Always a pleasure to spend time with the author of “The Wax Pack,” the good doctor Brad Balukjian is back with another trek dating back to his 1980s childhood and obsession with professional wrestling. Let him tell you why he didn’t just open another pack of sports cards this time. And let Nestor show you some of his favorite childhood wrestling pictures and share tales about Tony Atlas.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
wrestling, baltimore, talk, oakland, iron sheik, book, baseball, tony atlas, hulk hogan, people, brad, wax, told, week, life, pack, coliseum, story, ric flair, writing
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Brad Balukjian
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are wn S T I am 5070, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We’re having the time of our lives here this way the Orioles in a real, real situation here with real legitimate baseball I’m having a real legitimate crabcakes we have an NFL draft this week. Oh and the 25th anniversary documentary. No one listens. everyone hears is coming out on Thursday night at 5:08pm. Our friends at the bearer of the lottery are sending us out on a we’re man we’re getting after it this week. Best crab cake up in Carroll County. We’re going to be in Hampstead at Greenmount station giving these away for the Orioles game or as an agents. We’re also going to be green mail bowl before that. Then it really opened at the three o’clock I’m going to be there talking about the horse racing industry and about the future of the Preakness and Pimlico amongst other things. Friday will be a fade lease from two of the five live Luke Jones will join us there and then he’s heading off back to the draft in Owings Mills. My press credential is still under review. So I don’t know if we’ll have a real representative at the Oreo game maybe let a rascal take me for free beer on the deck. But we’re going to be a fade these are two of the five on Friday with a PacMan Scratch is also brought to you by Liberty pure solutions given us fresh clean water as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care keeping our oil clean in the Oh clean in the car. The Oakland A’s coming to town I have all of these Oakland people and I spent time in the Bay Area. I have some fans and bleeding hearts, media people former media people thus far almost everyone I’ve reached to I’ve collected upon my silver is gonna be coming on after the draft to do a little post wrap. But I have all of these East Bay people. This guy came to me honestly wrote a book on baseball cards one of my favorite things in the world. I’m still stalking the Louis Aparicio. 1960 leaf card I’ll get that for eight bucks more it’s all over with. But he did a wax pack book on on like really, emotions and and nostalgia and reality check and baseball and the business of baseball and real life beyond bubblegum cards. We’ve enjoyed having him on he is a doctor of something or another out in the Bay Area. He’s an author, we’ll have him in the authors and books section for having inked the wax pack and now he’s back after it again. And I listen, I should have had Luke Jones in here because no one knows more rasslin than him in this side of Kevin ACA was my childhood best friend and also featured and the 25th anniversary documentary. But Brad volution joins us now having written a wrestling book and I read the liners about the Iron Sheik. And you know, I interviewed Bob slaughter back in the day and I have all of my wrestling pictures here that I’m it’s gonna be fun to do this. But Brad, it’s always great to have you on how was the good doctor in the East Bay? And what is going on with the Oakland Athletics, which was the original Genesis of the reason I reached to you. Yeah, good
8
Brad Balukjian 02:57
to see it, Esther. I mean, it’s I’ve held on to hope for so long with the A’s then you know, I think the last shred of hope is gone. It’s a sad, sad, long final season at the Coliseum. But they’re they’re you know, they’re out there going to Sacramento and then Las Vegas. And I you know, I think that it’s just it really is just tragic. Three sports teams in the span of what, eight years, six years, have left Oakland now with with no major league team left. So it’s hard times, you know, I don’t know what else to say. Ownership is all about the bottom line, and certainly no sense of civic duty there so
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:41
I can reach for my Baltimore Colts belt buckle for my childhood here. And, you know, I had to go through my archives for this 25th anniversary thing I’m doing and I found a couple of pictures of me as a little boy wearing cold stuff, more Oriole stuff as a kid, but I had cold stuff and I wore it. And you know that’s a lesson learned here that I learned when I was a young young journalist at the newspaper when all this went down when the Mayflower has pulled our team out of here. And now all these years later, like our place is the place where we’ve had a creek for baseball owner for 30 years whose kid just cashed out at $1,007,000,000 a week they made every week they own the Orioles over 1600 weeks and and and built took everything and gave nothing the football owners hiding. At this point he hasn’t really spoken in years, certainly not in Baltimore to Baltimore media in any way he ran for me on a veranda willingly ran for me three weeks ago so but the baseball new owner coming in 600 million for him 600 million for the football team. The football team is building the bigger better club level and this and that and that the downstairs and the glass thing down in the Coliseum in the front and and Oakland can’t keep anything and LA’s funded and winds up raping St. Louis and San Diego franchises in the NFL? Sports is filthy, right? I mean, the Arizona Coyotes can’t figure it out. They’re gonna take money from the people up in Utah this week so And don’t get me started with colleges right College has been you talking about disrupted my god, at least baseball still together and make the A’s can play anywhere. But baseball, didn’t learn nothing from the Montreal Expos mess that destroyed the Orioles destroyed the television market in this area. And Montreal playing games in San Juan and farting around with them. It was 20 years ago. And they’re still doing that. And that’s the part that I’m shaking my head saying. If this were a Marriott or Subway franchise, they would just strip you have the right to be a major league baseball partner, Brad.
