LO: So you had to travel the furthest?
SA: Oh yeah. Five hours to Nashville and two more here to Lawrenceburg. The Batten Twins came from Huntington, West Virginia, which is ten minutes further than me. We got to make it a working vacation with making family stops in Nashville.
LO: That's pretty cool. Who did you like when you watched Georgia Championship Wrestling?
SA: A lot of guys. Back then, the biggest babyface was Tommy Rich. I started watching TBS in 1978, or WTCG actually, and they showed Georgia Championship Wrestling. Tommy was the top baby and Buzz Sawyer was the heel.
LO: Is you guys are completely Southern-style, more traditional?
SA: Yeah. I had a talk with one of the guys, who words as one of our babyfaces, who rode down here with me about the difference between a Southern style babyface and a normal babyface and he didn't. That's because you don't see it anymore. A Southern babyface is humble and works the crowd differently compared to a Rock or Stone Cold who are more cocky. If they want to see more of that, they'll go to a WCW/WWF show. We have got to give them a different product. There is one man making money in this business and that is Vince McMahon, as a promoter. Doesn't matter hat any other promoters say, trust me, no one else is making money. If they tell you that, they are lying to ya. So we gotta give them something different. Everybody else is doing garbage cans, cheese graders, light bulbs. We get letters from the state of Kentucky Athletic Commission telling us to make sure we don't use florescent light bulbs and flaming ball bats. Well, apparently somebody's doing that. Why, I don't know. We carry licenses, bonds, insurance, permits, everything that our states require. We're incorporated. We are a company. We file taxes. So, we try to do everything above board. I own a business besides this and it takes up a lot of my time, so I understand business. And no we are not making money, maybe someday. (laughing)
LO: This charity show that you guys are doing is good publicity for your company, period.
SA: Absolutely. It all started, my moniker is a Tennessee gambler and Nancy Copeland from DreamCatchers, USA, emailed me and said that a young man in Tennessee wanted an autographed picture, which I sent him and a letter.
She assumed I was in Tennessee, which I'm not. (laughs) But from there we had some conversations about "could you bring a show." We said sure. We go as far as Hardeeville, South Carolina, which is twelve hours for us. This is a night off for us. So it came up and it's going to be good for our guys to wrestle in from of different people.
A lot of matches tonight are guys that work each other some, but some are in programs together no. So they'll be good out there.
LO: So, they'll be used to each other?
SA: Yeah, Todd Morton and Beau James are in an angle together, the Batten Twins are in an angle, Bull Pain and Tracy Smothers are in an angle. The Batten Twins are in an angle right now, but are switching tonight by working as a babyface instead of heel. Different, but it fits a purpose here.
LO: Everyone here is wanting to see a good show tonight.
SA: Exactly.
LO: It looks like you're going to bring them in.
SA: It looks like everyone is going to enjoy themselves. They'll see Southern style wrestling, not the other style. No foul language, naked women.
LO: Thank goodness. (laughs)
SA: (laughs) There's nothing wrong with naked women or foul language and I say curse words, but I don't do it in front of the general public or fans and I think it's insulting. I know as a kid when I heard it, it insulted me. It's too cheap. It's too easy. If that is the only way to get heat, and I know a lot of guys who do that. That's their style they're catering to and that's fine. That's their business, and this is mine, but tonight it won't happen. I've talked with some of the wrestlers and Bull Pain will tell you the same thing. We sat down and had a nice long talk. (laughs). It's just one of those things.
LO: It means that you are showing more respect to your viewers.
SA: Absolutely. Our show on television is a half-hour show which means only twenty-two and a half minutes of actual Nationwide Championship Wrestling. It's usually three matches, sometimes two. We don't show a lot of ring entrances, we don't have time for it. We gotta show wrestling. We have expanded on some things recently, but it's getting better as it goes.
Like I said we tape once a month and do four or five weeks at a time, sometimes more. And it runs pretty smoothly. Honestly, the tapings run a lot faster than some house shows. These guys are programmed and know their jobs and their responsibilities. They know who to answer to, who gives the finishes, who calls the spots, what's expected of them, and what's not expected. We have guys trying out now which are going to be an opening match. And they are going to learn what an opening match is supposed to do.
LO: They are learning the hard way.
SA: Yeah, they are working each other and if they want to beat each other up, they'd better keep it in the ring.
LO: No ECW stuff, no hardcore stuff.
SA: (laughs) Yes. And again that's fine. But as I've said before Tracy Smothers and Bull Pain have worked ECW. The Batten Twins have worked in Puerto Rico for three years and that's what they did.
We were talking on our way to somewhere last week. When they went to Puerto Rico the second time, [the bookers] were looking for a different type match and they through up a scaffold match and this was back in '89 or '90 and Pro Ito said that would be good. They thought it was going to be one night, but it turned into thirteen nights in a row. We've only had one cage match, but it served a purpose. There were angles climaxing and was there for a purpose. Everything has a purpose. The way we treat it is that there is a reason to it.
LO: You're treating it like it wasn't just a normal match?
SA: Exactly. We follow through with angles as best as we can. That's the thing about taping four weeks at a time, we have four consecutive weeks on TV things will make sense. Next time there may be a guy hurt during that one-month between or a team gets broken up or something, but for one month, everything makes sense. It's tough to do, especially if you tape every two weeks, or something, and some guys leave or some guys get mad about their push or whether they want to be baby or heel, they moved away or a new guy comes in.
LO: So pretty much normal.
SA: Yep. Pretty much normal wrestling stuff.
LO: Any comments?
SA: Uh, no. We're excited about doing this charity show. It's a good opportunity for our guys. We're hitting a new market, but we're not trying to piss anyone off, excuse the language, but we're not trying to do anything. We were asked to put on a fundraiser. We're not trying to step on anybody's toes. We work very well with Southern states wrestling in Kingsport, Tennessee, with Beau James. We run a lot of angles together. They run in their area and we run in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
LO: Thank you.
SA: Thank you.
Make sure you all check out Scotty's website at
www.scottyace.com.
