Brian Knobbs, one-half of the legendary Nasty Boys tag-team, recently appeared as a guest on The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast. Below are some highlights from the interview.
On who was a favorite tag team of the Nasty Boys to work against: “We had some of our best matches with The Rockers. We liked each other and trusted each other, they are the ones that innovated the different maneuvers that you didn’t see before like the double leap frogs, double drop downs, double hip toss, double elbow/pop up a lot of double stuff put together and that was all done by Shawn (Michaels) and Marty (Jannety). We were more of the brawlers. But we worked so fantastic together. I remember a match against them that still holds up in my head and it’s on one of the Coliseum Videos from the WWF. Nasty Boys against The Rockers at the Royal Albert Hall in England. We were the tag champs at the time and what a great match we had, we just clicked and you could see that. When you are in with a group where you are learning from them or and maybe a little older then you in the ring and you get along then you can see the work that happens in the ring and how smooth it works and how good everything looks.”
On working with Jimmy Hart as the Nasty Boys manager: “I consider him to be our true manager. He is the one that took us to the top and he is definitely one of the best managers out there. From Capt. Lou Albano to Bobby “The Brain” Heenan you’ve got a lot of different managers out there, but Jimmy Hart is the hardest working man in show business and he still looks fantastic. He is still out there doing his thing and he loves this business and was a true manager for us when we first broke into the business. When we got to WWE, he said that he would ride with us and get a room together and help us out. After 10 days we landed in Tampa and he said “Nasty Boys, I love you but you guys can handle it from here”, he lasted 10 days with the Nasty Boys and we weren’t rooming or riding together anymore. But those were the crazy days, what can I say?”
On the origin of the Nasty Boys look: “When we were in Memphis, we came out in black ladies rain coats that looked like leather and had these spandex gold tights and long boots and Jerry Lawler said “if you are supposed to be Nasty Boys you don’t look like you are from the streets.” So me and Sags went out and really became the first ones who decided to cover up their bodies. Our arms looked great but everything else didn’t look that great so we could cover everything else and if our arms got any smaller we would have just worn long sleeve sweatshirts. We started to cover up and added the splash with the Nasty Boys logo and actually the only thing I didn’t like was that he (Lawler) painted our face and that was the Road Warriors trademark so we got rid of that right before we left Memphis.”
On today’s wrestling scene: “I still love the wrestling business, but the only thing I dislike is there are not too many places for the younger guys to go work. When we were growing up if you were good enough there were other places you could go work to become the very best at what you do and work on your craft. Today, I think that is missing in the wrestling business but everything changes and you have to go with the flow.”
On possibly being inducted into the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame: “That would be the final liner in the Nasty Boys legacy to get actually inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. That would put the ultimate stamp on our careers and we are getting older, me and Sags are both 52 and that would be the honor of all honors to get inducted. So I hope people are out their rooting for us because it would be our highest honor.”
Check out the complete interview at Podomatic.com.
