The Steve Austin Show
Release Date: February 22, 2018
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
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0:00 – Intro (The podcast actually starts at 2:44. The first 2:43 are sponsor reads)
Steve is in Nevada visiting his in laws. He and his brother are looking to do some four wheeling if the weather holds up. Coming up on the podcast is part two of Lisa Moretti aka Ivory aka Tina Ferrari who is going into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year at WrestleMania 34. She was a dynamic performer in her GLOW and WWE days and deserves to be in the Hall.
Before getting to Ivory, Steve tells a story about going to dinner with his wife (5:42 into the podcast). During the meal, he spilled ice tea on his wife’s lap, iPhone and purse, then he hit her in the chest with a Splenda packet and accidentally flipped a knife and fork into the booth behind him.
10:38 – Ivory
Steve jumps into the podcast asking Ivory about her one off gig with WWF. Jim Cornette called Ivory as they were looking for a girl who looked good in a dress and could take a bump. The show was in Phoenix however, Ivory had a job as a trainer with Revlon and had a job the next day in San Francisco. She got on the plane with boxes of stuff and got picked up by Steve Lombardi and Harvey (I’m guessing Wippleman). They brought her and all her stuff to the arena and she learned she was going to be one of the Godfather’s Ho’s. She was shown to the ladies locker room and the talent told Lombardi that the Ho’s dressed in the bathroom, not their locker room.
Luna Vachon stood up for Ivory saying Ivory was a worker not a Ho. Steve Lombardi stood up for Ivory at the pay table and said to pay Ivory like a worker not a Ho. At that same show, Scotty Too Hotty recognized her from Universal Studios as one of the stunt women in the Wild Wild West Show. After her performance, she raced out of the arena, grabbed the last flight out of Phoenix to get to her Revlon job in San Francisco.
During that period with Revlon, she was doing a Northern California tour and got a call from J.R asking her to put a tape together to show Vince. She did the tape when she got home and J.R called her and hired her. When she got hired, she still had obligations to Revlon and the women she would train in the Revlon job were coming up to her asking her if she was a wrestler.
When Ivory joined the WWE, Vince Russo was the writer. There were some great storylines but Ivory was looking at the women’s storylines and wondering how she would fit in. At the time, Sable was the top woman, hot, beautiful and doing the sexy stuff out there. Ivory was worried she was going to be asked to do that sort of thing as that was not something she was good at. She was asked to start wrestling and initially with Miss Jackie. At the time, the ‘Puppies’ chant was a big thing which would sometimes discourage Ivory.
Steve asks how long it took Ivory to get rid of her ring rust and what it was like working with Jackie (20:22 into the podcast). Ivory thinks Jackie’s intention was to get her ready fast and also ‘welcoming’ Ivory into the WWF. Ivory was her punching bag for nine months. Some of the guys said Ivory should put her foot down but Ivory put her foot down by saying nobody wanted to watch a real cat fight in the ring and that wasn’t wrestling.
Ivory thought she was the one with the problem because of ring rust so on days off, she would train at Rick Bassman’s gym to get some mojo back. Ivory loved Jackie because when the crowd was chanting Puppies, Jackie was the one who told Ivory they just had to train them differently to their match. It was up to Ivory and Jackie to make the crowd want to see the action. Ivory brings up something Chyna said after a match they had. She was discouraged because of the fans’ reaction. They were chanting for the sizzle as opposed to the action in the ring and Ivory was worried, the office might go in that direction and she wanted to be more involved in wrestling and not so much the ‘other stuff’. Chyna told Ivory, “don’t beat yourself down because you’re (Ivory) here and that means you’re good. The office doesn’t just let anyone work there.”
Steve asks about the Right To Censor gimmick (23:55 into the podcast). Stephanie McMahon initially approached Ivory about joining the RTC group. Stephanie was tentative asking because she thought no-one would want to do that gimmick but Ivory was all in. Ivory liked being out there especially at house shows where they had more leeway to work the act. She said working with the group was a lot of fun and at times she could barely keep a straight face. When she would go out by herself for TV events, she would be so excited but had to get her hate on. She says it was a great feeling to have the audience boo her.
