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Interview With King Kong Bundy

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 By: CMBurnham

The condominium with legs.

That's what Gorilla Monsoon used to refer to King Kong Bundy as during his wrestling career that took him everywhere from Germany wrestling Otto Wanz to Japan with Antonio Inoki, all the way to the main event of WrestleMania 2 against Hulk Hogan in Los Angeles in a steel cage and also right here in Poughkeepsie ? in the Mid-Hudson Civic Center ? for tapings of WWF Superstars of Wrestling and even the Land of 1,000 Dances video.

Now 51 years old, Bundy returned to the Hudson Valley on Sunday for an autograph signing at Collector's Realm in Poughkeepsie. Noticably slimmer from his wrestling days, Bundy sat down with me, during a break, to discuss his career and what he is up to now. This is a guy who has really been everywhere in his career and it was very interesting to hear his perspective. He does some standup comedy and has an interesting sense of humor.

Phil Strum: What are you up to nowadays?

King Kong Bundy: Nothing really. I had a bunch of foot operations. I had five foot operations in the last two years. I tell ya, I never thought a bad hoof would do a great stallion in. You know what I mean, brother. I'm laying pretty low. I'm starting my standup comedy. I'm getting back into that now.

PS: Where have you been doing that?

KKB: It's all over. Tri-state. New York, Jersey, Philadelphia, Delaware.

PS: What kind of memories do you have of coming to this area in Poughkeepsie?

KKB: A lot of great memories. The Civic Center was good. The TV was great back then. We actually came here. Remember back then, we just had the squash matches. TV was like two days off. I mean, now when they do TV, it's like a big thing. It's like a high-pressure thing, but TV was two days off back then. It was great. It was a great area. We loved it.

PS: I mentioned to Jim Neidhart when he was here, he was here a month ago or two months ago, this is where they did "Land of 1,000 Dances" in Poughkeepsie.

KKB: Yes, that's true. I forgot about that.

PS: He said that was a pretty long day for everybody.

KKB: Yeah, that was a long day. I think I'm still waiting to get the check for "Land of 1,000 Dances."

PS: Have they talked to you about coming back and doing anything? Doing the Hall of Fame or anything like that?

KKB: No. A couple of things they've talked to me about. I would like to be in the Hall of Fame, but they didn't put me in, so I guess if I missed it by now, I'm not getting in. But that's OK, you know. My career was what it was. I could mention some other guys they put in. Any recent inductees? Who were the recent inductees?

PS: Koko B. Ware went in.

KKB: Koko definitely deserves to be in.

PS: You think so?

KKB: Koko had a great career. Absolutely.

PS: The Von Erichs were put in this year.

KKB: Of course, the Von Erichs. They were staples of the WWF for years. How many years they wrestle there?

PS: Kerry wrestled there a little bit.

KKB: Kevin get in too?

PS: They inducted Kerry, Kevin, David and Mike.

KKB: Kevin wrestled a lot there, didn't he?

PS: Kevin never wrestled there.

KKB: Oh, he never wrestled there? Oh. OK. Well...

PS: You were down there in Texas with the Von Erichs at the beginning of your career.

KKB: Sure. Yeah.

PS: What was that experience like?

KKB: The Von Erichs were very nice people. Very nice guys. Great guys to work with. They weren't the type...you know. You could hit them as hard as you could and they wouldn't complain because they were hitting you pretty hard too. Especially Kevin. He was stiff as a board. Oh man. Probably the best wrestler was David, who passed away. But they were all good guys.

PS: A lot of people say that about David Von Erich, that he would have been a really big star.

KKB: He was, physically, the least impressive, but I think he was the best wrestler. He was more into the psychology of it. Kevin, you know, was a tremendous physical specimen. Kevin's a tremendous athlete too. But he didn't have the mindset. David knew that to look good, you had to make the other guy really look good. Kevin wasn't so much into that mindset. But he was fine.

PS: I always found it interesting that somebody, like yourself, who was always such a good talker, you could always do a great interview, you always had a manager though. You had Gary Hart and Jimmy Hart, then Bobby Heenan and Ted DiBiase.

KKB: There's some guys that I could talk better than. When I went back in '95, I didn't do any interviews. I never understood that. I was never one to argue. I just went along and did my thing. I wish those guys well that went into the Hall of Fame. I wish I had careers like them.

PS: And you main evented a WrestleMania.

KKB: Yeah, I main evented a WrestleMania.

PS: What was that experience like?

KKB: We really didn't know much....with WrestleMania...it was only the second one. What is it? 25 years ago?

PS: '86? So it was...23 years ago.

KKB: Twenty-three years ago. Wow. We knew it was a big thing. If I had to do it over again, being older now and looking back, I would have enjoyed it. I could have gone out to a Dodgers game. I know Bill Madlock, who was playing for the Dodgers at the time. Four-time National League batting champion. I taught him how to hit, brother (laughs).

PS: Haha.

KKB: I wuld have enjoyed it more, but there's a lot of nerves about it, you know?

PS: I think you were in four WrestleManias.

KKB: Four total. Yeah. But I only main evented one.

PS: All of the shows that you were on, you still had memorable moments that they still show, occasionally, to this day.

KKB: Yeah, once in a while.

PS: The first show with S.D. Jones and the match that was supposedly nine seconds.

KKB: Right. Supposedly nine seconds. What are you saying? It wasn't nine seconds? What are trying to say?

PS: I wasn't the one the one keeping the clock. When you started the whole five-count, did you ever have a problem with a referee doing the five-count for you?

KKB: Sometimes, in the beginning. Once they got the point, you grab them by the shirt a couple of times, and say, idiot, when I say five, that means five.

PS: I was thinking about because now they employ the referees instead of using commission guys. Where did you come up with the idea for that.

KKB: I got that. Bill Watts and I thought of that down in Louisiana. You beat some of these weasels and they complain, they got a quick count. Just wait until they're down for a five. You don't have a problem with that.

PS: What was he like to work with? Bill Watts?

KKB: He was a blowhard.

PS: He went into the Hall of Fame this year too.

KKB: Did he? Did he ever wrestle in the WWF?

PS: In the 60s with Bruno [Sammartino].

KKB: With Bruno. Well, OK, he deserved it then. Bill was interesting. He was a tough guy. He might have been. I don't know. He didn't look like it to me. He was alright. He really knew the wrestling business well. He made a lot of money down there. He had a hell of a territory, but the trips down there were brutal.

PS: I've read that, that the travel between the cities was just brutal.

KKB: Every week was Shreveport, TV interviews in the afternoon, and drive to Biloxi. That's 400 miles, one way.

That ended my interview with Bundy. He had to continue doing his signing. He said he doesn't have a website at this time, but he would e-mail me if he has any upcoming comedy shows in the Northeast. I will post any announcements if he passes them along.

Thanks again to King Kong Bundy and the people at Collector's Realm for accomodating this interview. Thanks also to Joseph DeSario for providing the photo. When I realized the big man's fist was that close to my face, I felt it might not be apropos to smile. So, thus resulted the photo you see on this post.

To note also, due to the crisis on the Mid-Hudson Bridge, involving a man threatening to jump, Bundy and I both arrived to the signing late. To his credit, Bundy stuck around well after his allotted time to meet all the demands of his fans.

Tags: King Kong Bundy, WWF, Koko B. Ware, The Von Erichs, Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Voin Erich, Mike Von Erich, David Von Erich, Gary Hart, Ted DiBiase, Bill Watts