Bill “Ax” Eadie and Barry “Smash” Darsow detailed their WWE Hall of Fame induction weekend on the latest episode of Demo Pod with host Ryan Maher, revealing that Demolition’s combined speech window was six minutes — and Darsow had originally prepared a 30-minute version that included Andre the Giant stories.
“When they first were telling us to do all this, I had a speech that was going to be about a half hour long, and I was going to tell stories about Andre the Giant and different people and how I got in the business and all that,” Darsow said. “And when they came to us and said, you had six minutes, six minutes between both of us? They said, yes. And it was like, well, how am I going to take three minutes? And Bill take three minutes?”
Both men ran long. “Mine ended up being probably four or five minutes. And then Bill’s was four or five, six minutes, maybe. So we went over the time limit, but it’s almost, you know, you’re getting inducted in the Hall of Fame. How can you just not really tell what you’re thinking?” Darsow said.
Darsow noted a discrepancy in how WWE has presented the speeches afterward.
“And I noticed afterwards on the WWE site, they just have a couple words that I said, and they have Bill’s whole speech, which is fine for me, but it’s because we went over the time limit, I’m sure,” he said.
Eadie said he had seen a different cut. “Well, there’s different variations, because I saw just a reverse of it. So I think it’s, they’re doing little splices and stuff. So some place out there, the whole thing’s out there,” he said.
The trio of inductors — Arn Anderson, The Warlord, and Haku — was finalized about two days before the ceremony. Eadie said WWE asked Demolition to submit a list of potential inductors, and Darsow put forward about half a dozen names. Eadie believes it may have been the first time three different people performed an induction.
“And then it was probably, what, two days before, I think, Bill, that one of the guys from the WWE said, we’re going to use three of them, and it was going to be those three guys,” Darsow said. “And when they were kind of debating which one of those three, then somebody in the office says, well, why not just have all three of them. It’s the ’80s. We’ve wrestled them all. They’re all friends of ours, and they’re all good guys with the WWE.”
Eadie said WWE had them rehearse the speech a few times, but he diverged when he got on stage.
“I have to admit, I got off track, because when I got out there, I rethought some of the lines that I had submitted, and one of the things that my wife mentioned to me right after is I forgot to thank Barry for his contribution to the team, and I didn’t mean to slight him,” Eadie said.
Eadie redirected to focus on current talent and the production crew. “I wanted to emphasize the activity of the current people in the business and the production because Barry and I talked about over the weekend, I would hate to be in that production crew, because they take a lot of flack and don’t receive too much support,” Eadie said. “And those guys and girls in the business, they’re under a lot of pressure, and I want to acknowledge them, but I also want to acknowledge the people that had given me guidance, like Barry as well. So it was a stressful time, and I wish we could have gotten longer.”
Darsow said his favorite moment came during the back-and-forth with Eadie about new talent. “When you were talking about the new guys and girls wrestling and how good they were doing everything, and then when I said, I think we should do a run-in. And then the whole crowd went nuts. It was like, wow, perfect line.”
Demolition shared the Hall of Fame holding area with Kevin Nash and X-Pac. Darsow said his first move when he saw Nash was to thank him directly.
“The first thing I said to Kevin Nash, we came in, he stood up, I gave him a big hug, and I said, Kevin, thank you. You started this two, three years ago, about getting us into the Hall of Fame,” Darsow said.
Eadie described the scene of veteran wrestlers helping each other into formal wear. “It’s funny, because they got all these beat-up old wrestlers in there putting on the tuxedos at one time. And we’re all having to help each other put it on because our shoulders are so banged up we can’t get our jackets on,” Eadie said.
Darsow said they were in the holding room from about 3 p.m. for a 9 p.m. show, with snacks limited to “gummy worms and some pop and water.” He described a moment with The Warlord: “And the Warlord says to me, hey, Barry, when it’s time, can you help me get my coat on, I can’t get my coat on. I said, well, I’ll help you. If you help me get my coat on, I can’t get mine on either.”
Demolition first learned about the Nia Jax and Lash Legend tribute at WrestleMania during the red carpet ring ceremony. Darsow said Triple H tipped them off.
“We were on the red carpet, and we were doing the ring ceremony, and it was Bill, myself, and Triple H, and Triple H was talking to us, and there was probably 40 cameras in front of us taking all the pictures and everything,” Darsow said. “And Triple H turned and looked at us and said, hey, there’s going to be something pretty neat at WrestleMania tomorrow night. We’re going to get you in the front, and there’s going to be a couple of girls that are going to do something for you.”
About three hours before WrestleMania Saturday, Eadie and Darsow were brought back to take 30 to 40 photos with Jax and Legend in their Demolition-inspired white spiked attire.