Every game you'll see a player argue with an umpire, and I've never seen an
umpire change his mind ever. So why would you waste your time? Has that ever
worked? You ever see a guy sliding in the home? You're out! You're crazy, man!
He missed the tag! I had my head okay, okay, safe! Ah, I don't like conflict.
I tend to shy away from that. Go ahead, give him a run. No, it's okay. I didn't
know about the yelling. It's okay, give it to him. Baseball has interesting
traditions. Why do baseball coaches wear uniforms? Imagine a hockey coach on a
sidelines wearing full goalie gear. Give it your all, fellas! Who's the guy in
a goalie mask? So why is it normal in baseball? They look silly, especially the ones
who have put on a few pounds, sitting in the dugout, pinstripes as far apart.
Looks like somebody made a jailbreak out of his torso. I think I might pinch
run today. I'll just sit here and eat fungions.
Get 708 at WRJN Radio. I'm Don Rosen. Thanks for joining us here. My good friend,
old dear buddy, oh, from 50 plus years ago. Yeah, that's when we first met 50
fun some years ago. Took me to my first boxing match. My only boxing match you
took me to. Randy Gordon is here. Hi, Randy. Don, I can't believe we were
children. But the thing is, we each had dreams that we talked to each other about.
And I think we've each realized those dreams. And I think everybody listening to
us should just realize that dreams come true for you, for me, and I think anybody
who can possibly dream, which is all of us. If we want something bad enough, we can
get it. When I first met Randy, it was at radio station WGBB on Long Island. He came
on as a part time announcer. And I said, yeah, hire this guy. I talked to the program director,
Bob Lawrence. I said, gonna hire this guy. I said, well, you're gonna have to work with
him. I said, well, in that case, don't hire him. No, but I did work with Randy. And
for me to get promoted, he had to take the shift I was getting. I was leaving. So I had
to make sure that he could do it. And it was on Sunday mornings, he worked. And he always
wanted to be into boxing. And I'm gonna shorten the story. Then we're gonna go back and
tell the whole story. But Randy went on to work for wrestling and boxing magazines in
Freport, New York. He worked for a, he used to write stories for the boxing magazines.
Then he went on to become a commentator on ESPN television doing boxing. He boxed himself
for very, very short time. And then went on to become the New York State Boxing Commissioner,
now to become the New York State Athletic Commissioner. And went on to have his own show
on the series XM radio where he still has it today. And he manages a boxer. So, and
you're older than I am, not by much, but you're older than I am. And you, you keep adding
stuff into your life. Most people are starting to retire and spread things out and get away
from them. You keep piling on. And you're like the energizer bunny. Just keep on going.
And, you know, nothing stamps you. And I'm so proud of you. You are the Cinderella
story. I talk about all the time because you wanted to be in the boxing. And you're not
a big guy. I mean, you're not, you know, six foot tall boxer. And you made it. You did
everything you wanted. If you were in the ring, I was at your, you're only fight. I went
to that fight at the NASA. I think it was an ESO Coliseum, right? Yeah. You're only
fight. You got knocked out. But still, I was so proud of you. I was so proud of you.
Got in that ring round to power right in the face. And he went down, you know, I figured
what boxer it was. But one of the, one of the big heavyweight champion said, um, everybody's
got a plan until you get punched in the face. Mike Tyson said it. Mike Tyson. He's got
a plan until you get punched in the face. But let's start off with your career. You were
born in New York and Brooklyn, New York. But I, I didn't know this about you. I think
I may have heard it one time or another, but I can forgot. You were in a gas explosion
and got burned. What happened with that? Yeah. To me, that, that's set the whole, everything
in motion. I was 10 years old. And there was, um, my father was burning my old baby carriage
to frame, which was rusted. He was getting it off. And he couldn't get the bolts loose.
So he decided to burn off the, the part where the baby lays in there, the carriage part.
