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Post by dlg3000 on May 1, 2012 19:04:40 GMT -5
I have heard of this guy and I have only seen him wrestle one match. He is a cross between Dusty Rhodes and Junk Yard Dog or Bobo Brazil. Was he a good wrestler or was he a better entertainer than wrestler? I recall a shoot interview of his and he seems pretty bitter at the way he was treated and of the racism he endured during his career. He didn't have such nice things to say about Ron Simmons' wrestling ability either. Does anyone remember him and whatever happened to him?
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MolotovMocktail
Grimlock
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Post by MolotovMocktail on May 1, 2012 19:06:11 GMT -5
His biggest claim to fame was that he was Ole Anderson's tag team partner when Ole turned on him to align himself with Arn in the very first step in creating the Four Horsemen.
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Post by dlg3000 on May 1, 2012 19:09:58 GMT -5
He would have been a decent Horsemen I think if Ole hadn't turned on him, no?
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on May 1, 2012 19:24:06 GMT -5
He would have been a decent Horsemen I think if Ole hadn't turned on him, no? I'm not sure. He would have had to change up his routine to fit in with the Horsemen, I think. Of course, I haven't really seen him work heel either. I'm not sure it's really fair to just write him off as Ole's tag partner before the Horsemen. T-Bolt was a big draw in Georgia for a number of years. The start of the Horsemen was actually at the end of his career from what I can tell. A lot of people have cited him as a major influence on Dusty Rhodes (some even accusing Rhodes of outright stealing). I've met him a couple of times, but don't really have any memorable stories except for his sermon-inspired induction of Ted Turner into the Hall of Heroes at Fanfest in Atlanta last year.
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Post by Ultimo Chocula on May 1, 2012 19:31:00 GMT -5
The only thing that pops in my mind whenever he comes up is this: "THUNDA MOUTH!"
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on May 1, 2012 19:34:41 GMT -5
The only thing that pops in my mind whenever he comes up is this: "THUNDA MOUTH!" God bless Ernie Ladd.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on May 2, 2012 1:10:36 GMT -5
He is a cross between Dusty Rhodes and Junk Yard Dog or Bobo Brazil. Realistically speaking, he was the proto-Dusty. He paved the way for Dusty's style. He was more than capable as a wrestler, but what made him off the charts was his charisma. It's telling that will all the Championship Wrestler from Florida footage of him in his prime being of such poor quality that his charisma jumps right through the terrible production values and latches on to your attention. He's one of the people I really can't judge for being bitter. He made one of the greatest efforts to get a fair wrestlers' union established and had an industry turn on him. He also faced an obscene amount of racism. He, in a lot of ways, revolutionized what could be done in the ring with a style that had no father. He deserves a HoF induction for sure, but knowing his passion for Unions, Vince will probably wait until after he's passed on to avoid giving him a live microphone.
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
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Post by mizerable on May 2, 2012 1:47:32 GMT -5
He would have been a decent Horsemen I think if Ole hadn't turned on him, no? I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, and realistically, I'm not very familiar with Patterson but... I don't know if a black guy in the Horsemen would work. Now before you call me a racist, what I mean by that, the original group had a certain "better than you attitude" as well as a certain "good ol' Southern boys" image to an extent, so in a lot of ways, I always considered the group as kind of a racist group themselves. I felt it worked that way better. And yeah, I know Reed was involved with them for a short time and Blanchard had a black valet, but again, it always felt like more of a "you help us and gain no benefits" sort of deal.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on May 2, 2012 2:00:47 GMT -5
He would have been a decent Horsemen I think if Ole hadn't turned on him, no? I don't want this to be taken the wrong way, and realistically, I'm not very familiar with Patterson but... I don't know if a black guy in the Horsemen would work. Now before you call me a racist, what I mean by that, the original group had a certain "better than you attitude" as well as a certain "good ol' Southern boys" image to an extent, so in a lot of ways, I always considered the group as kind of a racist group themselves. I felt it worked that way better. And yeah, I know Reed was involved with them for a short time and Blanchard had a black valet, but again, it always felt like more of a "you help us and gain no benefits" sort of deal. I never got racist Southern vibes from the Horsemen at all. At all at all. You don't think Floyd Mayweather would fit right in?
