Steele said he was wrestling in the Summer and would go back to teaching in the Fall and had no intention of leaving the Detroit area. His manager was Gary Hart, who George says is one of the greatest of all-time. His first character was a student, as Steele tells us a gimmick is something you use to hit someone with and not a character. We get a story of how the business was back then as Steele said Louis Papineau died after the match and Johnny Gates, an old-time jobber, asked if they could drag him out to the ring so he could get a pin. They were both exhausted and wrapped it up quicker than it was supposed to be. Ruby told Steele it was a “halfway shoot” match as he had no idea what that meant. He said his first match was against Klondike Bill, who was an old veteran at the time. After going in the ring, they smartened him up to the business a bit as Steele said he became turned off and thought it was disrespecting athletics but stuck with it and said he learned the most from riding in cars from town-to-town with veterans who would critique his matches and how its much better than today where you learn at a school run by a guy who wrestled just a handful of matches. Steele was sent somewhere in Virginia to train and was never smartened up to anything. Steele said he knew nothing at all about wrestling then was asked to take his shirt off and he thought the guy was a “switch hitter” and he started tugging at his chest hair and thought it was great. This promoter was Bert Ruby in Detroit and they saw him the next day and said that his son is currently the lawyer for Barry Bonds.

George goes on to say he got drunk with his friend they called a promoter at 2:30am saying they wanted to be wrestlers. He also bounced at a bar with his friend, who was a huge wrestling fan. He was teaching for $4,300 a year with a wife and two children and played semi-pro football for $100 a game. He then says he did not care about wrestling at all while growing up. Steele starts off by staying in character then asks Rob if he wants to talk to “Jim Myers,” he can talk normal.

George steele tor johnson