"Irish" Pat Barrett: Tale of a Territory Era Pro Wrestling Great
World Traveler, Book Author, and Former WWE tag team champion
In 1990, I was reading through the most recent issue of one of the newsstand pro wrestling magazines I wrote for.
I had a habit of comparing line for line the original manuscript I had submitted to the published piece to see where the editor made any changes.
This technique helped me improve the grammatical aspects of my writing in the days before there was computer software like now that handily puts a blue line under detected grammatical errors. It also taught me more about proper grammar in general than I ever had retained reading books about grammar (yes, I actually read books like that).
As I was scanning one of my articles, I noted that the page right next to it contained an ad for a wrestling autobiography from a wrestler named “Irish” Pat Barrett, who I had only vaguely heard of.
The pro wrestling books being published at the time all had the same general theme and seemed to have had that going back to the ‘70s.
The books were generally either larger size, boarding on a modern-day coffee table size book, full of pictures and consisted of short bios of assorted wrestlers, or pocket-sized paperbacks with the same kind of content. They were essentially historical reference guides and a good way for me as a newer wrestling fan, and budding student of wrestling history, to learn about wrestlers from the past.
As it related to “Irish” Pat Barrett, I only knew of him from reading about ‘60s and ‘70s era wrestler Dominic DeNucci. The reason that DeNucci was of interest to me was because I knew he had a wrestling school (not so common in those days) and had trained one of my favorite up and coming (and underrated at the time) wrestlers, Cactus Jack (who would later become a top attraction in WWE as Mankind first and then under his real name Mick Foley).
Reading about the career of DeNucci, I learned that he had held the WWF tag team title in the mid-’70s (called WWWF at that time) with a wrestler named “Irish” Pat Barrett. There was nothing else written about Pat Barrett in any of the other wrestling books I had spanning from publication dates of the late ‘70s through the late ‘80s.
At the time I saw the ad for Barrett’s new book, I was always actively seeking out wrestlers to interview because I enjoyed writing articles for the wrestling magazines that were based on interviews.
So, I wrote Pat Barrett a letter asking him for a telephone interview so I could write a career profile about him and also mentioned that I would like to review his new book as part of the article.
A short time later I got a letter back from him in the mail. Barrett wrote that he would gladly do an interview and also included in the response his phone number and a copy of the book he wrote, with a personalized autograph inscription to me on the first page that read, “Hope you enjoy my wrestling stories! Pat, 1990.”
It was so much easier to connect with people for business propositions in the pre-internet and pre social media era and get responses from them. There were so many times I wrote letters to prominent people in the wrestling business, and other businesses too for that matter, with work proposals, and they responded back with a letter or a phone call, and we ended doing some something together.
Nowadays, emails and DMs have removed much of the personalized feeling that came across in letters that were received in the mail, in my view. Sure, it’s much easier to find people, but in my view it’s also much harder to get them to react to something sent to them from someone they do not know.
But I digress.
In the interview that followed with Pat Barrett, I learned about his rich wrestling history traveling all over the world in the 1960s and 1970s working for different promotions. He enthralled me with his stories, and we ended up having multiple conversations about his experiences in the wrestling business. He was best known for his time in the WWWF in the mid-70s but that was only a small part of a full-time wrestling career that lasted twenty-five years.
Barrett clearly enjoyed sharing stories about his experiences as a pro wrestler.
I’d like to think the wrestling magazine article that I wrote 34 years ago about Pat Barrett introduced him to the new generation of fans back then, people that became wrestling viewers during the mid-80s wrestling boom.
I’m hoping now this piece here will introduce this interesting personality, and superably talented and rarely mentioned wrestler, to a new crop of fans who have a keen interest in the historical aspects of pro wrestling, just as I did when I first started watching.
The majority of this narrative is based on conversations I had with “Irish” Pat Barret in 1990.
- Russell Franklin
August 26, 1975, World Wide Wrestling Federation Television Taping
As “Irish” Pat Barrett power walks to the ring, outside the frame of the solitary camera that is recording from a perched position above the crowd, he has no idea that this match will be the single most publicized moment of his diverse and well-traveled career as a pro wrestler for the past fifteen years and ten years to follow.
