Junkyard Dog

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The nicknames "Junkyard Dog" & "JYD" may also refer to former pro-basketball player Jerome Williams.

Sylvester Ritter


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Leroy Rochester Stagger Lee Big Daddy Ritter Junkyard Dog
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Billed weight	280 lb (127 kg)
Born	December 13, 1952 Wadesboro, North Carolina, USA
Died	June 2, 1998 (aged 45) Forest, Mississippi, USA
Trained by	Sonny King
Debut	1977

Sylvester Ritter (December 13, 1952 – June 2, 1998) was an American professional wrestler best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as The Junkyard Dog (or JYD for short).

1 Career
- 1.1 Football
- 1.2 Professional wrestling
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Football

Sylvester Ritter played football at Fayetteville State University, making honorable mention for the All American team twice. He graduated with a political science degree and was selected by the Green Bay Packers organization, but knee and back surgery ended his football career.

[edit] Professional wrestling

Ritter debuted in the Tennessee territory, working for promoter Jerry Jarrett, before moving to Nick Gulas' company and using the ring name Leroy Rochester. From there he moved to Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling as Big Daddy Ritter, where he captured the North American Heavyweight Championship twice.

In the early 80s Ritter moved to Mid-South Wrestling, where booker "Cowboy" Bill Watts gave him the name and gimmick Junkyard Dog, and would wear a long chain, attached to a dog collar, and white boots. He originally came to ring pushing a cart filled with junk called the "junk wagon" and lost most of his early matches before his character caught on and became one of the top faces in the company. While on top he feuded with some of the top heels in the company, including a now infamous angle with the Fabulous Freebirds where they (kayfabe) blinded him with hair cream. At the peak of the feud Ritter's wife (legit) gave birth to their first child, and since Ritter now couldn't see his new daughter it increased the heat on the Freebirds to the point where they needed police escorts in and out of arenas. The feud ended with (the still blind) Ritter and the Freebird "leader", Michael "P.S." Hayes wrestling in a steel cage match.

Around 1985 Ritter left Mid-South for the World Wrestling Federation, where he was still an incredibly over face, but never again reached the main event level. While in the WWF he made a habit of interacting with the growing number of young people in attendance, often bringing them into the ring after matches and dancing with them. Ritter won The Wrestling Classic tournament, often cited as the first ever WWF pay-per-view and his most notable feuds in the company came against King Harley Race and Greg "the Hammer" Valentine before leaving the company in 1988.

In 1990 he had a brief run in World Championship Wrestling, while it was still under the National Wrestling Alliance banner, where he feuded with Ric Flair over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and won the Six-Man Tag Team Championship with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich.

Sylvester Ritter died on June 2, 1998, in a single-car accident on Interstate 20 near Forest, Mississippi as he was returning home from his daughter Latoya's high school graduation in Wadesboro, North Carolina. The apparent cause was falling asleep at the wheel.

Ritter had stayed active in professional wrestling until the time of his death. He was the founder of the Dog Pound stable in independent Mid-South promotion, based in southern Louisiana. Among Ritter's last contributions to professional wrestling was the training of former WWF/E wrestlers Rodney Mack and Jazz.

In 2004, Latoya Ritter represented her father as he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at a ceremony during WrestleMania XX.

[edit] In wrestling

Finishing and signature moves

Thump (Front Powerslam)
Dog-like antics (Biting, Crawling around on all fours)
Headbutts
Shoulder Breaker

Managers

J.R. Foley

Theme music

Music was a very important part of Junkyard Dogs character.

In mid-South his first theme song was Bad, Bad Leroy Brown by Jim Croce, then it was changed to Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, before he used Atomic Dog by George Clinton.
In the WWF he used Another One Bites the Dust again, before he and Vicki Sue Robinson recorded a song specifically for him, Grab Them Cakes (about buttocks-fondling) which was released in 1985 on "The Wrestling Album". Robinson and JYD once performed this song together at the 1986 Slammy Awards as well.