Advertise on podcast: Classic Wrestling Memories

Outside of the ring, he is also arguably the second greatest promoter of all time behind Vince McMahon. His whole story is way too long to tell in a single episode but we will do the best we can. Inoko popularized the inter-promotional show concept where wrestlers from multiple promotions appeared on the same card. He wanted to present pro wrestlers as being just as tough as other combat sports fighters, so he billed himself as a World Martial Arts Champion. He is believed to be the only person to defeat both Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant by submission. Fans even pleaded with him to slap them, because they believed his fighting spirit might be slapped into them. Career Accomplishments WCW HALL OF FAME - 1995 WRESTLING OBSERVER HALL OF FAME - 1996 TRAGOS/THESZ HALL OF FAME - 2005 PRO WRESTLING HALL OF FAME - 2009 WWE HALL OF FAME - 2010 INTERNATIONAL PRO WRESTLING HALL OF FAME - 2021

Gene LeBell may be the most famous judoka of all time. He was also a highly sought-after stuntman and stunt coordinator. And on top of that, he was also a professional wrestler in one of the biggest territories in history, NWA Hollywood. Seth and Train pay tribute to the legendary career of “Judo” Gene LeBell, who in his life may have actually done some of the stuff Chuck Norris jokes were made about because he helped train Chuck Norris Gene LeBell grew up in the Los Angeles area and was born into the sports promotion business. His parents were boxing promoters and his brother Mike ran the WWA (later NWA Hollywood) California territory. LeBell began his wrestling training at the ripe old age of seven at the hands of Ed “Strangler” Lewis, who was one-third of The Gold Dust Trio. He got into wrestling in 1955 and often worked under a mask in undercard matches as The Hangman to put over talent that were moving up the card. Gene wore the mask to hide his identity and protect his status as a world-class Judo champion. One of the “Chuck Norris” type stories happened when Bearcat Wright won the WWA title from Freddie Blassie in 1963. Mike wanted to put the belt on Eduardo Carpentier (who, depending on which territory you followed, was a former NWA champion). When Wright refused to drop the title, Blassie went to the promoters and convinced them that Wright would lose to him, and then he could lose it to Carpentier three days later. Wright shot on his friend Blassie and legitimately knocked him out. Three days later, Bearcat Wright stood in the ring for his title defense against Carpentier. However, the masked Hangman made his way to the ring in Carpentier’s place. Wright, who at 6’7″ and 275 pounds was an undefeated boxer, turned tail and escaped rather than face LeBell. He jumped in his Cadillac and drove to Arizona. LeBell also competed in what many would call the first-ever MMA Match when he faced a boxer named Milo Savage. He worked in hundreds of movies and TV shows including The Munsters where Herman was a wrestler.

October is here and so is our annual episode devoted to WCW’s Halloween Havoc. This year we look at Halloween Havoc 1990 which saw Sting defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Sid Vicious in a match that had one of the craziest finishes in the history of pro wrestling. And that is saying something… 4:30 – Pro Wrestling in 1990 Both WCW and WWF had new faces as top guys in 1990 in the forms of Sting and The Ultimate Warrior respectively. Coincidentally, Sting and Warrior broke into wrestling as a tag team called The Blade Runners. Other top stars in WCW at the time were Lex Luger, Stan Hansen, The Freebirds, and The Steiner Brothers. 10:00 – Storylines and Angles It’s worth mentioning that the version on Peacock and WWE Network is the same as the home video release from 1990. This version omits several undercard matches, likely due to videotape time limitations. Express vs. Express The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) attacked Robert Gibson of The Rock & Roll Express and injured his knee. Gibson injured his knee in real life so this storyline was made to explain his absence. Former NWA World Champion Tommy Rich stepped in to aid Ricky Morton against The Midnights. The Freebirds vs. The Renegade Warriors Neither team were champions, but usually, the winner of a match on a major PPV would be seen as the next contender for tag team titles. The US Tag Team Titles