The footage from this show will not just be preserved, but it will be archived in the video library of what will become the largest wrestling organization the world has ever known.
Nearly 50 years later, wrestling fans will be able to watch the match through technology that was still decades away from being invented when Barrett ends his wrestling career in 1985, let alone in 1975.
Wrestling fans of the future will sit at a desk, press a few buttons on a device that looks like some sort of updated typewriter with a small, thin television-looking screen attached, and be able to instantly watch this match. Or they will watch this match through a tiny portable telephone.
Barrett can’t possibly fathom the significance of this match tonight to his legacy, beyond that it’s a world tag team title match on a television taping.
He certainly wouldn’t think that the promotion he is wrestling for right now, a regional operation that’s promotes just in the Northeastern part of the United States, will change the entire wrestling landscape in the United States in a decade.
This will happen when the son of the promoter, who is the TV commentator now, buys the promotion from his father in seven years.
The son will change the promotion’s name shortly thereafter and in essence singlehandedly decimate the territory system to usher in a new era where his promotion will ultimately reign supreme and for most part never have a serious competitor.
The commentator’s name, the person who will do all this, is Vince McMahon, Jr.
Some of the older wrestlers just call him Junior, though, and Barrett has heard he intensely dislikes being called by that nickname.
A few decades later, this small promotion Barrett is working for right now will evolve into a global entity that is synonymous with professional wrestling itself, even though they themselves will no longer primarily refer to it as pro wrestling by name, instead calling the product, “sports entertainment.”
The belt around Barrett’s waist tonight is the WWWF world tag team championship.
It’s a prestigious title in the world of pro wrestling here in the ‘70s but Barrett hasn’t, and won’t, have much time to enjoy being a co-holder of the title or garner many headlines from it as a result in the wrestling magazines.
He’s okay with that.
He appreciates that Vince McMahon, Sr., the man in charge, has trusted him in this role. It’s a sign that the powerful promoter respects Barrett’s ability as a wrestler, and the pay he has received lately reinforces that.
Next to Barrett is Dominic DeNucci, one of the more popular wrestlers in the WWWF.
DeNucci originally won the tag team titles three months earlier, in May 1975, with Victor Rivera as his partner.
They beat The Valiant Brothers (Jimmy and Johnny) to win the titles and DeNucci was hoping for a sustained push now that he had a WWWF title. Then Rivera quit the promotion abruptly.
Instead of stripping DeNucci of the title with the real-life departure of his tag team partner, McMahon, Sr. decided to incorporate it into the TV programming and allow DeNucci to “pick” a new partner, and he chose fiery singles wrestler “Irish” Pat Barrett. That was about a month ago.
Now the pair is defending the titles against the fast-rising heel tag team, The Blackjacks, Mulligan and Lanza, managed by Captain Lou Albano.
The crowd is into the match-up and cheering loudly before the bell rings.
DeNucci and Barrett are popular together and The Blackjacks get a lot of heat from the crowd with their rule breaking ways and the notoriously interfering Albano at ringside as their manager.
McMahon, Sr. had instructed the wrestlers that he wants fast-paced aggressive action throughout in this best out of three falls world title match. He has big plans for The Blackjacks and he wants DeNucci and Barrett to turn this into a wild brawl that will play into The Blackjacks’ strength as wrestlers.
The veteran promoter, as always, leaves the particulars of the match up to the wrestlers themselves and only gives them the finishes for each fall.
When Barrett and DeNucci enter the ring, they immediately get in the faces of the much larger Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza,
As soon as the bell rings, Barrett and DeNucci rush at The Blackjacks and start hammering them with punches. In quick order, both the rulebreakers roll outside the ring to regroup. The fans boo loudly.
Albano, playing into this, waves the Blackjacks to leave and they feign making their way back to the dressing room but stop after a few steps and turn back.
Albano’s jawing at the closest fans as he leads The Blackjacks back to the ring. There’s just a thin rope separating Albano from the audience and no security to stop an aggressive fan from coming at him, which has been known to happen, as the manager daringly taunts all those around him.
