6.04.2011

#74: Big John Studd

Real Name: John William Minton
Other Aliases: Executioner #2
Biggest Fan: Joe Reardon "Won a Royal Rumble. Took Andre the Giant to the limit several times. His Rumble victory came long before a Rumble victory sent you to the Main Event of Wrestlemania. The lack of title shots for Studd has caused many to believe he was not an upper echelon competitor."

Big John Studd was one of few competitors in his day who could believably stand toe-to-toe with Andre the Giant. Billed to stand 6'10" and weigh 364 pounds, Big John Studd learned to be a professional wrestler by training underneath Killer Kowalski. The two of them then went on to become WWF Tag Team champions together, as the Masked Executioners, in 1976. Studd also battled "Nature Boy" Ric Flair for the NWA Heavyweight Title on several occasions in 1982, before joining the World Wrestling Federation and hiring Classy Freddie Blassie to be his manager.

Studd's time in the World Wrestling Federation saw him feud with two of wrestling's most famous superstars, Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. He also teamed up with the massive King Kong Bundy, forming perhaps the most terrifying duo in wrestling history. At WrestleMania 2, Studd eliminated from a 20-man battle royal one of the favorites to win the whole thing, Chicago Bears' defensive lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry! Studd might have won the match himself, but The Fridge yanked him out of the ring during a friendly handshake between the two.

Perhaps the greatest moment in this superstar's career, though, was at the 1989 Royal Rumble. This was the first Rumble to air on pay-per-view and the first to feature thirty entrants. Big John Studd outlasted them all, eliminating Ted DiBiase at the end to become the winner of the match and cementing his status as a legendary superstar of wrestling.

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