IFH 803: From Wrestling Rings to Public Access Mayhem: The Wild Ride of Mad Man Pondo

Alex Ferrari 0:07
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Without further ado, this week's episode as a guest who is a pro wrestler, TV personality and author of the new book, Memoirs of a Mad Man, which covers his entire 30 year career. Just, you know, it's not just a wrestling book, and he's gonna touch on that as well in this episode, you know, we're gonna chat all about becoming an agent for the Jerry Springer Show, creating his own public access TV show, participating in a demolition derby. And just, generally fun, crazy stories. And I honestly, this is a guy I've been trying to get on for a while, and then when I saw he came out with this book, I just finally, I was able to get him to come on. And finally he agreed to and said yes to come on with guest Mad Man Pondo.

Mad Man Pondo 2:38
Hey, thank you, man. For giving me time to talk about the book and whatever else want to talk about, and I'm ready to roll with you are

Dave Bullis 2:49
And you know, Pondo, it's funny because you and I have actually met way, way back in the CCW days. I was actually, I was a, you know, I used to go to all those shows back then. And I have a picture somewhere in my room. I have a picture of us, and it's you, myself, and Bridget, the midget. And it was, and it was just, it was hilarious, because I always use that photo, and I showed it, I used to show it to people, and people were like, it just looks like a story. That just an interesting story behind because Bridget has a bottle of wine with her. And, yeah, it's just, it's just, it's just funny, because, you know, it looks like there's such an interesting story behind it. And I was like, Well, let me tell you about Pando, and then I'll tell you about Bridget. And then, you know, I'm not that interesting, but you know, at least I, at least you guys are interesting.

Mad Man Pondo 3:34
There's a bunch of stories behind that. There's actually a few of them in the book, but, yeah, Bridget's real cool. We still talk today, and, you know, I get hit in the head a lot. I can't even remember her having a wine bottle or taking a picture, but, yeah, maybe put that on my Facebook sometime. That picture,

Dave Bullis 3:55
Yeah, I will do Pondo. I'll have to find it. I've been I it got kind of lost in the shuffle with all my other stuff as I've moved, but I'm gonna find that again, and I'll post that. But you're just just to get started. Pondo, you know, I wanted to ask you how you actually got started, you know, doing all this, all the wrestling and in the movies. So, you know, just to get started. You know, how did you get involved with wrestling? Did you watch a lot of wrestling growing up?

Mad Man Pondo 4:21
Man, did I this was all in the book, but I'll go ahead and tell you, but So at a very young age, I always realized my family is very reserved, and, you know, not like, super religious, but just never wanted to be the center of attention, and me and my brother would always go to family dinners on Sunday at my great grandma grandpa's house, and everything, you know, was pretty calm and and, but the cool thing was, we. And Evansville wrestling channel seven would come on out of Memphis, Tennessee, Jared King Lawler and Bill Dundee and all them guys. My great grandma and grandpa would lose their nuts like, you know, talking about dirty motherfuckers and and, you know, and me and my brother, we were just blown back that my great grandma and grandpa was talking like this, but it made me an instant fan of professional wrestling, just a good time that I would have listened to them. So at an early age, I told my mom and my dad that that's what I was going to do. I was going to be a professional wrestler, and my mom to this day, still has a paper from my school, grade school. It said, draw a picture of what you want to be when you grow up. And kids were drawing police officers and doctors and, you know, kiss ass. Kids was drawing teachers. Well, mine had a ring with two stick people wrestling, getting ready to wrestle each other, and that's what I put I want to be a professional wrestler. So my mom still has that paper today, and over the years, that's what she would hear. I want to be a professional so I want to be friends. So then it, you know, I was okay. So I'll give you this scenario. I lived in Florida, Illinois, an hour and a half to the West was St Louis, Missouri, which had wrestling at the chase. An hour to the South was Carmine, Illinois, Harrisburg, Illinois, and infield, Illinois, and that had Angelo potholes. I CW an hour and a half to the east was Evansville, Indiana that had CWA, which started the uswa Jeremy King mall, or Bill Dundee. Five hours to the North was Chicago, that just had everything, you know, Awa, WWF and WCW and Windy City and all these companies. And there was a guy named Roy West junior, and as long as you did good in school, he would take you, you know, to these wrestling shows. So I've been going to live wrestling shows since childhood, and then, excuse me, and then it I was friends with a college teacher named Milton Smith, and he called me on the phone one time and said, Hey, I have a professional wrestler in my class, and I said, please get the guy's telephone number. And he got it to me, and he said, Are you trying to get tickets out of the guy? And I said, No, this is my chance. I'm going to call this guy and become a professional wrestler. The guy's name was Terry Runyon, and he was in a team called the sensational Hill bullies, excuse me, I'm so sorry. I wrestled last night and I was healed. I yelled and my throats all scratchy, but so I called Terry ruggin and started school that very next week with a guy named Bud Chapman out of only Illinois. Both those guys are passed away now, but they were both the two that gave me a chance at professional wrestling. And you know, it's not just on my account, but everybody that was in that class says that I'm the one that, you know, I'm the only one that went far out of Bud Chapman school, which makes me feel pretty good, but that's where it started. It wasn't our core. It was just basic wrestling bit. So after I learned as much as I could out of Bud Chapman, Chris here, Chris champion, who just passed away, also, I started going down to wrestle for him, and then Bill Dundee at its furniture store, and I was villa, I started wrestling for him, and things just took off. And then I met Ian rotten and became retarded, landed in stuff, and here I am today.

