This was filmed in 2009
It is a two-disc set. Disc One runs for one hour and forty-three minutes. Disc Two runs at one hour and ten minutes.
DISC ONE
Brickhouse starts off by drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette while telling us he is the “Master of Seduction.”
He then says that he was a fan of wrestling while growing up in Florida. He watched Florida Championship Wrestling and his favorite wrestler was Terry Funk. He actually ended up breaking into wrestling after getting to know jobber Jerry Gray while working at a fitness center in Tampa. Gray occasionally trained Brown to wrestle in his backyard. He then tells a story about calling Bill Apter, as he had stacks of his magazines, then sent in some 8×10 photos in wrestling gear he bought. Apter then gave him some numbers of promoters as Brown said he was watching Southwest Championship Wrestling on the USA Network and noticed they did not have any black wrestlers on the show. He also said that he made up that he wrestled for two years in some phony promotion and received a call back from Joe Blanchard and got an offer for $200 a night.
Brown said he got to the territory but no one smartened him up to the business. He tells a story about his first night there at TV where he cut a promo and did good. The next night, they came up with the Brickhouse Brown name and said he was in the semi main-event with Bobby Jaggers, wanting him to dropkick everyone interfering in the match to start a feud. Brown said he had no clue what a finish was but thought back to something Jack Brisco told him about guys pulling ribs on younger wrestlers and thought this was a rib. The match started as Brown was supposed to do a simple sequence off of a headlock but he kept the hold on as Jaggers was getting pissed then Brown put him in a chicken wing. The referee came over and asked him what he was doing and when Brown was going with the planned finish, asked if he was “smart.” Brown thought he was being insulted and went on about how he graduated from Auburn University. The referee then told him manager Don Carson would hit him in the back of the head and to sell it but Brown thought the punch was weak so he dropkicked him then whacked both guys with the gimmick they were supposed to use for the original finish. Brown said he was a complete mark and thought he was going to win the title. Backstage, no one would talk to Brickhouse then Blanchard came up to ask him how long he had been in the business as Brown tells him that was his first match, thinking he impressed everyone and would get a big contract but Blanchard called together all of the guys in the dressing room. He wanted Brickhouse to tell them what he just said as he again had no clue how pissed off everyone was at him. Despite the other wrestler walking out on him, Blanchard said that they would train him as they saw potential.
He stayed in Southwest for three months. After thinking he was getting too big for his current position he called Robert Fuller and went to Florida. Brown talks about how only two black guys were allowed in a territory at that time as he then goes on to say that guys like him Tony Atlas and Butch Reed changed the way black wrestlers looked as they were muscular and athletic instead of the older guys who looked like “apes.” His first match in Florida was teaming with Mr. Olympia against the Original Midnight Express. Mr. Olympia was supposed to turn on him but Brown said he still wasn’t that smart to the business so they had him tag out and refused to let him back in so they scrapped the angle. Backstage, Brown was pissed as Bob Armstrong told him that he was finishing up as they fired him for not being smart enough to the business. His last match was against Chic Donovan, who was the Jr. U.S. Champion. He was in the dressing room and pissed off about being fired so he thought he would win the belt so he could keep his job. Brown said he beat the fuck out of him and celebrated with the belt then saw Armstrong and Robert Fuller look shocked as he told them he could not get fired now as he had the belt. Brown says they can all back up that story. They ended up taking the belt away and firing him and said that they probably were going to have someone destroy him but were sympathetic towards him as he didn’t know anything about the business.
He then went to the Mid-Atlantic Territory and worked the house show circuit for a year. Brown said that Ernie Ladd would ride him hard and made sure they drove together as Brown said if he could have kicked his ass he would have but Ladd was a huge guy. Brown then got a chance to work for Lawler in Memphis as Jim Crockett told Brown he was leaving too soon but he ignored him and went to Memphis for Lawler’s promises. The gimmick he was going to use would somewhat resemble Michael Jackson in appearance. Before that, he did a tour of Canada as Brown tells us he loved it there as the “rats” would wait for you at the airports. He tells a story of one rat named Candice who kept a sheet as Brickhouse said she “booked the pussy” for the boys, meaning that the scheduled girls and times for the wrestlers. He said he could not pass up free dinners, rooms, and pussy so he asked Lawler to delay his debut. Before he went, Hercules told Brown that Lawler gave the gimmick to Koko Ware and Norvell Austin, who were the PYT’s. Brown said he was going to give his word and came into the company anyway. He also noted there was about 12 black guys in the dressing room and did not know what he would be doing if that was the case so he left shortly thereafter.
