The Original “Rock”: Wrestling Hall of Famer & ILWU pensioner Don “The Rock” Muraco on life in the ring and on the docks
Former professional wrestler and ILWU Local 142 Hawai’i Longshore Division pensioner Don Muraco was born in Oahu, Hawai’i in 1949. He is of Hawaiian heritage and was adopted into an Italian and Portuguese family.
The ‘Original Rock’
Muraco began his wrestling career in the 1970s, coming up through the regional wrestling circuits known as “territories.” He is affectionately called “The Orignal Rock” because he had the nickname before it was adopted by the well-known wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson. In fact, Muraco once wrestled Rocky Johnson, Dwayne’s father.
From face to heel
Muraco started his career as a “face” (babyface) – a fan-favorite “good guy” character in professional wrestling who plays by the rules and behaves respectfully to the audience and referees. Later in his career, Muraco became a “heel” – a “bad guy” in wrestling. These are often characters the audience loves to hate – rulebreakers known for using illegal moves and tactics, and berating the audience, announcers and referees. Later in his career, Muraco returned to being a face.
Debuting in the WWF
In 1981, Muraco made his way to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), then run by Vince McMahon, Sr. In 2002, the WWF changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after losing a trademark lawsuit to the World Wildlife Fund. During his career, Muraco performed on the biggest stages in wrestling, headlining matches in Madison Square Garden and other major arenas, and was a regular on television.
He performed with the biggest legends in wrestling, including Hulk Hogan, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Mr. Fuji, Captain Lou Albano, and others. At the age of 38, Muraco had his last match for the WWF in 1988 when he was let go by the company after an argument with his manager. Afterward, Muraco continued wrestling in smaller promotions in the US and internationally into the 1990s. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
Muraco knew several people working on the docks in Hawai’i, including Henry Kreutz, father of current ILWU International Vice President (Hawai’i) Sam Kreutz, and he was eventually able to get hired on as a longshore worker in 1991. He retired from his longshore career in 2016.
Muraco sat down with the Dispatcher in December of last year at the Local 142 office in Honolulu to talk about his career in wrestling and as an ILWU longshore worker.
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Don Muraco: I was a professional wrestler for almost 20 years. When I left the WWE in 1988, I was living in New Jersey. I missed living in Hawai’i, so I picked up my wife and two kids at the time, and moved back here. I was looking around for something to do. Luckily, I was able to get hired by McCabe, Hamilton, and Renny in 1991. I didn’t know a padlock from a hammerlock.
I was a wrestling fan as a kid. I used to train in Waikiki at Dean Higuchi’s gym. He became Dean Ho. As a professional wrestler, he changed his name – like Don Ho, he was Dean Ho. In those days, all the wrestlers had tours in Australia and Japan. Everybody would stop in Hawai’i on the way there or the way back. They would get booked here for a show so they could write it off on their taxes. All the wrestlers used to work out at Dean’s gym. I met a lot of wrestlers there – Luther Lindsay and Karl Gotch. I was a wrestler in high school. I was a kid. I was lucky. If I was a grown man, they probably would have really beat the hell out of me.
There was a great wrestling program over here in the 60s. Ed Francis was the promoter in Hawai’i. He was doing stuff like they do in the WWE now. Not so much the filming, but he had a great array of characters. He’d have all the talent coming back and forth from Japan or Australia so when they had their big shows, there were four or five guys that they could throw on the card. Watching those guys spend all their time at the beach, you know, it seemed like they were having fun.
When I started my wrestling career I was – we called them baby faces – I was a ‘good guy.’ I was too young to be anything else. After a few years, I switched over and learned to do some heeling in San Francisco for Roy Shire. You kind of had a character that you traveled with. I was young and didn’t have much bargaining power. After four or five years, I wanted to switch it up and become a heel.
In 1974 I moved over to Championship Wrestling from Florida, which is an area that I used to go to a lot. Jack Brisco was the World Champion at the time, and we were compared in looks and ability and stuff, so they drove a big storyline there.
In Florida, I was able to switch it up and become a heel. Buddy Rogers and Eddie Graham, two of the biggest names before my era in professional wrestling, created the “Magnificent Muraco.” They brought me into Florida under a mask – a villain called “The Magnificent M.” I’d been in that territory quite a bit, so everybody knew, that’s Muraco. After two or three weeks, another wrestler, Steve Keirn, got on TV and exposed me as Don Muraco. Which wasn’t good. You never gave the masked guy’s name away. So naturally, I was enraged and something happened, and we ended up in a fight in the ring, and they sent everybody down to pull us apart. And as they were pulling us apart. He pulled the mask off and I was bald as a cue ball. I had shaved my head. The crowd went crazy.
I enjoyed being a heel – pissing people off, the booing and stuff, you know, all the stuff going on with it. It was easier. You were living in your own fantasy world. I could really exaggerate a lot of things.
In 1980, I went up to New York. I got in with Vince McMahon, Sr., Junior’s father, and I started with him first. I started kind of backwards. Normally you come in, they give you six, eight, weeks on TV there in the old style what they called squash matches – two or three-minute matches, where you just go out and murder somebody and come back and do your interviews, and after those, you go to Madison Square Garden to fight the World Champion. I was the first to do it in reverse. I started with Pedro Morales and won Intercontinental Title first.
I was lucky. I was there with Hulk Hogan and the whole thing – the complete transition. When I started my feud with Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka in Madison Square Garden, it was the largest viewing audience on a cable network at the time. About a year and a half or so later, Hulk came in, and the whole transition was made to an international audience.
I wrestled Hulk Hogan many times, all over the world including three big shows at Madison Square Garden that finished up in a cage match. I was Hulk’s first opponent coming out of Wrestlemania.
In my time, wrestling was different from the way they are killing each other now. I feel sorry for these guys, because they’re all going to be a lot worse off than I am. I see the things that they’re doing – jumping over the ropes and jumping on tables, and even the women as well. They take as many bumps in one night as I would take during a whole week. It was different. It was a lot of mat work and wrestling holds. You were aware that you were wearing your body down, but not like they’re doing it now.
By the time I was let go by the WWF, I was already a step slow. I had torn my groin and things were starting to go. I was always quick, one of the more active, more physical wrestlers – a lot more movement, more excitement. But I could feel that I had lost a step.
The day I was let go by the WWF was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was able to come back here and become a longshoreman. I look around at other former wrestlers my age. They’re still trying to make it to these card shows and autograph signings and stuff like that. You get there and sometimes there’s no payoff. It’s, you know, just BS, or whatever. I couldn’t see chasing down paydays every weekend, maybe chasing autograph signings and stuff, Comic Cons and stuff around the country. I did a little bit of that, wrestled in a few promotions and it wasn’t bad, but I moved my family and everything else back here.
I couldn’t see myself traveling around the country or waiting around hoping to get a call or something. I was able to stabilize my wife and family and everything else. Luckily, I had a couple of bucks saved and a few investments. I was pretty lucky to have a few good years, with the WWF, Florida a couple of other places where I was usually a main event. After about three or four years in the business, I pretty much held the top position, in whatever company I was in. So I was able to put away, you know, a few bucks.
I knew a number of people who worked on the docks. When I came back, people would tell me that it was the best job in town. I was thinking more along the lines of going to commercials or TV. I did some movies and TV, Hawai’i Five-O with Gary Busey, and Magnum PI. That’s a long, arduous process. They feed you well, but aside from that, you sort of sit there. You could put on 25 pounds in a couple of weeks.
I am so proud to be a retired ILWU worker. Looking back, I see what a brilliant move I made. I am very proud to have made the transition from one profession to another one. I’ve learned so many new things, you know, I was able to re-educate myself. I was familiar with doing TV work. I was never mechanically inclined with car engines or anything else. I spent 20 years in the wrestling business. And when I got out, I was still involved with promotions, appearances, and independent shows. I had really no practical knowledge of working. A turnbuckle to me was something they threw me into. Tightening rods and stuff – everything, was brand new, and a learning experience, driving forklifts and top loaders. I never got up to the crane. I ended up as a clerk.
Wrestlers are independent contractors. I heard Jesse Ventura tried to organize a union and was kicked out of the WWF when he was doing the announcing. It would be hard because the difference between a preliminary guy and the main event are so great. Wrestling is not a real job like longshore is a real job. Down the docks, you get your check once a week. You don’t have to think about getting your insurance or preparing for your retirement. It’s all done. My medical coverage and dental coverage in retirement are gold.
There are some similarities between wrestling and longshore. You get into a gang or a group – a group of heels or a group of faces or whatever you are. You’re kind of dependent on other people and relying on others for safety measures and things like that. Wrestling is a billion-dollar industry. Well, shipping is a trillion-dollar industry. I created a lot of friendships in both of my careers, a lot of close bonds with the wrestlers, Briscoe Brothers, Roddy Piper, Fuji, and different guys, and longshore is the same way. It becomes like it’s like a family.
Longshore is a rewarding job. You make good money. It’s a dangerous job, and you gotta pay attention and stay on your toes. The ILWU is a hell of an organization. They will back you. They will go to the wall for you.