Other Aliases: Akeem
Biggest Fan: Joe Reardon "His grunts whenever he was hit were awesome. Eliminated Hogan from a Rumble. Made it fairly far in the WM4 tourney."
When the World Wrestling Federation found itself without a champion in 1988, the promotion organized the greatest single-day tournament in professional wrestling history. And who populated this amazing bracket at WrestleMania IV? Only fourteen of the top superstars in the business, and the One Man Gang outlasted eleven of them!
George Gray's career began in International Championship Wrestling (despite the name, it operated mostly in Kentucky), a promotion run by the aforementioned tournament's eventual winner's father, Angelo Poffo. As Crusher Broomfield, he feuded with "Macho Man" Randy Savage alongside another Savage nemesis, Ron Garvin, who was calling himself "One Man Gang" at the time. Eventually, Gray joined the WWF and took up that name, aligning himself with a new manager, Slick, at the same time. The One Man Gang destroyed opponent after opponent as he established himself as a true force in the World Wrestling Federation. He then ended the career of Superstar Billy Graham when he delivered a running splash to the legend on the concrete floor. So, it was no surprise when this 6'9", 357-pound monster was chosen for the WWF's most important tournament in history. And it was no surprise that he made it to the semi-final round before losing to his old foe, Randy Savage.
His feuding with Savage would continue. After rediscovering his African roots, Gray became known as Akeem "The African Dream", and formed a nearly-unstoppable tag team with the Big Boss Man called the Twin Towers. This duo was so formidable that they feuded with the Mega Powers for months, eventually causing that team so much internal strife that the tag team exploded in fantastic fashion.
Akeem and the Big Boss Man continued their winning ways until they famously exploded in 1990, leading to a match at WrestleMania VI and Gray's eventual departure for WCW. Once again going by the One Man Gang, a feud with El Gigante (see #99 below) and a WCW United States Championship run were the highlights of his time with that company.
Although he never again reached the heights of his WWF days, the One Man Gang remains a legendary superstar of wrestling, and you never know when the current prison guard at the Louisiana State Pen will lace up his boots again.
No comments:
Post a Comment