We’re back after eight months away, and it feels like sliding into the front seat of the same old car, only now the road is longer and the stories hit harder. Brian’s journals drag us straight into the territory-era grind: taking a booking for $25, learning what freedom in a small promotion can do for your character work, and realizing fast that “professional wrestling training” also means learning how to survive the travel, the locker rooms, and the personalities. If you’re into Smoky Mountain Wrestling history, old-school indie wrestling, and how the business actually worked before everyone had a camera and an opinion online, this ride is for you.

We talk through first connections with Bo James and why Southern States Wrestling became a place to experiment, then jump into the whiplash of early main events with Dirty White Boy and the pressure of making a gimmick like Kendo feel consistent night after night. From there, the map opens up to USWA Memphis, where bookings can happen on a phone call, pay can be shockingly low, and your first night might include a blindfold battle royal because that’s just how that territory does business. We also get into the pre-streaming ecosystem that raised us: wrestling magazines, PWI rankings, and the handful of VHS clips that made certain names feel mythical.

The conversation keeps widening into culture shifts that changed wrestling forever, from when the groupie scene cooled off to how the internet cracked kayfabe and reshaped crowds. Along the way we hit Nashville Fair communal crowds, the reality of getting fired, working Onita with no shared language by leaning on universal fundamentals, and the art of getting heat and leaving town with it. And yes, Brian tells the full story of wrestling Terrible Ted the bear in a bar, which sounds impossible until you realize that’s exactly what the territory days were like.

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Chris Jericho shows up early, obsessed with learning a move almost nobody is doing yet: the shooting star press. A few attempts later, the experiment turns brutal, and the ripple effect hits the whole locker room, the booking sheet, and Jim Cornette’s temper. We walk through what happened, why it mattered, and how fast you had to adapt in Smoky Mountain Wrestling when a plan blew up midstream.

From there, we zoom out into what the Thrill Seekers’ arrival really changed. We talk about why some crowds gave “crickets” even when the work was wild, how gimmick tables and fan interaction could make or break you in Tennessee, and what the territory era demanded after the bell. Along the way we share legends-night moments, including running errands for Terry Funk in a dry county and helping veterans like Buddy Roberts make it from the dressing room to the curtain.

We also dig into the bigger picture: Smoky Mountain becoming an early WWF developmental pipeline, learning the business by shadowing Cornette, and being thrown into pressure spots like junior refereeing in Pikeville’s famous cage match. And yes, we get honest about the 1994 reality of getting “on the gas” and how that culture shaped careers.

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Your first TV match is stressful enough. Now imagine being handed a mask you have never worn, told to put it on, and expected to go live without missing a beat. That’s where Brian Logan starts this Ride Home conversation, and it turns into a surprisingly practical lesson on how wrestlers earn trust, stay safe, and build a career one town at a time.

We talk through Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1994 with the receipts still attached: how the pay grows as the office gains confidence, how a beat-up hood turns into a real Hornet identity, and what changes when your new mask has mesh eyes and almost no peripheral vision. From there we get into the grind behind the scenes, including practicing matches in a ring set up in an old school cafeteria, learning to listen to a great referee like Mark Curtis, and figuring out living situations, rent, and road routines that keep you sane.

Then we zoom out into wrestling psychology and booking strategy. We break down the house show loop and why “working the same match” doesn’t mean robotic repetition, it means a foundation you can adjust to different crowds like Barbersville and Beckley. We also dig into what’s missing today: too much hot-shotting, not enough familiarity, and the lost separation between promoter and booker that used to keep towns running like real territories.

If you love wrestling history, indie wrestling economics, or the craft of match structure, hit play and ride with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves the business, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. What’s one question you want us to answer on Making the Towns?