RassleTalk with “The Black Label Society – Chapter 4 : Word Association II ” with "Axeman" Randall Lewis

This segment is composed of bits & pieces of an interview with AJ Bradley & Void, also known as Black Label Society. The interview date was Saturday, June 24, 2006, at the XOW Building in New Albany, MS. There was a great deal of background noise during the entire interview. Parts of what Void & AJ said were drowned out by the noise, but I have done my best to get it right. If there are errors, I apologize.

The comments and opinions expressed herein are those of Black Label Society (Void & AJ) only, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of myself or anyone else.

***********************************************

What do you think of The Stud, Scott Porteau?

Void: Man, I swear, that’s one of the smoothest workers I know. I mean, when he is in the ring, he is just… fluid, fluid. Everything he does is smooth. I don’t know if he’ll remember this, I hope he catches this when he reads the interview. I was training in Corinth. Doug Gilbert was booking. We get there early, and he and Tony were a tag team, this was almost five years ago. I didn’t know anything from anything, and I was ready to help with anything. I mean, the quicker the ring got set up, the quicker I was able to train. I would train for two or three hours. It was dead ass fun, and I didn’t care. So, I see this trailer pull up, and I see the person I now know as Stud, and Tony, sitting on the back of this trailer. It’s got this ring sitting up in there, and I walked out there, I’m still rook, I barely have any ring time at all. So I walk out there, and I said, uh, is this the ring, um, can I go ahead and start taking stuff in, and Stud looks at me, he was sitting down, and he says, “yes, sir.” And I went, oh shit, man, don’t call me sir, and I dropped my head and had to walk back in the bathroom, that embarrassed the hell out of me. But as far as in ring stuff goes, man he is smooth, damn smooth. I think I’ve been in the ring with him maybe once or twice. He’s one of those guys that just flows.

How about “Bad Attitude” Tony Dabbs?

Void: Same thing, pretty much the same answer. Something Tony does not get a lot of credit for, Tony is one of the toughest sombitches in the ring. I’ve been his tag team partner. When I first got brought into Booneville, before AJ & I were able to be tag team partners on a full time basis, I was brought into SGWA as Tony’s tag team partner. When I first walked in, I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, and he had a little makeup on, he was all kinda dark and stuff, and I said sombitch, you went and stole my gimmick, I don’t know what the hell you are borrowing from, and I kinda jabbed at him a little bit about that. Me and Tony were in the ring one time as tag team partners, and Tony’s shoulder pops, as it is notorious for doing, it popped out of socket. Tony gets his ass up out of the floor, and I’m freaking out, I don’t know what to do, he gets up and pulls his ass into the dressing room, pops it back into place, brings his ass back out and finishes the match. A lot of guys, if they fucking split a nail or get their brains scrambled a little bit, they’re ready to go home, take it home, take it home. Tony Dabbs has his shoulder pop out, goes and pops it back in, comes back and finishes the match. That’s why I don’t bitch when I get hurt. Tony Dabbs is tough as hell.

What can you tell me about Anita Page?

Void: Nita, man, her trainer ain’t worth a shit, I’ll tell you that right now (laughing). Naw, man, that girl, I’m so proud of her.

So, did you train her?

Void: Yes, sir. That’s what I said, the guy ain’t worth a shit. I trained her to be a wrestler, but the only thing she ever wanted to be is a manager. I trained her as a wrestler, and I guarantee she’s got a better scientific knowledge about wrestling than 75 or 80% of the guys that I’ve worked. She busted her ass, she has… I’ve said it to her face, and I’ll say it again to her face, she has no athletic ability whatsoever. Everything she can do, she busted her ass and made herself do. We’re damn good friends, all of us are, we’re damn good friends, she was at first Black Label. We were The Un-Naturals, then she comes in and we became Black Label Society. She brought something into our clique that we needed. She’s on time, she knows when she is supposed to be somewhere, and to be honest, we’ve put her into positions where we knew what she would do. If I needed her in a certain spot, then that’s where she would be. Now you can get her to do damn near anything, to be anywhere, to slip you something, jump in and rake somebody’s eyes, come in and hit somebody with something, anything. I mean, I dragged her skinny little ass in the ring and wrestled three matches with her, back to back to back, right there in that very ring. T-Byrd, Dirty Sanchez, Pappy, all these guys were sitting there watching. I had her work as a heel, as a baby, and a straight up scientific match. She worked all three of them, did what she was supposed to do, we just gotta get her to start bumping. You know, straight back bumps.

AJ: I hate when people say this, it’s not because of Anita[photo to left with Void/Marcus O'Neal], I mean, I love Anita to death. I don’t claim to have any part in training her, but I was there when she trained, and I was quick to get in the ring and help her, you know, kinda like, watch this, see how to do this….

Void: Yeah, AJ was kinda like the spot dummy, every time I would want her to do something, I would get him to do it first. Like arm drags, hip tosses, clotheslines, you know, I would do that to AJ, she would turn around and do it to me.

AJ: One thing in particular, I mean there’s a lot of things I could say about her, but one thing in particular, going back to her training, was when she was learning to take a belly to back suplex. I picked her straight up in the air and brought her straight down. She hit, she rocked her head, she hurt her elbows, her upper and lower back, and she was really hurting, but she got right back up and said, “What do I do next?”

Void: She wanted to know what we were going to do next, and I said, No, you sorta got your bell rung there, and she says, “Are you sure?” She had this thing where she did not want to disappoint me. So she goes out of the back of the dressing room and she cries. I think she threw up, too, didn’t she?

AJ: I don’t really remember for sure.

