Thursday, May 24, 2012

Tony Atlas Is The Slammy Award

WWE Hall Of Famer "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas taught Hulk Hogan to cup his ear to the fans, and he was the model for the Slammy Award statue.

His thoughts on Hulk Hogan using the trademark "cup to the ear" to the fans: 
"Georgia Championship Wrestling... I was watching a match one day and it was a wrestler by the name of Thunderbolt Patterson. He went to the crowd and went like this [cup to the ear]... I thought it was pretty neat. I went down in Florida and saw Dusty Rhodes doing the same thing. In 1980 when I went to the WWF at the time, I thought about what I saw Thunderbolt and Dusty Rhodes do, so I decided to do it. When I did it, it was in a match with [Hulk] Hogan. When Hogan became champion, I sat in the dressing room and saw Hogan doing it."

 
Being the inspiration for the Slammy statue: 
"One of the guys at the WWF offices at the time came to me and asked me, 'do you have a picture of you press slamming anyone?'. So I gave them a picture of me press-slamming Victor Guerrero. I gave them that picture, and the guy gave the picture right back at me about a month or two later. Then I went to the first Slammys in 1985. If you look closely at the bottom of the statue, you see that's Tony Atlas, 'cause think about who was doing the press slam in 1985 when the Slammy was created."

First African American Tag-Team Champions
Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson (The Rock's Father)
Tony Atlas looks like he could be Bobby Lashley''s father lol

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