Paul Jones

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Paul Jones Photo Album

Full Circle: A Visit with Paul Jones & George South

Return to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway lobby.

Part Three - Managing and the Great American Dream

George: Did you guys ever notice the difference in who they gave Paul to manage compared to some of the other managers? It was harder to get some of those guys over.

Paul: Yeah, J.J. Dillon had Tully Blanchard, and Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson. How hard was that? I was put with guys that needed help to get over. And frankly, some of the guys they put with me, they didn't want to get over. I tried to come up with good ideas, like with the Barbarian and the Warlord. I came up with this idea with the weights. We did it in Greensboro (before the first Clash of Champions), and man that caught on fire, and we sold out everywhere that next week. We had been drawing about 50% of the house in Baltimore right around that time, and that next show after that aired on TV, we sold out. And Dusty couldn't wait to cut it off. It wasn't his idea.

George: If you remember, it didn't have a big blow off. It just ended. It was like reading a book, and getting to the end, and someone had torn the last few pages out, it never came to an end. 

Paul: It wasn't Dusty's angle, and it was over, so it got cut off.

DB: I never understood the insecurity with some people in the business. If someone got over, or got your guys over, and it drew money, that was more money in everybody's pocket.

Paul: Exactly, well, it was just an ego thing. Nobody could out-do Dusty, he had to be the most over. If it wasn't his idea, it usually wasn't going to get a chance to get over. It was the same thing in Florida, he was booking when I was in Florida, and he had this deal he couldn't pass up working a month in Japan for big money. So he was gone for about a month, and I was the main babyface while he was gone and we did huge business and he couldn't wait to get back. He couldn't stand it. With Dusty, he always had himself on the card with the angles that were hot, and he'd put himself on last, so it would appear he drew the house. 

George: Tell my favorite Dusty story. About the time in Roanoke with the horse. 

Paul: Oh, goodness. We were in Roanoke, and Dusty is going to make this grand entry into the Roanoke Coliseum on a Sunday afternoon. Now this civic center has this slick floor and the horse has hard shoes on, you should have rubber shoes on him, but he's got regular horse shows. He comes out of the dressing room on this horse. He had a special white horse, wearing a white hat, wearing chaps. And he gets about eight feet into the arena and this horse's legs start going out, you know, like a dancer doing a split, except the horse doesn't want to do this, but he can't help it. And Dusty's trying to play it cool, but his face, you can see he's afraid he's going to fall off the horse. And this poor horse looks like he has skates on. But the funniest thing is Dusty is determined to make it to the ring, and he's leaning way forward, and his arms around the horse's neck, which was pretty hard to do. That was the funniest thing, seeing this big cowboy with his white hat hanging onto the horse's neck.

Part Four - Reflections

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