Brad Balukjian 05:45
Yeah, man. I mean, I don’t know what else I can add to that. It’s just I think everyone in Oakland is just in a state of collective mourning. Realizing that I think there’s always been that again, that little bit of hope that okay, well, maybe the you know, the stadium deal is not going to work in Las Vegas, or maybe the efforts to block it through different petitions is going to work or the legislature. But at this point, I don’t really see any any reason to hope and really, the Coliseum is, I know it’s it’s a crappy stadium, but I still love that place. I still love that love it
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:22
8too. You know, we talked about this. It smells like Memorial Stadium. Yeah. And it looks and feels underneath like you’re walking through Memorial Stadium it is. It’s astonishing. And it pulls in my heart in a big, big way. Every time I’m there. Yeah,
Brad Balukjian 06:36
we’ll see what happens and see what happens to the building. You know, I’m really curious, who moves in or what sports teams, you know, soccer or whatever it goes in there. Because it’s, it’s, it’s I was in Philadelphia recently for Wrestlemania. And they have their great sports complex. And it’s, you know, it’s not downtown. It’s south of downtown. It’s in its own little area, right by the freeway. And I was thinking it’s very similar to the positioning of Oakland’s Coliseum and arena, in that it’s not in that downtown location. And just seeing the way that they built up the XFINITY live around the stadium and Philadelphia, you see how
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:14
it’s also on the subway and Philadelphia? Yeah, on the subway, right? Yeah, done properly.
Brad Balukjian 07:19
I mean, Oakland, the Coliseum and the arena are on the BART, the sub on the train, you know, there, there’s ample parking, it’s right off the freeway, it’s very similar to the Philadelphia setup. It’s just and that’s always been the most obvious solution is to just redevelop that site. And the A’s ownership from the jump never expressed any interest in doing that, even though it made the most logistical sense to just keep that site. And I think they’re, you know, their attempts to go to these other sites closer to downtown just there were too many roadblocks. And then they just said, you know, well, we’re out of here.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 07:55
Well, that isn’t that the moral of the whole story is they always wanted to move the Colts he never wanted to look for a solution to keep the team in Baltimore. And in every case, when teams move, it’s it’s the will of of it. And I think the inertia of when Montreal quit on the expos, it was because they even threatened to leave. It’s almost like in a relationship. Your wife threatens to leave you she’s left. You know what I mean? Like literally, and I think for the battered fans of the East Bay, and it’s always little brother, big brother with the San Francisco teams and I mean, the 40 Niners play in the middle of nowhere, right? Like literally like I was out there two months
Brad Balukjian 08:35
ago. It’s like, might as well be in office park,
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:37
you know, I mean, it’d be it’d be like the Orioles moving to Reston, Virginia and still calling themselves the Baltimore Orioles like it’s that far. And for the 40 Niners fans, it’s a regional thing. Now that the Raiders have left the warriors of the East Bay thing that everybody can’t get enough of. They love them so much. They imported them into San Francisco. I I never felt like the A’s were gonna get saved in some way. Like I always felt like that was inevitably bad. And the perception of Oakland much like the perception of Baltimore shouldn’t say that in a week when Detroit’s got an NFL draft like they had perception. I mean, perception becomes reality but when three teams leave in a decade to your point in facilities, I went to multiple Golden State Warriors games. I want to see Pearl Jam their lesson 24 months ago couple nights. You know Oakland I went to baseball games there I was at the pinata crotch shop game with when Johnny Damon got carted off and like I got held I held the AFC Championship dry held the Lamar on trophy in front of the black hole with David Modell on the dais. So I love that building. But I’ve never felt like when I’m there there’s been any interaction with the Raiders to ever like when and the owners nuts to ever figure out that like I would go out there one day and there’d be another thing like that thing down in LA that they built in Inglewood, right like that they sunk billions of dollars into it. I always wonder where that money was going to come from when they allowed the 40 Niners to sail. They kissed off the Raiders. Right? And they’ve let the A’s become like I said they should rip the Major League Baseball brand off because it’s not really. You know what they’re doing there. It doesn’t equate to what the Yankees do or the Dodgers? Right?
