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Who trained whom? [70s/80s]


JerryvonKramer

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Did Stu actually train anybody besides maybe his kids? I always thought that was a kayfabe thing. For example, guys that maybe already had some experience went up there and Stu stretched them. Stretched = training. I was never under the impression that he was teaching guys how to bump or anything like that.

 

Stu was old in the period we're talking about. He had people like Hito, Sakurada and his son Bruce doing a lot of the hands on training, but stretching guys presumably taught them a lot about holds and was a workout at any rate.

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Hito & Sakurada should get credit for most of the guys that came out of the dungeon from the late 70's through the 80's. Bret and Owen were both "trained" by Hito. But really he showed them how to bump, and they learned on the job.

 

Stu broke guys in out of almost necessity, guys were not breaking down his door to come work for him. Most promoters didn't want to break in guys, and hated to break in local guys. In most occasions they would be kept low on the card or sent away unless they were an amateur star, or football player.

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Mil Mascaras

Gory Guerrero

Perro Aguayo

El Solitario

Cavernario Galindo

Bobby Bonales

Cien Caras

Mascara Ano 2000

Universo 2000

Atlantis

Angel Blanco

Angel Blanco Jr

Tarzan Lopez

Rolando Vera

Rito Romero

Rayo de Jalisco

Rayo de Jalisco Jr

Emilio Charles

Emilio Charles Jr

Ringo Mendoza

Cachorro Mendoza

Mano Negra

El Dandy

Hiro Matsuda

Alfonso Dantes

El Santanico

Abismo Negro

El Solar I

El Solar II

Shocker

Oro

El Supremo

Vic Amezuca

Enrique Vera

Franco Colombo

El Gladiator

El Hijo del Gladiator

Zorro

Cesar Dantes

Javier Cruz

Americo Rocco

Gran Markus Jr

Arkangel de la Muerta

Alberto Munoz

Sangre India

Mr. Aguila

Apollo India

Cesar Curiel

Gran Cochisse

Espectro Jr

El Texano

Tony Salazar

Black Terry

Mosco de la Merced

Black Man

Bestia Salvaje

 

Just a huge list of Hall of Famers and so many excellent workers it's no wonder Velasco is a Hall of Famer for being a trainer!

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How much of the actual training at the The Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy was done by Rudy Boy Gonzalez?

Most likely it was him doing the training, but Shawn Michaels' name was on the door, he occasionally came by, but mostly rudy did the actual instructions.

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How much of the actual training at the The Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy was done by Rudy Boy Gonzalez?

Most likely it was him doing the training, but Shawn Michaels' name was on the door, he occasionally came by, but mostly rudy did the actual instructions.

 

 

With Daniel Bryan having stated that Michaels was there virtually every day, not to mention the vast amount of evidence that he was heavily invested in the project, I'm curious as to why your take seems to be the consensus among internet types.

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My impression is that Michaels was not very hands on as a trainer because of his back problems, but that he was pretty involved.

 

Yeah, at least with the first class. It sounds like Michaels was fairly involved day to day, but Rudy Gonzalez was his proxy doing the actual in ring interactions with guys teaching them hands on. After that early period Michaels was looking to go back to WWE (which was oft delayed while he was having various incidents and cleaning up) and Rudy Boy took over the school full time and they changed the name to Texas Wrestling Academy, while still using Shawn's name as a selling point

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  • 9 months later...

 

I know Killer Kowalski trained HHH. Does he have any other notable trainees?

perry saturn was in same class as Paul.

 

The Renegade trained there with Saturn also.

 

I think on Tough Enough, Chris Nowinski mentions getting trained by Kowalski (and ripped for it by whichever trainer it was). And wasn't Chyna also a Kowalski student?

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Stu did not train Abby, Bad News, Davey Boy, Hase or Liger.

 

The Japanese boys all worked Stampede for seasoning. Liger was already a Junior star before coming to North America. Abby was trained by Burt Ruby & Gino Brito. Bad News was trained in NJPW dojo.