Dave Bullis 9:21
And no worries, Bondo, about your voice. By the way, my, I'm actually sick right now, so if I said a little little bad, or you hear me, you know, hacking or something, that's what. That's what, what's wrong with me. But well, you know, you mentioned, you know, wrestling school and how you had to get connected. And, you know, do you look around today and you see all these different wrestling schools. I mean, do you ever, I mean, do you ever think to yourself like, my god, it's kind of the the ease of, of sort of access, is so much easier now, because, you know, they're, they're publicly, you know, mentioned these schools now, like, you know what I mean, like, they're positive promoted, and then they're all over the place now.

Mad Man Pondo 10:05
Well, I will say this, but when I got into wrestling, things were so much rougher, like I hear kids today get trade and not what job or, you know, don't pick me up and body slightly, just ridiculous stuff that I hear today. But the thing about it is, when I got into wrestling, then we got me and my best friend, Leslie Thompson, which, you know, we always called flick. It was part no flick, week after week after week. Tried to show these guys that this is where we wanted to be. You know, we'd go home with black eyes, busted lips. These guys didn't give too much care about our welfare. And finally, flick Toby, he's like, Man, I'm not paying to go down there and just get my ass kicked week after week. I'm like, well, it's gonna pay off someday, trust me. Well, he quit. I kept going, and now I'm the only one. There was two others where I got a small break. Now I'm the only one. So for about another three weeks, it was pretty bad. But finally, some more students came, and things got easier on me, because I wasn't the new guy anymore, plus, I'm kind of funny, so everybody kind of liked me, you know. So everything fell into place for me as a school. But, you know, I don't hate on how many wrestling schools there are, because the thing about it is, say there's 10 wrestling schools in the area. There's going to be one to two stars that go far out of those schools. So, you know, who knows? If say Joey Ryan, who's pretty huge though, if he didn't go to one of those, one out of 10 schools, would he be a star today? So, you know, those wanted kids schools just like me, I branched out, kept going, and and, you know, I'm not a star, but whatever you think about me is what I am. But you know, you got to have schools for future stars. And since we're on the subject, to also say, you know, it's just like what you said, okay, so always make sure the school that you go to is can can help you get a little farther. You know, the real honor school, let's Thatcher school to talk to, Tony as a school, you know, guys like that, that could get you just a little farther to help you get your name out there, Billy Bob's school, or John Smith School that he just bought a ring and put up in a barn and and, you know all the dress was have tennis shoes, maybe not the best choice. Always make sure the school we go to has a little bit of rep to it, where you should go a little farther?

Dave Bullis 13:28
Yeah, you know, that's good advice. Pond. Oh, so, you know, I even saw that. You know, Gangrel has a school now and more, and Ricky Morton has a school now. So I figured an excellent school. Yeah, I figured both most, most wrestling fans have heard of either one of those guys?

Mad Man Pondo 13:43
Right at she has a school out of California. You know, there's guys that I mean, adult, I might say this about every school that people don't know about, but, uh, you know, just make sure whoever owns the school that they care about the other wrestlers, not just the guy who says, Hey, make sure your dues are paid, and has everybody else go in and and train you. You know, always make sure it's somebody who cares about you.

Dave Bullis 14:16
Yeah, and that's, that's true too. And you got to make sure that, you know, you're not just $1 sign, right? You're actually, they're actually there to make sure see, you develop and succeed and and, you know, it's not just kind of like, hey, you know, give me your money and now go fuck off. Right? Exactly, you know, Panda, one of the stories that I can't remember. It's in the book, but I remember hearing this. You tell the story on Hannibal's podcast, where you know you wanted to, you had the opportunity to go to Japan to wrestle, and you had to drive all the way home to make a tape. I think that I love that story, because that just shows you your determination. And I love stories like that because it's kind of like my. Know, what are you willing to do, or how are you willing to pay your dues, to sort of follow your dreams. So if you don't mind, you know, would you mind retold that story, just for those listening,

