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WRESTLING: As villain, Walter 'Killer' Kowalski had few equals

By Alex Marvez, Scripps Howard News Service

Published September 4, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Walter "Killer" Kowalski's pro wrestling accomplishments are an earful - in more ways than one.

One of grappling's most storied villains, Kowalski died Saturday of complications from a heart attack. He was 81.

Kowalski wrestled roughly 8,000 matches in a 30-year career that ended with his 1977 retirement. Considered a behemoth for his time at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds, Kowalski headlined World Wrestling Entertainment shows against Bruno Sammartino and even won the promotion's tag-team titles with partner "Big" John Studd (the late John Minton) behind masks as The Executioners.

Kowalski, though, might never have achieved such stardom were it not for an in-ring accident in 1954. Kowalski was wrestling in Montreal against Yukon Eric, a Canadian star who had a cauliflower ear. When a Kowalski knee drop went awry, Eric's ear was ripped off.

In an era when pro wrestling was successfully portrayed by promoters as legitimate competition, the incident triggered a firestorm of publicity.

Unlike many of his peers, Kowalski closely monitored his diet. Kowalski claims he was pro wrestling's first vegetarian, having quit eating meat during the 1960s.

"I had tremendous conditioning," Kowalski said. "I would have wrestlers time and time again walking around the ring pooped."

After retiring, Kowalski gained notoriety for his Boston-area pro wrestling school that produced future WWE stars including Paul "Triple H" Levesque, the son-in-law of WWE owner Vince McMahon.

"He picked things up real quick," Kowalski said of Levesque.

Kowalski was inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame in 1996. Kowal ski, though, paid scant attention to a product that he felt had become too entertainment-oriented.

"In my day, it wasn't about talking," he said. "It was about your performance in the ring."

Services for Kowalski were held this week in Massachusetts.