Col. Robert Parker was recently interviewed by Wrestling Epicenter's Interactive Wrestling Radio. You can see highlights below, and the full interview above or at this link.
The origins of the Col. Robert Parker character:
"It is a long story but I'll shorten it for you. I had a gentleman that was called Downtown Bruno, Remember him? (Dr. Harvey Whippleman) I was doing the booking with my brother. We owned the state of Alabama at that time. We were running Birmingham, Mobile, all the way to Tallahassee. He (Bruno) had sent me pictures. I thought, "What an awful looking guy. I don't see any hope for him at all." He bothered me so much that I told him, "You're a little, bitty guy. Find me a monster! I need a guy, I'm going to put the Lord Humongous outfit on. I need a monster to do it." He sent me pictures of people and I just threw them in the garbage. Then, he sent me a picture of Sid! Sid Eudy who is Sid Vicious. I looked at that picture and I said, "You know what? You've got yourself a job, son!" From there, I brought him in, put the Lord Humongous suit on Sid and actually gave Sid a serious start in this business. Later on, much later on, 10 years or more, I was working at Smokey Mountain Wrestling up in Knoxville with Jim Cornette and his people when I got a call from Sid. He had acquired a job in WCW and he wanted a Col. manager and he was interested in me doing the spot. So, I went in and the first night that I did the Col. Parker in the suit, I was Robert Fuller in reality. Sid saw that and said, "Oh no! No! No! We need Foghorn Leghorn! We need the Col! Big cigars! Belly sticking out!" I was in pretty good shape. But, he said "Stick your belly out there. Get a little Col. going. Get your voice out there!" He was exactly right! I remember going in to see Dusty Rhodes the second week I was there. WCW would write all your material. I read all the material they wanted me to say and I was like, "Ah man, I don't care for this at all." So, I went in to talk with Dusty. He said, "Well Rob, we've got all these writers and the writers do all their stuff. If you don't say what they write for you, it offends them and it makes it hard for you to get along here at WCW." I said, "Well, to be honest with you, this stuff they've got me saying is a bunch of crap! I've got something better!" (laughs) I had a bunch of notes from the writers in my hand. Dusty said, "OK, baby. Run some of that shit by me." I laid down an interview I wanted to do for him that evening. I added in all the things Sid had said. All the Foghorn Leghorn and all the stuff that I was going to say. I said it to him. He (Dusty) said, "Throw that shit in the garbage!" They never wrote another interview for me in the 7 and a half years I was in there at WCW. Somehow I got by having heat with the writers who maybe would have caused me a lot of problems."