Mulligan rolls into the ring first and starts the action out squaring off against DeNucci, who snaps forward, puts a headlock on Mulligan and immediately follows that up by punching him in the face.
Mulligan staggers back and tags in Lanza.
DeNucci repeats the same action, applying a tight headlock and then visibly cranking it hard with a twisting motion, and a crazed look on his face.
Then he punches Lanza in the face.
Mulligan is tagged back in and when DeNucci tries the same move a third time, the larger Mulligan shoves him off with such force that DeNucci bounces off the ropes. On the rebound, Mulligan hits him with a shoulder block and DeNucci falls to the mat.
DeNucci rallies back and tags in Barrett.
Barrett enters the ring with an energetic frenzy, racing towards Mulligan. He nails him with several ax handles and the crescendo of the crowd noise increases sharply.
Barrett bounces off the ropes and does a crossbody press onto his opponent for a two count.
The Blackjacks finally find a groove shortly after when DeNucci is back in the ring and caught in the Blackjacks corner.
The ref backs up Blackjack Mulligan, and, with the ref distracted, Lanza chokes DeNucci. This gets Barrett to run in without being tagged first. The ref immediately backs Barrett up and the Blackjacks uses this distraction to double team DeNucci. It’s heel tag teaming 101.
Finally, DeNucci is able to tag in Barrett. The crowd has been eagerly anticipating this, eager for the heroes to make a comeback.
Barrett literally leaps into the ring from the apron and promptly delivers a knee lift to Mulligan’s face.
Barrett’s moving quick, as he whips Mulligan into the rope and punches him in the stomach on the rebound. Mulligan staggers to his corner and tags in Lanza.
Barrett moves in with the grace of a lightweight boxer, delivering quick open-handed hits, rotating between Lanza’s face and stomach, before throwing a winding uppercut that staggers Lanza backwards right in DeNucci, who wallops him.
Barret then delivers his signature finisher, The Irish Cannonball. It’s a unique move where Barrett grabs his opponent by the jawbone area, leaps up and stomps down hard on the mat.
The force of the move sends Mulligan down hard to the mat for the three count.
The crowd erupts.
The ring announces declares Dominic DeNucci and “Irish” Pat Barrett as the winners of the first fall.
The second fall happens so quickly that the crowd has barely sat down from cheering the first fall result.
After some back and forth between Lanza and DeNucci, Mulligan is tagged in and he whips DeNucci into the ropes, catching him with an elbow to the face on the rebound.
The move results in Mulligan getting the three count over DeNucci to even the match at one fall a piece.
In the third fall, Barrett continues to show off his relentless aggression and athleticism to the audience.
When Mulligan puts him in an armbar, Barrett propels himself backwards over top of his opponent and in a flash reverses the hold.
Then in rapid-fire succession he executes a seamless sequence of two strikes, a leg sweep and a figure four leg lock.
For his major next offensive sequence, Barrett bounces himself off the ring ropes and dives toward Mulligan’s legs, clinching them, and rolling him up for a two count.
Mulligan escapes to tag in Lanza, and Barrett keeps delivering one offensive sequence after another on Lanza leading up to delivering the Irish Cannonball again. Lanza falls back on the mat towards turnbuckle in his own tag corner and Barrett covers him.
DeNucci sees Mulligan about to come in to break the fall, so DeNucci runs towards him, causing the ref to change directions and head towards DeNucci instead of making the pinfall count.
Mulligan takes advantage of the ref being distracted and rakes Barrett’s eyes before climbing to the top and delivering a knee drop to the back of Barret’s head.
The crowd is visibly disgruntled when the ref turns back around, missing the illegal tactics completely, and counts three.
The Blackjacks are the new WWWF tag team champions.
.
15 years earlier, London, England
Twenty-four-year-old Irishmen Pat Barrett is looking for an adventure.
He’s not sure what it will entail, but he believes there’s a wonderful opportunity out there waiting for him, and he will find it.
Pat’s life revolves around athletics, and he has longed to make that the way he earns his living as well. That part he’s still trying to figure out though.
Amateur wrestling is his favorite sport, and he did quite well at it in his native Ireland, where the sport is extremely popular.
