On this episode of Rick Del Santo’s Classic Wrestling Talk Podcast, Rick welcomes Greg Evans, best remembered by most fans as one half of The Ding Dongs in WCW, as well as part of the Rock & Roll Rebels from Jody Hamilton’s Deep South Wrestling. This is a fun, honest conversation with a guy who lived through one of the strangest gimmicks of the late territory/early cable era and came out of it with a good sense of humor, a lot of perspective, and no regrets about choosing family over the wrestling life.
Greg talks about growing up as a fan during the days when wrestling felt like superheroes on television, especially after seeing an angle with Argentina Apollo and Ox Baker that made him realize, even as a kid, how powerful wrestling could be when it pulled real emotion out of the audience. From there, he followed wrestling through magazines, television, high school, and college until he finally got the chance to train with Jody Hamilton.
The biggest topic, of course, is The Ding Dongs. Greg is very honest about how ridiculous the gimmick sounded when it was first explained to him, but he also makes it clear that he and Richard tried to make the best of it. They could not go out there and work like tough guys in bell covered bodysuits, so they leaned into the clowning, played to the kids, and tried to get what they could out of it. By the time the act was actually starting to connect with younger fans, WCW had already decided to move on.
Greg’s comments on the business changing in the late 1980s are also interesting. He talks about how the territories were disappearing, how smaller promotions could not draw enough to sustain themselves, and how even talented guys had a hard time finding real opportunities unless they fit what the bigger companies were looking for at the time.
The interview also gives fans a nice look at Greg as a person, not just the gimmick. His decision to leave wrestling came down to family. He loved the business, but he did not want to be gone 29 days a month and miss his son growing up. He became a firefighter and paramedic, built a stable life, raised a family, and now enjoys time with his kids and grandkids.
For fans of late 80s WCW, Deep South Wrestling, obscure gimmicks, territory wrestling, and behind the scenes stories from someone who was there, this is a really enjoyable listen. Greg Evans does not run from the Ding Dongs legacy. He laughs about it, explains it, and gives listeners a better understanding of what it was like to be handed an impossible gimmick and still try to make it work.
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