All language subtitles for 0207 Dark Side of the Ring

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

They say, "You're not a bad guy."

You want them to think
you're the baddest, meanest bastard.

That's how you make money.

Dr. D David Schultz!

In the early 80s,
few better played the villain

than "Dr. D" David Schultz.

Now what's wrong? Are you crazy?

Try to make a fool out of me!
Get the camera out!

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
WWF's most notorious stars.

I come to the WWF, baby.

They loved to hate me.

I'm the guy that went to school
with you people,

when you was growing up,
and took your money.

That was my job, to be bad,
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 it's 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?

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 said,
"Nobody wants to sign a contract!

You're too mean, 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,
pro wrestling was a closed society,

where the rules of the game
were never revealed to the public.

Wrestlers lived by a secret code
that maintained the illusion of good

and evil in the squared circle.

Make fights look real, even if the
matches are predetermined.

But at the dawn
of a pro-wrestling revolution,

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.

Come on in. Bring yourself on in.
Watch your step.

Watch the spiders and the snakes.

Here's a card that I used to use.

It said, "You've just been patronized
by the world's greatest wrestler."

-Where's this from?
-Don't know how they get it lively,

you know, just like me.

This bag here,
has got some very special items.

One of 'em is a stun gun,

you take this
and you pull it back here...

and when you hold it on the guy,
you 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,

the greatest pro wrestler
of all time, in my opinion.

You know, about '72, '73,
I was watching wrestling on TV

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 stars,

from the Depression
through the 1950s.

He had learned from the pioneers,

the original wrestlers
came from carnivals.

It was the last place in the country
you could go to learn from a guy

who was at the formation
of organized wrestling.

I'm Jim Cornette, for 40 years,
I've been a promoter,

a match maker, announcer, manager,
and historian in pro wrestling.

He lived in Dyersburg.
I went and pulled the truck over.

He come on the porch,
and we talked a while.

He said, "I'll train you.
When you want to start?"

His method of training was to take
guys into his barn on his farm

and beat them.

Herb Welch was a salty, old bastard
he would go in a locker room

and he would take a dump,
and he'd take a handful of it

and he would rub it in his armpit,
and then when he got out there,

he'd lock up with a guy
and grab a headlock

and grind as hard as he could until
the guy was screaming, "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 gotten in good shape
after about a month, two months.

He was getting wrestlers
to work out with me,

and they told Herb,
"You gotta do something with him.

We do something to him,
he fights back."

Herb Welch sat David down

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

Now we have to smarten
you up."

He said, "You're hurting everybody.
You're too damn stiff."

He never told me any different.

I thought it was 100 percent real.

The training David Schultz got
from Herb centered on one thing:

it's the world of kayfabe.

Kayfabe means
you don't be seen together,

right after you had
a bad match out here,

blood and guts,
then 10 miles down the road

they catch you eating.

No. That's supposed to be
your enemy.

Continuing the aura that wrestling
and the people in it are real.

Those are the secrets of wrestling.
Don't spill the secrets.

You're in a secret society.

This is our world.
It was like being in the mafia.

-What does it take to be a wrestler?
-Well, you need to learn how to work.

The holds, and the moves,
and the timing.

Know what's gonna make
people mad.

I almost killed that Andre the Giant
with my bare hands.

Know what makes
'em feel good.

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

David Schultz found success
in wrestling

just being David Schultz
turned up to 20,

here's this crazy, redneck
hillbilly from Tennessee.

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 ever

because I made 'em
work hard in the ring.

Hogan was one of 'em.

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 a
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

and share my apartment
in Pensacola.

We become real good friends.

The two are natural adversaries,

and it's not long
before their confrontations

attract the attention
of Vince McMahon,

whose World Wrestling Federation
is expanding nationwide.

In 1983, McMahon handpicks Hogan
to be his centerpiece attraction.

Making his first appearance,
ladies and gentlemen, Hulk Hogan!

In 1983, Vince McMahon
was systematically going around,

filling spots for his plan to take
over wrestling.

Why did Hulk go
with Vince to the WWF?

Money. 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,
"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
money anymore.

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

for the rest of your life."

Vince McMahon, he said,

"I want you
to the be the baddest heel around.

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

They told me
the competition was here,

the greatest wrestlers was here.

If that's an example
of great wrestlers, baby

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

He wasn't a cookie cutter heel.
He was wilder, crazier.

That thing was starting to get over.

