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The Missing Link: An Oklafan Retrospective

Posted: Aug 17th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Fans who began watching wrestling in the mid-1980s remember the Missing Link as a wild, green-faced man with a tremendously hard head and almost no scientific ability. It's hard to imagine that this was all an act and that the man behind the paint, Dewey Robertson, began his career as a popular babyface scientific wrestler and had a career that lasted almost 25 years.

Dewey Robertson was born in Kitchner, Ontario, Canada, but moved to Hamilton, Ontario at a young age. In the mid-1960s, after training under "Whipper" Billy Watson, Robertson began appearing on the Hamilton wrestling show. He possessed a tremendous physique and great mat skills, but was somewhat lacking in the charisma area. However, he spent nearly 10 years in Canada learning his craft.

In 1973, Robertson ventured out of Canada and came to TSW. He formed a tag team with Dennis Stamp and in May of 1973, the pair upended the duo of Rip Tyler & Eddie Sullivan for the TSW United States Tag Team Titles. Robertson & Stamp would hold those titles for about 2 months, dropping them to Alex Perez & El Gran Tapio.

Robertson then returned to Canada in 1974, where he donned a mask and became known as "The Crusader." He gained a manager in the form of John St. John and wore an all-white costume, because he was on a "crusade" for clean scientific wrestling. Robertson's tenure as The Crusader was short-lived as, on April 7, 1974, he lost to the Sheik by countout and was unmasked.

Robertson seemed to have found a niche in tag team wrestling and formed a very successful partnership with Billy Red Lyons. The pair would hold the Toronto version of the International Tag Team Titles on 3 occassions between 1974 and 1978. He also captured his first singles gold, the Canadian International Title on 2 occassions in 1979 & 1980.

In 1979, Robertson again ventured out of Canada, going to the Mid-Atlantic area and wrestling as a heel, managed by Buddy Rogers. Rogers even tought Robertson his figure-four leglock, which he used as his finisher. He teamed with George Wells and Johnny Weaver and won the NWA Mid-Atlantic Titles with both men.

Moving out of the Mid-Atlantic area, Robertson came to rest in 1981 in the Central States area. As far as titles go, this was probably the most successful time for him in the United States, as he dominated the territory for a 3 year period. Upon entering the territory, he feuded with Gene Lewis for the Central States Television Title, holding it twice with a brief loss to Oliver Humperdink inbetween. He formed tag teams with Steve Regal, Hercules Hernandez and feuded with Roger Kirby & Mike George (and their respective partners) over the Central States Tag Team Titles. All totalled, Robertson would hold those titles 4 times with both partners in 1982. And in 1983, he captured the Central States Title twice, once from Manny Fernandez, once from Bob Brown.

Despite all of these accomplishments, most people still would have been able to pick out Robertson from a line-up. He was successful, but hadn't managed to figure out how to break through that top barrier. And then, success! Robertson took some time off, shaved his head, put on green make-up, acted nuts and reappeared in Texas as The Missing Link. For the first time in his career, his career took off. People not only took notice of him, they were scared of him. And fellow wrestlers that he had competed with over the years didn't even recognise him! Managed by Skandar Akbar, The Missing Link was an uncontrollable force of nature that ran over WCCW and MSW. He never won titles. This character probably wouldn't have known what to do with them, except maybe chew on them.

Link would pass from manager to manager, ultimately ending up with Dark Journey in the UWF, his first babyface run as The Missing Link. He also used his real-life wife as his manager during his stint in Wild West Wrestling. But as with most crazy characters, his conversion to babyface never seemed to be as successful for him as his wild, uncontrollable heel times.

In 1987, the Link had his final big run in the United States, working for the WWF. Managed by Bobby Heenan, Link was paired with Sika, although this pairing was not terribly successful. Nevertheless, the Link received a full-page spread in Sports Ilustrated when the magazine covered WrestleMania.

Robertson left the WWF in 1987. He returned to Texas and made some brief appearances, but by that point, other factors in his life, including drugs and alcohol, were beginning to take their toll. Besides trying to kick his addictions, Robertson was also trying to assist his sons Mark & Jason Sterling in beginning their own wrestling careers, and even tagged with them (as The Missing Link) on a few occassions.

Robertson spent a lot of time away from the ring, dealing with health issues, writing his autobiography and basically getting his life back together. He began to make more and more frequent appearances beginning in 2004 on independent and nostalgia shows, doing them for fun and as a way to see a lot of his old friends. His last documented match was on May 19, 2006 where, at 67 years of age, he defeated Max Moon at a World of Hurt event.

Robertson, who had defeated cancer before, was readmitted to the hospital in August 2007 to fight it again. This time, he didn't win the battle. But for most wrestling fans, his image, green, with his hair in his hand and Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head" playing as he came to the ring, will live on forever.