Stephen DiSalvo (born April 7, 1949) is an American retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

Professional wrestling career

Early career

DiSalvo broke into professional wrestling in the mid-1980s following a career in

powerlifting Powerlifting is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: Squat (exercise), squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athle ...

. He was initially trained by Billy Anderson and

Red Bastien Rolland "Red" Bastien (January 27, 1931 – August 11, 2012) was an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler best known for his time in Capitol Wrestling Corporation, Capital Wrestling Corporation where he was a three-time WWWF ...

Canada (1986–1989)

Wrestling as Steve Strong in the 1980s, he was a performer in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

-based International Wrestling. He was managed by Eddy Creatchman. DiSalvo previously had made a one-off appearance for the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

(WWF) in 1987, wrestling twice on a house show event in Quebec (losing to Tito Santana via countout and defeating Outback Jack later in the night). Moving on to

Stampede Wrestling Stampede Wrestling was a Canadian professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, Alberta. For nearly 50 years, it was one of the main promotions in western Canada and the Canadian Prairies. Originally established by Stu Hart in 1948, the prom ...

, he was known as "Strangler" Steve DiSalvo. Here, he feuded with Phil LaFleur over who had the better physique. DiSalvo smashed a trophy over LaFleur's head on TV, leading to several matches between the two. DiSalvo also helped

Don Muraco Don Muraco (born September 10, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1981 to 1988, where he held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship on ...

win the Stampede North American Title from Mahkan Singh.

World Wrestling Council (1989)

DiSalvo moved on to the

World Wrestling Council The World Wrestling Council (WWC; Spanish: "Consejo Mundial de Lucha") is a professional wrestling promotion based in Puerto Rico. It was originally established as Capitol Sports Promotions in 1973 by Carlos Colón, Victor Jovica, and Goril ...

(WWC) promotion in Puerto Rico in 1989, where he again was known as "Sadistic" Steve Strong but this time with a satanic gimmick. He had brawls with

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 ...

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

, and Invader #1. He also won the

WWC World Tag Team Championship The WWC World Tag Team Championship is the tag team title contested for in the Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican professional wrestling promotion, the World Wrestling Council. History Abroad (2017) On February 11, 2017, Thunder and Lightning defended t ...

teaming with Jason the Terrible. He also feuded with "El Acrobata de Puerto Rico" Carlos Colon. He won the

WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship The WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling)#World championships, world heavyweight championship and the top title contested for in the Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican professional wrestlin ...

in a Texas Death match by defeating Colon on May 27, 1989. He had a successful reign of 133 days until Colon defeated him at The Aniversario 1989 in a Barbed Wire match in October 7. The feud ended when DiSalvo lost against Colon in a Retirement match for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship on November 23, 1989.

Various promotions (1989–1990)

On February 13, 1990, he received a tryout match with the WWF at a ''

WWF Superstars is a List of wrestling video games, wrestling video game manufactured by Technōs Japan and released for arcade game, arcades in 1989. It is the first WWE, WWF arcade game to be released. A series of unrelated games with the WWF Superstars (Gam ...

'' taping losing to The Red Rooster. He next made an appearance on a March 18 house show in Calgary, Alberta, defeating

Buddy Rose Paul E. Perschmann (November 27, 1952 – April 28, 2009) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Playboy Buddy Rose. He wrestled primarily for the AWA, WWF, and for promoter Don Owen in Pacific Northwest W ...

. The following month, he competed on a joint house show tour with the WWF and Arena Wrestling Alliance, tagging with Mano Yanez on three events against

The Pitbulls The Pitbulls (sometimes written as The Pit Bulls) were a professional wrestling tag team who consisted of "Pitbull #1" Gary Wolfe (wrestler), Gary Wolfe and "Pitbull #2" Anthony Durante. They were best known for their tenure in Extreme Champions ...

World Championship Wrestling (1990–1991)

Two weeks later, DiSalvo received a tryout match for

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

(WCW) on April 23, 1990. He was signed to the company later that year and given the gimmick of "The Minotaur". DiSalvo made his first televised appearance on the January 5, 1991 episode of ''

WCW Saturday Night ''WCW Saturday Night'' is an American weekly Saturday night television show on TBS that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Launched in 1971 initially by Georgia Championship Wrestling, the program existed through various incarn ...

'', defeating Man Mountain Bailey. He began a house show series against The Juicer and was undefeated, and later faced The Junkyard Dog.

Late career (1991–2001)

DiSalvo also appeared in the

American Wrestling Association The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The promotion was born out of the Minneapolis ...

, where he wrestled as Billy Jack Strong. He became Steve DiSalvo again and drifted around the independent circuit before retiring in 2001.

Championships and accomplishments

*Americas Wrestling Federation **AWF World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *California Pro Wrestling **CPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **CPW Brass Knuckles Championship (2 times) *

Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship The Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Championship was the major title in the Canadian professional wrestling promotion Stampede Wrestling. From its establishment in 1968 until 1972, it was Stampede's secondary singles championship, be ...

( 1 time) *

( 1 time) **

( 1 time) - with Jason the Terrible ** WWC Television Championship ( 3 times)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Disalvo, Steve 1949 births 20th-century male professional wrestlers 20th-century American professional wrestlers 21st-century male professional wrestlers 21st-century American professional wrestlers American male professional wrestlers American powerlifters Faux Native American professional wrestlers Living people Professional wrestlers from Massachusetts Stampede Wrestling alumni Stampede Wrestling North American Heavyweight Champions WWC Television Champions WWC Universal Heavyweight Champions WWC World Tag Team Champions