At Survivor Series 1988, WWE executed one of the most memorable “double turns” in its history, as Mr. Fuji betrayed the Tag Team Champion Demolition to align with their rivals, The Powers of Pain. The move simultaneously turned Demolition into fan favorites and The Powers of Pain into villains. On their recent “DEMOPOD” podcast, Ax and Smash discussed the famous angle, revealing they found out about it at the last minute.
When asked when they were informed of the major creative shift, Bill Eadie (Ax) stated that they were not given advance notice. “If I remember correctly… we didn’t hear about it till the evening just before the match went on,” he said.
At the time, Demolition were dominant heel champions, but they were beginning to get cheered by the audience. Eadie believes that the WWE office misinterpreted the reason for those cheers, which led to the decision to turn them babyface.
“The people that make the decisions listen to the crowd… They were cheering for us, but it wasn’t because we were good guys,” Eadie explained. “When the music hit and we came to the ring, they knew something was going to happen, and they respected us. And I think that the office got confused. ‘Well, they’re cheering for them. They like them. We have to turn them good guys’.”
Barry Darsow (Smash) said they were excited about the storyline change. “We’re kind of excited about it, you know, it’s like, well, we’re losing Fuji, who we’ve traveled with forever, but now we get to work against him,” he said. “Becoming baby faces, we knew we were going to get a run like that, even though we didn’t work like baby faces. So it was good. It was a good move.”
Eadie explained that a key to their success as babyfaces was that they didn’t fundamentally change their in-ring style. He learned that lesson earlier in his career from booker George Scott when his “Masked Superstar” character turned babyface. “He said, ‘Don’t change your style. They’re going to like you, because now, after all you’ve done… you’re on our side now, and we respect you’,” Eadie recalled. “And that’s how Barry and I looked at it. We’re not going to cheat. We’re not going to go out and do hip tosses and drop kicks… That’s not what we were. We were just going to take our seriousness and come out of the other dressing room.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The DEMOPODÂ with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
