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 Too Much, Too Soon by Tony Atlas

Too Much, Too Soon by Tony Atlas

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Paperback: 258 pages, published in 2011

During a time when "wannabe" wrestlers trained for years for the opportunity to become a pro wrestler, Tony Atlas was the first wrestler to be paid to learn his trade. By the late ‘70s, Tony was one of the biggest names in the sport and was wrestling in front of sellout crowds in the largest arenas in the country. While wrestling for the WWF in 1981, he even pinned Hulk Hogan in Madison Square Garden.

Readers will feel like they are living Tony’s life through his eyes as he tells about his free-spirited and self-destructive journey through life. His out-of-the-ring stories are as compelling as those that took place inside the ring. Tony tells about growing up in poverty, and recounts stories from his childhood: his dad encouraging him to fight for money as a child, being sent to a juvenile detention center, and being introduced to sex at the age of 16 by a 38-year-old woman. He describes his introduction to wrestling, his rapid rise to the top echelon of talent, the rampant and easily-available sex, money, and drugs, his fascination with "shoes," and the terrible toll his lifestyle took on his personal life.

For the first time, Tony reveals the name of his worst enemy, and explains why he hopes that person is dead. Most revealing of all are his recollections of experiencing "racism" in wrestling ... from the most unexpected source of all.

Tony tells about decisions he made which resulted in his downfall, and is brutally honest about his short-comings and the pain he suffered when he lost his job and everything he had worked for. In the telling of that story, he doesn’t criticize others, but blames himself for the downward spiral of his career. He recalls the events which led up to him being homeless and living outdoors in 22-below-zero weather, and he acknowledges the person who saved him from near-death and helped him back on the road to self-sufficiency.

Finally, Tony writes about getting another chance at fame when he returned to the spotlight in World Wrestling Entertainment as the manager of Mark Henry.

This is the story of a man who had success handed to him—only to throw it all away—and the long, painful struggle he had to endure as he clawed his way back to the top.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 5: The Telephone Call
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   Blackjack Mulligan was the next wrestler I met.  Once again, we were all in the gym at the YMCA, and as with Sandy Scott, I didn’t know anything about him.  Alfonso, of course, knew exactly who he was.  When Blackjack walked into the gym, word got around that a professional wrestler was in the weight room.
  Mulligan began his workout with the bench press.  He did five sets of 10 reps with 275 pounds, but that wasn’t too impressive because Mulligan weighed 300 pounds.  A young, blonde-haired power-lifter, who couldn’t have weighed more than 190 pounds, looked at Mulligan and said, "Why don’t you put some weight on that bar?  I thought you wrestlers were supposed to be strong!"
  When Mulligan ignored him, the guy continued to make snide remarks.  Mulligan slowly got off the bench, grabbed him by his weight-lifting belt, and pushed him against the wall.  As I watched in amazement, Mulligan curled the guy up onto the wall until his feet were dangling in the air.  Mulligan looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Look, all I want to do is have a light workout.  That’s it.  I’ve been fighting and drinking all night, so I want to do what I have to do before I go to the next town."
  Then he dropped him.  Of course, the guy was embarrassed because the other guys all saw what happened.  He looked over at us for support, but we were all thinking, "You’re on your own, bud.  You started it … you can finish it."

 