The Steiner Brothers were well on their way to being a top tag team. The two won the NWA US Tag Championship from The Midnight Express. World Tag Team Titles The World Tag Champions, Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) defended the titles against Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. This makes for a heel vs. heel match. However, the crowd treated Flair and Arn like babyfaces US Title Lex Luger as a heel defeated a babyface Michael Hayes for the United States Championship in the summer of 1989 and held the title until this event. At 523 days, it is to this day still the longest US Title reign. Luger also turned babyface during this reign while Hayes turned heel to reform The Freebirds with Jimmy Garvin. Stan Hansen was working for WCW between stints in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Main Event Storyline Sting became the top babyface in 1990 by defeating Ric Flair for the NWA Title at The Great American Bash. He had actually joined The Horsemen in late 1989 when Arn Anderson returned to WCW after a year-long stint in The WWF. However, Arn’s longtime tag partner, Tully Blanchard, failed a drug test while in WWE so WCW refused to hire him. The Horsemen reshuffled their lineup with Ole Anderson taking Blanchard’s place. This was the first time The Horsemen were presented as a babyface faction as they had been the top heels for Jim Crockett Promotions for the past few years. The babyface Horsemen run was short-lived. The Horsemen turned on Sting a few months later because Sting challenged Flair to a match for the NWA Title. Unfortunately, Sting suffered a legitimate knee injury at Clash of the Champions when he ran out during a six-man cage match and tried to climb into the cage. The injury put Sting on the shelf for several months and delayed the match. Barry Windham returned to WCW around this time and rejoined The Horsemen. Ole retired from in-ring competition in the Spring of 1990 so then up-and-coming monster Sid Vicious joined the group. The Main Event Match The Sting/Vicious main event at Halloween Havoc 1990 went down in history as having one of the craziest finishes of all time. The match spilled to the floor where Sid inexplicably seemed to run away. Sting chased after him and disappeared backstage. A few moments later, the two seemingly ran back into the ring where Sting tried to slam Sid. However,

What’s this? WWE Hall Of Fame 2022? A Classic Wrestling Memories volume devoted to a present-day event? The reason we are talking about this year’s WWE Hall Of Fame inductees is that most of the inductees had long careers prior to our cutoff point of WCW and ECW going out of business. The Steiner Brothers Rick and Scott Steiner sat atop the tag team rankings for a decade before Scott Steiner started developing his Big Poppa Pump persona. Before that, Rick Steiner had seen success as a singles wrestler and as part of The Varsity Club stable. It wasn’t until the brothers split in 1998 that Scott Steiner started developing his Big Popp Pump person, which lead to many memorable promos. Sharmell Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman may not have had the greatest in-ring career, but she was a regular for both WCW and WWE. She is perhaps best remembered for her time as Queen Sharmell alongside her real-life husband Booker T. Outside of the ring she was the 1991 Miss Black America pageant winner. She also has owned and operated several businesses over the years. Shad Gaspard – Warrior Award Gaspard was a fixture on WWE programming during the mid-2000s. He and partner JTG formed the tag team Cryme Tyme. Tragically, he lost his life while swimming with his son when the two were swept up in a current. He pleaded to rescuers that she should save his young son before saving him.. Big Van Vader We talked about Vader’s career more in-depth in Vol. 21. Leon White played for The NFL before getting hired by Verne Gagne for The AWA.He would go on to win world titles in just about every promotion he was in. The Undertaker We’ve stated before that The Undertaker is a perfect example of the right gimmick going to the right guy at the right time. There is literally nobody else who could have been The Undertaker other than Mark Callaway. We discuss his different gimmicks in various territories before going to WWE in 1990. Here is a promo from Memphis with him and The Soultaker, a pre-Godfather Charles Wright.

