Former Enhancement Talent Chris Curtis On His Time as a ‘Job Guy’ in WWE, Getting Head Shaved by Brutus Beefcake, Vince McMahon’s Reaction

– VOC Nation’s Wrestling With History recently interviewed former WWF enhancement talent Chris Curtis, who worked as a “job guy” for the WWE throughout the 1980s. He also wrestled in the AWA. Below are some highlights from VOC Nation.

Curtis on not having problems with being an enhancement talent: “I had no problem with it; I knew what my role was. I knew that I was not going to be a Crusher or a Bruiser or a Verne Gagne, or a Billy Robinson or a Hogan or a Ric Flair. I knew going in there that that’s what I was going to do, and that’s what I wanted to do. As long as I did a good job making the guys look good, putting over their moves, and putting over their finishes to make them look strong so that the office would use me more, I had no problem with that…The guys that I worked against in the ring took care of me, didn’t abuse me, didn’t take me for granted…I put my trust in them.”

Curtis on his time in the AWA: “Verne Gagne really wanted wrestling. You had to know how to wrestle in order to (work there). That was the name on the marquee: Wrestling.”

On working a match against Brutus Beefcake where he got his hair cut and shaved off: “Chief Jay Strongbow was the guy who booked all the jobbers. He said ‘I got you working Beefcake, you know he cuts guys hair…we’re going to do something different tonight – he’s going to put you in the sleeper and then take electric clippers and shave your head on the top from front to back, then he’s going to spray paint the top of your head.’ We always got paid $150; even if we didn’t wrestle, they paid us. He said that they were going to give me an extra $250 for the insult (of going through this nonsense). The hardest thing about the match was trying to pretend that I was still knocked out from the sleeper.”

Chris Curtis on what Vince McMahon told him after the match: “I go back to the dressing room looking like Bozo the Clown with my hair. Vince came up to me and said, ‘you know what Curtis, that was the best thing. We’re going to give you another $150.’ I made $550 that night. I called my wife and told her what happened during the match. She said, ‘I wish you had been hurt instead.’ It was pretty fun, everybody got a kick out of it.”

On his work with WWE in the 1980s: “From 87 to 89, I wrestled probably 19 or 20 matches. When you’re a job guy, you usually have a full time job (as well). There were several times that I had to turn down going down south or out to California or out east because I couldn’t get away like I wanted to. I worked for them for the next 3 years at least 6 shots a year and that was good for me.”

Chris Curtis on Hulk Hogan being a nice guy: “No matter what some of the guys (say), he was the nicest guy. He was so good to us, he took care of us, he was an absolute joy to be in the ring with. He sold for you too; you’d get your heat and he would sell for you. I always enjoyed working with him.”

His thoughts on the Road Warriors: “When these guys first showed up as a team, they were throwing guys around like they were paper airplanes. I said I’d be damned if I’m getting in the ring with these guys. Even the established stars were afraid to work with them because they were so reckless. They didn’t know what they were doing. It’s not like they wanted to hurt people, but Ole just told them to go out and beat the hell out of people. They had to do what the office said.”