Demolition made an appearance on the “80s Wrestling: The Podcast” this week to recall their appearances in the 1989 Royal Rumble Match.
Ax and Smash did have to face off in the match as Ax drew #1 followed by Smash drawing #2.
Ax said, ‘I know I pulled the first number, but I wasn’t aware of anybody else. I was just getting ready in the back to come out. Of course the music went off and I went into the ring. I wasn’t aware of who was second or third or whatever. It turned out to be memorable, not only for us, but for the fans. That’s one of the topics that most of the fans when we do the meet and greets, conventions, and gatherings that they talk about.”
Smash added, ‘I didn’t know way beforehand. When you have a big PPV, they usually write names on the board of who goes against who. The whole time I was wondering when am I going out there? I didn’t know if I was going to be 10 or 20. Who would ever think you would be #2 going out when Ax was #1. I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t tell me or didn’t tell 5, 6, 7 different people.”
“Once my music went on, I was thinking, ‘Well holy sh*t. What the hell is going on here?’ Bill is in the ring standing there. He’s looking at me like what are we going to do now? We got in there and we just started fighting. It was fun because we were such good friends. We were like brothers and we were fighting each other. All of a sudden, Andre the Giant comes out (at #3), and I was like, ‘Well thank God. Now I don’t have to get hit by my partner anymore.’ It was a pretty amazing night for us too because we were as surprised as anybody else.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription