of used to working like that with Hulk because he had his own locker room and his own stuff, and he would have whoever he was working with come in there and he they keep everybody out. You know, you have to be kind of almost invited in, you know, and I didn't give a damn about all that. You know, you could tell me before I go out the curtain what you need me to do, and I'll do it, you know. And Teddy knows that, you know. I I don't need to hear the whole Gettysburg address about what you're gonna do. Okay, well that yeah, comes on when it I don't care about all that shit. Just tell me what you if there's a spot in there you need me to know, then tell me. You know, you need me specifically, otherwise, I'd rather have a spontaneous reaction to what's happened in front of me and follow the action. It looks more real, and and I think that works better for announcers too, because a lot of times when announcers already know where the where it's going, they try to lead you to that that way instead of letting the story take you there. They try to lead you there, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I've always preferred announcing and wrestling to be a reactive uh announcing to what is happening in the ring. Don't tell me about everything else that's happening on Sunday and next Tuesday, focus on the match and give a match call. Makes it much better for me. And I think a lot of fans are the same way. They prefer that real sport authentic feel, not like you're being getting uh, you know, a 10-minute commercial every time you watch a match.
SPEAKER_03:It doesn't look as scripted. I mean, you get you get and you get emotion. You know, a lot of times when you just go move for move and you split everything that you talked about in the back and you don't go outside the box, you leave emotion out of it a lot of the times, you know. And uh because a lot of times when you're just out there working, cool shit happens and things present themselves, and and you know, and you you you miss all of that if you're just gonna stick to what we don't just stick to what we talked about. And a lot of these young green kids think that if they go out there and they have a match and they didn't forget any of the the two hours of shit that they talked about, then it was a great match. Forget whether the people reacted to it, whether they jerked them up, they had them down, and they got them set, you know. Forget all that. They just didn't know well, we didn't forget nothing. It was great. That's that's frustrating. Yes, but I like with my little company, we're in a situation now because I I like to have uh a variety. I want my show to be a variety show.
SPEAKER_02:His company, by the way, is Deep South. I don't want to make sure we everybody knows that because it's a fantastic promotion.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. But I like I like it to be a variety show. I don't want to have two hours of spot fest. I don't want to have two hours of Matt Classic. I don't want uh I want to have the whole gamut. I want to have some funny ha ha. I want to have I want to have sexuality, I want to have the technical boom, I want to have the high spot client, but I want to have a mix of it and put in the proper place so that the show changes gears. Just like a match changes gears at certain times. You want your show to do basically the same thing, only on a grander scale. And uh you have to have all those things in order to be able to change gears. And and to me, I'd be bored to tears sitting and watching any uh even a hardcore. I couldn't sit and watch two hours of guys killing each other doing hardcore. It takes me uh it's about 10 minutes, and that's not all I can do, you know. Yeah, because I'm looking for, you know, I I like more of the work aspect of it, the storytelling aspect of it.
SPEAKER_02:But but you gotta have all three of us are that way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. All right, guys, uh, real quick, we're gonna take a quick break. Um, we're gonna come back with your questions for Nick and for Teddy. Uh, I do want to mention that uh we have a special guest again next Thursday night, and here's a clue.
SPEAKER_00:Anytime Abdullah the Butcher is uh in that squared circle, his opponent is in for a lot of trouble. Abdullah the Butcher, a man who appears to be almost impervious to pain. Uh a man who uh has nothing uh in his mind at all but to destroy and destruct his opponent as quickly as possible in the rain.
SPEAKER_02:All right, welcome back, Road Trip After Hours. I'm your host, Mac Davis. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01:Before we get started in here, I wanted to mention something too. You know, we had Nick on the show and glad we could do that. But I wanted him to say just a little bit more about his own company. You know what I mean? Nick has been starting, it's been running for some years now. They're traveling all over the world, going everywhere. So they could be coming in your town pretty soon. So uh Nick, give me that, give us the name of that, and then you know, give me a little bit more information on your on your on your shows.
