David Chappell: Don, it’s
great to have you visiting with
the Mid-Atlantic Gateway today.
Don Kernodle: It’s a
pleasure to be here. I’m very
happy to be here.
Chappell: I guess your
early career would be a good
place to start. I’m not sure a
lot of fans know exactly how you
got started.
Kernodle: I gotcha.
Dick Bourne: One of the
things I think people remember,
because [TV announcers] Bob
Caudle and David Crockett talked
about it for several years after
it happened, was how you
actually broke in the business
on television.
Chappell: The TV match in
1973 with Bob Roop…
Bourne: Of course, you
had a great amateur wresting
background too. We’d like to
hear about that also.
Chappell: Yes, if you
could talk about that, and lead
into the deal with Roop and how
you actually became a
professional wrestler for Jim
Crockett Promotions.
Kernodle: Okay, well,
when I was seven years old I
first saw professional wrestling
on TV. And I right away told my
Dad that’s what I wanted to do
for a living.
Chappell: And you’re from
right here in Burlington, North
Carolina, so you were watching
the stars of Jim Crockett
Promotions on TV.
Kernodle: That’s right. I
wrestled four years in high
school, and then four years in
college. When I graduated from
college in 1973…
Chappell: And that would
be Elon College here in
Burlington?
Kernodle: Yes.
Chappell: As soon as you
graduated from college, what
things did you do to try to get
into professional wrestling?
Kernodle: I was doing
anything to get a name. I was
power lifting and arm wrestling
at the time. In fact, I was the
United States arm wrestling
champion for two years.
Chappell: That’s right, I
remember you being billed later
by Jim Crockett Promotions as
being an arm wrestling champion.
Kernodle: That’s right.
Around that time I was
weightlifting, and I saw they
were going to have a judo
demonstration at the YMCA here
in Burlington. I told my buddies
that if they asked anybody to
try ‘em after it was over with,
I was gonna raise my hand!
Chappell: Did they ask
for volunteers?
Kernodle: Just like it
was in a script, they did!
Chappell: Had you had any
judo training before this?
Kernodle: None
whatsoever. So, there were about
ten brown and black belts
there…they couldn’t even budge
me! So, I asked the instructor
if I could try to throw those
guys. And I went through all ten
of those guys in less than a
minute! Seriously! I know it
sounds like a lie but it’s the
truth!
Chappell: With that
success, did you follow up with
formal judo training?
Kernodle: I started
taking judo on Monday nights at
the YMCA. I had always heard
that in wrestling you need to
know how to fall. I thought judo
would help in breaking my falls.
Anyway, a little later I entered
the All-South judo tournament
held in Burlington. Just like
they wrote the script for me, I
won the tournament by making
this 460 pound guy tap out in
about six seconds! So I won that
tournament as a white belt…a
beginner!
Chappell: Quite a feat!
Kernodle: But like I
said, my preparation to get into
professional wrestling was
anything I could do to get
noticed. Anything I could do to
get my name out there.
Soon after that, I went up and
talked to the wrestling promoter
for Jim Crockett Promotions in
Charlotte, North Carolina. I met
a man named Mr. John
Ringley…couldn’t understand what
he was doing there!
Chappell: (laughs)
Kernodle: Come to find
out, he was Frances Crockett’s
husband, and he was actually
running the company since Mr.
Jim Crockett, Sr. had passed
away. I think he was the
President of Jim Crockett
Promotions at that time.
Bourne: He had just
passed away right around that
time?
Kernodle: Just a few
months before that, yeah. I went
down to Charlotte on a Monday. I
was fixing to go in the
building, and I saw Brute
Bernard come out of the
building. I went back to my car,
and sat down for a few minutes
and said, ‘Man, I don’t know
what to do here!’ So, I left
completely when I saw Brute
Bernard!
Chappell: (laughs) The
Brute could make anyone a little
nervous!
Kernodle: Brute was a big
ol’ mean lookin’ man! I’d seen
him do some crazy stuff on TV!
Chappell/Bourne:
(laughing)
Kernodle: Finally, I came
back the next day, and I
mustered up enough courage to go
in there and sit down and talk
to Ringley.
Chappell: What did you
say to him?
Kernodle: I told him that
I had wrestled heavyweight at
Elon University, Elon College
then. And that I was interested
in getting into the professional
wrestling business. He said that
was great, and asked me some
questions about my
background.
Chappell: Did you go down
to Charlotte on your own…to talk
to Ringley?
