Pro Wrestlers You May Not Remember

[BrAinPaiNt]

I have no idea if Mr.W2 wrestled without the mask or exchanged masks from time to time and became a heel.

Sam Houston... the son of Blackjack Mulligan and the brother of Barry Windham. I remember Sam being tall & thin as a rail.

Yep...that kid looked like a spaghetti string with mosquito bites for muscles lol. But I tell you what, kid never really made it big but he put 100% into his matches...well at least the few I seen.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Yes..that's it...I was fuzzy on the details but knew that the crux of the story was that Harley slapped him pretty good and nobody did anything about it because Race was really a tough guy and not just in the ring.

I've read accounts from different sources where Race would go into bars and purposely pick fights with the toughest guys in there... just for kicks! He would use a head-butt to break a nose well before his fist hit your jaw.

After he retired in '93, he served summons for a while.

Some folks weren't so thrilled to receive the summons but were thrilled to meet him.

And of course there was person or two along the way who objected to being served and tried to "intimidate" Harley.

Needless to say that didn't work out so good for the person being served.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Yep...that kid looked like a spaghetti string with mosquito bites for muscles lol. But I tell you what, kid never really made it big but he put 100% into his matches...well at least the few I seen.

No... he never made it anywhere close to being as successful as his father and brother.

And really Barry had a chance to be a World Champion but the word was that he didn't really care all that much for the business.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

I've read accounts from different sources where Race would go into bars and purposely pick fights with the toughest guys in there... just for kicks! He would use a head-butt to break a nose well before his fist hit your jaw.

After he retired in '93, he served summons for a while.

Some folks weren't so thrilled to receive the summons but were thrilled to meet him.

And of course there was person or two along the way who objected to being served and tried to "intimidate" Harley.

Needless to say that didn't work out so good for the person being served.

Ive heard several of these stories as well about Race. He was outside the ring a real tough hombre. Also heard the same bar fight stories about Captain Redneck as well as Dusty Rhoades.

 

[lothos05]

Nice thread, MW and lots of good information in here! I've never heard of Billy Robinson but he looks like a very good wrestler. For as many wrestling matches I've seen, this was the first time I saw someone use a toe trip to get out of a behind the back wrist lock.

I don't know if he qualifies as a shooter but the earliest guy I remember who could actually wrestle was Brad Rheingans. I don't remember much about him but knew he was an Olympic wrestler.

Two guys that have stuck in my head mostly from reading about them in wrestling magazines and then seeing them in the WWF were "Pistol" Pez Whatley and "Rugged" Ron Garvin.

The next three, I'll keep theme-related . . . forgotten (maybe) wrestlers of Italian descent:
face - Dominic Denucci
jobber - Salvatore Bellomo
heel - King Kong Mosca.

By the way, King Kong Mosca always reminded me of your avatar, MW . . .

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Nice thread, MW and lots of good information in here! I've never heard of Billy Robinson but he looks like a very good wrestler. For as many wrestling matches I've seen, this was the first time I saw someone use a toe trip to get out of a behind the back wrist lock.

I don't know if he qualifies as a shooter but the earliest guy I remember who could actually wrestle was Brad Rheingans. I don't remember much about him but knew he was an Olympic wrestler.

Two guys that have stuck in my head mostly from reading about them in wrestling magazines and then seeing them in the WWF were "Pistol" Pez Whatley and "Rugged" Ron Garvin.

The next three, I'll keep theme-related . . . forgotten (maybe) wrestlers of Italian descent:
face - Dominic Denucci
jobber - Salvatore Bellomo
heel - King Kong Mosca.

By the way, King Kong Mosca always reminded me of your avatar, MW . . .

Dominic Denucci... Amazing how well known he is considering he was face who was usually one of the first guys a heel would beat when he entered the WWWF.

The funny thing about Mosca is that he was a face in Canada. At the same time he was wrestling as a heel in the WWF, he was a face in the NWA/Canada. Even today, Mosca is well regarded by Canadians.

