Phil Pantos, better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projectin ...

Phil Apollo, is a retired American

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

who competed in North American independent wrestling promotions including

International Championship Wrestling International Championship Wrestling was an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Lexington, Kentucky that operated from 1978 until 1984. It was run by Angelo Poffo, the father of Randy Savage and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo. Throu ...

(ICW) and

World Class Championship Wrestling World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), later known as the World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA) (1986–1991) was an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter E ...

(WCCW). During the 1980s, he was part of

Gary Hart Gary Warren Hart ('' né'' Hartpence; born November 28, 1936) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. He was the front-runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out amid revelations of extramarital affairs ...

's "New Age Management" stable in WCCW and teamed with Eric Sbraccia to form a team known as the Dynamic Duo, winning the ICW Heavyweight Championship twice.

Professional wrestling career

Phil Pantos trained at

Killer Kowalski Walter Kowalski (born Edward Władysław Spulnik; October 13, 1926 – August 30, 2008), known professionally as Killer Kowalski, was a Polish-Canadian professional wrestler. Kowalski wrestled for numerous promotions during his career, includin ...

's wrestling school prior to making his professional wrestling debut in 1986. Using the

Phil Apollo working for

(ICW) in his native Boston, Massachusetts. In March 1987 Apollo defeated

Joseph Savoldi Joseph Fornini, better known by his ring name "Jumping" Joe Savoldi (born July 24, 1957) is an American professional wrestler and the son of wrestler Angelo Savoldi. While it has been claimed he is related to the original Joe Savoldi that is n ...

to win the ICW Heavyweight Championship. Later that year Apollo left ICW, vacating the championship in the process. He moved on to working in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

for

(WCCW) where he became part of manager

's "New Age Management" group who also included

Abdullah the Butcher Lawrence Robert Shreve (born January 11, 1941), better known by the ring name Abdullah the Butcher, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He has a reputation for being involved in some of the most violent and bloody hardcore wrestling mat ...

, Al Perez, Jeep Swenson and John Nord. His first major show appearance was as part of WCCW's 1987 "Labor Day Star Wars" show on September 7, 1987 where he defeated Vic Steamboat. A few months later, at WCCW's 1987 Christmas Star Wars he lost to The Missing Link. He later wrestled at the 5th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions as well as WCCW's 5th Cotton Bowl extravaganza. Following his stint in WCCW Apollo returned to ICW where he was teamed up with Eric Sbraccia to form a

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

known as the Dynamic Duo, a name taken in tribute to the WCCW team of the same name that was made up of Gentleman Chris Adams and

Gino Hernandez Charles Eugene Wolfe Jr. (August 8, 1957 – February 2, 1986) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Gino Hernandez. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with the Dallas, Texas-based promotion World Class ...

. On March 5, 1989 the Dynamic Duo defeated the S & S Express (Vic Steamboat and Joe Savoldi) to win the

ICW Tag Team Championship The ICW Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling) owned by Scotland's Insane Championship Wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion. Complimenting ICW's two established singles titles (ICW ...

Their first run with the championship lasted 118 days until the S & S Express regained the championship. The Dynamic Duo would briefly hold the tag team championship again in December 1989 as they defeated the Undertakers (

Henchman A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose value lies prim ...

and Punisher) on December 28, then lost the titles to The Lethal Weapons (

Dennis Condrey Dennis Condrey (born February 1, 1952) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the Continental Wrestling Association, Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling in the 1970s and 1980s ...

and

Doug Gilbert Douglas Gilbert (born February 5, 1969) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with regional professional wrestling promotions throughout the Southern United States, as well as for Extreme Championship Wrestling ...

) only two days later. During the early 1990s, Apollo competed as a preliminary wrestler in the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

(WWF) most notably facing Adam Bomb with manager Johnny Polo in their debut on

Monday Night Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show f ...

in 1993.

Championships and accomplishments

* International Championship Wrestling (New England) :* ICW Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) :*

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outsid ...

) - with Erich Sbraccia *

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

:*PWI ranked him # 478 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1992

References

External links

Online World of Wrestling: Phil Apollo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apollo, Phil 20th-century professional wrestlers American male professional wrestlers ICW/IWCCW Heavyweight Champions Living people Professional wrestlers from Massachusetts Year of birth missing (living people)