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Dennis Stamp Interview Recap from WrestlingWorldInsanity.com

Posted: Apr 9th 2007 By: CMBurnham

This week?s 36 minute edition of JG?s Radio Free Insanity is on the air and available in flash and for download right now at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com. This week?s guest is Beyond The Mat's Dennis Stamp.

The show begins with a clip from the documentary followed by this quote:

"Hi. This is Dennis Stamp and I'm on World Wrestling Insanity. Which is probably where I belong?"

James Guttman starts off by giving everyone some background on Dennis Stamp. Dennis is famous for his role in "Beyond The Mat" and his somewhat strange behavior. He was shown working out on his trampoline and repeating his catchphrase, "I'm not booked." Stamp is a character and in his uncut 74 minute ClubWWI.com interview, talked about everything. JG says that what's great about Stamp is that he has no real politics to play. His interview was pretty straight forward and, besides talking about his Beyond the Mat appearance, shared stories about Adrian Adonis and four midgets, SD Jones, Big John Studd, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, assaulting a special ed school principal, chasing a ten year old girl through the crowd for spitting gum in his hair, being threatened by an old man with a knife because of it, Elvis, and so much more. Guttman says that if you're a fan of backstage stories from wrestling's golden days, you definitely want to check out the full shoot on ClubWWI.com.

Also on ClubWWI.com, you get over 60 interviews with everyone from Christian Cage to Samoa Joe to Kevin Nash to Jerry Lawler and tons more. If you go to the free main page of ClubWWI.com, you can hear clips from a bunch of the interviews and from the superstar-hosted Club audio shows. The hosts are former WWE U.S. Champ Orlando Jordan, former WWE Women's Champion Ivory, former WWE Raw announcer Kevin Kelly, and former WWF I.C. Champ D-Lo Brown. Also, you get 19 editions of Dr. Tom Prichard's audio, taped up until the day he returned to WWE as their head trainer for Deep South Wrestling.

From there, JG talks about Chris Kanyon's retirement and then cues up the interview.

James Guttman begins by introducing Beyond the Mat's Dennis Stamp.

Dennis thanks James for his introduction and Guttman says he deserves it. People still bring up his appearance in Beyond the Mat. He asks Stamp if he's recognized from it. Dennis says that it reminded people about him. Someone just today came up to him and said, "Hey, Dennis." He thinks it reminded people that may have seen him before. He begins to answer whether the film was a good experience, but stops to ask James if he asked that. JG says sure and tells him to go ahead. Dennis says that most of his good stuff didn?t' get used, but going in he was a bit player. (Barry Blaustein) interviewed 150 wrestlers, but Stamp made the cut. Foley, Funk, and Roberts were the stars, so as Stamp explains:

"They couldn't let me steal the whole movie."

James explains that Terry Funk contributed quotes to his book, "World Wrestling Insanity." Terry has a way of asking the same question over and over until you give him the right answer. That's sort of what happened to Dennis in the film. He kept telling Funk, "I'm not booked" and it became a catchphrase. Also, by the end of the movie, Stamp was put on as the referee, which was a testament to his relationship with Terry. Dennis says that Terry is "one really fine human being, beyond being an absolutely fabulous performer." Stamp has nothing but respect for him and talks about facing Funk when he was NWA Champion. Three of their matches were 60 minute draws. Dennis explains that matches that length are difficult and it's a "unique, really special kind of relationship that you have with somebody that you work with." There's some commotion in the background and JG chimes in that you need to trust your opponent in the ring. Stamp agrees. Both you and your opponent make the excitement. At this point, a microwave can be heard in the background. Stamp continues on and says that he and Terry Funk share an intimacy because a match like that is "the two of you against the world." It's a strange situation because you're supposed to be enemies. Dennis lives in Amarillo, as do the Funks. He says:

"I become a jabronie and he's always been a star. And so there's another level where he's a star and I'm a jabronie, which would make me jealous. So there's some jealousy and that probably came out, I think it came out in that scene."

Stamp explains that Terry had used him as a referee on other cards. He also feels he was an excellent worker, but many people won't believe him. "How many people think the person bragging would be based in fact?" But Dennis says he could say that to Terry, and he would know it. Although he refereed that card, he wanted to wrestle against Dory, who he calls his idol. "Both the Funk brothers are really great guys."

