Hacksaw Jim Duggan on His Cancer Scare Putting Things in Perspective

Photo credit: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

CBC News recently spoke to WWE Hall of Famer Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Below are some highlights.

Duggan on evolving into Hacksaw: “Then I wore a mask and I wrestled as a convict and that didn’t work. And then I tried a fur and I was ‘Wild Man Duggan’ and that didn’t work. So I finally evolved into ‘Hacksaw.’”

Duggan on the difficulties of his generation: “We have a high drug and alcoholism rate, a high divorce rate and a high death rate. It’s a tough racket.”

Duggan on how his wrestling generation was like a rock ‘n’ roll band: “Our generation of guys, we were more like a rock ‘n’ roll band.There’s women, there’s drugs, there’s booze. A lot of guys get caught up in that lifestyle.”

Hacksaw Jim Duggan on finding out he had kidney cancer in 1998: “I had two young girls, I was devastated. I spent the time before my surgery in their room crying and praying. I just wanted to survive the ordeal. I didn’t care about wrestling. A health issue puts everything else in perspective.”