Good to see the Gang is still alive in 2021! All the other ripped wrestlers with huge muscles and abs died of heart disease. The Gang is big but he never used steroids, drank or used drugs. The Gang was one of my favorite wrestlers of all time!
“I always wondered what would have happened if I stayed and didn’t quit. Undertaker came in as I was walking out on the company. Maybe we could have had a run.” What could have happened was MONEY and FAME and CERTAINTY of an Undertaker feud. That’s what could have happened you lazy overweight piece of crap. Oh well... FOR YOU! YOU DEFINITELY LOST OUT! Don’t blame Vince and or others. Take responsibility and accountability. Vince did right by promising falsehoods. It was to check if he was a dedicated loyal hard worker. It’s a tactic business owners utilize to see if their employees are faithful, trustworthy, dedicated, loyal, responsible, punctual, etcc.. If the employee is able to endure and withstand the hard work and falsehoods/lies while still being faithful, trustworthy, reliable, and loyal, then the owner knows he’s got a winner in his hands. At this point is when the true money and fame rolls in for the employee. You surely can’t expect to find a job and move up quick. You have to prove you a hard working dedicated loyal reliable trustworthy employee even through all the false promises. Once you pass this stage, it’s all BIG MONEY from there. This guy was just an overweight lazy pile of crap. Facts are facts. Too bad for him. Oh well..😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
In fairness, it wasn’t just Vince. That’s how the wrestling business in the 80s was. You hear a lot of stories about the paychecks not even covering the cost of the hotel room.
@@anthonymoore7196 I won't argue that... but at the end, when the territories were gone, who was left standing with a smile on his face, Vince McMahon.
For people who give Hogan grief for looking out for himself, listen to this story! WWF would use you, give you scraps, and discard just like that. It's crazy to me that any of these guys couldn't make a livingback then, except for the few top guys
Think of King Kong Bundy. One Wrestlemania, he headlined against Hogan. The very next Wrestlemania, he did a stupid comedy match against midgets. Basically Gang was no different to WWF.
One Man Gang would've been able to headline ANY of the earlier WrestleManias against Hogan, Savage, Warrior, even Taker later in his career. I'll never say his talent was wasted, but it surely wasn't utilized to it's maximum. STILL a legendary big man in my opinion. His run in WCCW in Texas is where I initially saw him I believe. With manager Gary Hart and the Von Erichs... Good old times of wrestling...
@@sidneygwaltney9931 some guys have said that, but those same guys have talked about how great their pay was when they worked with Hogan or at least were on Hogan's card. After their run with Hogan ended & the shifted over to the B show, they had a significant drop in pay because back then pay was based off how much they drew.
That's typical MacMahon. He takes away your original gimmick & brands you w/ his so that in essence he owns your character. He tried to do that to honkey tonk man by having him lose the belt to savage & then rebrand honkey into something else but honkey quit.
Outstanding video post, I appreciated The One Man Gang as a wrestler and talent in the business. I definitely appreciate him speaking truth to power here.
"I was supposed to go to Minot North Dakota, somewhere nobody wanted to go." Having been stationed at Minot AFB, as my first duty station, I can tell you Gang is absolutely correct. However, I heard once the started fracking in Minot, it became a boom town for oil, and got much bigger. Wasn't when I was there.
The boom happened when ND Republicans wrested control of Minot from the Democrats during the Clinton era. The Republicans opened up fracking and tax incentives to get businesses in, and quickly transformed Minot from sleepy, corrupt small Dem town into fourth quickest growing city in the US.
It's sad how little they got paid, even when they were on top. If you figure that they only had about a 5 year window to make money before being replaced, they needed to cash in while they were there and making $7000 for a PPV when the company had four PPVs per year isn't enough. Someone like OMG should have been getting $50,000 on a PPV easily.
Got mad respect for this cat. I’ve been miserable as f in a few jobs I had over the years as well… not the WWE but a lot of these company it’s and organizations look like gold from the outside but when you get in there you find yourself in a dysfunctional nightmare. It’s my own fault for not looking further then the dollar signs and believing everything I was told going into these positions but for anyone who reads this most importantly younger folks in their early 20’s, don’t get into a job/career that you hate walking into everyday. I’m 36 and made quite a few career missteps and to pay it forward anytime I’m reminded of my fails in life I try to share decent advice.
Seems about any company is shit. But it's the people that make it, not just 1 Boss! Most ppl would be scared to death to see the reflection of their character in a mirror!
That's why you need plan b,c,d,e,and f,if plan a not going right, and or try to work for yourself and have your on schedule making yourself money and these bastard out there that care less about you your situation or not caring that you have a life outside of work more money!! I'm like one man gang if it doesn't work out at a certain amount of time make sure you have money put away,so when you leave you'll have time to recoup and get something else. Life's hard either way though!!
He was Akeem for maybe one year. The One Man Gang could have been extremely successful as a monster heel. Honestly, I think the last half of Andre The Giant’s career helped derail any push that might have come for One Man Gang. When Andre was an enforcer or part of ‘The Mega Bucks’ tag team, that was prime real estate gone for The One Man Gang.
@@WhyDoIKeepFuckinUp i think we are all misremembering him as Akeem when he was still OMG. Aldo there were a lot more WWF pay per views and SNME while he was Akeem so we saw more Akeem than OMG.
