Show: Wrestling Epicenter courtesy of www.WrestlingEpicenter.com
Guest: Frank Dusek
Date: 05/02/2025
Your Host: James Walsh
Perhaps more than any other sport or form of entertainment, pro wrestling has a slew of legends that contributed to the wrestling industry in a major way. Today, we welcome a gentleman who has literally seen pro wrestling from every vantage point and left his own unique stamp on the wrestling industry.
Frank Dusek is the son of Wally Dusek. A second generation star that had the adopted name of Dusek though not part of the original Dusek bloodline, Frank had a unique career that began with him selling programs for events at the age of 4 all the way to winning championships in territories such as Mid South and Florida. But, he is probably best remembered for his time as announcer and booker for World Class Championship Wrestling!
For the first time in nearly 35 years, Frank Dusek opens up about his life and times in pro wrestling including some interesting stories about Jim Crockett Sr, Andre the Giant, World Class and its merger with the Memphis territory, and, of course, his father and the true story of the Dusek family history in pro wrestling.
If you’re a fan of classic wrestling, I sincerely hope you take the time to listen to this interview. It is something special. Some highlights are below. There are some gems that aren’t in the write up. So, check out the YouTube video and listen. It’s free. And, it is a great way to spend an hour of your time!
For more great content like this, please visit www.WrestlingEpicenter.com!
Here’s the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Tl_lTRH9N4E
FRANK DUSEK:
On what he’s doing now:
“This is the first interview I’ve done in probably 35 years. (laughs) I’m retired. My folks bought a house near the beach here in North Carolina years ago. I have inherited it. So, I’ve more or less taken to the retired life and I’m not really doing anything. (laughs)”
On growing up in the wrestling business and working at a very young age behind the scenes:
“Well, you know. Growing up, we didn’t have a house. We carried a trailer behind us wherever we went. So, I literally grew up on the road. Going to the shows was just a part of life, it is how it was. Selling programs, ushering, keeping time, eventually announcing, even refereeing some before I started wrestling. All of it was just part of growing up!”
On carrying on the legendary Dusek name in pro wrestling:
“Well, the Dusek thing happened by accident. Emil Dusek got hurt in a car accident in the late 1930’s, 1935, 1936, something like that. There were 4 Dusek’s. And, with one out, they needed a 4th Dusek. Rudy (Dusek) knew John – John Pesek was the man who trained my dad. And, he saw that my dad kind of looked like a Dusek. So, my dad spent some time in the ring with Ernie (Dusek) and Rudy (Dusek) and he was invited into the family. This was all before I was born. But, it was good.. But, after the war (World War II) the 4 Dusek’s, it kind of tapered off a little bit..”
On if his dad enjoyed taking the Dusek name:
“He kind of said, after he retired, that he wished he hadn’t have done it. He had a promising run early on in his career as Charlie Santen. He was big in California, he spent 3 years in Europe and wrestled Henri Deglane the World Champion and Charles Rigoulot. After Europe, he went down to Australia and he did well for himself. Then, this call came and it was a chance to move up so he took it. But, he was never able to really step back from it. He didn’t regret it regret it. But, he kind of just wished he maybe had not done it.”
On if it was weird using a different last name to his legal name most of his life:
“All my life, I’ve been Frank Dusek! Except for in school when I was Santen. But, all my life I was Frank Dusek. Even my dad’s drivers license said Wally Dusek. (laughs) What happened there was my dad was from Missouri. Back in the late 40’s, you didn’t have to have a drivers license in Missouri. So, when my dad would walk in, it would be like, “Oh! Wally Dusek! King Edward Hotel in New York…” That is just how he was known. So, when he got a drivers license and transferred it to North Carolina, it said Wally Dusek!” (laughs)”
On who trained him to wrestle:
“(laughs) I was never trained! My old man, he was trained by John Pesek. He had a different philosophy about things. I learned nothing from him. I mean, I learned double wrist locks and things that I used in Junior High School and High School in fights. But, I learned nothing about working. Well, my first matches, Larry Hamilton got me a job down in Louisiana. I was so bad, I was down there for about 3 weeks and Bill Watts told me to get a job and get out of the business because I’d never make it. (laughs) I was terrible. But, I had no training!”