So I was standing 10 feet away from the flames next to the gasoline. But the wind was blowing
from where I was towards the fire. And the fumes carried into the flames. The flames
jumped all the way back 10 feet into the can, blew the can up. And I was burned severely
on my right leg, where I was in the hospital for four months. I was, I was in a wheelchair
for one year. And it, that was in 1959. I was 10 years old. And it was on my birthday
in March of 1960 that I was now 11 years old. And I was, I just had come back from dinner
with my parents. And my mom was playing chess with me. And yeah, I couldn't, I was in a wheelchair
so I couldn't do much. And my father said, hey, you want to watch the fights? They're on
tonight. The fights? What are the fights? And he puts on the fights. And I see these
two guys dancing around in the ring. And all I could think of was cheese. I wish I could
move like that, but I'm wheelchair bound. But I was so mesmerized with this ballet, which
I now, you know, of course, it's my, my life of blood. But boxing is a ballet with bruises.
And I started, I said, I am going to, I'm going to do this. And because of that, it inspired
me to get out of the wheelchair and try to stand up and emulate these guys. Later on
in life, both fighters became friends of mine. And in fact, one of them, many of the listeners
may remember his name, Emil Griffith. Yes, Emil, yeah, I know, I'm, I heard of him.
And Emil, later on in life, I went on to manage a heavyweight by the name of James Bone
Crusher Smith. And Emil was my trainer for Bone Crusher Smith. And we took him to the heavyweight
championship of the world. And, you know, whoever would have thought that just as a fight
fan, I am now managing the heavyweight champion of the world. Everything have done in my
life from that burn, which just so inspired me is, is everything that's happened is because
I was inspired from my horrific accident. Wow. So that's how you got started. Your dad
made you watch the TV show and you got up, you walked, you became a boxing manager. Now
that's what year are we talking there? Well, boy, you know, the burn occurred in 1959.
I'm 10 years old. You know, of course, then I went to finished elementary school, finished
high school in Long Island, went to college where I wanted to do one of two things. One
was be a sportscaster, a sports writer, and I wanted to cover boxing, which is eventually,
you know, what I did. But then I also wanted to be an airline pilot like my dad. And I was
taking flying lessons and I was letting the bills rack up in one day in about 1970, 1971.
I said, Dad, I owe the flight lesson company. I owe them about 800 bucks. Can you please
help me out? He said, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pay the bill. But from now
on, you decide if you're going to be a pilot, I'll pay for your flight school. If you're
going to be a sportscaster, I'm going to pay for your college. But if you're going to be
a sportscaster, I'm going to pay for your college, flying is your hobby. You pay for your
hobby. So I continued my hobby for a little while, but it got so expensive that I did actually
get up on my soloed in the system 150. But it turns out that I gave one of my friends
to say, you got to come up with your first lesson. It's free. He took it and he lives somewhere
out in Wisconsin. And he just retired as a captain for Delta Airlines. I mean, things
just, things happen. But then I went off in the direction of college, journalism, broadcast
communications, that kind of stuff. And here we are. All these years later still doing
it.
Well, when I met you, you came to work for the radio station. No sports whatsoever.
It was just, you know, radio announcing and it was a top 40 station. And that was about
it. And eventually worked overnight there. I think for a while, it worked Sunday mornings.
I remember that. And then you went on to be a writer. I think first, it wasn't wrestling
magazine first before you went to boxing magazine. Was it wrestling? No, it was a publishing
company.
You see London publishing. And they put out a series of wrestling magazines and boxing
magazines. The boxing magazines were big book of boxing, world boxing, international boxing.
But they also put out the wrestler inside wrestling. They even put out something called
apartment house wrestling, which there's probably a lot of fans out there. I cannot believe
how many wrestling fans there are. We have a matter of fact. Wait, I got it. Stop
you right there. We have a guy Rich LaCoscio here. He works at the radio station here.
Nobody on this planet is a bigger wrestling fan than he is. This guy, he lives wrestling.
