In the Ring with Billy Moore
In the Ring with Billy Moore
From Archie Moore to Andre the Giant: Zeus Reveals His Journey in Professional Wrestling
When worlds collide, magic happens. In this captivating episode, boxing legend Billy Moore welcomes professional wrestling icon Alan "Zeus" Dwyer for a conversation that bridges two combat sports dynasties and reveals their unexpected shared history.
Zeus unveils the remarkable connection between his father and Billy's father—the legendary Archie Moore—who discovered Zeus's dad boxing at street fights in downtown San Diego. Their friendship lasted decades, with Zeus's father preparing Archie's steaks exactly "two and three-quarter inches thick, not two and three-eighths." These personal touches humanize the sports legends behind the public personas.
The conversation takes thrilling turns as Zeus recounts his journey into professional wrestling, from being mentored by his high school coach (known professionally as "Dr. Death") to his unforgettable debut tag-teaming with Andre the Giant. Wrestling fans will appreciate Zeus's insider perspectives on industry giants like Hulk Hogan, who "turned the business around," and Ric Flair, "one of the greatest technicians ever." His humorous anecdotes—like searching for four midget wrestlers at a bar only to find them sitting on phone books—capture wrestling's colorful character.
Beyond nostalgic entertainment, this episode reveals how these combat sports veterans are channeling their passion into youth development through Any Body Can Youth Foundation. They share touching success stories, including how their program helped Brian Broomberg, a La Jolla teenager, graduate high school. As an eight-year-old participant named Braylon declared: "We're going to make San Diego better and then we're going to work and make the world better."
Join us for this unique crossover that proves champions are defined not just by achievements in the ring, but by how they champion others in life. Whether you're a boxing fan, wrestling enthusiast, or simply interested in community impact, this episode delivers powerful insights from those who've lived extraordinary lives.
Welcome to In the Ring with Billy Moore. This is a very special and unique show that's done especially for you and we hope that you enjoy it. Alan Dwyer A lot of people would know him as Zeus Zeus, Outstanding and championship caliber wrestler. Good morning, Zeus. Good morning, Billy how are you doing this morning?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. I hope everybody else is too yeah but I think we're going to.
Speaker 1:If they're not feeling great, we're going to give them something to. I think we can talk about something that will make them feel good, make them feel great.
Speaker 2:One way or the other, they're going to be great by the time we get done with them.
Speaker 1:So it's all right and it's very interesting doing a show with a wrestler opposed to another boxer. You were born in San Diego.
Speaker 2:I was born and raised in North Park and my father he was born and raised down in Presidio Park and where he was born and raised they used to have on Friday nights. On the corner there was a light and the kids would box down there and all the ethnic owners of the restaurants around downtown San Diego would come down there and watch the kids fight and they'd throw nickels, dimes and everything else and the kids would make some extra money. Well, that's how my dad was discovered by Billy's father, archie. He had one of his scouts down there one night and my dad was in the ring and he had a pretty good night. He was four for four and all of a sudden Archie had an interview with my dad and my dad was very young at the time and ended up being a professional boxer under Archie's tutorage and after my dad retired.
Speaker 2:My dad was a butcher for 50 years and my father and Archie were the best of friends, and my dad, on Saturdays, would go around the city at different meat markets and he would rent the meat market out on a Saturday. So most of the people in those days had owned the little meat markets on the corners. They had families, but they never had a Saturday Sunday out. It was always a Sunday. So my dad would come in when Archie was in town. Town he'd call my father and he and my dad's nickname was Irish. He'd go Irish. You know what I need and and Archie's, archie's favorite steak was was the top sirloin's two and three quarter inches and not two and three, not two and three quarter.
Speaker 2:Two and three quarter, not two and three eighths, not two and three eighths, not two and not three.
Speaker 1:It's two and three quarters, that was it.
Speaker 2:So that's how I learned how to cut his steaks. So I just moved back here from Chicago a couple years ago. After 40 years in Chicago, I wrestled there professionally and then promoted for about 15 and then retired back there. My late wife passed away there. I came back here and I rekindled my relationship with a girlfriend that I knew in the 70s. And now we are married, happily married. And then, through my travels in the last, say, six months, I knew about Billy Moore, but I've never met Billy.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:And through a friend of ours, ron Cota. He mentioned the fact that he was doing something with Billy, and so subsequently we got together not too long ago and now we're sitting here in the gym and possibly it looks like I'm coming out of retirement to try to help this organization and get things cooking so here we are.
