I love how repo man was always hunched down, lookin around, being sneaky, looking at things of interest to repo, the pieces of tire treads for knee pads.
Repo was memorable! At the time I hated him, but I was supposed to. Hearing this story? I love the memory of Repo man now. He took such great care to craft that villain! Great job!
Something about “that generation” of wrestling figures, I beat the heck out of them and they were fine. Now todays, they would not last 5 minutes in any of my 8 year old selfs royal rumbles lol.
One of my favorite wrestlers back as a kid especially as Demolition Smash. Got to meet him and Bill last year at a local signing, both were nice as can be. Legend
I agree on Barry changing his looks for Repo Man, he looked so shorts compared to Smash 🙂 I always felt like Barry should have been given the gimmick of Doink when Matt Borne left but i guess Barry was already gone by then. I think it would have been a good fit.
I met Ax & Smash a few years ago and both were really amazing. The old saying of “Don’t meet your heroes” obviously doesn’t apply to these two. I bought the shirt off of Barry’s back, a custom Demolition shirt. And no, it’s still not on eBay!!! Two things I wished I asked Barry were about how he felt stepping into Smash as someone else had started it and how much input he got to apply to the character, and the other is why did the new Repo Man outfit only get worn once?
I'm not even exactly sure why, but I always loved the Repo Man back when I was a kid. I think I'd have been like 6 or 7 years old when he debuted with the gimmick. For whatever reason, Repo Man just cracked me up back then. His weaselly laugh, his creeping around, he was like a living cartoon character - I definitely had no idea he was the former Smash (in fact, for some reason I was convinced Repo Man and Doink were the same person when I was a kid. I have no idea why - Matt Borne and Barry Darsow look nothing alike lol). Then again, I liked a lot of heels as a kid - the more outrageous/campy, the better. Undertaker and Papa Shango were definite favorites... I even remember loving Hunter Hearst Helmsley during his original "blue blood" gimmick lol. It makes me very happy to see that Repo Man fandom has almost became a meme at this point (probably in no small part thanks to Simon Miller from Whatculture lol). The gimmick got way too much flack before.
Mad respect to this awesome legend and down to earth guy at the end of the day our job is to put smile on peoples faces and have them come back next time w more people , I’m a worker on the indies and I get booked as a comedy wrestler , sometimes I get crap for “ jobbing “ to guys , to me it don’t matter but hey I have worked some big names from the WWF 80s and I’ve made decent $$ it’s an honor to rub elbows w these legends of the ring , this clip put a smile on my face kudos to you Mr. Darsow !
What a great interview, thank you for this. I love me some Barry Darsow, loved him with the Russians and just a great talent. Also - man does not look in his 60's. Yep I'm subscribing now - you won me over.
Bill's health scare ended it, pretty much. Barry had to move on and Bill went to Japan and finished up there, I believe. But yeah, they were great as Demolition.
Hey barry, if u ever read this, i just want u to know...every cell phone ive ever had, i still have them. And every single one of them u can power on and check what the set ringtone is and all of em are Demolition. I like at any given time throughout the day or night that demolition music will hit, and in my head i hear the biggest pop when my phone rings.
The top guys are nothing without the top guy who puts them over,and if you good at it, to lose and let the guy look like 50 bucks and let the crowd pop, you are granted good money! good Performance,happy Vince, happy customers with a experience of a lifetime,and you made it and one of the guys! Savage, Horowitz, Mr.Perfect, hitman and the rocket hart brother! These were topseller guys. I think wrestling from the 80's until 2000 was diffrent and the real golden Era. The goldrn era in wrestling is normaly something else but that is for me the golden era of technical wrestling! with the hitman who made his king of the ring acomplishment seem like a real one and ws deserved for a scripted determination event! He showed the real sportivity of this artform and sport!
Kinda funny you mention that.. some guys in local radio here in MN (KFAN) were talking about the Repo Man one day and one of the guys thought it was funny that some middle aged balding 5'6" guy was in wrestling.
As a dumb kid growing up when kayfabe was still mandatory I had ZERO idea that Smash was Repo Man. That was the era where people on the undercard always had a side job. During the day they were repo men barbers and racecar drivers but at night they wrestled.
It was hard for me to believe Demo Smash was Repo Man at first because of the body change. I liked him better as Smash, Krusher, and Bully, but Repo was definitely a good change.