Seems like a great guy. It's sad that his career basically ended in 1990, sure he went to WCW a couple of times later but both runs were far from being memorable or remotely important. I guess him winning the US title was good, though.
Akeem, Big Boss Man and Bad News Brown were the first people I ever remember being afraid of as a kid. I didn’t know there were/are bad people in the world until I saw them.
George Gray is *42* years old in this video. For comparison, in 2022, Kofi Kingston, Claudio, Asuka, Miz are almost 42; Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton and The Blade are 42; Sheamus and The Butcher are 44, AJ Styles and Lance Archer are 45, Bobby Lashley and Bobby Roode are 46, Rey Mysterio is 47, Edge is 48, Chris Jericho is 51, Billy Gunn is 58, and Sting is 63 and still jumping through tables. The 1980s schedule was hard living.
@@zamshawn16719He looks much older for his age than current wrestlers today. That time period was much harder on you especially from a travel perspective as well as safety protocols and knowledge.
I met a businessman or 2 in my life. What I could tell is that the businessmen who treated their staff fairly always did better. It keeps your staff loyal, and staff can make or break your company.
Thats the way they treated guys when they fell down to the under card. Vince’s thought was these guys will do anything to be on TV. So he paid them a couple thousand a week but made them drive rental cars from town to town, and pay for their own hotel rooms. Top talent was taken care of with plane tickets. It really was like circus performers. The reward was Vince set up catering a couple hours before a show and he fed them.
One Man Gang the OG OMG... He took a scary bump in that live Main Event on NBC as Akeem in Milwaukee, Feb. 1989, when him and Big Boss Man hit the ropes the same time, Akeem went through the ropes backwards awkwardly right around the same spot as Randy Savage crash landed into Liz in the tag team match that broke up the Mega-Powers.
Wwf never used One Man Gang to his full potential. The man could’ve been a top heel in the 80s. He wasn’t the talker, but they could’ve used the slickster for that. The man deserved more in his career than he was dealt. The gimmick was larger than life and at the time it could’ve been more than Vince allowed it to be
Don't have regrets "One Man Gang" you definitely did the right thing. Taking a stand for yourself, caring for self is always the right thing. It's something that will never be fully understood.
Back in UWF the Gang used to scare the ish out of me! I don't recall any other wrestler who actually frightened me. "All I ever think about is beatin' people up!" I could just imagine myself stopping in some isolated diner and accidentally offending him.
I love when you quit a job and they ask “why?” You give them several reasons, all from your perspective. They just can’t see it that way. The empty promises come because they don’t like the power dynamic shift: you just told them how it’s going to be and it’s not to their liking. When they see you aren’t coming back, they drop all professionalism and make you out to be bad.
@@HulkHands54 no need to take a deep breath, im sure the person you are responding to is well aware you can get tattoos removed. However, it's a little silly to be shocked that a 6'9 400lb wrestler still has his skull tatted up.
I think given what the role was, Gray did a good job with what he was given. He really put an effort into making Akeem work, and in a lot of ways, it did. What I hated is when he first arrived, they took away the 747 splash and gave him that hard to watch face first suplex. No one did the splash like Gray would. Plus he's a Spartanburg native.
Arn Anderson told the story about how he & Tully were paid. Vince had promised that they would be making about the same amount of money Crockett was paying them but didn't. When they talked to him about it, he reneged. So after Tully was let go, Vince started paying Arn double
Vince did this to so many people. He'd promise them he'd give them a push, but the push never came, and when they finally had enough Vince often would admit he was BSing anyway.
Totally understandalbe reaction from Gang. You don't need to be into wrestling to relate to being fed up with a working environment where you remain stagnant at an uncomfortable point and not even have the excuse of getting a good paycheck to motivate you to just endure.
Probably my favorite wrester. I was terrified of OMG as a kid, which makes him the perfect heel. I am so happy to see he is doing well (flood of his home not considered). Would love to shake his hand someday and just tell him he was an important part of my growing up!
I thought back then and I think the same now. The Twin Towers (Akeem and Boss Man) should have had at least one run as WWF Tag-Team Champions. With their overwhelming size and strength and pure physical dominance over the teams of the day (Demolition, Brain Busters, Hart's, Rougeau's, Bushwackers, Rockers), that they didn't get at least one championship run was IMO a miscarriage of justice as Gorilla used to say. But instead they got nothing matches against The Rockers, a feud with the Mega Powers that was all about building them up for Wrestlemania V and barely a run at either Demolition or the Brain Busters who were the champs in their time.
Feuding with Hogan and Savage may have got the Twin Towers into main events while they were needed in the breakup of the Mega Powers, but it was never going to get them a tag team title run.
George did the right thing by quitting when he did. Akeem was one of the dumbest concepts Vince McMahon ever came up with. It was as bad as turning Sgt. Slaughter into a supporter of Iraq. The only thing worse would have been bringing Cobra Commander in as a good guy. The One Man Gang was a respectable character with a cool theme. Vince should have stuck with that and made him a key villain.
