Original subtitles

Don't let people see you out there signing autographs,

all these little kids and stuff.

They say, "Oh, you're not a bad guy."

You want them to think you're the baddest,

meanest bastard to ever walk the street.

And that's the way you're gonna make money.

[Announcer] "Dr. D" David Schultz!

[Narrator] In the early 80s, there were few better at

playing the villain than "Dr. D" David Schultz.

Now what's wrong with you? Are you crazy?

Come out here and try to make a fool out of me!

Get the camera out of here!

He was big enough and mean enough to get his own way.

Get down and fight, baby! Get down!

At the same time, he was a tremendous performer.

He was destined to become one of

World Wrestling Federation's most notorious stars.

I come to the WWF, baby.

They hated me, but they loved me.

They loved to hate me. [laughs]

I'm the guy that went to schoolwith you people out there,

when you was growing up,

and took your lunch money from you.

That was my job, to be bad, and I could back it up.

But one fateful encounter in New York would

destroy his career in an instant.

To make sure that nobody knew the secrets

inside the locker room.

- Standard questions. - I think this is fake.

What's your response to the people

who point out that this is fake?

You think it's fake?

Holy shit! What the hell just happened here?

In an era when wrestlers lived by an honor code of

protecting the business, no one took it more to heart

than David Schultz, and one single action

cost him everything.

They called me back and said,

"Nobody wants to sign a contract with you!

You're too mean! You're too bad!"

I'm anything but fake. I'm an entertainer.

Con man. Whatever. I am not a fake.

♪

For most of the 20th century,

professional wrestling was a closed society,

where the rules of the game were never revealed

to the paying public.

Wrestlers lived by a secret code that maintained the

illusion of good and evil in the squared circle.

Make the fights look real,

even if the matches are predetermined.

But at the dawn of a pro-wrestling revolution,

the old traditions were changing faster than

some performers could keep up with.

♪

Okay, this is one of my storage units here.

Oh, yeah! Here we go, baby.

Just come on in. Bring yourself on in here.

Watch your step.

Watch the spiders and the snakes, and all that.

Here's a card that I used to use.

It said, "You've just been patronized by the

world's greatest pro wrestler."

[off-screen] Where's this thing come from?

[David] I don't know how theyget it to look so lively,

you know, just like me.

This bag, here, has got some very special items.

One of 'em is a stun gun, and you take this and

you pull it back here...

and when you hold it on the guy,

you just tell him, "You're under arrest.

Get your hands up.

If you don't obey, I'm gonna shoot you."

And they say, "Hey, man..." Boom.

I'm "Dr. D" David Schultz, probably the greatest

pro wrestler of all time, in my opinion.

You know, about '72, '73, I waswatching wrestling on TV

one time and I said, "Well, this is not hard."

So, I went by to see Herb Welch.

This one right here is Herb Welch,

the one that trained me.

"Herb Welch, How to Become a Champion".

Herb Welch had been one of the biggest wrestling stars

in the south, from the time of the Depression

through the 1950s.

He had learned from the, the pioneers,

the original pro wrestlers thatcame from the carnivals.

It was the last place in the country that you could go

to literally learn from a guy who was there at the

formation of organized professional wrestling.

I'm Jim Cornette, and for nearly 40 years,

I've been a promoter, a match maker, announcer,

manager, and a historian in professional wrestling.

[David] He lived in Dyersburg.

I went out there and pulled the truck over.

And, he come out on the porch,

and we sat there and talked a while.

And he said, "Yeah, I'll train you.

When you want to start?"

[Jim] His method of training wasto take these guys into

his barn on his farm and beat the piss out of them.

Herb Welch was such a salty, mean old bastard that

he would go in a locker room and he would take a dump,

and he would take a handful of it and he would rub it

in his armpit, and then when he got out there,

the first thing he'd do is he'd lock up with a guy and

grab a headlock and start grinding that head as

hard as he could until the guy was screaming,

"Please, let me go! I'll do anything you want!

Please, let me go!"

They was trying to hurt me, see:"Can you be one of us?

Are you capable of doing this?"

I'd already gotten in pretty good shape after about

a month and a half, two months.

He was getting wrestlers tostop by and work out with me,

and these boys told Herb, said,

"You gotta do something with this kid, man.

We can't handle him.

We do something to him, he fights back."

[Jim] Herb Welch sat David Schultz down then and said,

"You've got what it takes to make it in this business.

Now we're gonna have to smarten you up, son."

[David ] He said, "Well, you're hurting everybody.

You re too damn stiff."

Well, he had never told me any different.

I thought you was fighting for your life.

I thought it was real. I thought it was 100% real.

