Whipper Billy Watson - Championship Runs

Championship Runs

Watson defeated Nanjo Singh for the British Empire title on April 30, 1942. He feuded with Bill Longson, Lou Thesz, Yvon Robert, Gene Kiniski, Gorgeous George, and The Sheik, among many others. Watson earned a reputation as someone who was willing to lose clean in the ring. He earned an “everyman” image and Watson went on to hold the city of Toronto’s regional title and the British Empire title on a regular basis.

Tunney cut Watson in on the business side of things. Their combined booking efforts resulted in large fortunes for the two of them. With connections to St. Louis promoter Tom Packs, Watson’s notoriety resulted in Watson ending Longson’s four year title reign with a victory at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis on February 21, 1947. The territory of St. Louis became a home away from home for Watson. More than 10,000 St. Louis fans watched local hero Lou Thesz beat Watson for the world title on April 25, 1947. After Packs retired in 1948, Tunney bought into the territory in St. Louis and this resulted in many more matches for Watson in the city.

Watson became one of a small group of wrestlers to have membership in the National Wrestling Alliance. In 1955, Watson expanded his business ventures by purchasing the Seattle territory from Bob Murray. Wrestlers from Toronto such as Doug Hepburn and Sky-Hi Lee wrestled for Watson in Seattle. Ken Kenneth ran the day-to-day operations for Watson and imported wrestlers from San Francisco to compete in Seattle. The territory folded a few months later.

On March 15, 1956, Watson ended Thesz’s six year reign as World Champion in front of 15,000 fans. Former boxing champion Jack Dempsey was the referee in the match. Watson traveled throughout North America and took on legends such as Gorgeous George, Pat O'Connor, Dick Hutton, Richard Dempk, Bobo Brazil, Hans Schmidt, Fritz Von Erich, Killer Kowalski and Buddy Rogers. Thesz regained the title from Watson on November 9, 1956 in St. Louis.

He also trained several wrestlers, including Farmer Brooks, a midget professional wrestler. and Rocky Johnson a world tag team champion better known as father to The Rock.

Outside of wrestling, Watson considered playing football for the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1950s. Watson tested the waters of politics as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada candidate in York East in the 1965 federal election. Watson placed second with 32% of the vote, falling about 2,500 votes behind Liberal Party of Canada candidate Steve Otto. Watson also promoted his own soft drink brand.