Back in the day, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan didn’t go anywhere without his trusty 2/4 but where did the idea to carry a plank of wood to the ring?
Duggan explained the origin in a recent interview with DAZN’s Ash Rose.
Duggan says it was the legendary Bruiser Brody’s idea.
“So, I’m in West Texas, Lubbock, Texas, sitting in this little nasty dressing room, all covered with loogies and bruises from the fans. Bruiser Brody, my mentor, comes in, and he goes, ‘Duggan, if you carry something to the ring, carry something you can use. Forget the feathered boas and sequined robes,'” said Duggan.
Duggan was struck by inspiration just looking around the locker room.
“And just by luck, I’m sitting there, I’m like, here’s a piece of wood. And I came out yelling, I got to the ring, I’m like, holy, nobody spit on me or kicked at me or anything. I’m like, this is great, and it was an easy gimmick to carry around, and the rest is history,” he said.
Duggan revealed that the 2/4 made it hard to travel around the world sometimes, especially when customs, immigration officials wondered why he was carrying a 2/4 around with him.
“One time I’m going over to the UK, and this guy, he didn’t recognise me, and we’ve been flying all night, and I got all the wrestlers with me, Hogan, Andre, everybody. I bring my own board, because I throw it up in the air and stuff, and over in the UK, everything’s metric; it’s bigger. So, I bring my own board in this beautiful case, and this custom guy pulls out the case, and he’s looking at the board, and he’s like, what do you do with a board? So, I’m like, I’m building a house over here, piece by piece, right? He goes, ‘Sit over there’. Two hours later, he lets me go, but the bus had to wait for me, and none of the other wrestlers was best pleased with me!” Duggan laughed.
Duggan’s last match was in 2019. He lost to Gursinder Singh at Destiny Sunday Night Power Slam in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
