I'm Playing Baby Face Mid South in the 80s
via WWE.com
"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan has put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces over the class of a career that has spanned 35 years. With his iconic "Hoooo!" and his thumb held proudly in the air, Duggan was a beloved midcard staple for decades, settling into a comfortable office equally a wrestling journeyman later on a run as one of the WWE'south elevation babyfaces during the promotion's 1980's smash.
But while many fans volition remember him as a perpetually enthused, slightly slow, flag waving, two-by-four carrying comedy grapheme, those who grew up in the southwest take a very different set of memories.
Competing for legendary tough-guy promoter Bill Watts in Mid South Wrestling, Duggan was 1 of the near feared and respected men in the business. As both a babyface and a heel, he split heads and spilled blood upwardly and down a territory that stretched from Oklahoma all the way to Mississippi.
Bleacher Report had a chance to sit down down with Duggan to talk about his heyday with Watts, his fourth dimension with Vince McMahon during wrestling'due south mainstream explosion and his contempo return to prominence as one of eight old-school superstars on the WWE Network'south instant classic reality prove Legends' House (subscription required).
Bleacher Written report: Recently WWE put out a new Mid Due south Wrestling DVD and it's filled with so many great "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan moments and memories. 1 of the first things I saw was you lot in the gorilla suit running in to attack the belatedly, swell Junkyard Dog.
We think about Bill Watts, the owner of Mid S, as this wrestling traditionalist. Were you surprised, in the centre of a run in that hardcore territory filled with tough guys, that someone wanted you to put on a costume?
"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan: Information technology fit right in with my personality. As you can see in Fable'south Business firm, I similar to be silly, I like to do crazy things. That gorilla suit was one of my fondest memories. I was out in front of the arena with a whole bunch of balloons. The fans had no clue I was a bad guy "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. When Junkyard Domestic dog got knocked out in the ring, I helped him upward, brushed him off, he turned effectually and boom. I hit him on the back of the head and pulled that gorilla mask off.
People were shocked. "It's Duggan. Information technology's cockeyed Duggan." (Laughs).
Bleacher Report: People, when they talk about wrestling in the 1980'due south, talk near Hulk Hogan as the ultimate good guy. But when I'chiliad watching this footage from the Mid South territory, the guy you laid out there, the Junkyard Dog, was as hot a babyface every bit I've always seen in wrestling. What'southward it like to work against a guy similar that? Does information technology arrive easier to accept the crowd more invested? Or is there more than force per unit area?
Duggan: So much easier. When you've got somebody like Junkyard Canis familiaris who was hot downwards in that location in the Mid Due south territory or the Hulkster was hot all over the globe—to be able to go far the band with somebody like that, you had heat only walking downwards to the ring. Y'all didn't take to beat him up too much. (Laughs).
B/R: The friction match of yours that stands out to this day, and is on that set, had every stipulation you lot could imagine.
Duggan: (Laughs). Ted DiBiase.
B/R: Exactly. At that place'southward a coal-miner's glove. It's loser-leaves-town. You lot're in a steel cage. And to top it all off you're in a tuxedo. I don't think there are any stipulations you guys left out of that match. Who's the genius who came upwards with that friction match?
Duggan: I call up that was Bill Dundee's. He worked for Bill Watts as the booker and came out of that Memphis territory with Jerry Lawler. He came upward with all that crazy stuff and nosotros sold out a lot of the arenas throughout the southwest with that.
Like you said, it was loser leaves town, dressed in tuxedos, inside a steel cage with a coal-miner's glove on a pole.
B/R: Way up on a pole.
Duggan: On a ten-human foot pole. We had all the bases covered.
B/R: I scout that match with different eyes today on that Blu Ray. Because while I see all the drama, the moment he rips the buttons off your tuxedo I'm thinking, man, Duggan isn't getting his deposit dorsum for that rental now.
Duggan: (Laughs) I recall the Mid South people bought u.s.a. a few different tuxedos. It all started as a all-time-dressed-man competition. Ted DiBiase, he was a dapper guy. Even before he was the one thousand thousand-dollar man he had creases in his pants. Y'all know me. My shirt's always untucked, my necktie's crooked.
And then, that's how it started. Information technology led into the match to end all matches.
B/R: How was information technology for yous, in this blood and guts wrestling territory, to move to the WWF at the time and play a slightly different version of the same character. Was that a challenge for you?
