Dark Side of the Ring S6 Episode 4 - Tony Atlas Too Much Too Soon
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00:00Mr. USA, Tony Atmos.
00:09I had 19 and a half inch biceps, and I was 225 pounds at age 19.
00:15God, he was a black Arnold Schwarzenegger.
00:18You have got it. Look at the line. You have got it.
00:21Yeah, I mean, he was a total package.
00:23I know that I need to work harder. I need to train harder.
00:26A bodybuilder turned wrestler, Mr. USA Tony Atmos broke barriers as one of the first major black superstars in the sport.
00:36You got to keep it. Getting it is one thing, but keeping it alive, you got a different thing.
00:40I remember seeing black wrestlers get tarred and feathered.
00:43A lot of questionable racist behavior.
00:47Tony Atmos made little black kids all over the world feel like, man, I can do that too.
00:53I am going to whoop on you and get paid for it.
00:57There were very few black wrestlers.
00:59There was a lot of time I wrestled in an area where I'm the only black guy.
01:02They saw money. They didn't see color.
01:05Hey, wait a minute.
01:06Holy shit, look at this guy.
01:09Get in the way. Get in the way.
01:11Tony Atmos goes to USA, climbing the ladder of success very, very rapidly in the World Wrestling Federation.
01:15Rising to heights few black wrestlers of his era had ever reached, Tony Atmos began to unravel the weight of fame's pressures and pitfalls.
01:25I got trouble here, and I got trouble there, and I got trouble coming your way.
01:31Sex, drugs, and wrestling.
01:33There was a party every night at the hotel room.
01:36There were a lot of temptations, and there were a lot of different choices out there to make.
01:41I never bought drugs in the day of my life. It was always given to me. It was in the dressing room, for God's sake.
01:46There's a lot of things about Tony Atmos I wonder. Whether it's legend or fact, is it true or not?
01:53Tony's battle with addiction cost him significant opportunities, leaving him with no place to call home.
02:01Here's a guy who's making hundreds of thousands of dollars, and he's living on the street.
02:06It's not how much you make, it's how much you save.
02:09I was some homeless guy that smelled like something died, no place to live, no nothing.
02:15I became a suicider. I didn't want to live no more. I wanted to die.
02:28All right, so we're going to watch this, and you just tell us whatever you think about it, feel about it.
02:36Mr. USA, Tony Atmos.
02:41And he looks fantastic. Looks like he was chiseled from granite.
02:45Man, he was jacked. What a well-put-together human.
02:49His opponent, weighing 320 pounds, the incredible Hulk Hogan.
02:56What's he?
02:57Unbelievable size of Hulk Hogan.
03:00So you press-slammed Hulk Hogan at Madison Square Garden?
03:03Yeah.
03:04Oh, look at that. Oh, that's that.
03:07Check it out. Check it out, bro. Check it out.
03:11And how do the fans react?
03:14Atlas grinding it out a bit.
03:16The table and glue.
03:22Hulk Hogan's, what, 330 pounds at the time, 6'4".
03:26And pressing over your head.
03:29Hulk Hogan, I can hear him now, cussing up a storm.
03:37Damn.
03:38Tony wanted to press the biggest guy in the company,
03:42because it was telling everybody in the audience,
03:44look how strong I am.
03:47A main event guy, Madison Square Garden.
03:57To go to, you know, living on a park bench.
04:02Sometimes people have to go through hitting bottom
04:05before they realize how good they really had it.
04:08I was born in Virginia.
04:12My mother was a devoted Christian.
04:16She'd only been with one man her whole life,
04:19and that was my father.
04:20My dad never worked.
04:22My mother worked.
04:23All of her dedication went directly to raising her kids.
04:27One time, we were walking down the street,
04:29and this guy slapped my mother on the butt.
04:32My mom turned around.
04:34She hit him with one punch and knocked him out.
04:36Layed him out right there.
04:38My mother said,
04:39I got to teach you kids how to protect yourself,
04:41because I ain't always going to be here for you.
04:43That was something she said all the time.
04:45Because when I was young,
04:47you had to know how to use your hands.
04:49All through life, like when you go back to my childhood,
04:51I was in anywhere between 50 to 100 fights.
04:54Anywhere in there, easily.
04:55So I had a reputation that if you fight me today,
04:58and I don't win,
04:59you're going to see me again tomorrow.
05:01Most of the influence in the black neighborhood
05:04when I was a child was bad influence.
05:06We looked up to drug dealers.
05:08We looked up to street fighters.
05:10We walked to school,
05:11and there was a fist fight every other day.
05:14I didn't care who you were.
05:15I would fight anybody.
05:17Now, my dad,
05:18he was a gambler who liked to hustle money,
05:20so he took me down to Scrapper Corner
05:22and wait for the railroad men to come in,
05:25and when they get drunk,
05:26he would tell them,
05:27I bet you can't whoop that boy there.
05:29I don't fight these grown men.
05:32And he said,
05:32if you lose this fight, boy,
05:34you're going to get it worse when you get home.
05:37But I grew quick.
05:38By the time I was 12,
05:40I was already over 6 feet at 12.
05:43But only weighed like 110 pounds.
05:48I was like a stick.
05:51And so one day,
05:51I was walking with this girl,
05:53because I helped her carry her books.
05:55I liked her.
05:57Really, I liked her shoes.
05:58She had tennis shoes on.
06:00So I hear this voice,
06:01baby, say,
06:01I'm going to push you.
06:03All of a sudden,
06:04I fell head first.
06:06I got the dent in my head right here.
06:10The whole world turned red
06:12because all the blood
06:13was ran down into my face.
06:15My grandmother come running out.
06:17Hold on.
06:18Hold on.
06:18Come here, boy.
