Show: Wrestling Epicenter
Guest: Brad “Lodi” Cain
Date: 08/25/2020
Your Host: James Walsh

Brad “Lodi” Cain is a very interesting guy. Just weeks after his appearance on Talk N Shop A Mania on pay-per-view, we talked to the former WCW star from Raven’s Flock and tag partner of Lenny Lane about where he’s been these past 15 years or so. He discusses his WCW time, the wild road life, and spells out exactly why he still isn’t a fan of GLAAD and how WCW and Turner folded to their demands. This is a fun chat with a good man!

Lodi’s wrestling school is called Your Flex Appeal! and is located in the wrestling town of Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find out more at www.YourFlexAppeal.com.

To listen, visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com.

• Click Here to Check Out the Wrestling Epicenter!

Lodi :

On his recent appearance on the Talk N Shop A Mania PPV:
“Oh, you know, man, that was great! Any time i get the chance to reunite with my Flock mates – Be it Sick Boy, Reece (Ron Reis), or Raven, it is fun for me. To be around everyone that were at Talk N Shop A Mania, I’m friends with a lot of those cats. To be able to go out there without any office politics and just have fun was great. The responses I’ve seen online from those who knew what they were getting into, they were entertained. If you can have a good time and make the fans happy to, that’s a good thing!”

On his favorite moments of the PPV:
“(laughs) (David) Penzer always has a way of coming up with one liners. When he was standing there and said, “Man, I thought Sturgis sucked!” (laughs!) That was one of my favorite parts of the pay-per-view. Just being there in Luke (Gallows) backyard and having fun… You probably know this line but some might not – Tommy Dreamer put this up. “If you can pop the boys, it will pop the fans.” I think everyone involved in that PPV had fun doing it and the fans that knew what it was all about loved it – And they’re talking about doing a Talk N Shop A Mania 2, so, I think it was a success!”

On looking in better shape now than when he was in WCW:
“You say I’m in great shape and I love hearing that. But, I wrestle almost every weekend. Before COVID kicked in, I was working every weekend sometimes two and three times occasionally. When COVID kicked in, I lost 16 shows right off the bat. Financially, that is a kick in the teeth. Emotionally, though my body probably appreciates not traveling and taking those bumps, emotionally that is part of my life… Back to being in shape, I wrestle nearly every weekend and I am so thankful that the fans are still willing to pay to see me and that the promoters still bring me in. You’ve seen guys that have wrestled way past their prime and they don’t keep in shape – They start wearing T shirts and sweatpants. I have a thing I say with my friends, “If I don’t look the part, I need to quit.” That is something I tell the kids at my school about wrestling – And you can argue all sides of this. But, you can’t argue that if you look the part, even if you’re not a big fan of body guys, you’ve got a leg up. So, i can preach looking the part to these kids and not look the part myself.”

On starting his wrestling academy “Your FLEX Appeal”:
“A lot of people don’t know this but in 2017, I had my third neck surgery. I’m now fused all the way from C3 down to C2. That is a pretty long fusion to go all the way down… I was told in 1994, after my first neck surgery, I’d never lift weights again. I was told after my second neck surgery in 2002, I would never wrestle again. I came back. And in 2017, the doctor said, “Absolutely not!” I came back 9 months later. Some people say, “Is that a smart thing?” I never claimed to be super hyper intelligent. But, wrestling is in my blood. I don’t know what I would do without it. I have a wrestling school now. We’ve had this going for about 2 years now. I’ve run different wrestling schools over the years. I ran Dusty Rhodes school down in Marietta, Turnbuckle (Championship Wrestling). I trained some at Highspots back in 2012, 2013 and helped Ashley Flair (Charlotte) get started. That was something I loved to do, James, because I was blessed throughout my career to be around guys that are legends in their own right. From Dusty Rhodes to Nakita Koloff to Jake “The Snake” Roberts to Raven to DDP – All these guys took time to pour into me that knowledge and for me not to help out and share that knowledge would be a waste – Especially in the case of someone like Dream (Dusty Rhodes) that is gone.”

On looking at his 50th birthday coming up in just a few weeks:
“You know who I share a birthday with? This is going to blow you away. It blew us away when we found out. I’ve never put a lot into Astrological signs. I’m a believer in my lord and savior Jesus Christ. There was a guy in my wrestling career that I argued with all the time over the smallest things. After 6 or 7 months, guys started saying, “You know why you guys butt heads so much? You’re too much alike!” So, I was talking to this guy and I said, “Hey, what are you getting me for my birthday in a couple of weeks?” He said, “You’re birthday? What are you getting me for my birthday?” It turns out we were both born on September 8th. Raven!”

