Strange and Amazing Wrestling Stories

by Bill Gutman

  The big question was, could anyone defeat Rogers? Some top-flight grapplers had tried, the likes of Eduardo Carpentier, Bobo Brazil, Kowalski, Buddy Dixon, and Dory Austin. None had been able to bring the Blond Devil to his knees. But there was a new challenge being mounted, by a strong young wrestler with impressive credentials. His name was Bruno Sammartino.

  Sammartino came east that spring, was soundly defeating everyone he faced, and beginning to clamor for a shot at Buddy Rogers. At first Rogers stalled by claiming he had other contenders to meet and defeat. Then in mid-April, he gave the youngster a shot, but it was in a non-title bout. Rogers set the tone by attacking young Sammartino before the bell even sounded. He was hoping to intimidate the youngster and perhaps put an end to his title hopes right there.

  But Bruno weathered the opening storm and eventually took control of the match with strength holds that weakened the Blond Devil. The bout was finally ruled no contest, but now the fans and the press wanted the two to meet for the title. It would be difficult for Rogers to stonewall again.

  He tried, by saying he'd face Sammartino "when I'm good and ready." But the public clamor continued, and finally Rogers agreed to meet Bruno again, this time on May 17, at Madison Square Garden, with the WWF title at stake. When the day arrived, the old Garden was packed to the rafters, and almost every single fan in the arena was rooting for young Bruno Sammartino. But none had the faintest idea of what was about to happen.

  When Rogers was introduced, he was soundly booed. Maybe that made him do it, or maybe he just forgot what had happened in their previous bout. But the champ figured if he attacked Sammartino quickly and viciously, using every rulebreaking trick in the book, the youngster might be intimidated and submit.

  But Bruno was ready. He fended off the initial attack by the champ and began smashing at Rogers with his forearms. Then he dropkicked the Blond Devil to the canvas, then again, and again. From there he got him in a bearhug, his tremendous strength squeezing the breath right out of the champ.

  Rogers was helpless, putty in the hands of the challenger. Almost without strain, the young Sammartino then lifted Rogers overhead and put him into the deadly backbreaker. Within seconds, Rogers had submitted. Sammartino deposited him on the canvas and walked away, the new WWF champion.

  The fans went wild, screaming for their new idol. But it had happened so fast it was almost hard to believe. In fact, if you had gone out for a hot dog or soda, you would have missed it. Amazingly enough, Bruno Sammartino had defeated Buddy Rogers in a record-breaking 48 seconds!

  AN INCREDIBLE TAG TEAM

  Tag teams are formed in many ways. Sometimes, two wrestlers have the same philosophy. Other times they might feel they complement each other, the strength of the one making up for the weakness of the other. Or they might just be close friends who want to team up in the ring. In some cases, two matmen might just feel they want to win a title, and working together is the best way to do it.

  But perhaps the strangest coupling in wrestling history occurred when the popular Dusty Rhodes, known as the American Dream, chose the egotistical and fanciful Adrian Street for a tag-team partner. Not only did their wrestling philosophies and styles contrast, but the two grapplers did not really like each other. In fact, their feelings bordered on hate!

  Then why in the world did these two team up? After all, Dusty Rhodes was one of the most popular wrestlers around, a former champion who had spent years on the circuit battling the likes of Adrian Street and other notorious rulebreakers. And Street, a prancing Englishman, whose outlandish hairstyle, clothing, and makeup had seen him dubbed the Boy George of the wrestling world, loved nothing better than to defeat the likes of Dusty Rhodes. So what gives?

  Well, in truth, this Odd Couple of the tag-team world resulted from a feud, a desire for revenge. Chalk up another reason for new tag teams. And the idea belonged to Dusty Rhodes.

  It seemed as if Dusty was in the midst of a feud with notorious rulebreakers Buzz Sawyer and Kevin Sullivan. More than anything, the American Dream wanted to defeat those two. But he wanted to do more than defeat them; he wanted to humiliate them and he thought of a unique way to do it.

