Kevin Sullivan, King Curtis Iaukea and Mark Lewin. Sullivan passed away on August 9 at age 74.

Before we start, an apology for no podcasts during or after the Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame a few weeks ago. During the travel to the event, we had some weather-related issues at home that necessitated putting any recording plans on hold. But we are now back, although we were it were under better circumstances.

We’re very grateful to Mike Sempervive (@sempervive) to take some time to discuss the recent passing of the great Kevin Sullivan at age 74. There’s no rhyme nor reason for how we talk about the great man’s career: We go from Florida to Knoxville (all six more or times he worked there) to WCW to ICW to Hawaii and all points along the way. We discuss our favorite angles, try to place the Prince of Darkness gimmick in historical context, our favorite angles and promos, including The Dream Mike Davis, the Slaughterhouse, the Varsity Club, the third Head Hunter, the Sheik, Mark Lewin, King Curtis and so much more.

It’s great when Mike has time to fit us in. If we had him on more often, maybe the shows wouldn’t be as long, but the winding road takes us to where we want to be, in the end.

Ron Wright, Dennis Condrey and Phil Hickerson from a 1978 episode of Southeastern Wrestling.

We are thrilled that today’s episode featuring what we hope is the first of many podcast appearances by the longtime wrestler/announcer/trainer/promoter Les Thatcher (@LesThatcher). The main reason we invited Les to come on the show was to talk about the just-passed 20th anniversary of the 2000 edition of the Brian Pillman Memorial Show, which featured a famous match between Chris Benoit and William (then Steven Regal). We talk about that match, the creation of the Pillman Memorial Shows, the Mark Curtis (Brian Hildebrand) Fantasy Camps and some great news about how people will soon be able to see many of those matches.

Speaking of lost footage, we talk about the 1978 episode of Southeastern Wresting that was just posted to Youtube (see link below). Les explains his part in getting that tape out to the wrestling watching public, the creation of the revolutionary television program with Ron Fuller (@RonFullerWelch), working Knoxville for at least five different companies, teaming with Whitey Caldwell vs the Wright Brothers and more.

We only scratched the surface of Les’ 60 year career, so we definitely want to have him back to talk working in the Maritimes, characters like The Mongolian Stomper and Kevin Sullivan and too much to list here. And don’t forget Les is still doing wrestling seminars with folks like Dr. Tom Prichard (@drtomprichard).