Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Crybaby Francis Buxton AKA Lolly Griffin
Date: 02/24/2022
Your Host: James Walsh
Don’t call him “Crybaby!” He’s Fearless! Francis Buxton, not from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, was a huge part of the final days of the Global Wrestling Federation’s run on ESPN and syndicated Dallas TV series before the promotion closed in the fall of 1994. But Buxton, real name Lolly Griffin, is far more than just a GWF guy! He was around the Mid South/UWF territory under Bill Watts and learned every aspect of the game there. He was a part of international tours with stars such as Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, and the Ultimate Warrior – Who he saw hold up the promoter for $100,000! And, he has run his own promotions as well with key stars such as the late “Hercules” Hernandez and more.
Buxton, Lolly, later worked as an announcer for college football over the past 20 years and currently works with ESPN and powers the sports scoreboard boxes you see on the screens at various events – A skill he learned in part by going to the production trucks during his time in pro wrestling.
Hear all of this plus something he wanted to talk about – The real story of what happened to “Fantastics” tag team member Tommy Rogers and how his passing was not a suicide as many have claimed.
To listen to the entire hour plus conversation, visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com. If you watch on YouTube as embedded below, please don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.
CRYBABY BUXTON:
On falling for pro wrestling:
“I grew up in a small town in Louisiana called Bunkie. Every Tuesday night up at the Parish Coliseum in Alexandria, there was wrestling and it was promoted by a friend of my father’s. It was Mid South Wrestling, later the UWF. I got to meet everybody! We had permanent ringside seats. Mr. Charlie took care of us! I just kept loving it and loving it… I wanted to be a wrestler! That was one of my two goals in life. One was to be a wrestler, the other was to be an officer at West Point. I got to do both! (laughs)”
On his first dose of pro wrestling:
“In about Junior or Senior year of high school, I was ripped. I was in great shape. I told my daddy I was ready to give up on West Point and I wanted to be a wrestler. You might remember a wrestler named “Hippie” Mike Boyette. When they (Mid South) became UWF, he had a losing streak… I think it was like 0 and 180! He was a journeyman… A great hand! I didn’t know what that meant back then. So, daddy got me a tryout. So, we went to the Coliseum on Tuesday at around noon. Mr. Charlie Damico, the promoter, was there with daddy. And, Mike Boyette comes out. So, I’m thinking, “I’ve seen this guy fight 100 times and he always loses. I’m fixing to beat this old dude’s butt!” (laughs) Well, let me tell you… In about 7 seconds, he had he hooked, he had his thumb up my butt, and he had me screaming “DADDY! DADDY!” (laughs) So, years later, after daddy had passed and not long before Mike Boyette passed, I met up with him. He told me. “You know, it was a set up. Your dad didn’t want you to ever get in the business and wanted you to go to West Point.” He humbled me so quickly! Iron Sheik would’ve been proud!”
On sticking with it after all:
“I went to West Point for a day and decided I didn’t want to do this anymore! (laughs) So, I called daddy and I came home and ended up going to a small Baptist college in Exandria. A lot of the wrestlers lived in Alexandria… Terry Taylor… A guy who wrestled as Igor Putski with Ivan Putski ran the gym. I was on the radio, I’d go to the gym afterwards. The wrestlers all wanted to be on the radio and I wanted to be in the wrestling business! Before long, Terry Taylor, Dr. Death, Tommy Rogers, Bobby Fulton, and I became great friends. I started riding with them. I put them on the radio. Then, one day, somebody didn’t show up to wrestle. Terry went and got his first pair of boots out of the trunk and I went out and got my head slammed for $75. And, they told me, “Come back again!” I learned right off but I wasn’t going to be a great wrestler. But, I learned how to do the mic. I learned how to sell popcorn! I learned how to set up the ring! I learned every aspect. And, especially with the television which helped me later in life, I learned how to run a camera, I learned how to roll cable, I learned what to do in the truck, graphics… I learned how to do all that! When I’d get out of the ring, I’d go to the truck and learn. Man, I’m just so lucky! And, the best part was, because I was pulling up with Doc, Tommy, or Bobby, everyone thought I was someone important!”