Void: But she cried about, by God, she wanted to be respected. She knows she’s gonna have the tit & ass aspect covered, you know, just look at her, you know she’s hot. But if she has no substance, all she has got is style, and that’s sure to wear thin. And that girl busts her ass, every time she’s asked to do something she busts her ass.

What is your opinion of Hollywood Jimmy Blaylock?

Void: That guy… That’s about the funniest, I can’t keep a straight face anywhere around him. I almost hate working anything with him because, even if it’s just the expression on his face, when he’s yelling at the people, I don’t know what it is, he’s not always the brighten up the room with a smile kind of guy, but damn, he does something that just cracks you every stinking time. Especially (laughing) the thing we did where we kidnapped him and took him to the asylum, his facial expressions are priceless. A lot of the stuff we do is his idea, and it is funny as hell it gets over so good. He’s a damn funny guy. I really wish I could have seen him in something like the WWE back in the 80’s, when that kind of talent would have been appreciated more.

AJ: Yeah, male managers were appreciated back then. Not so today in WWE or TNA.

Void: Now if you don’t have a Melina coming out with you and doing the splits getting in the ring, you can’t get over. Which is cool, I like to look at that, too, but I don’t want to see Jimmy Blaylock[above pic with DeathWish] doing the splits and getting in the ring in a thong, you know what I mean? (Laughter).

Let’s talk about Jerry “The King” Lawler.

Void: Oh God bless, I’ve never personally met Jerry Lawler, but I remember , he was just the guy, man, I grew up from age 2 to 13 in West Memphis. Jerry Lawler was the king of Memphis. I mean, he was just the guy that, for some reason, was why I watched wrestling. He wasn’t Lex Lugared up, he didn’t stick a needle in his ass in order to entertain. Jerry Lawler approached it in a way that made you believe. You didn’t see Jerry Lawler going pole to pole with Nick Bockwinkle, you saw Jerry Lawler beating Nick Bockwinkle’s ass. Jerry Lawler is just that guy, man. Good Lord, what his mind is to the business, a lot of the angles that you see in the WWE now, and even in ECW, Paul Heyman even had a reference to Jerry Lawler, he said, “Lawler, you sit here and talk about extreme wrestling, you were doing barb wire matches long before ECW.” And that’s the truth. I remember the first no fans match, in the Mid-South Coliseum, Jerry Lawler & Terry Funk. I remember that. I remember Terry Funk getting stabbed in the eye with a damn piece of wood. Lawler innovated so much stuff, and he’s just the king who watches puppies with a lot of these idiots now. People now don’t appreciate that old school stuff.

AJ: One thing about Lawler, he has been a big influence on this business. You watch him, and it’s some of the little things, small details that he’s influenced on this business. I would say at least 95% of the guys who have been through Memphis, or wrestling in the Mid-South, at one point or another, and have been around Lawler at any time whatsoever, they had the same kind of under-handed jab punch. Derrick King….

Void: Oh yeah, Derrick King has the prettiest right hand in the business. He has the prettiest punch I have ever seen in my life.

AJ: Even Sid Vicious, he does it, Jeff Jarrett, all those guys, Lawler’s influence is everywhere.

Speaking of influential people, how about Jimmy Valiant?

Void: Either Handsome Jimmy or The Boogie Woogie Man, it didn’t matter, he’s a dude that could finish off a match with an elbow. Jimmy Valiant was the man, the only person in history that could make the Manhattan Transfer a cool band. The boy from New York City, now who doesn’t know that? You know, I’m bringing in a tag team partner, and we’ll be all jacked up, here he is, show the video, and Jimmy Valiant’s video plays, and you’re like, yeah! It’s the Boogie Woogie Man! His music plays, and you’re like, yeah, man, I gotta get that! Manhattan Transfer, I wouldn’t mention listening to them now. I’ve met him one time. Well, two times really. The first time was in one of my first matches as Void on a show in Columbus, Mississippi. And I walked in, and I had contacts, the white out contacts, I was doing the Marilyn Manson, kind of a Satanic Void gimmick, Jimmy Valiant shook my hand and said, “Brother, I like them.” And I was like, shit, I can go home now, Jimmy Valiant said he liked my gimmick! And I met him again, and there was a long space of time in between these times, and Jimmy Valiant is not sitting at home, he meets new people every day. I walked in with a different pair of contacts and the same goofy look I always had, makeup and all, and he says, “Hey brother, I remember you, I like that.” And I’m like, that’s it, I don’t want to do anything else, Tracy Smothers put me over, and Jimmy Valiant remembers my gimmick. I can retire now.

AJ: I got a call to work in Gibson, Tennessee, and it was supposed to be one of Jimmy Valiant, you know, one of his 500 or so farewell matches, and I was privileged enough to be in an eight man tag match that he was in. I can’t remember everybody who was in the match, but I was on the heel team going against his baby team. As soon as the match started, Jimmy starts out the match for his team, the guy who started for my team was in the ring, Jimmy grabbed a quick full nelson. What I didn’t know was that Jimmy had overheard me talking to someone else about how big a fan of his my mother was. My grandmother used to take my mother to shows at the Oman Arena in Jackson when it was called the coliseum, and the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, all the time, and she was such a big fan of his. Jimmy knew that it would just make her night if I could interact with him, you know, make sure there was some real interaction with him. So, of course, my interaction with Jimmy consisted of me jumping in the ring when he had that full nelson on the guy, he moved out of the way, I hit my own partner, and as soon as I turn around he leans me back and plants a huge kiss on me. I jumped out of the ring going crazy and acting like it’s my worst nightmare that had come true, well it actually wasn’t acting, but I happened to look over at my mom, and I swear to God she had that red face, leaned back in her chair, laughing so hard! It was probably just another thing to Jimmy, but to me, it made my night.