- published: 08 Aug 2012
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- author: TitleMatchWrestling
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- Abdullah the Butcher
- Adrian Adonis
- Afa Anoa'i
- American football
- Andre the Giant
- André the Giant
- Antonino Rocca
- Antonio Inoki
- Arn Anderson
- Arnold Skaaland
- Atlantic City
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- Big John Studd
- Bill Eadie
- Bill Watts
- Blackjack Mulligan
- Bob Armstrong
- Bob Backlund
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- Bob Orton, Jr.
- Bob Uecker
- Bobby Duncum, Sr.
- Bobby Heenan
- Bobo Brazil
- Bret Hart
- Brian Blair
- British Bulldogs
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- Bulldog Brower
- Camille Tourville
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- Cyndi Lauper
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Atlantic City
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and an internationally renowned resort city for gambling, conventions and leisure. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010 United States Census[update], the city has a population of 39,558. There were 274,549 people living in the Atlantic City–Hammonton Metropolitan Statistical Area as of the 2010 Census.
Atlantic City officially became a city in 1854. The new city contained portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township.
The three routes into Atlantic City are the Black Horse Pike/Harding Highway (US 322/40), White Horse Pike (US 30) and the Atlantic City Expressway. Atlantic City is roughly 132 miles (212 km) south of New York City by road, 55 miles (89 km) southeast of Philadelphia. The city borders Absecon, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Ventnor City and West Atlantic City (part of Egg Harbor Township).
wn.com/Atlantic_City -
Carmel, New York
Carmel (pronounced CAR-mel) is a town located in Putnam County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 36,465.
There are no incorporated villages in the town, although the hamlets of Carmel and Mahopac each have populations sizable enough to be thought of as villages.
The Town of Carmel is on the south border of the county. The town hall is in Mahopac.
Guideposts Magazine, founded by Norman Vincent Peale, is headquartered in Carmel.
The town was first settled around 1740 by George Hughson. On the night of April 26, 1777, after learning the news that the British had begun burning nearby Danbury, Connecticut, sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington rode her horse, Star, the entire night through the hamlets of Carmel, Mahopac, Kent Cliffs and Farmers Mills warning those along the way that the British were coming before returning home at dawn. A statue memorializing the female Paul Revere sits alongside Lake Gleneida.
Carmel was established by splitting from of the Town of Frederickstown, in 1795. (Patterson also split from Frederickstown the same year, the remnant of Frederickstown became known as Kent). Carmel was designated the county seat in 1812. In 1861, a small part of Carmel was taken to be added to the Town of Putnam Valley.
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Italy
Italy
i/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Rome
Rome (/ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma pronounced [ˈroːma] (
listen); Latin: Rōma) is a city and special comune ("Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and the capital of Lazio (Latin: Latium). With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.7 million people live in the Rome metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome's history spans two and a half thousand years. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization. Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
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Rome, Italy
Rome (/ˈroʊm/; Italian: Roma pronounced [ˈroːma] ( listen); Latin: Rōma) is a city and special comune ("Roma Capitale") in Italy. Rome is the capital of Italy and the capital of Lazio (Latin: Latium). With 2.8 million residents in 1,285.3 km2 (496.3 sq mi), it is also the country's largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. Between 3.2 and 3.7 million people live in the Rome metropolitan area. The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.
Rome's history spans two and a half thousand years. It was the capital city of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, which was the dominant power in Western Europe and the lands bordering the Mediterranean for over seven hundred years from the 1st century BC until the 7th century AD and the city is regarded as one of the birthplaces of western civilization. Since the 1st century AD Rome has been the seat of the Papacy and, after the end of Byzantine domination, in the 8th century it became the capital of the Papal States, which lasted until 1870. In 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic.
wn.com/Rome,_Italy
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Abdullah the Butcher
Lawrence Robert "Larry" Shreve (born on January 11, 1941) best known as Abdullah the Butcher, and also at times The Madman from the Sudan, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler known as one of the most brutal or "hardcore" professional wrestlers of all-time.
The scars on his forehead are the result of frequent blading. According to Mick Foley, Shreve used to put gambling chips into the deep divots in his head to entertain (or scare) people at casinos. However, New Jack claimed in his RF Video shoot interview that the grooves in Shreve's head were surgically implemented.
An amateur martial artist, Shreve also has knowledge of judo and karate, often including this knowledge in his professional wrestling matches. This knowledge was mainly displayed by him using judo style throws, and karate chops.
Shreve grew up in Windsor, Ontario, Canada as part of a family of ten people in a deeply impoverished household. He learned karate and judo as a youth and, teaching fellow children in the backyard, claims to have eventually earned the title of seventh-degree grandmaster.
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Adrian Adonis
Keith A. Franke (September 12, 1954–July 4, 1988) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Adorable" Adrian Adonis.
Franke trained under Fred Atkins and debuted in 1974, wrestling under his own name. In the late 1970s, Franke adopted the ring name Adrian Adonis and the character of a brawling, leather jacket-clad biker.
In the late 1970s, Adonis joined the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association. In 1979, he formed a tag team with Jesse Ventura. The team was known as the East-West Connection on the basis that Adonis was from New York (in the East), while Ventura was billed as being from California (in the West). Adonis and Ventura were awarded the AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 20, 1980, when Verne Gagne, one half of the tag champions with Mad Dog Vachon, was unable to defend the title because he was vacationing in Europe. Adonis and Ventura held the belts until June 14, 1981, when they were defeated by Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell.
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Afa Anoa'i
Arthur "Afa" Anoa'i, Sr. (born November 21, 1942) is a Samoan American retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager. Since retiring in the 1990s, he has operated the World Xtreme Wrestling promotion and trained wrestlers at the Wild Samoan Training Facility.
Anoa'i was born in Samoa, and his family relocated to San Francisco, California in the United States of America when he was young. At the age of 17, Anoa'i enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
Upon leaving the Marine Corps, Anoa'i began training as a wrestler under family friends Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia. He later received supplementary training from Kurt Von Steiger. He wrestled his first match in 1971, in Phoenix, Arizona. He then trained his brother Sika, and the siblings formed a tag team known as The Wild Samoans.
Throughout the 1970s, The Wild Samoans wrestled for the Canadian Stampede Wrestling promotion (where they received further training from Stu Hart) and for numerous National Wrestling Alliance affiliates. In 1978, The Wild Samoans traveled to Japan to wrestle for the International Wrestling Alliance, winning the IWA Tag Team Championship.
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Andre the Giant
André René Roussimoff (19 May 1946 – 27 January 1993), best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. His best remembered acting role was that of Fezzik, the giant in the film The Princess Bride. His size was a result of acromegaly, and led to him being called "The Eighth Wonder of the World".
In the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), Roussimoff was a one-time WWF Champion and a one-time WWF World Tag Team Champion. In 1993, he was the first inductee into the WWF Hall of Fame.
André Roussimoff was born in Grenoble, France to parents of Bulgarian and Polish ancestry. As a child, he very early displayed symptoms of his gigantism, reaching a height of 6'3" (190.5 cm) and weight of 240 pounds (110 kg) by age 12. Unable to fit on the school bus, he was driven to school by playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of his father. Roussimoff was a good student, but he dropped out after the 8th grade since he did not think having a high school education was necessary for a farm laborer. He then worked on a farm, completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, and next worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers. None of these brought him any satisfaction.
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André the Giant
André René Roussimoff (19 May 1946 – 27 January 1993), best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. His best remembered acting role was that of Fezzik, the giant in the film The Princess Bride. His size was a result of acromegaly, and led to him being called "The Eighth Wonder of the World".
In the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE), Roussimoff was a one-time WWF Champion and a one-time WWF World Tag Team Champion. In 1993, he was the first inductee into the WWF Hall of Fame.
André Roussimoff was born in Grenoble, France to parents of Bulgarian and Polish ancestry. As a child, he very early displayed symptoms of his gigantism, reaching a height of 6'3" (190.5 cm) and weight of 240 pounds (110 kg) by age 12. Unable to fit on the school bus, he was driven to school by playwright Samuel Beckett, a friend of his father. Roussimoff was a good student, but he dropped out after the 8th grade since he did not think having a high school education was necessary for a farm laborer. He then worked on a farm, completed an apprenticeship in woodworking, and next worked in a factory that manufactured engines for hay balers. None of these brought him any satisfaction.
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Antonino Rocca
Antonino Rocca (born Antonino Biasetton, April 13, 1927 – March 15, 1977) was an Italian professional wrestler. Rocca was a popular face and in some cities with both Italian-American and especially Hispanic audiences, his following was exceptionally large and loyal. He also possessed Argentinian citizenship.
He had a love for opera and was apparently described as having an excellent - if untrained - singing voice. Maestro Arturo Toscanini, a wrestling fan, was good friends with Rocca.
As a soccer and rugby-player when he moved to Argentina, before World War II, and an overall athlete, Rocca was known for his unique, acrobatic, off-the-ground, flying wrestling style, which he probably invented, wowing audiences with his dazzling aerial maneuvers. He was responsible for the revival of the New York City Metropolitan-Area territory in the late 1940s, which would eventually become part of the modern day World Wrestling Entertainment. Rocca became one of the most well-known wrestlers in America during the golden age of television. He also had a successful tag team career, forming a popular tandem with Miguel Pérez. The two, along with their heel (villain) opponents, drew large crowds to Madison Square Garden on a regular basis. Rocca had an uninterrupted seven-year run of headlining or co-headlining every main-event at the Garden.
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Antonio Inoki
Antonio Inoki (アントニオ猪木?) (born Kanji Inoki (猪木寛至, Inoki Kanji?) on February 20, 1943) is a Japanese professional wrestling promoter and retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist who now resides between New York City and Tokyo. He was also the founder and former owner of New Japan Pro Wrestling before selling his controlling share in the promotion to Yukes. He fashioned his name after the wrestler Antonino Rocca as an homage to him.
Inoki was born in an affluent family in Yokohama in 1943. He was the sixth son and the second youngest of the seven boys and four girls. His father, Sajiro Inoki, a businessman and politician, died when Kanji was five years old. Inoki entered the Higashidai Grade School. Inoki was taught karate by an older brother while in 6th grade. By the time he was in 7th grade at Terao Junior High School, he was 180 centimeters tall and joined the basketball team. He later quit and joined a track and field club as a shot putter. He eventually won the championship at the Yokohama Junior High School track and field competition.
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Arn Anderson
Martin Anthony Lunde (born September 20, 1958) better known by his ring name Arn Anderson, is a former American professional wrestler and author. His career has been highlighted by his alliances with Ric Flair and various members of the wrestling stable, The Four Horsemen, in the NWA/WCW. He currently serves as the senior producer for WWE's Raw brand. On March 31, 2012, Anderson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen.
Lunde began his career in early 1982, spending much of the year wrestling in various independent wrestling companies across the United States. By the middle of 1983, he made his way to Southeastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA affiliated promotion operating out of Tennessee and Alabama. Taking the name of "Super Olympia", Lunde soon became a member of Ron Fuller's Stud Stable before the year was out. Lunde saw success in the tag team ranks by winning the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship three times with Mr. Olympia and once with Buddy Rose throughout 1984. By the end of the year, however, Lunde left the company and joined Mid South Wrestling based out of Shreveport. Lunde's time in Mid South was coming to an end and during a TV taping the Junk Yard Dog mentioned to Bill Watts, the owner of Mid South Wrestling, that Lunde looked like an Anderson. Watts called Jim Crockett and convinced him to book Lunde.
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Austin Idol
Mike McCord (born on October 26, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name the "Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol.
McCord graduated from Robinson High School in Tampa, Florida. He started wrestling as Iron Mike McCord, a superheavyweight powerlifter in 1972, and became a star in a number of southeast promotions, holding many titles in the United States Wrestling Association (Memphis), Georgia, Birmingham, Texas All Star & Mid Atlantic territories. McCord also had a stint in the WWWF with Lou Albano as his manager. He also worked main event matches against then world champion Pedro Morales. McCord was the passenger on a small airplane, along with Gary Hart, and flown by Buddy Colt, which crashed in 1975 into Tampa Bay, Florida, killing fellow wrestler Bobby Shane.
After a period of inactivity healing from two broken ankles, he emerged with bleach-blonde hair, over 100 lbs lighter, and the new ring name "Universal Heartthrob" Austin Idol.
Idol is well known for a long-running feud with the popular Jerry "The King" Lawler in the CWA and AWA territories. In a 1981 angle, Idol dressed up as a masked Mexican wrestler, presenting the "Top Rated Wrestler in Mexico" award to Lawler on TV before sucker-punching him. Afterward, he delivered an interview where he promised to clean up Memphis rid it of Lawler. On April 27, 1987, Idol defeated Lawler in a steel cage match with the assistance of "Wildfire" Tommy Rich, who hid underneath the ring for the entirety of the event, winning the AWA Southern Heavyweight championship and causing Lawler to lose his hair.
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Barry Windham
Barry Clinton Windham (born July 4, 1960) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and the son of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan. He is best known for his appearances with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
In NWA/WCW, he was a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a one-time Television Champion, a one-time Western States Heritage Champion, a four-time NWA (Mid Atlantic)/WCW World Tag Team Champion and a one-time NWA United States Tag Team Champion with Ron Garvin. In WWF, he was a two-time World Tag Team Champion with his brother-in-law, Mike Rotunda. On March 31, 2012, Windham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen.
Windham was trained by his father Blackjack Mulligan and popular world champion Harley Race. He debuted on November 27, 1979 against J.J. Dillion in Odessa, Texas when he was 19 years old. Much of his early career was in the NWA's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory where Gordon Solie was the head announcer. He was a fan favorite for most of the early and middle periods of his career, having great success in singles and tag action. Windham had notable feuds with Kevin Sullivan and his army. With his brother-in-law Mike Rotunda, Windham formed a tag team in 1984. The duo captured the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship three times between March and May 1984.
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Big John Studd
John William Minton (February 19, 1948 – March 20, 1995) was an American professional wrestler and actor who was born and raised in Butler, Pennsylvania, better known by his ring name, Big John Studd.
Big John Studd stood 6'6" and weighed around 295 - 300 pounds. He was trained by wrestling legend Killer Kowalski. Together, Studd and Kowalski won the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1976 as the Masked Executioners.
After leaving the WWF, Studd became known as Chuck O'Connor, Captain USA, and The Masked Superstar II at certain points in the Mid-Atlantic territory. In 1978, Studd teamed with Ken Patera to win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles. Studd was actually in the WWWF before his stint as Executioner #2 in 1976. He was then known as Chuck O'Connor and he feuded with El Olympico.
Studd also made occasional trips to Canada to wrestle in Emile Duprée's Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling.
On May 25, 1980, Masked Superstar II was unmasked after a match with Blackjack Mulligan in Toronto. After this, Studd was brought into Florida by J.J. Dillon and feuded with Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham (the son of Blackjack Mulligan), and Sweet Brown Sugar.
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Bill Watts
William F. "Bill" Watts (born May 5, 1939) is a former American professional wrestler and promoter. Watts was famous under his "Cowboy" gimmick in his wrestling career, and then as a tough, no-nonsense promoter in the Mid-South area of the United States, which grew to become the UWF.
In 1992, he was the Executive Vice President of World Championship Wrestling but after clashes with management over a number of issues as well as feeling pressure from Hank Aaron over a racially sensitive piece of correspondence, he resigned. He was subsequently replaced by Ole Anderson who was then succeeded by Eric Bischoff.
As a professional wrestler, he famously feuded with WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino, but was unable to win away the belt. In the 1960s, he wrestled in many areas, such as San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis, and even Japan, for All Japan Pro Wrestling. During these periods, Watts challenged for both the National Wrestling Alliance and American Wrestling Association versions of the World Title.
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Bob Armstrong
Joseph Melton James (born October 3, 1939) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Bullet" Bob Armstrong. In the course of his career, which spanned five decades, Armstrong held numerous championships throughout the Southeastern United States. Armstrong is also the patriarch of the Armstrong wrestling family; he has four sons (Scott, Brad, Steve and Brian), all of whom became wrestlers.
When he was a child, Joseph James's father took him to see Gorgeous George wrestle. The young James was impressed and intrigued by the flamboyant performer. As a young man, James served in the Marine Corps of the United States armed forces and was stationed in Korea. During his recruit training in Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island on Parris Island, South Carolina, James was named Honor Man. After leaving the military, he began working for the Marietta Fire Department as a firefighter in 1962.
He debuted as a wrestler in the same year, adopting the ring name "Bob Armstrong". By 1966, Armstrong had become a popular face in the Savannah, Georgia area, and in 1969 he ceased working as a firefighter and began focusing on his wrestling career.
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Bob Backlund
Robert Lee "Bob" Backlund (born August 14, 1949) is an American professional wrestler with an in-ring career that spanned over 30 years. Over that time, he was a two-time WWWF/WWF Champion. Backlund holds the records for the second longest reign as WWE Champion in history, behind Bruno Sammartino.
Backlund was also an accomplished amateur wrestler wrestling for the North Dakota State University Bison in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Backlund continues to work in the pro wrestling business in various capacities. In 2000, Backlund unsuccessfully ran for a Connecticut seat in Congress on a Republican ticket.
In 1969 during his freshman year, Backlund was an All American in both football and wrestling (191 lbs finishing 3rd) while at Waldorf Junior College in Forest City, IA. During his sophomore campaign, Backlund focused on wrestling and once again earned All American Honors (190 lbs and National Runner Up). Backlund was an amateur wrestler at North Dakota State University, winning the Division II NCAA Championship at 190 pounds in 1971. In 1972 Backlund moved up to the Heavyweight class and finished 5th at the NCAA DII Nationals. Graduate of Princeton, MN High School where he was a state finalist in wrestling. He graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in physical education.
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Bob Orton Jr.
Robert Keith Orton (born November 10, 1950) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Cowboy" Bob Orton. He is the father of wrestler Randy Orton, who is signed to WWE. Orton's father, Bob Orton, Sr., and brother, Barry O, were also professional wrestlers.
Orton started wrestling in 1972 in the Florida and Georgia territories, sometimes performing under a mask and using the name "Young Mr. Wrestling". He often teamed with his father, Bob Orton. He made a name for himself in the early to mid-1980s in the National Wrestling Alliance, where he formed a tag team with Don Kernodle and won the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Orton was also involved in an angle where he and Dick Slater accepted a $25,000 offer by then NWA World Champion Harley Race to end the career of Ric Flair in 1983. Orton, Slater, and Race attacked Flair and delivered a spike piledriver, "injuring" Flair's neck. Flair subsequently "retired" then returned and assaulted Slater and Orton with a baseball bat.
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Bob Orton, Jr.
Robert Keith Orton (born November 10, 1950) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Cowboy" Bob Orton. He is the father of wrestler Randy Orton, who is signed to WWE. Orton's father, Bob Orton, Sr., and brother, Barry O, were also professional wrestlers.
Orton started wrestling in 1972 in the Florida and Georgia territories, sometimes performing under a mask and using the name "Young Mr. Wrestling". He often teamed with his father, Bob Orton. He made a name for himself in the early to mid-1980s in the National Wrestling Alliance, where he formed a tag team with Don Kernodle and won the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Orton was also involved in an angle where he and Dick Slater accepted a $25,000 offer by then NWA World Champion Harley Race to end the career of Ric Flair in 1983. Orton, Slater, and Race attacked Flair and delivered a spike piledriver, "injuring" Flair's neck. Flair subsequently "retired" then returned and assaulted Slater and Orton with a baseball bat.
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Bobby Duncum, Sr.
Bobby Duncum, Sr. (born August 14, 1944) was a professional wrestler in the 1970s and 1980s, performing for the WWWF, NWA and AWA. He is the father of Bobby Duncum, Jr..
His wrestling persona was that of a heel cowboy and he wrestled some of the top babyface stars of the era such as Bob Backlund and Bruno Sammartino. In the AWA, along with Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens and Blackjack Lanza, he was a member of famous wrestling stable, managed by Bobby Heenan, known as The Heenan Family. His famous catch phrase during interviews (and written phoenetically) was "You unnastan?" ("you understand?").
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Bobby Heenan
Raymond Louis "Ray" Heenan (born November 1, 1944), better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, is a former American professional wrestling manager and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was known for his skill in drawing heel heat for himself and his wrestlers, and for his on-screen repartee with Gorilla Monsoon as a color commentator. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly WWF) has described Heenan as "one of sports-entertainment's best loved legends".
Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 by Blackjack Lanza.
Always a fan of wrestling growing up in Chicago and Indianapolis, Heenan started in the wrestling profession early on, carrying bags and jackets for the wrestlers, and selling refreshments at the events. Dropping out of school in the eighth grade to support his mother and grandmother, Heenan's first break in the wrestling business was as a heel manager and wrestler in 1965 when he was known as "Pretty Boy" Bobby Heenan. His gimmick over the years has more or less remained the same, a tough talking big mouth who cowered in fear when being physically confronted. At the time, heels were often given managers to speak for them in interviews, rile up the crowd during matches, and cheat on their behalf. Bobby "The Brain" Heenan went on to manage some of the most successful wrestlers in the world, creating "The Heenan Family", a stable that existed in several different incarnations and wrestling promotions for over 20 years. Heenan did not like the term "stable", stating that it should only refer to a place to keep horses.[citation needed]
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Bobo Brazil
Houston Harris (July 10, 1923 — January 20, 1998) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Bobo Brazil. Even though he is "Bobo", a promoter mispronounced it and it stuck .He is credited with breaking down barriers of racial segregation in professional wrestling. Harris is considered one of the first successful African American professional wrestlers, and is often referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of professional wrestling".
