Robert Gibson Talks Training Cody Rhodes, Being Underpaid In The NWA

The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling recently interviewed Rock N' Roll Express member Robert Gibson. You can download the full episode by clicking here, they sent us these highlights:

Being a trainer for WWE and owning his own wrestling school:

When they went to Florida they closed OVW, but a lot of the guys I had the chance to work with went up to WWE. (Jack) Swagger, Kofi Kingston, I just enjoy training. I've got a training center in Douglasville, Georgia and I love the business. The stuff we did you just don't see it being done anymore. I used to do a flying head scissor, you just don't see anybody doing that. Now, I've got some good "boys" up here that are doing real good. After they get through throwing up for a couple of days they are ready to go.

Inspiration behind the look of the Rock N' Roll Express:

Back then, when we first started we went and got some rock and roll magazines and we would see how the rock and rollers were dressing and we just made it our own. They kept us so busy that we didn't have time to think about what was going on. We were in different towns every night and flying every day and going nine months without a day off.

Did they feel underpaid while in Jim Crocket Promotions:

We should have made more then what we did. When we first went there they said the territory was down but I never saw a bad house while I was there. We seemed like we broke records everywhere we went. Records that Crocket Promotions had for fifty years we broke the first week in. Raleigh, North Carolina our first night there it was $48,000 and it broke the record that Ric Flair and Blackjack Mulligan had, they had only $27,000 there. When we had 48 Dusty called a meeting and said that it was like Babe Ruth and that the record would never be broken, two weeks later back in the doors at the arena in Raleigh, North Carolina we didn't only break that record we took it from 48 to $68,000. After that we had a gate that was up to $72,000. Before you knew it, Crocket was buying jet-planes. By the time we left it seemed like the territory just sort of faded away. I don't think (Ric) Flair or Dusty were ever upset with us. I just remember after they bought out Verne Gagne, Dusty went to Baltimore and they left me and Ricky against The Barbarian and somebody else to main event in Charlotte. They did something like $27,000 up there and we did something like $110,000 with nobody except us and underneath guys. Dusty then called us in the office and said "Boys, there are two things you don't do in this territory and it's sell out The Coliseum when I am not on the card. It was crazy, we were so just over.

Memories of teaming with Dusty Rhodes and helping training Cody Rhodes:

Dusty was fun to be around. He did a lot for the business. He is an icon everybody knows. My hats off to him. I remember when we had six man tag matches and when he would get in the ring and he'd say "Brother, tie one of those bandannas around me". You never stop learning in this business. Dusty told me before he passed that he appreciated what I did with helping train Cody. Cody was good then and he has gone on to be really good.

Wrestling in a Scaffold Match and any being pitched the concept:

I didn't say no because I wasn't scared of heights, but at first there was no way I was going up there. Back then they just kind of threw the thing together and it looked kind of dangerous. In Chicago, I hit Dennis (Condrey) over the head with the iron rail that was up top and when I fell up against the rail it wasn't hooked and it opened up and I almost fell into the crowd. If you ever see that tape, that rod; I grabbed it and hit him but when I did it took my left index fingernail off and blood was going everywhere and I was hitting Dennis with that damn rod but really I was lucky I didn't fall into the third row or something out there.