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- [00:00]
Steve Austin
The following Program is a podcast ONE.com production from Hollywood, California, by way of
- [00:05]
Lisa Moretti
the Broken Skull Ranch. This is the Steve Austin Show.
- [00:09]
Steve Austin
Give me a Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Now here's Steve Austin. All right, everybody. Welcome to Steve Austin Show. I'm coming to you from the mean streets of Los Angeles, California. Today. I'm sitting over here at 317 Gimmick Street. I got good news for you. My guest today and this coming Thursday is none other than Ivory, AKA Tina Ferrari, also known as their shoot name, Lisa Moretti. Boy, I tell you what, I've been watching Tina Ferrari, Lisa Moretti, ivory, ever since 1986. When Glow came on, man, I was a big fan of pro wrestling. And when GLOW came on the scene, I was hooked. Watched it every single season it came on, watched every single episode. Absolutely loved it. And Tina Ferrari was one of my favorite characters, gimmicks, Personas, whatever. She was one of my favorite wrestlers. So I always followed her career right from jump street. And now all of these years later, being announced as going into the WWE hall of Fame 2018 class at WrestleMania 34, New Orleans, Louisiana, comin full circle. It's a real cool thing to be talking to her and going down memory road and seeing some of the dues she paid way back in the day, learning how to wrestle from Mondo Guerrero of the world famous Guerrero wrestling family and just hearing her story and coming up and I've watched and listened to a lot of Lisa Moretti interviews and there's been some good ones. So I wanted to cover a few things that other people might not have covered. Just as far as some of her background stuff, who she was as a kid, how she came up, her activities in sports. When she started as a cheerleader for the United States Football League with the Los Angeles Express years ago, I wanted to hear about all those stories. And so we talk about all that stuff. And of course, man, there's a good bit of time spent on glow. I absolutely love that show. And then it segued into Powerful Women of Wrestling and onto the lpwa, some AWA stuff. And then of course her run as Ivory in the wwf, how she got that gig, how it came to be. Now here's the thing. I was talking to Lisa, we were having a great conversation, the wind started blowing and we lost our connection. So we're going to pick it back up tomorrow and then we're going to finish that conversation, which you will hear on Thursday. But right now I'm not going to flap my gums any longer because it's a pretty long podcast and anybody that knows Lisa knows she can talk. And it's been a very enjoyable time spent talking to her and watching her and seeing her again. I look forward to seeing her in person. Maybe if I'm down there at 34. I'm not predicting I'm going to WrestleMania 34. Everybody's making a big prediction because I started talking with Lisa on Twitter. I'm not predicting that I'm going to be anywhere. But it was great to see her. It was great to catch up with her. Her and I have always got along like peanut butter and jelly and shooting the breeze backstage. I was doing my thing, she was doing hers. But she's always been a real cool person to me and she's doing a bunch of cool things with dogs. And for the record, we've covered this on part two. She ain't in the landscape business. If you read her Wikipedia page, I'll have you know that. Anyway, I'm going to stop flapping my gums because I'm going to get into my conversation with the person you might know from a WWE days as Ivory, as I know her from both days, Ivory and also as Tina Ferrari. She's still the same dynamic woman and her name is Lisa Moretti. This is the Steve Austin Show. All right, just hit the record button. I got Lisa Moretti. She's going into the WWE hall of Fame this year at WrestleMania. What is it going to be, Lisa? WrestleMania 34.
- [04:05]
Lisa Moretti
WrestleMania 34.
- [04:06]
Steve Austin
Congratulations. How you feel about that?
- [04:09]
Lisa Moretti
I'm just so excited and I feel super honored and I feel like I've got this, you know, 120 pound bag of responsibility on my shoulders.
- [04:20]
Steve Austin
I've always seen you stress everybody down.
- [04:22]
Lisa Moretti
I want to make up. I already know.
- [04:24]
Steve Austin
But I've already seen you look.
- [04:26]
Lisa Moretti
Oh, you know, there's pressure.
- [04:29]
Steve Austin
I've seen you start sweating your acceptance speech already at the hall of Fame. What are you worried about? You're a natural talker. You got the gift of gab. You're never at a loss for words. What's the hang up here?
- [04:41]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, I don't know. It's like, you know, it's a special moment and I think that it's worth being prepared and not just, you know, flapping your jaw up there. I've attended a few of these events and I recognize the laborious job of being an audience member. You know, quite frankly, everybody that gets inducted, getting inducted by also a good talker. So it turns out to be a really long night. So I want to respect that people, you know, all should be heard with the same level of attention and energy from the audience and to not just drain the life out of the whole event by talking too much. So, yeah, it's going to take some thought to put a whole career, you know, not just a WWE career in a nut, but way back to mid-80s with GLOW and what a wild ride that was. Everything in between with the scattering of all the women's shows, you know, all women on the card shows in the mid-80s. So there was kind of like a. You know, they talk about the revolution now for the women currently at the wwe, and I feel like I lived through kind of one of those segments in the culture of women's wrestling.
- [06:05]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [06:05]
Lisa Moretti
So I'm kind of hoping to spike that a little bit in my speech because I think it's very important, the road that women have come in the wrestling world.
- [06:19]
Steve Austin
Well, I agree. No doubt about that. And just. Just with respect to some of the speeches, the people setting up, the people that are, you know, going to go into the hall of Fame like last year, or was the year before. I think it was last year. But, you know, Natalia and Beth Phoenix, man, that 1, 2 combination was so eloquent and articulate and well thought out and so much art and emotion. I mean, so. And those weren't the only two people that shined, but they were kind of off the chart going back to the day. Geez, I guess I went in 2009 and it was just like I had a speech in my jacket pocket. I never even pulled it out. I don't like public speaking. I do like cutting a promo. I can cut you a promo that's going to draw you money, but when I turn just back into Steve Austin, I'm just kind of humble and thankful to be there. So I came from the heart, and I was on a timeline. So some of these things can go too long and then they start playing the music now to give people the hook. But I remember a couple of years ago, were you there when Mr. T was there?
- [07:16]
Lisa Moretti
No, but I have read about it and, oh, my God, on and on and on.
- [07:21]
Steve Austin
It was interesting and it was long. He needed to give. Someone needed to give him the go home cue. But anyway, not to pick on Mr. T. A big fan of Mr. T. He did a lot for the business. Brought a lot of eyeballs to the business back in the days of WrestleMania 1 3, whatever it was, you know, way back in the day. So anyway. Hey, man, I'm sitting there looking at you Right here, right now, you look like a million bucks. I've been watching a lot of your interviews, but, man, before we go into some of your career, we're just going to jump around. It's not going to be an ABC type conversation. And of course, for the record, when I had Angelina Little Egypt on the show a couple years ago, you know, I was a big fan of glow. I was a huge fan and had a big crush on you. So let me get that out there.
- [08:04]
Lisa Moretti
Right?
- [08:05]
Steve Austin
That's great.
- [08:05]
Lisa Moretti
I cannot believe that. Oh my God.
- [08:08]
Steve Austin
We used to shoot the breeze, you know, at the shows in wwe. But, you know, we really didn't get a chance to talk too much and when we did. But you were doing your thing. I was doing my thing. You're at the show. We were trying to, you know, take care of business.