Scott Hall during his run as Razor Ramon in early 90s WWF “Hey yo!” Scott Hall made that common greeting a trademark catchphrase. With his signature toothpick and slicked-back hair, Scott Hall was arguably one of the greatest and most influential wrestlers of all time who never held a world championship. He was trained by the legendary Hiro Matsuda, who had also trained the likes of Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, and The Great Muta. BREAKING IN Hall started wrestling for Eddie Graham’s Championship Wrestling from Florida in 1984. He and Dan Spivey formed a tag team called American Starship, with Hall known as Coyote and Spivey as Eagle. Both men had impressive looks but were way too green to connect with the crowd. The team disbanded with Hall going to work for Verne Gagne in The AWA. Gagne repackaged Hall as “Big” Scott Hall and gave him a look similar to Magnum TA. The TV show Magnum PI was a huge hit that made Tom Selleck (and his impressive mustache) a household name. Plus, Magnum TA was already a fan favorite in the Crockett territory. Scott was put in another tag team, this time with Curt Hennig, with the plan being to eventually make him a major singles star. While the duo did win the AWA tag team championship, it was actually Hennig that became the singles star. Hall left the AWA in the late 80s to join Jerry Jarrett’s CWA in Memphis. Hall finally saw success as a singles star in Memphis. However, since he was an outsider, he would only get pushed so far because Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee were the hometown heroes. Around this time, he started doing tours with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Scott Hall cuts a babyface promo in Memphis with a very different vibe than what he would have a few years later as Razor Ramon Hall finally saw work on a national stage when he signed with WCW. He became a heel called The Diamond Studd and Diamond Dallas Page became his manager. This is also where he met Kevin Nash, who at the time had been using gimmick names like The Great Oz and Vinnie Vegas. While the two were a physically impressive duo, they didn’t see much success in the ring, and both signed with The World Wrestling Federation in the early 90s. RAZOR RAMON One of Razor Ramon’s promo videos prior to his WWF debut Hall made his WWE debut in 1992 as Razor Ramon, a character inspired by Tony Montana from the movie Scarface. He was an instant hit with the fans and quickly became one of the company’s top stars. This is the look and persona that would stay with him for the rest of his career. It also brought him his first high-profile money feud in the form of “Macho Man” Randy Savage since Ramon claimed to be “Oozing Machismo”. By the Fall of 1992, Razor was headlining shows against Savage. He also challenged then WWE Champion Bret “The Hitman” Hart for the title at the 1993 Royal Rumble. Razor turned babyface in the summer of 1993. He would go on to hold the WWF Intercontinental Title for a then-record four times. This is also where he gained a reputation backstage along with friends Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Sean “1-2-3 Kid” Waltman, and HHH as a “clique”. Hall and Nash signed with WCW in the spring of 1996. Their final WWE appearance was with the rest of their fellow clique members. This was the infamous a href="https://www.wwe.com/videos/the-kliq-participates-in-the-infamous-curtain-call-madison-square-garden-live-event-may-19-199...

It is the return to the Unpopular Opinions format we started in Volume 30, which ironically is one of our most popular episodes. Unpopular Opinion #4: The AWA did NOT go out of business because they didn’t make Hulk Hogan their champion It is common knowledge that Hulkamania was born in Verne Gagne’s AWA. It is also a common belief that Verne refused to put the world title on Hogan, which directly led to Hogan’s jump to the WWF and eventually the folding of the AWA. While losing Hogan definitely was a blow to AWA’s popularity, it is a bit farfetched to say the loss of Hogan is what killed the company, While we may never truly know, it is very likely that even if Hogan did have a run with the AWA title, it would have only delayed the inevitable. Hulk Hogan’s first title shot against AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel in 1982 Unpopular Opinion #5: Wrestling does NOT need an on-air Authority Figure Everybody who watched WWE during the Attitude Era remembers Vince McMahon’s on-screen persona of “Mr. McMahon” and how he was a fixture on TV as the evil authority figure. Naturally, such a successful angle will inspire many knockoffs. After all, anybody can relate to working for a boss you hate. The concept of the heel authority figure predates McMahon. Eric Bischoff was revealed to be part of the NWO heel stable the previous year. Even before that, authority figures were regularly used to advance storylines. However, there have been countless promotions and territories that didn’t use an authority figure. Or even if they did, they did so very rarely. Jack Tunney was billed as the WWF President for years, even though it was purely a fictional title and he simply portrayed an on-air character. He would appear periodically on WWE programming to make rulings on controversial angles or matches. Stanley Blackburn played a similar role for the AWA, as did Jerry Jarrett for Memphis. Though at least with Jarrett, he was the territory’s booker in real life. Jack Tunney, the on-air president of The WWF, announces his ruling on the infamous match where Hulk Hogan lost the WWF Championship to Andre The Giant Other examples include Jim Crockett Promotions, which fell under the National Wrestling Alliance banner. Portland, Florida, World Class in Texas… None of these promotions used an on-air authority figure to advance storylines. And that’s just in the States. Unpopular Opinion #6: The Monday Night War was NOT the greatest period in wrestling history Of course, “greatest” is a subjective term, but many fans who started watching wrestling during the a ...