Houston Harris was born in Little Rock, Arkansas but later lived in East St. Louis, Illinois, and Benton Harbor, Michigan. He played baseball and worked in a steel mill.
Harris was trained by Joe Savoldi after meeting him at matches at the Naval Armory. Originally, Harris was to be known as "Boo-Boo Brazil", but a promoter misprinted his first name as "Bobo" in an advertisement and it stuck.
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Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian American writer, actor and retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE under a Legends contract. Like others in the Hart wrestling family, Hart has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. Along with his famed "Hit Man" nickname, Hart was known by the monikers "The Excellence of Execution", "The Best There Is, The Best There Was, and The Best There Ever Will Be" and "The Pink and Black Attack"—the latter being in reference to his ring attire, as well as his signature mirrored sunglasses, which he routinely gave away to a young audience member before matches.
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Brian Blair
Brian Leslie Blair (born January 12, 1957) is a local politician in Florida, who gained fame as a professional wrestler especially as a part of the Killer Bees.
As a child, Blair wanted to be Superman and even prayed that he might somehow become a superhero. Blair moved out of his house at age 16 and held several odd jobs to pay his share of the rent. Blair loved professional wrestling and wrestled and played football in high school so he could be tough enough to do it when he graduated. Blair attended the University of Louisville on a football scholarship where he majored in both business and political science.
In 1977, he started training to be a wrestler with the legendary Hiro Matsuda in Florida. Blair debuted in late 1977 with Eddie Graham’s Florida Championship Wrestling where he usually worked as a "face" (good guy). Blair made his professional debut in a tag-team facing Pat Patterson and Ivan Koloff in a losing effort.One of Blair’s early opponents was another Matsuda student who had just begun working as "The Super Destroyer" (Hulk Hogan).
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Bruno Sammartino
Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (born October 6, 1935) is an Italian-American former professional wrestler, best known for being the longest-running champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), holding the title across two reigns for over 11 years in total, as well as the longest single WWE Championship reign in professional wrestling history.
Sammartino's wrestling style was more mat-oriented which was typical of wrestlers from his era. His brawling, power moves, and personal charisma helped him become the most popular American wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s.
Born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy on October 6, 1935, Sammartino was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. Four older siblings died during his time in Italy. During his childhood, Sammartino's family hid from German soldiers in a mountain called Valla Rocca, during the latter stages of World War II. During this time, Sammartino's mother, Emilia, would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies. She once was captured and another time shot in the shoulder during such trips. Eventually, Sammartino caught rheumatic fever but was nursed back to health by his mother with hot blankets and leeches. In 1950, he moved to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father had already lived for several years.
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Camille Tourville
Camille Tourville (1927-December 24, 1985) was a professional wrestler and manager better known as Tarzan Tyler. He was one-half of the first WWF Tag Team Champions, along with Luke Graham. He died December 24, 1985 at the age of 58.
Tarzan Tyler began competing in the United States during the 1960s after having spent nearly 10 years wrestling in Canada. Tyler competed for World Championships against such stars as Verne Gagne, Lou Thesz, and Dory Funk, Jr. His greatest success came as a tag team competitor, as he and Crazy Luke Graham defeated the team of Dick the Bruiser and The Shiek in 1971 to become the first WWF World Tag Team Champions.
Tarzan Tyler died, along with fellow wrestler Pierre 'Mad Dog' Lefebvre and referee Adrien Desbois, in Laurentides Provincial Park upon returning from a wrestling event in Chicoutimi, Quebec on December 24, 1985, in a car crash.
He was a 3-time heavyweight champion for Grand Prix Wrestling in Montreal in the 1970s.
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Charles Kalani, Jr.
Charles "Charlie" J. Kalani, Jr. (January 6, 1930 – August 22, 2000) was an American professional wrestler, professional boxer,college football player, soldier, actor, and Martial Artist who, in fighting rings, was also known as Professor Toru Tanaka, or simply, Professor Tanaka.
He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of Charles J. Kalani and Christina Leong Kalani (who was part Chinese). Charlie began studying judo at age nine. At Iolani School (class of 1949), he was a natural at many sports, and Doris Kalani credited his time on the football team with keeping him away from trouble. "He was a street kid getting into trouble and would have ended up in reform school if Father Kenneth A. Bray hadn't helped him out by bringing him to Iolani. He felt Iolani saved him," she told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
He left Hawaii for Utah's Weber Junior College (now Weber State University). On December 6, 1951, the Associated Press reported he received honorable mention for playing football at the University of Utah. It was at the University of Utah that he also met his wife Doris in 1952. On December 3, 1952 the Associated Press reported Kalani would become a professional boxer. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1955, Kalani rose to the rank of sergeant and excelled on the pistol team. For four years, the couple were stationed at a base in Nuremberg, Germany.
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Chris Von Erich
Chris Barton Adkisson (September 30, 1969 – September 12, 1991) was an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Chris Von Erich of the Von Erich family.
The smallest and youngest of the Von Erich family, all Chris wanted to be was a wrestler. He was the youngest son of wrestler Fritz Von Erich. His brothers, Mike, David, Kerry and Kevin all had success as wrestlers. He grew up working cameras and doing other odd jobs backstage for WCCW.
He became a wrestler in 1990, but faced numerous issues. Aside from drug problems similar to his much older brothers, his asthma held him back and his bones were so brittle that he would often break them while performing simple wrestling maneuvers. He stayed with it as much as he could, and even had a small feud with Percy Pringle in the USWA. Chris tagged with both his brother Kevin and longtime ally Chris Adams in several tag team matches against Pringle and "Stunning" Steve Austin (later "Stone Cold" Steve Austin); however, he would face only Pringle whenever he was in the ring, and allow his more-experienced partner (Kevin or Adams) to battle Austin.
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Curt Hennig
Curtis Michael "Curt" Hennig (March 28, 1958 – February 10, 2003) was an American professional wrestler, manager and color commentator who performed under his real name for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). In the WWF, he found his greatest success as Mr. Perfect, a nickname introduced in his second run with the company which gradually became his official ring name as use of his real name was phased out; Hennig used the same ring name in his third and final run, however his real name was widely acknowledged. He was the son of wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig, and father to current WWE (formerly the WWF) superstar Michael McGillicutty.
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Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and LGBT rights activist.
She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the debut solo album She's So Unusual in 1983, which spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top-five songs—"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop" and "All Through the Night"—She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. The album earned Lauper Best New Artist at the 27th Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"True Colors" and "Change of Heart", and earned two nominations at the 29th Grammy Awards.
Since 1989 released from a nine studio albums acclaimed critical, A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998),Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005), Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).
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Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of short statured dispatcher Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi (1978–1983), for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman, founded Jersey Films, a production company known for films such as Pulp Fiction, Garden State, and Freedom Writers. DeVito also owns Jersey Television, which produced the Comedy Central series Reno 911!. DeVito and Perlman also starred together in his 1996 film Matilda, based on Roald Dahl's children's novel. He currently stars as Frank Reynolds on the FX sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
DeVito was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, the son of Julia, a homemaker, and Daniel Michael DeVito, Sr., who owned several small businesses, including a dry cleaning store, a dairy outlet, a luncheonette, and a pool hall. DeVito is of Italian descent (his family is originally from San Fele, Basilicata) and was raised a Roman Catholic, growing up in Asbury Park. He boarded at Oratory Preparatory School, in Summit, New Jersey, graduating in 1962, and subsequently trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1966. In his early theater days, he performed with the Colonnades Theater Lab, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and, along with his wife Rhea Perlman, appeared in plays produced by the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective.
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Davey Boy Smith
David "Davey" Boy Smith (November 27, 1962 – May 18, 2002) was a British professional wrestler, also known as (The) British Bulldog, who was born in Golborne in North West England, United Kingdom. Smith is known for his appearances with Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Described by WWE (previously the WWF) as "one of the most physically impressive individuals in WWE history", Smith found success as both a singles and tag competitor, holding every major title in the organization except the WWF Championship. Smith competed in multiple pay-per-view main events in the WWF and WCW, and challenged for the top titles of both promotions.
Smith was trained by Ted Betley in Winwick, England before relocating to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to further his training under Stu Hart. While training with Hart, Smith met Stu and Helen Hart's youngest daughter Diana, whom he married in 1984. They had two children, Harry (born on August 2, 1985) and Georgia (born on September 26, 1987). He and Diana were divorced in 2000.
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David Von Erich
David Alan Adkisson (July 22, 1958 – February 10, 1984) was an American professional wrestler who competed as "The Yellow Rose of Texas" David Von Erich (of the Von Erich Family). He was the son of Fritz Von Erich and the brother of Jack Jr., Kerry, Kevin, Mike and Chris.
David was named after his mother Doris' brother David, who had died only months before David Von Erich was born in 1958. Doris' brother David had died of a brain tumor.
David, along with brothers Kevin and Kerry, loved to hunt and fish with their father; Fritz. Hunting on the Von Erich ranch was quite an event. Many of their relatives and friends would join in and sometimes the hunting group would be 20 or more. WCCW Referee David Manning and WCCW Announcer Bill Mercer were quite often among the group. David's first love in life was raising horses, which turned out to be very profitable for him. He raised and sold quarter horses and horses for show and made his own fortune that way, apart from the family business of wrestling.
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Dirk Benedict
Dirk Benedict (born March 1, 1945) is an American movie, television and stage actor, perhaps best known for playing the characters Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck in The A-Team television series and Lieutenant Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica film and television series.
Benedict was born Dirk Niewoehner in Helena, Montana, the son of Pricilla Mella (née Metzger), an accountant, and George Edward Niewoehner, a lawyer. He grew up in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. He graduated from Whitman College in 1967.
Benedict's film debut was in the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. When the New York run for Butterflies Are Free ended, he received an offer to repeat his performance in Hawaii, opposite Barbara Rush. While there, he appeared as a guest lead on Hawaii Five-O. The producers of a horror film called Ssssss saw Benedict's performance in Hawaii Five-O and promptly cast him as the lead in that movie. He next played the psychotic wife-beating husband of Twiggy in her American film debut, W. Benedict starred in the television series Chopper One which aired for one season in 1974. He also made an appearance in Charlie's Angels.
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Don Muraco
Donald Muraco (born September 10, 1949), better known by his ring names "The Magnificent Muraco" and "The Rock" Don Muraco, is a retired American professional wrestler. Wrestling from the 1970s to the 1990s, Muraco is a former two time WWF Intercontinental Champion, a former two time ECW Heavyweight Champion, one Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship, and was the 1985 King of the Ring, the first-ever in WWF/WWE history.
A former state champion in amateur wrestling in Hawaii in 1967, Muraco chose professional wrestling over football and spent the first year of his career learning the ropes in Vancouver, Portland, Florida and Los Angeles before he got his first break, accepting an offer from Verne Gagne to work in the American Wrestling Association (AWA). A fan favorite at this early stage of his career, Muraco formed a tag team with Jimmy Snuka and squared off many times with the likes of Larry Hennig, Ivan Koloff and Dusty Rhodes. In 1973 Muraco left the AWA for the San Francisco territory, having become tired of life in Minneapolis.
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Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, sports executive, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as host of the U.S. version of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both of which aired on ABC.
Carey has appeared in several films, television series, music videos, a made-for-television film, and a computer game. As of 2012, he hosts the television game show The Price Is Right. He is interested in a variety of sports, has worked as a photographer at U.S. National Team soccer games, is a minority owner of the Major League Soccer team Seattle Sounders FC and a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. Carey has written an autobiography, Dirty Jokes And Beer: Stories Of The Unrefined, detailing his early life and television career.
Carey was the youngest of Lewis and Beulah Carey's three sons and raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When he was eight years old, his father died from a brain tumor. According to his autobiography, he was born with six toes on his right foot and he played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School, from which he graduated in 1975. Drew is of Scottish heritage from both parents.[citation needed]
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Dynamite Kid
Thomas Billington (born December 5, 1958), best known by the ring name Dynamite Kid, is a retired British professional wrestler who competed in the World Wrestling Federation, Stampede Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling in the mid- to late-1980s. With his cousin Davey Boy Smith, Billington became best known for being half of the tag team the British Bulldogs. He has had notable feuds with Tiger Mask in Japan and Bret Hart in Canada. He was born in Golborne, Lancashire.
Academics were not a priority to Tom, but he was drawn to the sport programme at his comprehensive school; his adherence to it, particularly wrestling and gymnastics, helped him develop a relatively small but powerful and agile shape. In addition, he had also received training in boxing during his formative years, which helped instill toughness in him before his career. His father, the brother of Davey Boy Smith's mother, was a miner and itinerant labourer who often took young Thomas to see wrestling matches in Wigan, then as now well known for its wrestling tradition. It was during a home visit that the younger Billington met and caught the attention of Ted Betley, who had been running a pro-wrestling school in his home; it was here that Billington began his training, as a way of avoiding the back breaking work of the coal mines.
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Ed Farhat
Edward George Farhat (June 9, 1924 - January 18, 2003) was an American professional wrestler best known as by his ring name The Sheik (or The Original Sheik to distinguish him from The Iron Sheik, a wrestler from the 1980s). He is also one of the originators of what became the hardcore wrestling style, and the uncle of ECW legend Sabu.
He started out wrestling in the Midwest and later in Texas but his biggest match was one he didn't wrestle in. He was set to face NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz in Chicago for his title but Thesz had a reputation for embarrassing "gimmick" wrestlers so The Sheik bailed from the ring and hid under a bus. The publicity from the event helped push the Sheik character to a more prominent level. He went to New York for Vincent J. McMahon where he teamed with Johnny Valentine and Bull Curry in feuds against Mark Lewin and Don Curtis as well as the team of Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez in Madison Square Garden. He returned when McMahon formed the World Wide Wrestling Federation to feud with Bruno Sammartino in the WWF's major markets in the late 1960s.
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Ed White (wrestler)
Edward J. "Ed" White (May 18, 1949 – August 25, 2005) was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known as Moondog King of the Moondogs when he joined the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in the early 1980s. White won 48 championships in Canada and around the globe. He wrestled in South Africa as Big John Strongbo and in eastern Canada as Sailor White.
After doing work on Great Lakes boats, White made his wrestling debut in Pembroke, Ontario on May 22, 1972 against Michael Gango for promoter Larry Kasaboski. While in Quebec he was the Grand Prix tag team champion in 1976, International Heavyweight champion in 1982, International tag team champion twice in 1982–1984 and won the Canadian Television Championship in 1984.
He was most known for his time in the WWF as Moondog King where he teamed with Moondog Rex and won the WWF Tag Team Championship (then WWWF) from Tony Garea and Rick Martel in Allentown, Pennsylvania in March 1981. After he was denied re-entry to the United States at the Canadian border the WWWF replaced him with substitutes including Stan Hansen, Hulk Hogan, Lou Albano and Sgt. Slaughter before selecting Moondog Spot as a permanent replacement, and explained his absence stating King had been hit by a car. White claims the border dispute involved a rival wrestling promoter alerting the authorities to his criminal past whereas some say it was drug related.
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Eddie Graham
Edward F. Gossett (January 15, 1930 – January 21, 1985), better known as Eddie Graham, was an American professional wrestler. He was also the promoter and booker for Championship Wrestling from Florida and President of the NWA in the 1970s. His son, Mike Graham, was also a professional wrestler. Eddie Graham was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Gossett started wrestling in 1947 in Texas at the age of 17 after being trained by Cowboy Luttrell. He was sometimes billed as the brother of "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers under the name of Roy Rogers. He lost a loser-leaves-town match to Pepper Gomez in May 1958.
In June 1958, he changed his ring name to Eddie Graham and was billed as the brother of Dr. Jerry Graham and "Crazy" Luke Graham. Jerry and Eddie were a very successful heel tag team on the east coast of the United States. They had popular feuds with teams such as the Fabulous Kangaroos, the Bastien Brothers, Mark Lewin and Don Curtis, and Antonino Rocca and Miguel Pérez. They held the NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Northeast version) together in Capitol Wrestling (the forerunner of World Wrestling Entertainment) four times, winning the belts three times in victories over Miguel Perez and Don Curtis, and once against Red and Lou Bastien.
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Eddie Guerrero
Eduardo Gory "Eddie" Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was a Mexican-American professional wrestler born into the Guerrero wrestling family. He wrestled in Mexico and Japan for several major professional wrestling promotions. In the United States, Guerrero wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Guerrero's gimmick was that of "Latino Heat", a crafty, resourceful wrestler who would do anything to win a match. His catchphrase became "I Lie! I Cheat! I Steal!," which was used in one of his entrance themes. Guerrero partly used this phrase in his autobiography Cheating Death, Stealing Life.
Despite being a villain for most of his career, he got over in and outside the ring being the youngest, yet most popular and successful of the Guerrero brothers. Guerrero was widely regarded as one of the most respected and gifted technical wrestlers in history. Throughout his career, Guerrero encountered various substance abuse problems outside of wrestling, including alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers. His real-life problems were sometimes integrated into his storylines. Notwithstanding these issues, Guerrero won 23 titles during his career, including the WWE Grand Slam Championship.
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Edge (wrestler)
Adam Copeland (born October 30, 1973) is a Canadian retiredprofessional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Edge. He is best known for his time with WWE.
Copeland was trained by former professional wrestlers Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchinson. Throughout the 1990s, he wrestled in North American independent promotions early in his career. During his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition, the latter with Christian, his storyline brother. In 1997, Copeland signed a developmental deal with the WWF and began competing for the company later that year; he made his televised debut the following June under the ring name Edge. In June 1999, he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship, making it his first title reign with the company. He and Christian went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven different occasions. During this time, they gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches.
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Ernie Ladd
Ernest "Ernie" Ladd (November 28, 1938 – March 10, 2007), nicknamed "The Big Cat" was an American collegiate and professional football player and a professional wrestler.
The American Football League's San Diego Chargers selected the Grambling State University standout with their 15th pick in the 1961 draft. At 6'9" and 315 pounds, Ladd was arguably the biggest and strongest man in professional football during his era: 52-inch chest, 39-inch waist, 20-inch biceps, 19-inch neck, 20-inch calf, and size 18D shoes. (According to different sources, the tallest player in NFL history was Morris Stroud (1970 Chiefs) at 6'10", or Richard Sligh (1967 Raiders) at 7'0". The heaviest player in history was Aaron Gibson, at 410 pounds.) Ladd played in three AFL championship games, helping the Chargers win the American Football League title in 1963 with teammate Earl Faison, both members of the original Fearsome Foursome.
Ladd spent the 1966 season playing for the Houston Oilers before moving in 1967 to the Kansas City Chiefs. There, with former Grambling teammate Buck Buchanan, he filled out what was probably the biggest defensive tackle tandem in history. Both Ladd and Buchanan are members of the Grambling State University Athletic Hall of Fame.
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Ernie Roth
Ernie Roth (June 7, 1929 – October 12, 1983), best known as The Grand Wizard of Wrestling, also well known as Abdullah Farouk, was a professional wrestling manager of many infamous heels. Not a wrestler himself due to his small stature, he was noted for his flamboyant outfit of sequined jackets, wraparound sunglasses, and a brightly-colored turban decorated with jewels and feathers.
Ernie Roth got his start in the entertainment business as a disc jockey, and became involved in professional wrestling as a manager in the 1960s in Detroit-based territories. Roth first worked under the names "Mr. Clean" and "J. Wellington Radcliffe", but more famously, he also portrayed "Abdullah Farouk", a man from the Middle East who was sent by The Sheik's wealthy "family" to handle their son's affairs in the US.
Roth on many occasions (when out of character and greasepaint mustache) co-hosted the sydnicated "Big Time Wrestling" with fellow announcer Bob Finnegan until 1969 when the hosting chores went to Lord Athol Layton. For some of the Ohio Markets, Les Edwards would do the ring announcing for non TV shows.
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Fred Blassie
Frederick Kenneth Blassie (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003), better known as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, was an American professional wrestling villain and manager born in St. Louis, Missouri. Renowned as "The Fashion Plate of Professional Wrestling", He was also a one-time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion (later known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship), and a one-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion.
Blassie's parents, Jacob and Anna (née Sind), immigrated to the United States from Germany prior to the start of World War I, settling in St. Louis. Fred was an only child, which he claimed was because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Fred often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob would beat his mother. His parents continually separated, then reunited. At the age of 13, after his father hit his mother again, Fred threatened to attack his father with a baseball bat, but didn't do it and stayed with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home. Throughout his life, Fred didn't touch alcohol after seeing what kind of person it turned his father into.
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Freddie Blassie
Frederick Kenneth Blassie (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003), better known as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, was an American professional wrestling villain and manager born in St. Louis, Missouri. Renowned as "The Fashion Plate of Professional Wrestling", He was also a one-time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion (later known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship), and a one-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion.
Blassie's parents, Jacob and Anna (née Sind), immigrated to the United States from Germany prior to the start of World War I, settling in St. Louis. Fred was an only child, which he claimed was because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Fred often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob would beat his mother. His parents continually separated, then reunited. At the age of 13, after his father hit his mother again, Fred threatened to attack his father with a baseball bat, but didn't do it and stayed with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home. Throughout his life, Fred didn't touch alcohol after seeing what kind of person it turned his father into.
