He rally in tennessee went over great.
People are loving that you're addressing the feud
with dr. Julien head on.
- Good. I'm glad to hear it.
- The polls are still showing a tight race, though.
It's gonna go down to the wire.
- We're making one final push
through the rust belt, several stops a day,
right up until November 4th.
- I love it. And I'm up for all of it.
I'll see you guys in eight hours.
- What?
Where are you going?
- I'm going to meet an old friend for lunch.
- But it's two days before the election.
- I know. It's exciting, right?
We're almost at the finish line.
- Can't you reschedule?
- No, you don't want that. Trust me,
nothing but good will come out of this lunch.
Randall, let's roll. - Really?
- Yeah. - Okay.
I'll bring you back my leftover lasagna.
Come on, guys.
- What if it's not an italian restaurant, randall?
- So... Who is this friend?
- Oh, somebody who's very important to me.
We made a promise to each other
a long time ago that,
no matter what we had going on in our lives,
we're going to meet up this same time,
every single year, and we're going to have lunch,
and we were just going to check in with each other.
Just had so much on my mind lately.
- So do you want to, like, pre-chat about the things
you're going to chat about to see if maybe I can fix it?
- No, I don't think so.
- Oh, okay.
- Hey, come on.
You and I chat all the time. - Yeah, no, yeah.
- We have lot of chances to chat, me and you.
We've been chatting for weeks. - Of course. Yeah.
You're right. - Hey, look, man, I'm sorry.
But when I make somebody a promise,
I do my best to keep it.
It's part of my code, and I try to live by it.
It's a lesson I learned from my dad.
Back in nashville, after a rough patch,
we were all under the same roof again.
Traveling the circuit with my dad,
I saw the grind he put himself through.
And let me tell you, it puts a presidential campaign
to shame.
The older he got, the more everything hurt.
And the older I got,
the less he could hide it from me.
I knew my dad was struggling to rebuild
his relationships and his career,
but now I saw he was also struggling physically.
♪
when I was a kid, I wanted to be just like him.
I thought he was a superhero. [crowd cheers]
but as I grew up, I realized
my old man was human, just like the rest of us.
[huey lewis & the news' "workin' for a livin'" plays]
it was hard seeing him like that.
- ♪ what they giving 'cause I'm working for a livin' ♪
- so I did what a broke kid could do to help.
- ♪ whoa
♪ taking what you're giving
- we're still a little short this month.
- I'm a little short on ice in this drink.
[laughs]
hey, dewey, go grab me a few cubes.
- Rocky, I'm serious.
My temp job doesn't pay till next month.
- There's no sweat.
I got the lawler match on Saturday.
And I'll ask for a few extra shows just to be safe.
- But you can barely walk.
What if you skip Saturday and we take it easy,
you know, go get some pancakes or something?
- Well 'cause, if I don't show up,
jerry doesn't pay me, and we can't make rent.
- I don't understand why you don't get paid
more than these other guys.
You were a wwf champ.
- I'm working my way back up the ladder, son.
It'll all work itself out.
- We're out of ice.
- See? Worked itself out.
- Hey, rock.
A new promoter was asking about you.
- Really? Who?
- This guy, jarvis.
He's new, but he's got a lot of money
for some big-time shows.
Said he wants you to headline.
I can put you in touch if you're interested.
- Oh, thank you, jerry.
I was about due for some good news.
- Yeah, you deserve it, champ. - [chuckles]
- ho ho! Okay, gentlemen,
it is time for me to announce some good news.
- Jerry, you ain't gotta tell everybody.
- I just heard from vince mcmahon
that this big boy right here
is getting called up to the wwf!
[all cheer and applaud]
- congrats, champ. - Way to go, crusher.
- Thank you. Thanks, boys.
But hey, it's not crusher anymore.
From now on,
it's bam bam bigelow. - Bam bam!
- [chuckling] okay. - That's nice.
- You got it, bam bam.
Now since this is his last match with us,
he's gonna headline,
and he's made a special request to face the soulman.
You good, rock?
