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Izzy Slapawitz
Jeff Smith (December 14, 1948 – December 28, 2019), better known as Izzy Slapawitz, was an American professional wrestler, manager and color commentator, best known for his time with International Championship Wrestling. From 1978 to 1982, Smith led the Slapowitz Syndicate in the NWA's Mid-South and Knoxville territories as well as many "outlaw" promotions in the Southern United States. He also had brief stints in Georgia Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, Maple Leaf Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation. At various times his stable included Barry O, Bob Orton, Jr., Boris Malenko, Crusher Broomfield, James "Sugar Bear" Harris, The Mongolian Stomper, Randy Savage, Ray Candy, Rip Rogers and The Devil's Duo (Doug Vines and Jeff Sword). Early life Smith was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He became a wrestling fan in the late 1950s. A childhood friend claimed that they were the first wrestling fans to bring signs to local World Wide Wres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelve original counties established under English rule in 1683 in what was then the Province of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the population stood at 2,736,074, making it the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City, and the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the state.Table 2: Population, Land Area, and Population Density by County, New York State - 2020 New York State Department of Health. Accessed January 2, 2024. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Man Gang
George Gray (born February 12, 1960) is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, better known by his ring name (The) One Man Gang. For three years in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he was Akeem "The African Dream". Prior to this, he was the top Heel (wrestling), heel for Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts), Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), and UWF Heavyweight Championship, UWF Heavyweight Champion for six months in 1986 and 1987. Early life Gray was born in Chicago, but moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina, when he was 5. Professional wrestling career Early career (1977–1982) Gray trained with longtime local independent wrestler and promoter Chief Jay Eagle (Jerry Bragg) and Darren "Rattlesnake" Westbrooks. He started his career at the age of 17 on the Carolina independent circuit wrestling both under his real name and as "Crusher Gray." He then moved on to wrestle in the Kentucky/Tennessee area, including for Interna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorilla Monsoon
Robert James "Gino" Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, Sports commentator, play-by-play commentator, and Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Book, booker. Monsoon is famous for his run as a villainous super-heavyweight main eventer, and later as the voice of the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as commentator and backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s. He also portrayed the on-screen role of WWF President from 1995 to 1997. In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position which Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the "Gorilla Position" in his honor. Early life Marella attended Thomas Jefferson High School (Rochester, New York), Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in American football, foot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babyface (professional Wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a face (babyface) is a heroic, "good guy", "good-doer", or "fan favorite" wrestler, booked (scripted) by the promotion with the aim of being cheered by fans. They are portrayed as heroes relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. Traditionally, face characters wrestle within the rules and avoid cheating while behaving positively towards the referee and the audience. Such characters are also referred to as blue-eyes in British wrestling and ''técnicos'' in ''lucha libre''. Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic: faces need only to be clapped or cheered by the audience to be effective characters. When the magazine ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' went into circulation in the late 1970s, the magazine referred to face wrestlers as "fan favorites" or "scientific wrestlers", while heels were referred to as simply "rulebreakers". The vast majority of wrestling storylines involve pitting faces against heels, although more elabor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heel (professional Wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a ''rudo'' in ''lucha libre'') is a wrestler who portrays a villain, "bad guy", "baddie", "evil-doer", or "rulebreaker", and acts as an antagonist to the Face (professional wrestling), faces, who are the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters. Not everything a heel wrestler does must be villainous: heels need only to be booed or jeered by the audience to be effective characters, although most truly successful heels embrace other aspects of their devious personalities, such as cheating to win or using Glossary of professional wrestling terms#foreign object, foreign objects. "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior." To gain Heat (professional wrestling), heat (with boos and jeers from the audience), heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunnyside Gardens
Sunnyside Gardens is a community within Sunnyside, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the first decades of the twentieth century by Ebenezer Howard and Raymond Unwin, specifically Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City. Covering between Queens Boulevard and Sunnyside Yard, Sunnyside Gardens was constructed between 1924 and 1928 by the City Housing Corporation, founded by developer Alexander Bing, and architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright. The project grew out of discussions in the early 1920s about housing and planning; Lewis Mumford was a leading participant. It is among the first planned communities in the U.S. Sunnyside Gardens is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has also designated it as an official city land ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Sullivan (wrestler)
