John Wayne, Waylon Jennings, and a touch of Bugs Bunny

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

In Mike Mooneyham's recent column following the death of Blackjack Mulligan, he quoted New York area writer (and long time Mid-Atlantic Wrestling fan) Richard O'Sullivan:

“Jack was an iconic, larger-than-life character. Like John Wayne and Waylon Jennings rolled into one with a touch of Bugs Bunny. Simultaneously heroic, scary and hilarious. I learned more about storytelling from a Blackjack Mulligan interview than I ever learned from a school book."

I loved this quote and laughed out loud when I read it. I think Blackjack would have loved this characterization because many years ago, we had this long telephone conversation about .... Bugs Bunny!

For the life of me, I can't tell you how we got off on that subject. The conversation was actually more about the Looney Tunes cartoon characters in general, especially one of our mutual favorites, Yosemite Sam. But the thing I remember most about this phone conversation was his impression of Bugs Bunny.

Yes, when I was 14 years old and watching him fight Paul Jones and Baron Von Raschke, I could have never imagined the day I'd hear Blackjack Mulligan do a Bugs Bunny impression. Richard O'Sullivan nailed it for me with that quote in the Mooneyham article.

We continue to mourn the passing of the great Blackjack Mulligan who was one of the true legends of professional wrestling, and Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling in particular. Check out this collection of links to many of his related posts on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.