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Atlas Talks New Book, 'Old School RAW', More

Posted: Nov 26th 2010 By: CMBurnham

Tony Atlas Discusses His WWE Return At ?Old School? RAW, The Release Of His New Book (?Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon?), Being Inducted Into The WWE Hall Of Fame, Why He Chose S.D. Jones To Give His Induction Speech, The Similarities & Differences In Working With ?The World?s Strongest Man? Mark Henry & Abraham Washington, How Close We Were To Seeing ?The Abraham Washington Show? On RAW Or SmackDown After ECW Went Off The Air, Why Vince McMahon Gets A Bad Rap Amongst Numerous Former WWE Talents, Plus The Hidden Meaning Behind ?I Did More In One Week Than Tiger Woods, Clinton, And All Of ?Em Did In Their Lifetime?

Courtesy: www.MondayNightMayhem.com

WWE Hall of Famer, former WWE World Tag Team Champion, & former WWE manager, Tony Atlas, was one of the featured guests on this week?s live edition (11/22/10) of the award-winning Monday Night Mayhem. You can feel the ?MNM Fall Tour ?10″ every Monday evening (at 7PM ET/6PM CT), exclusively on The Monday Night Mayhem Radio Network (www.MondayNightMayhem.com, www.AudioWrestling.com, www.Hybrident.tv, www.iTunes.com, www.Facebook.com/MondayNightMayhem, www.Twitter.com/FeelTheMayhem, & www.MySpace.com/MondayNightMayhem).

Tony joined The Big Mosh & ?The Chairman of the Board? Todd Vincent for his debut on ?Your Home of Wrestling Radio? (as part of ?A Very Mayhem Thanksgiving?), which is now available in Windows Streaming Media or via the official MNM Podcast on iTunes:

Tony Atlas/Monday Night Mayhem Interview (MNM Streaming Audio): www.mondaynightmayhemarchives.com/waxfiles/112210.wax

Tony Atlas/Monday Night Mayhem Interview (MNM Podcast on iTunes): www.mondaynightmayhemarchives.com/nov10/112210.mp3

Interview highlights courtesy of The Mayhem?s official correspondent, Paterson from New Jersey:

His experience of going back to the WWE for the ?Old School? edition of RAW last Monday night: ?To make it very plain, I live in the greatest country in the history of the world, the United States of America. There?s many opportunities, and I was just very fortunate and very blessed to be part of the WWE ?Old School,? because a lot of guys I got to see I hadn?t seen in years. To see these guys, like George Steele, that could still go out there and entertain the people, like The Iron Sheik & Nikolai (Volkoff). We live in a great country. For me to try and tell you how it feels, it feels wonderful. Bottom line: Anytime you get the opportunity to do something, it?s always a wonderful feeling.?

The meaning behind the title of his new book ?Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon?: ?The book explains my childhood. When I first started in wrestling, I came up real rough in rural America, and we didn?t have much. I used to wake up in the morning and shake the snow off my blanket. I lived in an old shack in Virginia. Life was very hard, so when I got started, a gentleman by the name of George Scott, who was more of a father to me than a boss, made me a lot of money right off the bat. A gentleman by the name of Wahoo McDaniel, he said ?George, you?re spoiling him. Too much, too soon.? It?s like he knew what would before it would happen. In my first week in the business, I made $1,500. The check I got before that check was $60, so I went from making $60 one week to making $1,500 the following week. Here?s this poor kid from the sticks of the Alligator Mountains in Virginia with this $1,500 check, and that was my smallest check. Everything from that day on was between two to three grand a week.?

Why he feels that Vince McMahon gets a bad rap from former talents who used to work for the company, despite helping several superstars of the past & present (including himself) & why he?s in favor of the changes Vince has implemented into the WWE: ?A lot of people give Vince (McMahon) a bad rap because he took wrestling and turned it into a business, where before it was like the ?Wild, Wild West.? We would go into bars, and we would beat up people for fun, then we would buy them all a drink after we beat them up. That?s how life was. We messed around with all types of women. I think if I add up all the women I was with over the years, it comes out to two to three different women a day, different women, for approximately fifteen to twenty years. We were wild, and what you saw on TV was pretty much the real person. There was no play acting to the character. Vince changed all that. When he came in, he made a business out of it. Now, he has a wellness program, where he randomly drug test the guys. He has a financial program set up for the guys to attend. There?s a lot of stuff he?s introducing to the people. Now when you meet a WWE wrestler, he is the most polite gentleman you?ve ever seen in your life.?

The similarities & differences in working with ?The World?s Strongest Man? Mark Henry & Abraham Washington: ?Me and Mark Henry, we almost like lived together. We traveled together, we went to the gym together, we ate together. We were constantly around each other. We had a lot in common also, because I was third in the world in the World Benchpressing Championship, and I did a lot of power lifting in my heyday, plus I was into bodybuilding. Mark Henry, you all know his record. With Abraham Washington, it was totally different, because he always was asking for advice from me. He just came from the development camp (FCW), and he?s a young man, so I was more like his teacher than his partner. But they both treated me with the utmost respect, and they?re both wonderful people.?

More is contained in this revealing interview with ?Mr. U.S.A.,? including the struggles he faced, endured, & overcame in his life after his in-ring professional wrestling career came to end and the rebirth that occurred not only with his career, but his personal life, along with his candid thoughts & comments on ?getting the call? to be welcomed into the WWE Hall of Fame, the experience of being enshrined the weekend of WrestleMania 22 in Chicago, why he chose to have S.D. Jones give his induction speech, whether ?The Abraham Washington Show? was ever destined to live past ECW and see the light of day on RAW or SmackDown, the differences between professional wrestling & sports-entertainment, plus the hidden meaning behind one of the contenders for ?quote of the year? from Tony himself: ?I did more in one week than Tiger Woods, Clinton, and all of ?em did in their lifetime.? Log on to www.CrowbarPress.com and purchase your copy of Tony?s new book (?Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon?), the perfect stocking stuffer for yourself or the wrestling fan in your life for the holiday season!

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Subscribe for free to the official Monday Night Mayhem Podcast on iTunes, and listen to select programming & audio content from the past five+ years of The Mayhem. You can re-live interviews with some of your favorite WWE superstars & divas (CM Punk, WWE United States Champion Daniel Bryan, ?Dashing? Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, R-Truth, Kaval, Christian, ?The Glamazon? Beth Phoenix, & Gail Kim), WWE Hall of Famers (?Stone Cold? Steve Austin, Bret ?The Hitman? Hart, ?Rowdy? Roddy Piper, Ricky ?The Dragon? Steamboat, ?The American Dream? Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Dory Funk, Jr., Harley Race, ?Superstar? Billy Graham, Nick Bockwinkel, ?The Million Dollar Man? Ted DiBiase, Tito Santana, Tony Atlas, Greg ?The Hammer? Valentine, ?Mr. Wonderful? Paul Orndorff, ?Cowboy? Bill Watts, Bob Orton, Jr., George ?The Animal? Steele, Koko B. Ware, ?The Mouth of the South? Jimmy Hart, Jim Ross, ?Mean? Gene Okerlund, & Jesse Ventura), plus some of the biggest names in the worlds of sports, entertainment, & Hollywood (Nancy O?Dell, Ice-T, Rozonda ?Chilli? Thomas, Curtis Granderson, Jim Kelly, Dennis Rodman, & Michael Buffer). Hear these interviews & many more right now by logging on to www.MondayNightMayhem.com, and don?t miss all-new episodes of ?Your Home of Wrestling Radio? live every Monday evening (at 7PM ET/6PM CT) along the airwaves of the Monday Night Mayhem Radio Network.