Whereas in the United States there are boxing gyms in most urban neighborhoods, in Ireland amateur wrestling is supreme and there’s a usually a gym to be found in most districts that is exclusively for amateur wrestlers to work out.
Barrett enjoys other physical activities too besides amateur wrestling, and he was a cyclist of national caliber, a shot putter, a rugby player and a middle-distance runner before deciding to focus just on amateur wrestling.
He only recently left Ireland, going by ship to Wales and then by train to his current location, London.
He’s always considered himself lucky and things just always seem to work out for him on some level in life. So far, in London, that has been the case again.
Barrett arrived in England with very little money but was able to quickly to find a cheap room to rent from a kindly old lady who kept him well feed, become his friend and asked for nothing in return beyond the meager rent payment.
From there, he secured a job. Next, it was time to get back to wrestling training, so he found the address for the nearest amateur wrestling gym and headed there for a workout.
What happened next Barrett would describe years later as both a chance encounter and another example of luck always being on his side.
It turned out the amateur wrestling gym he showed up at wasn’t an amateur wrestling gym at all.
Instead, it was a gym for professional wrestling that was owned Dale Martin Promotions, one of the top pro wrestling promotions in England.
At the gym, Barrett met several prominent people from the Dale Martin office and also several professional wrestlers. After some discussion, Barrett decided he might be interested in becoming a pro wrestler, and he was given a try-out with an established pro to see if he had what it took to be a superstar.
He did, and soon after Barrett was a pro wrestler working the British circuit.
He was never formally trained by anybody before he was put into his first match.
“At first I didn’t know what pro wrestling was all about,” explained “Irish” Pat three decades later. “It sure sounded great, though. I would get to travel, wrestle, and get paid for it.”
The Highlights 1960-1985
For the next twenty-five years following his pro wrestling debut, “Irish” Pat Barrett achieved tremendous success as a professional wrestler in both Europe and the United States.
Besides the WWWF tag team championship, Barrett’s other notable titles held included the NWA Canadian tag team championship and the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship.
His travels took him to wresting territories throughout the U.S., including ones in the mid-west, southern states, and west coast.
He faced well known stars like former WWWF champion Ivan Koloff, Harley Race for his NWA world title, Gene Kiniski and Mad Dog Vachon.
Barrett was also a frequent tag team partner of the legendary Haystacks Calhoun.
“Irish” Pat Barrett retired from full-time pro wrestling in 1985 but remained semi-active into the mid ‘90s, wrestling occasional matches outside the United States.
After that, “Irish” Pat Barrett left the wrestling business completely and became a personal trainer. He specialized in training Rugby players to help them improve their conditioning.
In 2006, Barrett made his final appearance in any capacity with a wrestling promotion. It was for Irish Whip Wrestling and it was a brief cameo to present the title in a backstage segment to the 21-year-old star of the promotion, Drew Galloway (the future Drew McIntyre).
Everybody Down Here Hates Me
In 1990, Barrett released his autobiography “Everybody Down Here Hates Me”.
This was nine years before Mick Foley’s book “Have a Nice Day” was released and became a best seller, and its success caused a large number of wrestling autobiographies to be published and made available in bookstores for the next ten years or so to follow.
Barrett began writing his book in 1985 and spent the next five years completing it, revising chapters and adding more details until he had a finished manuscript he was satisfied with.
The book itself is a fascinating read. Barrett’s written narrative of his pro wrestler life is not told in a lienal fashion. Instead, each chapter is a standalone story of some experience in the wrestling business. Some of the stories revolve around occurrences in matches and others take place far away from the wrestling ring.
Befitting Barrett’s world traveler status as a wrestler, the book’s content follows that theme, with settings for the stories in such varied places as England, Germany, Tennessee, Canada, Boston and Mexico.
His vivid descriptions of certain details are so clear that you feel you are right there with him, in the ring with or on the road, and in general the book permits the reader to know what it is like to be a wrestler and outlines the ordeals they go through both in and out of the ring.
I enjoyed the book very much and told him so.
Barrett sent me the letter below after my feature length profile article on him, that included a book review, was published in a newsstand wrestling magazine.
“Irish” Pat Barrett died in 2021 at age 85.
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