Brad Balukjian 10:23
8Exactly. Yeah, yeah. They’re
Nestor J. Aparicio 10:26
playing chess, not checkers, Brad Bluejeans, here. WrestleMania tell me your fascination with all this again, tell everybody what you would say about the wax pack and how it changed your life because I’ve met you on a couple of occasions here on my show, but you’re like, you have a like a real gig in the real world. You’re like a PhD like, and you have this same fascination with toys that like me and Luke Jones have with rasslin and baseball cards and like you grew up like the rest of us you were just a little smarter. nerdier
Brad Balukjian 10:54
that’s fair. Yeah, I think after the wax pack, a lot of people wanted me to do another wax back immediately get another pack of cards or do a football pack or something. And I resisted that because I think too many people just do a sequel a direct sequel because it’s easy or it’s it’s you know, you can the money is there. But creatively that wasn’t appealing to me. It’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 11:19
like you can’t do the wax pack. Take it back. It’s not everybody knows what the wax pack is especially for a car. Yeah,
8Brad Balukjian 11:26
the Westpac was a book written about my taking of a 1986 pack of baseball cards that had never been opened opening it up. I 86. That was the first year that I collected cards. I’m 43. Now this happened in 25th 74 was my first year so I got you Okay, okay. 2015 open the pack went on the road said I’m going to whoever’s in this pack. I’m going to track them down now and drove over 11,000 miles all over the country to find these guys. And as you can imagine, in a random pack, you get everyone from stars like Carlton Fisk down to Jaime koken our who was probably no one’s heard of. And it’s really the story of the afterlife of baseball, you know, what do you do with the rest of your life when you’re can no longer play and you’re 35 years old. And it really becomes this story of, of sort of growing up and relationships and getting into these guys, their family lives and their personal lives and how hard it was to let go of their fame. And it was was a wonderful story. It was very kind of them, showing them them teaching me things as I went on the road. But again, I didn’t feel like doing that again. Was that creatively interesting? So I decided to come up with a sort of an indirect sequel and turn to another childhood pastime of mine, which was following wrestling back in the 80s. Like so many people wrestling, you know, in the in the mid to late 80s and the WWF and having all the action. Why did you grow up? I grew up in Rhode Island.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:57
Okay, so you’re in a real WW F territory, but you’re much younger than I right. I guess we looked at 43 Yeah, I’m 55. So like, you are not Bob bachlin. And Bruno, you’re our Hawk was already the guy.
Brad Balukjian 13:14
Yeah, I was definitely the Hulkamania era the WWF going national the mid 80s Saturday
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:20
8Night main events. Cyndi Lauper. Okay, so, so a lot of those characters luau banno came to me in 1976 7778 on the regional Vince’s dad owning the events being the announcer and then wrestling at the civic center of the capital center in the spectrum with Bob Backlund after Bruno Sammartino so you kind of came out of wrestling it already sort of jumped the shark and become a thing you know, yeah,
Brad Balukjian 13:47
wrestling was huge. It was blowing up and my favorite wrestler was the Iron Sheik which was a little strange, but maybe not strange once you know that, you know, my favorite baseball player was Don Carmen so I’ve never the person that went for the most obvious choice
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:04
and I had gotten did you like about the Iron Sheik?
Brad Balukjian 14:07
I think I as a five year old it was just that he had that that mustache and the pointy boots
8Nestor J. Aparicio 14:12
he swung those things those weights Yeah, he was a heel and
Brad Balukjian 14:17
I was drawn to the again that not following the crowd. So there’s something about his look that I just took to and and so later on, when I was in college, I got to know him. Personally, I basically figured out where he was wrestling and gotten to know his agent and one thing led to another I was able to meet him and spent the whole first day that I met him hanging out with him and kind of telling him all about my my fandom that we ended up becoming friends and in keeping in touch and a
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:51
big Twitter guy in late in his life he just passed recently right? Yeah,
Brad Balukjian 14:55
8yeah, he this is before all that but yeah, he He had a renaissance of resurgence on Twitter with his crazy ranting about different things. But I had plans, I left my job to work on a biography with him in 2005. And I actually moved to the town he lived in outside of Atlanta, and spent a couple months working with him. And it was it went completely sideways, because he was so deep into the addiction. And you know, the first line of the book is that the Iron Sheik just threatened to kill me because he was, he was that far gone in terms of, you know, just his behavior was so erratic and volatile. So that collaboration, that book Never happened back then. And then fast forward 17 years write
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:43
anything in this book in regard to things you would have put in that book.
Brad Balukjian 15:48
The Prologue is all about that. It’s 2005. And it’s all set that Ben and tells you
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:54
why his story was interesting then to you why a young writer would write an idle like around literally write,
8Brad Balukjian 16:01
how I met him, why it didn’t work out all of that. And then I fast forward to 2022 after the wax pack, and I said, Okay, I’m gonna go back on the road again and find him again, along with the guys that was that were on the show when he became the champion. So Sergeant slaughter and Tito Santana and Tony Atlas, and then Hulk Hogan, because he comes the next month and becomes the champion and Vince McMahon, because he’s part of, you know, he’s the promoter and the whole story. And this book is the story of that road trip to find all these guys now. And in this case, it’s really about how much they became their characters. How much they forgot, you know, let’s look at you mentioned Sergeant slaughter. I mean, he’s got his real name is Bob Remus, he’s from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. And he really kind of became this, this character so much, so that until very recently, even publicly he would be he did not he would not admit that he didn’t serve in Vietnam. kayfabe right. Yeah, keeping up the kayfabe Yeah, even But years after a fade has has ended and it was I think some of the guys from that era they just have a really hard time letting go of that protective instinct for protecting the business.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:20
I you know, I I’ll go Mork and Mindy here, Brad but Luke shins here He is an author and lives out in the Bay Area reached him because the athletics are playing but the wrestling side of this and Luke and I did a long segment on wrestling. I’m literally I’m not just interested in you. I’m literally just going through all the pictures because I found a way to this documentary. I found all of my childhood pictures. That’s Wahoo McDaniel and King Kong Bundy in the ring. There’s a very bloodied Ronnie Garvin in the ring at the Baltimore arena. There’s a precious Paul coming in. So
Brad Balukjian 17:53
that Baltimore arena is that is that still there? This is the CFG Bank Arena now.