I loved demolition and was gutted when they split. It was so obvious smash was repo. His arm tattoo, his trash talk, and his mouth gave it away. It's a shame Vince couldn't of put Repo and Crush bag together somehow. Maybe a 6 man where the heels lost and Repo got battered by the other heels and Crush makes the save, and Repo takes his mask off and Crush realises he's Smash. It's not actually as crazy as it seems because this was the time frame Crush had issues with the Two Doinks. So even that could of set something up. Maybe Repo could of made the save at Summerslam.
They could have had the Repo Man join Money inc for awhile then they could have had Repo Man turn face and feud with Money Inc. Ted Debiase could have put Repo Man over at Summer Slam 93. Then Repo Man could feud with IRS for awhile. Possibly give Repo Man an IC title run.
Wow never realized smash was the also the repoman...he looked like a big dude in demolition but repoman looked skinny...wow what was his height&weight.when he was smash????...must've been near 300???
McMahon is so f'n st%pid. Could you imagine a Repo Man face turn? Where McMahon tells him to tow some nice old Lady's car outside the arena, because she parked in McMahons favorite spot, but when he goes to tow the car he sees the Lady come stumbling on a walker and she tells him how he's her favorite wrestler, because he always stood up for law and order and what's right, and she only came to the show because of him and it's probably the last time she's going to make it, but that was all worth it because she finally is going to see him wrestle live, oh and what are you doing to my car Mr Repo Man, I'am not parked wrong am I? And finally Repo Man stand up to the man and trashes McMahon's car. And from there on he keeps steeling Heel's car and giving them to people in need.
I would LOVE to see the Minnesota crew - Darsow, Rude, Norton, Laurinitas, Hegstrand, Zenk , Simpson (Koloff)- circle up and challenge any group of today's men - nobody would dare come to the ring -even if half of them are dead.
Shoulda done a singles run as Smash. Bill may have been the reveared worker.. But Axe looked old and not as menacing with his slicked back hair. Where Smash (to me as a child) was scary a lot louder n realistic and looked more like a biker with make up.. Axe looked like he was playing a scary horror movie baddie. Bill/Ax was great no disrespect.. But Smash coulda been a good mid card foil for a white bread babyface… and then coulda turned face.. following the same path & trajectory as the tag team. When Bill started to experience health issues they brought in crush… But after that they were tried to turn Adams into the Hawaiian good guy. I think that fued with Repo n Crush shoulda been a Rockers/Strikeforce style break-up angle. I think both characters woulda got over way more than what they went with.. Then when Crush turned heal on Savage… Crush coulda teamed with Barry again but as Crush (not Demolition crush, there is a difference) Barry tweeks his look just a little like crush did, but keeps the demolition Smash persona. Then Adams turns on Smash giving us fans the Smash singles run we ALWAYS WANTED!! ITS SUCH A SHAME VKM STOPPED SEEING ANY VALUE IN HIS CREATION ONCE HE SIGNED LOD !, I also think once Bret Hart started his singles push… Smash n Neidhart coulda been re packaged as team consisting of 2 famous brawlers and woulda made a great tag team. I can imagine mean gene… “what happens when you take the muscle from the heart foundation n combine him with the muscle from Demolition… You get the “Anvil Smashers” , or the “foundation demolishers” “DemoDation” or the “Heart smashers” (wow some of those are just terrible😂) But Smash keeps the leather but drops the make-up.. And Jim swaps the pink singlet n longboys for a matching black out fit. imagine the promos. They would be the most rugged tag team around. Woulda got over more than the repoman or the New foundation with Jim & Owen. Lastly I never Marked out more than when bill n Barry drew one and two in the RR back when wrestling was so “Hoganised” n predictable. My suspension of disbelief was never greater. I’d never seen anything like that before. It was amazing to me! This is them 👇Working against each other ua-cam.com/video/ozk3qhH8mMg/v-deo.htmlsi=NCaoViJ9MoN9uX8m
I absolutely loved the Repo man, the body language, the pitch of his voice and his crazy laugh. There was nothing negative he was so awesome
Agreed!! Thank you for watching
I love how repo man was always hunched down, lookin around, being sneaky, looking at things of interest to repo, the pieces of tire treads for knee pads.
The cackle of Repo man, that started just as I started watching WWF, I'll forever love it.
