Don Callis Talks Bad News Brown Challenging Andre The Giant To A Fight Twice Over Racial Slurs
On episode 184 of Talk Is Jericho, former professional wrestler and manager, Don Callis, talked about an incident that occurred between his close personal friend and mentor, Bad News Brown, and Andre the Giant.
As the story goes, Brown was working for Antonio Inoki in New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the time. On a bus ride, Andre began making racial slurs and Brown did not take kindly to Andre's choice of words.
"I heard this story a hundred times, [Brown] said Andre was making kind of comments or jokes or whatever, slurs. And Bad News was like, 'hey, Andre, I don't appreciate that! Can you keep that s–t to yourself?'," Callis continued. "And Andre goes, 'hey, News, f–k you!' So News is like, 'well, I'm not going to take that.'"
According to Callis, Brown told him that he removed his earrings and reached down to put them in his bag, but when he reached down, Hulk Hogan thought Brown was going for a gun. Hogan, who was seated behind Brown and in front of Andre, took cover under his seat. Brown got out of his seat and made his way to the front of the bus to tell the bus driver to stop the bus. The bus driver stopped the bus and Brown challenged Andre to a fight.
"[Brown]'s like, 'get your big ass off this bus!' and he's trying to get Andre to go outside. And News told me, he
s like, 'look, as a shoot, I don't know what would have happened. He probably would have killed me.' He's like, 'but he would have had to do it'. So he challenges Andre [but] Andre won't get off the bus, so it kind of gets squashed."
The bus ride continued, but Andre's comments ate away at Brown all night. The next morning, Brown woke up early and waited for Andre in the lobby of the hotel.
"Andre comes down, [Brown] challenges Andre again, and Andre just goes, 'ah, don't worry about it. I'm Polish [and] people make fun of me all the time' and he's like, 'I don't care. I don't want to hear that stuff.'"
Callis said that he has heard Hogan claim that the incident did not happen or it did not happen the way Brown suggested; however, Callis remains adamant that Brown would not make up or embellish such a story.
"I probably knew Bad News better than anybody. One thing Bad News never did was lie about anything or exaggerate. It was just, a shoot's a shoot," Callis claimed. "All I can tell you is I don't know Hulk Hogan. I knew Bad News Allen [Brown] better than most and he would not make it up and if he said it happened like that, it happened like that."
Callis told this story on an episode of Talk Is Jericho celebrating Jericho's 25th anniversary in the professional wrestling business. Jericho and Callis were joined by Lance Storm and Lenny 'Dr. Luther' St. Claire and discussed many topics including the Hart Brothers Wrestling Camp and ribbing professional wrestling promoter, Tony Condello. Click here to check out the entire show.
Source: Talk Is Jericho