Brian Blair
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| B. Brian Blair | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Brian Blair B. Brian Blair The Killer Bee |
| Billed height | 6ft 1in (185 cm) |
| Billed weight | 222 lb (101 kg) |
| Born | January 12, 1954 Gary, Indiana |
| Trained by | Hiro Matsuda Eddie Graham |
| Debut | 1977 |
Brian Leslie Blair aka B. Brian Blair / Brian Blair (born January 12, 1954) is a local politician in Florida, who gained fame as a professional wrestler especially as a part of the Killer Bees.
Contents |
[edit] Wrestling career
As a child, Blair wanted to be Superman and even prayed that he might somehow become a superhero. Blair moved out of his house at age 16 and held several odd jobs to pay his share of the rent. Blair loved professional wrestling and wrestled and played football in high school so he could be tough enough to do it when he graduated. Blair attended the University of Louisville on a football scholarship where he majored in both business and political science.
In 1977, he started training to be a wrestler with the legendary Hiro Matsuda in Florida. Blair debuted in late 1977 with Eddie Graham’s Florida Championship Wrestling where he usually worked as a face (good guy). Blair made his professional debut in a tag-team facing Pat Patterson and Ivan Koloff in a losing effort.One of Blair’s early opponents was another Matsuda student who had just begun working as The Super Destroyer (Hulk Hogan).
After Florida Blair moved on to Bob Geigel’s NWA Central States promotion out of Kansas City around 1970, 1980 where he’d finally start to make a name of himself as he feuded with Jesse Ventura in 1979. He also appeared regularly for Leroy McGuirk’s Tri-State promotion, here he met and married Leroy McGuirk's daughter Mike McGuirk in 1980. The marriage did not last long and ended on a bad note when Blair found out that Mike was having an affair with wrestler Doug Somers while they were estranged. He was even shot at by Leroy when he tried to talk to Mike before leaving town. While in the “Tri-State” promotion Blair won the Junior Heavyweight Title from Ron Starr but only held it for about a week before losing it back to Starr. The one week reign was Blair’s first professional wrestling title reign.
After leaving the Tri-State promotion Blair joined up with Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling promotion in Texas. In WCCW quickly gained victories over Killer Tim Brooks and former WWWF World Champion Stan Stasiak. During his time in Texas he was asked by Al Madril to be his partner in a tournament to crown new American tag-team Champions. Madril and Blair were successful kicking off a three month run with the titles. Their run with the gold was cut short by Killer Tim Brooks & Armand Hussein in September, 1981
At this point in time Blair was given a golden opportunity as he was booked by Vince McMahon to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation most notably on their tours of Japan where Blair faced Japanese icons Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. After gaining experience in all over the world Blair returned to his roots, Florida Championship Wrestling. On July 11, 1982 Blair beat Jimmy Garvin for the NWA Florida Championship and defended it successfully against such legends such as Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody. After a wild match against Brody in August the title was held up and Blair soon left the promotion.
In 1983 Blair joined the WWF once again as they began to expand to a national promotion. During his first stint with the WWF his self-proclaimed highlight was a match with Paul Orndorff in St. Louis. After the short run with the WWF Blair moved on to Georgia Championship Wrestling as well as a return to Florida Championship Wrestling. In Florida Blair picked up another Florida Title run as well as unseating ”Ravishing” Rick Rude as the Florida Southern Champion
When Blair signed with the WWF for a third time he was not just used as “enhancement talent” any more, instead he was teamed up with Jim Brunzell to for The Killer Bees. The teaming of Blair and Brunzell was suggested by Hulk Hogan[1]. The team had a special gimmick referred to as Masked Confusion where both wrestlers would pull out identical masks during the match to confuse their opponents and usually win their matches that way. The “Masked Confusion” idea was given to Blair by Billy Red Lyons who had used it in Maple Leaf Wrestling. They constantly challenged for the WWF World Tag Team Titles but never did win them, although the fans were thoroughly behind them. Their biggest feud in the WWF was against The Hart Foundation, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart who they wrestled somewhere between “300 and 600” times according to Blair himself[2]. The Bees also had a running feud with the Funks (Hoss, Terry and Jimmy Jack). They faced Hoss and Jimmy Jack Funk in front of 70.000 people at The Big Event in Toronto (A card headlined by Hulk Hogan Vs Paul Orndorff). In late 1989 Brian Blair left the WWF, he was unhappy that the team had been promised the [[World Tag Team Championship (WWE)|WWF tag-team titles three times but never won them[3].
