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'Killer Bee' Blair honored for helping other wrestlers

Posted: Jul 9th 2015 By: Paul Guzzo - TBO.com

TAMPA ? The outcomes of professional wrestling matches may be pre-determined but the physical toll they take is real. Body slams and chair shots to the head are painful and lasting.

Just ask Brian Blair, a marquee attraction for World Wrestling Entertainment before he turned to local politics and business.

Blair has scars on his hand from the time an opponent accidentally stabbed him with a glass bottle and a scar down his neck from surgery required after he was dropped on his head and back in his 5,000-plus matches.

Not to mention bad knees, fingers broken and still bent, and four concussions.

Still, Blair is financially sound so he can take care of his injuries. Some of his former colleagues cannot.

Blair has come to their aid through a nonprofit group that helps professional wrestlers in financial trouble by loaning them money for groceries, medical expenses and other needs. On Saturday, he?ll be honored for his 12 years of work ? the last 18 months as president ? with the Seattle-based Cauliflower Alley Club.

?I think people would be surprised to learn the big names we have helped,? said Blair, noting that those who receive loans remain anonymous. ?It breaks my heart to see friends going through difficult times. But that?s what the club is for.?

The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Iowa will present Blair with the Lou Thesz Award, named for the legendary pro wrestler and given to another wrestler for exemplary public service. On the same evening, Blair also will be inducted into the museum?s Hall of Fame.

Blair estimates he has given 7,000 hours to more than 20 different organizations, including Tampa?s Police Athletic League and local little leagues.

He also served four years on the Hillsborough County Commission before he was defeated in a bid for a second term.

All have been fulfilling, Blair said, but his work with the Cauliflower Alley Club holds a special place in his heart.

The Dan Gable Museum, named for one of the greatest amateur wrestlers and collegiate coaches in U.S. history, celebrates wrestling in all forms ? its earliest days in the Greek culture; collegiate, international and Olympics; and scripted professional wrestling.

Blair earned his way onto the roll of some 85 Hall of Fame members as a professional wrestler.

He is best known for his time in the WWE in the 1980s as part of the Killer Bees tag team with partner ?Jumping? Jim Brunzell.

But his career spanned 38 years, took him to 40 countries and continues today part time.

?When I was a kid I wanted to be Superman,? Blair said. ?Someone laughed at me and said, ?You?ll never be Superman. He wears a costume, is always on TV and fights bad guys.? Well, it turns out my prayers were answered. I did all that as a wrestler.?

Still, unlike Superman, professional wrestlers are not indestructible.

Blair speaks of one former wrestler who recently had his feet amputated due to diabetes. The Cauliflower Alley Club bought a van for him and made it handicap accessible.

The organization has also helped with hip replacements, back surgeries, dental work and medicine.

It has picked up rent and even college tuition for a grandson.

Jim Ross, a retired play-by-play announcer, WWE Hall of Fame member and member of the Cauliflower Alley Club, compares professional wrestlers to Hollywood stunt men who must perform hundreds of times per year.

?I have no idea how some people still think because the endings are predetermined, everything else that occurs is imaginary,? Ross said. ?These men and women endure serious injuries throughout their careers. It is as physical as any sport.?

Jason Powell, a professional wrestling historian and editor of prowrestling.net, said seeing is believing.

?It?s a lot like seeing ? maybe even worse ? the former NFL players who try to get along through life hobbled from their play,? Powell said. ?Hip issues, back issues, knee issues ? it is kind of the walking wounded in some cases.?

He is most concerned with the head trauma. Some legends of the industry, he said, suffer memory loss.

?It is really sad and scary,? Powell said.

The Cauliflower Alley Club, named after the cauliflower ear many grapplers get from repeated blows, helps those who made a living in professional wrestling on the big stage of the WWE or through lesser known promoters throughout the world.

It raises money through annual dues plus one fund raising dinner held every April in Las Vegas.

Members include former and current professional wrestlers and people who are neither. Fans are welcome.

