| What memories do you have of Paul Jones, the promoter?
Paul Jones and I got along super. He was quite a man. In fact, I used to pick him up and he’d ride with me on some trips. (laughs) Even though he was out of the business more or less, he still enjoyed going to the matches. So when I had the opportunity, I’d call him up and he would be all ready when I got there. He was one heck of a wrestler in his day. Oh, yeah. And how about Fred Ward? Outstanding. Fred Ward was probably one of the nicest men I ever met. He was a good promoter and his partner there…I forgot his name… Ralph Freed? Ralph Freed, that’s right. I got along with them all very well. They were good people. I couldn’t say anything bad about them at all. They were good promoters and very respectful of the wrestlers. You worked for Ray Gunkel for awhile when he was running the show. What do you remember about him? Well, Gunkel – I never really got to know Ray all that well. I was never really at the office that much. His booker, Leo Garibaldi, was the only one I ever really had to deal with. What were your thoughts on Leo? Aww, he was probably one of the best bookers in the world. He was very smart, very intelligent – he knew the business inside and out. In my opinion, he made this territory. Back when he was the booker, Atlanta was one of the hottest places in the country. Hundreds of guys wanted to come in here, but they could only handle so many people. I think he was a very easy man to work with. Well, obviously Leo was your favorite booker, but what about favorite promoter and promotion to work for? Well, I was one of these guys who got along with all the promoters and bookers. Texas was good, Georgia and Florida were good – New York was good. Toronto was good to work for. Did you enjoy working for and with Ole Anderson? I thought he was the shits. (long laughs) I had a lot of hard matches with this guy before he became the booker. And he was tough. Him and Gene were probably two of the toughest competitors I ever wrestled against. At the time I respected him to the hilt. As far as him as a booker, I never cared for much that he did, and he knows that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect him for the job he did. I have always heard that you broke Moose Morowski’s arm on TV. Obviously that was an accident, but what exactly happened? Well, my partner had him stretched out and I came across the ring with the knee across the elbow. It just popped. It was just one of those things. It happens. Frankie Cain has said that he remembers you breaking Sam Steamboat's arm, and that was in a shoot. Any truth to that? Yeah, in fact, Sam and I were working out on the mat one time and I took him over and snapped his elbow. He was trying to block me, which he couldn’t do, and when he did – the rocking move he tried with me didn’t work and it snapped his elbow. You had a great feud with Pak Song. He is a man who very few people know anything about. What was he like to work with, and as a person? Ohhhh…..he was tough. A very tough competitor. He was a very large man. A big boned man. He was so awkward that it made it difficult to work with him. Needless to say I had my fill of working with him. I never looked forward to out matches because he was so awkward. Describe how the connection to the Carter family came about. Lillian (President Carter’s mother) was probably my biggest fan. She thought the world of me. She asked Fred Ward if she could have an interview with me. He agreed to it and called me if I would be so gracious and ride with the Sheriff down to Plains. President Carter was there and we had a pleasant visit. I spent a few hours there and did the interview. She was a beautiful person, and she never asked any stupid questions… Like me… (Laughs) No, no. She was a pretty intelligent lady. She never once asked me to take my mask off. What about the infamous White House visit where you were not admitted entry? She invited me to the inauguration, and they refused to let me in because I refused to take my mask off. After all, it was my livelihood. It was an image that I had created and I didn’t want it to be destroyed. It’s been said that there was legitimate heat between you and Joe Powell when you returned to Georgia at the end of 1979 and found he was doing an imposter gimmick of you. Is there any truth to that? Uhhh…well, yeah. I didn’t like the guy doing my thing. I taught him a lesson in the ring, and I think I convinced him I didn’t appreciate it. I think he did wind up doing it again after I quit the business, but what can you do? It’s common knowledge that your wife had made robes for you, Bill Eadie, and Ric Flair among others, and all of those guys speak so fondly of her. How did she get involved in that? Through me. She was a designer – a dress designer, but she could make anything. She was a wonder woman. So she was creative and