I loved the One Man Gang. It was B.S. to give him the Akeem gimmick. The only good thing about the Akeem gimmick was him getting to work with Mr. Traylor (Big Boss Man)....one of my all time favorites (R.I.P.), and the Slickster.
who remembers a movie called Stay Tuned that came out in the early 90s with John Ritter and there was a wrestling scene with the one man gang and remember liking that movie as a kid
It saddened me to see Vince make a joke out of The One Man Gang. I remember when he came to the Mid-Atlantic and squashed just about everybody. He had a series of matches with Dizzy Hogan (Brutus Beefcake) and feuded with Jimmy Valiant. He had runs in Florida, I think World Class, and Mid-South/UWF where he was the champion. I'm sure that Vince felt that he was taking a swipe at Dusty by calling OMG The African Dream and having him dance. He just wasn't the monster heel anymore and looked like an overgrown Easter Egg. In probably the only thing that they did right when he came to WCW, Dusty & Jim Herd let him go back to his original gimmick. Plus, in 1977, as Crusher Broomfield, he was part of one of the biggest trades in wrestling. He was sent to Atlanta and Ricky Steamboat came to Charlotte in exchange.
@@bricktobuildings1145 True. Then Jim Herd takes over the NWA and tried to make it into another WWE. The Ding Dongs, Norman the Lunatic, Big Josh, Oz. Need I say more?
Shoulda filled into the role that Sgt. Slaughter was doing in the later years of his career, like Stone Cold Steve Austin. OMG was a very good big man.
Always did like the One man gang, work is work weather he win or lose is still work but no man can live on a promises that are not fulfilled no one like to work this .
Opportunities for what? Do you think that during the time of Hogan,, Savage, Warrior, and others that people would be climbing over one another for tickets and blowing up the phone lines for PPV orders? Take off your smark glasses.
"Its not what you make, its what you save" -"MachoMan" Randy Savage. But.. you still got to make enough to be able to save. ALOT of people dont' realize that wrestlers pay their own travel and that adds up when you're on the road 320 days a year...
He said he was making 5 grand for a house show. How much was hotel and flights back in the 80’s/90’s? Spare me the violin. These guys couldn’t save their money cause they were a bunch of drug addicts that’s why the pay checks weren’t enough. There’s no excuse why if you did one house show in a week and received 5 grand for it you couldn’t make ends meet. And this is in his words unless I missed something. He was claiming 5 grand for a house show was a bad pay check lol.
@@Nasdupree9090 He never said the 5 grand was a bad paycheck. You obviously didn't pay attention because you just wanted to bash the guy because you're sooooooo much better of a human being. 🙄. And yeah, that was sarcasm. I know you're slow so I figured I'd better mention it. He said 5 grand was one of the better ones, and that he's had good and bad ones. But the bad ones outweighed the good. Learn comprehension skills. They'll help make you less of an insufferable dbag than what you currently are.
@@Nasdupree9090 They get paid as Independent contracts (self employed). All driving, eating etc is on a wrestlers dime. Lots of end of year taxes. When you are Hogan, Savage etc you get a lot of perks. When you are mid card or below you get little. One man gang is saying money 💰 dried up. When Gang was put on the jobber crew he was losing money. Therefore he was making less than $5k. Expenses add up. He still has to pay to live rent etc. Gang was stating that he was spending more than he was earning at the end. He decided to quit the WWF. Somehow Vince McMahon did not find value in one man gang .
The fact that vince begged him to come back after a no show and even a month later offering 8 grand to come back must speak volumes about OMG. I've always heard even with guys like Austin and Shawn that Vince was like fining them a months pay and no TV for a while and Lawler who was next to Ross waiting 8 months for a call and that's after Heyman sucked on commentary.
Yeah hayman on commentary was a double edged sword.can be very annoying and not as funny as Lawler but he kept J.R on his toes and if you watch x17 wrestlemania he drops lovely little hints about wrestlers pasts and mentioning the hart dungeon and the Japanese companies etc etc.
A lot of wrestlers went to WWF/WWE to become shadows of their former selves: Paul Orndorf, Steve Keirns(the tabacco chewing bayou guy), Ron Killings, Sting, Samoa Joe, Terry Taylor, just to name a few...they were great wrestlers elsewhere but weren't given a push they deserved in Vince's promotion...
UWF proved how effective One Man Gang could be with competent booking. WWE couldn't resist fixing what wasn't broken by replacing a successful gimmick with something as pointless as Akeem. It's a shame - we've seen a lot of big, scary guys fail because they didn't know how to work, but Gang knew how to deliver.
Watch More One Man Gang
Streaming Now 📺TitleMatchNetwork.com
good to see you I wish you were still wrestle as the one man gang
This is why the WWF needed a wrestlers union
I remember one man gang! ✌️👍
The Undertaker feuding with The One Man Gang would've been a good Rivalry 👍
yeah but who would be the heel and who would be the face. OMG was never a baby face. would have been interesting to see
The One Man Gang and Akeem we once knew and loved. Is he so influenced by Bam Bam he now spots his shaved head and tattoos? Lol.
@Purorasslin' TV yeah but OMG already left the company(on bad terms ) so it never came to be unfortunately.. too bad.
Deffo!
The short rivalry with him and studd was 👍🏼
Good to see the Gang is still alive in 2021! All the other ripped wrestlers with huge muscles and abs died of heart disease. The Gang is big but he never used steroids, drank or used drugs. The Gang was one of my favorite wrestlers of all time!
Totally agree with you!
And you think or know he didn't ever do drugs? Lol ok
BOOOOOOOO0!!!!!!! 😂
This actual shoot is 2002
Don Muraco is still alive.
