Hall of Fame wrestling ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta joins Luke Jones and Nestor for a spirited WWE time travelogue of wrestling tales and memories for anyone who ever watched “Championship Wrestling” on Channel 45 every Saturday afternoon at 4pm.
Gary Michael Cappetta, a longtime wrestling ring announcer, joined Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones to discuss his career and the evolution of professional wrestling. Cappetta, who started in 1976, reflected on his 21-year tenure on weekly TV and his experiences with Vince McMahon Sr. and Jr. He highlighted the changes in wrestling styles, noting the shift from larger, more stoic wrestlers to lighter, more athletic ones. Cappetta also shared anecdotes about his interactions with wrestlers like Andre the Giant and his humble beginnings in the business. The conversation also touched on the cultural influences on modern wrestling and the importance of maintaining the art of the game.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
wrestling tales, Gary Michael Cappetta, WWE time travel, professional wrestling, Vince McMahon, wrestling evolution, ring announcer, wrestling history, wrestling stories, wrestling culture, wrestling memories, wrestling fans, wrestling industry, wrestling legends, wrestling book
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio, Gary Michael Cappetta
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call ourselves Baltimore positive these days. We’ve had several incarnations around here, including our Maryland crab cake tour. We’ll have the Raven scratch offs giveaway from the Maryland lottery, as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care powering up our Luke Jones back and forth to to football games and football practices, but Luke, I think the only thing that would would make you happier than covering baseball and football is that if I stuck you on the professional wrestling I think it’s the other thing that you’re fully capable and aware of. And once a year, you and I do a little Wrestlemania, and I’ve known you in but 16 years now, and I’ve threatened that I would bring on some of my old wrestling goons back onto this program. And this guy is one of the original OGs. And when I said that Gary Michael cappet would be returning here, and we’ve done a couple of hours of radio through body slams and books and appearances around town, and certainly in my childhood, he appeared at 11am on Channel 20 every Saturday and at 4pm every channel 45 every Saturday. And if I could get the rabbit ears to work out of Philly, sometimes, I could get channel 17 at five o’clock figure out what’s going on the spectrum with Dusty Rhodes and superstar grand Bob Backlund, Gary, Michael cappetta is back. Luke is here. I think we’re gonna mix it up, just do some old school wrestling. But first things first, Gary, I don’t have any real reason to, like, come at you. There’s no wrestling thing or whatever other than like, I’m cleaning out relationships and old school stuff. And I’m like, I haven’t talked wrestling with you in a while, and it’s just sometimes wrestlers die and crazy stuff happens. And I’m like, I gotta reach to you and just say, how are you? Did you get out of Jersey? Did you ever make it out of Allentown?
Gary Michael Cappetta 01:51
I’m good. I’m good. Hey, Lou, did he call us wrestling goons? Is that what he said?
Luke Jones 01:57
I think so. I think so. I mean, normally it’s wrestling geeks, and I’m an analytics guy for sports, you know, baseball and football anyway, so I’m used to hearing those types of Terms of Endearment from him.
Gary Michael Cappetta 02:07
I think we need to just ignore him and just have some wrestling talk.
02:10
That sounds good.
Nestor Aparicio 02:13
Go over the show. Man, it’d be like 10 o’clock Saturday night. I’m out of here. Man, Gary, what’s going on in your life other than I will imitate you, I have a little bit of coffee from Royal farms you’re going on and, and usually when I bring you in, I do the whole thing. I’ve done it for you. It makes me blush, but it makes me feel 11 years old again, with Bruno and Stan stasiak and Bobo and haystacks and like all of that. And we hear so much on the downside. I mean, I would every time I always ever saw you. You loved wrestling. You always loved wrestling. You weren’t K fame about it, but it is one of the defining fun parts of your life, being in a couple of Hall of Fames, right? Absolutely.
Gary Michael Cappetta 02:53
You know, if I was going to go by Royal farms, I I’d go for the chicken. Forget the chicken, the best fried chicken in the world. You guys have there, and I’m in Florida and
03:05
you can’t get it.
Gary Michael Cappetta 03:06
You can’t get it. Can’t get it too far away. Ah, I mean, I would from Jersey. I would have driven three hours to get the chicken.
