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R. I. P. John Tolos

Posted: Jun 2nd 2009 By: CMBurnham

We hear at the Maximum Wrestling Alliance extend our condolences to the family, friends, and fans of professional wrestler, John Tolos. He passed away this past Friday, May 29, 2009.

I, regretably, have to say that I do not know very much about John Tolos, but I plan on learning, as I am an "old school" wrestling fan and love reading about the history of the sport. The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

It can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tolos.

"During the 1950s and 60s, Tolos was part of the Canadian Wrecking Crew with his brother Chris Tolos. He also had a brief managerial career in Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation, managing Bob Orton, Jr. and the Power Twins.

On December 28, 1963, John and Chris captured the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship in Teaneck, New Jersey in two straight falls from Gorilla Monsoon and Killer Kowalski. While both teams were heels at the time, the Tolos Brothers did a television interview prior to the title match, "looking forward" to seeing all of their fans in Teaneck. That night, they were cheered throughout.

Tolos joined the World Wrestling Federation for a brief stint in 1991 as Coach (a classic coach, whistle and all), managing The Beverly Brothers and Mr. Perfect, replacing Perfect's former manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, who was then moving into a broadcaster's role. Mr. Perfect lost his Intercontinental Title to Bret Hart at SummerSlam. Prior to this match, Hennig suffered a serious back injury, but he still showed up to drop the title to Hart. The injury would sideline Hennig from competition for more than a year afterwards, as he did not return to active competition until the Survivor Series in 1992. With Perfect indefinitely out of action, along with The Beverly Brothers changing their manager to The Genius, "Coach" John Tolos disappeared quietly from the WWF.

Tolos died in Los Angeles, California on May 29, 2009. His death followed a series of heart attacks and strokes" (Wikipedia)

There were a couple of things that I read prior to posting this that I thought were particularly significant. It's been said that he was one of the best voices on a microphone during the 70s. I guess he could really "work the mic" as it is often referred to. Also, he had a pretty good run against the late, great "Classy" Freddie Blassie (WWE Hall-of-Famer, for all you pencil-neck geeks out there). That was the classic Blassie line.

We, here at the MWA, have a motto that states "old school wrestling for the future." Well, our roots of inspiration are in the ground work that these fine wrestlers laid for us, our current stars, and our future stars. This is why we always pay tribute to those that come before us...they have earned it and deserve it.

Again, our condolences to the family, friends, and fans of John Tolos. Another trail blazer that helped set a standard for us to follow. Thank you.

If you'd like to know more about John Tolos, post a message in the forum, and I will share any and all information that I find.

Truly,
Claude "Bud" Guffey II
MWA Board of Directors

Tags: The Genius