Fred Blassie died on June 2, 2003, shortly after his autobiography hit the stands. The grand old man of wrestling managed to outlive most of his associates from the past and passed away peacefully after a long illness.
Ask most fans about him and they will recall him as a manager in the WWF, handling the likes of The Iron Sheik, Killer Kahn and others. A hated heel of the most vile sort, with a fancy jacket, a big cane and a sinister smile, he helped get many incoming villains instant heat with the crowd. His gruff, annoying voice, his mannerisms, and his knowledge of ring psychology would drive fans wild, even in his latter years of activity. He was truly a master bad guy.
Older fans, going further back, might be able to point out Blassie's California run. A rulebreaking villain known as The Vampire because he would bite open the head of his opponent, drawing blood in most matches, he was even more hated here then during his WWF run as a manager. Yet due to a twist of events after breaking up with hated John Tolos, he became one of the most popular wrestlers ever in southern California. His feud with Tolos reached epic proportions, while bloody encounters with The Sheik, Goliath, and others were just as wild. Be he good or be he bad, Blassie was the man to beat. In this era he was king of the ring and knew it, even wearing a crown on his head for publicity pictures, long before Jerry Lawler thought of it.
You have to go way, way back, however, into the 1950s, to remember a different Blassie, the same man mind you, but totally different from his best known images. This is the Fred Blassie who dominated wrestling in Phoenix for a time, a man whom various magazines even listed as the most popular wrestler in the area. Other fans, however, who were kids in the same time span cite this as overstating it and point out Blassie was a well-received wrestler whom the people liked, but nothing to brag about. He certainly wasn't anything out of the ordinary, a dime-a-dozen baby face who happened to be cheered by the people. Hard to believe, isn't it.
During his earlier Phoenix appearances, Blassie had dark hair, which he spouted before dying it black. He did not bite people. He did not give obnoxious interviews. He did not cheat to win, unless cheated upon first. He was the stereotyped white hat good guy. He used holds to win, threw a wicked punch when provoked and used a flying body tackle to drop the various villains he was pitted against.
Strange but true. While Blassie was not yet an international star, he was headlining cards in Phoenix, Arizona, a fact clearly documented in publications at the time, but ignored by the historians. Perhaps this uncharismatic Blassie, without the strut, the bloodlust and the cunning was too much a humiliation for even him to look back upon. Yet it existed, believe it or not. A dull and bland babyface, a stereotyped good guy, someone who posed with fans, held babies and stuck to the rules. That was the Blassie in his earlier Phoenix days. Fans of the vampirish, fight fire with fire hero who would later fill rings in California fighting John Tolos, the hated evil American who terrorized Japan, or the sneaky, cheapshot-throwing manager in the WWF would grow ill at ease when confronted with this oatmeal type Blassie. Yet again, it existed. Sorry to be the one to point it out to you.
Aside from this fact there is no point on going forward, speaking of Blassie during his California, Japanese or WWF days, for much remains documented concerning this side of his career. No point of repeating it here.
We simply make note of Blassie and his early Phoenix days because they have all but been forgotten. In the 1950s this area was a hotbed, usually a stopover or a weekend jaunt for wrestling coming to or staying in Texas and California. Aside from Blassie, Count Billy Varga, Jerry Woods, Mike Mazurki, Gorgeous George, Lou Thesz, Warren Bockwinkle and Tokyo Joe were regulars in this era. Blassie was in good company and perhaps even lost in the shuffle.
Amazing how times change, is it not.
The photo above is from the archives of Wrestling Revue® Magazine. Visit them online at www.wrestlingrevue.com.