Speaker 1:Are you coming out of retirement to do that, or are you coming out of retirement to wrestle? I'm coming to help you, not to wrestle hey, zeus, tell our listeners a story about you your dad and my dad, I think, when you were a little gangster.
Speaker 2:I was a problem child for a short time in my life problem child for a short time in my life.
Speaker 2:I grew up with 3076 Thorn Street and I made a mistake one day and my dad was a very easy going guy. But he said, al, you overdid it and he goes, you're going to pay for it. And I went, uh, oh Well. Subsequently he called Archie and and we're outside. We're outside and all of a sudden I see Archie pull up in his, in his Brand new car, and I knew it was Archie's car and I went oh no.
Speaker 2:And subsequently the trunk opened, archie got two pair of boxing gloves out of it. He says put them on. And Archie said you know what I'm here for? And I tried to do the old cry fake. And he goes that ain't working. And he says I go, yes, sir. Archie said look up. I looked up and one smack in the stomach and that was it. And I never did that again and that was the best lesson I ever learned in my life.
Speaker 1:That got you going on the straight and narrow.
Speaker 2:I was like a rattlesnake and then I got straight and quick.
Speaker 1:How did you get into wrestling?
Speaker 2:I got into wrestling, I went to Hoover High School and I had the honor of having my wrestling coach's name was Don Arnold. He was the first man to bench press 400 pounds in the city of San Diego at Leo Stern's gym. And Mr Arnold God bless him he was a mentor to me and he just was a great guy. And my father when he took he took me to 15th and e street. That's where. That's where he used to box, mr more used to box everybody.
Speaker 2:Well, that's where they had wrestling and and Danny Millsap was a promoter and my father just took me to my first wrestling match and I told my dad and I said I think one day I'd like to do this. He goes, you don't want to box, I go. Well, I'll learn how to box, but I want to do this. And this is when I was very young I was maybe 11, 12 years old, something like that. And this is when I was very young, I was maybe 11, 12 years old, something like that. Well, I'm at Hoover, it's football time, it's towards the end of the season, teen didn't do too well and we had kind of a rough practice one day. And I look up and I knew who Coach Arnold was but I did not ever meet the gentleman until then.
Speaker 2:And he goes. I would like to talk to you and I go yes, sir, he goes. I'll make a proposition. He goes I understand you might want to learn how to the ropes as far as being a professional wrestler. And I looked at him and I said, yes, but can you help me? He goes have you ever heard of the wrestler Dr Death out of Indiana? And I go. Yeah, he goes. That's me. I go. Huh, well, he was. And he goes. I'll make you a deal. You wrestle for me my junior senior year, one hour a week after practice, you and me in here.
Speaker 2:He says by the time you graduate your senior year, you'll know everything you're going to have to know and if it ever comes down to a point where you want to get into wrestling, you're going to be able to get in there just like you've been in there forever. I said you got a deal, so I wrestled for him on the Hoover High Wrestling Team and he taught me the ropes as far as like learning the business, and then I owned a bar called the Beachcomber in the early 70s to early 80s.
Speaker 1:You owned the Beachcomber?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh yeah, and that's when everything was really going good. The Chargers hockey was big in San Diego, everything was really cooking and Tuesday nights were a slow night in the bar. Well, that's when wrestling was down at Bill Miller's Coliseum. So this is where I got the harebrained idea I'd go down and talk to Mr Millsap, and Coach Arnold talked to Danny, and Danny gets a hold of these two wrestlers. At the time they were called the Hollywood Blondes, jerry.
Speaker 1:Brown and Buddy Roberts the Hollywood Blondes. Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts the Hollywood Blondes.
Speaker 2:And they were two characters, really characters, but they were great wrestlers. Well, they gave me a workout prior to the show that night and they both said he's in, and that's how I ended up getting into the business, he's in, and that's how I ended up getting in the end of the business. And then, and then, uh, I did it just to get business going on Tuesday night. Well, it ended up being a little bit more than that, because then, all of a sudden, I was wrestling quite a bit and then, uh, just not too long after I'd started, Danny Danny calls me up and he goes. Well, Leo Garibaldi he was a promoter out of Los Angeles and Lee Neaton God bless that family they were promoters for the state of California for boxing and wrestling and he goes.
