Interview with Hacksaw Jim Duggan

What has Hacksaw been up to as of late?

I've been doing a few independents but my main bread and butter now is, I have a development company now that develops land, it's called DDC, the Duggan Development Company. We're working here in North Brevard County which is by the state center in Florida. But I also do quite a few independents, three of four a month maybe. I enjoy doing the smaller shows cause it's a chance to get out there and see the young guys that are coming up with their own ideas and are just wrestling for the love of the business, and it's something I still enjoy doing. I enjoy the business. It's kind of gone full circle cause this is really where I had started from, and went to the WWF and then WCW, the big shows, and now I’m back here doing the smaller stuff. I really enjoy it. The kids are always real respectful. It's nice to get out on the road a little bit. Also I’ve been going to Japan quite a bit lately. I've been over about four times in the last six months.

It's for IWA if I’m not mistaken?

IWA, I'm their world heavyweight champion, actually I have the belt right here.

How has your experience with IWA been?

My good friend Steve Williams, Dr. Death (Doc) who is fighting throat cancer at this time, called and asked me to go over for that company and of course I haven't been over there in probably ten years. I went over and things went well and I ended up getting the strap and going back and defending it. Actually I beat Big Bossman which tragically was his last match I believe. I beat him in the finals of a tournament in Tokyo for the belt. His death was a tragedy. Bossman was a good friend that I've known for years.

Too many greats have tragically passed.

Well you know, you sow what you reap and you reap what you sow. Myself being a cancer survivor also. Back in the early 80's and 90's even, drugs were rampid. There was an old joke in the old days. "The booze, the broads, the drugs...GOD I miss the old days!" laughs It was a wild lifestyle. Wrestling at Vince's level, a lot of guys try to compare it with sports. It's not really a sports team, it's more like a band. When you're hot you're hot and that's why you work so much. When you're on top you want to work as many main events as you can.

With such a pro-American personality, how much does the crowd reaction in Japan differ from the crowd response you would get in the USA? I know you usually involve the crowd in your matches vocally, have you been able to get the people of Japan chanting "USA"?

Sometimes at the bigger shows the smart marks in Japan would just kind of do it to make me feel at home and of course I would always stop and give them a little bow and appreciate doing that to make me feel at home. But I just usually use the "Hoooo!", that seems to work better in Japan. Of course the Japan crowds are a little more reserved, usually not as rambunctious as Americans. Its taken a couple trips over to get them going but now we got them going pretty good.

The reason I was curious about that was remembering back to my childhood in 1993, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada the WWE was in town for a Superstars taping and I remember you in the middle of the match turning to the crowd and giving out a big "USA!" and you got about 8,000 Canadians in the Metro Center chanting "USA". It was unreal how over you were.

laughs Thank you. I think the fans are just kind of acknowledging me as I’ve wrestled all over the world and I do the "USA" thing wherever I go and well maybe ninety five percent of the time crowds are receptive. My last WCW trip over to Europe, I think because of the political situation things were a little tense for the "USA" deal. But one of my greatest thrills in wrestling was wrestling in Berlin Germany, at an amphitheater where Hitler had made speeches and there I am standing in the middle of the ring in the amphitheater chanting "USA!" it was actually quite a thrill!

You were recently a part of Wrestle Reunion. What were your thoughts on the event and I’m sure seeing a lot of old friends?

It was great. I thought it was a super time. It's the second one I've done, that of course was the largest one, 85-86 guys there. The other one I did was up in Indianapolis, that was great too, I don't think it was financially successful but hopefully it was for the guy in Tampa because you bring in so many talents. I think it's a great chance for the fans to really get to know the guys, they had total access, people would come up and have lunch with you and visit with you and really get to know ya. I think for the older guys, it goes back to when you're on top you don't really have a chance to acknowledge the fans, cause you know I worked 330 days for Vince when I was on top, I didn't get much of a chance to interact. But this gives you the chance to kind of give back to the fans and let them know how you appreciated all of the years of support.

I wish I was able to attend, just to be under the same roof with that many legends!

Oh yeah, Bockwinkle, Harley Race, Bill Watts, Magnum PA, all kinds of old friends.

An article was released this summer which I posted on hacksawjimduggan.com titled "Hacksaw going strong at 50 - most men begin to slow down and become more mindful of their bodies limits. Jim Duggan isn't most men". So let me ask you, after as many matches as you have wrestled, how is your health?

So far so good. I just turned 51 actually my birthday is on January 14th.

Happy belated birthday!

