Eddy Mansfield Asks why Jim Cornette Hates Him as they’ve never met, rips AEW, predicts Triple H’s Exit from WWE, more
An interesting chat with one of wrestling’s most unique personalities of all time! Don’t miss it! Check it out now!
Also, check out Eddy Mansfield on the nationally syndicated Mouthing Off radio show/podcast which you can find wherever you find your favorite podcasts. It boasts a lot of wrestling, sports, and talk about life. Mouthing Off! It just fits Eddy Mansfield perfectly!
Mouthing Off Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1InM0xCIxl7tVnoHfhCGpD
Mouthing Off Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mouthing-off/id1725407330
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EDDY MANSFIELD:
On what he talks about on Mouthing Off, his Nationally Syndicated Radio Show/Podcast:
“We talk about a little bit of everything. Major sports, wrestling. Mostly WWE because AEW is a joke. I mean, they don’t shoot it right. It looks like an independent. They have guys, they don’t know how to make stars. So, they do crazy things and it doesn’t mean anything. They can’t make stars. And, they have washed up announcers. You have 2 80 year old announcers and that idiot in a mask. Their announcers suck. Look at what WWE did. They went out and got Joe Tessitore. He’s a legitimate announcer, called Monday Night Football. If I was running AEW, I would fire all of my current announcers and go get guys like Rece Davis and guys like that. I mean, the dumb ass owner’s father owns an NFL team! Nobody wants to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars because they are like AEW, they suck! Their production looks like old school WCW. It is terrible.”
On calling the IWF versus how AEW calls wrestling:
“I called what was happening in the ring. I see Tony schiavone on AEW and he is a shit announcer. He’s always been a shit announcer. The only things he was ever good at is kissing ass and killing companies. Tony doesn’t understand anything about production. He’s a joke. Then there’s Jim Ross there sometimes. He’s another one. Is he the one that made Bill Watts successful? Hell no! What did Jim Ross ever make successful? Nothing! All he could do is steal froma blind guy, LeRoy McGuirk. I never had any respect for Jim Ross because I know he did that. LeRoy McGuirk was one of the greatest guys. If he told you something, you could take it to the bank. I was talking to his daughter Mike McGuirk one time…. LeRoy, he was an NCAA Champion. He went blind. That’s even tougher than being born blind. He was able to see the world and then couldn’t see the world anymore. He overcame that, James. It is a great story of triumph over tragedy. He proves you can win! He surrounded himself with good people. He is the one that gave Jim Ross a break. Gave him a chance. And, what did Jim Ross do? Worked with Bill Watts to steal his territory. That is sad. God is getting even with him now. I don’t deal with assholes. God deals with assholes. Ask Jim how his asshole is doing. It isn’t too good!”
On the CM Punk/Hangman Page Battle over Hangman “Not Listening to Veterans”:
“Page spoke like a true dumb ass. I have more shower time than Page has had ring time. So does CM Punk. And, where is CM Punk now? He’s about to main event a show in Saudi Arabia for the WWE on top. He’s fixing to make a couple hundred grand from that one show. When was the last time the Hangman ever made $100,000? Never!”
On the other wrestling companies other than AEW & WWE today:
“TNA is real successful, isn’t it? (sarcastic) It is like anything Jim Cornette and the dickhead from Nashville, what’s his name? The blonde headed guy? Jeff Jarrett. Jerry had the brains. He had the gold. He could make things successful. Jeff damn sure doesn’t have the brains. All he ever did was ride his daddy’s coat tails.”
On why he loved Joe Blanchard but disliked Tully Blanchard:
“Well, you’re asking me about the difference between a race horse and a jackass. I always told Tully that a jackass would never win the Kentucky Derby! Wahoo McDaniel was the guy who really gave me the break in Southwest. He told me I was like Ray Stevens, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair all in one guy. I was like, “Yeah, right. What do you want, Wahoo?” But, what I did is I cut a deal with Wahoo that I would come down to Southwest a couple times. I worked Wahoo and we had a sell out. Then we worked the sports arena in San Antinio, Texas with Tully on top. It seats about 23,000… We sold about 800 tickets. It wasn’t at all good! A year later, we were turning away people in the same place for me versus Scott Casey in a Hair versus Hair match. Not bad! Wahoo taught me a lot. I was real young. He didn’t teach me everything that was real good! (laughs) But, it was good!”
On what killed Southwest Championship Wrestling:
“There was one thing that killed Southwest Championship Wrestling. Do you know what that was? Cocaine!”
On Tessa Blanchard following in her fathers’ footsteps:
“Well, Tully abandoned her. She was raised by her mama and Magnum TA, Terry Allen. They raised her. She might have problems because of her father. (laughs) She seems to be doing something good, though. Her grandfather Joe was a great guy.”
