X-Pac 1-2-360
Guest: Pete Gas
Release Date: November 8, 2017
Recap by: Sean McGraw
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Top Newsworthy Items:
- X-Pac calls B.S. on Gagne’s 10,000 bumps a day claim
- Shane McMahon once car surfed while driving on a highway
- Pete Gas and the Mean Street Posse couldn’t be broken by Bob Holly, Bradshaw, or Benoit
- Vince McMahon’s praise is a moment that Pete Gas will never forget
Recap:
Pete Gas joins X-Pac, Jimbo, Denise Salcedo, Bill Hanstock, and TK Trinidad for this week’s episode. X-Pac starts by talking about the Big Event – a wrestling convention that has been going on for a long time – Shawn Michaels was the headliner. X-Pac got to spend time with Road Dogg and Billy Gunn. He also saw Ted DiBiase. X-Pac says it was crazy that his documentary came out the same day as the Ric Flair’s 30 for 30. It was a special event from Fathom Events. X-Pac says it’s a shame because it’s a hard choice for people.
DiBiase’s documentary has a Christian vibe to it because he is a minister. Jimbo heard that X-Pac made quite the cameo in the movie. X-Pac can imagine. The footage was shot quite a long time ago when he wasn’t in the best of places in his life. He remembers passing out on the couch in the middle of doing the footage because he was taking pills. Jimbo asks if X-Pac doesn’t want to see stuff like that and X-Pac says he doesn’t like seeing it, but it’s important to go back and remind yourself so that you never go back there again. There is some shoot interview stuff he would never want to go back and watch because some of the things that were said – not that they weren’t true – but what and how they were said didn’t need to be said. When you’re drunk or high you say things and you can’t take them back.
Bill asks if Ric has always been completely up front and unapologetic about whom he is. X-Pac says absolutely, yes. Bill compares Ric Flair’s documentary to other “pop culture” documentaries saying that Flair was honest and unapologetic about his faults and that’s not normally the case. X-Pac says nobody has been as authentic as Ric – there is no Richard Fliehr and there hasn’t been for a long, long time.
A lot of stuff from the Flair documentary hit close to home for X-Pac – especially the shortcomings with his kids. The wrestling business is the most selfish thing in the world. EVERYTHING takes a back seat to professional wrestling. TK asks if there has been anyone in the business that has been able to manage a good balance. There are – it just takes an extraordinary amount of work. Denise says that it seems like Chris Jericho does it really well. X-Pac agrees.
Bill asks if X-Pac when the last time him and Ric have had a heart to heart conversation. X-Pac says it’s never been more than a few minutes here and there. Despite all of their differences they’ve had some similarities in their life and Bill thought that it would be an interesting conversation between the two of them. X-Pac says that he and Ric have had some conversations about those types of things like when Hunter told Ric he needs help. Ric talked to X-Pac about rehab and about them trying to humble him by trying to make him go out and wash cars. Part of rehab is to try and get a person to humble themselves so that they can get grounded. It’s hard for someone like Ric to do those things and its things like that that will prevent someone from getting better.
X-Pac did have a couple of problems with some of the things that people said in the film. He points out Greg Gagne’s claim that they did ten thousand bumps every day. “Do you how long it would take to do ten thousand bumps, if you did them consecutively? Like 10 hours.” He doesn’t have a huge problem if Ric’s “10,000 women” claim is exaggerated. X-Pac jokingly says that it’s probably half that (as in at least). There was kind of a funny moment where they start joking about “Space Mountain” and Bill says that at one point Ric made sure to say that the ride was 18 and older only. X-Pac says Ric had a saying, “No hair, No Flair.” X-Pac says that’s a shoot.
They briefly discuss Ted DiBiase’s documentary and how it doesn’t get too preachy despite Ted being a man of faith. They continue with a brief discussion about some of their experiences with religion and then get into the news.
News:
Jericho vs Omega at Wrestle Kingdom:
X-Pac thought that Omega and Jericho were building to NJPW’s Upcoming Long Beach shows in 2018. TK asks if X-Pac thinks that WWE has an issue with the announcement of if there is something going on that we’re not privy to. He’s sure they’re not too happy about it, and he doesn’t think that there’s anything going on behind the scenes with Vince being behind it. That’s just a bunch of conspiracy theorists getting wound up. TK asks if this will prevent Jericho from coming back to WWE in the future if he wants to. X-Pac says don’t be silly. Chris will be back. X-Pac doesn’t think that Chris had to approach WWE for the ok and doesn’t think he should have had to either. His contract was up and he was on to his next thing. It wouldn’t have been a smart thing. It could have taken away from the surprise which was a big deal. The shock factor was really big for this. X-Pac is happy that big things like this can be done outside WWE. It’s a good part about social media. Bill says he thinks people will say that Jericho will phone it in because he won’t wrestle a “crazy new japan style” like Omega does. X-Pac says whatever, let people say it. X-Pac says that people still like to be worked which is why their particular use of social media was so clever.
