Life In Pro-Wrestling
Chapter One: Harley Race, Vince McMahon, Lanny Poffo, Ken Shamrock and Bill Eadie
#PWHS #StorytimeOnSunday #SOS #Article #WGD #LifeInProWrestling
Harley Race - Defending the Title Against "Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime."
“Probably the most grueling trip I ever made in defending the title was when I defended it twice on a Friday night - the first time in Tokyo, Japan and the second in St .Louis on that same Friday night because we gained a day coming back from Tokyo.
I flew right out of St. Louis the following morning and wrestled Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico on that Saturday.
It was a nightmare sometimes...but I’d love to do it all over again...!”
Vince McMahon - Sex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
"You have to understand back in the 1980s what the wrestling business was. Some wrestlers had difficulty dealing with success in an ego-driven business. We are in the entertainment business and I would suggest in that era, it was literally sex, drugs and rock and roll. You could compare us to a rock and roll band in the early '80s. The performers were making exorbitant amounts of money.
Not all of them took steroids.
But, later, if you added prescription painkillers to the mix of sex, drugs and rock and roll, it was a deadly cocktail. For some, habits never changed. They continued with the same lifestyle. You can't do that at age 40..."
Lanny "The Genius" Poffo - I'm No Coal Miner!
“Probably the most grueling trip I ever made in defending the title was when I defended it twice on a Friday night - the first time in Tokyo, Japan and the second in St .Louis on that same Friday night because we gained a day coming back from Tokyo.
I flew right out of St. Louis the following morning and wrestled Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico on that Saturday.
It was a nightmare sometimes...but I’d love to do it all over again...!”
Vince McMahon - Sex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
"You have to understand back in the 1980s what the wrestling business was. Some wrestlers had difficulty dealing with success in an ego-driven business. We are in the entertainment business and I would suggest in that era, it was literally sex, drugs and rock and roll. You could compare us to a rock and roll band in the early '80s. The performers were making exorbitant amounts of money.
Not all of them took steroids.
But, later, if you added prescription painkillers to the mix of sex, drugs and rock and roll, it was a deadly cocktail. For some, habits never changed. They continued with the same lifestyle. You can't do that at age 40..."
Lanny "The Genius" Poffo - I'm No Coal Miner!
"I never missed a shot and I always made sure I got my rest. See, a lot of these guys stay up all night drinking, partying, doing whatever they did, oxy continen, [OxyContin] or whatever they take, that led to premature death all the time.
I thought that the schedule wasn't that bad.
You fly to the town, you get to the gym, you get your rest, you work.
Trust me, one time I was in Manchester, Kentucky, and there was a coal miner with black on his face, and he says, 'Isn't wrestling a tough life?'
I said, 'You're a coal miner! I couldn't last one day in a coal mine! Wrestling is cake!"
Ken Shamrock - Why Wrestling Is Harder Than MMA
"I think that pro wrestling is one of the toughest things to achieve at in the world.
There is so many variables that you have to do... you gotta be an athlete, you gotta be a stuntman. You’ve got to be able to remember things and as you're remembering things you got to be able to act in different ways: up or down, sad or excited.
There is just so many things to it.
The differences in training for MMA versus training for wrestling? Umm, I think rest (laughs), you get a lot more sleep [as a fighter]. When you're a wrestler, you're traveling on the road all the time.
That’s definitely a huge difference. If you're a fighter, you actually get an opportunity to set your schedule, get up and train and eat properly and then go train and then you have your fight and its all laid out. You get to do your interviews and boom - there’s the fight.
Where in the WWE, you're up on a plane, fly to a certain place, drive to five different other places. You don’t get a lot of rest, your diet isn’t very good...it's like being a rock and roll star!"
Bill Eadie (The Masked Superstar / Demolition Ax) - Split Personality!
"I really enjoyed the anonymity of wearing a mask.
Honest to goodness, Ric Flair and Blackjack Mulligan would go to a restaurant and couldn’t even eat a meal. I’d be two tables over from them and nobody knew who I was.
It was great. I could take my wife and kids to the amusement park and have a good time and never be recognized.
I could be two people.
Once I got down the road, I would take the mask off and I’d be ‘me.’ When I was wrestling I was the ‘other guy.’
Believe it or not...people didn’t want me to take the mask off. They didn’t want to know what I looked like. There was a lot of mystery behind it…people could see my eyes and use their imaginations beyond that.
With all the trips, and all the travel, I was glad I did it when I was young. You know, at that time I was always striving and wanting to be successful. But things get blurry sometimes, because some of the things that you are thinking are successful really aren’t that worthwhile.
On the road, you're up early and training. The rest of the world is sleeping and you’re still traveling. People aren’t even up and you’re doing a TV show. Then you get in the car and get a cheap hamburger and a drink, and go to the next town.
It’s hard work. The guy out there digging a ditch is not working any harder than you are…[but] he gets to go home at night. Then you throw in the fact that something is always needing to be done at home…and of course you’re not there to do it which grinds on you.
