B. Brian Blair

B. Brian Blair

Blair in August 2014
Birth name Brian Leslie Blair
Born January 12, 1957
Gary, Indiana, United States
Resides Tampa, Florida, United States
Spouse(s) Toni Lloyd
Children Brett Blair
Bradley Blair
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Brian Blair
B. Brian Blair[1]
The Killer Bee[1]
Billed height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Billed weight 235 lb (107 kg)[1]
Trained by Hiro Matsuda
Eddie Graham
Jack Brisco
Buddy Colt
Debut 1977[1]

Brian Leslie Blair (born January 12, 1957) is an American politician and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name B. Brian Blair as one half of the tag team The Killer Bees in the 1980s.

Professional wrestling career

As a child, Blair wanted to be Superman and even prayed that he might somehow become a superhero. Blair moved out of his house at age 16 and held several odd jobs to pay his share of the rent. Blair loved professional wrestling and wrestled and played football in high school so he could be tough enough to do it when he graduated. Blair attended the University of Louisville on a football scholarship, although he never earned a varsity letter;[2] he majored in both business and political science.[3]

Early career (1977-1981)

In 1977, he started training to be a wrestler with the legendary Hiro Matsuda in Florida. Blair debuted in late 1977 with Eddie Graham's Florida Championship Wrestling where he usually worked as a "face" (good guy). Blair made his professional debut in a tag-team facing Pat Patterson and Ivan Koloff in a losing effort. One of Blair's early opponents was another Matsuda student who had just begun working as "The Super Destroyer" (Hulk Hogan).

After Florida Blair moved on to Bob Geigel's NWA Central States promotion out of Kansas City around 1978 where he finally started to make a name for himself as he feuded with Jesse Ventura in 1979.[3] He also appeared regularly for Leroy McGuirk's Tri-State promotion, here he met and married Leroy McGuirk's daughter Michelle, aka Mike McGuirk in 1980. The marriage did not last long and ended on a bad note when Blair found out that Mike was having an affair with wrestler Doug Somers while they were estranged. He was even shot at by Leroy when he tried to talk to Mike before leaving town.[3] While in the Tri-State promotion Blair won the Junior Heavyweight Title from Ron Starr but only held it for about a week before losing it back to Starr.[4] The one week reign was Blair's first professional wrestling title reign.

After leaving the Tri-State promotion Blair joined up with Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling promotion in Texas. In WCCW he quickly gained victories over Killer Tim Brooks and former WWWF World Champion Stan Stasiak.[3] During his time in Texas he was asked by Al Madril to be his partner in a tournament to crown new American tag-team Champions. Madril and Blair were successful[4] kicking off a three-month run with the title. Their run with the gold was cut short by Killer Tim Brooks and Armand Hussein in September, 1981[4]

World Wrestling Federation

At this point in time Blair was given a golden opportunity as he was booked by Vince McMahon, Sr. to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation most notably on their tours of Japan through New Japan Pro Wrestling where Blair faced Japanese icons Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. After gaining experience all over the world Blair returned to his roots, Florida Championship Wrestling. On July 11, 1982, Blair beat Jimmy Garvin for the NWA Florida Championship[4] and defended it successfully against such legends such as Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody. After a wild match against Brody in August the title was held up[4] and Blair soon left the promotion.

In 1983 Blair joined the WWF once again as they began to expand to a national promotion. During his first stint with the WWF his self-proclaimed highlight was a match with Paul Orndorff in St. Louis.[5] Blair was mostly used as a jobber during his first WWF run. After the short run with the WWF, Blair moved on to Georgia Championship Wrestling as well as a return to Florida Championship Wrestling. In Florida, Blair picked up another Florida title[4] run as well as unseating "Ravishing" Rick Rude as the Florida Southern Champion.[4]

When Blair signed with the WWF for a third time he was not just used as "enhancement talent" any more, instead he was teamed up with Jim Brunzell to form The Killer Bees. The teaming of Blair and Brunzell was suggested by Hulk Hogan.[6] The team had a special gimmick referred to as "Masked Confusion" where both wrestlers pulled out identical masks during the match to confuse their opponents and usually win their matches that way. The "Masked Confusion" idea was given to Blair by Billy Red Lyons who had used it in Maple Leaf Wrestling. They constantly challenged for the WWF World Tag Team Title but never won it, although the fans were thoroughly behind them. Their biggest feud in the WWF was against The Hart Foundation, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart who they wrestled somewhere between "300 and 600" times according to Blair himself.[6] The Bees also had a running feud with the Funks (Hoss, Terry and Jimmy Jack). They faced Hoss and Jimmy Jack Funk in front of 70,000 people at The Big Event in Toronto[7] (A card headlined by Hulk Hogan and Paul Orndorff). Later in 1988, The team was split without any reason, and they both ended up competing in the singles division, with Blair once again being used as a jobber, while Brunzell remained with the WWF into the early 90's, mostly used as a jobber as well. In the fall of 1988, Blair left the WWF amid claims that the team had been promised the WWF tag team title three times by company owner Vince McMahon, but the promises were never kept. Blair also claims he was asked to help heel team The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) win matches. Not wanting to become a heel, Blair refused and quit instead.[8] Brunzell and Blair later complained about WWF owner Vince McMahon who continued merchandising products of The Killer Bees without their permission or financial compensation. Recently, Blair and Brunzell said their biggest highlight as a team was WrestleMania III.

