Professional Wrestling Career
Woodin began his wrestling career at the age of 29 using the name "Tim Woods". He was then given the name "Mr. Wrestling" by Nebraska promotor Joe Dusek, and subsequently adopted both a white wrestling mask and white singlet to complete the character. Mr. Wrestling became a major superstar in the Georgia, Florida, Texas and Mid-Atlantic territories. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the northeast, at the upper end of the preliminary wrestlers. Starting in the Seventies, he would alternate between his masked persona as Mr. Wrestling and wrestling unmasked as Tim Woods, depending on the territory.
Woodin was involved in the same 1975 plane crash that involved pilot Joseph Michael Farkas (he ended up in a coma and died the next year), wrestling legend Johnny Valentine (broke his back and bone fragments inpacted into his spinal cord, which ended his career), wrestler Bob Bruggers (broke his back and had a steel rod put in; Bruggers could have made a comeback, but he decided to retire), future legend Ric Flair (broke his back, but recovered and returned to wrestling), and Jim Crockett Promotions' announcer David Crockett. At the hospital, Woodin gave them his real name (George Burrell Woodin), and told them that he was a promoter. Since Woodin wrestled under the name Tim Woods, a newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer listed his name as his real name, George Burrell Woodin, and mentioned that he was a promoter. Woodin was the only fan favorite wrestler on the plane, while the rest wrestled as villains, and this was back in the days when kayfabe was not broken (at the time, Woods was feuding with Flair and Valentine). Eventually, rumors began circulating that Woods was in fact on the plane. Unwilling to risk the exposure of professional wrestling, he got back in the ring two weeks after the crash and was obviously in extreme pain. Flair later said in his book To Be the Man, that he was "more than just Mr. Wrestling that day, but was the man who saved wrestling." Woodin eventually returned to wrestling and had his final match on September 17, 1983, where he lost to Mr. Wrestling II.
Read more about this topic: Tim Woods
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