Duggan: Yous know, when I first came in I was pretty much the Hacksaw folks remember. Knocking Andre the Giant out with my two-by-four and battling some of the guys. But as fourth dimension went on I kind of evolved.
By the time I was the "King of Wrestling," I was going to the ring I had the greatcoat, the crown, the flag, the lath, the thumb, the tongue, the "Ho!" and the crossed eyes.I came to the back and Jay Strongbow, the agent, said "You might want to be a trivial more than serious in the ring." You've got to exist kidding. Look what I'm carrying.
B/R: You were the "Tuxedo Cage Friction match" of gimmicks.
Duggan: Bobby Heenan kept going "Vince, Duggan needs an eagle. Get him an eagle." I was like "Bobby, delight close up!"
B/R: (Laughs) That would have been so awesome. It was difficult enough traveling with a two-by-four I imagine, let solitary an hawkeye. Did you lot deport information technology on the aeroplane or did yous take to pick up a new one in every town?
Duggan: Usually in North America I would try to find one at the arena or get ane from the crew off their trucks. It was an old joke. I traveled with Jake "The Ophidian" Roberts and we'd walk into the arena and I'd say "Can somebody get me a two-by-iv and him a 10-foot python."
B/R: (Laughs)
Duggan: You could detect a board laying effectually anywhere.
B/R: Not so much with the python.
Duggan: (Laughs) Yep.
B/R: At present you've been whacking people with that two-by-four for going on 30 years now. Accept yous always slipped upward, gone too far and thought "man, I recollect I hit that guy mode too hard with this board!"
Duggan: Yeah. And talk about the worst guy in the globe you want to hitting hard with a board. I whacked Andre the Giant with it and I could hear that I really got him. He was and then big it was hard to approximate. I hit him and he made a strange noise. So I exited phase left out of the ring real quick.
B/R: I tin imagine, even in those later years where Andre was struggling with his mobility and health, that he was still a terrifying human being to stand beyond the band from. He was merely and so huge.
Duggan: I'chiliad sure yous saw the movie The Princess Helpmate. They needed a giant and they got Andre. I said "that'due south perfect casting."
Simply he could be an irritable giant too. I remember getting on planes and sitting adjacent to business organisation men who would mutter nigh their tough twenty-four hour period at the role. I'd say "brother, let me tell you."
B/R: (Laughs). Those TPS reports don't quite compare to an angry behemothic. Now, I've been watching Legends' House (subscription required) and it'due south a lot of fun. I got to that final episode though, and it really threw me. That was really emotional. What was information technology like for you to show a vulnerable side we've never actually seen from you?
Duggan: I don't think that was anything that was really planned. That simply goes to show how shut the 8 of us, or the seven of the states and Tony (Atlas), got over that period of time, existence away from our families and just beingness together.
I don't' call back anyone expected that episode to go the way it did. I think Jimmy (Hart) started the ball rolling when he shared what had happened in his life and I told a story I very seldom tell. It was very traumatic for me. And then Pat went. It just goes to show how close nosotros became.
B/R: You lot guys but filmed a reunion episode. I know when you left the house, you lot were all ready for some space. A couple of years afterwards, what was it like getting back together with the whole gang?
Duggan: It was dandy to see everybody. It was the first time all 8 of u.s. take been together since. I had seen (Roddy) Piper an Jimmy Hart on the road and I've talked to Hillbilly (Jim) on the phone, but for the eight of us to get together once more was a lot of fun.
Information technology was even kind of proficient to come across Tony. The first ii minutes.
B/R: As you await back, y'all're an official WWE legend, a WWE Hall of Famer and a giant of this business concern. How do you want fans to remember you?
Duggan: I remember the character is just an extension of my personality. My old buddy Bret Hart always said "I'm the best there is, the best at that place was and the best there ever will be." I ever say "I'g Hacksaw Duggan. I endeavour hard."
B/R: (Laughs)
Duggan: I call up that people saw that in me. That's why I tin still go to the ring today. People come across Hacksaw is an extension of my personality. What's out there is 18-carat. When I'1000 cheering "U.s., United states of america" it's coming from the eye.
Jim Duggan is the star of WWE Legends' Firm, available in its entirety all twenty-four hours every twenty-four hours on demand to WWE Network subscribers. Jonathan Snowden, Bleacher Written report'south lead gainsay sports writer, is the author of Shooters: The Toughest Men in Professional person Wrestling and is a lifelong wrestling fan.
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2103669-wwes-hacksaw-jim-duggan-on-potatoing-andre-legends-house-and-his-trusty-2x4
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