There can be only be one Brother Love:
Diddy wants to change his name to Brother Love. There was a huge backlash on social media and Bruce Prichard said there can be only one Brother Love and that’s him. Prichard said on TMZ that if P. Diddy tries to take the name he’ll whip his a**. X-Pac says we all have to be joking right? “Nobody can really be upset by this s**t.” Denise can’t believe that P. Diddy wouldn’t do his research before trying to change his name. TK says she thinks it was on the ignorant side of things.
A.J. Styles is the new WWE Champion:
X-Pac sends his congratulations. He is looking forward to Styles vs. Brock Lesnar. Denise is curious on what was going on behind the scenes and if this was always the plan or not. X-Pac thinks this is all a change of plans type of situation. Bill brings up India promos saying that Jinder Mahal was advertised as a two-time WWE Champion and wonders if they are going to put the belt back on Jinder before the India tour. X-Pac says he would put the belt on Jinder during the tour.
Interview with Pete Gas
X-Pac plugs Pete Gas’s book and Pete goes on to say that he was a fan of X-Pac going back to his 1-2-3 Kid days. He gives X-Pac all of the credit in the world for working with a bunch of green Mean Street Posse guys at WrestleMania and how good X-Pac was to them. X-Pac has always been a cool stand-up guy to Pete. When X-Pac read the things that Pete wrote about him, it made him start to cry a bit.
X-Pac asks how long Pete has known Shane. They were inseparable after playing football together in High School. Shane has always been a down to earth, fun loving goofball even though he has money. Pete’s always told Shane he’s never had a bad time with him. X-Pac says that the thing about Shane is that Vince made sure he instilled work ethic in him. He’s done every job there is to do in the business – from setting the ring up to refereeing – he did everything. That’s something that people don’t understand.
X-Pac asks if Shane was as over the top and fearless in school as he was in WWF/is now. Pete says yes, Shane is an adrenaline junkie. He tells a story about a dam in Greenwich that Shane used to always jump off of. Nobody knew where the low points or the high points were in the water. Shane didn’t care he just jumped. He also tells a story of one time they had a buddy that had a motorcycle and Vince told Shane not to ride the motorcycle. Shane would say ok and walk down the street and go ride the motorcycle. One day Vince came walking down the street with his big barreled chest puffed out and says, “Boys, where’s Shane-O?” Pete says they wouldn’t stooge on Shane but they didn’t have to because “a minute later, here come’s dumba** coming around the corner on the motorcycle.” They all saw the fear of god when Vince looked at them and said “Boys it’s time to go.” As they were driving away they saw Vince using Shane’s head to head-butt open the front door. X-Pac adds to the story by saying that’s funny because years later Vince got into a motorcycle accident and went flying like 50 feet and cracked his pelvis and comes to TV and gets out of his wheelchair and starts walking around because he won’t let anyone see him in the wheelchair.
X-Pac also tells a story about how when he was the 1-2-3 Kid that Shane had a great idea about going skydiving and they wouldn’t tell his parents. X-Pac says Shane did a backflip out of the plane and he was afraid to jump. “You had to pry my fingers off the door to get me out of the plane.” Pete says he’s always been like that.
Denise asks if there was ever a time where Pete wanted to talk Shane out of doing something crazy. He tells a crazy story about how they were driving on the highway and Shane got out of the car and started surfing on the hood like in the movie Teen Wolf. Pete was in the backseat shaking his head saying that this guy is going to die. X-Pac brings up the helicopter crash saying when you see Shane was in a helicopter crash there’s no question that he was alright. When Pete called Shane about it, Shane wouldn’t sell anything. He no sold being hurt after jumping off the cell in his match with Kevin Owens even though he had cracked ribs. X-Pac says that’s pretty much just like his old man.
Pete puts X-Pac over a lot in his book. Pete says that the Attitude Era had a very team-like locker room. Pete coming in green and basically a fan at that point got a lot of help from DX – specifically X-Pac and Road Dogg. It meant a lot and it made Pete excited to work. X-Pac says they just really enjoyed dropping knowledge on people and helping people out. They were also at war with WCW. They had to have good stuff on TV. Pete says that’s the gist of the book – they were asked to do a favor for Shane and they wanted to do it so they were going to make the most out of the opportunity that was given to them.
X-Pac brings up the Mean Street Posse segment with Pat Patterson and Jerry Briscoe saying it was one of his favorite segments ever. Pete said he’s real proud of that segment and tells a story about receiving a phone call from Vince afterwards. Vince said, “Boys, the ratings came out. You guys had the highest rated 15 minute segment in wrestling history on cable. I’m proud of you.” Pete gets goosebumps every time he remembers and that it will be in his head forever. X-Pac says that Vince’s approval was very important to him as well. Vince never wanted to show them any special treatment in front of the boys because of their real-life friendship with Shane. X-Pac says the Mean Street Posse had to pay dues that most people don’t understand they had to pay.
