Jim Duggan

Early life and career 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.

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. 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. 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). Duggan had previously done this on TV matches leading up to the event.

First Royal Rumble winner (1988–1989)

By the late fall of 1987, Duggan received his first major push since his return, being placed in a feud opposite "King" Harley Race, who was using a "monarch" gimmick; sneering at wrestlers he thought were below him. During a televised confrontation, Duggan took Race's crown and cape, though Race would later get them back. At the 1987 Slammy Awards, where Duggan presented the nominees for "Best Ring Apparel", an on-stage shoving match between him and the winner (Race), sparked a brawl, going backstage and eventually reaching back to the main stage before interrupting another award presentation. Gorilla Monsoon stepped in to separate the two. Duggan eventually defeated Race several times in both televised and non-televised shows.

Duggan participated in the first-ever Royal Rumble match in 1988, where he was the 13th of twenty entrants. He won the match after he last eliminated the One Man Gang.

At WrestleMania IV, he participated in a 14-man tournament for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship, where he lost to Ted DiBiase in the first round after interference from André the Giant. Shortly after WrestleMania IV, Duggan—upset that André cost him his match—came to the ring during one of André's matches and challenged him; a feud erupted when André suddenly grabbed Duggan and began throttling him, before Duggan knocked André out with his 2x4 board. André generally came out the winner in their matches, usually by interference from André's manager Bobby Heenan. André also interfered in several of Duggan's matches against other wrestlers, including Hercules on the April 30 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.

Duggan earned a shot at the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship against The Honky Tonk Man in July 1988, but Honky Tonk got himself disqualified, thus retaining the title.

Duggan then began displaying traits of an American patriot by feuding with several foreign villains in the fall of 1988. He got involved in a feud with Dino Bravo, Duggan's team eventually lost the match. His next feud was with Russian Boris Zhukov, whom he defeated in a flag match on the November 26 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. He restarted his feud with Dino Bravo, and at the 1989 Royal Rumble, Duggan and The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) defeated Bravo and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond) in a two out of three falls match. He was involved in a rivalry with Bad News Brown, which culminated in a match at WrestleMania V where both men fought to a no contest.

King and American patriot (1989–1993) In mid-1989, he started a feud with King Haku, who was awarded the crown on the July 9, 1988 edition of Superstars when Harley Race was forced to vacate the crown due to injuries sustained in a match against Hulk Hogan on the March 12, 1988 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Duggan defeated Haku to win the crown and earn the title of "King of the WWF" on the May 13, 1989 edition of Superstars. At SummerSlam, Duggan teamed with Demolition (Ax and Smash) in a six-man tag team match and defeated André the Giant and The Twin Towers (Akeem and The Big Bossman).

He eventually lost his crown to "Macho Man" Randy Savage, who began calling himself "Macho King", and started a feud with Savage. At Survivor Series, he captained a team dubbed "The 4x4's" against Savage's team, "The King's Court". Duggan's team lost the match. He faced Savage again on the January 27 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. Duggan defeated another former rival, Dino Bravo at WrestleMania VI. He began teaming with his former rival, Nikolai Volkoff and started a feud with The Orient Express (Tanaka and Sato), whom they beat at SummerSlam. He began a short feud with WWF World Heavyweight Champion Sgt. Slaughter and faced Slaughter for the title on the February 1 edition of The Main Event. Slaughter retained the title by getting himself disqualified.

In late 1991, he patched up things with Sgt. Slaughter, who had turned babyface, and the pair formed a tag team. On the February 8 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Duggan and Slaughter defeated the Beverly Brothers (Blake and Beau). At WrestleMania VIII, he teamed up with Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter, and Big Bossman against The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags and Brian Knobs), The Mountie, and Repo Man. Slaughter eventually left active wrestling and Duggan continued to pursue his singles career again. On the next show, to prevent Michaels from pulling the stunt again, Duggan received a return bout in a lumberjack match. Before the match started, Duggan attacked his former rival Yokozuna after discovering he was one of the lumberjacks. Late in the match, Bam Bam Bigelow distracted Duggan from the outside, which enabled Michaels to attack him and throw him out of the ring to where Yokozuna was standing. Yokozuna then paid Duggan back by legdropping him on the floor, then rolled his lifeless body back into the ring as the referee's back was turned. As Michaels went to pin Duggan, Mr. Perfect entered the ring and attacked the champion, which resulted in Duggan being disqualified and touching off a postmatch brawl between the lumberjacks; Duggan would eventually rise to his feet and clear the ring with his 2x4. Duggan then competed in the King of the Ring tournament, defeating Papa Shango to qualify before losing to Bam Bam Bigelow in the quarterfinals. He continued to appear on WWF programming until the summer, when he left the company after losing several pre-Summerslam matches to Yokozuna.