[Jim] The training that DavidSchultz got from Herb Welch

centered on one thing: it's the world of kayfabe.

[David] Kayfabe means you don't be seen together,

right after you had a bad match out here,

blood and guts and everything, and then,

10 miles down the road they catch you at

Shoney's eating together. No.

That's supposed to be your enemy back then.

[Jim] Continuing the aura that wrestling and

the people in it are real.

Those are the secrets of wrestling.

Protect the business. Don't spill the secrets.

You're in a secret society. This is our world.

It was like being in the mafia.

Well, you need to learn how to work.

The holds, and the moves, and the timing.

[Announcer] Oh!

Know what's gonna make the people mad.

Why, I almost killed that Andrethe Giant with my bare hands.

Know what's gonna make 'em feel good.

The Doctor got funky, dang it. I got funky.

David Schultz found success in wrestling just being

David Schultz turned upto 20, is this crazy, you know,

redneck hillbilly from Tennessee.

You think you a man! You ain't nothing, boy!

Through it all, Schultz did what he was trained to do:

never break kayfabe.

A lot of the boys thought I was the meanest,

baddest they ever seen because I made 'em

work hard in the ring. Hogan was one of 'em.

[Promo] This man is not a television illusion.

He is not an artist conception.

He is not a figment of the imagination.

He is The Hulk!

In the late 1970s, Hulk Hogan is an

up and coming wrestler from Augusta, Georgia.

He first crossed paths with Schultz

working the Florida circuit.

I thought he was just a big 'ol body builder that wanted

to get in the business, and he was.

He had no money, he had nothing.

He was living in a van and, I let him come into

my apartment with me and share my apartment with me

in Pensacola. We become real good friends.

The two are natural adversaries,

and it's not long before their epic confrontations

attract the attention of Vince McMahon,

whose World Wrestling Federation is expanding nationwide.

And in 1983, McMahon handpicks Hogan

to be his centerpiece attraction.

Making his first appearance in this arena,

ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan!

In 1983, Vince McMahon was systematically going around,

filling spots for his plan totake over the wrestling world.

Money, of course. Vince told him,

-"We gonna put the belt on you. -You're gonna be our #1 guy."

Hogan wanted me to come up and work with him 'cause

he told Vince, "Hey, I can make money with this guy."

Schultz is brought into the WWF to be Hogan's top rival,

as their in-ring chemistry was already a proven draw.

Vince called me and said,"I need you to come on up and

you ain't gotta worry about making money anymore.

We're gonna be sure you make all the money you need

for the rest of your life.

You ain't gotta worry about it."

Vince McMahon, he said, "David,

I want you to the be the baddest heel around.

Baddest bad guy there is, you're gonna be it."

They told me the competition was here.

They told me the greatestwrestlers in the world was here.

If that's an example of great wrestlers, baby,

I'm gonna walk on 'em like a steam roller!

[Jim] He wasn't a cookie cutter heel.

He was, he was alittle wilder, little crazier.

And, that type of thing was starting to get over.

They had the footage on TNT, Tuesday Night Titans,

where they go to Schultz's house and

he's firing rifles off in the living room.

- Whoa! - You stupid idiot!

You know, telling his wife to go scrub the floors.

Get up and get us something eat.

"Woman, get in there and get that done.

Kids, get in there and do this."

I'll slap that smile off your face.

Don't smile at me, boy.

Vince said the Sheriff Department and the

State Police came to his office that Monday morning,

and wanted to know my address,where I lived.

They had warrants for my arrest for child abuse and

spousal abuse. And Vince said,

"Oh, my god! That was a show!"

And the guys couldn't believe it.

That was all Vince. Those wasn't my guns.

Vince had somebody at the TV station bring those guns.

This one here is worth a lot of money.

Everything I got's worth a lot of money.

-Wasn't my house. -Wasn't my wife. Wasn't my kids.

Get up! Get up! Go, get, get upstairs!

All that was Vince McMahon, to make people hate me.

And the more they hated me, the more money we made.

McMahon has hit on a formula that works,

and his empire is growing rapidly.

However, as a result,

it starts to attract unwanted attention.

I liked it as a kid and...

now, I thought it was kind of silly and... hypocritical.

I'm John Stossel. I was a consumer reporter

who became a general reporter at 20/20.

And you know, sometimes I wonder about the

credentials of these doctors who promote vitamins.

In the early 1980s, John Stossel is a

rising journalist for ABC News, who's made a name for himself

taking down shady companies and corrupt businessmen.

How can you say it might not be harmful,

yet, most of the people who die of lung cancer smoke?

Now, Stossel has chosen to turn his investigative lens

towards another highly lucrative industry,

one he believes is deceiving its audience.