Pete tells a story that he wished he had for the book. He made an appearance back in June and Bob Holly was there. He says Bob pulled him aside and said that he wanted to tell Pete something and that he wanted Pete to call Rodney to tell him too. Holly told Pete, “You’re one tough son of a b***h.” Pete started to laugh and Holly continues that after they came back from the Briscoe and Patterson match, when they got the contracts, Holly, Bradshaw, and Benoit used to try and break them. Pete says he knows and that they had to pay their dues. Holly then says that they went extra hard on them (the Posse) and they would come back to the back laughing and having fun. Holly tried to break them and they never could do it. X-Pac says he understands that mentality but it was never his thing. He didn’t want to hurt anybody. He had to bring it against Shane because he was the boss’s son and that he kicked Shane harder than he kicked any other human being.
Pete says that he has two regrets about his in ring career. One was that he never got to work with Triple H in a match and learn from him because he was so good. The other was that he didn’t sell the Stunner well one time and from that, Stone Cold never wanted to work with them again. Pete wishes he could tell Austin he was sorry because he really would have loved to have the opportunity to work with him. X-Pac says that Stone Cold still remembers it – just kidding (everyone got a good laugh out of it). He then says it couldn’t have been any worse than the first one that Vince took (I agree – its cringe-worthy).
After the Mean Street Posse was done, Pete was sent to Memphis and Puerto Rico. X-Pac says you learn a lot about learning how to listen to the people in Puerto Rico. Pete was dying to know why they had sent him and Jim Ross said it was because they had seen the improvements he had made and they saw money in him. He was told that he was probably going to be brought back to the main roster by Paul Bearer on a scouting trip but was released shortly after that. There was also supposed to be a Japan tour with Dr. Death that fell through because of 9/11. It broke his heart because if he could stay involved he could be called back. At the time the Indies weren’t doing much. He had a good job so he didn’t care too much about the money, there just wasn’t a lot going on.
X-Pac asks what it was like going back to being a civilian. Pete says it sucked and it was very depressing. The hardest part of the business is missing the locker room. The Attitude Era locker room was great because they were together all the time and they were a special group. X-Pac asks if Pete ever thought about having matches again. Pete says that he told Shane that if he ever called him his bags would be packed and he’d be out the door in five minutes. He’d take every finishing move in the company, he doesn’t care. It’s something that he loved before he knew Shane and he loves it even more now. He was never bitter afterwards. After he was released he drove from Alabama to Stanford, walked into Shane’s office and shook his hand thanking Shane for the best three years of his life.
They finish up by plugging Pete’s book and Pete says that he would entertain independent wrestling. He’s down on his weight and if he gets his transfer at work he’ll have more time to get in the gym and bulk up. They do social media plugs and wrap up the conversation from there. After Pete goes, X-Pac does a bunch of other plugs including his appearances and sends his condolences to Bill on the loss of his pet. The show wraps up with the roundtable of social media plugs.
Rating 8.5/10
I really enjoyed this episode of the podcast. It was really interesting to hear from one of the unsung characters from the Attitude Era. Pete seems like a pretty down to earth guy and he had some great stories about his time in wrestling as well as growing up with Shane McMahon. It was kind of like a nice little trip down memory lane for me because I really loved to hate on the Mean Street Posse back when I first started watching wrestling. As soon as the podcast ended I started watching Mean Street Posse clips on YouTube as well. Overall, the podcast did a good job on selling the book too. I am definitely intrigued by it. Another positive about this episode was hearing everybody’s take on the news items this week – in particular the Ric Flair documentary and the Jericho vs. Omega match. This was a big week for the wrestling industry and it was great to hear discussion about the New Japan scene. This match is a HUGE deal for them. The documentary also brought the industry into the mainstream spotlight this week too. I thought the documentary was great and it was cool to hear what X-Pac’s opinion was since he actually knows Ric.
Timestamps:
00:00 – 29:27 Intros and Documentary Discussion
29:28 – 41:33 News Discussion
42:44 – 1:21:36 Interview with Pete Gas
1:21:37 – 1:26:25 Show wrap up and plugs
About Sean:
Sean is a media professional from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sean’s earliest memory of wrestling is seeing Kane on WWF television in 1998. Sean watched primarily WWF in the Attitude Era and dropped off just before the initial brand split. Seeing recap promos of the Undertaker building up to WrestleMania 20, he became hooked and has been an avid fan ever since. Sean’s wrestling preferences currently lean more towards NJPW/ROH/NXT but he remains a fan of it all. In his spare time Sean enjoys cooking, baking, and going to the gym. You can follow Sean via Twitter @stmcgraw and Instagram @stmcgraw09.
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