Athletes - Ken Patera

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	Athletes - Ken Patera

Ken Patera was a former heel professional wrestler.

Career

Ken Patera was one of the first WWF strongmen. He also wrestled for quite some time in the AWA. Patera was a former Olympic Weightlifter and USA powerlifter. His greatest success was as an Olympic Weightlifter. He was the first American to clean and jerk 500 lb (227 kg) and the only American to clean and press 500 lb (227 kg). He was a serious competitor to the Soviet legend Vasily Alexeev but he failed to total at the 1972 Olympic games. After the press (a lift Patera was disproportionately talented in) was eliminated from competition, Patera's weightlifting career was over. Patera was arguably the last American to excel at weightlifting on an international level.

Patera became a professional wrestler in the old AWA, he also had great success in NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions, and the WWF. At the height of his career he simultaneously held the WWF's Intercontinental Championship, and the NWA's Missouri Heavyweight Championship - two of the most important non-World Championship titles of that era.

He also did some jail time with Masa Saito for throwing a boulder through a window at McDonald's when it was closed and they were hungry in the 1980s. Here is the story of Patera's arest in 1984 courtesy of Buck Woordward where he answered this question in the Q & A section of ...

On April 6, 1984, Ken Patera and Masa Saito went to a McDonald's in Waukesha, Wisconsin that had closed for the night and, when they were refused service, Patera threw a boulder through the front window. When police showed up at the Holiday Inn where the wrestlers were staying, a brawl broke out between the grapplers and police officers. A short time later, Patera left the AWA for the WWF. In June 1985, Patera was convicted on two counts of battery on a police officer, and one count of criminal damage to property. Saito was convicted on three counts of battery on a police officer, and one count of obstructing a peace officer. Both men were sentenced to two years in prison. After Patera had served his time, WWF brought him back to the company, airing some vignettes entitled "The Ken Patera Story" chronicling his career and the incident. However, to make Patera a babyface, they concocted a story that former manager Bobby Heenan had "sold him down the river" and abandoned him.

Profile

Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight: 264 lb (120 kg)
Birthday: November 6, 1942
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Debut: 1973
Finisher: Swinging Full Nelson
Trainer: Verne Gagne
Managers: Adnan El Kassey, Bobby Heenan

Championships and accomplishments

1-time WWF Intercontinental Champion
2-time NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion
2-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion
1-time NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion (with Big John Studd)
2-time AWA World Tag Team Champion (with Brad Rheingans
& Jerry Blackwell)
2-time Mid-Southern International Heavyweight Champion
1-time WCCW American Heavyweight Champion
1-time Georgia Heavyweight Champion
1-time Tri-State Tag Team Champion (with Killer Kox)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 127 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003. PWI also ranked him # 75 of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Jerry Blackwell.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

1980 Match of the Year (vs Bob Backlund)

Championship succession

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Ken Patera ]

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