its kinda sad that jim wilson is completely being railroaded. they sit him in between two screaming men, mocked by the host, and clearly the audience is composed of wrestling fans, wrestlers, and family members of wrestling. I think Jim Wilson is a class act. He also shows alot of restraint by not blowing up when being screamed at, cutoff, insulted, and threatened.
The guy was telling the truth but back in those days, calling wrestling fake was like trying to take away their business. They took it very personally.
I was in Mortons audience 3 times, and it was always great. As far as this episode is concerned, it makes me laugh that here we are 20 years later and basically all the things Wilson is saying are true. Like another poster said, Albano and Schultz are doing nothing more than staying character and protecting the business.
Crazy how much things have changed and everything that has came to light since this show. The ring boy scandle, the backstage racism. It was all true. David Schultz just clearly wanted to be loud and drown out any debate.
these wrestlers are soo pissed, because the guy in the suit was breaking kayfabe and saying, truthfully, that men were asked to job and matches were predetermined
+Rick Deckard Morton Downey real downfall was drugs, I like the show because it was different....... but have to admit when it got bad, Morton went nuts.
Thunderbolt Patterson is a wrestling legend and Pioneer! It is a shame to see these people disrespect him...If these guys were honest they would have agreed about blading and how promoters rip off the talent.....but they were in total Kayfabe mode....and poor Jim Wilson was abused for telling the truth....Very Sad!
I think it's safe to say that time has proven Jim Wilson right, and that Dr. D and Capt. Lou were just playing up their characters and trying to browbeat him.
Well, David Schultz played his character very well and was an accomplished entertainer, but he would have made a lousy lawyer. He didn't want to hit Jim Wilson because he didn't want Jim suing him. I guess nobody ever told the good doctor that throwing water at somebody is just as much an assault as hitting them; maybe not to the same degree, but it's still considered an assault in the eyes of the law which is an arrestable offense.
In the quote from Vince Mcmahon which Jim Wilson read out from that piece of paper is quite an eerie line ; "If they really did the things that they look like they are doing to each other, there would be a lot of dead wrestlers.", I know that the many deaths have came from things other than in-ring action alone, but that still sent a cold chill through my body when he read that out.
Thanks for posting. Loved when Roddy sprayed Downey Jr. at Wrestlemania V! A great time capsule! The beginning of the end of the old school Kayfabe era! xoxo The Clarences (robert, erin & leslie)
@@caps201 I was a kid in the 80s and went to WWF house shows. I can personally vouch that people knew then. NY promoter Jack Pfefer exposed the business back in 1934, and people really knew then, too. As for this episode, find part 5. An audience member asks why Vegas doesn't take action on wrestling. They are all left stuttering. Then he asks why all matches are billed as exhibitions and Mort cuts quickly to a commercial. Dr D, who hasn't shut up the whole episode, suddenly has nothing to say.
streetsofsouthphilly look I was probably 9-10 years old at this time and it was great imo. Maybe if I was a couple years older I would have seen thru it. I can’t lie I was believing I until then sheik and Dugan were caught on the nj gsp and busted for coke and weed I don’t remember the year that happened. Within a few months after that I moved on but before that it was a great time to be a kid and a fan when they were all protecting the business and holding the notion it was legit. I distinctly remember when orndorf did his heel turn on hogan and remember being devastated as a kid. It was just a great era. If it was billed as fake at that time i can’t imagine I would have ever cared to watch. I don’t know how people continue to watch today. Maybe I was spoiled back then but I loved it
The funny thing about this is Dr. Dave schultz did more whining then anyone when he hit the reporter Stossel saying it was "scripted and he was told to by the promoter to do it". So it shows when the shoe was on the other foot how much of a hypocrit he really was.. Lou Albano was before my time but he was very protective of Kayfabe and I respect his position on this and admire it as todays wrestling has no secrets and not even many kids belive in it like when i was a youngster in the late 80s.
It's still real to me dammit! Jim Wilson had a story to tell and knew he was in for a trial by fire on this show. Lou & Dr. D spewing lie after lie in some of the best kayfabe known to man. Very curious why Dr. D agreed to this since Vince dropped him cold for slapping John Stossel around.