When it came to "shooters" for much of wrestling's history, a "shooter" was more than likely to be world champion simply because they could take care of themselves in the ring if their opponent decided to not follow the script. Almost all the long-term (mean years) NWA Champions were "shooters". Thesz, Rogers, Dory Funk Jr, Jack Brisco, Harley Race... All could handle themselves in ring if things got out of hand. In the 70's and 80's a lot of the shenanigans found in wrestling went away and there was less call for needing a "shooter" as world champ. Even Bruno in the WWWF was more than capable of taking care of business if an opponent got out of hand.

Sometimes matches would turn into "shoots" where the script was tossed out the window.

I heard one great story about Ric Flair and Don Kernodle wrestling the Brisco brothers, and Flair deviated from the script and the Brisco's got pissed over it... But instead of taking it out on Flair, they took poor Don Kernodle and "stretched" the heck out of him for about the next 30 minutes as payback!

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Stone Cold has a pod cast show now...you can get the app for free for your android or iphone.

He talks a lot with other wrestlers.

There was an interview with Flair that all old wrestling fans should listen to.

There was a story where Flair was going to Japan and word is one of the promoters over there was bad about not treating the american wrestlers right or not paying or something. Flair says they sent someone over with him to be his body guard..I want to say it was actually Harley Race at the time...yes Harley was a wrestler at that time as well but they sent him with Rick as his body guard of sorts. Apparently Jumbo was very close to the promoter there and was his body guard of sorts.

They went into a meeting and both the promoter and jumbo was sitting down. From all indications not only was Jumbo a big deal over there he was also a pretty tough guy as well.

Flair said that Harley went over and slapped the crap out of jumbo's face and told him how things were going to be concerning Flair's match....not sure if it was about money or how they were going to treat Flair. Flair went on to say that Jumbo did not make a move to get up or say anything...he said that was how tough and intimidating Race was.

However it is funny listening to most of the interviews he has done and it had been said by him and many of the older wrestlers that he interviewed that the guy who played Haku was the toughest guy. That was said by many of the guys. Said he was the one that was a true tough guy and nobody would mess with him.

His pod cast really is worth listening too if you like the older wrestlers.

It appears that Jim Ross has a podcast as well but I have not listened to his at all.

Funny thing is I have not watched wrestling in a long time but I really enjoy listening to the older wrestling stories. Stone Cold's pod cast does talk about current wrestling as well but I usually skip those episodes as I really am not interested in the current crop since I don't watch it now.

Flair, like many old time wrestlers, like to tell lies and work the fans, the other wrestlers, etc.

Harley was known as a legit tough guy and nobody messed with him because there was a fear that even if you beat up Harley, he was crazy enough to take his pistol and shoot you dead if need be.

The word for Americans wrestling in Japan is that they would hit other Americans lightly, but they were instructed by guys like Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody to hit the Japanese wrestlers as hard as they could. This was mainly due to the Japanese wrestlers not being afraid to take cheap shots on American wrestlers. Back then the American wrestlers were almost always bigger than the Japanese wrestlers and could hit harder so it would get the Japanese to back off.

As far as promoters go, Giant Baba was a fairly straight up promoter. Jumbo was trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and outside of only wanting to wrestle a squash match against a young Cactus Jack, I've never heard of him being hard to work with (and Cactus should've lost in a squash match anyway).

I just fail to buy into Flair's story.






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Back in the day the jobbers were often the best in-ring wrestlers. Way back in the day the WWF used to run a 'B show' across the northeast . I attended one of these shows (I was also at the show that David Sammartino punched a fan legit). And the main eventer was...Johnny Rodz. And he was incredibly good in the ring when given the chance.

The Mulkeys weren't exactly good workers, but they could take some hellacious bumps and make anybody look unbeatable.

These days I really like to watch a lot of old Portland Wrestling. It was such a fun company to watch as you had hot crowds every week, great in-ring action and some good storylines and angles.

I also like watching as much old Buzz Sawyer stuff as I could find. He was an incredible worker and was so far ahead of his time.





YR

 

[kimrose]

Here are my two favorite wrestlers of all time. Mr. USA Tony Atlas, and Macho Man Randy Savage! Yeah... I'm lucky to find a clip of them wrestling each other. And my beautiful Miss Elizabeth is right by Randy's side. "Notso Macho Man",lol. That was priceless TV. lol.

