Wrestling legend Killer Kowalski passes away

411mania ^ | 30 August 2008

[CounterCounterCulture]

Killer Kowalski Passes Away

Walter "Killer" Kowalski passed away early this morning. Kowalski had been taken off life support two weeks ago. He suffered a massive heart attack back on August 8th.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I’ve got an autographed photo, too. He was at a firing range open-house in Massachsetts. He was this huge, folded-up elderly guy with a very gentle manner. I told him I’d watched him when I was a little kid, and he laughed as he signed the photo. Nothing like the monster he pretended to be for the cameras.

[lesser_satan]

Yes, he lives here in MN! He wrote and played himself in a play about his life that ran at the Minnesota History Theater. And it was indeed him that developed The Claw. Him and Mad Dog Vachon are my two favorite "old-school" AWA wrestlers.

[stockpirate]

God bless Killer, enjoyed his shows..

[sushiman]

I’m old enough to remember Killer Kowalski and Haystack . Pro wrestling was a hoot in those days . I remember an urban myth going around that Haystack ate a dozen eggs for breakfast . Hehehe...R.I.P. Killer .

[sushiman]

Maybe you can help me . This must have been in the 70’s ...There was a little guy who managed a stable of wrestlers , and he used to wear a fortune teller’s turban . What was that cat’s name ?

[oldbill]

Wasn’t it Vern Gagne with the sleeper hold?

[FlingWingFlyer]

Somebody above said it was Lou Thesz.

[CounterCounterCulture]

The Grand Wizard

[PaleoBob]

I saw Kowalski wrestle Bruno in the late 1960s in Baltimore. Legend had it that he bit off a guy’s ear in a bout in Toronto. That was long before Mike Tyson tried it. RIP Killer.

[sushiman]

Thanks . Those were the days . Grand Wizard ; Captain Lou and Fred Blassie !

[CounterCounterCulture]

Legend had it that he bit off a guy’s ear in a bout in Toronto.

Most famously, in a 1952 match in Montreal versus Yukon Eric, Kowalski ripped off a part of Yukon Eric's ear while performing a knee drop. In reality, Eric's ears were already badly cauliflowered due to years of abuse and the injury was an accident, but it fortified Kowalski as being a ruthless villain who ripped his opponent's ear off. Further, Kowalski attempted to visit his opponent in the hospital and began laughing along with Eric at how silly the bandages looked, with Kowalski recalling years later, "I swear, the first thing I thought of was Humpty Dumpty on the wall. Yukon Eric looked at me, shook his head, and smiled. I started laughing and he laughed, too.". When the incident was reported in the paper the next day, it stated that Kowalski showed up at the hospital and laughed at his victim rather than with him, furthering Kowalski's image as a heel.

wikipedia link

[RaceBannon]

I thought Toro Tanaka called it the sleeper hold first??

[lesser_satan]

I remember an urban myth going around that Haystack ate a dozen eggs for breakfast.

I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. He was a huge dude!

[sushiman]

From Wikipedia :

” Born on August 3, 1934, William Dee Calhoun grew up on a farm in McKinney, Texas; a rural suburb located in Collin County, about 30 miles north of Dallas. William was an unusually large child with an extraordinary appetite (it was said that he regularly ate a dozen eggs for breakfast); and by age 14, he already weighed 300 pounds. “

Maybe it WASn’t a myth after all !

[Manic_Episode]

"Wasn’t it Vern Gagne with the sleeper hold?"

==============================================

Sometime in the late 70s I saw Vern on Jim Klobuchars PBS interview show where Jim told Vern that wrestling was fake. Vern took exception to that and put Jim in the sleeper hold until he went unconscious, set him on the floor and took over the show while Jim slept there at his feet.

One of my old drinking buddies was 240 lbs and covered in hair when he was 16 years old and was cousins with Vern.
My buddy who had been drinking saw Vern at a family reunion and went up to him and told him that wrestling was all fake. Next thing he knew it he was looking up at the sky and he didn't even know what happened and he said he felt like an old man for the next 3 days.

[PaleoBob]

Thanks. Montreal, not Toronto.

[martin_fierro]

Executioners Ping

DAĆ WIECZNE ODPOCZYWANIE

[mikrofon]

May he Wrestle in Peace

[Cheapskate]

hi

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt