When fans of pro wrestling think of “Hardcore” performers, they often think of guys like Mick Foley and the wrestlers from the old ECW. But a man who pre-dated them all in the genre was Abdullah The Butcher.
He’s not really from Sudan
Abdullah the Butcher’s real name is Lawrence Shreve. And while his character was portrayed as the “Madman from Sudan,” in real life he’s from Ontario in Canada. We caught up with Shreve at River City Wrestling Con in Jacksonville. His career started in the Pacific Northwest. “A promoter wanted me to come to Seattle Washington,” said Shreve. When he arrived he was asked to put the other guy “over” (wrestling slang for letting the other wrestler win to increase their popularity).
“Okay, no problem. So I get there, do what I have to do and all of a sudden the people cause a riot in there. And the promoter comes running down the thing,” said Shreve. “And he said ‘tell Abdullah, tell the Butcher to go ‘over’. To beat him.”
Shreve said when he almost caused a riot by enraging the fans so much other promoters started to take notice. So he was brought up to wrestling in British Columbia. That’s when both his in-ring name and gimmick was developed. “He said Butcher, but we’ve got to find and Indian name for you,” he said due to a large Indian population in the area.
Soon he goes global
Shreve said he was intent on becoming successful due to his upbringing. “I used to see my mother scrubbing floors,” said Shreve of his mother who worked in a funeral home. “I said one day I’m going to walk in that funeral home and tell my mother get up. You’re not coming back here no more.”
Shreve quickly developed a hardcore style that involved weapons (most famously a fork) and a lot of danger. That willingness to wrestle in such an extreme fashion endeared him to fans who were intent on booing him and saw him as a real life monster. “Every match I done got me over because the way I wrestled now I was wrestling then. I was crazy,” said Shreve. In fact, he said he nearly caused a riot many times throughout his career.
Shreve became a must-see performer on numerous continents, particularly Japan where he was highly sought after performer.
Successful everywhere but WWF
One of the close associates Shreve made was Hulk Hogan. The two had some brutal matches in Japan in the 1980′s. “Me and Hogan was in Japan. We sold out seven days straight,” said Shreve. “He said ‘Abdullah, listen to me. I’m going to get you to New York,’ but he said ‘you’re not going to wrestle nobody but me and I’ll make you so much money it’ll be unbelievable’.”
But there was a problem. That problem was the owner of the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) Vince McMahon. “Vince called his employees in and said ‘what do you think of Abdullah the Butcher coming in here?’ He’s gonna’ use the gimmick (weapons) and all the crazy s***.” So it never happened.
But he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Success in WCW
While Shreve was never called up to the WWF he did get the call to World Championship Wrestling (WCW). That was the Atlanta-based organization then owned by billionaire Ted Turner. At the time it was the second most popular promotion in the United States.
One of the performers he worked the most closely with was Mick Foley. At the time Foley’s gimmick was “Cactus Jack”. Somewhat of a psychopathic hardcore performer willing to do anything. The two were a natural pair. Foley would eventually become one of the most well known wrestlers on the planet a decade later in WWF. “Cactus Jack to me was like a god,” said Shreve. “That’s one guy I respect. He took the craziest bumps. I chased him all the way up to the stairs in the Omni and I give him a karate chop. He came all the way down,” said Shreve.
Shreve said Foley fell down all the stairs so badly and he thought he may actually be dead. So when he walked up on Foley, “I said ‘you okay, you okay?’ He was like ‘don’t touch me.’ He wanted to move himself.”
The two were in a lot of crazy matches in WCW. One of them is widely considered one of the most ridiculous matches in pro wrestling history. It was at an event for the company called “Halloween Havoc” and the theme of the night was somewhat like a horror movie. There were in a match called the “Chamber of Horrors” match. There were multiple other wrestlers in the match including Sting, the Steiner Brothers and Big Van Vader. The way the match ended is why so many wrestling fans have called it ridiculous. An electric chair was brought into the middle of the cage. To end the match the other wrestlers strapped Abdullah the Butcher down and “electrocuted” him.
“They couldn’t beat me,” said Shreve. “So they had to come up with some other gimmick. So they jumped up and I’m up there doing my stuff. Dusty Rhodes was the booker (organizer of the event) and said ‘I got something heavy for you. You’re gonna do this. We’ve got you in the thing, the electric chair.”
Current health and financial issues
Shreve was not very mobile during our conversation with him and he was accompanied by several people. He says he does need a new hip. “I’ve been good. The only thing I need is a hip replacement,” said Shreve. “My body’s good, everything’s good.”
Shreve has made recent headlines concerning his financial health. Our sister station WDIV reported he lost a $2.3 million lawsuit to another wrestler around nine years ago. “You got a lot of people who try to take what you worked all your life for,” He told the TV station. “In my opinion, I’ve been ripped off so bad it’s unbelievable, and (I’m) still getting ripped off.”
“I need money number one for my lawyers. And uh, that’s it. But my other stuff I don’t want to go into it,” Shreve said during our interview.