Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: “Continental Lover” Eddy Mansfield
Date: 07/24/2024
Your Host: James Walsh
If you were a fan of pro wrestling in the early 1980’s, you saw the man known best as the “Continental Lover” in various territories. He could bump like Ric Flair and he could talk like Dusty Rhodes. And, he had the look! But, he’s probably best remembered for being the one guy who broke kayfabe and really started pro wrestling handling its business differently. After the 20/20 documentary on pro wrestling that saw Dr. D David Schultz slap host John Stossel aired, Eddy Mansfield was blackballed from the industry for exposing the secrets of pro wrestling. But, in reality, he was already out of the business due to mouthing off at an unfair business proposal by Ole Anderson.
Well, long story short – Too late we know, we finally got to sit down with the man himself. One of the most controversial wrestlers in history, Eddy Mansfield steps into the Epicenter to talk about his life in pro wrestling. He also promotes his Mouthing Off sports talk show which is syndicated nationally and airs on Sirius XM as well. You can check out his radio show here.
You can hear this whole interview and over 860 prior interviews on our website, www.WrestlingEpicenter.com!
EDDY MANSFIELD:
On modern wrestling:
“AEW looks like late era WCW. You’ve got two f***ing stooges there named Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross. Why they employ these idiots, I have no idea. Their production, James, it looks like late stage WCW! I mean, it is bad. It is really, really bad! Whoever they have hired producing that, they need to be fired. Fire Tony Schavione! Fire Jim Ross! Fire all of their asses!”
On what his issue is with Jim Ross:
“I have no respect for that son of a bbitch whatsoever. All of you wrestling fans, you need to listen up. That son of a bitch helped Bill Watts steal Leroy McGuirk’s territory from him. Mike is a sweetheart and I knew her father and Leroy loved me because I was a straight shooter. I’m not a bullshit artist. If you don’t like what I have to say, don’t listen!”
On his radio show Mouthing Off:
“It is syndicated by Sports Byline. We have over 6 million listeners each week! I sent you a link with the streaming services and stations we’re on. We’re on IHeartRadio, we’re on Sirius XM… We’re on pretty much everywhere you can go! I’ve been doing that show for a while. I was doing that show on the boardwalk at ESPN in Disney with Jeff Taylor with me. We were there for 6 years! We talk about sports, it is a sports show. But, we also talk about wrestling. And, I talk about jackasses like Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone. They shouldn’t be in the business! They’re a couple of assholes who have a track record of killing territories. Tony Schiavone has a track record of killing everything he touches. And, the only reason Jim Ross lasted in WWE as long as he did is because he kissed a lot of ass.”
On Excalibur not being a good TV announcer:
“You know, James. You’re right! I can’t believe they fired my guy – The guy I trained. Kevin Kelly! Why would you fire him when he can put eyeballs on the product and make sense of it? But, they keep these washed up guys… And they are! They are washed up. I’m not saying that as an ex-wrestler. I’m saying it as a television producer who produces top notch stuff. These guys are washed up! Why would I have these assholes on my set? Look at the AEW television rating each week! It is in the tank! They shouldn’t still be on television! They can’t even pull a 1 rating!”
On what attracted him to pro wrestling back in the day:
“Terry Funk attracted me to professional wrestling. Back before I ever got into wrestling, I was a baseball player. Before I got signed to the majors and got signed to the A’s… Anyway, I was in Tucson, Arizona. And, we were at a bar that was just perfect for it to be where I’d meet Terry Funk. It was called the Yellow Dog. We talked and Terry said, “If you ever get out of baseball, give me a call.” And, he wrote his number down on a napkin. Wouldn’t you know about a year later, I tore my rotator cuff up. Well, that’s the kiss of death for a baseball pitcher. Well, wouldn’t you know I still had that dang napkin? It was an Amarillo number. And, I called it and I said, “Terry, this is Eddy Mansfield… And I think I need to find a new job.” (laughs)”
On if steroids were involved in his early wrestling career:
“Back before I ever called Terry and we were talking at the bar, I told him, “I’m only 170 pounds!” Terry said to me, “Eddy, they’ve got shit that makes you bigger!” (laughs) So, when I did start training for wrestling, I went from 170 pounds to 230 pounds in 6 months. (laughs) I don’t think I need to explain to all you dumb-asses listening what I did!”
