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LODI INTERVIEW ONLINE |
 You knew him as a member of
the Flock in WCW! You knew him as one of the most controversial characters
in WCW history when part of the West Hollywood Blondes! Now know him as the
latest guest on The Interactive Interview! He's Brad Cain. He's LODI!
Back with a vengeance is the Interactive Interview as
we give you an hour plus interview with one of wrestling's most underrated
talents of all time!
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LODI
-- Lodi's been recovering from a broken neck. In May
of 2002, he had surgery on the injury. Basically, it's the same injury a
lot of the guys have had as he cites Edge, Benoit, and Taz as a few to suffer
the "common place" injury. After 18 months off, he returned to the ring in
December of 2003 and feels comfortable in there.
-- Lodi doesn't know exactly how he broke his neck. He
just felt like had had no strength in his arm in the gym. He'd had neck problems
in 1994 and knew this was along the same lines so he went in for an MRI and
the next morning he was on the operating table.
-- The injury itself hit at a bad time. He had things
going on with CW Anderson, he was working for the WWA, and had signed a contract
with NWA TNA so when he was put on the shelf, he had several things going
well for him. But, it's going well now and says once again, he's back!
-- He grew up in North Carolina watching Mid Atlantic
and the NWA stuff. He then names many of his favorites including Nakita Koloff,
Magnum TA, Ric Flair, all the guys he'd see on Saturday morning. He was a
huge wrestling fan.
-- Lodi always dreamed of being a wrestler. He went to
college and became a personal trainer. One day, someone walked in to his
facility and wanted to know if he would sponsor a local wrestling show. Lodi
agreed and the guy looking for promotion noticed Lodi was a pretty big guy
so he mentioned his trainer needed to get in better shape and in exchange
he'd train him (Lodi) for wrestling. That trainer ended up being CW
Anderson.
-- Lodi puts over CW as being a good friend and someone
he owes more than he could ever repay.
-- A year and a half after being trained by CW, he was
brought to the Power Plant. At the Power Plant, he was trained by Sgt. Buddy
Lee Parker, Mike Water, "Pistol" Pez Watler. But, hanging out with Raven
ended up teaching him quite a bit about psychology.
-- Before going to the Power Plant, Lodi worked on the
independent circuit with guys like the Hardy Boys, CW Anderson, Joey Abs,
and others.
-- When asked about goofy characters he played before
hitting WCW TV, he mentions the character Raizen Cain. Brad's real last name
is Cain and CW thought calling him Raizen Cain would translate to Terror
Rising. But, that didn't work. When he went to the Power Plant, he worked
as Brad Cain. But, once he joined the Flock, he had the look of Billy Idol
but no name. Billy Idol owns that name and look combination so he had to
come up with a name. He and Terry Taylor collaborated and came up with the
name Lodi since it's Idol spelled backwards.
-- Joining the Flock came hand in hand with meeting Raven.
About a month after going to the Power Plant, Lodi was at the WCW tapings
in Universal Studios. A friend of his knew Raven and knew Raven happened
to need a personal trainer at the time. It all fell into place and Lodi became
Raven's personal trainer which eventually became his personal assistant.
So, the lacky character he played on TV was sort of the way it was in real
life!
-- Raven came up with the idea of Lodi carrying signs
to the ring which, Lodi admits, was an obvious rip off of Sign Guy Dudley.
He feels bad that he ripped off Louie's gimmick so bad but because Raven
helped come up with it for Louie to begin with, it wasn't so bad. He thinks
Lou has forgiven him.
-- He saw a lot of politics in WCW. He says take what
you hear on the Internet with a grain of salt, but some of what you hear
is true especially if you hear the same story over and over. He says whoever
has the pen rises to the top which is human nature to push yourself to the
top. But, Lodi had the book in TCW owned by Dusty Rhodes. Lodi told Dusty
he'd be the first booker to run himself into the ground. So, he booked himself
in the first and second match on every card even when Dusty wanted him to
be a part of the main event.
-- He feels the Flock was held back. He says the problem
was the Flock was a heel group as was the NWO. Well, Hogan wasn't a part
of the Flock, he wouldn't let it surpass the success of the NWO. But, he
feels the quarter hours don't lie. But, the politics in WCW kept the same
12 guys at the top and they'd never mingle with the guys who were not in
that group of 12. He then says to thank God that guys that were at the top
of the roster below that top 12, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, are now
champions in the WWE. "There is a God somewhere!"
-- He isn't sure if ending the Flock at Fall Brawl 1998
was a good or bad thing for the guys. He feels it made sense for him to continue
to follow Raven since his character was so based on Raven but the other guys
didn't really amount to much without that group after it. Kidman broke out
and became something but some of the others didn't really find themselves
at the center of TV time after it.
-- We then do word associations with individual members
of the Flock!
-- Van Hammer: He can't think of Van Hammer without
remembering the Van Hammer character coming out with the guitar. He feels
Hammer was a great wrestler and never got enough credit for as good as he
was. Some of his favorite matches of his own career were against Hammer.