Excerpt from Chapter 6: Learning the Ropes
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   I clamped the sleeper on Art Nelson, but when I did, he dove for the ropes.  The referee said, "You’ve gotta let him go now.  He’s through the ropes."
  Out of everybody in the promotion, I think Art was the first guy to come to the realization that, since I wasn’t smart to what was going on, I might be dangerous and cause him big trouble.  I came to that conclusion later, after I had been smartened up.  After the referee made me break the hold, Nelson scooted through the ropes and refused to get back into the ring.  Evidently, Scorpion hadn’t reached that conclusion.  When the referee whispered to him, "Art won’t come back in.  You’ll have to take the fall," Scorpion went for it.
  Unfortunately for him, I did exactly what Art Nelson was afraid I would have done to him.  I clamped the sleeper on Scorpion and refused to let go until he was unconscious.  That wasn’t a work.  It was a shoot.  Scorpion was dead to the world.
  When I walked into the dressing room, George Scott was talking to Art Nelson, but I didn’t hear a word being said.  My complete attention was fixed on the other end of the dressing room, where Ric Flair stood shaking his pecker at somebody.  That was the first time I had the opportunity to see Flair do that.  To say I was shocked would be an understatement, but it wouldn’t be the last time I would witness him doing that, and just about everybody else who has been around him will attest to that fact.  Of course, I saw him do that hundreds of times, and it eventually lost its shock value.
  I had been told that you should always thank your opponent for the match.  However, when I walked in, Art walked away as he said to George, "Look, you smarten that damn nigger up now, or I’m gonna kill him the next time he gets in the ring with me."
  George pulled me to the side and said, "Tomorrow morning, we will teach you how to work.  Be at the Park Center in the morning."

 

Excerpt from Chapter 7: A Mattress, a Boxspring, and the Floor
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   I considered Ronnie Garvin to be the number one ribber in the business.  He was right up there with Mr. Fuji.  The first time I met him, he was sitting on the toilet. He reached back, wiped his butt with his hand, and held it out to shake mine.
  I had never seen anything like that in Low Moor.
  Ronnie, who was a very good pilot, gave me my first ride in a small airplane.  Ronnie, Dick Murdoch, Baron von Raschke, and I were flying from Charlotte to Winston-Salem.  Within a few minutes of takeoff, Ronnie turned the plane upside down and flew all the way to Winston-Salem in that position.  When we got off the plane, I told him I wouldn’t ride with him again if he was going to do that.  He assured me it had all been a rib and he wouldn’t put me through it again.  Sure enough, Ronnie was a man of his word.  On the return trip home, he didn’t make the trip in an inverted position.  Instead, he did flip-flops.  I was as sick as I could possibly be when we finally landed.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 8: Black Atlas
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   Wearing the mask and protecting my identity took some getting used to.  Wearing a mask was second nature to wrestlers like Mil Mascaras and Mr. Wrestling #2, who wore their masks all the time, even in the dressing rooms when they were only around the boys.  I had a harder time remembering the things a masked man needed to remember.
  For instance, Tommy Rich tells a story about stopping to pick me up at my motel.  When he pulled up in front of my room, a girl walked out wearing a red mask.  Right behind her was a girl wearing a blue mask, followed by another girl wearing a black mask.  I walked out next … but I wasn’t wearing a mask.  The boys spread that story around for a long time.
  Before I went to Atlanta, I had a "Tony Atlas" t-shirt made with my barefaced photograph emblazoned on the front.  I remembered to wear my mask into the arena … but I also wore the t-shirt.  Paul Jones will never let me live down that one.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 9: If the Walls Could Talk
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   Junkyard Dog was the Master.  He took things one step further by making women pay him for sex.  He charged them $100.  He used to tell me, "We’re the superstars, not them.  If they want us, make ‘em pay!"
  They had to give him money or bring him something else, but they couldn’t be with him if they didn’t bring some form of payment.  One night, we were both stone broke, and he wanted some drugs.  He told me, "That shouldn’t be a problem.  I have some girls coming over tonight."
  Later that night, a girl came to our room and Dog had sex with her.  As she was walking out, he looked at me and said, "Look on the desk."  I saw a $100 bill lying there.  He said, "In fifteen minutes, I have another one coming over."  Dog had three girls that night and he made $300, of which he gave me $100.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 10: Mr. U.S.A.
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   One time, Ole got the bright idea to have Dusty Rhodes spot me.  I think Dusty got in Ole’s ear because he wanted to interject himself into the limelight.  Paul Jones wanted to spot me, too, but I wanted Pistol Pez Whatley to be my spotter.  Pez was my training partner.  He had a 500-pound bench, too.  He couldn’t do it easily, but he could do it.  Tom Jones could, too.  The reason those guys never got promoted, though, is because they couldn’t draw.  I’m not saying that to demean them.  It’s just a fact.  People didn’t buy tickets to see them.  They were good wrestlers, but they weren’t appealing to the public.  They didn’t have the charisma needed by a main event performer.
  When I told Ole I wanted Pez to come out and spot me, he overruled me and said, "No, it’ll look better if Dusty spots you."
  Like every other time I did it, I pushed the 500 pounds up off the uprights with relative ease.  Just as the bar left the uprights, though, Dusty began to stomp his feet and clap his hands.  He was trying to get the crowd going.
  You have to remember.  Dusty has probably never worked out a day in his life.  When he began stomping and jumping, the ring became a trampoline.  Picture this.  I’m lying down on a bench in the ring, holding 500 pounds above me, and the ring is bouncing up and down.  I’m trying to hold the weight up.  At the same time, I’m trying to tell Dusty, "Hold still, brother!  Please hold still."  He was killing me.  I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to lower the bar to my chest and push it back up.  I did pull a pectoral muscle in my chest in the process, though.  I was lucky the injury wasn’t serious because it could have ended my career, and I never held any animosity toward Dusty because he didn’t know any better.   When he did the shuffling in the ring, he thought he was doing me a favor by getting the people worked up.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 13: Tennis Shoes
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   The boys laugh at a lot of the books written by their peers because everybody writes about how tough they were, or what great workers they were.  They don’t reveal their weaknesses, mishaps, stumbles, and falls.  I’m not ashamed to talk about those things.
  I had (have) a strong foot fetish.  Actually, I’m not into bare feet.  It’s more of a shoe fetish (tennis shoes, in particular), but feet have to be in the shoes, so I call it a foot fetish.
  When I told some of my friends that I was going to write a book, they said, "You had better tell Scott Teal about your foot fetish.  If you don’t, nobody will think you really talked to him."
  I’m probably the first wrestler to get this personal in their book, but I never hid my fetish.  My foot fetish controlled my life.  Before he died, Arnold Skaaland told everybody about how I used to bring girls into the dressing room and have them walk on me.  If you talk to anybody who knows me, they’ll tell you about it.  The wrestlers all saw me get walked on in the dressing rooms.  They used to call me a "foot slave."  Bill Eadie can testify to hearing Dusty Rhodes (who had a titty and butt fetish) tell me, "Tony Atlas has it made.  He will never catch AIDS from having girls walking on him.  Tony can get away with things I can’t, too.  He can grab any girl by the foot and get away with it, but I can’t grab a girl on the ass.  And Tony can get his cookies anywhere.  I need a hotel room."

