» Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
» On Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 2:41 PM EST
Jimmy Van of JimmyVan.com sent in the following recap:
Part one of my nearly two-hour interview with former WWE star The Genius, aka "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, is now online in Windows Media and Real Audio formats at JimmyVan.com!. You can also listen to a five-minute preview clip of the interview in Real Audio format at this link:
http://www.jimmyvan.com/audio/lanny/part1/lanny-081705-clip1.ram
Here is a text transcript from this 26-minute portion of the interview…
JV welcomes Lanny to the show.
"I'm The Genius, full of glory and renown," Lanny said, which was his signature catchphrase during his days in WWE.
Let's start at the beginning...
"Let me stop you right there," Lanny said. "Ten arrests, no convictions, I've got a perfect record," he joked.
You are actually Canadian...
"I'm a Canadian born American citizen," Lanny said. "My father was working for a fella named Stu Hart." Lanny says he just met Jim Neidhart's daughter Nattie at a show, and she's a beautiful girl and he's proud of her. Lanny said he also met Davey Boy Smith's son Harry. "His father would be very very proud to see how fantastic his son came out," Lanny said. "I said to him, 'You're not prone to any practical jokes are you?'" Lanny explained that Davey was a big ribber back in the day, and he and The Dynamite Kid were malicious. Lanny said the Bulldogs, "started a whole tribe of people that would relieve themselves in people's suitcases... When I came back from a brief hiatus to The Beverly Brothers, I had heard that everybody was relieving themselves in people's suitcases. So I, The Genius full of glory and renown, was in Syracuse, New York and I was so paranoid that they would hurt my cap and gown and my stuff, that I actually hid my suitcase so well that I couldn't find it either." Lanny said nobody ever ribbed him, "probably because they were afraid of The Macho Man."
JV said Lanny was a spry guy back in the day so who knows what he could have been capable of.
"I was spry in those days, now I'm almost a quadriplegic," Lanny joked. He went on to explain his birth in Calgary, saying Helen Hart was pregnant with Ellie (Jim Neidhart's wife) when his mother was pregnant with him, and his brother Randy (Savage) was two-years-old. "My dad was wrestling in Edmonton, and I was born in Calgary, December 28, 1954, I am 50-years-old and I look every day of it."
Did you stay in Calgary or go back to the States as a toddler?
"Two weeks later in a Chinook wind, we came back and we went to Amarillo, Texas... it was really difficult with all the paperwork because there's always a mountain of red tape any time you pull something like that."
You're a second generation wrestler, your dad is Angelo Poffo, and your brother is "Macho Man" Randy Savage...
Lanny said his father is 80-years-old and on his website, LannyPoffo.com, he's got the actual cartoon strip that Ripley's Believe it Or Not! distributed to mark Angelo's sit-up record of 6,033 consecutive sit-ups. Lanny said he had the opportunity to introduce Angelo into the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. Lanny then recited the poem that he wrote for that occasion. "If my brother were here he'd agree, what a fantastic family we come from." Lanny said he'd written a poem to mark his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and he went on to recite that poem.
You started wrestling in some of the NWA territories...
"I officially started wrestling on June 6, 1973," Lanny said. "I graduated high school at the half of the class that made the top of the class possible... as The Genius," he joked. "You might find it might be a rib, that whole gimmick!" Lanny said he started wrestling in Paducah, Kentucky with Paul Christy, who became a very dear friend. "We would make all these long trips, and my father and Paul Christy would criticize me all the way going home in such a way that made me wanna jump out the window," he joked. Lanny said Paul was smoother than a toilet seat. His wrestling education came from his dad and Paul Christy.
Lanny then touched upon the origins of his Genius gimmick in WWE. "I had always looked at different tapes trying to figure out what gimmick I would steal," he joked. "I would have loved to have imitated Johnny Valentine because he was my favorite wrestler of all time. Unfortunately I don't have the look or the body for that type of behavior and I found I couldn't imitate him. So what I could imitate was Ricky Starr. And all that prancing and dancing that I used to do, that was a bad imitation of Ricky Starr. If you ever get (to see) the real Ricky Starr, he was so much better than me but, you know the fact that I was even willing to go in that direction got over big."