On how he figured it out:
“A guy named Ben Alexander that I went to high school with He was going over to Park Center to learn to take back drops. He took some and I took some so I learned that. And, another young boy was Terry Sawyer, we took turns giving each other suplexes into the swimming pool in West Virginia. That was it! I never had any training. I never tied up with anybody. But, I was horrible.”
On getting a shot in Georgia:
“Ole gave me a shot down in Georgia. The only thing that I can remember is I missed the rope when in there with Superstar (The Masked Superstar) and I hit one eye and blacked it, I turned and hit the other eye and blacked it, and then I turned around and got hit by a clothesline. (laughs) But, Ole booked me. And, he put me in there with an old timer named Dennis Hall. I remember Dennis was around when I was a kid. He had gone on to be a truck driver but he came back and poor Dennis, he got me. Well, when we worked, I had been refereeing Wahoo McDaniel and Johnny Valentine. So, when I started working, I had kind of a stiff idea of how it should be. After about three weeks of beating him up, well, he didn’t do it on purpose. But, in a match, I came back with a mat burn on my face, one on my knee, my elbow hurt… And, I got to thinking about it… “Have I been doing this to him?” The next night, I did my best to loosen up and not hurt him. When we got back to the dressing room, he was like, “Are you OK, kid?” “Yes, sir.” “Are you sick? “No sir.” “What happened?” “I got the message!” (laughs) After a while, everyone was under the assumption I had been working for years. It came very quickly!”
On if he ever won over Bill Watts:
“Well, Griz liked me. Grizzly Smith. So, when I was there, I started working with Super Destroyer, Scott Irwin. As a matter of fact, we won a Tag Team Tournament one time there in New Orleans. We beat Garvin and Jake Roberts in the first round, Dusty and Andre the Giant in the second round, and Dick Murdoch and the Junkyard Dog in the third round. We kept the titles for two days and then dropped it! (laughs) But, that is the way Watts booked!”
On working Florida and winning the TV title by beating Barry Windham:
“I did! I went down there just to work but Dusty Rhodes liked me and decided to give me a little push. He told me I was going to make a little money.”
On why World Class has such nostalgia on it to this day:
“I don’t know. It could be because it ran for so long that it had a legacy. Of course, there was all the stories about the Von Erich boys. David, Kevin, Kerry, Mike, and the other one… The short one. Chris! He killed himself… But, I don’t know. You had all the stories and the tragedies and then the movies. You had the Von Erich’s and the Freebirds and that captured everybody’s attention. As a matter of fact, that feud was still going on when I got there in the office. They (World Class) were actually beating (Crockett/NWA) WCW in the ratings. Everybody was behind WWF, WWE. But, World Class was competing for second place. They were drawing 7 ratings. But, then Kenny (Mantell) ran out of money. But, that’s a whole different story.”
On transitioning out of the ring to the office:
“That came easy. I started out in the office. My dad, after he retired from the ring, was a road agent for 28 years. So, he would show up early and the ring would get set up, the ushers would get set up. I saw how a show was run. I even collected the money when he was a little older… I was also around when Mr. Crockett Sr. was around and I saw how things were done. I hustled the turkeys up to the third floor, and I brought the bottles of Whiskey at Christmas. (laughs) That was my job. I hustled food into the office. Every year, Mr. Crockett, because our birthdays were on the same day, every year he would take me into the bathroom with him and he would give me a $100 dollar bill. He told me never to take a payoff in a shit house! (laughs)”
On how he ended up being an announcer:
“(laughs) That is kind of how I ended up doing that. Bill was upset with the guy who wore the loud suits… What was his name? It will come to me in a second. He wasn’t getting his point across. I said, “I can do that.” He asked if I have a suit, I said “I have several.” And, he gave me a shot…. Boyd Pierce! That’s the name. I knew Bill was a traditionalist so I compared something like Littlebear to Londus. I came back through and Bill said, “You own a suit?” I said, “Yeah, I ahve several.” “Bring ’em with you, you’re going to do some announcing for now.” I transitioned into a manager. Kenny (Mantell) knew about that. I then went into being a timekeeper and that led to me being a matchmaker. Just part of the natural flow, I guess you could say.”
