One wrestler that I thought was world champion material in every way was 'The Worlds Strongest Wrestler' Ken Patera. Patera was legit. He was a real Olympian and the first man to ever clean and jerk 500 pounds over his head in competition.
Ken made a name for himself as the top heel in the country when he snapped indian Billy Whitewolf's chicken neck bone with THE SWINGING NECK BREAKER! Grrrrrrrrrr! Whitewolf was injured so badly that he turned into an Iraqi!
Patera could always get over on TV with his strongman gimmick. One of his big foes was Mr. U.S.A. Tony Atlas. Atlas was a great babyface with an outstanding build who could match Ken in strength but could never overcome Ken and his willingness to use foul tactics to win at all cost!
Patera started as a babyface and his genetic superiority made him great in everything he did. Heck his brother Jack was even a great athlete. He was the first middle linebacker in Dallas Cowboy history and he was also the first head football coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Ken also competed in The Worlds Strongest Man Competition when it first started.
Ken was a natural heel and it was against WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino and later Howdy Doody Bob Backlund that Ken showed that he had all it took to be THE MAN.
Heck Dirty Rhodes, that yellow stinkin' dirty dog, even stole Ken's white afro!
Ken was so strong, so powerful and so GREAT that he could even go toe to toe with that big dumb giant Andre the Dummy!
But when it came down to it the only person that could stop Ken Patera 'The Worlds Strongest Wrestler' was KEN PATERA 'The World's Strongest Wreslter'!
"On April 6, 1984, Patera and fellow AWA heel Masa Saito were denied service after hours at a McDonald's restaurant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, prompting an angry Patera to throw a rock through a window of the building (Patera claims that a former employee threw the rock but he received the blame). He and Saito assaulted the policemen sent to arrest them later at a hotel. Sixteen months later, at which point Patera was in the WWF, he was sentenced to two years in prison."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Cool seeing Andre as a heel in Japan especially against Ken Patera. Ken spent the better part of his career as a heel but also wrestled as a babyface at the beginning of his career, then later at the height of his career in St Louis and then after he came back from being in the pokey.
ReplyDelete