In late 1990, at the height of their feud with The Legion of Doom, Demolition briefly underwent a jarring cosmetic change, trading their signature face paint for black masks or hoods. On their “DEMOPOD” podcast, Ax and Smash spoke about the infamous creative decision, stating their belief that it was a deliberate attempt by WWE management to sabotage their act and elevate the newly arrived Legion of Doom.
Bill Eadie (Ax) called the idea a “horrible suggestion that was given to us by the office.” Both he and Barry Darsow (Smash) believe the move was a direct response to the arrival of The Legion of Doom (The Road Warriors), a team with a similar look and style. Darsow stated that despite LOD’s reputation, Demolition was still more popular with the WWE audience at the time.
“The Road Warriors are… the top team everywhere. And here’s the Demolition in the WWF, and we’re over big time up there,” Darsow said. “The office is thinking, ‘Oh, these Road Warriors are going to come up here and they’re going to be the biggest baby faces of all times.’ Well, they weren’t. We were. We were getting bigger pops than they were. So they had to do everything they could to try to destroy us.”
Eadie agreed with this assessment. “They were trying to destroy Demolition. They had the Legion of Doom had come in, and for some reason, they just wanted to destroy us,” he said. “So instead of the paint, put the hoods on… it was a horrible, demeaning… they thought it was going to be a ruination of us, and all it did was piss us off.”
Darsow described the personal toll the change took on them. “By putting those masks on, they were not just destroying the team, but they were destroying us personally. I mean, it was terrible,” he stated. “They didn’t fit. They were miserable. And, you know, it wasn’t good at all.”
The unpopular change did not last long, as the team took a stand against it and gave their notice to the company. “I think we only had one or two matches with it because we just refused to do it,” Eadie said. Darsow confirmed that he went directly to Vince McMahon to voice his displeasure. “I went into Vince, and I said, ‘Vince, I am not working this freaking mask. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in my life’.” Eadie also noted that both he and Darsow gave their notice to McMahon around this time due to their unhappiness with the creative direction.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit DEMOPOD with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