Vince saying its bad business is hypocritical. Telling someone repeatedly they're gonna make more money but never pull through is bad business itself.
exactly, at least Vince could've paid for the travel expenses. geesh
@@gu2574 he paid for The Ultimate Warrior's travel expenses.
Like every other promoter? The biggest marks are the talent
“I always wondered what would have happened if I stayed and didn’t quit. Undertaker came in as I was walking out on the company. Maybe we could have had a run.”
What could have happened was MONEY and FAME and CERTAINTY of an Undertaker feud.
That’s what could have happened you lazy overweight piece of crap.
Oh well... FOR YOU!
YOU DEFINITELY LOST OUT!
Don’t blame Vince and or others. Take responsibility and accountability.
Vince did right by promising falsehoods. It was to check if he was a dedicated loyal hard worker. It’s a tactic business owners utilize to see if their employees are faithful, trustworthy, dedicated, loyal, responsible, punctual, etcc.. If the employee is able to endure and withstand the hard work and falsehoods/lies while still being faithful, trustworthy, reliable, and loyal, then the owner knows he’s got a winner in his hands. At this point is when the true money and fame rolls in for the employee.
You surely can’t expect to find a job and move up quick. You have to prove you a hard working dedicated loyal reliable trustworthy employee even through all the false promises. Once you pass this stage, it’s all BIG MONEY from there.
This guy was just an overweight lazy pile of crap. Facts are facts. Too bad for him. Oh well..😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
You quit a company cause of the person in charge, not the company. People don't get taught that valuable life lesson.
“I quit once I was a jobber” can’t argue with that logic. Good move.
I read that after he left wrestling he worked at a Target. Probably got a better deal from them, with health care benefits, etc.
He was i had heard working as a prison guard in Algiers, LA.
@@danburnette7674heard it was With death row inmates
i never heard about Target ! the prison guard job yes that i heard @@phillyflash43
Why they changed his gimmick is beyond me. Loved the One Man Gang.
I believe it takes situations like this, with the "One Man Gang", to get people to understand just how ruthless and cut-throat Vince McMahon is.
In fairness, it wasn’t just Vince. That’s how the wrestling business in the 80s was. You hear a lot of stories about the paychecks not even covering the cost of the hotel room.
Yea, that’s how that bastard got rich. Those dudes really needed a union.
@@anthonymoore7196 it was totally Vince McMahon!
@@anthonymoore7196 I won't argue that... but at the end, when the territories were gone, who was left standing with a smile on his face, Vince McMahon.
That’s how virtually ALL promoters do business. It’s not limited to evil Vince. Standard in music, literature, tv, movies, even Broadway.
As a young child and a huge wrestling fan I remember being baffled by his akeem gimmick...oh the simple times! Thanks for the entertainment!!!
My world is still just as simple as back then, because i choose to make it so.
The One Man Gang was such a badass gimmick, turning him into Akeem was a joke
Sadly it gave his career an extension to be honest with you.he was about done
Akeem was awesome. George Gray was a terrific performer. He pulled off that gimmick and was amazing.
Maybe one reason it was done because the Big Bossman was way meaner than the Gang and Akeem being a hipster was a great counter to that.
It was but bam bam Bigelow was a better big man and they had a similar look. I feel for him but it was just bad timing.
I still liked him as a Akeem
For people who give Hogan grief for looking out for himself, listen to this story! WWF would use you, give you scraps, and discard just like that. It's crazy to me that any of these guys couldn't make a livingback then, except for the few top guys
I'm not mad at Hulk for looking out for himself. It sounds like Vince was a piece of work
It is like that everywhere, unfortunately
@@donnelladams8362 - yep
Nothing new. Every promotion did these things. The difference between Hogan and gang was gang never stepped on people to get and to stay on top.
@@richardfrench2863 the difference being McMahon wanted to put every other wrestling promotion out of business so they HAD no where else to go.
Damn that sucks. Didnt realize guys like Gang got paid so poorly. Thought it’d be a bit more.
Think of King Kong Bundy. One Wrestlemania, he headlined against Hogan. The very next Wrestlemania, he did a stupid comedy match against midgets. Basically Gang was no different to WWF.
At oe time he was aprisongaurd at ANGOLa, the State pen iN Louisiana
Why? He didnt make the company a dime.
@@rw8185 Ladies and Gentlemen, the WWF head accountant has joined the chat.
@@blake7871 no he didnt join the chat, but the ultimate fanboy just did, with a hard-on and all.
I remember One Man Gang suplexing several referees back in 1987 when he first came to the WWF to get him over as a monster heel.
omg!! i remember that, i was like a front suplex
the 747! he tore them up
@@deebee9917 yea, and that suplex was horrible and hard to execute. Should have stuck with the 747....
One Man Gang would've been able to headline ANY of the earlier WrestleManias against Hogan, Savage, Warrior, even Taker later in his career. I'll never say his talent was wasted, but it surely wasn't utilized to it's maximum. STILL a legendary big man in my opinion. His run in WCCW in Texas is where I initially saw him I believe. With manager Gary Hart and the Von Erichs... Good old times of wrestling...
I agree. I would of loved for them to have brought him back once Taker turned face. Kept him around long enough to feud with Diesel in 1995.