On becoming “Crybaby” Francis Buxton in Global:
“Well, at that time, Gray Pearson had bought Global from Joe Pedicino after the Jarretts. I went in and in the office was Manny Fernandez, Skandor Akbar, and Gray. Ak liked me… We were pretty good friends. We had rode together in the past through Mississippi. And, Manny Fernandez and I had become good friends. Manny had heard me on the mic. I forget who they had doing it. But, they brought in Doyle King. Doyle is pretty good! But, I don’t think Manny liked him. I don’t really think Gray liked him… So, I think I was going to be the announcer. So, I went in with my suit. But, I did bring my boots – If you’re a wrestler, you always bring your gear. So, I go into the office and Gray is like, “This is the guy to do the commentary?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” He goes, “Can you wrestle?” I say, “I can do whatever you want me to do. I might not be great. But, I’ll give it a try!” Gray says, “I’ve had this idea and as soon as I saw you, I know you’re the one for it!” About a year before, I was on a tour of Europe with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and got his entire philosophy on life. (laughs) Jake would try and teach me about selling, psychology, and talked to me. He said, “You know, you need to be the Crybaby. Nobody’s done that for decades.” That always stuck in my mind. So, Gray says, “Do you remember Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.” I said, “Yeah, I’ve seen it.” He says, “I want you to be Francis Buxton, the neighbor with the bike.” I go, “Oh yeah! The big wuss!” (laughs) Well, first of all, thank you for thinking I’m a wuss. But, as it is a job, I’m good for anything! He says, “I’ve got a woman. She’s the head of the Arlington, Texas theater department. She can be your mother. You can be a crybaby. I want you to look like you’re fixing to die every second that you’re in the ring! I want you to run, avoid as much contact as you can. When you get in the ring, climb the stairs.” Back then, no one used the steps. That was for the TV people. He was like, “Use the steps!” There were also unwritten rules. Like, when you’re getting up, you never use the ropes when you’re getting up. You get up on your own. So, he says, “Fall near the ropes and pull yourself up on the ropes. Crawl to the ropes and use the ropes to get up. Look like you’re fixing to die! When you take a bump, don’t bump like everyone else. Take it as stupid as you can as you can, as irregular as you can safely.” He used the word “irregular”, he didn’t know wrestling terms. So, back then, it took weeks to get gear made up. So, I went down to the West End of Dallas, I went to a Walmart and got a T shirt and sweat pants. I cut the sweats off at the knees. And, he wanted me to be from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. So, what is there but a lot of tourist shops and airbrush places. So, I got the shirt and pants airbrushed. I think I had it say, “Mama’s Pride and Joy!” (laughs)”
On if anyone had trouble working with him as a comedy character:
“Well, I was a comedy character and some guys didn’t really want to work with me. So, really, they tried to abuse me. The ones who tried to abuse me really never made more than $25 in the business. (laughs) There was one time, John Hawk… John Bradshaw Layfield, JBL… He didn’t want to work with me. (laughs) He certainly didn’t want to do a job for me. So, we changed the finish in the match. He just told me to run. And, I just found it. I had never seen that stuff when it first aired. But, I just started watching it back and I’m laughing my ass off. I looked like I literally was fixing to die! But, I really wasn’t blown up at all.”