artistic. Absolutely. So she made all the flashy robes we got to see guys like Ric Flair wearing into the ring. She made them all – every one of them. How that came about was some of the guys were wanting robes made, and I said I’d ask my wife and see if she could make them. I did, and that’s how she got started. She went from to another to another – Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Paul Orndorff – she made all of them. You had a great long running program with the Masked Superstar over the years. Bill Eadie said some wonderful things about you in our interview. What can you tell me about Bill? Well, he was a good wrestler. He knew his way around the ring. He was one of the best opponents I ever went up against. I can’t say enough about the man. He was always tough, and the tough guys were where the money was. You really have to dig down deep into the soil when you go up against a guy like Bill. He was a pleasure to wrestle because he used his natural ability rather than gimmicks. He told me you paid most of his bills. (laughs) He’s one of the nicest, most genuine guys from the business. Yeah, a lot of the boys are nice away from the business – most of them are anyway. There’s a few of them who let their fame get ahead of them sometimes. Both Bill and Bobby Simmons have told me funny stories where, for whatever reason, their timing was a bit off on occasion and they received some knee lifts when they weren’t expecting them. I felt my timing was always correct. When I threw that knee, I threw it. That was just one of my things. It’s something I created myself and it worked out wonderfully for me. It actually became sort of a household thing, I guess, over the years. It paid off. I went home with some good checks. (laughs) You’re remembered for having an interesting style on the stick, specifically one promo you and Jody Hamilton did in Georgia that led to you getting into the ring and inviting him to join you. Tell me about what it was like to work with Jody. Well, he was a different animal altogether than most people. I found him very awkward to wrestle. He was a very tough and hard individual. When I say hard I mean his body was tough. He didn’t spare anything. Whatever he could grab or do, he did. You had to be on your toes at all times with this guy. I found myself actually eating dirt sometimes, but that goes with the territory. He was a tough guy. Were you ever close to Jody? Again, I have to say that I don’t hang around these guys. I don’t hang around with any of the guys. That’s not my thing. I more or less stayed to myself. The only time I actually saw these guys was in the ring. We all had separate dressing rooms so the only time I’d see most of them was in the ring. It was not like it is today. It was nothing like it is today. You were separated and kept away from each other in separate dressing rooms. The only time we saw each other was when we were in the ring staring across at each other. And, of course, there was no traveling together. Nope. I didn’t care about riding with any of those guys anyway. I’d much rather have been by myself and I was. The referee rode with me a few times, but that’s about it. Did you get stuck with Charlie Smith? (Laughs) No, no. Charlie Smith rode by himself or with his family or whatever. Ronnie West and I rode together quite a few times. Ron’s a great guy. Yeah, he is. He sure is. He’s traveling around with the circus. Yeah, that’s what he’s doing now – exactly right. That’s good for him that he’s making a pretty good living, too. He’s always on the road. I’m always hearing from him or through other people about where he’s at. Yep, just like he never left the wrestling business. What do you remember about the Champion of Champions angle in Georgia during 1980? I had a match with Harley Race where I beat him one fall, and he got disqualified in one fall in the time limit. So actually I beat him, but they didn’t award me the (NWA) World’s Heavyweight Championship belt. They made an announcement on TV that I didn’t win the title. Two hundred and fifty thousand people wrote in. The mail people brought bags and bags of mail to the office… Kind of like the courtroom scene near the end of Miracle on 34th Street? (Laughs) Yeah. They went through the mail piece by piece. Mail had come from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Calgary, Hawaii, Alaska – everywhere that got our TV. They stated they thought I should have been awarded the belt and whatnot. Anyway, it was all in my favor. So they awarded me the Champion of Champions trophy. Since I couldn’t have the belt, they gave me the trophy. And that’s how the trophy actually came about. I heard that Sam Muchnick had an issue with the trophy and the purpose for it, in that it took away from the title itself. Did you hear any of that? Well, they made it disappear, but it had already happened and was out there