Nestor Aparicio 03:16
Oh, my royal farms, people love to hear that, man, I got a chicken producer shirt for you, it’s coming out, you know?
Gary Michael Cappetta 03:22
Yeah, I expect to get a bucket delivered here in Florida for that promo.
Nestor Aparicio 03:27
Absolutely. What’s How is life? Things
Gary Michael Cappetta 03:31
are good. I do conventions once in a while. I go out and guest three announce once in a while, just, you know, it depends. And I just take it as it comes. I still dip into the product. Every once in a while, I’ll I’ll tune in WWE or a W and see what’s going on and see what they’re doing. There’s a local promotion in Florida that I’ve latched on to, that I like. And every once in a while, I’ll make my way down to Winter Haven Florida to check it out. You know, made some friends down here through wrestling and just taking it as it comes. Nothing, nothing. High pressure. Those days are over. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 04:16
you know, the last time Luke and I talked, it was WrestleMania time, and this is where I’m going to defer to both of you gentlemen for what is going on in the current world. Because when I put wrestling on, it appears to me like Vince is still running it. Vince always it’s kind of like Cuba, I said, You know what I mean, kind of like Castro. Like there was never going to be an end to any of that. And there has been, to some degree. And Luke, I’ll let you pick it up into the current side of this, because he’s mentioning a Ew, and other than the association to the Jacksonville Jaguars and my friend Alex marvez, I don’t really know much about current wrestling, but Luke really stays up with it. Gary,
Gary Michael Cappetta 04:51
yeah, yeah. Gary, what do you like that’s going on these days? Luke? I
Luke Jones 04:56
was just going to ask you that because, I mean, obviously. Yet full disclosure, I was born in 1983 I was a typical Hawk, a maniac WWF fan. I as I’ve gotten older, and with the iteration of WWE Network and the tape libraries and everything being available, I love NWA Crockett stuff, you know, and and in the early 90s, I kind of veered away from wrestling and got back into it in the late 90s, right after you left. WCW, so I, myself, as a fan, missed a lot of your work, but having gone back and watched so much of it, you were part of this for such a long time, over such an interesting time, going back to the latter territory days and then WWF, go and national but when you see what it’s become today, how surprised are you, first of all, and second of all,
Nestor Aparicio 05:44
what do you like? And
Luke Jones 05:45
you know, I don’t want you to be negative, but from a constructive criticism standpoint, what about it has changed that maybe isn’t for the better? Let’s say
Gary Michael Cappetta 05:54
yeah. You know, I was during the time when you were a kid and a fan. I was on weekly TV for 21 consecutive years. And in 1995 is when I left WCW. And then I did little Ring of Honor. I did little here, there and and elsewhere. But like any entertainment form, things evolve, um, whether you were talking about like country music, like country music is not what country music was. You know, back during Patsy Klein’s day, it’s, it’s just, it’s different, like rock and roll has, has has evolved. Um, the circus has evolved. So I, you know, I look at things from that point of view, as long as the kernel of what pro wrestling is remains that I’m good and then all I’m not one of these old grouchy guys that says everything in the past was crazy today, it’s just horrible. No, no, no, no, no, no. That’s not true. I mean, but you have just by the the fact that today’s wrestlers are lighter and actually more athletic. It’s a different product. It’s, it’s, it’s back when I was doing those, those weekly TV shows, everybody was a behemoth. You know, you were, you were small if you were 230 pounds. And today, you know, you have guys that are 160 pounds, 170 pounds. So of course, you’re going to have more flying. You’re going to have more acrobatics you’re going to have, like a different style. It’s not going to be the stomp and grind punch in kicking style that I was brought up on. But the key is, and I fear for today’s athletes, and they’re much more athletic than the guys were back in the you know, back in the day, I fear for their future health, because the art of the game, which is what I talk about in my book body slams, is taking something Making it look dangerous, but it’s not dangerous, like the the chance that someone’s going to get seriously injured is very slim. But today, these guys think they’re indestructible. They think they’re video characters, like they’re real people, and your body is not supposed to do the things it’s not supposed to withstand, the kinds of of landings that they take, you know, when they fly out of the ring and on a table. And it’s that I fear and that I have less appreciation for, because it gets away, once again, from the art of the game, where it’s it’s like magic. It’s supposed to be like magic, where you’re looking at it, you’re saying, Oh no, I don’t look at what he’s doing. I can’t look at but nobody is really in danger today. The guys are in danger because of what they do. Keep on taking it to another level of physicality that the body is just not made to withstand. So that’s, that’s one of the things I look at. I want to maintain the magic. I want to maintain the art of the game. Yeah,
Luke Jones 09:36
