Athletes - Ray Stevens

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	Athletes - Ray Stevens

Carl Raymond Stevens, better known as Ray "The Crippler" Stevens or Ray "Blond Bomber" Stevens (born September 5, 1935 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, died May 3, 1996), was an American professional wrestler.

Early career

Ray Stevens, a peroxide blond, began a career, which spanned five decades, as a top rated professional wrestler in 1950 at the astonishingly young age of 15. Within a few short years, he became a main eventer and remained on top for many more years to come. Throughout most of his working years, Ray has been a villain. On a couple of occasions, he has turned into a baby face. His most famous finisher move was the "Bombs Away" knee drop which involved Ray "the Blond Bomber" jumping off the top rope and landing with his knee on the throat of his hapless foe.

Another spectacular move, invented by the great Blond Bomber during the latter part of the 1960s, was the famous Turnbuckle Flip. This move involved Stevens being thrown into the far corner by his opponent. Prior to hitting the corner, Ray would go into a somersault flipping over the top turnbuckle and do a blade job before touching the cement floor. This extraordinary bumping technique among many other innovations of Ray Stevens were simply beyond the skills of most wrestlers. A few very talented wrestlers like Ric Flair used the Stevens Turnbuckle Flip as part of their in-ring repertoire.

During the late 1950s, Stevens teamed up with "Professor" Roy Shire as "brother" Ray Shire. The Shire brothers were involved in many famous angles until Roy moved on to become promoter of wrestling programs in San Francisco's famed Cow Palace.

Stevens, reverting to his real name, started out in San Francisco in 1960, where he was involved in an angle with Pepper Gomez and captured the San Francisco versions of the NWA United States Heavyweight title nine times and the NWA World Tag Team title three times. During his San Francisco years, Stevens took on and vanquished wrestlers of such caliber as Cowboy Bob Ellis, Karl Gotch, Pat O'Connor, Pepper Gomez, Kinji Shubuya, Bobo Brazil, Bruno Sammartino (through a count out), Dr. Big Bill Miller, Ernie "Big Cat" Ladd, Jose Lothario, and many many others.

In 1962, Ray's phenomenal success was noted in a poll of wrestling fans in the Bay Area. The poll was set up to determine which wrestler was considered to be the most popular and which one was the most despised. Believe it or not...Ray Stevens was elected by the fans as number one in both categories. He was probably one of the earlier examples of an anti-hero in wrestling.

Over the years, many people expressed the opinion that Ray Stevens was the best worker ever during the 1960s. Despite not being large in size, he was a truly dynamic wrestler with unsurpassable bouncing capability. It has been said that Ray Stevens had the ability to make any opponent look good, no matter how badly they may perform in the ring. In addition, he has been able to demonstrably convince the fans, through his ring work and his equally great interview work, that he could methodically and completely destroy anyone regardless of how strong or how big they may be. This mesmerizing talent has also resulted with him getting into a number of fracases in bars with those who wanted to find out how tough he really was. His professionalism and dedication to giving his best in the ring has been admired and appreciated by the fans and fellow wrestlers.

During his San Francisco phase, Ray "Blond Bomber" Stevens had consistently been rated among the top ten best singles wrestlers in the world by reputable wrestling magazines of the period such as Stanley Weston's Wrestling Revue. His ranking among the top tag teams has also been one to be respected. His partnership with Pat Patterson as the Blond Bombers has been considered by many as one of the all time great teams, along with his later collaboration with Nick Bockwinkel. He then moved on to the AWA, where he enjoyed huge success as a five-time AWA World Tag Team champion (four with Nick Bockwinkel, one with Pat Patterson); after that, he captured three NWA World Tag Team titles in Jim Crockett Promotions.

WWF

From there, he moved to the WWF. In the WWF, he was managed by Capt.Lou Albano. Stevens and Albano turned on Snuka in 1982 when Stevens piledrove Snuka onto the concrete floor (This is before padding was introduced). Stevens fizzled out in the WWF afterwards.

Late Career

After leaving the WWF, Stevens returned to the AWA, where he joined forces with Larry Zbyszko in feuding with the babyface-turned Bockwinkel, only to turn face himself after Zbyszko turned on him. Stevens was in Bockwinkel's corner when interference by Zbyszko led to Curt Hennig winning the AWA World Heavyweight title from Bockwinkel in San Francisco on May 2, 1987; Stevens and Bockwinkel protested the outcome of the match to the AWA Championship Committee, but the decision was upheld days later after the committee ruled that there was no evidence that Zbyszko had illegally aided Hennig; as a result, the now heel-turned Hennig remained champion. Stemming from the events of that match, Stevens feuded briefly with Zbyszko before finishing out his career in 1992.

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Athletes - Ray Stevens

Early career

WWF

Late Career

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