Plenty of people have heard of AWA
legend Nick Bockwinkel but how many know of his father, Warren
Bockwinkel? Warren was born May 21, 1911, and died March 24, 1986.
Warren helped train his son Nick as well as wrestling great Wilbur
Snyder. He wrestled mainly from the 1930's to the mid-1950's,
working in St. Louis mainly but also in places like California and
Calgary, Alberta.
Warren was one of the first wrestlers
to put Lou Thesz over as Lou was receiving his first major push to
the top of the wrestling world. Bockwinkel worked out with a young
Lou Thesz in St. Louis and even introduced him to St. Louis promoter
Tom Packs, and the two were close. On January 8, 1937, Bockwinkel
and Thesz were scheduled for their big match in St. Louis but bad
weather postponed it to the following day. On January 9, Thesz beat
Bockwinkel for the St. Louis Championship. He was the #4 draw,
overall, in 1944, and helped solidify Bill Longson's reign on top in
St. Louis. For their match on July 23, 1943, they drew 10,197 and
for a rematch on February 11, 1944, they drew an even larger 11,470.
Throughout the rest of the forties, he
continued working in the St. Louis territory, as well as Hamilton, ON
and Buffalo, NY.
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| Warren and Nick Bockwinkel |
Warren
worked Northern California/San Francisco in 1951-1952 for Joe
Malciewicz, most importantly working with Killer Kowalski. Warren
jumped to Southern California 1954 and worked often with Gene
Kiniski. By this point, he began teaming with Nick and wrestled on
the same cards as him in Los Angeles/Bakersfield.
By 1954, Warren was winding down his
career in the Buffalo, Calgary, St. Louis, and Los Angeles
territories. He may have worked Arizona as well but I don't
currently have good Arizona records. Warren teamed with Mike Dibiase
to face John Tolos and Gene Kiniski in LA, on October 20, 1954, and
they lost, with a subsequent rematch on November 10. By 1955, Warren
had retired and only returned for a match with Hans Schmidt on
October 2, 1957 in Los Angeles.
Besides wrestling, Bockwinkel worked as
a truck driver for a shoe company. It was this occupation, according
to Lou Thesz in his book Hooker, that stopped Warren from
becoming a bigger star in the business. Bockwinkel was inducted into
the Lou Thesz/George Tragos Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa, as part
of the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum, in 2010.
On a side note concerning Nick
Bockwinkel, when he was a baby he wet himself after Thesz was holding
him. Another side note is that Bockwinkel seemed to have wrestled
and beaten George Zaharias' famous wife, Mildred “Babe, Didrikson,
on March 17, 1936 in St. Louis.
(Thanks to Pat Laprade for a little help writing this piece, check out his book Mad Dogs, Midgets, and Screw jobs:The Untold Story of How Montreal Shaped the World of Wrestling)
