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Lodi Speaks On WCW Politics, Hate From The Hardyz, His Broken Neck &
More
Story By: Daniel Edler
May 02, 2004

Show: The Interactive Interview (Courtesy of ProWrestling.com)
Guest: Lodi aka Brad Cain
Date: 29th April
Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh
Recap by: James Walsh

You knew him as a member of the Flock in WCW! You knew him as one of
the most controversial characters in WCW history when part of the West
Hollywood Blondes! Now know him as the latest guest on The Interactive
Interview! He's Brad Cain. He's LODI!

Back with a vengeance is the Interactive Interview as we give you an
hour plus interview with one of wrestling's most underrated talents of
all time!

Lodi

-- Lodi's been recovering from a broken neck. In May of 2002, he had
surgery on the injury. Basically, it's the same injury a lot of the
guys have had as he cites Edge, Benoit, and Taz as a few to suffer the
"common place" injury. After 18 months off, he returned to the ring in
December of 2003 and feels comfortable in there.

-- Lodi doesn't know exactly how he broke his neck. He just felt like
had had no strength in his arm in the gym. He'd had neck problems in
1994 and knew this was along the same lines so he went in for an MRI
and the next morning he was on the operating table.

-- The injury itself hit at a bad time. He had things going on with CW
Anderson, he was working for the WWA, and had signed a contract with
NWA TNA so when he was put on the shelf, he had several things going
well for him. But, it's going well now and says once again, he's back!

-- He grew up in North Carolina watching Mid Atlantic and the NWA
stuff. He then names many of his favorites including Nakita Koloff,
Magnum TA, Ric Flair, all the guys he'd see on Saturday morning. He
was a huge wrestling fan.

-- Lodi always dreamed of being a wrestler. He went to college and
became a personal trainer. One day, someone walked in to his facility
and wanted to know if he would sponsor a local wrestling show. Lodi
agreed and the guy looking for promotion noticed Lodi was a pretty big
guy so he mentioned his trainer needed to get in better shape and in
exchange he'd train him (Lodi) for wrestling. That trainer ended up
being CW Anderson.

-- Lodi puts over CW as being a good friend and someone he owes more
than he could ever repay.

-- A year and a half after being trained by CW, he was brought to the
Power Plant. At the Power Plant, he was trained by Sgt. Buddy Lee
Parker, Mike Water, "Pistol" Pez Watler. But, hanging out with Raven
ended up teaching him quite a bit about psychology.

-- Before going to the Power Plant, Lodi worked on the independent
circuit with guys like the Hardy Boys, CW Anderson, Joey Abs, and
others.

-- When asked about goofy characters he played before hitting WCW TV,
he mentions the character Raizen Cain. Brad's real last name is Cain
and CW thought calling him Raizen Cain would translate to Terror
Rising. But, that didn't work. When he went to the Power Plant, he
worked as Brad Cain. But, once he joined the Flock, he had the look of
Billy Idol but no name. Billy Idol owns that name and look combination
so he had to come up with a name. He and Terry Taylor collaborated and
came up with the name Lodi since it's Idol spelled backwards.

-- Joining the Flock came hand in hand with meeting Raven. About a
month after going to the Power Plant, Lodi was at the WCW tapings in
Universal Studios. A friend of his knew Raven and knew Raven happened
to need a personal trainer at the time. It all fell into place and
Lodi became Raven's personal trainer which eventually became his
personal assistant. So, the lacky character he played on TV was sort
of the way it was in real life!

-- Raven came up with the idea of Lodi carrying signs to the ring
which, Lodi admits, was an obvious rip off of Sign Guy Dudley. He
feels bad that he ripped off Louie's gimmick so bad but because Raven
helped come up with it for Louie to begin with, it wasn't so bad. He
thinks Lou has forgiven him.

