Mr. Wrestling

"Mr. Woods" redirects here. For the song by Big Dipper, see Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology.

Mr. Wrestling
Birth name	George Burrell Woodin
Born	(1934-07-28)July 28, 1934^[1]^[2] Utica, New York^[2]
Died	November 30, 2002(2002-11-30) (aged 68)^[1]^[2] Charlotte, North Carolina^[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Mr. Wrestling^[1]^[2] Tim Woods^[1]^[2]
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)^[2]
Billed weight	230 lb (100 kg)^[2]
Debut	1963^[1]
Retired	September 17, 1983^[2]

George Burrell "Tim" Woodin^[2] (July 28, 1934 - November 30, 2002) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names, Mr. Wrestling and Tim Woods.

Amateur wrestling

Before becoming a professional wrestler, Woodin was a successful amateur wrestler. While wrestling for the Michigan State Spartans, Woodin won two Big Ten titles in 1958 and 1959. He also finished second in the NCAA tournament in 1958 and 1959 as well.

As a junior at Michigan State, Woodin won the 1958 Big Ten 177-pound title by pinning Gary Kurdelmeier of the University of Iowa at 8:21. A couple weeks later, the two met again in the 177-pound finals of the 1958 NCAAs at the University of Wyoming, where Woodin lost to Kurdelmeier, 6-2.

As a senior, Woodin defeated Iowa's Gordon Trapp, 6-4, in the heavyweight finals to win his second Big Ten title. At the 1959 NCAAs, the Michigan State Spartan competed in the 191-pound class, making it to the finals for the second year in a row... but lost 9-5 to Syracuse's Art Baker. With his two runner-up finishes at the national championships, Woodin was a two-time NCAA All-American.

Professional wrestling career

Woodin began his wrestling career at the age of 29 using the name "Tim Woods".^[1] He was then given the name "Mr. Wrestling" by Nebraska promotor Joe Dusek, and subsequently adopted both a white wrestling mask and white singlet to complete the character.^[1] Mr. Wrestling became a major superstar in the Georgia, Florida, Texas and Mid-Atlantic territories. He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the northeast, at the upper end of the preliminary wrestlers. Starting in the Seventies, he would alternate between his masked persona as Mr. Wrestling and wrestling unmasked as Tim Woods, depending on the territory.

In 1975, Woodin was injured in a plane crash. He eventually returned to wrestling.

Plane crash

Woodin was involved in the same 1975 plane crash that involved pilot Joseph Michael Farkas (he ended up in a coma and died the next year), wrestling legend Johnny Valentine (broke his back and bone fragments impacted into his spinal cord, which ended his career), wrestler Bob Bruggers (broke his back and had a steel rod put in; Bruggers could have made a comeback, but he decided to retire), future legend Ric Flair (broke his back, but recovered and returned to wrestling), and Jim Crockett Promotions' announcer David Crockett. At the hospital, Woodin gave them his real name (George Burrell Woodin), and told them that he was a promoter. Since Woodin wrestled under the name Tim Woods, a newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer listed his name as his real name, George Burrell Woodin, and mentioned that he was a promoter. Woodin was the only fan favorite wrestler on the plane, while the rest wrestled as villains, and this was back in the days when kayfabe was not broken (at the time, Woods was feuding with Flair and Valentine) and heroes and villains were not known to travel together. Eventually, rumors began circulating that Woods was in fact on the plane. Unwilling to risk the exposure of professional wrestling, he got back in the ring two weeks after the crash and was obviously in extreme pain. Flair later said in his book To Be the Man, that he was "more than just Mr. Wrestling that day, but was the man who saved wrestling."

Death

On November 30, 2002, Woodin died from a heart attack at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina at the age of 68. Before his death, he was scheduled to be interviewed for a WWE Confidential piece on the October 1975 plane crash.

Personal life

Woodin earned an Agricultural Engineering degree at Cornell University and a Mechanical Engineering degree at Michigan State University. He was an avid collector of motorcycles as well as an accomplished photographer and saxophone player. Woods also ran a heating and air conditioning business after retiring from the ring.