Rip Rogers - Career

Career

Rip Rogers started wrestling in 1974. He formed the "Convertible Blondes" with Pez Whatley and Gary Royal in Angelo Poffo's International Championship Wrestling (ICW) and won the Tag Team Titles with Royal. As with the three-member version of Demolition defending the WWF World Tag Team Championship with any two of the three members, the Convertible Blondes also used the so-called "Freebird Rule" to defend the ICW Tag Team Championship in this manner. He left the ICW following a dispute with Angelo Poffo's son Randall Poffo, better known by his ring name Randy Savage.

In 1984, he went to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Jim Crockett Promotions where he formed "The Hollywood Blonds" with Ted Oates and won the National Tag Team Titles. By early 1986, he was in the Tennessee area feuding with Dutch Mantel.

Rogers wrestled as a heel in Bob Geigel's Central States promotion during most of 1987.

The Ripper spent most of 1988 and 1989 in Calgary Stampede Wrestling. Strangely given his history and reputation he was mainly a lower to mid card performer. Yet he always seemed to get a rise out of the crowd as an antagonizing heel. Rogers received a small push near the end of his run in Stampede (the territory shut up shop at the end of '89). When he teamed with long time Stampede veteran Kerry Brown as part of the Midnight Cowboys tag team. They had a running feud with popular International Tag Team Champs Bad Company, which included Bruce Hart & Flyin' Brian Pillman.

In 1989, he wrestled for the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico as one of their top heels with partner Abbuda Dein.

He was back in the NWA in time for it to be renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1991 and he lost several matches to Pillman. Rogers later substituted for Pillman, being the scapegoat in the ill-fated Yellow Dog angle. His biggest win was at WCW BattleBowl in 1993 where he teamed with Road Warrior Hawk and defeated Davey Boy Smith & Stevie Ray (then named Kane). By late 1991, he had left WCW for the Global Wrestling Federation where he joined The Cartel, which included Scotty Anthony, Makhan Singh and Cactus Jack. They were the top heels for several months and he created a lot of havoc while there.

After that run, he occasionally wrestled in the United States, wrestling for a time with a promotion in Indianapolis known as Circle City Wrestling. He finally settled in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in 1997. He teamed with Dave the Rave and formed the "Suicide Blondes" with Jason Lee. When he retired from active competition in 2000, he was named head trainer at OVW. At the age of 48, Rogers was hit by a car and sustained injuries which forced him to completely retire from in-ring competition; according to a 2011 story on OVW, the accident left him "with a stiff limp". Rogers currently runs an advanced wrestling class at OVW, where he teaches up and coming wrestlers.

One of Rogers' trademark was his berserk reaction after losing a match. Even after being cleanly pinned, Rogers would vociferously protest to the referee that his opponent had cheated. Usually, he would claim that his hair or trunks had been pulled by the other wrestler to score the victory. These claims would be accompanied by a frenzied voice and wild pantomimes of hair and trunk pulling. Rip also fought in 3 pro boxing matches in 1996 at 43 years old. His record stands at 1 win, 1 loss, 1 draw, with 1 KO. He was trained by long time friend Bobby 'Sweetpain' Duchi a veteran pro boxer, kickboxer, and champion weightlifter. Rip gave him a crash course in pro wrestling in trade. Duchi calls Rip a true pro wrestling icon and the greatest wrestling teacher/trainer around today.