We do an In Memorium tribute at the of every year. Father Time is the ultimate booker and Death is undefeated. Every year we lose so many talents to that great battle royal in the sky. Angelo Mosca – Held titles in multipole territories and is a Canadian Football Hall of FamerBarry Orton – Brother of Bob Orton Jr. and uncle to Randy Orton. We discuss the controversy involving him and Pat Patterson in Volume 36.Bobby Eaton – Legendary territory wrestler and multi-time tag champion.Buddy Colt – Held over a dozen titles in multiple NWA territories.Butch Reed – Held over a dozen titles including NWA tag titles with Ron Simmons.Chris Youngblood – Brother of Mark and Jay Youngblood.Corporal Kirchner – Competed at WrestleMania 2 and in FMW as Leatherface.Daffney Unger – Started in WCW and was a TNA regular.Del Wilkes – aka “The Patriot” and “The Trooper”. We discussed his life in Volume 39.Dominic DeNucci – Italian wrestler who held over a dozen titles worldwide.Don Kernodle – Perhaps best remembered as part of Sgt. Slaughter’s Cobra Corps. We also talked about him in Volume 39.Jack Lanza – WWE Hall of Famer and part of the legendary Blackjacks tag team.Jim Crockett Jr. – Arguably the #2 promotor of all time and the main force behind the popularity of Jim Crockett Promotions in the 1980s. We detailed his career in Volume 37.Jimmy Rave – Independent wrestler who also worked for TNA.Jody Hamilton – Part of the legendary Assassins tag team. Also an accomplished trainer.New Jack – ECW mainstay and hardcore style veteran.Paul Orndorff – Hall of Famer and headliner of the original WrestleMania. If you think we missed anybody or would like to...

