During a recent interview on the It’s My House podcast pro-wrestling star Marc Mero spoke about the creation of the Johnny B. Badd character, which Mero reveals was the brain child of the legendary Dusty Rhodes. Hear Mero’s full thoughts on the character, one that he calls one of his favorite moments in the business, below.
Says the Johnny B. Badd character was a Dusty Rhodes creation:
Johnny B. Badd was Dusty Rhodes’ creation. When he told me he had this character, this gimmick for me — I was just Marc Mero back then, trying to make it into the business. When he saw me he said, ‘I think I got this gimmick.’ He said to me, ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Little Richard?’ Now, I thought he meant a wrestler named Little Richard, which I’d never heard of, so I said, ‘I’ve never heard of Little Richard.’ He goes, ‘You’ve never heard of Little Richard?’ and he starts singing and doing Little Richard songs. I go, ‘Oh, the singer Little Richard.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve never heard that before.’ He goes, ‘Oh, I think I’ve got a gimmick for you.’ The next thing I realize is he had this Johnny B. Badd character in mind and I got to tell you, Chris, it was probably the most fun I ever had in the business. When I look back on my career — the laughter and joy we had because here he is teaching this kid from New York to be this flamboyant personality from Macon, Georgia, with this outrageous character.
How Rhodes taught him all of the ins and outs of the character:
He would show me how to walk and talk like he saw I should do. I’ll never forget the first time he wanted me to walk up to the microphone, he says, ‘You walk up to the microphone and say, ‘I’m so pretty I should have been born a little girl.’ I’d walk up and he’d go, ‘Oh, no no no no no.’ He kept doing it over and over and I got to tell you, Chris, we got laughing so hard we couldn’t even finish the promo of what he was trying to teach me because we were just busting out laughing at this outrageous character. [In Johnny B. Badd voice] ‘I’m a bad man. I’m so outrageous it’s contagious. I love to rock and roll. I strut and stroll and you, I’m going to drive you out of control.’ That’s what Dusty Rhodes would work with me on. The greatest time though, Chris. Even when I think about it I get this joy that just overwhelms me sometimes when I think about how blessed I was to work with the American dream because he made my American dream become a reality.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful
)