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Post Mortem Tribute to Big John Studd
It is unfortunate that the wrestling fans of today do not know that much about John. John William Minton was the real name of the wrestler and he was trained by Killer Kowalski. The first ever title that Big John won was the tag team title in the WWWF, in a team with Kowalski. Both were then masked and members of a team called the Masked Executioners.
Big John Studd left the WWWF and eventually wrestled under different names like The Masked Superstar II, Captain USA and Chuck O'Connor. A lot of wrestlers had feuds with him at the time and one that is worth mentioning is the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes. He had a very interesting gimmick while bringing a stretcher in the ring. The opponents ended up carried away on them. In 1982 Studd started a feud with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and would eventually turn towards the WWF. This was the start of a feud that saw the champion, Hulk Hogan. During the period we saw Studd being managed by Bobby Heenan and we will always remember the huge feud against one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Andre the Giant. There was a huge tag team match that showed Andre the Giant's hair being shaved after the match and the end of the feud was huge. Big John Studd wrestled Andre the Giant at the first Wrestlemania thanks to a feud that started with the wrestler offering $15,00 to any individual that was able to perform a body slam on him. John Studd was eventually slammed by Andre the Giant, which basically won the match and the money. The feud with Andre the Giant was probably the best feud that Big John Studd had in his wrestling career, at a time when the wrestler Sting was not even known to the public (so that you understand how long ago this was).
We also saw Big John wrestle in the Over the top wrestling Battle Royal held at Wrestlemania 2. Big John's focus was set on William Perry but this only led to his elimination. It turned out that Andre The Giant won the Battle Royal. Next was a tag team run together with King Kong Bundy and eventually left the WWF for a period of 3 years. Big Studd won the special Royal Rumble held in 1989 after coming back to the WWWF. We saw the event as the most important ever in his career. After serving as a special referee for the match between Andre the Giant and Jake "The Snake" Roberts at Wrestlemania V he started to take time off and eventually had to retire because of problems caused by taking growth hormones. Big John Studd died in 1995, being killed by liver cancer and a case of Hodgkin's disease. Please remember that if it wasn't for wrestlers like Big John Studd, working hard, there will be no popular wrestlers of the day, like John Cena or Rey Mysterio or Dave Batista.
Elton John - Sad Songs (Say So Much)