The vignette where he breaks into the car is one of my all time favorite videos. The big boot to the window is just perfect haha.
Barry's tattoo gave it away. I remember saying to my friends, That's Smash!! That's Smash!!
“What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine too.” - Repo Man
Repo Man gimmick was awesome! On paper it sounds cheesy, but the execution was great.
Thank you for watching
Repo Man's theme song is a banger.
I see you're someone of culture.
PUT THEM IN THE HALL OF FAME
Repo was memorable! At the time I hated him, but I was supposed to. Hearing this story? I love the memory of Repo man now. He took such great care to craft that villain! Great job!
Repo was a big deal in my Hasbro fig fed as a kid. He and Skinner took alot of losses. Both great characters. Being a heel is the best.
His “action move” was he jumped. It was called the “robber clobber”.
Great figure, it had a lot of detail with the mask, the goatee even the painted tattoo
Something about “that generation” of wrestling figures, I beat the heck out of them and they were fine. Now todays, they would not last 5 minutes in any of my 8 year old selfs royal rumbles lol.
I was definitely a contra mark, almost always rooting for the heels.
One of my favorite wrestlers back as a kid especially as Demolition Smash. Got to meet him and Bill last year at a local signing, both were nice as can be. Legend
As a kid I loved it! He looked so sneaky!
I agree on Barry changing his looks for Repo Man, he looked so shorts compared to Smash 🙂
I always felt like Barry should have been given the gimmick of Doink when Matt Borne left but i guess Barry was already gone by then. I think it would have been a good fit.
Darso is a legend for a reason
Yes he is! Thank you for watching
@@wrestlingthenandnow anytime my friend
My first MSG show as a kid I saw Rowdy piper against Repo Man!!! Fun times
That's dope
best tag feud for me as kid was demolition vs strike force in the 80's
I met Ax & Smash a few years ago and both were really amazing. The old saying of “Don’t meet your heroes” obviously doesn’t apply to these two. I bought the shirt off of Barry’s back, a custom Demolition shirt. And no, it’s still not on eBay!!! Two things I wished I asked Barry were about how he felt stepping into Smash as someone else had started it and how much input he got to apply to the character, and the other is why did the new Repo Man outfit only get worn once?
Demolition plus Hogan and Savage got me into wrestling
Thank you for watching
I'm not even exactly sure why, but I always loved the Repo Man back when I was a kid. I think I'd have been like 6 or 7 years old when he debuted with the gimmick. For whatever reason, Repo Man just cracked me up back then. His weaselly laugh, his creeping around, he was like a living cartoon character - I definitely had no idea he was the former Smash (in fact, for some reason I was convinced Repo Man and Doink were the same person when I was a kid. I have no idea why - Matt Borne and Barry Darsow look nothing alike lol). Then again, I liked a lot of heels as a kid - the more outrageous/campy, the better. Undertaker and Papa Shango were definite favorites... I even remember loving Hunter Hearst Helmsley during his original "blue blood" gimmick lol. It makes me very happy to see that Repo Man fandom has almost became a meme at this point (probably in no small part thanks to Simon Miller from Whatculture lol). The gimmick got way too much flack before.
He was awesome, Thank you for the comment. Please tell your friends about my channel :)
Repo man's music is really good, especially the bassline.
Mad respect to this awesome legend and down to earth guy at the end of the day our job is to put smile on peoples faces and have them come back next time w more people , I’m a worker on the indies and I get booked as a comedy wrestler , sometimes I get crap for “ jobbing “ to guys , to me it don’t matter but hey I have worked some big names from the WWF 80s and I’ve made decent $$ it’s an honor to rub elbows w these legends of the ring , this clip put a smile on my face kudos to you Mr. Darsow !
What a great interview, thank you for this. I love me some Barry Darsow, loved him with the Russians and just a great talent. Also - man does not look in his 60's.
Yep I'm subscribing now - you won me over.
Thank you for watching. Please tell your friends
Demolition belongs in the Hall of Fame
Thanks for the great content… please keep it coming!
Thank you buddy. Please tell your friends
I met them at a convention! Them along with Victoria was awesome
I remember driving by the arena in fresno one day and seen they wer shooting a promo in the parking lot and i was like, thats repo man.
