The Crusher dies

[spman 0]

From Meltzer:

 

The One, Da Only, Da Crusher, one of the most colorful wrestlers and the biggest drawing card in the history of several cities in the old AWA territory passed away last night at the age of 79.

 

Reggie Lisowski was a former weightlifter who was a cult idol and the top draw in most of the AWA territory during the 60s and 70s, until the Hulk Hogan era. He was best known world wide as tag team partner of Dick the Bruiser in the 60s but was box office as a singles wrestler far more than all the far more accomplished wrestlers that the AWA liked to use.

 

It's always bad when a legend dies, but it's a refreshing every once in a while to read about big wrestling stars living to near 80 instead of what we've been seeing these past few years. On that note, this has been a reletivly quiet year for Wrestling deaths, perhaps ever nerve rackingly so, something in me feels that since we've gone almost a full year without any real major names (no one bigger then Candido at least) passing on, we're gonna lose a real big name before the end of the year, like a Savage, or a Roberts, or a Luger.

[The Mandarin 0]

I've been drinking, so I read this as Dick Beyer dying the first time.

 

However, I thought about it and quickly realized it was the Crusher instead.

 

RIP Crusher.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

That's too bad, but you're right, it is nice to see a legend like that get to live to a ripe old age and pass away from what I assume are natural causes.

 

Saw the Crusher at an indy show about five years ago. He made a special appearance, and still cut the same classic promo. He was known as "The man who made Milwaukee famous."

[King Kamala 0]

The Crusher by The Ramones (From their last album, Adios Amigos)

 

 

Now I wanna wrestle in the garden

I'm on my way to stardom

I know I'm ready I know I'm great

But first I have to get in shape

 

Cause I've got my eyes on the Russian Bear

Gonna tear him up I swear

This guy thinks he's the champion

Gonna take his belt and beat him!

 

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

 

I'm ready for a match with the Russian Bear

Gonna pile drive him pull his hair

I might have a foreign object in my trunks

I might have to use on that punk

 

Got the hardest hold you can put on anyone

If you're my victim you're beaten

I'm a lean mean fighting machine

Powerful and strong like King Kong

 

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

 

Started having second thought I was scared as hell

The last thing I wanted was to hear them ring the bell

I mean the Russian Bear could probably

tear me limb from limb

He'd probably grin be real happy with himself

This is not good for my health

I'm not coming out of the dressing room

And get beaten up by that goon

 

Go back to Russia go back home!

Don't wanna get a broken bone

Or a lump on my head

Ain't gonna hide under the bed

 

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher king of the ring

I'm the crusher (crusher)

 

I'm the Crusher

[Downhome 0]

I hate to hear it, but yeah, I like hearing about the guys living a full life instead of dying so young like what we've seen so much in the past few years.

 

I also hate that most current fans don't even know who Crusher is. He is one of my all time favorite characters from way back when.

 

RIP Crusher Lisowski, it's time for a Crusher and Bruiser reunion in wrestling Heaven!

[Vampiro69 0]

Always sad when a ledgend dies, but at least he lived a full life.

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

Him and the Bruiser will no doubt be looking to drink alot of beer and pick up a few dollies about 250lbs a piece.

[BruiserKC 0]

RIP to da Crusher...I'll listen to "The Beer Barrel Polka" and lower my head in rembrance. Then, I shall toast his memory tonight at BFG.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I would like to see WWE do a tribute for the Crusher...something a little more than a quick photo with "RIP Crusher" displayed at the start of RAW. Maybe do a quick segment where they show some classic clips of Crusher in action, etc. I know, wishful thinking, but he deserves it.

[Jericholic82 0]

I never saw him wrestle outside of the lod dvd but still sad to hear.

 

RIP

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I knew who they ment...but for the life of me the first person I thought of when I heard The Crusher was that Looney Tunes Character.

 

RIP former AWA Champ.

[bradolson 0]

Living in Milwaukee, this is a little sadder. He was pretty famous here

 

[iliketurtles 0]

A true legend that lived a great life. Hope WWE gives him a nod tonight on RAW.

 

RIP.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Showman leaves the ring

The Crusher's villain act won over fans

By MIKE JOHNSON

[email protected]

Posted: Oct. 23, 2005

An icon in professional wrestling circles who was considered a man of the people because of his blue-collar Milwaukee roots, Reggie "The Crusher" Lisowski has died, losing his final bout to a non-cancerous brain tumor, his son said.

 

He worked out on his last day. That’s how he wanted to go.