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George Steele
William James Myers (born April 16, 1937), better known by his ring name George "The Animal" Steele is a former American professional wrestler and actor. Steele's career lasted from 1967 until 1989, though he made occasional wrestling appearances into the 1990s and 2000s.
He also portrayed Swedish wrestler/actor Tor Johnson in Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp.
Myers was raised in Madison Heights, Michigan. During high school, he found success in track running, baseball, basketball and football. In 1956, Myers entered Michigan State University as a football player for the Michigan State Spartans, but his career as a football player was immediately cut short as a result of knee problems.
After gaining a bachelor of science degree from Michigan State University and a master's degree from Central Michigan University, Myers became a teacher, amateur wrestling coach, and football coach at Madison High School in Madison Heights, Michigan. There he would eventually become a member of the Michigan Coaches Hall of Fame.
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George Wagner
George Raymond Wagner (March 24, 1915 – December 26, 1963) was an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Gorgeous George. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s-1950s, Gorgeous George gained mainstream popularity and became one of the biggest stars of this period, gaining media attention for his outrageous character, which was described as flamboyant and charismatic. He was inducted into Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002 and the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2010.
George Raymond Wagner was born March 24, 1915 in Butte, Nebraska. For a time, he and his parents lived on a farm near the village of Phoenix in Holt County and probably in Seward County before they moved to Waterloo, Iowa and later Sioux City. When George was age seven, his family moved to Houston, Texas, where he associated with kids from a tough neighborhood. As a child, he trained at the local YMCA and often staged matches against his friends. In 1929, Wagner dropped out of Milby High School at age 14, and worked odd jobs to help support his family. At this time, he competed at carnivals, where he could earn 35 cents for a win. By age 17, he was getting booked by the region’s top promoter, Morris Siegel, and in 1938, he won his first title by defeating Buck Lipscomb for Northwest Middleweight crown. Moreover, on May 19, 1939, he captured the Pacific Coast Light Heavyweight Championship.
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Gorilla Monsoon
Robert James "Gino" Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play announcer, and booker. He is famous for his run as one of the great super-heavyweights, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation as announcer and as backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s, and added on-screen President to his duties in the latter decade. In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position which Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the Gorilla Position in his honor.
Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field. At the time, he weighed over 300 pounds (136 kg), and was affectionately called "Tiny" by his teammates.
Marella was also a standout athlete after high school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. He continued to wrestle, now weighing over 350 pounds, and took second in the 1959 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. During the summers he was at Ithaca College, he was a construction worker in Rochester. One of the buildings he helped construct was the Rochester War Memorial. He was inducted into the Section V Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010 along with longtime childhood friend Frank Marotta who gave a speech on his behalf.
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Grady Johnson
James Grady Johnson (February 5, 1940 – June 23, 2006) better known as professional wrestler Crazy Luke Graham, was a member of the Graham family, a storyline family of wrestlers.
He began his career as the storyline brother of Dr. Jerry Graham after fellow wrestler Freddie Cain (The Great Mephisto)suggested they resembled each other. They began wrestling together in 1963 in Stampede Wrestling. Later that summer, Johnson wrestled a series of matches against Chief Big Heart.
He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) with Jerry Graham beginning in 1964. They won the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from Don McClarity and Argentina Apollo, holding it for eight months, before losing the belts to another heel tagteam, Gene Kiniski & Waldo Von Erich. It was during this time that he became known as "Crazy" Luke Graham.
Graham enjoyed most of his success for the Los Angeles territory in the mid to late 1960s. He held the WWA World Title for that office in 1965. He dropped the belt to Pedro Morales. In the late 60s, he was a mid card performer for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) out of Minneapolis.
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Greg Valentine
John Wisniski, Jr. (born September 20, 1951) is an American professional wrestler, better known as Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. He is the son of wrestler Johnny Valentine.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Valentine traveled around Texas in his teens with his father. During a summer vacation, he decided to drop out of college and become a wrestler. His father initially tried to deter him, but eventually ceded to his wishes and sent him to Canada in 1970 to train under Stu Hart in Calgary. Wisniski remained in Canada for a year, wrestling his debut match in July 1970 against Angelo "King Kong" Mosca (he lost in around five minutes). Six months later, Wisniski relocated to Detroit to complete his training under The Sheik.
Initially reluctant to take his father's ring name, Wisniski wrestled as Baby Face Nelson before becoming Johnny Fargo, one half of The Fargo Brothers with Don Fargo between 1971 and 1974. The Fargo Brothers initially competed in the Buffalo and Cleveland based National Wrestling Federation before moving on to Texas. They split in 1974 and Wisniski went to Florida, where he began performing as Johnny Valentine, Jr., hopeful that he could live up to his father's legacy. He later changed his ring name to Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, and was billed as Johnny Valentine's brother, not his son, because of fears that the elder Valentine would be thought of as too old to be a legitimate threat. Valentine remained in Florida for a year while also working in Los Angeles and in Japan under Antonio Inoki in 1975 and early 1976.
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Harley Race
Harley Leland Race (born April 11, 1943) is a retired American professional wrestler and is a current promoter and trainer. During his career as a wrestler, he held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 8 times. He worked for all of the major wrestling promotions, including the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was the first NWA United States Heavyweight Champion. Race is one of six men inducted into each of the WWE Hall of Fame, the WCW Hall of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
Race was an early fan of professional wrestling, watching programming from the nearby Chicago territory on the DuMont Network. After overcoming polio as a child, he began training as a professional wrestler as a teen under former world champions Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, who operated a farm in his native Missouri. While in high school, an altercation with another classmate led to the principal kneeing Race in the back of the head as he tried to break up the fight. Enraged, Race attacked him, resulting in his expulsion. Already 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and 225 lb (102 kg), Race decided to get his start in professional wrestling.
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Harry Fujiwara
Harry Fujiwara (born May 4, 1935) is an American former professional wrestler and manager, best known by his ring name Mr. Fuji. He was infamous for often throwing salt in the eyes of face wrestlers. Although he was billed as Japanese, he is a Japanese-American born in Hawaii.
Fujiwara made his professional wrestling debut on December 15, 1965 in his native Hawaii under the ring name Mr. Fujiwara. He won his first championship, the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship, with Curtis Iaukea on January 7, 1966. He shortened his ring name to Mr. Fuji and toured many territories, including Don Owen's Portland, Oregon based NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling where he won many championships.
Fuji debuted in Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1972 as a heel. He formed a tag team with Professor Toru Tanaka and the duo were managed by Grand Wizard. Tanaka provided his physical massive strength and Fuji brought his devious ring psychology to the team, which earned him the nickname "The Devious One". Fuji used to throw salt in his opponent's eyes, which earned him victories. They defeated Sonny King and Chief Jay Strongbow on June 27, 1972 for their first World Tag Team Championship. They quickly ascended to the main event status, defending the titles against WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino on several occasions, throughout the year. During the feud, Fuji earned a shot at the WWWF title against Morales on August 22 but lost by count-out. They reigned for eleven months, making them the third longest WWWF World Tag Team Champions in history. They would lose the titles to Tony Garea and Haystacks Calhoun on May 30, 1973.
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Howard Finkel
Howard Finkel (born June 7, 1950) is a professional wrestling ring announcer working with WWE in a variety of roles. Hired in 1975 by Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation, "The Fink" was the first person brought in to Vincent K. McMahon's nascent World Wrestling Federation and is widely credited as WWE's first and longest lasting employee.
Finkel, a native of Newark, New Jersey, began announcing wrestling shows at Madison Square Garden in 1977. By 1979, he was hired as the first employee of WWE (formerly WWF), and he was made lead ring announcer for the WWF's biggest events. Across three decades, Finkel's distinctive voice was one of the trademarks of WWF programming, and was sometimes used in the packaged intros for the company's weekly programming. Finkel's signature call was his announcement of a new champion following a change in titles, in which he would place increased emphasis while stretching out the word "New" in order to draw the greatest reaction from the crowd. Finkel also suggested the well-known pay-per-view name "WrestleMania," (he got it from The Beatles' theme in the 1960s BeatleMania) which owner Vince McMahon immediately accepted. Finkel also came up with Ricky Steamboat's "Dragon" nickname.
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Hulk Hogan
Terry Gene Bollea (born August 11, 1953), better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Hogan enjoyed mainstream popularity in the mid 1980s through the early 1990s as the all-American character Hulk Hogan in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF—now WWE), and was notable in the mid-to-late 1990s as Hollywood Hogan, the villainous nWo leader, in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Following the closure of WCW, he made a brief return to WWE in the early 2000s before revising his heroic character by combining elements of his two most famous personas.
Hogan was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005. He is a 12-time world champion being a six-time WWF/WWE Champion, six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, as well as a former WWE World Tag Team Champion with Edge. He won the Royal Rumble in 1990 and 1991, making him the first to win two consecutive Royal Rumbles. He was also the first WWE wrestler to win the WWE Championship three times. In his first reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Hogan held the title for 469 days from July 17, 1994 to October 29, 1995—the longest ever reign for this championship.
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Iron Mike Sharpe
Michael "Mike" Sharpe is a retired Canadian professional wrestler better known as Iron Mike Sharpe.
Sharpe comes from a family legacy of wrestling, as his father and uncle were a successful tag team in the 1950s, recognized as champions from San Francisco to Japan. He grew up in California, but moved with his father back to Canada as a teenager. In high school, he dabbled in boxing and weightlifting before choosing to follow in his father's footsteps.
Dewey Robertson trained him for the ring at age 25 and shortly thereafter Sharpe made his mark wrestling for promotions around Canada such as Gene Kiniski's NWA All Star Wrestling. He became a two-time NWA Canadian Tag Team Champion, partnering first with Moose Morowski and later with Salvatore Bellomo, and also won the Pacific Coast Heavyweight title. His career picked up steam after moving to Louisiana, where he became a fan favorite and won two different Mid-South Wrestling belts - Louisiana champion (two times) and the Mississippi title (also two times) along with a Brass Knucks title in 1979.
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Iron Sheik
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri (Persian:حسین خسرو علی وزیری) (born March 15, 1943) is a semi-retired Iranian professional wrestler and actor better known by his ring name The Iron Sheik. He is known for ending the near six-year World Wrestling Federation Championship reign of Bob Backlund, and for being the man Hulk Hogan defeated for his first WWF Championship.
A heel throughout the 1980s, he later gained popularity on Opie and Anthony, Kidd Chris, The Howard Stern Show, and on the internet due to his shoot interviews and outbursts on the wrestling industry and the hatred he expressed for various wrestlers.
Khosrow was born in Tehran, Iran. He made a name for himself as an amateur wrestler, and also worked as a bodyguard for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family for several years.
Khosrow competed to become part of the Iranian Olympic Greco Roman team for the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico.
After this, he moved to the United States and became the assistant coach of two US Olympic squads in the 1970s. In 1971, he was the Amateur Athletic Union Greco-Roman wrestling champion at 183.5 pounds. He was assistant coach to the USA team for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
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Ivan Koloff
"The Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff (born Oreal Perras on August 25, 1942, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a former Canadian professional wrestler who once held the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
Perras was raised on a dairy farm in rural Ontario along with his six brothers and three sisters.
Since first watching professional wrestling on TV at the age of eight, he wanted to become a wrestler, and would often wrestle with his brothers growing up. At age 18, he left high school and joined Jack Wentworth's wrestling school in Hamilton, Ontario, where he would lift weights and learn wrestling holds. Ivan stood 5' 7 1/2" tall, and weighed approximately 270 pounds. Towards the end of his career he dropped a considerable amount of weight and was tipping the scale at 205 pounds.
Perras debuted as an Irish rogue heel character named Red McNulty, billed from Dublin, Ireland and wrestling with an eyepatch. For the next three years, he wrestled around the Toronto area, eventually quitting his regular job to wrestle in the north-western area of Canada. There, Perras acquired much wrestling experience, and from there he made his first trip to Japan.
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Ivan Putski
Józef Bednarski (born January 21, 1941), is a Polish former professional wrestler and bodybuilder. He is known by the ring name Ivan Putski and was given the nicknames "The Polish Hammer" and "Polish Power".
Putski is a former WWF World Tag Team Champion with Tito Santana. Ivan was known to have an ongoing feud with another professional at the time, "Superstar" Billy Graham over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, who also had an incredible physique and strength, which led to many pose-downs, arm wrestling bouts, and long, physical matches between the two. Other rivals included Iron Sheik, Ivan Koloff, and Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who when commentating for the WWF would refer to Putski as "Puduski" in much the same way he would later refer to Tito Santana as "Chico".
Putski was born in Poland and migrated to the United States at a young age. He and his family arrived in Texas, where Putski began his professional wrestling career. Ivan stood 5'6" and weighed around 225 pounds. In his earlier days he was weighed in at the 250 pound mark.
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Jack Brisco
Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco (September 21, 1941 – February 1, 2010) was an American professional wrestler. He performed for various territories of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time NWA Tag Team Champion with his brother Gerald Brisco. Brisco was considered one of the top wrestlers of his era; in 2005, Don Leo Jonathan called him "probably the greatest champion of the 20th century."
In the late 1970s, the Brisco brothers also discovered Terry Bollea, the future wrestling legend best known as Hulk Hogan, who they introduced to Hiro Matsuda for training.
Brisco grew up in Blackwell, Oklahoma with five siblings. He grew up as a fan of professional wrestling, and particularly a fan of NWA World Champion Lou Thesz He was followed by his younger brother, Gerald Brisco, into sport wrestling and turned down a football scholarship at University of Oklahoma to go to Oklahoma State. He was the first Native American to win an NCAA Wrestling National Championship in 1965. His winning the NCAA title was even more profound in that Brisco won it during his junior year, and didn't get taken down once during the entire season.
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Jack Lanza
John "Jack" Lanza (born October 14, 1935) is a retired professional wrestler. He was one half of The Blackjacks with Blackjack Mulligan in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). He is currently a producer in WWE. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006.
Lanza started his career in 1962. In the American Wrestling Association (AWA), he teamed with Bobby Duncum and was managed by Bobby Heenan. During his time in the company, his gimmick was that of a Western cowboy. The duo won the AWA World Tag Team Championship on July 23, 1976.
In the 1970s, Lanza and Mulligan teamed up to form The Blackjacks. Lanza was a main-eventer when the duo began teaming together. They were managed by Bobby Heenan.
In 1975, they joined the WWWF. On August 26, 1975, The Blackjacks defeated Dominic DeNucci and Pat Barrett for the WWWF World Tag Team Championship. The match was a two-out-of-three falls match, and the Blackjacks won the match by winning the first and third falls. As part of his tenure in WWWF, Vince McMahon promised Lanza that he would receive one World singles title shot a month.
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James Dudley
James Dudley (May 12, 1910 – June 1, 2004) was an American baseball player, professional wrestling manager, and professional wrestling executive. He played Negro league baseball for nine years but is best known for his time with World Wide Wrestling Federation. Dudley was the first African-American to run a major United States arena (Turner's Arena in Washington, D.C.). He worked with four generations of wrestling's McMahon family and was particularly close with Vincent J. McMahon. At age 74, he was put back on the company's payroll to show appreciation for his work for the McMahons. He also managed several wrestlers in the WWWF and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994.
Dudley was considered an "excellent athlete" and ran the 100 yard dash in under ten seconds on multiple occasions. Although he showed up for the trials for the 1924 United States Olympic team, he was not allowed to participate because African Americans were not permitted on the team. After playing semi-professional baseball in Baltimore, Maryland, Dudley signed with the Baltimore Elite Giants at age 27. Nicknamed "Big Train", he played catcher but started out helping pitchers warm up in the bullpen. Playing alongside two other talented catchers, Roy Campanella and Eggie Clarke, Dudley's playing time was limited. He remained with the Elite Giants until leaving professional baseball in 1945. In total, he played about 60 games in the Negro leagues.
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James J. Dillon
James J. "J.J." Dillon (born James Morrison on June 26, 1942) is a retired American professional wrestler and manager.
He is best known for being the strategic leader of the original Four Horsemen that consisted of Nature Boy Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn and Ole Anderson. He is most remembered as a manager in pro wrestling. He guided many wrestlers to singles and tag titles in the NWA. From 1989 until 1997 Dillon served as a front office executive for the WWF before returning to a similar, albeit on-camera role with WCW.
In 2009, he made a one-night appearance at Deaf Wrestlefest 2009 to team with "Beef Stew" Lou Marconi and "Handsome" Frank Staletto in a six-man tag team match against "Franchise" Shane Douglas, Dominic Denucci and Cody Michaels.
On March 31, 2012 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen.
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Jerry Lawler
Jerry O'Neil Lawler (born November 29, 1949) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, wrestling commentator, musician, businessman, commercial artist and film actor, known throughout the wrestling world as Jerry "The King" Lawler. He is currently signed to WWE, working on its Raw brand as the color commentator and occasional wrestler. He also wrestles and occasionally commentates for the Memphis Wrestling promotion.
Lawler has held 168 championships throughout his career. Overall, Lawler has held more championships than any other current WWE performer, though he has never won any WWE championships since joining the company.
While working in Memphis, Tennessee as a disc jockey, Lawler's artistic ability attracted the attention of local wrestling promoter Aubrey Griffith. The two made an agreement in which Lawler would give Griffith free publicity in exchange for free wrestling training. Lawler debuted as a wrestler in 1970 and won his first championship in September 1971 by winning a battle royal. He soon won the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship under the managerial service of Sam Bass with partner Jim White. In 1974, Lawler began feuding with Jackie Fargo, who had been his trainer and mentor. This led to a match for the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship. On July 24, 1974, Lawler was booked to win the belt and the title of "King of Wrestling." While Lawler began his career as a heel, he became a face after splitting from Bass at the end of 1974. On November 12, 1979, while working in the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), Lawler defeated Billy Graham to become the CWA World Champion. In 1980, his career was put on hold due to a broken leg, but he returned to the ring after several months.
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Jerry Valiant
John Steele Hill (July 8, 1941 – March 11, 2010) was a Canadian professional wrestler best known under the ring names Guy Mitchell, The Stomper, and "Gentleman" Jerry Valiant. During his career, he held the top singles titles in Australia and Vancouver, and competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) where he won the WWWF World Tag Team Championship.
Hill became a professional wrestler in 1959 after working out for a year at both Al Spittles's and Jack Wentworth's gyms in Canada. He traveled to the United States in 1960 in the hopes of making more money. At the beginning of his career, Hill wrestled under the ring name Guy Hill. While wrestling for Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1961, however, a news reporter accidentally referred to him as Guy Mitchell, and Hill was forced to take on the new name. Under his new identity, Mitchell held the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship for one week. Shortly thereafter, he teamed with Bob Rasmussen to win the Georgia version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship.
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Jesse Ventura
James George Janos (born July 15, 1951), better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American statesman, actor, author, and former professional wrestler who served as the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.
Ventura served as a Navy UDT during the Vietnam War. He later embarked on an 11-year professional wrestling career from 1975 to 1986, taking up the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. He had a long tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as a performer and color commentator, and was inducted into the company's Hall of Fame in 2004. After leaving wrestling, Ventura began a successful film career, appearing in films such as 1987's Predator.
Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota from 1991 to 1995. He ran as the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that implored citizens not to "vote for politics as usual". The campaign was successful, and Ventura served from January 4, 1999, to January 6, 2003, without running for a second term.
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Jim Duggan
James Edward Duggan (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with World Wrestling Entertainment in the 1980s, when it was known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). His best known character is that of an American patriot, which sees him use a 2x4 length of wood as a weapon, the battle cry "Hooo!" and the U-S-A! cheer.
Duggan is a survivor of kidney cancer, an illness he was diagnosed with during his time with WCW. Duggan has claimed to have wrestled in all 50 States in America as well as in the countries/territories of Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guam, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Scotland, England and Wales (In The United Kingdom.)
In the WWF, Duggan was the winner of the first-ever Royal Rumble match in 1988 and in WCW, he was a one time United States Heavyweight Champion and a one time (and the final) World Television Champion.
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Jim Ross
James William "Jim" Ross (born January 3, 1952) is a professional wrestling commentator, referee, restaurateur, occasional wrestler, and former company executive of WWE, where he currently works as a talent relations consultant and on WWE NXT as a Play-by-Play announcer. Ross was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest commentators in wrestling history. He is known affectionately by wrestling fans as Good Ol' JR. In recent years, he has developed his own brand of barbecue sauces and cookbooks.
While attending Westville High School, Ross was the first baseman on the Westville baseball team. Ross was a two-time all-conference football player for the Westville Yellowjackets in 1968–69. His maternal grandparents owned a general store in Westville, Oklahoma and his paternal grandfather Dee Ross owned an off-sale beer store and was a carpenter. Ross was also President of the Student Body, a 4 year letterman in basketball, and State Vice President of the Future Farmers of America where he was State Speech Champion in 1968. Ross was also named Honorable Mention on the 1969 High School All State Football team by the Tulsa World as a center.
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Jimmy Hart
James "Jimmy" Ray Hart (born January 1, 1944) is a professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician currently signed with WWE. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling under his nickname "The Mouth of the South." He has managed many professional wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Ted DiBiase, and The Honky Tonk Man. He is a one-time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion.
Before becoming involved with professional wrestling, Hart was a member of rock band The Gentrys, best known for their 1965 top five Billboard Hot 100 hit, "Keep on Dancing".