Independent circuit

After leaving the WWF, Blair then returned to the independent wrestling scene taking bookings all over the United States without being a regular for any one promotion. In the summer of 1990, Blair was present when Brutus Beefcake had a near fatal para-sailing accident, in fact Blair was the person to pull Brutus out of the water after being struck in the face by the knees of a novice parasailer.[3]

Blair was one of the first "names" to work regularly for Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation when it opened its doors in late 1990 quickly becoming a regular on the federations Fury Hour shows. In the UWF, Blair reunited with Jim Brunzell but due to the WWF holding the trademark to the name "The Killer Bees" they were billed as "Masked Confusion". They competed on the UWF's first (and only) PPV, Beach Brawl, where they beat the Power Twins. The team was also the only UWF Tag Team champions. They won the title at UWF's last big show known as Blackjack Brawl where they beat the "New Powers of Pain" (The Warlord and Power Warrior (Not Kensuke Sasaki, but either Larry Powers or David Powers, identical twins who formed a tag team known as the Power Twins on the independent wrestling circuit.).[4]

One of the last match reunions he had with Jim Brunzell was in an event of the American Wrestling Association in the mid-90's, this time wrestling under their original tag-team name of "The Killer Bees"

After the UWF folded, Blair continued to compete on the independent circuit, especially around his home state of Florida. In 1998, Blair won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship with Steve Keirn[4] holding the title from November 13, 1998 to August 15, 2000 when the title was vacated following a match with the Bushwhackers. Blair and Keirn faced off in a singles match to determine who got to pick a new partner; Blair won and picked local star Cyborg The Wrestler (Kevin Donofrio) as his partner.[4] The two held the tag team titles until July 10, 2001 where they were forced to forfeit the title due to injuries.[4]

Today, Blair continues to wrestle a dozen of matches per year, competing most of his matches with his WWF gimmick of the "Killer Bee" with his most recent match being on January 17th, 2015 performing against Steve Rivers in a losing effort for Blair.

Books

Smarten Up! Say It Right!

Personal life

Blair is married to Toni Lloyd and they have two sons, Brett (named after professional wrestler Bret Hart) and Bradley. Brian Blair owns and manages four Gold's Gym fitness centers in the Tampa Bay area with fellow wrestler, Steve Keirn.[7]

Brian Blair's first attempt for a seat on the county commission was against Pat Frank but he lost in the 2002 race by a narrow margin.[9] In 2004, Blair ran again and was elected County Commissioner, District 6 (countywide) for Hillsborough County defeating former city councilman Bob Buckhorn. The race was one the closest county commission races in the history of Hillsborough County with Blair winning with 216,430 votes to Buckhorn's 214,062. In 2008 Blair ran for re-election winning the Republican primary against Don Kruse on August 26, 2008, then lost to Hillsborough County's first openly gay candidate Kevin Beckner in the November 4, 2008 general election.[10]

He is also a Christian and is active in his church, Idlewild Baptist.[3]

In wrestling

Results

Championships and accomplishments


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Online World of Wrestling. "Brian Blair Profile". Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  2. ↑ "All-Time Letterwinners" (PDF). 2013 Louisville Cardinals Football Media Guide. University of Louisville Athletics. pp. 185–88. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Chad Bonham (2001). Wrestling with God. RiverOak Publishing. ISBN 1-58919-935-9.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  5. ↑ Brianblair.com webmaster. "B. Brian Blair Biography". Retrieved 2007-04-03.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "B.Brian Blair Chat". May 2001. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Shields, Brian (2006). Main event – WWE in the raging 80s (4th ed.). Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1-4165-3257-6.
  8. ↑ "B.Brian Blair believed in his book". 2003-05-01. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  9. ↑ Oliver, Greg (2004-06-26). "B. Brian Blair runs again". Retrieved 2007-04-07.
  10. ↑ Makropoulos, Georgiann (2004-11-03). "1Wrestling Newsline". Archived from the original on November 4, 2004. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Mike (2014-10-07). "Brian Blair to be awarded 2015 Lou Thesz Award". Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved 2014-10-08.

External links