- David Lisowski, his son

Lisowski, 79, died Saturday night, having never fully recovered from surgeries to remove the tumor at the base of his brain stem, David Lisowski said Sunday.

The two surgeries affected The Crusher's ability to swallow and left him partially paralyzed. The brawny brawler had to be fed through a feeding tube for several months.

But the operations never crushed Lisowski's spirit, David Lisowski said.

Through it all, the Crusher kept on working out.

"He worked out on his last day. That's how he wanted to go," said David Lisowski, of Delafield. "He did concentration curls and triceps work. He just had to work out every day. . . . In his mind, he never thought he was old."

Lisowski, who played fullback for South Milwaukee High School, learned to wrestle while in the Army in Germany during World War II, old newspaper stories about him say.

The Crusher came back from the war and played semi-pro football, his son said.

Then one night, Lisowski, went to a carnival in town. There, someone had set up a ring and was urging people to step up. If you could beat the guy in the ring, you would get a $1.

"Well, he stepped into the ring and beat him, and he got a buck," David Lisowski said. "He did this for a couple of days and beat everybody. That's how he got interested in wrestling."

From there, he learned that some wrestlers worked out at the Eagles Club, so he joined. Eventually, he hooked up with a Chicago promoter, who got Lisowski matches at a small armory in Chicago, where the wrestler earned $5 a night.

In Chicago, Lisowski drew the attention of a promoter who booked wrestlers from all over the nation. That promoter, according the news reports, put Lisowski on national television and took him on the road. At one point, according to a 1952 news article, Lisowski drew 8,000 people to a bout in Buffalo, N.Y.

Lisowski and his family lived for a time in Canada and in Texas while he pursued wrestling full time, David Lisowski said. Eventually, they returned to the Midwest and Wisconsin, where the cigar-chomping, beer-drinking Crusher quickly became the people's favorite.

"The Crusher was a mainstay in professional wrestling for so long," promoter Frank DeFalco said of Lisowski's more than 30-year career, which spanned from the 1950s to the 1970s. "He sold out the Milwaukee Auditorium and Arena on a number of occasions."

A promoter along the way once said of Lisowski that the wrestler "just crushes everybody," David Lisowski noted, and that's how the name "The Crusher" began.

Though he began his career as a bad guy, people took to the barrel-chested wrestler. "He never really changed his style. He was a villain, but for some reason people started liking him more," David Lisowski said.

DeFalco says that was because The Crusher was just a good "old-fashioned wrestler."

In 1985, a reporter asked The Crusher why he was so popular in Milwaukee. "I think the working people identify with me, because years ago I worked when I wrestled, too. I worked in a packing house. I worked at Ladish, Drop Forge, Cudahy Packing House. I was a bricklayer. But finally, I got away from punching the clock," he said.

The flamboyant American Wrestling Association brawler became known as "the wrestler who made Milwaukee famous."

Some of the ads promoting wrestling, might have helped, too. DeFalco remembers one in which The Crusher had a barrel of beer on his shoulder and said he was going to kick "The Weasel's" BUTT all over Milwaukee and then "we'll have a party, take all the dollies down Wisconsin Avenue and go dancing." The Crusher was referring to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

In another commercial, The Crusher bent a tire in half. "Not many people can do that," David Lisowski said.

The Crusher teamed up with William "Dick The Bruiser" Afflis and won a number of tag-team titles.

Lisowski also participated in what people said was the first cage match ever, in which The Crusher took on Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon. At one point, Vachon was kicking The Crusher, and "some woman was climbing the cage to save The Crusher," DeFalco said.

David Lisowski said his dad won the battle - Mad Dog ended up in the hospital, but The Crusher was a mess, too. "He came out really beat up. His head was cut up. He had a busted eardrum. The whole right side of his body was bruised. But the next day, he went to Green Bay to wrestle," David Lisowski said.

In 1985, The Crusher, still a favorite son, battled seven others for a different title - best amateur conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Billed as the "Battle of the Batons," The Crusher took third.

Although flamboyant, The Crusher took professional wrestling seriously.

In 2001, after fellow wrestler Jack Wilson died, a Wisconsin Public Television reporter wanted Lisowski's number to interview the wrestler for a special on professional wrestling.

The Crusher wanted no part of it.

"People make a joke out of it," he said of wrestling. "But it wasn't a joke to me. It was a living."

Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday and 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday at Molthen-Bell & Sons Funeral Home, 700 Milwaukee Ave., South Milwaukee. Funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Divine Mercy Catholic Church, 1304 Manitoba Ave., South Milwaukee.

Amy Rabideau Silvers of the Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.