The Godwinns Talk WWE Run, Hating Ric Flair, Sunny, HHH, CM Punk & More
Jack E. Jones and OneInchBiceps of IYHWrestling.com recently interviewed The Godwinns, Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn, a.k.a "Naked Mideon" Dennis Knight and Mark Cantabury, a.k.a Southern Justice, a.k.a Shanghai Pierce & Tex Slazenger. Here is a recap of the appearance by Taso the Greek.
Jack feels the Southern Justice tag team could have been a bigger success and should have had a bigger run and both guests agree. Jack asks how often the guys talk to each other and they reply about once a week, and then suggest they may be moving in with each other and even marrying each other.
Who came up with the names Tex and Shaghai? Dusty & Barry Windham came up with them a movie called "Gunfight at The OK Coral. Mark was doing WCW shows already and working with Erik Watts, Denis did a try-out and got big ups from Dusty, and WCW ended up putting them together. They tried to tell a tale of how they got together, one night at the Ramada Hotel in Atlanta, but it ended up being a sordid story they really didn't want to tell.
Why was only one man masked? Mark was working with Erik Watts, so they wanted to bring them in as new characters that no one would recognize. Why did the fans chant when Dennis threw a punch? Not sure why, but Ole Anderson didn't like it. Why did Henry Godwinn come in after Phinias Godwinn? Mark wasn't sure, but eventually they got together in the WWF and they clicked right away. Even after so many years together they never had a fight or any problems. Mark talked about how they were able to hang out with all the cliques, one night they would hang out with Undertaker and Yokozuna and the next night they would hang out with HHH and HBK. They mentioned the "BSK", which Jack curiously commented on, and although the Godwinns did not want to tell what "BSK" stood for they eventually told the story. First they said call the Deadman, but then they told then IYH crew that it stood for "Bone Street Krew". Yoko and Undertaker came up with it, all the members got tattoos, including Godfather, Savio Vega, Krush, Paul Bearer & Rikishi.
Mark said he and Tex were friends for a long time, Mark lost his son in an accidental shooting and that they had been through a lot together. Mark mentioned how someone had once pulled a gun on them and Dennis saved his life.
The Godwinns will be doing an autograph signing soon with the New Age Outlaws, and they both mention how they get along very well with them. Dennis says the three guys he is in constant contact with are Mark, Undertaker, and Road Dogg.
Jack asked if there was a lot of tension between all the cliques in WWF? The Godwinns mention that there was at first, but a bus trip in Germany broke the ice and everyone got along after that. There is a famous picture of the whole crew in the back of the bus. Someone hinted there was an herbal remedy that brought them all together. George The Animal Steele was the man who took this infamous picture. They also state that after that night, Stone Cold and the Attitude Era took off soon afterwards. They feel they had the best crew of wrestlers ever, at that time. Mark and Dennis said they policed themselves and one time they had to have a talking too with someone, and they were the unofficial policemen of the locker room. They also said wrestling court did exist, and either it was Undertaker, Ron Simmons, or Yokozuna who held court and people would present their case, and then a decision would be made. Typical punishment would happen if people disrespected themselves or the company. Sunny was one person who went through the system. They talked about the BodyDonnas and Chris Candido, they loved Chris and felt that Sunny treated him poorly. Jack asked how she felt about being "slopped"? She had no choice but it was fun for them. The Godwinns say they put a little extra slop in the bucket, although not them per se, but they would put the slop bucket in a room full of wrestlers and then, whatever happened to that slop, happened. Were they around for when Mark Henry ate a turd sandwich? X-Pac was involved, as Mark Henry was on crutches, they ordered Subway, and poop ended up in his 5$ foot long. Ahmed Johnson once wanted to hang out with the Godwinns, and they said he sure as hell did, to the tune of a $5,000 trashing of his hotel room. Everyone wanted one night of partying with the Godwinns.
Spec_Sun from the message board asked about their run as Southern Justice and should they have won the titles? Thoughts on Jeff Jarrett popped up at this point, as did kind words about Jeff's departed wife. Both guys had nothing bad to say about Jeff or his family. Jack asked if they had any thoughts of working in TNA, but The Godwinns said they were too beat up to work again.
Thoughts on CM Punk: I believe Dennis had given Punk proper respect for being a hard worker and a real wrestler. He said the night of this last PPV, Summer Slam, he texted Punk before the show, and Punk texted him back. He didn't like to do this but he compared Punk to Steve Austin, said he was a great worker and very respectful. Both guys said he has paid in dues. The Godwinns mention they will have a shoot interview coming soon, and Mark mentions that they will lay it all out on the line for this shoot and tell some pretty interesting stories about the business and their lives. September 17th is the date they will do the shoot.
Gene the Drunk called in, touting the slop match with HHH as the best match he has ever seen. The Godwinns said that Vince McMahon gave them a lot of praise following that match as well. Back on the shoot interview Mark mentions he has 21 years of stuff to get off his chest and he won't hold anything back. Dennis chimed in with the fact that he did not hate anyone in the business except one guy, Ric Flair.
When they first started in WCW, Barry Windham asked them if they wanted to tour with him (to the next town? on the road?), and no one had a problem with them, but Ric Flair would always be a dick, especially to Dennis, and ask them to leave the room because of Horsemen business. Dennis said that Flair wasn't too bad to Mark, but Mark had his own story about the Horsemen. They traveled the road with Double A and Pee Wee (Randy Anderson?), and Arn said they were too good at making others look good, and basically soon, WCW was letting people go, and all of Flair's buddies did not get terminated. But Dennis and Mark both were happy because they felt their WWF run was awesome, and they would not have had their moment in Madison Square Garden and winning the title. That was also the same night Razor and Nash left the company and had that hug-in with the Clique in the ring. The Godwinns felt that this was disrespectful to the WWF and the boys. They mentioned how some guys got preferential treatment and how there were nights they had to put "world champions" to bed in the hotel because they were too intoxicated to even undress. No names were mentioned, wink wink.
Did the Godwinns ever get in trouble or have to face "wrestler's court"? No. They never did much to warrant trouble.
What was Yokozuna like as a person? He was awesome, in the ring and out, and he would invite them to huge barbecues where he lived in California and they always felt invited and comfortable around his family.
What did Mark think of Naked Mideon? He didn't know what to think. Dennis said it was partly Kurt Angle's idea. Dennis ribbed everyone when they asked for people to come out for a meet and greet and he showed up naked with just a fanny-pack. The next day Vince asked him to do it and it became a part of the show. Dennis was happy he didn't have to wrestle for 6-8 months, but just run to the ring naked.
You can listen to the interview at IYHWrestling.com by clicking here.
Source: IYHWrestling.com
Neal Jones contributed to this article.