VIP EXCLUSIVE - FROM PWTORCH NEWSLETTER #1076/77..

Torch Talk with Lanny Poffo, pt. 11
Originally Published: March 25
Torch Newsletter #1076/1077

The following is the elevanth and final installment of our series of "Torch Talk" interview series with Lanny Poffo. This installment of the five-and-a-half hour interview was conducted on December 8, 2008.

Wade Keller: Let's continue name association with Junkyard Dog.

Lanny Poffo: His name is Sylvester Ritter. I loved him, but he got killed in a car wreck. He's one of the people on The List, and what a nice man he was. Fun guy. Excellent interview. Lots of charisma. I just feel terrible when you mention his name. The thought of all the happy stories and then I hear he was killed in a car wreck. I guarantee I'm the lousiest driver that's ever lived and I've never been in an accident. I cause them. You know what I do, I'm a little infuriating to drive with. I leave early and don't speed. I don't think I'm a good driver, so I'm always watchful of the other guy. I'm in no hurry to be anywhere. If I want to get there early, I leave early. I do not make it up on the road. I guess some people don't like to drive with me, but I'm still alive and I've been driving since I was 16.

Keller: During the '80s when you were around a lot of these wrestlers, how open or closed was the cocaine use. I know that we've heard enough documented stories that it's well-known that, not just in wrestling, cocaine was kind of the drug of the '80s. It certainly had its place in the WWF and other promotion. Did you see any of that, much of it, did you look away?

Poffo: I kind of looked away, but saw it anyway. It's very popular and then when everybody got in trouble they started testing for it. And people got caught, caught, caught. What I'm saying is, it was prevalent, so that's all I have to say about that.

Keller: What percentage of the old '80s promos that we see, especially the local promos where they'd do hours of them at once with the different city mentioned, were the wrestlers using cocaine? Could it have been 10 percent, 20 percent? Or do you have no idea what percentage? Or did they do it after tapings and never do it at work?

The rest of this interview installment, plus the previous ten interview installments, are available exclusively for PWTorch VIP members. You can click the sign-up link below and then visit the "Torch Talk Library" section to read this entire five-and-a-half hour interview, plus listen to it in audio format. Also, this is the final week to hear our February Vintage Audio Torch Talk with Rick Steamboat before it is replaced with a new Vintage Torch Talk in March.

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