By WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
Since 2007, Paul Roma’s “Glorious” audio show on ClubWWI.com has caused controversy and offered some of the most unfiltered opinions on wrestling anywhere. Now, Paul joins James Guttman for a special 90 minute edition that everyone has been waiting for.
For the first time ever, JG and Roma go through the 300 stars featured in ClubWWI.com interviews and get Paul’s personal stories about the ones he worked with. Paul speaks about Ted DiBiase’s angry response to his past comments (and some new ones), shooting on Buff Bagwell in the ring (Buff “in a word – dick”), Jacques Rougeau (“bonehead”), Erik Watts (“the less said the better”), Mr. Fuji (“like a father to me”), his backstage run-in with George Steele, the original manager of Power and Glory, and tons more including Kevin Nash, Jesse Ventura, Kamala, JJ Dillon, Bad News Brown, The Funks, The Steiners, Demolition, Nick Bockwinkel, Justin Credible, The Killer Bees, The Hebners Tony Atlas, Paul Bearer, Mabel, Ole Anderson, Sam Houston, Sivi Afi, Road Warrior Animal, Danny Davis, Nikolai Volkoff, Johnny Valiant, Shane Douglas, Jim Duggan, Mr. Fuji, Harley Race, Jimmy Hart, Don Muraco, Ronnie Garvin, Outback Jack, Honky Tonk Man, Bushwackers, Greg Valentine, One Man Gang, Rick Martel, Ron Simmons, and Many More.
One former guest that James Guttman brings up is Koko B. Ware. Easy going and fun in his ClubWWI.com interview, Ware even took the time to sing some bars of “Piledriver.” But, according to Paul, the birdman lost his feathers over something he thought Roma had said about him. It came to a head in the locker room at a WWF show…
“Had a run-in with Koko. Yeah. He was all amped up on something and he thought I said something about him. He came up to me in the locker room and said, ‘Hey, Roma. You got something to say about me?’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about, dude?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah. Yeah.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He steps back like he wants to fight me and I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m not gonna fight you.’ I said, ‘ Get the f**k out of here’, just like that to him. And he sucker punched me.
Surprised Guttman exclaims, “What?” Roma verifies.
“Yeah. In the face. So I looked at him. I just stood there. I said, ‘Dude. I’m not gonna fight you. Just f**k off.” And he punched me two more times in the face. Now if I punch someone three times in the face and they’re standing there telling me they don’t want to fight, I’m gonna apologize or get the hell out of there because obviously my punches aren’t doing shit to this guy. So he hit me like three times in the face and I said, ‘I’m not getting fired over you.’ ”
At this point, Ware pounced and Roma grabbed on.
“So I grabbed Koko in a reverse headlock and he slipped out. I went on my back and he was on top of me and I thought, ‘Aw, f**k. I’m in a bad position here. I gotta get this dude off of me.’ We stood up and I gave him a quick pop – like a jab – and startled him. I said, ‘Dude, listen. I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to lose my job.’ Because they were pushing Koko at the time. Who are (WWF management) gonna go after? The agent got in between us and (Bobby) Heenan came up to me and said, ‘I know you didn’t start anything.’ I said, ‘Bobby, I don’t want to get fired, man.’ He said, ‘Listen, you want to straighten this out? You want to settle this? I’ll go to bat for you with Vince.’ I said, ‘Fine.’ We were in Chicago and I went downstairs and started pounding on (Koko’s) door – he had a separate locker room for him and the bird – and he’s like, ‘Who is it?’ I went, ‘It’s Roma. Open the f**king door. I’m gonna kick your f**king ass.’ He’s like, ‘F**k off!’ I called him everything in the book to get him to come out. He wouldn’t come out.”
Roma explains how the story of the “fight” was changed by the next day and how agent Pat Patterson seemed to have a different account of events. Eventually it was all straightened out professionally but not personally. As the ClubWWI.com show continues, he explains the final discussion they had about it.
“I was on a plane and Koko was on it. I walked past him to the back to use the bathroom. He goes, ‘Hey, Roma. I’m sorry about what happened.’ And I go, ‘Hey. Listen, dude. You couldn’t hurt me anyway. So it’s fine. Then I went to go piss and sat back down in my seat.”