Brian Damage

I started watching pro wrestling in the early 1980’s and grew accustomed to seeing top wrestlers defeat what looked like average guys off the street in what are known as “squash matches.” Every week a “jobber” or better yet…enhancement talent…were used to make the stars getting a push look like a million bucks. Most of the time, that is exactly what they did. As I got older, my appreciation for these unsung heroes of the squared circle grew and I often wondered about many of the whereabouts and backstories of my favorite enhancement guys. I even did a search of some of them and what they were up to nowadays in a feature called Job Search.

Diving deeper into the history of professional wrestling, I found out a lot more about these wrestlers and how they weren’t just some extras Vince McMahon grabbed off the streets, gave them tights and boots and send them to the slaughter. No, in fact many of these guys were very skilled mat technicians and furthermore accomplished a great deal outside of the WWF bubble that Vince Jr. created. Today, I am going to look at just a few of these so called jobbers by many WWF fans over the years and showcase who they really were as pro wrestlers.

Once Vince took over the WWF from his father Vince Sr, it seemed that instead of using young, up and coming wrestlers to become punching bags to his stars, he used many wrestlers that were stars elsewhere in the territories he ate up in his quest for national expansion.

Rick Hunter

Rick Hunter was already a 28 year veteran by the time he joined the WWF as a jobber in 1985. Hunter was trained by the likes of George Gordienko and Verne Gagne and wrestled all over the country in territories like Texas, Florida, Hawaii, Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia and abroad in places like Australia, Japan and Great Britain. Hunter was a 2 time NWA Florida Heavy weight champion among several other regional titles during his career before the WWF.

Les Thornton

Les Thornton was an English pro wrestler who began his career in 1957 and wrestled all over Europe, Canada, Japan and here in the States for various NWA territories. He was a multiple time NWA World Junior heavyweight champion. He also competed against the likes of Dory Funk Jr, Harley Race, Billy Robinson and others. Thornton was considered by many of his peers not only a great technical wrestler, but a very tough individual as well. He joined the WWF around 1984 and was used primarily as enhancement talent. His most noteworthy WWF appearance came as a tag team partner of a young Jack Foley aka Mick Foley against the British Bulldogs in a squash match.

Porkchop Cash

Bobby ‘Porkchop’ Cash was a star wrestler in several southern based territories including Memphis where he was managed by Jimmy Hart, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. He held numerous regional titles including the AWA Southern tag team titles with ‘The Dream Machine’ Troy Graham. Cash would join the WWF in 1988 and job to the likes of The Ultimate Warrior.

Swede Hanson

Swede Hanson was a big star for territories such as the Mid Atlantic, Florida and Amarillo, Texas. He and Rip Hawk formed a tag team named ‘The Blonde Bombers’ and won tag team titles in various regions including Canada and Australia. Swede Hanson did work for Vince Sr in the WWWF and wrestled Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund and was managed by ‘Classy’ Freddie Blassie. He was brought back into the WWF by Vince Jr in 1986 and jobbed to an assortment of stars including the Hart Foundation.

‘Iron’ Mike Sharpe

Many older fans will remember Iron Mike as a WWF jobber to the stars in the early 1980’s into the mid 1990’s. Before that, however, this second generation wrestler was a star himself nicknamed ‘Canada’s Greatest Athlete.’ He competed all over Canada and in territories like Mid South…winning championships along the way. when he joined the WWF in 1983, he was managed by Captain Lou Albano and challenged Bob Backlund for the WWF world title. After losing to Backlund, Vince Jr made him into enhancement talent for the remainder of his WWF career sparsely winning an occasional match or two against fellow enhancement guys.

Dusty Wolfe

Dusty Wolfe might be best remembered from his days doing the J-O-B to big time WWF stars from 1987 into the early 1990’s…but Wolfe had been a very accomplished wrestler before that time having wrestled for Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling and a number of territories run by the NWA. Wolfe also wrestled overseas in places like New Zealand and Japan. He was a top billed star in every place but the WWF.

Rusty Brooks

Rusty Brooks was trained by the legendary Boris Malenko (Father of both Dean and Joe) and almost immediately got himself booked in places like Mexico and Japan. He also worked in the Florida territory for the NWA. Two years after his wrestling debut, Brooks made it to the WWF and was used as a jobber to stars like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and the Junkyard Dog.

Rick Oliver

Rick Oliver was a jobber in the WWF from 1987 to1988…little did many WWF fans know that this was one of the top heels in the Pacific Northwest territory and in World Class as ‘The Crippler’ Rip Oliver. Oliver did challenge the Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental title on an edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event in a losing effort. However, he wrestled under a mask as the Super Ninja managed by Mr. Fuji and his identity was never revealed.

Steve Regal

No, not THAT Steve Regal…this Steve Regal had the nickname of ‘Mr. Electricity’ before he joined the WWF as enhancement talent in 1986. Regal was a former AWA tag team champion with Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin and held the NWA Junior heavyweight title. Then he joined the WWF and lost matches to the likes of Billy Jack Haynes, The Honkytonk Man and Koko B. Ware.

Terry Gibbs

In the 1970’s and early 1980’s…Terry Gibbs had a very successful career in places like the outlaw wrestling company ICW run by the Poffo family. Gibbs also held titles in places like Central States, Florida and the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. In 1985, Gibbs joined the WWF and was used primarily as enhancement talent to the WWF stars like Tito Santana and Paul Orndorff.

Those were just a few examples of wrestlers who had successful careers in the territories prior to joining the World Wrestling Federation and becoming something far different. Vince McMahon didn’t just limit turning territorial stars into enhancement talent in his expanding company. He also took a few of his father’s stars in years past and made them into “jabronies” as well.

Pedro Morales

Pedro Morales was not only the WWWF world champion under Vince McMahon Sr’s tenure in power, Morales was also a triple crown champion having won the Intercontinental and tag team titles as well. By the time Vince Jr took over…Morales was older and used more so as a “glorified jobber” who put up a fight…but ultimately put over other wrestlers.

Tony Garea

Tony Garea was a 5 time co holder of the WWWF/WWF world tag team titles during his successful career. By the mid 1980’s, Vince turned Garea into an enhancement wrestler to put over guys that Vince wanted over as superstars.

Now to be fair, an argument can be made that many of these wrestlers I listed were at the tail end of their careers and were lucky enough to still collect a paycheck in pro wrestling. That is very valid. The point of this piece isn’t to malign the wrestlers or even Vince McMahon. It was simply meant to open some eyes that many of the jobbers that were featured week after week…were pretty damn good themselves in other places.