Freddie Blassie

Early life Blassie was born Frederick Kenneth Blassie in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1918. His parents, Anna (née Szind) and Jacob Blassie (né Blaszi), were immigrants from Austria-Hungary who arrived in the United States in 1912 via Hamburg, Germany.

Frederick was an only child. His father was an abusive alcoholic, prompting Frederick to stay with his grandparents whenever Jacob beat Anna. His parents repeatedly separated, only to reconcile. At the age of 13, after Jacob had beaten Anna again, Frederick threatened his father with a baseball bat; instead, he lived with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home. As the wrestlers became familiar with him, they began teaching him holds. His first public wrestling match was a shoot fight which he accepted hoping to impress a girl he brought to the show. He was so hated there that uniformed police officers were regularly brought in to protect him as he made his way to and from the ring.

On June 12, 1961, Blassie defeated the "Flying Frenchman" Édouard Carpentier in a best-of-three-falls match for his first WWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Japan (1962–1968)

In 1962, Blassie had a feud with Japanese wrestling icon Rikidōzan that established his reputation in Japan. After Blassie lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to Rikidōzan in Los Angeles, the two had a rematch on live Japanese television. Many of the viewers were horrified by Blassie's treatment of their hero. One of Blassie's gimmicks was to file his teeth, and draw blood from his opponents by biting their foreheads. His knees were also in terrible condition, which also contributed to his retirement. Blassie also managed Muhammad Ali in his boxer vs. wrestler match in 1976 against Antonio Inoki. Blassie led Sheik to the WWF World Heavyweight Championship over Bob Backlund on December 26, 1983, in Madison Square Garden. After Sheik lost the belt to Blassie's former managed wrestler Hulk Hogan, Blassie managed Sheik in various rematches around the country throughout the first half of 1984, culminating into another major televised rematch on December 28, 1984, once again in Madison Square Garden. In this match Hogan was once again victorious. After managing Sheik through a brief feud with Andre the Giant, he also became the manager of Nikolai Volkoff, with Sheik and Volkoff later becoming a tag team. Blassie would gain even more gold when Volkoff and Sheik defeated The US Express managed by Albano who had turned babyface in December 1984 to Blassie's kayfabe disgust, for the WWF Tag Team Championship at the first ever Wrestlemania. Blassie got involved when he threw his cane into the ring, with Sheik and Volkoff using it to their advantage to gain the victory. When Gene Okerlund confronted Blassie in an interview after the match, Blassie said, "what cane, I didn't have no cane!"225px

Blassie continued to manage Sheik and Volkoff even after they lost the tag team titles. Blassie unsuccessfully campaigned along with the other managers to manage "Macho Man" Randy Savage when Savage first entered the WWF in June 1985. Blassie continued to interfere from ringside in matches, especially during Volkoff's feud with Corporal Kirchner. Blassie's interference at Wrestlemania 2 cost Volkoff his match with Kirchner, when the cane was grabbed by Kirchner instead of Volkoff. In the summer of 1986, Blassie started to slowly phase himself out of the WWF and into retirement.

On an episode of WWF Championship Wrestling, Blassie barged into the announcer booth to proclaim that he had sold half of the contracts of Sheik and Volkoff to a mysterious benefactor for a large sum of money. This benefactor was later revealed to be Slick. Blassie appeared alongside Slick to co-manage Sheik and Volkoff for a few television appearances before finally bowing out in November 1986, with Albano, the final member of the Three Wise Men, retiring a few weeks later.

Commentator career (1986–1990) Because of his close relationship with Vince McMahon Sr. and his family, Blassie remained on the WWF payroll until the day he died. In 1998, Blassie was the winner at the fourth annual Cauliflower Alley Club East Coast Banquet. In 1999, he was shown making the opening narration of WrestleMania XV. In 2000, Blassie made an appearance at the Royal Rumble as a judge in the Miss Rumble 2000 Swimsuit contest, which was won by Mae Young. Blassie also appeared in the SummerSlam 2000 opening video. Images from his WrestleMania XV promo were also included in the opening of the 2001 Survivor Series. His final words on WWE television were "D-Von, get the table!", to a monstrous applause. His death was announced by Jim Ross, 20 minutes into that same day's episode of Raw. (The film was referenced by American rock band R.E.M. in their 1992 song about Kaufman, "Man on the Moon".)

In the early 1990s, the wrestler starred in a documentary directed by Jeff Krulik, titled Mr. Blassie Goes To Washington. In it, Blassie is picked up at the Washington, D.C., airport by a limo full of young women, escorted around the nation's capital, gives his opinions and confronts tourists. When meeting someone, he would ask where they were from, and no matter their response, he would reply with, "Oh, that's God's country!"

Championships and accomplishments 50th State Big Time Wrestling NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (1 time) Cauliflower Alley Club Other honoree (1998) NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) – with Tarzan Tyler Mid-South Sports NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA International Tag Team Championship (Georgia version) (3 times) – with Kurt von Brauner (1), Bob Shipp (1) and Eric Pederson (1) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Georgia version) (17 times) NWA World Tag Team Championship (Georgia version) (2 times) – with Bill Blassie National Wrestling Alliance NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2011) NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (4 times) WWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWA International Television Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Mr. Moto (2) and Don Leo Jonathan (1) WWA World Heavyweight Championship (4 times) NWA Mid-America NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI Stanley Weston Award (2000) World Wrestling Federation WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1994) Slammy Award (1 time) Lifetime Achievement Award (1996) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Worst Worked Match of the Year (1985) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)