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Scott Casey Interview

Posted: Jun 23rd 2006 By: mikeiles

This interview originally appeared on WrestlingObserver.com on June 8, 2006

?Cowboy? Scott Casey won?t have far to travel this weekend to receive an honor from the Cauliflower Alley Club. Now a bicycle security guard for the Luxor Casino, Casey is being recognized by the CAC in Las Vegas after spending the past 37 years connected with the wrestling business, including a World Wrestling Entertainment stint from 1987 to 1990 and a nine-year run in San Antonio for Joe Blanchard?s Southwest Championship Wrestling. In the following telephone interview, Casey, who also trained current WWE star Booker T, discussed his career and the CAC honor.

Q: How did you react when told you were going to be honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club?

Casey: ?I figured they were scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came up to me [laughs]. But it?s very humbling to be recognized and appreciated by my peers. After 37 years of being involved with this, it?s a nice touch.?

Q: You?ve obviously worked a lot of territories. What was your favorite place to work and why?

Casey: ?Probably San Antonio for Joe Blanchard and Southwest Championship Wrestling. I spent the most time in one territory down there. I spent almost nine years there. They had great talent that eventually went to the WWF, from the One Man Gang to the Honky Tonk Man. You name it, they were all down there at one time. I had a really good run there there. I like the city. The restaurants are great, the people are really nice and I accomplished quite a bit while I was there. I had a home in a little town seven or eight miles north of San Antonio in a German community where I raised quarter-horses down there. I had six stalls and a three-bedroom house.?

Q: Scott Teal did a great interview with you where you said that you were sent to Championship Wrestling from Florida after working just one match in Amarillo. How much did you work in Florida and what years?

Casey: ?I went to Florida probably in 1971 or 1972 and stayed down there for a year-and-a-half and left and came back for another run down there for almost a year or two. I met a lot of guys and learned a lot from different guys like Paul Jones, Larry Malenko, Johnny Valentine, Dusty Rhodes, Tim Woods ? the list goes on and on. There was a multitude of talent down there with Eddie Graham. Hiro Matsuda was one mentors He taught me a lot. He liked to kill me but teach me. I learned respect for the sport, more than the guys who do it nowadays do. I came from the bottom up. I remember when he died, I wrote a letter to Hiro?s wife telling her how much I respected him for what he did for me. She wrote back thanking me for the kind letter.
?I don?t know if guys form the same camaraderie any more. I?ve been out for about 20 years. Every once in while we?d take a plane ride, but most of the time, we would crowd into a car and go to the shows. You formed good friendships that way. Les Thatcher, who is presenting me, I met in Charlotte more than 30 years ago when I first started. We?ve had a wonderful friendship.

Q: What say biggest career accomplishment?

Casey: ?Keeping a job for 20 years Seriously. I saw so many guys once or twice and then never heard from them again. I was lucky enough and had good enough teachers who taught me my craft well that I always had a job. I always tell the young guys I train now that for 20 years I never went without a job in wrestling,? Casey said. ?For me, that was quite an accomplishment. I won a lot of titles, I had a lot of recognition and I was able to stay healthy. I always worked out six days a week, two or three hours a day. I credit my health now to staying in shape.?

Q: I know your WWE stint didn?t turn out like you had hoped. Was there anything positive you got out of it?

Casey: ?Yeah, I had the opportunity to go to the big show with all the big guys. ?I appreciate Vince letting me stay up there even though I had a bad taste in my mouth when I left. I was only used as cannon fodder. I was at the end of my career and almost 41 years old when I left, but I still felt I could contribute. But whether it was because of the (road) agents or just due to my placement on the cards, I just never got that chance. I left kind of bitter but I figure, ?What the hell? How many guys get to wrestle for WWE?? That helps.?

Q: WWE was the last territory you ever worked for. Why did you walk away?

Casey: ?Vince said, ?Go down to Atlanta, work for WCW for a year and come back and we?ll do something with you.? I told him, ?After 20 years and at my age, I think I?ve had enough.? I lived, died, breathed and slept wrestling. To be told that they can?t use you any more and go down (to WCW), at that time in my life, I had enough. I wasn?t like Terry Funk where I kept retiring and coming back. That was it for me. I went everywhere I wanted to go. I wrestled for Vince and in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia ? I went all over the place. It was a fun education in itself, and I had a chance to see part of the world I would never be able to see otherwise.?

Q: How active do you remain in the wrestling business?

Casey: ?We had a ?wrestle school? here but it?s gone through two or three different owners. They?ve always kept me on because of who I was and where I?d been and my credibility being with the WWF. I did that off and on for six years here. Right now, the school is shut down but is getting ready to open up and they want me to teach again. I?ll just see where it goes.
?I had kind of a bitter taste in my mouth when I left New York because I didn?t get the chance I thought I should get. I stayed away from wrestling pretty much for about five, seven years. Then one day, a guy came by and started talk to me after recognizing me (at the Luxor Casino). He told me he had a school and asked whether I would consider teaching. I thought about it and after a couple of weeks said I would help.?

Q: What?s it like working as a bicycle security guard at the Luxor?

Casey: ?I just started my 12th year in secutiry there. Before that, I bounced around. I didn?t have much of a resume. I sold cars for three years at a dealership here. I worked construction, but I didn?t like that, My friend Ronnie Boyd, who is not in wrestling, said, ?Why not come work for the Luxor?? I said ok and I?ve been there ever since.?

Q: Do you ever get recognized?

Casey: ?Oh yeah. When you?re on USA network for 10 or 15 years and with the WWF and NWA and WCCW, people see you. Back then, I had long curly hair. Now, I have no hair on top and I cut it real short.?

Credit: Alex Marvez & WrestlingObserver.com