On working with Chris Adams:
“Chris Adams was always great to me. Chris had his things. But, whenever those things came around, they never were directed at me. And, whenever those types of things came around where there was a discrepancy at the box office, I never had a discrepancy in my envelope. So, one night, Ak tells us that next week, Chris and I would be working together to kick off the taping. He was like, “Yeah, that’s all right.” During the week, he calls me. He tells me, “I get your gimmick. But, I’m serious. So, I’m not going to go and clown around. So, run your mouth. Keep running from me. Then, I’ll grab you, and I’ll superkick you.” Well, I’ve seen him superkick some people before! (laughs) Especially if he didn’t like you! So, he gets in there and he screams how disgusted he is to have to wrestle me. We kill 8 minutes without touching each other. Then, he pushes me in the corner and goes, “DDT.” So, I get set for the DDT and go to down with him. He changes his mind and goes “Suplex!” Well, I’ve already gone limp! So, he had to lift me with no help. I think he threw his back out. He was so pissed. (laughs) So, when it came time for the superkick, I never felt it. I felt the tip of his boot slip by the tip of my nose. But, I didn’t feel it. But, I sold it like it killed me. They had to drag me up the aisle to get me out of the arena. Oh, it was great. So much fun! And, I watched it back the other day, it looked like it killed me! (laughs)”
On his favorite memories of being the Crybaby:
“I got to knock Booker T out with the ring bell! I would start crying and mama would cry and she’d wipe my tears. Oh, there was so many good times and funny things we did. I was the absolute worst wrestler to ever make a living as a professional wrestler!”
On Global’s fade from ESPN:
“Right when I got there, they had started to change so we went from being on5 days a week to being on 2 days a week or even 1. But, by that time, they were syndicated. So, they were on all over Africa and Asia, throughout Texas…. And, they had the main show in Dallas (on KTVT). In Dallas, I did a car commercial. “You won’t be crying when you’re driving a Watson ford” or something like that! (laughs) Pedicino and the Jarrett’s had a thing going on and they ran out of money. And, you have to realize that this was the end of the time where Vince was killing everybody and the last hangers on. Memphis Wrestling didn’t fly in Dallas. Memphis Wrestling is more gimmicks and Andy Kaufman type things even back then when everything was kayfabed. It had changed. So, Gray Pearson (the owner of Global after Joe Pedicino) came in and he used Texas people. He used Bobby Duncum Jr, Stevie Ray, Booker T… We had serious guys. Tony, the Nubian Warrior who became Ahmed Johnson. (laughs) I’ll never forget, he came into the locker room for the first time and he introduced himself to everyone individually. “Hello, my name be Tony. Hello, my name be Tony. Hello, my name be Tony.” By the time he got to Black Bart, Bart said, “Yeah, I know, your name be Tony!” (laughs)”
On the end of the GWF:
“The whole Global thing, it had its little run. When I first started with Global in early 1993, that building was still full. But, Vince had taken over the industry. And, they started changing the nights we’d run so we would be on a Sunday night. It had just played itself out. But, the time for the territories had just dried up.”
On the Ultimate Warrior holding up a promoter in Vienna for $100,000:
“We were on a world tour for a major concert promoter. They had us booked all through Europe. We had the Ultimate Warrior, Jake Roberts, Hercules Hernandez, Candi Divine, Bambi, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Madusa, and a whole lot of guys on that tour. The last night of the tour was Vienna and Ultimate Warrior told the promoter he would not go out unless they paid him an extra $100,000 right there. They argued some. But, Warrior wouldn’t bend. He wanted $100,000 or the show would not go on. Well, we’re in this arena and the people are starting to stomp and clap and we’re under them and can hear it rocking. It was time for the show to start. I was to referee and was fixing to go to the ring. He said, “Sit down and shut up!” I looked at Jake and Jake put his hands out like to say, “I don’t know what to do here.” So, I sat down and I shut up. It was me waiting there with Public Enemy long before they were Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge. About 10 minutes later, the promoter came back and they argued again but Warrior didn’t bend. Less than a half hour later, in a briefcase, they delivered $100,000 at 7:45 p.m. in Vienna on a Sunday night! Warrior took it, said, “Thank you very much. Go to the ring.” And, I went to the ring! Later on, he did give me a few thousand dollars because he knew I wasn’t making very much on the card. And, I know he gave some money to some of the girls because they weren’t getting paid very much for the tour either.”
On running his own territories:
“I started my own promotion in Mississippi. We called it Mid South Wrestling. We got a TV deal in some markets and had some stuff going. And, just as it started to pick up, the money man in Dallas went to prison. (laughs) So there goes that gimmick!”
