Ron Bass Talks About Drinking With Bruiser Brody, Feuding With Brutus Beefcake And More

In an interview with the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Ron Bass spoke about his long wrestling career, including various stories about his feuds, his time on the road and more. Here are highlights:

On cutting open Brutus Beefcake with a spur on 1988 television: “That’s because at the time it just wasn’t happening up there and I was surprised that we did it. It worked out great but I never really found out who was against it in the end that had some say because they cut it a lot shorter than it could have been. We could have worked that thing for a year up there because you’re in a different town and different state every night. We could have got a lot more mileage out of that one but it worked out well and with Beefcake I had known him and Hulk Hogan since they were Terry and Eddie Boulder just getting started in the Tennessee territory and it was a good run for us and he is a good guy.”

On their hair vs. hair match on one of the highest-rated Saturday Night’s Main Events of the 80s: “It wasn’t the first time that I had ever done it (shaving his head) and it’s funny because when you talk about that Saturday Night “Live” (show) that is one of the highest paid deals I ever had because I got residuals off that show for a long time. I got paid through the New York office but also got paid through Saturday Night (NBC) and it was a pretty good and lucrative deal for us.”

On if he saw Hulk Hogan reaching the level he did: “When you put yourself over how you present yourself and I don’t know where Hogan learned it but he had it. He had the looks, he’s 6’6 and weighs 315-320 pounds at the time and he could talk. The only drawback he ever had was his hair (laughing) because he was bald from the first time that I met him. But he wore the bandana and he made it work. He was the total package and history speaks for itself.”

On going to Japan with Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody: “I had been wrestling over here a little bit and Stan would go over to Japan and every March or April I’d go and we’d be teammates over there. Brody was working for a different promotion. We worked for (Giant Baba) and Brody was working for (Antonio) Inoki but whenever we there at similar times we would go and meet Brody and we’d go out and have a pretty good time.”

On drinking with Hansen and Brody: “We were sitting around and had us a couple of knock-backs and Stan said lets go get some “doodles” and I said where at, so we went down to a little stand and walking by we could hear some karaoke singing. Now, karaoke had been happening for a long time there before it hit over here. We looked inside and there is Harley Race and Hector Guerrero. Hector was on the mic singing so we go into the little bar and with Harley Race (that son of a gun) he got us drinking tequila and boy when I got back to my room I was so drunk and I knew I should have done the old finger down the throat but I didn’t. The next morning Stan came in and told me we needed to go. I said screw it, I ain’t going so just leave me here because boy I was out of it. Stan had come in, opened the window and I stood up and couldn’t get to the bathroom so I ran to the window and I just projectile puked all over that street and you’ve never seen anything like the Japanese running away and that was one of the best times I’d ever been around (Stan) and Frank.”