Professional wrestling career Killer Kowalski

1 professional wrestling career

1.1 incidents
1.2 world wide wrestling federation
1.3 retirement , training

professional wrestling career

there several stories of how became wrestler. common 1 while attending university of detroit (some sources assumption college in windsor), heard there opportunity make pay wrestling. being paid $50 week @ plant , told make more wrestler. since had athletic build, decided give wrestling try , began attending wrestling school. when first wrestled professionally, known tarzan kowalski, called hercules kowalski, killer kowalski (this nickname used 1950) , polish apollo, according newspaper reports 1950–51. during cold war name changed wladek kowalski, supposed sound more menacing. kowalski wrestled 1947 1977 in number of organizations, including national wrestling alliance (nwa) , american wrestling association (awa) heel.

kowalski s rise in business came quickly. first recorded match occurred on may 6, 1948, , november 29 of same year, kowalski facing nwa champion orville brown in heavyweight championship match. kowalski stood out in era larger-than-normal size, , faster-paced style in ring. wrestled demonstrative heel, or villain, except when facing even-more-hated buddy rogers. in matches rogers, kowalski adopt more serious babyface approach. out of ring, however, kowalski considered friendly , polite wrestling promoters complained way drop character in public.

incidents

on october 15, 1952, in match in montreal versus yukon eric, kowalski ripped off part of yukon eric s ear while performing knee drop. in reality, eric s ears badly cauliflowered due years of abuse , injury accident, fortified kowalski being ruthless villain gleefully maims opponents. kowalski attempted visit opponent in hospital , began laughing along eric @ how silly bandages looked, kowalski recalling years later, swear, first thing thought of humpty dumpty on wall. yukon eric looked @ me, shook head, , smiled. started laughing , laughed, too. . when incident reported in paper next day, stated kowalski showed @ hospital , laughed @ victim rather him, furthering kowalski s image heel. incident sparked long-running series of grudge matches between 2 wrestlers took place throughout north america. time feud had run out of steam several years later, yukon eric joked kowalski small size of audience, god, s lousy house. might have sacrifice ear.

kowalski gained notoriety in boston incident in late june 1958 when wrestling pat o connor. guest referee former boxing great jack dempsey, suffered kick diaphragm , had hospitalized. dempsey did not blame kowalski, , both said accident, further cemented killer s reputation villain. in 1967, top-rated australian television talk show host don lane irritated kowalski during apparently friendly interview , attacked kowalski claw hold.

also in late 1950s, kowalski fought supposed best 2 out of 3 match in fall river, massachusetts against mr. moto. before bell starting first fall, kowalski had turned moto while doing stretches in corner. moto raced across ring , hit kowalski on head 1 of clogs had walked ring. of course, referee did not see happen. bell rang , seemingly dazed kowalski staggered around ring , pinned moto. kowalski billed heavyweight champion @ time (at least in eastern massachusetts) and, such, not supposed lose match. after second fall started, kowalski hit in right eye pea or bean shot in audience using pea shooter. semi-blinded , genuinely stunned, kowalski staggered around ring covering eye right hand. moto did not know do. finally, approached kowalski, bumped him , fell mat. kowalski reached down, applied claw hold , moto not counted out, deemed referee hurt continue. 2 raced out of ring chorus of boos audience , dodged various objects being thrown @ them. side note, 2 had arrived 45 minutes late match. fall river herald news reported in next day morning edition these 2 mortal enemies late because car in had ridden match had broken down on way.

in december 1972, kowalski became first wrestler pin andré giant in north america, in billed battle of giants. photographs quebec city match helped establish andré s reputation in american wrestling magazines, since showed him towering on better-known kowalski. kowalski had done same boost giant baba s fame in japan, televised 1963 match.

world wide wrestling federation

kowalski became main antagonist of bruno sammartino in world wide wrestling federation in 1960s , 1970s. kowalski formed tag team fellow heel gorilla monsoon , took red berry manager; monsoon , kowalski held wwwf united states tag team championship, winning belts in 2 straight falls skull murphy , brute bernard on washington, d.c. television, , later losing tolos brothers in 2 straight falls in teaneck, new jersey in december 1963. on may 11, 1976, kowalski won wwf world tag team championship big john studd. both men wore black masks , tights , called executioners . however, stripped of championship, following interference of third executioner during title defense against chief jay strongbow , billy white wolf. executioners lost match vacant title on december 6 strongbow , white wolf , never regained championship.

retirement , training

after wwf retirement in 1977, kowalski started professional wrestling school in malden, massachusetts. due health, ceased involved in 2003, , school subsequently moved north andover, massachusetts. among alumni of school triple h, chyna, perry saturn, john kronus, brittany brown, big john studd, damien kane, killer kowalski jr., ron zombie, christopher nowinski, tensai, april hunter, ace andrews, rj brewer, kazarian, nicole raczynski, cadillac joe d, kenny dykstra, damien sandow , fandango. kowalski continued wrestle on independent shows 1980s, , worked sparingly after that. last match took place in 1993, when kowalski 66 years old. kowalski remain fixture on northeast independent wrestling scene taking autograph , personal appearances. last appearance in jan 2008 top rope promotions @ event in north adams, ma came ring , put claw on local wrestler gorgeous gino giovanni , declared winner of segment.

he made numerous post-retirement television appearances, including late night david letterman in 1982, , featured in comic role in michael burlingame s surrealist film random in 1986. lost in b-zone , music video birdsongs of mesozoic derived film, prominently featured kowalski.

on june 14, 2007, kowalski inducted national polish-american sports hall of fame.