Tidewater Comicon returns this weekend May 20-21 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, former WWE Superstar Ax tells wrestling stories

Interview By Yiorgo

The annual Tidewater Comicon makes its triumphant return this weekend May 20th-21st at the Virginia Beach Convention Center with Special Celebrity Guests, Comic Book Creators, Voice Actors, Cosplayers, Gaming, Panels, Contests, and so much more!

It all began when Tidewater Area native and founder Mike Federali wanted so much to have a local comic book convention in the area, that he decided to sell his entire comic book collection at garage sales, flea markets (and even on AMC’s Comic Book Men) to make his dream a reality.

Mike’s first show, held at a hotel as a one day event, was a huge success with an over capacity crowd eager for more shows with bigger space and more guests. Mike decided to have even more yard sales, and with a successful Kickstarter campaign, Tidewater Comicon moved to its home base at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. It now continues to bring an amazing roster of celebrities and has become THE destination where fans now come from far away as well, to be a part and experience such a fan event that it easily draws 23,000-25,000 thousand fans.

Some of this weekend’s special guests include: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Adrianne Palicki, WWE Superstars Sgt Slaughter, Ax and Smash of Demolition, and so many more. Passes are on sale now and kids 10 and under get in free with paying adults. For tickets and all the info on special guests and more, go to https://www. tidewatercomicon.com/

Yiorgo: With us is former WWF/WWE Superstar Ax (real name Bill Eadie) one half of the Demolition tag-team who along with his partner Smash, will be there Saturday and Sunday to greet all the fans, take pictures, sign autographs and along with Smash will do a Q&A panel discussion Saturday hosted by Benjamin Banks, who is one half of Virginia Championship Wrestling’s tag team champions. Bill, you have had quite an illustrious career.

Bill Eadie: I have been very blessed. I have traveled all over North America, Canada and Europe. I did 44 different trips to Japan over 13 years. I had a very, very nice career working.

Y: Today’s younger fans know you as Ax of the Demolition tag team. How did Demolition come to be, who put you together with Smash and later Crush?

BE: Randy Colley came up with the basic idea and we tweaked it; it was to protect his identity because he was already there a number of years as Moondog Rex. He came up with the idea of having some type of mask on, take it off, and then because Planet of the Apes were very big then, to have some type of ape mask under that. I said I don’t feel comfortable with that, I don’t think that’s going to work, so we created the paint and, of course, the Road Warriors were big back then, The Powers of Pain were big as well. I don’t think anybody steals anybody’s ideas and they are not going to borrow anything that is not successful. People said we tried to copy them. When Barry Darsow and I got together we never felt that. We felt we were doing our own thing and that we could work with all types of guys big or small.

It was funny when Road Warriors finally came into the New York area, everybody called them Demolition clones. I tell people that there are millions of Demolition fans, there are millions of Road Warrior fans and there are multiple millions who don’t care. At the end of the day we are all trying to make a living in the business.

Y: That of course was not your first time in the WWF/E. You actually also worked for Vince McMahon’s father, Vince Sr. Can you tell us about it?

BE: In the early ‘80s, Vince Sr. used to have two tournaments a year in Japan. They had the Madison Square Garden (MSG) tag team tournament and a MSG singles tournament and it was normally in the fall. He would come over and make the presentation. I actually went in as a favor to Andre because of our friendship and I started working for Sr. I respected Sr. a lot. He told you when you were coming in, how much you were going to make and when you would leave. I knew of him of course and he knew me from working in the Mid-Atlantic area, but to be honest with you, I was never interested in going to New York at that time. I was content to stay in the south. I was doing very well in the Mid-Atlantic, in Georgia and in Japan. So I had no qualms about proving myself in New York. And realistically at that time, most of the guys were trying to get into Georgia and Mid-Atlantic.

Y: You mentioned Andre the Giant. Can you share a story about Andre and Japan? Is it true that you were the first to body slam him?

BE: I was one of the first to body slam him. I know that there were a number of guys he would work with and he would not allow you to slam him. I remember when he told me to slam him I thought he was kidding, he was not light I’ll tell you that. As I said, I was there over 40 times, half as Andre’s partner. One of the funny stories that happened there was that they have small taxi cabs all over the place. All you have to do is wave a dollar and they will stop. I had to have Andre hide in the doorway or around the corner and when the cab would stop, I would open the front door, get in and Andre would take up the entire back of the cab. They would try to take off. They did not want him in the cab because they thought it would break down. That happened on a nightly basis.

Y: Let’s go back to your beginning. Where were you born, why did you decide to teach and how did you transition into professional wrestling?

BE: I was born outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. I got interested in teaching basically because of my high school football and track coach. I went to West Virginia University and played football and track there. After graduation I taught special education in Ohio and coached football and track for five years there.

I got into wrestling by mistake. We went to visit my parents and my next-door neighbor used to be a professional boxer. He retired and was appointed one of the three athletic commissioners in Pennsylvania. His son and I had gone to college together, and he invited me to a match at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. We got to go backstage because he was the commissioner. We went into the dressing room and a couple of wrestlers asked me if I was interested in becoming a wrestler and six months later we were both in the ring.

Y: Who trained you?

BE: I was trained by Geto Mongol — Newton Tattrie. He was a good trainer and I eventually became his partner for a while because Nikolai Volkoff had gotten injured so I took over his place. We traveled for about three years. We ended up in the Jim Crockett Promotions Mid-Atlantic area. It’s there that I started as the Masked Superstar.