Lanny said Starr was an actual ballet dancer while he was a pseudo ballet dancer, and JV said Lanny looked skilled as a dancer compared to everybody else in WWE at the time. "Compared to Bam Bam Bigelow... or Big Bossman," Lanny said.
You got into wrestling before Randy did...
"Yes because he was signed in 1971 by the St. Louis Cardinals as a free agent and he spent four years in the minor leagues, just knocking about," Lanny said. Lanny then told a great story about Randy separating his right shoulder from a collision at home plate, and how he spent time in Florida learning to throw with his left hand and subsequently getting signed by the Chicago White Sox as a left-handed first baseman. "He didn't make the final cut because, you know, I guess he threw funny... he was a switch hitter but when you start switch throwing you look funny doing it," Lanny said. "But just think of the... just think of what kind of a man would even make himself do that. He's an amazing... he's got perseverance."
Your dad opened International Championship Wrestling in Lexington, Kentucky, and not only were you one of the top stars as a wrestler, but you were one-third owner...
"I'll tell you what, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times," Lanny said. "I was teamed up with George Weingeroff, what a fantastic guy. He was legally blind... he was an actual wrestler from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, and he used to teach me this amateur wrestling in the dressing room all the time... and I'm still friends with him today," Lanny said. He talked about George going on to build a business for himself with vending machines. "He could pay somebody to do his seeing for him," Lanny said. Lanny said George is one of the few that made it against all odds.
Not only did you hold the ICW Title but you actually feuded with Randy over that title.
"Yes, I feuded with him," Lanny laughed. "Him and my dad handled the book, I handled the publicity, I did the writing, does that surprise you?" he said. "What a fantastic cash business it was, you know? It was... we had a good time... it's one of the reasons that when I finally went to the World Wrestling Federation, and all the guys were whining and moaning, I never did because I knew how hard it was to be a promoter. And I know one thing about Vince McMahon, that was the greatest seven years of my life. And you never had a piece of lint on any of the canvases on his ring. And I never saw one time where his hair was out of place or there was a scuff on his shoes. The guy's impeccable, his family's impeccable. And it was just the way the company was run. He demands excellence and he won't put up with anything less. Some people don't like him but I'd rather have your envy than your pity. He's a hard guy to not be jealous of and I don't knock success. I can't believe some people do, I guess that's to keep from blowing their brains out when they look in the mirror," Lanny said. "Every member of that family's an integral part of the team. Whether it's at the forefront or behind the scenes."
You talked about going to WWE in '84 or '85...
"June of '85, changed life for the better," Lanny said.
How did that come about, obviously they picked Randy up, were you part of the deal to get Randy in?
"Well what happened was, do you remember "Dr. D" David Schultz? Okay we were working for Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler... what happened is, we were on Channel 5 (in Memphis)... and Randy was the top heel there, and what happened was "Dr. D" David Schultz just went AWOL from the WWF. They tagged him up with "The Macho Man", they had their usual fantastic match you know, on the top rope and all that stuff. And then "Dr. D" David Schultz made an interview knocking Hulk Hogan, knocking this guy, that guy, Vince McMahon, and Vince McMahon wanted to see the interview because he'd heard about it. So they got ahold of the interview and while they were playing it, legend has it that Vince says, "Who's that other guy? My God he's fantastic." At the time nobody was getting on the top rope and leaping off, now they do that off the balcony. But in 1985, Randy had a lot of paralyzed wrestlers to compete with. You know, overweight people that used to dig deep into their trunks and get foreign objects and gouge your eyes and call that being a villian. And these same people say, 'I don't like wrestling the way it is today.' Why don't you look at some of your tapes, wrestling is ten times better... you know the bar's been raised. Even me, I get credited for doing the back flip off the top rope landing on the guy. Now fat people are doing that and the little guys are doing triple somersaults. I've been put out of the business a long time ago... so anyway, Vince saw the tape, and this is right after WrestleMania 1. And right after that, they quit drawing. You know it's like, sometimes they get the big blowoff. And the fans are tired and it's May and June and people have got other things on their mind. So they get Randy on the phone and Randy talks to George Scott, and George Scott and my family were always good friends. And then he said, 'We got a place on top for you, you wanna come in?' And he said, 'Oh yeah, but what about my brother, he's going to work for Verne Gagne, and they'll just eat him alive.' And (George) said, 'Well, we don't have any place for him on the top,' and Randy said, 'How about in the middle?' and George Scott says... this is right on the phone, and I'm standing right next to my brother... 'Oh we can do it in the middle. So is he a heel or a babyface?' and Randy said, 'I'll ask him... are you a heel or a babyface?' And I thought to myself, well if I'm gonna be in the middle I might as well be a babyface. So I said I'm a babyface and (George) said, 'Okay, he's in the middle as a babyface.'" Lanny added, "I figured it didn't matter if I went to New York just taking the jackets back because I figured I'd get my break eventually. And while George Scott was the booker, I was doing very well, being put over. I got that poetry gimmick that they liked... and then all of a sudden something bad happened to me - George Scott lost his job. And then I was relegated to jabroni status."