- You know it. [all cheer]
- it must have been hard for your dad to see young guys
like bam bam rise to the top while he stayed behind.
- No, my dad was always very happy
to see somebody make it.
As a matter of fact, he did all he could
to help get the guys over.
- Another part of his code? - Absolutely.
- We've got a very special guest today,
the superstar, randy "macho man" savage.
[audience cheers]
- it's great to be here, king.
- Tell everybody what brings you to memphis.
- Well, as you know, jerry lawler,
this is where it all began for the macho man,
and I love coming home!
Ooh yeah!
[audience cheers] - they love it.
- And tomorrow, I have the privilege of opening
a brand-new sears location
right here in downtown memphis.
Stop by and say hello.
That goes for you too, jerry lawler.
- I'm more of a woolworth's man.
- You're insane!
- Now entering the ring,
being accompanied by his manager,
downtown bruno,
weighing 390 pounds,
he is bam bam bigelow!
[crowd booing]
and his opponent, former wwf tag team champion,
weighing 243 pounds,
soulman rocky johnson!
- Ooh, yeah! The soulman.
- That there is a contract to wrestle in the wwf.
The only way to win is to sign on that dotted line.
- It's mine. [bell dings]
- they're circling each other.
Who's going to strike first?
- Now, my dad knew
he wasn't going to win that contract,
but that didn't mean he wasn't gonna put on a show.
- Oh, rocky gets him on the floor!
He gets him on the floor! [crowd roars]
oh, the turnaround!
- He's on his feet! Oh!
- And rocky's got the big fella in a sleeper hold, macho!
- Bam bam better get to the rope, or it could be
lights out, yeah!
- Come on. - So close.
Bruno: Come on! [taps on ring]
[body thuds] - he's out!
He's out cold! [crowd cheers]
- and the soulman has the contract!
And rocky has won a coveted spot in the wwf!
He did it!
Hold on, macho. Look at that contract.
It's signed in red ink.
That's not a binding color for a contract.
- Ooh, it's gotta be black or blue.
Everybody knows that, yeah!
- Somebody must've switched the pen!
It's downtown bruno!
He's got the official pen! [crowd booing]
- bam bam's back on his feet.
This match ain't over!
Jerry: Rocky has no idea.
Bruno's distracting the ref!
[crowd groans]
- ref, do your job!
- He didn't see it! He didn't see it!
The big man's going to the top rope.
[dramatic chord]
- whoa, a flying headbutt!
Ooh yeah!
- Here we go, here we go, here we go.
Sign it, sign it.
Sign it, baby!
- And bam bam bigelow is headed to the wwf!
- That contract was a gimmick,
but that pain on my dad's face was real.
.
- Nice work today, brother.
You made bam bam look
like a million bucks.
- You know, it's easy to act like I'm in pain
when I'm in tons of pain. [both laugh]
- randy and I loved our time in hawaii
when you were running the circuit there.
The things you were doing, all the storylines--
it was so innovative.
- Thank you, elizabeth. Too bad it couldn't last.
- Oh, shoot.
I'm sorry if that's a sore subject.
- No, no, no, no. It's fine.
- I never mean to bring up wrestling,
but it always seems to worm its way into a conversation.
- Well, honestly, what chance do we have
being around these two?
- He landed on my damn knee. [knee clicking]
- I mean, that's bad, but check this out.
[table thuds]
- shopping for gloves must be hard.
- I'll miss a couple of matches,
but vince said he'll take care of me.
- The wwf pays you even when you don't wrestle?
- Yeah, you betcha.
- Hey, uh, you're paying for this next round too, right?
- Actually, next round is on sears.
You know, I get that big store opening
tomorrow, so I can't go too crazy tonight.
- I got you. - I'm good, son.
Hey, you wanna be useful,
come help me carry these drinks.
- So, ata, how are you guys doing?
Huh?
I didn't want to ask rocky, 'cause you know him.
He'll always spin it. - We're all right.
Somehow, the bills always get paid.
[chuckles]
rocky's working nonstop, but he never complains.