It's not an opinion if you know what you're talking about
What's an it is maximum?
He was in bill watts UWF league back in the day.
One man gang vs hogan definitely would've been bigger than hogan vs king Kong bundy
Respect to standing up to Vince
He didn't stand up to Vince he respectfully told him he was losing money working there & they parted ways. It's just business.
i throught wwe was paying these guys big money but bad news said the same thing about vince
@@sidneygwaltney9931 some guys have said that, but those same guys have talked about how great their pay was when they worked with Hogan or at least were on Hogan's card. After their run with Hogan ended & the shifted over to the B show, they had a significant drop in pay because back then pay was based off how much they drew.
Jesse Ventura, Sgt Slaughter stood up to Vince but it was business, not personal
@frednichols9851 That’s more than what most do knowing they’d get buried while working for him for doing the same
I remember the One Man Gang in Mid South Wrestling.What a true talent.WWF dropped the ball by making him Akeem..God bless him..
I agree. One Man Gang concept was far stronger
No. Akeem was a better gimmick. It was funny.
That's typical MacMahon. He takes away your original gimmick & brands you w/ his so that in essence he owns your character. He tried to do that to honkey tonk man by having him lose the belt to savage & then rebrand honkey into something else but honkey quit.
@@YD-uq5fiAgreed
What were they thinking🤦🏽
Outstanding video post, I appreciated The One Man Gang as a wrestler and talent in the business. I definitely appreciate him speaking truth to power here.
"I was supposed to go to Minot North Dakota, somewhere nobody wanted to go." Having been stationed at Minot AFB, as my first duty station, I can tell you Gang is absolutely correct. However, I heard once the started fracking in Minot, it became a boom town for oil, and got much bigger. Wasn't when I was there.
The boom happened when ND Republicans wrested control of Minot from the Democrats during the Clinton era. The Republicans opened up fracking and tax incentives to get businesses in, and quickly transformed Minot from sleepy, corrupt small Dem town into fourth quickest growing city in the US.
“boom town”
population 75,620
This is accurate. Dry cleaning 2-4 weeks. Restaurants 2+ hour waits. Traffic 1 car on the road every 30 minutes to gridlock
makes sense as to why certain dudes had to go to extreme measures to get their payday.
It's sad how little they got paid, even when they were on top. If you figure that they only had about a 5 year window to make money before being replaced, they needed to cash in while they were there and making $7000 for a PPV when the company had four PPVs per year isn't enough. Someone like OMG should have been getting $50,000 on a PPV easily.
Got mad respect for this cat. I’ve been miserable as f in a few jobs I had over the years as well… not the WWE but a lot of these company it’s and organizations look like gold from the outside but when you get in there you find yourself in a dysfunctional nightmare. It’s my own fault for not looking further then the dollar signs and believing everything I was told going into these positions but for anyone who reads this most importantly younger folks in their early 20’s, don’t get into a job/career that you hate walking into everyday. I’m 36 and made quite a few career missteps and to pay it forward anytime I’m reminded of my fails in life I try to share decent advice.
Thanks man. I appreciate the wise words 🙂
Seems about any company is shit. But it's the people that make it, not just 1 Boss! Most ppl would be scared to death to see the reflection of their character in a mirror!
I like this response. This is so true. I hated my job I walked into every day. It was not me. I know how George feel.
That's why you need plan b,c,d,e,and f,if plan a not going right, and or try to work for yourself and have your on schedule making yourself money and these bastard out there that care less about you your situation or not caring that you have a life outside of work more money!! I'm like one man gang if it doesn't work out at a certain amount of time make sure you have money put away,so when you leave you'll have time to recoup and get something else. Life's hard either way though!!
36 is still young enough to change your life around and do what you really want in life
He was Akeem for maybe one year. The One Man Gang could have been extremely successful as a monster heel. Honestly, I think the last half of Andre The Giant’s career helped derail any push that might have come for One Man Gang. When Andre was an enforcer or part of ‘The Mega Bucks’ tag team, that was prime real estate gone for The One Man Gang.
September 1988 to October 1990 to be exact.
It feels like Akeem was around for years.
@@119AgentThat’s so weird. It felt much longer.
@@WhyDoIKeepFuckinUp i think we are all misremembering him as Akeem when he was still OMG. Aldo there were a lot more WWF pay per views and SNME while he was Akeem so we saw more Akeem than OMG.
My Dad loved Akeem and the Slickster he would dance to the theme song lol
Seems like a great guy. It's sad that his career basically ended in 1990, sure he went to WCW a couple of times later but both runs were far from being memorable or remotely important. I guess him winning the US title was good, though.
yes his best years i think were like '85-88/89. best matches
Akeem, Big Boss Man and Bad News Brown were the first people I ever remember being afraid of as a kid. I didn’t know there were/are bad people in the world until I saw them.
Yet they’re all some of the nicest guys in wrestling outside the ring.
For me it was Kamala The Ugandan Giant. That MF scared the shit out of me at a house show when I was 5-6 years old.
“I’m sure you’ve all heard good news. Now it’s time to hear about Bad News.”