Well thank you brother. Physically in the ring I’m really limited to what I can do now, the young guys I wrestle with, I always tell a joke, the kids I wrestle now are all six-five, three hundred pounds and twenty-two years old. They're like "Mr. Duggan are we on TV?" and I’m like, I hope not kid. laughs Eighty percent of the time when I have a match it's with the younger guys, that are really respectful and listen real well and you can put together a nice little match and I usually get the younger guys to work around what I can do physically. Of course my main concern is my kidney cancer, it's been seven years now, so it's so far so good but it's something I think about and pray about, especially with my best friend Steve Williams fighting for his life.

As we're aware you are now thankfully cancer free however some other wrestling legends have unfortunately been battling cancer as of late. Steve Williams as you've mentioned, John Tenta among others, have you had the chance to speak with Steve Williams lately or John Tenta?

I talk to Steve quite often, he put on a wrestling show last month I went up and did for him. He's fightin it and if anyone can fight through he can. He's having a real hard time with the chemo and radiation. John, I heard is doing better but I haven't talked to John in quite a few years. And seeing Bobby Heenan at Wrestle Reunion, I thought it was great to see him stop and talk to Doc a little bit and offer some words of encouragement.

FAN QUESTIONS
Who created "Hacksaw"?
(Sent in by Nehemiah)

I came up with him myself. I started wrestling as "Big" Jim Duggan, with the long gold bath robe and red and black trunks. That was in Dallas Texas when I broke in in '79. Fritz said, "kid you want to come up with something a little catchier than that". I went through two or three gimmicks. I was doing a football player gimmick when I was working in Georgia for Georgia Championship Wrestling.

A little run down of my career. I broke in in Texas, then went to New York for a short time and worked for Vince Sr. and he sent me to Hawaii and I worked for Maivia, I came back, I did Georgia Championship Wrestling and then Crockett took them over I moved to the Pensacola territory with Fuller and Buck Robley and Bruiser Broody who were in Georgia they moved to San Antonio. San Antonio was a hot territory and Broody needed a big guy to work with so they called me up and I went to San Antonio, then to the Mid-South and then to the WWF. When I was in San Antonio we came up with the Hacksaw gimmick and of course working with a legend like Broody it really was an education for me.

Do you still carry your 2x4?
(Sent in by Nichole)

Oh ya! I used to travel with Jake The Snake, he was in my wedding, was a very good friend, we kind of had a falling out. But I always said as long as I don't have to carry something that eats and has to go to the bathroom i'm ok laughs. We had that darn snake, and Matilda the dog and Frankie the bird. When I was the king of wrestling I had the cape, the crown, the flag, the board, the thumb, the tounge, the "Hooo!" and the crossed eyes. I'd be ready to do tv and i'd hear Bobby Heenan say to Vince "Vince he's needs an eagle! Get him an eagle". I could of choked Heenan. laughs

Over your career you have pretty much wrestled anyone who is anyone in professional wrestling. However is there one match in any promotion that stands out in your mind as without a doubt Hacksaw Jim Duggan's greatest match?

The match of course that I remember the most, that sticks out is wrestling Andre The Giant in the main event at Madison Square Garden to a sell out crowd. It was just a dream come true. It's the pinnical moment in my career.

Was that your favorite era of your career?

I enjoyed the Mid-South era, especially after JYD and The Snake left and had made the move to the WWF. Financially Bill Watts paid an aweful lot to keep me there cause everyone else is jumping ship. I was the top babyface in a good sized territory, Arkansas, Louisianna, East Texas and Mississippii. So it was a nice sized territory. The fans were great to me down there, still my strongest fanbase is down in the old Mid-South area cause those folks really did grow up with me and I was a young single guy, it was a great time in life.

What is the one acheievment in your wrestling career that you are most proud of?

Surviving...Especially with the way guys are dropping left and right, just that whole group, Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Big Bossman, Kerry Von Erich, all four were best friends and now all four are dead and all four were good friends of mine. Just guy after guy, you've gotta be happy to survive it. I think career wise...it's a hard one brother. I don't think I have any one in particular, maybe knocking Andre out which elevated me from midcard to a semi main event guy to a main event guy.