it almost feels like we’ve, we’ve had this trade off where the house shows schedules and guys aren’t necessarily working 310 dates a year anymore, especially at the WWE, aw, even TNA level, but the intensity of those matches, as you mentioned, the physical demands that guys are putting on their bodies. And I come back to a question, and this goes to what you just said about the match. Magic, the why, right, when you see some of these matches, especially understanding how much, just how much weekly TV there is, I mean, WWE five hours going on, six hours. Aw, has five hours. It’s just a lot. And I asked the question of why, and I feel like, in the modern day, yeah, the schedules are a little bit better, but the matches are so much more physically demanding for these guys. I’m in agreement with you and and I always go back to that question, why? And I think WWE has done a better job with this since Triple H has taken over and runs the creative process. But there are still times where I see these spots, and I can’t imagine someone like you who who’s was in the business such a long time, and seeing how much it’s changed, where sometimes it makes sense, but there are a lot of times where I kind of say, why was, why was that necessary in that specific spot?
Gary Michael Cappetta 10:51
I have two thoughts on that as to why, um, there came a time when the curtain was pulled down and it was it has become easier to be a wrestler. Years ago, nobody knew how to become a wrestler. And and and and competitors learned from other guys. They went on the road. They were apprentices. Now there is, there are wrestling schools all over the place, run by people who have no idea what the whole kernel of the art of the game is. So a breakdown in the education of what it is, and then just naturally with the culture, as I mentioned before, video games, they they try to portray in both their look and both in how they dress, and ultimately what They do physically. I think if, if you look at video games and what they’re portraying in the ring, you’re going to see they’re they’re similar. So it’s a different cultural effect that, just because we didn’t have video games like that, where you know people, we have Pac Man, you know we, you know we didn’t have, like, a 3d kind of screen and and people actually battling it out. We, you would see that in the movies, but you wouldn’t see it on a daily basis. So I think the current cultural influence also contributes to getting away from the art of the game and but I think more than anything, the reason why WWE sticks closer to the the the art of the game is because they have their own training program. Nobody’s going to go in that ring unless they have been with WWE behind the scenes and working out and being trained, as opposed to a Ew, which is very much a car crash. And it’s because these are guys that are coming from the Indies, from all different influences, many trained by others that didn’t know what they were doing and so that, and some of them are making it up as they go along. So therefore you don’t you have a you have a product which is like an indie with millions of dollars behind it, you know. So it’s dressed up real pretty. But if you look at not all of but too many of the wrestlers, it’s just, it’s what worked on the Indies, and that’s what they’re doing. And very often what works on the Indies is you want instant gratification. So when you when you need instant gratification, meaning the fans. You need to have a reaction from the fans all the time. You rush through what you’re doing. There’s there’s less build there. You know, it’s, it’s, there’s no selling of a move. You know, a guy will take a devastating move and he’ll pop right up. Well, that doesn’t make any sense, except if you’re looking for an immediate gratification, and that’s what they’re used to from the Indies, so I think that’s why WWE is superior, in the sense of everyone’s on the same page, and they incorporate some of the nonsense violence, but just enough to make the people how. Happy, because, unfortunately, that’s what fans have come to expect. So you can’t ignore it. You have, I mean, ever, ever since ECW, they have, you know, from from those days, they have, you know, expected tables and chairs and and all kinds of craziness. But I think also, what if they get away from the rules, the basic rules of wrestling, then they’re losing opportunities to create drama, for instance, and a tag team match, if you just can get in by selecting someone’s back without them even knowing it, then you are eliminating the hand to hand touch, the drama of reaching out. You know you’re you’re in trouble. You need help from your partner. But the only way he can come in is that if you, you tap hands, and you reach out, and he’s reaching out to you and and it will come so close. And then you you get pulled back into the center of the ring, but, you know, like a Mexican style is everybody can, you know, run in and out whenever, whenever they want. And that leads me to another situation that we didn’t have culturally, and that is all of the young wrestlers coming through because of this wonderful internet that you and I are now talking on, they’re exposed to all different styles from around the world. So they’re seeing Mexican wrestling, they’re seeing Japanese wrestling, we’re seeing German wrestling, they’re seeing wrestling from Australia. And somehow it all gets smushed together. And so they obey the rules when it’s convenient for what they want to do, and they don’t obey the rules when they want when they don’t want to. And that becomes confusing. What I would rather see would be a North American wrestling show. And then we have a Mexican style matching there. We have a Japanese style matching there, so that you don’t smear everything together. And then you come out with, you come out with, like a fuzzy product that someone that’s doesn’t know wrestling. It’s like they have no idea what the rules are, because, you know, they they abide by rules whenever it’s convenient, and they ignore rules whenever they don’t want to follow a rule. So that’s that’s another situation. It’s the young wrestlers exposure to many different styles that gets all smeared together. Schmear is my word for the day.
