Former WWE Superstar B. Brian Blair was a recent guest on the Prime Time with Sean Mooney podcast and shared many fascinating stories about his times in professional wrestling. Blair opens up about a brutal fight between Paul ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Orndorff and Tony Atlas, as well as what it was like to be shot at by a wrestling promoter with vision problems. Blair also opens up about high praise he once received from WWE CEO Vince McMahon. Highlights appear below.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On Who Came Up With The Name WrestleMania:
A lot of people don’t realize this, but [WrestleMania] was George Scott‘s brainchild. He was Vince McMahon’s booker. He came up with the name WrestleMania.
On Being Shot At By Promoter Leroy McGuirk:
I wound up getting in a fight with Doug Summers and tore up Leroy’s office completely. I just threw him into the wall and stuff was falling. [Summers became romantically involved with Blair’s ex-wife, Mike McGuirk] I didn’t know what happened to him and all I knew is he was laying in the floor like lifeless and a few wrestlers got me away and I left. I was crying. I was upset and got in my ’72 powder blue Lincoln Continental and went to Leroy’s house just to say goodbye….I just wanted to see Mike [Also Leroy’s daughter] and at least tell her goodbye and I’ll always love her…so, now I get to the house and knock on the door and Leroy comes to the door. He goes, ‘Who is it?’ I said, ‘Leroy, it’s Brian. I just want to say goodbye to Michael.’ He just cussed me like a sailor and goes, ‘I’m gonna go get my gun.’ I ran to my car. I didn’t know what to do, so I’m sitting in my car now thinking to myself, ‘What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? I don’t want to get shot. I know he has a gun. He can’t see me [Leroy was blind]. All these thoughts were going through my head, but I’ve got to at least see Mike, so I go around and finally I get to the back window where I can see to the inside where the couch is and there’s like a mummy laying on the couch and I see Mike feeding somebody soup through this full headed cast and it’s Doug Summers laying on the couch and she’s feeding him soup. That really kinda pissed me off, so I go back around to the front door and this time I knock on the door….all of a sudden the door raises open and there’s a gun and he opens up the screen door. When I saw the gun, I automatically went to the brick for protection out of the hallway area and he’s got his car parked right in front of the thing and he starts going BLAM BLAM BLAM! I see the bullets flying out right next to his tire. He had bullets all over his hubcap on his Lincoln Continental and I thought, ‘Sh*t man, I better just go.’ Thank God he was blind.
On When He Found Out About Vince McMahon Sr.’s Cancer:
I’ll never forget we were talking in Poughkeepsie TV to Vince Sr. Terry [Hulk Hogan] was talking more than I was. We had to wait in a line and Vince Sr. was such a gentleman he didn’t cut in front of the line or anything. He just waited with the boys and Mr. McMahon Sr., it’s time for him to pee and Terry is still talking to him while he’s peeing and we’re all kinda listening and he turns around and doesn’t flush the toilet. We said goodbye and all of a sudden Terry goes, ‘Brian look,’ and I looked and the whole toilet was full of blood. Then I thought, ‘Golly,’ so we knew something was wrong with Vince Sr. and it wasn’t long after that.
On His Match With Paul Orndorff Being One Of Vince McMahon’s Favorites:
One time Vince Jr. came to me after a match with ‘Mr. Wonderful’ Paul Orndorff that you can see on YouTube from St. Louis. He came up to me afterwards – to both Paul and I- he said, ‘I’ve got to tell you guys and I mean this, that was the best match I’ve ever seen in my life.’ When Vince Jr. told Paul and I that, I thought, ‘Wow, how nice is that?’ He said it in front of a whole bunch of boys too.
