WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Brisco recently spoke with Paul Guzzo of the Tampa Bay Times, reflecting on his career and shares some stories about Andre The Giant, Dusty Rhodes and more. You can read a few highlights below:
What are his first memories of working for Championship Wrestling From Florida?
My first TV angle when I was just getting started in 1969. Dale Lewis was the bad guy in town. My brother Jack was Florida Heavyweight Champ. Jack’s airplane was late so he was late for the TV taping.
Dale Lewis goes out and starts calling Jack all kinds of names and insulting my family.
I ran out and said he can’t talk that way about my family. I threw him in the ring and I got a few good punches in but then he stopped me and put me in his Lewis Lock submission hold. This went on for a while but I wouldn’t give up.
Finally here comes Jack running with his suitcase in hand and makes the save. That set up their match and established me as tough for not giving up.
Brisco talks about being known as ‘Vince’s Stooge’ with Pat Patterson after a successful career:
I loved it. I was 55 years old and getting air time and becoming a star again to a different generation as a fun character. Pat Patterson — the other stooge — in the beginning hated it.
I used to kid Pat that he and I worked 25 years to be considered legit wrestlers, but we will go down in history as the McMahon stooges. He’d get mad and say don’t say that. Now he enjoys the memories. He told me he was recently at Joe’s Crab Shack and someone says, “Hey are you that Brisco stooge guy?” Pat told the guy he had half of it right.
Does Brisco have a favorite Dusty Rhodes story?
We used to go to Tampa’s Imperial Room Lounge on Armenia Avenue all the time and Dusty liked to get up on stage and sing. He had one song, Johnny B. Goode, he’d sing with the local band. He had an audience of wrestling fans. He was horrible but they told him he was the greatest, so he thought he was a rock ‘n’ roll star.
We became good friends with Willie Nelson, and Willie would invite Dusty out on stage to sing with him, and Willie would secretly say, “God, Dusty’s awful.”
One time we’re drinking at the Imperial and Dusty said, “I’m gonna rent the Tampa armory and have me a concert. I bet I can get 5,000 people.” Well, maybe about 125 people showed up but Dusty goes out there anyway.
So a bunch of us wrestlers are backstage with some cold beer and Don Muraco, a 330-pound Hawaiian, is totally wasted. We are all supposed to go out on stage and join in for Johnny B. Goode. Don Muraco goes charging out and starts screaming, not singing. Dusty waves for security and they get Muraco off stage.
When the show was over, because he didn’t make enough at the door, it cost Dusty $5,000 to do the concert, but he had the time of his life.
Brisco talks about Andre the Giant’s legendary drinking reputation:
There are a lot of crazy stories about Andre that sound fake but most are true, especially his drinking.
Andre used to ask me to get him six bottles of Mateus wine and ice them down. He would drink those before we went to the ring and no one could tell.
One night in Sarasota, Andre is traveling with us. So we pull over and get two cases of tall boys. By the time we get from Sarasota to the Tahitian Inn on Dale Mabry, the two cases were bone dry.
He was one of the nicest guys but I have seen idiots in bars all over the country challenge him, and with one little shove they’d be 10 feet away.
