What initially attracted you into coming to WCCW?I had always wanted to go there and after a year in Kansas City, where there was a lot of work but no money, something told me that World Class was the place to go. I sent my friend Mean Gene Lewis there first, told him to go down to Texas and revive the Mongol gimmick and I would follow him in a year to become the second Mongol and we’d be a tag team. When he got there he told me how well World Class was doing, and I followed him there within a year as promised. That would have been early summer of 1983. I didn’t get hired there right away, there was no work and so I went to Louisiana to work for Mid-South for about 6 months first. That’s where the “second Mongol” gradually developed into the Missing Link. My official debut in World Class was Thanksgiving of 1983.
How does it compare in retrospect to other promotions you have competed in?
When I first got there World Class was having good times, and in good times everything runs very smoothly, so it was easy to fit in there and develop the character of the Missing Link. Fritz was truly a professional, and treated all of us younger wrestlers with great respect. I noticed a difference in payoffs right off the bat. My second full week in World Class was $2,800, one of the highest payoffs I’d ever seen.
As I had mentioned, when I first got there things were going very well and wherever we went there was a great following, with lots of adulation, which made the ship’s course very easy. When I got back from the WWF, the payoffs weren’t as high but the company was very comfortable to be around after New York.
Did you enjoy working with Skandor Akbar as a heel in WCCW, or did you enjoy your time as a face better?
Skandor was an old friend of mine, I knew him from the early 1970s when I tag-teamed with Dennis Stamp against the Hollywood Blondes in the Tri-State territory (the forerunner of Mid-South). Skandor had the sort of personality that he could befriend anybody.
I always thought the Link’s character was in the middle of the road. He put humour and aggressiveness into any match, and because I was a veteran the Link could wrestle any style. I started wrestling as a heel, but I knew the people liked me - and that’s why the powers that be had me change to a babyface when I came back from New York.
Do you feel that wrestlers had more of a chance to develop as a heel or face in WCCW?
I realized after being there a while, if I’d gone to World Class as Dewey Robertson after reaching my potential as a heel in Kansas City, I could have been a top heel because of the opposition of the Von Erich family. I would say the chance to be a heel there was unbelievable, because of them. By the same token it would have been a lot harder to go in as a face and excel, because even if you were really good you’d always be playing second fiddle to the Von Erichs. I think the heels had an easier time.
Morale was always high in World Class.
Did you worry about the future of WCCW, due to the fact they had just lost their top face in David Von Erich?
I never, ever worried about the future. I thought it would go on forever. Because of alcohol and marijuana, I never worried about the future.
Did you enjoy your stay in WCCW?
Totally.
What do you think its legacy will be to the sport of professional wrestling?
The first word I think of when I think about World Class is longevity, because it was around so long. It gave its title away, it truly was a world class operation for a long time. When people talk about World Class in the future they will always remember the Von Erichs and the many stars that came in to face them.
