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M-A
Gateway: You had a strong
run with Paul Jones and held
the World Tag Team Titles
until May of 1981, when you
dropped them to Gene and Ole
Anderson. You left
Jim
Crockett Promotions for good
several weeks after that. What
led to you final departure
from the Mid-Atlantic area?
Superstar:
Well, I came down here to
Georgia and bought a home. My
wife loved it and I loved it.
I went from 3,000 miles a week
in Charlotte to less than a
1,000 miles a week down here.
First couple of months I went
nuts…it was like I had too
much time on my hands. But I
got used to it and enjoyed it.
I was home every night by
11:00…was watching the 11:00
news and was in bed by 11:30.
The longest trip was to
Augusta, and even there I
didn’t have to leave until
4:00. The rest of the trips I
was leaving five, six, seven
o’clock. I didn’t want to
leave that schedule!
George
Scott kept calling me to come
back to Charlotte, but I kept
telling him I thought I would
stay down here for a while
longer. (laughs) As it turned
out, I think it was about six
years before I left. Ole was
good to me. I was going back
and forth to Japan…so I’d
work two or three months in
Georgia and then I’d do a
month in Japan. I was usually
in Japan about fourteen weeks
a year…I did that for many
years. We’d work a little
program in Georgia, and then
I’d take a couple of weeks
off and go to Japan.
After
I left Crockett, I was only
really working six months out
of the year. And I was making
more money in that six months
than I was the whole year when
I was in the Mid-Atlantic
area.
M-A
Gateway: What was life on
the road like as a competitor
in
Jim
Crockett Promotions?
Superstar:
With all the trips, and
all the travel, I was glad I
did it when I was young!
(everybody laughs) 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.
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.
(laughs)
Back
then, 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.”
M-A
Gateway: The grass is
always greener on the other
side.
Superstar:
That’s exactly right.
But
I had a lot of good times in
the Mid-Atlantic area and in
wrestling. I got to see the
world…got paid to do it and
I think got paid very well to
do it. I went to places I
never would have seen
otherwise. Made a lot of good
friends.
M-A
Gateway: Would you do it
over again?
Superstar:
Would I do it over again?
Probably so. I wouldn’t do
it today…with just one
company out there. When I was
doing it there were 22
different companies…if
somebody tried to screw you
over you just gave them a two
week’s notice and moved on.
M-A
Gateway: And you also had
a strong educational
background you could fall back
on if need be.
Superstar:
My Dad always drilled
‘education’ into me from
an early age, so I knew I
could always go back to
teaching or a number of other
things.
M-A
Gateway: What was a
typical day like on the road?
Superstar:
On the road…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…and
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…the
same wife, which is very
unique in this business.
We’ve been married 37 years.
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.
M-A
Gateway: As children, how
did your daughter’s react to
their Daddy being the big,
mean Masked Superstar?
Superstar:
Funny story about that.
When I first came into
Georgia, and 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 little daughter,
who just got married two
week’s ago, 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.’ (everyone
laughs)
So
I had to go to ‘Show and
Tell’ for four or five years
after that! (everybody laughs)
M-A
Gateway: Did you bring
your extensive collection of
masks to school with you?
(laughs)
Superstar:
I took the masks, and
I’d take the boots and the
capes too! Years ago, I also
went to ‘Show and Tell’
for a friend of mine in
Minneapolis…his girls were
in the first and second
grades. They just graduated
from college and I talked to
them recently, and they said
they still remembered me going
to ‘Show and Tell’ for
them.
M-A
Gateway: Great stories!
Well, sort of in ‘wrap-up
mode’ now Bill….just a
couple of scattershot
questions to finish up. To
start…what are your feelings
about the fans in the
Mid-Atlantic area?
Superstar:
You know, I’ve been all
over the world…and probably
the most educated wrestling
fans as a whole were in the
Mid-Atlantic area. A lot of
great places and fans.
Virginia was
great…Richmond, Norfolk.
Let’s see…Spartanburg,
Greenville. I mean, to go
every week to those
towns…they had great
wrestling matches every week.