Let me tell you a little story about knocking Andre out. I can't remember what tv show it was on but Andre called anybody out in the dressing room and I ran down with my 2x4 and as he went to grab me his thumb hit me in the lip and of course his thumb was the size of a brick and he split my lip really good, so as I went down he was choking me and it worked out great for tv cause I was covered in juice, it was really flowing good. Then I reached down and got my 2x4, boom, I hit Andre in the head with my 2x4 and he sold it and went down which was the only time in his career to ever be knocked out. So from then after I'd be wrestling battle royals or whatever and Bill Eadie would hook me and someone else would come up with their thumb and go "i'm beatin the hell out of Duggan!" and then boom boom, hit me with their thumb. laughs

I'll tell ya, those battle royals used to be a lot of fun, we had myself and Curt Hennig were good buddies, we had The Ultimate Warrior in there and The Ultimate Warrior is being The Warrior he's got a great body but he's not the most liked guy in the company. Now he had these nylon straps hanging off his biceps and his legs. So we pushed him in, a bunch of us pushed him in the corner and Curt got on the ground and crawled outside of the ring and he tied these nylon straps to the top rope. laughs He's tied to the rope and we thought it was halarious, but he's mad, so he's going to try and break it and you know, he's pulling with all his might, he's a powerful man, but you can't break nylon so he's just laughing harder cutting all of the blood flow to his arm, so he's just screaming and hollering and Strongbow had to come down to ringside with a knife and cut him loose from the rope. Needless to say we got in a little trouble with that one.

Hopefully it wasn't too much trouble, that sure is a great story! Now you mentioned Battle Royals and along those lines you actually won the very first Royal Rumble, is that something that stands out for you?

It really does, that's when things were really happening. We had that show, you had no time to really reflect on it, we got on the plane and we flew out and did a show the next day. Just the build up before pay per views at that time, you knew it was a big show. Things were really good at that point for my career, to have an opportunity to win something like that.

It's been rumored online that you could possibly be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2005 at Wrestlemania. Is there any truth behind this?

No, I don't think so. I think Sheik is, all those guys are ten years older than me and had great careers. I'm not holding my breath to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame, especially Vince's, not that I have a bad relationship with Vince but it's just something if it happens then that's great, if not that's ok too.

Is it something you would like to be a part of?

I think anytime you're honored, of course Vince is a different deal, I mean if you were inducted by your peers, that would be one thing. My kind of view is kind of like Hulksters on a different level. You know if people say geez he can't wrestle, but everyone in the arena is doing "Hooo!" and "USA!". To get off track a little bit from the Hall Of Fame. It's kind of like when I was in WCW with Bischoff, I came back and Eric said Hacksaw that was the worse clothesline I’ve seen in a long time. I'd say, ya Eric I’ll tell ya I missed that clothesline but I did a job, one, two, three for Alex Wright in Denver. To give you some more background of the story. I did a little three clothesline set and I missed the last clothesline. So anyway I do the one, two, three for Alex Wright, so he gets up and gets his hand raised and walks out of the ring. I stand up and I give him a thumbs up, you know 30,000 people "Hoooo!", "USA! USA!" I had that place rockin! So I’m coming back, I’m blowin smoke, I’m like "Bischoff you can't kill me off! Beat me every single night!" All he could say was that was the worst clothesline I’ve seen in the business. And I'd say ya Eric I missed that clothesline, but I’ve got 30,000 people out there on their feet chanting "USA!", that's gotta mean something! He goes, that means nothing now days, it's all wrestling. I think that's where they lost it, you know make their college fans that enjoy Nitro and RAW, make them happy, but they lost their core fans that like the old style of wrestling.

Which I think is what wrestling is really lacking these days.

Well that's why some of these independents do well. Because it's more traditional wrestling. It's a family show, no obscene gestures, no profanity, a chance to mingle with the wrestlers who get a chance to mingle with the fans. I will always tell these young promoters, keep it a family oriented show. Well I think the pendulum will swing back the other way, hopefully you'll start seeing more gimmicks back in the ring. The biggest tough guys in wrestling were like Meng and Earthquake and Typhoon, those great big heavy guys which you don't see on the program at all, everybody is out of a cookie cutter, shaved head and tattooed.

When you left the WWE in 1993 for WCW did you ever vision yourself going back to the company at all?

Yeah, I sure did and I checked with the company after September 11th, I thought you know anybody that was doing the USA gimmick, I mean when I was in the WWF they brought Lex in and they gave him the bus and they did the Lex Express and they gave him the USA gimmick and it just fizzled. Kurt Angle on the other hand, I think he does a good job with the USA gimmick. But I really kind of think that's my nitch, even Sgt. Slaughter. I think people see that that's me, that's from my heart and people realize that and I think they relate to that. So after September 11th I did call up the WWE just to test the waters but they weren't interested. But it wasn't like I was calling up, like Vince loves when guys call "hey I need a job" or something like that, I just called to test the waters and I was really unhappy with Jim Ross who has stayed at my home, ate my food, gave rides in my car for many years, and he didn't even return my calls. Just as a professional courtesy, you know. But I don't lose sleep over it. laughs

With the way the product is today would you ever consider going back to the WWE in a wrestling or non-wrestling role?