 

Excerpt from Chapter 15: Tag Team Champions
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   My problems with Rocky came to a head in the ring one night in Hamilton, Ontario.  For the finish of our match, I was supposed to pick up my opponent over my head and press slam him.  Rocky would then come into the ring and cover him: 1, 2, 3.
  There was supposed to be a code of respect among the boys.  We were very protective of our finishes.  If somebody had a strong finishing move, nobody else would use that move.  For instance, when Jimmy Snuka was on the card, they would ask us to not jump off the top rope.  Nobody messed with our finishes, either.  If somebody did something to kill our finish, it was like hurting our livelihood.  We depended on it to feed our families, so we avoided doing anything that would hurt one of our fellow workers.  When I press slammed my opponent, Rocky jumped into the ring, pulled the guy to his feet, and began a whole new match with the guy.  He went six minutes before he beat him with a dropkick.  In my day, we called that killing my finish.  Nobody had ever gotten up from the press slam.  When Snuka dropped onto you from the top rope, you didn’t get up.  When Mr. Wrestling #2 hit you with his knee, you were down for the count.
  When we got back to the dressing room, I told Pat Patterson, "Don’t put me with Rocky again!  He killed my finish!  We can’t work together!  By the way, here’s your belts."
  I took my title belt, picked up Rocky’s belt, and slammed them both into Pat’s chest.  Pat took a bump backwards, and as I turned from Pat, I once again sucker-punched Rocky square in the face.  I would have hit him a second time, but the guys all jumped in and covered him.