Nestor Aparicio 17:44
I like that. Gary. Michael cappet is our guest, long time wrestling ring announcer, wrestling business aficionado, author, also teacher of Espanol, amongst other things. Luke Jones is here riding shotgun. Luke and Gary getting after modern things. Gary, I want to go on a Wayback Machine for you, because, sure, you did all of this in your book, in and discussing. We’ll get to K Fave in a minute, because it’s a term I use a lot of in real life, because real life has become sort of K fave, where in whatever room you’re in, you have to sort of obey by whatever rules are there and sort of play along. Um, when did you get involved? I literally you were kind of a youngest chat when I came on to wrestling in the mid 70s. And I know you were a part of it for a few years. I know there was a Philadelphia background in Allentown, but give me the elevator speech. And it was before Luke’s time. But you did come into my life, Championship Wrestling, all star wrestling, all of those things for our audience channel, 45 at four o’clock every day, with Ernie Boston reading the lead news now professional wrestling, and then you would come on. But the part of the business that later in life you learn when guys like you write books and you meet Bruno Sammartino, and there’s a whole internet for Ken Patera and Craig the hammer Valentine to tell old stories. But for you, in your entree into this and what the rules were, what the idea of it was, and certainly in your role, which was probably read something off a sheet of paper be a ring announcer. And then really it became a television thing. You really went on a an incredible Carpet Ride. Very few people were there who are still here, Gorilla monsoon, other people who were a part of that, and Titan and and everything that was recorded here in Baltimore, and the Lord Alfred Hayes days and they had the studios here in Baltimore, but you came at it how? And you said, if you wanted to be a wrestler, no one knew how. I would think you knew how, but you had to figure out how to get involved, because I’m guessing you might have just been a fan, right? I was a
Gary Michael Cappetta 19:58
fan, and they didn’t have it in Apple. One night, and I volunteered. That’s how I got into the business, as crazy as that is, and I was 21 and gorilla monsoon, who was part owner of the promotion, which I didn’t know at the time. I just knew him as a wrestler. He he liked what I did when they brought me in off the street, they didn’t bring me in. I was sitting at ringside, and they didn’t have an announcer. So I just
Nestor Aparicio 20:25
What were you doing in your life at this point that would give any indication that you would spend 50 years in wrestling?
Gary Michael Cappetta 20:32
I nothing, but I what I was doing in life was I just graduated from college at 21 years old, and as you said, my early years, I began to teach Spanish. That would have been like a few months later. So, and that’s
Nestor Aparicio 20:53
the life you led. You were a school teacher. That’s what your primary vocation was. Even though we knew you on weekends, that was something. Now, those were taped right in Allentown, correct?
Gary Michael Cappetta 21:04
Um, at first it was Philadelphia for me, and then it that. Moved to Allentown. I went to Hamburg. They had two syndicated shows. One was taped every third Tuesday, and then one was taped every third Wednesday, so two consecutive nights. And when I began the TV, which was I was 23 I was doing it out of Philadelphia, and then about 18 months later, they moved it to Allentown. So it was Allentown, Philadelphia, Oregon.
