You can watch him on Autopsy: The Last Hours of on Reelz in the United States and Channel 5 in Great Britain. Blassie continued to interfere from ringside in matches, especially during Volkoff's feud with Corporal Kirchner. Patrick Stewart In A Checkered Coat Wallpaper. is 6'(1.83m) . (Use code PWS for a nice surprise). Bruno had gotten so famous that he couldnt always pick the boneheads from the rest. KyleEnjoysWrestling wrote on 30.07.2019: [ 9.0] "People mostly know Blassie for his manager roles, but he was also a pro in the ring. Accounts about his early athletic career do not quite agree, but he He kept track of all of his matches during his career, including personal anecdotes. Blassie wrestled as a dark-haired good guy until he found out that the "heels" (bad guys) got better pay. Pro Wrestling Stories - Your daily source of nostalgia and a peek behind the curtain wall of wrestlings past! Despite that, Blassie ended the year by leaving WWWF and returning to Los Angeles and the WWA. He joined the Navy at the start of World War II and started wrestling under the name of Sailor Fred Blassie while stationed at Port Hueneme in California. Blassie was a regular on the WWWF's "All-Star Wrestling" and "Championship Wrestling" weekly TV shows that were videotaped at small arenas in Pennsylvania and aired throughout the Northeast. Blassie died in Hartsdale, N.Y., Jeff Walton, a former wrestling publicist, told The Los Angeles Times. [4] He is regarded as one of the greatest wrestling heels, or villains, of all time. While writingThe Legends of Wrestling, Greenberg got to know Freddie Blassie quite well and mentioned in his appearance on The Genius Cast that Blassie really opened up to him. Tolos moved first to Vancouver, where he married his wife Ingrid in 1967 (they later divorced), then worked his way south until he reached Los Angeles. Feb 27. Freddie Blassie, Pro Wrestler Popular as Villain, Dies at 85, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/08/sports/freddie-blassie-pro-wrestler-popular-as-villain-dies-at-85.html. Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? [8] In 2001, Blassie appeared in a special July 16, 2001 Raw is War segment for the Invasion storyline, wherein he exhorted a gathering of WWF wrestlers to stand tall against The Alliance and later got mocked by Alliance leaders Shane and Stephanie McMahon. [2] During that same title reign, in a match against Lord James Blears a fan threw acid on his back, and he had to return immediately to the locker room to wash it off; over the course of his career, he was also stabbed 21 times and lost vision in his right eye after being struck by a thrown hard-boiled egg. Hogan would return in late 1983, turning face almost immediately after and thus separating from Freddie Blassie. In reality, Blassie was a major on-screen figure in wrestling, both in competitive and managerial roles, and had a status in overall pop culture. After the war, Blassie returned to the Midwest and continued wrestling professionally. Over the course of his in-ring career, Classy Freddie Blassie would wrestle a number of legends, many of whom have either become legendary wrestlers or became famous in the following decades for non-competitive roles. From there, he moved on to become a regular writer, contributor, and reporter for WWE. Managed by "Loud" Lou Albano, Blassie continued his winning ways, but never won the WWWF's championship. If they refused to drop a title, it didnt matter what the bookers thought. The phrase pencil neck geek is such a common bit of North American English idiom that likely few are aware that it actually comes from pro wrestling, let alone from the mouth of Freddie Blassie. For Freddie Blassie, there was no question why he took on a villian's persona - he loved it. We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 8 February. Blassie would turn heel during this period, developing a lot of the characteristics that hed become known for. Blassie, well-known for exaggerating a story or two, stated that when he was wrestling Rikidozan in Japan, 100 Japanese wrestling fans dropped dead of heart attacks because the matches were so gory. [6] Blassie lost the title to Rikidzan on March 28, 1962.[9]. "Classy" Freddie Blassie is a legendary wrestling personality, both as a wrestler and a manager. Outside of being an award-winning television producer, the New York Times best-selling author began writing about professional wrestling for several newspapers and magazines in the 90s. He spent his time in the Missouri territory, working mainly in St. Louis and Kansas City, but when the U.S. entered the Second World War, he enlisted in 1942 and joined the U.S. Navy, where he spent four years (42 months) in combat in the U.S. battles in the Pacific. Now is In the early 1970s, Blassie "turned face", or became a good guy, since so many fans were cheering his famous antics. One poll ranked him as the most hated wrestler in the United [18][19] Blassie also appeared in the SummerSlam opening video. He retired from competition in the late 1970's to manage a new generation of wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura, the future governor of Minnesota. [7] When Philbin had a late-night weekend talk show in San Diego, Blassie would routinely show up to yell at the audience, throw furniture, and threaten Philbin; the confrontations were wholly kayfabe and both of them were friends when the cameras weren't rolling. Freddie Blassie retired as an active wrestler in 1974 in part because of the difficulty of securing a wrestling license . World Wrestling Entertainment WWE)). [22] In the demonstration of the dance, Blassie picked up Rob Petrie and twirled him over his head. , money, salary, income, and assets. G&K did not respond to calls for comment. Blassie's interference at Wrestlemania 2 cost Volkoff his match with Kirchner, when the cane was grabbed by Kirchner instead of Volkoff. [8] The fans consistently booed him because he was considered a "Yankee". However, sadly, Freddie passed away before he could ever speak to his son again. After a move to the West Coast, he tried a different promotional scheme -- that of a villain. After being pounded by a longer-limbed opponent, he switched to professional wrestling. 