On A Fight Between Tony Atlas & Paul Orndorff:
One night Tony Atlas hit himself with 6cc’s (3 cc’s in each butt cheek) before he and Orndorff got in a fight coming back from Wheeling, West Virginia with Tommy Rich in the car. Orndorff bit his ear off….it’s Tony Atlas in the car in the front seat. We’re in a rent a car. I’m driving. Tony Atlas is behind me and Paul is behind Tony. Tony has been grouchy all the way there. Not bad, but tolerable. Tony is usually not like that. I get along great with Tony, especially now since this happened….Tony gets the finish and he’s got to do a job and he starts slamming all the steel lockers in the place we’re dressing at. Everybody was on their tippy toes. You don’t know what this guy is gonna do. The next thing is I look and he’s got a syringe full of 3ccs in each cheek…the reason I know is because he told us what it was. This is more steroids that I can imagine taking in 10 weeks and he’s taking it in one time. He’s saying, ‘Nobody can kick my ass. Maybe Andre The Giant, but I could probably kick his ass.’
He’s just going on and on and on. Finally we get in the car. Tommy Rich is really on needles now…..here we are in the car coming back from Wheeling, West Virginia. Everybody’s in the car. We’re driving back and Tony’s going on and on really making people uncomfortable. [Paul Orndorff then chides Atlas in an effort to get him to move his seat up. Then Atlas threatens to fight Orndorff] Paul says, ‘You ain’t gonna kick my ass. You might kick somebody else’s ass, but you’re not gonna kick my ass.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh sh*t. This is gonna be a big fight.’ Tommy Rich is going, ‘Now guys. Now guys. Settle down. We don’t really need this now.’ He’s really getting pansy-ish freaking out. All of a sudden they’re very into it. Atlas says, ‘Let’s pull over and I’ll kick your ass Orndorff.’ Orndorff says, ‘Yeah, let’s pull over.’ I said, ‘Man, you guys don’t want to fight,’ and Tommy Rich is going, ‘Please guys. Please please don’t fight.’ He’s almost got tears in his eyes. Paul says to me, ‘Either you pull over or I’m gonna kick your ass.’ I said, ‘OK…..’
Tony jumps out and he starts making his arms go back and forth, pumping his chest up and down. He’s got a World’s Gym tank top on and his jeans and his cowboy boots. Orndorff’s got a pair of sneakers and never wore underwear. He’s got a pair of red shorts on and a sleeveless tee shirt. I’m ready to watch. I want to see what happens. I’ve already seen what Paul can do. I have no idea what Tony can do. Tommy’s screaming so bad and now he’s starting to cry and go into his high pitch scream. It was brutal. All of a sudden the two bulls lock up. Tony went to hit Paul. Paul went behind him, belly to backed him right on the cement and they rolled around. All of a sudden I heard a scream, ‘You cheated.’ Tony Atlas has got his ear and all of a sudden Orndorff spits and spits out a big ole’ piece of flesh and Tommy Rich grabs it and goes, ‘Oh my God, it’s an ear. He bit his ear off.’ He’s crying and Atlas is screaming, ‘Paul, I can’t believe you bit my ear off. That’s cheating,’ and Paul says, ‘There’s no rules in fights. Whoever told you there was a rule in a fight?’ He said, ‘Get up, you pu*sy.’ Atlas had to go to the hospital….he had plastic surgery. They had his ear at the hospital. Tommy had the ear in a Burger King napkin.
On His Wrestling Injuries:
I’ve had over a dozen operations where I’ve been put to sleep. I’ve had four knee operations until I got a new knee. I wrestled three days after I had an arthroscopic surgery in Puerto Rico in a driving rain storm. I had my knee replaced. I had my quad all the way torn off my left leg. I’ve had a bottle stabbed through my right hand accidentally by Eric the Red all the way through my hand. I have no more feeling in my hand. I tore three tendons in Hiroshima.
On Why He Left WWE:
We were promised the belts three times and that’s why I finally left. The third time Vince promised us the belts we didn’t get them and I saw Strike Force coming in, who had already been in and another team came in. I saw the writing on the wall and I wasn’t gonna sit there and not be the champion. Vince just didn’t get along with Brunzell. Brunzell loved to argue with him. Jimmy’s a good guy, don’t get me wrong. He’s a tremendous guy, but he’ll be the first one to tell you that he hates Vince. I don’t know what will happen in the future. We’ll see.
Readers may listen to Sean Mooney‘s interview with Blair in its entirety below:
