Lesser Known Legit Tough Guys

[thecrusherwi]

We all know about the guys like Haku and the bonafide amateur wrestling and MMA tough guys, but who are some legit tough guys who had the locker room respect, but might not be as well known by fans as tough guys.

During the numerous retellings of the Dynamite Kid/Jacques Rougeau incident, it’s frequently mentioned that it might have gone down differently had Raymond Rougeau had not been injured, as Ray was known having some boxing skill and the ability to handle himself. I haven’t heard a ton about his legit ability outside of that incident, but I suspect it’s because he mostly got along with people.

Cornette has also mentioned on several occasions that Jim Duggan in his prime was someone capable of handling himself in a rumble, though that’s a bit less surprising considering he was a former pro football player who was built like a house.

Any other examples?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

Dennis Condrey apparently had the rep of someone to not mess around with.

He had a noted amateur background, but no one seems to mention Gordon Nelson in these conversations. He was one of the guys Bobby Heenan mentioned when him and Cornette were talking about the toughest guys in the business.

Adrian Street gets some recognition, but probably not as much as he deserves.

[James Fabiano]

Heck we recently got a reminder about Duggan, who stopped a burglar in his house.

[The Blue Nova]

Norman Smiley apperently
Marc Curtis

[Mochi Lone Wolf]

Jan 12, 2023 9:39:33 GMT -5 The Blue Nova said:

Norman Smiley apperently
Marc Curtis

Karl Gotch and the Malenkos trained Norman so, I'm not surprised by that at all.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Vordell Walker-Yea most remember when Rick Steiner tried to shoot on Vordell years ago at a Florida Indie show. But most don't know that Vordell ,who is 44 IRRC,can walk into Judo tournaments in LA,not having bothered training for weeks,and come in 1st,2nd or 3rd place. Seen him mad one time and yea I don't think the entire locker room could keep him from doing what he wanted to do that night.

Chase Stevens-I am guessing his boxing background might be known?!?! But for a short dude he is way way tougher than I would have figured.

Frank Dalton-Heard stories from older wrestlers,Frank's son Andy and many others about how tough he was. Supposedly back in the early 70s Frank fought 5 bikers in some bar outside Mobile AL. "When it was over Frank had a black eye and a few bruises. But those 5 REDACTED were all on the floor bleeding and begging their women to take them to the ER."

[Ultimo Gallos]

Jan 12, 2023 9:15:56 GMT -5 "Playboy" Don Douglas said:

Dennis Condrey apparently had the rep of someone to not mess around with.

He had a noted amateur background, but no one seems to mention Gordon Nelson in these conversations. He was one of the guys Bobby Heenan mentioned when him and Cornette were talking about the toughest guys in the business.

Adrian Street gets some recognition, but probably not as much as he deserves.

If half the stories you hear about Street are true he is one of the toughest guys in his era. And not a big guy really. He was what 5'10" tops. But just a legit tough dude.

[DragonMasterP]

Doesn’t Santino Marella have a legit MMA background?

[tirtefaa]

Jan 12, 2023 11:09:08 GMT -5 DragonMasterP said:

Doesn’t Santino Marella have a legit MMA background?

I remember when people were throwing his name out there as a guy who could shoot beat Brock. 😂

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

The Spoiler, Don Jardine, probably works here. The stories Gary Hart told about him are insane.

Hell, Gary Hart might work for this, for that matter.

[tirtefaa]

Jan 12, 2023 13:23:20 GMT -5 "Playboy" Don Douglas said:

Gary Hart might work for this, for that matter.

Gary Hart was a guy who may not have been legitimately tough, but would genuinely maim you if he felt he was in danger.

I don't care how tough someone is, if that person decided to attack him, Gary will respond with a straight razor to the face. The Missing Link was a tough guy, and even he backed down after he got severely cut up.

[Aceorton]

He doesn't get a huge amount of respect when talked about these days (Cornette in particular has ridiculed him for thinking he was a much bigger deal than he was in the WCW years), but Dan Spivey tore Adrian Adonis to pieces in the WWF locker room in 1986, according to multiple witnesses. And Adrian was no pushover.

[EP 54 is banned from Collision]

Lince Dorado is Jiu-Jitsu expert.

[Deleted]

Dolph is apparently a real shooter who's just below the guys like Brock/Swagger in terms of amateur creds.

[Viking Hall]

I feel like Kenny Omega kind of fits the bill here. Not someone you ever really hear being brought up as 'legit' but has a decent MMA record (4-3) and I believe trained as a boxer too?

