Jim Wilson (wrestling)

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James Milligan Wilson (born 1942-06-12^[1]) is a former professional American football defensive lineman^[2] and a professional wrestler who is most noted for his attempts at starting a labor union for wrestlers. He is the co-author of a book called CHOKEHOLD: Pro Wrestling's Real Mayhem Outside the Ring which exposed certain unfair labor practices by various promoters, most of them National Wrestling Alliance members, but also including Vince McMahon and his World Wrestling Entertainment as well.

1 Early life and career
- 1.1 Blacklisting and outlaw promotions
- 1.2 Exposing the business
2 Bibliography
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Early life and career

Wilson was born to a fairly distinguished family living just outside of Pittsburgh. His father had been a decorated veteran of World War II and his mother's side traced its lineage back to the Mayflower. He had been a good athlete from his early years, overcoming a spinal curvature problem and was offered a football scholarship to the University of Georgia. He played as a defensive lineman there, and was named All-American during his time there; he was coach Vince Dooley's first All American.

In 1964 he was drafted by the then-Boston Patriots of the American Football League and the San Francisco 49ers of the established National Football League; he signed with the 49ers^[3]. Wilson played in San Francisco for two seasons and then, at his request, was dealt to the Atlanta Falcons, who were just starting up then. It was during his time with the Falcons that he was approached by Georgia wrestler and promoter Ray Gunkel to wrestle during the football offseason. He agreed to do so, as most NFL contracts at that time did not pay during the off season.

The Falcons did not approve of his offseason wrestling, and as a result, he was traded to the then-Los Angeles Rams for whom he played for three seasons, before injuries ended his NFL career in 1971.

He soon became a star in Georgia and in the nearby Florida promotion. According to his book, Wilson was told by Gunkel and another star wrestler Jack Brisco that he had the potential to be a world champion. But this was not to be.

[edit] Blacklisting and outlaw promotions

While on a tour of Australia, working for longtime NWA promoter Jim Barnett, Wilson was, according to his book and several other sources, including court depositions, approached by Barnett sexually. Wilson rejected Barnett's advances, and was subsequently told to lose his matches in Australia from that point on. Wilson left the Aussie tour about 3 weeks earlier than anticipated in frustration and returned to Georgia. The Georgia promotion was in an uproar about that time, as Gunkel had died of a heart attack after a match with Ox Baker in Savannah. The promotions other owners then shut out his widow, Ann Gunkel although she had worked for the promotion while Ray lived. Undeterred, Ann decided to start her own promotion without approval from the NWA. Most of the NWA Georgia promotion's wrestlers left with her. (Wilson chose to stay with the NWA.) The Georgia owners were under siege from Ann's promotion and chose to fight back with the help of an old ally and troubleshooter: Jim Barnett. Though it took several years to do so, Ann Gunkel's rival promotion finally went under in the later 1970's. But the collateral damage included Wilson's career. When Barnett took over the Georgia NWA promotion in later 1973, Wilson, who had been getting a push (that is, he was being sold to the fans as a big star) was now losing all his matches. Wilson refused to lose a match and was promptly fired by Fred Ward, one of the Georgia promotions owners.

Wilson was able to find work with Ann Gunkel's promotion for a time, but the pressure applied by the NWA made this much less profitable than advertised. He subsequently went to different outlaw promotions, including Angelo Poffo in Lexington, Kentucky before trying to start his own promotion in Georgia along with his friend Thunderbolt Patterson, first in 1974 and later in 1981. Both attempts were met by fierce resistance from the NWA and failed. Both of Wilson's promotions used a union for wrestlers, but when the promotions failed, the unions failed as well. With this strong resistance, Wilson felt he had no choice but to file an anti-trust suit against the Georgia promotion, Jim Barnett and the NWA. The suit went to trial in 1985, but before a former promoter who'd agreed to testify (and had some knowledge of Barnett's attempted seduction) came on the stand, the NWA settled out of court.

[edit] Exposing the business

During the time his suit took to go through the courts, Wilson was trying to make a living for himself and his family. He had been with a successful real estate firm, but after a meeting with Barnett in which Barnett made a handshake deal to rehire Wilson if he dropped his suit, Wilson was unexpected fired by his firm (Wilson said in his book that Barnett had mentioned he knew that Wilson worked there, and Wilson suspected he was fired at Barnett's insistence to pressure him into dropping the suit). Somewhat surprisingly Wilson did drop the suit for a time, but when Barnett reneged on the deal, Wilson reopened his suit. It was at this time he decided to go public.

At first he met with little interest from the media, but when a reporter from the Philadelphia Daily News met with him and published the story, it attracted some attention. This was at about the same time that McMahon was expanding his WWE (then still the WWF) nationwide. The ABC news program 20/20 decided to take a look and aired the story in 1985. Wilson had not been particularly interested in breaking kayfabe (that is, revealing secrets of the business) but felt in the end that would be the best way to pressure the NWA into action. The program would end up being better remembered for wresler David Shultz striking reporter John Stossel on his ear than revelations about promoter's unfair practices, but the story at least got out. An appearance on the Morton Downey, Jr. talk show, on which he appeared with Patterson and Shultz, was disastrous.

Wilson currently lives in Georgia with his family. He is to this day still trying to start a wrestlers' union.

[edit] Bibliography

CHOKEHOLD: Pro Wrestling's Real Mayhem Outside the Ring (2003). ISBN 1-4010-7217-8 (Trade Paperback), ISBN 1-4010-7218-6 (Hardback) (with Weldon T. Johnson)