Mad Man Pondo 15:10
I was wrestling Abdullah the butcher in Overland, Missouri, and I believe I was leaving League of I believe I was living in either Florida, Illinois or Louisville, Kentucky. Man, I swear my brains are beat out, and I forget things so much, but I'm doing the butcher. After I got, we got done wrestling, was really happy with that match. And he said, kid, you got it, you know, you need to, you need to go to Japan. And when he said that, I was a flabbergast of of excitement. So he said, uh, I'll tell you what. I'm going to Japan in four days. So if you can get me a video tape by the time I come back, when I go back to Japan, I will take your video tape and see what I can't do for you. I didn't let that slide the you know, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Anyway, so from old Missouri, I drove straight home, got my two VCRs together, put the cables in, stayed up all night, make this video tape, and was at the post office when it opened. I think I rested him on a Friday. So it was, it was going to be open from nine to noon. The post office is going to be open from nine to noon on Saturday. Went to the post office overnighted. I don't remember back then, it wasn't as bad as what it is now. I think it was like 24 bucks or something like that. Overnighted, this video tape to Abdul was restaurant, and then three, within three days, he called me on the phone and said, Damn champ, you really want to go to Japan, don't you? I said, Yes, sir, I do. He took the videotape that time, and the next time he went, I was going to so not only was he telling the truth, but he also realized the determination that you know, that that was my dream. Never WWE, WCW, none of the big companies my dream was. I wanted to go to Japan and wrestle, and 43 trips there and back. I believe I exceeded my dream pretty hard.

Dave Bullis 17:28
Yeah. And it also shows, again, you know, what I was, you know, just saying before, you know, it really just shows you were willing to just do whatever it took. Because, you know, other people would, it may have just been like, Well, shit, I don't have anything ready. Do. I really want to drive all the way back? Then have to edit a tape together then send it out. You know what I mean, like? So you actually just, you know, just drove back, and it was like, wasn't even a thought. It was like I had another option. I guess I just got to do this

Mad Man Pondo 17:51
All the way home. I was thinking of what matches to put on this, on this video tape. So if that tells you how determined I was that, you know, like I remember, and I had it for the longest time, and I don't anymore. I've been divorced and broke up with chicks so much that, or they broke up with me, however, but stuff skip left behind. But I had the snapkin that had the matches that I wanted to put on it, and the listing of of how I wanted to do it. So yeah, the minute he said that, that's all I could think of was, hell yeah, I can't wait to get home and make the state. And another funny thing, yeah, when Hannibal, when I was on his podcast, he asked me, he was like, so how did you get in Japan? And I was like, man, I was hoping you wouldn't ask for this, but Abdullah got me over there, but it wasn't comfortable, was what I thought it was. But, yeah, he really didn't even act like it fazed him. And so there's that story,

Dave Bullis 19:08
So when you finally were able to go to Japan, I mean, that was your dream. So that first, you know, that first tour, that first day that you kind of set foot on Japanese soil, you know, what did that feel like Pondo?

Mad Man Pondo 19:20
Well, of course, this was before cell phones. But there was a thing at the airport that said, Welcome to Japan. I just sat there, and I looked at it for a minute, and then so people walking by, I had them take my picture. You know, of course, it wasn't a digital picture. It was a this was before anything modern, so it was just one of those little disposable cameras, but I took, like, four or five pictures in front of the side that said, Welcome to Japan. I had made it you know, that was the dream. And there I was. I had three dreams growing up. I wanted to be the demolition therapy. I wanted to marry an Asian chick. What wrestle Japan, and I pretty well exceeded all three

Dave Bullis 20:25
So and so you actually did end up going into a demolition derby.

Mad Man Pondo 20:30
I sure did. My car was decked out in horror movies like I had Chase hood, leather face, Freddie. Michael Byers, tall man. Jack Nicholson from the shiny I mean, my car looked look like sorted out of a comic book when I was done. But yeah, I my buddies Sam Delaney and Robert Delaney knew how bad I want to be. The boys to therapy. They they sold me a car for 200 bucks, helped me put it together, and yep, I got to a divolistic Derby.

Dave Bullis 21:05
So, so did you end up? Did you end up winning?

Mad Man Pondo 21:11
No, not at all. Maybe, maybe I didn't understand that you're not supposed to hit people hard and save your car. And there was a guy who was kind of sandbag and ladder up right around the entrance to where he wouldn't get pushed up on a log. So I went from one end of the of the track to the other. Hit this guy, and when I did it, not my accelerator off. It was like it was laying down on the floor. And after that, I knew I was done.

Dave Bullis 21:48
See, I would have made that same mistake pond, though. I would always say, get the idea is to just wreck as much stuff as possible, right? So, yeah, I mean, hey, you know that's awesome, man, you're able to at least do that. And again, by the way, that's a really cool idea for a car. By the way,

Mad Man Pondo 22:04
It was so cool. And of course, my number was Friday the 13th,

Dave Bullis 22:11
So 513 was the name of the car.

Mad Man Pondo 22:14
Yes, number 13.

Dave Bullis 22:18
That's really cool, man. Would you ever do another demolition derby?

