| Ken Patera |
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WEIGHTLIFTING CAREER Patera is a former Olympic Weightlifter and USA powerlifter. His greatest success was as an Olympic Weightlifter. He was the first American to clean and jerk 500 lb (227 kg) and the only American to clean and press 500 lb (227 kg). He was a serious competitor to the Soviet legend Vasily Alexeev but he failed to total at the 1972 Olympic Games . After the press (a lift Patera was disproportionately talented in) was eliminated from competition, Patera's weightlifting career was over. Patera was arguably the last American to excel at weightlifting on an international level. He won several medals at the Pan American Games (including gold) leading up to the 1972 Olympics and came away with a bronze medal at the Olympic Games that year.''This Olympic medal was promotional hype for his wrestling career, since as previously mentioned, he did not total (bombed out in the snatch) and thus could not have earned any medal, much less a bronze.'' EARLY CAREER Patera was one of the first "strongmen" in professional wrestling following his weightlifting career. He wrestled for the WWF , NWA , and AWA during the 1970s and 1980s. At the height of his career (in the early 1980s) he simultaneously held the WWF's Intercontinental Championship , and the NWA's Missouri Heavyweight Championship - two of the most important non-World Championship titles of that era. He was an integral part of the Heenan family in the AWA (1982-1984) and later with the WWF (1984-1985). While in the AWA, he feuded with Hulk Hogan and against Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell . Patera won the AWA World Tag Team Champion with Jerry Blackwell , defeating Gagne and Brunzell. Patera and Blackwell would later lose the titles to Baron Von Raschke and The Crusher . In the WWF, Patera resumed his feud with Hogan and also assisted Big John Studd in his feud with Andre The Giant . Patera was still one of the top stars in wrestling when was forced to leave the business to serve out a 2 year prison sentence. ARREST AND INCARCERATION On April 6 , 1984 , Ken Patera and Masa Saito went to a McDonald's in Waukesha, Wisconsin that had closed for the night. When they were refused service, Patera threw a boulder through the front window. When police showed up at the Holiday Inn where the wrestlers were staying, a brawl broke out between the grapplers and the officers. A short time later, Patera left the AWA for the WWF. In June 1985, Patera was convicted on two counts of battery on a police officer, and one count of criminal damage to property. Saito was convicted on three counts of battery on a police officer, and one count of obstructing a peace officer. Both men were sentenced to two years in prison. The story of Patera's arrest (courtesy of Buck Woordward) can be found in the Q & A section of Pro Wrestling Insider ... LATER CAREER After Patera had served his time, the WWF brought him back to the company, airing some vignettes entitled "The Ken Patera Story" chronicling his career and the incident. However, to make Patera a babyface, they concocted a story that former manager Bobby Heenan had abandoned him. Patera and Heenan held a debate to air their differences, which naturally turned into a physical confrontation between the two. Patera began feuding with the Heenan family (at the time comprised of Paul Orndorff , Harley Race , King Kong Bundy , and Hercules Hernandez ). Patera was in top physical condition and had tremendous heat when he returned to the WWF. Some wrestling publications even suspected that Patera would reunite with Heenan to face Hulk Hogan in the main event of WrestleMania 3. But his push was short lived. By 1988, Patera was being used to put over younger and newer talent for the company. Patera would sign with the AWA in early 1989. He initially challenged new AWA World Champion Larry Zbyszko for the title, but ended up in a tag team with Brad Rheingans as "the Olympians". The team would defeat Badd Company for the tag team titles shortly therafter. However, their reign would be brief. Fellow weighlifter turned wrestler, Wayne Bloom challenged Patera to a "car lifting challenge" in order to get a title shot. When it was Patera's turn to lift, Bloom, partner Mike Enos and manager Johnny Valiant attacked and injured Patera and Rheingans. This led to the AWA stripping Patera and Rheingans of the titles. Rheingans would leave wrestling for several months (in order to have a knee operation not related to the incident). Patera continued to feud with Bloom and Enos until he left the AWA. Upon returning to the AWA in early 1990, Rheingans would continue the feud until the AWA's demise. Patera went on to wrestle for the PWA and on independent cards primarily in the Minnesota area well into the 1990s, sometimes even promoting his own events. PROFILE
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