Well you never say never. I could never be like a road agent or something like that. I know my interviews are better than ninety percent of the guys up there. Even when I was in WCW when they were changing over and trying to compete with Vince I'd have some twenty-two year old writer come up to me and hand me my verbiage for my interview. And I’m like "how is some punk kid gonna tell Hacksaw Jim Duggan how to cut his interview!". "Well this is what we want you to say Hacksaw", and I said well send me my pay check and I’ll do it, what the hell. But ya, I still think I have something to offer on camera but to go back and work full time I could never do that and Vince doesn't need anybody, he's the biggest show in town.

Like he has Ric Flair doing now, kind of like a managerial role with the odd match every now and then.

You've got to give Flair a lot of credit. A lot of people don't like Flair but he's a survivor and that's the hardest thing to do, to stick around. That's why I give The Undertaker so much credit, he must have the longest run besides Andre I think up there in New York.

You were still in WCW during the final days of the promotion. How was that experience?

It was horrible, it was really bad. Only because I was the last of the old timers there and there was a big influx of guys like Ernest "The Cat" Miller, Alex Wright and you know they just thought because they were getting a big pay day, that they were hot talents. They had little respect for the business and the old timers. Of course now I get a big kick from the fact that they have trouble getting booked on the independent shows, the big shots. laughs Which I get a little laugh out of. But WCW near the end of things I think were trying to push me out of my contract, they did the janitor gimmick, where they made me the janitor of WCW but actually it worked out well cause that's where I re-established the WCW television title. I was cleaning toilets on camera, and they were some of the highest rated segments on the tv show. I said put me on camera, I can get myself over, that's fine ya know. Then I did the Team Canada deal. I had a nice contract and I think they were ready to get me out of it. So they called me and said, we want you to cut your beard and cut your hair and they were going to turn me against America. So I’m thinking "ah crap" ya know, Iraq, Lybia, North Korea and they say we're going to put you with...Team Canada. laughs It's not like I’ve got a lot of heat with Team Canada, it's the largest unguarded border in the world. But I said ok, if that's what you guys want, Russo and Bischoff whatever you want that's fine, cause now I have two little girls. Before my family, I would of slapped Bischoff in the mouth, after my family I put up with the stuff and protected my family. It's a business bottom line, everyone doesn't like their boss. But anyways, so they put me with Lance Storm and Major Gunns. Lance is a great wrestling talent, we'd go out there and he'd stand on the mic and say, can I please have everyone’s attention and I'd be walking around behind him doing my Hacksaw! Then they called me into the office after doing a couple of TV shows and they're like "Hacksaw, you're taking away from Lance up there in the ring". And I mean that's not my job to tone down my gimmick, if the kid can't carry the ball, I mean he's a great talent but keep him off the mic, give the mic to Gunns or somebody else.

You wrestled a bit for NWA-TNA in 2003, what are your thoughts on their product and your time spent there?

It's good that there's another place to work, it always great cause there's a lot of these young guys that have some good talent, but it's just a numbers game with the WWE. I try to explain to these kids, there's a lot of great physical specimens, like I say, six-five, three hundred pounds that can move and they're like hey I’m going to be a wrestler. I'm like son, there's fifteen hundred NFL football players playing this year, there's a thousand NBA basketball players playing this year, there's one hundred wrestlers under contract in the WWE, give or take. It's television, it's more competitive than sports. It's like walking on Days Of Our Lives saying "hey I want to be on a tv show", it just doesn't happen. So it's good to see TNA getting out there and doing the work. Now for the company I went up there, the first time I went up we were supposed to do an angle that just kind of fizzled. But they were using me to try and build their young talent which was no benefit for me other than a small pay day. Then the last time I went up, Jimmy Hart who is a good friend and I owe favors to. He called and said hey would you come up here and get hit with a guitar from Jarrett and I said for you Jimmy I will. laughs I'll tell you a story about that.