 

 

Hase and the other Japanese workers had additional training in Calgary under Mr. Hito and Kazuo Sakurada. It wasn't their initial training, so it's up to you whether you include it.

 

Agree with Matt on this.

 

Liger's story always has had training in Mexico as the beginning. Then getting into the New Japan dojo. Before heading to Calgary, he'd been wrestling for 3 years, had a short stint in Europe and already thought highly enough to be given an IWGP Jr. challenge just two years into his career (which was kind of rare for New Japan juniors to get shots that early). "Seasoning" as Matt says is more reasonable. Or the old term: "Growing Up". They all were expected to pick up some new things while sent abroad. But it's a real stretch to credit the Calgary Gang for a significant part of the training of these guys.

 

Hase might be one of the exceptions. He was trained in the New Japan dojo for quite some time after signing. But they never debuted him, and instead sent him overseas. He spent a long time away relative to most guys, and it's reasonable to say that he finished his training in Stampede.

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Hase was originally signed by All Japan Pro Wrestling, then when Choshu left for New Japan Hase went with him. He went through their dojo system before getting booked in Puerto Rico where he stayed six months before going to Calgary.

 

He would have learned all of his fundamentals while in the Japanese Dojo's. The time spent on the road in Calgary is where he would have gained some seasoning. I wouldn't not call that "training" though. He was learning while on the road, not in a gym. You'll learn more in the back seat of a car travelling 300 miles than you will wrestling for 15 minutes.

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  • 10 months later...

Here are some Dory Funk Jr trainees:

 

Stan Hansen

Genichiro Tenryu

Jumbo Tsuruta

Ted Dibiase

Jun Akiyama

Lord Steven Regal

Dr. Death Steve Williams

 

Rikishi

Rhino

Chris Sabin

Steve Corino

Edge

Gangrel

Christopher Daniels

Earthquake John Tenta

Christian

Lita

Test

Val Venis

Mark Henry

Midian

Matt Hardy

Jeff Hardy

Nicole Bass

Dros

Road Warrior Hawk

Marc Mero

Kurt Angle

Ahmed Johnson

Taka Michinoku

Dan Severn

Crash Holly

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Do you really count "anyone who's ever taken one training class" as being "trainees"? Because more than half of that list were people who'd already been wrestling for a while and were sent to train with Dory for developmental polishing. Heck, even Teddy Hart technically should be on there, he was in the same class with Edge and Angle and all those other guys.

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Lalwer was trained by Jackie Fargo, right? Or was that just kayfabe?

Just kayfabe, Lawler never had proper training. He did the 1960s equivalent of backyard wrestling as a teenager with some of his friends, and then barely got a few sessions' worth of remedial training before being booked onto an small outlaw indy show. He was a radio DJ at the time, and the promoter figured the free publicity that Lawler would provide by plugging the show was worth putting an untried rookie in the main event, even if said rookie was so green that he didn't even know how to bump correctly; Lawler ended up whacking his head on the concrete floor during his first match and knocking himself out cold.

 

Thing is, Jerry did indeed know Jackie Fargo, because before getting into wrestling he'd drawn a bunch of promotional pictures which the Memphis office ended up putting on TV and selling for merchandise and whatnot. So basically Jackie took him aside and said "if you wanna be a real wrestler, quit that outlaw shit and quit your radio job and come with us", and then Lawler got on-the-job training in the form of having Tojo Yamamoto beat the living shit out of him every night for the next few weeks. And the rest is history.

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Questions- how hands on was Stu in the 70s and 80s as a trainer? Jericho talked about how he and Lance Storm were trained by a guy who had graduated the previous year.

 

Also does anybody have a list of people Satanico has trained? Hasn't he been the main trainer for CMLL for 15-20 years now?

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Questions- how hands on was Stu in the 70s and 80s as a trainer?

By most accounts, not very. Stu's participation seems to be mostly limited to sadistically practicing shooter holds on oblivious teenagers. Bret claims that he got all his actual in-ring training from Kendo Nagasaki and Mr. Hito while they happened to be in Stampede for a season.
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