Johnny Barend

Early life Born in 1929 in Rochester, New York, Barend started wrestling as an amateur at the age of eight. After graduating from Thomas Jefferson High School in Rochester in 1944, he served in the United States Navy during World War II and wrestled while in the service.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1949–1962) He was trained to wrestle professionally by Ed Don George and made his professional debut on November 1, 1949, defeating Faro Rinaldi. Barend's original manager was Ernie Roth, then using the name Mr. Kleen. Roth would gain fame in the WWWF as the Grand Wizard of Wrestling during the 1970s. Barend and Maurice went on to win many tag-team championships.

Capital Wrestling Corporation / World Wide Wrestling Federation (1962–1963) In 1962–1963, Barend was a regular tag team partner with NWA/WWWF world champion Buddy Rogers. The duo won the Capital Wrestling Corporation's United States Tag Team Championship on July 5, 1962, holding it for 245 days. Barend would hold the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship a number of times with a variety of partners as well as the San Francisco version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship.

NWA Upstate (1963–1965) Barend left the WWWF in September 1963. The following month, he returned to the New York-based NWA Upstate promotion. Over the following months, his regular opponents included Hans Schmidt, Ilio DiPaolo, Karl Von Hess, and Moose Cholak.