Demolition Smash's BRUTAL Honesty About Wrestling Fame with Sean Mooney

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a prime Time with Sean Mooney Production Mooney.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And the Money Shine. So Brime sgging Mooney the mind
night Well, Legends rise and.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Tells Bovesy his one half of the most feared, dynamic, popular,
iconic tag teams in the history of the WWE, but
he's remembered for many other accomplishments both in and out
of the ring, as you're going to discover in this conversation.
It's great to welcome Smash of Acts and Smash of

(00:42):
Demolition Barry Darso Berry Great.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Wow, Sean, thank you, thanks for having me on your show.
I love it. Last time I saw you was h.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, I was going to start there because I saw
you at Wressel Khan and I hadn't seen you in
person in a while, and it was just really awesome
to see you guys. And I remember like congratulating you
because it was just so awesome to see that you've,
you know, reconnected with the WWE and now have legend
contracts and walk me through that, like, how did that

(01:19):
that relationship thaw with the WWE and now you're back.
It's kind of full circle.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
You know, It's funny. I you know, I don't exactly
know what happened, how we kind of fell off the
face of the earth with them or not, but just
you know, I was on a few shows, different shows
with him over the years as the repo man and
a couple other things, and and it just where they
just never talk to us anymore. And we were Bill
and I were never the type of guys that would

(01:45):
call the office all the time or try to be
in the office, and so we were just on our
own and happy as heck doing what we were doing,
and we never really even thought of, you know, getting
the contract with him again. And then they contacted us
and we had to kind of discuss it because we
liked doing what we're doing, just being on our own,

(02:07):
having a good time and no pressure, and we didn't
know what it was all going to entail. But with
Triple H at the Helm, we thought, you know what this,
You know, they're so big right now, you kind of
want to be part of it. And you know, wrestling
has been my whole life and Bill's whole life, and
we thought, well, let's let's sign the contract and you know,

(02:29):
get some new action figures out there and maybe a
video or something. So that's kind of how it all happened.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, as you mentioned, the are so big now because
you know, it's now part of Endeavor, which I don't
know if there's any kind of sports entertainment that they
aren't involved in. And you know, and and I don't
want to folkus say it was because of the mix up,
I guess, or not the mix up, but the change
in management there, but that that certainly had a lot

(02:55):
to do with it and with you know, maybe it
was time for the WWE two to make that next transition.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
But you know, but you know, a couple of years ago,
when Vince was still in charge, we were invited out
to WrestleMania by them, and it just so happened. The
guys that brought us out there had us so busy
we didn't have time to really go to the Hall
of Fame or WrestleMania where last year we just happened,
you know. I mean it was in the middle of
the night last year, so we had time. So that's

(03:24):
why we do it last year. But it was fun
seeing everybody there and you know, reconnecting with everybody.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, and there's certainly been some great eras, but you know,
I'm really blessed and proud to have been part of
what I think was the greatest era ever with the WWE,
that that period of the you know, mid eighties into
the early nineties where you know, like you said, I'm

(03:52):
sure a lot of those guys hadn't seen, but when
you reconnect, it probably brought back a lot of memories
of just what a great period of time that was
for professional wrestling.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Oh, it was incredible, and Sean, you were so good
at your job also, you know, it just it seemed
like the whole everything that was going on was incredible.
I mean, Vince ran a really really good show and
it was it Drew family. You know, it wasn't just
you know, a bunch of hammer heads out there going
to the wrestling matches. It was families with their kids

(04:22):
and everything, and that's that's what was so big about it.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, and you know, you had been part of other
territories prior to that, and it was a completely different
business when you know, they had the territories going and
you would go between different operations. What was the biggest
thing though, when you when you saw this happening and
it kind of became, you know, the destination if you
want to really make it. You've got to get to

(04:48):
the WWF, which it was at the time. But seeing
that and coming up during that period of time, what
was that like for you know, professional wrestling and and
the guys that were out there on the road every
day getting it done.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
You know, it was crazy because you know, I was
just talking to somebody the other day about it. You're
in the smaller territories and when you're there, you think
that's the biggest thing possible, right, And you know, like
when I was in Crocketts Territory, I mean, we're doing
the Great American Bash and twenty thirty thousand people and
Flair and Dusty and everybody, and you know, it's huge.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Then all of a sudden, when I left there and
went up to the New York Territory, you get up
there and it was a whole different TV. You know,
the way everything was set up, and you know, it's
like it was like going to the movies. When you
went up there, it was it was you know, small
handheld cameras in the other place, and now you got

(05:46):
TV trucks and cameras in the stands and all over,
and it was just a huge production. And you know,
the The biggest difference was when there was no more
k fabe, you know, right, you know, we're in the
small territories and the heels coming out of one dressing
room and the baby face out of the other, and
you never could talk or do anything. And all of

(06:07):
a sudden, at my first TV, you had everybody in
the same room coming out of the same door and everything.
It was like, wow, you know, they didn't care about
that because it was just it was growing so much
and it was entertainment now.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah. And I've talked with people over the years of
what a transition it was though, because in many ways
it was still kind of the Wild West, which you
knew very well, and then you had this collision with
basically corporate America because that's Vince, what Vince did with it,
and I you know, people say when people had a

(06:42):
bee for you know, guys got receipts in the ring,
it was or you settle it backstage. And then you
had people like me, I came from another world and
we were all kind of colliding. But it really was
still pretty much old school professional wrestling when he came down.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Oh yeah, yeah. And you know when I when I
walked into the dress room. And I'm three twenty an
old power lefter. And you know, I'm not saying I'm
a tough guy or anything, but you know, you you
can handle your own and you walk in that dressing
room and you're one of the smaller guys, you know,
you know, you you shake hands and all of a sudden,
you know, you got Andre the Giant and Haul Cogan

(07:21):
and Snook and Paul Orangele. I mean, you've got guys
that you know, you had Dusty and Flair in that territory.
Now you got twenty of those guys in your dressing room.
It's it was pretty pretty intimidating, it almost at first,
you know, until you you get locked in and all
of a sudden, you know everybody again. But it it
was just it was a great experience, you know, and

(07:44):
I missed that right now.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know, Yeah, I mean that that collection talent was
and you know, when you're doing it, you don't realize
it at the time, but just think about h just
the tag team division where you've never seen that again
in history, where you had you know, ten twelve, fourteen
legit tag teams that weren't just guys throwing together, you know,

(08:08):
doing Demolition, the Rockers, the Heart Foundation, and you know,
there was as many tag teams it seemed as there
were singles. R What do you think it was about
that era that made tag team competition so popular.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
I don't know, but it was. You know, I was
just in a great position with Bill that we have
to be able to hold the belts for so long
because at that time, any one of those teams you're
talking about could have been the champions. And I don't
you know, I think Vince probably trusted us because we
pretty much did everything that he asked and we didn't

(08:43):
ask questions, and you know, we were marketable, and I
think we were pretty good in the ring with all
the different tag teams. But you know it, I don't,
like I said, I don't think they'll ever be tag
teams again. And I don't know why they ever got
away from that. And you know, I heard rumors it
was it could just cost too much money to bring

(09:03):
that many people into the towns, But you know, I
don't buy that because I thought the tag matches were
just phenomenal and I think it was a major part
of the shows. And you know, now they just throw
two guys together or four guys together that are already there,
and they don't want to take the time to make
those tag teams anymore. Were back then they took the

(09:25):
time to make them.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Yeah, and you mentioned something here, well, even you getting
into the WWF was an act of fate. You had
basically told Crockett, you know, I'm out because he didn't
pay you what he should have paid you. But it's
so funny that, you know, I remember talking about how
you didn't know if you're going to go to Japan

(09:46):
or you're going to try and pick up dates, and
then all of a sudden this happens with Bill, you know.
But you mentioned that you've always had kind of this
core of the way you looked at things and did
things right. And I think that that had a lot
to do with it too, because Bill probably had heard
of your reputation. I knew you, I know you knew him,
but if he didn't know the way that you worked

(10:08):
and the and how you conducted yourself, that probably wouldn't
have happened.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Right right, Yeah, exactly, we had you know, I knew
his friends and he knew my friends, so I knew
what kind of person he was. He knew what kind
of person I was.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
In our work.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Ethic, we had a really good work ethic, and you know,
the first thing to us was our families at home.
The second thing was work. But when we worked, that's
what we did. So when we were on the on
the road for three three weeks at a time, it was,
you know, get up in the morning and fright of
the town, go to the gym, eat right, go to

(10:44):
the town, think about our matches and you know, try
to heal from the night before. And you know, we
didn't go out and party every night and everything. You know,
I'm not saying that we didn't, but we weren't out
drinking and you know, gallivant around all the time because
our thought was make the money and get home so
you can be with your kids and you know, your wife.