He does wrestling announcing at local events here, you know, they bring the microphone down
and, you know, they're introduced now in this choir weighing 500 pounds. He's next
home. And he is the biggest wrestling fan in the world. His life is wrestling. So, yes,
there are big wrestling fans. Well, it turns out that my first producer at
Sirius XM Radio in 2007. I'm doing my very first, I did an MMA show for two years before
I was given a boxing show. And my very first producer, his name is Dave LaGreca. Dave LaGreca
turns out is the biggest wrestling fan in the world. And I sat with him and I said,
Dave, you know, you're such a wrestling fan. We don't even have a wrestling show here.
You're so good. You should be doing a wrestling show. He speaks to the president of sports.
He said, OK, I'll let you try it. They are on, I think, seven days a week on Sirius.
I might be wrong. I might be six days. It's called Busted Open. It is Sirius XM,
one of their top five shows on their entire. I mean, you know, of course, they got Howard Stern
and they got Mad Dog and they've got NASCAR radio. They did open show. I only wish my boxing
show was this popular. Hold up. And it is. They have popularity that I just did not believe.
Hold on. Hold on one second, Randy. Got a quick break here. We're back with Randy Gordon.
We're running your state athletic commissioner. And now on Sirius XM radio. We're coming up
at just a moment here. WRT and hometown radio refreshed.
Tell me it's right when I know that it's one. Always the same. It's just the shame and that's all.
I could live but I won't go. My home. I tell you so. I can't feel the thing from my head down to my toes.
Why does it always seem to be? Can it true? When you're looking at me. It's on.
Yeah, 721 at WRGN radio, a civic media station hometown radio refresh my good buddy, Randy Gordon.
We're talking about his career in boxing. And by the way, in the wrestling magazine, I was immortalized.
I was the ringside doctor, Dr. Don Rosen. Remember that?
And of course, you know, we would make up these stories. And it turns out,
you know, the wrestlers didn't care because all their matches are basically scripted and everything.
We all know that. But I also, we put out a magazine which all these years later,
when Dave LaGretta from Busted Open, he asked me one day, he said, okay, you guys put out
wrestlers. He said, I read your column all the time and he said, did you put out the
apartment house wrestling magazines? I said, yes. He said, what was that about?
Because it was just females invading suits. And they were apparently fighting.
Well, it was basically my creation. I sit to my boss. If you put out a magazine like this,
I think you're going to sell a lot of magazines. And it was more or less self-core porn.
Uh-oh. Yeah. And but it was nothing. It was these models that we would hire. And then we would,
we would set up, we would take out our office and we'd get some carpeting and we made it look
like an apartment. And, and the girls within just poles in a, in a chokehold pulling the hair
and this. And then after we had a million pictures, I would sit down and one of the other two or
three writers, we would make up the scenario why they were fighting. They were fighting for some
executive secretary position. But we, we didn't just sell a few magazines. It made my boss a multi-millionaire.
And he, he was so thrilled that he would give us big Christmas bonuses and everything because
of the apartment house wrestling. Not so much the rest of the sale of the wrestling magazines or
the boxing magazines, which were great. It was the apartment house wrestling, which was selling
a David LaGrecca one crazy when he found out that I'm the one who, who started the apartment
house wrestling. And, and, you know, it was the chief writer for apartment house wrestling.
I think I even still have one or two of those magazines here. I kind of hid them from the kids.
You know, I, I remember where your offices were when you worked for the boxing wrestling
magazines. It was right above the Department of Motor Vehicles in Freeport, New York.
Yeah. You, I went out there with, I used to watch the people online in the freezing cold going
to the DMV. Then you tell me you would taunt them online. Yeah. And sometimes, you know,
we had a coffin machine upstairs and sometimes there might be people out there for a little
a long time. When you come down, there's a brim of coffee because we saw how cold they were.
I cannot believe all these years later, you would remember exactly where my office was and
it was above the DMV. Oh my god. You, well, you can see that your synapses are still working.
