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Ernie Ladd: An Oklafan Retrospective

Posted: Mar 14th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Much has been written this week about the passing of "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd. Lots have been said about his size, his football accomplishments and his life after pro wrestling. All of these were great accomplishments, but it seems the general media has not bothered to look at his accomplishments inside the squared circle. Ladd was in 2 wrestling Halls of Fame (WWE & WCW , inducted into both the same year) and you don't get that honour by having a passing association with the sport. So it seems appropriate to review what he did for pro wrestling during his career.

Ladd began wrestling during the off-seasons of football. His natural size, (6'9, 325 lbs., 52-inch chest, wearing size 18D shoes) made him quite a visable presence in a time when being that large was still a real rarity. Ladd would be the most recognizable "big man" in the sport until Andre the Giant began touring around America and the 2 men clashed on several occasions. But Ladd didn't start with Andre. He plied his craft through various territories, working a programme with Bobo Brazil, who helped train him and fueding up in the WWWF with Bruno Sammartino and down in Florida with Dusty Rhodes.

One of the most notable things about Ladd's career is that he is recognized by some circles as the first black World Champion. Ladd won the National Wrestling Federation Title in the mid-1970s. The NWF had a good working relationship with sister federation in Japan and the NWF titles were often defended over there, so there was sufficient cause for some to consider him a World Champion (although Oklafan does not recognise this title as a World title). Long before King Parsons won the WCCW World Title or Ron Simmons won the WCW World title, Ernie Ladd sat at the top of the mountain in many people's eyes.

By the time that Ladd made it to TSW, he had travelled all over North America, Japan & Puerto Rico winning lots of titles. Florida, Georgia, Illinois. They all had seen the Big Cat come to take their belts. And Ladd would have no difference in Oklahoma as he owned the TSW North American Title for the majority of 1978.

Ladd captured his first TSW North American Title from Dick Murdoch on Valentine's Day, 1978. Over the next 6 months, he would trade that title back and forth twice with Paul Orndorff, before finally taking it from him the last time on August 15, 1978. Ladd would hold the title for a little over 3 months before he was forced to forfeit it when he was unable to defend against Ray Candy. But Ladd received a great Christmas present in 1978 when he won the TSW North American Title on Christmas Day for the final time. He maintained his grip on the belt until February 16, 1979, when he dropped it to Mr. Wrestling II, who would be the last TSW North American Champion, as the federation would become known as MSW soon after. In all, Ladd either held the North American Title or was chasing it for 1 year and 2 days during this time.

Ladd's problems with Ray Candy didn't just focus around the TSW North American Title. They also traded the TSW United States Tag Team Title in 1978. Ladd paired up with the Assassin and captured the tag team titles on April 5, 1978 from Ray Candy & Steven Little Bear. Their title reign would be brief as 18 days later, they would drop the belts back to that same pair. This was Ladd's only TSW U. S. Tag Team Title reign, although he almost had another. The same Christmas night that he won his last TSW North American Title, he was in a tournament final with Stan Hansen against Dusty Rhodes & Andre the Giant to fill the vacant U.S. Tag Team titles. Rhodes & Andre defeated the 2 big men and Ladd had to settle for singles gold that night.

MSW represents the last big run of Ladd's career. After focusing attention on Paul Orndorff and Ray Candy, Ladd decided to take out the most popular wrestler in MSW: the Junkyard Dog. In October, 1980, Ladd teamed with Leroy Brown to defeat JYD & Terry Orndorff for the MSW Mid-South Tag Team Titles. After 2 months on top of the tag team division, JYD was able to wrest those titles away with the help of Killer Karl Kox. But their reign only lasted 2 days and Ladd & Brown were back with the belts. Again, it took JYD 2 months to find the right opportunity, this time with Dick Murdoch, to recapture those tag team belts from Ladd & Brown.

Ladd made a brief departure at this time down to WCCW where he defeated Kerry Von Erich for the WCCW American Title. It was the only title Ladd held in WCCW and his title reign was just under a month before he dropped the belt back to the "Modern Day Warrior". By this point, Ladd's physical problems were building up. He'd had his knees operated on while in college and the abuse was getting to him, so he decided to take a sabbatical from in-ring competition. But with Ladd's keen sense for the wrestling business and natural gift of gab, he put himself into a managerial role and brought in the Wild Samoans to continue his work for him. The Samoans won the Tag Team Titles twice in the summer of 1981 under Ladd's guidance, defeating JYD & Dick Murdoch both times. Then, a shocker! The Samoans turned against Ladd and joined the newly arrived Skandar Akbar & Devestation, Inc., winning their 3rd Tag Team Title in January 1982 from JYD and his new partner, Mike George. Ladd was irate and determined to run Akbar & the Samoans out of the territory. So he went back to his former TSW tag team partner The Assassin. But no sooner did he bring the Assassin in than he turned on Ladd as well. Ladd was bewildered, wondering who he could trust and he found that man in the form of Iron Mike Sharpe. Together, Ladd & Sharpe forced the Samoans (who had lost the tag team titles to JYD & Mr. Olympia) to leave Mid-South. Then Ladd made it a personal issue to remove the Assassin and got rid of him as well.

Ladd's final title reign occurred on October 24, 1984, when he defeated Magnum T. A. for the MSW North American Title, using a piece of string to choke Magnum out while the referee was unconscious, then putting him in a sleeper so the ref would never know the difference. Ladd held that final title until December 5 when he lost it to upcoming second-generation star Brad Armstrong. Ladd retired permanently from in-ring competition at that point. He headed back to the WWF where he had a short stint as a colour commentator. But Ladd was discovering a life outside of wrestling and by the end of 1985, Ladd had disappeared from the scene.

Bill Watts, who worked with Ladd during the early years of Mid-South spoke about the influence Ladd had on him in an interview in May, 2006. When asked who he was most proud of developing as a performer, he said: "I am proud of being able to recognize and build talent. One of my legacies is studying demographics. How there were no black superstars for a long time was insane. I had to find a way to get a black guy to be my star. It was a hard thing to do sometimes not because of a lack of (black) talent but the culture at the time that you had to overcome. The guy who made it for me was Ernie Ladd. He was such a high-class individual and tremendous athlete. Everybody thought at first in the NFL that he was just a big strong guy, but he could move! He also was a student of whatever he did, whether it was playing dominos or whatever. Ernie also educated me more than anybody about this subject. Anybody who is a white man who can say he understands what it's like being black is drinking the Kool-Aid. You can't understand what it's like unless you've been in the black man's shoes. Ernie helped me understand that whole situation. Through that consequence, I was able to develop JYD, Sylvester Ritter. He had all the charisma in the world but was very limited on what he could do in the ring. We brought him along and made a great superstar out of him. I would like to think my legacy would be being the first promoter to build back superstars and use blacks in positions where they would not be allowed [i.e. Ladd as a booker]."

Ladd will be remembered as a great "big man", a tremedous promo, having a great understanding of the business both in front of the fans and behind the scenes, but perhaps most of all, he helped teach people and connect with people. In his later years, Ladd often worked with at-risk youth, trying to connect with them before they ended up in jail. Although his body was deteriorating due to the cancer that began in his colon and spread to his stoumach and his bones, Ladd never lost his faith or his spirit.

Oklafan.com joins the wrestling world in mourning the loss of this truly great individual.