Speaker 2:I heard good things about you and I'm going to have you as Andre the Giant's tag team partner here in San Diego. And I said what? Because I mean I was still a rookie. He goes, but you'll be all right. Well, the funny part about this is you're not going to say no when they say that. So I said okay. Well, we didn't know that the tag team partners were both Germans. They were both about 6'6", about 280 each. They couldn't speak a word of English.
Speaker 1:And how much did you weigh?
Speaker 2:I weighed 225. And then Andre he was 7, 7'5 and 550 pounds.
Speaker 1:Andre's a giant.
Speaker 2:And he was a giant, and so I. So I, and at the time at the beachcomber, we bought a used limousine because it was. We wanted to get our patrons home safe and that's how it worked. So I am, I remember getting in that limousine, going down and going down to the, to the Coliseum, and I'm going, I'm by myself, in the back of that limousine, I'm going, oh my god, andre the Giant and two, two big Germans that can't speak a word of English and they're both bigger than houses. This should be a long night, which it was Well.
Speaker 2:I walk into the dressing room, I'm sitting there and I know I was shaking. All of a sudden I look up and there's the giant. And he goes are you Zeus? And that's my nickname and I go. How did you know that? Andre was in San Francisco before coming down from San Francisco to San Diego for the show? He's at the bar in San francisco and a very dear friend of of mine a lot of people to this day tom wukowicz was a biggie with xerox, xerox corporation. At the time he was sitting at the bar up there and and and tom, as tom told, he's sitting there and all of a sudden he hears this voice. May I sit next to you?
Speaker 2:And he looks around and here's Andre the Giant. Tom goes, andre. They sit there. They became instant friends. They're on the same flight, psa flight down to San Diego. Andre's got his manager with him. Wook's in the back of the plane, andre's in the front of the plane. Andre tells his manager you go back and get Wook up here with me. So Wook sits up there with Andre and they've had a couple of bottles of wine, I guess, on the way down, and that's how it was. But Andre goes.
Speaker 2:Wookowitz is a very good friend of mine now. I mean Tom Wookowitz, he goes, yeah, he goes. He can't come, though he got a little too tipsy. His wife had to pick him up at the airport. I go okay. So anyway, that's how we, that's how it started. So Andre goes, don't worry, you're going to be okay. You get in there. They're going to rough you up a little bit and I go a little bit. He goes more than a little bit. I go okay. So that means a lot, he goes a lot. But when you think you've had enough, you wink at me and then I'm going to come in and it'll be okay.
Speaker 1:Is that what you call the tag team?
Speaker 2:Yeah, tag team. But usually it's like this he goes just wink. Yeah, that didn't work very well. I'm in there and I'm getting it's like around the world in about 15 minutes. I mean I'm flying here and everywhere and I keep winking and he doesn't see the wink. Well, needless to say, after about 10 minutes mean getting pulverized. Finally I go like this, and then he ain't had enough. Aubrey comes in there and these two guys are giants and he knocked the you-know-what out of them left, right, up and down. He picks one up and slams him. He picks the other one and slams him on top of him. Then he picks me up with one arm and just puts me on top of him. Then he puts his foot and leg on top of me. One, two, three you could have counted to 500. Nobody was moving there, but that was the start.
Speaker 1:Now, guys, they could actually toss each other around as big as they were.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh Andre, these fellas. They were strong too, the Germans.
Speaker 1:But Andre had immense immense, immense power.
Speaker 2:Where was he from France? Yeah, from Paris, and he was a very, very, very wonderful man, great connoisseur of wine. He was a restaurateur, he had business in Toronto and in Paris. And he was a dear friend and just a really really good, good, good person. But that's how my career basically got going in San Diego. That's how my career basically got going in San Diego. And then I moved to Chicago and I wrestled around the country and I learned the promotion business down in Texas through the Von Erich family and then from there.
Speaker 2:I stayed in Chicago and did that and married.
Speaker 1:What about? I was a Hulk Hogan fan.
Speaker 2:Hulk Hogan was at his day and age. He was the best, was he? And he was discovered in the beach area up the coast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Venice Beach.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah and he was just, I mean he was. He basically turned the business around, because with him and Andre and Ric Flair you get and you get that.
Speaker 1:What about Rowdy Rowdy Piper?
Speaker 2:he, rowdy. Rowdy was one of the nicest guys he was and he was a Canadian, but he was really a good guy. He was a great, great, great wrestler, great technician. Just he knew how to he could. He could make you, he could make you love him in he could. He could make you. He can make you love him in a second. We can make it hate him in a second. I mean, he was just really a true.