George Gray is *42* years old in this video. For comparison, in 2022, Kofi Kingston, Claudio, Asuka, Miz are almost 42; Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton and The Blade are 42; Sheamus and The Butcher are 44, AJ Styles and Lance Archer are 45, Bobby Lashley and Bobby Roode are 46, Rey Mysterio is 47, Edge is 48, Chris Jericho is 51, Billy Gunn is 58, and Sting is 63 and still jumping through tables.
The 1980s schedule was hard living.
what do you mean, he has nice skin compared to some wrestler you mentioned....
@@zamshawn16719what is this? Guess the wrestler? Just say the name. We’re on a yt video comment section PAL
@@zamshawn16719 …nice skin…….what
@@zamshawn16719He looks much older for his age than current wrestlers today. That time period was much harder on you especially from a travel perspective as well as safety protocols and knowledge.
the guy is 60.
I met a businessman or 2 in my life. What I could tell is that the businessmen who treated their staff fairly always did better. It keeps your staff loyal, and staff can make or break your company.
Good interview clip. Thanks
The One Man Gang. Always one of my favorites. Loved him in WCCW. Hated what mcmahon did to his gimmick and career.
Thats the way they treated guys when they fell down to the under card. Vince’s thought was these guys will do anything to be on TV. So he paid them a couple thousand a week but made them drive rental cars from town to town, and pay for their own hotel rooms. Top talent was taken care of with plane tickets. It really was like circus performers. The reward was Vince set up catering a couple hours before a show and he fed them.
I agree cause The Ultimate Warrior has said Vince paid for his traveling expenses.
And then charged them for the food?
that Fucking company
Its amazing that Vince was able to be help all these guys gain so much wealth ! And he did it without ever making more than 10 billion for himself!
One Man Gang the OG OMG... He took a scary bump in that live Main Event on NBC as Akeem in Milwaukee, Feb. 1989, when him and Big Boss Man hit the ropes the same time, Akeem went through the ropes backwards awkwardly right around the same spot as Randy Savage crash landed into Liz in the tag team match that broke up the Mega-Powers.
He played a key role in the Mega Powers break up. At least he got featured in major storylines in his time there
He was originally booked for the Survivor Series in 1990, which took place right after he quit. That should have been a decent payoff.
Probably-not-that-great-for-a-undercard-wrestler....More-than-a-house-show-but-not-much
To this day I occasionally still think of Akeems theme when I’m walking to the shop lol
Wwf never used One Man Gang to his full potential. The man could’ve been a top heel in the 80s. He wasn’t the talker, but they could’ve used the slickster for that. The man deserved more in his career than he was dealt. The gimmick was larger than life and at the time it could’ve been more than Vince allowed it to be
Not everyone can get a huge push.
He was a great UWF champion Vince could have did a lot more with the one man gang .
Akeem was one of the funniest characters I used to watch in WWF. His walk alone used to have me dying laughing.
yeah loved Akeem more than one man gang
😆 at the WWF Akeem interview Hand Gestures... Would cough up my Koolaid 😆
His character was racist AF and f*ck that character
@@themusicfan2179 me too. It was different, and entertaining to me.
Definitely a good one
Don't have regrets "One Man Gang" you definitely did the right thing. Taking a stand for yourself, caring for self is always the right thing. It's something that will never be fully understood.
Back in UWF the Gang used to scare the ish out of me! I don't recall any other wrestler who actually frightened me. "All I ever think about is beatin' people up!" I could just imagine myself stopping in some isolated diner and accidentally offending him.
Mid south too
After listening to him talk. George would be one hell of a manager and/or play by play announcer.
"That's bad business pal !" (As Vince constantly breaks promises to his workers) 🙄
Cant blame Vince for everything. What about the good things he did? Bryan Danielson for example?
Well in a company with guys not all 50 guys can be the 5 Too Guys. Like in any Company. Not that hard to get is it?!
One man gang was a bad ass. Remember him fighting Bruiser Brody.
The One Man Gang is my kind of people..
He probably made more for being in the Gimmick Battle Royal for a minute at WrestleMania 17 than he did at any other time in his career
He couldn't reprise the Akeem gimmick at Wrestlemania 17 due to losing 100LBS and could not longer fit into the Akeem Costume.
I love when you quit a job and they ask “why?”
You give them several reasons, all from your perspective.
They just can’t see it that way.
The empty promises come because they don’t like the power dynamic shift: you just told them how it’s going to be and it’s not to their liking. When they see you aren’t coming back, they drop all professionalism and make you out to be bad.
Akkem the African dream!! A fellow African that we can be proud to call our own!
I am glad he still has the tattoo on. It is nice to go through the archives to catch up on wrestlers I grew up with
Yeah, see, that's the thing about tattoos. They tend to still be there.
@@ReverendBenzo*inhales**exhales* yeah, see, unless they get them lazer'd off 🤷♂️
@@HulkHands54 no need to take a deep breath, im sure the person you are responding to is well aware you can get tattoos removed. However, it's a little silly to be shocked that a 6'9 400lb wrestler still has his skull tatted up.
One man gang was a great heel.
Akeem was funny.
I think given what the role was, Gray did a good job with what he was given. He really put an effort into making Akeem work, and in a lot of ways, it did. What I hated is when he first arrived, they took away the 747 splash and gave him that hard to watch face first suplex. No one did the splash like Gray would. Plus he's a Spartanburg native.
Dude went back to deepest darkest Africa to be with his people
One of the best of all time. Severely underrated
One of the best? That seems to be a severe exaggeration.