On the passing of Bill Mercer:
“Great guy. I never was really that big of a fan of his announcing. Now, nothing personal. But, because he was with the Dallas Cowboys or whatever it was, I always got the feeling that he viewed wrestling as a little bit beneath him. He never said anything or disrespected anybody. I just got that feeling. He was an old time announcer… Not like breaking pencils to make it sound like joints breaking. But, he was an old time style announcer. He got mad at me once because I called him Norman. It was something Bobby Heenan had done. I called everybody Norman so I didn’t forget the name of little people. He didn’t like that. I said, “Get back at me. Say whatever you want.” He didn’t. He went to Fritz (Von Erich) instead. Fritz told me not to do it.”
On why the merger of the Memphis and Dallas territory for the USA never worked:
“Jerry (Jarrett) never had any intention on having it work. He never had any intention on keeping that territory going. What had happened was Max Andrews had sold $1,000,000 in advertising for the next year. All they had to do is keep that show rolling for a year. Ah, Hell. I’m going to spill a lot of beans here but I guess it doesn’t matter. The (Von Erich) boys were on a contract here they got paid $1,500 a week. It didn’t matter if they showed up. Kerry went overseas for a month and still expected his pay. They basically stripped Kenny (Mantell) of all of his money. So, he basically sold it back to Kevin and Kerry. Yeah, he broke Kenny. Kenny lost everything. He lost his house, he lost his farm, he lost everything. Kenny told me Fritz was a mentor to him. He just couldn’t say no to Fritz. So, he sold and when the boys took back over, it was a nightmare. Kevin was having his problems. Kerry was basically worthless as far as business goes. They had me trying to hold it all together. Kerry came to me and told me Jerry (Jarrett) had offered to basically pay the bills. So, Jerry came in for about $50,000 and took over. Max Andrews was happy to see him because that is where his bread and butter and that is where his money was coming from. They kept it running. Eric (Embry) writing the show and me supervising keeping it safe and keeping it running. Jerry got his money. And, once he got his money, they closed it down.”
On why Jerry Jarrett didn’t keep Dallas going:
“He wasn’t interested in running Dallas. He didn’t have the right kind of talent for Dallas. Jerry Lawler was a great draw. But, he wasn’t going to be the guy. This was Dallas. It was Johnny Valentine, it was Wahoo McDaniel. It was Fritz Von Erich. You needed more violence than we were giving them. They didn’t get over with Bill Dundee. They didn’t get over with the Beauty and the Beast (Terry Garvin Simms and Percy Pringle III). That is what they were sending us. And, if they did get over, they’d go up to Memphis because that is where they were drawing. Jerry just kept it together to make the money.”
On if the legendary Dallas Sportatorium was actually a dump:
“It was! (laughs) When I would get there in the morning, the maintanance guy they had there would have laid out, almost like a show, a thing showing all the rats that he had shot with his 22! Some of them were a foot and a half long! At night, when all the lights were off in the Sportatorium, you could see all the holes from where the bullets had gone through! (laughs) Shooting at rats! I was sitting in the cage where the families would watch matches and I had my hand up on a beam and a rat ran over my hand! (laughs) If you would leave food in there, they would chew through a 2 inch thick door to get to it. I mean, we were talking about big rats here. This was not mice!”
On his time with the NAWA/SAPW territory in the early 1990’s that sought to continue the Mid Atlantic territory:
“Oh lord! (laughs) When I left Dallas, I’m from Charlotte. So, I kind of was just stopping by. It is sort of like anything else. There was a guy who lost $3,000,000 to a crooked boxing promoter and he was trying to make it back through wrestling. He assumed that because it was George Scott, him, and Ricky Steamboat, he would draw no matter what they did. They were already struggling for money. Their first TV taping, they sold about 75 tickets and they were running the 11,000 seat arena. They needed to run some TV for a while and then try running shows. They ran the TV and started running shows immediately. That’s hard to do! I don’t care what talent you’ve got. By the time I got there, they were already sucking wind. And, it would only go downhill from there. The TV went downhill. The talent went downhill… It was an interesting experience! But, I wouldn’t want to do it again.”
On booking for a young Ken Shamrock:
“To be honest with you, Kenny was a bit of a goof! I had no idea how tough he was! I had no idea he was going to end up being that kind of a star. The MMA thing really put him over.”