  "I wanted to prove I could beat those bums with any partner," Rhodes said. "I told them I could take a man I admire less than anyone and still run them out of the ring. So I wanted a partner who would serve as an insult to Sullivan and Sawyer."

  That's how the American Dream came to choose Adrian Street. It couldn't have been very flattering to Street, especially when Dusty Rhodes didn't mince words about his partner-to-be.

  "Adrian Street's prancing stupidity is enough to make me sick," he said. "I knew that by me teaming with him, Sullivan and Sawyer would consider it a slap in the face, and there's nothing a man hates more than a slap in the face. I know Street hates my guts as much as I hate his, but the offer was crazy enough to appeal to someone who wears makeup and never goes anywhere without that Amazon valet of his."

  Dusty Rhodes must have known his psychology. Street accepted and came to the match accompanied by his female valet, Miss Linda. The showdown was held in Orlando, Florida, and Dusty stood by calmly as Street and Miss Linda even sprayed the American Dream with some sort of sweet-smelling perfume, and the crowd ate it up.

  By this time, Sawyer and Sullivan were enraged, something Rhodes was hoping would happen. He figured that enraged wrestlers make mistakes, and he was right. Their anger led to recklessness and Rhodes managed to take advantage of it. He dominated the match, to the point where he didn't even allow Street to see much action. When the match ended, Sawyer and Sullivan were soundly beaten—not really by the Odd Couple, for they were beaten mostly by Dusty Rhodes.

  But Sawyer and Sullivan weren't the only ones angered by the result of the match. The Odd Couple was about to split. Adrian Street realized that he was little more than window dressing for Rhodes, a setup used to anger their opponents so that Rhodes could take his revenge. To regain a little of his lost pride, Street immediately challenged Dusty to a match where they would be on opposite sides of the ring.

  The fanciful Adrian Street, with his valet, Miss Linda, prances toward the ring before teaming with Dusty Rhodes in a tag-team match. It was and Odd Couple combination, all right. Later, Street and Rhodes battled against each other with uncompromising fury.

  Now Rhodes figured he could show his former partner what he really thought of him. But Street attacked with a fury, quickly showing the Dream he was more than a prancer and a dancer. He was also a dangerous wrestler. The bout deteriorated into a bloody war, and ended when the referee disqualified both men.

  After the match Rhodes admitted he now had more respect for Adrian Street as a wrestler, but added that he never again would team with him under any circumstances. Then he thought a minute, and said:

  "But I guess anything can happen in wrestling." That's the truth, all right. After all, if anyone had predicted that Dusty Rhodes and Adrian Street would be tag-team partners, he would have been rushed off to the funny farm. But it happened, one of the strangest and most incredible ring events in recent years.

  DON'T MESS WITH THE BRUISER

  It seems like there was always a connection between Dick the Bruiser and football. Maybe that's because he started out as a football player, but when he gave that up for his work in the squared circle, he seemed to have a lingering need to prove something to those in the gridiron world.

  In the late 1940s, Richard Afflis was a high school football star, then an all-Big Ten selection as a sophomore at Purdue. From there he transferred to the University of Nevada, where he became an all-Pacific tackle. The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League drafted him, and he played guard for the Pack from 1951 to 1955. The last two years he was the club's offensive captain.

  The story has it that San Francisco 49er defensive tackle Leo Nomellini first encouraged Afflis to become a wrestler. Nomellini was a part-time grappler during his tenure in the NFL and, playing opposite Dick Afflis, was impressed by his
strength, quickness, and courage, all qualities that would be helpful in the ring.

  But there was one thing that Nomellini didn't see. That was the meanness. For once Richard Afflis made his commitment to wrestling, he became Dick the Bruiser, a six-foot, 250-pound terror who struck fear in the hearts of opponents everywhere.

  It wasn't long before Dick the Bruiser had risen to the top of another profession. His crewcut, square-jawed countenance wasn't frightening in itself. But the fury he unleashed in the ring was.

  "There isn't a man alive I can't lick," the Bruiser said on many occasions. "No man I've ever wrestled has convinced me I couldn't lick him. It seems like the only way I lose is on disqualifications."

