Demolition‘s Ax recently spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard to promote his virtual signing with ’80s Wrestling Con. Ax and Smash took the WWF by storm in the late ’80s, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship on three separate occasions. To this day, Demolition is still fondly remembered by fans and talent for their appearances and what they brought to the ring, and Ax spoke about why the team still resonates with people.
“I think the music was a big part of it, and of course the costumes and the paint. I think our performance in the ring was a major part of it because if you remember, we could have good matches with almost anybody. Big guys, the brawlers, the technical guys, the high flyers, and I think the people realized—or I hope that they realized—that Barry and I went out with the attitude that we’re going to try and have the best match on the card. Sometimes we were unsuccessful because there’s a lot of good talent,” Ax said, “but a lot of times I think we walked out of the ring and we had a darn good match. A lot of people wanted to work with us where some of the other teams, they weren’t so sure if they were going to get hurt or gobbled up, guzzled. We tried to have a match with everybody.”
Demolition was new to WWF fans in the northeast region, but others in the midwest and south saw them as copies of the Road Warriors (aka Legion Of Doom). On the contrary, WWF fans growing up with Demolition (and no knowledge of Hawk and Animal) could have argued the opposite, but Ax says no matter what the case is, he’s still happy to be held in such high regard.
“We were fortunate because WWF was making the international move and we were there. I think if the roles were reversed it would have been the same situation for us being down south and the midwest, and them being up [north],” Ax said. “They’re a great team and it’s nice to be compared.”
Check out our full interview at the top of this post; the upcoming schedule for more ’80s Wrestling Con Virtual Signings can be viewed below:
The following is the updated schedule of Virtual Signings:
12/14 – Brutus Beefcake & Greg Valentine
12/28 – Koko B. Ware
1/11 – Ted DiBiase
1/25 – Mike Rotunda
2/15 – Ron Simmons
2/22 – Powers of Pain
3/8 – Wendi Richter
3/22 – Bob Orton