I was a wrestler in high school,

and I was always a little annoyed that people,

some people, believed that pro wrestling was real

rather than a scripted eventwhere the winner is preordained

and people dress up in funny clothes and

pretend anger, and... and bullshit.

It had leaked out that 20/20 was gonna do a piece and,

obviously, if it's ABC Network News,

it's gonna be an exposé.

[John] I just thought it was interesting that this big,

growing, successful business was based on bullshit.

I mean, cleverly done, athletic bullshit, but lies.

The worst thing that could ever happen,

everybody's gonna want to know,

is wrestling fake or not?

♪

The number one cardinal rule of professional wrestling

for a hundred years was, don't expose the secrets.

One of the biggest, most famous exposés...

happened in New York in the 1930s.

"A Thrilling and Dramatic Expose of

Modern Wrestling Fakes Coming Soon!"

In New York, newspaper exposés killed wrestling

for almost 15 years. Everybody realized,

this is our society, this is kayfabe.

We can't reveal what's going on.

It'll cost us all our livelihoods.

50 years later, the stakes are just as high for

Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation.

And for his newest superstar David Schultz,

kayfabe is a religion.

I don't care what you think.

I don't care what the people think about me.

I don't care what nobody thinks about me.

I don't care what you think about me.

It was my business. If I didn't observe kayfabe,

they'd look at me and say, "Ah, he's a phony."

No. I was a pro wrestler.

I come to the WWF, baby, where the toughest

in the world is wrestling right now.

Being a pro wrestler means that I had standards

I had to stand up to.

That's the only way I could make money,

have high standards.

As the WWF's popularity is reaching new heights,

ABC News reporter John Stossel must somehow

infiltrate wrestling's secret society if he's to

expose what happens behind the scenes.

We either did a survey or found a survey that about a

third of the people who attended the events

thought it was real.

- This is real? - Yeah, I think so, yes.

And, I don't like people being bullshitted and...

couldn't do a story unless wecould find some insider

who would say, "Yeah, here's howwe fake this and that," and...

was willing to go and into ring and demonstrate.

And eventually, we found Eddy Mansfield.

I'm the Continental Lover, Eddy Mansfield.

A rich woman's lover and a poor girl's dream.

The Continental Lover, Eddy Mansfield.

I left the state of Georgia when I was 17

to go play baseball. When I hurt my arm and

I couldn't play baseball anymore,

I had to find something to do.

You couldn't just drink every day.

And you cowboy!

And so, I always liked wrestling.

When I was breaking into the business,

I was kinda self-taught a little bit.

But the bottom line is, I could draw money and

I could talk on that mike.

I'm gonna chase you around the place and then

I'm gonna erase your face.

And I was very fortunate.

The only thing that, that really shocked me...

was the payoffs. You know,

you're drawing sellout crowds and

you're getting not even pennies on the dollar.

With no healthcare, no nothing.

That's where I'm having the problem.

Well, how come you don't treat us like

professional athletes are supposed to be treated?

Not like the scum of the earth.

-Why don't you give these guyshealth insurance and a 401 -K?

Set an example!

You want to be a big-time promoter,

let's set an example.

You know, I didn't quit the wrestling business.

The wrestling business quit me.

Well, I went and kick backed 20% of my money.

The booker at the time wanted to control people.

They did it to the other guys who agreed to it.

But, I didn't agree to it. And then,

my booking stopped. I mean, boom.

As quick as I went up, I was out.

I said, "You do this to me...

I will promise you, I'll go on national television and

I will tell the whole world what kind of scam

you're running on, on the guys."

I said, "Try me." Well, he did.

I made one phone call to ABC.

Stossel and his producers at 20/20 arrange an interview

with Eddy Mansfield who agrees to reveal

the tricks of the trade.

You couldn't just say, "Hey, this is fake."

You had to both reveal and entertain people so,

I needed a genuine professionalwrestler to demonstrate.

Ah, when we shot. You know,

I talked to them and we were kind of laying out

the show and how it would run and all that.

John Stossel come down and went in the ring with him.

Pro wrestler show him how stuff's done.

He lands on his forearms and elbows, not on me.

He showed me how to jump and be thrown, and...

some of the tricks.

And you just take off on your own?

Right.

[David] Why didn't they come get me?

Let me take him into the ring.

I could show him how it's done.

No, you had to have two wimps out there,

Stossel and Mansfield.

Ah! Good.

[Jim] Mansfield tried to givethe standard exposé that,

yes, we're told to win and lose.

- Is this real wrestling? - No. Not real... no.

Not at all. I mean, if somebody believed that,

they'd be stupid.