It’s time to do the annual episode devoted to WCW Halloween Havoc. This time we go all the way back to where it began in 1989. 0:30 – Pro Wrestling in 1989 The entire wrestling business was in a bit of a transitional phase. Ted Turner had bought out Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988 so this was the first full-fledged year under his ownership. It was also the year Ric Flair was pushed as the top babyface with no Horsemen backing him up due to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard signing with WWE. Not only that, PPV was still a relatively new concept and wasn’t nearly as established as it became in the 1990s. Thus, the inaugural Halloween Havoc helped set the stage for Sting’s rise to main event status in 1990. 9:00 – Storylines and Angles The Main Event Flair was in his seventh reign as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He had successfully regained the title from Ricky Steamboat at WrestleWar. Terry Funk, fresh off a stint as an actor, made his return to wrestling that night and challenged Flair for the title. Flair declined, believing Funk had been away from wrestling too long to be considered a top challenger. This enraged Funk, who immediately attacked Flair and piledrove him through a table. This put Flair on the shelf for several weeks, but the two faced off at The Great American Bash with Flair beating Funk to retain the title. Meanwhile, Keiji Mutoh, aka The Great Muta, was on an excursion to the United States. Muta was at this point undefeated and had beaten Sting for the NWA World Television Championship. The villainous Gary Hart became the manager for both Funk and Muta. After Flair retained the title at the Great American Bash, Funk and Muta ambushed Flair. Sting ran out for the save and a wild brawl ensued. This solidified Flair and Sting as the top babyfaces and aligned them against Funk, Muta, and Hart. Tag Teams Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane were turned babyface after being attacked by the original Midnight Express of Randy Rose and Dennis Condrey managed by Paul E. Dangerously. However, all three heels were either let go or fired soon afterwards and The Samoan SWAT Team (later The Headshrinkers in WWE) were brought in to take their place in the feud. Oliver Humperdink also joined WCW as The SST’s manager. The Varsity Club of Mike Rotunda, Steve Williams, and Rick Steiner had disbanded with Williams and Steiner going babyface. Steiner had become infatuated with a “nerdy girl” in the audience. That turned out to be a ruse because the girl in question became Woman. She brought in a masked tag team called “Woman’s tag team of Doom”. Rick’s younger brother Scott joined the company to help him in the feud. There were also several famous tag teams either starting out or entering their primes at this event. The Fabulous Freebirds went through a change as Terry Gordy quit the team to go to Japan. Buddy Jack retired, leaving Michael Hayes without a partner. Longtime friend Jimmy Garvin then joined Hayes as a new incarnation of The Freebirds.  The Rest of the Card Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas formed the tag The Dynamic Dudes...

It’s a double-shot of tributes on this volume of CWM. Today, we talk about two men who had similarities but also had very different careers, Don Kernodle and Del Wilkes. While they never met each other in the ring, Don Kernodle and Del Wilkes had characters that would have easily made them longtime rivals. Kernodle spent most of his career as a heel while Wilkes was primarily a patriotic babyface. 1:45 – Dark Side of the Ring Thoughts Train gives his thoughts on the new season of Dark Side of the Ring, which recently aired its famous “Plane Ride From Hell” episode. He also looks forward to the episodes on Chris Kanyon and Luna Vachon because he knew both of those people. 15:00 – Don Kernodle (1950-2021) Don Kernodle, a North Carolina native, was probably best known for teaming with Sgt. Slaughter in the early 1980s. The story goes that he began wrestling professionally after he accepted a challenge by Bob Roop for a legitimate match. Roop always dominated these challenges and would beat his opponents in seconds. While Roop still won the match, it took him eight minutes to do so. Kernodle was still offered training by Gene and Ole Anderson. He spent some time as the traveling partner of Ric Flair, who was still a rising star at the time. Kernodle first made his name as part of Sgt. Slaughter’s Cobra Corps stable alongside Jim Nelson (a pre-WWF Boris Zhukoff). The duo won the NWA Mid-Atlantic tag team championship and feuded with the likes of Porkchop Cash, King Parsons, and Jay Youngblood. After