for a couple of months. That whole angle was the catalyst toward Georgia Championship Wrestling taking the show up north. Bobby Simmons and Randy Cohran were tasked with making a list of the postmarks, which showed places like Michigan and Ohio were sending the most letters. Basically he said Bill Watts took advantage of the letters to determine where the cable was reaching the most fans. Did the TV exposure through WTBS pretty much make you a household name, bigger than ever before and in demand by other promotions? Yeah, I suppose it did. I mean we were getting mail from everywhere, man. Most of them came from up north and that’s why they started to send us to Columbus and Michigan and places like that. And we drew a lot of money up there. During an interview on GCW one time, you and Tommy Rich were both with Gordon Solie and there was a small hint of maybe an angle developing between the two of you where you may be getting jealous of his popularity. A lot of fans seem to recall this and have voiced their belief that it could have been a great angle. Was that actually anything that had been planned? (Laughs) No, I don’t remember that at all. I will say Tommy Rich was his own worst enemy in my book. He did a lot of things that I never agreed with. He was a great young man, but he misused his better judgment at times. Speaking of Rich’s popularity, you were probably the only other person during the 70’s and 80’s who reached the same level with the fans. Did you ever feel the obligation to be a role model, and was that something you willingly embraced? When you become as popular as I was – and the only way you get that way is because of the fans – they put you in that position. I did enjoy it. I tried to uphold myself to their expectations. I tried to be as hospitable as possible with all fans. I’ve always enjoyed being with the fans and talking to them. Some of them ask silly questions and I just turn around and give them a silly answer. (Laughs) Nevertheless, it was enjoyable and great to be in that situation. I’ve seen you do a few legends shows where you would sign autographs and pose for pictures, and it’s incredible how you get mobbed by the fans. Down in Columbus last month, you were probably there for about two hours after the matches, right? Oh, yeah. That’s fine. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that after all this time of me being away from the business – as you know I left in 1989 – and I haven’t lifted a finger with the business after that. So to come back and see the same fans are still around, I still enjoy talking with them. They’re nice people. There was an angle in Mid-South where you did a heel turn on Magnum T. A. A lot of fans still talk highly of how well that was booked and executed. What do you recall from that program, and what do you remember about Magnum? I became Magnum T. A,’s coach. I tried to teach him respect, attitude and how to get in shape. I saw that he had good ability and a lot of heart. He had great intestinal fortitude so I wanted to work with him. We even started wrestling as a tag team. Well, of course, I did my thing and I taught him who was the boss. (laughs) I never teach you everything. (laughs) Was Magnum a guy who had a big career if not for the career ending accident? It would have been a good possibility because – who put him in the limelight? I did. With the help of me and TV – yeah, I helped him a lot to get where he was. Unfortunately, the good man above takes care of those who get out of line, and that’s exactly what happened with him. He got out of line. Not only with me, but with himself. He got to doing things he shouldn’t be doing, and he paid for it. I understand you were doing a gimmick down there where you could shatter bags of grain with the kneelift. Who came up with that? Bill Watts – he asked me how powerful my knee was. I told him to check it out and see, and he went out and got a bag of – it was rice, actually. It was a burlap bag, and I hit it with the knee and it burst. That was for real. So rather than rigged bags, those were legit? That’s right. (laughs) Exactly. Remind me to never piss you off. (Laughs) Well, the old knee’s not what it used to be, let me tell you. Neither is the body. (laughs) I still wouldn’t want to risk it. (laughs) I’ve had Danny Hodge shake my hand and I almost wanted to cry. (laughs) Mmm-hmmm. Was there ever any plans for you to get involved in long term programs with the Freebirds, or perhaps Roddy Piper? Nope. No, because at that time I was kind of tied up with the programs I was already in. I was getting close to the end of my time, and I was getting out of it a bit, so no, not really. Tell me about Roddy. What was he like to work with? I wrestled him a few times, but that was about it. I didn’t know too much about his personal life, but I did see him a few times out of the ring and he was quite a gentleman. He was a very nice man to talk to. He was always a guy who had a lot of energy – my God, he had a lot of energy. Yes, he did. He was a young man and was very excitable. He had a lot of wonderful things about him. He was a wonderful athlete, needless to say. From what I understand right now, he’s got a nice family and is doing very well. The few times I met him, he did seem to be a very nice young man. What about the Freebirds? Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts – they more or less came in and influenced the music age of wrestling even before the Rock and Wrestling Connection era. Terry Gordy was the best of the group by far. He was a very good competitor and a tough young man. The other two guys are idiots, but Terry was a good wrestler. He took his business seriously, where the other two guys were a joke as far as I’m concerned. You were in Georgia at a time when business was starting to slide. In addition to Rick Rude and the Road Warriors big man style, Ole Anderson has said he was having a lot of issues with guys like Buzz Sawyer, Tommy Rich and Jake Roberts using substances that made them difficult to work with. Larry Zbyszko even told me most of the guys here at that time were insane. What are your memories of that period? Anytime you have guys who start to get on drugs, you’re going to find they are going to be difficult to discipline. That’s exactly what happened. Buzz Sawyer and a number of others – of course, he’d dead, and eventually it does get you. And that’s what happened with a lot of the guys. They got on drugs – what kind I don’t know because I’ve never gotten involved in that stuff. They were idiots and fools. A lot of them did it and now they’re paying for it – if they’re still alive. I was personally happy to wrestle guys who were still straight like Zbyszko. He was a good competitor, also. I can’t say enough about that man. I always admire and respect guys who handle themselves well and live a clean life as he did. I have very little respect, if any, for guys who abuse their body, and that’s exactly what a lot of them did. There was a program between you, Larry Zbyszko, and Killer Brooks over the National Title. Some have knocked the angle because it included Larry buying the belt from Brooks and feel that it hurt the credibility of the promotion and the business itself. Larry says he helped Ole create the angle and carry it out as it happened. Did you feel that angle was detrimental to the legitimacy of the promotion and the title? Oh, I think so. I mean a title should be won – it should be respected. When you start laying money down like that it doesn’t look legitimate. It makes the person that bought it look small. What it tells me is he was unable to win it. The title is only as good as you make it. It was ridiculous. Obviously it was there to build more heat and take the angle further, but the fact it took so long for the NWA to come down and say they couldn’t do that made the NWA look a little less important as well. After all, they could have handed down that same ruling the following day and it still would have gotten the point of the heat across without making the title and the promotion look like a joke, and ultimately the NWA, also. Yep. I agree. That should have been resolved the day after it took place, but sometimes people can’t make up their minds as to how to finish something the right way. There was an angle in 1983 where Jesse Barr worked as Mr. Wrestling in a program with you and Tim. What are your recollections of that, and do you remember who’s idea it was? That was the booker’s idea – not mine and Timmy’s. Why they did that, I don’t really know. I didn’t understand it at the time, and I still don’t get it. Of course, it didn’t last long. Was there anyone at any time, including Barr in 1983, whom you and Tim gave your blessing to use the gimmick? No. Not at all. We took great pride in our image that we had built. We looked down and frowned upon anyone who tried to capitalize on it. Ken Timbs recently passed away, and he often praised you for being the one who convinced him to stay with it and keep working hard when he was struggling in his early years. What can you tell me about Ken? Ken was a nice young man. His ability was a little on the light side. Nevertheless he had a lot of heart and desire to become a wrestler. You can’t just let a guy walk away when he has those desires, so I tried to help him as much as I could verbally. I didn’t have time to take him down to the gym and show him what wrestling was truly all about, but he kind of made it on his own. How far he went, I don’t really know because I kind of walked away from wrestling in 1989. I completely lost track of everyone. I missed this episode of Magnum PI, but I hear you were featured as the stand-in wrestler for Ernest Borgnine’s guest character. Was that really you? No. (laughs) Not