Bill Eadie AKA Demolition Ax recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling, and below are some interview highlights.Talks Blackjack Mulligan *AUDIO*, The Crowd Turning Demolition Face At WrestleMania IV, Original Plans For Demolition, Finding The Right Smash, The Look & Theme Music, Changing Spots w/ The Powers of Pain.
The original plan for his return to the WWF in 1986:
Originally when I went back up to the WWF and I wasn’t real keen on it but Andre (The Giant) had asked me to do it and if you remember just before we did the Demolition we did the Strong Machines. Andre was getting ready to make the movie The Princess Bride and we had done that character as just a lark in Japan because The Machines were a heel team and they had left and jumped to Baba’s group from Inoki so they wanted to put a roadblock in their success. Andre wanted me to come in and I wasn’t interested in going back into New York to be honest. I was just going to come back (into the States) and do Georgia and go back to Japan, so I went back up as a favor to him and that morphed into when Andre did go off and film the movie we had to figure out something to do so they brought (Blackjack) Mulligan in but we all knew that it was a short term gimmick.
Being approached with the Demolition Ax character after his run with The Machines and the process of getting the right Smash:
Barry (Smash) wasn’t in the picture yet and they had approached me with a couple of people and I just thought it wouldn’t work with the guys that they had suggested and not because of their talent but due to their identity. The thing the people didn’t know about me unless they guessed is that they had no facial recognition because until that time I always had the mask on. I had taken one of the partners that they suggested and we did do it for two matches with Randy Culley (who was a Moondog) but he was recognizable. I asked Vince that if you think it’s going to work, it’s not going to work if people recognize a guy that you just “re-do” who has been there three or four years as another character and paint his face. Randy was nice enough to step aside and they gave me the option of selecting a partner. So I met with Barry at a restaurant in Charlotte. I knew of him but I didn’t know him and after I told the office I found a guy who I th ink would work and there we were.
Having a look that was completely different then any other team in the WWF at that time and finding the right manager:
When I envisioned what it would do I knew it was going to work. At first they gave us Jimmy Valiant as a manager and that was not going to work and it’s not anything against Jimmy but Jimmy is a cartoon character. We would be doing a serious interview and he’d come out of left field with some hair-brain joke and when you don’t have that persona that the Demoltion had with the Heavy Metal and the spikes you can’t have a cartoon guy as your manager. When we looked around and saw someone as vicious as us, there was (Mr.) Fuji. Fuji was well known enough as a devious manager that the main thing with Fuji was that he wasn’t concerned with getting himself over, he wanted to get the Demolition over. So consequently when he did something it looked more devious and people thought that he’s been planning that the whole time.
How the iconic Demolition music played a part in the teams aura:
It’s funny we just did an autograph signing in Indiana and Jimmy Hart was there and we were reminiscing about the old days and it was Jimmy who wrote that, Rick Derringer just sang it. Jimmy had given us a rough demo tape one night at Madison Square Garden and we loved it from when we first heard it. I think it matched our character to a T.
Seeing the fans reaction change towards them at WrestleMania IV vs. Strike Force:
I think the fans appreciated our efforts. There were certain teams that we could go against that would be maybe 50/50 but most of the time we were the fan favorite even though we were coming out of the heel dressing room. I just attribute that to ever night that Barry and I would go out we weren’t concerned with how we were going to look, we were concerned with having the best match on the card. We felt that we could work and have a good match with anybody and I think that over time the fans realized that.
Flipping spots with the Powers of Pain and facing them and Mr. Fuji at WrestleMania V:
To this day we don’t really believe that we should have switched because what was going on in the arenas was that we could’ve done anything to anyone we were working with and the people were cheering it. I still think and so does Barry that we could have gone two or three years longer as heels and then when we finally did make the switch it would have been even bigger.
Bill Eadie also discusses putting together the start of the 1989 Royal Rumble, his friendship with Andre The Giant, how much he enjoyed Japan, What led to his leaving the WWF, Adding Crush to Demolition, Being The Masked Superstar, His Time in Mid-Atlantic, His Start as Bolo Mongol and much more.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