Brown then went to Florida and teamed with Iceman Parsons to form the Breakdancers. Brown said he was asked if he knew how to breakdance and lied that he did because Brown says when a promoter asks you to do something, you say yes. He then makes fun himself for only knowing one move then puts over the Guerrero’s for being such good heels that fans forgot how shitty they were at their breakdancing gimmick. However, he was then sent to Mid-South after that at their request.
In Mid-South he tells a story about how the Junkyard Dog received a $10,000 briefcase from Vince McMahon to leave and work for the WWF so JYD walked out and became an even bigger star. It was there were he became a friend of Ernie Ladd, who booked him strong. Brown said that Ladd even got him his shot in the WWF as he talks about fucking up his career by missing dates and coming late due to messing around with drugs and women. One night, he was with Master Gee and decided that they were going to skip a town and when they arrived to the next show, Grizzly Smith sent them home and fined them $500, at the request of Watts. Brown said that they would fine him $50 per minute he was late as he still didn’t care as he was making a lot of money.
We get another story about Watts as he told Brown, who was teaming with Brad Armstrong against the Dirty White Boys, to come into the ring at the end and get the win. Watts told him to act like Superman but before the match started, Len Denton goaded the crowd into chanting for Brown to start the match. He did and won but backstage, Watts flipped out and fined him $500 before sending him back to Florida. After that, Brown went to Atlanta and jobbed to Kareem Muhammed on TV and after that, he got paged that someone was on the line. Brown picked up as Watts started to berate him for jobbing on TV after he built him up and wanted Brown to tell Ole to “suck his dick.” Brown then went to Ole and told him what Watts said, noting how he got paid before doing so as that was the end for him there.
He left Mid-South again to go back to Memphis. He realized he would not anywhere as a face due to Lawler and Dundee so he started to change up his promos. Lawler said he sounded like a heel so they had him become a “Special Enforcer” referee for a few months before turning him. Brown said he was a natural heel and would piss off the redneck crowds. He credits Lawler for turning him heel but said that his relationship with Lawler was tumultuous after that.
Brown got a shot with the WWF in the Summer of 1986. He mentions over how Lawler would constantly play the tape of him beating Hulk Hogan in Memphis whenever the WWF came to town so they would draw poorly. He said that he was one of the first guys from the CWA to get a WWF shot and how Lawler tried to talk him out of that as Brown said the WWF never did anything with him as he never lost or won on TV as he was getting groomed. Brown mentions how Lawler badmouthed him and others as he talks about Lawler being the owner of the territory prevented him from getting the “ass-whooping” he deserved as he held a lot of guys back. Brown even claims if it wasnt for Lawler he would have had a long WWF run.
He tells a story of how he had a freeze put on his bank account. Brown owned a bail bond company in Tennessee and was a bounty hunter but chased someone over state lines in Kentucky, where bounty hunting was illegal. Brown got stopped by a state trooper and arrested. He called Lawler and asked for $1,400 to prevent his house from being foreclosed on and he did but as a result but that apparently ended up costing him a WWF run. Brown even likes Lawler but doesnt understand why he has to still manipulate people and that he should be concerned about his son, Brian Christopher. He still plans to work for Memphis today and says that he never threatened Lawler once and notes that Doug Gilbert did and still worked for him. He goes on further saying you need to be selfish to be a star in wrestling and how he refused to put over the Rock, when he was Flex Kavana in USWA, and how the Rock never forgot that when he did some work for the WWF in the mid-90’s. He talks about Rock did the People’s Elbow in Memphis before it was called that and would not lay down for it as he thought it was ridiculous but now its one of the more famous moves in wrestling.
He talks about being a great promo himself and in the WWE today the only ones that he likes are Randy Orton, Edge, and HHH, who he says his interviews fit his character well.
Brown tells us that he got Jeff Jarrett his first “piece of black pussy” and that he has been sprung ever since. He then tells a story about traveling with Bill Dundee with Jarrett in the back. Jarrett was in the back by himself as Brown and Dundee where smoking a joint and decided to rib him by pulling out of the gas station while Jarrett was in the store. However, the weed they were smoking was so potent that it wasnt until 50 miles down the road they realized they forgot him but Jarrett called his dad and Brown and Dundee were fired for a couple of weeks as a result.
