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TALK IS JERICHO: AUBREY EDWARDS PT 1 06/17/20

Aubrey Edwards talked about her training school for refs: “All of my students are female. I train refs up in Seattle. I have a few students. I have one trans, male to female and then two other girls and they are all fantastic. Representation matters. I’m seeing it every day. One of my students drives up from Portland, three hours from Portland to Seattle to train with me because she saw me at Double or Nothing. Hearing things like that is a big deal.”

Aubrey talking about her background: “I danced for 20 years. I did a lot of classical ballet training which there are actually a lot of similarities. There is the whole, being in the theater aspect, understanding the show, the hierarchy, the direction, and knowing your role and how you are supposed to fit into the bigger picture.”

Aubrey wanted to be a ref: “I was getting too old. I was tired of waking up sore and it wasn’t my primary source of income. I stepped away from dance and then got super depressed. I did not realize how important performing was to my mental health as a way to express myself. I had a buddy who said we are looking for more refs locally. We think you would be a good fit. I wasn’t a wrestling fan as a kid. All of my friends were into The Rock and Stone Cold. I watched it and knew nothing about wrestling. I was googling the Undertaker. I thought this is entertaining. Then there was the whole CM Punk pipe bomb. That was the thing that hooked me because I realized it is all storytelling. You are using your body in a new way to tell a story. Immediately, I was hooked. I dove into indies. I started traveling to wrestling shows. I did everything like a hardcore fan. My husband trained as a wrestler. He had been wrestling about a year and a half at that point, so we worked together a couple times. He recently retired. He’s a lot older than I am. They asked me to try it and I did and I sucked. I needed work. I started training. Two months later, I did my first show in July 2017. I started branching out. I did a lot of work in the Vancouver area. “

Aubrey working the Mae Young Classic: “Their lady ref, Jessica, who just got moved up to SmackDown started reffing the same time I did…We both had mutual friends..They started talking about wanting more refs at the Mae Young Classic. She reached out to me and said if this was something I would be interested in. I said yes. I did a tryout…they like me and brought me in for the Mae Young Classic. I did a road loop with them and then did their all women PPV. I did the Battle Royal. I worked a total of 16 days.”

How did Aubrey get her name: “My name is Brittany. One of the things I noticed on the indies is they throw me in the women’s match. There are either people who don’t think that a woman should referee a men’s match or they like the image of only women in the ring. I typically worked the women’s matches. I thought I’m probably going to cross paths with Britt Baker at some point or another. I should probably come up with a different name to limit confusion. I introduced myself as Aubrey, but I prefer Brittany backstage. My dad’s name was Edward Aubert, so my name is Aubrey Edwards.”

83 WEEKS WITH ERIC BISCHOFF: GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1995: 06/15/20

Eric Bischoff talking about Gordon Solie winding down his career: “His health was an issue. It made it easier, not easy, but it made it easier to move Gordon along. I like Gordon Solie. In the CNN Center, there was an English Pub on the second floor. Oftentimes, Gordon would be doing voice overs in post production at the same time I was when I was a third string announcer behind Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross…I would meet Gordon at this English Pub. He could put them away. I would listen to him tell wrestling stories. His voice was almost hypnotic or mesmerizing. When Gordon would get a shot or two in him and loosened up a little bit, and he wiped out a half a pack of cigarettes or more, he had this quality in his voice that can suck you in. You could easily visualize it. I think this is one of the reasons he was so good at what he did.”

Bischoff disputed that Hulk Hogan was guaranteed $300,00 vs 25% of the PPV revenue, whichever is greater: “Not even close. Not even in the same ballpark as some of the stuff I heard in the past. I’ll tell you what it was. When Hulk Hogan left WWF, he thought he was done with wrestling. He was pursuing acting opportunities. He had a show called Thunder In Paradise that was doing very well internationally. It wasn’t a bit hit in the United States because syndication was already starting to take a hit. When Hulk decided to put his toe back in the water with WCW, he didn’t want to be a full time performer. He didn’t want to be on the road. His kids were very young. He was living a good life. He had plenty of money in the bank. He wanted to give back to wrestling, but not in a way that it would overwhelm his life. We came up with a plan. Say there were 6 PPV shows a year. Hulk was committed to 4 of those. It was not because he was expensive or we couldn’t afford him. It was because if you only have 6 PPVs you want to keep that character special. You don’t want to see him every single PPV. You don’t want every television story evolving around anyone. You have to be careful about overexposing him or you will dilute the value. Our June PPVs were typically some of the lowest rated PPVs of the year, so why would we bring back one of our key characters, who we want to bring back for Bash at the Beach, because that is one of our more successful PPVs and the one we wanted to build as a tent pole. That’s why we didn’t have Hulk Hogan on this particular PPV, not because we couldn’t afford him. I believe his deal was $400,00 per PPV for four PPVs. But, it was not against a percentage of the PPV. Did he have language in his contract that would have allowed him to get bonuses on PPV? Yes, if those PPVs exceeded a certain threshold.”

Bischoff talked about Ric Flair convincing Hulk Hogan to WCW: “I was there. I was in the room. Nobody worked harder to convince Hulk Hogan to come to WCW than Ric Flair. Had it not been for Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan would not have come to WCW, end of story. There is no variation on that theme. There are no alternative facts that anybody can throw out there. It just is what it is. Hulk Hogan would not have come to WCW without Ric Flair’s support and encouragement.”