Newton Tattrie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newton Tattrie became a professional wrestler who started his career in the 1960s working for Stu Hart's "Stampede Wrestling" promotion out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was while working there that he met Josip Peruzovic (better known in pro wrestling as Nikolai Volkoff). Tattrie took Peruzovic under his wing as a protege and trained the non-English speaking, 315 pound man to become a professional wrestler. Tattrie became known as Geto Mongol and Peruzovic would be Bepo Mongol, together they were the Mongols. They had a very unorthodox appearance with bald heads and little "horns" of hair on the very top of their skulls. They would go on to become Tag Team Champions in Vincent McMahon's World Wide Wrestling Federation, today the WWE.

Born in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1931, Tattrie ran away from when he was only 12. He headed to Toronto and lived on the streets during the time when World War II was going on. He was very interested in boxing and once accidentally stumbled into a wrestling gym that he thought was a boxing dojo. It was there that he met wrestler Dave "The Wildman" McKigney who offered to cross train with him. Another wrestler that he met at the gym, Waldo Von Erich, got Tattrie in the door with the World Wide Wrestling Federation where he wrestled for a time as Tony Newbury. In 1963 he would take his craft to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he continued to train and work for Stu Hart's "Stampede Wrestling". After meeting his would-be tag team partner, Bepo Mongol, Tattrie returned to the WWWF as Geto Mongol and The Mongols were brought to the United States in 1968. By 1970 Tattrie was a very busy man. From 1970 to 1972 he ran the Pittsburgh territory which worked closely with McMahon's WWWF. He built a home in Pittsburgh and continued to wrestle, using Ace Freeman as a figure head promoter, so as not to confuse the fans. In 1972, Bepo went off on his own to become Nikolai Volkoff and Geto (Tattrie) sold his promotion to Pedro Martinez. It was also at this time that Newton Tattrie learned to read, after spending years "bluffing it". Tattrie would go on to train young wrestling hopefuls including Bill Eadie (Demolition Ax). Eadie joined up with Tattrie to give a rebirth to the Mongols on the Japanese wrestling circuit. Eadie was given the name Bolo Mongol. Finally, in 1982, finding it hard to get out of bed, Newton Tattrie retired from active competition. His new partner, Bolo, would go on to become one half on Demolition as Ax in the WWF during the 1980s. During his career, Tattrie wrestled all over the globe, wrestling for promotions across the US and Canada, Africa, Japan, Singapore, and Puerto Rico.