-- Sick Boy: Sick Boy was his first partner on the road
if it wasn't Raven. He said a one-word answer for Sick Boy would be
"misunderstood." He feels he was talented but was looking to be a star without
being a part of the whole Flock thing first. He says Raven always said, "The
push will go to your head when you're young, Kid." But, Lodi feels that is
understandable because when you're 2 years in to your career and 40,000 people
are chanting "Lodi Sucks" at you, your first thought is "I'm doing something
right! I'm over!" As for Sick Boy currently, he doesn't keep in very close
contact with him but the last he heard, he bought a house in Atlanta with
his wife and was going to leave the wrestling business.
- Scotty Riggs: Riggs was like Saturn in that he had
a problem with his initial reaction from the fans. He feels Riggs was a bit
mad that he went from being the center of a tag team and a tag champion with
Buff Bagwell to being a part of a Flock and not being the center of attention.
But, he eventually understood and he really got to get along with him when
he was working with him in TCW.
-- Billy Kidman: Kidman is one of the funniest men he
ever met in his life. "Kidman is funny without trying to be funny," said
Lodi. Lodi says the best thing he ever saw Kidman do was when Kidman travelled
with Disco, they fought all the time. One time Kidman got in a fight with
Disco and stuffed him in a pull out couch and folded it up with Disco inside
and started jumping up and down on it like a little kid. "It was the greatest
thing ever!"
Perry Saturn: Great talent. He was someone that tried
to show him how green he really was. But, at the time Lodi was a brash young
kid that thought he deserved to be where he was. He knows differently
now.
-- Raven: One of the most intelligent men he's ever met.
They argue all the time. An all day argument for them could be "The sky is
blue today" and the other would say "No, it's light blue today." That said,
they have the same birth date and are both Virgos so they have a lot of the
same problems.
-- Still on Raven, Lodi adds something he read on the
Internet about some fan saying they wouldn't pay $10 to see Raven. Lodi feels
anybody that makes that statement either has never seen Raven work or simply
don't know a thing about psychology.
-- It's tough to say his opinion on Internet marks. He
feels the biggest problem is the Internet marks don't understand or appreciate
psychology. He talks about reviewing a show with two guys flipping around
and no psychology at all getting 5 star reviews and then Jack Victory against
Ricky Morton getting called boring when it was incredible psychology but
not as much flopping around. Lodi then points out you have to have variety
in a show. A big man match, a psychology filled match, a flip around match,
but you cannot have nothing but flipping matches. Another thing about flipping
and high fly matches is nobody sells. He says Raven gets on guys for not
selling and he's right.
-- Lodi puts over The Interactive Interview's chronological
order!
-- Lenny Lane and Lodi weren't really good friends before
they started their gimmick together. They just shook hands a few times. So,
one day Lenny approaches Lodi and asked what he was doing on the show lately.
Lodi wasn't really doing anything too high profile and Lenny was more or
less being used as enhancement talent except for a brief gimmick with Jericho.
Well, he started pitching him this idea where they'd team up. Lodi didn't
see it at first and Lenny kept proposing it and said "almost like that
ambiguously gay duo on Saturday Night Live." Lodi dismissed the idea as being
just chit chat and jokingly said put it in writing. At the next TV taping,
Lenny came up with the idea in writing and the first thing it says on the
page is, "This Is Not a Gay Act." Lodi didn't think Nash, the booker at the
time, would even look at it. But, Lenny talked Lodi into showing Nash and
Nash pretty much said to stop wasting his time as Lodi thought he would.
A bit later, Lodi was in West Hollywood when he got a phone call from Ross
Foreman saying Nash was going to call. Nash called 5 minutes later and had
him pack his stuff as they were going to run with the gimmick Lenny proposed.
"There you have it! The birth of the West Hollywood Blondes!"
-- Lodi was pissed over GLAAD's response. Gay & Lesbians
Alliance Against Defamation was the organization that ultimately got Lenny
and Lodi pulled. Lodi keeps the article that was in many of the top newspapers
including the USA Today posted on his refrigerator as a reminder. The first
complaint by GLAAD was the fact that WCW kept showing scenes of Lenny and
Lodi being beaten up. "Well, we have an ongoing show so we don't show the
same match over and over," said Lodi. They also said Lenny was announced
to the crowd along with his "gay homosexual tag team partner" which, of course,
wasn't true. They were "brothers!" The thing that ticked him off the most
was GLAAD's saying they'd prefer an established wrestler come out of the
closet and admit he's gay. Lodi feels he was established at the time and
so was Lenny so they were not exactly two rookies coming out and doing the
gimmick. They both had been on TV for a few years prior.
-- He feels WCW just folded under pressure and didn't
go to bat for them at all. "I would've liked to have seen them at least try,"
said Lodi. Instead, he and Lenny were sent home for 6 months under the concept
that they would come up with a new gimmick for them. But, Standards &
Practices shot down every gimmick WCW proposed and WCW wasn't letting them
out of their contracts.
-- WCW wouldn't let Lenny or Lodi out of their contracts
and Paul Heyman was very eager to sign them as was the WWE. Paul himself
talked to them and the Hardy Boys told them Jim Ross wanted them in the WWE.
But, WCW wouldn't let them go at the time and so they sat and waited.