-- He saw a lot of politics in WCW. He says take what you hear on the
Internet with a grain of salt, but some of what you hear is true
especially if you hear the same story over and over. He says whoever
has the pen rises to the top which is human nature to push yourself to
the top. But, Lodi had the book in TCW owned by Dusty Rhodes. Lodi
told Dusty he'd be the first booker to run himself into the ground.
So, he booked himself in the first and second match on every card even
when Dusty wanted him to be a part of the main event.

-- He feels the Flock was held back. He says the problem was the Flock
was a heel group as was the NWO. Well, Hogan wasn't a part of the
Flock, he wouldn't let it surpass the success of the NWO. But, he
feels the quarter hours don't lie. But, the politics in WCW kept the
same 12 guys at the top and they'd never mingle with the guys who were
not in that group of 12. He then says to thank God that guys that were
at the top of the roster below that top 12, Eddie Guerrero and Chris
Benoit, are now champions in the WWE. "There is a God somewhere!"

-- He isn't sure if ending the Flock at Fall Brawl 1998 was a good or
bad thing for the guys. He feels it made sense for him to continue to
follow Raven since his character was so based on Raven but the other
guys didn't really amount to much without that group after it. Kidman
broke out and became something but some of the others didn't really
find themselves at the center of TV time after it.

-- We then do word associations with individual members of the Flock!

Van Hammer: He can't think of Van Hammer without remembering the Van
Hammer character coming out with the guitar. He feels Hammer was a
great wrestler and never got enough credit for as good as he was. Some
of his favorite matches of his own career were against Hammer.

Sick Boy: Sick Boy was his first partner on the road if it wasn't
Raven. He said a one-word answer for Sick Boy would be
"misunderstood." He feels he was talented but was looking to be a star
without being a part of the whole Flock thing first. He says Raven
always said, "The push will go to your head when you're young, Kid."
But, Lodi feels that is understandable because when you're 2 years in
to your career and 40,000 people are chanting "Lodi Sucks" at you,
your first thought is "I'm doing something right! I'm over!" As for
Sick Boy currently, he doesn't keep in very close contact with him but
the last he heard, he bought a house in Atlanta with his wife and was
going to leave the wrestling business.

Scotty Riggs: Riggs was like Saturn in that he had a problem with his
initial reaction from the fans. He feels Riggs was a bit mad that he
went from being the center of a tag team and a tag champion with Buff
Bagwell to being a part of a Flock and not being the center of
attention. But, he eventually understood and he really got to get
along with him when he was working with him in TCW.

Billy Kidman: Kidman is one of the funniest men he ever met in his
life. "Kidman is funny without trying to be funny," said Lodi. Lodi
says the best thing he ever saw Kidman do was when Kidman travelled
with Disco, they fought all the time. One time Kidman got in a fight
with Disco and stuffed him in a pull out couch and folded it up with
Disco inside and started jumping up and down on it like a little kid.
"It was the greatest thing ever!"

Perry Saturn: Great talent. He was someone that tried to show him how
green he really was. But, at the time Lodi was a brash young kid that
thought he deserved to be where he was. He knows differently now.

Raven: One of the most intelligent men he's ever met. They argue all
the time. An all day argument for them could be "The sky is blue
today" and the other would say "No, it's light blue today." That said,
they have the same birth date and are both Virgos so they have a lot
of the same problems.

Still on Raven, Lodi adds something he read on the Internet about some
fan saying they wouldn't pay $10 to see Raven. Lodi feels anybody that
makes that statement either has never seen Raven work or simply don't
know a thing about psychology.

-- It's tough to say his opinion on Internet marks. He feels the
biggest problem is the Internet marks don't understand or appreciate
psychology. He talks about reviewing a show with two guys flipping
around and no psychology at all getting 5 star reviews and then Jack
Victory against Ricky Morton getting called boring when it was
incredible psychology but not as much flopping around. Lodi then
points out you have to have variety in a show. A big man match, a
psychology filled match, a flip around match, but you cannot have
nothing but flipping matches. Another thing about flipping and high
fly matches is nobody sells. He says Raven gets on guys for not
selling and he's right.