Okay. It's right about this time when you worked at the radio station with me, you decided
you're going to get into the ring and box. And you were, you were the, I think you were the
opening on the top of the card at the NASA Coliseum, which is at the time with the New York
Nets played and the Long Island, the Islanders and New York Islanders hockey team. Yeah.
And they had a lot of concerts. They're big name concerts. And they did boxing there. And you were
going to get into the ring and all the people at the radio state, we all showed up in the,
in the seats to watch you box. It lasted two rounds. What happened?
Well, it turns out the guy's name was Gerard Odom. He was a last-second replacement.
And I weighed 122 pounds. I had, I don't know why I did this. I trained on yogurt.
I ate yogurt from breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and everything. Yogurt, yogurt, and yogurt.
And I cut down, I was as skinny as a rail. And it turned out that my opponent, my original
opponent, the guy's name was, I think it's been more separate. Seymour got sick. He couldn't make
the fight. So they quickly reached out and they found this Long Island truck driver by the name
of Gerard Odom. Well, Gerard showed up late for the weigh-in. The commission just said, you know
I just get on the scale. What do you weigh? So his guy said, he weighs 128. When he got into the ring,
he took his robe off. And I looked across the ring and I said, 128, my butt, he doesn't weigh 128.
Well, it turned out the bell rang. We came out. I rocked him in the first round,
a couple of jabs stung him. And I really thought that I was going to get this guy.
And then in the second round, the same thing was happening. And all of a sudden, he stepped in
with a big right hand to the chin. And that's only remember. I remember when you got hit.
Well, that wasn't the one to put me down. The films later show that I do get hurt by that first
right hand. But then he stepped in with a perfectly timed right upper cut, right up the middle,
under my chin. You know, my head snaps. I go down. And the next thing I know, I'm looking at the
ceiling of the NASA Coliseum. We thought you were dead. Oh, we're all the radio stations. Oh my
god, this is dead. You know, laying there's a lifeless. Well, I mean, there were some who might have
rooted to that. But you know, later right after the flight, I saw him in the dressing room.
And I go over and I congratulate him. He gives me a hug. And he said, Gerard, let me ask you
something. They announced your weight at 128 pounds. You don't weigh 128, do you? And he shook his
head. No, I said, what do you weigh? And then he looked around to see if anybody was listening.
And he goes 138. Now in boxing, they have weight classes for rehab. This guy was four weight classes
above me. 122 pounders do not fight. 138 pounders. I was what they call a super bannem weight. Then
after super bannem weight, then this feather weight, super feather weight, lightweight, and super
lightweight. He was a super lightweight. That's what you'd have never taken place.
But it did. And I'm on one. And that's the way it is. Oh, and I we were at that fight. We all
thought you were dead. I said, oh my goodness, he's down. It was, it was the second round. And you
took, I remember the punch and you just flew down to the ground and you were, it was lifeless.
I was frightened for you. We're talking to Randy Gordon, my good buddy here. And in the next
after the break here, we're going to talk about after we worked for Ring Magazine going to ESPN,
took me to my first fight. And I think it was in Queens, right? He took me to, yeah, at some
some CD arena. Yeah, sunny side gardens. Yeah, it's kind of CD. I thought. Yeah, exactly.
It was both CD was beautiful. Yeah, that wasn't beautiful. I'll tell you about my first first
and only, but other than Randy's Matt, only Randy's Gordon's fight. This was the only fight
I ever been to. I'll tell you about that coming up in a moment. Randy Gordon, my good buddy here,
former D.O. State Athletic Commissioner, joining us this morning on WRTN Radio, 729 Old Town
Radio Refressed, a civic media station.
Yeah, 735 at WRTN Radio. I'm Don Rosen, a good buddy. Randy Gordon is here, former D.O. State Athletic
Commissioner, former ESPN commentator now on serious XM and manages a stable. Actually,
more one boxer soon to be a stable. But before we go any further, I got to tell people that
only by other than Randy's knockout, where he was knocked out in the second round. Other than that,
I was at one other boxing match and you took me there, sunny side gardens in Queens, New York.
