Pro Wrestling Hall Of Fame: The Heels

Steven Johnson

Description

Most comprehensive ever look at the colourful villains, heels, bad guys and rule breakers who give pro wrestling so much of its character. With their signature mix of original research, interviews and anecdotes, Oliver and Johnson describe the rise and development of the modern bad guy, from riots in small-town arenas in the 1920s to the megaselling pay-per-views of the 21st century. From Gorgeous George and before to Ric Flair and the modern supervillains, they're all here - and they're sure to spark lively debate for fans and newbies alike!

Sujets

• Lucha libre profesional
• Wrestling

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 16 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554902842
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

THE PRO WRESTLING HALL OF FAME THE HEELS

Also in this series
The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Canadians The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams
THE PRO WRESTLING HALL OF FAME THE HEELS
GREG OLIVER STEVEN JOHNSON
Copyright Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson, 2007
Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Oliver, Greg The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame : the heels / Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-759-8 ISBN-10: 1-55022-759-9
1. Wrestlers - Biography. 2. Wrestlers. 3. Wrestling. I. Johnson, Steven, 1957- II. Title.
GV1196.A1O545 2007 796.812092'2 C2006-906828-3
Editor for the press: Michael Holmes Cover photo: Bulldog Brower mauls Carlos Belafonte (Brian Bukantis) Spine Photo: Buddy Rogers (Tony Lanza) Back Cover: Gorgeous George (The SPORT Collection, www.thesportgallery.com ); Randy Orton and John Cena (Mike Mastrandrea) Authors Photo: Cindy Johnson Typesetting: Mary Bowness Printing: Printcrafters
This book is set in Joanna and Officina
DISTRIBUTION
Canada: Jaguar Book Group, 100 Armstrong Ave., Georgetown, ON L7G 5S4
United States: Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA
To Cindy Johnson and Meredith Renwick, our wives, who have been constant sources of support and inspiration, as well as message takers, proofreaders, and all-around sounding boards.

Meredith Renwick does her best Missing Link (Dewey Robertson) impression.

The Destroyer gets the better of Cindy Johnson.


The one and only Nature Boy Buddy Rogers.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Rick Martel
Introduction
The Top Twenty
1. Nature Boy Buddy Rogers
2. Gorgeous George
3. The Sheik
4. Mad Dog Vachon
5. Wild Bill Longson
6. Fred Blassie
7. Johnny Valentine
8. The Destroyer (Dick Beyer)
9. Killer Kowalski
10. Harley Race
11. Danny McShain
12. Abdullah the Butcher
13. Nick Bockwinkel
14. Gene Kiniski
15. Boris Malenko
16. Hans Schmidt
17. Ray Stevens
18. Nature Boy Ric Flair
19. Bull Curry
20. Rowdy Roddy Piper

The Next Five
Terry Funk
Killer Karl Kox
Ernie Ladd
Randy Macho Man Savage
The Spoiler (Don Jardine)
The Pioneers
Chief Chewacki
Ted King Kong Cox
Dick Daviscourt
Billy Edwards
Abe King Kong Kashey
K.O. Koverly
Heel With a Heart
Lord Lansdowne
Buddy O Brien
Lou Plummer
Dick Raines
Ivan Rasputin
Frederich Von Schacht
George Zaharias
The Madmen
Killer Tim Brooks
Bulldog Brower
Pampero Firpo
Crazy Luke Graham
King Curtis Iaukea
Moondog Mayne
George The Animal Steele
The Golden Greek John Tolos
The Egotists
Beauregarde
Edge
Superstar Billy Graham
Roger Kirby
Nature Boy Buddy Landel
Randy Orton
Ravishing Rick Rude
Bobby Shane
Exotic Adrian Street
The Monsters
Crusher Blackwell
Black Angus Campbel
Moose Cholak
Eric the Red
Kane
Jos Leduc
The Mongolian Stomper
Gorilla Monsoon
Apache Bull Ramos
Vader
The Zebra Kid