- Hey, if you didn't order fernet,
I got you one anyway.
All: [chuckle]
- hey...
To sears.
- [chuckling] oh, sears.
Best place on earth. [glasses clink]
- that was so much fun!
- We have to do it again.
- [chuckles] yes, and just us next time.
- Oh, perfect. I need a night off
from thinking about wrestlers and wrestling.
- We'll leave all that at home.
We'll be like 500 pounds lighter.
[both laugh]
- and after that, I never watched another thing
bea arthur did. [laughs]
- it makes sense. Makes sense.
Hey, can I ask you a question? - Anything, kid.
- Could you talk to my dad,
try and convince him to apologize to vince
so he can get back in the wwf?
I bet he'll listen to you.
- He'll never do it, little brother.
You know your dad and his code.
Honestly, even if he did apologize,
I don't think it would matter.
That chapter is closed.
- He's given everything to wrestling,
and now that he's getting older, that's it?
- I get it. It's a tough business.
You want stability, you work at state farm.
Look, have a little faith in your old man.
He's a fighter. He'll always end up on a--
[sign rattles]
[chuckles]
that is what happens when you wear sunglasses at night.
Ooh yeah!
- Talking to macho man had me questioning
the cost of my dad's code.
Jeff jarrett knows that's his bad shoulder.
- It's like mama said.
Sometimes it "bes" that way.
[arm thuds] - man,
my dad brings it every night,
and he has nothing to show for it.
- [groaning]
- I'm going to be the one to make sure my dad
doesn't retire broke and crippled.
- I bet your daddy don't regret a second.
And neither do I,
because the wrestling business
is the greatest in the world, dewey.
Do you know that I could walk into a restaurant,
and that entire place will start booing me?
Last week, I had a little kid,
maybe nine years old, came up to me,
and he hated me so much, he spit in my face.
You know how beautiful that is?
To move somebody in that way?
And that,
that is wrestling.
[rock music playing]
- [groans]
- and that's my cue.
- Who let this slimeball in the building?
[crowd booing]
[body thuds] - [groans]
- so that's when you decided
you wanted to take a different path.
You found football.
- That's right, and when I started playing football,
I realized that, well, I'm pretty good at this game,
and it became an opportunity for me
to make money, possibly make a lot of money,
and most importantly, take care of my family.
- Man, imagine how much better
you would have been at wrestling
if you didn't waste all that time on football.
- Imagine how much better you'd be in journalism
had you not wasted all that time being an actor.
- Touché. - Touché.
- But I'm a good interviewer, right?
- [quietly] nobody's perfect. - Oh.
- Without further ado, I'd like to ask
. Randy "macho man" savage
to do the honors.
[crowd cheers and applauds]
- yeah! When I was a macho boy,
I thought that stores only specialized in one thing.
If you needed hardware, you went to the hardware store.
You needed books, you went to the bookstore.
Then I found sears,
and it changed my life! Yeah!
- That's very nice. - I freaking love sears, yeah!
I will come at-- - let's cut that ribbon.
- [laughs] all right.
Let the savage savings
begin, yeah!
[crowd cheers] whoo!
Ooh yeah!
Welcome to sears!
Hey, congratulations, you're in sears.
Enjoy your sears experience.
Savings, beckons the macho man!
- Does randy savage work here?
- No. No, he does not.
- Hey, come down with that pillow.
- Rocky johnson, we finally meet.
John jarvis, promoter.
Jerry lawler might have mentioned me.
- Jerry did say something about a new guy
doing big things out here. - That would be me.
Wondering if you're free to headline for me this weekend
at the jonesboro coliseum?
- I don't know.
I got a couple of things penciled in--
- pays $200.
- Great thing about pencils?
They got erasers. [both laugh]
- I gotta treat my headliners right.
- Yes, indeed.
I'm gonna need half the money up front.
- No problem. Here's my card.
I'll be in touch with the details.
- He thinks we can see what he's showing us?
Just smile and wave.
Hey, look at that! Well, that's great!