SPEAKER_02:He ain't going nowhere anyhow.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we we we're focusing really on the Atlanta market right now. I want to get really strong in Atlanta. I want to end up getting an Atlanta TV, and we've got we've just actually secured a place that is going to be our our once-a-month place that we go to. It's uh it's uh it's gonna be and we'll announce all the dates, but we just secured it. And it's it's indoors too. So you know, because I've been loving doing the outdoor shows, but there's always a risk, and you can go year-round, you know. It's just too rough on your talent and your fans, and you know, yeah, and and we're gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_02:But you know what though, Nick, I don't mean to cut you off, but I do want to say I have seen because I watch a lot of the uh the videos after the fact, I kind of keep up with what happens with your shows, and I've seen some very uh cold temperatures where shows were held. I've seen where storms just got finished where the shows were held, and every time it's a packed house. You pull in a great amount of people to these shows.
SPEAKER_03:Well, we we oh you give them a good show, yes. Well, that and they're getting familiar with our characters now, and the shows that we run and a lot of the places that we run are right off that belt line in Atlanta, and that's that that thing is so it's so awesome because people up and down all day long. So we get our regular group of people and the and and the people that are from that area because we promote that little area hard, you know. Yeah and but we also get people that are walking by all day long. Oh, look, there's wrestling, and it got because we don't have a headcount. The wrestling is free with where we're at. You know, if you come, you want get to watch the wrestling, you gotta buy their food and drink and all that, but you get to watch the wrestling for free. So the the way we uh get uh an estimated headcount, because we're not selling tickets, is by how many tabs we sell. So those people that are walking up and watching for a match or two and then leaving, they're buying something, you know, and it adds to our total, you know. And and I wanna count those people. They come up, you know, even it might not stay for the whole show, but They may live, but then there's some other people coming from over here that do the same thing. And we have our core group that gets there early to you know to get in close and feed, you know, to get the seats. But everything that fills in all around it are people that you know, and a lot of them stay, you know, once once they get to watch it, a lot of them are hooked and they stay for the whole thing. But there is a you know a lot of people that just come up and like, oh crap, you know, I didn't know they had wrestling. Let's check it out, you know. And we got a lot of people doing that.
SPEAKER_02:And and that's the good thing about the outdoor events that you do because you can draw those eyes. Where if you're in the building, they're not gonna be able to just go, oh, what's that over there? Other than seeing a you know a bunch of cars in a parking lot. So those outdoor shows have done you very well. Uh yeah, I think the uh one that we went to, Teddy, I believe it was outdoors. We were at uh Burke Place, had great uh beer and food.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man, and we have a good time. We have a good time. You know, you can come and eat and drink, and uh the food's great, it's drink specials, and you know, it's it's adult entertainment, but it's kid friendly as well. You know, bunch of kids that come, you know, and we're and we're conscious of that, you know. And we know even though even though we're inside the city and inside the perimeter, and you can get a little more edgy, you know, especially in certain venues, yeah. We're very conscious about, especially the the restaurant places and the and the breweries and stuff that we do, because that that's family-oriented, you know, you're not gonna go in there and and go blood and guts and cussing and all that stuff, you know. But I want to know that people to know that there we have that edge, but we only bring it out in appropriate places, you know. You know, you have to know your area, you have to know your crowd. And uh you know, so when we do pay shows and and those are coming, that you're gonna get a lot more. You know, you're gonna get more of uh it's gonna be more raw stuff that we can't give you uh in in the other venues. But what we do give you in the other venues, it's not selling it short, it's storytelling and athleticism. And and and young kids that are hungry, and young kids that are hungry, they they they bring a different level of work than than folks that are complacent and happy, they're just doing it for fun. You know, hey, you know, uh, you know, I don't I'm not looking to go somewhere else and make it to another level. I'm just this is just fun for me. You know, people that are having that hunger bring bring a different level, and that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for kids that are trying their best and everything they have to buster to the next level and that promote themselves. I look at that as well. You know, I don't just hire just because some kid can do a couple of moves, well, that's just that's fine and dandy. There's a lot of people that can do a bunch of moves. The win and why and how you know how is not that hard. When and why is is ultimately important. But uh, let's see.
SPEAKER_02:We have uh Dwayne in here saying good evening, and we also have pretty classy lady. She's popular in the room as well. Oh, good to see you in here. Zach Minger, one of our uh uh regulars into the room day and national app day. Uh so there's no food this week, uh Teddy.