Y: I have very vivid memories here in the Mid-Atlantic of the battles you and Mongol had with Ole and Gene Anderson in your title versus title tag matches!

BE: We left the International Wrestling Association (IWA) with the World Tag belts as their Champions. They went out of business but they still owed us money. Our agreement was we would turn the belts in when we got paid. We never got paid. George Scott had asked us to come into the Mid-Atlantic for a period of time. We went and of course it was a natural for the IWA to go against the National Wrestling Alliance belts. During that particular time Mongol wanted to go back home, so George Scott the booker for the Mid-Atlantic territory approached me about wearing a mask because the office had some kind of fallout with their masked wrestler Don Jardine — the Spoiler — who had left the territory abruptly. Mongol was so gracious to say go ahead. I said yes, and the Masked Superstar was born.

Y: I seem to remember you doing an hour and 1½ hour matches with Blackjack.

BE: Oh yes, we did a series of 12 one-hour matches, then we came back and did 12 1½ hour matches, and then we came back again and we did 12 no time limit matches, where we did anywhere from 80 minutes to 120 minutes depending on the venue. That was a hot summer. Mulligan lost about 50 pounds and I lost about 40 pounds.

Y: How do you pace yourself for those kinds of matches?

BE: Well it’s conditioning, like everybody else who wants to run a marathon. We did not want to run a marathon; you can’t start out running 15-20 miles. We had a series of 3-4 matches per city where we started with 10 to 20-minute matches, 30 minutes, 45 minutes to finally an hour and then the 90-minute matches. You do pace yourself. You get used to it. The conditioning is a big part of it. Blackjack was a big guy. We both pride ourselves with our conditioning. In that stage of my career, I could blow up anybody; you know, forced to wrestle with their tongue hanging out.

Y: This weekend you will be in Virginia Beach, your old stomping grounds back in the Jim Crockett Promotions Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. Can you share a memory or two you have from doing the Norfolk-Richmond loop?

BE: I’ll give a very, very true memory I have of Norfolk in particular. For some reason it was difficult to get in and out of the Scope, it was easy to go the wrong way all the time you would go around and around the building and finally you would find your way to the highway. In Richmond, I’ll never forget, I was working against Blackjack at the time and I ran in one of his matches against John Studd. John and I started working on Mulligan. A fan came to the ring, then another then another. We had to fight 4-5 different fans. Two weeks later, I’m in a match with Mulligan, his face is down in a rear chin lock so he is facing down towards the mat, and this guy comes in the ring. Now, you need to know that a couple of weeks before, there were some guys that were stabbed in Richmond. I saw the fan come in and roll over, but he cut me at the knee. I jumped out the ring and about five cops beat the living you-know-what out of him. He admitted later that it was an initiation into a fraternity. He had to get in and out of the ring and touch a wrestler without getting hit. Unfortunately for me, about a month later I got stabbed in Richmond. Richmond was a rough place to wrestle.

Y: Wow, I’ve read before about Blackjack, Ole Anderson and Roddy Piper getting stabbed, but I had not heard that about you. I am sorry it happened to you, but thank you for the exclusive. Who were some of your favorite programs that you worked with in this area?

BE: Paul Jones, Igor of course, Blackjack Mulligan, those are the ones that really stand out, I had a long standing feud with those guys. Also, Paul Jones and I tagged and went against — God rest their souls — Jimmy Snuka and Ray Stevens. Mid-Atlantic was my favorite territory to work in; and of course Georgia. Montreal and Japan were all nice, but Mid-Atlantic is my favorite because that is where I got my first big break as a single. You worked hard, but you made good money there.

Y: As a fan, I remember what a big deal it was when you took off the mask for a few seconds in the ring. Tell us about that.

BE: I had made a promise. I learned this from Wahoo McDaniel, and he was very excited about his heritage. He told me that if you say something, then you’ve got to do it. So you’ve got to be careful with what you say. I did that my whole career. So I had told the people that if I won the single or the tag championship belt I would take off my mask, I did not say I was going to keep it off. I told them, you know I am a man of my word. If I told you I’m going to do something I’m going to do it and so, in this case, when we did win the championship belts I took it off, it builds credibility. But ironically a lot of people did not look when I took it off, they were saying don’t do it, don’t do it.

So it was all part of the angle. Protecting the identity was part of the gimmick. I liked my privacy and George Scott the booker was emphatic that I stayed in separate hotels, I traveled with myself or with Boris Malenko, ate at separate restaurants, and we never associated with the other wrestlers who went to the clubs. Part of the aura of that character was that no one knew who it was. I had people follow me for miles and miles but I would always have a towel over my head for hundreds of miles. If you got the mask you’ve got to work the gimmick. You have to become the character.

Y: Tell us about your life now.

BE: I love doing these comicons and fanfests. Wrestling has given me so much and now it’s my turn to give back to the fans. I love talking with them and knowing I was a small part in making their childhood special. I also work with juvenile offenders. I teach a special group called The Focus Group — juvenile offenders who were sexually abused kids and consequently started abusing other kids. I also work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I got started with that in Japan and I still sell memorabilia with all of the proceeds donated to Make-A-Wish.

Y: God bless you Bill. Thank you for what you do for all kids and for the kids in us, the fans, thanks for the great wrestling memories. Yiorgo is an arts, entertainment and sports writer. A stage, TV and movie actor, he is also a sports entertainer, educator, motivational speaker, writer, storyteller and columnist.