He goes back to telling a story of how he was trying out for a referee gig in the WWE at the recommendation of HHH. Brown said that John Laurinaitis asked him afterwards how he did as Brown said you have to be an idiot to not know how to referee after spending a long time in the business as Laurinaitis told him to call at the end of the year as Brown believes that if Stephanie was not on pregnancy leave, he would have been hired as Laurinaitis was making the calls at the time.
Brown now asks the interviewer to give some names of USWA workers so he can dish some dirt. He said that Miss Jackie (Jacqueline in the WWE) deserved what she got in the buisness then says if he had a pussy he would be “selling the fuck” out of it to get spots in wrestling. He said that when she first got into the business, Matt Borne “took” her first and since then she only has been with white guys.
He talks about how he was with Robert Fuller and they had a really bad cocaine habit. Jerry Jarrett called them in the office and said whatever they were doing to keep his son away. Brown said that Fuller and himself got so paranoid they thought “marks” were following them to the shows. He said that they had an idea to keep the cocaine in the trunk so they wouldnt snort it and be late to the shows but it backfired as they kept on pulling over to get into the stash.
Brown said he was a health nut coming into wrestling out of college and he saw his dad do drugs when he was a kid. He then tells a story from the Mid-Atlantic territory when he was riding in a van with Ric Flair, Jimmy Valiant, Gary Hart, and Tommy Young. Brown said that they were smoking a joint and he never did drugs so he stuck his head out of the window and held his nose as he told them he couldnt believe they were smoking marijuana. Flair told Young, who was driving to pull over as he then made Brown drive. But before he pulled away, they made him take a few hits off of the joint so he could not tell the office that they were smoking pot. Brown said he was listening to music and had no clue he was high then when Valiant woke up and asked if they hit the Greensboro exit, Brown forgot as he passed that over an hour ago. Brown said he felt alright and after that he started to use drugs.
His first introduction to cocaine was through Buddy Landel. He was in the car as Landel and Barry Darsow were in the car and passed it back to him. However, he had no clue what it was and figured it was trash so Brown tossed it out of the window. They then slammed the breaks on the interstate as Brown said if they thought they could get away with killing him they would have.
DISC TWO
Brown talks about the World Class territory. He said he never saw a family that was so over then tells a story about Chris Von Erich and how he was crying in the locker room. He asked what was wrong as Chris said his dad only gave him $10,000 for Christmas while the rest of his brothers got $20,000. He said that he has to tell bad stories about himself because he cannot be “immune to the bullshit.” He said he dealt cocaine in the area through a guy named “Herb” and that Kerry Von Erich was his biggest customer, spending about $400 a night. Tony Atlas, Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams, and Missing Link also were some of his top customers. Brown says that he is not proud of this either.
He talks about Eric Embry booking the territory after Fritz purchased the USWA. He got there and was a babyface despite being a strong heel in Memphis. Brown said he was not doing much of anything and one day talked to Embry, who said he was going to be a “legitimate” wrestler as Brown took that as a guy not being involved in any of the top feuds and told off Embry and said he was going to work in Memphis again. Next day, Embry apologized and said he was going to turn heel and feud with Iceman Parsons but told off Embry after he wanted him to drop the Texas belt to Gary Young, who was beaten by everybody in the territory. However, one day when they were snowed in, someone stole the belt from him in the shower and on TV they said that Young beat him on a show that in reality never took place.
Brown talks about all the drama in the World Class territory. He talks about Kerry Von Erich nailing Chris Adams’ wife in a tanning bed in the arena and how Adams beat her up as a result. Brown then asks why you would not get a hotel for that. He then talks about Gino Hernandez and how he used to disappear on week-long cocaine binges. Brown addresses the rumor that he was the illegitimate son of Houston promoter Paul Boesch and said there was no proof but Hernandez had a condo, new car, and clothes working one night a week in Houston. Brown said if it was true he is not mad as if his kid was in his own company he would not be starting off in the locker room. He also tells a story of how Skandor Akbar wanted to manage Parsons and himself but they declined. They then overheard Akbar calling them “niggers” as Parsons apparently threatened him with a gun and Brown says he did not take it to heart and it was the “heat of the moment” and sometimes things are said.