Speaker 1:I can't recall his name, but he had walked into the ring and he um whoo oh, that's Randy Macho Macho man.
Speaker 2:Macho man, macho man, that's it but Ric Flair is still the king of whoo that's how it is and Ric Flair is one of the greatest technicians, one of the greatest, the greatest technician, one of the greatest wrestlers ever. Also Macho man, he was a beauty too. But these are characters within characters. But they were, I mean, they're the ones that put the pro wrestling on the spotlight, I believe, and it was just an honor at that time to go against them but work with them.
Speaker 1:And you really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, we had a lot of fun. There were a lot of tough days. You know the circuits when you had to do those days, the circuits, you were driving 1,500 miles a week. You'd be wrestling.
Speaker 1:Every week you would.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you'd be going well, especially if you're down around Texas or something. You'd be going all the way to Louisiana back and forth, or Oklahoma.
Speaker 1:Each week you'd be going Boxers back in the day. They would. Well, I'd use my dad. He'd fight in Cleveland, ohio, and get on the train and fight in Baltimore.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Get on another train the next night and fight somewhere else. A lot of the guys used to. I guess there's a similarity between the boxers and the wrestlers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at that time there was a great similarity, because in those days, at that time there was a great similarity because in those days, if the guys got hurt or something, they went through it. They boxed through being hurt. If they were wrestling, they were hurt. If they could get in the ring, they were going to get in the ring. Your father, your father, to this day, the greatest heavyweight boxer was Mr Moore. The greatest heavyweight boxer was Mr Moore. Nobody has ever been or ever will get close to, even ever having as many bouts as he did Nobody.
Speaker 2:I mean this day and age, you see a heavyweight boxer if they have 20 bouts.
Speaker 1:it's like an attorney, Mr.
Speaker 2:Moore had over 200. He had 226. I mean 226.
Speaker 1:That was recorded. That's not even recorded.
Speaker 2:That tells you the athlete to that day and era, as far as to survive.
Speaker 1:This is some pretty exciting stuff, yeah. What about Ric Flair?
Speaker 2:Ric Flair is one of the greatest. There's a. This was one. This was in Chicago. So right when I first met Ric, he was with the NWA and I was with at the time I I was. It was called Wild West Wrestling and we both had. It was amazing. Both of us had shows in the Chicago area and we were both. Both the groups of wrestlers were staying at this motel. It was called the Air Host Inn. It was right on Mannheim in chicago and there was the, the gal that owned the place. Great gal, really a great gal. She had an airplane right in front of the place. I mean like an air host inn. Well, we get there after. I think we were in Wisconsin, we were in Milwaukee, we get back and they were in Indiana or someplace.
Speaker 2:And then I had on my group we had the midgets, two we had four of the midgets wrestling, so I got there late and then Rick Floyd was with this other group. Well, we're all down at the bar and then we met each other and it was fine. I was looking around for the four midgets and I'm looking around the bar and I can't find the midgets. Well, they were all four sitting around the bar, but they were all sitting on phone books.
Speaker 1:So they just looked like regular people.
Speaker 2:And I'm looking around for little guys and I'm going, they've got to be here. And finally I saw one of them, lord Brooks, and I see his long ponytail and I go oh, there you are. And he goes yeah, we just had to get some phone books so we could sit up to the bar. We couldn't be there. That's where I met Rick, and Rick is a wonderful guy and his daughter is just a great performer herself to this day and she's just wonderful. He's just a great guy.
Speaker 1:There was a he's a blonde haired, close cropped blonde hair. Hmm, that might not be enough information for you to figure out who. I'm trying. I had his name while ago. What about Rocky Razzley who? Rocky Razzley?
Speaker 2:That one would be a tough one.
Speaker 1:I guess he was probably more towards the Hulk Hogan era, okay, or as Hulk Hogan was coming out, something like that.
Speaker 2:Somewhere around there, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and well, let's talk about Terrence and I, our executive director here at ABNZ. We met you and it's been a wonderful thing since we met. Now we're talking about doing a. All the talk we're doing looks like we might be going to Chicago.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, we're here in San Diego.
Speaker 1:So what do you envision and hope to see us do here with our nonprofit and your promoting skills?
Speaker 2:What I hope that can be achieved here is getting out more in San Diego, all around San Diego, because this area down here, it's just like anything else.
