On this week’s episode of The JJ Dillon Show, Dillon and co-host Rich Bocchini wrapped up their month-long walk through the history of the Andersons with a Q&A. The focus was initially Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, but many other topics arose along the way:
Regarding which team was better, Arn and Ole, or Arn and Tully:
“Ole and Arn, Tully and Arn were two different styles. I couldn’t really pick, ‘Well, I like the one over the other.’ They were both great. I think the fans would have a hard time as well saying ‘Which of the two combinations were better?’ Styles definitely were different so the matches were different. Ole was more of a just hang in there and physical, where Arn and Tully had more of an aggressive, higher paced… because they didn’t have the physique that Ole did. What was nice is it wasn’t like seeing the same style match, just one of the faces was changed. They were different style matches, but the main thing that’s always the ultimate judge is who drew money, and they both drew money.”
JJ poses a similar hypothetical on the Funk Brothers:
“I’m sure if you asked ten people, you might get five and five. Certain people relate to certain styles, because obviously Dory was more finesse, and Terry was rawboned and going out there like a street fight. (They are) the only two brothers to both hold the NWA World Championship, which is where everybody would like to have gotten in their career.”
JJ’s thoughts on a potential Luger title run in the NWA:
“Lex was a unique situation in that he had the size, he had the physical appearance, let alone the size, but his physique. I never was a big fan of his interviews, to be honest with you. I think he envisioned his interviews to be much, much better than, in my opinion, they actually were. But he drew money. Everybody can’t be a great talker. I don’t know that Luger would’ve been a great champion or had a great run as champion.”
On how he developed his interview style:
“I was proud of myself in not just screaming and yelling. I think subconsciously, a lot of it I emulated after Nick Bockwinkle. Bockwinkle was very well-educated. There were times he could take a dictionary, open it up and tell the announcer ‘Pick the page, now point to a word,’ and he would use that as the foundation of whatever his interview was for whoever he was going to face. He had a great imagination and just a lot of class and I always wanted to do that same type of interview. If given a little bit of time, I could have the fans not be very happy with me. Not because I screamed and yelled, but because of the logic and the content of what I said.”
On the Kamala character:
“You probably couldn’t do that today. There would be special interests groups that would be up in arms that this was… the racial aspect of it. Which at that point, had nothing to do with it. Just the fact that he was black, and it wasn’t the fact that I went to Africa, looked out the window and saw a witch doctor was not to demean anybody with an African heritage. You couldn’t do it today without trying to get into a long explanation as to why. We live in a different world.”
Rush’s Analysis: This episode, as a whole, is what Michael Cole might refer to as “Vintage JJ Dillon Show.” It started off with an established theme and then just veered all over the pro wrestling history spectrum. JJ is at his finest when he just goes on a tangent and there was plenty of that this week. The Q&A got us everywhere from Gino Hernandez to Jerry Lawler, to the reveal that next week, we’ll be going in-depth on the famous Bruiser Brody-Lex Luger cage match shoot.
The topic of Kamala was billed by Rich Bocchini as the “main event” of the episode. Unfortunately, JJ didn’t seem very comfortable discussing the controversial gimmick. At first, he pivoted to talking about Jerry Lawler, but was eventually pinned down by Bocchini into making some sort of comment. He kept it brief and chose his words carefully, which given his admitted dislike for what he considers an overly PC society, is probably for the best.
To check out the entire episode, visit The JJ Dillon Show on MLWradio.com.
Please credit PWPodcasts when using any part of this transcription.
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