The Crusher

It's a TV match from the AWA of all things.

The Crusher bashing Mad Dog Vachon's head into the ring post in 1971 match.

during a tag team melee.

Vashon bleeds so much, it's off the rails.

That was the one you should see.

And the end result, of course, a huge box office for the AWA.

It wasn't so much, I think, revenge because the Crusher was the good guy here.

Mm-hmm.

So, growing up around the business, who would you say were your favorites to watch as a kid?

So, like I said, you know, the Crusher, I thought he was a character that,

you know,

Dovachan, and of course, Vern Gagne.

He's the number one good guy for a lot of years.

A wrestler named The Crusher just left the AWA.

The Crusher was the Minnesota fan's hero, just like Dusty Rhodes was the fan's hero in Florida, or Bruno Sammartino was the fan's hero in New York.

The Crusher was from Milwaukee.

He used to smoke a cigar and hold a beer in his hand and hit everybody with trash cans, but he was gone.

So my timing was perfect.

I just came in and took The Crusher's spot as a good guy.

And the rest of the fans wanted me to beat up more than anybody.

Nick Bockwinkle defeats Billy Robinson and Dick the Bruiser.

And The Crusher defeats Jerry Blackwell and Big John Sturd.

And then television this weekend.

We've got WF All-Star Wrestling.

Buxomhoff defeats Juan Sebastian.

Nick Bockwinkle defeats Tony Leone.

The Crusher defeats Chuck Greenlee.

Jerry Blackwell defeats Terry Scholes.

And, uh, so tonight is your turn for one of your many characters, one of the many faces of Barry Darsow.

We are going to go into the Crusher Khrushchev Manifesto from USA to USSR.

And it's kind of a companion piece to this podcast, because you did an excellent job documenting it in your book.

There it is right there, and we'll have a, in post-production, a close-up of the book, Sickles, Studs, and Stolen Cars: The Many Faces of Barry Darsow.

And finally, you know, working at Grandma B's, Eddie Sharkey took The Road Warriors, Rick Rude, and myself, and said, "Hey, I'm gonna make you guys professional wrestlers." And at first, we just thought that he was kinda ribbing with it.

Well, you know, we watched Eddie way back on TV, and he was a really good wrestler, but he was one of the smaller guys.

So he wasn't, you know, the same as Larry, "The Axe," or, you know, Nick Bockwinkle or, you know, The Crusher, The Bruiser.

He was, he was in the lightweight division.

Yeah, I guess it was up around March or April by the time he officially left.

But, you know, in 1986, well hell, in 1983 when him and The Crusher won the tag team titles, they looked past their prime, even though von Raschke was a lot younger than, than what he actually was.

And by 1986, your average fan wasn't buying Baron von Raschke as, you know, a serious bad guy anymore at that point.

No.

In the '60s, early '70s, Red Bastien was over major big time as a babyface in the AWA.

Former World Tag Team Champion with, uh, Hercules Cortez, and then of course, The Crusher.

Teamed with, uh, Billy Red Lyons for a while.

Do I put Red on the AWA Mount Rushmore as one of the four guys that I would think had the biggest overall impact on the AWA? No, but he certainly made an impact.

[laughs]

The Bolo Punch was brutal.

But that was the only bad thing for me about The Crusher.

Chris, you had talked about how the, the pine box promo was the greatest, uh, ever.

Steve Austin admires Greg Gagne's work, traits of his work.

And then Jesse Venturinator and Adonis and The Crusher, Mad Dog Vachon, Nick Bockwinkle.

You know, just the best of Bobby Heenan by far.

I don't care if you saw every minute of him at WWE.

The folks in Florida, like Hiro Matsuda, are understandably fuming about this, claiming a gentleman's agreement that they had with Dusty that Dusty would never work against them.

The bump Randy Mulkey took off the Crusher Crew Chef backdrop, he did a 270 flip in midair landing on his face.

One of the wildest things I've seen in a long time.

Mulkey would win hands down if we had a category for guys with absolutely no regard to the laws of gravity or personal safety.

But he'll continue through, and he's had to miss several bookings because of it.

The night after Dynamite Kid's back went out, he was scheduled for a show in Milwaukee.

Guess who teamed with Davey Boy Smith on December 14th? The one and the only The Crusher.

What makes this kind of funny is The Crusher's son, Larry Lasoski, is the AWA promoter in Milwaukee.

Okay? Then they come back the next month, and June 13th.

And this time it's Hayes and Buddy versus The Crusher and The Baron.

Okay.

Oh, those guys won the belts as well at one point.

Mark One?

Yeah.

The Super Destroyer and Lord Alfred Hayes trying to tear The Crusher completely apart.

We had our, we had our Irwins.