On if the wild stories about the Flock’s road life are true:
“Absolutely. I make no qualms about what I did in my past life. As a young man, I was a very strong Christian and I did get far away from my walk with the Lord for a while and did some horrific things. I truly believe the reason I am not dead is because he wants me to help some people to avoid the pitfalls I went through. And, I never want to glamorize that lifestyle because I don’t want any kid to think, “I can go party for a few years and then turn my life around like Lodi and be OK.” None of us are promised tomorrow. And, there were nights and I say this with all honesty and part of it is embarrassing, there were nights with my drug use that I thought I would be waking up in a hospital or I might not wake up at all. As for the hilarious stuff – I’ve never made it through a full Hangover movie. I get about 30 minutes to an hour in and I go, “That’s tame! That’s nothing compared to what we used to do in Vegas!” (laughs) That is not bragging. But, the things we did and got away with because of who we were was like Animal House and The Hangover times 20! You’ve talked to Raven or Saturn or Scotty Riggs, and I’ve actually listened to some of their interviews, they actually censor some of the things that we did! (laughs) I have been through college, I was in the military. But, that period in the late 90’s into the 2000’s in WCW – It amazed me how we got beyond rockstar treatment.”

On how big WCW was in the late 90’s:
“Every city we were in, all the NFL players came to watch us! All the Major League Baseball players came to watch us. One story, and I absolutely love him to death for this, back when Karl Malone came in and did the thing with DDP and Rodman and Hogan. I was walking through the concourse – I’m sure I was hung over and I wasn’t sober, I was going to the locker room. Karl was there taking a picture with one of the WCW guys and I walked behind the photographer to avoid getting in the way of the picture. Karl goes, “Lodi, Lodi. Can I get a picture with you?” I kind if snickered. “Sure, Karl, that will be great!” The photographer was Ross Forman, a good friend of mine who used to edit the WCW Magazine and now is with Impact. Karl said, “I’m having 2 of these done, I’ll sign one and send it to you, could you sign the other and send it to me? That is Karl with a K” (laughs) Everyone knows it is Karl with a K! I use that as just an example. But, every town we went to, that is what it was like! It was like a whole fantasy camp, you know?”

On if he felt the Flock could have been as big as the nWo:
“Absolutely. I bet if you lined all 8 or 9 of us up and asked us, we would all have the same answer for the night we knew the writing was on the wall. And, I give Raven full credit for this. Raven had a character for all of us – For me, for Riggs, for Sick Boy, for Hammer, for Saturn, for Reis, for Kidman. For whatever reason, Kidman played his character great. His wrestling was great but his character work was good too. Lodi was a good character but wasn’t the best wrestler – He did whatever Raven told him to do. And, he (Raven) basically turned Lodi into the old Johnny Polo. We know that, right? All the things he was doing in the WWF as Johnny Polo, I was doing. Well, not everyone wanted to play their character. Some of the guys wanted to be the cool guy and the cool guy was Raven. So, we walked out, us 9 guys, and the one with the worst win-loss record in the group, which was me – the cheerleader, had 20,000 people chanting “Lodi Sucks, Lodi Sucks!” It wasn’t “Reis Sucks”, it wasn’t “Riggs Sucks.” And, I had some heat with Riggs and Saturn for a while because they were upset that my character was getting over a little bit better than they were and I hadn’t put in that much time in the business. But, one night towards the end of the Flock, and I can’t remember if we were working Benoit or who it was, we came back through the curtain and the crowd was hot. They were throwing cups and garbage in the ring and chanting “Lodi Sucks!” And, (Eric) Bischoff and (Hulk) Hogan were standing there. Hogan looked at me and said, “Well, that was cool, kid!” And everyone looked at me and said, “Good job, Lodi. You just got us fired.” It was right after that they started saying, “Yeah, we need to start breaking up this Flock thing.” It was because they wanted one bad guy group and it was going to be the nWo.”