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:57
8Yes. And it’s a concert facility primarily at this point. It was built for the Baltimore clippers, and for the Baltimore bullets before the bullets moved. It’s a 1962. Billy, so there’s Ric Flair. So there’s Ted DiBiase. The million dollar man I was at ringside seats. There’s another Ted DiBiase. Let’s see what else we got here. It’s just like a baseball card pack for you. Right? Larry’s Abisco there’s Larry. And Larry was always good at pointing and it always involves the Sammartino family. There’s Wahoo McDaniel, bloodied up in the corner there some maybe King Kong Bundy turned on him. There’s a hawk, animal and Hawk, the Road Warriors doing the the big tongue thing. This is one of my all time I took this picture on a baseball trip and a summer at three with my parents and I sold our tickets at Busch Stadium and I went to the Keele auditorium to see Harley Race and Ric Flair in an NWA championship match. So I get a whole pile driver. So like I got to wrestling or there’s Hawk there’s your guy. There’s the ring and St. Louis at the Keele auditorium. There’s the Baron, who I gotta get on the show because he does things Baron Vaughn Roski, who’s also a Minnesotan. There’s Ric Flair doing his thing. There’s Rick and his regalia. This is the late great Terry Funk and we just lost him recently. And I knew I had a picture of him. I told Dennis Kola, we have a lot of wrestling fans. You’re Brad, and this is Hulk Hogan is give me a chance to show all these often at three. And there’s talk in the ring really good picture Hawkeye talk. And then the final picture was hardly coming in looking like the everyman that Harley Race was like the 11 time NWA champion that he was so I’m a wrestling guy. So when I heard WrestleMania and your affinity for all this, it was born out of this weird relationship with the Iron Sheik.
Brad Balukjian 19:36
Yeah, I mean, that’s the backstory. And then I went on the road again a couple years ago with the seat to find him again and reunite with him and fight. He ended up passing away only a few months after I was with him at again at his house in Georgia. And it was crazy. I turned the book in in June of 2023 to my editor, and then a few days later, I get attacked Eckstrom his daughter that says, you know, my dad just passed away last night and so I scrapped everything got on Bay invited me to the they had a private service, I flew back out to Atlanta, got to go to his funeral. And the only wrestler actually that showed up was from his era was was Sergeant slaughter, and he gave one of the eulogies. And that was a really nice moment. But yeah, it was, you know, unexpected that that would happen. And then I ended up writing an epilogue to the book because that had that was sort of the end of the story.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:34
You know, I do in this crazy dark this week. I have Keith Brewer is my voice of God. He was in the band, the Ravens he did the show two weeks ago, we talked about behind the music being the conflict show, he did a show on VH one, he was the voice of God for a show before they were rock stars and to tell the stories, and before they were wrestlers, and then after they were wrestlers, while they’re wrestlers, there on your screen, they’re wearing their thing, they’re doing their thing. And then you see a movie like The Wrestler that was made years ago. Controversial to some degree based loosely on a couple of different lives. But Kevin Eck is one of my best friends. He’s been an industry guy forever. We grew up together and we would always ask those questions back in the 80s and 90s You know, what does George the animal Steele really do? He’s a teacher in Detroit. And he’s just a gigger like get a job or in the summer that comes in and where does the high Chief Peter Maivia go oh, he’s raising grandkids you become the rock like later on in life and you know, all of these the ethnic stories that were a part of this the mask men, the managers but the drugs George Saharan was a name I knew as a child because his name was announced as part of the you know, he was the attending doctor at ringside a doctor a jar jus Irian, you know, and I’ve had Gary Miko a cappella on many, many. So I, I’m a wrestling geek, you know, of that era. I lost it all after like Hulk Hogan. And it’s sort of when guys like you came along, and it was more international and much more racy. Stacy Keibler. By the way, Miss Hancock, excuse me. Wrestling Hall of Famer, Stacy Keibler, we’re gonna get that straight, was my intern here in 1999. I’ve known Stacy all of her. And I didn’t even put that in the documentary. My wife’s like, you probably should put her in. I’m like, God, I gotta put her in. Right. But like the wrestling part of all of our lives, being in Baltimore, we all have anybody my age has a wrestling story somewhere along the thing, but I think all of us have come to grips with after the, all the deaths, all of the drugs, all of the stories, all of the send ups of movies that this is, and just Vince being literally a mafia, Don, um, you know, controlling careers, you know, not just a little bit completely in an industry is monopolized, no matter what Alex marvez tells me when I see him in Aw, and sting a couple of weeks ago, but it’s a tough life, right? Like any book about wrestling, that’s being honest, really tough.