Mad Man Pondo 22:24
Actually, there is a tag team called the Mercy Brothers out of there, out of strictly insane pro wrestling in cross hill, Illinois, and there is a demolition derby where you can have a rider with you. And one of them asked me if I wanted to ride with the boys and Derby. And I said, Hell yeah, I'm there till January. I'm not going to be driving, but I will be in another demolition derby.

Dave Bullis 22:53
That's cool. So you're going to be kind of like, you can actually give him advice too. You might tell him, like, hey, look, don't, don't just smash, don't drive across the track full speed and smashing to somebody.

Mad Man Pondo 23:03
I think he's done a few, so I think, you know, he's, he's got it, but that was my first and only one, and I didn't have it at all

Dave Bullis 23:13
But I would have made that same mistake,

Mad Man Pondo 23:16
Right!

Dave Bullis 23:18
So Pondo you know, as you, you know, continue your career. You were doing wrestling and all the independence, you got a you actually started your own public access show. And this is really cool, because, you know, I again, I've heard the story before, and I've read it in your book, but you were able to start your own public access show called skull talk TV. And, you know, it's so interesting. So could you do tell everybody, you know, you know how you got able to, how you able to start this show, and you know how, what the theme, whole, you know, theme and format of the show was,

Mad Man Pondo 23:52
Well, I was working for IWA, mid south, and an older gentleman like, I don't think, I don't even think I saw him at another show, but an older gentleman was coming over and telling me he he really liked my stuff, you know, that I was a good character. And he started telling me that this wrestling should be on TV here in Louisville for that. He said, There's a, there's a company called back, any better what day is called, excuse me, let me get a drink real quick. And you know, the wrestling is horrible. He said, You know, you guys should try and do something on public access I told him. I said, Well, Ian sells these DVDs. I'm pretty sure he's not want to give them away, free on a public access show. So he said, You know, I try to watch Public. Access as much as I can. But one of the biggest problems with it is they, they could do whatever they want on public access. And I was like, really? He was like, yeah, they could cuss and they can say as much as the effort on there. I was like, I'm appalled. And then next thing he said, and you know, what else they could do? They could have nudity on there. And I was like, no kidding, and I just act like I was so disgusted. But by the next week or two, I had a public access show on on there, just by that guy telling me what I could couldn't do. But it was called, call, talk. It was one of the best and worst ideas I ever had. I I was a big Cape trader back in the day, but I still had a whole bunch of those video tapes. And what I did was I would put together, I had two VCRs, and I would edit, edit everything myself, and I would have topless or naked girls sitting on my lap, and I would introduce different wrestling matches, and then we would play them, and it was just a half hour show, but, you know, I'd have, like, old matches from Florida with Jimmy Delray. I do believe I had a, I don't remember what the matches was, but the cool thing was, I had these naked chicks sitting on my lap for no apparent reason, just that there was naked chicks sitting on my lap. Now one of the rule, well, not one, but there was a few rules. You couldn't advertise anything. You couldn't show penis, which I wouldn't anyway, and you couldn't show penetration. Well, I this was back when web TV. Do you remember web TV? Yeah, yeah. I had a web TV. Well, you could put your email address at the bottom there. So I put my my web TV address, which would really activate everybody was Mad Man Pondo in the house, which was long enough, and then you had to put at Web tv.com so everybody who was best for me had to write out that whole thing, Batman, pondo in so that was at the bottom which my every episode, my inbox would just be full 50/50, 50% of People. Oh, I love this show. This is so funny. What a great idea. The other 50 was all hate, and I think it's a public outfit show. I think they was having a little fun with either me or or the other shows. But I was in the middle of two religious church shows. There would be a religious church show, naked chicks on my lap, and then another religious church show, and this one preacher, every episode would just, you know, write this. He'd put scripture on my in my inbox, and, you know, tell me how fast I was going. To Hell, I tried, yeah, just all this stuff. So finally, it got down to being a little bored of it, and I had a girl use a vibrator on herself, and that was considered penetration. So they called me on the phone and said, I'm sorry we're not going to be able to play your TV show anymore. Was because I was kind of bored, not because the girls were such a problem. You know what? What you think could take 10-15 minutes was taking hours because the girls had to pee, or, you know, they wanted to check their makeup, all this shit. So I really just let it go. And that was after, I believe, 17 episodes. And finally, that after maybe a month, month and a half that cable cut the public access people called me back and said we was wondering if you could keep on doing those shows, because people was was ordering cable just to watch your shows, and by then I was done with it. I said, No, I'm not interested. Thank you. But it was a good feeling knowing that that many people watched it or talked about it to the public access show that they would call me and ask me to come back.

Dave Bullis 29:46
Yeah, because, I imagine, because they weren't really going to pay anyway. So you're probably, you know, it was kind of like a, you know, really like a no brainer for you, right, right,

Mad Man Pondo 30:04
Exactly.

Dave Bullis 30:04
So, you know, potty you mentioned the girls, you know, how would you approach girls, you know, to come on, to come on. Skull Talk?