Jimmy Hart was brought into wrestling by Jerry "The King" Lawler, with whom he had attended Memphis Treadwell High School. Having been asked to sing back-up with Lawler, Hart later became Lawler's manager.
After splitting from Lawler, Hart created a stable known as Hart's First Family of Wrestling to attack Lawler, which among others included King Kong Bundy, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Lanny Poffo, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Ox Baker, Kamala, Randy Savage, "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, The Iron Sheik and Kevin Sullivan.
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Jimmy Snuka
James William "Jimmy" Reiher (born May 18, 1943) is a semi-retired Fijian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Originally from the Fiji Islands, Snuka wrestled for several promotions in the 1970s and 1980s. Snuka was the first ECW Heavyweight Champion and held the title on two occasions. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the early to mid-1980s and is credited with introducing the high-flyer style of wrestling to the WWF. His children Jimmy Reiher, Jr. and Sarona Reiher are also wrestlers.
Reiher was active in amateur bodybuilding in Hawaii in the 1960s. He also enjoyed some success as a professional bodybuilder, earning the titles of Mr. Hawaii, Mr. Waikiki and Mr. North Shore. Reiher opted to go into the more lucrative career of professional wrestling due to his uncertainty of making a living in bodybuilding. While working at Dean Ho's gym in Hawaii, Snuka met many of the wrestlers who worked in the South Pacific region and decided to try the sport. Snuka made his debut as Jimmy Kealoha fighting Maxwell "Bunny" Butler in Hawaii in 1970. He later moved to the mainland and wrestled for Don Owen’s NWA Pacific Northwest territory where he held the belt as Heavyweight Champion six times. He first won the title by pinning Bull Ramos on November 16, 1973. It was in this territory, that Reiher transformed himself into Jimmy Snuka. Snuka also held the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship six times with partner Dutch Savage. Snuka also had a two year feud with another rookie, Jesse "The Body" Ventura.
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Joe Scarpa
Joseph Luke Scarpa (October 4, 1928 – April 3, 2012) was an American professional wrestler who was best known by the ring name Chief Jay Strongbow. Scarpa portrayed a Native American wrestler, who wore a traditional headdress to the ring and would "go on the warpath" when the fans started cheering him against an opponent.
Strongbow's career started in 1947, using his given name Joe Scarpa. Scarpa was a standout in the Georgia and Florida territories of the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the 1950s and 1960s, winning several championships and becoming a fan favorite.
By 1970, Scarpa was working for Vincent J. McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation and was now known as Chief Jay Strongbow. He feuded with the likes of "The Golden Greek" Spiros Arion, "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant, and "Superstar" Billy Graham, nearly winning the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. A memorable match against "Iron" Mike McCord featured Strongbow applying his sleeper hold. But Lou Albano, McCord's manager, interfered by smashing a cast on the Chief's forehead. It was alleged that Strongbow had previously jumped Albano in the locker room, breaking his arm. McCord was disqualified, but Strongbow was cut wide open by Albano's blows. Strongbow settled the score in front of a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden, beating Captain Lou Albano convincingly.
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Johnny Rodz
Johnny Rodriguez (born May 16, 1938) is a retired American professional wrestler. He has previously worked as a professional wrestler under the ring name Johnny Rodz.
He was part of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) from its early years, appearing on WWWF cards as far back as 1965. He wrestled Bob Backlund in Madison Square Garden while working for the WWWF at the time. He was dubbed "the fire brand from the Bronx" by TV announcer Ray Morgan. For much of the next two decades through mid-1985, Rodz was a mainstay of the federation, though largely used as a jobber. In 1980's Showdown at Shea, he was defeated by Ivan Putski.
For a time, he also worked with Mike and Gene LeBell's NWA Hollywood Wrestling in the '70s. He won a greater share of matches wrestling as 'Arabian Wildman' Java Ruuk and even won the promotion's battle royal in 1976.
In 1996, Rodz was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame by Arnold Skaaland.
On the March 1, 2007 episode of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Impact showed The Latin American Xchange (LAX) attacking Rodz as part of their feud with Team 3D. Ten days later at Destination X, he accompanied Team 3D to the ring for their Ghettobrawl match with LAX at a Destination X pay-per-view.
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Johnny Valiant
John L. Sullivan (Thomas Sullivan) is a retired professional wrestler better known as Johnny Valiant. He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which became the World Wrestling Federation during his time with the promotion. He won the World Tag Team Championship two times. The first run (which lasted over a year) was with his first and most famous storyline brother Jimmy Valiant over Tony Garea & Dean Ho on May 8, 1974; his second title run was with his second storyline brother Jerry Valiant over Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko on March 6, 1979.
Sullivan grew up in Pittsburgh's North Hills suburb, not far from wrestling champion Bruno Sammartino. After asking for advice on how to become a pro wrestler, Sullivan became close friends with Sammartino and began his career in the Detroit territory wrestling, refereeing and working the ring crew for the notorious wrestling villain The Sheik. Kangaroo Al Costello trained Sullivan in the mat wars and soon he began traveling the twenty-five regional territories throughout the U.S, Puerto Rico and Canada. From 1969 through 1973, he enjoyed a protracted stint in the WWWF as a mid-card babyface, losing to serious threats like Killer Kowalski and Toru Tanaka, but repeatedly holding the notorious Baron Mikel Scicluna to a draw, and regularly defeating jobbers like Angelo Savoldi and Johnny Rodz. On one of his visits to Ontario working for "Bearman" Dave McKigney, Sullivan met "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant who had worked as "Jimmy Valen," "Big John Valen," and "Jimmy the Body Valentine." Jimmy took a shine to the young, enthusiastic Sullivan and shortly thereafter, brought him to the World Wrestling Association, where Dick The Bruiser teamed up Sullivan with Jimmy Valiant as the Valiant Brothers. A victory for the WWA tag team titles over Dick the Bruiser and Bruno Sammartino put the name of the Valiant Brothers on the marquee and the Valiants proceeded to have a five year run which fans still talk about to this day.
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Junkyard Dog
Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 2, 1998) was an American professional wrestler and professional football player, best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as The Junkyard Dog (or JYD for short). Entering the ring with his trademark chain attached to a dog collar, to the music of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," JYD regularly headlined cards that sold out the Louisiana Superdome and other major venues. JYD was one of the most electrifying and charismatic wrestlers in the country, particularly during his peak in the early 1980s. JYD was most known for his head butt and upper-body strength, the latter of which saw him regularly body slam such large wrestlers as the One Man Gang, Kamala, and King Kong Bundy. The word "thump," which referred to JYD's power slam, was prominently displayed on his wrestling trunks.
Ritter played football at Fayetteville State University, twice earning honorable mention All-American status, and is a member of The Sports Hall Of Fame. He graduated with a political science degree and was selected by the Green Bay Packers organization, but knee and back surgery ended his football career. Also a member of Groove Phi Groove and All CIAA member Chet Grimsley who authored a book on their travels The White Golden Bull.
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Ken Patera
Ken Patera (born November 6, 1942 in Portland, Oregon) is a former professional wrestler, Olympic weightlifter, and Strongman competitor.
Patera is a former Olympic weightlifter and American powerlifter. He competed at Brigham Young University and won several medals at the Pan American Games (including gold), and finished second in the 1971 World Weightlifting Championships. He was the first American to clean and jerk 500(503½) lbs (227 kg), which he accomplished at the 1972 Senior Nationals in Detroit. He was also Mr. USA in weightlifting. He is also the only American to clean and press 500 lb (230 kg), and was arguably the last American to excel at weightlifting on an international level. He was a serious competitor to the Soviet legend Vasily Alexeev at the 1972 Summer Olympics, but he failed to total and was not among the medal recipients. After the press (a lift in which Patera was disproportionately talented) was eliminated from competition, Patera retired from weightlifting. He also competed in the Shot Put, finishing 6th in the 1968 Olympic Trials.
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Kerry Von Erich
Kerry Gene Adkisson (February 3, 1960 – February 18, 1993) was an American professional wrestler under the ring names Kerry Von Erich, The Modern Day Warrior, and The Texas Tornado and was part of the Von Erich family of professional wrestlers. He is best known for his time with his father's promotion World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), where he spent eleven years of his career, and his time in World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Adkisson held forty championships in various promotions during his career. Among other accolades, he was a five-time world champion: a four-time WCWA World Heavyweight Champion and one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and a one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion.
Kerry was the son of wrestler Fritz Von Erich. His brothers, David, Kevin, Mike, and Chris, were also wrestlers. Kerry was also a standout in high school track and field and possessed a record-breaking discus throw. He debuted in his father's promotion, NWA Texas/Big Time Wrestling on June 17, 1979 against Gary Hart. In Big Time Wrestling, he held many Texas Tag Team and American Tag Team titles.
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King Curtis Iaukea
Curtis Piehau Iaukea, III (September 15, 1937 – December 4, 2010) was a professional wrestler better known as King Curtis Iaukea. Iaukea won championships in several of the major regional US promotions, both as a single and in various tag team combinations, during the 1960s. He then competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) where he won the WWF Tag Team Championship. He was also later The Master of the Dungeon of Doom in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Under the name "Iau Kea" he appeared in the film The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze with Moe Howard declaring "That's not a man! That's a committee!".
He was the great grandson of Colonel Curtis Iaukea, a vice chamberlain and diplomat to the court of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliuokalani and later Sheriff of Honolulu and son of a Honolulu Police Department Inspector also named Curtis Iaukea. He attended Punahou School and the University of California Berkeley as an economics major where he lettered as a lineman until he dropped out. He played as a tackle for the BC Lions from 1958-1959.
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Koko B. Ware
James Ware (born June 20, 1957), better known by his ring name Koko B. Ware, is a retired American professional wrestler who made his professional wrestling debut in 1978. He gained most of his popularity in the World Wrestling Federation when he was known as the Birdman. Ware came to the ring with a blue-and-yellow macaw parrot named Frankie, and would flap his arms like a bird while dancing before and after his matches. Before joining the WWF, Ware worked as a part of several tag teams, first with Bobby Eaton in Memphis and then later on with Norvell Austin as one half of the The P.Y.T. Express in several promotions.
Koko spent his early days in the sport in the Mid-South, Georgia and other NWA territories where he impressed fans enough to vote him the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year in 1979. Early in his career, Koko Ware (as he was then known) did not find great success, learning the ropes and paying his dues both in Jerry Jarrett’s Continental Wrestling Association and Nick Gulas’ territory in the south.
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Larry Hennig
Larry "The Axe" Hennig (born June 18, 1936) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is the father of the late "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, the grandfather of Joe Hennig, and is best known for his work in the American Wrestling Association, National Wrestling Alliance and World Wide Wrestling Federation. Hennig was also known for his muscular neck which, to this day, measures 22 inches.
Before pursuing a career in professional wrestling, Hennig became the Minnesota State High School Heavyweight Champion from Robbinsdale, Minnesota in 1954. He was awarded a scholarship from the University of Minnesota to wrestle and play football but had to quit due to the priorities of family and raising children.
In 1963, Hennig entered the AWA under the tutelage of Verne Gagne. He eventually found some main event success and shared a brief Tag Team Championship reign with Duke Hoffman. But in frequently losing to rougher, more experienced wrestlers, he began questioning the scientific style instilled into him by Gagne and looked toward a different approach (in kayfabe).
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Lou Albano
Louis Vincent "Captain Lou" Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, then he became a manager, until 1995.
Throughout his 42-year career, Albano guided 15 different tag teams and four singles competitors to championship gold. Albano was part of the "Triumvirate of Terror," a threesome of nefarious WWF managers that also included The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and Fred Blassie. The trio would be fixtures in the company for a decade, until the Grand Wizard's death in 1983.
A unique showman, with an elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, Albano was the forefather of the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. Collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Albano helped usher in wrestling's crossover success with a mainstream audience. Capitalizing on his success, he later ventured into Hollywood with various television, film, and music projects.
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Mae Young
Johnnie Mae Young (born March 12, 1923) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and currently WWE Ambassador.
Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers. She wrestled throughout the United States and Canada, and won multiple titles in the National Wrestling Alliance.
Beginning in 1999, Young had a high-profile "second career" in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Young was part of a recurring comedic duo with best friend The Fabulous Moolah in appearances on WWE televised events. She is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the WWE Hall of Fame. Young holds the distinction of being the only professional wrestler to wrestle documented matches in nine different decades, having her first in 1939 and her latest match in 2010.
Johnnie Mae Young was an amateur wrestler on her high school's boys' wrestling team at the age of fifteen. Her brothers Fred, Eugen, Lawarence, and Everett taught her to wrestle and helped her join the team. She was the youngest of eight children (one died at birth). Her mother Lilly Mae Young was a single mother (her partner left to find work and never returned) living during the Great Depression. Young's oldest sister Inie was severely disabled by whooping cough at a very young age. Young also played softball with Tulsa's national championship team. While still in high school, Young went to a professional wrestling show and challenged then-champion Mildred Burke when she visited Tulsa to wrestle Gladys Gillem. Because the promoters told her she could not wrestle the champion, she wrestled Gillem in a shoot fight, beating her within seconds. After the fight, promoter Billy Wolfe wanted Young to become a professional wrestler. She left home two years later to wrestle professionally.
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Mario
Mario (マリオ, Mario?) is a fictional character in the Mario video game franchise by Nintendo, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Though originally only appearing in platform games, starting with Donkey Kong, Mario currently appears in varied video game genres such as racing, puzzle, party, role-playing, fighting, and sports.
Mario is depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom. He repeatedly rescues Princess Peach from the turtle-like villain Bowser and stops his numerous plans to destroy him and take over the kingdom. Mario also has other enemies and rivals, including Donkey Kong and Wario. Since 1995, he has been voiced by Charles Martinet.
As Nintendo's mascot, Mario is said to be the most famous character in video game history.Mario games, as a whole, have sold more than 210 million units, making the Mario franchise the best-selling video game franchise of all time. Outside of the Super Mario platform series, he has appeared in video games of other genres, including the Mario Kart racing series, sports games, such as the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, role-playing video games such as Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG, and educational games, such as Mario is Missing! and Mario's Time Machine. He has inspired television shows, film, comics, and a line of licensed merchandise.
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Masa Saito
Masanori Saito (斎藤 昌典, Saitō Masanori?) (born February 1, 1942) is a former Japanese professional wrestler better known as Mr. Saito or Masa Saito (マサ 斉藤?). He wrestled for several years in various promotions operated by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). He later joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he teamed with Mr. Fuji to hold the World Tag Team Championship twice. He also won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1990. In Japan, Saito wrestled for both All Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Saito gained notoriety for his arrest after throwing a boulder through the window of a McDonald's restaurant in Waukesha Wisconsin and for a match wrestled against Antonio Inoki on a deserted island in Japan.
Saito competed in freestyle wrestling for Japan in the 1964 Olympic Games, placing seventh, making him one of the Top 10 Olympic wrestlers that year.
He began his pro wrestling career in 1965 and quickly established himself in both Japan and the United States. Nicknamed "Mr. Torture" for his punishing and sadistic style, Saito held numerous titles while wrestling in North America and Japan.
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Maurice Vachon
Maurice Vachon (born September 14, 1929) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler, best known by his ring name "Mad Dog" Vachon. He is the brother of wrestlers Paul and Vivian Vachon, and the uncle of wrestler Luna Vachon. He was among the AWA's all-time great heels with a career spanning four decades, while also serving as the leader of one of the sport’s most accomplished families.
Born on September 14, 1929, Maurice Vachon was one of 13 children of Montreal policeman Ferdinand Vachon. He grew up in the district of Ville-Émard, a working-class borough southwest of Montreal. As a child, he regularly attended wrestling shows at the nearby Montreal Forum, where he grew up idolizing local ring legend Yvon Robert; and at just 12 years old, he had already begun grappling at the area's YMCA. He entered a wrestling course advertised at the back of a comic book, and he began training under Chief Jim Crowley. He trained hard and even worked in the docks and on the canal to build up his muscle. By age 14, Vachon eventually established himself among Canada’s premier amateur grapplers.
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Mike Rotunda
Lawrence Michael "Mike" Rotunda (born March 30, 1958) is a former American professional wrestler, perhaps best known under the name Irwin R. Schyster or I.R.S. for short. He is currently signed with WWE working as a road agent and making occasional appearances on WWE shows as Irwin R. Schyster.
Rotunda was a varsity wrestler for the Syracuse Orangemen in New York. While he was never an All American, he did win the EIWA Championships in 1981 as a Heavyweight.
After graduating from Syracuse University, Rotunda began wrestling in 1981 as a face in Florida Championship Wrestling. He often teamed with his real life brother-in-law, Barry Windham.
Rotunda and Windham joined the World Wrestling Federation as the U.S. Express in 1984. They won the WWF World Tag Team Championship twice, firstly from Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis in January 1985. The US Express' most notable feud was with The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, to whom they lost the title at the first WrestleMania. The US Express regained the belts in June 1985, but lost them two months later to Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine. Windham left the WWF soon after. Rotunda continued to wrestle in singles matches until he left the WWF himself, in early 1986.
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Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is a retired American professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, with 12 of them occurring in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to individually unify them.
In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in the first 91 seconds of the fight. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. Tyson lost his titles to 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas on February 11, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan, by a knockout in round 10. Tyson continued in his quest to regain the titles, defeating Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991. Tyson was then scheduled to take on the undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield but pulled out due to injury.
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Mikel Scicluna
"Baron" Mikel Scicluna (July 29, 1929 – March 20, 2010) was a Maltese-born professional wrestler who gained his fame during the 1960s and 1970s.
Scicluna started wrestling during the 1950s, and used the name Mike Valentino early in his career. Scicluna worked primarily in Canada until 1965, when he ventured to the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), now known as WWE, using his most famous moniker "Baron" Mikel Scicluna.
Scicluna was famous for entering the ring with a royal blue cape over his shoulders, indicating that he was of Maltese royal descent. Scicluna was also known for being a master of the "foreign object", mainly utilizing a roll of coins to bash opponents out of sight of the referee. He enjoyed success as a tag team wrestler, winning the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship with Smasher Sloan on September 22, 1966 in Washington, D.C. (though they eventually lost the belts in the same city to Spiros Arion and Antonio Pugliese), then the WWWF World Tag Team Championship with King Curtis Iaukea on February 1, 1972 in Philadelphia.
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Mil Máscaras
Aaron Rodríguez (born July 15, 1942), best known as Mil Máscaras (A Thousand Masks), is a semi-retired Mexican professional wrestler and actor, who has starred in several films with fellow luchadores. He is a member of one of Mexico's most prominent wrestling families—his brothers José and Pablo respectively wrestle as Dos Caras and Sicodélico, José's son Alberto wrestles as Alberto Del Rio, and Pablo's son Aaron is better known as Sicodélico, Jr.
Mil Máscaras made his professional wrestling debut in April 1965 in Guadalajara. Máscaras became popular in Mexico for being one of the best conditioned luchadores in the heavyweight division, which was dominated by foreigners at the time. It was also his size which permitted him to wrestle in the US and Japan under the heavyweight division. Máscaras was one of the first masked luchadores outside of Mexico to play a non-heel role. He rarely resorted to rule breaking, instead relying on his repertoire of moves and counter-moves. Máscaras was also one of the first wrestlers to introduce the high-flying moves of lucha libre, such as the plancha and tope suicida, to Japanese fans. This brought him international fame as one of the first high-flyers, something he was not considered in Mexico where he fell under the mat-power category.
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Mr. Fuji
Harry Fujiwara (born May 4, 1935) is an American former professional wrestler and manager, best known by his ring name Mr. Fuji. He was infamous for often throwing salt in the eyes of face wrestlers. Although he was billed as Japanese, he is a Japanese-American born in Hawaii.
Fujiwara made his professional wrestling debut on December 15, 1965 in his native Hawaii under the ring name Mr. Fujiwara. He won his first championship, the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship, with Curtis Iaukea on January 7, 1966. He shortened his ring name to Mr. Fuji and toured many territories, including Don Owen's Portland, Oregon based NWA Pacific Northwest Wrestling where he won many championships.
Fuji debuted in Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1972 as a heel. He formed a tag team with Professor Toru Tanaka and the duo were managed by Grand Wizard. Tanaka provided his physical massive strength and Fuji brought his devious ring psychology to the team, which earned him the nickname "The Devious One". Fuji used to throw salt in his opponent's eyes, which earned him victories. They defeated Sonny King and Chief Jay Strongbow on June 27, 1972 for their first World Tag Team Championship. They quickly ascended to the main event status, defending the titles against WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino on several occasions, throughout the year. During the feud, Fuji earned a shot at the WWWF title against Morales on August 22 but lost by count-out. They reigned for eleven months, making them the third longest WWWF World Tag Team Champions in history. They would lose the titles to Tony Garea and Haystacks Calhoun on May 30, 1973.
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Nick Bockwinkel
Nicholas Warren Francis "Nick" Bockwinkel (born December 6, 1934) is a retired American professional wrestler. He mainly competed in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the United States. He is a former multi-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion and co-holder of the AWA World Tag Team Championship.
Bockwinkel was considered by his peers and many industry experts to be an excellent wrestler, known for his exceptional technical ability and ring psychology. He was also known for his calm, charismatic, articulate promos, which distinguished him from many of his contemporaries.
