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MIKE SHAW INTERVIEW ONLINE |
The Interactive Interview is proud and honored to bring
you an interview with one of the unsung heroes of professional wrestling.
You knew and loved him as Norman the Lunatic! You hated him as Mukahn Singh!
You were confused by Bastion Booger! But, The Interactive Interview brings
you the class act of a man behind all those different personas, Mike
Shaw!
Mike gives us 50 minutes of his time for this interview.
True wrestling fans will love to download this show and listen over and over.
It truly is one of a kind and one of our best!
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"NORMAN"
MIKE SHAW
-- Mike left wrestling a year after his final WWF stint.
He now is living in Michigan not far from the Canadian border. He is the
"Area Manager" for the state of Michigan. He enjoys spending time with his
family. He has a wife and two kids so that takes up most of his time.
-- Mike would put the tin foil on the rabbit ears when
he got older. When he did that, he could catch the AWA.
-- Mike played professional Softball. A few guys talked
to him about pro wrestling but after they kept on him, he went to Boston
and was trained by Killer Kowalski.
-- Killer treated him well. After about six months of
training, he was able to participate in some WWWF shows. Vince Sr. would
have Killer bring some guys and Mike was one of them. So, he wrestled in
Boston Garden and a few other big venues on the East Coast.
-- Mike was a professional boxer in Michigan. They just
ran a story in the paper in Michigan about Michigan based athletes that held
both boxing and wrestling licenses Himself and Joe Louis were the two he
mentions by name. Mike's boxing was mostly pulmonary and there was not enough
money in it for him so he didn't explore it. But, he still enjoys watching
boxing and appreciates it.
-- Mike was an amateur wrestler. He wrestled all through
high school and was a wrestling coach for a few years as well. He was a Great
Lakes area amateur wrestling champion. "I had a pretty good run as an amateur
wrestler but I didn't follow it through in school," said Mike. " He added,
"Once you get out of something like that, it's pretty hard to get back
in."
-- Mike's debut match was with Ricky Sexton in Rhode
Island. That was his first match in 5,000 career total matches but Ricky
had a "fantastic ego" and told Mike it was the best match he'd ever have.
Killer was nearby and told him "I sure hope it's not the best match you ever
have."
-- Farmer Bill was the guy who kept on Mike to try
professional wrestling. Farmer Bill was working at a car dealership in Florida,
where the softball league was, and Mike was working at a different dealership.
Mike had to go to this guy for parts. He was trying to get Mike to hook up
with the Grahams. Mike opted for Killer.
-- After working for Killer, Mike moved to Pacific North
West Wrestling run by Gene Kiniski and Al Tomko. Don Owens, out of Portland,
was involved in that group of promoters as well but they all eventually "broke
up." So, Gene was leaving the company at that time or at least on his way
out. But, every time that company had something going, Al Tomko came out
of retirement and decided he wanted to beat everybody. Mike says, "His ego
basically killed that promotion as far as I'm concerned." But, that television
exposure got him booked in Calgary which was one of his most fun places to
work.
-- "Big Ben" came from after a tour of Europe. Bull Heffer,
who Mike credits as the tied for best promoter he's ever worked for, thought
there would be confusion from the African crowd if there were two wrestlers
named Mike. So, Bull asked where Mike had flown in from and he told him London.
Bull said, "That's perfect! Your name now is Big Ben!"
-- When asked about working for Ole Anderson, Mike said,
"I hated every minute of it." Mike says the WCW booking team was a "revolving
door." Ric Flair and Ole Anderson revolved a lot. Mike Shaw was associated
with Terry Funk. At the time, Norman was the number 2 most popular wrestler
character in the country according to some of the magazines but when Ole
Anderson was in charge, Ole did not want the character to work. Mike feels
Ole was afraid Terry Funk would take his job. So, "Trucker Norman" and
"ridiculous characters" were born.
-- Wrestling in Mexico was different for Mike because
of all the smaller wrestlers and high flying moves. Mike had a tag partner,
Solomon Grundy, who was another large man. Grundy wanted to stay a "monster"
and the Mexican talent was not fond of him. Because he was Grundy's partner,
Mike himself was caught up in the mix.
-- Mike speaks on his stay with Georgia Championship
Wrestling and the ESPN based Global Wrestling Federation that stemmed from
it. Mike feels wrestling in the South is odd because you have odd atmospheres
for wrestling. "One night you're in a bingo hall, one night you're in a bar,
one night you're outside. When they talk about raslin', that's what they
mean. It wasn't one of my greatest experiences."
-- Mike went to Calgary in 1980 initially for a Battle
Royal. But, they liked him and he liked working there so he stayed there.
Mike returned to Vancouver, where he had been working in Canada, for a few
special matches, but Calgary became his full time focus.
-- Mike wrestled Owen Hart about 300 or 400 times. "He
was the youngest one of the boys and the smallest one of the boys. He was
supposed to wrestle another character by the name of Kerry Brown. Kerry refused
to wrestle him {Owen} or didn't want to do what they wanted to do so I {Mike}
was thrown in. I guess it's true, you're lucky to be in the right place at
the right time sometimes." Mike says they got years of good TV and matches
out of his work with Owen Hart. He even tells us his promo tape, which is
15 minutes long, is 12 minutes of just him against Owen.