- [08:20]
Lisa Moretti
Let's just be really honest about what your thing and my thing was. Okay. Your thing was being very active on the show, tons of responsibility, main eventing, great storylines. My thing was a little different. My thing was am I gonna be on the show tonight twiddling my thumbs, wondering what the hell I'm gonna do with an 11 hour day at the arena? Gee, maybe I should go run the stairs again.
- [08:50]
Steve Austin
Okay. I could segue into there about how you kept in shape all these years, but I want to go back to your life as a kid because you were born here in la.
- [08:59]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
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Steve Austin
So, I mean, like, were you a good student? Were you smart? Were you straight A? Because you've always seemed highly intelligent, very articulate.
- [09:08]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, I was a good kid. I'm a girl, you know, we like to please. So I'm the youngest of four. I was born in Inglewood, California and I grew up in Torrance, California. So I used to call it Borance because, you know, as a, I'm kind of adventurous. But Torrance is just the land of normal people, which I was blessed to be raised there, I guess. Right. So. And it's still a really great town. But anyway, yeah.
- [09:41]
Steve Austin
In high school, like, what were you like in any kind of sports? I know you went on to be a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Express and the usfl. So how actively involved were you? What did you do while you was in high school?
- [09:52]
Lisa Moretti
I was in high school. I was a tennis player. I was Soccer for girls was just coming out at that time and I was too chicken to play soccer because I thought that, you know, it would hurt too much. But yeah, I've always been athletic and I had great brothers. You know, I have Two older brothers and an older sister. And my older brothers would, you know, teach me how to throw a hard ball and had a bat. And, you know, they, of course, love to beat us up all the time. Oh, my gosh. That was like, really, you know, I have to give them kudos for introducing wrestling into my life because they loved when we were really small to spread out all the furniture in our small little house that we were packed into. And, you know, they, of course, would be the tag team brothers to beat the hell out of me and my sister Gina. So that was fun and games for them. And they would, of course, make it, decorate it as a sport and fun, but really, it was just another, you know, mugging for the girls.
- [10:53]
Steve Austin
So coming up, would you be more. Were you a tomboy or a girly girl based on, you know, your experience with your brother?
- [10:58]
Lisa Moretti
I'm a tomboy for sure. Yeah, Tomboy for sure. I loved, you know, I was always a cute kid, you know, so the boys always liked me. But I loved, like, go out in recess and, you know, you come back to class and you're all dripping sweat, you know. And so, yeah, I was kind of a sweaty, active kid. Loved. My sister was awesome because she's three years older than me. So when I was a freshman coming into high school, you know how that's a big deal, you know, will you fit in and will you be cool? You know, all of a sudden it's all bigger. Life is bigger. But my sister was a senior at the time, and she was really cool to introduce me to all her senior friends. So I got asked to dances early on, and, you know, I got kind of more embraced by high school faster because of her. And I thought that was really giving because my brothers weren't that way with her. They made her earn her friendships, right? But, yeah, tennis was my thing in high school. I really went for it. You know, I got on the team my freshman year, and then by sophomore year, I was like, I want a top spot. So I'd walk down to the high school on my days, you know, like just a day with a big basket of balls, and I would hit against this big wall and pound it out. I bring my jump rope and I do sets of jump roping, get down and do some push ups. Then I boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, drill the backhands. And then I'd go serve, you know, And I had a few ideas of my opponents. Like, you have to play a tournament to get your seated spots.
- [12:36]
Steve Austin
Oh, yeah.
- [12:37]
Lisa Moretti
And I knew what their weaknesses Were, you know, so I would like practice backhand, you know, serve into the backhand. Serve, serve, serve, serve. So I guess. And nobody, nobody made me do that. I just wanted to get my spot, you know, I wish I would have been more like that.
- [12:52]
Steve Austin
In wwe, that's a little bit different than wwe, especially back in the day.
- [12:57]
Lisa Moretti
It sure is. It sure is. I remember Hardcore Holly, I asked him one day in a car ride, you know, I said, what's tougher in your opinion, professional? I mean, I don't know if he played pro football or college ball. Yeah, but you know, being a football player or a wrestler. And he said, oh, by far the wrestling is way harder. Only because in football or any other sport, you earn your spot by your performance and how much you put into it. And in showbiz, there's the political side. And he said that, you know, you can put throw your heart and soul into this, but you might not quite get that spot that you really think you deserve. So.
- [13:39]
Steve Austin
And that's the frustrating part of that aspect of the business. But how far did you end up going with the tennis square?
- [13:44]
Lisa Moretti
I actually did pretty good with it, you know, I mean, Torrance was a kind of middle ground. We played some of the Richie schools like Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes, where all the kids were really into it. I don't think anybody plays tennis anymore. It's kind of sad because it's a great sport, but it's just not hip anymore, you know. So we did okay with that. But then what I did with that is after high school, of course, you're starving student. We paid, all of us kids paid our own way through college, which was really hard for me by that time.
- [14:18]
Steve Austin
Absolutely.
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Lisa Moretti
Way bigger than my brothers. But anyway, I went down to the Parks and Rec at Torrance and I just had a heart to heart with this guy and I said, could I be a tennis teacher? And he said, well, do you have any experience? And I said, no, but I like to play and I'm okay at it. And he gave me a shot. So he put me together, this Italian guy, you know that this old man Italian. And I learned how to teach from him. And then I kind of saw where his communication wasn't real good. It wasn't clicking for the students. So I doctored it up a little bit. And I taught tennis all through college. It was one of my jobs. I did it group lessons with Parks and Rec, and then I did privates also so I could, you know, that was a great, great gig. You're outside in the sun all day. And then I had, you know, like, two or three other jobs in the summertime until I flip the bill for college.
- [15:14]
Steve Austin
Why did you decide to go to USC over UCLA or any of the other schools that are in this area?
- [15:20]
Lisa Moretti
Well, me and my sister always talk about that because we wish we would have, like, actually considered other schools. But my dad, he was the only person that graduated within his family and his siblings. And he's a really intelligent guy. He just passed away last year. So he just put it in our heads that we were all going to be Trojans. And it was great that he put that out there for his kid, that you will go to college and you will go to science. So, you know, everybody did it, and I'm the fourth kid, so it's like no brainer. You just figure you're gonna apply there and that's that. So I got a little bit of, you know, we all got financial aid to some degree because mom and dad were divorced early. You know, mom didn't make much money, but, God, times were changing by the time I was gone. Tuition keeps going up, the grants go down and you get a student loan. And it took me like, 10 years to pay that sucker off.
- [16:16]
Steve Austin
Yeah, but did you end up getting a degree?
- [16:19]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
- [16:19]
Steve Austin
And so you went as public relations, right?
- [16:21]
Lisa Moretti
School of Journalism. Public relations, yeah.
- [16:24]
Steve Austin
So what we're going to do with that newscaster?