Bockwinkel began his career in 1955, after a knee injury forced the University of Oklahoma to withdraw his football scholarship. After training to become a wrestler by his father Warren, a regional star in the 1940s, and Lou Thesz, he spent the early years of his career teaming with his father. At the age of 16, he had his debut match against Thesz. He won his first major singles title in 1963, defeating Tony Borne for the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship.
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Nikolai Volkoff
Josip Nikolai Peruzović (born October 14, 1947), better known by his ring name of Nikolai Volkoff, is a professional wrestler who is best known for his performances for the World Wrestling Federation. Although the Volkoff character is portrayed as Russian, Peruzović actually originated from Croatia and had a mixed background that was not entirely Russian.
Peruzović grew up in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which was then part of the Yugoslavia, a Communist country. His mother is Italian and his father was Croatian. He was on the Yugoslavian weightlifting team until 1967, when he defected to Canada while at a weightlifting tournament in Vienna, Austria. He received training in Calgary from the legendary Stu Hart, followed by his arrival in the United States in 1970.
As soon as he arrived, he began wrestling in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as WWE). Wrestling as Bepo Mongol, managed by "Captain" Lou Albano and partnered with Geto Mongol, he captured the WWF International Tag Team Titles from Tony Marino and Victor Rivera on June 15, 1970. After losing the titles to Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler in a match that unified the WWF International and WWF World Tag Team Titles, Peruzovic went on to singles competition under the name Nikolai Volkoff.
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Paul Orndorff
Paul Parlette Orndorff, Jr. (born October 29, 1949) is a retired American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling as "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. After retiring, Orndorff worked as a wrestling trainer.
After earning notoriety as a running back at the University of Tampa where he scored 21 career touchdowns and gained over 2000 all-purpose yards in his playing career, Orndorff was a 12th round selection (289th overall pick) in the 1973 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints but failed to pass the physical for the NFL with both the Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs. He was a teammate of the #1 pick notorious bad boy John Matuszak. However, he did play for the Jacksonville Sharks of the World Football League in 1975. After one season in the WFL, he began training as a professional wrestler.
Paul Orndorff started wrestling in 1976 in Mid-Southern Wrestling where he feuded with a young Jerry Lawler. Orndorff won his first wrestling title when he pinned Lawler for the Mid-Southern Heavyweight Title on June 7, 1977. Orndorff lost the title back to Lawler before he left the Memphis territory. Orndorff began working for the NWA Tri-State promotion where he got involved in a feud with Ernie Ladd. The feud with Ladd saw Orndorff win the NWA Tri-State North American Heavyweight Title from Ernie Ladd on two occasions (on May 29, 1978 and again in June). Both times, Orndorff’s reigns were short and were ended by Ladd.
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Pedro Morales
Pedro Morales (born October 22, 1942) is a retired Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He began his wrestling career as a teenager in 1959 and continued through to the late 1980s. Morales was the first man in wrestling history to win all three major men's titles in the World Wrestling Federation: the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, the Intercontinental Championship and the WWF World Tag Team Championship. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995. Morales was also the first Latin American and Hispanic wrestler to win the WWWF Championship and the WWF Intercontinental Championship and to enter the WWF Hall of Fame.
Morales debuted in 1959 at the Sunnyside Gardens, beating Buddy Gilbert. He wrestled on the West Coast during the 1960s, taking on regional stars of the day such as Fred Blassie and The Destroyer, the latter from whom he took the World Wrestling Association's World Heavyweight Championship on March 12, 1965. Morales lost the title on July 23 to "Crazy" Luke Graham, but took it back from him on October 17. He held the title for nine months before being defeated by Buddy Austin on August 5, 1966. Morales then concentrated on tag team wrestling, co-holding the WWA tag belts four times during 1966-68, with four different partners: Luis Hernandez, Mark Lewin, Victor Rivera, and Ricky Romero. During a stint in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Morales held the Hawaiian U.S. title for two months in 1969.
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Pete Rose
Peter Edward Rose (born April 14, 1941), nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989.
Rose, a switch hitter, is the all-time Major League leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and outs (10,328). He won three World Series rings, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Gloves, the Rookie of the Year Award, and made 17 All-Star appearances at an unequaled five different positions (2B, LF, RF, 3B & 1B).
In August 1989, three years after he retired as an active player, Rose agreed to permanent ineligibility from baseball amidst accusations that he gambled on baseball games while playing for and managing the Reds, including claims that he bet on his own team. In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the "permanently ineligible" list from induction, after previously excluding such players by informal agreement among voters. In 2004, after years of public denial, Rose admitted to betting on baseball and on, but not against, the Reds. The issue of Rose's possible re-instatement, and election, to the Hall of Fame remains a contentious one throughout baseball.
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Peter Cullen
Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. The most prominent characters he has voiced are Eeyore in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise and Optimus Prime (as well as Ironhide) in the original Transformers series. Cullen reprised his role as Optimus Prime in Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film series and the Transformers: War for Cybertron video game, as well as its sequel, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. He was once again cast as Optimus Prime for the new TV series, Transformers: Prime in 2010.
Cullen was born in Montreal, Quebec to Henry L. Cullen and Muriel McCann. He is a member of the first graduating class of the National Theatre School of Canada, which graduated in 1963. His brother, Larry Cullen, was a retired Captain in the United States Marine Corps, and helped inspire the voice of Optimus Prime.
In 1968, he appeared as Giles with Joan Stuart as 'Penelope' in L'Anglaise, a CBC sitcom about a French-Canadian husband with an English-Canadian wife (CBC's Funny You Should Say That). He also performed a French-Canadian astronaut character named Bebe LaToque alongside Ted Zeigler for a 1969 children's show on CFCF-TV in Montreal.
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Peter Maivia
Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia (April 6, 1937–June 12, 1982) was an American Samoan professional wrestler better known as "High Chief" Peter Maivia. He was head of the famous Samoan wrestling family. He is the grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and was also the promoter for the National Wrestling Alliance in Hawaii.
Maivia, also known as the Flying Hawaiian, was of the Alii lineage of Malietoa. Maivia's tribal tattoos, which covered his abdomen and legs, were a symbol of his High Chief status. According to Superstar Billy Graham, they were completed in three days. Maivia's grandson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson revealed that they were done with traditional Samoan instrumentation: a small hammer, a needle, and ink.[citation needed]
Maivia disapproved of his daughter's relationship with Rocky Johnson because he was a professional wrestler. The duo married despite Maivia's objections. His son, Peter Jr, also wrestled in Hawaii and the west coast after the passing of Peter Sr. sometimes under the name "Prince Peter Maivia".
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Randy Colley
Randy Colley (born May 2, 1950) is a retired professional wrestler better known as Moondog Rex.
Colley competed in the World Wrestling Federation, where in 1981 he won the WWF Tag Team Championship with Moondog King (later replaced by Moondog Spot) as the Moondogs. In 1984, Rex had a WWF Title shot against Hulk Hogan on the Canadian television tapings that aired on both Maple Leaf and All-Star wrestling.
Shortly after debuting as the original Demolition Smash in early 1987, Colley was replaced by Barry Darsow because of a contract dispute that led to him leaving the company (in addition, Colley's face was visible even with the makeup, causing fans to chant "Moondog" when he was in the ring). Colley was placed in a short-lived tag team with Jose Luis Rivera, who would go on to become one half of the Conquistadors. This new team was known as The Shadows.
He had a long singles run on top in Mid South as "The Nightmare" and "The Champion" managed by both Eddie Gilbert and Sir Oliver Humperdink. After Demolition ended for him in the WWF, he went to Continental where he worked as Detroit Demolition. He was able to do this because he was co-creator of the original gimmick. His biggest career feud was in Memphis where the Moondogs had a series of wild, bloody main event matches with the Fabulous Ones.
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Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time with a professional career that spans 40 years. He is currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and is noted for his lengthy and highly decorated tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (now known as WWE). Flair is officially recognized by WWE, TNA and PWI as a 16-time World Heavyweight Champion (seven-time NWA Champion, seven-time WCW Champion and two-time WWF Champion) although his actual tally of World Championship reigns varies by source—Flair considers himself a 21-time world champion.
In World Championship Wrestling (WCW), he also had two stints as a booker—in 1989–1990 and 1994. Flair also became the first and only man to have won the WWF Championship in a Royal Rumble match, when he accomplished this in the 1992 edition of the event. In 2012, Flair became the first ever double inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame, first inducted in 2008 for his individual career, and for a second time in 2012 as a member of the Four Horsemen. He is also an NWA Hall of Famer (class of 2008). Flair's hair styles and mannerisms are based on those of Buddy Rogers, who previously and famously used the "Nature Boy" gimmick in the 1950s and '60s. Coincidentally, Flair also followed Rogers in becoming the second man to win both the WWF and the NWA World Heavyweight Championships.
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Ricky Steamboat
Richard Henry Blood (born February 28, 1953), better known by his ring name Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, is a retired American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE working as a road agent. He was one of the few wrestlers who stayed a babyface throughout his career.[citation needed] He is best known for his work with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
In the NWA and WCW, he was a one-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a four-time United States Heavyweight Champion, a four-time World Television Champion, a twelve-time World Tag Team Champion (eight-time under the WCW banner,one-time (though unofficial) under the NWA banner, and three-time under the Mid-Atlantic banner), and a two-time Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. In the WWF/E, Steamboat was a one-time Intercontinental Champion and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
While little is known about Steamboat's personal life, it is a known fact that he went to high school in New York. He was a two time New York State Wrestling qualifier.
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Road Warrior Animal
Joseph Aaron "Joe" Laurinaitis (born January 26, 1960) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names, Road Warrior Animal and Road Warrior. He is the brother to John Laurinaitis, who is the WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and the current general manager of both Raw and Smackdown brands of the WWE. Along with Road Warrior Hawk, Laurinaitis was one-half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors or also dubbed as Legion Of Doom.
While living in Chicago, Laurinatis met Michael Hegstrand, later known as Road Warrior Hawk, and the two became close friends. When Laurinaitis was around eight years old, he and Hegstrand both moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota Joe Laurinaitis grew up in Minnesota, having to work for a living from a very early age. He attended Irondale High School. Because of his size and love of power lifting, Joe was an imposing figure and thus a very effective bouncer. He worked as a bouncer at Grandma B's in the Twin Cities where he caught the eye of Eddie Sharkey, a well known wrestling trainer. Sharkey thought that Joe along with Mike Hegstrand, Richard Rood, and Barry Darsow could make it big in professional wrestling. He believed in them so much that he trained all four of them personally.
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Road Warrior Hawk
Michael James Hegstrand (January 26, 1957 – October 19, 2003) was an American professional wrestler. He is best remembered as Road Warrior Hawk, one half of the tag team known as the Road Warriors (WCW) or The Legion of Doom (WWF), with Road Warrior Animal.
While living in Chicago, Hegstrand met Joe Lauranaitis, who would be later known as Road Warrior Animal, and the two became close friends. When Lauranaitis was about eight years old, he and Hegstrand both moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. While living in Minneapolis, Hegstrand attended Patrick Henry High School where he graduated in 1976. After high school, he had various odd jobs to make ends meet. Due to his size and love of power lifting, he was an imposing figure and thus a very effective bouncer. He would work as a bouncer at Grandma B's in the Twin Cities where he caught the eye of Eddie Sharkey, a well known wrestling trainer. Sharkey thought that Hegstrand, along with Joe Laurinaitis, and Barry Darsow could make it big in professional wrestling.
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Rocky Johnson
Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles; August 24, 1944) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler. Quite popular in his own right in the 1970s and 1980s, he is also known for being the father of actor and professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. During his wrestling career he became a 1-time National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Georgia Champion and also became a 1-time NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion as well as winning many other championships. Along with his partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was a part of the first black tag team to win the World Tag Team championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Rocky Johnson was born Wayde Douglas Bowles in Amherst, Nova Scotia, where he was raised, the fourth of five sons of Lillian and James Henry Bowles. A Black Nova Scotian, he is descended from slaves who escaped from the American South. At the age of 16, Johnson moved to Toronto, Ontario, where he began wrestling and worked as a truck driver. Initially, he trained to be a boxer and eventually sparred with greats such as Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, but he was always fascinated by wrestling.
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Roddy Piper
Roderick "Roddy" George Toombs (born April 17, 1954), better known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler and film actor who is currently signed to WWE. In professional wrestling, he is best known for his work with WWE. Although he is Canadian, due to his Scottish heritage, he was billed as coming from Glasgow in Scotland and was known for his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music. He earned the nickname "Rowdy" by displaying his trademark "Scottish" rage, spontaneity and quick wit. Despite being a crowd favorite for his rockstar-like persona, he often played the villain. He was also nicknamed "Hot Rod". Never a world champion, he accumulated 34 championships in various promotions during his career. Piper was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
Toombs was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He attended Windsor Park Collegiate. His father was an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police while they lived in The Pas, Manitoba. After being expelled from junior high[citation needed] and having a falling out with his father, Piper hit the road and stayed in youth hostels wherever he could find them.
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Ron Simmons
Ronald "Ron" Simmons (born May 15, 1958) is an American former professional wrestler and American Football player. He performed for World Championship Wrestling under his real name and in the World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/E) under both his real name and the ring names Faarooq Asaad (sometimes spelled Asad) and Faarooq (sometimes spelled Farooq).
In WCW, he was a one time World Heavyweight Champion; as the first of two African Americans to win the title, he is recognized by WWE as the first Black world champion in professional wrestling history, followed by Booker T. He was also a one time World Tag Team Champion with Butch Reed and a one time United States Tag Team Champion with Big Josh. In the WWF, he was a three time Tag Team Champion with Bradshaw as one half of the Acolytes Protection Agency. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2012.
Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Simmons was an American college and professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL), Canadian Football League (CFL) and United States Football League (USFL) for four seasons during the 1980s. He played college football for Florida State University, and was recognized as an All-American. He played professionally for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, the CFL's Ottawa Rough Riders and the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits.
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Scott Irwin
Scott K. Irwin (May 14, 1952 – September 5, 1987) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tag team with his brother Barney "Bill" Irwin.
After training under Verne Gagne in 1975, Irwin debuted on March 18, 1977 in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, where he lost his debut match against Johnny Weaver. After wrestling in Mid-Atlantic throughout the rest of 1977 and in early 1978, Irwin debuted in the World Wide Wrestling Federation on May 11, 1978 as one half of The Yukon Lumberjacks, where he was given the ring name Yukon Eric and his tag team partner, Zarinoff Lebeouf, was given the ring name Yukon Pierre. Soon after debuting, The Lumberjacks wrestled against Dino Bravo and Dominic DeNucci for the World Tag Team Championship on June 2, but the match ended in a double disqualification. The Lumberjacks continued their feud with Bravo and DeNucci, and after several unsuccessful title rematches, The Lumberjacks finally defeated them for the title on June 26.
The Lumberjacks continued their success by retaining their title in several matches over the next several months against the likes of Bravo and DeNucci, Gorilla Monsoon and S.D. Jones and Haystacks Calhoun and Tony Garea. On November 21, The Lumberjacks lost their title Garea and Larry Zbyszko. After the title loss, Pierre retired from wrestling and Eric left the WWWF.
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Sgt. Slaughter
Robert Remus (born August 27, 1948), better known by his ring name Sgt. Slaughter, is an American former WWE personality and semi-retired professional wrestler. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Slaughter had success in the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Association, and World Wrestling Federation. In the 1980s, an alternate version of the Sgt. Slaughter character was incorporated into the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line as well as its animated series and comic books.
Remus attended Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where he wrestled and played football.
Sgt. Slaughter held numerous regional titles early in his career and experienced his first major success in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) capturing the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Don Kernodle. During the late 1970s, Remus worked the American Wrestling Association (AWA) territory under a mask as Super Destroyer Mark II with managers Lord Alfred Hayes and Bobby Heenan.
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Shawn Michaels
Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (born July 22, 1965), better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is a retired professional wrestler, and an American television host. He is currently signed to WWE, where he has served as an ambassador for the company since December 2010. Hickenbottom consistently wrestled for WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), from 1988 until his first retirement in 1998, due to injury. He appeared in non-wrestling roles from 1998 to 2000, and resumed his in-ring career in 2002, retiring in 2010. He also hosts the show MacMillan River Adventures, airing on the Outdoor Channel.
Hickenbottom began his wrestling career with Mid-South Wrestling, now known as Universal Wrestling Federation, and American Wrestling Association (AWA). During his time with AWA, he performed in partnership with Marty Jannetty, as The Midnight Rockers; winning the AWA World Tag Team Championship twice. Hickenbottom and Jannetty briefly signed with World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1987, while in contract with AWA. They returned to AWA, only to go back to the WWF in 1988.
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Sherri Martel
Sherri Schrull (born Sherri Russell, February 8, 1958 – June 15, 2007) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri.
Martel began her professional wrestling career as a manager. She joined the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the mid-1980s and held its AWA World Women's Championship three times. In the late 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where she held the WWF Women's Championship. Also in the WWF, Martel continued to act as a manager to wrestlers such as Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, and Shawn Michaels. She appeared in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in the 1990s. In the latter, Martel acted as the manager for the tag team Harlem Heat. After leaving WCW, she made a few wrestling related appearances until her death in 2007.
Martel was first introduced to professional wrestling as a child, when her mother took her and her sister to shows in Mississippi. In 1974, Martel approached Grizzly Smith for advice on becoming a wrestler, but he questioned her conviction and told her to come back to him in five years when she was an adult. She eventually married her second husband and gave birth to a son named Jared, but she soon divorced her husband. During this time, she again became interested in becoming a professional wrestler and sought training from "Mr. Personality" Butch Moore in Memphis, Tennessee. She started wrestling as Sherri Martine, but decided she needed more training. She continued to train at The Fabulous Moolah's school, where Moolah changed her name to Sherri Martel and sent her to wrestle in Japan in 1981. Moolah claims that Martel frequented night clubs and liked to party, which resulted in Moolah kicking her out of the school.
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Sika Anoa'i
Leati "Sika" Anoa'i (born April 5, 1945) is a former professional wrestler and a member of the Anoa'i family.
Sika teamed with his brother Afa to form the tag team the Wild Samoans. They teamed in various promotions including WWF and Mid-South. In 1979, they signed with the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). Along with Afa, Sika held the WWF Tag Team Championship on three occasions. They won their first title in the WWF by defeating the team of Ivan Putski and Tito Santana on April 12, 1980. The Wild Samoans held the belts for almost four months before losing them to Bob Backlund and Pedro Morales on August 9. The title was vacated the following day, however, because Backlund already held the WWF Championship and could not defend both titles. A tournament was held to select the new champions, and The Wild Samoans defeated Tony Garea and Rene Goulet to regain the belts.
After losing the title to Garea and Rick Martel, the Wild Samoans left the WWF to compete in Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling. They won the tag team championship three times before leaving the promotion to wrestle in the National Wrestling Alliance's Mid-Atlantic territory. While there, the Wild Samoans defeated the Fabulous Freebirds to win the NWA National Tag Team Championship. Sika and Afa soon left the promotion and vacated the championship.
wn.com/Sika_Anoa'i -
Solofa Fatu
Solofa F. Fatu, Jr. (born October 11, 1965) is an American professional wrestler, best known under the ring name Rikishi.
Solofa Fatu, Jr. first got the fans attention in 1985 as he worked for Gino Brito and Dino Bravo’s “International Wrestling" territory based in Montreal. While in Montreal, Fatu worked as Prince Alofa, a high flying babyface often working as a team with the territory’s top faces. While working in Montreal, Solofa hung out with his cousin Samula Anoa'i who was working in the area as the heel "The Great Samu". When the Montreal territory closed up, the two cousins signed with the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico and became The Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu). The team adopted the “Samoan savage" gimmick that had made their fathers so well known and feared throughout the wrestling world, working barefoot and never speaking English on camera. The team became the first ever WWC Caribbean Tag Team Champions on November 7, 1987 when they beat Invader I and Invader III. The duo held the title for just over a month before dropping them to Mark and Chris Youngblood before leaving the promotion.
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Stu Hart
Stewart Edward "Stu" Hart, CM (May 3, 1915 – October 16, 2003) was a Canadian amateur wrestler, professional wrestler, promoter and trainer. Hart founded Stampede Wrestling, a promotion based in Calgary, Alberta and associated wrestling school "The Dungeon." The patriarch of the Hart wrestling family, Stu was the father of many wrestlers, most notably Bret and Owen Hart. Along with Bret and Owen, Hart's trainees included future world champions Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, and Chris Benoit.
Hart played football for the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1938 and 1939 seasons. Stu Hart began amateur wrestling when he joined the YMCA in Edmonton in 1929. By 1937 he won a gold medal in the welterweight class from the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. His amateur career peaked in May 1940 when Hart won the Dominion Amateur Wrestling Championship in the light heavyweight category. It must have been a bittersweet win for Hart as by that time the Phoney War had ended in Europe, and World War II had erupted. This led to the cancellation of the Olympics ending one of Hart's greatest dreams. Hart did enlist in the Canadian Navy and served as the Director of Athletics.
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Tammy Lynn Sytch
Tamara "Tammy" Lynn Sytch (born December 7, 1972) is an American professional wrestling manager, personality,and occasional wrestler. She achieved her greatest success under the ring name Sunny within the World Wrestling Federation during the 1990s, and is widely considered as one of the first Divas. She also performed under her own name in Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and Ring of Honor.