304K views 6 years ago The Dudley Boyz put Rico through a table after getting the call from WWE Hall of Famer "Classy" Freddie Blassie at ringside. [6] On July 7, Blassie successfully defended his title against the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz. One poll ranked him as the most hated wrestler in the United States. Freddie Blassie, 85, died of heart failure on June 2, 2003. He delivered a rousing speech, dramatically standing up from his wheelchair to get the WWE-loyal wrestlers pumped up for the next battle. "Classy" Freddie Blassie with Keith Elliot Greenberg, NWA Georgia Southern Heavyweight Championship, WWWF United States Heavyweight Championship, NWA North American Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, North American Wrestling Alliance/Worldwide Wrestling Associates/ NWA Hollywood Wrestling, WWA International Television Tag Team Championship, NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum, Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, "Classy Freddie Blassie was pro wrestling's 'Fashion Plate', "Before The Client List: "Classy" Freddie Blassie", "Blassie toast of Cauliflower Alley Club", "WWF WrestleMania XV Results - 3/28/99 (Stone Cold vs. ROH Best in the World (7/11/21) Preview and Predictions, Preview: Ice Ribbon 1133 in 176Box (7/11/21), first African-American to hold a World title. [2] He was given a commentary tryout in 1986 and 1987 for WWF Wrestling Challenge, calling a few matches with Gorilla Monsoon. Professional wrestler Freddie Blassie, who became a cult figure for fans by playing the villain inside the ring during the 1950s and 1960s, has died. During his time on the West Coast, he was a frequent guest and/or interruption on a local show hosted by Regis Philben, and Blassies appearances thanks to his massive appeal as a wrestling draw helped push Philben into a national celebrity. As a result, fans may be aware of Classy Freddie Blassie for his appearances during WWEs Golden Era and beyond but that only scratches the surface of his career. Fred Blassie was born and raised in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. Replying to. Jamie Greer joined LWOPW in 2015 and was the site's Managing Editor from 2016 through 2020. [8] He married a girl in California while on shore leave. *Blassie also told Greenberg that women used to come up to him on the street and gawk at him because he was Gods gift to women! Because of his close relationship with Vince McMahon, Sr. and his family, Blassie remained on the WWF payroll until the day he died. Deiveson Figueiredo Tattoo Wallpaper. By the mid-1970s, Freddie Blassie was in his 50s and began to settle into a role as a manager in WWE, though he would still occasionally wrestle a match. Freddie had been estranged from his children for the majority of their lives. In 1961, he defeated Eduoard Carpentier for the WWA World Heavyweight Championship, a title that held prominence in the pro-wrestling world, since WWA was an outlaw territory outside the realm of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). This resulted in a weak relationship between the two. Still claiming to be the West Coast Champion, entered into a feud with Bruno Sammartino to unify the titles. [8] He was often billed as "The Vampire" during this time for biting his opponents and filing his teeth during interviews and promos. Lynne Margulies, who would later become Kaufman's girlfriend, plays a role; in fact, she and Kaufman met for the first time on camera. He was feuding with a wrestler known as The Geek who had a neck like a stack of dimes, making him a literal pencil neck geek. Danny Djeljosevic is a writer based in San Diego, CA. He came up with it back in his carnival days, when describing a literal carnival geek -- as in, a performer who bites the heads off of chickens -- who had a slender neck. Miyako Blassie, 68, says in court papers that she was shopping for groceries. Of course, these mobsters thought he was putting them down for real. By the 1970s, Blassie had relocated to the East Coast where he successfully pursued his mat career. This benefactor was later revealed to be Slick. In the 1970s, Blassie recorded a number of novelty songs, including Pencil Neck Geek, which became a cult favorite via Dr. Dementos radio show, which specializes in sharing wacky tracks. Most recently, he co-authored the 2016 edition of the WWE Encyclopedia of Sports Entertainment. He returned to AJPW again in 1973, but the following year in 1974, he jumped to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) for his final tour of Japan. It was in the latter that he decided to embrace his villainous side, bleaching his hair blonde like Gorgeous George. In March of 1962, Blassie lost the WWA World title to Rikidozan, and for the next four months, Blassie competed in Japan, determined to regain his title from the Japanese wrestling innovator. He bleached his hair and quickly became a heel's heel, outraging crowds by gleefully breaking every rule in the book. "I want you to get four Orange Juliuses for me, the girls, and you.". Back in the dressing room, Blassie realized he was in the wrong one. Freddie Blassie managed many heels to success, including the team of The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, who would win the World Tag Team Titles from US Express thanks to Blassies delivering a strategic shot with his cane. Accounts about his early athletic career do not quite agree, but he first tried to make his mark as a boxer, despite warnings that his arms were too short. [20] Images from his WrestleMania XV promo were also included in the opening of the 2001 Survivor Series.