Career
He wrestled professionally from 1946 to 1976. He started as a weightlifter as a teenager. Joe Pazandak was his training partner in wrestling early in his career and Tony Stecher of Minneapolis was his manager in the very beginning. He mostly wrestled as Stu Hart's tag team partner after returning to wrestling in 1953. He fought Lou Thesz for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1953 in Canada and wrestled Thesz again to a 90-minute draw in Edmonton in 1955.
George Gordienko won the Alberta Golden Jubilee tournament in 1955, defeating Adrien Baillargeon in the final. He then settled in UK. He was ranked the top heavyweight wrestler in the Great Britain in 1963. In 1970, George won the annual Royal Albert Hall tournament in London. He then triumphed in winning the British Commonwealth heavyweight title. He also won New Zealand's version of the British Commonwealth Heavyweight Championship in 1968. The majority of Gordienko's title wins took place in Western Canada, as he won several NWA titles in British Columbia and Alberta. Competing in Calgary in 1956, he won the city's version of the NWA Canadian Heavyweight Championship. In 1974, he competed in British Columbia and won Vancouver's version of the NWA Pacific Coast Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship. He also competed for Stampede Wrestling, where he won the promotion's International Tag Team Championship and was later inducted into the company's hall of fame.
George Gordienko wrestled all over the world, including the Middle East, Australia, India, and South Africa. He competed under a variety of ring names, including Firpo Zyzbsko in India and Flash Gordon in British Columbia. He retired in 1976 at age forty-eight after having his ankle broken by Roland Bock in Germany.
Read more about this topic: George Gordienko
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
—Margaret S. Mahler (1897–1985)
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)