Sytch grew up in a strict family with a father who was retired from the United States Navy. She attended the same high school as her long-time boyfriend Chris Candido.Upon entering Smoky Mountain wrestling in 1993, a kayfabe claim was made that she had come from studying pre-law at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She then switched to pre-med at the University of Tennessee, with the ambition to be a pediatrician. During college, she worked as a freelance photographer.
Sytch started out traveling with her boyfriend Chris Candido to make some extra money. In late-1992, she signed a six month deal with Smoky Mountain Wrestling. She first appeared onscreen as Tammy Fytch in 1993. She played a villain, who idolized Hillary Clinton. In her first storyline with the company, she threatened to file a sexual discrimination lawsuit due to the lack of prominent positions offered to females. She managed Brian Lee to the Heavyweight Championship and also began accompanying Candido in his matches, as well. By May 1994, she was managing the two men as a tag team, which won the Tag Team Championship from The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Both Sytch and Candido, however, left the promotion in early 1995 for jobs with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
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Ted DiBiase
Theodore Marvin "Ted" DiBiase, Sr. (born January 18, 1954) is a retired professional wrestler, manager, ordained minister and color commentator. DiBiase achieved championship success in a number of wrestling promotions, holding thirty titles during his professional wrestling career. He is best recalled by mainstream audiences for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled as "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.
Among other accolades in the WWF, DiBiase was the first WWF North American Heavyweight Champion, a three-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Irwin R. Schyster) and the 1988 King of the Ring. DiBiase also created his own championship, the Million Dollar Championship. He was well known for his cutting-edge heel promos, which were often concluded with his trademark evil laugh; DiBiase has been described by WWE as the organization's "most despised villain" during the late 1980s. He held the WWF Championship belt in 1988 after purchasing it from André the Giant, but this period is not recognized by WWE as an official title reign. Nonetheless, DiBiase frequently performed in main event matches and has been cited as one of the finest in-ring technicians in history.
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Terry Funk
Terrence "Terry" Funk (born June 30, 1944) is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley. Funk has appeared in the NWA, AWA, WWF/E, WCW, ECW, USWA, ROH, and TNA.
Funk held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once and ECW World Heavyweight Championship once (ECW awarded him the honorary lifetime title of ECW Champion due to his contributions to the promotion). In addition, he won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship once, the IWA World Heavyweight Championship twice, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once (the reign was under Eastern Championship Wrestling name), the 3PW World Heavyweight Championship once. He is the only man to have been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, the WCW Hall of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, the NWA Hall of Fame, the Hardcore Hall of Fame, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame. Funk was a primary subject of the documentary film Beyond the Mat. Funk is often noted for the longevity of his career, which has included multiple "retirement" matches.
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The Fabulous Moolah
Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional wrestler. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years.
In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship in 1984. Ellison was marketed by the WWF (later World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Women's Champion and held the title a total of four times.
In addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in woman's professional wrestling. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a comedic role with longtime friend Mae Young. Ellison became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76, in 1999. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever.
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Tito Santana
Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953) better known by his ring name Tito Santana, is an American professional wrestler whose heyday spanned from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, though he continues to appear on the independent circuit. He is best known from his time in the World Wrestling Federation. Competing almost exclusively in the WWF from 1979 to 1993, Solis helped bridge the gap between the 1980s "Rock 'n Wrestling Connection" era to the 1990s "New Generation" era. He also won the first match in WrestleMania history.
Solis played tight end for West Texas A&M University, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. The team was quarterbacked by future professional wrestler Tully Blanchard, who would introduce him into the world of professional wrestling. After graduation, Solis was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs during training camp. He played one season for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League, appearing in 13 regular-season games.
He pro debuted in Championship Wrestling From Florida in 1977, also worked in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1977-78, until he joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1979. After a near 3 year run in the American Wrestling Association form 1980-1982 he returned to World Wrestling Federation in 1983.
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Tony Atlas
Anthony White (born April 23, 1954) better known by his ring name "Tony Atlas" is an American bodybuilder, powerlifter, and professional wrestler who has held multiple titles and championships in each sport. He is also known by his bodybuilding title, "Mr. USA" (a distinction he earned three times), the nom de guerre the "Black Superman", as well as an alter ego named Saba Simba. He returned as an on screen manager for WWE, appearing on its now-defunct ECW brand.
Atlas started wrestling in 1975 for the National Wrestling Alliance World Wide/Mid Atlantic area. His debut, on July 10, was a tag team match with Bob Bruggers against Art Neilson and The Blue Scorpion. The match finished with Atlas winning the fall for his team with a sleeper hold on the Blue Scorpion.
Throughout his career he worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Wrestling Council (WWC), World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Among his regular partners were Tommy Rich (as "TNT"), Dick Murdoch, and Rocky Johnson. He was also the very first man to press slam and pin Hulk Hogan though Hogan's foot was on the rope and the referee didn't see it.[citation needed]
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Tully Blanchard
Tully Arthur Blanchard (born January 22, 1954) is a semi-retired second generation American professional wrestler. He is best known as an original member of the Four Horsemen.
He worked for most of the major professional wrestling organizations in the United States: the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Association, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE). As of March 31st, 2012, Tully Blanchard was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the Four Horsemen.
As the son of wrestling promoter and former American Wrestling Association star Joe Blanchard, Tully Blanchard was involved in professional wrestling at a very young age. He began selling programs and refreshments at the arenas at the age of ten, and worked as a referee when he was older. Blanchard attended West Texas State University, where he played American football, first as a quarterback and then as a defensive end, alongside fellow future wrestlers Tito Santana and Ted DiBiase.
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Verne Gagne
Laverne Clarence "Verne" Gagne (born February 26, 1926), is a retired American professional wrestler, football player, and professional wrestling trainer and promoter. He was the former owner/promoter of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded.
Gagne is a 16-time world heavyweight champion, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship 10-times, the World Heavyweight Championship (Omaha version) 5-times, and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once. Gagne holds the record for the most combined days as a world champion and is third behind Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz for the longest single world title reign. He is one of six men inducted into each of the WWE Hall of Fame, the WCW Hall of Fame, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
Verne Clarence Gagne grew up on a farm in Corcoran, Minnesota. He left home at the age of 14 after his mother died. Verne went to Robbinsdale High School and excelled in football, baseball and wrestling, winning district, regional and state championships in high school wrestling, as well as being named to the All-State Football Team. In 1943, Gagne was recruited to play football at the University of Minnesota, where he was named to the All-Conference Team. After one year of college, he enlisted with the United States Marine Corps. Gagne chose to return to the University of Minnesota, where, as an amateur wrestler, he captured two NCAA titles. He was also an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games; he later said that he might have wrestled in the Olympics, but his coaches had discovered that he had earned money winning a wrestling match at a carnival, thus putting his amateur standing in question.[citation needed]
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Vince McMahon, Sr.
Vincent James "Vince" McMahon, better known as Vince McMahon, Sr. (July 6, 1914 – May 24, 1984) was an American professional wrestling promoter. He is best known for founding the American World Wide Wrestling Federation (now WWE) promotion.
Vincent James McMahon was born on July 6, 1914 in Harlem, New York to his father Roderick James "Jess" McMahon, an Irish-American, was a successful boxing, wrestling and concert promoter who had worked with legendary Madison Square Garden promoter Tex Rickard, and his mother Rose, a New Yorker of Irish descent. He had an older brother, Roderick Jr., and a younger sister, Dorothy. As a child Vince would often accompany his father to Madison Square Garden where he would play, and later, begin learning the family business.
McMahon saw the tremendous potential for growth that the pro wrestling industry had in the era following World War II, especially with the development of television and it's insatiable need for new programming. Similar to boxing, wrestling took place primarily within a small ring and could be covered adequately by one or two cameras, and venues for it could readily be assembled in television studios, lessening production costs.
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Yokozuna (wrestler)
Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi (October 2, 1966 – October 23, 2000) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. The term yokozuna refers to the highest rank in professional sumo wrestling in Japan. Although the "Yokozuna" character was portrayed as a champion sumo wrestler, Anoaʻi had never competed as an actual sumotori. Though Yokozuna wrestled as a representative of Japan, he was of Samoan origin and was accordingly billed as hailing from Polynesia (although he was managed by Mr. Fuji, who would follow Anoaʻi to the ring with a wooden bucket of salt, and waving a Japanese flag).
In the WWF, Anoaʻi was a two-time WWF Champion and two-time Tag Team Champion (with Owen Hart), as well as the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble. Anoa'i was the first wrestler of Samoan descent to hold the WWF Championship as well as the first Royal Rumble winner to receive a world title shot at WrestleMania, as a result of a direct stipulation. He defeated WWE Hall of Famers Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan, in consecutive pay-per-view victories at WrestleMania IX and the 1993 King of the Ring, to win his two WWF Championships. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.
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Zarinoff Lebeouf
Pierre Lafleur (born February 13, 1939) is a former French Canadian professional wrestler who is best known for his appearances with World Wide Wrestling Federation under the ring name Yukon Pierre where he was the half of The Yukon Lumberjacks.
Pierre Lafleur started wrestling in 1975 in the San Francisco territory of NWA as Soldier Lebeouf. He was not successful in San Francisco territory, so he left it after a short time. He wrestled with Nick Gulas and Jerry Jarrett in CWA Memphis as The Russian Stomper. He used the same gimmick in Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic territory.
He joined Dick the Bruiser's WWA in mid-1975 where he wrestled as Igor Volkoff.
His first fame rose when he started the gimmick Private Zarinoff Lebeouf as part of the tag team Legionnaires. He replaced Private Don Fargo and teamed with Sgt. Jacques Goulet. Fargo and Goulet had a fight. Due to this, Fargo left WWA and Zarinoff had to replace him as Goulet's partner.
Zarinoff left for World Wide Wrestling Federation in 1978 as Yukon Pierre. He became one half of the tag team Yukon Lumberjacks with Yukon Eric.
wn.com/Zarinoff_Lebeouf
Albano, Lou Filmography
- The True Story of WrestleMania (2011)
- WWE: Top 50 Superstars of All Time (2010)
- Hot Ice, No-one Is Safe (2010)
- WWE: Greatest Stars of the '90s (2009)
- The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling (2007)
- PWS: Firestorm (2007)
- The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak and Triumph (2007)
- WWE Draft Special (2007)
- WWE Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology, Vol. 2 (2007)
- The Worlds Greatest Wrestling Managers (2006)
- Born to Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story (2006)
- WWE: McMahon (2006)
- Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology (2006)
- Summerslam (2006)
- Remembering the Super Mario Bros. Super Show with Captain Lou Albano (2006)
- 13th Grade (2005)
- WWE WrestleMania: The Complete Anthology - Vol. 1 (2005)
- Mafioso: The Father, the Son (2004)
- Lipstick & Dynamite, Piss & Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling (2004)
- The Undertaker's Dozen (2003)
- Footlong (2002)
- The Boys Behind the Desk (2000)
- Heroes of Wrestling (1999)
- WrestleMania 13 (1997)
- WWF Hall of Fame (1996)
- Royal Rumble (1995)
- King of the Ring (1994)
- Cyndi Lauper: 12 Deadly Cyns... and Then Some (1994)
- Survivor Series (1994)
- Complex World (1992)
- Stay Tuned (1992)
- UWF Fury Hour (1990)
- Redeye Express (1988)
- WrestleMania 2 (1986)
- Wise Guys (1986)
- The Slammy Awards (1986)
- Body Slam (1986)
- WWF: The Big Event (1986)
- Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular (1985)
- WrestleMania (1985)
- Prime Cuts (1984)
- Tuesday Night Titans (1984)
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Captain Lou Albano Shoot Interview
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 139:31
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Hear what the Legendary WWE Manager has to say about -- -WWWF back in the day. -Managing in the early days -The Grand Wizard and Freddie Blassie. -What was Vince McMahon Sr. like to work for? -His opinion on Vince McMahon Jr. -The rise of WWF. -How wrestling has changed. -The current wrestling product? -How the art of being a manager has changed over the years. -Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Snuka, Bob Backlund, Roddy Piper and all the old school stars. -What happened when he got the Superfly splash? -Ray Stevens-Jimmy Snuka feud -Managing the British Bulldogs -Tons of stories from the 70s -How he would get fired at the WWF TV tapings and would get hired back a week later -Cyndi Lauper feud -The first Wrestlemania From the vaults...owned by Title Match Wrestling LLC!
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_Shoot_Interview
Hear what the Legendary WWE Manager has to say about -- -WWWF back in the day. -Managing in the early days -The Grand Wizard and Freddie Blassie. -What was Vince McMahon Sr. like to work for? -His opinion on Vince McMahon Jr. -The rise of WWF. -How wrestling has changed. -The current wrestling product? -How the art of being a manager has changed over the years. -Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Snuka, Bob Backlund, Roddy Piper and all the old school stars. -What happened when he got the Superfly splash? -Ray Stevens-Jimmy Snuka feud -Managing the British Bulldogs -Tons of stories from the 70s -How he would get fired at the WWF TV tapings and would get hired back a week later -Cyndi Lauper feud -The first Wrestlemania From the vaults...owned by Title Match Wrestling LLC!
Captain Lou Albano Takes a Lie Detector Test
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:09
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
A funny clip of WWE legend Captain Lou Albano taking a Lie Detector Test circa 1998.
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_Takes_a_Lie_Detector_Test
A funny clip of WWE legend Captain Lou Albano taking a Lie Detector Test circa 1998.
- published: 14 Mar 2011
- views: 4820
- author: WEJamesWalsh
Lou Albano & Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:29
- Updated: 12 Dec 2012
The Captain and The Hammer interviewed by Mean Gene Okerlund in 1984.
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano_Greg_The_Hammer_Valentine
The Captain and The Hammer interviewed by Mean Gene Okerlund in 1984.
- published: 17 Apr 2008
- views: 89628
- author: AdoribleAdrian
Lou Albano vs Tony Angelo - 1960s
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:52
- Updated: 11 Nov 2012
WWWF 1960s - Lou Albano vs Tony Angelo
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano_vs_Tony_Angelo_1960s
Captain Lou Albano Turns Japanese
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:54
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
Captain Lou Albano Turns Japanese
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_Turns_Japanese
In Honor of Captain Lou Albano: Super Mario Bros Super Show - Neatness Counts Clip
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:37
- Updated: 12 Dec 2012
In Loving Memory of Captain Lou Albano, 1933-2009 Listen closely to Mario's reply when Luigi takes the spaghetti off his overalls. That Lou Albano's one crazy son of gun!
http://wn.com/In_Honor_of_Captain_Lou_Albano_Super_Mario_Bros_Super_Show_Neatness_Counts_Clip
In Loving Memory of Captain Lou Albano, 1933-2009 Listen closely to Mario's reply when Luigi takes the spaghetti off his overalls. That Lou Albano's one crazy son of gun!
- published: 28 Jun 2006
- views: 86507
- author: CloakBass
Ultimate Captain Lou Albano Tribute!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:53
- Updated: 10 Nov 2012
See Captain Lou interviewed in 2007,clips from the late 70's wwf,the Cyndi Lauper fued,scenes from Piper's Pit,his cartoon work and much more! A great highlight reel in less then ten minutes!
http://wn.com/Ultimate_Captain_Lou_Albano_Tribute!
See Captain Lou interviewed in 2007,clips from the late 70's wwf,the Cyndi Lauper fued,scenes from Piper's Pit,his cartoon work and much more! A great highlight reel in less then ten minutes!
- published: 17 Oct 2009
- views: 3312
- author: WastedTimeVideos
Lou Albano Asks....."Did He Ever Say?"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:15
- Updated: 29 Nov 2012
Lou Albano demands an answer from Vince McMahon concerning Dusty Rhodes.
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano_AsksDid_He_Ever_Say?
Lou Albano demands an answer from Vince McMahon concerning Dusty Rhodes.
- published: 15 Jan 2011
- views: 6326
- author: Tardo317
Capt Lou & Golden Terror
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:16
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
Classic interview with the "guiding light", Captain Louis Albano and his protege' the Golden Terror
http://wn.com/Capt_Lou_Golden_Terror
Classic interview with the "guiding light", Captain Louis Albano and his protege' the Golden Terror
- published: 04 Sep 2009
- views: 14003
- author: Tardo317
Captain Lou Albano 900 number
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:30
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
Captain Lou promoting a wrestling hotline. Late 80s.
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_900_number
Captain Lou promoting a wrestling hotline. Late 80s.
- published: 07 Jun 2008
- views: 9969
- author: commercials818
Captain Lou Albano - WGBS Philly 57 "Just Say No" Drugs PSA
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:20
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Captain Lou - in partial Mario getup - implores kids not to use drugs. It's a very passionate and strong speech that seems like it was recorded in a spare room with bad acoustics. I'm also not sure whether the bouncy kids music fits here.
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_WGBS_Philly_57_Just_Say_No_Drugs_PSA
Captain Lou - in partial Mario getup - implores kids not to use drugs. It's a very passionate and strong speech that seems like it was recorded in a spare room with bad acoustics. I'm also not sure whether the bouncy kids music fits here.
- published: 03 Dec 2008
- views: 154947
- author: HulkieD
Lou Albano Song
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:06
- Updated: 25 Nov 2012
NRBQ & Lou Albano's hit song Captain Lou
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano_Song
captain Lou Albano's slow descent into madness song
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:17
- Updated: 15 Dec 2012
really epic win song about cpt lou
http://wn.com/captain_Lou_Albano's_slow_descent_into_madness_song
Captain Lou Albano Tribute
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:32
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
A Tribute to one of the greatest wrestling managers
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_Tribute
A Tribute to one of the greatest wrestling managers
- published: 25 Dec 2007
- views: 40830
- author: TerryKoss32
NRBQ and Lou Albano perform "Captain Lou"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:39
- Updated: 05 Dec 2012
The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet with Captain Lou Albano in the video for "Captain Lou." ~ Tom Ardolino - January 12, 1955 -- January 6, 2012
http://wn.com/NRBQ_and_Lou_Albano_perform_Captain_Lou
The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet with Captain Lou Albano in the video for "Captain Lou." ~ Tom Ardolino - January 12, 1955 -- January 6, 2012
- published: 21 Oct 2008
- views: 124146
- author: Paul Eaton
Kimya Dawson Captain Lou Albano Tribute
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:46
- Updated: 10 Dec 2012
Kimya Dawson's alterego Jamoca Brown has come out of hiding to pay tribute to a fallen hero. Lyrics by Kimya Dawson. Passion by Jamoca Brown. Clothes/hair/makeup by Chastity Pelt (another alterego). Today is a sad day. Drop an elbow everyone.
http://wn.com/Kimya_Dawson_Captain_Lou_Albano_Tribute
Kimya Dawson's alterego Jamoca Brown has come out of hiding to pay tribute to a fallen hero. Lyrics by Kimya Dawson. Passion by Jamoca Brown. Clothes/hair/makeup by Chastity Pelt (another alterego). Today is a sad day. Drop an elbow everyone.
- published: 14 Oct 2009
- views: 9078
- author: mrskimyadawson
Capt Lou Albano observes the color of Rudy Diamond's feet
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:58
- Updated: 05 Dec 2012
Greg Valentine vs. Rudy Diamond from the WWF in 1984. Captain Lou Albano points out the color of the bottom of Diamond's feet.
http://wn.com/Capt_Lou_Albano_observes_the_color_of_Rudy_Diamond's_feet
Greg Valentine vs. Rudy Diamond from the WWF in 1984. Captain Lou Albano points out the color of the bottom of Diamond's feet.
- published: 08 Mar 2009
- views: 6145
- author: Metflix
Captain Lou Albano Tribute Show
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:18
- Updated: 17 Nov 2012
PWR Remembers Captain Lou Albano.
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_Tribute_Show
Lou Albano in Roger's Corner
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:42
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Buddy Rogers asks "What happened to Lou" after listing the great accomplishments of some of The Captain's relatives.
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano_in_Roger's_Corner
Buddy Rogers asks "What happened to Lou" after listing the great accomplishments of some of The Captain's relatives.
- published: 08 Apr 2008
- views: 12106
- author: AdoribleAdrian
Johnny Valiant & Lou Albano 1985 Promo
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:50
- Updated: 11 Jul 2012
Luscious Johnny Valiant, Brutus Beefcake, Captain Lou Albano and George "The Animal" Steel are interviewed by Freddie Miller in this 1985 promo.
http://wn.com/Johnny_Valiant_Lou_Albano_1985_Promo
Luscious Johnny Valiant, Brutus Beefcake, Captain Lou Albano and George "The Animal" Steel are interviewed by Freddie Miller in this 1985 promo.
- published: 25 Mar 2009
- views: 5777
- author: AdoribleAdrian
NRBQ - TiddlyWInks TV Ad w/ Capt. Lou
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:34
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
The Captain Lou Albano has a conniption while hyping "Tiddlywinks" for a TV Ad.
http://wn.com/NRBQ_TiddlyWInks_TV_Ad_w_Capt_Lou
The Captain Lou Albano has a conniption while hyping "Tiddlywinks" for a TV Ad.