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
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Post by mizerable on May 2, 2012 2:15:51 GMT -5
By the early 90's, they certainly didn't seem as vicious as before, but the original incarnation definitely has a certain vibe.
As far as Floyd Mayweather? I just can't picture it. I'm not saying it wouldn't have worked in maybe the mid 90's group, but early on they really came off that way to me.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on May 2, 2012 2:29:25 GMT -5
By the early 90's, they certainly didn't seem as vicious as before, but the original incarnation definitely has a certain vibe. Nah, I'm not seeing it. Can you point to a specific promo that conveyed as such?
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
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Post by mizerable on May 2, 2012 2:38:57 GMT -5
It was never outright said. It's how the group carried themselves.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
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Post by chazraps on May 2, 2012 3:42:00 GMT -5
It was never outright said. It's how the group carried themselves. I know, but I mean a promo where they carried that particular vibe. With how popular the 80s Horsemen were with black audiences out east and in the midwest at that time, I'm pretty sure a particularly racist southern high society white guy vibe wasn't there.
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lovingway
El Dandy
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Post by lovingway on May 2, 2012 4:55:58 GMT -5
In one of the Legends roundtables Dusty specifically mentioned Patterson as an influence but also said he was really paranoid and that worked against him.
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Crappler El 0 M
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on May 2, 2012 6:07:22 GMT -5
If I recall, he was a pretty big star in certain territories. I think he eventually ended up speaking out against the wrestling business in the 1980s, criticizing certain promoters for racism.
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Post by sportatorium on May 2, 2012 12:42:21 GMT -5
Very good wrestler. A great babyface that could connect with the crowd. Racism in wrestling is a truly awful, but quite real part of the business. I think it probably sucked in general to be a black guy in the business back then. You hope that it would be better now, but the Hayes/Henry thing wasn't that long ago.
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saintpat
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Post by saintpat on May 3, 2012 23:52:43 GMT -5
Take this for what you will, but Patterson's in-ring character played to the racism in the South in the late 70s and early 80s.
There was a spot he did almost every match, and it played into the stereotype. T-Bolt would get himself put into a headlock. He would then put both hands on his hips, bent over in the headlock, and start shaking and sliding his head and wiggle out of the lock. The guy who put him in the lock would kind of do a double-take and look at where Patterson's head had been and sell surprise. T-Bolt would stand up and run a hand, or both hands, through his hair.
The point was that Patterson was supposed to have greasy, oily hair -- what would have been called knappy-headed at the time. That was part of the negative stereotype, that black people had knappy hair. And the move helped get him over: usually got a big pop reaction of blacks and whites alike laughing and cheering.
I have no idea if that was Patterson's idea or a Southern promoter came up with it or if he borrowed it from another wrestler, but it was definitely a deal where Patterson took a racial stereotype, kind of made fun of it and made use of it, and it was a positive for him. Whether he felt it demeaning to do that (or perhaps it was something he felt he had to do) or whether he figured it was a way to turn racism on its ear in a tiny way, I'd be interested to know.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2012 7:00:18 GMT -5
I can only recall he was a National Tag Team champion with Dusty Rhodes around the time I started watching the NWA. Then again, as with pretty much all of Dusty's title reigns, you never seen him actually defending the belts.
(Kinda like how you'd think Dusty winning the TV title meant he got more TV time than anybody without actually wrestling a match.)
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skulldouggory
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Post by skulldouggory on May 4, 2012 11:56:08 GMT -5
Is that the Thunderbolt that Sojo Bolt was supposedly related too?
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on May 4, 2012 14:03:34 GMT -5
Is that the Thunderbolt that Sojo Bolt was supposedly related too? I've looked around a bit and found no mention of this whatsoever. So I have no idea. I'm about sure they aren't legit related.
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