They had footage on
Tuesday Night Titans,

where they go to Schultz's house
and he's firing rifles in the room.

Whoa! You stupid idiot!

-Telling his wife to scrub the floor.
-Get up and get us something eat.

"Woman, get that done.
Kids, get and do this."

I'll slap the smile off your face.
Don't smile at me.

Vince said the Sheriff Department
and the State Police

came to his office that morning,
and wanted to know my address.

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
bring those guns.

This one here is 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 attracts unwanted attention.

I liked it as a kid

and now I thought it was silly
and hypocritical.

I'm John Stossel.
I was a consumer reporter

who became a general reporter
at 20/20.

I wonder about the credentials
of doctors who promote vitamins.

In the early 80s, John Stossel
is a rising journalist for ABC News,

who's made a name taking down
shady companies and businessmen.

How can you say
it might not be harmful,

most 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 annoyed people

believed that pro wrestling was real
rather than a scripted event

where the winner is preordained
and people dress up in funny clothes

and pretend anger, and bullshit.

It had leaked that 20/20
was gonna do a piece

and if it's ABC Network News,
it's gonna be an exposé.

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 happen,

everybody's gonna want to know,
is wrestling fake or not?

The cardinal rule
of pro wrestling was,

don't expose the secrets.

One of the biggest,
most famous exposés...

happened in New York in the 1930s.

"A Thrilling and Dramatic Exposé
of 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 our livelihoods.

50 years later,

the stakes are just as high
for Vince McMahon's WWF.

And for his newest superstar
David Schultz,

kayfabe is a religion.

I don't care what you think,
what the people think.

I don't care what nobody thinks
about me.

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

they'd look 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
I had standards I had to stand up to.

That's the only way
I could make money.

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 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 we could find some insider

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

was willing to go into a ring
and demonstrate.

And eventually,
we found Eddy Mansfield.

I'm the Continental Lover,
Eddy Mansfield.

Rich woman's lover,
poor girl's dream.

The Continental Lover,
Eddy Mansfield.

I left Georgia
when I was 17 to go play baseball.

When I hurt my arm and couldn't play
baseball, I had to find something.

-You couldn't just drink every day.
-And you cowboy!

I always liked wrestling.

When I was breaking in,
I was kinda self-taught a little bit.

Bottom line is, I could draw money
and talk on that mike.

I'm gonna chase you around the place
then erase your face.

I was very fortunate. The only thing
that shocked me was the payoffs.

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.

How come you don't treat us like

like professional athletes
are supposed to be treated?

Not like the scum of the earth.

Why don't you give these guys
health insurance and a 401K?

Set an example! You wanna
be a big promoter, set an example.

I didn't quit the wrestling business.
The wrestling business quit me.

-How'd you get in that position?
-I kicked back 20 percent my money.

The booker at the time
wanted to control people.

They did it to the other guys.
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 world what scam
you're running 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 Mansfield

who agrees to reveal
the tricks of the trade.

You couldn't say,
"Fake."

You had to both reveal
and entertain people

so, I needed a genuine
professional wrestler to demonstrate.

And so, when was the first time
you met John Stossel?

When we shot.

I talked to them
and we were laying out the show

and how it would run and all that.

John Stossel
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,

some of the tricks.

And you take off on your own?

Why didn't they get me?
Let me take him into the ring.

I could show him.

No, you had to have two wimps
out there, Stossel and Mansfield.

Mansfield tried to give
the standard exposé

that, we're told to win and lose.

-Is this real wrestling?
-No.

Not real... no. Not at all.

If somebody believed,
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'd be proof what
we were doing was bullshit.

So, everybody bled for real.

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

The easy way, is with a blade.

They were just on me,
"Show the blade, show the blade."

I'm going, "What about this
other stuff?"

They had to push it,
you know what I mean?

And so...

And I did it.

You go just like that.

And during the match
it would drip over your face?

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

I was pretty shocked and

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
on anything to expose the business.

I wasn't there to expose
the business.

I was there to help the business.

And the promoters
are very ruthless people.

They don't care of the people
that make them the money.

I wanted to get the healthcare
and the benefits for the boys.

He come and says,
"I wanted to do it for insurance."

He just couldn't get no work.
Nobody wanted to use him.

He wasn't worth a shit.

Eddy Mansfield's a has-been,
couldn't get where he wanted to be.

Still tries to claim
he did it for the boys.

