Audio: Austin Idol on cutting Jerry Lawler’s hair, Randy Savage, WWF, more

Recap of Austin Idol on In Your Head Wrestling Radio, 02/13/2015

by Vic Schiavone

Hosts Jack E. Jones and One Inch Biceps wrestling legend “The Universal Heartthrob” Austin Idol to IYH Wrestling Radio.

Highlights included the following:

* Memories of the cage match in Memphis where he cut Jerry Lawler’s hair:

“The cage match, the big cage match where we shaved Lawler’s hair; yeah, that was really intense, very very serious. The (Mid-South) Coliseum was sold out in Memphis, and of course no one expected The King to have his head shaved because he had shaved everybody’s head in his previous hair matches. So obviously he was going to shave mine, too, and especially since I had guaranteed the fans that I would refund the purchase price of the tickets and the money had already been deposited with the promoters. They felt like well, we’re going to get to see Idol get his head shaved and we’re going to get our money back, too, so it’s like a win-win situation…So when Lawler lost because of Tommy Rich coming out from underneath the ring, they were really intense. I had been in a lot of intense situations before, but this one was one that they really wanted to kill us; I mean, they did. They really wanted to kill us, and the cops knew it; the few cops that were on the floor outside the cage who were supposed to be protecting us…It was really intense, and…we ran back to the dressing room to save our rear ends.”

* On his role in opening the doors for Randy Savage to get back into mainstream wrestling:

“I can remember being in Memphis on Monday night at the Mid-South Coliseum, and the promoter, Jerry Jarrett, coming to me in my dressing room…Randy had really pretty much been blackballed from wrestling because obviously there were some incidents that had taken place, and for whatever reason promoters blackballed him…Jerry Jarrett said, “Randy’s been calling me several times and he wants to get back in the mainstream, and I asked Lawler if he would work with him and Lawler said absolutely not, I’m not working with this guy; he’s crazy, he’s a maniac, and he’ll punch my lights out on a very serious note.” So he said, “Would you have a problem working with him?”, and I said, “No, not at all, bring him in.” Sure enough, Jarrett brought him in, and Randy showed up a week or two later at the Mid-South Coliseum. I met him for the first time and said, “Randy, I want to talk to you.” I brought him into my dressing room and said, “Listen, I don’t care what’s happened to you in the past; I really don’t care. Whatever happened in the past is not my business. You’re here, nobody wanted you here, and I’m the one who said ‘Bring him in’; let’s make money. Forget everything else; let’s do business, let’s make money.” Sure enough, Randy was a great talent, God Bless him he was a great talent…It was a strange deal looking back that you just never know; sometimes you can change someone’s career, I mean you really can, and you never know that you’re doing it when you are doing it. Hopefully he would have made it anyway, but certainly I opened the doors for Randy Savage to get back into mainstream professional wrestling, and then he went on to be a huge deal.”

Other topics discussed included:

* Who came up with “The Universal Heartthrob” gimmick?

* Which of his opponents does he think best presented himself as a champion?

* What angle that he was a part of was his personal favorite?

* Why does he think he was never approached by Vince McMahon to come work for the WWF?

For information on Austin Idol’s upcoming personal appearances, go to http://www.austinidollive.com/.

This interview is available for listening at http://www.iyhwrestling.com/viewnews.php?autoid=25924 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiDotrHD0cY.