SPEAKER_01:Zach is too much. Yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03:Teddy, if you stretch anybody today, it's national stretching day. I'm gonna go let's go stretch somebody when this is over. I'm gonna stretch him here, Kiddy.
SPEAKER_02:Ellen uh's in the room. Hey, Ellen, it's great to see you in here. I hope Buddy's watching as well. She says, My favorite, uh my three favorite fellows, hello everybody. All right, all right.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's real sweetheart, nice baby. Buddy's a good man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_03:I think she's a little toes.
SPEAKER_02:Let's see. Curly man saying, Hello, Teddy, Mac, and Nick. Hey Nick, I have a question. How was it being in the NWO's pocket in WCW? It didn't make me a whole lot more money.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What does that mean? That's what I'm saying. What does that mean?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, most people remember me mostly for the stuff that I did in the NWO, honestly. You know, I mean, uh, a lot of older fans remember some of the stuff I did way back in the day, but people for the most part, you know, especially the newer, you know, people that that's what they recognize me for, actually.
SPEAKER_02:So when was your first heel turn as a ref?
SPEAKER_03:It was uh at Sturgis. They had me do a deal where uh Lex was to rack somebody and he hit me, and they wanted me to go down and take his knee out, but look like did he do it on purpose or was it an accident? And that was when they planted the seed. And Kevin wanted to draw it out and milk it and and do it slow, which would have been great. But they just they they just hated me, man. They got so they got so mad that and I got it just uh I was trying to tone it down like you told me to. But they just was like, Wow, they got they I had so much heat there for a minute. They had me actually they would at some of the shows then they'd pre-record the yays and the booze so they can, you know, they could put them in there for matches that that's not getting, you know, like have that pre-recorded. I'd go out there and I'd come out there making my face and I was see, that was my deal. I played off. I could I I always I think of myself, I'm that guy that most folks look at and they say, I know I whoop his ass. You know what I mean? So for somebody like that to come out and be mean mugging you and like the I want somebody to whoop his ass. So that that was the psychology that I used that I you know that I played off that. I wasn't you know, and to to lie about everything, to sneak, you know, that delete lying and sneaking, that's just natural. But but being that guy that that everybody knows that they can whoop his ass, but he especially when his his big friends are around, then he oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Then he's really up, then he puffed his chest out. I'm a bad motherfucker, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Boy, yeah, yeah, come and get some of this, you know. So that's that was how I played off of it.
SPEAKER_02:How did you feel about uh doing a heel turn like that? Did was that any concern for you whatsoever?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I was about to say, man. It gave me a chance to show them I could do more than just be a ref because I I I knew it because how it works for years, and some of them some of them didn't know that. There you go. And I wanted to show them, hey, look, man, I can do more than just be a ref. I can do this, I can I can agent because I ended up being an agent for a while at WCW. So, you know, but but that was the first step of showing them that look, look, man, if you give me something to do, it's gonna get done right, you know. When I get there and they give me promos, they never give me like now that you know that kids got three pages of shit they got to go remember and rehearse. I'd get there and Eric or somebody would pull me off to the side and say, Look, get these bullet points in, bling, bling, bling, you know, three or four things, and then just be you. And I'd go out to my car and I'd smoke and I sit and I'd get those things in my mind, and I and I would come up with this promo and I'd look at myself in the mirror and I'd say, Okay, this is the perfect time I can give them some of this shit, you know. And and I and I would just think and I'd get it in my head, and I wouldn't overdo it because then you start getting nervous, you know. But I I would I would get I would get how I wanted to flow from one bullet point to the other, and I made sure that all their bullet points got covered. And I just come up with my own promos and went out and did them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you had to, you had to, but they didn't have no writers back then, you know. So yeah, not right. Yeah, yeah, they wouldn't mind, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:They had writers, but not that detailed. Well, yeah, yeah, people guys lead way to to let to get their character over in their way, you know. Well, like they didn't take it away from people now.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, well, like they told you, here's the bullet point, yeah. And then you and you go from there, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I want to say hello to Christian Rodriguez Espino. I hope I said that right. Uh, saying, How's it going, guys? Good to have you in the room, Christian. Uh, also, uh, you probably know this fella, Nick. Uh, this is uh 40 ounce C Dub. Yeah, C Dub, my man.
