WWE Tag Team Legend Bill ‘Demolition Ax’ Eadie Announces Pro Wrestling Retirement

Another pro wrestler has decided to retire from the business. After a nearly 45-year-long career, Bill Eadie, popularly known as Demolition Ax, has decided to call it quits. Eadie, who turns 70 years old this year, has been in the business since 1973, and he soon became popular in the WWWF and NWA. Gaining notoriety as The Masked Superstar and winning numerous regional championship, Eadie returned to the WWE in the mid-1980s, once again under a mask.

As a member of the babyface trio, The Machines, along with Andre the Giant (Giant Machine) and Blackjack Mulligan (Big Machine), he was involved in a major storyline in the WWE. The angle commenced from Andre and Bobby Heenan heavily feuding. When Andre was supposed to be suspended from the WWE, he reappeared under a mask along with his colleagues. While it was obvious that is was Andre under the mask, Heenan could not prove it was him, and the fans would also play into this myth.

The next year, Eadie was repackaged as a member of Demolition. Although his partner, Barry Darsow, who was known as Smash, was not an original member, this rendition of the team was the one that became the most popular. In fact, Demotion dominated the tag team division in the late 1980s, and they won the titles after about a year as a tag team at WrestleMania IV by defeating Tito Santana and Rick Martel, known as Strike Force.

Their eccentric wardrobe and catchy tune earned the favor of the fans, and they became babyfaces. They would remain faces for several months, primarily feuding with the Brain Busters, before turning heel once again. The speculation about this heel turn over the years has stemmed from WWE wanting a newer look for Demolition and Eadie passing the torch to Brian Adams, known as Crush.

Eadie was recently interviewed by the Two Man Power Trip Podcast, and he commented on what the original plan was for his return before Demolition formed (h/t Prowrestling).

“Originally when I went back up to the WWF and I wasn’t real keen on it but Andre (The Giant) had asked me to do it and if you remember just before we did the Demolition we did the Strong Machines. Andre was getting ready to make the movie The Princess Bride and we had done that character as just a lark in Japan because The Machines were a heel team and they had left and jumped to Baba’s group from Inoki so they wanted to put a roadblock in their success. Andre wanted me to come in and I wasn’t interested in going back into New York to be honest. I was just going to come back (into the States) and do Georgia and go back to Japan, so I went back up as a favor to him and that morphed into when Andre did go off and film the movie we had to figure out something to do so they brought (Blackjack) Mulligan in but we all knew that it was a short term gimmick.”

Eadie attempted to form a variation of Demolition in Japan, but it never really managed to get off the group. For the past number of years, he has been wrestling for various independent promotions, oftentimes tagging with his former Demolition partner, Darsow. They even showed up to the popular King of Trios tournament, hosted by Chikara, alongside the One Man Gang. They also competed for Chikara in 2012.

On June 3, in Parkersburg, WV, Eadie announced that it would be his last match as a professional wrestler. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Eadie was wrestling as Demolition Ax, and he was also inducted by Jim Cornette into the promotion Hall of Fame that same night. In addition, Eadie stated that he wanted to make this announcement in the same state he received his college degree, which was from West Virginia University.

At 478 days, Eadie contributed to Demolition being the longest reigning tag team champions in WWE history, a record which lasted for over 18 years before being broken by The New Day.