 

Excerpt from Chapter 17: The Downward Spiral
Copyright © Tony White and Scott Teal   There were many nights when I would fly into a rage and clear the dressing room.  I did that one night and ran everybody out, including Andre the Giant.  That night, Lori was waiting for me at the hotel, and she had just bought a new pair of shoes.  All I could think about was going to the hotel to party with Lori.  I wanted to get walked on.  Unfortunately, Vince booked me on the last match of the night.  He used to put me on last because he knew the people would stay to see my match, but all I could think was that while I was wrestling, just about everybody else would be having a good time at the hotel.
  I was so mad after my match that I pulled out my .357 Magnum and began to wave it around.  Mere seconds after the gun cleared my gym bag, I had the whole dressing room to myself.  Cyndi Lauper and David Wolfe were there that night.  Cyndi was standing just a few feet from the dressing room door when Andre came running out.  When he saw her, he stopped dead in his tracks and stood still.  Except for one boot, he was buck naked.  Cyndi was so taken by surprise that her lower jaw dropped down and she froze in place, staring at the naked behemoth that stood in front of her.

 

Acknowledgements
Tony Atlas Chronology
Opening comments by George Scott
Opening comments by Charles White

1  Tony James-Caswell-McDuffy-White
Growing up in poverty ... Tony's family history ... Tony's dad leaves the family

2  Redeye Hinton
Working as a child to help make ends meet ... Fighting with neighborhood kids ... Learning to fight for money

3  Lobster Tails and Scrambled Eggs
Department of Social Services ... Terrible living conditions ... Taking his first bath at an orphanage ... Homosexuals at the Baptist Children's Home ... Going to high school ... The police catch Tony "stealing" a car ... Taken to the juvenile home when police find stolen guns and food in their house ... Tony's first sexual experience (he was 16, she was 38)

4  Hercules
Boxing in the Police Athletic League ... Playing junior varsity basketball and other sports ... Introduction to weightlifting and bodybuilding at the YMCA ... First weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions

5  The Telephone Call
Discovered by Sandy Scott (pro wrestler) ... Almost gets into a fight with Blackjack Mulligan ... Tony's first shoot ... Tony's invitation to visit Jim Crockett Sr. in Charlotte ... Tony's first no-show ... A second chance ... Moving to Charlotte to train with $1.50 in his pocket ... Training at the Park Center with Gene and Ole Anderson ... Becomes the first wrestler to be paid to train

6  Learning the Ropes
Tony shoots in his first "pro" match ... Johnny Heideman teaches Tony to "work" ... Tony buys a ticket to get into the matches in Columbia, South Carolina ... First TV interview ... Wahoo McDaniel gives Tony a gift ... Learning from the veterans ... Being taught respect in the dressing room ... Making $1,500 in his first week, and spending all of it ... Being taught a lesson by the office

7  A Mattress, a Boxspring, and the Floor
Tony pays his dues and goes to "hell" (Kansas City) ... Going to Dallas, Amarillo, San Antonio ... Threatened with a gun by a jealous boyfriend ... Meeting Sputnik Monroe ... Caught "stealing" Terry Funk's payoff ... Ronnie Garvin stories ... Working with George "Bunk" Harris ... Chewed out by Ole Anderson ... Wrestlers being in character ... Accidentally giving away Mr. Wrestling #2's identity ... A masked man joins the orgy ... Learning to dropkick ... Shooting match with Randy Savage ... Sex in a lean-to in Guatemala ... Learning to be independent ... Tony buys a new Cadillac ... A redneck sheriff corners a "coon" (Tony) in a tree ... Dean Ho bails Tony out of jail ... Tommy Rich threatens to fight a sheriff ... Thunderbolt Patterson smoking joints ... Tony gets thrown into jail again ... Tony's dad comes to see him wrestle ... Learning to respect jobbers ... The Charlotte territory