SPEAKER_03:He's one of my he's one of my true self guys, man. You're going to meet C Dub one day. I'll introduce you and C dub.
SPEAKER_02:No, I I know him very well. I know him. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. He he he's a hoop. Man, the last time I saw him, I was uh oh, I was covering midget wrestling for a TV station, and uh he showed up at the midget wrestling. Uh we got to talk a little bit. He he's hilarious. His videos for like YouTube and things like that or social media, the guy's just yeah, oh, great stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, okay. There's been a couple of times that I knew that I could do something with C Dumb, other than he doesn't, you know, he's got he's he's got personality, yes, and and he doesn't have to be a wrestler to be a character. No, right. And you know, and I we were trying so hard to get him into this mold, but man, we used to do promos at the end of all uh at the end of practice, and there was there were several times it would that you know, and a lot of kids freeze it up, you know, it's promo time. It's like, oh shit, you know, dear in the headlights. Man, he would have me openly, and I'm hard to crack, you know. I'm I'm got grouchy old fart, man. And he would have me openly belly laughing sometimes at some of the shit that he would come up with, man, and say, you know, like, oh my god, you know, so I knew I had to use this guy in some some way. So he's we've got a he's got a really good little group that he works with, Professor Payne and uh and uh Quattro, a new guy Quattro. So they've got you know, and and they pre and Professor Payne is another guy. He's a young kid that I trained. He was a high school wrestling coach over and I won't say what high school because he's keeping that a mystery, but and he still coaches, he still teaches kids. But he, you know, he did some of those shoot wrestle fight contests and stuff too, you know. So he yeah, yeah. So but he's just a super nice, super nice guy, man. And and he just we we put him on this mass gimmick because so he can go out and and get beat a little bit because we was gonna we had this coach gimmick that we had in mind for him, but he's got so much personality too, and with the and with the C dub group all together, uh Professor Payne is selling as many t-shirts as anybody out there, man.
SPEAKER_02:It's just like it goes back to what you were saying a minute ago. Entertainment. Uh, you gotta have a mix of everything in the show, yeah, and that is entertainment. No matter how you look at it, you're gonna sell tickets because people want to come see that portion of entertainment. They may not like anything else during the show, but they may love that part.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I try to teach them too that it's about making moments, it's not so much about doing spots all night long. They're gonna remember that moment that you made more than oh, he gonna run out of the corner, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, that moment when the guy one guy's down selling and the other guy's up, and you get that moment where you're looking around and the people get them buying, and you give them time to react before you jumping into the next shit, you know. Yeah, that's you know, then that's that's all part of learning, you know. And then and where I am, that's what I'm trying to teach a lot of my kids too. I got kids that are spot-oriented, and then the ones that that I see that that's gonna be their deal, I let them do their thing, you know. But other kids, I'm trying to get them to learn how to interact with the crowd. Yes, you know, and not not decide, no, shut up, these stupid rednecks, that's not interacting with the crowd. Anyone can do that, and that's cheap heat. Go out and work for your heat, but interact with the people, man. Pull them into what you're doing and and let them be a part of it. And that that helped get you over more than if somebody that has the ability to do that. If you go to somebody's indie shows and you look and there's a spot match, then here comes a spot match, and another spot match, and you go out there and you interact with the people, you're gonna get the biggest reaction of the night. Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And it's and it makes it so easy. Yes. Ryan Brown saying, uh I got you wrong, uh, Ryan.
SPEAKER_02:I'm sorry, called you Brian Ryan. Okay, Ryan Brown, sup, y'all. Uh, 40 ounce uh C dub saying uh them DSW fans are amazing love running into them in random places and being recognized for what we've done on the belt line.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I've had a bunch of the kids come up to me and say that. Man, I was over such and such, and somebody comes up and saying, I saw you wrestle at it, and blah, blah, blah. You know, and it's like they're so excited about it. And then it makes me remember when I was young, like that, and somebody, you know, come up and you know, first time you sign autographs when you're, you know, and stuff, you know, it's uh it's a big thing. You know, it's it's it's it's it's cool, and it's cool to watch them enjoy that experience.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely is pretty classy lady uh in the room saying what wants to know what the name of the promotion is. Uh go ahead, Nick. We're all about that promotion.