But also, he went so far as to show the blade.

Nobody wanted fake blood where people could find it.

That would be proof that whatwe were doing was bullshit.

So, everybody bled for real.

Two ways to do that, the easyway and the hard way.

The easy way, is with a blade.

You know, they were just on me,

"Just show the blade,show the blade, show the blade."

I'm going, "Hey, what about all this other stuff

I need to talk about?"They had to push it, push it,

push it, you know what I mean? And so...

And I, and I, I did it.

You go just like that.

And gradually during the match it would drip down

over your face?

That's it. See, if I was sweating, it'd pour.

I was pretty shocked and, also,

something about hiding a razor blade in their mouths?

Some keep the blade right here,

in their mouth. Some, in their tights.

These are tough dudes who risk a lot for this sport.

Sport. I shouldn't call it a sport.

For this... entertainment.

John Stossel is only focused onanything to expose the business,

and I wasn't there to expose the business.

I was there to help the business.

And the promoters are very ruthless people.

And, they don't care of the people

that make them the money.

I wanted to get the healthcareand the benefits for the boys.

[David ] He come back and says,

"Oh, I wanted to do it for insurance."

This guy, he just couldn't get no work.

Nobody wanted to use him. He wasn't worth a shit.

[Jim] Eddy Mansfield's a has-been, never-was,

couldn't get where he wanted to be,

didn't have the talent.

Then still tries to claim he did it for the boys.

[Eddy] Bottom line is, it's timenow for them to step up and

protect the guys, where they have a future,

when they get old. You know, I...

I made a statement one time, I said,

"Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves,

but Abraham Lincoln forget to free the pro wrestlers."

Armed with insider knowledge,

Stossel sets out to confront the industry

over Mansfield's allegations.

♪

I thought, well, we need to have the usual person from

the professional organization say,

"Oh, this isn't fake. This is all real!"

So, we went to Madison Square Garden,

and I guess Vince McMahon okayed it or

we wouldn't have been there.

I arrived at the arena and, of course,

downstairs we walked through where the wrestlers come in

and the fans, some people hollering,

some people cussing.

Go in the dressing room,talk to all the boys, "Hello."

Sit down, put my boots on like I always do.

Get ready, and that's when Vince come walking in and

he said, "Listen, we got a guy out here

making a joke out of the business.

I want you to go out and interview with him.

Blast him. Tear his ass up.

Stay in character, Dr. D."

We were backstage and I talked to the guy

they call the Iron Sheik and then McMahon said,

"Here's another guy." And then, Schultz came out.

He was a little frightening.

So, why are you called Dr. D?

Why not?

This was a recipe for disaster.

I'm thinking, why would anybodyhave gone up to Schultz?

- Is this a good business?- Yeah, it's a good business.

I wouldn't be in it if it wasn't.

Why is it a good business?

Because, only the tough survive.

That's the reason you ain't in it.

And this punk holding thecamera, reason he ain't in it.

Reason these rednecks out here ain't in it,

because it's a tough business.

I was feeling uncomfortable all the way...

And, almost didn't ask him the question.

I'll ask you the standard question...

And I said, "A standard question, huh? Okay."

- Standard question? - I think this is fake.

"I think it's fake." Now I'm thinking,

Vince wanted me to stay in character.

Dr. D would slap the hellout of somebody that said that.

- I think this is fake. - You think it's fake?

How's that? Is that fake?

Holy shit! What the hell just happened here?

♪

♪

Ah, boom. There goes Stossel down.

Go, go back before the first slap.

Right there, look, look, look!

Now that I watch that back, he didn't even hit him

nearly as hard as he could have.

He didn't even draw back. He just, boom.

I mean, it's still, it's David Schultz,

but he could have, he could have...

paralyzed him if he'd drawn back and swung.

- I think this is fake. - You think it's fake?

Whack. Whacked me in the ear.

And knocked me down, and thenI stupidly got up again.

Huh? What the hell's wrong with ya?

That's an open hand slap, huh?

I was always taught, man get up,you gotta knock him back down

because if he gets up, he might hurt you.

You think it's fake, you...

He whacked me in the other ear.

My ears were ringing.

What do you mean, it's fake?

I was stunned and a little scared,

and that's why I crawled off.

I didn't want to get hit again.

[Eddy] That's why I told him,specifically,

not to interview David Schultz.'Cause I told him,

I said, "If you ask him stupid questions,

you're gonna get slapped."

[John] I was angry and stunned.

I also thought, well, that's a clip

we'll use at the end of our 20/20 story.

[David] I didn't think it'd be anything.

I figured, you slapped him for rude manners...

like my mama would slap me if I did something wrong.