Did George Scott come up with the name "Leaping" Lanny?
"No I came up with that, I stole it from "Leaping" Larry Shane, another better worker than me that died in Detroit. But I'm a better driver because unfortunately he died in a car wreck."
Lanny then talked about transitioning from "Leaping" Lanny the babyface to The Genius the heel...
"Four years later Vince McMahon brings me into the room and says, 'How would you like to become The Genius?' and I said, 'Great, what do I have to do?' and he said, 'Well I'm not sure but you're so well liked as a babyface, do you think you can be a heel?' I said, 'I will get the heat.' Vince didn't know this, but I knew that I was going to explore my feminine side. I figured every villain was always mean and nasty and ugly, and if I were looking right at you you wouldn't be nervous. But I knew I could make you laugh, and with everybody doing the serious gimmick, I'd be the clown. When everybody is being the clown, I'd be serious. I thought it was important to be unique. And The Genius, whether you liked him or didn't, I was unique. Not because I was born with three eyeballs, it's just that I was trying to be unique and I developed a style that was all my own even though it was a ripoff of Ricky Starr."
I want to talk about your in-ring style - at the time you were doing stuff that nobody in North America was really doing, especially nobody in the U.S. like the springboard moves and the moonsault. Where'd that style come from... I've heard that you studied Tiger Mask.
"There was a big controversy... people were saying... Chris Jericho treated me really well in the dressing room, he said, 'You were the first guy to ever do that.' No, I was the first guy to steal it from Tiger Mask," Lanny said. "I don't want credit for doing things that I didn't do."
JV says Lanny was the first to do it in WWE.
"Actually I saw a match between Tommy Billington, The Dynamite Kid, versus Tiger Mask in Madison Square Garden. And Vince McMahon was the MC of the match, he was the announcer. And I got ahold of the tape and I saw him do so many fantastic things that I'd never even dreamed of, Tiger Mask, and actually Dynamite Kid, I might as well say it, between that time and the time I got to the WWF, Dynamite Kid had put some of those moves away because he was already crippled. You can't take that many chances with your body and he was accident prone, and now he's a complete cripple... and he's bitter and mean, and Harry (Smith) filled me in on it. It's a sad thing. I loved the guy, you know? I loved Davey Boy and him. You couldn't possibly not like those guys. The first time I met Davey Boy, he said, 'Hey you wanna see a picture of Bret Hart?' and he took out an 8x10 and around Bret Hart's face he had cut out a hole and he had stuck in his genitals. And I thought, how can you not like a guy like that, that's hilarious. There's a lot of times in the dressing room you're bored to death, you know? You couldn't be bored with The Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith, they were competing for who could hold court. But anyway the thing is, I didn't invent any of those moves. I stole them from Tiger Mask, and Tiger Mask had a short career so I got the credit for it." Lanny added, "The only thing I will say on my own behalf is, all the poems you ever heard me do, good or bad, were all mine. I plagiarized nothing and nobody."