- [16:27]
Lisa Moretti
Well, in the school of journalism, they had, like, four things you could do. You could be like a newscaster. I think it was like, sports was a separate thing. And there was public relations and one other thing. Oh, newswriting, like writing for a newspaper. So, you know, I was like, I'm not going to be a news writer. And I didn't see myself as an anchor person at all. So I just thought public relations was the thing with the most, you know, like, reach of choices, like being an attorney. You can work in different industries that might suit you. So it was a big, like, question mark. Still, I went for that only because I felt like that's the only thing I knew how to do pretty well out of high school was. Right. I felt like I could write. Well, I'm not a mathematician. I'm never going to be a scientist. So, you know what? You know, right? What do you know when you're that age? People go, what do you want to be? Choose a major. And you're like, I don't freaking know. Well, no.
- [17:29]
Steve Austin
Well, I didn't either. You know, I was going to be in insurance business with my father. But hell, college algebra and accounting kept kicking my ass. So I dropped them and I turned into a PE major. Anyway, I never graduated. And it turned out, you know, I had 17 hours to go and I ended up leaving school. And it turned out to be an okay story, but I always stress education to these kids when I'm talking to them these days.
- [17:47]
Lisa Moretti
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- [18:39]
Steve Austin
So public relations. You didn't exactly know what you wanted to do. As long as you get a diploma, it opens doors. But you had no idea what you wanted to do with that degree?
- [18:48]
Lisa Moretti
No. I went on a few interviews and I just had that same feeling of like, this does not fit. And I also had an experience early on. My first job out of college was besides all my other things like teaching tennis and stuff was I worked for a temporary agency like where they hire temps. And it was in Beverly Hills. So now I'm driving from Torrance around that South Bay curb, as you know, jam packed traffic, morning, night. And man, early on I was like, I ain't doing this with my life. Am not. I don't care if I'm poor. I am not driving this traffic as part of my career, my life. So I knew that was like a thing, you know, I was like, I'll do something else. And then I realized in that job, because my turf, I was like the girl that would go out door to door was Mid Wilshire, you know, and you go into all those high rises and you start finding out there's a lot of stuff to do out here. You find out what businesses are out there. And I think that would be a good class for kids, you know, I mean now we have Internet so you can find out everything with your ass in the chair. You don't ever have to go out of your house, right? Same with looking for colleges. We didn't have Internet so you couldn't plug in. What do schools look like? Oh, where are they? How far away is it? How much is it? You just you know, it was, like, way different. So I realized in my first job that I hated it and nobody cared what I was selling, but they all remembered me. You walk in and the whole place would light up and go, oh, Lisa's here.
- [20:40]
Steve Austin
That's pretty cool. Well, you know, it's funny because I'm just like you. I haven't had a normal job since 1989 when I got to the wrestling business. And before that, I was driving back and forth from Denton to Dallas to go to work at my. You know, driving a forklift on a freight dock. And I'm like you. I just cannot stand when I get out in LA traffic, you know, every single day if I go somewhere or if I don't, I'm like, man, I just don't know how these people do this commute every day. So you would end up, you know, end up in the same business that I would end up in a job where you commute all over the world, but it's not that 9 to 5 commute, but you are driving, but it's not during that regimented type of. Here, they're always back and forth, you're all over the place. Which kind of. That was fun. Seeing the world was fun. Going back and forth was a real drag to me.
- [21:26]
Lisa Moretti
Yes, I know it. I hear that.
- [21:28]
Steve Austin
So when did you end up getting the Los Angeles Express cheerleading job? Were you a cheerleader in high school?
- [21:36]
Lisa Moretti
No way. Well, yeah, I was a song leader. There's a big difference.
- [21:40]
Steve Austin
Okay, give me the difference. I didn't mean to offend you. What happened?
- [21:43]
Lisa Moretti
The high school cheerleaders are the ones with the fat thighs and the loud voices. I might have a loud voice, okay, But I don't have fat thighs. So anyway, the pom pom girls, now, they rock because they dance. They're the dancing girls. So I was a song leader. They called us, and we did all the little routines, you know, Michael Jackson, off the Wall Album, some of the favorite hits for the song leaders of Torrance High School. Okay, we were up. We were moonwalking, okay, on the football field.
- [22:18]
Steve Austin
So the USFL starts up, and all of a sudden you said, hey, man, I'm gonna try out.
- [22:23]
Lisa Moretti
No, no.
- [22:24]
Steve Austin
What happened?
- [22:24]
Lisa Moretti
I was. I was. I was being a career lady and I was doing an assignment at usc, and I walked into this lady's office to interview her assistant who's also a student. And the lady, I'm waiting for the student to get to interview her for my class project, and the lady starts eyeballing me and she says, do you like to dance? Do you like football? Well, I'm the new squad director of a new football league, LA Express. We have auditions for cheerleaders coming up this weekend. If you show up, I will give you a job. I'm like, oh, people tell me that all the time. My whole life they've like, if you show up, I'll give you a job. And you know, you get, you know, you get a little jaded in la, right, because everybody's a producer and right director and they're gonna make you famous. And so you kind of start to roll with that and know that it's full. So I just said, well, you know, I'm really focusing on graduating here. And, you know, I saw myself as being a career woman and all that. And I said, you know, tell me where it is and maybe I'll show up. And she said, you don't have to prepare anything. Just show up, it'll be fine. So it turns out it was in Manhattan beach, not Hollywood somewhere, which is one of my neighborhoods. And I just told myself, you know, I'm gonna go. And if the girls are weird, they're catty. They're the kind I'm expecting to meet. I'll just, I won't do it. But if they're fun and it looks like a good, I try it, right? So I did not prepare, I show up. All the girls are really nice. And we're looking through the window at the girls auditioning and they're freaking dancers. They're like doing layouts and these great routines. Shit, what am I calling myself into? But the lady said. And there she was at the desk with a few other judges. So I got my number, I went in there, I made a total ass of myself. I put some favorite music on and I just drooped. I can't remember what I did. I blacked it out of my mind. I got the job. And we had. It was the second season of USFL football and we had, I'm telling you, like 52 cheerleaders. We had the most rockin bunch of girls. They were forever been the most fun girls I've ever partied with, danced with, you know, it was great. So we had young football players, like, you know, Steve young. We had. All of them were young, they weren't married. You know, maybe a couple had girlfriends somewhere. And we had all of us girls. The guys would play, we'd cheer, and it was like, let's go out afterwards and dance some more. And when we had parties, the Raiders would come to our party because we had a cool bunch of people. We weren't catty, that weren't, you know, snobby or gossipy, so. So that was a really fun time. Those girls actually hired me out for the first time I ever met people that pooped me out.
- [25:31]
Steve Austin
How long did that last?
- [25:33]
Lisa Moretti
It lasted. We had one awesome year. And then we had a change of owner on the third year and they cleaned house and they had a new squad director and they wanted to try everybody out again. They had maybe like a swat of 10 girls and I was the only one that made it back. So we had ugly outfits, you know, everything changed. So all the girls would come and watch the games. But things started on a quick decline after that. The players stopped getting paid. The football got really lazy. They're like, why should I take a bump for no money? I know my check's gonna bounce. So it got really slow out there, you know, and that was really fun for me too, to be. I used to. On our first year, we play the games at the Coliseum. USC Coliseum. So here I am running down the tunnel where Tommy Trojan comes out in my own arena. And in 1984, the first year I was a cheerleader, that was when I graduated. And on top of that, usc, I mean la, was hosting the Olympics. So they graduated us a month early so that we all get out of campus and the athletes moved in. So us cheerleaders, you know, we'd go to University Village and, you know, I wore lots of guys, gold medals, you know, swimmers. And everybody's partying and they're all happy and young and foreign, you know, and it was really a great time.
