The Godfather Talks Recently Catching Up With The Undertaker, Fighting Bart Gunn On Brawl For All
The Godfather got his start in the wrestling business in the late 80s in USWA. It was there where he met The Undertaker and the two remain good friends to this day.
Godfather discussed his friendship with Taker and meeting up with him in Vegas when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"I hadn't seen him in a minute. Me, him and a basketball player named Tracy Murray got an alone spot and got to play some dominoes and talk about old times. My youngest son was there and we had a great time," said Godfather. "He's so busy so without going to his house out in Texas, it's hard to get next to him. We got a couple of hours to talk about old times. It's funny, the times we talk about are always way back in those Memphis days when we first started."
It was actually Taker who helped connect The Godfather with WWE in the early 90s after he did a stint in Germany.
"We met in '89 as Lawler brought me up to Memphis. I worked a program with him then they said they're gonna bring in this tall red-headed kid to work against you named Mark Calloway. We worked against each other and he had more time in the business than me. The match was so horrible that they ended up making us a tag team. We became good friends and like brothers and did everything together," stated Godfather.
He then noted that they went different places with Taker going to WCW before WWF and Godfather going overseas. The Godfather then put over all the people he got to work with in Germany at the time such as Owen Hart and Scott Hall.
"When I get back from Germany, Taker was in WWF. Then I get a tryout in Arizona and Vince hires me," said Godfather. "He says they're gonna put me on payroll and send me home. He then says, 'We've got to do something because you have the body of a monster but you've got a babyface. I've gotta do something with that face.'
"They called me and said, 'Hey, why don't you go rent the movie Live and Let Die' which is a James Bond film. There's a voodoo character in there and that's what they went off from for the Papa Shango character."
Godfather appeared on the Brawl for All episode on Dark Side of the Ring in which Vince Russo said the original concept of the event was to get back at JBL. Godfather was asked if he was aware of that notion.
"I actually talked to Bradshaw a couple of days ago about it and he acts like he didn't know anything about it or some of the stuff Russo said. I never knew any of that. I actually thought Bradshaw came up with the idea. I also blamed him for it and he's like, 'I didn't come up with that!' I'm like, John, that is the stupidest idea you ever got us into," stated Godfather.
"I never heard about whoever wins gets a shot at Austin. I never heard any of that. Bruce Prichard called me about it and I said, 'Yeah, I'm in.' That's all the thought I put into it. Then I asked Bruce who else was in it and he goes, 'Well, the people we thought were gonna be in it are in it.' I just said, 'Cool.'"
Godfather was then asked about Bart Gunn's reputation backstage and if anyone was surprised that he won the tournament.
"No, he and Billy both were great athletes. Bart's a great athlete. That says it all right there so he had as good a chance as anybody else," said Godfather. "I wish I would have paid a little more attention to him knocking everybody out [laughs]."
He noted that he hadn't lost a fight in his life until Bart knocked him out but Bart did call him afterwards to make sure he was okay.
The Godfather is now on Instagram and you can follow him by clicking HERE. Godfather's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.