On his issues with Jim Cornette:
“Jim Cornette is the biggest dumb-ass in the history of wrestling. He calls himself a historian? My ass! He was a mark taking pictures around ringside. The only reason he got a job is because Jimmy Hart was leaving Memphis. Jimmy Hart gave him the job to cover his ass with (Jerry) Jarrett and The King. Jimmy Hart got tired being on the bologna tour. You know, I never worked Memphis. They begged me to work Memphis. I never wanted to work Memphis because I couldn’t make any money there. They called Memphis the Bologna Circuit. You know, you can’t buy a dime’s worth of food at the local diner with ego. Well, Jimmy Hart was headed up to New York with Hulk Hogan. And as you know, Hulk, when he’d stop, he always had bumper signals. You know why Hulk had bumper signals? Because every time he’d stop, Jimmy Hart would have his nose up his ass! (laughs) Jimmy’s the biggest stooge for Hulk in the world and always has been. But, God bless him. I love Jimmy. I think Jimmy Hart is the greatest thing in the world! I really do. He’s a dear friend of mine… So is Hulk! But, Jimmy’s funny, man. He’s stuck with Hulk and he’s always been with Hulk!”
On what made Southwest Championship Wrestling special:
“I’ll tell you what, me and Scott Casey popped that territory. Wahoo McDaniel. He called me, he said, “Leave Atlanta and come to Southwest! I’ve got to have a heel like you that can draw!” You know, one of the biggest compliments I ever got was when i was cutting some promos for Atlanta. Wahoo had watched me work that night. He said, “Can I talk to you?” I said, “Sure.” And, we went to the side of the ring, the ring apron. And, he said, “Eddy, you remind me of Ray Stevens, Ric Flair, and Dusty Rhodes.” I said, “Really? Is that a compliment or an insult? Because, I know Ray, I know Ric, and I know Dusty!” (laughs) He says, “No, no. That was a compliment. You can bump like Ray Stevens, you’ve got the charisma of Ric Flair, and you can talk like Dusty Rhodes!” I said, “Thanks, what do you want from me, Wahoo?” (laughs) He said, “I want you to come to Southwest.” Well, I cut a promo for Del Rio, Texas. It was me and Gordon Solie – The greatest wrestling announcer that ever lived. Well, I plugged the Del Rio town on TBS… By the way, AEW ought to be on 6:05 on TBS and not any other time. But, they’re a bunch of dumb-asses. You’ve got two dumb-asses in Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross telling another dumb-ass, Tony Khan, what to do. So, you’ve got 3 dumb-asses… It is like 3 monkeys trying to run the show so nobody is running the show. Anyway, Del Rio, Texas. That was the first sellout they ever did (Southwest) was when it was the Indian (Wahoo) and me… I’ll never forget. I had to go back to the kitchen area to shower after the match. It was so hot. I’m in Houston right now. It is 120 degrees in the shade. I lost about 10 pounds in that match. 5 of them were getting chopped so damn hard the sweat came out of you. We were showering in this kitchen area and Wahoo said to me, “We had a good time out there tonight!” I was like, “Yeah, we sure did!””
On working for The Original Sheik in Detroit:
“Let me tell you something, Eddie Farhat always took care of Eddy Mansfield. He really did. I have a lot of respect for what Eddie Farhat, the Original Sheik, did for me. I was International Champion for him. I was a heel, he was a heel. So, we hung out a lot. And, he always took care of me really, really good.”
On his role in Southwest:
“My deal was I’d come in, beat a job guy, do color commentary, and do my interviews. And, i got to pick who I’d want to work with. Well, I wanted Scott Casey. Wahoo hated Scott. He’d never call him Scott or Casey. He’d only call him, “Hey, mother f***er!” (laughs) Well, I lived across from Wahoo. And, we had a booking meeting. And, I told him to put Tully blanchard and Gino Hernandez together so I could have the top spot. I didn’t have the belt because Tully would call every week, 10:30 in the morning, trying to get the belt. I said, “Give the little sniveling bastard the belt!” I didn’t need the belt. I could draw money without the belt. And, I didn’t have to worry about traveling in airports with thebelt!”
On Scott Casey never breaking nationally in spite of his talent:
“Wel, I busted him out huge in Texas. We sold out everywhere. and we had the largest attendance in San Antonio for pro wrestling before they built the Alamo Dome and my good friend Shawn Michaels broke that record. By the way, “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels… That’s Eddy Mansfield! If you don’t believe me, ask him!”