(11:06):
And that's kind of what both of our our lives
were about and it still is to this day.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yeah, and I think that that was also you realized
the opportunity that you had and you weren't going to
screw it up, as we saw many many guys along
the road that just got caught up in it and
ended up, you know, really paying the price not taking
that road. As far as they could have, and then
also a lot of them with tragic endings.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
With that and Bill. Bill was the greatest partner for
me because you know, I could have went the other
way where I was out, you know, drinking and crousing
and doing everything. But it it just was, you know,
I wanted to be past that point that was my
younger years of goof around everything and this was strictly

(11:55):
business when I got up there. And I think that's
what Vince saw also, you know, it was Bill was
a great partner to be around.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
But I'm sure that also started you earlier, and really
part of this conversation today, Arria is I wanted to
talk more about the person, like how you became, because
I think people can learn a lot from people who
travel a journey to success. And I imagined that that
work ethic and your beliefs and that kind of thing

(12:25):
started probably when you were very young. I don't know
if it was coaches or you had you know, your
father or other you know, very good male role models
along the way. What was it you think with you?

Speaker 3 (12:39):
I think it was, you know, my dad left my
mom when I was in about fourth grade, so my
mom raised me and my brother and my sister, and
she worked a full time job and took care of us,
and she would never just give us things. It was always,
you know, you got to go out and shovele, you
got to go out and mobile lay, you got to

(13:00):
go do this and that. And we actually had jobs
when we were young. Our my brother and my sister
were the same. It was, you know, eighth grade, I
had a paper route. Ninth grade, I'm working at you know,
fast food places and this. You know. It just that's
how it started because without working, you didn't make it

(13:22):
in life. And it was the same for baseball. You know,
my brother would say, hey, you got to get out
there and throw the balls. You're off pitch to you.
You know, So where everybody else was in the house
doing something or whatever, I'm out hitting the baseball or
shooting a hundred hockey pucks or you know.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
That was my life.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
And I just knew in order to be better than somebody,
you had to do way more than they were. And
things didn't come to me real easy. I had to
really work at it. But you know, I was very
good at everything I did. And I think it was
that work ethic that kind of went into wrestling. It
was that same thing. I didn't just go to the

(13:59):
wrestling camp and do a few moves for an hour
and I was done. You know, me and Rick rud
would go out in the backyard and we'd wrestle for
two three four hours, you know, learning the moves. So
then the next day when you went to camp, you
could get past that one, go to the next one.
And even after I made it in wrestling, I still

(14:19):
would do that kind of stuff. You know. I'd come
off of a three week tour and I'd go over
to brad Rings's ring and you know, wrestle with Wayne
Bloom and him and Kurt Hennig and the Road Warriors
would go over there, and guys from Japan and you know,
the Nasty Boys and you know, all different guys over
at brad Rings's ring, and that's what we did. It
was just that was our life, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
It's it's interesting you mentioned that your mom raised you.
You know, I grew up in kind of very similar circumstances.
My father was gone when I was very young, and
my mom raised five kids as a school teacher, and
and I think that's a whole different show. At some
point that you have this when you grow up like

(15:03):
that and things don't come easy. But you know, my
mom was the same way, and I'm sure that has
something to do with it. People that you know decide.
I always used to say that, you know, you got
to fork in the road these people. You don't become average.
You either become a victim or you say, I'm going
to really achieve. But along the way, you also need
good role models in your life. And it doesn't necessarily

(15:25):
have to be an older person. I know that you know,
you mentioned Rick Rude, and I don't know if you
think it was some kind of magic, but you know,
we talk about Robinsdale and those guys that were there
with Kurt Hennig and Brady Boone and Nikita call off
all these guys going to that high school. It's phenomenal

(15:45):
to think not only that these guys all became professional
wrestlers and successful at it, but just that group of guys.
And I know that you know they became very lifelong
friends to you. But what kind of an influence was
it like for you to be around those guys at
that point in your life.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, you know, it was incredible because you know, and
you know, you mentioned earlier about coaches and stuff. Coaches
and teachers were a major part for me too, because
you know, being where we didn't have any money, and
my dad was gone, and you know, my mom didn't
even have a driver's license. When I when I played hockey,
the hockey coach would come and pick me up to

(16:22):
take me to practices and everything, and and all my
coaches were like, they were just really good, you know,
helpers to people. And it wasn't just me on the team,
it was other people. And I learned from them. And
you know, Rick and Kurt and all these guys, they
all went through kind of the same thing I did.

(16:42):
Were you know, you wanted to be better than everybody.
And it just so happened that our friends were like
and maybe that's why we got to be friends, because
we always wanted to be better than everybody else. And
there was a weightlifting coach his name was Jerry McFarlane
in junior high and he was mister Minnesota, and he
was a health teacher at the junior high and he

(17:03):
created a weight room in the junior high at that
time that was better than probably any weight room in
the country in any high school. And it was better
than a lot of colleges. And that was in our
junior high and everybody went to that gym after school,
and you know, he was kind of the guy that

(17:23):
got everybody weightlifting, and then once you were weightlifting, then
all of a sudden he'd have you outrunning and he'd
have you so by the time you were playing football
or baseball, you were already in better shape than the
guys that didn't go to that gym, you know, And
that's kind of how everything went our whole life. And
you know, like before Kurt got into the wrestling business,

(17:43):
he called me up and he says, hey, Barry, you
mind if I trained with you and Wayne at the gym?
And I said, Kurt, I think it'd be great. So
Kurt came and started training with us at the gym,
and because he knew we were going to train hard
and we were going to get him ready for wrestling.
So by the time he went to Burns k he
was already ahead of a lot of guys that went there.
So that was just our mentality all of those guys.

(18:06):
I think that's why we did so well.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
It just it's astounding though to think about it. And
of course the Kurt Henni connection because his dad, of course,
but that was also an area and I think there
were other wrestlers that had gone before you at Robinsdale
just because of the location, because of the you know,
the wrestling organization there. But the fact that it kind

(18:29):
of brought other people into it is really amazing. And
of course you know Grandma Bees, you know, you guys
all worked there and that's where you hook up with
Road Warriors Mike and Joe. It really is amazing. I
don't know act of whatever, but to bring you guys
all together, and I don't think that that happened anywhere

(18:53):
else in the country, but it was. It just seemed
like it was more than professional wrestling as far as
laying down road a path for you guys that you
would travel for your life. I mean, I don't know
if you had the idea that, gee, this is what
I want to do, because you know, you were an athlete,
maybe you want to be a professional athlete somehow, but
that this came up that.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
You know, you know, I had a full scholarship to
the University of Northern Iowa and football, and you know,
I was a pretty good football player. And I hate
to Bragg or anything. Me, just tell it the way
it is. And I got there and I thought I
was going to be an offensive guard and I was
really fast and really strong, and when they moved when

(19:37):
I got through, they moved me to center, and I
met with the coach and I said, Coach, I don't
want to play center, and they just happened to have
two of the best centers in the country at that time,
never ahead of me. And it's like, well, how am
I going to play? And my whole life, all I've
done is played, I worked hard, I've done everything, and
it really discouraged me. And then I had a really
hard time in college with the clas asses, you know,

(20:00):
and I always did really well in school, and then
it was hard for me in those classes, and it
was hard in the football. So my pro football dream
was kind of going down the tubes. And I ended
up quitting college. And when I went home, my mom says,
you quit a full ride at college, and I said yeah.
I said, I'm going to do something else. And right

