Gerald Brisco On Advice He'd Give Roman Reigns, Staying True To Yourself, Playing A Stooge
Episode #269 of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling welcomes a WWE Hall of Famer, a former 3x NWA World Tag Team Champion and one half of the legendary Brisco Brother's tag team (alongside his brother Jack) as Gerald "Jerry" Brisco joins the show. Discussing first what the Brisco name means in the world of wrestling, Jerry dives immediately into how he and his brother Jack made it a point to have a style that would be unique for the amateur wrestlers in the business to maintain their intense competitive spirit while working pro wrestling. In addition to that we learn why Jack and Jerry were so successful in competing all over the world and why very few teams could match their toughness and skill inside the squared circle. In this excerpt, Brisco gives a great retrospective look at his time serving as one of Mr. McMahon's "Stooges" during the Attitude Era. The full episode can be downloaded at this link.
Could current WWE Superstars be successful in the previous generations of wrestling:
"I tell that to guys now. There are guys in this era right here and now that could get over back in mine and there are guys in mine that could definitely get over in this one here. It's not the gimmick. It's not the storyline because our storyline's are simple and it not that a lot of individuals didn't have a lot of gimmicks but it's the person behind it. It is that person that works his ass off every night in the ring and stays consistent and stays true to himself. Stone Cold Steve Austin and my son Wes have become very good friends and Stone Cold's advice to Wes every time he talks to him is be yourself. Stay true to yourself and I couldn't say it any better but coming from Stone Cold to Wes means a hell of a lot more than me telling my son the same thing."
How can Roman Reigns benefit from that advice:
"If he just stays himself and doesn't change (the people are going to hate him and the people are going to love him) but look at John Cena. He is one of the most revered guys but in the beginning people loved and then hated and still they love / hate him, but he is still one of the most revered guys there is. Stay true to yourself and don't get off course and don't let people talk you into changing, don't let the fans convince you that you need to change. Just be yourself and pretty soon they will see this is who you are. That is my advice to these young guys and if you believe in something than make it yours and make it work."
Being recognized as a "Stooge" during the Attitude Era:
"I had more fun doing that than anything I had done in my life. I used to rib Pat Patterson all the time that he and I worked all of our careers trying to be a legit tough ass and considered a top class in ring technician but the last three or four years we are going to go down as Stooges and how does that make you feel (laughing)? And he would get so damn pissed at me for saying that. But I loved it. I'd take every finish that I could take and I volunteered to do it because I just wanted to say that I did it. I was 55 years old and having a ball in my life."
"Here you are getting exposed to a completely different generation of fans and customers that you never touched before and some weren't even alive when you were working that hard. It was such a thrill and I look at it as that I was blessed by another generation of fans and I was extremely thankful for the opportunity, had a ball doing it and if I had the opportunity would do it all over again if I could."
Favorite Mr. McMahon and The Stooges segment:
"One that I don't see a lot but one that everybody tells me is their favorite is that time that The Stooges and Vince went to Texas in search of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince didn't know this but I had got with the waitress and told her to do this one thing and he (Vince) kind of flipped. We went and we searched all the honky tonks and searched all the gun shops and there was no Stone Cold. Finally we got hungry and went to a steakhouse and Vince wanted a nice big steak. So we find this nice little joint on the corner. He was pissing the waitress off legitimately even though she knew we were coming but she kept getting pissed at Vince because here is this Yankee telling them how to prepare a barbeque.
"He'd say they don't have any real steaks so just bring him their best brisket. So she was getting hot and finally I said something to her, she got pissed and (I had told her to do this) she took a big bowl of baked beans and poured it in on my cowboy hat and course that splashed on his probably $7,000 Armani suit and he got all pissed off. But we had a ball doing it. There were flubs and of course I'd get a little tongue tied backstage and Pat with his English not being the best to Vince's liking it always got a little crazy but we had so much fun with the three of us."
Being part of the highest rated segment in RAW history with The Mean Street Posse:
"Isn't that phenomenal? You can go back on each one of our segments and each one of the segments they had on The Stooges would be the peak of the show. I give props to and if you haven't read Pete Gas's book "Looking At The Lights" it is a tremendous read. They were tremendous young men and those guys were so much fun to work with. They did everything they could to help us along and we had a ball in that match and ended up having the highest rated segment of Raw all time with over 8 million people tuning in to see that thing. Of course we also parodied Terry Bollea but what the hell (laughing)."
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