In a minute, and not think about it. Boom!

Moments after flooring 20/20 reporter John Stossel,

David Schultz heads to the ring for his match with

Japanese wrestling icon Antonio Inoki.

He's unaware of the gravity of the situation

developing backstage.

Doctor's in trouble! Oh, what a move!

Karate kick right to the side of the head.

- It's all over! - It is all over.

After the match, Vince said, "Just go to the hotel 'cause

Stossel's saying he's hurt and all that.

He's talking about pressing charges."

"For what?" Vince said,

"Don't even take a shower. Go on to the hotel."

I just put my sweatpants on, sweatshirt,

grabbed my bag and, I was gone.

Vince had to be thinking, starting at that point,

[Jim] "I'm gonna have to do something with Schultz or

I'm gonna have to eliminate Schultz from the equation."

[David] Next day I went up toStanford and seen him.

He was telling me about the New York Athletic Commission

suspending me and told me he's gonna pay the fine,

he's gonna get everything straightened out,

don't worry about it. He's gonna send me to Japan

and we'll let this thing cool over.

8 weeks after the incident,

John Stossel's 20/20 report airs,

and the wrestling community is universally outraged.

You are trying to kill our business,

take money away from us and our families,

you little piss ant, John Stossel.

That's what all the wrestlers thought about him.

[20/20] ...Eddy to body slam me.

But Eddy says anybody can do it.

Eddy Mansfield, they hated him.

It's an optical illusion.

I had death threats, peopletrying to plant cocaine on me.

And I knew I just had to get out of the south,

you know, before I either wentto jail for killing somebody...

or somebody killing me. I moved into New York.

I had four FBI guys with me on the plane

to make sure I got to New York safe.

You re not messing with the promoters when you expose

the business, you were messing with the boys.

They fear more about what their friends and

what their cohorts will do tothem than the penalty

they can get from the law.

When you look back,

I should have just got my butt up and just left.

If the deal feels bad, the deal is bad.

It cost me my career. But, that's okay.

They did me a favor. Because I'm better off today

than I ever would have been in wrestling.

Pro wrestling doesn't take care of the people that

make it the money, and it never has.

And just preaching, "Oh,you gotta protect the business.

You gotta do this," well, why do I want

to protect something that doesn't protect me?

Vince McMahon sends Schultz to wrestle in Japan,

hoping the fallout from the incident will die down.

Instead, the controversy follows Schultz east.

First thing they wanted me todo in Japan was hit a reporter.

And I told them, I'm not hitting nobody unless

you write it down as part of the script.

And they did write it down.

Well, they come into the dressing room, had a camera.

I told 'em I'll just slap youupside the head, you fall down.

Then the camera guy'll take a picture of you

laying on the floor. And the news,

Tokyo news saying, you know, "Dr. D comes now to Japan

and slaps reporters like he did in New York." Hmm.

Back at ABC News, more than 1,000 people

call in to enquire about John Stossel's wellbeing

after seeing his report on television.

My ears were ringing and I had pain

when there was a loud noise.

My daughter was a baby at the time,

and when she cried, it hurt my ears.

It made it tough for me to change her diapers

or parent well.

I thought that McMahon and his group should be taught a

lesson that they can't go beating up reporters.

And, I sued for damages.

I wanted some compensation for my pain.

[David] What Stossel don't understand is,

I went to his lawyer and talked to his lawyer

before Vince ever got sued or anything else.

My lawyer that I had at that time told me,

"You need to go tell him the whole story and take care of

yourself 'cause Vince is not gonna take care of you."

At the WWF, it's clear to McMahon that

the Stossel incident is not going away,

and he needs Schultz to help him solve it.

He didn't know he was gonna get sued by John Stossel,

and when he got sued, my name wasn't in it.

So, he was mad.

I went by the office and that's when he wanted me to

sign a paper saying that it was all my fault,

I did it... under my own influence.

Ah, no, that ain't gonna happen.

I'm not gonna take blame for you,

what you had me to do.

I'll sign a paper saying I didwhat you told me to do.

John Stossel said I hit him in both cheeks,

in the right cheek and then the left cheek on,

on deposition. And, anybody watches the tapes that

got any sense can see I never hit his ears.

While Schultz is falling out of favor at the WWF,

Stossel's lawsuit is intensifying.

It's part of the pretrial prep,

you go to their doctor sotheir doctor can examine you.

They sent me to a highfalutin guy who,

without examining me, said, "I think you're suffering

from a duro somatic illness.""What?" I said.

-"A duro somatic illness. -You're holding onto your pain

'cause you're involved in a lawsuit."

And I said, "Screw you!

