The Fink Factor: June 5, 2014

With “The Fink Factor,” I will strive to expound on a few items from each week’s episode of “WWE Legends’ House,” and drop some choice tidbits here and there from my overall experience. Without further ado …

What an episode Week 8’s edition of “Legends’ House” was. It certainly covered the gamut as it related to the good, the bad and the ugly, that’s for sure.

• Let’s start off with the roast of Roddy Piper. Three comedians came to the house to assist us  in our preparation, which I kind of resented. In my opinion, one of the beauties of this house’s inhabitants was that the majority of us were quick on our feet. My goodness, we had an assemblage of some the very best talkers in our industry. So I felt that although they were good guys, the writers were excess baggage.  As I said to one of the writers, “If I bomb, I bomb. I’m just going to have fun and go with the flow.” I couldn’t be any more honest than that!

• The roast itself was a lot of fun, enhanced by the surprise appearance of The Iron Sheik. Sheik is the most imitated man in our industry, and, in actuality, he’s a very lovable and humble guy. To have him up on the dais with us put smiles on all of our faces.  Everyone took their best shots at Roddy, and he in turn fired back. I knew that I was tanking when I got up there, so – not wanting to replicate Jimmy Hart’s performance – I called an audible and started knocking myself in the process.  Afterward, my “writing coach” thought that I “killed it” due to my veering off-course; it became funny to see me beating myself up.

• The good mood changed drastically over dinner and the bonding that we were all so positive about threatened to come apart at the seams. Walking on egg shells? Understatement! A comment made at me by Gene Okerlund set me off, which in turn got Roddy upset at me, and we revisited the “captain’s seat” incident from a previous episode. Thankfully, cooler heads finally prevailed.

• After that incident, emotions were starting to show, especially from Pat Patterson. Pat made a lot of sense in what he was saying, and I felt that my dear friend and “Legends’ House” roommate was so ready to shed his skin for the world to see.

• When I watched the conversation between Tony Atlas and Jimmy Hart, my eyes watered up with tears.  I never knew how much pain Jimmy lives with over the loss of his daughter. We’ve all had the pleasure and good fortune to have entertained all of you through the years.  When that red light on the camera goes on, we’re doing what we all love to do. Yet we’ve all had our ups and downs in life, just like anyone else.

• The dinner gathering was a blessing in disguise for all of us. Voices were heard and emotions were tested. What came out of it? For now, let’s just say that the next episode will be one that you do not want to miss!

Thanks for reading. Be back next week.