And this was a CD. This is the gym. You always see in these old 1940s movies, the CD, CD play.
And remember, we sat up front. And every time the guy got punched, I got hit with sweat.
And I said, oh, this is disgusting. This is gross.
You know, it's funny. They made a lot of different. They did some movie shoots,
set up, sunny side gardens. And it lasted until about the, I guess until the 80s.
And then the wrecking ball came in and what did they put up? A fast food hamburger joint.
So I said, you know what? You know what? Fighters who have always been treated like meat.
Well, here it is. Fast food hamburger restaurant to replace sunny side gardener.
A shame. Before we get to Rich LaCasio's down by, he's the biggest wrestling fan of the world.
We'll talk to Rich and you can talk to him just a second. I want to talk about after when you
were at Ring Magazine, how did you get involved with ESPN TV?
Well, it turned out Ring is such a big name that all of a sudden, I went from
G.C. London publishing company, from the smaller boxing magazines, the very popular ones
that would burn Randall Sugar, bought Ring Magazine along with former New York Nick Dave DeBroscher.
They hired me to be the editor-in-chief. And once I became the editor-in-chief of Ring,
everybody's looking at this new face, if you will, as the editor-in-chief of the
historic Ring Magazine. And along came this fledgling cable television station.
And they hired me. They said, we're going to be doing a lot of boxing and Australian rules football.
And you're the boxing expert. Would you like to try out? And I did.
And when we used to go on from, let's say Atlantic City, we used to have to come on and say,
live on the entertainment and sports, programming their work. And then they shortened it to ESPN.
They were out of control. I think.
When they had a Connecticut?
Oh, they still are. But when I started back in 1980,
we worked out of a trailer, out of a large trailer that had separate rooms in it,
with televisions and the producer would sit there and everything like that.
Now, it's basically, it's in Bristol, Connecticut. And when you approach it,
there's all surrounding farms and you're driving up and you've seen the cows and the pigs out there
and everything else. And then all of a sudden you turn this corner. And you look at this,
this rising structure. That's Bristol, Connecticut. That's ESPN studios. And they are the most
spectacular studios in all of television. So go figure. I started right at the very beginning.
But then you went to MSG, which is Madison Square Garden television.
Yeah, I mean, right from the ESPN. Also, then everybody was after me. And I signed with the
Madison Square Garden Network. I signed with the USA Network. And the contract allowed me
to do both. So I was announcing for MSG's boxing. And I was doing the USA. I started the Tuesday
night fights with Al Albert. And I did that until 1988, when all of a sudden out of the
courier blue sky, the governor of New York, Mario Cuomo gives me a call. And that changed the
whole direction of my career. And that call was to make you the chairman of the New York State
Athletic Commission, right? That's what it was. And I thought it was a joke. And you've done,
you know, over the years, you know, we, I could call you up and I could call you as Muhammad Ali.
I could call you as Howard Cosell or whatever. And many times my friends and I would do this,
we would joke with each other. So I get a call. And Secretary, I hear the female voice,
say, Mr. Gordon, okay, can you hold on for Governor Mario Cuomo, please? And I'm like, what?
So, okay, this is a new one. So the voice gets on. Hello, ready? This is Governor Mario Cuomo.
And I'm going to silence on the phone. He said, hello, Randy. I said, yes, who is this?
Yes, really? Who are you? And I truly didn't, I didn't believe it. I said, whoever this is,
you are doing one hell of an impersonation of Mario Cuomo. And, you know, who expects to get
called by the governor of their state, especially somebody as powerful as Mario Cuomo.