- published: 30 Oct 2011
- views: 1513
- author: bluzman2
"Captain" Lou Albano's Birthday Slam
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:42
- Updated: 01 Nov 2012
Join "Captain" Lou Albano, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and the Rowdy Rod Piper for a birthday bbq brawl! The Hulkster and the Macho Man give the gift of the camcorder to their buddy "Cptn" Lou for his birthday. Rumors fly and losers lie. Miss Elizabeth and Cyndi Lauper get caught in between a tag team match for the ages. Written and Directed by Mark Kelly Produced by Brooke Allison, Mark Kelly and John Barr Shot by John Barr Edited by John Barr, Zed B. Starkovich and Mark Kelly
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano's_Birthday_Slam
Join "Captain" Lou Albano, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and the Rowdy Rod Piper for a birthday bbq brawl! The Hulkster and the Macho Man give the gift of the camcorder to their buddy "Cptn" Lou for his birthday. Rumors fly and losers lie. Miss Elizabeth and Cyndi Lauper get caught in between a tag team match for the ages. Written and Directed by Mark Kelly Produced by Brooke Allison, Mark Kelly and John Barr Shot by John Barr Edited by John Barr, Zed B. Starkovich and Mark Kelly
- published: 08 Jul 2006
- views: 36571
- author: mrmarkkelly
Captain Lou Albano PSA about Stealing
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:22
- Updated: 27 Oct 2012
Captain Lou Albano (Mario) says "No!" to stealing RIP Lou Albano 1933-2009
http://wn.com/Captain_Lou_Albano_PSA_about_Stealing
Captain Lou Albano (Mario) says "No!" to stealing RIP Lou Albano 1933-2009
- published: 19 Oct 2009
- views: 21252
- author: Wiinerd37
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON. US President Barack Obama backs a new bill to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, the White House said Tuesday, fleshing out his nascent response to a shocking school massacre. Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun meeting top cabinet officials to consider his options, his spokesman Jay Carney said ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: AP / Charles Krupa
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Most people reason dramatically, not quantitatively." -Oliver Wendell Holmes. On the same day that a 20-year-old, described as brilliant but remote, walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and massacred 26 children and adults, the school where I teach went on "lock-down." Four students with a handgun were arrested ... That morning before school, he had posted on Twitter and Facebook....(size: 14.0Kb)
photo: Creative Commons / Joachim Huber
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. When a Stanford geneticist, Gerald Crabtree, published a provocative and controversial new view on evolutionary change, namely that humans are actually getting dumber, he should have also added that humans are still developing an extermination gene ... Paleontologist Tim Flannery would more than likely agree with Crabtree ... Strange strings of gravel also overlaid some bones ... (1) Kane, Alex ... 195....(size: 9.4Kb)
photo: AP / Narciso Contreras
19 Dec 2012
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion (920.1 million pounds) to provide life-saving aid to Syrians suffering from a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation ... "The magnitude of this humanitarian crisis is indisputable," said Radhouane Nouicer, U.N ... Inside Syria, U.N ... ....(size: 1.5Kb)
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
18 Dec 2012
An increasing number of US congressmen have called for a national dialogue about measures to curb gun violence following the shooting last week at a primary school in Connecticut that killed 26 people, including 20 children and six adults. White House officials have said that President Barack Obama would make preventing gun-related violence a priority in his second term in office and stricter laws would be part of the effort. ... ....(size: 19.2Kb)
Yahoo Daily News
19 Sep 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has blocked legislation that would have established a $1 billion jobs program putting veterans back to work tending to the country's federal lands and bolstering local police and fire departments. Republicans say the spending violates limits that Congress agreed to last year ... prevnext ... hulu videos ... Poll ... Lou Albano • 2 mins 11 secs ago Good public policy, therefore, unacceptable to Repigs ... ....(size: 7.9Kb)
Entertainment Weekly
17 Jul 2012
Have you ever been at the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and thought to yourself, “All this fringe music is pretty excellent, but I really can’t stand all of this sand.”. The organizers of Coachella have a solution ... Whose hologram would show up at the party? It would have to be somebody with a nautical theme, right? Can Cyndi Lauper make a surprise appearance with Captain Lou Albano? ... Music Festivals ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
The Examiner
09 Jul 2012
Related topics. NRBQTerry Adamssun raThe Figgsthelonious monk Advertisement ... “This is way more difficult than learning scales and practicing chords,” says Adams. Not that he went to Juilliard or any other conservatory for that matter ... Video. NRBQ ... An appreciationNRBQ's Terry Adams remembers The ShaggsCaptain Lou Albano's NRBQ connection Tweet 0 Email PrintReport Jim Bessman, Manhattan Local Music Examiner ... Next article » ... Video....(size: 7.8Kb)
The Columbus Dispatch
04 Jul 2012
Kyle Robertson . Dispatch photos. Jack’s Sandwich Shop is decorated for just about every holiday, including Independence Day. ... Kyle Robertson . Dispatch photos. Above ... Left ... Connect With Us ... Surrounded by framed photographs of past famous guests such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Albano, sleepy-eyed Ohio State University students crowd Jack & Benny’s — which on weekends meets demand by adding the space in a neighboring storefront ... ... ....(size: 11.2Kb)
The Examiner
20 Jun 2012
Rowdy Rod, Roddy Piper also comes out and makes the surprising assertion that it was the “Rock and Wrestling Connection”, featuring guys like himself, Cyndi Lauper and the late Captain Lou Albano that was the main catalyst for the WWE's explosion into mainstream popularity ... I was around during Captain Lou's heyday....(size: 14.9Kb)
m&c;
31 May 2012
. well . . not so much!. Check out some great must-own TV chestnuts released for June 2012 from Shout! Factory. ... . well . ... JOE ... Season 3 on DVD June 19th! In Season 3, Benjamin Ernst (David Brisbin) wrangles up his crew for another summer of desert dustups and adventures, including a TV game show audition, a battle with rival Snake Eyes Ranch, a visit from Melodys troubled brother and an encounter with professional wrestler Lou Albano!....(size: 6.9Kb)
Jezebel
11 May 2012
Review Journal
22 Apr 2012
It was 3.30 p.m.; the show closed at 4. Billy Corgan, front man of The Smashing Pumpkins and a lifelong pro wrestling enthusiast, had left the building ... His fans remember. The Wrestler said he remembered ... Some had their throats slashed ... This December will mark the 13th Christmas that he has served as Santa Claus at the Berlin Mall near Montpelier, Vt., which surely would come as a surprise to Captain Lou Albano, were he still alive ... ....(size: 5.3Kb)
The Examiner
01 Mar 2012
Despite being its own show, the Zelda cartoon would include clips from the Mario cartoon as well as live-action segments featuring Danny Wells and Lou Albano ... As I said before, The Zelda cartoon also contains live-action segments of Lou Albano and Danny Wells as Mario and Luigi....(size: 13.0Kb)
The Examiner
16 Jan 2012
In part 1, the World Tag Team Championships were created and dominated by a series of villainous pairs, often managed by the illustrious Captain Lou Albano. In part two enjoy an essay on what is definitely the first “glory era” of the Championships. ... Lou Albano as their advisor. They won the Championships from The ......(size: 11.2Kb)
National Post
14 Jan 2012
By Dave Bidini, Weekend Post January 14, 2012. OK, a joke. How do you know there's a drummer at your door? The knocking speeds up and gets louder. Another? All right. What do you get when you cross a drummer and a gorilla? A really dumb gorilla. Ha! One more, OK? A drummer decides to go solo ... Guy behind the counter says ... Kaboom. Drummers ... You were saying something? ... Oh ... Carl Perkins, Skeeter Davis and wrestling promoter Captain Lou Albano ... . ... ....(size: 12.7Kb)
The Examiner
09 Jan 2012
And indeed, Ardolino was as much a drummer's drummer as NRBQ was a band's band ... Terry Adams' triumph NRBQ, with Terry Adams, returns to New York NRBQ's Terry Adams remembers The Shaggs New musical focuses on legendary rock unknowns, The Shaggs Captain Lou Albano's NRBQ connection Tom Ardolino helps NRBQ celebrate its 35th anniversary at a 2004 performance in Los Angeles.Credits. Phil Han/Getty Images Video ... Video....(size: 7.1Kb)
The Examiner
03 Jan 2012
In the early days of the Tag Team Championship (then called the World Wide Wrestling World Tag Team Championship) it was hotly contested in the WWWF’s stronghold of the northeast. ; And more often than not the early title lineage would follow a particular formula. A united villainous pair, usually managed by Captain Lou Albano, ......(size: 8.0Kb)
| Lou Albano | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Ring name(s) | Lou Albano |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 350 lb (160 kg)[2][3] |
| Born | (1933-07-29)July 29, 1933 Rome, Italy[4][5] |
| Died | October 14, 2009(2009-10-14) (aged 76) Westchester County, New York |
| Billed from | Carmel, New York[1] |
| Trained by | Arnold Skaaland[3] Soldier Barry[3] |
| Debut | 1953[1] |
| Retired | 1995 (as manager) |
Louis Vincent "Captain Lou" Albano[6][7] (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, then he became a manager, until 1995.
Throughout his 42-year career, Albano guided 15 different tag teams and four singles competitors to championship gold.[7] Albano was part of the "Triumvirate of Terror," a threesome of nefarious WWF managers that also included The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and Fred Blassie. The trio would be fixtures in the company for a decade, until the Grand Wizard's death in 1983.
A unique showman, with an elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, Albano was the forefather of the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. Collaborating with Cyndi Lauper, Albano helped usher in wrestling's crossover success with a mainstream audience. Capitalizing on his success, he later ventured into Hollywood with various television, film, and music projects.
Contents |
Professional wrestling career[link]
World Wide Wrestling Federation[link]
He made little impact as a solo wrestler, but he achieved moderate success as a tag team performer with partner Tony Altomare.[8] Dubbed The Sicilians, Altomare and Albano competed as a stereotypical Italian gangster combo.[7] The pair won the Midwest tag team championship on the undercard of the June 30, 1961 Comiskey Park event starring Pat O'Connor and Buddy Rogers that set the all-time record gate in the United States to that point. Their realistic depiction of gangster characters caught the attention of actual mafiosi in 1961. A credible threat on their lives occurred during a run as Midwest tag team champions, resulting in the pair abandoning the territory quickly enough that they did not lose the title before leaving.[7] In July 1967, they won the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from Arnold Skaaland and Spiros Arion.[7][8] Albano and Altomare only held the championship for two weeks, a title change which was not even acknowledged on WWWF television outside the Atlantic City market. But several photographs of the pair with their title belts were taken, which provided good publicity fodder later in Albano's career.
Following the encouragement of fellow wrestler Bruno Sammartino, in 1969 Albano retired from active wrestling to focus on managing.[7] He transformed himself into the brash, bombastic manager Captain Lou Albano. With a quick wit and a grating personality, Albano delivered memorable promos and earned the scorn of the wrestling audience as he attempted to dethrone World Wide Wrestling Federation superstar and WWF champion Bruno Sammartino.
Albano described the strategy behind his overblown, ranting interview style:
- "I just remember the point I wanna bring across, and then I just babble before, during, and after. Somehow, in the middle, I said the two or three sentences that sold tickets. Mostly, I just tried to make people want to see me get my ass kicked, and along the way, hopefully the guy I was managing would catch a beating too!"[9]
Albano's first high-profile protege was Oscar "Crusher" Verdu. Albano emphasized Verdu's physique and insisted that he had never been taken off his feet during a match. To rile up audiences, he also engaged in ethnic slurs, which were then a more common part of WWWF banter. The result was a Madison Square Garden sellout when Verdu faced Sammartino in June 1970, the first for the company in five years and a then-record gate for a wrestling event in that arena. The record lasted only a month, when a rematch brought in over $85,000 in ticket receipts. In January 1971, Albano was the manager when "Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff ended Sammartino's seven year reign as champion.[7] Koloff's title reign was a transitional one, lasting just three weeks. Albano then resumed his role as the mastermind trying to lead his latest bad guy wrestler to the gold. For the remainder of the 1970s, Albano's cadre of loyal henchmen were unable to re-secure the heavyweight championship, held by either Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund or Hulk Hogan.[7] However, Albano guided singles wrestlers Don Muraco and Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine to the Intercontinental Championship.[7] Furthermore, Albano guided fifteen teams to the WWF World Tag Team Championships, including The Valiant Brothers, The Wild Samoans, The Blackjacks, The Moondogs and The Executioners.[7][10] By the end of his career, Albano managed over 50 different wrestlers who won two dozen championships.
Albano could also help elevate wrestlers by splitting from them. In 1982, despite being managed by the villainous Albano, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka was becoming a fan favorite due to his high-flying ring style. An interview segment revealed that Snuka had no legal contract with Albano, and thus was able to leave his manager.[11] Shortly thereafter, a bloody beatdown by Albano, Fred Blassie and Ray Stevens, helped transform Snuka into a sympathetic figure, and triggered the most successful period of his career.[12] Albano had previously helped turn the villainous Intercontinental Champion Pat Patterson into a fan favorite, by "purchasing" Patterson's contract against his will.
Face turn[link]
Albano continued managing as a heel until December 1984, when he was attacked by his former allies Roddy Piper and "Cowboy" Bob Orton during an award presentation for pop music singer Cyndi Lauper at New York's Madison Square Garden. During 1984, Albano began collaborating with Lauper, appearing in several of her music videos and working with her to raise $4 million for multiple sclerosis. Lauper—who was presented a gold platinum record for her efforts with the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection at the beginning of the segment—introduced Albano to recognize him for his help in raising MS awareness. Piper came into the ring to sarcastically praise Albano for his work before breaking a gold record plaque over his head. (Lauper and her boyfriend-manager David Wolffe were also attacked by Piper and Orton before Hogan ran in for the save.)
The attack segment turned Albano into a crowd favorite for the first time in his career. (His last two singles proteges, Valentine and Ken Patera, were paired with Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, respectively, after Albano's face turn.) Although he continued his overblown, rambling interviews—one of the lead announcers for the WWF, Gorilla Monsoon, continued to refer to Albano as "The Fountain of Misinformation" -- Albano was now leading fan favorites such as the U.S. Express, George "the Animal" Steele, the British Bulldogs and Andre the Giant into battle. The U.S. Express and British Bulldogs became the first tag teams to win the WWF Tag Team Championships with Albano as a "face" manager. He left the WWF in late 1986, making a one-time appearance on a "Piper's Pit" on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling in 1987 to ask Andre the Giant to reconsider his recent alignment with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.[13] After a brief run in the UWF in 1991, where he hosted an interview segment, Albano returned to the WWF in 1994 to manage the newly face-turned Headshrinkers, helping lead them to the WWF tag team championship. He left in early 1995, making sporadic appearances as a guest from then-on, but never as a manager.
Television and film[link]
Albano played a role in the Wise Guys (1986) film[14] along Danny DeVito and also as the video game character Mario, Nintendo's mascot, in the live-action segments and the voice in the animated segments of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, which was a TV series made based upon the classic Nintendo hit Super Mario Bros. games. He also had roles in the TV series 227, Hey Dude, and Miami Vice and the 1992 film Stay Tuned.
Lou Albano also played a bad guy spinoff of himself as the character "Captain Lou Morano", along with Dirk Benedict and Roddy Piper in the 1986 movie "Body Slam". Other wrestling greats like Ric Flair, Freddie Blassie, and Bruno Sammartino also made cameo appearances in the film.
He also played the role of the father in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Goonies R' Good Enough" and "She Bop" music videos.[15]
Personal life[link]
Albano was born in 1933 in Rome, Italy to parents who emigrated to the United States shortly after his birth.[3] As a teenager, Lou played American football in high school, then enlisted in the US Army after graduation. When his military career was over, Albano went to work as a bouncer and had gained interest in professional wrestling.
In 2008 he released his autobiography, "Often Imitated, Never Duplicated"[16] with the foreword written by Cyndi Lauper.
Albano was one of five children born to Dr. Carmen Louis and Eleanor Albano, both deceased. The other Albano siblings are Vincent, George, Eleanor, and Carl, all of whom became teachers.[17] Albano's brother, Carl, taught health for 32 years at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and was head of the Ridgewood High health department from 1974 until 2001.[17] Carl Albano's students have noted that he used his brother Lou as an example of the difference between crazy and unique. George C. Albano served as the Principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Mt. Vernon, NY and often brought Lou in to delight the school's students during their lunch hour.
During the 1990s, Albano shed 150 pounds (70 kg) following a health scare. In May 2005, Albano suffered a heart attack, but later recovered. Albano was sent home from the hospital and again began watching his health. On October 14, 2009, he died in his sleep from a heart attack.[18] He was survived by his wife Geri, four children and 14 grandchildren. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Putnam County, New York.
In wrestling[link]
- Wrestlers managed
- Tag teams managed
-
- Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito[19]
- Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika)
- The Executioners (Executioner 1 and Executioner 2)
- The Mongols (Bepo and Geeto)
- The Yukon Lumberjacks (Yukon Eric and Yukon Pierre)[20]
- The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid)[21]
- The Headshrinkers[8] (Samu and Fatu)
- The New Headshrinkers (Fatu and Sionne)
- The Valiant Brothers (Jimmy Valiant, Johnny Valiant and Jerry Valiant)
- The Machines (Super Machine, Big Machine and Giant Machine)
- The Moondogs[8] (Moondog King, Moondog Rex and Moondog Spot)
- The U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham)
- Nicknames
- "Captain"
- "Leaping"
-
- "Captain Lou's History of Music" performed by himself and George "The Animal" Steele
- Another version of "Captain Lou's History of Music" performed by himself and NRBQ
Championships and accomplishments[link]
-
- Other honoree (1995)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI Manager of the Year (1974, 1981, 1986)
- PWI Stanley Weston Award (1994)
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)[1]
- WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Tony Altimore
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Best on Interviews (1981) tied with Roddy Piper
- Worst Worked Match of the Year (1985) vs. Freddie Blassie at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Notes[link]
- ^ a b c d "Lou Albano's WWE Hall of Fame Profile". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/halloffame/inductees/captainloualbano/. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
- ^ Shields, Brian (2006). "Captain Lou Albano". Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. Pocket Books. p. 120. http://books.google.com/books?id=Ktv7Nj2C9QUC&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ^ a b c d Solomon, Brian (2006). WWE Legends. pp. 38–43. ISBN 978-0-7434-9033-7.
- ^ Associated Press (October 15, 2009). "Pro wrestler, music video icon Albano dies at 76". http://www.gmanews.tv/story/174674/pro-wrestler-music-video-icon-albano-dies-at-75. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ "Wrestler, Pop Icon Captain Lou Albano Dies At 76". cbs5.com. October 14, 2009. Archived from the original on July 28, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100728080908/http://cbs5.com/entertainment/captain.lou.albano.2.1248290.html. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ "Kanaal van hailthysatan". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/hailthysatan. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Van der Griend, Blaine (October 14, 2009). "Captain Lou Albano passes away at 76". Slam! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2009/10/08/11349916.html. Retrieved October 14, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Ellison, Lillian. First Goddess of the Squared Circle, pp. 166–167.
- ^ "RIP CAPTAIN LOU - Heyman Hustle". Heymanhustle.craveonline.com. 2009-10-14. http://heymanhustle.craveonline.com/articles/news/22266-rip-captain-lou. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ Lou Albano – Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile, retrieved on October 15, 2009.
- ^ Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka vs. Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, December 28, 1982, retrieved on October 15, 2009.
- ^ Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka – Wrestling Legends – WWE Hall of Fame legend – Media Man Australia, retrieved on October 15, 2009.
- ^ "WWF SUPERSTARS (1986-97)". Thehistoryofwwe.com. http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/superstars87.htm. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
- ^ "Actors, Actresses, Athletes, Celebrities & Famous People in Music Videos Database". Episodeguides.freeiz.com. http://episodeguides.freeiz.com/actors.html. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ "SLAM! Wrestling review of Lou Albano's Autobiography". Slam.canoe.ca. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Reviews/2009/05/26/9573756.html. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ a b 15, 2004&pid=1415176 Carl M. Albano Obituary, retrieved on October 15, 2009.
- ^ Pro wrestler, music video icon Albano dies at 76, retrieved on October 15, 2009.
- ^ "Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito Profile". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/f/fujisaito.html. Retrieved August 5, 2008.
- ^ "Yukon Lumberjacks profile". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/y/yukon-lumberjacks.html. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
- ^ Foley, Mick. Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (p.83)
- ^ ""Captain" Lou Albano's Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame bio". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. http://www.pwhf.org/halloffamers/bios/albano.asp. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
References[link]
- Foley, Mick (2000). Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-103101-1.
- Ellison, Lillian (2003). The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. ReaganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-001258-8.
- "WWE Hall of Fame Profile"
- "Wrestling Museum Hall of Fame Induction Article"
External links[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lou Albano |
- Lou Albano on Posterous
- Official website
- Lou Albano at the Internet Movie Database
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame profile
- WWE Hall of Fame profile
- Online World of Wrestling profile
- Lou Albano at Find a Grave
| Preceded by Peter Cullen 1983–1985 Saturday Supercade |
Voice of Mario 1989–1990 Super Mario Brothers Super Show |
Succeeded by Walker Boone 1990–1992 The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 & Captain N: The Game Master & Super Mario World |
|
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Albano, Lou |
| Alternative names | Albano, Louis Vincent |
| Short description | professional wrestler, professional wrestling manager, and actor |
| Date of birth | July 29, 1933 |
| Place of birth | Rome, Italy |
| Date of death | October 14, 2009 |
| Place of death | Carmel, New York |
http://wn.com/Lou_Albano
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Lou Albano
http://nl.wn.com/Lou Albano
http://de.wn.com/Lou Albano
http://it.wn.com/Lou Albano
http://es.wn.com/Lou Albano
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Albano
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Tony Angelo | |
|---|---|
| 250px Tony Angelo in 2008 |
|
| Nationality | United States |
| Born | Doylestown, Pennsylvania |
| Formula D | |
| Years active | 2004-2010, 2012-present |
| Teams | Drift Alliance, Scion Racing, Blood Masters, Team Snake Bite |
Tony Angelo is an American drifting pioneer. He started drifting with Chris Forsberg in Doylestown, PA, and eventually progressed to being a D1GP driver, as well as a Formula D seeded driver. He is founder of the ground breaking Drift Alliance team, and a revered driver in the American series.