-- Mike loved his matches with Owen Hart. Mike said Owen
worked in a way that allowed a guy of his {Mike's} size to work 30 or more
minute matches. "I think it just came from a trust. I knew him up there as
a young kid. What's ironic about that is everybody looks at Bret as being
the best wrestler. Bret and I could never have a good match. It just goes
to show you, some guys mesh and some guys don't."
-- Makhan Singh came from Gamma Singh. He was from Africa.
Makhan is the African word for Michael and Singh was the "Sir" name. "It
got a tremendous amount of heat up there. My wife and I would try to walk
down the street and someone would stop and throw a full can of pop at us,"
Mike said.
-- "Stampede Wrestling was ahead of it's time," said
Mike. Mike feels Stampede was doing Hardcore style of wrestling well before
ECW came to be. He says there were times the Canadian stations threatened
to pull the show because of the violence and blood but it was very popular.
Mike says, "Coal Miners Glove, Chains, 10 and 12 man cage matches. The hardcore
matches up there were just unbelievable! We had chairs, ladders, tables,
there was fire. It was unbelievable."
-- The odd thing about being in Calgary was how the fans
eventually learned to "take" him. He would wrestle like a wild man and do
all these violent acts but when he had a free day, he'd be at any Charity
in the area working for them. So, Mike feels the fans probably were saying,
"Wow, this guy's a maniac when he's in the ring but outside of it, he's not
such a bad guy."
-- Vulcan Singh, also known as Gary Albright, had a bright
future ahead of him in the business, said Mike. "His time came too soon,"
Mike says. Mike also shares a few thoughts on Gary available to hear in the
audio.
-- Mike did not wrestle Chris Benoit much. "Calgary was
a perfect fit for him. You had Dynamite, Owen, Gamma Singh ... They were
all around that 200-210 weight, somewhere around there. Calgary had always
been a big man territory but these guys took off," said Mike.
-- Mike enjoyed being an announcer in Canada. He thinks
it gave a good avenue to the strange commentary as opposed to the straight
style of commentary that was going on there.
-- Mike feels Mukahn Sing as a heel and the Norman character
were his best. As Norman, Mike got several hundred Teddy Bears from the fans
a night. Mike was donating them all to Children's hospitals.
-- Jim Ross is to credit for a lot of the Norman character.
When Mike went from Calgary down to WCW, he was placed with Teddy Long. WCW
wanted to keep the character heel but no matter what they did with it, the
fans liked it. Mike isn't sure if they found it funny or if the felt sorry
for him but he enjoyed the face run. But, that brings us back to Ole Anderson
and the end of the Norman character. Ole was "bringing it back to
wrestling."
-- Of all people, Sting and Lex Luger defended the Norman
character backstage. Luger told Jim Herd that Norman got a better reaction
than either of them in some towns and they were the "biggest stars in the
company." The end result was Jim, "who knows absolutely nothing about wrestling,"
just told them Ole was in charge of the wrestling. Mike had no idea Lex nor
Sting was going to do this.
-- Mike then went to the WWF under the name "The Mad
Monk" Friar Ferguson. That character lasted for such a short time because,
as Mike had heard but Vince never told him, Vince {McMahon} had been getting
negative feedback on the character from the Catholic Church and the media
in the New York area. Many didn't find the character appropriate.
-- When asked for his thoughts on the Bastion Booger
character, "I didn't care for it. They had a good idea for it towards the
end. The kids liked it. They liked saying booger. I guess they thought they
were getting away with saying a swear word. But, they were going to switch
it babyface. He was going to slip in to half a Norman character and see how
it worked. Mike went in to a TV after that, another in three weeks went by
and I got my notice," said Mike.
-- Mike actually filmed a clip backstage where he was
throwing up in a toilet during the Royal Rumble 1994. The idea was to tease
that Bret was hurt earlier in the night and was not to come out by having
that empty space in the Rumble match. But, the clip never made TV.
-- "As far as me getting my release from the WWF, I have
heard Shawn Michaels had a dislike for me and he had gotten in Vince's ear.
He told him I shouldn't be around in the WWF and that I should be let go.
I guess after hearing that enough, Vince finally got rid of me."
-- Mike never hung out with Shawn Michaels. From what
he understands, Mike made a remark while clowning around about a Razor Ramon
against Shawn Michaels match along the lines of, "Wow, those guys are working
hard." Mike doesn't recall it but he probably said something along those
lines. Shawn Michaels heard about it from someone and was vindictive enough
to get him fired over it.
-- Bret Hart and a few others are who told him of why
he {Mike} was released.
-- Working for Emile Dupree was interesting. Mike kept
a diary one time he worked there and worked 128 days in a row and several
times that he wrestled a few times a night. "If you didn't rock the boat,
you could stay there forever." Mike met his wife while there and his kids
were born there as well.
-- Mike was running a wrestling school a few years ago
in conjunction with a kick boxing club in the area. Mike sat down with his
wife after doing it for a while and decided he didn't want to do it anymore.
Mike said he had to be some of the guys' "baby-sitter" and just wrapped up
training the last batch of guys and stopped doing it.
-- "I probably haven't watched 5 minutes of wrestling
in the past 10 years," said Mike.
-- We then roll into Word Associations with names like
Ric Flair, Eddie Gilbert, Nitron, Sting, Lex Luger, Shawn Michaels, and others!
This was one of our best versions of Word Associations to date!
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