Bottom line is, it's time for them
to step up and protect the guys,

when they're old.

You know,
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 confronts 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!"

We went
to Madison Square Garden.

I guess Vince McMahon okayed it
or we wouldn't have been there.

I arrived at the arena,

downstairs we walked through
where the wrestlers come in

and the fans, some people hollering,
some people cussing.

Go in the dressing room, talk.

Sit down, put my boots on like I do.

Get ready.
That's when Vince come walking in

and he said, "We got a guy out here
making a joke out of the business.

I want you to interview with him.

Blast him. Tear his ass up.
Stay in character, Dr. D."

We were backstage
and I talked to 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 anybody
have gone up to Schultz?

-Is this a good business?
-Yeah.

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

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

or this punk holding the camera.

Reason these rednecks ain't in it,
because it's tough.

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." I'm thinking,
Vince wanted me to stay in character.

Dr. D would slap
somebody that said that.

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

-How's that? Is that fake?
-What the hell just happened here?

Ah, boom. There goes Stossel down.
Go back before the first slap.

Right there, look, look!

Now I watch that back,
he didn't hit as hard as he could.

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

Still, it's David Schultz,
but he could have, he could have...

paralyzed him if
he'd drawn back.

-I think it's fake.
-Think it's fake?

Whack. Whacked me in the ear.

Knocked me down,
and I stupidly got up again.

What wrong with ya?
That's an open hand slap, huh?

I was taught, get up,

you gotta knock him down.
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.
-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.

That's why I told him, specifically,
not to interview David Schultz.

'Cause I told him, I said,
"If you ask stupid questions,

you're gonna get slapped."

I was angry and stunned.

I also thought that's a clip we'll
use at the end of our 20/20 story.

I didn't think it'd be anything.
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.

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

-Karate kick to the side of the head.
-It's all over! It is all over.

After the match, Vince said,
"Stossel's saying he's hurt.

He's on about pressing charges."

"For what?" Vince said,
"Don't even take a shower.

Go on to the hotel."
I put sweatpants on,

sweatshirt, grabbed my bag
and I was gone.

Vince had to be thinking, "I'm gonna
have to do something with Schultz

or I'm gonna
have to eliminate Schultz."

Next day,
I went up to Stanford and seen him.

He was saying about the New York
Athletic Commission suspending me

and said he'll pay the fine,

he's gonna get everything
straightened out.

He's gonna send me to Japan
and let this thing cool over.

Eight weeks after the incident,
John Stossel's 20/20 report airs,

and the wrestling community
is universally outraged.

You're trying to kill our business,
take money away from us,

you little pissant, John Stossel.

That's what wrestlers thought.

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,
people planting cocaine.

I had to get out
of the south,

before I either went to jail
for killing somebody...

or somebody killing me.

I moved into New York.

I had four FBI guys on the plane
to make sure I got to New York safe.

You're not messing with promoters

you're messing with the boys.

They fear more what their friends
and cohorts will do to them

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. That's okay.
They did me a favor.

Because I'm better off today
than I would have been in wrestling.

Pro wrestling doesn't take care of
the people that make it the money.

Just preaching, "You gotta
protect the business."

Well, why do I want to protect
something that doesn't protect me?

Vince McMahon
sends Schultz to wrestle in Japan,

hoping the fallout will die down.

Instead,
the controversy follows Schultz east.

First thing they wanted me to do
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.
-How was that set up?

They came into the dressing room.

I told 'em I'll slap you, you fall.

Then the camera guy'll
take a picture of you.

And the news,
Tokyo news saying, you know,

"Dr. D comes now to Japan
and slaps reporters

like he did in New York."

Back at ABC News,
more than 1,000 people inquire

about John Stossel's well being
after seeing his report.

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 beat up reporters.

And, I sued for damages.

I wanted some compensation
for my pain.

What Stossel don't understand is,
I went and talked to his lawyer

before Vince ever got sued
or anything else.

My lawyer told me,
"You need to tell him the whole story

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

At the WWF, it's clear to McMahon
the 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. He was mad.

I went by the office
and he wanted me to sign a paper

saying that it was all my fault,
I did it on my own influence.

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 did what you told me to do.

John Stossel said I hit him
in both cheeks,

in the right cheek and then the left
on the deposition.

Anybody watches the tapes that got
sense can see I never hit his ears.

While Schultz is falling out
of favor at the WWF,

Stossel's lawsuit is intensifying.