(20:22):
away she says, well you better go get a job tomorrow,
you know, I mean, that was her way of doing it.
And I said, well, I got a couple other angles,
and you know, that's when I went up and visited
a couple of my buddies up at Moorhead State and
ended up having two jobs and I got on the
powerlifting team up there, and then I started training and
that's when I moved home, worked at Grandma Be's. I mean,

(20:43):
everything worked out, and it was because of the work,
you know, but god, I killed myself, you know, two
and three jobs while you're working out and trying to wrestle,
and you know, but I guess it's just you know,
grained in your head. Because my brother, you know, he
he went to school, he worked a couple of jobs.
He you know, it was just crazy. My sister the

(21:04):
same way. So I don't know if it's you know,
because of my mom or because of all my friends
that drove me and I helped drive them, or what
it was. But you know, no matter who you are,
you have to have somebody help you somewhere. And thank god,
I had a lot of people to help me. And
I think the people that don't make it, they they

(21:25):
don't have the people that will help you. They turn
them the wrong way and you know, maybe commit crimes
or you.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Know, so like I said, you choose a path, and yeah,
you choose a path. Yeah, and you know that's when
it comes down to it. It kind of prepared you,
you know, getting into professional wrestling today. And I always say,
I'm not knocking how things happen, but now you see,
you know, guys that are coming in through the professional

(21:53):
ranks in many cases, you know they might be D
one athletes. They look you know that kind of thing,
are there there they and used to you know, traveling
a pretty easy road in a sense of I'm not
saying they didn't work hard, but you know, to get
to different places and elevate themselves. Back then, especially in
professional wrestling, if you told somebody you're getting professional wrestling,
they look, are you out of your mind? Yeah? Wanting

(22:14):
to make any money? Yeah, You're going to drive. You know,
it's going to beat your body to a pulp every day,
and you know you really had to want it. So
you know, you look at that path that you traveled
and adversity you face because back then, and I always
like to talk about it because I don't think people
really understand how tough a business it was just to

(22:37):
get in the door. And then you know you had
to love it because you weren't going to make any money.
Just how how rough was it back then to get in?

Speaker 3 (22:49):
It was? It was really hard when when Joe and
Mike the road Wars, and Rick and I we were trained,
it was time for big guys to get any in.
It just we got We were right at a really
lucky time getting in. You know, it was the crusher
of the bruiser Baron von Rashki. All these guys were

(23:09):
starting to get to be the older guys, so they
need a new young talent coming in. And you know,
with our work ethic and being in shape and looking
good and everything, it was, you know, it was a
good time to get in. And when Olie Anderson saw
us all, he was the one that really kind of,
you know, gave us our big break.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
But how bad were you when you started? I was terrible?

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I mean I was. When I was at that camp,
I thought I was the greatest wrestler of all time.
And then then my first match, I get to Hawaii Hanolu, Hawaii,
and I meet Mark Lowan and Mark Lowan doesn't know
that I'm good or not, and he says, hey, let's
you and I have a match in the Blaisdell and
I'm thinking this is Mark Loan, He's one of the
top wrestlers of all time. And I'm thinking I'm a

(23:57):
big shot. And I get out there. When I locked
up with him, he goes, whoa, whoa, Wait a minute.
You know, I was the stiffest guy he's ever seen
in his life, you know. But you know I had
to learn awful fast because you know, then I started
getting you know, putting with guys that are kind of
throw bars to get me back, you know. And but yeah,
you know what a lot of people don't think, you know,

(24:19):
like when you were talking about you, you get into wrestling,
you really don't, you know, know what it's all about.
You know, the fan doesn't. But you know, everybody's got
an ego too, And you know, you might be the
best at hockey and football, and you know you're great
in college, and then you get to that ring and

(24:40):
you're like, a you have no clue really what you're
doing when you get in that ring, no matter how
good an athlete you are, and when you're told you
got to get beat by some old guy that shouldn't
even be in the ring anymore. And you're two and
three times his size. Your ego just kind of goes
them and you got to say to yourself, can I

(25:05):
really be in this business or not? Because you might
end up being beat every match the rest of your life.
Who's to say that you're going to be the winner,
you know, I mean it's it's pretty mind blowing. But
you've got to have confidence in yourself and you've got
to get to be so good that the promoter is
not going to beat you. And that's kind of the
mentality that you have to have, and you you have

(25:28):
to be what the people want to see.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah. Well, and if you wouldn't have had an attitude adjustment,
then probably a lot of these veterans so you've credited
along with your career, Ivan call Off and you know
Bill of course, and so many others that really took
you under their wings, you probably wouldn't have survived or
had the success.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
The greatest story ever was we're in camp and I
mean we're young guys and we're in shape, and Ollie
Anderson comes to the camp and you know, any Sharky's
training us and only leaves and we're all excited because
you know, I met ho, we met Ollie Anderson. He's
the guy that's been on TV forever, you know, and
we're like, you know, star studied looking at him, and

(26:11):
all of a sudden, the phone rings. About a week later,
you know, calls Joe. Joe comes into camp. He goes,
You'll never guess what, guys, I'm I'm going to to Atlanta, Georgia.
And you know, we're so excited for Joe. You know,
in our heads we're going, well, why him? And why
not me? You know? Right well, OI just wanted that look,

(26:31):
you know, and so we're all excited for Joe. Joe
flies out, he's gone for about a week. He comes back,
comes to camp. His head's down like this, you know,
and we're looking at going Joe. You know, what's the deal?
He goes, you wouldn't believe what happened to me. And
I said, well, did you like it? He goes, it
was the worst experience I've ever had in my life.

(26:53):
I says, so you're saying we shouldn't get into the wrestle.
He goes, God, if it's like that, I sure don't
want to wrestle. I said, well, what happened? He says,
you know, we'll look at us. You know, we're twenty two,
twenty three years old, the best shape out of anybody
out there. He says, I had to work with Johnny Weaver,
who was about sixty five years old. I'm sitting across
from him in front of this huge crowd. He throws

(27:15):
me in and gives me the sleeper after about you know,
two minutes, and puts me down. He beats me with
the sleeper. He says, that went on every night. That
was my matches and we were laughing, and you know,
you had to look at that and go, well, that's
what our life is going to be like, you know,
but you have learned that, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, he hasn't learned, right.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, And then a couple of weeks later he calls again.
He says, I want you and Mike. You're going to
be the Road Warriors. And that's how it all started.
All he had to see if he would do a
job for Johnny Weaver. That was it.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
How crazy was it? Then? People think that they've seen,
you know, rabid fans in the WWE, but they have
no idea, idea, you know. Hacksaw Jim Duggan talks about
Mid South and how they used to blow the Arena
roof off that place with the Junkyard dog and where

(28:11):
they would basically have police escorts. And I'm not talking
just police like swat team to get them in and
out of the ring. How crazy was it's in some
of these towns back then before the WWF, it.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Was unbelievable, right talking about Hacksaw Jrug and I had
a big angle with him. I don't know if he
mentioned it to you, but I had these matches. They
were called coal minor glove matches. And I was a Russian.
Nikolai Volkoff was my partner, and we were the biggest
heels ever. I mean, it was a bad time to

(28:48):
be a Russian. And down there they believed everything we did.
And we were in the ring one time and Jim
had the glove and he was going up to get
it up or he was going up to get the
glove on a big, huge, you know poll and he
was just about there, and Nikolay came out and pulled
them off, and we started putting the boots to him,

(29:08):
and I went up and got the glove and I
had a big steel hinge on it, and I was
hitting him with this hinge and Jim looks up at
me and he says, crush. He goes, you got to
get out of here. And I was looking and people
were starting to jump out of the balconies.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
And then the cop sitting ringside, he took a chair
and slid it in the ring to give it to
Jim Duggan and Nikolay got it and Nickola started hitting him.
The people started riding and beating up the cop. And
I said to Nickolay said, we got to get out
of him and out now, because now they're coming in
the ring. And we were hooking and jabbing and trying

(29:44):
to get him out of the ring.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
And it was a long way back to the curtain
at that.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Point, Oh my god. And we were fighting all the
way back, you know, and Dugin's in the rings selling
a bloody mess and everything, and people are in the
ring trying to help them up, and you know, I
mean that was every night there. It was crazy. But
being in the business now for about a year two
years and had four or five hundred matches, I finally

(30:13):
felt so good because I did my job. I was
a heel and my job was to get those people
to hate me. It was the it was like winning
the Stanley Cup, you know. I mean it was that
important to me to be that good. You know.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Well, and how much fun was it to be a heel?
I know that it wasn't necessary money but in case
some cases, but I guess merchandise wasn't a big deal then.
But you always talk to all the guys say, oh god,
it's so much fun to be a heel.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
It was. It was you know, you look at all
the baby faces and they got all the girls, and
they're making all the money, and you know, they're riding
in the limousines and here we got to beat up
cars because everybody throws rocks at you and beats you up,
and you know you don't get anything. The girls hate. Yeah,
I mean, the worst thing in the world. But it's
the greatest feeling in the world in the ring to

(31:01):
be able to make the people love you, hate you cry,
you know. I mean, it's just it's just unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, it was just an amazing time. And I just
another side note on that. I remember Jim saying how
they used to tell what kind of a house it
was going to be by how many fights there were
in the crowd before the first match.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, and then you'd get Junkyard, Dog and dug In
together as partners and me and Nikolai against them. It
was like holy cow, oh lot. But you know with
the worst part of all of this is it ends sometimes.
You know, you get old, you get hurt, you get
you know, you get to where the boss doesn't want
you to be there anymore, and you know, I mean

(31:44):
just you know, and you leave a territory.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah. Well, and Vince took him a part one at
a time, so you know, there were less places to go,
and you know, you hope, as they say, everybody goes
to different places, and you get a new gimmick. I know,
you just wanted to get to that the big stage.
You probably had no idea what was going to happen

(32:09):
as far as this new gimmick that they were going
to give you. I remember, I know you talk about
how Vince called you. You know, you get on the plane.
I remember they would bring the guys up, get you know,
the limousine treatment, and you're just it's the big time.
But at that point you'll do anything, you know, as
far as whatever they've got playing, you just hope it's
something good. But they have you sign this, you know,

(32:31):
non disclosure and they tell you about demolition. A trip
must have just got even better when you sat in
that room and Vince laid it out.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Oh it's unreally, you know. At first, you know, Vince
doesn't come in the room, you know. You first you
meet with Terry Garvin. You talked to him for a
little while, and then Pat Harrison comes in and introduces himself,
you know, and then all of a sudden Vince comes in,
you know, and then he's got this big book with
all these pictures of all these different characters, and he
opens up and he comes to the demolition and he says,

(33:04):
you know, what do you think of that? You know,
and then he kind of puts it in your court,
you know, do I like it? If I would have said,
you know what that looks like, Kelly, you know you
have something else, you know, that would have been the
end of my deal right there. Of course, if he
says he's like, I love it, you know, but you know,
I had no clue that that's what I was going

(33:26):
to be. And you know, like you said, I you know,
this is the big leagues. Now I want a job
with them, and I wasn't going to do just anything.
But that was right up my alley, you know. So
and then then you know, Vince is so good. He says, well,
you know, first we got to check with Bill Edy
to make sure that you're going to be the right

(33:47):
fit with him.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
And I really.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Respected Vince for that because he left it up to Bill.
Bill could have said no, I don't want my partner.
I want so and so, you know, so it was
just because of the friendship I had with all my
friends and he had, you know, and we all talked,
you know, and then plus I wanted to make sure

(34:10):
I had the right partner too, you know. But as
soon as he said Bill Edy, I knew right away
this is going to be a top tag team. This
isn't going to be you know, some GIBRONI you putting
everybody over. It was. It was the real deal. So
I was I was very excited about it.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Well, and you think about it too, you know, Barry
that there's been a lot of gimmicks where somebody lay
him out for you and you're going that sounds like great,
that's going to be awesome, and then it just they
for whatever reason, it doesn't happen and I'm sure you're thinking,
like this has all the ingredients, but like you said,
it has to work, and when it comes down to it,

(34:50):
I mean seriously, I think you know probably initially that
you know, Vince had tried to get the Road Warriors
up there, and for whatever reason, they were making a
of money, they didn't want to go. It was just like,
so we got to find like an alternative and if that,
if that's why it started, whatever, so be it. But
I remember initially that it wasn't even a comparison. After

(35:14):
you guys started, it was this completely different. I kind
of liken it in a sense for like the tag team,
like the undertaker of tag teams. That it had to
be the right people. It had to be the right person,
the right people. But man, it didn't take long, and
I know at some point you probably did realize we

(35:34):
got something here. But I remember thinking early on, this
isn't replacing Road Wars. These guys are all on their own.
This whole thing, this whole gimmick is is original to me.
I thought it was just and you guys, like right
out of the gate, it just worked. I don't know
the chemistry between you guys was palpable. You could see it.

Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, it was incredible, you know, and what a lot
of people don't know. So so you're up there and
you got the greatest tag teams ever you got, you know,
and here all of a sudden there's this new strong,
two big guys in a tag team, and we had
to kind of think, how are we going to work
with all these guys because you have to be strong

(36:22):
coming in, so the people go, holy shit, you know,
but yet we got to be able to work with
the guys, so then they want to work with us. So,
I mean, it was it was quite a quite a thing,
you know, to figure out how to do that and
make it so nobody hated us because at first they
wanted to get over on us to make them look better, right,

(36:44):
So we had to get it into the head that
they needed to trust us. We're the heels and we're
going to get you guys over, but we're going to
look really strong and then somehow we're going to get
you a tag to where you're going to make us
fly everywhere. So then the people even would say, well, hey,
somebody could beat these guys, you know, and then you'd
screw them and win and that was kind of our

(37:05):
philosophy and it worked because it could have been bad
where if we would have worked with everybody and work
even with everybody, we would have just been a regular
tag team. We wouldn't have been the Demolition. And that's
like how the Roadwayers got over. They beat everybody, yet
they didn't give anybody anything, and that's what got them over.
So yeah, so we had to really think of how

(37:27):
to do that.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, And that was what also was great about that
tag team division because and I don't remember really ever
seeing it before in professional wrestling, that where you could
take a tag team for example, like the Heart Foundation,
where you've got you know, Brett is this fast moving,
sleek wrestler. There you got Anvil who's powerful, but he's

(37:50):
not a huge guy, and you look at that matchup
you're like, there's no way that these guys can compete. Well,
absolutely they could because of the different styles and how
they matched up, but you guys had to be able
to do that and like the combination, Like the way
I look at it, it wasn't just like you said,
you could just be two monsters and you know, love

(38:10):
the Warlord, love the Barbaria, but they couldn't do what
you guys did in the ring. And then, you know,
like you said, the way you the psychology of it
and making it and getting it over and working with
the two teams. But then also you guys could cut promos.
I mean, I used to love doing promos with you
guys because it was as they say it, Butter, I mean,
it was just so smooth. And I don't I'm sure

(38:34):
initially it took you a little while to do there,
to get there. I saw it happen, But man, you
guys were two of the best once you started getting
getting into that rhythm, and so I believe it was
just a combination all the way around. But if you,
like you said, work willing and had the understanding of
making it work and putting these teams over and letting

(38:55):
people think it out there, maybe they could beat them.
And then you guys put the hammer down and uh,
you know, like you said, at some point they had
to give you the belts.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
It was I gotta go, I gotta go on your
podcast every day. You make me feel like a million dollars.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I had a great seat, Barry. That's why I say
like I had a great seat for all of this,
and I was I was a student because I didn't
grow up with it, and so to me, I was
a sponge and I wanted to, you know, to be
successful at it. But I did be and I was.
I got to be around that uh that try triumvirate
that ran the place between Vince and Bruce and and

(39:31):
Pat and all these other guys, and I just took
it in and and and that's that's how I kind
of learned. And I like would watch. To me, the
promos were really important, especially at that time, because it
was that's how we sold the guys the event center
and you know, they got to hear you there. There

(39:51):
were countless guys that I would see who were uh
great in the ring, great look, but they couldn't get
in front of the microphone and do it. And you
were dead. Like if you if you had to depend
on a manager that could take you so far. But
you guys had it all. And I know, I mean
it to me there that I loved I loved the
road Warriors. I love Mike and Joe and everything they did,

(40:12):
but you guys were to me completely different.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yeah, I appreciate that, and that and that's what we
tried to be, you know, and uh, you know, it
was hard for me to yell all the time earlier,
and I want to talk, but I have such a
nice voice, you know, a baby's face voice. It was
hard to be the demolition unless I yelled, you know,
and yelling, and it wasn't the way that you should

(40:36):
be doing things. But it just worked. At that time.
There wasn't there wasn't anybody in the territory that did it,
so it was.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Well, it was like like Jake had his bit, you know,
like it was I always call it the slow burn brother.
You know you want to do that. You don't think
you want to. I know what you're talking, you know,
but you needed that intensity for demolition.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Yeah. And Bill had that low, you know, the whole
voice where he could talk loud. You know, he wasn't yelling,
he was just talking loud. And he still has that
voice when we go out.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
You know, I'm a great I have a great appreciation
for voices. I thought that Mike he Seth had a
great voiceover voice, and I think Bill also would have
been like it, you know, could have done voiceover work
on the side. To this day, he could. He's got
a trup he's still got tremendous pipes, as they say.
But the success of Demolition, and and it shows by

(41:28):
how long you ended up with the belts, because you know,
people don't understand necessarily how how that works. They just say, well,
they just decided that they were going to let him
hold the belts that long. No, it's it all depends
on how it's received. If fans still want it, then
they're not going to question it. You can force so much,
and it showed just by how long you guys have

(41:48):
those belts, what a force you were.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, And I think a lot to do with with
it is because we could work with every team. If
you were a smaller team, we still had great matches.
If you were a bigger team, same thing. And I
think that's what the tag team needed. And as heels,
we could get the baby faces over even by beating them,
and it made them.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Better, elevated them.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
I don't think we ever won a match legally ever
is the demolition.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
I mean, we cheated all the time, and that's where Fuji,
you know, made the team so good, because Fuji didn't
do anything for the whole match except whatever you.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Know had came on, So that worked absolutely, and it
did for a very long time. And as you said,
at some point things you get a ride, and and
you got a great one, but at some point it
does it. Bill was his health was in question at

(42:49):
the time, and then they tried to bring in crush
and we all know how that works. But and nothing
taken away from him. But I just said, it was
it's demolition or nothing. It was the same thing where
the Road Warriors were when Mike would be out and
they'd try and pair Joe with somebody and it just
didn't work. You know, you guys were it was demolition
and that's all there was to it. You know, you

(43:11):
spent a great deal of your time in the tag teams,
but you also spent a lot of time as a
solo talent, which is another, you know, difficult thing to
really succeed at. I of course remember because of Repo Man,
but you did, you know, you went south and also
kept working down there. But that the Repo Man, though,

(43:34):
I thought, got over pretty damn well for the time
that you were able to do it. And I just
always wondered, like, how did that come about? And you know,
at some point, a lot of people that are in
a tag team or something like that. You can't just
go and do something else. But you pulled it off.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yeah, you know, it was funny because I was going
to quit wrestling for good. I was, you know, I
was gonna get a regular job and you know, go
on with my life. And it was just a great
time of my life. And and then you know, Vince
called me up and wanted me to still work, and
then we ended up coming up with that gimmick, the
Repo Man. But when I talked to Vince, I I

(44:16):
told him, I said, you know, this isn't going to
be I'm not going to be Hulk Hogan or Randy
Savage or any of these guys. I'm going to be
the guy who gets them over. And I don't mind
doing that. At that part of my life, I loved
wrestling so much. I just wanted to be in the ring,
and I wanted to work with the guys who could,
who were the top guys. And eventually turned baby face

(44:39):
because I wanted to be a baby face as the
repo Man. And you know, do make a wish things
and you know, do do the things that help real
life stuff. And you know, I ended up wrestling shoot
all the top guys, I mean, Jake the Snake, the Undertaker,
Randy Savage, Bulldog. I mean, it was like it was

(45:02):
my next dream was to work with all these guys,
and there was no pressure on me at all. It
was fun because I didn't have to. I wasn't the
guy on the card that had to have the best
match on the on the card. I had to have
a good entertaining and you know, fun matches, and that's
what I did. But then it got to the point
where it started getting kind of tough in there because

(45:28):
I was a heel, and pretty soon I wasn't a
good heel anymore, you know. The it was that part
went away, you know from the fans. And I told Vince,
I said, Vinced, I think it's time for to change me, babyface,
and you know, let me steal a couple of belts
from the bad guys and give them to the good guys,
or you know, do something. And and he said, no,

(45:48):
it's not going to happen. You're not going to be
a babyface. So then at that part of my life,
I thought, you know, this is a good time that
I'm gonna get out. And I gave vin my notice
and you know, he said, you're sure you want to
and I said, yeah, I just it just wasn't fun anymore.
And I wanted to be home. My son was getting
older and I wanted to be with him and you know,

(46:11):
get on with my life. And and that's that's when
I left and said my goodbye to everybody, and that
was the end of it. And then once, you know,
a few months later, Rick Flair calls me up again
and says, Barry, I want you.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Down here, and you know, I mean, it just pulls
you back in.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah, And then I had the time of my life
down there. I mean, I just I've had the greatest
life out of everybody. And I tell everybody that I
love life. I want to leave to be one hundred
and fifty years old, if I could, you know that
I want to see my grandkid's kids. You know.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, one thing though I did, I wanted to ask
you about And I mean, I've talked many times about
how difficult that life was with the WWF. It was
kind of you know, you make a deal with the
devil and the sinse, you're going to have everything you
could ever possibly want, fame and money and adoration from
people but then again, you're going to be on the

(47:07):
road for three hundred plus days a year. When you
do get home, it's going to be for just a
couple You're going to try and sleep, get your laundry,
and then you're back out there again and you can't
and you don't want to stop it because you don't
know how long this ride's going to last. How did
you do that? Though? Because you have a great relationship
with your your family and you said your son, how

(47:29):
did you balance that during that period of time and
you go home when I was in the business the whole, yeah,
and when when it was really riding, like with demolition
and go on.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Well, you know, my son was very young at that time,
and you know I used to tell him, you know that,
you know, Daddy's got to go on the road. You
could watch me on TV and I say, whenever I
stick my tongue out, that means I love you and
I miss you. So that's that's kind of how I
did it. And then when I'd come home after three weeks,
he said, Daddy, I saw you. You know you love me,

(48:00):
you know, And that's that was kind of how it was.
But I you know, and at that time. It was hard.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
We didn't have cell phones or anything. Yeah, and you
miss a lot too.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Yeah, and you make a long distance phone call and
it costs you thirty forty dollars or whatever that every night.
All of a sudden, you're spending two or three hundred
a week and you got to check for eight hundred dollars.
It's like, oh, wait a minute, here, you know, what
do I do? But you know, you make the best
of it. And then you try to fly your family
into a town where you're going to be traveling different places.

(48:29):
And you know, that's what I was saying earlier. The
you know, the family was the most important part, and
you did everything you could to keep that together. And
but you know, thank god, I had the greatest wife
in the world. She ran the house, she raised my
son when I wasn't there, and she was phenomenal and
I'm still with her forty some years.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
So yeah, well, you say it was all all worth it,
but you know, you do miss a lot. I know
a lot of people. You know, obviously you took it
very seriously of keeping those relationships healthy, but for a
lot it was it was it was too much, and
and they paid for it. They ended up paying for
it to rest their lives as far as you know,

(49:11):
lost relationships with kids and stuff. Yeah, but at one
at one point, like you said, when it got to
and I guess when you're probably down south, it was
a little easier to go to have some kind of
a family life. But when you did go get home,
were you able to shut it down and just try
and be this normal neighbor?