Nestor Aparicio 21:39
What years are these? Is this 71 234, what years are these
Gary Michael Cappetta 21:42
70 why started TV in 76
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
Wow, so we’re not far off. And I thought you may have been around for Cole Alberta. You came right at the end of Bruno then, I mean, I was here at the Baltimore Civic Center on April 30, 1977 when superstar grand cheated his feet ruin the ropes and but that wasn’t you were brand new then, huh? Yeah,
Gary Michael Cappetta 22:08
yeah, I started what I started when I was 21 in 74 and then after two years, buddy Wagner, who had been the ring announcer for their eight show passed away, and monsoon, who was, as I said, co owner, brought me in, and I did the TV show for the next eight years on for WWE and
Nestor Aparicio 22:36
Gino a little bit, because I don’t know that I’ve ever asked you about that I know you’ve written about, but you know, my mom loved carilla monsoon. You know, she
Gary Michael Cappetta 22:45
loved him. Yeah, he’s the reason that I am in, you know, I’ve been in the business for 50 years now. I mean, he’s, he’s my guardian angel. You know he’s, he’s the man when he lost his partnership shares, he lost his power, and then, you know, he had less say in what was going on. And that’s sort of when I moved on in 85 so I was with WWE for 11 years, from 74 to 85 and I did the TV from 76 to 83
Nestor Aparicio 23:26
Luke, go ahead, man, have some fun, because I, I have a cool old book. It’s not your book, but I’m going to go through it in a minute, and we’ll do some memories and some old wrestlers and stuff, of of my era. Because I my first wrestling matches were in 77 I was all in until the mid 80s. But, you know, I’ve been on the radio 33 years. I’d have done tons of wrestling. You any wrestler that would come on, we’ve done Dallas time, diamond, Dallas Page, doing yoga and all that stuff. And Luke is always a part of this. Luke, get after Gary. Michael capetta, Gary, Gary the
Luke Jones 23:56
younger wrestling fan. I mean, Vince McMahon has become synonymous with professional wrestling. I mean, there’s, there’s no denying that. But what was Vince senior like? I think a lot of younger people know that Vince bought out. His dad, took the company national, all of that. But what was Vince senior like in those late, those latter days of the www, F he
Gary Michael Cappetta 24:17
was, he was compared to his son, who was Benny Vinny was like, always brash. He was, he was the boss’s son, and he was the commentator for these TV shows that we were just talking about. The dad was more laid back, very refined, beautifully dressed. He he didn’t go after people, but he paid people to go after people. So for instance, at one point, he had a disagreement with Bruno San Martino, very, very early on, and it was before Bruno’s championship. Rate, first, first. Championship ring, and he had Bruno blackball, so Bruno wasn’t able to to wrestle in the United States. That was when he went to Canada and wrestled. So, yeah, he was, there was one time when I was when I was doing the TV and I thought I should have gotten a raise, and I didn’t know that you would never that you shouldn’t approach the guy for a race. You mean the guy, the wrestlers would have never done that unless they were the champion. But what did I know? I was this. I was this kid who’s 2425 years old. So at at the TV, and it was the only time that I saw Vince senior. I knocked on the little office door. I went in. Then seniors sitting there with Phil zakko, who was the promoter, Arnold skoln, who was a co owner, Gorilla monsoon, who was a co owner, and I was ready for this meeting like I had all kinds of comebacks. No matter what he said, I was ready, except for what he did say. So, you know, I very politely, you know, said, Look, I, you know, I’m getting, I think I would maybe I was meeting 60 bucks per night. And so that’s three hours three weeks of television. So I was actually making 20 bucks every week, like for every TV week, and and, you know, and I asked for a raise, probably to 100 100 and a quarter, something like that. And he just looked at me and he said, You know, I can’t afford it. This is the gazillionaire who owns all of Northeast wrestling, like from Maine to DC out to Pittsburgh, you know, packs the houses at the Baltimore civic arena and at the spectrum and Madison Square Garden, and I can’t afford it. I was speechless. But here’s the here’s the deal the McMahons could never, ever tell you, yeah, you deserve it. Yeah, you did a good job. They would never want to make you secure in that way. At the end of the night, when I got paid, and we get paid cash, and the envelope would came to me, I opened it up, and it was the amount of money that I asked for. He gave me the raise. He just couldn’t tell me that I deserved it. And every three weeks after that, that extra money was in the envelope.