Speaker 2:You've got to expand your horizons as far as getting out the word of what you're doing down here, down here, what you're doing with these kids, is very, very instrumental in the future of this area and the kids, this area and the kids and and basically what I, which I can't, which I'm, I'm in because I'm, I'm excited about this, because I think we can reach out and hit other spectrums of the city, other other organizations that might like, like to just understand what's going on, the concept of what's going on here, and how little, how little financially, it takes to get one person, one child, each month just to be able to come in here.
Speaker 2:Learn a lot of discipline, learn how to eat better, learn financial things about life, about communication, which is the biggest thing in the world, instead of everybody being on a computer all the time. You have to learn how to talk. That's going to be a big thing. The language barrier is something that I think can be a big help in the future as far as the children here in San Diego is Hispanic, english, whatever, but to learn bilingual it's just very important. But there's so many things that you've done here and tried to instigate and get going, but we just have to get out farther.
Speaker 1:we have to get more people involved well, one of the things I'd like to, because lately we've been talking about this area quite a bit my dad, he always talked about how not only is this area in trouble, but on towards, on the other side of it, things are spreading and we're here to help all the youth, and black, red, white, yellow and brown Doesn't matter, egbdf, every good body does and so what we want to do is we don't want to get narrowed down to this community, we want to help all communities.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what I said.
Speaker 1:And it's good that a gentleman like yourself has come into our midst and we thank the Lord for you and I'd like to see what we can do to make a difference. There's a kid just came to me we were at Horton Elementary last week, a little kid by the name of Braylon, and he's seven years, eight years old, and he heard about A, b and C and so we walked in and we gave him some t-shirts and everything. And this little kid, he was here yesterday. It was yesterday. The principal stopped by and he told him the same thing. He told them at school. He told the kids at school. He said Hold it. Hold it, instructor Moore, let me talk, let me talk.
Speaker 1:And the principal, danielle, she said Go ahead. He said what we're going to do. He said it just like this. He said we're going to make San Diego better and then we're going to work and make the world better. Just a kid, eight-year-old kid saying this. And he repeated it again yesterday when he was here. He told Lamar, he told Lamar, that's what we were going to do, that's the future and that's, you know, those are.
Speaker 1:our kids are in trouble A lot of us adults too, I guess. But our kids are in trouble and we've got to go the extra mile. We should go the extra mile to give them guidance. There's a story, and we'll close on this here story. Dr Broomberg was a doctor out in La Jolla. He had a son by the name of Brian Broomberg, la Jolla. He had a son by the name of Brian Broomberg.
Speaker 1:Brian Broomberg used to come from La Jolla. We didn't have the A, b and C established like it is now, but we were in another gym, irish Bud Murphy's gym. We used to be down there doing the work with our kids and Brian was in, I think, 10th or 11th grade and he started coming from La Jolla hanging around, hanging around, hanging around with the kids that were located down in this area. And when he graduated, the wife and I went to his graduation and his mom she said Mr Moore, can you hold up for a minute? Yes, ma'am, and she had written a letter and she read the letter and she said if it wasn't for A, b and C, my son would have never graduated from high school.
Speaker 1:And I tell that story because it really shows how we touch all walks of life if we're given the chance. And the kid now he's one of the he does film now and he's one of the best at it one of the best. So we give God the glory and we thank him. You know, this is very interesting Zeus In the ring with Billy Moore. But we're not talking about boxing, we're talking about wrestling. That's going to be our lead-in for the next couple of shows. Zeus, you're renowned. Our lead in for the next couple of shows. Zeus, you're renowned. You're renowned, you're known across the country.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You're known across the country.
Speaker 2:And most of it's good, I hope Well, I'm sure it's good.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know you wrestlers, from what I hear you guys have some stories.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there's a lot of stories. There's a lot more coming too.
Speaker 1:Okay, you got it, zeus. Well, I want to say thank you, and how's the wife?
Speaker 2:Wife is great, everybody's great, but I want to thank you, billy and Terrence, for everything, and this is going to get better.
Speaker 1:It is because I'm going to dig up them, guys. I used to watch.
Speaker 2:We're going to bring the archives back, so it'll be fun. But once again, this is hopefully it's going to get some attention of some people and we're going to it's like, instead of just like this area, like Billy just said, we're dealing with San Diego County, the whole San Diego.
Speaker 1:County.
Speaker 2:We're going from. I don't care If we can help kids get a start or get on the right path to what's going on for the future. It can go anywhere and that's fine with me, and if I can help I'm going to be there. Thank you, brother.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:My pleasure Okay.