The Great Bolo

[Skip Towne]

Back in the late '50's and early 60's channel 6 had wrasslin on every Saturday night.  The Great Bolo wore a mask and supposedly had a piece of iron concealed in his mask.  All the other wrasslers tried to un mask him but never did.  Who was he and what did he look like?

[Conan71]

"The Great Bolo was the ring name of professional wrestler Al Lovelock, who wore a mask when he wrestled as the Great Bolo. Lovelock was active in the 1950s and 1960s and was primarily known for his work in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Lovelock was the first to use the name "the Great Bolo" but would later allow Tom Renesto to use the name as well."

"...After working in the Los Angeles area for a couple of years the Great Bolo moved on to Texas, returning to Dory Funk's Western States territory. Bolo would beat Dory Funk himself for the Amarillo version of the NWA North American Heavyweight Championship on February 7, 1957.[3] A week later he defeated Funk for the NWA Southwest Junior Heavyweight Championship as well becoming a doubles champion.[4] His double title reign only last two weeks before Dory Funk won both titles back.[3][4] Bolo would go on to win the promotion's Southwest Tag Team Championship three times, each with a different partner: Dizzy Davis, Art Nelson and Tokyo Joe. In 1958 Tokyo Joe left the promotion forcing Bolo to team up with Kurt Von Poppenheim to lose the tag team titles to Ricky Romero and Dory Funk.[5]

From Texas Bolo moved on to the Gulf region of the South Eastern United States working for the local promotions NWA Gulf Coast and NWA Mid-America. On April 20, 1960 Bolo and partner Joe McCarthy won the NWA Gulf Coast Tag Team Championship and the NWA Mid-America Southern Tag Team Championship, both held by Bobby and Don Fields. A week later Bolo and McCarthy lost the titles back to the Fields brothers and split up.[6][7] After this Lovelock began working with Tom Renesto who had been Lovelock's manager in Los Angeles. Renesto took the name "the Mighty Bolo" and the two became a tag team known as "the Bolos".[8]

When Lovelock moved to another territory he gave Renesto permission to work as the Great Bolo in the area since he was booked to work in Texas. In those days it was not uncommon for several people to use the same gimmick in various territories, often leading to confusing records on who wrestled where, Renesto worked as the Great Bolo in the Carolinas, mainly for Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) while Lovelock worked all over the country.[8] Renesto made "The Missouri Mauler" Larry Hamilton his tag-team partner giving him the "Mighty Bolo" name.[9] Renesto was so popular as the Great Bolo that Al Lovelock sued promoter Jim Crockett to get a part of the profits that his creation had earned.[8] Later on Hamilton's brother Jody Hamilton started to team with Renesto as The Assassins, but the Bolo name was so popular in JCP that the two worked as the Great Bolo and the Mighty Bolo for a while to capitalize on the popularity of the Bolo gimmick.[8][10]

Lovelock would go on to recruit Pepper Martin to work alongside him as "the Mighty Bolo" forming another Bolos team, the team would work together until Lovelock retired in the late 1960s. After his retirement Lovelock discovered and trained Gary Fletcher aka Man Mountain Mike for a professional wrestling career."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Bolo

And the Rasslin' page on Tulsa TV Memories:

http://tulsatvmemories.com/sports2.html

And yet more:

http://mid-atlanticgrapplingreats.blogspot.com/2009/07/great-bolo-goes-to-court.html

And here's your pic of Al Lovelock



Ain't Google fun?

[DolfanBob]

As I remember it. The Assassins continued with the masks and hidden piece of metal gimmick. They used to really tick me off how that stupid Ref could never catch them throwing it out to each other at ringside. Makes my blood boil thinking about it.