Nestor Aparicio 27:50
That’s great story. Gary Michael COVID is here go Gary, he, so he, you know, he,
Gary Michael Cappetta 27:56
I had no problem with him. I mean, I had no problem with most of them. I had problem with junior, but, you know, I was telling you the things that Junior has been accused of in the current day. I have been telling people about Junior for years, but because he was successful and because he was, no matter whether people in wrestling loved him or didn’t, no one would ever say anything negative about the guy and and he was, he was a real scum. So I mean, he treated me so horribly. If you look, if you look at any TV that I did with WWE and once, like I said, for eight years, I was the ring announcer. You will never, ever hear Vinnie refer to me by name, ever. Let’s go up to the ring announcer. That’s it. I would get attacked by Jimmy Snuka. Oh, the ring announcer went down, George Steele would chase me out of the ring. Oh, what happened to the ring announcer? Maybe he’s wearing cologne that that the animal doesn’t like. So he and I, we just never connected. But, you know, he’s always been like, you know, shady, but the dad is more refined, but when there was dirty work that needed to be done, he just had someone else do it to answer the question. Short term, I
Nestor Aparicio 29:28
want to get back to Vince in a minute, but I want to have a little bit of fun, because I found this book, and our time is limited, because Luke and I have to talk about the Orioles hot stove, and we have to talk about the ravens and Lamar and all this stuff. Um, when I was a kid, I was a wrestling magazine aficionado, Gary, you know, this, I’m sure Kevin Eck has crossed paths with you. Kevin Eck was my best friend in the whole world all of my childhood, all of my youth. And Kevin and I ran together, and we did segments in his basement where I was Ivan Putski, and he was, you know, with hair. Dryers. We were kids, right? So in the 70s, we had the wrestling magazines, the wrestler inside, wrestling, the street sheets. Sometimes at the matches, there would be a card. Some of those are $100 on the internet. I still have the one with from April 30, 1977 when Billy Graham won the championship. But there’s only one book ever in the waldens Bookstore at East Point mall when I was a kid, and it had it, and it kind of fell apart, and I found it later in life. I’ve had this thing probably 30 years. I have your book too. I couldn’t find it today, but I did find this book. It says main event. I don’t know if you knew Roberto Morgan, this is 40 years old, this old school book, but it’s got all the wrestlers of the day. And it was like, it was like a but like a coffee table wrestling book from 1978 78 um, with all these great names, the wrestlers of that era. And you go out and do shows and autographs and people fanboys like me come at it. It is amazing in the modern air with the internet, how everyone has had a story, right? Like you don’t say what happened to whomever, if, even as the executioners, you had to figure out who they were. But the stories for the internet and YouTube, it is incredible how ubiquitous it’s become, how whatever was in the darkness with Vince, which was allowed to be there forever, including the vice stories that pop up on my timeline because Luke clicks on everything wrestling on wnsd, they think I’m a wrestling fan, but every Bruiser, Brody, every just every tale of von erichs, all of the dark sides of wrestling and all of that, um, how so many things that Were K fave, that lived in darkness have been either me too or outed, or 50 years later, somebody like you comes and says, everybody knew Vince was a bad guy. I mean, you know, that was pretty obvious,
Gary Michael Cappetta 31:53
right? Um, also, I would beware, just like with general news as to, you know what you believe about what you hear, whether it be a shoot interview, to that old time wrestler, either sometimes, like their memories aren’t so great, like mine, isn’t all that great sometimes, or they’re spinning something, or they’re not telling the truth. But once that gets put down on video, anyone that watches it will swear that that’s that’s the truth. That’s how that happened. He was there, he said. So, unless you are in the room yourself, you really don’t know what happened. You know, with, with whatever instance it is. So there’s a lot of, you know, a lot of tall tales that that I have. Well, here’s something
Nestor Aparicio 32:48
that’s true that that right there is Superstar Billy Graham getting put into a a maneuvering year by the rocks grandfather. So, you know, I mean, all sorts of weird things going on right back in this book. And I haven’t opened this book in 30 years. But when I start to open it, there’s pictures of Chief Jay Strongbow and Ivan Putski in here that while, you know, and a chain match with Ivan Cole often and Bruno from the garden back in 76 you know, wrestling has this glorious full on all of us, including Luke
Gary Michael Cappetta 33:20
the the rock’s grandfather, Peter, my idea, he actually body slammed me in at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York. He was just having fun. He didn’t hurt me in any way. But, yeah, you know that that would happen, that that kind of thing. He was the only
Nestor Aparicio 33:37
dude in the 70s and had tattoos that I ever saw as a kid. Now, everybody’s got tattoos, right?