06:19My scar was split completely in half.
06:21We had no phone.
06:23She couldn't call the ambulance.
06:25She couldn't call the police.
06:26No way of contacting anybody.
06:28My grandmother said,
06:30I want you to pray.
06:32So I got down on my knees.
06:34And this is what I said.
06:35I want to be strong like Samson,
06:37built like Hercules,
06:39and have a lot of money.
06:41And everything that I asked for in that prayer,
06:44God gave to me.
06:46I blew it later,
06:48but still,
06:48he gave to me.
06:50Do you think that you suffered
06:51brain trauma from that incident?
06:53Yeah.
06:54Yeah.
06:55Have you been ever medically diagnosed?
06:57No.
06:58No.
06:59But I do know
07:00there was something wrong with me.
07:01That I was not like regular kids.
07:04And I think it has something to do with the shoes.
07:06The reason I'm so submissive to women
07:09in sneakers and stuff like that,
07:11because all that was all at the same time.
07:13I don't understand.
07:14What do you mean?
07:14I buy shoes for the girls to step on me.
07:20Well, they got me into that.
07:22Oh, my goodness.
07:24That one.
07:25Fan one.
07:26Yeah, that's a nice pair of shoes right there.
07:28Now, what makes it good?
07:29Well, if they're family-looking,
07:31they look like something
07:32that should be on a woman's feet.
07:34I got stepped on in malls and gyms
07:37and houses, hotel, elevator.
07:40I got it done everywhere.
07:41A couple dozen times,
07:43I was with him.
07:43I seen him just buy his shoes
07:45and have him walk on his face
07:46and never talk to him again.
07:49I was as shocked as the girl was.
07:51People knew nothing about fetishes.
07:53F fetishes, all this stuff,
07:54was underground.
07:56So they thought,
07:57because of my wrestling,
07:58they thought it was part of my training.
08:00He'd take girls to matches
08:02and have them walk on his face.
08:03I'd give a woman $50 just to step on me.
08:06Plus, I'd buy the shoes for them.
08:08They didn't have to pay for the shoe.
08:09I thought it was a little bit
08:10out of the ordinary.
08:12You know, but then, you know,
08:14everybody has their little quirks, right?
08:18You know, things that make them feel good.
08:21As Popeye said, I am what I am.
08:23You know, he's not the only foot guy in the world.
08:26Well, they said, like,
08:27I suck toes, which I don't.
08:30They say I like high heels,
08:32which I don't.
08:33They say that I whack off,
08:35which I don't.
08:37They try to make it into a sexual thing.
08:40What, for me,
08:41my shoe fetter keeps me calm.
08:44I got more control of it now
08:46than I did then.
08:48Get a sniff on it, Tom!
08:49Hey, now we talking.
08:51I was into what's called dominatrix.
08:55So the dominatrix become your master.
08:58You're what's called a slave.
09:00I can't use that term now
09:01because I'm black,
09:02and black people get mad,
09:03but that's what it was.
09:04So they dominate you.
09:06See, I went to a person once,
09:08who had to explain it to me,
09:09that was into all this psychology stuff,
09:11and I had this rage in me.
09:14You know, ever since I was a kid,
09:16I'd fight anybody.
09:17I'd beat up anybody.
09:18I could lift anything.
09:19Nobody could beat me.
09:22So I had to learn more control.
09:24So I ended up going to the YMCA.
09:27I've never been to the gym today in my life.
09:29I was 15 years old
09:31when I first started lifting weights.
09:34Hey, hello.
09:35Welcome.
09:35Come on in, guys.
09:37Well, I know y'all gentlemen noticed
09:38I got a lot of stuff spread out here on the table
09:41because these items here
09:43are items for before there was a Tony Atlas.
09:48Now, this is Muscle Development Magazine.
09:53I never competed in bodybuilding before,
09:55but what ended up happening,
09:56I did a 350-pound press at age 19.
10:02That was the beginning of my bodybuilding
10:06and powerlifting.
10:07I saw Tony the first time at the YMCA.
10:18My name is David Crockett.
10:20I am part of the Crockett Wrestling family
10:22that started Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling,
10:26World Championship Wrestling,
10:27TBS.
10:29That's us.
10:29In Charlotte,
10:31the only place you had to exercise or lift weights
10:36was the YMCA.
10:37A lot of the wrestlers,
10:39George Scott, Sandy Scott,
10:41Johnny Heideman,
10:42you name it,
10:43they all were down there working out,
10:45and they said,
10:46hey, we've got this young man
10:47that we think we can do something with.
10:50They take me to the office.
10:52There were some mats there,
10:54and they said, you know,
10:55put him through the paces
10:56just to see, you know,
10:57if he knew anything,
10:59which he didn't,
11:00but he definitely had potential.
11:04They said,
11:04we're going to pay you $150 a week to trade.
11:10We took an investment in Tony.
11:13Other people,
11:14we did not see it worth buying stock in them.
11:18So was there jealousy?
11:19Oh, yes.
11:21And it was very hard for him.
11:23Very hard.
11:24But he was like a sponge.
11:25You know,
11:26he'd learn.
11:28Now,
11:29George Scott said,
11:30well, Tony,
11:31I guess tomorrow
11:32we have to teach you how to work.
11:34I said,
11:34George,
11:35I don't want to work.
11:36I want to be a wrestler.
11:37He said,
11:38no, Tony,
11:38I don't want to work.
11:39I said,
11:40I don't want to be a worker.
11:41I want to be a wrestler.
11:43I learned
11:43it ain't up to me
11:44to win or lose.
11:45It's up to some promoter.
11:47It was hard to swallow.
11:49Me being
11:49for so many years
11:52as a weight lifter,
11:53a bodybuilder,
11:54I was in legit.