Steve brings up ring attire and asks what it felt like first being a babyface wearing the sexy outfits to working a heel wearing a conservative shirt and skirt. Ivory thought it was awesome because it was a character. She says it’s great being a babyface but you’re also caged because the fans want to see you doing the same finisher and the same stuff. A heel is not constrained like that and have freedom to express the bad guy any way you want. Ivory continues to say the RTC outfit was great. Back then, they did not have as many costume people as they do now and those people would usually be working for the top performers such as Austin and Undertaker. Ivory would go out to the Hollywood strip to see what the ‘Ho clothes’ were and try to find stuff that looked athletic but you wouldn’t fall out of in the ring. Additionally, WWF expected the women to look different and hot. When Ivory was in the RTC, she only had to worry about whether she wanted to wear a white shirt and black skirt or vice versa which was really nice.
Steve asks about the women’s dressing room when Ivory was there (31:16 into the podcast). They bring up Molly Holly who joined the company in 2000 and was one of the first to come in as part of a new group of women that could work. Trish also joined the company in 2000 as well. Ivory mentions she and Tori had a few matches and did the first ever women’s hardcore match. Ivory brings up that she did not know how things in the WWE worked such as the pay scale or what happened if you got injured.
Steve brings up Ivory’s three WWE Women’s Title Reigns and asks what she thought about them (35:15 into the podcast). Ivory did not think it was anything she earned. It was more about where the storyline was going and what they wanted Ivory to do with the belt. She brings up her work with the Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. Ivory says they were both very cool and taught her a lot when she worked with them. During one of their matches, their TV time was cut. After they had been told, Moolah said to Ivory, ‘it’s live TV, we can do whatever we want’. Ivory says Moolah and Mae were quite the pranksters and brings up a story where Mae was going to do a Bronco Buster on Jerry Lawler and as a rib started stuffing sardines down the crotch of her pants.
Steve asks what Ivory thought when they started calling the women’s division Divas. Ivory said it depended on what you consider a Diva. She understood why they would package it that way but it seemed to her they were making them Sports Illustrated Models as opposed to women who wrestle. Ivory says she was more OK with leaving the company because it was becoming harder for her to say anything positive about the product. They had gotten rid of all the workers and replaced their segments with pieces that were embarrassing to women. It was more about the women’s looks instead of their talent and Ivory thought it was demeaning and had nothing to do with wrestling.
Ivory got signed on to be an employee with the studio and they were making her into a ‘talking head’ but she was disgruntled because she still wanted to wrestle. However, in hindsight, she says she had the best gig in the world. It was one day a week where they would fly you out, pick you up at the airport, put you up in a nice hotel, someone would deliver a video of the show to your hotel to watch then you would go to the studio and talk about it. Ivory said it was such an easy gig but didn’t recognize it was a great opportunity at the time.
Ivory talks about working Tough Enough and loved working on those. But, Ivory would see the other women wrestling on TV and would want to be there with them. Ivory’s wrestling changed over time as they would send her to OVW when she didn’t have any creative on the shows (and it was actually her first real formal training since being in the business). During one of her stints with OVW, she came back to the main show as a babyface for a spell working with Jazz. She wishes she could have seen that through however, that program got cut suddenly.
Back from break, Steve asks more about working Tough Enough and says he enjoyed doing it himself (46:07 into the podcast). Ivory enjoyed her time on Tough Enough and says her first year was really fun because they had Chavo Guerrero, Bob Holly, Al Snow and Ivory. Their team had a lot of chemistry and everyone played a role. Bob Holly was the ‘bad guy’ who would kick your a** if you weren’t listening. Chavo was more delicate and could explain things well, while Al was more like the dad and Ivory was looking after the women. Her second time around it was Bill DeMott, Al Snow and her.
