Ax (wrestler)

William Reid "Bill" Eadie (born December 27, 1947) is an American retired professional wrestler who has competed under the names of Ax as part of Demolition and The Masked Superstar.

He was a high school teacher and coach at Cambridge High School in Cambridge, Ohio, and at East Liverpool, Ohio.

Eadie's first match was on December 15, 1972, under the name "the Paramedic".

Throughout 1973, he wrestled under a mask as the tag team "Para-Medics" in the Sheik's Detroit territory.

He then wrestled in Pittsburgh, Detroit, the WWWF, and the IWA as "Bolo Mongol", the new partner of his trainer, Geeto Mongol.

He soon entered the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling territory under the management of Boris Malenko and donned a mask as "the Masked Superstar", given the character at the advice of matchmaker George Scott.

It was stated that he was an Olympic champion by various wrestling promoters.

He challenged opponents with a $10,000 reward to whoever could break his "cobra clutch", as well as utilizing the "corkscrew neckbreaker".

The Masked Superstar was 6' 3", weighed 300 lbs and created many mismatches due to his size, strength and quickness. He had many bouts with Mighty Igor, Paul Jones, Blackjack Mulligan, Wahoo McDaniel, Mr. Wrestling II, Stan Hansen, "Wildfire" Tommy Rich, and Dick Murdoch.

Although primarily a villain, he also appeared as a hero, teaming with Jones to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid Atlantic version) twice in 1980–1981.

He also competed in the World Wrestling Federation against many top wrestlers in 1983–84.

He fought against many top level opponents, including WWF champion Bob Backlund, WWF champion Hulk Hogan, future WWF champion Sgt. Slaughter, and Jimmy Snuka.

Under the persona The Masked Superstar, he feuded with Dino Bravo and Rick Martel while teaming with King Tonga.

In 1984, he also teamed with King Kong Bundy (also a hero at the time) to defeat the Road Warriors for the NWA National Tag Team Championship (which he had previously held with Super Destroyer in 1982) but was forced to give up the title due to injuries suffered in a mysterious assault (kayfabe).

He was the first wrestler (along with Blackjack Mulligan) to have one-hour cage matches, then have a series of "12" ninety-minute cage matches, against Mulligan.

It is believed that neither feat of hour or hour and a half cage matches has since been performed by any wrestlers.

He was one of the first wrestlers to body slam André the Giant.

Among other accomplishments, he won four Georgia Heavyweight titles and unified that title with the NWA National Heavyweight Championship.

In 1985, he returned as Bolo for two TV appearances.

In 1986, he returned to the World Wrestling Federation and became "Super Machine" with André the Giant as "Giant Machine" and Blackjack Mulligan as "Big Machine".

Eadie was the primary mouthpiece of the team.

The three Machines were introduced as rivals of Bobby Heenan and his massive tag team of Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy.

(The Machines' masks and gimmick were copied from New Japan Pro-Wrestling character "Super Strong Machine", played by Japanese wrestler Junji Hirata).

Eadie later dropped the Machine gimmick and left the WWF to head to Florida for a run as the Masked Superstar, upending Lex Luger to win the NWA Southern title.

He held the title for two weeks before Luger regained it.

In January 1987, Eadie returned to the WWF and formed the tag team Demolition with Randy Colley, formerly Moondog Rex, who wrestled as Smash while Eadie wrestled as Ax.

Colley was later replaced by Barry Darsow as Smash, after it was discovered that too many people remembered Colley as Moondog Rex, the character he previously portrayed.

Though they began as heels, their unique brawling style and charisma made them so popular that they became faces in November 1988.

They won the WWF Tag Team Championship three times as a team of two, but lost the belts at SummerSlam 1990 after they reverted to being heels by forming a threesome with Crush.

The trio concept was precipitated by a mutual decision to phase out the Ax character and for Eadie to take a backstage role in the company.

Popular rumor at the time cited heart problems on Eadie's part, which have been discredited in recent years.

Eadie's new position eventually fell through and his final WWF appearance was at Survivor Series 1990.

This event also marked the last time that he and Smash worked together for sixteen years.

In the midst of this time period, Eadie also played opposite Hulk Hogan as "Jake Bullet" in the movie No Holds Barred.

He and Smash appeared in several Pizza Hut commercials for the "Kids Night Out" promotion widely seen on national television.

Around 1991, Ax formed a new tag team, using the Demolition name, and pairing up with a 6 ft Canadian wrestler, dubbed "Canadian Giant" or "Demolition Hux."

They toured with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, facing established stars such as Masa Saito, Riki Choshu and Tatsumi Fujinami, at the same time that Smash and Crush were still wrestling under the name for the then WWF and on Japanese tours with Super World of Sports.

Eadie would then go on to form a third Demolition team with partner Blast (Carmine Azzato).

An allergic reaction to shellfish while in Japan after WrestleMania VI was the real cause of his temporary heart problem; Eadie confirmed this in a shoot interview in 2007.

Before Eadie was medically cleared, Crush had been recruited as a temporary replacement.