Dr. D was only looking out for one person - himself. He had his own views on the profession where he made tons of money, and was only stating what those views were. He couldn't have given a damn about what Vince Jr. said or did.
Yeah, such a sympathetic figure to expose the business and screw with everyone's income during that time. He's a scumbag, just like anyone who would support his take.
@@streetsofsouthphilly Yeah, that's not true. Most people knew it was predetermined. But no one came out and proclaimed wrestling fake until Vince made it official in the 90s. You're on the outside. If someone is paying you to maintain an honor code, you keep your mouth shut and appreciate the people allowing you to put food on your table. Assuming your mommy is not doing that for you.
@@sanddune My grandparents, God Rest Their Souls, told me they watched Gorgeous George on TV back in the 1950s and I specifically remember them calling wrestling "fake". As far as Wilson, he wasn't working the business anymore. He got screwed for not submitting to be screwed. And Schultz got screwed by the business, too. I think the ring boy/steroid scandal did far more damage to the wrestling business than any expose on wrestling being "fake". And it showed Wilson was telling the truth.
You're right except BoBo "refused" the championship because of Buddy Rodgers "injury". He said that he didn't want to get the Championship because the other wrestler was "injured". It's so unbelievable to think that, even to this day, the NWA STILL doesn't reconize BoBo!! On all of the lists of Champions, Ron Simmons is still listed as the 1st African American Champion!!
lol they took my fat face haha yeah thanks for uploading this...i allways wanted to see some of his to show to begin with and now i get to see wrestling on it...true gem
Wow! This just took me back 25 years! I remember this episode! Rest in peace Capt. Lou and rest in peace Morton Downey Junior show! Thank God for RU-vid. I can re-watch a lot of these classics! It's amazing how stubborn wrestlers were in lying to the death that wrestling is not scripted or matches were not pre-determined! Even though when I used to tape matches watch guys missed clotheslines by 3 feet or miss punches by a foot and the guy still falls down! We as fans don't care! We know it's a show it's entertainment it's fun! The stunts, Athleticism and acting is real. the performers definitely rehearse their craft and train hard in the gym. Some even use steroids as a boost. But don't some college kids use amphetamines to keep them up at night so they can study all night for exams? Don't working class people drink alcohol or smoke which ever tobacco they choose as a mood enhancer or stress relievers? So substances in wrestling are just like substance use and abuse in other fields. But to call someone fake is so insulting. It's like calling someone a fraud or a liar. It's just insulting and ignorant
I think fake is a harsh word. It implies a person is phony. I think these guys are great actors and performers. What they do takes hard work, practice and dedication to perfect. The great times millions of fans around the world have are real. No one can take that away from us
Great stuff. Thanks for loading it up. Doc is a sycophant for Vince and all the ring leaders. He must've needed a napkin to clean the side of his mouth after that show.
Capt. Lou was toeing the kayfabe line here about blading, and he does so rather convincingly, but there is a great RU-vid video where he's 'beating' Jimmy Superfly Snuka with his puka shell headband, and Snuka obviously (and rather frighteningly) blades himself dead center on-camera to sell the beatdown. Lou's quite a guy, and that's the profession he chose, but the cat's out of the bag now about the backstage side of the wrestling business. Thanks for posting this.
☝️ of THE BEST wrestling 🤼♀️ entertainer/ manager Capt. Lou Albano ! I still die laughing 😂 and forget my problems till this day Dec. 21-22 watching this WWF legend “ The Captain “! R.I.P.
It's funny how this guy is fighting to regulate this sport at the time and exposing guys like Vince McMahon, who everyone is protecting, and it turns out that this guy was right all along! Lots of good wrestlers died because of bad regulations and McMahon cleaned up while they all suffered!
I do think that wrestlers working for billion dollar companies, like WWE, should get retirement provided much like the NFL. WWE is worth 2.3 BILLION DOLLARS at the close of the market today...I think they can afford to take care of those who are the "workers"...
This show aired in 1987, almost 2 years before Vince McMahon sent his wife to Congress to tell them that wrestling matches were prearranged (for the sake of not having to pay costs for state athletic commissions).
