Duke Droese Recalls Standout Feud With Triple H, Great Brawls With PCO

The Watch List takes a look at what matches you should be watching while you’re at home and they come recommended by your favorite professional wrestling stars.

WrestleZone recently spoke with Duke “The Dumpster” Droese about his WWF tenure, highlighted by two big feuds against Jerry Lawler and Triple H. Then going by Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the blue blood was a complete contrast from Droese’s blue-collar trash man gimmick. Droese looks at those matches as a career highlight, especially the pay-per-view matches, but said some of his most notable work wasn’t even televised.

“A lot of my best matches were on house shows. When I worked in Germany, I wrestled guys like Fit Finlay on a regular basis. They brought in Terry Funk—Otto [Wanz] made me his champion and brought in Terry Funk to work with me.

“I’ve had some matches that weren’t televised—it’s amazing some of the stuff that people can find these days that were actually taped. You never saw them or you never thought you’d see them again. They pull [the footage] out of who knows where, but a lot of my stuff—I had a lot of great matches with Pierre The Quebecer. Jean-Pierre Lafitte, now he’s PCO, but we had some great brawls. He always liked to go full speed, which he still does, that’s why he’s still wrestling at 52, 53, or however old he is. As far as any kind of pay-per-view stuff, the Triple H stuff of course stands out.”

We added some recommendations to the list and selected a good mix of bouts from Droese’s career, including two full matches against Triple H and PCO (as Lafitte).

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley

WWF Superstars — July 15, 1995

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte

WWF RAW — April 17, 1995

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley

In Your House 6 (Rage in the Cage) — February 18, 1996

Duke “The Dumpster” Droese vs. Vader

WWF RAW — May 13, 1996

You can also check out our full interview with Duke Droese where we talk about his feud with Jerry Lawler getting “hardcore”, why his feud with Triple H started, tryouts with WCW and WWF, his post-wrestling career and much more at this link.