Speaker 3 (49:30):
You know, at first I didn't when when we had
the big run with the demolition, it was it was
pretty nerve wracking because you had to perform, you had
to do everything.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
And you know, when you're on the.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Road for three weeks, four weeks, five weeks sometimes straight,
and you know, you get up at six in the morning,
and I mean you're working all day, all night, and
the pressure's on you. And all of a sudden you
get home and you're traveling four or five hours. You
get home. It's hard to all of a sudden go oh,
you know, everything's fine, and Danny, it took you a

(50:02):
day or so to unwind, and you know right away
I'd go to the gym when i'd train, and then
I'd have to settle down a little bit. So when
you go home, You're like, oh, okay, here we go. Now,
now life is normal. And I had great neighbors, great
friends that didn't you know, hey, you know, what was
it like wrestling? You know, whole holding last week. I mean,

(50:24):
they didn't even bring it up. It was about, Hey,
let's go fishing, or let's go you know, the football
game or something. And that's what really grounded me, was
you know, and the wife wasn't a wrestling fan. So
it's like, you know, just forget about you know, forget
about that and get home. You're with the family now,
you know what I mean. She would she would ground
me pretty fast.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Well that's great, that's great. How much of a toll though,
over the years, did because I always liking it to
be being in a car accident every day when you
go into the ring, the jolts and the bolt of
the body shots you take. How much of a toll
did it take on your on your body? I mean,

(51:06):
and you know, I know I saw you still move
really well. How much of a toll did it take
on you though? Over the Yeah, it took a pretty
good toll, you know. And during the time when I
was working, you know, when I had partners. It was
great because then I could stay out of the ring
a little longer, or when he would get hurt, I'd
be in the ring longer.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
And you know, when you're on the road, you didn't
even really realize how bad it was because you just
were used to it. It was once you finally got
out of wrestling, you just went, WHOA, I can't hardly
get out of bed or this or that, you know,
and then you know, You've had a couple of knee surgeries.
I've had five different knee surgeries, different shoulder surgeries. The

(51:48):
back is bad, concussions, many concussions, and you know, I'm
really feeling it now, you know, Hey, you know, and
I'm sixty six years old now, and it's it's it's
weiring on me. But that was the life I chose.
You know. It's the same as those football players that
are out there. They're getting hit every day. Same thing. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
Well, and I know one really bad, particular shot is
that chair shot you took from Tully Blanchard that you know,
you've talked about how you still feel the effects from
this to this day, and maybe at the time you
didn't realize just how bad that wasn't. I don't. I
don't think he went to the hospital, right. You just
kept working.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
No, I had to because we were getting a big push.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to say nothing
to anybody or anything. I just you know, sucked it
up and went and did it again. But yeah, I
really still feel that. I you know, now that we're
talking about it, I got a little feeling rent in
my head.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
I feel, you know, I remember it well.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Yeah, yeah, And you know I don't sleep. I don't
know if that's part of it, but you know, and
then you don't know if a lot of it's just
because you're getting older. But you know, I don't remember,
sir things and you know, like like the stuff you're
asking me. I've gone over a lot of times with
different interviews and I yea, and it's really good for
me to think of this stuff and you're asking good
questions because there's different things than I've had. But you know,

(53:12):
that's part of my my treatment is you know, trying
to remember in doing that stuff, and it really helps me,
you know.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Next, I know you said it used to be a
whiz with numbers and you know that kind of thing.
But at some point, and I think it's hard for
a lot of people. It's like professional athletes too, that
you know, it's hard for them to realize, Okay, it's time.
At what point did you realize, okay, this is it

(53:42):
And was it a gradual thing or was it something
happened in the ring and you said, okay, really that's it.
I'm done.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Well. My last big hurrah was when I was in
w CW. I had that truck match with Dustin Rhodes
and I was the Blacktop Bully and I thought I
was going to get a really good run from that,
and I had some time off, so I was really healthy.
I got in good shape training wise. My son was

(54:09):
older now and I lived in North Carolina, so I
was where my wife was from, so the family, everything
was there, and I was home all the time, and
I thought I was gonna this was going to be
a top spot for a long time. And then when
I got fired, when Eric Bischoff called me up and
fired me, and that was the end of my job there.

(54:31):
I thought this is probably going to be the end
of my career, but he told me he was going
to hire me back. But by this time, I'm already
thinking what am I going to do with the rest
of my life, because you know, now I've had these breaks,
and I was in real estate, you know, as soon
as I got fired from the Blacktop Bully, I started

(54:54):
real estate, selling homes and everything, and I was doing
pretty well, and and then I ended up. We called
John Norton and I we called Vince and we were
kind of laughing with him, trying to get a job
back with Vince, and we were selling cars at the time,
and Vince's, ah, I got really nothing for you. So
we called Eric Bischoff and he says, hey, we're at

(55:17):
the Target Center. Come on down and let's have a match.
So me and John teamed up and we had a
match together, and it was just fun seeing all the
guys and everything. But I really didn't want to get
back into wrestling, but I thought, oh, what the heck,
these guys got guaranteed contracts now. So so Eric says, well, hey,
you know, come up to the office and let's talk.
So I went up to the office with Eric and

(55:39):
I'm sitting in his office and he says to me,
he goes, Barry, he goes, well, you know, I don't
know what we're going to do with you? What do
you think you're worth? And I said to Eric, I said, well,
I'm worth probably a million, maybe three million dollars a year.
And I was really serious, you know. And he's sitting
in the big chair and I'm sitting down here, and
he looks at me and he he's really He starts laughing,

(56:02):
you know, and I said what, Eric. He goes, well,
how can I justify paying you three million dollars? And
I said easy. I said, I'll beat Hulk Hogan, I'll
be I'll beat all the top guys in thirty seconds.
And I said, I'll have great matches in thirty seconds,
and I'll be the guy. I'll be the three million,
four million dollar guy. And he got real share. He
looks at me. He goes, Berry, that's the greatest answer

(56:24):
I've ever heard, he says. He says, but that ain't
gonna happen. I said, I figured it wasn't going to happen.
But you asked me when I was worth and I said,
I'm not going to tell you I'm worth ten dollars.
I'm bean paying millions. I sell yourself short.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
So he says, well, well, I got a figure for you.
So he gives me the figure and I said, you
know what, that's good too. And he says, you're at
the end of your career. He says, I think you
should get paid well for it. And he says, you
won't even hardly have to work, and I said, I
really like that. So that was when I knew that
was the end of my career. And I probably worked

(57:04):
maybe two days a month maybe, and well, you know,
I worked with fit Finley, the boss Man, you know,
all these other guys. But anyways, the Blacktop Bolly. That
was when I figured that was going to be the
end of my career. And it was so I was
already thinking what am I going to do with my life?

Speaker 1 (57:22):
And you know, people love to knock Eric, but I
also know that he did take care of some people,
and uh it was true to his word in many cases.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
So I really like Eric, I you know, and I
did a podcast with him not too long ago and
we talked about it and I said, why did you
fire me? You know, we talked about it and he
said he had no choice, the office made him do it,
and you know, and then I said, well, why didn't
you bring me back as the Blacktop bully, and he says,
I really, I don't know, you know, but it was

(57:53):
just you know, you get lost in the shuffle, and.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
But he did bring you back.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
But he did bring me, took care of me. And
then that's when, you know, that's when I ended up
hooking up with a buddy of mine and I started
a company and it went very well, and it just,
you know, twenty four hours a day, I'm working again,
you know, but now I'm at home every night going,
you know, sleeping in the same bed. That was kind of.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Nice, yeah, And I wanted to get into that a
little bit verry that you know, when people are gifted
people and they have the blessing of performing in front
of massive crowds as professional athletes, which you guys were
at some point because you're you know, you're dependent on

(58:37):
the meat wagon. You're dragging around and at some point
it doesn't work as well as it did when you
were in your twenties. How big of a transition was
that for you to go from that life and not
just for the what you were doing in the ring,
but also you know, of being in front of that light.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
You know, it was you know, when I was the
black Top boy, when I when that was the end
of it, that kind of hurt. When I got out
of it. Then it was like, you know, I wanted
to be in the limelight. I wanted to be around it.
But then after it was done, after a month or two,
when I came down to reality, you know, and again

