What names have you wrestled under?
Where have you wrestled?
What's it like wrestling in the South? I know there's a lot of organizations fighting for audiences.
How did you hook up with Stan Frazier?
What was Tiny's group called?
And he was the booker/promoter?
Tiny loved goofy matches, like eight-man tags, street fight matches. He also loved to let the audience sign up and wrestle in the battle royals -- I don't have to tell you that was no fun for the boys, but I survived. It was my job to get rid of the civillians as soon as possible. I was his number one heel at the time. Cousin Junior worked with us in Five Star, then for Tiny a while.
Tiny was a real nice guy. He treated me with respect and dignity. He never once stiffed me for what he owed me (a real rarity in the South) and would actually pay me bonuses for a good house. Tiny wasn't stupid, but he wasn't a rocket scientist either. He was pretty much an average guy all around.
Did he still wrestle? I know his health was really starting to fail at this point.
Everybody called him Tiny. While I was working for him he billed himself as Tiny Plowboy Frazer. He never seemed to like the name Uncle Elmer.
Did he enjoy wrestling so late in the game? I can't imagine he could do very much.
Did he talk much of his WWF days?
The only guys he ever talked about from the business were (Jerry) Lawler, Cousin Junior, Hippy (Mike) Boyette, and Ken Lucas.
I did this interview very early on in the making of this web site. East Coast wrestler Jack "The Ripper" Stevens was kind enough to grant me this e-mail interview, and he gave me some great insight into the later career of the Plowboy.
How did you get involved in wrestling?
I started wrestling around 1988. I was living in Pensacola, Florida after doing 9 1/2 years in the Navy. Sika the Wild Samoan had a wrestling show on a local television program and he was talking about his new school. My wife talked me into trying out, which I did, and I started wrestling for Sika about 2 Months later.
I have worked as Jack "The Ripper" Stevens and Handsome Jack Donovan, mostly. I was primarily a tag team wrestler. Some of my tag teams included the Lust Connection, Devastation Inc., and the Drifters.
I have worked indies my whole career. I worked for Sika, Uncle Elmer, CWF, IWCCW, IWF, Five Star, and a lot of other fly-by-night organizations.
In the South it is very difficult. Some nights we would have 6,000 in the crowd and some we would have 6 people. You never knew until you showed up wether or not you would get paid. After 2 years in the South I moved to Pennslyvania, and finally got some steady work in the Pennslyvania/New Jersey/New York area. That's when I finally did some real TV (IWCCW).
I met Stan Frazier in Mobile, Alabama. I was doing a house show for Sika, and Tiny was there looking for workers to run in Mississippi. He must have liked us because he hired me and my tag team partner, Bobby Doll, on the spot. I was just "Handsome Jack" then. Tiny added the "Donovan Jr." part because he said I looked a lot like Jack Donovan, and he got Jack Donovan's OK to use his last name. (I actually had no idea who Jack Donovan was at the time). This was in late 1989 early 1990.
Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling, which he ran until his death. I had left the company six months earler to head up to Pennslyvania for some real work.
Yes, Tiny booked and promoted the matches himself for all of Mississippi. He was an OK booker, but he always used someone else to call the matches for him. I did this for him for about six months he would give me the matches and the results and I would come up with the story line and the finishes. Tiny was and old-fashioned booker who still thought you could advertise with posters and newspaper ads. This worked in the smaller towns, but not in the larger ones.
Tiny did wrestle on occassions. He had a Gulf Coast Super Heavyweight belt and would wrestle every third or fourth booking, and only against certain guys. Problem one was he was soooooo big he could only work a couple of guys. I wrestled him probably a dozen times. Tiny would put you over but only with a screw finish. He liked doing handicap matches a lot, too, where he would wrestle two of the smaller guys. By this time Tiny was in pretty bad shape physically and you had to be real careful in the ring with him. He had a lot of trouble moving but he still did a leg drop off of the second rope as his finish.
Tiny did enjoy wrestling but because of size he was limited to what he could do in there. All of the training in the world wasn't going to make him faster or more agile. This guy was huge -- I am 6' 3" tall and weigh 270 legit and Tiny dwarfed me. So I think he was limited to what he do his whole career.
No, Tiny didn't talk much about the WWF. I don't think he was all that happy with Vince, so he never did mention it much. I never asked Tiny about his wedding (on Saturday Night's Main Event), and he never mentioned it. I don't think he was real proud of that so I never brought it up.
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