World Championship Wrestling (1994–2001)

United States Heavyweight Champion (1994) Duggan signed a contract with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in late 1994. He debuted in WCW at Fall Brawl, where he defeated Steve Austin in a squash match lasting thirty-five seconds to win the United States Heavyweight Championship. After becoming champion, he quickly started a feud with Austin, and eventually defeated him in a title rematch at Halloween Havoc by disqualification. The two had a second title rematch on the November 16 edition of Clash of the Champions, where Duggan retained the title again by disqualification. Duggan's reign ended at Starrcade '94: Triple Threat, where he was defeated by Vader.

Various feuds (1995–1999) After he lost the U.S. title to Vader, Duggan moved to the mid-card division and began wrestling on Saturday Night. He defeated Bunkhouse Buck at SuperBrawl V. He faced former WWF rival Meng (known as Haku in WWF) in a martial arts match at Uncensored, which Meng won. At The Great American Bash, he defeated Sgt. Craig Pittman by disqualification in Pittman's pay-per-view debut. At Bash at the Beach, Duggan lost to Kamala.

In late 1995, Duggan started a feud with Big Bubba Rogers, which culminated in a Taped Fist match at World War 3, which Rogers won. He fought Loch Ness to a double disqualification at a Main Event taping before SuperBrawl VI. Duggan then started a short feud with Diamond Dallas Page, to whom he lost in a Taped Fist match at Bash at the Beach. At World War 3, he unsuccessfully participated in a three ring 60 man battle royal to determine the #1 contender to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Duggan had no major pay-per-view matches for over two years before he disappeared in 1998 after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Soon after, Duggan became involved in a storyline where he became a janitor for WCW. As a result of losing, the next night on Nitro, Duggan was forced to denounce the U.S. flag but he refused to do so. In response, the Revolution attacked him and began beating him until The Filthy Animals, who were also feuding with the Revolution, saved Duggan.

World Television Champion and Team Canada (2000–2001)

During this period, he found the World Television Championship in a trash can, which had been thrown away by the previous champion Scott Hall earlier and claimed it for himself. He would make title defenses exclusively on Saturday Night, and remained champion until the title was deactivated. Duggan continued to unintentionally cost Team Canada many of their victories,

Independent circuit (2001–2005) After WCW was purchased by the WWF in March 2001, Duggan began wrestling in the independent circuit. On December 5, 2002, Duggan defeated Krusher Kong at LWE Xplosion. On January 17, 2003, Duggan defeated Jim Neidhart for Border City Wrestling in Ottawa, Ontario.

On January 29, 2005, he defeated Kamala at WrestleReunion.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003) On the March 12, 2003 pay-per-view of NWA Total Nonstop Action (TNA), Duggan made a surprise appearance and defeated fellow WCW alum Mike Sanders. on the March 19 NWA-TNA, Duggan and Moondog Spot defeated Mike Sanders and Disco Inferno. Duggan made his final appearance in TNA on October 29, where he lost to Jeff Jarrett.

Return to WWE (2005–2009)

Teaming with Eugene (2005–2006)

Duggan returned to the now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment on the October 3, 2005 edition of Raw, dubbed "The Homecoming" along with several other WWF/E alumni after a 12-year absence with the company. He and the other legends attacked Rob Conway after Conway came to the ring and insulted them. He was also one of the "legends" available for fans to select to team with Eugene in a match at Taboo Tuesday to face the team of Conway and Tyson Tomko (Jimmy Snuka was chosen instead of Duggan). He returned to WWE again after Royal Rumble, with a message from John Cena to Lita after Edge lost the WWE Championship: "HOOOOO!" Duggan and Edge began a short feud with each other which culminated in a match that occurred two weeks later on Raw, which Edge won after Lita provided a distraction.

After feuding with Edge and Lita, he became mentor and tutor to Eugene and the two feuded with The Spirit Squad. He began working on Heat, but also made a few appearances on Raw with Eugene and The Highlanders. On the November 6 edition of Raw, Duggan and Eugene faced the Spirit Squad in a match with the stipulation that the losing team would disband and never team up again. After Duggan was caught off guard after the other Spirit Squad members interfered and then pinned for the win, Eugene snapped and attacked Duggan. He started a feud with Eugene, and three weeks later, the two had a match with each other, which Eugene won.

Various appearances (2007–2009) At New Year's Revolution, Duggan teamed with Super Crazy in a tag team turmoil match to determine the number one contenders to the World Tag Team Championship, in a losing effort. On the January 15 edition of Raw, Duggan was dragged out by Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) and was beaten to a pulp. Edge and Orton feared Duggan would help out Shawn Michaels in a handicap match and wanted to set an example for anyone else backstage that wished to do the same.

