A Double Knock Out With The Wrong Guy!

By Frank Dusek

In 1981, I had the pleasure to manage a man who was becoming one of the best workers in the business, Scott Irwin. Wrestling under the hood as the Super Destroyer and with me as his manager, Scott held the Louisiana and Mississippi Heavyweight titles at a time when the territory was near its peak in popularity.

After some time as Scott's manager, it became necessary in the programs for Scott to start to losing matches. What this actually meant was, for the first time I was to get involved. The theory was that the fans really didn't care which one of us got beat, so I would end up "doing the job". The fans were happy and I could always come back next week on TV and say that the baby face still hadn't really beaten Super D.

One night as I entered the ring in preparation for the finish, one of the things to occur was the two baby faces were to throw Scott and I together for a double knockout. Now Scott was a big man, standing 6'5" and weighing about 290 pounds. Despite his size, he could be a gentle as a lamb in the ring.

On this night, as we collided, Scott took a big bump backwards and crashed to the canvas. Instead of taking a bump immediately however, I danced by Scott's fallen body and shouted down to the big man, "what's the matter Big Boy, can't you take it?" before taking my own bump.

Scott was livid.

The next night the finish called for the same spot. I knew I had a "receipt" coming so I just gritted my teeth and tried to brace for it. I tried to lessen the impact by sliding like quarterbacks do when they're about to be smashed by a linebacker. But this time, it didn't help. When we collided, the former lineman from the University of Colorado literally knocked me out of my shoes and just about out of the ring. He made sure there was no way I was going to still be standing to dance over him twice. We called a truce in the dressing room immediately after I came to!

Frank Dusek is a second-generation wrestler from one of the most famous wrestling families ever. He had a solid career as a wrestler and later managed several wrestlers to major titles. He also spent time as a broadcaster, promoter and matchmaker. His first memories of the wrestling business are selling programs for his father when he was 4 years old.

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