Arda Ocal sent this in.
TONY ATLAS
Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) of The Score Television Network had a chance to speak to WWE Hall Of Famer, “Mr.USA” Tony Atlas in this exclusive interview. Highlights:
His thoughts on Hulk Hogan using the trademark “cup to the ear” to the fans. Speaks about how Hulk Hogan was not the first person to do that trademark before.
” Georgia Championship Wrestling, I was watching a match one day, and it was a wrestler by the name of Thunderboat Patterson. He went to the crowd and went like this ( cup to the ear ), and went to the other side and did this, I thought it was pretty neat. I went down in Flordia, and saw Dusty Rhodes doing the same thing. In 1980 when I went to the WWF at the time, I thought about what I saw Thunderboat and Dusty Rhodes do, so I decided to do it. When I did it, it was in a match with Hogan. When Hogan became champion, I sat in the dressing room and saw Hogan doing it.”
When he looks at Professional Wrestling over the years, what are some of the things that he perfected that he still see’s wrestlers do today:
How did he become the inspiration of the Slammy Statue that has been used for the WWE Slammy Awards for many years in WWE:
“One of the guys at the WWF offices at the time came to me and asked me “do you have a picture of you press slamming anyone” . So I gave them a picture of me press slamming Victor Guerrero. I gave them that picture, and the guy gave the picture right back at me about a month or 2 later. Then I went to the first Slammys in 1985. If you look closely at the bottom of the statue, you see thats Tony Atlas, cause think about who was doing the press slam in 1985 when the slammy was created.”
His thoughts on WWE today, since he still makes occasional apperances with them. What involvement would he like to still be with them today ? Would he like to be there on a regular basis or his he happy with his sporadic apperances with WWE ? :
“Anybody that says that they don’ t wanna be in the WWE are either lying to themselves, lying to whoever they are talking to, or just plan nuts. The WWE is probaly the greatest organization in the history of pro wrestling. The ratings for WWE, probaly the greatest ratings of anything on television.”
To watch the full interview, click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvQ0AKbjZ2Y&feature=plcp