Brad Balukjian 23:11
Yeah. And that’s, I mean, I think that’s where I this is not a typical wrestling book, because it does focus on the humanity of these guys and again, about who they are beyond the ring. And really, I mean, my training is as a fact checker in journalism. So I imagine taking on an assignment like professional wrestling, which is entirely based on an illusion, and really has no written history. I mean, it’s really hard to research wrestling, because unlike sports, where you have every single newspaper in the country covered major sports every day, there doesn’t exist for wrestling, right? So, so much of what we may think we know is based on oral history and repetition of stories, and not a lot of academics or, you know, a lot of journalists who are outside or wrestling come in and give it that level of scrutiny. So I was really happy to take on that assignment and take on that challenge, I
8Nestor J. Aparicio 24:09
guess in in writing about it and finding these people, these human beings at what, where do you find the other characters in the book and say, I want to talk about the Iron Sheik with you, which is I mean, what’s your entree to track down these folks this time, in the same way that when you were tracking down Rick Sutcliffe, you simply said, I’m you know, wacky dude, writing spoke about cards, and I want to have a little access to spend some time with you. I’m a journalist. I mean, I’ve been a journalist my whole life. I’ve had that. I’ve made that call and said, Hey, I’d like to sit down and talk to you or Hey, Brad, can you come on my show and talk Oakland A’s and we’ll want to talk wrestling for half an hour. But what what was your response to? I think it’s different when you’re going to Pete Rose, he wants money, right? It’s Oh,
Brad Balukjian 24:52
so you’d be surprised. Maybe you wouldn’t be surprised. So my entree was these guys were all there on the show in Madison Square Garden when the high Iron Sheik won the championship. And so as approaching them and saying, Hey, I’m telling the story of how the WWF expanded. I’m telling the story of you know who you all are in your real lives who the Iron Sheik is.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:12
So there’s a lot of business in this book, right? Correct. Yeah, like,
Brad Balukjian 25:16
8that’s where I’m really proud. I broke a lot of new ground because I found, for example, the CFO of the WWF, from 1983, who had never been interviewed before, but he was he was one of the only people that would know things like, how did Vince McMahon fund his expansion? You know, how much did the first WrestleMania gross? How much did Hulk Hogan get paid? I mean, like, insider kind of details like that, that really hadn’t been found before, or hadn’t been disclosed before. But when I approached a lot of these guys, I mean, a couple of them. They did say like, Well, I’m not going to talk to you unless you pay me. And I tried to explain, Well, that’s not how journalism works. And they were like, well, then I’m not going to talk to you. So for example, Tito Santana, Tony Atlas. For them, I did agree to pay them. But I said the deal is, I’m going to disclose that to the reader. I’m going to tell I’m going to be upfront about that. And that was my way of handling the ethics of that situation.
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:13
So wrestling was so important to me, Brap, Aleutians our guests, you can Google him it’s be a LUKJIAN like Kirk Jin,
Brad Balukjian 26:23
I tell people now the much easier go to the Brad pack.com. And that’s, that’s my site,
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:29
the Brad pack.com Easy enough. Dude, I want to share something with you. So this is a story. So like that five years ago, I can do I can tell you exactly what it was. Because there’s a Facebook three year three years ago. So time flies to 2021. Luke and I do wrestling a couple times a year in Wrestlemania. And we talk about the things I saw and share some ticket stubs and stories. And I’ve just found these these pictures, right. And Luke hasn’t seen these. He’s the only one that seen them as you and me and anybody that watches us out on the YouTube thing. But I’m going to share a bunch of this and the 25th anniversary documentary. The rock is in it. Vince is in it because they sat on the show. We did a show back during the raw era where Mick Foley and I mean all of my heroes, Tony Gurria. Pat Patterson, they were working for the company then. So they sat down. It wasn’t completely kayfabe you know what I mean? Like this was afternoon Sports Radio Live from the arena. It we talked, when Vince came on, we talked about putting on raw and why Baltimore was a good market for them. So it wasn’t like totally in character at all. But so I love wrestling enough to love it. But back in the 70s when I was a little boy. I was in a town called Abbey Ville, South Carolina that I went and visited six months ago because my mother died. She was born there in 1919. So I have a little bit of you and me like in this trail of Sammy Hagar was playing in Greenville that night too, which was a big reason to go. But so I wanted to go to my mom’s hometown and my aunt, my favorite aunt, my Aunt Edna. long dead you know that 30 years took me to the wrestling matches or she called him wrestling