Wrestling legend and former two time NWA World Tag Team Champion, “The Ragin’ Bull” Manny Fernandez recently joined WGD Weekly with Steve and the Scum for an eye opening and controversial near two hour interview, where he candidly spoke on many moments and performers all points throughout his storied career.
The entire interview can be heard here:
Highlights of Manny’s interview on WGD Weekly included him discussing:
The Four Horseman being “cowards:” “…You wanna talk about four guys who brown nosed through everything they do in life? One is a coward, Ric Flair is a coward…he is nothing but a coward…Arn Anderson, I don’t know what it is, if he has got problems with me? All I know is when he first came to Mid Atlantic, everyone said, that when he first showed up, we had great matches. I don’t know what happened, but he is what he is and that is what he is. Ole Anderson, I don’t know what to call him. To me Ole Anderson is garbage. Here is what he did to people, he is another coward, a garbage coward…when I came to North Carolina, Mid Atlantic,I didn’t realize they were doing this, but a couple of guys, Ole Anderson and Gene, now I respect Gene a lot, but I disrespect this. They were charging people to become pro wrestlers…they would have a group of four or five guys that showed up to try out…five hundred bucks for a tryout or whatever. So, I went to one of these tryouts and they had these guys running up and down the bleachers, doing all these exercises, hack squats, drill squats…they were grinding them. These guys were so blown up and then Ole Anderson would get in the ring with them and tell the guy, ok, let’s go. Hello, there dude, you got a big advantage there, don’t you think? The guy is all blown up and you’re going to get a hold of him and abuse him? Of course the guy don’t want to be a wrestler, you just ate him up…I called him out, I said, why don’t you do it like I do it, you cowards? What are you afraid? You have to take them when they are all blown up? That is pretty chicken to me, that is a coward to me. To do that to a kid and to know that you are going to hurt them…And Tully Blanchard is the biggest coward in the world…that is what I think about them…I don’t care what they call them, Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame, to me they are all cowards…”
Where the ‘heat’ between he and Tully Blanchard stems from leading to his getting stabbed: “…I got stabbed eight times trying to save his life in San Antonio, Texas. I don’t know why I didn’t die? I got stabbed eight times, through the arm, through the stomach, it just missed my liver, but not by far. I don’t know why, but I still stood there fighting and I almost bled to death…I refused to go down and kept fighting…when I got stabbed he took off running down the road like a coward. He was yelling, ‘ he’s got a knife, he’s got a knife.’ It was like, who is going to hear you, stupid? Why didn’t you do something? You never leave a brother behind, that is something that was drilled in me…you don’t let a brother down…that is how pro wrestling was billed to me, with Dicky Murdoch and Terry Funk that how it was told to me, it was part of the same ingredient when I was involved in any team, it was the principal, we all stick together…When this incident happened, it wasn’t me that started the incident, it was him and I came to his rescue. It wasn’t him that took the stabbing, it was me and then he went running off like a coward…it was building up in me for a while…I had all these things building up when I would see him. I saw him one day at WrestleCade, the fake preacher man with the little plate. Sometimes I just want to go over there and rip his throat out. Every time I see that man and the older I get, the harder it is…he is lucky…with the feeling I get, when I seen him walk around the corner, I just wanted to attack him and rip his throat out, to tell you the truth…”
His view of TNA’s current product: “…TNA is gone. TNA has been gone before it got started. You have a company where half the guys are paying their own expenses, renting themselves out to make money on the side. TNA is non- existent. It’s like you have Major League Baseball and they have Triple A, TNA is single A. It’s not even Double A in wrestling, it’s that bad, but the shame is, they have the talent, but they just don’t have an idea…”
Not winning the Crockett Cup due to a backstage fight between he and Tully: “…I just got sick of seeing him and his little horseman always kissing up to Jim Crockett…it just happened that one day, I don’t know what happened. We were all there and him and Lex Luger came by, they showed up. They walked into our dressing room. Me and Rude, we liked to dress with the underneath guys…we just sat away from Dusty, put it that way. Everyone else had to sit by Dusty. They made the mistake if turning into our dressing room, so I said, ‘Hey, this isn’t your dressing room, the ass kissers are on top.’ Well, he responded back with the wrong word and once that word came out, I just snapped. The only thing that saved his life, because when Lex Luger turned to come back in, Rude stood up and said, ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ And Lex Luger took off running, that tells you what a coward he is…But the only thing that saved Tully that day was the Barbarian. If it wasn’t for the Barbarian pulling me off him, I’d have never stopped beating him. I had already broken his glasses and I probably would’ve killed him…
Bruiser Brody‘s tragic death and going to Puerto Rico to get revenge: “…My background is being a navy seal and being a part of a brotherhood…you don’t let that brother go down without you…I just went down there and took care of some business, because that is a brother. Like I just said a while ago, it’s the same thing…If something is done to a brother, you go back and exact a little revenge for a brother. You get a little pay back, plain and simple…you have to ask yourself, how many of these guys are really legit? How many of these guys would go to another country to try and get payback…so there you go…”
In addition, “The Ragin’ Bull” spoke with honesty and pulled no punches in talking with Steve and the Scum further on each of the topics above as well as his transition from college football to breaking into the wrestling business, Dick Murdoch’s influence on him becoming a wrestler, working with the Funks, his time in Florida Championship Wrestling, his “love/hate relationship” with Dusty Rhodes, his memories of the late Rick Rude as a partner in the ring and as a friend, what influenced Rude jumping to the WWF and having to explain in the locker room when he had left, meeting and becoming friends with Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen, a classic road story with Dick Murdoch, partying while still in college with Andre the Giant, working with Abdullah the Butcher, the great tag teams of the Jim Crockett Promotions days, the origins of hardcore wrestling and his take on what hardcore meant in his day as opposed to what it became, whether he ever had interest in trying his hand working for the WWF, choking out Greg gagne during his AWA run, his memories working with classic performers including Bill Eadie, Andre the Giant, Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel, Ray Stevens, Magnum TAand others, a classic story involving the police and a brawl between Andre and Mulligan, disagreeing with how Ole Anderson and others tried to “break in” young talent coming into JCP in the 80’s, training wrestlers for his Lucha Extreme promotion, several of his trainees being invited to WWE’s performance center and working with them, his own personal visit to NXT and the performance center, and so much more
WGD Weekly with Steve and the Scum interviews a different legend from “Wrestling’s Glory Days” every week as a part of their show. You can find all of their previous shows and get updates and information on upcoming programming on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WGDWeekly or on Twitter @WGDWeekly. All shows are available on their YouTube channel and on iTunes.