Exclusive: WCW legend Scott Norton opens up about his autobiography
Scott Norton had a tremendous career in WCW and NJPW. Everything he has done in and out of the ring now come to life for all fans to read in his new autobiography currently on pre-order at scottflashnorton.com. Norton recently spoke with Sportskeeda about his autobiography.
When will the book be out and where can fans order your autobiography?
Norton: The release date is May 25th and you can pre-order it now at scottflashnorton.com. We'll be taking pre-orders up to about April 10th, and it will be released May 25th. Man, I'll tell you something I'm really looking forward to it, it's awesome.
It's a special edition hardcover book, and it will be autographed. It's been a long time coming, and I'm very excited.
Your website offers a contest if you preorder the book. Can you tell the fans what they can win if they pre-order your autobiography?
Norton: By pre-ordering you get a signed two WrestleMania 2020 tickets. You also get a ring worn signed nWo tank top I wore. I used to have a lot; now I have a few, they're very popular. If you win, it's also dinner for four. I'll travel wherever you live.
It's a cool deal. My fans over the years have just been fantastic to me. I've always gravitated toward my fans. I never tried to get away from them or annoyed by them. They have never hassled me, so I have a pretty darn good fan base. I'm going to enjoy that. It will be a lot of fun for me.
Can fans expect a paperback edition?
Norton: Eventually. My first run will be a hardcover. It's a beautiful quality book. I'm very happy with the quality of the book. The looks and the artwork is fantastic. It's a great book.
It starts with me as a young kid growing up in a blue-collar family in Minneapolis. My Dad had a business called Norton and Sons. That's where it started. That's where I began my physical work, and training. I was out here swinging a 16lb sledgehammer when I was 12 years old. I was wheeling half barrels of concrete as soon as I could. I just wanted to be with my Dad. We had a great time.
I grew up in a hard-working family. Shortly after that, I got hooked into arm wrestling, which I absolutely love. I had a fantastic career at that. I started arm-wrestling as a professional when I was 18 years old. I finished ten years later, potentially the best of all time. I believe that I'm certainly top three. I think I reached that goal.
Then we go to my wrestling career which I was very fortunate. I was able to start at a later age, but I got a few good breaks, and I took advantage of them. It's been a great career and a great life.
My autobiography stats everything in there from me starting out as a young kid trying to impress my Dad, to actually grow up to be a man that I'm quite proud of the individual I've turned out to be. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but that's something everyone does.
You had a lot of accomplishments outside of the ring. Can fans expect to read about those experiences as well?
Norton: Oh absolutely! It covers my arm wrestling career and things I did outside the ring and wrestling business. It's pretty wild. I had a lot of fun. There are some things I can't talk about because a guy I worked for in Minneapolis, a pretty big rock star but, I signed enough confidential paperwork that I couldn't talk about that, but I had a lot of fun. The book hits on everything. Me and Hawk growing up, me and Rick Rude growing up.
To go to school with guys who turned out to be legends, some of the all-time greatest wrestlers that came out of our area is absolutely insane. As great as wrestlers as they were, they were better people. From the friends I had growing up to the ones I gained in the business, and more and more.
I had an unbelievable ride. I had a great career. Looking back at it I wish it would have never trickled down to a crawl because once you're up there, it's hard to do what we were doing, but I just love being back in and around it.
How many pages is the book going to be?
Norton: It's right around 330-340 pages. You'll read about some of the places I wrestled to some of the things I wrestled. Back then they didn't have a phone that had a recorder on it, but back in the '80s, I wrestled a bear called Victor The Bear. I'll put it this way; I gave Victor everything he wanted. He was 7 and a half feet tall and 800lbs. We went to war.
In the book, through high school with Rick Rude, Road Warrior Hawk who is probably my favorite person in the world — just growing up in a hard environment. Minneapolis is a tough city. We were fun guys; we got into mischief and everything just like other guys. It was just the guys I ran with and the caliber of dudes.
When you have a bouncing staff consisting of Hawk, Animal, Rick Rude, John Nord haha, Barry Darsow, it was a big joint, but you weren't winning that one. We bounced at night and trained during the day. When we trained, we trained. We were absolute crazy men in the gym. We'd start training at 9 am and leave the gym in time to go to a buffet, go home take a nap and get ready for the night of work. Hawk, Animal, and Rick went back into the business quickly, and so did Curt. The rest of us guys, the crew of us that just really stayed in the gym. Hawk and Animal were back; they were in the gym with us every damn time you turned around. We were the guys working our asses off. We had an awesome time with that, and it was a really cool time.
We had to grow up at some point because you can't live like that in your 30's and 40's. You even shouldn't be doing it in your 20's, but I was fortunate to be a big strong man. Wrestling came easily to me; once I got in the right environment and the right style. My style in Japan, that was perfect for me. You know, Strong Style.
Fans can also find Scott Norton on all platforms of social media under Scott Norton for Facebook, and @ScottNorton for Twitter and Instagram. Norton also noted that top stars such as Rey Mysterio and Dustin Rhodes aka Goldust have backed his autobiography. Below is the audio to the interview.