matches. And we went over to Greenwood went drive over to Greenwood takes about 15 minutes but feels like 100 miles when you from the south. And she took me to a card in a baseball stadium the Greenwood Braves played in and my buddy Chris pica is a nerd, a research nerd and just a wonderful human. And he’s of newspapers.com and I said to him, can you look and research this newspaper on this day to find the card from the newspaper? Yeah, the card I went to and it’s amazing because this is going to come full circle when I show it to you because it involves you now. So the card that night in Greenwood. Oh wow. That was Tony Atlas strong man Tony Yeah, what year would this be? This was 1979 I looked it up. It was July 17 1979. I wrote a beautiful little passage about my Aunt Edna. But blackjack Mulligan took on Big John Studd did my show and you know a million years ago he was live locally at the Maryland Jimmy Snuka was before the coconut before Rowdy Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff, sweet Hansen, Sargent gelei And at the bottom of the card a couple guys you’ve never heard of. But these were guys in the NWA doing a job on a Tuesday night. Just try it Tony Atlas was trying to get to the WWE was trying to get discovered, right? And all of these guys but Tony Atlas told me about him because he was at the top of that card that night that I remember all these years later, and I saw him wrestle many times. He was just an incredible physical specimen, right? He
8Brad Balukjian 29:38
was he was a Mr. USA a great bodybuilder. He actually pinned Hulk Hogan in I mean, to give you a sense when Hulk Hogan first got to the WWF in 1979 Tony Atlas was a much bigger star. You know, Tony was if it wasn’t wasn’t for Tony’s demons, he would have probably been no you know, maybe a world champion or definitely up They’re at the highest levels. But like a lot of these guys, I mean, Tony already from from childhood was added rough, right? And he grew up in just abject poverty in western Virginia. His dad left the family early. Maybe it was so bad that he would defecate in a in a box under the bed as a kid. They had no toilet. And the he ended up in a boy’s home at around age 11 or 12. When I met with him up in Lewiston, Maine, you know, he told me all about this and how not only was he dealing with all that but the just the overt racism and you know, just horrible horrible stuff growing up in the in the 50s and 60s down there and got stabbed in the back with a pitchfork by a by a local farmer. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:50
then he wrestled for me one night in 1979. After doing all of that, he wound up being a guy that I wanted his autograph when I was a 10 year old boy ringside, right, like That’s right. There’s nobody that we talked about Jackson holiday showing up in the lineup and dad and like any see ready for it. He’s one for 30. I mean, these guys are not ready for that level of fame in wrestling, specifically in wrestling. Yeah. Well,
Brad Balukjian 31:14
he told me the stories about how, you know, he was washing dishes and making like, I forgot how much it was, you know, just peanuts per week, and then all because he had that physique and that look, and that presents and at that point, you know, right, the way that wrestling was structured in those territories, the promoters, the promoters, each promotion, they wanted to have like their one black star, who was a babyface, and their one Latino star, who was a babyface. Unfortunately, there was wasn’t room for more than one. So, but they saw with Tony’s look, they were like, This guy could be our next black babyface star. And so they actually this is unheard of for that time, but they paid him to train to be a wrestler. That’s how much they wanted him. guy named George Scott, who was a promoter in the mid atlantic territory down there in the Carolinas
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:02
8at the Big Bopper. Not to be confused with the 1975 wax pack with the Boston Red Sox. Right, right. Right, just making sure. And
Brad Balukjian 32:09
so they trained him down there in Charlotte, North Carolina, you know, the YMCA, and they they got him up to speed. And he before you know it, he was on the fast track. He was, you know, he started wrestling in the mid 70s. So he’s already pretty much made eventing, like the show you saw in 79, he was already a regional star, and then
Nestor J. Aparicio 32:29
met you under dollars that night, you get in a rental car and drive on to Valdosta that night, right and as much as you can, and try to find a girl for the night or, you know, pool or like, that was the life and it I
Brad Balukjian 32:41
wouldn’t say people should read that chapter because that it’s not yes. But also, they didn’t pay for anything. I mean, they you know, the people were giving them cars to drive so they could free advertising. I mean, they were, they were mega stars in even in those regional territories. And eventually, Tony out of this becomes he and Rocky Johnson, the rocks, Dad become the WWF Tag Team Champions. I mean, they were they were way up there. But the drug issues, all of that took Tony down. And I mean, it’s great that he’s doing well. Now. He’s actually when I met up with him, he had just gotten back from a wrestling match. So he’s still wrestling at 69.