- To a night with no wrestling talk.
- Amen.
[both chuckle]
- have you seen any good movies lately?
- Oh, randy and I just saw this movie
called "the highlander."
these guys, called highlanders,
get powers when they kill other highlanders.
- Uh-huh. - By the end,
there's this one highlander who kills off
all the other highlanders and takes all their powers.
- I do know this movie.
My nephew sam is actually in it.
- No way.
- Yeah, I think there was a scene
in madison square garden
where sam wrestles as the tonga kid.
And I'm talking about wrestling again.
[both laugh] - okay,
there has to be consequences when we do that.
How about any time we mention it,
we take a drink?
- Mention what? - Wrestling.
- Drink. [both laugh]
- okay, it's like that.
- 200 bucks?
That's almost double what I was getting with lawler.
I get in good with this jarvis guy,
boy... [chuckles]
hold on.
Just passed a sign that said, "population 514."
duck. - Here?
- Under a 1,000 is a duck town.
They're not friendly to black people.
- But we can't both duck.
Why don't I drive? I'm half-samoan.
- Do you think it'd make a difference
that you're half-samoan?
You think this place is pro-samoan?
- Ghost car.
- So my friend was dating a guy
who wanted her to dress up like george washington.
- Like on the fourth of July?
- Like in the bedroom. - [laughs]
- powdered wig, stockings, black shoes
with the big buckle, the whole thing.
- Imagine if randy came home,
and you were dressed as sexy george washington.
- He might like it if I played his ring walk music.
- [laughing] the graduation song?
- Oh, we're talking about wrestling again.
[both laugh] - cheers.
- I'm just gonna leave the bottle.
[both continue laughing]
- whoa, this place is sold out?
- I told you it was gonna be big.
Hey, check it out.
This must be what sylvester stallone feels like
all the time.
- [laughs]
- [chuckles] there's my headliner.
It's going to be big tonight. - Hey, mr. Jarvis.
Yeah, I saw that marquee.
- Hey, hold out your hand.
- Uh-oh.
- Bam! I have the money up front, right?
Deal's a deal.
Come on, let me show you the green room.
This is your private dressing room.
- Private?
Nice.
- Got its own bathroom, too.
- A man needs solitude on the throne.
Rip, elvis presley. - [chuckles]
we're just gonna cut a little promo first,
if that's all right? - Yeah, sure, of course.
- Hey, craig!
I like giving the audience the feeling
they're getting a sneak peek behind the scenes.
- I like that.
My wife was working on a similar idea
out in hawaii a few years ago.
- So, yeah, here's what I'm thinking.
You'll be over there...
Eating your chicken and your watermelon,
and you're pumped for the match.
You're feeling cocky, like, you know, talking street
to your opponent-- - hey, stop. Stop.
No.
I won't do that racist garbage.
- Racist?
This isn't racist.
Other guys got no problem with it.
- That wasn't the first time that my dad had been asked
to work a gimmick like that.
And that kind of overt racism
may seem shocking these days,
but there were certain parts of pro wrestling
back then, in the early '80s, where that wasn't uncommon.
- Mm, I believe it.
- I was always really proud of my dad,
because regardless of how badly he needed that money,
and we needed that money, man...
He just wouldn't do it.
He'd call that part of his code.
- Hey, man, I don't care what other guys do.
Not me.
- It's part of the deal, rocky.
- Not gonna happen. Come on, dwayne.
[upbeat music]
oh, I'm keeping this.
Racist tax.
- I don't know how you stayed so calm.
We should have beat his ass.
- Son, there's gonna always be folks like that.
Always.
And they're gonna ask you to do things you don't wanna do,
no matter how big you think you are,
or what line of work you're in.
It's gonna happen.
Just promise me one thing.
Don't let anyone change who you are.
You hear me?
You make your own code, and don't let anyone
force you to break it.
Deal? - Deal.
Well, I guess we got a free night now.
Mmm. - Oh, these are delicious.
- Fluffy as hell. - [chuckles lightly]
- how about we hit the gym early tomorrow?