And he actually had to have me come up to the World Trade Center. He was a building one
in the summer of 1988 to meet him, to believe that it was really him. And finally, when I walked
into his office, the door opens, and I stepped into his big office, and he comes walking over to me,
he said, you still don't think it's me? And I just was speechless. But we became real good friends,
and he swore me in and everything a few weeks later, up in the Senate chamber in all the New
New York, the Capitol of New York. And I got my badge. I have never turned my badge in. And I think
the only thing I'm going to do, one day, if it ever happens, that I'm inducted into the International
Boxing Hall of Fame, then they can have my badge. But until then, it stays here, and I got 12 grandkids,
maybe one day, one of them would just like to put it on their wall. But,
yeah, it was 1988 to 1995. I served as the Boxing Commissioner for this state of New York.
You waited for that in 1990. You became the president of the Association of Boxing Commissioners,
a whole shooting works. Yeah, I mean, as the Boxing Commissioner in New York, I was the most
else-broken, invisible commissioner out there. And we had started an organization that still
exists in the ADC, the Association of Boxing Commissioners, where everybody obeys each other's
rules. Let's say a guy is suspended in New York. If he suspended in New York, he's as good as
suspended anywhere else in the country, because that wasn't the case before that. You could be
suspended in New York, and they screw you, and they went before in another state. But now all the
rules, what we call the unified rules, are all gone over by the Association of Boxing Commissioners.
And, you know, Boxing can be a backwards sport, but because it's ruled by the Association of
Boxing Commissioners, there's a lot of unity to this point.
Now, you also are a published author. I didn't realize you wrote a children's book called Ali.
Pass a bit non-lab. Big publishers published that children's book. Yeah, but you went on to write
Glove Affair, which was an adult book for a Pat Boxing. Roman a Littlefield published that
Glove Affair, and now you're working in another book called Glove Story. You're a published author.
I am just about done with Glove Story. It's more of my stories. It's not a lot of people have
read my book or not fight fans, and they called me up, and they said, I've known nothing about
Boxing. I bought the book, because I'm a friend of yours, but I cannot believe these stories were
riveting, and I said, yeah, because it's not left to the body right, and then there's no one's
broke, and the blood went all over Don Rosen. No, it was, it's nothing like that. It's just my
personal stories, one-on-one with Muhammad Ali, and I could just go on and on and on, but I'm
also now working on a book that can affect everybody out there listening. Don, have you ever heard of
the term a black widow, and I don't mean the spider? Yeah, I know, the black widow. Yeah, the killer,
the killer woman who kills her husband, and she comes a widow. But there we go. That's what my
book is about. How to protect your loved ones or yourself, which could happen one day. It could
happen to you, your wife, your father, your mother. It can happen to anybody you know, so everybody
listening to this show, you or somebody you know, somebody you love can be affected by a black
widow, and you would not believe the amount of people who are being preyed upon by the black
widow. And the reason they're called a black widow is because the black widow's female spider,
after she meets she then kills the male. Well, the black widow, when they prey upon this unsuspecting
guy, they start off as their best friend, and let me, let me console you, you just lost your
wife. I'm so sorry. And then they eventually, they're going out to dinner with them, and then
moving in with them, and then they're having them sign papers in case anything happens to you.
I love you, dear, and they sign over everything to them. They push the family out, and you know,
a lot of these people are worth millions, and this black widow then takes everything, the estate,
the cars, the bank accounts, everything. That's what they do, and my book is going to be called
the black widow, the face of evil, it could happen to you. Whoa, I'm scared already. By the way,
I was before I make it, you were currently on Sirius XM radio, Randy's ringside, on Sirius XM
radio. You and your lollipop are there, give us the hours. What's that on?
Well, I'm on the former heavyweight contender, Jerry Cooney, every Monday and every Friday from noon
till 2 p.m. Eastern time on Channel 156, and then every night of the week, Monday Tuesday Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, on my Facebook live show, Randy's ringside, which is sponsored, and I've got
people watching in New Zealand or Australia, Scotland, England, and to me done, this whole thing
is one dream that I think I'm just going to wake up when they say, oh my god, I just had the most
incredible dream that I was an announcer, that I was the commissioner, that I had a great radio show,
because this is just not real. I'll tell you what's going to happen. You're going to wake up,
and you're going to be back with me at WGBB on Sunday mornings.