You're the paid lawyer for the defendants and you

haven't even examined me and you're saying this?"

Years later, they settled. I got $280,000.

Do some people psychologically feel pain

longer because of that, as this doctor claimed?

Maybe. Maybe he was right...

'cause, I held onto my pain, but it gradually did go away

when I got paid.

♪

As the blowback from the 20/20 piece dissipates,

McMahon focuses on the launch of

his biggest event yet.

Vince's concept for WrestleMania was the biggest

wrestling event ever held, times ten,

an over-the-top, closed-circuit...

globally broadcast extravaganza that would

combine celebrities and wrestling matches.

Looking to appeal to the widest possible audience,

McMahon adds a Hollywood actor to the roster,

and puts him at the top of the card.

Mr. T was one of the biggesttelevision stars in the country.

In 1985, he'd been a star of

The A Team with George Peppard.

- You want him? - No, you take him.

He's working with Sylvester Stallone.

Dead meat.

He had a great body, and a mohawk,

and he wore the chains.

But he looked the part and he talked the part,

and could make people believe he was the part.

Been teaching me how to pump iron,

get my pythons ready, and I'mglad you brought me here.

The WWF positions Hulk Hogan and Mr. T front and center

in their nationwide promotion.

But Schultz's name is missing entirely.

I didn't think Mr. T should be coming in to go in a

wrestling match when he's never wrestled or anything.

And pay him more than he pays any of his wrestlers.

I said, "That's a joke.

You're putting T into WrestleMania I?

What about me? Where you putting me?"

Schultz watches on as buzz around WrestleMania

grows bigger by the day.

At a WWF event in Los Angeles,

tensions backstage escalate even further.

Mr. T and some of his Hollywood friends were there

to see the matches and I'm sure he was being treated as

a guest, and just beingallowed the run of the place.

I believe that Schultz genuinely resented

T's presence there and didn'twant him in the locker room

'cause that was reserved for the boys.

That was a sanctuary.

No. Mr. T was in the hallway talking to me that night.

Jay Strongbow was the agent on the job.

He come out, seen him in the hallway with me.

He said, "David, Vince had told me,

if you was gonna go out thereand bother Mr. T to fire you."

"Well, you better fire me then."

He said, "Okay, you're fired."

I get dressed and go down to the ring to watch the match.

I was just going out to see Toru Tanaka.

Good friend of mine. He's sitting with Mr. T.

So, I went to the ringside and the cops come up,

and Jay Strongbow called the cops and told 'em that I was

a fairly dangerous guy and I was about to hurt somebody

out there and they needed to get me out of there.

They hog-tied me.

Hands handcuffed behind my back,

flat on my stomach,

feet shackled and tied to my hands.

And then two cops take guns and put 'em to my head

on each side and threw me out the back door.

[Jim] Vince, he had to be thinking, "What the fuck?

I gotta calm these guys down."

That was the fucking atmosphere.

They didn't relate well with outsiders at that point.

Vince had to get rid of Schultz because it was

only gonna get worse.

[David] When I got back to Connecticut,

I checked with Vince and he said,

"I'm gonna have to check with Jay Strongbow and

find out what happened." He knew what happened.

And, my lawyer wrote him a letter,

told him I was ready to go backto work, and they said,

"No, Mr. Schultz will not work for us no more, ever."

In 2019, Hulk Hogan came forward with a completely

different recollection of the incident with Mr. T.

Out of nowhere, I had T sitting ringside 'cause

he's a friend of mine and Ididn't know what was going on.

David rolled out of the ring and bitch slapped the

hell out of him, just out of nowhere.

A huge slap.

And, after that, he was pretty much done.

Vince was so pissed at him, that pretty much was

the bullet that did him in.

Most people know who that is, Dr. D.

And I guess you know Hogan. Oh, big head Hogan.

Boy, he used to hate for me totell him he had a big head.

And now he don't have no hair at all.

Ah... "old friend forgot his name".

So, I don't know if Stossel had anything to do

with my getting fired.

They said it was because of Mr. T.

Well, that's a bunch of crap.

And then, you know, to beat all of that is,

Hogan went within a few weeks after that

and dropped Belzer...

- Mr. Hulk Hogan. - [cheering]

One of the publicity appearancesthat they had arranged

for Hulk Hogan and Mr. T to build up for WrestleMania

was an appearance on The Richard Belzer Show.

There's a thing that the boysused to do with a reporter,

or a photographer, or somebody from the public.

Now, the first thing you need to know

about amateur wrestling... Or professional wrestling.

You just tell me, brother, when you want him

to quit squealing, okay?

Let me just put one hold on you and just show you

what it feels like, what we go through.

How about it, T?