I had no idea that Smash was also Repo man, i didnt find out until years later on the internet. He did a great job being someone else. 👏
I liked him as the Blacktop Bully who I think Bully Ray got his gimmick from 😮
Demolition never should’ve been disbanded. Best tag teams for me were demolition and the hart foundation.
Bill's health scare ended it, pretty much. Barry had to move on and Bill went to Japan and finished up there, I believe. But yeah, they were great as Demolition.
Hey barry, if u ever read this, i just want u to know...every cell phone ive ever had, i still have them. And every single one of them u can power on and check what the set ringtone is and all of em are Demolition. I like at any given time throughout the day or night that demolition music will hit, and in my head i hear the biggest pop when my phone rings.
Repo Man wouldve been HUGE as a babyface. Lost opportunity
Thank you so much for watching. Please tell your friends
As a lower card comedy heel the repo man was perfect
The top guys are nothing without the top guy who puts them over,and if you good at it, to lose and let the guy look like 50 bucks and let the crowd pop, you are granted good money!
good Performance,happy Vince, happy customers with a experience of a lifetime,and you made it and one of the guys! Savage, Horowitz, Mr.Perfect, hitman and the rocket hart brother! These were topseller guys. I think wrestling from the 80's until 2000 was diffrent and the real golden Era.
The goldrn era in wrestling is normaly something else but that is for me the golden era of technical wrestling! with the hitman who made his king of the ring acomplishment seem like a real one and ws deserved for a scripted determination event! He showed the real sportivity of this artform and sport!
Demolition still my favourite tag team of all time
They were awesome. Great guys also
Smash was always my favorite member of Demolition and because of that I had an attachment to Repo.
Growing up I loved the Repo Man it was different
Simon Miller's dream come true right here
Oh my God I thought Repo Man was really short when I watched it as a kid as well. He really nailed a gimmick with the body language, pure thespian
Kinda funny you mention that.. some guys in local radio here in MN (KFAN) were talking about the Repo Man one day and one of the guys thought it was funny that some middle aged balding 5'6" guy was in wrestling.
@baboracus OK so I wasn't the only one
I always thought Repo Man was a short little guy until you saw him against someone big and he was even bigger.
As a dumb kid growing up when kayfabe was still mandatory I had ZERO idea that Smash was Repo Man.
That was the era where people on the undercard always had a side job.
During the day they were repo men barbers and racecar drivers but at night they wrestled.
Lol true. Thank you for the comment
wow this is great thank you
Thank you for watching
I knew who it was right from the beginning bc of the tattoo lol ..but he def was a totally different person
Both demolition seem class acts out of the ring like Greg valentine and the warlord. Gents.
as a kid i loved repo man lol
Me too!
Didn't he repo Randy Savage's lime green cowboy hat?? And who buys a cowboy hat in payments??😅
Was it that or his cowboy hat? Lol
It was hard for me to believe Demo Smash was Repo Man at first because of the body change. I liked him better as Smash, Krusher, and Bully, but Repo was definitely a good change.
You are forgetting the Golf-Pro Darsow & The Black Top Bully
I was Repo Man for Halloween one year.
Hahaha that's awesome. Send me a pic I'm seeing Barry next week I'll show him. Hit me up on Wrestling Then and Now on IG
Repo was awesome. Simon Miller knows
Really good interview!
Thank you for watching. Please tell your friends
I loved demolition and was gutted when they split. It was so obvious smash was repo. His arm tattoo, his trash talk, and his mouth gave it away.
It's a shame Vince couldn't of put Repo and Crush bag together somehow. Maybe a 6 man where the heels lost and Repo got battered by the other heels and Crush makes the save, and Repo takes his mask off and Crush realises he's Smash. It's not actually as crazy as it seems because this was the time frame Crush had issues with the Two Doinks. So even that could of set something up. Maybe Repo could of made the save at Summerslam.
THIS GUY WAS AND STILL IS A ICON you rock thank you barry!!@@#$$4
They could’ve had a transformation angle like they did with Akeem/ one man gang
I November smash as repoman in wrestling
Wow I never knew repo man was Smash!
They could have had the Repo Man join Money inc for awhile then they could have had Repo Man turn face and feud with Money Inc. Ted Debiase could have put Repo Man over at Summer Slam 93. Then Repo Man could feud with IRS for awhile. Possibly give Repo Man an IC title run.
