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Showing posts with label Old wrestlers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old wrestlers. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2009

Tatanka


Tatanka (born Christopher Chavis on June 8, 1965), is a Native American professional wrestler best known for his work with World Wrestling Entertainment from 1991 to 1996 and from 2005 to 2007. His ring name is a Lakota word that literally means "bull buffalo." He is descended from the Lumbee Native American tribe.

Chavis started competing in powerlifting, he competed in his first bodybuilding contest, Mr. Virginia Beach, placing second. He won many competitions during his time in bodybuilding, but decided against competing on the national level and possibly turning pro for personal reasons.

From 1985 to 1990 he worked for Bally's Health and Tennis Corporation. He was quite successful, becoming a Divisional Manager.

In 1987 he received many tryouts for the National Football League, from teams such as the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions, Washington Redskins, and the Los Angeles Raiders. He decided to pursue a career with the Dolphins. Chavis was one of 20 hopefuls offered a deal out of approximately 2,000 tryouts. The Dolphins offered him a free agent contract with the availability to increase after the first year. He declined, however, since his income at Bally's exceeded the value of the contract.

In 1989, Chavis left Bally's to pursue a wrestling career. "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers was his contact into the sport. They met in Florida at a video store while Chavis was looking for wrestling tapes. Rogers had Chavis call Larry Sharpe, who ran a wrestling school in southern New Jersey called "The Monster Factory." Sharpe had previously trained such wrestlers as Bam Bam Bigelow and The Godfather. Tatanka's first match came against Joe Thunderstorm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 13, 1990. After coming back to Buddy Rogers, he took Chavis to George Scott, the booker for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) during the 80's Hulk Hogan era.

Scott was starting his own promotion called the North American Wrestling Association, later known as South Atlantic Pro Wrestling. Chavis wrestled under the name "The War Eagle" Chris Chavis, and he was voted 3rd runner up for Rookie Of The Year in Pro Wrestling Illustrated for 1990. Also in 1990, he became The South Atlantic Heavyweight Champion by beating Ken Shamrock. Not long after, he was signed to a

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Dusty Rhodes


Virgil Riley Runnels, Jr. (born on October 12, 1945), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, is a semi-retired American professional wrestler currently working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He makes occasional on-air appearances on the Raw brand and works as a backstage booker and producer on the ECW brand.

Rhodes is a 3-time NWA World Champion and has also won the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship. He has also won many other championships during his wrestling career. He is a member of the WCW, WWE, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Halls of Fame.

Rhodes started his career as a rule-breaking heel, tagging with fellow Texan Dick Murdoch to form the tag team The Texas Outlaws in the American Wrestling Association.In 1974, Rhodes turned face after turning on tag team partner Pak Song and manager Gary Hart during a match in Florida against Eddie and Mike Graham. This led him to break out as a solo face superstar, primarily in Florida, referring to himself as "Stardust", the "White Soul King", and the "American Dream", a working class hero. Rhodes ascended to the top of several National Wrestling Alliance promotions in Florida (where he also wrestled wearing a mask as The Midnight Rider) and in Georgia.

He eventually began working with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in the Mid-Atlantic, which was the forerunner of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Here, he formed a team with Manny Fernandez. He also teamed with Magnum T.A. as "America's Team". America's Team started teaming up to fight the Four Horsemen and the Russian Team in 1985. They were one of the more dominant tag teams in the promotion until 1986, when Magnum's career was ended in a car wreck. Subsequently, he teamed with Nikita Koloff as The Super Powers. Rhodes was a World Six-Man Tag Team Champion with the Road Warriors.

Mr. Perfect


Curtis Michael "Curt" Hennig (March 28, 1958 – February 10, 2003) also known by the ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler who performed for the American Wrestling Association, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment. Hennig is recognized by WWE as one of the longest-reigning world champions in recent history—during his time in AWA, he held the World Heavyweight Championship for 373 days and was also a World Tag Team Champion (with Scott Hall). Hennig also excelled in other North American promotions, becoming a WCW United States Champion, WCW World Tag Team Champion (with Barry Windham) and two-time WWE Intercontinental Champion—with the distinction of being the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of the 1990s (having held the title for 280 days). Described by WWE as "one of the best in-ring technicians of his generation", peers including Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage consider Hennig to be one of the most gifted in-ring performers in professional wrestling history. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

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