8Nestor J. Aparicio 33:25
Yeah, it’s a tough life. And I you know, I would have said that last time we’re talking baseball cards, I’m gonna say you’re gonna win wrestling. A tough life man, Brad Bucha joining us here in next book, I mean, I don’t I don’t know what you are other than a PhD. And I’m trying still trying to figure you out. I mean, I want to talk some baseball and some Oakland A’s with you and seeing if you’re up on the Orioles. But I’m not. I’m not sure what you do. Because tell me what you do in the real world as a Well, I
Brad Balukjian 33:50
mean, my wife, you’re like a scientist kind of guy. Yeah, I have a scientist, I discovered all these species of insects that live in Tahiti. teach biology, but I’m actually transitioning now more into doing the writing full time. And so if this book in order for me to do another packed book or another book, you know, this book has to sell well enough. And book publishing is a tough world these days. So I hope I hope I can I hope I can do more. I’d love to do more writing. But yeah, I have this very strange, you know, hit part science part journalism career. It’s been very rewarding, because just kind of indulging, indulging my passions. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:31
always hoped that you and I would go to an Oakland Athletics game at the Coliseum. I guess I have one last shot.
Brad Balukjian 34:36
8We only got about four months.
Nestor J. Aparicio 34:38
Yeah. Are you abstaining? Are you going are you if I’m actually into the Bay Area and said I’m going to the game, would you go to a game or No,
Brad Balukjian 34:45
I mean, I would if I was actually right now I’m actually in Rhode Island where I grew up, because I here to do a book tour for the release of the six pack. And so I’m not even in Oakland right now. Maybe later on in the summer. I’ll be They’ll be back out there. But for now I’m on East Coast. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:03
I hope you get a lot of press. So people talk about this and last thing for us, you know, the vice thing shows up on my which probably speaks to me but the voice thing shows up on my my timeline a lot with that, that that that series Yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m fasten it my wife and I sat and watched the Fabulous Moolah one a couple of years ago. Um, anyone that I the bruiser Brody when I kind of was wanting to watch it, but I didn’t. But that is a part a point of journalism that existed that that I haven’t seen in any other format. And a lot of these stories I was going to ask you, as Tony Atlas told the story, probably to someone on a podcast or a blog or this or that somewhere along life’s highway the last 30 years and trying to promote wrestling and promote himself. But a lot of these stories do feel a little untold.
8Brad Balukjian 35:53
Yeah, I think I mean, some of that has been out before, but I was able to break a lot of new ground, talking to people like the new Hulk Hogan when he was a kid or, you know, people that hadn’t really been interviewed before. So I’m confident that anyone with an interest in this stuff will be satisfied that there’s a lot of new stuff that they haven’t seen before.
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:15
Is Bruno Sammartino. His name in the book?
Brad Balukjian 36:18
Oh, yeah, I’m sorry, but he may not have made I’m just asking. I just need to know I don’t think I don’t think Bruno because he’s, you know, his time had passed. And he certainly Bob Backlund is a big part of it. But Bruno was just a little bit too.
Nestor J. Aparicio 36:31
8What About Bob Backlund. I once had a beer with Bob back on it’s the bills in Highland town. Bob liked me and I liked wrestling and Bob still Bob did the show until you couldn’t have Bob on anymore. And we talked about CTE and football players and like all of that life expectancy for a lot of guy. Eyes and Bob Backlund is a guy clearly you know, I think you there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bob Backlund is a guy who did not talk to you. Right? Yeah.
Brad Balukjian 37:04
And for those issues I did, I was going to do a chapter on him but from my from my sources and reporting realize he’s got some serious health issues. And so he wasn’t going to be in a in a state to be able to do it. And that’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 37:18
an amazing thing. Because his story, whatever it is, would be fascinating because he was he was larger than life when I was 1011 12 years old, right? Like, I mean, like and when you still believed in before Hawk came along, so it was kind of a weird time for me to be a wrestling fan. We also had a weird thing here, Brad, we’re in 7980 8182 Baltimore was a real contested territory, where the NWA and Georgia Championship Wrestling started bringing in Ric Flair because it was such a hot market and the arena, the Baltimore Civic Center, then that then became the Baltimore arena and the Royal farms arena after that now CFG Bank Arena was a really serious wrestling place where you would get Andre in here three times a year on two different cards. You would get all the end once they could sell tickets here and cable television came and they could and Georgia Championship Wrestling came it really during the 80s It opened that door for everything you remember Cyndi Lauper and where all that was? Baltimore was just a great it’s a mark town. You
Brad Balukjian 38:18
know what I’m talking about? Brad? Yeah, well, it was it like you said it was at the forefront of the war because it was right on the boundary of where the WWF territory ended. And so you know, like, there were the southern territories wanted to make that incursion into the northeast and Baltimore was kind of the gateway there. How
8Nestor J. Aparicio 38:35
was all Cogan?
Brad Balukjian 38:37
Well, the Hulk said he ever interviewed Hulk Hogan.