Blair estimates the organization has 1,000 active members.

That is not enough, retired announcer Ross said.

?I find it embarrassing that any wrestler would not be a member,? Ross said. ?Without those who blazed the trail, these guys making the big money today would not have a place to work.?

For Blair, this is also a way to pay back a financial favor from the industry when he was a kid.

A native of Gary, Indiana, Blair moved to Tampa at age 11 with his parents and four younger siblings. He was a target of bullies at Egypt Lake Elementary School because his family was poor.

On one occasion, schoolmates saw Blair buying groceries with food stamps.

The next, the school?s walls were spray-painted with taunts.

Instead of fighting those kids, he transferred his anger into athletics and excelled at any sport he tried.

By the time he graduated from Tampa Bay Technical High School, he had earned more athletic letters than any student before him ? three in both football and wrestling and one in both baseball and track.

His success caught the attention of local professional wrestlers. They learned of his families troubles.

?The wrestlers in Tampa at that time were very supportive of amateur athletics and local kids,? Blair said. ?They were always looking for ways to get me money ? hiring me to babysit daughters and nieces, driving people around, odd jobs, whatever.?

Blair went on to play club football for Saint Leo University in Pasco County then to earn a spot on the University of Louisville team. But he dropped out after his junior year to pursue professional wrestling.

Back in Tampa, he trained at a school run by Yasuhiro Kojima, known in the wrestling world as ?Hiro Matsuda.?

Kojima had a unique philosophy of teaching. Before he would instruct students in the craft of wrestling, they had to prove they were tough enough to endure the physical demands. In those days, professional wrestlers traveled and worked more than 300 days a year.

Kojima stories are legendary. He broke Hulk Hogan?s leg on the future star?s first day of training to see if he had the courage to return when it healed. He did.

Blair said he and others in his training class were ?stretched? for months.

Kojima was a master of jujitsu and taught the martial art by applying holds on Blair and squeezing until he screamed.

?Over 100 people started training with me,? Blair said. ?Most walked out after a few days.?

Blair said the training prepared him for what was to come.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Blair?s heyday, wrestlers were only paid if they performed. Anyone who skipped an event for an injury was labelled unreliable and risked the loss of future bookings.

To deal with injuries, some wrestlers turned to narcotics.

?I lost quite a few friends who succumbed to drugs,? Blair said. ?I think about them a lot. I never got into drugs. I liked to drink beer and watch movies. So me and Brunzell, when we were a team, would grab a six pack and a movie and go back to the hotel after matches. Brunzell was a good man and good influence on me and is still my good friend.?

Blair considers himself lucky that he was surrounded by people who looked out for him.

?Early on, a veteran told me to save my money,? Blair said. ?I put away 10 percent of every paycheck.?

With that money, he opened four Gold?s Gym franchises. He sold them in 1998 for over $2 million

?I was fortunate. Others have not been.?

The WWE takes better care of its performers today than any wrestling promoter ever, Ross said.

WWE wrestlers with drug addictions are treated and medical bills for those injured are paid, he said.

That was not the case when Blair wrestled.

Still, he said, the WWE does its part to take care of its former wrestlers, as well.

WWE is among the Cauliflower Alley Club?s top financial supporters.

?We respect that the Cauliflower Alley Club brings together individuals who share a common passion and recognizes their many accomplishments,? the WWE said in an email to the Tribune.

But wrestlers do not receive pensions nor health coverage in retirement.

No professional sports leagues provide healthcare to former employees, Blair noted.

?Financial struggles after retirement is not an issue only affecting pro wrestling,? Ross said. ?We hear of NFL players selling Super Bowl rings and actors selling Oscars to pay the bills.?

Blair wants to see the Cauliflower Alley Club expand its mission to spreading a message among young professional wrestlers: Think about your financial future.

?I want the Cauliflower Alley Club to always exist,? Blair said. ?But it would be nice if it was not so needed.?