On the end of the glory days of Southwest:
“That was a sad situation. You know when I lost a lot fo respect for Tully? And, I’ll tell you and to all you wrestling fans out there, do you know who Paul Boesch is? Well, do you know that they were the two best wrestling promoters I ever worked for. but, do you know who paid me out the ass? Joe Blanchard. Tully’s dad. I loved Joe Blanchard. I have more respect for Joe Blanchard than I could ever express. He was just too damn kind to his asshole of a son. Tully Blanchard killed that territory. I was going to turn babyface. I was the biggest heel in the history of that territory. I held the biggest attendance record in San Antonio for wrestling and that record stood up for 11 freakin’ years.
On what he’s up to these days:
“Well, for the past 20 years I’ve been an award winning television producer. Right now, I’m in the Woodlands in Houston, Texas and we’re in pre-production right now on a 3 part country music series. It is going to be really cool. We’ve got a lot of stars that will be part of it. We sold out Waco with the Cowboy and the Lover 3 times! That’s pretty freakin’ good, buddy! Ed Denton, that is Len Denton’s (The Grappler) father. He would say he wouldn’t book a town unless I was working it. Same with Ivan Putski. When I’d work Ivan Putski, guys would say, “How did you get Ivan to sell for you?” I said, “Why don’t you ask him.” I’ll tell you. It is because I could work! But, when I’d work Ed Denton, I’d show out for Ed Denton. Shame on all you bastards who didn’t show out for Ed Denton like Tiger Conway. But, the joke was on you, because, we didn’t need your asses. We already sold out! You want to be considered a professional? Act like one!”
On the infamous 20/20 Documentary:
“I did 20/20 to shine a light on an industry that was treating its athletes like a piece of crap. John Scossel’s little happy ass took it and did the wrong thing with it. I was there to shed light on an industry that was mistreating its athletes. And, I did. It was the highest rated 20/20 ever. You know what is strange? The guys who broke me into television were the same guys who created 20/20… I applied myself to professional wrestling the same way I applied myself to baseball. I wanted to be the best in the business. How do you do that? You do that by putting everything you’ve got into what you love. And, what I loved I was doing really, really good! I loved wrestling! I loved the pro wrestling business. But, I ran into Ole Anderson in Atlanta. He wanted me to kick back 20% of my money. The story never changes with me, James, because it is the damn truth. Wahoo McDaniel was standing in the locker room with me in Atlanta when that low-life son of a bitch (Ole Anderson0 came up to me and said, “You need to kick back 20% back to me or I’m going to finish you up.” And, i told him this. “Now you listen to me, You do that to me and take money out of my pocket and food out of my mouth, so help me, I am going to expose your ass.” And, i did it.”
On the 20/20 piece not being what it was supposed to be:
“If you read the transcript of the 20/20 interviews, you would see I told them who not to interview. Number 1, some of those guys were my friends and I didn’t want them to interview them. I wanted to have it be a piece that compared professional wrestling against NFL, MLB, NBA, and how they treated their professional athletes. There’s a problem with that, isn’t there, James? All I wanted to do was get wrestlers in SAG where we would have health insurance and we’d have a place to go when we got old. That’s all. But, it became a damn ego trip with John Stossel’s little happy ass. I wanted to slap him myself!They lied to me. They deceived me. But, I got him back. You’d be surprised what Eddy Mansfield knows and who I know.”
On David Schultz slapping John Stossel:
“Who cares about David Scultz? David Schultz isn’t dick. His biggest claim to fame is slapping that little bitch. I mean, come on. He cost me so much money in Knoxville because he had some attitude over $40 damn dollars.”
On being blackballed after 20//20 aired:
“Lets get the f***ing story straight. I was blackballed by Ole Anderson before I ever did the 20/20. Do you know where I got the tape they aired during that 20/20 special? From Eddie Farhat, the Original Sheik! He knew I was going to do it. Do you know that? He told me to stick it right up their ass for what they did to me. This is the truth from the horse’s mouth, not from someone like Jim Cornette. Nobody gives a shit about Jim Cornette. He’s just trying to be relevant. He’s like a hemorrhoid that just won’t go away.”
On the newspaper article that said he was married to Missy Hyatt back in the day:
“Nah, that was all bullshit. I had this damn girl who was just haunting me, haunting me, haunting me. You know what I mean? Well, I was banging Missy at the time. And, that is when she was a 9 and heavy change, brother! (laughs) So, I said to Missy, “I need a little help here!” (laughs) So, we put it in the paper that we were married so the other girl would move along. I probably shouldn’t have done that. (laughs)”
On modern kayfabe:
“There is no more kayfabe. In Los Angeles, there never was! Read the program! “This is an exhibition under the California Athletic Commission.” Exhibition! Go back and pull ’em from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s… That is how far back it goes. Anybody who believes wrestling is a shoot is stupid as shit.”