SPEAKER_03:Deep South Wrestling. We're uh we're based in Atlanta, and uh most of our shows are uh right now we're running uh mostly around the belt line. We do uh New Realm Brewery is uh is one where we do uh regularly. We just did our last one of the year at New Realm. We're coming to Atlanta Dairies, and we got one on December 20th there. That's gonna be our last one for there in the year because I mean that's pushing it going into December, but they go they wanted to go for it, and you know, if they're willing to go for it, and I've got the kids, I said, look, man, some of you kids come up with some winter costumes so that because sometimes we're working out in the cold, you was wanting to have something, you know, going out there in your short tights, you know, come up with a different costume that you can wear, have you know, even if it's under armor, it's athletic looking stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, as it gets colder too, it depending upon the kind of canvas that you're using in the ring, yes, that thing can get icy or it gets a little bit glaze, and that thing will get slick real fast. Uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:If you're if you're using anything other than the cloth canvas, they get it can it can be dangerously small. Oh, absolutely can.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh, let's see. Uh, we have Pee-wee stopping in the room saying, What up, Mac? What up, Teddy? What up, Nick? Hey man. Uh also is asking, um, do you have a YouTube channel? Nick.
SPEAKER_03:I don't have one, but my cup uh deep south wrestling does. So you can check us on YouTube. You can check us out on Facebook, you can check, you know, we've got a website. Check us out YouTube and slash we are deep south.
SPEAKER_02:We are deep south. Ellen's saying Buddy's graduation was a moment. Professor Payne was so cool. Uh tell me about that. Uh, so one of your wrestlers helped with the graduation.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, uh, from what we understand, uh, Ellen said that Bunny didn't want to walk out and and get his deal, but uh he would at our show. So uh we had Professor Payne and and then present him with his diploma and and in the ring. That is cool. So so that his mom could get to see the walk and so he could he could actually have the walk. And that is he agreed to do it at the wrestling show instead of at the school. So we had him, we had we had him do it there. We got him, we got him his his uh title. And once we got everything taken care of, of course, we in a wrestling fashion, we turned it into a heel coming out, but we didn't take Buddy's moment away from him. We had baby faces help him and get him out of there, you know, and then once we got him to a safe place, then the heel come in and rah-blah rah, so you know, and we carried on with it, you know. But it it's it was such even if we didn't turn it into business, it was such a uh a heartwarming moment. Yes, man. Because Buddy's such a sweet kid. Yes, he is. And his and his mom uh and I know what it takes to take to take care of folks. And his mama is that does one hell of a job taking care of that young man. She's you know, she's got her life dedicated to uh you know 24. When you're a caretaker, you you don't you're on you're on duty 24-7, you know.
SPEAKER_02:So uh and if I'm not mistaken, it's basically if I'm not mistaken, it's it's just her and Buddy, right?
SPEAKER_03:I think she has one other special needs uh child that she takes care of as well. That's your ribbon. Yeah, it's a I heard her say that.
SPEAKER_02:This is one of the fans. For those of you who are watching, she is a fan that's in the Georgia area, and she goes to not just one promotion show, she goes all over. Uh, you see her everywhere. She takes Buddy wherever he wants to go based upon the card. I think a lot of times who's going to be where, and he's got to make a choice about where he wants to go. Uh, but uh she is phenomenal. Teddy and I have talked about her on the show before. Yes, just what she does for her children.
