Background and career
James Edward Duggan Jr. (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed with the WWE under a Legends contract. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), where he won the first Royal Rumble match in 1988. In 2011 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. In World Championship Wrestling (WCW), he was a United States Heavyweight Champion and the final World Television Champion. In 2004, he won and promptly vacated the IWA World Heavyweight Championship in Tokyo, making him a one time wrestling world champion.
James Edward Duggan Jr. was born on January 14, 1954, in Glens Falls, New York, to James Edward Duggan Sr., a police officer and Celia Meadows Duggan. He grew up alongside his three older sisters. Duggan was a letterman in football, track, wrestling, and basketball. In wrestling, Duggan went undefeated his junior and senior year winning a section 2 championship both years, and during his senior season he won the New York State High School wrestling championship, unlimited weight class division – the first wrestler from Glens Falls to do so. He graduated from Glens Falls High School. Upon graduating from high school, he was recruited by Ohio State University, but would instead choose to play football at Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he was eventually voted team captain. Duggan earned his bachelor's degree in applied plant biology. After college, Duggan was signed by the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, but was released after being plagued by knee injuries.
Duggan broke into professional wrestling thanks in large part to wrestler Fritz Von Erich. The two met while Duggan was on a recruiting trip to SMU. Duggan's first professional match was in 1979 against Gino Hernandez. Duggan began his career as a villain. Training at the Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas as well as with Samoan wrestling promoter Peter Maivia, Duggan gained the attention of Vince McMahon, Sr. and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). After a brief stint with the WWF, Duggan began to work regularly for Georgia Championship Wrestling. During this time, Duggan was known by two in-ring aliases: in the Contiguous United States as "Big" Jim Duggan and in Hawaii as The Convict, a masked wrestler. After wrestling for a Birmingham, Alabama-based promotion, Duggan began wrestling in Southwest Championship Wrestling based in San Antonio, Texas where he adopted his well-known "Hacksaw" nickname.
In 1982, Duggan made his debut in Mid-South Wrestling. Upon debuting as a heel, and bounty hunter for Skandor Akbar, Duggan soon became a member of the Rat Pack faction, alongside Ted DiBiase, Matt Borne, and Mr. Olympia. After newcomer "Hacksaw" Butch Reed debuted within the promotion, Duggan and Reed had a personal feud for a time over who would be the true "Hacksaw". The Rats also feuded with stars such as Reed, Magnum T. A. and the Junkyard Dog. During this time, Duggan interfered in a DiBiase/JYD match while wearing a gorilla suit during the Louisiana State Fair, causing JYD to lose a "Loser Leaves Town" match in Shreveport, Louisiana. After DiBiase aligned himself with Skandor Akbar, Duggan refused to go along with him and became a face for the first time in his career. At this time, Duggan began carrying his iconic 2x4. As a fan favorite, he won the Mid-South Tag Team Championship with Magnum T. A. and later won the North American Heavyweight Championship. After the Mid-South North American title was retired when Mid-South became the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1986, Duggan lost to Terry Gordy in a tournament final to determine the first UWF World Heavyweight Champion. Duggan then teamed up with Terry Taylor and won the UWF World Tag Team Championship for the second time. After losing a Loser Leaves Town match to the One Man Gang, Duggan left the UWF for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
In August 1981, while still wrestling in Georgia, Duggan toured throughout Japan under New Japan Pro-Wrestling, during their Bloody Fight Series tour, facing Antonio Inoki in the first day of August 21, in a losing effort. Duggan would defeat low-card wrestlers such as Haruka Eigen, Kengo Kimura, Ryūma Gō and Kantaro Hoshino, while losing to main eventers such as Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Seiji Sakaguchi, Strong Kobayashi and Tiger Toguchi. At one point, he teamed up with Bad News Allen to face the teams of Eigen and Gō, in a winning effort, and Choshu and Sakaguchi, in a losing effort. In January 1986, while he was now working under Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation, Duggan would once again venture overseas to New Japan, now wrestling in their New Year Dash tour, coincidentally facing Inoki once again in the first day of their tour on January 3, this time ending in a double count-out. Duggan, a now more established wrestler, was receiving a lot of good results during the tour, clashing with main eventers such as Fujinami, Sakaguchi, Kimura and Choshu to draws, and dominating young lions such as Tatsutoshi Goto and Yang-Seung Hi. He also wrestled tag-team action during the series, teaming with the likes of Tony St. Clair, Johnny Mantell, Black Tiger, Mike Miller and the twin-team of Madd Maxx (1 & 2), with the majority of them ending in the losing end for Duggan's team. Duggan would tour one last time overseas in September of the same year, wrestling on New Japan's Challenge Spirit tour, resuming his encounters against Inoki, Fujinami, Kimura and Sakaguchi, as well as facing Umanosuke Ueda and George Takano in tag-team matches, teaming once again with Madd Maxx, Jerry Gray and The Angel Of Death. His last match came against Seiji Sakaguchi in a double count-out.
Duggan was signed to the WWF in January 1987, making his first major appearance with the WWF at WrestleMania III, where he also made his pay-per-view debut. In the weeks preceding WrestleMania, Duggan began his first WWF feud with Nikolai Volkoff. At the event, he ran to ringside prior to a match between The Killer Bees and The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff and interrupted Volkoff's pre-match singing of the Russian national anthem. Duggan had previously done this on TV matches leading up to the event. On May 26, 1987, Duggan and the Iron Sheik were arrested for DUI in New Jersey. Duggan was released from the company, but was ultimately brought back in a lower spot on the roster. Although he did not win any major titles in the promotion, for seven years he was a consistent fan favorite with his patriotic working class everyman gimmick. His character was mainly comical, as he rarely was in major contention for titles. His first major WWF match was at the first-ever Survivor Series pay-per-view in 1987, when he participated in the first Survivor Series match and was a member of the winning team.