Mad Man Pondo 30:12
Tower of Doom was running a company in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there was only strippers around. So that's where it started, first the strippers from his shows, and then every episode I would put on web TV. Hey, if you'd like to appear, if you're a hot chick and you'd like to appear on public access on my show, please email me. Well, then the email started coming in. And out of every 10 girls, you might get one or two, but that was good enough for me, you know, because that it was coming to my house, and we would put up a backdrop and and film them. But like I said, it was just like, one would say, Oh yeah, I'm so into this. And then, you know, here we'll wait on her one hour, two hours, all right, she's not coming. But when those ones that did show up, you'd be excited about it. You're like, alright, we got another episode two. And like I said, two or three hours into them, just being divas. It was just so rough, so rough at the end of the night. So yeah, I was ready for it to stop, but couldn't stop, because one, I was just I was just so into the TV show, because I would go to restless shows, and people would say, Man, I saw that call talk episode. It was so awesome. And two, I couldn't let these religious guys beat me. But there was even a point where I took my own video tape to the public access station, and as I was walking in, the guy that had a religious show on before mine was walking out. We didn't say nothing to each other, but he stared at me all the way in, and I stared at him all the way, you know, so, I mean, it was time for it to stop, and when they called us if I would continue, I was I had already taken a break from it and didn't have the headaches and the problems with it. And I was like, Nah, I'm not interested,

Dave Bullis 32:34
Yeah, especially when you're doing it for love of the game, right? Because I had a friend of mine who was a he was to do photography. And every so often, like, you know, he did professional photography, you know, he did different models and stuff. So every so often, you know, you know, friends of his, you know, would say, hey, I want to come in. And would you give me, you know, a discount on something? So he would generally just say, hey, look, we've known each other for a while. If you come in on a Sunday at like, you know, I don't know, like, noon or whatever, or 10am he's like, I'll just, I'll give you a whole session for free, because, you know, I'm not gonna nickel and dime you. And you know, they would say, Oh, thank you. I'm so I can't wait. And he would drive to his studio, and he would wait and wait, and they would be, like, an hour or two hours late, three hours late. And finally, he would just be like, you know, be texting him. And then they would get there and be like, we don't know what to wear. Should we not do this? Blah, blah. And finally, he just goes, I'm not doing this for anybody anymore. He's like, they have to pay me now to do this, just because it became so it became a beast onto itself,

Mad Man Pondo 33:35
Right! Exactly. You wouldn't think it would you think it would just be something so easy of somebody coming in, sitting on my lap. You know, they don't have to talk, they don't have to do nothing, they just have to show their kids. That's it. But that was just such a chore for time after time. And you're just like, I'm sick of this, yeah? Which is really saying something. When a guy says, Man, I'm sick of these titties. Get dude out of here. Yeah,

Dave Bullis 34:04
That should be a quote from you, pondo, I'm sick of these titties. Get him out of here. There you go. You know, Pondo, in your book, by the way, I have to ask. There was a you said on the public access. There was a you turned it on one day, and there was a show called I eat poop.

Mad Man Pondo 34:20
Yes, that was the that was the when the old guy told me about the shows. I started a I started watching some public heads to see what the guy was talking about. And that was one of the shows I poop.

Dave Bullis 34:35
So is he I guess this is a dumb question on my part. Is it, is it exactly what it sounds like, or is it different?

Mad Man Pondo 34:43
No, it was just four or five guys doing their best at like Saturday Night Live skits, but failing horribly. But you know they would train the fuck word and you know they would have a good. Girls with small outfits on, but not totally nude. And, and I didn't, you know, it was just funny that there was a show on called ie poo, but of course, they would cut so people would like it. But then when skull talk, come on, and there's actual naked girls, and, you know, not just tits, there's vaginas and and, you know, I'm fuck this and suck that, and I don't know, I guess it just people was more amazed about that and tuning in. I don't even take you had to be a wrestler fan to watch my TV show. It was just so a shock value that it was on TV that people would tune in, but they're religious guys, man, they would talk about how terrible it was, but they would watch every episode and write me so, you know,

Dave Bullis 35:56
No, I was gonna say They're closet fans Pondo,

Mad Man Pondo 35:59
Exactly,

Dave Bullis 36:02
It kind of reminds me a few years ago, Howard Stern used to direct people to the what is it like the parents watch group? Because basically this parents watch group, well, on their website, they they had a they had a collection of all the worst things on the internet. I was like, Oh my God, look at this. This is awful. We got to boycott this. Or, oh my God, look at this. Well, it accidentally became this, like hub. Now, for all of this, like, awful stuff that people could like, Oh, you want to do something bad, go to the people in charge of decency, quote, unquote. And it was like, it was just this big collection of stuff. And then they had to, like, they had to, like they had, they started to realize all these people were coming to their site. And it was like it was made it even easier to access all the stuff

Mad Man Pondo 36:48
I do. The same thing with there's a there's a website. It's called Bad numbers.com and what bad numbers.com is, it's a website that will put numbers that people have called their number, their number. And you know, it's like the Microsoft scammers or the FBI is about to rest you if you don't give us this money, scammers. And the reason the website was made was so you don't call these telephone numbers, but I figured if scammers are out to waste our time, we need to waste as much as their time as well. So I'll go to that side. I'll find a bad number, and I'll get a bunch of friends around, and I'll start with these cameras. So kind of like the same what you just said with the Howard Stern

Dave Bullis 37:44
You know, that that seems like that would be a pretty funny, you know, TV show or podcast Pondo,

Mad Man Pondo 37:49
I hear you. Maybe I'll, I'll try to do that.

