Interview by David Chappell, with Dick Bourne,  October 4, 2003. Hartwell, GA.


Bill Eadie

 

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE

PART SIX

 

Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Gateway lobby

 

On October 4th, 2003, David Chappell and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend about 45 minutes with Bill Eadie following a night of matches in Hartwell, GA. Bill wrestled George South in the main event of a legends card promoted by South's EWA.

 

Over the years, Bill Eadie has continued to re-invent himself, wrestling on top of the cards through an ongoing 28 year career. He may be best known to today's fans as one half of the powerful Demolition tag team in the WWF. But Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Japan fans (among others) will always think of Bill in his most classic persona, the amazing Masked Superstar.    -D. Bourne


PART ONE

EARLY CAREER IN THE IWA

 

Mid-Atlantic Gateway: Bill, you first came into Jim Crockett Promotions in early 1976 as one of the Mongols…Bolo Mongol. Tell us a little bit about the early Bill Eadie as Bolo Mongol.

 

Masked Superstar Bill Eadie: Well, it all started in the early 70’s when I was teaching and had a good friend that played college ball, whose Dad was the State Athletic Commissioner of Pennsylvania. One weekend after school was out…my friend was at Penn State and I was in West Virginia…he invited us to go to the wrestling matches up there.

 

When we went into the dressing room, we saw Geto [Mongol], who at the time was the promoter. When he first saw us, Geto thought my friend and I were two new wrestlers coming in. Geto started talking to us and he said, ‘Where did you guys train at?’ I said, ‘West Virginia and he trained at Penn State.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about! (everybody laughs)

 

M-A Gateway: So Geto was interested in you as a wrestler immediately?

 

Superstar: Yes, he asked me right then and there whether I’d be interested in professional wrestling. I told him I had never even thought about it. You know, those matches that night were the first wrestling matches I had ever been to.

 

M-A Gateway: Did you decide to take the wrestling plunge then?

 

Superstar: I did. My friend Ron and I went through nine months of training with Geto…every weekend, all weekend from Friday night through Sunday. After we finished up the training, Ron and I both went back to teaching…Ron was teaching then as well.

 

M-A Gateway: How did you get your break?

 

Superstar: Geto called me right after school had ended for the summer, in 1974 I believe, and said his partner Bepo had gotten thrown out of the ring in Louisiana and ruptured his spleen. He and Bepo, who most people know better under the name of Nikolai Volkoff, were just about ready to go on a tour of Japan. Geto asked me if I wanted to go to Japan with him, and I said, ‘I guess, I’ll take a try at it.’ I think I started in September of 1974. And here I am, all these years later, still wrestling (laughs).

 

M-A Gateway: When you took off and headed to Japan as a “Mongol,” were you then committed to a career change to wrestling?

 

Superstar: Pretty much. I did come back to teach another year, but the principal at my school was nice enough to give me a leave of absence as I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to wrestle full-time at that point. But before too long I did quit teaching all together, because I was also coaching football and track there. When I really got into wrestling, I ended up staying in it full-time for twenty-some years.

 

M-A Gateway: In early 1975, you and Geto moved on to the new IWA  [International Wrestling Association] promotion?

 

The Mongols: Bolo (Bill Eadie, standing) and Geto

IWA Tag Champions (photo/ Bill Janosik)

 

Superstar: Yes, we did. We were the tag team champions there.

 

M-A Gateway: Tell us a little bit about the IWA.

 

Superstar: Eddie Einhorn headed up the IWA. He was a real good guy, but he was very naive about the wrestling business. I think he spent at that time about a million dollars on the IWA, which of course today would be many, many times that much.

 

Eddie got ripped off, and he learned a hard lesson. Even though I was young and a new guy, Eddie liked me and we talked fairly often. He had a committee of veterans, rookies, etc., and he wanted to set up the promotion to run much like the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball. But he eventually got sick of dealing with [the IWA], and that’s when he turned his attention to the Chicago White Sox.

 

 

 

PART TWO

JIM CROCKETT PROMOTIONS 

AND THE BIRTH OF THE MASKED SUPERSTAR

 


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Promotional Image for the October 4th show in Hartwell, the night we met the Superstar.


 

 

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