As far as big men, top 5. Early Survivor Series were top notch, Twin Towers were a underrated tag team. Them and the Rockers put on a clinic.
@@terminat1 tf u know. He was a terrifying big man in UWF & WCCW
@@oldirish6163 I agree, he is top five. Athletic, charismatic
@@Hollman36 I don't agree that he's one of the best.
One Man Gang was a beast in the UWF. Vince likes to demolish characters the did not originate in WWF/WWE.
"It's not good business"- neither is spending more than you are earning.... I honestly LIKED OMG. Akeem? Not so much.
Arn Anderson told the story about how he & Tully were paid. Vince had promised that they would be making about the same amount of money Crockett was paying them but didn't. When they talked to him about it, he reneged. So after Tully was let go, Vince started paying Arn double
Arn-and-Tully-were-already-leaving-when-Tully-was-suspended-by-WWF--and-because-Tully-failed-a-drug-test-WCW-reneged-on-a-big-deal-for-them-to-come-back-and-Arn-went-back-with-a-lesser-deal-than-promised
Yooooo Brohters and Sisstaaaaas. Loved it.
Everybody thinks if you were in WWF you were raking in the money but many made less than in the territory.
Always wondered why a big guy like him always has to loose, Vince !🥺🥺🥺
Lose.
@@terminat1 Toulouse
Vince did this to so many people.
He'd promise them he'd give them a push, but the push never came, and when they finally had enough Vince often would admit he was BSing anyway.
So WCW never did that?
@@chadk890 touché
Totally understandalbe reaction from Gang. You don't need to be into wrestling to relate to being fed up with a working environment where you remain stagnant at an uncomfortable point and not even have the excuse of getting a good paycheck to motivate you to just endure.
I loved Akeem back in the day.
Probably my favorite wrester. I was terrified of OMG as a kid, which makes him the perfect heel. I am so happy to see he is doing well (flood of his home not considered). Would love to shake his hand someday and just tell him he was an important part of my growing up!
in my opinion the One Man Gang was one of my favorite heel characters of all time I've been watching wrestling since 1979
Vince could never make it out of confession. You'd never see or hear of him again.
One Man Gang was one of my favorites of the big guys. Even the name is tough
I thought back then and I think the same now. The Twin Towers (Akeem and Boss Man) should have had at least one run as WWF Tag-Team Champions. With their overwhelming size and strength and pure physical dominance over the teams of the day (Demolition, Brain Busters, Hart's, Rougeau's, Bushwackers, Rockers), that they didn't get at least one championship run was IMO a miscarriage of justice as Gorilla used to say.
But instead they got nothing matches against The Rockers, a feud with the Mega Powers that was all about building them up for Wrestlemania V and barely a run at either Demolition or the Brain Busters who were the champs in their time.
Feuding with Hogan and Savage may have got the Twin Towers into main events while they were needed in the breakup of the Mega Powers, but it was never going to get them a tag team title run.
Stop it. They both was 🗑️
George did the right thing by quitting when he did. Akeem was one of the dumbest concepts Vince McMahon ever came up with. It was as bad as turning Sgt. Slaughter into a supporter of Iraq. The only thing worse would have been bringing Cobra Commander in as a good guy. The One Man Gang was a respectable character with a cool theme. Vince should have stuck with that and made him a key villain.
I loved the One Man Gang. It was B.S. to give him the Akeem gimmick. The only good thing about the Akeem gimmick was him getting to work with Mr. Traylor (Big Boss Man)....one of my all time favorites (R.I.P.), and the Slickster.
I loved one man gang, hated the Akeem character. Broke my heart to see how they did one of my faves
The name alone said it all....One Man Gang
who remembers a movie called Stay Tuned that came out in the early 90s with John Ritter and there was a wrestling scene with the one man gang and remember liking that movie as a kid
Yes sir, underrated classic. I remember Capt Lou as the ring announcer too
@@TitleMatchWrestling man great memories of growing up in the 80s and 90s and wrestling was the absolute best
Years ago when the Internet first took off, I searched to see when The One Man Gang had died, only to find out he was still alive! Incredible dude!
Loved the Gang - his front suplex finisher was awesome!
It was a Gourdbuster.
George is from my hometown, Spartanburg SC and went to school with my Mom and my Aunts.
It's weird seeing him out of character, he seems to be such a nice guy. As a kid he looked scary and mean as hell.
It saddened me to see Vince make a joke out of The One Man Gang. I remember when he came to the Mid-Atlantic and squashed just about everybody. He had a series of matches with Dizzy Hogan (Brutus Beefcake) and feuded with Jimmy Valiant. He had runs in Florida, I think World Class, and Mid-South/UWF where he was the champion. I'm sure that Vince felt that he was taking a swipe at Dusty by calling OMG The African Dream and having him dance. He just wasn't the monster heel anymore and looked like an overgrown Easter Egg. In probably the only thing that they did right when he came to WCW, Dusty & Jim Herd let him go back to his original gimmick. Plus, in 1977, as Crusher Broomfield, he was part of one of the biggest trades in wrestling. He was sent to Atlanta and Ricky Steamboat came to Charlotte in exchange.
I enjoyed reading this. I didn’t become a wrestling fan until ‘83. I preferred the rawness of NWA World Class and UWF over the cartoonish WWF.
