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The Spoiler Passes Away

Posted: Dec 17th 2006 By: CMBurnham

Don Jardine, a headliner from the late 60s through the mid-80s as The Spoiler, passed away last night from complications a heart attack and leukemia, the latter of which he had suffered from for the past four years. He was 66.

He had been in poor health for some time.

Jardine, whose style played a hand in the moves of of The Undertaker, was noted for his tremendous balance, as a 6-4, 275 pound man walked the ropes. Undertaker's "old school" spot he does in most major matches is a take-off of that. Undertaker was originally billed when wrestling in Texas as the protege of Jardine, although he was more told by those in Texas when he started to emulate Jardine because of how well respected Jardine was as a tall agile heel.

Jardine began his career in 1955, working for Whipper Billy Watson. For the first 10 years of his career, he wrestled without a mask, but he wanted to create a masked character in order to create a aura of mystique around himself. So, at the suggestion of Fritz Von Erich and Jay Strongbow, Sr., Jardine donned the mask and "The Spoiler" was born.

Jardine was forced to remove the match when he wrestled WWWF World Champion Pedro Morales in Madison Square Garden in the 1970s. At the time, MSG had a rule that banned masked wrestlers from competing in the arena, so Jardine voluntarily removed his mask to get a shot at Morales' title. That rule would later be amended for Mil Mascaras.

Jardine was best known in Texas, where he was a long-time top heel for several different runs, but he also had a successful run in Oklahoma in the early 1970s. Spoiler was the person Bill Watts defeated to win his first TSW North American Title in April, 1970, ending a 2-month reigh by Spoiler. Spoiler would gain revenge 6 years later by defeating Watts to reclaim the title. For reasons that are unclear at this time, he allowed The Brute to defend the title in his place afer winning it which resulted in the Brute being awarded the title by default, ending Spoiler's 2nd North American Title reign after just 2 weeks. Brute would go on to defeat Spoiler cleanly to secure his hold on the title later. Spoiler also knew success in the tag team division in Oklahoma, as he teamed with another masked Spoiler, known simply as "Spoiler 2" and defeated the Kentuckians for the TSW United States Tag Team Titles in 1971. Their reign would be a brief one as they were upset about 1 month later by Tom Jones and Billy Red Lyons. Spoiler would hold the U.S. Tag Team Titles once more, as he was the handpicked replacement by Dusty Rhodes for Andre the Giant in 1979. Andre was in too high of a demand in the world and could not commit to staying in the TSW territory, so Rhodes chose Spoiler, but this partnership didn't last long as they were defeated for the titles by The Assassin and the Angel in less than a month later.

At the same time that he was winning titles in Oklahoma, Spoiler ventured into Texas for World Class Championship Wrestling. He defeated Wahoo McDaniel for the WCCW American title in 1971, but only held that title for about 2 weeks before dropping it to Johnny Valentine. He would return in 1979 and win 3 consecutive American Championships, from Kevin Von Erich, Wahoo McDaniel again (actually the title was just given to Spoiler when Wahoo was injured and unable to compete) and El Halcon. These 3 title reigns would comprise 4 months total in the 2nd half of 1979. He also held the WCCW Texas Championship in 1968, winning the title from Grizzly Smith in August and holding it until December when he lost it ot Dan Miller. He was the inaugural WCCW Television Champion in 1979, winning a battle royal to claim that title. (Ironically, his namesake, Spoiler 2000, would accomplish the same feat in 2005 to become the first, and so far only, NWA Universal Television Champion) And he was not out of place in the "hardcore" division either, as he held the WCCW Texas Brass Knucks championship. But it was as a tag team wrestler that Spoiler seemed to have his greatest success in WCCW. He had 2 regular tag team partners: Mark Lewin, with whom he won the WCCW Texas Tag Team Titles and WCCW American Tag Team Titles in 1979 and Gary Hart, who held the American Tag Team Titles 3 times with Spoiler in 1967 and 1968. Spoiler also teamed with Smasher Sloan, under the guise of being "Spoiler 2" to win the American Tag Team titles. It is believed that Sloan was not the Spoiler 2 who tagged with Jardine in TSW.

Spoiler left WCCW and entered the NWA in the early 1980s. He was a mmber of the original Legion of Doom, under the management of Paul Ellering. He held the National heavyweight championship for Georgia Championship Wrestling when the promotion was purchased in 1984 by Vince McMahon, who bought it primarily for access to TBS. He went to WWF with this title, which was briefly recognised as the WWF National Title, but quit the business shortly afterwards. He spent his retirement with his wife in Alberta, Canada. He wrote poetry, volunteered for a local literacy programme, was the manager of a car wash, sculpted clay and carved faces and figures into the bark of cotton wood trees. He had been working on a book of his career, but it is unknown at this time if that was completed or not.

Oklafan extends its sympathies to Don Jardine's family and friends at this time.