SPEAKER_01:Inspirational lady. Yes, yeah. Ellen Ellen Divins, that's her name.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, absolutely uh sweet, sweet lady. Nick, uh, we're out of time. In fact, we're uh a little bit over here. Um tell everybody uh where they can find you again uh in Deep South Wrestling, uh, both you and uh Deep South Wrestling.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, you can check us out at Atlanta Dairies on December the 20th. And on January the 4th, we are going to be at Monday Night Garage on the West End in Atlanta, and that's gonna be our new indoor once-a-month deal, and we're gonna start live streaming a show once a month. And I'm shooting for that one to be our first one. I'm hoping that that's gonna be the deal. But uh that's that's where we're going, man. We got that going. We got uh uh you got your own podcast too now, Nick. Yeah, I'm I'm um Nick Patrick's mailbag, and so you can hit me up at uh and and it's talk just like we're doing here, man. Then uh you guys are always welcome at Deep South Show anytime you guys want to come, man. And uh I'd really like to see if y'all want to come check out what's special when we start live streaming there out of out of Muddy Night Garage there on the West End. It's right there by where the old Tyler Perry by the Tyler Perry studios, it's real close to that. Okay, yeah. Yeah, so it's uh real close when you get off that Lakewood exit and down and a couple exits down, it's just down in there, man. But uh it's excellent, man. It's food and beer, they they got the fire rusted, they got the fire uh stone pizzas there too. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And they'll big sellers there, and all the different craft beers. It's it's a good time, and and the wrestling is off the chain. Those kids are so excited, the crowds are are are are are packed, and it it they're bringing an energy, man. That's it, it it makes wrestling fun again. You know, it's you know how it feels sometimes when it's a business. And and when you're in the ring and you're performing, you're enjoying it and it's fun, but there's so much of the other part around the business that it's it that it sucks all the fun right out of it, you know what I mean? Yeah when you see the energy level that these kids have in the show that they put on, and and because I got a crew of hungry young Hellcats that are out there trying to steal the show and trying to be the best that they can be and trying to get to the next one. There you go. That's the so that's what's you know, I I'm not trying to I'm not trying to sell older guys that are having fun and doing it, just you know. If I got an older guy that can really go and is as passing something on to somebody, then then then then I'm I'm down for that. But I'm mostly about the young the young guys and young ladies going out there and getting it done.
SPEAKER_01:Nick, it's all about knowing when to take the cape off. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I tell you what, I don't even want to climb up in the ring and make announcements anymore, man.
SPEAKER_01:I had to do that the other day, and I think, yeah, dang, man, how I used to just run and jump and bounce my knee off the apron and I ain't running through no airports, you know, every now and then, but no, brother.
SPEAKER_03:Uh and man, if if I have to run, I'm just gonna be hurt because I can't, I ain't running. I'd do better off standing and and and fighting to the death. It hurt me, it hurts me to run because my knees I hurt myself worse trying running than I wouldn't standing and fighting. I don't even know if I can.
SPEAKER_01:I ain't running on nothing but that elliptica. That's all I'm running. And I certainly ain't gonna outrun anything.
SPEAKER_03:I might make them laugh when I could get away from them.
SPEAKER_02:All right, we gotta get out of here. We gotta get out of here. Nick, I appreciate it very much, my friend. We'll have you back. I enjoy when you get this is the second time we've had a chance to talk with Nick, and uh I always enjoy talking to you about different things, mainly because we just talk shit, and and that's what I love when we can just sit down and just have a conversation and talk about fun things. Uh Everybody else.
SPEAKER_03:We'll tell the Glyco Beak story next time.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, hold on. We got to go. How many times does it say? All right. Tell me the name again and where that originated from.
SPEAKER_03:All right. I didn't work out for the longest time. And Teddy was a maniac, hours of cardio. So he got me started back working out. When I first started, I was like, 10 minutes is all I could do. Well, the first hour I got, it was in WrestleMania and Seattle. I went the hour on the on the cardio. So we get back to the room, we're smoked up, and I was proud of myself for doing an hour. I looked at him, I said, Damn Teddy, I could make a comeback now. I could, and I hit a most muscular, I could be geekobak. And we were high, and we just started laughing like hell, right? And in the middle of us laughing, Teddy said gleco beak. And when he said glico beak instead of geekko bleak, we busted out laughing even harder. And I thought we thought, damn, glico beak's even better than geekobleak. So glico beak stuck, man, and nobody knew what the hell we was talking about ever. But that's how I come, that's how glico beak come around.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man, that that is so cool. Man, I appreciate it. All right, we're out of here because we're gonna get cut off if I don't get us out of here. I'm back Davis. That's WWE Hall of Famer, Teddy Long, and of course, our special guest, Mr. Nick Patrick. We'll see you again next Thursday night, 7 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, right here.
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