His matches with Freddie Blassie were legendary. After being pounded by a longer-limbed opponent, he switched to professional wrestling. Hed also regularly tag with Gorilla Monsoon, another wrestler better known for his non-wrestling roles. . Keith Elliot Greenberg has been doing his part to preserve professional wrestling history for the past few decades. Blassie worked for the World Wrestling Federation, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment, which presented him with its lifetime achievement award in 1996. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on theWWE NetworkandPeacock. [21] The segment featured Blassie, his wife, and Raw co-General Manager Eric Bischoff, who was about to allow 3 Minute Warning to attack him, until Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Dudley Boyz stepped in. The Genius Cast with Lanny Poffo (2018-19), HOMAGE.com Our favorite in retro wrestling attire! Danny Djeljosevic is a writer based in San Diego, CA. Blassie would turn heel during this period, developing a lot of the characteristics that hed become known for. His penchant for biting opponents earned him the nickname "The Vampire". Freddie Blassie, the silver-maned . However, sadly, Freddie passed away before he could ever speak to his son again. Still claiming to be the West Coast Champion, entered into a feud with Bruno Sammartino to unify the titles. Still a motormouth, he gave interviews in which he bragged about himself and his protgs and denounced anybody he didn't like as a "pencil necked geek". Before The Client List is an extension of our ongoing series, Before They Were Famous, which looks at wrestlers before they became internationally famous. Blassie also wanted to clarify through his final memoir that he was an absentee father as he was on the road for most of his sons life growing up. At an early age, Blassie was enamored with pro wrestling, particularly the shooters of the early era of pro wrestling in the 1930s, and would often sneak into a local gym to watch the technical masters stretch and submit their opponents. [22] In the demonstration of the dance, Blassie picked up Rob Petrie and twirled him over his head. In this series, we will look at some of pro wrestlings greatest and most well-known managers and/or valets, but explore their prior career as an in-ring professional wrestler. He started a second career as a manager in the WWWF. Freddie Blassie's net worth for the WWF. As time goes on, many older wrestlers begin to fade out of the collective memory of wrestling, especially if their primary in-ring work happened before WWE began its takeover of the sport in the 1980s. [8] His death was announced by Jim Ross, 20 minutes into that same day's episode of Raw. Blassie is survived by his wife, Miyako, and three children. Recommended:10 Wrestling Book Must Reads and 5 You Dont Want To Waste Your Time On. 1 One of the great legends of pro wrestling albeit one whose in-ring career predated the 1980s Golden Era wrestling boom Classy Freddie Blassie was a successful heel who wrestled all over. Blassie retired from wrestling in 1986, turning over his stable of heels to another manager called Slick. Frederick Kenneth Blassman [2] (February 8, 1918 - June 2, 2003) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known by the ring name " Classy " Freddie Blassie. 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. A child of two German immigrants, Freddie Blassie was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1918. 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. Backstage, Jilly Rizzo club owner, Frank Sinatra's bodyguard, and . his service in the United States Navy during World War II. [11], On June 12, 1961, Blassie defeated the "Flying Frenchman" douard Carpentier in a best-of-three-falls match for his first WWA World Heavyweight Championship. During this time, he went to New York City to work for promoter Jess McMahon. Had some great matches with Rikidozan & even back in the late 60s he was over bigtime as a heel. He worked for Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment. Blassie is survived by his wife, Miyako, and three children. He was 85. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Following a stint in the California wrestling scene, Freddie Blassie headed southeast to the Georgia territories in the 1950s, where he would enjoy a whopping 17 reigns with the big title of the region, the NWA Georgia Southern Heavyweight Championship between 1954 and 1960. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. But for nearly 40 years, Fred Blassie was an in-ring talent who ruled the West Coast, a multi-time World Champion, and one of the most feared villains in pro wrestling history. [7] Later, he received regular work wrestling at local carnivals. The widow of pro-wrestling villain Classy Freddie Blassie got thrown for a fall by a supermarket floor mat. In 1964, Blassie once again captured the WWA World title for the third time (again from Carpentier), but upon losing to Dick The Bruiser in April, he headed to the newly minted World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). American professional wrestler and manager, Worldwide Wrestling Associates (19601968), World Wide Wrestling Federation (1964; 1971). . Lanny would state that Jerry Graham "had no business living the last 15 years of his life" due to his drinking problems. 