One more thing about your in-ring style - why do you think that WWE didn't make better use of you considering that you were so vastly different than anybody else when it came to your in-ring style? Do you think maybe fans just weren't ready for it yet?
"First of all, I disagree with the question," said Lanny. "How many people do you know that were on NBC and defeated Hulk Hogan?"
JV said that's true, but that happened later on.
"But see I hung in there, I persevered, and what's the end of the story? I'm healthy, wealthy and free. How many wrestlers, 50-years-old are even alive?" Lanny then said there were wrestlers who made more money, and Mike Tyson made millions. "But he had a hole in his bucket so where did the water go? In the sand. Let's say I had a very good bucket but I used an eye dropper to fill it. After 21 years of using my eye dropper, guess who has a lot of water in his bucket?" Lanny said a lot of wrestlers lived like there was no tomorrow and, "got bit on the ass by tomorrow." Lanny said he saved his money, he paid his taxes, and he's healthy, wealthy and free. He said he survived a divorce, and he's got a daughter who's 21-years-old.
When you were doing the "Leaping" Lanny gimmick you had the poetry and the frisbees, and WWE.com had the footage of you doing the poem for Alfred Hayes on TNT after he passed away. Was that the first time you'd done that?
"No that was like the fifth time," Lanny said. "The first time was when I was on TNT before that. The second time I was on TNT, I told them that I had a poem for Lord Alfred Hayes. Now it's been taken off the WWE website but I managed to get it on the LannyPoffo.com website." Lanny then recited his Alfred Hayes poem.
I heard that you came up with the frisbee gimmick and you bought your own frisbees and were selling them yourself before WWE got their marketing machine behind it.
"Yes you heard correctly. As a matter of fact, the first time I was on TNT and I did the poem... I was in a suit of armor." Lanny then recited that first poem from TNT. "Vince McMahon said, in the commercial he said, 'Lanny that was great, I want you to do that before every match, I want you to do a poem.' I thought to myself, well okay, that's a little tough on a babyface... so I thought to myself, Al Costello used to throw those boomerangs (with The Fabulous Kangaroos) ... and I know that, my brother and I used to gouge each other's eyes trying to get those things, you know? Whenever you get free stuff... so I started out throwing these little rolled-up scrolls but they weren't really flying. So I said, I've gotta throw a frisbee. So I bought 500 frisbees and I wrote a poem on them. And then the marketing people from World Wrestling Federation said, 'Do you mind if we market these?' Do I mind if you market these? I said I was dying to get my feet wet in that. So they sold them at $3 apiece, they sold several hundred thousand of them. And the reason they sold so many is because I was the only wrestler, win, lose or draw, that would, after the match was over, go to the venues, meet the people, be nice to the people, whether they bought frisbees or not."
JV said he remembers meeting Lanny in 1986 at a WWE show in Watertown, New York, and to this day he still has a frisbee with Lanny's autograph on the back.
"And I made sure that no matter whether they bought a frisbee or not, I gave everybody a smile and a word of encouragement." Lanny then told a story about being 12-years-old in 1967 and being in Honolulu, Hawaii. He walked up to Art Linkletter and had a book all set and the pen ready, and he asked Linkletter for an autograph. "And he said, 'Buzz off,' and he didn't say 'buzz,'" said Lanny. He said he went home for three days and couldn't get over it. Six years later he was 18 and wrestled his first match, and somebody asked him for his autograph. And he decided he would never be too busy to sign an autograph and has never turned down one in his life. "You have the power to make somebody's day. Look at us, I was nice to you, and you remembered it," he said.
Part one of my nearly two-hour interview with former WWE star The Genius, aka "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, is now online in Windows Media and Real Audio formats at JimmyVan.com!. You can also listen to a five-minute preview clip of the interview in Real Audio format at this link:
http://www.jimmyvan.com/audio/lanny/part1/lanny-081705-clip1.ram
Visit www.LannyPoffo.com for more on The Genius!
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