“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan was on the latest episode of The Genius Cast With Lanny Poffo and the first ever Royal Rumble winner talks about how collegiate football opened the door for wrestling, how the origins of the 2×4 came to be in thanks to Bruiser Brody and the differences between today’s locker room and yesteryear’s locker room. Below are a few quotes (transcription credit should go to Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone):
Jim Duggan on how the 2×4 came to be:
“[Bruiser] Brody came in and he looks at me and goes ‘Duggan,’ he says ‘if you carry something to the ring carry something you can use. Forget those feather boas and those sequined robes!’ I looked down and I’m like ‘well, here’s a piece of wood.’ I came out yelling waving that piece of wood, it was like parting the Red Sea, those folks scattered I got to the ring and you know I’ve been carrying it ever since. It’s been a great gimmick.”
On his past grudge with Matt Borne:
“It’s hard to say cause Matt’s passed so I’m not going to talk bad about the guy, but you know, that’s one of the huge misconceptions of wrestling. People say ‘well, you guys are all good friends aren’t ya?’ No. We’re not all good friends. You know, you have a few friends, you have a lot of acquaintances, you have a couple of enemies and Matt Borne was my enemy.”
On today’s wrestling locker room and being in the golden age of the sport:
“Nowadays I think the kids now are much more professional. Nowadays, you go to the show, the kids all got their phones or their laptops. I think the kids may be even more athletic, but I don’t think they’re as creative as our generation. I mean our generation of guys was the golden age of wrestling. You can name ten guys without thinking. Lanny and I were lucky enough to be part of that golden age.”
On Bobby Heenan trying to torture him with a unique “partner”:
“Bobby Heenan would be like ‘you know Vince, Duggan needs an eagle. You should get Duggan an eagle.’ Like, ‘Bobby, shut up!”
On his change from being a heel to “Hacksaw”:
“Also, my character, I survived much longer. You can’t survive long chopping meat like that. I joke, I said to this day, I’m the last of the old-timers with all my original body parts. Everybody else got a new knee, a new hip, a new shoulder. I said ‘Hacksaw Duggan comes in the original package.'”
On recently meeting a very big fan at a convention in South Carolina:
“It’s humbling the way folks remember us wrestlers. Our generation of guys. I mean what do you say? The guy got up up, gave the guy a hug, he got teary-eyed thinking about watching Saturday afternoon wrestling with his family and with his dad and mom. I’m sure it happens to Lanny, it happens to our generation and around the world.”
On all the places he’s been to:
“In my career, 40 years, I’ve wrestled every state in the Union, every providence in Canada and in 31 different countries. Its amazing the appeal of wrestling around the world.”
You can listen to the entire episode of The Genius Cast below that includes an interview with Lanny Poffo while he’s commentating in Japan:
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