-- Lodi puts over The Interactive Interview's chronological order!

-- Lenny Lane and Lodi weren't really good friends before they started
their gimmick together. They just shook hands a few times. So, one day
Lenny approaches Lodi and asked what he was doing on the show lately.
Lodi wasn't really doing anything too high profile and Lenny was more
or less being used as enhancement talent except for a brief gimmick
with Jericho. Well, he started pitching him this idea where they'd
team up. Lodi didn't see it at first and Lenny kept proposing it and
said "almost like that ambiguously gay duo on Saturday Night Live."
Lodi dismissed the idea as being just chit chat and jokingly said put
it in writing. At the next TV taping, Lenny came up with the idea in
writing and the first thing it says on the page is, "This Is Not a Gay
Act." Lodi didn't think Nash, the booker at the time, would even look
at it. But, Lenny talked Lodi into showing Nash and Nash pretty much
said to stop wasting his time as Lodi thought he would. A bit later,
Lodi was in West Hollywood when he got a phone call from Ross Foreman
saying Nash was going to call. Nash called 5 minutes later and had him
pack his stuff as they were going to run with the gimmick Lenny
proposed. "There you have it! The birth of the West Hollywood
Blondes!"

-- Lodi was pissed over GLAAD's response. Gay & Lesbians Alliance
Against Defamation was the organization that ultimately got Lenny and
Lodi pulled. Lodi keeps the article that was in many of the top
newspapers including the USA Today posted on his refrigerator as a
reminder. The first complaint by GLAAD was the fact that WCW kept
showing scenes of Lenny and Lodi being beaten up. "Well, we have an
ongoing show so we don't show the same match over and over," said
Lodi. They also said Lenny was announced to the crowd along with his
"gay homosexual tag team partner" which, of course, wasn't true. They
were "brothers!" The thing that ticked him off the most was GLAAD's
saying they'd prefer an established wrestler come out of the closet
and admit he's gay. Lodi feels he was established at the time and so
was Lenny so they were not exactly two rookies coming out and doing
the gimmick. They both had been on TV for a few years prior.

-- He feels WCW just folded under pressure and didn't go to bat for
them at all. "I would've liked to have seen them at least try," said
Lodi. Instead, he and Lenny were sent home for 6 months under the
concept that they would come up with a new gimmick for them. But,
Standards & Practices shot down every gimmick WCW proposed and WCW
wasn't letting them out of their contracts.

-- WCW wouldn't let Lenny or Lodi out of their contracts and Paul
Heyman was very eager to sign them as was the WWE. Paul himself talked
to them and the Hardy Boys told them Jim Ross wanted them in the WWE.
But, WCW wouldn't let them go at the time and so they sat and waited.

-- "You boys do that better than anybody I know. But you can't tell me
one of you didn't end up on the wrong end of a blow job," said Arn
Anderson about the West Hollywood Blondes gimmick. As for Billy and
Chuck, Lodi feels it was an obvious rip off right down to the blow
pops. The problem was neither Billy or Chuck could act. He feels if
you work on that level, you can't act like you're in on the joke.

-- "It wasn't just chance that we were doing 4.5 and 4.6 while Hulk
Hogan was doing 1.5 or 1.2 with Eric Bischoff. Numbers don't lie,"
says Lodi about the ratings the West Hollywood Blondes received.

-- Harlem Heat was to drop the tag belts to them at Halloween Havoc
but because they got the axe, it never came to be.

-- Stacey Keibler was absolutely lost when it came to wrestling. He
remembers working with her as part of Standards & Practices and she
was supposed to come down and dance on the cue of the suplex. Well,
the first bump of the match, she came out and did the dance. Her
dancing was supposed to be the home spot where they'd get the win but
everything got so jumbled because she didn't get her cue. So, Lodi
complained to the office and now looks back and says "Did Lodi make a
good decision or did Lodi make a bad decision? Where is Stacey
Keibler? Where is Lodi?" So, he admits he was wrong.