On Vince McMahon exposing the business in the 1990’s:
“How come you’re asking Eddy Mansfield about exposing the business but not Vince McMahon? Nobody exposed the business more than his happy ass. But, nobody’s bothering him… Well, they ran him off. Or, he ran himself off. I like Vince. He was a great business man. Vince, if you’re listening, start your own wrestling business. Go buy AEW! And, Eddy Mansfield will come and help you run it. I’ll run it for you!”
On the IWF promotion using Universal Sound Stages before that was done:
“Without a doubt. I was the first guy to sound stage professional wrestling and I was the first guy to have a deal with a major studio. Let me tell you something, if you saw the IWF shows you know I shot in front of every venue on the Universal backlot. I was the first company to have free reign over those intellectual properties. Beetlejuice, The Blues Brothers, Marilyn Monroe! We did really cool stuff. We did really cool vignettes with the wrestlers and the characters. I had such a great time creating that. And, I had a great director.”
On discovering and training Kevin Kelly:
“I’ll tell you a story. I was supposed to have another announcer – I never told Kevin this. Well, I was training the guy for television because there was a different pacing you had to have for television and then a house show. So, I was training the guy for television and then I had Kevin Kelly standing by calling whatever he saw. Kevin got really really good. He’s a great play by play guy – Not because I trained him. He’s just really, really good! I’ll never forget it. When it came to television, Kevin came to me and he said, “Where do you want me?” I said, “Kevin, do you see that table up there on that riser?” He goes, “Heay!” I said, “You sit in the right chair over there, I’m going to sit on the left.” He said, “Are you kidding me?” I said, “Don’t make me tell you again!” When that gun went off, Kevin Kelly was always by me and Kevin Kelly always did a great job for me.I can never say anything but good things about Kevin Kelly because he was really good!”
On some of the talent he helped in IWF:
“I created the Smoking Guns! They were the Long Riders for me! I had RVD! A lot of people said, “If you work for Eddy Mansfield, you’ll never get to work anywhere else.” Bullshit! When I closed the doors, I walked away from it. Nobody made me. But, when I did, the guys that were stars, they made it to WWE and WCW with no problems. The guys I tried to make something? Well, they fell by the way side because that is what they would have done anyway.”
On the legacy of the IWF:
“I’m really proud of the IWF. I really am. I tried to keep it running. But, we were burning through some money. We really were. I thought sure I could hold on because if you look at the history of the wrestling business, it always goes through a period where it goes through a lull for about six months and then it comes back around. Well, in the early 1990’s, the lull lasted a lot longer.”
On WCW using Universal and Disney shortly after the IWF did:
“Eric Bischoff called me up. He said, “I want to come in to Universal. I’ll give you Sting!” I said, “I don’t want Sting! Sting can’t draw two dimes of goat shit!” I had Blackjack Mulligan. I loved Blackjack… He was a shit disturber. But, I loved him. Do you think Sting would have drawn more than Blackjack Mulligan? I don’t think so. At that time, Jack was my World Champion. And, I loved him. He had my vision. He knew I had those guys and he wanted to have my back in helping these guys to make them great. Not to make them good, to make them great! I miss Jack. He was a one of a kind guy.”
On why the XWF, which he produced, didn’t get a TV deal in 2001:
“I produced the XWF. I had them a deal with the USA Network. It was a deal with the USA Network for barter. But, those stupid Nasty Boys… I told Jimmy Hart, look, I’ve got you a deal for barter. That is what Vince McMahons tarted with. I said I’ve got you a deal for 13 weeks to start but there’s no money. They said, “Oh no, we’ve got to have money.” I said, “Ok, goget it yourself you silly sons of bitches!” I had them a deal with USA Network with Bonnie Hammer… You look her up, she’s huge! So, I presented that to them and they didn’t want it because there was no upfront money. I said, “You didn’t earn any money. What have you earned?” In the television business, you’ve got to earn your keep. If you can make them money, you’re fine. If you can’t, you’re done. They don’t give a shit about you! The Nasty Boys are stupid anyway. They can’t get out of the ring. That company? All they wanted to do was take that guy’s money. When I had the deal with USA Network and they didn’t want to do it, I knew all they wanted to do was take that guys money.”