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. By doing this, he saved Freddie Blassies life. This film article about a 1980s comedy is a stub. The nastier he was in the ring, the more popular he became to fans. 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. It was also during this period of his career when he dropped his babyface gimmick and became a full-fledged heel. Anyone can read what you share. Pro Wrestling Stories - Your daily source of nostalgia and a peek behind the curtain wall of wrestlings past! [22], Filmed in 1982, My Breakfast with Blassie featured Andy Kaufman and Freddie Blassie eating at a Sambo's in Los Angeles. [9][6], On June 2, 2003, Blassie died of heart and kidney failure at the age of 85. His wife is Miyako Morozumi (30 September 1968 - 2 June 2003) ( his death), ? He did an advice segment on the Tuesday Night Titans TV program, made personal appearances and did radio interviews. He joined the Navy at the start of World War II and started wrestling initially under the name of Sailor Fred Blassie while stationed at Port Hueneme. Fred Blassie was born and raised in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. He held his WWA World title for 289 days and thanks to WWAs alliance with Japan, in particular the Japan Wrestling Alliance (JWA) headed by puroresu icon Rikidozan, Blassie would not only help introduce Japanese pro wrestling to the U.S. market but help validate it in Japan as well. They had no connecting hallways, so he was stuck with a bunch of these people, kayfabing his gimmick as Bruno was being hauled in on a stretcher. Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=My_Breakfast_with_Blassie&oldid=1107033235, Articles needing additional references from June 2021, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 August 2022, at 19:43. His parents repeatedly separated, only to reconcile. 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. [20] Because of this, Blassie is one of, if not the only man to have worked with all four generations of the McMahon family. When Gene Okerlund confronted Blassie in an interview after the match, Blassie said, "what cane, I didn't have no cane!". One that stands out was his rivalry with Bruno Sammartino in the early 1960s. [6] He performed for that promotion until his full retirement from professional wrestling in 1986. The professional wrestler Freddie Blassie, who became a cult figure to fans by playing the villain inside the ring during the 1950's and 1960's, died Monday. He also bleached his hair at this time, as many of the other stars of the era did, such as Gorgeous George, Johnny Valentine, and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. [6] On July 7, Blassie successfully defended his title against the former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz. He liked to use a variety of names but had trouble gaining the affection of fans who gravitated toward the likes of Lou Thesz and Gorgeous George. His career began in earnest after 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. (and of course, Bubba Ray and D-Von take care of Bischoff and his cronies). [18][19] Blassie also appeared in the SummerSlam opening video. "The Fashion Plate of Wrestling" Freddie Blassie calls his interviewer and the fans "pencil neck geeks" and shows why he will always be remembered as one of the greatest managers in WWE history. [3], In 1953, he worked in the Atlanta, territory for Paul Jones (the wrestler of the 1930s, not the wrestler/manager of the 1980s). . In 1950, he had his first challenge for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, facing championLou Theszin Kentucky. Funeral services will be held at noon Friday at Hitchcock Presbyterian Church in Scarsdale, N.Y. Blassie would eventually come to be known as a manager (see below) in WWE, but in the 1960s and 1970s, he actually wrestled for the promotion, back then known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation. A third-generation wrestling fan and senior writer for World Wrestling Entertainment publications, Greenberg is the author of more than thirty nonfiction children's books, and has written for The New York . [2][14] Blassie also managed Muhammad Ali in his boxer vs. wrestler match in 1976 against Antonio Inoki. World Wrestling Entertainment WWE)). He won the World Wrestling Association world heavyweight championship from the Frenchman douard Carpentier at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in 1961. [6] His cousin John Frank Holaus often refereed his matches.
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