Kevin Francis Sullivan (October 26, 1949 – August 9, 2024) was an American professional wrestler and booker, best known for his role in World Championship Wrestling. Professional wrestling career Early career (1970–1982) Sullivan had been an amateur wrestler in the Boston area, and was not trained professionally. His first professional match was in Montreal, beating Fernand Frechette. Sullivan wrestled as "Johnny West" in the National Wrestling Alliance's Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling in the early 1970s, capturing the NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship with Ken Lucas, defeating Jack Morrell and Eddie Sullivan on March 11, 1971. Next, he went to Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) in 1972 and captured the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship with Mike Graham. He then went north to join the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) as a mid-card face from 1974 to 1977. He had a (rare for the time) face versus face battle with Pete Sanchez on a Madison Squ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Blassie
Frederick Kenneth Blassie (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known by the ring name "Classy" Freddie Blassie. Renowned as "The Hollywood Fashion Plate","Classy" Freddie Blassie with Keith Elliot Greenberg, ''Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks'', (WWE Books, 2003). he was a one-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994. He is regarded as one of the greatest wrestling heels, or villains, of all time. Early life Blassie was born Frederick Kenneth Blassie in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1918. His parents, Anna (née Szind) and Jacob Blassie (né Blaszi), were immigrants from Austria-Hungary who arrived in the United States in 1912 via Hamburg, Germany. Frederick was an only child. His father was an abusive alcoholic, prompting Frederick to stay with his grandparents whenever Jacob beat Anna. His parents repeatedly separated, only to reconcile. At the age of 13, after Jacob had beaten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fan Club
A fan club is an organized group of fans, generally of a celebrity. Most fan clubs are run by fans who devote considerable time and resources to support them. There are also "official" fan clubs that are run by someone associated with the person or organization the club is centered on. This is the case for many musicians, sports teams, etc. People in a fan club usually have either a T-shirt or a pin to indicate which fan club they are a part of. All fan clubs have unique paraphernalia that are given or sold to fans to use as an indication. Barbz, who support Nicki Minaj, Hollanders, who support Tom Holland, Carats, who support Seventeen, and Swifties who support Taylor Swift are examples of a fan club. Etymology The origin of the term fan in reference to a dedicated zealot is unclear. The word may have emerged in the 1800s, when boxing supporters were said to take a “fancy” to pugilistic sports. Among modern sports fans, however, the title is considered a shortened v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Wide Wrestling Federation
Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC) was an American sports promotion company. Run by Vincent J. McMahon from the 1950s until the 1980s, the company was originally a professional wrestling and boxing promotion and later became the holding company for the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), later the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 1982, the CWC was acquired by Titan Sports, Inc., owned by Vincent J.'s son Vincent K. McMahon. The CWC was the precursor to today's WWE, currently run by Nick Khan as president and owned by TKO Group Holdings. History Early history (1953–1963) Jess McMahon was a successful professional boxing promoter who began working with Tex Rickard in 1926. With the help of Rickard, he began promoting boxing at the third Madison Square Garden. McMahon would later take over the wrestling side of Rickard's promotional business; Rickard was noted for disliking wrestling and prevented wrestling events from being held at Madison Square Garden. A few year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rip Rogers
Mark Sciarra (born February 7, 1954), better known by his ring name Rip Rogers, is an American retired professional wrestler. Early life Sciarra was born in Seymour, Indiana on February 7, 1954. He graduated from Seymour High School in 1972 and went on to attend Indiana Central College, graduating in 1976. Sicarra worked as a teacher for a year before deciding to become a professional wrestler. Professional wrestling career Rip Rogers started wrestling in 1975. He formed the "Convertible Blondes" with Pez Whatley and Gary Royal in Angelo Poffo's International Championship Wrestling (ICW) and won the Tag Team Titles with Royal. As with The Fabulous Freebirds defending regional NWA tag team championships with any two of the three members, the Convertible Blondes also used the so-called " Freebird Rule" to defend the ICW Tag Team Championship in this manner. He left the ICW following a dispute with Angelo Poffo's son Randy Poffo, better known by his ring name Randy Savage. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Candy
Ray Canty (December 3, 1951 – May 23, 1994), better known by the ring name Ray Candy, was an American professional wrestler who worked for a variety of different wrestling promotions in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico such as Jim Crockett Promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Wrestling Council and others. He also competed as Blackstud Williams, Super Mario Man, Commando Ray, Masked Superfly and Kareem Muhammad. As Kareem Muhammad he formed a tag team with Elijah Akeem as the tag team "The Zambuie Express". He also spent time as part of Skandor Akbar's Devastation Inc. group as well as a team known as "The Shock Troops" with Ed Gantner and "The Commandos" with Commando Boone. Canty was responsible for training New Jack for his professional wrestling career. Professional wrestling career Ray Canty was trained for his professional wrestling career by former NWA World Heavyweight Championship holder Dory Funk Jr. before making his in-ring debut in 1973. Starting o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