As part of the pretrial prep,

you go to their doctor
so they can examine you.

They sent me to a guy who,
without examining me,

said, "I think you're suffering
for a duro somatic illness."

"A duro somatic illness.

You're holding onto pain
'cause you're in a lawsuit."

And I said, "Screw you!

You're the paid lawyer
for the defendants,

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

-What was the outcome of that?
-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 did go away when I got paid.

As the blow back
from the 20/20 piece dissipates,

McMahon focuses on the launch
of his biggest event yet.

The 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.

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 biggest television stars.

In 1985, he'd been a star
of the A Team with George Peppard.

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

-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 made people believe he was.

Teaching me how to pump iron,
and I'm glad you brought me.

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
in a wrestling match

when he's never wrestled.

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.

At a WWF event in Los Angeles,
tensions backstage escalate further.

Mr. T and his Hollywood friends
were there to see the matches

and he was being treated as a guest,
and allowed the run of the place.

I believe Schultz genuinely resented
T's presence there

and didn't want him
in the locker room.

That was a sanctuary.

Did you have a physical altercation
with Mr. T?

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

Jay Strongbow was the agent.
He seen him in the hallway with me.

He said, "David, Vince had told me,
if you was gonna go out there

and 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 seeing Toru Tanaka.

Friend of mine.
He's sitting with Mr. T.

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
and they need 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 takes guns

and put 'em to my head on each side
and threw me out the back door.

Vince had to be thinking,
"I gotta calm these guys down."

That was the atmosphere. They didn't
relate well with outsiders.

Vince had to get rid of Schultz
because it was only gonna get worse.

When I got back to Connecticut,
I checked with Vince,

he said, "I'll check with Jay,
find out what happened."

He knew what happened.

My lawyer wrote
I was ready to go to work,

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

In 2019, Hulk Hogan came forward

with a different recollection
of the incident with Mr. T.

Out of nowhere,
I had T sitting ringside

and I didn't know what was going on.

David rolled out of the ring
and slapped the hell out of him.

A huge slap.
After that, he was pretty much done.

Vince was so pissed at him,
that 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.

He used to hate me
telling him he had a big head.

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

-What is that on the back?
-Okay, "old friend forgot his name".

I don't know if Stossel had anything
to do with my getting fired.

They said it was because of Mr. T.
That's a bunch of crap.

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

Hogan went a few weeks after that
and dropped Belzer...

Mr. Hulk Hogan.

One of the publicity appearances
arranged for Hulk Hogan and Mr. T

to build WrestleMania was
on The Richard Belzer Show.

There's a thing the boys did
with a reporter,

or a photographer,
or somebody from the public.

The first thing you need to know
about wrestling.

You tell me
when you want him to quit squealing.

Let me just put one hold on you
and just show you what it feels like.

-How about it, T?
-Keep him like that for a while.

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

And he dropped him on the floor,
and he busted his head.

He's alright.
He just sleeping. He's sleeping.

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

We feel bad about the incident.

When somebody asks
me to show a hold,

especially when they sit
and laugh in my face,

I showed him the simplest hold
I knew--

There was a settlement.
I'm sure Vince paid it at that point.

Vince wasn't gonna fire Hulk Hogan

even if he'd shot Richard Belzer.

Hogan was the golden child.

It seemed like you
and Terry were close.

Did this come
between your friendship?

Oh, yeah, yeah. We was close.
We was very close.

One of the best friends I had
until he turned his back on me.

Hulk Hogan!

Then all of a sudden, he's with Vince
and it's like, "I can't talk to you.

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

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 said, "Nobody wants
to sign a contract!

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

Everybody I called, they didn't want
to talk because of Vince.

You know, he told him, "Use him,
I'm through with you.

Don't call me for nothing, ever."

Yeah, it was a hardship,
but I worked through it.

I kept working independent
for a year or two,

and then I became
the world's greatest bounty hunter.

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, world's
greatest bounty hunter,

coming to your screen.

Exiled from wrestling
and desperate for cash,

David Schultz is introduced
to the world of bounty hunting

by a friend in law enforcement.

He said, "I'll introduce you to the
bondsman, and you go pick 'em up,

you bring 'em in, you get paid.
Ten percent of the bond."

That sounds good, yeah. 250,000.
Yeah, that's a nice one.

And they had nobody doing it
at that time.