The Technicians
Don Fargo
The Legacy of Iron Mike
Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig
The Masked Superstar
Big Bill Miller
The Rogers-Miller-Gotch Backstage Mystery
Mister Wonderful Paul Orndorff
Bob Orton Sr.
Pat Patterson
Angelo Poffo
Professor Roy Shire
The Connivers
Tully Blanchard
Ripper Collins
Chris Colt
Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert
Dr. Jerry Graham
Rip Hawk
Triple H
Jeff Jarrett
Man on the Moon
Jake The Snake Roberts
Larry Zbyszko
The Tough Guys
Bad News Allen
Mario Galento
Stan Hansen
JBL
The Missouri Mauler
Sputnik Monroe
Blackjack Mulligan
Death in the Ring
Magnificent Muraco
Dick Murdoch
Dutch Savage
Dr. D David Shults
Dick Slater
Stan Stasiak
Ron Wright
The Foreigners
The Iron Sheik
Ivan Koloff
The Great Mephisto
Mr. Moto
Toru Tanaka
Nikolai Volkoff
Fritz Von Erich
Waldo von Erich
Karl Von Hess
Kurt Von Poppenheim
Baron Von Raschke
Tojo Yamamoto
Notes on Sources
A bloody Mighty Igor tries to escape from The Sheik - and the cage.
Acknowledgements
In the two years since The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams came out, it feels like there have been a thousand autobiographies published about pro wrestlers. But we know this book is different. For one, it feels like we talked to a thousand wrestlers. The surprising thing? The great insight one gets talking to the underneath workers, the carpenters that built stars by making them look good, then laying down and looking at the lights. So a special thank you goes out to them for sharing their memories and thoughts.
Then there are the historians, the folks who really get their hands dirty digging up results from a century ago or finding the clipping of an overzealous athletic commission suspending some bad guy for a perceived infraction. In this wired world, many people can claim to be historians, but a select few really stand out for their long contributions to the realm of professional wrestling research: J Michael Kenyon, Don Luce, Fred Hornby, Lib Ayoub, Steve Yohe, James C. Melby, George Schire, Mike Rodgers, Tom Burke, Dave Meltzer, Tim Dills, Jim Zordani, Michael Norris, Dr. Bob Bryla, George Lentz, Vern May, Tim Hornbaker, Mark Hewitt, Evan Ginzburg, Mike Lano, Brian Bukantis, Mike Mooneyham, Will Morrisey, Crimson Mask, Rich Tate of Peach State Pandemonium , and Dick Bourne and David Chappell of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Web site. Others, like John Pantozzi, Dale Pierce, Greg Price, Greg Mosorjak, and Ken Jugan helped with valuable leads. Then there s Scott Teal, a publishing maven in his own right, whom we are proud to call a friend, especially now that we ve both finally met him; his support has been invaluable through the years.
Budding journalist Annie Johnson helped with some story flow and interviews. Staff and friends of SLAM! Wrestling contributed a quote here and there as well, so thank yous go out to Dave Hillhouse, Bob Kapur, Matt Mackinder, Chris Schramm, Jon Waldman, Jason Clevett, Corey David Lacroix, and Colin Hunter.
On the organizational front, Red Bastien, Karl Lauer and Dean Silverstone of the Cauliflower Alley Club have positively jumped at the chance to help us with our projects. Thank you. The physical Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, New York, shares more than just a title with our series of books; like us, the staff of volunteers headed by Tony Vellano is striving to keep wrestling history alive. The induction weekends in May are a yearly highlight, from Penny Banner and Ida Mae Martinez singing karaoke to the induction banquet itself. The George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, freshly moved to Waterloo, Iowa, aims to do the same with the wrestlers who have a little more serious grappling background. Kudos to Mike and Bev Chapman, and Kyle Klingman, for their hard work. And the Library of Congress staff responded with a smile to endless microfilm runs.
It s been a real pleasure to know that people in the business like Dr. Tom Prichard, Rick Martel, Les Thatcher, Bob Leonard, Bill Anderson, Don Leo Jonathan, and Emile Dupre are there when we need them, with no question too small. Working in public relations at WWE or TNA must be a thankless job, so here s a first - thanks to Dawn Dwyer and Steven Godfrey and their hardworking staffs, interns included, as well as the many who preceded them.
At ECW Press, we have supporters in publisher Jack David and our editor, Michael Holmes, both of whom are fans of wrestling. The support staff there - Kulsum, Crissy, David, Mary, Rachel et al. - has proven to be just as essential to this series. (Though if our names aren t on the cover of this book, you ll be seeing a fork-wielding Abdullah the Butcher in your office soon!)
We ve also made many, many friends through the SLAM! Wrestling Web site and the Steel Belt Wrestling Web site, and our connections with both sites have helped tremendously with the books.
The response to The Tag Teams has been quite wonderful, and though we re committed to keeping the secret, thank you to the Hall of Famer who said he keeps his copy in the bathroom - that s the ultimate compliment!
And finally, a thank you to the bad guys who entertained us through the years.
Greg Oliver Producer, SLAM! Wrestling slam.canoe.ca/wrestling [e-mail]
Steven Johnson Editor, Steel Belt Wrestling www.steelbeltwrestling.com [e-mail]


Paul LeDuc holds Killer Kowalski for Jos LeDuc to hit with a chair.
Foreword by Rick Martel
When I first walked into a bad guys dressing room I was thirteen years old and it was love at first sight. I liked being around those guys right from the start. My brother Michel, who was one of them, would bring me on some trips with him and I was always amazed to see how - especially in those days - the heels had to fight their way out of the ring because of the heat they had generated. They often found themselves in dangerous situations, and on numerous occasions their actions even caused riots. When they made it back to the dressing room, they would just casually joke about it. Yes, they were a special breed.

Rick Martel, WWWF hero.
At the beginning of my career as a pro wrestler, because of my looks and my young age of seventeen, I had to be a babyface. Throughout my first fourteen years, I wrestled against the best of the bad guys. I won t mention any names because I don t want to forget anyone. But many of them are in this book, all those characters with different gimmicks. Finally, in the few remaining years of my career, I was able to beco