WrestleMania season is upon us, and with that comes the traditional WWE Hall of Fame ceremony that opens the weekend of festivities. Familiar with each other for nearly 40 years, Bill “Ax” Eadie and Barry “Smash” Darsow never thought their smash mouth, post-apocalyptic getup would turn them into soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductees. Just weeks away from receiving their long-awaited recognition, both Smash and Ax retell how they first met and carved their path of destruction as Demolition.

“Well, Randy Colley [Moondog Rex] came up with the basic concept,” Ax told legendary journalist Bill Apter. “If you remember, he was the original Smash, but it just didn’t work out because people recognized him as one of the Moondogs. So, he was gracious enough to step aside after the second day. And I was going to Japan, and in the meantime, we needed a replacement.”

Looking for a career change after leaving Jim Crockett Promotions, Darsow described how he replaced Colley as the new Smash, all thanks to his friends and now Hall of Famers Earl Hebner and Ricky Steamboat, who initiated a meeting between Darsow and former CEO and Chairman, Vince McMahon.

“They flew me up to New York. Limo picked me up…I was in the office and Pat Patterson was there, Vince was there, and they showed me a book, and it had all these different pictures of what the Demolition would look like. And he says, ‘What do you think of it?’ And I says, ‘I’m in. I definitely want to do it,'” Smash recalled.

To Darsow, it was a dream come true working with Eadie, as he knew his partner was a top worker that could offer the both of them a top spot in the company. And they did it, together. All it took was a good lunch and a case of fine Canadian beer for them to cement their legacies and become the three-time WWE World Tag Team Champions, with their first run setting the tone as the fourth longest reigning champions in WWE tag team history at 478 days. This year will mark the first time both men have appeared on WWE programming since the 1990s, even after signing a Legends deal last year. 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Bill Apter with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.