Gary Michael Cappetta 33:41
I know it’s it. That’s another thing you know, in talking about then and now, it’s hard to look weird, because everything weird has become normal
Nestor Aparicio 33:51
once you’ve done an undertaker thing, right? You know, where do you go from there? You know, Luke, what else you got for Gary? Including, I’m going to let Gary promote his book as well, because makes a perfect holiday gift for everybody out there that likes old books and stuff like that. But you know, Luke, you’re just such a historian about all of the you you and Kevin Eck and all my buddies, you really delve into this type of stuff, and have great appreciation for people like Gary that tell you the stories, man.
Luke Jones 34:19
Well, I think there’s similarities with what we do in the professional, quote, real sports world, compared to pro wrestling and sports, what Sports Entertainment has become. But Gary, what first, first thing I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, I know you got your start as a ring announcer in Wildwood, New Jersey, one of my favorite places. Coffee Mug right here. I go there every year with my family, but, but, but, going back to what I was just saying, what does it mean for you as someone who did it, as long as you did to know that you’re part of the soundtrack of the history of professional wrestling. I mean, we think of commentary, Jim Ross, you know, Vince McMahon, gorilla, monsoon, and all those, but the ring announcers. I mean, the Fink for years. WWF, one of the most recent WWE departures that really gained some some attention was Samantha Ervin leaving and the following that she had carved out in recent years. Is it humbling to you? I know you famously said all you did was announce weights, places and names, but is it humbling to you to know that that many people remember you to know that your place in professional wrestling is something that people remember so fondly. It
Gary Michael Cappetta 35:28
is humbling, but it’s hard for me to recognize it, because I was doing something that I love. I mean, one hand it was, it was something I love, and it was also my job, and I never did anything so that something will be seen, you know, in in 40 years and remembered fondly. You know, I, I just reacted to what was going on. I was very fortunate that girl monsoon put me in a position where the spotlight had shown on me. And no matter how how much Vin tried to bury me in, like not featuring me, there was a connection that I always had with fans, and I can’t explain it, but I know what they were thinking they in and how they were feeling. They were identifying with me because I was a smaller guy. I was more serious. I was the opposite of the craziness that was going on around me, and because I had formed a bond with the fans. Whenever a wrestler would mess with me, they would really get angry at that wrestle. But I never, ever knew anything was coming. There was never anything planned. It was just all very organic. It just, it was they wanted the wrestler wanted to play that night. So that’s what happened, and that’s what they did. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 37:07
a big improv. Back in those days, it wasn’t scripted, right? Yes,
Gary Michael Cappetta 37:11
that’s exactly, that’s exactly, right. So I would just react as anyone, even, even though we were friends, I would That’s not who we were in the ring. I was a civilian. They were professional athletes. They were professional wrestlers. So it would make absolutely no sense for me to stand up to any of the guys when I would backstage. So I, you know, I just learned to roll with the punches. Literally, yeah, and it’s so it is humbling. I, you know, I’ll hear more from people who say you were the voice of my childhood. That’s something I hear often, and I can relate, because when I was a kid, there were certain things that I watched on TV, daily or weekly. You know, when I would watch the Three Stooges, for instance, every city had a host that,
Nestor Aparicio 38:15
like we had Captain Chesapeake here, he was really kind of a big deal.
