Former WWE star “The Patriot” Del Wilkes was the guest on the “Primo Nutmeg #56” podcast, which you can listen to in full in the video player above. Below are some highlights:
On How He Went From Playing College Football to Professional Wrestling:
There were two things going on in South Carolina that were just big: South Carolina Football and Professional Wrestling. I grew up following and devouring both, and so I went to University of South Carolina to play College Football from 1980-1984, and I had a couple of brief stints in the NFL. In 1985 I tried out for the Tampa Bay Bucs and in 1986 with the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons released me prior to the start of the 1986 season, so I came back home after that. I grew up watching Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and I just loved it. Columbia (South Carolina) is also the birth home of Lillian Ellison, the Fabulous Moolah, the greatest Lady Wrestler of all-time. After the Falcons released me in 1986, I came back and I looked Moolah up, sat and talked with her. Told her that I wanted to become a professional wrestler, so in early 1987 was when I started going to her camp at her school and embarked on my professional wrestler career then in January of 1987.
On How He Began in the AWA:
Moolah would run little shows all across the states, mostly in Middleton, South Carolina but sometimes go further than that from time to time. Wahoo McDaniel was working for Verne Gagne in the AWA office and also still getting in the ring and still working. Wahoo had a permanent home in Charlotte, North Carolina, and if he had come down for a few weeks to do things around his house there, and Moolah would book him on some of her shows, and after we had met, he took an immediate liking to me; there was an immediate respect factor, and I think it had to do with that football background, since he was a great football player, and we just hit it off. When he got back after that night, and got back to Minneapolis, he told Verne and Greg Gagne about me and it wasn’t long after that I was on the phone with Verne and Greg, and they wanted me to come up and work for them. That wasn’t my first time working for them; I had worked for them on a prior occasion, but this was the first time I went up and worked as Del Wilkes, and later went up and worked as The Trooper. It was an idea that Verne came up with him; I actually worked with Verne on two occasions, but the first one was all thanks to meeting Wahoo in Columbia.
On Meeting Vince McMahon and Signing with the WWF in 1997:
I had been called up because Rick Martel had gone down with an injury, so during that time Vince [McMahon] and I sat down, and he discussed signing me. It just didn’t work out timing wise, but I’ve had a relationship with him since the early 90’s. I can’t remember who contacted me first, I honestly think it was JR [Jim Ross] or [Jim] Cornette, or Bruce Prichard, and contacted me and I had met with Vince. It was sort of similar to how I originally met [Eric] Bischoff. We all talked and pretty much what they all saw in me and what I saw in me came to an agreement later on a 3 year deal. Of course I wanted to go over the contract; I was very excited about it because, I originally thought my career was ending, and I had no grand delusions that I was going to fulfill that 3 year contract because of what my body was doing to me, and I’ll tell you how bad it was, I’m sure they don’t do those things now; but along with the contract that I brought back with me, it was also a form for my Doctor to perform a physical for me. At the time, I was using a Doctor who a lot of the boys were using at the time. He would write up Prescriptions for a lot of the boys at any time. He would write them up with prescriptions of godly amounts, it was just crazy. So, I called him up and told him, hey man, you know my deal. My body is just a mess; if we were to do a real physical, Vince wouldn’t hire me under the condition that I’m in. I told him, if I fax you my physical paperwork will you give me a clean record of a physical, he said absolutely. I had no confidence that Vince would hire me based on the condition my body was in and so that got me started there. It was funny too because in the meeting with Vince, he wasn’t quite sure, during that time period in the WWF that a masked wrestler could get over with the audience, and I don’t want to say we argued because there was no argument going on, but I built my case on, well, Vince, everywhere I have been it has been a popular character; you can ask any of the guys I had worked with, from Japan, to Global Wrestling, to WCW, and I think it could be the same here. I had good allies in Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard. They also were in my corner on that. Vince said, well, let’s give it a shot. If it doesn’t work then we can always do something different. Vince saw the reactions I was receiving night after night, and he approached me about a feud with Bret Hart. He had recently turned into an “anti-america” blasting America in all of his promos. I think it would be a perfect relationship between you and him, and he laid out the program between the two of us. I felt that it was good timing too with Bret just turning heel and going on about his anti-american character was picking up.
