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The second annual The Gathering convention presented by T-Mart Promotions is currently ongoing in Charlotte, NC. Last night, John Nord aka The Bezerker was a surprise Q&A guest. Here are some highlights of the conversation:
The incredible group of pro wrestlers to come out of the same High School in Minnesota: "Most of us graduated in 1976, 1977. Everyone pretty much knows that. The thing is, I think it was just Verne Gagne. You got to remember, Verne Gagne was the one who started it. When your watching on Sunday and all week you're hearing the interviews The interviews were so fun and you were laughing about it so much, you just couldn't quit talking about it so that's why we all fell...we were all, 'No, we don't want to work for a living, so let's all become wrestlers.' Then some of us get in and the others are saying, 'I want to make that much money. I want to get in. I can do that. it's all fake anyway! [Laughs] Then, you get in and you find out it ain't all fake."
Favorite Person Ever to Work With: "100% The Undertaker, because, when I was there, he suggested he work with me. He was having a hard time having a good matches because he moved slowly and, you know, he has to adjust to being a dead guy and it was hard to have good matches. They came up and asked him. We toured and shopped in a few places, Germany. We spent some time together during the matches before us. He went to WWF and told them, 'I can go with John Nord' and thar's when he gave me a break and my money just tripled because they were pushing me and it was just, it was really nice. I'm grateful to him to this day. I just wish he'd call me because we haven't spoke in 30 years!"
Least Favorite: "Johnny Ace. He might be able to beat me up now, but if I saw him, I'd have to tell him I don't like you."
The Huss Chant: "Bruiser Brody started it. He's the guy that started that to be fair. We ended up tagging but he was doing the HUSS HUSS before I ever did. Then we started tagging and I started doing it without him even when he wasn't around. I don't know what it means!"
The Favorite Character He Ever Played: "Nord the Barbarian, I think. When I had the car lot with my dad's brothers, we were advertising on the Vikings Games. The first time we showed this commercial slamming this guy through a car windshield saying no credit and we don't care and all that, we played it during the Vikings Games and then next morning there were 150 people waiting at the car lot - not too much to buy a car but to see what I was about....I did it on an 85 Riviera and I had to get someone to slam on it....When I slammed the guy, I had to finish the commercial and I hear him [HEAVY BREATHING SOUND] and when I slammed him through, he hit the steering wheel....he broke two ribs...I had him sign a release and paid him $100 and he said, '$100, sure!' "
A Jimmy Snuka Road Story: "Me and Jimmy Snuka took off and we were heading towards Madison Square Garden. We're in a rental. We're going to Madison Square Garden. I think I was in the middle of the card against Undertaker and Snuka was either main event or semi-main. We're driving there. Jimmy, you know, he could only speak so much English, you know? He's like, 'Brother, let's stop and see the land.' I'm like, 'OK." So, we get into some...powdered stuff and we get so locked up, we can't talk...[makes muttering noises]. So, we finally get to the Garden and someone runs out and yells, 'Nord, you missed your match, it's too late. Snuka you can make yours but hurry up.' Jimmy looks at him and goes, 'NOT TONIGHT' and we drove away."
Mid-South and Jake Roberts: "I was there for a year. It was my second year in the business and Verne Gagne sent me down there. I learned a lot of things but they had nothing to do with wrestling. [Laughs.] I have great memories. Bill Watts kept putting me in good spots. My tag partner for the year was Jake Roberts and that's where the DDT started. [Jake[ is a literal genius in wrestling. He is the only guy in this whole business that you can call a genius. He's that smart. [In Mid-South], he taught me anything good that I might have done in the future. It came from him. He used to tell me what to say on every interview. They never played [some of] the interviews, either, because we were doing some really funny interviews and man, it was all coming from Jake. All of a sudden, the houses started coming up and they're all selling out everywhere. A lot of it had to do with the interviews. He just told me what to say and God, they were funny as heck. I love Jake. I know he might not think that after all these years. I think Jake's got a lot of guilt and thinks that nobody really is his friend and all that sh**, but nah. Jake's a great guy. He's smarter than the promoters, so he gets in a weird spot."
Time in World Class: I enjoyed working there. Fritz Von Erich wanted to put me in and challenge for the title but the reality is at the time, I was really missing my wife and my son, who was very young and I decided to go home to my family."
Larry Nelson: "I went to this bar, it was called Jukebox Saturday Night. It was the hottest bar in Minnesota, Minneapolis for sure. I'm there with a bunch of crazy iron workers, because my brother was one. We're just going nuts and Larry comes in by himself and he's hammered. I'm like, is everyone getting drunk? It's a Sunday night and we both work for the AWA and Larry comes in. I remember picking up a mop in the bathroom and like slamming him in the bathroom and telling him, 'I'm going to kill you now!' and he was genuinely scared. He was like really scared, but Larry was a good guy."
Favorite time in wrestling: "The most money I made was late 1992 or 1993 but the best time I had was late 1993 and 1994. I worked for Tenyru. He was like Hulk Hogan here, he was that popular there. It was a big compliment to me. He had his own company going [SWS] with this guy who owned an optical glasses company owned it. He chose me out of of all the WWF guys to work with and get paid really good for a short time because the company went down sooner or later. That was a breakout for me."
For more on the Gathering this weekend, visit www.TMartPromotions.com.
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