They told me they had this one guy,
motorcycle guy,

nobody wanted to go get him,
and they needed to get him in.

Next morning I got him in.

I put a 9 mm in his mouth,
and he wasn't bad at all.

He went 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,
a man's wrist.

You know what hurts, what not.

How to take him down
because you do it every day.

Get your hands on the car.

It's not strange to you
and it don't bother you to grab a guy

and he don't know what's happening.

Have my brother call Tony.

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

He develops a reputation

as a reliable bounty
hunter in America.

The only way you'll get away
is when you come out of that house

and you see me standing there,
you better take off running.

My job takes me
where the criminal goes.

Maybe to Saudi Arabia.

Wherever he goes, I'm gonna follow.

All the bondsmen started calling.
I had more work than I could do.

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, drug dealers.

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

When people know you,

it's a lot easier to get in,
or they'll open the door for you.

Dr. D, David Schultz, buddy.

That's the one
that beat the shit outta Rivero.

Yeah, I feel good going in with you.

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.

What is the most memorable
experience as a bounty hunter?

The best one was when I picked up
two kidnapped girls.

And, three years,
they couldn't find him, the FBI.

The two girls got kidnapped,
14, 15 years old when he took them.

They said when he left the house,
he would chain to the commode.

The only way they could drink water
was out of the commode.

I mean, this guy was a sicko.

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,
two Dobermans with her.

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

bail enforcement agent,
you're under arrest."

He jumped off the bar,
run around the side.

I slid over top,
and he was out the back door.

Two Puerto Rican policemen
pulled down on him with shot guns.

I jumped on him, handcuffed him,
and threw him in the car.

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

We had a whole group, man.
But, I got 'em back home

and,
I guess they're doing great today.

-It's like living in an action movie.
-Oh, yeah. All the time.

You just gotta be careful
because 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 urged
by the biggest wrestling promoter

to think the unthinkable,
to declare pro wrestling

is not a sport, 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 thing Schultz
became infamous for protecting.

Vince McMahon went to
the athletic department, Baltimore,

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

It's not sport. It's entertainment."
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 how wrestling is regulated.

Those commissions would license
promoters and wrestlers,

and take tax cut for the right
to hold that event in their state.

It might be five, six percent of the
gates. Some states, ten percent.

It is now official: wrestling
is not really wrestling.

Wrestling promoters told
their secrets to free themselves

from the hold
of government regulation.

We shouldn't be governed by a state
body unless you do it to Broadway.

That was the comparison.

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?

After McMahon makes his appeal
to the state senate,

New Jersey finally frees the WWF
from regulation.

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

I watched it with my son who is a
big fan, and we bought the figures,

and I understand what a difference
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. Eddy Mansfield
had everybody set up.

He went and sold his soul out.

I gave my whole career up
because of these people.

Do you or will you ever...
Would you forgive John Stossel?

Is really not for me to forgive
it's God's job to forgiven.

And I'm not God.

What are you're doing now?

What am I doing? Starting next week,
I'll be driving a tractor trailer,

18-wheel, hauling cotton
from the den to warehouses.

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

I work from sun up to sun down,
and then during the night.

There's two ways David Schultz's
career in wrestling could have gone.

One, he would've made
money in the WWF

'cause he would've been a star
for some time.

Or, David being David,

as Vince McMahon
got more cartoony, more showbiz,

David would have found something
else to blow up about,

which is probably more likely.

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

Vince McMahon also wanted to be
the 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.

Some went with him and trusted that,
got pictures on ice cream.

It sure is good, ought 'a try one.
I have about two every day.

Problem with Schultz, he had a guy
tougher than a waffle house steak

and didn't like to be pushed around.

Is David Schultz the type of person
you could control?

If you treated David as a human

and respected him
as a professional athlete...

you could control anybody.

I don't think that's the problem.
It's being disrespected.

And I think that was
all of our problems.

You think it's fake?

It's still annoying
that people still come up and say,

"Didn't you get
whacked by the wrestler?"

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

I've become immortal.

They'll talk
about me when I'm dead.

"Oh, we remember that guy.

He slapped that reporter,
Dr. D David Schultz."

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

let's straighten this out,
John Stossel and me.

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

If there's something you could say
to David Schultz, what would it be?

Fuck you, David!

Understand, I stood up for wrestling.

It don't really bother me what 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.
I don't care.

Subtitles by: Chris Ransley
Iyuno-SDI Group