Dave Bullis 37:53
And if you do that, just, just remember your old pal, Dave, I'll do it. That was about, you know, after, you did skull talk TV, you know, you ended up becoming a producer for the Jerry Springer show.

Mad Man Pondo 38:06
I wouldn't call me a producer. I would call me a hired hand. I mean, I was just getting them guests and and, you know, they was, they was giving me a check so, and all I had to do was call in and and, of course, all my friends are show offs just like me and was ready to go. So it was, it was a win, win situation for everybody.

Dave Bullis 38:33
So, so how did they go about contacting you to come on the show and to sort of be the hired hand for them?

Mad Man Pondo 38:38
Well, my buddy ace craft got on the jarred show, and they asked him, Do you know any crazy people? And of course, he showed them my videos, and I was on the show twice. And finally they asked, Hey, do you know any crazy you know crazy people yourselves? And I said, I'm a wrestler. I know all pops are crazy people. So I just started getting wrestlers or fans and putting them on the show. And that's like, I know I got $800 check, $600 check. And I was like, Well, this is easy, but just like the Scott off show after a while, just, you know, got so boring because they wanted you on call 24 hours. If they needed somebody at 2,3,4, in the morning, they would call you and say, Hey, we need this. Well, who the hell you got to get it two or three or four in the morning? So, but they was very demanding, you know? And then when he said, Well, I don't know who I'm going to get. Wow, we've been paying you. We've been doing, you know, it just became bullshit, and I didn't want to do it no more, so I stopped.

Dave Bullis 39:46
Yeah, I can imagine getting called two or three in the morning and just being like, hey, Bondo, we need a, you know, a couple to come on the show or whatever. And you're like, Well, how am I supposed to get that right now? It's, you know, it's three o'clock in the morning and, you know. They may be halfway across the country.

Alex Ferrari 40:03
Right! Exactly.

Dave Bullis 40:15
So you know Panda, what was some of the you know, some of the crazy people you met while while doing spring. I knew in the book you mentioned that you met Butterbean.

Mad Man Pondo 40:22
Yeah, Butterbean rod Jeremy was there for one and one of the Backstreet Boys. I don't listen to him, so I don't remember who it was, but he was just there to work. I guess he was doing a concert somewhere in the area, and he he was at the show to to watch, not to be on the show, but I got to meet him. And you know I mean, and plus, if you when you would go to the circus, it wasn't the circus that would draw me in. It was the small freak show before the circus. Jerry Springer show from Green Room to green room was its own free show that I just loved. And they would fly me in to hang out with, you know, the people that I was getting on the show. So I was able to go to green room to green room to green room. And, man, I'm telling you, there was some, there was some strange ones, some hot ones, some ugly ones, some misshaped ones. I mean, that Jerry's free of green rooms was a freak show all of itself, and it would draw me in.

Dave Bullis 41:36
So you mentioned, you know, I actually, I mentioned butter bean, you know. So was he? Was he there to be a guest on the show?

Mad Man Pondo 41:42
Yes, but he was in the back with us first. He was like waiting in line. I guess his manager had called the Springer show and said, Hey, better be be interested in coming in. So of course, they put him on the front row and And ironically, that was, I got all the guests for that show, except two. And two of the guests that I got was, was the bumping ugly, and my buddy Bubba was like challenging Butterbean to get up on stage and fight him. So, you know, just Yeah, butter bean and and Ron, Jamie. I don't remember why he was there. He was on the show, though, for that, I do believe, I don't remember, but, you know, just any, any little perk that he got, and of course, I would get to hang out with Jerry every once in a while. Steve didn't really care for me, so I didn't really get to hang out with Steve all that much. But Jerry Springer was a really nice guy, and, you know, he would talk to us and stuff, and he would go from green room to green room and welcome everybody there. So I got to meet him a lot, you know, be in all these green rooms, and it was a fun experience. But when it's time to go, it's time to go, you know,

Dave Bullis 43:06
Yeah, I definitely know what you mean. You know, just to sort of follow with butter bean, you mentioned him fighting, you know, somebody challenging him to fight him on stage. Do you remember what butter bean fought in the brawl for all in WWF? I do, yeah. What are your thoughts on that whole Brawl for all thing, yeah? I mean, it just Yeah. I remember when butter being knocked out Bart gun in like 20 seconds. But what did you think about that whole competition? You know, that was actually legit.

