Riddle Me This: Who Is CAC's Busiest Wrestling Actor?  Rock Riddle!

One of wrestling's first-ever "Rock's" grew up as a very shy kid in sleepy Burlington, North Carolina. His dad, Steve, was a WW2 veteran. Two life-changing incidents at school helped propel his entry into the grappling world.

In the seventh grade, a school bully went after him. "He’d say to me, ‘Hey, Rock-Rock Hudson, and then laugh. I was a "junior," and never wanted to be the small version of someone else. But when they started calling me "Rock", I felt as though I finally had my own identity, and that it was pretty cool."

When he was 14, he overheard some kids at school raving about t.v. pro wrestling matches and in particular the Mid-Atlantic Crockett Sr. territories' top heels in Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson who were internationally famous as the premiere bleached blonde duo in a circuit famous for incredible tag teams.

"George Becker and Johnny Weaver were their Good Guy counterparts and fans relished the chance to see them prevail over Hawk and Hanson. Once on t.v., the Becker/Weaver Fan Club presented them with radios and a trophy. In a phony gesture of admiration, Hawk congratulated the two, asked to see the radio, raised it above his head and smashed it to pieces on the ground to the crowd’s astonishment. I saw that and thought it was great, everyone hated them, really hated them, so I decided to start a fan club for Hawk and Hanson. The club’s motto was Fair, Square, Modest and Honest! My sense of humor has always been a little extreme. But I still think that was funny."

Rock actually got into the "mark newstand magazines" wearing ring jackets he'd created with slogans putting over Hawk and Hanson. The ring announcers introduced him to Hawk who became impressed with his desire and promised to help him get into the business if he was as serious about it as he seemed. Later in high school, he then wrestled at the 138 and later 145 pound divisions to get some necessary actual amateur experience.

"In high school I was a total rebel. I was pretty unique, dressing and acting differently. And as an adult wrestler later on, I had an equally unorthodox wrestling style, totally contradictory to everyone else's. I was able to build my body to a muscular goal of 236 pounds with dedication. I was also working as a private detective and surveillance expert and earned a degree in Criminology and Law Enforcement as something to fall back on.

"So, although I was introduced to wrestling when I was fourteen (running Hawk's fan club), I wasn’t sure that I wanted to actually become a professional wrestler until two years later. I had just turned sixteen. I remember the moment I made that decision and commitment. I absolutely knew that I would turn pro before my twenty-first birthday. The vast majority of my waking hours were spent planning, plotting, and preparing for that eventuality to come to fruition. Many of my non-waking hours were filled with dreams of my upcoming life in the wonderful world of professional wrestling. There was never even a trace of a doubt in my mind that I would not succeed. Not only was failure never an option – failure was never even a thought.

Because I had played my wrestling career over so many times in my head before it became a reality, I took the reality in stride. I was recently asked a question that I had been asked dozens of times before. “Who trained you?” was the familiar question. “I trained myself,” was the response, which resulted in now-to-be-expected laughter. Although my sense of humor is somewhat extreme, my answer was not given to provoke laughter; it was given because it was true. I studied the moves of the best in the wrestling business. I dissected those moves, studied them from every conceivable angle, and put them back together again. When I tried the moves for the first time in the ring, they generally went quite well and looked very good. I expected them to look good. I had practiced them in my head hundreds of times. When I received compliments on many of my first-ever moves, I simply said, “Thank you.” Nobody ever knew that I had just executed that particular move for the first time.

I also learned the business of wrestling by making a study of it. Gaps in my understanding were usually filled in by other wrestlers, but the vast majority of my understanding of wrestling, the business of wrestling, the psychology of wrestling, and crowd psychology itself was learned before I ever stepped into the ring. In fact, the first time I actually stepped into a professional wrestling ring was when I did so to wrestle my first professional bout. Because I had wrestled so many times in my mind, I wasn’t surprised that my first professional wrestling match took place when I was twenty years of age. I wasn’t surprised that I wrestled the main event of the evening. I wasn’t even surprised that I was victorious in my first ever match. I thought, “Well that was cool. You won your first match and it was a main event. Now, let’s move on and concentrate on tomorrow night’s match.”

Once a match was over, I (mentally just) moved on. I took my entire career in stride. At the time, I didn’t place importance on any one given match or on any particular series of matches. I wrestled literally thousands of individual matches in my career. I wrestled so many people that I didn’t keep track of their names. Because I had programmed myself for success, I expected it. Because I expected it, I took my career in a somewhat nonchalant manner.

After I had been wrestling for a few years, a friend once asked me who I had wrestled the night before. I remember shrugging my shoulders and saying, “I don’t know. That’s been more than ten minutes ago. I don’t remember.” Although I added the “ten minutes ago” remark to instill a little humor in my answer, I really didn’t know. I probably wasn’t paying attention when the announcer gave my opponent’s name.