- [27:00]
Steve Austin
When you said something there, hanging out with those girls, some of those girls got you tired. That's one of the things I wanted to ask you because I left you a voice message when I was walking my dog yesterday because you got this voicemail. It's high energy. I've never seen you drink any coffee. Are you a high energy person just from. From day one, or do you wake up ready?
- [27:18]
Lisa Moretti
Oh, you got coffee.
- [27:20]
Steve Austin
Okay, coffee. I'm glad you said that.
- [27:23]
Lisa Moretti
Coffee.
- [27:24]
Steve Austin
What's it meant? I was telling my wife. I said, man, I said. I said, man, it's chicken talk. I mean, man, she just got the gift of gab. And I said, I don't know if she drinks coffee or not. I said, I've never seen her in a bad mood because I haven't. You're always high energy. So I was wondering what was up. So that. But you are a High energy person to begin with. You probably roll out of bed and you're ready to go.
- [27:43]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, I am. I. I am. I mean, you know, God, you can't. You can't work with a bunch of animals if you're not high energy. Oh, my God. Well, I'll tell you a funny thing about when we were on the road during our time.
- [27:56]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [27:57]
Lisa Moretti
I decided. I decided I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna clean house and I'm gonna go cold. No coffee. We get off coffee. See how it is. And I was successful. You know, a couple days. You get headaches and stuff, but, you know, I weaned myself off of it. And then I was driving to an arena. It was like a house show or something. And I wasn't doing much, you know, so it was like, I was kind of down. I was like, I'm gonna show up. I'm gonna sit around for 11 hours, you know. And I stopped and I got myself a cup of coffee. I thought, I need to be in a good mood when I show up. I'm not gonna go there being all down. I got a cup of coffee and I had the best day of my life. I don't remember if I worked or not, but I just, like, realized what a difference this shit makes.
- [28:47]
Steve Austin
Amen. Yeah, Cleaning out sounds good every now and then, but you gotta live life. You're only here for a certain amount, so you might as well enjoy it while you can. But that being said, with respect to coffee or anything else in life, everything in moderation. I gotta jump to Glow. I was such a huge fan of Glow and hearing how you got dragged to an audition. And the audition was in Los Angeles. And I think, yes, y' all would train here for a little bit, then ultimately move over to the Riviera Hotel, where that's where y' all stay and do the shows at the casino. But, you know, this was your. Your start into the journey of professional wrestling. And GLOW was such a phenomenon. And of course, you know, I guess, give or take, they shot the pilot in 85. Cause I just got finished watching it. It kind of starts in 86. It kind of peters off after about, what, four seasons?
- [29:34]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
- [29:35]
Steve Austin
And then, so anyway, at that age and being a wrestling fan since I was 7 or 8, then all of a sudden I saw Glow. And it's like, you know, the greatest thing in the world because you got these. First of all, there's wrestling, which I love. And then you have beautiful women and all these over the top characters. And the thing I liked about it was these days, everybody's so beautiful. But, you know, you had Matilda the Hun, you had Mount Fiji, you had dementia, and you. I mean, the beautiful people, which is always fun to watch, but it's always the different sizes and shapes. Like, you know, I was such an NWA fan. Like, you know, Dusty Rhodes, you know, people like that. You'll never see another Dusty Rhodes again because that body type won't get an opportunity in the business.
- [30:14]
Lisa Moretti
Right, Exactly.
- [30:15]
Steve Austin
But anyway, so let's talk a little bit about Globe, because I just loved it and loved your character and I loved what you did in the ring. How did you get dragged into this crazy world which you would be in for almost 20 years?
- [30:29]
Lisa Moretti
Well, I'm just so. I am stunned that you are such a fan, first of all, and thank you for your support. That was very nice of you. But we. One of the cheerleaders, Nadine is her name, she was my buddy and she was an actress. A lot of the girls were dancers, choreographers, actresses. So she got an opportunity to go on an audition for this wrestling show, and she called me to go with her.
- [30:57]
Steve Austin
But you didn't know it was a wrestling show at the time, did you?
- [31:00]
Lisa Moretti
She told me I was wrestling on the phone, and I. And I said, why the hell would I want to do that? And I, of course, like, everybody imagined huge women, you know, like, I don't know anything about it. Why would I go and get my ass kicked, you know? For what? You're crazy. Oh, please come with me. Please, just once, just come with me. We hate it. We'll leave. So I went. And it got even more exciting when we found the location. It was right in the heart of Watts. You know, I know the freeways. I mean, I drive past Watts every day to school, right? Like, what? We're getting off, like, in this neighborhood, off to 110. So we show up and we're going to this, like, boxing. There's a boxing gym, and there's this big black guy out front, and he had a gun, and he was making sure that all the little girls got inside the door safe. Back to your car, out of your car. So now, you know, this did not deter me. Now I'm starting to get intrigued now. It's getting to be fun. So we go inside and, you know, there's a collection of girls, girly girls. They're real cute and everything. So that's the kind of stuff where I'm like, ah, here we go, you know, so the training starts and Mondo Guerrero is the guy in charge. Lucky Mondo. He gets to train a bunch of bimbos. So imagine that. Poor guy, right? So he addressed it in such an honorable way. He definitely let everybody know the passion he had for this sport and how special it is and that he has lineage in it. So he established himself that way, credible. And then he laid down a couple of rules. While you're here, maybe it's going to be just for today. Maybe it's going to be for the duration. No laughing. Pay attention. And no hanging on the ropes. You know, slouching, hanging, relaxing. Pay attention, in other words, and I'll try to teach you a few basic things so that you don't get hurt or hurt anyone else. So cool. Simple instructions, right? Well, you know, early on into the training, some girls are hanging on the ropes. And then, of course, when he teaches us how to sell pain, that's awkward, and it can be a little funny. We get some giggles going. Not me, the bimbos. So, oh, my God, he just snatched one of these girls off of the rope, laid her down, applied some pressure, and made her cry. Oh, I was sold. That's when I was like, I'm in. I want to learn how to do this. Not because she cried, but because it meant so much to him and that this was, like, real training. I like it. I like learning new skills and stuff. And when you got a pro that's taking interest to train you, well, listen, man, this is going to be a great ride. So then they, you know, they didn't kick us out. You know, they kept asking us to come back each night, and on top of that, they were doling out some money for you to show up once you made the first cut. So now it was a little side gig. You know, we keep showing up to the Watts gym. The mat is covered in sweat and blood stains. On each corner, there's a freaking spittoon filled with slobber. It was hard as a rock. And we were learning basic back bumps, not even really running the ropes, just how to fall down, you know, get familiar with a few holds. So, yeah, the training he gave was. God, it was such a short period of time before they sent, I think maybe 10 or 12 of us off to shoot the pilot in Vegas.