 

[lothos05]

Dominic Denucci... Amazing how well known he is considering he was face who was usually one of the first guys a heel would beat when he entered the WWWF.

The funny thing about Mosca is that he was a face in Canada. At the same time he was wrestling as a heel in the WWF, he was a face in the NWA/Canada. Even today, Mosca is well regarded by Canadians.

When it came to "shooters" for much of wrestling's history, a "shooter" was more than likely to be world champion simply because they could take care of themselves in the ring if their opponent decided to not follow the script. Almost all the long-term (mean years) NWA Champions were "shooters". Thesz, Rogers, Dory Funk Jr, Jack Brisco, Harley Race... All could handle themselves in ring if things got out of hand. In the 70's and 80's a lot of the shenanigans found in wrestling went away and there was less call for needing a "shooter" as world champ. Even Bruno in the WWWF was more than capable of taking care of business if an opponent got out of hand.

Sometimes matches would turn into "shoots" where the script was tossed out the window.

I heard one great story about Ric Flair and Don Kernodle wrestling the Brisco brothers, and Flair deviated from the script and the Brisco's got pissed over it... But instead of taking it out on Flair, they took poor Don Kernodle and "stretched" the heck out of him for about the next 30 minutes as payback!

Very interesting . . . I definitely am going to read up more on shooters. Any book recommendations? The one by Jonathan Snowden looks like a good read.

That's a funny story regarding Don Kernodle. I guess they held him responsible for Flair stepping out of line! Jake "the snake" Roberts had some funny stories about the torture that Andre the Giant put him through. Anywhere from passing gas on him for 20 seconds to stepping on his hair and pulling him up from his arms.

I think I read somewhere that Andre and Harley had wrestled each other in the mid 70s and the fight actually continued backstage. I would have loved to see how that would have shaken out.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Here are my two favorite wrestlers of all time. Mr. USA Tony Atlas, and Macho Man Randy Savage! Yeah... I'm lucky to find a clip of them wrestling each other. And my beautiful Miss Elizabeth is right by Randy's side. "Notso Macho Man",lol. That was priceless TV. lol.

I was huge Atlas mark when he came into the WWWF.

At that point he had just concluded a decent run as a mid-carder in the NWA Mid-Atlantic area.

Atlas and Hogan had a decent mini-feud during Hogan's first tour of the WWWF...

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Very interesting . . . I definitely am going to read up more on shooters. Any book recommendations? The one by Jonathan Snowden looks like a good read.

That's a funny story regarding Don Kernodle. I guess they held him responsible for Flair stepping out of line! Jake "the snake" Roberts had some funny stories about the torture that Andre the Giant put him through. Anywhere from passing gas on him for 20 seconds to stepping on his hair and pulling him up from his arms.

I think I read somewhere that Andre and Harley had wrestled each other in the mid 70s and the fight actually continued backstage. I would have loved to see how that would have shaken out.

Yes the Snowden book is very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Shooters-Toug...d=1419692168&sr=1-1&keywords=Jonathan+Snowden

So is this book by Tom Hornbaker about the creation of the NWA:

http://www.amazon.com/National-Wres...d_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZB5WA8MNBFHZM3JT3P4

And virtually any book by Larry Matysik is excellent. Larry worked for both Sam Muchnick, the long time president of the NWA and Vince McMahon.

 

[BIGDen]

I was a huge Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka fan. I'll never forget my parents getting me tickets for Christmas to see Snuka vs Ray "The Crippler" Stevens at MSG. My mom even had a "Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka #1" sweatshirt made for me. It had those fuzzy rounded iron on letters you'd see in the 70's and 80's lol. The match was revenge for Snuka who had been ambushed and piledriven on the cement outside of the ring. Classic stuff. I believed most of it was real back then. Used to get Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the mail. Would read each issue front to back dozens of times. Snuka jumping off the top of the steel cage against Bob Backlund is still one of the classic moments in wrestling history. Snuka was doing that highflying superfly stuff before it became very popular.