Kernodle: Yes…I just went
to Charlotte and looked in the
phone book. Didn’t know anything
about the area. Just looked in
the phone book and found the
address. It was Morehead Street,
just down from the YMCA maybe a
mile. It was an old white, two
story house.
Bourne: Looking back,
wasn’t that an unusual way to do
that? I mean, wasn’t it hard to
break in…getting to know
somebody?
Kernodle: Well, I didn’t
know anybody! And I lived in the
country outside of Burlington…a
little ol’ community. And like I
said, I wrestled in high school
and college. But I didn’t know
ANYBODY when it came to
professional wrestling.
But I knew that I had the will
and desire to be a professional
wrestler. And I was gonna try my
best to do it.
Chappell: Wow, so no
professional contacts at all
before you traveled down to
Charlotte?
Kernodle: I had met Ole
and Gene Anderson in the
Greensboro Coliseum about a year
prior to that. I talked to them
a little bit, and told them that
I had wrestled at Elon as a
heavyweight. I was always a
heavyweight wrestler…in high
school and college.
I weighed 235 pounds in the
ninth grade. I’ve always been a
little large!
Chappell/Bourne: (laughs)
Kernodle: But anyway,
when I talked to John Ringley he
said, “Well, I’ll put you on TV
tomorrow night.” He was talking
about Raleigh TV on Wednesday
night…I talked to Ringley on a
Tuesday. They had matches in
Raleigh on Tuesday night at
Dorton Arena, and they had the
TV show on Wednesday night.
Chappell: Pretty quick
turnaround! What did you say?
Kernodle: I said, ‘What
do you mean?’ I was thinking
about wrestling some of the
underneath wrestlers, you know.
Then I asked him who my opponent
would be, and he said, “Bob
Roop.”
Chappell: Whoa…I bet that
got your attention pretty quick!
Kernodle: (laughs) I
said, ‘Lord, don’t do me any
favors!’
Chappell/Bourne:
(laughing)
Kernodle: I had just seen
Bob Roop the day before in the
Charlotte Coliseum beat Johnny
Weaver! We all know Johnny
Weaver was one of the greatest
wrestlers ever…
Chappell: Absolutely.
Kernodle: Bob Roop had
just gotten here, and they were
trying to get him over, you
know. But I didn’t know anything
about all that stuff then! He
beat Johnny Weaver, and then he
wants to put me in the ring with
him two days later!
Bourne: That’s a good
point. At the time you were
talking to Ringley, did you have
any idea of the inside workings
of the business? Had anybody
smartened you up at all at that
point?
Kernodle: I had no
knowledge at that point. You
know, as an amateur wrestler and
as a fan, you think about
things…but you don’t know.
You see these big guys about 300
pounds, big muscles and tough
looking…and you don’t know what
you know. You think stuff, and
then you’d hear stuff…but hey,
you can always hear anything!
You could hear that you could
cross the road in front of an
eighteen wheeler and it wouldn’t
hurt you, but you know…
Chappell/Bourne:
(laughing)
Kernodle: So, I didn’t
know anything, really.
When I hesitated a little bit,
Ringley said, “See there, you
don’t want to be a professional
wrestler!” I said, ‘Oh yes I
do.’ Then I asked him if this
would be the only chance at
getting into the professional
wrestling business, and he told
me that it was. So I said, ‘I’ll
do it; I’ll be there!’
Chappell: Now right at
this time, Roop was having a
challenge on Mid-Atlantic TV,
right?
Kernodle: Bob Roop was
having a challenge that if
anybody could beat him in less
than 10 minutes, they would win
$2,000.
He’d beaten everybody with a
sugar hold, which is a type of
sleeper…in less than 20 seconds.
He’d beaten everybody that had
challenged him. I didn’t really
know about a sleeper hold, I
mean, I knew what Johnny
Weaver’s sleeper hold looked
like, but didn’t know how to do
it or anything…
Chappell: Had you been
watching these challenge matches
on TV?
Kernodle: Yes, I had seen
them on TV. But when I went in
there to talk to Mr. Ringley,
that hadn’t really crossed my
mind until he mentioned Roop.
Chappell: So you mustered
up, and I guess headed over to
the WRAL TV studios in Raleigh?
Kernodle: I got up all of
my Elon College wrestling stuff,
and my amateur wrestling
boots…and headed to Raleigh on
Wednesday night!
Got there, and it was an odd
situation, actually.
Chappell: In what way?
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