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Prime Time with Sean Mooney

Why Hacksaw Jim Duggan Left WWF for WCW – The Real Story PRIME TIME VAULT

Prime Time with Sean Mooney

Prime Time with Sean Mooney

Sports News, Sports, News, Wrestling

4.7796 Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why did Hacksaw Jim Duggan really leave the WWF at the height of his popularity and jump to WCW? In this Prime Time Vault episode, we break down the real story behind Duggan’s shocking departure, including backstage politics, contract issues, and how the move impacted his career.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is a prime time with Sean Mooney production.

0:03.7

I've been waiting to do this episode for a long time, Jim, because you, of all people,

0:09.3

and we talk about your career and how much time you spent with the WWF, WWE, really you're a lifer,

0:17.2

but there was a span of time there where you went to another wrestling organization

0:24.5

that gave the WWF, WWE, a run for its money that they will never forget, but it actually

0:33.0

woke up the business all across the board. I think you'd agree with that.

0:36.2

We're talking revolutionized the business. Wrestling, WCW. And it certainly was, right? When you, wouldn't you say

0:42.5

that? It was a period of time that really changed forever. A huge time in the business. Of course,

0:48.9

that it all goes back to a feud between two guys. Ted Turner and Vince McMahon.

0:55.3

They didn't get along with each other, you know,

0:57.5

and Turner wanted to give Vince a black eye with Vince go ahead and run the WWF like he was.

1:02.8

So he started pouring money into the WCW that's been around,

1:07.3

I don't know if it's still called the WCW,

1:09.2

but you know,

1:09.7

the Georgia Championship Wrestling at the TBS Studios, it's still called the WCW, but the Georgia Championship Wrestling

1:11.3

at the TBS Studios, it's been there kind of forever.

1:14.9

I was down there as Big Jim Duggan back in the early days.

1:18.0

And, you know, all of a sudden, he got really involved in this, you know, and the bottom

1:22.3

line was he was offering contracts, no cut contracts.

1:26.4

And of course, up to that point, contracts weren't heard of

1:29.6

in our business. You wrestle, you got paid, you wrestle, you didn't wrestle, you didn't get paid.

1:33.8

You got hurt, you're screwed, you know, so it was a really rough racket. And of course, anybody

...

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