It's easy to feel sorry for the poor guy telling the truth in the midst of all this. But we've got to understand the context of the time. This was the 1980's and these guys are desperately trying to defend their way of living- and the huge secvret that lay at the centre of it (Kayfabe) The ironic part is that a lot of what he was suggesting like benefits etc- the guys slating him most likely agreed with on various levels. It's a fascinating glimpse into another time though.
Jr's show was scripted chaos that's why wwf associated with him so much but in this case it was just pro wrestlers in general going along with the show
How stupid are Albano and Shultz ripping into Wilson, cause Wilson thinks they (the wrestlers) should be better looked after by the promtors with more pay and medical benifits... We won't even discuss the stupidty of Albano and Shultz playing the con game about wrestling being a real unscripted sport!!!!
Lou Albano's entire thoughts on this show can be summed up: "10 seconds of wrestling talk- 30 seconds of 'I'm not finished, wait, hold on, I'm not done, wait a minute, OH ALRIGHT!'"
This guy Jim was not trying to take away business from wrestlers. If you pay close attention his beef was with the promoters and he saw the unfairness in the business because he experienced it. He wanted to put the promoters in the hot seat to get the wrestlers benefits and better pay. All those old timers died penniless and in ruin. They would have done a lot better if they had joined this guy in his crusade. But they didn't. They were too focused on eating all they could eat today and not tomorrow.
Thank you,sir!I'm still convincing people of that very same thing.With all due respect to UFC fighters who are superb athletes,how many of them can cut an entertaining promo like Roddy piper or do a hurricanrada of the top of the cage like Super Crazy?
Captain Lou Albano is old school and is protecting the industry's integrity by refusing to break kayfabe when Morton Downey Jr. asks him about matches' outcomes being predetermined.
Kofi Kingston, MVP, Elijah Burke, , Shelton Benjamin, Elix Skipper, Consequences Creed, D-Von, Monty Brown (maybe if he resurfaces), and many of Hispanic and Pacific Islander origins (mentioned because along with African Americans those are two other groups protected against discrimination in employment by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act). Also one of the biggest stars of all time was black & Samoan, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. So there are opportunities out there for minority wrestlers.
I remember back in 1992 (about 5 years after this show), Jim Wilson was attempting to create a union of professional wrestlers. The reasons were so that the wrestlers could be protected and properly represented (just like in baseball and football). But considering that he and Eddie Mansfield exposed the business years earlier on 20/20, no wonder it didn't work out (among other reasons).
Funny hearing lou talk about never blading when next to Abdullah and flair Lou was the biggest blader of them all they used to say that the more Lou drank before the match the more he bladed and the deeper and bigger his cuts got there were times he had to go to the hospital cuz of how out of control his blading got and all the alcohol in his system he would almost bleed to death
Absolutely true. There are more opportunities today for minorities in wrestling than in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's. One guy I always felt bad for was Junkyard Dog. Never held a championship belt of any kind in WWF/E, even though at one time I think he was second only to Hogan in popularity.
I was ringside and watched a cutting take place it was quick but it was what the crowd wanted to see was bloody matches 🤷♂️ Edit: It was Dusty Rhodes vs Blackjack Mulligan and they are cousins
I don't know what their talking about Albano and Schultz what's wrong with having benefits through the Industry during and after you retire or did I miss something. Their are wrestlers who retired after years of entertaining huge crowds and put mind and body on the line every night and have nothing to show for it. Some of that I am sure was Their fault especially those who were getting paid good money, but others were underpaid especially if they had no agent.
This episode aired in 1988, 3 years after the 20/20 episode and 1 year after Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Iron Sheik were caught driving in the same car. McMahon doesn't it make official until the next year, but the genie was out of the bottle at this point. Efforts by Lou and Dr D and Ted Arcidi to protect kayfabe were a day late and a dollar short.
As much as I detect a bit of an disingenuous tone of the guy with the toupee', he did make very salient points and Dr. D was just plain, out of his mind, which today, would probably by diagnosed as roid-rage.
That's what is so funny about this stuff. It wasn't all that long after this that Vince came out and said it was prearranged and meant to be looked at as entertainment. Now, it's a spot fest.