I loved my work, but didn’t realize how incredibly amazing the details of my wrestling career would become. Last year, I was asked if I had ever wrestled Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. “I don’t think so,” I answered. “I wrestled hundreds of guys. With a lot of them, I never knew or don’t remember their names. But I don’t remember ever wrestling Snuka.” I mentioned this to a wrestling buddy who said, “Sure you did, Rock. I remember you wrestling him more than once.” I still didn’t remember. I did a little research and discovered that I had, indeed, wrestled the amazing Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. During the time that I was actually wrestling, I was certainly happy that my career was going well, but I wasn’t totally impressed with my success.

As I look back on those eight and a half plus years as a full-time professional wrestler, I am extremely impressed! I wrestled, for example, the legendary Lou Thesz numerous times. How many people can say that they wrestled so many of the greats -- Andre, Pat Patterson, Jerry Lawler, Haystack Calhoun, Ric Flair, Harley Race, Vern Gagne, Red Bastien, Jack Brisco, Dory and Terry Funk, Ted DiBiase, John Tolos, Iron Sheik, Roddy Piper, "Judo" Gene Lebell, Jake Roberts, Gorgeous George Jr., Greg Valentine, Dusty Rhodes, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Ray Stevens, Pedro Morales, Superstar Billy Graham, Mando and Chavo Guerrero and so many more?

When I turned 20, that was finally my pro-wrestling debut in Tampa, in a tag match. It was my first time in a professional wrestling ring. I didn’t know how to hit or bounce off the ropes since I was self-taught. So, the first time I got thrown into them, my body went through the ropes, backwards, out of the ring and onto the concrete floor landing on the back of my neck.

I'd come into the ring with the blond hair, the sunglasses, the fancy velvet robes, and the ‘attitude’. I'd look down my nose at the fans and act like I was God’s gift to women. It was a wonderful marketing character I created.
I was never really a great technically-skilled wrestler, but I was a good wrestler and good on the microphone, and had showmanship."

Riddle worked many territories after Eddie Graham's, including Tampa, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville (and those infamous Nick Gulus paydays), Memphis, Pensacola, Charlotte, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles amongst many.

"You were based in one area for a period of time, and when you became too familiar to the crowds you went elsewhere. It always had to be exciting and fresh and there was only so much you could show everyone."

When Rock arrived in our Los Angeles territory, in his off-time, he became a student of the film business, reading all the trades and aware of everything in production. As usual, he put his business and marketing skills to work over some 8 months first, "doing my homework first."

Soon after, he began getting regular acting work, and as with wrestling; he had to train himself since he was inexperienced. And his very first movie role was working with an equal neophyte actor/comic in Robin Williams. And later in the critically acclaimed film Blue Collar with another great comic actor in Richard Pryor as well as acting legend Harvey Keitel.

In just two years, he'd acted in eight films and over 30 t.v. shows. Then there was his record appearances on Chuck Barris' legendary Gong Show, the predecessor to American Idol.

Rock was already friends with Sly Stallone at their gym and was asked to both choreograph the wrestling scenes plus act in Stallone's wrestling classic "Paradise Alley" which saw the actors hiptoss such CAC legends as Don Leo Jonathon, Ray Stevens and our own Terry Funk. Rock was wise to continue working out at Santa Monica World Gym where he met Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno and many other bodybuilding champs.

*In 1976 Rock formed APS/Actors’ Promotional Services networking company in Hollywood, which began as a marketing service for actors. "They had trouble finding fulltime or regular work and most just didn't know how to properly market themselves." Within three years, he stopped acting and spent every waking moment helping market his fellow actors, and later producers, directors, casting agents, writers and others needing his expertise.

"Today, many APS services include major networking events, monthly empowerment luncheons, weekly seminars, audition preparation assistance, resume services, counseling and career guidance, and global exposure through the company’s web site, www.HollywoodSuccess.com. Plus there's an investigative service exists so that clients are made aware of who is legitimate and honest in the business. I've also produced many hours of cable television shows.

Rock currently writes a regular newspaper column called “Over the Top Rope.” And still heads his very successful "APS Hollywood Success" business in Hollywood helping actors improve their standing and increase their contacts in the business. His customers say he really cares about helping them (ie-it's no work). And there's lot of similarities between wrestling and Hollywood as that other "Rock" Duane Johnson, Steve Austin, Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan and many others can attest. We hit it off in 1975 when he came into my home-base L.A. Lebell territory where I was also one of Jeff Walton's ringside photographers. We became friends, and Rock had me shoot his very first acting portfolio shots. Not sure if they were used for his record number of appearances on such tv shows as The Gong Show, Fernwood 2-Nite, America 2-Nite and many others. But some of them are up on his website. At the time, I'd just shot a ballerina's portfolio at Will Rogers Beach; and thought we should do something artistic with a pro-wrestler too, photo-wise. So we had Rock do all kinds of wrestler and body-builder poses near the rocks and ocean. He went along with anything suggested, usually cracking us up. He was and remains a total character and most deserving honoree for not only entertaining people; but helping his fellow actors.

I know Mike Marzurki would be proud of Rock's accomplishments in both wrestling and entertainment.

Rock and his company APS Entertainment are in production on the feature film we'll all love "When Wrestling Was Real" with interviews from most every wrestling star who's been to Cauliflower Alley recently. It's Rock's first feature film as a producer.