By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Mike McGuirk
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
Growing up in the business: “I grew up in this business. Defending it. You know, I went to a school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with doctors and dentists and lawyers. My dad was a promoter of professional wrestling, which was very different and odd for a lot of them. But, you know, it was a way of life to me. I knew nothing different. And so when I would bring some of my friends over there, you know, to go see a show, they were scared and terrified to death. But I would also go into a classroom, and I would see ‘it’s fake’ on the chalkboard. Well, I knew who that was for. And then you got a first name Mike. So there’s an era there that I went through, junior high and high school that I went by my middle name, which is Kathleen, but it has always been Michael. It was given to me. My dad’s middle name was Michael, not Michelle. Everybody goes, are you sure? Yeah, I’ve had this name all my life. So, and I think that was another thing that it gave me a strong presence. Sure wasn’t gonna make me shy. Thank you, dad, but also too, when this thing first started out and Gorilla [Monsoon] would say, we’re gonna go to our ring announcer, Mike McGuirk, and they’d be like, who? Where? Where is he? The name helped and, and then, just being around it, because I think anybody that had not known this business, and then you’re thrust upon it, it can be quite intimidating.”
Finding her voice: “I guess I was just born that way. I did have some broadcasting, but I think the voice came from wanting to be heard. So yeah, it was never, you know, I did a little bit of radio, but it was all afterwards. And where it came from was just, obviously it was from the heart and the soul and, a lot of it when I was growing up is, I could not understand the announcer, and I wanted to, I wanted to be perfection as far as, because those guys get in the ring and, you know, it’s, you’re part of the show. You’re not the show, but you’re enhancing it. So that was where it came from. And, and by God, I want him to, to hear me. Give me a mic.”
Whether her father Leroy McGuirk wanted her to get involved in pro wrestling: “My father was blind. My father never saw me. He wrestled professionally with one eye and then, uh, a car accident. He was also a world’s junior heavyweight champion. He was also a two-time national champion in amateur wrestling. Never intended to go into this business. He was a journalism major. He was at the shows. And some of the best times that I got when we would be in Tulsa, WWF, was I would always bring daddy there so he could go to the back and talk to the guys. And so I, to introduce my father, was, you know, it, it was, I was a proud, proud daughter because I, when I was born, obviously, he thought I was supposed to be a boy and didn’t turn out to be the boy wrestler. So I turned out to be a lady ring announcer. And then to pay homage to my daddy. So, which I admire to this day. Yeah, always will.”
Was it tough being a woman in pro wrestling during that time period: “We didn’t have the word diva. Thank God there was Sherri [Martel]. So we would find the nearest broom closet or anything that we could to get dressed in. And you didn’t wanna make waves, you know, we wanted to be a part of it and we didn’t, there was nothing, like demands or anything like that. We just wanted to be a part of the show and, especially because we knew who was running it. It was a men’s and, I would much rather, even to this day, work for men because it’s, they cut right to the chase, this is what we want. There’s no, you know, no squabbling, anything like that. And we didn’t have that. There was only Liz [Miss Elizabeth], me, and Sherri, and then for the longest time, and then Luna [Vachon] came along, but we still, it was still, you know, we were not, and nothing about Women’s Lib or anything like that. We weren’t trying to prove any point like that. It was just trying to be a part of a business. I wasn’t trying to turn things upside down, but I was trying to let them know I can be in a man’s suit, and still get the job done effectively. And that was where I was coming from.”
>Other topics include breaking into the business, her dad Leroy McGuirk, WWF, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon, what she is up to today, and so much more.
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