But I have had a great wife…she really raised my kids, and did an excellent job, without a doubt. She’s still with me, and has put up with all my idiosyncrasies and my bad habits.
As I was driving down the highway I would see people cooking on the grill and diving in their own pool or laying back fishing…I would think, ‘Man, I wish I was doing that.’ But when fans would come to the arena that night and see you wrestle, they would also say, ‘Man, I wish I was doing THAT..’
One time I worked fifty-two weeks straight, seven days a week. I broke my ankle in Savannah - I went out of the ring and my left ankle hit the top rope and boomeranged right down and broke the bone right off. The bone was pushed out underneath my arch. I went right to the hospital, saw the doctor right away. Once they put the bone back in place he told me I wouldn’t have any pain. He put me in a walking cast.
I saw George Scott the next day and had that cast on, and George said, ‘What the hell is that thing?’ I told him that I broke my ankle, and he said, “Get that damn thing off.’ He actually went back and got a saw and cut it off!
He gave me Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off, and told me I had to be at TV on Wednesday night. George was nice enough to just let me stand there when I did TV that Wednesday. But it was still a lot of pain just standing up on the ankle…it would throb all the time. After that, I worked another 50 weeks without a day off...
....
When I first came into Georgia, the territory was very hot and was going real good. I had a little gymnasium and pool area in the back of the house. My daughter was in kindergarten at the time. She brought a whole bus load of kindergarten kids out to the back where I was and said, ‘Come on over here…see my Daddy - he’s the Superstar!’ I had to go to ‘show and tell’ for four or five years after that... (laughs)
My two daughters grew up during those days. I provided for them, and gave them everything that I could…but they probably would have wanted for their Dad to be home more. Now that I have a little grandson, I’m never away from him."
"I really enjoyed the anonymity of wearing a mask.
Honest to goodness, Ric Flair and Blackjack Mulligan would go to a restaurant and couldn’t even eat a meal. I’d be two tables over from them and nobody knew who I was.
It was great. I could take my wife and kids to the amusement park and have a good time and never be recognized.
I could be two people.
Once I got down the road, I would take the mask off and I’d be ‘me.’ When I was wrestling I was the ‘other guy.’
Believe it or not...people didn’t want me to take the mask off. They didn’t want to know what I looked like. There was a lot of mystery behind it…people could see my eyes and use their imaginations beyond that.
With all the trips, and all the travel, I was glad I did it when I was young. You know, at that time I was always striving and wanting to be successful. But things get blurry sometimes, because some of the things that you are thinking are successful really aren’t that worthwhile.
On the road, you're up early and training. The rest of the world is sleeping and you’re still traveling. People aren’t even up and you’re doing a TV show. Then you get in the car and get a cheap hamburger and a drink, and go to the next town.
It’s hard work. The guy out there digging a ditch is not working any harder than you are…[but] he gets to go home at night. Then you throw in the fact that something is always needing to be done at home…and of course you’re not there to do it which grinds on you.
But I have had a great wife…she really raised my kids, and did an excellent job, without a doubt. She’s still with me, and has put up with all my idiosyncrasies and my bad habits.
As I was driving down the highway I would see people cooking on the grill and diving in their own pool or laying back fishing…I would think, ‘Man, I wish I was doing that.’ But when fans would come to the arena that night and see you wrestle, they would also say, ‘Man, I wish I was doing THAT..’
One time I worked fifty-two weeks straight, seven days a week. I broke my ankle in Savannah - I went out of the ring and my left ankle hit the top rope and boomeranged right down and broke the bone right off. The bone was pushed out underneath my arch. I went right to the hospital, saw the doctor right away. Once they put the bone back in place he told me I wouldn’t have any pain. He put me in a walking cast.
I saw George Scott the next day and had that cast on, and George said, ‘What the hell is that thing?’ I told him that I broke my ankle, and he said, “Get that damn thing off.’ He actually went back and got a saw and cut it off!
He gave me Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off, and told me I had to be at TV on Wednesday night. George was nice enough to just let me stand there when I did TV that Wednesday. But it was still a lot of pain just standing up on the ankle…it would throb all the time. After that, I worked another 50 weeks without a day off...
....
When I first came into Georgia, the territory was very hot and was going real good. I had a little gymnasium and pool area in the back of the house. My daughter was in kindergarten at the time. She brought a whole bus load of kindergarten kids out to the back where I was and said, ‘Come on over here…see my Daddy - he’s the Superstar!’ I had to go to ‘show and tell’ for four or five years after that... (laughs)
My two daughters grew up during those days. I provided for them, and gave them everything that I could…but they probably would have wanted for their Dad to be home more. Now that I have a little grandson, I’m never away from him."
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
#StorytimeOnSunday - Life In Pro-Wrestling: Chapter One.
Author: Matt Pender (of Wrestling's Glory Days).
Published: July 1, 2018.
Article: #206.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
#StorytimeOnSunday - Life In Pro-Wrestling: Chapter One.
Author: Matt Pender (of Wrestling's Glory Days).
Published: July 1, 2018.
Article: #206.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Other articles by Matt Pender can be Read Here.