Slaughter and Kernodle turned on Nelson, they went on to win the NWA World tag titles in a fictional tournament. They claimed to have beaten Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki in the finals, which of course is a ludicrous claim. and feuded with Rick Steamboat and Jay Youngblood over them. That feud ended with a famous steel cage match in 1983. He did compete for The World Wrestling Federation in 1983 as well. He mainly won enhancement matches on regular TV but didn’t see much success against opponents that were higher on the card. Kernodle returned to Jim Crockett Promotions and formed a team with Bob Orton Jr. under the management of Gary Hart. Shortly after, he began teaming with Ivan Koloff in an anti-American stable. They would soon be joined by Nikita Koloff. This means he is at least partly responsible for Nikita Koloff’s rise to prominence. After losing the NWA Tag titles, the evil Russians turned on Kernodle. This began Kernodle’s only major babyface run. He was in The Rock and Roll Express’s corner when they won the NWA Tag Titles from the Russians at Starrcade 85. There was a time when Kernodle hoped to reunite with Slaughter to face the Russians, as Slaughter was at the height of his GI Joe babyface run. But by the time Slaughter had left WWF, Dusty Rhodes had taken over as booker for the Crocketts. He went into semi-retirement and made sporadic wrestling appearances for independent promotions. Over the last three decades, Kernodle had a career in law enforcement. 58:00 – Del Wilkes (1961-2021)

The inaugural edition of The Great American Bash was held on July 6, 1985, at The American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Much like the early Starrcades and the first WrestleMania, the show was carried on Closed Circuit television because Pay-Per-View TV was still largely a new concept. 2:15 – The Event Jim Crockett Promotions had great success with Starrcade. Shortly after they bought the 6:05 PM timeslot Dusty convinced them to run a second major show, this time in the summer. After all, JCP still had their own territory in The Carolinas and now they had control of a Georgia territory as well. It only made sense to use talent from both territories under the GAB banner. On top of that, The Crocketts already owned a baseball stadium so they had a large venue to hold it in. As for the programming, it is worth mentioning that wrestlers, especially heels, would have multiple feuds at once. So when going over these storylines and feuds, other names will be involved that might not make the card. 12:15 – The Angles JJ Dillon was the manager of Ron Bass. Approximately one month prior to the event, Bass unsuccessfully challenged Ron Garvin for the NWA National Championship. Shortly after that, Dillon started courting Landell as a new protege over Bass. This caused Bass to turn on his manager. Ole and Arn Anderson were the third incarnation of The Minnesota Wrecking Crew. Buzz Sawyer and Dick Slater had been feuding with them over the titles. The Andersons had tried to blind Buzz Sawyer and even attacked Buzz’s brother Brett. Paul Jones had his Army, which consisted of Superstar Billy Graham, The Barbarian, and Abdullah The Butcher. Manny Fernandez, Sam Houston, and Buzz Tyler were all relatively new to the scene. Houston scored several victories that garnered a lot of fan attention on television. Paul Jones and his Army also had an enemy in “The Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant. They attacked Valiant and struck him in the neck with a cane. The blow caused so much damage to his throat that he was unable to speak. As a result, Valiant had to write his thoughts on a chalkboard instead of talking. Valiant challenged Jones to a match to get revenge. Jones promptly accepted the challenge. What Jones did not realize was Valiant specifically asked for a Dog Collar Match instead of a standard match. Once jones learned of the match stipulation, he desperately wanted out of the match. Both men were allowed a second man to be in their corner as a compromise. Valiant chose Buzz Tyler while Jones picked Abdullah The Butcher. The Russians (Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff, and Krusher Kruschev) held both the NWA World Tag Team Titles and the NWA World Six-Man Tag Titles. They also had the advantage of The Freebird Rule where any two of the three could defend the Tag Team Championships. The Road Warriors were the AWA tag team champions and were effectively making their in-ring debuts for Crockett on this show. AWA promotor Verne Gagne sent tapes of Road Warrior highlights and promos to set up a title-for-title match. Another up-and-coming superstar was Magnum TA.

