- Claude Patterson
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Claude Patterson Ring name(s) Sweet Daddy Brown
Thunderbolt Patterson
T-Bolt
K.O. PattersonBorn 1941
Waterloo, Iowa[1]Resides Atlanta Billed from Atlanta, Georgia Trained by Pat O'Connor
Steve KovacsDebut 1964[1] Retired 1994 Claude Patterson, (born 1941) better known professionally as Thunderbolt Patterson, was an American professional wrestler best known for his efforts at starting a union for wrestlers. He started his career in 1965 and wrestled primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
Contents
Professional wrestling career
Training and early career
Patterson had grown up in Iowa and worked for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa when he broke into professional wrestling in the Kansas City area.[1] Promoter Gust Karras put Patterson in matches against Don Soto in 1964.[1] In 1965, Patterson moved to Texas and worked with promoter Dory Funk Sr..[1] The following year, he traveled to California, where he held the WWA Tag Team Championship with Alberto Torres.[1] He also continued to work in Texas, where he worked as a villainous character in the racist South.[1]
In 1969, he worked for Big Time Wrestling in Michigan and Ohio.
In 1970, he feuded with Jose Lothario and held the Florida version of the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship.[1]
Patterson agreed to work for an outlaw promotion (that is, one outside of the NWA) run by Ann Gunkel, the widow of his old friend and Georgia promoter Ray Gunkel, in the 1970s.[1] He also spoke out against poor working conditions for wrestlers and sued for racial discrimination, and as a result, he was blacklisted from wrestling.[1] He had been dealing with racism from promoters for many years (he would later recall that only Dory Funk Sr. had backed him) and with starting a wrestlers' union, a dream of Jim Wilson a former NFL player and wrestler, himself blacklisted. It would be years, with Patterson working at the Los Angeles Times in the interim, before he would get another shot, when Dusty Rhodes took ill in Florida.
In 1976, he won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship from Bruiser Brody.[1]
Patterson joined Ole Anderson as a tag team partner in the early 1980s and they briefly held the NWA National Tag Team Championship.[1] Ole's "relative", a young Arn Anderson, came to the sport, and Ole, saying he was "tired of carrying guys like Patterson and Dusty Rhodes" broke up with Patterson, and joined Arn in what would be the foundation for the Four Horsemen which would include NWA Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard.
Patterson retired from the sport in 1994 (his last match was at Slamboree '93, where he teamed with Brad Armstrong to defeat Ivan Koloff and Baron Von Raschke).[1]
Personal life
In 1988, he was a labor organizer for Service Employees International Union in Atlanta.[1]
After retiring from professional wrestling, he began running a Christian camp for children.[1] Patterson is also an ordained minister.[1]
Championships and accomplishments
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- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Mr. Wrestling (1), Tommy Rich (1), and Tony Atlas (1)
- NWA Georgia Television Championship (2 times)
- NWA National Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ole Anderson
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- NWA American Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Wahoo McDaniel (2) Toru Tanaka (1), and Johnny Valentine (1)
- World Wrestling Association (Los Angeles)
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- WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Alberto Torres
References
External links
Categories:- 1941 births
- Living people
- American professional wrestlers
- People from Waterloo, Iowa
- African American professional wrestlers
- People from Atlanta, Georgia
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