- [34:57]
Steve Austin
What was amazing to me was because I was reading it was an interview with Matilda the Hun, and it had some quotes in there from you, and you said, we really kind of didn't know what the hell we were doing as far as TV goes, says Lisa Moretti, who performed as Tina Ferrari. I think some girls were there because they wanted to be on tv. And he goes, it's not like we were the creme de la creme model girls. We didn't get cast from bikini model agencies or anything. These were girls who got an acting or casting call and imagined an idea of putting good looking girls in the ring. And they figured, first let's make them good looking, then let's see if we can make them wrestle.
- [35:32]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
- [35:34]
Steve Austin
When all of a sudden you found out that Mondo Guerrero, because the Guerrero name is one of the most famous names in the history of the wrestling business. And obviously Mondo was a tremendous talent. I can only imagine that he would have been one of the best, probably the most qualified guy that there could have been to teach all you young ladies to learn the business of pro wrestling.
- [35:54]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah. I don't know how you train a bunch of girls. That's what's so great about the Netflix show is that those first few episodes of showing this collection of people traveling through this audition, sitting in those bleachers, going, raising their hand. So are we really gonna wrestle? Like, you want us to be wrestling characters? And they're like, what? That's how we were. And even if you were there because you were an actor, an actress, like Sharon and Donna Wolinski are true sisters. And they played the great characters of Chainsaw and Spike and the Housewives. And they just had this great comedic banter. They were so creative and so talented as comedic actresses that, you know, all those characters they brought to the table were their own invention. So those guys were, you know, and they will attest to it themselves. Not into the physicality, not super athletic by nature, but they were there to be on TV and bring their stuff, you know, it was an in. Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. If I'm lying, I'm dying. This is the mindset. Free. This is the mantra.
- [37:10]
Steve Austin
Free.
- [37:10]
Lisa Moretti
This is the mindset. Mindset. With movies like Interstellar, Dreamgirls and Gladiator,
- [37:17]
Steve Austin
why are you not entertained?
- [37:18]
Lisa Moretti
And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the fairly odd parents and ghosts put on Pluto. TV is always free. Huzzah. Pluto TV stream now pay Never.
- [37:33]
Steve Austin
This is the Steve Austin Show. How long did you get to train before y' all shot the pilot?
- [37:39]
Lisa Moretti
I probably. I think we trained probably. I don't know, like a few weeks. It was nothing. There was no time at all to prepare us to make, like, decent matches. Then, you know, it was so discombobulating to be In a ring, you know how those banquet rooms in hotels, they're really dark and the lights are coming right down on your spotlight. You take your first bump, you don't know where you are. So it was. I just remember that being, you know, I remember more of it than I do my audition for the cheerleader cheerleading gig maybe because I was just half a bit more prepared than the cheerleading audition, which I wasn't prepared for at all.
- [38:23]
Steve Austin
Let me ask you a question because, you know, all of your years in the business, of course, obviously you run with WWE and your time on Tough Enough, you being coming from the background you came from, you just got finished, you know, doing cheerleading and now all of a sudden you're in a ring. And I don't imagine that's a high quality bumping ring that really feels good to fall down in. So wrestling with your brothers in that tomboy background probably really lended itself to helping you tough it out.
- [38:51]
Lisa Moretti
Well, they are going to be so happy to hear you say that. Yeah, they remind me of that. They remind me of that all the time. And I always tell kids, you know, it's like, hey, stop whining. It's good to take an ass beaten once in a while. Learn it. It's going to come in handy.
- [39:09]
Steve Austin
Were you a standout as soon as the class started? Because it seemed like they had big plans to run with you as Tina Ferrari. And I want to ask you about the gimmick, but you were always figured in and you always had some of the more athletic matches. So how quickly did you adapt to the training? Did you soak it in like a sponge?
- [39:29]
Lisa Moretti
I think I basically gave it my attention because of Mondo. I just really give him kudos for being so passionate about the sport that it translated that this is an important thing to be good at or, you know, to at least try to harness. And I absolutely, positively think and still believe that it takes a lifetime to be a great worker in the ring, you know, I mean, you could work your whole life and still think you suck. You know, I never considered myself being somebody that stands out. You know, I was just always trying to do my best and to not. If I was going to have ring time with a girl, a match, this is your assigned thing, part of the storyline. Then we would go in ourselves at night till all hours. The ring, the little studio ring at the Riviera Hotel was made available to us anytime we wanted. So we just, you know, climb up the back steps and have ring time and figure shit out based off of you know, the guys tapes. We just watched the guys tapes and tried to break the moves down ourselves. We had no coach. Once in a while, a pro like Princess Jasmine came in for a while and she would work with us, you know, I think a little begrudgingly, because we were probably just such, you know, ill representation. An ill representation of what women's wrestling had been, you know, I don't blame her for looking at us like a bunch of twits, you know, But I. I think it was. I think my stuff just comes back to the girl that would lug the basket of tennis balls down to the high school bat against a concrete wall until she was ready to do jump roping and push ups. So I guess that work ethic came in through wrestling of not really having the coaching, but having the drive to not look like a total ass. Do your best, you know, with what you got.
- [41:22]
Steve Austin
You know, when you guys film that, the pilot, how nerve wracking was that? Because, man, all of a sudden you've been doing the training. It hadn't been a whole lot of training. You've been going in the back, getting some training in on your own. You've been putting the work in, but, man, now you're in front of a live crowd and none of you guys. There's not an established veteran in the ring to kind of take over when things go wrong. It's four green ladies out there, because that was a tag match. There was three tag matches, and then there was the main event at the end, which was a singles match for the crown. So, I mean, what were you thinking? Were you a ball of nerves or just kind of a born performer and, like, just go out there and do it?
- [41:59]
Lisa Moretti
I think I was a ball of nerves and I was more concerned about the actual wrestling than the performing part. So I put energy into the performance, but didn't know what kind of sense I was trying to make of it. You know, there was no real act, so it was just kind of like. And maybe that was the charm that carried through Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling programming was that you had these individuals that were just finding their way. So it was kind of, you know, to use a showbiz word, it was organic. Organic performances.
- [42:37]
Steve Austin
Well, tell me how you came up with the Tina Ferrar gimmick. Did they come up with that or did you think of that?
- [42:41]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, the producer. No, the director, Matt Simber, he had an idea for me and Nadine, my friend, to be T and A tits and ass. So we thought we would be very clever in Changing that around because Ashley is well endowed. And this, of course, was before plastic surgery days, so she was naturally well endowed. So we gave me the T and her the A just out of spite because, you know, we were like gonna screw with Matt Zimmer one way or another. So that's how we became the jet setters. We kind of made all that up. The Beverly Hills Girls. And why, you know, I kind of based my character around, remember, Patricia Hearst was at the time of a hoodlum and everything. And as a kid, I was lucky enough to go visit Hearst Castle. So I thought, oh, Tina Ferrari, she's going to be really rich. But she's just doing it to piss her parents off. She's going to be a wrestler just to piss her parents off. So we get. We made up our own bios and backgrounds like you do in acting. Give your character some girth by giving it some history and. But still, it was a pretty, you know, pretty green performance all the way around.
- [43:54]
Steve Austin
Oh, man, it was what it was. And it got picked up and then turned into a sensation.