[kingoftheindies]

Jan 12, 2023 11:09:08 GMT -5 DragonMasterP said:

Doesn’t Santino Marella have a legit MMA background?

Has his own school too. Santino legit can handle himself better than most.

One people dont really know about though is Eric Bischoff who is a black belt and has won quite a few tournaments

[Jaws the Shark]

Re. Adrian Street, one imagines he sort of had to be hard to do that gimmick when he did. He's said to have beaten the absolute living shit out of Jimmy Savile in the early seventies too.

Actually, probably a lot of the British wrestlers of that era belong on this list. Many of them would've been trained by blokes like Billy Riley and Ted Betley, genuine shooters whose gyms you would have had to be pretty tough to get through.

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I wouldn’t say Billy Jack Haynes wasn’t known as a tough guy, I’d say that’s generally accepted. There is a bit of mystery around the specifics. We know he trained in the Hart Dungeon, so no doubt Stu put him through the wringer and he came out the other side. There’s talk that he had some amateur boxing experience, but I haven’t seen a definitive account of that.

More interesting are the stories from within the business. Bobby Heenan talked about watching Haynes and Mike Sharpe get into a fight after a match. He said Vince asked him about it the next day, Bobby confirmed it, and Vince asked, “Well, did you try to stop it?” Bobby paused his storytelling to add, “Like I’m gonna get between Billy Jack and Sharpe.” He seemed to kind of emphasize Billy Jack. There are stories of him winning locker room fights with Sharpe, Barry Windham, and John Studd, but I’m sure there are other accounts of those fights. There usually is.

The two most interesting things, to me at least, is the story I’ve heard multiple times about Chris Adams pulling a no show and skipping town a few days when Billy Jack came in because he was with Billy Jack’s ex wife. Of course, Billy Jack had only married her to help her get a green card, so it wasn’t an issue. Some have doubted this, based on Adams having an extensive judo background and being a tough guy in his own right. Which brings me to the second part. Jim Cornette has said that Billy was always very calm and soft spoken and had the lightest handshake in the locker room, almost like he was going out of his way to be gentle. He said the rumor was that Billly had gotten into a fight, the guy died from his injuries, and Billy did time for manslaughter. If someone beat a guy to death in a simple bar fight and you think he might be pissed at you for banging his ex, it could hit you differently than just another one of the boys coming in.

Obviously, I have no way of knowing what happened and what didn’t. It all makes the guy very intriguing to me, and that’s before you mix in the mental illness, alleged history of abuse, and time apparently spent as a drug mule.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jan 12, 2023 13:56:49 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

He doesn't get a huge amount of respect when talked about these days (Cornette in particular has ridiculed him for thinking he was a much bigger deal than he was in the WCW years), but Dan Spivey tore Adrian Adonis to pieces in the WWF locker room in 1986, according to multiple witnesses. And Adrian was no pushover.

Undertaker told the story on Austin's podcast but there was also that time the Road Warriors wussed out trying to fight him after he shot on them with a chair. I guess he thought the Road Warriors were making Undertaker then known as "Mean" Mark look bad in their match so he started hitting with a chair as hard as he could during the post match beatdown to the point where it was actually bent from hitting Hawk in the head with it. As they were making their way to the back Mark was thinking they were going to get into a fight once they got back and Spivey just told him "don't worry Mark". As they sat in the locker they could hear the Road Warriors complaining as they were approaching however once they got there they just looked at Spivey and said "good match Dan" and walked off.

I know Cornette hates him but other then him as anyone spoke negatively about him? It seems like he's always been pretty respected and liked by others within the business while being described as a nice and quiet guy who was also really tough. Granted most of the times I hear him get brought up in shoot interviews is by WWF guys when they are describing the fight when he beat up Adrian. At that point he was still in pretty new to the business and lower on the card. Maybe he was more difficult to deal with in the WCW days as they were giving the Skyscrapers a good push and were booking them strong so I guess maybe it could've gone to his head a bit.

[Axel Dieter jr.]

Jan 12, 2023 14:32:46 GMT -5 Viking Hall said:

I feel like Kenny Omega kind of fits the bill here. Not someone you ever really hear being brought up as 'legit' but has a decent MMA record (4-3) and I believe trained as a boxer too?

I've seen himself say in interviews that there's no truth to that. He had no real MMA fights. And sites which list something like that make that stuff up or count worked matches or jiu jitsu matches.