Mad Man Pondo 43:35
I mean, of course I was. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. But I'll tell you a funny story. Do you remember bar gun won one of those? I know, I know he got beat down my butter bean, and I don't remember the situation. But Bart Gunn won one of those Brawl for it all, and he brought the trophy to IWA, mid south, and he said he would get it when he when he came back, and he never came back. So the original trophy was sitting in the locker room of IWA, mid south for, I bet all we year. But, uh, it was the original trophy from brawford Hall. You know, big, tall thing about I better come up to my shoulder. And think somebody who won that trophy would want it back, but it was just there for some reason.

Dave Bullis 44:29
So did he did it. So whatever happened to it?

Mad Man Pondo 44:32
You know, I don't know, but Ian probably sold it on eBay for something. I don't know, but it was there for I remember a long time.

Dave Bullis 44:44
Yeah, I would have been kind of funny if you had taken it and been like, you're there, you're there. Brawl, fall champion,

Mad Man Pondo 44:51
Nah, I'm not. I'm not. That'd be like a target on my forehead saying something I can I ain't having them guys beat the shit out of me.

Dave Bullis 44:59
Me, no, I'm just kidding, pondo, I mean, plus, you're such an awesome guy, I can't imagine, like I do remember. I do remember the brawl for all when Bart Gunn beat Dr Death, that was kind of, that was kind of an upset. But I remember, yeah, I mean, and they thought Dr death was gonna win the whole thing. Do you remember that?

Mad Man Pondo 45:17
I do. Yeah, they was pumping it up. I don't even think Bart Gunn had a promo. It was Dr Neptune promos, all to the thing. And that thing, you know, Bart Gunn, you know, just knocked him out.

Dave Bullis 45:33
Yeah, and then, and then they had him, had him fight butter bean. And, I mean, I mean that that was, I mean, I mean butter bean, you know, he's, I don't know how you classify butter bean, if he's like an amateur or a professional, or somewhere in between, but I mean that guy, I mean he was a legit fighter, regardless, when I saw because I actually saw that, that fight, and when I saw that, I and, you know, within the first a couple of seconds, butter bean knocked bark on down, and then I think couple seconds later, he just gave him that right hook. And, I mean, he dropped our gun, and I think Bart Gunn, like, kind of left after that, right. I can't remember, but

Mad Man Pondo 46:11
I think that was his demise. I think when he lost that, that was more or less his ticket out,

Dave Bullis 46:19
Yeah, and then, and but, yeah, you know, just to kind of tie this all in, I'm surprised he actually, you know, left that trophy there in the locker room. Did you think maybe, do you think maybe he just forgot that, where he left it,

Mad Man Pondo 46:30
Or just didn't get two shits about it? One of the two,

Dave Bullis 46:34
Yeah, yeah, that's true. But yeah. Now I guess it's kind of lost, or it was sold somewhere on eBay. But that's interesting as hell, man. But you know, just to, you know, just to continue along, you know, I just want to say, pando, you know, I read your book from cover to cover I and when I heard it was coming out, I was really excited, because, again, I followed your career for a while when I, when I used to watch wrestling. I haven't watched wrestling since probably 2004 or five right around when I graduated high school, and I just, kind of, I just got, kind of, kind of got out of it, but, but, you know, the your your book, Memoirs of a madman, it's sitting right here next to me. I have so I actually marked up some pages so I, you know, had some things that, you know, I was like, Oh, I better ask about this. I want to ask him more about this. But, you know, where did you start to, you know, one you know, did you sort of get the impetus to write your own book?

Mad Man Pondo 47:27
There was John Costner, wrote another book called revel, and he had asked me, I don't even remember what the question he asked me, but I had a couple of paragraphs in that book. And people kept asking John coffd, hey, if mad man ponto wrote a couple of paragraphs, you should do a book on him. It'd be really funny and entertaining. So John Costner kept asking me, you know, hey, I want to do a book on you. Are you interested in you know, to me, I don't know if it's the humbleness in me or just the the fried of nobody giving a shit, but, you know, I was, I was really on the fence about, I don't know, you know, I don't know about being a book, because I didn't want a book written about me and then walking in like the Dollar Tree, and it's, it's even half off at the Dollar Tree, you know, just some shit like that. But finally, people started coming to me and saying, Hey, you should, you should write a book, you know. And they didn't even know that John Costner was making me the the proposition. So then I started thinking, Oh, maybe, maybe people would read my book. So I went to John Cosworth, I said, All right, let's do it. Let's write this Batman pondo book. And when I finally did agree to do the book, he was also working on dr d David Schultz's book, which is also available. And so it took longer to get the book written, because he would, he was really focusing then on that. And there was a lot of stuff he had to go over, but on his free time, we would meet at Denny's or his house and and work on my book. And then finally, when he was done with Dr D's, we just focused in on it, got it done, and there it is in front of you. But I just want everybody to know that, yes, I'm a wrestler, but this book isn't all about my wrestling career. I put things that I messed up in my life, funny things that I did on the road. I believe there is a whole conversation with a Nigerian scammer in there. There's, I made it in a comic book that's in there. It's full of pictures that a few. That I've taken over the years. I mean this, So much, so much in this book. And when John, after it came out, John Cosper wrote me. He said, Hey, you're the number one wrestling autobiography on Amazon. I was like, Holy shit, are you kidding me? So it showed me that people did really want to hear what I had to say. But, uh, in reality, I was just the newest book. And then Shinsuke wrote his and then, you know that number one thought got the shit kicked out of it, but I was a number one something on Amazon, which is a pretty big thing for me. So like I said, you should get this book on amazon.com, or you can contact John Costner, get your own autograph copy at eatsleep wrestle.com,