On the Dallas Sportatorium being a special place but also a dump:
“It was special… And it was a dump! It was a dump that would come alive at about 8 o’clock for about 2 hours. I’ll tell you, if you went into Dallas, you had better be a heel, boy! I remember Scott Casey said he hated working Dallas and I said “You hate it because you’re a babyface.” Nobody was going to get over the Von Erichs. I remember Tiger Conway Jr. He was a good talent. But, they didn’t give a shit about him.”
On Terry Funk:
“I used to love ribbing Terry Funk. One of the greatest honors of my life was selling out in Amarillo without a Funk on the card in the same building they sold out a thousand times. I used to rib Terry Funk about that. Me and Tiger Conway Jr. did that. Amarillo was a great wrestling town. I used to love it.”
On his view of the Von Erich family:
“I was never a big fan of Fritz Von Erich because he killed all of his sons except for one. And, he really should have been the first one to die! (laughs) I remember working out at the Sportatorium with David Von Erich and Tommy Seigler. We used to work out together. I’ll never forget this… David and I got in a Corvette we had, he reached back into the back seat, brought up a wine bottle and said, “My dad is going to kill us all.” I will never forget that.”
On the idea to do IWF wrestling at a sound stage at an amusement park:
“Well, wrestling wasn’t drawing too wel regularly in the early 1990’s until the mid to late 1990’s. But, I had the idea to do something different. I don’t follow trends, I create them. Well, Mike Graham and Steve Keirn called me for the PWF. We did something together. We went in to Universal and Mike tried to talk like a big shot they shot him down so hard, his head was spinning. Mike was an idiot. He didn’t know how to talk to people. So, after that, he said, “I think we’re done.” I said, “Ok, bye.” And, i called Norman Rice, he was the Vice-President of Universal, and I said, “I needed to talk to you, Norman. Could you have (We’re not clear on the name) Smiley Miles from Los Angeles on the phone too?” And, I went in and cut a deal with Universal!”
On the belief that he was blackballed after the 20/20 special:
“Oh, I was blackballed! Nobody would book me anywhere. That is why I decided to do my own thing.”
On discovering a young Rob Van Dam:
“The Sheik sent Rob Van Dam to me. The Sheik and I got along well. He booked me all over the place. But, he sent me Rob Van Dam and he and I got along well. Looking back, I should have also brought Sabu in. But, there was not really a place for him to fit in right then. I should have found a way to make aplace.”
On his least favorite champion:
“The worst champion I ever had in the IWF – And he was a sissy taking bumps even though he was like a monster – was Mondo Clean. He went on to be Damien Domento. He was the shits in the ring. He couldn’t get over. That is why I switched it to Blackjack. Then I had Blackjack against “The Stomper” Neil Stewart. Neil Stewart is a movie star now. I got him Cop and a Half with Bert Reynolds. He came to me, I changed up his look, shaved his head. Neal came to me and said, “they want me.” I said, “Who wants you?” He said, “Henry Winkler. They want me to do a movie.” I said, “Are your bags packed?””
On the closure of the IWF:
“I closed the IWF. I chose to close the IWF. I had a production deal with Universal. So, I stayed on for almost 15 years. And, I produced close to 3,000 hours of television!”
On why he chose to close the IWF:
“The people I had made were ungrateful. So, I wasn’t going to stick around and keep working for these silly asses. Billy gunn, for example. His real name is Kip Sopp. If he had never met me, his ass would still be shoveling shit. That is where he’d still be right now. So, I got tired of all of them. The only two that never really did that were Rob Van Dam and Neil Stewart… And they are the ones who ended up getting really famous.”
On other companies using Universal Studios after him:
“WCW wanted Universal and tried to cut a deal with me. I wasn’t interested. So, they cut a deal with Disney and they managed to get themselves kicked out of Disney. They couldn’t make their guys behave. That was the one thing about me, I kept all my guys in the IWF in line. There were zero incidents. But, WCW got themselves thrown out of Disney so Eric Bischoff called Universal and tried again afterI had closed the IWF. I told them, “Go ahead. I no longer am doing wrestling.” So, that is how they ended up there.”
On feeling Blackjack Mulligan was more valuable than Sting in 1994:
“Absolutely! If I had to choose between Blackjack Mulligan and Sting, I chose Blackjack Mulligan over Sting. Why? Sting couldn’t draw. He couldn’t draw because his interviews were lacking. He couldn’t draw unless he was in there with Ric Flair or Hogan. But, it was Florida. Blackjack could talk, he could work. WCW offered me Sting to work out a deal over Universal at the time. I didn’t want him. I said, “We’ve got our own stars here. I don’t need your shit.””