On his promotion after Global:
“I had started a promotion that ran out of the Silver Star in Mississippi. The Chief of the Choctaws loved Lolly Dude! That was my name on the radio. I said, “We need to do wrestling here.” They literally handed me a check right there in Jackson, Mississippi… This is a great story! We started, we were on TV in like 17 markets. We killed everybody! We were up against Superstars of Wrestling for the WWF in like 5 markets and we beat them! I was like, “Holy cow!” The Chief was excited. He wanted all the boys to stay in the hotel. I was like, “Chief, you don’t want us in the hotel.” He was like, “Oh, no no. We want you in the hotel. We want people to see the guys. I was like, “I’m just telling you, with an open bar tab in a casino….” Because, he was comping everybody everything, right? “It is not going to be good.” He said, “Oh no, we got it. We got it.” Well… (laughs) This was called Deep South Wrestling. We had Tv partners… Everything was coming to a head with them. I had Terry Taylor helping me. We made it look easy. Great shows! All of a sudden, they started thinking they could do it themselves. They didn’t need wrestling people… So, Cousin Luke, Hillbilly Cousin Luke and I were doing our thing. We go to our hotel rooms at about 4 in the morning and pass out. At 5:30, there is knocking on the door. I open the door and it is a security guy. He’s like, “Chief needs to see you now!” I’m like, “It is 5:30 in the morning.” “No, Chief needs to see you now!” So, I’m thinking, “Did he get some girls for us?” (laughs) Hey, what’s gonna happen? So, we go down this hall and through a door that you never would’ve known was a door. And, we go up this stairwell and into this room with like 10,000 TV monitors in there. There’s monitors everywhere! Well, Chief is sitting there and he’s in his silk robe. Chief goes, “Lolly, we have a problem.” I said, “What happened?” “The wrestlers, they’ve gone nuts!” (laughs) “I told you!” He goes, “Just watch!” He pulls up the big monitors and you see the guys. Hercules Hernandez, Butch Reed, Mr. Nasty, Dick Murdoch, and Tommy Rogers was in that crowd…. There is a video poker bar that everyone hung out at. The guys are all drinking. They start hitting on the waitresses and they’re not interested. But, you can see Herc getting kind of rowdy. So, you see the waitress cut them all off. Everyone leaves except Butch Reed and Herc. And, you see Herc kind of feeling her up right there on camera… If it was today in these times, he’d be going to prison for life! But, whoever was in control saw the disturbance and started zooming in on it. And, within 30 seconds, 15 security guards storm him. And, about 10 seconds after that, about 15 security guard bodies hit the floor. (laughs) I’m not kidding. It was like, BOOM! BOOM BOOM! And Herc, you can’t tell if the black ball camera is on or not. In wrestling, there is a red light for the camera that is on. But, there are thousands of cameras up above him, he looked right at the one they had zoomed in on Herc, rips his shirt off, sticks his tongue out, and growls. (laughs) So, right about that time, Chief says, “We cannot have this anymore.” I said, “Chief, I told you! We can’t be in the hotel!” He says, “Contract up in 2 months. We’re not going to renew.” We’re going to blow this thing because of this? “I cannot. I cannot.” Well, I didn’t tell the partners. I figured we would try and work things out. But, that next week, they tried to cut me out. They brought in Jack Reynolds, great old school guy from up North. They were going to cut me out… And, they did. When Terry Taylor got to TV and I wasn’t there, he walked. They didn’t know that in 2 months, Chief was going to dump them anyway.”