You know, I wish, I think it would be so cool for the gang of us, you and me, and if I could just
roll the time machine and bring back a great Bob O'tone, who was so responsible for me,
you know, you and I, where these young kids be friended by Bob and Bob would let us into the station,
which led you to become, basically, I think you started as a janitor and worked your way into
like one of the voices of WGBB, and your career was launched, my career was launched,
and all because of the friend that we had an announcer, Bob O'tone,
who was just one of the most, Bob was one of the most amazing men devoted father, husband,
everything. I always wanted to be like Bob, and I hope Bob is looking down and saying,
Randy, I'm really proud of you. Yeah, we just lost Bob about two, about a year or so ago,
and that's too bad. I love Bob O'tone. It gave me my start too, ever, you know, he helped me get
started as a janitor, and, you know, we all get started somewhere. We can take a quick break.
I'm going to talk wrestling. Ruslan Casio is here, and he wants to talk some wrestling with you,
and then I'm going to tell you one quick story about when your daughter was born. I don't know if
you remember that. I just mentioned it real quickly right now. You were in the hospital. I was
looking at your brand new daughter. She was like hours old, and I said, just think in 16 years,
she'll be dating, and you said you're going to take that teenager who asks her out on her first
date. You need to take him, pin him against the wall, and say, listen, if I get any reports,
that you mistreated my daughter, I'm going to take sandpaper and rip open all the zits on your face.
So, do you remember saying it? Yes, I do. I absolutely remember that. You remember that,
and you tell me it's a big audience. Yeah, I remember you said that, and we're looking at your
daughter. She's like hours old. Okay, Randy Gordon, hold in there. WRTN Radio, hometown radio
refresh to Civic Media Station 749 now.
Yeah, since you've been gone, I feel my loss in the way. I love you, the sky, and everything is
turned away at 751 at WRJN Radio, hometown radio refreshed. Good buddy, Randy Gordon is here.
Oh my God. Yeah, and Rista Kasi was here and a big wrestling fan, huge wrestling fan. I told him
that I was Dr. Don Rosen, the ringside doctor whenever a wrestler got hurt. You call me,
those stories are yours. But you, Richard does some of the calling at the announcing at these
wrestling matches locally. And so he's the biggest wrestling fan in the world. I used to watch
it when I was a kid. Never got into the later years, but we were talking about you were big fans with
some of those like, yeah, do you ever meet Bobo Brazil? Was he in your league there?
He was already, he was older. I did meet him years ago. We never really became close friends,
but many of the other big names like Andre the Giant Man Bruno Samartina became very good friends
of mine. Bobo gave you the cocoa butt. No, no, no, but Axel Jim Duggen became a good friend of mine.
Captain Lou Albano of very close friend of mine. Absolutely, absolutely. So Rich Likasio here,
Randy, one of the talks, we were talking about this during the break. WWE announced last night
that Paul Heyman is getting inducted into the 2024 WWE Hall of Fame. I mean, he's highly
established in the New York communities, was promoting shows at Studio 54, was a photographer for
many different promotions, the WWF, Jim Crocker promotions down in the South. Can you give me
a Paul Heyman story? Cause I just just serendipitous that we're having this conversation today.
Paul Heyman, he did it all and there was even, I think, one show early on where somebody didn't show
up on a smaller show and he had a, he was ready to jump into the ring himself and just do whatever it
took to get the show on. He was an amazing guy. He did everything if he had to, if he had to be
an announcer, if he had to be one of the wrestlers, if he had to be a baby face, if he had to be a
heel, whatever it took to get the show on. And he certainly belongs in the Hall of Fame if anybody
does. Absolutely without question. I mean, his guys contributions, I think about extreme
championship wrestling, ECW, I think about WCW, WWE. I mean, he's still going now as the
wise man of the bloodline. Yeah. Now, do you remember the name? He was inducted into the
WWE Hall of Fame a few years ago. He was an executive with the WWE. His name was Rich Herring.