me. Was there ever an offer to work for Jim Crockett when he was expanding to compete with the WWF in the 1980’s? Yeah. I wrestled for Jim Crockett after they came into Georgia and kind of took over. I only wrestled a few matches, but I didn’t stay. You worked for the World Wrestling Federation during McMahon’s early expansion years. How did that come about? Ummmmmm – Andre the Giant asked me if I’d like to come up to New York, and I told him I’d go there for awhile. So it was through him that I became associated with them. I stayed for a few months, but I didn’t like it and I quit and left. I didn’t like Vince McMahon – I didn’t respect him. He didn’t like me either. (laughs) I don’t like the man at all. He’s a man who has no respect for wrestlers at all – period. All he wants to do is make money with your body. He doesn’t care what happens to you one way or the other. So I guess you never watch McMahon’s current shows. Nope. You’re not missing anything. Nope. Occasionally I’ll watch, but it all looks like more talk than action going on, and even when there is a match, it rarely looks like wrestling. Exactly right. It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching the wrestlers – I probably would enjoy watching a few of them, but I have no respect for the man, and whatever he puts on I don’t care to watch. So I don’t – it’s that simple. What do you think of the current state of the business? I hate it. I would like to see it get back to where it was, but I doubt it ever will. He has really ruined the business from many standpoints. You can’t take the wrestling out of the fans. They love it and they respect it. There will always be fans who want to see good wrestling, but whether it can ever get back to the way it was, I don’t know – I really doubt it. In your career you saw a lot of changes, especially what you and many others feel hurt the business. Do you believe he has done anything to help the business? Nope. I don’t think he’s helped the business at all. He’s not drawing as well as he used to either. People are slowly really starting to lose interest in wrestling because the guys get out there and talk more than they wrestle. He ain’t doing anything for wrestling. He’s doing everything he can, I think, to ruin the sport, and it’s a shame. It really is. I can’t see him doing anything at all to help the profession one way or the other. In 1993 you were inducted to the WCW Hall of Fame at the Slamboree show. You got the best pop out of anyone there. How did it make you feel when in 1993 the fans were still chanting "2…2…2…" as if it were still 1973 or 1983? Well, it was perhaps one of the greatest honors I have ever received. When they handed me that plaque I was just – I probably would have gone to tears in a drop of a hat, I was so overwhelmed. I guess I didn’t really realize what had taken place until I was on the plane back to Honolulu. (laughs) It was a gift I’ll never forget. You left the business in 1989. Where was your last match and who was it with? Uhhhhh…good question. I can’t answer. (laughs) I don’t know. I’ve had a lot of folks ask me that same question, and for the life of me I can’t remember who my last opponent was. I was so wrapped up in getting myself packed up and having a garage sale – and handling some personal business stuff – my mind was on everything but wrestling. My wife and I were so much looking forward to getting everything packed up and sold so we could move to Hawaii and creating a new life. As a matter of fact, the whole year of 1989 – I couldn’t really tell you anything. (laughs) People bring up a lot of things and I pretend to remember, but I just can’t recall that year. (laughs) But you can remember your first match… (Laughs) Isn’t that strange? (laughs) You know, I guess certain things stick in your mind and never leave. Then when you get to a point where you have lost the interest in what you’re doing, it no longer sticks to you. I’ve been there. Let’s wrap this thing up by doing some word association. Okay. Ray Gunkel Hard-nosed. (laughs) Not the first time I’ve heard that about him. Vince McMahon, Jr. McMahon, Jr. - absolutely an idiot. Vince McMahon, Sr. Great man. Fine man. Jim Barnett Good man. Nick Gulas An idiot. (laughs) Buddy Colt Buddy Colt – tough competitor. Bill Watts Tough competitor. Eddie Graham Smart competitor. Ole Anderson An idiot. (laughs) Silento Rodriguez He was a good partner. Tim Woods The greatest. Alright, that wraps it up, Johnny. I want to thank you for taking time and us finally getting to do the interview. Okay, buddy – take care and God bless you. Thanks. Our next project will be designing your website. I look forward to it. Wherever you go, may the good Lord be with you. |
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| FEATURES: CONVERSATIONS - JOHNNY 'MR. WRESTLING #2' WALKER |
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