Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
That expression has been bandied about for close to 200 years. It may be true in most cases, not so true in others. Pro wrestling has seen its fair share of imitators through the years. If a promoter can’t get the talent that they covet…why not just create your own similar version?
One of the most copied and imitated tag teams had to have been Hawk and Animal…The Road Warriors. From the Powers of Pain, to the Blade Runners (Sting and Ultimate Warrior)to the early days of The Eliminators (Saturn and Kronus)…promoters have tried and mostly failed to recreate the magic that was the Legion of Doom.
In 1987, it was Vince McMahon and the WWF’s turn to try and copy the successful formula of two behemoths that annihilated their opponents. The idea for the WWF’s version of the gimmick came from Bill Eadie (The Masked Superstar) and Randy Colley (Moondog Rex)
The duo debuted that year with manager Luscious Johnny Valiant. Eadie was named ‘Ax’ and Colley was ‘Smash’ and their journey to dominance began…or so we thought. Vince McMahon saw potential for the Demolition tag team, but some tinkering was needed. Firstly, Johnny V was removed as the team’s manager and replaced by Mr. Fuji. The reasoning? Some felt that Johnny Valiant didn’t mesh well with the team. He was more a heelish comedian and him cracking jokes during promos was not what Demolition was about. Mr. Fuji was regarded more of a straight laced heel manager that would fit better with Demolition’s style.
Secondly, one of the originators of the gimmick was out….Randy Colley. According to Bill Eadie, Vince felt that fans saw right through Colley’s face paint and recognized him as Moondog Rex. Eadie was always under a mask for the majority of his career, so he was safe. Replacing Colley in the team was a younger, lesser known talent named Barry Darsow. Darsow was last seen in the NWA under a Soviet gimmick named ‘Krusher Khruschev.’ With Colley out and Darsow in as Smash…the transformation was ALMOST complete.
The Road Warriors were known to have kick ass music accompany them into the ring. “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath would blare over the loudspeaker and immediate fear would enter into their opponents and jubilation for the fans. Demolition needed the same kind of intense music…so enter famed guitarist and producer Rick Derringer. Derringer performed such hits as “Hang on Sloopy” and “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo.” His talents were put to use and created this song simply entitled, “Demolition.”
Demolition were rapidly pushed up the ladder and won the tag team titles on 3 separate occasions for a total combined 698 days. A record for the longest combined days as WWF tag team champions to this day. Demolition had been accepted widely by WWF fans and turned face once another Road Warrior ripoff…The Powers of Pain came to the company. It wasn’t until the real Road warriors set foot in the the WWF that Demolition were overshadowed.
Bill Eadie was aging and in his 40’s. To keep the Demolition team up to par with the newly arriving LOD, a third, younger member was added in Brian Adams aka ‘Crush.’ The trio…at times, wore masks and switched places with each other during matches. Before too long, Eadie was also phased out of the group. That left the two founding members of Demolition on the outside…looking in.
It was all for naught, Demolition became somewhat irrelevant once Hawk and Animal debuted in the WWF. Soon, Demolition was disbanded and were given new characters. Crush ditched the majority of his face paint and became the “Kona” Crush from Hawaii and Darsow became the “Repo Man.” As for Bill Eadie, he continued to use variations of the Demolition gimmick on the indies. First as a solo star called Axis the Demolisher and then Demolition with new partners Hux and Blast.
As for the other founding member…the original Smash…Randy Colley…word is he was none too pleased with being phased out of a gimmick he helped create. Colley continued to use his own variation of the Demolition gimmick in the remaining territories. He was named, “Detroit Demolition” and wore a similar outfit and face paint as his Smash character.
Regardless if you were a fan of Demolition or a fan of the original Road Warriors, Ax and Smash were at one point extremely popular and successful during their WWF run. While they may ultimately be considered by some to be imitators…they certainly did enough to stand out and separate from the team they were mimicking.