One of the proudest moments in the ring for Les "Buddy" Wolff, who died on July 11th after a lengthy battle with dementia, came during a series of bouts in against the WWWF champion.
He'd been in the wrestling business for a number of years, and knew his stuff. A product of the Minnesota training ground of Verne Gagne, Wolff could handle himself, even if everyone didn't think he could.
"When I was in New York, one of the oldtimers working in the office, when I came out of the ring, he said, 'You can't use that wrestling out here. The people won't buy it. They're used to us bringing in big, monstrous wildmen. The wrestling that you're trying to use is not going to draw,'" Wolff recalled in 2006.
He proved them wrong.
"I sold out Philadelphia with Pedro Morales four times in a row, I sold out Albany, Scranton, PA, Harrisburg, PA. I never won a match [with Pedro]. Just with interviews, I sold out with Pedro. They stopped the match and gave it to him because of too much blood. We came back a month later ... and an hour-and-a-half before the match started, it was sold out already."
It was hardly the only place where Wolff made believers out of skeptics.
In Tampa, Florida, he faced Dusty Rhodes 13 times in a row, and according to Wolff, only two matches didn't sell out.
It was about being believable, said Wolff. He'd learned from Gagne, styled a lot of what he did after Johnny Valentine, and considered Gene and Lars Anderson to be key mentors.
"For most people, that can't work and do a lot of wrestling. You get a match or two or three and you've seen all you want to see of them. There's no mystery there anymore. There's a kick to groin, some eye gouging and hair pulling, choking. How many times can you see that? You can't go back every week for three months."
Like Valentine, Wolff lived by the ethos that you might not believe wrestling is real, but you will believe in me.
"I had matches where guys would come up to me and say, 'I know this wrestling isn't all that it's cracked up to be, but I really believe in you, man.' That's just doing your day's work. If you can elicit that response, then you know you're doing your job well."
Born April 11, 1941 in Blue Earth, Minnesota, Wolff worked at a cast-iron foundry after high school, but needed more. He enrolled at St. Cloud State University in 1960. There he was a two-sport star, a lineman at 6-foot, 220 pounds for the Huskies, and a wrestler who was considered a possibility for the U.S. team at the 1964 Olympics.
Choosing semi-pro football over staying amateur for the Olympics, Wolff did that for a while but needed more. His education degree and part-time teaching was one thing, but not enough.
One of his teammates at St. Cloud was Larry Heiniemi, who wrestled as Lars Anderson. He put Wolff in touch with Verne Gagne and finally Wolff had found his calling.
But all those other experiences helped to round him out, he said. "Basically, if I hadn't wrestled, hadn't played football, hadn't done all those things, I couldn't go out and make that up in front of a TV camera, whereas a lot of guys can't."
Minnesota historian and long-time fan George Schire knew Wolff for decades. "He was one of the nicest guys out of the ring. Got his early training from Verne Gagne and made any card he was ever part better because he was on it."
n celebrating Wolff, who was sometimes billed as "Beautiful" Buddy Wolfe and who worked as Spoiler #2, the words "jobber" or "journeyman" might be thrown around, or "carpenter." The fact is that in the territorial days, the journeymen and the carpenters were the ones that build the stars, made them look like a million bucks while not looking back in their own right. The valuable assets would win some, lose some, but always have work. That was Wolff to a "T."
So when it came to a major event, with Muhammad Ali facing off against Antonio Inoki, it's no surprise that Wolff was called upon. Promoters could trust him.
To promote the bout with Inoki, Ali was scheduled for three exhibition bouts against three opponents at the Chicago Amphitheater that aired on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Ali faced Kenny Jay, and beat him and then Wolff. The rules stated that Wolff, his hands bare, could not strike Ali, whereas Ali had his boxing gloves on and could swing away.