Dave Bullis 50:58
And I'm gonna, I'm gonna link to everything Pondo and I just talked about there in the show notes. Everybody, Pondo, just want to ask you real quick, what is your favorite story from the book?

Mad Man Pondo 51:12
I don't know if it's my favorite story, but as you read the book, you saw that I held on to a story and never told anybody. And then finally, when I was writing the book, I thought, You know what, let's put this in there. And it was the junkyard dog story. Did you Did you like that story?

Dave Bullis 51:35
Yeah, I did, actually,

Speaker 1 51:36
That was, that was the one. That was the story that I held on to for my 29 years of wrestling. And I was like, You know what? Fuck it. Let's put it in there. And so let's not ruin it for everybody what the Jack garddock story is, but that was probably my favorite one that I put in the book.

Dave Bullis 51:57
Yeah, yeah. We will ruin the story. But I have two favorite stories from the book. One is the Abdullah butcher story and and the other one is the is the Joe Leduc story.

Mad Man Pondo 52:10
Yeah, I get asked a lot about that Joe Leduc story,

Dave Bullis 52:18
Because I think that's hilarious, because I can just see something like, like, you know what? We'll call it an unfortunate series of events, happening, things just keep getting worse and worse, and you can't

Mad Man Pondo 52:31
Wrong place at the wrong time.

Dave Bullis 52:35
Yeah, it's just like, whatever could have went wrong in that story went wrong for for you. Pondo, like, even from the get go, from the get go, it was, it was, it was bad,

Mad Man Pondo 52:45
But it was real bad, but he made me a star at my school. So they'll, you know,

Dave Bullis 52:53
Yeah, is it all. It all worked out in the end. So, you know, Pondo, we've been talking for about, you know, roughly 50 minutes now. So just in closing, is there anything you you sort of want to say to put a period at the end of this whole conversation?

Mad Man Pondo 53:06
Well, we didn't, we didn't cap on it, but I've started my own all girls reference company. It's called Girl Fight Refluent. You can go to Facebook and search girl fight. It'll be the first time that pops up and, you know, it's a platform for newer girls to network and get to work with the vet girls. So I'm pretty proud of it. And we have another one. We've been we did one called Midnight girl fight. We drew pretty good for it. So the night before Thanksgiving, we're going to have another midnight girl fight. And what that is we started 11:59 because if I started it at midnight, oh my god, you can't believe how many people thought a Friday show was going to be on a Saturday. You know, it was just a big headache. So I changed the flyer, and it starts on 1159, on Wednesday, and it's just a good time. You know. I mean, people come out at midnight and it's still really loud, and they're all having a good time. But, you know, pick up a girl fight DVD or whatever and and see what we're all about, but a girl fight. That's my my all girls wrestling company

Dave Bullis 54:28
Yeah, and I'll make sure to link to that in the show notes. Is, uh, is there any social media sites that people can find you at Pondo?

Mad Man Pondo 54:34
You know, I'm real terrible about that shit, but, uh, my name is Kevin Canady, C, A, N, A, D, Y, and I'm on Facebook, and I do have an Instagram and a Twitter, but I don't know, for the longest time on Twitter, I was writing people and they wouldn't write me back. I'm like, What an asshole, but I didn't know you had to put at at the beginning of who you're trying to. It, right? So I was the assho. But anyway, Facebook is probably the easiest one. And that's Kevin Canady, C, A, N, A, D, Y, I think there's a picture of me and Elvira. Yeah, it is. It's me and Elvira is my profile pic right now.

Dave Bullis 55:16
And I'll link that in the show notes, by the way. I think Pondo, I think you're at your friends cap, because I actually sent you a friend request and it just said, I think you were at your limit.

Mad Man Pondo 55:29
Well, I'll delete some people. I don't give a shit.

Dave Bullis 55:32
Yeah, thank you. You make room. Just make some room for me. But Mad Man Pondo, I'm gonna say thank you so much for coming on.

Mad Man Pondo 55:42
Man, thank you for giving me the time. Man, like you can't wrestle enough to keep on living after you die, so things like this help my name stay out there. Thank you so much.