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'Hacksaw' Ready To Showcase, Wrestle At Alma Mater

Posted: Aug 10th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Ninety-three-thousand people. If you tried to take the entire population of Albany, place it in the stadium, only a few thousand people would be standing outside the arena.

In 1987, ?Hacksaw? Jim Duggan ran down the aisle at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., to the cheers of 93,173, waving an American flag strapped to a two-by-four. His impromptu appearance interrupted Nikolai Volkoff?s rendition of the Soviet Union?s national anthem.

Hacksaw slid under the bottom rope, using his lumber to exterminate the pests in the ring, swinging at both Volkoff and the Iron Sheik.

?Volkoff, understand one thing, you?re not singing that Russian national anthem, because this is the land of the free, and the home of the brave,? Hacksaw screamed into the microphone, trying to equal the decibel level of the largest crowd to ever attend a live sporting event at the time.

?The old joke after Wrestlemania III, where you have 93,000 people and you come back to the dressing room and all the guys were like, ?How?s the crowd out there?? ? Hacksaw said. ?I said, ?Without my glasses, it?s the first three rows are full, I don?t know, I can?t see that without my specs out there.? ?

From the grandest stage, to an international stage, ?Hacksaw? Jim Duggan comes home Friday.

The cheers from the crowd may not exceed the boisterous cheers ricocheting within a dome, but the coziness of the gym at Glens Falls High School might make the moment even more special for the Glens Falls native.

?I?ve been able to carry our flag up in 23 different countries all over the world. I?m out there cheering U-S-A, doing it from Berlin to Madison Square Garden, but doing it in Glens Falls High School is going to be one of the bigger thrills.?

The Glens Falls native headlines a World of Hurt Wrestling event at the high school Friday. Tickets for the 7 p.m. event will be sold at the door for $10.

It will be the first time Hacksaw wrestles professionally at his alma mater. The last time he wrestled in Glens Falls was in 1999, as a member of World Championship Wrestling.

?Back in the day, coming into the Glens Falls Civic Center, all the other guys hated to wrestle you,? Hacksaw said. ?You never want to wrestle a guy in his hometown because he?s fired up.?

It?ll be a rare opportunity for fans to see, too. While his contemporaries like Hulk Hogan, Jake the Snake and Ted DiBiase all still tour the country, they are no longer in action. Hacksaw will be waving the American flag, swinging his two-by-four, and, sure enough, wrestling.

?This could be the last time people get to see him. This could be his final good performance,? said Shane Alden, owner of World of Hurt Wrestling. ?He definitely still has it. I?ve seen him wrestle. He still has it, but this could be the last time in Glens Falls to see him do this thing.?

Not to mention, potentially the last time for the fans to stand, cheer and chant ?U-S-A, U-S-A.?

?I think it?s something that everybody always looks forward to, being recognized in their hometown,? Hacksaw said. ?Which is the hardest place to be recognized.?