I went up there of course they knew I wasn't happy to come up and just do the hit with the guitar , that being my whole reason for being there. It would have done nothing for me and my career. Just all for Jarrett. So then I said, well I’m going to run back to my hotel room, I was thinking to myself at the hotel and I turned around to come back to the tv show, there was a wreck on the interstate, I was so late. Jimmy Hart's standing out in the parking lot, Jarrett's old man, they're all out there thinking I had left and went back to the airport. I got back in there and I did the show, the guitar hit with Jarrett and you know Jarrett's a great talent, but I don't think he's world champion type talent. Jarrett's been on top for every major company, all three of them if you call TNA a major company, and hasn't really gone up. He should step back and take a minor roll and push some of these younger kids, cause ya know, time marches on for all of us.

Name Association
Vince McMahon - I did a talk show with a kid who just got done with the WWE and he's saying "Vince McMahon, he treated us like pieces of meat up there!" and I’m like son, what the hell do you think you are? You want a friend, go buy a puppy. Vince is a promoter, he's no different than a music promoter, or a boxing promoter he's a vicious creature, that's the nature of the beast and he's very successful. So you take him for that. I still make money from Vince McMahon. I still get residual checks. I do the independent circuit or over in Japan, people don't talk about WCW, they still talk about the WWE. So I’m grateful to Vince, now I don't count Vince as a friend, I respect the man but I don't expect anything from him.

Eric Bischoff - Eric is lucky to be in the position he is in. Not too much respect for the man in general but again a survivor. The one thing good I can say about Eric is he took care of me or at least the company took care of me when I was going through my cancer ordeal. We just had a difference in opinion in what is over in professional wrestling. But Eric, I don't think too much of.

Hulk Hogan - Hulkster has been a friend of mine for years. I opened a gym here in Titusville Florida back in the day and Hogan took one of his days off, he gets like two or three a month. So him Randy Savage, Brutus Beefcake and The Nasty Boys all came over for free for the grand opening of my gym. We had three thousand people it was a huge success. He is the Elvis of professional wrestling, no one competes with Hogan.

Randy Savage - Macho's, nuts. He was right on the verge with Liz and after Liz left, he went off the deep end and he never really came back. What you see on tv with Macho is what you get. laughs "Macho, sit down will ya and relax!". He's not a big guy and he's not a tough guy, he's just paranoid all the time. If Macho would just learn to relax he'd be ok.

Jimmy Hart - Hardest working man in professional wrestling. Jimmy's not happy unless he's got his cell phone up to his ear, his pager is going off and he's got a laptop in his hand. If I was a boss I would want Jimmy Hart working for me he gives 110% all the time. You'd be doing morning radio shows at six in the morning and Jimmy's wound tight.

Ric Flair - I respect Ric a lot, we're two different type guys. Ric was always kind of a GQ, he could be on the road for three weeks and he'd still have creases in his pants and his suit would still look nice ya know. I on the other hand am a sweat pants and t-shirts guy. So we run with different circles. His group is Arn Anderson, Terry Taylor and those guys, my group was Terry Gordy and The Nasty Boys, a little more crazier guys. I respect Ric for what he's done, he's always made a great worlds champion. The only time I’ve wrestled one hour time limit draws, I wrestled Flair two times, one hour straight. Back in the day, they would have the world champion go to all small territories and wrestle the top baby face. So you couldn't beat the worlds champion and you couldn't beat the top babyface. So Flair would wrestle one hour time limit draws six, seven, times a week. He was really an iron man.

Ted Dibiase - Teddy changed his life around. I've wrestled Ted more than i've wrestled anybody in my life. Hundreds of times i've wrestled Dibiase. We had the biggest gimmick match in the world. We were in Houston Texas at the Sam Houston Coliseum, it was a loser leaves town, inside a steel cage, dressed in tuxedos, with a coal miners glove ontop of a ten foot pole match laughs. We filled up the old Sam Houston Coliseum. I always joked that Teddy used to be like Dan Fielding, from the old Night Court. If there was a girl there Teddy was going to talk to her. But now Ted has changed his life around and him and his wife are good friends of mine and i'm glad to see Teddy on the right track. My old interview, oh it was great, he used to hate me for it. I said "Ted Dibiase may be the greatest technical wrestler in the sport today...BUT HE CAN'T FIGHT A LICK! WHEN HE GETS INTO THE RING WITH HACKSAW, IT'S GONNA BE A FIGHT!

Bret Hart - I like Bret, he's been to my home, I've been to his. I think he got a good break when he came into WCW, when they were throwing around a lot of that big money and you know a second generation wrestler, ring technition, and the girls loved him, I consider Bret a friend.

