TWT: The Kowalski Claw

The Wrestling Truth

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The Kowalski Claw

Hello again, I am back again this week giving you the history of pro wrestling one piece at a time, and this time I wanted to talk about the life and legacy of a great Canadian legend.

Walter “Killer” Kowalski; born in Windsor, Ontario back in 1926 and was the son of polish immigrants.

Kowalski started out in wrestling after he heard while attending the University of Detroit, that there is money in getting into pro wrestling, now see this is interesting to me because back then wrestling was considered a real sport and no one really frowned upon it and anyone back then could attempt wrestling, now a days you are considered “gay” for watching it, just goes to show you how good the old days were for pro wrestling.

Back on topic, after he found out that he would be making allot more money in wrestling, he left his job at the factory and pursued wrestling as a career so since he was already athletically built he attended wrestling school.

When he debuted he was known as Hercules Kowalski due to his amazing condition and wrestled his first match sometime in the 1940’s (much of his early life and career are little known, bear with me).

His first KNOWN recorded match was in 1948 and it was against the then NWA Champion Orville Brown and by November that year he faced him again for the title, this was when he finally took off.

He was known a heel due to his monstrous size and was only ever the crowd favourite when he wrestled the likes of Buddy Rogers, even though out of the ring he was considered one of the nicest men you ever meet, heck he was a vegetarian and never smoked or drank a day in his life.

One of Kowalski’s most known matches was against Yukon Eric in Montreal back in 1954; this was when he accidently ripped off part of Eric’s ear, even though Eric’s ear was already badly cauliflowered due to years of abuse it helped get the crowd over Kowalski as a monster heel.

After that it sparked a brilliant series grudge matches that went through the entire continent and spanning a few years but as we all know, a long feud usually ends in the audience getting bored, so after a couple bad turn outs, they ended the feud after about 3 years.

Kowalski gained even more notoriety when he went to Boston and faced off against Pat O’ Conner in 1958 with special guest ref, great boxer Jack Dempsey who suffered a bad kick during the match and was rushed to the hospital, this further increased Kowalski as a great heel.

Another controversial ending was during the 1950’s when Kowalski faced Mr. Moto with Kowalski billed as the Heavyweight Champion in, Massachusetts, in a best 2 of 3 falls match, but during the match the ref didn’t see Moto hitting Kowalski getting knocked in the head in the corner and Moto then gained the quick fall, Moto was not supposed to win the match, so with Moto gaining the first fall the second fall came to another unlucky call when a fan hit Kowalski in the eye with a pea shooter.

With Kowalski blinded, Moto had no idea what to do and went to Kowalski, which then Kowalski applied his famous Claw but Moto was not only counted out but he was also deemed to hurt to continue, after the match they both raced out of the ring through a flood of booes (and you thought TNA botched badly).

In 1972, Kowalski was the first person in North America to pin Andre the Giant, in a match billed as “the battle of the giants”.

In the mid 70’s he joined WWWF and in 1976 won the World Tag Team Championship with Big John Studd, They wore black masks and were known as The Executioners.

After interference from Chief Jay Strongbow, they were stripped of the tag titles and went on to face Strongbow and his partner Billy White Wolf for the now vacant Tag Titles but lost and never regained the Titles again.

After wrestling a wild career spanning from 1947-1977, Kowalski announced his retirement and decided to open a wrestling school.

He trained some big names such as; Triple H, Chyna, Chris Nowinski, Frankie Kazarian, A-Train, Nikki Rox and Kenny Dykstra just to name a few.

Kowalski never married until 2006, by then he was at the ripe young age of 80, which according to his wife was a huge surprise considering Kowalski was one of those lifelong bachelor types.

The Marriage didn’t last however, in 2008 Kowalski was suffering escalating health issues allot due to his rehabilitation he was doing for his knee, and when he was seemingly getting better he suffered a heart attack and passed away that August.

Killer Kowalski left one of greatest careers in pro wrestling, and he was known as a champion really, he was more considered one of the most dangerous men in the ring in history if not all time.

He leaves a decorated legacy of great matches and training some of the best future stars as well.

His most famous manoeuver is the perfect example of selling a simple move, The Kowalski Claw, he used to grab your gut really hard and twist and twist until you gave up, but man, he REALLY sold it, and sometimes that’s the key to great move.

(Raises a glass)

Here’s to in my opinion the greatest heel to come out of Canada in pro wrestling history, and hope he rests well and may his career be remembered as one of greats and his life style as an inspiration to Canadians everywhere forever, cheers.

Next week I will have another 3 part series, starting with Toots Mondt, in my History of The Gold Dust Trio, until next time, I am Ed Roland, telling you all to (drinks his glass of unknown substance) stay thirsty my friends. 

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