8  Black Atlas
Wearing a mask and a t-shirt with his bare face on it ... Cursed out (again) by Ole Anderson ... Tony is taught more about respect in the dressing room ... Larry Hennig whallops Tony ... Making his Atlanta debut against Abdullah the Butcher ... Tommy Rich gets juice ... Origin of the press slam ... Wrestling William "Refrigerator" Perry at WrestleMania II ... Learning to use the sleeper hold ... Tony gets juice for the first time ... Captain Lou Albano and Joe Leduc "juice" stories ... Teaming with Tommy Rich ... Wrestling in Tennessee for Nick Gulas ... Ric Flair's early days in wrestling ... Overview of payoffs in Atlanta ... Thunderbolt refuses to do a job ... Thunderbolt wins a Cadillac (and keeps it) ... Wrestling with a dislocated knee ... The Missouri Mauler refuses to sell "Thunderbolt's sh—" ... Harley Race pulls down Tony's trunks in the Atlanta Omni ring ... Wrestling in Houston for Paul Boesch ... Wrestling for the world title ... Meeting Muhammad Ali ... Tony goes to the hospital after an auto accident ... Ole Anderson takes off Tony's halo so he can work on TV

9  If the Walls Could Talk
Sex in Atlanta ... A line of boys at the door ... Tommy and Tony share ... The dangers of bringing wives to the shows ... If the walls of Falcon’s Rest (motel) could talk ... STDs and the health board ... Junkyard Dog charges girls to have sex … Tony marries and divorces … Vince McMahon, Sr. calls Tony … Tony credits Ernie Ladd … Wrestling for the WWF … Johnny Rodz shoots on Tony … Shane McMahon gets one-up on Hulk Hogan … Wrestling Shane McMahon … Splitting his time between Atlanta, New York and Knoxville … Fired by Buck Robley (for one week)

10  Mr. U.S.A.
Winning Mr. Southern Hemisphere ... Bodybuilders in wrestling … Winning the Mr. U.S.A. contest … Tony gets a summons to the wrestling office ... Doing bench presses in the ring as an angle ... Dusty Rhodes spots Tony ... Pak Song … Winning the NPC National Bodybuilding Championships … Meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger and Muhammad Ali … Meeting famous bodybuilders like Dave Draper, Frank Zane, and Lou Ferrigno … Tony’s take on genetics … Tony’s brother, Charles Atlas, gets into wrestling ... Tony's bodybuilding regimen ... Working out with Ken Patera

11  Big Arms and Skinny Necks
Learning to do interviews … Pat Patterson listens to Tony’s interview … The Grand Wizard gets goose bumps … More on the press slam … Being put over by the WWF … Sika Anoai breaks the law and gets paid for it ... Fighting Mr. Saito ... Tony and Saito are given a reprimand by Arnold Skaaland ... Shooting with Lars Anderson ... Karl Gotch backs down from the Iron Sheik ... Shooting with Road Warrior Hawk ... Bret Hart says he's a "worker," not a shooter ... Tony and Paul Orndorff brawl on the side of the road ... Orndorff bites off Tony's ear lobe ... Dressing room fight between Frankie Cain and Johnny Walker ... Fight between Hacksaw Duggan and Matt Borne … Thunderbolt Patterson and Tank Patton fight in the dressing room … Tony drops his Dianabol ... Harley Race and Gene Anderson stretching marks

12  Racism in Wrestling
Traveling with Mr. Wrestling #2 … The dumb Polack and the fag ... Tiger Conway Jr. and Thunderbolt Patterson ... Thunderbolt's true colors exposed ... Dick Murdoch and racism ... Murdoch goes black ... Blackjack Mulligan and the KKK ... The "N" word ... The Magnificent Zulu steals Tony's hubcaps

13  Tennis Shoes
Foot fetish … Dusty Rhodes’ fetish … Tony lurks beneath the bleachers ... Getting walked on in airplanes, dressing rooms, gyms, and at the Tony Awards … A tough choice  getting walked on or wrestling in Madison Square Garden … Wrestlers’ fetishes … Tony and the female psychiatrist ... Tony’s first time to get walked on (11 years old) … Tony’s mom discovers his secret