But
then when you got up into the
New York area, and into
California and Chicago…it
was a completely different
crowd. They were used to a
different style. Down in the
south…Georgia, Florida and
the Carolina’s, it was all
wrestling. In the other
territories it was all
gimmicks…like you have now.
But
back to the
Mid-Atlantic….Greensboro was
a good town. Richmond was a
good town. Believe it or not,
I liked Charleston, South
Carolina…the crowds were so
easy there.
M-A
Gateway: Describe your
recollections of the
atmosphere at a Mid-Atlantic
wrestling card.
Superstar:
It was an event….it
really was. It was a
combination of things, I
think, that created the great
atmosphere. You had smaller
arenas than a lot of other
areas around the country, and
a lot of intense heat. With
the intense heat, there’s
beer. Even for the females.
(everybody laughs)
What
was stressed in the
Mid-Atlantic, and Georgia and
Florida, was wrestling. As you
guys can attest to, from the
first match to the last match
were all good matches. You
couldn’t say that about the
other territories…sometimes
the main event in New York was
terrible, to put it politely.
M-A
Gateway: Any bad incidents
with Mid-Atlantic fans that
you remember?
Superstar:
Richmond was a good town,
but I got stabbed in Richmond.
It was a card with Blackjack
Mulligan and John Studd…and
I ran in on the match. I hit
Mulligan and caused him to
lose, and as I was leaving I
got stabbed in the side. I
went to Henrico [Doctor’s]
Hospital and got stitched
up…it just hit the lining of
my stomach but luckily
didn’t go in any further.
M-A
Gateway: What did
Richmond’s finest do with
the guy who stabbed you?
Superstar:
Cops in Richmond were
tough. I was in Richmond one
time when they had a riot, and
they had to bring the dogs in.
Malenko was with me that time,
and he was petrified because
he was at the Richmond
Fairgrounds years before when
they had a riot and he almost
got killed. I remember Malenko
was hiding in the shower…he
was having real bad
flashbacks.
Security
in Richmond was always
sensitive to stuff getting out
of control. The guy in charge
of security at the Coliseum
always prided himself on
stopping that kind of thing
from happening again. So, I
have to ruin it and go and get
stabbed. (laughs) Well, the
cops get this guy out of the
crowd and beat the living crap
out of him…I mean, they beat
him so badly I actually felt
sorry for the guy! (everyone
laughs)
Turns
out, the police got the wrong
guy…they didn’t get the
guy that stabbed me. The guy
the cops beat up was a guy
that ran into the ring, tapped
me on the shoulder and ran
out. I found out later that
guy ran into the ring as part
of a college fraternity
initiation…he had to run in
the ring, touch a wrestler and
run out before he got hit.
(everybody laughs)
This
frat guy rolled out of the
ring, and I went out the other
side and got stabbed. Well,
the police see the frat guy
and think he was the one that
stabbed me, and they beat the
living crap out of him. But
after that, we got excellent
police protection at the
Coliseum. (everyone laughs)
M-A
Gateway: Which wrestlers
did you enjoying working with
most in the Mid-Atlantic area?
Superstar:
Had great matches with
Steamboat…you couldn’t
have a bad match with
Steamboat. Even when I was
wrestling with Paul
Jones…Paul had good
psychology.
Jim
my Snuka, Andre,
Mulligan….really, just about
everybody.
Mulligan
and I really had some knock
down drag outs. He was a big
son of a gun. He had huge
hands…twice as big as mine.
He was a good athlete, but in
the process of these long
matches we’d have, you’d
get five or six potatoes. The
old psychology was, if you got
a potato and didn’t give it
back…you’d probably get a
couple more. (everybody
laughs)
So,
every time he’d give me one,
I’d give him one back.
We’d apologize every night,
but the next night we’d do
the exact same thing! (laughs)
Those
were great matches…and great
times. I have real fond
memories of those days and
those guys.
M-A
Gateway: That sounds like
a good note to end up on Bill.
Thanks so much for your time
tonight.
Superstar:
Thank you guys….I’ve
enjoyed it.
Our
special thanks to Bill Eadie
for the interview and to
George South for setting it up
for us. My thanks to David
Chappell for doing the lion's
share of the work on this
interview. -D. Bourne
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