After leaving the WWF Blair he returned to the independent wrestling scene taking bookings all over the United States without being a regular for any one promotion. In the summer of 1990 Blair was present when Brutus Beefcake had a near fatal parasailing accident, in fact Blair was the person to pull Brutus out of the water after being struck in the face by the knees of a novice parasailer.
Blair was one of the first “names” to work regularly for Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation when it opened it’s doors in late 1990 quickly becoming a regular on the federations Fury Hour shows. In the UWF Blair reunited with Jim Brunzell but due to the WWF holding the trademark to the name “The Killer Bees” they were billed as Masked Confusion. They competed on the UWF’s first (and only) PPV Beach Brawl where they beat the Power Twins. The team were also the ONLY UWF Tag-Team champions ever. They won the titles at UWF’s last big show known as Blackjack Brawl where they beat the “New Powers of Pain” (The Warlord & Power Warrior (Not Kensuke Sasaki)).
After the UWF folded Blair continued to compete on the independent circuit, especially around his home state of Florida. In 1998 Blair would win the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship with Steve Keirn holding the titles from November 13, 1998 to August 15, 2000 where the titles were vacated following a match with the Bushwhackers. Blair and Keirn faced off in a singles match to determine who got to pick a new partner, Blair won and picked local star Cyborg as his partner. The two held the tag-team titles until July 10, 2001 where they were forced to forefeit the titles due to injuries.
Blair is still an active pro wrestler to this day, currently holding the Asia Pacific Heavyweight Title.
[edit] Personal life
Blair is now married to Toni Lloyd and they have two sons, Brett and Bradley, Brett is named after Bret Hart. Mr. Blair owned and managed four Gold's Gym fitness centers in the Tampa Bay area with fellow wrestler, Steve Keirn. He was a successful business owner in the franchising business respectively.
Brain Blair's first attempt for a seat in the County Commission was against Jan Platt but lost in the 2002 race by a narrow margin. In 2004, Blair ran again and was elected County Commissioner, District 6 (countywide) for Hillsborough County defeating former City Councilman Bob Buckhorn. The race was one the closest county commission races in the history of Hillsborough County with Blair winning with 216,430 votes to Buckhorn’s 214,062 votes.
He is also a Christian and is active in his church, Idlewild Baptist Church.
[edit] The Iron Sheik Conflict
Blair is apparently hated by the Iron Sheik, who cut an irate and obscene promo against Blair in a widely-distributed clip from a shoot interview. During an interview conducted in 2005 with Dan Mirade of the Boston, Massachusetts-based Millennium Wrestling Federation, the Sheik was asked about his appearance at WrestleMania III, where he teamed with Nikolai Volkoff against the Killer Bees. When offering his recollections about the event, Iron Sheik expressed very high praise towards Brunzell (who he also helped train for pro wrestling) for his athletic and high-jumping prowess, but displayed contempt and hatred towards Blair, referring to him as "another faggot son of a bitch, no good low life", "punk little gay" and a "fag", comparing him with Michael Jackson and Hulk Hogan, and expressing his desire to break Blair's back and then sodomize him. The Sheik clearly views the sodomization of Blair as a means to the ends of making him a humble man. Other times, the Sheik has referred to the sodomization of Blair as giving it to him "the old country way" or, bluntly, by stating that he shall "break his back and then fuck his ass, make him humble." Why he did not follow through at WrestleMania is the subject of much discussion and perhaps rests on the critical intervention of Jim Duggan, though Iron Sheik claims he did not sodomize Blair out of respect for his sport because he is a professional and "for God and Jesus and Mr. McMahon".
[edit] In wrestling
- Finishing moves
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- Lou Albano
- Honey
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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- NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 Time)
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Steve Keirn (1) and Cyborg (1)
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- UWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jim Brunzell
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- WCCW American Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Al Madril
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- NFWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWL Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Paul Orndorff
- Tri-State Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
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- PWI ranked him # 357 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003.
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- Most Underrated Wrestler of 1984
[edit] Books
- In 2000, Blair wrote Smarten Up! Say It Right (ISBN 0-9707490-0-7), an insider's view of professional wrestling.
[edit] References
- ^ Canoe Slam Wrestling (May 2001). “B.Brian Blair Chat”. Retrieved on 12 March, 2007.
- ^ Canoe Slam Wrestling (May 2001). “B.Brian Blair Chat”. Retrieved on 12 March, 2007.
- ^ Canoe Slam Wrestling (01 May 2003). “B.Brian Blair believed in his book”. Retrieved on 12 March, 2007.
[edit] Sources
- Wrestling With God, 2001, by Chad Bonham, ISBN 1-58919-935-9, pp. 142-160.