14  That Thing
Tony's wife and her male "friends" ... Tony arrives home to find the "smell of sex" in the air ... The boys have sex with the girls, then Tony marries them ... Introduction to a dominatrix ... Tony discovers cocaine ... Tony loses $3,000 ... Tony’s choice: get walked on, or, the WWF tag team title

15  Tag Team Champions
Vince McMahon, Sr. forgives Tony and welcomes him back to the WWF ... Problems with Rocky Johnson ... Winning the tag team title and never defending it ... Tony sucker-punches Rocky and knocks down Pat Patterson … Tony makes peace with Rocky

16  My Worst Enemy
Lori the nymphomaniac ... High tide rolls in on Tony’s Corvette … Junkyard Dog finds a dominatrix for Tony ... Tony stays clean, but still loses his job with the WWF ... Tony reveals his worst enemy

17  The Downward Spiral
Tony’s life goes downhill ... Cocaine and other drugs ... Adrian Adonis with boogers and cucumbers ... Uncle Elmer and pain pills ... Tony and Junkyard Dog hallucinate ... SD Jones, the good influence ... Getting cocaine for free ... Roid rage … Tony clears the dressing room ... Cyndi Lauper and the .357 Magnum ... Tony’s payoff for WrestleMania I … The Slammy Awards … Getting kicked out of hotels ... Angela Mosca urinates on hotel guests ... Tony pins himself in Baton Rouge ... Using steroids ... Wrestling Nick Bockwinkel in the American Wrestling Association … Teaming with Jim Brunzell ... The "job formula" ... Ted Arcidi cries in the ring … Vince Jr. signs Tony away from Verne Gagne ... Tony jobs to Adrian Adonis in Madison Square Garden ... Tony gets fired (again)

18  The Black Superman
The Black Superman ... Working for Dan Lurie ... Teaming with Dingo Warrior (aka Ultimate Warrior) ... Winning the Texas tag title with Skip Young ... George Scott leaves and Bruiser Brody takes over ... Going postal on Bruiser Brody … Killer Tim Brooks … Meeting and marrying Lisa …

19  Bruiser Brody
Tony’s memories of the events leading up to and after the death of Bruiser Brody

20  Crossroads
Financial guidance from Johnny Weaver and Ole Anderson … Randy Savage and Nikolai Volkoff: Cheapest of the cheap … Bill Silverman: Even cheaper … Giving away his money … The value of money: a lesson learned too late

21  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Tony returns to Dallas ... Moving to Maine to work for Mario Savoldi’s ICW ... Tony’s friendship with Wendi Richter … Broke and homeless ... Paul E Dangerously gets hung out the window at Gleason’s Gym ... Sleeping in crack houses ... Saved by an angel named Monica ... Turning down WCW to go to work for the WWF ... Becoming Saba Simba ... Getting his pink slip ... Going to work for WCW … Losing an arm-wrestling contest to Vinnie Vegas … A change in attitude

22  True Life
Booking for the Eastern Wrestling Alliance … "Team Atlas" … Working as a personal trainer … Master Sandy (female bodybuilder) pins Tony Atlas … MTV tapes a documentary on Tony’s life … Atlas Championship Wrestling

23  New Life
A call from Howard Finkel … Inducted into the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame … Tony returns to the WWE as "Goodwill Ambassador" … Conflict with CM Punk at the Ohio Valley Wrestling training camp … Signed to a WWE talent contract … Managing Mark Henry … Mark Henry threatens Big Show … The Abraham Washington Show … Explanation of the WWE schedule … Learning scripts … Stooges in the dressing room … Tony’s foot-fetish video … Information on the Internet … Tony is chastised for not following the dress code … The WWE compared to the "old days" … The ECW television show is canceled … Tony and Teddy Long … Tony’s daughter Nikki

24  Credit Where Credit is Due
Vince McMahon and the WWE … Drug testin … WWE seminars on financial planning and health insurance … The Montreal Screwjob … Tony sums up his time in the wrestling business … Injuries

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