JG brings up how the Funks can go out at their age and keep wrestling. If you know how to tell a story, you can wrestle for a long time. Dennis says that he took a real pounding and if you're going to do it well, it's physically demanding. Terry is proof that you can keep doing it, "but the price tag is huge." Funk has had numerous injuries and it's painful for him to just walk around. Stamp says he asked Funk once if he could do "the old man stuff." He used a swear word, but cleaned up the story for Radio Free Insanity. Guttman thanks him. Terry said he couldn't do that old age gimmick because of his reputation with the boys. Funk is always on and everybody knows him. Everywhere he goes, people ask for his autograph and Stamp has yet to meet someone that didn't like him or a fan he denied. Funk, like Dusty Rhodes, is always the center of the locker room. "Dusty's much more high strung and Terry's more laid back and down to Earth."

Guttman says that's true. In all the interviews he's done, he hasn't heard a cross thing about Funk and equates it to the amount of people Terry worked with and helped the careers of. Stamp then jumps into his role in Paradise Alley. They flew everyone out there first class and they all had rooms. The guys from Amarillo were saying, "Oh, we're going to Hollywood, we'll see movie stars!" Dennis said they wouldn't. When they got to L.A.X, they looked over and saw the guy who played Lerch on the Addam's Family on the other escalator. Stamp looked over and mouthed the words, "Hi, Lerch." Lerch just looked away and Dennis figured he'd get him back by telling all the boys. They started to heckle him with "You rang," and then needled Stamp for saying they wouldn't see any stars.

In 1998, Funk called him and asked if he'd be in Beyond The Mat.

"He said, how'd you like to be in a good movie? I said, Terry, I'd like to be in any movie."

Dennis says that Barry Blaustein is a smart guy. No one got paid because it was a documentary. He worked for Ron Howard and was set to make a wrestling movie. Stamp's first question to Terry when he said that Barry would call him was, "What should I say?" His whole career was filled with promos planned by bookers. Funk replied, "Say anything you want!" Stamp paused and said, "Terry, no one's ever said that to me before!" Dennis says that they interviewed his family and then brings up the "famous trampoline scene."

Stamp has removed the canvas on it because his granddaughter was doing too many tricks. Guttman says, "Oh?so she does tricks?" Dennis responds with one of his famous quotes from the film, "I don't do tricks. I just jump."

James asks where the trampoline thing came from. When did he start? Stamp says he always worked out and never did many weights. He's "always been sort of naturally big." Everyone was on his butt about getting bigger, but he always wanted to be in shape. He doesn't like jogging because it's too boring and hurts his ankles and lower back. The trampoline came about when Dennis saw it one time. After one minute on it, he was blown up. So he ended up getting one. At first he couldn't do much, then got to about 30 minutes and added dumbbells. It's low impact because there's a give when he jump. The gravity pulls your muscles and keeps you firm. Dennis used to listen to Van Halen's 1984 tape with "Jump" on it. He says that if he can play a cassette and jump to 10 songs, that's his workout. He does it 3-4 times a week and calls it a terrific workout.

He then tells the story of listening to Dr. Hook, a dirty cover band. Nothing X-Rated, but double meanings. One song was called, "Get your rocks off a mountain and roll them down the hill." JG says, "Oh. I get that one." Stamps says that one a trip to Albuquerque, he had his middle school daughter and her friends singing it in the car.

The downside to the trampoline is that he liked to go out in his "under shorts" and jump so that he could get a tan. But, when his daughter's friends would see him, they'd say, "We saw your dad on the trampoline?in his underwear!"

Stamp's full interview went on for 74 minutes and besides talking about his Beyond the Mat appearance, shared stories about Adrian Adonis, SD Jones, Big John Studd, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, assaulting a special ed school principal, chasing a ten year old girl through the crowd for spitting gum in his hair, being threatened by an old man with a knife because of it, Elvis, and so much more. If you're a fan of backstage stories from wrestling's golden days, you definitely want to check out the full shoot on ClubWWI.com.

Also on ClubWWI.com, you can hear over 50 exclusive interviews with wrestling?s top names including Kevin Nash, Jerry Lawler, DDP, Bobby Heenan, Ted DiBiase, Christian Cage, Samoa Joe, Sylvester Terkay, The Iron Sheik, Rhino, Earl Hebner, Ivory, The Steiner Brothers, Nidia, Christy Hemme, Chris Daniels, AJ Styles, Vince Russo and dozens of others. Plus new audio shows from Kevin Kelly, Orlando Jordan, Tom Prichard, Ivory, and D-Lo Brown!

JG?s Radio Free Insanity is always free and always on the air each weekend at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com, with extended interviews and show archives available on ClubWWI.com. James Guttman?s book, World Wrestling Insanity, is available at Amazon.com or wherever books are sold.