[Mr. T] Keep him like that for a little while.

[Audience] [laughs]

Put him in a sleeper. I mean, choked him.

[Audience] [laughs]

Oh!

And he passed out, dropped him on the floor,

and he busted his head.

[Mr. T] He's alright. He just sleeping.

He's sleeping.

Huh? Hogan didn't get nothing out of it.

We feel real bad about the incident that just happened.

When somebody asks me to show them a

professional wrestling hold,especially when they sit here

and laugh in my face when I'm talking to him,

I just showed him the simplesthold that I knew and I thought--

[Jim] There was a settlement.

I'm sure Vince probably paid it at that point.

Number one, Vince McMahon wasn't gonna fire Hulk Hogan

even if he'd just shot Richard Belzer in the head.

Hogan was the golden child.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We was close.

We was very close.

Probably one of the best friends I ever had in

the business until he turned his back on me.

[Announcer] Hulk Hogan!

[David] Then all of a sudden,he, you know,

he's with Vince and it's like,"Hey, I can't talk to you.

Can't deal with you. You're on your own. Don't--"

You know, and I ain't talked to him since.

As Hogan becomes a household name,

Schultz's star fades away.

He tries to find steady work in the smaller territories,

but believes he's being blackballed by the industry.

They called me back and said,

"Nobody wants to sign a contract with you!

You're too mean! You're too bad!"

Everybody I called, theydidn't even want to talk to me,

the promoters, because of Vince.

You know, he told him, "Eh, you use him,

I'm through with you. Don't call me for nothing, ever."

[sighs] Yeah, it was a hardship,

but I worked through it.

I kept working independent for a year or two,

and then I became theworld's greatest bounty hunter.

Mm!

Open the door, right now.

What happens when wrestling's most notorious

bad guy becomes a real-life gun for hire?

"Dr. D" David Schultz, the world's greatest

bounty hunter is coming to a screen near you.

♪

Exiled from wrestling and desperate for cash,

David Schultz is introduced to the dangerous world of

bounty hunting by a friend in law enforcement.

He told me, "I'll introduce you to the bondsman,

and what you do is, you go pick 'em up,

you get the paperwork and you bring 'em in,

you get paid. 10% of the bond."

Oh, okay. That sounds good, yeah.

250,000. Yeah, that's a nice one.

And they had nobody doing it at that time.

I went in. They told me they had this one guy,

motorcycle guy, bad guy, nobody wanted to go get him,

and they needed to get him in.

Well, the next morning I brought him in.

Coming around the corner, I put a 9 mm in his mouth,

and he wasn't bad at all. He went right to the ground,

handcuffed him, took him to jail.

And I said, "Wow, this is pretty easy right here now."

When you're a pro wrestler as long as I was,

every day you got your hands on a man.

Every day you've got a man's arm,

you've got a man's wrist.

You know what hurts, what not.

How to hook him, how to take him down because

you do it every day.

Alright, get your hands on the car, okay.

And, it's not strange to you and it don't bother you to

grab a guy and he don't know what's happening it to him.

Have my brother call Tony.

Schultz takes to the job like he was born to do it.

He soon develops a reputation as one of the

most reliable bounty hunters in America.

And the only way you're gonna get away from the

Doctor is when you come out of that house and you see me

standing out there, you better take off running.

My job takes me where the criminal goes.

Wherever he goes, I go.

It may take me to Saudi Arabia.

Wherever he goes, I'm gonna follow.

I'm gonna be right on him.

All the bondsmen started calling me.

I had more work than I could do.

If you found him, you got paid.

If you didn't, you didn't.

Fucking people, man. They hide everywhere.

But you got all kind of 'em, man.

You got all kind of 'em. You got hookers.

You got drug dealers.

But everybody out on the streets knew me as Dr. D.

You know, when people know you,

it's a lot easier to get into their house,

or they'll open the door for you or whatever.

Dr. D, David Schultz, buddy.

That's the one that beat the shit,

I heard, down at Rivero.

Yeah, I feel good going in with you.

[indistinct speaking]

We're coming to your home, your living room,

and it's gonna be true, live, actual footage.

No more make believe. It's all over.

I'll be there soon.

Well, the best one was when I picked up the two girls

that was kidnapped by this piece of garbage.

And, three years, they couldn'tfind him, the FBI.

The two girls got kidnapped -14, 15 years old

when he took off with him.

They said when he left the house,

he would chain 'em around the commode.

And the only way they could drink water was

out of the commode while he was gone.

I mean, this guy was a sicko, you know.

I found him in Puerto Rico, and I walked in the bar and

he was sitting at the bar.

The two girls was stripping onstage,

and they had a baby in the back room,

two Dobermans living back there with her.

