Ken Mantell
Ken Mantell | |
---|---|
Birth name | Ken Lusk[1] |
Born | Fort Worth, Texas, United States[2] |
Family | Johnny Mantell (brother) |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Ken Mantell Ken Lusk Clay Spencer |
Billed height | 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)[3] |
Billed weight | 224 lb (102 kg) |
Debut | 1970[4] |
Retired | 1991 |
Ken Lusk,
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1970–1973)
Both Ken and his brother Johnny (who was also a professional wrestler)
NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion (1973–1975)
On December 19, 1973, Mantell faced six time and then-current NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion
Tag Team success (1975–1976)
Five months after losing the World Junior Heavyweight Championship Mantell won gold again, when he and Ron Bass won the NWA World Tag Team Championship in November 1975.[9] They defended the titles in the Central States Wrestling territory before dropping the belts in February the following year. Mantell then travelled to NWA: Georgia and again found tag team success, winning the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship with former WWWF World Tag Team Champion Dean Ho on July 2, 1976.[10]
Heavyweight title victories (1976–1980)
Having been a junior heavyweight competitor for most of his career, Mantell competed as a heavyweight for the later part of the 1970s. He won the
Booking for WCCW and the UWF (1980–1987)
Towards the end of his in-ring career, Mantell began to transition to a backstage role, working as a booker and valued "brainstormer" in the territory he was perhaps most famous for wrestling with;
In May 1986, Mid-South promoter
Wild West Wrestling and ownership of WCCW (1987–1988)
It wasn't long before the oil recession hit Bill Watts in Oklahoma and he eventually sold the UWF to Jim Crockett in 1987. Mantell went on to form his own promotion based in the Dallas/Fort Worth territory called "Wild West Wrestling".[13] Mantell continued on as a wrestler in Wild West, having notable feuds with wrestlers including Cocoa Samoa.[4] The promotion was a direct rival to World Class, which still ran events in the area, albeit on a small scale than it had in its heyday.
Wild West Wrestling merged with World Class in 1988 when Mantell became part-owner of World Class after Fritz Von Erich sold his once highly prosperous promotion to his sons Kevin and Kerry and to Mantell. Wild West was kept on as a syndicated television "B-show" to complement WCCW on ESPN. Wild West TV tapings, though, would become rare and often consisted of WCCW footage.[14] Meanwhile, Crockett's circuit was sold to Ted Turner and eventually became World Championship Wrestling.[13] By the early 1990s, Watts was the WCW president. The new era of World Class was to be short-lived. With WCCW unable to reach the heights it once had, the promotion was sold to Tennessee promoter Jerry Jarrett at the request of Kerry Von Erich.[15]
Ken Mantell has since largely retired from the professional wrestling business. His brother "Cowboy" Johnny Mantell is the current President of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in its new location of Wichita Falls, Texas.[16][17]
Championships and accomplishments
- Georgia Championship Wrestling
- Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling
- 1 time)
- Mid-South Wrestling
- Mid-South Louisiana Championship (1 time)
- NWA Hollywood Wrestling
- NWA Tri-State
- NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time) - with Jay Clayton (1) and Tom Jones (1)
- NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Pacific Northwest Wrestling
- Bull Ramos
References
- ^ Saalbach, Axel. "Wrestlingdata.com - The World's Largest Wrestling Database". www.wrestlingdata.com.
- ^ "Ken Mantell: Profile & Match Listing - Internet Wrestling Database (IWD)". www.profightdb.com.
- ^ "Ken Mantell". IMDb.
- ^ a b c d e "Ken Mantell".
- ISBN 9781476605050– via Google Books.
- ^ "CANOE -- SLAM! Sports: ng - "Cowboy" Johnny Mantell rides into radio". slam.canoe.com.[dead link]
- ^ Saalbach, Axel. "Wrestlingdata.com - The World's Largest Wrestling Database". www.wrestlingdata.com.
- ^ "NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles.com.
- ISBN 9780786417544– via Google Books.
- ^ Saalbach, Axel. "Wrestlingdata.com - The World's Largest Wrestling Database". www.wrestlingdata.com.
- ^ "NWA Americas Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles.com.
- ^ "World Class Championship Wrestling". www.kayfabememories.com.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-103101-1.
- ^ "Startup Sidetrack Special: The fall of World Class brings the United States Wrestling Association".
- ^ "World Class Memories: WCCW Milestones [Page 2]". 18 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013.
- ^ "Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum.
- ^ Chairman, Committee. "Interview with Johnny Mantell, President of the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame".
- ^ "N.W.A. Georgia Tag Team Title". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. Retrieved 2007-10-09.
External links
- Ken Mantell's profile at Cagematch.net