Baby Doll Sums Up TNA's Problems; Talks Trish Stratus, Working With Tully Blanchard
Nickla Roberts, known as 'The Perfect 10' Baby Doll in the NWA alongside Tully Blanchard in the 1980's, joined Inside The Ropes this past Thursday. Here are some highlights:
Working with Tully against Dusty Rhodes: "I was very fortunate because Dusty liked me and even though he didn't like Tully, we worked well together and I think that's why Dusty worked with us because Tully knew how to work against Dusty and not take anything away from him. Dusty was a phenomenal athlete. More than once he'd do a standing dropkick just to show people he could do it. Everyone talks about Ric Flair, but Dusty was as much if not more over than Flair was. Dusty was more of a man's man, son of the plumber. People just recognised with Dusty more than anyone else."
Thoughts on current crop of women in wrestling: "I liked Trish Stratus. She took it to a different level back in the day. Now with the girls, I love AJ, I don't know what it is. But the look on her face and how she sells a match. I really am a big fan of hers. I like the Bellas. The Bellas are good. Really all the girls from Mickie James to ODB, Velvet Sky, there's not a girl that isn't a star. There's so many stars, there's really good opportunities for the girls too.
Thoughts on Dixie Carter running TNA compared to old school promoters like Fritz Von Erich & Bill Watts: "She loves wrestling. I think she truly loves what she does even though she may not have a clue as to the right way to do it. She has that love and passion and I think overall she wants to have an excellent product. I'm just not a big fan of Hogan and I'm not a big fan of Bischoff just because of what their track record of business is. I mean Hogan's great in the ring, but business wise, he has a tendency to bring down promotions. With TNA, you kinda have to look at their numbers and look at their show... I want TNA to be successful.
"I wanna see newer guys. I love Bully Ray to death, but if I see him open up that show one more time saying 'Do you know who I am?' I don't care who you are, I wanna see someone new! I don't wanna see... and god bless him.... I don't wanna see a 50 year old Sting, I don't wanna see Hogan, I don't wanna see The Dudley Boyz. I saw those guys 20 years ago. I wanna see new guys, I wanna see Zema Ion, I wanna see the Joey Ryans, I wanna see the new guys coming up. I don't wanna see stuff that I saw 20 or 30 years ago. There's so many new stars that are out there, I don't wanna see Hogan anymore. I saw Hogan 30 years ago, I'm tired of seeing Hogan. And Brooke Hogan, god bless her, she's dumber than a bag of rocks. She could not do a promo to save her life. She can't even get 4 sentences out without goofing it up. They need to get someone else different in there, they really do because people are turning it off, they don't wanna see it anymore."
To hear the full interview where Baby Doll talks about breaking into World Class, Jake Roberts, working with Tully, The Wyatts and much more, head to facebook.com/theinsidenetwork.