On other stars of the NAWA/SAPW and if he thought they could make it:
“I knew Chris Chavis, Tatanka, was going to make it. He had the look. He was good. I also knew the Nasty Boys had a good shot at it. I guess that was the main guys. The rest of the roster, they were good but they were never going to be superstars. The Pitbulls, they were good but they were a little short. Both of them were shorter than me. That is why I thought tyey might not make it in WWE.”
On NAWA/SAPW finishing up:
“We had one TV that was doing good and that was in Greenville, South Carolina. That is a good place for wrestling. Well, Vince McMahon came in and offered the TV network money and took our one good timeslot away. (laughs) That was the end! We were doing, $3,500, $4,000 a show off that television. When that was gone, we were doomed.”
On advice he has for the new Mid Atlantic Territory Wrestling promotion:
“The same advice I would give to anybody which is to remember it is a business. I remember I asked my dad why I saw the same finish two nights in a row one time and he told me that you have to remember, it is a business. You can’t book your friends because they’re your friends. You can’t put yourself in the main event because it is your show. You have to spend your money on business and not on your friends. It is business. Not all that shines is gold. Not everyone that comes to you that looks like a star is. I wouldn’t do it! (laughs) I would love to run a show that is for people who can’t afford the WWE. But, it is a tough, tough market to run shows.”
On if he misses wrestling:
“Oh Lord, yes! Every day. I would go back in a second if I could find a way.”
On if he’d ever write a book:
“I don’t think I’d have enough to tell. The only thing I can say is when I started wrestling, it wasn’t until about six months in that they started asking me to do interviews. Well, I was not the biggest or the strongest like Blackjack Mulligan or anything like that. So, I knew I needed to find a niche. You can insert your own joke here but I decided I wanted to try and be a little bit smarter than your average wrestler. (laughs) So, what I started doing, and I still do to this day out of habit, is if I hear something I like, I write it down. I figure, they pay these writers millions of dollars…. It is like something Gary Hart told me once. He said, “The only advantage to an original idea is that you’re the first one that gets to use it.” So, I would call my book, “Everything I Wish I had Said First!” (laughs)”
On Andre the Giant stories:
“I have two or three. Andre had no idea what he weighed. So, one night, we put him on one of those scales that have the moving things on them, I have no idea what you call them. Anyway, he put one foot on one scale, the other on another scale, and we told him to stand as evenly as he could. This was 1979, 1980 so he was still in pretty good shape. He weighed 223 pounds on one foot and 221 pounds on the other. He weighed 444 pounds in shape! (laughs)”
On playing cribbage with Andre:
“Andre was a good cribbage player. I wasn’t bad at it myself. So, we were playing and sitting on one of those wooden benches like you would find in a locker room – The cribbage board was between him. Andre cut one of his famous farts! The cribbage board vibrated! (laughs) I skunked him and I double skunked him. He was mad because he had bad cards. He picked up the cards, in cribbage there are 40 cards left over, he picked up those 40 cards and he tore them in half and threw them down. “We play later, boss!” (laughs)”
On the dumbest thing he ever did to Andre the Giant:
“The dumbest thing I ever did to Andre the Giant was in a match, I think we were working against the Sheepherders and Buddy Rose. It was a handicap match. Well, we had them in the corner and we were squashing them like you do. And, I don’t know why I did it. I have no idea what my thought process was. But, I goosed Andre the Giant! I stuck my hand halfway to my elbow up goosing him! (laughs) He didn’t say anything! But, I lost the fall. And, he picked me up and he said, “I’ll protect you, boss!” and he threw me in the corner and he beat the Hell out of me with his ass! (laughs) I was laughing so hard and screaming “I’m sorry” and they caught on to what was going on so they kept running at him so he could keep moving and beating me up with his ass! I’d try to get out of there, he’d shove me back! That whole 2 minute break, he spent beating me up! Oh, he never said anything! But, he got me good, boy! (laughs)”
On if he watches any modern wrestling:
“No, not in over 30 years. I see clips. Sometimes people post stuff and I’ll watch it. What I will watch is Brock Lesnar. I think he’s good. And, with Endeavor owning both UFC and WWE, I think that, his style, is what wrestling will be like in the future.”
On his message to his fans who have wondered about him since he left wrestling:
“Really just thank you for remembering me.”
