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Who's Slamming Who With Bill Dundee On Why He Never Wrestled For WWF, Working For WCW, Jerry Lawler; Sam Houston On Jake Roberts's Hall Of Fame Induction, His Addiction And Incarceration

Posted: Mar 21st 2014 By: CMBurnham

Memphis wrestling legend "Superstar" Bill Dundee and former WWE star Sam Houston were guests on this week's Who's Slamming Who podcast with Tommy Fierro. Who's Slamming Who airs live weekly, Thursday nights, 7 PM ET over the VOC Nation Radio Network on vocnation.com. Call in to the show (855) VOC-RADIO. You can also follow WSW on Facebook or send Tommy an e-mail at whosslammingwho@gmail.com.

Bill Dundee:
Check it out to hear Dundee's thoughts on classic Memphis wrestling and angles, names such as Jerry Jarrett and Buddy Landell, and his son Jamie Dundee.

On Why He Never Wrestled for WWE:
It's very political there. The reason I [wasn't] in the [WWF] ... there was a couple of guys over there who didn't like me. So that's really why I ain't there. It was very political. They were Vince's boys and I think that's why I ain't there. That's just my observation. What can you do? ... I made money without Vince before that and I've made money [since] ... Would it have been nice to be up there? Probably. Would my personality [have] fit in with a lot of them up there? Probably not ... If somebody asks me something I will tell you, and I don't know if that works up there.

On Being a WCW Employee:
Did I like [working for WCW]? Not really. I made a lot of money. I enjoyed [William] Regal. I enjoyed some of the things I did, but did I like the corporate approach to wrestling? No ... [I didn't like] the whole corporate situation ... Bill Shaw ... had no clue about the wrestling business but [he was] the boss. Ted Turner, he liked wrestling. He didn't have to know anything about it but Ted would have meetings and he'd come to them. He loved Dusty Rhodes, he loved Ric Flair, he liked battle royals. He actually liked watching wrestling. Them other dudes never seen it before. That's why [Bill] Watts didn't stay. He didn't get along with the corporate thing either. I didn't like the corporate thing, then they brought Hogan in and Bischoff wormed his way in to the position he got. I don't know What can I say. I made money and had a job for two years.

On His Relationship with Jerry Lawler:
They put the belt on [Jerry Lawler], and he didn't think he should go to small towns, and Jerry Jarrett told him, "You don't have to go to no towns," and he banished him to Florida. That was the best thing that happened for me ... When [Lawler] went off to Florida or wherever the hell he went ... we got over in about a month. Then they brought Lawler back, and that's when all the fireworks really started. He had a lot of respect for me, and I had it for him. Are we best of friends? No. Do we go over to one another's house and break bread every day? No. But we've never had an argument. I've never had a fight with Lawler outside the wrestling business. We've never been really mad at one another. We just clicked. It's what we did. Jerry Jarrett knew it ... We clicked in the ring and we clicked at what we did, and we were very good for one another.

On William Regal and How He's Treated by WWE:
He could wrestle. As far as holds and all the stuff that the English people do. But he didn't really know what to do as far as the interviews and all the things that he did ... [I'm] not really [surprised he's still with WWE], but I don't really know what he does. Is he a performer? Is he behind the scenes? I don't know what he does. I don't watch Vince [McMahon]'s show.

Sam Houston:
As if "Superstar" Bill Dundee wasn't enough, you can also stick around for Sam Houston, who talked Hall of Fame brother Jake "The Snake" Roberts and up-and-coming daughter Samantha Starr, plans to resume his own in-ring career, classic ribs backstage, and Dusty Rhodes and Iron Sheik impressions.

On Jake Roberts' WWE Hall of Fame Induction:
It was earned. I'm so happy that my brother finally got it. It's something that should have happened, probably, a long time ago. But I can understand both sides of the story but it should have happened a long time ago. When I was in [the] WWF, he was like the #3 guy there on top. It was Hogan, Savage, and Jake. He's my brother, and yes I may be biased, but the guy is phenomenal. He has a mind like no other for this wrestling business. No matter what any problems [he had] - this, that, or the other - that you might travel through on your journey, you still need your props. You still deserve your respect.

On His Own Highs and Lows:
One night I came back from the ring and Paul Ellering was sitting there. He was watching my match through the curtain. I come up the steps and he goes, "Sam, do you know why I love watching your matches?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Because you go that one step further." I lost that somewhere along the way ... I don't know if I got lost in my addiction after I got injured. I lost that somewhere along the way and I became complacent. I became comfortable with just doing enough to get by. It took those years of incarceration that I spent to get that back in myself.