(59:19):
it's my wife, it's like, we don't need this, you know,
And I said, no, we don't, and we're going to
be fine. You know, we had enough money we could
you know, pay a house off or you know, a
small house, and you know, we get regular jobs and
have a regular life and be a family. So I
was on board with that now, but it did take

(59:40):
a couple of months to get to that point. And
when we finally moved back to my home Minnesota, that's
when I had a buddy of mine who who thinks
like I do, you know, it works hard. He worked
for Granger, which was a big company, and his work
ethic there was incredible. And I was selling real estate

(01:00:01):
at the time, doing pretty well. And he called me up.
He says, Barry, I want to we want to start
a new business. And I told him, I said, I
really don't want to start a business. I said, I'm
starting to do pretty well and I just don't want
to have the responsibility. He says, no, no, think about it.
So we talked about it and then I thought, you
know what, he's the best partner that I could have

(01:00:23):
because he's just like I am. Where you know, he
works and the job is first when you're doing that,
and you'll do everything you can to make it. And
that's kind of what our whole lives have been. You
do everything to make it. And we ended up starting
the business in his garage and we went to Chicago

(01:00:45):
to buy a machine. We're going to buy We figured
we're going to get into pad printing, but we thought,
what's gonna what are we going to pad print on?
So he went to Chicago to buy the machine and
we said, well, what are we going to do? And
then we saw a guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
With a.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
And he had a hard hat on and it had
a logo on it, and we both looked at that one.
We're going to pad print logos on hard hands and
he used to do that for another company, and he said, well,
let's make it happen. So we bought the machine. We're
in a little garage and one of the first orders
that comes in the Minnesota Twins calls us up. So

(01:01:23):
we're in the garage and we're making like we're this
freaking huge company and we're in the folly garage. My
desk is over here and his is over here. And
we never even knew how to do this. And I'm
the guy doing the artwork. I've never done nothing on
a computer before, you know. So Tom is on the
on the deal and he goes, Barry, you got a
call online too, you know, And then he says, yeah,

(01:01:46):
Barry's down at the dock over on twelve. So we're
looking at their factory and I get on there and go, yeah, yeah,
this is Barry. Thanks thanks Tom, you know. And we're
doing all this stuff, and the lady goes, yeah, I'm
from the Minnesota Twins and here I'll send you the logo.
And I don't even know how to open up the
logo on the computer. You know. It's one of the
first orders we got. And I said, well, how many

(01:02:07):
hard hats you want? She said, well, we need about
fifty thousand of them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Can you handle that?

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
I said, no problem at all, fifty thousand of them?
And then I said, let me call you back. So
I go to Tom. I go, Tom, how the hell
are we going to do this? You know, fifty fifty
thousand hard hats, that's like three truckloads coming into it
in the neighborhood in the garage. Well, we ended up
bidding this thing out, and thank god we got beat

(01:02:31):
by somebody else, because I really we didn't want it.
But that's how the whole business started. And then we
kind of figured it out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
You know, I went, hey, all, it's all work, right,
it's all I just took all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
My classes on you know, myself, learn how to do
the art work, and he's doing all the pad printing,
and pretty soon we made it work. We went from
that one to another building, to another building, and then we
bought our own building and then we got employees, and
I mean it was just a really neat process.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yeah. Well, you know, I always tell people that wrestling
really is life. If you pay attention, you can learn everything.
And I'm sure that you reached into that bag of
your experience from from wrestling, the psychology with people and
just facing adversity and everything. I mean, it goes on
and on.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
Our whole life in wrestling was a work. You you
did something that you know, the fans were are the
people who bought our product, and you had to give
them a product that they would buy. And it was
the same thing in the pad printing and the hard
had business, the safety vest president. You know, it just

(01:03:41):
you know, it just explodes in. Our customers were our
best friends. So everybody we sold to call us back again.
And being in the wrestling business, I wrestled in Boston
or Chicago or LA and you know, somebody would call
from Chicago and say, oh, yeah, do you ever go
to the goat restaurant? You know, and they go, oh,

(01:04:02):
You've been there. And pretty soon, all of a sudden,
you know, you got something you're talking about with the customer.
They ain't going anywhere else. They're going with it, you know,
and you become their friends. And that that's how our
business exploded. It was kind of like the wrestling business. Yeah, absolutely,
I mean it is. It's like I said, wrestling is life.
It's there's no no question in my mind. And everything

(01:04:23):
that I learned along the way. You know, I've done
all these different things since, but I still know that
I wouldn't even have a career if Vince McMahon didn't
take a chance on me and put me up in
front of a microphone and I, you know, you talk
about first years.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Oh my god, I was terrible. I look at something
and I mean I look at YouTube. They still have
some stuff up. They're like, God, how in the world
did they keep me?

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Because you know, you know, but you're your worst enemy
because you weren't. You weren't like what you thought you were.
You were good, otherwise you would have been gone the
next day.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Oh sure, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
And uh, you know, we watched you grow and it
was it was fun seeing that. But you know, a
lot of there's a lot of bad rap on Vince.
And you know I probably said a few things about
him and this and that, but you know, I've never
tried to be negative. Vince was unbelievable. He was he
was a genius. He knew what he was talking about.

(01:05:22):
He was always good to me no matter what, even
though you know, he let me go or you know whatever.
He was the boss. I was the employee, and he
had the right to do whatever he was doing to
make himself money. And Vince was unbelievable. He gave, he gave.
Just think of all the people that were in the
business that made millions.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
That was because of Vince absolutely, and uh, like I said,
you could to me, you can separate the other stuff,
and I don't. I didn't really know anything about it
even when I was there, but as far as what
he did for the businessusiness, you know, and like you know,
Terry Bellia, like Hulk too, you know, hul Cogan. Without

(01:06:07):
Hull Cogan, nobody would have had the careers that they had.
So yeah, you do have to give credit where credit
is due. And you know, I know, you're still living
a good life. Uh, and it's amazing because I think
probably when you first left the business, when you were
working full time, there weren't the opportunities that there are now. Uh.

(01:06:30):
They certainly had some of these shows, but now, I mean,
like every week, if you want to work, you want
to go somewhere and do something, I know, the offers
are there for you. Guys. You seem like, you know,
you get you're busier than you've ever been.

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
Oh, it's unbelievable. I was just in tall So, Oklahoma
this weekend. You know, the slaughter was there and you
know Buff Bagwell staying. I mean, it was it was incredible.
You know, it's funny because and with Bill all the time.
And I look at and I go, Bill, you know,
what are you doing to me? And he goes, what

(01:07:03):
do you mean? And I said, well, I thought you
said we're only going to be out twice a month.
We all of a sudden three three weeks out of
the month, and then now four weeks out of the month.
And you know he'll call it, He'll go Berry. You know,
I know Teresa is going to get mad at you,
But I got a good date here, one shot. You'll
be in and out, you know, in three days. And

(01:07:24):
I'm you know, but really, really I love it. You know,
we're the luckiest guy. We sit down and you sign
autographs and you talk to these fans who are unbelievable.
They know your whole life, and you know, the worst
part of this whole thing is to travel. And if
you didn't have to travel and just you know where

(01:07:45):
they're seeing your friends and sign out graphs, it's the
greatest gig ever. And you're right, you know, in the
last you know, eight nine years, ten years, it's just
it's fun going on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Well and think about it, I mean we're talking go
way over thirty plus years now, when this was you know,
forty where and these people still there. They want to
hear it. They you know, we do a podcast, people
want to hear it. You go to the shows, there's
lines out the door. It shows. It really does tell

(01:08:19):
you what a special time that was. That period you
know that has never been matched, and it was really was.
I call it it's the Golden Era, and I believe
it truly was.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
Well, you know, and then now you know, we got
another action figure coming out, yeah, you know the ww's Yeah,
and they're doing pre orders right now, and I'm looking
at like, going, holy come, no, I got personal appearances.
Now people are gonna want those signed, yeah, you know.
And then you know, I don't know if you're going
to bring it up. But then I got a book.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Yeah, I was hold that up nice and that everybody
can see it?