Nestor J. Aparicio 38:40
I have never interviewed Hulk Hogan. Thank you. I mean, that’s I appreciate that. I’ve interviewed Ric Flair slaughter some of the guys yes, some of them. No, no, neither
Brad Balukjian 38:50
8will neither have I and then that chapter is about my attempt to interview sort of like Carlton Fisk in the wax back. I went through a lot of the trouble to try to find HK Terry bullae as his real name. Down in Port Tampa, Florida, found his childhood home, knocked on the door guy ended up getting a tour, found the people he was in rock bands we had before he was a wrestler, went to his karaoke bar and saw him there. And he was right, you know, because 30 yards away, but he wouldn’t sit with me for an interview. So I wasn’t able to, you know, sit down and ask him things, but I was able to still report on his his story. All
Nestor J. Aparicio 39:27
right, well, he’s had a sort of one as well, especially in regard to journalism and media and free speech in our country. You can Google that Dr. Brad Gallucci is here. His book is out and anything you want to say on the Oakland or the baseball thing is baseball escaped you a little bit or do you watch Do you know who Gunnar Henderson is? Yeah,
Brad Balukjian 39:45
I don’t. I don’t keep up with it every day but I’m also a Phillies fan. So being back here, you know and it’s been a good time for Philadelphia sports. So I’m hoping that they can finally break through you know, one of these years and go all the way,
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:00
they play a central role as the victim and the only good thing that’s ever happened in my life and 1983 You know, so Oh, right, right. There you go. All these fans during that period of time, so it was kind of heartbreaking for me and sort of a weird way because I love both teams. I mean, I always wear my National League team. Yeah,
8Brad Balukjian 40:16
that was the last time the Orioles were in the World Series. Right?
Nestor J. Aparicio 40:19
Yeah, you can remind us of that. I remind Luke, Luke Jones was born the first week of October of 1980 83. So every time I he goes on a trip, I have to fill out the form with his birthday and I’m like, oh, man, that was the week to Landrum hit the bomb and beat the White Sox and you were just getting born. Like that’s how far behind you are. And it wouldn’t be so bad if you were like a Red Sox fan and it sucked for a while and you want a couple of times or even if you’re like a Royals fan, even if you’re Phillies fan, you’ve had some fun dude. Like you know what it’s like it wasn’t just tug McGraw and nothing. You know, that’s how we talk McGraw and nothing is what we are here.
Brad Balukjian 40:55
Tell me in Baltimore. Is there any effort now to get a basketball or hockey team? No. This is not even a thing. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 41:02
8if it were a thing Ted leonsis would be up here trying to get money because our city and our state have given $600 million in the baseball owner and you talk about a whole Cogan running from use deep Ashati and Eric d’acosta ran for me two weeks ago. They don’t like journalists that much either hometown guys. So they’re getting all the money for the stage. So there’s never I’ve been on the air 32 years here, there’s we we don’t have the money as as a market to support that. And when Ted leonsis was trying to run, the wizards who went down there 50 years ago from us, into northern Virginia, and all that got pushed back into DC, that would have been an opportunity for a strong Baltimore to say, oh, you know, we can recruit you up here and put an arena for you and, and build that city that you’re talking about with real estate, that we could build that in a different part of Baltimore, the host of basketball and football team, but it’s our hockey team. But there’s no palette here. I’m trying to figure out the palette for expensive baseball, and expensive football, because as I told Linda Raskin, baseball was built here on my father working at the point and he taking his 10 year old boy in the summer of 79, to baseball games for a lifetime of love of baseball, where a couple of bucks got you in and you had an experience that baseball was always that sport. Hockey was never that right. But baseball was always that sport that you could afford. That is accessible. Yeah. And and you’re finding an Oakland there’s, you know, you want to keep players. You know, I mean, we want to keep this group of young players, paying them and being the kind of franchise that can have 160 100 $80 million current payroll. I don’t know if Baltimore’s that market I’m we’re gonna find out where I mean, the biggest thing in baseball, moving forward is how they’re going to fund it. All right, because they’re not going to get it off the side of the cable television your grandmother who puts money in doesn’t watch the games. Right? Right,
Brad Balukjian 42:57
the whole regional network thing that’s going away and so yeah, how that’s gonna work
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:02
gonna be like being an author or being a you know, a medium. We’re gonna have to, like actually sell stuff to make our money. You have to sell books when you’re an author, right? Yeah,
Brad Balukjian 43:10
that’s what it’s all about. Yeah, well, I
8Nestor J. Aparicio 43:12
hope you sell a billion of them. Dude, you took on that. I’ve been it’s been fun for me to catch up with you and talk to you about it, even though I called you about the Oakland A’s about wax pack and all that stuff. But I appreciate you keep up the good work. And next time I swear, I’m gonna do a half an hour on the bugs at the end. Because every time you write That’s right, every time you bring it up, I think of the dolphins of Tahiti, and I think of the views and Tahiti and the rainbows and Tahiti. And while I’m doing all that as a tourist, you’re studying the bugs.
Brad Balukjian 43:41
That’s right next time. We’ll have to get to that.
Nestor J. Aparicio 43:43
Let’s do that over some pulse on crew proper. Yeah, and some Hinano Oh, he is Brad volution I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stopped talking rasslin and the Iron Sheik and interesting authors with interesting stories and wise conversations.
