Terry Garvin | |
---|---|
Ring name(s) | Terry Garvin |
Born | Quebec[1] |
Died | 1998 August 17, 1998[2] |
Debut | 1958[2] |
Terry Joyal,[2] better known by his ring name Terry Garvin, was a Canadian professional wrestler. He is best known for his work with kayfabe brother Ron Garvin, with whom he won several tag team championships in the Southern United States. He is also known for a case of sexual harassment in 1992 that led to the end of his employment with the World Wrestling Federation.
Contents |
Joyal grew up in Montreal, Quebec. He trained to become a professional wrestler at a gym in the Loisiers St. Jean de Baptiste church in Montreal.[2] He made his wrestling debut in 1958 in Ontario.[2]
He held the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship of Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling two times in 1964 with partner Chin Lee.
Beginning in 1965, Garvin began an approximately five year stint as the tag team partner of Ron Garvin.[2] In November 1967, he wrestled for Championship Wrestling from Florida and won the Florida version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Ron Garvin, trading it with the team of Paul DeMarco and Lorenzo Parente.[2][3]
Garvin then began teaming with Duke Myers. The pair's manager was Jimmy Garvin, the stepson of Ron Garvin.[2] In 1972 in NWA Tri-State, the team won the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. By 1973, he was working in NWA Mid-America, where he won the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship three times with Myers.[4] Later in the year, he won the title two more times with Ron Garvin.[4] The Garvins also held the Mid-America version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship that year.[5] He returned to the Gulf Coast in 1974, teaming once again with Ron Garvin, to win Southeastern Championship Wrestling's NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship.[6]
By the early 1980s Garvin retired from the ring and went on to book for Bob Geigel in small towns in Missouri. In 1985 Terry was approached by Pat Patterson and eventually was offered a job working for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) behind the scenes. One of his jobs with the WWF was to supervise ring boys, the boys hired to put up and take down the wrestling ring between shows.[1] His employment with WWF ceased on March 2, 1992.[2]
Garvin was openly homosexual.[1] Allegedly, Garvin had an address book full of names and addresses of males that he hooked up with around the country as he traveled.[1] He once accosted a 19-year-old, who later reached a settlement with the WWF.[1] WWF owner Vince McMahon discussed the incident on Larry King Live.[1] Fellow wrestler Barry Orton called into the show and claimed that Garvin accosted him in 1978.[1]
He was good friends with fellow wrestler Pat Patterson.[1] He knew Patterson, as well as tag team partner Ron Garvin, when he was growing up in Montreal.[2]
Garvin died on August 17, 1998 from cancer.[2]