On the death of Tommy Rogers:
“I would love to set the record straight. A lot of people said a lot of things slandering Tommy after he died. But, I would like to set the record straight as someone who knows. I was living in Hawaii with Tommy… I got hurt during a tour of the Middle East… A lot of headaches and everything. Tommy had split up with his wife Sheila… Tommy was having a few little issues like a lot of the guys. I think Sheila couldn’t put up with it anymore. So, I said, “Send him to me!” I had this nice little spot… I was living near the University of Hawaii with my friend Peter Moon, a great Hawaiian entertainer. We were living under the palm trees. One of my friends who wrestled had a pizza joint and they had their own little wrestling click. Tommy got a job with the pizza joint. He was making money. Everything was good! My friend King Curtis – To me, the greatest that ever was. He taught Abdullah (the Butcher) how to bleed! We were hanging out down at the beach…Things were going great. but, we had a little falling out because he started going a little too far. So, we had a falling out for about a year or so. In that year or so, we got back together. Friends have ups and downs. But, I saw the world was changing. In Hawaii, if the Coke boat doesn’t come in, the convenience store can charge you $20 for a can of Coke! If the vegetable boat doesn’t come in, you’ll pay a lot for that too. I could just see the world was changing. And, I didn’t want to be stuck on a rock in the middle of the Pacific. So, I left… Tommy moved in with another friend of ours named Tom. He was in TV. There were a lot of rumors. “Tommy was under indictment and fixing to go to jail. He killed himself because he didn’t want to go to jail.” This, that, and the other. He had an issue with one of the boys. They had gotten into a fight. But, nobody was going to jail! (laughs) OK? All that had gotten solved. Tommy was back to being Tommy again… All the guys, if you’re in the business, you go and party a little bit. He had gotten out of hand. But, he was back to being Tommy again. But, Tommy had a way about him… He could fall asleep standing up against a wall for 8 hours and stay there if you didn’t disturb him. He always slept all crooked. (makes loud awkward snore sound) Or, in the car, his neck would be all crooked snoring and stuff. (laughs) So, Tommy went to sleep and Tom was sitting there eating Little Debbie’s. Tommy’s snoring becomes kind of your white noise if you ever shared a hotel room with him! (laughs) But, all of a sudden, I guess Tom didn’t hear it. So, he got up and Tommy was sitting there with his neck all bent funny. He kind of wasn’t breathing… I guess it was a light breathing. But, Tom thought, “I better call the ambulance. Something may not be right.” So, it came and Tom told Tommy he was going to pick him up later at the hospital because they were going to take Tommy in to make sure everything was all right. So, they put a tube in to make sure he was breathing right. To make a long story short because I only had one semester in pre-med so my medical knowledge is limited at best (laughs), when the put the tube down, I guess there is a place where it can either go down into your stomach or lungs or whatever? Well, they put it in his stomach. It went in the wrong place. In that 10 minute drive to the hospital, the thing was put in wrong and he went into a shock. The body went septic. When your body goes septic, it isn’t good. Tommy was just going down to the hospital and 20, 30 minutes later, Tommy died. Long story short, the doctor of the emergency room reached out… Tommy and Sheila had gotten divorced but they still loved each other. So, the ER Doctor, he met with her outside the hospital all kayfabe – She called me and put me on speaker, and the doctor is telling her all this stuff. He told her he had never seen an intubation done that poorly. He didn’t have to die. Sheila and Tommy were divorced. She had no recourse. Tommy’s daughter and he had a strained relationship. They didn’t want to have to deal with anything like this but there could have been a huge lawsuit there. There was just no interest in it. But, the doctor even said he would testify. Then, the autopsy came out and I think he had some Soma in him and maybe even some Vicodin. But, it was nothing even close to being lethal. The toxicology, none of that killed him. What killed him was the ambulance people doing the tube wrong and he went septic and suffocated. The doctor was going to testify. But, the heirs, they didn’t want to pursue it.”
On Tommy Rogers not killing himself:
“Man, me and Sheila, we’re reading all this stuff online. “He killed himself.” Man, that boy didn’t kill himself! (laughs) But, that was the first time in my life that I noticed… Like, on a reality show, when they make someone look stupid for their own gain. But, when it is someone you love and you start reading on all the wrestling pages, people that didn’t even know Tommy saying how he died… And, wrestlers who… I knew who all his close friends were and these other guys are saying all this stuff. It broke my heart. So, if you’re a Fantastics fan, Tommy Rogers did not kill himself. Tommy Rogers loved life. And, that’s the truth.”
On retiring from wrestling:
“I was on a tour of the Middle East in 2000 and got hurt doing things I shouldn’t have been doing… In the ring… You know, pretending I could work! (laughs) I suffered a head injury. I went through years of constant headaches and issues. My brain, when I die, is going to Boston for research. Chris Nowinski’s thing.”