  Before matches, the Bruiser would work himself into a fury. One night, while he was in the locker room getting psyched, he heard a lot of laughter and cheering coming from the arena. It seems that a good-looking female fan was doing a wild dance that was really entertaining the crowd. Suddenly the Bruiser charged out of his dressing room like an enraged bull.

  "Get that dame outta here!" he roared. "The Bruiser is wrestling here tonight and I don't want this bunch of yaks getting in a happy mood." Sure enough, ring officials told the girl to stop. No one was about to mess with the Bruiser.

  There was even a time he whipped 20,000 fans at New York's Madison Square Garden into a riotous frenzy with his antics. Some three hundred people were injured that night, but the Bruiser just laughed it off.

  But perhaps the strangest incident of the Bruiser's career occurred in 1963. Once again, his toughness brought him national headlines. The Bruiser was wrestling in Detroit, and one evening he entered a bar run by Alex Karras, the all-pro defensive tackle of the Detroit Lions. Karras wasn't playing football in 1963. He was serving a one-year suspension for an infraction of NFL rules.

  With Dick the Bruiser in the bar, things didn't stay calm for long. First, the Bruiser challenged Karras to a wrestling match, and the big tackle accepted. But before he left, the Bruiser ended up in a battle with eight of the bar's customers and it took police to break up the wild melee.

  Sure enough, Karras followed through and the match was held at the Detroit Olympia before some 16,000 fans. It was a real brawl, with the 260-pound Karras giving the Bruiser all he could handle. But in the end, experience told the story and the Bruiser won.

  It wasn't the end of it, though. Karras wanted more, and the two fought a series of matches throughout the Midwest. Their bouts were both popular and profitable, and while the Bruiser came out on top, Karras proved to be more than a worthy opponent.

  Why the strange challenge? Maybe the Bruiser wanted to prove that he had gone into an even rougher sport than football. Perhaps there were some whispers that he was a quitter because he left the NFL for the squared circle. What's certain is that the Bruiser went into Karras's bar looking for a fight, and he found one.

  But then again Dick the Bruiser was always looking for a fight. He backed down from no man and was ready to wreak his personal brand of mayhem wherever he went. Mention the name of Dick the Bruiser, and fans knew they would get their money's worth. For with the Bruiser, every bout was tantamount to war.

  THE LEGEND OF HATPIN MARY

  In the early 1950s, television was still a relatively new thing. The first superstar of the small screen was the man they called Mr. Television, comedian Milton Berle. But another early star of the boob tube was professional wrestling. Fans could catch ring action on several different channels several times a week.

  The telecasts were not nearly as colorful as they are today, and one channel even used to crinkle paper into the microphone to simulate bones breaking from a tough hold. It wasn't very effective. But the wrestling was good, with such veterans as Gorgeous George, Don the Magnificent, Les Ruffin, Gene Stanley, and the Golden Superman.

  There was another permanent fixture on those early wrestling telecasts. Seated at ringside, always in the first row, was a little old lady, a grandmotherly type, who you might expect would be home baking cookies. Maybe she baked the cookies by day, but at night she was always at Sunnyside Gardens or St. Nicholas Arena, or even Madison Square Garden, wherever there was a wrestling card in New York City.

  During the matches this little lady with the eyeglasses and omnipresent hat on her head showed little emotion. She sat and watched . . . that is, until the wrestlers arrived in front of her. You see, this elderly woman didn't like villains, the men they call rulebreakers today. And when they were close enough for her to reach them, she sprang into action.

  She would reach up to the hat she always wore and remove from it another anachronism of days gone by: the hatpin. Women used to use long pins to hold hats on their heads, and this lady always carried one. What she did with the hatpin would probably make some of today's rulebreakers proud. She would go to work on the wrestler she didn't like. Needless to say, he didn't stay in that place long.

  No one knew her real name. But to everyone in attendance and those watching on television, she became known as Hatpin Mary. Even the announcers would be watching when the grapplers got close. "Watch it, he's too close to Hatpin Mary." Or, "Here comes Hatpin Mary." For a while, there were even imitators appearing at arenas outside the city.

