Gene Kiniski

Gene Kiniski was a professional wrestler. He is the father of wrestlers Nick Kiniski and Kelly Kiniski.

Career

Early career

Kiniski's sports career began in the 1940s with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Western Interprovincial Football Union (which later merged with the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union to form the CFL); two of his Eskimos teammates were future wrestlers Wilbur Snyder and Joe Blanchard. After spending two years playing football at the University of Arizona, Kiniski rejoined the Eskimos in 1952, but was injured in the first game of the season.

After retiring from football, Kiniski trained with Dory Funk Sr. and Tony Morelli for a wrestling career, eventually making his pro debut in 1953. One year later, he teamed up with John Tolos to win his first major championship, the International TV Tag Team title, in Los Angeles, then challenged NWA World Champion Lou Thesz in November 1954. From there, Kiniski ventured to San Francisco and teamed with Lord James Blears to win the territory's version of the NWA World Tag Team title three times in 1955; after that, he went to Texas and, wrestling as Gene Kelly, captured the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship in 1956.

Kiniski began wrestling in his native Canada for the first time in November 1956, debuting for Toronto's Maple Leaf Wrestling. His first main-event match in the territory took place at Maple Leaf Gardens in January 1957, when he teamed with Buddy Rogers against Whipper Billy Watson and Pat O'Connor and saw the beginning of a lengthy feud with Watson that spanned across Canada; the Kiniski-Watson feud gained national exposure due to their matches sometimes being seen on CBC Television. He would also challenge NWA World Heavyweight titleholders Watson, Thesz and Dick Hutton for the title on several occasions between 1955 and 1957.

Kiniski joined the American Wrestling Association in 1960 and would defeat AWA World Champion Verne Gagne to win the title on July 11, 1961, also capturing the AWA World Tag Team title twice with Hard Boiled Haggerty.

NWA All Star Wrestling

In 1962, Kiniski began what would become the peak period of his career when he went to Vancouver to join NWA All Star Wrestling; early on, he won the NWA British Empire Heavyweight title twice and the Pacific Coast Tag Team title three times, and he would challenge again for the NWA World title, taking on Rogers in a Vancouver main event in 1962, and Thesz in 1963. He would make Vancouver his home base while also making appearances in other promotions throughout North America and in Japan, particularly a lengthy stint in the WWWF in 1964-65; while there, he challenged WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino several times. He also went to Dick the Bruiser's Indianapolis-based World Wrestling Association in 1965 and captured its World Heavyweight title, holding it for four months.

The pinnacle of Kiniski's career finally came on January 7, 1966, when he defeated Thesz to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. He would travel worldwide to defend his title during his three-year reign as champion, including making frequent stops back in Vancouver to defend his title in NWA All Star, taking on challengers like Thesz, Don Leo Jonathan, Dutch Savage, Bill Dromo, Bearcat Wright, John Tolos, Chris Tolos, Abdullah the Butcher, Haystacks Calhoun, Bobby Shane, Dean Higuchi, Tex McKenzie and Paddy Barrett in the promotion. Kiniski would eventually lose the title to Dory Funk Jr. on February 11, 1969, in Tampa, Florida.

The NWA World title loss would not be the end of the line, however, as Kiniski continued winning championships in NWA All Star and elsewhere. He won the NWA Missouri Heavyweight title from Terry Funk in St. Louis on March 16, 1973, while back in Vancouver, he won the Pacific Coast Heavyweight title seven times from 1970 to 1979, and won the Canadian Tag Team title ten times between 1963 and 1976. He also got involved in the promotional side of the business when he joined forces with Sandor Kovacs and Portland promoter Don Owen to acquire the Vancouver territory in the late 1960s; that, combined with Kiniski's NWA World title reign at the time, helped make Vancouver a wrestling hotbed for several years, until Kovacs sold his share in the promotion to Al Tomko in 1977. Kiniski would retain his ownership stake in NWA All Star until 1985.

Late career

Kiniski remained involved in the sport for a few more years, teaming periodically with his sons, Kelly and Nick, refereeing the main event of the inaugural NWA Starrcade (Ric Flair vs. NWA World Champion Harley Race in a steel cage) in 1983, and later promoting events for the AWA in Vancouver while occasionally stepping into the ring. His final matches as an active wrestler took place in Winnipeg's West Four Wrestling Alliance in 1992, and he would act as cornerman for Dory Funk Jr. in a match between Funk and Nick Bockwinkel (with Verne Gagne) at WCW Slamboree in 1993. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, and into the Tragos/Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Newton, Iowa in 2004. In 2000 he was interim president (commissioner) of All Japan Pro Wrestling's Pacific Wrestling Federation title governing body, but only while they searched for a permanent replacement for Lord James Blears and to present the vacant AJPW Triple Crown Championship to the winner of a tournament. The winner turned out to be Genichiro Tenryu; Kiniski left and the permanent PWF president was announced to be Stan Hansen.