Tony Angelo has starred in several Drifting films including Bad as Hell, Slide America, and Stay Hungry. He is also known to support the grassroots scene in drifting by attending local events in Southern California and lending a helping hand to all up and coming drivers with his instructional driver clinics. Tony Angelo has built and driven a series of powerful rotary powered Mazdas during his professional career. He most recently campaigned a Mazda RX-8 in Formula Drift with partners Mazda, Maxxis Tires, Exedy Racing Clutches, and Disc Brakes Australia. After the 2008 Formula Drift season Tony moved from the drivers seat to the judges chair for 2009, a position that he still maintains. In 2010 he was also elected Formula drift Technical Manager. A position that focuses primarily on competition vehicle compliance and enforcement of Formula Drift's technical regulations as stated in the Formula Drift rule book.
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Angelo, Tony |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | Doylestown, Pennsylvania |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
 |
This biographical article related to United States auto racing is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
http://wn.com/Tony_Angelo
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Angelo
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Kimya Dawson | |
|---|---|
 Kimya Dawson playing a set at Harvest of Hope Festival in St. Augustine, FL in 2010. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kimya Dawson |
| Born | (1972-11-17) November 17, 1972 (age 39) |
| Genres | anti-folk |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, Musician, |
| Instruments | Guitar, Vocals |
| Labels | K Records |
| Associated acts | Moldy Peaches, Aesop Rock |
| Notable instruments | |
| guitar, vocals | |
Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter, best known as a solo performer and as one half of The Moldy Peaches. In Swahili, "Kimya" (كيميا) means "silence"[1] or "silent".
Contents |
Career[link]
Dawson became well known as Adam Green's counterpart in The Moldy Peaches.[2] Since the Moldy Peaches went on hiatus in 2004 Dawson has released a string of lo-fi homemade albums and toured widely in North America and Europe.
Kimya's most recent album is "Thunder Thighs", released in October 2011. It contains collaborations with Aesop Rock on songs such as "The Library" and "Walk Like Thunder" and Pablo Das on "Unrefined".
Dawson's children's album, Alphabutt, was released on September 9, 2008. Song titles include "The Alphabutt Song," "Seven Hungry Tigers," "Little Monster Babies," "Wiggle My Tooth" and "Pee Pee in the Potty," and collaborators include former Third Eye Blind guitarist Kevin Cadogan and a number of Dawson's other musical friends and their children. She has also been invited to participate in the Sesame Street television program.[3]
Soundtrack work[link]
Dawson's songs are featured in the films The Guatemalan Handshake and Glue, both of which were shown at the Olympia Film Festival in November 2007.[4]
In 2008 Dawson contributed the song "Anthrax"—about 9/11—to the soundtrack of the Body of War documentary.[3]
"Anyone Else But You", a song she recorded with The Moldy Peaches was used in the documentary Murderball, about a team of wheelchair rugby players. This song was also used in the movie Juno. The melody of this song, with new lyrics, was used in a commercial for Atlantis.com.
Dawson's music was featured in the movie Juno, in that her "sweetly melancholic acoustic-strummed tunes" helping define the character of a pregnant young teenager who decides to have her baby.[5] Dawson helped choose many of the songs for the Juno film, helping to set the film's mood.[5] The soundtrack was voted by NPR listeners as the 14th best of the year in a listener poll for 2008.[6] Dawson sings about diverse topics:
And there on the soundtrack ... is Kimya Dawson, her primal, primitive odes to tire swings and vampires and roller coasters goosing us along, her wobbly voice and furtively chicken-scratched double-time guitar like a terrified little kid who just ditched the training wheels and is now somehow barreling down a mountain.—Rob Harvilla, The Village Voice, 2008[7]
Dawson's authentic persona, sometimes compared to indie folk artists such as Quinn Marston,[8] has a demeanor which is "sheepish and guileless and awkward in a way that you really can't fake" and who sometimes looks "legitimately terrified" during performances, according to Village Voice music critic Rob Harvilla.[7]
Five of Dawson's solo songs, two from Antsy Pants, as well as one from the Moldy Peaches, are included on the Juno soundtrack, released in December 2007.[9][10][11] Composer Mateo Messina also based the film's score on Dawson's music.[12]
The soundtrack album, after two weeks topping Billboard's Digital Albums chart, reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200, in its first week of release.[13] In its first full week of physical release the album sold 68,000 copies, reaching No. 3 on the Soundscan album chart. It missed out on the No. 1 spot by only 2,600 copies.[14] The following week it jumped to #2, while selling 15% fewer copies (58,000), just 2,000 copies behind first place.[15] In the album's third week of physical release it finally made the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and Soundscan charts, selling 65,000 copies.[16]
Dawson has two new songs that were released on April 8 on a follow-up album Juno B-Sides: Almost Adopted Songs that is available exclusively on iTunes.[3]
Two songs were also included in the soundtrack to Unmade Beds.
Other collaborations[link]
Dawson performs on recordings by Ben Kweller,[17] They Might Be Giants,[18] The Mountain Goats,[19] John Wayne Shot Me,[20] Your Heart Breaks, and The Terrordactyls.[21]
The Third Eye Blind track "Self-Righteous" on their album, Out of the Vein features a duet with Dawson and Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins.[22] Dawson also appears on the new Third Eye Blind record, Ursa Major, on the track "Why Can't You Be". This song was available as a bonus track on the iTunes Store download.
Regina Spektor collaborated with Dawson on the song "Fire" on the Hidden Vagenda album. Kimya Dawson also collaborated with fellow antifolk Jeffrey Lewis. They made a band called 'The Bundles,' with Jack Lewis and drummer, Anders Griffen, though released the songs under the name Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis, on a split with Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck.
Under the name Geniusis, Dawson released the free album Holiday Rampage alongside Aesop Rock, Johnny Druelinger, Jason Carmer & Quinn Tuffinuff.
In February 2011, Dawson recorded a Daytrotter session with Aesop Rock, in which they performed three songs together. This session was later released in May 2011.[23] Kimya and Aesop are currently collaborating on a new album, which will be released in 2012.
Kimya released the solo album "Thunder Thighs" in October 2011. The album features guest performances by Aesop Rock, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Nikolai Fraiture of the Strokes, Forever Young Senior Citizen Rock & Roll Choir, Olympia Free Choir, Quinn Tuffinuff, Kimya's daughter Panda and more.
She has performed numerous times with Paul Baribeau, whom she references several times in her songs.
Personal life[link]
A sometime resident of Bedford Hills, New York, Dawson moved in December 2005—with her mother, father, brother, Akida Junglefoot Dawson (Akida means "chief" in Swahili), and nephew—to Seattle, Washington. She married Angelo Spencer, a musician. On July 28, 2006, Kimya gave birth to a daughter, Panda Delilah, and in November 2006 she moved with her new family to Olympia, Washington. After Panda was born, Dawson and Spencer took a break from touring for a few months, playing only occasional local shows.
Dawson has knuckle tattoos which read "LAFF LOUD" and "ROCK SOFT". She also has a freebird tattoo on her left calf.
Dawson once started a rumour that she was a cousin of The Strokes' drummer Fabrizio Moretti.[24]
Dawson is good friends with Bryan Danielson.
Discography[link]
Before The Moldy Peaches Rough Trade releases there were several homemade CDRs.
With The Moldy Peaches[link]
- The Moldy Peaches – Released September 11, 2001 by Rough Trade Records
- County Fair/Rainbows – A single released in 2002
- Moldy Peaches 2000: Unreleased Cutz and Live Jamz 1994-2002 – Released March 18, 2003 by Rough Trade Records and Jess Turpin
Solo albums[link]
- I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean – released November 5, 2002 by Rough Trade Records
- Knock Knock Who? – released August 3, 2004 by Important Records
- My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess – released August 3, 2004 by Important Records
- Hidden Vagenda – released October 5, 2004 by K Records
- Remember That I Love You – released May 9, 2006 by K Records
- Alphabutt – released September 2008 by K Records
- Thunder Thighs – released October 18, 2011 by Great Crap Factory
With Antsy Pants[link]
- Antsy Pants – released 2006 by Plan It X Records
With The Bundles[link]
- The Bundles – released 2009 by K Records
Compilations[link]
- Third Eye Blind's 2009 album: Ursa Major [Bonus Track Version] – "Why Can't You Be (With Kimya Dawson) [Bonus Track]"
- "Third Eye Blind's 2003 album: "Out of the Vein" – "Self Righteous"
- Antifolk Vol. 1 – "I'm Fine"
- Anticomp Folkilation – "Will You Be Me" (Live)
- Afro-Punk Compilation Record Vol. 1 – "Loose Lips"
- AFNY Collaborations. Volume 1 – Kimya Dawson and Jeff Lewis
- Titanium Heart and Chains of Love – Kimya Dawson and Matt Rouse EP (collaboration) Unicorn Sounds
- A.K.A.- smooth jams e.p. with Adam Green and Akida Junglefoot Dawson
- The Art Star Sounds Compilation February 2005 – "Velvet Rabbit" (Live)
- No Parachute. Vol. 1. A compilation of indie music videos. (DVD) – "Lullaby For The Taken" (video directed by Ted Passon). 2005, Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records.
- Robot Boy DVD. Compilation of short films and videos by Ted Passon. – "Lullaby For The Taken". 2005, K Records/Secretly Canadian.
- I Killed the Monster: 21 Artists Performings the Songs of Daniel Johnston – "Follow That Dream" 2006, Second Shimmy
- Juno Soundtrack – Rhino Records 2008
- The Terrordactyls song "Devices" featuring guest vocals by Kimya Dawson
- Body of War: Songs that Inspired an Iraq War Veteran – "Anthrax". Sire Records March 18, 2008
- Tallahassee Turns Ten: a Mountain Goats Cover Album (2012) [25]
References[link]
- ^ Mtembezi, Chumvi (November 27, 2008). "Swahili Stars". http://www.cm.co.tz/chumvi/index.php?view=items&cid=1%3Amastaa&id=2%3Akimya&option=com_quickfaq&Itemid=3. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
- ^ The Moldy Peaches
- ^ a b c Graff, Gary (April 2, 2008). "Singer extends Juno buzz with kids album". Reuters/Billboard. http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN0229071320080402. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
- ^ Gilmore, Molly (December 20, 2007). "From K Records to the silver screen". The Olympian. http://www.theolympian.com/film/story/305029-p2.html. Retrieved December 20, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ a b Todd Martens (December 18, 2007). "The quirks in 'Juno's' score ... with audio". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/extendedplay/movie_music/. Retrieved July 7, 2011. "...“Juno’s” heavy reliance on pop music, noticeably the sweetly melancholic acoustic-strummed tunes of singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson, ... it seems like your score really plays off Dawson’s work."
- ^ All Songs Considered (December 15, 2008). "NPR Listeners Pick The Best Music Of 2008". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/2008/12/15/98092448/npr-listeners-pick-the-year-s-best-music. Retrieved July 7, 2011. "14. Kimya Dawson and Antsy Pants ... Dawson's quirky, childlike songwriting turned out to be the perfect complement for the film's playful tone."
- ^ a b Rob Harvilla (Jan 8 2008). "The Pillow Fight of Her Life". The Village Voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-01-08/music/the-pillow-fight-of-her-life/. Retrieved July 7, 2011. "nd there on the soundtrack, bobbing and weaving amid the obligatory "indie" blockbuster tunes (Belle & Sebastian, the Kinks), is Kimya Dawson..."
- ^ Benjamin C. Squires (October 6, 2010). "Juno Soundtrack Sound Punkified: Quinn Marston’s Can You Hear Me See Me Now?". Music Spectrum. http://musicspectrum.org/2010/10/06/juno-soundtrack-sound-punkified-quinn-marstons-can-you-hear-me-see-me-now/. Retrieved July 4, 2011. "Quinn Marston ... Juno soundtrack Kimya Dawson punkified with Siouxsie-like warbles..."
- ^ Sciretta, Peter (September 11, 2007). "Juno Movie Soundtrack". /film. http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/09/11/juno-movie-sountrack/. Retrieved November 10, 2007.
- ^ Breznican, Anthony (October 31, 2007). "More films are using one artist for music". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-10-29-soundtracks_N.htm. Retrieved November 10, 2007.
- ^ Ellen Page Talks Juno Soundtrack, Kimya Dawson Pitchfork Media November 21, 2007.
- ^ Martens, Todd (December 18, 2007). "The quirks in Juno's score ... with audio". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/extendedplay/2007/12/the-quirks-in-j.html. Retrieved December 19, 2007.
- ^ Hasty, Katie (January 11, 2008). ""Juno" soundtrack a boost for little-known singer". Billboard. http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSN1162579820080112. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
- ^ Gallo, Phil (January 16, 2008). "Keys returns to top of music charts". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979153.html. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
- ^ "Keys tops U.S. pop chart as overall sales slide". Reuters. January 23, 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN2341348020080123. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
- ^ Hasty, Katie (January 30, 2008). "Juno Unseats Keys From Atop Album Chart". Billboard. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003703770. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
- ^ Amazon.co.uk: Sha Sha: Music: Ben Kweller, Daniel Johnston
- ^ Amazon.com: Bed, Bed, Bed (They Might Be Giants): Books: They Might Be Giants
- ^ K O M A K I N O <img src=kklogo_kl.gif> – kimya dawson
- ^ K Artists
- ^ "The Terrordactyls: 'Devices'". NPR Music. January 18, 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18195758. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
- ^ 3EB.com | Bio
- ^ http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/kimya-dawson-and-aesop-rock-concert/20054736-3738350.html | Kimya Dawson & Aesop Rock: Daytrotter Session Recorded May 26, 2011
- ^ Dawson’s Crack (Interview w/Kimya Dawson) « MonsterFresh.com
- ^ Blade Barringer. "Tallahassee Turns Ten Kickstarter Campaign". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bladebarringer/tallahassee-turns-ten/posts/162546. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
External links[link]
|
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kimya Dawson |
Audio & video[link]
- Kimya Dawson and Matty Pop Chart – Live at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 28, 2008 (YouTube)
- Kimya on the Live Music Archive
- PUNKCAST#1099 Live video – Union Hall, Brooklyn – January 20, 2007 (RealPlayer)(mp4)
- Kimya at Amoeba Hollywood
Interviews[link]
- Scene Missing Magazine Interviews Kimya Dawson February 1, 2005
- Kimya Dawson interview on MonsterFresh.com March 2008
- Kimya Dawson interview on Ground Control March 2008
- Kimya Dawson interview on BeatLawrence.com April 2008
- Kimya Dawson on Amoeba
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dawson, Kimya |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1972-11-17 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Kimya_Dawson
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Kimya Dawson
http://pt.wn.com/Kimya Dawson
http://de.wn.com/Kimya Dawson
http://it.wn.com/Kimya Dawson
http://pl.wn.com/Kimya Dawson
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimya_Dawson
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
| Johnny Valiant | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Johnny Valiant[1] Luscious Johnny V[1] John L. Sullivan[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 245 lb (111 kg)[1] |
| Born | (1946-11-25) November 25, 1946 (age 65)[1] Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1] |
| Resides | Queens, New York[1] |
| Billed from | New York, New York[1] |
| Trained by | Al Costello[1] |
| Debut | 1967[1] |
John L. Sullivan (Thomas Sullivan)[1] is a retired professional wrestler better known as Johnny Valiant. He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which became the World Wrestling Federation during his time with the promotion. He won the World Tag Team Championship two times. The first run (which lasted over a year) was with his first and most famous storyline brother Jimmy Valiant over Tony Garea & Dean Ho on May 8, 1974; his second title run was with his second storyline brother Jerry Valiant over Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko on March 6, 1979.[2][3]
Contents |
Biography[link]
Sullivan grew up in Pittsburgh's North Hills suburb, not far from wrestling champion Bruno Sammartino. After asking for advice on how to become a pro wrestler, Sullivan became close friends with Sammartino and began his career in the Detroit territory wrestling, refereeing and working the ring crew for the notorious wrestling villain The Sheik. Kangaroo Al Costello trained Sullivan in the mat wars and soon he began traveling the twenty-five regional territories throughout the U.S, Puerto Rico and Canada.[4] From 1969 through 1973, he enjoyed a protracted stint in the WWWF as a mid-card babyface, losing to serious threats like Killer Kowalski and Toru Tanaka, but repeatedly holding the notorious Baron Mikel Scicluna to a draw, and regularly defeating jobbers like Angelo Savoldi and Johnny Rodz. On one of his visits to Ontario working for "Bearman" Dave McKigney, Sullivan met "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant who had worked as "Jimmy Valen," "Big John Valen," and "Jimmy the Body Valentine." Jimmy took a shine to the young, enthusiastic Sullivan and shortly thereafter, brought him to the World Wrestling Association, where Dick The Bruiser teamed up Sullivan with Jimmy Valiant as the Valiant Brothers.[4] A victory for the WWA tag team titles over Dick the Bruiser and Bruno Sammartino put the name of the Valiant Brothers on the marquee and the Valiants proceeded to have a five year run which fans still talk about to this day.[4][5]
Managerial career[link]
After he retired from active competition, Valiant went on to a successful career as a manager; most notably leading the "Dream Team" Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake to the WWF Tag Team championship in 1985.[4] He managed Hulk Hogan in the AWA in the early 80s and soon moved on back to the WWF to his Dream Team who famously defeated Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda for the titles by rubbing Johnny V's lit cigar in their eyes.[2] After his Dream Team lost the Tag Titles to the British Bulldogs at WrestleMania 2, Johnny V added Canadian strongman Dino Bravo to his stable. At WrestleMania III, Valiant, Valentine and Bravo abandoned Beefcake in the ring after a battle with The Rougeau Brothers and the New Dream Team of Valentine and Bravo was born.[6] Not as successful as the first incarnation, this Dream Team had a lengthy feud with the scorned Beefcake, now known as Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, in which Beefcake famously cut and ruined Johnny V's hair.[6] Also in this stint in the WWF, Johnny V was known to do commentary on matches from time to time and introduced the team of Demolition before they were paired off with Mr. Fuji. After leaving the WWF, Valiant returned to the AWA and led the Destruction Crew: Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos to the AWA World Tag Team Championship in 1989 (defeating Greg Gagne and Paul Diamond in a tournament final).[3]
After wrestling[link]
Sullivan stills goes by the moniker of Johnny Valiant as an actor and comedian. He has appeared on multiple episodes of The Sopranos and Law & Order.[3] He also has several feature films on his resume. His one man show "An Evening with Johnny Valiant" has garnered critical praise from "Time Out New York," "The Village Voice" and WBAI Pacifica Radio.[3] He was remarried in 2004 and lives in Queens, New York City.[3]
A documentary and sequel featuring Johnny Valiant, Jimmy Valiant, and indy wrestlers Sky Hosoya and Larry Brisco called "The Absolute Truth About Pro Wrestling (Parts 1 and 2)" was released in 2008.
In wrestling[link]
- Wrestlers managed
Championships and accomplishments[link]
-
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jimmy Valiant[7]
- NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) - with Jimmy Valiant[8]
-
- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jimmy Valiant[9]
- NWA San Francisco
-
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time) - with Jimmy Valiant[10]
-
- PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1974 - with Jimmy Valiant[11]
-
- WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
- WWWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Jimmy Valiant (1) and Jerry Valiant (1)[2]
-
- WWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[12]
- WWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Jimmy Valiant[5]
References[link]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Johnny Valiant Profile". Online World Of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/j/johnny-valiant.html. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
- ^ a b c Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "WWF World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 24. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson (2005). "The Territorial Era (Mid-1960s to mid-1980s: The Valiant Brothers". The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams. ECW Press. pp. 229–231. ISBN 978-1-55022-683-6.
- ^ a b c d e f Solomon, Brian (2006). "The Valiant Brothers". WWE Legends. Pocket Books. pp. 180–184. ISBN 0-7434-9033-9.
- ^ a b Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "Indianapolis: WWA World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 96–97. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ a b c d e Brian Shields (4th Edition 2006). "Greg "the Hammer" Valentine". Main event – WWE in the raging 80s. Pocket Books. pp. 68–70. ISBN 978-1-4165-3257-6.
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "Florida: NWA Florida Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 160–161. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "NWA United States Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 163. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "NWA Georgia Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 142–143. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "San Francisco: NWA World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 307–308. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Award Winners - Tag Team of the Year". Wrestling Information Archive. http://www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/pwi/pwittoty.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
- ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2006). "Indianapolis: WWA World Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 96. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
External links[link]
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Sullivan, John L. |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | American professional wrestler |
| Date of birth | November 25, 1946 |
| Place of birth | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/John_L._Sullivan_(wrestler)
Related pages:
http://nl.wn.com/Johnny Valiant
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Sullivan_(wrestler)
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