Gary Michael Cappetta 38:19
There you go. They had Sally star in Philadelphia. They had officer Joe Bolton
Nestor Aparicio 38:24
in New York, Captain 20 in channel you were on Channel 20, Zachary Lee, who
Gary Michael Cappetta 38:30
was, you know, the horror movie host, um, so they and so I remember all you know, those characters fondly because of, I grew up with them. I like, I like to go to rock and roll shows, like oldies shows. Because I grew up with them, I can remember what was going on in my life when that song was popular. So the saying in the same way people remember that part of their childhood, when they used to watch wrestling every week, and that my voice, you know, they would identify with it. So in
Nestor Aparicio 39:08
that way, I still identify with it. Gary, I can’t believe you’re a V Gary. Michael capetta, you sounded younger on my television 40 years ago, you know. And I can still emulate you. And you know, when you say idle, I don’t know, idolize is the right word, but certainly, I went down to the civic center and you weren’t the announcer, and I was a little disappointed. The announcer, kind of like he was a really old dude in Baltimore. He clearly had a deal with Chester O’Sullivan and the guy you know you mentioned, Zach go, you’re the people that were doing he you just weren’t they weren’t paying you $20 to drive down from Philly to do it. You did your thing during the week. But by the way, I found this on page 91, of this, of this magazine, of course, it’s 1979 this was written so Gino is in here, and it’s like a profile of his life. It mentions his children. Comes from Rochester, Minnesota. He started in the Y. YMCA programs. You know, he talks about like his his life, travels and all that stuff like this. You couldn’t get any of that anywhere in 1979 Gary. That’s
Gary Michael Cappetta 40:10
what I’m saying. It’s fine, for sure. There’s a girl among zoom biography coming out next year. That is, I’m really looking forward to it. I interviewed for it, and it’s being done by a guy who does a very good job with biographies. Last
Nestor Aparicio 40:29
thing for you, I want to give you last, last piece here. We lost the great Phil Jackman here about two months ago, and Phil was a godfather to me hockey. You know, long time columnist at the Baltimore Evening Sun for sports, but Phil was very playful. Had a sense of humor, but Phil covered Wimbledon, a dozen Olympics, just all sorts of things. But Phil loves wrestling. And Phil was a guy who would play along and treat it seriously when he would write his columns, he would have a little thing about it, but for whatever reason, and Phil’s got a million stories. I mean, Phil sat ringside at every Ali fight, Sugar Ray, like everything, like all of that, and but he loved to tell the story to me and his kids and his family about the night he went drinking with Andre the Giant. And he had a story that he and Andre were out drinking all night down at the Belvedere, and they went into an alley, and a cop pulled in and put the lights on them, and they’re pissing in the alley. And Phil was, you know, five foot 11, and Andre was what Andre was. Um, did you ever take a bump from Andre? I mean, you got an Andre story for me, man,
Gary Michael Cappetta 41:41
uh, no, I never
Nestor Aparicio 41:47
just when I ask a question about Andre, we lose Gary Luke, look at that. He’s exited just like Andre.
Luke Jones 41:58
Hopefully one of in seniors guys didn’t get to him.
Nestor Aparicio 42:04
We have to get Gary back in here, and I will continue. If not, we’ll take a break. Hob Nestor, he’s Gary. Michael capetta, you know, he’s not even here for me to and I’m laughing. I can’t do my Gary. Michael cappetta, because if I knew we were here, I could do it really well, man. I do want it great. Michael Gary, Michael capetta,
Luke Jones 42:22
I wanted to get him to give us a Let the war games begin, because Survivor Series is coming up this week for WWE, and war games has been integrated into the Survivor Series pay per view in WWE at this point. So I was hoping to get a little let let the war games begin.
Nestor Aparicio 42:36
Man, terrible. You know, if you’re out on the Zoom, here’s what I’ll do. I’m gonna I’m gonna shut my video off, and I’m just gonna do it for audio purposes only. And Luke can laugh. Welcome to another action packed card of Championship Wrestling. These matches are sanctioned and supervised by the State Athletic Commission, a timekeeper at the bell. Jim you that’s pretty as a pretty good Gary Michael compared, if you go back, I don’t know the all star wrestling when, I just know the championship sanctioned and supervised by the State Athletic Commission. Gary Michael cappetto, his work is available at body slams out on the interwebs. This crazy book is called main event. I hope it’s worth 100 bucks on the internet. I bent the frame on it now, but I will hold it near and dear. I haven’t even read the dusty road section yet or the Ricky steamboat section. Luke and I try to get together talk wrestling. Once in a while we talk to lots and lots of football, lots and lots of baseball. And lately, around here for the Thanksgiving holiday, lots and lots of rock and roll. You can find us both out at wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
