Today John and Chad welcome one-half of the tag team PG-13 and the writer of the legendary “Nation of Domination Rap” the innovative and artistically inclined, Wolfie D to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling. Wolfie’s stories of the Memphis territory and teaming with longtime partner Jamie Dundee make for an entertaining ride through a career that saw PG-13 dominate the Memphis tag team scene and what helped them catapult to the WWF in 1996 to join the Nation of Domination. Wolfie also gives his rather amusing take on the imposter teams that grabbed the PG-13 look and attempted their own spin on what was at the time an original act. Additionally, Wolfie’s artistic abilities are discussed as Wolfie explains what Jerry Lynn means to the wrestling business and why he designed a t-shirt that pays homage to one of the best workers in the history of pro wrestling.
Full Episode Download:
http://tmptow.podoma…T21_00_00-07_00
Wolfie D Talks Writing The Nation of Domination Rap:
PG-13s initial tryout with WWE in 1995 and why they did not last:
The wrestling business is all about timing and we were just a little bit early on our timing going up there because that was a time when everybody was huge giant monsters and we were not that big. We went up there and they loved our work, they loved our gimmick, they loved our interviews but “oh they are too small” is what they said. A couple of years later all of a sudden the Mexican invasion happens with the cruiser-weights and everybody starts shrinking and there was room for guys our size. So it’s like we were a little bit too early. Had we come along maybe a year or so later it could have been a different story and we might have stuck around the whole time and we didn’t because they said we were too small. So we went back to Memphis and then in 96 we get called up to do the rapping for The Nation of Domination.
Rejoining the WWE and being an essential part of The Nation of Domination:
That was cool and of course we were always trying to find ways to get involved in the match instead of just standing there, which was kind of the original thing of maybe just to take something here or there. Believe me we were going to Ron (Simmons) and we were creating sh*t for ourselves and probably more than they really wanted us to do but that is how we knew how to get over, so we had a one-up on people because we were from Memphis and we worked all the time and had a little bit of experience. We would always find the camera and if you ever watch it and especially Jamie we knew where that camera was at all times and we would be sure to put our faces in it as well as when I wrote the rap, I put our names in it. Little things like that to help us stand out more than the original Nation crew that were just basically bodies to be around Farooq.
Vince McMahon’s response to the Nation of Domination rap:
It kind of sucked the way it happened. We flew up to the office and I had written it all out and we met with Jim Johnston the guy who does the music and he laid down a track for it and we knew we were going to have to rap this thing live every night. They gave us a copy on a cassette tape and gave us a copy of the music. It didn’t have all the “We are the Nation” in it, it only had it like one time and we were driving up and down the road every night putting that instrumental in and me and him (Jamie Dundee) rapping back and forth. We got the timing down. So we get to Survivor Series and that was the debut of it and us and before the show here comes Vince and we are supposed to walk out and do this thing for Vince right there. We get live mic’s, we get ready to start rapping and they f*cking changed the beat. It was kind of a scramble for us to figure it out but we did it. I’m not going to lie, there was a lot of times and Jamie wouldn’t either, that he has no rhythm and he was playing off of me and there was times when he would get off rhythm and I would have to jump in and try my best to get us back on.
WWE releasing the PG-13 version of the Nation theme:
So I wrote that and they laid the track down and it’s on tape. When they came out with the CD of the WWE Music Volume whatever in the Nation song they took our vocals out of it. Years later and the internet wasn’t what it is now I find out that the overseas version does have our vocals in it and I’ve never received a nickel for that and that kind of gets me hot.
Did he feel Vince McMahons take on The Nation was fueled by racism:
Honestly, no. I didn’t have many dealing with Vince. I was low low low on the totem pole so I didn’t have to deal with him that much. The wrestling business is a jacked up place, especially the “older wrestling business”. I know it’s changed a lot where if I were in WWE at the moment, I might not recognize the dressing room the way things are now and the way things changed with cameras everywhere, I’m just glad there wasn’t camera phones back in the 90s I can tell you that much. The wrestling business has always been a bit corrupt, it came from carnies. It was a secret society. If you think about the fact that his father was a promoter, he learned from him and I’m not saying Vince McMahon is a racist by any stretch but I’m just saying the business is different. I’ve seen things that would make “normal” people that haven’t been in the wresting business eyes pop out of their head or their ears bleed.
The Nations feud with Ahmed Johnson and his supposed reputation of being reckless:
This is going to sound bad but me and Jamie both knew we were better workers then he was so like I said we were always trying to find spots for ourselves. Ahmed was cool and if you ever watch Royal Rumble (97) at the end I think I feed into him and he press slams me but he’s so blown up he can’t even pick me up all the way. So when he goes to toss me over the top, I’m at an angle and my leg catches the top ropes and thank GOD there was people there to catch me because I tumbled out on my head. I don’t ever recall him doing anything that made me go Jesus Christ or anything, he was just one of those big guys that we were used to having to protect ourselves and to position ourselves for people that were “less than” when it came to timing and working. In Memphis, as a collective group some of the worst freaking wrestlers I’ve ever been in the ring with were the Memphis job guys, they were terrible. You literally had to really arm-drag them or really do sh*t to them so we were used to putting people in positions to make ourselves look good.
Imposters to the original PG-13 gimmick including John Cena:
Absolutely, I can take it back to 1993 when Jerry Jarrett gave us a break with a months worth of rap videos before we ever came on the air and actually wrestled, they just showed videos of us rapping. If you notice, there was a team called Men on a Mission that came out not too soon after and that’s when Jerry Jarrett went to New York, now you tell me? Guys that were in his company, that everyone thought were too small for WWE, so the guy from Memphis goes to WWE for a little bit and the first thing you see that comes out is a rap gimmick. But instead they hired two giant black dudes to do it. If you look at the original music Jamie and I came out to it was “Hip Hop Hooray”, we were waving the hands back and forth, Men on a Mission waved their hands back and forth, to me that was the first one. Then you have Too Cool, which I love Brian (Christopher) to death but I’ve joked with him before that Too Cool is absolutely PG-13, I don’t care what anybody says. John Cena, same thing. I am not bitter because of it but I do think there was heavy PG-13 influence because PG-13 came before. Our gimmick was original. It kind of sucks when you are the original but your gimmick didnt get the national exposure that the imposters did so then people are looking at you like youre f*cking imitator, that sucks. When you know, hold-up little kid, Im not copying John Cena you little bastard.
Wolfie D also discusses the entire Memphis run for PG-13, the Memphis wrestling scene, winning the USWA tag titles 16 times, working with Ron Simmons, Loving The Road Warriors, his breakup with JC Ice, wrestling in TNA as Slash, signing with WWE again and heading to OVW