Name doesn't sound familiar. Okay, but when we get off, you're going to look up his name,
he wasn't ducted. Rich Herring, right from the beginning of me being commissioner, was my
right hand man. He was an attorney. He was a court judge, but he had a passion for boxing and
wrestling. And everybody, every good politician, every good businessman needs that right hand person.
And my right hand person was Rich Herring. When Governor Mario Cuomo got voted out, and I knew that
my time in office was very short because that's how these jobs work. You serve at the pleasure of
the governor and the new governor comes in and makes changes. Rich Herring said, I'm going to buy
you some time because what they're going to do is hire you. They're going to keep him and then
have him train a new commissioner. He said, so what I'm going to do is I'm bailing out. I spoke
to Vince McMahon. He hired me at the WWE, which by me leaving is going to buy you extra time.
And it did. It brought me about six, seven extra months. Okay.
And I got to tell you, Rich Herring went on to book a Hall of Fame career at the WWE. So look
up that name, Rich Herring. He went from the boxing commission to the Hall of Fame with the WWE.
I will, absolutely. And we talked about Jake the Snake Roberts earlier. I know he's going to be
doing a show up in Oshkosh in May. I've had the good fortune of knowing people in the AWA,
like Frankie the Thumper Defalco. I know you're talking about Andre the Giant earlier. I mean,
Frankie got the opportunity to wrestle him in the WWE years ago. So it's just amazing
the footprint that wrestling's had here in the Midwest with AWA, obviously,
WWE in later years. And then you see all elite wrestling what they're doing. So I mean,
wrestling is certainly alive and well. Oh, it certainly is. And you heard me speak earlier.
And I would be remiss if you know, if I didn't speak about our own show on serious effects on
radio, which and there's nothing bigger than busted open radio with David LeGrec and bully Ray.
What a show it is. And everywhere they go, if they announce that they're going upstate
New York, that they're going to Texas and they're going to be doing the show from some local
whatever restaurant or whatever that holds 300 people, they will sell out in minutes.
And there'll be 3000 people waiting outside. I've never seen anything like it busted,
open radio on serious effects. Absolutely. Well, Randy, I got to tell you I'm so good to talk to
you again after all these years. We've talked a few times. You called me in the car. We talked.
I just got to tell you, you're like the Cinderella story. I'm so proud of you in your career.
I remember when you started and hearing this other stuff about you being blown up at a gas
explosion in the wheelchair. I didn't know that part. I knew you had some scars on you,
but I never knew the full backstory on it. Wow. I'm very proud of you, my friend. I told you
as we started, most people start to slow down. You're a little older than I am. People start to
slow down. You keep adding on. As a matter of fact, as soon as we get off here, I'm heading to the
gym where I'm heading in a robot class. I teach it. Oh, wow. And you're getting a boxing stable,
which is kind of neat. You got a professional boxer you're managing. You just don't stop.
I'm very proud of you, my friend. I want you to hold on the phone. Don't go anywhere yet,
because I want to talk to you off the earth for a second. Okay. Okay. And don't forget
his book, Glove Affair, which is published and now available. And he's going to write Glove
Story, which is coming out. And then the Black Widow story. I can't wait to hear that. That sounds
like a Twilight Zone episode or an Alfred Hitchcock episode. It's 758. I'm Don Rosen. Thank you for
joining us here today. Do appreciate it. I always love to have you here. And we'll do it again
tomorrow morning, 6 a.m. Barrett, and early here on Civic Media, hometown radio refreshed at 1400
a.m. 99.9 FM 98.1 FM in Kenosha. You keep it here. Earl Ingram coming up next year at WRTN Radio.