On having access to the Universal properties:
“Nobody ever had that before and nobody probably ever will again. I could use whatever I wanted. I could have a Marilyn Monroe character, Beetlejuice…. I could film my promos in front of sets from the movies and we did. We filmed stuff right at Back to the Future. We had full access to whatever we wanted. That will never happen again.”
On Demolition having a brief run in IWF:
“Ax came in and cut a couple of promos but we never had them wrestle.”
On if he hoped people would think Odessa SLim was Dusty Rhodes:
“No! He was just a fat guy from Florida in a mask with a lisp.”
On why he is getting tired of talking about his 20/20 appearance:
“It just is old hat. Why don’t we talk about what the WWE is doing with LFG? They’ve got The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, the Dudleys, Mickie James, Booker T… And they’re all doing what? Exposing the business a hell of a lot worse than Eddy Mansfield ever did!”
On David Penzer saying they butted heads in the XWF:
“I love David. But, we didn’t see things the same way. When you work production, you see things differently than the ring announcer sees them. I have no problem with David at all. But, we disagreed on some things. It happens.”
On the issues that resulted in XWF not taking off:
“I got XWF in Universal. We did some shows to shop around. Jimmy Hart and the Nasty Boys were more interested in spending the money than making it work. So, it didn’t work.”
On seeing Liv Morgan get injured on RAW:
“Just last week, we saw Liv Morgan get hurt and that was such a shame. She’s a 9 and some change! But, she is good and she connects with people. Right now, though, Rhea Ripley ought to be their Women’s World Champion.”
On if Iyo Sky does it for him:
“(laughs) Are you kidding?”
On his thoughts of the WWE NXT show:
“NXT is a ghetto show. Enough of this DEI shit. There are a lot of great black wrestlers in the world. But, you should not get a shot just because of skin color. Sometimes that show looks like a ghetto show.”
On his thoughts on Triple H:
“I think Triple H’s days might be numbered. I just do. You know who has all of his guys lined up and could take over that spot right away? Paul Heyman. To me, Paul Heyman is the greatest mind right now in pro wrestling.”
On Vince McMahon:
“I wish Vince McMahon would come back. Do you know who got that company all these billions of dollars in rights fees? That was Vince McMahon who did that. TKO didn’t do shit. Then Triple H came sniffing around everyone’s ass and scratching away. Vince has the money. I wish he would open his own federation again. He could call Bonnie Hammer or any of his TV contacts and get a good deal right away. He’s got a proven history. ”
On Janel Grant having zero digital footprint:
“Oh, they washed it. I don’t have to guess, I know for sure. They washed her history online completely. Listen, she knew the deal. She knew what she was getting into when she did. I mean, I don’t know what went on and what didn’t go on. But, it seems like Johnny Ace is everybody’s husband to be. First it was Baba’s wife in Japan. Then it was Tom, Dick, and Harry’s wife. Now it is the Bella Twins’ mama. Now, how does he get out of this? Everything he has said all along was a lie? He was lying? Then he has a “Come to Jesus” meeting and now he’s going to tell the truth? That is not going to be good if it comes to a jury trial. I mean, come on.”
On if he’d work for WWE, AEW, or Vince McMahon if asked:
“It would depend on the money and the job title. I wouldn’t go in just for anything. I’d have to have some say. I’m not sure I’d go in for anything under Executive VP for anything.”
On Jim Cornette saying Eddy Mansfield wanted to be Ric Flair but wasn’t as good:
“I never said that. I never wanted to be Ric Flair. Why would I want to be Ric Flair? I’m Eddy Mansfield!”
On his issues with Jim Cornette:
“Jim Cornette was an arena rat. He used to take pictures for Jarrett. He was Jarrett’s stooge. He only got in because Jimmy Hart was bailing on Jarrett and they needed a manager…. And David Schultz chucked his ass out of the locker room.”
On what caused the issue between he and Jim Cornette:
“You know what is funny? I have never met Jim Cornette before in my whole life. Now, I know two of the members of the Midnight Express – Randy Rhoads and Dennis Condrey. But, I have never ever met Jim Cornette. How can he talk so much about a guy he’s never met? Hey, next time you talk to Jim Cornette, ask him about the money he stole from a guy named Rick Ruben to buy his house.”
On Cornette likely hating him because of the “exposing the business” aspect of the 20/20 documentary:
“Well, what about all the other guys that are exposing the business? I just named them. The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels… Hell, those guys (The Kliq) exposed the business in front of a crowd at Madison Square Garden. Where was Jim Cornette then? What does he have to say about them? I don’t know why he has so much to say about a guy he’s never met. I never want to meat the son of a bitch. He’s so overrated. It is like Dennis Condrey said. He talks to hear himself speak.”