-- "You boys do that better than anybody I know. But
you can't tell me one of you didn't end up on the wrong end of a blow job,"
said Arn Anderson about the West Hollywood Blondes gimmick. As for Billy
and Chuck, Lodi feels it was an obvious rip off right down to the blow pops.
The problem was neither Billy or Chuck could act. He feels if you work on
that level, you can't act like you're in on the joke.
-- "It wasn't just chance that we were doing 4.5 and
4.6 while Hulk Hogan was doing 1.5 or 1.2 with Eric Bischoff. Numbers don't
lie," says Lodi about the ratings the West Hollywood Blondes received.
-- Harlem Heat was to drop the tag belts to them at Halloween
Havoc but because they got the axe, it never came to be.
-- Stacey Keibler was absolutely lost when it came to
wrestling. He remembers working with her as part of Standards & Practices
and she was supposed to come down and dance on the cue of the suplex. Well,
the first bump of the match, she came out and did the dance. Her dancing
was supposed to be the home spot where they'd get the win but everything
got so jumbled because she didn't get her cue. So, Lodi complained to the
office and now looks back and says "Did Lodi make a good decision or did
Lodi make a bad decision? Where is Stacey Keibler? Where is Lodi?" So, he
admits he was wrong.
-- Lodi feels Standards & Practices, his tag team,
was "crap." He doesn't believe it was over at all.
-- Vince Russo is someone he has to explain the problem
with as 1wrestling recently posted a "retro interview with Lodi."
-- Lenny and Lodi were contacted several times by Vince
Russo about ideas he had for their characters and kept trying to get things
passed by the actual Turner Standards & Practices. What was decided on
was Lenny and Lodi would be Standards & Practices. So, they pitch the
idea. David Flair and Crowbar were to lay them out and because of that, Lenny
and Lodi would suspend them the next show because they have the "power of
the pen" and could do so for jumping them. So, Lodi doesn't want to do it
but Lenny talks him into it. They do it, Crowbar and Flair attack and leave
them laying. Next show, Lodi looks at the show schedule, they're not on.
But, Crowbar & Flair are and they're going to win the tag titles. So,
they were told Crowbar and Flair couldn't be fired because they were getting
the belts. But, Mike Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan would beat them up and they
could fire THEM. They do it, they go to the next show, and they’re not
firing them. So, there you have it. Their characters are shot and Lodi says
"you're screwing me and my career."
-- As for Vince Russo directly, if Vince ever sits him
down and talks to him about this, Lodi would listen. But, he would like an
explanation.
-- When they were brought back, they didn't have names
for them. Lodi didn't feel name changes were needed because they changed
the looks. They dyed Lenny's hair and cut Lodi's. So, the initial idea was
to use Idol. But, Idol was copyrighted by Billy Idol with the look. But,
Lodi didn't look like Billy Idol anymore so he didn't think it would be a
problem. But, they changed it. So, they decided to just call Lenny "Lane"
since it was always his last name but someone suggested "Rave" for Lodi because
it's like Raven. This entire transaction took place in the tunnel on the
way to the ring seconds prior to them going live on TV. That's how disorganized
the company had gotten.
-- Lodi and Lenny showed up at 2 for the show one day
as is standard. When Lodi first started working for WCW, the board with the
schedule of what was to take place that evening was up by 2:30 at the very
latest. As things became more and more disorganized, it started to become
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so forth. One day at 15 minutes to 8 when the show went
live, there was still no board up. Arn Anderson, a road agent at the time,
came in the locker room and told everyone to get dressed. They didn't know
who was going to work but told everyone to get dressed. Here is a company
that had millions of fans waiting all over the world believing this company
was organized and they were to get a great wrestling show and there is the
locker room wondering who is going to wrestle that night sitting in the dressing
room.
-- Lodi got his release when Lenny hurt his knee. Lodi
didn't want to sit at home again while Lenny recovered and offered to show
up at the shows and do whatever they wanted but WCW felt it would be best
to just bring them back as a team when Lenny was ready. So, Lenny was ready
and called Lodi to tell him so. Then, Brad Siegel calls and tells Lodi they
can no longer afford to pay his salary so he is being let go. Lodi tried
to accept lower pay but they weren't working with him.
-- He wasn't really surprised at the sale of WCW because
the product had gone down so much in quality.
-- Lodi then started working with Dusty Rhodes in TCW.
Dusty taught Lodi more in a short time than he ever had in wrestling.
-- Sonny Siaki, Glacier, DDP, Kanyon, and several others
showed up fairly regularly at the TCW shows. He really enjoyed working there.
As for why it stopped, it required a lot of money to run the shows without
TV. Yes, they did videos and such but it would take a lot to pay for top
quality guys like Dusty was working with. But, he feels it was a great
show!
-- Lodi is back in the ring and ready to roll now! He
contacted Raven who is speaking with Jeff Jarrett about bringing Lodi to
NWA TNA and is booked every weekend from now until June. But, you can check
his schedule and possibly book Lodi yourself if you go to his official website
located at http://www.lodirulz.com.
-- We then wrap up with word associations of The Hardy
Boys, Sting, Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Lenny Lane,
& More!
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