After months of wrestling on Heat, Duggan returned to Raw in July, teaming up with The Sandman and feuding with Carlito and William Regal. The team ended when Duggan soon returned to Heat and Sandman was released. On the August 6 edition of Raw, he played The WWE Dating Game, a parody of The Dating Game, losing when Maria Kanellis chose Ron Simmons.

On December 31, he lost a 2008 Royal Rumble qualifying match to the returning Umaga. After that, he began primarily appearing on Heat once again, defeating locals and teaming with Super Crazy. On the March 17 episode of Raw, he participated in a 17-on-2 handicap elimination tag team match as part of the 17 members of the Raw roster against John Cena and Randy Orton. After Cody Rhodes was eliminated, all the remaining Raw wrestlers attacked Cena and Orton, resulting in their disqualification. Duggan also took part in a 12-on-12 tag team preview match on the March 25 episode of ECW. He competed 24-man battle royal was held just before WrestleMania XXIV aired to determine the #1 contender for an ECW Championship match. The match was eventually won by Kane.

In the summer of 2008, Duggan started a short feud with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase after Rhodes and DiBiase tried to convince Duggan to retire and let the young talent run the show. Soon after, Duggan would come out and announce that he would take Rhodes and DiBiase's advice and retire, but Jerry Lawler stopped him by convincing Duggan to stay. Duggan and Lawler then wrestled Rhodes and DiBiase on the August 25, 2008 edition of Raw, but lost the match. On the October 20 edition of Raw, Duggan confronted Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix during one of Marella's tirades against his three possible opponents at Cyber Sunday (Roddy Piper, Goldust, and The Honky Tonk Man). Upset at being interrupted, Marella took off his clothes, getting ready to fight Duggan. Yet before a fight could begin, Marella instructed Phoenix to throw the clothes in Duggan's face, a move that temporarily distracted Duggan. Marella then smashed a guitar over Duggan's head, ending the segment. Duggan would appear on Raws 800th episode during Kung Fu Naki's in-ring dance segment, which also involved various other members of the WWE roster.

In 2009, Duggan appeared in the 2009 Royal Rumble match, entering at #29 and setting a record for the most years between Royal Rumble appearances. He was eliminated by Big Show. On the August 10 episode of Raw, he made his final televised WWE appearance, as Sgt. Slaughter had him come out in place of Bret Hart after introducing "the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be", antagonizing the crowd of Canadians.

Independent circuit (2009–2019) "Hacksaw" Duggan poses with a fan at an independent show in 2013. He then resumed wrestling on the independent circuit. He recently appeared on Pro Wrestling Ohio's "Wrestlelution 3" where he defeated "The Megastar" Marion Fontaine.

On November 30, 2013, at WrestleCade 2013, Duggan defeated Daivari. He has signed on with Global Force Wrestling as a "legend" to help promote GFW events and tours. To promote the shows, GFW's Jeff Jarrett and Duggan have appeared at Dell Diamond on Thursday, May 28. January 2016, Duggan appeared in an event for Modern Vintage Wrestling in Wilmington, North Carolina. On July 17, he won the Danny Hodge Trophy Battle Royal at IWR OklaMania 2016.

On May 6, 2017, at AWF Head to the Edge, Duggan defeated Josh Price. Duggan continued to compete in various independent promotions all the way till 2019. His final match took place on May 12, 2019, at Destiny Sunday Night Power Slam in Ontario, Canada, where he was defeated by Gursinder Singh.

Second return to WWE (2011–2012, 2025–present) On April 2, 2011, Duggan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by fellow inductee "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.

Duggan returned to wrestling in WWE with an appearance at the 2012 Royal Rumble and entered the Royal Rumble match as the #19 entrant and was eliminated by Cody Rhodes. On the February 3, 2012 episode of SmackDown, Duggan teamed with Santino Marella in a losing effort against the WWE Tag Team Champions Primo and Epico. On April 10, 2012, Duggan made an appearance on SuperSmackDown LIVE: Blast from the Past, where he lost to Hunico by disqualification. Later that year, he appeared on the July 3 SuperSmackDown LIVE: The Great American Bash event, teaming with Sgt. Slaughter and Santino Marella to face Hunico, Camacho, and Drew McIntyre.

In February 2025, Duggan has revealed he signed a Legends contract with the WWE. He then made an appearance on SmackDown on July 25 during the tribute to Hulk Hogan.

Other media It was announced in February 2012 that Duggan would appear on a WWE original reality show called WWE Legends House. The show premiered on the WWE Network on April 17, 2014.

Duggan worked alongside author Scott E. Williams to release his autobiography Hacksaw: The Jim Duggan Story in 2012. The book goes over both his wrestling career and personal life.