Years later (around 6 years ago) there was a street fair in my town here in NJ. They had a few old time wrestlers (Greg Valentine and maybe the Iron Sheik) signing autographs. Snuka not only was signing autographs but he wrestled too! The poor guy had to be around 65 and he did a Superfly off the top rope in a street fair in Edison, NJ! The guy made millions and blew it on drugs, steroids etc. He even likely killed his girlfriend but, somehow, got away with it. What a crazy life that guy has led. I have a pic of me (wearing a Cowboys T-shirt) and Snuka holding up the "I love you" symbol with the hands - not to each other lol. That was one of his things when he wrestled. The guy was still in pretty good shape. He definetely had that broad, powerful, Polynesian build. I'm a little over 6'2" with big hands and, although he was not as tall as me, his hands were like baseball mitts. Even as a senior citizen he could probably easily crush most people with one hand.

Here's the Wikipedia page on Snuka:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Snuka

Another wrestler from that era, who actually lives near me, is Pedro Morales. He was the WWF Intercontinental Champ when I started watching as a kid. You would never know he was a pro wrestler if you saw him. Just a chubby, older, quiet, hispanic guy. His wife is a tall blond who is taller than he is. They had a son who was enormous. The kid was like 6'9" 400 lbs. I have never felt so small standing next to someone. Unfortunately, he had many issues and passed away recently.

Another name from that era was Rocky Johnson. He's the Rock's dad and clearly where the Rock got his physique.

I haven't been in this section of CowboysZone in a while. This was a nice little stroll down memory lane. Happy holidays fellas!

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Another wrestler from that era, who actually lives near me, is Pedro Morales. He was the WWF Intercontinental Champ when I started watching as a kid. You would never know he was a pro wrestler if you saw him. Just a chubby, older, quiet, hispanic guy. His wife is a tall blond who is taller than he is. They had a son who was enormous. The kid was like 6'9" 400 lbs. I have never felt so small standing next to someone. Unfortunately, he had many issues and passed away recently.

Pedro is an interesting guy.

I'm not sure what the "politics" were that got him the WWWF title because he was a little bit of an unknown other than he owned the Pittsburgh-area wrestling promotion, which ultimately became part of the WWWF.

Other than losing his temper and slapping his hands together he never knocked my socks off with his wrestling ability.

That being said, he certainly had his backers. At various times he held all 3 major WWWF titles.

 

[BIGDen]

Pedro is an interesting guy.

I'm not sure what the "politics" were that got him the WWWF title because he was a little bit of an unknown other than he owned the Pittsburgh-area wrestling promotion, which ultimately became part of the WWWF.

Other than losing his temper and slapping his hands together he never knocked my socks off with his wrestling ability.

That being said, he certainly had his backers. At various times he held all 3 major WWWF titles.

Yeah he was pretty unimpressive as a wrestler. I just remembered that my wife knew Tito Santana pretty well. He owns a hair salon in north Jersey. He was a health ed teacher up there too. Met him. Very nice guy. He apparently pronounced ***** as pennis which the students, of course, enjoyed.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Yeah he was pretty unimpressive as a wrestler. I just remembered that my wife knew Tito Santana pretty well. He owns a hair salon in north Jersey. He was a health ed teacher up there too. Met him. Very nice guy. He apparently pronounced ***** as pennis which the students, of course, enjoyed.

Oh Tito! I disliked his wrestling style but he was certainly more interesting than Pedro...

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I also like watching as much old Buzz Sawyer stuff as I could find. He was an incredible worker and was so far ahead of his time.

YR

Yeah, I enjoyed watching Buzz Sawyer. When I started watching Georgia Championship Wrestling, hosted by Gordon Solie (the best wrestling announcer ever!), Sawyer was involved in a heated feud with the "Boston Battler" Kevin Sullivan, which was an interesting matchup because each guy was well under 6' tall and built like a tree stump.

I know the cause of Buzz Sawyer's death is somewhat controversial in that while he died of heart failure tied to a drug overdose, Billy Jack Haynes said it was "hit" because both he and Sawyer were part-time drug traffickers. Ugly stuff indeed.

 

[Phoenix]

Name these guys

 

[Phoenix]

Okay, hints:


One of the guys is an "Uncle" guy. Apparently a signature move was the Possum Slam or something like that...?

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Okay, hints:


One of the guys is an "Uncle" guy. Apparently a signature move was the Possum Slam or something like that...?

Couldn't tell you who they were.