I was never a fan of the occupation gimmicks Vince went to. But the Repo Man tickled me, sneaking around. The mask was a funny sight.
Barry dropped a lot of weight, when he was still working as Smash also.
Great wrestler In every area and all gimmicks.
Thank you for watching
Repo man. Demolition. Krusher krucheff 🇷🇺. How many gimmicks did he have ? Any more ? I forgot
Blacktop Bully
"Mr. Hole-In-One" Barry Darsow.
Wow never realized smash was the also the repoman...he looked like a big dude in demolition but repoman looked skinny...wow what was his height&weight.when he was smash????...must've been near 300???
I heard his son wrestles and is coming up in WWE.
McMahon is so f'n st%pid. Could you imagine a Repo Man face turn? Where McMahon tells him to tow some nice old Lady's car outside the arena, because she parked in McMahons favorite spot, but when he goes to tow the car he sees the Lady come stumbling on a walker and she tells him how he's her favorite wrestler, because he always stood up for law and order and what's right, and she only came to the show because of him and it's probably the last time she's going to make it, but that was all worth it because she finally is going to see him wrestle live, oh and what are you doing to my car Mr Repo Man, I'am not parked wrong am I? And finally Repo Man stand up to the man and trashes McMahon's car. And from there on he keeps steeling Heel's car and giving them to people in need.
My boss was just talking about he didnt know Smash was Repo until last year! 😂😂😂😂
Lol awesome. Tell him to watch 😃
Was 5 years old and liked repo man and berserker best- at that age I figured they had a shot at the www belt
Demolition was sick.
It became sick when Crush joined
Simon Miller liked this video
I would LOVE to see the Minnesota crew - Darsow, Rude, Norton, Laurinitas, Hegstrand, Zenk , Simpson (Koloff)- circle up and challenge any group of today's men - nobody would dare come to the ring -even if half of them are dead.
Heck yeah!
I see he still has that thick Russian accent .
how the heck does someone train you but not smarten you up? its like saying i flew to chicago but never left the ground. what?!
Repo Man was kind of lame in my opinion. He should have just kept the Smash gimmick. I think it would have still worked as a singles wrestler.
Repo Man was so stupid
Repo Man was much less embarrassing than Demolition.
Shoulda done a singles run as Smash. Bill may have been the reveared worker.. But Axe looked old and not as menacing with his slicked back hair. Where Smash (to me as a child) was scary a lot louder n realistic and looked more like a biker with make up.. Axe looked like he was playing a scary horror movie baddie.
Bill/Ax was great no disrespect.. But Smash coulda been a good mid card foil for a white bread babyface… and then coulda turned face.. following the same path & trajectory as the tag team.
When Bill started to experience health issues they brought in crush… But after that they were tried to turn Adams into the Hawaiian good guy.
I think that fued with Repo n Crush shoulda been a Rockers/Strikeforce style break-up angle. I think both characters woulda got over way more than what they went with..
Then when Crush turned heal on Savage… Crush coulda teamed with Barry again but as Crush (not Demolition crush, there is a difference) Barry tweeks his look just a little like crush did, but keeps the demolition Smash persona. Then Adams turns on Smash giving us fans the Smash singles run we ALWAYS WANTED!!
ITS SUCH A SHAME VKM STOPPED SEEING ANY VALUE IN HIS CREATION ONCE HE SIGNED LOD !,
I also think once Bret Hart started his singles push… Smash n Neidhart coulda been re packaged as team consisting of 2 famous brawlers and woulda made a great tag team.
I can imagine mean gene… “what happens when you take the muscle from the heart foundation n combine him with the muscle from Demolition… You get the “Anvil Smashers” , or the “foundation demolishers” “DemoDation” or the “Heart smashers” (wow some of those are just terrible😂) But Smash keeps the leather but drops the make-up.. And Jim swaps the pink singlet n longboys for a matching black out fit.
imagine the promos. They would be the most rugged tag team around. Woulda got over more than the repoman or the New foundation with Jim & Owen.
Lastly I never Marked out more than when bill n Barry drew one and two in the RR back when wrestling was so “Hoganised” n predictable. My suspension of disbelief was never greater. I’d never seen anything like that before. It was amazing to me!
This is them 👇Working against each other
ua-cam.com/video/ozk3qhH8mMg/v-deo.htmlsi=NCaoViJ9MoN9uX8m