@@bricktobuildings1145 True. Then Jim Herd takes over the NWA and tried to make it into another WWE. The Ding Dongs, Norman the Lunatic, Big Josh, Oz. Need I say more?
Cant see George Gray without throwing up the OMG arm 💪🏽 and going DOoOoOoooOo!!!
The first live wrestling event I ever went to back in 90 at Louisville gardens was akeem and Jake Roberts in a cage classic times
OMG would make one hell of a color commentator.
Shoulda filled into the role that Sgt. Slaughter was doing in the later years of his career, like Stone Cold Steve Austin. OMG was a very good big man.
One of the Best wrestling Gimmick names ever “The One man Gang”
I still remember when I saw him on the VHS of WrestleMania IV and realized he is noticeably bigger than Bam Bam. Just a crazy big dude back then.
They should have kept him as the OMG.
Always did like the
One man gang,
work is work weather he
win or lose is still work
but no man can live on a
promises that are not fulfilled
no one like to work this .
OMG vs Taker would have been interesting...as would OMG vs Earthquake...you could write volumes about WWE's missed opportunities.
Opportunities for what? Do you think that during the time of Hogan,, Savage, Warrior, and others that people would be climbing over one another for tickets and blowing up the phone lines for PPV orders? Take off your smark glasses.
He's got a point he wasn't getting paid hardly would have loved to see him wrestle the undertaker would have been a awesome match 👍
Thats the thing vince says he got u but never does if u arent a headliner or vince fav u arent going to make shhhhh
"Its not what you make, its what you save"
-"MachoMan" Randy Savage.
But.. you still got to make enough to be able to save. ALOT of people dont' realize that wrestlers pay their own travel and that adds up when you're on the road 320 days a year...
He said he was making 5 grand for a house show. How much was hotel and flights back in the 80’s/90’s? Spare me the violin. These guys couldn’t save their money cause they were a bunch of drug addicts that’s why the pay checks weren’t enough. There’s no excuse why if you did one house show in a week and received 5 grand for it you couldn’t make ends meet. And this is in his words unless I missed something. He was claiming 5 grand for a house show was a bad pay check lol.
@@Nasdupree9090 pfft I know man! Tell me about it..
@@Nasdupree9090 He never said the 5 grand was a bad paycheck. You obviously didn't pay attention because you just wanted to bash the guy because you're sooooooo much better of a human being. 🙄.
And yeah, that was sarcasm. I know you're slow so I figured I'd better mention it.
He said 5 grand was one of the better ones, and that he's had good and bad ones. But the bad ones outweighed the good.
Learn comprehension skills. They'll help make you less of an insufferable dbag than what you currently are.
@@Nasdupree9090 They get paid as Independent contracts (self employed). All driving, eating etc is on a wrestlers dime. Lots of end of year taxes.
When you are Hogan, Savage etc you get a lot of perks. When you are mid card or below you get little. One man gang is saying money 💰 dried up. When Gang was put on the jobber crew he was losing money.
Therefore he was making less than $5k. Expenses add up. He still has to pay to live rent etc. Gang was stating that he was spending more than he was earning at the end. He decided to quit the WWF. Somehow Vince McMahon did not find value in one man gang .
The fact that vince begged him to come back after a no show and even a month later offering 8 grand to come back must speak volumes about OMG. I've always heard even with guys like Austin and Shawn that Vince was like fining them a months pay and no TV for a while and Lawler who was next to Ross waiting 8 months for a call and that's after Heyman sucked on commentary.
Yeah hayman on commentary was a double edged sword.can be very annoying and not as funny as Lawler but he kept J.R on his toes and if you watch x17 wrestlemania he drops lovely little hints about wrestlers pasts and mentioning the hart dungeon and the Japanese companies etc etc.
Lawker coming back had nothing to do with Heyman sucking. In fact, most people enjoyed his commentary. He came back after he divorced Stacy Carter.
"747'' Aka Akeem aka One Man Gang... It's good to see him
One man Gang was my favorite of him
Just a good ol country boy.
Title match wrestling i love watching your RUclips videos I’m a huge fan
One of favs one man gang.the good days
My All-time favorite nickname! 'One Man Gang' says it all.
At least he's alive and well
A lot of wrestlers went to WWF/WWE to become shadows of their former selves: Paul Orndorf, Steve Keirns(the tabacco chewing bayou guy), Ron Killings, Sting, Samoa Joe, Terry Taylor, just to name a few...they were great wrestlers elsewhere but weren't given a push they deserved in Vince's promotion...
When Slick would refer to Akim as a “brutha” was so subtly funny.
The one man gang from Chicago was awesome.
UWF proved how effective One Man Gang could be with competent booking. WWE couldn't resist fixing what wasn't broken by replacing a successful gimmick with something as pointless as Akeem. It's a shame - we've seen a lot of big, scary guys fail because they didn't know how to work, but Gang knew how to deliver.
It was a takeoff of Dusty.
"The office called a month later..." - "Hey, you haven't showed up for TV for a month now, is everything ok?" Lol
Vince: Quitting is bad business.
Random fan: So are all the numerous scandals your company has had over the years.
One of my favorite wrestlers worked at the same facility angola
“Crime and punishment” was a name I used with Gang and Boss man.
8k to go to Japan sounded good. Should have taken it