Arn Anderson Recalls Working Opposite DOOM, Using Steel Chairs & Having Memory Lapses Now

On a recent episode of ARN, “Double A” explains how physical it was to work with the team of DOOM (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed), and reveals memory issues he and other veterans are having later in life due to concussions. Check out some comments below:

On the physicality of working with DOOM: “On any level, street level, professional level, any level you wanna look at [Ron Simmons & Butch Reed], they’re a couple badasses. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Anytime we went in there I was a nervous wreck, cause a guy like that will hurt you without even meaning to hurt you. They just possess so much power, so much strength, so much guts and don’t give a damn.”

On his stance of using steel chairs in the business today: “Hitting somebody in the head with a steel chair, you can’t mask it. You can’t make it something less than what it is. It’s dangerous. We have learned that many of us, later in life, suffer memory issues and all kind of things from getting hit in the head with chairs.”

On not having the same information wrestlers have today: “I don’t think it was ever looked at by anybody as being not exactly what it was. We just didn’t have the medical community stepping up and going ‘hey, you guys need to hold up for a minute, we got some information for you.’ When they started really researching it because of all the issues that guys were having later in life, then we found out: risk versus reward. Look at the NFL right now, or college football right now. The helmet to helmet thing is a big issue.”

On having memory lapses now: “I have memory lapse now. I’ll know what I’m fixing to ask you, and I’ll get all the way to the punchline, and sometimes I draw a blank. ‘What was the question?’ God almighty. You feel mighty foolish. You have to stop and think about it sometimes. I’m not sugarcoating it. It’s nothing that on a daily basis, like I don’t leave the house and head to the grocery store, forget what I left the house for.”

On worse stories some friends of his have shared: “Some people we know very well do have it to that degree. When you hear of one of your friends, that you really care about, that you wrestled a million times, and he tells you a story like that: ‘Hey, I left to go to the grocery store, got down the road, and couldn’t remember. Had to go back home and ask the wife, what was I leaving to do?’ It’s pretty damn frightening.”

If you use any of the above quotations, please credit ARN h/t 411mania for the transcription.