Show: Wrestling Epicenter courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest: Ron Reis
Date: 11/17/2025
Your Host: James Walsh”After wrestling, I just rejoined normal life. I got a job working for a wine company. I had a kid. I just had a normal life. 9 to 5!””Being sort of naive to the wrestling world, it was odd being trained by someone who had such notoriety. Wrestling is, in a lot of ways, bigger now than it ever was then. But, whenever he’d go anywhere, he’d be noticed. People knew him.””Well, he had a bout of cancer before we started training but once we started training together, he was diagnosed with it again. It came back with a vengenace. I think it was within six months of when he was diagnosed that he died of cancer.””You know, I was just talking about this the other day. But, I remember watching when Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy cut Andre the Giant’s hair. That was earth shattering! I always wanted to know, did Andre just decide to get a haircut after that? I can’t imagine he did it against his will. I have to think he got paid to do that.””Oh, easy! I talked to “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and he was telling me he was getting paid $20,000 a week when he was working with Hogan!””When we signed with WCW, we had met with Eric Bischoff. John (Big John Studd) and I were going to come in as the Giant Machines. Eric seemed interested. He said, “If you can put it together, lets do it.” But, before we got to do it, John got sick and passed away.””Well, I say this and then people argue me on it. But, I believe the Yeti was supposed to be the Giant Golzalez. I heard he had gone down to the Dungeon of Doom, by the way I have been to the Dungeon of Doom and I know how to get there. (laughs) But, he ended up having a kidney issue and going back home to Argentina. So, they called me up and said, “You are now the Yeti!” I was so happy to get the call that I didn’t really question why the Yeti is dressed up like a mummy.””In the ice! Yeah! Paul Orndorff was my agent, he was handling me that night. People say it was toilet paper. It wasn’t toilet paper. They had me wrapped in like gaws and stuff. So, he says, “When the explosions go, break out of the ice! Oh, but if you catch on fire, stop, drop , and roll!” (laughs) I was like, “Hang on! Wait a second!” (laughs) Well, they do the explosions, “BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!” It was WAY more explosions than I thought there would be.””Well, I do take exception to that. I am taller than The Giant, Paul Wight, by an inch or so. But, that man is The Giant! he is much bigger than me. His back is like a piano! His hands are the size of watermellons. So, yes, I am taller. But, as far as being bigger, Paul Wight is the champion!”
“(laughs) It is an honor to be remembered.””I just think my debut was so bad, they were like, “We can’t put this back on TV.” I mean, the dry humping. The Yeti being an iceman but also being a mummy. There’s so many questions going on there.””Well, they had the T shirts out. They were going to go with it. It was supposed to be “3 rings, 3 giants!” They just never ran with it. So, I was there in my Super Giant Ninja outfit as the Yeti.””Arn Anderson came up to me. Tlak about being a great salesman! He goes, “You’re so big and so awesome, we decided the only way we can do this correctly is if everyone attacks you at the beginning of the battle royal and eliminate you right away.” At the time, I didn’t have the knowledge to know that what he really meant is “Hey, you really suck and we want to get out out of there before you disgrace the business more than you already have.” (laughs)Brian Pillman came up and switched my mask around, he turned my mask around backwards. Before I knew what was going on, I was already on the ground out of the ring.””Are you a rock guy? Like, do you like rock music? I think the Dungeon of Doom, we were like the last of the hair bands that came out. What had worked before had become so silly that you almost had to go the other way. That is what happened with the nWo. It became more real.””You have to remember that it was just a 2 hour show. Look at Chris Jericho. Jericho is one of the biggest stars in the business now. But, when he was in WCW, he was a lower card guy. He had to leave to really get any traction.””Chris Benoit was my first match. They had sent me to Japan to get some experience. We had a good match. He came up to me and he said, “Can you take a superplex?” I was like, “Of course I can!” He walked away and I went and found DeWayne Bruce, Sarge, and said, “What’s a Superplex?” (laughs) That was scary. Not the bump. But, there wasn’t a whole lot of room up on top. So, there was a lot of room for error. But, it went well.””Saturn is a great guy. He had this spot he thought was wonderful. he wanted me to press slam him from my knees. I would be on my knees and I’d press slam him and it would be like a regular press slam. he was like, “You guys have got to see this spot!” And, it wasn’t quite as impressive as I think he thought it would be. But, he loved that spot.””Man, any time you can work with a legend like that, you take that opportunity. “Macho Man” was great.””That was great. Raven sold it that I was an outcast because of my size. It was a great time.””(laughs) I don’t know if management got to them or if they were just tired. But, it was calmer by the time I got to be a part of it. I heard the wild stories… Saw some of it too I’m actually going to be doing The Gathering coming up on November 28th. It will be a Raven’s Flock reunion. I think almost all of the guys will be there. Raven, Scotty Riggs, Lodi, Saturn…””It was freeing! I always thought I could move a lot more than I had gotten to show. So, working with Juventud Guerrera gave me the chance to show that while I was big, I could also move around a little bit.””I like Bill Goldberg. I had taken the Jackhammer before back at the Power Plant. You could tell he was moving fast towards the top. I think I was number 130 or so?””Everyone. It was everyone’s fault. It just got so big and spun out of control. It wasn’t just one person’s fault. Also, it got away from the wrestling. It just got so far from the wrestling.””Academy Award winning Shadow Warriors II! (laughs) Everyone asks about being in the movie with Hulk Hogan which was cool but I was also in the movie with Carl Weathers, Apollo Creed from Rocky. I grew up a big fan of Rocky. And, this was I think before Happy Gilmore. So, he was still Apollo Creed to me. He was great. And, Marvin Kove, the evil sensai from Karate Kid John Krese. He was good too!””I did. I got called up to do something where I could be a bodyguard for Edge and Christian. I went up, I did a dark match. I thought everyone went great. And then, the calls weren’t being responded to quite as quickly as before and I guess they lost interest. I believe they went with Tyson Tomko?”
“Working for Dusty was always great. He treated me great. I teamed with Ray Lloyd, Glacier. Those were some good times.””I have to tell you this. I take full credit for all the success that ever came to Paul Lavesque (obviously kidding). When I was working with Big John Studd, Pat Patterson came down to Killer Kowaksli’s school to have a look at me. And, that day, they discovered Paul Levesaue! So, without me, Paul Levesque would be nobody! (laughs)””That was a last minute thing also. I think it was like 2005. It was fun. I guess he never got it off the ground, though.””I recently moved to North Carolina. And, in 2023 I did a movie called the Unbreakable Bunch. You can find it and watch it on YouTube. Meng, Haku, is in it. Everyone says he’s the toughest guy ever in wrestling. Well, in this movie, I knock him out with a punch! The Unbreakable Bunch! Go find it!”