He is asked about several other guys. Brown said Bruiser Brody was a phenomenon and if he did not like you, he’d beat the shit out of you in the ring and did not care about the finish of the match either. He also talks about how he was a bully and that he tried to do the same thing in Puerto Rico and that was why he got stabbed to death as all the people who saw him after he was stabbed also got bullied by him and that was why no one called for the ambulance after that.
Brown said that he had an offer to leave for WCW as a team with Iceman Parsons as they were going to use the Doom gimmick but turned it down as they were on National TV in Memphis and making money plus he hated Ole Anderson. Brown said that was before Turner bought the company and it was the biggest mistake of his career.
He tells a story about Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young) and how he came to Memphis looking for work and was missing teeth and looked like shit due to smoking crack. Brown said Young wanted to get some drugs so he introduced him to a crack house and told him he was leaving as they had to be in Louisville the next day so Young blew him off. Brown came back the next morning and saw Brown smoked way too much and in no shape to leave so he told Brown to tell Jerry Jarrett he had a family emergency. However, even Jarrett knew he was deep into drugs and didnt want him back. Brown said he told Young to stay with him for a few days then he put him on a bus to go back to Dallas.
Brown said that all promoters fuck you over but at least Vince McMahon “greases” you up as he gives you a chance and that is something Brown respects.
He now tells a story about Steve Austin back when they were in the USWA. Brown said he saw Austin only eating potatoes and rice as that was all he could afford so he invited Austin, Mick Foley, and Downtown Bruno (Harvey Wippleman) to his home as his wife cooked for them all. He then said that Austin never thanked him, unlike Rob Van Dam and Taz when they did the same.
Brown now talks about how he went to a WWE house show in Jackson, MI looking for work as he just got out of jail and went through a divorce as he needed money. After being barred by security, HHH talked with him and said Vince was not going to hire him to be a wrestler but would call him if he had something. The next day he had called and had Brown go to Nashville to tryout as a referee.
He puts over Shawn Michaels as a performer and said he is an “opportunist” who will do whatever he has to so he can remain over. Brown said that he harbors zero resentment towards that and says that the success of others will not impact his career as you cannot blame people who become successful.
Brown said that Bert Prentice was always true to him and does not care if he is gay or not because it doesnt bother him. Brown also said he worked as an assistant booker for him and was never sexually harassed.
He now tells a story of how Downtown Bruno was telling a bunch of “Nigger” jokes that Brown said did not offend him but he wanted to get him back. Brown went to Jeff Jarrett as he was the owner’s son and told him what he was going to do so he would not get fired. Brown listened to Bruno tell a joke then he pulled out a gun, pretending he was pissed, and threatened everyone over what was happening. Brown said that Bruno was going through a lot of personal stuff at the time and tried to be the center of attention by pulling pranks and cracking jokes, thinking he would get friends as a result. He also said that Bruno was so cheap that he kept a book around and wrote down everything he bought or was owed by others and would ask for it when he saw them.
Brown now gives out his personal phone numbers so bookers can call him up, mentioning that he has a new valet as well. He also promises a part II and III of this interview (Which ended up being a six season-long TV show for Highspots.com, something that I will start recapping this Saturday night).
Final Thoughts: This was a good interview. Brown is a great storyteller and really doesnt have a problem embarrassing himself either. Seems like he is still a naive guy and is honest about how he fucked up his own career due to drugs.
The story about how he broke into the business was something else. On multiple occasions, he asked to “dish the dirt” but the interview was not strong enough to reign in his personality and would follow up with really boring questions. A better interviewer could have done a lot more as there was no structure here. Brown essentially dictated the interview himself.
I would recommend this shoot because of how great Brown is as an interview subject. He was pretty laid back here and in his TV series, goes into a lot of his crazy stories.
Next week, I will be recapping the WCW 1994 Timeline as told by Eric Bischoff, which comes out this coming Tuesday.
Here is my schedule for the next several days:
Friday: WWF Sam Houston Coliseum 8/28/87 (Paul Boesch retirement show)
Saturday: Highspots Presents: Brickhouse TV, Season 1 episodes 1&2
Sunday: WWF Superstars of Wrestling 8/29/87
Tuesday: WWF Wrestling Challenge 8/30/87
Thursday: Kayfabe Commentaries Timeline Series: 1994 WCW as told by Eric Bischoff