Put these carbs to work. - Well, if we're doing that,
I'm getting some whipped cream.
- Get it, dad. - I'm getting it, son.
[both chuckle]
[trimmer whirs] - ooh yeah!
[chuckles] - I'll take it.
- Oh, good choice. Lane three's wide open.
Michelle will help you, yeah.
[chuckles]
- hey, randy. - Boss man.
- I didn't expect to see you back tonight.
- Oh, you know, I thought I would come
and soak up some of that new store energy.
[inhales deeply] ooh yeah.
- I wanna be clear,
I can't pay you for the time you've spent helping customers.
- This is not work for the macho man.
No, this is an absolute pleasure, yeah.
- To be honest, it's against company policy
to act as an employee
without attending the trainee program.
- [sighs]
- in lieu of payment,
why don't you take one of these party cans
of slim jims?
Token of our appreciation.
- Mm-hmm.
Smoked beef snack.
Spicy.
You know, I never did have a slim jim before, but hey,
if they sell them at sears, I know I'm gonna love 'em.
Ooh yeah.
[chuckles]
get in here. Yeah. - [grunts]
[glasses clink] [both laugh]
- I haven't laughed like this in a long time.
- Well, from my recollection, we had a lot of laughs
together back in hawaii.
- Oh, god.
I miss those days.
Our friends, my family.
I feel so isolated here.
- You know, you can always come and stay
with me and randy in florida if you want to get away for a bit.
- [sighs] thanks, but dewey and rocky--
I can't just leave them. They need me.
- Just make sure you're getting what you need, too.
- Well, I need more nights like this once in a while.
- [chuckles lightly] - reminds me of the good times.
The wrestling business is up and down.
I know we'll get back up again.
- I'll drink to that.
- Well, good, because technically, we have to
since I brought up wrestling again.
[both laugh] [glasses clink]
- cheers.
- Oh, no, mr. Johnson, your money's no good here.
I'm a huge fan. The food's on the house.
- Well, thank you, my friend.
[chuckles] you know what?
Why don't you take that for yourself, then?
- What? No, I--
- I insist.
Just keep on cheering for me, all right?
- Absolutely.
Thank you, mr. Johnson.
- Gotta launder that racist money,
make it clean again.
- So even though he wasn't a superhero anymore,
my dad could still be my hero.
- Mm. You know, I have to admit,
I had doubts about your father's code,
but now I am fully on board.
- Well, I could tell you a thousand stories
that'll make you change your mind back again.
[both chuckle]
- all right. Well, I'm sorry, my friend.
This is where I leave you.
- Wha-- - it's a private lunch.
- Well, I won't say anything. I'll just sit in the corner.
- No, not this time. - But I'm your friend, too.
Come on.
Sorry, I-- - you are my friend.
- I am, right? - I'm gonna eat lunch.
- Okay, let's go. - No, no, no.
I'm going to eat lunch. - You know what, I--
- no, no, no. - No, yeah.
[heavy music]
[plane whines]
- so I was up ten points in the polls,
and this kid who I went to school with, julien,
starts spreading all these lies about me.
And now the whole thing is a coin toss.
It could go either way.
All this hard work I've put in, this entire campaign,
and now I'm back to square one.
What do I do, forest?
- Dwayne, the point of this yearly lunch
is to always be 100% honest with each other, right?
- Always, yes.
Like I was honest with you last year, when I told you
I didn't like the smell of your cologne.
[both chuckle] - and I changed it.
I listened to you, and I changed it.
Back to the matter at hand.
I don't think that being back at square one
is actually what's bothering you.
It's like this beautiful barbaresco.
Its grapes are grown in northern Italy,
alongside its brother, barolo.
Same region,
different varietal.
- Look, I guess, forest.
I'm a tequila man. You know that.
- You can't be fully you
if you're dealing with unfinished business.
You have to address this julien problem
at the heart of the problem.
♪
- what do you mean? - I'm gonna help you.
I got numbers, baby.
[chuckles]
I got numbers.