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On the latest edition of “The Matt Riviera Show” podcast hosted by 3x NWA World Tag Team Champion & Reality TV star, “The LVR Boy” Matt Riviera, Matt welcomes legendary World Class Championship Wrestling & Global Wrestling Federation referee, James Beard. James Beard’s book, “The Third Man: My Life & Times Inside the Ring & Out” is available at Amazon.com
In this clip, Referee James Beard discusses his time in WCCW and the Von Erich tragedies:
Referee James Beard on his time working in World Class Championship Wrestling, and the Von Erich family tragedies: “Kerry and Kevin were really good friends of mine, and of course Kevin still is to this day… I always enjoyed working with them in the ring… They get a bad knock sometimes about things, but they were always excellent, as far as I’m concerned. They had their issues, you know… but they were great people… They had a very strong faith, the family did. And Kerry was one of those guys that believed that, you know he really believed with all his heart that when he died, he was going to see his brothers again… He had had a lot of personal problems and they were kind of mounting up on him and he did what he did… same thing with Mike… his original problem was a shoulder injury. He had toxic shock syndrome… his fever went up to 106 or 7 something like that. He probably should’ve died then. But it affected him mentally in a lot of ways, and he never did get back to normal… He went off somewhere and took the pills and took his own life in that way… Chris had asthma problems, and he wanted to be like Kerry so badly… he was a great kid… I guess he knew that he was never going to make it, and he did what he did… and Kevin is so different. Kevin is one of the most strong-minded guys that I’ve ever been around. He has a will to live, and a will to succeed, and a will to have a strong family presence… but the rest of them were, I don’t know. It was just something inside of them that’s hard to explain.
Refusing to sign with WWE: “They called me in 2006… and asked me to come up and go to work for them… I went up there and I did RAW & Smackdown, and they we’re doing ECW at the time. And I’ll be honest with you, I walked into the dressing room, I’ve never been in a dressing room like that in my life… I walked into that one, and everybody was uptight. It was like a lot of tension. And even guys that had known for years were there and it was like they were walking around on pins and needles… I did the shows, and after it was over with, you know, I pretty much made my mind up I was going back to Texas and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it… Sargent Slaughter was handling the money at the time and he asked me if I’d signed my contract yet, and I told him before I left, I said, “No I hadn’t signed it and I wasn’t going to.”
First meeting his lifelong friend, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, and helping him get signed with WWE: “I was sitting in the booking office at the Sportatorium in Dallas with Skandar Akbar and Manny Fernandez… One of the guys in our main event wasn’t going to be there… Heard a knock on the door… and there was John, this big 6 foot 6, long blond hair cowboy… He walked in, said he was looking for work… we asked him a few questions… everything he said seemed to be right… we did something that probably wasn’t very smart if you look back on it… we decided to put him in the main event that night with Rod Price…. We hit it off and basically just became best friends… I actually went to the WWF offices back in 1996, and took all of his material and pictures and info all up to them. And that’s when they hired him.”
Matt and James also discuss the current wrestling scene, former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm, James Beard’s music career, the Cauliflower Alley Club convention, their involvement in the upcoming CWA Wrestle Raise V event featuring
“The Nature Boy” Ric Flair and more!!
Episode 21 of “The Matt Riviera Show” can be viewed by clicking here:
or by visiting The Matt Riviera Show channel on YouTube!!
James Beard’s book: “The Third Man: My Life & Times Inside the Ring & Out” can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Third-Man-Life-Times-Inside/dp/149477397X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523915102&sr=1-1&keywords=james+beard+the+third+man
