- published: 10 Jul 2011
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Arnold Skaaland (January 21, 1925 – March 13, 2007) was an American professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager.
Skaaland served in the U.S. Marines during World War II. After a short-lived attempt to make a living through boxing, he became a professional wrestler and debuted in 1946 as "Arnold Skaaland". Though competing under his real name, he was billed early in his career as hailing from Norway. Skaaland gained the nickname "The Golden Boy" and was known as a small, agile wrestler who relied on speed, wits, and toughness in the ring rather than size and strength.
In the late 1950s, he wrestled in Georgia under the ring name Bobby Weaver. In the early 1960s, Skaaland unsuccessfully challenged both Pat O'Connor and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. In 1962, he refereed a match between Freddie Blassie and Rikidōzan in Japan.
In 1963, Skaaland was a part of the newly created, New York City-based World Wide Wrestling Federation. On June 1, 1967 he collected his only title as one half of the WWWF United States Tag Team Champions, when Tony Parisi gave his half of the title to Skaaland. Skaaland and his partner, Spiros Arion, soon lost the titles to The Sicilians (Lou Albano and Tony Altimore) on July 10, 1967 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Arion and Bruno Sammartino rewon the belts two weeks later, and retired them.
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.