Jesse Ventura
speaker
493 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 25 Mar
Jesse Ventura’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And then Vern wouldn't give him the title. And Vern wouldn't let him market himself. And so Hogan made the smart move. He jumped right away to Vince, who let him do all that. And, you know, financially, I don't begrudge Hogan that. I'd have did the same thing, too.
You know, but him ratting us, that was low. But anyway, you know, that was the nature of the business. Everyone's out for themselves. You know, it's always been that nature of the business. That's how the business survived, was backstabbing.
Who the heck would know? It's a good sliding doors though, right? Then it would have been a hell of a lot more challenging for Vince to go across the country like he did. Right. Because Vince needed Hogan. just as Hogan needed him. They needed each other.
You know, that was a mutual deal. And don't begrudge either one of them. You know, what they accomplished was remarkable, and I was happy to be part of it.
Yeah, and it worked out great for me because, you know, unfortunately, my career ended right before I was due to wrestle Hogan, the night before. I was due to wrestle Hogan in LA. My first match with him in the WWF. And I'm seven days critical in San Diego hospital. So bad. My wife had to fly out to San Diego. I didn't know if I'd ever wrestle again. And ironically, you know who came to my rescue?
Who? And she don't even know it. I bet today. I bet if you asked her, she wouldn't even truly know it. Cindy Lauper. Really? Yeah.
Well, Cindy Lauper did me a favor that ended up creating my entire broadcasting career. Which was what? I went home facing the end of my wrestling career. What do I do now? Am I going to go down to General Mills and sign on as a VP and put down past experience, pro wrestler? You're not going to get no job.
And like all pro athletes in its own weird way, nobody ever thinks about it till it's over. And then when it's over, you got to face it. And I had to face it prematurely. I did come back in the ring. but I never came back to the extent of what I was doing. And a friend of mine said, here's the lopper story. A friend of mine said, you should be a broadcaster. You can talk.
So I went down to channel 11, Tom Ryther. He just passed away a few months ago, my friend Tom Ryther. And I told Tom my situation. He was the head of sports down there. So he introduced me to the head guy of the station. And he gave me a producer cameraman who was Emmy Award winning. And he said, okay. He said, go out and do something for me. Right? Yeah.
So it was right during the Cyndi Lauper rock and wrestling crap. You know, when Cyndi was all involved with Wendy Richter and it was going big and all that. Cyndi was doing a concert here in Minneapolis. Yeah. So I called up David Wolf, our manager, and I said, could I come down and interview Cindy before the show? He said, of course. And so I came down with my guy.
We got together with Cindy and it was during that punk era. So we decided to have Cindy dye my hair. So Cindy Lauper dyed my hair like six different colors because that was in then. And that night at her concert, she brought me out in front of the crowd to show the crowd what we had did that afternoon. And Vince got a hold of that tape.
And it was like two days later, he calls me and he says, Jesse, do you think you could do color commentating? And I said, I know I could. And he said, I got an idea. I said, what is it? He said, there's never been a villain on the mic before. You're going to be the first one.
Well, like I said, and that's so I, oh, Cindy, I bet don't even know. That the piece she did with me spurred McMahon to have the light. And I give Vince credit. He's P.T. Barnum of the generation, man. The light bulb went out in Vince's head and he thought, there's never been a villain on the mic. Let's put a villain on the mic.
And then I was fortunate because who did they put me on with but Gorilla Monsoon? Right. One of the great teams. Oh, I mean, Gino was a dream. To work with. You know, you couldn't have asked for an easier, better tandem. I don't think Gino and I ever had a misunderstanding, ever. I can't think of one.
Well, I think I was at my best right before I was going to go against Hogan.
Earlier 30s. Right. Yeah, but I'm right where I ought to be for it. Right, and you could have been one of the big heels. I'm as big as I'm ever going to be, and right there, and all of a sudden, I'm flat on my back in critical condition in San Diego, California, not knowing if I'm going to live or die.
Well, I always view it as, and I tell people this when I give speeches and stuff, I always tell people, remember, out of adversity, great things can happen. When you think adversity struck you and that everything has gone to shit, It's amazing how, look what I fell into then. I got more famous being on the mic than I probably ever would have been in the ring.
They couldn't control me then. What makes them think they can now? Yeah. Well, you were the first announcer that made people mad. Exactly. Do they have any idea the power I have now? Do they have any idea the guy that's going to be on that mic sat down face to face with Fidel Castro? Right. Do they have any idea that the guy on that mic had a dinner in his honor at Tiananmen Square in China? Wow.
So you've seen it all. And I did all this after wrestling.
I had no relationship with him. Nothing? Nothing.
Showing 381–400 of 493 · page 20 of 25
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