Jim Crockett Promotions To tell the story of Jim Crockett Jr. (or “Jimmy”) we first have to look at the family and the business at the time. Jim Crockett Sr. (aka “Big Jim”) was a promoter of many sports and entertainment genres, including pro wrestling. Vince McMahon talked about how much his dad respected Big Jim, and that he was a good promoter and a good man. Big Jim ran Jim Crocket Promotions from 1935 until his sudden untimely death of a heart attack in 1973 at the age of 63. The company was originally meant to go to John Ringley. who was married to the oldest sibling, Frances Crockett. However, he got caught cheating on her and the reigns were handed over to Jim Jr. It’s worth noting that even in the 1970s a woman owning and running a business was still uncommon. It’s also worth noting that Ann Gunkel also tried running a wrestling promotion after her husband Roy passed away and was not very successful. Rise to Prominance One of the changes Jimmy made after taking over the promotion was to bring in George Scott as head booker. He focused on singles feuds for shows in larger arenas. Jimmy is also credited with creating the NWA Mid-Atlantic US Title, which is still recognized by WWE to this day. He also helped forge what would become a vital part of wrestling, the major show PPV like Starrcade. When you look at it from a per capita standpoint, Jimmy ran the #1 territory for a while. He famously bought the 6:05 PM on TBS to replace a WWF show on Saturday Nights. The first two or three years after that were some of the best years of any wrestling promotion ever. While JCP still was running in the southeastern part of the US (Georgia, The Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida), they still managed to sell more tickets to wrestling events than Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation, which had expanded nationally. Unfortunately, despite outselling WWE in ticket sales in 1986, Jim Crockett Promotions wound up over one million dollars in debt in 1988. The family had no choice but to sell the company to Ted Turner’s media company. As mentioned during the show, Crazy Train was a guest on The Willis Show.

Pat Patterson, widely considered to be one of the most influential men in wrestling for the 20th Century, passed away on December 2nd, 2020. He was also looked at as Vince McMahon’s best friend and the right-hand man from the WWF Expansion through the Attitude Era and into the 21st Century. His contributions over many decades are too numerous to name. No matter what style or era, Patterson had some level of impact on the wrestling world. Modern fans will likely remember him most as being one of Vince’s “stooges” along with Gerald Brisco. The previous generation would remember him as the first-ever WWF Intercontinental Champion. The generation before that would remember his legendary tag-team with Ray Stevens as The Blond Bombers in Roy Shire’s Big Time Wrestling. And the generation before THAT might remember his run in Portland for Don Owen’s Pacific Northwest. Pierre Clemont was born in Montreal Quebec in 1941 and started his wrestling training as a teenager. He was inspired by Buddy Rogers and Killer Kowalski, so he took the bleach blond hair and the moveset of Rogers, but also wore Kowalski-like purple tights. Clemont used the name Pat Patterson because he figured it would be easy to remember. He quickly developed a reputation of making others look great in the ring, which impressed a young Mad Dog Vachon. Patterson moved to The States where he first worked for Big Time Wrestling in Boston, not to be confused with Roy Shire’s San Francisco promotion of the same name. There he met Louie Dondero, who became his real-life partner. He also had a rendezvous with Johnnie Mae Young. Pacific Northwest After spending a year in Boston, Pat got a call from Vachon, who told him to go to Oregon and work for Don Owen. Pat was not asked about this beforehand and no-showed the tryout. This angered Vachon, who called him again and threatened to beat the hell out of him if he did it again. All you have to do is look at a picture of Maurice Vachon and you can see why that would be scary. Pat was not a shooter. Would you want this man angry at you? Pat and Louie moved to Oregon where Pat started working for Owen. Over the next few years, Pat would work in other territories as part of a talent exchange, which was common in those days. In these other states (Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.) Pat started using effeminate stereotypes to enhance his gimmick. Things like lipstick, cigarette holders, and flashy attire. Louie worked as a valet. By the time they returned to Oregon full-time, Pat was a bonafide main-eventer. He stopped using the effeminate gimmicks and became more serious. He won several titles over the next few years before starting the next chapter in his career. Fellow wrestlers in Portland recommended he move to San Francisco and work for Roy Shire’s Big Time Wrestling. Patterson did the common practice of losing matches before he left the territory. One such loss was to a young Antonio Inoki. Another was a Loser Leaves Town Match to his rival Pepper Martin. After that loss, Pat and Louie packed their things and moved to San Francisco San Francisco Shire told him that if he was going to be a top guy, he had to look the part and get his body into shape. Pat hated working out, but the philosophy of looking like a main-eventer stuck with him for the rest of his life. It was also something he passed on to the next generations of wrestlers. One of his first matches in San Francisco was at the legendary Cow Palace. At the time, circa 1965, The Cow Palace was one of the premier venues in the country.