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Can you see it? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Beautiful?

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
When is it hitting the.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
It's all right, it's out right now. It's uh. You
can buy it on Amazon, And the first week it
was doing phenomenal. It was one of the top books
being sold on Kindle. It was number one for quite
a while, and number two and number three, And that
was before I really even promoted it. But that was

(01:09:20):
you know, I never thought that I'd be writing a book,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
And what's that process like? Especially you know, you probably
go into it going like what, I don't you always
think I don't have that many stories, and like.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
Oh, yeah you do, Seohn, I got a million stories.

Speaker 5 (01:09:35):
And and you know, it was kind of hard because
I only you know, I didn't want to make it
too long, but you know, it's three hundred and some
pages and I only got you know, five, six, seven
eight stories in there.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
I got a million stories, you know, I got a million.
But it was really fun remembering some of the stories there.
And you know, I got some about Rick Rude and
Kurt Hennig and Ernie Ladd and the Junkyard Dog and
you know, Bill and Knight Heart and Heart Foundation. So
I had fun with it.

Speaker 6 (01:10:07):
And you know, it was a lot of work and
being retired, I'm really not retired, being gone with Bill
all the time and writing a book and being with
the kids, and I mean, you know, but.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
Hold it up again.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
I hope people get out and buy the book because
it was fun.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Yeah, hold it up and tell everybody the name of
it again. I want to make sure.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Everybody gets it. It's sickles, studs and stolen cars. So
it starts back when I was in Robinsdale and being
Kurt Hennig and the Road Warriors and all of us
start when we started in the business, and then you
know the different territories I was in all the way
up until now. You know, I talk about my wife
and my son and the grandkids and all my friends.

(01:10:54):
I got a million friends.

Speaker 1 (01:10:55):
Yeah, And one thing that's that really is brutal about
this business is you know, you look back at so many,
so many great people that you were really close to.
I was blessed to be around them. Kurt Hennig was
one of my favorites all time, Rick Rude, all these guys,

(01:11:16):
and you know, if you're lucky, you get to live
into your seventies or you know, possibly eighty. But a
lot of them we've lost, and you know, you go
down the list and it's it is, there is a
big price to pay, and you know, very unfortunate that
you've been able to take care of yourself. But look
how many that we've lost.

Speaker 3 (01:11:37):
Yeah, it's you know, I think I had you know,
when I was counting them one day, it was about
seventy five guys that I was for you quick county
because it's over one hundred probably now, you know, and
and a lot of those I've wrestled and grew up with.
And it's it's terrible, you know, And it's the road

(01:11:58):
does it to you when you get in injuries? You know,
you get an injury and you need to work the
next day, and you start taking painkillers and pretty soon
you can't sleep. So now you're taking sleeping pills and
you're hurt and you're working in the stress, and pretty
soon it just all catches up to you after years
and years of it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Yeah, And it is, like I said, it's like you're
in a car wreck. For that many have that many
car wrecks in your life, which literally that's really what
is about your body?

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Yeah, and I think I think nowadays it's a whole
different thing. You know, they're not wrestling as much. They
get injured, they take time off, and you know, I
think the guys and the girls are going to live
to be a lot longer from this business. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
I hope so so able to get out on the
golf course. Folks may not really know that, I mean,
what a tremendous golfer that you are. I think at
one point you were scratch. So you still get out.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Yeah, I do not as much. You know, I was
building this house I'm in now up in ross Common,
so I finally finished it pretty much. So next spring,
I'm really going to play golf. I'm gonna go fishing,
and I'm gonna really do some things with the grandkids.
But here's what's terrible. I'm getting older and I hurt
so bad. I can't hit the ball from the back

(01:13:17):
teas anymore. I can't swing normal anymore. So as I
had to figure out how I can just hit it
a couple hundred yards two hundred and thirty yards or
whatever and get it in the middle.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:27):
So now I'm doing that and I'm playing the upper tease.
And then I couldn't putt anymore. So now I went
to a forty eight inch part of one of those
big huge ones. Now I'm putting again. So I'm getting
my game back again with all the injuries I have.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Well, I'll tell you know, my grandfather loved golf. He
just worshiped the game. He was an old time semi
pro baseball player. And then he you know, a lot
of guys to go from that end up being very
good golfers. And he was the same way. And he
got into his eighties and long befo for that. He
realized it was a short game. He'd say, like, you

(01:14:03):
three putts of sin. That's what I used to tell me.
But that's exactly what he would do. And he beat
the pants off guys all the time because he just
straight down the middle, maybe a little lesson a buck
fifty in the yardage. And but what did it consider
the problem.

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
My problem is just what I've always had in my life.
I want to be the best. Yes, this is killing
me when my son goes out there and hits it,
you know, two eighty and me, you know, but he's
off the fairway, you know, And I hit it my
two twenty or two thirty, and I'm dead center and
he's going, I outdrove you. And I said, well, let's see.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
How many times it takes you to get And that's
the that's the real test. There a day golf courses. Yeah,
any day on a golf course is a good day.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
Yeah. So you're living in Arizona, yep, I am coming
to Phoenix here pretty soon and I'm gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Call you please you we get on the course.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
Yeah, Bill, Bill and I are we're in I think
it's in March or something. Maybe we're coming down there.
So I'm gonna call you in. Uh. I don't know
if you'll have time for golf, but we'll have to
go out and I'll take you out to dinner or something.

Speaker 1 (01:15:13):
Yeah, you never know. We may end up at the
same show, so too, I'm hoping.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Yeah, that could be.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Yeah, I never know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
Very this is.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
This is awesome. I love I'm going to get Bill
on I think I hope at one point the last
time and I didn't mention, but the last time that
we actually get a podcast together, you and and Bill.
We were traveling to a show I think outside of Chicago,
do you remember, and you're you're in a limousine getting Yeah,
you're you're being driven up there, and I stayed on
the uh with you on the phone. I think you

(01:15:43):
guys were I had my you know where I was
for about two hours and you could you could. It's
still up on Primetime with Sean Mooney. But what a
great conversation that was. So I'm looking at getting Bill
Bill one on one, but that was fun.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
Yeah, Sean, I love you man, You're you're a good guy,
and it's just it's fun to talk old stories and
old friends and.

Speaker 1 (01:16:05):
Yeah, it was a great time. It really was. And
I'm really looking forward to your induction into the Hall
of Fame. That has to happen. I'm hoping it's this
next one, but everybody knows Demolition's got to be in
the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
Well, I appreciate it, and I don't know, you know,
there's been so many teams out there, but it'd be
quite the honor to be.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
In doubt it's going to happen. It is going to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:16:32):
I wouldn't even know what to say, you know. And
the hard part is are probably gonna go, oh, you
got two minutes and get out of there, you know,
you know, and that could be good too. You know,
I might end up having tears in my eyn want
you to be able to talk.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
Who knows well well deserved and that would be put
the icing on it all because but a tremendous career. Bear,
I'm sure you never thought when you were that kid
in Robinsdale that this is going to be the ride
that you had.

Speaker 3 (01:16:59):
You know, it's fun. Is that last time when we
were at the Hall of Fame. Bill and I go
up to the room and the first guy that greets
us is Bruce Pritchard, who I love Bruce Pritchard yea,
And he sat and talked to us and made us
comfortable being there again, you know. And then see him
Punk came up to us, who I've never met. Seeing Punk,

(01:17:19):
what a freaking gentleman he was. He talked to us
for five ten minutes. Just a hell of a guy,
you know. And then we talked to the Undertaker and
Stone Cold and you know, it just it was. It
was fun seeing the guys again, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
So well, you're you're a part of the hopefully happen.
You never know, no it will, mark my words, it's
it's gotta happen. I tell anybody I connected, w W
when's it happening. These guys need to be in there,
so it's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
All right, Mooney Shine, dropping Boney and the mind all
through the night. Well, let James Rabbis sails on

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