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The Blue Meanie Remembers Terry Funk, Recalls SWAT Team Responding to Huge Brawl at ECW Show in Plymouth Meeting
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He shared some fantastic stories from back in the day, and said us this about his colleague Terry Funk, the wrestling icon who passed away earlier this week:
“He gave back to so many young talent. When the veterans, the gatekeepers of the business would not let you in, Terry was like, ‘hey come on, let’s have some fun.’ And when I first went to ECW I was sitting in the locker room and doing as I was taught, to sit there with my mouth shut and ears open. Tommy Dreamer comes over to me and grabs me by the arm and starts leading me, and I’m like ‘oh I’m in trouble.’ He brings me over to Terry Funk, and Funk goes, ‘hey Blue Meanie, son of a bitch, I love the Blue Meanie, you need to go down to the junk yard and get yourself a blue car, get yourself a big ole’ piece of shit blue car and drive it to the show, then people will go hey look, there’s Blue Meanie in the blue car, and put a big B on the side of it.’ He’s pitching these ideas and I’m just like wait, this is the same Terry Funk that put a plastic trash bag over Ric Flair’s head and tried to smother him to death, giving me tips on my character. But he did that with everybody in the locker room… Anybody who was associated with Terry Funk, their stock rose, because Terry put his stamp of his approval, and he did that with so many different wrestlers.”
Meanie told us some absolutely ridiculous ECW tales, which, if you watched the promotion back in the day, you’ll actually find completely believable.
Here’s the story of how police dogs and the SWAT team ended up at a Montco show in the late 90s –
“We used to rent the LuLu temple in Plymouth Meeting. I think it got sold, so we didn’t rent it anymore, but we needed a building in Plymouth Meeting. There’s the National Guard Armory out there, so we (go out there and hold) our first and last show ever. It was Mischief Night 1998-ish, and we go there, there’s a group of rowdy college kids all wearing white t-shirts, one kid’s shirt says “FITE ME,” spelled F-I-T-E. The big tag team main event was the Dudley Boyz, Eliminators, Gangstas, and Balls (Mahoney) and Axl (Rotten). Now Balls and Axl are coming in but everyone else is already in the ring, and these college kids are going ‘yeaaaah!’ and Balls and Axl go over and they’re going ‘yeahhhh!’ and then a bunch of the kids grab Axl and pull him over the rail and start clubbing on him. So the guys in the ring see this and someone yells ‘fight!’ and the whole locker room clears. This big fucking brawl breaks out in the National Guard Armory in Plymouth Meeting on Mischief Night. It spills outside and this is where Tracy Smothers (from the Full Blooded Italians) comes in. Tommy Dreamer is standing there, and they had called the SWAT team, they called everybody. These cops are out there with guard dogs and Tommy Dreamer is like Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun going ‘there’s nothing to see here! It’s a big misunderstanding!’ He’s trying to calm down the cops and the guard dogs. And in his left ear, Tracy Smothers says ‘I’ll take the dogs,’ and he’s wearing nothing but a towel with shampoo running down his face and he starts shadowboxing the dogs, like ‘I’ll take on a fucking dog.’ So Tommy Dreamer grabs him and takes him back into the building, and the next morning we’re driving up to Queens with Sign Guy Dudley and we’re listening to KYW NewsRadio and they’re reporting on a brawl at an ECW event and we were like, ‘yeah! we made KYW!'”
Meanie was famously known for the BWO (Blue World Order) gimmick, but what did the NWO guys at WCW think about the spoof?
“The cool thing is that the NWO guys loved it. I got to talk to Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Scott told me ‘I used to tell Big Kev all the time it’s the Blue World Order, and he’s me, so I should be the leader of the NWO, the New World Order. Gentle ribbing, but those guys were really cool with it. I got to talk to each and every one of them and they gave the big thumbs up. I don’t think Eric Bischoff appreciated it, but, you know.”
Here’s the full convo with Brian:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com