Professional wrestling career Pat O'Connor (wrestler)

1 professional wrestling career

1.1 national wrestling alliance
1.2 american wrestling association
1.3 late career

professional wrestling career
national wrestling alliance

on 19 march 1955, o connor won nwa world tag team championship (chicago version) tag team partner roy mcclarity, , held title until february 1956. later in year, worked maple leaf wrestling. in march, won nwa british empire heavyweight championship (toronto version), lost on 2 may 1957 gene kiniski. same month, o connor , whipper billy watson won nwa canadian open tag team championship, lost gene kiniski , fritz von erich on 31 october of year.

o connor held nwa world heavyweight championship 1959 1961. first won title on 9 january 1959 dick hutton, had held title thirteen months. o connor s reign recognized both national wrestling alliance , national wrestling association. title change part of rivalry between bookers sam muchnick , fred kohler, latter of whom did not want waste money announcing o connor new champion. kohler wanted o connor pay him $10,000 wrestle @ shows in chicago, while being paid less champions earned. o connor angry @ suggestion walked out of meeting , later told muchnick not book him events in chicago. men later worked out deal of sorts, , on 19 february 1960, o connor wrestled in chicago against bruno sammartino , johnny valentine, among others.

on 29 july @ 1 of fred kohler s events, o connor defeated yukon eric @ event attendance of 30,275. during time, television became factor in burgeoning market professional wrestling, , result, demand trade wrestlers, including o connor, throughout territories, eased due vincent mcmahon s capitol wrestling. in december, worked mcmahon in northeast. in march 1961, suspended sixteen days when missed match in new york. on 30 june 1961, o connor dropped title buddy rogers in front of 38,622 fans @ comiskey park, north american professional wrestling attendance record lasted until toronto s big event in 1986. ticket sells of $148,000 professional wrestling record twenty years. match, 2 out of 3 falls match, billed match of century . during match, both men had gained pinfall, when o connor missed dropkick , suffered legit groin injury on ropes, after rogers pinned him win match.

american wrestling association

in may 1960, while still nwa world heavyweight champion, american wrestling association (awa) named o connor first holder of awa world heavyweight championship when seceded nwa. therefore, held both awa , nwa world heavyweight championships simultaneously. however, never defended awa world heavyweight championship, , stripped of in august, after ninety days, when verne gagne recognized new champion.

on 10 november 1967, team of o connor , wilbur snyder defeated larry hennig , harley race win awa world tag team championship. lost title on 2 december mitsu arakawa , dr. moto. o connor , snyder defeated arakawa , moto world wrestling association s wwa world tag team championship on 24 september 1968. lost title on 26 october same team.

late career

on 13 october 1970, o connor introduced jim crockett promotions s first nwa eastern states heavyweight champion part of storyline introduce title. title later awarded missouri mauler announcement mauler won in new york.

on 1 january 1982, o connor part of card comprised promoter sam muchnick s last professional wrestling show, located in st. louis. o connor 1 of owners of st. louis wrestling club. o connor, along verne gagne, harley race, , bob geigel purchased territory sam muchnick day after muchnick s retirement. on 18 september 1963, o connor named co-conspirator in monopoly controlled professional wrestling in missouri, kansas, , iowa. o connor filed counterclaim.

on 16 november 1987, o connor participated in world wrestling federation old-timers battle royal, won lou thesz.