Duggan appears as himself in the film Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies, in which he battles the undead with his 2x4.

In 1991, Duggan appeared in the Harry and the Hendersons TV series' 16th episode.

In 1999, Duggan was a guest panelist for two episodes of the Nickelodeon children's game show Figure It Out.

Duggan appears in the sixth episode of the second season of GamesMaster in the UK, where he played WWF on the Super Nintendo against a boy he picked from the crowd, Hacksaw played as "Macho Man" Randy Savage and was beaten.

Duggan also appeared in the season five finale of Duck Dynasty.

Duggan and former WWF announcer Sean Mooney ran a weekly podcast on the MLW Radio Network called "Primetime with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Sean Mooney". Duggan left the podcast after 18 episodes and Mooney is now hosting by himself.

In 2017, Duggan released the first issue of a biographical comic book miniseries through Squared Circle Comics, titled Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He also appeared in the Green Jellÿ single, Fr3tö F33t.

In 2022, rapper Estee Nack released the album Nacksaw Jim Duggan on the label Griselda Records, whose name, track titles and album cover are all inspired by Duggan. Track 1 "NACKMANCOLETRANE" features a snippet of Tucker Carlson reporting on Duggan defending his house from a home invader. Track 4 "ANGELDIOR" features vocals from Duggan himself.

Video games

Personal life

Duggan and his wife Debra have two daughters, Celia and Rebecca. He is a close friend of Willie Robertson, who is president and CEO of Duck Commander.

In 1987, Duggan and The Iron Sheik (Khosrow Vaziri) were pulled over by New Jersey State Police before a WWF event, suspecting Duggan of driving under the influence. After a search of the vehicle and the persons, police discovered that Duggan was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol, while Vaziri was high on cocaine. Small amounts of cocaine were also found in the vehicle. Duggan received a conditional release while Vaziri was placed on probation for a year. Given the closely-guarded nature of kayfabe at the time, the scandal that erupted after two in-ring enemies were found drinking and doing drugs together led to the end of the angle, the Sheik's release, and Duggan's temporary departure from WWF. Duggan soon returned to wrestling.

In November 2013, Duggan started an IndieGoGo campaign to cover the cost repairing his torn rotator cuff. Funding closed December 2013 and raised $10,396, well over the goal of $6,500.

In 2018, Duggan was admitted into the intensive care unit for a heart procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. In 2019, he had a pair of heart surgeries to fight infection. On October 20, 2021, his wife posted on Facebook: "Back where we don't want to be. Please pray for Jim and his doctors as he has emergency surgery this morning. Thank you, Debra." On October 28, 2021, Duggan announced via Instagram a week later that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had been living with it for a couple of months. This led to another surgery on October 29, 2021. "Jim's surgery went as planned. He is resting comfortably now. Thank you for your prayers, good vibes and well wishes. Please continue them as he continues to heal" his wife said. On December 8, 2021, Duggan announced in a video uploaded to his Twitter account that he was cancer-free. On May 15, 2022, he announced in a Facebook video that his cancer treatment continued, he would need hormone shots and radiation treatment for the next eight weeks, five days a week, and that doctors were optimistic about catching it early.

In December 2022, Duggan said he detained a home invader at gunpoint at his house in Kershaw County, South Carolina.

On September 8, 2023, Duggan was doing an autograph signing in his hometown of Glens Falls, NY, where he was being honored by the Glens Falls Firefighters Association for his work as a seasonal firefighter in the 1970s. During the signing, Duggan fell ill with a high temperature and severe pain. His wife and the fire chief suggested he go to Glens Falls Hospital where he was once again diagnosed with perirectal abscess with a high white blood cell count that was heading towards sepsis, Duggan said. Emergency surgery on September 9 was required to drain the abscess. Surgery went well for Duggan and on September 12 he announced on social media that he was being released from the hospital and allowed to fly home.

Championships and accomplishments

Amateur wrestling

New York State Public High School Athletic AssociationSection 2 champion (1972, 1973) out of Glens Falls High School. Pro Wrestling Alabama PWA Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) –with Nigel Sherrod Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' PWI ranked him #66 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1993 PWI ranked him #157 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003 Pro Wrestling This Week Wrestler of the Week (March 22–28, 1987) Professional Wrestling Hall of FameClass of 2018 River City WrestlingRCW Legends Championship (1 time) Texas All-Star Wrestling TASW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Mid-South Wrestling Association/Universal Wrestling Federation Mid-South Louisiana Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) Mid-South North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) World Wrestling Federation/WWE Royal Rumble (1988) Slammy Award (2 times) Best Vocal Performance (1987) Greatest Hit (1987) Wrestling Observer Newsletter''' Most Improved (1982) Feud of the Year (1985) vs. Ted DiBiase Most Unimproved (1989)