  The highly popular Junkyard Dog.

  It wasn't a golden age of wrestling for sure. But it had its heroes, its moments, and its characters. One of the funniest and strangest, without a doubt, had to be that little lady known as Hatpin Mary.

  FREDDIE BLASSIE, ALMOST THE CHAMP . . . ALMOST

  Just as he does today, when he manages some of the roughest, toughest rulebreaking wrestlers in the business, Freddie Blassie always had a lot to say. Ask Freddie a question or call him a name and he couldn't ignore it. Even in the days when he was a topflight grappler, there was a time when his rabbit ears may have cost him a championship. It was a strange turn of events and involved a man many consider one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Lou Thesz.

  Thesz was a legend in his own time. He won his first world title in 1937, and when he retired in 1966, he still held a title. In fact, he was a champion for a total of 18 years during his long career, and that's a record that will be extremely tough to beat.

  In 1965, Thesz was an aging veteran, well into his forties, but still a champion. And one of the men rankled by this was Freddie Blassie, the blond-haired Dapper Dan who did dastardly deeds in the ring. Out of the ring Blassie liked to hobnob with celebrities from the sports and entertainment fields and tell whoever would listen that he was the world's greatest wrestler.

  In late summer of '65, Blassie and his mouth began taking direct aim at Lou Thesz. The popular veteran was NWA champ then, while Blassie held no title. Yet Blassie insisted he was the champ, and of the two men he, not Thesz, should be introduced as the defending champion. It was a case of convoluted logic at its best and an arrangement that wouldn't wash. If Blassie wanted a match, he'd have to be the challenger, simple as that.

  "The great Freddie Blassie never backed out of any wrestling match," he roared. "You tell that pencil-neck who calls himself the champ to show up and have that belt nice and polished so it's ready to change hands."

  So the match was made. That was the hardest part, Blassie figured. Defeating Thesz would be easy. Like most title matches back then, the best two of three falls took it. Both men were cautious in the early minutes, then Blassie began to get rough, trying a number of illegal holds and punishing the champ despite the boos and catcalls from the crowd.

  Because he figured Thesz was weakening under the pounding, Blassie relaxed and, as he whipped the champ off the ropes, forgot to protect himself. Thesz came flying off feet first, and took Freddie down with a beautiful body scissors, rolling him into a pin for the first fall. It was a spectacular wrestling maneuver and the fans went berserk.

  Now Blassie knew that Thesz was not an over-the-hill pretender. In fact, at the beginning of the second fall he seemed to stall, back-pedaling as if he didn't want to mix it up. This annoyed the
champ and for a brief minute he lost his cool, becoming overanxious. When Blassie saw the opening he sprang like a tiger out for blood. He managed to catch Thesz in a spinning reverse neckbreaker. When Blassie put the champ in the hold for a second time, Thesz was pinned. Blassie had evened things up.

  Thesz looked groggy. The neckbreaker had really taken a toll on the champ. Blassie strutted around the ring, confident of victory in the third and deciding fall. But then something interrupted his prancing. The figure of Eddie Graham appeared at the foot of the ring. Graham began running at the mouth, demanding a title match and challenging the winner of the third fall.

  This in itself surprised no one. It wasn't unusual for a top contender to challenge for a title. But the fireworks really started when Graham got personal.

  "But no matter what happens, I want to get loudmouth Blassie in the ring . . . that is, if he has the guts to wrestle me."

  So now the challenge got personal. Freddie Blassie, who claimed to fear no man, was being called something less than fearless. Forgetting what he was there for, Blassie charged the ring apron and tried to kick Graham. That gave Graham an excuse to jump into the ring in his street clothes and go after Blassie. The two went at it for several minutes, both in and out of the ring, before order could be restored.

  But while the two were separated, they continued to taunt and shout at each other. They were still at it when the bell rang signaling the third fall. It's doubtful Blassie even heard it, so intent on insulting Graham was he. But Thesz did. He raced across the ring and bombed Freddie with a flying dropkick. That was the beginning of the end for Freddie Blassie. Thesz continued to work him over and within minutes had him pinned to take the match.