Shawn Michaels - I never really clicked with Shawn. That whole group, him, Scott Hall and Nash. I think they were detrimental to profesional wrestling. Hall and Nash in particular, two great talents, two guys couldn't be more detrimental to a company. They cause so much crap. Shawn I give the kid credit, he came up the hard way, I remember down in Louisianna when he was just breaking in, he was a hansom kid and I tell ya he could get beat up better than anybody. We would go out and all the girls in the bar would leave their boyfriends and go to Shawn and you know people in the bar, three or four of them would jump him. But he would take it every night, so Shawn's a tough guy, he really is. The three way match at Wrestlemania with him, Benoit and Triple H, I thought that was one of the best matches that i've ever seen. I'll put all three of those guys over.

Hacksaw's dream match! The event, opponent, stipulations, result, you name it.

Stone Cold Steve Austin anywhere in the country! laughs Stone Cold is probably one of my least favorite guys in profesional wrestling. It's not like we have an open hostility but you know of course when the WWF guys, when we left, myself, Hogan, Macho, Beefcake, Jimmy Hart, we all left the WWF and came into WCW. Guys like Helmsley and Austin and those boys were leaving so there was a lot of open hostility between that group and our group and of course they were pushing us and that's when their numbers turned around. They used to do their tv at the Center Stage in Atlanta and they would have to put black sheets over the seats so people wouldn't see how many empty seats there were. We came in, we turned the company around. I was supposed to beat Austin at Halloween Havoc for the US title and he went down with a bogus knee injury about fourty seconds into the match. So I went into the dressing room and I told him what I thought of him and I thought he was chicken "crap". Says a lot about the guy, he's been arrested three or four times for beating up women, just not slapping them around. Another guy who is a good talent but they believe their own press. They really think they're big stars but you're not a star without your fans and that doesn't excuse ever raising your hand to a woman.

To actually have a match match in the ring, I'd like to be in a six man tag with Terry Gordy and Sgt. Slaughter as my partners, against Kamala, Harley Race and big One Man Gang, main event at the Garden. laughs

And you just wrestled Kamala at Wrestle Reunion?

Ya I wrestled him the week before for Doc's show too. It was a unique situation there in Tampa. We were all in a bar room, the matches went on forever, the people were coming and going, it was a real casual atmosphere.

What does Hacksaw have in store for 2005?

We're actually down here Brevard County we're fighting to have some property I own rezoned from two and a half acres to one acre lots. Me and my partner have fourty one acres. For the past three weeks i've been going down talking to zoning commisions and of course everybodys against it cause they want growth. I told my wife I feel like the heel from the big valley. laughs But you know, growth is enevitable and we just want one acre lots and we're still fighting that. So hopefully we get that developed. I'll still be doing the independents, I know i'll be going back to Japan, how many times will vary, two times a year would be great for me and I think that would be ok for the company. March 2nd I got up to Iowa for the Variety Club Telethon which is the second largest telethon in North America behind Jerry Lewis and I've been going up there for five years. So that's always great there, a lot of soap stars are there and a lot of football people. I'm also on the board of directors for the Children's Home Society and i've been on the board for two years, that's for abused and neglected children here in Brevard County. I'm having my Hacksaw Jim Duggan Celebrity Golf Tournament for the Children's Home Society (CHS) on April 30th. I'm going skiing at the end of March for Spring Break with the kids.

Are you much of a skier?

laughs No I’m not much of a skier, four knee operations, I stay off the slopes. I'm also doing George Myers golf tournament here in Florida. I'm doing the World Shellfish Championship down in Key West Florida, it's going to be my second year doing that and that's in April. You're up in Canada, do you know who Bob Izumi is? Bob does a fishing show and I’m doing Bob's fishing show I believe up above Winnipeg at the end of May. So I’ve got a lot going on! Of course in between that, this week I’m going up to Houston Texas to do some independent shows in Houston.

How would Hacksaw like to be remembered?

This is a fair guy and a square guy, a guy you could trust, which is hard to say in our business. I always joked about Jake, I’d say Jake's a great guy to party with but he'd be the last guy you want driving your getaway car. You'd be backing out of the 7-11 and Jake would be gone. So I’d just like to be remembered as a straight guy and a good friend to my friends.

I think this about wraps things up. Any final words?

I think we covered everything pretty good Matt. I appreciate you doing this for me. For my fans, thanks so much for 26 years of support, it's been a great ride and I look forward to meeting more of you on the independent circuit!

Thanks for doing this Hacksaw!

Alright buddy thanks for everything

credit: http://www.hacksaw.newpathproductions.com