- [43:59]
Lisa Moretti
And guess where, Guess where we shot the show the very first year to sell Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Tell me, New Orleans. Isn't that something? Full circle, baby. Yeah, we went to the nappy convention. They'd have it every. Every other year. New Orleans, Las Vegas. New Orleans, Las Vegas. So we went out there and we met the WWF at the time, stars. I remember shaking Hulk Hogan's hand because all the colorful talent would be at a booth, you know, selling their programming in the old days, how they did it. And we walk the floor in our little costumes and shake hands and, you know, ooh, and ot people to grab their attention and bring them over to buy our show. So that was New Orleans.
- [44:45]
Steve Austin
Speaking of that, what you're saying is full circle. That's where they pitched it, and that's where you're going into the hall of fame for the 2018 class. So I was watching an interview done by Carmen of Soul Patrol, and she didn't have a lot of good things to say about Matt Sember. It seemed like he was a little bit of a hard ass. And I think she was speaking with respect to the curfew and trying to make sure that the girls were not running around Las Vegas, that they were being safe in the ring, that they learned so nobody got hurt unless it was designed to mean something else. That's what I took out of it. What was the story with Matt Simber?
- [45:22]
Lisa Moretti
Matt Simber is, to his own making, become the fall guy. For all of our interviews, he was a character super creative, but he was like the classic director, Hollywood director, where he would. I remember I had this, you know, scene, this little vignette I had to do where you go into a dressing room with your business attire on and, of course, your big, gigantic 1980s hairdo. And then you come out of the dressing room with your Shazam wrestling outfit on, and you do a kick, you know, like a grappler. So it was late at night, and we're shooting this stupid thing that should have been done in about 10 minutes. And he was just riding my ass, you know, yelling at me and screaming at me, and do it this way and do it that way and smile, damn it.
- [46:18]
Steve Austin
And I know that exact skit that you're talking about because you walk in and you're just very, very articulate, very sassy and intelligent. And you walk in and you come out. It's almost like a Power Ranger kick. When you come out of the dressroom, it's the transformation. So I know the exact skit you're talking about. So it took forever to film.
- [46:35]
Lisa Moretti
Power Ranger kick. Right on.
- [46:37]
Steve Austin
That was awesome, though.
- [46:39]
Lisa Moretti
So I just remember, you know, like, being in the dressing room for the Power Ranger entrance and, like, tears streaming down your eyes, and you're like, this sucks. You know, why is he being so mean to me? So, you know, maybe he thought that was, like, great motivation or something. But so. And then he, you know, he would pick on personal things with the girls. So he was really charismatic. And he'd buddy up to girls. You know, we'd be out having a drink at the Riviera or something, and he'd come down and sit around and learn who has a boyfriend and what's his name and who does what. And then he would turn on you in front of everybody and use that ammo in a really nasty way. And he hurt a lot of girls feelings deep down. So I kind of watched him do that. And so whenever I just, you know, learned his thing, I excused myself. Every time he'd come join the girls, I'd say, well, I'm gonna go work out tomorrow bright and early, so I'm gonna excuse myself. And then we'd just go party in a different bar.
- [47:45]
Steve Austin
Good call.
- [47:46]
Lisa Moretti
So then he always used me as an example of how come you can't be like Tina Ferrari. She works out all the time.
- [47:53]
Steve Austin
What was your relationship with, or just everybody's relationship with David McLean. And because it seems like it was in one of the skits he's In a phone booth. He's making a phone call and he says vince. And clearly he's poking at Vince and he's kind of emulating in my eyes, Vince McMahon. How was David McLean as a businessman, Performer, announcer, all that stuff?
- [48:17]
Lisa Moretti
I thought he was an awesome announcer. The guy is my same age, so he did all of this as a kid. You know, he comes out from Indianapolis, he's a wrestling fan. He's just a kid that he sells down watered coke in the stands, has a few friends, like Dick the Bruiser. I think his dad might have done real estate or something. So they made. They had a big house. I visited his house once when we were doing POW later and I just look back on, you know, wow, that guy was really a go getter. You know, we could have learned a lot from him if we listened to him more. But, you know, he. We made fun of him a lot and because, you know, he's kind of a. Kind of a nerd in a way, you know, but. But boy sure knew what he was doing. I loved his announcing. When you look back at the old shows, like, he's like a Jim Ross where he just really pumps the energy up with his announcing. And he, of course, the look of him was so, you know, pristine. Baby face, pasty face. The heels could rag on him, pants him, you know, it was always funny. And the baby faces, you know, now in backstage, we were always really happy when one of the girls would like him because then he wasn't so pouty and trouble, troubled if he was getting some or he kind of had a girlfriend then he was really easy to work with. So, you know, there'd be like the gossip of who's. Who's doing him. And then we'd be like, ah, thank God. You know, he'll be easy to work with now. We're glad somebody's doing it. So he was. And then, you know, after glow, when he shot off and did Powerful Women of Wrestling, that was a whole other big attempt of pulling new money together and having a roadshow. He wanted to take a little bit more powerful wrestling, a little more aggressive wrestling to the arenas and have more of a live experience like the guys do. And then that's when we fed in, you know, the GLOW talent with the real East Coast Southern girls, all of them, you know, all of them. Peggy Lee Leather, Bambi Luna Vachon. Wendy Richter was a commentator that also got into the action. Heidi Lee Morgan, Candy Divine, you know, a whole bunch of them.
- [50:44]
Steve Austin
And Medusa came in on that second Group, too.
- [50:47]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah. So that was a really neat thing that he pulled off, and it only lasted a couple seasons. And then a few years later, he gets another show on espn, which was that. I think it was like beach hockey. They were playing hockey on the beach. It's like some kind of outdoor. It wasn't volleyball. I think it was hockey. Somehow they did that wasn't on ice, of course. Roller skates. It was. It was rollerblade hockey.
- [51:15]
Steve Austin
No, no, no. He started doing roller derby before that
- [51:19]
Lisa Moretti
even he got a show. It was like a beach setting. He's still doing the lady wrestling now. So I'm just really. That's what, you know, like the McMahons, they deserve all the riches they may have because they stick to this thing called professional wrestling through all the ins and outs, and they stick with it. And that's how David McLean is.
- [51:38]
Steve Austin
Before we go back to move down the road, I want to go back to Glow because, man, the thing that was really one of the many things it was really known for was the kind of over the top skits and vignettes and just did lots of humor, over the top characters, larger than life. And it turns out, I think the referee's name was Steve Blantz, who was writing most of that stuff. And so when he would pitch you something or he would write urine and the girl something. How was that process? Because, I mean, the stuff was just. It was campy, but it was really, really good. That's why it turned into a phenomenon. Something that sucks doesn't turn into a phenomenon. But it was so fun that it was infectious and addictive, I would say.
- [52:24]
Lisa Moretti
It was a good formula, wasn't it?
- [52:26]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [52:27]
Lisa Moretti
I always liken it to. I mean, people nowadays wouldn't remember Hee Haw, but remember Hee Haw with wrestling is what I would tell people. Glow is, you know, a little bit like laugh in, but with wrestling. Right. So it had that variety show feel we had. Well, and before, I think Steve Blanche took over reffing, after we had. One of the girls brought her husband, the d', Amato. Frank d', Amato Italian guy. And he was our ref for a while. So, yeah, it was funny. Like, oh, you know, you bring your husband, it's like, hey, you want a job? You're gonna be the ref.