And I said, "Hey, Larry. "Dr. D" David Schultz,

bail enforcement agent, you're under arrest."

And he jumped off the bar, run around the side.

I slid over top of the bar, and he was going

out the back door. And, two Puerto Rican

policemen pulled down on him with shot guns.

I jumped on him, handcuffed him,

and took him outside, throwed him in the car.

We ended up with two girls, two dogs, a baby...

[laughs] We had a whole group, man.

But, I got 'em back home and,

I guess they're doing great today.

Oh, yeah. All the time. All the time.

You just gotta be careful because,

let me tell you, one mistake is your last one.

While the former wrestler is risking his life

in the streets, his old boss Vince McMahon

drops a major bombshell.

State legislatures are being urged by the biggest of

all wrestling promoters to think the unthinkable,

to declare that pro wrestlingis not a sport at all,

but an entertainment whose outcome is actually

known before the battle begins.

In an ironic twist, McMahon is attempting to

lift the veil on the very thing Schultz

became infamous for protecting.

Vince McMahon went to the athletic department,

Baltimore, and told 'em, "Hey, it's entertainment.

It's not a sport. It's entertainment."

Yeah, he exposed the whole business.

♪

Four years after the inaugural WrestleMania,

Vince McMahon's gamble has more than paid off,

but to increase profits, he aims to change the rules

around how wrestling is regulated.

Those commissions wouldlicense promoters and wrestlers,

and take tax cut for the right

to hold that event in their state.

It might be 5 or 6% of the gates.

Some states, maybe up to 10%.

It is now official: wrestling isnot really wrestling.

Wrestling promoters have told their secrets in an

attempt to free themselves from the half nelson

of government regulation.

We shouldn't be governed by a state body

unless you re gonna license Broadway.

That was the comparison: it's a show.

When Vince McMahon came out and said

it was entertainment, he justified what I said...

-you understand? -Kayfabe! That's a bunch of crap.

I mean, what idiot came up with that?

Four years after McMahon makes his appeal

to the state senate, New Jersey finally

frees the WWF from regulation.

For Vince McMahon, it's all part of the show.

I did watch it with my son who is a very big fan,

and we bought all the figures,

and I understand what adifference it makes to people.

Many other states, eager for the WWF's business,

follow New Jersey's lead and deregulate

what McMahon now calls "sports entertainment".

Stossel was set up.

And, Eddy Mansfield had everybody set up.

He went and sold his soul out.

I gave my whole career up because of these people.

[Off-screen] Do you or, willyou ever forgive John Stossel?

It's really not for me to forgive,

It's Gods' job to forgive him.

And I'm not God.

What am I doing now? Well, starting next week,

I'll be driving a tractor trailer, 18-wheeler,

hauling cotton from the gin to the warehouses.

I'll do that about three months, four months.

I work from sun up to sun down,

and then during the night.

[Jim] There's two ways that David Schultz's career

in wrestling could have gone.

One, he would have made a ton of money in the WWF

'cause he would've been a big star there

for quite some time. Or, David being David,

as Vince McMahon got more cartoony,

more showbiz, David would have found something else

to blow up about and somethingwould have happened,

which is probably more likely.

I want you, Hogan. Where you at, boy?

Vince McMahon also wanted to bethe Walt Disney of wrestling.

No way are we gonna compete with those clowns.

He wanted to be more clean, more family oriented.

A show that he could take on the road.

So, some went with him and trusted that vision and

got their pictures on ice cream bars.

Boy, it sure is good. You ought a try one.

I have about two every day. Mm-mm!

Problem was with Schultz, he had a guy that was

tougher than a waffle house steak and

didn't like to be pushed around.

I think if you treated David as a human being and

respected him as a professional athlete...

you could control anybody.

I don't think that's the problem with David.

I think it's being disrespected.

And I, I think that was all of our problems.

You think it's fake?

It's still annoying that I've done a million pieces,

that people still come up and say,

"Oh! Aren't you the guy who gotwhacked by the wrestler?"

On YouTube it's probably my second most watched video.

[David] I've become immortal.

People are gonna talk about mewhen I'm dead and gone.

"Oh, yeah, we remember that guy.

He slapped the hell out of that reporter,

Dr. D, David Schultz."

And I've offered to go face to face with him,

let's straighten this thing out,

John Stossel and me.

-And don't worry, John Stossel, -I'm not gonna hurt you, boy.

Fuck you, David!

Understand, I stood up for wrestling.

And, it don't really bother mewhat people think about me.

I really don't care, you know.

They can think anything they want. I don't care.

And I'll tell 'em

I don't care.

Mm!