Monday, September 01, 2008

RIP: Killer Kowalski


I just found out from Chris Sims that Killer Kowalski has passed away. He was a legendary heel in his prime and later trained many famous wrestlers. Perhaps most notably Triple H apprenticed under the Killer. I have one match of Kowalski's on tape, an old black & white TV broadcast. You know how heels like to get on the mike and say something to rile up the audience? All he had to do was howl at them and the crowd erupted in boos and jeers. It was beautiful.

I remember the first time Kowlaski came to the ring when I was playing Legends of Wrestling on the X-box. I thought to myself "Well, I'm fucked now." That's how much ring charisma the guy had. This old man could intimidate me through a video game.

4 comments:

  1. Kowalski was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. During a time where bouts were determined and a much slower and drawn out pace, Kowalski was in such shape that he often wrestled without a break for either men (applying a submission hold)for the full hour, which is unheard of, and many of his opponents at the time tried to leave because they were exhausted, old Killer would literally hop out of the ring and throw them back in!

    After a large event, which was televised live, the police showed up to arrest Kowalski for murder. Killer's finishing move a flying knee to his opponents throat from the top rope. When a fan had seen this terrible move inflicted on his hero he was so horrified that he had called the police!

    He acquired the moniker "Killer" after accidentally ripping off another wrestler named "Yukon" Eric's ear. When he went to check up on him in the hospital, he found that the room was full of reporters. Now, this demanded that he stay in character, so Kowalski just started laughing. The next day the headlines called him KILLER and reported that he went to the hospital just to laugh at Yukon Eric after he ripped off his ear.

    Here is something to chew on, I have no idea if it is true or not, however Kowalski claimed that the National Hockey League approached him, and he trained them on how to stage fights on the ice, including how to hit other players with hockey sticks in a way that won't cause permanent injury. If this is true, well . . .

    Kowalski is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers, he will be missed.

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  2. Anonymous2:17 PM

    One of the best heels ever. 81 seems like a pretty good run though. It sounds... well, a little bizarre to be saying this, but it's good to see a wrestler live to a ripe old age instead of dying young.

    - Matthew

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  3. Anonymous10:37 PM

    Claw hold forever, Baby.

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  4. Anonymous6:19 AM

    Hey there,
    How are you?
    Dude ... you've been cracking me up for the entirity of an hour now! I was searching the 'net for some other phot references for a piece of artwork, when I stumbled across a link to your blog. It wasn't even a .jpg, but it was a link to a Wayne Reynolds piece of art of St. Cuthbert, tha ta miniature was based on. It was a really old blog entry, and I have been perusing your archives since! Comics, and D&D, and just about everything that I could think of that - not only shares in *my* interests - but made me laugh out loud. You've got a snarky, yet witty way of writing that is just marvelous!
    And then ... I found the Shiela-crush blog entry. I must have re-read it four times! And the panty-flash made me hoot and howl with laughter! You're right about the little-boy-crushes. I couldn't believe that you fit the Baroness in there! *chuckles* not that I'm admitting anything! ;)

    Anyway, man ... I got to the newest blogs, and I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the time reading. You put a smile on my face for a good long while, and that's something hard for even professional comedians to do.

    Feel free to email me back at IcarusATB@yahoo.com (God I hope I don't get spam from having posted that).

    Sincerely,
    Kristoph
    aka "Icarus"

    ReplyDelete