- [53:08]
Steve Austin
Who were some of the gals that you really enjoyed working with? I mean, because you had a couple of spirited bouts with Spanish Red.
- [53:15]
Lisa Moretti
Oh, yeah. Spanish Red was so into it and so passionate that she was one of those performers that would, you know, get out of her mind in the ring. And you better watch out. So she was super athletic. I think she was a little bit older than us. A couple years, two, three years older. And yeah, she was a fiery pistol boy. I remember, like, having a singles match with her and in my mind having an exit strategy in case things got too hairy. I mean, she was like, she would just go off. She was, yeah. When people would ask, like, they still do, is wrestling fake? Is it real? How much of it is real? Well, with Spanish red, it was real. It was a shoot, you know, I mean, she was stiff and she got really. She really got personally insulted when the fans booed her and that she was the heel. So that would like, you're like, please don't boo this woman. She's getting fired up. She's gonna take it out on me. But I liked. Of course she was really athletic and she looked great in the ring. And, you know, she. She was present. She was really present. Another little. The little military girl attache was her name. She took it real seriously. And she was athletic and she liked to jump off the top rope. So she was fun to work with. And nanotchka, who was our original Russian, was awesome to work with because she had great agility. She was a dancer and tall, you know, stout. You always felt safe in her arms. You go jump on her and she's always going to be there for you. So. And she just had such a great heel character and played it really well.
- [55:08]
Steve Austin
She was one of my favorite people, as a matter of fact, Because, I mean, she was like, great accent, very attractive, bigger lady, and just very powerful. So she had just a tremendous gimmick.
- [55:20]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
- [55:20]
Steve Austin
How did babe the farmer's daughter, Ursula Hayden end up buying the glow rights?
- [55:26]
Lisa Moretti
Well, she came on board for the third and fourth season. And you were gone. Yeah, we were gone. I. I left. And she. I think it's okay to say all this. I think. Well, it's common knowledge. I think she had an affair with the owner of the riviera Piazadora's husband. I can't pronounce his name.
- [55:46]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [55:47]
Lisa Moretti
Anyway, yeah, multi millionaire, you know, big richest guy in that time, Whatever, top five, whatever. So part of her deal to him was I keep quiet if I get the rights to this footage because it was all disbanding and going away. So she got that hooked. She hooked into that with via him. So she wound up with the stuff. Afterglow expired and she had written that little. This little a script about, you know, girls wanting to be or go on A wrestling show, which kind of turned into the Netflix thing. And I think the Netflix people purchased that from her. So it was nice to hear that, you know, at least one Glow girl actually made a buck from her experience on Glow.
- [56:36]
Steve Austin
Okay, you don't have to give me numbers, but how were the paydays from back in the day?
- [56:41]
Lisa Moretti
Numbers. Numbers. I gave numbers to everybody. We had, remember, we had. The. The Improv was right next door to the Glow arena. So we had these two banquet rooms, and we'd go to the Improv every night. And guess who the Mater d was at the Improv at the time? Steve Sharifa. And Steve Sharifa played on the Sopranos. You know, he was like one of the grandpa guy. It was his sidekick, his cousin or whatever. But Steve Sharifa gets. He's like a big famous person now because he's been on Sopranos and a bunch of other TV and movie parts. I just got a call from him the other day. So funny. Just checking in. You know, he has a monster voice. So he used to, like, be the Mater d. Then we had all these great comedians come through there, and we would go in there, like, basically in our sweats. And it was like watching TV at night, was watching stand up. We had, you know, Keenan Wayans and Ellen, you know, when they were brand new stand up comedians. And so we. We got to know all those guys. We'd get in touch with what's going on in LA, because when you live in Las Vegas and you're 25, you might as well be in the Twilight Zone. And it wasn't family friendly then. It was freaky. It was just a freaky place to live. So we'd have drinks with the guys and the girls and like, what's going on in la? What are people wearing now? What are people talking about? It was like you were in a cave. We would tell them how much money we make doing this show, and they were like, oh, my God, you guys gotta say something. This is terrible. And we're like, oh, my gosh. You know, there's girls that when they make a big stink out of it, they get fired. So, you know, same old thing. So we made. I made $400 a week for my tenure at Glow. I was there for about nine months. So that's pretty good money.
- [58:29]
Steve Austin
That's pretty good money, though. I mean, well, first of all, it turned into, you know, a syndication phenomenon. But I mean, just as far as doing the work well, I mean, the vignettes, y' all are working your asses off Because I mean, like in Tennessee, you know, we were drinking, we were making 400 mile trips and I was making 15 or 20 bucks a night. And this was an 89. So I'm three years behind you. And yeah, there was, you know, there's a couple of weeks there where I'm traveling six days a week and I'm, I might make 160 bucks. So, you know, that ain't bad money. That's more than I thought you were going to say based on the story that you're laying me.
- [59:05]
Lisa Moretti
I know, but so, see, there you go. It's like that. It's so neat when you cross the worlds, you know, you've got wrestling and what we all know, being on the road, wrestling territories, you know, 10 guys sharing a hotel room or whatever, you know, because there's no money. And then you've got, on the west coast, you've got this little TV show. And then so the TV girls are thinking, hey, we should be making TV money, right? But it's wrestling. So anyway, it's, yeah, it was a fun ride and we did, we worked all hours of the evening. You know, you're always, you were always on call. We had like one day off a week and because when we shot the show, the matches, you'd have maybe two, at least two matches, sometimes three or four because they're getting all the wrestling in the can so they can splice it into the show. So on your day off on Sunday, you just, you know, your guts would be all hammered because we wrestled on a boxing ring. It was not spring loaded. We had a, you know, we had a ring that wasn't a proper wrestling ring. So even as 25 year olds, we were, you know, you just felt like you couldn't move the next day. You needed that day off.
- [60:20]
Steve Austin
What was that? 16 foot ring?
- [60:22]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, must have been 16. And then it was all dwarfed for us, right? With the little, the shorter ropes. Everything was dwarfed so that we wouldn't look like, you know, but you know, like a girl like China or like. I love watching Charlotte Flair in the ring because she, she's the right height for the guy's ring, right? You got to be like, you know, you got to be 5, 6, 7, 8, 5, 10, 11. Awesome. But you just don't look right. Us little guys don't really look right in a ring. In a full size standard ring.
- [60:56]
Steve Austin
It is different. Hey, here's a question for you. When you guys were trying to set up your matches, you know, I know Mondo trained, you but did Mondo stick around for the duration of all this shooting? Was he overseeing matches? Was he like a producer as a they have these days in wwe? Hey, maybe we want to try this or put this here. Or is it just you and your opponents constructing a match? Because, I mean, obviously. Oh, was it?
- [61:23]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, you know, the. The psychology that is involved in the awesome work that you see in the big leagues like wwe. It didn't exist with us because we didn't even know about it.
- [61:35]
Steve Austin
Exactly.
- [61:36]
Lisa Moretti
So we had characters. What was great about Glow was we had definite bad guys and definite good guys and we had great Las Vegas costuming. We had color glitz. You know, everything to make your character something. But when it came down to telling a story with action, physicality, nobody knew how to do that. So we just did spots after spots after spots. It didn't even make. There was no heat. There was no comeback. There was no cut you off, more heat, you know, hot tags. There was none of that because nobody taught us. And we as viewers of the guys matches on VHS tapes that we were studying weren't savvy enough to pick up on what made those matches work.
- [62:26]
Steve Austin
I know.
- [62:28]
Lisa Moretti
Missing component, you know?
- [62:29]
Steve Austin
Yeah, yeah. Because just to your point, just like, you know, I was watching so many of the matches for talking to you and remembering from back in the day. You know, you guys, you'd lock up or you'd go apart, you'd lock up and you'd go into something that of course, there's a lot of snap mares with hair, a lot of snap mares, a lot of hip tosses, low hip tosses, not the athletic hip tosses, which would come later. And then all of a sudden, you know, you'd be kind of circling around each other in the ring. You tie up, do some action, and all of a sudden you end up circling around the ring again. And then later in the match, circling around the ring again. That didn't happen every single match. But to your point, the psychology truly wasn't there at that time.
- [63:04]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah. Now we did do. Because, you know, it's funny because I'm just kind of revisiting all of this through the fans. You know, I just am a brand new Twitter person. I'm brand new to Instagram, and I did that on purpose so that I could, you know, kind of get primed and go through this thing with the fans. And they help so much to throw footage your way or pictures that stir up memories. And so I came by this old GLOW photo that we were out on the Escalator at the Riviera Hotel, mashing it out. And I thought, well, there you go. We were doing hardcore matches. We used to take it. Take the action out of the arena and go all through the Riviera Hotel beating each other up. So, you know, there you go. There's a little bit of that. And then another picture I came across was. Which jarred the memory. You know, we had the rap songs that were shot in the ring, but we also did these little rap and other music videos were a new thing on tv. Remember, music videos were, like, happening a brand new way to sell your album or your hit song. Music video. So we started doing music videos, and we had one all based around being good girls. Good girls do or good girls don't.
- [64:23]
Steve Austin
Good girls don't. Smiming pool.
- [64:25]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah.
- [64:26]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [64:26]
Lisa Moretti
And I thought to myself, oh, my God, there was my first diva photo shoot in a bikini. First ever. And I was just uncomfortable then, as I was uncomfortable way later in life with WWE doing it.
- [64:41]
Steve Austin
Are you not a still photo person? Because I've heard you talk about some of the photo shoots that you were on, but then again, I think you were on some rocks. The camera person was like, 100 yards away. And then like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, I hate still photo. And if you want to roll a camera, I'm good. But still photo, I hate. Were you like that? It seemed like you were such a nice taking pictures.
- [65:03]
Lisa Moretti
Yeah, I'm just like you. I just never feel comfortable in front of just, okay, sit there, pose, and I'll take a few pictures. I just don't like it. I like a moving camera. Capture the moment, but not the still photography. And then, of course, I just not. I do not feel like I need to express myself artistically being looked at in lingerie or in a bikini on purpose in a still photo shoot. You know, I mean, I rose to the occasion, but I gotta tell you, I think that was the most challenging effort in all of my career. I don't care who was kicking my ass in the ring. I would do that 10 times over, then stand there greased up in a thong with some guy taking a picture, you know, and then. And then you look at how. How easily it comes to, you know, Trish Stratt. She came to one of our shoots when she was brand new, and it was. Might have been, what, our second photo shoot, maybe. And it was just like, I'd sit there and watch her and go, oh, my God, she knows how to work this thing. Because she was a fitness model.
- [66:16]
Steve Austin
Well, she had so much experience. Yeah.
- [66:19]
Lisa Moretti
And she gave us all. She gave me tips that I still share with women today on little tricks of how to look good in a photo. So she would share those tips. And one of the best parts of her being so good in front of the camera was watching how hot Miss Kitty got because she wanted to be the hot one. And she was pissed. She was so pissed when Trish. Trish was so natural about it. You know, you could just see her seething. But I. I really enjoyed that.
- [66:49]
Steve Austin
All right, everybody, gimme to go home. Q. I'm gonna wrap up his podcast ride off in Sunset. But before I do that, I want to thank my guest, Lisa Moretti, also known as Ivory and as I knew her back in the GLOW days, Tina Ferrari. Taking the time and Skyping with me today. Part two of my podcast will be this Thursday. And if you want something to watch that you've never seen before, it's pretty damn cool. Go to YouTube and type in glow. Glow original 1985 pilot. I watched this the other day. I never saw the pilot before. I was a fan ever since the show started in 86. So check out and watch this original pilot, which she takes a part of along with the other women in the pilot video. And it's just. It's cool to see something that was so, man, ahead of its time back in the day. And it turned into a phenomenon. Lasted four seasons. Anyway, that's something to watch. Go Watch Glow original 1985 pilot on YouTube. And so we have Lisa Moretti coming back on the Thursday show. Before I let you go, I got to tell you guys about prowrestlingtease.com they got all my Broken Skull Ranch shirts, My badass beer, Broken Skull IPA from El Segundo Brewing Company. It's available to Whole Foods and Total Wines. If you live in Cali. If you ain't in Cali, check inside the cellar dot com. See if they ship to your state. Hey, man, I believe everybody needs a damn good pocket knife. I got two of them. You can check out either the cold steel Broken Skull knife or the new Working man knife at my new Amazon store. Amazon has the best price on both knives. Just go to Amazon.com shop steveaustin. I gotta say one more thank you to all the fine sponsors of the Steve Austin show. That's how I'm able to do this podcast for you twice a week for free. And you can find all my sponsors@podcast1.com just click on the killer deals button at the top of the page and then click on the Steve Austin show banner. Speaking of Podcast 1, the new Podcast 1 app is now available for download at the App Store or Google Play. There ain't another podcast app like this one anywhere. And that's because the new Podcast one app is loaded with some cool features that let you do a lot more than just listen to your favorite shows. You can access behind the scenes photos, articles and connect with other fans of the shows you like. And you can watch over a thousand 360 virtual reality videos. You can actually watch some of your favorite shows in virtual reality. It's like you're sitting right in the same room with them. So get to the App Store, Google Play and download the new Podcast one app. Now folks, I am on social media. If you want to follow me on Twitter or Instagram, I amAustin BSR folks, until next time, my name is Steve Austin and I will catch your ass down the road. This has been a Podcast one production. Download new episodes of the Steve Austin show every Tuesday@podcastone.com that's podcastone.com.
- [69:41]
Lisa Moretti
Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows. If I'm lying, I'm dying. This is the mindset. Free. This is the mantra.
- [69:50]
Steve Austin
Free.
- [69:50]
Lisa Moretti
This is the with movies like Interstellar Dream Girls and Gladiator, why are you not entertained? And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the fairly odd Parents and Ghosts, Pluto TV is always free. Pluto TV stream now pay never Quick
- [70:11]
Steve Austin
choose a meal deal with McValue, the five dollar McChicken meal deal, the six dollars McDouble meal deal or the new seven dollar Daily Double meal deal, each with its own small Fries drink and Four Piece McNuggets. There's actually no rush. I'm just excited for McDonald's for a limited time only.
- [70:24]
Lisa Moretti
Prices and participation may vary. Not Valder McD delivery.