-- Lodi feels Standards & Practices, his tag team, was "crap." He
doesn't believe it was over at all.

-- Vince Russo is someone he has to explain the problem with as
1wrestling recently posted a "retro interview with Lodi."

-- Lenny and Lodi were contacted several times by Vince Russo about
ideas he had for their characters and kept trying to get things passed
by the actual Turner Standards & Practices. What was decided on was
Lenny and Lodi would be Standards & Practices. So, they pitch the
idea. David Flair and Crowbar were to lay them out and because of
that, Lenny and Lodi would suspend them the next show because they
have the "power of the pen" and could do so for jumping them. So, Lodi
doesn't want to do it but Lenny talks him into it. They do it, Crowbar
and Flair attack and leave them laying. Next show, Lodi looks at the
show schedule, they're not on. But, Crowbar & Flair are and they're
going to win the tag titles. So, they were told Crowbar and Flair
couldn't be fired because they were getting the belts. But, Mike
Rotunda and Kevin Sullivan would beat them up and they could fire
THEM. They do it, they go to the next show, and they're not firing
them. So, there you have it. Their characters are shot and Lodi says
"you're screwing me and my career."

-- As for Vince Russo directly, if Vince ever sits him down and talks
to him about this, Lodi would listen. But, he would like an
explanation.

-- When they were brought back, they didn't have names for them. Lodi
didn't feel name changes were needed because they changed the looks.
They dyed Lenny's hair and cut Lodi's. So, the initial idea was to use
Idol. But, Idol was copyrighted by Billy Idol with the look. But, Lodi
didn't look like Billy Idol anymore so he didn't think it would be a
problem. But, they changed it. So, they decided to just call Lenny
"Lane" since it was always his last name but someone suggested
"Rave"
for Lodi because it's like Raven. This entire transaction took place
in the tunnel on the way to the ring seconds prior to them going live
on TV. That's how disorganized the company had gotten.

-- Lodi and Lenny showed up at 2 for the show one day as is standard.
When Lodi first started working for WCW, the board with the schedule
of what was to take place that evening was up by 2:30 at the very
latest. As things became more and more disorganized, it started to
become 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so forth. One day at 15 minutes to 8 when
the show went live, there was still no board up. Arn Anderson, a road
agent at the time, came in the locker room and told everyone to get
dressed. They didn't know who was going to work but told everyone to
get dressed. Here is a company that had millions of fans waiting all
over the world believing this company was organized and they were to
get a great wrestling show and there is the locker room wondering who
is going to wrestle that night sitting in the dressing room.

-- Lodi got his release when Lenny hurt his knee. Lodi didn't want to
sit at home again while Lenny recovered and offered to show up at the
shows and do whatever they wanted but WCW felt it would be best to
just bring them back as a team when Lenny was ready. So, Lenny was
ready and called Lodi to tell him so. Then, Brad Siegel calls and
tells Lodi they can no longer afford to pay his salary so he is being
let go. Lodi tried to accept lower pay but they weren't working with
him.

-- He wasn't really surprised at the sale of WCW because the product
had gone down so much in quality.

-- Lodi then started working with Dusty Rhodes in TCW. Dusty taught
Lodi more in a short time than he ever had in wrestling.

-- Sonny Siaki, Glacier, DDP, Kanyon, and several others showed up
fairly regularly at the TCW shows. He really enjoyed working there. As
for why it stopped, it required a lot of money to run the shows
without TV. Yes, they did videos and such but it would take a lot to
pay for top quality guys like Dusty was working with. But, he feels it
was a great show!

-- Lodi is back in the ring and ready to roll now! He contacted Raven
who is speaking with Jeff Jarrett about bringing Lodi to NWA TNA and
is booked every weekend from now until June. But, you can check his
schedule and possibly book Lodi yourself if you go to his official
website located at http://www.lodirulz.com.

-- We then wrap up with word associations of The Hardy Boys, Sting,
Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, Lenny Lane, &
More!


--- Internet Rex 2.29