Hacksaw Jim Duggan Reveals Who Inspired Him To Carry A 2×4 To The Ring

Hacksaw Jim Duggan had a long career in the ring. He has a lot to look back on, and it’s obvious that people want to know those stories as well. Duggan recently reflected on it in a new interview.

The WWE Hall of Famer spoke with the Times-Union about his upcoming one-man show. He also expressed gratitude for the opportunity to wrestle with Hulk Hogan and other notable wrestlers. He mentioned how he is always asked about his match with Andre the Giant.

I’m lucky that I wrestled during the ‘Golden Age’ of wrestling: Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, those guys were like Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart. It’s not stand-up, ‘ha ha jokes,’ I’m telling stories about my time in WWF. Folks still want to hear about the Golden Age; I’ll get asked things like, ‘Hey, do you remember that time in ’87 when you wrestled Andre the Giant in Baton Rouge?’ It’s like sitting in a room with old friends, telling stories. So much of what people hear is negative, they hear about (TV series) Dark Side of the Ring. The people that come to see me are wrestling fans, happy to see an old-timer like me telling stories.

When asked about his lengthy in-ring career, he joked that people didn’t have 200 TV channels back then. He pondered on how wrestling progressed from high school to arenas with 1 lakh seats.

I joke that when I started, people didn’t have 200 TV channels. There was the news, game shows and wrestling. After 40 years, the last thing I want to watch is wrestling. But I saw firsthand how it evolved, from high school gyms and auditoriums to 100,000-seat arenas.

I like to tell people that I wrestled Dusty Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and “Cowboy” Bob Orton in WWF and by the time I retired, I wrestled all their kids in WWE. It was hard to stick around in a major company, working major angles. But folks remembered me.

When asked where he got his 2X4, he shared a story about it. When he returned with bruises, Bruiser Brody suggested him to carry something to the ring. “We only had these little rope barricades; I’d come back to the dressing room covered in loogies and bruises from the fans and local tough guys taking a swing,” he said.

Bruiser Brody used to say, ‘Carry something you can use’ to the ring and as luck would have it, I looked down in the dressing room and here’s this piece of wood. I started swinging that on my way to the ring and the crowd was parting like the Red Sea! ‘Hacksaw’ was from my football days and the way I used to play. My character is just who I am. No one was writing my verbiage or telling me how to act in the ring.

Hacksaw was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had a difficult time. However, as we previously reported, he recently announced himself as cancer-free. Let us all wish him the best of health. To get the latest updates, keep an eye on Ringside News.

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