Ivory says she had a bit of a tough time transitioning back to live events. She would be working with students on Tough Enough who wanted to learn how to wrestle, then come back to work with Stacy Keibler who didn’t know how to throw a punch. Ivory says she takes fault with not being able to always go with the flow but says it’s because she’s passionate. If someone is punching her and she thinks it looks like crap, then in all likelihood, it looks like crap to the audience as well and she wants her stuff to look good.
Steve brings up Ivory entering the WWE Hall Of Fame and talks about the evolution of women’s wrestling. He says Ivory was one of the women who paved the way and asks her how she feels about today’s product with regards to where the women are (50:39 into the podcast). Ivory is glad women are still coming out to the ring and are willing to learn wrestling. Ivory says something she took away from Tough Enough that she brought back to the locker room was that everyone in the locker room was special because they took their craft seriously and not everybody could do what they did. She is glad to see women who are good wrestlers and sometimes gets emotional when she sees a good match. She also loves there are different sizes and shapes in the WWE. Ivory says the girls today are putting on great matches, looking great, plus doing side projects like Total Divas and making it look so easy. She is amazed at how they do it and Steve agrees that all the women today work hard both in and out of the ring.
Steve brings up the current GLOW show on Netflix and says he’s not sure if he wants to watch this as he has his memories of the original GLOW series (55:59 into the podcast). Ivory says they have good creative people behind the show and have taken what they know about making a good show and mixing it with what the GLOW girls experienced. She says it’s great to take the 80s time period and put it on TV which was a weird time with freaky music and horrible wardrobes. The writers have been able to put that flavor into the current GLOW show and Ivory loves they’ve been able to do that. The writers have been able to convey what the original GLOW girls were going through and making it a story that can hopefully go through several seasons. Steve brings up some of the original GLOW women felt slighted because they weren’t consulted on the current series and asks how Ivory feels about not being consulted. Ivory says she would have done the same if she were the writer or director. There is enough information on GLOW available for anyone to do research and understands the need for the current writers to make the show their own. She says they did a great job with the current show and recommends the show to Steve.
Steve asks Ivory about prepping for her Hall Of Fame speech and says she’s going to crush it. Ivory hopes she does and wants to enjoy it too. Ivory has some ideas on who should induct her and put it out on Twitter to see who the fans would like to see induct her. She’s going to do her best to not bore anyone with a speech and has some good ideas. She would like to try and get her speech prepped so she’s comfortable without having to read it.
Steve asks if Ivory has any pain or wear and tear. Ivory says she feels pretty good as long as she keeps moving. Her current job is physical and she’s moving all the time so at this point, she doesn’t have any pain. She also hasn’t gone to a drug store in years and hasn’t used any prescription drugs.
Steve mentions that Ivory is new to twitter and instagram (as of last week). Ivory says she’s having fun interacting with the fans and loves when the fans send her old clips of herself. Ivory’s twitter handle is @MorettiIvory and on IG it’s @LisaMorettiOfficial. She is also looking at building a website as well.
Steve and Ivory talk about watching old clips of themselves and how entertaining they were. She also talks about meeting someone on the plane who says that what Ivory does is important because she entertains people and takes them out of their doldrums.
Steve thanks Ivory for being on the show and Ivory thanks Steve for taking the time to catch up with her.
Show Wrap – 1:14:18
Steve thanks Ivory for being on the podcast and congratulates her again on her career and making it to the Hall Of Fame. Steve thanks his sponsors and that is a wrap.
Rating 8/10
I thought this podcast was better than the Tuesday show. It was interesting to hear about Ivory’s time in the WWE especially with the Right To Censor and the Tough Enough.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
5:42 – Steve And His Wife Go To Dinner
10:38 – Ivory
20:22 – Working With Jackie
23:55 – Right To Censor
31:16 – The Women’s Dressing Room
35:15 – Ivory’s Title Reigns
46:07 – Tough Enough
50:59 – What Ivory Thinks Of The Current Product
1:14:18 – Show Wrap
Writer Bio
Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two boys. He’s been watching wrestling for about 40 years (give or take) but don’t consider himself any sort of expert. He just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.
For more, check out Steve Austin’s interview with Ivory, part one.
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