On his heat with Saturn:
“At one point, Raven was having to keep Saturn from trying to kill me. Because, I was green. I was so green, I was blue and yellow! But, I had no idea how green I was. Hey, I was on the indies for 2 years. I was somebody, right? I didn’t know! Raven would tell me, “You know, I’m having to stop Saturn from beating you up every night.” Those guys had worked 10, 12, 15 years to get where they were. And then there’s this upstart kid who is a goof and he’s getting over better than they are. I totally get it. I understand it all now. But, at the time? I didn’t get it. But, now, right in front of me, those guys will say, “You know, that Lodi character? He was so over!” That is always cool to hear. And, it is always cool to have that kind of deal with the fans.”

On Eric Bischoff:
“Eric Bischoff dealt with the top guys. I didn’t really talk that much to him, James, to be honest. There was one time, with Lenny and Lodi, he said “Can I talk to you for a second” and told us a few things. That was a really big deal for him. He just told us to tone it down some. We thought he was kidding! That was the West Hollywood Blonde stuff. But, he didn’t really talk to us much about our Flock stuff. I know that Raven probably talked to him a little more than we did.”

On the Saturn/Raven match from Fall Brawl 1998:
“That is required watching for any of my students. I would love to sit down and talk to anyone who says they hated that match if they knew the story going in and that it was the culmination of a 2 and a half, almost 3 year deal there with Saturn trying to split us up and me wanting to stay. This is why it is required watching for my students and it is not so much that I was in it or what I did. It is the fact that the fans reacted to every false finish from half way on – Whether it was Raven getting pinned or Saturn, those cats came out of their seats! They were emotionally invested in what was going on. If you haven’t watched it recently, go back and watch the last 5 minutes. Don’t even watch the match. Just watch the fans and how they react – Watch them stand up and sit down! You just don’t get that anymore because they’re not emotionally invested, I don’t think. I know you hear old timers all the time, “I don’t like this or that.” I get the evolution of the business with the acrobatics, the flippy floppy, and the smaller athletes. I get that the business has changed some. That doesn’t mean that I have to like it! I want to be emotionally invested in something. When I watch Rocky IV, I want to watch Rocky get up and knock Drago out!”

On if he still is as angry as he was in 2003 about GLAAD killing the Lenny & Lodi push:
“You know, I probably stand by everything I said back then because the 5 things they said about Lenny and Lodi, none of them were true. I’m not sure we went through them back then but I’m sure we did. First, they said we never won a match. How did we never win a match if Lenny was the Cruiserweight Champion? And, retained the belt! He actually never lost it. They actually gave it to Psicosis and said he won it at a house show that we never did! He never lost the belt! And, we were scheduled to take on Harlem Heat at the next pay per view and possibly get the tag straps! Another thing was if it were put onto two characters that were well known but for it (the persona) to be put on two new characters that were brand new and unknown, they didn’t like. Well, I had been on TV for 2 years and Lenny was on TV for longer than I had. And, again, they listed 5 things. Another of the 5 was they said that in every arena, Lenny was announced as my “Homosexual partner.” We never used the word ‘homosexual” in any arena. Not by the announcers, not in the arena. It never happened! There was one episode that we got in trouble. At the end of our vignette, we walked off and the camera panned back to the door we were in and it said “Closet.” GLAAD did not like that and got upset with AOL/Time Warner. They were told that we’re a weekly, episodic show and that we would never air that episode again. Well, another of the 5 things was GLAAD said they were told it would never air again and they said WCW continually kept airing this episode! We didn’t do that! That was the thing, they were mad about all these things and none of them were too. And then, AOL/Time Warner, they just backed down to the small interest group instead of looking into these things and seeing if there was any validity at all.”

On his team with Lenny:
“I’ve had lots of tag team partners. You can’t just make the kind of chemistry that Lenny and I had in the ring. It works for opponents also – Flair and Steamboat just had chemistry. We did a tour overseas with World Wrestling All-Stars (in 2001) and we just reconnected here last year (2019) for the big WrestleCade show they do in Winston Salem. I will always profess this. You can’t create that kind of chemistry just because you want to. For Lenny and I, two guys who didn’t know each other, didn’t hang out, didn’t grow up together to then be tag team partners, travel together, ride in the car together… Getting along out of the ring spilled over into the ring. I’ve talked about this recently some. Obviously we had some things we did that we knew would work but a lot of things that we did that people said, “That was cool” and that worked we came up with on the fly. It just happened! I know this sounds crazy but we would just give each other a look and we knew where we were going. It just came across as good TV!”